Day 173:
Due to a sudden rainfall during our journey to the capital of the duchy, our plotted route had to be circumvented because of landslide and mud. It took us another day to reach the city, but here we were on the second day of our journey, safe and sound, with only a bridge to cross.
I looked upon the capital of the Transyl-Carpathi duchy.
It was an awe-inspiring city. The city itself had walls that were twice as high as those of my city's. They were also placed meticulously into place, creating a seamless grey wall.
It was nothing like the walls of Bidar City that we passed by on our way to this city.
Sholva grinned. "Amazing sight, isn't it?" he asked me.
I nodded. "I wonder if I can erect a wall like that around my own city."
Sholva laughed out loud. "Good luck with that. Our capital is known as the 'Old Man of Walls,' because of how stubborn and old it is. The walls supposedly predate the formation of the duchy itself."
"And how old is the duchy?"
"Give or take half a thousand years."
Wow. That was a long time. For a wall to be standing so pristine after 500 years went to show the engineering expertise of whoever built that wall.
"And was this bridge also built around that time?"
Sholva shook his head. "Duke Transvoya Zepolya, that is the current duke's grandfather, commissioned the construction of this bridge about fifty years ago. It was only completed two decades ago. I was there to see its completion."
Unlike the wall that was still far away, the bridge that we were looking at was right in front of me.
And was it not magnificent as much as the walls themselves.
The City of Pset was built on top of a mountain, as if someone had removed the tip and placed a city there. It was a good position to withstand any form of siege.
The bridge, which probably meant to open up trade and movement of people, was built between two mountains.
Yes, the entire stone bridge spanned across an entire valley. Wider than half a kilometer, this bridge was another feat of engineering I could only hope to learn.
And the duke of all this wanted to meet me.
...
Maybe I'm starting to feel a little bit more pressure.
Sholva read our group across the bridge, which I estimated to be hanging freely with only arch support below at several hundred meters off the ground at the middle, to the gates of the Pset wall.
There were guards there, and for the first time, I got a look at a non-hostile human warrior. Or guard. Same shit.
[Pset Guard
LvL 30
ATK: 40
DEF: 50 (shield)
SPD: 3 m/s
Equipment:
Steel Helmet
Steel Chestplate
Steel Shinguard
Steel Kite Shield
Steel Shortspear
Steel Shortsword]
In all, despite its small level, it was well trained, well armored, and well armed. If many clan's fighters were to fight one on one with these guards, then my clan would lose more often than not. Only few fighters like Iskan, Candy, Shirou, and so on would win.
It seemed that if my clan was to fight the humans, they would need more training and better arms and armor.
Sholva showed the captain of the guard -distinguishable due to his shoulder guard and fancy helmet- a letter with a weird stamp on it.
He took the letter, read it, and nodded. The guards opened the gate for us and led us in.
"Say, Sholva, are the guards usually this uptight?" I asked the man quietly after we passed the gate.
The man laughed. "No, no. They were apprehensive about you, my good man."
"Me?"
"Everyone in the region knows that you were the one responsible for taking out more than five hundred men of Shkifield's army by yourself."
I frowned. "How-?"
Here, Sholva looked a bit nervous. "I may have spread the news about how ... powerful my trading partner was."
I glared at him. "Really?"
"I got you to meet the duke, though! Don't blame me for your fame!"
I scoffed. "I'll talk to you later about this, you hear me?"
The interior of the city was clean. Like the walls, the street was grey and well paved, unlike the dirt road in my city. The buildings were different in design than the wall and the street, but they were pretty in their own white and blue color scheme and wide windows.
The denizens of the city murmured and watched me as my group and I made our way across the main road of the city. They gave me and Candy odd, fearful, or anticipating looks while Senna received respectful or awed looks.
There were elves, humans, taurens... but there was a lack of variety in this city when it came to people.
"So how many races are in the Listed Races again?" I asked Sholva.
"In this duchy, there are the Main Six. Humans, elves, taurens, draconians, beastmen, and the angelians, or angels as most of us call them."
"Angels...?"
Sholva waved his hand as if to dismiss. "They're not spiritual or anything like that. They're just human-like race with white or black wings. But because the white wings are the majority, we humans tend to call them angels. They don't have a race name for themselves, so the name angels stuck. Over time, the name angel became angelian in the official records."
"Huh."
"They are generally peaceful people. Oh, you can see one over there."
I turned towards where Sholva was pointing.
There stood a man with two pairs of white wings, and he wore the same armor as that of the city guards. With a really, really, really long spear.
[Pset Aerial City Guard
LvL 40
ATK: 45
DEF: 0
SPD 10 m/s
Equipment:
Thin Steel Helmet
Thin Steel Chestplate
Steel Sarissa (Long Spear)
Bow & Quiver of arrows]
"Dolan!" Sholva called out, and the angelian city guard waved in return. "He used to be one of my family's vassal members. Got transferred over here and after some trouble, ended up as one of the city guards. Been at the job for the past decade."
"I see," I replied politely.
To me, the city was a wonderful place so far. Despite lacking the variety of races that could be found in my own city, there were enough of them to give it an air of acceptance of other races, or at least indifference. I was also looking at real civilization that my city could only mimic. This place had history!
Now, I began to wonder what the duke would be like. I hadn't before, but after looking at the happy people he ruled over, I began to wonder.
As I wondered, we reached another wall. This wall looked far older than the one outside.
"This is the citadel of this city," Sholva helpfully pointed out. "This is where the duke, his family, his relatives, and his guards live."
The citadel of Pset was ... tall.
Its walls weren't much of a sight to see, but the castle within it was. Its white walls towered over the outer city wall with towers and spires. There were flags on top of the towers, presumably the duke's own flag.
Once again, Sholva showed the guards the letter he held, and we were let in.
I realized just how different the citadel was to the city outside of the inner wall. Instead of houses and buildings of commerce, there were barracks lining up the walls in two stories with a wooden walkway for the second floor. The entire packed dirt space between the barracks and the citadel itself was a training ground. And there were hundreds of soldiers training.
"How many people are in this citadel exactly...?" I asked Sholva.
"About eight hundred. I'd say out of the eight hundred, one hundred are cavalry."
That's a lot of soldiers.
"I wonder why I didn't see any cavalry when I fought against Shkifield."
"Ah, that would be because you fought the Molbovian noble coming to help Shkifield."
Both Sholva, my group, and I turned around to see the soldier who let us speak. With a grin, the soldier took off his helmet.
And Sholva dropped to his knees.
"My lord!"
I blinked. Now that I looked at him, the duke was young and definitely human. He looked like an adolescent. Maybe in his late teens, but definitely younger than twenty. He had blonde hair and a pair of black eyes. He had sharp angular face that was not quite handsome but attractive enough among the humans. He had a tear-streak tattoo on his left cheek, running down from his eyes and ending at his jawline.
"That's a nice face you have there, Troll King."
I blinked again. "Wait what?"
The duke just laughed before he extended his hand. "Duke Christopher Zepolya of the Transyl-Carpathi Duchy. It's nice to meet the one who kept my eastern border safe."
I shook his hand. "Chief Ruto of the Ironwood Clan."
"Come! Let's talk inside my castle."
Once we were inside, instead of taking me to the throne as it was custom, the duke led me to a decently decorated room where a dining table had been set. There were guards already there with a chef waiting in the corner of the room. When the duke entered, the chef quickly set to work, leaving the room through the backdoor and returning with a tray filled with luxurious food.
The table had twelve chairs.
"I know that you are hungry from your long journey, so sit. It is time for lunch," the duke invited cheerfully as he sat himself.
I looked at Sholva.
"Is this normal?" I whispered.
He shook his head.
I shrugged, and not wanting to look rude with the invitation, sat down on the offered chair. "Can my men eat with me too?"
"Of course, of course. Help yourselves," he replied. The guards didn't look that happy about this, though. Except Senna. Everyone just seemed to adore Senna.
We ate in comfortable silence with a few conversation here and there. The food was good, and I detected no poison or the like with [Observe].
White Boar meat and ketchup ... I would have to import some later from Sholva.
Once our meal was over and the waitresses and waiters quickly cleaned our table, the duke got down to business.
"I'm happy you came, Chief Ruto," he began.
"It is my pleasure to have your audience, sir," I replied, using everything I knew about talking with "high-born"s that I learned from Shirou.
The oni was a savior in too many fields.
He chuckled. "It is my pleasure as well. And I was wondering if you would be willing to talk with me in private?"
I thought about it for a while, looking straight into the duke's eyes before nodding. "Sholva, Senna, Candy, Arlan. Leave us."
They nodded, and left.
"Guards. Leave us."
They did so as well.
Now, it was just me and the duke in the large room.
"First off, I would like to thank you for defending my citizens in the eastern border, Chief Ruto. Bullywugs have always been a nuisance since my great-great-grandfather's time, but our efforts to root them out were fruitless," he said.
"No problem," I replied. "They were bothering me a bit too much with kidnapping, eating, and selling others to slavery."
"Ah, slave trade. I was wondering where it began."
"You condone it?"
"Goodness, no. I have recently passed a law forbidding possession of serfs or slaves in my duchy. It's not good for the economy and morale, you see."
I chuckled. "I think I can get along with you."
"I think so too," the duke replied with a grin. "But I must ask this. What do you intend to do?"
"You might need to explain. What would I do?"
"Well, with someone of your status and strength, you could easily gather an army. Hell, you can probably become a demon lord if you so wished. The fact that you kept yourself hidden with very little information before Shkifield attacked you is a testament to the fact."
"My clan and I weren't hiding ourselves. We were just too busy dealing with the bullywugs to do anything else."
"And reports I received stated that that is no longer true. Something about wiping out several of their cities?"
I laughed nervously. Since they already knew, there was no point in not sharing. It would at least make me look forthcoming and honest with something that is happened in their territory. "Well, they kept trying to set up forts around the foot of my mountain, so I kept blowing it up from afar with this."
I made one of the Bomb Arrows. I gave it to him for inspection, and he looked at it in awe.
"And how many of these can you make? Would you be willing to sell some to us?"
"A hundred a day, maybe?"
"...I'd like a demonstration after this."
"Sure. Anyway, what I did with the fort was nothing. One of my clan's small chief was the one who blew away one of their cities."
He raised an eyebrow.
"Power like that irks the nobility everywhere."
I laughed nervously. "I honestly don't intend to do anything. Drive the bullywugs out of the area, maybe, but nothing outside of that."
"... I'll believe you. After all, you could've killed me right now."
"Eh?"
"But it's beside the point. There is something I'd like to ask, however."
"Okay...?"
"Would you like to become an ally of mine?"
(Chapter End)
(Omake and extra information beneath Char Info and Factions)
(Answers to reviews will be in the bottom as well at the wayyy bottom)
Character Status by the end of Day 173:
Naruto [Imp Ruto] [Troll Ruto]
LvL 68
The Gamer
Race: Mountain Troll
HP: 168.5(+312.5) (+1.5 HP per hour regen)
Mana: 710 (+5.9 per minute regen)
STR: 625 (+312.5(SGM))
DEX: 105
AGI: 133
END: 172
INT: 128
WIS: 119
CHA: 84
Unused Points: 16
Spirit: 36
Magic: 25
Power: 34
Control: 102
Fame(Prestige): ? +20
Traits Taken + Earned:
Ambitious, Quick, Genius, Cynical, Stressed, Content, Teacher[Neutral] (Unavailable), Power Overwhelming, Strength is Key, Wroth, Strength of a Great Mountain (SGM)
Focus:
X
Racial Traits:
Beast Slaying (max)
Troll Blood (max)
Troll's Unarmed Mastery (max)
Unique Skills:
Berserker (LvL 1)
Clairvoyance (LvL 2)
Magic Resistance (LvL 1)
Observe (LvL 45) + Structural Analysis
Projection (LvL 28)
Reinforcement (LvL 3)
Sonar (LvL 29)
Basic Skills:
Archery (LvL 14)
Ambush (LvL 11)
Baiting (LvL 28)
Blade Mastery (LvL 18)
Blunt Weapon Mastery (LvL 3)
Charging (LvL 14)
Crafting (LvL 14) - Construction (Subskill)(LvL 10)
Fishing (LvL 9)
Gamer's Body (LvL MAX)
Gamer's Mind (LvL MAX)
Intimidation (LvL 10)
Leadership (LvL 10)
Listening (LvL 16)
Mapping (LvL 4)
Negotiation (LvL 8) - Vassalization(Subskill)(LvL 1)
Physical Durability (LvL 13)
Running (LvL 34)
Teaching (LvL 5)
Throwing (LvL 20)
Trapping (LvL 26)
Unarmed Mastery (LvL 9)
Carpathi Ironwood Clan:
# (reference) (important figures) (x = evolutionary stage)
30 Trolls (WoW) (Ruto, Iskan)(xx)
20 Onis (Shirou)(xx)
6 Faze (Candy)(xx)
19 Vashta Nerada(x)
3 Greater Fairy (Senna)(xx)
15 Kobold (D&D) (Dresa)(xx)
4 Mountain Dryad (xx)
40 imps (WoW + D&D)(x)
3 Hell Hounds (xx)
59 fairies(x)
15 Incubu/Succubi (Riddle) (xx)
Imprisoned:
6 humans (injured) + ?
Important Figures!
Ironwood Clan
Ruto - Great Chieftain of the Ironwood Clan
Iskan - Troll+Imp racial leader, small chief. In charge of training new recruits
Shirou - Oni racial leader, small chief. In charge of education, production, and strategy
Candy - Faze+Vashta Nerada racial leader, small chief. In charge of scouting and intelligence
Senna - Fairykin racial leader, small chief. In charge of food and recruitment
Dresa - Kobold racial leader, small chief. In charge of mining
Riddle - Yodr factional leader, a small chief.
Vassal Tribes
Jeghal - Ruyure Tribe (tribalPower: 9)
Qreldo - Werwen Tribe (tribalPower: 11)
? - Nomore Tribe (tribalPower: 3)
Na'Malk - Na'sh Tribe (tribalPower: 6)
Boulosu - Bouldon Tribe (tribalPower: 10)
Faction Standings:
? Orcs -300
Carpathi Ironwood Clan +1000
Carpathi Swamp Valley Bullywug Petty Kingdom -1000
Retvoa Trade Company +80
Nomore Tribe +600 (Vassal)
Ruyure Tribe +500 (Vassal)
Werwen Tribe +500 (Vassal)
Na'sh Tribe +500 (Vassal)
Bouldon Tribe +500 (Vassal)
Erlen Shkitfield's Host to Reclaim Southern Carpathi -1000
Personal Standings:
Andrews Maulta +65
Sholva z'Retvoa +80
Personal Equipment/Inventory:
Ironwood Hammer (Uncommon)
Review Replies + Author's Notes:
*So do you guys have any races that you want to see as part of the Listed Races or in Ruto's clan? Don't say kitsune.
*For the Hell Hounds. It is one of the evolution of the imps.
*Rereading the story was to jog your memory :P
*Faze is just made-up race on my part.
*Fixed the incubi/succubi issue on the clan chart.
*It is Ruto's third evolution.
