Part 1 - Annoying Night Sounds

 

What a terrible night. Thought Urist as he covered his mouth to yawn. 

Looking to his right Rhea snuggled around his arms sleeping soundly.

He wondered how she could sleep soundly when all those beast roars kept going on in the forest. 

Maybe I’ll need to ask Uroa for some medicine that can help me sleep. Through if I take it and there is danger I won’t be at my best to right. Guess I’ll just man up and deal with it, or just get rid of that annoying problem.

Moving his arm out of Rhea’s hold he pushed their hair out of her face before kissing her on her forehead.

“I’ll be heading out now.”

Tucking her in bed Urist got dressed and headed to the newly constructed meeting room where some people were here already. Ubel and Unicy staring at each other across the room with Vlad and co. sitting uncomfortably in the middle.

Forcing back a sigh Urist took his place at the head of the table, “Morning everyone, I’m sure you all had just as terrible sleep as I had.”

Snorts of agreement were given around the table.

“If they keep making racket morale is going to drop we have to do something.” Huffed Qrtia.

“We bust our asses off all day long and these bastards have to destroy our rest. They have to be dealt with.” Said Elrish.

Urist nodded, “Agreed. I have a few ideas about how we tackle this but I wish to first hear your thoughts.”

Unicy replies, “We should have the spear corps go out and get experience in forest warfare. Volt, you think your students are ready?”

Volt shook his head, “They need a few more days before I’m confident in their ability. I know we want to expand to the river to have food and a water source. But I wish not to throw away lives not yet fully experienced. How about using the warriors and mages under your command Unicy?”

Unicy thought about it for a moment, before replying, “We could have them undertake this task. But it’ll mean that we’ll have fewer mages at the base which will slow production. And I wish not to send out our warriors into unknown threats without protection and firepower.”

The warriors around the table frowned at Unicy’s comment, but after mulling it over for a bit most understood her logic in the matter. The talk moved along with people thinking of how to deal with the annoying fruitlessly until Ubel opened his mouth.

“Well, it seems everyone has forgotten about our dear hunters. If it’s them I’m sure they can gather information, kill those beasts and make it safely home. What do you think Urist?” 

Under Ubel's question, everyone looked towards Urist. Under their stares Urist nodded his head, “I agree that they should be able to handle themselves thanks to spending so much time out in the wilds. I’ll admit it’s more proactive than my few ideas.”

At this response, Ubel raised an eyebrow, “Oh? Do tell. I’m curious what you thought up.”

“Well for starters we’d take the wind elemental stones we’ve gathered and have our runesmiths use them as a power source for a formation. Uria found it on the market while looking through it, it cost a few hundred points but it has some pretty nifty features. One, it makes marked sounds not able to travel in or out. Two, you can set it up as a basic alarm system as to not be jumped by intruders. And finally, it’s pretty customizable in its settings so pretty practical.

“Another idea I had was to make stink bombs and throw them into the forest nearby at night to drive away the animals. But this would cause normal creatures to be driven away. Lastly, I go out their myself and burn them all to ash for messing with my sleep.”

That last remark made the people around the table give out a short chuckle.

Urist rubbed his chin and nodded his head, “Alright. Then I suggest we go forth with Ubel's hunter idea and my sound/warning formation. As I’m sure they won’t be able to kill them all in one night. How does that sound?”

“Sounds fine.”

“Man I’ll have more work today. Oh well, at least it’ll be interesting to work on some new runes.”

Murmurs of agreement and with Ubel's nod of approval the motioned was passed.

“With that sorted let’s talk about our plans on how to expand to the river shall we?”

---

Blink stood outside in the sunlight and did some light stretching, “Man it’s good to finally sleep on a decent bed. Although I wish someone dealt with those annoying roars, they ruined a good dream of mine.”

As soon as he finished his sentence a fellow dwarf approached him, “Hunter Blink? I tried to find Valkus, but I guess you will have to do. I’m here to pass a message.”

“Oh? And what message is that cutie?”

The dwarven girl acts cool like winter, “You and your fellow hunters are to head out today and scout and kill any ferocious beasts you come across. Good luck hunter Blink.” 

And with that, the cool beauty leaves the stunned Blink, off to seemingly report other messages.

With a sigh Blink looks up to the sky, “Me and my big mouth. Oh, how the heavens are cruel I thought we would have a break day. Oh well, at least I’ll earn some wine today… Fuck! I forgot to ask her name and she was such a babe.”

In a fowl mood Blink stormed off and headed towards the wall of the mountain before digging his hands and feet into the cracks and started to climb. Five minutes later he finds Valkus sitting on a ledge cross-legged meditating.

“Hey, brother.”

Opening his eyes Valkus responded, “Yes?”

“We got a job to do.”

 

Part 2 - Learn and Challenge

 

An hour later the meeting is finished and the members leave to get some grub in their bellies before heading to work. Of the group, Urist and Vlad walk and eat to down a hallway till they reach a door guarded by a few veteran warriors.

Finishing his sandwich Urist turned to Vlad, “So, how did the rats take to the transformation?”

With a smile Vlad swallows that last bite of his sandwich and smiles, “It’s been a smashing success, open the door and see for yourself.”

Intrigued Urist gives the guards a nod before opening the bamboo door. Seeing what was in the lit-up room he raised an eyebrow. In the center was the Rat-Kin Eins that he remembered seeing and next to him was a blood mage talking to various male and female rat-kin as she answered their questions one by one. 

Bewildered Urist turned to the amused Vlad, “How do they know our language?”

Vlad rubs his beard, “Thanks to you allowing me a daily allowance of 500 points I looked through the market and found this potion that allowed them to speak dwarven. It was pretty cheap only costing five points, just enough for all the Rat-kin here. To turn them all humanoid-like Eins was also cheap thanks to their bigger mass so it cost around 120 evo points.

“Right now Blut is whose has some talent in teaching and has monstrous patience. He’s currently teaching them common sense, language, and some basic rules. Although we weeded out most of their undesirable instincts such as hyper dive of mating, bad eyesight, coprophagia, and a few other ones. We got these as a freebie with how much mass they had so I figured it was worth it.

“To get them to adult intelligence I’ll need more evo points. Also, I need about a week or two to teach them right from wrong before we allow them to move around. If we had more teachers and space I can say that for certain they will be usable within a week.”

Seeing the rat-kins eyes shining as they devour information and how calm they were acting Urist felt satisfied.

“Consider it done. I’ll send you 200 evo points to work with and over the past few days, we have gotten some teachers so they will be under your command. I’ll pull over an earth mage from the construction team to make another room for you. But I have one question for you Vlad.”

Confused Vlad responded, “And what is that my king?”

“Why are all of them beautiful? Hell, how does each one of them have personality in their facial features?”

“It’s was Dali handiwork. Said that it wouldn’t be right to give them boring features with all these blank canvases.”

“Are you sure she isn’t some artist instead of a blood mage?”

“I wonder that myself as well my king.”

---

Wandering the grounds Ubel made his rounds before the magic swordsman Volt approached him.

“Hey, strategist you got a minute?”

“Alright. We can walk and talk as I inspect the walls. What is it you want.”

The middle-aged man nods, “Thanks, I was going to talk to Urist after the meeting, but it seems his hands are tied up. I was wondering if you can slip him a message for me when he wishes to challenge me.”

Walking up the steps of the wall Ubel stopped and turned to Volt. His eyes held a faint chill, “Oh? And why is that? Are you thinking of…”

Volt shook his head, “No, I’m not made to be a leader, born and raised vanguard. I’m just. I don’t want to keep sitting on my ass for my new home. It just doesn’t sit right when watching all these youngins fight while I can’t.” 

Hearing Volts’ response the coldness in Ubels eyes faded, “Why bring this up with me? You could’ve just waited for Urist to be finished before bringing it up with him.”

At that, Volt scratched his bread, “Ya see, I could, but when you look like you’re not busy so I thought it would be fine. After all, you see him more than me and I got peasants in the art of not dying.”

With a sigh, Ubel responded, “Fine it’s a pretty easy request to fill. I’ll deliver your challenge to him after making my rounds. That all?”

Volt nodded his head, “Indeed, thank you for helping me with this.”

“Well having you useful in combat instead of training grunts I would consider a net gain. Think nothing of it. If you want to pay me back train those peasants on how to use a knife. We got that knife training book, might be useful to go over.”

“Consider it done. You know, you’re not that much of a prick I thought you were.”

“Is that supposed to be a compliment? If it was it's a pretty shit one.”

“I’m not known for my words. I’m known for my actions.”

---

Finished with their exchange, Ubel finished his rounds before heading into the cave to meet up with Urist and maybe go over the local map afterward again.

Heading to the civ room, he caught Urist just as he entered the room.

“Hey, Urist how is your little project going?”

Urist grinned at him, “Very well. If you want I can show you sometime later. Vlad and his group are doing wonders and within a week or two we’ll have a hundred workers ready to go.”

Ubel stared at him with dead fish eyes, “I don’t see what you see in vermin, but I should take a look at the potential. Besides that, I came with a message for you.”

“Oh? What about?”

“Volt wishes for you to challenge him so that he may fight for our home. He’s wondering when you want to do it.”

Scratching his bread Urist mulled over it before his eyes became fierce.

“Let’s do it tomorrow, I’ll have enough time to upgrade my skills and adjust them for tomorrow. It’ll be the perfect time to test my strength.”

With a sigh Ubel looked at Urist exhaustedly, “Fine, just don’t end up in bed. Again.”

“I don’t plan on it. Before I go off to do a little training let’s go look over the base expansions. I heard that Unicy and the carpenters are working on the design. You game?”

“Yes. I wanna make sure you guys don’t add anything stupid.” 

 

Part 3 - Ferocious Encounter

 

After arguing for about an hour on how to do home expansion the group finished up the meeting achieving most of their objectives. This left Urist free to finally do the thing he wanted to do two days ago. 

Walking into the civilization room he muttered under his breath. “What skills should I get to face Volt? I had a list already made, but guess I’ll make sure before deciding.”

With his mind made up, he reached the armament stone to place his hand on the sharp crystal.

Here goes nothing… Hope I’m not jelly-like the last time I updated my skills.

---

Exiting the gate Valkus turned to Reaver, “Scout. Ahead.”

With a nod Reaver ordered her tigers to spread out and look for threats then report back their location. With soft growls, the twelve tigers dashed out in all directions and not waiting around the dwarfs spread out a tad and headed into the lush forest.

The group of dwarfs was silent giving no small talk under Valkuses orders. He and Blink spears in hand took the lead silently moving through the forest like predators heading north to scout the area. 

Making slow and steady progress it took twenty minutes before one of the tigers came to the group. The group wasn’t startled by its approach thanks to it making a curtain growl. Moving over to Reaver it sat down and presented her forehead. 

Reaver than reached and touched the tiger's forehead a small glow happened before she opened her eyes. She then turned to the waiting Valkus, “Velvet here says that in that direction is a strange creature in a tree with an eye on its chest. It has legs, hands, golden fur and about three sizes bigger than us. It also has great muscle definition meaning it should fight physically, but the eye in the chest weirds me out.”

Hearing the report Valkus nodded, “Lets. Hunt.”

With the target in mind the hunter squad headed in the direction where the creature was spotted. It took them ten minutes to spot the creature hanging in the tree. The golden furred creature currently was snacking on a boar as its jaws crushed flesh and bone alike.

Valkus rolled his shoulders at the sight of the prey, he turned to his fellow hunters, ‘Formation. C.”

Under his command, him, Brick, and Arben took vanguard position. Rytar and Emu took the left flank with Acar and Cero the right. Brink and Reaver took up support positions from behind to help anyone in danger. 

The group approached fearlessly towards the weird ape. When they got close the ape noticed their presence and in a rage ripped the boar body in half. 

So it has great physical strength we’ll have to be careful when we get into melee.

“Freeze,” Valkus said before charging the ape head-on. Rytar and Acar followed the command sending a ball of frost straight at the Ape. 

In response, the Ape static converged around towards its chest eye and began shooting short bursts of lightning at the frost balls. Energies clashed causing an explosion finishing off both dwarven magics, but the vanguard wasn’t scared as they rushed right behind Valkus.

“Support.”

Under orders, the mages began casting spells to trip up the Ape as the vanguard entered melee range. In a rage, the Ape kept sending out thunder at the magic aiming at him while charging straight at Valkus intent on ripping him limb from limb.

With a snort Valkus armed his spear at the Apes chest hoping to impale it. With a savage grin, the Ape closed his hands between the spears head as it began charging up a beam of thunder to hit Valkus.

Lack of hesitation, Valkus let go of his spear and pulled out his battle knife gaining a burst of speed and strength as he pushed into the ground. His movement was fast as he passed by the startled ape digging his knife through its chest causing its intestines to fall out. 

Inraged the monkey let go of the spear intent on grabbing the one who gutted him only for Blink and Arben to land a free attack on its turned back. With his bronze sword, Arben cut’s an arm clean off and Blink manages to sink his knife deep in the spine before twisting it.

Like a puppet cut from its strings, the Ape falls powerlessly as its spine is severed. It doesn’t get to roar before Vaklus has plunged his battle knife into its neck before twisting it.

Blood gushes out of the ape’s throat as the light in its eyes slowly fades away. When there are no signs of life the hunter converge on the body. And after a round of prodding and poking, they deem the corpse safe to pick up.

“Good. Support.” Is all Valkus could say before nearby a roar is heard charging towards their location.

“Plan. B.”

---

Back at base a few hours later Urist is laying down in the training room. Sweat flows down his body as he breathes deeply. His face having a hint of confidence as he stares at his outstretched hand closing and opening it.

Position: Civilization Leader

Age: 29 Days

Exp: 72

Knowledge: Otherworldly(Tier 2) (Tier 5 - locked), Survival(Tier 5), Forging(Tier 3), Planting (Tier 3), Cooking (Tier 4), Fishing (Tier 2), Seven Strike (Tier 1)…”

Skill Slots:

Head: [Origin Flame(Tier 2)], [Map (Tier 1)],[Mana Seed (Tier 2)], [ (Increased Senses Tier 2)]

Body: [Dwarven King Bloodline (Tier 3)], Rat King Bloodline(Tier 2)], [Strengthening (Tier 2)], [Berserker's Fury (Tier 2)], [ (Flame Body Tier 2)]

Legs: [Explorer (Tier 1)], [Forest Feet (Tier 1)], [Quick Burst (Tier 2)]

Available skills: 

Head: Abyss Water, Quick thinking, Energy Control, Leadership, ...

Body: Stone Skin, Iron Fingers, Shadow Body, Hardening, Bladed Body, ...

Legs: Air plates, Weight Control, Flexibility, Heroic Leap, Earthquake,... 

With this amount of power, I should be able to beat Volt tomorrow and with his added strength we’ll have an easier time with expansion. And before the Primal stone event hits, we'll be able to capture the river by then. Hopefully this time I’m strong enough to protect everyone…

Amid his thoughts, he heard the patter of feet heading towards his direction turning his head in that direction he saw Unicy. Her expression was nervous but wasn’t all that scared.

Forcing himself to sit up Urist waited for Unicy to speak before saying anything.

“Boss, the hunters are back and brought quite a strange haul. Valkus’s second Blink would like to speak to you about their findings in the meeting room.”

Dusting himself off Urist stood up, “Very well tell them I’ll be there in a few minutes.” 

 

Part 4 - Report

 

Walking into the meeting room Urist raised an eyebrow at Valkus and Blink's condition seeing the scrapes and bruises they had acquired.

Sitting down in his chair Urist inquired, “So, seeing how banged up you two are I can assume that these Ferocious beasts are not to be trifled with. Tell me, what creatures did you encounter in your exploration.”

Under Urists question, Valkus turned to Blink to respond, “Well boss, the beasts we did encounter were strange and strong. The first thing we encountered we called the Golden Eye ape. Its physical ability was monstrous and the eye in its chest shot out thunder. Although dangerous if not prepared for it was paltry compared to what else we faced.”

“Oh? What else did you come across?”

“The next creature charged us shortly after we killed the Golden Eye Ape and it was horrifying. A dark humanoid that had a head full of tentacles that used a sort of shadow magic. The thing was agile and built with armored. The bastard was tougher than that damn dirty ape I tell ya, mainly because most of our mages couldn’t get a lock on him with their magic. It was up to me, Emu, Valkus, and Arben to fight it on even grounds. Without Emu’s speed spell someone would have been seriously injured trying to kill it.

“We slowly whittled the monstrosity down eventually killing it. Afterward, we strapped the bodies to Reaver’s tigers and had them be dropped off at the base as we pressed forth. We kept heading north and we spotted a pack of black horses that seemed to be on fire running through the forest. They were too fast to attack so we let them run north, I swear for something so large to run through such tough terrain those horses are not to be trifled with.  

“If that was all it would have been fine, that is until we came upon those fiends.”

“Fiends? Although I’m interested in those horses, what were these fiends you talk about? Actual devils?”

Blink shook his head, “No not actual demonic beings, but pretty damn close in how bullshit they were. At first, I and Valkus thought they were a pack of regular wolves until they charged at us. Their bodies covered in scales with various magics rippling among them. Along with the coordination, they had shown we had to pull out all the stops so we weren’t killed.

“At how fast they traveled we wouldn’t be able to outrun them. Maybe if Valkus was wind boosted by Emu to run, instead Valkus ordered us to gather as Brick expelled his magic to make a fortress. Creo battered them with blood magic and Emu prepared to shield. Rytar and Arben held on from acting as they were our last resort.

“And you might be thinking we won with that tactic boss? I wish the Scale Wolves brushed off Cero blood magic with ease as they slammed into the fortress-like cannonballs. Our defenses shook and cracked forcing Rytar to reinforce the fortress with all his water and ice magic.

“That worked for a time till the fuckers used various magic to bash down their walls. Thought we’d be gone right then and there until my crazy bastard of a bother came up with the idea to go out and capture the alpha for Reaver to tame.

“Seeing how dire we were in we all agreed after a moment and decided to use our remaining magic of Emu and Acar to open a path. Reavers tigers ran interference just long enough for my big brother here to fight the matriarch one on one.”

As Blink took a breath to catch his thoughts Urist asked, “So, since no one is dead and you are here I’m guessing you killed the tamed the wolf?”

Blink frowned and then sighed, “You just had to spoil the ending didn’t you boss? No matter, as you guessed correctly using his stupidly high strength. My big brother was able to wrestle the leader and rush back into the back with her in tow as Reaver contracted her.

“They broke through the walls just as she finished and thanks to Reavers help she had them stand down and… Well… I hope you like more dogs boss, ones that armor themselves in elements and shoot laser beams of death.”

“Oh great, more mouths to feed.” Was what Urist said sighing in response. 

“Booze?” Asked Valkus.

“Booze.” Urist responded.

Primal Stone Event timer activated 5 Days 16 Hours 28 Min 

Mount Puff Event timer activated 19 Days 16 Hours 28 Min 

Treasure Hunt Event timer activated 33 Days 16 Hours 28 Min 

Weapon Fall Event timer activated 47 Days 16 Hours 28 Min 

Demons Descent timer activated 61 Days 16 Hours 28 Min 

Points: 13,738