Sitting on the rock waiting for his Horsemen to return, Peter couldn’t help but regret what he had chosen.

Remembering back to when the old gambler mentioned the [Fated Place], he could only shake his head.

That phrase had meant nothing to him.

Warhammer Fantasy, on the other hand, meant quite a lot.

No, to be more precise, the word ‘Vermintide’ meant so much to him that had Peter known where he was before, he would have directly bought a spaceship to fly away on!

‘Warhammer Fantasy’ was just a setting; Peter had come to learn after playing that gruesome game.

It was a setting where the worst things that could happen in a fantasy world DID happen.

‘No wonder… Damn! No Wonder the Mount and Blade System was so cheap!’ thought he.

Humans were a major race in the dangerous world of Warhammer, but they only barely survived one calamity after the other, and typically those situations found large portions of humanity uniting against a disunited foe!

All of Humanity versus all of the Greenskins? Death.

All of Humanity versus all of the Lizardmen? Death.

All of Humanity versus all of the Dark Elves? Death.

All of Humanity versus all of the Undead? Double Death.

All of Humanity versus all of the Skaven? Hah? Triple Death.

To make matters worse, generally, this world was still in the age of cold weapons!

‘I don’t know how to make a gun!’ Peter thought again while shaking his head.

Thinking all of this, Peter wasn’t stupid and so began to calm himself down…

He knew he was individually very strong – maybe stronger than any other human alive after the Serum and System, but realistically, he knew, he was not a 1-man-army.

He was not a 1-man-army, but that didn’t mean there existed no ‘1-man-armies’ in this world!

And it was that very thought, more than the shock of being in an incredibly dark fantasy world, that tormented Peter the most.

If he had known this, he would have known this to use the Fate Casino for more personal power.

Even considering that it was the Mount and Blade system who told him this, and so he would have already had to buy it to know, if he had known where he was, he could have bought a Bestiary or a World Map.

Heck, he could have probably bought the entire library of books detailing this supposed fictional world!

Thinking quickly, Peter organized what he knew for certain.

He was currently in Kislev.

Kislevites were worshipers of the bear spirit Ursun, and Ursun at some point gets killed before the end of the world.

The last Emperor of the Empire was Karl Franz, not long after he’s killed the world ended.

The end of the world was accompanied by a Vermintide that seemed to strike everywhere.

The forces of Order are numerically out-manned, face attacks from all sides, and are often physically outmatched by the various forces of Chaos.

The year was 2440 IC.

What this meant, Peter wasn’t sure of, he thought the Vermintide happened in 2520, but really couldn’t say for sure.

But even if it never happened, Kislev was already infested with monsters, magic, dark gods, and things Peter knew that he didn’t even know about!

‘What else, what else, what else…’ he was thinking, before getting up and looking around the flat grasslands.

For now, all was quiet, but somewhere out there – and given from the noises the previous night somewhere close – there were man eating monsters, dark conspiracies, evil magi, and even those vicious societies of men who knowingly gave themselves to the chaos gods.

He thought about this, until, unexpectedly, the comedy of the situation was apparent to him, and he couldn’t help but to smile thinking: ‘And I actually selected 80 horses and 80 cattle’s… Icelandic Horses for that matter!’

The cattle’s he selected were fine, albeit ‘fine’ considering that he used FC to buy cattle at all, the horses were another matter.

Icelandic horses were great riding animals, had great endurance, and had very few health concerns.

Icelandic horses could survive blistering cold and walk as easily on snowy hills as they could on flat lands.

But Icelandic horses weren’t the type of horses you’d need to lead a cavalry charge against an army of demons!

And this made him laugh, forgetting for a second the situation he was in.

The situation that he couldn’t easily go back on.

He had used his FC to start a community.

He had used his systems Skill Points to invest in Engineering, Trainer, and in general Party Skills.

So, standing there scanning the horizons, Peter revolved himself to not question himself anymore.

Kislev was a backwards land; and the Kislevites were a courageous but trifling people.

‘Heh, the Vaegir may be no better than the Kislevites’ Peter thought with a scornful laugh, but then corrected himself.

On Calradia, the Vaegir may have been no better than the Kislevites.

But, on Calradia there were no monsters, those people had no inklings of any danger for man besides other man.

And he, Peter Ivankov, had a solution for that.

Dues Vult.

Standing there waiting for his Horsemen to return, Peter resolved himself: ‘The humans in this world are always on the defensive, and no wonder, they worship a plethora of spirit gods who do nothing but feed their debauched tendencies.’

Shaking his head, he continued to think: ‘Actually, isn’t this better? Haven’t I already decided to kill those man-eating monsters?’

Then, moving from the monsters, his mind shifted to mankind: “And for those spirit worshipers, I’m going to bring them the God’s Light…

By God, I’m going to bring it…

Whether they want it or not, they’re gonna have it!

And with the support of the Vaegir, with the support of those who will convert, we will make this world clean from the taint of Chaos!’

Nodding his head Peter formulated his next steps.

It would be risky, but he decided to pursue two strategies at once.

He would create a town from which he would be able to support his army with food on, and he would create an army before the town was ready.

Thinking about what he needed to do, he just hoped he would have the time.

After waiting for a while longer the first Horsemen returned, and quickly dismounting, the man saluted by placing his right arm on his chest and slightly bowing his head.

“My Lord, I’ve found a place that may be suitable for a village.”

Nodding and telling the man to continue, the Horsemen did just that: “It’s near the river, but not too close, and enclosed by two large rocky outcrops that could supply stone and defense for the time being.”

“How about forests?” Peter asked, knowing that they’d need to hunt for food.

“There’s a tree line across the river, but I wasn’t able to tell how far it extends.”

“I see…” Peter said, then thought to ask: “Around the rocky outcrops, is the land suitable to till?”

Shaking his head, the Horsemen answered: “Perhaps some, but the space I scouted was constrained on 3 sides. Any large farm or pastureland would need to be situated away from where I’m referring to.”

After that, Peter asked about the river and some other geological features but in the end put that location low on his list.

Stone was important, but he needed access to wood more.

Telling the man good work, they stood there somewhat awkwardly until Peter asked the man’s name and how he came to be here.

And when Horseman heard this, his eyes somewhat glazed over, and answering with a little more initiative, he surprised Peter: “My name… was… is… Marcin, My Lord.

… I… I was born in the Village of Mazen, which my name was given from.”

It was common for peasants not to have surnames, likely if forced to say his, this Horseman would have called himself ‘Marcin Mazen’ to indicate he was Marcin, from Mazen.

But disregarding this thought, Peter looked at the Horseman who had stopped talking, and gently pressed a little more: “And how did you end up here, Marcin?”

Snapping back to reality, it seemed, the Horseman answered: “I was… on my deathbed when, I was offered this chance by God.” And seeing Peter’s incredulous look, he quickly continued: “My Lord, I dare not claim to know for certain, and I cannot explain it in words, but in my heart, I was offered the chance to live in youth once more.

But the price for this was to come here and serve.”

Nodding his head in understanding, Peter asked: “Do you know what kind of place this is?” and Marcin answered back: “I know it is very dangerous, I know that our God is not worshipped here. I know that it will not be easy...”

Then shrugging his shoulders, the Horseman said: “…but I was old and dying, now I am young and as strong as I ever was. Maybe I’ll die tomorrow… I do not want to die… but if I do, then that’s the covenant I made.”

Of course, he didn’t know whether this ‘Marcin’ was telling the truth, he didn’t even know if he himself was insane and dreaming everything!

But if everyone he recruited were on their deathbeds before coming to this world then it was undeniable that he was bound to get skilled people.

After all, one simply didn’t live to be old and not have any wisdom gathered through the years.

Standing there, he spoke to the Horseman some more and found out that the man had been in military service as a Horseman for most of his youth and only retired after taking an arrow in the side by a band of Khergit raiders.

“Could never really lift my left arm after that.” Said the Horseman, who then indicated that he went on to be a caravan guide across Vaegir’s snowy mountains.

The 2 men spoke for some while longer when the other Horsemen began to return.

Thankfully, all of them had, though 2 of the 5 Horsemen sorrowfully claimed to have turned around when they saw shapes and dust in the distance.

Hearing this, Peter told them they had done a good job and exactly what he had asked.

He would see to those reports soon, he thought.

Between the other Horsemen, one claimed to have found a location on a hill right beside a junction where two smaller rivers created a larger one.

From what he had seen it was a large enough body of water for moderate sized river boats, though naturally he didn’t know how deep it was.

This was attractive, Peter thought, but without being hasty he let the last Horseman speak, and he said:

“My Lord, I came across an irregular shaped plateau surrounded by grassland.

The plateau was not very high, the slope was gentle and was perhaps 6 feet in height, but its size was large enough that I couldn’t detail it all.

I did come to find some rapids about 2 miles away, and in the same direction there was a thick woodland, but I hadn’t got a very close to either out of caution.”

Nodding his head to this, Peter asked him if that was all, and after a second, the man said: “… about an hour when I was coming back in this direction I followed more along the river and crossed a large stone bridge that was badly damaged, there was nothing on it but there were marks which made me not wait to wait around there alone.”

Noting that this Horseman had gotten scared, Peter also noted that the wagon was gone in just a day.

Thinking about the half-eaten bodies, and those empty eyes which had looked at him, almost pleading to him, Peter gnashed his teeth.

“We’ll go to the plateau first.” He ordered, and without another word about it the 5 Horsemen said in unison: “Yes, my Lord!”

4 of the 5 saddled up, but Marcin did not, instead he asked: “My Lord, would you like to ride my horse?”

And laughing at this, Peter declined graciously.

He was still wearing the armor he had bought from the System, but it weighed almost nothing to him, and though they were confused, the Horsemen did as commanded, and started trotting.

And Peter, while running, kept up.

This amazed the men, so much so that when Peter told them to go faster, they did just that.

And he still kept up.

Eventually, the 5 Horsemen were pushing their Steppe Horses to their fastest speed, around 30mph, but Peter still ran beside them.

More than that, much to the Horsemen’s astonishment and awe, he started to zigzag in front of them.

While the men were whooping and hollering for their steeds to go faster, Peter was also testing himself out.

Conservatively, he thought, he could have run twice this fast for a long time before he ever got winded.

But of course, soon enough he stopped performing for the men and started following the man who knew where they were going.

They passed the wrecked bridge and then followed the river a little more before branching off into the grassland until a couple hours later the horses mouths were foaming but they had finally reached their target.

As the Horseman describe, it was a large irregular plateau standing in the middle of a wide track of grassland.

Not too far from the river, some rapids, or an unexplored woodland.

Not too far from 2 other potential settlement sites.

Looking around until just about the passing of midday, Peter had decided.

This was where it would start.

He had the will.

He had the tools.

He even had very powerful allies when he needed them in [Father Anderson] and [Abraham Helsing].

Nodding his head to himself, Peter stood surrounded by the 5 Horsemen and didn’t hesitate.

[Ding! Redeem Medium Movable Camp?]

“Redeem.”