Like a powder keg. Cep could feel the tension in the air, and she wasn’t even on the front lines. The Adventurer’s Guild was empty, the tables gathering dust again. All the decent adventurers had been poached by the city and the rest of them had gone home to hide from the battle. With their ability they would not survive.

So it was a very slow day. She couldn’t complain since the guild would still pay her for just showing up. Free money was free money, but it wouldn’t hurt to have something to do, besides sleep on the countertop and eat crackers.

The big wooden doors creaked a little. A minute later, the door creaked again. Finally, a light knocking, barely audible. Cep was just glad there was something to do as she pulled the unreasonably large doors open. At first she thought there was no one standing there. Only looking down did she see the first guest of the day, a little child not even 10 years old.

“Ummm… hello? Are you lost?”

“No. The woman at the orphanage said she wouldn’t teach me how to fight and to ask the Adventurer’s Guild.”

Cep looked around at the plaza, finding only the typical hustle bustle of the city and a distinct lack of chaperones.

“Did you come alone?”

“Yeah. It was really easy. This place is the biggest.”

This was true. The Adventurer’s Guild was quite large in size as it was planned to serve as a bunker for emergencies. The adventurers would defend the building, along with important civilians inside.

“But you look so young. Usually kids like you shouldn’t have to worry about fighting until you’re at least 15.”

“I have to find my parents though. No one knows where they are. So I have to be strong enough to find them by myself.”

Cep crouched down to his level, which was kind of low.

“You’re from the orphanage right? I don’t think… you’ll find them near this city.”

“I know. I’m going to have to go far away to find them I think. So I need to be strong and fight the monsters in the way.”

Cep thought that sounded awfully optimistic, considering he was scrawny and scarcely looked able to pick up a sword.

“But how will you defeat monsters? What are you going to use to fight them?”

Foile thought about it, considering all his options. Slowly a swarm of nanos creeped out from under his clothes, covering his arms and legs and forming an exoskeleton around his body. With concerted effort, he then picked up an entire barrel of water that sat outside the door.

“Like this!”

He threw the barrel at the wall, and they both watched it burst open, throwing water and bits of the barrel everywhere. Cep was astonished.

“What kind of skill is that?”

“What’s a skill?”

She supposed his parents had not had “the Talk” with him before they died. What was more worrying was the fact he could lift something way heavier than himself without skills.

“Okay, try this practice sword. Come with me.”

First thing she wanted to test was how well he could utilize his metal armor skeleton thing to attack enemies.

“Could you pick up the wooden sword and attack the straw dummy?”

The sword was not nearly as heavy as a water filled barrel, and he lifted it with ease, striking the dummy with the kind of amateur slash that a rookie would try. Despite the lack of skill, the force behind the blow was enough to tear through the straw, cleaving it in half.

“I’ve taken a few self defense classes so you could improve. But I think it’s a good start. Okay. Let’s try archery next.”

One of the other archers practicing their aim had to show Foile how to use the bow. After a few moments of careful aim, he struck the center of the bullseye first try. His successive arrows split his previous ones in half. Observing his arm, it was very still. His aim was mechanically precise, adjusted to perfection by his exoskeleton. The steady plunk of bolts in wood began to grate on Cep’s nerves. How dare he be so perfect at something he had probably never done?

“You already look like you can handle pretty much everything okay. Why’d you say you need help fighting? This is enough to kill any wolves or goblins in your way.”

“But what if a dragon attacks me? Or the black thing that destroyed my village?”

Only after a brief recounting of the circumstances that led to their encounter did she understand why he was here, his name, and what he wanted in the truest sense. However he still remained tightlipped about where and how he obtained his “armor”, claiming that “it” told him to keep it a secret.

“If something like that really destroyed your village, it is my responsibility to report it to the higher ups so they can decide what to do about it. I can try to get them to form a response team, but it’s not my decision.”

“It's hard to remember.”

“I know it is. But I can’t convince everyone that it's real unless the description of it is good enough, ok?”

“Then I have to be good enough to kill it by myself, so Mom and Dad can come home and we can make a new house and live there.”

Cep did not have the heart to tell him the truth. His mind was so firmly rooted in the belief that his parents had escaped to somewhere, no matter how ridiculous it sounded.

“You’d have to work to get better weapons to get something strong enough to kill a beast like that. So you would have to learn how to use a sword correctly, fight a lot of monsters, track it down, and kill it. That’s a lot of work.”

“But I want to. I have to do it. Because no one else will.”

Clearly he could not be persuaded. The only way forward was to guide him as best as she knew how.

“Well, I know a swordsman. Have you heard of Perience?”

It was at that moment that an alert sounded from the tower. It was the sound of the impractically giant bell tolling, amplified to be heard across the city, followed by a booming voice.

“The city requests all able-bodied citizens proficient in archery to come to the North Gate. Please bring any bows and arrows you may have on hand. Bulwark thanks you for your contributions.”

Cep gestured in the direction of the Northern Gate.

“Or you could practice your archery, I guess. Not that you need to.”

The sun began to dip below the horizon once again, as Vetrean peered through a spyglass into the distance. Ritehan stood beside him at attention, always ready to assist.

“Sir? What is it you are looking at?”

“Here. Take the spyglass and aim it at the far end of your vision. Do you see it?”

Slowly the image began to manifest before his eyes. Little flickers of distant torches waved to him if he strained his eyes long enough. This was despite the spyglass being inscribed with runes, able to see over x4 the original distance. Soon, they would arrive, just as dusk turned to night and visibility became low. It would be much harder to snipe them from the walls, as the barbarians ran through the tall grass.

“I see them. Whole horde of them coming this way. They’ll be here soon. Best to call some of the mages to action.”

“Good call. I’ll see if I can get a citywide announcement. We’re going to need a lot more archers if we want to kill a whole army.”

Vetrean wrote the contents of the announcement on a chalkboard, provided to him by the mages from the Tower. Instantly, a copy of the same chalkboard had writing appear on it from within the tower, a perfect replica of what Vetrean wrote mere moments ago from the wall. From there, one of the mages on standby checked the statement for any inaccuracies or other such flaws and sent a magical message to the mage on bellboy duty. Said mage rang the bell, using his magic to amplify the sound, while a secondary mage was responsible for broadcasting the actual message.

“The city requests all able-bodied citizens proficient in archery to come to the North Gate. Please bring any bows and arrows you may have on hand. Bulwark thanks you for your contributions.”

In one of the many rooms in the Tower, the Missileer sat upon his bed, feverishly poring over his notes, wracking his head for answers to his many magical problems. So many questions of efficiency, power, distance, speed, and cast time. Always there was more to improve upon, better ways to weave the threads of energy that flowed through the air. Many thought him crazy, seeing magic as just some Skills, a few words, and gesturing with their hands.

But he knew the truth that even his fellow mages could not all see. Iridescent currents of unraveling mana strands snaked through the air, imbuing the area with copious amounts of magical power. Here he was in his element, surrounded by his well of safety. The ability to see magic for what it truly was had propelling him to the title of Sage, in life and in [Class]. He had learned so much in every field, from construction to medical use to body strengthening to pure offensive ability.

And only at this peak could he see that there was so much more to discover. If he was at the tip of Mount Everest, he could see all the answers hiding beyond the clouds, accessible only in legend or the fabled halls of the Eastern Collective. Perhaps after this war he would depart on pilgrimage to the holy country for wizards of his kind. But he was ultimately loyal to his country, and would fight for the place where he had lived his whole life.

“Professor M! Vetrean has requested your presence on the battlements.”

The Missileer saw a shy apprentice mage sent by his lonesome to inform him of his obligations. He tossed the kid a few silver coins for his troubles, before speaking in his trademark gravelly voice.

“Tell them I’ll be there soon.”

A slime, rolling along over pebbles and dirt and a mildly interesting rock, took a moment to look to the skies. With its miniscule intelligence, it wondered for a second about the world beyond its little field of view. For all its life, it had only known the fertile soils and yellow grasses of the Endless Plains. Hopping above the grassline confirmed it: nothing much else for miles around. The only significant landmark was the giant stone wall that sat in the middle of these plains, undisturbed except for trails heading in and out, traversed by the bipeds.

As it began to ruminate on its circumstances for the first time, a patch of grassy ground beneath it gave way, revealing a pit cleverly hidden by woven turf. The fall did not hurt, but the slime was honestly more alarmed at its surroundings: a swarm of spiders crawling over the walls, through tunnels, everywhere. Soon they swarmed over the hapless slime, and it disappeared below legs and abdomens and sticky massed webbing.

Arane had laid out many of these pits around the Northern Gate, where the Tribes were sure to attack from. They never showed much strategizing, tending to charge headfirst into enemies, relying on brute strength to decide the battle. But soon, when both armies clashed and swords met shields, in the heat of the fight, would she reveal her army. Her children would swiftly swarm over the many bodies, and sustain her regrowth. She was already salivating thinking about it. Then she would overrun the city, and eliminate all within.

Miles away, a squadron of drones slowly flew through the air, surveying the area. Infrared sensors did away with the problem of insufficient light. The exploration drones were accompanied by a handful of basic combat drones, outfitted with basic ballistic weaponry. Their fire rate would be abysmal without touching down on solid ground first, though. With great power came great recoil. So the drones approached the city, remaining high above the buildings way up in the sky so as to not trigger any alarm. Down below, many lights lit up, denoting the encroaching army, invigorated from their victory.

Soon the drones would have their first taste of war. The soldiers in the city bristled, standing around the door and preparing to be deployed. Special units stood upon the walls to monitor the situation and intervene when they saw fit. The [Strategist] watched, the [Spider Queen] schemed, the [Hammer King] prepared, and the Exploratory saw opportunity.