Chapter 13: Awaken You Foolish Humans.

Candace was furious, as she looked at the army of lizard men hiding in the trees on the other side of the village’s mangled wheat field. If it wasn’t for those blasted ants she would have had that beautiful Weatherby rifle in her hands rights now. Using her magically sharpened vision, she focused in on one particular group of the lizards, what the hell?

Captain Mesquida climbed up the ladder to the top of the water tower that Lieutenant Murphy was using as an observation post. “What do we have Lieutenant?”

“At first I thought we were going to be attacked by those mammoth riding Lizard Men that we were warned about. But when I did appraisal on some of them it showed me only green screens. Besides that, I swear that I briefly saw little babies in the arms of some of those beings and more astonishingly, I think I saw some humans out there as well but they are in back of the lizard folk.

Captain Mesquida who had been looking out through his own binoculars did a double take on the Lieutenant. “So we might not be looking at an attack but instead some desperate refugees, who can still pose a hazard to us.”

He climbed back down the tower and called “Lieutenant Wind.”

Sir Storm Wind hurried over, “Yes Captain?”

“Those lizard people who are out there right now might not be staging for an attack but instead looking for a safe haven. Lieutenant Murphy thinks she saw both babies and humans out there. My problem is that I need an interpreter and I know that the boss is exhausted even though he’s still working. Are you up for the job?”

“Of course Captain.”

Twenty minutes later the Priest with Storm Wind and Captain Mesquida riding in the armored box, along with two sharpshooters, headed out of the Stronghold’s most western gate. To the Captain’s mind the village had far too many exterior gates, twelve of them in fact, most of which he considered to be worrisome weak points. The Priest was flying a white flag indicating that they wanted to parlay. He was concerned because he had no way of knowing what that kind of colored flag meant to the lizard men, he could only hope. The Captain had chosen the Priest because it was the only armored vehicle they had, big enough to hold Lieutenant Wind.

Captain Mesquida had the armored vehicle slowly approach the tree line. He winced as the track further destroyed the winter wheat field it was driving across. He knew that Isabella was not going to be happy with him. As the Priest approached the trees he used his own appraisal ability on one of the short greenish gray skinned humanoids he saw hiding there.

Name: Blender Apothecary

Species: The Craft Makers for the Majestic Gray Scaled Warriors of Sabok

Title: Apothecary for the Majestic Gray Scaled Warriors of Sabok

George couldn’t help but wonder who in the hell were the Gray Scaled Warriors? Were they the ones that had previously attacked the compound? And most importantly where in the hell were they? Seventy-five feet from the woodland, he had the Priest stop, side on to the trees. He remained in the armored box but he dropped one of its side armor plates. The shop crew had added two plates to each side of the armored box on the Priest. Dropping only one plate did not expose all of the men inside of the box to direct fire, besides that the plates were heavy and having only one contiguous plate running along the inside of the Priest’s armored box would have been a pain to lift into place.

George stood partially revealed as he slowly waved a white flag. Because of their wings it was difficult to fit the flyers with body armor. So the Captain, in his armored vest and helmet, thought that it was better if he only showed himself, at least initially.

Slowly the lizard man, that George had just appraised; came out with both hands empty and held chest high.

The greenish gray man began to speak, Storm Wind heard his words. “I, Blender Apothecary of the Craft Makers greet Captain George Mesquida, Knight for the Hermit King Vincent Standish.”

Storm Wind was not surprised to hear, or rather see on the translation window, the Captain’s name and title being used; he had expected Blender to know that information because of the appraisal ability.

“My people and I wish you no harm. We have a small number of humans with us. We all seek refuge in your village, from the monsters that plague this land. We offer our services in exchange. My people will work tirelessly for you, and we will swear binding oaths to your King; as our people’s guide, Star Astrologer has told us to do. We wish to talk with you in peace.”

Storm Wind translated Blender’s words for Captain Mesquida. The two men discussed the matter and then invited Blender to approach the Priest for a longer discussion. The lizard man was slightly startled to see Storm Wind but for some reason the sight of another nonhuman caused him to visibly relax.

They talked for almost two hours. George found that that the Craft Makers were a servant species of the gray skinned lizard men that had attacked the compound several days ago. They’re two defeats by Vincent’s forces had decimated their numbers but worse was to befall them. Sky Krakens had attacked their camp. The Captain learned that the Craft Makers had been enslaved by Sabok Warriors so long ago that the Craft Makers had forgotten their own origins as a people. Even their traditional names were long gone and had been replaced with the names of their professions and other words relating to their occupations. George also learned that the Gray Scaled Warriors had a secret ability that shut down all aggressive or combative tendencies in the Craft Maker people, making the grayish green lizard folk easy prey for the larger grays.

With magic now loose in the world, George hoped that such mind control powers did not work on humans as well. Blender told him about the humans that his people had encountered and how they were very tentatively working together. But there was confusion and mistakes being made because of the lack of common language. The refugees had no one with the “gift of understanding.”

Under his own authority George invited the Craft Makers and their human companions into the compound. The Stronghold consisted of sixteen fenced in plots, all approximately two acres in size and arranged in a four by four rectangular grid. There were fences between all sixteen plots with strong gates leading from one fenced in area to another. It might have been inefficient but that was just the way that the Boss had Mack construct the Stronghold. During the early days, Mack and his crew would fence in another area whenever Vincent felt that more land needed to be added to the compound. The last ten acres that were fenced in was currently being used as grazing land for the community’s small herd of cattle. George was granting the new people temporary access to a two acre portion of that land which was in the most northwestern corner of the Stronghold.

The Sherman tank was brought out to stand guard and offer protection to the Craft Makers while they walked to the compound. George finally saw the humans at the tail end of the column and the description that came to his mind when he saw them was shell-shocked and desperate.

George would get with Steve and see what they could offer the refugees and then afterwards he would inform the Boss about his actions. The Captain assigned Storm Wind as the refugees’ guard/protector and interpreter. Lieutenant Wind was given command of ten humans and six flyers to aid him with the task.

I was peacefully sleeping in my bed when there was a knock at my door.

“Vincent, Steve and George need to speak with you it’s urgent.” It was Jennifer.

“Send them in; I’m not getting out of bed. And please bring me something to eat along with a pitcher of drinking water.”

George and Vince came in a few minutes later. They briefed me about our new refugees. “Okay I understand but I need to get some rest because I still have to deal with those ants. So the Council will have to handle the problem of these new refugees. Using true sight, you will interview them and decide if you think that they should stay or not. If the Council decides that all or some of them should join us, then Steve you will need to supply them with the essentials and decide where best to house them and use the new manpower that they represent.

Gentlemen we are getting behind the energy curve here and we’ve got to fix things before we drown. This place needs walls, we need more armored vehicles, firearms, housing and I’ve just come to learn that we need more magic users too. I think those ants would have fucked us if not for my magic. I’ve got more magical energy now but I have a lot of things to do. I need to enchant all kinds of gear, awaken volunteers and magically build some walls around this place. I’ve wanted to do the last item for some time now but something always comes along and fucks with my plans. I’ve decided that we have to start taking some risks or we’ll all be fucked. As you can tell I am not fucking happy about having my sleep interrupted.

I’ve got an idea which I want you two to bounce off of Clyde and Glen. They just put steam engines into two of our modern tractors. The engines only have half the rated horsepower of tractors’ former diesel engines but we’ve all learned by this time that the horsepower rating on a steam engine is rather deceptive. So while those tractors aren’t fast they have plenty of torque. We also still have those two armored utility trailers we used on that first run to Kilmer’s. Here’s my idea. Glen puts armor on those tractors’ cabs, which will then be used to tow those armored trailers behind them like mobile pill boxes or a poor man’s APC. They wouldn’t be any good on the road but for inside this compound they should be barely adequate, not great but adequate. For communications between the trailer and the tractor, Glen can install an old style speaking tube, like what was used on the early steamships, between the wheelhouse and the engine room.

By creating those kludged together armored vehicles, it allows you George to send off an expedition, using three of our tanks, to get Sean’s tools, guns and black powder. One of our tanks; with at least a two inch cannon, has to stay here as well as two of our dive bombers. We need to start gathering supplies and more firepower. There can be no more delays. Also spread the word about me being able to awakening talents; warn them about the oath that is required too. I will not be knighting them. I plan on awakening six people a day, so see if you can find any suckers, I mean volunteers.

George, I also need you to consult with Mack about our passive defenses. I need you two to come up with a design for walls and a moat to put around this place. I don’t need you to build it, but I’ll need Mack to lay out the design and maybe do some tree and brush cutting. Right now we have approximately thirty-two acres fenced in. I want to put a wall around fifty to eighty acres and I think I can do it magically if I’m given a week or two. Figure on walls fifteen feet thick and twenty feet high but I’ll try to do better than that. A lot of the land around here has been vacant for years and as a Hermit King, I now have the right to claim those properties, according to the DDS. So your design does not have to keep strictly to the lands that I already own. Also please make it a simple design, I think I can do something complicated but that will drastically increase the time it takes me to make the walls.

Jennifer is here with my meal now. So get the fuck out of my room.”

Both stunned looking men left my room without even asking a single question. Grumpy Hermit Powers Activate!

I felt like crap and they had to go and wake me up, the assholes. I ate a meal of calamari, beans and potatoes. Following that, I spent an hour healing myself, set my alarm for five in the afternoon and grumbled as I went back to sleep. I have got to get a new handgun. I can’t believe I blew up my newly enchanted revolver even before I used it even once!

I woke up at five feeling like I was getting over a bad case of sunburn. Isabella brought me a snack and Jennifer arranged a patrol to go with me, outside the compound, while I crushed more ant tunnels. Tomorrow I planned on finding their nest and destroying it. I heard noises going on in the shop and I saw some lizard folk and unknown humans running about performing various tasks. We really needed to find another enchanter!

When I got back to my house I had a little surprise waiting for me. All four of the women who were sharing my home nervously arose to their feet when I walked in. Jennifer began talking.

“Vincent we talked the other night about having our powers awakened. It seems that Grace and Isabella overheard our conversation. Then this early afternoon, I along with Grace listened while you talked with George and Steve, you were talking kind of loud. The four of us would like to swear oaths to you and have our powers awakened. We all agree that without your magic those ants might have eaten us all alive. We are desperate and scared Vincent, so please help us.”

The four nervous women looked at me. This did fit in well with my new plans, I am such an asshole. “Okay, I’ll do it. But Grace I’m sorry to say that while I will awaken your talents, I will not knight you at this time. The other ladies are leaders in this community and I will knight them, because I need them to be recognized by others as having authority here in this Stronghold. I know that you are quite skilled but you are not a leader at this time, not that you don’t have leadership abilities. I hope you can understand?” At least, I wasn’t going to knight her before I knighted Glen. I would speak to Glen first about the possibility of ennobling Grace. As far as I have seen she was the assistant boss or foreman in the shop and she might well deserve the title, she had been a petty officer in the Navy.

Grace nodded her head in reply but she did look a tiny bit disappointed.

I can do one person an hour. Figure out amongst yourselves who is first. I’ll be out in my cave enchanting stuff.

Upon entering my workshop I found a stack of hotplates, arming bands and iron rods to enchant; that was not including the long line of rifles and revolvers, on my worktables, that I still had to engrave. Two of the rifles were noticeably larger. It looks like Sean and Glen have managed to manufacture a couple of real bolt actions for our twenty millimeter rifles. I would save them for later because I didn’t like to be interrupted while I was engraving firearms. Damn it I forgot, I still have to enchant the Weatherby for Candace! Groaning, I sat down at my workbench and began enchanting a hot plate. Food was just as important as bullets to my mind.

Faith came in first and knelt before me. Shit, I had no idea where my asp was! It’s probably lying outside the door still, on the ground where I lit myself on fire. I grabbed the closest thing to a weapon that was within arm’s reach, which was a large hammer.

“Your Majesty, I Faith Harper do faithfully swear to serve you, in these perilous times, to defend your lands and to protect those sentient beings who peacefully reside upon them, so long as they obey your laws and orders.”

Using the hammer I touched her right shoulder and then her left. “I accept your oath and I dub thee Lady Knight Faith Harper and I reconfirm your role as my Minister of Justice, may you serve long and honorably.” Maybe I should have cleaned the hammer off first? I seem to have gotten her clothes dirty, oh well.

DING

Lady Knight Faith Harper, for swearing such a powerful oath and having it accepted by the Hermit King Vincent Standish, you have been ennobled and granted the following skills and enhanced attributes to help you in fulfilling your duties. Betray your oath and you may lose all of your new gifts.

Water Magic Level One

Light & Darkness Magic Level One

Telekinesis Level One

+55 Percent Increase in Strength.

“Alright Faith, you are now a magical girl. Whenever you invoke your magic, time will stop and you will magically strip down and put on a really skimpy costume. You might even get a magical familiar, I recommend a chicken. Now go out there and practice your new magical abilities. Try not to hurt yourself or any other people.”

She left my cave wearing a slightly amused expression. I got up to search for the weapons that I had been wearing before I did my firecracker impersonation. I looked outside, I ransacked my cave and I couldn’t find jack shit. I yelled for Jennifer and explained my problem to her; she left my cave like I had lit her ass on fire and I’m now an expert about having one’s ass on fire.

She found my weapons in the machine shop where Sean had been keeping them after cleaning them up. The scabbard for the asp was damaged, as was the sheath for my knife but both knife and asp seemed to be okay. My rifle was perfectly fine since I had literally thrown it away from my body last night. But what was shocking was that my revolver seemed to be fully functional. Its finish was marred and the metal strengthening charge I had put into the gun was exhausted but it was intact and according to my magic, it was metallurgically sound. I had at least expected for the revolver to be cracked around the lower cartridge hole in the cylinder but it wasn’t. I didn’t know whether to thank my latest enchantment that I had put on my revolver, the Taurus Company, or the weakness of black powder; it was probably a combination of all three factors. The only problem I had was that I needed a new holster for the gun now. The leather one I had destroyed had been sort of a custom job. The manufacturer regularly made them but they only made enough to fill orders, and never stocked them. Of course ordering a new one was impossible now and I was not happy. I might not have blown up my revolver but I did wreck a brand new hundred dollar holster.

Jennifer returned for her own awakening. Why do I feel kind of sleazy while doing this?

“Your Majesty, I Jennifer Boon do faithfully swear to serve you, in these perilous times, to defend your lands and to protect those sentient beings who peacefully reside upon them, so long as they obey your laws and orders.”

I snapped out the asp which startled her, and I didn’t enjoy that one bit, heh-heh. Using it, I touched her right shoulder and then her left. “I accept your oath and I dub thee Lady Knight Jennifer Harper and I reconfirm your role as my Spokes Person and Chief of Staff, may you serve long and honorably.”

DING

Lady Knight Jennifer Boon, for swearing such a powerful oath and having it accepted by the Hermit King Vincent Standish, you have been ennobled and granted the following skills and enhanced attributes to help you in fulfilling your duties. Betray your oath and you may lose all of your new gifts.

Healing Level One

Body Augmentation Magic Level One

Telekinesis Level One

Levitation Level One

1.1x Hearing Multiplier

An hour later in came Isabella. “Your Majesty, I Isabella Gomez do faithfully swear to serve you, in these perilous times, to defend your lands and to protect those sentient beings who peacefully reside upon them, so long as they obey your laws and orders.”

I touched her right shoulder and then her left “I accept your oath and I dub thee Lady Knight Isabella Gomez and I reconfirm your role as my Chief Botanist, may you serve long and honorably.” I already could detect that she had Plant Magic, and I knew the other magical abilities that she would receive but I didn’t know the precise numbers she would get for physical enhancements. When it came to magical abilities everyone generally started out at level one and would then grow to their personal maximum ability level. Sometimes their maximum was only level one and other times their bodies, minds and magic would let them grow much further than that but they would have to work for it.

DING

Lady Knight Isabella Gomez, for swearing such a powerful oath and having it accepted by the Hermit King Vincent Standish, you have been ennobled and granted the following skills and enhanced attributes to help you in fulfilling your duties. Betray your oath and you may lose all of your new gifts.

True Sight Level One

Earth Magic Level One

Water Magic Level One

Alchemy Level One

Quick Thinking Level Two: When things go to hell and “quick thinking is required” your thoughts speed up by twenty percent.

+13 Percent Increase in Strength.

+36 Percent Increase in Dexterity.

+18 Percent Faster Healing Rate.

+5 Percent Increase in Stamina.

1.1x Telescopic Vision

1.6x Scent/Odor Detection

Isabella seemed quite happy with her new abilities, and gave me bouncy hug before leaving. To say I was flabbergasted would be an understatement. Isabella has rather large breasts, her behavior and rapid departure left me flushed and open mouthed.

I got another hotplate and a couple of iron rods completed before Grace showed up. The hot plates were a bit of work because I had added a safety shut off to them, if a flame sprouted up within a few inches of the plate, it would shut itself off and then it would have to be sent back to me, to be reset. It wasn’t like we had a fire department we could call upon. I better mention something about that to Jennifer. The engraved runes for that safety enchantment were rather long and complicated in comparison to the limited failsafe that I was able to engrave on to 20mm bullets and the iron rods of death.

I stopped Grace before she could kneel down, she seemed quite nervous. “Grace, I think you are a good person and fully the equal of anyone else that I’ve knighted so far but I don’t think it’s a good idea for there to be too many knights, at this time. As for yourself, you already have true sight, Fire Magic and Earth Magic. Are you sure that you want to swear an oath to me, because I really can’t see any reason why you should.”

“Vincent, I heard you talking the other night. Do I have any more talents for you to awaken?”

“Yes”

She knelt before me. “Your Majesty, I Grace Lee do faithfully swear to serve you, in these perilous times, to defend your lands and to protect those sentient beings who peacefully reside upon them, so long as they obey your laws and orders.”

I put my right hand on her left shoulder. “I accept your oath Grace Lee, may you serve long and honorably.”

DING

Grace Lee, for swearing such a powerful oath and having it accepted by the Hermit King Vincent Standish, you are now an oath sworn citizen of his domain and granted the following skills and enhanced attributes to help you in fulfilling your duties. Betray your oath and you may lose all of your new gifts.

Healing Level One

Light & Darkness Magic Level One

+44 Percent Increase in Dexterity.

+58 Percent Faster Healing Rate.

Hearing is 1.9 times as acute.

2.7x Scent/Odor Detection

Before I could remove my hand from her shoulder she captured it with both of her own and held it. “Thank you Vincent. You freed me from prison, gave me a home and these wonderful gifts. I am grateful that you accepted my oath and I trust you.”

She then got up quickly and left. I swear that her eyes looked wet. Well no matter, I had to get back to work. I needed to enchant some rifles. I did learn her numbers for physical enhancements. Why did she get such a great increase in her healing rate? I’m the guy who’s getting wounded all of the time! Then I remembered how she had obtained Earth and Fire Magic. Oh yeah, she did nearly die on that occasion. I also learned that physically putting my hand on someone that I am awakening; drastically reduces the power required to perform that process.

Early the next morning an expedition left for the Murphy’s former home. The Priest, the Sherman and the Hellcat all went, towing two unarmored but fully unenclosed utility trailers. Among those going were George, Candace, Sean and Night Storm. My Weatherby rifle went with Candace, I nearly cried. I just know that bitch is sweet talking my rifle, promising to oil its metal parts and polish its wooden stock every day. I had been extra careful when engraving that rifle last night and I had even used some magic and an old plumbing valve to fill the engraved runes in with bronze so as to pretty up my work. Since electricity is no longer a part of this world I probably didn’t have to worry about galvanic corrosion but you never know. That’s why I applied bronze to the engraved steel rifle.

Mack, Clyde and Glen asked to see me about something. Mack began talking. “Vince, we all know that we need more armored vehicles. Well I had a thought and I brought it to Clyde. Whenever I saw one of those mine resistant vehicles on the news, I couldn’t help but see the similarity between one of those big boxy vehicles and a dump truck. The bed of a dump truck is made of pretty tough steel, not as tough as armor plate but pretty damn strong all the same. Besides that, I think I know where every nearby dump truck is probably parked. I even own one but it’s a piece of junk. However, just two miles from here at the gravel pit, there are three dump trucks sitting there. One is probably too big and another is a little small and bedraggled but there is one there that I think should be, as Goldilocks would say, ‘just right.’ I even asked Storm Wind for a favor and he flew by to check things out. From his description it sounds like that all three of those dump trucks are still parked there.”

Glen took over, “yeah Vince, adding armor to one of those beasts will be a lot easier than putting steel plate onto a pickup truck. We wouldn’t have to worry about weight for one thing and there are some other tricks we could use as well. In another day, we’ll probably be ready to pour an engine block for a two hundred horsepower steam engine which should be plenty powerful enough for such a vehicle. So what’s your opinion of Mack’s idea?”

I turned to Clyde with a questioning look, he commented. “I think it’s a great idea too, I wish I had thought of it. The reason I’m here now, is that since your knighting and awakening folks, I want in too.”

I heard a similar sentiment from the other two men. “Okay I like the idea of armoring a dump truck. We’ll talk to George when he gets back. Maybe the Priest, which is lighter than the Sherman, has enough power to tow it back here if we can get the dump truck’s brakes to release. As for the big dump truck you say that is still there, I wouldn’t mind having that vehicle either. I’m thinking of something like a school bus sized APC for transporting people. But we’ll have to see.

Oh Clyde, what’s your opinion about those armored trailers we’ve hooked to our tractors as stop gap APCs?”

“Glen and I did our best but they’re pretty cumbersome. However, they’re better than nothing and surprisingly not that slow. Just armoring up the cabs of those two tractors, makes them more versatile since we can now use them more readily outside our fences for construction projects.”

Mack commented. “Boris doesn’t like them that much as armored vehicles but they are better than nothing, like Clyde said. I’ve lent the Lieutenant some of my people who are currently directing our latest batch of refugees in building fortifications and shelters in the northwestern section of our Stronghold.

I’ve been going over ideas and mapping out on paper a plan for those walls you want. I’ll consult with George when he comes back. What do you need in order to magically build our walls?”

“I need the design staked out and strings run between the stakes. There will be a moat directly in front of the wall. I’ll be taking the dirt and stone from where the moat will be to build the walls. Figure on having only one entrance at this time and we’ll have a land bridge across the moat with a heavily reinforced gate and not a drawbridge. I think it would take a couple of weeks to build such a bridge and we don’t have the time to do that right now. Where the walls and moat will be, I’ll need the ground clear cut but you can leave the stumps and I’ll be available to help with the clear cutting. Figure the width of wall and moat combined to be somewhere between forty and fifty feet.

I will also need several solid rocks like we’ve been using for our fire stones. I’ll need one rock for every eighty feet of linear wall, perhaps more. Put the rocks in a single layer in the southeast corner of my courtyard. I’ll need to enchant them. Since I’ll need so many rocks try to get them trickling in as soon as is possible, I would rather they weren’t all dumped on me all at once. I’ve been doing some scale model experiments but this will be my first full size attempt. We will also need a marked path leading from the northern most edge of the proposed moat to that ravine to our north. That ravine takes quite a significant amount of spring runoff every year and dumps it into a stream to the west of us. I don’t want our moat to be a stinking stagnant mess attracting mosquitoes and flies. I’m fairly certain that I can tap into the local aquifer and fill the moat, thus giving it constant supply of running water which should prevent the worst of my fears from happening.

Well I guess that’s everything, if you have any more questions you know where to find me.”

The men looked confused, Clyde spoke. “Boss what about awakening our talents?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot. I can do two now and one more in an hour. I just discovered an energy conserving trick for the awakening process. All I have to do is touch you with my hand, instead of using a sword or other implement.”

Surprisingly Clyde volunteered to go last. He left to do some work, promising to return in an hour.

Glen knelt down. “Your Majesty, I Macallister Smith do faithfully swear to serve you, in these perilous times, to defend your lands and to protect those sentient beings who peacefully reside upon them, so long as they obey your laws and orders.”

Using only my hand I touched his right shoulder and then I moved my hand to his left shoulder where I kept it. “I accept your oath and I dub thee Sir Macallister Smith and I reconfirm your role as Minister of Construction and Maintenance, may you serve long and honorably.”

DING

Sir Macallister Smith, for swearing such a powerful oath and having it accepted by the Hermit King Vincent Standish, you have been ennobled and granted the following skills and enhanced attributes to help you in fulfilling your duties. Betray your oath and you may lose all of your new gifts.

Earth Magic Level One

Telepathy Level One

Light & Darkness Magic Level One

Sound Magic Level One

Quick Thinking Level Two: When things go to hell and “quick thinking is required” your thoughts speed up by twenty percent.

+31 Percent Increase in Strength.

+9 Percent Increase in Dexterity.

+32 Percent Faster Reflexes.

+54 Percent Increase in Stamina.

+14 Percent Faster Healing Rate.

2.7x Telescopic Vision

Hearing is 1.5 times as acute.

2.3x Scent/Odor Detection

Mack seemed quite pleased with his results. I was happy that it only took about half the energy to knight someone this way as compared to using a fork, rake, hammer, rifle, or asp. Glen was next.

“Your Majesty, I Glen Stewart do faithfully swear to serve you, in these perilous times, to defend your lands and to protect those sentient beings who peacefully reside upon them, so long as they obey your laws and orders.”

“I accept your oath and I dub thee Sir Glen Stewart and I reconfirm your role as Minister of Manufacturing, may you serve long and honorably.”

DING

Sir Glen Stewart, for swearing such a powerful oath and having it accepted by the Hermit King Vincent Standish, you have been ennobled and granted the following skills and enhanced attributes to help you in fulfilling your duties. Betray your oath and you may lose all of your new gifts.

Earth Magic Level One

Levitation Level One

Teleportation Level One

Alchemy Level One

Quick Thinking Level Two: When things go to hell and “quick thinking is required” your thoughts speed up by twenty percent.

+39 Percent Increase in Dexterity.

+17 Percent Faster Reflexes.

+46 Percent Increase in Stamina.

Mack and Glen left my cave comparing their new stats and arguing like a couple of kids about which football team was better. Well, unless they both worked hard their abilities would be stuck at level one, except for Quick Thinking which apparently maxes out right from the start and is more of a mental enhancement than a magical ability.

Exactly an hour later Clyde appeared. I’m positive he had been just outside my door for at least the last ten minutes, waiting for the time to elapse.

“Your Majesty, I Clyde Jenkins do faithfully swear to serve you, in these perilous times, to defend your lands and to protect those sentient beings who peacefully reside upon them, so long as they obey your laws and orders.”

“I accept your oath and I dub thee Sir Clyde Jenkins and I reconfirm your role as Minister of Ground Transport, may you serve long and honorably.”

DING

Sir Clyde Jenkins, for swearing such a powerful oath and having it accepted by the Hermit King Vincent Standish, you have been ennobled and granted the following skills and enhanced attributes to help you in fulfilling your duties. Betray your oath and you may lose all of your new gifts.

Healing Level One

Air Magic Level One

Plant Magic Level One

Quick Thinking Level Eight: When things go to hell and “quick thinking is required” your thoughts speed up by eighty percent.

+30 Percent Increase in Strength.

+24 Percent Increase in Dexterity.

+24 Percent Faster Reflexes.

+30 Percent Increase in Stamina.

+17 Percent Faster Healing Rate.

1.7x Telescopic Vision

Hearing is 2 times as acute.

2.7x Scent/Odor Detection

Clyde’s results had left me kind of stunned. He got every single physical enhancement, the rat bastard, and with decent upgrades too, no single digits enhancements for him. He didn’t know it but he had the potential to be a master level healer too but he would have to work at it. But what was really amazing to me was his Quick Thinking ability; I hadn’t even suspected that it could go up that high. Gorgeous George would be jealous.

I was feeling a bit pissed off for some reason. I think I’ll borrow a squad from Boris and find some more ants to crush.

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In this chapter Vince has used his ability to awaken talents to a much greater extent. It is truly a powerful and incredibly rare talent, more powerful than I had planned on it actually being but it’s too late now. I do note that some of you already recognized this while I did not until now. Vince’s ability to enchant things is also extremely uncommon but “Awakening” is several orders of magnitude more rare. Basically once a person swears a binding oath to him, he is able to awaken every hidden magical talent or physical enhancement that a person has inside of them. Except for a select few characters all of the characters receive their abilities through random number generation and throws of a dice. However, I do give characters a slightly better chance of awakening abilities more in keeping with their past professions.

I already cooked the books, so to speak, in making it hard for characters to get magical abilities and physical enhancements, but in this chapter there have been no losers.

I normally don’t like revealing secrets but I feel like a crooked pit boss in a Casino and everyone is winning despite my rigged games. This shit has got to stop.

While I will not bore you with awakenings of other characters, except for certain ones, I will have to roll up a bunch of stats for a lot of them and keep them in mind for future chapters.

Thanks for reading.