Chapter 11 - The numerical value of strength

Randalph's POV

I really enjoyed going for a walk through our grove with Godmother. Especially during the afternoon, we would go to a clearing and I'd lazily take a nap on her lap. Those were wonderful times.

We earned them. Our blessed ground was a secluded place in a valley, surrounded by high mountains and that allowed us to keep our peace for a long time. We 'Children of the Dawn' created a small sanctuary, a town that cherished a slower approach to life. Those, chosen by the ground, would bring their families and watch over them as they flourished.

How did we earn our peace? By staying neutral, of course. Verol is a place plagued by wars. Every race would fight for supremacy, but our natural borders and the remote location of our town gave us that opportunity.

It wouldn't be precise to call our town hidden in the classical sense. However, we followed a policy of political invisibility and kept to ourselves. It went even as far as that our town wouldn't appear on many maps.

Such a thing was necessary for various reasons. Though, we had always lived on Verol we were still humans and thus many considered us as outsiders. Therefore we gave ourselves a name that wouldn't point to our origin.

If you would want to summarize our standing in one word it would be 'tolerated'. The great powers knew about our peculiar ability of resurrection and understood that we could not simply be banished, so they allowed our existence under the condition that we stayed low. What helped was the absence of natural resources or major trade routes in our vicinity so nobody was vying for our territory.

In the last years things changed drastically, though. The neighbouring dwarven kingdom got destroyed by the mighty elves and one of their factions held an aggressive attitude towards us.

One of their leaders fell in love with Godmother, when she visited him as our political representative. He took her hostage and wanted to keep her as one of his concubines. Instead of abiding, she threw herself from the top of a building to revive at our grove again.

Enraged with this development the elven leader put a blockade around us and over the course of one year numerous raids and attempted abductions occurred.

Staying neutral preserved our peace but at the same time it also hindered us in making any substantial allies so we had to fend for ourselves.

And we did fend for ourselves.

One thousand women and men who do not fear death are manageable, though. Many feared the ability to revive from the dead so they had prepared numerous strategies to deal with us from afar without putting themselves in danger. They basically faced us as if we were an undead legion. However, they knew all too well that we could die, for each resurrection demanded a price to pay and whenever one of us died for the last time, he would only be replaced by a novice.

What they did not account for were our auras. A magical ability that could be sustained indefinitely, because it didn't deplete the user's Mana. It taught them true horror. Warriors who would storm an enemy formation without regards to their own life with nothing more than a simple knife or a spear in their hands emitting flames, ice, lightning and various other deadly forces. At times one of us would simply lay in ambush and activate his aura when he was surrounded, burning everyone in the vicinity to a crisp.

Nevertheless, our strive for independence was still only a secondary arena in the turmoils of Verol up until a certain event. Full of anger, the elven leader summoned his vassals and assembled a subjugation force of more than 10000 soldiers...which we defeated. It was a hard fight and more than half of us were put to their final rest.

Godmother personally killed the man that abducted her and laid waste to our lands. Although we had no other choice, this victory would also seal our downfall.

The personal conflict between one elven leader and us turned all elves hostile towards the 'Children of the Dawn'. For the first time in our history the threat that our existence embodied was clearly visible to everybody. An army of one thousand untrained and under-equipped farmers was able to defeat 10000 veterans.

This defeat came as a great shock to the pointy-ears and they tried to cope with it in various ways. A survivor of the first subjugation force rose to prominence with his spiritual explanation for the loss. He mistook the grove we nourished and cherished as our blessed ground instead of realizing that we are linked to the land itself. Elves have an elemental connection towards nature, especially when it comes to forests. That's why it must have seemed as if nature itself had turned against them, which was unimaginable, for their very self-understanding was that of a race connected to the woods.

His answer was simple. Whilst our grove had the complexion of a naturally grown forest it couldn't possibly be natural, otherwise it wouldn't have turned against them. The term he coined was 'Un-nature'. The blessed ground was deemed 'Un-nature' in disguise and he proposed a hitherto unthinkable deed for elves: Burn everything to ashes as to not allow 'Un-nature' to get a foothold in this realm.

It was highly controversial and he only had little support. Still, he amassed a small force of volunteers with the sole purpose of burning everything down. This is where we made a mistake. Most of us lost nearly all the family they had and our ability to revive resembled more of a curse for those not allowed to rest with their loved ones. Still remembering the destruction that the last war brought, we decided to strike them pre-emptively, as opposed to seeing our home burning once again.

What we did not know, was the fact that this group of elves mostly consisted of spiritualists and other socially highly regarded figures. It was an army of 400 people at most but we attacked them anyway.

Nobody escaped, not even the one who initially called for the destruction of our home. The elves were outraged and deemed it a massacre on defenceless clerics. We turned them into martyrs and the teaching to banish 'Un-nature' gained many followers. Our actions only appeared as proof for this theory.

A new faction inside the elven lands rose and we were their target of hate.

The next years were even more horrible. Constant fighting and bloodshed became our natural way of life, the peaceful days just a distant memory. Ironically, we 'Children of the Dawn' were never really mentioned. Their teachings didn't consider us as a truly sentient species. We were deemed to be proxies of 'Un-nature' without any free will and thus their main target was never our own existence but rather our blessed ground.

How did it end up like this, though? Albeit, we were despised by the elves they were never able to assemble a large enough force to dispell us for good, due to being preoccupied with the wars in the west of Verol.

It seems in the end some of them couldn't wait any longer and decided to side with the demons, of all things to stage another attack on us. We had only little time to prepare after they basically appeared on our doorsteps. An army of 40000 demons and elves attacked. There was no chance this time.

Thinking back, we really shouldn't have killed those spiritualists and instead made some prisoners...

And now I'm met with this situation here. Our blessed ground has turned into an underground dungeon and we are trapped.

[Just how long was I under the influence of this curse?]

What was even more perplexing was this person right in front of me, Lucius. [How should I deal with him?] He was able to overcome the curse by his own and even used high grade auras. Quite the natural. If this person was used in the right way, freeing Godmother might be possible.

[Leaving our home is something I don't like at all, but considering the circumstances there is not much choice.]Escaping wouldn't be easy but there was a chance. First I had to take charge of the situation and there was a simple way to do so.

One of the demons had a rather elaborate stats-ring on his finger and I called him over. [What was his name again...?]

“You, baron Vo 'Rin's son. The markings on your stats-ring indicate that it can display a lot of information. Show me your stats.”

The boy in question took a glance at Lucius, but he and the others were only following with interest at what I was about to do.

“W-why?” The frightened small boy asked.

“Don't argue and just do as told. Nothing will happen to you, that is if you do as I say.”

With this little bit of incentive he complied and held his hand into the air to activate the ring on his middle-finger. Blue glowing letters appeared in the air in front of him and displayed information on the owner of the ring.

Name:Aonel Vo 'RinAge:12Level:9Strength:24Agility:29Stamina:21[Intelligence:19Wisdom:12Mana:37Skills:'Seven spears''Leaf in the wind' (School of War)'Fireball' (School of Sun)

[As I thought. That ring can display the skills of a person and their origin.]

“Hoo~...you are already level 9 at the tender age of 12. It seems you were quite diligent with your training here. You can even cast a fireball and know a foot technique to hasten your steps.” (Randalph)

Aonel was devastated at my remark and lowered his head. His shoulders were shaking in fright, a tear ran down his cheek.

I looked at the other people. There was no compassion reflected in their faces, but there was also no hatred. They were simply waiting to see the purpose of my questions. Faces of people who have seen too much. The other demons did not dare to show anything else than anxiety for what was to come. [It seems I am rather feared by them...good. But that wasn't what I wanted to confirm.]

“Can you cast a stats-spell on my companions and me?”

“I can't...hick...b-but Nrewen can.” The whiny boy pointed at the other demon.

“Then get back to work. There is still one more left for you to free.” I waved with my hand towards the last prisoner. “Nrewen, you come here and cast the spell on every one of us. Begin with me and then go on with the others.”

“It's only the simplest stats-spell, though. I can't show any skills and it will hurt. Will that suffice?” That demon was talking in a rather composed way compared to his friend. He didn't cry but was smart enough to lower his head, while he was already preparing the spell.

However, Lucius interrupted him.

“It is good that you learned to ask before you are going to inflict pain on us again. Do not worry. We do not mind a little ache.”

Upon this, he lost his composure and stopped in his tracks but I raised an eyebrow signalising him to go on.

My stats were:

Level:1Strength:1Agility:1Stamina:1Intelligence:37Wisdom:91Mana:1

I took a deep breath.

"I feared as much...just like i said, whenever we die we have to pay a hefty price for a revival. Usually it's around 1/10th of our strength and when you hit stats like these you know that the next death is your last. The only thing that couldn't be stolen from us is the power of the mind. Be that as it may, it seems that our intelligence didn't deteriorate either, although it should. That is what has perhaps prevented our final death."

"Isn't that also a power of the mind?" (Lucius)

"No, Lucius. The intelligence-stat is a derivation of your mastery in magic. There are animals proficient in sorcery that are not intelligent in the classical sense, but this stats-spell would still translate their ability as intelligence. It is a debate why it is even called 'intelligence'. Some have suggested to change the name into 'Mana-mastery' but it could never really be established. By the way, that is an amazingly high wisdom-stat you have there, Randalph. I think I only ever saw one other person with that much wisdom in my life, and he was the head court-magician of my country."

It was his woman who answered him again. She was quite knowledgeable and I realized that she would often comment on his questions. On the other hand side, it can be seen from her answers that she didn't really dwell on the deeper meaning behind those spells. [Maybe I should put her in the category of a knowledgeable fighter, but not a thinker. Still, she did help me there by pointing out how high my wisdom is.]

That is when his other companion, Crence, suddenly added:

“This system of stats has been created with humanoid species in mind. It wasn't made to universally project the abilities of every living being in a uniform manner. If you'd rename the intelligence-stat into something else you would lose out on the natural connection between intelligent people and Mana-Mastery present in humanoids. Remember that well, Lucius.”

Aoi and Lucius looked at him in disbelief.

"What?" He said with a hint of anger. "I had a good tutor." Not minding their patronizing gazes any longer he continued. "Well... only one point in Mana. That explains why we could never use any spells and would faint whenever we tried to use magic. That's what saved you both from my punishment."

[Those three really like to go off-topic.]

"It doesn't matter. Go on with displaying the stats of everyone else."

This time it was Aoi.

Level:1Strength:1Agility:1Stamina:1Intelligence:31Wisdom:71Mana:1

"When did i attain that much wisdom? Before i got here it was only at 26 and that had already been considered high."

"As i said. A disciplined mind is a wise mind. We don't have the time to further dwell on these things right now. We should go on. Next is Crence."

Level:1Strength:1Agility:1Stamina:1Intelligence:13Wisdom:79Mana:1

Crence's only reaction to his stats was a "Hrmm.." But he didn't say anything else.

Finally it was Lucius' turn. It was important to show him the difference in our abilities so as to naturally establish a chain of command.

Level:1Strength:1Agility:1Stamina:2Intelligence:14Wisdom:124Mana:1

-------

Lucius's POV

The look on Randalph's face could only be described as flabbergasted.

"Th-that is even higher than Godmother..."

"Lucius, that's amazing..." (Aoi)

[Praise from the woman you love. Now that is amazing.]

I had already guessed what Randalph was trying to do. Needless to say, there was no way I'd let take him over. If I could have been sure that he would also try everything in his might to save Aoi, I would probably have followed his lead, but he's only focused on his leader.

“Randalph, we will help you save Godmother but first we need to find out her location. Would you take those two demons and search for her? You could also come up with a rescue-plan while surveying the surroundings. Also, please try to capture one or two other young demons to allow us to send out another scout. In the meantime, we would stay here and wait for your other men to wake up. Is that agreeable?”

He obviously didn't expect that answer from me. It was the only logical thing to do. Just because that little attempt failed, it didn't mean that he was not the strongest out of all of us. Keeping him down would be impossible and I had no desire to do so, to begin with. [Why should I stand in his way?]

“Sending out two scouts doubles the risk of exposure. Still...we have no other choice. I'll go.”

Nrewen and Aonel were chosen as his mounts. Before they put him on their shoulders Aonel asked Randalph.

“Didn't it hurt? The spell is rather violent and forces the body's secrets to the outside, yet you didn't even bat an eye at that. None of you.” Nrewen gave his friend a look of disdain. He was smart enough not to ask but apparently the other boy was of a different calibre. Randalph didn't bother answering him and just said.

“Carry me well.”

After he left there was one other thing to do.

“Now Crence, you are awfully quiet. You know what's going to happen, don't you?”

“I had hoped you didn't notice it.”

“How could I ever miss such an important thing?”

“What are you two talking about?” (Aoi)

Taking a deep breath I held my head up high in an arrogant way.

“Bow before your intelligent master, Crence!”

He didn't say anything at that but the red face wasn't just the result of the yellowish-red glow the lava in this place exuded, his eyes were screaming for revenge.

Aoi came to his rescue.

“Only after you have bowed before your even more intelligent mistress, Lucius.”

“You assisted him and not me! How could you?” (Lucius)

“Ufufu...” (Aoi)

-------

While Areti was still occupied with freeing the last person I called out to her.

“Areti, don't stop with your work but could you tell me something about this place, while you are at it?” Just to make sure that she wouldn't lie too much I added. “I'll ask the other demons later, too.”

“What do you want to know? I have no knowledge about the location fo this dungeon. It's kept a secret. The only way to get in here is through a teleport-circle and this place is warded against attempts to magically determine your position, so the only way is the circle.”

[Do we also need to make some kind of circle to use Godmother's ability? Randalph left too soon...]

“This teleport-circle, where is it?”

“If you go to the main road and follow the path for about 1 hour you will reach a small underground village. This is where the guards have their garrison and the teleport-hall is located. There is also housing for us trainees.”

“How many guards are there?”

“I don't know.”

“Give me an estimation.”

She hesitated.

“I can't. If the number is wrong you will punish me!”

“Yes, I will. Now give me the estimation. And don't stop working.”

The blue girl let out a small sigh. Her hands were shaking in pain that came from touching the chain.

“There are one thousand of you and around one thousand trainees. The guards duty is to mainly look after us and they have a really high level. One of them is enough to keep dozens of us in check. My best estimation would be between 60 and 80.”

[60 to 80 guards. With 1000 demons here there would be one guard for every 12 or 13 of them. There is probably no need to look after us so that number of guards seems too high. Would an escape by foot be possible? We would need more demon-mounts for that and a better understanding of our surroundings.]

Because I fell silent in my thoughts and didn't move a muscle in my face, Areti started to beg. For her it must've seemed as if I was evaluating her last answer negatively. “Please, I don't know any better.” [Hoo~...I had heard that silence can be frightening. Maybe this is a chance.]

In a stern tone I started to ask.

“With how many people did you come here?”

“What? None.”

“Don't lie!”

“Really, I came alone.”

“How many days have you already been here?”

“Only one day.”

“How long are you supposed to stay here?”

“Three weeks.”

“How many trainees are here?”

“O-one thousand!”

“Are you going to try and murder the other girl over there again?”

“O-of course not!”

“How many guards are really here?”

“50!”

My barrage of questions had the desired result. [She is still a child after all...]

The instant she realized her mistake I used the 'Aura of the blazing Sun' to surround her with flames. As if to reflect my own thoughts some tongues of flames would draw closer to her and then retreat again. The image of a lion standing in front of his prey came to my mind. [What should I do with her?]

It wasn't necessary for me to make this decision. In that moment Randalph returned from his reconnaissance trip. With him two other humans, five new young demons, and he even had some clothes on. That was terrifyingly efficient.

“What's going on here?” (Randalph)

“Blue Areti over there was caught lying.” (Aoi)

“Notwithstanding, I still got something out of it, so it doesn't really matter.”

Randalph turned towards her.

“Well, there is still one last man to free. How about our new arrivals show you how it's done? They seem to be quite good at it.” He patted one of them on the shoulder while saying this and a visible chill ran down the boy's spine. “We don't really have the time to waste on a useless demon. If she does something like this again I will simply get rid of her.”

“Very well.” I answered and they immediately went to work. Probably because they didn't want to stay close to Randalph any longer. Areti did neither greet the new demons, nor did she even look at them. A little apart from the others, she simply concentrated on her tedious task. The others didn't want to associate with someone whose life had just been threatened., also welcoming the distance.

-------

After this, we reported our findings to each other.

“These two are called Bransek and Fillion. I specifically freed them because both can use an offensive oriented aura. They are both good men. Sadly, I couldn't locate Godmother yet. The dungeon is too spacious. I found a main path that split into three but couldn't follow it further, else I would have risked detection. It seems most of us are held captive in that direction. The demons told us that there are vast caverns with hundreds of us in one place. I did find other small caverns with 'Children of the Dawn' but attacking them alone would've been too dangerous.”

“Could Godmother have been there?”

“Not that I could tell, no. But I had only a rudimentary look on them. What did you find out?”

“There's a settlement an hour from here with a teleport-circle. From what I could gather it's the only way the demon trainees have been allowed to use. 50 of those guards are stationed there.”

“Not bad. You got that all from the young girl?” (Randalph)

“Yes. We should ask the others to confirm this as soon as possible, though. You can't trust her after all. What I'm concerned about the most is this business with the teleport-circle. Do we need to prepare something like this too, for Godmother to be able to perform her magic? She also mentioned something about a ward disturbing any attempts at locating this place or using a different method of teleportation...”

“That doesn't matter to us. A circle is not needed for Godmother and our means of teleportation still work. I confirmed that earlier.”

“How so?”

“Remember when Crence reappeared after dying? His body was teleported, wasn't it? That told me that our spacial transport was not hindered. Godmother's teleport-spell is based on this.”

[Right...but there was something else.]

“Wouldn't she need Mana to perform the magic? Her stats are likely the same as ours. That's bound to be a problem.”

He pulled out a ring upon this and showed it to me.

“I know. Good for us, one of the demons had this here.”

Raising an eyebrow I asked.

“That is?”

“A ring with a magic stone embedded. Still, I can only hope that it can provide enough Mana for a spell. Our worries aren't gone with only that. It would be better to have more. Those demons are rather rich to carry such things around with them. There might be a chance to find another one.”

What I was actually asking about was the finger still attached to it. On closer inspection I noticed a bloody bandage on one of the new demons hands. [There is no sense in further questions, I guess.] Remarkable how little uneasiness I felt about such a thing.

“Now then, I assume it would be best to head out again. For now we shouldn't free any others and focus on gathering more informations. Otherwise we will be found out before we can reach Godmother.”

“I suggest to use Bransek. He's an experienced scout.”

“No. I will be taking two demons to look around. If anything happens to me and I should die we would atleast immediately know about, since I would revive here. You should go on with your search for Godmother. Bransek and Fillion can defend our camp. I will try to search for a way we could use by foot, if worse comes to worst.” I would have asked Crence to do this, as he was an experienced warrior and I had nothing like his skills. Be that as it may, an offensive aura is needed to keep the demons from running away, so I was the only one left.

-------

There was this one long western with this boring actor. The movie climaxed in a scene where a redneck misused the MC's diary as toilet paper. Personally, I think that the Oscars would have been justified if the redneck had used Kevin Costner's face to wipe his ass, instead of his diary.

There was one noteworthy scene, though. An indian woman used her clothes to let a horse grow accustomed to her scent and tame it that way.

Randalph and I prepared to leave. My chosen mounts were Areti and Nrewen. They had been fast during the chase earlier that day.

“Blue demon Areti, come over here!” Aoi called out to her.

“W-what is it?”

“You are going to carry Lucius, aren't you?” She grabbed the little demon's shoulder and used her newly acquired 'Aura of the silent Moon' to give weight to her next words.

“I will hold you responsible if he gets so much as another scratch on his legs again. Understood?”

Areti's eyes widened and she looked at my bandaged legs.

“Y-yes...”

[So it is true...a woman's charm is better suited to tame beasts.]

After taking another glance at Aoi, I left for my reconnaissance mission.

End of Chapter 11

Afterwords:

I hate Kevin Costner.