The early top rankers were near-equal in power despite their drastic differences; Lucian was the first true leader of humanity, a guiding beacon in the otherwise dark world; Kuraim was an indiscriminate killer, as large a danger to the other races as he was to humanity; Dahlia was hardly human.

Stefan Sommer - the Chronicler - Heroes and Villains of the First Age

____

Silas read through the village management screen, noting down the powers he had as mayor of Riverside.

Citizens

Human leaderboards

Nearby settlements

Buildings

Diplomacy

Dangers

The citizens list was unchanged apart from some minor differences.

1. Silas Wycliffe - level 29 - Duellist

2. Iris Azer - level 26 - Healer

3. Sabine Gantzmann - level 25 - Pugilist

4. Dominic Wood - level 23 - Squire

5. Faris Jabbar - level 23 - Mounted Archer

6. Elise LeBeau - level 21 - Executioner

7. Josh Thompson - level 21 - Antimage Brawler

….

253. Wayne Munoz - level 1

He figured the deserters, such as Ruby, had removed their names by breaking their connections with the village, perhaps in fear he would hunt them down. He didn’t actually have the power to track down anyone associated with the village, but he supposed they couldn’t have known that. Altogether, including the dead, 8 fighters had fallen from Riverside’s ranks, leaving them with only 45.

At least there were three new classers: Elise, an axe-wielding brunette who was a part of the Riverside Constabulary alongside Bandana Dom; Josh, Silas’s good-natured blond friend who practically knew everyone in the village; and Faris, a newcomer of Arabian descent with a thick, striking beard whose class let him summon a spectral horse.

Also, the majority of non-fighters were now level 2 or 3; it had been two days since he had bought the monument, and it had been working well. A few non-fighters had even started to tag along with teams of fighters, their confidence raised as he had hoped.

The next section, leaderboards, reminded Silas he was only a big fish in a small pond. The levels list was always changing with people constantly dying off, although the very top seemed immune to this effect as they strode ahead of everyone else. Aside from this, he was pleased to see Aengus had climbed up the rankings.

1. Lucian Grimes - 43

2. Dahlia Howe - 43

3. Kuraim Jaffer - 41

4. Freddie Littlewood - 35

5. Jeung Seoyeon - 35

6. Ajit Ghost - 34

7. Vivienne Durant - 34

8. Katerina Ivanov - 34

9. Conor O’Neil - 34

10. Su Daiyu - 34

…

27. Aengus Abercrombie - 33

…

44. Zhang Bao - 32

…

100. Toros Kaba - 32

The classes list displayed many of the same names, although Silas was surprised to see a considerable number of non-combat classes littered between them.

1. Elisha Luna - Primal Healer level 8

2. Kuraim Jaffer - Necromancer level 8

3. Hou Yu - Artificer level 7

4. Roxanne Martin - Oracle level 7

5. Lucian Grimes - Warlord level 8

6. Dahlia Howe - Abomination level 6

…

93. Aengus Abercrombie - Master of War level 4

…

100. Waseem Bukhari - Giant level 4

Being a level 3 Duellist, he wasn’t far off. But while being on there would give him some level of fame, he was more interested in the next class skill he would unlock at level 5. Weakness Vision was useful, but it had its limits when fighting people faster than him and those more skilled with their arms.

Moving on, he caught his breath as he glanced through the notable kills list.

1. Dahlia Howe - 8 F-1

2. Lucian Grimes - 3 F-1

3. Kuraim Jaffer - 1 F-1

4. Freddie Littlewood - 1 F-1

5. Katerina Ivanova - 9 F-2

…

16. Aengus Abercrombie - 6 F-2

…

24. Zhang Bao - 5 F-2

…

86. Lavanya Sanghvi - 2 F-2

…

100. Marcos Carrero - 2 F-2

Grace had only been level 26, an F-3, yet he had almost lost to her. Of course, he wasn’t dumb enough to believe levels and rankings were everything, but it still made him wary of those on this list, especially Kuraim, Lucian, and Dahlia - the three of them headed the charts, and their class titles made them sound like monsters made human.

Recovering from his shock, he looked over nearby human settlements and found three more had been set up aside from New Derby which was over a hundred miles away. They were Big Mike’s Den (thirty miles away), House of Nox (fifty miles away), and Sunfield (ninety miles away).

The diplomacy section was bare as Riverside had yet to make contact with other settlements, but he hoped to do so soon, especially with Big Mike’s Den. The dangers section was more interesting as it listed nearby monsters and enemies with their danger ratings.

Ratkin - very high

Shaerd - medium

Order of Tyr - medium

Drakkar - low

Swamp Troll - low

Armoured Bear - low

…

The Swamp Troll and the Armoured Bear, in particular, were targets he had to duel for his class quests.

Had the System calculated danger through power and distance, or through some other variables? Silas didn’t have a clue, but the very fact that the ratkin were leagues above the others told him all he needed to know. Walls were being built around Riverside’s perimeter, and he had begun the planning of outposts further out to spy on ratkin activity, but it had been slow progress so far.

In addition to having access to these two new sections, as the mayor he could hide the other sections from the public and share his powers with others if he wanted. Despite this, he had done neither as he failed to see the use in them.

Silas Wycliffe

Level 29

Level 3 Duellist

Mana: 169/169 (recovery rate: 0.65 per minute)

Strength: 26

Agility: 38

Constitution: 23 (+6)

Arcana: 13

Perception: 52

Abilities: Weakness Vision

****

It had been four days since the duel and in that time, as the palisade were nowhere near completion, he had ordered barricades to be set up around the village. To do so, non-fighters had gathered logs from the surrounding woods while fighters hunted down monsters in the region to increase safety. The barricades were simple constructs of brick, metal, and wood with pits in front of them, and Iris had suggested they be placed with the aim not of stopping their enemies but rather driving them toward chokepoints in the village.

Besides this, Silas had finally bought the monument that halved the class required for non-combat classes to 10. It was a sculpture of a garden gnome equipped for battle in the back with another garden gnome in front, half the size of its kin, dressed an in odd combination of a blacksmith, chef, and pimp. Many fighters had picked non-combat classes for their attribute bonuses (although none had been offered pimp, as far as he knew), aware that they could switch over at a later date.

Also, Riverside was lucky in having a man trained as a bowyer and fletcher. He had shared his methods out, allowing two dozen non-fighters to practice archery to supplement the village’s defence.

Silas himself had continued to keep himself busy organising the village and training. His duel with Grace had highlighted his weaknesses, making it clear he needed to learn how to keep skilled opponents at bay or at least figure out a way to quickly put distance between him and them. Aside from this, he occasionally practised his engraving and had managed to raise the duration of his runes to eighteen hours but not much else.

Their preparation wasn’t a day too early as Silas was having tea with Josh and Iris when one of the scouts rushed in, panting hard as she came up to them. “The ratkin are coming!”

Silas’s brow wrinkled over, and his smile thinned to a humourless line. “Where from? How many?”

“A massive force. I only got a glimpse of them, but there were so many ratmen,” the scout said, gesticulating wildly.

They had so far set up three outposts with off-road vehicles included for the scouts. Considering she had driven back, they had around an hour to prepare, Silas figured.

Josh put his hands on her shoulders and gave her a reassuring look. “It’ll be fine, man. Calm down, no, no, come on, chill. Breath in and out, in and out.” He smiled warmly. “Great. Now think back, roughly how many in numbers.”

She closed her eyes and trembled a little. “A hundred, maybe two hundred. With around twenty or thirty armoured ones, and just as many with bows. I’m sorry, I just—” Her cheeks were burning with colour as she became flustered again.

“In and out, man, in and out,” Josh said, holding her until she finally relaxed.

Silas ignored their interaction and called over a Riverside constable. “Spread the word - large ratkin attack in half an hour. Tell everyone to mobilise by the hall.”

Making his own way to the hall, Silas made a mental note to buy the communication tower when he had the money. While the church bell was usable at times like this, the communication tower would just be far handier, even if it was a pricy purchase.

****

The men and women who had gathered in time all crowded around the table in the hall, watching the rudimentary village map with figurines representing people. Surprisingly enough, it was a non-fighter called Rolf leading the battle plans, alongside Iris and Dom.

“If we put some meat shields here, we can bring the rats—” Rolf said, his oval glasses hanging precariously, barely balancing off his chubby cheeks.

“Sorry, what? Meat shields?” Dom asked, blinking in shock while shaking his head. “Mate, I don’t know if you’re aware, but they’re fucking people!” He turned to Silas with a confused expression. “Why is he leading us when he can’t fight and doesn’t value the lives of those who can?”

“Sorry, sorry,” Rolf rushed out, a deep red rising through his cheeks, his jowls wobbling. As a level 4 fat man with greasy hair and nervous, roving eyes, he was far from the image of a strategist, let alone a fighter. “I meant—”

Iris raised a note whilst giving Rolf a pointed look, He’s apparently good at strategising.

Josh came to his defence. “Trust, guys, trust. My man Rolf here is amazing at strategy. I watched one of his guides on Skarsnik like a year ago, and I just destroyed my mates in the game after. Like not even in a funny way.”

“Yes, I used to play a lot of war games, and I can assure you I was good at every one of them,” Rolf said with not a small amount of pride, straightening his glasses. “I can promise a decisive victory.”

“This isn’t a game, damn it!” Dom cut in, near snarling. “There aren’t any meat shields, only people like you and me. We need to minimise our deaths, not try to get a bloody record score.”

Silas had no skill in strategy and no interest in honing such a skill through trial and error, sacrificing dozens of good men and women for his pride’s sake, so he had suggested the more experienced members take the lead. However, listening to their conversation now, he didn’t know whether he was better off doing it himself.

“Yes, yes, sorry. Bad habit from before,” said a red-faced Rolf, his eyes darting from Dom to Silas. “How about this instead?”

____

Hou Yu, the Artificer, was originally an electrical engineer from China. He discovered his talent for magical tinkering during the normal tutorial and allowed his group an easy victory with buffed weapons and armour. After the tutorial, he set up in Zhang Bao’s settlement, Jinzhou. Although their relationship is frosty with Zhang having burnt Hou’s house down on one occasion, and Hou having responded by shooting missiles into Zhang’s compound on another, they maintain an unsteady peace most (some) of the time.

Due to Hou Yu’s talents and Jinzhou’s strong manufacturing sector, it has allowed the city to heavily arm its army with novel equipment unseen on the rest of Idroa. Because of this, when Jinzhou launched attacks on…

Stefan Sommer - the Chronicler - Heroes and Villains of the First Age