Louie woke up early, well earlier than usual.

After he made himself a hearty breakfast he did some stretching.

Last night he decided to start up a training regiment. He was rushing from one thing to another without time for himself.

He set out on a 20 kilometer run, four times along the top of the compound wall, before the pulse a casual 20-kilometer run was a tough run but in the here and now, it was minor.

People with a higher constitution could run three times as fast and sustain themselves ten times better.

After the run he did some exercises and as the sky started to lighten he moved back to his tent for a nice soak before heading to the boundary wall to double-check on the upcoming battle preparations.

Louie reached the top of the wall and stopped as he looked out over the defenses laid out in front of the wall.

'Kirt and his guys have been busy.'

Yesterday Louie had sculpted a dry moat in front of the wall and Kirt and his team of builders had filled it with sharp stone spikes.

The ground leading up to the moat looked like thousands of meerkats, hopped up on sugar, had tried to make their burrows there.

The whole stretch of ground was filled with small holes, holes just deep enough to trip and break a leg of a monster that stepped in it.

As he watched, rats and other vermin started to pour out from the forest, blanketing the ground.

Quest

Defend the Temple District.

Defend your district from the Beastwave 0/5

Reward:

1 G coin/Defender

1 common skill cube

Failure:

Loss of future settlement/or death.

Y/N

Optional Rewards for Deedholder:

*

1: Lose less than 50% of the defenders.

Timeframe: while battle last.

1 Structural blueprint

*

2: Figure out what is causing the Beastwaves.

Timeframe: while battle last

1 uncommon spell cube.

*

3: Destroy the cause of the Beastwaves.

Timeframe: N/A

1 Rare skill cube.

Seeing the walls and defenders as well as a possible safety from their pursuers, the vermin seemed to stop and mill around in indecision.

Louie walked up to Arnold where he was looking over the wall at the gathering monsters.

"Fuck me, that's a fuck ton of monsters."

Arnold agreed. "Scouts reported twenty different swarms in just the first wave, it's at least five times as many as last time."

Louie looked at him. "Shit, twenty thousand monsters, you think the fact that there are better defenses and more fighters than last time, might mean that the beast wave has increased as well?"

Armold looked thoughtful, "I don't hope so, because this is just the first wave, there were five in total last time."

"Damn, and I bet they get more difficult with each wave."

"Yes."

"I got a Quest to defend the temple from the waves, it said that there will be five waves."

"Jip, also got the Quest, everybody that touched the wall got it."

"We need to lure them down the main road so that the people on the walls can fight them from above, I wonder if BOB can try to kite them

"Uuh, that won't work," Garth said as he came walking up. "I tried to lead them with Eeak But they will only chase something meaty, live flesh, and blood bait."

Louie shook his hand in greeting.

"You been out there?"

"Yes, for the last couple of hours, we have been trying to find a way to lead them."

Arnold looked a bit unsure but spoke up anyway.

"Ahh yes, about that. We had thought of strapping a live beast onto BOBs back, but somebody came up with an alternative idea. Just know that I didn't approve of this, but some of your team convinced me that it's the only way." Arnold nodded his head to the side, outside the wall, and Louie followed his eyes.

"What the fuck? Is that Naomi riding on BOB?"

"Yea, she and her team came up with the idea and got the backing of some of your other team members. They said Dan did it with the termites."

Louie shook his head, he wanted to go stop them but realized that he would not make it there in time, and he is sure that BOB will look after her.

"Her mom is going to kill her."

"Her mom? I thought they were all orphans?"

Louie gave him a sympathetic look. "Her mom is Celia. And she is going to kill Naomi."

Arnold didn't look happy at all with this news.

*sigh* "if she doesn't kill me first ... but she is the smallest, lightest, and most fearless we have and she will get their attention."

Louie saw Naomi holding what looked like a wand in each hand."

"How is she going to fire her wands and hold on to BOB at the same time?"

"Her spider has tied her to BOBs back with straps made from webbing."

On closer inspection, he saw what looked like a glittering harness binding her in place on BOBs back.

"If she can lure them into the funnel, then the people on the wall and the militia square will take care of them."

Louie looked to the militia that was formed into a hollow square fifteen meters by ten meters across the main road that was meant to funnel the beasts down between the wall of the compound and the shantytown, lined with archers.

"I think you should pull your troops out of there, they might be overrun."

“Nah,” Arnold said, glad to change the subject, “don't let their look deceive you, no shield wall was as strong as a legion shield wall. There is a reason it became one of the most common Roman methods of medieval combat."

"Your shields look a bit different from the normal roman shield I saw in museums."

"Yea, we incorporated the Looyar design into the door shields. it's just easier to use a spear when holding a shield wall."

Suddenly a five-meter-high glowing ghostly tree spread its branches covering the whole of the roman type shield square.

"What's that?" Arnold asked

"That looks like Sher's spell, it gives a passive health regeneration while you are under its branches."

Tree of life (Rare)

Spell Description:

This spell creates a spectral glowing tree that generates a healing Aura to all allies within a radius of 15 meters or under its canopy.

MP Cost: 200MP

Distance: 10 Meters

Duration: 2days or till spell is canceled

Cooldown: 24 hours

Affinities: Nature

Louie had noticed the chunks of ice that covered the ground.

"What's with the ice?"

"That's Christians idea, unfortunately, he wasn't strong enough to cover the whole field in ice, but he said that the chunks of ice will melt and turn the ground into mud, which will hamper the monsters and also conduct electricity very well." Louie saw the feral grin on Arnold's face, "he said it will improve the lightning strikes from the wands."

"Yea, I wish I had another couple of lightning baubles."

"What's that?"

"One-off portable lightning spells, about twice as powerful as the lightning wand and usable by anybody. It also has a splash effect."

"Damn, that would have been great."

"Yea, but while we wish, might as well go big and wish to be all-powerful, like my gran used to say, 'wish in one hand and shit in the other, and try and tell which is more real.'"

He saw the look on Arnold's face.

"Jip, she was a real tough one, did not hold with lazy people wishing for wood to be chopped." Louie smiled as he thought of his no-nonsense Grandmother.

The wave started to move and so did BOB.

The view reminded Louie of a scene he had seen in the movie 'Starship Troopers' where the aliens came rushing over the hills to attack the fort. It looked like a black and brown carpet that came pouring out of the trees.

As they reached halfway to the wall BOB intersected with the frontrunners and angeled to run across the front of the wave and Naomi started screaming like a demented pixy and waving her wands at them while firing lightning bolts at the rats.

They saw the front of the wave change as most of the monsters started chasing after the screaming, running prey.

"The next wave is going to be a problem, the spiders can climb the walls."

"What else do you want to do? We set those traps that you gave us?" Arnold asked, calling a couple of militia members over who saluted with a fist to their chests.

"Don't salute, not during a battle, If the enemy saw that, then they would look to kill the officers to screw up your chain of command, I know we are only fighting monsters at the moment but it's a good habit to learn," Arnold said calmly as he studied the layout of the battle and how efficient the traps, defenses, and troops might perform.

"We have filled those trenches with that firegell that you gave us, we will light it as the spiders reach the trenches, hopefully, it will funnel most of them down the main road."

"Yea, be careful with that stuff. It's highly flammable and can't be extinguished."

'Best not let them know that I got it from exchanging the petrol in canisters to my Dungeon.'

He shared the BB with Arnold.

Goblin firegel (uncommon)

Goblin firegel is generally considered the most dangerous of the various kinds of Goblin creations. Goblin firegel when ignited creates green flames, known as Goblinfire, it has a persistent effect which cannot be put out by any known means. These flames will naturally spread for a period of thirty minutes before going out, and are notable for the fact that they can consume magic as well as physical materials, making them very difficult to contain by supernatural means.

Though Goblinfire can spread across any known material, it spreads most quickly on flammable materials and very slowly on non-flammable or wet materials. Sappers memorize a chart detailing the rough speed of spread across a variety of materials, it is noted that ordinary mud is near the bottom, indicating that it inhibits the spread considerably.

Tactical uses

Goblinfire is most commonly used as an area denial weapon since any ground claimed by it cannot be entered until it extinguishes, and anyone touched by the flames can only be saved by quickly and carefully severing any flaming limbs before retreating. It can also be used to cut off avenues of retreat or destroy forces incapable of retreating. It is also useful for threatening magically protected areas because most magic will only cause it to spread faster, even spells intended to protect the area.

"Goblins? Yea, that's some nasty stuff, you say that it's not readily available, not even in this vendor stall of yours?"

"No worries, as far as I know, it's only I that has this at the moment, that might change later on when alchemists started to get higher levels."

"Thank God for small mercies, last thing we need is fools rushing around throwing magical napalm."

Louie nodded, "maybe hold on to the bottles till the spiders reach the walls?"

"Good idea." Arnold turned to the messengers. "Spread the word, not to use the bottled fire on the first wave, but to smash it in front of the walls for the second wave to try and keep the spiders From climbing the wall as long as possible."

The runner nodded and nearly saluted again before they ran off spreading the news.

They looked over as the vermin hit the militia square only to break on the shield wall while the rest flowed past the shields and down the road, into the meat grinder, still following the screaming Naomi riding on BOB.

"See, I told you, the shield wall will hold, especially if they have a healer or in this case a tree that heals," Arnold said, nodding at the enclosed militia.

"Magic is wonderful, we need healers in the militia, a couple of healers will get the injured soldiers back to the shield wall in a matter of minutes. The monsters are numerous but the rats use melee and trample their wounded. While the shield wall holds, it will allow the militia to kill and wound their opponents and take little harm in return. If a creature facing the wall is wounded it might get trampled or torn apart in a feeding frenzy. Whenever a militia member is wounded, the support members move the wounded to the healers, in this case to the tree, and they are healed to go back to the wall. Slowly the monsters are whittled down."

Now that the wave has taken the bait, every second defender moved down the wall to support the militia from above.

Louie kept an eye on the square while he moved from place to place on the wall as he was needed.

As the fight dragged on he saw the first row of shields in the square fall back to be replaced by the second, while the first row took a breather.

Louie looked over to the forest and saw the leaves on the trees sway.

He glanced over to where Arnold was directing messengers and he must have felt Louie's eyes on him as he looked over.

Louie nodded in the direction of the trees.

The second wave was here, the trees were filled with spiders.

Everybody froze for a moment, even the last rats as there was a shriek from within the forest.

A massive spider crawled out of the trees.

The trees shook as all different kinds of spiders crawled all over them.

Suddenly the rats doubled their effort to get away from the spiders.

As the last rats flowed past the militia square they broke apart and started to clear the field of bodies, they rushed forwards and started stacking all the bodies in their inventory, they were ordered not to loot the bodies since the bodies will turn to sludge as they deteriorate, but to drop it off in the center of the square under the tree where a Sergeant stood with Louie's empty WTF chest. Luckily each body only took up two Sq in a person's inventory and a rat was a rat so it stacked 25 each.

The bodies won't stay fresh in the chest but a couple of hours won't make a big difference. The looting of the bodies will be done after the waves are defeated.

The heaps of bodies were quickly cleared away and the militia started moving back into their square.

The spiders, especially the big one, seemed more intelligent than the rats and paused as they came out of the forest.

Louie had a distinct feeling that they were studying the wall, traps, and defenders.

He moved over to stand next to Arnold.

"Damn, those are big spiders. I got used to having spiders around since nearly all our golems are spiders, but damn those ones are big and ugly."

The militia had all run back to their positions when the big spider loosened a hiss like screech.

The forest boiled as spiders moved from the trees and into the killing fields, rushing towards the wall.

Louie felt the nervousness of the people on the wall as they watched the hordes of spiders.

Arnold took a step forwards and shouted as he saw a lone arrow arched out over the field.

"Hold your fire." His voice cut through the air and Louie could see people relaxing as they sensed that somebody is in charge, somebody would tell them what to do.

“Breathe, relax. Let them come to us. No sense in wasting arrows, wait till they get into range.”

Then the first, and the second, and then more and more spiders past a yellow range marker.

"Fire!"

Nearly six hundred arrows screamed through the air, well some wobbled really badly since a lot of the archers had only picked up a bow yesterday, but the densely packed spiders made up for the archer's lack of skill as nearly every arrow impacted a body.

Most of the arrows failed to do any damage but here and there an arrow would penetrate an eye, and if the archer were lucky it would travel through to the brain, or hit and penetrate a leg joint.

He saw one of the spiders get hit by a lightning bolt from a wand and its body seized as it hit the ground and rolled over from the momentum of its charge, it shook as the lightning ran over its body but then it slowly got back to its feet before starting for the wall again, albeit a bit slower now.

"Shit, the lightning wands don't seem to work very well, hold off using the fire wands."

"We haven't got as many fire as lightning wands."

"I know but wait till the traps are sprung."

Louie saw that somebody had come to the same conclusion as fireballs started flying into the spider horde from the opposite wall, but was quickly stopped.

Louie started moving up and down the wall, and when he saw the archers looking uncertain as they watched the spiders running through the traps and arrows, he would stop and try to break the ice to reassure them and urge them to keep shooting but to make sure to listen to the orders from their squad leaders.

About two-thirds of the spiders had broken away to follow the stream of rats, the rest looked to be more intelligent, and suspecting a trap, opted to rush the wall directly. It just so happened that they were all bigger than those charging the militia square.

Louie opted for the longer reach of Nina and started laying into the spiders rushing to the foot of the wall with channeled through the naginata. He looked at the spiders in the middle of the swarm and decided to try something.

He gathered his mana and activated his spell and with the intent that should be the delivery system of the two spells. He screamed as the strain of holding the two spells and what he intended the spells to do tore through his mind when he released the carrying the spells through Nina.

The first spiders literally were torn apart as they ran into the even before it had built up speed.

The blade of air hit the first spider, cutting right through the grey-skinned, eight-eyed monster that only its own mother could have loved.

The spider ran on for a couple more steps before falling apart like a Meccano set with all its screws removed. One leg sailed through the air only to impale its neighbor, who thought it was lucky to escape the force of the airblade.

The first casualty had barely registered that it was dead when the blade connected with the third spider, cutting it in half before impacting the ground and detonating with a blast, as went off, creating a nice crater.

The spiders closest to the blast staggered as they were blown from their feet, many hissing in fear and confusion.

There was a buildup of static in the crater, suddenly the spell released its secondary effect and all the air that was blasted out was sucked back into its center at twice the speed of its release.

A massive bubble sprung into being and all the air was sucked to the center where it was ripped through a small dark hole.

Those that were outside the effect of the blast still staggered as the air was sucked from around them.

Louie stumbled onto his knees as the modified spell sucked nearly all his mana from his body, it was much more mana than he had intended.

Down the Rabbit Hole (Rare)

Spell Description:

Create a hole in the fabric of space to suck in all loose matter. Enemies are sucked in by a vortex and through a small hole in space. Higher levels in this spell will reduce the mana cost and increase the damage control.

Damage: 317 HP + depending on size and exit point of the hole.

Mana Cost: 502 MP

Duration: 10 seconds

Cooldown: 6 hours

Affinities: Wind, Space.

'Fuck, that is a mana hog.'

He faintly heard Arnold shout.

"Steady, hold steady, pikemen get ready to repel climbers." Arnold's voice carried over the screams and hisses of the battlefield.

The first of the spiders had reached the bottom of the wall and started climbing.

The spiders reached the nodules that he had placed halfway up on the outside of the wall.

The nodules exploded into a deadly silver agave with razor-sharp metallic leaves as the spine trap took its first victim only to reset for the next, the less dangerous concussion traps only blew the spiders off the wall, but every bit helped to break the flow.

Louie only had two Artic kiss traps and those he had placed in the walls on each side of the funnel, so that the spiders couldn't try to bypass the militia square.

The frozen bodies quickly started to heap up as they fell from the walls.

Louie equipped Ryu to his side and together with Nina sent a firestorm at the spiders, but unlike with the dirty greasy rats the firewave just flowed over the spiders burning the short hairs of the bodies but doing nearly no damage, that is until it reached the trenches.

Breath and Fire: Firestorm

One blade is Fire the other Wind together they can create a Firestorm.

These two uncommon blades were magically crafted by the Armourer Louie.

Level: 8-9

Ryu: 2 handed FireNinjato speed: 12

Damage: 9 + (strength + agility + Constitution) against non-mechanical constructs

Nina: 2 handed WindNaginata speed: 10

Damage: 10 + (strength + agility + Constitution) against non-mechanical constructs

If both equipped 40% chance to inflict +=

Not bad, but no good against Golems, Idiot, but these weapons will cut.

The firestorm did have the added benefit of setting the trenches and hidden fire pits on fire, not to mention the spiders covered in fire gel.

The webbing traps that they took from the spider warren in the dungeon came in quite handy after they replaced the webbing container with the firegel, while it didn't explode when triggered it did cover large patches of the battlefield with the flammable liquid that stuck to the spider bodies like grease.

The big momma or alpha spiders, whatever big fugly spiders were called, legs were mostly covered with the firegel from where it crossed the trenches and went up like it was doused in petrol, which it technically was.

There were a couple of casualties where the spiders reached the top of the wall and the inexperienced defenders got overrun but luckily the townsfolk led by one of the caravan guards that were held in reserve quickly killed the burnt spiders and plugged the gap.

The biggest threat turned out to be the smaller jumping spiders which easily cleared the walls but luckily they didn't stick around to fight but disappeared into the ruins of the compound. Ansi sent Rover, Wolfie, and Bar into the ruins to hunt them down before they could make their nests.

After the spiders were defeated they found the big spider at the bottom of the wall, still alive but badly burnt and minus its legs, which was devoured by the Goblinfire, they had trouble getting through its tough carapace as it struggled to attack them only after Cristian froze it nearly solid that Dan managed to crack its armor with a sledge that he took as his primary weapon. They looted the spider and Louie stored it in his bracelet to see what he could do with such a tough carapace.

It was after the second wave that the cooks appeared on the wall. Louie saw them and their helpers starting to gather the frozen bodies.

"Hi, Jo, what you guys doing here?"

"Hi Louie, I gathered all the kids and stranglers to clear the road of bodies, I know you guys are going to just loot them after the battle, but I wanted to talk to you about that, I want to harvest them too."

"The frozen bodies at the foot of the wall don't belong to any fighters, you can have them, but why do you want the bodies? I know the carapace can be used for armor but the next wave is insects, their carapaces should be much better."

Jo smiled as he looked around, "when I leveled my class, I got a few new recipes, and one is for deep-fried spider legs. You know they are not much different than crab legs, and with the addition of a couple of secret ingredients, they become much better, even granting buffs."

Louie gave a slight shudder at the thought of eating spider body parts, but he remembered that there were people eating spiders and much worse before the pulse.

He shrugged at Jo, "all yours man, they should stay frozen for twelve hours, but talk to Michael before you do anything to the bodies."

"Thanks, will do." Jo left to supervise the removal of the frozen spiders.

The other cooks started moving through the ranks, handing out food to the fighters who worked on their armor and weapons while watching the trees on the other side of the battlefield.

There were also a lot of people moving around bandaging wounds and handing potions to those too badly wounded to fight.

They had given all their health potions, bought from the vendor, that they still had left as well as the couple that Sher and Mainey had managed to create, to the medic helpers who were all dressed in white T-shirts with big red crosses on the front and back.

The leaders had gathered every non-fighter with a scrap of first aid knowledge to help as medics during the fight.

They knew it wouldn't be long before they had to take their place on the front again to face the third wave.

Experience will be added after the Beastwave.

Paarl Leaders

Leon Koen: (STC 2IC) pet (Seera: Black Widow) Gerard van Schalkwyk: Class: Scavenger/Tinker Mike Dekker: Class: Warrior Carla Coetzee: Class: Ranger Kirt Dempers: Class: Builder Jak de Beer: Class: Farmer/Animal husbandry Samuel De Jager: Class: None (Mayor) Arnold Brand: Class: Centurion/Armourer King ????????

Status:

Name:

Lewis (Louie) Poren

Race:

Human (Male) Lvl 12 " 457,530/819,200" = Lvl 13

Class:

Seeker (5) (27%)

Sub-classes:

(exterminator) (3%)

Titles:

Jack Black Brodifacoum, Trailblazer, Liberator. OFS (One Finger Salute) Dungeon pioneer David Selfish ?????

Affinity:

Darkness 0.002%

Affiliation:

Gaea

Statistics:

Health points (HP):

540

strength + constitution times level

Mana Points (MP):

528

Intelligence + willpower times level

Stamina (SP):

660

agility + constitution + willpower times level

Critical Hit Chance:

4%

Attributes:

Strength:

23

Agility:

18

Constitution:

22

Perception:

21

Intelligence:

29

Willpower:

15

Charisma:

7

Luck:

5

Free attribute points:

0

Skills:

Skill

Level

Progression

Wu shu:

Passive

5

95/100

Improvised weaponry:

Passive

T1: 2

05/100

Glacial Rage:

P/A

6

30/100

Meditation:

Active

6

75/100

Regeneration:

Passive

T1: 0

45/100

Mana Manipulation:

Active

9

95/100

Survival:

Passive

9

85/100

Cooking:

Passive

0

25/100

Restoration:

Passive

T1: 1

95/100

Social Sharing

Passive

1

55/100

Harvesting:

Passive

9

75/100

Herb Lore:

Passive

2

55/100

Whittling:

Passive

0

00/100

Pain resistance:

Passive

T1: 0

00/100

Poison resistance:

Passive

3

42/100

Cat`s eye:

Active

T1: 0

75/100

Senses:

Passive

6

35/100

Armourer:

Passive

5

95/100

System Minimap:

Active

7

10/100

Cartography:

Active

4

25/100

Public speaking:

Active

5

95/100

Spell Transformation: *

Active

2

10/100

Conglomerate:

Active

0

00/100

Backstab:

Active

0

00/100

Skewer:

Active

0

00/100

Scholer:

Passive

0

20/100

Learning:

Passive

#

#

Quick study:

Passive

#

#

Know-how:

Passive

#

#

This star * indicates a hidden skill

Class Skill Proficiencies:

Skill

Level

Progression

Investigation:

Active

6

65/100

Tracking:

Active

5

25/100

Intuition:

Passive

T1: 2

95/100

Analyse:

Active

T1: 9

85/100

Lore:

Passive

2

75/100

Monster Expert:

Passive

4

85/100

?????

0

00/100

Spells:

Spell

Level

Progression

Activation

Improvise:

T1: 1

35/100

Touch

Mana Construction:

T3: 7

85/100

Cast

Mana Blueprint:

2

15/100

Touch

Liquefaction:

T1: 7

65/100

Cast

Earth Sense:

T1: 5

95/100

Touch

Item Schematics:

T1: 2

80/100

Touch

Vampiric:

0

10/100

Cast

Darkorb:

1

90/100

Cast

Transfusion:

0

10/100

Touch

Electrocute:

0

30/100

Cast

Suffocate:

0

15/100

Cast

Waterboard:

1

85/100

Cast

Cauterise:

5

85/100

Touch

Shadow Step:

0

15/100

Cast

Fear:

0

30/100

Cast

Concussion Blast:

1

20/100

Cast

Down the Rabbit Hole:

0

00/100

Cast

????

0

00/100