Chapter 8: The Assassin knights

April 2 Year 0: guardian calendar

Upon that grassy field near the sound of a gently flowing river, a goblin happily skipped towards her allies as she cheerfully bit down on one of the many bits of dried meat in her hands.

“Jerkyhmm… jerkymm…rkyhmm…” She happily hummed as the wet grass below her cooled her bare feet. She had brought along with her the hidden jerky that had survived the Ogre King’s attack.

A few goblins Accompanied Scitus at that time. forming a small semi-circle around him. the view from his height made it look like a father looking upon his children. Soon enough he patted their heads and informed them that they would eat together that day.

The sudden announcement washed away the anguish they felt the previous day, forgetting of the burial as a bubbling excitement began to overflow. They genuflected before their god only to feel his gentle hands lift them up and inform them that it was an unnecessary gesture. Although Scitus knew the value of blind loyalty and faith, it would become dangerous in the future especially for a man like him who knew little of the world outside his colony. It was his belief that there existed no mind capable of ruling a nation alone.

Using nothing but the grass floor as a table the goblin tribe gathered in a large circle. They sat patiently for Seresa who was to bring the food. Her arrival was met with contempt by Maximus who yelled, "SERESA!!!" The unsuspecting Goblin jumped, dropping the pile of jerky in her arms and yelped, accidentally releasing jerky that resided in her drool stained jaws. In the moment of her fall she never once released her gaze from her jerky and in a feat of incredible agility she swiped the jerky out of the air and hit the ground chest first.

The spectacle forced a peculiar behavior out of Scitus. his mouth widened forming a grin that tried to force itself out of existence before collapsing into a wide tooth filled smile which then transformed into laughter. Maxiumus turned to his god, stunned by his behavior. When Scitus finally calmed several seconds later, he placed a single hand on Maximus's small fuzzy head and said, "it okay." He then walked over to a startled Seresa who hid the piece of jerky behind her as he approached. She looked like a child trying to hide a stolen cookie, but unbeknownst to him, it wasn't the jerky she hid but her drool stained hand. The pulse in her chest boomed inside her causing her weakened legs to stumble forward. Scitus quickly lifted her up as he smiled, "all wait, all eat." He said as he patted her shoulders. She nodded as she remembered the drool on her chin, as Scitus lowered himself to pick the jerky up she sneakily swiped the drool off her face with her dirt filled shirt.

Maximus stood up and helped Scitus pick the jerky up and as soon as Seresa felt presentable, aided too. Once every piece of jerky was found Scitus made an announcement. "Not offering," he said shaking his head while a small, near unnoticeable, grin hid behind a cool expression "goblin, food, God food. All eat."

The gears inside their minds slowly formed the thought of something near incomprehensible to them, eating alongside their god? Only the greatest of goblins should be honored with that and yet their god had decided that they would eat his offerings alongside him. Heat emanated from their chests as the jerky was passed to them by Seresa, Scitus, and Maximus. Once in their possession, they waited with jerky on their laps for everyone to be seated.

There on that small grassy field among the warm sun, they ate the jerky as they talked of themselves to their god who listened attentively. At the end, Scitus spoke of himself and his desire to make their small colony into something great, a kingdom, unlike anything the world had ever seen. His words brought them comfort and once more they concluded that the long days of anguish and pain were over.

The jerky that remained was placed inside the duffle bag which had become a storage device that placed all items inside in stasis. Scitus was elated to pull out the ice cream he had forgotten inside and was surprised to find it in the same condition it was when he had first put it inside. After his discovery, he had decided to prepare cooked meat once the technology was available but until then jerky and raw meat would have to do.

When the meal ended, all returned to their previous positions.

As he prepared the first team of goblins and told them to wait for him near the forest, he wondered how they had come to summon him. Ever since his arrival, they had looked to him for guidance and yet they managed to perform a summoning ritual for him. There was more than met the eye there, someone else aided them or at least facilitated the ingredients. He shook his head knowing that dwelling would expend resources that he needed to dedicate to the coming days. He closed eyes and one by one erased the thoughts that had been clouding his mind to make way for the hellish training he would place on himself.

Once his eyes were open he took a large stick from near the forest and dug a line into the ground, the Goblins watched their king as he for an entire hour dedicated his time to forming a shape with four corners that could only be seen line by line underneath the grassy field.

This square was close to one hundred feet squared, a number he was accurately able to create near instinctively thanks to his divine sight ability which allowed his subconscious mind to measure distance with frightening accuracy.

He then turned to the goblins remaining twenty goblins and instructed them of their new job. their job was to dig a hole around the line large enough to fit the logs that were to be cut down, signified by Seresa's tree marks. To his great fortune, the species of trees he had found were all roughly a meter in diameter allowing for simple addition to solve the problem of construction. The encampment would be weak but with time and extensive tutoring in mathematics, the kingdom walls, he hoped, would grow stronger with the help of architecture.

Once he had finished helping the twenty goblins understood their mission. Scitus jogged towards the troop that had patiently waited for him. although he didn’t want to admit it, he had been avoiding the start of their training for he knew what it entailed.

Five days was all they had, or rather it was all Scitus was willing to risk for he feared that anything beyond that may end in the injury or death of his subjects.

As he predicted the following days were brutal and to him felt near inhumane as his body screamed for his mind to cease its constant movement. On the third day of that training, something odd happened.

"Okay, all ready." He asked the six goblins who placed two arms behind their heads to keep their lungs open for the precious oxygen to reinvigorate their burning muscles and heart. Their pain had gone beyond simple exhaustion and entered a realm that bordered death. Despite this pain, they nodded, unable to expend the air necessary to speak; for their mighty king who was uncustomed to exercise was laying on the leafy floor as he asked that simple question. They understood the sheer will power he must have mustered to speak those three words with such precision and without stutter.

Scitus bit through the tears his muscles were experiencing and pushed himself to his knees and from his knees, he launched himself upward, this simple act meant to show his determination and nearly expended his remaining strength; but he refused to collapse and seeing his determination, Robin gave his god his shoulder.

Scitus no longer felt fatigue, tired, hungry, or the desire to breathe. The only exception is when he tried to grow stronger. His ability to gain strength was far superior to that of the goblins, but the pain was more intense for he had to push his limits before being allowed to gain even an ounce of strength.

Scitus took a breath of air and once he expelled it he turned his body and ran. His footsteps had a grace normally impossible to obtain in only three days but there he was dancing through the forest like a silent shadow and alongside him was a darker shadow. "Robin," he thought as he felt a breeze brush past him as he fell behind his subject; little by little the other goblins caught up and surpassed him in both speed and grace.

Below them are carefully set stones that mark a path to their destination. In the midst of their fine dextrous movements was Yuki who at that time had been having trouble keeping up with the speed of the other goblins and often beat Scitus by only a small margin. This brought her mind down into a state of worthlessness and to prove her worth she often sped her pace beyond what she was capable of handling. At first, it was always a remarkable sight for in a matter of seconds she would catch up to Robin and seemed to nearly surpass him in speed but in a suddenly out of anxiousness and agitation she would miss the guide stone by an inch and stepped on a branch.

That time it was no different, everyone halted in an instant and then turned their heads towards the small silver object in the distance, their hearts began to pulsate with the thought of the inevitable pain that would surely afflict them. Not a moment after that thought aloud blaring screech pierced their ears drums, forcing everyone to their knees as they desperately cupped their ears despite already knowing it was a pointless gesture. From the outskirts of their training zone dozens of animals were seen fleeing the scene for the terrifying sound brought them to the edge of their sanity and so they fled as far as they could from that zone; but for unfortunate goblins, the sound had crippled and held them as it tore through their ears drums and stabbed their temporal lobe with a sonic blade.

After exactly thirty seconds that sound stopped along with all other sounds, their ears had been irreparably damaged and beyond recognition. At least that would have been true if Scitus's passive healing did not a minute thereafter heal and soothe the pain and bringing back what should have been lost. Sometimes goblins felt that their hearing had even improved. The ordeal was over and Yuki refused to look up for her shame consumed her every muscle and forbade her from facing her allies. She had failed countless times and many because of her, her allies had suffered.

Seeing his subject in pain, Scitus went to her and placed a single hand on her shoulder. “It okay, did good, do better.” Scitus then stood from his kneeling position and grabbed hold of Yuki’s arm to pull her up. She walked over to her leader Robin to hear her reprimand, but Robin only looks at her and said, "this why train. Make mistake, here." Yuki gave her leader a firm nod and headed back to her starting position the others were already halfway over.

Scitus looked to Robin who had seemed to have grown patient over the days they had been training. His demeanor seemed to slightly mature when Scitus had announced his position as leader. Robin took some traits from his father; like his father’s kind hand that guides, Robin only wished to push when necessary.

Robin asked Scitus for them to take another break, he wanted to show his allies how he moved through the forest. Scitus was more than happy oblige his subject for Robin for the first time asked to do something new. The following hour they trained without the lybird and instead were taught what Robin had learned during his painful experience.

and only with Robin who attempts desperately to describe how he moves. When the hour is up, Scitus decides that its time to start lybird training again. Although frustrated that he wasn't able to properly describe his motions was glad that Scitus overrode his decision for he felt that if left to his own devices he would have wasted to much time in teaching what he knew.

During that hour Scitus didn't simply watch he was watching Robin and his leadership skills. Sometime between then, he noticed that the goblins did not wear shoes and simply had incredibly callous feet able to resist the pain of walking on stones and debris. He noted in his mind that he should create shoes for them whenever possible for they held great value when traveling through certain terrains, aiding in the prevention of infections and parasites. Though he understood that on flat ground it may be a detriment depending on its effects on their agility.

The rest of the day was spent training with riot noise as a punishment for failure and as the day raged on, failures and successes proceeded them. Times of success was met with immense cheers and happiness while failures were met with anguish and disappointment. Then nearing the end of the day just after the sun had set a peculiar event occurred.

Within Scitus mind he obtained the option of making the training group a unit. A cohesive group linked by his power. He had forgotten about that ability for he didn't think it would apply to the real world but his assumption had proven incorrect and now the team would be the first in all the kingdom. He dubbed them, "The Assassin Knights."

The results were near instant for just after he dubbed their name, they began to telepathically hear one another and even Scitus could send messages to them. This link was only one of the many benefits another was the label Assassin under their names whose significance at that time alluded Scitus. Later he would understand that it was one of many possible classes, which he would experiment in discovering thereafter.

The telepathic link alone was an astonishingly broken ability in Scitus's view for it meant perfect coordination among a team of unknown assailants. Having considering the game's rules he began to collect the data from his memory. "Units are made up of six and up to ten soldiers, then there are battalions comprised of six to ten units; after are grand militias consisting of six to ten battalions and finally are corps' consisting of all related units. Armies where the umbrella under which several corps' existed and could be one of several armies". Since insufficient troops existed to make a corp, Scitus was unsure of the possible existing corps or even the name of the one the Assassins belonged to. But Scitus would make sure to use classes to their fullest effect.