Chapter 12

The goblins and towns people weren’t smart to begin with, the only reason they were part of the tutorial was to help the taker adjust to the new setting of what Galaria would bring. That all changed after the fairy known as Sixal switched the setting to the npc’s minds making them smarter and able to retain the memories that occurred before each reset. The first few years was barely noticeable in their intelligence, staying in the single digits, they were about as bright as the man taking the tutorial they were all stuck in.

Now after 1,275 years of harden war, communication was a necessity for all the beings here. The world that contained them was the valley they were all stuck in, at least in the beginning. As the population grew the world had begun to expand in size, the valley wasn’t keeping them just in the designated area any longer. The mountains broke, splitting apart in seemingly random places every few decades making the valley widen up as one side no longer held them. To the far east, after the first hundred years, had begun to flood as close as the walls that would allow it. The rising of the ocean was as vast as the fields and trees to the north. The town had grown into a metropolis of a city, made in the old style of the Scandinavians. It now stretched out tens of miles with the wall being remade around it, now was standing over 50 ft high twelve ft in width. The city was made into an organized setting, with buildings heavily fortified at every turn. The dwellers of the city of Waterbrook didn’t have individual homes anymore, they slept in the barracks set around town. The immortals known as the 50 original towns members, had their own buildings to stay in. Patrick and the council would meet in his home to discuss city and state matters, if they wanted to expand further.

No one knew in the beginning what was happening to the town of Waterbrook but as the numbers of the town soon swelled over 50,000 after the 6th century, they started to put in effort to figure out what was happening. Schools were set up along with the university for non-combat classes. Scholars would debate the reason for the cures of the man in chains, or why they grew old. Over the centuries problems had occurred such as the children following Patrick when they grew old enough to, or the women to be held captive as breeding stock. The baby pandemic was brought to an end faster than the other problems that plagued the city, it was once the darkest moments of the metropolis. The defenders would strap children and babies to them as a way to have an unbeatable defense, only lasting for a single day before Jenifer the revered mother put a stop to it.

Locked here in hell, a lot has happened to the town and the creatures in the area. Patrick was a shining beacon to the humans and Kafue was the master mind in the making and leading of the resistance weapons. After the 200th year war, Patrick was gifted the ability to lay down claim to the land raising the banner of Odin. This brought the change of weather, making it a frozen waste landscape in the surrounding city. The humans that weren’t part of the original 50 towns people would age based on the vitality they had, every two points they had in the stat was a year longer they would live, slowing the aging population down enough for it to grow in size.

The births were a fickle thing in the beginning, deformities would occur making the towns growth look grim. This went on for years as many a mother and father cried in despair until the System corrected it, making the children born in the tutorial untouched by the genetic code no one knew about. The late children were taken care of as best as they could but after they aged out of the Systems protection, some parents would make the kill themselves freeing them from the responsibility they didn’t want. Others that had a connection to the guards would smuggle out the unwanted, abandoning them out in the cold forest or setting them adrift at sea in the cradles they slept in insuring that they wouldn’t respond back home.

This was done over the course of the last 400 years to the children that were still not wanted, this brought the nomads into play. Just as the city strived to grow, they too wanted a place to call their own. But unlike the city and the immortals, they didn’t have the ability to defend themselves so when they aged out, they would be put to the death by the killer or the goblins.

The unlucky ones that weren’t given the quick way out would find they couldn’t gain stats and skills as fast as the other members of the city. Not because the System didn’t allow it but because they didn’t have the ability to know how to use what was in front of them. That’s not to say the new ones born without the defects didn’t survive, because the world of the tutorial was brought up in difficulty for every fail, the years had an affect to the growth of everyone starting out. After failing for 1,275 years the difficulty was well past 10,000 making the exp. growth be an 10,000 multiplier. In laymen terms, every skill had a number to hit for every level. That number grew after every level, making the required amount grow even more as the skill grew. Add in the exp. multiplier, you get a shit ton of experience points from just doing a simple thing from looking at tracks left in the snow or swinging a sword. After doing so once, you would hit level 50 in the skill jumping stats and ability up in a blink of an eye. This caused more problems than most would think, children that would grab toys or other things that was considered heavy for them gain a body strength level that was equivalent to a harden veteran. City guards would watch toddlers throw snowballs at one and another at speed that would leave a dent in the wall, making building an ideal profession. Mothers couldn’t stop the kids from gaining small bodies that resembled body builders, leaving them to even out in their agility and other body skills. The fights teens got into at school was a different matter, after rebuilding it a few dozen times the school board and console decided to make a sparing ring out back for any reason the children could find.

The small body builder children were disturbing to find but not as much as the adults. Mothers that weren’t in a combat class couldn’t lift anything that was considered to be a challenge for them, if they did they would gain the same body as the toddlers making them unwanted by most men. They would gain fewer attribute points in vitality making their lives shorter than what the workers got. This could be fixed if one increased the stat agility but that too had different side effects.

The development of normal armor and blades had come to a halt after the tundra formed leaving frozen steel, it had an attribute to ice making it the most common type of metal there. Ice blades and etc.. were found in homes from their swords all the way to utensils. The scaling of such weapons varied but for the strength attribute bonus, ranking at A with everything made. This included forks and plows that was needed to maintain food supplies for the large population.

The population varied through the years as it climbed, but the remaining factor was that it was steady increasing. After 1,200 years it hit its limit for the city walls at a size of 53.000. The gene pool had change to such a degree that it no longer needed the System to help keep in from splicing out deformities. The city was ever growing and that made food one of the most important commodities, unlike the immortals the general pop needed food to live. So, the city was set into four districts, food, crafting and general stores, arms and armor, living quarters. The barracks was set in the living quarters as it housed all the citizens.

The army of Waterbrook too, was varied from infantry to bards. Ice mages and archers stayed on the walls as the foot men was sent out to deal with the goblin invasion. The curse was always kept at a distance as the infantry was never sent out to deal with him for fear of them being whipped out or the killer entering the city. The most they had seen of him was when the night was at its coldest, trying to enter the city but always failing to do so. They hadn’t killed him in centuries but that didn’t stop them from trying to, nor did he break through the wall they set in place. The current engineering department was in the works of making boats but that was looking bleak as they didn’t have a place to leave for, but Hapment, the lead engineer had other plans for them with the help of the ice mages.

The goblins had broken through once, it was in the early stages of development of the city walls. The town hadn’t gotten its population up past 100 yet so they were unprepared to the sudden attack like the first in the southern border. The children that had aged out of the Systems protection was slaughtered without a fight but that just encouraged the town to work harder to keep the future generations safe from the foul-smelling creatures.

The Goblin chief Kafue, had succeeded in his quest of gaining a deity of their own, along with a class upgrade. His class he had taken was -Spirit Talker- and it was not friendly to anyone or anything. The deity that came into being was Maglubiyet, the Iron keeper. There wasn’t any love between the two as Maglubiyet was a god of war in the goblin culture, and Kafue was an upgraded shaman, but the God and the follower worked to kill all of the deformed pink humans as they plotted to take over.

Achlys was sitting on her throne waiting for Odin to make his appearance as he always did, the oaf never listen to her about etiquette but that didn’t stop her form enjoying the company of a more talkative and polite guest. The table before her was set for tea and scones, the decoration was set up in an elaborate show of finesse. There were three chairs set around the table in a triangle pattern. The other guest that might make an appearance was something she didn’t find so pleasing but it did help pass the time.

Right on que, the sound of thunder roared in her hall with a flash of multicolored lights. The smoke filled the air as a shadow of a man came forth, the carved signs of runes spun around him dispersing the smoke. The godling was tall in his true form, standing a head taller than Achlys. He had the long gray beard told in legend along with a missing eye. The armor was decorated of the passing time of Waterbrook depicting events that occurred in the greater years of war. White fur spouted out of his armor around the neck and joints, the metal that covered him was brought to a sheen of gloss. The polish was so spectacular that normal eyes would have been blinded.

Odin strode forward as he made his usually speech. “Achlys, I beseech you to please stop this foolishness. The shifting of time has gone on long enough and my people tire form this fruitless war your champion brings.” The sound of his footsteps rattled the walls of mist making the structure shift with every step he made. “How long do we have to be imprisoned here before you tire, does the thought of killing please you so much that you would keep us here for all of eternity? DO you understand that you and your champion alone have the only quest line to free us all!” His temper had gotten worse over the years, he usually tried to do it peacefully instead of this demanding way he was showing Achlys.

“It’s nice to have the opportunity to great such an astute guest, please won’t you join me at my table as we discuss the never-ending wars we have. And you can drop the act that your putting on.?” Achlys curtsied to the man as she waved her hand over to the other chair beside her.

Odin was not one to give up so easily, move to the offered chair and sat down staring daggers at the cursed goddess. “Just because I’m sitting here with you doesn’t mean that this matter is over. The acting part is to help break in the third I’m sure is about to join us, I’ll have my-” The noise of stone turning and rock sliding to the ground came out from behind them. Odin spun around to see what that scheming god was up too; he usually saw all of middle earth but he was currently in the realm of Achlys the goddess of death and mist. He felt unsettled coming to her lair but she wasn’t allowed to leave the realm do to special reasons involving the horror of the early years. She was feared by his people and the goblins as much as her champion was.

“Kukuku, what do I find here? A lamed goddess and a frightened god. Oh, how the fearful strive to stay strong. Achlys, I want ale not that pitiful shit you serve him.” Maglubiyet, the god to the goblins and other creatures of Kafue’s horde, was striding down with a limp to his left leg. He was stout for a goblin even if he was a god, the green complexion was riddled with warts and moles. He held a fierce beard on his face, the color was patchy with black and gray spackled over his hair, unlike Odin’s his didn’t have the gleam of shine to it. He had grime and blood riddled in his long-braided hair, as it ran down his back. Dark metal beaten into submission to form armor decorated him, the leather was from the followers that didn’t please him strewn together to add comfort and fear. He stood half the height of Odin but looked as mean as the trolls he keeps as pets.

“What are you doing here creature, blab la bla?” Odin said fiercely to the abomination in front of him. “There’s no reason for you to go through the acting, Achlys has already ruined it.”

“Yes, I know how hated I am-.” The creature known as the chosen one looked to Odin with a face full of misery. “But I was just getting started, do you know this is the only thing I look forward to now adays. I have to stay at the goblin caves all year round doing nothing as that little bastard tries to take over your chosen’s city.” The expiration in his voice was plain as he talked about the past year he spent in his territory.

Odin didn’t much mind, he enjoyed the small talk with his sorta two friends. Over the years of trying to destroy one and another, they or mostly Odin and Maglubiyet discovered that it didn’t really matter a whole lot. They were stuck there as long as Achlys desired it and she wasn’t about to leave here any time soon or if ever. She was getting a ton of exp. from this and was gaining in faith from the cult of chains along with the fear and misery the tutorial gave off. Now, every year they met together to discuss about ending it and getting out of the tutorial. The only thing that was stopping them was the she bitch goddess, who currently was waiting for them to sit and watch the battle that was about to start.

Odin and Maglubiyet turned to stare at Achlys, they had determination written all over them as they waited to hear what excuse she would throughout this time. “Oh, come on boys. You know the rules, nothing is discussed until after the show.” Achlys waved them to sit down as she made a pool of mist form in the center of the table; Odin would use his ability -All seeing eye- to project what was going on in the pool as Maglubiyet stabilized it with stone holding the mist in place. This was the only time Achlys was able to see the open world before it ended sending her back to wait another year.

Before they got too comfortable, Odin turned to Achlys speaking to her in as nice of a tone that he could. “Whatever did happen to that prophet of yours? It’s been a few centuries since-” the mad goddess spun away from the center of the table to face him; her eyes held a dangerous glow in them.

“That bitch hasn’t done anything that I have asked of her, all she does is swoon over that imbecile of mine demanding to know where he is. All she does is follow that worthless champion of mine around trying to make stary stuck eyes every where she goes, she can’t stay away from him for more than a minute before she goes absolutely insane killing off anyone and thing that’s near her. She killed 13 followers of mine from the anger inducing rage she had, I don’t particularly care what she kills but damn it, it was my followers. Towards the end I caught her molesting him out in the woods if you can believe it, if I didn’t catch her in time System knows what could have happened.” At the end of her rant, she was shouting making the whole hall shake. Odin didn’t want to continue anymore with the conversation but Maglu couldn’t help his curious nature and ended up asking the obvious question.

“Where is she now?” he asked in an excited tone.

Achlys turned from Odin to the goblin god so fast that Odin could barely keep up. “I have her locked away in stasis at the moment but that does nothing to stop her from trying to get back to that fucker she loves so much. I swear if I knew that this would happen than I would have never made her that way. The annoyance she causes for me is as endless as his stupidity.”

Odin coughed into his hand, signaling for them to get back on track.

The battle that played out at the beginning of every year was the deciding factor on who would start the pleading of leaving or in Achlys’ case, telling off. As most would guess, the one that made the biggest point was the said she bitch, she claimed that she didn’t know how to leave but the other two didn’t believe her and the only one that knew was that dumb ass champion of hers. He didn’t even talk, so how was anyone one going to be able to pull the answer out of him.

Maglu asked one last question before it started, “Where is he now?”

Patrick stood waiting on the walls looking out to the oncoming horde of goblins and other creatures. Over the years, there were more and more of them, along with different things that he and the others didn’t know the names of. It ranged from goblins to orcs, trolls and hobs, all the way to gremlins. The mounts that pulled the war machines for them had a name but he couldn’t remember it, he thought their monster ologist mentioned it was a hippaptourtous or whatever. The things were almost as tall as the trolls that road them, the gremlins and goblins strapped weapons of destruction to the things such as catapults all the way to ballista. The marching of the enemy was slow enough that he judged it would be here till mid-day. The forest plain the monsters used to use was wide open tundra now, making it easy to spot them. Patrick continued to scan the enemy before him, the sound of a small hum bedside him brought him out of his thinking.

“Sir, Donner’s scout team came back and is ready to report, there is over 50.000 altogether making their way to the city. They seemed to have brought those war balloons you mentioned from your last scouting mission, Sir.” The man before him was one in a long line of scouts that served the city and people. Patrick had served with his great so on and so forth grandfather and then the descendants that came after him. One of the laws of the army was to have at least two offspring to leave incase one was ever killed or afk` in service.

Patrick didn’t need the scouts report but it wouldn’t be right to flat out ignore the man. He would follow him making his way to the other leaders waiting for news and preparation. Patrick might be the leader of Waterbrook but he felt that it was healthy to have mortals included in the discussions and such.

“Lead on man, lets get this over with so we can prepare for the coming fight.” Patrick gestured to the man for him to lead, following him by a pace.

The walls around the town are large enough to have rooms and walkways run through it, the passages were rough for anyone that weren’t familiar with them making it the ideal choak points system. Once there, he found Gwen and his son Jacob sitting off to the side as the seemingly older men argued on tactic that were needed to win this confrontation, though they won now at every battle it was never a good idea to let down one’s guard before an enemy. Patrick strolled to the front of the group bringing the scout with him and the assuming team of Donner’s behind him. He took a seat in the middle of the group with the biggest chair.

The room was one of the biggest rooms in the wall and was at the center of it, this part of the wall was commonly referred to as the heart. The walls were laced with metal and horsehair, with reinforcement with steal to help make it sturdier. The metal and hair were to help any scrying spells, best to think of everything and prepare for the worst. The furniture in the room was all uniform to each other, made of sturdy pine and lacquered to a glossy coat. There were no pictures but one tapestry, the image was Odin himself depicted during battle.

Haven everyone there shut up Patrick gestured to the man to start.

“Sightings of the enemy troops have been counted in the tens of thousands, the mounts that we already know have made an appearance but unlike last years there seems to be a new species. The serpent is two city blocks long and has green flued dripping out of its mouths. We used an identification spell on one but the only detail we were able to get out of it was the name, Basilisk.”

The men sitting at the table all took in the news with dread, the sound of silence was palpable bringing everyone to focus on what that could mean to all of them. “You said that it was two city blocks long, how many are there?” the man on Patrick’s left spoke.

The scout named Donner looked Patrick in the eye, “17, there are 17 of them making its way here now. Along with 5 war balloons, but their blowing out dark smoke opposed to what they normally do from your sightings. My group and I can only guess that the war balloons aren’t ready. We weren’t able to see what was on board but by the smiles of the gremlins faces its explosives.” The mere mentioning of the weapons seemed to spark off the war prematurely as the far wall broke apart.

The wall shook from the blast knocking him, Jacob and Gwen back, breaking a few men from the weight of his armor. Donner and his group didn’t do much better, falling onto the floor in a pile of limbs. The blast didn’t kill any one in the room but the casualties on the wall must have been enormous., he got back up to look back through the wall to spot what might have caused the attack.

The war balloons had made an appearance. The war was started and it would be a long and tedious battle through the night. The only thought he had was where the man in chains could be.

Kafue was sitting in the center of the war wagon, the sound of bombs going off was music to his ears as the noise raged on. He peered through his lining that covered over the wagon, it was used to help mask him from sight sort of like camo.

“Send the snakes and bring the catapults. I don’t want anyone to find what we have instore for the reached city. And keep an eye out for the leader of the place, he has a habit of stopping me from calling in reinforcements.” The troll that was walking next to him took off in a waddle run headed to one of the spell engineers in the front. He didn’t really care if he came back just so long as the news of the plan was brought to the front.

The soldiers of his had stable weapons and equipment but they weren’t as good as the humans, making him rely on numbers and trickery to win wars. That only got so far due to the damn wall in front of his army, and they were ill equipped to scale the thing. They tried in the past but the humans had trick of their own and his heavy hitters like the trolls and ogres took far too long to climb. The balloons would last only for a few more minutes before the archers and wizards retaliated with arrow and spell.

No sooner than the thought came the sound of spells blasting into them echoed through the army. The rush of adrenaline hit him and the sound of crying spirits sounded around him. All was set now, the only thing missing was that damn thing with chains.

The dumbass was currently squatting over on a fallen tree squeezing out a hot log, he had goblin meat the previous day and was regretting his decision. Over the years he spent here, he had gain understanding and wisdom on how the people interacted with one and another. Through determination and perseverance, he had finally gotten the necessary points for his intelligence.

“Are we almost done? I want to kill one of those big hippo’s again.” Foulness was whining in his head again. The sound wasn’t something Zayne was unaccustomed to.

“Cant you wait one second, you can obviously see he’s not done.” Jiminy sounded out, his voice was a tad bit anxious himself.

“I’m almost done, so shut up you too.” He thought back to them.