《Fantasy and Terror Klepto's Harbinger》Ch 17. Rooting out evil
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Damiens eyes crept open with him staring at a rainbow on a wall. He sat up with a stiff, cracking back. He didn’t remember falling asleep. Allen and himself had stayed up for hours figuring out how to improve the town. Damien had used the arcane enhancement spell on Allen once he completed his blood oath to keep him up and increase his productivity. Allen commented on how he never felt so alive and he didn’t feel like he would ever need to sleep again. Damien assured him he would even though Damien was not so sure about that himself. He told all to at least sleep every few days. He still didn’t trust all of the people of the village yet. He was a loyal follower through and through. After using the spell on Allen he looked like he was 25 again. His hair was a shining brown and his skin was silky smooth and he had muscles showing under his violet robes. All semblance of his previous age had completely vanished.
Allen wrote down everything about modern appliances in all of the homes. With the systems help, he was able to by a copy text skill and combined with is creation magic he could copy anything down on already created manuals. Allen had informed Damien that the master mage had moved into the mages academy and had his room on the top floor. The top floors were for the teachers and the headmaster. Of course, he was in the headmaster suite being the 2nd strongest mage. He had Allen go to the master mage and have him copy everything he had on the basics of arcane magic, the basics of mana pools, and the basics of elemental magic that Damien had seen right first. With many other mage related texts, also. The mage was still creating texts and had a similar spell to Damiens copy skill which greatly sped up his ability to output the books he created. With all of the books, the headmaster had personally stocked the classrooms and libraries. He also had a teaching skill that helped students in any school where he teaches learns material 50% faster. Allen used a carriage to transport all of the ‘modern homes’ manuals Damien had created and distributed them out to the townspeople. All Damien could think was, “thank you for being so useful system.”
[[Your welcome Host.]] The system responded.
Allen was a meister at his job he had already moved 6 families into the farms. He had 50 men and woman training with the hunters, 200 men and women wanted to fight and joined with the melee units, and 40 people willing to test being mages. His combat force had more than tripled. There were 300 children of all ages who needed to go to school. We had 100 men looking to be full time miners. I had 4 blacksmiths who could be trained to be master smiths with the systems summoned blacksmith, 5 tailors who could double as shoemakers once trained by the systems tailor, my summoned woodcutter will train 10 villagers in woodcutting, my summoned carpenter is already training 30 villagers the technique skill. My summoned medical staff needs books and a facility to train members of the village in modern medicine. They would need a hospital with equipment. The female blonde haired, white robed life mage would work as the head instructor in life magic and is working with the master mage to copy her magic skills. The merchants need a merchant guild to begin storing and readying to barter goods. The beauty of all my summoned troops was that they had waited until they knew what they were going to do before choosing a skill. They all have the teaching skill as one of their main skills.
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Damien would need to build more structures. Damien had 3,921 DP. He purchased manuals for all of the structures that he needed. He also 9 purchased instructors who specialized in modern studies from primary school all the way to university professors. Damien even purchases an alchemist which was quite expensive at 1,200 DP, shockingly. Damien still had plenty of supplies in his inventory space for everything except jewels, bones, hides, bodies and precious stones. He had tons of iron or but after hes done with all of his creating and equipping of his troops. He was sure that this would change. After everything was said and done Damien only had 421 DP left. The west side of the village was turned into the Specialist district. That held all of the Tailor, Tanner and cold storage building, Shoe and boot, weapons, armor shops, the forge, and the 4 story hospital. The merchant guild was on the east side of town near the gate. It had 5 stories above ground and 10 stories underground with 2 giant 200 foot lifts on each side of the basement that went up and down with good. The storage space was under the whole town and had 3 foot thick alloy beams and 4 foot thick floors on each level. The second cold storage was in the merchant guild and it had its own floor. Damien used runes in the wall to keep the floor frozen and used a cleaning rune to keep everything sanitized. It was a fortress in itself. The mage academy and alchemy school, the school, the university, and massive 5 story greenhouse with all of the plants Damien and his men had gathered were planted in this building. Apparently, the alchemist was ecstatic at what was found and was jumping for joy at the rare ingredients that were uncovered. It was still very weird to Damien that the alchemist wasn’t even a day old but was already a full blow master potion maker. Of course, Damien had enhanced and imbued with the skills spell to the newest, summoned unit. The 2 stables were built next to the farm, of course, and could house 300 7+ foot horses in each of them. Damien needed to hunt for more game to create more horses. Damien sent a mental command to his 2 hunters and 30 archers to hunt the surrounding area for any game or any low ranked mythical beast that they could find. Needless to say, it was a slaughter for the next 6 hours. Damien had tons of meat at that time.
Next, Damien summoned 600 horses. He summoned 300 sheep with a stable. He gave the farmers a manual to cut the hair from the sheep for its various uses. He used tons of animal hides to make linen for jeans and sent them to the tailor shop to make pants and sheep fur for various clothes. He made a field of cotton for various clothes that he helped speed up the growth with his life magic. The farmers had already planted plants from the local vegetation. Selene was a godsend for plants he could make a plant grow from a seed to a full plan in hours. She used this as her training. Her methods made the plants grow with tiny traces of mana in them. They would speed up mana recovery and strengthen cells in the body that would speed up recovery. Even from injuries. Over time, the foods would even be able to cure serious injuries outside of completely losing the body part. Everything that was created or used came with a manual. After a few weeks Damiens the village grew. All was well until problems began to arise. The first issue was the overages. Damien had overages in everything. Every shop was literally bursting from its storage facilities. Everything rose except his coffers. He had been circulating around the gold that he had brought. The issue was, Damien could not create more. He was out of ore. He could use rock or wood, but since it wasn’t metal, it was not as strong as the actual thing and once weighed, it would be less weight and brittle.
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So, Damien had to send his newly trained merchants out. Damien wanted to explore himself and he felt like he needed to see the rest of the world. He was going to send a merchant caravan out to the nearest villages and city. The second problem was that over the last few weeks there have been more and more people turning yellow on his map. This is the main thing that had kept Damien from enhancing his villagers. All of them could not be trusted. He didn’t want them to be treated like prisoners so he would let them come and go as they pleased. At first, it was mostly only the training hunter that would leave, but as more and more of the local game being hunted down, the villager making trips outside of the gates more and more. Apparently, they had been feeling a bit cooped up also. His small problem from the beginning had grown. His DP had been dropping from day to day and he was losing followers. Damien checked the system.
Damien had lost 111 followers in 3 weeks. He didn’t know what was going on but, checking his map he had a cluster of orange dots huddled up in a large village home. They weren’t full blown hostile yet, but they were very close. Damien would deal with these people personally. Before he would deal with the problems inside of his village he needed to deal with the first problem.
"Commander Bartus and Dulan." “Yes, my Lord” Damien heard both voices in his head.
“I want you two to plan for an assault on the bandit’s camp tomorrow morning. If you need more time, let me know. I need this to be discreet. We have some weeds in the village that I have to root out. How are the recruits from the village coming along?” It was commander Bartus who responded, “we will begin planning for this assault immediately. Many of the recruits are coming along quickly. They will become fighter level within the coming weeks. The constant training is speeding along with their development greatly. Our own newly recruited fighters are already approaching the knightly level. Do you need any assistance plucking these weeds my lord?”
“No, I can handle this. Bring all the village recruits to the mage tower. “Thank you Commnaders” Damien Responded. “Yes my Lord the said in unison.”
Damien went inside of the storage area and grabbed 200 suits of armor with weapons and 50 leather armor with composite bows and short swords. Damien used his template for his previous troops on the armor to strengthen the armor with magnesium alloy aan put earth hardening enchantments on each of the armors to double its strength and durability. With the weapons, he transformed the blades and bows with alloy. He then put a different elemental enchantment on each of the bladed weapons. ¼ of the blades turned blue, red, yellow, and white. Damien cast wind element enchantments on all of the composite bows from his inventory for his archers from the village also. After storing them all inside of the inventory. These are rewards for his soldiers for reaching the fighter, hunter and archer ranks in his military.
Damien used his merchants 2 merchants to load goods from the town's storage area in a massive caravan from his village. He began paying the villagers to load the trailers and carriages with mana enhanced food, spices, and various meats placed in giant freezers that were loaded up into trailers. Next were hides, Jeans, dresses of all types from earth, long and short sleeved cotton shirts, boots and flat bottom shoes some for men some for women, coats, and hats all with weak self repairing enchantments in the cloth that lasted for a year were loaded into other trailers. He had some loaded with wooden planks, hardware tools like nails, axes, hammers, mallets, pickaxes and farming tools. There were chests of jewelry, combs, hair clips and some clothing all imbued with precious stones that had enchantments in them. Damien and his master mage had spent days putting repair, cleaning, and cleansing spells in the jewels. Damien loaded mana and powerful health potions that can cure any injury and some of the more powerful potions could restore any limbs or missing or damaged organs. Potions that can cure poisons and curses, attract beast potions and some that kept them away, and perfumes. There was furniture that many of the craftsmen had created from the ideas they had from the furniture from their homes. Then he had them load the chest full of 3000 gold, 4000, silver and all of his 5000 copper coins. With everything loaded and tied down. The 150 carriage and trailer merchant caravan was ready to go. Damien assigned 20 archers and 40 knights, 2 knights and his 5 Paladins plus himself to the caravan.
Now, there was just a matter of handling the threats at home. Damien prepared the main road in the town similar to how he prepared it in the last feast. With his magic, he prepared streamers in the front of the building. This time he left breaks between the tables for mini fountains between the table that sprouted water in different ways with multi colored light. With preprepared foods, Damien laid out fruit, pastries, vegetables and meats foods for the entire village on both sides of the table. His summoned soldiers have all been fed previously and rewarded for them becoming knights in a private celebration, a week earlier. Damien sent a mental command to all of the men and women of the village. His recruit villagers were already in the main hall of the mage academy lined up. The melee fighters were on the left and the ranged fighters and mage recruits were on the right. The mages were lined up based on elemental affinity. When Damien had informed his commanders his intentions. The commanders had all of the villagers swore a blood oath to Damien and to protect the village during the knighting of all of his summoned fighters. Damien needs the villagers to see that their own would be the ones protecting their livelihood. Not just Damiens troops. Damien had a wooden podium and a small stage set up in the large hall of the academy. Damien waited while the villagers filed into the hall. The kids, as well as the adults, were talking excitedly pointing at all the hanging tapestries and the pillars in the massive hall that had intricate designs coming down them. Flower pots lined the walls giving the room a pleasant floral smell. A diamond chandelier decorated the roof. The roof was carved in images form movies from the earth. Apparently, all of the movies Damien had seen were uploaded into the televisions in each of the people's homes. The master mage standing next to Damien, known as the headmaster in the mage academy, had a love for superhero movies and anime. Damien could see the Z fighters from D******** Z, Ichigo from B*****, The Avengers, Batman and Superman and many others who were in battles against the enemies of their universe. Damien was very impressed with the man. He took notice and had a smug smile on his face as though he were getting praise from a parent. Which, in a weird way was kind of true. I did create them over a month ago. On the stage was himself, Selene and his commanders behind him and to his right was the headmaster and to his left was Allen his advisor.
As the people filed in, Damien was also checking his map to see when the orange dots would arrive. Some filed in with other people but, the main group filed in at the end. With one red dot openly hostile. Damien saw the man in the very back. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, he would be considered handsome to many women. He wore a dark blue shirt and trousers and leather boots. He noticed that he and the other people still wore clothing from this world and not the clothing from the village. Damien leaned over to Allen and spoke, “Allen who is that man in the back, with the dark blue shirt on. The one in the Damascian shirt?” The cunning adviser noticed Damien's discretion scanned the crowd smiled and waved. “That is Valen Stonworth. His family was former wealthy owners of a farm and tannery here in town. His parents had come from the empire’s capital years earlier and were one of the few families to brave the forest separating then, Alto from the rest of the empire. When they arrived they had fallen in love with the people of the village and said many times that this village was the happiest because it wasn’t touched by the empire. When they had come they had made a home for themselves. They hunted game, tanned hides and sold leather and leather items to the villages and some cities to the east. When asked by the people of other villages and cities to the east they would never tell where they had come from. They worked closely with Selene’s parents and soon assisted the economy of the village in its growth for years. Eulan Alto hated the family for making more coin than his family did. It was rumored that he had a hand in their death a few short months before the bandits began attacking. Seeing as how we know Eulan was probably the cause of the bandits reaching Alto, we can take that rumor as a fact. I hated having to serve such a man. Anyways, Valen took over his parents business shortly after. He didn’t even mourn their passing. As he had gotten older, he hated that his parents had forced him to live in a small village and he would take it out on the villagers constantly. Treating and looking at everyone with disdain anytime he could. The bullying ways that he had as a child, only worsened as he had grown older. To put it plainly, the man is vile. He was also never touched or bothered by the bandits when they ransacked the village and worked closely with Eulan.” “Mmm” Was all that Damien had said in response. That was all Damien had to hear to know that this man was is a cancer. A coldness crept into Damien's emotions. The same coldness he felt when he was dealing with those bandits. It was time to get this show on the road. Now that Damien had everyone gathered, it was time to begin.
“I have gathered you all here first to celebrate. To celebrate the village prospering, to celebrate the changes that were for the good of the people, to celebrate being able to give the children a future without worry or fear. Fear of where the next meal would come from. Worry if they would be snatched out of their beds in the middle of the night by monsters who would wore the skin of a man, but had the heart of beasts. Over a month ago we were all displaced, but today we all have a place that we can safely call home.” At that, booming applause erupted in the hall. People clapping and were pumping their fists in the air and hugging each other. Damien let his words sink and was quite as the applause died down. “Now we will celebr-” Damien was interrupted by someone in the crowd.
“Who gave you the right!” Someone screamed! “How do we know we weren’t all bewitched?!” Another shouted. “Where did that army come from who have enslaved us and a massive wall that appeared overnight to imprison us? You don’t want villagers, you want slaves!” Someone else screamed. “What makes you any different than the bandits?” He heard that from the back of the hall. He noticed Valen leaning against the wall with a smug smile on his face. Hearing the word bandits you could now hear grumbling throughout the hall and some doubtful looks in some of the faces. Selene, seen the man in the back and began to march forward, but Damien grabbed her arm and shook his head. Just Damien was about to respond. One of the older women villagers spoke up in Damien's defense. “Are you all mad? Have you all already forgotten that we were all on deaths door before Lord Sorlen arrived? He fed and healed every person in this entire village with knowing a single soul and has as for nothing in return. He then built a wall and protected us from the danger of the wilds, then built homes for us all that has us all live as though we were born of noble blood. This village has never seen so much prosperity in hundreds of years and you all would doubt it, the first chance you have because of a few nay sayers? You should all be ashamed! Those are not HIS soliders behind him on those staircases, those are our sons, daughters, mother, and fathers of our own village. What kind of slave master would use his own slaves as his own personal protection? If I were him I would pack up and leave after such disrespect. Yet, Lord Sorlen hasn’t even frowned or looked down upon us. He still stands there with conviction. What nobel have any of you even read or heard about would do that for a people without asking anything from us. NONE would. Our villages’ wanna be nobles have always shown disdain towards our villagers and have treated us like garbage.” The people in the crowd began nodding and you could even hear many screaming, “forgive us Lord Sorlen” and other people apologizing loudly.
Seeing that his people were losing ground, Valen spoke up with panic in his eyes. “What about the bewitching village and bewitching our children!” Valen pleaded desperately.
Damien finally spoke up, “ I have bewitched no one. I have shown you and everyone here the benefits of magic and that is all. I have placed books and knowledge in everyone's hands, given everyone an education, people come and go out of the village at will. None of my soldiers enters any home without permission. The villages own people hunt the game and farm the food thats eaten every day. There is now so much food that we have to sell some off for profit for the village's coffers not my own! Yet, I have heard about you Valen. How you have bullied these people for years. I can’t imagine a man who hated his own parents so much that he wanted them to die. From what I have heard you didn’t even mourn their passing. That would lead one to believe that you wanted that to happen and may even have had a hand in their deaths! Now you stand here on a day of celebrating the people of the town for their hard work and dedication to the village. You have ruined a chance for me to surprise these brave men and women who are putting their lives on the line for the village-.” To emphasize his point, Damien waved his hand and hundreds of silver plated full armor with a fighter rank on the breast and some with knighted rank and different color bladed weapons lined one side of the hall. Different color leather armor with hunter rank on the breast and white bows alongside black robes with lining according to the elements of the mage and enchanted staves with round jewels the color of the element used for each mage was leaning against the wall. All coming from his invisible inventory space. “-And to make sure none are hurt and are protected and equipped to defend themselves with the best weapons and armor in the land. To what end Valen? To sow discord among the people for your own gain while the bandits can attack a helpess and defenseless village again? What have you ever done for these people that you pretend to care about? Can anyone say that this man has ever helped them or treated them fairly? Has anyone ever seen this man ever lifted a finger to help this village prosper before or after the bandits?” The room was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. All Valen was receiving were glares. Even his followers were trying to distance themselves from him. “You have even tricked these people into following you on your path of destruction. I will not let someone who has done nothing, do harm to remain here and live freely. Valen Stoneworth, you are hereby banished from these lands. Take all that you own, you will be given a weeks worth of ration to reach the closest village on foot. You cannot take anything you do not already own. If you ever return you will be captured, imprisoned, and hung by the neck! If you are still here by morning you will be killed on sight, now GO!” Damien pointed towards the door. “But, but-” He was backing away looking at everyone for help, but he only received turned heads or glares in return. “I said go!” Damien hit him with a gust of wind while he was back out of the door and he was roughly swept off of his feet. All you could hear was his feet fleeing on the stone. Now that Damien had the people on his side, he went for the most important part of this whole night.
“We will not let that distraction ruin our celebration. Today you will swear a blood oath before the gods to serve me and the village of Sorlen. These soldiers behind me have already done so and to be rewarded for their loyalty they will be blessed!” Damien turned and cast his skill and enhancement spell with his staff on all of the village soldiers. Every one of them glowed in a purple and gold transparent light and faded seconds later. He created mana cores for all of the mages who were shocked because many of them were stuck trying to unlock their mana pools. They were past the basics of magic so what Damien had just done to them should have been impossible with the worlds current knowledge on magic. The grey haired older men and women were instantly looked to be in their early thirties or mid twenties and they all were muscular physique. The crowd erupted in awe and shock. The wide eye villager could not move a muscle as they watched people change before their eyes. Then, their eyes turned to Damien as though he were a god and all drop to their knees. Allen pulled out a dagger and a small book and walked to each villager as they swore their oaths. At the same time, the commanders had each villager soldier on the stage come down and chose their armor and weapons based on their affinity. The giddy troops ran to their homes to dress. The mages dawned their robes right then and there since many of them lived at the academy fulltime. They also held their staves as though the held newborn baby in their hands. Some were even strangely petting the staves or talking to them...very strange. With that done, everyone else was released to go feast. Damien had other plans that night. It was time to eliminate the second threat. “Selene with me.”
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