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All Chapters of Kingdom of the Weak: Chapter 11
- Chapter 20
527 chapters
11. Magic Contract
Kingdom of the Weak/VicL
“What are you doing here?!” Mindy barked at the door of the Raven Tavern. Remian arrived in time to see her block the door with Kage at her side, the shadow-magic user standing there silently with his arms folded. Mindy looked frightened, but she still barked at Rose like a cornered puppy. “Relax. I’m just here to pick up someone.” Cruel Rose was perhaps named for her shape rather than her face. The general form of the woman in front of the tavern was indeed ‘blooming’. Her height and her width had a lot more in common than most humans could dream of. Her hair was piled high in a bun above her head, which was very, very heavily covered in make-up. Next to her was a man who deliberately looked like a skeleton. He wore a black suit painted to look like the form of human bones, and had likely borrowed some of Fa- AHEM! ‘Cruel’ Rose’s make-up to paint his face like a skull. Ye’Tuo ‘the Undead’. Ye’Tuo the Slayer. Rose had come with one of her strongest.Read more
12. Overnight
Kingdom of the Weak/VicL
“You’re fired.” Markus told Remian straight out. “But it’s not my fault!” Remian protested. “I can’t get rid of the slave-bonding even if I tried!” “It doesn’t matter whose fault it is!” Markus said. “The Iron Legion does not keep slaves! That is an ironclad rule!” “Then… what can I do?” Remian spluttered. “Pack up your bags, strike your tent, and leave camp. You need to be gone by nightfall!” “But… but what about the board-and-barbecue?” Remian asked. “It’s over.” Markus said sharply. “Take it with you if you like, but from now on it will have no connection to the Iron Legion.” That was as good as rendering it worthless. Without that strict neutrality and the protection of the Legion behind it, there could be no assurances, no reliability... “This is the reward I get for trying to help someone out of kindness?” Remian grouched as he started to pack. “I lost everything. My job, my shelter, my security, my board, all the
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13. Den wanted
Kingdom of the Weak/VicL
Aunt Sara burst out laughing. “Queen of what, exactly? This boy is crazy.” “Aunt Sara!” Mandy protested. “Oh, fine, fine. If the most powerful mage in town wants to teach you magic, I won’t get in your way.” Aunt Sara waved it away with a sniff. “Even if he is something of a dreamer. Queen, now? Wouldn’t that make him a king? A king dowager?” “I think it’s the other way around.” Mandy whispered. “And how do you intend to reign over this place unless you can make the warlords kneel?” Aunt Sara snorted. “You don’t have that kind of power.” “The… warlords…?” Remian frowned. “The gang bosses.” Mandy translated for him. Right. “I will just have to become that powerful.” Aunt Sara barked a laugh. “Good luck with that. Jon, get these kids some breakfast. Good day, Mandy, Remian.” With that as farewell, Aunt Sara left with her escorts. Jon the innkeeper went about to get some food for his guests. Mandy glanced a
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14. Fire
Kingdom of the Weak/VicL
Back at the north side of Frontier Town, Cruel Rose was tearing her hair out. “Somebody! Anybody!” She shrieked, holding up the book of Basic Fire Magic. “Tell me what this word means!!” Her wisest gang members were trying to make sense of it. Most of them couldn’t read, but the few who could did their best to figure out the overly long word. “In… inside something…? Invincible…? In syllable? In scribble?” “It’s a something ‘tion’.” A younger ‘reader’ gangster exclaimed. “I think it has something to do with the magic Sigil…” somebody else said. “Forget it!” Rose roared. “Give it here!” Ignoring the words on the page entirely, she pressed her hand against the magic sigil and activated it the way she activated the magic scrolls used for slave-bonds… BOOM! An explosion lit up the Cruel Rose Headquarters. One youngster gangster ran around screaming. “My hair is on fire! My hair is on fire! My hair is on fire!!” “Put
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15. For A Cave
Kingdom of the Weak/VicL
[Fireball!] “RUN!!” Another fireball streaked across the battlefield, slamming into a tree behind Remian. Fire splashed around the area, charring the tree bark in moments before disappearing. “Fire!” Mindy had her Fire Bolt scroll out, and was trying to counter, but her little fist-sized Fire Bolt was just no comparison to the Bear’s head-sized Fire Balls. Her little Fire Bolt barely scorched the bear. “Do something!” Remian yelped. Max was angling for a shot, trying to get behind the bear, but it turned and shot out another Fire Ball right at him. “Someone…? Carrie!” He looked for the biggest member of their group, the only one which stood a chance at physically stopping the bear… Only to find her rolling around on her back, all four paws in the air, laughing. “What’s gotten into her?!” Remian spluttered. The bear saw the wolfcat rolling around on the ground roaring with laughter. [It was YOU!] S
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16. Dreams and Ambitions
Kingdom of the Weak/VicL
His name was Buff. Or Buffy. Remian wasn’t quite decided, but it was a concept about having lots of strong muscles.Buff was a Tier 4 Amber Eyes Bear. They had the reputation of being able to spot honey a mile away. Actually the reputation was false. It was their noses that could smell the honey, not their eyes.But Buff had an existential problem. He did not want to be an Amber Eyes Bear. He was jealous of humans and the way they used tools. He was jealous of Wilds who were of higher Tier than himself. He was jealous of birds that could fly and fish that swam so well. In short, he was jealous of a lot of things.The stash of junk in the cave was his result of his jealousy of humans. He had a bad habit of stealing stuff from them, especially from their unguarded treasure-piles! (Mandy: Silly bear, that’s the rubbish heap). One day, he even acquired his greatest prize and treasure from it; the Fire Stick! (Remian: Which poor idiot couldn’t recog
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17. Founding a Guild
Kingdom of the Weak/VicL
Joshu Tarim thought of himself as a true Frontiersman. He was a professional explorer, one of the earliest adventurers around the Frontier who helped draw the very first maps. He was there when Frontier Town was first founded. He had traded furs and ivory with the first airship that landed at its edge. He wasn’t around when the gangs began to form, however; he had been trapped for almost a year in a labyrinth of cave tunnels far, far to the south at the time.Younger adventurers had asked for the secrets of his survival. How did he last so long in the Frontier? Most adventurers quit or died within one or two years. Some dozen or two switched to becoming Hunters and stayed in town when they weren’t out there looking for prey. Yet there was Joshu, still exploring, still venturing into unmapped territories and coming back with just a few more smudges on the map he’d been drawing for nine years.Caution and patience, he’d replied. Alertness and awar
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18. A Map for Missions
Kingdom of the Weak/VicL
Remian and Vigil discovered Joshu’s secret in three seconds, flat.“Yip!” Vigil barked.“Squeak!” Teeny shrieked back. “Squeak, squeak!”“Vigil! Play nice!” Remian warned him.“Yip, yip.” Vigil nodded, tail wagging.Remian eyed that cub which was a mix of wolf and cat, then at the creature with Joshu that was a mix of cat and mouse, and shook his head. Hopefully nothing bad would accidentally happen.Actually, the bigger danger was if Carrie got hungry…“Registration is done!” Mindy said. “Well, mostly, except I’m not sure we should classify a nine-year explorer as a ‘Novice’.”Tim coughed. “What, then? He’s not a warrior like Max, or a mage like Remian. Definitely not ‘wolfcat’ or ‘bear’ like Carrie and Buff.”“Ranger. Like the Ceres Forest Rangers.” Max
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19. Ways To Support
Kingdom of the Weak/VicL
For now, though, the most they could do was offer some light if the battle took place at night. If it happened in the day time, the most they could offer was some fire (and smoke) support. Remian was not about to ask Carrie or Buff to fight on the side of Frontier Town in the event of a Beast Wave. He’d worry about them getting attacked by the human defenders or worse, joining the other side.Why did the Wilds attack Frontier Town anyway? There had to be a reason for Beast Waves and the like.Ten years ago, there had been three towns on the Frontier, but one day there was an event referred to as a ‘Beast Tide’, a large scale version of the Beast Wave. As a result… only Frontier Town was left. There were many dead, and many more fled the Frontier, never to return. Many of the Circling Ravens were babies who were orphaned at that time.If a Beast Tide rose again, the way it was now, Frontier Town would be finished. Already it could barely
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20. Breakthrough
Kingdom of the Weak/VicL
The wave of Wilds in front of them were three- or four-thick. There must have been at least sixty, maybe seventy of them. There seemed to be more of them this time than the last.A spread of arrows arched high in the fading sunset light.“What do you think Joshu is doing right now?” George asked Tim, seeing the maddened Wilds in front of them charge in spite of the arrows.“I think Joshu’s sitting in a tree.” Tim said in a sing-song chant. “S-H-O-O-TI-N-G!”The beasts roared. They crashed headlong into the sharpened stakes, ran right into the bear traps. Some of them faltered only to get bowled over and trampled by the beasts behind them.“Something’s wrong with these Wilds.” Remian observed to Mandy quietly. “I can’t imagine Carrie or Buff going berserk like that.”“And Vigil?”“Only if you took away a steaming hot barbecue skewer from in
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