*BOOM!*Another prototype violently exploded. Nairi yelped in fright as the broken pieces of the prototype scattered all over the testing ground. I sighed in defeat. “Well, let’s clean this up and take a quick break…I need to think...” It’d been almost a full day, and zero progress had been made. All of the prototype firing mechanisms I’d tried so far had resulted in the cartridge eventually getting stuck outside the chamber. And when the firing pin struck it outside of the chamber… boom. This was a natural result of having a machine gun with such a high rate of fire- eventually a jam would result in the gun catastrophically blowing up. If it weren’t for the fact that I only put a quarter of the usual amount of the elemental dust in the test ammunition, my eyebrows would’ve been burned clean off by now. Damn, this was frustrating! Based on the results so far, the rate of fire was simply too high for the receiver to handle and the firing pin failed to stop when the gun was jammed.Na
“Well, fuck...” I looked outside the window of the company building and saw that we were surrounded by about 100 Galahad men-at-arms. Judging by the cohesion and gear, they were probably the A-team. Whatever they wanted from us, they were serious about getting it.Either way, this much was certain: we had a major rat problem. They knew too much too quickly for it to be a spontaneous discovery. This show of force was them basically telling us, “Yeah, we have somebody on the inside. What’re you gonna do about it?”“Forge-Master Rummy, please join me outside? It appears my brother and Ser Gaius want to talk.”“Sure thing.” I turned to Loki and Emma. “Look after the supplies and the passengers. I believe the rats will make a move soon enough.”I put on my cloak, hiding Severance Pay. I took a regular bow and a quiver with a few arrows and followed Skera and Natalia outside. After we arrived at the already-barricaded gate (a practice we’ve started every night after business hours ever sinc
Our convoy, which consisted of 6 armored carts and 3 regular carts (that we borrowed from the enemy), quickly made its way to the eastern city gate. Fortunately, the guards were too busy dealing with the fallout from the city-wide sandstorm and we easily slipped through. The travel plan was similar to the path we walked on our last exploration- exit the city through the east via Clarent Road and loop around the city through goblin country. We didn’t need to pick a fight with the Rangers in the west and we didn't want to.After we left the city, we noticed that a pursuit force of about 120 men was patiently stalking us from behind on the flat country road. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that they were waiting for the men from Clarent to sandwich us for a pincer attack. We could lose them in the woods, but the sun was almost setting. Traveling in the Wild with this many people in the night with only half the amount of armored carts was a recipe for disaster. So while I would rea
It took a total team effort to clean up the battlefield. Skera gathered the bodies into piles. I looted weapons, armor parts, mana-crystals, crowns, and horse corpses (as emergency rations) into my bracelets. Emma torched the piles of human bodies and covered up the blood-soaked road with earth magic. Nairi was tasked to collect casings and bullets. Darkness was approaching, but with the lovely bonfires of dead bodies, we had just enough light to finish the job. It was definitely not a pleasant experience- I could smell the horrid stench of burnt hair all over. But it was definitely worth the effort. From the dead, I was able to loot over hundreds of weapons, piles of armor parts (most of them were very well-ventilated), dozens of mana crystals, and thousands of crowns. A fine haul~As I cheerfully chucked the last looted corpse into a big burning pile while whistling (Gaius and Valerian were fucking loaded!), Skera approached me with a difficult expression on her face. I didn’t blam
*AWOOOOOOO~* I was rudely awakened by a chorus of howling and yelling. Fuck, I was hoping the wolves wouldn’t venture too deeply into goblin territory. But I supposed the allure of picking off a few stragglers from a convoy as big as ours was too great to resist. I got up and saw the children huddled together in fear.“Don’t worry guys, I’ve got this!” I did my best to reassure them as I grabbed Severance Pay and headed out. Except that my services weren’t really needed. The battle was basically over. By the time I got out of the wagon, Loki sniped the wolf with an > as it retreated. And that marked the end of the raid. Looked like they repelled the attack without me. But there were a couple of people down on the ground bleeding. I hurried to the crowd and pushed aside some people to get to the center. “I can cast >. Is there anybody that needs it?” I announced to nobody in particular. Natalia looked at me with a downtrodden look. “No need, Forge-Master Rummy. Ar
I opened my eyes in a dark room with no pain and headaches. Wow, I guessed I was out long enough for Sapphire to build a house. I rubbed my eyes and focused. However, I still couldn’t see anything in the darkness. I saw no window or door in this…house? Is it a house?Uh, I didn’t die again, did I?I got up and began to feel around like a blind man. After 5 steps, I touched something cold and metallic. Wow, it was a big double door entrance. A little too fancy for my taste, Sapphire… Well, not that I had any right to criticize her. I pushed and pushed on it, and yet it wouldn’t budge. Hmm, weird…“Emma?” I shouted “Natalia?”My voice echoed across the chamber. Based on the echo, I was in a big chamber. Uh oh. There was no way Sapphire could’ve built this. Where the fuck was I?The roof of this chamber suddenly moved, rotating and opening at the same time. Blinding light shone on the exact spot I was standing. After I adjusted my eye to the sudden source of light, I realized that I was
I woke up with a guttural groan from a dry throat. Despite sleeping for at least half-day (I wasn’t sure how long I was out after returning from my lovely meeting with the gods), I still felt like hammered shit. My body still ached with pain all over.“Rummy! You’re awake!” Emma shouted excitedly as she kissed me on the cheek. I felt some moisture from her eyes. Sigh, I’d been an uncool husband. I’d made my future wife upset with my recklessness.I groggily said. “Sorry to worry you, love. But I’m alright. Just a bit injured.”“Hah!” Skera dismissively chuckled from outside the cart. “You were unconscious for one and a half days! I was just about to pronounce the Knight’s Last Rites for you!”Dang, 36 hours? I wondered if it was the result of this Dream Pull thing, or it was because of the near-fatal injuries I’d sustained. Either way, was my hearing off, or did Skera offer to bury me like a real Knight? Emma glared at her friend. “No need to ruin the romantic moment, Skera!”“Althou
With a leather saddle and crude stirrup in my hands, I casually walked into a freezing wolf den. 2 beta female wolves glared at me, but did nothing else. Guess they were still warming up to the idea of humans being more than just a happy meal to the pack. Freja, the Champion she-wolf, merely turned her head towards me for a glance before lazily turning it back.All of the female wolves were nursing their pups. All 10 of them. Man, given the reproductive speed of this pack, they could potentially overrun the entire ecosystem, humans included. In the Wilds, most of them would die due to malnutrition or predators. But since Pridwen provided a safe haven for them, not to mention enough fish for the whole pack, those 2 natural population controls no longer applied. Well, based on my shoddy biology knowledge, I knew that the wolves from my old world reproduce once a year via the estrus cycle, and that only the alpha male gets to do the deed. So if the wolves from the pack followed this cyc
The burly Paladin suddenly stopped struggling to get at me and guffawed. “HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You hear that? The stupid boy wants to duel me” He pushed the restraining hands aside and pointed right at me. “Fine! I accept! I’ll gut you just like I did to your street rats! Maybe that will teach you to respect your superiors.” The Archmage frowned deeply. I guessed he wasn’t a fan of Palusi’s plan to kill me in order to get me to be more pliant. Well, nobody ever confused Paladins with PhD’s… The Prince, after a moment of deliberation, finally spoke. “Paladin Palusi. Bring Ser Rummy to me alive, or you shall never be a Paladin again for the rest of your life.” That took some of the excitement out of the Paladin’s eyes. “Your Grace. I… I hear and obey.” “Should I win, I want the remains of my scouts, along with the wolf.” I calmly declared the stakes. Archmage Schuma weakly smiled in response. “Ser Rummy, is that truly all you want in exchange for risking your life and limb against one of
“You ready buddy?” I gave Loki an affectionate nose pat (Loki is far too tall for me to do head pats by now).“AWOOOO~” An armored Loki replied as he sniffed my neck. He was wearing a leather cap on his head (with 2 holes cut out for his ears), a leather chest piece that covered the front of his neck and down his chest, and a leather armor around the stirrup protecting his spine. “Yeah, you are! You’re my good boy!” I gave his ears a good petting and hopped on. Tali was pulled up shortly after. We sallied out of the gate in a blur. Loki gracefully jumped across the various trenchlines that lined the field and arrived at a stone obelisk with a “700m” carving near the top.Tali and I got off Loki and waited for the other side to arrive. Within a few minutes, a diplomatic party of 4 rode their war horses towards our position. Based on the fancy gear, fancy flag, and fancy horse (those things are twice as large as the horses in Carnwennan), this is the guy I needed to meet. The diploma
Sigh… I supposed it was very on-brand that shit hit the fan on the one day that I was off. After all these months of pulling 12 hour workdays, I figured I deserved a little morning break with the kiddos and their wolf puppies. Loki just had another batch of puppies with members of his impressive harem, so I was letting them mingle and play together outside on a beautiful sunny day. I was able to enjoy the blissful tranquility of puppies and babies for precisely 13 minutes before the castle bells were rung.To our credit, we responded quickly to the impending crisis. Within half an hour after the signal flare was sighted, everyone outside the walls were drawn inside and all militia members were at the battlements manning their posts. The non-combatants were heading to the arms factory for shelter (and to be gang-pressed into emergency ammo workers). The annual drills I made all of us do really paid off in that regard. I arrived at the battlements roughly 10 minutes after I’d heard the
The day started out like any other in these past few months- me waking up buck naked with two beautiful women by my side (equally naked, I may add!). Sure, I was usually exhausted from a jam-packed 10+ hour workday by the time I got back home, but the sight of 2 alluringly half-naked women bent over on my bed invigorated me in ways that even a potent cocaine and methamphetamine cocktail could not. The women of my harem had decided that 2 of them would “service” me at any given night while the other one would rest up and watch the kids. Of course, some part of me wanted to take all 3 of them at once every night. But I think I would drive myself into an early grave if I overworked my poor heart like that, especially if I had to work 10+ hours the day after…Tali had fortunately integrated into the harem with no drama. Of course, since my 1st wife Emma was the one that encouraged her to jump into the degeneracy, she had no problem with handing over the nominal role of the “head wife” to
“Here is a new draft of the report on the iron shortage, Forge-master Rummy.” Nairi helpfully handed me the finalized draft of the report cobbled together from a series of disorganized notes and illegible calculations from yours truly. “Shall we go over the report together now so I could finalize it?” She asked in her typical angel-sweet voice. “Correction: I will go over and finalize the draft. You still need your rest.” I pointedly replied. Apparently, my overworked apprentice had a fainting episode while I was out in the Elven territory. She was teaching some of the newbies how to press the ammo cartridges at the forge-smithy around noon-time when she fainted for a moment. It was probably heat exhaustion or heat stroke from the ever-burning forge fires, but this is unacceptable. Considering his stance on work-life balance, Ronnie Lee would be rolling in his grave if he saw this. Nairi’s sunny enthusiasm for forge-smithy sometimes distracted from the fact that she was still a matur
*BOOM* The last Ranger fell upon his knees and slumped down, clutching his chest under the mid-day sun. Soon he would join his comrades (and my former comrades) and depart the mortal plane. After I slinged the Garand over my shoulder, I cautiously approached the 4 fallen Rangers. As messed up as it is to loot them, my growing militia has equipment needs and military-grade body armor doesn’t grow on trees.As I turned one of the bodies over to strip it of the leather armor, the not-dead-yet Ranger grabbed my hand with what little strength he had left. Unlike the movies and books, people usually don’t immediately die after getting shot. The blood loss takes time. “It’ll be your day soon, traitor!” He croaked with all the malice and bitterness he could still muster. “Until then, mind if I borrow your stuff?.” I nonchalantly brushed aside his arm and continued looting. My former comrade gradually lost his consciousness as he bled out. By the time I was done looting him, he had expired.
In an austere meeting room of the City Hall with ornate furnishing, I begin my speech in front of all the relevant factions- my Legion’s general staff, the nobles of Carnwennan, and the general staff of the 626th Legion. Every one of them are in full military or noble dress, sparing no expenses. “Gentlemen, it has been a challenging moon and a half, but we have finally saved Carnwennan from the brink.” After waiting for the polite applause to die down, I continue. “Now, I will announce the reason why I came to Carnwennan. I was called here to accomplish the Quest that the Pantheon had bestowed upon me- the capture of Adept Rummy and his associates.” A wave of confused murmurs and “who?” erupts at my announcement. Fully understandable, I admit. But it is not the duty of mortals to publicly question the will of the Gods. Nor is it the duty of subjects to publicly question the will of their prince. That is the natural order of the world we live in. In response to this chatter, my Palad
“Kneel, peasant! For you stand in the presence of Prince Avalon of House Artorius!” My shifty Scoutmaster announced.The prisoner, who is in chains and manacles, slowly and hesitantly kneels in front of me. He seems to be a portly fellow of 40 or so winters.His hair is disheveled, and the state of his dress suggests that he was in the middle of an afternoon nap when the intrepid Turt apprehended him. “You may stand.” I cordially invited my new prisoner. The man looks wary of my invitation until Turt nudges him from behind. He tentatively rises up and stands before me. His face is understandably tense, as if he’s deciding between betraying his longtime friend and saving his family from certain imprisonment. A difficult choice, I must admit and sympathize. But unfortunately for him, I intend on making this a really easy decision.“I am going to be honest with you, peasant. I will sentence you to hang as a spy no matter what you say to me today. The only difference you can make today is
Authors’ note: This chapter is taken from the journal of Prince Avalon of House Artorius. Well, this Rummy character sure had made a proper mess in his wake. The city of Carnwennan was in shambles, dozens of noble Houses extinguished or ruined, and Gods know how many lives- highborn or otherwise- were reaped as a result of this madness. I would wager that it would take a generation or two for Carnwennan to recover, if it ever recovers.I am still piecing together what had happened based on what the scouts and knights had found, but this much is clear- he is no common commoner. It takes a certain arrogance and competence to plan and execute destruction of this scale.The decisive (and irreversible) nature of his action implies that he was never content living his lot and will never be content living his lot as the Gods intended. This man was prepared from the very beginning to defy the Pantheon and the natural order of this world, collateral damage be damned.In a way, both factions w