It began with fire.
Cruel Rose was enjoying herself at the time. Her closest enemies were destroyed. The north side was hers, at last. Madam Sara, the leader of the Ravens was bound to a pillar in the middle of the dining hall, gagged with both legs broken. Wrapped around her broken legs was the dead body of the Ravens’ Slayer, Donny. Unable to fight, unable to flee, unable even to curse, taunted by Rose and her lieutenants on every side, all Madam Sara could do was glare at them through reddened eyes.
But all of a sudden, shouts interrupted the revelry. “Fire! We’re on fire!!”
Who dared disturb the festivities?! The boss and her top lackeys were in the middle of celebrating the destruction of the Circling Ravens and the complete domination of the north side!
A man burst in. “Boss! We’re on fire!”
“Did someone mess around with the book again?!” Rose demanded crossly, irked at being disturbed in her moment of gloat-worthy triumph. “Where is it?
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Kingdom of the Weak 26. Boys’ Ambitions
Remian called him aside the next morning. “George, I was rather impressed with the way you stepped up for Mindy back then. Tell me, what do you plan to do in the long-term?” “You mean, what I want to be when I grow up?” George shook his head. “Nothing much. I just want to have my own farm and have enough food for everybody.” Remian nodded. “So why wait? You don’t have to wait until you grow up for that. Let’s do it.” “Really?” George blinked. “When?” He expected Remian to talk about five years or ten years ahead, but what he said was, “Today.” “Seriously?” “Right now.” Remian marked out a huge (or at least, it seemed huge to George) plot of land with fire. “From here to here, plant food crops. On this side, you can raise Glass Dandelions. Further out, we need Purple Heartbeat Trees and Blue Ring Mushrooms. Also, we should dig a large pond to raise Rainbow Jellyfish.” “You want to farm the ingredients for Tier 1 and Tier
Kingdom of the Weak 27. Girls’ Ambitions
Carrie arrived with no less than twenty wolfcats; eight Tier 3 adults, five Tier 2 half-grown wolfcats, and seven Tier 1 cubs. To be clear, these wolfcats were not joining the Guild; they were willing to dig and guard in exchange for cooked food, but they were not willing to join forces with humans or help defend the town when the Beast Wave came. They were there to watch Carrie or something. Remian wasn’t too clear on that, and Carrie didn’t elaborate, but basically they would be willing to work for her, but not for him. Also, they wanted a territory where they could live in peace. “Fine! We’ll take whatever we can get.” Remian looked about. “Maybe we can build them some kennels or something on George’s Farm.” [Or we can hunt the nearby Chief Blood Rabbit and take his burrow.] Carrie added. “Or that.” Remian agreed. “That sounds like a better idea. I’m actually quite impressed that so many of them are willing to follow you. I thought Wilds hated humans in ge
Kingdom of the Weak 28. Armament
In the hottest place of Frontier Town, iron melted like wax. Sparks and flames spontaneously burst into being and lived out brief existences in momentary glory. The roars of man and machine competed to overwhelm any hapless passerby’s ears. There at the heart of the heat, was a man. Truly, there was no other way to describe him. He was a man’s man. Burnished muscles, a towering figure, a six pack middle and shoulders that could bear a cow… women saw him pass by on the streets and murmured with admiration “Now THERE’S a man!” Do you not believe it? Just ask The Man himself! Surely such a manly man would not lie. Even if he did, your eyes would certainly tell you the truth… Anyone could see, very obviously, how manly this man was, compared to, for example, that runt of a boy who just walked in with the pretty, long-legged with hair like red honey. She was holding his hand as if they were on a date. A date? What a mockery! To enter the domain of
Kingdom of the Weak 29. The Construction Race
“Legionnaires!” Markus barked at the assembled trainees the next day after a morning of training and a quick lunch. “The Adventurers Guild say they are going to build a size 4 Evemont Guard Tower to Phase 2 by the next Beast Wave! What does that tell you?” Twenty trainees, a quartermaster, a drill sergeant and a new agent all stood there in assembly without saying a word. A few of them exchanged puzzled glances. What was that supposed to tell them? “It tells me that they don’t believe in us! They don’t believe that the Legion can protect the town on our own, and that we will not be able to keep them safe!” Markus roared. Again, the exchange of glances. It was obvious that the Legion really couldn’t… “Well, I say we prove them wrong!” Markus exclaimed. “I say we challenge them stroke for stroke! They want to build a Guard Tower? We will build one too! We’ll match them size for size… and we’ll do it better!” Fortifications! Everyone lit up. Now
Kingdom of the Weak 30. Growth
Don’t tell Markus, but having the Wilds help them was only half the reason why the Adventurers Guild managed to build the bunker form of the Guard Tower in six days. The other half had to do with a new scroll that Remian was Inscribing these days. It was a Lightening Scroll. There were nine different Tiers of the same spell; the Tier 1 version reduced an object’s weight by a few kilograms, up to half its original weight, whichever was lesser. Therefore, if a stone weighed 100kg, the Tier 1 version would reduce it to 95-99 kg, depending on the scroll Inscriber’s and the scroll caster’s power. If used on a 2kg bag of flour, it would reduce the weight by half to 1kg. The Tier 2 version would reduce weight by roughly 30kg (give or take up to 10kg) or half, whichever was lesser. While not entirely helpful with tons of logs, it enabled even children to cart level planks around by hand. Even considering how weak the scroll casters’ powers were, anything below 50 kg would lo
Kingdom of the Weak 31. A Certain Night’s Events
That night the headquarters of the Adventurers Guild looked like a mix of a school canteen and a kennel. There were wolfcats and children everywhere, yipping, laughing, screaming, yowling…Red and Lunar had brought their cubs to play with the children and Vigil had gotten caught up in the fun. The lot of them were scrambling around madly and having a jolly good time while their parents and caretakers took to the side to nurse their collective headaches.Remian watched the Maelstrom for a while with a small smile on his face. Then, he reluctantly broke in to extract someone from it. “Jane? A minute, please?”Jane paused, took one look at him, and immediately ran away.“Huh…?” Remian blinked, staring at her back as she fled. “What the…?”“What did you do?” Mandy asked, seeing the girl run away.“I didn’t do anything…! I just wanted to ask her how her stall
Kingdom of the Weak 32. Special Offers
That evening, the airship arrived.“Is it just me, or is the airship coming more frequently, these days?” Remian asked.“You only say that because we left late last time.” Charlie snorted.“Sorry. Did you get in trouble?”“Not really, no. The amount of goods and profit we brought back more than made up for it.” Charlie cleared his throat. “The more business the Frontier gives us, the more often we can justifiably come out here.”“Well, we don’t expect a Beast Wave for another week yet, so…” Remian grimaced. He really didn’t like the idea of depending on Beast Waves for the economy of Frontier Town.“Actually, I brought you an opportunity. It’s an old survey map, something left behind by a certain Deutero prospector…” Charlie slipped parchment into Remian’s hands. “Apparently, there might, just might be… a man
Kingdom of the Weak 33. Records
Tim was fascinated with the new headless spears. “They’re too heavy to throw or move around much… but if we’re just going to hold them in place and let the wilds run straight into them… I think they’re going to work! If we can just build them some frames…”“Frames?” Remian blinked.“Barricades that use these metal stakes instead of sharpened sticks.” Tim explained. “Actually, can we ask them to make completely metal barricades, with sharp stakes pointing outwards? I think the Iron Legion would actually pay for those.”It was a good idea. The Legion was experienced in fending off human bandits, so wooden stakes were good enough, but when it came to Tier 3 Wilds, they were going to need stronger, heavier fortifications.“Can you talk to Markus about it?” Remian asked.“Yeah. Last I checked, he was trying to buy out all the bear traps in town.&rdqu
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