Well, I think that it has been day five of us reaching the fallen temple and this place is already getting on my nerves.
It is not the place itself but the people that I am supposed to be leading. Soldier one is a smart person, but he is too emotional. I got a few moments of peace after I gave the soul trap to jack, but jack is not exactly skilled at using the ritual yet and the situation of soldier three and soldier seven is getting worse by the day.
The night wolves have always been lurking outside, they don't show themselves too much but they are always there.
That is also the reason that the troop is still in this place and not roaming the swamp to find a bunch of herbs that they are pretty unlikely to find. Any time a soldier of our tries to leave the protection of the walls, they are attacked. Right now I fear that we have boxed ourselves to this place.
The situation is not all bad as I make it to be if I am being honest. The troop has been working day and night to make sure that walls will not have any holes for the night wolves to exploit.
Well, let me talk about the fallen temple first of all. The fallen temple is a very basic outpost and has most of the things that we could need in a fight. Firstly you have the armory, which is nothing but a massive empty room. Most of the weapons that we have got in this place are from the walls.
The second one is the wall and the towers, out of which one tower has collapsed, leaving nothing but a pile of rocks in its place. The other two are functional, but other than patrolling there is going to be very little use of them. The turrets have been destroyed, and we don't have any qualified archers here to make use of the height provided by the tower.
The third thing is the storehouse, which is where we are getting our supply of stones to repair the walls. They seem to have been stored beforehand by the previous troops that visited this place. It seems to be a type of rock that is present in the black water swamp known as black water stone. Honestly speaking ot is not a very useful material. It is a normal rock with a bit of dark mana infused into it which makes it very hard to detect. Anyway, it is the material most of the things in the camp are built out of.
Anyway, the place of interest for us is the quarry. It is where the troops before us must have gotten their supply of black water rock. Right now we cannot extract any minerals or rocks from the quarry. The entire place has been infested by some kind of magical rats. It was supposedly the reason that the entire place was even lost in the first place.
The rats destroyed the food rations and the water supplies for the troops that were in this place. That is why they were forced to abandon this place.
Anyway, right now we have to go down there, though the reason for us is different compared to the others.
Right now I need a massive supply of recently killed corpses for jack to practice soul trap. The traditional routes of learning such a spell will take too long(months and even years.) soldiers three and seven have the possibility of dying any day.
Other than that, there is also the fact that I can't risk having such a large group below us. If these rats were to attack at the wrong time, it might very well be possible that this world will end up as my grave. I can also get a few levels here and maybe even evolve once, so I will be hitting three birds with one stone in this case.
Anyway, that is how we ended up in the quarries, hunting for these vermin. It is a relatively small group of me, soldier one and jack who are down in this place.
Well, it is mainly me and the soldier one that are doing the hunting in this case. Jack is the one that has to practice the ritual after all.
The other soldiers should be busy doing their tasks, though they will need to come down here in a couple of days. These vermin at the very least provide a life force, so maybe they also can acquire a few levels or even an evolution.
Well, I hate this place. Most of the tunnels are pretty big for goblin size beings but I am significantly larger than them, which means that it is a close fit for me and moving through it is a bit hard.
Well, here comes the enemy. If they can be called that. They are like very large rats, almost the size of a dog. Their teeth are abnormally large and seem to have some kind of acid dripping out of them. Other than that they are pretty harmless, though that acid of theirs does hold the ability to spoil most of our food rations.
Me - what are the levels on this group, soldier one.
It is an ability of those inherent to this world or those with a complete status. Turns out, I don't have a complete status like the other of this world.
Turns out they have other things like health and something call stats. It seems to be a manifestation of all their physical attributes along with the things that could be found in my status.
Soldier one - one of them is a level 2 and the other a level 3. No special abilities, as far as I can tell.
Me - take the level 2 and I will take on the level 3 enemy. Jack, you know what you are supposed to do, be ready.
I begin to charge towards the level three rat which is not as impressive as it would have been on open ground. These tunnels do tend to cramp my style completely.
Anyway, before the level 3 rat can react, I strike at the beast's face, taking out one of its eyes. Not that it will do us any good. These guys mainly live in dark areas, which makes their eyes nothing more than showpieces.
The pain only serves to make it more aggressive. It tries to get a bite out of me, but these rats have a predictable pattern which does make it pretty easy to dodge them.
As I dodged the beast's attack, I counter-attack with a strike to the beast's throat. As expected, the sword enters deep into the rat's throat. A level three is sturdier than others of his kind. For a level 2 and a level 1, that strike would have separated their head and their body.
The beast is still struggling to move about, trying to get a bite out of me. Well, it flails about for a couple of seconds and then soon falls dead. The moment that it dies I can feel some kind of mana present in the rat's body to enter my own. That is the beast's life force entering me, I believe. I could not sense it before but now I can sense it in the last couple of days. Maybe my mana sense is getting better. Who knows maybe I am getting close to level 3.
Anyway, my thoughts were interrupted by a sound in my head.
Finally, I have managed to reach level 2. Honestly, I am not sure what I am supposed to be doing here. According to soldier one, every time that a being levels up, the life force that they gathered can be used to upgrade their stats, essentially modifying their bodies.
Well I, have no idea it will work for me since I don't have a complete status like them and probably never will. Now is not the time to look at all of this mess. We have a quarry to empty.
Me - Jack, do your thing.
Meanwhile soldier one ended up killing the level 2 rat too. The kill is pretty clean, a single pierce into the rat's throat.
Jack quickly goes to the ground surrounding the enemy and begins to draw a couple of runes on the ground. I tell him how exactly he is supposed to draw the runes. He is still making many mistakes, but he has become better.
A week or two, and maybe he can create them properly. Now I just need soldier three and soldier seven to live that long.
Anyway, these runes might have a chance of functioning, though I would give them about a 40 percent chance of success.
Anyway, once all the rules are set in the ground, it should hold the ability to trap the soul of the victim and any ability to raise the dead can be used to reanimate the body.
Honestly speaking this is one of the harder worlds for such a spell. The soul tends to linger in the body for only so long before being dragged into whatever underworld can exist in such a place.
In some worlds, it can happen even take hours before the process happens. This world takes about five minutes before the soul is dragged into whatever underworld this world has.
Mana began to gather in Jack's hand as it entered the corpse of the rodents.
Me - well, you have failed again, have you. Well at the very least we managed to improve on your rune work, you just need to be more careful about your rune work.
Soldier one - troop master, it would be pretty dangerous for us to be wasting time in such a manner.
Me - I know, soldier one. That is why we are here working on getting these corpses. These corpses will also help us in boosting our defenses above. We can't hold off an army with merely ten people.
Soldier one - I know, troop master. You have repeated it so many times. I just wish that this process would be a bit faster.
Me - then let's go deal with a few more rats.
(Meanwhile)
The night king's court is very active today. Well, it is the meeting of two powerhouses, silence would have been pretty boring.
Night king - what are you planning to do, representative. You might represent the other families but I have the final say in this matter.
Representative - the families are not happy with the way things are going. We don't mind listening to your commands, but we are finding it hard to believe that you hold the ability to be fair anymore.
Night king - young one, you dared to blame me of favoritism. Do you want to die right now?
Representative - three of our young are dead and the night hunter meant to protect them is not yet dead. For such failure, death is the only punishment that is possible.
Night king - he is the general of the night hunters. His death will be detrimental to the group.
Representative - well, that is true, night king but the families are demanding revenge and they want it very badly. You cannot deny our revenge.
Night king - fine, representative. They are presently at the abomination that the goblins have created. You want your revenge then you can go and take it. I will allow an attack. I will personally make the night hunters help you. I think the Night hunter will like that. He always wanted to destroy it.
Representative - the night hunters must not interfere with our revenge or the conditions of our agreements will be nulled. The goblins are sneaking into our lands, the water wolves are charging into our lands and you the night king are becoming old. Now is not the time for unnecessary arguments among us night wolves, isn't it?
Night king - fine, but I would suggest that you do not underestimate the enemies. They are a very powerful group of goblins. There is a first step being in the group and there is a being that you need to be particularly wary of. It is an armored creature. It is a kind of undead, as far as I can tell.
Representative - what can be worse than a first step being.
Night king - a being about whom I have not a single clue about is someone that you should be wary of.