In the process of building the new houses for my new residents, I had confirmed something that I had been suspecting ever since I first started buying houses. From what I could tell, after first unlocking a building, I could then buy additional instances of that building at only one tenth of its original cost. This was evident by the fact that new houses only cost one point, while taverns and wells cost two points.
For the rest of the day, people began to settle into their new houses, unpacking their belongings. Among the twenty-five new recruits, there was only one child, a young boy named Sirius who came together with his mother Janet, and his father Miles. I was worried how a child would grow up in this territory alone, but hopefully there would be more families attracted over time.
The day after arriving in this new territory, Wesley sat atop the tavern, holding a spyglass and aiming it towards the forest far to the northeast. He could see movement between the trees, birds flying away as if retreating from a dangerous threat. “Looks like they’ll be here soon,” he muttered. Glancing to his side, he noticed that the whiteboard-like item he obtained from the guild had begun showing a message.
Are you able to handle that?
Wesley gave a proud grin, waving the question off. “Of course, of course. In fact, that’s one of the reasons why I was chosen. The leader of the investigation team believed that their action of sacrificing a goblin might have roused the anger of the nest, so they wanted me to be here when the horde arrived.”
After he said that, he turned to look towards the forest. “I may only be a B-rank myself, but I specialize in dealing with hordes of lesser monsters. That said, I might not be able to give you very many points from this horde. If I want to safely get rid of them, I’ll need to take them out further away from the settlement.”
That’s fine. Points can be acquired slowly. I’d rather the people stay safe.
Wesley chuckled, clearly pleased by that answer. “Still, it’s a pity to let a few hundred points go to waste like that.”
I have a cap of 100 points. I wouldn’t be able to handle it all anyways.
“Oh? I suppose that’s true. Have you figured out the method of raising your point limit?” Wesley asked curiously, alternating between watching the whiteboard and the forest.
I think it has to do with population. When I had a caravan of eleven people camp here, I earned ten points. But when the investigation team arrived, numbering a little over twenty, the cap increased and I earned fourteen points at once.
“I see… unfortunately, we don’t know what number you need to advance,” Wesley shrugged his shoulders. “And getting people to settle in an area like this won’t be easy while it is in its current state.”
As he spoke, he spotted the first wave of goblins emerging from the forest, standing up and grabbing his backpack. “Well, looks like it’s my time to shine. I’ll be back once the horde has been pushed back.” Get faster updates on g.com.
Wesley hummed lightly to himself as he walked in the direction of the approaching horde, his magical energy building with every step. After leaving the borders of the territory, he arrived atop a hill overlooking the forest. From there, he could see the hundreds of goblins, dozens of goblin riders, and even several hobgoblins approaching from the distance.
“My, they even have a goblin shaman? This nest has been around for a while. I’ll need to make sure to take care of him before they retreat,” he said, dropping his backpack to the ground and pulling out a wand that he kept tucked into his belt.
Wesley cleared his throat, projecting his voice through one of the wand’s two effects. “Attention, all goblins. I am aware that you can understand human speech. Turn back now, and I won’t be forced to massacre you. Please and thank you!”
The goblin army paused, looking at the lone elf standing atop the hill before them. Their anger boiled over, and they began to charge with enraged shouts. Seeing this, Wesley let out a sullen sigh. “I did try to warn them.”
With a flick of his wrist, Wesley activated the second effect of his wand. The flap of his backpack burst open, and dozens of spears, rapiers, and daggers flew into the air, arranging themselves in a giant array over his head. Green circles began to float through the sky, positioning before each of the myriad of weapons. “Haste, Lighten, Blessing of Wind,” he muttered, each name causing the spell circles to shimmer.
Wesley looked at the approaching horde, unfazed by their numbers. He simply aimed the wand forward, launching the array of weapons. As soon as they passed through the spell circles, they turned into streaks of light, plunging into the ranks of the goblin army.
The first three rows of goblins and goblin riders instantly collapsed as holes pierced through their bodies, only for the weapons to sweep upwards and launch into the sky. The units further back slowed, their anger cooled by dread as they saw the bloodstained weapons hovering over them.
“Let’s see… I’ll leave you with one hobgoblin,” Wesley spoke calmly. “No, maybe two would be better? That way there could be a breeding pair.” He flicked his wrist again, and the weapons streaked down from above, piercing through the bodies of several dozen more goblins. Most of the weapons seemed to be aimed randomly, with a few targeting specific foes.
One such target was the black-robed goblin at the rear, holding a gnarled club. When it sensed the danger to its life, it erected a barrier of dark purple energy. This managed to stop the spear launched towards it, leaving the goblin pleased. What it didn’t see was a small dagger sweeping in from behind, slicing the goblin’s neck.
After this second wave, the goblins stepped back, clearly afraid of these flying blades. Once more, Wesley cleared his throat. “I will say this again. Retreat now, and I will allow you to live. If you do not accept my offer this time, I will be forced to kill all of you.”
The surviving goblins chittered amongst themselves in an unintelligible language, before turning back and running towards the forest. Wesley smiled at that, spinning his wand in a circle. The flying weapons all began to rotate rapidly, flinging off the blood and gore that they had gathered before flying back to his backpack.
Afterwards, a wooden staff emerged from the back, which he held in one hand. “Now for the cleanup. Firestorm!” he shouted, waving the staff. Flames burst forward from the head of the staff, cremating the bodies of the fallen goblins.
Once he was satisfied with his little inferno, he turned to begin walking back to the settlement, slinging his bag back over his shoulder. At the corner of the territory, he spotted Prim waiting for him. “Why did you let so many return?” she asked curiously, to which he shrugged his shoulders.
“Goblins are a part of the ecosystem, too. It’s important not to over-hunt any monster. If I wiped them all out, the monsters that they prey on would then be able to multiply with one less natural predator. I’d rather not take the chance that their extinction would ultimately invite a greater threat to the forest. Besides, with this display, they shouldn’t be coming back any time soon.”
Prim hesitated, but she knew that he was right. “I see… by the way, how can you use so many weapons at once? I know that you said that you had an abnormal number of attunement slots, but…”
“It’s exactly that,” Wesley confirmed. “Normally, people have an average of ten slots. Granted, you don’t need to be attuned with every item you want to wield, only ones that you want to ge special bonuses from or use the special abilities of. As for me, I have somewhere around a hundred slots.” The source of this chapter is novelping dot com.
After saying that, Wesley pulled his wand back out. “This here is my primary weapon, something that I had custom-crafted with extreme difficulty. It has the effect of allowing me to telekinetically control items that I am attuned to. It can also project my voice over a great distance, but that’s more of an unintentional side-effect it gained when crafted. As I said, I specialize in clearing out large groups of enemies. If they are C-ranked or lower, numbers don’t particularly mean much to me anymore. Unless, of course, I were to be faced with thousands upon thousands of enemies that don’t fear for their own lives. There’s only so much I can kill before they reach me.”
He let out a light laugh as he walked into the territory. “I’ll have Sylphy and Brock gather the stones once the bodies have finished burning.”
Having watched Wesley’s display of power through Prim’s eyes, or at least what she could see from behind the hill, I had to say that I was astounded by his ability to control so many weapons at once. Even if he had the slots available, and a specially crafted tool to guide them, he still had to multitask to an insane degree to be able to accurately hit so many targets.
That reminded me of a nickname that I had heard Sylphy use for Wesley after she woke up, seeming surprised that they had encountered the ‘Meat Grinder’. The two of them both seemed relieved at this realization, and no longer had any apprehension towards the upcoming horde. That was why I had spent so much of my time focused on him for the day, curious about the man who could earn that kind of title.
That said… since not one of the goblins was killed on my territory, I still had only a paltry fourteen points to my name. It would take a few more days before I had the chance to see if there was anything else that I could unlock within my current point cap.
At least there shouldn’t be any other major problems within the next few days, I thought to myself, looking forward to seeing the points steadily building up.
For now, everyone had already begun settling into their lives in this small village. A few of the villagers started plotting out where they could make a farm outside of my territory, not wanting to fill the limited space we had available with something that wasn’t even an ‘official building’. Meanwhile, Wesley guided some of the villagers to use materials that they had brought with them, working to construct a new building on the Land.
From what I could tell, Wesley wanted to see if manually crafted buildings would have the special effects of buildings purchased through points, though I wasn’t optimistic about that. At the very least, the Land didn’t seem to outright reject the construction.
At the same time, a pair of beastfolk girls called Alice and Lily were studying the grass and random flowers produced on my territory. They seemed interested in knowing if these plants also possessed spirituality, and whether they could be used in potions or other magical experiments.
These works continued on, with me idly watching over them, until three days after the goblin attack, when my points cycled up to fifty-six. As part of my daily routine, I checked my interface to see if there were any new buildings that I could craft.
Sure enough, there were two new entries listed. The first was T1 Roads, which I could purchase a hundred meters of at a time. While nice, it wasn’t the most important thing in the world right now.
The other entry, however, seemed quite nice. A T1 General Store, capable of buying and selling common products. This would be essential to cover the daily necessities of the villagers, without forcing them to make regular trips back to Leonin every few days or weeks. Though, given how the tavern turned out, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect of this general store…