I let out a mental sigh of relief when the possessed woman died. It had been easy to tell that she was the source of the disturbance that Sylphy and Brock noticed earlier. Not only did she match in appearance, but she was practically dragging herself down the road, all alone. Anyone would find that suspicious.
As for what Prim said afterwards, that was following my instructions. I had the feeling that the weapon possessing her might have been a transmigrator, so I mentioned the tavern being automated. To a resident of this world, that would elicit confusion and suspicion. However, back on Earth, there were several self-serve restaurants that typically operated either via a buffet or a conveyor belt.
Afterwards, I had Prim mention the transmigrator, and how this was just an experimental facility to test these buildings. I didn’t want the other party to realize that the Land itself had awakened, or else it might have some way to attack me. Instead, I made Prim offer to buy the woman some supplies as an excuse to get her to go to the general store, where she could use Wesley’s bank card to deposit a large sum of gold coins into the trash bin.
Using the points gained from those coins, I bought an actual dwarven woman with rank three in strength and a single attunement slot and equipped her with an iron meteor hammer that had the effects of ‘Binding’, ‘Anchoring’, and ‘Increased Durability’. With these effects, the meteor hammer turned into a proper capture weapon, and Leonard was given a hammer optimized for crushing swords.
Part of me didn’t want to believe that the other party was going to jump straight to evil. If they had taken the supplies and been on their way, I would have simply alerted Wesley after he returned. But, it seemed that the allure of the settlement was too great, or perhaps that sword needed to consume people to level up. Either way, the moment it prepared to attack Prim, I had Lesley, my new dwarf, jump into action.
However, once the weapon was actually destroyed, a series of messages appeared on my interface, startling me.
Insufficient M points, cannot absorb ‘Blade Protrusions’ effect.
Insufficient M points, cannot absorb ‘Blood Feast’ effect.
Insufficient M points, cannot absorb ‘Possession’ effect.
Insufficient M points, cannot absorb ‘Devour’ effect.
Insufficient M points, cannot absorb ‘Monster Lure’ effect.
Insufficient C points, cannot absorb ‘Telepathy’ effect.
I’m sorry, what? I thought to myself as I read the prompts. I mean, it’s not that I wanted any of these effects in particular, but knowing that they were an option was… certainly something. I also wasn’t sure if absorbing the effect would directly apply it to me, or if it would allow me to purchase a building with a similar effect.
Either way, I earned a single monster point when the woman died and the sword was broken, so I at least had ten of those again? As for my main points, I had spent them all in order to get Lesley and her chain weapon.
Wesley and the other two adventurers ran back down the road, having caught sight of the traces left behind by the cursed blade. Wesley’s array of weapons were already hovering behind him, ready to attack at a moment’s notice.
However, as they approached the settlement, he saw an unfamiliar dwarven woman with red hair and a chain weapon restraining another one in ragged clothes and carrying a backpack. Then, Leonard lunged out and smashed a warhammer against the ragged woman multiple times.
Wesley let out a long sigh, realizing from this the general course of events. When he had left his card with Prim, that was in case of an emergency where he died in battle. Using the coins in the card, he assumed that Prim and the Land would have been able to find some way to protect themselves, even if it was just by building their own militia.
Putting his own weapons away, the blue-haired elf walked forward, raising a hand. “You got everything cleaned up here?” he asked, causing Leonard to nearly jump out of his skin. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
The new dwarven girl chuckled, nodding her head and wrapping the chain around her waist. “Yeah, just finished cleaning up. Though, Prim’ll want a word with you now that it’s over. There were… developments, let’s say.”
Wesley opened his mouth, about to ask for an introduction from the woman, before her words sank in. His eyes narrowed, and he looked at Prim, who was already walking past him, towards the treasury.
Understanding the gravity of the situation, Wesley followed Prim into the large building which could essentially be considered his personal office at this point in time. “What happened? Did the Land get another type of point when the weapon was destroyed or something?”
“Not quite,” Prim denied. “First of all, we confirmed that the weapon was previously a transmigrator from Earth, the same as the Land. This was confirmed carefully through our conversations. However, when the weapon was destroyed, the Land received… other notifications.”
Wesley gestured for her to continue, so Prim explained. “A series of notifications appeared, alerting the Land that it had insufficient points to absorb any of the destroyed weapon’s skills.”
The blue-haired elf’s eyes widened when he heard this. Naturally, that meant that with sufficient points, he could absorb the skills. “I see… I’d heard that there were various types of awakened items that had the capacity to absorb or steal skills. Some swords can do so through killing a target, or a book might if sufficient information about the skill is recorded. So, for the Land, the condition is having another awakened weapon ‘die’ in the territory?”
“That is the current theory,” Prim agreed. “However, we currently have no way of knowing if this only applies to awakened weapons, or if any weapon with a special effect like that can have their effects absorbed upon being broken. After all, no other weapon with such effects had ever been broken within his lands.”
“Makes sense,” Wesley agreed. This was a pretty rare occurrence even in large cities. For a small, single-hectare plot of land, it would be almost unheard of. “However, there’s not much that we can do with this information, apart from reporting it for transparency. After all, if a weapon is deemed dangerous enough to be targeted for destruction, that means that its effects would most likely not be something we would want transferred either way. And there is no real way of testing this mechanism without destroying another sentient weapon.”
Prim nodded her head in agreement. “There are two other things that I should note, as well. The first is that a monster point was acquired when the blade and the woman were killed. Whether it was for the destruction of the weapon or the death of the woman, we can’t tell. The other thing is that, in the process of making our preparations to subjugate the blade, we briefly reached one hundred points again. Unfortunately, no new items had been added to the list of options at that time.”
Wesley let out a low sigh, shaking his head. “That’s fine. I figured that we were getting to the end of what we could get with a settlement of this size, anyways. Once we have the tailor, we can focus on expanding the territory. Even if farms were available, we wouldn’t have the room for one right now, so extra space is likely a key requirement for farms.”
After he said that, he looked straight at Prim. “For now, I need to make my report to the guild, and then I’ll have to leave for a little while. There’s the chance that I won’t make it back before the official response from the guild arrives, but I can’t avoid leaving at this time.”
“It has something to do with the woman that the sword possessed, I assume?” Prim asked, and Wesley easily confirmed as such.
“Given that they came from the northern forest, the original owner of that body most likely came from Corvath. Since the weapon was strong enough to rampage through the forest and decimate its population, it might have caused some damage to the city before it left. Or, in the worst case, Corvath may have been entirely destroyed. I need to investigate to find out.”
“Can’t the guilds contact each other through the same device that you use to report to your guild?” Prim asked curiously.
“Unfortunately, letter carriers are quite expensive, and only come in pairs,” Wesley explained with a wry smile. “Typically, B-ranked or higher adventurers will have one to keep in contact with the guild where they are most active, in case of emergency dispatches. However, their effective range is too short to reach all the way from Leonin to Corvath.” Visit novelping.com for the full chapter.
Prim considered this briefly, before nodding her head and holding out Wesley’s bank card. “I see. In that case, I shall await your return.” With that, Wesley took the card and left the treasury, immediately running towards the north.
I watched Wesley disappear from my territory, feeling a bit reluctant to let him go. It would be hard to find another person that sympathised with awakened objects the way he did. Still, if serious damage had been caused to Corvath, it was important that we learn as soon as possible. From a practical standpoint, it could result in refugees arriving, meaning more points and the potential to break through my point cap.
With Wesley gone, Lesley introduced herself to the current residents, saying that she was something similar to Prim’s sister. Despite the obvious difference in their race, the people accepted this explanation readily.
The days passed, and after a week, I was able to purchase the tailor, my final ‘low level’ building that I could unlock without expanding my territory. Both Lucille and Daniel went to work here, which ultimately led to a split in wages, but that was hardly important at the moment when there was no effective way to pay the residents.
Thankfully, everyone had enough saved up from Wesley to afford cheap meals from Hilda at the tavern, and could supplement those meals with the fruits from the trees. Still, there had been no word from Lesley, nor another traveler from either direction.
Another week passed, and I purchased my second plot of land, this one directly south of the first. I chose to place it to the south because the southern half of my territory was currently the ‘residential’ area, and I was bound to need more of that before I needed room for more businesses.
Finally, three days into the third week, Wesley returned from the north. He brought with him another dozen people, all dressed in various types of adventurer garb, and twenty more civilians.
Wesley had a small smile on his face as he approached the familiar settlement. There was a new building in place, but it didn’t otherwise seem to be any different from before.
“This the place?” one of the adventurers behind him asked, leading Wesley to nod his head. “True enough, I don’t remember there being any villages around here.”
“I’m sure it will get bigger soon enough,” Wesley said with a smile as they approached the territory, where Prim could already be seen waiting. “How’s it going? Did the guild give you any trouble while I was gone?”
Prim blinked, tilting her head curiously. “We have yet to receive any response from the guild. Nobody has come down this road since you left over two weeks ago.”
Wesley hesitated, looking towards the south. “That doesn’t sound right… They should have sent some kind of force as soon as I issued my report.”
However, Prim shook her head. “Like I said, there has been nobody arriving. Speaking of, though, what was the situation in Corvath like?”
Wesley’s face darkened at that question. “The authorities didn’t know what was responsible. There had been a large number of people going missing, with evidence of a struggle in their homes. However, no bodies were found, so it was labeled as a kidnapping operation. That’s what kept me so long, since they had to ask me a bunch of questions.”
After saying that, he looked towards the south again. “Still, Leonin should have sent a response by now. Thankfully, I can send them a letter from here asking what’s going on… While I do that, can you arrange homes for this group?”