PoV of a Templar Knight
Astren - Town on the outer edge of the Dol''kan Empire.
Jod was strolling in the town market, as he had a tendency to do whenever he was travelling. Most of the time, he found nothing of interest, but he liked the atmosphere. Especially here; he was born not far from here. He had lived in the capital since he was 11, but he recognized the farm produce he used to eat when he was young here. The capital had never truly been home.
"Find anything valuable, Jovial Jod?" John, his superior on this mission, asked. A nickname he did not like but accepted.
"Not yet, no." Jod answered.
John was a Templar Knight as well, stronger than him since he was level 58. Jod was only 49, and it was common knowledge that the level up to 50 gave a significant power increase.
In the Order, Jod was known as "the happy Templar" or "Jovial Jod." He had not come up with the nickname, but it suited his purpose, so he let it be. He was 35 years old this year, and he had only five years left of service.
He was not sure what he would do after his service to the Order was over, other than return to find out if his mother was still alive. Most Templars stayed in the Order after their required service was over, but Jod could not imagine anything worse.
Maybe he''d start up a farm in his birth village, like his father before him.
"You ready to travel?" John asked.
"Where to?" Jod asked; he was not informed of this mission, as John was the leader. The junior Templar was never informed; he was simply expected to follow.
"A village a few days from here, I think it was called... ah shit, I''ve forgotten. It is close to the edge of the Frontier Forest."
Jod reacted with a mixed feeling of joy and worry to that. He was born in such a village, and there were not many of them. He knew only of three such villages, and they were all quite close together. He kept his demeanor the same, Templar Knights were never assigned to their birthplace. It could not be his village they were going to.
"There were some escaped slaves who went into the forest, and the slave hunters were apparently attacked with a massive mental attack as they entered." John continued.
"Oh? The savages from the portal were mostly physical in their nature, if I remember correctly. Jod answered, feigning slight disinterest.
"Yes, which is why we were sent to kill or capture whatever it is in there. One slave hunter apparently got killed by the mental attack alone."
It was extremely unusual for mental attacks to kill. Most of them were meant for control or communication. Mental attacks that kill can exist, but the ones using them are usually high level. John had the class of [Breakwater Knight], which was a class entirely focused on enduring attacks for himself and others. It did not matter what kind of attack; his class had a skill to endure it.
It made sense that John was sent to find out what this enemy was. Jod, however, was a [Moonlight Sentinel] and had no real defenses against mental attacks. He used dark and light elements in his attacks and was stronger at night, especially under a full moon.
If there was a monster in the forest who used mental attacks, most of them would be resistant to the dark element and not weak to the light element. The full moon was also not shining any time soon. He was basically just an extra on this mission. At least John would use his defenses on him, so he''d not have to endure mental attacks.
"All right, let''s mount up!" John said.
---
PoV of Mafu.
The preparations were complete. I had built all my military buildings, the ants were ready, and Toqlan had gotten acquainted with my warriors and how to use his new [King] class. He previously had [Teacher], but it was consumed by the King class, and it resulted in Toqlan being lower leveled than before. The King class made up for it in stats, even when it was only ants and three other beast-kin that lived in the territory.
The plan was quite simple. We would attack during the night, with the ants infiltrating from all directions. Half of my military would go with Toqlan, and they would set up a defensive position just outside the village. The beast-kin would then be rescued by the ants and moved to the defensive position.
If anything went wrong for the ants, the mushroom military would attack from their position and capture any human, combatant or not, until Taressa could read their minds. Taressa would hold her position outside the village, on the opposite side from the defensive position, to catch any messengers going toward the Empire.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
We did not want the Templar Order to find out what happened here. It would be good if we could just get the beast-kin out in the cover of night, but we''d have to infiltrate and kill the slavemaster. And people of affluence usually don''t generally die without repercussions.
"Okay, move out!" I said.
My military started to march out of the territory, the mushrooms in an ordered formation, and the ants from everywhere around the territory. Taressa, now the size of a small pony, emitted a happy emotion through the mental link. I had talked with her about not being too cruel with her mind-reading, but I was inwardly worried she might overdo it.
They would arrive at the village in about three days.
When the military had all left, it felt odd in the forest. The usual thumping and tapping sound of ants moving about being missing made me feel uneasy.
The beast-kin children came by to talk to me every now and then. Ula was especially talkative when it was just me and her, and her thirst for knowledge was large. I usually talked with her about machinery, oddly enough. She easily understood the concept of power transfer between a water wheel and a grindstone, for example.
She came up to my central firecap today with a miniature model of a water wheel connected to a grindstone.
"Is this correct, Mafu?" She said, in a nervous voice. She was shy, but her thirst for knowledge had outweighed her fear of talking to me.
I was astonished. "Yes, that looks perfect to me," I responded. I was not all that knowledgeable about waterwheels, but I had built a model for a school project when I was younger. Without the grindstone, though, and the fact that a child from this medieval world could build one showed true intelligence.
"How did you build it?" I asked.
"Akro made the components for me." She said, a little bit shamefully. She was not very handy. One could describe her as clumsy.
"But you assembled the model, right?"
"Yes, Akro didn''t understand why, though."
"It is okay; some people are good with their hands, like Akro, and others are good with thinking, like you." I foresaw that I would rely on Ulas intelligence in the future. As long as she got a better sense of self-worth, she''d become an inventor.
"Will old man Toqlan come back with the others... like us?" She got to the real question she wanted to ask. All the beast-kin children were worried about the other slaves back at the village. They all handled it differently.
Ula mostly cried when she thought of two of the slave girls she was friends with. Kira, while not really being friends with the other slaves, had some sort of survivor''s guilt. She would become angry and leave the territory to go a little bit deeper in the forest. I don''t know what she did there, but I assumed she punched trees or something.
Akro was the silent type. He would distract himself with work, carry materials, or build traps. He was a gentle person, and as such I suspected he did not want to bother others with the trauma he had been through.
In some ways, I had become the therapist for these children. I did not mind it; frankly, I expected it. In my future plans of rescuing people from slavery, I would have to take responsibility and help them find a better life. Mentally and physically. I was just worried I might fall short. I did not have the skill set to help people with the kind of trauma they''ve gone through.
"I hope so, Ula. He should be back with them in a week or so. Maybe more if they have to take breaks along the way."
"Okay." She responded quietly. I saw that she was not happy with the answer. But if I gave her false hope, and Toqlan or the other slaves died during the rescue, it would be a lot worse. From my past life''s experience, it was best to not fully lie to children, especially about important matters.
---
The days while waiting for the return of my people were spent examining different things in the Fungal Pool. I examined plants and different materials. I tried my hand at the metals as well but understood next to nothing about them, other than the name of the metal.
Kira asked if she could go in the pool. I paused and realized that would probably be a smart idea. If I could upgrade the beast-kin in some way, like the ants, it would exponentially increase the strength of the territory.
But then I paused. It was an invasion of privacy, and I was not sure if Kira or any of the children understood what the pool was.
"It will tell me all the information about you, maybe even your thoughts. Are you okay with that?" I asked her.
"I don''t mind. It made the ants stronger, right?" She responded.
"Yes... but it was after a lot of ants were examined. I will learn things about you, but I might not be able to make you stronger."
"It''s okay. Maybe I get stronger." She said and went down towards the pool.
When she entered, the usual cacophony of voices and information invaded my mind. It took a few minutes until my mind cleared. I examined Kira thoroughly, as I hoped I could give her some sort of strength that she wanted. Kira was immediately sedated as she entered the pool, which I did not actively intend for it to do. But it was useful, as the examination took a few hours.
[Cat beast-kin, female analyzed]
[Progress to new understanding 1/10]
[Child analyzed]
[Unlocked Growth Inclination]
Oh, analyzing a child gave me an option in the pool. I could direct the growth of the person''s skill and stat gain. So it was not essentially strength, but I could focus someone to become a certain type of class. Kira woke up quickly as I powered down the Fungal Pool.
"Did you get anything?" She said, sleepily, while rubbing her eyes.
"Yes, but not exactly something to strengthen you." I said.
"Oh. That''s too bad." I could hear the disappointment in her voice.
"Kira, do you know what class you want to be? Do you want to be a warrior, an archer, or a mage?" I asked.
"Hmmm. Never thought about it. Don''t know." She said.
"What do you usually want to do? What are you good at?"
"I can move fast. And I can jump and climb. I like climbing."
Okay, what class would climbing fall under? Maybe a rogue-type class. I don''t know how I feel about making Kira a thief or assassin, though. But she would not be a child forever, and getting rid of the useless stats and skills would be quite important to get early on.
"I see; that would fit with a rogue-type class. Like a thief or an acrobat or something like that." I decided to let her decide for herself.
"What is a thief?"
"It is someone who sneaks around and steals things from people."
"Hmmm. Can I steal from humans?"
"Yes. Well, not right now. But when you get older."
"Then I want that. If I can steal stuff from them."
Back in the pool she went, and I used my [Growth Inclination] to raise her agility, perception, and dexterity gains. I removed some gain from strength, regeneration, and elemental resistance stats. I then made her inclined to get skills fitting with those stats I had empowered the gains of.
Essentially, she would only get skills to fit with her stats. And that should make her a lot stronger as she grew up. I myself had agility as a stat, but as it was a stat that boosted your mobility, I could not use it at all.
I silently prayed that I did not just destroy this child''s future; she could change her mind after all when she grew up.
But that''s a problem for another day.