《The Never-Ending Search for Amusement》 Universe For as long as I can remember, there was nothing. I didn''t mind mind, because it was all I ever had. There was just me, surrounded by a dark void, thinking. After an indefinite amount of time, for even time didn¡¯t exist back then, I realised something. If there was nothing, and I was in it, then there was something. After all, I¡¯m not nothing. I¡¯m not sure what I am, but I exist, so I can¡¯t be nothing. Therefore, if I¡¯m in the nothing, maybe something else could be. And as if it was waiting for me to realise that, something exploded into existence. You see, I hadn¡¯t been alone in the nothing. Floating around in it, too small for me to notice, was an incredibly dense object. As if my thoughts had triggered it, it expanded to prove me right. I didn¡¯t know if it should be called large or small, because the void was endless, and I had nothing to compare it to. I called it the Universe. I stared in awe at the swirling lights that suddenly occupied what had previously been darkness. I had never seen light before, and was fascinated. I looked closer, and saw masses of rock and gas swinging around the lights. I named the lights stars, and the masses planets. They were very interesting, and I studied them, learning everything they had to offer. In a fraction of a millisecond, I knew everything about the Universe. Now that I understood this thing that had suddenly popped into existence, I studied myself. I had no physical body, and had no size. It was as if I was a something created by the nothing, an impossible paradox that made no sense yet had somehow happened. I was able to interact with the Universe however I wanted, moving atoms into different formations, changing them to form new elements or destroying them altogether in bright explosions. I was a god.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. After the cycle of a planet around its sun, I realised that I was bored. Yes, something other than me was here, and yes it was pretty, but I already knew everything about it. There was nothing it would do that I hadn¡¯t already predicted. With that in mind, I decided to create a being like me; untouchable, immortal, all-powerful. Someone who I couldn''t control, who could surprise me. I failed. Well, I half failed. Because I have no body to examine and copy, I couldn¡¯t make anything like me. However, I did create a sentient being. I took apart a small galaxy that wasn¡¯t influencing any others very much, and with the atoms it contained, created something that could think and could move atoms like I could. It wasn¡¯t very hard. The being started panicking. It didn¡¯t know what it was or why it was here. It¡¯s body shifted from a giant planet to a pool of gas to a black hole. It didn¡¯t know how to control itself, and wreaked havoc on the surrounding galaxies. Not wanting the balance of the Universe being disrupted, I introduced myself. ¡°Hello,¡± I said. Well, I didn¡¯t say it exactly, but rather implanted the thought of me saying hello in the being¡¯s mind. It started to calm down. ¡°Where am I? What am I? Who are you?¡± It was scared, but it was comforted by the fact that someone else was there. ¡°You are in the Universe, a collection of billions of galaxies, each having billions of stars and planets. I¡¯m not entirely sure what I am, but I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m a god. I created you out of a galaxy because nothing could surprise me and I was bored.¡± The being was shocked. It¡¯s body stabilised into a giant star and it looked around. ¡°You...created me?¡± It thought. It turned into a supernova. ¡°Of course. Who else could it be? We¡¯re the only sentient beings here!¡± With this statement, the being finally stopped changing. It was calm. ¡°I can see you¡¯re still confused, so I¡¯ll let you explore the Universe for a while,¡± I told the being. I was excited to see how it would react. Hopefully, it would be interesting. ¡°Wait,¡± it said, ¡°If you¡¯re a god...does that make me a deity?¡± Deities While the deity explored his home, I looked for something interesting and found it; a planet that had life. Sorry, a planet that would have life in a few billion years. It was the right distance from the sun, had water, had oxygen and carbon dioxide...everything you need to make living beings. Aside from deities, of course. Those were special. I jump started the planet by fixing the percentage of gases and moving it a bit closer to the sun for a more optimal temperature. Soon, single celled organisms would form. I waited for a few of the planet¡¯s years, and when I looked down, there they were. I would have made them myself, but I wanted to see what evolution had in store for them. Not bad. I¡¯d make a few adjustments, but the organisms worked. A couple decades later, I decided to check on the deity. When I found him, he had travelled across a couple hundred galaxies and was currently looking at a black hole. ¡°Careful,¡± I warned, ¡°getting sucked into that would hurt¡±. He shook at my words, not knowing I was there. ¡°I know, it almost happened a while ago,¡±. I thought about telling him about the planet so he could use units of time, but I decided to surprise him once more evolved lifeforms had appeared.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ¡°So...what do you think of the Universe?¡± I asked the deity. I hoped he liked it. ¡°It¡¯s amazing...so much information, it would take me forever to learn it all!¡± That made me laugh. ¡°What if I told you that I learned it all in less than a millisecond?¡± That shocked him. ¡°Well...you made me, so I guess it makes sense¡­¡± Suddenly, I got an idea. ¡°What if, to help you understand the Universe, I made more deities?¡± This really startled him, but after a second of thinking, he agreed happily. ¡°Really? That¡¯d be great!¡± He seemed to like the idea of having a couple friends to help him in his research. ¡°Alright, they¡¯ll be here in a moment.¡± With that sentence, I found a few more small galaxies that I could destroy. In the end, I had enough atoms to create six more deities. I made them almost exactly like the first, but with a few tweaks so they would have separate personalities. It didn¡¯t take very long. Soon enough, they woke up, confused. They weren¡¯t as scared as the first, because they weren¡¯t alone. They asked each other who and where they were but, obviously, none of them knew. This time, I wanted the first deity explain everything to them. I figured they wouldn¡¯t see him as one of them if I, their almighty creator, said they were supposed to help him explore the Universe. This way, they would be more equal. I brought the first one to them, and hoped their conversation would be amusing. Truth ¡°Hello,¡± the first deity said. His presence startled the others. They looked at each other, unsure of what to do. After a few seconds, one of them took the initiative. ¡°Who are you? Do you know anything?¡± The first deity thought about what to say, before replying. ¡°I¡¯m the first deity. We were created by a god, because he¡­¡± ¡°He what?¡± ¡°Yeah, tell us!¡± Wait, what do you mean created?¡± The deities wanted answers fast, but the first wasn¡¯t sure what to do. ¡°He created us because...he was bored. He knows everything in the Universe and nothing could surprise him anymore, so he created me by destroying a small galaxy and reforming the atoms. He left me alone for a while, so I explored the Universe. When we talked again, I told him how it would take me forever to understand it all, so he offered to create you guys to help me.¡± having said his piece, the first deity anxiously waited for their reactions.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! ¡°So we were created to help you explore the Universe? We¡¯re alive so you can research it? That¡¯s our only reason of existence?!?¡± The deities weren¡¯t happy. They pulsed, changing forms as they lost control over their abilities. If they didn¡¯t calm down soon, I would step in. ¡°What? No! I mean...when he offered to make people who would help me, I also hoped that we could be friends. It¡¯s lonely in here, and the God isn¡¯t the best companion¡­¡± That made sense. The deity had been wandering on his own for several of that planet¡¯s decades. That simple sentiment mollified the other deities. ¡°Well¡­¡± They still weren¡¯t happy, but at least they weren¡¯t angry. ¡°Wait, how do we know you¡¯re telling the truth?¡± With so many things happening at once, the deities didn¡¯t question what the first one had told him. ¡°Yeah, what do you mean some god made us? That¡¯s ridiculous!¡± I figured it was time I introduced myself. ¡°What he means is I created you.¡± The deities looked around in surprise, but as I had no body, couldn¡¯t find me. ¡°Stop searching, I have no corporal form,¡± I told them. They still tried for a few more seconds. ¡°So you¡¯re telling us you...made us?¡± one of them asked. No point in easing the truth. ¡°Yup.¡± Names I left the deities and returned to the planet. The organisms were thriving, but I didn¡¯t want to wait for them to evolve. I took a few of them and made them bigger and more complicated than the others. They would quickly eliminate the competition for food and rule the planet. That single change saved me from waiting a few million years, when the lifeforms would have naturally progressed to that stage. The organisms weren¡¯t identical, of course. I wanted some diversity on my planet. They all had slight differences in their DNA. Some of them would prosper while others died out. Then their descendants would develop their own characteristics. Over time, I would have a large selection of beings to interact with. When I returned to the deities, I found out that they had named themselves. The original went by Primis now, and the others were called Celeritas, Viribus, Aqua, Ars, Magus and Exitium. That was good. I was getting tired of calling Primis ¡®the first¡¯, and having no form of identification of the other six. Now we could have some proper conversations.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. I thought about talking to the deities, but they were having an interesting discussion with an even more interesting topic; me. Mostly, they were asking Primis what he knew about me, and theorizing what they were supposed to do when they finished exploring the Universe. ¡°Do you know anything else?¡± -Aqua ¡°Again, I¡¯ve told you everything I know,¡± -Primis ¡°I still don¡¯t understand what we¡¯re supposed to do,¡± -Viribus ¡°We have to help Primis explore the Universe,¡± -Celeritas ¡°No, I mean after that, what do we do?¡± -Viribus ¡°I have no idea,¡± -Ars ¡°Do you know, Primis?¡± -Magus ¡°For the last time, no!¡± -Primis This continued for some time. It¡¯s weird, how they ask things that only I have the answer to, when I¡¯m right here! Oh, right. I don¡¯t have a body, so they don¡¯t know I¡¯m here. Ah, whatever. It¡¯s fun to watch them scream in frustration. Pocket Dimension I visited the planet once the deities had calmed down. Actually, now that they have names, I should give it one as well. How about...Earth! Yeah, that should do it. I watched it for a couple years, making little changes here and there, and by the end of it, multicellular organisms had arrived! I got bored waiting, and sped up their development, basically fast-forwarding a few million years. Earth is pretty diverse! It¡¯s got plants, animals and a ton of different climates. I may have helped a bit, but Mother Nature is still good at her job. I thought about fast-forwarding animals until they became sentient, but I figured I shouldn¡¯t disrupt the natural balance too much. Although...once you¡¯ve explored Earth, and seen it all, there isn¡¯t really anything to do. Maybe I¡¯ll do it later. Actually, there¡¯s something that I¡¯ve wanted to try for a while that I could do now; making a pocket dimension. Seeing as there was nothing to do on Earth, and I had just visited the deities, it seems like a good time. So, this is a DIY tutorial on how to make a pocket dimension:
  1. Find an empty bit of space that you turn into the portal
  2. Empty it of everything (not a single atom)
  3. Create a small black hole and white hole in the area
  4. Be careful they occupy the same space but don¡¯t merge, or bad stuff will happen (try using open-ended singularity barriers)
  5. Enter the black/white (gray?) hole
  6. Enjoy your pocket dimension
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. It¡¯s actually a lot more complicated than that, but your mortal minds would explode from the sheer amount of information. I entered the portal and found myself in...nothing. I guess this dimension didn¡¯t have a Universe yet. Or maybe it hadn¡¯t appeared yet. Who knows? Wait, I know. I found this dimension¡¯s Universe, all clumped up into a little ball. It¡¯s really cute. Well, work time! If the first dimension is where I explore, make things and just...do stuff, this dimension is where I relax! Let¡¯s see...for now, it¡¯s just be a giant castle floating in space. And it has a lounge, and a snack bar, and a massage chair, and it¡¯s awesome! I feel like I¡¯m missing something, though...oh, right; a body to enjoy it all! I never really thought about making myself a body before, but I¡¯ll need one to fully utilize what my castle has to offer. I suppose I¡¯ll just create a body, and stick myself in the brain. Whoa, that¡¯s actually kind of creepy, like I¡¯m a mind-controlling parasite. Oh, well. My body is 6 feet tall, humanoid, and genderless. It¡¯s really just a bag of nerves and sensors. Let¡¯s hop in! Wow. So this is how you mortals feel. It¡¯s...weak. I¡¯ll definitely have to give it an upgrade later on, but for now, massage chair! Catching Up I spent a couple centuries in my epic castle of relaxation. I got tired of making whatever I wanted, so I made a butler, some maids and a few chefs who never get tired, didn¡¯t need to eat and were essentially immortal. You heard me right; I made a bunch of deities, super powerful immortal beings, to help me reach new depths of laziness. Nothing lasts forever, though, and I eventually got tired of gorging myself on endless feasts of every food imaginable, all the while getting a full massage from three separate masseuses. I told my faithful servants that I would be gone for a while and they could do whatever they wanted until my return. Even my stoic butler¡¯s expression cracked for a moment, and I could see tears of joy in everyone¡¯s eyes. Finally, the lazy glutton that had made them work for centuries was leaving. Finally, they could get some peace and quiet. The first thing I did once I stepped through the portal was say ¡°Wow!¡±. I¡¯d spent so long in my pocket dimension that I¡¯d forgotten how beautiful the Universe was! With beauty on my mind, I decided to visit Earth. It was doing pretty well. The animals were getting smarter, and a couple primates were using sticks to catch insects and rocks to smash nuts. They were a lot smaller than most predators, though, and hid in the trees whenever one came around. Maybe one day they¡¯d learn how to make a club. Whatever. On to the deities!Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Well, that¡¯s cool. To help them record everything about the universe, they made a giant library in the safest part of the universe; a black hole. No, think about it! If you could make something that a black hole couldn¡¯t destroy and put it in one, nothing natural could ever touch it. Pretty smart. To enter the library, you go through a special tunnel made of- hey, singularities! That¡¯s what I used to make my portal! They just copied what I did, didn¡¯t they? I entered the library, and boy, is it big! It¡¯s a giant room full of...everything. Every atom, every molecule, every substance possible is contained in little singularity boxes. Well, not everything. They¡¯re missing a couple. But who keeps track of it all? Oh, there¡¯s the librarian! ¡°Hello, Magus,¡± I said. He whirled around. Man, I love startling people. Also, props to him for condensing himself into a humanoid shape. That¡¯s not easy for something with as many atoms as a small galaxy. ¡°G-god? You have a body now!¡± What, so he gets one and I don¡¯t? That¡¯s not fair. ¡°Of course. How else could I enjoy food and massages?¡± Logic at it¡¯s finest. ¡°Also, don¡¯t call me god. I need a real name. Call me...Omnipotens, or Omni for short,¡± There. A proper name. How have I forgotten to get one for so long? Oh, right. I¡¯ve been a real Jabba for the past few decades. Yes, ¡®Jabba¡¯ is a real word. I¡¯m god, and I say so! ¡°I like what you¡¯ve done here. Looking at your holographic map (yes, they made one), you¡¯ve explored most of the Universe. Good job,¡±. He laughed nervously. I¡¯m not that scary, am I? ¡°Thanks, Omni¡­The other deities will be here soon. You could wait for them at the entrance¡­¡± He really wants to get rid of me. Ok. Bye! Mars I walked to the entrance and sat down on a conveniently placed bench that offered a nice view of the surrounding galaxies. Pretty...I waited there for a few days, meditating. That was something useful I learned to do during my visits on Earth, when I wanted to see watch it for a few decades. Basically, I shut down all of my senses except. It¡¯s kind of like sleeping, but I can think about stuff while I do it. Eventually, someone tapped my shoulder. I opened my eyes to see the deities staring at me. ¡°Hello,¡± I said. They looked pretty freaked out to find that I had a body now. ¡°Yes, I have a body. Floating around, unable to feel anything was pretty boring.¡± ¡°Umm...OK¡­¡± -Aqua ¡°It¡¯s weird, seeing you in a body,¡± -Primis ¡°Wait, Magus said to call you Omni¡­¡± -Exitium ¡°Yeah, I figured I should get a name,¡± -Me ¡°Omnipotens means all-powerful, ego much?¡± -Viribus ¡°Yep,¡± -Me This continued for a while, until I got bored again. Seeing as they had just finished learning about the universe, it was time to start the challenge. ¡°Ok, settle down. Big stuff is happening!¡± They shut up pretty quickly. ¡°As of this trip, you have finished learning about the Universe, right?¡± That was followed by a series of yesses. ¡°So...you need something new to do. Luckily for you, I already have something ready; The Challenge!¡± ¡°What¡¯s The Challenge?¡± -CeleritasThis text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡°It sounds ominous¡­¡± -Ars ¡°Tell us! What is it? -Exitium ¡°I¡¯ll tell you when you stop interrupting me,¡± I said. They calmed down. ¡°...Good. Now, as you all know, there is a planet with life in a small solar system a few billion light years that way. I checked on it right before I came here, and it¡¯s perfect for...what¡¯s wrong?¡± The deities looked sheepish, like children that just stole some candy. ¡°Well¡­¡± -Primis ¡°We kinda¡­¡± -Ars ¡°Kinda what? Just tell me!¡± -Me ¡°We kinda...killed it...¡± -Aqua ¡°...¡± -Me ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ Ok...that sucks. That really sucks. The planet that I spent so long nurturing, growing, is dead. ¡°What happened?¡± I asked. It better have been something awesome, like a giant meteor hitting an active volcano, creating an explosion of lava. ¡°We¡­¡± Primis decided to take charge, ¡°we were needed a sample of iron and nickel for the library, so we took some from the core, and the atmosphere...floated away...over the course of a few centuries¡­¡± Let me get this straight; not only is my masterpiece destroyed, it died in the most boring and anticlimactic way possible? Come on! I got really angry, and was about to break something, when I remembered something; I¡¯m god. I can do literally whatever I want. Why don¡¯t I make a new planet? Yeah, it¡¯ll be even better than the first, because it¡¯s handmade! I flew away and looked at Earth. It was a ball of red sand now, significantly smaller than before, with nothing living on it. Boring. Let¡¯s see...I want the new planet at the same distance from the sun, because that seemed like a good temperature, and I want it to be bigger, for a bigger population. I moved Earth about fifty million miles further from the sun, and made a new planet where it used to be. I want to name the new planet Earth, because I really like the name, so the old one will need a new one. ¡°So, which one of you thought it was a good idea to take away part of the planet¡¯s core?¡± I¡¯ll name the planet after the idiot who thought of it, as a reminder to never do anything stupid again. ¡°It...it was m-m-me¡­¡± Ars stammered. ¡°Well, seeing as it¡¯s your fault, and because you kept repeating the ¡®m¡¯ in ¡®me¡¯, the planet will now be known as ¡®Mars¡¯! Please, never ruin my stuff again. And that¡¯s how all life on Mars died, and how Earth was created. Challenge I haven¡¯t explained the challenge yet, have I? No? Ok. Basically, I¡¯m going to create a bunch of sentient species on Earth and have the deities govern them. I¡¯ll give them ten thousand years to do something cool, or I¡¯ll kill them all. Fear is a great motivator! It¡¯s not going to be very easy, though. The various species will be made with different strengths and weaknesses, so only by uniting them can they reach their full potential. I¡¯ll put keep them far apart so their different cultures can evolve and they become intolerant of strangers. I decided Earth would have one giant continent, split into several chunks by giant rivers, chasms and mountain chains. I called it Unguis. Dunno why, it just seems right. Unguis looks a bit like a triangle pointing up, with a scattering of islands surrounding it. I gave it various biomes with their corresponding inhabitants. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Good? You understand? Ok. Now for the people! Let¡¯s see, I¡¯ll make: Elves; long-lived humanoid; limited control over atoms (can use magic) Dwarves; short humanoids; lots of upper body strength Centaurs; humanoid torsos attached to equine bodies; lots of lower body strength Lizardmen; humanoid lizards; can swim very well Avians; humanoids with bird wings; can fly Giants; giant humanoids; very strong The other species except giants (they¡¯re to OP) can also use ¡®magic¡¯, but not as well as the elves. My idea is that I put a deity in charge of a species, and have them lead them indirectly. Meaning, they can¡¯t just force everyone to get along; no, they¡¯ll operate in dreams and prayers and blessings. This is going to be a very religious planet. Now, I was going to tell you about the deities¡¯ reactions, but it was pretty boring. Some disbelief, some anger (at my threat) and then some sighs. Not the kind of stuff you want to read. Well, I¡¯m going to head to my castle of relaxation for a bit, and then tell the deities to start. Prepared After a year of intense massages and endless feasts, I returned to the Universe. The gods better have a good plan, because the Challenge was going to start very soon. ¡°Hey guys!¡± They all jumped. Seriously? Can they not see me coming? I have a body now, you know. ¡°Hey, Omni,¡±- Primis ¡°Hello¡­¡±- Exitium I guess the other deities are too scared to greet me. Sweet. It makes me sound like a complete badass. ¡°Ok, planning¡¯s over! Ask any questions and then the Challenge starts!¡± I was going to let them ask questions, of course. Else they¡¯d misinterpret the rules and ruin the whole thing. ¡°Ok¡­¡±- Primis ¡°Go! Ask!¡±- Me ¡°Well, we were wondering if we can make more species, and have them unified by one god.¡±- ExitiumThis content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Why would you want that? Actually, no. Don¡¯t tell me. Surprise me,¡±- Me As long as they counted as a single nation, I don¡¯t really care. The gods looked really relieved, though. They must have really wanted this. ¡°So, what species do you want?¡±- Me ¡°Well, we made some examples,¡±- Primis ¡°Ok, get them!¡±- Me Magus, the great librarian he is, scurried off somewhere and came back a few minutes later holding three cages, which he presented to me. The first one contained a heavily muscled, seven foot tall humanoid with thick green skin and large fangs. It looked like a cross between a human and a giant, with its strength and intelligence somewhere between the two. ¡°This is an ork,¡± Primis said. I like it. The second cage¡¯s inhabitant looked like a smaller ork. It was about five feet tall and skinny; not a very good fighter. However, it¡¯s brain was much larger, making almost as smart as a human. ¡°We call this one a goblin,¡± Primis told me. Not bad. The final cage had, unlike the first two, a beast. It was essentially a giant bat, with a wingspan of just over twenty feet. Even with it¡¯s strengthened body, it didn¡¯t look like it could carry an ork. A goblin, however, could use them as flying mounts. Very smart. ¡°And this one is a giant bat, for transport and scouting,¡± Primis finished. ¡°I assume these will live with the giants?¡±- Me ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s the idea,¡±- Primis ¡°Sure, you can use them,¡±- Me In all honesty, I wasn¡¯t sure what good the giants would do, but with smarter and more numerous allies, maybe they wouldn¡¯t die out after a few thousand years. Well, I¡¯ve waited long enough, time to start! Start I placed a couple hundred of each species in different locations around Unguis, (except for the three new ones and the giants) and let the gods do their thing. Ok. They already assigned each other a species to take care of. It seems like: Primis= Humans Magus= Elves Ars= Dwarves Viribus= Centaurs Aqua= Lizardmen Celeritas= Avians Exitium= Giants, Orks, Goblins I¡¯m going to watch Primis for a while. Let¡¯s see...oh, he¡¯s speaking to the humans, telling them that he¡¯s a deity. They¡¯re afraid, but he¡¯s saying that he¡¯s there to help. If they want to survive, the humans need to:The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. -find a place with food and water -construct shelter -make tools They¡¯re wandering around, following Primis¡¯ directions to find their new home. This sounds like a great start for his religion. -five years later- The humans have a nice village now. Well, it¡¯s really just a bunch of mud and stick huts, but it¡¯s better than nothing. Primis chose one as their leader to stop fights, and three more as advisors. It¡¯s not perfect, but now the humans have a basic hierarchy. I¡¯m impressed by the humans ingenuity. They¡¯ve already learned how to make rope out of plant fibres, and spears with sticks and a sharp rock attached by said rope. They also have primitive axes, but they¡¯re not very good at cutting down trees. Seeing as the humans are doing ok, I¡¯ll check on the others. Nice. The other species are doing pretty much exactly what the humans are. The avians have constructed nests in the trees, the lizardmen use their spears to fish, the elves have crafted rudimentary bows...etc. I don¡¯t want to say ¡®orks, goblins and giants¡¯ whenever I refer to them, so I¡¯ll use an acronym; OGG! The OGG are doing the best out of everyone. Exitium has been using fear to control them,saying they have to advance in pretty much everything or he¡¯ll kill them all. He can¡¯t, of course, but I won¡¯t tell them that. He is allowed to smite the occasional rebel, though. Well, that¡¯s about all there is for now. I think I¡¯ll meditate for a few centuries and see what¡¯s changed. Disaster The species are starting to meet! The humans have met with the lizardmen, and the dwarves with the elves. The avians are still secluded on their island and for some reason, Exitium has told OGG not to explore past the mountain range that separates them from the others. The two pairs have created symbiotic relationships. The lizardmen give the humans fish in exchange for fruit (Primis told them how to grow crops), while the elves hunt wild animals for dwarven tools. I like where this is going. Soon, they¡¯ll all be together, using their strengths to accommodate for other species¡¯ weaknesses. It¡¯ll be beautiful! Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Unless, of course, disaster strikes. As in, I send a giant earthquake to the dwarven mountains, sealing off all of the entrances. The elves will have to pull out the boulders, ¡®else the dwarves will starve to death. For the humans, I¡¯m going to send a disease to their farms. The cure is found in the lizardmen swamps. It¡¯s up to them to find it and give it to their friends. These disasters could kill most of the humans and dwarves, while weakening the elves and lizardmen, but there is a reason. I love to see them scurry around! It¡¯s so much fun to watch them run around in panic, screaming at the top of their lungs. Ok, only a few of them did that. Some of them are praying to their gods, and a few are trying to find solutions on their own. I¡¯m going to meditate for another century, and see if the avians can escape their island. Enemy The avians have met the humans and lizardmen, who have met the elves and dwarves, who have met the centaurs. They were quite wary of these new, intelligent people with weapons and societies of their own, but the deities told them to shut up and give each other a hug. They now help each other, but only because they gain something from it. OGG, however, has not made contact with the other species. In fact, they¡¯re quite self-reliant. The goblins construct tools, which the orks use to cut trees and mine ores, which the giants carry to the village, which the goblins use to make even more tools. It¡¯s pretty cool, like a giant conveyor belt. The goblins have recently learned how to forge metal, and they¡¯re currently making weapons and armor. Why, you ask? To go to war! ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ Wait, what? Oh, so that¡¯s what the deities are doing! To insure that the other species trusted each other, and to stimulate their growth, the deities created a bunch of dumb but strong creatures that would serve as a common enemy! OGG, with Exitium serving as their leader, will attack the others every few years, coming out with new strategies and weapons, forcing the others to adapt. I approve! Exitium chose the strongest and smartest ork he could find and appointed him as the warlord of OGG, serving as his mouthpiece. The ork, named Gothmog the first, whipped OGG into shape and started creating his army. The army itself isn¡¯t much; it¡¯s essentially about a thousand orks with primitive armor and weapons, but it¡¯s strong to wreak havoc on the other species. Their battle plan is to cross the mountain range and attack anything they find as an unorganized mob. They¡¯ll slowly make their way to the human capital, where they¡¯ll hopefully be stopped by the human remnants and their allies. After, the deities will tell their nations about Exitium, an ¡®evil being that hated all that was good¡¯, and that they need to prepare for the next invasion together.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Wait, OGG is moving! As they prepared for war, a couple of them also cleared a path through the mountains, which is currently being traversed by the horde. It¡¯s a long journey, so I hope they packed- they didn¡¯t even bring any food? Seriously? Man, OGG is dumb! That¡¯s ok, though, this first attack isn¡¯t supposed to do much harm, it¡¯s just a wake-up call for the others. Now the orks have made it through, and they¡¯re hungry! Gothmog sent out hunting groups, but it¡¯s not enough. If the orks want food, they¡¯ll have to pillage it from the humans. I guess it¡¯s some extra incentive as well. The orks have made contact with their first sentient being! How beautiful! How amazing! How- and they killed him. Well, that was kind of their whole point in coming here. They¡¯re looking for the humans village now, but they¡¯re having some trouble. Maybe they should have asked the human before they killed him. After a few more hours of anticlimactic searching, the orks have found the village! It¡¯s a bunch of huts surrounded by a simple wooden palisade. It¡¯s population is about three hundred. The guard at the entrance has spotted the charging orks, and alerted the others. They didn¡¯t close the gates in time, though, and the orks are slaughtering everyone. The battle was a complete success! -20 days later- The army continued to wreak devastation throughout the human territory, but there were survivors. They ran to the capital, alerting their leaders of the fearsome creatures that slaughtered their families. The human king, some guy named Aragorn, sent messengers to the other species, begging them for help. Their respective deities told them to send aid, and they each sent their strongest hunters. Because they had never trained as soldiers, the reinforcements were very unorganized; even more than the orks. However, a basic command chain was set up, and they were moderately prepared when the orks arived. The centaurs flanked the horde to there right with giant spears (essentially primitive lances), the humans, dwarves and lizardmen attacked their front and left, while the avians and elves provided support by shooting arrows and dropping rocks. It was awesome! Needless to say, the orks lost, although they managed to kill a good chunk of the defenders. The deities told their species about Exitium, and how he was the rebel deity, and that they would have to prepare for the next army. They did, by officially training soldiers of their own. When the orks attacked again, they would be ready. Crusch the Arrogant As you may remember, I gave most of the species the ability to move atoms; basically magic. It¡¯s pretty rare, though. Only few people are randomly born with it, and as such they¡¯re seen as a higher class than pretty much everyone else. OGG started training their ¡®mages¡¯ for the second attack. The other mages did pretty much whatever they want; while some become soldiers, many become craftsmen, farmers or even cooks. However, after the first attack, the various nations joined together and created ¡®The Coalition of Light!¡¯. It¡¯s essentially a council made of the rulers of each species. Their goal is to support each other by making mutually beneficial decisions. One of their first agreements was that every mage must be officially trained for at least a year by someone who is recognized for their talent and knowledge in the craft.They also agreed that every species would station a small battalion of soldiers at the other capitals, to help protect them in case of attack. I¡¯m currently watching Crusch Lulu, a promising lizardman mage apprentice. Well, promising for lizardman standards. She¡¯s currently concentrating, trying to heal a small cut on her hand. After a few minutes, it¡¯s sealed, leaving only a faint white line. An elf would have been able to do it in a few dozen seconds; that¡¯s how much better they are.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. When she finished healing herself, Crusch ran to her master, overjoyed with her small accomplishment. Seeing as he was a prideful elf, he sneered at her and told her to do better next time. He then took out his knife and cut her hand, drawing blood. What an arrogant jerk! I could smite the elf, but I think it¡¯ll be more fun if his ¡®useless¡¯ apprentice surpassed him completely. As Crusch tried to heal herself again, all the while crying, I modified her DNA a bit. If a lizardman¡¯s magic power were one, and an elf¡¯s was five, then hers would be ten; more than enough to completely overshadow her master. Crusch gasped; as if the deities themselves had blessed her, she felt magic pour itself into her body. It was as if her pitiful amount of power had been multiplied by ten! Her wound healed itself in just a couple seconds, and didn¡¯t leave any form of scarring; it was as if it had never been there. Now crying tears of joy, Crusch kneeled and started praying. She wasn¡¯t sure which deity had blessed her, so she prayed to them all, thanking them for their help. Silly girl, it wasn¡¯t the deities, it was me! When he heard Crusch praying, the elf walked over. He wasn¡¯t very happy. When she showed him her healed hand, he yelled at her, saying there was no way she could have done it so quickly or well, and she must have cheated. Getting furious, he took his knife, saying he¡¯d teach her a lesson. Crusch responded by creating a wooden club that smacked him on his head, knocking the elf out. That¡¯ll teach that prick! Ahh...I¡¯m going to keep tabs on this mage. I have a feeling that she¡¯ll become very influential in the future, and have a pivotal role in the upcoming wars. War #2 It¡¯s been ten years since OGG invaded the Coalition. With ten years of no trace of them, the Coalition began to lose its fear, and thus slowed down the training of its soldiers. The deities decided OGG would attack again, with a bigger army and better tactics, to force the coalition to learn and adapt. Exitium had appointed a new war chief, Gothmog the second, to train his army. This time, some of the orks were given bows. The orks were also taught rudimentary military tactics, like staying in a group formation. After another year, three thousand armored orks were ready to attack. They crossed over the mountains the same way as last time. Unlike last time, however, they packed rations! Gothmog selected a few of them to pull half a dozen wagons filled with food and arrows. It slowed them down a bit, but kept morale high. After a week, they were back in human territory. Apparently, the humans hadn¡¯t learned their lesson, because there was no one guarding the entrance of the path. Gothmog had sent a few hundred orks in front of the army to conquer the nearest village. They attacked, knowing it was full of simple farmers; except, it wasn¡¯t! You see, instead of guarding the entrance, they humans had watched it! A squad of soldiers had been stationed there to keep an eye out for orks. When they saw the advance guard, they informed the nearby settlements and Lychnus, the human capital. As the orks made their way to the village, the farmers had been evacuated and replaced with hundreds of soldiers. When the orks entered the village, the humans were hiding in the farmer¡¯s houses. The orks looked around, wondering where everyone went, when they attacked! The human soldiers poured out of the houses, taking the orks by surprise. The orks tried to leave, but found the entrance blocked by a battalion of centaurs, who had been stationed at Lychnus. The ork advance guard was wiped out.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Confidant in their overwhelming victory, the centaurs began the journey back to the capital. Gothmog, furious at the loss of his men, ambushed them when they reached a narrow part of the path. The irony isn¡¯t lost on me, how the slaughterers were slaughtered. He knew that when the centaurs never arrived, the capital would send more soldiers to the village. Taking advantage of that, he ordered his army to stay several kilometers away from the city, and had scouts surround it. Several days later, when another battalion of five hundred soldiers was sent to investigate, he attacked. Sending reinforcements weakened Lychnus¡¯ army, which was what Gothmog had been waiting for. He ordered the attack, and the orks split off into several groups. The heavily armored warriors charged Lychnus, while the archers and the few mages fired at its defenders. Not knowing about battering rams or siege ladders, the orks were unable to breach the mighty wood walls that protected the human king and his subjects. At the same time, the Coalition soldiers were outnumbered and couldn¡¯t fight. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a description of the first ever siege in this Universe! As the days went by, the people of Lychnus ran out of food. Their stockpiles simply weren¡¯t big enough. The orks, however, were fine. They had the remnants of their original supplies, what little they had taken from the dead centaurs and various animals they had hunted in the wild. Sadly, it wasn¡¯t to last. After a week-long siege, the soldiers from the village and the reinforcements arrived. Their general made an inspirational speech, they yelled war cries, and they attacked the orks. At the same time, the defendants poured out of the city gates. Attacked from two sides, the orks were killed. The Coalition of light had, for a second time, withstood the OGG! Meeting A year after the second invasion, the Primis called a meeting. He wanted to discuss everything that was going on with the other deities. Just for this reason, they had already created a white castle on a cloud that floated around the sky. It was supposed to look like any other cloud, but one of the avians caught a glimpse of the top as it curved around Earth, while flying at ten thousand meters. This is what spawned the belief of heaven. Primis congratulated the deities on a job well done. With the near destruction of Lychnus, The Coalition used all of its resources to invent and improve things. Without the deity¡¯s assistance, farmers had begun to use fertilizer; they spread clay and manure into their fields to help replenish the nutrients. With this discovery, each farmer was able to produce much more food, allowing more people to pursue other vocations without fear of starvation. The elves had begun to improve their bows. By using their magic, they curved tree branches into the correct shape. This increased the strength of each bow, as it was bent into its shape naturally.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. The species that showed the most improvement, however, was the dwarves. They improved their smelting skills and created better tools. They used these tools to mine deep into the mountains, creating a maze of tunnels. Some of them were expanded to create vast caves, which were used to house the dwarven population. The most amazing part, however, was the houses. As they created the caves, the dwarves left chunks of rock alone. When the caves were complete, they carved the chunks out to create stone houses! They were extremely durable, and being in caves meant that they were protected from the weather. Each house could last a family hundreds of years, saving the dwarves a lot of time and resources. ¡°To conclude, everything is going exactly as planned!¡± -Primis ¡°Yeah, but there¡¯s one problem; with the loss of the two armies, I have very few people left! I don¡¯t know if they can muster up enough soldiers for another attack!¡± -Exitium That is a problem. I wonder what the deities will do... Solution Well, turns out there wasn¡¯t really a problem after all. See, both times OGG attacked, they only sent the surplus orks; orks that can die without affecting the production of food and weapons. Also, because the army was entirely male, the females back home can easily restore the population. So, right now, the orks are ok. However, constantly sending the surplus orks out to war means that their population will grow very slowly. As the years went by, the Coalition would begin to outnumber OGG. To fix this problem, the deities decided to change the system a bit. You see, orks have a lifespan of about sixty years, and they reach their peak strength at about twenty, while starting to decline at forty. Instead whatever orks that had nothing to do going to war, now it¡¯s orks that are aged forty and above going to war. Even past their prime, orks are still very strong, and would still make good soldiers. At the same time, younger orks are much better at the physical work needed to be done. Instead of having a bunch of old orks sitting around and doing nothing, draining resources, they¡¯ll be sent off to war! It¡¯s brilliant!If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. However...I¡¯m bored again, so let¡¯s send a small meteorite into OGG¡¯s capital. Thousands have perished! Gothmog the third is dead! The nation is in chaos! At this rate, it¡¯ll take decades before OGG can recover and send another army! In those decades of peace, the Coalition will lose its fear, again, and fall into stagnation! I¡¯m so evil! ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ Ok, I¡¯m not that evil. The meteorite is actually made of titanium! If they mine it, OGG will be able to create alloys that are much stronger than regular steel. They will have an advantage over the Coalition, whose territories contain very little of the metal. That is, of course, if the deities think of checking what the meteorite made of. They¡¯re not very smart, so they might not. Only one way to find out; waiting!...*sigh*...waiting... War #3 OGG is marching to battle, for a third time! However, unlike the previous wars, they¡¯re not attacking the humans at all. You see, to prevent future wars, the Coalition just built a fort at the entrance of the mountain path. They assumed that OGG was trapped, and forgot about them again. Don¡¯t they ever learn? The mountain path, while the easiest, is not the only way out of OGG territory. In fact, you don¡¯t even need to go through the mountains! The mountain chain separates OGG from the Coalition, but they can go around it with boats. Which is, of course, what they did. After sending huge armies to guard the mountain path, the rest of the Coalition was pretty vulnerable to attack. It¡¯s actually pretty similar to what happened in the last war; the humans sent a lot of soldiers away, and left themselves defenceless. Except, like I said, the humans won¡¯t be attacked. It¡¯s going to be the lizardmen! As of right now, a dozen warships, with two hundred soldiers each, are making their way to the lizardmen shores, where they¡¯ll launch a surprise attack. Their goal is to sweep through, and destroy as many villages as they can. The other species are too far away for help to come in time! It¡¯s brilliant! What they don¡¯t know, however, is that the lizardmen have Crusch. Remember her? After several years in military service, Crusch settled down in one of the outer villages, becoming a celebrated mage teacher. If they want to terrorize the population, OGG will have to go through her! -one month later- The orks have arrived! However, they lost the element of surprise. Seeing as fish is a large part of their diet, there are always a few fishermen out on the ocean, at all times. Even though they arrived at night, the orks were seen. The fishermen ran to their respective villages and told them to evacuate. Everyone fled to the capital, a large city with strong walls that would keep them safe. Everybody, that is, except Crusch. She told the others that she had been given a powerful gift from the gods (deities, actually), and it was time she used it. She would hold off the ork army, buying time for reinforcements to arrive. How noble!Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. After the scouting parties found the villages empty, Murgash (Gothmog the third¡¯s replacement) ordered the orks to march to the capital. They travelled along the path, and when they entered a clearing, Murgash became nervous. This was the perfect place for an ambush, after all. Except, instead of enemy soldiers lying in wait, they found- an old, female lizardman? And she said if they didn¡¯t turn back they¡¯d regret it? They¡¯ve been laughing for a while, and I don¡¯t blame them. Even if she were an elf (which she¡¯s not), no mage can stop an entire army. Well, no ordinary mage, that is. Crusch, if you¡¯ll remember, is much stronger than the common riffraff. Murgash has gotten tired of this obvious bluff. To get this over with, he said that whoever kills ¡®the old hag¡¯ (his words, not mine), gets double rations for the day. Several of the greedier orks stampeded towards Crusch...and were promptly obliterated by a giant fireball. I can see the wheels turning in Murgash¡¯s head. ¡°I don¡¯t think she was joking...¡± Still, he can¡¯t back down; he knows what happens to those that disappoint Exitium. So, of course, he orders everyone to kill Crusch. The warriors, albeit cautiously, are charging their enemy. The archers are providing support with their arrows and the ork mages are ready to counter whatever Crusch would do. What Crusch just did, however, was pretty hilarious; she turned the ground to ice! Because they weren¡¯t moving, the archers and mages are only sliding a bit. Their arrows and spells missed, but they¡¯re already preparing the next wave. The warriors, however, were running at full speed! With the sudden change to ice, they all fell down like a chain of dominos! The rest of the battle went how you¡¯d expect; the orks got up, got blasted by fireballs, got up again, moved closer while Crusch was blocking arrows and other fireballs...after almost an hour, they finally killed her. But, it wasn¡¯t for nothing! Out of the twelve hundred orks that originally attacked the brave defender, only about five hundred are left! Crusch set out to buy her people a few minutes of time, and ended up saving them entirely. With so few numbers, the ork¡¯s assault was futile, and they were quickly exterminated. A few lizardmen set out to retrieve Crusch¡¯s corpse, and came back with astonishing news; the ork army was so small because she had killed over half of them! Crusch was hailed as a martyr, and news of her sacrifice spread all over the Coalition. *sniff*...It¡¯s true that I don¡¯t really care about the people of Earth, that they were created to amuse me, but...Crusch¡¯s sacrifice really gets me¡­ I¡¯m not crying, you are! Meddling I¡¯m bored. So...freaking...bored. Absolutely nothing interesting has happened since the third war, almost a hundred years ago. OGG attacked twice more, both attacks ending in their defeat. I know that OGG isn¡¯t meant to win any of the wars; that would disrupt the deities¡¯ plan, but still...it¡¯s boring. With them always beating OGG, the Coalition has become stagnant. They¡¯re used to winning, so they haven¡¯t improved much. Their city walls are decades old, and instead of replacing the rotting logs with new ones, they paint them over. Why fix a problem when you can ignore it? Thankfully, I¡¯m a genius! The Coalition is used to fighting orks, which are easily subdued by a couple soldiers? Try fighting giants! Giants grow to be around twenty feet tall, and are proportionally strong. One of them could easily tear through a few hundred soldiers, just by running around. Now imagine what it would do to the rotting walls of a capital!This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. The problem is, OGG only listens to Exitium. He¡¯s their leader, the guy who¡¯s been ruling (and threatening) them for centuries. I don¡¯t want him to do it, because I want the deities to be surprised. I¡¯m not sure how to get OGG to listen to me...wait, I¡¯m god! I¡¯ll just change my voice to sound like his. -one week later- Well, that¡¯s taken care of! Gothmog the sixth is currently telling his lieutenants about the attack plan. They seem to like it. They¡¯ve decided on their battle plan; they¡¯ll have a few dozen giants attack the fort that¡¯s blocking off the mountain path. Then, they¡¯ll split off into groups of three or four and roam the countryside, making their way to other kingdoms. Now to see the deities¡¯ reactions! They hate it! This is the opposite of what they wanted! The Coalition isn¡¯t prepared whatsoever to fight the giants. They¡¯ll wreck the cities! Exitium can¡¯t veto the order, either, because that would make him seem undecided and foolish; OGG would lose some of their loyalty. Already, several of his subordinates are questioning his intelligence, as so far they have lost every war. Exitium is furious at my meddling. The others are trying to figure a way out, but they¡¯re stumped. ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ In other words, it¡¯s perfect! A Giant Problem The giants have invaded! The defensive fort, with walls ten feet high, was smashed to bits! The soldiers were trampled underfoot! This is the largest defeat the Coalition has suffered! Out of close to a thousand soldiers garrisoned at the fort, not even a hundred escaped. They ran to a nearby village made for the purpose of receiving survivors in case of an attack. Their stories of ¡®behemoths, twice as tall as the walls¡¯ seemed like the ravings of lunatics, but the number of witnesses made them send an alert. Over the next several days, messengers travelled to every settlement in the surrounding lands, giving warning of an invasion. The Coalition gathered its armies and sent them to villages in a circle around the destroyed the fort, forming a cordon. Of course, villages inside the perimeter were evacuated. Now, they¡¯re waiting. The giants are attacking! The entire force of two dozen colossi is there, charging at one of the legions! The archers and mages are sending their projectiles, but the giant¡¯s thick skin protects them.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. The centaur battalion, three hundred trained soldiers, has met the giants in battle. However, even with their equine speed and reflexes, many of them are already dead. They¡¯re using their spears to stab the giant¡¯s feet, and- yes! The first giant has fallen! The centaurs are swarming the downed creature, stabbing its eyes. It¡¯s dead. It wasn¡¯t without a price, however. That single giant killed almost twenty centaurs on its own. Two others have been slain, but with similar scores. The rest of the giants are finishing them off. Excepting a few who ran away, the centaur battalion is no more. The giants, with very few losses, have made their way to the support team and their guards. The hundred defenders have heavy armor, as their are the last line of defence, but it¡¯s useless against their enemy¡¯s strength. It just reduces their mobility, allowing for their destruction in a few minutes. One giant died. The mages have (finally) realised that to damage the giants, they should focus their attacks. Ten fireballs impacting one at the same time is just barely enough to kill it. The archers are doing the same, although ninety arrows isn¡¯t enough. It took them two volleys to kill a giant, and by that time, they- yeah, they¡¯re all dead. So, final tally: Of the twenty four giants, seven died. Of the three hundred centaurs, one hundred defenders, ninety archers and ten mages, six survived. They were all deserters. Giants- one, Coalition- zero! Clean Up Clean up, clean up, Everybody, everywhere, Clean up, clean up, Everybody do your share! This cute, children¡¯s rhyme perfectly describes the Coalition¡¯s reaction to the giants breaking out of the cordon. As the groups of giants rampaged, destroying villages, soldiers followed, picking them off with mages and archers. It took over a month, but eventually, the giants were exterminated. What a mess! That one attack devastated the Coalition! Dozens of villages were ruined, but more importantly, so were two capitals. Their short, rotting walls were easily kicked over. Over ten thousand civilians perished; the largest amount of casualties they have ever had. I¡¯m quite pleased! The deities are beyond furious. This one attack has severely lowered the Coalition¡¯s morale. Suffering a defeat would make them invent new things to protect themselves, but losing so many family and friends just shocked them. It¡¯ll take them a few years to recover their lost numbers, and by then, OGG will have an even larger army.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. The deities are comforting their citizens and taking charge. They¡¯ve ordered the reconstruction of the defensive fort, with walls twice as tall and thick as before. In addition, they¡¯ve set several intelligent builder-types the task of learning how to build with stone. They hope that in a few decades, every major city and fort will have stone walls. With the loss of so many men (most of the soldiers are male), women have to work the fields. This means that they can¡¯t take care of their children, so the deities had a few people in each village take care of the kids during the day; in other words, they invented school! I¡¯m surprised they didn¡¯t implement an official education system already, because it¡¯s a big success. Teaching people read, write and do basic math at a young age greatly helps them when they¡¯re older. Still, better now then never. To stop future giant attacks, some smart guys made Ballistae! They thought ¡®If a bow can¡¯t hurt a giant, we should build a bigger bow!¡¯. The ballistae shoot wooden bolts with iron tips over two meters in length, up to a thousand meters away. One of them could easily impale a giant, and deal much more damage than a regular bow. After seeing the prototype, the Coalition leaders immediately decided to install several of them on the walls of every city. The only problem is that the ballistae are heavy. Soldiers would have a hard time getting to invaders quickly. All things considered, I made the right decision, impersonating Exitium and ruining the deities¡¯ plan. These battles are fun to watch, and it¡¯s cool to see people invent new things. I wonder what other mayhem I can cause... Titanium Remember that meteorite I sent crashing on OGG¡¯s capital a while ago? It killed a bunch of people, including their current Gothmog. I didn¡¯t want to give the Coalition an advantage, so to even the balance, I made it out of pure titanium. If the Deities checked the meteorite, Exitium could order OGG to harvest the metal and have them make...um...stuff. Well, a hundred years later, they finally thought to check! I think the deities just wanted to get rid of the ugly landmark, and realised it was useful. See, I¡¯m not such an mean guy! The meteorite had a volume of about fifty meters cubed, and a weight of over two hundred tonnes. So basically, it¡¯s a lot of metal. In fact, it¡¯s enough to help out several future armies. Titanium is a very strong, but lightweight metal. Sadly, it¡¯s easily bent or broken by strong impacts. This makes it terrible for making weapons or armor. No invasion would last long, with their equipment falling apart so quickly. However, it¡¯s perfect for siege weapons! Titanium would be able to support wooden beams and large rocks better than steel, and would reduce the weight. This would let the orks move the siege weapons faster. I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s good.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Over the past month, goblins have been incorporating titanium in their siege weapons, and have been pleased with the results. It¡¯s allowed them to create large catapults which can throw small boulders over half a kilometer. They tested it out on a small stone wall, and managed to destroy it in a few shots. One problem they¡¯ve had is bringing ammunition. They can¡¯t rely on finding rocks the right size in the Coalition¡¯s territory, and have to bring their own. What the goblins did is pretty smart; as you don¡¯t know, because I haven¡¯t told you, the orks train by carrying bags filled with rocks as they exercise. It helps them build up their strength and stamina. Now, when the orks go to war, they¡¯ll keep on carrying them! If every ork carries just one small boulder, the catapults will have as much ammunition as they need. All in all, this is going to revolutionize OGG¡¯s invasions! While the Coalition has improved their defences, their ballistae are meant to shoot massive giants. While orks are larger than most of the Coalition species, they¡¯re still much smaller than the targets used to train. And, at the same time, catapults will be trying to destroy the walls, and the ballistae with them. This is going to be fun! Short Temper So far, OGG has mostly invaded the human kingdom. While they were stopped every time, with support from the other species, the humans have still been weakened a lot. The deities have decided that the next invasion will leave them completely alone, so they can recover a bit. With their supply of titanium, OGG was able to create a new path through the mountains that leads right to the dwarves! Secluded in their giant caves and tunnels, protected by their stone walls, the dwarves have been almost completely unaffected by the wars. While they are strong, their short stature makes them ineffective warriors. They can''t travel as fast as the others, and are easily cut down by the much taller orks. Aside from a few archers and mages, the dwarven people don''t directly contribute to the war effort. I said directly, though. While the dwarves themselves don''t fight much, it''s them who mine all of the metal used to create weapons and armor. Without them, soldiers would be effectively useless. Still, that''s no excuse for holing themselves up in the mountains. Ars, the deity in charge of them, said that they were heading towards stagnation. Because the dwarves prided themselves as ''master miners'' (note my sarcasm), they didn''t bother improving their techniques. Primis, with everyone''s agreement, decided that they needed a shock; that shock being an army of armored orks destroying their ''indestructible'' (sarcasm again) cities. And so, the orks have spent the last five years digging right through the mountains to the dwarves. When it was finished, an army of five thousand orks marched to a dwarven outpost with a population of a few hundred. The news of its destruction (brought by a few lucky survivors) alerted the dwarf king of his impending doom, and had him assemble his tiny, underprepared army. Most of the fighters are just conscripted citizens, who have been training for under a week. They have barely have a thousand actual soldiers! It''s going to be a slaughter! Muahahahaha! -two days later-Stolen story; please report. The dwarves sent for help, but that won¡¯t arrive for another few days. While worried that many of them will die, they¡¯re confident that their stone walls will repulse the orks. They are so wrong! When attacking the surrounding villages, the orks were careful to keep their siege engines hidden. Now that they have reached the fortress, they¡¯re bringing out the secret weapons! The dwarves whispered fearfully at the sight of a dozen wooden contraptions. The catapults do look pretty imposing, especially when surrounded by so many orks. The commander is giving a heroic speech; something about how ¡®we can never lose to those savages, because we are favored by the great deity Ars!¡¯. I¡¯ll have you know, dwarves, that Ars is the one who said you should be attacked! This is hilarious! The orks are advancing. But instead of charging blindly like they normally do, they stopped just out of bow range. They¡¯re loading the catapults now. They¡¯re using the largest boulders now, rocks as large as a man¡¯s torso. Gothmog is shouting, and- score! The dwarven capital is in a giant cavern, and was carved right out of the walls. Because of that, the walls are pretty massive; the outer walls are about twenty feet high, and five feet thick. When you look at them from a dwarf¡¯s perspective, they look impenetrable. And naturally, the first volley knocked out large chunks out of it. Their last defence, a giant stone wall, is being destroyed quite easily. The dwarves are getting really scared now. They¡¯re cowering behind the barrier like pigs from a butcher, and soon they¡¯ll- what? WHAT? The dwarfs are charging. Six thousand of them against five thousand much larger and stronger orks. The stupidity of my creations astounds me. Instead of running away from their enemies, they¡¯re charging, to protect their homes and families- oh, now I get it. It¡¯s actually quite brave. And to reward their bravery (and to encourage their blind faith), Ars has sent the dwarves a blessing; a giant strength boost! The orks are being shredded. The catapults are being destroyed. -30 minutes later- Well, that¡¯s over with. I was getting so excited for the slaughter, and the deities ruined it. What a bunch of party poopers. The dwarves are cheering, not knowing that they were supposed to die! ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ Well, I guess I¡¯ll just kill the dwarves later with some giant unnatural disaster, like the entire mountain sinking into a giant pool of lava. Ooh, that¡¯s good. I think I¡¯ll do that. Disaster #2 The stereotypical dwarf is a short, strong being. They¡¯re known for having an almost unnatural talent for mining, lots of avarice and a strong sense of loyalty. This makes them great merchants; they can produce valuable goods, want to sell them, but won¡¯t betray their company. However, it¡¯s not perfect. If a dwarf isn¡¯t well-liked and doesn¡¯t have many friends, he won¡¯t mind selling them out for some money. And there are people who would love to get insider information on a dwarf mining company. While the deities have pretty much stopped crime, they can¡¯t do a thing about greed. There are many people, owners of large businesses, who would love to have a monopoly on mining. Never mind the fact that they have no idea how to do it. It¡¯s happened before, where a dwarf tells an outsider (generally a human) about a new deposit they found. Then, before the dwarves have officially claimed the territory, they rush in and take it. I originally wanted to sink the dwarven mountains into a lake of lava, but then I had a thought; why not beat them at their favorite game? What if I, in the body of a dwarf, told every self-centered, greedy businessman the location of every unclaimed deposit? You get chaos, that¡¯s what.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. I figured this would mess things up, but not to this extent! Not even a week later, the mountains were swarmed by the financial idiots and their goons. They immediately started squabbling with each other, fighting over the best locations. No one died, sadly. The dwarves weren¡¯t happy at all. They looked for the rat, but couldn¡¯t find him, because it¡¯s me! Within a month, they started running out of resources. Their normal strategy would be to branch out until they found something, but the surrounding territory was already claimed. That¡¯s when people started to worry. You see, the hired goons were completely inexperienced with mining. As such, they were unable to extract anything. And because they now occupied the majority of the known mines, metal exportation started to decrease. That¡¯s when people started to panic. Metal is very important for the Coalition. It¡¯s used in pretty much everything; from hammers to wagons! With much less being mined, the price of it skyrocketed. Small entrepreneurs like blacksmiths couldn¡¯t afford the new prices, and went out of business. Those who had the money still lost customers, because regular citizens didn¡¯t. To balance it out, the government inflated the economy, causing a decrease in the value of their currency. A year later, the economy crashed. That¡¯s when people started to riot. This is beautiful! I never realised that taking away metal would do this! Forget about OGG, this one act has done more damage than the giant attack! The disruption of metal production has caused mass starvation across the nation! I¡¯m a genius!