12:00 AT, Day Seven | Arce Lunae / General’s Quarters
I lay against Ray’s super comfy side as she runs her hands through my hair. I can feel some of her hair tickling the back of my neck.
This situation is otherwise known as heavenly delight, the peak of all experiences one can achieve as a mortal.
For the past several hours we've just been sitting here, engaging in some fine headrubs. Of course, we change positions every now and then, for maximum fairness. Not that either of us would mind taking only one of the positions for the rest of eternity.
But fear not, for we have not just been lazing about!
That's right, we've been pulling gacha! Also known as potential human beings to add to our army.
“C’mon Ko, one more time!”
“We probably have enough budget for one more. It better be good.”
“Yipee, let me spin it this time!”
She clicks the button and we watch the fancy animation play.
“Yipee! We hit the jackpot, darling.” She says as she grabs me and pulls me into a large hug with many kisses.
“Yep, our first great-level warrior. It seems we got a bit unlucky actually, we've pulled 650 different beings. But hey, that's just gacha I guess.”
“I guess so, but Ko! We got a great-level warrior, just in time for the big Raid, that's like, perfect timing.”
“You know what this calls for?”
“A session of intense celebratory headrubs?”
“You know me all too well.” I reply.
17:00 AT, Day Seven | Arce Lunae / Throne Room
After our session of celebratory headrubs, we gathered everyone up that was available and headed to the throne room. Unfortunately, Rigar is currently out with a bunch of recruits giving them some fun (they'll likely come back crying and regretting life) training.
I open up the menu and purchase an Ultimate vessel, for a whopping 10 Ri. We are now quite broke. But, I don't worry about it, training all the recruits provides a steady supply of trophies from all the slaying they do. Plus, the ones from the forest are worth a bit more, so our income has gone up.
The vessel appears, and immediately it's almost as though I can sense the difference. Even without a being inside, it's clearly much more powerful than the previous tier. Which makes sense, it's gotta be at least 4x the strength.
Oh, I don't know if I've mentioned this. But all the vessels, even those for the Itokin, are still mostly humanoid looking. Though, they do have the signature face tentacles.
“Cmon Ko, stop spacing out and do the thing where you put the thing in the thing so that the thing arises and gets to work to do things.”
“That sentence somehow made no sense and made perfect sense at the same time. You are truly a master linguist.”
“Oh, why thank you darling, you're a pretty fine linguist yourself.” She says as she leans over to give me a kiss on the cheek.
Our assembled crowd just laughs, used to our antics at this point.
I take the being out of the storage and insert it into the vessel. Quickly, it starts to change and take upon the appearance of the warrior inside.
After a few seconds, they open their eyes.
“Greetings, Ascendent Ducker and company. It is a great honor of mine to be here in service to the cause.” They say, as they give a deep bow.
“Pleasure to meet ya, you got a name, o great warrior?” Ray asks.
“Indeed I do, I am known as Yuin, Shatterer of Fools.”
I step forward and give them a nice slap to the back, “Nice to have ya on board, Yuin. Are you ready to do some fighting?”
“As you wish, Ascendent, my sword is at your command. If I cannot find a sword, then my fists shall have to do.”
“Im sure the folks down at the armory can find something suitable to your needs. At least until we can get ya a more fancy weapon. So, why don't you head down there and get situated."
“Thank you greatly, Ascendent. I shall do so promptly.”
Yuin departs from the Throne room and heads off to get situated. Which is good, we can't have one of our best warriors unable to fight. According to the menu, Yuin is actually just above myself in terms of melee-skill, though Ray still has them beat.
“Hey Ray, does this mean we are like, a fully fledged expanding army now?”
“I guess it does, darling. Now, whaddya say we go to capture some forts? I hear they have completed the sieges and are just waiting for us to do the final touches.”
“Sounds great darling, lots of road trip time, perfect for some bonus cuddles.”
“Youve read my mind.”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
We leave the castle and start making our rounds across the grassland. Our army has been busy at work while we were celebrating. Three simultaneous operations were undertaken to capture the remaining forts in the biome.
Of course, we, the contestants, still have to actually officially capture them by being present. Which is a bit annoying, but gives us a good excuse for road trips. Plus, it means that someone can't just have an absurdly big army and overpower many forts in short order, since they have to have a contestant show up to capture it.
We go around to each of them, do the whole capturing thing, have a few swigs of liquor in celebration with the troops.
We decided upon the names (in order, west-east); Fort Emerald, Fort Jade, Fort Peridot. We decided to go with green gem names this time. For theming and all.
These forts will be crucial in our supply lines as we start to send expeditions farther towards the north. To discover what lies at the center of the arena. After all, we've only scouted two of what we believe to be ‘outer biomes.’
Some of our soldiers have caught on to the belief/theory that there is a middle ring of three biomes, and a center biome. Given by the fact that there are 6-3-1 of the different tiers of commendations.
We are now sitting on the battlements of Fort Emerald, watching as the sun sets over the vast expanses of grass.
I lean my head against Ray's shoulder and we just sit like that for a while. Relaxing into each other's existence.
Life really is all about the little things. The short moments between things. Those brief kisses, hugs or even just a smile.
Or at least, that's my theory. The theory of life, by: A worthless human that everyone seems to think is a genius for some reason.
Oh well, if everyone thinks I'm some super genius, I'll just have to play along.
But seriously? Me? Among the best humanity has to offer? Even with Initae’s urging in my selection, I can't believe they couldn't find someone else far better.
“Darling, I can sense the negative, self-loathing thoughts radiating off of you. Stop that buffonery." Ray says, as she gives me a nice forehead flick.
“Hmm, are you a psychic or something? You always seem to know what I'm thinking.”
“Well, that's simple, it's because I love you. Plus, you're like, super easy to read, even if your clearly trying to hide it.”
“Well, then I guess I shall learn to read you, as a display of my overwhelming love for my super cute girlfriend.”
She gives me a few pats on the head, “You have fun with that, I can't wait till you finally manage to do it. You’d be the first.”
21:00 AT, Day Seven | Fort Emerald / Command Room
Itvak enters the room, looking quite happy. It's usually a good sign when your intelligence offer is happy, it means they've got good news.
“We have just received a message from our eastern expedition parties. They have finished scouting out some of the biome boundaries to the west. It appears to be a jungle-like biome.”
“That's great news indeed! What kind of stuff have they found inside?” Ray asks
“Well, that's the weird part. Even after several hours of scouting, they haven't found a single beast, of any type. It's almost as though the biome is devoid of beasts entirely.” Itvak says, his expression souring a bit.
“That is strange indeed. Lets keep the expeditions out for a while longer, send some crews to deliver them supplies. Maybe they can uncover the source of the strangeness.” I order.
“As you wish, Milord. It shall be done.” Itvak says, and then promptly exits the room.
Strange indeed, I wonder what could be responsible for this. Perhaps the game masters are doing a bit of an experiment. Or, there is something far more dangerous lurking in the shadows of the forest, gobbling up all the small fries.
7:00 AT, Day Nine | En-route to Achilles The Ravenous
Yesterday was much the same. Expeditions went out, came back, but there weren't any major discoveries. The parties to the west are having major trouble navigating the jungles, the trucks can't drive through the thick brush.
Ray and I did join a few hunting parties, and that was some fun. Though, we kinda stole the show away and the lieutenant that was training the recruits got a bit frustrated at us not letting them train.
In the future, I think it's best that we form our own hunting parties, should we wish to go out. Tagging along with a bunch of newbies that can scarcely hold a sword isn't gonna work.
Our truck is quite packed. We've got; Emil, the holy angelic warrior; Rigar, the breaker of universes; Linda, the shattering light (she managed to get a cool title, good for her); Yuin, shatterer of fools; and of course, Ray, cutest in the universe, and myself, Kovon, the foolish hero. I can't believe that Linda ended up with a cooler nickname than me, it's not fair.
By the way, it seems like Yuin managed to find a suitable weapon, a gigantic sword. It must be at least two meters long, and looks like it could definitely shatter some fools.
I just hope it decides that Achilles is the fool, and not me.
After several hours in the quite cramped truck (I was even forced to sit on Ray’s lap, how horrible!), we arrive at the spot where Achilles The Ravenous dwells.
The moment our convoy enters the clearing, the feeling in the air shifts.
Before us is a massive clearing, at the very center is none other than Achilles.
If you thought the major Molan was scary, this fella is atleast 10x worse.
Nearly double the size, with even pokier antlers. Plus, it's got a mouth full of 50cm long metal shredding teeth. In summary, he looks like a whole lot of fun to have at parties.
We spot the Quartet’s party in the clearing and drive up next to them. We both agreed to bring our core members, as well as two groups of 10 high-level soldiers. Armed and equipped to the teeth, of course. Though, most of them are ranged, since they would simply be outclassed by the legend at close range. Still, some artillery support will come in handy.
“Ahoy there, people of the Moonlight.” April shouts across the clearing once she notices us. She is looking quite fancy in her armor, and she has a rapier sheathed at her hip.
Marcos is also standing nearby, a fancy set of gloves on, apparently he uses his fists to fight, which is intriguing.
Geo and Brian are also nearby, looking absolutely absurd in some clearly custom power armor. Can't believe they managed to actually engineer stuff, mid-trial. Kudos to them I suppose.
I can't see any melee-weapons, so they must fight from range. Which makes sense, they never seemed the most athletic.
Unfortunately, Rao is also nearby, his red-hair blowing majestically in a non-existent wind. He has a saber, which makes sense, considering his background in fencing
“Ahoy there to you, people of the Quartet. Y'all ready for some action?” Ray asks.
“Naturally, we have brought only the best we could muster to this fight. That fella Achilles is gonna go down so hard.” April replies, with an immense sense of vigor and motivation. Guess she really wants to take Achilles down, perhaps out of frustration at the difficulty with their first raid.
Our parties exchange plans, capabilities and we form strategies and such. It seems everyone is excited to be working together to take down the legend.
Nothing brings people together like violence I suppose.
With everyone rearing to go, Achilles doesn't stand a chance. Especially with Ray and I working together alongside all those gathered. So, bring it on.
End of Chapter 94
Next: Chapter 95 | Achilles The Ravenous
