The body of the ice soldier burst apart when it hit the ground, the spear that had penetrated its chest laid on the ground of the stone cavern, another soldier walked up to it and grabbed the spear bringing it back to Ethan who was standing next to another soldier who was unarmed.
“Hmm…good well not good but okay, damn the system is really carrying that one.” he mumbled and created another soldier who walked to the next position, this one even further away. Then he commanded his soldier to throw the spear at the soldier standing at the ready in the far distance. The spear was launched with impressive speed but sadly the aim was totally off, the spear going too far to the left and finally breaking once it hit the floor instead of the soldier.
“Alright…so ten throws, six of them hitting a soldier with four of them hitting the ground. That’s more durable than I imagined.” He tapped the pencil he was holding against his chin. The dwarves had supplied him with a pencil which was more a piece of pressed coal wrapped in linen, the stone tablet in his hand was used to keep track of his current experiment. It was an easy solution in his opinion.
Over his shoulder hovered the [Chilling Nexus] under it was a round bin made from ice filled with spears. While most of them had the typical spear tip, some of them had extra barbs to be as hard to remove as possible, one was even a sharpened hook that should be able to penetrate a monster’s skin. So far his testing of skills was going well.
The last few days were spent finding out how far he could push his new class and skills, he knew there was still a limit he couldn’t reach, the fact that fighting and life and death situations helped you grow a lot more was something he learned in the tutorial. He still had many questions about the tutorial and some of the things he did, about the system in general but alas, there was no answer for now.
Ethan gathered the soldiers that were spread over the area, four of them had placed barricades constructed by his chilling nexus all around the fortress for extra protection, others were testing nexus created weapons or were part of his spear throw testing. In the end he had twelve regular sized soldiers standing in front of him. For now this was his limit but his guess was it had maybe something to do with his willpower stat or the skill itself.
Maybe if he learned how to improve the construction of these soldiers he could raise the limit but that was something he still had to experiment with. One thing he already knew was possible was strengthening his creations through rituals and while he only used his own skills as a base there were a lot more runes floating around in his head at this point.
But for now he had to wait for the delegation of Marshal to reach them and then it was back to talking and gathering allies, something he wasn’t really fond of. Which was evident because he would prefer to keep working on his skills and further his understanding. Still when he got a mental ping from one of his minions Ethan closed his eyes and his view changed, everything looked like it had a bluish tint when he looked through the eyes of one of his frost wraiths. After the mole attack he had them stationed there at the new mines and around the fortress, still with only three of them the coverage was miserable but every little bit helped out. After looking around for them it only took a minute before he spotted Marshal’s group walking towards their position at a leisurely pace. It would still take another hour but Ethan should at least look presentable when meeting potential allies or even a completely new addition to their group.
Ethan had freshened up which meant cleaned himself from all the iron sand dust that covered his hands and feet, his hair was in a loose ponytail with his hat covering most of the mess, he had to admit that he didn’t really care about it that much. His robe looked better but only because of the self repair function which seemed to count towards keeping it clean too. When thinking about it, since the system arrived nobody seemed to care all that much about their physical appearance, of course people still kept themselves clean and cut their hair but there was nobody going around looking for make-up alternatives or which outfit would flatter their bodies the most.
Of course this could be because his new companions were dwarves but so far it seems everybody was more concerned with a stable home and growing stronger. While thinking about the implications of make-up in a system universe the group of Marshal reached their fortress. Andrew pushed his elbow into Ethan’s side and pulled him back from his thoughts. It would be rude to look absent when receiving important guests.
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He couldn’t suppress a smile when he saw how the dwarves looked at the fortress he created. It was still a prototype, an alpha version if you will but for now Ethan was satisfied with the results. He would have tried to etch permanent runes into the walls to strengthen the defense but without a proper mana source it didn’t seem feasible to do that for now. He grabbed his staff tightly when the dwarves stopped in front of them. Marshal was there of course but also Martin and some of the guards Ethan remembered but the group in general was a lot bigger. Some of them were carrying bundles on their backs or in their arms.
Marshal looked grim when he clasped Andrew’s hand. “It’s good to see you…we need your help friend, not only yours but if your elven friend could aid us it would be greatly appreciated.” Andrew looked at Marshal and nodded slowly, his eyes finding Ethan’s next. “Tell me what happened…I’m sure we can help you out.”
Ethan was already in the middle of conjuring a transport platform while warriors gathered around Andrew, while they prepared Marshal reports about what happened to him and his group.
In the beginning of the short story it was a normal day, they gathered resources like mushrooms in the caves and ore in their mines. Everybody was hard at work while preparing for the meeting. They wanted to bring gifts as a form of goodwill, but some miners heard weird noises from some of the caves they encountered while digging. With them having experience in cave rat attacks they instantly left and looked for assistance. After calling the handful of actual warriors they had, a scout party was sent into the caves. All of them thinking they were just more cave rats that they had encountered so many times already since day one of coming back from the tutorial.
When they returned from the caves only two out of the ten warriors returned and the two remaining ones refused to talk about what they encountered, both of them still in deep shock. Andrew listened to the report and his gaze wandered to Ethan a few times, the wizard had commanded his own ice soldiers to gather behind the dwarven fighters. With all of them together they looked even a bit impressive, their group now around forty strong.
All of them walked onto the disk and Ethan gathered his magic, he lifted the disk barely from the ground and already sweat was dripping from his brow, carrying so many people wouldn’t be easy but before Marshal could finish his last sentence they were already moving away from the fortress in the direction of Marshal’s camp.
On their way Ethan didn’t speak or even think about anything, his focus was firm as he transported the strike group with his magic. For the first time in a long time Nora stirred around his neck, the snake had grown to an impressive size at this point, wrapping around his arms and shoulders. While she now stayed mostly inside of his robe he was in constant mental exchange with her. They didn’t really talk, their exchange was much quicker now compared to their humble beginning in the tutorial.
His snake companion tasted the air with her tongue, her eyes focused on something in the distance. Ethan…I can smell it, pestilence…and it’s strong. Stronger than the elk, that one I couldn’t even feel because of the snowstorm. Her usual indifferent tone was laced with worry, she wouldn’t warn him if it wasn’t necessary.
Ethan licked his lips, he knew what kind of power plague and pestilence held even if he took a different path since then. He sped their approach up but it didn’t take long to make first contact with their enemy. A group of dwarves, much larger than Andrew's, was fleeing towards them. Marshal had told them they were hiding somewhere but it seems that was no longer feasible.
The moment he looked behind the dwarves and saw the abomination following the group he knew this wouldn’t be easy. Like the elk before this beast was twisted into something darker and much stronger. They flew around refugees and straight towards the beast. When they were close to it Ethan yelled. “Jump!” Like one the group jumped and the disk continued on its path, slicing the front legs of the monster off cleanly.
Dwarven warriors got in position, their shields at the ready, the axes and maces held tightly. Behind them Ethan towered over the dwarves, his soldier forming up on his left and right side. The monster on the other hand was regenerating its limbs, if looked closely they could see the flesh regrowing in real time. He slammed the end of his staff into the ground, holding it steady while gathering his magic. He enjoyed fighting but he wouldn’t waste the lives of more dwarves.
