A Rattling Monster

Chapter 62: The World of Astria

Now, what should I do? I went to Ronta to get a lot of experience and by that, I mean a lot of victims. Now that I am North of the city, I can either keep going that way and return to the forest of the wolves and the undead cave. But that would be useless. Except if there is something further North. Oslo.

(Yes, so apparently, now that you need a map, you figure out that I should have told you the location of the different races. Ok, so that's based on the memory of the Agorians, and they only know that because a representative of the holy kingdom asked a truce during the Portal War. You have currently Ronta in the middle, I will say it that way. East, you have the elf, the fairies and the treants in a big forest. Really huge forest, I guess now that the desert is reduced, the forest will be even bigger. After the elf forest, you have the desert, you know that. To the East of that, you have the different tribes of the lizardmen. They are surrounding a huge lake, and are fighting their northern enemies, the spiders.

That's for the part we will probably never return to. West of the spiders, there is still a bit of forest controlled by the elves, but more importantly, there are the five mountains of the dwarf kingdom. It is located directly North of where we are currently standing, so North of the undead cave. There is a rumor saying that two of the five mountains were lost and not rebuild after the assault of the ratmen. But I am not sure. North of the dwarf there is the plains, ruled by different tribes of orcs and goblins, still fighting the dwarf. To this point, the emissary of the holy kingdom didn't day a single word about something farther than that.

North West of the holy kingdom, west of the dwarf kingdom and south-west of the plains, to give you an idea, there is the Notongrod Empire. A human kingdom. But they were fighting the holy kingdom apparently. Like every human faction, always infighting with their fellows. And nothing was found out above it, I mean, I have nothing my knowledge ends with the Notongrod Empire.)

And South?

(First the West. There is the Never-Ending Ocean, that no one ever manages to travel across. At least, no one ever returned from it. Now, in the South, there are the mountains where the barbarian' tribes live. They are called barbarians because they believe in the spirits of Nature, and not in Aria, and are still wearing leather armors and stuff like that. But their shamans are incredibly powerful, and they are not afraid to die in war. For them, die as a warrior is the greatest thing that can ever happen. The holy kingdom provides some grain to them and in exchange they don't attack the kingdom.)

That's weird. I mean, I would have tried to starve them and crush them. Why are they paying a tribute like that?

(Because of the threat of what is in the South. The Vampire Council. Ruler of an empire filled with undead creatures. The barbarians and the vampire are fighting for centuries. And since the holy kingdom has no interest to start a war with the undead, they use the barbarians as a shield. So now you have a clear understanding of the world of Astria. What is our destination?)

Well, let me think a bit. What is the best for me? A human kingdom I would say. I have seen the power of one dwarf so fighting against them is not a good idea. The orcs and the goblins, I still haven't seen them, so I can't judge but they are the same mindless brutes as the barbarians, at least in my mind. People that wouldn't care about the death of their fellow companions if they can just kill their enemy. I hate the berserkers or the fanatics like that, too dangerous for me. Elves and treants, not a chance. Lizardmen sound interesting but just thinking of the travel is making me anxious. And the undead country is not appealing either.

No, the best would be either the Notongrod Empire or the Holy Kingdom of Aria. In every case, I will need to go West right?

(Yes, in this direction, you can go near the capital of the kingdom or reach the frontier with the empire. But since both nations are at war, passing the frontier will be a hard task. You can always just plague both sides, but they will probably have a lot of priests and magicians ready for that.)

Fine, I get it, so toward the capital, or more accurately, toward the local villages around the capital. As I travel, I can see all the fields and the farms totally empty. They should have evacuated as the rest of Ronta. Maybe I can catch up with them. That's a pretty good thing if I can do it. There are still some hours before the night arrives. So I need to be discreet.

I carefully run near the road going West while the sun is still shining. But at the moment the last sun rays are gone, I run at full speed. I am immensely quicker than a walking human with that speed. And since it is in a plain and not in a forest like the northern road is located, I have nothing slowing me down. After a few hours of running in the dark, I see the light of a campfire. I carefully approach it, expecting the refugees. But instead, I meet a group of armed humans. Eight of them, 6 males and 2 females. Looking at the difference between every outfit, I guess they are adventurers.

Most are asleep, except only one. He is wearing something similar to the clothes the elves ranger were wearing. I guess he should be either a hunter or a ranger himself. Maybe even a thief. Even if it is past midnight, he is still awake and ready for anything. He is alert, constantly changing of position to have a better vision on one of his blind spot. Of course, he is not detecting me at all.

Since I have no idea of their strength and weakness, and their number is quite important, I decide to not invoke a skeleton to kill them. First of all, if I do this, I will not be able to fight correctly if some escape. And the skeletons were never really silent in the first place, even when they didn't wear their armors and weapons. No, better finish this quickly. I create five orbs of acid and launch them toward the camp. The sentinel didn't have the time to scream something before dying. Everyone follow his step, except one man and one woman. The orb that was launched at them were disintegrated before reaching its target.

I didn't pay attention to this when I first saw them. But now, I can see that the armor of the man looks strangely like something that a paladin would wear. You know, those knights of justice, blessed by a god. And the female is wearing a robe, I think she should be a magician. And they are both completely awake now, staring at the holes left on the ground. That is where their companions should have been asleep, now, there is nothing. I can hear the woman sing something and another of those strange particles are floating around the two survivors. The man, he is shouting some strange words and his armor begin to shine, illuminating the surrounding. I guess they want to use that to see where I am.

Too bad for them, I have something for them. I cast [Nightfall] and try to target the paladin. I never tried it before, but I think that should work. The spell is level 5, that should be enough to at least reduce the light. And yes, I can see some shadow surrounding the shining armor, reducing it to a dim light. I really need to test the distance of activation, because it is really useful if I can extinct a torch for example.

I can see both of them shaking, visibly affected by my spell. They probably never expected something like that. Now, how strong is your shield, milady. I launch another orb, doing nothing. Two, three, four, the woman is visibly shaking more and more. When I launch my ninth spell, the orb goes through the shield and directly hit the two humans, ending their lives. That was still very impressive, 9 acid orb was required to destroy a magic shield. Even if I have no idea how strong they were, the fact that someone can even create a barrier like the woman did before falling asleep is dangerous.

I have to analyze my victims more, this time was due to my negligence and arrogance. Even if I was victorious without anything really threatening me, I was still surprised by something. Well, it was just two minutes wasted in a night, I need to keep running.