V2: Chapter 3:

…

Once the Academy is gone, replaced by the endgame faction and gaining all their arable land and defensive terrain advantages, the whole place basically becomes the final level of the game. The endgame faction fills the whole area up with top-tier defenses, gets all the field statuses that buffs them and debuffs anyone else, and they start bringing Ancient structures back online. It's all a very convenient way of boosting the endgame faction up to be a threat that can't just be rolled over, like in the 0.5 days.

Those were good times.

Anyway, endgame areas with endgame enemies are naturally filled with endgame loot dungeons. Sure, your Champions had to have high levels and good equipment, and be accompanied by great soldiers, but they could investigate the revamped Ancient ruins for sweet, sweet loot. How sweet? The average drops from the endgame loot dungeons are Purples. Sixty percent super rare drops. Blues, just one rank below, are twenty percent drops. The last twenty percent is all Orange/Mythical/the good shit.

Also, yes.

The Devs totally gave the Mythics and Rares the same drop chance so they could laugh at the forum posts. If you don't get a Legendary, you're getting a Rare or a Mythic, therefore if you get a Rare you lose twice over.

Once again, I salute those lazy bastards, even if they can't be bothered to balance the vanilla champions.

What was I talking about again?

Oh, right.

Looting everything around the Academy before it gets turned into a Fortress of Doom.

Since I wasn't limited by game mechanics to sending only one Champion and one Unit into the ruins, I figured I could attempt some endgame stuff while going to school.

If I didn't succeed at getting what I wanted, then my troops gain experience.

If I did succeed, even with some casualties, I got my hands on endgame gear before the mid-game pops off.

Overall, the risk was low and either prize was fine, so there was no need for me to hesitate.

What's that?

Everyone will see me as a power-hungry megalomaniac with little social skill and my reputation will be ruined the moment I step out of the Academy?

Who cares?

I'll either have supersoldiers and super-buff Champions, or super-OP Artifacts.

Everyone else can go shit, bitch, and cry themselves to sleep about it all they want.

I'll have what I need.

…

In beginning regions, Ancient ruins were outlying outposts or safehouses built during their apocalypse. The Citadels were logistical towers and they provided for the surrounding regions as combinations of administration centers, hospitals, and agricultural facilities. Watchtowers in regions linked up with them as part of a security apparatus and media distribution centers. Both sank into the ground after getting sealed away by the Ancients to deny their enemy, while the outposts were utilized until they fell into disrepair and safe houses were constructed to continue to support a guerilla war.

That's to say, in the starting locations, we were scavenging the leftovers of the Ancient's last holdouts and safehouses.

The White and Green equipment.

Or, in gamer terms: "the stats are fine, okay!?"

The spawn rates for good shit, the stuff you'd take even if they weren't for your faction and wouldn't even trade to your allies, are around 10% outside the Academy's central region. That might seem like a high chance of spawning, especially when considering the fact that every starting region had a few dozen spawning sites. However, in context, most campaigns last a hundred turns on average and a good/bad artifact spawn at the start basically decides your whole playstyle.

So, in short, the Academy region had a 10% higher chance of spawning the very best Artifacts, and it offered only upgrades to what you'd get from the starting areas.

I would be a moron to not risk conquering one.

And, so, I was going out of my way to conquer one after the other.

Thankfully, not being limited by game mechanics, bringing in experts, and having three times the number of Champions helped out more than expected.

"Golem!"

"I have it." Ilych sped past me at Rita's cry. She was an armored titan wielding a massive sword with a ruined tabard and coat hanging off her shoulders. With a swing of her blade, she took off the arm of the five-meter tall creature of stone and magic that had dropped from the ceiling to try and defeat us. Another swing and she cut through its center, breaking its core, and getting rid of the threat. "Returning to the back line to reinforce."

"You do that!" I grunted out an affirmative after her statement. The brief moment where she left the rear line increased casualties instantly. I was sweating from all the healing that I was doing, but with all my experience and training via tending to battlefield injuries, my fatigue was manageble. It felt like I was on the tail end of a 48-hour gaming binge, my mind feeling fizzy and my eyes threatening to pop, but I held fast. The wonders of having a healthy, well-trained, and young body. It was probably mostly the young part doing the heavy lifting. "Rita, we're almost at the end! Start using your better arrows!"

"Yes, my lord!"

Micromanaging was hard enough, but having to do it while leading an army was hellish. Now, I had an officer or two with me, but they were assigned to squads and dealing with situations themselves. No, the issue was that I had to give those officers commands, while also giving Rita and Ilych commands. An easy feat with key-bindings and some experience with the UI in any RTS game. I'm not a Korean, so my APM wasn't in the hundreds, but I could micro fine enough for brutal campaigns… but in real life managing a whole team while you had your own work felt like an effort in futility.

Still, I made it work.

"Another horde is incoming, sir!"

"We're almost at the gate. Fire whatever you have left!"

"Aye!"

Mages were quick to stop conserving their power once the order was given. Bolts of concentrated, visible wind flowed towards the Kobolds hounding us. They lived in the depths of the world alongside Goblins and other pests. They spawned quickly, had natural, scaled hides, and had tribal-levels of civilization, which meant they knew how to wage war, how to trade between groups, and had their own culture based off of surviving in the darkness.

Meaning we were desperately holding together in the depths as a unit against tidal waves of spear-and-shield armed skirmishers.

Without the advantage of guns and plenty of ammo.

Augh, the things I'd do for an army of imperialist riflemen.

My kingdom for ten thousand men who put down ten round rapids downrange and hit ten different targets.

Anyway, I've healed just about everyone present, save for Ilych and Rita, a dozen times over each.

Great gusts of wind surged through the halls at our pursuers. It was the safest magic to cast in the tunnels, and their effects were devastating. The shockwaves were designed to bring down flying cavalry. Fast enough that it would take exceptionally skilled flying to dodge, and meant to break apart flying creatures that were hundreds of pounds heavy and innately magical. Whenever a mage fired down the tunnel, it threw up dozens of Kobolds. Those at the front just broke apart, their own bones and weapons turning into shrapnel, and many around them were thrown back, flying into the tunnel walls like thrown by gale-force winds, and dying at impact.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Most didn't die.

They were merely broken by the attack, and they were crushed beneath the incessant march and pursuit of their fellows.

Ilych was the only reason we weren't dead, with her every swing bringing low swathes of the creatures, and even then they sometimes split past her and collided with our rearguard. It was a common enough occurrence that I had to heal each of them time and time again. However, it was increasing in frequency as we went deeper. Once their shields became too heavy with too many stuck projectiles, they discarded them, which eventually led to armor breaking or a lucky hit going through their padded body-covers.

Rita, meanwhile, was our highest, single-damage DPS, so she was on anti-boss duty… and she did a good job against anything that wasn't armored.

Her arrows pierced through giant spiders, leaving terrifying paths through them that dripped green blood. When she brought out her knives, Kobold champions turned into diced meat at her feet. Most automated Ancient defenses received an arrow through their sensors before they could activate.

Two sets of attackers, a few tanks, and one healer for all of them.

Naturally, I could only grit my teeth and try to endure as the singular healer and the main commander, but what else was I going to do?

Give up on sweet, sweet loot?

With that thought in mind, we kept going, heading towards the unknown, until we reached our destination.

An Ancient Workshop.

Broken and in disrepair, until the apocalypse comes along and those behind it fix it up, but that didn't matter.

What mattered is that it was going to have something in there that I'd want no matter what.

…

Interlude: Khanrow

…

"What am I looking at? And why is Jack calling me a 'lucky bastard' because of it?"

I raised an eyebrow while Riegert looked over the parcel with awe. He and his men returned to Talon Hills to drop off their latest findings, so I called upon him to explain what Jack found alongside everyone in the depths of the ruins the Academy ruled over.

"I would call you the same, because this is the most precious of assets that Ancients had for their finest of scouts. It is a cloak of invisibility."

"It looks quite visible to me."

"Put it on and you'll see." Riegert gestured at it and I took it. A warmth flowed from my hand into the large swathe of what was, seemingly, only cloth. In an instant the fabric changed, thinning and growing, until it could cover my whole body and even provided a cowl and fabric mask. My brow furrowed at how silly it looked, but Riegert's eyes betrayed no jest.

So, I proceeded and put it all on… and with only the slightest of drain upon my power, the cloak shifted in colors to completely mimic my surroundings.

"It is in perfect condition. I can't even hear your heartbeat while straining my ears… and it's actively interfering with my sight. Even if you're somehow found through magic, it'll most likely fight against your foes by dazzling them with dizzying amounts of information." Riegert turned around me, but his usual distance from my person was off. He didn't know exactly where I was, even though I felt perfectly situated. I used invisibility before. I needed a dozen mages to cast it upon me, and even then I had to be mindful of the sounds I made, and being transparent made moving more difficult. "Wait a moment… draw your weapon, Khanrow?"

I did, fetching a knife from my sleeve, and in an instant, everything tightened around me. Gloves formed perfectly around my fingers, the hood and mask came together to create a sealed fabric through which I could see perfectly. It felt like wearing perfectly fitted armor above my own clothes… and though it did not feel strong, I felt safer ensconced within it. Then, I noticed it had coated my knife too in a thin sheet of itself… and the moment I thought about striking with it… the edge was unveiled in an instant before disappearing once again.

I couldn't help myself.

"I see. Jack is jealous."

"Who wouldn't be!? You're wearing the armor of ancient heroes! You cannot be perceived through magic, you cannot be heard, and only the finest senses could hope to find you." Riegert effused with giddiness. He fumbled trying to reach for my shoulders, until I turned the cloak off with a thought. "This is perfect for your current missions—

I shook my head.

"No. Jack made a mistake. This is better with him, keeping him concealed when needed, than with me." I took it off, while Riegert's jaw dropped. His mania over Ancient marvels overcame his good sense. I took a moment to explain the matter to him. "I have complete confidence in my ability to stay unseen and unnoticed. This concealment and protection are better served with our best, finest healer and biggest bet on the future."

Jack.

I left his name out of the equation, but Riegert soon managed to find his tongue in the sanctum beneath the Citadel where I spent my days.

"I… I understand, but perhaps you should reconsider? There's so much you can do again with this power."

"I have no doubt Artifacts of immense power are of great worth to warriors and mages, but they are tools best used sparingly by people of my craft." I lost more fellows than I cared to recall due to their reliance on magic and Artifacts. It dulled the mind, made answers to simple, when what was most important in the field was the ability to think laterally. To find a point of egress no one expects, to sneak it at the right opportunity and leave a moment later, and finally how to kill after slinking through a whole castle unnoticed. All these things were done through planning, care, skill, luck, and knowing when to leave and accept failure. Artifacts and magic muddled that equation too much. "Besides, my time as an assassin has long passed. This is better spent making sure our investment is safe."

Riegert was silent for a long time, before speaking.

"And, how do you expect to keep him around if we give him that? He seems to have erred on efficiency and sent it your way… but if it's returned..."

I considered the question my friend sent my way for a long time, before nodding and answering.

"We'll return it to him once he's returned and has no choice but to stay."

"Smart. And, meanwhile…"

Riegert egged me on and I glowered at the returning grin on his face.

"Fine. I will make use of it. We have things to do anyway." I grumbled while Riegert gave a singular, loud, and echoing chuckle. I moved out of the way of his attempt to slap my back in congratulations. Instead, I turned my gaze towards the map of the continent provided to me by the Citadel. My gaze was drawn to the third Citadel that arose. The Citadel of the Conquerors. "I believe it's time we get a look at how our prideful friends truly think, and if Jack is right once more, or if he has erred once again."

"You're still counting sending that Artifact your way a mistake?"

"Be silent."

Riegert chuckled lowly at my glare sent his way, while I did my utmost to ignore the temptation and advantages provided by the Artifact sent my way.

Jack was proving more and more formidable as the days passed.

I looked forward to the day when I could leave my mantle in his hands.