October 23, 2022
Day 4
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At the center of the roof, Mark, Claudie, and Seki were discussing tactics. With the frogs drawing closer, no one else could be spared.
“We have enough arrows and have already instructed everyone to put all their stat points into endurance. As long as we fight on our own terms, we can win this. We must make sure that the frogs don’t reach the roof. We’ll be overrun the moment they get in range to fight back. “ Mark said.
Claudie disagreed, “We have enough arrows and enough stamina, but that's for now. Look at the shoreline, there is no end to the frogs, there are more and more jumping out of the water every second. “
Seki nodded “I agree. The island is already swarming with so many of these frogs that we can barely see the ground beneath. There is no telling how many more will come out of the water. We can only hold on for so long, we can't survive an unending wave. If they keep coming, we can't be content to just defend, we need to push them back into the ocean and make sure they don't return.“
After thinking for a minute, Mark said “I don't have an answer to our predicament, but I do have an idea that will buy us some time”
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Rahul had almost gained enough experience for another level up with the frogs he cut down while defending the wall. Now on the roof, he aimed at the very spot on the wall where he was standing a few minutes earlier and started shooting the frogs that were crawling over the now undefended wall. After just a few kills, he got the notification he was waiting for.
You have advanced to level 4.
0/1000 experience to the next level.
You have 5 free stat points available.
As soon as he got to the roof, he was told to put all stat points from leveling into endurance. The council was betting everything on a range defense strategy, and the implication was obvious. If the frogs managed to scale the castle wall and the battle turned to melee, they didn't expect anyone will make it out alive.
From his vantage on the roof, he could see the entire island was covered by waves of green jumping frogs. With the majority of the battle remaining and his stamina already less than half, he would have put all his points into endurance even without being told to. After allocating the five points, he saw his endurance increase to 21, and his stamina increased from 73/160 to 123/210.
Now, he could fire nearly 60 more arrows before he will have to rest and recover. Even if he could kill a frog with every arrow, he won’t earn enough experience to advance to the next level, and sooner or later, he would have to rest. Trusting the council to come up with a rotation for resting, Rahul focused his entire attention on his targets. He wanted a kill with every shot, making every single point of stamina count. When he looked at the swarm of frogs hell-bent on killing them all, all he saw from atop his 100 feet castle were free experience points and levels.
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Daniel had to leave the battle as he was entrusted with two important tasks. He was assigned a squad of ten - to bring food and drinks from the kitchen to the roof, and to set all the wooden furniture inside the castle out in the courtyard. While he hated the fact that he was running errands while everyone else was fighting for their lives, he knew what he was tasked with was just as crucial, and he would do it meticulously and efficiently.
He and his squad went from the roof to the hall, packing as much furniture from the floors in between as they could, and depositing it in the hall. Then they grabbed food from the kitchen and carried it to the roof. While going down, they again grabbed furniture, and carried food on the way back.
On the third run, they picked up emergency barrels of lake water they had stowed away in the cellar, and took them to the roof. In this manner, they had stripped all the living quarters of their furniture and piled the roof with food and water.
The food and water were there because it increased the rate of recovery of stamina. Mark was partitioning the combatants into three groups - A, B, and C based on how much stamina they had remaining. The three groups would rest in rotation, with 2 always at the walls. A would rest first, followed by B and C.
The furniture was gathered for a more insidious purpose. They planned to set the courtyard between the outer walls and the castle on fire. When Mark first told him this plan, Daniel wasn’t sure it’ll work, but looking at the amount of wooden furniture laid out across the hall, he felt more confident.
He and his squad removed the furniture which was reinforcing the door to the castle hall, and then opened the door. The sight that greeted them threw a wrench in his plan. The frogs were already inside the walls, and they had much less time than they expected.
“Matthew, go to Mark and tell him that we will need as many melee fighters as he can spare, there are too many frogs already inside the walls and the ten of us won’t be enough. “
After that, he asked half the squad to wield their swords and the remaining half to pile the furniture out. The initial plan was to cover the entire courtyard around the castle, but now they barely had time to cover a fraction of it. Making a split-second decision, he instructed the squad to start piling furniture within a 20 feet radius outside the hallway door. The five armed fighters made a perimeter around the unarmed ones as they filled the area with furniture, always leaving room for retreat. Soon, Matthew came back with 15 armed fighters, and he gave them orders.
“Rahul, Ivan and Matthew, join me and defend this area. Everyone else, we need to cover a 20 feet area around the door with furniture to then set it on fire. “
With that, everyone got to work.
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Not 10 minutes after he had retreated to the roof, Rahul found himself leaving the safety of the castle again. He fought side by side with Ivan and Daniel, maintaining a parameter as others created a large pile of furniture to burn. They were being harassed by frogs on all sides now, and the archers on the rooftop could not help much due to fear of friendly fire. Ivan seemed to be fighting without breaking a sweat, and Rahul was able to hold his own, but Daniel was struggling.
During the last 3 days, Daniel had spent most of his time with Anand, who had received the Intelligence Trainer I skill. Daniel spent his time meditating and sensing mana with Anand, preparing for a mage class. Due to his heroics with manipulating pure intent, there was additional pressure on him as everyone believed him to be a magic savant, the one to discover magic skills and teach everyone else.
Because of all this, he had barely leveled his physical stats, and only practiced swordsmanship till he unlocked the skill for it. By now, Daniel was feeling the pressure, and his lower body was covered in bruises wherever he was tackled by the jumping frogs that made it past his sword.
After a few minutes, Rahul’s stamina started flagging and he started taking hits too. Just then, Daniel called for everyone to slowly retreat while maintaining formation. Rahul then saw Daniel halt and kneel near a few broken chairs which were covered in some oil, likely from the kitchen. He seemed to have obtained matches from somewhere and lit them and tried to set the chair on fire.
It took a few attempts before the fire took hold, and just to be sure, he set another one on fire too. In the meantime, Rahul, Ivan, and 2 others stayed behind and guarded his flanks, with the others holding the door, ready to shut it as soon as everyone came in.
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Rahul was getting impatient, seeing Daniel trying to light up a third chair. With the third chair finally catching fire, Daniel seemed satisfied and signaled a final retreat. Rahul ran towards the door and just as he joined everyone else, he heard a loud crash behind him.
Rahul turned around and saw that Daniel had tripped over something and fallen down while running back. He was lying prone on the floor, covering the back of his head with his hands, while half a dozen frogs had jumped on top of him, trying to bite him, while many more surrounded him. Rahul wanted to go back and help, but his feet wouldn't move. He stood, terrified, frozen in place.
At that same moment, Ivan dropped his sword, ran past Rahul, scooped low, picked up Daniel, and rushed back inside the castle. All in a single breath.
The next moment, the door was shut and everyone swung into motion, swiftly dealing with the frogs that still clung to Daniel and Ivan’s bodies.
Throughout all this, Rahul stood frozen. Even when everyone picked up more furniture to reinforce the wall, he didn't move. Daniel took charge again, his body shaken but not his will, and ordered everyone to carry the remaining furniture to the roof. Even after he heard everyone’s footsteps go up the stairs, he stood in a daze. Only after Daniel walked to him, and gently put a hand on his shoulder, did he finally blink.
“I know you have a lot to process. Trust me, I do too, I almost died after all. We’ll talk after this is all over. But we need to go now”.
Rahul nodded, still somewhat in a daze, and then, almost mechanically, picked up a few chairs and ran up the stairs.
Once on the roof, Rahul was told to join the others from group C and recover his stamina. He sat once more in unmoving silence.
The moment the plane disappeared 4 days ago, Rahul had felt fear, he was genuinely afraid for his life. He had panicked, he had vomited, he had passed out. But since then, despite all the craziness of the world, he had actually been safe, his life was never truly in threat.
Even when he shot at oversized frogs from the safety of a 50 feet wall, he was safe.
Even when he cut them on the outer wall, he was safe.
Even when he stood in the courtyard, he had his friends by his side.
At no point did he consider death a real possibility. He was in a battle for life and death but had somehow lost that context and saw it as nothing more than a leveling opportunity. He and the entire group on that plane had taken everything that had happened in stride. They had just gone ahead and acted as if they were still doing their jobs - following decisions made by their managers and leaders. They had simply gone with the flow - and when they were training and gaining stats together at the behest of Mark, it didn't feel that much different from chasing deadlines and completing projects in office.
It's not that hadn't been bewildered and surprised by the system message, the disappearance of the plane, the fact that they were living on an island, and everything else. They had been bewildered. They had been surprised. But at some point, they had just accepted it all.
But when Rahul saw Daniel, close to a slow and painful death, right in front of his eyes, the absurdity of his new reality hit him all at once. He finally understood the gravity of his situation.
No doubt he had known that a brutal death was a possibility in this new world, but dying while fighting a beast was just a concept to him, a thought, an idea, a game mechanic. However, that idea suddenly became very tangible when Daniel, someone he had known and admired for an entire year, someone who had been a close mentor for him ever since he came to the US, and someone he considered a friend, was about to die 15 feet away from him.
Death felt quite real.
And so, at a time when he should have been beside Ivan, helping his friend, mentor, and manager, Rahul found himself standing there like a statue. Rahul never saw himself as a brave and selfless hero, but he also didn't think he was a coward who would watch his friends die and not move a muscle to help...
Rahul was shaken awake from his thoughts as everyone around him got up and shuffled toward the wall. Suddenly becoming aware of his surroundings, Rahul was surprised to see the air filled with smoke. He also noticed a half-empty plate in his hand and a water pitcher in front of him. He did not realize that he had been eating food.
He shook himself to his senses, now was not the time for this. He picked up his bow and a stack of arrows and went to the wall. When Rahul looked down, he realized that the entire courtyard was on fire. A memory of carrying a few chairs up the stairs came to him, and he understood that they had thrown down the remaining furniture from the rooftop. He noticed that the frogs were keeping a safe distance from the fire, and had filled the outer walls to the brim, where they were easily shot down by the archers.
The more they killed, the more kept pouring over the wall, and climbed on top of their kin, both dead and alive. Many slipped and fell down into the fire, burning either from the fall or the fire.
There was no way for the frogs, large as they were, to jump across the entire burning pit from the outer wall to the castle. Until the fire died down, there was nothing they could do, but still, they mindlessly kept coming to the wall, to their own slaughter. The thought made Rahul nauseous, but he just still gripped his bow tighter and kept firing arrows. The sun had now risen well into the horizon, and Rahul could see the entire island filled to the brim with frogs, with more coming into the island every second. The fire would only last so long, and Rahul planned to get as many levels as he could before that.
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Daniel was battered, both physically and mentally. He had come so close to death, only because of his own foolishness. There was no need to carry all the furniture to the hall. They should have prioritized setting up a small fire with the furniture in the hall, and then throwing the rest of the furniture from the roof, as they ended up doing. In his relentless drive to be as efficient as possible, he missed such an obvious solution. If they had not wasted their time going up and down the castle, they would have set the fire before the frogs made it inside the walls.
But this was not the time for self-recrimination and loathing. Everyone was doing their job, firing arrows without a pause, even as their fingers bled. If the council didn’t do its job, none of that would matter. With these thoughts, he walked over to Mark, and spoke.
“What are the plans now?”
Mark shrugged.
“Honestly? I got nothing. It’s been more than an hour since the attack started, and the frogs are still coming in from the ocean. The fire was there to buy us some time, but now that I have that time, I’m still coming up short. Something is pulling these frogs to the island, but I don’t know what.”
Daniel added his own theory.
“Either that, or something dangerous is pushing them out of the water, putting them in enough of a frenzy that they are walking into our arrows without a thought.”
Mark nodded.
“That’s possible too. Seki and Claudie are atop that tower, we’ll gather the remaining council members and trainers and come up with a plan. In the meantime, considering we will be safe for some time, I will instruct everyone to grind levels but save the free points. We should be prepared for any surprises.”
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One hour later, it was group C's turn to rest and recover their stamina again. Rahul had exhausted his stamina down to 7 points and had gained another level for his efforts. As instructed, he refrained from assigning his stat points. With his stamina so low, he would need at least an hour to recover fully. The fire had died down sometime back, but the time it had bought them was invaluable.
The entire defense was now organized into with 3 groups further divided into 5 squads of 10 members each. Each group had a commander, and each squad had a captain. The rest, recovery, and fight phases were proceeding like clockwork, and almost everyone participating in combat had reached level 5. The next level required 2000 experience points, and it was unlikely anyone had reached that. For Rahul, with his current stamina pool, he would have to deplete it twice over to kill 200 frogs. That would take 2 hours at least, considering the resting time in between.
Rahul spent some time relaxing, eating, and doing some light stretches to relieve his sore body. That is, until he was interrupted by Daniel coming over and calling over the commander and 5 captains of group C, which included Rahul.
“Anand is going to join you and everyone will spend the rest of their recovery period meditating and feeling the aura around them. He’s had a breakthrough and unlocked a new skill, a magic spell. We are not exactly sure, but we believe that unlocking the spell requires 25 intelligence and a rich fire mana in the air helps. The environment is rich in that mana right now, and we are gathering everyone from groups A and B with high enough intelligence stat to join you. Since group C is already resting, everyone here will meditate till they recover their stamina.”
Dan, the commander asked, “Which is the skill that was unlocked”.
Daniel could not stop his lips from curling up in a smile when he replied, “It’s a spell, Weak Fireball I”.
Dan, replied with a grin, “We better get started then”.
Rahul stopped Daniel to confirm if he wanted anyone who could plausibly reach 25 intelligence to put their free points on intelligence, irrespective of their assigned class. Getting his affirmation. He relayed the same to his team, and put his own 5 free points into intelligence, bringing it up to 23, making it once again his highest stat.
Then as he waited for Anand, their meditation trainer, some of his stress from today's incident already began to dissipate. Rahul did not know what happened behind the scenes, but the council had come through yet again, and he had only one thought - he couldn’t wait to cast fireballs.