The gruff old man took a minute to respond as he stared at me while pulling the dagger out of himself. "I... I'm not exactly sure, the attacks started as normal, but then a goblin charged at me on a warg, I barely got my spear up in time to get the bastard. The beast could have easily killed me, but once his rider fell it took off. Then the gates slammed open from some sort of magical spell. I came inside to see if we had any infiltrators, that's when I noticed these sneaklings starting a fire over at that house." He motioned towards the still smoking house, the villagers have done well to put out the wildly burning flames. While we were caught up looking at the smoke, Bram had returned.
Out of habit I spoke out to him as the guard turned thinking I was talking to him I corrected myself "Did you... Never mind." Bram started laughing as the guard responded.
"Okay then, I think I will be returning to the gate, or... you know what I mean." he said slowly turning and limping out towards the town opening. I went and grabbed my spear and then turned towards Bram.
"Did you see anything?" I quickly asked Bram again. "Nothing beyond your favorite Abertrox's ." he said grinning.
A thought occurring to me, so I asked it "Was the bigger goblin outside the chieftain? The guard mentioned how he was riding on a warg."
"Nah, that would be a warrior-class greenskin. A chieftain would be far larger and far more cunning than that little bugger. Besides, I’ve been thinking... This attack doesn’t add up. Why send only sneaklings? Something’s off. You should go find the head lass and have a word with her. I suspect she hasn’t been entirely honest about what’s going on here."
Bram’s words settled heavily in my mind as I turned toward the town hall steps, suspicion growing with every step. He had explained earlier that goblin reproduced at an insane rate, with some clans numbering in the thousands. This paltry attack barely scratched the surface of what a real goblin raid could look like. Something bigger had to be at play.
The wound throbbed as I pushed against the heavy door, each attempt weaker than the last. Bram stood at my side, shaking his head, but offering no help. Gritting my teeth, I gave one final push and managed to swing the door open.
The sight inside stopped me cold.
Renna lay sprawled on the marble floor, a dark pool of blood spreading beneath her. Panic overtook me as I darted toward her, kneeling at her side. Her lifeless blue eyes stared into nothing; their piercing intensity dulled by the inevitable glaze of death. I gently laid her head back down, a hollow ache forming in my chest.
“Damn it...” I whispered, my voice trembling as I scanned the room.
Bram vanished without a word, presumably searching for clues—or so I hoped. My own attempts were futile. There were no tracks leading from Renna’s body, no obvious signs of a struggle nearby. Whoever had done this had been clean, methodical.
This wasn’t an opportunistic attack... it was an execution.
My eyes wandered towards the counter Cooper usually manned, but no one was there. Where the hell is he? I thought to myself, I turned towards the second story steps and started going up them as Bram had returned from further back on the first floor. "He's in the cellar messing with the glyphstone console. It controls the town overview. I believe he is taking control of the town. Hurry it up, we have to stop him." I never heard Bram speak so fast, as I turned back down the steps and followed quickly behind him.
The cellar door was already slightly ajar, a faint blue glow spilling out into the hallway. I shoved it open and descended the narrow stone stairs two at a time, Bram hovering just ahead of me, his movements almost jittery with urgency. The air grew colder the further down we went, carrying a faint hum that set my teeth on edge. At the bottom, the room opened up into a surprisingly spacious cellar, its walls lined with shelves holding dusty scrolls and jars. In the center of the room stood Cooper, his back to us, illuminated by the pulsating light of the Glyphstone Console.
The console itself was mesmerizing: a waist-high slab of stone, covered in glowing glyphs that rearranged themselves in hypnotic patterns. Above it, a shimmering 3D projection of the town hovered, showing every building, every street, even tiny glowing dots that I realized represented the townsfolk. Cooper had his hands planted firmly on the stone, his fingers digging into the runes as though he were pulling power directly from it.
"Cooper!" I shouted, my voice echoing off the cellar walls.
He flinched but didn’t turn around. “Liam,” he said, his voice calm but strained. “This town’s been dying for years. Renna wasted our resources on luxuries while the people suffered. Now, I’ll fix it. I’ll make things right.”
Bram scoffed, his voice dripping with disdain. “By seizing control? How noble. Tell me, Cooper, is your plan to ‘fix things' or crown yourself king of this miserable dump?”
Cooper finally turned to face us, his expression a mix of defiance and desperation. “You wouldn’t understand, outsider. This town needs strength, real leadership, not someone like Renna. She was bleeding us dry, and now she’s gone. It’s my turn.”
The glyphs on the console flickered, and the projection above shifted. Buildings highlighted themselves one by one as if Cooper were selecting them. “You think you can just walk in here and take over?” I asked, gripping my spear tightly.
“You’re too late, Liam,” Cooper said with a grim smile. “The console recognizes authority. I’ve already begun the transfer. Once it’s complete, the town is mine.”
Bram muttered in my ear, “You can stop him, but you’ll need to disrupt the process. Get him away from the console... forcefully, if necessary.”
I stepped forward, my heart pounding. “Cooper, step away from the console. We don’t have to do this.”
His eyes narrowed. “I’m afraid we do.”
And just like that, his hand shot to his side, drawing a short blade that glinted in the glyphstone’s light. I sprang into action spear shooting forward with an unbelievable speed, his sword smacked away the tip with a metal clang that reverberated down my hands, instinctively dropping the spear in the process. The huge man dove at me easily taking me to the ground, I tried fighting and refusing his wishes, but he ended up in a full mount position above me. "You aren't going to stop me. Quit while you still live." His voice enraged dripping venom, as he reached, his bear paw like hands around my neck fully interlocking his fingers at the back of it and squeezed.
Blackness danced at the edges of my vision, as I struggled to breath, my heart throbbing throughout my entire body. Soon the darkness took over most of my vision as I tried swinging my arms weakly at his body, trying to roll or do anything to gain leverage and stop from passing out, but it seemed useless against the giant. Before I knew it my eyelids refused to stay open, I fought them but... His grip loosened slightly just enough for me to breathe again, I took a huge lungful of air and started coughing. Blood now flowing quicker to my head, a realization dawned on me, as I mentally cursed my stupidity. Looking into Coopers eyes I saw he was having a mental battel with Bram. Not knowing how long I had, I summoned both of the stone daggers I had gotten from the first goblins I had ever faced, I just started stabbing anywhere I could reach. Instantly gaping wounds appeared all over Coopers body, his legs, chest and lastly his throat. Blood poured freely from the man as he fell backwards off of me and onto the floor. Taking a few seconds to catch my breath I looked at him and said, "It didn't have to end this way." there was no reply as he held the wound at his throat, struggling through his last death throes.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
I stood up and shakily got to my feet and headed straight for the glyphstone console. I reached out to touch it, but a system message came through as I did.
"Congratulations, would you like to take control of the town? yes, or no?"
Bram appeared next to me with mixed emotions about taking the town under control. Well, I could be projecting a bit, I personally thought it was a waste of time, we had a huge quest hanging over our heads at the moment and have gotten nowhere with it. After a few more minutes of arguing back and forth with Bram, I decided against taking control of the town, but then against my own doing I mentally confirmed the prompt.
The moment I confirmed the prompt, against my own better judgment, mind you, the glyphstone console flared with light, sending out waves of warmth that wrapped around me like a suffocating blanket. A new system message appeared before me, translucent and glowing:
"Town Control Accepted. New Lord Appointed."
My jaw dropped. “What the hell, Bram?! I didn’t even-”
“Oh, don’t look at me like that,” Bram interrupted, his smirk as infuriating as ever. “You were the one who thought about it hard enough for the system message to linger. And, might I add, your internal monologues are louder than a goblin marching band.”
I groaned, rubbing my temples. “This isn’t how this was supposed to go! We have bigger things to deal with than managing a town. What am I even supposed to do now?”
Bram shrugged nonchalantly, leaning against the air as if it were solid. “Well, congratulations, Lord Liam. You’ve inherited a quaint, broken-down village that just got attacked by goblins and has an empty treasury. Sounds like a dream come true.”
“Don’t forget the dead leader,” I muttered under my breath, glancing over at Renna’s still form. The sight of her brought a heavy weight to my chest.
The glyphstone console pulsed again, and a new set of options appeared in front of me:
Town Overview
1. Building Repairs
2. Citizen Assignments
3. Treasury Overview
4. Security and Defense Upgrades
5. Town Improvements
I stared at the options, a headache already forming. “Great. Now I’m responsible for all of this.”
“Look on the bright side,” Bram said, his tone way too cheerful for the moment. “At least you can assign someone else to fix the walls while you figure out what’s next.”
I scrolled through the menus, overwhelmed by the sheer number of problems that needed fixing. The treasury was nearly empty, with barely enough credits to repair the damaged gate, let alone bolster defenses or rebuild the town. There was a list of citizens, most of whom were marked as “unskilled” or “unemployed.”
“Fantastic,” I muttered. “This is a disaster.”
Bram laughed, clapping me on the shoulder. “Welcome to leadership, kid. Now, are you going to pout about it, or are you going to show this village why they accidentally elected the most underqualified lord in history?”
I glared at him, but deep down, I knew he had a point. I’d stumbled into this, but now I was stuck with it. Taking a deep breath, I turned back to the glyphstone. “Alright,” I said. “Let’s see what we can do to keep this place from falling apart.”
The first step? Fix the damn gate. Luckily there was a builder amongst the citizens, so I queued the gate construction immediately leaving only 150 system credits left in the treasury. I knew what I was about to do next was a bad idea, but there was no use in holding it off any longer now. I threw open my system menu and got another slew of system messages.
Congratulations, Descender Liam you have leveled up, from defeating the following:
1x Human Merchant level 12 (3,000 exp)
5x goblin sneakling (3,750 exp)
6,750 experience earned
Loot acquired:
5x goblin meat
16x leather
1x unbound system mark
1,400x system credits
"Wow." I muttered shocked by just how much experience the sneaklings were worth, that and the amount of system credits I had earned. I hurriedly accepted the loot and pulled out my system mark to verify the funds would be deposited. Luckily it shone bright acknowledging the transfer than I tried something else. I pressed my mark against the unbound one and then felt a warm sensation coming from mine and another system message popped up:
You have successfully absorbed an unbound System Mark. Your existing System Mark's tier has increased.
Current Tier: 3
Credit Capacity: 46,000 of 250,000
The mark in my hand pulsed faintly before settling back into its usual, muted glow. I stared at it, feeling a strange connection to the item as if it were now more attuned to me. Bram peeked over my shoulder, his spectral form flickering as he examined the mark.
“Congrats, you’re officially carrying a fancier coin,” Bram quipped, smirking. “What’s next? Gunna add some sparkles to it?”
Ignoring him, unintentionally this time due to the fact that I was now rich. Sure, I'd probably put most of it towards the town, but I felt I could buy my way out of anything. Minutes later, I turned my attention back to the system menu. My newfound experience had launched me up two whole levels, and I was eager to see what options awaited.
Level-Up Notification:
You have reached Level 6! Please allocate your stat points and select a class.
The system interface expanded, displaying my current stats:
Stats: Health: 30 (Con x2) / Stamina: 30 (End x2)/ Mana: 30 (Intel x2)
Strength 5 (+5) 10
Dexterity 5 (+5) 10
Endurance 14 (+5) 19
Constitution 14 (+5) 19
Intelligence 12 (+5) 17
Wisdom 5 (+5) 10
Charisma 5 (+5) 10
I had 10 points to distribute. After considering my recent struggles, I dumped four into Constitution, four into Endurance, and two into Intelligence. The changes were subtle but immediate—I felt a bit sturdier, quicker, and sharper.
Then came the big decision: my class. The interface displayed four options based on my actions and choices so far.
Class Choice Available:
Woodsman
Primary Stats: Endurance, Constitution
Abilities:
True Shot: A simple ranged attack with a bow that will land with additional damage (10-minute cooldown)
Forage: Collects basic supplies and ingredients from the environment within a radius of 30 feet. (1 hour cooldown)
Set Trap: Places a simple trap to damage or slow enemies. (1 hour cooldown)
Rune Initiate
Primary Stats: Intelligence, Constitution
Abilities:
Rune of Light: Creates a glowing rune that illuminates the area.
Rune Spark: A weak elemental attack.
Defensive Sigil: Temporarily boosts the user’s constitution.
Spearman
Primary Stats: Constitution, Endurance
Abilities:
Piercing Thrust: A focused attack that deals bonus damage to armored foes. (5-minute cooldown)
Sweep Strike: A wide attack to hit multiple enemies. (1 minute cooldown)
Brace: increases damage against charging enemies and doubles damage for mounted enemies. (5-minute cooldown)
Rogue
Primary Stats: Endurance, Intelligence
Abilities:
Quick Step: A short burst of speed to evade attacks or reposition.
Survey: Reveals hidden enemies or traps in the area.
Poisoned Blade: Coats weapons in a weak poison for added damage over time.
Having trouble with it, I remembered something Bram had told me. "Beginning classes I only made to help you survive long enough until you get to a specialization or have enough credits to change it. The most powerful hardly ever rose to the top without changing their first class. Just choose the one that will fit with you the best in that moment." Biting my tongue and balling up my fists, I selected Spearman.
Information flooded my mind, conflicting and chaotic at first as I processed the new skills and techniques. The world seemed to slow down, and for a moment, I thought I was drowning in knowledge. I could feel my grip tighten on the spear, my stance shifting as my muscles automatically adjusted, guiding me into a more balanced position. A flood of memories replaced the confusion, showing me the fundamentals. The way to properly grip the shaft, how to angle the spear for maximum reach and leverage, the rhythm of the thrust, the subtle movements for a controlled, deadly strike. It was like I had always known, but now it was real, a part of me. I staggered for a moment, shaking my head to clear it, the echoes of the new information still rattling around in my skull. Since there was enough room, I decided to activate an ability to see it in action. I tried piercing thrust on the wooden pillar off to my side. The spear felt like it wanted to jump from my hands as it shot forward, striking true and burrowing deep into it, almost going all the way through. The only downside of the skill was the cooldowns, but there might be a way to circumvent that in the future. Bram was in the corner of the room seething at the fact that the quest with Renna didn't go through even though we completed it. I guess when a quest giver dies the rewards go with them. I just left him to his sulking.
Proceeding to the console I opened up the treasury menu first and saw that I could transfer my credits as well as withdraw any. Next, I opened up the town upgrades category and sifted through it, a lot of the upgrades were expensive, but totally worth it for the townsfolk. Bram chimed in on a suggestion "You should start with the indoor plumbing, mana generators, and the basic mana barrier from the security category. That'll make the peasants swoon over you." Begrudgingly I listened to him and transferred the credits to buy that much for them plus fixing the house that got burnt down. The cost hurt my very soul, but I wanted these people to feel safe again. 35,000 credits later most of the cost came from the mana barrier and the instant build cost, hopefully the people of Hillgrove wouldn't freak out.