“Selene we are going to free the captured villagers tonight in the bandit camp, but we need information. Where were the villagers held?” Damien asked.
“The villagers are put into a pin every night like cattle. It was on the east side of the camp if we were coming from the direction of the village. The issues are the ones that are captured and used by the bandits. They could be anywhere inside by now. I was a prisoner so I didn’t have much time to observe my surroundings. I was trying not to look anyone in their faces and not be noticed, at the time. Even with my mind being stronger my memory cannot recall that information.” He could see she was shaking from anger remembering her time inside of the hellish camp.
Damien took notice of this reaction. “You weren’t a coward you were a prisoner. No one there is a coward except the ones oppressing the weak. They will be paid back tenfold and you will have your revenge. Do you know how many were still left while you were there? He asked.
“I remember seeing 143 prisoners before I escaped months ago but, I’m sure there are less by now,” she responded.
“Okay good, we will go with that number. The same strategy as in the forest, we will create a kill zone by caging up the whole camp with my earth magic and attacking from all directions. I will bring a small unit of roughly myself, Selene, and 25 men composed my 5 paladins and 20 archers. We go in the dead on the night. The prisoner's freedom is the top priority. Once they are all out, we slaughter as many as possible. My map shows 347 possible hostiles. We know at least over 125 are civilians in there so we have to keep this as quiet as possible. We don’t know what they will do to the prisoners once we are discovered, So it is imperative that we aren’t noticed.”
With that, the groups left out of the northern gate with Damien keeping an eye on his map for bandit scouts. The group traveled for the day and rested at night. The group cold camped at might so that they wouldn't raise alarms with a fire. It would take a couple of days to reach the camp. The small militia ate dry rations and rested a few more hours before heading out again. In the morning the group set off. Damien group stopped suddenly when he spotted a group of enemy scouts on his map. He had already learned that he can’t look at his troops like they were ones from the earth. His troops were essentially super soldiers. He told his archers that 15 men were ahead of them and his 20 archers took off in a blink of an eye. Looking at his map at the corner of his vision, Damien watched as his men surrounded the bandits faster than humanly possible and he had seen red dots disappearing from his minimap as he zoomed in on the battle. The whole battle lasted literally, only a few seconds. Warfare has completely changed in Damiens's mind with these troops. He was going to sit and wait before attacking the camp but, now he was going to sweep the camp and eliminating all hostiles at the same time. They took off at top speed the rest of the way to the bandit’s camp. After encountering and eliminating 2 more scouting groups, Damiens the group had finally reached the camp as the sun began to set. Fires were being lit in the camp. The issue was the bandit camp had a 15 foot wall 3/4th completed. The good news was, there was still a giant hole on the side of the camp that they were arriving on. Also, it looked as though the labor was over 100 malnourished looking villagers. The 40 guards that were supposed to be on watch were borderline asleep by this time or just weren’t taking their watch seriously. These men weren’t used to being attacked so why would they need to be on a serious watch? Damien would quickly show them why.
10 of Damiens's archers climbed the trees around the camp to have a clear shot at anyone over the camp. There were about 10 men sitting against the wall napping. Damien tapped Selene and nodded his head towards the nappers. She summoned powerful roots to slowly crawl out of the ground close against the wall. She then willed the roots to loosely wrap around each of the men's throats without touching the skin and with a flick of her fingers she quickly strangled the men and snapped their necks in seconds with roots. Damien was impressed. Damien then, sent a mental command to each of his archers to take a target. Damien took the rest. He channeled floating stone spikes behind and above each of the roaming guards while the archers pick took the stationary targets. “Now!” Damien sent mentally. The next thing that you could hear was the whizzing sound of arrows and earth spikes flying through the air and with deadly accuracy embedding themselves into the necks of the bandits with a wet thud. Some were gurgling on their own blood and dropped where they stood. The 5 paladins moved in at the same time and grabbing the villagers from behind with a hand over their mouths so the wouldn’t scream. They told them to get the attention of the other villagers to tell them to flee to the wood line where Damien and the archers waited in the brush. Minutes passed as the villagers and paladin silently grabbed the attention of all of the villagers at the wall and did as they were told, without question. These people just wanted to leave the hell that they were in no matter who it was. Damien asked them if anyone else was I the camp once everyone calmed down and huddled together. Damien had given them water and fruit to all of the villagers. He wanted them to be able to make the journey back to the village. One of the people stepped forward. He looked to be the leader of the group, seeing as how everyone looked up to him. “I don’t know who you all are, but thank you.” He scanned Damien’s groups and his eyes stop on “Selene! By the gods we thought you were dead! W-we had lost so many to these monsters. Seeing you here now...” The mans emotions had gotten the better of him and he couldn’t continue his words over come with emotion. “It is okay now Mossen. This will not continue, Marcus will pay for his transgressions tonight. Mossen is there anyone left in the camp? Mossen this is lord Dam- Donte Sorlen” Selene said with confidence.
Mossen looked at Selene with admiration. “I can tell there is something different about you. You are surer of yourself. Nothing like the timid woman from the village that was taken from the cages. Mossen then turned his attention back to Damien and responded. "No, there is no one else from the village. I think that the bastard wanted to work us to death. Saying he needed the wall built in a few more days or he would personally take notice of the slacker. You know how much he liked to keep his promises. He took a woman back to the torture post to emphasize his points. After your death...escape he would only take women. No matter what even if the men would beg to be taken, he would order his men to beat the man and took the woman anyways. He always looked at them with a particularly disturbing hatred. We were all just glad you were able to hurt him and take his eye.” Selene's eyes turned cold.
“Lord Sorlen, I would like to take care of the camp. Please, do not get in my way. I am not sure I will be able to control myself when I begin.” She said without any emotion. “Okay, Selene we wi-”
“No.” She cut him off. “I personally will take care of the camp. I only ask that you do not let any escape.” The look on her face made a chill go down Damien's spine. He just nodded in response. She turned and walked out of the clearing towards the camp. Mossen began to stop her when she began to glow with a green, brown, and yellow glow. There were 4 bandits in 2 towers who took notice of her approaching. She flicked her wrist and wooden spikes sprouted from the tower from every direction into the men. They were dead before any of them know what happened. When she entered the fort you could instantly hear screams. From where the group stood you could see bright lights, hear flesh tearing, swords clanging and bowstrings letting loose, but the screams didn’t cease. About a half hour had passed before the screams began to die down until there was one more scream that was louder than the others. They continued like that for many long minutes after until they finally ceased. After a few minutes, Selene could be seen leaving the fort. As she had gotten closer to the group she had a man's head in her hands. She raised a wooden stake out of the ground and placed the head on it. The face was stuck in a grimace that looked like it had been in extreme torment. Selene was caked in blood from head to toe as though she literally bathed in it. Damien believed she actually did. Damien stopped seeing Selene and saw the blood queen and forever knew her as such after that night. Damien cast a cleansing spell on her to remove the blood. "Marcus had escaped somehow." Fury was evident on Selene's face. All of the captured villagers parted before her, terrified to look her in the eye. After the annihilation of the Bandits camp, Damien sent all of the people back along with all of his troops, even his personal guard. Damien looted everything from the bodies, to the jewels, weapons, and the coins. There were thousands of pieces of gold. Even platinum coins.
Once he was finished hours had passed, Damien put a stone wall around the entire fort and sent the whole place on fire. The group had been about a half a days journey from the camp by now. Damien wanted to get home quickly and hasn’t had a chance to test out a new transportation spell he learned about to shorten travel, but the spell required large amounts of mana to perform. The magic books he had spoken about had talked about using spacial magic, but it was largely in theory. Yet, Damien had plenty of magic to attempt such a spell. Yet, he wanted to be sure. “System I need a manual for spacial magic.”
Spacial magic is very expensive since it is a spell the Host has not made any breakthrough in unlocking. Host will also unlock dark magic which is also known as void magic. It is currently 25,000 DP and the host has 25,601 DP currently. Would you like a manual uploaded for spacial magic in the Dark magic branch?
“Yes I want the spell.” Damien confirmed.
25,000 DP used. Host has 601 DP remaining.
Damien felt massive pressure in his head, then it slowly faded away. Spacial magic is not widely used because of mana consumption. You can use a portal for a short distance, but the reward for using it didn’t outweigh the risks. Yet, mana consumption is a factor with a mana pool, not a mana core. Space magic transportation was simple for Damien he only had to have been to a location once to be able to create a portal to that location and with the systems' mapping system it will be a breeze. He only needed to think of the space of two locations and will the locations fold in on themselves. Damien began to channel the spell with his staff. Even though this was a completely new branch of magic, his staff made the spell seem like he had been casting it for years. A purple semicircular door appeared in front of Damien. He stepped through the circular from the forest and came out inside the mage hall's entrance. He felt like he had taken a dip on a roller coaster and would vomit. After a few minutes, the feeling had passed. Despite the after effects, Damien loved the implications this could mean for his city. He could have any sized army anywhere in the world in minutes, just as long as he has been to a location at least once. Damien portaled hmself back to the bandits camp. Then, Damien lifted himself off the ground above the trees with his air magic. He began trying to fly towards the base of the mountains. It took over 3 hours due to not being able to fly straight and crashing countless times. Some things humans need time to perfect. After the third hour, he had begun to level himself out. He slowly increased his speed until the trees began to become a blur under him, moving much faster than his horse he rode into the village. Damien finally reached the base of the mountains to the north after another hour. It was roughly 3 days of time in a carriage from the village to the base. Damien walked to the base of the mountain and put his hand on the side and sent a pulse of earth magic similar to sonar into the rock. He felt deposits of many types of metals and precious stones. In particular, he felt large deposits of Droraz and Magestone. Using his staff he channeled his earth magic with his will and he tunneled out the deposits of silver, gold, platinum and took out a few tons worth of Droraz and Magestone. At the same time, he made a giant hole inside of the mountain. He kept all of the rock that he had taken out which was miles and miles worth of rock and stone. Damien didn’t need the mine, but it was a way to explain his wealth and also to be able to put villagers to work. He wanted to eliminate the homeless as much as possible. Damien then and there broke all of his stones into blocks, orbs, and diamond shapes and made massive chests to keep them in and put them in his inventory. He broke all of his gold and platinum deposits into coins and also put them into separate chests. He asked the system to give him a count of all of his resources.
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Affirmative, the host has mined 2,000 Magestone, 2,200 Droraz, 120,000 silver coins($120,000), 30,000 gold coins($30,000,000), 800 High gold(40,000 gold converted-$40,000,000) and 40,000 Platinum coins($400,000,000). Conversion rate: 100 copper = 1 silver / 100 silver = 1 gold / 50 gold = 1 high gold / 50 high gold =1 platinum / 100 High Platnium.
“Wow! I’m close to being a billionaire!” Now, Damien can pretend to be a true lord of these lands. I have more than enough coin to pay for new people arriving to live in my village for a few lifetimes...I think. Well, Kingdoms can't use their wealth to bribe me. That is also part of the reason for the caravan. So those people of the villages and the cities can be attracted to prosperity. With his new fortune in hand, Damien was ready to go back. With his staff in hand, Damien cast durability runes and runes for lighting in the mine. Now to build a road back to the Northern gate. Damien made the road back wide enough for 5 wagons to ride abreast and made 15 foot tall walls that connected to the side of the mountain. Damien used his minimap in his vision and with the rock and stone from his inventory he made a road all the way back to the village with his powerful staff. He had become so proficient with his magic. He has been casting basic spells continually every day since arriving. Damien was dead set on becoming more powerful. He was sure he could flatten a whole city for sure with a massive boulder or create a volcano and make it erupt inside of the city killing all who lived inside. Now that he has unlocked his Dark and Spacial magic he felt like he had powers to do anything once he learned to harness its power, fully. Most of these magics are limited to my imagination but that also the issue. I have never seen magic being used outside of myself and the mages that I've created. He was ready to meet the powers in charge of this kingdom. He was ready, but his people were not, so he was going to take this slowly. He would still play the role of Lord Donte Sorlen, for now. Breaking away from his thoughts, Damien opened a portal to the mage hall and stepped through. There were only a few hours until sunlight, but luckily Damien didn’t need to rest. Damien opened the main doors of the hall and stepped outside into the town and found Allen assisting with cleaning up from the celebration. Allen was directing village soldiers to help the passed out partygoers to their homes. When everyone was gone, Damien channeled his magic and willed the streets clean with life magic and willed the tables and fountains into the earth. With the new rock that he had from the mountains. He willed marble light poles on every street and small light fixtures on every building and attached lighting enchantments on all of the light poles and lights on the homes. “I’ll never get used to that my Lord” Allen said walking up to Damien. “Hello, Allen you’ve done a great job with the festival.”
“Thank you, My Lord.”
“We have saved the villagers who were captured and eliminated the bandit threat completely, well almost completely. Please send enough carriages and horses for the villagers and the troops so that everyone can arrive safely. Please have the medical staff and the life mage waiting for them to check them for any injuries. They also need housing and ease them into meals due to starvation.”
“Yes Lord Sorlen. We do have an issue with our financial situation. We currently have more than enough opportunities, but we just do not have enough bodies to fill them. We also have an issue with the coin. Most businesses currently have more than enough stock, but not enough coin is being circulated into the town.”
“Well that WAS an issue, but I have resolved that problem,” Damien said smugly. Damien pointed his hands next to them and 3 giant chests appeared into then air. Damien opened the lid and they were filled to the brim with silver, gold with high gold mixed in, and platinum coins. The adviser was speechless. “I have even made a road to the new mine for new employment opportunities for current and future villagers.”
“All of this was done in this amount short time? But how?! No mage could have done this. I have seen you do many amazing things, but you traveled days away! Now that I think about it, how were you back so soon!”
“Portal magic.”
“P-Portal magic, but no mage in the kingdom is capable of such feats besides maybe the court mage and even then, I’m guessing! When could you have learned such a thing? How?Just how powerful are you Lord Sorlen? Wait, the Archmage! From the world notice that appeared in front of everyone's vision. T-t-that was YOU! Only an archmage or Sorceror could do what you have been doing.” Allen was exclaiming loudly.
Damien was looking around trying to shoosh and calm the man. “Allen keep quiet! I don’t want everyone to know.”
“You are favored by the gods! What happens when the other kingdoms find out about you!” Allen gasped. “That's what this army is for and the giant walls. In case any kingdom finds out. You can protect yourself. So what are we? Just pawns? In your little game? Archmage Damien!” Allen began to anger now. Damn that increased intelligence.
“Allen I was not trying to deceive anyone. You were right and wrong. I was building an army to protect myself and Selene at the time. Can I tell you my story and then you can judge me?”
Allen just crossed his arms and waited. So Damien told his story. From when he had arrived in the grove, the attack by the 7th Tier Mythical Beast, when he had met Selene, when he had first arrived at the village, and everything until now. Allen was a daze. “So you are from this planet earth and you are supposed to be a harbinger to an unknown god who had created this planet? That is why you are this powerful. You have actually harnessed the powers of an actual god! We are supposed to be a follower to you or this unknown god but you still do not know to what end. To kill a 7th ranked mythical beast moments when you arrived here is unbelievable. That is why there have been no mythical beast attacks in the last few months. That beast that you kill was a legend in this forest. That beast is why the human and elvan kingdoms have been separated. That beast would take tens of thousands of men to kill it and you killed it upon arrival. The beasts of this land fear you, that is why you have never suffered another attack. If you were any other man, the lower leveled mythical beasts would have hunted and killed you long before you had even run into Selene. We can never let anyone else know. If anyone finds out the infamous archmage is here. We will have kingdoms from different lands on our doorsteps and our walls surrounded. Even then, from what I’ve heard and seen you do, I do not even think that will be enough to stop you.” Allen said to Damien.
“I want to protect these people, that is why I don’t want to fight. I just wanted to explore these, try to receive enough followers so that hopefully the god that has brought me here will let me go home. If not, I want to get powerful enough to where I can find my own way home. For now, though I am lost and stuck here.”
Allen took sympathy on Damien, he would not have been able to come this far in the same situation. He actually admired his resolve.
“Well, I cannot in good faith let you leave this city, the way you are now. I will help you every step of the way. I don’t have a choice anyway. I swore a blood oath. By that look on your face, I can see that you have already forgotten this” Allen chuckled.
“As you are now, nobles would eat you for dinner and have all of your secrets in the first conversation. We have to go out to the cities and see what the king plans to do with the infamous archmage. He does not take kindly to his throne being challenged.”
“That was literally not my fault at all.” Damien responded.
“Yes, you seem to be the luckiest, unlucky man I have ever come across.” They both laughed at this.
“I will get everything ready and you can go rest. We need a vault to put all of these coins in.” Allen said.
“I’ll make a bank when we return, but in the meantime, I’ll leave half of the silver and gold coins, 3⁄4 of the platinum coins, all of the Droraz stones and I’ll keep ¼ of the mages stones under the mages hall. Give each household a gift of coins to spend. That should assist the shops until we get back. I’ll leave the amount up to you. I have no idea how much anything costs. Yes, I have heard you making it 'rain' story and you tossed a years worth of coins in a few hours,” the adviser said trying unsuccessfully hold in a laugh.
“Please don’t remind me,” Damien responded.
Chuckling, Allen bowed, “see you midday Lord ‘Donte’ Sorlen.”
Smiling Damien responded, “see you midday, Adviser Allen.
Allen made Damien think about what was said all night. Even Valen was right in a way. His intentions for these people were mostly selfish. He just wanted a wall to his back and was using these people for protection. No, he was going to stop worrying about himself and focus on keeping these people safe. He would build a democracy and create a land where valuing the peoples safety, education, hunger, homelessness, and have set values and law. He needed to develop a judicial system so that people could have actual justice. These changes would be done whenever he returned home. He needed to have a successful recruiting session. The question is how? Damien went into the mage academy and took the stairs into one of the rooms and laid down on the beds. He would ponder on this the rest of the night until he allowed the darkness of sleep to claim him.
He awoke before midday and opened a portaled to the caravan before midday. Allen was hard at work making sure everything was prepared and ready. He quickly found Damien and had told him to change into some clothes that were handed to him. “You will play the role of Lord Donte Sorlen. I think you should show off the fancy clothes from your planet, so I provided you with a black and dark green 2 piece suit and similar colored tie with black shoes. I had your house’s emblem stitched into your left breast and a green handkerchief on the left.” Damien went inside his carriage which was painted white and green and put in the front of the caravan. He had 2 of his mounted paladins in the front of the caravan as flag bearers, behind them were his two mounted commanders flanked by his last 3 also paladins to his carriage. These were mounted knights and archers with every carriage and trailer these were all his summoned troops. Driving each carriage were the summoned and trained merchants and townspeople who were trained to drive carriages. The carriages with the loaded goods, once parked, had latches that let a side down so that customers could see and purchase whatever they wanted to buy. They also had poles to raise the tarps that covered the goods and signs for what was in each carriage. Each driver also doubled as a merchant. The unofficial merchants had a pad with a list and prices of each item. Once everything was ready, Damien’s carriage opened Allen and Selene join him as passengers. With a blow of a horn, it was time to depart and everyone set off towards the west gate.