Congratulations!
Your civilization has reached a population of 100! You are the first of the dwarfs and 30th to reach the milestone! You receive a gold and silver box check your inbox to retrieve the items!
Urist jumped feeling startled with the message that popped into his head. He was glad that it wasn’t a rat aiming for his throat, but he frowned at being woken up in such away. Still, he was thankful that Ubel’s theory had been correct and that the rats hadn’t attacked.
With the combination of effort, the earth mages had somehow managed to make enough space for people to sleep in thanks to the statue he bought before. They had even started on making the second trench pit a little bit away from the first.
It wasn’t more than a foot deep but it was a good enough start. Dwarfs were awaking and moving to go do their jobs to which he, Ubel, Unicy, and Uria had assigned. The peasants hard at work were making bombs or working on spearmanship. The Warriors were training in their respective weapons and patrolling along the wall. The Earth mages hard at work draining mana to dig the second trench. All while the Combat mages were saving their magic and being useful by doing day to day tasks.
The crafting and smithing dwarfs were putting their heart into their work. And the new tier 3 mechanic was improving the pulley system one by one with some helpers. The magic swordsman Volt was berating the peasants under him making them learn the art of stabbing.
The only thing that wasn’t going as well, was the final tier-three dwarf who was currently sitting down near the chamber meditating. They didn’t say anything and Urist couldn’t even tell their gender or hair color because of the mask and black robes covering their features. It came off as a little annoying but he figured they would come out eventually.
And besides, he had enough on his plate. With a sigh, Urist grabbed his spear from the weapon rack and headed outside where Fisherman Mo was already awaiting him holding a short stick and a faint smile.
“You ready to learn boss?”
Putting on a determined face Urist nodded, “Let's get to it master.”
Giving a light chuckle Mo shook his head, “I am no master just a fisherman. Now let us begin. Take up the stance.”
…
Smack, “Your feet placement is too wide.”
Smack, “Your arms are too tense.”
Smack, “Your back isn’t in the correct position.”
Smack, “Your holding the spear too tight. Loosen it.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Smack. “Too loose. Do you want your opponent to smack your spear out of your hand?”
Feeling the welts all over his body Urist wanted to cry but held his tears in, “Do you have to hi- OW!”
“No talking back. Since you called me master I must be strict, even if you’re my boss. Your stance is barely passable, continue to hold that stance while I talk about the next steps. If you move without my order I’ll smack you again. Now look straight ahead focus on the target. Breath from your nose and exhale from your mouth slowly.
Make sure to breathe from the stomach and not the chest. Now hold that position no matter what for half an hour. We will beat this stance into you. Each time you move out of place I shall hit you and you better not use your strength skill or I’ll double the time. Now begin.”
For the next thirty minutes, Urist was hit repeatedly trying his hardest to not cry or make a sound as the welts began to build upon each other. Sweat started to trickle down his body by the five-minute mark. When he finished the thirty-minutes his whole body was sweating beads. He ached all over from the welts and his aching muscles.
When Mo told him that he could relax he fell on the dirt floor and gasped for air as the healing mages began to heal his damaged body. Given a few bottles of water to chug he was given only a 3-minute break before he was told to hold the stance once again. This is how Urist’s hellish spartan training began and ended six hours later.
Gasping for air Urist didn’t want to move. Every muscle in his body was screaming fire and bloody murder. He drank and ate food in a frenzy as the healing mages healed his battered body once again.
Mo rubbed his beard and thought out loud, “Hmm I guess that isn’t bad for the first day of training. If we had another two weeks you could probably fully learn the first strike. Well, at least you can learn the fundamentals of wielding a spear in the last two days.”
Urist wanted to roll his eyes but the fear of getting hit once again coursed through his body, so he remained silent and kept eating.
“Well that's enough for today you are free to go until tomorrow. I’m going to help out the grenade makers.”
With a relieved sigh, Urist thanked Mo and after eating his meal he decided that now was the best time to check out what was inside the boxes he got this morning.
You have received one gold and silver box! May you have good fortune in opening them!
Looking at the message and the two boxes in his hand Urist shrugged and opened the silver box and time seemed to suddenly stop. A silver floating dice appeared in the air and another message appeared before him. On closer inspection, he noticed that the numbers went from 1 to 100.
Ready to Roll?
Y/N
Without thinking much he clicked Yes and watched the message disappear and the dice began to spin at a high speed. As the seconds passed the dice slowed down and he became excited for a moment when the dice was about to land on 100 but ended up on a respectable 85.
Congratulations! You have obtained a tier two Flexible Iron Bow with 100 iron arrows!
The box shined for a moment before transforming into a bow that was made out of iron. While one was appearing with 5 quivers holding twenty arrows each. Time resumed as the bow landed slowly right into his hands. Snapping out of bewilderment he looked around to see if anyone saw what happened only to see his people going around their business.
He sat the iron bow aside for Unicy to test and decided to open the gold box first, before going over to bug Unicy. Like with the silver box time stopped but this dice was different as it glowed with gold.
Ready to Roll?
Y/N
Feeling the gambler spirit Urist pushed the yes button with glee covering his face.
“Come on, give daddy something good.”