Silk kobolds in black plate armor patrolled the newly-refurbished “palace”. My faithful people volunteered to roleplay a little before getting revived back in Windemere. Banners with the Matriarch’s symbol decorated its walls, both inside and outside. The gnomes were persuaded with meat but I think the kobolds will favor meat. That’s why I set the barbecue grills on top of the building. As the sun lazily broke the horizon, the kobolds were already approaching the innermost ring with their lizard nostrils sniffing the air and drool falling off their scaly lips. The kobolds would either convert or die. I had little interaction with the [Queen] so I also had the problem of impersonating her. I never did this disguise and roleplay thing.
Once we had enough of little Dragonoid's waiting to get their smelly breakfast, I ordered the gates open. A line of armored guards with steel spears and my heraldry blocked their path, with me standing above and behind them.
“Welcome! Today, God gave me another vision!” No kobold interjected. Maybe that was a good thing. “God revealed our purpose to us. Come, partake in her gifts and hear the message I received.”
The silk guards gave each kobold a small chunk of meat. That caught the little lizards’ attention. I started to proselytize and convert them with the Matriarch’s gospel. With the gnomes I had them pledge their loyalty because they spoke Wyxnos’ name. But the little guys wouldn’t recognize the deity if he showed up in front of them. The kobolds, however, had the statue but not the name. I could just slip the name and give them orders pretending to be the [Queen] and they would naturally come to worship me.
More kobolds came from outside, attracted by the ones that ran back to spread the news. I let them into the building because I wanted as many kobolds inside the donut’s hole where magic was possible as I could fit. I started a spell-song to enhance my Charisma and speed up the conversion by abusing the social traits of the System.
The notifications of the kobolds’ conversion started to roll in. To my surprise, some of them had priest classes. The bait was laid out, now I could lay back and wait for the big fish to bite it.
I mingled with the kobolds, asking them about their jobs and their aspirations for life. If I had to place the gnomes in Earth history, I’d say they were in the late iron age, around the time of Alexander the Great. They had the rudimentary knowledge on how to build machines but lacked in many aspects. I probably ushered them into the middle ages. The kobolds, however, were trapped in the hunter-gatherer age. The fact some of them could use magic and were treated as shamans among their kind, needing the permission of the queen to practice because she controlled the center ring, the only place where magic could be used.
Superstitious and gullible even when compared with the gnomes, the kobolds didn’t doubt for a moment I was the [Queen]. The System recognized their acceptance.
> You have conquered the Siphon Kobold Kingdom by making all living heirs recognize you as the rightful ruler.
>
> You already have the title, [Queen].
>
> You already have the Perk, Royalty.
>
> You cannot gain the Kobold Royalty Perk. Your base species do not match the required criteria.
>
> Modifying dynasty rules to allow rulers of other species.
>
> You do not the qualification for the perk, Fae Royalty. A fae sovereign for the Wind element already exists.
“System, does a fae sovereign for the Lightning element exist?”
> Acknowledged. Derivative elements are not part of the accords. Request denied.
The more you know. I had no idea there were accords in place but it should be something regarding the world takeover by the System and this stupid Pantheon to earn the elder fairies’ cooperation. Gotta ask the godmothers about that the next time we meet. No free Royalty perk for me this time. I lost the chance to get Gnome Royalty and now only when I get that species again.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
> Selecting one suitable Royal Perk. You gained the Perk,
>
> Borderlands Royalty (ultra-rare): You gain 2 extra base HP per level. You suffer only a quarter of any terrain penalties. If you have an adequate amount of personnel appointed and personally spend at least 3 hours every week managing your settlement, productivity penalties for lack of adequate infrastructure are reduced by (Average Charisma score for the week/2)%.
Suitable was an understatement. It was perfect.
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The barbecue went on until the kobolds were lying on the floor, resting against the walls of the building or the palisade, completely engorged on monster meat, courtesy of the item box. Having magic made things so easier I loathed going back in the dead magic zone.
But now I controlled both population centers in the dead magic area. The junkie gnome prisoners arrived late at the party. They stopped at the gates, the boundary between the dead magic and the inner oasis, and went no further even though the gates were wide open and unmanned. Or unkobolded. They didn’t want to suffer from mana exposure.
“Your Majesty!” Their new leader bowed, “We’d like to know if you want more magic juice in exchange for some meat!”
They had flasks with the gunk their mutant dicks secreted. From what the souls of the dead royal guards told me, they were on home arrest because the Queen came back with an enormous desire to kill any and all gnomes she laid her eyes upon. But they needed the gnome males’ secretions as supplements to lay stronger eggs, a necessity that was crucial after they’d lost so many of their warriors. Since she couldn’t kill them, she ordered them restricted to their quarters. The guards watching over the gnomes abandoned their posts to eat barbecue, allowing them to escape. I bet they were doing double wanking duty to extract that many “gnome nectar”, now that the thing “sold” at a premium.
I approached the gates and stared at their grinning addled faces. I had yet to discover what these guys were using to get high, then eradicate it from existence.
“You gnomes shall kneel and pledge allegiance to the true goddess. The Matriarch is the new goddess of the desert, the gnomes, and the kobolds,” I hissed at them.
“But Wyxnos...”
“WYXNOS IS NO GOOD. Any gnome that invokes that cursed name shall be killed. He abandoned you. He doesn’t care about you or your fate. Your brethren out there created this machine of destruction that killed my finest warriors. They found the True Goddess, the Matriarch, and she gave them the power to kill hundreds of kobolds. Now the kobolds shall worship the True Goddess too, and get her blessings. The Matriarch gave us the meat, it is for worshippers only. Repent, abandon your old ways and convert to her faith, and you shall be fed.
“But...”
“GUARDS! Get the bottles of magic juice from the gnomes and bring them to the nursery. I’ll make sure they’re properly compensated. Or properly punished, depending on their choices.” The kobold guards looked at each other and then at the black-armored silk kobolds. I couldn’t let my golems into the dead magic zone and they were under orders not to. “You scaled buffoons, not my royal knights! Do your damn job now!”
The kobolds pointed pointy sticks at the gnomes, who cowardly surrendered the fruits of their hard and extenuating wank, I mean, work.
“But Your Majesty...” the gnome leader complained.
“SILENCE! The Matriarch speaks to me. She said she’ll bless the first three of you who dare cross this boundary. You’ll gain the power to not die in the magic. Come, the ones brave enough to cast away the false god and embrace truth!”
> Contested Charisma check won.
Five gnomes stumbled forward, knelt, and swore their allegiance to the Matriarch even though they were grunting in pain. I spent the Divinity necessary to give them a special priest class that contained the first three stages of {Arcane Magic Resistance} and an HP regeneration boosting Perk. It was also highly skewed toward Endurance.
“The pain is no more!” One of them said as he stood up. I could tell he was still burning but slower than before. Maybe it was lower than his HP regeneration now. “Praise the Matriarch, the true Goddess!”
The kobolds watching the scene agreed with him. The other two didn’t get up but their HP was dropping so slowly I knew I just needed to make them gain a few levels.
“You, take these two and follow me,” I ordered the gnome who seemed to be fine.
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
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“I don’t care what I said before, all that matters is what I’m saying now!” I shouted at the kobold stablemaster who refused to hand out some wounded raptors to kill for Exp.
The settlement had a surplus of raptors but the loser [Saintess] didn’t want to kill any because of sentimental issues, I guess. Some bullshit about honoring the fallen. Without the workers to fetch food, the raptors were quickly depleting the stockpile and would grow hungry soon. Were the kobolds betting that the hungry raptors would not eat their handlers? Because I bet they would. These raptors were cannibalistic monsters (like most monsters were).
“But Your Majesty, if you...”
“Obey me.” I pressed, forcing yet another social test to crush the opposition. I was just roleplaying a tyrant. No worries there. No worries, at all. Yes…
The stablemaster allowed us to take the most injured and oldest raptors to kill. I converted the prisoner gnomes, the last sentient creatures in this desert who didn't worship me. Now, I had to dig to the root of the problem and find what made the dead magic zone tick. And then take it away from Wyxnos.