Looking down at the marching column of trollkin and ogres while keeping an eye on the sun, Arcturus felt jittery. This was the first proper engagement since the debacle that was this year's undead cleansing.
When they had finally sealed up the rift tower and left the regular garrison to clean up their mess, all of the phalanxes had been told they were now drafted until further notice and would be making their way toward the capital on the double. Not a single citizen complained. They had all gotten the quest. Arcturus couldn't help but wonder if it wasn't also connected to the great one. Sure, he had told them to call him Ambros, but then again, they had seen what he left behind of troll or ogre warbands by now. A whole lot of trampled, ripped and scorched earth covered in blood. Arcturus had even seen one engagement himself from his perch on a cliff while scouting.
The great one had walked confidently towards the war band as he drew his axe that was longer than their spears. The bolts of purple fire started hurling toward the warband faster and faster. They shot out until it looked like a single line of purple moving across the trollkin. Anywhere the purple fire hit, it splashed out and spread, setting more trollkin ablaze in the infernal barrage of destruction and death. The two hundred and fifty or so trollkin had perished before the great one made it within striking distance with his long axe, leaving their commander alive. Arcturus had watched as the great one appeared behind the commander from one step to the next. Then the trollkin commander's large head was held up by the knotted braid, held aloft in the great one's hand. Held towards the phalanxes as a promise. The free citizens had roared their approval then. Beating spear against shield in a steady rhythm. There had been hope.
Now he looked down at what may be the first proper engagement between trollkin, their ogre allies and the free citizens. The first engagement without the great one present. He could only thank the gods that the elves, orcs and dwarfs were in a three-way war that kept them away from the lower part of the mountain chains. Signaling to another scout further down, he hoped their gambit would work. He prayed to the gods that the great one would be successful in his mission and that they would smile at him in favor. Arcturus would sacrifice a fat lamb and four slaves on his return home in praise of the gods.
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Ambros was making a slow but steady phase down into the mountain. After a month of scouting, a named being had finally been found. Leave it to the system to not explain where any of the named beings were. No, that would be too easy. How many named beings were there? No, idea. Clearly, that was more information than the system thought would be useful. This one, Kreizog Bigbelly, was a particularly large and front heavy ogre holding up in a former dwarven outpost inside the mountains. A scout had spotted the ogre being carried on a wooden door by eight other ogres while he was overlooking his domain or just wanted to stretch his flaps for all Ambros knew. The important part was that once he had been spotted, the alert was given by the system with the information about where the ogre had last been seen. Ambros was surprised the system was being that accommodating. The scout was presumed eaten because no one had seen her return, but they had quickly picked up its trail again, and an extremely stupid or brave scout had taken it on herself to go into the mountains and locate the abode of Kreizog Bigbelly. Ambros had given her enough gold to buy the next catalyst she needed or live the rest of her life in luxury.
Not that the free citizens had it that hard to begin with, he thought with a disgusted grunt at what he had seen and learned since coming here. Sometimes he caught himself thinking it would be better to lose twenty levels and a title after what he had seen on the way to the capital and while he was there.
Seven days into the trip toward the capital, they had come upon a celebration in a large village surrounding a patriarch's villa, where they would spend the night before Diokles switched roethar. They had been making good time. Since they had been able to talk while the patrician rode and Ambros ran, he had learned a lot about this country, and Diokles had opened up more towards him on the way. Much of what he learned disgusted him, and quite a few things outright shocked him. Like human sacrifice to the gods, the fact that around ten million Free citizens ruled over more than a hundred million lesser people, as they were called. The cullings that were needed to keep them in their place, and so on. Diokles used a lot more flowery language, but that was what it amounted to.
Coming into the village center, they saw tables and tables of celebrants. Apparently, there was a wedding between someone important or something. Groups of slaves ran around with drinks and food, making sure everyone was served. Some of them must have realized Diokles was someone of importance by his dress or that he rode into the town. That Ambros was as taller then Diokles on the strange horse and looked able to lift them both in one arm probably made an impression, too, because they were soon greeted and bid to sit at seats of honor. While the villagers found it strange that Ambros thanked the servers, they didn't comment, and they had a good meal of something that tasted like roast pig. It had been gifted by the local patrician, who apparently was too highborn to participate in the proceedings or something stupid like that. Drink flowed, and people were merry. Ambros even managed to get a mild buzz for a few seconds if he drank enough of some awfully tasting spirits that were supposed to help digestion.
He tried being as social and proper as possible, but the things he had learned and saw here still grated on him. It was a constant reminder that there would always be someone put down, someone would be left behind. While he understood and somewhat accepted that was the way to power, this was not done by people seeking to better themselves. It was done by people that wanted lordship to make their own lot easier in life. To keep things as they were without change, growth or betterment. It was wasteful and stagnated not only those that were enslaved but those in power. Sending a few forlorn tugs through the bond he had with Whisper, he hoped she would one day forgive him.
Ambros was roused out of his musing by sobbing, deep and heartwrenching sobs. He saw a crowd of youths standing around someone and cheering as the sobs increased. Standing up, he could feel every eye of the people seated at the table on him as he made his way towards the young men and women cheering someone on. The first one that saw him backed away while growing silent, and so did the next one that stood before him. When his eyes fell on five young men who had trapped two slaves between them on the ground, going at them like dogs, he felt his blood boil, and the firey rage started pulsing against his head. Then his eyes fell on the abused slaves and saw one of them could bearly be in her teens.
Ambros wasn't sure what had happened or where he was, but he held a balding older man by his neck up in the air. The man's legs were kicking feebly as he tried to breathe through Ambrose's grip. Behind him, he could hear Diokles saying his name, begging him to stop in a broken and scared voice. Crystal stopped its urgent messages about it not being the time yet. He should stop, or he would cause more harm to himself. When it noticed its messages got through to Ambros, it was ecstatic. Telling him of its worry, that what he had done was very, very dangerous for him now. He should wait until it was time. It was very, very important. Crystal brushed its presence along what he could only describe as his very being, like a cat would brush up against its food giver. Making that strange purring sound, Crystal informed him it would start to heal him now. Everything would be fine, just don't do it again until it is time. Please. Please. Please.
Yeah, he felt like his insides had been dipped in acid, his skin cracked, and his mana channels had been used as skipping ropes by a family of hyperactive rabbits for a few hundred years. Even worse, the progress he had made on his first meridian opening had been undone. Still, something inside told him that this was right, that this was justice. That he would do it again if the need should arise.
Letting the man's leg hit the floor, he asked? “Your name?” Ambros knew him to be the local patrician by his clothing now, the same as Diokles wore. The man started spitting insults and threats the moment he got his breath back, so he shook him with the hand still around the man's throat, and the words slipped out of Ambros in a roar, “I am here to render judgment on your wrongs! Name?”
Questor Ambros Mardux has found the actions of Gennadios, son of Tisamenos, patriarch of the township Pelide and its surrounding villages, in the country of Agera to be in breach of the system mandate and local law.
Questor Ambros Mardux will render judgment on Gennadios.
Be warned, Questor, penalties will be given should the system find your judgment to be unjust, unfair or in breach of the system mandate. Do you wish to proceed?
Yes, there was no question about right or wrong in this instance. He knew what he had been witnessing was wrong. Even with the abridged version of history and explanation given to him by Diokles, Ambros knew what he had seen was horrifyingly wrong, by both moral and what was right as much as by law.
Gennadios, son of Tisamenos, patriarch of the township Pelide and its surrounding villages, in the country of Agera, is found to be in breach of local law and the system's mandate. It is to be given by Questor Ambros Mardux to pass judgment. The system will stand in witness.
Ambros could hear gasps coming from his sides and back. Apparently, the system had announced it to who knew what, to who knew how many. He didn't care. What he did care about was the root of the abuse and the one ultimately responsible for how people on this land were treated. The man in front of him had lost what little color there was in his face and stood slack jawed in Ambrose's iron grip. “Gennadios, While you no doubt are responsible for innumerable breaches of how you treat and let the people in your land treat those who you were supposed to show the proper way, uplift and give the teachings of the gods. Those who are supposed to be given a chance to stand on their own legs and grow. The latest evil was witnessed by myself in the townships square. For that, I strip you of your titles and sentenced you to death. May the system give you what you deserve because I can only do so much to you in this life.” To Ambrose's surprise, when he was about to break the man's neck, he simply melted into a soup while screaming his luges out. There was no better way to describe what happened to the man for Ambros.
Questor Ambros Mardux has passed judgment. The system finds the judgment to be eighty-two percent in favor of the system mandate and within local laws as on in power passes judgment one of lesser power.
Gennadios and his family are stripped of any titles. Gennadios is terminated by the hand of the system at the will and judgment of its Questor Ambros Mardux. The spirit of the former being known as Gennadios, will spend no less than eight thousand seven hundred and twelve years in Naraka. One year for each similar breach of the local law.
For your first successful judgment being in high compatibility with the system's mandate and within local law, you are awarded a system rank merit point and one million system points.
Go forth, Questor, and fulfill your duty. May you always know wisdom in your judgment or pay the price of failure.
Well, that was anticlimactic. Then again, he wasn't sure what he had been thinking between standing up at the feast and now anyway. He only knew it to be wrong. Some small part of it had been made right, but not nearly enough.
Turning around, the first thing that struck him was that the entire front of the house was gone. It looked to have been torn or swiped off by a gigantic hand. He had probably done something with mana in his anger. There were plenty of ways to make that happen. The guards were looking at each other, confused and uncertain. What he imagined was the man's wife was sitting on the floor weeping, either for her late husband or the lost titles, who knew, maybe both. He couldn't find it in himself to have sympathy for someone who was more than likely just as guilty. Diokles looked so shaken and terrified that he didn't think the man would open himself up to Ambros anymore. Shame, despite his moral failings when it came to the lesser people, as he called them, he did not allow any abuse of them on his land. That would be against the teachings, as he had explained to Ambros. That didn't stop the man from using them as free labor, however, but things needed to start someplace, or Ambros imagined he would be executing every leader in the land at some point. It would seriously impact his quest too. Ambros looked at the terrified Diokles and said. “Will you see to it that someone takes care of this place until the quest is over and they do not continue down the road of the last patriarch?” Looking at Ambros for a moment, he quickly nodded and said, “I'll have one of my people take over here until a suitable replacement can be found. I'll send a message by birds at once, Questor.” Giving a strange fist-to-heart salute to Ambros, he made his way to one of the guards that looked to be better dressed and started speaking urgently to the man.
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Feeling spent, he walked toward the open wall. Finding the way back to the township square shouldn't be too problematic, he thought, looking at the path of destruction that went from the villa and followed the road down to the square. He must have acted like a raving madman. Entire sides of houses were gone, long furrows in the road where it had been torn up. He would have to see about paying for the repairs before he left. He winced as he saw a few houses had been completely blown to pieces by what he presumed was him using mana. Hopefully, no one had been inside.
When he got down to the square, people drew back from him as he drew near. The naked girls were sitting and holding each other while crying. He couldn't blame them in the least. He could only stop it from happening again here. An older woman that had the same outdoor complexion as the girls were close by and trying to talk to them in a comforting voice. He could now see they were either sisters or mother and daughter. The rage started growing again, but Crystal was there, begging him to hold it together for now. Help those that he could help. That would make him feel better? Yes, he thought. It would. Crystal was glad and made a little tune at him before going back to doing whatever it was doing to keep his body from falling apart.
Standing before the two girls, he tried calling on water, but the pain was more than he could handle, so he turned to the closest partygoers and barked. “Go and prepare hot water for bathing, and someone bring something for them to wear. Now!” When he said that, people started scurrying around. They clearly did not like his shouting because they started shaking and crying even more. Feeling like an idiot, he sat down and grabbed a couple of rocks while he said in a softer voice. “Sorry, I… I need to control my anger sometimes. I didn't mean to scare you. Im going to give you something to take the pain away, okay? You must hold unto it until all the pain in your body is gone. I'm sorry I can't take away the other pain.” The older of them was clearly still terrified, but the younger one nodded through her tears. Ambros had already summoned his stylus and was scribbling on the rocks. He was done before someone brought sheets to drape across their bodies and could take them to get cleaned.
Taking the two Energy marbles he got from those bone golems or what they were, he placed them in the slot to empower the healing runes before handing each of them one. Their gasps told him it was working. They were soon ushered away by the older lady, but not until Ambros got her to swear loudly that she would come and get Ambros if anything happened to the girls. Crossing his legs, he sat on the ground and tried helping Crystal fix up the mess he had made of himself. Thinking back on the trip still made him boil, but he knew he had done something for those two. He would ensure that nothing like that happened again here, at least before he left. Things got a lot worse and, at the same time, better when he made it to the capital.
Looking around the bend of the tunnel, he only saw more tunnels. Ambros had learned that tunnels and caverns ran through the entire mountain range. He still had trouble accepting how large and far the mountain range spanned. When he was days away, they had looked enormous. When he was at the foot of the mountains had trouble accepting they didn't reach outer space. How big was this world?
It felt like days, but it was probably just a few turns of the glass until he found the old dwarven outpost in a cavern. Since the ogres couldn't possibly fit inside the buildings, they had made some sort of camp inside the outpost bailey. It was surprisingly spacious, he thought from his perch on the cavern roof, looking down on the ogres. He counted thirty of them in the old outpost, but more were undoubtedly in nearby caverns. He had probably walked past quite a few as he made his way there following the turns the sout had reported.
Kreizog Bigbelly was, without a doubt, an Adept. An early one but still an Adept. How he had managed that and still be big enough that he barely could walk was beyond Ambros's understanding. Then again, he knew nothing of an ogre's path to power. For all he knew, they increased in power by being sedentary and eating. Which incidentally was exactly what the big ogre was doing.
Making his way to the back of the cavern, he carefully climbed down to the top of the outpost. No ogres would dare try to step out there. The dust on the ground agreed with his sentiment. Sitting on his hunches, he looked straight down at the camp. This was going to be an interesting one. He had no idea how to solve this without alerting the no doubt thousands of ogres that made these tunnels their home. While he was sure he could take on quite a few of the lard balls, he was also sure getting trapped here would get him killed.
Reaching out with Control Earth, he sent his senses through the mountain surrounding them. He mapped any tunnels he came across. Ambros started realizing this entire mountain resembled a termite mound. There were tunnels everywhere. Sadly he had no way to check which ones were in use or even occupied from where he was, so he would have to do it going there. However, he did find a startling amount of quartz with gold that turned into pure gold veins. He would be taking that with him, thank you very much, especially the smokey quartz. That did have a few ritual uses.
Days later, he was back in the cavern's wall with the old dwarven outpost. He had been periodically checking that Kreizog Bigbelly wasn't carried anywhere. He was dirty, hungry and wanted to curl up and sleep. His mana had been drained several times, and his attempt at opening his small intestine meridian had completely stalled. Ha was grinning, however. Some would probably call the grin evil. Like a spider in its web, Ambros sat in the center of a multitude of new canals and tunnels, mere inches apart at places with the old ones running through the mountain. Making his way inside the cavern roof, he came to a large room filled with all the copper and iron he could place there without the roof falling down. In the middle of the room, right above the dwarven outpost bailey was a large, almost translucent quartz with carvings on it. It had been a pain to get it cut out, but the synergy he needed to make this work was too good with the quartz since he had nothing but mana grains left. It would largely depend on Ambrose's own mana to start up and get up to speed, so to say. Making sure all forty mana grains were slotted, he started transferring mana into the rune sequence. More and more, he pulled out of himself into the rune, feeling his mana reserve shrinking rapidly. Leaving himself just enough for one last task, he started to run along a prepared tunnel going straight out of the mountain.
It took almost a turn before he reached the opening he had made out of the mountain. Speeding up, he thrust with both legs at the lipp, hurling himself forward at an incredible speed. He wasn't sure he broke the sound barrier, but by the pressure of the wind he felt against his face, he couldn't be that far off. Crystal was making a sound that sounded suspiciously like “Weeeeeeeeeee!” He didn't dare move anything but his hands as he used them to gradually make his way toward a dense copse of pine trees in the distance. When he was about a thousand steps or so away, he used the last of his mana to cast Control Wind and gradually arrested his momentum from, you are about to go splat, too you will probably break a few bones. Luckily his bones were as dense as his skull. Pulling his feet and body straight against the momentum, he did a last push that almost stopped him in his tracks before hitting the pine trees' upper branches.
Laying curled up with his back against a particularly thick trunk, he watched the path of destruction he had made on his way down. He had cut through the upper canopy like a razor and started exploding through the upper trunks before reaching good solid-sized trunks. Thats when the painful part began as he careened from trunk to trunk, like a pig that had gotten into the overripe cherries, breaking even a few of these behemoths of the forest before his momentum had more or less stopped, and he slid a good thirty steps along the forest floor, ending up in a fetal position against the trunk he found himself at. Good trip. Can't wait to do it again next year… Ambros was smiling, however. His quest score had so far gone up from four thousand something to over sixteen thousand, and it was still rising. Still not any system message about the fat one, however. Tough lard ball, that one. He didn't particularly feel like trying to make his way back into the mountain for a while, his current pathetic state aside, since he had flooded the tunnels with molten metal, rocks and poisonous gasses. Not the most creative way to do things, but his score certainly said it was efficient. He doubted that particular band of ogres would amount to much after this.
Closing his eyes for a moment to just feel the cool wind against his face, he activated Meditation and lay there enjoying the feel of how much mana he was getting now. He did need more Energy for the same amount of mana from before his mana pool had been forcefully condensed and the Awakened Mana Core had made its grand entrance. That was one of the reasons he really wanted to get his meridians open as soon as possible. Not only would it greatly increase the amount he could take in, but it would also allow him to store more than a tiny sliver he was currently using to poke at the first meridian. Not much more before he opened his dantians, but still more.
The Crystal decided to chime in. It sent the idea he should learn to channel chi when they went to a part of the multiverse where that was more prevalent, so he could learn to hit things harder things with his head without hurting so much. Wasn't that the same as Energy? No, qi was qi, but it used many of the same places as Energy. Then a new clear tone was made in his head, that was qi. It was not as good as Energy for converting to mana, but it was better at improving and enchanting the body, unlike the strong but rigid Energy. It was why the system liked Energy so much. It was easier to use to power skills and system rewards. It had a set path that was easy to follow with minimal effort from the system, unlike the malleable mana and the forceful qi. More importantly, it was found in abundance throughout most of the multiverse. The downside was that nothing could be converted to Energy, well, nothing he could use now, and when he could, it would be pointless.
He just needed to do it before he did his first transformation. In fact, he should learn them all before his first transformation. Yes, he really, really should. Crystal was practically bouncing. How many of these energy forms are there? He was almost afraid to ask. Instead of a number, a pure long note was made in his mind, that many it sent. Many powers came from the power. All of his follow-up questions just ended in a roundtrip, so he put a lid on it for now. Crystal was happy anyway.
Getting up, Ambros was afraid he would have to make his way back into the mountain to hunt down Kreizog Bigbelly. First, he would head back and see how the eastern army was doing, if it could be called. A few people had almost reached thirty points by the top twenty list, so he guessed that was from the ambush. Rockslides tended to crush pesky things like ogres or even trolls on occasion.
He had taken around a hundred steps when he got the system message.
Quest Award
Kreizog Bigbelly: Terminated
100,000 Exp
1,000,000 Sp
250,000 Qp
Do you wish to loot the corpse?
Battle Award
1,863,750 Exp
3,106,250 Sp.
Yes, he most definitely would, Ambros thought while grinning. There must have been quite a few ogres in the tunnel system. Just the experience and system points alone were a massive windfall, that was, if any levels he got before he made Adept mattered, something he had yet to get an answer to. The amount of quest points was good, but they did need a minimum of fifty million, so unless he killed two hundred more of the named beings in the remaining time. Damn, he hoped there weren't two hundred more named beings. He wasn't sure he would have been able to take Kreizog Bigbelly if he hadn't found a block of quartz that big. Nothing else would have held the temperature needed long enough.
The first drop was a massive club. Ambros could wield it two-handed. It looked to be made of some sort of bone. A large bone with a spiked metal band wrapped around one side. Anaylze just told him it was very valuable. Fifteen platinum coins found their way to his pouch. Considering the Banking Guild had no presence here, that was a happy surprise. Five Energy stones half the size of his fist and three hundred marble-sized ones. It almost made him dance, then he remembered that he would probably need to stand toe to toe with a being that quite possibly was a lot more powerful than him the next time he would get this sort of loot, and his grin was less sure. Still, he was pleased with the loot and gold found in the mountains. People always liked gold.
Checking his quest score, it stood at two-hundred and sixty-six thousand four hundred and sixty-three. Take that, Katina, with your measly thirty-two. It wasn't that bad for the first proper engagement, though. Still, that the number two on the leader board only had thirty-two was a bit depressing. It would improve, he was sure. They would need to start clearing out the enemies faster, but it should snowball as people grew in power, or so Ambros hoped. Soon the northern army led by the queen herself would make it to their part of the mountain range. The western army was still about a month away from its range, however. Now every soldier only needed to kill about a hundred and sixty-six enemies, and they would make it. He had been promised more soldiers however, well free citizens. Calling them soldiers was a bit offensive to anyone that had ever so much as looked at joining an armed force. For now, they would have to do with three forces of one hundred thousand soldiers each and about triple that in baggage if Ambros had counted correctly.
All in all, it wasn't a bad day, he thought as he made his way back to camp.