I wake up in intense pain. My mouth is sore… A few months ago, I shattered my tooth with my void tooth when I lost control of myself… I have been keeping it clean to avoid it becoming infected. Magic can't heal a broken tooth. I'm going to pull the tooth and have it replaced, but the tooth is in pieces already. Pulling it out will be beyond painful to do, without the ability to numb the pain… A chill runs down my spine as I remember pulling the last tooth I removed… No, this one will need to be done more delicately… I'll need to get really drunk before I have it pulled.
The entire day is spent in the process of getting drunk. I have to get away from everyone else because the pain I've been going through over the past month has started to make me more belligerent. I snap at the stupidest things… Yet another reason why it will be good to have this tooth removed. I keep getting drunk at the kobolds village. Several run back and forth between the different barrels and have me sample them… I start to get dizzy. I think this is good enough…
I pull out a pair of tongs I had made for just this. Pulling out the tooth even while intoxicated still gives me some pain. It will feel better eventually. Even under the influence I still manage to remember to hold on to the shards of my teeth to make the false one from. I don't remember much after that though… I think I black out. I wake up in bed with Leaf… That's a good sign. My mouth… Surprisingly doesn't hurt that much. Even less than before I pulled it. I thought I would be in far more pain.
Hmm… Checking my pocket… Yep, my tooth shards are still inside… What happened to them? Each piece is in far worse condition than they were in before. I get up and open the door and knock something over. Or someone, it seems that Gobber was leaning against the door on the outside of this room. He falls over clumsily and looks far more surprised than I do by me opening the door. He looks up from the ground at me before asking.
“Are you… Okay master?”
“Yea… Why do you ask?”
“You don't remember? Last night… You went on a rampage and tore through the fortress. Dozens of your own troops were injured trying to subdue you… Me, Zergnar, Strong, Epieoth and Green with healers and back-up had to intervene and we could barely hold you at bay until Leaf could come and calm you down… I just… Haven't been afraid of you since we first met. Last night I saw someone different than you… What happened?”
My calm attitude shifts… WRATH! YOU PIECE OF SHIT! I hear him in my head now.
“HEY! You don't let me out so I have to take every chance I get to be free!”
“NO! You can't do this! If you ever hurt any of my men again I'll fucking tie myself up and throw away the key until I kill you.”
“You can't… You're the unwanted guest in this body. I'll continue to get stronger and stronger until I take over. Then you wont be able to stop me.”
“Fine! I'll have to find a way to expel you before it gets that bad. With my last ounce of control I'll kill myself before I let you take over… You can read my thoughts… Tell me if I'm bluffing.”
“No… I know you aren't bluffing. Just… We can be a team, we don't have to be this way. Just… Let me out every once in awhile and I'll stay calm afterwords… Otherwise this will keep happening. Every time you lose control I'll take over.”
“Fine… I'll let you lose inside of a dungeon every once in awhile. Once again… Don't you fucking touch my friends!”
“Ahh, I didn't kill anyone. I just got in a little fight… There bones should be healed by now, hehehe.”
“Seriously though, keep yourself calm man! That is messed up. These people could be the ones that could save your life in the future.”
“Nope, everyone I beat up was people who's names you don't know. I held back against your friends… Otherwise they would all be dead. Hehehe, that Gobber… I really wanted to leave him with something to remember me by but Leaf showed up and ruined it all. Even though I know the feelings might not be mine. I still can't show myself going all out in front of her… I think… I think I love her too.”
When he mentioned Gobber… I realized that Gobber was standing there watching me have a conversation with myself. I tell him whats happening.
“S-sorry about that. It seems that the newest trait is one for fighting… He really wanted to hurt you more than anything else though. So be careful around me from now on. If I got a look in my eye that is different than normal. There is a good chance it is him so just be careful… Okay?”
“A-alright master. It's just, it took a group of us to deal with you when you went into that rage… I can't help but think of how much you're actually holding back when you're sparring against us.”
“N-no, I don't think I hold back. It is more like the person I become isn't afraid of going too far… That is where he and I are different. He might also be able to control my body better than me...”
Wrath chimes in.
“You're damn right I can use my body better than you, you fucking body snatching thief!”
I ignore him… Everything has calmed down, I go and check on everyone… They seem to be fine but the looks I'm getting… How crazy did Wrath go last night? Even people who weren't in the medical bay are looking at me with a slight tinge of fear in their stares… It bothers me… It reminds me of the looks I would get when my parents died. When I was only focused on getting stronger… That is behind me now.
I need to focus on preparing for the war. I decide to make a list and put things that need to be accomplished, things that will help if they're accomplished but might not be possible to accomplish before the war starts.
Things I need to accomplish before the war would be. With the creation of more black turtles. I need to teach people how to pilot them. The kobolds can only drive so many of them, so mixing races in to cover the lack of magic casters in my army would help pilot them. I need to finish my automaton prototype I've been working on. It is still a big secret to everyone except the few who have worked on it. I want to teach some of the people of Shienta how to fight… One of the biggest problems that Shienta would have is the lack of people with 2 classes. Even if I spent many days teaching, I would barely scratch the surface. I know already that my uncle will help me with this.
The list of things I want to accomplish if I have enough time is far bigger than what needs to be done. From increasing food stores to building roads and supplying the main force troops. I have many different plans and strategies going on behind the scenes now. Most likely because of my tactician title, I can now see the smaller influences changing the chances of us winning the war. With many different situations I would like to happen before the war.
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I have sent out merchants to gauge the prices of everything, even during war people still need items and money could help us in the long run. I've sent out a several groups of beast riders through different portals to capture rarer monsters to add to our army. I might even gain a few new blue mage skills from them if necessary. Finally pushing the relations between us and other countries would help sway our advantage in this war… If we could have the north east or even the vikings backing us up, it would go a long way in this war.
I still have far too much to do before the war. I'm done taking breaks and I get back to what needs to be done right now… I need to replace this tooth. I open my mouth and see that a single shard of my tooth has remained. That is fine, I can use it as the base of the false tooth. Making another one similar to the one I already have. I make this one reduce the weight, then make it a set with the other tooth. This way, the weight of the stored items is also reduced but at a much cheaper amount than if I had just doubled up on the enchants possible. It also takes away the chances of the teeth causing a mana explosion in my mouth.
I also wanted to make an automaton to help move my arm around. It has taken me awhile, I can't always rely on lich form for controlling my arm… That's why I've decided to make an arm augmenting automaton. That is a tongue twister... I need to find a better way to control it than voice commands though. The commands “attack” “mimic” “rest” and “free control” were taught to it. I teach this hand black mage and scholar… Then get an idea for something and proceed immediately to testing out a the new idea.
I construct a handful of automatons for this purpose. I couldn't use the old ones as they had no class slots available for this. After constructing the new automatons, I teach them black mage and scholar as well. These automatons will do nothing but read to test my idea. Once they hit a certain point, they'll be able to give their knowledge away. So even if someone who doesn't know how to read needs to learn something, the automatons can learn it for them. It would cut the time it would take to read a libraries worth of books by the amount of automatons you had set to read… I need to make sure I can pull this off though and there isn't something stopping them from teaching others. I just hope their isn't a language barrier for them to teach… Or I will have to start over and teach the new librarian bots the illusionist class instead of black mage.
I check on my secret project… It is getting close, soon I will reveal it to my troops and I can't wait to hear their reaction. The hard work and effort of months finally culminating in the reveal, the shocked and surprised expressions on everyone's faces will have made the project worth it.
The troops are coming along well. Even more people have signed up for the elite squads. Some of the children have changed what they want to become when they grow up because of these elite groups. If an average of 1 out of every 20 children wanted to be a healer before (that is being generous to the actual amount) that number has more than doubled since the inclusion of all the healing troops being made into elite soldiers. Wrath speaks up.
“You should cull the weak of this army… If you are so afraid of people dying, the only way to make sure they don't is to only take the ones strong enough to always survive.”
“No, that wont work. Even someone like Gobber would eventually get worn down by numbers and overwhelmed. We need all the troops to stand a chance against a bigger army.”
“That's also the thing… Why do we even need an army? We could just fly in and kill the leader, then fly away. What's the point in having all these troops if we can handle it ourselves?”
“You still don't get it… What happens to these people if I'm not around to protect them? If they haven't been fighting with me, they're all going to die. They won't get stronger… I don't think I can win every battle by myself either… We need each other. I make them strong and they protect the weak in my stead.”
“...Do you really think it will always be this way? Do you think the second you are gone this group of misfits wont turn on each other? How many fights do you break up every day? How often has a demon tribe picked a fight with an elementalist. Or a lizard man accidentally stepped on a kobold… This army is more trouble than its worth… If you want Leaf to stay alive… You're going to need to think seriously about which troops you should get rid of.”
“...We're not getting rid of anyone… We shouldn't even being talking about this.”
Wrath is quiet for a long time… I continue what I was doing but he does eventually continue this conversation.
“...If it was up to me… The demon tribes have outlived their purpose. Most of the strong bodied fighters have left and they even left you to protect their weak until they can find a new home. They are only a burden on this army now. It would be best to get rid of them before they get more of your men killed. Or start trouble you wont be able to come back from… Befriending the king now by cutting ties with them will only help you in the future… You could even sell them off as slaves for a pro-.”
SLAM! I slam a closed fist down as hard as I can near a table before I answer him.
“NO! Have you learned nothing about me from all the years you've watched me!? What makes you think I would ever betray my own men and sell them off as slaves!?”
“This war isn't going to be as kind as you think… One misstep on your part and you value decreases… If it decreases enough… Maybe instead of just the demon tribes being on the front lines… It will be this tiny army you consider your family next… It might be wise to consider which family members are worth sacrificing then.”
I can't even talk with him after that. I've made myself mad again! This isn't the same as how angry I would get at Greed. It is like he is purposefully trying to get me mad. The angrier I become… The easier it is for him to take over…