The next book Matt read was the one about the empire. Knowing the history of the land he now lived in would help him tremendously, even if it never came up in conversation and only helped him know some of the background reasons for the culture around him.
Before the demon wars and the unification, the center continent and the wilds, formerly known as the eastern continent, had several human nations. The center continent was divided into three kingdoms; the nation of Hyberious, the nation of Kastor, and the nation of Menandra, all named after the ruling family.
The eastern continent was divided into two factions, the Council of Leenand, and the Legion. Unlike the center, which was divided into different kingdoms, the east was closer to governments or groups of humans who banded together under a united banner. The east also didn’t fight each other as much, instead they mainly fought with the demons who used to only come from the hellfire mountain until they took over the east.
The center was constantly fighting each other for territory and resources. Each human kingdom was adjacent to one of the other races or nations, and by allying with them they all had unique advantages over the other kingdoms, leaving them mostly matched. Hyberious was adjacent to the elven forests, Menandra was adjacent to the dwarven holds and Kastor was allied with both the Council and the Legion. The dracon were not explicitly allied with any one nation, but pretty much every human kingdom traded or worked with them in some capacity.
While Kastor had its skirmishes with the other two, the nations of Hyberious and Menandra hated each other and were at constant war. Neither was able to completely overpower the other, but they constantly lost and took land and resources from each other. While the central continent continued to fight, the Demon Lord ascended,
Nobody knows where the demon lord came from, but he was a terrible scourge across the land. The central continent didn’t even know that he had started taking over the east until half of the Legion and the Council were wiped out. Hyperious and Menandra slowed down in their fight slightly as they watched over the situation in the east, but Kastor was quick to both try and assist their allies and make sure the demon threat couldn’t advance further into the center.
However, the demon lord was powerful and even the combined forces of the east and Kastor was not enough to stop them. The demon's advances were slowed, but it would not be enough. And this is where the emperor arrives.
First Emperor Leland ‘Manablade’ Havenshire was a Kastoran noble whose family had been one of the first to join the fight against the demons. However, they were also the first to fall under the demon lord. While they went to reinforce the frontlines, the demon lord made an unexpected appearance and wiped out the allied forces. Left as the last heir of Havenshire, Leland discovered a lost technique of their family and after developing a dual core, they learned not only mana but also aura, becoming one of the last spellblades seen in history.
Being able to use two types of energy, Leland quickly grew in strength and vowed to put an end to the demon threat, but to do that he needed more help. Seeing Hyperious and Menandra continue to sit on the sidelines, Leland began his campaign against the other two kingdoms.
While usually one person would not be enough to sway the whims of a nation, the public opinion on the leadership was in heavy decline as they continued to do nothing about the demons and news of the quickly falling east reached the citizens. This is where Leland was joined by his first companion, a mysterious shaper known only as the Materialist.
Not much is known about the Materialist, only that they are human, always wearing a large set of all covering armor and were one of the strongest shapers ever seen in history. They could walk through a battlefield and fell the entire army in moments without spilling a single drop of blood, trapping the fighters in shackles made from their own weapons and cages made from their armor. Combined with his own martial prowess, Leland and the Materialist were able to quickly bring the two nations under their command and unify the central continent under one name. Leland didn’t want to be the new ruler, but the people knew his noble heart and good character and would only accept the unification if Leland became the first emperor, which he did.
From there, Leland was joined by three more members to his party in his new fight against the demon armies. From the elves, Leland was joined by Aerion 'ShadowBane’ Farimor, a dusk elf and one of the greatest archers in the elven forests and master of stealth. She was renowned for her ability to fire volleys of arrows without ever being seen once, even by allies.
From the dwarves, they were joined by Kend ‘Mana Weaver’ Hardstone. Kend was a rare dwarven mage, and an even rarer support mage. They could weave together healing and support spells so well they could keep their allies in top fighting shape for hours if needed, which would be incredibly valuable in the upcoming war.
And from the dracon, they were joined by Karrick ‘Whirlwind’ Kray’nor, a skirmisher who was famous for her dual saber technique. Whether on land or boat, she could dispatch groups of enemies faster than it took them to even draw their own weapons. With more allies and now the unified armies of the rest of humanity, Leland took the battle to the frontlines.
Unfortunately, despite Lelands efforts in trying to unify the empire as quickly as possible, he was unable to do so before the rest of the east was conquered by the demons. Now, all that was left was scattered villages that had bunkered down in time and left stable, but in danger. The armies formerly belonging to Kastor were doing a decent job at holding back the frontlines, but they couldn’t hold on forever. Thankfully, they did not need to.
With the reinforcements from the Lelands party and the rest of the human armies, humanity managed to not only halt the advance of the demons but begin taking the fight back. While Leland and then later the Materialist were able to stop human armies by themselves, the insatiable bloodlust of the demons made it so they would never surrender, and it was very rare for demons to use equipment so the Materialist wasn’t able to be as effective against the army. No, despite the parties incredible combat abilities, they needed the manpower that having the support of the armies allowed for actually taking ground away from the demons.
As the point of the spear, the party carved a path through the now destroyed landscape and eventually reached a castle created on hellfire mountain; the base of the demon lord and first home of the demons. There, the party confronted the last generals of the demon army and eventually the demon lord. After an intense fight where they discovered the demon lord's strange, seemingly endless regenerative ability, the party decided their only option would be to seal the demon away.
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The Materialist made a cage and chains for the demon lord while Leland and Kend cast a spell that was boosted by the knights, and with the Materialist shaping everything together the party managed to seal the demon lord away in his own castle, never to be opened or released ever again. And after returning home to the central continent, the Materialist made a new castle for Leland to begin his rule.
After that, the party disbanded as they returned back to their homes to continue guiding the new world. Only Lelend was in a leadership position, but Kend and Aerion both returned home where they became instructors to help spread their knowledge and techniques to the next generation.
Karrick returned to her life of adventure on the seas, fighting both pirate and monster alike as she chased down the next big quest and finding the next threat. As for the materialist, nobody knows what happened to them. After Leland began his rule over the unified human empire, the mysterious shaper disappeared without a trace, supposedly to find an awakening of every material.
And Leland Heavenshire continued to lead the new empire as his lone castle in the center of the plains grew into a mighty capitol city, prepared to aid the next generations of emperors. And while Leland was able to unlock his family's ancient technique, he was unable to teach any others the way of cultivating a dual core and he unfortunately became the last spellsword on record, even to this day. While the Havenshire technique is not the only way to accomplish this, it was the last practiced method until Lelands eventual death forty years later.
Closing the book, Matt leaned back in his chair and frowned. It seems like the rest of the world doesn’t know about the weakening of the seal… That was unfortunate but there wasn’t much he could do about that. If he went around raving about the demon lords revival he would probably get branded a mad man and banished, or worse.
No, he couldn’t warn the world. Even if it hurt his heart to let the demons get a surprise attack against everyone else, he would be more helpful joining the fight and protecting people with his abilities. And the town was already on guard because the demons were apparently getting more active, probably because of the demon lords resurrection. Taking a deep breath, Matt looked over to the last book. It was the smallest one by far compared to the other two, but it was definitely the most recent in terms of history.
It was mostly a recounting and more thorough explanation of the history lesson that Matt had received from Bishop upon entering the town. The town had started like most towns as a collection of temporary campsites that eventually started to become more permanent structures and then full on buildings, roads and walls. The first settlers were adventurers coming to take advantage of the high monster population without actually needing to go further south into the wastelands.
After a while, more people followed the trail of new explorers and like the gold rush of earth, the economy started booming. When the forest's ecosystem wasn’t being messed up by mutant monsters, it was much more abundant with resources that were closer to the edges. Not only was the forest valuable, but the mountains were too.
Matt had heard a bit about the mountains and of the mineral golems that inhabited the place, but until he purchased the stone cores earlier that day he didn’t really know much. According to the book, not only did the golems generate with stone and crystals, but the further up and into the mountains you went the more valuable the minerals became, such as metal or gems. Thinking about it, Matt figured that he could probably go into the mountains next. The forest was still a bit unstable right now and would need a bit of time to recover, but the mountains were unaffected.
In fact, now that he could shape stone he wouldn’t be in danger of the golems camouflage tactic of pretending to be a pile of regular rocks. And if he got lucky, he might even be able to find more cores and unlock more materials. The thought of it made him smile. The mountains were a bit more dangerous than the forest but he had grown a bit stronger. While increasing his shaper tier didn’t vastly increase his physical abilities, he did feel better and felt that he was in a better condition than when he first got here. And, his force of shaping was much higher, so he should be fine as long as he was careful.
Looking back at the book, Matt read up on more modern history of the town. After the village past the forest fell and joined Jylen, it started to gain a lot of traction. Being this far south usually wouldn't be that valuable but with the abundant resources and being established as a new border against the wilds, the town was important to the empire and so it has been invested in heavily.
There was a minor warrior noble household in charge of managing the town, the Heircroft house, which were apparently well known for their knights and swordsmanship techniques that played an important role during the demon wars. Nowadays there isn’t any true war between the different kingdoms but soldiers are still needed for fighting monsters and bandits, and Heircroft has been large in taking care of that duty in the southeastern part of the empire.
Other than that, the book ended rather uninterestingly with some logistical explanations on new roads and trade routes with the rest of the empire. While getting to know about other towns and cities would be important, doing so by learning where Jylen purchased its fish in exchange for wood was boring. And, it had already been several hours at the library and Matt was starting to get hungry.
Leaning back in the chair while stretching, Matt let out a weary sigh as he looked out the window. It has been almost five hours and was well into the afternoon, getting to be around dinner time. The library was otherwise the same, with people doing their own reading with some having the same idea as Matt and heading out. Stretching once more to really get his body back into working order, Matt fixed the chair and stood up, re-donning his gauntlets and putting the books back where he found them.
As he was walking to the exit, Matt saw that the old librarian had finished his book and moved on to a new one, equally as large and old looking. Sensing his presence, the librarian looked up and met Matt's eye, smiling at him with a little wave,
“I hope you found everything helpful young Matt. While reading may not be as exciting as the work adventurers get up to, it is quite important to spend some of your time on the activity.” Matt chuckled a bit and nodded.
“It was, Mr. Brightmore, thank you for the help. I will be back soon but probably not before I visit the guild for work. Until then!” The old librarian chuckled at Matt's comment while waving the young man off, content to return to his reading.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Walking back in the direction of the guildhall, Matt stopped at a food stall that was selling some kind of roast meat on a stick that smells incredible. He purchased two skewers for five copper that he traded a silver for, getting fifteen copper as change. Matt wasn’t sure if there was a bank or something in town, but he should probably find somewhere to break some change into smaller coins.
The skewer tasted a bit like steak with a lighter flavor, and the meat was a bit closer to pork in texture. Overall, a solid meal that he would definitely buy again. He walked through the market street, observing a few new stalls that had popped up and replaced others that must have closed for the day. Matt figured he could probably spend all day shopping and still be surprised by a new shop showing up when he wasn’t looking. Eventually, Matt finished his food and was standing before the adventurers guildhall. Taking a deep breath to settle his nerves, Matt opened the doors and stepped inside.