We found forty survivors through the day, and another sixteen came to us after dark. It was a fretful affair, one full of false starts and stops as we watched through the night, scavenged tents housing our refugees around a large campfire, a palisade of scavenged carts and wood offering up defensive protection against any enemies that might return.
Brandosyeus strutted throughout the camp, playing his music and soothing everyone’s minds and bodies, continuing into the night despite running out of mana. He nodded to me more than once, and I couldn’t help but envy the strength he showed in doing so.
Neither could Jeldorain, who shrank guiltily in a corner, confused, angry, and disoriented by his conflicting emotional states.
Seljin went to the palisades as did a number of other folk. The people of the Shadowed Vanguard were quite stalwart, and the ones with adventuring classes were well eager to join us. I registered the volunteers, sending them in shifts to the palisades and reflecting on their addition to our group. We had elves, humans, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, orcs, a bugbear and a centaur sign up, 20 adventurers in all, and each of them was over 8th level—a fact that I guessed had direct correlation with their survival overall. I was glad to have them, and their angry worn faces suggested they were glad to be had.
The skill sets they offered were also quite valuable. The elves provided a ranger, a druid, an archer, and a variety of mage class supports while the humans were all martial; warriors, a thief, and a bonafide orange yi shaolin monk who I expected would be amazing to see in combat.
The two dwarves were a warrior and, surprisingly, something called a battle mage. Lords of Chaos hadn’t allowed dwarves anything but clerical magic, but the black robed long-bearded dwarf in front of me sparkled with mana, his eyes burning red like the forge, cinders circling the immensity of his beard.
The halflings were a cleric and a healer, the orcs were barbarians, the gnomes were alchemists, and the centaur was something called a Forest Knight who could apparently pass through trees as if they weren’t there three times a day.
The last signee was a grumpy-looking bugbear who carried a club and wore tiny glasses. According to him, he was a sage. I took him aside and put him in charge of stockpiling our loot and inventory.
When they were all tasked and taken care of, I went off to find Ike.
As I approached Ike, he was perched on an old thick log near the edge of our makeshift camp, his gaze fixed on the flickering flames of our central fire and his legs dangling above the sloppy, broken ground. Despite the weariness etched on his face, there was an undeniable strength in his posture. Fully recovered, and ready for the next fight.
“Good evening, Ryan,” Ike greeted me, his voice tired and thoughtful. He patted the space next to him, inviting me to sit. “That’s an awesome job you’ve been doing there. I’ve been watching from the side, between setting people on patrol and into shifts. The goblins, they wanted you to lead their armies. Maybe there was a good reason for it?”
I shrugged. “I was great at gaming. Ran some wonderful parties, raids, was head of my own guild. I think, with the way this world works, the spell saw that and decided I was perfect for the role of warrior-general. But I can’t say that I’ve really done anything here to deserve the amount of energy put into that spell.”
“Yet,” Ike said, spitting into the dirt. “Magic doesn’t lie. Not unless you tell it to. I can’t help but think that you are what the spell says you are. That group out there, they’re toughies. Adventurers levelled up high enough to be a nuisance. The sort of people that would be dangerous in the hands of a leader.”
My eyes narrowed. “What in the hells are you talking about Ike?”
“Just saying that the magic doesn’t lie. The leader of the Shadowed Vanguard is gone, Ryan. We found his body near the edge of the camp, a bunch of goblins next to him. He was a brilliant man. A great strategist. And with him gone, I’m the one in charge now. Technically. But I’m going to need a lot of help because, unlike him, I don’t know much past ruins and party tactics.”
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I frowned. It seemed so sudden, so soon, especially with everything that had happened. “I seriously have done nothing that suggests I’m good for the job.”
Ike nodded. “Not yet. But the magic don’t lie. I want you to work under me, to learn the system and try out some of those gamer skills of yours. I’ll be there to watch, maybe help or maybe learn depending on how right the spell was about you. But I look at you, and I see a good man and a desperate infernal who were brought about like an artifact to lead the armies of the goblin empire and I can’t help thinking that maybe we should have you leading us instead.”
He flicked his fingers, and a notification flashed before my eyes.
You have been invited to share administrative rights over The Shadowed Vanguard. Do you accept?
I thought my acceptance, watching in astonishment as a flurry of menus and pages were added to my character sheet.
The notifications that followed were a swirl of colors and text, each menu and page popping up with a distinctive magical shimmer. I blinked in surprise as I sifted through the sudden influx of information now available to me. It was like diving into a deep, uncharted ocean, each page revealing more about the structure and inner workings of both The Shadowed Vanguard and the system itself. I saw a notification that my command was limited to the group here before us, and realized that Ike was playing things safe.
I heartily approved, sifting through the pages and text.
Vanguard Command Structure
The Command structure allowed me to assign quests to members of the party. Rolling through the details of the system, I noticed that the group had a pool of Potential Experience that could be assigned as rewards to such quests, and that I could also add items from the Party Pool as rewards as well.
Resource Management
Pages and pages of the loot and litter that we had gathered were now itemized before me. The stockpile was impressive given all that had happened to us. Weapons, food supplies, medicinal herbs, food, water and more. It reminded me of the hospital inventory system back on Earth, but I suspected that unlike that one, this one was up to date and accurate. I poured over the numbers, realizing quickly that although there were a lot of varieties of stock, the amounts actually weren’t all that good. We had enough rations for a week, weapons were mostly broken or low quality, and a lot of the potions list was simply empty vial waiting to be refilled.
I sighed and turned to the next one.
Recruitment and Training Programs
Reading through the page, I saw that its importance had ended with the breakdown of the camp. A listing of various adventurers’ training halls were listed, with a cost and time buy next to a variety of different skills and spells. There were even options for expanding ability scores, though the costs of them were incredibly prohibitive. Existing ability score times ten thousand gold told me that it was a rare occasion that this particular train up was used.
And now that all of the structures were broken, every single one of the options was grayed out.
“Ike, this is... a lot,” I admitted, scrolling through the pages.
He nodded, a knowing look in his eyes. “It sure is. More than is good for me, that much is certain. You up for it?”
“Alright, Ike. I accept,” I said, my voice steady. “Let’s do this. Together.”
He clapped me on the back, a grin spreading across his face. “That's the spirit. Why don’t you go to your tent, take the night off, and start learning the system. If we’re going to fight the Goblin Empire, we’re going to need some strategy.”
I thanked him, heading back to my tent past the roaring fire. The Goblin Empire, the way they all spoke of it, was so huge. This would be like the Greeks versus the Romans, or Napoleon after Russia. Enemy armies unspeakably large, without number really, and us trying desperately to stay alive and tear a line through to the capital. Ike was right when he said we couldn’t rush it. We would need allies, numbers, all the magic we could muster.
Plans started rolling through my head. We’d assign people to go out and recruit people, others to find out the locations of ruins and dungeons for loot, experience points, and gear.
The tribal orcs that fought us popped into my head and I realized that they might not be with the goblins, and that their fights might be for other reasons. Reasons that could be exploited.
More and more thoughts turned in my head, and I checked the management tab, finding a page marked What We Know. In it were tavern tales, dated bits of espionage, various locations of ruins, supply dumps, friendly villages and rebel groups throughout the nation.
I read it all, making sure I knew everything before I let myself sleep. Then, finally, I closed my eyes and fell into slumber.