About a week prior…
My two Commanders sounded their horns as my army left Toad (Castle) Town behind, and the clap of webbed feet hitting the ground reverberated through the forest, interspersed by the pounding rhythm of myself and the Cavalry every time we landed from a hop, as we moved north towards Earl Sharpee’s Castle Town.
Already after just a few hours, we came across a small farmstead that, upon laying eyes on our forces, surrendered to us. Within moments, I felt their territory become added to my own demesne, and I quickly sent a wave over the area and evolved all their buildings. Their crops immediately grew to thrice their normal height and the clothes of the few peasants that lived there became like the simple clothes that my Looms produced. Additionally, the kids in the farmstead immediately bypassed adolescence and grew into full adults. It seemed quite an odd thing, but so was the fact that offspring in my town were born into adulthood… As Imu would’ve said, it was just one of those vague magic things that were better off not being questioned.
As the parents looked at their adult children in horror and confusion, my army strode further north, encountering another three farmsteads and a village, which were all surrendered to my demesne without any casualties as well.
The sun had reached its zenith when my large eyes settled upon the walls of Earl Sharpee’s Castle Town. It was quite puny compared to my own, with his castle taking up half of its area, with the rest full of small closely-stacked houses that were clearly for all the impoverished people who served him directly. Somehow, those who worked the farms under his control had better living standards.
My army had only just begun the march up the hill to reach his outer wall, when we were fired upon by arrows and magical projectiles. Immediately, six of my footmen were crushed by a massive boulder launch from atop the Castle Town’s walls. I sent the first of my wizards forward, and he quickly made all the ranged attackers abandon their defence when he unleashed a firestorm that blackened the stones and set fire to the nearest houses.
With a powerful kick off the ground, I launched up the hill and over the Earl’s walls, reaching more than ten metres in height before I started falling back down again. While in the air, I used my Appraisal on the few strong individuals assembled to defend the Castle against my force.
Name: Mike ‘Boulder’ Carmichael
Occupation: Earth Sorcerer
Species: Sub-Human
Level: 40/100
Alignment: Underpaid-and-overworked
Faction: The Earldom of Sharpee Inkledinkle Johnson
Name: Heiner Carmichael
Occupation: Captain of the Earl’s Elite Guard
Species: Sub-Human
Level: 32/100
Alignment: Unflinchingly-loyal-and-overprotective-of-his-younger-brother
Faction: The Earldom of Sharpee Inkledinkle Johnson
Name: Monroe Gilfroy Gilbertim
Occupation: Tax Collector
Species: Sub-Human
Level: 27/100
Alignment: Greedy-and-cowardly
Faction: The Earldom of Sharpee Inkledinkle Johnson
I didn’t spot the Earl anywhere and it seemed he was the only one I need to actually defeat, in order to take over all his lands.
With a colossal boom, my Toad Lord vessel landed atop the outer wall and tore its way through it, creating a massive rift that my army could easily move through, though I flung my tongue out in a few quick slashes to widen the gap more, such that they could enter four footmen abreast.
My Cavalry jumped over the wall with ease, and not sooner had they entered and gotten into the fighting than the Taxman and Boulder Sorcerer lay dead. The Guard Captain went into a furious rage and managed to pull one of the Cavalry Men from his mount and stabbed him over-and-over until he stopped moving, but then he was quickly swallowed by the slain Cavalry Man’s Toad mount, his screams abruptly silenced with a loud crunch.
I had my soldiers fan out and secure the area, while I went towards the Castle itself and broke down the portcullis and the large wooden gate behind it, with just a few slaps of my immensely-powerful tongue. As I emerged into the throne room, I found the Earl surrounded by servants and a few loyal guards. Upon seeing me, most of them fled, though the Earl was incapable of fleeing his enormous throne, as his body was so bloated from excess gorging of food that his own two legs could not carry him nor could his spindly and doughy arms pull him from his seat. His eyes were entirely obscured by a massive forehead pouch that seemed to have only grown along with the rest of his body.
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I used my Appraisal on him and was disappointed at what I saw:
Name: Sharpee Inkledinkle Johnson
Occupation: Earl
Species: Sub-Human
Level: 16/100
Alignment: Lazy-greedy-and-gluttonous-but-believes-he-has-the-God-granted-mandate-to-rule
Faction: The Earldom of Sharpee Inkledinkle Johnson
Unlike my proud Toadskandarr, this man was too weak and indulgent to rule. I did what I knew had to be done, and flung out my tongue, which pulled his entire body and throne from the ground and straight into my awaiting mouth, where I swallowed them both.
Congratulations! For defeating Earl Sharpee Inkledinkle Johnson, you have absorbed all his territory and assets into your demesne! All of his former churches now revere you and all his former servants and citizens are now your minions!
WARNING: All nearby Kingdoms and Religious Cults have now taken notice of you and are hostile towards your burgeoning Kingdom! You may yet turn some of them into your allies through diplomacy and bribery, but certain Kingdoms and Cults will be impossible to turn into allies!
WARNING: The Church of Light has branded your Kingdom a den of heresy and has launched a Crusade to defeat you and restore their perverted Churches within your territory!
Hmm, that was unlikely to be good, I realised, though my forces had easily defeated Earl Sharpee, so I wasn’t too worried.
After allowing my Army to rest for a bit, I picked the second Commander and decided to make him the Lord of the conquered Castle Town. Surprisingly, the first Commander seemed not to mind, though, when I read his mind I realised why:
These worthless maggots will be whipped into proper fighting shape thanks to my ruthless drills and harsh-but-laced-with-kindness rebukes of all their failures. They will come to see me as a father-figure and will rely on me to tell them what to do, for they are lost lambs and I am their shepherd. The battlefield is the only place in the world where I belong. Every day that I am not directly responsible for someone’s death is a day wasted!
I pumped my essence into the second Commander, the man who had snubbed all those other Aristocrats by being picked over them, and as it suffused his body, he grew two heads taller and his body became more reptilian than before and a tail suddenly grew from his spine and powerful scythe-like claws adorned his scaled hands. Two chitinous horns also grew from his brow and his lower-jaw became like a massive pouch.
Where Toadskandarr had been elegant and deadly like a dragonfly, the second Lord was potent and imposing like a stag beetle.
Name: Toadus
Occupation: Lord of (unnamed Castle Town)
Species: Toadkin Tyrant
Level: 75/250
Alignment: Ruthlessly-authoritarian
Faction: Toad Town Kingdom
I noticed that not only had he became unique type of Toadkin, no doubt due to undergoing three separate evolutions, but his faction now mentioned a Kingdom instead of a Dynasty like with Toadskandarr.
“Oh, this place needs a name,” I also realised.
Toadus grunted, then said, “Tyrant’s Den.”
“That sounds a bit too evil,” I replied.
“Good.”
ANNOUNCEMENT: (unnamed Castle Town) has been renamed to Tyrant’s Den.
After evolving the Tyrant Lord, I sent a wave of my essence over the Castle Town, evolving all the buildings and turning those pitiable houses into decently-looking abodes. The people once again had their clothes undergo a transformation and the children and youths immediately turned into adults, just like with the farmsteads and the village.
I decided to leave half of my footmen and Cavalry Men with Toadus, who himself quickly assigned worker roles to his new citizens and began constructing a new Barracks and other essential buildings. To their credit, the citizens seemed to take this sudden change to their city quite well. After setting his people to work constructing the Barracks, he also had them build a Bakery, for no denizen of the Toad Town Kingdom could live long without bread.
As I left with the remaining half of my army and their Commander, a bunch of carts came from the nearby farms and were laden with fresh produce and harvested wheat for bread. It seemed that, just in the brief time since I overtook the many farms, my essence had already transformed their lands into superbly-fertile soil with a rapid growth and harvest cycle.
I noticed that my essence had still not recovered much since using my essence powers so much and evolving the Lord, but I instinctively knew that it was due to being so far removed from my Core. I wondered if this was what Imu had warned me about.
Within about six hours, I had marched my army back to my settlement and as we came through the trees, I saw smoke rising from many of my buildings and heard croaking yells and chirping war cries. I shot out of my vessel and soared around my settlement, trying to figure out what was happening.
After a few minutes, I found Toadskandarr, who was defending his castle from a mob of unevolved minions. Next to him stood my Mayor, Guild Master, Butcher, and Executioner, as well as those of my Sharpshooters and Guard that had survived thus far.
I quickly possessed my Guild Master, who was wielding a longsword and chopping off heads left-and-right. I pointed at one of the unevolved minions in the middle of the mob and flooded his body with my essence.
There followed a loud pop and all the nearby minions were tossed to the ground, many of them dead before they landed.
“What is happening!?” I exclaimed.
“My kwastle is being overrun by the plebeian horde!” Toadskandarr told me.