Still about a week prior…

The unevolved minions had taken the opportunity granted to them by me pulling the army out of my settlement to launch a concerted violent uprising that saw over half of my evolved minions slain in just about ten hours, with the survivors holing up in the castle and letting Toadskandarr and other powerful Toadkin defend them. Strangely, my Toadcaller had just stayed in his Hermit’s Lodge and let things play out, while taking a neutral pacifist stance.

Viola, the strongest Wizard in my settlement, had also decided to not take part in the class conflict, though she seemed to have fought off a lot of those that sought to burn down her Buffet and now a massive tornado surrounded the building, with no one able to get in-or-out, although those trapped within seemed happy enough as they got to continue eating her delicious meals without any harm coming to them.

Toadskandarr had been very diligent in my absence, erecting many Bounty Boards that called for the heads of those responsible for the insurrection, as well as letting many of the new visitors join the Adventurers’ Guild and giving them similar quests.

The horde of rebel scum were in control of most parts of my city, except for the area around the Beast Workshop and Fleshcrafter’s Laboratorium, as the Mad Scientist and Fleshcrafter fended off those that sought to take over their means of production, with the aid of Arnold the Copper-Shield Tortoise.

I returned to my vessel and leapt atop the walls that were brimming with rebels armed with tools and simple weapons, then sent out a command that reached the furthest corners of my settlement:

All rebellious minions, return to your posts and cease all hostilities! Those who do not comply will be brutally executed with impunity!

Unsurprisingly, none of the minions flinched and immediately jumped on my Toad Lord vessel, attempting to pry it apart with their hammers, rakes, picks, shovels, and trowels, though I quickly leapt in the air and fired off two dozen pods of the Gnasher Toads, which descended upon the horde and scattered them, allowing me enough time to breach the barricaded gate and let my army enter the city. As with my assault on Earl Sharpee’s Castle Town, my Cavalry had already leapt the large outer walls and were cleaving through the minions, sending heads flying left and right, though the tide seemed endless.

Then I realised why there were so many of them: they had taken over all the houses in every quadrant of my city and were breeding at a rapid pace, somehow subverting my perk that ought to have turned many of them into Toadkin or the in-between stage of half-sub-whomanoid and half-sub-Toadkin.

I wanted to get to the bottom of this and, like Toadskandarr, find those responsible, for this seemed no improvised thing. I used my Appraisal on a random minion, just before his body was cut in two by a sword-glaive:

Name: Bob

Occupation: Builder Rebel

Species: Sub-Whomanoid Rebel

Level: 5/5

Alignment: Rebellious-and-brainwashed

Faction: The Anti-Slavery Union

“Brainwashed?” I said out loud, surprised at what I was seeing. The fact that he and his fellow rebels were part of a Union also could only mean one thing: the leaders of this uprising were to be found in the southern quadrant.

My Commander urged his men forward, and they used their flimsy wooden shields and simple iron swords to push back the horde, though we had to go from house-to-house to clear them all out before we could seek out the root of the problem. I only hoped that those Adventurers that Toadskandarr had sent were faring better than us.

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Name: Vagan

Occupation: Shadestrider Scoundrel (Copper Rank Adventurer)

Species: Human

Level: 34/100

Alignment: Cautious-and-paranoid

Faction: Toad Town Adventurers’ Guild

What a mess he had gotten himself into, he contemplated, as he pulled the body further into the dark alley near the district wall that led to the eastern quadrant. There was seemingly no end to the raging horde of big-eyed and big-lipped sub-humans who diligently scoured each house in search of those who stood in opposition to them. Already, he had slain over thirty of them and had gained five levels in the process, but it had barely made a dent in their numbers.

Vagan tore his dagger out of the creature and laid it fully within the shadow from the nearby house, before casting his Devouring Shade that caused two-dozen tendrils to emerge from the shadows and begin dissecting and gorging on the body, leaving no trace behind.

Like with any Advanced Occupation, he had been taught in the ways of the Shadestrider by someone already skilled in Class. In his case, it had been the infamous Bone Mask, who was said to have been granted his special powers by the Arrogant Triplets, whose status as Deities were widely disputed, despite the fact that many temples had been built to them and depicted their disfigured-and-conjoined visage of three upper bodies sprouting from a single lumpen lower body.

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Vagan knew the truth, because, through his Shadestrider abilities, he could converse sparsely with the Triplets and often received unique quests from them. He had already performed many assassinations that normally someone of his level should have been incapable of completing without losing his life in the process.

Still, he was far from the strength he needed to be, and rumour of a legendary monster quest had drawn him to this strange city in the first place and seen him sign up with their small Adventurers’ Guild. That had been two days ago, and now he was somehow embroiled in a bloody insurrection.

He looked at the woefully-sparse quest flier again:

Quest: ‘Death to Unionisation!’

Type: Assassination

Required Adventurer Rank: No Requirement

Reward: 5.000 Copper Toakens & a unique mount

Description: Find and eliminate the leaders of the Insurrection! Their Hideout is suspected as being the Union Building within the southern district.

There was no description of who exactly he was looking for, which he took to mean that the issuer of the quest did not know. Vagan had decided that he would just kill anyone that looked to be giving orders to the horde of sub-humans, and hopefully one of them would turn out to be the leader. Thus far, it seemed that the mob moved according to a set instruction and they coordinated with a type of unified coordination that made him think of a hive of insects that followed the directions of a queen.

Vagan broke from the alleyway and used the core ability of his Class to form steps out of the shadow, allowing him to traverse up the side of the district wall and leap onto its walkway, where he quickly flung his dagger out and sheared through a guard’s jugular, before invoking another ability that made a copy of his free hand emerge from the shadow of another guard and pull him headfirst into the ground, never to be seen again.

There were less shadows in the southern district, due to most of its industrial facilities being spread-out more, but already from his vantage point he could see where the enemy were congregated around two buildings, one of which looked like a shed and bore a few flags and banners that had pro-union slogans written on them, like ‘NO MORE DEATH TO DEHYDRATION AND STARVATION!’ and ‘SAY NO TO MINION SACRIFICE!’.

He wasn’t a cold-hearted man, so he understood their plight, but instead of learning from the wealthy Merchants’ Guild of Lillebrünnr who bribed their way to more rights, they had decided to make themselves stand in opposition to the rulers of their city, which had never worked out well to his knowledge. Even in situations such as when Vagan had been hired to slay a Duke on behalf of the enraged populace, the aftermath was always worse than how things had been prior, as, with the power-vacuum and success of the Insurrectionists, a new internal struggle formed as their group split into factions, always leading to some outside force managing to take over the land with ease, killing many of the ‘victors’ in the process.

With a sigh he cleared his head, then leapt from the wall, allowing his shadow-born platforms to slow his descent, so that he reached the street between large forges and anvils unscathed.

No sooner had his feet touched the soil than a mob of twelve smiths and apprentices broke from their forges to defeat him.

With a flourish of his dagger and a propelling boost of a shadowy platform spawning under his feet, he launched into the air and fell upon the mob with brutal efficiency.

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My army had lost almost a third of its men to the ceaseless horde, but we now controlled half the northern quadrant. As more-and-more houses fell under my control, I ordered my Footmen into the houses in pairs, so that I could reinforce my numbers. I only gained about twenty extra Footmen offspring from this, but all of them had the obvious traits of being Toadkin, which made me happy.

I pushed ahead of my men to break a dense clump of rebels from the Marketplace area, using both my tongue, flensing claws, and merciless Gnasher Toads. No sooner had I routed many of the rebellious minions than System appeared, holding a wooden eagle in her porcelain-doll hands. She made screeching sounds as she moved the toy through the air, before slamming it right into the forehead of one of the rebels, caving his skull in with disturbing ease.

It seemed that when Yonn had assured me System would not be able to damage my settlement, it didn’t actually include the minions, though perhaps the rebels were an exception?

Together with System and my two Wizards who had followed my charge, we cleared out all the Merchant’s Shops, the Marketplace building, the Toy Maker, and the Bakery. I picked one of the Footmen and told him to run to the Castle and report our success in establishing a foothold here, but before he could take off, a sound like repeated croaking came from both east and west and a wave of a hundred-plus rebels washed over us, leaving each member of my army to fend for themselves against more than one enemy.

As you might imagine, this resulted in a lot of death, though my Commander, the two Wizards, System, and myself more than evened the odds, devastating their coordinated assault with primitive weapons simply by virtue of our higher levels.

I alone killed over thirty minions, just using my tongue and feet. My Commander proved himself to be quite fearsome as well, as he cleft bodies in half with his two-handed sword. My Fire Wizard was also proving himself quite a terrifying monster, as he cupped his hands and belched massive oily flames on anyone unlucky enough to be in front of him.

The other Wizard was a wind-based one like Viola, though nowhere near as powerful, and he simply swung his hands through the air in front of him, sending cutting blades of condensed wind to shear through the mobs that surrounded us.

When I thought the horde was starting to dim in strength, another hundred-or-so came from the west to bolster their numbers, while we were now down to twenty-odd Footmen, two Wizards, a Commander, a literally-immortal Porcelain Doll controlled by a psychotic System, and me in my Toad Vessel.

No sooner had I begun to despair however, than Toadskandarr came riding like a Hero of Legend atop Él, whose Jackicorn horn sent bolts of electricity through the thronging rows of rebels, boiling their internals and exploding a few from the inside. The Butcher and Executioner came soon after, as well as the surviving Guards and Sharpshooters.

Together, we cleared the district over the next two hours and I had my remaining Archers, who had hung back at the city gate due to their lack of skill with close-quarter-fighting, secure the district gates from atop the walls alongside my Sharpshooters. I realised then that my Cavalry Men had run ahead on their own and reconnected with my Lord, which was the reason they had come to our aid in such a timely manner.

While we prepared to take back the east quadrant, such that I could evolve more Guards, Archers, and Footmen, and also team up with my Mad Scientist and Fleshcrafter, I told all available minions to get busy repopulating our forces by using the houses around us.

When the first pair of Footmen emerged with their Offspring, I realised that my new houses had been imbued with the rare chance to increase the number of Offspring possible, as the pair came out with three new minions in tow.

I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I would take back my Castle Town from these rebels, no matter how many minions I had to sacrifice to do it!