Chapter 24. Warrior’s Challenge.
It took a long time for Silas to completely heal up. Buster’s wounds weren’t quite as severe, and he was good as new after about thirty minutes. It had taken close to an hour until Silas could use his right arm again. There was still pain and the System healing wasn’t done with him just yet, but as long as he could operate his rifle, he figured it was time to get this meeting with the naga elder over with.
He could have headed over to the lakeside where the naga were clustered earlier, but he didn’t want them to see him injured and weak. It was always better to deal with the natives from a position of strength. Memories of dealing with Montagnard chiefs brought Silas back into focus.
Silas knew he wasn’t operating completely back on war footing just yet. He had responded to the naga situation more like a grumpy homeowner than a Green Beret trying to cultivate allies. He needed to get back into the game if he wanted to survive this. He’d already dealt with corrupted naga and gnomes, given that there were 32 more layers to this pit, he had to believe that much worse things were lurking there, and he’d need to develop allies if he wanted to survive.
If he didn’t put a lid on this pit, those things, and probably Bhalkur himself, would spill out of his garage and go on a rampage. Silas still thought that the Army could deal with it, but at least hundreds, and more likely thousands, of innocent victims would lose their lives. He couldn’t live with that on his chest, especially if had even a remote chance of stopping it from happening.
Why this whole thing decided to show up in his garage, Silas had no idea, but maybe it was for the better. At least he knew how to fight, and more importantly, how to teach others to fight, as well as lead them in combat. As he walked, Silas pulled up his status, curious to see if anything had changed.
Silas Ward
Special Operations Commander.
Tier 0, Rank 1.
Experience/experience needed for next rank: 8/10.
Health: 48%. Please note that your maximum health is 57%.
It looked like the fight had given him some more experience, and he was on the cusp of hitting the next rank. When he hit rank two, Silas would get another point in his mind stat. He was curious to see if he could notice a difference or not. Mind was also supposed to boost his mana, which powered his abilities.
Silas had almost forgotten about his new abilities during the fight, but the Ammo Dump seemed to have worked well enough. He also needed to practice infusing mana into his shots. It was supposed to help increase the damage they did, but so far, all these corrupted freaks went down easily enough to normal rounds.
A quick check of his rifle showed that the magazine inside had some extra rounds placed there from the ability. It still wasn’t full, so he swapped it out for a full mag. A System prompt confirmed some additional details as he pondered exactly how it worked.
Please note that the ability, Ammo Dump, can replace any ammunition missing from an appropriate storage magazine. The active magazine of your primary weapon with be the first one reloaded, then any spares magazines that are missing the same type of round. If all magazines for your primary weapon are filled, your secondary weapons will begin to reload. Upgrades and evolutions of this ability may become available at higher tiers and ranks.
Approaching the small lake where the naga were gathered, Silas could see that there had been quite a few wounded. Surprisingly, they didn’t seem to be healing as fast as Silas and Buster had. Maybe he and Buster were different since they had come from outside the pit. If the opportunity came up, he’d ask the naga elder about it.
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“Silas Ward, welcome to our camp, or I should say, welcome to your camp since this location is under your sway. Thank you for your assistance during the battle, and for allowing us time to stay,” the older naga with more silver scales than colored ones said. Silas had noted that the younger naga had brightly colored scales that blended well with the oddly colored jungle background. These older naga must be like him, going grey as they aged.
“I’m happy to help where I can, and you’re welcome here, though I’m sorry that it’s become necessary. I must admit that I’m not sure if this place is going to be any safer than your village was,” Silas said.
“Of course it is, this is a critical location under the control of a contender. Surely you plan to expand and fortify this place as you prepare to defeat Bhalkur’s champion for this layer,” Lhass said.
“What do you mean? The System didn’t tell me anything about expansion and fortification,” Silas asked.
“Ah, you have taken control of the location, but not directly interfaced with the critical location yet. That would explain the option for our people to try and wrest control of it from you,” Lhass said. The odd lisp of the naga made his statement seem sinister. Added to that, Silas could see the hints of the naga’s long fangs whenever he opened his mouth to speak.
“You’re always willing to try and take this place, but even if you win, I don’t think you’ll have enough warriors remaining afterwards to survive for very long,” Silas warned, his hand gripping the rifle a bit tighter as he noticed several of the naga warriors were milling about.
“No, the path of conquest is not the path I would have our tribe follow. It will lead to ruin and cause us to eventually fall into corruption. Bhalkur waits for us to grant him only a small foothold and he will exploit it with his evil corruption. Our people will not steal what you have rightfully taken. You are the challenger the System chose to oppose Bhalkur, and if anything, we should work together so that our enemy may be securely chained once more,” Elder Lhass said.
“I agree that we need to work together, though I must admit, my world is new to the System, so I’m still learning as I go. One thing I do know, System or not, is war. I’ve fought in a unit that specialized in training people to learn to fight. If your naga will stand with me to fight off Bhalkur, I’d be glad to offer what I know to assist them,” Silas offered. One of the naga warriors, a scarred and grizzled looking creature slid forward to address them.
“Will you teach us your loud magic? That is something that could help,” the warrior asked.
“No, I can’t, because what I use isn’t magic, these are the weapons of my people. As far as I know, I’m the only one that can use them here, and if I tried to bring you some of these weapons, they wouldn’t function with the mana stuff that’s all around us,” Silas explained.
“Well, if you cannot teach us your magic, or give us these weapons, we have nothing further to learn from you. Without your weapons, you are not a warrior that can stand against even the least of the ones in my command,” the veteran warrior said, growing bolder as Silas figured the stress and frustration of fleeing their city got to him.
“Maybe I can’t go toe to toe with your warriors in hand-to-hand combat, at least not at my age. Tell me, warrior, does your elder not speak with authority because he is past his physical prime? If you only respect those physically powerful, perhaps you should have chosen to serve Bhalkur. From what I can tell, he’ll give you all kinds of power. You’ll be corrupt and mad, but you’ll be strong, isn’t that what you want?” Silas asked.
“That is not what I meant human,” the warrior sputtered, obviously terrified of insulting his elder and not wanting anyone to suspect that he’d be lured by the promises of Bhalkur.
“I understand, warrior, and I will admit, I cannot teach you how to become more skilled with a spear thrust, or how to shoot venom from your fangs. What I can teach you is to move as a unit, to fight as one which will make your people unstoppable against the likes of these crazed gnomes.
“I’ll teach you how to ambush your foe, leave traps to deplete their numbers, and become the nightmare they fear in the dark of night. I will teach you to become something much more than a warrior. I will teach you to become a soldier. A warrior will defeat a foe, but soldiers can conquer an entire world,” Silas said. The elder gazed at Silas intently as he spoke, and Silas could feel some power unleashed by the naga as he concentrated on some ability.
“Listen well, Talixs, I can feel the power in this man’s knowledge, and discern the truth in his words,” the elder said.
“I will see to my men,” Talixs said, excusing himself to join the other warriors.
“He is full of hate and fury after seeing what has happened to our people. Despite that, Talixs is an honorable warrior, and will see the need we have of your skills as you fight for this layer,” the elder asked.
“That does bring up a question that’s been bothering me, elder,” how did your people come to be trapped in this place?” Silas asked.