Philip knew who she was. Her name was Tazia Shiv. no relation to Nanny Shiv. Her mother and father were both recently dead. She had a brother Ticky, who was with the caravan. It and him would be arriving with the sunrise. Until then, I had crafted a coffin out of ice and laid her there. Thankfully it was opaque.

I sat alone in the command tent. I could hear others outside debating whether or not to talk to me. I let them debate. I was having one of those low key, not quite nervous breakdowns. 127,766 lives were my responsibility. 127,765 the screen in the War Lord tab had the count updated to show the loss of Tazia.

Dwelling on this wasn’t helpful.

Name:

Doug

Race:

Titan Spawn

Class:

Left Hand of the Titan

Level:

9

HP:

540

MP(in well):

6,810/24,000

Defense:

118

Power:

24 (44)

Mobility:

24 (39)

Body:

44

Mind:

24

Face:

24

Magic:

24

You have unselected Perks.

You have an unselected Trait.

I may as well select my perks and trait.

Level 8 Perks

Titanic MagicTitanic Mind

Level 8 Traits

Titanic MightTitanic Speed

Level 9 Perks

Improved Pact 2Fist of the Titan

Oh good it was a lot of titanic stuff. Apparently creative naming was not a priority. Then again I would hate a bunch of esoteric references. I wanted to take my mind off of things. May as well dig in.

Titanic Magic

Titan Spawn are beings of magic. This perk will increase Magic Attribute by +20. It will also increase the Scale of all Magic abilities invoked by the the Spawn by two levels, and decrease the Scale of all negative magical effects targeting the Spawn by two levels. Halve all damage taken from magical sources.

Titanic Mind

Titan Spawn are capable of mental feats beyond those of mortal beings. Increase Mind Attribute by +20. Also allow the Titan Spawn to maintain Mind Attribute/10 mental activities at the same time.

Well then… those were options. Don’t get me wrong, both of those seemed powerful. Yeah I was under utilizing my magic until now, but the Titanic Magic perk would push the effectiveness well over the edge. The damage buff for Claws of Darkness would be immense. It would also turn Tenebrous Form into a flat out busted ability. Phasing through 44% of attacks that I didn’t block, dodge or deflect. That would help with maximum survival.

Not to downplay Titanic Mind. Expanding my Mind attribute would increase my ability to dodge, block and deflect in the first place. Taking that perk would literally all but render me incapable of being overwhelmed with numbers. Being able to think through 4 things at the same time also sounded, well, god like. If I could think through my actions, watch the situation, run constant crafting, and carry a conversation all at the same time… I may be able to make a go at this whole Warlord thing. That said, I dreaded the idea of letting anything related to the system inside my head. Also that would literally change the way I think. Who knows how it would change me. Ultimately… pass.

While I was basically decided I didn’t select the perk yet. I was going to look at everything before making a decision.

Titanic Might

Titan Spawn are creatures of ponderous strength. Increase Power attribute by +20. Reduce the relative Scale of any object or structure you wish to lift, manipulate or break by three levels.

Titanic Speed

Titan Spawn are seldom limited by mere three-space, nor time for that matter. Increase Mobility Attribute by +20. Double walk and run speed, and triple sprint speed. Gain a number of seconds equal to Mobility attribute each day. These extra seconds can be spent in increments of one second at a time as free actions.

Did I want to be strong or fast? Titanic Might was simple and to the point. My mind drifted back to the tug-o-war with Grond. If I had the extra twenty points of power, I could have just pulled him into Lola’s care. I suspect given the way the system let me stack power on top of power, taking this would further increase my ability to craft things around me. Even if it didn’t affect the magical bubble of crafting I had, at some point, I would be able to just work metal with my hands. I wasn’t sure I hadn’t already passed that point, but didn’t really feel the need to confirm either.

Titanic Speed also had its allure. I am not going to lie. Watching Angelica, Celeste, and even Brand to a lesser extent zip around, made me more than a little jealous. This while not as overtly destructive as Titanic Might, it looked to have some massive utility. Free actions also seemed to be a flat out cheat code. Getting an additional 44 seconds in the day may not sound like a lot but given how fast things happened in a fight… yeah that would come in clutch.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

That was harder to decide on.

I needed to look at the last two perks before committing.

Improved Pact 2

Those that deal with you in good faith will be rewarded. Grant [Magic Attribute] beings [Attribute/2] bonus to all Attributes of pact companions. Also grant a lesser version of any two perks excluding “Empowered Critical” you possess to pact companions.

Note 1: this requires a pact to be formed with the Titan Spawn and another being. The Titan Spawn receives no direct benefit from this perk. Should the lesser being break the pact they will be afflicted by the effects of a smite.

Note 2: Perks will be reduced to Demigod Scale

Fist of the Titan

Unarmed attacks ignore Mind attribute points of defense. Increase damage of unarmed attacks by +10 points. Those struck by a titan often do not live to regret it.

Welp, the second step of Improved Pact looked good. I was probably going to take it. The buff that allowed me to hand out was tremendous. On the other hand having now battled high Scale and high level opponents being able to reduce their defense and deal more damage had value. Yeah the ‘waste’ of overkilling trash mobs was a thing, but that didn’t necessarily matter if some big thing killed me.

I also realized that increasing my raw damage would reduce the value of crafting a layer of Ablative Shell into a weapon. Thing is… reducing the need to do that would free up more opportunity to either distribute the shells to protect allies, or simply cover my own ass.

I looked at the numbers. Currently I had a Power Attribute of 24. That seemed to be a lot. I hadn’t seen stats that high in anyone that wasn’t both Rare Scale and above level twenty. So in the grand scheme of things I was already very strong for someone in single digit levels. I packed one hell of a punch.

Ignoring dice roll since they would be the same regardless… I think. Anyways, I could double my damage per hit with claws of darkness. Cranking the damage to 48. That all but guaranteed whatever I hit was going to die, so long as it was under rare scale or level 15. If I took Titanic Magic, Titanic Might, and Fist of the Titan that would put my damage per hit to 98 while ignoring 24 points of defense. That would be enough raw damage to hurt some feelings.

I dismissed taking Titanic Mind. yeah Dealing 74 damage a hit and ignoring 44 points of defense would likely work out to more damage against higher quality enemies, the idea of having something mess with my mind like that seemed… dumb as hell. That was like inviting a vampire into your house because it promised to help you rearrange the furniture.

Going full smash bastard had its appeal… except it didn’t. That build would be choosing to become a living weapon. Yeah, I was most of the way there already. Sure, I was heading into a war. Yep, I could solve my problem by beating them down. All that was true, but it didn’t change the fact that I did not want to be that type of person. I wasn’t going to become a victim, nor was I naive enough to think I could talk my way through everything.

It’s just… violence needed to stay a grim reality, not an easy option.

I kept finding myself needing to do more. I should look for ways to increase my options. I gazed at the prompt describing Titanic Mind. That would increase options. I sighed. I already knew what I was going to do. Delaying was just indulging in my avoidant behavior.

…Actually might as well, a little indulgence never killed anyone, “I can hear you out there Spine,” I said it loudly.

Spine hopped through the tent flap and stuck the landing, “Hup! How long did you know I was out there?”

I saved his pride, “Not long. What’s up?”

Spine grabbed one of the chairs he left to obscure our snow lion patch for the tent. He slid it across from my throne, and sat down. “Do you seriously plan to hold a trial?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Why not just kill them?” Spine asked.

Huh, that actually was a pretty good question. Due to the perception skill, I knew Madigan had effectively put out a hit on the goblins. Who was I kidding? He almost certainly meant to target Spine. He had tried to kill him, again. What good would a trial do?

I shook my head, “It isn’t just up to me to decide who lives and dies. Plus the less high minded thing is if I just grab him and beat the shit out of him, a good number of people from the Mandir would step in. It wouldn’t be just killing him. It would almost certainly kick off a cycle of violence. Doing it this way keeps things contained and controlled.”

“Do you really think they are going to hand him over?” Spine demanded.

“Oh yeah,” I paused. “Madigan isn’t useful to Lola anymore. I don’t have the full story, but a big reason Lola wanted me to work with Seth, besides stopping Rachel from killing him, seems to be Madigan falling out of favor before we showed up. Everything that has happened since hasn’t changed that. She basically shamed him in public when she stopped your duel. Turning him over for a trial will benefit her by getting rid of a liability and get one of her followers a serious upgrade.”

“What does that mean?” Spine didn’t seem like what he heard.

“I bought justice,” I said with a shrug. I wasn’t exactly proud of that, but the price was within my budget.

“So how’s the trial going to work?” Spine asked.

I considered that for a moment, “You tell me. How do goblins do trials?”

“It depends. For minor stuff, folks would talk to someone like Nanny Shiv. She would listen and say who she thought was the asshole.” Spine scratched his chin. “We tend not to fuck with each other too much, because if we don’t work together, Mobs or Others are gonna kill us.” his eyes went wide, “Wait. I remember once when I was a kid. Somebody… well I don’t remember what he did. Anyways he had to present his side of the story to the community. He also had to have others back up his story. Then Aunt Stabby had to talk… about stuff. I wasn’t there. Mom and Dad didn’t let me go. I had to watch Janky and some of the other little ones. After everyone was done talking, eleven members of the community were selected to vote. When they decided Aunt Stabby was right, she got to decide what happened to him.”

Most of that seemed fairly straightforward. Trial with a jury of your peers. “What did your aunt decide?”

“She banished him,” Spine said, with a nod. “No way that didn’t kill him.”

“That sounds like a pretty severe punishment.” I said. My mind drifted to memories of being alone in the cold with the snow lions. I really should write that Dog Lover Manifesto.

Spine shrugged. “He had to have done something fucked up. Otherwise the community wouldn’t have let Aunt Stabby pick that punishment.”

I nodded.

“Why do you need to have the trial though? You know Madigan is responsible.” he clearly thought this was a waste of time.

“Because…” I needed to say this right. “This can’t just be my word is law. If I am going to lead… I can’t be a tyrant. We need to build a society that is both stable and equitable. This is a good stress test for that principle. None of us like Madigan, but by having a fair and real trial we lay the groundwork for everyone else.”

Spine thought about that for a moment, “Doug, this isn’t that complicated. Killing this asshole isn’t going to make you some… I don't know a dark lord.”

“Spine, I appreciate your faith in me, but no. You are right, it isn’t complicated. If I make unilateral moves, I normalize that I can. Sure now, while I am paying attention and concerned about it, I probably won’t do anything too extreme. The thing is at some point when things are dire and my back is to the wall, if it was normal for me to just decide for everyone, I could do something terrible and no one would think to stop me.”

“Like we could stop you,” Spine scoffed.

“That is a concern as well, but also the main reason I need to have a structure to my authority.” I sighed.

Grimset hopped out of the chair in the corner and turned it to face us before hoping in it again, “Why not say this in public but privately have this Madigan assassinated?”

I hadn’t noticed the sneaky bastard… or is it git?

I decided to ignore both Grimset’s theatrics and the blatant insult he implied. “I don’t really believe in being duplicitous. It doesn’t fit my morals well. Besides, it often takes more effort to lie. For this situation specifically he is effectively unkillable inside the Mandir, so that idea wouldn't work even if I did like it.”

Grimset nodded, “Why not just seize power?”

Spine looked about to say something confrontational to Grimset.

I answered before he could, “Grimset, I suspect nothing I say can convince you. So, I am going to tell you the truth and be done. What you call power, I call responsibility. The current responsibility is 127,765 lives worth. What maniac would want more?”

Grimset unleashed a bevy of skills. His eyes glazed over as he read prompts. His frown deepened. He clearly didn’t believe my answer, but the prompt showed I was telling the truth. Which was leading him down the spiral of was I telling the truth or such a magnificent bastion of deception that I could alter his prompts?

I am not going to lie, this stupid little mind game was basically all the justification I need to keep telling the truth.