Chapter 5: 5
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In the blacksmith shop that supplies the weapon and gear of the guild, Thief Rhea hands over the weapons she managed to steal from the barbarian women. Since the women have been going around killing monsters and taking care of bandits, quests have been drying up. So when she got the chance she stole a pair of swords from them and hopes to sell it.
"How did you managed to get the swords?" Blacksmith ask.
"A bunch of them were being toss around as they attack a owlbear. So I picked up two of the swords that were near and ran," Thief Rhea said.
"Tossing around is right. The swords are crude, looks like both of them are made from the same mold. It's more like a meat cleaver, the spike on the back of the blade for hooking and punching through objects like a pickaxe. The blade is single edged looks like it was sharpened quickly on a grindstone. There is no finery or anything, it's more like making arrowheads, they don't have to be good just pointy," Blacksmith said.
"You mean like how the weapons of the royal guards are all mass produced?" Thief Rhea ask.
"Well… yes the guards weapons are all the same but are still made with some finery. And that the guards are train to fight in large numbers," Blacksmith said.
"There were over a hundred of those barbarian women that attack the owlbear," Thief Rhea said.
"Over a hundred?" Blacksmith ask.
"Yes over a hundred. That's how they fight, there is always at least 50 to a 100 of them or more. Chosen Heroine and her party saw an army of the barbarian women butchering that dragon. It's the reason why they're killing and driving the rest of monsters away, they just attack in overwhelming numbers," Thief Rhea said having heard all sorts of stories from the other adventurers.
The stories are mostly of how there aren't any good laying quests anymore and they have to take lower paying jobs just to make ends meet. The guild has been having trouble getting enough quests anymore as even goblin quests are rare now and even then when they show up it's usually already taken cared of by those barbarian women. The quests now are mostly escort missions, locating lost people or items and jobs around the town or villages.
"That many? No wonder the adventures have been stopping by less and less. With them being able to field that many it doesn't matter if their swords are crude, they just use overwhelming numbers," Blacksmith said.
"They also been taking over places that use to be used by monsters. A all female party tried found the old elf fort that was taken over by those barbarian women. They also have a protection racket where the villages close to them give them supplies and they in exchange protects them," Thief Rhea said.
"The kingdom has enough problems without barbarians setting up their own kingdom," Blacksmith said.
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Elsewhere -
Running through the Eastern forest, Dark Elf Spy of the demon lord army made his way as silently as he could. Using a silence spell and other magic items that allow him to move without making a sound. He was sent to find out what's happening in the Eastern forest, with so many monsters and beasts fleeing from the Eastern forest and the ones responsible spreading across the land.
He isn't the only one sent to gather information, entire teams have been sent to find out what's going on. Using magic that allowed them to use animals as spies, they learn that in the camps and forts that they either built or taken over have a portal gate somewhere in them. Explaining how there are always so many of the barbarian women and what happen to all of the resources they have been collecting. With the portals they can keep on calling for more and more warriors and supplies.
Which is why Dark Elf Spy and so many other spies have been sent to learn what's going on in the Eastern forest. With his elf eyes he saw the clearing ahead of him and the black smoke rising into the sky. Pulling out a live crow he kept in a pouch he used the spell scroll he was given and he suddenly was link to the crow allowing him to see through its eyes and control its body. Toss into the air the crow flew straight towards the clearing.
What greeted Dark Elf Spy was the entire clearing looking like a wasteland. The tree were all cut down around the rebuild Greenvale castle, which now looks more like a factory. The entire former territory of the dukedom is. Owl littered with smokestacks, furnaces, and forgeries full of pipes, grates and other industrial machinery. Of the likes that Dark Elf Spy has never seen before. He could see the insides of the factories that are full of harshly grinding gears and levers, twisting pipes and deep vats. Powered by waterwheels thanks to the the river being dam and a network of water pipes, which powers wheels that turns gears and powers machines.
Working the machines are women, human women who are doing all the work. There are thousands of them who are all working in running the machines and pulling carts full of resources from one place to another. Not one man could be seen and he could easily tell that they are women as they're all very well built and shapely.
From what Dark Elf Spy could see, they're forging weapons and armor of the likes he has never seen the style before. Unknown to him the armor and weapons are being forged are base on the armor and weapons of the Pegasus ponies of Sunset's world before the 3 tribes joined together. Which Sunset had a book about the ancient Pegasus Empire before the fall where the never ending winter cause the empire to fall. (1)
Wagon trains are unloading coal, wood, and goblin bodies, onto conveyor belts being fed into the furnaces. Goblins thanks to their blood which is weirdly darker and more viscous, are very flammable. Which is why when they catch on fire, they will burn like wood. The goblin bodies are being drop into a meat shredder with spinning blades inside, that chop the bodies into manageable part and mix with coal or wood to act as lighter fluid.
The blood and other liquids drip into grates that drains into vats. The gore is mixed with sawdust, animal fat, and coal dust being left to dry out. The results is chunks of burnable fuel that burns longer, which in Sunset's world are known as firelogs. (2)
Dark Elf Spy has been to the Eastern forest when it was still a dukedom, before the demon lord's army of that time swept in and destroyed it. Flying high he could see the ruins of the old Mother Goddess temple where the Illirian elves once lived, exposed thanks to the Evernight forest being cut down.
Mellow Hills where the Rhea once lived, have been turn back into farm land. Fields of corn are being grown and farm animals are being raised.
Golden Hills home of the dwarves, the mines and forges have been restored and in operational again. The lands around the former dwarf lands have open pits showing much mining and metal work being done.
Then there's Heaven's Peak, the largest human city that was destroyed during the demon lord war of that time. It has been rebuilt but the buildings are of a different style. It has a large walls protecting it, with a lower, middle, and upper sections of the city. On the upper section is a grand palace still being built. The castle city, is protected by a number of guard towers, and strange weapons mounted on the walls and towers. Which unknown to him are cannons. (4)
Resting on a roof top of the castle city, Dark Elf Spy saw the city filled with women. A memory came back to him of the Black Barron who had ruled the land with an iron fist when he was younger. Of how with his minions he was able to make all the other races submit to his rule. Of how he was able to summon them by either magic or using the life force he gain from what his minions slaughtered with their seemingly endless numbers.
Dark Elf Spy cut off the spell and turn and ran. He has to tell the Demon Lord that a new Overlord has risen up once more. All the killings done by the barbarian women is to collect life force, to summon minions which the women are. The new Overlord has amassed so much life force from all the beasts and monsters that he's able to have thousands of them. Which the Overlord is using to make weapons and armor to be able to field a well equipped army.
Dark Elf Spy isn't the only one spying and gathering information as the Kingdom has also sent spies and adventurers to figure out what's going on and learned that there is a new Overlord, thanks to the long lived races who were around when the last one was alive. The news will spread fast and far, of an Overlord with a vast army of female minions, with more lewd tales also being told as well.
The only real question is, which side is the new Overlord is on?
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Author's Notes -
1 - From what the old Pegasus look like in flashbacks of the show, they look to be a combo of both Greek and Roman.
2 - A firelog is a manufactured log constructed to be used as wood fuel. Firelogs are designed to be inexpensive, while being easier to ignite, and burn longer, and more efficiently than firewood. Firelogs are traditionally manufactured using two methods: the first uses only compressed sawdust and the second uses sawdust and paraffin, which is mixed and extruded into a log shape. The extruded firelogs are individually wrapped in paper packaging which can be ignited to start burning the firelog as the paraffin is readily combustible.
And I'm basing the goblins being very burnable is due to how much they burn when they are lit on fire.
3 - Modeled after Minas Ithil from Lord of the Rings, of the Middle-Earth Shadow of War games.
4 - Seeing how Pinkie Pie has a party cannon, it's cannon that Equestria has cannons and knowledge of how to use them.
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