Chapitre 4: For your king
"Hey kid, you know this b*tch?" I ask secretly hoping he denies it, really don't want her around lest i get constant migraines.
"The f*ck did you just call me you filthy human?!" Ok now she's just adding unnessesary descriptions. Seems i'm not the only one ticked off as i can hear Fenris gnashing his teeth, he's such a good boy. Lucky for her she seems to have a more sensible sibling.
"Sis don't say that, Fenris doesn't like it when you insult his master" Ah yes, it seems we have two good boys here.
"Who the f*ck is this Fenris you're talking about?"
'How does she not notice the absolutely massive direwolf her brother is clinging to? This is gonna be good.' I feel huge amounts of regret for not having asked for a camera, or something like photography magic right now. The kid i now know is called Liam just stands there speechless, slowly he raises his hand and points above himself.
'Here it comes.' You could see the confusion on her face, but slowly the malfunctioning gears in her head started working. The look of slow realization on her face is priceless, as her eyes gradually move upwards the color slowly drains from her face. All this needs is a little finishing touch.
'Fenris when she meets your gaze give a little growl or bark, i'll give you thos head scratches you love so much if you do' Luckily the kid's sister was focused on Fenris's upper body, or else she would see him wagging his tail in the usual way clearly happy to get the reward.
Then it happened, as i could see she looked straight at Fenris he went above and beyond, he literally roared the loudest roar i have heard in her face. Sadly for me it didn't have the reaction i expected as she just stiffened and collapsed on her back. I'm pretty sure she fainted from shock, there is no way i'm cleaning up after that, but no matter still funny as hell.
"hahahaha, come here Fenris you deserve your reward for that impressive display of improv" Poor Liam almost got trampled as the massive direwolf rushed to get his reward.
*thud* "ouf! Hey what's the deal Fenris?! Why'd you have to scare my sister like that?" It seems Fenris didn't even give him a reply rather laid down his head for a scratching session.
"Sorry about that, Liam was it?" The kid nods. "Your sister was kinda rude earlier and i just wanted a little payback. I just wanted to talk and she just started cursing me out." Liam just sighed at my explanation, seems this isn't the first time she's acted this way.
"I'm sorry too, my sister isn't a bad person. It's just that with what happened it's not easy for her to trust a human." Well somebody seems to have taken all the good genes in this family.
"No problem, i'm satisfied with my little payback. It also makes us able to have a calm conversation rather than a screaming competition. But i have to ask, why is it that you seem calm and trust me?" Inwardly i just hope that he's not just some gullible and naive kid.
"Oh that, actually i have a skill that allows me to sort of sense people's intentions and it makes me able to sort of understand the body language of animals as well." There are skills like that? Damn i really got to start making some skills for myself, that or a lie detection skill will be super useful for when i meet other people.
"Is that how you can communicate with Fenris?" Again he nods, guess i'll have to get myself some of that. I kinda want to be able to understand my faithful hor- *ahem* i mean partner.
"Then i guess that the reason you're trusting me is that you can read both Fenris and my intentions."
"Yeah that and the fact that He could have easily killed me or restricted my movement while we talked so i doubt you have nefarious actions in mind." Well that wasen't done by my orders, rather Fenris just dropped him as if we were playing fetch.
"Enough about that for now, i actually hoped i could ask you some questions about the area and the world in general. You see i woke up in the forest with amnesia so i only remember certain things and everything about the world seems to have been forgotten." Let's just hope he buys that story, i can't exactly tell him i'm from another world and a creepy ol- *ahem* i mean a benevolent and kind god, sent me here.
"Oh sorry to hear about that, but that also explains why you're acting so polite to us." He looks over to his sister before he corrects himself. "To me i mean" Don't blame me for your dumb sisters big mouth, she had it coming.
"What do you mean by that? isn't it just common courtesy to be polite to strangers?" As i am asking the question i see him removing his hood and cloak, and my guess was correct. On his head two furry ears emerge and i can see a tail on his back that almost reaches his shoulders.
"Well, how to explain this. Me and my sister are what normal people refer to as demi-humans, in fact this entire village was full of demi-humans." As Liam started talking i decided to just sit down on the ground and listen, it seemed like this will take a while.
He told me about the different races, apparantly we're on a huge continent that used to only be inhabited by humans. That ended up changing after an event that the village elders called "The great union". It seems that no one really know exactly when it started, but apparently massive rifts in space started appearing over 300 years ago. These rifts started spewing out people and even buildings from other worlds. 'Guess i'm not the only one huh'
The humans apparently judged this to be an invasion and started attacking the different races that appeared all over the known world. This created a war where the humans lost terribly in the beginning until they began mastering what they call mana. 'Now i know what MP stands for atleast'
The war lasted for a hundred years when the race called the demons arrived. This race, atleast according to Liam, only comprised of barbarians that ravaged the northern part of the continent with uncontested might. They didn't care who they attacked resorting to raid and pillage everyone, this caused the humans and the other races to unite and form a peace treaty to cooperate and deal with their common enemy.
Eventually they managed push the demons back, although it was a pyrrhic victory it was a victory nonetheless. Since the United Races Alliance which they called it lacked the manpower to finish of the demons they are now locked in a stand still, and because of the constant fighting over 200 years the area where they fought has been named The Deadlands.
Apparently the alliance wasen't enough as the different races still have a strained relationship with the humans even after 200 years as allies. The humans seem to think themselves as superior and enslave strays even though it's illegal. The crazy thing here is that slavery is kinda legal here, but they have more rights, and are treated the same way the old Viking treated their trells back in my old world. They are basically divided into three different categories, you have criminal slaves which have to serve as slaves for the duration of their prison sentence. This system makes it so the family of the criminals get a share of the sale profit and the countries save money from not having prisons.
The second category is debt slaves, these are often called servants instead since they work on contracts where the salary goes to the debt collectors. The third is surprisingly free slaves, they also work on contracts and require the "owners" to pay them a salary. This salary is lower than a normal free person but it's easier to get a job by going the slave route.
These are the official categories but not surprisingly there are also black markets that sell captured slaves off the books. Apparently the village was destroyed by a band of slavers looking to make some quick illegal cash, 'Might have to apologize to that woman when she wakes up, but how was i supposed to know that humans attacked them. I mean it could have been monsters, even if the lack of bodies might prove otherwise'
Oh and apparently we're currently located at the border of the Pollutio kingdom. It's a human kingdom bordering the demi-human kingdom, or beastkin as Liam told me they prefer to be called. Which is understandably since i kinda feel like demi-human is kind of a degrading name, kind of makes them seem like a lesser form of humans.
"So what you're saying Liam is that your village is probably getting sold as illegal slaves right now?" Kind of feel like i should help them now, and it's totally not to justify taking all their stuff. Seems he got too engrossed in the conversation and forgot as he suddenly widened his eyes.
"Oh no! What are we gonna do? They are probably getting transported to Polus right now" I think i preferred when he was acting calm and not running around in full panic. Suddenly he stops and it seems like he realised something.
"Damien! Please help me rescue them, me and my sister haven't been able to repay the old man yet." Kind of want to ask who this old man is but i'm assuming he means the village chief since his sister was hiding in the basement of his house.
"Ok first, calm down panicking won't help anybody here. Secondly, i don't even know if i can beat them. I'm only lvl 4 currently and Fenris is the same." He seemed depressed when i told him my own lack of strength, don't judge me i've only been here for barely a day.
"Ehhh?! You must have been sheltered since you're not even lvl 5 yet. Everyone usually reaches lvl 5 when they're around 10 years old. Average mercenaries like the ones that attacked us are around lvl 10 to 15."
'Did this kid just insult me by telling me i'm weaker than an average ten-year old?' I felt a tickmark appear unintentionally on my forehead.
"Well Liam my strength is in numbers currently not necessarily my personal strength. How many lvl 5's would you need to fight those mercenaries? And how long would it take to transport all the villagers to Polus?" I'm hoping i can just go hunting in the forest while tracking them, that way i could hopefully overwhelm them with a high number of immortal soldiers before they reach the city.
He seemed to get the meaning behind my words and asked "You would probably need to gather 3 times the amount of lvl 5's to combat a group of lvl 10's, they would simply get annihilated in one hit. The trip to Polus from here would take atleast a week unless they used carriages which they didn't have when they arrived. How will you even gather that many allies while also chasing them down? They have a headstart of almost 2 days since the raid."
As a response to his question i just ordered Gobi and the goblins to exit my shadow, that would prove my capabilities even without the wolves who are looking for signs of survivors right now. Seems he understood where my strength lies judging by his slack jawed expression.
"You wouldn't happen to know of a wolf's den or a goblin encapment nearby?" Couldn't help but grin widely, i mean honestly, who doesn't like to show off once in a while.
"Are you a necromance Damien? But where did you hide them? Did they just come out of your shadow? And why do they still have their form? I thought necromancers only could control skeletons and flesh horrors?" Did i just accidentally create my own fanboy? I can literally see stars in his eyes shen he switches his gaze between me and my shadow soldiers.
"Guess you could kind of call me a necromancer only i don't controll mindless creatures, these goblins have their intelligence intact same as Fenris. So i wouldn't really call myself a necromancer, instead i'd call myself a shadow lord or monarch since they treat me like their king, or alpha for the wolves. But just answer me if there are any gatherings of monsters nearby, that way i can boost my numbers and their strength."
"There are a couple on the way towards Polus, but since you're not even lvl 5 the only ones you would be able to handle is one wolf den and a small goblin cave." Seems my strength really is lacking compared to the rest of the world, and here i thought i might be able to get enough EXP to craft myself som good skills.
"I forgot to mention that my soldiers are effectively immortal, so my numbers won't decrease, ever." Don't think i should let him know about the fact that i need to supply them with mana to revive them, might get leaked by him to others. "Additionally we don't have to worry about travel time, Fenris should be fast enough to catch up to them when they're moving on foot." I could slowly see Liam get more and more excited by the idea of rescuing the villagers. Suddenly he ran up to me and grabbed my shoulders, shaking them intensely while muttering so fast i couldn't understand anything he said. I stood up, escaping from his grasp as he now could only reach my chest.
"Calm down, first of all we should wake up your sister. We can't exactly leaver her lying on the ground here while we go chase the kidnappers." I feel bad for the sister, her little brother literally forgot she existed judging by his face.
Liam ran over to his sister trying to wake her up while i ordered Gobi and the gang to resume gathering the loot. While they were gathering the rest i started going through what they already gathered, grabbing valuables and other useful tools. I really wish my shadow storage was bigger than 1x1 but nothing i can do about it right now, and i refuse to waste the space on taking the female underwear Gobi brought what would my mother say if she knew. Now that i think about it even i don't know considering i can't remember her at all, i must have had one atleast right?
As if it was planned by a higher power the wolves retuned as the goblins finished searching the houses, seems the wolves found no other survivors so the rest must have gotten caught. I just stored the necessary tools for cooking and generally surviving in the wilds, like proper iron knife that seemed perfect for skinning and butchering, and even a bronze dagger with some engravings.
[Skill: Inspect has reached lvl 3]
[Bronze dagger]
[Quality: Normal]
[Durability: 89%]
[Attack: 9]
'Nice, now i actually got a decent weapon. This doesn't have the toxic effect of the stone dagger but i don't mind having less contact with goblin excrement. For some reason i don't get any information when i'm trying to inspect the valuables but i guess i just have to get it to a higher level.
Once i finished grabbing my "fair" share of loot i had the goblins move the things to the basement in the chief's house, the former residents probably want them back when they return. Just as they finished moving the loot Liam's sister woke up.
*groan* "Ugh what happened? Liam where did that filthy human go? He didn't hurt you did he?" I take my words back, this b*tch won't get any apology from me.
"Sis don't talk about Damien that way, he really is different. I confirmed it with my skill on both him and Fenris." Seemed like she forgot about Fenris as she suddenly grabbed Liam and frantically started looking around only to see me laying on the stomach of a direwolf twice my size.
"Good morning sleepyhead" I wanted to call her Sleeping Beauty just for the reference, but since no one would get it i didn't want to give her anything she could consider a compliment. 'If i call her pretty or anything she would probably misunderstand my intentions, i mean who knows how the brain of that sex works'
"You stay away from me and my brother you degenerate, you filth-"
"Sis shut your f*cking mouth for once!" Oh damn, little Liam suddenly grew a massive pair. But it seems he made a big mistake judging by that smile on his sister's face, that's not a happy smile.
Only after Liam got a thorough beating did she seem to calm down, but i never got anything other than a glare, which i didn't really mind. It's not as if i need to get along with her, just need her brother to guide me to the wolf's den and goblin cave.
After recovering Liam started explaining what we talked about including how i have amnesia and somehow only forgot about the world. I honestly didn't expect her to believe that one since she doesn't trust me, but she didn't object or argue which i guess is a good sign. She also seemed happy about our plan to rescue the villagers but doubted my capabilities which is understandable, i merely convinced her by letting Liam be his fanboy self and tell about my power.
After having planned and eaten some of the direwolf meat we startet heading out. I found out the sisters name is Alice after i tried to introduce myself, which resulted in Liam telling me her name since i apparently wasen't worthy. Now i just hope there are enough wolves and goblins so that my soldiers and i atleast reach lvl 6 and lvl 5 respectively, and i hope these mercenaries aren't some top dogs since i refuse to die without even having slept in a bed.
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
Viidaros
Viidaros Wanted to upload the chapther during the weekend, but was unsure of how i wanted to use Liam and Alice but decided yesterday so here is your chapter.
Hope you like it
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone