Day 61:
"Is anyone injured?" I shouted over the battlefield.
"Dresa's got some scratch, Yan has a broken forearm, and I'm out of mana!" Shirou shouted back. "Do you have any mana-transfer skills?"
I shook my head before I went back to survey the battlefield. "Damn, this is going to be a lot of work just cleaning," I grumbled.
There were a hundred dead bullywugs—with at least fifty on one side of our fort—leaking their blood on the ground and on the walls. They couldn't serve as food either. There was just too much of the dead body that disease could catch on, or it would just start to rot, especially since we didn't have any efficient storage methods.
Well, that and I don't think I'm open to the idea of eating right now.
...
...
That's strange. There's no reward or anything like that. Usually, there are rewards after a quest.
Quest.
I frowned as I just realized something was horribly wrong.
Quests.
Where were they?
They were like the guiding lines for me when I was growing stronger, so why aren't they popping up anymore? There hasn't been a single quest, now that I realize it, over the past week. Actually, the past week and a half. Something to keep in mind and think about.
Regardless, I now had a new job.
Time to clean up.
"I want you to bring me their bone collars!" I added as I broke off the bone collar of the dead bullywug I held.
Shirou's POV
Once the cleanup was done, Ruto left his fort to scout out the bullywugs.
Meanwhile...
Shirou looked over the fort and the surrounding areas.
While the current setup was great, if they were ever attacked by anyone with a significant force—which in medieval times, as this place seems to be in, would be around five hundred or so—this fort was not going to hold up, even more so if either Ruto or he were missing. Or worse, if neither were here to help defend.
From my memories, Shirou could easily bring up several plans for future fortifications, like trenches right in front of the walls. The one that he was most partial to, however, was increasing the thickness of the wall while at the same time increasing its height.
At a height of two point three meters or so, the current wall was enough against the short bullywugs. But should the bullywugs bring about an army of five hundred with proper siege equipment, then this wall would not stand.
The best thing to do was to set up another wall with logs at least half a meter taller than the previous set. Plant them with a two-meter-wide gap. Once the second wall was complete, either extra lumber would be used to create a platform between the first wall and the second, or just tons and tons of rocks could be poured in.
Not only would this increase the thickness of the wall, but it would also make it solid.
But as of right now...
"Hey, Second Boss!"
...Honestly, Shirou did not like the imps and the other second gens calling me "second boss." He was not a boss of any kind, just a planner. The strategist, if you will. He felt more at home as a teacher and a protector than anything else. It was also why he had taken to teaching the imps and the other second gens learning.
"What is it?" he asked the imp that ran up to him.
"There's a group of fairies over there. Let's go kill 'em!"
"Wow, wow, wow. Why would we kill them?"
"B-Because we could eat them, then?" the imp looked confused. "Why wouldn't you want to eat fairies?"
Shirou frowned at that.
Fairies. They had met one when they were fleeing from the orcs not too long ago, but once the migration was over, it disappeared quietly. They were nothing like the Fae that he had come to know back on Earth, but they did possess some ethereal property about them that he couldn't quite grasp.
"No. Besides, we already have enough food," he told the imp. "But I would like to meet them. Can you show me where they are?"
The fairies were at the top of the eastern peak of the Twin Peaks. With such a high altitude and their faster flight, it was an ideal place to be if this meeting went downhill.
"Hello," Shirou greeted calmly as he stopped his approach fifteen meters or so from where they were. He could tell that there were about twelve fairies there in total. "Why are you here?"
The fairies looked at each other before one of them stepped forward and spoke up.
"W-W-We saw you win against the bullywugs."
Shirou nodded but didn't speak.
"W-W-We want to know i-if you'll protect us. W-We're willing to work...!"
Shirou blinked.
Well, people wanted to join them.
That was a first outside of the orc-instigated migration.
"...Where are others of your kind? Twelve seems a bit too small for any kind of fairy colony for the valleys around us."
It was another fairy that spoke up. "They ate the others."
Shirou flinched, because the fairy that had spoken up looked like he was going to eat it—him? her? - too. "Relax. Once we get our chieftain here, he'll tell you that we won't eat you. We have plenty of food to eat."
"D-Do you eat others?"
"You mean other ... species that can talk?"
They nodded.
"Well... no. It would be pretty bad, really, when we have trolls, onis, a kobold, a faze, and a bunch of imps."
The fairies looked at him in wonder. "You all live in peace?"
Shirou scratched the back of his head. "No, not really. We've just been attacked by the bullywugs. No one on our side died, though."
Ruto's POV
When I came back to the fort, I was surprised that Shirou was waiting for me with a small contingent of ... fairies?
"What are the little guys doing here?" I asked him as I walked over to them.
I towered over them by a lot. I towered over even Shirou by a head. I must look menacing, though. My tusks were sharp, and my body was bloodied from the kills I'd made, and I carried two dead deer on my shoulders without a problem of being weighed down. Not to mention the bulky muscles.
The fairies seemed very intimidated by the entire sight of what I was.
Shirou didn't answer. Instead, he looked to the fairies. One of them, a fairy with many leaves for its—his? her? - dress, stepped up and bowed.
"Please allow us to live here!"
I blinked.
Well, that was abrupt.
"Sure, but you have to work. Where do you think t—"
I didn't get to speak further as the fairies swarmed me and hugged me. They seemed keen on not touching any blood, though.
"...So?" I asked Shirou.
"Probably farming. From what I've learned from them, I eat mostly vegetables, fruits, and few insects. I don't think they'll mind fish, but we're too far from any kind of sizable lake or river," he replied as he took one of the deer from me. "Let's head inside."
Day 62:
When I woke up the next day, I found the fairies hovering over me. They watched me with their sparkling eyes.
I couldn't help but be slightly intimidated.
"Don't you guys have work to do?" I asked the fairies as I got up.
"We finished them already."
That was when Dori, the resident farmer-wannabe, barged into his personal space right next to the small gate of their fort. "Boss, the vegetables I planted two days ago! T-They're all mature!"
My eyes shot open, and I snapped my head to the fairies. "You did this?"
They nodded. "We don't eat meat, not much anyway. And we did say we were going to help with farming."
I stared at them for a while.
Was this how fairies, the smallest derivative species of the forest, were able to survive? Just grow their own food from the trees above and the grass below?
This was a huge find.
"Dori, I'm putting you in charge of them," I said as I stood up and walked out.
And my jaw dropped.
Along the walls of the fort, maybe 4 meters in width, were the patches of vegetables. Dori had planted. Right in front of his feet were watermelons. Juicy, large watermelons. I knelt and grabbed one. It was heavy. I tapped it.
And very, very full.
There was a wild strawberry bush further down, and corn even further than that.
My lips split into a grin.
"Jackpot."
Soon after that, I had the other trolls all get to work on expanding the garden plots by another 3 meters in width. I knew that carbohydrates—that's what Shirou called them—needed to be the main source of energy if we were to work efficiently—again, Shirou should be teaching more than he was doing now. So he had Dori and the fairies plant more corn and a few more vegetables for variety.
Maybe we could get Shirou to cook again.
Day 65:
I was on patrol when I first saw them.
It was a long caravan. There were horses and muscular cows. Damn, those looked tasty.
But what caught my surprise was the composition of the caravan itself.
If I had to compare it with the Elemental Nations, this caravan didn't fit in any of them because it fit in with all of them. Heavy fur-coated humans with their horses, very thinly dressed men and women with their horses, and muscular men with their muscular cows. Thatched roof carts, open carts, linen, hemp, and so on.
There was such a variety here that it made me confused!
...
They also seemed well armed. There were a lot of well-armored and armed men and a few women who dotted along the entirety of the caravan. But it was their stance that had me curious.
They all had their hand on their weapon at all times. It was as if they were expecting someone to attack them...
My eyes widened as I realized why they had so many guards for this caravan.
Bullywugs!
Maybe if I have the Bullywugs' collarbones, then they won't attack me? But how would I show it to them? Just offer it up to them? That would have me look suspicious, and I would have to approach them first. Who's to say they won't shoot me while I walk up to them? I definitely don't look like a human.
... Collarbone necklace?
Maybe I should have been more careful about this... Because now, I stood before fourteen of the guards. Each of them held a different weapon or held the same weapon differently. It reminded me somewhat of the ninjas back in the Elemental Nations. There was a large variety, even with those who held the same weapon. Perhaps it was the same here? Different lines of thought regarding combat producing different martial arts and combat practices? Some looked
I could probably take them all down, though, but I was trying to be nice here. These humans may have something that I might need.
They only spoke gibberish, which made me conclude that the language I was speaking was definitely not anything remotely similar to theirs.
I just held up my necklace of bullywug collarbones.
They looked at it, and one of the adventurers motioned for me to give it to them.
I did so.
They took it and began to look over it. One of them pointed at the bones, and another shook his head. There were more words exchanged before one of the smaller merchants looked at it and dropped his jaw.
"Bullywug!"
I nodded. It seemed that names at least stayed the same.
I pointed to myself, then at the bullywug collarbone necklace, and made chopping motions.
They pulled their swords away.
'Well, it seemed like they understood,' I thought as I smiled.
Then one of the humans from somewhere further down the caravan approached me.
"You and I stand?"
"...What?"
"You no me stand?"
Clearly, the man was trying to speak my language, whatever it was called by the humans, but he was pretty bad at it.
"You mean 'You understand me?'"
The man looked puzzled for a while before he seemed to get it.
"Sorry. Trolls are rare in towns. It's too hard to speak and learn Zandali."
Okay, so they called the language that I was using Zandali.
"No problem. I'm just happy you understand me ... somewhat. So what are you guys doing around here?"
"Barter line? No, no, trade line! No, trade group. Yes, a trade group passing by a human city, too."
"There's one around here?"
The man nodded. He pointed towards where the caravan was heading. "More than 40 leagues."
"Leagues?" I asked. That was a new unit of measurement that I didn't know of. "How long is that?"
The man looked around. "Trade group long?"
I looked at the caravan. There were more than a hundred carts lined up with a large space in between. I looked at the closest cart, one that had a hemp covering five round wooden spines, and guessed that it was 13 meters long, along with the horses.
... 35 kilometers, maybe?
"Okay. But be careful. There are bullywug villages just on the other side of the mountain," I told him.
The man paled. "Bullywug? Cities? How many?"
"A couple of hundred at the closest? There's a really big city far away, but ..." I shrugged. "Well, I guess I'm going to go now. I still need to hunt for the clan."
The man nodded and thanked me for some reason. Then he ran back to his friends and spoke quickly and alarmingly.
One of the horse-riding guards, who looked almost like a samurai, trotted over to me with the necklace I gave them. He pointed at it and at the mountain.
The man who understood me came back. "Know how many bullywugs?" he spoke quickly. "E...Exactly?"
I scratched my chin. "I wiped out the nearest village just yesterday, and that would be the closest one from here."
The man told the chief guard because that's what he seemed to be doing. "How but?"
"I have a clan of 40 with me; no bullywug."
The man looked surprised. "Are you all friendly to humans?"
I blinked. "I suppose. As long as you don't attack us," I replied easily enough. Then I realized something. This was the perfect time! I reached into my inventory, startling the humans. Then I pulled out a glowstone. "How much is this?"
The man took it and looked it over instead of giving it to someone else to appraise. Was this man a jack-of-all-trades, perhaps?
The man's eyes widened. "Very, very quality well sunstone."
"Are you up for a trade?"
The chief guard grunted something at the translator, cutting him off before he could speak.
The translator turned to me. "You mine these?"
Wow, that was the first sentence that wasn't broken. "Yes. Our resident kobold likes to mine."
The guard looked at me straight when I said Kobold. "Kobold?"
I nodded. I held up a finger. "Only one."
The chief guard stared at me with narrowed eyes before he scoffed and rode off. I turned to the translator. "What's wrong with him?" I asked without pointing.
"Very, very bad history," he replied. "Kobolds loot the town of his birth."
I winced. "Oh..."
The man quickly gestured back to the "sunstone." "How much is mine?"
"Enough for use?" I replied with a slight questioning tone towards the end. I didn't know what these humans did with them, so I couldn't really answer.
The man looked calculating. "Trade?"
I grinned. "Trade sounds good."
Ping!
New Skill!
Negotiation (LvL 1)
You want this? I want that. Let's trade.
*With each level of this skill, the trade surplus increases by 2%.
When asking for anything beyond the calculated exchange rate, the user has a (skill level of LvLself-CHA - target's CHA - target's opinion of self)% chance of succeeding.
*Every 5 lvl of this skill allows the user to hire another to operate a trade post (Construction LvL 3).
Ping!
New Quest!
Partners in ... Trade!
Humans are here! And they seem eager to trade the "sunstone."
Requirement:
*Trade sunstone for something valuable.
*Obtain information on general goods and trade values of each items.
Failure:
*Trade Unsuccessful
*+100 EXP
*+1 LvL of Negotiation
Success:
*Trade successful
*+1000 EXP
*+3 LvL of Negotiation
Optional Actions:
*Establish a trade route with the nearest human city or trade post (+10,000 EXP and +5 LvL of Negotiation upon success)
"Cool."
Character Status by the end of Day 65:
Naruto [Imp Ruto] [Troll Ruto]
LvL 45
The Gamer
HP: 168.5 (+143) (+1.5 HP per hour regen)
Mana: 640 (+5.9 per minute regen)
STR: 286
DEX: 85
AGI: 95
END: 120
INT: 90
WIS: 96
CHA: 49
Unused Points: 42
Spirit: 35
Magic: 24
Power: 30
Traits Taken + Earned:
Ambitious, Quick, Genius, Cynical, Stressed, Content, Teacher [Neutral] (Unavailable), Power Overwhelming, Strength is Key
Focus:
Growing
Racial Traits:
Beast Slaying (max)
Troll Blood (max)
Skills:
Archery (LvL 2)
Ambush (LvL 7)
Baiting (LvL 22)
Blade Mastery (LvL 10)
Charging (LvL 8)
Clairvoyance (LvL 1)
Crafting (LvL 5) - Construction (Subskill)(LvL 1)
Fishing (LvL 9)
Intimidation (LvL 7)
Leadership (LvL 9)
Listening (LvL 14)
Mapping (LvL 2)
Negotiation (LvL 1)
Observe (LvL 41) + Structural Analysis (Reveals Physical/Chemical/Magical properties of target if LvL of Observe is high enough)
Physical Durability (LvL 4
Projection (LvL 5)
Running (LvL 19)
Sonar (LvL 7)
Throwing (LvL 11)
Trapping (LvL 22)
Ironwood Clan:
8 Trolls (WoW)
3 Onis
1 Faze
1 Kobold (D&D)
22 imps (WoW + D&D)
15 fairies