Capital of Neira. Another peaceful day. Sun was shining, merchants were ripping off unaware customers, hookers were doing their job and somewhere someone was being murdered. Ah, metropolis. But hey! Living in big city has its good sides too! You can get access to most of the goods (as long as you can afford them), you can take your time with beautiful ladies (as long as you can afford them), or if there is someone you don’t like you can have him killed! (Of course only if you have a coin).

And there are various guilds left and right! If you are sick, you go to alchemist, you take from them a small bottle with weird liquid and leave them your fortune, if you want to travel you can go with traveling merchants – the travel itself isn’t very expensive, but if you would get hungry and would want to buy some supplies from them… oh boy…

And there is also an adventurer's guild! Problem with monster? Ha! That’s what they are doing for living! Your collection of ancient items is lacking one certain cursed dagger than cast calamity on everyone it touch? Just say in which dungeon we can find it, and we will bring it! Your cat got stuck on the tree?! Ha! We always have some rookies to torment!... well, problem starts when those newbies are dark twins which can bend your mind… nobody is perfect…

.

- “Just like that. Getting into heads of animals is far easier…” Gustav, adventurer send to take care of few first missions of siblings was instructing kids how to bring cat down.

- “Sister, sister, why does old man keeps telling us something we already know?”

- “O…OLD MAN?!”

- “Brother, brother, I think that old people just like to brag about everything…”

- “I AM BARELY 40 YEARS OLD! As for mage, I ain’t even a teenager!”

- “Old….” Darik whispered

- “Ancient…” Daria followed

- “Prehistoric…” Darik continued

- “Farts with dust…” Daria finished

- “You little….” A vein started pulsing on his forehead “… I am taking care of you only because Zariel asked.You are using far too much power!” he couldn’t reply to their little insults, so he simply focused on his job

- “Too much?” Twins asked in unison

- “Mind is a door, a lock, to the soul of your target. Your powers and coordination of your actions are simply ridiculous - in good meaning, but you are lacking control. Instead of picking the lock you are ramming at the door blowing it into dust. This is why when you are leaving the head of your target far weaker than you, they turn into nothing more but drooling fools. Mind manipulation always leaves a trace that could lead back to you, yet most of the times you would rather stay… anonymous. This is why we will start practicing on small animals – this way you would learn to hold back and….”

- “S..sir, would Mr. Fluffer be ok?” concerned girl that hired the guild with her pocket money asked

- “You paid us to get a cat down, our agreement never stated in what condition cat should be received.”

- “W…WHA..?!”

- “Cats are little devils anyway!” old witch-man continued “I actually hope that they would wreck this little scratching, biting, ungrateful piece of shit insides out!”

- “NOOO! PLEASE! NOO!” Girl started crying

- “Get back to work you little rats! We ain’t got a whole day!”

Young psionics holding each other hands focused their gaze on Mr. Fluffer. Cat, that up until now was lazily licking his paw froze in place opening wide his eyes in shock.

And then it started.

He began to trash in the branches like mad, meowing and hissing on imaginary enemies. His vision must have been playing tricks on him, as he jumped between branches… and start falling down.

Realization of missing his footing came after moment or two as he was already in half of the way down. Much to Gustav demise a saying that cat always lands on his feet proved to be right.

- “Tsh. He’s alive. That’s a bummer… Hey, young miss, if that little rat would get stuck on the tree again… or you would stop caring about his that much would ya consider…”

- “I HATE YOU OLD MAN!”

- “OLD MAN!?”

- “I WILL NEVER EVER ASK GUILD FOR HELP AGAIN!”

She picked cat from the ground and started running in direction of her house, but then she stopped, turned around, came back to Gustav and kicked him in the calf. After that, she proceeded with her previous actions of running away.

- “YOU LITTLE…!”

But she never heard what Extremely-Old-Mage thought about her. She was far away.

Red Mountains

I woke up, tried waking up Gisele, washed my face, tried waking up Gisele, got dressed, tried waking up Gisele, readied myself to leave the tent… and then I just said

- “Fair enough. Looks like I will eat breakfast alo…”

And when I turned around I noticed Gisele jumping on one leg as she was trying to pull her reinforced leather parts of armor on her pants.

- “Eating without me? It’s like cheating! No, wait! It’s actually far worse!”

- “It hurts me to know that food means more for you than me.”

- “Stop whining!” She smiled as she walked past me leaving the tent “And come on already! How long will you make me wait for you?”

I swallowed insult and decided to just tag along. There is no point in arguing with a dragon. Hungry dragon atop of that.

Dwarfs already started removing the camp, bringing tents and camping-equipment to the supply units – the one traveling in the middle of formation together with higher ranks commanders. Few greeted us with polite nods, in dwarfish those gestures were more than enough. I like that. As our little walk wasn’t very absorbing I allowed myself to quickly browse through my status window.

General InformationNameZarielLevel[21/NA] [523/30 000 exp]Age17/NARaceChimera [Divine]ClassDark Hierophant [Plague Spreader]JobAlchemistTitleThe one who forge his own fate

Champion slayer

Deadly Arena Champion

The Great Duelist

The Wild Mage

Mad Scientist

Angel SlayerHealth428/440Stamina311/350Mana492/680AttributesStrength50 (added 5)Vitality44 (added 1)Endurance36 (added 1) Constitution35 Dexterity57 + 4 (added 1) Reflex44 + 3 (added 1)Intelligence68 (added 2)Wisdom56 (added 2)Spiritualism47 (added 1)Hidden AttributesLuck15 + 10 Charisma6 + 20Charm14 (added 1)Unallocated points0

Damn. 30 000? More work to be done.

~ Try not thinking about numbers. Just keep doing what is necessary. Exp will be gain anyway so…

~ DON’T LISTEN TO HER! GO KILL! PLUNDER! DESTROY AND RAPE!

~ I didn’t listen what you two were arguing about, but last part got my attention. Whatever it was, I am fully supporting Wrath’s idea.

You guyz just can’t stay quie…

~ This is the matter far more important than you would want to admit, boss. You neglected your training.

What are you even talking about?! I am taking quest after quest! When I am not killing things I am running the whole underground drug factory and…

~ I am referring to Sebastian and his way of training.

Ah, that thing… to be honest….

~ You can summon veteran of Celestial Wars and ask him for guidance, but you are afraid that he would be harsh to you… Pathetic.

HEY!

~ Don’t forget that there is another demon that is eager to “train” you in different arts!

What?

~ ZANEZ-CHAN!!!

So, you say Sebastian? I don’t like that idea, but may there is a possibility that perhaps by any chance I could take it into consideration.

~ Tsh. Don’t ignore me! That poor little succubus is waiting for you days and nights, woman’s heart is fragile, you know?!

~ Indeed. I would advise you some long-term quest. This way you could both train, earn a coin and keep ranking up.

~ ASSHOLES!

Like I said – will consider that.

~ Don’t make him wait long. Devils are known under many titles, but “patient one” is not one of them.

- “..ri? Zari! You are spacing out again!”

Apparently, I was sitting at the table with rest of clan heads, the only difference is that I had meat impaled fork pointed at my open mouth… for past two minutes. Doing nothing.

- “Sometimes I like to talk with someone intelligent – with myself. Forgive my rudeness.” I said half-joking.

- “V..very well. So, may we know your opinion about this matter?” one of the advisors asked

- “Of course you can… as soon as you would remind me that [matter]”

Gisele snorted.

- “Our scouts noticed a group of Ogres marching in our direction. They are led by a huge individual wearing tribe-marks…”

- “Tribe marks? That’s odd. Looks like our enemy has enemies among his friends.”

- “Sir?”

- “There was an episode in my days of youth…” I smiled as I heard my own words “… I have been living with few forest goblins. Nice bunch. What I mean – tribe marks are usually used in rituals or special events. Like fighting for leadership. You can become a leader in two ways – killing current leader in the duel or by performing the outstanding act in front of your people that would benefit them.”

- “So, you mean that someone rebelled against warchief and…”

- “… I am sorry, did middle of my sentence interrupted the beginning of yours?” yes, I hate when somebody cuts in my speech “… it means that by killing us he wants to prove to be a better leader than the current one. The, an idiot. Let’s gracefully accept his offering. I hope you started fortifying remaining of greenskin’s wall?”

- “Why would we do that? Shouldn’t we keep marching onward and…”

- “… and lose soldiers in vain? No. We can reduce enemy numbers with barely any efforts.”

- “It would slow us down!”

- “Listen. Our goal is to wipe out enemy forces. Whoever leads them surely isn’t as dumb as the one marching at us right now – he will plant few more ambushes on the way so we can predict that we would arrive after his preparation would be done. BUT! Their army number should be more or less unchanging, as I doubt that he can gain reinforcements from anywhere. In this war the winning side would be the one who would have the last soldier standing. Let’s say that there is 10 000 of them. 1 000 is marching at us right now. We can kill those 1 000 losing few hundred of our soldier in the open field, or few dozen if we would fortify here. In the end, we would still have to kill remaining 9 000, the question is how many of us would be standing against them.”

- “How do you know that they would attack, and not simply lock the route to…”

- “Tribe-marks. He called the horde. Right now they are marching at us in ecstasy awaiting for bloodshed. If his solider would be forced to wait, their blood would cool down and his followers would slowly turn away from him. He needs to prove himself. We need to wait. Those ballistas on walls are still working, are they?”

- “… they need some basic repairs. Those savages had no idea how to handle them and…”

- “I am sorry if I didn’t state my mind clearly. Send someone to make them useful again.”

All this time queen was sitting quietly with her chin resting on her palms. She was looking at me with sharp gaze

- “I hope you know what you are doing…”

- “I also hope so” I admitted with serious tone

Greenskin camp

- “My king, Grawhio.... he…”

Goblin shaman that walked into the tent of his king didn’t know how to deliver a message. It was really bad news

- “Challenged me? What a fool!”

- “No, my lord. He demanded trail of blood.”

- “I see, how many followed?”

- “Over three thousand. 500 ogres and…”

- “… That’s… that’s…” Oni’s eyes almost popped out of his skull “… That’s splendid!”

- “M’lord?”

The face of red demon-kin was twisted in the most savage grin. All of his razor-sharp teeth were visible.

- “Gobraw. What’s the purpose of this war?”

- “To ensure our position and to find our own…”

- “No! I am not talking about that! Of course, that’s what we want to achieve in long term, but I hope that you don’t think we can win?”

- “My king?”

- “Come on, Gobraw, you are too smart for that. Our numbers and location are the only advantages we have. They have better warriors, in better armors carrying better weapons commanded by better generals. And that mage… wherever he came from…

I didn’t predict that they would call for allies so quickly. Still, our chances of winning in open field are… equal to zero. This is why we won’t fight. We will just keep slowing them down praying to gods that our workers would finish their job. By the way, how long would it take?”

- “Miners found metal ore, so I am afraid that it would slow them down…”

- “How? Long?”

- “We have no idea how big this ore is. Maybe few hours, maybe few days.”

- “May the hell devour it...” Oni cursed quietly. “… but, this makes Grawhio actions even better. Not only I will lose challenger that was opposing my every order, not only everyone who just waiting for a possibility to betray me will day… but our enemies will be slowed down… Send them some supplies. May they keep their ground as long as possible. Also, send out night trolls. They should use this time to plant as many traps on the paths between traitors and our camp as it is only possible… How other camps are doing?”

- “West, South-West, North West, North, and North-East are done. South-East camp is slowly finishing, maybe today, maybe tomorrow. They are all waiting for us.”

- “When the center would be done… We would win the war by losing it.”

- “I am afraid I still don’t get it. Forgive your servant lack of foresight.”

- “Do you remember the first city we plundered? There was a wooden box in it, remember?”

- “Game?”

- “Yes. It is called chess. In this game, you see, it doesn’t matter how much solider you would lose, if in the end you manage to capture the enemy's king, you win. Bu the , king doesn’t has to be a king in person. It’s just a symbol. To destroy merchants you are not burning their cargo, you are offering their suppliers a better price. To destroy enemy spies you are not burning their ambassador, you are getting rid of their information providers. We just need to achieve something that would ensure our victory no matter what we or they would do.”

- “And… we would achieve it by digging tunnels? Many tunnels?”

- “You, my dear friend, see tunnels. I – possibilities. Keep digging. If there would be any more issues… I will come with pickaxe myself.”

He pushed knight-figure through the chessboard against his imaginary enemy. His movement put black-king in check.

- “So… expect those…we do nothing?” shaman just wanted to be sure

- “Of course, my friend. It is enemy turn now.”

Advertisement Support "Forging his own destiny" PayPal Patreon Previous

Chapter Fiction

Index Next

Chapter RSS About the author 2 Fictions 0 Posts 0 Threads Anuel Follow Author Tuesday, September 26, 2017 11:40:23 PM

Bio: Some people want me to write with Style, some people want me to write with Passion, some people wish to see me using logic, yet I... I find madness to be much more alluring.

Srsl tho, I am kinda crazy, ya know?

Achievements Comments(5) Set Compact Log in to comment

Log In Load Comments Please enable JavaScript to load the comments! Log in to comment

Log In Settings Theme (Entire Website) Dark Light Dim background 0% 20% 40% 50% 60% 80% 100% Font Size 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 22 24 28 32 Reader Width Max 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% Font Family Default ————— Open Dyslexic Atkinson Hyperlegible ————— Arial Roboto Open Sans OS Default Comic Sans Lucida Verdana Ubuntu Ubuntu Condensed Franklin Gothic Garamond Caslon Minion Font Color Indent Color Scheme Theme Default OLED Black Royal Road Dark Dark Gray Gray Light Gray Sepia White Paragraph Spacing Close × Give Reputation to User: Points You can specify how many points you want to give (minimum: 0, maximum: 0). Comment (optional) Why are you giving this user reputation? Give Reputation Close About

Royal Road® is the home of web novels and fan fictions! In our amazing community, you can find various talented individuals who write as a hobby or even professionally, artists who create art for them, and many, many readers who provide valuable feedback and encouragement.

Amazon Affiliate Royal Road® is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Theme Select Dark Light

Follow Us On Need some help? Create a support ticket

Contact Contact Us by Email

Advertising Ads for Authors

Programmatic Advertising Royal Road® © 2013-2022 Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Blog | Status Tap again to scroll to the top!