World Seed 49 Chapter 49
Once Aerwyn arrived back in Ardin he sought out Frakki and handed him the vials Tylin had given him."Make sure to only use one drop per five liters of water. For now just use it for three days... Also i want you to pick out a few undead goblins and see if they can breed. I don't expect it to be possible but try nonetheless.""Y-yes great one." Frakki spoke and stared into the red liquid as if it were something holy."Oh, one more thing. I need you to... Ahem, collect the goblins urine and feces." Aerwyn did his best to keep a straight face and appear lord-like but ultimately failed."Great one?" Frakki looked up at him for the first time since being turned and displayed a confused expression before quickly averting his eyes when he realized Aerwyn wasn't joking."It's for creating leather..." Aerwyn explained the process in detail and put Frakki in charge of leather-work since he was the most free out of all the hobgoblins.Aerwyn spent the next two weeks collecting souls from the hunting parties and practicing his spearmanship. The city had been mostly cleared of debris and only eighteen building ended up being salvageable which was to be expected from a city left to rot for eight hundred years. Seven of the buildings in the square surrounding the broken spire were among the ones that remained and it gave the city a rather empty feeling which Aerwyn wanted to remedy soon.Tylin's breeding drug appeared to be working even better than Aerwyn had antic.i.p.ated. After dosing them for three days the goblins seemed to go into a frenzy and even continued breeding without the drug. The female's were already showing signs of pregnancy which meant he would soon have a steady supply of goblins to fill his undead ranks.Aerwyn was curious and decided to sneak a peak which he regretted instantly as the sight of [Obscenity Filter] and [EXTREME Obscenity Filter] made him eject the contents of his stomach onto the side of the breeding building. The horrid scene haunted his dreams for the following nights. Unfortunately the undead goblins saw no success in the breeding department but he wasn't too upset with the result, he expected as much.A few days ago Erit had discovered she could control her webs as long as they were no more than fifteen meters away and still connected to her wrists. She showed it off to Aerwyn by using her living web to pick up a rock and swinging it around like a flail. He was quite surprised by it and could easily tell how useful it would be in combat.Erit asked him for two daggers that she could use in conjunction with her new power so Aerwyn gave her Glik's rusty sword and Kabba's old dagger for now. Since he had a steady stream of revarium he planned to ask Marik to make the daggers using his revarium instead of steel the next time he went to Setrhyn. It would act as a congratulatory gift for Erit's evolution into a person.
The construction of the underground fort was making quick progress despite the setbacks by spiders and zin beetle attacks that claimed the lives of six goblins. There was also another setback in the way of tenri that had begun to hara.s.s the goblins cutting down trees for the fort. They had yet to do any real damage but Aerwyn decided it was time to deal with their nest so he found Bon and asked about it."Master, the tenri nest is a few kilometers east but there are too many to attack head on. You'll be overwhelmed even if you brought all of us with you.""I plan to use the spiders so i won't be attacking them head on and if there are too many i can always flee.""As you say master."Aerwyn took the side of caution and sent a few jakku out to scout. He connected to one after a few minutes and took in the sights as the jakku flew east. Soon he could see dozens of black dots within the breaks of the canopy. Dozens turned to hundreds and hundreds turned to thousands as they continued to fly east. Aerwyn wondered how the creatures could keep such a large population without starving to death from overhunting the area.There were far too many of them for him to even entertain the idea of killing them all any time soon but he still needed to do something. He couldn't leave such a large hostile force so close to Ardin, the webs surrounding the city would keep them from getting in but his goblins still needed to leave the safety of the webs to cut trees for his projects.Aerwyn ordered the jakku to stay above the nest and keep on eye on them before disconnecting. Back in Ardin he called Erit and Velk over."Gather all the spiders and zin beetles we're going to cull some tenri. We'll be going straight to Lyr after so pack some ore to trade as well.""Are we going to buy my daggers master!?" Erit got excited but Aerwyn had to shut her down."No i'm going to put in that order with Marik. It won't be ready for a while so you'll have to make due with what you have for now."Once his troops were gathered they headed out. The edges of the nest weren't far from Ardin so they began to run into tenri after a half hour of walking. They were forced to flee after every minor engagement as the creatures appeared to be able to sense their kin battling, hundreds more would quickly swarm the area every time they stayed in any one spot for too long.The spiders barely had a moment to spin webs before dozens of tenri would show up and begin hara.s.sing them. So Aerwyn adapted a type of hit and run tactic, he would have the spiders set up a small web while the rest of the undead would battle for a few minutes before fleeing.It worked out well enough and Aerwyn was able to resurrect one hundred and eighty two tenri after six days of fighting. The webs that surrounded the tenri nest were full of holes so it wasn't perfect but it would be enough to keep the creatures at bay until he was strong enough to deal with them. On the morning of the seventh day they began their trek to Lyr.Instead of traveling west and then heading south along the river, Aerwyn decided to go straight south into brexil cat territory. He wanted to create another hunting group like the spiders that could disable living creatures so that Aerwyn could resurrect them back at Ardin without having to be in the fight himself. The venom the brexil cats produce on their elongated claws was perfect for such a group.Although their venom wasn't as fast-acting as the spiders they were far more proficient in a fight, making it possible for them to take down larger enemies than the spiders ever could. Unfortunately his large army of spiders, zin beetles, and tenri made it so the brexil cats stayed away and throughout the journey south he only managed to catch twenty two of them.The group changed directions, heading west and as they got close to Lyr, he heard Bon's voice in his head."Master! There are ships on the river coming this way!""What? How many?""I can't tell they're still too far south, but i can see at least six." Bon's words caused a pit to form in Aerwyn's stomach."Get everyone inside the city and hide. If they stop and try to enter the city i want everyone to go to the underground fort. Do not try and fight them. Do you understand me?""Yes, master."Aerwyn quickly connected to a jakku back at Ardin and looking through it's eyes, he ordered the creature along with the other forty to take flight and head for the ships. As soon as he was in the air Aerwyn could see two dozen ships floating in a line up the river.
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As they got closer he could make out dozens of oars on each ship propelling them forward at a speedy pace. Atop the deck of the ships he could see armed men wandering around which dispelled any hope that the ships were in the forsaken lands with peaceful intentions.As the ships sailed pa.s.sed Ardin without so much as slowing down Aerwyn breathed a sigh of relief. He ordered the jakku to follow them and if they landed to split up, with some staying with the ships while the others followed the army. Once he disconnected he ordered Rorik and his hunting group to return to Ardin, he didn't want the mutt dying no matter how much he got on Aerwyn's nerves.As Lyr came into view across the river in the distance, Aerwyn was stunned by what he saw. Plooms of black smoke poured from the village as if a ma.s.sive fire had been extinguished. He felt his heart drop into his stomach as he made the connection between the ships and the smoke.Picking up the pace, he rushed over to the rivers edge to get a closer look and a harrowing sight filled his eyes. He could see the southern wall had been demolished and not so much as a sound was coming from the village let alone the sight of elves.The ferryman and his ferry were missing as well so he had no choice but to swim across along with his undead. Once he entered the village his fears were realized. Corpses of dead elves lined the streets as he walked through the village. Doors to the oddly shaped buildings were hacked apart as if a beast had attacked them with all it's fury. A few buildings were reduced to nothing more than a pile of smoldering ash and there wasn't a live elf anywhere in sight.As he approached the village center the sight of a bald corpse made his heart drop even further. Aerwyn sprinted over and checked the mutilated body for life but it was no use, Master Ynir was dead. He closed his eyes as if when he opened them once more the man would be alive and well but he knew it was hopeless.Erit and Rin's attempts to comfort him snapped him out of his melancholy and when he opened his eyes he realized where the ships were heading."They're going to Setrhyn..."