32: Cults and Visitors

[Year 21 Month 3: 2 months have passed]

[Blessed: 5705 + 302 – 112]

For the past two months, everything was quiet. The drills I had set up within the dwarven ruins had made some progress, having dug about a meter into the almost impenetrable walls. Over time, I had detected a slight increase in mana flow, which led me to believe I only had a bit more to go through, which I was very excited for.

It had been several months since any progress had been made in the ruins; the only recoverable objects were the crucibles from a while back. I had tried to recover the turrets that were used, but they had a hidden self-destruct mechanism. It was unfortunate, but we can’t always get what we want.

On the bright side, the population of Runehold had crossed eleven thousand civilians, with about four thousand adventurers sticking around, with about twenty percent of the civilians being blessed, while most of the adventurers decided to get the buff.

While I would have preferred to have the full population generating me mana, I wouldn’t violate free will to that extent. I have been able to rationalize my surveillance of the public spaces, but requiring everyone to connect themselves with me, even if it wasn’t visible, wasn’t right.

Metis did bring to my attention that about a year into my evolution-induced slumber, a group of citizens and several adventurers came together and formed a group centered around… me. They decided on the name ‘Ebonguard’ as the color of my secondary obelisks had a similar tone. The ‘guard’ part was rather obvious.

It was a bit strange, but there were many possible uses for followers.

There was a little bit of an issue, though; they had decided that I wanted sacrifices. Fortunately, they had stuck with beast or animal rituals, but I saw it possibly growing into a bigger issue later on, and it was unsettling many of the non-fanatic citizens.

Astrid, curiously, was the one who settled this matter. There were only a few individuals who were actively known as close to me, with Salfi, Penelope, Osbert, and Astrid as semi-nobility within the bounds of the city. Apparently, this connection meant that the Ebonguard held them in high regard and invited the four into the group.

Astrid and Penelope were the only ones to be ‘official members’ out of the four, as Osbert had his responsibilities as a guard captain, and Salfi didn’t feel comfortable with the group’s existence. Even if the elf had the enigmatic [Apostle] class, she didn’t buy into their fanaticism, which was much appreciated by me.

The number of Ebonguard was exactly 86. With a pretty even split between men and women. There were actually many beast-kin in the cult, which did make a bit of sense, as they had been exposed to my presence for a bit longer than the humans.

Hm. The problem I am running into is my production lines. Since my golems cannot have skills, I am missing out on bonuses.

As craftsmen and artisans leveled up, they gained skills that massively changed the properties of their products. Weapons would be more durable or sharper, metals could have enhanced mana conductivity, even bracelet makers could eventually make some crazy items, they just had to be a high enough level.

If I can find some people who are trustworthy, I could always bring them into the ‘marked’ category. I am curious about what impact it would have on their classes.

For now, I have begun construction underground of a possible base for the group. Dain had warned me that one of the churches would be likely to trace him here, and if they caught wind of the Ebonguards, there would be a cleansing of any ‘heretics’ they found.

[Year 21 Month 4: 1 month has passed]

[Blessed: 5895 + 259 – 58]

Dain was right on the money, and it was nearly a month later when I noticed them. By now, the end of fall was creeping up, and the trees were shedding their leaves by the buckets. Considering that winter was far more dangerous on this world than on Earth, they were lucky that they arrived.

It was a group of thirty humans, six were women, but the rest were men. From the insignia branded into their armor. They were soldiers of Loria, and the mana pouring off of them suggested low forties, with their leader close to level fifty.

Within the center of the formation of horses, there were five lightly armored individuals, their clothing mostly made of fabric rather than leather or metal. These were obviously the mages or mana-focused users in their group. I would have to be cautious around them.

The leader was wearing full plate armor with a bright cape flowing behind him. The metal was unlike any I had previously seen, but the energy that radiated out of it had the ‘taste’ of purity and holiness that I had only seen in one other situation. Dain’s chosen mark.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

The strange metal also effected it’s surroundings, and the horse the leader was sitting on. The ‘holy’ mana would pulse every few moments, which was quickly absorbed by the beasts. It worked somewhat like physical enhancement skills, mixed with a strong dose of healing.

How curious. I haven’t run across any metals with those properties. It’s possible it requires a [Priest] or something similar to bless… could I maybe kidnap a priest to test it out?

Spending a few moments contemplating the morality of the question, I remembered that these people were likely to be problems. Problems I had to deal with.

Oops, I will come back to that thought later.

Unlike the two adventurers that I had chucked down into the depths of the dungeon, these people galloped across the countryside with unrivaled confidence. It was clear this was a highly disciplined and likely skilled collection of soldiers.