A Rattling Monster

After the assault during the night, I have seen a huge increase in the number of guards. The reinforcements have arrived, as expected. I saw half rushing toward Ronta and the other half stay to protect the former citizens of the city. Since it is now completely useless to say near, I keep running at a reasonable distance of the convoy. I am quickly reaching the front of it, and I will probably follow the road. I need to find the capital, just I don't know if there is a city between Ronta and the capital. What is the name Oslo?

(Artia. Those names are really getting on my nerve.)

So, Aria, named her kingdom the Holy Kingdom of Aria, on the world of Astria, with a capital named Artia. Why does it look like she has literally no imagination for the names? What about you, you didn't do something like that?

(No, no. Absolutely not. Except the planet called Forslo, but it's just for the different gods to know who is in charge. What she has done right here is a clear lack of humility, she is basically screaming at every invader that it is her world. As we don't already know that.)

After a few hours of me running at full speed, I finally reach a crossroad. There are a few indications written on the different plank of woods. There is the name Ronta, Forlong at the North, and Lucia indicated at the West. And nothing about Artia. But since you say that we are in the East of the country and the capital is located more to the West, I guess we should follow the road toward Lucia?

(Agree, but we shouldn't stop at Lucia. The refugees will be moved toward this city and the additional armies too. So, even if the city will have weaker members because of the tired commoners, they will probably be extremely careful. The sewers can already be sealed or closely watched.)

We can at least come near and you can scout that. Oh, something is coming from the direction of Forlong. Looks like a caravan, surely a merchant is taking this road since it is more stable for his merchandises. Even if I can't really show myself, it would be a shame to leave without a gift. I cast dozens of [Create Plague] while I am still standing in the crossroad. That way, even if he is going to Ronta, the humans will still be contaminated. I am at a point where even small profits are good profits. The potency will, of course, be reduced since it will take them some minutes to reach this point, but I can still hope that the huge number of plague lingering around will make it work.

After running for an hour on the plains surrounding the road, I get a nice surprise. I gain a level. Well, with all the massacres that I have done, it is finally time. That makes me wonder if the victims of my skeletons really grant me experience. Curiously, I begin to calculate and compare with my memory. In the end, I still don't really know but I would say that I still receive the experience. The huge problem was the number of people inside the caravan. What was the number already Oslo?

(48 humans, 3 huge boars, and a bear. But I have to say that those boars and the bear were mutated or something like that. Calling them monsters would not be a mistake.)

And I remember that when I killed the monster that was a scorpion, I gained a lot of experience. So, it's fifty-fifty. Right now, except the caravan, there is nothing really interesting. Sometimes I can see some rabbits or some birds in the sky. Even after a full day and night of running, the plains are desperately empty. Only after dawn, I begin to see some farms on the horizon. And who say farm, say food. And food needs to be sold in a market or to a merchant. And therefore, I will reach the city, probably Lucia.

Effectively, shortly after, the proud and strong Lucia appears before my eyes. The city, however, looks a little smaller than Ronta, I guess it is due to his position. Ronta is near the frontier between the dwarf empire and the forest of the elves. So the potential of a trade between the three races is huge, and who say trade, say benefices and with that, you construct a huge city. While Lucia is probably in charge of a lot of farms. I can see some small rivers, meaning the ground is good for the agriculture. And Oslo already told me that a god can grant the best weather to his believers. If he can even improve the soil, there is no need to have a lot of farmers to feed a lot of mouths.

It is those small improvements near imperceptible that can make a race very strong. Without it, I am certain that the ratmen could have just destroyed all the harvests and make the holy kingdom starve. But with the perfect harvest each time, the stockpile of food should be huge. The king of this kingdom could even sell the exceeding food to the others races and still be without worry. I guess that's why the tributes to the barbarians are not gold or silver, or even armors.

(I search around the entire city. There is three entrance toward the sewers. Two are sealed except a single hole left in case of heavy rain. The third, well, the composition of the humans guarding it is literally the same that I told you back in Ronta. Not a chance of entering Lucia discreetly, you will need to fight to do that.)

And with the refugees coming in less than a week, the rest of the army will be there, and if just one of those knights are nearby and spot me, it will be hard for me to escape. Let's go to the West again. I just hope that the capital is so huge and with so many different areas that even the entire army can't protect everything.

(I hope too; the worst case scenario would be a protection of the entire city. But the good thing is, we will have some help coming from a special place.)

What help, what are you talking about?

(The Slums. The lair of the criminals, smugglers, madmen, and maniacs. The poor, the forgotten, the exiled. The army will protect the good citizens and the people that pay the tax and contribute to the society. But for those animals that were cast aside, no help will come. With a huge population automatically come corruption and greed. The Holy Kingdom of Aria is not a utopia, you have to remember that, I am even certain that there are two to three heretic cults. And with those, gods were formed and will try to do anything to harm Aria, even if in the end, it is them that will be harmed.)

How many times did you do this? How many times did you have to take care of those cults?

(I told you, even if I am currently weak, I am an old god. I have seen many things, sometimes I was even in control of multiples worlds. You don't need to know all the details, but even if I lost Forslo, I have still some cards in my hand. Of course, the best thing happening is you capturing this world and opening the portal to Forslo once again. After getting rid of every believer of Aria, Salazar and even those servants of Krieg.)

And will you be able to find those cultists since you said they exist?

(Aria need to personally see them through a high ranked priest, even if a normal believer saw them, they will not be able to perceive the mark of the foreign god. If she had a Hero in the vicinity of them, she could easily spot them, without any direct vision. As for me, if you see one heretic, I can tell you if he believes in Aria or not. Like what happened with the hunters or the djinns.)

So our best plan is to infiltrate the capital and provoke chaos inside. The worst plan is just to wipe out the slums since no one will really care. And with a little bit of luck, we can spot some heretics and kill them, did I resume everything?

(You forgot the fact that a heretic will be chosen as a Hero, even if the god is weak and born recently. That means your System will probably award you something great for killing such being. And you told me that he recognizes the moment you officially became my Hero, so he is capable of feeling the invisible power of a god. What do you think will happen when you kill someone carrying such power?)

Something really good I guess. God of Intelligence? God of Cunningness? Not one of those?