Ruthless: Path of Conquest

After he had announced the establishment of the Fisher Kingdom’s first dungeon, James returned to the apartment through the same route by which he’d left it.

“So that was what you needed some time to yourself for?” Mina asked, raising an eyebrow playfully.

James nodded. “Well, that, and honestly, I just wanted to get away from people asking me for direction for a little while.”

“That’s going to be your everyday reality, you know,” Mina said, furrowing her brow in an expression of slight concern. “You asked for this when you decided to be King.”

“I know, and I accept that I’m the decision maker,” James said. “But I need to start giving some of these people more autonomy. Having them pick members of their groups to be in charge of the different committees and missions, so they can get things done without having to ask me about them. There’s a broad vision, and then there’s the nitty gritty detail that I’m not better equipped to handle than the people who have chosen to take up the task.”

Mina’s face relaxed. “That’s good, then. You need to start telling people that. I had a similar thought when I was dealing with committee meetings yesterday, but I didn’t want to say anything on your behalf that I couldn’t un-say.”

“I appreciate that,” James said, looking into her eyes and smiling.

“Of course.” She shrugged, but the corners of her lips tugged up in an irresistible return smile.

Of course, he thought affectionately. You always know the right thing to do, don’t you?

“Next on the agenda, I’d like to have lunch with Dave Matsumoto. He can give me more details on our unwanted neighbors, right?”

“He said he told me everything he knew,” Mina replied. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if you could get more out of him. He seems like a reserved fellow. And people do tend to confide in you.”

James prepared a very simple lunch—roasted meat from his hunt with Dave and his friend, and roasted potatoes made with canned potatoes he’d found in Carol’s Retail—and then he went to where Dave was. One of the advantages of his power as the Fisher King was that he could always find where people were on his land.

Fortunately, Dave had not made other lunch plans, and he agreed to eat what James had brought. They went into the Community Center, which James saw Mina had already ordered slightly enlarged, thankfully without changing the fundamental design.

They pulled up a couple of chairs and engaged in small talk for a little while.

James didn’t broach the subject he had come to discuss until they were midway through the meal.

“So, I understand that this neighbor we’re dealing with right now—speaking realistically, this potential enemy—might have originated in your Orientation.” He didn’t phrase or pronounce the words in the form of a question, but the sense of an inquiry floated in the air between them nevertheless.

“That is what I believe, regarding the neighbor located in the forest,” Dave said after a long moment.

“I can tell you don’t really want to talk about this. And I wouldn’t ask so directly if I didn’t feel our situation was rather urgent. But the forest sprang up right there while I was gone.” James pointed a thumb at the wall he had put up to block the forest from view. “What can you tell me?”

“Not much. I didn’t actually enter that forest in Orientation. Or not for very long, anyway.” He looked into James’s eyes and then away.

James just waited. You’re holding something back, Dave. Did you see what I saw?

“You saw something,” Dave said. It wasn’t quite a question, though perhaps it should have been.

“I did,” James replied. “I think you might have seen something similar. I really wanted to know if this is a problem everyone else is going to experience if they walk into that forest—or even just look in its direction.”

“Yes. I think that is probably safe to say.” Dave’s tone was still guarded.

“I can imagine why you wouldn’t want to talk more about it,” James said. He decided to go first. “I saw my dead father.”

Dave stared into his eyes for a few seconds as if gauging his honesty. “Me too,” he finally said.

The dam that had slowed their conversation down finally broke then.

“Do you know what the others who have looked into that forest saw?” James asked.

“It’s the same,” Dave said. “If you see their faces right after they’ve looked into the place, you don’t have to ask to know what they’ve seen. Dead loved ones, same as us. I don’t know if they’ve actually heard the voices of the dead. That was what almost lured me in. Beyond the border zone. If my friends hadn’t been there.”

“Did the apparition sound like your father was in life?”

“Yes. I think so. Or perhaps just like my memory of him.” Dave looked disturbed as he pondered the question.

“Not a lot of people would be able to fight well in those circumstances,” James said slowly. “So it will render our forces ineffective or at least much less effective as soon as they enter.”

“Are you asking me or telling me?” Dave asked.

“Yes.” Both men chuckled, but without much humor. “You were a military man, right, Dave?”

“Once. Against my better judgment, probably. The war with China seems so naive now. What a waste of life and time and energy! Fighting China over Taiwan… To think we would be fighting against otherworldly monsters one day.”

James could hear trauma in Dave’s voice.

“Think of it as preparation,” he said. “The world needs you at your best, most prepared self. Maybe everything you’ve endured had a meaning. A purpose that we’re only going to see right now.”

Dave bit his lip, then nodded slightly. “What do you want me to do?”

“Right now I just want someone to bounce ideas off of,” James said. “My colleague, Alan, went to war too. I’ll probably have most of the people who’ve fought in war on a council soon. But before I do that, I wanted your opinion. I want to either engage in diplomacy with or conquer these two neighbors. We can’t have a next door neighbor whose intentions we’re not sure about. The question is who to engage with first. Do we deal with the swamp creatures or try the forest?”

“What do your instincts tell you?” Dave asked.

“Oh, none of that!” James said, laughing quietly. “Are you going to be one of those people who asks what I think when I’ve just said I want your opinion?”

Dave smiled dryly. “Fine. Hit the swamp first.”

“That was what I was inclined to do. Thank you. What’s your reasoning?”

“I imagine that the creatures there are more mobile than whatever dwells in that forest.”

James nodded. “So if we enter the forest and lose ourselves there, the swamp creatures might invade and attack the people we’ve left behind.”

“Exactly. But I suppose you had already thought of that.”

“It was a possibility I considered. Whatever lives in the forest didn’t seem to come out during the duration of your Orientation?”

“No.” Dave looked uncomfortable. “We didn’t see anything emerge. We only heard them sometimes.”

James didn’t ask anything else just then. If Dave knew something else that James would need to know, he felt confident the veteran would pass the information on, no matter how painful it might be.

The two sat and ate in silence for a few minutes.

“The other reason why I want to tackle the swamp first,” James said finally, “is that I think the forest situation is going to come down to a fight.”

“You don’t think that the forest dwellers can be negotiated with,” Dave said. He was keeping his voice carefully neutral, but James thought he detected the corners of the man’s lips turning up slightly.

He approves of the way I’m thinking.

“No, I don’t,” James said. He allowed a little bit of his anger to show through, relaxed just a little of his control. “Even if they could be negotiated with, would we really want to reach an accommodation with something that dishonors our dead as a distraction?”

Dave nodded his endorsement of James’s reasoning, and the silence resumed for a little while.

James was already looking ahead to the fight with whatever lived in the ghastly forest, more than he was thinking about fighting the swamp monsters.

Should I take that personally? Roscuro asked, interrupting James’s train of thought.

Take what personally? James replied, though he instantly knew what the Soul Eater meant.

That remark about dishonoring the dead.

Ah. No, of course not, James sent. I would have happily negotiated with you. You just had to agree that I was in charge.

Of course, master, Roscuro said, in a tone that dripped with irony. Your diplomacy will surely be legendary for its nuance and sophistication.

“Alright,” James said, breaking the silence. “Can you have the Hunters gather after lunch? I would like to deal with this alligator problem sooner rather than later.”

“Today?” Dave asked.

“Necessary action is only ever delayed to our detriment,” James replied.

“What’s that? Sun Tzu?”

“A very rough paraphrase of Machiavelli. The quote is about how there’s no avoiding war. Postponing only helps others, not us.”

“That seems like it couldn’t be true in our case,” Dave said. “Delaying gives us the chance to train a larger force.”

“Honestly, I don’t anticipate we’ll need a large force,” James said. “This essentially is a training exercise for the small elite group that we’re taking into the enemy’s territory. Assuming it comes to a fight, of course.”

“You think you can take them by yourself.”

“I think we have a strong enough force that I won’t have to, but probably, yes.”

That was part of the appeal of dealing with the gators first, honestly. A problem I can just punch my way out of won’t be a problem for very long. And hopefully this will raise morale for the next situation we have to deal with.

Dave nodded as if he also thought it was plausible that James could defeat the monsters alone.

“If we wait, what’s the downside? What additional risks do we face?” Dave asked.

“More hostile neighbors will probably appear on our borders. Even if that doesn’t happen, the swamp creatures could take the fight to us, endangering civilians. Or they could form an alliance with whatever lives in the forest.”

Dave’s eyes widened slightly. It appeared he had not considered some of what James was predicting might happen. “Alright. I’ll have them ready to go in an hour.” He rose from the table.

“I’ll get the nonhuman contingent of our forces ready,” James said.

Dave stepped away, and James began reaching out telepathically to the leaders he needed. Magnar, of the Mole People, and Luna, of the wolf pack.

The Goblins would, he thought, probably be less than helpful against monsters that were larger than them and armored. Maybe the Goblin Overlord’s Illusion Magic would be useful, though. So he sent Duncan a message as well.

There were a couple of humans he wanted to bring into the battle, but he imagined that the monsters could probably do most of the heavy lifting in this fight.

Assuming that there is a fight, he reminded himself. It was entirely possible that the swamp monsters would want to be friends, in which case James would consider what he and the monsters could offer each other and hopefully hammer out some sort of agreement. But he wouldn’t want to count on that seemingly unlikely outcome.

“What are you expecting to happen next, sir?” Hester asked.

“I think we’re eating gator meat tonight,” he said quietly.

He decided to go over his Status for a few minutes while he waited for his monstrous allies to arrive.

[Status

Name: James Robard

Race: Evolver Human Lv. 22

Class: Predator in Human Skin Lv. 25

Job: Fisher King Lv. 20

Health: 22,801/22,801

Mana: 21,920/21,920

Stamina: 21,025/21,025

Wrath Meter: 0%

Stats

Strength: 125

Agility: 134

Stamina: 145

Fortitude: 151

Dexterity: 110

Perception: 155

Will: 160

Intelligence: 137

Charisma: 155

Stealth: 135

Free Points: 0

Skills

Affinity of the Fisher King Lv. 3

Air Strike Lv. 5

Aura of the Fisher King Lv. 5

Basic Elemental Magic: Earth Lv. 4

Basic Elemental Magic: Gravity Lv. 3

Basic Elemental Magic: Water Lv. 4

Basic Non-Elemental Magic Lv. 2

Berserk Mode Lv. 0

Blame Avoidance Lv. 5

Blessing of the Fisher King Lv. 2

Command Presence Lv. 0

Command Structure

Compulsion Lv. 5

Dominion

Dreamwalk Lv. 4

Empathic Projection Lv. 12

Enhanced Stem Cell Production Lv. 8

False Reality Lv. 6

Fate Resistance

Full Body Control Lv. 4

Goodwill of the Fisher King Lv. 4

Hand of Glory Lv. 2

Identify Lv. 9

Illusion Magic Lv. 5

Indeterminate Past Lv. 0

Intelligence of the Fisher King Lv. 1

Laying on Hands Lv. 7

Lightning Strike Lv. 3

Loyal Following Lv. 5

Mass Pillage Lv. 2

Meteor Strike Lv. 3

Mind of the Predator Lv. 7

Monster Control Lv. 8

Monster Generation Lv. 9

Natural Camouflage Lv. 3

Omnivore Lv. 4

Organization Lv. 6

Pain Resistance Lv. 9

Perfect Choice of Words Lv. 6

Pillage Lv. 12

Predator’s Missile Lv. 3

Predator’s Sacred Armor Lv. 2

Predator’s Strike Lv. 5

Predator’s Venomous Armaments Lv. 1

Rapid Recovery Lv. 6

Self-Control Lv. 3

Silent Spellcasting

Silk Production Lv. 9

Skill Fusion

Skill Transfer

Solar Ray Lv. 2

Solar Recovery Lv. 4

Soul Bind Lv. 0

Soul Magic Lv. 1

Spellbinding Words Lv. 2

System Interface

System Store Access

Territorial Control Lv. 1

Threads of Fate Lv. 1

Universal Language Comprehension

Way of the Predator Lv. 6

Will of the Fisher King Lv. 1

Zone of Interest Lv. 1

Talents

Alpha Presence Lv. 0

Basic Spellcraft Lv. 5

Cannibalism Lv. 6

Cool-headed Lv. 8

Earth Affinity

Efficient Magic Lv. 4

Fisher Land Management Lv. 4

Fisher Sentient Resources Lv. 3

Flame Affinity

Genius Loci Lv. 1

Leadership Lv. 5

Manipulation Lv. 9

Marksmanship Lv. 4

Mass Manipulation Lv. 3

Monster Patriarch Lv. 3

Pain Resistance Lv. 2

Selective Empathy Lv. 5

Solar Power Lv. 3

Soul Eater Lv. 0

Water Affinity

Titles

A Stitch in Time

Chosen One of Anansi

Citizen of the Dead Marsh

Deceiver

Devout Beacon

Dreamweaver

Figure of Destiny

Friend of All Spiders

Living Legend

Pack Leader

Ruler of the Dark Waters

Savior

Spider-King

Storyteller

Sublime Creator

Swiss Army Mage

System Pioneer

Trickster

Usurper

Xenocide II]

Neat. Things are coming along well, I think. Of course, James had no other Ruler to compare himself with, but he could tell he was miles ahead of where he had been in Orientation.

He rose from his seat and walked out to meet the monsters he was bringing with him.

As he opened the Community Center doors, there was Luna and the wolfpack, and beside them Duncan, Magnar, and a contingent of thirty Mole People.

“First things first,” he said. “I’ve already bestowed my blessing on Duncan and Magnar, when I appointed them as my leaders of their respective species. Luna, it’s your turn.”

The leader of the wolves approached James, and he focused on her.

It has been a while, my King, the wolf sent telepathically. You did not wish for us to accompany you on your adventure to the Goblin lands. There was a trace of wounded pride in her tone, but James could not tell if she was entirely serious.

I entrusted you and the wolfpack with something much more important to me, he replied. The protection of my family and my land. Dealing with the Goblins was a distraction from my real purpose here, but I trusted that you and your brothers and sisters could defend what was most precious.

Luna’s ears perked up at that. Wow. She really was fishing for some reassurance there.

While you were gone, we patrolled and hunted with great enthusiasm, she sent. I also chose my mate. I hope that I will bear cubs soon, to better defend our lands and grow in your service. If you are blessing me, I would ask that you also bless my mate. Her tone turned up slightly at the end of the statement, as if it were a question. A little whine also escaped the back of her throat.

James nodded and smiled. “I would be happy to. Would Luna’s mate please join her in front of me?”

A large male wolf with two heads stepped forward from the pack. He must have Evolved from his base form while James was away. There were two Command Forest Wolves in the pack now.

I wonder if Luna chose him for that reason. I know she wants her pack to be as strong as she can make it, to better justify her place here.

My King, you honor me by including me beside my mate, the wolf said. Thank you. His thoughts came across in a gruff voice with a slight hint of an accent from somewhere up North that James could not specifically place.

Do you have a nickname you go by within the pack? James asked, sending the message to both of them.

No, my King, the male wolf replied instantly.

Are you able to give us true names with this new power of yours? Luna asked.

James nodded. He had done it for Magnar. Luna’s tail began to wag excitedly, and she sat up a little straighter. Something important to her future was about to happen.

Please choose a strong name for me, sir, the male sent.

The name was the easiest part for James. There was a good historical precedent that he felt fit. And the proper words for the blessing came to him as he empathized with Luna’s excitement for the future.

“As the borders of the Fisher Kingdom expand, so must the defenders of the Fisher Kingdom grow stronger. Their leaders must grow stronger still. Lady Luna and Lord Romulus, as you and your brood will be permanent guardians of this land, may you grow strong and fruitful above and beyond your peers. May you and your children be the foundation for a dynasty.”

Power surged through James’s body, and he saw the two targeted wolves swell with power in front of him.

In his peripheral vision, he saw Duncan and Magnar fall to their knees, while the rest of the wolf pack bent their front legs and lowered their heads in their version of a bow.

As James felt the usual sudden hit of weakness after a blessing, he was prepared for it this time. He remained standing still, though his vision blurred slightly from the power he had just expended.

The two wolves he had blessed began howling, and soon the pack joined in.