Chapter 17: Forced Subordination
Notice[ Via Unique Skill [Observe] Common Skill [Martial Arts] acquired.
[Marital Arts] skill absorbed [Punch] and [Spearmanship] skill.]
Then [Guide] spoke.
[Master, you are eligible for evolution.]
_Well, that's that I guess._
I thought so while making an impromptu bandage for my left ribcage and arm, after which I used [Sand Magic] to clog the bleeding parts.
Notice[First Aid has been successfully applied, individual [Sophia Demiurge] already not in danger of dying.]
I see, good.
Hearing that my first aid worked, I sighed, sitting on the giant head of the monster as I realized that I still didn't analyze the stats of Kabuto, but thinking that he probably is the one closest to evolution out of my subordinates, I just discarded it.
This day has been busy so I don't have time to do such things.
But still, I wish I can figure out a way to reverse the "undead are scary" mindset of the monsters here, it makes my first subordinates lag behind their junior, is there a way to undo this, [Guide]?
[Master, I can only find the solution of attacking monsters off guard. Plus your commands also give them, though a little amount of EXP.]
Sigh... Yeah, I guess you're right, but still, if only something interesting happens...
My thoughts trailed off a little, as a notification came dinging into my head.
Notice[ Continuous training has increased the level of your skills [Sand Magic] [Squirt Magic], [Breath Magic] and [Ember Magic] by 3, 2, 2, and 1 levels respectively]
Lazy as usual huh?
But that didn't stop there, another notification came into my head. Now that the chief is killed by me, the title I was waiting for finally arrived.
Notice [Killing the Leader of the Goblin Village without his proper reason, mercilessly has granted you the title: [Merciless Tyrant] ]
[Merciless Tyrant]: Only those who don't reason properly, and listen to their ego before slaying someone can have this title.
Effects: Grants title Skill:
[Fear]: Let an individual enslave a whole community by killing their leader.
-1 LUK
Note: A title cannot be leveled up.]
I look at the -1 in Luck and I can say that is fair enough, it would be very unfair if the only determent of the title is not having EXP. Share, though I am not quite sure if the system is egging me with that, well, all in all, everything in the title is, as it is as I expected.
Oh, and I leveled up and it now can evolve.
Name: Sophia Demiurge
HP: 69/69
Race: Human (Newborn)
Mana: 358
Stamina: Unlimited
[Level: 10/10
EXP: 300/300(evolution available)
Stats:
STR: 21
INT: 43
VIT: 12
AGI: 25
DEX: 36
LUK: -1]
Though I am sure that my evolution path is only the Baby stage of human growth, it will be quite boring and not something to anticipate. But I do anticipate the evolutions of my subordinates.
Well, I have to postpone my evolution though, because I have to arrange for the goblins that will come here a few moments ago, I saw Kabuto peek his head out of the shadow of a tree.
He gasped as he saw my hand bandaged tightly with a white scarf that had some sand squirming around it, but I told him not to worry as I just commanded.
"I already killed him, go and get the goblins."
As I stand up from my sitting position, he then said "Understood" with a little bit of hesitation but still submerged in the shadow nonetheless.
Say [Guide] to activate the [Fear] skill, is there anything I have to do to the goblins? It is a contract-type skill after all so a "trade", even a one-sided one should happen right?
[Master, technically, none, once the goblins have seen their leader dead, they will have a drop of their blood out of their body and merge with yours successfully signing the enslavement contract. But you can still increase their fear, just for assurance.]
I then nodded, thinking about what should I do to increase their Fear of me, after some time, I decided to turn the corpse of their leader into the undead in front of them, with this I can warn them that I can kill them and turn them into my mindless creations if they disobeyed, they sure don't want that.
And Oh, by the way [Guide], can I acquire [Magnanimity of the Strong] even though I acquired the [Merciless Tyrant] title?
[Master, yes, you can.]
Uhehehe~
I leaked a cute yet sinister laugh out of my mouth as several ideas popped out of my head, if my speculation is correct, then those two titles will be the very best combination, like how a couple who have opposite personalities are the best ones to ship.
Well, let's get to that soon as I am talking to [Guide], a bunny, a goblin, and a... another goblin just taller than the two of the previous individuals can be seen with eight hundred goblins, both old and young, weak and strong, at least for a goblin in their back.
All of them are shivering in fear at the sight of Philo, Lyra, and Kabuto, my undead who escorted them here by force, they didn't even dare to complain even though some children are pissing their pants made of leaves, but I must say the pants are quite well crafted huh?
Anyway, as they saw their leader's dead body lying on the ground in front of me, motionless, all of them fell to their knees crying with helplessness as a drop of blood came out from their lips and merged with a single drop of blood from mine, that also came out of my lips.
Notice[Blood Contract to the [800 Unnamed Goblin Slaves] has been established.
From now on, your will shall be forced into them.]
I feel like Siri wants to say "You Brute" in the end, but I also feel like she doesn't want to say it, so I ignored that feeling as I made a spectacle.
I used the [Necromancy] skill as the severed parts of the goblin chief's body mingled into one thread that suddenly just popped out of his body mysteriously, the body then started to arrange itself like before but now, his body is grey as the goblin chief raised from the dead and some notification came out of my head:
Notice[ You have successfully raised an undead.
Please name your Undead Subordinate.]
And so with that, I made a mental command naming the chief Bernardo, as in Bernardo Carpio* as I looked at the goblins who have a pale colored faces.
_That should do it._
I said so while smirking, after which I sighed, this is the most annoying part as I have to organize them. You see, their society is in complete whack, first soldiers only add up to ten percent of the whole settlement, second, there are not enough healers, third, so many are pregnant, fourth... I don't want to discuss all of it because it will not fit into this chapter.
And so, sighing once more, I started to organize them, first the militia. I forcefully conscripted children who will eventually grow into an adult half day from now because of the short lifespan of goblins and made it so that the ratio between soldiers and civilians are 40:60, I named all of them with random names so that they can have a longer lifespan in which I also did to the civilians, by now they should be Mid-Goblin like Lyra and have a longer lifespan. Yeah, I can name all of them now because I have many mana counts and not scraping for it anymore.
I am not worried that the civilians are to be left behind in evolutions because I learned from [Guide] that EXP. can be earned by doing things they are proficient at.
So, except for the people who resisted that got immediately zapped, everything went without hiccups. So I assigned some to go hunting and the rest to go guarding, which they will be doing on rotation in intervals of twelve hours per unit. The whole militia will be led by Bernardo that has the [Martial Arts] common skill in which, as its name implies lets him use his arms and legs as weapons, but martial arts can also be used in weapons so I make it so that he first trains spear.
With a little bit of adjustment, he will be a good trainer.
Second, I make all the pregnant people be excluded in the works for now, by the way, even with all of this I am doing, they are still scared of me, this is so sad, but I guess a price gotta be paid when you did something, though I am pretty sure this will be irrelevant soon... Hehe.
Going back, I ordered the remaining people to get all of the cleaning materials they had in their village, which of course will be escorted by soldiers led by Bernardo so that Monsters will be prevented, I also ordered them to get large leaves for pseudo pails and tubs for cleaning the shits of the orcs.
After some time, they came back having scarce pails made of barks of trees, I then added an order to get barks from nearby trees which I entrusted to the soldiers, civilians are yet to have the equipment to scrape out barks of trees, so they did and after they gathered enough I crafted pails made out of bark with them, though I am alone in my position and all of them made a pile of bark to work on. using the sand inside my body to support my shattered bones in performing normally, with [Guide]'s help of course.
_It hurts, at least don't be afraid to work with me_
I then made tubs made out of leaves which the goblins were slightly amazed, the most intelligent goblin spoke to me.
"H-Hara... We- Will you be so kind as to share with us your knowledge of crafting?"
This man, I remember naming him Alex.
He said to which I smiled with my cute face and answered in his mind. Oh yeah, Hara* is a Filipino word, eh you thought I will use "Ojou-Sama"? No, I am a Filipino, and so shall my citizens(slaves) should be, so I instructed them to use that word for me.
Though Hara Sophia doesn't sound like Filipino at all...
Anyway, I said directly into his mind: "But of course."
His body suddenly stood frozen and collapsed in front of me with white bubbles coming out of his mouth. He seems to pass out learning that I can speak directly into his mind.
_What the heck._
And so, I look for the other intelligent person and thought her how to make tubs, her name's Mirasol* by the way, the tub is just a cone that needs two goblins to carry, similar to the pails which are quite big for the size of the goblins, after all, they needed to clean a pile of manure.
The procedure is to scrape out all of the shits and get it out of the cave, the manures will be used to cultivate vegetables and grains, and after that, the rooms, about three of them that got ridden of the shits, will be sanitized again and again, though there is no detergent... Well, I guess monsters have high resistance to viruses.
After half a day, all the crafting is already finished and we immediately started cleaning.
Though I didn't do much.
A Hara's privilege.
[3rd Person POV]
Meanwhile, in the deeper parts of the first layer of the Five-Pronged Forest, a party of five is walking in their usual party position.
Melee people, namely Swordsman and Tank(their role, not their name) are in the front while the archer and caster are at the back then the assassin is ahead scouting for a good sleeping spot.
"Hmm... This forest is boring."
"Right... And we are all here to find a single corpse."
"Yeah, I wonder why Lady Urduja loves children so badly, though I guess I was saved because of her love, so I am not complaining."
"... You better not."
The four talked and talked while the caster is glued frozen in the ground.
"Oi!"
"Waaah!"
The caster who has a robe of a priest that failed horribly to conceal her voluminous breasts and ample butt was startled as she immediately went out of her trance.
"What are you staring at? You have been like that for days..."
The swordsman spoke, whilst the caster replied. "Nothing! Nothing!"
The swordsman is suspicious, but the caster is someone as innocent as it gets and is worth believing (Author: Fucking Simp) thus he didn't delve deeper into it.
And suddenly, as the swordsman is simpin- ahem, looking for the caster, the world, including the party heard a notification.
Notice[The Hero Test for the Hero Prospect [Sophia Demiurge] has now officially started, with the Five Pronged Forest as its location, heroes are forbidden to enter the location and the god responsible for the test will not be held accountable for the punishment the rule breaker will receive.
Individuals inside the forest not on the side of the hero are advised to immediately retreat out of the forest.
For heroes test, are only for future heroes.]
They didn't even absorb the information yet and the crystal for communication they went with suddenly spoke their Lady's voice, it has elation and cheerfulness and for some reason some smooching sound with muffled moans, which they ignored.
"I have confirmed that notification from My God, and the person taking it is the child you are searching for. Thus no need to worry, she is alive and you all can go now."
The party members were shocked.
"How can a baby take the test you have taken in your thirties, My Lady?"
All of them have the same question.
Urduja replied.
"I am not sure, but that child is blessed to be a hero, so it is not really that strange for gods to test them at an early age... Let us just say, my god is less fickle than that one.",
And so, reluctantly they nodded, and asked the assassin to come back, they will camp in the area because the sun is already setting and they have to rest.
Leaving their doubts about the tests earlier this day.
"Poor child, got a whimsical god for a deity."
_________________________________________
Bernardo Carpio-a legendary figure in Philippine mythology who is said to be the cause of earthquakes.
Hara- First Wife of a Raja(King), The Queen.
Mirasol: Filipino for Sunflower
Author: The Hero's test Arc is open to ideas. I don't have any discord yet, so any ideas can be in the comment section or dm on Wattpad, thank you.
A little bit of further explanation: 40:60 distribution is not by percent, it can be simplified as 4:6, 4+6=10, thus 4:6 of 800 is 300 soldiers and 500 civilians