The Empires Rise

With the quest in hand, we returned to the walls. I asked everyone, "Does everyone want to continue with the waves?"

"Why do we need to continue? Haven't we finished the amount required for the event?" Rognar asks.

"There are a couple of reasons to continue. First, we can gain more experience and level up faster. Second, we should receive better rewards if we complete every fifth wave. Third, we can work on our formations on easier targets like the undead."

"What happens if the next five waves aren't as easy as this set?" Rognar asks.

"Then we fight. We fight with our lives on the line. I know it sounds selfish, but think about it," I stop here for a second. "I haven't told anyone this, but there are other lords in this world. I don't know what their power levels are, and I don't know how long they have been here to build up their defenses and offense. As a lord by the oaths given to me, I hold an interesting position. We can attack other settlements, but if we go in without the levels to fight back, we might not return."

"Can these other lords attack us?" Gibnic asks.

"Yes, they can attack us, though Ritotorous has told me we have some time before we run into this issue. Most people aren't declared lords until a later stage of settlement building. This is another reason we need to develop faster. Those settlements have more capable soldiers and crafters that could easily destroy us."

I can see shock in some people's faces. I look at my family and see my father's stoic face, resolve etched into the hard lines.

"Remember, this is the easy part. Our enemies are at level 4 currently. They will increase to level 5 after the next wave and once more to level 6 once the average level of all of us passes 3. There are ways around getting to that threshold, and we have experimented with it before." I gesture to the nine new undead in formation behind Draemish and Rhenriqi standing beside her.

"How close are we to breaching the threshold?" Draemish asks.

"Currently, we have an average level of 2.8; the moment we pass 3, the wave level will round up the difficulty. How many are still at level 2?" I ask the crowd and half a dozen hands raise.

"And how many of you are at level 4?" Only a couple of hands rise into the air from the hunters

"Our one option to lower the average level is to summon more people. We don't have enough space now, but we will get more. My main concern is that we are tired and don't have enough bodies on the walls. If we don't summon more, people won't have enough mana to last through the waves."

"Now is a good time to summon those people," Shadow says. "We have an extended break until Drake chooses for us to continue; I wouldn't say it is unlimited time, but even if we can get half an hour to train people into formations, that is better than no time."

Acknowledging the point, several people nod along. Then, someone steps forward.

"And how will we choose what world they come from?"

"We don't know; we will be using random summoning scrolls to make it less likely one group will overpower the others. There is one option we haven't done, and I don't want to implement it if we don't have to."

"What is that, Drake?" Xelyphe asks.

I sigh, hoping no one would ask, and just let it slide. "Huhhh, We could have everyone take an oath to me."

A commotion starts up in the crowd. I raise my hands to finish. "It would be a very light oath, nothing to hold down or say anything that would harm you permanently. It would be along the lines of protecting the settlement and not knowingly causing harm to the settlement. There is nothing personal like an oath never to leave the settlement, even if one day we connect to another lord and you prefer their settlement, town, city, or whatever. I will wave your oath, letting you leave without any hindrance."

This caused everyone to gather and calm down a bit. I looked at Shadow and whispered, "This also applies to you and your sister."

He nods at me. "Does anyone have any questions?" I call out.

Seeing no one arguing, I ask one last thing: "Do we want to start with everyone here taking such an oath so that when we summon the others, they know it isn't an option?"

"That be fair," Zul'Zara approaches first, giving me her oath.

Once the first person does so, more approach and give their oaths. The newly summoned undead look at Draemish. She gestures forward, and they comply as well.

In the end, everyone swore some form of oath to me. This raises my Noble level to level 4, giving me another two points in charisma and two free points.

Once again, I placed the points into my intelligence, bringing the stat to ten and my mana pool up to 70 points.

"Since everyone swore an oath, let's start summoning more settlers." I smile at everyone and then lead them to the manor. I can now experiment and see if the random scrolls are genuinely random.

I want to try a test by having others use the scrolls and see if they get more options from the same planet as they are from. I opened the chests for population scrolls and received 238 random population scrolls.

I hand Draemish, Zul'Zara, Uxa, and my father ten scrolls each. I instruct them to open them one at a time, and the portals start to open.

Of the ten scrolls Draemish used, five were from her planet; thankfully, they were all soldiers, four melee and another hunter. The other five scrolls summoned two people from Culhara, one from Zul'Zara's world, Usa'Nov, and the last two from Uxa's world, Troberia.

The same thing happens with the other three people. At least half of the scrolls, if not more, are drawn from their world.

Uxa:

Troberia: 3 hunters and 3 warriors

Usa'Nov: 2 mages and 1 hunter

Thelatera: 1 mage

Ilpheus:

Culhara: 2 hunters and 6 warriors

Usa'Nov: 1 mage

Troberia: 1 warrior

Zul'Zara:

Usa'Nov: 4 warriors, 2 hunters, and 1 mage

Thelatera: 2 warriors

Troberia: 1 hunter

When I sort everyone out based on their class, I get the following:

Mages: 14

Hunters: 30

Warriors: 30

More warriors are excellent, and having more hunters and mages will significantly help in the coming battle. We inform everyone in front of us what is about to happen. There are many confused faces, and they are scared, knowing that we need them to help defend this settlement.

Taking a moment, I bring Draemish pull Draemish to the side, "This might be rougher than we thought. I don't think we should summon any more people."

"I agree; let's get this batch to swear the oath and move on with the waves. If we need more bodies, we can summon more people." As callous as she sounds, she isn't wrong.

I turn towards the newly summoned settlers, "Hello, everyone. I know you are all confused. We will do our best to help those who need it, but we lack time. We are about to be attacked by a large wave of enemies. Those next to you will be your allies through this fight. Before you head up to the battlements, I ask that you speak a small oath to me."

Having said what I did, I see many disgruntled faces among the people of my world. The soldiers of Draemish come forward immediately and swear their oath, while the people from Usa'Nov take a second longer before being urged by everyone else who has been here.

Then, the people from Troberia join in. The only ones who aren't are from Culhara. I agree with what they might be thinking. My world has become used to not having such individually influential figures as leaders, at least from what I know.

Several people have noticed my father and are talking with him. They are nodding their heads. It isn't long before they also come up to swear the oath. This only leaves a couple of people left, with everyone else looking at them; they hesitantly come up and swear their oath, not wanting to be targeted by all the strange new beings around them.

My noble class levels again; this time, I put the extra point into the constitution.

I run up to the battlements, figuring I should at least try to give one more speech to those who have just arrived. "I know this must be a shock for most, if not all of you, being summoned to a new world, having friends, family, lovers, or strangers around you. I promise that when we have time, we will summon more people from every world connected to this settlement. It will take time for us to find those close to you, or in some instances, they are already here. After some time, we will take a registry and have those missing family members as the first pick for specific population draws. I want everyone here to know that I will owe each of you a favor after these upcoming waves. In contrast, this might not seem like much. It is the best I can do for all of you right now."

With that, everyone settles down a little. I look to my commanders, "Form into your class groups and get into position. There isn't much time to teach you the basics, but if you follow those in front or next to you, you won't stray too far from what we need to have done."

I sigh as everyone goes off, and my father approaches me. "Good job, son. I know public speaking isn't your forte, but it at least put everyone a little bit at ease. When are you going to start the wave?"

Shrugging, I respond, "I don't know yet. I would give everyone at least ten minutes to get used to the situation before talking with the commanders."

"Alright, please give everyone a heads-up before you start it. We don't want to be pounced on suddenly."

Nodding in acknowledgment, he heads off to talk with the rest of the warriors.

I do another head count. There are 74 in total, and the average level has dropped to 1.86; this gives us a lot of leeway in case some of the more ambitious hunters level up or if I level up.

I become nervous as the time ticks forward. Waiting for everyone to wrap up quickly makes my mind go insane. When the unexpected happens, I start pacing back and forth on the battlements.

- Due to the prolonged time elapsing, the Tenth wave will start immediately. -

I look in dread at this message. Then, I look out over the parapet. Outside I see a host of undead, and they are organized. Some have armor on, others have bows, and finally, a figure is in the back in a black robe waving their hands about.

Cycling mana into my eyes, I see he is trying to grab the vast amount of death mana condensing in the sky. And if my worst nightmare couldn't become worse, the arrow towers start firing.