Chapter 51: Vassal
The tribal chief of the Ogres, Kajin, was wise. His Intelligence was 43. Not only was this high for an Ogre, but it was also high compared to other tribal chiefs. Therefore, he immediately understood what his Endlessly Looking Down God meant when the god told him to wait rather than going south to their enemies.
The Lizardmen were waiting for the opportunity to take over the northern coast. They had already attacked the Elves, and had created bad blood between the Centaurs and Ogres, which led them to fight each other. However, the Lizardmen were weak against the cold, limiting the time frame in which they could keep an eye on and take over the northern coast. Once it got cold again, the Ogres would be able to loot the Elf villages and deal with the weak Lizardmen. However, things didn’t work out so great.
Since Kajin was wise, he knew how to let out his anger even when he found out he was tricked by the Lizardmen. Instead of beating up his elite Ogre warriors, he beat up the Goblins, whose numbers quickly increased even after some were killed.
Kajin knew the empty wilderness and the burnt Elf villages were the work of his enemy, but that was the end of it. He believed this kind of wasteful battle of attrition would also be damaging to the Lizardmen, so he just waited it out. And the Endlessly Looking Down God had also told them to wait. Even when that drove them to death slowly, Kajin was wise enough to understand that God didn’t have much of an alternative either.
This was but a hardship to overcome. Kajin knew that once they overcame this hardship, glory would be his to reclaim, so he didn’t betray his faith in God. However, the other Ogres were less wise and didn’t do the same. Quite a few Ogres believed that their God had let them down. They were starving and even lost control over the Goblin slaves.
At first, Kajin persuaded those who had lost faith with words. But as time passed, the numbers of individuals who had lost faith increased, and he had to use his club. Eventually, he had no choice but to watch groups of Ogre run away to the south. Kajin occasionally heard from the few scouts they had left that the deserters had been found dead; some were even killed by Goblins. And sometimes, there was no news at all.
By the time spring came, Kajin had to make a choice. Continue to hold out, or go south before the group weakened further. This was also a decision Lim Chun-Sik had to make. Lim Chun-Sik requested a Whisper Conversation with Solongos, who he hadn’t been in contact with.
“Solongos.”
“What’s the matter, brother?”
The two haven’t spoken ever since the fight between their two priests, Tamaridu and Kajin. There really wasn’t much to say either. Solongos was busy making the Centaurs run away from the Lizardmen traveling to and fro their area. And Solongos didn’t have any power to spare for Lim Chun-Sik.
“How many troops do you have?”
“I lost all my warriors to you, so I don’t have any more.”
“Even after a year has passed?”
“Yes.”
“There must be some useful Centaurs left.”
“Most of them were chased down and killed.”
“...Well.”
At the current stage of civilization, warriors were essentially the powerful and energetic youths. The death of warriors didn’t mean the disappearance of the entire warrior class. However, it did mean that the untrained, younger children or the elderly who had lost the talent they had possessed in youth would have to step up in place of the dead warriors. They would become vulnerable to external threats, and eventually, as the warriors died, the tribe would soon fall.
“...Moreover, aren’t the Centaur a strong species?”
“...Yes.”
If they were weak, the tribe’s solidarity would have persisted longer because it would be hard for an individual to survive on their own. However, tribes of stronger individuals, specifically those with strength and abilities beyond a certain level, would be able to survive as family units or even as individuals, thus making their individualistic tendency stronger. The species would live on as vagrants who would eventually meet their mates, and if they formed groups, they would become a tribe again.
But this wasn’t the case when Faith was involved.
Solongos said, “I was going to contact you first.”
“What for?”
“I got an offer.”
“What? From Nebula?”
“Yes. Or not exactly. It was from Eldar.”
“What did they offer you?”
“Eldar said if I followed Nebula and helped keep you in check, they would spare my life.”
Lim Chun-Sik swallowed.
“So?”
“What do you mean? Look at Eldar. What’s the point of keeping my life? And even though things went wrong and I had to fight you, we still trusted and relied on each other, didn’t we? I immediately turned the offer down.”
That was a lie. Solongos had given the offer some thought for quite a while. If it weren’t for Eldar’s sarcastic remarks, Solongos might have defected to Nebula’s, namely Sung-Woon’s side. However, now that he had made his choice, Solongos had no reason to be more honest than necessary with Lim Chun-Sik.
Lim Chun-Sik was touched by the lie.
“You rascal…”
“I said I don’t have any more troops, but if I dig further, I’ll probably find around ten Centaurs who can shoot arrows and use spears.”
“What about Faith points?
“I might have enough for a war.”
“Really?”
“Isn’t that why you contacted me?”
“Yes. It is.”
Lim Chun-Sik was relieved.
‘Ever since Nebula approached the Centaurs…no. Ever since I learned that Eldar had fallen in Nebula’s trap…no. Ever since I learned of the Lizardmen wandering around down there in the wilderness, I should have done this.’
Lim Chun-Sik thought he should go into a final battle. Solongos and Lim Chun-Sik had already lost many of their tribal members, the basis for producing Faith points, so their Divinity levels were low.
‘But it’s not too late.’
Lim Chun-Sik believed that in The Lost World, a battle depended on the degree of a god’s intervention.
‘If it’s not like the battle with Solongos, which was a battle of defense, and we fight in an open field, it’ll eventually be a fight between the gods. I don’t know exactly what level Nebula’s at, but I’ll definitely be above him.’
Lim Chun-Sik looked at the wilderness that would become the battlefield with the eyes of a bird and judged that he wouldn’t need to include Eldar in his calculations.
‘If we can destroy their main force, we can restore the rest of the areas. Everything can be rebuilt. We can enslave Goblins again and reestablish our trade routes…’
Lim Chun-Sik told Kajin to take the rest of the tribe down south. And what that meant was clear.
‘War!’
Kajin happily followed God's will instead of his own decision. He took all the Ogres who could fight down south. There were a total of twenty. Also in the group were Centaurs who were either too young or too old for battle. Both the Ogres and Centaurs knew this was the will of their gods.
Kajin thought those who didn’t seem good enough to fight were brought as food, but before he ate the youngest Centaur alive, they suddenly encountered the Black-Scled Lizardmen in the middle of the wilderness.
The Lizardmen didn’t seem like a scouting party. There were fifty in total, and they were all cavalries who rode on Cockatoos, which were crossbreeds of a Cockatrice and a chicken. Out of all the Cockatoos, the one the leader was riding on was particularly big and unique in appearance. It was a Cockatrice, and the leader was Lakrak.
God soon entered Kajin’s body. Thirty warriors seemed rather a small number, but they weren’t just any species, but a combination of Centaurs and Ogres. Lim Chun-Sik=Kajin believed he could win the fight. No, even killing Lakrak would be enough.
‘And if I’m lucky enough to kill Lakrak when Nebula is in his body…’
Lim Chun-Sik=Kajin said to Solongos, who had entered the body of an old Centaur, “Let’s go, Solongos.”
“Yes, brother!”
The Ogres and Centaurs charged while letting out battle cries.
***
In Sung-Woon’s opinion, the battle wasn’t very intense.
‘Do you think you’ll win by charging at me with Divine Control?’
The Divinity levels of Lim Chun-Sik and Solongos were 6 and 5 respectively. Added together they were at 11, which was equivalent to Sung-Woon’s Divinity level. It would make sense for Sung-Woon to use Divine Control as well with the other two gods using the skill to attack, but he didn’t summon a creation or use any other kind of Miracle. Something unexpected had actually happened due to his opponents attacking with Divine Control.
Sung-Woon checked the system message.
[Player Lim Chun-Sik has become a vassal.]
[The greatest contributor to player Lim Chun-Sik’s defeat…]
[...Player Nebula (94.3%)]
[Player Solongos has become a vassal.]
[The greatest contributor to player Solongos’ defeat…]
[...Player Nebula (78.6%)]
There were many conditions under which players would lose XP, including getting defeated in battles, losing believers who believed in them, death of a creation, destruction of an altar, failing to fulfill a prophecy, and more.
‘And the condition which most often causes the loss of XP is the use of Diving Control.’
There was a delay between the use and the cancelation of Divine Control, and there were cases where players would unexpectedly die because they didn’t cancel the skill in time. In that case, players would have to be prepared for a level drop. It would happen when a player lost XP, and if their level fell below 1, they would become vassals.
In the Lost World, becoming vassals pretty much meant being eliminated, and players referred to it as being dead. In the game, a player would spawn back into the waiting room once eliminated, and they had a chance to return to the game once they were freed of their condition as a vassal…
‘But that rarely ever happens. And there probably isn’t a waiting room in this world.’
Sung-Woon checked his Possession window. There were two newly-created items.
[Lim Chun-Sik, who has become a vassal]
[Solongos, who has become a vassal]
The contributor who caused the most XP loss would be given Vassal Tokens. As the game was still in its early stages, neither Lim Chun-Sik nor Solongos had met a lot of other players, so Sung-Woon’s contribution was very high.
‘94% and 78%, was it?’
Sung-Woon was about to take out the Vassal Tokens to check it out, but he felt uncomfortable touching them since the tokens were stone statues of the two players. The Lim Chun-Sik one made him especially uncomfortable.
‘There are processes that will completely destroy the tokens and cement the players’ eliminations, while other processes can be executed to release the players from being vassals.’
In general, releasing vassals and resurrecting a dead god happened when there were alliances. That was why destroying the tokens was a way to ensure that the players who had become vassals would no longer be a threat or be resurrected by their allies if they had any. Sung-Woon had no intention of releasing the vassals, and he moved the Vassal Tokens to the corner of the Possession window to prevent them from being an eyesore.
‘Is the reward next?’
There was quite a big level difference between Sung-Woon and both Lim Chun-Sik and Solongos, whose levels had gone down further while dealing with Sung-Woon. Despite how easy the battle ended up being, Sung-Woon gained a lot of XP, pushing his Divinity to level 12. And Sung-Woon’s XP wasn’t the only thing that had risen. Lakrak, a multi-class warrior, tribal chief, and priest, was now over level 21. He would be called Hero with his high level in this stage of civilization.
‘The curve for XP gain is steep from this point on, so he’s pretty much at the highest level one can reach.’
There was a reward other than XP as well.
‘In The Lost World, the enemy’s assets can’t directly be obtained from the system like what Dark Archon’s Mind Control would allow a player to do, so I need to maximize my gain from the acquisition of Small Areas.’
If a god was killed, the Areas that the God had could be obtained by the other player.
[You have obtained Small Area: (Unknown) from player Lim Chun-Sik!]
[You have obtained Small Area: (Unknown) from player Solongos!]
‘...Of course, the areas are chosen randomly.’
Sung-Woon thought that part was a shame, but once he got Lim Chun-Sik’s Small Area, he knew he would be able to direct the game to his advantage.
Sung-Woon checked Lim Chun-SIk’s Small Area first.
[Would you like to check Small Area: (Unknown)?]
[Yes / No]
As Sung-Woon clicked Yes, a few cards appeared facing down. Sung-Woon picked one and checked it.
‘Jackpot.’
1. Dark Archon is a support unit fromthe game StarCraft. Their skill Mind Control would allow them full control of a unit, and if they take over worker units, the player would be granted access to the units' buildings, upon which a second army can be built.
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