Kingdom Of The Weak

They finally spotted the airship in the horizon by lunch time. As Mandy said; they were simply late.

The reason for that became apparent as they docked at the still-unfinished airport. The airship had dozens of people on deck, and many crates of cargo to unload.

"Workers!!" Remian roared to the sky, exultant.

One hundred workers. Forty mercenaries. There weren"t as many mercenaries as Charlie estimated, but for Remian, who had sweated over a lack of manpower until now, forty tier 2 fighters was a G.o.dsend.

On top of that, there were not ten, but twenty Iron Legion trainees this time around, led by another drill sergeant named Julius.

"Orders!" Julius saluted Markus and handed over a scroll.

Markus opened it and his face grew grim.

"What?" Max asked.

Markus handed him the scroll. "They want us to hurry up and build the road already. Also, they"re not happy about the casualties we"ve been sending back while the locals haven"t even lifted a finger to help. If we don"t improve our performance, this Frontier endeavor might be sc.r.a.pped entirely."

Max turned to Remian gloomily. "Looks like we won"t be able to help you much from now on."

"I understand." Remian looked over the new workers and the mercenaries in his employ. "I think we"ll manage."

"Remian!" Charlie was there, and the discussions began in earnest.

Their contracts were for two weeks. Charlie set up a payment scheduled with the Deutero Company, so that as long as he confirmed they did their jobs right, the workers and mercenaries would be able to go home and collect their pay. If they didn"t survive the two weeks for whatever reason, and they had responsibly done their jobs, their families would be able to collect it in their stead. All the money was, of course, coming out of Remian"s private account.

That wasn"t too much of a concern. Remian sold Charlie another 20 mana potions, taking 50,000 Lir in coin now, and buffing up his account balance with the rest.

"What about…" Charlie lowered his voice, and whispered, "The crystals?"

"Been busy and sick lately, Charlie. Right now, we"re just trying to survive, which means we have to concentrate on shelter and defenses." Remian explained. "Give me another week for those."

Charlie glanced at the mana potions in his hands and nodded without complaint.

The first order of business was for the workers to set up a dormitory for themselves and a barracks for the mercenaries. Since those structures were of personal importance to them, they put their full efforts into building them. The mercenaries, knowing that the workers were gathering materials and building the structure would house them, took every precaution to ensure their safety.

"These are good men." Remian observed.

"They"re professionals. I only approached the clans I thought were reliable." Charlie explained. "Everyone here came from just two clans; the Desert Moon, and the High Rock clans. So, yes, they know each other. The workers here are building shelters for their clansmen; the mercenaries here are guarding their clansmen. I think it works better that way."

"Is it possible?" Remian asked, his fingers crossed. "Would they be able to build the wall in a week?"

Charlie coughed. "A wooden wall, sure. The one you want, probably not."

Would a wooden wall stop Tier 3 Wilds? Maybe. But Tier 4 Wilds would likely be able to tear through them. Still, they might provide some sort of deterrent…

Remian planned to raise walls three hundred meters south of the Legion Camp, roughly two hundred meters from the Guard Towers. It would stretch all the way to the river on the east, and to the new quarry to the west. With a bit of work on the hillside of the new quarry, it could be made into an impa.s.sable barrier the way the old quarry"s was.

Again, it wouldn"t stop Tier 4 Wilds. Therefore, Remian did not intend it to. He planned for a gap directly south of the Guard Towers, straight in the path of the Beast Wave… and in the sights of all the siege weapons and archers on the Towers. This was not meant to stop the Beast Wave but to guard their flanks and channel the Wave into a choke point, allowing perhaps five or six Tier 3 Wilds to pa.s.s at a predictable route at the same time rather than ten or twenty swarming around chaotically.

This would also provide a huge sense of security to everyone north of that wall. There would be less fear of random Wilds attacks if the only way they could get in the area was right past the Towers" line of fire.

As for the west side… most of the Wilds there were Tier 1 or 2. If they had time later, they could put up another wall on that side too, and then random attacks from low Tier Wilds would become a thing of the past. The problem, however, weren"t the low-Tier Wilds but the higher-Tier ones. What would it take to stop random Tier 4 Wilds? Stone walls ten meters high, at least a meter thick, with Guard Towers and Ballistae to boot?

But Remian had never heard of random Tier 4 Wilds attacking this close to town. Out there, days away from town, sure. But here in Shadowflash"s area, there didn"t seem to be that any hostile Tier 4"s. In fact, the only ones he"d seen were Carrie and Buff and they didn"t randomly attack anybody.

Therefore, it should be possible to wall off the town with a simple stockade and clear out the smaller critters inside, creating a Wilds-free zone.

They just needed time and manpower.

As for this coming week"s Beast Wave…

Hmm. Those Guard Towers worked splendidly last time. What if they added two more, with the same 50 meters distance between them?

If they faced the same mix of Tier 3"s and 4"s, in three separate waves, even if they were a bit early…

Remian paused. Something didn"t feel right about that last a.s.sumption. The questions from last time still hounded him.

Who actually commanded the Beast Waves? There was no question in Remian"s mind now that there was in fact, someone calling the shots. That they knew just when to strike, and to rush the Wave early to hit them at the worst possible time… someone somewhere was leaking information to the Beast Wave commander. What would happen now that they had much more manpower? Would they be able to stop the spy from telling the Beast commander? If not, what would happen?

What would the commander of a Beast Wave do if he knew the defenders had fortifications and reinforcements on this level? Forty mercenaries and nearly as many Iron Legionnaires… what would he do to defeat such a defense if he could command Wilds…?

Well, that depended on what they had on hand to throw at the defenders. Since Remian didn"t know what they were capable of, he couldn"t guess.

What was the worst that could happen?

Remian grimaced. The worst that could happen was a flood of Tier 4"s in numbers well beyond their ability to fend off or even slow down. A hundred Tier 4"s rampaging through town would completely flatten them, no questions asked. Heck, fifty Tier 4"s would do the job, no problem. Remian wasn"t confident that they could even handle twenty.

But if the Beast Wave commander could manage that, surely, Frontier Town would have been completely trampled by now. Odd as it seemed, there appeared to be some sort of limitation on the Beast Waves. Something kept the numbers down so far. Was it because they had to sneak past Shadowflash? Was it because they relied on some sort of resources that could only be acquired in limited supply each week? Or was it all just a lack of alarm on the Wilds" part and once they found out that the defenders were increasing in number, they would likewise increase the scale of their attacks?

That made even less sense. If they really would do anything to kill humans, surely, the scale of their attacks would be as great as they could manage. Whatever it was, their problem certainly wasn"t a lack of alarm.

First things first; they had to prevent an information leak. They had to stop the spies from reporting about their increased numbers. Doing so meant keeping an eye on everyone, n.o.body permitted to go south. Remian put the hunters on perimeter patrol on top of that; if anyone, Wild or human, tried to stray to the south for whatever reason, the hunters would know about it. Who it was and who they reported to would then come to light, and a lot more questions could be answered.

a.s.suming that they managed to stop information from going out, the next Beast Wave would be designed toward defeating the defenses the way they were in the past. a.s.suming the limits were still in place…

a.s.suming, a.s.suming, a.s.suming. Remian was not comfortable with the thought that all of these were based on a.s.sumptions. What else could he do? He had to prepare something, somehow.

But how could he prepare, knowing so little? All he knew for certain was that whatever was coming next, it was bound to be stronger than the last attack. Therefore, he could only make a.s.sumptions.

Maybe he needn"t worry. By then, their defenses should be more than double what it was last week; four Guard Towers instead of two; two Ballistae instead of one, along with two Repeating Scorpions for good measure; plus a whole lot more defenders.

So why? Why did he have this bad feeling that something was going to go terribly wrong?

"What"s with that doomsday face?" Charlie had to ask. "Aren"t these workers enough for you?"

"Not really, no. But I can only afford so much." Remian shook his head. "I have a really bad feeling about the next Beast Wave. Can you rush the next shipment?"

"Talking about the next shipment already?" Charlie let out a low whistle. "Tell you what. Bring me raw blue mana crystals, and I"ll have the airship come over a few hours earlier. How does that sound?"

"It"s better than nothing." Remian grimaced. "So long as you bring a full fifty mercenaries with you this time. Preferably already armed with weapons they"re familiar with. Half the "mercenaries" you brought me this time didn"t seem to know how to handle the weapons they"re carrying."

"n.o.body said they needed to be experienced or armed." Charlie shrugged. "And I wanted to keep the hiring within those two clans. But if you want experienced mercs, you"ll need to offer better conditions and more pay. Mercenaries around here will be expensive. The Desert King already offers a juicy package; you"ll have to compete with him for them."

"What"s he offering?"

"Individual rooms, 300 Lir a day, three square meals, basic armor, weapons, and ammunition." Charlie shook his head. "The only advantage your offer has is free water. For everything else, his offer wins."

"We can do individual rooms, given enough time." Remian figured. "Heck, for the really good ones, if we want them to stay long-term, we might as well give them apartments suitable for families. But if they"re completely inexperienced and still haven"t quite figured out how to use their own weapons, an offer like that is really too much."

"So rank them." Charlie shrugged.

It took some discussion, but by the end of it, they"d rank the mercenaries by Tier, like the Wilds. Tier 2 fighters (which was any fully grown adult, really) got the basic package the current bunch had. Tier 3 veterans could get packages similar to what the Desert King offered. Tier 4 elites, who should be Slayer-level fighters, would be offered apartments, regular Tier 3 meals, 500 Lir a day, and their pick of Tier 3 armaments.

It would be costly, but the mana crystals should be able to pay for them at least for now, until proper defenses were ready.

"What about workers?" Charlie asked.

"How do we even rank workers?" Remian wondered. "Was there any lack of people signing up?"

"No. We could have had two hundred if we wanted." Charlie shook his head.

"Then bring in up to 400 next time." Remian requested. "And 100 mercenaries, with at least two Slayer-cla.s.s."

"That"s impossible." Charlie said flat out. "The airship can"t manage more than what we brought today. There"s only so much s.p.a.ce. They already had to squeeze this time around."

Oh. Right.

"Also, how long can you afford that kind of workforce?" Charlie asked directly. "How much crystal did you find in that mine?"

Remian grimaced. "I"m actually not so sure."

Charlie mouth twisted. "Well, you might want to consider cheaper alternatives for the long run."

"Such as?"

"Such as buying slaves." Charlie pointed out directly. "You"ve already been fired from the Iron Legion. What"s stopping you from using slaves?"

"Mandy." Remian summarized in one word. "And my own conscience. But perhaps there is something to that idea."

"There is?" Charlie blinked.

"What if we freed them? Bought them, freed them, and provided them jobs, salaries and shelter?"

"Freed slaves…?" Charlie scratched his head. "I"m not sure about that."

"Why not?" Remian thought of Mandy. "I think it"s a good idea."

Markus came knocking then. "Remian, I need help. Headquarters is demanding results, and we"ve diverted a lot of time and effort to helping you secure the town. I"m calling it in."

"What do you need?" Remian asked directly.

"Stone." Markus said frankly. "We need to start the road-building, and we need stone. I hear that the High Rock clan is especially skilled with stone work."

Remian nodded. It was a fair request. "After their own shelters are set up, they will be a.s.signed to the quarry."

Charlie turned to him. "Are you sure? That"s about half your manpower."

"I owe the Legion." Remian said frankly.

"You don"t owe anyone anything. In fact, the safety of this town isn"t your responsibility in the first place. You don"t even need to be here. You could just take whatever you can get, and fly off to some magic academy and live a rich life someplace safer and far away from here."

"Ah, but I want the job that I"m trying to do." Remian admitted then. "I want the responsibility to take care of this town. I want it all."

"You"re crazy." Charlie said, then grinned. "But I like crazy."

Markus threw up his hands and marched out. "I don"t care if you"re both crazy, just get me stone!"