World Seed

"Ugh, don"t you sleep? Are you sure you"re not undead already?"

"Ah, if only becoming a lich was that easy dear boy. Eat, i want to reach the ruins of Ardin by midday."

"Ruins of Ardin?"

"The Forsaken Lands weren"t always forsaken, it was once inhabited by humans. It was known as the Kingdom of Millin and it"s cities have all but been reclaimed by nature. The few that remain are often inhabited by goblins, kobolds, and the like. Ardin has roughly six hundred goblins running around in the ruins."

"Six hundred?!? You don"t expect me to kill that many do you? I almost died taking on a hundred! How do you even know how many their are?" Aerywn shot out words baffled at Tylin"s expectations.

"I know how many there are because of a viewing spell. Now relax you don"t have to kill them all in one day, i"ll be giving you two days."

"How is that any better?!"

Tylin simply ignored him and walked out leaving the bewildered young man behind. He indignantly grabbed the sack of berries and chased after Tylin. They left as soon as Aerwyn caught up and began their journey westward to the ruins. He wanted to practice controlling his flames but found that he had no time.

He needed to come up with a plan to take on the absurd number of goblins we would be facing soon. The thought of taking on so many made his palms sweaty.

"Would the goblins realize somethings wrong if i sent my goblins in pretending to be one of them?"

"They may not be intelligent but they"re not stupid. They"d know something was wrong by the eyes."

"What if i covered their eyes?"

"Go put some cloth over a goblins eyes, you"ll understand then."

Aerwyn rummaged through the sack on his horse before pulling out a rag. He ordered Teek to cover his eyes with it before understanding Tylin"s words.

"That fire in their eyes is different from your own. It doesn"t interact with our world, it simply exists much like how one cannot interact with a soul, only view it. You are the exception to that rule of course.

Even the G.o.ds can barely control souls, the underworld is only a stop along the path of reincarnation put into place by the G.o.ds to punish those who do not follow their rules. With all their power all they can do is give it a little push in the direction they want it to go, nothing more."

"Didn"t you say that they torture necromancers in the underworld? How can they do that if they can"t interact with souls?"

"Every soul is reincarnated with a finite amount of energy, enough to live a full lifespan as long as it isn"t cut short. In the underworld time moves according to ones sins, the greater the sin the longer the time your soul must spend in the underworld. There is a limit of course, even the G.o.ds can"t change the laws of the universe.

You"ve experienced what it feels like to have a weak soul, now imagine your soul having no energy left, if i had to guess it probably feels much like how you feel when you bring things back to life. Enough of this, we"ll be there soon. You should really be thinking about how to survive this encounter instead of pondering the mysteries of the G.o.ds."

Tylin was right, he needed a plan. His two new trolls would be a big boost, their large size will make it difficult for goblins to do any real damage but he still didn"t know whether his undead could truly die yet. He wouldn"t put any of them at a greater risk than he had to.

Each one of them were created by painfully ripping out a part of his soul, that kind of made him like their parent in a way and what kind of parent would knowingly put their children into a high risk situation.

"Do they ever leave the ruins?"Aerwyn asked.

"They do, in fact we"ll be coming upon a group of thirty or so soon."

"How far are we from the ruins?"

"About two kilometers. What"s your plan?"

"You"ll see. Rorik, i want you along with the direwolves and trolls to stay hidden with Tylin."

"Very good, go straight and you"ll b.u.mp into them in half a kilometer."

Aerwyn along with thirteen goblins and two brexil cats took off running in the direction Tylin directed.

"Leave one or two alive." He ordered his undead while they ran. Soon he could see about three dozen goblins traveling in a tight group. They wore mostly loin clothes signifying that these bunch were at the lower rung of the social hierarchy. The goblins didn"t notice them as they crept closer, possibly due to spending the night in the ammonia filled hut.

When they were only 10 meters away Aerwyn began charging his flame lance, aiming his staff at one of the few goblins wearing some bone. It shot out startling the goblins but they weren"t quick enough to react in time. The goblin Aerwyn had aimed for was ran through by the flame lance and before the explosion even went off, he began charging the second shot. The explosion of purple flames engulfed the few goblins unlucky enough to be standing behind his target.

The goblins quickly began to scatter away from the explosion, however Aerwyn had already found another target with a few goblins behind him. He fired the flame lance piercing the second target before exploding once more.

"ATTACK!" He roared and his undead goblins rushed into battle. The goblins. .h.i.t by the secondary explosion of flame lance were easy targets and his undead spared no time finis.h.i.+ng them off. Souls began to stream into him as two purple stars left his chest.

"This type of fighting suited him much better" He thought, shooting out one last flame lance that found its mark. Four goblins fled, and although it was more than he wanted but he wasn"t going to complain after such an easy victory.

Three more goblins joined his ranks bringing the total up to sixteen, the pain from the purple stars wasn"t as debilitating either. He wasn"t sure if it had to do with the amount of souls he"s absorbed or if he was just getting more used to constantly being in pain.

"Teek, have the goblins collect the mana cores while we wait for Tylin." He ordered and began to check out the area. This part of the forest was less dense than what he"s been used to and for his plan to work he needed to catch them by surprise. The goblins and brexil cats will be fine but where was he going to hide two three meter tall trolls and a two meter tall barghest.

Tylin and the rest seemed to have taken their time and arrived half an hour later.

"How many are coming?" Aerwyn asked him.

"A little over a hundred and fifty. Ah, however there"s a hobgoblin with them."

"What"s a hobgoblin?"

"An evolved goblin. Like a caterpillar transforming into a b.u.t.terfly some creatures have the ability to evolve when they fulfill certain conditions. Hobgoblins are half a meter taller and much quicker... Hmm, your goblins have souls so they should be able to evolve as well given enough time. I wonder if perhaps being undead will interact with their evolution..."

Aerwyn ignored him once he began to trail off again and instead kept looking for a place to hide his larger undead but was unable to find a decent solution other than hiding behind trees.

"Rorik i"m using you as a mount, direwolves and trolls find a tree to hide behind. When they commit to the battle charge into them." The undead creatures all got into position except Rorik who was clearly unhappy with the idea.

"AWOOOO-"
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"Shut up and stop howling! Are you trying to scare the goblins into bringing their full army? I need you close if i"m going to attempt to give you souls."

The mention of souls immediately changed the barghest"s att.i.tude and he quickly kneeled down letting Aerwyn mount him.

"How far are they Tylin?"

"They"re here."