Erza flew next to Eden as she rode through the land to reach a small village. It had a few homes made of wood and stone. As Eden approached a few soldiers wearing peasant clothes were waiting right outside the village. Their height was above 6 feet tall and each differed in facial features. Their ranks and stat power showed on this clothing.
"Is there a way to hide their rank and stats" Eden asked Erza as her horse slowed down.
"I am afraid to say that only the stats would be hidden. The system will not allow the rank to hide," replied Erza as her eyes went white and the numbers disappeared from the soldiers' clothing.
"Well, can I make something or buy something to cover their rank?" asked Eden as she began to get off her horse.
"You may purchase a robe with a metal lapel that has your coat of arms." replied Erza as she pointed at a market near them.
Eden began to walk towards the market when a soldier of rank 1 stepped forward.
"My Lady, you have returned. Our army is small but with your command we will grow strong and large as it was destined in the chronicles of Assisi. I am Rank 1 and am honored to serve you." Rank 1 kneeled as he lowered his head. Eden looked around and as all of the other soldiers did the same.
"My liege, your soldiers are all pleased to see you return from the far lands where the sorcerer had casted you. After your father and mother perished in the great war, your dragon went into slumber and the people were unprotected. It was due to a meteor shower that broke the sorcerer's shield that was keeping you from returning. Word was sent to all neighboring kingdoms that the heirs have been freed. Everyone has been awaiting your return." Said Erza.
Eden took a deep breath. "I see. I thank you for your loyalty and wish to bestow a name on each of you as gratitude. Please rise Rank 1, you are now Arthur of Eden."
Arthur raised and said with enthusiasm, "thank you my lady."
There were 100 soldiers in total which Eden gave names to. She then ordered them to eat and return to train their skills. Once in the market, she noticed that the robes and metal lapels were very expensive. When she checked her arsenal, she could only afford 5 of them without dipping too much into her account. She wasn't sure if there were going to be better quality or other items she might want in the future. She wanted to be frugal until she understood more. Before she passed them out she had one more question.
"Their stats, how do I get their stats as high as possible?"
"To raise your soldiers' stats, they can train, learn more at the academy and a promotion gives a boost. The limit to their stats are based on the limit of the liege who is commanding them. That is you Great Eden. You must work on getting strong to raise your troops to knights and to get better boosts. The items you purchased give a small boost, but there will be more resources available once you go on a monster raids. You may also raid other villages for their resources" explained Erza.
"How do I get my own stats higher?" asked Eden.
"You can train your sword skills in the training grounds, go to the academy to learn spells and complete missions for boss raids. Joining an alliance will also give you a boost and additional stats. Sometimes rewards and armor may be used as buffs during battle. Your castle prestige may also carry buffs once fortified." replies Erza
"How are these alliances acquired?" asked Eden while thinking about how they could maximize their own strength individually.
"During your travels. There will be bulletin boards in the markets with alliances created or you can purchase your own banner, but that will cost coins and time for recruitment." said Erza.
"Erza, are you able to relay information and respond to specific questions if commanded" asked Eden with a glimmer in her eyes.
"Yes, you can request I send a message and await a response with a set of directions. If the response does not meet the requirements, then a null response is given from me unless you change that variable." Said Erza slowly as if something was preventing her from giving an answer.
Eden thought to herself, they must still be working out kinks. I must work fast and keep things to myself before they find out and fix it. Then she recalled that her passport picture had her anonymous avatar picture. She asked, "Why does my passport show an anonymous avatar picture and not my face?"
Erza smiled and answered, "Currently, only your castle members can see your true appearance, but once you join an alliance, you can accept or deny the request from any of them to see your appearance. This keeps your identity a secret. To anyone else, you look like the image in the passport. You can change into your character once you reach a level of 15 in the academy of spells."
Eden recalled the information scroll where it mentioned Avatar transformation, but not specific details. She took a deep sigh as she thought about all the details she will have to memorize in order to advance. She took a second look into the market to look at the skins and didn't see anything she thought would be beneficial to buy at her current level. Then she began to walk towards the center of the village to find her castle in ruins and still being rebuilt. The people around were working and not making eye contact. She could tell they were following a storyline and simple commands. She wondered if they were AI or something else, but first she needed to get some stats up to understand what she really needs to focus on. Out of the 100 soldiers she promoted 5 to knight commanders, Arthur, Gabriel, Sir Lancelot, Gwaine and Sir Tristan. She then walked to each of them and equipped them with the robes and lapels. Each got an instant boost.
Eden then walked back to her horse and decided to name him thunder. Before mounting thunder she looked back at Erza and commanded, "Have the men ready for battle, we are going on a monster raid and won't return until we have enough supplies to fortify the castle." Eden didn't know the strength she needed and the amount of men for every monster or boss. This was going to be her way of testing stats and attacks.
Small reptile creatures were easy to deal with. Her soldiers could manage one each. It didn't give EXP (experience points), but the rewards could be used as resources. Eden looked at the arsenal and could see it was only five percent of what was needed to complete a basic magic stone or convert to 1 coin. She took a deep breath as she didn't want to lose any men to injuries or basic monsters.
They then approached a cave, Eden raised her hand up to halt. She decided to go in first, but Erza soon chimed in. "My liege, the commander must never go in first, it is the knight's duty to scout the area ahead." Arthur, as if in a queue, stepped forward and said, "allow me." Eden was about to protest before a centaur stepped outside the cave. It swung its blade at Arthur before he could raise his shield. As the sword dropped down with its might it met one of Eden's blades. "Attack" said Eden as she tried to hold the blade up against hers. Arthur, Gabriel, Sir Lancelot, Gwaine and Sir Tristan had on the medal lapels and robes she had purchased earlier. "Those without robes charge, the rest wait on my next attack," said Eden as she felt like her hand was about to give out. The troops began to charge in and were easily defeated with the swing of the centaur's blade. Half of them were in critical condition. As it raised its blade to strike again, "Erza, collided with the centaur." Erza didn't question and went in swiftly. A force field shield prevented the blade from touching her and causing any damage. In that still moment, "Let's go!" yelled Eden as Thunder leaped into action. With the previous damage and the centaur unable to move, it was defeated.
"My liege, half your troops are in critical condition, you must tend to their injuries and ensure they go to the hospital immediately," said Erza in a convincing voice as if she was worried. "Send the injured to the hospital right away," replied Eden as she paused on how many other troops will be needed to transport them. A beam of light went hit the injured troops and they were transported right away. Eden looked up and asked, "Why didn't you tell me you could transport us?"
"I can only transport the injured to the hospital immediately, but for traveling, I need to use an advanced spell with magic stones found in the bosses, like the one on the centaur that was just defeated, here is the report." Erza responded and handed a scroll. Eden looked over the scroll and noticed the power level on the centaur was more than the amount of power level of all her troops combined. She then saw that her items gave a boost, but only met up to 80 percent of the boss. She noticed an uncategorized buff with the power level of null. Eden thought to herself, that must be Erza. I didn't know if my guide could be killed, but I took a gamble that the system requires an immortal AI to go with me to record all my whereabouts. I wonder if others have discovered this already. Either way I should probably keep this quiet before the administrators become aware and set additional rules. She scanned for EXP and saw 25k added to her arsenal. At the very bottom it showed the loot from the boss. A box of stones for armor, thousands of coins for first reward and kill, a bow. Eden handed the scroll back to Erza and said "destroy this." The scroll turned into ashes right away.
"My lady, how did you know the danger we were in when confronting that centaur?" asked Arthur. Eden paused before answering . She wondered if this was a script or it was an admin asking her through Arthur. After debating and thinking it would be too soon for them to see anything odd, she replied, "I saw a red crystal over the centaurs head and assumed it meant danger. You were already engaged in battle and I didn't want to lose you specifically. Your name reminds me of a dear comrade I once had."
"The crystals are only seen by royalty, It is a testimony to your rightful place to rule over the lands of Eden," added Erza.
Eden gave a breath of relief before she asked for a troop count and health stats. She then requested Erza to give her a health stat of hers too. At first Erza paused, as if waiting for something and then she handed her a report. Most of Erza showed nothing was wrong. Good, thought Eden as she smiled to herself. That meant, Erza can be my trump card during battle.
They kept hunting monsters and only attacked when there was no sign of a red crystal. Eden had begun to send one troop to distract the monster while she gave it the lethal hit. This kept going until Erza pointed out that Eden's stamina was almost fully depleted. Eden then looked at the map they had explored and marked it. "How long before we return to the village?" She asked Erza as she walked towards Thunder. "You will have to regain some stamina before we can move back. Traveling also takes up stamina." replied Erza as she showed Eden's condition and her armies. Eden then flashed a smirk on her face. She walked to her troops and pricked each one that wasn't injured including herself. "Send all the injured to the hospital. In a flash, everyone was back in the village hospital except Thunder. Eden frowned, I was sure that Thunder would be here with me too since he is my travel companion. Erza spoke up as if reading her thoughts, "Thunder is back in the stables, he can't be in the hospital, but will teleport to the stables."
Later that evening, Eden sat in her office looking over her reports and thinking about how to allocate her EXP. She decided to start doing the math so that the points were distributed in a power pyramid shape. In war we send out the foot soldiers first. I need to divide them into different types before our next outing; calvary, archers, ground and siege. After reviewing her academy charts, training grounds and her troop count, she made her decision on how many of each will be in every squad. She went to sleep still thinking of how many more troops she can afford to recruit and still make progress on the castle reinforcements.
Eden woke up after 4 hours of sleep thinking of everything she needed to get done assuming that other players were already ahead of her. This was a power game after all, the strongest one rule and make up the rules. She checked the current stats of the castle and troops. Looks like I need to split my forces and send them to the academy, then rotate them after each new level. She saw the cost of sending half her army to the academy. It was almost all of the earnings from the prior day's work. With a sigh she said, "whomever has the money to fund war wins I guess." Then she took a deep breath before summoning Arthur to her office. "My lady, how may I serve you," said Arthur as he bowed. "I prefer Chief-Commander and I want you to take half the army and send them to the academy with you. Return only when you surpass 10 levels with the other squad leaders who have lapels. The rest of the troops will alternate after every level they reach." Eden said without looking up from her documents. "Erza, I need to hire more troops at the basic tier level that will replace the amount of troops in the academy." "Yes my liege." responded Erza as she walked out the office. She was in the room the entire time, standing behind the curtain. Eden thought, "It's an uneasy feeling being watched like that. As long as the creators don't interrupt me as I'm trying to also figure out a way back. Then I think I can overlook the creepiness."
After going over the numbers, Eden decided she needed to use Erza during battle to get ahead faster. A few centaurs won't be noticed Eden thought. It's probably too low for it to matter at the moment. She had already noticed the improvement of the troops from yesterday. Eden and her army ended the night fatigued. She did the same thing as she did the first time. The entire army was transported to the hospital.
"My liege hospital has reached its max capacity. Please expand your hospital." Eden looked at the report and noticed a squad of 20 missing. Then said "expand the Hospital, where is my squad now?"
"They could not be transported and are marked as deserters."
"Can I recover them now?"
"You can only recover a percent of your deserters during a loyalty horn that is found in the market"
"How often can I use the horn?"
"Each horn can only be used once."
"I need to hire the same amount of troops we did this morning"
"Yes my liege"
"Have them go to the academy at once"
"Yes my liege"
My numbers are not balanced out anymore, but this is expected as more troops get lost by war or raids. Now I need to check the bulletin to see who has the highest power in the ranks and how to join an alliance. Eden made her way to the market to look at the rankings. As expected, there's already a few alliances and some powerful players, now that I have an idea of who is out there I can plan. Eden went through the information of each alliance and stopped at Dark Warriors, DRK. It's not the most powerful, but its intro sounds reasonable. Eden submitted her application and was accepted. Soon a pop up of messages between the alliance members started showing, like pop up bubbles floating in the air. There was barely any conversation on how to get organized or plan. The leader kept posting, everyone has to get stronger. Eden placed her notifications in silence. She thought, "perhaps I should stay silent for now and see where I can go next if this doesn't work out."
Eden returned to her quarters and took a bath. She was thinking that perhaps expanding her army would give her the appearance of being strong, but for how long. She was just about to get some rest before she noticed fire outside her window.
"My liege, our city is under attack"
"Where are the troops on guard?"
"They were too weak to defend"
"What are they sending against my ground?"
"Calvary my liege"
"Of all the troop types"
Eden quickly checked her arsenal and found a shield spell to cast over her city. She skimmed through the information and used it right away. The force field expanded from her room and blasted the enemy back and outside her territory.
"How many dead?"
"None my liege"
"How is that possible?"
"You expanded your hospital, the hospital can hold the capacity of your current army"
"Battle report" demanded Eden.
A scroll appeared in Eden's hands. Attacker was from Alliance For The Good, FTG, by Expatriate. His power level was ten times hers. Only 30% of resources were taken before they got blasted. Eden looked over at the fire being put out by the rest of the villagers and mumbled, Just wait Expatriate.