2025-12-05 13:21:11The silence that followed the northern scout's terrified shout was heavier than any armor in the rear. The brief, excitement of victory over Vorlick was instantly vaporized, replaced by the cold, sharp dread of a threat that couldn't be blackmailed or outsmarted with a clever letter.
Roderick was the first to break, his warrior's instincts overriding his shock. "Elara, inside the fortress. Now. Alaric! Get those wagons moving! I want this gate sealed and barred in five minutes! Every man to the northern wall!" The courtyard exploded into controlled chaos. Men who had moments ago been staring at the grain wagons with hopeful eyes now scrambled to their positions, their faces hopeless. The reality was a brutal whiplash: they had food to survive the winter, but they might not live to see the first snowflake. Kaelan didn't move. His Enhanced Calculation was running at a furious pace, the new Tactical Simulations function already attempting to model the terrain around the Hunter's Village. But the data was not enough. The red text of the System's warning—[Threat Level: Extreme]—was a glaring variable he couldn't ignore. He became aware of a presence beside him. Elara, her small hand on his arm. "Kaelan... be careful," she whispered, her eyes wide with fear not for herself, but for him. Then she was gone, escorted away by a servant. His brothers stood flanking him, their earlier tension forgotten in the face of a common enemy. "What are your orders, Baron?" Roderick asked, the title sounding less like a mockery and more like a genuine, if unwilling, request for command. The word hung in the air. The Baron was dead. By all rights, Roderick, as the eldest, should assume the title. But in this moment of crisis, everyone looked to Kaelan. "First, we secure our prize," Kaelan said, his voice low and focused. "Eldric, oversee the distribution of the grain. One sack to the village, the rest into our storerooms. Inventory everything. It belongs to us now." Eldric nodded, his sensible mind latching onto the concrete task. "Understood." "Roderick, you have the wall. Double the watch. No fires, no noise. I want us to be a ghost keep by nightfall." Roderick grunted in agreement, already turning to pass more orders. Kaelan finally turned and descended the steps, his mind already dividing itself. One thread focused on the immediate actions, another on the long-term threat, and a third, more private thread, dove into the System. He retreated to the relative quiet of the scriptorium. With a mental command, he pulled up his status. [Available Insight Points: 450 IP.] A small fortune. The reward for a perfect, bloodless victory. He could feel the potential whispering behind his eyes, a key to locks that could save them all. The Skill Tree glowed before him, more detailed than ever. He bypassed the Cognitive Branch for now; his calculation speed was enough. The Perception Branch called to him. Environmental Awareness would give him a 360-degree mental map, perfect for detecting ambushes. Threat Sense could be the difference between life and death against an unknown foe. But it was the Physical Branch that held the most immediate appeal. Neuro-Kinetic Link. The description promised to sync his mind's commands with his body's capabilities. The old Kaelan's body was a liability—weak, slow, uncoordinated. In a fight, he was a burden. He couldn't afford that. Not anymore. He made his decision. [Allocate 20 IP to Neuro-Kinetic Link (Level 1)?] [Confirm.] A sensation, different from the cerebral warmth of Enhanced Calculation, shot through him. It was a instinctive, wiring sensation, as if his nerves were being stripped and re-soldered. His muscles twitched, and for a disorienting second, he felt both intensely aware of and completely separate from his own limbs. The feeling passed, leaving behind a profound sense of... connection. He flexed his hand, and the movement was tight, precise. The slight tremor he hadn't even noticed was gone. [Neuro-Kinetic Link - Level 1 Active.] [Synergy Detected: Enhanced Calculation.] [Reaction Speed: +50%. Coordination: +75%.] He still lacked strength and technique, but his body would now obey his mind's commands without the old lag and clumsiness. It was a foundation. He had 430 IP left. A massive amount. He could unlock another major skill, or he could power up what he had. Wisdom dictated the decision he'll do. He needed to master his tools, not just collect them. [Allocate 150 IP to Enhanced Calculation (Level 3)?] [Confirm.] The upgrade was less a jolt and more an explosion of clarity. The world didn't just sharpen; it became a web of interconnected data points. He could track the flight path of a dust molecules, calculate the stress load on a wooden beam by sight, and run three separate strategic models in the background of his conscious thought. The Tactical Simulation of the northern foothills, which had been a fuzzy, incomplete map, now snapped into sharper focus, though it still lacked critical data on enemy numbers and composition. [Allocate 150 IP to Neuro-Kinetic Link (Level 2)?] [Confirm.] Another, stronger wave of physical reconstruction. His posture straightened without thought, his breathing deepened. He felt an unused power in his limbs, a potential for speed and precision the old Kaelan could never have dreamed of. He was still no match for Roderick in a straight fight, but he was no longer the prey. [Status Updated.] [User: Kaelan von Greyrat] [Available Insight Points: 130 IP] [Enhanced Calculation: Level 3] [Neuro-Kinetic Link: Level 2] He had a war chest remaining, but he would save it. He had a feeling he would need it soon. As dusk fell, turning the sky a bruised purple, Kaelan walked out into the main hall. The men were eating a hot meal for the first time in weeks—thick porridge made from the Viscount's grain. The mood was gloomy but purposeful. They looked up as he entered. He didn't give a speech. He walked to the center of the hall, to a large, scarred table, and unfolded the best map they had of the northern territories. "Sergeant Alaric," he said, his new, clear voice carrying. "I need a volunteer. The fastest, smartest scout we have. Someone who knows the northern trails like the back of his hand." Alaric stood immediately. "Jasper, my lord. He's from the Hunter's Village itself." A lean, wiry man with keen eyes stepped forward, his face marked with worry for his family. "Jasper," Kaelan said, meeting his gaze. "You're not going to fight. You're going to be my eyes. I need to know everything. The size of the force, their composition, their direction, and most importantly..." Kaelan's finger tapped the map on the symbol for the Hunter's Village. "...I need to know what a 'Tier 3 Shaman' looks like. Do not engage. You see it, you turn around. Your only job is to come back alive and tell me what you saw. Can you do that?" Jasper swallowed hard, then straightened his shoulders, a glint of determination in his eyes. "Aye, my lord. I'll bring you your answers." As Jasper slipped out into the growing darkness, Kaelan stared at the map. The simulation in his mind was still incomplete, a puzzle with the most important pieces missing. But soon, he would have them. And then the real game would begin.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
The Council of Three
The air in the Deep Analysis chamber crackled with the ghost of spent magic and simmering tension. Kaelan, Eldric, and Lira sat on one side of the polished crystal table that served as the main display. On the other side, projected in shimmering light, was the rotating, three-dimensional model of the new Tieron weapon Aris had identified.It was not a machine of crystal and iron. It was a nightmare of contradictions—a vortex of shimmering, oily darkness held in a cage of painfully bright Void-Steel filaments. Aris’s analysis scrolled beside it: “Weapon Designation: ‘Entropy Lance.’ Function: Generates a localized field of high-energy, randomized particle decay. Effect on Ordered Systems (e.g., Crystallized Reach): Induces rapid structural fatigue and harmonic collapse. It is chaos, weaponized and directed.”“He reverse-engineered our own research,” Lira whispered, her hands trembling slightly as she manipulated the image, zooming in on the Void-Steel cage. “This lattice… it’s a perver
The Calculus of Desperation
The silence broke with the shriek of Tieron artillery. Not the fiery whoosh of catapults, but the sharp, crystalline crack of magically-propelled bolts. They flew in a flat, murderous arc towards the junk-barricade.Lira’s projected barrier flared to life. The bolts struck the shimmering wall of geometric light and… splintered. Not with an explosion, but with a sound like shattering glass. Shards of enchanted metal rained down harmlessly short of the wall. A cheer went up from the defenders—farmers, blacksmiths, and the handful of regular soldiers among them.But the barrier rippled violently with each impact. On a hastily erected command platform behind the lines, Lira watched a readout spike. “The energy drain is massive! Each bolt is like a hammer on the lens! We have minutes, not hours!”Kaelan, standing on the barricade with a borrowed shield, didn’t need the readout. He could see the wall of light flicker, growing slightly more transparent with each strike. It was buying time, n
The Heartland Gambit
The news hit the war room like a physical blow. While they celebrated the annihilation of a Tieron legion in the Weeping Gorge, the real blow was being delivered fifty miles to the northwest. Two fresh legions, untouched, were driving hard into the Federation heartland, bypassing all fixed defenses. Roderick’s forces were out of position, too far east, lured by their own successful deception.Marcus had not taken the bait. He had used it as a feint of his own.“He’s heading for the Argent Valley,” Eldric said, his voice hollow as he pointed at the map. The valley held not just the capital, but the vast majority of the Federation’s croplands, its principle forges, and its people. It was the stomach and the brain. “He’s not trying to defeat our army. He’s trying to starve us and shatter our will in one stroke.”Kaelan’s mind, reeling from the sudden reversal, locked into a state of hyper-clarity. The Tactical Simulation discarded all previous models and began building new ones with fran
The Anvil and the Storm
The war room in Argent was a tomb of silent tension. The eastern map, once cluttered with the slow, creeping fortifications of Marcus's "Phase 2," now bled with fresh, urgent crimson arrows. Five full Tieron legions—over twenty-five thousand soldiers, supported by skiff squadrons and lumbering war-golems—were advancing in a concentrated spearhead towards the weakest point in the Federation's central border: the Sunstone Valley. It was fertile, lightly defended farmland, a corridor that led straight to the heartlands."He's not probing. He's not fortifying," Roderick growled, tracing the line of advance with a calloused finger. "This is a kill-strike. He's abandoning subtlety.""Because subtlety failed," Eldric said, his voice thin. "We damaged his grand project. He's responding by trying to remove us from the board entirely before we can interfere again. It's a logical escalation."Kaelan stood before the map, his mind a whirlwind of calculations. The Tactical Simulation ran scenarios
The Soul-Sick Plague
The alchemical lab beneath Argent smelled of bitter roots, crushed crystal, and a metallic tang that clung to the back of the throat. Lira and her team worked in a sealed chamber, their faces hidden behind filtered masks, their movements precise and grim. On the central worktable lay the two source materials: a vial of viscous, night-black liquid, the distilled essence of the Shaman’s soul-shock—and a shimmering, iridescent powder—the pulverized Mage-Bane agent.“The problem is persistence,” Lira muttered, her voice muffled. “The soul-shock is potent but ephemeral. It fades within hours. The Mage-Bane is stable, but attacks magical bonds, not life-force.”An elderly alchemist from the Frostmane, a woman named Yrsa who knew more about toxins and tinctures than anyone, peered at the mixtures. “You need a carrier. Something that lingers in the lungs, the blood. Something the body won’t purge quickly.” She held up a small, waxy tuber. “Frozen lichen from the high glaciers. It grows in the
The Conqueror's Gambit
The data from Aris was a feast of intelligence, but the aftertaste was ash and unease. For three days, the Federation's analysts pored over the schematics of Fortress Prime, finding weaknesses, drafting plans for sabotage, calculating the force needed to storm its now-exposed gates. It was a war-planner’s dream.But Kaelan’s attention was fixed on Sector Delta-Seven.The scout reports were vague, terrified. "The sky is wrong," one message read. "The light bends. The machines… they don’t look like they’re from here."Roderick wanted to attack Fortress Prime immediately, to use their new knowledge to strike a decisive blow. "We cut the head off the snake! While he’s distracted with his… his digging project!"Eldric was more cautious. "We barely survived the last direct engagement. Attacking a fortress, even with blueprints, would cost thousands. It might be exactly what he wants, to bleed us dry on his walls."Kaelan said nothing. He was in the newly established "Deep Analysis" chamber,
You may also like
World System Among Gods
M_jief119.5K viewsSystem Blessing For The Poor Son-in-law
Pein46.1K viewsEast Meets West (Cultivation World)
OROCHIsBLADE28.8K viewsLord Of The Ultra Billionaire System
Author_Danny24.4K viewsFrom Suffering To Power System
De_law1792 viewsSPEED RACER HAREM SYSTEM
FOCA4.1K viewsDemon King Reincarnated Into Hero Society
Impartial Cleverest846 views13 Heavens: Rise Of The Bloodline Dreg
SPARKLING WALTER426 views