Homesteading in a fantasy world

It took me a week to stabilize the entire war front, and we were already pushing in a few places well enough that the only thing the enemy could do was retreat.

My body was in constant pain, but I wasn’t hurting it faster than I could heal. Every so often, healers came to help me, which made this more bearable. In a month, we were winning on all fronts, except whenever elites got involved. Fortunately, we had good movement capabilities for our elites, making it impossible for them to achieve total victory on any battlefield with only their elite forces.

I was gathering more and more intelligence about the enemy alliance, trying to figure out what they were up to. It took a few more months, before the war effort ground to a halt as we needed to siege large fortresses to continue taking land. But I was not foolish enough to simply assault well-defended fortresses. We needed time to take them down, and every effort they made to stop the sieges or push further into our territory was met with swift defeat.

I had some practice with this from Earth, but little compared to how much practice I’ve had in this world. It’s kind of funny how good I am at a thing I don’t like to do. Nevertheless, it took about three more weeks, during which time I was able to take a few smaller fortresses before they finally figured out what was going on. Now the search was on for this command center I was in, but we had gotten a lot of time to strengthen the defenses here to repel elites.

The winter months came, grounding the war to a halt in a large portion of the world, but not everywhere—some places were tropical enough to not be affected. It was a pretty cold night when, for the first time, the fortress alarms started sounding out.

We had finally been found. I could observe what was happening since this fortress had its own senses. There were about 20 attacking us, most likely a probing attack. What they didn’t expect was how weak they got when they neared the walls and the response they got.

In just a few moments, five of them were dead—one rank 5, the others high-rank 4s. We managed to kill two more as they retreated. It was the beginning of the end, and I just hoped that we would come out on the winning side.

The assaults continued as they probed our defenses, finding them quite sturdy. We were pulling more and more elites away from the armies, and so were they. Eventually, the fortress was manned by a whole army of elites and besieged by a whole army of elites.

For the first time in nearly a year, I removed my hand from the table and concentrated on commanding this singular army, giving them as many boosts as I could. This was like a trigger, and a battle unlike any other began.

The fortress shook from the magic attacks launched by the enemies—attacks that could have obliterated entire cities. This fortress couldn't handle that kind of punishment if it wasn’t actively protected by people as strong as the ones attacking.

“No one should have this much power,” I heard someone say, who was also helping boost our people with his own abilities. There were about thirty of us who were strong enough to boost even rank fives, and we were making the difference. There were many more elites on the other side, but our defensive position and the boosts we were giving were making the difference, giving us a fighting chance.

The fighting continued, and from the looks of it, if things continued as they were, we were going to be able to defend this place. Still, the losses were immense, with hundreds of elite dead by the end of the day. If this continued, this world would suffer quite a lot from the onslaught that would find its way, no longer barred by adventurers. “Enough,” came a word so loud that it actually shook the entire area, including the fortress.

I could see a person rising above the enemy camp and finally saw the one leader the enemy alliance, the person who started it all. He was radiating with power, and from what I could feel, it made me shudder with nervousness.

I had never felt a rank 5 that was so close to rank 6, but this person was so near. If he were to get a few more levels, I was certain he would reach rank 6 and would be forced out of this world by the system itself. Unfortunately, I was pretty certain he had ways to make sure he wouldn’t gain those few levels.

“Your resistance is admirable, but I cannot allow this to continue. I do not want any of you to die, as you will all be needed to push back the monsters. So please be reasonable and surrender; none of you will be harmed.”

Those were some pretty words, and I could see and feel how his army believed them. Even I believed them, but I knew there was more to it. I still didn’t understand what, but I knew he was doing it for himself more than anything else.

Still, the battle that had been going on since morning had ended while this person hoped we would surrender. It was at this moment that something happened. It was like a physical blow to the man floating above everyone else, and then his kind appearance changed. I didn’t know what had happened, yet a moment later, information flooded the table, and I pushed it out to everyone, including the enemy army.

Someone managed to get through his defenses and access his full achievement page. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever witnessed. His stats and levels weren’t the scary part—they were what I expected from someone who was close to rank 6. It was the traits, skills, and abilities. There were literally thousands of them, so many that it made my achievement page, which was considered incredibly long, look minuscule in comparison.

“You weasley little rat, ruining everything.” The next moment, he was holding a smaller-looking rank 5, who had been pulled from the fortress, by his throat in an iron grip.

“You just had to do that, didn’t you? But at least you’re going to give me a better set of abilities that will make me even stronger.” All of us then witnessed how he activated some type of ability and started sucking everything that was the person who managed to get his achievement page.

It was hard to see what was happening, as I was using the fortress to witness it, but in about 10 seconds or so, all that was left of the person he was holding in an iron grip was a mummified corpse that he simply let drop.

He then looked towards the fortress, and I could see his eyes changing. “Those are Velli’s eyes! You’ve stolen his abilities and traits, you bastard!” someone yelled and launched themselves at the floating man.

They were simply stopped by a single hand movement, far away from him. Those eyes then scanned the person who had tried to avenge their friend’s death.

“You literally have nothing I want, and I suspect you would never come to my side. Goodbye.” He finished speaking and then crushed his hand, which crushed the high-rank four in an instant, leaving behind a mangled corpse that fell to the ground.

“There is so much more potential here than I ever expected. I never imagined I would be able to improve so much, but I will take everything you hold dear and make it my strength.”

He then started to weave a spell so powerful that I could feel the world barely being able to contain it. It ripped through the fortress, destroying the outer wall, and it was like he was pulling apart an orange—but doing it to the entire fortress.

One moment I was safely at the heart of the fortress, the next, one side of the room was pulled away, exposing the entire fortress. I lost connection to the fortress as all the spells were destroyed, but I could still remember the look on his face—more importantly, the looks of the people behind him. I wonder if he ever expected that when he exposed his true self, what it would do to his subordinates.

It didn’t matter. It was time to fight. I jumped out of the fortress, further away into the field on the left side. Many died when he pulled apart the fortress, but it wasn’t meant to be an attack on the people here—he just wanted to get rid of our protections. Thousands of spells landed on him, some strong enough that they should have destroyed a city. He needed to protect himself, he just couldn’t take it, but he was still so damn strong.

Then he teleported, and just with his hands, he started killing or maiming. None of his people attacked us; they simply watched, not knowing what to do. I’m pretty sure the spell was broken, and I don’t mean an actual spell—I mean the vision of the charismatic leader who wanted to protect the world. This was my chance.

“You see who he actually is? He’s only after power to make himself stronger. He would make this world his farm so he could gain more and more of it. If he’s left alive, all of us, our children, and our children’s children will just become resources for him, and he will take any who have power that he doesn’t. That’s the future he wants—that is all he will ever want: absolute power so he can gain even more of it.”

My words rang out on the battlefield, causing a halt to the fighting. For the first time, that person looked at me, and I could see his eyes change for a moment and a creepy smile come to his face.

“So you are the one who has those abilities to boost half of this world’s armies. And those other abilities and traits—you are just a walking treasure, aren’t you? I’m going to enjoy taking all that you have.”