Myriad's Conquest 4 The Village

As both Adrian and Zilong reached the outskirts of the village, they could see the village was actually surrounded by hundreds of beetle-like creatures. They didn't know what kind of creature was that. Adrian tried to probe the creature's info.

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Name: Giant Ferocious Beetle

Race: Beast

Grade: Normal

Unique skills: None

Strength: 0.1

Intelligence: 0.0

Agility: 0.7

Const.i.tution: 0.1

Vitality: 0.2

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These beetles are actually Normal grade beasts. It's larger than common beetles, their size is about the same as golden retriever dogs. Although they weren't very strong, their speed is extremely fast, making it hard for normal people to get hit on them. Besides, there are lots of them currently, even someone as powerful as Zilong would be overwhelmed if he weren't careful enough when fighting all of them at once.

Smokes have begun rising above the village by the time both Adrian and Zilong got closer to its vicinity. The beetles are moving around all over the place as they turned the village upside down. The corpse of both villagers and the beetles are littering the ground around the village.

Several people could be seen fighting the beetles, some fought in a group, others fight alone. It was a really chaotic situation.

Surprisingly, not only humans lived in this village, other race's members such as wolfman, fox people, kobolds and even orcs could be seen fought together side by side against the beetles.

Adrian became even more spirited to help them. Then, he glanced at Zilong and gave him an order, "Zilong!!! There are too many beetles there. We should stick together when fighting them."

"Yes, milord." Zilong replied shortly and nodded.

Both of them quickly readying their respective weapon as they rushed to the village.

Ding!!!

[System Notification: New quest is availlable]

[Quest: Help the villagers defending their village (0/1)]

'Hehe... Let's get started, then.' Adrian smiled wildly as he received a new quest.

***

Meanwhile, inside the village.

A kobold male took back his rusty saber from a dead beetle and spoke gravely to a human man beside him, "Chief!! What should we do now? We almost got overwhelmed..."

Both of the kobold man and the human man who was called the chief are standing near the heavily protected Chief's manor alongside several other poorly armed villagers.

The chief was frowning while sweating heavily all over his body. His right hand is holding an old short sword which hasn't been used by him for a long time. His heart is thumping wildly, he doesn't know what he should do. After all, he wasn't a fighter. He couldn't conjure a battle plan.

These beetles wouldn't normally come out from the forest, yet they suddenly start attacking the village just now. The chief didn't know why would these beetles suddenly attacked them.

Fortunately, they had evacuated all women and children and sheltered them inside the chief's manor. While all of the village's men were staying outside in order to defend the village. Even though the village has several hunters, the rest of the man was just simple farmers and loggers. They didn't have powerful strength. Thus, they couldn't possibly win against hundreds of beetles.

They have lost several men while the other who still alive were already wounded and beyond tired.

The chief then scanned the entirety of the village with his tired eyes. Most of the buildings and houses were already in shambles. And he saw nothing but beetles all over the place. He looked at his blood soaking body and sighed as he thought inwardly, 'Is this the end?'

"Chief!! Look!! Over there..." A tall green-skinned orc who is holding a large axe suddenly shouted while pointing at the village's south entrance.

The chief and other people start looking at the southern direction.

They saw what appears to be two young human men battling the beetles near the village's entrance. The young men are extremely skillful and strong, both of their weapons emitting dazzling lights every time they strike at the beetles.

The villagers start making a ruckus.

"Who are they?!"

"Don't know. But their weapons? Ar... Are those magic weapons?"

Magic Weapons!!!

Those two young men are actually the holders of magic weapons. The villagers were shocked and awed. All of them had never seen magic weapons before, those things are only belongs to legends and stories.

'Are they n.o.bles?' The chief, who could be said an educated man, knew that only n.o.bles and royalty that possess those kinds of weapons.

They didn't know who these strangers were, but they suddenly came to the village and start killing the beetles.

"Are they here to help us?"

"I guess."

The chief became elated and excited to the point he almost cries, help finally arrived. However, he got angry after seeing the men around him are just standing around, doing nothing. Hence, he shouted loudly, "What the h.e.l.l do you all think your doing?! Those two young men are heading here, and they should be wanted to help us. But it does not mean you can just stand around lazily. Go there and fight, kill those beetles, quickly."

After hearing what the chief said, the villager's low morale starts to rise higher. The two strong young man's arrival has given them hope. Their fighting spirit lighted up as they are once again, furiously charging at the beetles and trying to drive them back from their home

***

By this moment, the combined kill counts of both Adrian and Zilong has reached almost a hundred beetles. Both of them fought together while at the same time, protecting each other's back.

Adrian is relying heavily on his martial art's movement in fighting the battle, while Zilong is showing the real deal of warrior's worth that utilized both of his martial art and combat instinct skillfully, which has been honed through years of warfare.

"Hah!!!"

"Dorya!!!"

Adrian's Agility helped him cope with the fast-moving beetles. He stroke down every beetle he came across. While Zilong, along with his East Dragon Spear, dancing magnificently as he killed a large number of enemies with a single swoop.

They decided to limit employing their combat techniques as those techniques cost them a large amount of energy and stamina. And also, because the beetle's numbers are simply too much, they would fall into a dangerous situation if they were too tired.

They kept their distance close to each other as they fought against numerous enemies all at once. They carefully move forwards in order to keep themselves from being surrounded and overwhelmed by the beetle's sheer numbers.

They try to break through the beetle's hordes and rushed towards the center of the village, where the largest building in the village, the chief's manor was located.

***

Adrian and Zilong finally arrived in front of the chief's manor. There, crowds of armed villagers were gathered and protecting the manor inside a defensive position.

The villagers actually only need to guard the manor's front side as the river is just directly behind the manor, and it seems the beetles is avoiding that area.

A middle age human man with partially gray hair and blood soaking body stepped out from the crowds and walked straight towards Adrian.

"Welcome sire. I'm the chief of this village. Thank you for helping us against these beasts." the chief greeted both Adrian and Zilong with gazes full of grat.i.tude and respect.

It looks like the situation was already hopeless for them, originally.

Adrian lightly smiled as he waved his hand and spoke, "Don't worry chief. But we can talk later. We should drive the rest of these beetles first."

"Yes... Yes..." the chief immediately nodded as he knew the battle is still far from over.

Adrian and Zilong then joining forces with the villagers to clearing out the village from the beetles.

***

An hour later, after many of their brethren were killed off, the Giant Ferocious Beetles returned back towards their nest in the forest. Signaling that the battle is over.

Finally, the villagers heaved a sigh of relief. They had just experienced such a tiring and difficult battle. Normally, they should be celebrating it and feels happy that they won. But, because they have lost many of their fellow villagers and most of their home was destroyed, they became spiritless and some of them even slumped on the ground, weakly and powerless.

The village took heavy damages. It would be extremely difficult to rebuild it again with the villager's poor condition.

The woman along with the children start to come out from the chief's manor, the only building that still intact, after hearing the commotion outside had subsided.

Some of them began to reunite with their relatives that had survived. While others who are unfortunate could only found the body of their relatives among the corpses.

The sounds of crying, cursing, and lamentation resound throughout the village soon after.

Adrian could only sigh as he saw those sad scenes, it brings back some unpleasant memories.

Zilong merely calmly looks at them, he might already saw the same scene many times before as he lived during a warring era, where this kind of situation happens almost every day. Therefore, he already got used to it, though he still feels sympathize to them.

Ding!!!

[System Notification: Quest "Help the villagers defending their village" is completed. You are awarded 1,000 System EXP and $15,000 System Dollar.]

Quest completion notification rang and Adrian received hefty rewards. It was the largest reward he ever got from a quest. He decided to check his status.

-----------------------------------------

Name: Adrian Dornan

Race: Human

Age: 17

t.i.tle: None

Ident.i.ty: Rogue Soldier

Profession: Soldier

Profession level : Normal (528/1000) (+0.1 Strength, +0.1 Agility, +0.1 Vitality)

Territory: None

n.o.bility: None

Skills: Basic Management Proficiency (0%), Basic Sword Proficiency (6%)

Martial arts: Western War Style (2%)

Combat technique: Gloria's Wings (Gold), Swift Tiger Thrust (Yellow)

System level : Level 0

System EXP: 1300 / 20000

Strength: 1.2

Intelligence: 0

Agility: 0.9

Const.i.tution: 0

Vitality: 0.1

Money: Gold: 10, Silver 100, Copper 1000

System Dollar: $18,500

Equipment: Gloria's Defender (Epic), Dark Leather Jacket (Normal), Plain White Cloth (Normal), Dark Leather Pants (Normal), Dark Leather boots (Normal)

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His Western War Style and Basic Sword proficiency completion rate are increased for a bit, his profession experience also raised dramatically after he killed lots of beetles. He has a total of $18,500 System Dollar now. Overall, It wasn't a bad gain after fighting for an hour.

Since the heart-wrenching atmosphere still persists, and Adrian didn't want to b.u.t.t in other people personal business. He and Zilong could only wait by sitting on the rubble near one of the destroyed houses for a while.

Adrian took the settlement token from the inventory and gazing at it as he lost in his thought.

According to the System, Settlement Creation Token are not only available exclusively in the System shop. These tokens were scattered throughout the entire Myriad's Realms, but their quant.i.ty is extremely limited.

Normally, settlements could be built without the token, but those settlements won't be blessed by the world's will and they wouldn't have a special blessing. In the end, they could only become a mediocre settlement.

A settlement that was created using the token will have the blessing of the world's will, it will receive a variety of major special buffs, and it will possess the so-called Territory Core, that could be accessed by the settlement's lord for better territory control and management. Hence, these tokens are really valuable items that were highly sought after.

Even the lowest Unique grade tokens could cost a country enormous amount of wealth, while Adrian's Mythical grade token basically hasn't appeared for a long time and it's probably already becoming a myth.

It is said that every largest city in Gloria was created using the Settlement Creation Token.

Adrian thought that having this token in his possession might make him too conspicuous. That is why he and Zilong already came out with a plan. It's mostly regarding Adrian's ident.i.ty.

Seeing that the villagers start cleaning up the corpses of the fallen, Adrian and Zilong decided to help them.

***

Several hours later, Adrian, Zilong along with all of the villagers had finished burying the dead. They have gathered again in front of the chief's manor, where all the villagers giving their thanks to both of the young men for their help.

The chief spoke to Adrian and Zilong, "I must thank you again, young sir. I wouldn't have known what will happen to us if both of you hadn't come to help. Thank you, thank you..."

The chief speaks of grat.i.tude while crying for a bit. Earlier, he and the villagers already offered both of them all of the valuable things they have left as a reward. But to their surprise, Adrian and Zilong refused it, they said it wasn't necessary as they sincerely wanted to help them. The villagers were awed and amazed by their generosity.

"You're welcome, chief. It's no problem, don't mention it... By the way, if I may ask. What are you gonna do from now? You see, the village has become a mess like this..." Adrian accepts their grat.i.tude and asked the villager's future plan.

Hearing Adrian's questions, the villager's expression sank, they could only lower their head as they were in the loss. Their already hard life now became even more difficult now. Some of them may still have relatives elsewhere, but going on a long journey is dangerous with all the beasts roaming around the surrounding lands. The future seems bleak and hopeless for these poor people.

The chief sighing and shaking his head as he replies, "We... Actually does not know what to do as well, sir. Eish... We probably would try to rebuild and hope for the better, I guess."

Adrian nodded his head slightly and said, "I see..."

Then, he exchanged glances with Zilong and nod to each other.

He opened his mouth once again, "Would you like to hear a proposition? I think I might have a plan that could help your village."

The chief was flabbergasted and hurriedly said, "How could we allow you to do that!! Sir, you've done a lot for us. For you to help us again is..."

Adrian interrupted the chief before he could finish speaking by waving his hand, "Chief, I already said it's fine, right? Look, there is no problem for me in helping you, okay. So, would you like to listen to my proposition?"

The chief is staring at Adrian who had a sincere smile on his face for a while before he looked at the villagers behind him.

Adrian's earlier word had given them a glimpse of hope inside their minds. Hopeful emotion could be seen on each of the villager's faces. They have lost almost everything. A single hope is better than nothing at this point for them.

The chief understands what his fellow villagers feel as he also felt the same thing. Thus, he agreed and spoke, "Please, sir."

Adrian smile became wider, "Good. First, let me introduce myself. My name is Adrian Dornan. While this older brother beside me is Zhao Zilong, he's my subordinate. We originally came from the mainland. It is a pleasure to meet all of you."

The villagers nodded while some of them even smile warmly as they finally knew from where did their savior come exactly.

"It was our honor to finally know both of your name, Sir Adrian. My name is Rogar, and I don't have any surname, hahaha. Ehem... Just as I mentioned before, I'm the chief of this village. Forgive me if I said it so bluntly, but what kind of proposition did you have for us?

The chief whose name is Rogar, replied while he asked Adrian's proposition.

Adrian quickly took out the Settlement Creation Token from his jacket's pocket.

"Rogar, do you know what exactly this is?" asked Adrian as he showed the token to Rogar.

Seeing the token closely and clearly, Rogar's body is trembling mightily, he spoke stutteringly and loudly, "Th...Th.That's!!! Ho... How... You?!"

'Right. Just like I've already guessed. This Rogar knew what this token was all about.' Adrian thinking to himself after he saw Rogar's reaction.

Seeing their chief was shocked beyond to death because of a small medal on Adrian's hand, the villagers tried to looking at it too. But they couldn't recognize or knew what it was, a confused look plastered on their faces.

A wolfman standing beside Rogar couldn't help but ask, "Chief, what is wrong with you? Why are you stuttering because of that? hmm... Coin?"

Rogar glared at the wolfman with bloodshot eyes and shouted, "COIN?! Are you out of your mind?! Do you know exactly what that is, huh?! That's a Settlement Creation Token, you idiot!!"

Hearing the word of Settlement Creation Token, the villagers became even more confused. They could only stare at Rogar weirdly and thinking "What the h.e.l.l was that?" inside their mind.

Rogar slapped his forehead and sighed at his fellow villager's lack of knowledge.

Adrian felt funny because of their comedic acts, "So Rogar, have you seen this thing before?"

Rogar set his vision back to Adrian, he gulped while he tries replying again, "Yes, sir. I've seen one during my youth. When I was still living in Pontus. It's a county near Eires northern coast. Back then, the count used the token to create a village in a remote land. Hehe, I was one of the settlers at that time. And if I remember correctly, the token that the count has wasn't as dazzling as the one you had, sir."

"Ah, so it's like that... Okay, since you already know what this toke is, let's get straight to the main point. My father was a n.o.ble, and I'm the third son. You probably already knew where this would lead to, right?" Adrian revealed his fake ident.i.ty to Rogar and the villager, that he had prepared with Zilong before.

Rogar and the villager nodded as they had roughly guessed both Adrian's and Zilong's ident.i.ty. The person who had magic weapons certainly must have a good background. Besides, both of their das.h.i.+ng, good-looking and clean appearances make it hard for them to be regarded as normal people.

Rogar realized something as his eyes widened, "But that means you were here for..."

Adrian's face became serious, "That's right. Since I wasn't going to inherit my father's t.i.tle, I must find my own place outside. That is why, the main reason I came to this island is to find a perfect place to build my own village and hopefully, I could make it bigger and prosper in the future. And fate leads me to your village."

Plop!

Rogar kneeled on the ground with his head down once Adrian finished speaking. One could see his body slightly trembling and tears flowing down on his face.

The villagers didn't know what happen to Rogar. They were in total confusion. Especially since Adrian has shown the token to Rogar.

"Chief! What are you doing?"

"That's right, chief. What happens to you?!"

Some villagers start calling out to him, but Rogar didn't listen to them.

Rogar raised his face and asked with pleading voice, "Sir Adrian. All of us did not have anything left. The only thing we can offer you is our utmost loyalty. I know that this request is truly excessive and shameless, not to mention that you've already helped us greatly. But please, I beg you. Please save our village."

Rogar knew what the villagers didn't. The Settlement Creation Token belongs to Adrian is the only thing that could save their village. Not only that, the token's effect will provide an immense benefit to the village. That is why Rogar is begging Adrian to use the token for this village.

The villager became even more shocked, they run their eyes alternatingly between Rogar and Adrian. They looked at each other faces and nodded.

Although they didn't know and understand what this is about, they know Rogar and trusted him greatly. Since Rogar believed that this young n.o.ble in front of them had the power to save their destroyed village, they too would believe it.

One by one, all the villagers, whether it was the man, the woman, even the children, start kneeling and kowtowing to Adrian.

Zilong gently smiled at them, while Adrian scratched his head in embarra.s.sment.

'Hah... This is nuts.'