The Runesmith

‘They look really similar to the puppet soldiers on my side, It’s like a pallet swap in a game… or a rare skin.’

Roland was looking at the Kindling forces that arrived from the north side where his fort was. Their appearance was close to the Timberling soldiers that were on his side but with a few changes. The wood they were made of was a bit darker and they had some flames coming out of their wooden heads. He was not sure if they were purely cosmetic or a source of some sort of magical attack but this would become apparent in the coming battle.

“My Lord, the enemy numbers in the hundreds, what are your orders?”

“Just stick to the plan for now, as expected they have more soldiers than us but it shouldn’t be a problem if they stick to the route…”

His Aid was standing right next to him and only was capable to give him an arbitrary number of the enemy forces. On the side of the Timberlings there were fifty soldiers, all of them able to gain their second tier 1 class enhancement. Considering he took their talents into consideration he ended up with twenty spearmen, twenty swordsmen, and ten archers. Then within them, they had a subset of spearmen using shields with shorter spears while others used longer ones.

From a glance, it seemed that the Kindling forces had about four times as many people as they did. If they met each other on an open field then the result would be an obvious loss of all his soldiers. However, this was a defensive battle and even though the walls of this settlement weren’t that high, they would still need to be destroyed before they were able to directly attack his forces.

“The enemy is approaching, arches raise your bows!”

The wooden soldier captain that had leveled up to level sixty this week started giving out commands. The archers that were equipped with exploding arrows would be the center point of this defensive strategy. If they did their job well then he expected the small enemy army to be eradicated before they reached the gateway inside.

North was where his motte and bailey fort was facing and where the entrance gateway was built. It was slightly more robust than the walls on the sides and a bridge made of logs could be extended over the moat. At this moment it had been pulled back inside the castle so that the enemy forces would have to contend with the shallow waters and mud.

Roland would have loved to have some time to expand his defenses but he didn’t have enough funds for it. After creating the bare-bones facilities for his villagers he didn’t have much to spend on the defenses. He was able to scrunch enough to build a wooden rampart for the ten archers to stand on, from there they could use their ranged attacks against the opposition.

Next to the ten archers stood ten shield swordsmen that would protect them from any enemy fire that was coming. Down on the ground, the spearmen waited, there were some small holes in the log walls that could be used by them. If the enemies arrived and tried scaling them they would get poked to death.

Roland wasn’t sure if it would come to this part though, this was not a normal wave of mindless monsters but something that was simulating human behavior. If everything went as he planned it out then a huge blow would be dealt to the invaders. Normally after suffering big losses a commander should decide to pull out, perhaps their forces would lose enough morale to even flee by themselves.

It was an interesting factor in this trial that also affected his own forces. Back in the throne room where he could command everything there was a morale counting for the army. The wooden captain would raise this stat of the troops that was giving them a buff to their numbers. The same was with him, he was considered a special unit, like a hero, and whenever he was close to his troops they would be stronger. Just standing here on the rampart with the archers would boost their stats by a few levels.

“My Lord, please take shelter in the fort and leave this to the soldiers, what if something happens to you?”

“Nothing will happen to me, now order the archers to begin.”

“Yes Lord…”

Roland also noticed that his role as the ‘Lord’ was somewhat special. While he was increasing the stats of his soldiers when standing here the buff might be lost and turn into a debuff if he wasn’t careful. When he actually engaged in battle and got injured himself it would probably affect the soldiers in a negative way just like in the real world. Most of the time nobles hung out behind strong defense lines where they continued to give orders. If they were killed or captured the fighting was usually over.

If he looked at it as a strategy game, then he was a special unit with unique abilities and worth. He could probably give out a moral boost that was of a higher degree than any of his commander units but if he was defeated in battle or even injured it could adversely affect his troops. This was the same for the opposition, if their leader was defeated then if they didn’t have anyone to take over, the battle would be over.

Finally, the charge was started and signaled by a toot of a war horn. The enemy wooden soldiers started charging with spears raised. Their composition was very simple and consisted mostly of spearmen and archers. The only mounted unit was their leader that was giving out orders on top of a wooden horse which made the whole scene quite bizarre to the only human here.

‘Not much of a formation there, they are just diving towards the main gate where the archers are stationed. Is this because this is just the beginning of the trial or because they are low leveled and it limits their strategy?’

The enemy had the number advantage which gave them the edge. The wooden walls made from logs wouldn’t last for long and from afar he also spotted some wooden ladders being carried behind the troops that were charging. They intended to just scale the short walls and jump over before continuing with the assault. The archers that were visible were probably their main target of this rush as they could have attempted to get in from the sides instead.

‘Well, maybe he doesn’t want to thin out his troops, there aren’t that many of them and this is a small-scale battle…’

Roland had prepared some tactical mines which were placed on the south, west, and east sides of his city. They were spread out to signal them if anyone attempted to sneak in an attack. During this maddened rush it would have been an opportunity to sneak in from the back or from the sides but nothing went off. Neither did the scout unit that was hiding outside activate the specially made runic device.

It was time to move into phase first of the plan that was hastily prepared by him and his one and only aid. The archers took aim and started attacking the troops on the outer edges. The arrows didn’t even need to collide with their bodies as connecting with the ground was enough to produce a magical explosion.

Roland wanted to cry a bit on the inside after seeing the first arrow go up in smoke. There was not even a full week for him to prepare the ammunition as the blacksmith NPC couldn’t copy his runic designs. He was forced to inscribe each arrow tip by himself and without the possibility of drinking any mana potions.

With the lack of any magical parchment at his disposal, he needed to use the little iron that was given to him. Even though the iron ore mine had been discovered and was already operational it didn’t have enough output to keep up with the demand. He needed to burn through all the resources he was given and now the enemy troops were being guided toward some of his creations.

While the arrows packed a lot of power and were able to kill a wooden soldier in one hit, they weren’t hitting the target constantly. They had a large assortment of ammunition that their glorious lord had stayed up almost the entire week making. Even though some of them missed, they did their job of funneling them toward a certain location.

‘It’s working, they are getting onto it…’

Roland had a lot of experience with explosives and earth magic. It wasn’t a new tactic to lure opponents into a more favorable location while acting meek. The archers on top of the walls didn’t look that strong and the flimsy walls that could be easily broken down or scaled were just a distraction. The true force was packed underground in small pockets that wouldn’t be discovered even by an experienced mage.

The moment the wooden soldiers crossed a point the trap started activating. It was set up on a delay so that there was enough time for each and every mine to go off while someone was in the vicinity. Only the set planted directly in front of their moat would explode instantly and finally, the fireworks started.

*BOOM*

A group of wooden people was thrown into the air by an explosive rune. It was inscribed onto a thin plate made from pig iron and had enough power to produce a tier 2 explosive spell. Soon like dominos each and every magical explosive that was in the vicinity was going off. The troop's charge was halted and they were all going up in flames without Roland needing to engage them in battle.

‘Hm… will they retreat or continue?’

More than half of the enemy forces had gone up in flames and the ones that survived were starting to backpedal. They had lost their morale and started deserting, even when their commander was there a loss of more than half their troops in one go was devastating. Perhaps if their leader was better he would be able to rally his men once again but instead, he started attacking some of the retreating soldiers.

This worked to an extent as he was able to halt some from escaping but several had scattered to the sides where he couldn’t reach. From a force that numbered about two hundred strong, they were now closer to his forces. They had not even been able to breach their walls or placed any of their ladders and temporary bridges to get through the moat. It didn’t take a genius to realize that the battle was over and they wouldn’t have enough troops to get inside.

“Cowards! All you can do is hide behind your walls and use vile magic. I challenge your leader to a duel, does he dare to face me in single combat!?”

To Roland’s surprise, an unforeseen element emerged in the trial. His forces had managed to push back the enemy by just guiding them into a trap. He had lost none of his troops while the enemy had suffered a loss of seventy percent. Normally this would be enough to end this encounter but this commander wanted to take him on as an individual.

‘Interesting… could this give me a better grade for the trial if I accept it, or will it worsen it?’

Roland had not forgotten that this place was only a trial, everything here was fake and was made for a reason. This was just the first part of it and even now he didn’t ignore the possibility of there being levels to it. His choice of not entering the fray was also dependent on what he thought the trial expected from him.

The basis for this conclusion was due to reading up on other tier 3 trials. If it wasn’t something plain like defeating monsters or gaining an item from a castle it could have hidden checkpoints. Roland thought about what he was trying to be, an Overlord, someone that was supposed to lead a city while also crafting up a storm.

The latter part he performed by designing all the weapons for his army and also by making all the explosives. The first part was different, a lord couldn’t just put himself in danger without a good cause, and his people depended on him to survive and perform his tasks. It wouldn’t be hard for him to jump into the swarm of low-level puppets and kill them all himself. Putting himself in unnecessary danger if there were other ways to protect his lands would probably lower the hidden grade. If he was wrong then it would be fine as well, the only thing that he would lose was some sleep and all of his troops were still alive.

“How dare he call our liege a coward! Our Lord is not scared of anyone, he is the strongest of all the lords, not like yours that send out a footsoldier instead of coming to face us!”

“Hm…”

Roland noticed that the Aid that was with him started getting mad and slinging insults at the enemy commander. At first, he thought the wooden man would tell him to not engage with the enemy leader but it didn’t seem that way. During the shouting, it was becoming clear that he actually wanted him to see his lord battle this man on the horse. To simplify things even further, after stepping forward and meeting the gaze of the wooden commander he was given a message.

The trial was pushing him towards this confrontation. At the time he was given the option to refuse as his forces were winning but perhaps this was something that he could use to his advantage later. It was also an opportunity to see where this went and considering that his opponent wasn’t that strong, there was no reason to refuse the challenge.

“I accept your challenge.”

The moment he spoke those words a strange phenomenon started taking place. Outside his wooden fortress, a ring of around thirty meters in diameter started forming on the ground. Where before there were chunks of fallen wooden men a flat surface was being formed. All the bodies and mangled weapons were pushed outside. The ring started flashing a bit as if it was trying to send some kind of signal and this prompted the enemy commander to move toward it and dismount. After grabbing his weapon of choice which was a large halberd he entered the ring where he began standing without moving a muscle.

‘I guess that’s the battle arena, it doesn’t look like the other soldiers will attack me while I’m in there…’

During this week Roland had worked without rest to create a lesser version of his armor. There wasn’t much to work with as what he was left with was just a pair of steel gauntlets, reinforced steel boots, and an old iron breastplate that had already been there before. It allowed him to use some lesser spells but should be more than enough for his coming battle.

‘They all are acting a bit strange…’

His own forces opened up the gate for him without Roland even needing to order them. It was as if he was inside a cinematic that he couldn’t interact with after accepting the challenge. The ring began to flash a bit faster which made him believe that he only had limited time to get to it. Perhaps if he waited for too long the duel would be halted and it would look as if he got cold feet.

“Foolish Lord, this will be your resting ground, your head will be proof of my loyalty to the true lord of these lands!”

“Hoh, is that so? You really think you can beat me with those stats?’

His opponent raised his large halberd and was ready to charge. Roland took a moment to look at the levels and realized that this would be the next upgrade to his own Captain. The wooden puppet before him was close to his height and a lot more robust looking. He was even wearing a full set of half-plate armor made of steel. One of the reasons that he accepted this challenge was the gear this unit was wearing which would let him enhance his fighting capabilities even further.

“Have at you! Become my stepping stone!”

“Yes yes…”

Roland pointed out with his hand at the large wooden soldier that started charging at him. Before he could come anywhere near the new lord of the fort a blue bolt of energy shot forward and even though a deflection was attempted with the large halberd, the weapon buckled under the pressure before being slammed back.

It wasn’t much of a battle really. The level difference was too high and Roland never intended to let the wooden puppet get near him. In a battle of brawn against magic, magic usually came out on top when a mage was able to cast their spell. In Roland's case where he could circumvent chanting this battle became target practice. In under a minute the duel was over and the puppet's head exploded from a well-placed mana arrow to the face.