Chapter 79 Preparation

~ Human kingdom of Astrata, City of Redfall, The Royal Castle ~

A guard in beautiful decorative golden armour rushed around passages in a sprawling castle, carrying with him a golden scroll holder.

It was inaccurate to call it a castle, as it was much bigger than that. It was more like three castles that had merged into one huge military complex; commonly called “the three sisters” by the peasants who lived around it.

This was the home of the royal family, where most of the higher tier military generals lived, and where the majority of top-secret magic research and manacraft took place.

Underneath one of these three sister castles was where the mage hunters operated, and this was where the golden scroll holder started its journey – from one of their special prisons.

After Alben the prophet made a grand claim of death, a new king, and a necromancer, an official report was made.

This report had to be signed by three of the higher level personnel before it would even see the eyes of the royalty, and this was the reason for the guard rushing through the castle with the scroll.

Finally, after rushing about with the scroll to get three signatures, the guard finally made it to the infamous golden doors.

The golden doors were as good as an urban legend to commoners, but every royal guard knew that these were real; they were the entrance to the most secure place in the kingdom – protected not only by physical force, but also by high level magic.

Another guard in a higher tier of decorative armour that made his own look like trash stopped him, he stood before a file of these guards the door. These were part of the elite royal guards.

The royal guard held out his hand without saying a word..

The elite door guard’s armour even had a mana shield that created a lightly glowing bubble, which he had to deactivate as he grabbed the scroll holder.

Similar to the royal court being protected physically and magically, the elite royal guards were too.

With a nod, he checked the three signatures were present before returning the scroll to its holder and turning around; into the golden doors he slotted a magical key which has wisps of a glowing aura circling it, colours of pinks and yellows flashing around it.

The golden doors opened with a crack. He passed the scroll through to an inner guard before sealing the doors again.

The prophecy had successfully made it into the royal court.

– – –

*Knock knock knock*

*Ahh~*

Jay yawned as he woke up.

“Who the?… Oh right, Trenly was coming over today.” Jay needed a moment to get his thoughts together – and then saw that he had a few notifications, but he decided to read them later.

“Hang on, I’m coming!” he called out as he got out of bed, drank some water and made his way downstairs.

“Damn, he’s so energetic, how…” he thought as he opened the door, seeing Trenly’s energetic face.

“Morning! I told you I’d be quick with hunting.” Trenly said proudly.

“Come in.” Jay opened the door after glazing at him once, walking back into the kitchen to make himself some breakfast.

“Just give me like… 10 minutes to wake up. Have a seat at the table.” Jay pointed to his dining table as he found some food for breakfast.

“So, what did you end up hunting?”

“A hobbit-boar.”

“Eugh, a hobbit-boar. Good enough I suppose. Let’s get started.”

Jay spent the next half an hour butchering the boar infront of Trenly, showing him where to cut, which tool to use as well as the best and worst cuts of meat.

“Since this isn’t very nice meat I think we will just salt it and make some jerky.”

Trenly nodded along, remembering every movement Jay made with each of the butcher tools.

“When you buy some better meat we can make sausages, patties, schnitzels, things like that. Today I want you to go to the market and buy an ox-badger and a glade deer. We’ll open the shop tomorrow after we prepare them.” Jay said as Trenly nodded along.

“Also, buy this list of vegetables and herbs too.” Jay began to write a simple list before handing it to Trenly.

Jay thought to himself as he gave Trenly the list

“Hmm, I’ll need to check on the skeletons.”

He turned to Trenly before leaving. “I’ll be back in a few hours so here’s a spare key.”

Jay took out a key from a vase that was on a window sill and handed it to Trenly.

Everything happened so quickly but still, Trenly managed to pay attention to everything.

“Right, a deer and a badger, got it. I’ll see you in a few hours.” Trenly was to the point. He eyed the butchered hobbit-boar, committing it to memory one more time before leaving.

“Man, he seems like a hard worker, I like that.” Jay thought as he transferred the salted boar into a barrel.

“Well, I better check on the skeletons.. Oh, and those notifications too.”

[2740 Exp]

[Level Up]

[5 Free Attribute Points]

[1 Free Skill Point]

“What the fuck, I levelled up?” A wide smile appeared on Jay’s face.

“It’s almost too easy.”

“Now, where should I put my points… hmm. I never thought I would have energy problems but I did yesterday.”

Jay thought for a moment “But I can recover my energy much more quickly than health by simply sitting down, and losing energy doesn’t put my life at risk… I think for now I’ll dump it all into health.”

With 5 more points into vitality, Jay’s health rose up to 93.

“Damn that’s high” Jay smiled at his high HP stat, “to think when I was level one, I was doing one damage with my shitty kitchen knife. I wouldn’t stand a chance against my current self – let alone my insane skeletons.” he chuckled to himself.

“Now, my next skill point… hmm..” Jay looked over his skills.

“Do I want higher level skeletons or an extra one…”

Looking at his restoration skill, he didn’t even consider it worthy of thought. If a skeleton was injured, he could just raise it back if its health was too low, and it was probably even more mana-efficient that way anyway.

“No, my minions are my strength… I should focus on them.”

Jay’s eyes drifted to his [Shift] skill as he looked at his stats.

“Hmm.. perhaps I can save it. I did get a class skill at level 5, so maybe there will be one at level 10” Jay thought as he looked at his ring.

“Yep,” he confirmed his decision. “I’ll just save it and see what happens when I hit level 10”

With a nod, Jay left his house and went back to the dungeon where he left his skeletons.