Several days had passed by in a blur of frantic work.
Akira was in his room sitting on his bed, getting ready to sleep, when he received a message from the system.
Ding!
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Class upgrade… 100%!
3…2…1… Beginning upgrade!
A black misty aura Enveloped Akira’s entire body, startling Fluffball who had just finished a midnight snack and was about to jump onto the bed and join Akira under the warm fur covers.
“Yap!?” Fluffball let out a questioning bark wondering if Akira was okay or if something was attacking him.
Running from one side of the bed to the other Fluffball tried to find an opening to the black mist aura that covered Akira but could not find one. He ran to the entrance of the room to find someone for help but found the door locked shut.
Akira had started to do this recently in order to keep the girls out of his room and give him some privacy.
Fluffball reluctantly walked over to the bad and sat down watching the black mist that had now solidified around his master. All he could do was wait and see what happened.
The dark night changed to early dawn. The early morning’s gray cold light fell on the solid black mist aura that covered Akira.
Crack! The loud sound alerted Fluffball who had dozed off.
Fluffball watched intently as large cracks started to appear on the outside of the solid black misty.
Pieces of the solid black mist fell down and disappeared before reaching the bed or the ground.
With the black mist gone Fluffball could now see Akira who had transformed into his werewolf form.
Fluffball senses could tell that his master had changed greatly. There was still a small amount of black mist that clung to his body. It swirled around him slowly and looked like it would not leave anytime soon.
Ding!
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Class upgrade Successful!
You are now level 100 class rank C: Intermediate
Fame +10
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Class skills and traits upgraded!
Werewolf fur has been upgraded to Intermediate 2.
[Eyes of the werewolf] has been upgraded (Intermediate 2, Active): Enhanced night vision along with a new skill effect.
[Life detection]: When the skill is activated you are able to see the heat signatures of all living creatures within 500 ft. The skill lasts for three minutes.
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New class skills have been learned!
Commander class skill – Darkness domain (Stage 1): Create a dark aura that covers a large area giving the skill user and allies inside the Darkness domain a buff to speed, vision, and morale.
Any enemy that enters the Darkness domain and is weaker than the skill user will receive a full debuff slowing them, obscuring their vision making it harder for them to see others, as well as lower their morale. The effects for those at or above the skill users level will be halved.
This skill is the base for multiple other skills. Leveling it up by using it repeatedly will increase the area that can be covered as well as its effects and the effects it has on the branching and related skills.
Black mist armor (Active): When activated a black mist aura will cover your body and act as an extra layer of armor to block skill attacks as well as physical attacks.
The skill is far weaker during the day but is able to show its full power at night or in darkness.
Akira opened his eyes feeling full of energy. He quickly read through the messages and was excited to try out the new skills.
He energetically jumped out of bed and found Fluffball on the ground staring at him with his head cocked to the side wondering what was wrong with his master’s head.
“Yap!?”
“What? My body?” asked Akira.
With Fluffball’s question, Akira looked at his body and found he was already transformed.
Upon further inspection, he found that he had grown at least a head taller and his Muscles were now far denser than before. They could now exert 2x the strength from before. His black fur was even more eye-catching as it was very glossy and had a firmness that was even stronger than some of the best chain mail. Everything with a point namely his teeth and claws had grown sturdier and sharper.
Lastly, he noticed a faint dark mist aura clinging to him even though he had not activated any skill. It was giving off a firm feeling of strength and power. As he swiped his claw at the mist he felt a solid resistance that only lasted a second before parting.
Akira returned to his human form and found that changes to his body also affected him here as well. He was taller, stronger, more handsomely rugged looking.
The black mist surrounding his body slowly faded until it was only a slight haze. To Akira’s surprise, it did not disappear completely.
Before he could test out the news skills loud hammering was heard on his door.
“Big brother! How long are you going to sleep in? There is a lot of work we still have to do and the second wall will soon be finished sometime today! Are you trying to push all the work onto your cute little sister?” asked Azura as she hammered on his locked door.
Akira sighed and started changing into clean clothes and warmer winter gear.
“Stop banging on my door! You’re going to wake up the rest of the castle! I’m getting dressed, hold on.”
When Akira and Fluffball exited his bedroom Mileena was also exiting her own room with Maya following behind her.
“Azura you’re always so noisy in the morning. Don’t you know how to be quiet?” asked Mileena with a long yawn. As she stretched, her furry ears twitched and her tail stood up straight.
“You’re just like a cat, always sleeping and complaining about your beauty sleep. Jeez, how did big brother get caught by someone like you…” said an unsatisfied Azura.
“Alright, no need to start fighting like cats and dogs. Let’s all eat quickly as we have a lot to do today,” said Akira.
“Did you grow taller?” asked Mileena as she came over to Akira and inspected him with drowsy eyes.
“There seems to be a faint haze around him as well,” said Maya as she looked at Akira.
“You guys are overthinking things,” said Akira with a wave of his hand brushing off their suspicion.
“What are you doing today?” asked Azura.
“As you said, I have to oversee the completion of the wall then, I will be reviewing the infantry and the cavalry. After that, I will see what is left on my to-do list.”
As they ate a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, they made small talk before leaving the room and heading out to complete the day’s tasks.
***
With the second wall completed Akira was now overseeing the placement of the new ballista on the second wall’s towers.
“How long until you can start on the third wall?” Akira asked the foreman of the wall projects.
“Lord, we can start immediately but if the mines can’t keep up with the supply of stone we will have to constantly stop and start again as we wait for them to send over the stone,” said a middle-aged werewolf man with spiky red hair.
“We should be able to produce enough for the third wall without causing many delays. We already have a small stockpile,” said a Muscular bald dwarf. The only hair on his head was his beard, even his eyebrows were missing.
“Alright, after you finish doing a full inspection of the second wall you can begin working on the third wall,” ordered Akira before dismissing the two.
He continued to walk atop the new wall looking out towards the lower first wall.
“This defense system you cooked up looks quite impressive,” said Zundar. He was walking next to Akira along with Dolph and Vilkas who were following a few steps behind him.
“We need everything we can get in order to stop those with ill intentions. Especially the demigods,” said Akira as he watched the city guards paroling atop the first city wall.
“Lord the Infantry and cavalry are waiting for your inspection,” reminded Dolph.
“You’re right, we should go and get that done so we can work on whatever is next on my list,” said Akira, as he began descending a set of stone steps. They headed towards the barracks using their Garg mounts.
When he arrived he found Varbu, Gobalina, Gobbers, and Klyn all waiting. Akira silently nodded to them and turned his attention to the large mass of soldiers from each demon race.
In front of him were the three fully trained armies. One from each demon race that lived in the city of Kodria excluding the Dwarves and few traders.
Each army currently held 1500 soldiers who were in full parade formation. Behind them stood another 500 soon to be young soldiers who were close to finishing their training. And even further back behind the werewolf army was a large group of 5000 warriors all from the southern clans who were also almost finished with their training.
To the side of the groups stood 300 of the 400 city guards. The Naval marines were all busy on their ships paroling the river and the lake and could not be here for the inspection.
Akira rode up and down the rows of soldiers and after inspecting each of the three armies, Akira was pleased as he found that several of the soldiers had reached the rank of Veteran which was level 80.
If they continued to grow stronger they would reach the Elite rank 1 at level 100.
Nodding his head Akira looked over to Klyn and asked, “How are your studies of the ancient language and the understanding of the holy sorcery coming?”
“Everyone has the basics down. We are now trying to solidify that base so that we have an easier time trying to puzzle the next part,” said Klyn who looked like he had not had much sleep in the past week. This was accurate since he had been spending most of his time with the others studying the language and the book’s holy sorcery instead of sleeping.
“Varbu, Gobalina, Gobbers, your soldiers all look just as good as the werewolf soldiers, very nice. You should have no major problems with any monsters or other demon tribes in the future when you head out,” said Akira complementing the three.
“Gi, giii gii,” said Gobbers as he nodded his head in agreement.
“Alright, you can dismiss everyone. I still have to go and inspect the heavy and light cavalry,” said Akira with a wave of his hand before leaving the area.
When Akira had crossed the lake and arrived at the stables he found the 300 Garg cavalry formed up in three blocks of ten rows. On the left and the right side of the three blocks were 25 new Buster sleds making for a total of 50 sleds.
Akira had Delgar and those under him quickly knock out several of them based on his prototype. After looking at the finished product he was quite satisfied.
The armored sled held the small swivel ballista and had a max crew of three soldiers. One to drive the sled one to control the ballista and a spearman to fight off anyone who got close using several weapons including javelins, spears, and a sword. If needed each of the soldiers in the sleds could dismount and act as a quick reactionary ground infantry force of 150 soldiers.
Akira considered the sleds as light cavalry due to their weaknesses of not being as heavily armored as the Gargs or as fast as them since their sled was pulled by several reindeer, and relied on staying out of range of the enemy.
While the 300 Gargs were the heavy shock cavalry that could charge in and cause havoc before escaping and appearing elsewhere.
‘Several young pups were born a short time ago and with time they will be ready to join the others,’ said Grarr with satisfaction. The growth of his pack had received a large boost with the abundance of food, water, and shelter.
This was also good news for Akira and Kodria.
As Akira and Grarr inspected the formation Klyn exited a small boat and rushed over to Akira.
“What is it?” asked Akira seeing the flustered Klyn nearly trip over his feet in the uneven snow.
“Grandfather has just informed me that the shaman scouts he sent out have reported a large gathering of werewolves disembarking ships several days north! He wants to know what you want to do.”
Ding!
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Quest update!
Stop the Saber fang clan’s army from reaching Kodria! Accomplish this by either persuasion or by force, pushing them back and away from Kodria’s territory.
The mission reward has been updated: Special upgrade for the outer city wall.
“Awoooooo! Awooo! Awoo~!”
Akira sent out several howls commanding the armies to fully mobilize. The infantry was ordered to gather their equipment and rations and board the transportation boats, while the navy and city guard were ordered to go into their war battle stations.
“Calvary! You have 10 minutes to gather your rations. Then we will head out first and will intercept the approaching army,” shouted Akira.
“Why are you going to run there? Why not use the boats?” asked Klyn who hopped onto Grarr’s back behind Akira.
“If we put all the Gargs on the boats there would be none left for the infantry and they would have to march north and would be too slow as well as too tired to be effective. We are fast enough that we can meet up with the infantry as they disembark the boats further north to intercept the army and their boats. With the navy protecting them they should not have any problems,” said Akira as he watched the cavalry running back to their mounts with several days of rations.
When everyone was ready Akira drew his sword and pointed it to the north.
“Move out!”
