Chương 15: Trolls and ledgers

Edran Sinclair, second in line of House Sinclair, stood by the tall window of his office, arms folded as his gaze caught the smoke trails in the distance coming out from the forests. Another nest burned. How many casualties would it have taken? One, a few, or a lot more than that. He had no way of knowing until the report sat on his desk, but he had a feeling it wouldn't have been without some bloodshed of his soldiers.

The campaign in Pascar Plains had never been easy, but this year, it was harsh enough for him to open this bottle of wine in the evening itself. He frowned. If it continued like this, he would have nothing to show to Commander Evans when he finally got asked to travel to the frontlines to tackle the dungeon outbreaks. Worse, he would be reprimanded for not being able to take care of the goblin nests and trolls. But what could he do if they were behaving out of the norm?

If he knew anything about the adjutants under the commander, those old and lowly wolves would surely try to frame it as his incompetency instead of the monsters acting strange. House Doloris had bought those men already if his father had to be believed, and that meant more work if he wanted to get noticed by the commander. A Count's shadow over him would be greatly beneficial for Edran in his military career, but Lukara had truly turned his luck away from him.

He turned away from the window, already feeling like opening some of his father's wine to relax, but froze seeing that he wasn't alone in the room.

"Mage Casper, you should have indicated you were here," he said, looking over at the woman, barely out of Astra Academy a year back. She held a book in her left arm like she always did and looked at him with her brown eyes. She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ears before speaking.

"I didn't want to disturb you, Captain Edran. You look to be in worry."

"Every campaign is filled with days of worry," he replied, walking over to his desk and taking a seat.

"It's nothing new as a Valerian captain."

"What's the reason for your current state of concern?" she asked.

"Still thinking of the troll attack, sir?"

"No," said Edran.

"It's the damn goblins. They have started to abandon their nests. Three days back, I got the first report of an abandoned nest. Since then, there's been four more. I don't understand what's going on. Goblins are laying traps, they are leaving their own nests. We should have finished burning the majority of those bastards down by now." Wordlessly, Casper picked a few of the reports lying on his desk. Edran let her do so.

Despite him being higher in command, mages held a different kind of weight over both the army and Valeria. It was important to maintain good relations with Casper, if not for anything, but her uncommon magical class. She read through the reports one by one, never putting down the book. Edran gave her time, picking up some of the ones he hadn't gone through yet. Since the reports of casualties were increasing, he didn't have the mind to go through them quickly enough.

"The situation doesn't bode well for us," said Casper, breaking the silence.

"But at least the soldiers are finding and burning the nests at a good pace. One party sent by Squad Leader Axel had burnt four nests just this week. That's pretty impressive."

"It should have been if not for the other squads only finding empty pits in the ground." He sighed, then looked at the report Casper was reading.

"You read over the report submitted by Bran from Axel's squad." Casper nodded.

"I did. According to it, Rayne found over half of the nests."

"The traitor's bastard? Yeah. It's pretty impressive, especially after the troll fight. You have taken an interest in him?" Casper kept her face neutral.

"I saved him from getting hanged. It's natural I keep an eye on him."

"I don't even know why you did that," said Edran.

"You very well know soul shards are limited in use."

"It just felt right to do so. Moreover, he has ancestral blood even if he's a bastard. You should very well know how well anyone from the lines of the Dukal houses grow in terms of combat abilities. I believe he would serve you well, Captain Edran."

"If he survives, that is." Edran agreed, a bit reluctant. He couldn't care less about Rayne Frayer being of the line of traitors. But Casper was right. Ancestral blood made him special. It felt almost a waste for the crown to force him to take on the common soldier class when the gods would have provided him rarer ones, just based on what blood he came from. But it had been a way to make sure that he died in the army and with him, the bloodline ends.

By his reckless way of fighting trolls even for noble deeds, Edran guessed the crown would get its wish soon.

"Right now, I only wish to know what in the nine hells is going on with the goblins," he said out loud. Casper put down the reports and stared at him.

"I might have the answer for that."

"What?" Edran looked back in shock.

"I have the answer to why the goblins are behaving in such a way. It didn't answer all our questions, but I believe it's the most likely scenario."

"You came here to talk to me about that?" Casper nodded.

"Yes."

"You should have said so earlier," said Edran. They had wasted time in unimportant talks.

"You know how important information is for us right now."

"I wasn't sure about it until I read the reports," said Casper before her gaze shifted out the window towards the smoke drifting through the sky, then back at him.

"What do you know about the troll war that happened seven decades back?" Edran arched an eyebrow.

"I had never heard of it."

"It's because it happened in Rosaria. The northern parts of it, so the news only travelled in passing here. It's also been so long since then. But basically, a troll warlord emerged from the Edara forests. No one knows when it began, but it started to mobilize the goblins and the other lesser monsters that gave in to his control and started attacking villages and any other human settlements." Casper placed the large tome she held on the desk. Its leather cover was cracked, and dust clung to it.

A bronze clasp sealed it shut. She slowly undid the clasp, the metal creaking as it bent. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. Casper flipped it open to a marked page. A rough charcoal sketch stared back. A towering troll wielding a hammer, wearing bones for a crown. Around it, smaller trolls and goblins marched in formation.

"I found this in the old library here at Algar. It took a while to find and go through, but there's enough information on the troll war here," she said, and Edran stared at the sketch.

"Rosaria only moved to intercept it after it had razed through half a dozen villages." Edran frowned. He scratched the back of his head, got up from his seat and moved to the cabinet to his right. Opening it up, he took out the bottle of wine he had been saving before the march to the frontlines. He opened the cork and gulped it down. A bitter, strong taste hit him and he felt his mind clear before looking back at Casper. She simply stood with no concern on her face.

"So, you are saying there's this troll warlord here?"

"It's a possibility. Just the most likely one to explain the troll attack and the abandoned goblin nests." She paused, then added.

"It could be something else too."

"Do you think it's something else?" She shook her head.

"No." Edran cursed, gulping down more of the wine. He walked back towards his desk and picked up the tome before flipping through the pages. He didn't focus on the words, just the sketches. And just by looking at them, he could tell that the Rosarian army had been obliterated before they were able to take down the warlord. One sketch in particular made him pause—a soldier getting smashed to a pulp by the troll's hammer.

"If this is real, we need reinforcements. There's no way we could deal with such a threat," he said, raising his head to look at Casper.

"What do you think would be its level?"

"The one in Rosaria was said to be Level 89, but if I'm right, the warlord in the nearby forest would be far weaker. It didn't have time to accumulate its strength and we have been burning a large number of goblin nests." Edran nodded. That made sense, but it did nothing to quench his worries. No one, including him, in the fort was well equipped to deal with such a monster.

"Find Henry and get him to call all the squad leaders to a meeting right away," Edran ordered.

"We need to send scouting parties to look for this warlord and then make a plan to deal with it." Casper nodded, putting her hand on her chest in a salute before moving back. As she turned, for a brief moment, her eyes looked at the report of Rayne's battle with the troll. Then, she was on her way.

Despite killing a troll, Rayne's larger reputation hadn't really gotten better to the point where he felt like he could hang around the fort openly. He doubted anyone would start a fight with him, but he didn't like being called a filthborn or a traitor at every turn. Bran mostly kept to himself. Nate had been too busy trying to woo the cook girl, and he could only hang around with Kesh or practice his weapon skills so much.

Hence, more often than not, Rayne spent his nights in his room, going over the ledgers or making note of every single piece of information he had learned till now. The empty notebook Axel had sent already had quite a few pages filled. Today, he had been hard at work putting together everything he'd learned on the status, the stats, and how levelling was more than just plunging a sword through a monster.

Some of it had been from his own memories, others he had picked up by eavesdropping on the conversations of soldiers, but the majority of points had come from Bran. Apparently, everyone has a status, but not everyone has a class. They also couldn't access the status without a class. You only get a class when you turn eighteen, at least in Valeria, and it happens in a ceremony of sorts. What class you get depends on several factors, and normally you choose from options.

He hadn't gotten the chance to choose since he had already been assigned to the army, and that had made the soldier class the top priority. He had been forced to select it or he would be killed. You could lose physical stats without constant training with age. Class advancements are a big part of getting promotions in the army. Also, only a fraction of class holders are able to go past the bottleneck. It comes at level 30 and could give him both a better class and a promotion, despite his current social status.

His quill hovered over the seventh point. He recalled the quest he still had running on his status screen. The first part of it was being a squad leader. He hadn't thought about it a lot, but if he was going to be in the army for years, then it wouldn't be bad to get some power under him. He doubted a squad leader had to look out for a noble brat like Fredrick. The third son of a baron didn't have that much power. Against a forsaken like him, that was another thing.

"Maybe if I'm able to get an uncommon class and breakthrough, then it might be possible," he muttered, closing the book and leaning against his chair. That didn't seem easy at all. The battles in the last week had pushed him to Level 16 with only one additional point in Agility, but if he had to estimate his actual strength, he would surely be able to take on a Level 25 soldier. Getting twice the stats and his unique skill were almost cheating. Rayne liked that until he was the one doing that.

One thing still bothered him though. Goblins were just not cutting it now. No matter how many he killed, they were weak creatures that weren't enough to push him past more levels. He needed stronger creatures if he wanted to get to the bottleneck faster. The image of the troll he had killed came to his mind. He still wanted the regeneration skill. They hadn't come across any trolls in the last week through their trek in the forest.

Apparently, most of them lived deeper on the other side of the river in a section of caves. Even if they did come across one, Bran would surely just want to retreat. He guessed that was normal when moving with new recruits, but it still made him impatient. Until new orders came, he was stuck with looking for nests and killing goblins. He frowned, closing the book and putting it down right behind the desk. It would get dusty, but if anyone broke in, they wouldn't bother to look behind it.

He had a few people knocking on his door incredulously and running away. He wouldn't get past them to break in to search his belongings. Having nothing else to do and seeing that it was close to midnight, Rayne put on his boots and decided it wouldn't be a bad thing to tire himself out with a short run. He slept better that way. He left his room, looking around at the corridor before making his way downstairs.

Most of the soldiers would have already slept by now, and there would only be some patrols going through the fort. He would make a short run and come back. But as he stepped through the stairs to the ground floor, he froze seeing Hobbs and Axel up, standing there. The latter had healed by now and turned to look at him upon hearing his footsteps.

"What are you doing up, forsaken?" Axel asked, his stern gaze falling on him. The man already looked bothered by his presence.

"Ledgers," said Rayne.

"I was working on them and then wasn't able to fall asleep. Was going for a run to tire myself out, sir."

"A run before sleep is good, but I would caution against it tonight, Rayne," Hobbs said, walking towards him to pat his shoulder in his stArdand greeting.

"Why not?" he asked, suddenly having a bad feeling in his heart. Axel chuckled.

"I guess we could tell you. Captain Edran has given the squad another death quest to head to. We are just coming back from that meeting." Rayne raised an eyebrow.

"What type of quest, sir?"

"Trolls," said Axel, and paused as if waiting for Rayne to look scared. When he didn't get that, he continued.

"He wants our squad to head to the other side of the river to look for trolls. You will get the specifics in the morning."

"That means—" Axel cut him off.

"Yes, your party is going to do that. Since you already killed a troll, I doubt it would be anything hard for you. So, go and sleep. If you can't keep your eyes open in front of a troll, you wouldn't be as lucky as you have been till now." After saying that, Axel walked past him to climb the stairs. Hobbs patted him on the shoulder again before catching up to him. Rayne kept standing there. He had wished to go after the trolls to find a regeneration skill.

But taking on one troll was vastly different than strolling through their territory. He sighed, wondering if he had just managed to jinx himself.

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