B10: Chapter #2 (Patreon)

Turning off the water, Thorn began to dry himself, continuing to think about his new title. Of all three abilities that the Titan of Earth title had given him, by far the most powerful also seemed the simplest on the surface. Thorn already had a huge advantage because of his ability to understand Vedazem, the language of Titans, but becoming Titan of Earth had perfected his knowledge of it. The impact of this ability was manifold, but the most direct impact was that Thorn realized he had not been pronouncing the ancient runes that he already knew perfectly.

While they worked powerfully, Thorn estimated that pronouncing the words correctly would lead to a fifteen to twenty percent increase in their efficiency, making it easier for him to cast more ancient runes. Even more importantly, the other seventeen runes that his master, High Mage Keadore, had tasked him with learning had suddenly become completely clear to him. Without ever having studied them, Thorn knew that the next time he entered the [Codex of the Mountain] he would be able to complete the proficiency requirements for leveling up his class once more. Though he had no idea what was next, Thorn was looking forward to seeing what a triple category Magi class was like. Closing out the windows related to his title, Thorn opened up his race, reading over it again.

Voidforger Titan - Unique

Now lost in the mist of time, this ancient race once ruled the world, rivaled only by the great Dragons. Long-lived and immensely strong, the Titans were masters of almost anything they put their hand to and created a far-reaching empire that is still ruled by the Elemental Giants. Little else is known about the Titans, and further information must be unlocked through discoveries in game.

You have advanced to the esteemed state of a Voidforger, the lord class of the Titan race. Equipped with tremendous strength, unparalleled speed, the natural resistances of the Titan race, and access to the wisdom of past Titans, the Voidforgers bring consummate forging skill to bear in the worlds they maintain. Using their unparalleled will, they forge and reforge entire worlds, granting safety and stability to their inhabitants.

Racial Traits

Titan Forged Strength: Drastically increased resistance to mind-affecting conditions.

Titan Forged Endurance: Drastically increased resistance to physical conditions.

Titan Forged Will: Your will, already tougher than any other, has gained an additional level of tempering through your connection to the Great Forge, becoming as strong as the world itself.

Consummate Warrior Domain: You gain absolute awareness of yourself and your surroundings. Additionally, you are immune to combat penalties from being outnumbered.

The changes to Thorn’s body in the wake of his race leveling up were considerable, and Thorn did not have to do anything to know that he was suddenly much tougher. Though an attack from a blade would still cut open his skin, both mind-affecting and body-affecting conditions like stun, confusion, poison, or bleeding, lasted only a tenth of their normal length, if they affected him at all. Furthermore, he had been learning about mental energy and its applications alongside Mina and they had discovered that in order for many non-physical attack abilities to work, the attacker needed to have a stronger will than their target.

With Thorn’s [Titan Forged Will], it became nearly impossible for anything to affect him that was not a pure physical attack. Magic that targeted his soul or his mind just bounced off of his will like it was a solid wall. Thorn had taken to thinking of it as a suit of armor that his mind and soul wore at all times. Though it did not make Thorn completely immune to all magic, it also provided a bit of a resistance to physical spells, making Thorn even more of a natural tank than he had been before. The clearest impact, however, was to Thorn’s ability [Echoing Will].

Echoing Will - [40%]

[Elemental Control (Earth)], [Spiritual Sense of Earth], [Natural Mana Sense], [Earth Sense], and [Consummate Warrior Domain] have combined due to extraordinary circumstances, unlocking an ability lost to the mists of time.

As you master yourself, you master the world. Each movement of your heart creates a ripple that changes the world around you, either through your action or inaction. Bear carefully the responsibility that this ability brings, always remembering that a choice, once made, cannot be undone.

By combining multiple ancient runes with your control over earth energy you have improved your understanding of how to leverage your advantages. By creating a new ability of considerable power you have increased your mastery of Echoing Will by 5%.

The reforging of your will by the Great Forge has drastically increased your ability to exert your will on the world around you. Under the influence of the Great Forge, you have increased your mastery of Echoing Will by 25%.

Continue exploring your connection to the world to unlock Echoing Will further.

Like his Titan of Earth title, an increase in [Echoing Will] did not have immediate benefit, but ever since [Echoing Will] had jumped up to forty percent, Thorn found that the entire world looked different to him. As he breathed, he could feel the world around him flexing. After really careful examination, he realized that it was not actually happening, but instead seemed to be an indication that the world was actively reinforcing the area around him. The feeling that he could, if he so chose, simply break through the world, was growing in his heart and mind, making Thorn think of Gustav Eisenstadt the Fifth, the Emperor who had ascended into the sky after saving the capital city.

As his ability continued to grow, Thorn was positive that he would eventually reach that same point where the world itself would reject him for fear that a tap of his hand would disrupt it beyond repair. Until then, Thorn knew that the most important thing for him to do was learn to control it. The increase in [Echoing Will] meant that his more powerful abilities like [Earth Dividing Strike] and [Earth Step] could be used more often and his ancient runes were more powerful, but Thorn was sure that there were other uses for it that he had not discovered.

Earth Dividing Strike

Combining your awareness and [Consummate Warrior Domain] with your absolute control over earth elemental energy and the ancient rune of the Titan language, Vedazem, you have created an attack that goes beyond the realm of sharpness, splitting the very world as it passes by.

This ability can be used with any weapon up to the mythic tier and can cut any physical substance one tier higher than the weapon used to deliver the blow.

Seeing a word in the description that he had never run across, Thorn was sure that he had started to scratch the surface of the secrets that Intra Mundum held. There did not seem to be any point in trying to learn more about what ‘mythic tier’ might mean at the moment, but Thorn filed it in the back of his head. Getting a notification that breakfast was ready, Thorn got dressed and quickly sorted his gear, depositing some of the stuff he did not need in his secure chest. As he left his room he opened up his quest log to see what he still had to do.

You have no active quests. To find more quests, please continue to play Nova Terra.

Walking through Moon Wolf Citadel, Thorn could not help but marvel at how much he had changed since he first spawned in Berum. Though it had not been that long in the grand scheme of things, Thorn felt like a completely new person. It was almost embarrassing to him to remember how naive he had been. It was not even that he felt particularly older, it was just that what he had experienced in Nova Terra had tempered his heart, mind, and soul. He had come into the game wanting an escape from the challenges of life, but the longer he played, the more in love he fell with facing and overcoming those challenges.

The door to the dining room was open and inside Thorn could see that a massive feast had been laid out. Commander Del’har was there, standing beside Thorn’s giant chair as he waited for his lord to arrive. Mina and Velin were also there, chatting with Del’har, Corvo, and Hasta. Hearing their conversation drift through the open door, Thorn could not help but smile. His most recent adventure had been more fun than anything he had done since he started playing, but seeing his friends talking about the upcoming challenges made his soul positively beam.

“My lord!”

When Thorn came through the door, Commander Del’har quickly advanced and bowed deeply. Corvo and Hasta both mimicked the Commander, surprising Thorn slightly. It had been a bit since anyone had taken his status into consideration and Thorn had very conveniently forgotten all about it. Smiling wryly, he waved for them to stand up and then sat down. The table was bursting with food, which was good because Thorn was starving. Waffles with fresh fruit and cream, pancakes dripping with sweet syrup, slabs of steak and trays of sausage, eggs prepared in three different styles, biscuits with sweet and savory jams, vegetable and meat quiche, four different fruit pies, piles of fresh fruit, oatmeal, and two baked breakfast casseroles decorated the table, and as Thorn and his friends dug in, the kitchen continued to bring food out.

The others finished their breakfasts fairly quickly and seeing them push their plates back, Thorn smiled and sped up. He had held off on eating a bit to make sure everyone got what they wanted, but once they were done, everything was fair game. His knife and fork never stopped and plate after plate of food simply vanished down his gullet until the table was completely empty save for a pile of dirty plates. Sighing with happiness, Thorn finished his juice and put his cup down. Pushing back his chair he stood up, nodding to the others.

“Alright, that was delicious. That is the one bad part about questing. The breakfasts are not up to scratch.”

“I thought my oatmeal was pretty good,” Velin said with a teasing look, causing Thorn to grin.

“Oh, it was delicious, just severely lacking in the quantity department.”

Walking toward the door, Thorn stopped and looked at Commander Del’har who was beside him.

“Commander, where is the meeting being called?”

“The throne room, sir.”

“Throne room? Why there?”

“Because this is an official war council,” Velin said, looking at Corvo, who nodded.

“Yeah,” Corvo agreed. “We got news while you were in the shower. Mina was right, the three dukes have begun to push their troops forward. We expect them to cross into the duchy within the next few hours.”

“Hmm. Any chance they are just posturing? Like they’ll come up to the border and stop?”

“No,” Corvo shook his head, “I wasn’t clear. Their advanced units have already launched attacks. The main body of each army is what is on their way over.”

“Got it. You can give me details at the meeting. Any word from Duke Carlton yet?”

“Yes, he is ordering a full deployment of all troops. We’ve been tying into his network for the last few weeks so he knew as soon as we did.”

“Good. Where are we with our deployment?”

“Hold on, Thorn,” Velin said, patting his arm. “Let’s wait until everyone is here before we begin talking about everything.”

“Haha, fair.”

When they arrived at the throne room there were a dozen players and natives from the valley waiting for them. Recognizing the guild administrators and some of the officers from his troops, Thorn waved. Walking up the steps to the Wolf Throne, Thorn sat down and gestured for everyone else to sit.

“Thank you all for coming on short notice,” Thorn said, smiling as he looked around the room. “It seems like things never slow down, do they? I’m sure you have heard, but bear with me, I want to make sure everyone is on the same page. A few hours ago the other three duchies, Great Plains, Cloudwave, and Dirgehold, all launched attacks on the Ironhold Duchy. Since we border two of the duchies, we will be facing their land armies, but the Cloudwave forces are landing on our shores as well as sending an army toward the capital. Corvo will fill us in on the details.”

“Hello everyone,” Corvo said, rising and giving everyone a wave. “Currently, the Dirgehold Duchy has sent advanced units to attack Sage Ford and the Sappsire port while their main army advances north toward Buck. Their goal is to secure both Sagefell and Iron River, giving them access to surround Stormwatch from the west and south. The Great Plains Duchy is attacking Bell, Widldrac, and Nekyt. Their main forces are heading through Bell for Bayside, and I think they’ll be heading around Great Tempest Lake toward Kroy to cut Stormwatch off from the north. As for Cloudwave, they are assisting with the assaults against both Nekyt and Sappsire.”

Finished with his outline of the situation, Corvo looked at Thorn and saw him nod. As the Avatar of Huginn sat down, Thorn spoke again.

“As you can see, this is a premeditated and comprehensive attack. The reality is that we are going to be pretty drastically outnumbered, though both the quality of our armor and our soldiers is better than the other duchies. We have been commanded to deploy all of our forces to support the southern border against Dirgehold. Commander Hasta, what is our current troop composition and where are we with our deployment?”

Standing up, Hasta bowed to Thorn and addressed the whole group.

“Our advanced troops have already deployed, sir. The six thousand members of the Iron Wolf Army are heading south and will cross the Iron River at the House of Magisterium before heading to Buck. Currently, we have two forces getting ready to deploy, our ten battalions and the fifteen thousand strong valley guard. However, judging from the reports, we are going to need at least two hundred thousand more troops if we are going to fight Dirgehold’s main army.”

“I know we are outnumbered, but how bad is it?” Thorn asked.

“The Dirgehold army is approximately one million soldiers, sir. Great Plains has around two million, and Cloudwave is approximately nine hundred thousand.”

“Whew, four million soldiers? We might need to start recruiting. How are their armies so big?”

“They have conscripted around sixty percent of their peasants,” Corvo said, his face grim. “A large part of the enemy will be peasants with no armor and whatever weapons they can put their hands on. Their professional armies are all around five hundred thousand soldiers, but even so, that is one and a half million professional soldiers against five hundred thousand for Ironhold. As if being outnumbered three to one isn’t bad enough, we’re going to get swamped by two and half million farmers.”