Reborn as the First Boss, Chapter 34 (Patreon)

Chapter 34 – The Cost

Walking through the village showed me that things were not as bad as they could have been. Stone walls meant that most of the homes and shops were still standing, if gutted and roofless thanks to fires. Only a few buildings had been so unlucky as to get hit directly enough by the catapults that their walls crumbled.

I knew the reason for it, of course. The goblins had not wanted to conduct a long siege. The siege weapons were tools to frighten and distract the defenders, giving the goblins an easier time getting into the village. If we hadn’t come with reinforcements, and prepared for them, then it might have worked. After all, if there were the panicked cries of people burning in their homes behind them, only the most heartless person wouldn’t at least be distracted, even if they remained at their posts.

Getting the people to take all their supplies and hide in the mines had probably saved many lives, and definitely meant that Stonebreak would recover quickly. Far more quickly than if they were left with nothing but stone walls and no food or supplies. Any survivors would have been quickly turned into refugees, and the mining village would have been shut down completely. Sure, the mines would need to be surveyed and the entrances reinforced before it would be safe for the miners to return to work, but that was a matter of days or weeks, not months or years to rebuild and repopulate the entire village.

The few people I saw along the way were tallying the damage to different buildings, leaving markings in chalk on the wall nearest the door to signify what was needed. When I asked Roland about it, the guildmaster explained the markings. Most of the people doing the checks weren’t Builders or anything like that, so it was no detailed assessment, but more basic stuff, like ‘roof’ noting the building needed repairs or replacement to the roof, and such things. Some buildings were marked with a large X, indicating that the person inspecting them thought the building too far gone, and it needed to be torn down and replaced. Those were usually the ones with a hole in the walls.

Soon enough, we were at the storehouse. Somehow, it had remained untouched in the fighting. Likely because it was further back from the walls, closer to the mine entrance. Its purpose, when not serving as an impromptu command center, was to hold stone and ore from the mines until they could be sold on to either local crafters or merchants heading elsewhere in the realm.

I heard the sounds of conversation as Astruth pushed open the door to the storehouse, but they all died when I stepped into view. Captain Lunet was there, along with Jasmine from the Ebon Hearts and several other soldiers and townsfolk. There were smiles all around as I walked up to the table where they were going over different reports.

“My Lady!” Captain Lunet said as she saluted. “If I had known you were up, I would have come to report to you! No need for you to be taxing yourself walking around, after last night.”

I waved her off with a smile. “No need to worry, Captain. One of my items bore an enchantment that was key to my winning that fight. But as I’m sure you all know, such things don’t come without consequence. More than doubling all your attributes during a fight makes you faster, stronger, tougher, and all that, but when the enchantment runs its course, well, you’re lucky if you’re still able to stand after something like that.”

Lunet nodded. “Something for emergencies only, then, as we thought. Well, I can’t say that facing down a Goblin Lord with the Hero title wouldn’t qualify as an emergency, so well done, my Lady. But what about the orb of light that was seen passing from the Goblin Lord to you after the fight?”

“You know how the Voice of the World says that the Hero’s soul empowers the one by their side as they die in that message it sends to everyone? Well, it appears that the one closest to the hero as they die gains the benefits of that. I don’t know what effects it normally has, but, in this case, it gave me a boost to my Dexterity, and the [Bargaining] and [Savage Aura] skills.”

Lunet frowned. “Why those skills? The boost to Dexterity I can understand, since goblins are fast little shits. But why those skills?”

Jasmine leaned in, and said, “Well, [Bargaining] is obvious enough, and a common skill many people have. [Savage Aura], though, is something you often see in monsters, or some barbarian-type classes, and is well known. Basically, it causes allies within range to go into a rage. Boost to health and immunity to fear, but they go into a killing frenzy, not quite to the level of not knowing friend from foe, but they won’t care anything for their defense, or supporting their allies, which makes it fairly useless for most parties.”

Roland took a breath, and said, “[Savage Aura] is a skill that often belongs to Goblin Lords. It is part of what makes them so hard to fight, since they turn their horde into a bunch of berserkers. It would make the most sense if the ‘Hero soul’ bit gave you some of his skills, my Lady. But why would a Goblin Lord have [Bargaining]?”

“Well, the Voice of the World originally wanted to give me [Intimidation], but I already had the skill. It then looked for a similar skill amongst the skills I had available but hadn’t purchased yet.”

Lunet nodded. “Then that makes things fall into place. So, the Voice of the World gives a boon to those who are next to a Hero when they die, granting them some of their strength. But why give it to an enemy, and not an ally?”

I chuckled at that. “In that case, why would the Voice of the World give the [Hero] title to a Goblin Lord? Most likely the Voice does not care about simple distinctions like that. Either that, or it is an extra boon to the victor, for overcoming such a tough fight.”

The Guildmaster chuckled. “I believe our Baroness has the right of it. I remember, back during the last time that a Hero was running about, something similar would happen when a monster granted some form of the [Boss] title. I believe it was called a ‘chaos orb’, or the like? Whoever was closest when the killing blow was struck would gain some of the Boss’s power, supposedly.”

I clapped my hands to dismiss that line of thinking. “We can find out about that if any Bosses show up and need to be sent on their way, like the Goblin Hero was. For now, let us turn our attention back to the matter at hand. What’s the butcher’s bill like? How many did we lose, and how many wounded?”

Captain Lunet sighed. “Not as bad as things could have been. Jasmine, you want to talk about the fighting on the ridge first?”

“Sure,” the adventurer nodded. “We had the Ebon Hearts up on the ridge, like you know, along with a golemancer and some of the villagers. Total of twenty. Things got close, towards the end, when the golem went down, as things closed to a melee.”

“Yes, I would have liked to put more up on the ridge,” I said, “but we were already short of hands. How bad was it?”

“Well, we of the Ebon Hearts had more experience with things getting up close and personal. The hunters who were up there with us just weren’t trained for that kind of fighting. That’s why they were hunters, not adventurers. Seven of them killed outright, and three more wounded to the point they’ll be either living as cripples, or needing magic to regrow limbs. None of us got off unhurt, of course, but the rest, including the golemancer, were only hurt enough that a bit of patching up was all we needed. Stacked the goblin bodies high though, before the horn called for a retreat.”

“Horn?”

“Ah, yes,” Roland said. “Once the Goblin Lord died, one of the shamans blew their horn three times, and any goblins not already running took off. Stacked up some bodies of our own when they suddenly turned tail so close to us.”

“Must have been while I was crashing from the enchantment wearing off. I remember a howl, but nothing about a horn.”

Captain Lunet nodded. “And it is good that they had a signal for a retreat. It threw them all into chaos, which meant that they couldn’t attack our lines. As for the fighting on the walls and in the village, well, there is quite a bit to report. First, I must inform you that Headman Tomas lost his life in the fighting on the wall. According to survivors, the goblins were putting up ladders, and he was in the middle of things, fending them off and trying to drive the ladders back. Goblin got him with a spear through the back.”

“Which led to them getting behind the wall as the defense collapsed. I’m assuming some made it to the mines, which is why the entrance was dropped?”

“It is as you say, my Lady. The goblins tried to get in, but the men who didn’t have the heart to take to the wall put up enough of a fight to keep them out of the mines before the drop. Message spells say that ten of them died, including one Wilkin, a butcher, and Renfry, a miner, who remained in the danger zone as the entrance was dropped, not letting the goblins past them, even to the end.”

I nodded, and said, “Who speaks for the village, now?”

“Officially? No one, yet. But most of the villagers are looking to a woman named Katelyn, who ran one of the forges in town. She’s got the respect of the miners and craftsmen in town, and was always looked at as Tomas’s second, when he was traveling to Windwater on business.”

“Then make it official. This forgewoman Katelyn is now headwoman of Stonebreak, until she either quits, dies, or I find someone better. Send a runner to inform her of that, and tell her I’m requesting a meeting soon as those people are out of the mines.”

“At once, my Lady.” The Captain looked around, and pointed to one of the guards on duty. “Hardwin! Head to the mine, and inform Headwoman Katelyn of the Baroness’s decree!”

Lunet looked back to me, and said, “As for the butcher’s bill? Three of your household guards fell in the fighting, along with fifteen men-at-arms. Ten more are hurt bad enough that they’ll be crippled without aid, but with the healers at work, anyone who lived long enough to see them will live to see another day, at least. Of the fifteen adventurers on the line with us, all had injuries to some degree, including Guildmaster Roland,” she nodded to the man, which he returned, “but all still live, and should recover in time.”

“Two hundred and ten villagers joined us on the walls. Of them, one hundred and twelve lie dead, and another forty-seven are crippled or have wounds that will take significant time to heal. They had the worst weapons and armor, and the least training, so that much was to be expected, but it is still a heavy blow. The village has lost a full fifth of its people in a night, and almost another fifth too gravely injured to return to the lives they knew before without aid.”

That put a sour mood on things, but I only let that atmosphere hang for a moment, before saying, “Every last one of them knew the risks. They stood not for honor, or glory, but to ensure that those who took shelter in the mines, those who were too young or too old, who could not fight, had a future. There is nothing that we can do for the dead, save to honor them. Have any surviving Earth mages prepare a burial mound for those that fell. And ensure that the goblin corpses are all gathered outside the walls, and burnt. The monsters will get no burial rites from us.”

“As it should be, my Lady,” Roland nodded. “But, this brings up one last point. You killed the Goblin Lord, and are a registered member of the Adventurer’s Guild. As such, the loot from the Goblin Lord belongs to you.”