The Runesmith

“Please show mercy, I surrender!”

‘Well, this was unexpected, it’s deviating from the last scenario…’

Roland looked at the Lord Commander of this castle that was standing kneeling down. It would be as easy as taking candy from a child to deliver the killing blow to this enemy but he was asking to spare his life. The duel between the faction leaders had started just like last time but the opponent capitulated without them even going through one exchange of blows.

‘Could this be due to the power differential or something else?’

The siege of the stone castle was now over. His heavy spiders were able to blast a hole in the wall while also keeping the archers and enemy ballistas at bay. Soon after his army was able to rush inside with him right behind it. Inside they witnessed a moderate amount of resistance but not as much as he expected. Now instead of having a duel with the master of this castle, he was being surrendered to.

He was given an option without much of an explanation. There was no way of knowing what would happen after he agreed. There were two possible events that could unfold if he agreed here. Either this whole place would just become his and join his side along with the NPCs or they would become his vassals.

Roland was more inclined to believe the latter to happen. Even when soldiers surrendered and were without a leader they needed to go through indoctrination camps. If he killed this Lord Commander of theirs while he was kneeling there was also a possibility of infamy. After staying here for a while he was convinced that there was some type of hidden renown system in the background. Considering that he never had anyone from the lords surrender to him, perhaps he would be considered a warmonger if he just beheaded him in this situation.

But then if he left him alive would this wooden lord truly listen to his orders? It was like taking another kingdom while leaving their old king some autonomy to direct it. Scenarios did play out like this but it was always a risk to leave an old monarch in power. Usually, the old king and his line would be asked to step down. Then they would be replaced by another noble that had closer ties to whoever conquered the lands. This could be a noble from the faction that was conquered that had aided in the conquest or a noble from the invader’s side.

‘Should I take him up on the offer and replace him with one of the Lord’s Aids? But the support for a member of my court would probably be lower than the original monarch…’

There were a lot of pros and cons to each decision. Considering this test didn’t like when he focused on one side too much, being too lenient wouldn’t be a great idea. There was no reason for him to trust in the words of their leader. It wouldn’t be strange that when the time came he would be the first one to sink a dagger into his back.

‘They capitulated due to the power difference, the moment I’m out of these lands they might quickly revert to their old ways or even worse. When the time to fight the Woodlanders comes and I start losing, they might just desert instantly…’

“So, you wish to surrender?”

“Yes, I do!”

“I will allow it but you shall no longer be the lord of these lands. You will need to relinquish your title to a person of my choosing and will be banished from these lands but you may leave, do you accept these terms?”

“You want me to go into banishment?”

“Yes. Accept these terms and you may leave, I will also promise not to harm your citizens or your soldiers.”

Roland made sure to talk loudly so the residents of the castle heard their conversation. Their Lord was already acting in a cowardly fashion but he could save some honor if it was known that he was doing it for the citizens and not to just save his own skin. In a sense, he was giving him a way out but also keeping him away from any positions of power. It was a curious game-like event with a lot of results depending on what he did. Considering that his aim was the conservation of resources then it wasn’t such a bad decision.

“I… I accept…”

“T-the lord has fallen…”

While the conversation was happening he made sure to aim the runic shoulder cannons at his enemy for intimidation purposes. For a moment it sounded like he would fight back but when his magical force was ramped up, the wooden man lost all semblance of resisting. To his surprise, the surrender was not the only boon from this confrontation as he had gained a new skill too.

‘Huh, what’s this skill? Menacing aura? Is this producing some type of killing intent or something?’

The description wasn’t clear but it seemed that when he tried to intimidate the Lord Commander here, he was simulating some type of killing intent. This allowed him to create a skill to suppress weaker opponents. Similar skills like this existed in the world and were produced by some monsters. Sometimes when encountering a dragon people would freeze up and be unable to move. This was due to skills like this that were meant to disable weaker enemies.

‘This could be useful in a large-scale fight but I didn’t know that I could learn new skills in this place. Could this be a Runesmith Overlord-related skill?’

This was quite strange as usually in trials he would be given all the skills at the end and not in the middle. Perhaps it was possible when all the conditions were met to acquire the skill in question.

‘The only downside is that I need runes to use it or it won’t work…’

It felt like the skill was a lesser variant of the suppression skill. Without having some type of runic equipment it would probably not activate. However, he was a runesmith so this wouldn’t be that much of a problem. While standing there he activated the new skill that spread to the sides, some of the close aids to the now-fallen lord started trembling which was quite an interesting display.

The skill made all of the runes on his armor glow in a dark red light and some type of aura escaped from his form. It was hard to describe but the effect was real; it didn't seem to be affecting the actual soldiers as much. Perhaps the discrepancy in levels had to be a lot higher to make it work. Nevertheless, it could come in handy whenever he needed to intimidate someone for some information. In this case, he was able to get the Lord Commander to abdicate from his position.

“Take him away. People of the Kindlings, if you don’t resist no one from you will be harmed, put down your weapons and this will end now.”

His shout backed by the intimidation skill was a lot louder than he expected. The weaker soldiers trembled a bit but they still looked to some of the captains and lesser commanders that were standing there. While their Lord had decided to abandon them, there were still some units that could take his place. Luckily this didn’t happen and they started throwing away their weapons.

The victory announcement was a bit different than the one during his victory over the Luimberlings. With this victory, he had gained a vassal nation and after sitting down in their throne room he was given a new window. There he could decide who to place in the managing position. It seemed that the requirements were limited to commander units that belonged to his faction or aids. The system didn’t state it but there were probably pros and cons to each choice he made here.

This was his first real victory in months while defeating the Lumberlings took him a bit over a month; this one took close to half a year. Previously he expected the trial to come to a close when this time arrived but as it stood, four large factions still remained. Luckily he had not stayed here truly for half a year. There were times that he skipped through some events.

With this new land, he pushed himself to the forefront. The other two in the middle were dead set on killing each other. They had been at it from the start and were very equally matched. Probably only if Roland or the Woodlanders got involved would one side be victorious.

‘If I consider that it is possible for them to surrender, then there could be a diplomatic way of resolving this dispute. What if I ally myself with one of these two factions and help them beat the other?’

There were various ways of allying the two kingdoms, war was not always the right choice. Information was needed on the two factions that were in the middle. Though he could not produce assassins there was a way to evolve them into spies that could gather information. They had already been sent out on a mission before he left his main city, with the time dilation from fast traveling they should have gathered all the required information.

When he clicked on the console in this palace he was able to see that after waiting a day, the news would be able to reach him along with some units ready to take this place over. For a few days, he took over this palace and was sure to assign all the available workers to city repairs. Around thirty percent of the soldiers had died in the siege and while he was here they could start their conversion process. As long as he remained here all such facilities would be given a buff.

To his surprise when the information came it showed him a way to get through this scenario while conserving a lot of time. One of the factions was named the Foresters and the other Plankers. The names seemed to get even more ridiculous with time but this wasn’t the astonishing part.

The Foresters were a more passive faction that allowed the smaller settlements to capitulate of their own volition. Their army was mostly focused on their borders and they were focused on keeping people out. Their competitors were quite aggressive though and their leader was described as a warmonger. The fact that he was given the rumored character of their leaders already was a tip on how to handle them.

His new potential allies were apparently led by someone that was considered weak but somehow managed to keep it together. There were rumors that their lord was wise and good at making trade deals with all the smaller factions that with time were all absorbed by his larger one. If he was good at making deals then perhaps it would be beneficial to Roland to send in an envoy. If the unit came back intact then there was a possibility of trading.

‘I don’t need them to join my faction, it will be fine if they just stay inside of their own little part of this zone. The two other factions will surely try to attack them so they will need all the help they can get and if I conquer those two, the tree people will have to become my vassal and I’ll pass this damn trial…’

There was no need for him to go to war with everyone in these lands. If these people weren’t as bloodthirsty as the others, perhaps they were intended as a potential ally. Sometimes trials like this gave people a certain path to follow that wasn’t always too obvious. It was possible that not going through varied approaches would put him on a path of destruction.

‘I don’t see a reason not to at least try but first I need to decide on some gifts. Normally when you do things like this you are supposed to give them some presents or other reasons to accept the offer…’

There were various ways of going through diplomatic means, intimidation was also one of the possible ways of going about it. Perhaps if time wasn’t so precious here it would have been able to scare the Kindlings into raising the white flag after surrounding their city. Cutting off their supply of food would make the citizens quite mad and also weaken the soldiers that required sustenance as well.

Roland was thinking about a softer approach though. These Foresters were already surrounded by two bloodthirsty nations, if he acted the same they would not trust him. Thus his plan was formed and time began to pass. His sleeping schedule started becoming slightly better after gaining his second major victory. Things started to become a bit drawn out and the trial even began pushing him to end it.

There were occasions when he was forced to turn in for the night even if he didn’t want to. Time skips began to be more frequent and he was unable to work on as much runic equipment as he wished. Soon the days skipped along as managing his little kingdom became more automatic. He wasn’t sure if this was a limitation of the test or it trying to tell him that Kings had to learn to push work onto others.

Nevertheless, he was able to push through with a diplomatic solution with the Forester faction. They had grown weary enough of the Woodlanders and their other neighbor to seek a truce with his faction that had proven itself to be somewhat merciful. This cost him a lot of gold and resources in bribes but considering that he didn’t have to lose any soldiers, the cost was worth it.

Then to seal the deal he was even able to marry off one of his own commanders that had become the lord of the previously captured Kindling castle. This method was very popular among the nobility of any kingdom or empire. The bonds were supposed to tie families together and be a knot not easily untied. Here it gave him some hidden bonuses to trust and his new allies even promised to lend them their armies if the time came.

The months continued to tick as he tried to scrunch some time for further inventions. The Woodlanders had managed to invade the Plankers that were unable to conquer their neighbors that were being supported by Roland’s own armies and finances. It was a proxy war from which he profited and it allowed him to build up his armies while getting ready for the final trial.

This came a lot sooner than he expected as the Woodlanders started pushing hard. After they had the lands of the Plankers they had access to Roland’s borders. A fight ensued along those lines and continued for several weeks until even he had to get involved. Even though he was able to protect his borders his allies weren’t as lucky. Their defensive line had to contend with their main forces while he defeated some leftovers from the previous conquest.

Troops were sent from his other strongholds and the real war started. Many small and large skirmishes were fought with no clear winner being produced. Thankfully thanks to his diplomatic approach he was able to keep the fighting out of his side of the conflict. A proxy war where he sent to aid in the form of weapons and food was started while he just slowly built up a larger force. When the time was right he finally plunged himself into the lands that were previously captured by the Woodlanders.

His golems played a big role in sieging the cities but soon enough he started encountering magical countermeasures. These could be countered whenever he was at the location but some casualties to his runic equipment had become more common. The test was finally ramping up and no more were the battles easily won by the application of his magic. Strategy and the use of the terrain had become more apparent and even luring in enemies by sacrificing troops had become a reality.

Everything moved and he had to adapt yet still he prevailed for multiple months. With time the conflict started escalating with even the Woodlanders fabled Lord Commander having to get involved. The time for the confrontation was fast approaching and he needed to prepare his troops and get his allies on the same page. One last final meeting would decide on the future of this battle and prove if he chose the right path or would have to take this trial once more.