Magic Kingdom at War Volume 3

=Chapter 1=

That’s the thing about inspirational speeches and sayings. They’re inspiring. But at the end of the day, they are just words. And words, without action, are often meaningless. You can talk to a pair of sticks on the ground till your face was blue, but till you started rubbing them together, you weren’t going to get a fire.
And what Matt needed right now was a fire.
Preferably one emanating from the barrel of a gun. A machine gun if he could help it.
Unfortunately, all he really had was a half-working crossbow made of twisted rope and bent wood that could send a bolt of wood a dozen feet before falling to the ground. He could injure someone with it, but he might as well just grab a hunk of wood and throw it. It’d be not much weaker and a heck of a lot easier.
Matt kind of figured that was pretty much the theme of his life in this new world after dying. Everything he could do might as well be done by someone or something else, easier and faster. He was superfluous in everything but his ability to actually make decisions.
It was that thought that brought Matt to a complete stop, freezing in utter astonishment as his fingers were playing over the tactical map.
Irvine, Alchemist Hero and one of Matt’s two sapient companions, frowned deeply at his Lord. Though he might have grown used to his Lord’s random antics, a factor of his upbringing in a soft world, the Alchemist was still not entirely happy when he saw him freeze.
A bony finger from the older man, still steady even if it was liver-spotted, came over and poked Matt in the side, causing the man to jump up in surprise.
“What was that for!”
“You froze. What is wrong?” Irvine said. “Another attack? Some other calamity that we have not planned for?”
“No. Nothing like that,” Matt said. “I just realised I’m the worst thing in the world.”
“A man who expects others to read his mind?”
“A middle manager.”
Matt paused, expecting a reaction. A chuckle, maybe even full laughter. He’d have settled for a groan. Instead, all he received was a blank look.
“Middle manager. You know, the guys who take shit from the people above them and the complaints of the people below? Who have no real power but still have to make decisions?” Matt paused, still getting a blank look, and he sighed. Well, it was clear that whatever world Irvine had come from, his world had not reached the industrial revolution yet or the wonderful world of international, faceless corporations.
Lucky bastard.
“Whatever. Sorry, I was, uhhh….” Matt paused, looking back at the tactical map. What the hell had he been doing?
“Planning how we could win against the army coming for us?”
“Right!” Matt said brightly. Then, he sighed. Right. They had an enemy army coming – if you could call four upgraded saakal units and two Heroes an army. At some point, if he survived, he’d probably laugh at the idea of such a small ‘army,’ but right now… “We got what? One woodling unit in Village 1, two woodlings and a Firecracker Flower here. And of course, the Stone Keep.”
“Yes.”
“That’s not so bad, right?” Matt said, trying for cheerful. “We pull the woodling we have back, hope they hit the village and get slowed down and if that’s the case, we get the Blacksmith upgrade that’ll put us sort of in-play. After all, they’ve only got what? Four days to get here.”
“Four days if they do not stop, which should allow us time to get the Blacksmith one way or the other. Not another unit, unfortunately.”
“Yeah, sucks that our guys all take five.” Matt exhaled, shaking his head. If they had a little more time, a little more warning, he could have spent his funds to get some new units. As it was, they would be a couple of days behind when the enemy arrived. “Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider getting more anyway.”
“Why?” Irvine said, eyeing the man.
“For when we survive, of course,” Matt replied cheerily.
Irvine was giving him a look, which Matt had to admit was more than fair. After all, the Alchemist had found him curled up in a ball of despair a bare few days ago. He probably was wondering how he could be so calm, so collected, so perfectly fine. There was a simple answer to that, of course.
He wasn’t.
Deep within – if you considered a fingernail’s width deep – he was a gibbering ball of terror and despair. The two bleak emotions were waging a war within him, which was all that was needed to give him some kind of insane adrenaline dump, leaving him grinning a little too wide, making jokes and, mostly, spinning around. Trying to figure out what the hell he was doing.
In truth, he had no idea. He couldn’t build anything right now to make a difference. Still, buying a firecracker flower – just like this! – was at least a nice little dopamine hit.
“There!” Matt said, finishing up with clicking things through.
“I think, my lord, you might be best served to take a break,” Irvine said slowly.
Matt snorted. “Sure, sure. Though, I wonder if we should pull our man back?”
“Man?”
“Orc. Braskar.” Matt waved upwards, to where the orc and the remaining units of their makeshift army – a single woodling and firecracker flower unit each – rested, up north and east a little near the second village they had conquered. The village whose Watch Tower had given them the necessary information to tell them the enemy was coming. “Should we build a Watch Tower here?”
“Stop, Matt.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Matt said with a grin. “There’s no more gold anyway. But more information is better than none right now, and it’s not as though I can do much with my gold. We’re either going to win or not.”
“And what about the future?” Irvine said. “That’s why you’re building that ranged unit now, isn’t it?”
“Not going to be one if we don’t win.” Matt chuckled, a little darkly.
Irvine stepped closer again, leaning in to fix Matt right in the eyes. So close, Matt could see the little grey flecks that moved in the man’s blue pupils. He could see the lines around the man’s face. And he definitely could smell the pastrami the man just had for breakfast. Nose wrinkling, he began to lean backwards, only for Irvine to grab him and pull him forward, so that their noses were touching.
“You are not touching anything else, my lord. You are going to go downstairs, have a good meal. Maybe a stiff drink or five. And then you are going to go to sleep. If you cannot sleep, my lord, you will drink till you can. Do we understand one another?”
“I’m not sure you should be giving me orders here. Pretty sure that’s not the way it works.”
“Do we understand one another, my lord? Or should I be dosing you with one of my potions, so that you won’t be thinking of anything but my potion?” A slight pause, then Irvine grinned. It was not a nice grin. In fact, it was the kind of grin that reminded Matt of the sight of the Alchemist dosing a bunch of raiders with one of his concoctions, making boils and red skins and other nastiness appear.
“Uhhh…”
“So. Do we have an understanding. My lord.”
“I really don’t like it when you use my title…” Matt muttered, pulling at the arm. Thankfully, for all the intimidation factor the Alchemist had, he really was not that strong and his grip was easily removed. Not that the other man was fighting him that much. “I’ll just take a break, why don’t I?”
“Marvelous idea. My lord.”
Turning around, Matt moved to the exit, pausing at the doorway and the staircase leading downstairs to glance back at Irvine. The Alchemist was just standing in the same spot, turned to face him, arms crossed, giving him a smile.
Offering a weak one in return, Matt kept walking down.
Damn Alchemist was scary. Nearly made Walter White look downright friendly.

***

Status Report
Day 48
Gold: 17.75 (+22.25 Gold per day)
Units: 4 Woodlings, 2 Firecracker Flowers
In Production: Blacksmith (1/4), Firecracker Flower (0/5)
Structures Completed: Grove, Road, Stall (II), Ranged Copse, Harbour, Village #2 – Watch Tower
Structures Available: Grove (II), Basic Greenhouse, Watch Tower, Tavern, Marketplace, Ranged Copse (II), Stone Harbour, Fishing Dock, Shipyard, Trading Post, Temple, Blacksmith (Upgrade)

Cooldown: None

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Release Date: July 7, 2024

Pages: 70

Genre: LitRPG Fantasy

eBook ISBN: 9781775882021

Language: English