Macronomicon
patreon
WotR Chapter 60: Becoming the Villain
🕑 Added 2019-11-15 00:15:07 +0000 UTCTake a moment to look at things from my perspective, Calvin said, wiping the globule Diane had spat on his cheek.
Never.
Ive got eh, forty or so prisoners while behind enemy lines, and I cant risk letting them go until the Ilethans thats you are already aware of my presence.
Calvin was giving the speech to their newest female POW, a tough-as-nails wagon driver responsible for delivering goods from Surrak to Brendan. His speech had evolved slowly over time from do the right thing to a thinly veiled threat. Sometimes people had to be made aware of the realities of life.
Now, forty men, were not quite numerous enough to put them to work effectively without some fool getting the idea to rise up against us with their tools, seeing as were not too many more than them. So. We keep them chained up.
Bastard.
Right. So the next thing I want you to consider is food. I have a responsibility to feed every single one of my men, but do I have a responsibility to feed them? Calvin thumbed over his shoulder at the corral of men chained to posts under a long roof.
The Aices Dictum decrees that each prisoner of war shall be
Calvin interrupted her with a slap.
I watched your people light a hundred of mine on fire. They looked like candle wicks half a mile out. I felt the Berserk spell, which on later inquiry, is apparently a war crime. I still dream about it, actually. Dont you dare quote me a bullshit law youve no intention of honoring.
The middle-aged woman looked stunned that someone young enough to be her son had slapped her. Which hopefully meant hed broken her out of her loop.
Now, forty men eat a lot of food, and Ill have to make adjustments in order to feed them. It will take extra manpower to make sure everyone gets fed. It takes extra manpower to watch them. In short, they are less valuable to me alive than dead, including your husband over there.Hi Tom.
Calvin waved at the distant Ilethan lug glaring him down from the longhouse prison.
No. She shook her head, eyes brimming with tears.
Yep, My best bet is to kill them. Thats just the bitter truth of it Unless you change the game.
She gave him a confused look.
What do you mean?
If you make keeping forty men alive and well more valuable to me than the drain they pose on my resources, then logic simply dictates that I keep them alive, and that includes Tom. And trust me, keeping them alive is within your power.
What do you want? she demanded, slowly deflating.
13/15 Bent Remaining
Well, now I feel like the slimiest scumbag ever to walk the earth, Calvin said, wiping imaginary slime off himself as he left the womens longhouse. The noise of the camp drowned out his self-recrimination.
Whered you learn to speak Ilethan so good? um, I mean well. Gulad asked, the snaggletoothed engineer dusting off his hands as he shifted from one woodworking project to the next.
I ate a dead guys tongue, Calvin said, idly glancing past him to the chicken coop the man somehow had time to set up. The new base was partway set up, but not nearly as strong as he wanted it for when the Ilethans came. They had no idea when the Ilethans would catch wind of them blocking their supplies. It would only be a day or two more at the most.
I see. Well, good job with that, captain. Gulad said, nodding, his expression paling somewhat as he left.
Take these with you, Calvin said, burning through half his cajoled Bent to give the engineer another unit of several hundred Knick-knacks. He saved the rest of the it for when the ilethans inevitably tried to push through them again.
7/15 Bent remaining
I traded him over a thousand for fourteen men last time. I wonder if Hell be willing to make that deal again. I wonder if Ill be willing to make that deal again.
Calvin stomped over to his hidden chair where he could be not-captain and slumped into it, his pinky fingers shaking as he held his face in his hands.
Please choose an ability or mutation-
Im busy damn it!
Doesnt look like it to me.
Calvin sucked in a long breath and slowly let it out, cutting through the anxiety with a mental knife.
Fine. Lets see them.
Abilities:
Like a Book: Boosts comprehension of body language, to a near unnatural level. Almost mind-reading, but not really.
Loyalty: Talking to Girls Correction now applies to the growth of loyalty and selflessness in women.
Not a Metaphor: Pay 1 Bent to temporarily turn a willing woman into a powerful weapon. That weapon's shape, attributes and effects are based on the woman's personality, abilities and skills. lasts (Skill) hours, dismissable by either party.
Dream a Little Dream of Me: 1 Bent, User can share dreams and other mental spaces with a willing woman for the next 24 hours.
Mutations:
One Size Fits All: I think you all know what this mutation does, you silly guys.
Perfume : Smell better duh.
The Voice: Makes voice more appealing.
Pillow Talk: After a long, soothing conversation where both the user and the other party share their emotions, the other partys Bent regeneration is multiplied by (TtG) for (TtG) hours.
Twilight Effect: Increase the Talking to Girls correction by a cumulative 5% for each mutation User has. Side effect: paler and sparkles. May cause vampirism.
Theres more than last time, Calvin thought as he reviewed them, paying close attention to the new ones.
More Abilities become available as other Skills and Abilities become available. Believe it or not, there were quite a few more skills under this tab that I had to block because they were extremely inappropriate.
More inappropriate than One size Fits all?
Indeed. It surprised me too.
Cal grunted and scanned through the skills, disregarding the Twilight Effect, despite being an objectively powerful passive. He didnt intend to become something different.
Loyalty seemed helpful. It was less restrictive and more widely applicable than Stockholm Syndrom.
Can you read me Stockholm Syndrome? Calvin asked.
On it.
Stockholm Syndrome: YPiiAC correction now also applies to the emotional bonding of captive princesses with the User, as well as the resulting allegiance.
If anything, Loyalty would work far better in the long run, for, and even after taming Nadia, since it could be used on non-captive, non-princesses.
On the other hand Calvin revisited Pillow Talk. The name made him cringe, and the requirements to use it werent much better.
Pillow Talk: After a long, soothing conversation where both the user and the other party share their emotions, the other partys Bent regeneration is multiplied by (TtG) for (TtG) hours.
Icky. I have to share my feelings? I hate sharing my feelings on the other hand
Calvin did some quick mental math.
Bent regen is weekly, so
7*24=168 hours in a week.
At level ten, the rate of Bent regeneration would be ten times for ten hours, or one hundred hours worth in ten hours.
Two thirds of a week in one day at his current level of Talking to girls.
At level 13, hed reach 169 hours in 13... meaning each heart-to-heart he had with a girl would allow him to harvest a full weeks worth of Bent from them at a rate of once per day.
Its hard to have more than one or two heart-to-hearts a week, at most. You just run out of feelings to bare. And dont use the word Harvest in her company. Shell definitely take offence to it.
Fair enough.
Want a little advice?
Sure.
Pick up Loyalty then Pillow Talk, If you still want it by then.
But I need as much Bent as I can get to finish this fort.
The only person that Ability is going to work on is Ella, besides, this fort is a temporary thing. Youre just setting up a wall you dont plan to hold anyway. You know what you do plan to hold onto? Your princesses. If you get Pillow Talk and dont tell your girlfriends the reason for it, itll alienate them indefinitely.
Even if you do tell them, itll make them feel like tools, which is not ideal either.
On the other hand, grab Loyalty, let them stew in its effect for a few months, however long it takes to get to level 15, then bring up the subject of Pillow Talk, and theyll fall over themselves asking you to take it so they can help you more.
Calvin sat there and digested that for a moment.
You sound kind of evil, you know?
Age and evil go hand in hand. Either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. And I am very old.
You know what else goes with age? Experience. Pick loyalty and I know itll pay dividends the rest of your life. The kind of dividends that dont have numbers.
Calvin thought about it for a solid ten minutes.
I choose Loyalty.
Calvins awareness expanded as the System subtley altered his synapses, making connections between behavior and thoughts that he had never put together before. So many things suddenly made sense. He felt like a fog had been lifted from his mind. Matter of fact
This works for men, too, doesnt it? Calvin thought.
Bingo! The Ability might be geared more precisely for women, but theres a ton of overlap in what makes men and women tick, despite what they might have you think.
Whos they?
The People who wrote Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus.
Whatever, Calvin said, not interested in tugging on that thread. He held out his hand, palm down.
Chained Spirit.
6/15 Bent remaining.
He watched as black Bent traced his veins before erupting from his palm in a cloud of green smoke that quickly began assembling a skeleton.
In the blink of an eye, Nadia was gasping in front of him, on her knees in front of his chair.
It wasnt really Calvins intention to summon her kneeling, he just had to have her head in his palm as he summoned her, and he was sitting down so it kind of turned out that way.
Whats going on? she asked. Why did you pull me out?
You did a good job with Brendan. Thank you. Now go help clean logs. Calvin said, gently eroding away at the crack hed made in her mental defences as he spoke.
She sneered at him. You want me to do menial work like some kind of Support Unit?
Or nothing at all. Calvin said, brows raised.
She glanced over her shoulder, to where several shirtless young Gadveran men were stripping branches and bark away from logs, their muscles rippling in the afternoon sun.
She gave a dainty sniff and shrugged.
Fine. They seem like theyre in dire need of leadership anyway.
She stood, cast Calvin a quick glance, her emotions swirling between angry and contemplative before she turned away and joined the workers.
What was that for?
A reward for doing well the day before yesterday.
A reward? More work?
The ability to move with her own body, speak with her own mouth. The ability to
Calvin glanced over, where Nadia tapped one of the workers on the shoulder and took the tool out of the mans hands when he looked over at her. She bent over and began demonstrating the proper way to plane wood. She failed miserably, but she held the poor mens attention with the black leather stretched tight over her slender body.
The ability to interact with the real world. I see.
Speaking of which, its time for me to get back to the real world as well, Calvin said, pushing himself out of his hidden slouch-chair.
The camp was a frenzy of motion as the Knick-Knacks dug earthworks across the road, slinging up dirt faster than a human could ever hope. Teams of a dozen moved stripped logs from the yard to the wall one at a time, where the largest one Calvin had summoned buried them deep in the earth one at a time before binding them together.
The fort designed to choke Brendan off from his reinforcements was coming along, much faster than the one before, because no preparations for a permanent structure were necessary.
I dub thee, Fort Choke. May our enemies choke on it. Calvin said, nodding sagely.
Movement in the Forest! one of the lookouts screamed, his bell shattering Calvins exhaustion laced complacency, causing his nerves to turn into ice water, and kicking him directly in the heart.
Calvin sprinted for the lookout tower, a simple two story construction with little in the way of cover that overlooked the road and jungle beside them. He clomped up the steps, already making plans for how best to make them pay for their impromptu fort.
Where? he demanded, at the top of the stairs.
Over there, sir, the Gadveran said, handing Calvin the spyglass. Just on our side of that hill, coming down the side. He pointed.
Calvin lined the spyglass with the mans directions and began scanning the slightly deforested mountainside.
After a moment, he spotted a strange sight. A big man leaning on the shoulders of a rather small woman. The two of them were wearing steel bows, and Calvin recognized them.
Guar! Calvin shouted, with only enough presence of mind to hand the spyglass back to the lookout.
He swept back down the stairs like a gust of wind, barely touching them until he hit the ground running, aiming for the stable which included the few Guar theyd had remaining after the attack, along with the ones confiscated from Brendans resupply caravan.
Get three Guar ready! Calvin shouted Theres two of our people on the hill, and they need a ride!
The old man in charge of the Guar paused where he was working a file over the herbivorous reptiles nails to glance at Calvin. He gave Calvin a deeply intense scowl for a moment, before nodding, turning to retrieve them.
Calvin twitched anxiously as he waited for the man to come back with the guar.
Baroke is alive! Thank the gods, but he doesnt look good. I have to get him back as soon as possible. Theres every chance that the enemy is bearing down behind them as we speak.
Hold on there, kid, Grant said, putting a hand on Calvins shoulder.
What?
I overheard. Theres some of ours on the hill?
What of it?
Well, theres every chance that its a trap.
What?
Its a pretty tried and true tactic to us POWs as bait and ambush their units. Plus theres no guarantee that they arent a sorcerer in disguise. Theres been more than one army torn apart from the inside by especially fearless sorcerers.
Cal fixed Grant with a stare.
The big man shrugged.
At least send someone disposable to get them back. He said.
Ill do it, Ella said, dressed head to toe in armor, looking like the mythic juggernaut.
Youre not disposable, Calvin said as the old man came back with three guar. The lizards seemed somewhat intimidated by the Genosian girls size, standing eye-to eye with her.
Maybe not, but you want to do it, so I want to do it, She said. And I dont think a little thing like an Ilethan ambush could hurt me. Im the toughest creature in this entire camp. You civilized races are soft-skinned.
I cant risk Ella. Shes too important. She could get hurt or captured, and then everything would fall
Calvin burned to tell her to stay, but he choked off the irrational desire with a force of indignant will.
That was the Guya talking.
Alright, bring them back here, where we can take a look at them.
You got it, Huntmaster. She said with a sharp-toothed grin and genosian salute.
Sometimes I feel like my entire existance is using women, Calvin said as he watched her lead the spare two Guar out the front gate, his stomach knotting.
Grant sent him a curious glance.
A few minutes later, she came back with Baroke and his companion Maya, Calvin remembered. Completely without incident.
Here you are, Ella said as she approached, dismounting and guiding the guars the rest of the way by hand.
Got me scared of a trap for nothing.
Hey, boss, Baroke said, waving a tired hand as he rode up, slumped across the struggling Guars back. His massive shoulder was red and infected, oozing puss from a puckered wound.
Hey, Baroke, good to see youre alive.
Same here, its been a wild ride, let me tell you.
No. Calvin said, cutting off the lumbering archer before he could launch into a heroic, and likely embellished tale of survival. We need to get you to a medic and make sure you are who you say you are.
W-Huh?
How long did it take us to catch the pig? Calvin asked.
The festival?
Calvin stayed stone-faced, not revealing anything.
Under ten minutes, Baroke said with a shrug, wincing at the pain.
Welcome back soldier. Youve earned a day off, Calvin said, unable to suppress a smile.
Dont shower me with praise or anything. Baroke rolled his eyes.
And Maya, Calvin said, turning to the other scout. A tiny, muscular girl about their age.
Yeah? she asked, her eyes slipping closed.
Thanks for keeping Baroke alive. I think everyone here knows you were probably the only reason he made it back. You get two days off.
Too bad Im gonna sleep through both of them, She said with a yawn.
Seems odd giving them two days off when we may not be here that much longer. Grant said.
We do what we can.
Movement, South road!
Calvin lurched up to the watchtower again, but didnt spot anything to the south.
Whatd you see?
A couple scouts on Guars, turned around as soon as they saw the walls.
Its Fort Choke now. Calvin said with a grin he didnt feel.
Now were really on the clock.
He gave a mental nudge for the knick-knacks to get started on the escape route.
***Brendan***
Brendan plucked his fingers carefully out of the indented brass cup, wiping spilled wine off his hand with a handkerchief.
Say that again. I was too blinded by fury to process it.
Um, theres a wall between us and Surrak sir. Wooden one, about four feet taller than this one was. Seems like its being built by The Wasp. Its practically done already.
Three days! Brendan shouted, causing the scout to rock back on his heels.
You cant build fortifications in three days! Theres no magic in the world that makes a permanent object that big or that fast!
I think, nephew, that the young man has a way to create a temporary workforce on a large scale. You mentioned something about Knick knacks helping him?
Brendan reprocessed his memories before snapping his attention to the scout.
Were knick-knacks there in great numbers?
Yessir.
Oh my, seems like the spell does more than just wasps, how exciting. Charlotte clapped her hands together in delight.
Its not exciting, its Brendan stopped himself, giving the scout an appraising look. He couldnt let any news of how bad this was slip. Youre dismissed.
Sir. The scout saluted and left.
Its fucking terrible! he whispered harshly to his aunt once the man was out of earshot. My men are going hungry while that asswipe sits back and eats our food. There are simply too many men here to sustain with hunting and fishing. Either we attack the wall on empty stomachs and quite possibly suffer worse than last time, starve here, waiting for Mujenan to smash us, or we retreat through the jungle. None of those are good fucking options!
I agree. Charlotte said with a nod. From a military standpoint, youre in a world of trouble, young man. A total failure. An utter incompetent.
I get it.
Hold on, Ive got a couple more. A oozing sack of shit, and a sword rusted into its sheath. Worse than useless.
I get it. Brendan growled.
From a history standpoint, though, you may be on the verge of tipping the war in our favor.
Explain.
Nephew. I want that young man. I want him, bad. And I want his spell even more. A spell that can create instant troops on a grand scale Real ones? Charlottes mouth gaped as she fanned herself off.
We could lose every man here, and it wouldnt compare to stealing that spell. I, Charlotte Moore humbly request your aid in kidnapping The Wasp.
Brendan turned the ruined goblet over in his hand as he considered.
Comments
Macronomicon
Sun-mon are my days off. It and outer sphere take turns.
Patrick C
Hoping for the next chapter soon. Does this novel have a schedule or just when it gets written?
Chris
“I ate a dead guy’s tongue,” Now that is going to start some rumors.
Prinny Knight
He whispered sweet nothings int her ear, then took it -dood-
David Burchfield
Nah just teach it to chained spirits, that can then cast it with their psuedo bent for increased effect.
Mmmmyes
I fear the day that Calvin builds a wizard army who know Calvinian Summoning, so you have multiple armies worth of wasps, pests, and monsters.
Amelgar
Did someone say gray goo?
Anon
I wonder what would happen if Calvin got the idea for microscopic or nano wasps. It would look like a dust cloud that comes through an enemy camp and sting the enemy with millions of invisible tiny bites.
Some of Calvin’s abilities are only gained because his little ride along is an admin and can grant them to him if I’m not mistaken. So if she captures him, I don’t see her gaining anything. The only thing that would potentially come out of it is Calvin gaining even more powers. Really digging the story. Keep up the good work.
Landsraad
Poor Knicks Knacks... Out there in the wilderness, working under a tireless tyrant. Far away from the safety of OSHA and the Unions.. It's the worst tragedy I've heard all year. Makes me sick
Amelgar
Oh boy, Calvin totally don't want to be in your shoes right now. Got a granny shooting heart eyes at you
