Chương 64: Chapter 65: Siege Time Part 2

My cheeks immediately reddened, and I looked around in alarm. He stayed close, but I could see the grin on his face.

"We're all on the same team in Weston. Johnstone told me about you while you were in the temple. The other Wall Captains know too. If we need you to repel an attack, we will use you." Once I looked around again, I quietly asked.

"What about the bishop? He's above 20 right?" Hawker snorted.

"He's quite a bit higher. But he won't be in the fighting line. He'd be liable to, uh, overextend himself and fall off the wall if he leaned over." That image made Colin and I both laugh. I had to ask though, "Why isn't he stronger if he's such a high level?" The Wall Captain looked at me a moment, his brows furrowed.

"How old do you think he is?"

"Forty-five or so?" I said uncertainly. Hawker laughed at me.

"No, I'm not sure exactly how old he is, but he was with the army when it first landed on these shores. He actually looks pretty good for his age, but even with our bonuses, as we get old, and especially if we don't take care of ourselves, we can grow feeble." He patted my shoulder, then told us to go find Sergeant Morgan. We did as we were told. We were just about to reach the square when we spied the other nine men making their way to the wall we had just vacated. That made me laugh.

"Looks like you were sent to find us, eh," said the sergeant.

"Indeed, sir. We going back up the wall again?" I asked. Morgan said, "Aye, I see you're getting a real authentic military experience today. March 'ere then there then back again. The lad staying with us then?" I grinned, then said, "Yup, I'm sure you'll still have to talk to the Wall Captain again, but he said scout types will stay with their squads for now."

We marched back up the stairs we had so recently descended, then waited around for another five minutes while Sergeant Morgan waited for the Wall Captain to finish speaking with another group of men he was giving orders to. Colin whispered to me, "I hear this is basically how the army works. The soldiers who came with Captain Blackstone said the reason they loved him so much was he just let them do what needed doing." I smiled, but kept my mouth shut.

Once Morgan confirmed our position, we wandered over to the ballista that was mounted on the wall a hundred feet to the left of the gate. Morgan sent most of the squad to grab an extra cable, and as many of the spear-sized bolts as they could carry. He had Glenn take Colin aside to explain what he'd be expected to do if he became a Scout. When it was just the two of us left, he said, "'awker explained the situation to me." I laughed and shook my head. Something I was doing an awful lot of today.

"For something that I'm supposed to keep quiet, everyone seems to know about it." He grinned mischievously and said, "You've been read into the bishop's plans now. Anyone with any authority is either the bishop, or the emperor's man. If it wasn't such a fraught situation, things would have been explained better." He continued on.

"I really do need you to be the one who sets that winch when we're ready to put a bolt on though. That gear on this ballista has several spots that are in bad shape. It'll take someone stron' enough that it won't slip to tighten the cable. Otherwise it might kill someone." I nodded, then asked, "How did they get so close without us having any advance knowledge?" He gave me a, I have no idea face, then said, "Your guess is as good as mine.

Most of us who woulda normally be out trapping wrapped up a couple of days ago and came 'ere for the festival. Weston only has a couple of full time scouts. One of em was due back this morning, but never came back. They were going to send the other out after he got his blessin' but I'd say they," he pointed out at the goblins, "are our answer as to what happened to 'im." I grimaced.

"Why don't they have more soldiers in the area? Only twenty for a town the size of Weston seems crazy to me."

"I agree," said Morgan.

"But the way the Grand Quest works is there is only so many slots for people to take that would give XP to the emperor. He gets bonuses based on all kinds of things, but the biggest is the amount of production per citizen. Soldiers don't outright produce anythin' for the quest but they count against the number, and even worse, each soldier takes up the slot of ten colonists. Course kids don't count, even when they come of age, if they were underage when their parents came."

"Huh, that is harsh," I said.

"What was the original number?" Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Morgan grinned and said, "64, 334." I frowned.

"That feels completely random." He shook his head at me.

"Good thin' I know your secret, this is stuff that you should 'ave looked up already." He then said, "The number started at 150, 000. But before people could come over as colonists, we 'ad to pacify the area. That was stage one. That number ticked down as time went on. It took a 'undred years to pacify the territory enough that the System let us go to stage two. The XP output bonus was already tied to the 150, 000 number.

We killed so much of the bad stuff out 'ere that the emperor felt a thousand 'igh level soldiers could take care of things in this round. Each of the forts 'as a commander and a mage above level 21. That sickness that went through a few years back killed a few thousand people, then just plain bad luck and people 'aving to be sent back dropped us closer to 50, 000." It seemed like the Grand Quest wasn't very forgiving.

"Can more people come in to replace those who were lost?" I asked. Morgan nodded.

"Yes, but not until the first five years are up. The next round of the lottery will give twenty-five thousand more slots, plus replacements. There will be a total of five rounds of 25, 000 people, once every five years. Once that's done the quest might be done, or it might 'ave a phase three, nobody knows."

"I'm confused," I said.

"Emily said that the lottery might be stopped after this next round or two."

"Oh," Morgan replied.

"It doesn't really 'ave to be a lottery. That was just put in place by the Emperor. It just needs to be 25, 000 people plus replacements. The nobles want to take as many of those slots as they can to put in loyalists. I'd be surprised if we get a third round of lottery, if you ask me." At that moment, several members of our squad crested the stairs, their arms full of the spear-sized bolts our ballista used as ammunition. Morgan saw them and said, "Looks like your 'istory and politics lesson is over for now.

Let's get that ballista ready to go."

"It won't hurt the cable to be taut the entire time?" I asked.

"Nope, there's a durability enchantment on it." Morgan said. Of course there was. I should have thought about that in the first place. Once we had the new string, we got it attached to the two large eye bolts on the ends of the crossbeams. Then I went about the slightly dangerous task of winding the windlass, as the torsion device was called. It wasn't easy, but it didn't require maximum effort for me to get the cable tightened onto the hook that would hold it in place until the ballista was fired.

The bolts were deadly all the way to a thousand yards. Once we had the ballista loaded, I went down and helped bring up extra rifles and ammunition belts, as well as compact tents that we set up on the wall. They seemed like fire hazards until I saw the anti-burn enchantments on the front flaps. Even if I wasn't seeing active magic like fireballs or magic missiles, enchantments were still pretty amazing as far as I was concerned. It was around 5 p. m. when we had everything completed.

When we brought in older men who were still fit enough to fire rifles, there were 1, 300 defenders on the walls. The town was now as ready as it was going to get. Now that the center square wasn't so crowded, Bishop Smythe and Priest Lewys began the Samhain rituals to provide us with our bonuses. The first thing they did was create a large bonfire in a fire pit that sat in the central square. We put out all our fires, and everyone else in the town did the same for any fires they had lit.

Once all the fires were out, torches were lit from the Samhain fire the priests had blessed. Since the goblins hadn't shown any signs of attacking right away, women and some older children brought the torches up to us to re-light the braziers we had for each squad. They also handed out traditional Samhain masks. Simple wooden things with only eye holes and a string to tie them around our faces. As our fires were being lit, we could see that the goblin camps seemed to be mirroring our actions out in their camp.

Right at sunset, I heard the bellows of a bull as its throat was cut as a sacrifice to the System. A similar bellow came from the goblin camp. It was now too dark to see what they were sacrificing, but it was pretty clear they were celebrating something pretty similar to us, if not the exact same thing. I wondered why they had waited until now. They could have taken us pretty easily if they'd either waited a day or two or attacked earlier. Their army was huge compared to our numbers.

Maybe there was a symbolic reason or something. I wasn't likely to ever know unless one of the goblins decided to come out and give a list of grievances and say why today was the day they had to attack. I smiled internally, thinking about a goblin coming forward and reading out a scroll in a posh British accent. Shortly after the sacrifice of the bull, I saw my blessing notification pop up. Congratulations, you were present at a Samhain Festival.

Samhain is an ancient festival brought to Talamh by Arturos and Merlotus themselves. It has been celebrated since the very first year humans landed on the Home Isles. Merlotus presided as high priest, and Arturos himself wielded the blade that slew the sacrificial bull. Merlotus decreed that anyone who partakes in a Samhain Festival would receive a Major System Blessing.

This Major System Blessing will remain in effect for three months and will include the following bonuses: Samhain Good Health: Anyone who has the Samhain blessing will receive a 10% bonus to their constitution. They will be 10% less likely to become sick, and they will heal from injuries 10% faster. Food Preservation: The flesh of any animal killed within a fortnight of Samhain will last a third longer before it spoils.

Cold Resistance: All humans who have the Samhain blessing will be 10% more resistant to cold effects. The temperature at which someone will be affected by frostbite is 10% colder than someone without the blessing. Hardy Stock: Any animals on lands owned by someone with Cold Resistance will receive the same blessing as long as that person is on their property. There weren't any strength bonuses or anything, but the blessing lasted for three months instead of a fortnight.

It also gave the kind of bonuses that would be most helpful over a cold winter. Assuming I lived through this siege, I was looking forward to the requirement that we remain on our farm for the blessing to be in effect for the animals. Aside from feeding animals, I planned on spending a lot of time reading my almanac next to a toasty fire in my new study over the winter. Shortly after the blessing went into effect, women and children began bringing plates of food to those of us on the wall.

After we ate, we were given a watch rotation and told to go to bed. Luckily, I drew the first watch. My time was uneventful, and two hours later, I was sleeping in the cot in my tent on top of the castle walls.