Chương 14: Chapter 13 – Show and Tell

Laura poured a little more water on the freshly planted marigold seeds. It sparkled in the evening sun, the effect enhanced by the dust from crushed goblin cores used as magical fertilizer. With a little encouragement, the plants sprouted. She had to be careful not to overdo it – she had quickly figured out that forcing a plant to grow too fast led to it depleting its life force, causing rapid wilting and death once she severed the connection.

Apparently, the Tier II class 'Treewarden' would mostly solve that issue, but that was a long way off. She sat down in the middle of her plants, trying to center her mind and not think about what her children were doing right now. Daniel had made it sound relatively safe, but after their long talk, she could hardly take that at face value.

Part of her wished she had gone with them instead of dealing with a jumped-up mayor and egocentric farmers, but she had quickly come to realize that 'adventuring' was just not for her. Kai and Lena getting hurt was unavoidable. Magical healing would take care of it, and they would be fine, but she knew herself well enough to know that she wouldn't be able to let them put themselves into danger right in front of her eyes. Another shot in the distance.

The first few had made her jump, but by now, the improvised militia – no, emergency watch – had faded mostly into the background. They were training, though neither Laura nor Andrea had seen the need to explain just what they might be up against soon. Better to leave them thinking it's just some wolf or bear. For now, at least. Causing unnecessary panic among armed men was, generally speaking, a bad idea. A car pulled into the yard, and Laura perked up.

Unfortunately, it was not the family van, but Kerstin's battered Korean off-roader. She waved the occupants closer, and Kerstin came up the stairs, her little daughter in tow. Emma briefly said hello, then stormed off towards the small playground Laura and Daniel had built fifteen years ago. It was still holding up, but the wood was starting to show its age in places. Maybe I can do something about that later. Once the little one was out of earshot, Kerstin sat down next to Laura and sighed.

"Marigold?"

"Yeah."

"Do you have seeds to spare?"

"Sure. But isn't your garden full of them?"

"Yes, but–" Another shot in the distance. Kerstin flinched.

"I'm thinking about going to the city. My mother has a big apartment, and–""Don't. You're much safer here." Perhaps an overstatement, but the city almost certainly did not have a level 126 Wizard defending it.

"But–""Get your mother here, too. Trust me." Kerstin was silent for a few moments, watching Emma play on the swing.

"... What's going on with the internet?" she finally asked.

"It's gone," Laura replied.

"It's not coming back any time soon. Neither is the phone."

"How do you know that?" Laura gave her a pointed look.

"It's been days. The city is in chaos. Did you hear anything from Markus?"

"... I did. But I… I didn't know if I should tell anyone. It sounds ridiculous." That got Laura's full attention.

"What do you mean?"

"It's… He says the police are having trouble with some kind of… It's… I'm sorry, I feel stupid just saying it."

"Please, Kerstin."

"... He says there are weird creatures. A bit like dogs, but walking on two legs. They… hunt people in the suburbs. He says they bit one of his friends before they shot it." Shit. We can't keep this under wraps anymore, or we kill our credibility in the long run. Her expression must have given too much away, because Kerstin frowned.

"You… You believe it."

"... I do."

"Is–is that what's in the forest?!" Kerstin's eyes rapidly flicked towards Emma and back. A gunshot over at the Hofstedts' farm. Another flinch from Kerstin, this time more panicked. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. I shouldn't let her imagination run wild here. It would spread.

"No. The ones in the forest look different," Laura said calmly, fixing the other woman with her eyes.

"They are small, green, and they have spears. They're called goblins." Kerstin shuddered.

"... What?"

"Daniel has been culling them. They won't enter the village for now."

"What?! How?! What are you–" This is getting nowhere. Laura took a marigold seed from the bag and pressed it into the loose soil.

"Look." With a little druidic encouragement, a small shoot pushed out of the ground. Laura watered it carefully, waiting for Kerstin to find her words. They turned out as eloquent as she expected.

"... What the…?" She took it better than Andrea, at least. A few harmless demonstrations later, Kerstin had more or less accepted what was going on. Laura had given her the abridged version: monsters in the forest, magic is real, at some point she would have it too. She decided against offering another early integration – one would turn into five before the day was over. Andrea was unscrupulous enough to shut up and enjoy the privilege, Kerstin was not.

"And your husband can fight them?"

"He can. He's teaching Kai and Lena right now. Once you get integrated, he can teach you too. Make sure to come here right away."

"... Okay. And everyone will get 'integrated'?" Laura looked over at the swing, where Emma was still playing with a sheer inexhaustible supply of energy.

"Young children won't be. It starts around fourteen or fifteen." A complicated expression crossed Kerstin's face. It was mostly relief, but also a lot of darker emotions. Worry. Fear.

"I… Sorry, Laura. This is… I don't know what to do. Dogs in the city, goblins here. I'm not stupid, I know you're not telling me everything. Why? I'm afraid, Laura." A pang shot through Laura's heart at seeing the despair on the young mother's face. She wanted to reassure her, tell her everything would be alright, but she couldn't. She settled on giving the frightened woman a hug that was as much for Kerstin as it was for herself.

"Daniel is strong," she whispered.

"More than strong enough to protect this village. But right now, I can't just go around telling everyone 'hey, my husband is a Wizard'. Because when people see what he can do, they will be more afraid of him than the monsters." Kerstin was quiet for a while, trying to process Laura's words. Finally, she broke the hug and looked the older woman in the eye, blinking away a few tears.

"I won't pretend to understand what you mean, but is it really that bad?"

"... Yes. He is… dangerous. Not to us," Laura hastily added, "but to everything he considers a threat to his family." To her surprise, Kerstin relaxed a little bit.

"You know, that sounds oddly reassuring." Probably because she doesn't realize 'everything' extends beyond monsters.

"It does?"

"Yes," Kerstin nodded.

"Do you think he could show me? Like, what he can do?"

"... I'll talk to him when he gets ba– Oh, there he is." The family van had entered the yard, and Daniel and the kids climbed out. The latter two were still wearing their new combat gear, a sight that made Laura clench her teeth. It got even worse when she noticed the damage on Kai's armor and clothes. He had gotten hurt. A lot. She stood up too quickly, shook off the dizziness, and hurried over.

"[Regrowth]." Kai had the audacity to give her the 'Mom, I'm fiiine' look, but Laura didn't care. Only when she had used Regrowth on Lena – and, for good measure, on Daniel as well – did she ask, "How did it go?"

"Pretty good," Kai explained proudly.

"71 EXP, and a lot of elemental cores."

"Enough to fuel three or four golems until we can farm elementals again," Lena added. Farm?

"Uh," Daniel said eloquently, vaguely gesturing into the garden, where Kerstin stood, mouth agape. Laura waved her closer.

"She knows."

"Okay. Should I draw up–""No," she quickly interrupted.

"I have another idea." It turned out that Daniel was more than willing to perform a demonstration of his abilities. Particularly, his golem-making. He was almost giddy when he went inside to fetch the golem cores he had worked on all night. Kai went after him to grab some food, and Lena was intercepted by Emma and subsequently abducted to the playground. She had always gotten along well with kids – much better than adults, or god forbid, people her age. Kerstin leaned towards Laura, eyes still wide as saucers.

"Why the hell does he look so young?!" she whispered.

"Magic," Laura sighed. She couldn't wait to put every single attribute point into Constitution herself. It was awkward, seeing Daniel wrinkle-less and looking twenty years younger than he actually was. It made her feel like some kind of forest hag in comparison.

"Got the cores," a voice said above her head. Both women flinched horribly, although Kerstin's initial panic quickly turned into wonder. Laura mostly felt annoyed that there was a new vector through which she could be snuck up on. Daniel floated over to the huge stack of steel bars, followed by an enthusiastic Lena and an even more enthusiastic Emma, whose squeaks of amazement called Kai back outside, still holding a bowl of reheated spaghetti.

Laura and Kerstin followed the strange procession, and Kerstin scooped her daughter up so she would stop tugging at Daniel's leg demanding him to fly again. Freed from the cute inconvenience, he did something that her new senses registered as mana expenditure, then carefully placed the now-glowing core on one of the bars. An eerie blue light washed over the metal. It did not melt, not in the way steel was supposed to. Instead, an entire beam simply became liquid and formed a large sphere around the core.

For a brief moment, the sphere of liquid steel did nothing but stir and bubble like something was moving inside. Then, an arm emerged. Laura shuddered. She could clearly make out steel fingers, steel bones, steel sinews and muscles… The arm grabbed onto another beam and pulled itself out of the sphere like a baby bird emerging from its egg. A shoulder followed, then a metal skull that looked distinctly inhuman. Another arm, then a torso.

Finally, it stood, about as tall as Kai and Daniel, only its lower legs still obscured by the liquid metal. The remaining half of the sphere lurched up, coating the monstrosity in a layer of metallic skin– no, armor. A blue light ignited in its hollow eyes. ~ Steel Golem, Level 10 Emma started crying.