The Fourth Secret: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Divine Apostasy Book 4) by A. Kay (best fiction novels of all time .txt) 📗

The Observer Elder nodded. “Three Scouts have gotten close enough to see inside the heavily guarded wagons, and they all contain revival tubs.”

“What about an aerial attack on the wagons?” Elder Vachyl asked.

“Mage Shields,” Elder Drivyd responded.

“Did your Scouts confirm the troop numbers?” Ruwen asked.

“Yes, they agreed with the ten thousand value the Temple Guardian provided you,” Elder Drivyd said.

Ruwen turned to Elder Vachyl. “You thought they were hiding three times that underground. But if they are moving day and night at a double pace, either they didn’t have those additional troops, or they left them behind.”

“That is true,” Elder Vachyl said. “They likely didn’t exist since they would have come to the surface and marched with the rest.”

“You said the restoration of this temple surprised everyone,” Elder Odalys said, his black Mage robe glinting with tiny stones. “So, it is possible ten thousand is all Naktos committed to this war. We know how cautious he is. Couple this with the fact our revival process is unprecedented in its speed as we consume an unthinkable amount of terium. They likely expected little to no resistance.”

“We already have double their number,” Elder Zahara said.

“And more terium has arrived,” Ruwen said.

Elder Vachyl leaned forward. “If we shift the revivals to straight combat troops, we could add seven to ten thousand more warriors before the enemy arrives. That would give us a two-to-one warrior advantage, a fortified location, and ten thousand support troops. The temple, with our new resources, can revive the fallen within thirty minutes. We don’t need to risk an attack on their revival baths. When they arrive, we will crush them.”

The Elders all smiled, and Ruwen wondered if it might be that easy. Maybe he had finally caught a break.

“Shift to combat revivals,” Ruwen said. “Let’s discuss tomorrow’s attack plan.”

Chapter 65

While not happy, Ruwen left the meeting with the Elders feeling more positive than he’d been since this all started. Hamma remained with her dad, and Ruwen didn’t want to interrupt that. Instead, he caught up with Yana as she walked toward the makeshift Worker’s Lodge.

Ruwen left the Overseer’s Cowl in his Inventory, not wanting to hide his face inside the city. “Well met, Elder Yana.”

Yana turned to him and held out her arm. “Well met, Ruwen. Yana is fine. Titles are for people with soft hands and weak backs.”

Ruwen gripped Yana’s arm and smiled. “I don’t know how many Void Bands we have, but I wanted to offer my help if you could use it. I’ve also leveled Harden to level five if you need help with the ground.”

Yana raised her eyebrows. “Level five Harden? Did you work in a mine?”

Ruwen had advanced the ability because he’d discovered it compressed the Spirit in his Core. And technically, Spirit and terium were the same thing, so he had worked on a mine in his own body. “Kind of.”

“You don’t have Mend Tool and Melt, do you?” Yana asked jokingly.

“I do actually, but both are only level one.”

Yana stopped and studied him. “You are my new favorite Worker. And yes, we can put those talents to good use.”

Yana strode forward again and Ruwen hurried to keep up. He felt proud that his skills were so useful to the Worker’s Lodge.

“I hope you like heights,” Yana said. “The wall is where we need the most help.”

Ruwen’s good mood dissolved. “Heights? Like how high? Twenty feet?”

Yana laughed. “A joker, too. You’ll fit right in with the crew. It will do morale good to see the Overlord helping.”

“Overlord?” Ruwen asked.

“That’s what they’ve been calling you. Nobody knows your real title, but everyone knows you’re in charge, so they created their own.”

“I’m no lord.”

Yana shrugged. “Titles, in spite of my distaste for them, are useful. It gives people a sense of structure which makes work easier, especially with so much uncertainty. Everyone’s families are still in queue, and the world they left no longer exists. Providing organization and purpose is valuable when the rest of your life is chaos.”

Ruwen contemplated Yana’s words. “Yes, I see the wisdom in that.”

Yana laughed. “That’s a first for such a young Band. You’re usually all brains and no sense.”

“I’ve made Wisdom a priority lately.”

Yana patted him on the back. “You are full of surprises.”

Ruwen smiled at Yana’s comment. She had no idea. “How many Bands did you revive?”

“One hundred sixty-eight, which is all of them,” Yana said. She held up her own Void Band. “We are too valuable to leave in the queue. Even if everyone thinks we’re hard to work with, these Void Bands make us worth the price.”

Ruwen thought back to Big D’s affectionate frustration with Bliz. It seemed Bands caused management the same problems regardless of time.

Yana showed Ruwen the process for fortifying the walls. Stone Mages carved three-foot blocks of granite from the mountains behind New Eiru. Ruwen loaded his Void Band with a few hundred and noticed they didn’t stack nearly as well as the blocks in Valora’s Dark Portal. The Stone Mages here weren’t using the same care in their carving that the Naktos Mage had.

Next, Yana took Ruwen to the south-east wall. A Worker stood on top of the wall, eighty feet above them. A rope dangled down, and Yana grabbed it. She looked up and whistled. The Worker above whistled back and then Yana quickly moved up the rope.

Ruwen had used the spell Climb to create the rope that pulled the Worker Wagon behind Whiskers, but had never seen the movement portion of the spell in action. The Worker who had summoned the magical rope had used Energy to propel Yana along it.

Ruwen glanced around but didn’t see any stairs nearby. The idea of dangling from this rope made his stomach turn, but he couldn’t just walk away. He grabbed the rope with both hands, praying it held and didn’t send him falling to his death.

Immediately Ruwen rose, his hands moving over the rope without any friction. Before he had time for a panic