Chapter 26: Crisis in Starter Village (1/2)

The anomalies began on the second day into winter.

At first, it had only been weak skeletons found wandering outside of town, but the revenants soon grew in number. Soon, even skeleton warriors that came bearing weapons were in the mix, and the townsfolk would be hurt with even slight carelessness.

As the sudden incidents threw Angora’s plans into disarray—he had to put a hold on other tasks as he fully strengthened the defensive perimeter surrounding town.

However, their crude fortifications also slowly fell when the skeleton mages appeared just a few days ago—a single fireball thrown at them would immediately destroy the mud ramparts the townsfolk raised after working for a whole day.

Despite being a major threat, if it had not been for the skeleton mages’ low numbers, along with several courageous and capable hunters who braved death to strike preemptively against, the town could already have fallen on that same day.

Be that as it may, the situation in town was deteriorating by the day. By now the townsfolk were forced to abandon the outer ramparts and hide within the town itself, defending themselves around the newly built cluster of settlements.

After all, compared to the rundown houses that were never repaired for years, the newly built houses were surprisingly tough despite being wooden in structure. It was not actually singed despite being struck by fireballs, much less set on fire.

It was because of those seemingly unbreakable houses and Angora’s own repetitive mentions of ‘reinforcements’ that morale amongst the townsfolk had yet to crumble.

“That being said, we’re almost at wit’s end…”

Angora, the only one who could see the durability bar of the houses and stayed at the center of the houses was scratching the back of his head restlessly.

Although every house still looked as good as new, their durability bar which had been much longer was actually dwindling and about to cave.

Moreover, his Overlord System did not provide any weapons. All the townsfolk had to fight the revenants with are basic hunting equipment… and farming equipment.

As the battle sunk into a miasma of attritional warfare, they found their weapons almost used up. Reality was different from games after all—crude steel tools would start to blunt after cutting down two or three enemies, not to mention that the arrows and bolts the hunters could recycle was severely lacking. In fact, most of their weapons would be left unusable right after a single battle.

And as if things could not be worst, as skeleton archers started to appear yesterday, there were now casualties: three elderly townsfolk who could not escape their projectiles in time were killed.

The town population of 29 was lost by one-tenth in an instant!

His room was opened violently from the outside then, startling Angora, who had been caught in his thoughts.

Vela entered, brushing away the snowflakes atop her beast skin cap and asking impatiently, “My lord, when are your reinforcements coming? We can’t hold on!”

‘I would have told everyone to encourage them if I knew,’ Angora thought.

Nonetheless, it was clear that he must never say that, all morale would probably crumble all at once.

“Be calm. They are coming, and now all you have to do is defend this place however you can,” he replied.

Vela responded with a doubtful gaze.

Sighing without being noticed, Angora rose from his seat. “Does it still mean a thing to fool any of you by now? How about this—I’ll join the fight myself. Would that put you at ease?”

Vela still looked doubtful, but nodded stiffly and left the room first.