Chapter 41: Spirals of Defense

Chapter 41: Spirals of Defense

The villages living around the dark forest often faced various dangers, and everyone trained with different weapons. The mayor hurried to open the armory, and the men, along with some of the women with higher combat skills, armed themselves with different weapons, mostly spears and bows. There were also twenty powerful heavy crossbows, owned by the richest landowner in the village.

Emilia was quietly speaking with her mother.

Coming from Earth, she never got used to the fact that people in this world accepted violence so easily.

The answer, however, was simple—the long centuries of unending battles with monsters, capable of appearing from anywhere, had created this strange culture.

Surprisingly to her, the people were quite well organized, and there wasn’t that dark feeling of doom that Emilia subconsciously expected.

"Here, because of the Great System, there are herbs and magic that help people deal with many illnesses. In Earth’s past, child mortality was enormous. Literally, most children died before they had time to grow up," Emilia thought.

"In this world, child mortality is lower, but on the other hand, the deaths from endless battles prevent the population from ever reaching Earth’s billions," she continued analyzing.

Emilia thought for a long time and, after consulting with her mother, headed to the mayor’s office. There she managed to introduce herself to one of the mayor’s three sons, who were handling the organization and distribution of weapons.

"My name is Emilia. I’m an apprentice of a talisman master. I have several strength talismans that might help."

The mayor’s son looked at the small Emilia, then at the woman standing beside her—her mother. "You’re Mira, right? I remember you from the funeral. Please wait here; I’ll call my father. It might take a while. They’re organizing the defense right now."

After a short while, the mayor came and introduced himself. "I am Tomas, the mayor of the village." He nodded to Mira and shook hands with little Emilia.

"What kind of talismans do you have?"

Emilia took out twenty-two strength talismans—fourteen on tree bark, which she had been preparing for boss Titus, and eight on paper. She explained the differences in how they were activated. In addition, she had five healing talismans, of which she offered four and kept one for herself.

"I can’t offer you much money for them," the mayor hesitated. The price of paper talismans often reached thirty silvers. Emilia sold them for twenty, and the shop added a markup of ten.

Emilia hurried to explain the pricing of the talismans. First, she showed the normal paper ones, then those made from bark of a magical tree. She explained how they were activated and why they were so cheap.

"Those made from tree bark cost only four silvers, and the others are twenty. That’s just how much the materials cost me… I make barely one or two silver coins in profit," she quickly justified herself.

The mayor thought for a moment. These strange bark talismans were almost ten times cheaper, and the paper ones were about 33% below the average selling price. Moreover, this wasn’t the city—prices here were usually higher, not lower.

"Alright, I’ll take them. But you have mana, don’t you? Can you help with activating the formations?" he asked.

"What does that mean? I’ve never worked with formations."

"Fjorn, come here. A young lady—an apprentice of a talisman master—will help you with activating the formations."

Fjorn was an older man with thick hair and a beard. You could tell he had been quite large in his youth, but now he had lost much of his body mass.

"My name is Emilia."

"Fjorn." The man looked first at the mayor, then at the small-statured Emilia.

"You’re quite small. Do you even have enough mana? You don’t look like a noble’s child."

Fjorn had traveled a lot when he was young, before being badly wounded in a clash between two barons over a small silver mine. He had been hired to assist with its enchantment, but of the entire group of masters, only he and two others survived. After that, his health worsened, his mana became unstable, and he returned to live in the village.

"No, sir. I’m from an ordinary family. We came to bury my great-grandmother and take care of the ancestral lands."

"So, your family is from these lands. Good, good. But you didn’t answer—do you have enough mana?"

The question was rather rude. It was usually considered taboo to ask about someone’s personal strength, especially regarding something from the Great System.

Emilia thought for a moment and decided to answer. After all, she wasn’t going to stay here long.

"I have about a hundred units of mana. According to Piero’s formula."

"Hmm," Fjorn grunted, staring blankly for a moment as if assessing something.
"Alright, maybe I can use you. Our job will be to activate the various formations on one of the towers. Two of the towers have combat formations, and let’s hope the ‘cursed satyrs’ run into one of them."

The towers were not chosen by chance. They guarded the natural exits from the dark forest. If the satyrs didn’t try to go around the village, they would fall directly within range of at least one of the towers.

Fjorn quickly led Emilia to the nearest tower and began explaining how to work with the formation.

"Nothing special is required from you. Since we don’t have expensive mana-rich crystals, I’ve made the formations so they can be recharged at convenient points just by touch. When the battle begins, all you’ll need to do is slowly feed mana into the energy lines, and when you get tired, meditate to restore your energy. You’re an apprentice of a talisman master. You already know how to gradually infuse mana into objects, right?"

"Well, I..." Emilia explained about the bark pieces she enchanted with her stylus.
"Hm... something like that. Come, let’s see what you can do."

Fjorn pointed at a spiral-shaped line at the base of the tower.
"Try to charge this spiral."

Emilia uncertainly touched the energy lines and began examining them with her skills. She sent a few test particles of mana and tried to adjust her aura to match that of the spiral. After a few short attempts, she sent a larger dose of mana.

"Ha, excellent. Stop for now—don’t waste your mana. There’s no need for such a strong influx. What I’ll need is a steady and sustained one."

Two other children also had unlocked mana and would help Fjorn. In the town there were a total of nine magic users—the mayor, one of his sons, Fjorn, two blacksmiths, two hunters, and these children.

The children, however, had very little mana and would power one of the weaker formations.

Soon, a group of scouts emerged from the forest and headed toward the mayor’s hall. Then came a second and a third group. When the last group entered the village, war horns sounded, and the small gate was closed and reinforced.

The scouts brought information about the expected direction of the attack, and people hurried to take the correct positions along the walls.

Minutes later, the first satyrs appeared. Their fur was unnaturally black—not shiny black, but a kind of darkness that seemed to swallow all light. Their eyes came in different colors—sometimes green, other times gray like tree bark. But every third one had a faint reddish tint in their irises—a mark of the curse.

The satyrs had thick skin, two curved ram-like horns, and hooves instead of feet. They moved in bounding leaps, and the stronger ones could jump directly onto the walls. For that reason, part of the villagers remained in reserve behind the walls, to prevent any maddened satyrs from slipping into the village and killing innocent people. Emilia had eight combat talismans with fireballs and three magic shields. She had also taken a small spear and was mentally recalling Cassian’s training drills.

Despite everything, adrenaline kept surging through her.
"Maybe it would’ve been better if I had just locked myself inside the stone house?" she wondered for the hundredth time.

But then she thought of her many prayers to the Great Goddess back on Earth, and of the incredible opportunity she now had in this new world.

"If I want to develop my skills, I’ll have to take some risks."

Emilia, however, didn’t think she was heading to certain death. All around her were many children who would carry arrows or put out fires if needed. The people on the walls didn’t look desperate, and the mayor hadn’t decided to retreat to the neighboring village. The walls looked sturdy and thick.