Untamed lands a four law.., p.1
Untamed Lands: A Four Laws Litrpg Adventure, page 1
UNTAMED LANDS
License Notes: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this e-book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Untamed Lands
Copyright © 2022
David Burke
Cover art copyright
David Burke
Contents
Chapter 1- Settling In
Chapter 2- A Good Bar Fight
Chapter 3- Wives Assembled
Chapter 4- The Shadow Comes a Calling
Chapter 5- Heresy
Interlude 1
Chapter 6- Rock
Chapter 7- Before Work
Chapter 8- Rules Reminded
Chapter 9- To Fly
Chapter 10 – Notifications, Quests & Stats Review 1
Chapter 11- Sativa’s Herald
Chapter 12- Mistress of the Field
Chapter 13- Stacked Odds
Chapter 14- A Bet
Chapter 15- 100 x
Chapter 16- Indomitable
Chapter 17- Laying an Egg
Chapter 18- Understanding
Chapter 19- Submission
Chapter 20- Planning
Chapter 21- Lucky? Really…
Chapter 22- Earth Dao
Chapter 23- Multiplying Enemies
Chapter 24 - Stats Review 2
Chapter 25- Next Steps
Chapter 26- Monster’s Run
Chapter 27- Outsiders
Chapter 28- Sativa’s Proposition
Chapter 29- Sharing
Chapter 30- A Rose By Any Other Name
Chapter 31- Oversized Creepy Crawlies
Chapter 32- Medusa Undone
Chapter 33- A Freaking Dragon
Interlude 2
Chapter 34- Be Yourself
Chapter 35- Buried Temple
Chapter 36- Finish the Quest
Chapter 37- Winning My Way
Chapter 38- Flying Can Be Fun
Chapter 39- Back Home
Epilogue
Index
Stats at the end of book 5
Cultivation Ranks
Chapter 1- Settling In
The upgrade to B grade had occurred two weeks ago and yet, I was still getting used to it. The changes were bigger than I had expected. Gaining thirty-nine in each of my physical stats in a single instant took some time to get used to.
It was hard to say for sure, but this even felt like a bigger change than when I had first become a body cultivator. This new body of mine was beyond what I had thought was possible. I continued to eat and to breathe, even though the notification had said that I didn’t need to.
Some habits are hard to break and… well, Lina was just such a damn good cook, that I didn’t want to give up eating her meals. The new clerks she had hired were all trying to get noticed for cooking me a meal I just couldn’t live without. She wouldn’t own up to it, but I was pretty sure my Mistress of the Sheets was promising a spot in my bed to any clerk who cooked me something I asked for seconds of.
So far, that had led to me bedding two of the new clerks, with the others all eager for a turn. That wasn’t a bad fringe benefit of my position as Sheriff. I honestly think I would have been content with the attention of my five wives, but I had agreed to live by Olimeran standards—so I sacrificed myself and did my duty.
A grin burst out on my lips. I couldn’t even think that with a straight face. The only rule I had insisted on, was that all non-wives had to be taking precautions, so to speak. As much as my bunnygirl wife loved babies, she hadn’t complained about this rule. It probably helped that Mursha had gotten pregnant the night I had married her, and Daria a week or so after that.
Jo-Jo said she didn’t want a baby yet, though I didn’t fail to note her expression when Mursha and then Daria each announced they were expecting. She was still eager to attend the tournament, which I had promised to take her to. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t excited to fulfill that dream for her. I still had some issues to deal with at home, though, before we could leave, but there was time.
This, of course, meant that two of my five wives were pregnant, with Lina, of course, busy with our son, Robbie. He was growing faster than a human, but slower than what they had expected, judging by the comments I sometimes overheard. He was already moving around far more than I would have expected at his age.
The odd woman out in this all, was Rava. My elven wife was not only my alchemist mistress, and the manager of all our family’s business interests, but she was also well over one hundred years old. She insisted that shouldn’t keep her from getting pregnant, but despite repeated attempts, she hadn’t gotten with child—though it certainly wasn’t for lack of effort on either of our parts.
Again, my B-grade body seemed capable of going all day and all night. I was able to live, merely by absorbing ambient mana. I had found, though, that a few hours of meditation every day was still beneficial. I didn’t get physically tired without the meditation, but I definitely got cranky. Mental freshness was as important as physical recovery.
I had even noticed that this more powerful body had increased my libido. Then again, maybe that was a supply and demand issue. Their demands had increased, and my new body was responding to that with an increase in supply. Whichever it was, I was continuing to learn—about my wives, about myself, and about Olimero.
It had actually taken me two days to realize that, despite still eating at least one and often two meals a day, I no longer produced waste. Apparently, my body could metabolize or otherwise dispose of everything I ate or drank without eve needing to answer nature’s call. It was truly unnatural and freaked me out much more than I would have expected.
Training continued, with at least eight hours a day committed to getting stronger. With all my stats over one hundred these days, upgrades were coming slower and slower. That didn’t mean that the team wasn’t doing their best to push me.
Every day, I spent at least an hour training in weapons with Denne, Josie, and Daria, and my melee and ranged combat skills continued to progress. The same could be said for my alchemy skill. My skills all progressed faster than my stats now, but it wasn’t just my stats which were stalling out.
I had made no progress in my cultivation level, despite setting aside time each day for it. My body was powerful and my core much larger, yet I couldn’t seem to make any further change to it. The last notification had said that I would need to form a mind core in order to start progressing towards A-grade, but I didn't have any idea what a mind core was.
But I wasn’t giving up. It was simply easier to focus on the things I could control than the ones which stumped me. With that in mind, I had another alchemy lesson planned with Rava for this afternoon. With as much progress as I was making, and with the increased demand for rare and unusual ingredients to fuel that progress, I’d have to go into the Untamed Lands soon to gather ingredients for new types of potions—both for myself and for Rava.
Not that she didn’t have plenty to teach me still with standard ingredients, it was more that I wanted to keep her mind off her difficulty getting pregnant. I did enjoy how every alchemy lesson eventually devolved into more practice on that front, but I wanted to get some rare ingredients to capture her imagination.
For now, though, I was simply on patrol. A morning of training and a hearty lunch left me feeling great. Walking down the streets of Yonderton, things were vastly different from when I had first arrived. The first day I rode into town, I had been certain that everyone I saw was ready to kill me. That was far from the case, now.
Smiles were all that greeted me. I wouldn’t say that there was no crime—that would have been foolish—but providing housing and jobs went a long way to changing the town’s social dynamics. My going out on patrol regularly was more about me being seen by my people each day. My presence seemed to encourage them.
I glanced over at the two deputies I’d brought with me. Josie insisted that I still needed someone around to guard me. And that was fair, so I honored her request as my Mistress of the Wall—or head of my and my family’s security, if I was going to put things into Earth terms. I may be stronger than anyone around me, but I’d learned my lessons the hard way on two fronts.
First, I’d promised my women that I would follow Olimeran standards—and that meant allowing each of my wives to take on an appropriate role for the family. Except for orcs, all of the other Olimeran races tended towards a female led society. But that only made sense, with the gender disparity being slightly more than three women for every man. Hell, the orcs denied it, but I was pretty sure that even my friend Mactosh still had his wives run a great deal of things in his life.
Second, there were still threats. The Cult of the Raven had a presence in town, and my deputies occasionally caught glimpses of their people. Nimeera and Nogia, adherents of Korkanis, were both around--though I didn’t have a clue what they were up to. Nimeera had proven herself to be something more than an enemy, if something less than an ally.
So, it wasn’t like I was completely opposed to more followers of the shadow god joining my family, I just wanted things to happen on my own terms. Though I’ll admit I did like the way Nimeera walked. I could watch that tail of hers swish back and forth all day.
The real threat was ‘Her’. Lacking a proper name to call her by, she was supposedly a servant of Old Scratch—perhaps better known on my old world, as the devil. Her was a real, if infrequently present, threat. She was powerful enough that I felt like she had only toyed with me before. I may be stronger now, but still had no idea if that would be enough to deal with a god’s servant, let alone divine figures like Mensor who wished me dead.
I had learned enough to realize that my understanding from Earth about these so-called gods was dead wrong, on so many fronts. They were neither all-knowing, nor all-powerful. In fact, they seemed to be more akin to scheming Greek gods complete with their own foibles. Yet, they also were very real and something I would have to deal with—eventually.
The so-called gods weren’t my biggest concern. Her called herself a demon, so I figured she couldn’t be up to anything good. Of course, the idea of a succubus who was interested in me brought up all kinds of interesting thoughts. Worrying about what that might be, kept all of us on our toes.
Our two newest deputies were still adjusting to the idea, but they seemed very competent. The best part of it—or worst part, depending on how I thought about it—was that, just like Denne and his wives, they were already a couple. Freina was a wolfkin and a speed mage. Her mana enabled her to make things go faster or slower. She had a quick wit and, from what I’d seen, hints of a quick temper. That was fine, as long as she could do her job.
Her husband was just about the opposite of her in almost every way. Whereas Freina had a slight build and preferred ranged weapons, Marko was a cowkin and preferred to get up close. He had an iron-shod staff that he liked to use, but in our training sessions so far, he preferred hand to hand combat. That suited me just fine, because I needed more practice with unarmed combat, anyway.
He was also even tempered. Marko seemed to have good instincts so far, and that made up for an intellect that would never be described as razor sharp. Again, his ability with Earth Mana played a part in deciding to hire these two. They complimented each other well, and I was planning to let them start going on patrols on their own soon. Today was the last patrol I was taking with them.
We had just passed the latest batch of houses that my construction teams had built. Since turning over the purse strings to Rava, she had worked with my city manager, Rozelle to add even more workmen to the crews. Those two were bound and determined to grow Yonderton.
This just meant that we only had the slums left to patrol. Calling it ‘the slums’ was a bit of an exaggeration. Yonderton wasn’t all that large, even after I had spent hundreds of merits expanding the city. This just happened to be the four blocks which had been most resistant to the recent changes. For the many ranch hands who would come into town from the outlying areas, this is where they went.
To be honest, that was to be expected. Both the brothel and the lowest priced bars were in this part of town. It was everything a man who worked seven days a week herding animals might seek out for his few days away from the ranch.
I spun my core just a bit faster as we headed into this part of town. The smiles were absent now. It wasn’t that we didn’t offer to help the people here; it was just that you can’t help those unwilling to help themselves. Addicts will generally stay addicts—whether their addiction is drink, drugs, or violence. At least with the elimination of the Back Street Boys, drugs didn’t seem to be as much of a problem as it had been.
The orc who came flying out a window from one of the bars proved that violence was still very much a problem, though. Another orc jumped out after him. This one was wearing higher quality armor and had the appearance of a fighter, rather than that of a ranch hand.
The second green-skinned brute yelled at the fallen orc, “Shut your trap. You should know better than to speak about your betters like that.”
The man on the ground looked like he worked at one of the nearby ranches, based upon his attire. He rubbed his jaw as he clambered to his feet, right up until he spat back, “If you are supposed to be some bad ass mercenaries, then why do you hit like a girl? I’ve had a hog bump me harder than that just trying to get to its slop.”
He raised his fists when the mercenary started closing with him. Another pair of orcs in matching armor came out the bar’s bat-wing door. One of them called out, “Brenson, stop it. It isn’t worth it for some hick farmer. I’ll buy the next round.”
The first armored orc shook his head and said, “No can do, Captain. No one speaks about the Iron Shield like that.”
The ranch hand scoffed, “Iron Shield, my ass. I heard you all got trashed by bandits in Westerton. Don’t worry, though. We need someone like you to muck out the stables back at the ranch. You might be smart enough to sweep shit. Just remember to use the broom, and not your hands.”
Whether because of drink, or because that taunt had hit a sore spot, the armored orc reached for the shortsword strapped to his waist. Fists were one thing, but blades something else. I smiled. I needed an excuse to take this B-grade body for a spin outside of training.
Chapter 2- A Good Bar Fight
“Don’t let any innocents get hurt,” I ordered Marko and Freina, and then surged forward.
I wanted to think I had been fast and smooth before, but my movement now as a B-grade was unlike anything before. The challenges I had faced since arriving in Olimero would have been child’s play with this body. Of course, that wasn’t how this or any other world works. It was those challenges, defeats, and repeatedly picking myself back up after falling down that had enabled me to reach this point. Overcoming wasn’t about never being knocked to the dirt, but about being willing to get back up every time it happened.
Neither the orc ranch hand nor the mercenary even realized I was moving until I was right on top of them. My hand grabbed the wrist of the one who was trying to pull out his sword. He struggled for a second until I squeezed hard enough to feel the bones in his wrist grind together.
The proud orc grunted in pain. Whatever he’d been drinking was heavy on his breath—no doubt that had something to do with his aggressive behavior, but I was working to make Yonderton peaceful and prosperous. A drunken brawl was one thing. It was a good way to get the energy out, but there weren’t going to be any murders in my town, certainly not right in front of me.
“I can either crush your wrist and throw you out of town, or you can back down,” I growled.
I squeezed just a bit harder, and the orc’s eyes grew wide. Whatever he was going to say, though, was lost as my expanded senses noted another orc swinging a heavy wooden club at me. I raised my left forearm to block the blow.
I might now be strong enough to take the impact, but I wasn’t willing to take any chances. A surge of ki went from my core into my arm, activating Iron Body. For a brief moment, my skin became almost as hard as iron. We had done some testing and I knew I could block a fairly strong sword blow, even if it could barely cut me. Of course, that was without factoring in any type of magical blade, or even one made from a higher quality metal, like mithril. This new skill was only at first level, so it had plenty of room to grow.
