The Liberomancer [Isekai Progression LitRPG]

The villagers began working trying to make something of a makeshift wall, which was probably going to take at least a week to finish.

"How is our food supply?" I asked Granny Qi. Once the place was secure, that was the next most pressing concern.

"We can go and restock in the city," she told me. "But what we have should last us for at least three weeks - don't worry too much about food, there are also some streams nearby."

I wasn't sure about the streams and how many fish they would have right now - I was sure the dryads would've over-fished from them. But hopefully with time the fish would repopulate. Also, humans had ways of fishing the dryads likely couldn't replicate, so maybe there was a group of fish living deep within the rivers that the villagers could grab.

I ended up staying there in the village along with Granny Qi for a total of two weeks. I didn't really mind the time spent out here, because while I wanted to head out away from Arconia, there were other things that I had to settle first in the city before I embarked on that kind of journey.

I worked on a new Rank Three grimoire I was writing whenever I had free time and wasn't helping the villagers out with something or the other.

Two incidents of note occurred during my stay.

One was that a dryad was spotted far away - that was it, a singular dryad, who moved rather sluggishly. While it had been fortunate enough to escape from the main army sent after the dryads, it had barely managed to cling onto life.

Although its appearance caused a large amount of panic, it was weakened to the point where I thought the villagers could easily take care of it without me. A single [Fireball] ended its pitiful existence- I honestly felt bad looking at its state even as it tried to crawl away pathetically when I approached it, but knew that there was no negotiating with it or use in keeping it prisoner.

If I let it go, or fed it, it would end up attacking humans sometime later on.

In a way, this was a kindness given that I was saving it from a slow and what was probably a painful death while its body parts withered away from lack of blood.

That had been easy enough to handle, and by the end of the first week the wall was back up and fixed to a state that it would keep any large threats out. The remaining gaps were mended hastily by a wooden fence, but again, the purpose of it was mainly to stop any threat from just waltzing into the village. The villagers still kept a tight watch, of course, but it served as a passable deterrent.

The second major incident occurred four nights after encountering the dryad.

I was deep asleep when I felt someone shaking me. "Just a while longer…" I mumbled, though the person in question didn't give up.

"Master Liberomancer! Please wake up! Bandits!"

The last words stuck out to me even in my slumber, and I leapt out of bed, trying to get rid of the dreamy haze from my mind as quickly as possible. In a further attempt to snap me out of my sleepy stupor, I used [Create Water] and splashed some of it on my face.

Feeling fully awake now, I glanced out the window.

I had been given a room on the second floor this time, simply because it made it easier to scout things from here, and also because my range with Rank Three magic was at the point where I could snipe most things, if need be, from this place without even having to leave the house.

I saw a group of fifteen men standing outside the village walls. I could make out that some of them were carrying weapons and that some of them were wearing plate armor - though none of them had a full set on. Their loose organization and uneven distribution of weapons and gear meant that they hadn't been sent by the city.

"Bandits…" I hissed under my breath.

I flew downstairs and ran out the front door, stopping by the hastily-replaced front gate to the village.

The bandits were standing in a group a bit of a distance away, and had sent an 'emissary' it seemed. The other villagers had panicked looks, but calmed down considerably once they saw me.

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"What's going on?" I asked one of them.

"They approached us ten minutes ago, demanding we open the gate and let them take whatever they wanted," one of them told me.

Some of the bandits were carrying swords, or axes, but most of them were carrying the spears that had been distributed to the conscripts.

In short, these were probably conscripts who had been dismissed from duty and had turned to banditry for various reasons. They were supposed to return the weapons they were holding back to the city once they had been dismissed from service, but that was hardly the biggest crime they were committing so why would they be bothered with that. If you were going to turn to thievery as a means of supporting yourself, of course you'd be an idiot to give up your weapon.

"What's the holdup?" the one standing at the gate yelled out.

I decided to take things into my own hands. "I am the leader of this village. Why are you here?"

"Are you people daft or just deaf? Didn't we just tell 'ya what we wanted? Open up the gate, and let us have some food, money, and we'll be on our merry way and no one needs to get hurt," he said.

I heard voices from behind him.

"Ugh, let's just tear down the gate, boss."

"If it wasn't for that damned wall we could've already been inside…"

"It isn't all too sturdy - hey, a couple of us could climb through that part over there…"

"I wouldn't mind taking the company of a lady or two while we're in there - whaddya say lads?"

"Shut up-!"

"They were smart enough to set up a watch and might be armed."

"What're you afraid of? These are backwater peasants, little more than cattle carrying pitchforks at most, don't tell me that-"

I sighed. I should've just cast [Grand Fireball] on them from my window and been done with it. I hadn't, deciding to give them the benefit of the doubt that they might have a legitimate reason for being there. I also hadn't killed a human since coming to this world - the dryads were somewhat excusable in my mind, and I didn't want to start now.

"Listen- you idiots do realize that you're threatening a Liberomancer here, aren't you?" I yelled out back. "Drop your weapons, surrender yourselves as prisoners, and you can keep your lives!"

There was silence after my shout.

"Liberomancer-"

"-magic-"

I couldn't catch much more than a few hushed words after that.

It was doubtful that these people had a Liberomancer on their side, else they wouldn't have had to resort to thievery in the first place. And if they did have one; certainly not one above Rank Two.

Could there be a demonic Liberomancer among them? There was the slightest possibility of that. I didn't have any skills that could detect demonic grimoires, so I couldn't tell for certain.

"Heck - do you think we were born yesterday?" the reply finally came from the other side. "Why'd there be a Liberomancer in a place like this? Next you'll tell me the king and his family are here too! I'm losing my patience now, open up or- ARGGGH!"

The scream came as the Tyrant Arachnea leapt over the walls and onto the man. It was best to avoid [Fireball] given how close they were to the gate as it would be caught up in the blast radius as well. That was just one of the drawbacks to fire elemental magic.

[Summon Tyrant Arachnea] was also the best skill I had if I wanted to try to take people alive. It was able to produce multiple kinds of venom, including one that paralyzed but did not kill its prey so long as it was injected in small amounts.

On top of that, its silk was nearly as strong as steel, and it often wrapped up its prey to save them for later consumption.

Perfect for taking prisoners!

Screams echoed from outside, and I could feel the Tyrant Arachnea taking damage. It was not much, but still annoying.

"Oi! You idiots - if you kill my summon, I am going to kill all of you, you know that right? Drop your weapons and surrender!" I yelled out.

I still wanted to avoid killing them if possible.

I felt a tug on my mind from the Tyrant Arachnea - it had neutralized most of the threats outside, but four of them had run away.

It wanted to know whether or not it should chase after them.

I told it to do so, but that it should wrap up the others very securely before it did so. Once it scampered off after those who had run away, I said, "Open up the gate, and bring the prisoners inside."

It had wrapped them all up but left them free just enough so that they could breathe - only their faces were visible through the thick coat of silk that surrounded them. They could not so much as wiggle their fingers however, and I knew that many of them had had small doses paralytic venom injected into them.

With the Tyrant Arachnea's speed, it would no doubt catch the other four who had run away. It could see well enough at night and had other senses to rely upon, so darkness was not an issue. I did not even need to command it as it could complete this mission all on its own agency.

Meanwhile, several of the villagers moved to comply with what I had just said.

The bandits were either begging for mercy or weeping.

By now, Suki Tang and Granny Qi had come outside, as well as the rest of the village.

"What's going on?" Suki Tang asked.

"Robbers and thieves," I said, kicking one of them. "Who are all of you?" When he didn't reply, I leaned closer to the man. "Speak, or I'll have my spider devour each of you one by one. Do you know how it is that spiders eat their prey? It's quite a fascinating process really, though I don't think people like you would know the details. They don't swallow or eat their prey like normal animals - they first inject them with digestive fluids until their meal is slowly broken down before they pick it apart slowly and then ingest it. Do you want that to happen to you?"

At least three of them had apparently pissed themselves at my description from the smell of things. I wrinkled my nose but continued to speak in a threatening, dark, tone. "If you want to avoid that - then talk!"