The Liberomancer [Isekai Progression LitRPG]

I tried to brainstorm other things that might help during my free time, but came up blank most of the time. The thing that I could do most to help out these people was to deal with the dryad invasion - and I could not do so as well if I did not know [Grand Fireball], so any idea involving me to use up mana had to go out the window.

I did hand out money to some of the people I saw - but there was a limit on how much I could do of that too. I had to pay Granny Qi back for this grimoire after all.

With a heavy heart, I could only turn a blind eye towards much of the suffering in the city and help out the little I could.

The inside of the house was neat and tidy - it would have been more than big enough for a family of four or five. With ten people not including myself, it was very crowded, though there were no complaints given the alternative. This was, after all, only a temporary living arrangement. There was no furniture in the house, I had been expecting to get the furniture myself, so the others would have to sleep on the floor for the time being until it could be arranged, though again, there were no complaints there.

For two days I worked from this apartment, but there were multiple issues. Foremost of which was that I had to report back a lot of things to Zeke or Drake, and as such, it wasted a lot of time sending someone back and forth from here to the governor's palace. This place was much further from there than Granny Qi's house.

I told Drake about this, and so they ended up setting up a small office for me in one of the rooms of the palace. It was supposed to be just for work, but I spent so much time there in the coming days that I basically lived there - eating all my meals and sleeping on the desk that had been provided for me. It was actually more comfortable than living back in the bare-bones house with ten people, and it also saved precious time that could be used for things like reading that grimoire.

Zeke noticed this and even offered me a proper room in the palace to stay in. I was quite touched, because although lizardmen and humans usually got along in public spaces, there were still some unwritten rules about what they did or did not do together.

One that that was seemingly taboo was inviting humans to live in lizardmen houses and vice-versa, I had learned of that the first day I had started work in Lauren's shop. It was extremely rare for either species to even visit or go inside the house of another, and actually living together was one step further beyond that.

It was likely though that Zeke's family were used to hosting humans, as an exception given their status within Arconia.

I accepted the room, and couldn't help but note that the palace still had several rooms available. I brought it up casually to Drake once as to why they didn't allow some people to move in, to which he simply replied that it was a security issue.

I didn't press him any further, as it was, morale was low, and I did not want to. And in his case, I could understand the concerns with letting anyone in.

No joke, this was a conversation I had overheard between two people while walking on the street:

"If the food situation gets really bad, and we have to end up resorting to cannibalism," one person said, "do you think you'd be able to stomach lizardmen meat? I think it's better than human meat, but at the same time, I can't help but think that it'd taste really funny."

"Me too," the other person replied. "But morally I think it's less reprehensible. I think we'll have to come up with a system where we exchange human meat for lizardmen meat with the lizardmen if that happens."

Both of these people were humans, and I had to bite down the urge to tell them that our food supply situation was still pretty good, and there was no need to already be thinking of such doomsday scenarios right now. Than again, I was also someone who was thinking about the same, so I couldn't blame their minds for wandering in that bleak direction.

I guess the worst part of all was the waiting - sieges in movies were always pretty dramatic events that ended in a few day's time, though I knew in reality it was more of both sides sitting down and waiting until one of them gave up.

The entire situation came more into focus when we could finally see the dryads on the horizon one day after dark.

I went up to the walls once to take a look myself - with [Unobstructed Sight] I could just make out the dark shadows that were moving towards the city. They would be here, near the city walls, in two days or so.

The number of bodies that washed up in the river had been increasing day by day, and I had a feeling that was one of the main contributors to the feeling of general panic in the city.

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If there was one silver lining, my job was much easier in the next few days as people seemed to realize it was better to shut up and get along for now now that the enemy was literally at the gates.

Among the hordes of dryad, one stood about two feet above the others. His appearance was markedly different in other ways as well, the bark around him was a darker, richer color, partly signifying his special rank, and also partly signifying the fact that he had easier access to fresh blood than the others.

This was a dryad lord - one among them who had risen above their normal station, and the equivalent of 'kings' or 'princes' that were seen among other magical beasts. Most dryads did not have names, there was little need for them as they did not really communicate with each other aside from marking their territories aside from large scale invasions like these. Even then it was the lords who did most of the talking. The lords, however, usually tried to distinguish themselves with a name.

His name - Great Claw, due to the rather massive size of his hands, was not clever, but what would he care of such?

He was a dryad lord and able to think beyond what the other members of his species could, formulating plans and executing them on a level the others would not find possible. And so, what did he care if his name did not sound magnificent to humans or the like? The dryads had no real written language which is why they were considered to be beasts in a world of Liberomancers, but they still had their oral traditions and stories. Most of their legends involved names like 'Big Leaf' or 'Tough Trunk' and so were his name to also join their ranks, it would not be out of place.

Their numbers had once again grown to the point where the forest could no longer satisfy their need for blood, and so they, like their ancestors before them, had set out to assault the human lands and the rich stock of livestock that lay there. However, as they were wandering along the same path their ancestors traversed upon, they had come upon an omen which caused them to change their direction of travel.

Great Claw had been one of the dryads who had witnessed the event himself. As they were cresting a hill after having slain a human village, a solitary human wandered towards them. Initially, this generated some alarm - the dryads had some sense of self-preservation, and had learned through experience and tales passed down that solitary humans could be dangerous particularly those who could use fire like the dragons of old.

As a dryad lord, Great Claw, in addition to possessing greater physical abilities, had three skills at his disposal. [Nature's Call] which was an area-of-effect type of skill that could be used twice a day to apply a buff to their physical abilities and magical resistance; [Dryad Lord's Authority] which allowed dryad lords to command large numbers of ordinary dryads; and [Forest's Blessing] which greatly increased the rate at which his injuries would heal for an hour once a day.

He had used his [Dryad Lord's Authority] to instruct the others to stand back and spread around in case this human wielded the magical flame they had learned to be so wary of.

His wariness turned out to be unwarranted as the human simply walked up to an ordinary dryad, wielding no magic apparently. The dryad acted out of its nature and killed this human effortlessly. It was an odd sight to Great Claw, like a deer walking into a pride of lions, though the other dryads did not take notice of this and began fighting over the human's corpse.

It was then that something odd happened - as they were carving open the human's body, a shadow emerged from its torso. Even though it was nighttime, the shadow seemed darker still, as if light could never penetrate it even if the sun were shining in all of its glory.

Great Claw had never seen anything like it. The dryads tried to grab onto it but their hands passed through as if they were trying to grasp a shadow.

And then, the shadow 'spoke' to them. Not words, but they heard its thoughts clearly in their minds. It gave them visions of what would happen if they continued upon the same path, how the humans would assault them and wipe them out with ease after they were trapped. The humans had weak bodies but clever minds, and were lying in wait for the dryads further ahead. If they continued on this same path, they would certainly meet their doom.

But it did not just give them bad news, it also gave them a path forward. A way that would allow them to fill their stomachs with fresh blood. A way that had a few obstacles to reach, but would have great rewards if they were willing to take the risk.

It was a risk to go in the direction it was pointing them in, but as more such incidents happened they had ultimately decided to follow its directions. They went down a path that was unfamiliar, one which was not told about in the songs and tales passed down through the generations, but was still close to the fresh water they all needed. The shadow had been right up till now, as they had encountered minimal resistance up to this point.

Many of them thirsted for blood, and that had been satiated partially with the animals and fish they had encountered. And yet, it was not enough.

Great Claw took a look at the city before him - and knew that what they wished for, a great bounty, would lie behind those stone walls.

Their army had no clear commander - dryad lords were able to exert their influence over small groups of dryads, and these lords spoke to one another to come to something resembling a consensus, but these small groups essentially were just traveling with each other much like what locusts might do with little to no regard for their fellow dryads.

Great Claw dipped a foot into the nearby river, quenching his thirst as it traveled up his roots. The sunlight was also good in this country, not to mention the bounty of fish and other animals, as well as humans, had been great.

This gamble of following that shadow's wisdom seemed to have paid off well.

It made him question the wisdom of those who had come before him - why had they not embarked on this path before? Did the shadow not also speak to them? Perhaps it did but they had simply been ignorant or were too scared, no matter, when they were victorious here and went back to their homeland, they would carry tales of how this land was a much more bountiful place than the others they had been told of.

Dryads in the future, would follow this new path forevermore! That was the wisdom they would leave behind for their descendants!