I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm
I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm – Chapter 79

Julia took an anxious breath.

Dawn's onset was on her screen, dyeing the world in a golden glow, yet her realm was far from stirring awake. Her view was split between two factions separated by a distinct shoreline. An entire army of amphibious creatures peered up from underneath the small and calmly rippling blue waves, not at the sandy shore, but rather at the gigantic trees overlooking the empty beach.

"It will start any minute now," Julia commented to her Oracle who was hidden and kneeling on a thick branch of one of these towering trees as wind blew against him, "Are you ready?"

Erik nodded, notching an arrow fletched with thin strips of bark onto his bow, "I just want to get this over with."

Yeah... me too.

Julia had lost count of how many skirmishes the creatures had engaged in over the past 15 years that these amphibious invaders had been running around her realm. They stuck around the coast and gradually followed her continent's perimeter west and north, only probing into the continent's interior, seemingly looking for her temple or anything else of note to attack. None were fortunate to locate the hidden boar sanctuaries, nor were they anywhere near where her temple was located; the only things these creatures found in their search were arrows flying down from the trees.

And so, they continued following the coast until they reached the northern gap, giving the amphibious creatures access to the massive body of water in the middle of her continent. 

Up until this point, the encounter at this gap was the largest of the many major battles her elves had to face. Despite most of these ending in nearly one-sided bloodshed and a hasty retreat by the invaders, the amphibious creatures were able to easily sink the small boats guarding the gap and eventually run wild inside, culminating in the invaders vaguely locating the position of her temple. 

Now, after hundreds of land incursions, the invaders finally resolved themselves to charge into the continent for its conquest.

Yet neither Julia nor her Oracle showed any signs of fear at the thirty-thousand-member force before them.

They are more of a nuisance than a threat...

It wasn't as though the amphibians were weak- they were far from it, actually. In the water, they were vicious and able to manipulate the water as if it were an extension of their own bodies. Any time the elves were forced to face them at sea, they appeared unstoppable. So much so that Julia herself wondered why they didn't just stick to playing defense. The only problem they currently faced was that they were not about to fight in the water; the temple they were trying to conquer was far inland and guarded by hundreds of miles of elf-stationed trees.

It was just an unlucky and brutal matchup for the amphibian invaders that practically forced them to treat every battle as if it was defensive despite being on the offensive. 

Clearly, these creatures knew how stacked the odds were against them, yet they had no choice but to keep trying. After all, a failure here would mean a Tier III punishment- an inconceivably ginourmous and deadly disaster from their perspective.

SPLASH!

Waves surged onshore as the amphibians made their move, and the sand was soon washed under the rising, blue tide.

"It is a futile attempt to keep their advantage."

Julia could only watch in pity at her Oracle's mutter as he pulled back his bowstring and aimed at the beach below. There was literally nothing the amphibians could do aside from run deeper into the forest. Previous battles had proven they had no means to counter the elves shooting projectiles from the towering trees.

Creek~

The eerie sound of creaking wood sounded softly in the trees as thousands of elves waited for the invaders to peak above the water.

And then that time came.

Woosh!

Eric took the first shot, effortlessly piercing the neck of the closest invader that entered his range.

The elves' ability to manipulate plants meant they could easily shape branches to create and customize high-quality bows; their range was typically limited not by the bow itself, but rather by the arm strength of the user. Eric's strength as an Oracle meant he would be standing alone for a bit until the invaders entered the others' range.

"One against thirty thousand-"

He reached behind him and grabbed two flint-tipped arrows.

"-How many can I take out?" he finished.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

"Kreeee!"

Julia gasped as she watched one arrow accurately pierce the eye of one invader while the other pierced the shoulder of another. Contrary to the sound of her Oracle clicking his tongue, Julia was completely in awe.

"You never told me you could shoot two arrows at once!"

It was a skill that had taken her decades of exclusive practice to perfect, so she knew exactly how difficult it was to pull off.

"I was trying it in my spare time," he admitted while shooting another two arrows, "Putting the second shot where I want it is still a struggle, so I have not done it much."

Despite his statements, another pair of invaders collapsed under the encroaching tide following his next shots, but the remaining invaders simply swam past their corpses without looking back.

That's really good for just occasional practices... he really is a prodigy.

At such a distance and with moving targets, Julia wasn't positive that even she would've been able to hit those arrows so accurately. Neither were components that she had been able to control so far in her domain. 

As she continued watching the amphibian creatures being picked off in pairs, their front line finally reached the range where other tree-positioned elves could join in the bombardment.

"One hundred and seven," the Oracle sighed, "I need to work on my speed with shooting two at once. It may have been more efficient to stick with one arrow at a time."

Julia could only force a smile at his grumble.

He's crazy. What happened to the guy who kept getting lost every ten steps!?

With the surging water's approach drastically slowing, thanks to the gradually inclining terrain and the mana depletion of those forcing the tide, Erik slowed his firing and scanned over the advancing crowd.

"Are you looking for their Oracle?"

Erik nodded at the voice in his head, "Yes, Goddess. I need to finish what I started all of those years ago."

They had faced off once before, all the way back during the first battle on the coast of the main forest. Of course, the number of invaders back then was three or four times the size of the force they faced today. Even so, he was eventually able to spot the Oracle, who blended into the extensive crowd, thanks to the familiar feeling of divinity that it gave off. 

It was at that moment when Erik fired an arrow at the unsuspecting Oracle, who was still waiting comfortably outside of the typical range of the elves' bows. He figured it would be an easy kill; and it should've been, if not for the invading Oracle reflexively shooting up a pillar of water from the sea that diverted the arrow away from its head and had it pierce through a webbed fin on the back of its arm instead.

From that point on, the invading Oracle had immediately retreated deep underwater the moment it spotted Erik in any of the confrontations.

As Erik internally reflected on all of the annoyance caused by the water-manipulating foreign Oracle in their previous failed northern gap defense, both he and Julia were looking through the crowd for any sign of it. 

Julia's eyes wandered across the screen as the battle intensified. After several minutes, however, she eventually spotted a familiar invader with a hole in its fin practically in the back of the charging formation. 

"I found it! Look a bit to your right- it's almost all the way in the back!"

Her excitement at finding the invader was quickly masked by a sigh as her Oracle turned left.

"... Other way, Erik."

"Oops."

There's the Oracle I remember. 

Oddly, it made her feel a bit more at ease seeing the familiar mistake, almost like it was something that kept him grounded to the rest of her elves. 

With the guidance, Erik finally located the Oracle, but quickly frowned.

"What a coward. He is hiding way too far back this time... just barely out of my range."

He kept the Oracle in his peripheral vision as he resumed shooting at the invaders below.

"Do you think you could reach him if you strengthen your bow a bit?"

Julia's question was met with a pretty quick denial, "It would take a while to get the bow's balance right after I add the material. Even if I do that, it would not matter- the distance would give it more than enough time to react."

As he reached for another arrow, another gust of wind blew against him, high in the tree.

"Wind... I wonder if I can use this?"

Julia finched at this mutter and watched with wide eyes as the elf opened his right palm and began channeling mana into it with his eyes closed. 

Whoosh!

After a bit of focus, a small swirl of visible wind could be seen rotating above his hand.

"No way!"

Julia nearly fell out of her seat as she leaned closer to her screen to get a better view. Eric continued swirling the wind in his hand for a few moments before turning toward the basket of arrows to his side and releasing the wind in its direction.

Rattle!

The arrows moved from the strong blast of wind- the Oracle's eyes sparkled with inspiration.

What in Alghelme! He did that so easily!

After a bit more practice, Eric eventually grabbed his bow and notched an arrow- aiming at a decently far invader. He pulled the string taut, and pushed forward wind at the same time as he launched the arrow.

So fast!

Despite being such a simple method of applying wind- the result was clear and the arrow launched at twice the speed as it previously did. 

Even the Oracle himself was surprised at the stunning result.

"That turned out better than I thought..."

"Yes! That's amazing!"

Julia couldn't even hide her excitement at the discovery.

I thought he might've been the one to figure it out back when I first picked him, but seeing him actually pull it off is unbelievable!

"Just keep practicing with it! I'll keep watching!"

He only has the basics down right now. I can't even imagine how strong he'll be once he discovers using wind to curve and spin arrows!

As her Oracle nodded on her screen and continued attempting to push his arrows with the force of the wind, Julia excitedly grabbed her crystal ball, which connected after a few seconds.

"Yo, Julia! Did the battle start yet?"

She smiled excitedly at the voice that came through the other side, "Yes, it just started, but guess what!"

"What?"

"Erik finally discovered wind magic!"

"Whoa- really!?" his voice had a genuinely impressed tone that deepened her smile, "That's amazing! I remember you were hoping for that to happen all the way back then."

"Yes! I'm super happy!" her legs swung under her desk as she continued, "Wind magic is super superiously useful for archery, but that's just the starting point! Now that my elves know more than one type of elemental magic is possible, it shouldn't be long before they discover the others!"

"So you mean things like water and fire magic?" he asked.

"Mhm~"

"You said the amphibian things are using water magic, right? Do you think they'll be able to copy them for it?"

Julia's legs stopped swinging as she pondered his question, "Maybe? Mana isn't exactly so universal in how it's handled. The anatomy of some creatures is sometimes designed to make certain types of magic easier to use."

"Ah- so kind of like how the toads I faced seemed a bit optimized for poison magic. Is that why some lifeforms like Levon's lizards were able to use fire magic so early on?"

"Yeah, I'd guess so. If a lifeform is specified for one type of magic, they kind of use it like an extension of itself; I'd guess it wouldn't be much different than a creature using its claws," she explained, "These invaders pretty much use the water like its just extensions of their limbs and flow between stances in a way I've never seen before. So, there might be some things they can take from watching the invaders use their water magic, but I doubt my elves would be able to use it in the same way."

"Interesting... would you say they can sort of bend the water around them?"

"... Maybe?"

"Please don't turn into a moon, Julia."

She recoiled a bit at the sudden and odd plea. 

"What in Algehelm are you talking about!?"

"It's nothing, don't worry about it," he dismissed, though she felt him grinning from behind the crystal ball, "Speaking of which, isn't it a bit weird how our realms don't have a moon?"

His mind jumps around so fast!

"I-I guess so, I've never given it much thought," she admitted, "It does get really dark at night without one."

"Exactly! If I ever get a Tier III resource points prize, I might try to make one."

"... Jacob, that sounds like it would go terribly."

A scene of a failed moon crashing into his planet flashed through her mind, which she quickly shook off.

"Yeah... you might be right. I still think it would be cool, though," he shifted the topic back on track, "Anyway, how is the battle going? You didn't seem too worried about this one."

"It's going fine so far; it should be an easy win now," she relaxed a bit, seeing the conversation getting back to normal. 

Honestly, even though they're the ones who invaded my realm, it's kind of sad seeing them being killed so one-sidedly.

Julia pushed aside the flashbacks to her first defense against the antmen, "Aside from this battle, I'm just not sure what to do about all of the other invaders."

"Shoot- are they still coming through the portal?"

She groaned, "Yeah- not as many as before, but they just keep coming."

This was a major problem that she had no idea how to address. Ever since the invasion started 15 years ago, the amphibian creatures continued trickling through the portal and entering her realm. While she initially wanted to send some elves to watch over the portal to try to stop them, her Oracle was busy dealing with the main force that had been navigating across her realm- there was no one else she could guide to the portal.

They weren't really doing much harm; many simply set up on the coast of the invader buffer zone and feasted on the plentiful fish in her ocean, so kicking them out wasn't exactly urgent, either.

"It's not even like they're soldiers, either. It's mainly families coming through at this point. Some even started having babies..."

She shuddered, thinking back to some of the sights she saw on her screen.

"That is pretty weird... maybe something is going on in their realm?"

Jacob's proposal was met with a shrug, "I don't know, but it's still annoying having them running around."

"I guess it's probably like some random strangers setting up in an abandoned shed in your backyard."

"... I guess so?"

I have no idea what he's talking about.

"I don't know if I should have my Oracle try to hunt them down after their main force is defeated. When they're in the water, there's almost nothing he can really do- they just keep swimming around and escaping to random areas."

It was Jacob's turn to shrug, "It's up to you. It doesn't sound like most of them are causing any trouble in the invader buffer zone. Maybe it's better to just wait out the time until they get sent back to their realm instead of dealing with the hassle of chasing them around for 200 years."

"Yeah... you might be right."

I'd much rather Eric spend the time developing and teaching others how to use wind magic.

"I'll think about it," she concluded, before changing the topic, as she watched the battle continue on her screen, "What about you, how are things going in your realm?"

"Well...."

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"... Things are peaceful," I answered, looking back at my screen, 

It's a bit of a contrast against what Julia's dealing with on the other side.

"Honestly, now that the celebrations about the victory are finished, there's not much left to do besides calm down and get back to normal," I finished, reflecting on everything that went on since the heist team's return following the counterattack. 

"That's nice-" she paused, "But I might call you back later, I should keep a closer eye on this battle."

"Sounds good! Good luck with the battle, Julia!"

"Thank you! I'll talk to you soon, Jacob~"

The crystal ball's glow faded with the conversation, as I comfortably refocused on the scene before me- Ruglace was currently standing in front of his home village on the eastern gulf.

It was his first time back since he left all of those years ago, and at the start of his journey around my realm as an Oracle. Fortunately, his return was in the same color skin he first left in- gone was the dark yellow pigmentation that dyed his body following his toad-mana poisoning.

Still, it wasn't as though he was fully recovered.

"How's it feel being back, Ruglace?" I asked, to which I received a prompt reply.

"It is a bit overwhelming."

His hands shook as he answered, yet it wasn't due to a powerful nostalgia or from excitement at seeing that every single home was now reconstructed in his originally developed style, but rather it was a constant condition that he'd been dealing with since the poisoning.

I guess the poison gave him some neurological damage. Honestly, it might be considered a blessing that shaky hands seemed to be the only permanent symptom after how badly he was hit.

Luckily, he wasn't facing the struggles alone; as I reflected on all of this, a woman next to Ruglace tightly grabbed his shaky hand and held it steady. I watched as the two lovingly smiled at one another.

I wonder how Brung would feel if he saw this...

The girl Ruglace was being all love-y with was actually Brung's great granddaughter.

They technically met back when he first returned to Rygard nearly 15 years ago, but she was very young back then; their interactions only amounted to the girl sneaking peeks at the famous, injured Oracle resting in the temple.

It wasn't until after Brung's funeral, about eight years after his arrival, that the two finally had their first real conversation.

The age gap between them is a bit... not ideal, but Ruglace is technically nearing 90, even if he still looks like he's barely thirty- there are not many people even near his age.

Large age gaps weren't too uncommon with the ancient standards of my realm, so I decided to spare him from teasing. After they got together, it was the first time in years that I saw Ruglace look genuinely happy. 

I waited as the two made small talk; Ruglace was excitedly pointing out various locations he remembered from his childhood with the sun setting behind them. Once their conversation began to die down, I spoke again to my Oracle.

"Are you sure you only want to stay for a few nights? I'm sure they would love to have you here for longer."

Contrary to my question, Ruglace shook his head, "Everyone I knew back then is gone. It is nice seeing Woodrath again, but there is nothing here for me anymore. I will just enjoy the fish for a few nights and continue on with the trip afterward." 

I couldn't help but smile a bit, "You really missed those fish, didn't you? Maybe eating them will make you feel even more nostalgic."

"... I already do miss it," Ruglace softly admitted after a pause, "Living in this village with everyone and building every day... I loved every second of it."

"And then I put the weight of the world on your shoulders," I sighed, "I'm sorry, Ruglace. I-"

"No. Do not apologize," he cut me off, "You did not force this burden on me; it was one I volunteered to bear."

I know that, but still...

A guilty feeling still welled up in my chest.

"You gave up so much... do you regret it? Becoming my Oracle, I mean," I hesitantly asked.

Ruglace paused for a bit, before quietly shaking his head.

"There was a time when I kept thinking about what my life would have been like if I had not become an Oracle- if you had chosen someone else during the selection at the temple. I probably would have come back here and continued building these homes and taking care of my mother. There is no telling where that life would have gone, but eventually, I figured out that it does not matter- that life has already ended, in a way," he gently squeezed the hand of the woman next to him with a smile.

How sweet.

"My new life really starts here. Still, part of me does want to try building again," he finished.

"Hmmm... well, you were going to head south to visit the buggy boy sanctuary. Maybe it'll be fun to visit the desert down there. It's a type of environment you've never seen before, so it might inspire some ideas," I suggested.

"That does sound like a good idea, but I am not sure if I can do it," he held out his hands, which continued shaking, "My hands are just too unsteady to build well... I need to get used to using them again."

"Ah- that makes sense," I started thinking, "If you want to practice keeping them steady, maybe you could try doing some pottery back in the mudflats? If you're able to handle the delicate clay, building full homes should be no problem."

"The mud flats... it has been a while since I last visited," Ruglace paused, presumably reflecting on his time there before he went north to build his wall, "That does sound like a good idea- I will give it a try."

Although we continued our back and forth for a little longer, our conversation quickly came to an end as the sun neared the horizon. With night settling onto my realm, I finally decided to back away from my desk and turned to face the penguin who was near the domain wall to my left.

"That's enough realm stuff for today. You ready to fire up that thing again, Mr. Flippers?"

"Squawk~"

At my words, the penguin shoveled a few pieces of coal into a small furnace I made using one of his mechanical arms. After a few minutes, the boiler attached to the top of the furnace began bubbling, sending hot steam through a steel pipe and into a chamber.

Chug.

The high-pressure steam shifted a piston inside the chamber, moved a crankshaft attached to a rod on its end, and turned a small wheel.

Whoosh~

At its furthest extension, a valve opened and released the steam into a second pipe that looped into a spare tank meant to capture and condense the steam to be reused later. The release of this pressure, combined with a sliding valve being shifted to the opposite side of the piston by the crankshaft's movement turning a flywheel, allowed for the piston to then be pushed in the opposite direction from the continuously entering steam. This movement then triggered the sliding valve to once again shift and start the process again, continuously spinning the wheel.

It was a sort of modified Trevithick steam engine that took me way longer than I'd like to admit to create, having only the basic principles to go off of.

I can still feel my headache before realizing I needed to have a flywheel to keep the wheel continuously spinning...

The result of the years of development was ultimately a great success; I now had a miniature steam engine in my domain. 

I stood and watched as ropes attached to the wheel began to move several attached targets along a course I designed on my domain's wall. Although my project turned out pretty well, I had mixed feelings while looking at it. 

Can I really count this as a success when Julia can't even use it?

Back when Julia and I first began talking again, following her time speed mixup, she asked for my help figuring out a way to get moving targets for her archery practice. While I suggested several methods, none of them worked well. Swinging ropes were predictable and lost momentum quickly, small targets floating on a wavy pool agitated by large rocks falling into it was a pain to set up, and using bursts of high-pressure air to launch targets ended up with Julia getting whacked by one flying toward her. 

In the end, the only thing I could think of to produce consistent movement was an engine.

Of course, even with this movement, moving it along a single rope was still pretty predictable, so I designed a course with several overlapping sections that was a bit more complicated to analyze. Several targets with different patterns moved along these ropes. 

I wanted Julia to roll a dice to pick which target she aimed at within a time limit, but she didn't even have a chance to do that...

Ultimately, my whole plan came crashing down once I realized that my coaching was not enough to teach her how to make the engine in the first place. 

Since our crystal ball phones didn't have any video, I had to try to teach the concepts vocally, which didn't work out well. This, combined with her needing to have a detailed idea of the machine's pieces to make them with domain creation, meant that it was an utterly hopeless endeavor. 

I feel a bit bad that I couldn't help, but maybe Tatton can give her some pointers in the mana route once we're back in the Academy.

Still, it wasn't a complete loss.

I was snapped out of my recollection by the penguin tossing me a bow with one of his mechanical arms. 

"Time to practice?" 

"Squawk~"

With a grin, I took a dice out of my pocket as the penguin grabbed his own smaller bow with one of his arms. We now had a new method of training that didn't involve me getting squished by iron and titanium puppets.

Even better, now Mr. Flippers can train with me!

I had absolutely no idea if he would even need to use archery skills, but I figured it was something fun for him to do while we were stuck waiting for the battle phase to end.

"You got lucky last time- you're going down today!"

"Squawk!"

We quickly began shooting at the targets, and one thing became clear.

I'm going to get destroyed again today, aren't I?

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Current Positions in The Realms:

Map 1.

Map2.

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