The word spread through the fortress of Northpass like a plague, swift and silent, killing the brief cheer born from the goblin skirmish. The Baron is dead.
Kaelan stood frozen at the window, the cold stone beneath his palm the only real thing in a world that had tilted on its axis. The System's red text burned in his vision, a brutal, digital epitaph. Deceased. In his old life, death was a statistic in a after-action report. Here, it was a tangible void, a silence where the gruff, weary presence of the man he knew as 'Father' had been.
He could hear the sounds of grief now, a woman's sob, his sister Elara's, he guessed from the memories that clawed at him. The heavy, booted tread of his brothers, Roderick and Eldric, storming through the hall below. Their grief would be a furious, violent thing.
He had to move. He had to think.
Pushing away from the window, Kaelan forced his new, weaker body to take steadying breaths. Assess the situation. What are your assets? What is the threat? The old drills came back, a lifeline.
"System," he whispered, the word feeling strange on his tongue. "Show me my status."
The blue screen obediently shifted, the red alert fading to be replaced by a new display.
[User: Kaelan von Greyrat]
[Title: The Cowardly Third Son]
[Core Attribute: Intellect]
[Physique: Tier 0 (Feeble)]
[Combat Prowess: Tier 0 (Untrained)]
[Strategic Rank: Novice Theorist]
[Available Insight Points: 10 IP]
Beneath this was a branching, intricate diagram: the Skill Tree he had glimpsed before. It was divided into three main branches, glowing with soft light.
The Cognitive Branch held skills like:
· Enhanced Calculation (Level 1 - Cost: 10 IP) - Drastically improves mental processing speed and complex problem-solving.
· Parallel Processing (Level 1 - Cost: 25 IP) - Allows the user to maintain multiple distinct thought threads simultaneously.
· Photographic Memory (Level 1 - Cost: 15 IP) - Permits perfect recall of all sensory information.
The Perception Branch offered:
· Threat Sense (Level 1 - Cost: 20 IP) - Provides instinctive warning of immediate danger from any source.
· Environmental Awareness (Level 1 - Cost: 15 IP) - Grants a 360-degree mental map of the immediate surroundings.
· Farsight (Level 1 - Cost: 30 IP) - Temporarily enhances visual acuity to extreme distances.
The Physical Branch was the smallest, but most tempting:
· Neuro-Kinetic Link (Level 1 - Cost: 20 IP) - Begins syncing the mind's commands with the body's capabilities, improving coordination and reaction speed.
· Pain Suppression (Level 1 - Cost: 10 IP) - Allows the conscious mind to override minor to moderate pain signals.
· Adrenaline Control (Level 1 - Cost: 25 IP) - Enables manual triggering and regulation of adrenaline response.
Ten points. A pittance. But it was all he had. He needed an immediate advantage, something to help him process this chaos. His eyes landed on Enhanced Calculation (Level 1). It was the cornerstone. Speed of thought was his only true weapon.
"Allocate 10 IP to Enhanced Calculation," he commanded mentally.
A warm, electric sensation flowed through his whole body, a feeling of gears meshing perfectly in his mind. The world seemed to sharpen. The dust motes dancing in a sunbeam from the arrow slit, the specific number of stone blocks in the wall opposite him, the faint, damp scent of the air, his mind cataloged it all with terrifying speed and clarity.
He turned his newfound processing power to the problem of Northpass.
Asset Inventory:
· Land: The "Cursed Fief" of Northpass. A single, crumbling fortress and a village of approximately 300 souls. Primary geographic feature: the Northpass itself, the only easily traversable route through the Dragon's Tooth mountains for fifty miles in either direction.
· Military: Approximately 50 men-at-arms, poorly equipped. Morale: Shattered. Leadership: Deceased. Knights: Two, emotionally compromised.
· Economic: Treasury: Empty. Land: Rocky, barely arable. Primary export: None. Debt: Significant, owed to the Crown and Merchant Guild of the neighboring Riverweald.
· Political: Status: Pariah. Granted to Baron von Greyrat as a punishment for a past failure. Neighboring Viscount of Riverweald is hostile, likely sees Northpass as a useful buffer zone.
Threat Analysis:
· Primary Threat: The Stonewolf Tribe. A unified barbarian horde from the northern wastes. Estimated strength: 5,000-7,000 warriors. Estimated time of arrival: 12 weeks based on last scout reports.
· Secondary Threat: Viscount Valerius of Riverweald. Actively hostile. Will likely use the Baron's death and the barbarian threat to seize assets or land.
· Tertiary Threat: Internal collapse. Leadership vacuum, low morale, resource scarcity.
His enhanced mind ran the numbers, cross-referencing the scattered memories of Kaelan with cold, hard logic. The result was a foregone conclusion.
Probability of Northpass surviving a direct assault by the Stonewolf Horde: 0.01%.
Probability of surviving the next three months without collapsing from internal strife or the Viscount's machinations: 12.7%.
They were all dead. They just didn't know it yet.
The door to his chamber burst open, slamming against the stone wall. Roderick filled the doorway, his face a mask of raw grief and rage. His eyes, red-rimmed, found Kaelan.
"You," he snarled, his voice a low, dangerous thing. "This is your fault. Your cowardice weakened his heart. He died ashamed of you."
Eldric was behind him, taller and more stoic, but the same fury burned in his eyes. "The healer said the wound was festering for a week. There was nothing to be done," he said, though his tone held no absolution for Kaelan.
"There is everything to be done," Kaelan said, his voice unnervingly calm. The Enhanced Calculation allowed him to filter out the emotional venom, to see only the tactical problem they presented. "Father's death is a tragedy. But if we do not act, it will be a prelude to the extinction of our entire line."
Roderick took a threatening step forward. "Do not speak of things you don't understand, worm!"
"I understand that the Stonewolf Tribe will be here before the first snow," Kaelan stated, the facts rolling off his tongue with precision. "I understand that we have fifty men to hold a pass against an army of thousands. I understand that Viscount Valerius, to whom we owe a king's ransom in grain debts, will use Father's death as an excuse to call in his markers and take what little we have left."
The brothers stared, their anger momentarily derailed by the stark, unassailable truth of his words. This was not the prattling of a coward. This was a general's assessment.
"What would you have us do?" Eldric asked, his voice tight.
"Give me command," Kaelan said.
The silence that followed was absolute, broken only by the crackling of the torch in the hall.
Roderick let out a short, barking laugh that held no humor. "You? You are maddened by grief. I should have you locked in the dungeons for your own safety."
"Not permanent command," Kaelan clarified, his mind racing, calculating the angles. "For one week. Give me one week of unquestioned authority to deal with the Viscount and secure our position. If I fail, you can lock me away, or I will throw myself from the highest tower. You lose nothing."
"You would get us all killed in a week!" Roderick shot back.
"According to my calculations, you are planning to lead a suicidal charge against the Viscount's outpost to reclaim our honor and seize grain," Kaelan said, his enhanced mind pulling the plan from the subtle cues in Roderick's posture and the set of his jaw. "The probability of that succeeding is 3.2%. The probability of you both dying and leaving this fortress leaderless is 96.8%. My plan has a higher probability of success."
The blood drained from Roderick's face. How could he know? They had only just spoken of it in hushed tones moments ago.
Eldric placed a hand on his brother's arm, his gaze fixed on Kaelan. There was a new, unsettling intensity in his younger brother's eyes. A depth that had never been there before.
"One week," Eldric said, the words heavy as stone. "We will take this to the men. They will need to hear it. They will never follow you."
"That is my problem to solve," Kaelan replied, his heart thudding, not with fear, but with the terrifying thrill of the gamble. "Do we have an accord?"
Roderick looked at Eldric, then back at the brother he no longer recognized. He gave a single, sharp, furious nod.
The deal was struck. He had one week to stop a war on one front and prepare for an unwinnable one on another. He had no army, no money, and no allies.The system is all his got.
As he followed his brothers out into the torch-lit corridor, the ghost of a system screen lingered in his mind, a single, tantalizing line of text representing the only power he truly possessed.
[Available Insight Points: 0 IP]
He needed more. He needed a victory.