Chapter 13: The game’s setting.

After having eaten all his food Eldrian decided to ask for some basic information about this kingdom, and the situation it was in. "Vivian can you tell me more about this world. You should know we don't really know much."

"Um, where do you want me to start?"

"Let's start with the kingdom and city we are in."

"Let me see. Well firstly our kingdom is called Phallos and it is a third-tier kingdom."

Hearing up to here Eldrian was already confused thus he asked, "How are kingdoms classified?"

"Well, that is quite simple. All kingdoms fall under an empire. If it doesn't then it is either a dukedom or an outpost kingdom. The empire we are part of is called Floria."

"Tiers are based on how many kingdoms until you reach the empire. The lowest is tier 5 kingdoms, most of which had already been lost." Eldrian was surprised that many entire kingdoms had already fallen. He waited patiently for Vivian to continue to explain more of how this fit into the story.

"Tier 5 kingdoms are often also called border kingdoms, as they are the kingdoms which border the wild, untamed lands. This is from where the monsters come. According to tales we have only managed to claim about 5% of the world as kingdoms. Us being the Kalos races."

"Races are separated in two, actually three. But we normally only talk of two. The Kalos races, good. And the Kako races, evil."

"Kako races all have an innate desire or drive to kill or torture others. I will get back to this later."

"So, kingdoms basically form the outer lands of an empire. The kingdom between us and the wildlands is Taurus. This kingdom though isn't part of Floria, but rather an independent outpost kingdom formed by centaurs. I don't know why the empire decided to accept them instead of trying to subjugate them, but they had managed to stay independent inside borders of the empire."

"In any case, our kingdom has around 20 cities. With this one being called Agosstead. Agosstead is both a medium-sized city and a border city."

"So then how are cities separated? And what is a border city?" Eldrian asked curious about the terms medium city and border city.

"Cities are separated into small, with a population under a million. Medium with a population up to 5 million and large cities with a population of up to 10 million. Lastly, we have capital cities, containing a population of more than 15 million people. Phallos has two capitals."

"Border cities, are basically more like castles than cities. Or this is the idea for their design. They are at the edge of the kingdom and when war breaks out then they are there to stall for time, until the kingdom can respond."

'This might be why we spawned here.' Eldrian thought to himself as he listened as Vivian continued on.

"So, with the advent of this, what do you call it, monster invasion, right? What is going to happen?"

"Normally the border kingdoms would have given us enough time to prepare, but due to the size of this monster invasion, they fell too quickly. Most didn't even manage to give their citizens a peaceful death." As Vivian said this, sadness was clear in her voice. This in turn made Eldrian curious about how defeat would be under the monsters.

"By the time the empires decided to hold a conference to help each other against this invasion, almost all the fifth-tier kingdoms had fallen. Thus, they made an emergency alliance to firstly share information, and help if possible."

Unsure of how the races were being classified Eldrian decided to ask, "How do you decide that a race is part of the Kalos then. You just said the urge to kill. But most sentient races should be able to control themselves."

"Most of them don't want to control themselves, and some just can't, not by our enemies." This statement confused Eldrian even more. But he decided to keep it to himself as it looked like Vivian wasn't done yet.

"We also call the Kako races, the races of evil. There is a valid reason for this. Like I said some of them can't help it. This is because we are their main source of food or other things." As Vivian said this disgust was clear in her voice.

"How so?" Eldrian pushed.

"Let me give you a few examples then."

"One of the Kako races is orcs. They are by nature a carnivore race, only able to live on meat. But for some reason they find animal meat to be bland. Due to this, they have a craving for humans and other sentient people. Their most sought-after and favorite food is elves. According to rumors, elves are often eaten as desserts. If they can't find elves, then they would often save children for dessert." By this time Vivian was starting to become really angry, so Eldrian spoke up again.

"Vivian, let's go for a walk so long, we can continue the conversation on the way to the next stop."

Calming down Vivian responded, "That would be nice. I always become so worked up when I talk about the Kako races."

"It's fine I can already see why."

With this sorted, they paid for their food, 12 coppers for both meals. Which Eldrian thought wasn't a bad deal. While on the expensive side, the food was good and the atmosphere was great.

As they walked outside, Eldrian asked Vivian to take him to a blacksmith shop since he wanted to get himself a weapon. A few minutes later Vivian started talking again.

"The worst race, or rather most hated, are goblins. Goblins are a race with no females. Thus, when they want to reproduce, they need to steal women from other races. And trust me no woman would willingly give themselves to a goblin."

"Due to this goblins have taken matters into their own hands. They often go out on raids to steal women. And what happens to them is truly awful." By now Vivian was starting to shake from anger, seeing this Eldrian decided to stop her from continuing. It seemed that the topic was a very bad one for her.

"You don't have to continue I can already guess the terrible fate which awaits captured women."

"But you don't really know. Most often women would die from giving birth to a goblin litter. If they were unlucky and landed in the hands of a tribe then it would be far worse. Far worse…" At this point, Vivian gnashed her teeth. Forcing herself to continue.

"In this case, the goblins would have a shaman or two. Who would then heal the women after giving birth? Forcing them to continue living in such hell. Until they die from desperation or get rescued."

When Eldrian heard this he finally understood why the developers added a suicide method into the game. 'If a female player was to be taken by goblins…' His thought turned very grizzly imagining their fate if they could not kill themselves. Certainly, any woman would immediately give up on the game then.

"There was a case where a group of women was kept alive for 12 years," Vivian said in a soft whisper, terror in her eyes as she said this. 'No person deserved such a fate.' Both she and Eldrian thought.

They spent a few minutes in silence again, at this time Eldrian decided to try and change the subject.

"How far is this blacksmith. I feel like we have been walking for a long time.

"We are still a distance from it. I am taking you to one of my dad's friends. He is really good, so you should appreciate the change you get."

"Then I will thank you in advance." Eldrian replied before he curiously asked, "With the number of kingdoms under an empire how many are there in total?"

"I am not sure. I think if I remember correctly, there are almost a hundred empires. So, the number of kingdoms would be over a thousand. In our empire, there are five Tier 1 kingdoms, twelve Tier 2 kingdoms, and around forty Tier 3. Then we still have seventy Tier 4 kingdoms and three Tier 5 kingdoms." Eldrian was simply shocked by the vastness this implied of the world. This world was certainly then far bigger than Earth.

"How many Tier 5 kingdoms did Floria have?" Eldrian asked.

"Well these kingdoms were still being created and enforced. I believe before the invasion started there were over a hundred Tier 4 kingdoms and Tier 5 was around the fifties."

Eldrian quickly did some rough math in his head. He soon found that the number of kingdoms lost was a great chunk of the total. This discovery shocked him greatly.

'This would mean that the invasion has already conquered almost a third of the lands of the empire. This is insane' Eldrian thought to himself when he came to this conclusion.

"Vivian, how much is the difference between the different tiers of kingdoms?"

"Depends on where you ask. Between the empire and a Tier 1 kingdom is massive. This is because the empire has as much land as the five Tier 1 kingdoms together. Thereafter Tier 2 kingdoms are normally just a bit smaller than Tier 1 kingdoms. But due to many reasons, they tend to be much weaker."

"I would say every tier up is probably twice as strong as the previous." She said trying to come to a conclusion.