There was now less than ten minutes before the Village Raid began. The tutorial had explained the rules and they had made their final preparations. It was not the most chaotic version that they could have experienced, but it was pretty close. Rather than fretting over the unpredictability, Roger had told Lyonel and his group that it was actually to their advantage. The more variables, the harder it was for a small number of people to control the setting. The villagers on both sides would have to get involved and that could only benefit Elstree.

Lyonel and his party were currently waiting behind the closed gate on the east side of the village. Dantelion and the other mercenaries were in the same position on the west side. There was no way to predict where an assault would come from, but the east side had the forest whereas the west side was grassland all the way to the boundary between zones. There were six parties of villagers assigned to the wall above him, with smaller clusters set up along the rest of the wall.

The river acted as their fourth wall, but against adventurers it wasn't a significant barrier. Because of that, they had over a hundred villagers set up near the bank. Many of those parties included mages who had the water weaver talent. They weren't sure how much of an advantage that would turn out to be, but it had to help at least somewhat. There was a group of another fifty adventurers in the main square with Roger and his assistants. This was their reserve to help deal with wherever the attack ended up landing.

The most unfortunate rule for this raid was that there would be portals connecting the two villages. The idea of a portal wasn't the issue, that was pretty much the only way to connect to distant settlements. The problem was the number and location of the portals. They were all guaranteed to be at least two hundred meters away from the village, but that was all they got told. They knew there were multiple portals, but weren't given a firm number, and they could occur anywhere. They also didn't know where the portal would connect to the other zone. Just because someone entered a portal near their own village, didn't mean it would connect to one close to the opposing village.

That was going to make a small raid difficult. If they sent a few people to sneak into the enemy settlement, they could end up appearing almost at the walls, in plain sight, or kilometers away. A larger assault was also a problem because it could leave Elstree underdefended and they had no way to guarantee that the opposing forces couldn't get past their army to attack. Things would have been much easier if there was a single portal connecting the two, but that would have let their opponent concentrate their defenses, which wasn't to Elstree's advantage.

The victory condition was pretty straightforward. The raid would continue until one of two conditions was met. The first option was to capture or kill more than half of a village's population. The second was to occupy the enemies Town Hall for a full day. Either option would require a large commitment of manpower. Roger had been rather pleased with the rules, sure that their many advantages promised victory. What left Lyonel sweating was the fact that while they might manage to win in the end, they could get hurt hard if the opposing teams were skilled. They had a lot of healers to deal with the wounded, but they had no way of bringing back the dead. He didn't want to have to explain to Alan why a bunch of his villagers had been killed.

The remaining time ticked down, a live notification from the Network letting all of the residents know exactly when the Raid started. When it hit zero there was no dramatic change, but he saw reactions to something from those on the walls. Some of the faster residents had been pulled from their teams and assigned as runners. One came down from the rampart above them and let him know what had happened. Several portals had appeared, one directly in front of the gate, but two hundred meters out, and the farsighted watchers had also been able to see some pop up at various positions in the distance, but nothing was coming through yet.

This was to be expected. Both villages had no idea where the portals would be popping up, so there was no way to position fighters to mount an immediate strike. Incursion sites would first have to be identified before troops could be sent through. It was a little anticlimactic given all of their preparations, but Lyonel told his group to hold their position. The opposing village could still have an invasion force ready, just waiting for a target to march for.

As the minutes stretched into an hour, people started getting impatient. Lyonel himself wasn't immune to it, but he had to set an example. He did send Hector up to the wall, though. The sharp-eyed Ferret was fast enough that if anything urgent happened he could catch up to them in seconds. He also had the highest perception of anyone in the village and could let the rest of his party know what was going on using the party chat.

The first report wasn't very interesting. "I can see six portals. There's the one in front of the gate, another on the far side of the river, just as close, and then four more much farther out. They are the same black plane that we see at the entrance of dungeons. Nothing much is happening, although I see a few small critters running around in the grasslands."

"Keep us updated."

Gerry and Samson were working on something with mana again and Gaf had joined to watch. He didn't have the new detection skill that the two dedicated mages had, but he was hoping to pick it up soon. He might be focused on healing for now, but it didn't hurt to have more skills and spells, just in case. Or at least, Lyonel didn't think it hurt, the thought was a reminder that he still had almost no clue how things worked in his new universe.

The second hour passed and people were now getting restless. Runners had come by from the mayor telling everyone to stay focused, an attack could come at any moment. From his days as a guardian, Lyonel knew that you simply couldn't stay amped up for long periods of time if nothing was happening. They either needed some kind of change in the situation, or they would have to start rotating people out. There were groups of villagers waiting their turn on the wall and it might be a good time to start making use of them. His thoughts were interrupted by a commotion above.

"Something's happening boss. A pair of people just appeared at one of the portals. Not the closest one, but the next one out."

Gerry, Gaf, and Samson stopped what they were doing immediately and gathered up the few belongings they had taken out.

"What do they look like, and what are they doing?" Lyonel needed more information.

"They look like Bodarians, but they could just be golemoids. They're wearing leather armor and one has a short sword while the other has a mace. So far they are just standing there looking around."

Scouts, most likely. When Hector had said Bodarians, Lyonel's heart had started beating faster. The last time his party had gone against that species it hadn't gone so well. A big question was whether these were villagers pushed into service, or real recruits. With a glance at Gaf he included home-brewed adventurers as well. Hopefully Hector would be able to identify them soon which should provide a little more information.

It didn't take long before they got an update. "Not Bodarians, they just show up as Golemoid. These must be villagers pressed into service. No classes show up, and there's no sign of their grade. Threat level is minimal."

This was expected, but still good news. Lyonel knew from identifying villagers during his first visit to the settlement that little information showed up for people with no classes. They gave even less information than monsters since they didn't even have a level. Other than a name, race, and possibly a threat level, they wouldn't get much more. Perhaps if his skill was a higher level, like Hector's or probably Alan's, then he might get a little more detail, but it was still an easy way to separate serfs from adventurers.

It was possible that a few of the faster villagers could have sprinted out and captured the enemy scouts before they stepped back through their portal, but it wasn't worth the risk. It could reveal a lot more about Elstree's capabilities than they wanted to share at the moment. It would be better to just let them see the defenses that were set up. If that's all the enemy thought they had, then the appearance of over six hundred classers would be an unwelcome surprise for them. In any case, it wasn't too much longer before they got another report.

"I've got movement out of another portal. This one is on the far side of the river. Two more golemoids, similarly equipped to the first pair."

From the tone of his message, Hector was clearly enjoying himself. It was probably more fun than sitting down here staring at the gate. Lyonel eyed the rest of his party and envied the three mages their diversion. With little else going on, Lyonel took out a pair of heavy rocks that he kept in his storage. Then he started lifting them up and putting them down. It was something Alan had taught him. Weight training wouldn't directly improve his strength stat, but it would build his natural muscles. That would increase his effective strength since the stat enhanced his body, and this would give it a better base to build off of. Another benefit is that it would let him increase his Man-At-Arms class faster. That part was more difficult to track, but Alan's mentor had assured him it was a thing.

Over the next two hours they got several more reports of pairs popping out. Each time they were golemoids, and they didn't have any classes. At some of the farther portals the pairs stuck around for only a little while before they stepped back through. Runners came from the far side of the village to report similar incidents. Six hours after the Raid started, Roger finally had the reserves start rotating into place. It seemed like things weren't going to escalate quickly, so Lyonel sent his own runner back to the mayor. He suggested that they stand a majority of the forces down, letting them go eat, sleep, and destress. Keeping them on a hair trigger wouldn't be good for their effectiveness or their mental well-being.

The mayor must have accepted his suggestion because new orders came out, telling the majority of people to take a few hours break and then gather in the main square for an updated plan. Lyonel's party was one of those who were given leave to go, but instead he went up onto the wall. Hector chose to stay as well, while the rest of the group went back to their house. Another benefit to the small size of the village was that people could get to their assigned positions in a couple minutes if something serious appeared. That should be plenty of time to respond since the portals weren't that close or that big. They still have five parties at the gates with a few scattered throughout the rest of the perimeter just in case a smaller group came through with bad intentions.

"Hey boss, tired of looking at a wall?" Hector asked when Lyonel joined him up top.

"Yeah, plus it would be good to see this with my own eyes."

It was weird to see the portals standing in their otherwise featureless grasslands. Each one was a rectangular black void, like onyx steles thrust up from the ground. Most of the ones he could see now had a pair of hulking individuals standing next to them. Over the time they had been here, sometimes one would step back through, leaving a single person to watch them. Soon enough, though, they would return to join their partner. No doubt they were relaying reports to someone on the other side.

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If that was indeed what was happening, this could be an opportunity they could take advantage of. There must be people scattered all over the outskirts of their opponents' village, huddled near each portal ready to take a report. If they could send their own force through to the other side, they could sweep up all of these groups and capture a significant percentage of the enemy population. It was an aggressive tactic that Alan might have taken, but Lyonel and Roger had agreed to wait until the enemy made the first move, or proved that they weren't going to.

Hector spoke up suddenly as Lyonel was still contemplating a potential shift in strategy. "Something's happening at one of the far portals. This one had people earlier, but they left after only ten or fifteen minutes."

Lyonel looked in the direction his scout was pointing, but even with his own perception class, he could barely make out the indicated portal. Perception boosted a person's natural senses, just like the strength stat, and Hector had better starting eyesight in addition to a better class. From what he could make out, a group of about eight people popped out, a couple at a time. He couldn't make out details, but he saw them scatter, all of them moving away from the village.

"What can you tell me Hector?"

"These are different people than those from before. None of them are golemoids. I see what look to be humans and a couple of beast people. They have some equipment, but not as good as what we saw before. They look to be headed away from the village."

"No doubt they are scouting the wider area, making sure we don't have any surprises hidden out there. I hope they don't make any trouble with the dungeons."

"Boss, what could they possibly do to a dungeon?"

"I don't know, but I don't know a lot about our new world. You wanna be the one to tell Alan that we let harm come to his dungeon?"

The last was said in a whisper. The secret of Alan's bond to the new dungeon core was one he had shared with Lyonel and Hector, but not with people in general. It wasn't hard to tell there was something strange about a new dungeon popping up, but there was no reason to just come out and say it. There were still possible spies in the village, 'refugees' from the town of Dewhurst. They had been given classes, just like everyone else, but the mayor had carefully split them up by spreading out when they received their stones, thus putting them in different parties. Roger had taken some of their new teammates aside and had them watched. So far there wasn't anything to incriminate them.

Time passed, and still Lyonel stuck to the wall with Hector. Those with high perception had been asked to remain, to help keep track of any invaders. The formerly near-sighted Lyonel thought it was funny that he was now one of those with the best eyesight. The Network was weird.

After about an hour, five of those enemy scouts came running back toward the portal. They didn't arrive in a group, or even at quite the same time, but it was obvious they were operating on a schedule. It wasn't clear, though, if the missing three had run into trouble, or if they had a different mission. After discussing it with Hector, the ferret man pointed out that the missing individuals had been better equipped than the others. That suggested they did indeed have an alternate task. Lyonel wished he knew what that was.

The most excitement happened when a pair of humans stepped out of the portal directly in front of the gates. Up until now, the two close portals hadn't seen any action. The humans looked around briefly and then one of them ducked back inside before reappearing. She must have made a report. This was alarming enough that Lyonel recalled his party and the mayor sent them some reinforcements, but after another couple of hours of nothing new appearing, they reduced their forces again.

This time Lyonel and Hector left with the rest of their party. They would get some food and sleep. Darkness had fallen a little while ago, but no sneak attacks had come. The mayor had a large reserve force waiting in case of a night assault, but Lyonel didn't think it likely. Their opponent seemed to be gathering information for now. Nevertheless, Dantelion's group was going to stay up all night, just in case. If by morning, nothing had happened, then Lyonel and his group were going to try making a push at one of the nearby portals to see what was on the other side.

Jessica had a delicious meal waiting for them. She had classes too, but she didn't train with them much and was more interested in her role as caretaker for the two adventuring teams. Rather than standing watch, she had been cooking. She had sent a pot of stew to the mercenary group as soon as she heard they were going to be up all night. Their group was served in the dining room. When she ladled a portion into Lyonel's bowl, he took a deep and satisfied whiff. It smelled like home, and comfort, and a warm fire all at once.

While raiding the dungeons in tier two, his party had managed to collect quite a bit of meat. None of it was from the dungeons themselves, you couldn't store dungeon creatures or their parts. But outside of the dungeons they had located a number of leaked monsters and some naturally occurring beasts. They had given a large portion of their bounty to the village, but they had also kept some for Jessica.

Some of this was in the stew, but Lyonel could also see potatoes, onion, peas, and carrots. The rest of his party dug in immediately, but he took a moment to thank Jessica for such a fine meal. Everyone else got a sheepish look and paused their shoveling to mumble thanks around the food in their mouths. The beautiful rabbit woman laughed and left with a beaming smile that lit up the room. She really did seem to enjoy taking care of others and that energy was infectious.

After the meal, they sat around the living room portion of the bottom floor, just digesting their meal and discussing what they thought was going to happen next. They had been so focused ahead of time on being ready for the other side to attack, that they hadn't really considered what to do with a more cautious opponent. Most of the portals they could see were 'claimed', meaning that there were enemies standing at them, but they had no idea what was waiting for them on the other side, or even where that other side was in relation to the objectives.

In all likelihood, that was going to be their job tomorrow, finding out what was happening at their opponent's village. They debated which portal to approach. Assuming their foe had similarly been waiting at their village for the start, then the first portals to have visitors were probably the closest to their village, with Elstree's closest portal probably being one of their farthest, since it had taken hours to get explored.

They had mixed opinions on which to go for. Hector wanted to hit their closest portal. It would most likely put them the farthest from their enemy and also let them know how vulnerable they were to a sudden assault. Samson wanted to hit the portal that had been discovered first. He figured that would put them close to the enemy village so they could see where they stood compared to their opponent. Lyonel was leaning more toward Samson's view, but he didn't want to be too close. While their classes made them superhuman, they were still mortal, and a lucky arrow could kill any one of them.

In the end, none of that mattered because they never even got a chance to even get some sleep. Daisuki came bursting through the door, almost knocking it off its hinges. He had an appalled moment where he looked at the damage he had caused before he rushed over to the Corellians. The poor kid would no doubt get an earful from Jessica, but if the news was important enough, Lyonel might try and intervene. With reflexes honed in countless life and death encounters,they were all on their feet before the door had even rebounded off the wall.

"Sir, sirs, you're needed at the eastern gate immediately. A group of five serious looking golemoids appeared a couple of minutes ago. One of the scouts identified them as Bodarians."

They were already moving after the first sentence, and they only caught the last part as they headed out the door. Saying you could respond quickly to a new threat didn't mean much if you didn't actually respond immediately. Lyonel couldn't help wincing as he heard that these were in fact Bodarians. That meant they were actual recruits, and not natives of the Network.

Because they were on alert, ready to go at a moment's notice, they still had all of their armor on. Weapons and such could be stored and retrieved quickly using their various spatial items, but armor still had to be put on by hand. Sure it could be stored like everything else, but that didn't help with the actual equipping. He had heard that there were items capable of putting it on you, but he had never seen one. The boarding house was at the edge of the village proper, so it only took them a minute to cross the fields between them and the wall. Then it was a quick jog up the stairs and Lyonel could see what they were up against.

There they were, five Bodarian's, standing in a row, shoulder to shoulder. The sight brought back painful memories and Lyonel could feel his heart trying to thump its way out of his chest. The last time he had seen a group arrayed like that, their former party leader had been literally smashed into pulp. A hand on his shoulder caused him to turn back, and of all people it was Gerry offering him comfort.

"We are not the same people, Lyonel."

These days his party always called him boss. It was a sign of affection, he hoped, and to hear the giraffe man use his real name cut through the panic that was trying to take hold. Gerry was right. They had all improved dramatically since that day, and he would like to think that things would have gone differently if it was the current version of himself who had stepped up to fight back then. The current Bodarians continued to just stand there, so he took a moment to identify them.

Butan: Bodarian, Sentinel

Kyle: Bodarian, Berserker

Jemina: Bodarian, Peak Warrior

Haster: Bodarian, Cleric

Prid: Bodarian, Tracker

Judging by their primary classes, they were heavy into melee. Lyonel wasn't sure what a cleric was, but the woman who had that class was wearing heavy armor and carrying a large hammer. She certainly didn't look like a mage. The biggest of the warriors was Kyle, so Lyonel assumed that was their leader. From the one interaction he had with their people, they seemed to value strength. Either way, it didn't look like they were going to storm the gates anytime soon. If anything, they looked ready to stand there till the end of time.

Making an executive decision, Lyonel told his party to get ready. They were going to go out and meet with them. This could be an opportunity to get a better measure of what they were up against. He did send a runner to let the mayor know what they were doing, but he didn't wait for someone to come back with new orders. He let the party down by the gate know he was leaving, and two of their stronger members lifted up the bar while the other three pushed one side open so there was a small gap. It was unfortunate that they hadn't built a sally port that they could have used instead.

There was no cry from above when the gate cracked open, so he assumed the Bodarians continued to wait. One by one they slipped out through the small space that had been opened for them. Once Gaf was through, the party of villagers at the gate pushed it back closed and Lyonel could hear the heavy bar sliding in place, sealing him out here with his bogeyman. Remembering that the others were counting on him, Lyonel started walking towards the waiting opponents. His knees almost buckled with the first step, but he managed not to stumble and then forced himself to resolutely stride forward.

The closer they got, the more his heart began to race again. By the time they were fifty meters away it was so beating so loudly that he was sure Hector could hear it. By the time they were ten meters away it felt like it was pounding hard enough that it was visible through his breastplate. Breathing through his nose, he tried to let nothing show. He opened his mouth to speak, but into his hesitation stepped the opposing leader.

"Greetings fellow adventurers. I wish to measure your worthiness by single combat."

It was only because the statement was so familiar that Lyonel was able to understand it over the blood roaring in his ears. It wasn't word for word the offer that his former leader had gotten, but it was remarkably close. It had the feeling of a ritual to it. What did surprise him was that it was not the largest warrior, Kyle, who spoke. Instead, it was Butan, a slightly shorter and slimmer man who still looked capable of ripping trees from the ground with his bare hands.

A quick glance to Lyonel's left and right showed that his party was with him, but the other Corellian's had a haunted look on their faces. They were also linking the large man's words to their previous encounter. Gaf looked concerned as well, but not to the same degree. Seeing the reaction of the others caused his heart to slow and his mind to clear. He was the leader of his people, and the de facto leader of the warriors of Elstree while Alan was gone. He couldn't let them see him afraid. They needed to know that they were strong, that nothing and no one would intimidate them.

With a cold fury directed not at the Bodarians, but at his own weakness, Lyonel answered. "I accept."

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