Board & Conquest: A Godly LitRPG

When the newly freed prisoner of the Icefall burst out of it with a tempestuous roar, Wepwawet realized that maybe waking up a prehistoric monster from its very long sleep might not have been his brightest idea.

The creature swiftly landed at the cliff’s base in a loud crash that blew snow and ice in all directions. It was assuredly a wereling of some kind, but over twice the size of a werebear and with enough brown wooly fur to fill out a coat shop. It had thick arms larger than pine trees, huge feet capable of crushing stone, tusks sharper than spears, big black eyes larger than a human’s head, a thick trunk, and little more than a loincloth to cover its intimate parts.

In short, it looked like a weremammoth.

A very, very angry weremammoth.

“Grudu!” it shouted—or rather he from the sound of his deep, bellowing voice—while beating his chest like a gorilla. “GRUDUUU!”

“Hey, hey, stop that!” Wepwawet’s spirit projection shouted as the weremammoth began trampling his new shrines and sending his workers running in fear. “Stop!”

His order echoed through his Animal Doctrine Miracle, only to rebound off the rampaging weremammoth.

Grudu, Prehistoric Behemoth, is too smart to be charmed by Animal Kingdom!

Too smart? He could barely utter his own name!

“Viviane, Mistouffe, evacuate everyone!” Victoire ordered as she readied her spear and charged the weremammoth in the blink of an eye. “Filou, Lourson, with me!”

“M-Milady, wait!” Her wererabbit squire called out, his knees too busy shaking in dread for him to follow her order. By the time he found the courage to chase after his teammates, they had already engaged the creature. “Wait for me!”

Wepwawet quickly pondered what to do. He could smite this Grudu where he stood to protect his followers, but he would rather restrain him for future recruitment. His hesitation led to Victoire stabbing the creature’s leg with her spear.

It bounced off.

The tip of her spear simply failed to pierce through Grudu’s fur and the thick skin underneath. As for Lourson, his attempt to hit the giant with his warhammer only resulted in the weremammoth grabbing him by the throat and lifting him up like a teddy bear.

Wepwawet quickly reacted by casting Oath of Spring on Lourson. The werebear’s skin turned into a tree’s strong bark, which likely spared him from death when Grudu threw him against the Icefall with enough force to crack it.

He’s strong! Not only was Grudu a Rank 5, but he also boasted immense physical power to match his brutish exterior. Wepwawet decided to prioritize saving his existing Champions over his recruitment. Smite it is!

Wepwawet prepared to cast the appropriate Miracle when Filou leaped into the fray. “B-Back off!” the wererabbit said with a trembling voice as he unsheathed his scimitar in a vain attempt to assist Victoire. “S-stand down, villain!”

Grudu turned to squash Filou where he stood… and then bolted back like a frightened kitten.

“Grudu!” the giant cried out in dread as he stumbled backward, before swiftly crawling back away from Filou with eyes full of panic. “Grudu…”

Wepwawet was so taken aback that he failed to cast his Smite Miracle. His Champions too found themselves at a loss of words when Grudu fled to the base of the cliff, his back hitting the ice.

“Grudu…” the weremammoth whined and curled in a fetal position. “Grudu…”

“T-That’s right!” Filou said as he swung his scimitar, which only caused Grudu more distress. “I have a magical sword and I’m not afraid to use it!”

“I don’t think it’s the sword he fears, Filou,” Victoire noted, though she didn’t lower her spear. “He’s looking at you.”

Wepwawet glanced from Filou to Grudu. Victoire was right, the latter didn’t particularly focus on the flaming sword; he only stared at the wererabbit’s ears with immense distress and panic.

Well, that was… anticlimactic.

Wintresse chose that moment to teleport in, having previously retreated to avoid being trampled by the weremammoth on his way out of his prison. “Is that an elephant? We had those in Shadazar until our queen ordered us to build her an ivory palace.” Wintresse pointed her staff at Grudu, magic swirling around its tip. “Should I cut his tusks and turn him back to ice, Lord Wepwawet?”

“Wait, wait!” Mistouffe all but bolted between the witch and her target. “Please let me try to talk to him, Boss!”

True, Mistouffe’s Translation Perk should let her communicate with him, Wepwawet thought. Grudu could only say his name, but if he could resist Animal Kingdom, then he had enough Intelligence points to understand a spoken language.

“I leave him in your care, Mistouffe,” Wepwawet decided after giving Grudu a long hard look. Filou had single-handedly cowed him into docility, so he would give diplomacy a chance. “I suspect he is more distressed and confused than aggressive.”

“I think so too,” Mistouffe replied with a furious nod. “I would be confused too if I had been woken up from a years-long nap!”

Wepwawet supposed that a werecat would know such things. Whatever the case, Grudu proved too frightened by Filou to lash out at Mistouffe when she moved up to him.

“Come on, big guy, don’t cry,” Mistouffe said while massaging the weremammoth’s side with her paw. “We’re all friends here!”

The weremammoth whined, his eyes staring at Filou’s ears with dread. “Grudu…”

“That silly wererabbit looks scarier than he is, that’s all,” she comforted him. “He wouldn’t hurt a fly!”

“I-I would,” Filou protested in a childish attempt to prove his bravery. “I mean, not without a reason, but I could do it if I wanted to!”

“Not now, Filou,” Victoire said before checking on the others. None of the workers had been hurt, and Lourson was already back on his feet. “Are you well, my friend?”

“My pride as a werebear took a hit, but I’m fine otherwise,” Lourson replied. His skin turned from bark back to pristine fur. “I’ve never been manhandled like that before. It will take dozens of us to restrain him if he acts up again…” He glanced at Filou. “Or one of you.”

“I, for once, am happy to be taken seriously,” Filou replied.

“We were lucky that no one was seriously wounded,” Victoire said, her eyes wandering to Wepwawet. “What is this creature?”

“An ancient wereling,” Wepwawet replied. From the way his followers reacted, he guessed that Grudu’s kind was long extinct in Verglane. “He doesn’t look like it, but the soul of a Champion slumbers within him.”

Lourson grunted. “He does have the strength to match. That one will walk through fortifications like I do through the rain.”

Meanwhile, Mistouffe managed to calm Grudu down enough that he stopped sobbing. “For every minute you spend being sad and scared, you lose sixty seconds of happiness,” she said with the boundless wisdom of a self-help marketing guru. “And since time is money, you’re doubly in the red!”

“Gruuuuduuu?” The weremammoth squinted at Mistouffe with a mix of curiosity and confusion. Wepwawet could tell he was trying to understand her point, but lacked the higher reasoning required to do so.

Mistouffe hence switched to simpler slogans. “You’re a big boy with a big heart!” To illustrate her point, she pressed her paw against his chest. “Your heart is bigger than both me and that silly wererabbit, but there’s still no place for fear in it!”

“Grudu…” The weremammoth’s trunk touched his chest, and then his stomach. “Grudu.”

“See? Everything will be fine!” Mistouffe then turned to Wepwawet. “Boss, can you show him some of your plant magic? He must be hungry after sleeping for so long.”

Wepwawet had no idea if a weremammoth would appreciate lettuce, but he consented to Mistouffe’s plan nonetheless. “A blessing upon you, Grudu,” he said while summoning a pile of food. “Eat your fill.”

The weremammoth examined the lettuce with his trunk, then grabbed some and shoved it in his mouth. He appeared to enjoy the taste from the way he enthusiastically ate the rest of his meal.

“Grudu!” the weremammoth said with what could pass for gratitude, though it only lasted until he spotted Filou. “Grudu…”

Filou sighed in defeat and sheathed his sword. It didn’t entirely reassure Grudu, but the weremammoth’s attitude changed from outright fearfulness to mere suspicion.

“Can I keep him as my employee, Boss?” Mistouffe asked excitedly. “I swear I’ll teach him the ropes and keep him in line.”

“Your employee?” Victoire rolled her eyes. “Mistouffe…”

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“Hey, an employment contract is the best way to reinsert someone into society!” Mistouffe argued. She gave Grudu affectionate pats on his leg; a gesture which the weremammoth returned by caressing her head with his trunk. “Look at him! Look at his big muscles and all that soft fur! He’s a one wereling-industry!”

“The werecat speaks true,” Wintresse said. “The creature has the strength of twenty men, and he seems more interested in being paid in pounds of food than gold.”

“I suppose it would be better than letting him run amok,” Lourson conceded.

“Pleeease?” Mistouffe joined her hands and pleaded Wepwawet to indulge her request with those big cat eyes that would melt any heart of ice. “I swear I’ll treat him well and supervise him!”

Wepwawet considered his options before deciding to go along with her proposal. Mistouffe was his only Champion with the Perk required to even interact with Grudu, and while she possessed a merchant’s greed, she remained a hard-working mortal with her heart in the right place. Wepwawet didn’t think she would exploit Grudu’s simplemindedness, and since she already managed to calm him down, he could give her a chance.

“Very well,” Wepwawet said. “I will welcome Grudu among my Champions, but he’s your responsibility, Mistouffe. I will have words with you if he messes up.”

“Thanks, Boss! I swear I won’t disappoint you!” Mistouffe immediately translated the news to Grudu in very simple terms. “Hear that? The Big Wolf Boss will give you all the food you want!”

“Grudu?” The weremammoth’s trunk let out a loud and enthusiastic call. “Grudu!”

Wepwawet had the sharp intuition that his daily lettuce budget would soon spiral out of control, but claimed Grudu as his newest Champion anyway. The weremammoth offered no resistance and his stats swiftly showed up on his god’s system screen.

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