Mudwood was not an occupied area of the central continent. Beastkin did not create their nations, the alvod didn't use it, and humanity preferred locations further south or the path through Nightshade. But as the war once again escalated, humanity needed a more permanent location near the coast to launch attacks.
While they could normally simply sail from the northwestern tip of the southern continent and circle the central to reach their lifelong enemies, many ships had begun to go missing in the region of late. No explanation could be found as no survivors escaped, but the problem remained regardless. As such, humanity decided to occupy a region of the central to avoid the unknown danger.
Mudwood wasn't a particularly memorable location. Its trees had a high affinity for both earth and water, but that was common enough. It didn't share the strength derived from the earth element or the flexibility of water; instead inheriting only the qualities of mud.
Its rivers were plentiful but never clean. The sheer quantity of mud around it stained the waters brown and made them flow thick. How the region partially abutted the glasslands was a mystery.
Monsters rarely spawned, and most of those that did were of the elymental variety. Mostly powerful mud and earth elymentals, with a spattering of water and air. Strangely, the region also held a quantity of proper elementals, possibly former familiars or summons. No gates to the elemental planes had ever been discovered by the rare mages seeking a mud affinity, often simply just to complete their sets.
All in all, Mudwood was a region not known for its bright vistas or odd inhabitants. It was plain and uninviting. Even the innate poison alignment and twilight barrier of the Nightshade region were more popular.
The only reason humanity had settled was its coast, creating the bright port city of Ghistla. But no city existed without outlying towns and cities to supply its needs. Including the village of Hjoldr.
Seven months before the orcs marched through it on their path west, the town experienced an odd phenomenon.
As the desolate season reached its end and the planting season began its yearly warming, twenty-one women simultaneously collapsed and began to shout. Friends and strangers alike rushed them to the town's solitary nurse. Her advanced class and its Eye of Vitality ability easily allowed her to identify the problem. Birth.
Despite the muddy environment of Mudwood, the nurse's home was as clean as any location could be. Her aura naturally destroyed dust and rot, dissolving it into essence smoke. She carried the favor of the Rainbow Dissolution, as many carrying the nurse class did.
She used her mana to conjure beds of invisible force, relying on a powerful mana stone for additional power. The women were all placed upon one at her direction.
The nurse was startled at not the number, but the persons who arrived. She had seen many of their pregnancies as the harvest season had drawn to a close, and assisted many through the chilling and desolate seasons, but most were three months too early to give birth.
She had experienced many forms of the arcane, curing many diseases and poisons that emerged from monsters on the southern continent, yet never anything like this.
Despite her curiosity, she still assisted in twenty-one simultaneous births, pushing her zinc-rank mind and body to their limits. She used the common mage hand spell to hold tools and carry newborns to be cleaned of blood and residue.
Several of the women also crossed a grade threshold, with one even pushing out of tin-rank and into nickel. All the impurities they cleansed were dissolved quickly by the nurse's aura as well, letting none reach the new infants.
After hours of nonstop work and a liberal use of spells to knock out the new mothers and infants alike, she finally left the back room of her home to tell the townsfolk that the women would all survive, as would the infants.
Seven months passed quickly for the town of Hjoldr. Most of the excitement from that day still remained with many townsfolk, especially as the many infants began to display extremely rapid development.
Babies were always born at the tin-rank with innate access to the skill system locked until age eight, yet the infants were displaying basic system functions already.
None could yet speak Scinparic or Scinpolic, yet they clearly spoke the names of those they spoke. Other babbling sounds they made were gibberish, yet they conclusively sounded out names not told to them. Clear signs of Analyze. They hadn't put the children in front of dead monsters to test if they had Basic Looting or given them an affinity to test Absorb, but they didn't need to.
None of them had started passive poten progression yet, but the nurse told them not to worry. Passive rank advancement would begin once their bodies were ready. Starting it too early could apparently have unpleasant side effects.
Even more strangely, despite none of them being given class stones, all of them had one. Most were simply the basic mutations on one of the common root classes. Shadow Hunter, Burning Lancer, or Jolting Swordsman. Of course, mutated root classes were rare and often limiting, but every one of the townsfolk believed the children would live long enough to gain a second class.
By far the strangest of the children was one who possessed the class World's Hero. It was a class every single human knew of, as a natural counter to the World's Villain class, often held by the daemon king. It told them that the future would be filled with tumult as the world only gave out the two classes at the same time. There was another villain somewhere.
What was truly against expectations was when a powerful mage from the capital arrived in a flash of silver light to retrieve the children, and by extension, the entire town of Hjoldr. Naturally, the village accompanied the mage as he teleported them back to the capital.
While the children wouldn't understand, the adults of the town were horrified to find that an orcish army more than ten thousand strong was marching west, and that their lives were merely a roadblock to the hoard. A roadblock that would have been overcome in a mere moment.
[Congratulations! You have gained Class: World Villain]
[Current Classes: Scholar (100), Precise Scholar (100), Dissectionist (52), World Villain (1)]
Ibras quickly sealed the adamant container holding the few bones of the ancient dragon he still had. The notification surprised him. Even after all these years with the system, he still hadn't figured out how fighters managed to ignore its incessant messages. They had a bad tendency to appear when he least expected them.
This time, though, he was truly surprised by its content. World Villain. He knew the class well. There wasn't a human on the planet who wasn't aware of it. Sent out by the world in accordance with the World Hero class, set as eternal rivals.
This was the first time he'd heard of the class being given to a human. Usually, it was given to the daemon king when he was crowned. There was one record from just about ten thousand years ago of a lord of some beastkin clan being given the title and waging war on humanity, but never one of a human holding it.
He looked down at himself and at his status. It didn't read as human anymore, so he guessed it still hadn't given the title to a human. But he had been human before his ascension to this body of silver and gold.
He'd have to track the bearer of the World Hero class. While they were enemies, it was likely they were still on the same side. Maybe this time, there would be no reason for the hero and villain to destroy each other. Maybe.