The next town was South Valley, built along the old freeway, one of the primary routes through and out of the valley.
It was dead too.
The wall was taller and thicker, without any major holes in it. There were still monsters inside, a few large boars that hadn't been able to break through the wall after killing everyone. They had injuries to their faces that implied someone had tried to stab them through the eyes, only to fail.
The boars were in the high thirties, but the town was large enough that they could draw the monsters off one by one. Josh and the others finished them off with quick efficiency, as quietly as possible. Once it was all done, Josh, Mary, and Ruth had all leveled once, putting them at level 19. Darius had leveled twice, making him level 16. On a whim, Josh gave him a Woodcrafter bloodstone to see if he would get anything interesting out of it.
Darius stopped in the middle of the town. They were walking towards the gate, which they could open from this side. Climbing over the wall had been annoying.
“What's up?” Josh called back. “You get something good after all?”
Wordlessly, Darius gestured as if flinging something in his direction. A window appeared in Josh's vision.
CLASS OPTIONS: Shroudcrafter (Defender). Primary statistics: Flexibility, Capacity. This is a Basic Combat class of the Defender role. Defend yourself with shrouds, enhanced by the focus devices you create.
Josh stopped too. He had loads of questions, and didn't remember exactly what a shroud focus did. If it did what he hoped, this might be more valuable than his own Woodcrafter class. Definitely in direct combat.
Most of those questions, however, could be answered just by making a shroud focus.
“What do you need?” he asked. “Did you get a blueprint? Does it need enchanted materials? We have an Enchanter. Will she be enough?”
Mary and Ruth had received the shared window too, thankfully, so they didn't think Josh had suddenly gone mad. They were staring at their own invisible windows, open-mouthed.
Darius raised a hand to stop the flood of questions. “So you think I should take the class, then?”
“Yes!” Josh shouted, loud enough to wake the dead. “Unless you got Uber-Knight Castle-Eater as an alternative, yes, take the class!”
Darius nodded, as if the answer had ever been in doubt, and tapped something invisible in front of him. His eyes glazed over as he searched through his new class. “Hm... fascinating. I did not receive the [Hands-Free Crafting] and [Instant Crafting] spells. I presume those are unique to your role.”
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“Well?” Josh demanded. “What did you get?”
Darius threw another screen at him.
NEW SKILL LEARNED: Craft Shroud. You may craft and enchant a shroud. Crafting from blueprints is faster and more precise than inventing new shrouds or reverse-engineering shrouds you have.
Josh frowned. “Wait, is this saying that it's impossible to craft a shroud focus without this skill?”
“Perhaps.”
“Or could just be hyper-whatever,” Mary pointed out. “Y'know, like how Josh's Architecture skill makes it sound like you can't build a building without it.”
Darius gave her a long-suffering look. “Do you mean hyperbole?”
She shrugged.
Josh waved her off. “If he can build a shroud, I don't care if no one else in the world can. This is what we're here for, yeah? Things that change the world.” He grinned. “How rare are shroud focuses right now? What if everyone could have some?”
Mary raised an eyebrow. “You having a go? What do you think a shroud focus can do?”
Josh just grinned wider.
Darius was still looking through his screens. “I only have the one blueprint right now, for a rather basic focus. I need... let's see...” He sighed. “Monster parts. Of course. It's an infusion class.”
Josh was surprised he knew that term. It was an old term for how some magic items were made. Some magic items were made by carving the right runes into something and filling them with magic. “Infusion crafting” put the magic into the item directly.
Temporary infusions were common among higher-tier combat classes. Infuse magic into your sword and it would have a flaming edge for an hour. So on. Permanent infusions were something else altogether, and typically required very specific magic types, from very specific sources. Such as, for example, draining the magic from monster parts.
Ruth brightened. “If I experiment with monster parts, do you think I'll get Enchanter blueprints?” She hadn't had a chance to experiment with her runes, so Josh suspected she was feeling useless with her class.
“Could be,” Josh said. He knew there were plenty of magic items that used infusion crafting and runes both. He waved his hand at the corpses of the slain monsters. He winced at the sight of the missing fingers, but forced himself to smile. “Have a go at it, then!”
“Specific monster parts,” Darius said, giving him a withering look. He read his screens again. “I suspect I can change some of these requirements, but I don't know anything about how this class or how shrouds function yet. I need to at least craft it the normal way once first.”
That seemed logical enough to Josh. “Sure! There has to be a shop—” His smile faded, as he remembered they were standing in the middle of a dead town. He sighed, then forced another smile. It was much weaker. “What's the next town on the list?”
Ruth had the map out now. “Uh, Monterey?” She frowned. “Isn't that a state?”
“It was a city in the old world,” Josh said tiredly. “Much farther than this one.” He clapped Darius on the back and gave a weak chuckle. “Come on. I'm sure this next town will have something to sell us.”