Chapter 56

Tom contemplated the Caseville Core with curiosity. It felt … happy. He was uncertain what to think about that, except that he was relieved that it wasn’t driving him mad. It was much higher level than he was; he was still level fifteen, the caseville core was level forty. But he felt no urge to spawn any additional monsters, no urge to evolve the ones that he had, nor any urge to upgrade the core beyond what it already was.

Tom had gotten used to interacting with Alpha Core, and while he thought that he’d established some rapport with Alpha, Caseville was downright delighted to do his bidding. Currently, he was examining all of the options to seed the various floors. And the surface. He knew that he wasn’t supposed to do that due to the structural integrety of the dungeon beneath the city, but he had never built a dungeon fifteen floors deep before and he was curious what options were available.

He was unfamiliar with some of the names of things. Tungston. Maganese. Lithium. He recognized mythril, and about a dozen other metals and gemstones, but for every one he did recognize there were three that he did not.

Fortunately, he had a notebook with him, and so he stood with the notepad against the crystal as he wrote down the unfamiliar names. That is, until someone cleared their throat and interrupted him.

“You going to be all day?” the voice asked.

Tom turned and saw a guardsman. A guardsboy really. He couldn’t have been eighteen yet. But then, neither was Sevin, and Sevin was a warrior. Tom was fairly certain that this lad was a Commoner, but that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t awaken soon. And anyway, most people were Commoners and there was nothing wrong with it. It’s not like the guard only employed Warriors, considering that the class was fairly rare, all things considered.

“I’m sorry, am I in your way?” Tom asked.

“Little bit,” the guardsboy answered. “Don’t worry, I’ll just be a minute.”

Tom stepped out of the way, and the lad put a hand against the crystal and spoke. “I, Rory Johnson, hereby testify that upon my death, my death benefits and any outstanding pay and basically everything I own should go to me mum. Not me da. Additionally, I’d like to set aside one mark out of every ten to go to me little sister’s education fund. She can claim that when she unlocks her class, whatever that may be. Thats it.”

Rory took his hand off the crystal, got the far off look of someone examining a system popup for a moment, then nodded. “Right, that’s taken care of.”

“Did that work?” Tom asked him, amazed. “I thought the Core Stone wasn’t accepting financial transactions.”

“It’s what now?” Rory asked. He frowned. “Seems to work just fine to me.”

“Can you check your balance?” Tom persisted.

“What good would that do? I haven’t been paid yet,” Rory answered.

“Yeah, but, I mean,” Tom frowned. “Rory, do all the guards make their will and testament before they start work?”

“It’s a tradition, I’m told. You can change it anytime you like right up until you die just by coming up to the Core and speaking it, so there’s no reason not to get it out of the way. And if the worst does happen, this way your family is covered and there’s no squabbling over the coin afterwards. My da would do plenty of squabbling if he could, right bastard that he is,” Rory explained.

“Right, I suppose that makes sense,” Tom admitted. “So you’re just joining the guards now?”

“Been training for two weeks I have. Was supposed to head out to kill zombies and get some levels in Commoner this week, but the new dungeon opened up and the city council wants it delved by the guard to make sure it’s not a threat. So we’re gearing up to delve it.”

“I see,” Tom said, frowning. Actually talking to someone who was about to delve his dungeon made it more real to him, somehow. He almost reached out, to see if he could evolve the lad, but stopped.

He hadn’t really gotten much attention so far. Even though he was standing in the middle of the town square, leaning against the Core Stone and taking notes, nobody had really been paying attention to him. But if he evolved Rory and Rory said anything to anyone, he might never hear the end of it. Everyone would want Tom to evolve them, and Tom would have to flee Caseville before he was ready to do so.

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“Good luck, Rory,” Tom said. “I know that there are burrowers on the upper levels and zombies down below that, but they might get mixed up. I don’t know. I’m pretty sure that it will get a lot stronger the deeper down you go, so don’t be afraid to turn back.”

“Thanks, friend, but don’t worry. I’ll be with the sergeant, and the sergeant is level twenty-five. We’ll be fine.”

“I hope so,” Tom said. “Good luck.”

“Thank you, friend. Hopefully I’ll be here again before my wedding day, changing my testimony to name me wife instead of me ma. But I’m glad I got that out of the way,” Rory said. Then he turned and walked off.

Tom frowned, and put his hand back on the Core Stone. When he activated Customize, he noticed a new option this time. Testimonies. When he selected it, it had only one notation in his interface, and the name of Rory Johnson.

Leaving your will and testiment recorded by the Core Stones of wherever you lived was a pretty common practice, Tom realized. The testiment would follow you if you traveled anywhere in the nation. Except, Tom realized, for the Cores on his network.

He sighed. The king was sending a few people from the central bank and primary money-changing houses to help him fix Caseville’s financial woes. Adding the lack of a record of testimonies was one more thing to fix, and he had no idea how to do it.

The crowd around him gasped and parted, and Tom turned in time to see a pegasus land. He frowned, because that probably wasn’t the safest thing to be doing in a city, but Tom recognized the rider.

“Aisha,” he said. “What are you doing here? Since when can you fly?”

“Hello again Tom,” Aisha said. “I’m glad that I spotted you, although I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you are near the stone. Where is Emil?”

Tom shrugged. “I’m not sure exactly. We’re staying at the Cat’s Fiddle, but that doesn’t mean he’s there right now. He could be out in the city. I think he was saying something about a water tower or an aquaduct or something for the city. He promised to swing by later once he’d figured some things out. I guess he want’s me to build something for him.”

“I see,” Aisha said. “I need to tend to my mount, Ajax. I will return as soon as I’ve stabled him. Will you promise to wait here until I return? I really need to speak with Emil.”

“Sure, if he comes by before you return we’ll wait for you,” Tom agreed. “I think there’s a stable just around that corner, but I don’t know if they’ve ever served a pegasus before.”

“I will check it out, thank you Tom.”

Aisha dismounted and led Ajax in the direction Tom had indicated by the harness. Tom went back to communing with the Caseville Core, unaware of the looks that he was getting now. That was fine, in a few moments the excitement was forgotten as the routine of daily life resumed.

Emil returned first, looking excited. “I think it’s going to work, Tom. It’ll need a steam engine to pump the water, but the last I heard the king had a working prototype. We just have to build the well and the tower itself. After that it will take some construction in the city itself, but if you’re still around you should be able to just Customize open the ground to bury the watermain. It will probably start out with public faucets, but it will be better than pulling water out of the river nearby, which is where most of the city is getting its water right now. I don’t know if they’re even boiling it.”

“I don’t really know what you’re saying,” Tom admitted.

“You don’t have to know the entire picture. I just need you to customize some structures for me. I’ve got some sketches to--”

“Emil, I need your help,” Aisha said, walking into the conversation halfway through and interrupting Emil’s momentum. The Ritualist engineer looked at her, more surprised than annoyed.

“Aisha? What are you doing here?” he asked. “I thought you were out healing the sick and wounded.”

“That’s why I’m here. There is apparently an oversight in my education which I need your help to correct,” Aisha explained.

“Can it wait?” Emil asked.

“The sooner we get started, the more lives I can save,” Aisha answered.

Emil frowned, not certain how to respond to that. Finally he nodded. He passed Tom a few drawings and said “Study those for now. Try to picture how you can Customize a structure like that using your abilities. I’ll show you where we’re going to put it later.”

“Okay,” Tom agreed, examining the drawing of a mostly-hollow tower.

“How are you doing, Tom? Any urges to Spawn something?” Emil asked.

“No,” Tom said. “I’m not certain if it’s because I’m higher level than I was when I went crazy in Tilluth, or because the Caseville Core is happy, but either way I haven’t had the urge to spawn anything since I spawned Cassius in the bottom of the dungeon.”

“That’s a relief. What’s the plan if you start to feel the urge?” Emil asked.

Tom nodded to a cafe nearby, where Antoine sat having a cup of Caff. It was, according to the Earthlings, stronger than coffee but didn’t taste as good. Which Jessica thought was amazing since she thought coffee had tasted terrible. “If I do go crazy Antoine will drag me out of here by my ear if he has to and kill anything I spawn outside the dungeon.”

“Right, that’s a relief,” Emil said.

“Emil,” Aisha said impatiently.

“Right, what is it?” he asked, turning his attention back to her.

“I need you to develop a ritual for me.”

Emil’s eyebrow lifted. “You do realize that I have just a few months of experience with ritual magic, right? Aren’t you better off asking the king’s mages for help?”

“Their product is completely inadequate,” Aisha explained. Here, I have the papers with me. Let’s go sit near Antoine and I’ll explain.”

They left Tom as he studied several plans for a water tower, as the boy tried to figure out whether his powers would allow him to create such a structure using Customize.

He was pretty sure they would, but he’d want Emil looking over his shoulder to make sure that he got everything right. After all, although it was Tom’s power doing the construction, he only had a vague idea of the structure’s purpose. Actually making it fulfill that purpose, well, that would take an engineer.