The road itself was in decent condition. Broken and fractured in places but once she’d cleared off the top layers, there was an obvious street made of large, fitted bricks.
As she smashed and plowed her way into the ash, Rae came across a wide selection of things. Plenty of those tubers the boars had eaten. Almost all of them had traces of parasite in them so she tossed them to the side. It would have been nice to return with extra food for the courtyard but it wasn’t to be.
There was a massive collection of bugs and hives, the second she broke into the hardened mounds hundreds of black or grey insects would pour out. The interiors were often damp and some had larvae floating in a sticky, greenish tar. It was sweet to the taste and had Sylvan essence within.
Interesting–it was a form of honey. The Sylvan would protect the larvae from parasites long enough for them to properly develop. But where were they getting that from? She brought a large, bowl-like chunk of hive filled with the honey back to the courtyard and handed it to Dwin.
“You might be able to make use of this,” Rae said.
He poked at it, his face twisting in evident disgust. “We eat this shit when we’re out in the wastes. Maybe the bracket-cook can whip up something tasty with it.”
“Bracket-cook?”
“You know… a cook, but she’s got a class now so there are those brackets around cook.”
“Oh, a [Cook].”
“Yeah, like that,” he gave her a crooked grin. “It’s funny, I can hear the brackets when you say it. How do you do that?”
“I’ve done it for so long, it comes naturally to me.”
“I’m a scout now. A SCOUT. Damn, my tongue just can’t do it.”
Rae had delivered the mound and turned to depart. “You’ll get it eventually. Also, no cursing around me. Osbenities are fine but I’m not fond of curses.”
“Shit on a stick, I’ll never curse again, star-lady.”
Further down the road, Rae encountered monsters buried under the ash. The first was one of the goblin-bat creatures that she killed before it managed to wake. The next was a pack of canid creatures with stingers for tails and patches of snake skin along their side. When she beheaded one, its blood slashed against her skin and burned. She hopped back, off the road, and led them away before killing them. Their blood pooled into a hissing, steaming mess that ate into the ash and stone.
The monsters she first encountered were weak, Rae would characterize them as Beast or Corrupted ranked monsters and posed no threat to her when the sun was at her back. The next ranks were Degenerate and Fallen. A Fallen would be her equal. As she was not a Warrior, it might have more raw strength, endurance, and power than her, but Rafael would have the advantage of experience.
Rae could feel the dungeon now. The weight of its dark aura pressed upon the land around it. There was a possibility that a Fallen rested in its heart but that would be unusual. While the air was always a touch chill, the ash around the dungeon was frozen in patches and there were no plant roots or insect hives to be found.
She was breaking up a large chunk of masonry when she felt movement in the ground under her. She jumped back, landing reducing her weight so as to not give away her location, and watch. A pale, bony hand burst from the ash, grasping frantically at the air.
“Not what I expected.” Rae grabbed the hand by the wrist and yanked the monster out. It was a half-rotted corpse. A human corpse. Tattered bits of hair covered its head while most of its face was yellowed bone. It clacked its jaws and mindlessly lunged at her. Rae grabbed the jaw, tore it off, and tossed it to the ground. This didn’t dissuade it as it continued to try to bite at her even without a mouth.
Completely mindless then. Not even the intellect of a beast.
She kept a grip on its wrist and pulled at its ripped clothing. A quick inspection of its bare flesh revealed no stitches, runes, or surgically removed organs. This wasn’t a necromancer’s work. Necrotic essence had so permeated the body that holding it in the sunlight was causing it to smoke. If Rae left it out, no doubt it would burst into flame and parish on its own.
Instead, she blasted it with Radiant.
It looked like she’d be facing an undead dungeon then. Rae had expected a demonic one but it seemed luck was on her side. With a smile on her lips, she turned and went back to her work. By noon, she’d almost cleared a path straight to the mouth of the dungeon. Its entrance was a massive head rising from the ground, the face twisted in eternal agony. Fouled water trickled from its eyes to the ground and froze in chunks, leaving an icy, muddy slop that poured down its mouth.
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Rather than brave the dungeon, Rae transformed her bracers into a cart as wide as the road and pilled it full of the gravel she created. Purifying the entire cart took only a drip of her Radiant. While she knew being a Mender accounted for some of the difference, it was shocking how little essence was required when working with basic materials compared to healing mortal bodies.
As she dumped the first pile of material at the tower’s wall, the guardsmen peered down at her but stayed silent. No doubt, she’d provided their entertainment for the day and they were interested in seeing what became of her labors.
Rae meditated again when the sun was at its zenith, basking in its Radant-filled gaze. To achieve peak Nacient Divinity, she would need to expand her channels and double the size of her core. Awakened Divinity would happen when she compressed all the Radant within her and transformed it into a Radant soul. That would create a spiritual bond between Rafael and Shal; it was a great leap in power but would also send up a flare to any beings at a rank similar to Awakened Divinity.
Rafael’s true form was that of a giant who stood as tall as the Maker’s tower and was entombed within Axis. She was of Supreme Herald rank, a full eleven ranks above Rafael’s current form. She was part of the city world of Axis, the beating of her heart powered leviathan machines and her breathing cleaned the air. As she did so, Rafael was exposed to the Source, the heart of Axis itself. Over thousands of years, much as heat and pressure turned plant matter into diamonds, exposure to the Source would refine her city-body from early to mid Supreme Herald. At peak Supreme Herald, she would leave Axis and enter unprotected into the Void.
Before that level of power, no Radiant being could survive total exposure to the Void. Even Infernal places were safer.
Rae opened her eyes after an hour of meditation. More carts of purified gravel were hauled to the wall and piled against it. Once she had enough, Rae began to fill in the numerous holes and gaps. Whoever dwelled within the tower was foolish for leaving the wall damaged for so long. Like open wounds, it caused the aura of the tower to fester and weaken. Not only would repairing it allow the camps to spread out safely but it should increase the yield of the crops within and prevent the wells from going dry.
The Makers were not a friendly group. At least not to curious godlings that followed in their wake. Not once, had one of them complimented her work; in many ways, they looked down on the Menders far more than any other caste. As she hardened the gravel she’d packed into a man-sized breach, letting it expand and merge with the wall, she felt the wall itself almost object. It was a magnificent artifact created by true craftsmen and she was shoveling in dirt and trash to fix it.
Well, it would have to do. Give her a nearly endless supply of materia, lifetimes to work, and a community of fellow craftsmen and Rae would create masterpieces as well. But she had none of that. She ignored the wall’s silent judgment and resumed her work. By sunset, she’d managed about a fifth of the entire wall, joining the southern and southeastern camps.
The problem with the Makers is that they were every bit as good as they believed themselves to be. If they had designed the courtyard to be lived in, which appeared to be the case, then if it were restored, Rae was sure it could support a small city of perhaps 20,000 people.
“Star Maiden, can you make Jokim fall in love with me?” a young woman asked as Rae walked by.
“No, child, I cannot.”
“But we’re meant to be together!”
Rae hurried her pace and entered the temple. Ane turned her way and gave a deep bow. “Star Maiden Rafael, we have prepared a place for you if you desire to commune with the heavens again tonight.”
They’d set up a bed near the altar.
“Thank you,” Rae replied with a smirk, “but that’s unnecessary. I’ve managed my Radient more wisely today and will spend the evening patrolling the wall. I believe you had a few questions in regards to the System and its peculiarities…”
They spent about an hour in conversation. At some point, a bell rang out and the temple doors were sealed. The priests stripped out of their heavy robes to eat a simple meal of plain porridge. Rae joined them, missing the flavor of onions or even goat milk.
“But what is a level?” one priest kept asking. “What is it, really? How can someone not have a power and then a minute later have access to new powers? Doesn’t that mean that they had access before and it just wasn’t visible?”
“It’s a measurement. The same as a second or an inch or a cup; it doesn’t have any value in and of itself but lets you quantify something else. The System isn’t a reflection of reality but a tool designed to control and manipulate reality and one’s self,” Rae tried to explain.
Ane leaned forward. There was a dark blue tint to her skin that Rae hadn’t seen in other goblins. “What worries me is Charisma. If I can increase this value and it makes others like me more, doesn’t that mean I’m undermining their free will?”
“It depends on how you define free will but simple force of personality—” Outside a bell began to ring and Rae fell silent.
“The gate alarm!” Ane said, her eyes widening. The priests all scrambled for their clothing as Rae went outside.
The usual group of four guards stood atop the wall and Rae jumped beside them.
“This isn’t fair,” one was saying, “I’m a FLORIST now. The heavens say I shouldn’t be on guard duty.”
“Jokim, you turn tail and the only thing you’ll be plucking is my spear out of your ass,” snapped a different one.
“What’s the problem?” Rae asked. They snapped to the side, some raising their spears, before they realized it was her.
“See for yourself,” the oldest guard said, pointing with his weapon.
She followed his gesture down the road until she spotted movement. A group moving very slowly towards the closed gate. Blowing out a puff of glowing Radiant, she sent it away from her until its light fell on the shambling group. Corpses, about thirty of them, shambled forward.
There was a scraping sound behind her as Dwin climbed up the ladder and pulled himself up. The goblin grinned from ear to ear.
“Looks like I’m right on time. I got my first quest: hold back the zombie attack!”