First off, props to Mythu for going through my stuff and pointing out errors. I try to catch them all, but some fall through the cracks. Pointing out my mistakes makes me grow stronger as an evil mastermind a writer.
Sorry about that taking so long, I had a lot of fixing on the chapter to do. It was actually pretty bad.
In two weeks I’m going to be working quiet a bit more. What this means for the readers is slower updates. I will still try to get them out as quickly as possible, but I might only be able to get out one or two a week. I could sacrifice length and get them out as quickly, but they would only be 2k-4k words each.
Short summary of the last chapter:
Spoiler :
Voice went on a date. After getting the girl’s hopes up intentionally, he let her down. When he got back into the game he looked around the city, and decided to help out. He made a food stall that gave out free food, and got a tanner and blacksmith to help make demon wolf leather armor.
Also, let me know if anything is wrong with the chapter! Be sure to comment!
Also 1.2, I updated the map on the cite. Map
While Voice was hunting wolves:
Two figures were in a pitch black room. Fog obscured all vision. Only their robes could be distinguished, even though they both had perfect dark vision. The figures were unable to view each other, but that was how they both preferred it. One figure was bowing to the other, kneeling on one knee, with its left hand over its heart.
The figure that bowed spoke, in a worried voice. “Master, the slavers failed.” The figure was worried, not because of the failure, but because his master was prone to fits of violence. The fits would last until his master had destroyed whoever was in front of him completely.
Through his robe the master looked at his slave with scorn. “How many died?” He had been easily angered recently. Since Davros had been sealed, so was most of his power. Now he had to rely on the soul binding contracts, and what little magic he was capable of. The slavers had been a small force that he controlled, but without the means to acquire new contracts or magic, every setback was devastating.
“All of them.” The man that was bowing felt a shiver go down his spine. Even without looking up, he knew his master’s anger was full to bursting. Trying to placate his master, he asked, “What is our next plan of action?”
The man standing started to unleash a black miasma. The dark mist grew until it had covered the entire pitch black room. The room was large, and in this dark seemed endless.
“Send a scout to trail him. Gather 50 men. You have five days to gather them. You have ten days to bring them to me. I don’t want this to end up like Fort Sandra. After I inspect them you will go kill him. I have just sent word to The Tamer. He is closest to that area right now. Your men will be cooperating with him. Choose carefully. ” Another shiver went down the slave’s spine. “If you fail, you know what will happen right?” As the last word left his lips, the master infused a fearfully frightening magic into his voice.
The slave nodded quickly, and backed out of the room without turning his back on his master. His master had said that was the same as failing him. His master’s methods with dealing with those that failed was… harsh. After the slave left, he immediately contacted 50 of his best men. He would not be the one to rise his master’s ire.
Voice’s POV
I decided to try to fix the forge first thing. Getting the forge fixed early meant more time to make armor. More armor meant less time I’d have to spend in this shithole.
“It’s right this way.” The blacksmith said, it sounded similar to what a butler might say to his master. I felt that I could get used to that. In fact I decided I was going to get at least one butler when I made my own city.
I had basically given up on taking this city over, at least for now. The amount of work I’d have to put into it wasn’t worth it. If I came back later, and the city was thriving, then I’d think about it.
His forge looked like it used to be imposing. The forge was located outside. It had a cover on the top, much like Evan’s forge. This forge looked like it had taken much more time to make though. Everything that wasn’t metal, was made of bricks.
He had two large furnaces, each could fit several bars of metal worth of ore into them. The flame of one was exposed to the air, it looked like a campfire with something hanging over it. The other was more like a large oven. He had a large grind wheel, an assortment of whetstones, and an expensive looking anvil. On the wall beside the furnaces, hung several different types of tools. There obviously various sized tongs and hammers, but there was several items that I had never seen before.
The forge was in a horrid state. The anvil was somehow broken in half, the furnace door was shattered, the open furnace was crumbling in on itself, the tools all lay broken on the ground. All in all, the slavers left nothing untouched.
I frowned as I thought to myself. How the hell am I supposed to help fix this? I could get Evan’s help, but he is really far away.
I took inspect back from Ancestor. I managed to manipulate the metal bars in the sewer, so maybe I could do the same to some of the metal in this forge. I figured the worst thing that could happen would be that I broke some things that were irreparable anyway.
I closed my eyes, and concentrated on the anvil. I didn’t know a lot about forges, but I knew making tools was easier than making an anvil, so I was going to help with the harder one. After a few minutes I managed to find the mana in the iron. It was in complete disarray. The anvil seemed to have been attacked several times, with several types of weapons, from several directions.
Those slavers must have had fun going to town on this thing I thought with bitter amusement. What was no doubt fun for them, was going to be extra work for me.
The mana seemed to be in a jigsaw puzzle. I was sure that I could fix it if I figured out the locations of each piece, but that would take a while. I spent the next hour finding and fixing the metal mana in the anvil. It was strenuous work. After an hour of complete concentration, I ran out of mana.
I was exhausted mentally. The pieces had to be fit perfectly together, or it just ruined the anvil even more. At first I tried to just stick them where it seemed likely it would work, but the anvil started cracking.
I had to carefully examine each piece of mana in the anvil, and then find the exact piece it connected to. Luckily it was usually close by. The biggest problem I had after starting to examine the mana puzzle, was that I also had to put the mana pieces in a certain position and angle. It was like having to lightly spin the jigsaw puzzle whenever you put a piece in. It made it almost impossible to complete.
After an hour I had only connected about a dozen pieces, out of the hundreds that the anvil was made of. I had thought to take blacksmithing as a skill, since I could manipulate metal. I threw that idea out of the proverbial window. If it took this long to fix one thing, then how long would it take to make something!?
If I did ever take blacksmithing, I was sure that metal manipulation would have its perks though. I decided to postpone asking for blacksmithing lessons for the foreseeable future.
After opening my eyes I was greeted by a welcome sight. The previous catastrophe that was an anvil, was now only a train wreck. I had managed to fix many of the minor cracks and dents by only restoring a few of the pieces.
The blacksmith was looking at me with an appreciative face. He was holding a pair of broken tongs, and re-working them into something usable.
“You’re done?” I replied with, “For now.”
He nodded. “At first I had no idea what you were doing, but then I noticed my anvil start to stich itself together! HA! That was quite the sight. I thought you’d help me get a bit of metal to fix my forge, maybe help me craft some new tools at most. But no! You go and fix my granpappy’s anvil!” He got up while he said that. He was admiring the amount of work I was putting into the anvil. He punched me in the arm in a friendly manner. It hurt like hell. Regardless of my pain setting.
“Well that’s all I can do for now, but I did learn about how to fix it. I will come by later tonight, or tomorrow, to finish the job. I feel like my brain is going to explode.” I gave him a defeated smile. He nodded enthusiastically.
“Normally I’d offer to let you sup with my wife an’ me, but sadly…” He looked into the distance for a moment, as if holding off dark thoughts. “Sadly there is no food in the city. My wife is out trying to catch fish though. I’d be glad to have you over if she’s successful.”
I shook my head. “I would love to accept, but I’m going to be busy. I want to have this city fed and defended in no more than two days.” I gave him a nod, and left.
I called Heather and EDI to me. I had sent Heather to restock my bandages earlier. EDI was going around helping make makeshift homes for the slaves. It wasn’t much, but at least they didn’t need to sleep in basements anymore.
Heather came back with three stacks of bandages, and with Elvina. Apparently that was all that was in the entire castle. Elvina looked confused as to why she was following a rabbit.
“Hello Elvina. I would like to ask you for a favor.” She seemed to want to ask something, but I interrupted her with that question. She nodded.
“I’d like to plant these seeds in the back of the castle. I need you to tell everyone to stay away from them. I will be able to make many high grade healing potions from them.” I patted my alchemists belt as I said that. Her eyes went wide when I said they could be used to make healing potions. Then she got an understanding look.
“Sure, want me to get someone to plant them?” I shook my head.
“I am better than most at finding good places to plant.” She looked confused, but only shrugged. She said bye and left, most likely to spread news that my plants were off limits.
I took a slow stroll to the castle. The back courtyard was expansive. It had many yards of greenery, and quite a bit of area dedicated to purely training. Practice dummies and targets littered that area.
I planted my entire bag of seeds. I was sad to see them go, but I could always just gather that amount of seeds again. I used the entirety of the seeds. I decided to do an experiment one of the healing herbs and common weed seeds. I poured as much nature mana as I could into each of them.
After planting the seeds he stared at the ground for a while. If Elvina failed to keep the people from stealing my seeds I would probably have to kill all of the ex-slaves. I’d leave Elvina, I knew I couldn’t bring myself to kill someone that looked exactly like my mother.
I sighed as I left. I walked to the southern gate. EDI was already waiting for me there. I waved when I got close. “Ready to hunt the rest of the wolves?” I said jokingly. She nodded vigorously. It seemed like she was actually up for killing the rest of the wolves. I covertly rolled my eyes. I motioned for her to follow me, and we left the city.
The wolves were cautious of us. Since the destruction of entire packs earlier today it was no wonder. When we would find any wolves, they ran away. They all seemed to run in the same direction. Anytime we got close, Ancestor would give me control of Instinct. When the wolves would run away, I’d give it back. It was actually really annoying to have to repeat that so often.
Since all of the wolves seemed to be running in one directions, we went that way. We slowly crept through the forest. Whenever we saw fruits, nuts, or berries, I’d inspect them. If they were not harmful, I’d put them in my pouch with intentions of feeding them to the ex-slaves. If they were harmful, I’d put them in my pouch with intentions of feeding them to my enemies.
We tracked the wolves for an hour. It seemed as though they were making it easy for us. Ancestor said the track sub-skill of Inspect was finding them without any problems. Does that mean they stink?
When we got into close proximity of where the wolves were apparently staying Ancestor said, “Voice, we are downwind of the wolves. I don’t think they know we are here, but there is a lot of them.” I took Inspect over since the wolves were close.
I tried to concentrate on the auras of the wolves. It seemed that none of them had one. It was actually weird. I hadn’t seen any auras in the game yet, at least not on people. The gods had them, as did a few items, but that’s it. It made me start questioning what aura sight really did. Even the mages at the guild didn’t possess a noticeable aura.
I peaked through the trees. There were dozens of wolves in a small clearing. In the center of the clearing was a boulder. Laying on the boulder was an excessively large wolf. It looked to be at least two or three times bigger than the rest.
I quickly made a plan and discussed it with EDI and Heather. Once they agreed I went to work. I started taking all of the moisture out of the air. The one I assumed was the alpha started sniffing around after only a few minutes. He had sensed the air getting dryer.
For some reason the wind continued to blow towards us. I was going to use this advantage, but I was wary of some sort of trap. The stupid wolves started to look around the clearing after most of the moisture had been taken away.
I smiled to myself. At that point it was too late to do anything substantial to stop me. Before they decided to look for the cause, I harnessed all of the surrounding fire mana. The air around the clearing grew hotter. The wolves were panting. That was EDI’s cue to start.
She ran into the stamina draining area. The alpha barked. Two of the wolves went to deal with her, while the others guarded the rock. The plan was for them to all focus on her, but it was a very flexible plan.
As soon as EDI engaged the wolves, Heather jumped out of the opposite side of the clearing. I smiled as I saw her pounce on one of the wolves. Her speed was uncanny. I shook my head, glad that Heather hadn’t decided I was worth attacking.
As long as I keep her under control, then I will benefit tremendously from it.
The alpha barked again. Three more wolves went to deal with Heather. SHIT! There aren’t supposed to be that many that stay!
The plan had been fairly simple. I would dry out the air so the girls could attack the over heated wolves. After fully clearing out the water mana, and adding fire mana, I would tell them to run. After that my concentrated fire power would be unleashed on the alpha.
The only problem now was that I had to get closer to target the alpha. With so many wolves still in place I had to do something to get to him. I was not going to let this plan fail!
I gave them the signal to run. I rushed towards the alpha. I looked at the wolves in scorn. The average level was only 26. The alpha was at level 50, but that was why I had EDI and Heather. I let out my Roar of Paralysis, enhanced by my wind mana. The wolves, except the alpha, were scared stiff.
Alpha Wolf Level 50Health: 1000/1000Stamina: 750/750
I gathered all of my mana, and cast a fireball at the alpha. As soon as the fireball was thrown, it started gaining power. I was pumping more wind mana into the ball as it flew. The ball started out with a three inch diameter, as it approached the wolf it had tripled in size! A wolf jumped at me as my fire arced through the air. I easily tossed the wolf with my staff. From my right another wolf attacked. I bent my knees, and dropped below the thing. I stabbed my staff upwards. I hit the belly of the wolf as it passed over my head.
The fireball finally reached its destination. The alpha had obviously abandoned its perch. The fire hit the stone, and exploded. The flaming air inside of it flew in all directions. A small wave of fire encompassed the entire clearing. Many wolves had flaming pelts now. The wolves on fire yipped and howled depending on the severity. A few trees caught fire, so I pushed water mana onto them. It would be bad for the city if the forest burnt down.
EDI and Heather appeared at my side. I gave them a nod. The wolves had started running in our direction, followed by a lazy alpha. I readied myself. EDI, Heather, and I spread out slightly. Just enough to not interfere with each other’s battles, but not enough to give the wolves extra room to attack us.
The wolves attacked. One wolf jumped at my face. Its jaw open, inviting me to become its meal. A red mark appeared on the back of the inside of its throat. I stabbed my staff into its mouth. Critical strike added quite a bit of damage. My staff seemed to tear through the wolf’s back. I threw its body by performing a backwards arc with my staff. Stupid wolf killed itself. Well that means more exp for me.
EDI had been surrounded on two sides by the wolves. One sprinted for her leg. It toppled over, a Sai protruding from its eye. EDI ran over and picked the Sai up, but not before another wolf jumped at her. She stabbed upwards, with perfect timing. The wolf had jumped at her face, but instead received a quick stab to the bottom of its throat. She picked up her other Sai, and prepared for the next wolf.
Heather had dashed towards a wolf. She landed on the confused wolf’s back. Sinking her teeth into its back was easy. She felt a rush of endorphins as the blood entered her system. Confused at the outcome of her jump, the wolves that surrounded her stared in silence. When she finished her meal, in only two seconds now, she jumped to the next wolf.
More wolves started to surround me. When they jumped at my upper body, I would aim my staff under them, and toss them over my shoulder. When they attacked my lower body, I would sidestep and knock them to the side. It wasn’t easy going, but it was possible. Every time I struck the wolves, they received a bit of minor damage. I added just a bit of wind mana to each attack, to send the wolves a bit further back than I could have otherwise. It seemed as though the wolves had only a small group of attacks. My stamina was slowly draining. Every time my staff struck I felt a pleasant sensation. My damage output on the wolves was decent. Since I had completely dissected them earlier, I now dealt double damage to them. Not to mention the red marks on their bodies had become much more precise.
After my sixth block, the wolves started attacking in twos. One would go high, and the other low. I had to spend my precious mana to knock the top one to the side, as I dealt with the lower one. As soon as the wolves gave me a second to breathe, I started spinning my staff. Generating wind like this makes it much easier to manipulate the wind mana in the air, since there is an abundant amount created by my staff.
The wind I created provided a brief respite for me. My mana was draining, but my stamina needed time to regenerate. With my artificially created wind, the wolves couldn’t get close enough to damage me.
EDI didn’t have it any easier. The wolves focused on attacking her from the back, since she had turned around to pick up her Sai. I would have helped her, but I was having a problem myself. She had to constantly turn around when she heard the tell-tale signs of the wolves’ jumps. She was really good at damaging them as she evaded, but she was getting minor scratches. Of course that is why I brought bandages.
Still the bandages were being used faster than what I wanted. Heather wasn’t having any problems at all. After the stunned wolves got back into action, she tore them apart. As she drank the blood of the downed wolves, she then gained even more power to fight. The wolves noticed the power she gained from drinking blood, so the started to attack her before she had a chance to drink. This just meant the wolves died faster, at least until she ran out of buff.
The alpha was watching the entire battle. He did not move from his spot unless something was about to hit him (flying wolves).
I started to sweat profusely. My grip slipped as I hit a wolf to the side. Several wolves took advantage of this. One planted its maw on my left leg, one attached itself to my right arm, and another bit my shoulder. Screaming in pain, I covered myself in fire mana, and ignited it.
I only had 30 hp left from that one attack! The wolves let go and quickly retreated after I covered myself in my Phoenix Fire. The healing part had more potency than the fire, so I didn’t waste any more bandages.
Sol was resting right now. I gave an order to only come out when I was out of bandages. Having a surprise in a battle of such length was only a plus.
As soon as the wolves released me, I extinguished the mana flow to the flames and healing. The wolves glowered at me. I smirked. I let the feeling of my superiority exude from my aura. The wolves around me had all been hit by my staff multiple times. Some had cracked bones, or shallow open wounds, but none had any wounds sufficient to die from.
I used my Roar again. Many of the wolves were able to resist it. Still, hearing me call doom upon them, and seeing me at full strength was not good for their morale. One wolf turned tail and ran. A few others froze up.
I took this opportunity to start a counter offensive. I dashed into the circle of wolves around me. One wolf jumped at my back, but I was already ducking. Attacking an enemy’s back is the basics of having the advantage of numbers.
As the wolf flew over me, I hit it with a flame coated staff. After contact, I quickly drained all fire mana from the staff. I didn’t want to burn it after all. The wolf yelped as its stomach was burned. I continued my dash towards my target. As I got closer the wolves backed off.
I pushed myself with wind, and caught my prey. I swung my staff down on the poor beast’s neck. With a decided *Crack* the head rolled to the side. The nearby wolves growled when they saw their comrade fall. I checked my mana. I had just over a quarter. I had a plan to destroy the wolves, but I would need to thin their numbers. If they decided to attack Heather or EDI with their combined might, they might overwhelm them.
I decided to try it anyway. If those two couldn’t handle a few extra wolves, when they were both twice the wolves’ levels, then they weren’t worth fighting with anyway.
I crouched, and threw myself into the air with my wind mana. I stood stock still, in a position perpendicular to the ground. When I reached the apex of my jump, I activated my shoes. For only ten mana per second they would stop me from falling. This only gave me a regen of 1.9 with my stomach siphon. I began meditating. This would increase my regen to 18.8/second.
I meditated for five seconds. That wasn’t enough time for the flow of battle to change too much, but it gave me a much needed rest. I looked down at the battle to analyze the situation. I was about fifty feet in the air. I saw the wolves slowly start to push my party back. Guess even twice the level can’t beat that many numbers. I found the alpha. It was sitting lazily off to the side, but appeared to be watching me.
I again started separating the water mana from the area around the wolves. Every few seconds I would go back into meditation to regen a bit of mana. I gathered all of the water mana around EDI and Heather, as well as the trees I was likely to hit. They both seemed to understand what I was doing. The air around them grew much more humid, while the air around the wolves grew arid. I then added small amounts of fire mana to the area.
When I thought the air was right, I meditated for a few second more. While humidity does bring up the cost of stamina, an arid environment does the same thing but at a much higher rate. When my mana had regenerated to about half I descended. My fall was quick since I only gave my shoes enough mana to stop me from dying should I hit the ground.
While I was meditating EDI and Heather had used up the rest of my bandages. I called out Sol while I feel. “Focus your healing on the girls go it?” Sol nodded an affirmative, and flew off to do what I ordered.
My speed was increasing as I came closer to the ground. I got into position as I came within ten feet of the ground. I sent a large updraft to slow me, and immediately after created cracks in the ground with my own earth mana. As I hit the ground, I used Roar again.
Everyone turned towards me. I looked up, and was gratified at the sight. EDI’s eyes were aglow, while Heather stood with a mostly dead wolf in her mouth.
From their point of view, I had fallen from the sky, and ended up in a kneeling position on the ground. My kneeling, accompanied by my fist on the ground, made it seem like I was some sort of billionaire superhero man made of iron.
I glanced at the wolves. They were in a state of near panic at this point. Never underestimate the power of the environment as a weapon. Napoleon and Hitler both lost half their armies by invading Russia in the winter. It was somewhat cold there.
I raised my staff, and broke the silence by creating a fire. The fire mana in the surrounding area exploded with delight. The wolves were thrown, and caught fire. EDI and Heather were left mostly unscathed. The fire overpowered their water mana defense by a small margin. That was because I covered the trees with most of it.
Sol went to work healing what the water didn’t protect them from. I experienced small burns myself, but my own healing mana fixed that.
The wolves were devastated by this attack. Most were already sporting injuries, but now many were on fire. Some even died as they struck nearby trees. I covered for EDI and Heather while they caught their breaths.
A few wolves managed to get up at that time, so I impaled them with earth spears. I had to hide my smile as I saw their life ebb away. It was very satisfying to kill beasts that thought they posed a threat to me. The red marks I saw on the wolves made the cleanup extraordinarily easy. In their weakened, and exposed, position all I had to do was a quick thrust with the butt of my staff. The thrust would usually end the wolf’s life in one hit.
The wolves started to get up after the fire had died down, but it was too late at that point. EDI and Heather had already started the massacre. In only about a minute, not a single wolf was left. I looked around for the alpha to put an end to him.
It seemed like he disappeared sometime while I was having my fun. Typical! Fucking ingrate. Wuss runs away when all of his family gets killed. Toughen up!
I was more than a little pissed at losing the chance to kill something that powerful. That would have been one hell of a fight!
After the fight I began to manually skin the wolves. It was time consuming, but I figured the game would probably reward me with better pelts at least. The skinning was really bad the first three times. I couldn’t get a cut of fur more than six inches at a time. By the fifth I was doing relatively well.
While I mindlessly carved the dead fur of the sixth wolf, I checked my notifications.
You have gained the title Demon Wolves’ Bane.
When you have this title equipped, demon wolves below your level will fear you.
When you have this title equipped, alpha demon wolves may test themselves against you.
You now deal 25% extra damage to all wolf type creatures.
I also gained a level. I dumped the 5 points into int. I wanted to get my Mana Affinity up to the next rank. It would lower my mana consumption by another 5%.
I equipped the title ‘Man by the Fountain’. I wanted to get some more compassion points for it. If I gained enough fame with that title I thought more people would be willing to help me in the future. After all, I help all the newbies and downtrodden right?
By the time I finished skinning all of the wolves, it was dusk. I still planned on making stew for the village, so I hurried back. I could have just gotten the fur as a drop, but skinning it did in fact make it have a higher chance of being high quality.
I asked Ancestor to keep an eye out for danger using Inspect, as I skinned the beasts. I allowed Ancestor to use all of the Inspect skill, except the parts I needed. I gave the pelts to EDI, while Heather and I carried the meat.
We made it back to the village as quickly as we could. When I got to the village center, I started making stew again. Heather went out to get more vegetables, and EDI got me the things I needed to feed the village.
I again used wind mana to spread the smell to the villagers. The villagers quickly came to the food stall. They were pushing and shoving to get the food first. I even saw a young boy pushed out of line. As soon as these assholes get the energy they try to put each other down!
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
I was doing all of this ‘charity’ to empower this town. If they were going to be like that there was no reason to feed them. I used my wind mana to help me shout. “LISTEN UP! CHILDREN GET FED FIRST! ALL CHIILDREN TO THE FRONT. PARENTS AND GUARDIANS OF THE CHILDREN DO NOT GET TO COME TO THE FRONT! IF SOMEONE CUTS OR STARTS PUSHING NONE OF YOU WILL GET FED!”
Putting down harsh rules was the only way to reach people. Using kids was a good way to change someone’s opinion. Making the children go first made it seem like I did all of that for order. It was sort of because of that, but mostly because I was getting a headache.
It looked as though EDI had every bowl and spoon in the castle. Several guards also came with her, all loaded up with bowls and spoons. When she had done that she went to give the tanners the wolf pelts.
Even though the meat was augmented with the carrots and turnips, it quickly disappeared. As soon as I had made it, a guard had put it into a bowl and served it. It was a pretty fast system. I made a rule that said all the people had to eat where we could see them. No stealing would be allowed.
It was a very strict system, but there were no complaints. After all, I told them if they didn’t like it to leave the line. No one said anything about my rules after that.
I served them until everyone had a serving. I still had over two thirds of the stacks of meat in my inventory, so I told them if they wanted seconds to come get it. I had enough vegetables for the night, so I told Heather to just have fun until I call her back. Sol was floating by me the entire time. Sol was giving light healing to everyone that ate my food. The children received full healing.
I tried to push my light mana into Sol. To my surprise Sol seemed to gain not only mana, but added power to healing from this. After cooking the two large quantities of food that day, and skinning the wolves, I finally got my survival skill to level 25.
After giving everyone a second helping I asked them to assist me.
“Alright! I am going to have to go out hunting again tomorrow, so I will need some volunteers. It’d be best if you knew something about hunting, tracking, or can use a bow.” After mumbling amongst themselves for a few minutes I added, “If no one volunteers I can’t promise food.” Three skinny women, and two skinny men stepped forward. One of the women spoke.
“We are the village’s hunters. If you need help hunting, we can provide it, but we don’t have weapons.”
I nodded. I didn’t expect the slavers to leave them their weapons after all. “That’s fine, I’ll take care of that. I just need help with a certain mission.” The group nodded. I left the area to go to the blacksmith’s. I wanted to do as much tonight as I could.
When I reached the forge, I noticed that many of the tools were fixed. The blacksmith even finished working on some of the leather armor pieces.
“AH! Voice was it? Come to finish the anvil?” He asked with a big smile on his face. I nodded.
“I’m at least going to try.” I wanted to get as much done of the anvil as I could. I took over Inspect, and began to work. I continued to fix the anvil far into the night. I had to let myself take several breaks. One quest wasn’t worth me frying my brain. It was much easier to do it the second time. Since I already had the basics down it went a lot faster. I managed to finish about a fourth of it in those few hours. It was still a long way off of fixed though.
After spending my precious time fixing the anvil, I went to the castle to sleep. I was stopped by a fragile looking woman. I had seen her in the food line before. I took note, because she kept her beauty even though she was next to starving. She grabbed my arm, hard. Tears were streaming down her face.
“Please sir! Please! My daughter! Please help her!” The woman’s cries had drawn attention of nearby villagers. “I’ll do anything! But please!” I nodded and motioned her to show me her daughter. If I refused then my rep in this place would plummet.
Ancestor spoke to me. “There is a 95% chance that she is deceiving you.” Thanks for the heads up Ancestor.
Although her acting was good, with my high-level sense motive, coupled with body language analyst, it was hard to deceive me. I hid the wicked grin that spread across my face.
When we reached her makeshift hut, she opened the door and pushed me in. Suddenly I heard insane laughter coming from the front of the door. “HAHAH! Now die fool Die for bringing the dead to life!” The room started to get hot. I noticed the fire spreading across the roof.
I calmly sent out my water mana to quench the fire. The water shot through the roof, and sprayed like a geyser. With the fire out, I threw open the door by causing a large gust of wind.
Several people were restraining the old hag. I gave her my most sincere smile. “Now, now. It’s not nice to try to kill your savior, you know?” I hit her in the stomach with my staff. This woman had seen me raise the dead. I had to dispose of her. Although, Elvina also saw me. I wonder why she didn’t react like this. I guess because I was her only choice.
The woman was knocked unconscious with my blow. I knew I had to get rid of her. But if I killed her overtly word would get to Elvina. Worst case scenario was she would refuse to have dealings with me, and lock me out of this town.
I gave an informal salute to the people that restrained her. “Thanks guys. I’ll take it from here. I will bring her to Elvina to see if anything can be done. She must have seen me battling the undead, and assumed I was part of them.”
The villagers nodded like that was the only obvious answer. Dumb fucks.
I did bring her to Elvina’s bedroom though. The guards at the door stopped me. “Sir you can’t come in here.” They gave an apologetic look.
“I understand, perhaps you can give her a message for me? Tell her ‘There is trouble, and I won’t be able to help her this time’.”
The guards looked worried. One frantically opened the door to relay the message. He stumbled as I stared at the other with a poker face. I mean I knew that these guys just got out of slavery, but geez that was too funny!
There was a small commotion in the room, and Elvina came out. She was dressed in a white bathrobe looking robe. She looked at the woman I was carrying. I bowed to her graciously. “If I may step in to speak? This is a bit of a private matter.” Elvina cast a glance at the guards.
“Sure, you two stay out here.” She waved me inside.
I sat down on one of the most comfortable looking chairs. “This woman here tried to kill me.” I started off blunt. If I made her overreact at first it was more likely that she would be susceptible to my plans. “She apparently saw me raising the undead. She decided she was just in meeting out punishment by burning me alive in a house EDI helped build.” I shook my head slowly, as if dejected at the loss of innocence this woman portrayed.
“I don’t want her killed obviously, but if we don’t do something about this, the people may wish to kick me out of the town. I have no qualms about leaving but,” I forced a tear out, “but I really wanted to help this beautiful city become prosperous before I left.” *Sniff*
I looked at Elvina. I had tears in my eyes. I could have made myself cry if I used water mana, but I was afraid she would notice.
Elvina nodded. “I’ll find a place for her in the castle. You’ll have to find another place to sleep though.” She gave an apologetic look.
I nodded, downtrodden but understanding. “That’s fine. As long as I can help out.” I put on a face that said ‘oh! I just figured something out!’ “AH! Would you happen to know if there is a temple to Undine here? I’d like to try summoning a water fairy. I heard they are one of the best.” I gave her a smile.
At the same time I felt Sol sulking. I sent my thoughts to Sol. “Don’t worry Sol. Water might be one of the best, but light is the best.” Sol stopped sulking, and in fact started to radiate a small amount of happiness. Sol started gibbering to me, but I ignored it.
I thought to myself, Too easy. Sol’s like a freaking six year old. A six year old that loves to be annoying. Damn! Quiet down for two seconds! Sol really did love to talk. Whenever Sol started talking, the stream of words wouldn’t end for a long time. It was nothing short of exasperating. I did learn to tune things out better because of that though.
Elvina looked excited for some reason. “YES! I can help! As a priestess of Undine I can grant you a fairy!”
I gave her an excited hug. “Thank you! That would be most appreciated!”
After a brief discussion on what to do with the attempted murderer, I left. I had to find somewhere to sleep. I could ask one of the villagers, but I wanted to seem like the one that they came to for help, not one that asked for help. I walked around the city as I pondered that.
After only a few minutes, I had a great idea! The ever so intelligent me would build my own house! I quickly logged off to read up on the necessary knowledge.
I stayed off for thirty minutes, since the game require you to spend at least three increments of thirty minutes (irl) away every irl day.
I looked up many numerical values needed to build my tiny shack. I downloaded a high level, but still free, physics program. I was gifted in math, so it wasn’t hard to figure out the exact dimensions I would need to maximize stability and durability, while minimizing time and mana cost. When the program showed that it would be stable, I adjusted minor parts, and made sure it still worked.
I was satisfied when I had spent about forty minutes creating and fixing everything. I hoped back into the pod and got to work.
Three hours had already passed, but I still had time to make the house. I equipped the title Night Owl to increase my proficiency. I found an empty spot, and started my work. I sat in the center of the clearing, and began to force the mana to surround me. I was going to build the house around myself.
The frame of the house was relatively easy. I solidified the earth mana into long bars, to provide support for the rest of the house. After creating the bars I added less dense mana to create the walls. I left three openings in the walls. Two for windows, and one for a door. I don’t know how long it took, but I was mentally spent after just creating the three walls.
I decided to start trying to purify to give myself a rest. I activated the purifying process for water mana. When I breathed in I saw the water mana go into my body, when I exhaled I saw murky, dark and disgusting water mana leave my body. After only a few times I took over manual control.
I absorbed the water mana when I breathed in, and released the disgusting water mana when I exhaled. I continued this until I felt that I could continue with my work. All that I had left was the ceiling and one wall.
I continued with the last wall. Forcing the mana into the correct shape had gotten much harder than earlier. I had to stop once in the middle, so I purified my water mana again. After finishing the wall my concentration was wavering again. Geez, I know I’ve been at this for a while, but damn man! How is my concentration that low? I again purified my mana while letting my concentration reform.
To make the roof I forced the mana in the ground to shoot through the walls and form beams on the ceiling. The mana was getting harder, and harder to gather. I knew I couldn’t take it from directly below the house without causing the house to fall into the created hole. I was forced to gather mana from further away every time I needed more.
I had to take another break after just making the beams of the roof. My concentration seemed to be declining at faster intervals now. I would gain all of my expanded mana back while purifying my water mana, but I had to waste time each time to let myself be able to fully concentrate. At least purifying mana didn’t take any concentration.
I finished with the roof after three more purification breaks. Honestly I was pretty depressed with myself at that point. I doubt I could have kept going even if I wanted to.
I groggily opened my eyes when I was done. My body was stiff from sitting in the same spot for so long. I stretched as I stood up. It felt like making the house took hours. I looked out of the door frame. My eyes bulged when I saw it. The sun had already risen above the horizon! It looked to be about nine in the morning. No wonder I kept loosing concentration! I had been doing the same task for almost 12 hours!
No! FUCK! I’m late for my reward! I rushed out of the house, only paying a passing glance to the small crowd that had gathered around my newly made house. I nearly fell as the ground around the house had a large depression. I made an earth bridge using a few minutes. The bridge only connected the door to the other side of the crater.
I rushed into the castle as fast as I could. Elvina was sitting on the throne, waiting with slightly impatient eyes. “Voice, you finally grace us with your presence.” She was a bit haughty for my liking. I just spent a sleepless night making my fucking house ass!
“I just spent a sleepless night making a durable house for your subjects.” I gave her a slightly exasperated tone. It might have been worse than what I intended, she recoiled in shock.
“Oh,” She seemed taken aback by my retort. “Uh, sorry. I didn’t know.” She shook the confusion out of her mind. “Well it is time for your reward.”
I got down on one knee. I expected to be knighted or something after the effort I put in.
She handed something to a guard, the guard walked over to me. “Once, long ago, I became Undine’s Champion. She gave me this to reward someone that has proven themselves to me. Take it, and with it my gratitude.”
The guard put a vial with a single drop of blue-green liquid into my hands.
Blood of Undine *IchorThis is a drop of Undine’s blood. Undine gave this to Elvina to reward someone that proved themselves to her.
This drop of blood can be used in potions, enchanting, or as a bargaining tool with Undine.
This item is soul-bound until used.
I didn’t know how to react. Ancestor spoke. I could sense a tone of greed in Ancestor’s voice. “Voice. Um, do you think you could wait before using that?”
I understood that this droplet probably had to do with bringing my people back into the light, or maybe about the war waged between my people and the gods. Either way Ancestor couldn’t provide me with anything, so I didn’t really feel like I owed it to Ancestor to do as I was told. I might, but usually when one asks for a favor they would provide a suitable reward.
Ancestor sent a feeling of dissatisfaction. “Fine, but I was going to give this info to you later anyway!” I felt like if Ancestor had a tongue, it would be pointed at me. “There is a hidden village far to the north. In that village is a riddle. If you solve the riddle you will be able to enter a dungeon. That dungeon was used to train young Potentials. Potentials were the ones that might have overcome the gods if our research was completed. Unfortunately they sacrificed themselves to protect the research. Now the research is only obtainable if you are a True Elf, and have passed the Potential’s challenge.”
Now don’t get me wrong, I had no doubt that that particular piece of info was not worth this drop of blood. But I thought I could get a lot more out of Ancestor’s goodwill than by extortion.
Fine, but I want info on the research when the time comes. Not to kill the gods, but to become more powerful.
My stomach growled in an embarrassing way. I tried to cough to cover it up, but I knew everyone noticed. “Sorry about that, I haven’t eaten in a few days.” I looked down at the ground. My cheeks were burning slightly. At least EDI wasn’t there.
Elvina whispered to a guard. She turned to me after the guard scurried off. “Now, you told me last night you wished to summon a water fairy? Honestly not a lot of people want to summon fairies anymore. Everyone is too focused on other classes. I admire the arcane classes though.” She stared for a moment with a look of longing.
She stood up and motioned for me to follow. We walked into a small, dimly lit room. I saw a water droplet painted on the floor. In the middle was a summoning sign. A guard was holding a tray of food when I entered. Elvina nodded to it.
I scarfed the bread, and piece of slightly old cheese, down while she spoke. “Do you know how this works?” I nodded while eating my fill. “Good that speeds things up a bit.” Didn’t the mage’s guild say the same thing?
“I assume you have the 25 water affinity.” I nodded again. If I said I know how it works why the hell would I ask you to get the fairy without the affinity? I hated that she tarnished my mother’s image by being so completely stupid.
“You can still eat, but I need a drop of your blood. You also need to pump mana into the circle.” I pricked myself with my knife, and sent a stream of mana into the circle.
My mana began to form a water ball when released. The ball sat in the middle of the droplets round part. I pumped in the entire 500 mana. The water got bigger and bigger, until it was roughly twice the size of my head. Once it grew to maximum size, it popped. The bubble of water splashed everyone in the room. Floating where the bubble had just been, was a tiny squid.
Stats WindowNameTearRaceWater FairyHealth10Mana1300Stamina10RankNoviceCurrent TitleN/AHealth Regen/Sec.1Mana Regen/Sec16.9Stamina Regen/Sec.1Strength1Agility10Wisdom169Intelligence130Endurance10Dexterity1Luck10Vitality10Fame0Tear is a water fairy. The abilities of a fairy are based on the element they are made of. Water fairies start with all stats but agility, vitality, wisdom, and intelligence at 1.
For being a water fairy Tear’s wisdom and intelligence stats equal the user.
For using the maximum amount of mana in the summoning ritual you have maximum intimacy with Tear.
Tear has benefited from the piety of the summoner. Tear has gained 9 luck.
If fairies die while in combat they return to the Ether Realm, and must be summoned.
The fairy didn’t speak. Could it even be called a fairy? Anyway it remained silent as it moved towards me. It was actually kind of cute. I moved the way actual squids do. It gathered water inside itself, and pushed it out to propel itself. The water was shot out of the ball. As soon as the water left the ball the squid was in it reconnected to it.
When the squid fairy came close enough, I asked Elvina. “Soooooo, can I go ahead and upgrade Tear now?” Elvina looked confused.
“Well you need at least fifty affinity with water.” I nodded saying I did. “Oh, well you also should have at least 1000 mana. It’d be a shame to lose the intimacy you have with Tear.” I nodded again.
“I have 1300 so that’s fine.”
Elvina looked shocked. “Then how have you not summoned a water fairy before!?” I shrugged when she asked.
“I needed to find a place to summon my dearest cutie Tear.” I prompted her to start enhancing the ritual circle. She looked confused, but got to work. She had a book in her hands as she drew the circle. She used pure water magic to create the circle.
I noticed I had several notifications so I looked at them.
For continuing to work without stop for a long period of time you have gained 2 endurance.
For reaching 50 Endurance you have unlocked the skill Tough Skin.
Tough Skin
Current Level: Novice
This skill will rank up once every 50 endurance, up to a maximum of 250 endurance.
For every rank you gain you take 5% less damage.
This skill can stack up to 25% damage reduction.
You have learned all of the required skills to upgrade the Group Skill: Combat Learning. Would you like to exchange relevant skills for the Group Skill: Combat Learning? You can choose to fuse them at a later time. At that time say exchange relevant skills.
You have exchanged all relevant skills for the Group Skill: Combat Learning. All relevant skills have been taken from your skill list. The total accumulated experience has been added to the Group Skill: Combat Learning. The total level requirements have all been added to the Group Skill: Combat Learning.
As you level this skill all parts of it will level up. For instance if you look at enough auras to level up, you will gain the benefits the other skills would have provided at that level. This skill takes more exp to level up to level two than all of the skills that make it up would.
Combat Learning
Current Level: Apprentice Level 25 Exp 00.00%
This upgraded skill allows you to use the benefits from: Heavy Armor, Staff Mastery, Knife Master, Critical Hit, and Though Skin.
You have studied the art of fighting. You know multiple forms of attack, and at least one to defend.
The skill Critical Hit is now a passive ability. Combat Learning can activate Critical Hit, at most, once per minute. This does not consume Stamina, Mana, or Health. Combat Learning will activate Critical Hit, whenever you score a critical hit, at most once per minute.
This group skill gives you a competency bonus to all skills it encompasses. For every five levels, rounded up until level 94, you gain 5% bonus damage/defense while using anything this skill encompasses. Each rank of this skill grants the user one Combat related Trait. For every rank this skill grants you a 5% damage resistance.
For learning the art of Tough Skin, this skill has ranked up to at least Apprentice level.
To level this skill you must do an action that would be encompassed in one of the skills that were consumed to make this skill, or study about combat. You can study the skills that that make up Combat Learning, or about combat in general.
This skill has been upgraded to encompass more skills. The exp and level will not be adjusted, but the exp requirement will be.
For creating the Group Skill: Combat Learning, you have gained the Trait: Fighter’s Spirit.
For learning enough about combat to upgrade the Group Skill: Combat Learning, you have gained the Evolution Trait: Resistance.
Resistance is the perfect trait for those that love combat. You are able to withstand more damage and pain before your body starts to shut down. The more damage and pain you take, the more powerful this trait will become. This skill can evolve into better versions.
You have created a new spell: Earth House with Moat.
Earth House with Moat
The caster builds a basic house around themselves. It has one room, to be used for everything.
This spell requires 12 hours of consistent concentration. You may meditate during these hours, but may not leave the area or focus on things other than creating the house. Houses created by this spell are permanent until destroyed.
You must be able to use the mana in the crust of the earth to be able to use this spell.
Fucking Nice! Shit’s gonna be used a lot!
Spoiler :
Stats WindowNameVoice0fReasonClassMana MageLevel 31Health: 100Mana: 1300Stamina: 350Current Title: Night OwlHealth Regen: 1/sMana Regen: 16.9 (11.9)/sStamina Regen: 45.1/sStrength41Agility34Wisdom169Intelligence130Endurance51Dexterity44Luck0Vitality35Charisma35Compassion95Leadership66Logic22Piety89Unused Stat Points0Fame800
Skills WindowAutomated Novice Level 9 Exp 25.00%
Speed Reading Novice Level 9 Exp 00.00%
Auto Read Novice Level 20 Exp 50.00%
Dissection Novice Level 7 Exp 10.00%
Automatic Dissection Novice Level 7 Exp 10.00%Group Skill: Key to Self-Sustained Alchemy Novice Level 18 Exp 00.00%
Group Skill: Inspect Apprentice Level 42 Exp 24.54%
Group Skill: Automatic Nursing Novice Level 12 Exp 5.70%
Group Skill: Con Artist Novice Level 15 Exp 86.54%
Group Skill: Magical Mastery Apprentice Level 30 Exp 9.30%
Group Skill: Skill Mastery Apprentice Level 27 Exp 4.44%
Group Skill: Survival Novice Level 25 Exp 6.23%
Group Skill: Combat Learning Apprentice Level 25 Exp 00.00%
Affinities WindowLight70Water55Wind25Nature50Metal25Earth30Fire25Darkness100
(Author’s Note: I messed up on the tables somewhere. I don’t even know how, but many of the stats were wrong. Unfortunately I only have the current stats. I have fixed much of what I could find, but I don’t know where some of the stats on my excel sheet leveled up. I am sincerely sorry, and will make sure to not let it happen again.)