Standing on the empty floor of Crestheart Tower that was soon to become his forge, Vee couldn’t help but smile. It was rare that he had occasion to pat Past Vee on the back for a good decision, but having picked a building with so much empty space to serve as the center of his operations certainly qualified.
He’d briefly considered adding his forge to the same floor as the rest of the ghost-making machines Rortenferry had helped him build, so that it’d be easy to go from one task to the other, but had ultimately decided against it and had taken the floor beneath it for the forge instead. The work he’d be doing down here was different from the work he’d be using the machines for, so it made sense to keep them separate, especially if both endeavors continued growing in the future.
It wasn’t exactly like he was hurting for space.
There was a loud crack and a bit of ceiling slammed into the floor on the far side of the room. Do’s head emerged from the resulting hole and the [Dungeon Maintainer] gave Vee a thumb’s up.
“First part is done, master! Will get to work on cleaning it up and making it look nice right away!”
Vee returned the gesture with a nod, acknowledging the fiend’s efforts. He’d asked for a trapdoor of sorts to connect his ghost manufacturing operation to his forge so that it’d be easy and convenient to send freshly made ghosts for modifications before having them delivered to the dungeon proper, and was rather pleased by how well it was coming along.
Fa and So – two other [Dungeon Maintainers] – came into the room and cleared away the debris. They were both quiet as they did so, and Vee sensed something distinctly sullen through his bond to them. That was interesting, he thought, but not enough to derail what he was doing just then. Instead, he made a mental note to talk to them later and see what was going on before returning to his original task: finding a place to put his [Ghost Furnace].
His original plan had been to put the furnace in the center of the room, where it could serve as the heart of sorts for his forge, but a test of the location hadn’t felt right to the [Ghost Smith]. Vee couldn’t entirely articulate why that was, but it stuck with him each time he tried it.
Instead, he was slowly coming around to the idea of putting the furnace in one of the corners and building out from there. But which corner?
He folded his arms across his chest to think.
“Gawain’s balls, boss, it can’t be that hard to pick one,” Reginald sighed from atop Vee’s head. “They’re all the same, aren’t they?”
Like any [Artist] expected to explain the nuances of vibes to the uninitiated, Vee rolled his eyes and tried to think of the best way to answer. On the one hand, yes, they were all the same superficially, but there was something intangible about them that made them distinct. He couldn’t really explain what that was, but he knew that it was there the same way he knew his hair was blue.
Holding out his hand, Vee started activating [Ghost Furnace] and watched the transparent blue-gray indicator appear before his eyes. He rotated it with a twist of his fingers and tested each corner again, weighing which one felt right.
Three of the corners felt normal, but on the fourth one Vee paused. There was a slight hum in his palm and fingertips, though it was so minor he couldn’t be sure that he wasn’t just imagining things.
Reginald sighed and muttered something disparaging, but Vee ignored it and swept across the corners again. This time the sensation was slightly stronger, but wasn’t localized in any corner. Instead, it was in the middle of the wall behind him.
Deciding to trust his gut – or rather, his fingertips – Vee fully activated his skill and summoned his furnace into reality.
Reginald chuckled. “Is that it?”
Vee flicked his hat’s brim, though he couldn’t entirely disagree with his hat. The furnace was…all things considered… pretty unimpressive. It was short and squat, barely two feet tall and probably a bit more than half of that again wide. Colorwise it was similarly dull, flat gray like plain iron. Unlike iron though, it was warm to the touch, and Vee hurried to fill it with some cubes of blue refined ectoplasm. He still wasn’t sure what his first proper project would be, but figured that he couldn’t go wrong starting with blue ectoplasm. He’d go ahead and add other colors later.
Thankfully, “lighting” the furnace happened automatically, and in a few minutes the ectoplasm had melted into a thick, soupy liquid that was bubbling away happily.
With that done, Vee went ahead and summoned his [Ectoplasmic Anvil], setting the small silvery sphere close to his furnace so that he could reach it easily when it came time to work.
He summoned his [Ghost Hammer] too, and marveled at the way it fit his hand. Heck, it actually felt a lot like his old [Ghost Baton], albeit substantially heavier. A few gentle swings to test the weight later, and Vee put the hammer on the floor next to his anvil.
Hmm. That didn’t feel quite right. In time there’d be other tools beyond his hammer: tongs, chisels, punches, other hammers. He wanted a place to store them properly.
Pinching his thumb and forefinger together, Vee activated [Shape Ectoplasm] and collected enough ectoplasm to make a long, thin sheet. A table wasn’t much better than the floor in the strictest sense of the word, but it was an improvement and wouldn’t be too hard to make.
“Anvil, hold this flat for me, would you?” Vee said, resting the ectoplasm atop his anvil. A tiny pair of hands – each barely bigger than a trio of Vee’s fingers – emerged from the sphere and locked the ectoplasm into place. It was surprisingly strong and stable, and Vee used his hammer to flatten and shape what would eventually be the tabletop.
When that was done, he made some thick sticks of ectoplasm for the legs and jammed them on. He used a bit of the melted ectoplasm from his furnace to bind it all together, and stepped back to marvel at his handiwork. It wasn’t the prettiest table known to mankind, and he could have probably made something similar without his new [Ghost Smith] skills, but it still felt good to have something he’d made to look at.
He set his hammer down on it and stepped back, pride swelling in his chest. The forge would need more work to be fully functional, but for now he was happy with what he had.
[Congratulations, you are now a Level 9 Ghost Smith!]
[Wit +1!]
Reginald tightened his brim. “Looks good. Are we done now, boss?”
Vee shook his head. Alforde was still down in the dungeon, testing an idea he’d had for a new move, so the [Dungeon Master] wanted to keep working until his friend came back. He thought about what he could do and decided to modify some of the dungeon’s ghosts with :thorns:.
Closing his eyes, Vee contacted Cog, telling the fiend to attend him and bring some ghosts.
----------------------------------------
Alforde stared at the makeshift ramp in the center of his arena and settled into a crouch. He was nervous: he’d awkwardly shaped the ramp out of a chunk of ice he’d stolen from
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He shook his helmet. Making a new technique was harder than it had any right to be.
Bracing himself, Alforde activated [Unstoppable Charge] and aimed himself as best he could at the ramp. He hit a bit of frost along the way though and lost his angle, going up the ramp awkwardly and exiting about halfway up. Since he knew he wouldn’t have time for what he wanted to do next, Alforde simply let himself land and waited for his skill to run out. When that was done, he trudged back over to his starting spot and set himself up again.
At least the ramp hadn’t broken this time. That was progress, technically speaking.
He slid a few inches to the right, and then went back a bit to the left so that his center was relatively aligned with the ramp. In theory, this should be the easiest part, but perhaps because he was so focused on what he wanted to do after launching himself he kept making mistakes.
Readying Slammy, Alforde activated [Unstoppable Charge] once again and zipped toward the ramp. This time his aim was true and he sailed into the air.
There was no time for celebration though, as the armorsoul only had a few seconds to activate his next skill. Spinning his body as quick as he could, Alforde tried to activate [Cyclone Smash].
The skill failed, and Alforde landed hard. He was grateful that nobody else was around to see him just then, as he imagined he looked rather undignified.
Sorting himself out and sitting back up, the [Dungeon Champion] wondered why the skill hadn’t activated. A check of his soul’s mirror confirmed that there was no condition stopping him – it wasn’t like [Cyclone Smash] required him to be on the ground or anything like that. So why hadn’t it worked?
Maybe he just hadn’t been spinning fast enough, he decided, getting up to try again.
Unfortunately, three more attempts all ended the same was as his first did.
Feeling a bit dejected, Alforde summoned Shadowforde, hoping that his Reflection might have an idea for what changes he could make so that his plan would work.
“Let me see what’s going on,” Shadowforde said, after Alforde gave him the quick and dirty rundown of the situation.
Alforde tried a few more times to no avail. It didn’t matter how fast he spun, he couldn’t get [Cycloe Smash] to activate.
“Maybe [Unstoppable Charge] is interfering,” Shadowforde said. “It’s still active while you’re in the air, so it’s possible that it’s preventing [Cyclone Smash] from triggering when you spin. Can you end it early?”
Alforde rolled his pauldrons. “Maybe. I haven’t ever really tried to do that before. But even if I can’t I could always try and start a bit further back so that it ends on its own as I’m getting into the air.”
“That’s a possibility,” his Reflection said. “Go ahead and give it a try.”
Unfortunately, Alforde had already been at the furthest edge of his arena, so getting extra charging space would require an additional platform. That meant that even if this worked, the maneuver might not be terribly practical for bouts.
Oh well. That wasn’t the end of the world. If he could prove the concept worked, he could always go ahead and refine it further down the line.
Moving one of the arena’s platforms so that it was right against the edge of his stage, Alforde moved back and activated [Unstoppable Charge] once more. It ran out as he hit the ramp and his momentum carried him up into the air.
Even still, he couldn’t activate [Cyclone Smash] the way he wanted to. The best he could muster was a heavy overhead swing that probably looked sweet but wasn’t all that practical.
“Sorry, that’s all I’ve got,” Shadowforde said. “I’ll keep thinking though. I’m sure there’s something we can do.”
Alforde nodded. The ramp wasn’t looking so great, so he broke it up and shoved the bits of ice off the stage before reactivating his domain and collecting more.
Like a [Sculptor] might work with clay, Alforde stacked the ice into a pile and started breaking bits off to form another ramp. It was surprisingly peaceful work, though the ice was finicky and broke just before he finished, leaving him with a half-sculpted piece of ice.
He raised Slammy to break the failed ramp into pieces for discard, and then stopped. He’d gotten an idea.
Rushing over to the edge of his stage, Alforde shuffled through the collection of crystals he had to socket through Slammy until he found the [Frost Breath] one.
Getting it socketed into his hammer, Alforde hurried to finish another ramp, then asked Shadowforde to hold the broken piece on top of it to form a loop. His Reflection complied, and Alforde triggered [Frost Breath] to fuse the two ramps together. A quick hit from his gauntlet confirmed that it was fastened tight, even though Alforde doubted it’d stay together for long.
He hurried back to the edge of the stage and activated [Unstoppable Charge]. His aim was perfect and miraculously the loop held as he went through it. Coming out on the other side with his boots still on the ground, Alforde activated [Cyclone Smash] and let out a whoop of joy when it activated.
The attack wasn’t the flashy aerial maneuver he’d wanted, but going through the loop had changed the timing, which gave him other ideas. If he could figure out a way to summon loops, ramps, and other obstacles on command, he could throw his opponents off by turning the stage itself into a hazard demanding navigation.
[Congratulations, you are now a Level 12 Glaciernaut!]
[Wit +1!]
Deep in thought, Alforde dismissed the notification and summoned his domain once again.
Main Character Sheets:
Vee Vales
Primary Class: Ghost Smith (Self), Level 9 (+1)
Secondary Class: Dungeon Master (Oar’s Crest), Level 24
Tertiary Class: Guy-Who-Takes-Things-WAY-Too-Far (Self), Level 7
Might: 15
Wit: 42 (+1)
Faith: 25
Adventurousness: 7
Ambition: 16
Plotting: 20
Charisma: 18
Devious Mind: 29
Leadership: 22
Guts: 16
Intimidating Presence: 11
Citizenship: 24
Public Relations: 8
Determination: 7
Persuasiveness: 6
Bargaining: 4
Patience: 3
Competitive Spirit: 1
Pragmatism: 1
<3<3 Infatuation <3<3
Alforde Armorsoul:
Primary Class: Hammer Specialist (Self), Level 6
Secondary Class: Right-hand man (Vee Vales), Level 19
Tertiary Class: Dungeon Champion (Oar’s Crest), Level 18
Additional Class: Glaciernaut (Sacha Silverblade), Level 12 (+1)
Might: 59
Wit: 16 (+1)
Faith: 28
Adventurousness (Bound – Vee Vales): 9
Endurance: 33
Intimidating Presence: 15
Heart of a Champion: 14
Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 9
Vigilance: 11
Vanity: 2
Single-Mindedness: 1
Reginald:
Primary Class: Core Spirit (Unknown), Level ???
#$&Q#$)(@#$#@#$%!@#$##%#%()@#$**@@##
Secondary Class: Loudmouth (Self), Level 43
Tertiary Class: Majordomo (Vee Vales), Level 21
Additional Class: Announcer (Vee Vales), Level 14
Additional Class: Hyperthymesiac (Self), Level 5
Might: 2
Wit: 37
Faith: 17
Ambition: 29
Greed: 24
Deceptiveness: 27
Manipulativeness: 42
$#&*!@!!: !!!
Loyalty: 47
Patience: 10 (-1)
Irritability: 25
Remorsefulness: 17
Expository Prowess: 23
#%$Pragmatism*#$: @#61$5
Hop@#!! @#$@!@#
@#$@%%^
#4^5#*&_!+++#(@$#
Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 9