Six had killed a level twenty one creature. It was safe to assume that it had been once evolved. He didn’t feel proud, it had nearly killed him in two blows. One swipe from that thing would have easily killed a normal person. He had been lucky in so many ways and the memory of his previous death by tree flashed through his mind. He chuckled, “not this time.”
As he walked he pondered his materials. Six had long realized that he was at a crossroads in terms of enchanting. Enchanting represented one of the final steps in a production process while the raw resources he has been harvesting represented one of the first. There was a gap of skill and craftsmanship between those two points of production that Six would need to bridge. By either, heading back to Olisrosa and trying to gather more advanced items to enchant, picking up another production skill or hiring other crafts people to work with more specialty materials he gathered. As of now he had his growing construction skills and while Construction may not add directly to his own personal power it was something that he wanted to cultivate just because of personal interest.
There was also the fact that he was still limited to natural enchanting. There was a feeling inside his head that he should choose a more martial class, there was a certain satisfaction to a good fight, and as Denny said, learning this skill alone and without the foundational knowledge of schools or guilds would be difficult. A combat based class could be honed to great heights by simple intuitive immersion, while most crafting was only honed to those same heights by considered intentional experimentation. But perhaps his Unbound Comprehension would change the way he could interact and progress in with the medium… On further thought, of course it would.
Still, the system or whatever caused the game-like features of this world would probably provide some help once he reached the skill evolutions and perhaps even more once he unlocked some enchanter class perks, but he sat at skill level ten in Enchantment and getting it to twenty would take weeks if all he had available to him was natural enchantment. Perhaps it was time to begin his own enchantment experiments.
No. He needed to be careful and not lose his life completely. There was only so much time in a day and using it in a focused targeted way was most effective in his opinion. Investing his time and energy into a select few goals and directions was something he had had to learn as a young man and now that he was organizing his mental objectives he realized that adding another stream of practice would just dilute his progression to greatness in the ones he already had. He did not need to begin experimenting until he improved his fundamentals. Once he was close to level ten he would stop grinding and then switch to experimenting with enchanting.
When Six arrived in the glade he saw a change in the demeanor of the people. They were adding wooden reinforcements to the wall which was normal but Six could see the scared intensity in their movements. There had been koatl attacks, boars and bristle hounds, but nothing had ever shaken them to have such a look in their eyes.
“What the fuck happened?” Six asked one of the regular guards in a concerned whisper.
Chegg was her name. She had a flat face that was filled with speckled freckles. She was human and her stocky frame contained muscles bulged out from the gaps in her boar leather armor. “Bandits came and made a bunch of demands, Alison refused, they made some threats and slashed our gate up.”
Six analyzed her.
Chegg
Human
Level 4
Level four was pretty impressive when the average settler was between level zero and level one.
“Everybody looks shook.”
Chegg nodded. “Word got round and Leoka’s people started to panic, parrently the bandit leader was bullying them before they came with us.”
“Amog?” Six murmured.
“That’s the guy. He didn’t actually show up, just his goons. Don’t blame em for trying to get away from the man. Sounds terrible.”
“Anybody die?”
“No, just a bunch of shouting and posturing, they want a tithe of food and gold from our little settlement for protection. Lady Lamora showed them what for, didn’t kill any of them but sent them on their way. She’s dangerous with that greatsword, her class must be something great.” Chegg looked wistful at that last part.
“That’s good at least.” He nodded his thanks as he headed into the village.
Six dropped off the potatoes and caught up with Jebbedo and Min while eating dinner, when Six mentioned wanting to know of the more experienced crafters in town, Jebbedo recommended Six talk to Gatbark. So after his meal Six went to find the ashen grey dwarf.
He found Gatbark at the building that the soldiers erected. He sat on the ground outside and was leaned back against his boar, Lil Nog. It was late in the day and Gatbark was handling some scrap metal. He was chanting as he held a rusted and chipped longsword, something slavage found on a hunt or monster skirmish, perhaps it had been left by one of the routed bandits. Either way Gatbark chanted and began to fold the seemingly pliable metal, he condensed it down and with simple kneading motions, shaped it into a neat ingot. Gatbark finished his chant and tossed the ingot to the side, where it joined many others of various sizes. He looked up to see Six and a predatory smile creased the dwarf's stony face.
“What is that you’re doing?” Six asked.
“Making ingots for Ravna. A little bit of easy work.” Gatbark stood up and brushed the debris off his pants.
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“With your hands?”
“One of the spells I have. A little bit of incantin to get the job done and I can mold small amounts of simple metals. It’s really nothing, just a tiny boon of my god.”
“Ah, yes. Kynairos. That’s pretty cool.”
Gatbark scoffed. “Nay, I worship our creator Astrogoth and yes it allows me to manipulate the metal while it is cold. Very cool indeed.”
“Our creator Astrogoth?”
Gatbark shook his head, no. “My creator Astrogoth. I am a meteor dwarf, we are of Astrogoth.”
“Oh, Astrogoth is like your creator god.”
Gatbark nodded.
“And the empire was ok with you worshiping a god other than Kynairos?”
“No. But it was allowed as long as you were part of the military and if it was part of a verbal component of a maneuver or spell.”
“And now?”
Gatbark laughed. “I like this place. I can worship Astrogoth here, and I can smell opportunity here.”
“I can dig it, which is kinda part of the reason I sought you out. I just came upon some quality materials and I need them made into the kinds of items I wish to enchant.” Six retrieved one of the blood branches and showed the dwarf.
Gatbark breathed a sigh of wonderment and Six could see the intense gaze of an inspect skill before he saw wild mercantile calculations going off in the dwarf’s eyes. Six felt a strange mix of disgust and admiration for the dwarf. On one hand it was clear to Six that Gatbark had no allegiance higher than that of coin, even Copperback seemed to half some social warmth. None so with Gunnbjorn, that scared Six honestly, He had seen the horrors of capitalism gone rampant and the dwarf seemed to exude that energy.
On the other, there was something to admire when one observed the dwarf’s productive march towards success. Gatbark had managed to approach a potential investor during a dangerous march through a rainforest into the middle of nowhere, Six grudgingly gave him some respect for that. Still, the dwarf could do much better in an established city, which meant Gatbark knew something Six didn’t
The dwarf spoke “This could make you a lot of money if you sold it in Olisrosa. Far more in the capital of Zleen. Where did you get this? It’s magic tree wood, not only that it has a affinity for blood. This is an incredible material Six. Is this all you have? Where’d you get it?”
Six laughed. “No, and I found it out there in the forest. Now, I want to enchant the items made with it and sell the final product myself. I’ve been told you could put me into touch with some contractors. I am looking for a bowyer, glass-maker and a jewlery crafter. Hmmm, probably a cobbler too. I know a leatherworker so we're good on that.”
“Hodgekins?” Gatbark asked.
“Yea.”
“She does good work,” He grumbled.
“Yea? I just offload my boar and bristlehound hides with her, we worked out a credit system. Good to know that this place has competent people. That reminds me, I gotta drop off that squatch pelt”
Gatbark nodded and hummed in agreement. “Orifec told me that Carralevine put alot of work into finding certain skilled people to ensure that the settlement had what it needed to function. They are all over skill level forty and are well into journeyman status. Which makes me want to switch the topic over to what I want from you but let us finish. What else?”
Well that’s it for now, I just want some easy info and maybe introductions if you’re not busy but maybe more later on? I dunno to be honest. What do you want? Investment gold?”
“Well, yes. But actually, I was going to ask to see if you were open to doing some work for me. I’m planning on building a workshop complex, and eventually a riverside warehouse.”
“That sounds like a massive project, I dunno Gatbark. Maybe some bits and pieces.”
Gatbark was quick to downplay scope when Six expressed reluctance. “You don’t have to do it right away, you could start with the bowyer’s hut and we could get started on turning these branches into something that I could eventually sell for you.”
Six smiled. “Something that you could sell for me?” There it was, the aggressive mercantile wolf that hid behind the blue collar exterior that Gatbark displayed. Six’s anger flared up a bit at the universal conflict of value and bargaining that would undoubtedly have to be settled but he calmed himself down with a quick breath.
This was for the best. Six had a paltry trade skill and he had no time to grow it nor interest in representing himself and haggling in most trade related matters. Allowing a ruthless negotiator like Gatbark to represent him and his products would lead to a higher end sale. Still, Gatbark being the middleman, would be the one winning out in the end. Six would watch the numbers and he would watch Gatbark, for no matter what compensation they agreed upon it was clear that it would never be enough for Gatbark. That was ok, for now.
“Sure,” Six agreed, “But let's talk details closer to then but I already got like two projects lined up and I gotta keep the priorities as is but maybe in a few weeks or so.”
“I should have the Bowyer’s complete by then on my own. So you could make the jewellers or perhaps the cobblers.”
“Building on your own? More divine magic?”
“Nothing is more divine than the power of the coin. Once the town hall is done, Alison won't need the labour and she has already given me permission to start a construction crew of my own.”
“Huh. I wonder if I can do that.”
“I don’t see why not.” Gatbark shrugged. “But you should come work for me.”
“Hmm, I will, for a bit anyways. Thanks man.”
“Not a problem. Come, I’ll introduce you to the tradespeople now before the sun goes down completely.”
Six followed the dwarf and they made their way about the settlement as it wound down for the night.
Six was introduced to Harriet the bowyer, Fredo the cobbler and Zek the jeweler. All in their late forties in terms of skill level. Unfortunately there was no glassblower amongst the entirety of the now almost 500 people. Gatbark demonstrated his skill in trade, browbeating these people down in compensation. He grumbled about rare materials and how they should be paying Six for the opportunity to work with such rare things. About how it may just be easier and more cost effective to waltz down to Olisrosa to trade them for already completed items. And then Gatbark hit them where it really hurt. He talked about how Six was a fighter and how he had put their lives before him and that, “giving him a fair price would be the least you civilians could do.”
When all was said and done he was lighter by half of his branches and he had put in an order for some new boots and some soft shoes and slippers. All together the transaction put him back another 61 gold which put his remaining gold at 30 flat.
He didn’t mind though, Denny had told him to spend it on the settlers and while their production was slowed without proper workshops the three of them still had their tools and could still begin Six’s commissions.
Six silently paid Gatbark a gold for what was an unasked for service but a service that should be compensated in some way. The dwarf took the single gold and scoffed but nodded. Six supposed that would be pretty fucking shitty to receive as a tip or commision, less than two percent. Kinda insulting really but a single gold was a lot of money. Meh, anyways.
Six thanked Gatbark and reassured him that he would help with the workshop complex in a couple of weeks or so. He then left to go drop his armor off at Ravna’s again. It had been completely demolished when the blood tree had almost killed him and Ravna tutted in mock irritation when he showed her the pieces.
“Luckily you’ve only dented it to hell but it's almost at its limit. Soon I’ll have to forge something new from scratch,” she mused.
“Could you make me proper full plate?” Six asked
“Yea, it would take a while, but I could. I would need a bit more material though, the scrap you’ve brought me isn’t enough.”
An idea occurred to Six. “Could you work with wood to make a set of full plate?”
She looked thoughtful before shrugging. “Probably not, maybe if I was working with someone who had their Carpentry skill into at least the apprentice rank. Shaping wood isn’t something I do at a high skill level.
Six nodded, it was looking like he would really have to buckle down with that carpentry book.
He thanked Ravna before heading back home with Nibbler. He’d meet up with Franklin tomorrow and talk about his helping her. His mind wandered back to the crushing Root Strikes and he decided to take the rest of the night easy. He should be going to bed and recovering but instead he wanted to smoke weed, roast meat on a fire, and stare at the moon while reading his carpentry book.