Broka 27th 10,391
Six dreamt. Bad dreams of towering buildings built from trash, Six was atop one and fell when it crumbled beneath him.
He woke. His body held a tension that he had not felt for a while now. It was as if he was fighting against a weight, and he was, the weight of duty. Instantly his mind went to blazing smokeweed but he grudgingly pushed the idea away. A feeling of irritation and hopelessness sought to rise with him but Six recognized the feelings for what they were, what they were rooted in, selfish hedonism.
No. He had things to do. He had no time to waste.
Six began with his stretches and visualizations. The thoughts and the quiet of the morning was particularly hard to endure, Nibbler was a welcome salve to complete solitude as she weaved her way around Six as he moved. He understood this momentary lack of focus and attention, his life was to once again be drawn from his ideal of personal self fulfillment and into the sacrificial area of responsibility towards the tribe.
It was ok. The concept of tribal responsibility could take many forms depending on the administrative and religious beliefs of an area or individual. Six did not care for such things, for the concepts themselves were not truly objective and fundamentally, it was only the power to enforce them that mattered. Still, he knew that his honor would demand his best, and his honor, his law, would guide him.
Six moved through his stretches slowly and deliberately.
In his previous life, Six had never had a chance to choose the system he’d lived in, he had been lucky to be born where he was but the way he lived had never been a choice. Yes, many would have traded spots with him even though his adult life was one of poor choices and grueling labor. Still, he would have appreciated the option to live as he’ed been the past few weeks.
Even back then he would have probably needed to go into town a few times a year.
It was foolish to reminisce. That time was gone and he should not be wasting time now.
Skill Increase: Mindfulness - Initiate - 7
This time he blended the crimson lines of Lump’s Blood Darts and the lumbering movements of Poh Doh into his visualizations, it was another layer of complexity but they were weapons and Six needed to include them in his mental practice routines.
He would practice his forms with the villagers now so instead of that he fed Nibbler and himself before opening his door, which was now held shut by Poh Doh’s seated form, and went to go get Amog’s stuff.
Six approached the tomb, which from the outside looked like a chest high slab of stone. Six hadn’t been sure as to if Amog could smash his way out of it so Six just layered five casts of Stone Wall. He ordered Poh Doh to move portions of the stone until the golem had carefully peeled the thick cap of rock off the water filled chamber.
Amog bobbed at the top, floating in typical corpse fashion. Poh Doh pulled the large half-ogre out and the waterlogged body slapped down on the ground.
Six sighed. “Sorry buddy, but you had to go, eh.” He wasn’t actually sorry, Amog needed to die and Six knew that, he just felt frayed and his emotions were wild.
Six began stripping the body but a feeling came over him when he touched the skin of Amog. It had always been there, whatever it was, but that tension came back, that metaphysical weight that seemed to be ever increasing while remaining the same.
It didn’t seem to be harmful so Six continued with his business. He stripped the body, inspecting each item and finding several of note.
- Cloud Boots -
Rank: Enhanced
Rarity: Rare
Weight - 2 KG
Durability: 259/275
Traits:
Can be activated once a day to create a temporary platform of clouds underneath the users feet. Requires attunement.
- Ring of Prophetic Vital Shield -
Rank: Enhanced
Rarity: Rare
Weight - 4 G
Durability: 487/500
Traits:
The ring will automatically activate at the cost of 8 charges if the user would take damage equal to 30% of their health from a single attack, conjuring a 200 durability shield of vital mana. 26/26 Charges. Requires attunement.
- Obsidiite Bo Staff -
Rank: Superior
Rarity: Rare
Weight - 68 KG
Durability: 11470/12500
Traits:
Durability will only reduce if the staff takes damage equal to more than the current Durability.
- Spatial Satchel -
Rank: Enhanced
Rarity: Rare
Weight - 750 G
Durability: 400/400
Traits:
Capable of storing up to 5000KG of material. Must be deposited and withdrawn through the satchel mouth.
The boots, ring and staff were all very impressive, especially the staff with the Superior quality rank. Six gave the satchel a quick mental glance and could see a ton of items that he would have to inspect and catalog later tonight but for now he was just sticking to the essential looting.
There was a light down at the bottom of the chamber and Six sent Poh Doh to retrieve anything new down there. Other than the rubble of his two destroyed earth golems there was one item Poh Doh brought back, an,
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- Everlight Coin -
Rank: Enhanced
Rarity: Unusual
Weight - 6 G
Durability: 499/500
Traits:
Constantly emits a dim light, Reagent
A neat little trinket, Six wondered how it had a perpetual effect, something to research later.
That done, Six pulled out his knife and looked down at the motionless form. The resonance thumped with each beat of Six’s heart, there was something here for him.
Six began to butcher. He found it incredibly difficult to pierce the skin of the dead man so instead he had Poh Doh hold the knife and put all of his focus on finely manipulating the golem to skin the man.
He wasn’t sure but the main piece of knowledge Six received about Amog was his insane physical defence, but surely the man’s skin would make for good armor.
- Skin of Amog -
Rank: Enhanced
Rarity: Rare
Weight - 8KG
Durability: 1227/1245
Traits:
Material, Reagent
Six did not seek mana cores within the man’s body but the source of that resonant pull that lay within Amog’s chest.
Six eventually laid hands upon Amog’s heart, hands covered in blood, and the pressure built until there was a release and Six felt something flow into him. His body experienced a ride of hallucinations and sensations and Six almost collapsed. That felt good.
Six had done a few harder drugs before but this feeling that overtook him, he loved it.
- Heart of a Fateling (Amog) -
Rank: Enhanced
Rarity: Artifact
Weight - 680G
Durability: 50/50
Traits:
Material, Reagent, Consumable
Artifact? He had never seen anything Artifact rarity, and It was a consumable? Crazy, well it's not like he was human, so it wouldn’t be cannibalism. Hmm, he was a half-ogre. Six thought he remembered not being allowed to be “Mixed race” but it seemed like Amog had figured it out somehow. So would it be half cannibalism?
He was considering this far too seriously. He most likely wasn’t gonna eat the heart. Still it should make for a good material if he could get it preserved. Six placed the organ in his inventory and hoped it would keep for a while.
He had no immediate use for it and wouldn’t rush into anything immediately. Instead he headed down to Mountain’s End. He marched into town to the stares of the villagers who now seemed somewhat standoffish. That was fine. It was almost preferable.
Six handed in Amog’s skin to Hodgekins and the dwarf woman almost turned him away but Six reminded her.
“You owe me.” And she did, he had brought her far more pelts and skins than anyone else most likely and he rarely if ever had actually used her service. More than likely he would have traded or forgiven the debt but right now he needed to get things done. This was a good resource and they would leverage it.
Hodgekins pursed her lips and shook her head but took the skin of Amog and gave Six a rough time of completion for three days, Six nodded and gave his thanks.
Jebbedo smiled when he saw Six standing in line and they made easy conversation while Six stepped aside and allowed the line to continue. It was good to see a face treat him somewhat normally. After a bit, Six asked the biggest question on his mind.
Six leaned in to whisper his question. “How are the food stores coming?”
Jebbedo grimaced. “More can’t hurt. If we work really hard, Kynairos might bless us, you know?”
Six smiled weakly. “Gotcha. Hey, could you do me a solid and preserve a chunk of meat as soon as possible?”
Jebbedo lifted an eyebrow. “Is it important lord business as soon as possible?”
Six narrowed his eyes at the little man but smiled. “Yea.”
“Sure.”
Six brought out the heart of Amog and plopped it into a bowl that Jebbedo had ready.
“Where’d you get this?”
“Amog.”
“Huh. Well… Alright.”
“Can you preserve it?”
“I think so, not perfectly but for a while. Can I ask why? It's not necromancy is it? You’re not getting into necromancy are you?”
Six waved the thought away. “Nah, nah. Enchanter stuff. I do have a necromancy spell I might use though, trying to be careful with it though.”
“Huh. Well… Alright. Just be careful.”
“Cool, I will. Let me know how much I owe you and if you need anything.”
Lump cleaned Six of any stray Amog blood before he took his bowl of stew and bread. He gestured thanks to both Jebbedo and Min before turning and searching for Charles and Leoka.
Six’s eyes scanned the crowd and saw the averted gazes. He heard the whispers.
None really saw him do anything, they knew of him when he traveled with them but he was different from the man he was back then. He would continue to be different.
All they knew is he defeated Amog.
Charles came out from the bustle of the recovering village and waved to Six.
Six waved back. “How’d you know I was looking for you?”
Charles cocked his head, “I asked some people to keep an eye out for you and tell me if they see you.”
Six nodded then immediately sent the young orc off to gather as many off duty guards and hunters as he could. Charles also told Six where he could find Leoka and he found her in discussion with Franklin.
The two women stopped and stared at Six as he walked over to the new building that was being staked out near the east end of the village, where the lake narrowed into a river.
Six nodded his acknowledgement at both women. “I need a report on the town and our food situation, can you help me with that Leoka?”
She snickered and scoffed. “Why should I help you?”
Six had anticipated this, he kept his face calm, he breathed slowly and deeply. “Leoka, you don’t have to do anything, I am offering you the opportunity to participate. Despite being too weak to seize leadership for yourself, you have the type of character I want to work with.” Six waited.
He could see the rotation of emotions play out across Leoka’s face, anger, confusion, understanding, and back to anger.
She shrugged. “Fine. The people are scared, morale is low. Some talk of heading back to Olisrosa and abandoning what we have here. Even some of my people are thinking of trying it in the city. Jebbedo says the food is getting low and that the crops won’t be ready soon enough.”
She paused and gave Six an inquiring look, he gestured for her to continue.
“We have enough shelter for everyone but it's cramped and dirty, that's bad for morale. Most industries have yet to get their workshops built so our market is dead. Money’s not moving. Ethel says the monsters are thick and seeming to get thicker, the hunters are coping with them currently but it's still very dangerous to hunt and bring back substantial fare, not to mention as the farms get larger, defending the farmers will also become more difficult.“
Six nodded that made sense, horizontal sprawl made emergency response times terrible.
“Crime?”
“A bit of stealing here and there but nothing serious.”
“What's the next development target?”
“Huh?”
“What’s the town attempting to achieve?”
“A Mill, several actually. One for food and the others for lumber”
“Sounds good, I won’t be able to directly assist with that for a few days, perhaps a week. Until then, I have something for you, Franklin.”
Franklin had been standing in on their conversation and stared as Six bottomed out his ley mana and conjured five Ley Workers.
One by one, triangular shapes rose out from the ground, they were made of rock and shaped like four sided pyramids and each with an etched eye at the peak of their faces. The pyramids were about the size of a man and floated just above the ground. They hovered ominously.
“Ta daaa,” Six said lamely.
“Uh,” the big woman started. “What are these?”
“Your new helpers. They can do very simple tasks very well, like move that there, or hold this there. I found they're pretty good at digging, so that might help. I dunno. Let me know how they go and if you don’t like em we can get rid of them.” Six demonstrated by giving some orders to the floating obelisks. They lifted objects by using a beam of energy projected from their inscribed eye.
“Check it out, tractor beams,” Six joked.
No one laughed.
He had the ley workers lift and move various things, dirt, wood, and stone, they seemed quite strong as they floated and held lumber in place.
Franklin was silent for a moment and Six could see her work through some thoughts before her expression firmed. “Can’t hurt to try,” she said.
Six turned control of the ley workers over to her, the control of the floating pyramids were tied to the Ley Nexus otherwise Franklin would have never been able to control so many. Six could also wrest control away at any moment. They lasted a year so Franklin should be able get a good amount done with the extra work.
He watched her experiment with them and gave her some tips that he figured out when he was using them to dig pits for the running battle. It didn’t take long before she just started to put them to work.
Then Charles showed up with almost thirty people, mostly guards and hunters.
Six thanked both of them and turned to the group Charles had assembled. He cleared his throat. “Thank you for coming to the defence of Mountain’s End. Charles told me of your effort, of your valor, and of your courage. The people of this place could not ask for more but it was still not enough.”
A group of children ran past, laughing and chasing each other.
“It is what it is. I won’t lie to you and say you were prepared, that you were strong enough. You were not. We-” Six emphatically gestured to all of them assembled. “Must grow. It is self evident and I do not mean to sound condescending but there is no other option than growth. We must grow and progress until we are enough.”
Six sighed in grim determination.
“And then still, we must grow.”