There weren't very many large rocks around here, but Leldro was able to find one to sit on without having to go more than two buildings down. He kept an eye on the church while he drank some water from his waterskin, and ate a bit of the rations he had. Dense, flavorless bread and jampaste was not particularly good, but it kept well if it didn't get wet or infested.
There really was a new monster. Not that he knew of many. A huge flying rock with a face bigger than his entire body? No, he's pretty sure he'd have heard about that one. There wasn't a corpse of a dead giant, but there were articles of clothing much bigger than any of his people could wear.
The bell that belonged to the old church was smashed and half-flattened, and now sitting in the middle of the church itself, like it was being used as a trophy to laugh at anyone who would have valued it. It was a good thing that it didn't belong to his church.
But how could a monster like that move all those items around? How could it move the pews into a stack against the wall? Something else must have done it. Though Leldro didn't see a Core, he knew there had to be one. This wasn't just a new monster. This was a dungeon!
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At least that guy left! Now Jack could get back to... 'What was I doing? Oh yeah, waiting for the timer. It's not active, so that means- okay, let's go.' He walked over to the other side of the church's yard, looked at the smithy, and had a thought. 'If buying a room felt like an awesome burp, then...'
He took a deep breath, aimed his mouth at the smith, and unleashed the best belch he could. Upon doing so, he felt like his lungs just got stronger, like he could do even better if he stored up for it. 'Ha! Mana is carbonation! No, that's stupid. What, like a mage casts fireball by farting? No, it must... you know what, I don't care. I'll deal with it later. For now, I got some stuff to snatch!'
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Leldro tried to relax. If he was going to pray for the next, well, he'd never done this before and only knew about it from reading every part of the scripture tome he had access to. It wasn't part of the book that he was told to read, or was read in sermon, but it was still written. He had faith it would work.
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[Construction discovered: Coal Forge]
[Construction discovered: Rusty Iron Anvil]
[Trap discovered: Rickety Awning]
Jack saw various tools sitting around in the planty muck, all rusted, but it's a start. But, what was inside? Touching the door didn't give any messages, and neither did passing through it. Actually inside instead of thinking about it, Jack saw a few smaller walls, separating out different tiny rooms. 'Maybe actual blacksmiths lived at their shop and didn't have a store to browse? That sucks.'
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Looking into the room at the end of the short hall, he heard a squeak. Looking down, it was a rat! Or a mouse? It was a rodent of some kind. If the people here were small like the ones he saw, then maybe a mouse was a rat. They looked normal sized, which means they were big? 'I don't know what you are', he said to the rat. 'That's why you're getting kidnapped!' Though, unlike the spider, termites, and tiny black mites, the rats seemed to be aware of him. Reaching down to try and touch the rat for later use, it jumped and avoided his fingers, squeaked, and ran off. 'Get back here, you!' Jack yelled at the rat as he chased it down the hall.
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Leldro got up, all the time he could spare to rest had more than passed. He walked up to the edge of the church's yard, opened his book to his bookmark, and began to pray loudly. Most of the text hadn't been translated into the newer common language, but such a chant shouldn't be translated, or so common logic suggested. It sounded more like the chanting of mages to some people that weren't affiliated with the Ministry of Truth.
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Jack cornered the rat in what he assumed was the smith's dining room, or at least where he ate since there was a table there. He reached out, and thinking the command 'store' quite a few times before touching the rodent, but upon succeeding he finally heard, or saw, a new message.
[Resource resisted Store.]
'What? Why?'
That's when he felt like someone was pushing a broom handle against his ribs, hard. It wasn't a jab, but a sustained pressure. 'Ow! What the hell?'
[Warning! Enemy spell effect!]
'Someone's attacking me? How? I'm over here!' Jack thought for a moment. 'The Core!'
He rushed out of the smith's workshop house, and looked in the direction he felt the pressure. It was coming from the other side of the church, but he couldn't see anything from here. Running back over, now he could.
The small man with the eye tabard and a fierce expression held a book, and was chanting something from it. Jack couldn't tell what the guy was saying, since it sounded muffled. Not mumbled, not spoken normally under a scarf, but like his words weren't words, but a wide piece of sheet metal being wobbled. Not the fake thunder in movies, but a "wub wub".
Like an asshole neighbor whose television is up too high and you can only make out the rhythm of the characters speeches through the wall. Like a friend trying to yell at you while you're both underwater, but without the bubbles.
Jack could see a lightly glowing wall that showed the edge of his 'room' around the church's building, and it was bent inward in a half circle, away from the chanting man who hadn't gone as away as previously thought.
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Leldro saw a shield of sorts appear in front of him, some invisible wall making itself visible to him. As it did so, it looked like it was beginning to discolor from a transparent blue to a smoky black. He looked down to read the next passage, focusing on his work.
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Jack was able to step outside his rooms before, though it made him feel like he hadn't eaten in a few hours and then spun around in a swiveling office chair. But something had to be done!
He ran at the man, but reaching his room wall where it bent, it felt like he just put his hands on a stovetop that he didn't remember was still on. 'Arg, damn it!' He quickly removed the hands he didn't actually have. 'Stop it, you dick! What the hell did I do to you?'
But the man didn't react. It didn't even seem like he could hear him. That rat did though. They all kinda seemed to scatter when he got too close. 'If I'm going to get jabbed in the ribs and he can't do anything about it, then I might as well distract myself as best I can. Right?'