He walked in the field of red, his hand brushing past the thick leaves of Fire Agave. Neet rows stretched in the distance with at least a hundred of spiky plants in a row, and a hundred rows in total. Spider farmers skittered between the rows carefully checking the leaves and tending to the plant.
“They’re all fat and ready, let’s harvest these bad boys!”
The spiders jumped to activity nibbling at the base of the plant and cutting the long spiky leaves. They pushed the cuttings into blue bags on their back filled them up and then walk towards the processing facility. The large dome was different from the rest of the buildings, instead of purple and blue its walls were red in colour; the building was fireproofed. Inside the dome there were spiders different from their farming buddies, the ones here were bigger, fatter and had massive mandibles on their heads. They used their natural gift to separate fire-resistant fibre from the rest of the flammable pulp. The pulp was then pressed using the powerful mandible press, the thick oil flowed down the cheeks of the spiders and collected in the drain. Then FireAgave Oil was further filtered using a cloth mesh and collected into a very large vat of stone all possible by the stone bricks Kobolds provided.
From the previous experiments, he knew that the oil was quite flammable so he already had a few crafting projects in mind. He used the tried and true design of grenades to make an Oil Grenade, while it did what it was made to do the uses were limited unless you wanted someone to slip. The real value was in the ability to set it on fire so he crushed some Fire Spirit Stones and mixed the power with the oil in low quantities making a Fire Grenade. The grenade was a mean weapon, the oil was sticky and it burned very slowly producing a magical flame. It would be a war crime to use something like that on a person and he hoped he will never have to.
Obviously, the oil had other mundane uses like the fuel for fire and light. At the moment the nights on the farm were dark, there were only a few campfires made by the Lamia to give an occasional light source, but they used those for heat mostly. The Corrundum Ingots the Drow made were fairly malleable and rather easy to be shaped by a hammer. He made a small metal cage and in the middle of it, he put a stone container filled with oil. This was his first ever Oil Lantern but the design was not simple. The frame was shiny orange, and the bars bent into slightly round shapes with a flourish, the bottom and the top panes were made out of decorated stone and the face walls were left open. The flame burning in the cage was magical in nature so it produced no smoke, hence he put the lantern in his study. Now he will be able to study the Dark Tome at night, it felt more proper that way.
There was no need to stop at a single lantern. Lit streets were a sign of prosperous civilisation and he wanted to project that image. He showed his spiders how to make the lanterns. The little crafter spider, the one with the hammer was ecstatic about the job; he was the one to hammer the ingots into strips for cages. The production line was formed and spiders began to churn out lanterns at a steady pace. The first goal was to light this budding spider city and the next was to light the roads to the Undermountain and the Ancient Forest. For that, he would need a lot of oil, tons of it, but the quantity didn’t scare him, all he needed to do was to expand the Fire Agave fields even more.
While the metal ingots were very malleable, being able to heat them up would speed the process up very much, melting the metal to fill the cast was another option as well; but for that he needed to make a forge. It didn’t need to be as big and as hot as the Drow had, after all, he wouldn’t be smelting ores. Actually, an entirely new building had to be set up. At was a temporary wooden structure proofed with red cloth, at least until Kobolds delivered more stone bricks. The forge like the lanterns was fueled by the FireAgave Oil and not the fire stones, the reason was that most of his spiders didn’t know how to channel mana or simply didn’t have it.
The forge enabled his spiders to produce the first proper metal weapons. But it was the tools which were the most useful here. Corrundum didn’t hold a sharp edge for long but an application of Reinforce tended to alleviate the issue. What this meant was that he could finally defeat the Iron Oak. Its wood was extremely hard and sturdy but with the help of spiders and multiple changes of worn-out Corrundum tools he was able to process the tree. The process was labour-intensive but it was worth it. Its sturdy wood was destined for the handles of the tools and the shafts of the arrows. And maybe some decorative furniture screaming opulence at the future guests.
Having superior materials he produced superior products.
[Corrundum Axe] for his spiders, [Corrundum Spear] for the Drow and Lamia, all Reinforced +2. He couldn’t break the shafts even if he wanted to.
He also made more FireShields and FireSuits for the Fire Caverns exploration team.
The design his spider warriors wore was also updated into Corrundum Thorn Armour and the equivalent shield.
To satisfy his curiosity, he used the Enchanted Corrundum Ingots and by doing so the the equipment gained Bastion temporary perk; the one his armour had at the moment.
He also made a bunch of Torpor Arrows, it was unfortunate that he didn’t have any Corrupted Water to make more Withering Arrows, there were only a few sets of them left in the inventory. However, using oil and spirit stones he was able to make Fire Arrows. The arrows were only so good if he didn’t have bows to shoot them, and he wanted to make a rank of spider archers. A spider shooting flaming arrows at you just seemed like something he really wanted to have in his army. And for that, he needed help from the Drows, he knew that with their expertise he will be able to craft a powerful bow.
But before he went there was something important. Needless to say, he has been crafting a lot, and his hard efforts were finally rewarded.
Congratulations! You have reached Crafting lvl. 3]
[Requirements have been met. Hidden perk unlocked.]
[Perk Enchant obtained.]
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This one sounded positively magical, likely his crafting synergised with his magical skill giving him a hidden perk. But it didn’t come with instructions.
“The Drow will wait. Time to experiment!”
Bit by bit he figured it out! He could enchant equipment with the Dark affinity, but there were limitations. He noticed that the equipment needed to have either the Enchanted Leather or Enchanted Ingot as one of the ingredients.
The Enchant>Dark results were inconsistent, but not quite random; he could tell that he just didn’t have mastery of the skill yet. The enchantments granted one of the temporary temporary perks to the gear, some of them were actual spells described in the Dark Tome.
For armours:
Dark Cloak – Cloaks the wielder in a coating of darkness, making them harder to see and hit.
Dark Resistance: Lesser – dark magic resistance.
Shadow Form – the user turns into a shadow for a few seconds avoiding all physical attacks.
Terror +1 – a fear factor +10%.
For weapons:
Blinding Strike – a chance to afflict the target with a temporary Blind.
Darkness Coat – a coating dealing elemental damage.
Shadow Bolt – a ranged attack.
Terror +1 – a fear factor +10%.
The best of all of this was that the user didn’t need to be a mage to activate the perks; so he just found a small workaround. However, the active perks had limited uses per day.
The Enchant perk also worked with the spirit stones. At the moment he had only two kinds, the Fire Spirit Stones and Ancestral Tree Amber (the eco-friendly equivalent of Nature Spirit Stone). Well, he was exchanging Fire stones with humans for Nature stones and then turning the Nature stones to the Wisp so that he could get two Amber stones in return; Yeah…
Fire Spirit Stone gave only one option for armours and weapons: Flame Coat – a coating dealing elemental damage. Fire Resistance: Lesser – fire magic resistance. Nature Spirit Stone gave the same but with a Nature affinity. The decrease in choices was likely because he was neither a fire mage nor a nature mage. That, or he needed to get higher in Crafting lvl. or become a proper Enchanter without the workarounds.
Well, he ran out of the stones so the experimentation had to end. He had two reasons now to visit the Drow.
As he was approaching the Undermountain entrance the sight of three large souls surrounding an even larger green soul made him drop out of the Shadow Walk. The dryads were pressing their hands on the already tall LivingWood Sapling and doing something to it.
“Wait… Are you trying to grow it?”
The trio bobbed their heads happily. He didn’t mind, actually, this was good news.
“Hmm… I have these.” He shoved Ancestral Tree Amber. “Is that any use to you at all?”
The Dryad snatched the amber out of his hand and then it melted in the Dryad’s palm. A beam of green sparkling light slammed into the sapling.
“I take that as a yes. I’ll get more the next time, keep up the good work.”
He waved the dryads goodbye, those guys were tireless workers. They had finished planting Iron Oaks all the way to here, and soon spider Web-Highway will be completed.
He visited the Drow and noticed a few small changes. In the middle of their cavern, right by the Mana Spring, there was a tower being built out of bricks. He didn’t need to guess, the High Chief made his ambitions clear: this will be the Drow Archives and Magical Research Centre. It was only half-built, but it was progressing nicely.
He found the drow in question, he was busy at the workshop inscribing an Enchanted Velum with magical ink, there was a box full of already completed scrolls next to him. Nearby, in a dark corner, the Darkness Spider was also busy crafting the scrolls.
“Oh, don’t you get along well?”
The High Chief looked at him with surprise. “King, what brings you here?”
“I ran out of spirit stones, brought your gear and I…” He paused for dramatic effect. “I need to craft a bow.”
“A bow?!” Of course, this was the thing the High Chief would concentrate on the most.
He took Iron Oak Wood and the two began working on the design. With trial and error and the application of both of their perks, they managed to produce a magnificent bow.
[You have crafted IronOak Bow of superior quality. Crafting +100exp.]
[IronOak Bow: Reinforced +4, +10 Rep with Elves.]
[Temporary perk Piercing Strike obtained.]
“Impressive.” The High Chief rotated the bow in his hand and then tried to draw the string. “It’s very sturdy, with enough strength it should be able to deliver enough power to pierce a tree without even the need of Air enchanted arrows.”
“I concur.” He too was impressed with it, the Iron Oak gave another Reinforced +1 totalling to +4. “I bet it’s sturdy enough to be used like a club.”
The drow gave him a curious look. “A club? Why not attach a blade to it?”
“That’s an idea.”
They shaped the Enchanted Corrundum Ingots into a wicked blade and attached it along the bottom half of the bow. Then he used Enchant on it.
[You have crafted Bow of Darkness of masterwork quality. Crafting +100exp.]
[Bow of Darkness: Reinforced +5, +10 Rep with Drow.]
[Temporary perk Dark Bolt obtained.], [Temporary perk Piercing Strike obtained.]
“A Masterwork!”, “Dark Bolt?” both exclaimed at the same time.
“Amazing!”
He couldn’t agree more. They took the bow outside, they were giddy like two boys with a new toy. The bow did need the arrows to shoot, but they could be any arrow, and once shot they turned into projectiles imbued with Dark affinity.
“High Chief, thanks for the expert instructions, you can keep it.”
“Really, are you sure?”
He now knew how to make it and was able to make more. “Positive. I can always make more and I made this one for you anyway.”
“Then just leave it to us Drow.” The High Chief smiled at him.
He didn’t see a problem with that, all he needed to do was Enchant them later. He left the gear and materials for the Drow, gathered his share of ingots and spirit stones and headed for the exit.
“King! King?” A spidery chirp was shouting for him from behind.
“Mushroom Spider? What’s up?”
“The Myconids. They want. To see you.”
The unpleasant memory of the brown swarm devouring his plants returned to his mind.
“The mushroom menace is back?”
“No. Not a menace. The one you planted. Come.” The spider urged.