William once again found himself in a burlap bag. Five days had passed since his initial escape and squishing. Since then he had tried to talk to his squishers to no avail. However he did find out what they were. Ogres and trolls, fantasies dimwitted brutes. They definitely lived up to the reputation in this world as well.
Since William had more then enough time to contemplate his predicament. His thoughts dwelt on his need for a new set moral codes. He was now immortal which brought on a curious of question that needed sound answers. The question was thus and applied to the situation he found himself in.
When you have infinite time to gain infinite power, what did you do when someone annoyed you?
To William the answer wasn’t as straight forward as outright annihilation. That he deemed was too much. Doing nothing was right out if they messed with something he owned. So William mulled over the grey area between the extremes and came to a conclusion. A checklist of escalation. He called it the 'Willow Checklist'. It mostly ran on the Geneva Conventions with a few tweaks in reverse order. If one 'checked' a box a nastier tier of weapons would be unleashed. The order mattered not. As William made his list he checked it against the brutes outside the pantry of rotting meat.
One, they killed people indiscriminately that he wanted for his purposes.
Two, they caused destruction to civilian infrastructure that he intended to use.
Three, they caused painful, cruel death. Almost bathing in the thrill of the screams and squelches of his innocent people.
Just three boxes out of five. The response to his judgement? Absolute agony, death was secondary. His mortal capital would not be tarnished without a response.
William had a plan. He always had a plan for petty retribution.
This time it called for substances from chemistry. A group on the periodic table that reacted with explosive ferocity and a sticky substance that burned like the sun in air. Both it turned out were relatively easy to procure. Unfortunately he had to trade time for his inevitable retribution. William planned and used [ Create ]. William had dumped all his earned stat points into (Dexterity). Stealth has the name of the game for part of this plan. William silently hid from his ‘captors’ as they looked for edible food. While they searched every once and a while his materials were safely stored everyday in a small crevice at the back of the pantry.
First he created his basic materials using some stolen burlap to store the first material, quartz sand by the handful for glass bottles. Then the bottles themselves from the created glass. Each step taking days to procure then alter the materials to his needs.
Using the large bottles he created the first volatile material. White phosphorus, the first of only two. The substance combusted in air. Nothing could stop it. Water could end the combustion. But if it evaporated the Willie Pete would light again. A nasty substance. A perfect weapon against regenerating trolls. Another byproduct of its combustion would be oxygen starvation as the reaction sucked all the oxygen out of the air.
Immediately after the quarter gram of the substance formed William covered it in water. So time was spent and the bottles filled until only a cup of water filled the neck. This ‘simple’ bomb would drive them from their caves via suffocation or melt them alive. The latter the most probable.
After another two months of work he had enough and so he stealthily set up his bombs throughout their cave system. The brutes didn’t see him once. Finally after so much wasted time on these dimwitted brutes he created a singular gram of the second volatile material, Francium. William chuckled to himself over a small fact that stuck to his thoughts as he frantically ran through the caves. His bombs cost just over a billion dollars each. What a frivolous waste of cash on retribution. He didn’t care though. Within a quarter hour he had placed a piece of Francium on a thin piece of ice that would melt in less than the half life of the radioactive Francium. His task complete placing the last bomb just shy of the entrance to the cave system William waited behind a series of boulders outside several dozen yards away.
William knew he could have escaped at any time. The ogres and trolls didn’t have guards. They barely did anything besides hunt, eat, shit, and sleep.
However, William was petty they killed his assets. If anyone was to point out the investment into killing this group William would shoot back. They kill for food and sport they are a liability waiting to happen and peace of mind is better then hoping for the best.
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He had tried so many times. His reward for trying every chance he took over the last few months? A squish and a trip back to a burlap sack.
No they dug their hole and now they would burn.
William waited until suddenly the very earth around him moved like an earthquake. Over and over explosions rocked the stone William layed upon.
Then came the bellows, the cries then everything was silent no movement no screaming just silence. Then out of nowhere William was slammed with a torrent of notifications from the system. William swore as he read the information.
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[ Congratulations!! You have killed eight lesser trolls and murdered an additional sixteen feral ogres all have awarded you with experience.
Names and levels of the deceased:
Feral Ogre Goh Lvl: 35 Hunter
Feral Ogre Gaa Lvl: 20 Keeper
Feral Ogre Fod Lvl: 15 Cook
…
Feral Ogre Hu Lvl: None Child
You have been awarded 10,100 XP ]
[ Congratulations!! You have earned a level in Arcane Engineer you are now Lvl 3. You have gained 10 stat points. You gained +100 mana]
[ Congratulations!! You have earned a level in Arcane Engineer you are now Lvl 4. You have gained 10 stat points. You gained +50 mana]
[ Congratulations!! You have earned a level in Arcane Engineer you are now Lvl 5. You have gained 10 stat points. You gained new skills [ Day Off ] & [ Recycle ]. You gained +25 mana]
[ Day Off (Passive) ] Description: An engineer is always overworked. With this skill you continue to be. If the Arcane Engineer spends twenty four hours doing light tasks without exertion all mana will be recovered upon completion of the two hour period. Skill may only be used once every seven days.
[ Recycle Lvl: 1 ] Description: As an engineer designs and creates the old is often made way for the new on a whim. Any crafted item may be reduced to its most basic materials for a cost of mana. Losses will occur on activation efficiency based on skill Lvl.
----------------------------------------
William continued to swear not really paying attention to the news of his level ups. He swore at the fact that killing and murder were distinguished from another. It meant the system kept track. Guess it’s a way to determine criminals from others. There was probably a skill out there that allowed one to see the hidden murder lists. At least Feral was also a designation. This was good information to have. William had a skill he now wanted to learn if possible.
William eventually calmed down to where he started going through the messages more thoroughly is seemed leveling his class had diminishing returns on his ability to increase his manapool. It looked as if contracts would be his sole source of massive manapool increases in the future.
William glanced at his new skills [ Recycle ] would be good for recovery of broken equipment. The other passive skill [ Day Off ] was a joke at least for now. His mana regen restored his manapool in less than a few hours. Especially now after increasing his (Will) and (Intelligence). But eventually his manapool would be massive if his estimate for Lilith's manapool was anything to go by.
William opened his character screen once more before heading off to find any landmarks. Although Will could have escaped at any time he didn’t take any time to look around. He had no idea where he was in comparison to Runick.
[ Name: William Willow
Age: ???
Deities of Worship: [ Lilith(Love/Lust/Law) ]
Class(es): Arcane Engineer Lvl: 5
Experience to Level: (0/14,000)
Health: (10/10) Health Regen: 1/hr
Mana: (475/475) Mana Regen: 6/min
Stats:
Strength: 11
Dexterity: 21
Constitution: 10
Will: 30
Intelligence: 30
Charisma: 20
Points Available: 0
Skill & Curse List:
Class Skills:
[ Create Lvl: 3 ]
[ Conceptualize Lvl: 2 ]
[ Contract Lvl: 2 (1/3) ]
[ Group Contract ]
[ Design Library [Passive] (Entries: 127) ]
[ Recycle Lvl: 1 ]
[ Day Off [Passive] ]
Learned Skills:
[ Universal Translator [Passive] ]
Curses:
[ Curse of Thalassophobia ]
[ Curse of the Pacifist ]
]
However with his increased (Will) William could see clearer and further away if he focused. He spotted the only river in the area for hundreds of miles. It would be a trek but he could be back to Runick safe and sound within four to five days steady travel. Though unfortunately he couldn’t travel during the night. Unlike the unnatural trap forest Will didn’t have a massive mountain as a landmark.
He had been gone for many months now Kena when he departed had said the villagers were thinking of erecting some more buildings they needed a smoker and a more secure root cellar if they wanted to start preparing for the Rifts notoriously nasty winters. William wanted to help on that end he had a few modern ideas to extend shelf life but he would require Emilia’s knowledge of the local flora to help source local resources. But as William topped the final hill a fine place to overlook the valley Runick was built in. As he gazed across the the valley and focused in on Runick. He saw not the burned out husks of houses but new constructions finished and half built. He was happy to see the rebuilding but there were too few people in Runick for this type of growth. Or that was what he thought until he saw the difference in heights and skin colors of the various groups milling about.
The Iron Fingers had banned together with Runick?