"Shit. Shit shit shit." William whispered from his hiding place. His thoughts turn panicked as the thumps turn to whacks then bangs.
How did... they were watching, damn them!!
William was trapped. He couldn't die but he didn't exactly enjoy the pain that would come from such an event. He waited and hoped that his pursuer would give up. That notion died at the first crack of light from the door.
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Six days ago
Today was the day that water would run clear as crystal. With his experiments from last night he had found several cheats and exploits against this world's system. Will couldn't help but smile he remembered using exploits in many games to finish games quicker. It always pissed off his wife in the most adorable way. She was a purest. But Will couldn't help but notice her using his faster progress to edit her play style. But to Will there was a basic requirement to break the rules and it was this that he had thought when he found the exploit.
We wouldn't have nice things if everyone played by the rules.
The exploit Will found wasn't exactly game breaking but it was interesting. If he made a component part of a larger whole then 'broke' it he could then use the component like it was just base material and reset the constant. Will hated that constant as it kept screwing him when he tried to make something entirely from scratch. Using these 'broken' components the cost of shaping and fusing was already 'paid' for. Overall it lowered the cost of entire projects by a small margin. This would help with complex projects that had a lot of pieces but not the simple stuff.
However, none of that compared to the new efficiencies he had from his skills leveling up. From what he could tell he got about an eleven percent increase in efficiency. This only calculated from remembering the cost change in his [ Design Library ]. This wouldn't help with purifier but he didn't care. It was progress.
As for the purifier itself the work was in full swing after the villagers morning meal. A few of the middle aged women tried to give him food but Will was too busy playing with clay mud to hear them. He immediately put his seven lackeys to work making the needed clay bricks. Unfortunately the weather wasn't playing ball and was overcast grey. But Will used [ Create ] to cure the bricks the best he could then have the minions lay the bricks in formation to create the various shapes he needed. The larger of the three constructions would be an above ground cistern that could be drained cleaned then refilled if the water fouled again. The second was the water purifier itself a large tank that would then be filled with a scavenged cheese cloth charcoal then various aggregates then finally larger stone gravel at the top. The third smaller structure was built as a liquid storage for the unpurified water. The kicker was having it all look like a wall for a future structure, never to be built. It was a lot of work for the seven people doing the heavy lifting while Will proudly did what engineers do, watch and shout at others building their engineered creations for the communities eternal benefit. Will had the minions start the process of flushing the system before the villagers arrived from their tasks for a mid-day meal. By the end of the meal Will unveiled to the surviving villagers a simple bowl of water that had been boiled recently. The villagers were all understandably skeptical of his claims of taking the green liquid that smelled of death and turning it into clear drinkable non-smelly water. But by showing the holding container for the death water and then uncovering the cistern the villagers watched in awe as the liquid above entered and exited into the cistern below. But Will cautiously warned that the water in the cistern was still dangerous but if boiled was perfectly safe for consumption.
The villagers, after the demonstration were a tad warmer to their Lord Anginir. After the villagers dispersed William told his minions to take a breather but be ready for his call if required.
It was a lone figure as everyone left to continue their salvaging and foraging that caught Will's eye. It was Kena Vun and Will hoped to hear a good word from her.
“Well color me impressed, you delivered on your promise, ‘Lord Anginir’” She winked at Will as she called him by that moniker. “You asked for a contract, I will make one. You asked for information about our situation I have all of it or my teacher does but let me lay some rules. I get ten questions you get ten questions. If you want more you continue helping the village per one of these ideas of yours.” She motioned towards the working water purifier. “I’ll take that deal, I wasn’t really planning to stop with help but I wouldn’t have been nearly as nice.” Will invoked [ Contract ] and a scroll appeared with Kena’s exact words of their deal upon it. The two shook and a screen lightly tapped Will on the face.
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[ **NEW** Contract: (Tit for Tat 1?) Ask ten questions of Kena Vun and use your wits to help her village. Rewards: Earn another contract?, +100 manapool, 150 XP ]
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It’s a start I guess. “Well lets go inside unless you have another safe private area.” “I do in fact, my teachers home the village witch. Her home isn’t near the village so it didn’t get burned. She likes her privacy but she wants to meet you and can probably answer you questions better than I could.” “Lead on then I suppose.” Kena did just that it took them the better part of an hour to finally reach the witches ‘hut’. But as Will saw the witches hut it he would rather call it a two story house with a large garden engulfing it. Fresh Ivy covered the entire building giving it a shocking amount of camouflage against its forest surroundings the only things giving it away was the ever present smoke plume from its tree stump like chimney. As the two neared, the house welcomed them the fence gate opened, the overgrown path to the door uncovered itself and the main door opened before they hit the steps up to it. In Williams head the words creepy and magic were at the forefront as they entered. The former word evaporated once William got indoors. Like the gathering hall in the village the home had a warmly lit interior but smelled of lavender. The main feature however were the towers of thick tomes on a wide range of various topics. The sight took William back to his days at University of the library and rows and rows of knowledge. It was similar but this had the corner bookstore vibe that Will loved ever so much. A clattering of what sounded like porcelain and movement from a doorway brought Will’s eyes towards their owner. A small wiry woman with golden blonde hair appeared she seemed in her twilight years but knowing about the [ Immortal ] skill put a pin in that idea. “I see you brought our resident ‘Dark Lord’ to my home. Kena be a dear and put this in the lounge so I can can speak to our mutual guest while the tea steeps.” “Yes Gran.” Kena took the tray of porcelain cups and teapot from the seemingly elderly woman and disappeared into another adjoining room. “So stranger what can you tell me of our mutual home-world?”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
William froze he had no reason to fear, [ Immortal ] took that load off. But he still froze on the spot mostly because be didn’t expect another from earth besides his wife. The old woman didn’t give him time to think.
“Come on young man out with it at least I hope you are young this worlds system has an odd way of warping perception of age. You positively reek of recent transference energy and my [ High Identify ] makes you out as one William Willow level one Arcane Engineer. So spill it.” “Um... S-sorry you have me at a disadvantage ma’am.” “It’s Emilia Night and no need for pleasantries, my year was in nineteen twenty you are the first one after me that I have found the rest are even older then I.” “I don’t think I can do that there’s too much to say in one day. So how about I write it down for you do you have a spare empty tome and some sort of writing tool. I have roughly a hundred and fifty years of history for you and a lot of it may sound like fiction to you especially the last ninety of it.” “O-One h-hundred and fifty years oh I can’t wait to read it but first you have questions for us.” “Um yes I have ten questions for Kena and by extension you I guess Emilia.”
And so tea was had and questions asked. Kena and her Grandmother questions mostly stemmed asking William about himself and life before here but strangely not his abilities. William’s questions had more to do with political lines and the surrounding area. Emilia was a bit of an archivist and had a mind like a steel trap.
The two main countries Will would have to worry about was The Dawn Imperium to the east. A fairly militarized state that Emilia equated to the Roman Empire if it had survived its split and subsequent decline and survived until feudalism came to be. It claimed the majority of the continent under its rule however while it sat on fairly fertile soil it didn’t have the mineral wealth required to conquer the rest. The area that William found himself in was the colloquially named area of the No Mans Rift Federation called because of the rift like valley between two vast mountain ranges and its many free settlements set up by the people who feel ostracized by the centralized governments east and west of the rift. While the rift was a named area it wasn’t a country by any means. The villages and towns that dotted its entirety held a mutual agreement of claimed area and resources so as to not fight each other over the wealth of the rift. It was a lawless area of monsters, bandits, and the dotted settlement.
The reason the area wasn’t immediately eaten up from the west and east was those same bandits and monsters so the settlements tended to be small and self sustaining taking in the odd castaway, exile or refugees. The roving bandits held a sorta infamous status in the rift almost like the tiny irregular army of the rift they occasionally came to a settlement and traded or threatened for supplies. The monsters were monsters. The rift was free that is what mattered to its residents.
The Western mountain range became the Kingdom of Arintheld. Though Emilia warned just because it was the lesser of the two major powers didn’t mean it didn’t have claws of its own. Unlike the Imperium, Arintheld was mineral wealthy. However it was held back by the corruption of all levels of society except the very top. Besides that Arintheld was also held back by its culture and conservative nature.
Both countries fielded armies that crossed the rift to do battle over expeditionary colonies leaving the unlucky village to ruin if it wasn’t big enough or didn’t have a stone wall because they couldn’t be ‘sure’ if the village held ties to their enemies. As for the area around Ru-nick the name for the once prosperous village William now helped. The iron mine used to allow good trade with the bandits as Kena’s father was well known for his steel weapons. The goblin tribe was a different matter they were usually peaceful and sometimes traded for food with rare alchemy ingredients and other rare commodities but they had become violent within the last year the reason was unknown as any delegation Runick had tried to send to smooth relations and get iron from the mine were chased off often battered and bruised for their troubles. When William asked Emilia about the coal the senior Vun had used for his steel Emilia only shook her head she was Kena’s maternal grandmother well versed in the spell-craft and alchemy of the world's system not crafting resources but she had a few guesses as Vun senior had returned from the same direction every time with a handcart full of the stuff. And like that Williams questions were burned.
However it was Kena’s question after their tit for tat meeting that had him perplexed “What’s next for the Dark Lord Anginir?” Honestly William didn’t know. He needed a base of operations if he wanted to attract his wife from across the other side of the world and the maps Emilia showed had told him that he either needed to fly or teleport neither were available to him at the moment. So first he needed to get stronger his only means was being altruistic toward Runick. So he evolved a plan around it. First he needed a gun without gunpowder. Second was to resolve the goblin problem and possibly turn them into another human resource. Third well if everything went to plan mining iron and finding a limestone deposit. Runick would be prepared for the next time outsiders found it and next time any would be punitive force would be picking up their own pieces.