The crowd starts to disperse as less people are interested in the art portion of this competition. Several hundred return to their island while some head towards Shienta with a chaperon. I had brought word to my uncle that we had defeated the pirates and forced them to join us but that might not stop the people from attacking them if they show up by themselves.
The crowd has dropped to about half for this… I have several of my men bring out the materials for this competition. I'm going to award everyone who enters but this is just to see if we don't have any artists in our group. Several blocks of stone are brought out with chisels. We have some clay for making pottery. A few canvases for drawing pictures as well as the paint they will use to make them. About a dozen people enter… Some are clearly just entering to try and earn money.
We all get to work on something. I have entered myself and plan on using my control earth to sculpt something to enter into the contest. Each gets to work, I see one of the pirates that entered just covering one of the canvases with paint… He is done in only a few minutes and it looks better than I expected it too. What I assumed would end up looking like a mess looks very interesting in the end… From what I can see from this angle at least.
The main reason I wanted to have this competition was to hire them as artists afterwords to decorate the fortress and other bases. Seeing the drab walls lightened with colors would help make everything look more special... More unique. Anything to lighten the mood in these narrow corridors would help.
I start working on shaving off parts of the stone to shape it. Working on shaping it is far easier than I thought it would be. I shape the face, deciding to make a statue of myself. I was going to make one of Leaf but my artistic skill isn't good enough to capture her beauty yet… Perhaps after a few years of practice I will be able to create the perfect duplicate of her. That way her beauty will be forever remembered and shown even after we pass away. People will admire her and look to her beauty for inspiration.
Looking at my competition… There is surprisingly a lot of talent here. One of the demon folk is making a pot with some of the clay brought for this competition. One of the gnolls is stitching together several wolf pelts to make a wolf skinned rug. A kobold has brought bones and is making some type of idol... I think... I'm honestly surprised by the fact that they've brought their own materials. Perhaps while the other competitions were going on, they were preparing for this one. One of the elementalists is sculpting a similar statue to my own. It appears to be of a very attractive women… As he chisels away more of the stone I start to see who he is trying to immortalize in stone. It is a statue of Green…
Finally... No murine folk have entered, which is a shame. I know for a fact that they have amazing artists who could very likely win the competition if they entered... To be expected of them though, only a few had entered the fighting competition, they will most likely not want to give away their artistic secrets.
We are each done with far more time then I allotted for the competition… Finishing in 15 minutes while I had given the time of 2 hours… I look over each one, the competition is slightly different then the others. Each person will get compensated for their art. Even the few pirates who are here just for the chance at money will be paid slightly for their slight painting skill.
I look closer at the ones that I expect to be the best… The elementalists statue is far more sharp curves then mine, I shaved the corners off while he left them… It honestly looks like it was done for a stylistic choice. In comparison, his is slightly better, better face creation and more beautiful then mine. I would much rather look at his statue over mine.
The demon folks pottery is something I would expect anyone to be able to make with work… Until you look closer at it. The small and intricate designs on it show the signs of a experienced potter. The lip has been tapered to make the water flow towards one spot when poured. Around the first curve is where the intricate design is. What looks to be a braided rope is actually the pot designed to look that way. The time it would take to make this would have been much longer if it was hardened, which is the next step to preserving this great art.
The gnoll's wolf skinned rug is also impressive. Several wolf pelts are stitched together so finely I can't even tell where one pelt ends and the next begins. All I can think of is how nice it would look inside my room in the castle mimic. Or on the wall in the war tactics room we have meetings on the plans for battle.
Next is the kobolds bone… What is this? It just looks like a pile of bones to me. He grabs the string portion on each end and hangs it around his neck. Wearing it I can now see the beauty in it. The closer I look, the more elaborate I realize it is. It would take a very steady hand to make a hole the exact size needed for the necklace without splitting the bone. Several teeth also are used in the design. Each bone and tooth looks to be from a different creature. While it would serve no purpose, it is still fairly beautiful and I could imagine some of the troops wanting to wear these or have specially made ones of all the monsters they've defeated.
Finally the single pirate who had made the painting with any skill… From my viewpoint during the match, I couldn't tell what he had painted but from a straight on perspective, I can now clearly see it… A beautiful sunset, one I've seen before. It is the ocean facing north, away from the pirate base… I had thought it was beautiful before but his painting almost seems to have captured to moment permanently in portrait… It is truly beautiful to look at.
Artist learned- (sub category- sculpting, painting, crafting and design) know the very basics of art, can sometime make something truly beautiful if you are lucky
Title gained Art critic- can see the flaws in art even when no one else can, allows you to appreciate truly beautiful art more
The competition ended. I gave the painter first place, awarding him 3 gold. Everyone else were runner ups, earning 1 gold each. I would rather not place them as they were of the same level of skill. Which is none at all except that of their peoples culture. It would go against another race to rate one of the types of art higher then the rest… The only exception to that was the painter.
He clearly had more skill then everyone else and I have no doubt that is where I learned artist from. Just looking at his painting gives me inspiration to get better. I do just that, using another one of the blocks of stone, I carve a statue of Gobber this time. Far better then the last one I created, it puts my original stone statue to shame. The curvature is far less abrasive and I could even capture the dumb smile Gobber always has on his face.
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Each of them is given another gold if they create more art for each of the bases. I doubt anyone besides myself will appreciate it because as there is no practical reason for art. It doesn't make the bases safer, it doesn't make people less likely to attack. If the art is valuable, it does the opposite. I think my love for art might be coming from some of Lust's memories but I find myself being interested in it as well. Leaving behind a legacy of culture could be the only thing I'm remembered for.
I continue making statues, paintings, pottery, jewelery and rugs the remainder of the day. Each is about the same level as the person who I was competing with, maybe slightly better or worse depending on the critic. Besides the pirate painter… Nothing I make is even within the same league as his.
The day is winding down already. Night is quickly approaching and most of the pirates have already returned home. Light is setting on our fortress… I fly up, changing into dragon form for the first time since I lost my arm. I almost fall on my face and have to steady myself with my remaining arm. My final painting that day is the closest to the artists work. It is the sunset on top of the mountain our fortress is located in…
That night, we hold a farewell ceremony for those who have lost their lives during this war… Almost everyone is in attendance and a line is formed to give one last prayer to those who have fallen to the memorial stone. I get to the front of the line… I'm not sure what to pray to really… I pray with my single hand raised as my other one remains limp at my side.
“Thank you for all of your sacrifices. I'm so sorry you had to lose your life during this war… This war some of you might not have even wanted to participate in. I'm sorry and I thank you for your sacrifices… I wish I knew all of your names. I wish we could have grown close or at least known each other. I am sorry I wasn't a better leader, one that could have saved everyone from dying… I thank Shikki, Brick and Tough for their sacrifices… If they didn't sacrifice themselves, the lives lost would have been much higher… I'm sorry… I'm so sorry I couldn't save more of you…”
I finish my prayer, I walk towards the fortress now and tears have started pouring down my face. Why do we have to fight each other. Why can't we just all be happy with what we have. Why do we have to kill each other to try to make ourselves more happy. I need to get stronger, I need to be a sign of peace for everyone to follow… I know that isn't going to happen any time soon. But it is something to work towards in the future.
I go to sleep that day thinking about the plans for the future. The first thing I should do is give someone leadership of the troops until the next war breaks out. I will be too busy experimenting and getting stronger to lead it myself.
I still need to redesign the charisma based stat and learn new classes from everyone. Teaching the pirates and making more ships for them should also be a priority. They are my weakest troops right now but teaching them another class will boost the overall power of my army tremendously. Perhaps I should also start breaking off separate groups of each part of my army to form elite squads of each group. The only exception being the healers who will all be put through rigorous training. The more skilled a healer is the less likely people will die around them.
With that, the celebration is over…
I wake up that night hearing the door creak open. If Leaf is an extremely heavy sleeper, I am the opposite. Even the sound of a door creaking open is enough to wake me. No one else has a key to this room and it is locked. No one should be able to enter, so I instinctively jump up and catch eyes with someone… Someone I've never seen before… The look of surprise on their face is the only features I can make out in the dark.
The fog from my eyes quickly clears up as they run out of the doorway and I jump out of bed to chase after them. I barely catch a glimpse of them as they run through the hallway. It is a child sized person. I chase down the hallway and when I round the corner they are far closer. My speed is just too much for any person to beat. They are still faster than most. I catch up to them and grab the collar of their shirt and lift them up.
I can now see them as they squirm around and start to yell.
“You lout, let me go!”
The closer I look… This is a little human girl, she is dressed in rags. Her matted hair shows signs of being unkempt. Like the person who was supposed to be keeping track of her hygiene hasn't in the slightest. She doesn't appear to have anything wrong with her… I finally begin interrogating her.
“Why were you trying to sneak into my room?”
“Let me go you rapscallion. You killed my parents so I have come to claim your head!”
I just now noticed that she has some type of weapon in her hand. I instinctively go to grab it but I had once again forgotten that I cant use my other hand. I feel a sharp pain in my side as she stabs into me… It isn't as bad as I thought it would be but I can feel a poison on it… It isn't a poison though… The familiar toxin I had ingested before tries to course through me. She must have noticed I sleep naked because she panics and drops her weapon before screaming.
"W-w-why are you naked you naive?"
"I just sleep naked."
She is more surprised by the fact that I can still move and speak after her attack. If I hadn't started to become immune to this. I would have been in trouble. She could have continued to stab me until it was too late. I quickly wrap her up with my spider silk. She looks at me confused now.
“The toxin should have paralyzed you! How can you still move?”
I'm too tired to deal with this right now. I'll talk to her tomorrow... Hmm... She appears to be hungry so I set her down and pull out the chunk of the sugar bread I was saving for myself. Letting one of her hands free to eat it... She eyes it up, seeing if it is poisoned or not... Her hunger is too great for her to care. She starts eating it with uninhibited joy. I pick her up again by the spider silk rope and finally speak.
“Can we talk about this tomorrow? I'm very tired from today.”
I lock her up in a jail cell before heading to sleep.