Kara and I take turns sleeping while the other keeps watch, starting with me keeping watch, making sure to stay within one metre of each other. Although he seems to trust us despite being strangers, I personally don't trust him at all.
No one living in the Depths for over ten years is sane after all, even regular Divers who don't spend nearly as much time down here are crazy by some people's standards.
I get awoken by a screech similar to the one his flask made earlier. He is already sitting upright and munching down on some kind of ration, probably dried meat from one of the monsters.
"Good awakening!" He tells me, offering Kara a bite from his ration. She politely declines and he shrugs, offering it to me after.
I shake my head, declining the ration with a bite taken out of it "Good morning, no thanks. We haven't even introduced ourselves yet."
He slowly blinks in confusion before knocking on his head with both of his hands, spreading crumbs all over himself. "Right. I am Sir Balthazar the third and you fine gentlemen are?"
We quickly introduce ourselves and Kara takes out rations, handing me one.
"Ahh, fine names, " he says, “How is the Overworld?”
He probably means the Surface. “I guess it’s fine,” I say. I can’t remember how it was before the system, or when he was on it. “Gangs peddle drugs, and slaves and extort the majority of shopkeepers, spreading like the fungi. Monsters run rampant, now empowered by the system and Goblin tribes are getting more organised by the day, some even managed to live in cities without blowing everything up. Water is as scarce as ever but merchants are readily importing it from beyond, making the price skyrocket in a lot of areas where there isn’t a readily accessible source. People managed to make devices to clean water out with Gems but it only lowers the price marginally unless you live near water.”
“So the situation improved?” he asks, stuffing his face with his … ration. It doesn’t look like meat but it seems chewy and crumbly at the same time.
“Uh, kind of, ” I concede, “I ran to a saver area, close to a huge swamp and Brightgate. Water is pretty cheap there and [Bounty Hunters] are common enough that I can take off small fry and an occasional Dragon or Group of Bandits when I want some better gear.”
“What about Dust Storms?” he asks.
“Dust storms?”
He nods and starts to explain “Duststorms are like Sandstorms but loaded with Gem debris, imbuing the storm with an enchanting, almost otherworldly quality. One of the effects is lightning strikes that create plates of glass wherever they strike which is extremely resilient. Another effect could be changing in gravity that previously even ripped houses from the ground or lifted people in the air where they were pelted by the sands or then unceremoniously dropped to their death.”
“Oh,” Kara exclaims with the last of her ration still in her mouth. She chews and swallows the rest before continuing “I’ve heard of those, they don’t appear in exploited areas because there are way too few gems in the sands above from all the panning people did before the Depths were safe enough for mining operations.”
Neat. I try to steer the conversation to something more immediately productive "Do you need anything from us for the gas bombs?"
He thinks for a few seconds before answering "No, not really. You can not help with the crafting of the bombs but you can start sealing off tunnels around the fungus."
"Why can't I help with the crafting?" I ask, somewhat annoyed by his assumption, "I can create runes and easily memorise how to make them."
"Alright," he says and jumps to his feet. He quickly packs his bedrolls again and starts walking off, gesturing for me to follow.
He confidently leads us through the tunnels and I carefully note down the turns we take, not wanting to end up lost. Getting lost would probably spell our doom, even if we could make our way back to the surface.
We come across a painted Rock sitting on top of a flattened stalagmite, guarding a cavern full of crystals with a stern expression. Balthazar pats it as he passes it and enters the cavern "Morning, jimothy bobbing."
Okay maybe this isn't such a good idea but at least he has a plan more coherent than ours.
With a swift motion, he retrieves the dagger from his belt and thrusts it into a crystal, causing it to break free. He then proceeds to describe a relay of ten runes, using terms that appear to be of his invention. I mean who would come up with terms like “Blomberg” to describe the part of a rune managing the mana output between the two parts?
Pushing the question of his sanity to the side, he is a very passionate teacher who is genuinely trying to help me and does his best to teach me the rune array he made to transform the quartz crystals into fine sand and then melt them into a hollow orb with a small hole in the top were we later have to fill in the Dunecrawler venom.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
It takes me five attempts and ten mana each to create the first Glass Orb that’s good enough by Balthazar's standards, I even get a new Class for it!
[You’ve unlocked a new Class: Runecarver. Stats have been awarded.]
[Runecarver: When it comes to crafting Magitech using Gems, everything seems to be going smoothly until you realize that you don't have enough materials to work with. In this situation, Runecarvers can still create similar effects, albeit weaker and in a more complex manner, even though Gems can be utilised to enhance the runes.]
[Class Skill: Runecraft is already acquired, selecting the next available skill.]
[You’ve gained the Class Skill: Runegraft]
[Runegraft: By combining runes in a manner that feels intuitive to the caster, it is possible to create powerful spells without the need for added modifications. This approach offers multiple benefits, one of which is the ability to save valuable space and materials while still achieving impressive results when considering the lack of gems used in the creation. -10MR while in use ]
That description kind of sounds like something Balthazar said about how runes work earlier but I wish it’d just tell me how many stats I gain.
[Vona: That’s probably because the System shows the basics we configured and what the User already knows. Have you tried modifying it?]
Modifying it? Of course, I hate this system so much, why isn’t there a manual for this shit?
[Vona: There was a manual when we created it but it was probably lost to time. You might be able to find a copy of it if you are lucky.]
… I was joking.
It only takes a thought for a new message to appear.
[Runecarver: When it comes to crafting Magitech using Gems, everything seems to be going smoothly until you realize that you don't have enough Gems to work with. In this situation, Runecarvers can still create similar effects, albeit weaker and in a more complex manner, even though Gems can be utilized to enhance the runes. Rewards 4 Magic Capacity and 2 Mana Regeneration per level.]
That’s something I wish I knew sooner but I’ve already figured out what my other classes give me either way so that is useless right now.
“You alright?” Kara asks.
Oh shit, I’ve been just staring at the orb while checking my new Class. “Yeah, I’ve just got a new Class but it apparently overlaps with my [Magitech Tinkerer].”
“Nice,” Kara says, raising her hand with her palm facing me.
“Thanks.”
Balthazar looks at the orb in my hand. “Well done, I believe the Class will make the preparations much quicker.”
“Come on,” Kara whines, shaking her hand, “don’t leave me hanging.”
But she isn’t hanging from anywhere. “What?”
“Do you not know what a high five is?” she asks in utter confusion.
I shake my head and hand the orb to Balthazar. "What do you think?"
He turns it over in his hands and starts tapping it all over the place, checking its integrity as he mumbles something unintelligible.
"Raise your hand," Kara tells me and I oblige.
She slaps my hand with a grin and more force than would have been necessary. "That," she says, "is a high five. It's how people celebrate small achievements like a new class."
"Huh, neat. It's like a playful and wanted slap. ”
Balthazar carefully bounces the glass orb against the floor, making it jump into my arms. "Well done, we can now talk about the second array," he says with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
----------------------------------------
The second array needs thrice as many runes, the intact corpse of a Dunecrawler as well as a specific Skill from [Runecarver] I only get at level 10. We quickly set out and kill a Dunecrawler, placing it on a double-edged circle of runes with the Orb in a second, adjacent circle. There are small piles of dust and a crystal in small hexagonal inlays inside the circle.
Balthazar puts his hands on either side of the corpse and sends a signal of Mana through it, lighting it up.
A wisp of gas leaks through the fangs, steadily growing larger and denser until it starts to condense and trickle into the now floating orb, slowly filling it before mixing with the other materials. The open Top slowly closes and the liquid inside starts to rapidly spin, creating a neverending vortex inside of it.
I snatch the orb from the air as soon as the ritual finishes and turn it in my hand, checking for some sort of symbols or signs or anything really. There is only a singular small indent, used to prime it.
It really is just a smooth, black glass orb. "I don't think I can do this," I say, "this is way too complicated."
He nods but doesn't stop, mimicking a pendulum as his head continues to bob up and down. "I can do this part if you produce the Orbs."
"Can I help?" Kara asks, fiddling with her knife.
"Not really, no," he says as I hand the orb back to him.
The passage of time is difficult to gauge without the sun or a clock but it must have been at least a month of mind-numbing work, repeating the same action and emptying two caverns of Crystals.
I manage to make a stockpile of glass orbs at one point and turn all of my bullets into hollow points. It's surprisingly easy albeit crude but it might just save my -or someone else's- life.
They kill almost a hundred Dunecrawlers over that time, leaving me to create Orb after Orb. Kara and I chat about the people we've met and our missions whenever she stays with me, killing time. It's nice to have her as company but I can't shake the feeling that Balthazar is planning something whenever he is away from us.
I don't like the weird looks he gives us.
We have a small mountain of orbs, safely secured with salvaged webbing from the Dunecrawlers but I've honestly lost count. It's more than thirty but less than one hundred.
"The Ganoderma Assecula has taken over a huge group of monsters and is advancing on the Dunecrawler territory. We weakened them too much," Balthazar explains, frantically gathering Gas bombs in his arms. "We'll have to fight them now or they'll spread too far!"