Chapter: 13

Len checked the ground that had been flattened by the dungeon beasts on their way to the farms. “They already came out once, they’ll probably come out again,” Rick said, standing next to him. They’d shed their packs, wearing just their armor and weapons.

Len looked up at the sky, night was coming on soon.

Flashes of light came from within the farms as people went through skill ups occasionally.

“I’m thinking we head out in the morning tomorrow to get eyes on the dungeon and thin it out if we can,” Len wiped his hand on his pants and stood up.

“We’ll get people out here with axes tomorrow, use that to level up the lumberjack and clear a path to the dungeon. If we plank the trees we can string them between carts, making one much larger cart so we can transport everyone and their goods quicker,” Rick said.

“My dad was talking about staying here. I thought he’d jump at the opportunity to work with trains.”

“He knows how to be a farmer and well,” Rick said.

“Yeah, just its not safe out here, but he doesn’t get that. I don’t think they all do. They saw what can come out of a dungeon and they still don’t get it.”

“When you’re used to something, its hard to change to something new, even if that new thing is the world falling apart around you. Look at my Grandma, she just recovered from poison that my Uncle has been using on her and she’s looking at how she can get back control from him and push Goran to be better.” Rick shrugged. “Maybe she will be able to make it better, but I know that Velkaris is going to survive the apocalypse. Its hard to let go of things you care about. Think of the number of times that greed or emotions overrules a decision that should have been based on pure logic?”

Len grimaced.

“We’re all just human and we make mistakes.”

“You hear that there are people who don’t want to do the skill up?” Len asked. “Say that they’ll do it another way, slower way,” Len said.

“They’re scared, and they don’t see the use of getting stronger. All of the young guys are doing it. More willing to take risks.”

“Anything that will make us stronger we’ll take, this is an incredible opportunity for them that I would jump for but they don’t see the use,” Len let out a heavy breath.

He turned from the forest, at least there were some people doing the skill-ups which would make them stronger and increase the chances of their survival.

Two days till Adrian and the others show up.

“You good?” Rick asked as they started on the walk back to the farm.

Len thought about tossing the question away. “Its weird being around my family. I know them, parts of them, but its been so long. I just feel disconnected. Like I had wished for this to happen so many times. Now its here, I don’t know what to do about it. They feel like wraiths of the dead.”

“Only thing to do is to throw yourself back in there, it’ll be uncomfortable for sure, but the other option is to hide away from them,” Rick said.

It didn’t take them long to reach the farms, lanterns were lit, illuminating a large fire pit that was usually used to burn up farm waste. Now it was filled with the bodies of the foxes and spiders, as well as the dirt that they had bled into.

The cart Len had enchanted was next to it, several men were up on the cart, while others were below, they lifted up a spider that was bigger than the cart with ease.

“Lot lighter with these levels!”

“Rather go without the lightning though!” There were a few chuckles as the spider was placed in the bed.

“There we are!” Des said, everyone backed away or got off the cart, Des pushed the limbs of the spider into the cart.

Len stepped onto the front bench.

Des grabbed his shoulder and used him to step out of the cart’s bed.

“What is all of this?” Des asked.

“Watch,” Len put his hand to the activation rune and sent a thread of mana into it.

The enchantment drew in mana from the surroundings, glowing out from gaps under the spider.

A mist formed over the body of the spider, pulled by the lines to a divot in the front bench. The mist swirled together thickening till it turned into a core, which looked like a glass marble with a black and blue mist within.

The mist dissipated from around the beast, entering the core. Len picked it up, three runes appeared on the exterior of the core.

“What can it do?” Rick asked.

“Enhance armor with a layer of crystal, increased strength and can emit light.” He put it into a pocket and looked at the audience.

“Okay, this one’s good for processing,” Len grabbed the spider and dropped it to the side of the cart.

“Processing?” Someone asked.

“Take out the useful stuff,” Rick said. “I’ll show you how to clean up a spider. One of the things that’s great about condensing the mana core, all of the organs are consumed in the process so you just need to butcher up the rest.”

“Bring up another one,” Len said.

“Why are we doing this?” Jed asked as he picked up a fox and put it into the back of the cart.

“The cores are useful and worth quite a bit. It also removes a lot of the mana from the creature’s body. They’re concentrated mana pretty much so they’ll mess up the local area if it doesn’t have a high density of mana already,” Len said.

“Mess it up how?” Jed asked.

Len activated the enchantment and a lighter colored mist started to form a core.

“Some plants wont be able to grow, others will grow much faster, or be drastically different from how they were before. Can have it where there’s a patch of warmth or cold. If the creature is strong enough then it can change the land.”

“Is it safe to eat?” Jed asked.

“Depends on how strong your body is, the stronger your body the stronger creatures you can eat without issue. They’ll also increase your mana regeneration and if you’re full up on mana, then you can cultivate and increase your mana level.”

Len picked up the core as it finished condensing. “Looks like increased agility, illusion effects and increase to ice based spells.” He pocketed it. “Alright lets keep going.”

Light dropped from the sky and hit Rick.

He groaned, rolled over and got back up again. “Looks like I just got my butchering skill up.”

“I’ll do the fox then.” Len grabbed it out of the cart and moved away from the cart some.

“Alright, if you’re interested in field dressing a fox come close, not too close because I’ll probably hit a skill-up.” Len sighed. All the harvesting skills to make the most of our dungeon dives.

Len split the fox open, separating out the meat, bones and hide quickly and efficiently.

===

Skill: Butcher

===

Level: Journeyman (140)

===

“Watch out!”

Essence crashed into him, his body evolving and changing, leaving him on the ground as he waited a few seconds before pushing himself upright.

===

Len

===

Level: 51

===

Body: 51

Mana: 51/51

===

Rick was on the cart condensing another fox’s core.

“I’ll take this one,” Edward said.

“You’ll get hit with a skill-up,” Len warned.

“Well you said that this was how we get stronger against these things. I don’t like having to worry about oversized spiders and foxes breaking down my front door.” He kept his voice loud so that others could hear him.

Len picked himself up.

“Is it really okay if we cook this?” Amanda asked, looking at the fox he’d broken down.

“Yeah, though I’d make sure that only adults or people that have leveled up get some. If someone’s mana stat is the same as their body stat then they shouldn’t either,” Len said.

Amanda nodded.

“Any of the meat, or bones that won’t be used, pile them up according to animal and we’ll throw them into the condenser, break them down into a core.”

“I thought you could only make one?”

“You can make a weak one doing it this way, it’ll be weaker than the level the creature was unless you use all of the body. But you can take several weaker cores and combine them to make them stronger.”

“Okay.”

Len cleared his throat, cores and enchantments were a passion of his, though not everyones.

“Once you get your cooking skill to apprentice using mana touched ingredients you can create meals that will restore people’s stamina so they recover faster.”

Amanda froze, getting lost in her own thoughts. “That was what I saw?”

“Hmm?” Len asked.

“When I was struck by the lightning I understood, or saw how you could change the effect of the meal.” Her eyes focused again. “Can I take this?” She gestured at the fox.

“Go for it, if you have any luck increasing how much stamina it helps one regain that would be great. I know that would really help Rick and I get the troops who are coming into fighting condition.”

“Oh, is something wrong?”

“They were injured, but Rick and I can fix that.”

“Like you did with all of the people in the kitchen?”

“Right,” Len smiled.

She blushed and looked away. “Well I’ll see what I can do, thank you.”

Len nodded and cleared his throat. “No problem.” He moved towards the cart.

A shiver ran through him, they might be the same age, but being so much older, it just felt wrong to him on a lot of levels. Though there were people that dated others that were forty even fifty years difference. Long lifespans changed the way that one looked at the numbers of it all.

A problem for another day.

A skill up dropped from the heavens, hitting his father with enlightenment. Len jogged over and healed him.

“Don’t think that I’m ever going to get used to that. Though it does seem to hurt less.”

“You’re going up less levels each time as they require more essence. Each time you level up you’re growing. Just like when you work hard one day and it hurts, but then you can do more later on.” Len helped him to his feet.

“How did you make me feel better?”

“Healing spell,” Len said. “It’s a little complicated, easiest is a light spell.” He held out his finger and created a ball of light at the end of it.

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His father blinked away as others looked over.

“How do you do that?”

“Spells are you using your will and empowering it with mana. I imagined what a ball of light would look like on my finger and I empowered the idea within my mind with mana.” Len spread all of his fingers on his hand and balls of light appeared over them, before they swirled around his hand and up his arm before he sent them up into the air, releasing the constructs and dimming them.

“Based on your mana stat you have a certain amount of power that you can use to alter the world around you or create different effects. You get smart about how you use that power. You could use it all in one single powerful spells, a bunch of smaller spells, or with the aid of other things. Those cores we’re condensing you pair them up with an enchantment and they’ll make one another stronger and you for using it, without you having to drain your mana pool.”

“So like a steam engine where you have a certain amount of coal, if you burn it all up you can’t do anything.”

“And if you use better gears and valves, then you get more out of that coal. If I was to put that light inside a mirrored lantern then you could focus it and get it brighter where you focus it.”

“So you regain mana over time?” Edward asked.

“Yes, with all of your mana gates open you can recover it at a pace of a tenth of your overall mana capacity a minute. Make that faster with potions or being in areas that have more mana.”

“Like the dungeon?”

“Yes, most dungeons have a higher mana density than the surrounding area,” Len said.

Edward sunk into thought.

“I’m going to help load the cart,” Len said.

Edward nodded absently.

Len stood opposite Des as they lifted up a fox.

“Might even be a bit stronger than me little bro,” Des grinned.

“Might be?” Len smiled as they threw it into the back of the cart.

The farm turned into a production line, cores were condensed, bodies were butchered, hides were cleaned meat was taken to the smoking and drying huts.

“Len can you take over? I’m going to work on making more smoking huts.” Rick called over.

“Sure thing,” Len said and looked at Des.

“Three two one.” They worked with four others to lift the spider between them getting it onto the cart and shoving it forward.

“Good!” Someone said.

Len wiped his hands off on his pants.

“Hey Len, how do you use this thing?” Des asked.

“Come on up,” Len waved him to follow, climbing onto the front bench. “All those lines and runes throughout the cart, they basically instruct the mana to do something. This rune here, you put mana into it and it activates the rest of the enchantment,” Len tapped it.

“Okay.”

“So you know how I told you about circulating your mana to increase the rate of recovery and up your mana cultivation if you need it?” Len asked.

“Through the channels in my body to the core at my center?”

“Right. So instead of drawing it in, take a little bit of the mana, weave it through your channels and put it into the activation rune. Reverse it.” Len moved to the side.

Des put his hand on the rune, frowning before the lines around his hand started to light up. The enchantment lit up, as mana spread throughout it.

“Once you feel pressure coming back to you stop feeding it mana,” Len said.

Des removed his hand and watched as the the beast shrivvelled up, plates of armor fell off.

“Did I do something wrong?” Des asked.

“No, this one had most of its insides turned to liquid, the enchantment is consuming all of that to make the core. The crystalline armor I want to keep and the meat if its good will thicken our stores and get a good price in the cities and towns.”

“You’re looking to use as much of the beast as possible.”

“Everything is worth coin or stones to the right person. Rick and I learned how to make the most out of everything we came across.”

“Mom and dad said that you want us to leave here,” Des said.

“Its not safe out here anymore.” Len said.

Des opened his mouth but held his words.

“Rick’s family controls a city called Goran. They have plenty of land but they haven’t been protecting the farmers like out here so everyone’s been leaving. If Rick’s grandmother can turn around the city, they’re going to have a few hundred troops protecting the area and making sure there aren’t beasts walking onto the lands. They’re going to need to grow as much food as possible to feed everyone and create a surplus.”

“Though you’re talking about Velkaris, that’s the criminal city,” Des said.

“Its not got the best reputation right now and it doesn't have much in the way of growing yet, though there are ways to get around that with enchantments and they’re along a river that’s full of fish,” Len said.

“You can used enchantments to help with growing?”

A smile rose on Len’s face unbidden. “Have enchantments that will change the temperature of a room, create rain, others to produce light so you can grow food in the middle of a mountain. There are dungeon creatures that you can turn into a powder that will speed up the rate of growing by months.”

Des was looking away, trying to imagine it.

“Do we have any tools that would allow me to carve into metal?”

“Uhh, well we’ve got metal punches, the chisels are for wood,” Des said.

“The steel was decent quality.” He looked down at his breast plate. “Probbaly have to use a weakening spell on this and a strengthening spell on the chisel so it can cut into the metal.”

“Why would you need to cut into the metal?” Des asked.

“Core’s done,” Len raised his voice as he climbed into the bed, picking up the crystalline plates from the bed and handing them down to people waiting at the side.

Use some of the crystal as a coating on the armor, make the enchantment stronger? “Next one in lads!”

He stepped back onto the bench. “Cause I’m thinking of enchanting my armor, use the core and some powdered crystal and that’ll really boost the effect. You got all of this?” Len waved to the cart and the next creature being loaded up.

“Yeah, just have to activate the whole thing once the creature’s inside.”

“Once you’ve gone through all of the bodies, take all the waste from the spiders and throw them into the cart, then all the fox waste too,” Len dropped down from the cart.

“Okay.”

“Then you can do the bodies of the dead,” Len studied the armor, stopping as he felt something wrong.

“What do you mean?” Des asked, the others around the cart were listening in too.

“Everything has mana now. Humans will give a core. Everyone is a low level but human cores allow one to increase the effect of mana, add sentience or mana resistance.”

“But to the dead,” Des said.

“Their cores should go to their families to decide what to do with. They’ll get a high price and they’re really useful.”

“Its wrong though.” One of the farmers said.

“Either feed the ground their body or harvest a mana core from it. Only one will make you stronger.”

“Its not all about getting stronger,” Len’s father said as he walked up.

Len shook his head. “It is all about getting stronger. The strong make the rules. The strong are able to defend their families from what is going to come.”

Len grabbed a half broken plate of spider armor on his way towards the barns.

The farmers talking among themselves. If they want to argue they’re going to have to be stronger.

***

A lantern illuminated the barn, Len’s breastplate on the workbench. He’d powdered up the crystal armor, filling a bucket.

He drew a line on the armor with a piece of chalk, checking the white lines and runes. The funerals had finished not too long ago, the majority buried in the ground. A waste, but they would learn with time.

Jed walked into the barn, catching sight of him and walking over.

“What you up to?” Jed asked.

“Mom or dad send you?” Len asked as he checked his chalk markings.

“No,” Jed said, looking over his shoulder at what he was doing.

“So you’re looking for gossip and rumors,” Len picked up a chisel, casting a reinforcement spell upon it, he cast a weakening spell on the breastplate he grabbed a hammer and tapped the chisel through the enchantment design.

“I don’t know about that,” Jed said.

“You knew what was happening in the Dell and Warwick before anyone else. Started being able to predict things and know what people would do before they did. Rick and I are different, we’ve got the most mystery and I bet people are asking you about us already and its stoking up your interest too.”

“I might be a bit curious,” Jed admitted.

Len grinned and kept working. “So what’s the rumors around the farm?”

“All kinds of questions, most are playing with their screens, trying to figure them out. Dad organized a skill-up station for carpentry and that got other people making stations for other skills. Few people tried out spells, parents really cracked down on the kids, telling them to not do it. Though there’s a lot of the fathers that are out back playing with it.”

“What about leaving here?”

“People don’t like the idea, but there’s nine different families here, we’re all packed in together. We started gathering up as beasts started getting stronger and animals started disappearing. Losing their farms is the biggest worry.”

“Farmers are going to become one of the best jobs to have. I’ll employ anyone that’s willing to work the fields, pay for their housing and food for the first three months too and give them a share of the profits,” Len said.

“I heard from Des that you can make enchantments to grow crops?”

“They won’t grow them by themselves, but they’ll speed up the work. With a good farmer to help out we can bring in a harvest every month.”

“So you’d have three harvests in three months,” Jed said.

“There’s going to be a lot of jobs and if they’re willing to learn they stand to make a lot.” Len finished on the last rune, checking his work.

He flattened out the two armor plates on the workbench. “Hand me the pail of crystal sand.”

Jed passed it to him.

Len shook the sand over the plates, making sure each got an even layer. He willed the sand to bond with the metal, creating an even layer.

The sand beaded together as if submersed in flame, becoming liquid, the sand melded together becoming a semi-transparent coating. It hardened and congealed together.

Len ran a hand over the hardened layer of crystal.

Jed tapped the crystal as Len repeated the process on the back plate.

“The men want to go with you to see the dungeon tomorrow,” Jed said.

Len grimaced and kept working, spreading the crystal sand out evenly.

“They’ve gained levels and skills, they’re a lot stronger.”

“Which can make them overly confident. They’ve killed livestock, maybe a few predators that went on their land. Des and the group he hunts would be the best.” Len cast the fusing spell on the sand. “I don’t need people that are eager to prove they’re not cowards. I need them to listen.”

“Not everyone is going to leave,” Jed said.

Len fitted the core into the center of the enchantment. The core melted and spread through the enchantment. “I care about saving you, Laurie, Des, mother and father. The resources from the dungeon would be useful, give them gear to help them out in harvesting the dungeon and send people to buy from them.” Len shrugged. “Can’t win every fight.”

The core stopped spreading through the enchantment and solidified.

“Rick is from the Isendia family? His grandma is Carolyn Isendia?” Jed asked.

“I didn’t think you’d know about Goran?”

“Its good to know who’s willing to pay more for crops because they have to support not only the people in their city, but also their troops. That’s a lot of mouths.”

Len turned and leaned against the workbench. “What do you want to do Jed?”

Jed frowned. “I think I’d like to head off to Eskon, or maybe one of the port cities. I find it interesting to learn the rumors. Warwick is interesting for all that you can learn with the right conversation here, a drink there. Though its all so simple.”

“You want to mix in with the nobles and merchants? The wrong word in the wrong ear will be harsh,” Len said.

“They do not take slights easy,” Jed smiled. “That’s what makes it thrilling.”

Rick’s grandma had talked about the threat that the nobles might be to their plans. “I think that you and Rick’s Grandma would have an interesting conversation.”

“The ploys she has used throughout the years are something I am still trying to figure out,” Jed said.

“We’ll see what we can do,” Len grabbed up his armor and donned it. “Just have to convince the others.”

He activated the enchantment. A shimmering crystalline layer appeared over his armor.

“What will that do?” Jed asked.

“Creates and extra layer of armor. If it breaks then it’ll detonate, spraying the thing that broke the outer layer with shards. The crystal layer underneath strengthens it and adds another layer to the armor before you reach steel,” Len deactivated the enchantment. “Now I need to work on the agility and strength enchantments on the bracers.

“You might want to do that after dinner, Mom told me to come grab you before you got lost in your projects and forget to sleep.

Tension spread through Len’s stomach.

Len let Jed guide him out of the barn, there were a couple of fires going to keep people warm against the coming fall weather in the courtyard.

Kids were running around under the watch of mother’s and fathers. Most of the men were missing, taking care of the beasts or out back playing with spells Len guessed.

He wanted to head back into the barn to work on the bracers.

Des was talking to his father, Laurie paying close attention, adding in her thoughts. His mother looked up with her sixth sense, spotting him and Jed.

“Found him in the barn as you thought,” Jed said, sitting next to Laurie with Des on the other side.

Len’s mother patted the seat beside her and picked up bowls, putting food on his plate.

Jed served himself.

Len sat down. “Thanks.”

“Looks like the armor from those spiders,” Des pointed at Len’s breastplate.

“Powdered up their armor and fused it onto the armor,” Len said as he started to add food to his plate.

“You have to teach me that spell you used to heal up people,” Laurie said.

“It’s a little complicated, you need to understand the body and what’s going wrong with it.” Len grimaced. “The best way to learn it is to go through body tempering. You understand the most important things to heal first and then you use that as a model to heal others.”

“Body tempering where you break down the body?” Laurie asked.

“Yeah if you have a lot of damage inflicted upon your body you can make it stronger, with experience it kind of does it automatically. Tempering you need to be healing as you go to make your body stronger.”

“Can you do it?” Laurie asked, eyes focused on him, her food forgotten.

“Rick and I have a method, a technique that you can use to bypass armor to strike the person underneath. It ravages through your body, wounding you so you have to use healing spells and mana to recover. Its fast and effective.”

She held his eyes. “I wish to try it.”

“Why?” Len asked.

“So I can learn how to heal others. I didn’t know how to look after the men in our kitchen, but you were able to bring them from the brink. Now they are with their families.”

Determination was etched into her being. “There are many avenues, spells, enchantments, tools used for operations, potions and salves. Acupuncture even. I will teach you what I know if you’d like.”

“I would,” Laurie smiled.

“You’re heading out tomorrow to go and check on the dungeon,” His father asked.

“Yes, Rick and I want to get a better idea of what we’re dealing with. See how close it is to erupting and more of the beasts coming out.”

“A few of us would like to come with you.”

“I will not guarantee anyone’s safety and if people don’t listen then that’s not my fault,” Len said.

“That sounds rather cold Lennard,” His mother said.

“You get used to death after a time, numb to it in a way. Have to else it will tear you apart when it happens all the time.” That brought a silence to the table. Len continued to eat, tension spreading through his body.

His mother wrapped an arm around him and held him close. There were no words of coddling, no white lies. She just hugged him. His tension melted away, feeling her care, her hurt and her inability to do more than just be there for him.

He put down his cutlery and hugged her back. She squeezed him again. “Love you.”

“You too.”

“Not letting you go till you say it.”

“Love you too,” he said quietly.

She released him with a smile. “Still embarrassed to say love you.”

He rubbed at his hair and ate from his plate.

“If the dungeon is safe we can start harvesting the fields,” His father said.

“Best if we have some people watching the dungeon. Once the soldier’s arrive we’ll head into the dungeon to thin it down.”

“The soldiers, where are they from? Lord Warwick thought we were exaggerating the threat and he wanted a part of our incomes to send off a request,” Jed said.

“We don’t know that,” Edward said.

“I think Jed’s right,” Adeline, Len’s mother said. “His letters were quite forceful and Jed went down there a few weeks ago.”

“The soldiers are loyal to Rick’s grandma, things are a bit complicated in Goran.”

“Complicated how?” Jed jumped on the gossip and their mother was trying to not look interested too.

“Rick’s uncle is an arsehole.”

“Len,” Adeline admonished.

Len gave her a look he was old enough to be her great, great great grandfather. “Still not a great word,” She muttered.

“He probably got Rick’s parents killed, poisoned his mother and has been using his position as the legal guardian of Rick and his sister to rule the city and their forces. Also push both of them away from the family. Carolyn, Rick’s grandma wants to take back control from him and turn things around. I don’t know how she’s going to do it.” Len shrugged. “Be good if she does, then we can turn Goran into a city that will survive the apocalypse. If not we got to Velkaris that we know made it through the apocalypse.”

“What is your plan?” Jed asked.

Len studied Jed, then turned his gaze to the rest of his family, swallowing his food. "Rick and I know enough about a lot of things to build a strong power base wherever we go. What we know about crafts and contracts will allow us to teach others the basics and set them on the path to become stronger, while also loyal and faithful to whichever agreement we create. Rick and I were Dungeoneers. We know where a lot of really rare and useful resources could be found throughout the world. Between those two things, whichever city we go to, we could turn into a place that should be safe through the apocalypse. Hopefully. With our actions, everything that Rick and I know to happen will become altered."

That gave them all something to think about as they quietly continued their meals.

"So what happened while you were in Eskon?" his father asked.

"I tried to become a boilermaker, but there were no openings. Then I tried to work on the trains. Again, not many free jobs there, and most had been imported from other places. The Xinta Works was closed down by the nobles."

My father winced, shaking his head.

"I was able to find a position as a shoveler in a pig works, smelting iron. In my past life, I went on to be conscripted in the army and delve dungeons. This time, we hurried to Goran and here as fast as we could to make sure that you were safe."

"So you're like really old then?" Lori asked.

"Well, I guess so," Len said.

"Dad said you said you were a hundred and fifty years old."

"Something like that." Len tilted his head in acknowledgement.

"Huh, well, guess you didn't change too much Lentil," Lori said, returning her attention back to her meal.

Len wasn't sure how to respond to that as the rest of the family hid grins behind mouthfuls of food.

Something relaxed in Len. That underlying worry he'd been carrying with him of not remembering or recognizing them.

Now here with them, it just seemed to fall into place. It was still awkward, but with time, he could get used to this.

He had a family again.

It wasn't just Rick and him surviving.