The next morning started out busy.
The moment Louie stepped out of the tavern after a hearty breakfast he was cornered by Kirt the builder and six followers.
"Louie, morning. I hope I didn't catch you at a bad time."
"Morning Kirt, not really. I was just going to grab a team of militia and move over to sculpt another building, what can I do for you?"
Kirt looked ecstatic while the others all looked like kids on Christmas morning waiting to see what Santa brought them.
"Mind if we tag along?" He indicated the group with him. "We were all builders before."
Louie agreed and they set off towards the shrine to see if Sher wanted to come with them today. It was Mainey's day working at the caravan.
The builders all stood and looked up in wonder at the treehouses being built or spun by the spiders.
"Wow, those golem spiders sure are something."
They quickly backed away as a big green spider lowered itself down the tree by a strand of spilk. They gasped and fell over themselves as they tried to back away as the moment it touched the ground the spider shimmered and turned into Sher.
"Come on guys, this is Sher, she is our druid."
Louie helped the shaken builders to their feet.
"Damn. Druid? That your wildform?" Asked one of the younger guys.
Sher stepped forwards and held out her hand.
"Yes, my name is Sheralee, my friends call me Sher. Who are you?"
"This is my son, Koert. He is a second-year bricklayer, and our font of knowledge about what's been happening lately." Kirt interjected.
"Please to meet you Koert, what do you know about Druids?" She asked as she shook Koert's hand.
*cough* "Let's get going first, I want to start clearing one block for planting and do another mini-fort this morning."
They all left for the compound and as they neared the gate he saw a big crowd of people shouting and milling around outside the entrance.
'What the hell now?'
Louie channelled mana into his voice. "What's the meaning of this?"
People spun around and backed away when they saw the group of armed people, not to mention BOB and Ansi.
"What's going on here?" Louie repeated.
One of the guards at the table in front of the compound gate stepped up.
"They want to enter, Sir. Somebody had been spreading stories yesterday saying that if they come here then they will get housing."
Louie looked at all the expectant people.
"We paid a registration fee to be first in line."
*Sigh* 'I bet it is that fucking Seth.'
"People, you have been deceived."
Suddenly the crowd started to become ugly. Louie lifted his hand and triggered a
He spoke up as everybody blinked their eyes to clear away the disorientation.
"There will be housing for everybody, and there will not be any registration fees, but there will be oaths that must be sworn before you will be allowed inside. There is currently housing being built for five hundred people a day. It's an apartment-style building, but it's very basic, with no lighting or running water except for use in the toilets. There are wells for drinking water, but you all will have to go talk with Arnold who is running the militia, he is in charge of placing the people."
"That's bullshit, we paid for our housing already." A big guy shouted.
Louie suppressed the urge to walk over to the guy and directly confront him.
"Sir, it's not our fault if you were taken in by some scammer, you are free to go out there and build your own housing or you can wait till one is built here and then get one, it's up to you."
Louie pushed through the crowd who were reluctant to move until BOB gave a bone-shivering growl and a path quickly cleared through the gate.
Sher shook her head, "I bet Arnold won't be very happy."
"No, he won't, I should have just killed that fucker Seth yesterday. I hate people that take advantage of others' misery."
He didn't see the shock on the builders' faces when they heard his words, but Kirt saw their expression and waved to them to keep quiet as one or two wanted to say something. Kirt remembered the scene on top of the wall.
Louie took them to the mini-fort that he sculpted two nights before and showed them the layout of the now three-story high Hacienda-style fort minus the church.
They were impressed when they heard that he sculpted it within six hours and slightly anxious when he told them that he hoped that they would also be able to do it one day soon.
The people inside the mini-fort were very happy to see them and greeted them with gifts which they refused. The leader of the fort went with them when he heard that they were going to work on the city block next to the fort.
The city block was only half the size of the one on which the mini-fort was built. It was only fifty by twenty-five meters wide, which made it perfect for clearing so that the inhabitants could use the space for planting food crops.
He raised a two-meter high wall around the block and after bringing all the metal and roof trusses as well as all the damaged contents to the surface for the builders to gather in one spot. The fort leader saw what they were doing and gathered a lot of men to help with the clearing.
Louie sculpted a container size crate and all the items and loose scrap were placed inside before he stored it in his inventory.
He walked through the plot and loosen the bonds of the liquified stone turning it all to dust.
Sher took over after he was done and used
Aura of Vitality
Healing energy radiates from the Druid in an aura with a 10 meters radius. Until the spell ends, the aura moves with the Druid, centred on the Druid. The Druid can include up to three creatures in the aura (including him/herself) to regain 20 health points per minute.
Mana cost: 100MP
Casting Time: 2 seconds.
Range: Self (10 meters radius)
Duration: up to 10 minutes
Spell availability: Cleric, Druid, Paladin
Sher closed her eyes, she knew that the spell is meant as a healing spell but she meant to use it to heal the land.
She started to meditate as she cast her spell. She adjusted her spell so that the mana drain was the same as her Mana Regeneration during Meditation.
Sher remembered that Louie told her that intent played a big role in how you want to use a spell. She focused on the spell and infused it with the intent of healing the land, removing the taint of urbanization, the spill of chemicals, and the taint of humanity that has inundated the ground for the period while humans lived there. Aura of Vitality was a simple spell if you want to heal things, but she wanted more, she wanted to make things grow there again, she wanted to enrich the dead concrete dust.
Slowly the ground rippled as all around her weeds started to peek through the grey dust within a ten-meter radius of her spell
The process repeated itself four times before she slowly started to walk through the plot.
The speed of the plants’ growth increased as Sher got used to the spell and the changes that occurred with her intent.
The inhabitants of the fort and the builders, who had been looking at her as though she was some god, just shook their heads.
Sher slowly walked around. The
After Sher was done Louie sunk another well in the middle of the plot that the Gardners could use to water their crops before they moved on to start on the second fort.
He intends to make all the forts the same size with a garden plot between each.
While they had been busy the militia, with the help of BOB and Ansi had cleared the ruins on the next city block of all the monsters.
The helpers from the first fort were eager to help clear the rubble as Louie levelled the ground again before taking a break to instruct the builders in what he knew of earth spell usage before he started to sculpt the next fort.
They went back to their fort to gather some people with gardening skills to start planting food crops in the now cleared garden plot after Louie paid them a silver coin and a starter clothing set each with the promise of helping to clear more ruins the next day.
Louie raised a stone table and some benches for the builders as he placed the spell cubes on the table.
"Ok, these are spell cubes, you can buy them from most vending machines inside Dungeons, they cost between one and five gold each. I assume that you all have an earth affinity, so I have five
Stone Shape
You touch a stone object of Medium size or smaller or a section of stone no more than 2 meters in any dimension and form it into any shape that suits your purpose. So, for example, you could shape a large rock into a weapon, idol, or coffer, or make a small passage through a wall, as long as the wall is less than 2 meters thick. You could also shape a stone door or its frame to seal the door shut. The object you create can have up to two hinges and a latch, but finer mechanical detail isn’t possible.
Transmutation
Mana cost: 30MP
Casting Time: 2 seconds
Range: Touch
Duration: Instantaneous
Spell availability: Artificer, Cleric, Druid, Wizard
Earth Shape
You choose an area of the earth that you can see within range. You manipulate it in one of the following ways:
You instantaneously move or otherwise change the flow of the earth as you direct, up to 3 meters in any direction. This movement cannot be used during battle.
You cause the earth to form into simple shapes and animate in your direction. The animation lasts for 1 hour.
You change the earth's colour or transparency. The earth must be changed in the same way throughout.
If you cast this spell multiple times, at the cast of double the mana per multiplier.
Transmutation
Mana cost: 50 MP
Casting Time: 1 second
Range: within 10 meters
Duration: Instantaneous
Spell availability: Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard
"These spells are bought from the system, I know for a fact that the
He held the Earth Shape cube up for them to see, "this spell intrigues me very much because it allows the caster to create animated constructs, in other words, golems and also windows, see-through panels that can be inserted into doors and stuff."
Koert raised his hand.
"Yes Koert, you don't have to raise your hand, we are not in school anymore."
His friends sniggered and pushed at him till he was red in the face.
"Can I have that spell? And what earth spell do you use?"
They laughed at his eagerness again
"It's up to Kirt, and the spell that I used is known as
"What do you mean by 'evolve'?" Kirt wanted to know.
Sher started to giggle and Kirt and his friends looked slightly confused as Louie sighed.
"Ok, we can get to that later," he gave Sher the evil eye.
Koert raised his hand before he quickly lowered it again.
"Yes, Koert?"
"Can we buy your earth spell?"
"I have not seen it at the vendor, it might be available at another vendor, but they are not all the same. My spell was a prize, I moved a lot of earth and I got the spell from Gaea."
"A lot? How much is a lot?"
"40 thousand tons of earth." They were stunned.
"Shit, that's a lot. How did you move that much earth?"
"Long story short, we were in the path of a rock slide and I displaced it, and I got the spell as a reward."
"Shit!"
"Language young man!"
"Sorry, Dad."
Louie smiled at the interchange between father and son as he continued.
"These spell cubes are what is known as utility spells, if you look at the description then you'll see that most of the time it can't be used while you are engaged in battle, but you can use it to build structures to hamper the enemy or defend your allies just before a battle. Like, build barricades or spikes before the enemy gets in attack range, once they are in attack range then the spells won't work."
Kirt spoke up. "Ok, but we don't want to be in battle, we want to build houses and stuff."
"That's ok, just as long as you know that the option is there and that when you are suddenly faced with an attacking enemy, that you know not to try and use this spell since it might not work and you might end up dead. It's better to always know the limitations of your spells and try to think outside the box, try to force it to do what it wasn't meant to do. You might just be surprised at what happened."
Louie pushed the cubes on the stone table in Kirt's direction.
"Kirt, you guys can decide which you want. As I said, these cubes cost between one and five Gold coins each. So if you take the cube then you guys must give an oath."
"Oath? What kind of oath?"
"Nothing serious, just that for one year you will use the spell to better this settlement, the last thing we need is somebody taking a spell and disappearing, not that you guys were thinking that, but there are a lot of people out there that only think about themselves as you heard from those people at the gate this morning." He explained his thought process to them as he saw the thunderous expression on their faces at the mention of them running away with the spells.
"… ok, that's no problem, we can do that."
"There might be another problem, I heard that people don't like using spells because it takes a long time to recharge your mana, so if you take the spells then you will have to put points into your intelligence attribute to raise your mana pool, and you will have to unlock the meditation skill. Meditation skill gives you a boost in mana regeneration, and if you do it right then you will also unlock
Sher nodded to them.
Kirt took the cubes and after a short discussion with the builders about their abilities and wants he handed each of them a cube.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
They looked at Louie for further instructions.
"Just crush the cube while thinking about the description and how you want to use the spell."
There were some uncertain looks but it turned into wonder as the cubes broke and turned into glittering dust that was absorbed into their hands.
Louie moved onto the cleared patch of land and started sculpting the outer wall of the fort as the builders started to practice their spells.
As he worked he could clearly hear Sher telling them to take it slow and start small. Koert wanted to raise a golem, but she told him to use a cricket ball size stone and try to see if he could make it act like slime.
It took only a quarter-hour for most of them to run out of mana before Sher had them all sit-down and start to explain how to use meditation.
Louie walked up to Koert, who introduced him to his friend Simon when they came out of meditation and asked him about his knowledge of abilities and classes.
"I loved to read the lore and study the wikis of the games that I played."
"Wikis'?"
"Wikipedia."
Koert saw the confused look on Louie's face. "You don't know what Wikipedia is?"
Koert elbowed his friend Simon in the ribs. "He doesn't know what Wikipedia is." Simon just smiled and shook his head.
Louie resisted the urge to sigh. "It's a long story."
"Ok, Wikipedia is a site, or was webpages where members of the community, in these cases it were gamers, could post content that they figured out about a game, every game had its own wiki. It was usually free. Think of it as a free encyclopedia about games, written and maintained by a community of volunteer gamers."
"Aah ok. So you know alot about games and their content."
"Yea, you could say that."
"What do you know about Seekers?"
He looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Not much, that wasn't a common class, all I know is that Seekers were what their name said they were. Seekers of knowledge or items, if it were items then they were more of a treasure hunter type of player, like Lara Croft. If it were knowledge then they usually looked for lore and books and stuff pertaining to the history and magic of the game. It all depends on what affinity you are, like a Seeker with holy affinity might look for works on his specific god or spells to do with his god, the same if a seeker with a nature affinity might become a Druid looking for knowledge of Gaea."
"Ah ok I get it, and a Seeker with Darkness affinity?"
Koert and Simon took a couple of steps away from Louie and they suddenly looked very nervous.
"You have a Darkness affinity?"
"Yes, is that a problem?"
"No! … No, that's no problem."
*sigh* "Calm down, I'm not going to murder you two, or something. Just tell me what you know about Darkness affinity.
*Gulp* "Well… those with a darkness affinity have a liking for the dark paths of the game, they usually have spells like, Twilight grasp that drains energy from your opponents, Tar patch, Darkest night, Shadow fall, Fade, and then there is Howling Twilight, which, if I remember correctly, allows the caster to raise his or her's fallen allies during battle, except I don't know if its as spirits, ghouls or any undead, or just revive them. if that will even work now or at what level, or even if it's available, this isn't a game after all."
He was slightly lost in thought as he tried to remember what he knew about the affinity.
"It was mostly Assassins, Necromancers, and Warlocks that had a Darkness affinity. Wait, you have a Darkness affinity and you use earth magic?"
"Yes, am I not supposed to be able to do that?"
"I don't understand how you can use an earth base spell if your affinity is Darkness, as far as I know, and read, earth spells are not compatible with a Darkness affinity. Fire, water, and air, yes, but earth, holy, light, and life affinities are not supposed to be compatible with Darkness. This is very peculiar."
Louie patted Koert, who had all but forgotten about his fear for somebody with a Darkness affinity, on the shoulder as he walked past the two young men.
"Well, think a bit more about it later and let me know, now I have to sculpt this fort, or we won't get done today."
He started in the direction of the opening where he will place the gate for the fort.
He drew a plan of the mini fort into his journal and thinking for a moment he tried to use it with his
In front of him appeared a detailed blueprint of a rough drawing of a Mexican hacienda-style fort with an open courtyard. Unfortunately, it didn't look exactly like he wanted.
Conglomerate is an ability that combines up to three different, sometimes unrelated spells. Into one new Spell. At the master level Conglomerate can be used to combine up to 3 skills of the same category, for instance Running, Trapping and Bushcraft can become Survivalists.
"What the fuck!" Louie stood stunned as everybody looked at his outburst.
Mana Blueprint
This spell is used to design BIM (building information modelling) in construction projects with a suite of tools to create 3D models of buildings. Higher levels of this spell support all disciplines of building construction projects including, architectural, structural, mechanical, and electrical aspects. If you’re looking for a spell to design buildings or construction then this is it. The demand in construction for people with the Mana Blueprint spell grows continually year after year.
Mana cost: each action cost 80MP + 1MP/second
Casting Time: 2 seconds
Range: Touch
Duration: Instantaneous
Spell availability: Artificer, Wizard, and crafters
Item Schematic
Item Schematic spells are used by OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) for surface modelling, design, and visualization. Want to engineer or design a weapon, be an armour or weaponsmith? Then this spell is for you.
Mana cost: 100MP + 3MP/second
Casting Time: 2 seconds
Range: touch
Duration: Instantaneous
Spell availability: Artificer, Wizard, and crafters
"What's wrong Louie?" Sher asked
"I got a new skill and a new spell, then due to my new Skill, two of my spells evolve."
"What skill did you get?"
It's called Conglomerate, it lets me combine spells and at the master level, it will let me combine three skills into one.
"Damn that's wicked." Simon looked impressed.
Louie snapped his attention back to the present as he realized that he was standing in a crowd of nearly unknown people
"Ok, this might actually be an improvement, let me see."
Louie started reading the description of
'Hmm, let's try this.'
He walked back to the finished mini-fort and touched the wall while mentally pressing the Scan button.
His knees nearly buckled as a pulse of mana shot from his hands throughout the whole building in a ripple-like wave, suddenly a BB appeared over the still-open 3D Blueprint.
A new scan of improved building schematics was detected.
Would you like to replace the existing blueprint with the new scan?
Y/N
He pressed Y and a wireframe of the mini-fort appeared on the blueprint, he used his knowledge of the weapons schematic spell to rotate the wireframe.
"What are you doing?" Kirt asked.
"I'm tweaking the Blueprint. Wait, let's see if I can share it."
The other builders came walking up also wanting to share in what was happening.
Louie concentrated on sharing the blueprint with everybody when suddenly a 3D model appeared floating in the air between them
"Wow, Bloody hell, that's great."
He moved the model around and it flashed red and then green when it crossed open ground, it acted just like the old Command and Conquer game that he used to play.
'It can't be that easy, can it.'
He received another BB.
Move the model to the location of the structure
. He looked at the plot that was cleared where he wanted to sculpt the new fort and tried to move the model there and it easily moved to the middle of the plot, he rotated the model in the air till he had the gate where it was supposed to be in the existing wall and as it turned green he pressed the yes button at the bottom of the 3D model.
The model changed into a 3D wireframe he thought for a moment and then placed his hands inside the image and moved them slowly apart.
As he moved his hands the model started to expand till it fit the whole city block.
"Bloody hell, can you shrink it again?" Kirt asked.
"Yes, but why?"
"There are some problems here and here. This wall is too thick and that room has too much headspace."
"Ok."
Louie shrunk the wireframe back to a hundredth of its full size and gave Kirt permission to modify the framework as he saw fit.
"There are no electrical outlets and light fittings since I thought of getting somebody with engraving to make lights for each room."
Kirt waved him down.
"That's ok we can always tweak small stuff later, that's the magic of having magic." All the builders laughed, finding Kirt very funny.
While Kirt worked with the model, Louie called Koert and Simon to one side and asked Koert to form thin slabs of rock in the shape of doors and Simon to create hinges and latches on those slabs of rock.
Looking at the slab/door Koert shook his head.
"That door is way too small."
Louie shook his head. "When is a door not a door, Koert?"
"Huh? I don't know."
"When it's a window."
Koert scratched his head. "I don't get it."
"Ok, I want you to make me another one but switch the hinges and latch around. Make it like two small double doors."
"Huh, ok." Koert shrugged at Simon and they made an identical door but reversed.
"Good now turn the whole thing transparent."
Koert touched the small door and he said that he received two sliders in his interface, one is for a color palette and the other is for transparency.
He moved the slider all the way to the left and the small door turned into what looked like a frosted windowpane.
"Walla, nice going Koert, now we can just sculpt the hinges into a hole in the wall, and then you have yourself a window that can open and close."
Kirt came over and looked at the windows that his son and Simon made. "You two can make doors also?"
Koert and Simon nodded. Kirt slapped them on their shoulders.
"Ok you and Simon will be on door and window sculpting duty, this will allow more light into the rooms and make the doors also frosted. Now I have to go back and tweak the framework again."
A half-hour later Kirt was done and Louie enlarged the wireframe again till it filled the whole block and it started to glow a soft green.
Louie moved into the street and removed a couple of huge blocks of stone from his inventory and liquefied it till the stone flowed like thick mud around him. He moved through the gate in the wall and started sculpting the fort following the wireframe layout.
The moment he was done with a wall the corresponding image would wink out and he would move on to the next wall. It took him just four hours to make the fort while the first one took over six hours.
Louie, Sher, and the militia moved on to the next city block that they cleared for the garden while Kirt and his group of builders installed the doors and windows in the fort. Koert even went as far as to change the indoor colour of all the walls to white to reflect more light into the rooms.
After Kirt and his team were done they all walked through the fort and made sure that everything was done right and that the doors and windows worked as they should.
Louie used
Louie checked over the blueprint and saw that the doors and windows were included so he pressed the save button, and the blueprint appeared in his inventory as well as a copy that was saved in his journal.
Louie removed the blueprint from his inventory and gave it to Kirt.
"Hold this till you guys can build it. We will use this layout for all the forts in the compound. Think of ways to improve on the design and we can go over it again tomorrow. Keep on practising, I will sculpt another fort tomorrow, we can see how you guys have progressed then."
Louie closed the massive gates of the fort, Simon made the huge hinges and Louie sculpted the gates, and they moved on towards the entrance to the compound.
Koert and his team stopped at the first mini-fort and said that they are going to practise their spells by creating doors and windows for the apartments in the fort, they waved goodbye and promised to be at the tavern the next morning.
They had just started off again when Louie saw a young girl come running towards them.
"Sir, … Sir!."
"Wow, young lady, take a breath and then say what's so important."
She bent forwards and placed her hands on her knees and took a couple of deep breaths.
"Sir, it's the beastwave, the scouts have spotted it and the captain said I must come to tell you."
Paarl Leaders
* Leon Koen: (STC 2IC) pet (Seera: Black Widow)
* Gerard van Schalkwyk: Class: Scavenger/Tinker
* Mike Dekker: Class: Warrior
* Carla Coetzee: Class: Ranger
* Kirt Dempers: Class: Builder
* Jak de Beer: Class: Farmer/Animal husbandry
* Samuel De Jager: Class: None (Mayor)
* Arnold Brand: Class: Centurion/Armourer
* King ????????
Status:
Name:
Lewis (Louie) Poren
Race:
Human (Male) Lvl 12 " 457,530/819,200" = Lvl 13
Class:
Seeker (5) (27%)
Sub-classes:
(exterminator) (3%)
Titles:
* Jack Black Brodifacoum,
* Trailblazer,
* Liberator.
* OFS (One Finger Salute)
* Dungeon pioneer
* David
* Selfish
* ?????
Affinity:
Darkness 0.001%
Affiliation:
N/A
Statistics:
Health points (HP):
540
strength + constitution times level
Mana Points (MP):
516
Intelligence + willpower times level
Stamina (SP):
660
agility + constitution + willpower times level
Critical Hit Chance:
4%
Attributes:
Strength:
23
Agility:
18
Constitution:
22
Perception:
21
Intelligence:
28
Willpower:
15
Charisma:
7
Luck:
5
Free attribute points:
0
Skills:
Skill
Level
Progression
Wu shu:
Passive
5
95/100
Improvised weaponry:
Passive
T1: 2
05/100
Glacial Rage:
P/A
6
30/100
Meditation:
Active
6
75/100
Regeneration:
Passive
T1: 0
45/100
Mana Manipulation:
Active
9
95/100
Survival:
Passive
9
85/100
Cooking:
Passive
0
25/100
Restoration:
Passive
T1: 1
95/100
Social Sharing
Passive
1
55/100
Harvesting:
Passive
9
75/100
Herb Lore:
Passive
2
55/100
Whittling:
Passive
0
00/100
Pain resistance:
Passive
T1: 0
00/100
Poison resistance:
Passive
3
42/100
Cat`s eye:
Active
T1: 0
75/100
Senses:
Passive
6
35/100
Armourer:
Passive
5
95/100
System Minimap:
Active
7
10/100
Cartography:
Active
4
25/100
Public speaking:
Active
5
95/100
Spell Transformation: *
Active
2
10/100
Conglomerate:
Active
0
00/100
Backstab:
Active
0
00/100
Skewer:
Active
0
00/100
Scholer:
Passive
0
00/100
Learning:
Passive
#
#
Quick study:
Passive
#
#
Know-how:
Passive
#
#
This star * indicates a hidden skill
Class Skill Proficiencies:
Skill
Level
Progression
Investigation:
Active
6
65/100
Tracking:
Active
5
25/100
Intuition:
Passive
T1: 2
95/100
Analyse:
Active
T1: 9
65/100
Lore:
Passive
2
50/100
Monster Expert:
Passive
4
85/100
?????
0
00/100
Spells:
Spell
Level
Progression
Activation
Improvise:
T1: 1
35/100
Touch
Mana Construction:
T3: 7
25/100
Cast
Mana Blueprint:
2
15/100
Touch
Liquefaction:
T1: 7
55/100
Cast
Earth Sense:
T1: 5
55/100
Touch
Item Schematics:
T1: 2
80/100
Touch
Vampiric:
0
10/100
Cast
Darkorb:
1
90/100
Cast
Transfusion:
0
10/100
Touch
Electrocute:
0
30/100
Cast
Suffocate:
0
15/100
Cast
Waterboard:
1
85/100
Cast
Cauterise:
5
85/100
Touch
Shadow Step:
0
15/100
Cast
Fear:
0
30/100
Cast
Concussion Blast:
1
20/100
Cast
????
0
00/100
*