Chapter 26: Molten Wax, The Smell Of Home

The old granary was actually pretty comfy, the whole thing was raised about a metre off ground with wooden posts and the structure had been built with sealed stone walls to keep out vermin and the elements, a circular tiled roof came to a rounded off point and a single door allowed ingress and egress. Well ok, it was more defensible than comfy really and I'd have to get some windows put in, some more ventilation too. Ventilation would be especially important once I started boiling down demon blood to see what it would do anyway.

Like Selene had said the inside was furnished, a wall had been put up, clearly in the last couple days that divided the building into a cramped set of sleeping quarters and the remainder was full of equipment, reusable moulds made of some kind of heat resistant wood that could be unscrewed after the candle had cooled, a series of heating pots, one of which I set aside for cooking, a crude mercury thermometer covered in symbols which I didn't know how to read, after putting it into boiling water I got a rough idea of where 100 celsius would be and mentally marked off a few other useful heat-points based on a guess at scale.

A stove had been installed as well as a chimney that had been knocked through the roof. Clearly the conversion had been rushed but I appreciated it none the less, it might not pass cottage industry standards back home though.

I wanted to get to work, weaving candles, including some of the shadow-infused ones my subclass had made possible but I was simply too tired and the promise of a real bed, one of the best pieces of furniture in here was too good to prolong. I dreamt of nice things for the most part, Victoria surprising me with that kiss influencing my unconscious towards what can only be described as sweet dreams and when I awoke to the first rays of sunlight leaking through the slatted door. I got up, rifled through the trolley I still lugged around everywhere. I had wondered if I could pawn the thing off somewhere and transition to using a backpack like my friends but I felt too sentimental about it, it had saved me from murder by Grass-Lurker after all.

I poured another 50ml of fireball whisky into the glass jar I'd been using since my first trip to Croftop. The regenerating bottle, the tools and the trolley were gifts, I needed to be thankful for them. Yes, I had initially believed I might be in for a Robinson Crusoe style situation, much further from civilisation than I actually was but the gifts were still very thoughtful in my current reality where I didn't have to carve out a home in the wilderness. Shattering rock with a sledgehammer, growing physically stronger as I toiled in hopes of attracting hordes of worthy foes and building a harem of monstergirls. That would have been a stupid reality, I was much more satisfied with how this one was going.

I grabbed some logs from the pile that I had been so thoughtfully provided and got a nice bit of heat going beneath the stove, breakfast was eggs, with some green veg and root vegetables. I should have asked for a recipe book but I just treated them like spinach and potatoes. Worked out alright, I certainly wouldn't serve it to anyone I liked though. Shit, Victoria. I thought that would have been a far slower burn, I hoped she hadn't thought better of it overnight though. Should I give her time to think or knock on the gates of her terrifying mother's estate and try to talk to her.

An hour later I had pondered the situation over two mugs of ale and made a new friend. The Hophouse was an invitingly decorated mediaeval tavern and not many people were in there at 8 am in the morning. My new friend was a painter who had come out here to increase his skills with the brush. He wouldn't show me his profession level though, I assumed that meant it was either really low or really high. None of my business. I considered a third mug of ale, knowing I shouldn't, well aware in fact that this body wasn't addicted to alcohol and still didn't really have any willpower. I could see myself drinking away day after day in the old granary, a destitute wreck coasting off of one successful adventure and selling magical candles to earn my keep. It was more than a little tempting to the alcoholic loser I'd been, I imagined myself being roused in the middle of the night to stagger into the estate, burn out some poison and then staggering back to sleep in a sea of empty bottles. Now I had to weigh up that wonderful life of a magical deadbeat with the other option that might be available. If I managed to have no more alcohol, thus preventing the spiral into failure then I could attempt to court Victoria, she was a lovely young woman, maybe only a couple years younger than myself and interested in all the same things. Plus, It felt good to help people and the best way to do that was not to become a drunken, burdensome wretch. It probably felt even better than another 6 mugs of ale would. I eyed the bartender as he brought the next mug to my Painter friend. He looked at me and I shook my head, eyeing the mug dubiously.

I drummed my fingers on the table, my painter friend slurring his words, the sound of his own mug sloshing hammering in my ears until It became too much. I slammed my mug on the table slightly harder than I'd intended and got up. "Sorry Aubach, it was good to meet you but I've got a lot to do this morning and I should really get going." I tipped the bartender a full silver coin and left, leaving Aubach to shrug and pour my leftover ale into his own mug.

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Everything cast a shadow, candlelight was no exception and as I blearily heated my pot of wax I reached into the shadows all around me and drew the mana into the melting wax, instantly I saw the change in the material, inky blackness spreading through the wax and when I filled my first mould the resulting candle came out pitch black and cold to the touch. I examined the candle and was able to identify it as a spell-candle of darkness. Very simple, once lit the flame would turn black and devour the light around it in a radius based on my mana expenditure, 1 metre for each 10 points of mana invested. I could invest mana in it now during creation but would then need to spend the same amount to activate it. So if i spent 40 mana now I could spend another 40 later to activate it and create an 8 metre cloud of darkness.

Next I was tempted to throw the demon blood straight into the pot and make candles mixed with umbral mana but I suspected there was more to this spell crafting. I was slightly concerned that I might summon something I couldn't control or transform myself in some permanent manner. So I left it alone and added more metal shavings. Shadow Dart: This 1st level spell launches low velocity darts of shadow energy, these darts deal shadow damage equal to 4 damage per 10 mana invested. The rules were similar to the last spell and more defined than the answers I used to get, apparently levelling my class and spellcasting ability made these things a lot clearer. I wondered if there were things like crit chance hidden from me at the moment. I also wondered what I had to do to unlock a second level spell, everything I'd made so far seemed to be only first level.

That didn't change, I spent the morning draining my mana into spell-candle after spell candle, creating low mana and high mana versions of the shadow and steel darts candles, at one point I even experimented with more twisted candles, working helical channels of mana through the wax and imbuing the candles with some interesting new effects. I had a few dud experiments trying to use Selenes bracelet to learn new telekinetic techniques, my ability was now at level one thanks to using the ram but I couldnt seem to move anything more than fragments of leaf, I tried casting psychokinetic ram again, unleashing the daily ability on a dusty patch of grass and seeing the ability increase halfway to level 2. That would be a slow skill to increase and if I ever lost the bracelet it wouldn't be accessible to me.

The biggest discovery I made was a new AOE spell, unlike the two grenade-type spells this one was more area denial focused and simple to make, ground glass and shadow mana. You have discovered the spell-candle recipe desiccating darkness. "This spell engulfs the area around the spell-candle in a shroud of darkness, spell can be channelled, leaving a safe space around the caster or the spell can be activated and released. Once active abrasive sand tears at the flesh, drawing blood and allowing the hungering darkness to link to the blood and moisture, drawing it into itself. This type of spell deals 1 damage per second at a cost of 5 mana per second. Desiccating Darkness deals double damage to plants as well as some aquatic species." I had planned to make spells that were more humane, the darts were getting there but calling the hungry void to devour the moisture within a subject seemed bad and probably quite a painful way to die.

The rules for the spell's radius were the same as for darkness. It was little things like this that showed me there must be a pattern to all of this but I didn't have the spellcasting ability for that kind of insight just yet so I kept making Spell-candles with very little idea of how they worked and stacking them up on my shelves till I ran out of wax. Of course I had used summoned wicks for every single one of my candles as these didn't seem to have a drawback. They increased the power and duration of my candles while also becoming indefinite summons as soon as they became part of a spell-candle.

After that I made sure to craft half a dozen of the rosemary-infused candles, the ones that neutralised poisons and infection. This time I boosted half of them with as much mana as I could expend while also creating more of the lowest cost candles so I could use them in a pinch.

I felt like I should deliver them to the estate but there was no point really, no one could use these except for me... unless I taught someone a class I barely understood. A class that I was using off of instinct due to it being improperly downloaded into my brain. My eyes hurt and I wanted an ale, or maybe 250ml of cinnamon whisky. I went up to the estate instead. I would give them some of the boosted candles to store in case of emergency. I wouldn't talk to Victoria if she didn't want to see me, I hoped she would though. I wanted to go on adventures with her, I wanted to kill whatever a Derro was and find more cool magical items.

The guards let me through the gates as evening fell with the setting sun. Luna was in the front garden, sitting on a simple stone bench and arm in arm with a bald man who made me blink in surprise when I first laid eyes on him.

He looked mostly normal, more muscular than average, scars on his face that were likely from sword duels and wearing the same clean travelling clothes I'd been given a few pairs of. Luna smiled strangely at me. "Hello Jack, this is my friend Karl. He taught me how to use a sword"

Karl had lost an arm looking for her the night we'd been camping in the woods. The left arm, the one he was supposed to have was companionably linked through Luna's. The right arm, the one that he certainly should not have was a twisted, triple-jointed monstrosity of lean, skinless muscle and demonic spines. He waved cheerily at me, claw-tipped fingers waggling in the cool night air. "Pleasure to meet you Jack." Luna laughed at my shocked expression and pointed at the side door. "Vicky's just inside Jack, you should talk to her."

I left them to each other's company and opened the little door to the library.