“Whatcha working on there?” Ian asked.
Seth was busy with his skills and going through the magic drone box.
“Experimenting. My Fabricate skill is really handy. I haven’t really used it though because I don’t have recipes.” Seth said, half distracted.
“Glad I don’t need recipes for my skills. So, if you don’t have recipes, what are you doing?”
“Well, that’s the thing. Andy and I were talking earlier, and you know how he is. A steel trap when it comes to extracting information. It sounds like recipes are just the system’s way of making things easy on you or giving you direct and immediate insight. That grenade I made for Marshall the other day, that’s apparently how most things are created by people like me. So… I’m experimenting.”
Seth was fidgeting with a piece of stone he’d recovered from the dungeon.
“I can sense the attunement in certain items, like this stone. It’s got… well… earth attunement. I can extract that attunement and apply it to something else, usually at a cost. I can also bolster that attunement if I have other materials of the same affinity. I think I can mix affinities, although my attempts to do so have destroyed the material. I think I need to find a balance, or at least a way to stabilize the energies.”
“Can I attune things for you?” Ian asked thoughtfully.
“I believe so. That’s the other thing. That rune I used for the grenade was a conduit for Marshall to channel energy into the device, but it didn’t directly attune the materials. It acted more like a container. I’m exploring the idea of using runic scripts to help with attunement. First I need to figure out the basics though. I did learn something a few moments ago. Check this out.”
Seth brought out a stick and asked Ian to appraise it.
Stick: This is a stick.
“Wow. That’s… uh… really cool Seth.”
Seth just shook his head. “Give it back”
He began inscribing a series of runes along the edge of the stick and infused them with silver energy.
“Check it out.”
Reinforced Stick: This stick has been structurally enhanced through the meticulous work of a low-level artificer.
“Now, break it.”
Ian slammed the stick over his knee and immediately realized that was a stupid idea.
“Ok, that really is neat. I wish you’d warned me though.” Ian said, rubbing a newly acquired bruise on his knee.
“That’s all I know how to do right now. Those are the same scripts I used to make the grenade. I’m trying to figure out how to link runes together. For example, the conduit rune. If I could connect that to this script, I think I could modify the effect. I was going to try transferring this earth attunement over. Now that I understand more about it, and that most of the things I create will be learned through experimenting, I’m going to dig in. I want to start pumping out some useful stuff for us.”
“Those drones are pretty damn useful.” Ian pointed out.
“That they are. Those are my babies. But right now, I’m limited since the box can only work on one at a time. I need to figure out how to make one of those damn boxes. Hopefully, they bring back some good stuff for me to work with. At the very least though, I think I can use these runes to make our armor stronger. I’m going to test it out shortly once I’m sure I won’t fuck anything up. It would be real nice to have some spare armor lying around.”
Marshall had already spun up a huge stack of bandages for the group and was dutifully napping away. He’d mentioned to Ian that he needed to recharge his MP. Ian knew he just wanted to laze around a bit. That was fine though, a few hours of R&R is exactly what the doctor ordered. Literally.
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It was just after noon when Calvin and the others returned. Marshall had woken up not too long ago and figured he’d get some skewers on the fire. The aroma of char-grilled meats welcomed the group back. They had been eating really good lately.
“Marshall, I could kiss you.” Calvin said, “We’re starving.”
“I mean, if Amy’s fine with it.” he said, getting an eye roll from Amy. “Come on, food’s almost ready. We had a mighty productive day. Seth played with his gadgets, Ian just walked around a bunch and I took a nap. How about you?”
Calvin proceeded to dump a large pile of materials and monster parts on the ground. “Christmas came early for Seth.” Calvin said.
Calvin picked up a particular item of note. It was a large concave bone, shaped somewhat like a very wide, shallow bowl. “I was thinking you might be able to fashion a shield for Sasha. We came across this herd of large buffalo-type creatures, with these large bones covering their heads. We saw a few of them ramming each other with them and figured they had to be pretty strong. We picked up several.”
This is exactly the type of thing Seth needed to experiment on. He scooped the bone shells into his storage, grabbed a handful of meat skewers, tossed a lazy, meat skewer salute over to Marshall, and set off toward his experimentation area. “If anyone needs me, I’ll be in the shop.”
Calvin and the others all sat around the map of Knox’s camp. Liam helped fill in the blanks that Scout hadn’t uncovered. It had been many days since they’d last been there, and some things had changed, at least going by what Scout had shown. The defenses had been beefed up a bit, and likely the power base in the town had grown. There’s no way that Knox had sat idly by, knowing his neighbors were just a little peeved.
They had been in the tutorial for nearly 26 days now. Almost halfway through. The group was feeling the crunch a bit. They needed to deal with this Knox issue, but they also really wanted to get out and find more challenges. Another dungeon or two would really shore up their foundations both in experience and loot.
There were also likely numerous other discoveries out here just waiting for them. The other thing nagging at their minds was the innocent people stuck with Knox. They wanted to free them of that suffering as soon as possible. Judging by the state of Sasha and Liam, the ones not loyal to Knox are likely far behind in power, and if they didn’t catch up fast, the tutorial would probably eat them alive.
After careful review of the information they had and their supplies on hand, they decided they would take a day to finish up a few more objectives. Getting Seth, Amy, and Freya to 15 would be a big boost to their combat power and Seth was getting pretty close through his experimentation. Amy and Freya would head out with Sasha tomorrow in the opposite direction of Knox’s camp and eke out the last of their experience needed. The others would stay behind so they didn’t leech any of the experience.
Calvin was planning on getting some practice in with his new skill in their training camp and would work with Liam a bit on some tactics. He was also more than a little curious about what Seth had going on and wanted to check out his progress.
Calvin took a little stroll over to Seth’s ‘workshop’, which was really just a pile of materials off to the edge of camp. His short journey was a reflective one. Looking around at their encampment he felt a surge of pride at their progress. Less than a month ago, they were sleeping in the dirt, barely able to fend off mutant bugs and generally shitting their pants at every bump in the night. Now, they had a proper fort, actual houses, and furniture, hell, they even had chairs. Calvin was hopeful for the future for the first time in a long while. It still wasn’t going to be easy out here, and it was still life or death pretty much constantly, but they were going to make a difference. They were going to beat Knox’s ass, free his people and build up this encampment even more. He’d hoped this place could become a beacon for Earth’s people. A place of hope and prosperity. He already knew at some level this was what they would strive to become, but now, as he truly looked around and saw the place, he’d made the decision completely.
He arrived to see Seth just finishing up some work.
“Nice place you got here.” Calvin said.
“Thanks Cal. Would you believe I built it myself?” they both shared a small chuckle at that.
“Any progress?”
“Actually, yes. You’re just in time in fact. I was hoping I could borrow your charge for something.”
“Oh? I’m intrigued. Put me to work boss.”
On Seth’s makeshift workbench, the large concave bones were laid out, one of them was etched in a complex runic script. The runes appeared to be completely inert. Seth picked this one up and walked it a good way from the bench, away from anything important. That was a good sign.
“Alright, work up a little charge, not too much, then touch your spear to this rune.” he said, “One sec though.”
Seth quickly moved behind his workbench and ducked behind another one of the bones. “Alright, good to go.”
Calvin was suddenly beginning to regret coming over here. Regardless, he did as he was told. Progress takes risk and all that. Right?
With a few steps, he built up just a slight trickle of a charge and touched his spear to the rune. The electricity arced out like a small static shock from his spear and flowed through the intricate line work leaving a faint blue glow behind.
“Like that?” Calvin asked. He was intrigued by what happened, but he’d thought maybe there would be more… excitement. Seth did make a big show of taking cover far away after all.
Seth walked over, analyzed the bone, and nodded in satisfaction.
“That’s great, do that again, give it a little more oomph.”
Again, Calvin repeated the sequence and zapped the rune with his spear. This time, the glow intensified and Calvin could see slight wisps of energy flowing out of the rune like small, blue solar flares.
“HA! Awesome! You know what you just did?” Seth asked excitedly
“Nope. Looks pretty cool though.”
“I’ve been playing with the idea of creating runes that store attuned nanite energy. As it stands right now, that rune is like a capacitor.”
“Like the grenade?” Calvin asked
“Well, yes, a little. The grenade was just a storage device. This uses a similar concept though. The energy is not stored inside a container, it’s in the rune. As it is right now, If you were to hit something with that, all of that energy would be released. But if I’m correct…” Seth brought his hands near the rune and released a steady stream of silver energy. The tendrils snaked over the entire surface of the rune. The blue glow dimmed a bit, however, the entire bone seemed different. It was almost imperceptible.
Electric Attuned Bone Plate: This ordinary bone plate has been permanently attuned with an infusion of electricity by a low-level artificer. This material will impart these properties into whatever creation it becomes.
Seth was elated. His mind was clearly on overdrive now as he danced between his tools and this bone plate. Calvin didn’t want to interrupt the process and just watched the man work.
Seth had several items laid out, all with some variation of inscription evident on their surface. He rifled through them, stopping to pick up some of them and contemplate as he made mental notes and began manipulating them with his Fabricate skill.
After 10 minutes or so, he produced something very unique. It was the same bone plate, now with a few modifications. The edge was rimmed entirely in a studded metal band. The face of the plate now had three of the den mother’s teeth protruding from its surface and the back was equipped with a curved metal handle and some inscribed leather straps. Seth puffed up his chest with pride and handed it over to Calvin.
“Check this out!” he said.
Spiked Bone Bulwark of the Storm (Iron): This bulwark is the creation of a low-level artificer. This shield has been infused with the power of a minor storm and reinforced through budding expertise in nanite manipulation. Impacts with this shield release a moderate electric charge. This is a sturdy defensive tool, highly resistant to damage but not indestructible.
“Damn. This is amazing. We are definitely going to keep bringing you back goodies to work with.” Calvin said, truly amazed, “Can you do this with all of our gear?”
“Sure, although there are quite a lot of materials that go into the creation of the rune. I used some of the metals and runic materials I scavenged from the dungeon. I’m going to need many more resources to keep pumping things out like this.”
“We will make that a focus after Knox then. Keep it up, this is exactly what we need right now.”
“Will do. I’m starting to figure out how some of these skills work, and Andy has been a pretty great resource to bounce ideas off of. Now that I am getting my feet wet, I feel like I’m going to start making huge progress. Anyway, that shield got me to level 15. So if you’ll excuse me, I have some powering up to do. Take that over to Sasha for me. I’m sure she’ll be thrilled.”