Tec Mage Chapter Thirty Two: A Cut Above The Rest
After Atlas had finished his business with Dracken he had made his way back to the old shops ruins, there he picked up his blueprints of the new shop and his list of materials he needed
There was a problem that needed to be fixed straight away and that was money, Atlas had only a couple of grand in gold and that wasn't nearly enough to rebuild the shop, Atlas could make weapons and enchant them to gain a big profit but there was something else he wanted to do
Since his Soul Drain skill had reached intermediate Atlas could store excess mana in gems, when he had sat down to design the new shop his thoughts wondered to to this
{Soul Drain Intermediate level 1}
Able to take mana from a any host by physically touching them and fill lost mana that the user has
Soul Drain has become more powerful and when the user mana is full excess mana can be stored in gems, the higher the level of this skill the less precious materials can store mana
In Atlas mind this almost sounded like a battery and if this was true there was many different and amazing things he could do with it, so instead of gaining money from weapon crafting he was going to kill two birds with one stone by collecting gems that he could sell for gold
Atlas first step was materials, he stopped by the Architect guild and ordered wood, wooden planks were much more expensive than logs because of the work that needed to go into making them planks so Atlas ordered logs and other things to be delivered to the ruins of the shop, he needed to save as much money as he could not only that the planks that the shops sold were slightly warped and not all the planks were the same size, after ordering his materials he visited the tutors guild, Alison wasn't at the front, it turned out it was her day off, instead there was a player, this didn't make Atlas feel safe, Atlas had a lot of difficulty with players and now he didn't trust them
Atlas plan was to get a new tutor to teach him advance math and algebra but he didn't want them knowing what he was up to, so instead he decided to do a bit of self study, the problem with that was a tutor could correct any wrong turns and mistakes as they happened thus increasing the learning process, in the end Atlas decided on history but even that had problems, even though the subject was reliable and what was written in the book was what he needed to know without learning any formulas there was the problem of there being so much history and not a lot of books written in the game, most of the books that had been transferred from real life to the game were about battles and war as they were the ones people wanted to read, it was all about supply and demand
Atlas went for the books anyway, he didn't want to waste time and so he ordered new books to be printed and bought the history books they had in stock, the next thing Atlas did was meet up with the five gnolls that had gone to learn some crafting skills, when Atlas had meet them he found that they had learnt one skill a piece, one had learnt sowing and a different gnoll had learnt leather treatment, this was done on purpose, Atlas told them that if all the gnolls just learnt one crafting skill they could all reach master level extremely fast, if one gnoll learnt leather treatment and mastered it and then passed over that piece of leather to a gnoll who mastered leather cutting and so on down the line then by pooling their collective work they would produce a master piece even if it was just rabbit skin, this was what Atlas was hoping for, if the gnolls could produce such items then people would rely on them and except them in to the city
When the five gnolls left the city a new 5 gnolls replaced them and went of to search for there jobs with the help of the city watch (police force)
Finally Atlas packed his wagon with 6 pickaxes and lots of sacks, he hitched the horse to the wagon and left the city, his destination was a depleted gem mine 2 hours away from the city, the reason he choose this mine was because of the price, other plentiful mines were controlled by guilds and charged a heavy toll on entering and a big tax on any gems leaving the mine but the mine Atlas was heading to only wanted 200 gold a day to enter and no tax on leaving, this was because the guild that was running the mine believed it to be depleted but they still wanted gold from the mine and so charged a low amount to encourage people to try their luck
A hour into the ride to the mine Forge woke up again "Where are we, where are we going"
Atlas explained the mine and the situation and just as he was finishing up with his explanation the mine came in to view, the mine was located on the side of a cliff wall and standing by the entrance was a single guard, it turn out that it was only worth one guard to protect the guilds investments
Pulling up side the guard Atlas paid the 200 gold, the guard inspected the cart, he was checking to see if there was any other people hidden in the cart or below it, when he spotted the 6 pickaxes in the back he leaned over to Atlas
"How many days are going to stay in the mine" asked the guard
"Just one" replied Atlas
"Why do you have six pickaxes then and so many empty sacks" sneered the guard
"I'm a hard worker, i plan to fill all my sacks and that means i might brake a pickaxe or two, better to be safe than sorry" answered Atlas
The guard looked though the cart again to make sure there was no one hidden and not paying the 200 gold, when he found nothing he waved Atlas in
When Atlas was in the cave the guard just sneered "you will be lucky to find a gem flake in that mine" he said this to no one, protecting this waste of a mine made him very angry, he could be out increasing his level on a wonderful adventure but instead he was here, at least he would have a good laugh when Atlas left the mine with nothing
In the mine Atlas couldn't see a thing but as he was a mage he called up his mana flare, a bright light source flooded the area, Atlas didn't go to deep in the mine only far enough so the guard wouldn't see or hear what he was doing
Atlas set up the area, the horse was place in a corner with some bedding and food and Moonstone lamps were place all over the place for added light, now it was time for Atlas trump card, he realised that just searching for gems in this depleted mine would be hard and most likely would take longer than a day but Atlas had a plan
"Calling the fallen" said Atlas as he grasped his ghost necklace
The mana Atlas had used condensed and formed 6 spirits, the last time Atlas had seen these six spirits they were about to attack a child necromancer, Atlas had stopped them and lectured them, even though they had just cause to hate necromancer as a necromancer was the cause of there death Atlas told them to think what they had done and left them in the woods to think
"Hi chief" said the leader of the spirits, his name was Nelious and was the only one to think before his hate took over, he ended up stopping two of his comrades
"I've had a long talk with my colleges and they have seen the error of there ways, I've explained to them that necromancer power isn't evil but can be used for both good and evil, it's all up to the person using the power" said Nelious
By the way the other five spirits had their head hanging in shame Atlas was sure that they had learnt from their mistake, Atlas didn't ask questions and decided to forgive and forget there actions, instead Atlas explained what he wanted from them
"I'm mining gems but i can't sense them, i would like you to faze though the rocks and tell me where the gems are, then help me mine them" explained Atlas
The five spirits jumped to attention and quickly went though the walls to check for gems, Nelious gave a wink and saluted before going though a wall
"Did you summon those spirit things that i can't see" asked Forge
"Yes" answered Atlas
"Mmmm, there's six of them but you only have six pickaxes how are you going to mine" asked Forge
"With magic" answered Atlas
Atlas reached over his head and placed his hand beside the opening of his backpack "Mouses, drill pieces"
The mana mouses that Atlas kept in his bag pushed out two long and thick metal drills, Atlas had made these in advance, they were just thick steal poles twisted and sharpened, Atlas activated his magnetic force skill and applied two programs to the drill pieces, the first was simple movement up, down, left, right, back and forwards, the second was spin
When the spirits returned to Atlas and gave him the where about of the gems Atlas gave a working demonstration
With the drill pieces rotating they pierced the rock wall like it was a knife though butter, this wasn't all Atlas was doing, with his ability to cast many spells at once he casted elemental control on the fallen broken rocks and turned them in to sand, this was done so it was easier to gain the gems in the rock but again another spell was casted, clay hand spell caused the sand to be pushed to the other side of the cave where a bag of mana mouses were waiting for the sand, the mana mouses dived in to the sand and sorted though the sand searching for the smallest gem pieces, when they found a piece they would drop it off in a hanging bag
With the spirits searching, Atlas digging and the mana mouses sorting it wasn't long before the empty bags were steadily being filled, not only that Atlas mining skill was raising incredibly fast, the mining skill didn't just raise if you used a pickaxe but raised as long as you were mining
Atlas was going though the rock so fast that if he took very small steps forwards then he could continue to walk with out stopping, it wasn't just gems that Atlas mined but also the metal Mithril , it seemed that Mithril was located with gems, this metal was worth even more than cut and treated gems, a true jackpot and it didn't stop there, with fresh new tunnels being dug out new pockets of gems and metals were being discovered, Atlas was pleased, each gem placed in the bag had the potential to be worth as much as a single enchanted steel weapon
The spirits also joined in by mining with possessed pickaxes, all but Nelious had came back to mine areas that had gems in them, 2 hours had gone by and three sacks had been filled with gems and metals, if Atlas left now he would have enough for all of his plans up to this point but he had paid for the day and he was going to use every last minute of his time limit
A further hour had passed by when Nelious floated by Atlas, Atlas looked up to Nelious shining and happy face
"You'll never guess what I've found" Nelious voice was full of nervousness and his whole spirit body was shaking ready to explode if he didn't tell what he had found soon
"Tell me, I'm listening, don't keep me waiting" Atlas was amazed by Nelious action, it had to be some thing big or Nelious wouldn't be acting this way
With his see though spirit hands on his head Nelious blurted it out "I FOUND A GEM CLUSTER AND IT'S BIG AND IT'S MULTIPLE GEM CLUSTER" if Nelious hand feet then he would be tip toeing and dancing
"A multiple gem cluster?, what is a multiple gem cluster?" asked Atlas
Nelious just rolled his eyes "a gem cluster is where there is a big deposit of gems that are fused together and a multiple gem cluster is a gem cluster that has many different types of gems in it like diamond, ruby, and so on"
Nelious put his hand to his face thinking hard "to be frank with you they shouldn't exist, gems form in different areas depending on many different factors but i have found one"
"Where is it then" asked Atlas
"Ahhh, that is a problem..... it's near the entrance...... under the floor" explained Nelious
That was a problem, if he started to mine right in front of the exit then he would grab the attention of the guard, Atlas continued to work as he thought away around this
Mining continued and the fruits of labour were great, sack after sack was filled and placed on the wagon, with Atlas being a player he didn't need any rest due to his massive mana pool, the spirits didn't need any rest and the mana mouses were just dolls so they too didn't need any rest, it became a production line and a efficient one too
Atlas was greatly satisfied, not only the gems and metals but also his mining level had increased by two levels and both of those levels were above intermediate meaning he had gain a bonus in health, 750 hp per level wasn't a small amount, for a mage it was huge and welcome gift
With two hours left Atlas packed away the bags of gems and metal, the moonstone lamps and placed the pickaxes on the cart and headed to the entrance, Atlas couldn't think what to do with the guard, he didn't want to anger the guild he belong to so trapping him was out of the question, putting him to sleep was also out of the question, the guard was out side and in a big area so the sleeping potion would have no effect
"Oh well, I'll just have to trap my self in and hope for the best" said Atlas
As Atlas got closer to the exit he formed a clay hand fist to drop from the ceiling to block the exit, from out side it looked like a cave in, the guard just looked at it with no interest
"He still needs to pay if he isn't out by two hours" muttered the guard, business was hard and the guild needed to take advantage over any tiny little thing
In side the cave Atlas was pushing the dirt away using clay hand and elemental control, he didn't need to use the drills, he knew where this gem cluster was and he wanted it as a whole so the drills were out of the question as they would easily break it apart
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Digging deep the first signs of the gem cluster showed it's self the moonstone lamps that Atlas had pack away on the cart were still lit and the light it emitted was reflected back, the first colour was a deep red, a ruby cluster but as more earth was piled away different colours started to shine as it reflected the light, blue, yellow, white
Nelious was right, it was a gem cluster made from many different types of gem and the size was as big as a big beach ball, with the size of the gem cluster Atlas wasn't strong enough to lift it and so he lifted it with a clay hand, gently Atlas placed the gem cluster on the cart and hoped it wouldn't cause the cart to collapse, thankfully the cart was well built and held fast, Atlas covered the hole that the gem came out of with earth and compressed it so no signs of digging were there, with a wave of his hand Atlas lifted the clay hand spell and the bolder shaped fist that was blocking the entrance melded back in to the ceiling
All this took one hour and 30 minutes, Atlas started to leave the cave ridding on his cart, before Atlas could leave the cave he could hear the guard chuckling to him self
"Made it just in time, did you have a good hunt" the guard wasn't even looking at Atlas or his cart
"Not bad, but i don't think i will be coming back, i don't think need any more gems" answered Atlas
"You don't say" a small but arrogant smile was on the lips of the guard, he turn to look at Atlas as he was leaving but all the guard could see was the sack on top of sacks and the massive gem cluster blocking his view to Atlas
"W...WAIT.. WHAT DO YOU HAVE THERE" the guard was running up the side of the cart, his eyes were looking at the gem cluster
In the sun light the gem cluster was shinning like a rainbow
"Gems of course" said Atlas, even though Atlas had said this calmly he was aware that greed made people do stupid things and so Atlas was on full alert "there might be some more gems in the cave but i don't need that much, if you know the cave then you will know where I've mined and can mine the same area
The lips on the guard moistened as he licked them, he did know the cave very well and he was hungry for wealth, he wanted gold and gems were a great way for gaining cash, looking back at the mine and then at Atlas the guard made up his mind
"Can i have one of your pickaxes" said the guard, the thought's going though his mind was this, if he tried to stop Atlas leaving with this huge amount of gems then the guild would find out and he would lose his chance to go in to the mine freely and collect the gems, no one would pester him because they believed the mine to be empty, if he did stop Atlas he wouldn't get anything, the guild would take 50% of the gems and the big gem cluster and all he would get was a good job from the leaders
Greed had made his decision for him
"Yes, you can have it" Atlas handed over one of his pickaxes, as long as the guard was hungry for gold Atlas didn't want to bring his attention to his gems and so freely handed over a pickaxe
The guard left Atlas and ran in to the gem mine
"This is why i don't trust players" thought Atlas
Atlas made sure to cover the gem cluster, his destination was the gnoll home, located under a mountain
Atlas didn't spend long at the gnolls home just enough time to drop the wagon of gems off and give permission to start manufacturing them, two of the gnolls had learnt gem production skills and both was eager to start
Atlas took with him a sack of gems to cover payment of things he needed and also more gnolls could enter the city, at the moment only five gnolls had protection from the city watch but with more gems more gnolls could enter and learn a crafting skill
When Atlas left the gnolls home he took a wagon full of cut stone, bags of working tools and 10 gnolls with him, if Atlas was going to save money on building then cut stone from the gnolls cave home and the power of the gnolls would be needed
Each gnoll had a cloth hood over their wolf heads to hide them from the public, if anyone was to ask why the gnolls was wearing them the responding answer would be religion but it was unlikely anyone would ask as each gnoll wore a full set of steel armour, each piece was made by Mary and enchanted by Atlas, with the white hood the gnolls looked like paladins
Entering the city was a simple, paying the guards for an escort and insurance for the gnolls, Atlas handed a small bag of unprocessed gems
With Atlas leading the way and the gnolls following with a small escort of guards the crowed took notice
"What is this"
"Could be a event"
"I don't know, it seems too small for some thing like that"
Atlas ignored the small talk, even if some of the players were to follow they would see just a building site and nothing more
When Atlas and his group entered the ruins of the old shop it was all ready, the area no long held any wooden huts but now held thick wooden logs and bags of building materials, also the homeless people stood there waiting for instructions
The guards waited out side of the old shops ruins protecting the undiscovered gnolls, in the shops ruins Atlas gave each gnoll two homeless subordinates, each gnoll was well practised in making homes so they were in charge
The first step was clearing out the stone foundation and walls, each of the gnolls were parted evenly across the stone walls with their subordinates behind them, with the increased strength that the gnolls had they smashed down the walls while the homeless picked up the stones and re piled the good ones in a pile and discarded the bad ones, it didn't take long for the shop ruins to be completely cleared away even the magical forge, Forge had spent 300 years of his life in the forge, the forge was his home, a place where he was safe and sustained but it was also his prison, with tears in his eyes Forge destroyed the forge, after the complete destruction of the forge the snake just laid there in a pool of his own tears sobbing quietly Atlas picked Forge up and patted while hugging him until Forge fell asleep, Atlas wrapped Forge around his shoulders and went to work
While the gnolls were clearing the old stones away Atlas created a earth basin and casted his rain cloud spell over the sink, cold enchanted stones were place on the bottom for a chilled water, Atlas also prepared a huge earth cooking pot
A earth cooking pot was not a good cooking tool as it could contaminate the food with dirt but Atlas had condensed the earth pot so it was now as hard as granite, this meant it wouldn't contaminate the food but also meant it was very fire proof
That too wasn't a problem, Atlas enchanted the inside of the earth cooking pot with a fire enchantment
The cooking skill Atlas had was the highest and even half made items tasted like a high class chef had made it, pouring water and adding herbs and vegetables with fish to the giant earth pot Atlas only had to wait and constantly stir the fish stew but this was a waste of time that Atlas had a fix for
By placing a small piece of metal on the wooden string spoon Atlas was able to use his magnetic force spell to form a program that made the spoon stir constantly with out him being there
The next step was explaining the blue prints to the gnolls, Atlas explained that the new shop was in the form of a horse shoe (in the shape of a U) the space behind the shop would be for deliveries, exports and a place for the horses and carts to rest, the bridge (the horizontal part in U) would be the shops face, a place the customers would enter, place orders and buy the shops merchandise, the vertical pieces in the blue print would be for manufacturing the items that would be sold
The job for the gnolls was a simple one, all they had to do was follow the blueprints just like they had done when making their own homes but to the homeless people it felt like a huge job, the looks on their face's told what they were thinking, Atlas was glad he didn't tell them that this was only the first storey and all together it was a three story building with two basements and that each wall would have a second wall with pipes sandwiched between the two walls, Atlas was planning the most advanced building in the whole of Royal Road using techniques from the real world and magic from this world
Atlas was glad, he had spent his entire adult life working and building and it felt like it wasn't a totally waste that he was demoted just because he didn't have the education qualifications, thinking about his real life work Atlas thought started to wonder what was happening at work
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IN THE REAL WORLD (if you're not familiar with this story i suggest that you read the introduction chapter for this part)
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The company that Ben (Atlas real name) had worked in was having there review over the company's development, in a board meeting there was a big table and at the table sat many old men, at the head was a tall thin man who stood out, he was a young looking man smartly dressed and he was the CEO of the company, this man's name was Matthew and he was a friend of Ben
When the time for Ben to be demoted because of qualifications it was Matthew who gave the news to him, he was his friend and Ben had worked hard for the company for many years, Matthew owed it to Ben to give him the bad news personal
At the head of table Matthew had given his usually speech on where the company was going and how to make it better
"So all in all profits are up and almost all sites are on time and budget" said Matthew
The old men at the table all murmured in happy tones, they were only interested in money and after hearing that profits were up after such along explanation on the company only now were they happy
"What do you mean almost all sites are on budget and on time" this old man was the father off the son that took over from Ben as foreman
Matthew wanted to roll his eyes at this old man, he had explained the situation though the long explanation though out the meeting but like always the board members and shareholders only wanted to hear if money was being made and blocked out the rest of the boring stuff
"A site went over budget and time, also the workers of that site aren't happy with losing their bonuses for completing their jobs on time" explain Matthew
"Tell the foreman to do his job properly, it's there own fault that they missed their quota" the man had a smug look on his face, all he was interested was money and if a site foreman wasn't doing his job he was going to say something about it
All the people looked at Matthew, they were all people with interest in the money being made in the company and if there was some thing that stop their money then that was unforgivable
"There has been a shift in foreman and the new foreman has ordered more material than needed and messed up workers shifts" said Matthew
"So, if he was qualified then he should be able to run the site no problem, what idiot newbie did you hire" asked the man
All the board members were staring at Matthew the CEO, a person costing them money couldn't be forgiven
"The person that was hired over Ben the previous foreman who never went over budget and finished on time with all of his projects was your son"
The room was already deathly quite but now there was a chill in the air as all the shareholders faced the father of the son that had cost them money, no hint of a smile was on there lips and their eyes just showed an instant dislike for him and his son
"......T..that's to be expected" the man was slightly sweating "after all he did take over from a former foreman, it was just a little mistake, I'm sure his next project will be on time and under budget, it was most likely the former foreman's mistake" he was all smiles looking at the shareholders, he was trying to win them over but the share holders were only interested in money
"NO" Matthew raised his voice, he wasn't going to allow this man to blame Ben for his son mistake " Ben the foreman has never gone over budget and always on time, to blame him when he isn't the foreman or even working on that site is wrong"
A new hand had raised, the man it belong to didn't wait to talk "why did you get ride of him then"
"Don't you remember that it was the boards and shareholders idea that a person with qualification would take over encase some one was hurt on site and that person would sue" answered Matthew
A long murmur went though the shareholders as they started to talk
The man who's son had cost the shareholders money stood up "listen, we will see what my son is like when he gets his own project and then we will see that he can stick to a budget and time frame"
Slow murmurs went out though out the crowed as the shareholders agreed unhappily, after all you couldn't fire some one for making a mistake just once, there was laws against that
End Of Chapter Thirty Two
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Hi every, i poured out a new chapter and found it easyier to write
I was going to write a big scene with Forge destroying the forge, crying, contemplation on the years he had lost and the lost of friends family and adventure he had never gained but that would of been a big downer, and so i made it a small scene
The chapters name is a pun on the gem collecting and the fact that Ben was very good at his job
I hope you enjoy