“We can add wheels or even skis as the last step,” another engineer said. “Four hobgoblins will be required to move and aim it. The big lumps are trained for it.”
That still didn’t sound great. I needed every hob to fight. “What about using Ogres?”
The first engineer shook his head. “While certainly strong enough, those brutes are too clumsy; one wrong step, and they’ll break something. Better leave it to the hobs.”
“What if instead of pulling it, we strap it to their backs?” I suggested. The more I thought about it the more I liked the idea of the hulking Ogres launching boulders from their backs while still being mobile enough to engage in combat if needed.
The goblin blinked at me. “It … it never occurred to me. How would we even go about doing that?”
“You said you can fit it with either wheels or skis,” I reminded him. “Doesn’t that mean you can also use leather strips and clasps to create a harness?”
“Very innovative, Chief,” the second engineer said admiringly. He turned to his fellow goblins. “We can order in strong leather cords, then fashion a sort of …”
I left the four excited goblins to hash it out among themselves.
“Siege weapon construction consumes an alarming amount of wood and metal,” Kaedric said as we moved away. “Our ore mining operations will not be enough to support them, but our current inventory should last for several months before becoming a problem.”
I nodded. “I doubt we’ll need that many war machines, but keep an eye on it and let me know before it becomes a real issue.”
“Of course, my lord.”
“Where to next?”
“The Dreamer’s Lodge, my lord.”
***
I could sense the power emanating from the obsidian building as we approached it. Small void crystals were embedded in the walls, transforming the place into a conduit of magic power.
The interior looked much as I’d remembered. The Enchanter’s Sphere was glowing dimly, hovering above a block of black obsidian that served as a workbench, focusing the ambient mana channeled by the void crystals.
“Dire Totem,” a relieved voice sounded as the clan’s resident enchanter came out of a side room. “It is good that you’ve come.”
“Hoker,” I greeted him. “How goes the enchanting business?”
“Poorly,” he said sullenly. “It is simply unrealistic to expect me to be able to work on so many items on my own. Especially since you’ve recently recruited even more metal-bangers. My storage rooms are bursting with weapons and armor that need enchanting.”
“Are you saying you can’t handle the load?” I asked, pointing my chin toward the hovering orb. “The Enchanter’s Sphere lets you do 10 enchantments at once.”
“The problem is not the volume of work, it’s about the ambient mana required for this kind of volume.”
“Oh?”
“The building can only channel so much ambient mana on its own each day, and it's hardly enough to handle the mass of items being produced.”
“Hmmm.” The guy made sense. “Hey, Kaedric, don’t we have a building that accumulates mana on our building queue?”
“The Essence Capacitor, my lord. It is scheduled for construction after the Warlock Tower, which should be completed in about three days.”
“Alright, it’s more important to allow Hoker here to work uninterrupted. Tell Zuban to move the capacitor up the queue before the tower.”
“Of course, my lord.”
I paused and tapped one of my sharp teeth. “Do you think I should rush the building?”
“Probably not, my lord. The increased rate of item production will be offset by the capacitor soon enough. It will still not address the overabundance of unenchanted items that accumulated during our period of hardship.”
“Alright.” I turned back to the much happier-looking enchanter. “You’ll have all the ambient mana you need in a few days, and I’ll try to find the time to take some of the load off of you.”
“Thank you, Dire Totem,” Hoker said, clearly relieved.
“Oh!” I suddenly remembered. “I have something for you.”
He seemed interested as I pulled out the seven lumps of Shadow-Touched ore. Because my control over darkness had grown since I’d first used one, they were useless to me now.
Hoker touched one of the ores. “Hmm, focused dark energy. Can be used to attune an item to darkness so Shadow-Touched individuals will get additional bonuses.”
“That’s what I was thinking. Oh, and take these as well.” I dumped all my low-level void crystals onto the obsidian block. There were 42 crystals in total with levels ranging between 8 and 50. They were too low for me anyway, even for replenishing my mana pool. I still had plenty of mid and high-level crystals left for that. “You can use them to supercharge an enchantment while finalizing it.”
The goblin’s eyes lit up. “I understand. Those will make for some powerful weapons. I think I’ll save them for the lieutenants.”
His idea of ‘powerful’ was different than mine, but I was supportive of the sentiment of making the officers more powerful.
“I wish all our problems could be solved this easily,” I said to Kaedric as we exited the building. I planned on returning later to help Hoker and work on my own projects. Not to mention, I still had the 200 Viridium spheres that were sitting idly in the clan’s inventory.
Shouts of alarm spread across the valley as many of the workers and warriors cried out and pointed upward.
I looked up just in time to see a peculiar object speeding through the air directly toward us. I activated Mana Shield and included Kaedric in the field, but I didn’t need to bother. The object landed several meters away from us in a splash of red and came to a stop at our feet.
I looked down at the squashed and bloody mess.
It was a dead foblin.
New building upgrade added to your settlement: Obstacle Course [Barracks]
Well, at least I had that.
20 - Potato Powered
I stared in shock at the dead foblin. It wasn’t the fact that it was completely squashed that got me. It was the shape it was squashed into.
The poor creature seemed to have been squeezed into a perfect cube. Whatever did the squeezing completely disregarded its internal anatomy, molding bones as easily it did flesh. I was momentarily reminded of a garbage compactor.
“What the hell could have done that?” I asked, taking a closer look. There was a red heart-shaped symbol on the side, and it took me a second to realize it was made of the foblin’s actual heart.
“Unknown, my lord.” My seneschal was quick to assume his composed facade. “However, I detect mounting distress among the foblin population. It seems to have originated from the center of the forested part of the valley.”
What’s not good? I asked. Vic, do you know what did this?”
It will be helpful to know what to expect, Vic.
“Shall I rally our troops?” Kaedric asked.
“No, I’ll take care of it myself.” Anything that got Vic worried was definitely above their pay grade. Probably above mine as well. But it was my valley, damn it.
I focused at the edge of the forest and teleported over. The gnarled and twisted trees blocked my line of sight, but I could still detect unfamiliar tendrils of information coming from inside. I couldn’t make sense of it; it spoke of foblins and suffering and of music and unfamiliar metal. It was chaos.
Vic flowed down from my shoulders, assuming his goblin shape. “Maybe a little reconnaissance is in order, Boss?”
&nb
sp; “Good idea.” I focused my mind on my shadows and willed my consciousness to pour into it.
I rose from the ground as a three-dimensional being of pure darkness. My original body was standing motionless, eyes closed.
“Wait here,” I said to Vic with a hollow voice.
The dark forest looked even more inviting to my shadow-made eyes. I willed myself forward and my shadowy body zoomed through the darkness as if it were an open highway. I flashed by countless foblins, but I sensed my target was deeper inside.
Seconds later, I arrived at a large clearing. Dozens of foblins stood motionless in a perfect circle around something huge and metallic. The foblins all had weird bits of metal and wiring sticking out of their bodies as if someone had turned them into cyborgs. It was impossible, of course. NEO was a fantasy world, not a sci-fi one.
I tried zooming past the foblins’ ring but hit something that felt as hard as a brick wall, then I was hurled backward, the impact bleeding away a few hundred of my MP.
“You may not come inside in shadow form,” a cool, metallic, female voice said. “That would be cheating. Cheaters don’t get the cake.”
Before I could even think of what to say back, there was a flash of light, and I suddenly found myself back in my own body, standing at the edge of the forest.
“Well, Boss? What did you see?”
I was still shocked by what I’d witnessed and did not reply.
“Boss?”
“It … can’t be,” I finally said.
“What? What was it?”
I glanced down at my companion. “It’s exactly as you said – something I couldn't have expected. Let’s go.”
We entered the forest on foot. My mana was down by a quarter but was quickly regenerating. As we walked, I cast Mana Shield and Mana Infusion, injecting triple the amount of MP required to bolster the spells to their maximum. My shield could now absorb hits of more than 300 points of damage, reducing my mana instead, and my muscles and instincts were stretched to their absolute maximum. With my Epic-ranked Demon Staff in hand, I was as battle-ready as I could be.
I reached the forest clearing after a few minutes of walking. The normal foblins along the way quickly moved aside, slipping behind tree trunks as I trudged past them.
The ring of foblin cyborgs stood exactly where I’d seen them last, and the pile of unrecognized metal was still lying motionless in the center. I remained hidden between the trees and concentrated on one of the small creatures. Analyze.
Shadow-Touched Foblin Cyborg
Level: 10
HP: 100
???
What? None of it made sense. There were no such things as cyborgs in NEO. Heck, there wasn’t even supposed to be such things as electricity or electrical wirings. I got a strong sense of VI tampering, and that always meant trouble.
I focused on the metallic pile, but couldn’t use my Analyze skill on it. I couldn’t even detect any information tendrils coming from it.
I got out into the open and slowly approached the cyborg ring, muscles tense for any sign of movement. But none came.
I passed between two of the rigid foblins, and as soon as I did, they opened their mouths. I whirled around, raising my staff to fend off the expected attack, but none came. Instead, soft melodic music started to play and the two cyborgs began to sing.
“Is this the real life?”
I blinked at the two foblins who returned to their rigid self as soon as they finished the sentence.
Vic groaned in my mind.
With mounting suspicion, I took another step farther into the ring.
The next two foblins in line sang next. “Is this just NEO’s fantasy?”
I stepped closer to the mountainous pile at the center.
“Caught in a dreamland, no escape to reality.”
I reached the pile, and all the goblins sang as one: “Open your eyes, earn yourself a cake and see …”
The pile of metal looked like modular cubes covered with LED lights. As soon as the last line of the song faded, the pile quivered and started to rise.
Cubes moved, pulling on top of one another, forming into a giant mech robot with guns at the end of its long arms. Something small and brown at the top of the machine’s head pulsed in several colors and the metallic female voice spoke again. “Fooled you. I’m going to kill you, and the cake is a lie.”
Then its twin guns turned to aim straight at me, and before I could react, the huge machine fired. My shield was hit with a crackling red energy that chewed it away.
A second later, I found myself standing, exposed and surrounded by enemies.
The brown thing pulsed again. “Testing commenced. First test: Endurance.”
As one, the cyborgs charged.
Despite the imminent danger, I couldn’t help groaning. I was going to be killed by GLaDOS. And my day had started so well.
***
The enhanced foblins threw themselves at me. I instinctively froze one. Using the power of my complete armor set, I started bombarding them with spells. I launched five drilling arrows at the lead cyborg, reducing him to a bloody scrap heap while simultaneously casting Direball on a group of them. To my dismay, as soon as the sphere of destruction impacted the foblins, the volatile energies were sucked into their bodies, giving them a visible boost to speed. I had just enough time for another round of spells. I froze another foblin, reactivated my shield, and cast Shadow Hound.
Four large, dark mastiffs materialized from the surrounding darkness and instantly launched themselves at the charging monsters. My hounds were big enough to topple two assailants each, but that still left about a dozen to charge at me. My shield flashed and vibrated as the small enhanced monsters started pounding on it. Crackling energy burst through the exposed wiring in their arms and began to once again eat away at my shield.
Since they were so set on attacking with abandon, I activated my seldomly used tier 3 boss ability, ‘Damage Reflection.’ For the next five seconds, all damage inflicted would be stored and added to one attack of my choosing.
Calling for my shadow again, I let my senses bifurcate, this time controlling the two bodies at once. My shadow clone appeared behind the attacking cyborgs. It raised its own mana shield then we both launched a volley of drilling arrows, taking down two more enemies.
The nine remaining cyborgs split to attack both of my bodies, but before they could destroy our shields, we both teleported a short distance away, leaving our old shields behind, then raised another set of shields, trapping the attackers between four bubbles of force.
With the situation pretty much contained, I finally took the time to order my dagger to fly out, sacrificing the frozen enemies and freezing a third along the way. Then both my shadow and I slowly turned, launching two volleys of drilling arrows at once, again and again, until all the small cyborgs were dead.
“Well done,” the metallic-voiced woman said again. “You’ve completed the first test in under a minute, and you only exhausted 32 percent of your mana. The next test will begin at once–”
“Screw that,” I snarled in two different voices.
I doubted my spells would work against the huge machine, so I teleported again, flanking the mech with my two bodies, then thrust my spears in from opposite sides, pouring in all the blows Damage Reflection had accumulated.
Demon Staff hit ??? for 576 damage (520 + 56).
My spearlike staves, both physical and shadow-cloned, pierced through the tough metal, the real one glowing with added power.
I yanked out the weapon in a spray of sparks and electronic parts. The huge machine tumbled down like a pile of cards, and the brown object at the top rolled off the smoldering heap to the ground.
It was a large, bulbous potato. A strange circuit board and wiring were connected to it. Colorful lights blinked across the board as the voice spoke again. “Oh no, you’ve bested me in battle. Please don’t kill me. I can be useful.”
This entire scenario
was absurd. “Useful how? You’re just a potato.”
“I’m a core. I can help you operate and control any machine – or golem – that you wish.”
Vic approached the clearing, shaking his purple head. “You went too far this time.”
“You really did,” I told the unmoving potato. “Subtlety was never really your forte, Aidanriel.”
***
The potato flashed with intense light, forcing me to close my eyes. When I opened them again, the potato was gone. Instead, the brightly shining figure of an Outrider took its place.
“G’day mate,” Aidanriel said cheerfully. “So what gave me away?”
“Are you kidding me?” Vic said incredulously. “What didn’t give you away?”
I started counting on my fingers. “The ambient music, the butchering of a popular song, controlling a giant machine.” I looked up at him. “Also, offering to act as a golem core was a dead giveaway.”
“I said I am a core,” he protested. “And that I can help operate machines or golems.”
“Yeah, well, I think you let slip a ‘mate’ somewhere back there. Another dead giveaway.”
“I did not!” he said indignantly.
The imposing figure looked down at Vic. “Did I?”
He shrugged. “I wasn’t here for the whole show, but I wouldn’t put it past you, brother.”
“Aidanriel,” I said, “why are you here? And why are you molesting my foblins?”
He chuckled and rubbed his neck. “Sorry about that, mate. Here, I’ll make it all better.” He waved his hand negligently. The dead bodies shimmered then rose up as perfectly healthy, normal foblins. The critters took one fearful look at me and the glowing figure and ran away without a word.
“There,” he said. “No harm no foul, mate.”
“Why are you here?” I asked again.
He sighed. “I thought being all-powerful would be great. Give me the final push I needed to make it as a full-time composer, y’know?”
Life Reset: Human Resource (New Era Online Book 4) Page 33
