“What’s that do?” I asked, taking a tentative step closer.
“Why it’s the greatest in harvesting technology. It slices, it dices, why it even takes out the trash. The Extractor XD-17 can do it all.” Elizabeth gestured triumphantly at it. “And it can be yours as long as you take care of me and mine.” She held out a hand to me. “Deal?”
“Deal,” I said, taking her hand and shaking it. As I did, blue orbs appeared over all the women Elizabeth had brought with her. “Guess we need to get things moving.”
22
“A sculptor, eh?” I said as I looked over Annabeth. She was a shorter girl with long black hair, almond eyes, and tan skin. “How does one become a sculptor?”
Everyone else had been sent along already, and the extractor was busy chewing up the landscape like it had slept with its wife. Agatha had taken the five new guards on a hunting party to both look for more Stained and see if they could find some game to kill. We’d also dragged in the bodies of the demon dogs, and since one of the Stained had been a cook, she was busy preparing them for a meal. I was both concerned and excited by the prospect.
That just left the sculptor.
“It’s easy,” she said, showing me her teeth. “You just punch statues for a month to build your endurance and toughness until you get a quest. One thing leads to another, and well…” She waved a hand. “Anyway, that’s not important.” She looked around before meeting my eyes. There was a surprising amount of both rage and resignation in them. “What would you have me do?”
“I’m not sure, to be honest,” I said, pulling up her Character Sheet. “What would you like to do?”
Name: Annabeth
Experience: 25,773
Health: 75/75
Mana: 153/153
Primary Power: Sculpting
Secondary Power: None selected
Strength: 10/100
Agility: 65/100
Charisma: 28/100
Intelligence: 56/100
Special: 97/100
Perk: Rank 2 Sculptor
“Holy cow!” I exclaimed, looking from her to her Skill sheet and back again. “You’re Special is really high, and you’re Rank two!”
“Yes.” She nodded. “I have not yet taken the master level test. I believe I would pass, but the time commitment is too much.”
Rank 2 Sculptor: Able to use Skills and Abilities based upon Rank two Skill. This will allow the sculptor to produce Grade A items 80% of the time. There is a 10% chance of crafting a Grade S item. There is a 10% chance of crafting a Grade B item.
“How the hell did you wind up out here in the boonies?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her. She was clothed in simple yet sturdy garments, the kind which was likely expensive, but only because they were durable and comfortable.
“I often venture into the wilderness to pursue my craft. One must sculpt new and difficult things to improve one’s Skill. Being out in the wilderness helps with that. I saw the group leaving, and I offered to help them as I’m good with a knife.” She held up a small sculpting blade emblazoned with runes. “But alas, I could not hope to defeat the ravagers on my own, so I was forced to flee.” She pointed the knife at me. “Now I belong to you. So, I ask again, what would you have me do?”
“Why do you keep asking me that like you expect me to tell you to blow me or something?” I asked, flicking through her Skill trees until I had a better idea of her powers. “I’m not going to do that.”
“Oh?” she asked, raising a slender eyebrow at me. Then she flushed. “Of course. I am not your type.” She gestured at her chest. “I’m not big enough here. I should not have presumed.”
“What, no, you’re fine. I just don’t believe in ordering girls to sleep with me,” I said, trying my best to reassure her. “In fact, it’s the one thing I will absolutely not order you to do.”
“Interesting,” she said, still unconvinced, but I wasn’t sure what by.
“Believe me when I say that I want you for your mind, Annabeth,” I said, pointing at a Skill Tree I knew she couldn’t see. It had two Skills I was supremely interested in.
Aura of Enhancement: This Ability allows the user to create a sculpture which gives a bonus to different attributes to all friendlies within a one-hundred-meter range.
Requirements: Special: 50+, Agility: 50+, Intelligence 50+
Cost: 1500 Experience
Aura of Detraction: This Ability allows the user to create a sculpture which gives a detriment to all enemies within a one-hundred-meter range.
Requirements: Special: 50+, Agility: 50+, Intelligence 50+
Cost: 1500 Experience
“I’m not sure what you’re trying to show me,” she said, following my finger as I had her learn both Abilities and then spent a few thousand Experience to increase the range of the Abilities and make them both more powerful.
Only as I was doing that, I saw I’d unlocked a third Ability.
Double-Bladed: This Ability allows the user to create a sculpture which has both an Enhancing and Detracting effect. Each of these effects will be based on the Skill of those Abilities.
Requirements: Special: 70+, Agility: 70+, Intelligence 70+
Cost: 1500 Experience
“How do you feel,” I said after quickly upgrading her Stats and learning the new Ability. I turned my gaze back to her, having spent over half her accumulated Experience with a single goal in mind. Part of me felt bad, but at the same time we had ravagers coming, and we had to stop them.
“Strange,” she said, touching a finger to her temple. “But not in a bad way. You changed me, didn’t you?” She shut her eyes and took a deep breath. “I have so many more ideas now, I think…” Her eyes opened wide. “I know what you’ve done to me.”
“Do you disapprove?” I asked, my smile threatening to slip off my face because she looked pissed.
“I do not know. I believe in hard work, and this feels like a shortcut, but at the same time, I want to try sculpting something. I think it will be helpful.” She looked away toward the gate. “I will need a giant piece of stone. I will go find the appropriate piece, and then we will need to bring it into the center of the town.”
“Sounds good,” I said, and she nodded at me before making her way toward the back gate. I watched her go for a second before turning my attention toward the trading post. From there I could still see Buffy and Elizabeth arguing. I wasn’t sure what about, but the sisters seemed to shout at each other so often, I knew visiting them now wouldn’t help.
Instead, I turned my sights on Sam’s shop and made my way toward it. As I knocked on the door before stepping inside, I found myself looking at her two helpers.
“Where’s Sam?” I asked, and the closer girl who was busy shuffling ore about the place looked over to me.
“She’s with Sally in the refinery,” she said before turning her attention back toward the rocks which were clearly more interesting than me.
“Okay, thanks,” I said, turning to go.
“Oh, and the mill equipment Sam designed should be ready soon. Maybe end of tomorrow, if we’re lucky,” she added as I hit the door.
“Cool, thanks for the update,” I said, moving down the road a bit toward the makeshift building, Sally used as an alchemist’s shop. It wasn’t nice, but it did have four wooden walls thanks to cobbling together the parts from the other buildings. Inside, I found both Sam and Sally staring at a huge piece of glowing ore.
“What’s that?” I asked, taking a step toward them and causing both of them to look over at me.
“This is a grade A chunk of Dark Blood,” Sally said, beaming at me. “But not only that, it’s the one from the beholder. I did my best, trying to get it to S grade, but no luck. Still though, it’s so huge, it could really sell for a lot.”
“Size doesn’t always matter,” I said, opening up Sam’s Character Sheet. “But I’m glad it’s all working out.”
“Well, if you aren’t here to check up on me, why are you here?” Sally ask
ed, moving toward the counter where a variety of Dark Bloods of different qualities sat ready for inspection. “I was able to get almost all of these to grade A. We even have a single grade S.” She pointed to one on the end that was a bit smaller than the others. It glowed twice as brightly.
“I wanted to see if Sam has enough Skill to learn the Dark Weaponry technique yet,” I said but was saddened to find she was still several hundred Experience short.
“And?” Sam asked, looking over at me.
“You haven’t earned enough Experience yet. You best get back to work. We’ll need that Skill if we want to fight the ravagers that are coming.” I sighed. “I still don’t know how we’re going to fight them in a day or so.”
“We have to be smart,” Sally said, dusting herself off. “Maybe we can’t beat them in a one-on-one fight, but maybe we can beat them a different way.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
In reply, she picked up one of the demon horns we’d collected from the demon dogs and held it out. “I think I might be able to make an explosive. We have a lot of the materials already, and we can use the shavings from the Dark Blood and some of these horns to make it super powerful.”
“But you can’t penetrate the hide of a ravager,” Sam said. “You need a cannon or something to do it, and even then, it’s iffy. Half the time the balls bounce right off.”
“Which is why I’m proposing we blow them up from the inside.” Sally smirked. “Skin may be the same thickness on both sides, but the gooey bits are still inside. I think if we can get them to swallow an explosive, we might be able to kill it.”
“That’s pretty genius,” I said, nodding to her, “but how do we get them to swallow it?”
“Therein lies the rub,” Sally said, looking down at her shoes. “I’m not sure. We could try just tossing it in their mouths, but that may not work, and we probably won’t get many chances.”
“Let me think,” I said as I idly flipped through Sam’s Skill trees to find something that would help. Unfortunately, everything cost too much or didn’t seem useful. “You know, everything has a weak spot. We just need to figure out what it is.” I nodded to myself as I stared at a particular set of Skills based on Tree I hadn’t paid much attention to before. It seemed crazy, but the more I looked at it, the more I thought it might work. Only having her learn the Control Tree would cost almost all her Experience and delay Dark weapons for a while. At the same time, it just might work. At least, if what I was reading about the helmets the tree could make did what I thought they did. “Let me go talk to Crystal, Sheila, and Agatha. I have a really bad idea.”
23
“Your plan is crazy, and not in the cute, endearing kind of crazy we’ve come to know and love over the last couple days,” Gwen said as I stood before her, Agatha, Sheila, and Crystal. All around the town workers were bustling to and fro, hurrying to gather materials to strengthen our defenses. Thankfully, Sam had been able to modify the extractor slightly so it could also process the raw material to turn them into usable building materials, and now Maribelle was hard at work getting our walls up to speed.
“Look, even if Maribelle and her crew get all the walls up, we will still get stomped flat by the ravagers when they show up. This is the only thing I can think of.” I gestured toward the dark, crackling horizon. “We need to go in there and kill a few more beholders so we can harvest their Dark Blood.”
“No one has ever ventured into the Darkness and come back,” Gwen said, staring at me for a long time. “And I know you’re the Builder, but if we lose you, we’ll all die.”
“You won’t lose me, and we’ll die, anyway.” I turned from her slightly and looked at the three other women, trying to search their faces for clues and finding nothing. “Don’t you guys think we can do it?”
“I honestly do not know,” Sheila said, with a shrug. “I’m not sure what we’ll find there. If it’s just more lizardmen and a beholder, sure, we’ll probably be okay. The four guards we got with the caravan are at least as good as Agatha and me minus the Special Abilities you gave us.”
“What if we get attacked again while you’re out hunting for beholders like a crazy person?” Gwen asked, this time with fear in her voice. “What then?”
“Polly and the others are more than capable of holding the town unless something much stronger than lizardmen shows up. They’re good enough for standing there being bored. Besides, we just had an attack. We usually have some time in between,” Agatha said off-handedly.
“And you’ll be here, Gwen,” I said, not making eye contact with her. “You’re plenty strong enough to help them.”
“What do you mean I’m not coming? Of course, I’m coming!” she snapped, marching toward me until we were practically nose to nose. “I have to come. I need to protect you.”
“I’m going to have a full contingent of guards with me. And I need someone here to make sure all the work gets done. You’re the only one who can do that.” I touched her hand. “I need you to do this. You’re the only one I can trust.”
“I don’t like it,” Gwen said, shaking her head. “But if it’s what you think is best, I’ll trust you.” She took a deep breath. “If you need me, you can summon me through the sword, okay? I’ll come. No matter what, I’ll come.”
“We’ll take care of him,” Agatha said, putting a hand on Gwen’s shoulder. “I promise. I’ll die before I let anything happen to the Builder.”
“I know,” Gwen said, sighing as she stepped away from me and looked at the crackling sky. “That’s sort of what I’m afraid of. I don’t want to lose any of you.”
“We’re not going to lose anyone,” I said, taking a deep breath before grabbing Gwen and hugging her. The succubus’s body melted into mine as she wrapped her hands around me, and for a moment, I wanted to forget everything but the feel of her. “I promise.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” she said, pulling away from me and wiping her eyes with the back of one hand. “I still don’t understand why you need to go.”
“A real leader leads from the front. You said no one has done this before. That means I can’t send them inside without going myself because if something happens, only I can give them the Skills they’ll need.” She nodded as I turned back to the three. “Let’s get the others and head out, okay?”
“Sir,” Crystal said, as the other two broke away to gather the four guards we’d gained from the merchant’s caravan.
“Yes?” I said.
“We need to bring Sally. Look, I know she’s valuable here and practically irreplaceable, but she’s the only healer.” Crystal swallowed. “I’d hate to wind up in a situation where we need her and don’t have her because we left her behind.”
“Me too. That’s why I’m going to get her. I’ll meet you outside in a minute.” I smiled, but she shook her head.
“Let me get her, okay?” She gave me a weak smile, and I nodded.
“Okay,” I said. She took off for Sally’s shop, leaving me to stand there by my lonesome. “I’ll just wait here then.”
Not that it mattered. Ten minutes later we were all ready to go. The dark border was only a half mile away, and as we approached it, the air began to feel hot and muggy. I rubbed my arms, trying to dismiss the feeling of creatures crawling across my flesh, only I couldn’t. Every time I moved, more pinpricks prickled across my flesh.
“Well, this doesn’t feel at all creepy,” I mumbled to no one in particular. Sheila and Agatha stood in front of me while Crystal and Sally made up the rear. I had a pair of guards on either side of me, and before we’d left, I’d taken the opportunity to give the one with the most Experience as a defensive fighter Defending Aegis so she’d be able to trade threat with Sheila.
Her name was Romy, and she was a short girl with lime green hair and chalky skin. The others hadn’t had enough accumulated Experience for me to do much with yet, unfortunately, since they were all fairly new to the whole guarding thing. Ah well.
&n
bsp; Lightning crackled overhead, and as we moved closer, Clarent began to glow in my hand, throwing sparks of sapphire in every direction. Thunder boomed as we stepped closer to the darkened swell of shadow that made up the border. Inky stretches of pure black reached out like roots into the shores of Hell, and as I stepped foot on a tendril, I realized it felt sort of sticky. Like tar almost.
More lightning fractured the horizon, and the smell of sulfur hit my nose, bringing tears to my eyes.
As Sheila raised her shield and took a hesitant step forward, she glanced over her shoulder at me. “Last chance to go back, boss because in a second we’ll be in.”
“We have to do this. We need the beholder’s blood.” I steeled myself and took a step forward. Dark mist wrapped itself around me, and the thundering of hooves filled my ears.
“I love that you’re one crazy son of a bitch, boss,” Sheila said and strode forward. As she did, her body disappeared. It was crazy because one second she was there, and the next she was gone. Agatha followed and soon disappeared. As she did, my eyes opened wide.
This wasn’t a border. No, it was a giant portal. We were going to be stepping into a new realm.
“Fuck,” I muttered, swallowing hard before raising my chin and stiffening my spine. Then I stepped through the portal into the Darkness, and my entire body was ripped into microscopic specs, doused with napalm, and tossed into the sun. And that was the fun part.
24
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” I exclaimed as I appeared on the other side. The girls were no longer with me, which while incredibly concerning because not only did I not know where they were, I didn’t know where the fuck I was. And yes, that amount of cursing was most definitely required.
The Builder's Sword (The Legendary Builder Book 1) Page 14
