The Builder's Pride (The Legendary Builder Book 3)

by J. A. Cipriano

  “Ah, I was about to ask about Sally,” I said, moving into the room. “Is your book interesting?”

  She looked haggard and worn, but better, and if her current situation was any indication, she at least seemed like she should be getting better.

  “Not really. It’s about this guy Mac Brennan who sold his soul to a demon and got a magic arm. Only he can’t remember why he sold his soul because he has amnesia and uses it as an excuse to kill everyone.” Sam shrugged. “I think the author might be a hack.”

  “I dunno, sounds kinda cool to me. Does it have lots of explosions?” I pulled out the Once and Future Builder, the denser than a textbook manual for all things Builder I’d gotten from Gabriella when she’d first arrived in Hell. You know, assuming it had decided it wanted to reveal the information to me. “Because if it does, we can totally trade.”

  “Pass.” Sam put her book on her lap and looked at me. “I’m fine by the way. I appreciate you coming to see me, but I know you have things to do.”

  “Yeah, here’s the thing though. I need to have my sword rebuilt. Are you going to be strong enough to do that?” I looked at my shoes sheepishly. Here Sam was hurt, and I was about to ask her to help me. It seemed like a dick move and probably was, but at the same time, we were at war. Besides, I doubted Sam wanted me to coddle her.

  “Theoretically.” She watched me for a moment. “But we still need the Stygian Iron, and unless I’ve been asleep for longer than I expect,” she made a dramatic show of checking her watchless wrist, “I doubt you’ve found any.”

  “I have a plan for that. Well, Buffy has a plan for that.” I sighed, waving off the comment. “That’s not actually why I came here.”

  She gave me a sad smile. “Look, I’m really not up for the whole sex thing right now.” Her eyes twinkled slightly. “Wouldn’t turn down a topless sponge bath though.”

  “What?” I asked, feeling my cheeks heat up. “No, that’s not why I’m here.”

  “I figured.” She took a deep breath. “I was trolling you. Trust me, the absolute last thing I want is for you to give me a sponge bath. Not when Gabriella can do it.” Sam gave me a wry smile. “She has the touch of an angel, don’t you know.”

  “Ha ha,” I said, rolling my eyes as I moved to the chair next to her bed and sat down. “I actually have an important question for you.”

  “Lucifer?” she asked, and the way she said it made me think she knew I was going to ask about it. In retrospect it made sense. She’d seen Mammon. No doubt the two had chatted about it.

  “Yes.” I opened the book and showed her the page detailing the archangel. I’d noticed it’d filled itself in after I’d talked to Saramana. It also had details on the crown, but unlike Mammon’s gauntlets, it had no recipe nor characteristics for what the thing actually did.

  “You can’t trust Lucifer.” Sam stopped herself. “Actually, that isn’t true. You can totally trust her to do what she thinks is best.” Sam tapped her cheek with one finger, lost in thought. “You know those leaders who are absolutely sure they are one hundred percent correct? The ones surrounded by yes men because they fire everyone who disagrees with them? That’s what Lucifer is like.” She shrugged. “It’s great when she’s actually right, but when she’s not…” she gestured around the room as if to say, “see Exhibit A.”

  “Great, so as long as we’re doing the same thing, I can trust her.” I took a deep breath. “She seemed sort of straightforward to me. Powerful as fuck, but straightforward.”

  “That she is.” Sam met my eyes. “Lucifer is power. Likely the most powerful of all the archangels. It took the combined forces of Heaven to throw her ass out.” She took a deep breath and searched for the words. “And then once she and her fallen were down here, they eventually took her down too. Think about that. She was the de facto leader of Heaven and was violently forced out. Then the same thing happened in Hell. The likelihood we’ll need to force her out again is really high.”

  “But until then…” I muttered, not liking where this was going. I knew it was crazy, but I’d sort of felt bad for the Devil. It was absolutely insane, but she was also powerful and had an armament. Having her at my side should make dealing with the Darkness easier.

  “Until then you’d better play nice because even if Mammon, Gabriella, and I were at full strength, she could snap her fingers and make us explode.” Sam’s voice had gone deathly serious. “That isn’t hyperbole, Arthur.”

  “Oh.” I swallowed. I’d know she was powerful, but if she could kill another Archangel with the snap of her fingers, how were we to do anything but what she wanted? “How was she defeated?”

  “We took her hammer.” Sam sighed. “It helps her focus her power. Without it, she has to spend a tremendous amount of her focus just to keep her own strength from consuming her. That’s the key to beating her. It always has been.” She watched me for a second. “When we battled in Heaven, we took her hammer and flung it from Heaven. Only then were we able to stand against her. I got the impression she never recovered it after that. If she had, who knows what would have happened. Nothing good, that’s for sure.”

  “Well, see, that’s the thing,” I looked everywhere to avoid her laser-like stare, “she sort of wants me to get her hammer in exchange for the Armament.”

  “I figured,” Sam said, voice somewhat bored. “Mammon and I talked about it, and there’s nothing else we can think of that she’d rather have.” Sam sighed. “It’s definitely one of those ‘doomed if you do, doomed if you don’t’ situations. Still…” she let the word trail off until I turned back to look at her, and I found her smiling at me. “I think you should do it. Give her the hammer and toss her ass at the Darkness. That’s what she really wants, anyway. A second shot at glory and redemption. She won’t say it, but I know that is what she really wants.”

  “Wait, you want me to power up the Devil?” I asked, sort of confused. “I mean, I get what you’re saying, but… why would she care about redemption?”

  “Because she’s prideful.” Sam watched me carefully. “Right now, her pride has been hurt. She’ll do anything she can to make everyone see she was right. To do that, she must conquer the Darkness once and for all, put that genie back in its bottle so to speak. After that, well, all bets are off, but until then? Well, until then, I think we can count on her to actually help.” She shrugged. “What’s the alternative? Give up on the Armament? Dred already has five. You’ll need at least five to stand against him. Lucifer has one. Not getting it from her is silly.”

  “That makes a certain amount of sense.” I nodded. “I think I can work with that… That just leaves me with my last question, and then I’ll leave you to your book.”

  “You want to know what the Armament I gave Dred does.” Sam gestured at me. “You should have figured it out.”

  “I should have figured it out?” I asked, confused. “You know I’m kind of dumb, right?”

  “Only when it comes to women,” Sam said, rolling her eyes. “The armor you have based on the augmentations to Clarent? That’s my Armament. That’s what I gave Dred.”

  “Wait, you mean the armor I summon with Clarent? That’s the power you gave Dred?” I stared at her in confusion. “But you gave me that.”

  “And when you wore it, did you not feel stronger and faster? Did you not gain magic powers?” Sam shrugged. “It’s not as powerful because I couldn’t put as much power into it as I did Dred’s as he saps nearly everything inside me, but the concept is the same.” She touched her chest where Dred had once marked her, only now the mark was broken. “I honestly have no idea how it will function now that the bond between us had been severed.”

  “Does that mean what I think it means?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at me. “Because if you’re saying Dred is about to lose one of his Armaments…”

  “His armament will still function, just likely at the level your armor does unless he’s found a way to bridge the power thing. The armaments essentially allow the user to tap into
the giver’s power for fuel. Perhaps the Darkness is fueling his Armament now. Either way, I wouldn’t count on him being weaker.”

  “Fair enough. That’s a bad plan, anyway.” I sighed. “I guess that’s it until I can find the sword.” I got to my feet and kissed her on the forehead. Her skin was both too warm and clammy, reminding me of how I’d felt after a fever had broken. “Get well soon.”

  “I’ll do my best,” she said, picking up her book. I smiled, watching her for a moment, and as I did, she glanced up at me. “Yes?”

  “Nothing,” I said, taking a deep breath. “I’m really glad you’re okay.”

  “You probably say that to all the girls, but I’m glad to hear it.” She made a shooing motion with her hand. “Now go, I’m at the part where he steals a race car and drives it through a mansion.”

  “Right…” I rolled my eyes as I made my way back outside.

  5

  “Hey, Gabriella, could you go and find Buffy for me?” I asked as I came out of Sam’s room. She’d been waiting outside staring at her notes like she was afraid she was forgetting something.

  “Buffy?” Gabriella asked, looking at me in confusion. “She’s not on the schedule.”

  “Is there anything on the schedule?” I asked, moving over to take a peek before I realized I wouldn’t be able to read it. Man, not having Clarent’s ability to translate everything into digestible tooltips sucked. I needed to get on that whole Stygian Iron thing so I could repair the weapon.

  “Not until you meet with Gwen in about an hour.” She looked at me concerned. “Did I miss something?”

  “No, it’s fine. Go find Buffy and tell her to meet me over there.” I pointed to a spot between the buildings. It was littered with rocks, and our carpenters had opted to avoid the space for now. They’d marked it out with stakes and rope, but clearly, they were choosing to work on easier areas first.

  “Okay…” Gabriella took a deep breath before looking back to her notes and scribbling something. “I've added it to your calendar. I’ll be back before you can say moose knuckle.”

  “Moose knuckle?” I asked as she turned to walk away. “I’m not familiar with the term.”

  Gabriella stopped and blushed. Hard. “Um… well…” she gestured at my pants. “It’s when a guy’s you know…”

  “I honestly don’t know,” I said, looking down at myself. “Do I have one?”

  “No. I mean, I didn’t look or anything.” She flushed so hard her chest and neck turned pink. “Sorry, I just, I have to get Buffy.” She gave me a determined look and tapped the notes with one hand. “It’s on the schedule. Silly me, gotta run.” She pointed her chin in the opposite direction of me and walked off, taking over-exaggerated steps.

  “All right…” I mumbled, shrugging my shoulders. Then I made my way toward the spot that had been marked off. It was easy to see why they’d avoided it. Chunks of rock were not only strewn across the dirt, but they looked to be embedded into the earth itself. Not just small chunks either, the kind that made you think what was visible was just the tip of the iceberg.

  Still, this was just what I needed. I pulled my gauntlets, The Unrelenting Grips of Greed, on. They were the Armament provided by Mammon, the Princess of Greed, and allowed me to pull whatever I wanted from wherever I wanted with a weird sort of telekinesis, assuming, of course, that I was strong enough to actually do it. I took a deep breath as a wave of cold hit me, then I reached my hand out toward the plot.

  The gemstones embedded into the palms and the back of the hands began to glow with silver light, and my skin began to prickle as Mammon’s power fell over me. This must have been what Sam was talking about. Every time I’d used the gauntlets so far, I’d felt Mammon’s presence like an ice cube down the back of my neck, and what’s more, I’d gotten the impression she felt when I used the power.

  The thought made me sick. Had Sam felt Dred use her powers to slaughter her friends and family? What a fucking bastard.

  Pushing the thought out of my mind before it could distract me, I exhaled a breath of mist and raised my hand, focusing on the Armament I’d gotten from Mammon, the Relentless Grips of Greed.

  Like Clarent, it allowed me to see stats and tooltips, but only of the objects I could extract with its power.

  Instantly the whole field came alive with stat boxes and menus. The most common material was a stone called Coti. It was definitely the most plentiful stone here, but there was also limestone, and a few others. None of it looked particularly difficult to extract, and for a second I wanted to try to pull one of them out just to see what it was like in comparison to the Coti. Only, as I looked back at the menu for the gray stone, I noticed there were two new categories. Proficiency and Overall Proficiency.

  Coti

  Material Type: stone

  Grade: B (Average)

  Depth: 3 meters

  Difficulty: 2

  Proficiency: 1/100

  Overall Proficiency: 0/100

  A type of stone typically used in construction.

  “I wonder what those do,” I mumbled, flipping open the menu for Proficiency.

  Proficiency: The user has demonstrated the ability to pull this type of material from its designated location. Each time this is successfully performed, a bonus equal to the proficiency rating will be subtracted from the overall difficulty calculation. Each material has its own, separate proficiency rating that must be raised.

  “Okay, I guess I can get really good at pulling out Coti.” I shrugged. It would be useful to reduce the difficulty of extracting the different materials, but I wasn’t sure what being really good at removing Coti would do for me in the long run. Somewhat dissatisfied, I opened the tooltip for Overall Proficiency.

  Overall Proficiency: An additive bonus applied to the difficulty of extracting any material from its designated location based on the Proficiency rating of each individual material the user has achieved.

  My eyes opened wide in shock. If I was reading the tooltip correctly, it meant that by raising the proficiency of Coti, it would contribute to my Overall Proficiency, and that would help me pull limestone, or even Stygian Iron, from the ground. Sure, I had no idea what sort of contribution it would make, but I was suddenly much more optimistic about the prospect of actually obtaining the Stygian Iron.

  “Time to get on with it then,” I said, suddenly excited. I was going to pull all the Coti in the town from the ground. After that, I’d move on to everything else, sweeping the town in waves to make the most use of my Overall Proficiency. I smirked. It was time to power level the crap out of this.

  Nodding to myself, I moved to the closest piece of Coti and dropped to my knees in the dirt. Then I placed my hand on the rock. I felt the connection between it and the gauntlets instantly, like a thousand invisible tethers reaching out and latching onto the piece of stone. I could instantly see the size and shape of the rock within the dirt, and while it seemed like there should be more detail available, there wasn’t. No, it was sort of like I’d hit it with a sonar blast and was reading the echo. It gave me a general shape of what was around it but not much else.

  Still, it was a lot more than what I’d seen when I pulled the first piece of stone from the earth. Perhaps I’d get more detail as I did it? I wasn’t sure, but either way, I had to level up my Overall Proficiency. Once I did that, I could try getting the Stygian Iron.

  The gauntlets began to glow with silver light, causing little sparks of lightning to flash within the gemstones. The one made from the Heart of Earth flashed brightly, glowing with a violent green color as the rock beneath my fingers began to move. The surrounding earth cracked, splitting open like the flesh of a ripe peach to reveal the pit.

  My brow began to sweat, and my chest heaved with effort as the stone began to move upward. Shutting my eyes, I concentrated and allowed Mammon’s power to fill me. The cold touch of her strength washed over me like a bucket of ice water in winter, causing my teeth to chatter and my hair to stand on end. Gooseflesh s
prouted across my arms and legs, but I ignored it, focusing on the coti.

  “Come on,” I wheezed, and jerked my hands upward. The rock exploded from the earth, a massive chunk that had to have weighed about forty pounds. It hung in the air in front of me for a moment before crashing to the ground.

  As I looked at it just sitting there, I glanced at my proficiency rating and found it had increased to two. Excellent. A smile crossed my lips as I wiped my brow with the back of one hand. Then I pushed myself to the next piece of Coti. It had a similar difficulty rating, and judging on how much effort the last one had taken, I was pretty sure I could pull about five or six more without needing to rest. Still, time would tell.

  “What did you want, Arthur?” Buffy said, marching over to me as I settled down to extract the next one. “Because I am way too busy to watch you pull rocks from the ground.” She kicked idly at the stone before squatting down, so we were eye to eye.

  “I’m going to pull every piece of stone out of this town and the surrounding areas. I want you to tell me which ones to do.” I gestured at the field. “I’m going to start with Coti, but being that there is a ton of it, I’m sure it’s not worth much. You’re the one who knows what will sell. Draw me up a list of what to focus on so we can make some money.”

  “Arthur,” Buffy said, swallowing hard. “As much as I love you taking the initiative to make money, none of this stuff is worth much. I’ve studied the resource maps for the whole area, and there’s scant little that is Sure, we could sell all this rock, but it’d be better for us to use it…”

  “That doesn’t sound like you, Buffy. What’s wrong?” I asked, watching her fidget.

  “You’re aware Royal Centre was destroyed, right?” She cocked an eyebrow at me. “That’s the capital for all of Hell. Where do you think we sell most of this type of thing?” She shook her head. “All the other places went there to make orders and deliver. Now there’s nowhere to facilitate trade. Stuff like this,” she gestured to the piles of stone all around us. “We’re better off waiting until a new trade hub and commodities market has been set up. Otherwise, we risk having to sell it dirt cheap.”