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

by J. A. Cipriano

  “Why would they place such a binding upon my hammer?” she asked, gaze flitting from the weapon to me and back again. “You should have your own weapon. You do not need mine.”

  “I have a theory,” I said, offering her my right hand. “It was to get you to join me.”

  “I do not follow,” Lucifer said, glancing at my hand as confusion spread across her face.

  I pointed at the hammer with the crown in my hand. “When I wore your crown and held the hammer, I felt tied to you. I’m not sure if you felt it too.”

  “I did.” She nodded. “I felt you stealing from me.”

  “I think that if you were to give me your mark, you could bypass those marks. Then, instead of keeping you from your power, you would have access to it through me.” I shrugged. “It’s just a theory.” I offered her the crown once more.

  “And if you are wrong?” She took the crown from me and looked down at it.

  “Then you’ll have helped save the world for no reason,” I said, shrugging. “Your other option is to talk to your sisters and see what they say, but something tells me that if you were going to do that, you would have.”

  “I cannot meet them without being in a place of strength.” She handed me the crown back. “Keep this for now. I will think about what you have said, Builder.” She looked me up and down. “I was not born to bow down before a man.”

  “I’m not asking you to bow down,” I said, taking the lifeless crown from her. “I’m asking you to join the fight against the Darkness.”

  “It is the same thing,” she said, and even before the words had finished leaving her lips, she vanished. Leaving me standing there all alone on the volcano’s edge. The hammer gleamed beside me, left behind along with the crown. Lucifer was strange, but I was starting to think I understood her. At least a little.

  I put the crown back on my head and lifted her warhammer. As I did, the familiar surge of power filled me, causing stat boxes to appear over everything.

  28

  “So, how was making out with the Devil?” Sam asked as I reappeared inside her shop. She was standing over her table, staring down at the chunks of ore I’d gathered from the volcano.

  “We didn’t make out,” I said, approaching her. “How are you?”

  “Good, but that will change if you get much closer.” She turned and looked at me with hungry eyes, and I got the distinct impression she was imagining me naked.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, suddenly confused. “Why would me coming closer change things?”

  “If you come closer, I might not be able to resist Lust’s call.” She pointed at my chest, and I looked down to see the mark on my chest was blazing with purple light again. What’s more Lust’s binding on the hammer was glowing too. “And as much as I’d love to give in, I’m too hurt to manage that.” She touched her chest where we’d torn Dred’s mark from her. “You understand, right?”

  “Yeah,” I sighed, running my free hand through my hair. “I’m not exactly sure how to turn it off.” I stared down at it and felt the pulse of heat within my chest. “My sexy knows no bounds, it’d seem.”

  “Sounds like you need to talk to our resident succubus, but until then, you stand over there.” She pointed to the far corner. “And word of advice. Don’t go anywhere crowded, okay?” She shook her head. “I don’t feel like seeing you sexed to death.”

  “Right,” I mumbled, feeling my cheeks heat up. If there was a way to control the power of lust radiating off of me, I needed to find it. As much as I enjoyed every girl I saw wanting to rip off my clothes, it was getting a bit tiresome to walk around with a constant erection.

  “Anyway, we have a problem.” She gestured at the table. “I can’t smelt this stuff down into ingots. It’s not even close to my expertise.” As she spoke, her smelting tree popped into view, and I saw she was right. While she could smelt basic metals, most of the tree was unlearned. Hell, she didn’t even have more than cursory training in the main skill.

  “Yeah, I can see that,” I mumbled, and as I tried to increase her base skill, I found I couldn’t. Lucifer’s hammer and crown gave me the ability to look but not touch, it seemed. “So, what do you want to do?”

  “We have a couple options, honestly.” She turned and looked at me. “Option one is I can try heating up the ends of the broken blade. If I get them hot enough, I might be able to weld them together. Then I can pound it out until it becomes one piece of steel. It won’t be quite as good as before, but it will be usable.” She shrugged. “Probably.”

  “And you didn’t do that before, why?” I asked, watching her. I knew part of the reason was because she’d been hurt, but if that were the only reason, she’d not have sent me to find more Stygian Iron.

  “Two reasons. One, you broke the blade multiple times. Each break is going to require a separate weld. One of those is right where the tang extends into the hilt, and the other is in the center of the blade. Those are both places prone to breakage. So, basically, you have a really good chance of breaking Clarent again. Still, I could get it done in a day or two, assuming my body holds out.” She gave me a weak smile. “I’m fine by the way, but it will be months before I’m back to full strength.”

  “So, assuming you can even do it, the sword won’t be as good as before?” I asked, watching her closely.

  “Theoretically.” She shrugged. “That may let you use your builder powers though. Then you could just keep it on your person and use a different sword.”

  That was an excellent point, and I considered it for a moment before stopping and looking at her. “What’s the second way?”

  “The second way is harder.” Sam gestured at the ore laid out behind her. “It involves melting the sword down into a solid bar, adding more Stygian Iron to the mix, and reforging it anew.” She sighed. “It was what I had planned to do, but the more I think about it, the more I’m not sure I can.” She bit her lip. “It’s entirely possible I’ll fuck it up, and we’ll wind up with a sword that looks really nice but isn’t Clarent.”

  “That seems pretty damned horrible,” I said, peering at Clarent where it lay broken on the bench to her left. Maybe she was right. Maybe the best thing to do would be to fix it and see if I could still use my Builder powers.

  As I thought about it, I used the combined power of the crown and hammer to open her repair tree and looked through it, but the result made my heart sink. While she knew the repair skill, she hadn’t learned any of the skills for repairing legendary weapons. Worse, she didn’t even have most of the forge legendary weapon skills learned which made sense because they required the repair skills.

  While she was proficient in some materials like Dark Blood, and her sword making skills were maxed, I worried she was right. She could definitely create a powerful sword, but there was no way she’d be able to reforge Clarent.

  “The look on your face makes me think I can’t do it,” Sam said, gesturing at me. “That’s the look you have when you’re looking at my stats, but you’re not usually frowning so much.”

  “That’s about the size of it,” I said, right before I flipped open her Legendary Smithery skill tree. That’s when my eyes widened in shock as I looked at her Legendary Armor and Legendary Skill tabs. They had both improved since I’d last looked at her stats.

  Legendary Armor

  Skill: 4/10.

  The user can restore Clarent’s Ability to summon magical armor. This armor will appear when the user uses Clarent to summon it. Once summoned, the armor will give the user increased Abilities.

  Legendary Skill

  Skill: 6/10.

  The user can increase Clarent’s Ability to spend Experience on friendly targets. Doing so will decrease the cost to learn an Ability by 25%.

  Interestingly, where before the third ability in the first line had been blanked out, there was now a new skill visible there.

  Craft Legendary Armament

  Skill: 5/10.

  Given the proper recipe, the user can craf
t a Legendary Armament.

  Well, that made sense. After all, Sam had crafted the Relentless Grips of Greed, so it seemed reasonable for her to gain a skill related to crafting Armaments. However, in addition to learning that skill, there was now another row of skills below it. The first was directly linked to the Craft Legendary Armament skill, and as I glanced at it, I could see why.

  Legendary Armament Repair

  Skill: 1/10.

  The user has grown proficient in working with the Builder’s Legendary Armaments, and can now repair them, should they break.

  The next two skills were moved off to the left, clearly unconnected to the others and were of particular interest to me.

  Legendary Enhancement

  Skill: 1/10.

  The user has grown proficient in working with the Builder’s Legendary Artifacts, and can now enhance them.

  The skill spiraled off to the left, linked to the next skill.

  Legendary Breakdown

  Skill: 1/10.

  The user has grown proficient in working with the Builder’s Legendary Artifacts, and can now extract a single legendary ability from a Legendary artifact to implant in a new Legendary Grade item. Using this skill will destroy the current artifact in its entirety.

  “Well, I have an idea, but you aren’t going to like it,” I said, gesturing at Clarent. “You know a skill that could theoretically be used to pull my Builder ability out of Clarent and place it in a new sword. There’s just one problem.”

  “What’s the problem?” Sam asked, looking back at Clarent where it lay broken. “Because that sounds like a great idea. I can whip up a new sword, and we’ll be good to go.”

  “The problem is you need to have a Legendary Quality Weapon to put the power into, and you don’t have a way to make that.” I gave her a sheepish look. “I want to say sorry, but I don’t think that’s the right word.”

  “It’s not.” Sam frowned. “But that’s good to know. We just need to find a smith good enough to make Legendary weapons.” Sam tapped her cheek. Then her face fell.

  “Is this where you tell me we need the head of the Blacksmith’s guild to make it, and that makes us doubly fucked because she’s dead?” I asked, taking a deep breath. “Because I’ve gotta tell you, I’ve had that thought.”

  “No.” Sam shook her head. “It’s much worse than that.” She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “There is someone I know who can craft such a weapon.”

  “Well, that’s great, right?” I asked, nodding. “Where is she?”

  “In a lake.” Sam looked at the ceiling. “In a goddamned lake.”

  “There’s a lady in a lake?” I asked, and as I said the words, I felt stupid. “Is this one of those hyperbole things?”

  “No.” Sam met my eyes. “When I was up and coming, there were rumors of a woman so talented, she could create weapons so powerful they could never actually be used in battle because no one could wield such power.” Sam took a deep breath. “I found her though. I thought I could learn from her, and I was wrong.” She sighed. “Then when I refused to reveal her location to the Guildmistress, I was demoted.”

  “I’m not sure what to say to that,” I replied, staring at Sam as she fidgeted. Everything about her body language told me she didn’t want to talk about it, let alone take me to this woman, but at the same time, there wasn’t any other way.

  “You’re going to ask me to take you to her, huh?” Sam looked at the floor. “You’d be right to do so.”

  “You don’t seem to think it’s a good idea,” I answered, feeling like a total asshole because I really wanted to do it, to find this woman and make her forge me a new sword to replace Clarent. “Is there some other way?”

  “There isn’t.” Sam turned and looked at the broken pieces of Clarent. “Best I can do is try to repair this, but I don’t think it will work, and with the guild mistress dead, I’m not sure there are many others capable, even if they’d be willing.” Sam sighed and looked back to me. “Get your Lust Aura under control, and I’ll take you.”

  29

  “Gwen, I need your help,” I said as I appeared next to her. The entire conference room turned to look at me. As I reached out for Gwen’s wrist, women sprang from their chairs with so much force, their chairs clattered to the ground and came rushed me with a hungry look in their eyes.

  “Arthur, what’s going on?” Gwen asked, confusion filling her voice. “Can’t you see…” She turned toward the room, one hand raised when she saw them all coming toward me. “Oh.”

  “Yeah.” I took her hand, and the feeling was electric. The mark on my chest blazed, filling the room with purple light and I heard a crash as the serving girl dropped her tray to the ground, forgetting it in her haste to get to me. Already I could feel hands grabbing hold of my shirt and pants, desperate to both pull them off and pull me to their owners.

  “You can explain whatever this is to me, elsewhere,” Gwen said, nodding to me as I teleported. We reappeared on the edge of the volcano where Lucifer had brought me earlier. I’d chosen this spot because I was reasonably sure there’d be no one here. After all, who could get to the mouth of a volcano?

  “Where are we?” Gwen asked, turning in a slow circle as she took in the surroundings.

  “What the hell is going on, Gwen?” I grumbled, ignoring her question. We were next to a volcano. Duh.

  “I should ask you that.” She peered at me. “One minute I’m talking to the head of the farmer’s guild about turnip shortages and the next you appear. Then all the women in the room turn from composed, normal people, to fucking savages.” She looked me up and down. “I’ve seen that look before, Arthur. They wanted to fuck you to death.” She put her hands on her hips. “And as someone who has actually fucked you, I know you’re good, but you’re not that good.”

  “That’s why we need to talk.” I sighed and moved toward the edge. Below the magma boiled, but I wasn’t that concerned with it. After all, as long as I could teleport, I’d be okay.

  “Okay…” Gwen shook her head. “About what?”

  I exhaled a breath that tasted like old socks and turned to look at her. Then I touched the spot on my chest where her mark was still glowing. “Let me break it down. This mark you gave me is making it so every female I come in contact with wants to fuck my brains out.”

  “And that’s a bad thing?” she asked, giving me a sly smile as she came over to me. Then she grabbed my junk. “I’d say you’re more than ready for the occasion.”

  “Stop!” I pushed her away and took a pointed step backward. “I can’t do anything effectively if I can’t even be around women. The entire fucking world is women.”

  “Think about the bright side.” Gwen smirked at me. “At least it’s all women.” She smacked me on my ass to emphasize her point.

  I felt the blood rush from my face. “That was not something I thought about.” I shook off the thought. “Anyway, every other mark I have isn’t glowing.” I pulled off my shirt and stood there bare-chested before her. Sure enough, the marks of Wrath, Greed, and Envy didn’t glow. They just looked like tattoos emblazoned across my flesh. Only her mark glowed.

  “Oh.” Gwen bit her lip. “So, it’s my fault.” She stopped and waved her hand. “I wasn’t saying that accusingly. It literally is my fault.” She huffed out a breath. “So how do I fix it?” She took a step closer and poked at the mark of Lust with one slender finger, but nothing happened. It continued to glow, blazing with purple light.

  “I have no fucking clue.” I crossed my arms over my chest. It was weird, standing before her like this made me uncomfortable, which was crazy because we’d had sex and all, but still.

  “Well, that’s no help.” Gwen bit her lip and walked around me in a slow circle, taking in my body. “Maybe you need to get naked?”

  “Um… why?” I asked, turning to look at her as she ran her hand over the Mark of Wrath.

  “I dunno. I always think better when I’m naked. Maybe you will too…” I turned
and found Gwen had discarded her clothing. She stood there naked as a jaybird. Her dark nipples stood out against her white flesh, already hard and inviting me to lick them.

  “Gwen, I don’t think this is going to help.” I swallowed as she kissed me, one hand reaching into my pants.

  “It’ll definitely help,” she said as she broke the kiss and nipped at my ear. “I've been so horny, Arthur. I can't even think.” Her tongue flicked out, tasting my flesh. “Just fuck me, okay? Then we can figure it out.” She jerked my pants down around my ankles with one quick motion, and as the chainmail hit the stone, she wrapped her hands around me.

  The feeling was indescribable. A wave of pleasure unlike anything I’d ever felt hit me, cascading down the length of my body.

  “Please, Arthur. Don’t make me beg.” She swallowed hard. “Ever since I became the archangel of Lust, the only thing I think about is sex. I need it so bad I’ve thought about going to the human world and just fucking a dorm full of college kids.” She dropped to her knees in front of me. “I haven’t though. I’ve stayed here trying to do right by you, trying to make the treaties work out.” Her tongue flicked out again. “I just need this, okay?”

  “Gwen, I’m not sure—”

  She cut off my words by taking me into her mouth, and if I had thought I had experienced pleasure before, I was wrong. So very fucking wrong. She bobbed up and down on me a couple times before pulling away.

  “What was that, Arthur? I couldn’t hear you because my mouth was full.” She looked up at me. “Did you want me to do something?”

  “Um… yeah,” I said, and even though I did, I suddenly couldn’t think of what it was because she was kneeling before me naked and ready.

  “Then tell me, Arthur.” Her tongue flicked out, trailing up me. “Tell me what you want me to do.”