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

by J. A. Cipriano

  “I can see what you mean,” I said, reaching up and touching my crown. As I did, the farm plot popped into view.

  Farm Plot

  Grade: D

  Size: 64 m by 64 m

  Status: Seeded

  I turned my gaze away from the main menu for the farm plot, focusing on the soil beneath my feet, and as I did, another tooltip opened.

  Seeded Earth

  Type: Rockberry

  Moisture: 1/10

  Nutrients: 6/10

  Note: Rockberry seeds will not grow unless they receive sufficient water.

  I drilled down even further, bringing up the seeds themselves.

  Rockberry Seed

  Type: Edible

  Grow Time: 7-10 days.

  Harvest Time: 3 days

  Usage: Recurring

  Requirements: Moisture: 6+, Nutrients: 4+

  “Do we have other kinds of seeds?” I asked, looking up at Gabriella. She’d evidently grown bored with watching me stand there looking at the plants because she had her back to me and was kneeling on the ground trying to coax life from the seeds. This time, as I watched her, I saw the tooltip for her magic.

  Angelic Growth

  Skill: 8/10.

  The user can reduce the Grow Time, Harvest Time, and requirements for certain types of vegetation.

  “Yeah, I think so.” Gabriella looked over at me. “That’s Crystal’s thing though. She decided what to plant.” She frowned. “I told them we needed something that would tolerate the weather here a bit better, but she said we can’t eat those kinds of plants, and that they planned on getting irrigation.”

  “That makes some sense,” I said, thinking. If that was true, it’d be better to sow the fields with seeds to take advantage of the coming irrigation. Otherwise, we might have wasted land on something that wasn’t as good. At the same time, none of these fields near me seemed to be growing, and what’s more, Sam wasn’t going to be making piping anytime soon.

  “I suppose.” Gabriella bit her lip. “But it wouldn’t have hurt to plant some of the fields with things that actually grow here.” She gestured at the plot in front of here. “I don’t think I can make this work, but I’ll keep trying.”

  “It’s probably not worth it. You aren’t going to make it grow without some rain,” I said, looking at the sky. As I did, I felt the small of my back start to burn. The crown on my head began to glow, and as I reached up to touch it, I could practically feel Lucifer wrapping her arms around me. Her fingers entwined with mine as she pointed up into the sky where a tooltip had appeared on the clouds overhead and reading it made my eyes go wide.

  Would you like to make it rain? Y/N

  “Do it,” Lucifer’s voice whispered into my ear, and while she wasn’t there, I could hear her plain as day. “Show them the might of our power. Show them that even the weather bows before us.”

  I stared at the message for a moment before nodding.

  “Okay.” I selected the Yes Icon. The crown on my head began to glow, and as it did, white-hot pain exploded from my back. I collapsed to my knees as energy washed out of me, spiraling up into the atmosphere. As the spell hit the sky above, lightning began to crackle, and the darkened clouds rumbled angrily.

  As the clouds above finally let loose, spilling their contents down across the field in a torrent of water, my vision went black, and I collapsed.

  35

  “Arthur, are you okay?” Gabriella asked, and my eyes fluttered open to find myself laying with my head in her lap. The rain pouring down around us shimmered off a translucent barrier that kept us from getting drenched, but even still Gabriella’s white dress was matted to her flesh in a way that left little to the imagination.

  “I think so,” I whispered, and found it hard to talk due to the migraine practically splitting my skull in two. “How about you?”

  “I’m okay.” She gave me a weird look. “Why wouldn’t I be? It's just raining.” She looked up and gestured at the shimmering shield. Besides, I made a barrier.”

  “Oh, I just figured you might melt because you’re so sweet.” I gave her a stupid grin, and she blushed so hard, her chest turned pink.

  “That’s a very sweet thing to say,” she said, taking a deep breath before fixing her perfect blue eyes on me. “But I see what you’re doing. Trying to distract me with nice words.” She clucked a couple of times. “That won’t work, mister. I saw you call the rain just like sister does right before you collapsed.” She looked at the sky. “It was strange, almost like I could feel her here.”

  “I think the crown let me do it.” I slowly got off her lap and sat up. It was weird because I could see the ground around us turning to mud as the greedy earth sucked in the rain, but our little spot was still dry.

  “That does not surprise me.” She looked at the crown on my head, her eyes studying it. “Especially knowing my sister. Her tantrums caused the downfall of Atlantis, don’t you know.” She nodded once. “That’s neither here nor there though.”

  As much as I wanted to ask her about Atlantis, I was fairly certain that no man named Arthur Curie should ever go into the ocean, let alone to Atlantis. The way things were going, that might raise a whole bunch of issues I didn’t want to deal with.

  “I have a question,” I asked, running a hand through my hair. It’d gotten much longer in the time I’d spent with Lucifer, and though Lucifer had hacked at it with a knife to keep it from growing too long, she wasn’t exactly the world’s best barber.

  “Oh?” Gabriella brightened. “I’d love to answer it for you if I can. Well, if that would make you happy.” She frowned at the space beyond the barrier. “Otherwise, I’ll have to get back to work, and while working is in my top ten favorite things, I don’t like rain. It reminds me of snails and worms.” Her frown deepened. “They’re so icky.”

  “Right, okay.” I nodded. “I don’t like them either. When I was little the sidewalk outside the place where I lived often flooded in the rain, and there would always be worms on it. They’d eventually dry out in the sun.” I stuck my tongue out. “Always made me feel bad.”

  “You didn’t put the worms back in the ground?” She watched me carefully. “I don’t like them, but I’d have helped them.”

  “I couldn’t. It was too wet when I first saw them, and they were dead by the time I returned.” I shrugged. “To be honest, I hadn’t thought about it.”

  “Oh.” There was a lot of disappointment in that word. “What’s your question, Arthur?” she asked, turning to look across the field. “I need to finish this before we can have rock berries. I’m told they make a great pie.”

  “Hmm, why did you attack me before?” I gestured at myself. “You said you thought I was someone else. Who did you think I was?”

  “Oh.” There was more emotion this time. Only now it was fear. “You reminded me of Dred.” She took a deep breath. “You feel so much like him now. Not just with the power, but all around.” She gestured at me. “The same drive, same determination. It flows from you and mixes with the power.” She hugged herself. “Makes me glad we’re on the same side.”

  “Wait, you think I feel like Dred?” The words made me feel ill. Dred was an agent of Darkness, but he hadn’t always been. From what Sam had told me, he’d turned on her to get more power, and as it stood, I’d been pretty relentless in my pursuit of power. Could I turn out like him? Already, I could feel the archangels bonded to me, influencing me like a thousand angry cats in the night. I couldn’t imagine what a lifetime of hearing those same voices would do, and they weren’t the darkness. How much worse would it be to hear Cthulhu or the Empress for all that time?

  I remembered Nadine. How happy she’d been when I’d killed her, how free she’d seemed. How much worse would it be for Dred?

  “You do feel like Dred.” Gabriella touched my arm. “But he is evil, and you are not.” She gave me a soft smile. “Do not worry, Arthur. You will do the right thing when the time comes.”

  “I hope you
’re right,” I said, getting to my feet. I could hear the rain pounding at the barrier surrounding me, and as I reached out toward the barrier, I realized Lucifer had shown me how to do something similar. In the end, it was the same power Sam had infused into my sword long ago.

  “I think you do not give yourself enough credit.” Gabriella reached out and touched my face, turning me toward her. “Just like last time.” She nodded once. “You will prevail.”

  “What do you mean like last time?” I turned to her and found her staring at me.

  “You have faced down the Darkness twice.” Gabriella smiled. “Do you know how many Builders have done that?” She touched my arm lightly. “Just you, Arthur.”

  36

  “Gabriella says you’ve marked me, Sam.” I leaned Lucifer’s warhammer against my shoulder as I stepped inside her shop. Overhead the sky was still thundering. Rain pelted the roof, reminding me of my childhood, of my life before I’d come here. The rain had been a constant, and something about hearing it outside made me miss home.

  Even though I’d been a loser there, and here I was a veritable hero, I still sort of missed it, though I wasn’t sure why. After all, I’d been an orphan with a sword collection who worked at Seven Eleven. I shouldn’t miss it, but part of me did. Hell, part of me wondered what it’d be like to return there now. Would I still be a schlub, or would my newfound power have changed me?

  “Yeah, I noticed. I don’t even understand how that’s possible.” The blacksmith shook her head, causing her pink hair to whip around her shoulders. She turned to look at me, and I realized her shirt was open. The spot on her chest where I’d torn out Dred’s mark had healed over, and the same scythe design was faintly glowing on her chest.

  “Oh, um…” I took a deep breath suddenly embarrassed because I could see the edge of her nipple peeking out from beneath her shirt.

  Her face scrunched up. “Are you embarrassed?” She looked down at herself. “You know we’ve had sex lots of times, right?”

  “Yeah, but part of me can’t believe you have sex with me.” I gestured at her. “You’re a fucking knockout.”

  “I am.” She smirked then began buttoning her shirt up. “And evidently you’ve marked me.” She smiled. “Guess that makes me yours.”

  “That wasn’t my intention.” I sighed. “I was just trying to save your life.”

  “I’m giving you a hard time, Arthur.” Sam reached behind her and grabbed something off the table. “I made you something.” She offered me a small box with a badly fitting lid.

  “What is it?” I asked, moving closer to take the box from her. It wasn’t very heavy.

  “My armament.” She looked down at the box. “I made it exactly as how I made Dred’s armament. I figured you suck at keeping swords in good shape, so I did what I did for him. I made an earring.” She touched her right ear, and I saw she was now wearing a silver stud. “I want to see if it works for you. I think it will because you bear my mark, but I don’t really know. Part of me has wondered if the Armament I gave Dred even still works.” She shrugged. “How wish it stopped working.”

  “Wait, you made me an armament?” I asked, opening the box and finding a stud similar to the one in her own ear. It sat gleaming on a small bed of cotton. Power wafted off of it, and as I took in the piece of jewelry, I felt the mark on my abdomen begin to glow.

  “Yes.” She nodded. “Purely for scientific purposes. You understand.” She gestured at me. “Now try it on. I want to know if it works.”

  “If it does…” I swallowed.

  “If it does, perhaps you can get Gabriella’s Mark and Armament as well.” Sam looked at her feet. “That would give you seven marks, which is more than Dred has, even if mine still works for him.” She took a deep breath. “You might be able to beat him then.”

  While the idea seemed reasonable, and made me hopeful, the way she said it didn’t. No. It sounded more like there was a catch, and if there was a catch, it likely wouldn’t work.

  “You don’t sound terribly confident about it,” I whispered, taking the earring from the box and holding it up into the air. Just touching it made a surge of power rush through me. Only this felt different. Wrong almost. I couldn’t quite explain it, but even though I could feel the mark I shared with Sam reaching out toward the object, I instantly knew I couldn’t use it.

  The Cold Embrace of Death

  Type: Earring

  Durability: 1,300

  Defense: 1D5

  Enchantments: Armament of Death

  Ability: Ethereal Armor– Allows the user to coat his body in Ethereal Armor that absorbs three times the user’s health in battle before being destroyed.

  “Dred is impossibly powerful, Arthur. He is not strong because of his Armaments alone. Ignoring that he has millennia of experience fighting archangels, he wields Excalibur, a weapon designed to lay waste to all those who oppose it. The sword that signifies his might, his strength.” She gestured toward Clarent’s broken blade. “Your sword lies in pieces, and as powerful as Lucifer’s warhammer is, she will need that in the coming battle.”

  “That’s why we’re going to visit the Lady in the Lake.” I put the earring back in the box and handed it to her. “To get a new sword to replace Clarent.”

  “Is there something wrong with it?” Sam asked, taking the box and looking at it.

  “Don’t tell me you didn’t feel it when I touched it.” I sighed. “I saw your face flash with pain.” I gestured at her. “I can feel how weak you still are through the mark. While I might be able to use that, it would most certainly kill you.”

  “I’d thought maybe…” she trailed off. “Sorry…”

  “It isn’t your fault, Sam.” I moved closer to her and brushed her hair out of her face. “It is destiny, and god, and Dred. Not you though.”

  “That feels like an excuse.” She tightened her grip around the box. “I want to be able to help you.”

  “You do help me, Sam. Just by being you.” I smiled at her. “Now, come on. Let’s go get us a sword.” I took her hand in mine. “Ready?”

  “Not quite yet.” She sighed and put the box on the table. Then she shuffled over to one of the cabinets and opened it. This time when she turned around, she held out another earring. “Take this instead.”

  “What’s this?” I asked, taking the item from her.

  “I was worried you wouldn’t be able to actually use the armament I made.” She gestured offhandedly behind her. “So, I made this as well. You know, just in case. It mimics the abilities I gave to Clarent. Basically, the earring will let you summon Ethereal Armor, as well as do your other magic without having to have the sword in your hands.”

  “This is amazing!” I squealed, looking at the new earring.

  The Dragon-Blooded Breath of Valor

  Type: Earring

  Durability: 300

  Defense: 1D3

  Enchantments: none

  Ability: Ethereal Armor– Allows the user to coat his body in Ethereal Armor that absorbs the user’s Health in battle before being destroyed.

  Ability: Sapphire Beam– Allows the user to blast an opponent with concentrated energy, dealing damage equal to weapon damage plus Special to an opponent.

  Ability: Emerald Shield– Allows the user to create a shield that blocks three times the user’s Special in damage.

  Ability: Crimson Fire– Allows the user to summon a ball of flame that deals damage equal to Strength plus Agility to an opponent.

  “Sam, this is really amazing,” I said, looking down at it. “Just one problem.”

  “Your ear isn’t pierced. I know, but I can fix that.” She came toward me with a devilish look on her face.

  “Um… aren’t you supposed to numb it first?” I swallowed. I wasn’t sure I wanted my ear pierced.

  “I am.” Sam met my eyes. “But I figure you can handle a little pain.” She held her hand out to me. “But if you want to keep being reliant on your weapon, well…”

  “F
ine.” I handed her the earring and shut my eyes.

  “Are you really shutting your eyes?” Sam asked, and when I went to tell her I was, in fact doing that, she jabbed my ear.

  “Fuck!” I cried, my hand going to my ear. It hurt like hell, but as my eyes fluttered open, I found Sam smirking at me.

  “Well, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s go convince the Lady to help us.” The smirk fell off my face. “If anyone can do that, it’s you.” She turned and pointed to a map laid out on the table. “That’s the entrance to her lands. We won’t be able to get any closer than this.” She pointed at a spot where an X had been drawn in marker. “The magic barriers within will blow us apart if we try to teleport closer.”

  “Okay,” I said, staring down at the map of the enchanted forest while rubbing my ear. It still hurt, but I knew I’d forget about it in a little while. “I always wanted to get out and see the scenery.” I looked at her. “Should we bring Gabriella or Sheila with us?” I thought back to Annabeth, and while she had been helpful in the dungeon, it would have been smarter to have brought someone with more fighting ability. Only as I thought about that, I realized I had no idea where Annabeth was. I’d never gone to pick her up. Geez, I was a total asshole.

  “Are you worried because of what happened with Ruby’s Gleam? Annabeth told me what happened when she returned a few hours ago.” Sam shrugged. “Buffy got her from the dwarven city.” Sam looked at me. “Probably want to apologize for not getting her by the way.”

  “Yeah, I probably should do that.” I looked at the ground sheepishly. “But yes, that’s why I asked.”

  “Arthur, you have the power of five Armaments.” She touched my chest. “You have Lucifer’s Warhammer, and a magically enchanted sword. If you can’t make it through the forest, we may as well give up on our chance to face Dred.” She took my chin in her hand and forced me to look at her. “Because I guarantee he could make it through the forest on his own.”