The Builder's Wrath (The Legendary Builder Book 4)

by J. A. Cipriano

  “Right, okay.” I sighed. “What are the achievements?”

  “There are five, and each one will increase your reputation by ten percent. Once all are completed, you will get an additional twenty-five percent bonus, effectively giving you seventy-five percent.” She smiled at me. “Since you already have twenty-five percent, that additional seventy-five percent ought to give you one-hundred percent legitimacy with Heaven, allowing you to wield all of our Armaments.”

  “I think I get it. So I should know out the easy ones first.” I bit my lip, thinking. If I did that, I could progress toward full affinity and even more power with my Armament of Death. Then I’d have the strength to break these angels free of their mark to Dred and use that power to save Gabriella.

  “None of them are easy,” Raphael said, tapping the page, and as she did, the characters in the tooltip finally resolved from gibberish into something I could read.

  Rebuild Heaven – Heaven has been decimated by recent attacks. Rebuild it to its full glory. Current Progress: 12%

  Outfit the Troops – Heaven’s forces are badly in need of upgraded equipment. Bring their current weapons and armor out of the dark ages. Current Progress: 0%

  Those who were Lost are Found – The ancient warriors who once protected Heaven have been lost. Return them to Heaven so that they may once again guard against the forces of Darkness.

  Restore the Hallowed Host – The Holy Grail has been lost. Return it to Heaven! Current Progress: 0%

  Heal the Rift* – A wedge has been driven between Heaven and Hell. Reunite the two factions and forge them into a unified blade. Current Progress: 60%

  *Note – This achievement is a dual faction achievement. Progress must be made by both sides, or this achievement cannot be completed.

  “Arthur, are you listening to me?” Raphael asked, bringing me back to reality. I shook my gaze from the tooltips and looked at her.

  “No, sorry. I was reading the tooltip for the achievements.” She gave me a confused look, and I sighed. “It’s a Builder thing. Either way, I totally get it now. I need to accomplish the five achievements to get stronger.”

  “It will not be easy to find the Holy Grail or the warriors. I don’t even know where to begin looking for those.” Raphael sighed, turning to look at the stack of books. “Guess I know what I need to do.”

  “I’d really appreciate it,” I smiled at her. “And I think you’ll figure it out.” I glanced at the floor. “Until then, I guess I’ll try to talk Michelle into letting me bring more people. We have to pick up supplies anyway, so I guess that even if she says no, we can hide them in boxes.”

  “Or make a Trojan Horse.” Raphael smirked. “I do so love that story.” She looked at the ceiling. “Can you imagine being so loved that entire civilizations went to war for you?”

  16

  With the achievements fresh in mind, I made my way back outside. I’d hoped to find Michelle there, but I guess she’d left during the time I had spent with Raphael. Part of me was annoyed because it’d probably only been a half hour or so, but then again, she’d had a horrible wound. Maybe she’d gone to take care of that?

  I wasn’t quite sure that’d be true, but since I had to find Sally anyway, that seemed like a good place to start. Unfortunately, while it didn’t take long to find Sally, Michelle was nowhere to be found. One thing at a time I guess.

  “I see you’ve found some helpers,” I said gesturing at the three angels nearby. They were busily tending to people, and all worse silver chain mail with crimson crosses etched between their breasts, on their shoulders, and on their backs.

  “These were the only three who survived out of an entire battalion.” Sally gave me a tired smile. “Took a lot of energy but I managed to get it done.” She took a deep breath. “I need to rest though. I’m pushing myself, but it’s just so much harder here.”

  Name: Sally

  Experience: 87,700

  Health: 105/105

  Mana: 42/190

  Primary Power: Healing

  Secondary Power: Alchemy

  Strength: 10/100

  Agility: 95/100

  Charisma: 25/100

  Intelligence: 95/100

  Special: 95/100

  Perk: Rank 4 Alchemist

  Perk: Rank 4 Healer

  “You’ve got a lot of experience though,” I said, surprised. While I’d seen that the others had a lot, I’d expected Sally to be lower, since I’d drained her to next to nothing many times before.

  “What do you think you’ll spend it on?” she asked, acting like it was my decision. I mean, ultimately, I suppose it was, but at the same time, it was her skills, stats, and experience. Besides, I’d long since sort of given up on knowing what they needed. Usually, I found it better to ask them.

  “How are the clerics working out?” I gestured to them, popping open their stat windows. I was unimpressed, to say the least, but they all at least had a lot of experience.

  “They’re fine, but a bit slow.” She bit her lip. “I could probably teach them a bit better, too. That might help. They’re all pretty good at battle magic, but deeper stuff, well, they just have never seen it before. It’s mostly triage medicine.”

  Looking over their skill trees, I quickly agreed. They had the battle-medicine down pat, but only cursory skill in the main healing trees. It was nearly the opposite of Sally’s tree, except, well, she was also better at battle healing.

  “I’m going to increase your teaching Proficiency,” I said, pulling up the skill.

  Teaching Proficiency

  Skill: 3/10.

  The user can teach Skills up to a maximum level of 3. Increasing this Skill increases the speed with which knowledge is imparted as well as the maximum level of Skill that can be learned.

  Like before there was an upgrade tab. This time the message was a bit different.

  Do you want to upgrade Teaching Proficiency to Skill level 4? Base cost 800 Experience. This price can be reduced by attaining an overall Rank of 3 in Healing.

  I quickly spent the eight hundred experience, followed by twenty-two hundred more to increase the skill all the way to six. That felt like it’d be enough, at least for the moment. After searching the rest of her skills, I made an executive decision.

  “I’m going give you some more mana regeneration abilities.” I looked at her sheet and dropped another ten thousand experience. “Anything else you feel you need?”

  “Not particularly.” She glanced back at the clerics. “I can take care of most everything if I had the strength. I’d rather save the rest in case something new comes up.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” I turned my gaze to the clerics. “What do they need besides base stats? They all have a lot of experience to work with so, just let me know, and we’ll work it out if you decide they need too much.”

  “Probably mana regeneration.” She sighed. “It sounds weird to say because I don’t even really know what mana is.” She waved off the comment. “And some more basic healing skill. Broken bones, minor cuts, lacerations. That sort of thing. Maybe concussions if there’s room. I can take the stuff beyond that, I think, but I keep wasting time on that stuff when I should be triaging the ones with real damage.”

  “Okay.” I glanced through the skill trees. “I can up their skills in Broken Bones, minor wounds, and major wounds…” I looked to Sally again. “You’re at pretty high rank at those things. You have eight in broken bones and major wounds. Nine in minor wounds. That’s out of ten.” I gestured at the clerics. “These guys all have one or two in the first two, and only one even has a point in major.”

  “Yeah, they said they were apprentices, so that doesn’t surprise me. It’s probably why they were left alive.” Sally shrugged. “I’d say five at least.”

  “Right, okay.” I bit my lip, thinking. “That combined with the stat requirements is gonna cost in the neighborhood of twenty thousand experience. They all have around thirty thousand give or take. Anything else you’d like, in
stead of or in addition too?”

  “Is that with the mana regeneration?” she asked, looking at me.

  “Yeah, getting it to eight or nine in a couple different skills. They actually have it pretty good already, so it didn’t cost a lot.” That made sense to me. Most of their skills were battle oriented and had big costs to them. They’d need major mana regeneration to keep up with battle.

  “Then let’s save it for a while.” Sally nodded. “Who knows what will happen.” She bit her lip. “You need to go back down though.”

  “Why in particular?” I asked, looking at her.

  “Some of the angels down there are healers. We’ll need them here.” She sighed. “I’d say to get the demon ones because they are better, but with the debuff…” She wrung her hands.

  “I get it.” I nodded. “Next time I go down, I’ll try to retrieve them.”

  “Good.” She yawned and took a drink from her canteen. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.” She gave me a quick peck on the cheek before hurrying off.

  I watched her move, and as I did, I realized the angels were being separated into groups based on the severity of their wounds.

  “You’re doing well,” Uriel said, her deep voice startling me.

  “Thanks,” I said, turning to look at her, and that was when I realized her wind had been regrown. “Did Sally do that?”

  “Yes.” Uriel reached back and touched the shimmering feathers. “We’ve never had such magic before, so I’m still in shock.” She smiled. “Seems we have a lot to learn from those down below.”

  “So, it’d seem.” I gestured around. “Though I saw you guys fight. Hell could learn a lot from you too.”

  “And no doubt they will.” Uriel nodded. “I have spoken to Michelle. She won’t let more up here now, but I think, given time, she will. Already, she is pleased with how powerful you are.” Uriel smirked. “Way to her heart, that is.”

  “Is that so?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “Cause I was sure I just needed to get her a few drinks.”

  “That likely works too.” Uriel nodded. “With how hard she works, I bet she parties hard.”

  “Anyway, I doubt you came to talk to me about Michelle’s love life.” I looked the angel up and down, noting how she was still in full battle dress. It showed off the muscles in her bare legs, and while before I’d wondered why they used armor that covered only their torso, I had realized during the battle it was a range of motion issue. Sure their thighs and arms were somewhat exposed, but they were also proficient in using their bracers and greaves to block blows.

  “I am told you can increase our strength.” Uriel touched her chest. “I wish you to do that for me.”

  “I’ve never been able to increase the strength of an archangel before.” I gestured at her. “And you’re a Heaven angel. That’s probably even harder.

  “Have you tried recently?” Uriel asked, and after watching for a moment, she smiled. “I’m taking it from the look on your face that you have not.”

  “I haven’t,” I conceded.

  “Then try. What will it hurt?” She crossed her arms over her chest.

  “Okay.” I nodded, wondering if it would work. After all, Caliburn seemed more powerful than Clarent had been, and I also had Lucifer’s crown. Maybe I could do it. After all, I had been able to mess with Sam’s stats. I’d assumed it was because of the flaw, but maybe it was because I was stronger?

  “Okay? Just like that.” Uriel frowned.

  “Is that a problem?” I asked, confused. “Isn’t that what you want?”

  “Yes. I’m just surprised.” Uriel shrugged. “I am one of the strongest archangels, and you would make me stronger just because I asked?”

  “We’re on the same side, Uriel. I know that seems crazy cause I’m Hell’s champion, but honestly, I just want to stop the Darkness.”

  “Your words are wise, but still I find myself surprised by you, Arthur.” She nodded. “Please try.”

  Name: Uriel

  Experience: 3,765,484

  Health: 194/194*

  Mana: 184/184*

  Primary Power: None selected

  Secondary Power: None selected

  Strength: 98/100*

  Agility: 96/100*

  Charisma: 80/100*

  Intelligence: 87/100*

  Special: 92/100*

  Unique Ability: Archangel of Forgiveness

  “Um, what do you want me to upgrade, assuming I can?” When Uriel gave me a blank look, I continued. “I can try your primary stats, your abilities. I mean, you don’t even have a primary skill tree…”

  “I don’t know what any of that means, Arthur.” Uriel shrugged. “Just use your best judgment.” She shrugged again. “I trust you.”

  “Great, just modify the age-old angels stats using my best judgment. What could go wrong?” I rolled my eyes as I selected her intelligence stat since it was lowest and would affect her mana pool.

  Intelligence: This Stat represents Magical Power. It determines how smart the user is and how hard her spells hit.

  Current Level: 87/100. Experience Cost to increase Intelligence is current level plus one. (88) Would you like to upgrade? Yes/No.

  I confirmed my choice, moving her Intelligence to eighty-eight, and as I did, I nearly whooped. It had worked

  “Well, you’re in luck,” I said, grinning like an idiot. “I can upgrade your stats, and you have a shit ton of experience.”

  “Good.” Uriel nodded. “Finish me, and I’ll take you to Michelle. This will please her.”

  “What do you want me to do…?” I shook my head. “You know what, let me just look around a bit.”

  I wound up spending a bunch of her experience to increase her regeneration abilities, to move her stats to all one hundred, and to upgrade some combat skills, but even after all that, I’d barely spent a half million experience. It was sort of crazy because, at the same time, I was willing to bet she was maybe ten percent better. While part of it was she was so strong to begin with, I also knew that we’d need all the help we could get.

  17

  I’ll be honest, the last two days of my life had sucked. My life had become a nonstop blur of stat and skill upgrades. It’d started innocently enough with Uriel explaining to Michelle what I’d done, whereupon I’d done the same to her.

  That’s when the Archangel of Justice decided to take advantage of me, and not in a good way. She sat my happy ass down and made the entire Heavenly host form a straight up line in front of me.

  Somewhere after the first thousand or so, my brain went totally numb. It was like at some point my brain just gave up trying exhausted and gave me a second wind. Then a third, fourth, and fifth.

  The good news? I’d actually gained an achievement that reduced the cost of skills for me, as well as a few others that didn’t seem to have bonuses attached to them. The bad news? I was tired. More tired than I’d ever been. Everything hurt, even my hair.

  “What’s that sound?” I asked, blinking a couple times as a vicious claxon sounded. It was hard to think, hard to concentrate, and as I tried for the life of me to figure out what it meant, the angels in front of me broke their line and sprinted off into the distance. “Wait, where are you going?”

  “That’s the alarm,” Uriel said, turning back to look at me in confusion.

  “What alarm? Is there a fire?” I looked around, but not seeing any flames, I sniffed the air. I didn’t smell smoke either. Odd.

  “There’s no fire you idiot.” Uriel gave me a concerned look. “Well, probably not.” She pointed out toward the gates. “There’s an attack by the Darkness.”

  “Oh.” I nodded. That made a lot more sense. “Sorry, it’s been a few days.”

  “Maybe you sit this one out?” Uriel said as I got to my feet and stumbled slightly because walking was hard.

  “Or I could go stabby stabby on the Darkness.” I pulled our Caliburn. “Would you deny me that?”

  “Yes.” She pointed at my chair
. “Just relax. We’ve done this a billion times. Besides, I’m way stronger now.”

  “You’re like two or three points stronger. That won’t do jack.” I glanced out at the horizon. “I’m coming.”

  “I could stop you.” Uriel held out her hand and her weapon, a gilded trident appeared in her hand.

  “You could fucking try!” I snarled, suddenly angry. “I’ve been a good little Builder. I’ve upgraded lots of stats. My people are rebuilding your entire city in addition to training carpenters, sculptors, and healers.” I pushed past Uriel. “Get out of my way. I wanna punch something.”

  “Can’t really argue with that,” Uriel said, her wings unfurling. “But stay with me just in case.”

  “Fine.” With that, she grabbed me up under my armpits and sprang into the air. As she carried us forward like a goddamned bullet train, I almost regretted giving her that flying speed upgrade. Almost.

  We hit the ground outside a second later, and the angels were already in their line. While Michelle was busy taking out ravagers with her glowing whip sword of fiery doom, I spied an angel I’d never seen before. She stood next to Sally and her group of healers just behind the lines.

  She was tall and had skin like white snow. Like the battle clerics, she was dressed in crimson-stained chainmail, and she held what almost looked like a healer’s staff in one hand.

  “Who is that?” I pointed at the angel.

  Uriel glanced over. “Phanuel?”

  “Yeah, I guess. Is she the one with the chainmail?” I asked.

  “She’s the Archangel of Peace. She almost never comes out to fight. Goddamned hippie is what she is.” Uriel shook her head. “I mean, I’m the Archangel of Forgiveness, and I still bust heads.”

  “Can you introduce me?” I asked, not sure how to proceed.

  “Are you dense? We’re in a battle right now.” Uriel swept out with her trident, skewering an unfortunate lizard man who had gotten too close. As it writhed on the end of the tri-prongs, its body began to glow with silvery light before it exploded.

  “After the battle then.” I took a step to my left and decapitated another lizard man. It was almost too easy. They were so slow, and even as tired as I was, they were no match for me.