The hours flew by. I only realized the workday had ended when I felt a gentle touch caressing my cheek.
“Oren, I am here.”
Tika had returned.
Damn, it must be really late if she came to sleep. I massaged my neck tiredly. Then I spotted something from the corner of my eye while the design mode was still open. Up until now, I was so caught up in the process I blocked everything else from my mind. Now, through the partially translucent interface, I noticed something glowing in the chalice before me. I leaned in closer, and my eyes opened wide. There was a rune carved on the chalice!
I got to my feet and disengaged design mode, careful to save my progress first. I embraced and kissed Tika. “How was your hunting today?”
“Good, better than other days. Darkness helped. Can sneak better, move better, more easy hunting.”
Good. That meant the Eternal Night blessing was working as intended.
Tika leaned to my ear “I want to go swim in pond with you,” she said in a mischievous tone. “Make you feel better, make me feel better too.”
I smiled at her. “That sounds great, you go ahead. I just need a few more minutes here. I’ll join you shortly.”
She nodded, leaned her bow against the wall, and went out.
I returned to the table and picked up the chalice. “Where the hell is this rune?” I murmured as I checked it from all sides but saw nothing.
I remembered that I hadn’t spotted any runes when I accidentally used the chalice. I reactivated the design mode again and the rune became visible, though hazy. For a second I contemplated disassembling the chalice but then thought better of it. My Analyze skill would have informed me if it was Runecrafted and could be disassembled. There was something else here. With a sudden spur of inspiration, I closed my eyes and activated Mana Sight. I hadn’t used it since I regained both my eyes. The room around me shone with the blue and black tints of mana. I looked at the chalice again and this time saw the rune.
Someone had drawn it on the vessel with magic, making it invisible to regular sight.
I peered closer, taking in each line of the rune, etching its shape into my mind.
You gained knowledge of a new rune: ‘Mag’ (The Ward Rune)
It worked!
I closed my eyes and directed my thoughts inward, looking for the purpose of the rune. I found the relevant information thread and absorbed it.
That’s interesting … The rune in itself was meaningless. It only served as the groundwork for other runes, namely elemental types, so together they added protection from that element. I could also read hints of other uses for Mag, but those were too far for me to see clearly. I would have to find out using trial and error, as always.
I deactivated Mana Sight and put the chalice back on the table. I was tired, and my head was pounding. I’d done enough work for one day. Runecrafting could wait for tomorrow.
Besides, I thought as I reached for the door, I have a date.
24 – Portent
Tika and I woke up the next morning after a night of invigorating swimming followed by an even more invigorating indoor activity.
Being back at the clan was great.
I lay next to my beautiful, sleeping huntress and let my eyes roam over her naked body. I hadn’t lost myself again; I was well aware that I was a player and this was just a game. It simply seemed that my personal preferences didn’t align with the common consensus. Which was a fancy way of saying I thought the woman sleeping beside me was smoking hot. Sure, she was green, and a goblin, but she didn’t look anything like the old school goblins. Tika’s body was well toned and had curves in all the right places. She looked damn good, even by human standards.
He had a point there. The ultimate goal of NEO was to make money, and sex sells.
Well, I was bought. Even if I disregarded her physical appearance, Tika was a marvelous woman. Our nightly swim brought us even closer together, and we’d had a pleasant, if a bit halting, conversation afterward.
I sighed. Too bad her speech is so limited. It wasn’t that she was stupid, far from it. But the goblin’s native lowered Mental attribute manifested in her case as a limited vocabulary. It’s not like she could invest points in Mental as she leveled up, I mused. As a forager, Tika’s main attribute was Social. While it certainly did wonders for her womanly charm, it didn’t contribute much to her conversation skills.
Wait a minute … Something sparked in my mind. Wasn’t there something in the Zone Blessings menu?
I opened the interface.
Zone Blessings (affect all religion followers in the zone of influence):
…
Mental I: Increases the MentaI attribute of all creatures in the zone by +1. Cost: 100 FP
There it was. That blessing would increase everyone’s Mental attribute by one. Productivity-wise, this blessing was useless. Most of my workers used either Physical or Social as their main attribute. Only the researchers and the clan’s casters would benefit.
But it might just improve Tika’s conversation skills … I had to try. It might be impractical, but after spending 1,000 FP on Eternal Darkness, I still had over 600 FP remaining. Using 100 on a whim seemed reasonable.
I selected the blessing and approved the follow-up prompt. I could feel pressure emanating from the direction of the Dark Temple. An instant later, a wave of dark energy rippled through the valley.
“Hey, Tika?” I gently nudged the still-sleeping huntress.
“Oren?” She blinked a few times then sat up. “What’s going on?” She turned her head back and forth, her eyes darting everywhere. “Something is different.”
“How do you feel?” I observed her closely. She looked the same as always, but there was a difference. Her large anime-like eyes had changed. They still reflected innocence, but there was a new glint in them now.
“I feel … goo– … well,” she corrected herself with a tone of decisiveness.
I felt a chill fill my heart. I was afraid I had overdone it, afraid her old personality was gone, afraid that –
Tika cupped my face gently. Her hands were warm and soft. She looked deep into my eyes and smiled. “Thank you, Oren.”
***
I left my house feeling like an idiot with a huge grin plastered on my face, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop. My fears were unfounded. She was the same Tika as always, only now she had the means to express her thoughts. Nothing else had changed. We stayed awake until the late hours, catching up, talking, and re-sharing our past experiences.
I stretched laboriously and, still grinning, took in my surroundings.
It was the start of a brand-new day, though one wouldn’t know it by the ambient light. The sun was barred from shining over my settlement. Goblin workers and hobgoblin soldiers were everywhere, many walking in and out of the mess hall.
A single Shadow-Touched mastiff came strolling from behind a building. Thanks to Eternal Night, Nihilator’s guardians were now free to roam my valley.
“Breakfast sounds good about now,” I said, feeling drained after last night’s exertion.
“Dread Totem, welcome!” Gandork greeted me excitedly. “I have great news, please sit, I will fetch your breakfast.”
Bemused, I sat and watched the now fat goblin cook run to the kitchen and bring me a steaming plate. “Meat pies!” I exclaimed with delight. The hearty, savory dish was a personal favorite, but it required mushrooms, which we had run out of a few weeks ago. I took a large bite of the dish Gandork had set before me. “Wonderful! Did you use the mushrooms that started growing everywhere?”
The cook’s eyes widened in alarm. “In Nihilator’s name, no – those are poisonous. No, our two no-good farmers have finally justified their existence and started growing mushrooms. Loads and loads o
f mushrooms,” he said happily.
It looked like the Eternal Night had even more benefits than the flat numeric bonuses. With a flick of my mind, I accessed the farmers’ daily yield and found that they were now producing 54 mushrooms per day. The heavy plow I’d recovered had added ten percent to the yield.
I finished the small slice of pie in a few bites and found I was completely full.
Looking around me, I realized everyone was eating less than usual. That was another boon of the blessing, reducing our need to eat by half. Great start to the day so far, I mused. We had tapped into a new food source and had reduced our upkeep. Vic, how much raw food are we producing in total every day?
Most recipes resulted in more food than the sum of their ingredients, and considering Gandork’s cook skill and the mess hall bonus, our daily food production had reached an all-time high. I could finally start recruiting en masse.
I left the mess hall and circled it, making my way to the barracks. I still had a lot of Runecrafting to do, but I wanted to check in on my soldiers.
I entered the barracks’ courtyard and noticed that the training yard was surrounded by a low stone wall.
The area within the wall had been dug out and was now two meters below ground level, transforming it into a pit. The stone wall extended down into the pit, reinforcing its flanks. Benches encircled the pit in concentric rings, giving ample room for spectators to enjoy the duels below from the comfort and safety of their perch above.
Looking inside the pit, I saw the dozen new hob soldiers. They were divided into three groups with a veteran hob leading each one. Zia, one of the tanks, had two of her hobs straining against each other’s shields while the other trainees watched. Yulli, the scout, had her six pupils shooting arrows at several training dummies while she yelled at them to do better. Bob was demonstrating proper sword technique to his three students. The pit was large and could easily accommodate twice as many soldiers as were training at the moment.
I descended into the pit using a narrow staircase that ran along the wall. Zuban stood by his workers as they placed the last few bricks in the nearly complete wall.
New building expansion added to your settlement: Arena
What the hell?
My foreman made his way toward me, followed by Bob, the hob lieutenant.
“Dread Totem,” they both said, bowing their heads in greeting.
“The arena is complete,” Zuban declared.
I stared at him, puzzled. “I thought you just started yesterday. This was supposed to be at least a four-day project.”
He nodded. “Your appeal to the travelers did not go unnoticed. In fact, they were particularly eager to see the arena completed. A dozen of them worked all night like madmen, digging. I think they have proven their worth. They would make a fine addition to our clan.”
So they have hit friendly reputation with Zuban, I surmised. Won’t be long until their reputation with the clan catches up, and I’ll have to let them in.
“This is a fine training ground,” Bob said. “We can get these recruits into real fights in here. Nothing teaches a soldier faster than training with real, sharp weapons.”
I looked at him sternly. “I’m not thrilled at having training casualties.”
Bob shook his head. “That won’t happen. The arena is well-equipped. There will be no fatalities unless the arena master decides otherwise. The travelers who dug the pit said they’d come back later to train here as well. We’ll see how our recruits hold up against them.
Training NPCs by having them spar with real players. I grinned. This was too rich. I half expected to get an achievement for orchestrating this scenario, but NEO had no achievement system in place. Shame. “That’s good to hear. How are the new recruits doing?”
“They learn quickly, but there’s no alternative to real combat.”
In other words, they’d have to get out of the pit eventually and fight real battles to gain XP and level up. I already had plans for doing just that. I glanced at the sparring hobs, checking their individual progress. Everyone had their main combat skill up to level 5 or 6. For a single day’s progress, that was impressive.
“Keep up the good work, Bob. How are our patrols doing?”
“At every given moment, a third of our forces are patrolling the settlement. I believe it is enough to provide good coverage for now. They have already proved their worth by breaking up small travelers’ skirmishes.”
“Good to hear. Let me know if something more serious comes up or if the soldiers need anything.”
“Yes, Dread Totem. Since you mention it, we could use good weapons and armor. It’s best to let the soldiers train using the same equipment they’ll be fighting with. So far, the scouts are the only ones with decent weapons, as we have no shortage of bows. But the melee fighters are using crude, nearly broken swords. Zia had to instruct her trainees to pass the shields between them so everyone could practice using one.”
“Noted. The weapon workshop is already under construction. In a few days, our smiths will start producing better-quality weapons. Armor might take a little longer, but we’ll get there soon. By the way …” I realized some of the new recruits were missing. “Where are the Ogres?”
“Err … Rhynorn Bloodore took them to the forest. He claimed to be the champion and that he’d teach them a lesson.”
That’s what I’m afraid of. Resurrecting the Ogres will be damn expensive. I checked the Shrine Interface and was relieved to find the resurrection list empty.
“What’s the next construction project?” I asked Zuban.
“The new builders have almost reached their Apprentice rank, but until they do, they won’t be able to help with the more advanced projects. I think we should put them to building more cabins; we’re running out of lodging space rapidly.”
“Good thinking. Go ahead.”
“Thank you, Dread Totem.”
I left the pit and made my way home.
I needed to finish Runecrafting my staff.
***
Hours later, I was finally done.
The painstaking connect-the-dots mini-game had left me mentally exhausted, but I didn’t care. I gazed lovingly at my newly enchanted staff.
After I’d finished drawing all the rune lines, I finalized the schema by pouring in mana and then topped it off by placing one of my two most powerful void crystals – a level 200 – inside the runic socket. The crystal powered up the enchantment by a factor of five, making the weapon much more powerful. As an added bonus, my Runecraft skill had risen by two points and was now at level 26.
I picked up the staff and examined it closely. Analyze.
Demon Horn Staff [Runecrafted]
Description: The horn has maintained some of the demon’s infernal powers. It is exceptionally durable and can double as a spear. Three bloodstones and a single void crystal are embedded along the shaft. Mana-based spells may be channeled through the staff to increase their potency.
Type: Two-handed
Rank: Epic
Durability: 640/640
Damage: 95-105
Effect I: Mental +21 for determining mana regeneration rate.
Effect II: Store up to three magical charges. Instant casting. Stored spells are 15% stronger.
Effect III: Spells channeled through the staff are 25% stronger.
Effect IV: ??? [conditions unmet]
My Runecrafting worked wonders.
Epic. The staff rank was now upgraded to Epic. And it showed.
With insane durability, a huge bonus to mana regeneration, and an increased strength of stored spells, this item was stupidly overpowered. The unknown effect was a weird side effect, but the staff was powerful regardless. Not to mention that a single stab of its spear-like tip was now the equivalent of a full head-on sma
sh from Rhyno’s huge club. To top it off, all my normal spells would now be 25 percent stronger.
I caressed the staff lovingly. I wanted to marry it.
Vic chimed in.
“Ugh, Vic!” I grimaced. “I did not need that mental picture.”
I rolled my eyes, and, as always, employed my go-to tactic. I ignored my twisted-minded companion.
I inventoried my staff and took one of the Viridium spheres from the table. I examined the sphere, narrowed my eyes, and murmured, “Now what sort of interesting things can I do with a metal ball …”
Shut it! I mentally shouted as I realized what I had just said. I felt Vic’s smugness and barely beat him to the punch.
Concentrating again on the metal sphere, I mulled over my options. The sphere had eight rune slots – nine with my current skill level bonus. That gave me free rein to do as I pleased. But the question was what, exactly? I could enchant it with various damage bonuses and use it as a projectile weapon, but that was too much work for not enough damage output. Besides, we didn’t have any kind of cannon to shoot it in the first place. I had too many projects on my plate already to start managing the invention of projectile technology.
What then? I pondered, turning the sphere in my hands.
The metal was smooth and durable. Its pinkish sheen made me think of ornamental beads. “Heh,” I grunted. Other than the fleeting thought of fashioning it into a bead necklace, nothing else useful came to mind.
“That would make one cumbersome necklace,” Vic remarked, squatting in his goblin shape in a corner of the house. “The Ogres could probably wear it, though. They could use some prettifying, that’s for sure.”
Life Reset- EvP Page 39
