Leaving for a few minutes to fight some scout archers wouldn’t put my library in danger. Anything that dared to approach my precious books would have to get past me first.
It was possible to put my skeletal minion in different basic modes with general commands. Defend was the one I was using earlier while I was reading. In that mode, you guessed it, he defended against spawns nearby. It also worked like an auto-hunt for him because of the constant spawns in this area. The aggression mode caused him to attack anything I considered an enemy. Dance mode was a work in progress because I had to teach it each dance move. Yeah, I had completely made this one up. Since I couldn’t dance myself—at least you probably wouldn’t call it dancing—it was slow going. Others also could be used but you get the picture.
There was also a completely manual mode that required my full attention. In this case, it was more of a puppet than a minion. Fighting with line of sight was not the same as fighting using my own eyes and body though.
The more detailed the commands I gave it the better it would usually do, but the real trick was giving it a general command like ‘attack’, then feeding it updated commands as it fought. This way I could manage it without having to fully control it.
Our first Skeleton Scout appeared as we rounded a corner. He was alone. Boring. I could change that.
I flapped my wings enough to pull off of my perch and hover.
“Bullrush, Betty!” I cried, pulling the scout's attention.
An arrow loosed from the scout's bow, giving me a quick challenge. As I flapped harder on one side to shift my bat body to the side, the arrow missed by a foot.
My beloved Betty ran at the scout like a mad rhino, lowering its head at the last moment and completely shattering the scout's rib cage even though the horns had missed their mark. Perhaps he was too strong for this area.
Further in we found a group of three that would give me a bigger challenge.
Lifting off my Hilda’s head once again, I issued a new command.
“Dance, boney britches!”
Suddenly my minion was doing a very robotic version of the Carlton and arrows started bouncing off his armor.
Ugly or not I gave a little bat grin.
Opening my mouth, a fireball developed and flew. The three arrows that came at me turned to ash as the fireball rushed at them. The explosion of fire popped one skeleton’s head right off its shoulders. I dived as it fell.
Snagging the skull before it hit the ground, I screeched something that was supposed to be a word.
Score! I deserved 100 points each for that one! Not that I really got anything for my little trick except for the satisfaction of pulling it off.
Another group of two Skeleton Scouts joined us during the commotion.
Fireball was a good time, but even that could get repetitive. Ice Shard had a tendency to shatter them. I was looking for something a little different.
Dodging the next volley of arrows, I just flew at them as if I was going to attack. I probably could do some damage to them with my bat form’s claws, but it was something I had yet to play around with. Good time to start.
An idea hit me as I was about to make contact with the closest skeleton. Dropping the arrows in my grasp, I fired a couple of quick Alpha Bullets about the size of baseballs to sever the two scouts’ bowstrings. With their weapons out of the way, I grabbed at one's head. With a quick twist and hugging my wings to myself, I was able to twist and get my claws in its eye sockets.
With a wicked screech, I launched myself up hard and was easily able to pull the skeleton from the ground. I had overestimated how much it weighed and suddenly found myself 10 meters in the air smacking my head against the solid stone ceiling. Even though it smarted, I was mostly fine. The scout whirlwinded its arms as it found itself in a very unnatural situation for its undead self.
Flying toward the skeletons below, I didn’t swoop too terribly low but gained some momentum for what I was about to do. When I was sure my aim was right, I let go of the scout that did a half backflip before it meteored into its archer friends.
“Skeleton Bowling!”
The pile of disconnected bones left scattered in the aftermath gave me a fit of pleasure.
It was moments like these that made the labyrinth and the whole kidnapping thing bearable.
After about half an hour of fun, I headed back to my books. Enough of Mr. Werecat's blabbering on about Dark Magic. I couldn't spend any more time reading. Sadly my time was limited.
I gathered my desk and books, then a few dozen drops that had been left from my skeleton minion’s auto-hunt, and headed back to base. I needed to drop off these low-end weapons for Russ.
Chapter 25 - Construction
As I entered what used to be the newbie Decrepit Skeleton area, four players, including Russ, were there specializing in crafting instead of being off hunting. Two of the players had picks and were chipping away at the wall near the entrance that led to the cafeteria, our bunks, and armory.
The wall they were chipping away at was shaping up to be the entrance to another room. They had already mined out two others that would eventually act as our personal apartments. It wasn't just construction they were focused on. Their labor had a dual purpose. As they dug out each room they were gathering any ore they ran across. Much of the rock itself was fairly worthless for blacksmithing, but there was some common iron, copper, and bauxite. It didn't hurt that mining was a sub-skill of forging. Their Strength and Endurance attributes were also increasing as they worked.
As I passed them I threw them both a Heal.
They both stopped and waved their thanks. The grimaces on their face relaxed a bit before they went back to their work.
Russ was on the opposite end of the stadium-sized room where we had agreed to build all of our crafting stations. Half a dozen dwarves had already dug out an open space twice as high as the apartments. They had also made the ceiling level ten feet higher. They were currently working on the furnace. Why the furnace they were building climbed twenty feet in the air straight up to the ceiling was unclear, but the blue-grained granite they were using made the structure look even more impressive. There were two different sizes of bellows that would be manually worked once the structure was done. The anvil in the center of the room was not made of gray steel as I had always seen in pictures, but a black speckled silvery metal I hadn't known existed. It was orbulist-alloy. Not that I knew what that was.
The furnace for smelting was in a separate room next to the forge. It looked like a giant cauldron. There were actually three of them. The main one nearly reached the ceiling. Another was slightly taller than a person. The last one was about three feet tall and was off the ground on a slab of stone.
While I had been convinced that getting a blacksmith was something we had to do, I don't know what I had imagined it would look like, but this wasn't it. Being here, fighting monsters and constructing a base, made everything seem more real somehow. I almost envied Russ and the two others with talent for blacksmithing and smelting.
I had initially balked at the idea of spending the money, knowing eventually we would have to find a new place to settle. But I had a feeling the armor we could create with it was something we would need before we dared to leave. Also, the Mistress wouldn’t suspect anything if it looked like we were building a home here.
Lydia, our fourth crafter, had her own room that was already mostly finished. She had almost solely set up her alchemy station herself, except for help from Chris. The equipment was so much cheaper than blacksmithing that it wasn't funny. All the beakers, mixing pots, burners, etc. that she needed had cost less than 200k. It had cost us 2.5 million to construct what we needed for the forge. The construction was also little more than digging out a room for her and giving her some counter space. That didn't mean it would remain cheap. The real cost from Alchemy was the price of ingredients.
Her room came first before I reached Russ closest to the corner. I stopped there because even though I didn
't get many crafting ingredients, I had started collecting them again to help her level up.
“Elorion.” She nodded, looking up from pouring a glass measuring cup into a boiling liquid on one of her burners. Her blond hair was short and wavy, tucked behind her ears. She pressed her finger up to the bridge of her nose as if to reposition her glasses that she no longer wore as she turned back to her work.
It was good to see her up and doing something. Aeris was doing most of the legwork with keeping an eye on how everyone was doing, but I could at least help keep Lydia busy.
I had been able to restore her vision from low prescription to 20/20. If her vision had been worse, I don't know if I would have been able to heal it. She wasn’t very social, but usually stopped what she was doing to acknowledge me. I guessed I had leveled from suspicious stranger to acquaintance...
“Hey, Lydia. Got a handful of ingredients for you.”
“Thanks. Go ahead and set them on the table.” She pointed to the island counter that was cluttered, but still the cleanest surface in the room. “I'll sort them later. Oh, and if you find any Lizardmen, I need their toenails.”
“Uh.” Not exactly something I ever thought I would hear her say just by looking at her—or anyone for that matter. “Okay, Lydia... You got it.” I saw an open book on a table perpendicular to where she stood now. She must have found a recipe she was interested in.
I shrugged and left after dropping off some, mostly gross, undead leftovers. She was a total geek but had petite features giving her a delicate cuteness. Perhaps that was why it seemed so odd that she played with disgusting things all day.
Honestly, I really didn’t buy many of her potions, yet. The ones she was able to produce so far were mainly buffs. +10 to Intelligence and Wisdom for 4 hours. +40 to Dexterity for 2 hours. There were some poisons too, but we didn't have many uses for those, at least not yet. Not bad for only being at it for a few days, though. Healing potions did not have the most common ingredients which made them expensive. Still, she was learning new potions every day. I hoped eventually she would figure out how to make experience potions so that we could mass produce them.
I found Russ out in front of the forge that was still under construction. The dwarves had questioned him like an imp that was caught stealing the Mistress's undergarments. Since he was a newbie that had never touched a forge before, they insisted on building him a small, temporary one to practice on as they built the one we commissioned. It had taken them no more than an hour to build the furnace that came up to his shoulders. He had a normal steel anvil and a rack of tools behind him. He also had three books open on a simple wooden table that I knew he had been pouring over the last two days. The main forge was going to take two weeks to complete.
Stopping, I watched as he struck a once worn sword into something more useful. There was a wooden crate of deconstructed weapons and armor he had been pounding on. What surprised me was that what was once a pile of blades and hilts, plates and leather straps, was now filled with mostly intact items. Another crate on the other side of the forge was filled with the junk we had been dropping off for him to practice with. A few days ago those items would have been considered far from junk, but after the little battle, we were rich in comparison.
His gigantic arm rose and fell at a steady pace. Sweat soaked his brow, chest, and back. He wore no armor, only a smoke colored, long-sleeved shirt covered in small pockmarks from the sparks from his hammering. Even after hours of this he was still going strong and didn't even seem winded. Not only was he talented in blacksmithing, but in Constitution. I had a feeling it was no mistake that he was talented in both.
Earlier he asked me not to heal him except once a day. He explained if I healed him too often he wouldn’t get the increase in stats that came from exercise. How many attribute points had I lost out on because I was always healing myself? But would I have hunted and leveled up as much if I hadn't? Perhaps I should look for a middle ground and do both.
When he stopped and raised the short sword to turn it over in his hand and examined it I started emptying my inventory into his crate.
He noticed me then.
“Dude! You've brought me more ladies!” Russ licked his lips.
I almost facepalmed. “Ladies?”
“Yeah. I moved on from just deconstructing them to putting them back together and even repairing them as much as I’m able. It’s really amazing what you learn as you work with them. Each one of these beauties divulges their deepest darkest secrets if you give them some love.”
I didn't want to encourage him, but I couldn't help myself. “Oh really?”
“Of course! This little lady might be short and a little thick in the waist, but she was forged in a fire dungeon by a novice minotaur. You see the location is important because in element rich environments the magic is literally everywhere and it’s impossible for an item being forged not to be affected. And then, minotaurs are naturally of the earth element so any object they make has the chance of bearing earth based enhancements. Now, this minotaur wasn't exactly an enchanter, but there was enough in the circumstance and environment for it to get a hint of fire damage, only +3, but it also has the fire alignment. It gets critical damage against those of the water alignment.
“But that's not the best part. This little beauty is very gracious to its master, giving +60 to strength! She's incredible and was something her crafter really shouldn’t have been capable of. It was likely his best work.”
“So even though it’s not rare generally, it is rare in that it’s among the best work that blacksmith ever did?”
“Yes!”
“That's really incredible. How do you know it was a minotaur?” I was genuinely impressed. Not with the item, but he had never struck me as the engineer type. I guess once a person is in their element they blossom, or just get huge as in Russ’s case.
“Well first, enchantments aren't a part of the item itself. Most spells don't last more than a short period of time, but for permanent enchantments, there has to be something like a jewel or gemstone to hold the spell. A few rare metals do so as well. This one is without the required adornment, and normal steel doesn’t hold magic, so it has to be forged into the steel itself. That happens when the steel is smelted and further as the blacksmith pounds the item into shape.
“I think it’s a minotaur just because that's what my books say is most likely. I could be wrong. It could be an earth imp or something, but minotaurs are known to enjoy blacksmithing. They are just the most likely earth aligned species.”
By the time he was finished with his explanation, my mouth was drooping open. I closed it quickly. Magic or not, there was definitely a science to it and Russ seemed to be the perfect guy for the job.
“How long until you can forge something like that?”
He looked up as he scratched his chin for a moment. “I’m not really sure. A couple weeks, or maybe a couple months.”
My chest deflated a bit. The sword he was holding was okay, but it was little more than a newbie item. I hated to think it, but I couldn’t help it. How long until all this money we’ve spent will turn into something useful?
He must have seen the concern on my face. “With better materials and our new forge I should be able to do better in that time, but the results will be sporadic at first. I don’t fully understand how the forge works, or how to smelt. The dwarves said it can only be fully understood through experience. There is a connection of some kind that happens between the forge and the blacksmith. When I asked if it was magic, they looked at me like it was a stupid question.
“Also, if we can find someone to enchant items, then we could probably double the attribute output. Maybe more.”
Even if I was still slightly worried, my fascination overrode all distress. “Good to hear, man, keep it up. I’ll look into enchanting and see how easy it is to get started. I don’t think anyone was talented in it, but that doesn’t mean we can’t figure it out.”
“That would be great.
Will do.”
I hadn’t told anyone, but since I no longer had to sleep, I was getting bored doing nothing but hunting and studying. The perfect hobby might be learning to do something like enchanting. I was interested more in the long-term kind instead of just casting a spell that might wear off though.
After some bacon and eggs, even though it was lunch time, I headed back out to do a good twelve-hour stint wiping the Skeleton Sentinel room. I was a day or two from getting every level I could out of them. Then it would be time to open the Bone Palace. I still wasn’t sure if I would try to climb the tower, or just conquer the first floor then leave for the Underworld. There was so much I needed to do. Getting everyone out of here safely was the number one priority. Exactly how I was going to pull that off was the real question.
My wish list was to hunt down more Blue Magic, find new creatures for bonus experience and try to loot the Vampire Lord’s home. One day.
Regardless of what I decided, there was no time to relax. As much as I disliked the Mistress, I also respected her power. What she had said to us on the first day had stuck with me. The underworld was something I could have only dreamed of until she brought me here. Being able to level up, to grow stronger, left me in awe. I was now able to use magic, to heal myself, and I would never have to sleep again. It couldn’t be denied that part of me was thankful for this opportunity.
Not that I could forget the danger, or the fact that on a whim she could change her mind and would very literally eat me; probably with ranch dressing.
Should I seek to grow powerful enough to destroy her, or just to break the power that she had over me? My freedom was not as confined as I once believed. We had full access to the Underworld, even if that meant never seeing the surface again. But that wasn't out of the question.
I didn’t know what I would be doing a week or a year from now, but one thing was clear. I would fight. We were not safe, so the first thing that was necessary was to continue growing stronger. As strong as possible.
Underworld - Level Up or Die: A LitRPG Series Page 22
