by S. R. Witt
“Alright. Now, let’s see it,” Rozak said with a glint in his eye.
Osmark couldn’t help but grin, knowing exactly what the dwarf was looking for. He pulled out his Guidebook, opened the cover, and fanned through a few of the mostly blank pages, letting Rozak get an eyeful.
The dwarf reached for the book, but Robert pulled it back, just out of his reach. “You show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.”
The dwarf tugged on his beard, his face a thundercloud of disapproval. “I never should’ve taken on a human as an apprentice,” he grumbled. “You lot are all a little too uppity for your own good.”
Osmark chuckled and placed the book on the workbench in front of the dwarf. “I doubt there’s anything in there you haven’t seen before, sir.”
Rozak casually flipped through the few pages covered in neatly drawn diagrams and tight, even handwriting, nodding to himself whenever he found something of interest. “This is a good start, look here.” A popup appeared in front of Osmark:
<<<>>>
Quest Update: Legacy of the Brand-Forged
You have ventured into the Brand-Forged Artifactory and defeated the Iron Goliath within its deep vault. Though the battle was fierce and your companions fell along the path, you returned to Rozak with the Mechanical Artificer’s Guidebook.
Retrieving this powerful piece of Brand-Forged lore has increased your reputation with Rozak to Exalted, and your reputation with all Artificers is now Honored. You may now select the Mechanical Artificer class kit. You’ve also received 15,000 EXP.
<<<>>>
Osmark had been so caught up in surviving the Artifactory, he’d missed the flurry of experience and level-up messages that had come in during and just after the battle against the Goliath and his army of bots. All told, including the bonus experience from completing the quest, Robert had enough points to reach level twenty.
<<<>>>
x6 Level Up!
You have (55) unassigned stat points! Stat points can be allocated at any time.
You have (8) unassigned proficiency points! Proficiency points can be allocated at any time.
<<<>>>
Rozak cleared his throat and tapped the Guidebook with his calloused thumb. “I can tell you’ve learned a lot on your journey, but you still haven’t learned how to listen.”
Not wanting to miss any of the dwarf’s words of wisdom, Osmark dismissed the notifications and returned his attention to the Guidebook. Rozak had his thumb next to an exploded-view diagram of an intricate clockwork mechanism. At first, the drawing made no sense to Robert, but the longer he looked at it, the clearer it became. He understood how a toothed gear would slip over an articulated axle here, and the steam fitting would couple with the drive line to the turbine there …
<<<>>>
Congratulations! You are now able to pursue the Mechanical Artificer class kit. Would you like to proceed? Please select Yes or No.
<<<>>>
He chose Yes so quickly he was afraid he had sprained his eyeballs swiveling them to that option. A new skill tree unfolded in front of him, along with brief explanations of what each of the available talents offered. Rozak hadn’t said another word. In fact, he hadn’t moved other than to breathe since Robert started examining the Guidebook.
Good, Osmark thought, looking over the new skills he’d unlocked by taking the Mechanical Artificer kit, that gives me a second to make some choices.
After careful examination, Robert dropped one more point into the passive Custom Built ability, which would increase his odds of “discovering” new blueprints while he salvaged the gear on the table. Next, he put another point into Perfectionist. Though he had a huge stack of salvage he could use for building engineered weapons, armor, and other gadgets, Robert knew his supplies wouldn’t last forever. The extra point in Perfectionist would enable him to stretch his limited supply by reducing his production costs and production time by 24%.
Caltrop also earned another point, boosting it to three, and increasing the number of uses per activation and the total movement reduction. Locking down his opponents was always good news, especially with the Flame Spitter ready to wreak havoc on slowed enemies. He would’ve loved to add the Burst Fire skill to his repertoire, since it would drastically increase his damage output against a crowd, but that skill didn’t unlock until he hit level twenty-five.
Still, there were a few other offensive skills he couldn’t wait to try out.
But unfortunately, those would have to wait.
The Mechanical Minion and Turret abilities—both specialty features of the Mechanical Artificer Kit—looked incredibly powerful, but right now he needed to beat Sizemore. Defeating the senator and consolidating power was the only thing that mattered, and neither ability would help appreciably toward that end. Not with the plan he already had in mind. A feral smile crept across his lips as he read over the description of Vital Sigil. Yes, that would do the trick. He dumped all six of his Proficiency Points into the skill.
<<<>>>
Skill: Vital Sigil
With a fundamental mastery of scrivening, Mechanical Artificers can inscribe Vital Sigils onto their armor. The Vital Sigil allows Mechanical Artificers to use their Intelligence Score in lieu of other physical ability scores.
Skill Type/Level: Passive/Master
Cost: None
Range: N/A
Cast Time: N/A
Cooldown: N/A
Effect 1: Inscribe (1) Vital Sigil onto any piece of armor with an empty Sigil Plate.
Effect 2: Replace any one Physical Ability Score—Dexterity, Strength, Constitution, or Vitality—with your Intelligence Score.
Effect 3: Vital Sigil efficacy is 90% of Intelligence Score.
<<<>>>
Coupled with his Geometrically Threaded armor, the Vital Sigil skill made his next choice a foregone conclusion. Robert toggled over to his character screen and dropped 35 of his stat points into Intelligence. The rest he invested in Spirit since that was the only stat that wouldn’t benefit from his ridiculous Intelligence Score.
Soon—very, very soon—his hard work would pay big, big dividends.
THIRTY-TWO:
Mercenary Artificer
The whole process had only taken a few moments, and Rozak had waited as if frozen in time. Osmark closed out of the interface menu and turned his attention back to the dwarf.
“You see?” Rozak asked. “As you learn more, you’ll fill this book with additional plans and blueprints. And that, in turn, will open the theory of Divine Geometry to you, guiding you as you rise through the ranks of the Mechanical Artificers.”
If I survive tomorrow, he thought. Then, to Rozak, “Thank you for all you’ve done—”
The dwarf raised a soot-stained hand and shook his head. “We’re not done here. Let’s put a little of this theory into practice.”
Rozak pawed through the salvage until he found the heavy buzzsaw attachment Osmark had retrieved from the fallen Goliath. “Fancy,” the engineer said, “very fancy. Now, let’s make it useful.”
The dwarf cleared the salvage away from the workbench in front of Robert, then dropped the saw and its housing onto the empty space. “First, we’re going to get rid of all the artsy-fartsy crap we don’t need. Strip that housing off and pull those ludicrous fasteners from the blade axle.”
Osmark, as exhausted as he was from his journey, couldn’t afford to ignore any of Rozak’s wisdom. Not now with so much on the line. He pulled his toolkit out of his backpack, unrolled it on the table in front of them, and went to work. His naturally high Intelligence, combined with the Custom Built skill, put him in good stead; he had the whole saw disassembled in a matter of minutes.
He laid out the parts in a neat line as he pulled them free from the saw. He ended up with a [Steam Core], a [Brass Equalizer], a [Rotary Gear Assembly], and finally, the [Hardened Steel Saw Blade]. Without the armor and the rest of the junk that had been attached to them, the parts weren’t as large as Osmark would’ve
thought. Even the blade, by far the biggest piece, was constructed from a series of interlocked pieces, which could be folded down into a compact disk not much wider than Robert’s outstretched hand, or expanded until the saw blade was twice the diameter of a dinner plate.
Before Osmark could do anything else, Rozak started shuffling the pieces on the workbench, sorting Robert’s work into two piles. “Don’t need that, don’t need this, just these.”
Then he grabbed Robert’s book, flipped through several pages until he came to a blank sheet, and retrieved a pointed stick of charcoal from the depths of his beard. He handed the crude pencil to Osmark. “Sketch out how you would attach this contraption to your repeater,” he said.
At first, Robert considered the idea to be completely ludicrous. The repeater was a slender, almost delicate weapon, and the saw was anything but. And yet, as he began drawing the rough outline of how the ridiculous contraption would look, the pieces began to fall into place like a jigsaw puzzle. A few minutes later he had a serviceable, if rather generic, diagram to show Rozak.
“You might want a strut here,” Rozak offered, pointing at the sketch, “maybe a stabilizer bar there to keep it from bouncing back on you.”
Osmark immediately saw the wisdom of the dwarf’s words and refined his plan, his hands whizzing across the paper—erasing this, adding that—the schematic seeming to take shape of its own volition. His mind guided his hand, but his mind was, in turn, governed by the power of Divine Geometry. It was not an altogether pleasant sensation, and he wondered if those he commanded using the Micromanage ability experienced the same sensation.
Rozak grunted his approval at Robert’s enhanced sketch. “Aye, that’ll do the trick, boy, assuming you’ve got the know-how to put it all together.”
Osmark grinned in reply and immediately set to work. Oh, he had the know-how all right. He gathered the pieces he needed—reaching across the workbench to snatch a trio of metal rods from his pile of salvage, digging through the spare parts for steam tubes and fittings—then soon lost himself in the work. When he finally paused and lifted his head, the weapon was complete.
The saw blade sat horizontally beneath the repeater’s barrel. A pair of copper tubes ran back along the repeater’s length to the Steam Core he’d mounted on top of the repeater’s original core. The blade and the Steam Core balanced one another, but Robert also added the stabilizer grip Rozak had suggested, giving the short weapon a second handle just behind the blade.
Rozak reached for the modified repeater but stopped, his finger lingering just inches away. “May I?” he asked with surprising deference.
Osmark nodded in a haze, still trying to pull himself together after the frenzied bout of construction. The whole experience had been strange, almost unnerving. For a time, he’d been lost in the grasp of something more powerful than himself. Ideas and concepts he could never have put into words had simply seized control of his hands and showed him how to exert his will on the world around him. That was the game mechanics at work.
It was amazing, but a little frightening too.
A long, low whistle escaped the dwarf’s lips. “You’re a quick study,” Rozak said, then lowered his voice a bit, stealing a sidelong glance at Osmark. “But I fear you may have put all your eggs into a single basket, if you know what I mean.”
Osmark did know what the dwarf meant.
The same worry had crossed his mind. Virtually all of his Stat points had gone straight into his Intelligence to boost his Artificer skills. But right now, all his other stats weren’t much better than a beginning lowbie’s. His armor and the Vital Sigils talent would help overcome his other deficiencies, but only if he had enough time. If anything went wrong—or Robert found himself caught flat-footed without preparation—his big brain wouldn’t be enough to get him out of trouble.
Osmark couldn’t let that kind of doubt color his vision of the future, though. “About that,” he replied. “I need to collect my reward from my previous quest—the ten rare crafting ingredients.” He told the master engineer what he needed, and the dwarf’s brows beetled together.
“You aren’t the first to try this scheme of yours, boy. Most have failed.” He paused and stole a sidelong look at Osmark. “I hope you won’t be one of ’em.”
While Rozak gathered up the loot, Osmark turned his thoughts to the dwarf. Asking for his rewards from the quest was one thing, but the next request on Robert’s list would be much harder for the dwarf to swallow. And if Rozak refused, all of Osmark’s planning was in jeopardy. Osmark composed himself as the dwarf approached with a heavy bag slung over his shoulder. Despite the dwarf’s gruff demeanor, Robert had developed a fondness for him.
It would be a shame if he had to kill him.
Rozak handed Osmark the bag, and he checked inside to make sure it had all the items he needed. Everything he’d requested was contained in the rough burlap sack, as well as a few other items he hadn’t requested. “How much for the rest?” he asked, pulling up a stool at the workbench.
“No charge for my apprentice,” the dwarf replied, waving one thick hand through the air. “We’ll figure out some way for you to work it out later, I guess.”
Robert placed the sack on the workbench and holstered his repeater. The blade mounted beneath the barrel folded up tight against the weapon’s body, allowing it to slip into the holster without modification.
“I have something else to ask—” Osmark began, but the dwarf cut him off.
“I’ve shown you all I can. If you wish to learn more, you’ll have to fill that book up a bit.” The dwarf tugged at his beard. “You’ve already got one blueprint in there, for a creature called a Brand-Forged Scavling—you get three more blueprints and we’ll talk again.”
Robert sensed another quest in the offering, but he ignored the prompt for the moment. He had something more important in mind. “I will, but this isn’t about your instruction. I want to hire you.”
A bellowing laugh roared from the dwarf, his belly shaking as he doubled over, nearly toppling off his seat. “Lad, on your best day, you couldn’t afford what I charge for even a simple dagger. Don’t be getting ahead of yourself with delusions of grandeur.”
A flat smile transformed Osmark’s face like the frigid blast of an arctic front. “You don’t know me as well as you think you do. I am your apprentice, but I’m not only your apprentice.” He reached into his inventory and retrieved a sack of gold coins, which he promptly dropped on the workbench with a loud thud. “There are two thousand gold pieces in here—all of it from the Brand-Forged Artifactory. If you’ll accept this job, there’s more where this came from. Much more.”
The spark of wisdom fled Rozak’s eyes as gold fever flared within the dark recesses of his heart. Two thousand gold was a hefty sum in V.G.O.—equivalent to nearly two hundred thousand US dollars. As skilled as Rozak was, he probably wouldn’t make that amount in two or three years, much less a single day. Greed was a powerful motivator. The dwarf’s fingers curled together like knotted serpents, clenching and twisting with minds of their own, his breathing harsh and labored like the mechanical gusts of hard-worked bellows.
“And what is it you’ll be wanting in exchange for this, eh?”
Relief washed through Osmark, but it was tinged with a prickling stab of disappointment.
He’d thought the dwarf was different, perhaps, that Rozak was driven by knowledge and the unquenchable thirst for perfecting his art. In the end, however, he’d been swayed by nothing more than a pile of shiny metal. Nothing more than a few bits of digital code, in reality. The gems Robert had recovered were worth far more than the gold, but he doubted the dwarf would have taken that bribe.
It was gold or nothing, for some.
Osmark closed his Guidebook and cleared a space on the workbench. He used the charcoal stick to draw a hasty sketch on the tabletop as Rozak watched on, drawing his pipe and slipping it between his teeth. The more details Robert filled in, the darker the dwarf’s glare grew.
“Is this what I think it is?” he barked, sounding none too happy.
Osmark nodded. “It is. Here’s what I need …”
It took Robert most of an hour to lay out his plan for Rozak. It was a daring, audacious scheme. One that would cost many lives before the next day was done.
“When?” the dwarf asked, pacing back and forth, his hobnail boots click-clacking on the wooden floorboards.
Robert put on his best salesman’s grin. “Tomorrow. By dawn. And no one can see your preparations—that’s imperative. You can only work where I’ve marked this map. Anywhere else and someone is likely to see you. If you manage it, I’ll double that two thousand. Four with no strings attached.”
Rozak pondered Osmark’s plan. “Okay,” he grunted.
For the next twenty minutes, they quibbled over the details until Robert finally slapped his hand on the workbench. “We’re out of time for talking. This has to be done. Now.”
The dwarf chuckled to himself and took a long puff at his pipe, his eyes faded and distant. Making calculations and running through projections, no doubt. “Alright, then. Get your arse back to the tavern, Mr. Moneybags. I got work to do. You get yourself some rest, too. Can’t have a Mechanical Artificer looking so bloody shabby.”
THIRTY-THREE:
Straight Talk
Osmark headed back toward the inn, one grueling step at a time, exhaustion making his limbs heavy, hunger burning a hole in his gut. He ignored them both and pushed on—eating and sleeping was for lesser men. Men who didn’t have empires to build and enemies to crush. He caught sight of a familiar Legionary—Bingley, he thought—making his rounds. Seeing the guard made Robert think of Horan. Robert pushed the painful memory away, cleared his throat to catch the guard’s attention, then leaned heavily against a storefront to wait.
“You look like hell if you don’t mind me saying, sir,” the Legionary quipped, giving him a thorough once-over. “Even more of a mess than the night you first came to Tomestide, and that’s quite an accomplishment. You need some help getting back to your rooms? A cleric perhaps?”
