Glory to the Brave (Ascend Online Book 4)

by Luke Chmilenko

  The orb came apart in my hands with a vague tearing sensation, shooting up my arms as it turned into countless strands of energy, moving to swirl around my hands. Unable to help but smile at my success, I slowly reached up towards the skull, placing one hand on what had once been its snout. Reacting instantly as I touched the coarse bone, the essence then practically leapt from me, flowing into it without even a conscious thought. Surprised by the reaction, I hesitated for second before placing my second hand beside the first, the momentary pause serving me well because as I did so, the skull’s jaws abruptly snapped shut. Letting out a loud yelp in response to the sudden movement, I recoiled away several steps from the weapon, the primal fear of when I’d actually faced the ferocious creature in combat suddenly surging up inside me.

  But despite my movement, the limited contact had been enough for the essence to also leap into the weapon, causing the entirety of it to begin to glow with a shroud crimson energy that rapidly grew brighter until it vanished from sight. Squinting from the sudden light, I brought up a hand to partially shield my eyes, refusing to take them off the shifting silhouette I saw within. Lasting for several seconds, I stared in wonder until the energy finally began to dissipate, revealing the ballista once more.

  “W-whoa,” I whispered with a mixture of both fear and awe as I looked up towards the machine, feeling my heart skip a beat as I unexpectedly found it staring back at me, the once empty eye sockets of the skull now blazing with crimson light.

  But as I took in the weapon’s new appearance, I realized that the eyes were far from the only thing that had changed. Sporting a dark pattern similar to when it had been alive, a series of dark grey and black patches now crossed the once-bare skull, giving it the illusion that it was covered in scales. Yet as my eyes continued to roam, I found that the scale pattern didn’t simply end at the skull but stretched to include both the æthertouched oak and metal, the whole ballista itself having turned darker, so much so that it vaguely resembled a living thing. But for all the physical changes that the siege engine had undergone, it was the last and final thing that I noticed that caused a tendril of fear to crawl down my back and that was the presence that it now had. Where before it was simply a collection of wood, bone, and metal, after the meld, I now sensed a menacing aura emanating from the machine, one that reminded me of what I felt when I had first stared down the Beast.

  “Whoa indeed,” I heard Léandre’s voice echo out from beside the machine as he came into view, his presence breaking the spell that had fallen over me. “It looks beautiful. Terrifying, too. Better than anything I could have ever imagined.”

  “Y-you could say that again,” I replied as I shifted to look over towards the man, trying to figure out exactly what to say next. But before I could find the words that I was looking for, my train of thought was interrupted by an exuberant fanfare that played in my ears, followed by a series of notifications flashing in my vision.

  You have created a Unique Item!

  The Beast (Unique Heavy Ballista)

  Slot: Siege Weapon

  Item Class: Unique

  Item Quality: Mastercraft (+20%)

  Damage: Wooden Bolt: 1095-1690 (Piercing)

  Iron Bolt: 1405-2815 (Piercing)

  Æthertouched Iron Bolt: 1875-3750 (Piercing)

  Durability: 1500/1500

  Weight: 420 kg

  Item Level: 29

  Research Enhancements:

  Improved Damage: Base damage increased by 25%

  Improved Durability: Base durability increased by 50%

  Improved Range: Base range increased by 50%

  Special: Greater Essence of Ferocity – Channeling the power of ferocity itself, attacks made with this weapon gain +15% Critical Strike Chance and have a chance to deal up to an additional +50% Bonus Damage on a critical hit.

  Unique Effect: Terror – Whenever the Beast lands a critical hit or kills its target, all living things within 15 feet of its victim are afflicted by a primal fear. This causes the afflicted to either flee from the victim for up to 1 minute or be afflicted by the [Shaken] debuff, suffering a 10% reduction to all attributes for 5 minutes.

  Objective Completed! Craft a level twenty-nine Mastercraft quality item: 1/1

  Quest Completed! Blacksmithing: Becoming a Journeyman (Tradeskill)

  Your skill in Blacksmithing has increased to Level 30!

  Congratulations! You have completed the Apprentice crafting tier in Blacksmithing and have earned the right to call yourself a Journeyman Blacksmith! You can now access the Crafting Mastery tree for the Blacksmithing tradeskill where you can begin to refine, enhance, and eventually specialize your skills.

  This can be done by earning and spending Crafting Skill Points to gain bonuses to specific aspects of the crafting process. Crafting Skill Points can be earned by crafting high quality or unique items, dismantling and studying items beyond your skill level, gaining tutoring from a higher leveled master, or by studying rare crafting tomes to further enhance your knowledge.

  “We did it,” I said as I finally finished scanning over the wall of text and focused my attention on Léandre, having heard a gasp echo out from the man at the same moment that it had appeared.

  “So we did,” he replied quietly, both relief and excitement coloring his voice as he spoke. “And it is better than anything I’d ever thought. Have you seen it yet? The mastery tree?”

  “Not yet,” I said, having temporarily forgotten about the new progression tree that had become available to us at the journeyman tier in the middle of all the excitement, shifting my focus to check it.

  Crafting Mastery: Blacksmithing

  Personal:

  Deft Hand – Reduce the time needed to craft an item by 5%. 0/5

  Efficient Crafter – Reduce the total materials needed to craft an item and gain more materials from salvaging an item. 0/5

  Journeyman Trade Mastery – Slightly decreases the difficulty of crafting Journeyman Tier and below Blacksmithing items. 0/10.

  Technique:

  Improved Durability – Increase the total durability of a crafted item by 5%. 0/5

  Improved Armor – Increase the total armor provided by crafted armor by 3%. 0/5

  Improved Attributes – Increase each primary attribute on a crafted item by 4 and each secondary attribute by 2. 0/5

  Improved Damage – Increase total damage of a crafted weapon by 2%. 0/5

  “You were right,” I said as I finished reading over the mastery tree with awe. “Now we can really get to work.”

  Chapter 58

  “Loose!” Léandre’s voice shouted, prompting me to pull the trigger on the ballista I was standing behind, the massive device bucking backward slightly as it launched its bolt straight into the air.

  “Looks good to me!” I called back to the man as I followed the rapidly shrinking object as it sailed down the range we’d set up before crashing into the ground, throwing up a cloud of dirt to mark its landing. “Flew straight and was right on target!”

  “That is what I saw as well,” the craftsman agreed, his hand reaching out to pat the machine affectionately before motioning me onwards. “This one is good. Onto the next.”

  Shifting over from the siege engine, we stepped over to the next ballista in line a short distance away. Well-practiced with the process now, I knew full well what to do next, my hand finding the crank to begin cocking the weapon. Falling in beside me as I did so, Léandre went about inspecting the machine, his eyes scanning over the various pieces that comprised it. Seeing nothing to warrant having me stop cranking, the man then shuffled to the opposite side of me, sliding a large practice bolt into place.

  “Everything looks in order,” he announced after I’d finished priming the siege engine, taking a step back to stand clear. “Loose!”

  Pulling the trigger at the familiar command word, the machine promptly bucked much like the other one had, sending its quarrel soaring high into the air and down the range. But unlike the other ballista
, the launch was accompanied by the combined sound of something snapping and cracking at the same time, earning a curse from the both of us.

  “Damn,” I grunted with a wince. “That sounded all kinds of bad.”

  “The release mechanism most likely,” Léandre replied with a sigh as he stepped towards the machine and dropped down to his knees, wasting no time in crawling under it. “Hrm, yes, as I thought. Shattered. It will have to be replaced completely.”

  “How about the frame itself?” I asked, crouching down so I could see the man. “That—”

  “—sounded pretty bad!” Thorne’s voice suddenly called out from behind me. “We heard it on the way here. Is everything okay?”

  Startling at the unexpected noise, I turned to look over my shoulder and spotted both the dwarf and Halcyon walking towards us with an expression of concern written across each of their faces.

  “We’re fine,” I called back, waving to the pair as they approached. “Just a technical malfunction. We’re testing a few of the ballista we managed to save from Valor’s Point. Looks like this one had a little bit more battle damage than we thought.”

  “Bah,” Thorne grunted sympathetically. “Oh, well. Better to find out now and here, rather than in the middle of battle.”

  “My thoughts precisely,” Léandre replied as he crawled out from under the ballista, holding a collection of broken wood in his hand. “Regardless, however, we’ll have to take this one back to the workshop to repair and check over fully before we can mark it as ready.”

  “I don’t mind pushing it back,” I offered, my attention shifting over towards Thorne and Halcyon. “Am I right in taking that the both of you are here is because you managed to catch Hal up?”

  “We are,” Thorne stated, inclining his head towards the mage who looked slightly overwhelmed as well as completely exhausted. “Showed him everything he needs to know to get right into the swing of things except the actual melding process.”

  “Great! In that case, I think it’s time we traded off,” I said, glancing back towards Léandre. “I have a few things I need to finish up back at the workshop myself, then I need to get back into the foundry.”

  “Yes, your melding and armor,” he answered with a nod, well aware of my plan for the day. “I will find you later when I’ve sorted my own tasks. Though if you can find one once you return to the hall, see if you can’t have one of my apprentices look at fixing this contraption. Any one of them should be able to handle it themselves.”

  “Sure thing,” I replied, motioning for Halcyon to help me push it back.

  “Good. That will save us both time that we can spend elsewhere,” the architect said graciously, the four of us then going our own ways, which for Halcyon and I happened to be back to Aldford while pushing the broken siege engine between us.

  “So how’s the day been going on your end?” I asked Halcyon as we started to move. “Are you all nearly done with the wards?”

  “God, I wish,” the mage replied with a sigh, his head shaking from side to side as he spoke. “Now that we have the æthertouched iron to work with, we’re making even more of them than we had before. Not only do they last longer than the plain iron version, but they’re also a hell of a lot more durable. Something that I imagine will be useful when the orcs are actively trying to break them.”

  “Without a doubt,” I agreed, word of us finally being able to properly forge the magic metal having wasted no time at all in making its way throughout Aldford, so much so that now practically everyone wanted something crafted out of it for their use. The demand had in fact risen so much so that I expected Léandre’s and my next task, at least besides raiding the Irovian tower for more of the buried metal, would be to figure out how to smelt it ourselves.

  Which if figuring out how to forge the metal was any indication of how tricky it might be, is going to end up being its own fun process to discover, I thought dryly, already feeling a vague sense of trepidation about the idea. Oh, well. As I always say, that’s a problem for Future Lyrian.

  Continuing to talk between ourselves as we pushed the broken siege engine back towards Aldford, I was able to get a general progress update of everything that he, Garr, and their respective groups of spellcasters had collectively been working on.

  “So these healing and mana totems that Garr and his group are making for us are nothing short of amazing,” he said as he described their work. “They’re both fairly inconspicuous things that anyone is able to activate and then plop down into the ground, and they’ll last for five minutes afterward. In the case of the healing totem, it’ll heal up to fifteen people within thirty feet of it for two hundred hit points every five seconds, dividing excess healing if there are fewer people between everyone up to a cap of three-fifty. It also restores half of whatever it heals to stamina too, which will definitely be a big boost during long fights.”

  “In the case of the mana totems, which I think you’ll come to love, they give a flat hundred and fifty mana every five seconds also to fifteen people within range, rather than an outright boost to regeneration. This one caps out at a maximum of two hundred and fifty mana every five seconds if there aren’t enough people to max out its ability.”

  “Damn,” I replied, unable to help shake my head at Halcyon’s description. “That’s even better than what I’d hoped based on Garr’s description. That could make a huge difference.”

  “Without a doubt,” the mage agreed, a smile appearing across his face as he spoke. “But that’s not even the best part. The gronn also have another pair of totems they’re crafting for us—one called a ‘tranquility totem’ and the other a ‘tenacity totem’. They each give plus thirty to Intelligence and Willpower or the same to Strength and Agility depending on the version, with the same ranges and limits as the others, except they don’t scale upwards if there’re too few people around.”

  “Wow, that’s amazing!” I replied, feeling my eyes nearly boggle at the description. “How many of those can we get made before the orcs get there?”

  “Enough to be used sparingly,” Halcyon said, his earlier excited tone fading somewhat. “Unfortunately, crafting each of those totems requires an essence of the same name, and we’ve only managed to get a handful of each so far. So we’re going to really need to pick and choose when we use them.”

  “Bah, fair enough, though,” I said with a grimace, tempering my earlier expectations somewhat. “In either case, they’ll be a godsend when we do need them.”

  “Without a doubt,” the mage stated, pausing for a second before moving on. “Anyway, past those fiddly bits, we’re making slow—and I mean near glacial—progress in figuring out a way to interface the security servitor with the tree’s matrix. Our biggest problem is that it wasn’t designed to ever do something like this, and that also the stupid thing isn’t exactly clear in answering our questions.”

  “Hrm, do you think it’s something worth pursuing at all?” I asked, a little concerned just where this experimentation might be going and if the time couldn’t be spent better elsewhere. “Because while I know it might be a time crunch before the orcs get here, my memory crystal only has a couple more days left in it. Maybe I’ll be able to add my own insight to interfacing with the matrix right after I finish absorbing it.”

  “Honestly, we hope that’ll be the case,” Halcyon replied, nodding his head as he spoke. “But given the tight timelines, we’re hoping to hedge our bets in case we actually do run out of time, or if in the odd chance the crystal comes up blank with what we’re trying to do. That way we at least have some progress.”

  “I guess that’s probably the smart way to do it,” I said, unable to fault that logic. “Do you know what sort of spell or support we could count on if you’re able to tap into the ley line’s magic? A few giant fireballs would definitely go a long way to evening the odds…”

  “Oh, I don’t doubt that,” the mage answered with a chuckle. “But I’m afraid offensive stuff like that isn’t on the cards. At leas
t not yet. There are just too many variables in actually getting the hostile magic to where it needs to be without accidentally burning half the town down.

  “What we think we can do though,” he said, pausing for a second to catch his breath, “is scale up a few defensive spells that are naturally mana hungry—such as Force Shield—and give Aldford another line of defense, but from higher up. We’d be able to keep the orcs from raining magic or siege weaponry into the town pretty much indefinitely.”

  “Now that would solve a lot of our problems and make things loads easier on us,” I replied, the mage’s words having hit hard on a particular fear of mine. “The less damage that they can do to the town, the less chance we have at losing the respawn point. Because if that happens…”

  “Then we’re as good as fucked,” Halcyon finished with a shake of his head.

  “Pretty much,” I agreed, not wanting to entertain the thought of what I’d do if I found myself respawning back in Coldscar or Eberia.

  “We’ll just need to make sure that doesn’t happen then,” Halcyon said, taking that opportunity to change the subject. “In either case though, that’s about all I have on my end of things. How about you? I’ve heard a few rumors flying around town about a new ballista that you and Léandre made, but I’m not entirely sure if I should be believing them.”

  “Ha. That all depends on what they’re saying,” I replied, flashing a wide grin towards the man as I began to update him on everything that I’d been up to since the morning.

  Starting first with the subject at hand, I assured Halcyon that we had indeed crafted the Beast and that rumors flying around the town were, in fact, completely true. Once the mage had managed to collect himself in the minutes afterward, I pressed on to give him an outline of what crafting at level thirty was like, both Léandre and I having spent the better part of the day in the foundry.