by Taj McCoy El
“Since no one’s died we let you keep getting the experience for leadership. We see how’s fast you alls are progressing. And to be frank we’re a bit jealous of how quick you gain abilities. They seem to pop out of thin air for ya’s. But a word of advice dear leader.” He winked at Mo. “You should always see what your men have to offer before bossing them around.”
“You are very right. Would you care to take command captain? Maybe show me a thing or two?”
“We'll probably halve our lost time, so yeah let’s get this over with.” Bonkers turned and looked over the men that were still there.
“Chonchaise, get Riller and Grimsaw. Grab a crew and go get that chicken on the cliff. Portquise, Hurndock and Bregnan, scout around in a circle. Get a few going in each doirection. The rest of us are heading straight ahead, and then we’ll make a dogleg west for that chicken in a puddle. Davemarth you and your boys are in the lead.”
“You heard the captain,” Mo chimed. “Let’s move!”
A few snarls and sharp retorts were all the affirmation they got but knockers moved out, right smartly they did.
✽✽✽
Mayah sat with more items to enchant than items she wanted to enchant. Tiny pieces of paper, arrows, grenades, thread, stilettos.
Shaz! I’m worn out just looking at this pile. Oh well better get to work.
She grabbed a slip of paper and enchanted the light rune. Then she grabbed another and another. By the time she hit the fourth piece, she gave up. She rolled into the large pile of papers and enchanted the last light rune she’d picked up with the singular thought.
I wish I could enchant all this at once
Enchantment Rejected
You have tried to select too many item types to enchant. The number of items selected has exceeded your mana pool. Please try and select fewer item types to have a better chance at successfully enchanting batches taking hold.
Enchanting batches? But that failed back in the dorm. Holy flarf nuggets batman, if that had worked, I would have just destroyed hours of work. Her heart beat rapidly at the realization of how close she had just come to going back to the drawing board.
But is there a way to batch enchant that I’ve been missing?
She grabbed two Light (W) runes and thought batch enchant. The two runes flared into life, and then quieted. She pulled out two bobbins and tried to enchant them both. The system still wouldn’t recognize them. She thought, batch enchant, and nothing happened.
Tearing two pieces off a blank sheet of paper. She held them in her hand and the system wouldn’t recognize them either.
Which means the only difference is the runes. Weird flex, but I’m not gonna complain. Wait if there’s batch enchant, then what about?
She grabbed a large handful of the Light (W) runes she’d stamped and thought, Batch enchant! Her mana dropped to less than half, and she held the newly minted runes to her chest.
Ding!!!
New enchantment skill tree unlocked
Batch Enchant Skill Tree
When you weary of the tedious process of enchanting multiples of the same item, Batch Enchant can make your life so much easier. If you batch enchant too many items and run out of mana there is a 100% chance that all items will be destroyed. If you try to batch enchant items that are too dissimilar there is a 100% chance that the items will be destroyed.
For unlocking the Batch enchant enchantment skill tree without a trainer or unlocking it’s prerequisites you have received 50 skill tree points.
You have 66 unspent skill tree points
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA…!!!!
She grabbed a giant handful of the light runes she’d enchanted and thought, Batch Activate!
All of the Light (W) runes glowed to life in her hand. Mayah danced in her seat. Gone were the days of holding a runeagram open to toss grenades in.
Batch activate, dump, and done. Let’s get all this done before they know what hit them.
She charged handfuls of light runes, and then putting them into her bag for easy sorting. There were a few rounds where she got greedy and was left with puffs of smoke and dust. She felt the losses were far outweighed by the amount of work she was getting done so she continued in earnest.
When the Light (W) runes ran out she made more stilettos or arrows. She enchanted a few bobbins with an enchanted page of Light (W) runes making sure to arm the thread and received a notification.
Item created
Name:
Thread of Light (W)
Grade:
B
Durability:
20/20
Attributes:
Creates a field of Light (W) 5 inches in diameter around the thread.
She then took one of Margaret’s arrows and enchanted the thread with it keeping in her thoughts that she would like it to be configured like the needle of thread.
DING!!!
You have Created a New Item
Name:
Light-Line arrow
Type
Arrow
Grade:
C
Material:
Iron and Cotton
Weight:
3.1 lbs.
Damage:
15DP Piercing 4-6 light damage
Durability:
20/20
Thread:
250/250yds
Attributes
Arrow has a line embedded in it that give off light damage.
Created by Pretty Princess Cuddle Fluff (Enchanted Seamstress)
For creating new items in Majesta
50XP (bonus)
She pulled the thread from the back of the nock and cupped her hands around it to block out the light. And the thread glowed in her hands.
Sweet!!! Let’s make a few more of these
In total she made fifteen light-line arrows, and then moved on to charge some of the arrows with the Light (W) rune.
Name:
Light arrow
Type
Arrow
Grade:
C
Material:
Iron
Weight:
3.1 lbs.
Damage:
15DP Piercing 10-15 light damage
Durability:
23/25
Okay, now it’s time to get these runes loaded into crystals and ready for deployment. Am I gonna need an extra hand for this? Let’s try it out.
She drew a runeagram on the ground with a stiletto and carefully drew the runes she’d need. Then with 20 pieces of light paper she cast Open (Lf) with her left hand on the runeagram. With her right, she batch activated the rune papers and tossed them into the void.
She released the void and picked up the blue crystal that was left behind. She had the sudden thought that she might be able to make this crystal into a grenade and set about enchanting it. When her mana was covering the crystal, she thought grenade and was met with a notification.
Set timer for Rune crystal grenade
2-10 seconds
Mayah selected 2 seconds.
Rune crystal grenade
Activate (2 second activation) Y/N?
She stood up and activated the grenade and tossed it as high into the air as she could. The crystal exploded with a muffled pop and bits of crystal rained down across the field pelting a very upset looking Grax and Margaret.
“WARNINGS LADY????” Grax yelled reproachfully.
“Oops! Sorry,” Mayah apologized bashfully.
“Was that supposed to be pitiful on purpose?” he continued in his scolding tone. “Or did failure come looking for ya?”
“The latter. I think I can fix it in a second.”
“Whatever are you working on dear?” Margaret asked in earnest.
“Grenades to throw out and scatter the light runes.”
“Why can’t you enchant the stones like before?”
“They would be flash bangs at the most,” Mayah informed her. “This idea will give us a better spread and cause more damage
over time for a large group.”
“So, you’re creating an AOE with a damage over time effect?”
"I am loving the new Mags. Complete with Kung-fu gamer vocab,” Grax retorted offhandedly.
“Your mouth says words, and I think bad things, cat." Margaret pointed a finger at Grax. "One day, you and I are going to duel and you’re going to feel the pain.”
“Whatevs, grandma.” Grax’s eyes rolled and landed on Mayah. “So, Fluff, what’s the fix?”
I’m afraid to engrave the delivery runes directly onto the crystals so it’ll probably be delivery parcel in style but more compact. Wish I had some air-dry clay. That would be perfect for adding weight to the throw. Also came up with a new discovery. Let’s see if it’ll work for you guys.”
Mayah pulled out all the light stilettos and split them evenly between Grax and Margaret.
“Now hold them and think activate all.”
Glows came from the knives in her teammate's hands and Mayah did a little happy dance.
“Sweet now think deactivate all.”
The stilettos went dim.
“This means I can shoot multiple arrows a lot easier.” Margaret clapped her hands in anticipation.
“And I can throw more than one stiletto at once. Finally!!!”
“What do you mean finally?”
"I can throw up to four knives with each hand but with the specialized knives, I have to activate, and then throw. It slows me down.”
“Well, glad I could help you out.”
“You’re welcome.” Grax preened.
“Sorry, not sorry. Anywho, Mags, I made a few of the thread arrows. Here try one out.” She tossed an arrow to her favorite necromancer who deftly snatched it out of the air.
“Light-Line arrow?”
"Yep. I just make ’em I don’t name ’em.”
Margaret took out her bow. Stood on the end of the thread and nocked the arrow. She let it fly at the tree and was rewarded by a solid thunk. The thread floated to the ground settling lightly on the grass. Grax golf clapped.
“Yay, it works.”
“Stupid cat.” Margaret went to fetch the arrow cutting the excess thread placing it in her quiver.
“Well, here Grax why don’t you try out the whip?”
“Why does he get goodies for his atrocious behavior?”
“Because I owe him one.”
“Yeah Mags, because. She. Owes. Me!”
“Next time he dies I can use him as a doll, right?”
“If the system lets you, I’m all for it. Imagine having a whole army of undead Graxes.”
“Second best army you’d have after a living army of hundreds of me.”
“That gives me an idea. It may be creepy but we’re gonna see if we can save our dead bodies for fodder and distractions. Imagine someone is hunting us and we throw them off the trail with physical copies of ourselves.”
“That would have them scratching their heads for days. Speaking of head-scratchers, why haven’t you given me the whip yet.”
Mayah pulled crack of dawn out and tossed it to Grax who stroked it lovingly.
“Crack of dawn?”
“Like I said I don’t name them I just make ’em.”
Mayah though back to the silly name the stilettos engraved with Over (F) received. Immolatto? I mean it kinda gets the point across, but it sounds like a flame grill Italian restaurant. She stopped thinking about it before her brain seized and hung itself in an infinite loop.
“So, Riker and Deanna?” Grax asked. “Those system-generated names too?”
“Not by a longshot. They were chosen with the utmost of love and attention to detail.”
"I need a companion. Hopefully one I can ride,” Grax sighed.
“Worry about that later. For now, I want to watch you whip.”
“And nae nae, dear. Can’t forget the nae nae.” Margaret added
“Yeah thanks for that image of my dancing grandma embarrassing me at my 10th
birthday party.” Grax chided.
Margaret suddenly threw both hands to one side and bobbed her head quickly.
Grax hooked a thumb at Margaret. “Did she just…”
“Dab? Yes, I think she did.”
“Your age is showing, grandma.”
Margaret snarled at the cat.
“Don’t like it, grandma? Shouldn’t have had grandkids. I don’t know what people are thinking nowadays. I mean, if you murder someone, you’re a murderer. If you write, you’re a writer. And if you have grandchildren, YOU. Are. A. Grandma. Deal with it.”
He walked away from the ladies and uncoiled the whip, and Margaret walked over next to Mayah.
“That cat is just a painful little butt pimple,” she said in Mayah’s ear.
“Such language, Mags,” Mayah laughed as she turned away from Grax.
“So, what’s next, Fluff?”
Next, we see how bad Grax hurts himself while he tries to figure out the whip.”
“Oooh, this sounds fun. Mind if I join you?”
"I can hear you!” Grax yelled
“We know,” Mayah and Margaret said together breaking into laughter.
11.3 What a Knocker Can Do
The mud sucked at Mo's steps as he slogged through the marshy meander off the creek. Chest high reeds hid most of his view and the aquatic plants tried to trip him with every step. Bonkers said there were some newts that they could use to level up but no one had seen any sign of them.
The knockers had surrounded a small island and were walking forward as quietly as possible. They were spaced out in three concentric rings. Mo being hampered so much by the mud had gotten him placed in the third rank. Ziggs was in the first as it floated over the water and Mephi’s beastkin feet gave him better purchase in the soft mud was placed in the second.
A solitary knocker ran forward to scout out the island and slowed a few yards from the shoreline. He pulled a dagger and threw it into the bush and received a squawk in confirmation.
Your party has attacked
Gallus Hydridae
(Water Mutation)
Level 14
-10 dagger
746/756HP
The first rank closed in. When In a burst of mud and feathers the chicken exploded from the reeds and soared over the heads of the first rank. It hit the water with a splat, flat on its belly and spun to take in its attackers. Its head bobbed back and forth turning from one knocker to the other.
In a burst of speed, the chicken slid on its belly across the mud and plants using its feet to propel it forward with amazing speed. It was aiming to the left of the knocker that had thrown the dagger when it stuck a wingtip into the mud and pivoted around and rocketed straight towards him.
The knocker caught off guard by the sudden change in direction tried to avoid the waterfowl and almost escaped. A wing slapped out and knocked him from his feet. The chicken stood up with its abnormally large feet and stomped on him repeatedly driving him into the mud. It then sat on top of him and glared at the other knockers.
Ziggs rushed in and smashed into the bird bodily knocking it off the knocker who sat up and gasped in air. Ziggs tumbled over the top of the bird and wound up landing in the muck with loud squelching noise.
The chicken took advantage of its downed opponent and jumped on top of Ziggs pounding it into the ground like a maniac flamingo dancing to the “Flashdance” song. That was until it got hit in the head with a fireball. After the first hit it, more fireballs and earth spells pummeled it.
It fell off its feet and tried to scoot away only to wind up in a net thrown by a knocker. The Hydradae didn’t stop, in fact it sped up trying to get away. The knocker hung on to the rope the net was attached to and was quickly dragged off his feet and pulled through the mud. He didn’t let go even though he was bounced along hard enough to catch air. Everyone raced for the rope trying to slow it down.
When four men were on the ropes the hydridae slowed considerably. knockers with ropes surrounded the
chicken and began to harry it with spells and lassos.
A large boom was heard, and a wave of muddy water pushed the knockers back except for the ones who held onto the ropes. Those skipped over the wave like a wakeboarder styling for points. Until they flopped back into the mud groaning. Mephi tried to jump out of the way and wound up getting stuck deeper into the muck. When the wave hit him, he bent backward at the knees getting slapped flat into the mud.
Mo rushed in after the wave receded and tossed his lasso at the bird missing completely. He reeled it back in for another try but before he could get it coiled up someone had the bag on its head. And ropes were flying over it to get it secured.
“Gorblimey. That was a bit easier than the first two don’t you think?” Mo jumped at the appearance of Bonkers in his peripheral.