I closed the status and walked over to the bathhouse, stopping there to get a pair of boxers and a towel from the stack Melina had stowed away in one of the cabinets, then hurried to the river. I stopped at the edge of the water and stood there with my mouth agape. The small fishes glowed slightly, and what’s more, I noticed two more mining spots. They glowed as well, but barely at that.
My eyes shut as a thin layer of Enma surrounded me, and I slid into the water, diving straight for the mining spots. The small school of fish swam around me, nibbling at my skin, especially the muck that still clung to my side, as I inspected the ore. I reached out and hovered my hand above the small craterlike protrusion, when a familiar pop-up appeared, telling me I got another chunk. And another, and another. A new chime startled me, however, as I stared at the last piece of ore.
Notification:
QUEST COMPLETED:
Miner Level 1
REWARDS FOR QUEST COMPLETION:
1. +10 Defense, +100 Health
2. Mining Skill
Quest Received: Miner Level 2
DESCRIPTION: Mine 50 Ore.
COMPLETION: 10/50
NOTE: Mining passive skill boosts the chance of getting higher-ranked ore inside the rift.
This time the boost to health was quite large with 100 points. We really needed to get the job quests done as soon as we could to enjoy all these extra stats. It was going to be a great benefit when facing the big monster Veles talked about.
I pushed the thought aside as I still swam underwater. I was mostly clean by now, so I got out and stared at the inn from the stream. The lanterns were all on, at least the ones outside. Lana sat underneath one and was moving both hands in a steady motion. It looked very familiar for some reason, but I didn’t know what she was doing until I got there.
I leaned against the wooden railing and stared at her moving hands as she filed her nails. She just sat there, not even stopping to look up at me. Her lips moved slightly, though.
“How was the swim?”
“Refreshing.”
“Oh? Why did you go out this late? You woke me up.”
I shrugged as if she could see me while staring down at her nails.
“I broke through my fifth meridian and was burning up. I didn’t want to have you two worry about me, so I did it outside and then cleaned myself up.”
She stopped midway on her last nail and looked up. “Fifth?”
“Yeah. How far along are you?”
“Halfway to my fourth.”
I chuckled. “After so many years? You sure were lazy, Lana.”
“Bah! You just used a mass of crystals, admit it!”
“I never said I didn’t, but how about this? We’ll cultivate in the downtime between spawns. You’ll get to the fourth meridian with ease, I’m sure of it.”
“If my body can handle it,” she murmured. “We don’t have good foundations.”
“What is a foundation?” I asked, not knowing the term, though I subconsciously already could tell what it was.
“It’s the way you prepare for every breakthrough and how you process the Enma. Ideally, you want a week of downtime between ranking up so the Enma can settle and strengthen your body, your Enma pool, your mind, your soul… basically everything.”
I nodded, understanding what she was saying. “So even if we do manage to convince her to accept you, her foundation will be very bad, won’t it?”
She looked away embarrassedly and shrugged. “If that’s her choice, yes. In my defense, though, if she doesn’t wish to become anything like you and me, a pure frontline fighter, she doesn’t need the edge a better foundation would give. We could strengthen her foundation later down the line.”
“Still, I won’t feel good doing it unless we explain it to her in detail. And how do we fix her foundation? And ours for that matter.”
“We need extremely high-grade cores to do that, but I don’t think we’ll get them anytime soon,” she whispered and went on to finish her last nail. “I’m already so over this shit, you know? I had all these things planned out for when I found you, but look at us now. Playing a game for the Gods and waiting for my seven days to finish.”
“You didn’t explain why seven days, though. Exactly.”
She kept filing the last nail until it was done and looked up again. “A deal with Krajolik. I didn’t manage to kill a boss, and that’s that, if you want the truth.”
“Bah, damn bastard. All of them only think about how to get people to play their little games,” I muttered as I slumped next to her. “We might do it if she’s alright with it, though. If we kill the spawn four times, that’s at least eighty of the rank two crystals. I’m sure all of that would be enough to get her there.”
“What about the rest?” she asked curiously as her eyebrows slightly rose. “Will you leave them at rank one and two where they currently are?”
“No, I’ll get everyone up to rank three before the day is up. Or I’ll stay there until it’s done. Don’t worry, I want everyone to be able to fend for themselves, at least against such things like grazlitaurs.”
“Then what are we still doing here? You need a good night’s sleep, or you will pass out from exhaustion, even though your body isn’t what it used to be anymore.”
“Breakfast is ready!” Rita’s voice rang out from the front yard. “Come on, sleepyheads! Rise and shine!”
I stirred awake and sat upright. Both Melina and Lana were already up and sat behind the one makeup vanity, giggling and whispering. Their hair was already done, though they hadn’t dressed yet. Both still wore their nightgowns from last night.
“You two sure are in a good mood.”
“Oh? Why wouldn’t we be?” Lana asked. “Anything happen we don’t know about?”
“Yeah, anything happen?” Melina added. “Other than that Lana’s glowing like a lightning bug.”
“What does that mean?”
“You had sex with him, didn’t you? You bastards.”
I closed my eyes and dropped back onto the bed. “Despite whatever you might think of me, no, we didn’t,” I muttered.
“Yeah, he’s right. I’m glowing because we had a good chat last night after he broke through again.”
“Oh? He did?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m rank five now, babe. I’ll have to work you hard, though.”
“Because of Lana?”
“If that’s what you wish, yeah. We need to get you to rank four by the week’s end.”
“Sure thing. We’ll see how it works out. If it does, great, if it doesn’t… well, yeah. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“You have to know something, though,” Lana whispered, barely audible. Was she going to come clean? I sure hoped so. “Your future capabilities will be lower by at least about 15% or so until we can fix it, as you’ll have to break through without your Enma settling.”
“It’s alright. If it makes him happy, I’ll do it.”
“You will?”
She nodded and looked over at me. “You have to make one promise to me, though. Promise you’ll never leave me for anyone or anything. Promise that you’ll always be with me, and I’m good.”
I got up and walked over to her, pulled Melina to her feet, and put my arms around her. I kissed her forehead and hugged her tightly.
“I promise never to leave you but for death. Nothing will keep me from being with you, alright?”
“Alright.”
“Oh, stop it, you two. We got more important things to do today. Like killing a hundred grazlitaurs,” Lana groaned.
“Right.” I chuckled as I remembered just what awaited us today. “How late is it, anyway?”
“Sometime past five,” Melina replied after staring down at the watch on her left wrist. I nodded and slumped back onto the edge of the bed, thinking about how to proceed. We would make seven firepits; then we would start killing and butchering the monsters. That way we wouldn’t waste time in between quests, or at least not as m
uch. But why hadn’t hunting gone up to level one? Strange. I… right. I didn’t kill them using cold steel alone. And I used skills. Shit. Don’t tell me I would need to kill them with ordinary attacks alone?
I got up and walked into the bathroom to get ready to go down. The girls were already dressed when I got out. They wore almost identical black tights and black sport crop tops.
“Where’s my tracksuit?”
“On the bed,” Melina replied. “Need help?”
“What? You want two women to help me put on a tracksuit?”
The two first looked at each other and then at me.
“Wait, don’t answer that question.”
They giggled and chatted while waiting for me to finish. Several minutes later we were down in the dining room, biting down on thin slices of roast and fresh bread. We were out of alcohol, so all we had was some beer and water. No one cared, though, as everything tasted much better in good company.
We ate merrily and laughed as if we had no worries in the world. All until the point when a chime rang out and an image appeared next to the blood-brother buff. It was a bolt of lightning that passed through a musical note.
“Are you guys seeing this?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper. “We’re getting 20% to everything?”
“We’ll be monsters.” Mark laughed. “We’ll be even bigger monsters than those grazlitaurs!”
“Yeah, about that. Girls, can you please help clean up the table? Mark, Donald, and I need to prepare before the battle.”
“Sure,” Melina chimed as she got up and started gathering the plates and shoving food down onto one of the trays.
I got up and motioned for the two men to follow me. They did so without protest. I waited outside near the noticeboard and accepted all the jobs. Every stat would matter this early in the game. Shit. Game. Since when had I started thinking about this as a game? It technically was one, but I might well screw myself in the long run if I kept thinking like that.
I sighed and waited for them to accept the jobs as well; then I turned to Donald and finally spoke. “Donald, since we’ll be out there all day and you’re not equipped to fight, I’ll need you to start working on tools and possibly equipment. We got skins and bones, and we’ll have more than enough for you to work on.”
He nodded weakly at first, but then his expression turned from worried to elation. “I think I could get into it again after such a long time. We’ll need fire, wood, some hard rock, knives, and some other things. I can start out by making a hammer using some of the bones and—yeah, this is going to be great! I can feel it, Viktor!”
The girls came running only moments after his short but excited reply. Sarah had Laney strapped around her back, and in her hands, she carried a bag with toys and another one with necessities and a blanket.
“We going for a picnic?” I asked as she stopped in front of Mark and glared at him.
“Yeah, you could say so, but please, give me a minute with my husband.”
Oh boy, was she mad for some reason? I turned my back to her and nodded to the rest toward the noticeboard. “Accept every job you haven’t already so we can do everything together.”
Sarah slapped Mark’s chest and hissed at him about not changing the baby’s diaper. Oh, man. Was I glad I didn’t have a baby right about now. There was no way I’d want to deal with those things while our lives were in danger.
I looked away and splashed my face with the water from the fountain. I looked down into my reflection and stared hard, almost as if it was about to give me an answer to a question I hadn’t even asked. I fucking hated life. I really did if it didn’t turn better anytime soon.
“Come on, guys, we’re losing time,” I snapped suddenly. “Let’s get to it!”
“You go ahead. I’ll be right there,” Donald called over his shoulder as he hurried toward the storage area under the left building.
All the bags with riches meant shit right about now. My eyebrows rose. No, they didn’t. We could get people to do work at this place for us. Plumbing and making this place look better and nicer, get some new furniture and drinks. We would need raw materials and tools and all kinds of things if we wanted to weave, brew, make potions, and pills. Kihot’s loot sure would come in handy.
Donald caught up with us several minutes later just as we were about to exit into the outer zone. He carried a pickax, a shovel, and a full bucket with knives and tools. The man sure had gotten into it.
I went first and motioned for them to wait as I pulled out my nodachi and gladius, then passed through the barrier. Everything was just like last time. The grazlitaurs lounged to the right and either ate grass or drank water. I surveyed the area quickly, but everything seemed to be in order, just like it had been last time.
I walked back in and waved for them to come out. They followed and gasped at the beauty that awaited them. We weren’t able to look through the domed wall and see the outside; no, it was like staring through rippling water. You only vaguely knew what would await you.
“We’ll need wood for the firepits and tools, possibly for other things. Carpentry? So it’s a good idea to set the camping site up over at the tree line,” I said, pointing at the edge of the forest.
The water was on the opposite side, but there were no trees there. Only brush and grass. It would be inconvenient to drag wood around, so it was better to dig a canal toward the camping site. I’d have—hmm, who was going to do it? We were grossly understaffed.
“What are you thinking about?” Mark asked. “I can literally see the cogs in your mind whirring overtime.”
“Yeah, we need water, but we also need wood.”
“Then we use his bucket to get water. We can clean it in the stream, can’t we?”
“I can do it. It’s no problem.” Donald laughed. “I’ll be happy to help any way I can.”
I held my hand up for him to be quiet and then motioned at the grazlitaurs. They were all watching us intently.
“Let’s move to the forest first. We’ll set up camp there and start culling the beasts.”
“Oh? Don’t you want to make firepits first?” Mark asked.
The girls were strangely quiet. Maybe even afraid to be outside.
“Yeah, I might as well. Donald, can I get that shovel?”
I put the gladius away and took the shovel from him. I counted twenty steps from the nearest tree and dug a hole thirty inches deep, then picked up a pile of thin branches, some dry leaves, and stood there without any idea what to do next.
“What?” Lana asked. “You don’t know how to make a fire?”
“I never was talented with fire. Anyone got a lighter?”
Mark picked one from his pouch and threw it my way. I caught the—shit, that thing looked expensive. It was all metallic and shiny. After seeing one for myself, I suddenly felt an urge to own one like it. Shoving the thought aside, I knelt and dropped a rank one crystal into the firepit, then lit the sucker up. The flames burst outward and singed my hand.
“Fuck, now that’s some reaction,” I cursed.
I shook my hand and threw the lighter back to Mark.
“What? Don’t like it?” he mused.
“Hell yeah I do, but you’re next.”
I walked over to one of the thinner trees and hacked at it with my gladius. The blade passed right through, to my surprise. I hacked it into pieces and threw it into the firepit, then waited for the flames to catch.
I turned to Melina, pulled her in, and planted my lips on hers. She kissed me back furiously, but I pulled away before Lana would snap at us.
“Be careful, alright? I’ll join you in a bit when I get my fire going and—stuff.”
I winked at her and turned to leave.
Melina’s hand caught mine and she pulled me around. “Wait, take my buffs.”
“Buffs?”
She nodded. “I fooled around with them last night when you two were… out chatting. I deleted my skills and got new scrolls, so I kept doing it until I had something us
eful.”
My eyebrows shot up. “You’re fucking with me, right?”
She shook her head. “No, but there’s a downside. They’re back to zero percent, so I don’t think it’s smart to do that all the time.”
I tapped my finger against the gladius and nodded. “I first need a good weapon; then I can do the same.”
“And what is a good weapon?” Mark asked. “I find the spear to be quite good.”
“Yeah, it probably is, but I want something with more weight that can crush the shield easier. Then I can switch to something else that can take care of the target in question.”
“Viktor, there are many things that can help you with the shield,” Donald interrupted. “What about a greatsword with extra weight? It can almost act like a hammer and sword in one.”
“Yeah, but we don’t have any.”
“Who says?” Donald laughed. “You have one right in your hand.”
“The nodachi?”
“Yeah, the nodachi. I think we could add some weight to it using one of the—what were they called?” He tapped his chin several times before he continued. “The femur? I think it can pass for a femur. They’re easily over a meter long, as you know. Want me to go get one?”
I shook my head. “No, I’ll do it. You guys busy yourself with digging firepits.”
It took me only several minutes to go back and gather all the femur bones, then bring them back. They weighed quite a lot in comparison to the nodachi, so if I were to combine the two—shit. I’d have problems swinging it with one hand.
Donald looked up at me from where he sat as I dropped the femurs. Then I noticed something.
“What the hell is that?”
“An anvil.”
“And where did you get one from?”
“Tool quest. We have seven anvils and just need one more to upgrade this one.”
“Wait, how? What? I don’t get it,” I asked.
The damn man had me confused, but when I looked to the side, I saw three more, smaller than the one in front of him.
Crafting Death: A LitRPG Cultivation Series (Towers & Rifts Book 2) Page 7