Effect I: +5 morale
Effect II: HP regeneration +5%
I frowned and waited impatiently for another system message. None appeared. Where the hell is my new Trader skill? I demanded. This kind of cunning haggling is exactly the type the game ought to recognize!
WHAT?! I exclaimed. Where the hell did you pull this rule from?
But I already read it! There’s nothing there about Social skills!
Yes, I’m very sure Vic. I tried controlling my temper.
Ha ha, very funny Vic. I already thought of that joke a few days ago.
He was being even more insufferable than usual.
Yeshlimashu watched in bewilderment as I held the telepathic conversation with Vic.
“Excuse me a moment.” I walked over to Gandork.
“Here, it’s an advanced food recipe. Start working on it.” I thrust the recipe into his hand, still irritated by Vic’s antics.
Gandork didn’t seem to mind, he held the recipe as if he was holding a great treasure. “At once Dark Totem!” it was one of the few times he showed me any kind of respect.
I returned to the gremlin. “What are your plans for now?”
He looked around, “I can’t get back, not with all the hobgoblins patrolling the forest. With your permission, I think I’ll stay here for a while. You know, if you build a marketplace, it will give traders like me a place to stay and conduct their business. You would see a nice income from taxes as well. You might want to consider this.”
I shook my head, “I don’t have the blueprints for a marketplace I’m afraid. And we're a bit swamped with constructing standard buildings for now anyway.”
“Well, I might be able to provide such blueprints, when I get back to my people. But they won’t come as cheap as the food recipe.” Avarice gleaming in his eyes again.
In the meantime, Gandork was happily piling up pieces of meat and slicing mushrooms. As I watched, he mixed the mushrooms with some gathered herbs, then added the mixture to a steaming pot of water.
“This is going to be a delicacy” he muttered under his breath.
The Gremlin seemed to agree. He was watching the food preparation with obvious eagerness on his bestial little face.
I sensed that I had gotten as much out of him as I could for the moment.
I decided to make another attempt at Runecrafting. Maybe there’s another rune combination I haven't thought of yet? I wondered. So what should I enchant next? I opened my inventory and looked through my items. My eyes paused on the Totem Staff I’ve been using since I took it from DurDur. It was already a magical item, though quite a low level one. It was part of a set, along with the Kilt and Headdress, and in itself gave +20 mana points. It could be an interesting test to see if I could Runecraft an already magically enchanted item.
I held the staff in my hand and opened the design mode. To my delight, the normal view opened, showing me it could hold up to four runes. The translucent model of the staff itself looked interesting. I could see blue veins of energy running in it. Well, let’s see if I can increase them. I added the ‘Ko’ rune of strength, right on top of the energy lines. I powered the rune and looked for the results. As expected, nothing happened. I tried a different approach. I drew the ‘Te’ connector rune and tried to connect it to the existing veins. They clicked together like they were made for each other. Now that’s progress! I thought excitedly. I connected the Te rune to each blue line of energy in the staff, then made them converge to a single point and added the Ko rune to it. I powered up the runes, and this time received a prompt.
Weapon schema discovered: TeKo [Enhanced Enchantment]
Enchant Totem Staff [Enhanced Enchantment]? Yes /No
Pattern efficiency: 100%
Mana invested: 200/200.
Effect: +12% mana (+2)
It was a good experiment, and though the added bonus was quite minor at my current skill level, especially when used on a low-level item, it didn’t cost me anything. Except for the time it took to make.
Yes. I mentally confirmed.
The design mode closed on its own. The staff flew out of my hand and hovered in front of me. The shape of the runes I drew begun to etch themselves in bright golden letters on the wood. I plucked the staff from the air and looked at it with a sense of pride.
A sound of a platter hitting the ground made me turn around.
Yeshlimashu stood looking at me, his mouth open in astonishment, his feet surrounded by fragments of the plate he had been holding.
“You...you know the secrets of Runecrafting?” He stared at me with awe.
“Err, yes? What about it?”
“But you’re just a goblin!” he protested. “Your kind are simple-minded brutes. Breeding faster than rabbits, and almost as smart.”
I looked at him steadily.
His eyes widened in fright when he realized what he had said. “P-please forgive me. I did not mean any insult. It is simply a common saying amongst my people. Goblins are generally not highly thought of, though our people are considered distant kin.”
He stared at the staff I was holding. “Even among gremlin artificers, knowledge of runes is uncommon, and only a few specialize in it. So how did you manage to learn it?”
I shrugged ‘“it's just something I picked up.”
I looked at his outraged expression bemused, then I realized something “Wait a minute, if it’s so uncommon, how come you know it?”
“I might know a little about it myself.” He added carefully, “It’s not usually part of an artificer training, you mostly learn how to fix stuff - mundane or magical. However, my teacher tinkered with runes himself and I picked up a couple of runes from him as part of my training.”
That got my attention, “I’ve been trying to learn some new runes, but they are hard to find. How would you like to exchange knowledge? A rune for a rune?”
He scratched his nose, thinking. “It is forbidden to exchange artificer knowledge with non-gremlins. But, then again, as you already know some of it… Eh, I guess there’s no harm. Especially if it means I can bring new knowledge to my people, though some of the elders might be furious...”
He considered it for a long moment, then his expression became resolute. “Alright, I agree.”
He retrieved a notebook from his bag and leafed through it carefully. “I know two runes, ‘Me’ the Containment rune, and ‘Esh’, the Fire Rune. They’re pretty useful together, especially for me. I use them on my grenades. It adds fire damage to the blast, powerful indeed.”
I grinned excitedly, “In that case the Esh rune would be a nice addition to my current repertoire. “I know ‘Ko’ the Strengthening rune and ‘Te’, the Connector.”
Yeshlimashu thought it over, and we finally agreed to exchange his Esh for my ‘Ko’.
Exchanging the runes was a simple matter. Yeshlimashu took a small stick and start etching lines on the ground, depicting his rune. I did the same for mine.
You gained knowledge of a new rune: ‘Esh’ (The Rune of Fire)
I rubbed my hands together with excitement. This was progress!
“I don’t suppose you can get your hands on any more runes?” I asked hopefully.
He shook his head, “They are a jealously guarded secret. It would prove next to
impossible for me to get more. The only reason I agreed to this trade, is because the Esh rune is relatively common. Since you already know some basic runes, and there aren’t a lot of people who even have the required skills to learn them, I felt it was an acceptable exchange. If you’d like to learn more, you can try to find a master of my people who would be willing to teach you, though I warn you, it’s very unlikely any would welcome a goblin,” he raised his arm in an apologetic gesture. “But there are other ways. You can disassemble existing runecrafted items and try to learn from them.”
“But I tried that already!” I protested. “I found a runecrafted ring, but I couldn’t learn anything from it.”
“Hmm…” he mulled it over. “I’m not sure...maybe only artificers can do that? Or maybe you are just not proficient enough. You might want to increase your proficiency and try after you have a better grasp of the craft.”
I froze as if struck by lightning. Why didn’t I think of that? It was quite logical that once I hit Apprentice rank at Runecraft, this option would be available to me. And that meant I had to grind the skill.
“Thanks for your advice, Yeshlimashu.” I bade the gremlin goodbye. I had work to do.
The night was already half over, which didn’t leave much time to grind my Runecraft. I decided to postpone experimenting with the new rune for now. Experimenting took much longer, and even if I discovered a new schema, my skill level would still be too low to produce something significant. No, it would be best to use the schemas I already knew for skill grinding.
We still had three battle-axes in the pile, so I started working on them. I decided to use the KoTe formula on every weapon we had. It was a simple, two-rune enchantment. The increased durability was minor, but still improved the item.
I sat comfortably in the open, not far from Gandork who was still happily cooking the new Meat with Mushroom Sauce dish and opened the design mode.
I finished enchanting the three axes as morning broke, and was rewarded for my effort.
Runecraft skill level increased to 6
Enchanting the axes contributed to the skill’s progression, though not as much as discovering new formulas. It was a tedious and time-consuming process, drawing the Connector runes properly on each item, again and again. I just hoped I had enough weapons in my settlement to make it to Apprentice rank.
When I was finally finished and looked around me, I noticed Gandork had managed to cook a small batch of the new Advanced Food. Not enough to summon a new Advanced Worker yet, but the practice had the extra benefit of speeding up his Cooking skill progression, which was currently at 10.
As daylight become brighter, the Nocturnal buff faded. It was time to call it a day.
I went into my house, curled up with Tika and fell asleep.
***
I woke up feeling optimistic and eager.
With last night’s developments, I was looking forward to having a steady supply of Advanced Food.
Finally we’ll have a way to regularly summon higher tier workers and really speed up the village development.
I gently slid my shoulder out from under the sleeping Tika. She drowsily turned away from me, presenting a nice view of her well-shaped backside. I knew I was ogling, but this time I indulged myself for a few moments. Then, I got a firm hold on my wandering eyes and quietly left the house.
It was late in the afternoon, and even though the sun was still in the sky, and the workers were just beginning to wake up, I could clearly hear the noise of someone hammering on metal. Curiously, I went to look for the source of the noise. I found Malkyr sitting behind a boulder, hammering his somewhat dented greataxe with a small hammer.
He looked up as I approached, “Oh it’s you. Hey man, I’m just trying to fix my weapon. Damned thing lost almost half its durability already.”
“How’s it going for you?” I was curious to know.
His eyes narrowed as he closely examined a visible dent on the axe, “Well, I banged on the axe for a few minutes and restored a few points to it, but then I got a system message telling me I need to reach Apprentice rank to fix an item of this grade. Oh, I also got the Smithing skill.”
“So... why do you keep banging on the axe then?”
He looked at the axe, scowling. “What else can I do to raise my Smithing!? I mean it’s not like there’s a proper forge and anvil I can work on, right?”
I quickly opened my Construction Interface, checking the Smithy construction progress. As planned, it will be finished later today.
I looked at Malkyr and grinned. “By the time you log back in tomorrow, there will be.”
He looked at me shocked.
“And you are welcome to use it,” I added, “I’ll even supply you with the ore you need to get started.”
His shocked appearance changed into a suspicious look. “And in return…”
“In return,” I admitted, “You will offer your Smithing services for free. I plan to summon a goblin Smith anyway, but he’ll be limited to a skill level of around 12. As a player, you should easily surpass him.”
“I don’t know man, I don’t really like the idea of slaving all day around the forge for others.”
I shook my head, “It won’t be like that. My Smith will be able to take care of most of the settlement’s needs; tools, simple weapons etc. What I’m suggesting, is that somewhere along the line, you will forge something special for me. I will, of course, supply all the required components.”
He thought about it for a moment, “I’ll agree to fulfill three such special orders for free.”
“Five.” I countered.
“Four.”
“Deal!” We shook on it.
I hid my smile. This was an excellent deal for me. As a player and an adventurer, Malkyr would gain Smithing levels much quicker than any NPC, and would reach higher levels. This would give me access to high-level items my goblins would never be able to manufacture on their own. It was an excellent deal which, like the quests I’d been granting the siblings, basically cost me nothing.
“You might want to go to the Smithy’s construction site,” I suggested. “The last part requires them to use the forge to smelt enough metal to build an anvil. The process might help increase your own skill.”
“Good idea.” He got on his feet, “Thanks man, you just saved me a ton of wasted time.”
“Have fun.” I watched him walk away, humorously thinking; Right back at ya.
As I was walking toward the cooking hearth, I saw the six warriors walking in a single file toward the forest. I completely forgot I had ordered all the warriors to cut down trees to increase production. Good thing they hadn’t.
Each had an axe on his shoulder. For a moment, the sight reminded me of the line of the seven dwarves from Snow White and I laughed out loud. The unsightly goblins would have given little Snow the fright of her life if she had encountered them instead of the dwarves.
I approached Gandork. He was busily handing out the daily meals to the workers while keeping an eye on the pot boiling over the fire.
“I can barely work in these conditions!” he burst out as I was reaching for a meal. “There’s not enough heat source, the pots have cracks in them and feeding everyone while having to cook your Advanced food slows me down! I need a proper kitchen!”
I pointed toward the skeleton of the half-completed Mess Hall. “A few more days and you’ll have your kitchen. Now, what about my Advanced food?”
He shook his head, “as I said, these are not ideal conditions for cooking something so delicate. I managed to cook 10 portions yesterday and even managed to save a few bad batches I just threw them into the daily stew.” He grinned mischievously.
It occurred to me again, that though still thin, he was far from the skeletal looking goblin he was when I first summoned him. He was definitely getting his share of the food and then some.
“Keep at it,” I instructed firmly, “let me know when we have 20 units ready.”
“But…”
<
br /> “Do it!” I looked at him sternly.
“Yes, Dark Totem.”
Taking my meal, I decided to walk around as I ate.
I saw Vrick sitting over by the pool, next to the Tanner, surrounded by sturdy pieces of leather.
Tika walked by just then, running her hand gently over my arm in a fleeting caress as she continued past me. It felt good. I turned around, watching her go. Though she didn’t consciously try to be seductive, her confident walk was an alluring sight.
I shook my head clear and went over to see what Vrick was up to.
He was holding a piece of worked leather against his leg, measuring the length and holding a small knife in his mouth.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to create leather armor. But it’s hard without the proper tools. I need a proper Beveler, Groover and a better leather cutting knife. Also, a worktable would be nice.”
“So, no progress at all?” I was disappointed, after running into the hobgoblin parties and finding out their plans, having armor for the troops was now a higher priority.
“Some” he admitted, “here, look.”
He handed me a rectangular piece of leather with two large holes in it.
I held it out in front of me, trying to figure out what it was.
“What is it?”
“It’s a vest,” he replied, somewhat defensively. “Try it on.”
I shrugged and put an arm through one hole, then the other one and pulled the leather across my back. Surprisingly, it fit my size exactly. The vest had no buttons however, so it hung open at the front.
Crude Leather Vest [monster race]
Description: A piece of leather to throw across your back, might block a hit from a dull blade.
Type: armor [torso].
Rank: crude
Durability: 14 /14
Armor: 2
Though its quality was abysmal, it was actually better than the tattered shirt covering my torso, so I decided to keep it. My armor rating was now a whopping 9. Unbelievably low for a player at my level.
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