Noth looked taken aback at that. She swallowed hard and looked at the bag of seeds in her hand. “You would trust me with that?”
Not wanting to downplay the matter, but unable to resist, Hal shook his head sadly and began to - ever-so-slowly - reach for the sack of seeds. “I mean, if you don’t want to I could always do it.”
In the flash, Noth pulled the seeds back, her eyes wide. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll make sure it gets done!”
Chuckling, Hal shook his head. “You know I trust you, Noth. And you know that the Manaseed trusts you. There is nobody else I would entrust to the task, mundane as it may seem. This could provide a stable food supply. We have no idea what will happen.”
With one look at the wagon, Noth pocketed the bag of seeds with a nod. “Still, it means a lot that you feel comfortable with my presence near the Manaseed. Considering your earlier reservations.”
Hal waved her concerns away. “I am sure you will not linger overlong.”
“Of course not! I would never wish to harm the Manaseed.”
“Exactly my point,” Hal said with a smirk. “The sooner you plant those seeds and I help Luda, the sooner we can get back to truly important tasks.”
“Such as?”
Rolling his eyes, Hal said, “Making bricks out of bone.”
“Absolutely riveting,” Noth replied. She turned and after a few strides looked over her shoulder. Her raven-black hair swayed out and caught on a chill breeze like an onyx banner. “I will be quick.” She smiled and hurried away.
Entering into the wagon once more, Hal found Luda had taken off her heavy coat and was wearing a flowing opaline gown that left her shoulders bare. No wonder she wore the heavy coat. She would be frozen solid outside of the warm interior of the wagon without it.
She sat near the driver’s door at the far end of the wagon upon a cushion with her back to the wall. “I am ready,” she said simply.
“What do I need to do?” Hal asked, taking a detour to check the kettle for water. He sloshed it around, felt satisfied it had enough for one or two cups, and set it to boil.
“Take a seat in front of me,” Luda said calmly, her eyes still closed. There was another cushion in front of her. “We will hold hands and I will see what can be done.”
Hal dropped into an easy sitting position in front of her and held out his hands. When Luda didn’t reach for them, he grasped hers in his. He was amazed at just how tiny and frail they seemed to him.
It felt like if he placed any pressure on them, they would snap like twigs. Luda’s face was as red as a tomato. Her hands were clammy, forcing Hal to hold them a little tighter or else they’d slip from his grasp.
She opened her eyes and looked at him. “Focus on the Manaseed, on your connection to it. I will guide and channel the flow of your mana, all I need from you is to concentrate.”
“Simple enough,” Hal said, doing just as she asked.
Her eyes shut and Luda’s tiny, frail, bird-like hands suddenly were hard as iron and just as strong. Her grip threatened to break Hal’s hands. Luda went completely rigid as Hal focused on the Manaseed. “Amazing,” she whispered. “It’s almost as if you were a Manaseed yourself. This power is… it is more than enough for my needs.”
“How long can you give us?” Hal asked, daring to hope that she could at least double the length. Six days would be incredible.
“I can nearly triple it,” she said, her voice sounded from somewhere far away. “Were that I was stronger, I could do much more with this gift. For now, eight days henceforth the buff will fade. Until then, I will see that it is maintained.”
“Do you need… somebody to watch you?” Hal asked, staring at her strained expression. She kind of looked like she had to use the bathroom and that was another concern he had. What if she needed to eat or drink.
She couldn’t very well be expected to sit there for eight more days.
Luda cracked open one eye and though her cheeks were flushed she smiled at him. “I need not stay in this pose forever,” she answered. “Only initially. Once I have a connection established it will be possible to resume non-strenuous activities. I will be useless for all other tasks save this, but I will not require a minder.”
Slowly, her grip weakened and Hal’s bruised fingers were extricated from her hands. “If you’re sure. I’ll still check in on you every now and again,” Hal said. “Barring that, I’ll make sure somebody keeps an eye on you. Don’t want you blowing up or something.”
The girl flushed even brighter somehow. “I am quite capable of taking care of myself, thank you,” she said curtly, drawing a chuckle from Hal. Only then did Luda realize he was teasing her.
She bit her lip and looked away. “You are joking.”
“Yes, Luda. I will make sure you’re okay but I trust you know the limitations of your powers better than I do.”
Hal bid her goodbye and left the wagon shortly after making two cups of tea and chatting for a while. They talked about nothing in particular but it seemed to soothe Luda. There was the faintest shimmer in the air around her, like a silvery outline he could only see if he looked at her out of the corner of his eye.
One problem down, a thousand to go, he thought ruefully.
90
At first, it was quite novel making a brick of literal bone. One doesn’t normally expect to be able to make something so mundane out of such an odd material. And yet, there Hal was, making his 30th brick.
Noth, elbow on the nearby table with her cheek propped up on her hand, was watching him with the same sense of awe and interest as ever before. If Mira was here, he would have pulled her into the task as well.
Even still, no small number of dwarves were trying to get a peek at what he was doing while they went about with their tasks. Everybody - literally everybody except those assigned elsewhere - was tasked with building the massive Earthen Bulwarks.
The walls were the only way they were going to survive. They were lucky enough to have a home with plenty of room and tall, sheer cliffs all around them that kept them safe. But that 750 feet of an entrance was key to their survival.
If their enemies came inside, it would be a nightmare to fight them. They had to hold them at the gap. It was the only place their inferior numbers could work in their favor.
Hal didn’t know how many the enemy numbered, but he imagined if they were expected to survive for an entire night it wasn’t a small number. Even a hundred monsters would dramatically outnumber those that could fight with any skill.
Worse, if any got into the valley proper they might not be known about for weeks or months. There were areas that he doubted even the skilled Rangers could map and scout in under a month with any accuracy.
“Hal,” Noth said. “You’re doing it again.”
The Beastborne took a steadying breath in through his nose and out through his mouth. “Thanks, Noth.”
He had instructed her to let him know whenever he started to wander. With so much riding on so few shoulders, the stress and worry often weighed heavily on his mind. He was responsible for all of these people.
If they failed, it was because he failed them.
But ruminating and worrying over it would only make that which he feared come true. It was a distraction he could ill afford.
Luckily, the concern was painted so clearly on his face that Noth could easily notice and interrupt his spiraling thoughts.
Unlike the bone weaponry, now that he could create objects out of bone freeform, Hal didn’t need to pull the initial “blank” of bone out of his skin.
Instead, he concentrated his mana and let it flow out of his palms. As his mana filtered out, it formed into the object he desired, so long as he already copied it. The first time he did it, required an actual object.
And not just any object either. He required one of the exact size and dimensions that he wanted to create.
In this way, he could effectively copy just about anything.
The first brick, which was rea
lly a massive stone block at least three feet wide and weighed nearly 300 pounds, was slowly changed to bone as he fed his mana into it. He didn’t exactly… understand how it worked.
He only knew that it did work. And doing it the first time provided a big boost to his skill.
Your Bonecrafting has risen to Level 10.
+1.1% Crafting speed (+11%).
+1.2% MP efficiency (+12%).
+10% CP generation (+20%).
You have 1 Bonecrafting Perk awaiting assignment.
Of course, the item was destroyed in the process. It was irreversibly turned to bone and lost much - if not all - of its initial properties. So he could copy nearly anything, but that original item was lost in the process.
Useful, but he wasn’t about to go around replacing everything with bone. He could, but that was just florking silly. Mentally swiping the notification away, he continued his work.
He’d take a break soon and deal with it then.
“So you could make a pen out of bone,” Noth said. That was probably the 12th object she listed so far. “What bout a clock?” Scratch that, 13th.
“I don’t know, Noth,” Hal said, trying not to sound exasperated as he felt. It was truly a wondrous discovery that they made when trying to form a [Bone Brick].
Being able to copy something and then use it as a recipe was beyond useful. Way better than creating a hunk of bone from scratch and having to shape it by hand.
Unfortunately, this basically turned Hal into a very expensive 3-D printer. One that Noth delighted in asking what he could copy.
He doubted he could copy anything mechanical or moving. Though he wasn’t opposed to trying at a later date. Right now it was bricks he needed to make. And then more bricks.
Once he was done with that? More bricks of course!
He could have screamed.
After the third hour, Hal had made a sizeable stack - if they were still there - of [Bone Bricks] that the dwarves were ferrying away as fast as he could make them. They had moved to the gap in order to make it easier to get the bricks out to those that needed them.
They were, by all intents and purposes, vastly superior to the normal [Stone Bricks] but they needed so many that the improvement wasn’t nearly as massive as Hal had hoped.
With a roaring campfire nearby, Hal gained the benefit of Camping. It didn’t kick in when he was actively using his MP but as soon as he was done it worked to dramatically speed up his already high MP regeneration rate.
Such as right then.
Hal looked up from his work at Noth. She returned his gaze, but there was something else lingering behind her golden eyes. Something that, as soon as she realized Hal noticed it, was gone in a flash. Her expression was perfectly cordial but that hint of something more was gone.
Now’s not the time, he reminded himself.
“Tapped?” she asked.
He wasn’t, technically. Though he never managed to complete the [Shard of Density], as its completion seemed a bit beyond his skill at the moment given the properties he was trying to imbue it with, he could draw on the [Emissary] for more MP.
But he could use the break and so he nodded. It wasn’t going to be an overly long break. One of the Rangers was tasked with creating the campfires that kept the workers warm. As a result, the properties of the Camping buff were incredibly good.
You gain the effect of Camping.
+345% HP Regeneration.
+345% SP Regeneration.
+345% MP Regeneration.
+260% Healing effects.
Duration: While Camping.
At that rate, and with his current regeneration of 211.1, that gave him an eye-wateringly large regeneration rate of 781. With his total MP sitting at 1,018, that was just shy of a full recharge in an hour and change.
Enough time to stretch his legs, oversee the initial construction on a few more Earth Bulwarks and assign his perks. “Up for a walk?” Hal asked.
“Of course,” Noth said.
After a while of walking toward the east toward the staked off areas for new construction, Noth spoke up, “You know… if you want me to work on the wall or somewhere else I can do it. I don’t mind doing my part.”
“Would you like that?” Hal asked, distractedly. He still hadn’t gotten to his perks yet. There were a group of dwarves up ahead hollering and shouting at each other, gesticulating wildly - as dwarves were wont to do at the best of times - about some problem or other.
“No,” Noth said too quickly. She cleared her throat. “I mean, no. But I feel like you’re trying to spare me some hard labor. I don’t mind working but right now… you’re the one doing all the work, Hal. I feel... useless. How can I help?”
One of the dwarves raised a fist just as the other dwarf seized a fistful of the first’s shirt. “First, you can help me break up this fight,” Hal said as he broke into a run toward the dwarves.
Noth quickly outpaced him and made it to pair before anything worse could happen. By the time Hal reached them, the pair were separated. Each of the stout folk gave the lithe Noth a respectful eye. She had quickly broken up a fight that was ready to boil over and none-too-gently either.
Something the dwarves naturally appreciated. Hal could practically see when Noth got the notice of her reputation with the dwarves rising.
“What’s the problem?” Hal asked.
The first dwarf smoothed his rumpled jacket and began to speak but that motion had cost him the floor because the red-bearded dwarf spoke over him. “I thought we were gonna be makin’ a real wall. Dragged theses here logs made out for palisades. ‘parently I heard wrong ‘cause this dunderhead started hollerin’ and whoopin’ an’ all-”
“I’ll show ye hollerin’!” cried the first dwarf. Noth easily kept the pair apart.
Hal looked at him, then at the massive log for the Palisade. While a Palisade was the strongest wall the Settlement had access to, it was something they couldn’t make immediately, largely because it used so much wood. An idea came to him then and he started to smile.
91
The dwarves looked at each other, then Hal, then to Noth. “Why’s he got that face? It’s a mite unsettlin’.”
Noth looked at Hal. “What’re you planning?” she asked coyly.
“A better way to contribute instead of making bricks. But first, I need to check something. I’m going to borrow this,” Hal said as he walked over to the massive log shaped into a spike.
He straddled the thing and tapped [Emissary]. His bone and crystalline sword could hold 120 MP stored at a compression of 2:1 which could be converted to 240 MP. They were out of range of a campfire so he didn’t get the benefit of the buff but it should be enough.
Focusing, Hal raised his hands over the rough log. Palisades - to the best of his knowledge - were little more than Earthen Bulwarks Building Schematics with wooden bracing and large log-sized spikes on the front.
They had 20t of raw wood and more than that of lumber, though it was going down as they used it in the Town Hall and would in other constructions. While an Earthen Bulwark cost only 2t of wood and 1t of stone, a Palisade was 10t of wood and 3t of stone.
They were building 25 total wall sections and they simply didn’t have the wood. Hal planned on setting up a Quarry later that day as they would need more stone soon.
Undoubtedly the Palisade was the stronger fortification but to see it made they would need to take more workers off of the walls and that they couldn’t afford.
But what if he was able to make the wooden spikes, replacing them with bone? As Hal focused on the log beneath him, he finished draining [Emissary] of its stored MP.
He let his mana flow from his hands. It fell like crushed sapphire dust and coated the log, suffusing it shortly after. The rough wooden exterior turned ashen then bone-white as the process converted the massive log into a thing of bone. It took every last drop of his MP, but he managed to do it in one sitting.
Thankfully, it only cost a lot of MP to copy the item,
not to reproduce it.
Bonecrafting recipe learned: Palisade Spike.
MP: 130
CP: 10
Your Bonecrafting has risen to Level 11.
+1.1% Crafting speed (+12.1%).
+1.2% MP efficiency (+13.2%).
More MP and CP by far than the [Stone Bricks] were but this was also a massive piece.
The dwarves were staring at the log with mouths agape. “Ye turned it to bone!” cried one.
The red-bearded dwarf smacked the first one with a black beard. “He got that fancy bone-magic, remember?” The two dwarves that had been ready to lay into each other just a moment ago came forward. “Ye wouldn’t mind teachin’ a few dwarves yer craft would ye? It’s mighty impressive, lad and we dwarves have a fair love of all things created.”
The few dwarves that were nearby all looked up and a hush settled onto the general clamor of noise and work being done. Hal got the impression that the two dwarves just crossed some sort of line.
Not necessarily a bad one, but one that Hal never realized had even been there. This must have been building for a while. How come he didn’t see it sooner? Of course, the dwarves would want to learn a new crafting method!
Had they held back from asking in the hopes that he would offer, or was there some sort of taboo?
No matter. Hal shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he began, and already he could see the way their faces fell as if they dared to hope but expected the denial. It stabbed at Hal’s heart. “I should have known you would want to learn. I apologize for not offering sooner. I would be more than happy to teach anybody who wants to learn Bonecrafting.”
“Ye mean it?” the black-bearded dwarf asked.
“Absolutely,” Hal said. “Whenever you’re done working for the day come see me. I’ll be more than glad enough to teach every one of you. Just know that I might be busy and if I am….” He shrugged. “I’ll try to be as accomodating as I can.”
Beastborne Page 53