Tinker, Tailor, Giant, Dwarf ( LitRPG Series): Difficulty:Legendary Book 2

by Gregg Horlock

  “What’s it say?” I asked.

  Brian shrugged his shoulders. “Dunno. It’s written in Hreki.”

  “If you can’t read it, how do you know this is the book we need?”

  He prodded the cover with a meaty finger. “See this? This is the Greye logo. The book looks like it’s hundreds of years old, but it can’t be, because the Greyes haven’t been around that long.”

  “So what are you saying?”

  “The Greyes wrote this book and then made it look older than it was. It’s probably a history of their guild.”

  “That sounds right,” said Ozreal. “The Greyes are prone to theatrics, and they take the mystery of their guild far too seriously. I can fully believe they’d write a book about themselves and then make it look ancient, just so that it could sit in the lore section of the Grand Library. And the fact that it’s written in Hreki seems to fit, too; it would be far too boring and normal for the Greyes to write it in the common language.”

  “Which leads us to another problem,” said Brian. “I don’t even know the word for ‘hello’ in Hreki.”

  Ozreal smiled. “Then it’s lucky you have me here, isn’t it?”

  Ozreal took the book over to a snug in the corner of the room. He curled up on a bed of pillows and held the book close to his face, mumbling to himself as he read. The fact that we would soon know where the Greye guild lived set me on edge. I focussed on Ozreal so intently that I could hear the sounds of the pages when he turned them.

  It seemed that Brian shared the same excitement as me, because as the hours wore on he paced around the library floor. I decided that I couldn’t just sit there and wait.

  Instead, I walked over to the ‘construction’ section and found a row of books devoted to airships. One was a book on zeppelins that was written by a name I recognised instantly.

  The Art of Zeppelin Construction by Lastor Bombraid

  This was huge. As I read through the book I found that Lastor had committed to paper a goldmine of information on building a zeppelin. I realised that the airship I had seen moored to the walls of Iskarg was just one type of zeppelin. That was the type a wealthy merchant would commission, but you could make airships out of cheaper materials. My excitement grew as I flicked through the book until I came to the last page. There, I found a blueprint for Lastor Bombraid’s Zeppelin.

  Ability Gained – Construction

  A Tinker doesn’t just make bombs and stab things. A tinker who puts his mind to it can create anything; a siege tower, an airship, a steam-powered butler. With the right skills and enough CR, you can make things that are truly powerful.

  Note: to construct things, you must have the blueprint.

  This was it; this was the ability I had been waiting for all this time. My third ability slot had been empty for a while, and along the way I’d rejected the ones offered to me, such as forager. Now, though, I had found the ability that would round off my class.

  Item Received – Lastor Bombraid’s Cheap Zeppelin Blueprint

  As I started to imagine all the things I was going to build, Brian stormed across the library to me. His eyes were lit up.

  “We’ve got it,” he said. “Ozreal’s found them.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  We were in the common room of the Tinkers guild house. It had once been a living room, but we’d removed the homely furniture and replaced it with something more suitable. We all sat around a table big enough to seat twenty people, although there were only five of us there today.

  “So let’s run through it again,” I said, looking at Ozreal.

  The old mage leaned forward with his elbows on the table and his fingers interlocked.

  “As I suspected, the book we found was written by the Greyes.”

  “Actually, I found the book and I suspected that they wrote it,” said Brian.

  Ozreal shrugged. “Let’s call it a team effort. Anyhow, my Hreki was a little rusty, but I was able to translate it well enough.”

  “So you know where the Greyes are?” said Smoglar. His face was smudged by charcoal. Since he had started blacksmithing again, the dwarf had perked up.

  “Yes,” said Ozreal.

  Smoglar leaned forward. “Great, then let’s go.”

  “It’s not that simple,” answered Brian. “The Greyes built their stronghold in the Assipian Peaks, a mountain range a few hundred miles north-west.”

  “What is it with these guilds and their mountains?” said Smoglar. “The Serpents have Dreadmount, the Greyes have the Assipian Peaks. Maybe we should have found a mountain for our guild house.”

  “With our CR balance,” I said. “We’d be lucky to build it on a hill.”

  “Where is the banker anyway?” said Feidan, who until now had been quiet.

  “I don’t trust him,” said Smoglar.

  “I don’t either,” I answered. “But that puts us in a position of power. As long as you don’t give someone your trust, they can’t betray it. The fact is that we had no choice other than to take his CR. If not, there was no way we could have made the guild, and we wouldn’t have gotten access to the library. Now, fellas, let’s get back to the matter at hand. Brian?”

  The giant nodded. “A journey of a few hundred miles is no laughing matter on foot, but it would be doable if that were the only difficulty. Unfortunately, it gets worse. The Assipian Peaks lay beyond the Smogashe Valley.”

  “That’s just great,” said Smoglar, and pounded the table with his fist.

  “Careful,” said Feidan. “This table wasn’t cheap, you know.”

  “It looks it,” said Smoglar.

  “What’s so bad about Smogashe Valley?” I asked.

  This time, Ozreal answered. “It’s a rarely-travelled place marked by craters where lava from the Assipian volcanoes leaks out. It’s not a nice place, Janus. Even the air in Smogashe is unsafe. It knocks off HP when you breathe it.”

  “Which leaves us in a predicament,” said Brian.

  We all sat in silence for a minute while we absorbed the news. I had never heard of Smogashe, but I wasn’t surprised that the Greyes would build their guild in such a hostile place. They were the most secretive guild in the game, and it made sense that they would make it difficult to get to them.

  “So if we can’t walk through Smogashe,” I said, “that leaves us one option.”

  Everyone around the table looked at me. I knew that what I was about to suggest was crazy, but it was the only way.

  “I’m listening,” said Ozreal.

  “Well, there is another way to get there. We build a zeppelin.”

  Smoglar looked at me, incredulous. “And do you know anyone who can build an airship?”

  I nodded. “I do. I know him very well.”

  I reached into my bag and pulled out Lastor Bombraid’s Zeppelin Blueprint. I unrolled it across the table for the rest of them to see.

  “If we get the materials, I can build it.”

  ***

  Like everything in Re:Fuze, zeppelin construction was not as intricate in-game as it was in the real world. It was still tough. According to the blueprint, we would need a rudder, engines and a ballonet. I had no idea what a ballonet was at first, but I learned that it was the giant bulbous balloon that kept zeppelins in the air.

  That afternoon I left the guild house and walked into Iskarg. I strolled down the cobbled streets and looked in the window of each shop that I passed. I saw potions shops, armourers, and a store that sold herbs that was named ‘New Age Leafs.’ Finally, I found the store I needed.

  The sign above the door read ‘Derek Acrinous; Tailor and General Merchant.’ Unlike the others, this shop wasn’t open. The window was dark, and a sign outside it read ‘Closing Down – Everything must go.’

  I went inside and found a man placing his stock into boxes. The shop floor was littered with cardboard, and most of the shelves were bare. The man wore a shirt that was held up by black braces, and his sleeves were rolled up above his elbows. He was a stocky
man, and I guessed that at some stage he had been muscly, but somewhere along the way he had let himself go. His arms were marked by scars that had faded and turned pale, and his neck was covered by a blue tattoo.

  When I walked in, a bell above the shop door chimed, and the man turned to face me. I looked at the name tag above his head.

  Derek Acrinous – Level 45

  Wow. I had seen a lot of NPCs in my time, and I’d bartered with my fair share of traders and merchants. I’d never seen one with as high a level as Derek. I wondered how a man would get to level 45 by running a shop. Unless he got exp every time he made a sale, I didn’t see how it was possible.

  “We’re closed,” he said.

  When he turned to face me I saw that something was wrong. Call it my Appraiser instinct kicking in, but it seemed like sadness was written on his face.

  “I’m looking for some things,” I said.

  He gave me a grim nod. “We’re all looking for something,” he said. “Not many of us find it.”

  “I’m looking to build something, and I was hoping I could trade with you.”

  He set a box down on the floor and then put his hands on his hips. “What are you looking for?”

  I unrolled the zeppelin blueprint and showed it to him. At first, he blinked in surprise. “I need a rudder, some engines and a ballonet.”

  “Most people come here to buy scrap metal or second-hand armour,” he said. “I don’t get many who are trying to make a zeppelin. What do you need it for, anyway?”

  “It’s a long story. I don’t suppose you have any of these things?”

  “I don’t,” he said. “I have trade links, so I could probably get them if I chose to. But as you probably saw from the sign outside, I’m not going to be in business much longer.”

  “How come?”

  “It’s a long story,” he said.

  Something wasn’t right. There was obviously something wrong with Dereck; I could tell by the way he carried himself. There was slowness to his movement, as if even going through the daily motions of life was too much for him.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Maybe I can help.”

  He shook his head. “There’s not many who can help me now.”

  “Try me.”

  He stepped forward. Up close, his sheer size would have been intimidating, if he didn’t seem so defeated.

  “Do you have kids?” he asked.

  “Not that I’m aware of.”

  “Then you wouldn’t understand.”

  “Come on,” I said. “Try me.”

  He sighed. “I used to run this shop with my daughter, Yennifer. It was a general store, and I sold all kinds of crap. On the side, I had a tailoring business as well. That was my real passion; making clothes. Yennifer thought I was getting soft, but there was something relaxing about it.

  “She used to run the store, while I made garments. We had a good partnership going, me and her. She’s a bright lass, and funny, too. Everyone loved her.”

  “Did something happen?”

  He nodded, and for a second grief took over his face. I could tell he was trying hard to keep it together. “A month ago, a group of fellas from the Serpent guild came into the shop. Started demanding I make them all these fancy clothes with gem sockets and the like. It wasn’t such an unusual request, and I was ready to do business. Only thing was, they didn’t want to pay me. They expected me to work for free.

  “When I told them to get lost, they reached for their swords. ‘I used to be a fighter,’ I told them. ‘You think your blades scare me?’ They left after that, but one of them stared at Yennifer and gave her the most disgusting look.

  “Later that night, I woke up to banging coming from across the landing. I walked out in my jim-jams and saw the serpents in my house. They were dragging Yennifer away from her room. She was screaming, and that sent me into a frenzy. I grabbed my sword and ran at them. Then one of them, a mage, shot a bolt at me, and it held me in place. I struggled and struggled, but I couldn’t move.”

  He looked at the ground for a few seconds, unable to speak.

  I reached out and put my hand on his shoulder. “What then?” I asked.

  He looked at me, and the sadness was gone, replaced by fury. “They took her,” he said. “Said they were taking her to Dreadmount, and that I’d never see her again.”

  Just hearing it made me angry. I already hated the Serpents enough, but it seemed that every story I heard about them made their guild seem much worse. First, there was the fact that Herelius had killed me, and then the tale of how they had betrayed Brian and Smoglar. Now this; kidnapping the innocent daughter of a tailor.

  I gritted my teeth. I felt my cheeks burn red with anger. “I’ll help you get her back,” I said.

  He looked at me, and his eyes widened in surprise. “You? How are you going to do that?”

  “I have business of my own at Dreadmount,” I answered. “But first, I have something I need to do, and I have to build an airship.”

  “What are you suggesting?”

  “Get me the things I need to make the zeppelin,” I said. “And when we fly, I’ll take you with us. I can’t promise when it will be, but once I’ve done what I need to do, we’ll get your daughter back.”

  Dereck thought about it for a while. He stuck out his hand, and I reached out and shook it.

  “You’ve got a deal,” he said.

  Quest Received: Find Derek Acrinous’ Daughter

  The tailor’s daughter was kidnapped by Serpents and taken to their guild house in Dreadmount. Derek will get you the parts for the zeppelin if you promise to help him get Yennifer back.

  ***

  I was tired. The sky above me was black, and a cloud passed over it and hid away the stars. Most people in the guild and in Iskarg were in bed, but I couldn’t sleep yet. I stood in the field next to the guild house with the airship materials spread out in front of me. In my hand, I held the blueprint to the zeppelin.

  At first, I didn’t know where to begin. Without the Construction ability it would have been impossible, but now that I had it, I knew there had to be a way.

  I began to mess with the parts and try to fit them together, but my progress was slow, and I wasn’t sure I was going about it the right way. I held the blueprint in front of me and tried to see how everything fit together.

  “You need to hold in your frustration and concentrate more,” said a voice behind me.

  I turned to see Ozreal walking across the grass. He had his hood over his head, and it cast a shadow on his face.

  “You’re up late,” I said.

  “I don’t need much sleep.”

  I sighed. “I have the construction ability, but I don’t know how to use it,” I said.

  Ozreal nodded. “Close your eyes.”

  I looked at him strangely.

  “Trust me. Close your eyes.”

  I shut my eyes and listened as Ozreal spoke.

  “Imagine the blueprint. Picture how the zeppelin looks; the engines firing, the ballonet fixed above them. Imagine all the little parts that need to go together. Got that?”

  I nodded.

  “Now picture in your mind the materials spread in front of you. Everything is there, Janus. You have the things you need, and you have the skill within you. Imagine the blueprint gliding away from your hands and hovering over the materials. It isn’t just blowing away, though. You’re guiding it. Something within you is making it move.”

  It seemed stupid, at first. But as I concentrated, the paper began to shake in my hand. In my mind, I focussed and made it float through the air and hover over the engines and ballonet in front of me. As I did, I felt a glow flow through me. My mind began to expand, and suddenly I didn’t see a confusing blueprint or a mish-mash of spare parts. Instead, I felt them all come together, guided by something innate inside me. I heard the roaring of engines and the clicking of bolts.

  I watched as the zeppelin slowly started to form. The materials began to meld with t
he blueprint, and I felt the cogs of my mind turn. The airship took shape on the grass in front of me. I began to feel weary, as if I wasn’t just imagining it, but building it with my hands. I felt that I really was connecting the parts and moving things around.

  “Open your eyes,” said Ozreal.

  I knew that if I did, the image would shatter, and I’d be faced with a field full of materials that I didn’t know how to use. I needed to get a move on, though. Time was running out.