“Yeah, I have a reason for that, but first I have a question. It seems you both have a high teaching Ability. It’s strange because Sam didn’t, and she was pretty high up in her profession Skill wise. Any idea why?”
The pair of guards looked at each other for a while.
“Not really…” Sheila started to say, but then stopped herself. “Maybe it’s because of basic?”
“Must be,” Agatha affirmed. “I can’t think of another reason why.”
“Basic?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at them. “Explain, please.”
“Oh, well, in basic, we take turns teaching the lower skilled recruits. It’s part of the Skill requirement to pass. You have to be able to teach certain stuff. The idea is that you learn something way better when you’re forced to teach someone else how to do it.” Sheila shrugged. “It’s pretty typical in the guard profession since sometimes we need to teach people how to do things in siege situations. It hasn’t come up here though.”
“Well, it’s about to,” I said, nodding because that was absolutely perfect. “We have a dozen Stained I want you to train to be guards. Assuming they become somewhat proficient, that’d give us fourteen in total.” I rubbed my chin in thought. “How about you pick the strongest three and train them, Sheila. Agatha, you take the rest and train them. Sound good?”
“Not really, but it’d be nice to have the help,” Sheila said with a shrug. “Only, you’d probably know better who to give me.”
“That’s true.” I nodded. “Well, Sheila, come inside with me for a second. We’ll pick yours and then you can take them out here. Say, what about gear?”
“We won’t have quite that much, but we will make do. We can get some wooden spears and the like for practice.” Sheila smirked. “I’m actually kind of excited.”
“I’m glad. Just make a list of what you need and get it to Gwen. I think we’re going to make a trip to the Royal Centre,” I said as we moved inside and looked at the assembled Stained. I picked the three with the highest Strength and sent them to Sheila. The guard nodded and took them off to a small, squat building a little way from the gate, which was where I presumed they kept their gear.
While Sheila was busy with that, I glanced through the open gate at Agatha who was busy holding it open. “These girls are yours. I expect them to be trained well.”
“I’ll do my best,” Agatha said, looking them over. “I can’t train them and hold the door though so Sheila and I will have to trade off…” Her eyes brightened. “Guess it’s running then.” She pointed toward the far wall a few hundred yards away. “Run there and back as quick as you can.”
No one moved, and Agatha raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, was I unclear in some way? Move it, maggots!” she snarled.
The remaining girls took off, sprinting toward the far walls, only it was immediately obvious their clothing wouldn’t work for this.
“I’ll have them some proper clothing made,” I said as I watched them go.
“That’d help, but for now, they can just strip down. Better to be half naked and alive, than dead because you can’t kick in a dress.” She grinned at me. “I’m sure you’ll enjoy that, anyway.”
She was right, I would, under normal circumstances anyway. These girls were my responsibility now, and the last thing I wanted was for them to think I was leering at them in their underwear.
“I’ll make myself scarce,” I replied, nodding to her as Sheila returned. Her three girls each held simple wooden shields and spears. They’d also been stripped down to their skivvies, and I looked away from them.
“Two sets of armor then,” I said, and began to walk away when the clarion sounded and the skies above crackled with thunder.
Lizardmen poured from the horizon, at least three times as many as before, and as they approached I swallowed hard. We didn’t have the forces for this. Not even close, and what’s more, it had only been a couple hours.
“Fuck!” I cried as Sheila grabbed her spear and hustled back toward the gate. Agatha was already standing there, and I could practically feel her new power in the air as she stepped forward to defend.
As the first of the lizardmen reached her, she spun past it, driving her blades into the creature in a flurry of motion that split it from crotch to sternum. The creature struck the dirt as Sheila landed lithely on the ground, planting herself in front of the horde.
As the butt of her spear hit the ground, she activated Defensive Aegis. The green wave of energy spread out, drawing the lizardmen to her in droves. As they turned toward her, pulled by the spell, Agatha darted forward in a blur of speed, lopping off heads like a whirling dervish of death. Her hands and arms moved so fast she was practically a blur, and what’s more Sheila was faster too. Every single time she lashed out with her spear, the air whistled.
In moments, what had seemed like an insurmountable force was lying dead on the ground. It was incredible, but as the sky above crackled, I still had the distinct impression we were on borrowed time. And not just that, from the way the horizon pulsed, I was pretty sure the waves were only going to get bigger and deadlier.
11
“I’m glad we made a list,” Gwen said from beside me as we made our way down the road toward the Royal Centre, “but I don’t think it’s going to matter much.” She held up her bag of Dark Blood. “There’s no way we’ll be able to buy even half of the stuff we need with what we’ve got on top of the recruitment we need to do.” She rolled her eyes. “I love you, but your eyes are way bigger than your stomach in this case.”
“We’ll just have to do what we can,” I said, glancing at the list. “I’d say getting the items to outfit our people are most important as far as supplies.” I sighed and rubbed my face.
“I still think we need to focus on getting a miner and a lumberjack. If you could find a couple with their Abilities at reasonable levels, they could at least teach the Stained how to do those jobs.” She smirked. “Stained are easy to find anyway. Once they hear you’re actually turning them into skilled labor for breathing, well, they’ll come in droves.” Her smirk turned into a full-blown grin. “And the lazy ones won’t come because they won’t want to work. It’s like a super win-win situation.”
“I don’t know if you’re thinking about this altruistically enough,” I said. The path around us was lined with trees, and with every step we took, I could feel the press of them. I wasn’t sure what was out there, but it definitely wanted to eat us. “And, um, are you sure we’re safe here?” I waved my hand at the forest anxiously.
“More or less since we’re on a path.” She shrugged. “You never know though. Could be an angry grizzly bear or something that wants to make a meal out of you.”
“You guys have grizzly bears?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her. “Aren’t we in Hell?”
“Okay, so they’re more like demonic mutant hell spawn, but I didn’t want to frighten you.” She shrugged and looked around. “Maybe we’d be better off flying though.” She took a glance at Lustnor. “They don’t come this close to town, usually, but at the same time I’m not sure the protection aura will extend much farther out.”
“Is that the barrier I saw when the town got attacked by the lizardmen?” I asked, remembered the shimmering magical barrier that had covered the town.
“Yes. It projects an aura that makes the wild beasts keep their distance.” She unfurled her wings then, and I’d forgotten how spectacular they were. They glimmered in the light of the lightning-filled sky like rubies.
“I don’t know if you’re aware of this,” I said, nodding toward her huge wings. They seemed even bigger than they had before, giving her at least a twelve-foot wingspan. “But I don’t have wings nor can I fly.” I waved dumbly at the sky. “No yellow sun either, so Supermanning it up is out.”
“I’ll carry you,” she said, moving closer and wrapping her arms around me. She hoisted me into the air and cradled me like a baby as though I weighed nothing. “See, you’re light as a feather.”
“Well, if you want to stay on the ground and get eaten to assuage your manhood, we can do that,” she said as we rocketed forward so fast the air nearly peeled the flesh from my bones.
“I’m good,” I murmured, but my voice was lost to the wind as we zoomed along. I tried to look around and gauge the scenery, but as we moved along the road, I found I could see nothing but forest. There were a couple mountains in the distance, but they were way too far for me to think we’d ever reach them.
“What’s that?” I asked, pointing toward what looked like a small wagon on the road. From here it looked like there were several dog-like creatures circling it like wolves.
“Merchant’s wagon.” Gwen swallowed hard. “We best move on while they’re distracted. They probably can’t get us in the air, but I’d prefer not to find out.”
“We can’t just leave whoever is down there to the beasts. We have to help them,” I said, squinting at the wagon. “Besides, if no one is there, we could really use whatever is in the wagon. Hell, just having the wagon would be awesome.”
“How do you expect to fight off the three demon dogs?” she asked, pulling to a stop in midair. We were still a ways away, but now I could definitely make out the creatures.
They were huge, like donkey huge, and had rippling black flesh that looked to be covered in plates like an armadillo. A huge rhino horn jutted from a snout filled with hooked, dripping teeth. Their ears were pressed flat against their head as they circled the wagon, snapping at a tiny figure atop it.
From here, she looked like a goblin, and she was desperately trying to fight off the creatures with a giant spear but wasn’t having much luck. They easily evaded her strikes and snapped back, and I knew it was only a matter of time before they either pulled her off the wagon or leaped atop it and ate her.
“Can’t you blast them?” I asked, glancing at Gwen because I’d seen her use magic to stop the lizardmen earlier. “You know. Kill it with fire?”
“I don’t have the energy for that,” she said, and a quick glance at her Stats told me she was right. She only had three Mana.
“Jesus, why do you regenerate Mana so slow? It’s ridiculous,” I said, unsheathing Clarent.
“I don’t know,” she said, as I quickly scrolled through her Stats. Every single Skill Tree was the same. All the Regeneration Skills had been skipped in favor of Power Boosting Skills. She was like a huge single-shot cannon. She could do tons of damage, but because she hadn’t gained any Regeneration Skills, she couldn’t do it very often. Well, I could fix that.
“There!” I said, using forty-five-hundred Experience to learn every Regeneration Skill I could. The first one I’d found let her cut her regeneration time in half, and then had a spin-off that caused it to increase based on how low her Mana was. The lower it was, the faster she regenerated. I found a similar (and cheaper) one that only worked out of combat. Then I found another one that caused all regeneration effects to double.
She didn’t have enough Experience to learn any of the others, so that would have to do. I accepted the changes. Blue light surrounded her, causing her Mana to surge up.
“What did you do?” she asked, shaking her head in confusion. “I feel way stronger than only a second ago.
“I min-maxed your Mana regeneration,” I said, pointing my sword at the demon dogs. “Now do your thing and turn them into hamburger.”
“With pleasure,” Gwen said, dropping down like a hawk. She settled onto the wagon next to the goblin, who let out a shriek.
“What are you two doing here?” the goblin squeaked in a “nails on a chalkboard” voice.
“Saving you,” Gwen said, putting me down and summoning a huge handful of fire. She flung it at the closest dog. The fireball slammed into the creature, burning a hole straight through its torso before smashing into the ground beneath it. As the dirt turned to slag, the creature screamed, collapsing to the ground as the smell of burning flesh filled my nose.
I barely resisted the urge to gag as Gwen spun on her heel and lobbed another fireball at the next demon dog. This blast missed, but it was close enough that the creature yelped before taking off back into the forest with its compatriot chasing after.
“Wow, that was great,” Gwen said. “Normally, I don’t have the Strength to launch two fireballs with that much power.” She flexed. “I bet I could do it again.”
As she spoke, I saw the number fifty flash over her head. I opened her window to see that she’d gained fifty Experience from the battle. Interesting. That meant our people could earn Experience via combat.
“Thanks for your help,” the goblin said, grinning at me. She had a gold hoop through her nose and another couple on each ear and one through each eyebrow. She was short, maybe only three feet tall, but damn did she have back. It was like she was all booty and chest and not a lot else. I could tell, even though she was wearing a loose-fitting shirt and pants, that she had that much going on.
“You’re welcome,” I said as she jumped down from the wagon and moved to the dead demon dog. She pulled a small hatchet from her waist and then hacked off the horn.
“This will fetch a high price.” She grinned and hopped back onto the wagon with ease. Then she plodded toward the far end which had a series of knobs and levers embedded into the steel.
“So, you should give that to us,” I said as the goblin started the wagon with a rumble that caused flames to shoot out the back end as it began to lurch forward.
“Finders keepers,” she said, turning to look at me as she rolled her multi-faceted silver eyes at me. “But if you guys help me get all the way to Royal Centre, I’ll gladly give it to you. Hell, I’ll throw in fifty Blood Coins to boot.” She smacked her thigh with one green hand. “Sound like a deal?”
As she spoke a red question mark appeared over her head, and without thinking, I gestured at it.
“Um, what are you doing?” the goblin asked as a message box appeared beside her in glowing red.
You have been offered a quest.
Objective: Escort Buffy to the Royal Centre.
Reward: 500 Experience per party member, 50 Blood Coins, 1 Demon Horn
Do you accept?
I considered what to do for a moment, but since we were already heading there, I accepted the quest, causing a red glow to surround my sword, Gwen, and the goblin.
“Whoa, what the fuck did you just do, pal?” Buffy exclaimed, smacking at the fading glow with her hands while the wagon puttered along.
“I accepted your quest,” I replied, shrugging and turning to Gwen. “If we do this, you’ll get a bunch of Experience and since we were going there, anyway …” I shrugged.
“I figured you were doing something like that,” the succubus said before sitting down cross-legged on the roof of the wagon. “Wake me when we get there or if I need to roast some demons.”
“What do you mean you accepted my quest? How did that make me glow?” Buffy said, glaring at me. “What the hell are you?” she looked me over then. “Wait…” she sniffed, causing her nostrils to flare. “You smell like a male.” She swallowed hard and ran a hand through her brown hair, brushing it out of the way of her pointy ears. “Are you, um, male?”
“Yes, I’m male,” I said, and I held up Clarent. “This is Clarent, and together we became the Builder of Legend!” As I said it, Gwen rolled her eyes at me.
“You shouldn’t go around saying that to everyone,” Gwen said before laying on her back and staring at the sky. “And especially not like that. It’s sort of lame.”
“Admittedly, it sounded better in my head,” I said, shrugging at her before turning back to Buffy. “But, yeah, Builder of Legend. The sword let
s me manipulate Stats of my party members and, evidently, accept quests.”
“You can’t be the Builder of Legend. There hasn’t been one in over a thousand years,” Buffy said, hitting a button next to her and pulling a lever. Gears ground beneath the wagon and it lurched forward going faster. “Damn clutch is sticking.”
“You don’t have to believe me,” I said, shrugging. “I’m not trying to win a contest or anything. It’s not like I get a prize for you believing me.”
“Prove it,” she said, holding out one hand to me. It was covered in golden rings with sparkling gemstones. “Build me or whatever.”
“You’re not a party member of mine.” I pointed toward the spot where the glowing menu orb would be. “You don’t have a menu above your head.”
“Well, I wanna join your party on a temporary basis,” she said, narrowing her eyes at me. “How’s that sound?” I could tell from the way she said it, she didn’t believe me. Not that it mattered because as soon as she made the offer, a golden triangle appeared over her head.
I swiped at it, and a message box appeared.
Buffy has requested to join your party. Do you accept?
“Yeah, sure,” I said, accepting her, and as I did, the normal blue orb appeared over her head. “So, what do you want me to change?”
“What can you change?” the goblin replied as I opened her Stat window.
Name: Buffy
Experience: 7,800
Health: 20/20
Mana: 141/141
Primary Power: Mercantilism
Secondary Power: None selected
Strength: 11/100
Agility: 9/100
Charisma: 77/100
Intelligence: 73/100
Special: 68/100
Perk: Rank 3 Merchant
“Hmm,” I said, looking up at her. “This says you’re a Rank three merchant. What’s that mean?”
“How did you know that?” Buffy asked, alarm filling her eyes. “I didn’t say anything about my Rank.” She took a deep breath. “Are you some kind of mind reader? What number am I thinking of?”
The Builder's Sword (The Legendary Builder Book 1) Page 7