The Land: Predators

by Aleron Kong

  Richter chose “Yes” and reached into his Bag of Holding, knowing what was coming next.

  36 Soul Stone Points are required to create this enchantment. To finalize, expend the appropriate souls.

  Richter pulled out three common souls. Each came from capturing the spirit of a slain monster. He had stronger captured souls, but they were much harder to come by and he didn’t want to waste them. Common souls would be good enough for this mace. He wouldn’t even be using this many for a common quality weapon, but he wanted to experiment with his new dual enchantment Talent.

  His journeyman rank in Enchanting meant that he could use two soul stones at once. Another Talent that he had purchased, Increase Maximum Number of Soul Stones, let him add one more. He had also bought a Talent, Increase Soul Stone Yield, that boosted the conversion of Soul Points to Enchantment Points by +25%. Now, instead of giving just ten soul points each, every one of his common souls gave twelve and a half. With those bonuses, it meant that using three common souls would provide thirty-seven and a half Enchantment Points, more than he needed. The leftover Soul Points would be lost to the ether.

  He was so excited to try his new enchantment that his fingers were tingling. Richter laid the three soul stones near the blue metal of the high steel mace and focused. Something inside of him that was unique to those with the Enchanting skill connected with the amber jewels and pushed. The stones responded to their master and crumbled to dust. The dust blew away in an unfelt wind, leaving no trace but the swirling ribbons of rainbow light that were now released.

  The freed souls circled the mace, blending together. The radius shrunk until it was no more than a foot wide and a handbreadth above the weapon. The energy sank into the high steel as the enchantment tried to take hold. Then everything went terribly wrong.

  Every time Richter had enchanted an item in the past, a pressure-like feeling built in the air, noticeable only to him. It was like gradually diving deeper and deeper, a resistance and compression that he felt from head to toe and even inside of him somehow. The larger the enchantment, the worse the pressure would get. Gloran, another village enchanter, had explained that what he was experiencing was the item resisting the enchantment.

  Every material had an innate resistance. Some metals, like iron, were extremely hard to enchant. Others, like elementum, almost welcomed magical properties. Because of this, elementum was much easier to enchant. The way Gloran had put it was that the green metal had a startlingly low enchantment resistance, also known as a high enchantment coefficient. High steel fell somewhere in the middle of the pack.

  Different metals and materials also had varying capacities for the amount of enchantment energy they could hold. Trying to place too much soul stuff into iron, for instance, could have dangerous consequences. Compared to lesser metals, elementum is the almost-bottomless well to their wooden bucket. From previous experience, Richter knew that the high steel mace had more than enough capacity to hold the thirty-six points of soul stuff. That was why it was such a shock when the weapon exploded.

  While every item resisted enchantment somewhat, it had always felt to Richter like the pressure increased gradually. It could become uncomfortable, even a bit painful, but to successfully enchant an item he had only ever needed to hold on. This time, the feeling struck him unawares. Not only was it stronger by an order of magnitude, but it felt different. Instead of pushing in one direction against a force, this time the enchantment felt like it jumped out of his control as if it was a squirming animal. Richter had just enough time to register that odd feeling before everything went black.

  When he regained consciousness, the first thing he saw were blinking red prompts.

  You have taken 72 points of piercing damage!

  You are Bleeding! You are losing 4 Health per second!

  You have a concussion. You are Befuddled!

  The next he registered, he was hearing his name as if someone were shouting down a long tunnel. “lord richter. Lord Richter… Lord Richter, can you hear me?”

  The chaos seed realized that whomever was talking had actually been shouting the whole time. As his momentary deafness passed, he became aware of a ringing in his ears. His wits were thoroughly addled and he felt pain all over. Specifically, his head was throbbing and there was a sharp pain in the right side of his chest. He lay on the ground, blinking in confusion. He weakly waved off the arms of the smiths that were trying to help him up. Why were they bothering him? They had already gotten him to sit up. He was fine where he was!

  Alma flew up to hover in front of him, *Master! You have to pull the spike out!*

  *Spike? What spike? What are you talking about, Alma? You sound funny.*

  She sent him a burst of pure psychic frustration, *The spike in your chest, moron!*

  Richter frowned in bewilderment, but looked down. Oh my god, he thought. There’s a spike in my chest. Part of him said he should be more concerned about that, but for now it just seemed like an interesting fact.

  Smaller pieces of metal had embedded themselves along the front of his breastplate. One large piece had punctured the armor and was sticking out of him like a nail in a board. Blood flowed down the inside of his chest piece. He looked back up at Alma with wonder in his eyes, *Alma! I have a spike in my chest!*

  *Gah! Gyoti!* she thought with exasperation. She flew at his chest and landed hard. In his addled state, Richter’s arms easily gave way and he went from half-sitting to lying flat again. Still sending him a constant stream of abuse but somehow managing to make it sound like she was speaking under her mental breath, she wrapped both of her front claws around the shard of metal. Pulling with all her might she drew out the spike that had skewered him when the weapon exploded.

  “Ow!” Richter shouted, glaring at his familiar. He knew that something wasn’t quite right with the way he was thinking, but he also couldn’t figure out what it was. His familiar rolled her eyes at him and a golden aura surrounded her. A few seconds later, the healing magic closed his wound and replenished his lost HPs. It took a minute longer for him to lose the Befuddled debuff, but when he did, he was able to work out what had happened.

  The extra difficulty of harnessing two enchantments at once had caught him unawares. Not expecting strong resistance all at once, the soul stuff had escaped his control. The results of that were unpredictable, but this time the weapon had exploded. A piece of the hilt had poleaxed him right in the temple. A spike from the mace head had shot like a bullet into his chest. The force was so great it had even punctured his sprite breastplate. More pieces of the exploded mace had peppered his front, but thankfully only the one shard had overcome his armor. If he hadn’t been wearing his full kit, the accident might very well have killed him.

  The message was clear. His chosen Profession was powerful, but also potentially dangerous. As soon as Richter’s mind cleared he checked on everyone else. Thankfully, the destructive radius of the explosion had been small. He probably wouldn’t have been hurt at all if he hadn’t been standing so close.

  The only other injury stemmed from one of the dwarves having been surprised by the loud bang of the explosion. It had made him drop a hot coal that had burned his hand. Apparently, the swearing had been impressive. The dwarf was from the Rock Grinder tribe in the Serrated Mountains and his people took expletives to an art form. After Alma had healed him though, he shook the pain off. The tough dwarf was already back at work.

  Richter sat on a nearby stool, head throbbing, and reflected on what had happened. He was fairly sure that creating a dual enchantment was within his capabilities. The magnitude of the resistance had just been a surprise. The chaos seed was almost positive that he could successfully complete the enchantment now that he knew what to expect. Unfortunately, the fact that the mace had exploded wasn’t the only problem. As soon as he thought about enchanting, a prompt appeared.

  Know This! Professions are a path that can garner much power. You may cleave the very fabric of reality, brew the truth of the univers
e or bring wonder to the banal. If you do not honor your Profession by giving it your all, however, you will instead find a path to ruin and damnation. Heed this warning, Enchanter: talents which have been given can also be taken away.

  Your Enchanting skill has been damaged by the feedback of soul stuff during your latest attempt.

  Your ability to enchant will be unavailable for the next 3 hours and 11 minutes. This setback has also reversed some of your progression to the next level. -4% progression to the next skill level. Your Enchanting skill has been adjusted to Level 48, 79%.

  Richter started grinding his teeth while he read the prompt. Progressing in a skill wasn’t just a function of hard work and “elbow grease.” The affinity one had for a skill came heavily into play as well. Richter’s Limitless ability gave him a 100% affinity in every skill, which meant he could breeze through skill leveling compared to almost anyone else. To make it even better, the bonus of being the Master of an Air ley line gave him another ability, Fast Learner. It increased the speed that he learned skills by 30%. Basically, he was a skill-grinding machine.

  Even with all his perks though, it took for-fucking-ever to progress at higher levels. He could make it through levels one through five of any skill in an hour. At level forty-eight though, that measly 4% might take him days, if not weeks, to make back! It also didn’t help that he only had himself to blame. The prompt had been right. His mind had been elsewhere when he had started the enchantment.

  He had been focused on his own magnificence and what other great enchantments he might one day create. Richter’s mind had not been in the moment. He had not been “honoring” his craft. He had been thinking of how he could profit from it. The chaos seed promised himself that he would not make that mistake again. Though it might take him longer, he would give his projects his all and do his best not to be distracted by the trappings of his success.

  It also rankled to lose three hours of enchanting time. He told the smiths that he would return later and to get as many projects ready as they could. Richter couldn’t enchant finished items without a penalty because of the seven-minute rule, but that didn’t mean his people couldn’t start a queue of almost-finished projects. Hopefully, when his current restriction expired he could get some more work done. He made sure to tell them to get started on as many high steel arrowheads as possible. Richter wanted to send the village hunters and some of the sprites out with Soul Trap arrows today.

  He apologized to the dwarf whose mace he had ruined. The smith just picked up the warped and blackened nub of its handle and looked at his lord ruefully. “Not to worry, yer lordship. I can make another in about a week.”

  Richter winced at the time required. There was no help for it though. He nodded to the dwarf and clapped him on the shoulder before turning to leave the Forge. Another dwarf stopped him though.

  “Would you like us to repair that, yer lordship?” The smith was pointing at the one-inch hole in his chest plate. He thanked the dwarf for reminding him. The smiths helped him out of his armor. Every time he took the gear off he thought about how easy it was to get in and out of these metal suits in a game. In real life, donning armor entailed clasps, ties and irritating minutes of maneuvers. Richter could get out of his armor by himself, but it was time-consuming and much more difficult. He left his entire suit so they could take care of the minor dings he had gotten in the Dungeon as well. Completely unencumbered, wearing only his brown pants and a stiff black jerkin, he left the Forge of Heavens.

  As he walked out into the sunshine, Alma trumpeted to get his attention. The side-eye she gave him translated across species and dimensions. Having gotten the same look from plenty of women back on Earth, he knew she was telling him he was still a moron and that all the ills of his life would disappear if he just listened to her. He was tempted to reply and defend himself, but didn’t. Another natural law that he was sure remained true in any world was that arguing with a woman right after you’d done something stupid was like pissing on a generator. You might think you were in charge for a second or two, but you were just going to end up with a sad dick.

  So instead, he weathered the barrage of running recriminations for what he judged would be a mollifying amount of time. It never paid to apologize to a woman too soon. That would just get you in trouble for either being condescending or not taking her seriously. Every man worth his salt knew it was best to let her see you suffer for a bit. Of course, you couldn’t wait too long either. Then you got in trouble for ignoring her. What you wanted to do was speak right after her tone went up an octave or two, but before her nostrils started flaring. That was the sweet spot.

  Once he was in the zone, he started sending her thoughts of love and appreciation. Adding a little butter at the end about how he would be lost without her, he was finally able to placate the agitated dragonling. She flew down and settled upon his shoulders. Feeling her familiar weight brought a smile to his face. That moment of happiness fled, however, as he realized it was finally time to do something he had been putting off for too long.

  It was time to apologize to Elora for letting her children die.

  CHAPTER 30 – Day 142 – Kuborn 32, 0 AoC

  Richter walked west through the village towards the northern meadow. The sky was a calm blue in which scattered white clouds floated. Villagers greeted him with smiles and many bowed slightly as he walked by them. A pair of guards walking in the opposite direction stood to the side and clapped their fists to their hearts until he passed. Everywhere he looked he saw signs that his people were happy, healthy and content.

  He reached the bottom of the hill leading up to the meadow that held the Quickening. Before leaving for his Trial, Roswan had built two thick walls. One was at the bottom of the hill and the other was at the top. The eastern edge of both fortifications melded into the rock wall that formed one side of the trail. The western side of the trail ended in a sheer escarpment. Roswan had built the third wall to follow the western edge of the path. The two larger walls were twenty feet high and four feet thick. They were all made of the sparkling white stone called marbled quartz. Grey veins traced through the tough material, giving it its name. Though visually appealing, it was also harder and more difficult to work than regular stone.

  The guard stationed at the bottom wall saluted and stood aside. The gate was already open. Terrod had only assigned one guard to each battlement. Unless there was an attack or a monster came too close to the outer walls, the gates remained open. The guard’s primary purpose was to keep anyone without clearance out of the meadow. Between the Dragon’s Cauldron, the Quickening, the skath nest and the hidden cave that contained the crystal garden, there were many valuable and sensitive locations that Richter didn’t want people to have unrestricted access to in the upper meadow. If he could do it all over again, he would have placed the Forge of Heavens there as well. Richter wasn’t one to dwell in the past though.

  He walked by the lower gate guard with a nod and started up the slope. When he was halfway there, a prompt appeared in his vision.

  Congratulations! You have learned the enchantment Soul Trap (Weapons), Level I, Rank I

  Enchantment Size: 2

  Enchantment School: Life

  Effect 1: Capture Soul – Each rank traps the soul of the struck creature on this plane for five minutes. Can capture up to Special level souls

  Richter was surprised by the length of time the Capture Soul effect lasted. Even at the first rank, the effect lasted twice as long as the spell that it had come from. It was the first time he realized that even the lowest version of his enchantments could be stronger than the spells he knew. It made him stop and think. So far, he had been thinking of his Essence Specialty as a way to become a more prolific Enchanter. If the enchantments could be stronger than magic though, it might be a way to make him even more dangerous as a spellslinger!

  He decided to start unlocking more spell enchantments as soon as his Talent Points allowed. Of course, he now had a deficit and couldn’t use Tale
nt Point Conversion again until he earned back the one hundred and seventy-five thousand XP he’d used up. One more prompt appeared.

  You now have unlocked the enchantment Soul Trap (Weapons), Level II

  Enchantment Size: Unknown

  Enchantment School: Life

  You are currently at 0/240,000 for the mana cost to learn this enchantment.

  Effects: Unknown

  Richter was more than curious about what effect the second level of the enchantment would offer. Time was of the essence, however. Instead of letting the mana roll over, he started investing in Life Defense. With Alma’s help he should be done with the enchantment before the time limit on his enchantment penalty expired.

  You have started learning the enchantment Life Defense, Level I

  Enchantment Size: Unknown

  Enchantment School: Life

  You are currently at 0/2400 of the mana cost to learn this enchantment.

  Effects: Unknown

  Richter passed the upper wall and once again was saluted by one of his guards. Once he was at the top of the hill, he took a minute to take in the majesty around him. The cliff walls that surrounded the meadow sparkled white in the summer sun. Marbled quartz ran in veins through the normal grey rock, making the cliffs a beautiful sight to behold. The grass was cut short thanks to the mist workers that were tasked periodically with keeping the meadow manicured. Butterflies and bees flew from the many wildflowers that dotted the grassy expanse.

  To the left, a well-manicured garden grew herbs ranging from common to scarce in order to fuel the potions that his people depended upon. Beyond the gardeners tending that patch of land, Richter’s second Core building stood, majestic in the summer sun. It was made entirely of clear glass, an impossibly hard translucent material. It was easily distinguished from the fragile silicon of its namesake. Every ray of light that entered the walls and ceiling of the Dragon’s Cauldron refracted into startling rainbows. An herb shed was attached to the Core building, also made of glass. That was where many of the village’s more valuable herbs were grown, including a few rare plants.