by Aleron Kong
Know This! Each carat of Onyx used by a Smith with the Jeweled Essence Talent increases Concealment by +0.5. The brilliant clarity of the stone increases this bonus by 400%.
Alma jumped into the air, exultant over her new gear. Richter looked up to check the stats of her body armor again, or at least he tried to. He had to search for several seconds until he saw her. His own Perception was +15, but it seemed her new armor had added to her base Concealment enough that her value was higher or at least very near his own. When he finally did see her, he realized his eyes had just slid over her hiding place several times before locking on.
*You were hiding, huh?* he asked with a chuckle.
She trilled her mighty prowess and hopped back into his arms. Krom took a half step back, as the dwarf hadn’t been able to see her until she jumped back into the light.
“Ay guess the gem works, eh yer lordship?”
Richter couldn’t disagree. Checking her armor stats, he saw that the gem had increased her Concealment by +13. Coupled with the enchantments and strong defense the truesilver armor gave, the dragonling wasn’t just ready for battle. She was ready for war!
The chaos seed left the forge, needing to check on a few other things before the battle. First, he sent Futen to find Roswan. He sent a message that he’d meet the elf in thirty minutes by the Well of Offering. Then he walked “across the street” to the Dragon’s Cauldron. Having the Core buildings next door to each other was already making his life easier, though he was fairly certain the short-legged dwarves would be complaining before long about having to walk up and down the hill each day. Inside his alchemy Core building he found Tabia hard at work. She laid down the vial she’d been holding when she noticed her lord.
“You are to thank for the new noisy neighbors, my lord?”
“Thought you might be lonely,” Richter told her with a smile.
“Very thoughtful. Random clanging and banging is exactly what I need when performing exacting chemical reactions.”
Oh, Richter thought, he hadn’t really considered that. “What have you got for me?” he asked brightly.
She glared at him for a bit longer, but Tabia was an old soldier and it wasn’t the first time her superior officer had pulled a bonehead move before. “I wasn’t able to make as many potions as you wanted, my lord, and you took a large amount of the health potions for the Dungeon battle,” she began.
“I know,” Richter responded nodding. “Just give me what you have. I know you’ve done your best.”
“As you say, my lord,” then she began to open glass cubbies and hand him the vials inside.
You have found:
Health Potion x 28
Alchemy Class: Uncommon
Alchemy Level: Solution
Alchemy Strength: Processed
Durability: 5/5
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: Will restore 447 Health Points over 15 seconds
You have found:
Mana Potion x 50
Alchemy Class: Uncommon
Alchemy Level: Solution
Alchemy Strength: Processed
Durability: 5/5
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: Will restore 312 Mana Points over 16 seconds
You have found:
Stamina Potion x 50
Alchemy Class: Uncommon
Alchemy Level: Solution
Alchemy Strength: Processed
Durability: 5/5
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: Will restore 453 Health Points over 16 seconds.
Richter sighed when he saw the amount of health potions. They really had burned through the red vials during the fight with the mauler and chupacabras. Tabia told him that she’d tried to make more, but even with the 10% success bonus given by the Dragon’s Cauldron, there was still a 15% chance that any solution level potion she tried to brew would fail.
When it took an excess of three to four days of diligent attention to make even one batch, he was happy she’d been able to give him this much. The only reason she had been able to make this many potions was because of another one of the cauldron’s properties that would copy a successfully made potion ten times with a 100% reliability as long as enough ingredients were supplied.
Though there weren’t as many health potions as Richter had hoped, Tabia had been able to add other potions to the war effort. The first was more Sun Lotus Poison and the second was a highly flammable oil that was especially deadly to the undead.
You have found:
Sun Lotus Poison x 50
Alchemy Class: Uncommon
Alchemy Level: Infusion
Alchemy Strength: Fortified
Durability: 5/5
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: This poison has no effect on living creatures, but can be devastating to Death creatures. Causes 48-69 damage/second of Life damage for 16 seconds
You have found:
Flammable Life Oil x 50
Alchemy Class: Unusual
Alchemy Level: Tincture
Alchemy Strength: Fortified
Durability: 5/5
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits:
Creatures caught in these flames will lose up 85 HP/sec. Flames will last up to 1 minute and 57 seconds.
+236% damage vs Death
“I remembered when you told me about the Life oil you used against the crypt mistress while claiming your second Power, my lord.” Richter nodded. It had been the only way he’d been able to kill the crypt mistress. “I have been trying to reproduce it and finally found a recipe that worked, though it is only a tincture and the flames will not last long. There was one positive side effect of my experimentation, however. The oil I devised is extremely flammable.” Tabia always liked things better when they exploded or were flammable. “If you break several of these in a row on the ground, it should make a wall of flames.” Hearing that, Richter had to agree that it was cool when things were flammable.
“I also have one more potion that should prove useful,” she added hesitantly. Richter was immediately on his guard. Tabia didn’t hesitate about anything, including making explosives like red foxfire. She walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a… contraption. It looked like two potion vials joined at the tops by a “T” shaped piece of metal. A small pin was sticking out of the third leg, that had a small perpendicular bar at the end for easy turning. In one vial was a metallic silver solution that glowed white and in the other solution was an angry red fluid that glowed orange. She pulled a second device out of a second cabinet, handing him the first and laying the other on a nearby table.
“This,” Tabia began, pointing at the silver side, “is a distillate of truesilver I obtained by dripping acid onto one of the Quickening rinds. This,” she continued pointing at the red side, “is an extract of abyssal essence that I was able to gain from the heart of the gobrit tree First Meidon Sion brought back to the village.”
“And this?” Richter asked pointing to the pin.
“The piece of metal connecting the two vials has a cork core. At the center of the cork is a small ampule of acid. If you turn the pin, the ampule will break, and the acid will eat through the cork. Once it is gone, then both solutions will be able to mix.”
“And what happens then?”
Instead of answering, she let him to the back of the Dragon’s Cauldron. While they walked, she asked him, “Do you remember how I used the glass cubbies to contain explosions when I was learning to make red foxfire?” Richter nodded. She’d only started that policy after she’d blown her own eyebrows off. It had turned out to be a very effective policy though, because the magically reinforced cupboards were able to contain any accidental blasts without even taking a scratch. That was because Core buildings were almost impossibly strong. The Dragon’s Cauldron was not only a Core edifice, but it was also made of the impossibly strong metal called glass, one of the hardest substances in The Land. In scientific terms, that made the cauldron “strong as balls.” Not only had the cubbie
s been able to contain the red foxfire explosions, but Core buildings were self-healing and so any damage caused had been repaired in short order.
That was why Richter’s mouth dropped open when he saw an entire series of cubbies had been demolished and several more surrounding ones were cracked.
“That,” Tabia told Richter in an instructional voice, “is what happens when two powerful essences mix in an uncontrolled reaction.”
In shock, apprehension, and just a tad bit of pants-wetting fear, he looked back at the vial in his hand.
You have found:
Chemical Bomb
Item Class: Rare
Durability: 15/15
Weight: 0.5 kg
Traits: This device contains distilled celestial and abyssal essence. Combining these two extracts will create an extremely powerful explosion.
“You,” he began, but had to swallow even though his throat was suddenly very dry, “you gave me a bomb and didn’t tell me?”
“No,” Tabia answered in an annoyed voice, “I just told you. Were you not paying attention?”
Richter carefully set the explosive down, stepped back several paces, then stepped back a few more. After that, he closed his eyes and started counting down from ten. While he did, he recited a mantra that had been very helpful in the past. Ten, don’t kill her. Nine, she’s pretty useful. Eight, her wife Mimi would probably kill you anyway seeing as she’s a Professed Warrior. Seven, Mimi is pretty hot even though she doesn’t talk much…
Once he was done with his calming exercise, he looked back at Tabia, “That thing was strong enough to destroy part of a Core building, and you just gave it me to hold?” His voice wasn’t exactly calm.
“To be honest, there was a good deal more celestial material and a small amount of abyssal in the cubby as well. I had decided to store most of it in the same place. That,” she added speculatively, “was most likely a mistake.” Richter stared at her in amazement, but she continued undaunted, “The extra raw material near the device magnified the effect of the explosion substantially. The explosion of your device will most likely not be quite as immense.”
“That doesn’t sound very exact,” Richter commented still staring at the device again. He was a bit bugged by the waste of materials, especially rare materials like the truesilver rinds, but he didn’t have time to scold Tabia at the moment.
Tabia laughed with no real humor, “It is not. I have no idea exactly how powerful it will be, but I thought that since you are storming an enemy stronghold, you might want a backup plan.”
“Which would be blowing everything up?” he asked in exasperation.
She just looked back at him nonplussed, “I would not recommend blowing up everything, my lord. You should try to avoid that blast, for instance.”
He glared at her and she relented a bit. “I used stronger vials when assembling these versions of the bombs, so they shouldn’t break easily like the prototype. You could even toss them a short distance and there shouldn’t be an issue… probably,” she added under her breath.
Richter could see the value of what she was saying, though he still thought she was a bit explosive-happy. He did ask for one thing to be added and she happened to have a vial of that readily at hand. “Alright, I see what you’re saying. How long do I have once I mix them before it explodes?”
Her face took on the same expression that Hisako’s had adopted when discussing how long the portal would last. Put another way, a perfect mix of guesstimation, educated guess and utter bullshit, “The acid should eat through the cork in ten to fifteen seconds, and the solution should reach maximum volatility in another five…” She moved her hands up and down like she was a scale weighing something, or jiggling her wife’s boobies, before she finally gave him an answer in a questioning tone, “Ten to twenty seconds?”
Richter slapped a hand to his face and started dragging it downward. He didn’t start groaning until he heard her next words though, “Plus or minus.”
CHAPTER 97 – Day 150 – Kuborn 39, 0 AoC
Richter asked her to make one change to the bombs which Tabia was easily able to accommodate. After that, he placed all the potions into his Bag of Holding, taking extra special care with the chemical bombs, left the cauldron and went back down to the village. Dawn had come and battle was not far behind. Before that happened though, he had a few more Settlement Points left to spend.
Moving the Forge had cost sixty-seven points, leaving him enough to make another building.
Total Settlement Points Remaining: 865
He already knew exactly what he wanted to spend them on. It only took a few minutes to walk over to the House of Scholarship. It was a simple building that was still beautiful, the white stone shining faintly in the dawn light. The day was still too young for all the village Researchers to be at work, but the Scholars had set cots up inside and normally slept there. Richter woke them, asking the two to men to follow him outside. They did so with questioning expressions on their faces. In response, Richter smiled and accessed the Building tab of the Settlement Point interface.
Know This! Upgrading an existing building will subtract its current worth in Building Points from the final upgrade cost.
House of Scholarship
Current Level: 1
Cost (in Building Points) to Upgrade to Level 2:
Wood: 350 / Plain Stone: 732 / Marbled Quartz: 922
Cost (in Building Points) to Upgrade to Level 3:
Wood: 856 / Plain Stone: 1,491 / Marbled Quartz: 1,808
Effect
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Research Speed
+10%
+20%
+30%
Scribing speed and success
+10%
+20%
+30%
Village education, Lore and Lore acquisition
+10%
+20%
+30%
Chance to have an Epiphany
+1%
+3%
+5%
Max RPs/day
10%
+25%
+50%
Durability Bonus
No Bonus
No Bonus
+10%
Daily Research Points
N/A
0.1/RP/day per Researcher per Rank
0.2/RP/day per Researcher per Rank
Blueprints, Templates, Recipes, Schematics, etc
N/A
N/A
Research Points can now be used to reverse engineer these magical documents if an example is available. Known magical documents can be advanced using Research Points if the prerequisite tech is known.
Richter couldn’t help but smile. The Mist Village was about to get smarter! The bonuses to research speed and education were great. The boost to the maximum RPs the village could generate each day was also good for the future, though they were nowhere near that ceiling yet. Bartle and Bea would definitely enjoy the boost to their Scribing skills, and he was extremely excited to see the boost to Research Points as well.
Three of the new villagers had shown affinity in Research, bringing the number of village researchers up to twelve. Only the Scholars had reached the initiate rank in the skill which let them generate 1.5/RPs/skill level/day, while all the novice Researchers could only produce two-thirds of that. The level 3 boost meant that the twelve men and women devoted to advancing his settlement’s tech would earn another 2.4 RPs/day just thanks to the building. Coupled with the 30% boost to research speed, that really added up.
The last line on the prompt was especially exciting though. He hadn’t known what extra benefits advancing the House of Scholarship to level three would bring, but he hadn’t expected this! It was an opportunity to advance every Template, Schematic, Recipe and equivalent documents for any crafting type skill. By advancing his research building to level three, he would be giving his village the ability to make Blueprints for any other building. Richter was sure the price in
Research Points would probably be insane, but the point was, they could do it now.
Would you like to purchase a Level 3 House of Scholarship for 362 Settlement Points? Yes or No?
Hell yeah, he thought with a smile!
Total Settlement Points Remaining: 503
Another dome of mist appeared and a cacophony of hammering, smashing noises and grinding came from inside. Several minutes later, the mists departed and a beautiful two-story building made of gleaming white marble was left in its place. The noise had awakened a fair number of villagers who came out to see what their lord was up to now. They stood with the Scholars examining the marvel the magical mists had left behind. Everyone in the village knew that today was the day they went back to war so the mood was understandably subdued, but Richter still saw a few smiles as they looked at the improved House of Scholarship. He hoped it would remind his people that no matter what happened in the battle, the village had a future.
Congratulations! You have created a Level 3 House of Scholarship. Your settlement will now enjoy the Building Bonuses of increased Research, Scribing and other Scholarly pursuits from having such a building.
Know This! You have greatly aided your Settlement by creating this Level 3 building.
+100 Relationship Points with any villagers possessing scholar-aligned skills.
+50 Relationship Points with every other villager.
Know this! A new Job has been revealed: Wiseman. Choose wisely who will fill this position.
A new Job, Richter thought excitedly! It was insane how some things were the same no matter what world you were on. When you had money and resources, it was not only easier to succeed, but it also seemed like more opportunities to succeed were just thrown at you. He knew exactly who to choose.