The Two Week Curse

by Michael Chatfield

They would have been more of a hindrance than help in making the showering and bathroom installation.

  Blaze saw the cleared area where the building was supposed to be placed. People were bringing in lumber under the guidance of Shi Wanshu, the woodworker Elise had put in charge of designing the different structures Erik had ordered.

  The homes had also been organized, some being torn down to clear up roads. The new clean and orderly streets allowed one to quickly pass through the area and they could actually fit in more houses, reducing the cluttering around the barracks to the northwest.

  They headed for the barracks, where Erik and a new batch of trainees were waiting.

  “Consolidate your gains tonight. Tomorrow we’ll begin training.” Blaze dismissed the group that he had headed out with in the morning.

  They dispersed, dropping off their weapons at the barracks. Rugrat nodded to Blaze and he headed off toward the smithy.

  “Captain Blaze, good to see you. I’ll be scouting ahead, if you want to take command of this group?” Erik asked.

  “Yes, sir,” Blaze said, knowing that Erik was establishing a chain of command, with him leading the others. It would make things easier in the coming days to establish it now.

  They already thought of him as a leader; now he would impress this into them personally.

  ***

  Rugrat’s hammer stopped mid-swing, as he started to realize something: he could see through his hammer. He released the hammer but he could still see it in his mind. It was as if an imprint had been made in his mind.

  His brows were pinched together as he pulled out a sword. He closed his eyes as he traced out the sword with his Simple Inorganic Scan. He built up an image of the sword in his mind. With a simple thought, he flickered from the imprint of the sword and the hammer.

  He took out other weapons and tools in the shop, imprinting them on his mind.

  It wasn’t long before he had imprinted all of the tools and items in his storage ring and in the smithy into his mind.

  Rugrat stood there with his eyes closed as he looked at the imprints from the different weapons and items that had passed through his hands.

  He compared and evaluated them. He didn’t know the full techniques of how they were made; all he could sense was their makeup and appearance. Based on this, he was still able to see similarities and it allowed him to finally apply some of the knowledge that he had accrued against the different objects he was seeing.

  He could also see how the Mana he injected, subconsciously, into the weapons he was making allowed their power to increase. Without even thinking about it, he would circulate the Mana in his body, condensing it, like he would to open his Mana gates.

  Erik might be at eight Mana gates, but Rugrat had opened eleven. His every action seemed to draw in Mana. To him, it was no different than using his muscles.

  Rugrat frowned as he looked to clear his mind. He thought on the compound bows and crossbows from Earth. He thought on their gears. He drew a few pictures. Taran looked over but he didn’t say anything as Rugrat continued to close his eyes, picturing them and writing down as much information as possible.

  “String, tension on the tendons, springs,” Rugrat muttered to himself, trying to inspire more thoughts.

  Soon, he ran out of things to write down. He gathered everything and left the workshop. Finding a cart, he put his hands on the leaf springs under the cart and took in that information. Then he went to the storage area, moving to the pulleys that were used to move different objects.

  He headed off to find Shi Wanshu.

  “Mister Rugrat, can I help you?” Shi Wanshu was a burly-looking man with bright-brown eyes.

  “Pulley systems—do you have a drawing of one?” Rugrat asked.

  Shi Wanshu pulled out a picture and gave it to Rugrat.

  He muttered to himself and wrote something on a notepad. He passed it back and walked off, gathering odd looks as he compared the different pieces of paper.

  He went back to the workshops and talked to a lady who worked with the tendons.

  After some time, he went to an empty desk in the workshop. Papers were littered around him as he started to make individual drawings of different components.

  He grabbed one of the completed crossbows and put it on his workbench. There was a stirrup to make it easier to string one’s bow, but it still wasn’t that fast.

  Rugrat went and grabbed two hooks and a length of metal. He put the hooks on the bowstring and using the leverage of the metal, easily drew the bowstring back.

  He did this another five times before he put the string with hooks and metal down. He started to pull on the string with just his bare hands. It was much harder and slower as his hands were starting to hurt after doing it five times.

  A woman in the shop who was watching him closely ordered people to get more hooks and string to make the assists and get more lengths of metal.

  Rugrat made a note on his papers and then grabbed some pulleys and put them on the sides of the bow. He bit his lower lip in thought, comparing his drawings against the crossbow.

  He left quickly, taking his notes.

  He saw that people were gathering rope and hooks. He went to the woman organizing things and dropped off a page of information. “Modify the bows that you can—make multiple lines with the hooks,” Rugrat said.

  With that, he headed back to the smithy. He grabbed a crossbow that hadn’t had a bowstring put on it yet on his way out.

  Taran was there working on a crossbow as Rugrat worked on a piece of metal. He built what looked like a leaf spring but with notches in it.

  He worked it according to a template he had drawn out. Then he created two ridged pulleys and smoothed out the pulleys.

  He pulled off the old bow arms on the crossbow and put on the new ones with the pulleys. He fought with the tendons, finally getting them looped to one another. He then strung the bow and wiped his brow.

  He looked at his new creation with a proud expression.

  He grabbed his reloading assist system he’d built and went out of the smithy into the archery range.

  Glosil frowned when he saw the new contraption in Rugrat’s hands. His eyes bulged out at seeing Rugrat’s reloading assist. The way that the leaves for the bow bent backward was alarming.

  Rugrat raised it to his shoulder and fired. The arrow shot straight and true. Just hearing it, one could tell that the power was much greater than the original crossbow’s.

  “Hah! Pulleys, mother fuckers! Enough pulleys and levers, and you can move the world!” Rugrat shook his head and looked at the bow in his hands with a smile.

  It was more complicated than the original crossbow, needing a new front assembly that had to be flexible and not brittle, and having a pulley system that was precise took time to smooth down perfectly.

  The draw weight on the bow had nearly tripled, though.

  “It’s going to take longer to make them. I can get Taran to make the trigger assembly, then I’ll make the leaves of the crossbow and the pulleys, break it up and increase our speed.” Rugrat went back to the workshop and showed Taran his new weapon.

  “So, do we change the ones we’ve already made or just make them in this style now and then work backward?” Taran asked.

  “Leave what we have—at least they’re weapons. The lever loading assist will already increase their rate of fire a lot. We can give the updated ones to the best shots and then go through updating the other bows afterward,” Rugrat said. “Also, I was looking at different weapons and it seemed as if I could almost remember everything about them as soon as I had a good understanding of them?”

  “Imprinting—it’s a hard skill to learn.” Taran nodded. “Basically, there are two ways to do it: use a technique book with the imprints of a lot of different items, though those would cost more money than you’d see in one lifetime because it’s like giving someone tens of blueprints at once. The other is to become extremely famili
ar with a weapon. I can make simple swords for the guards easily because I’ve got it imprinted. You’ve never learned this? It’s like using a spell, it will become easier and easier.”

  Rugrat went silent. This wasn’t like back on Earth. It seemed that as he learned items, an internal codex remembered them for him; he could perfectly recall all of the tools in the shop, then all of his spells.

  He didn’t realize how strange that was until now.

  ***

  Domonos stood at the gate, looking toward the Beast Mountains.

  He’d received word that the Willful Institute had finished whatever they were attending and were heading to Chonglu to depart through the totem.

  Domonos knew how dominating they were and had made sure to pay the guards before to make sure that there were no issues.

  Wren might be the one inheriting the Silaz trading house, but Domonos wanted to make sure that their position was secure.

  Thinking on this, his thoughts turned to the two men who had shamed his brother Wren. Strength was everything in the Ten Realms. He needed to make an example out of them, or if they were indeed stronger, make reparations. Wren might have to throw away his reputation, but if they could keep or grow their position, Domonos wouldn’t hesitate to force his brother.

  There was a cough from a covered carriage next to Domonos.

  He turned to the covered carriage. “Little sister, you should’ve stayed at home,” he said in a quiet voice.

  “Big brother doesn’t know when he’ll be back, so I want to be around you until you have to leave,” a soft voice complained childishly.

  Domonos could only laugh. He might be the strongest in the Silaz family, but the core, the heart of the Silaz trading house was his little sister Qin. All of his brothers and father used her as inspiration to grow the business and their strength more, to try to find something that could help or heal little Qin’er.

  That was why Wren’s gift of premium monster cores was so well received: it allowed Domonos the capital to increase his position, by gifting it to people he had come into contact with in the Willful Institute.

  Domonos gripped his fist tighter. If they had to bankrupt the entire Silaz trading house, they would do so for Qin’er.

  Domonos saw a group, wearing the same uniform and crest on their chest, appear in the distance. So fast, Domonos thought, controlling his expression as he saw the people from the Willful Institute coming closer.

  They reached the gate, not caring about the line.

  Domonos bowed to them. The group slowed as one of the elders slowed, nodding at Domonos, seemingly pleased with his disposition.

  “Not bad,” he assessed. “We will be leaving for the institute promptly.”

  “Yes, Elder Rei,” Domonos said.

  “Oh, do you know these two men?” Elder Rei showed a crystal that had a picture of Rugrat and Erik captured on it.

  Domonos fought to control his expression. It’s them!

  “I don’t.” Domonos shook his head, bowing again to hide his expression. “This lowly one is lacking.”

  “It’s not your fault. Come, we’ll go to the Willful Institute directly. Say your good-byes in five minutes.” Elder Rei received the crystal and headed for the totem with the group of other Willful Institute people.

  Domonos nodded and quickly moved to his sister’s carriage, his mind abuzz.

  If he was able to survive the Black Blood poison, then they must be actual healers! The healing houses must feel threatened at losing patronage and business. If we were able to get them to look at little Qin’er, maybe they could help.

  “Little Qin, listen to your brother,” Domonos said as he lifted the curtain. He saw the tears in her eyes but he didn’t have time for words of comfort.

  “Brother Wren is to make peace with the two back there. They’re real healers—they might be able to help you.” Domonos made sure that she understood everything.

  “Qin’er will tell Father and brother Wren.”

  “Good girl,” Domonos said. A harsh emotion rose in the back of his throat. He cleared his throat and pinched her cheek. “Big brother has to go now.” Domonos smiled as tears fell down her cheeks.

  He didn’t have more time as he left the carriage and ran to catch up with the Willful Institute people.

  Chapter: Village Meeting

  Rugrat felt determination in his very bones and excitement. He had a catalogue of weapons in his mind. He still hadn’t built up the skills he needed to make them all, but from them he could draw inspiration and find solutions to the issues he had.

  He stopped himself from diving right in as he looked at Taran and frowned.

  “Something wrong?” Taran asked, confused by the change in Rugrat’s appearance.

  “Just that Erik and I have been idiots.” Rugrat quickly left the smithy and headed for the store. Elise was out dealing with the village, so Rugrat went right to the auction interface and went to the smithing manuals area.

  He spent nearly two gold before he left the interface and headed back to the smithy.

  Taran was working on trigger assemblies when he returned. Taran finished off, wiping his brow as he looked at Rugrat.

  “Take the night off and use these.” Rugrat passed Taran four different technique books on smithing.

  Taran took in a sharp breath, seeing them all. He had heard of how Erik had taken out two technique books, but they were on small subjects and they were given to two different people. Rugrat was giving him four books in one go.

  As much as he wanted to accept them, this kind of wealth wasn’t easy to come across. “I can’t accept these,” Taran said.

  “You’ve been working as hard as anyone here and you’re our only true smith. I’m only just learning the techniques and while I’ve got a bunch of ideas, you’re the core of the weapons workshop. You haven’t asked for anything and kept working, even though these crossbows probably don’t increase your Experience anymore.” Rugrat could see that his words were right on the money. As someone made an item, the first time they would get a lot of Experience; for making it higher quality and showing a progression in their smithing ability, they could again earn a bunch of Experience. After a while, doing the same job, there wasn’t much more Experience to be made.

  “Among the crafters in Alva Village, you’ve been worked the most and our entire plan relies on you. The stronger you are, the better our weapons and the more we can make,” Rugrat said.

  Taran could see that Rugrat wasn’t going to let this go. He slowly put his hand on the books, as if verifying that they were real.

  “Well, they ain’t much use if you don’t use them. Hopefully we can raise you up to an Apprentice, maybe even a Journeyman smith before the fight,” Rugrat said.

  Taran’s body shook as he looked up at Rugrat.

  “I’ve got a few ideas that might be able to help you.” Rugrat put down the manuals that he had received on top of the technique books.

  Taran looked as if he had lost his soul, stunned by the resources and information that Rugrat was giving him.

  Rugrat took out a notepad, the one that he had started writing on as he got different questions, putting down facts that he had confirmed and answering questions that he had come up with. “Read over this and the manuals. Once you’ve done so, use the technique manuals—maybe they’ll be able to answer the questions you have.” Rugrat passed the book over.

  Taran looked at the book and up to Rugrat. Slowly he took the book from Rugrat, as if it were a treasure.

  He stood upright and looked right at Rugrat. “I, Taran Choi, swear my allegiance to you, Rugrat, and Mister West. If you are ever in need of my services, I will not hesitate to serve you. I so swear an oath to the Ten Realms.”

  A powerful blue light descended from the Ten Realms, examining Taran. Then it shot outward, one hitting Rugrat and the other passing through walls and buildings.

  Rugrat was greeted by a screen in his visio
n.

  ==========

  Taran Choi has sworn his allegiance to you. If he breaks his oath, then the Ten Realms will punish him.

  ==========

  Rugrat’s eyes went wide, before he waved the screen away. He put his hand on Taran’s shoulder, a smile on his face. He couldn’t express his thoughts and feelings. “Erik and I will do our best to make sure that we do not disappoint your oath,” Rugrat promised.

  Taran bowed his head, gruffly clearing his throat. “You lead, I’ll follow.”

  Rugrat clapped his shoulder again. “Good man.” Rugrat stood a bit taller. He would do all he could to make sure that he did his best by Taran. “Now go and train.”

  Taran nodded and collected up the different items. There was no need to stand on ceremony anymore.

  After Taran left, Rugrat headed over to the training ground, where he found Captain Glosil.

  “What was that bow you used? The power was incredible and that loading system was much easier to use than our hands,” Glosil said.

  “I’ll have the new loading system to you soon. That new crossbow is a modernized version. Make sure to pick out the very best shots for them.” Rugrat pulled out another book and held it to Glosil. “Use this and train well.”

  Glosil took the book and opened it. He found a screen in front of him. His jaw dropped and others looked over. Glosil recovered a few moments later. He could only see Rugrat’s back as he walked into the smithy once again.

  Rugrat got a call request from Erik.

  “What happened? I got a notification about Taran making an oath?” Erik asked.

  “I gave him a bunch of books on smithing techniques. He was pretty moved by it, so he made an oath to both of us,” Rugrat explained.

  “I’m an idiot. I didn’t think to give him manuals.” Erik sighed.

  “I’m right there with you. With the meeting tonight, we’ll need to talk to everyone and see what they’re lacking. We can buff up the leaders with technique books to make up for deficits in their abilities, then raise the strength of the people by tactically increasing the pillars of the community, increasing our overall strength. About the gold?” Rugrat said.