by Aleron Kong
Richter looked after his friend, “You’re a real dick! Do you know that?”
Sion just started whistling and threw up two fingers into a peace sign as he continued to walk away. The chaos seed glared at him, regretting having taught the sprite about pop culture references.
CHAPTER 41 -- Day 127 -- Kuborn 17, 15368 EBG
The next days followed the same pattern. Whenever a sprite that had felt the pixie call got close, a team was sent out to guide him through the mists, day or night. Richter was not able to be there each time, and some mornings he was surprised to see a new meidon under the limbs of the Quickening despite not even knowing another sprite had made it safely back to the village.
His daily hunting trips also unlocked two new subskills of War Leader. The first happened after he and Alma were finishing a solo hunt. When Richter read the prompt he felt an immediate vindication!
Congratulations! You have learned the subskill: Army of One. Not all battles can be fought with an army around you. Too often in The Land, you will find yourself alone. If you cannot put your back to the wall and fight your way out of the dark, the only thing shorter than your life will be the memory you leave behind! You have fought seven battles without any support personnel and have unlocked this new subskill! You now have access to all promotions that you have earned as a War Leader when hunting alone. Available promotions:
Promotion
Description
Vigilant I
+5% to perception of future hidden enemies. +5% to response time to future surprise attacks.
Sapper I
+5% to attack against an entrenched enemy.
Subterranean I
+5% to defense when fighting underground.
Overwhelming Odds I and II
I: +10 to Fighting Spirit
II: +20 to Fighting Spirit
Know This! At the rank of Novice in the subskill Army of One, you will earn only 10% of the War Points you would earn if you were leading troops.
All of the hen pecking he had received for fighting alone seemed suddenly justified! Part of him wanted to run to Randolphus immediately and say, ‘See! See! Fighting alone has its perks!’ As good as that might feel, Richter realized that he as just being childish. The feedback he had received from both Terrod and Randolphus had been warranted. Even the tirade Jean’s wife had gone into had been a good reminder of his responsibilities. He couldn’t take unnecessary risks. His new subskill did also show that there was merit to his argument of growing stronger and being self-reliant as well, though. He looked forward to advancing it.
The next subskill appeared after a bloody fight with a pack of nindani. The beasts were reptilian and had two muscles and clawed arms. The lower half of their body was a powerful tail. What made the fight so difficult was that their scales gave them a partial resistance to most magic. The entire fight had come down to physical combat. There had been six of the creatures, and most were level twelve or thirteen. The pack leader was level twenty-five, though!
His war party was hard-pressed during the battle and there had been a few serious injuries. At the end though, all of the monsters lay dead and one of Richter’s short swords was sticking out of the nindani leader’s chest. After the battle, a prompt had appeared.
Congratulations! You have learned the subskill: Beacon. You are not only a leader, you are also a fighter! For the past seven battles, you have slain the most powerful opponent that your war party faced. This has allowed you to unlock this new subskill. Your actions will now be a focal point of any battle. Your status as Champion now gives an increased boost to the Fighting Spirit of your war party (+10 per skill level). Slaying enemy Champions will now give a greatly increased boost to the Fighting Spirit of your war party for the duration of the battle. Conversely, your death in battle will cause massive damage to the Fighting Spirit of your forces.
Richter still didn’t understand the importance of Champions in battle, except that they were tied to the Fighting Spirit of those around him. When he received his War Leader skill, the prompt had told him that he was now considered a Champion. He also remembered that when Yoshi had killed the bugbear raider Lif’alt, the other bugbears suffered a -100 to their Fighting Spirit while his own forces got a +50 bump. His new subskill seemed to make those kind of swings more pronounced. It was easy to see how killing a few Champions might turn the tide of a battle. It meant putting himself in danger in battles, but if there was one thing he had learned, it was that safety was an illusion in The Land. Like his grandpappy had always said, “Big risks mean big rewards.”
His own progression wasn’t the only thing of note to happen. It was an exciting time for everyone in the village and a big event seemed to happen every day. Richter had some excitement himself as he made use of the luck potions. The first thing he did was to finally sacrifice the Glass Boots of Shockwave to the Forge of Heavens. He watched, with extreme gratification, as the boots turned to dust and another green light took its place in the heart of the massive green anvil. He was also able to successfully disenchant his Arrow of Multishot and the Cobalt Mace of Mana Stealing.
He wasn’t able to learn those two enchantments, but he was able to glean others. Two lights, one black and one red came to occupy the corner of Richter’s mind that held his enchantments.
Congratulations! You have learned the enchantment: Goblin Slaying. Weapons instilled with this enchantment will do extra damage to goblins.
Congratulations! You have learned the enchantment: Confusion. Enemies struck with weapons instilled with this enchantment risk being confused to various degrees.
Richter also finally sacrificed the Poison of Nil Abilities to the Dragon’s Cauldron. He held his breath while he poured the rare and valuable potion into the central glass cauldron. There was only one measure of the blue liquid left, and if he didn’t learn the recipe this time, he wouldn’t get a second chance. A moment after he poured it into the Cauldron’s heart though, the blue potion was absorbed by the vessels and it drained into the floor. Tabia had successfully returned from her Trial as a Professed Alchemist and was standing nearby. She excitedly placed her hands on the central cauldron to access the recipe, but then her face fell. The formula called for six ingredients, all scarce or even more rare. The Dragon’s Cauldron showed Richter where five of them were on his Traveler’s Map, but the sixth was nowhere to be found. Either there wasn’t a local equivalent or Richter hadn’t explored the area where it could be found. No matter the reason, the fact was he wouldn’t be making any of the poison until he could find some umbral root.
His people were making strides as well. Over the next two weeks, the villagers were able to finish two more buildings and make large strides in converting the village wall to marbled quartz. According to Roswan, structures built with marbled quartz were at least 50% stronger than those built with regular stone. Richter had also enacted a plan to expand the wall once the conversion was complete.
After Richter had seen the defensive benefits of having a wall of increased height, he had instructed Roswan to start building it up to fifteen feet once the bottom layer was done. The taciturn elf had nodded his head and said, “Grmm, my lord.” He also told Richter that the defensive bonus capped at some point, but that walls could also give a bonus to dodging projectiles once they reached a certain height.
An added bonus of working with Roswan everyday was that the builder had started to treat him with greater respect. Just like on countless worlds through time, playing with blocks was enough to bring two males together. In no time at all, Richter was awarded with a prompt.
Know This! You have built a fully functional House of Scholarship (Level 1). Your settlement will now enjoy the Building Bonus of increased Research, Scribing and other Scholarly pursuits from having such a building.
Richter appreciated the workshop even more than before now that he could know exactly what the buildings did just by examining the village interface.
House of Scholarship (Level 1). Durability:
15,914/15,914. Building Quality: Well-built. Building Bonus: +12% Increase in village research speed. +12% to upper limit of research points that researchers can add per day. +12% to Scribing speed and success while inside of the building. +12% to village education (knowledge retention, conceptual understanding, etc.) +1.2% chance to have a scientific breakthrough.
With the research building done, new options opened up on Richter’s village interface. A screen appeared that showed the village in the center. It looked like a real-time rendering of the town, accurate to the last detail. Around the model village were a multitude of spheres, arranged three-dimensionally to maximize the distance between them. All of the globes were a drab white except for one, which glowed slightly. More spheres were visible extending out from that one lit sphere. Each had lettering on them that Richter could easily read. Glowing lines connected all of the spheres out from the globes extending outward in all directions. The entire scene looked very much like Richter’s Talent page.
The main difference was that while his Talent interface was two-dimensional and was set against the backdrop of a star-filled and colorful nebula, the caricature of his town and the land it was built upon seemed to sit in a bubble of grey fog. The spheres around it were easily seen, and they pushed back the thick mist. Panning out only showed more fog. Luckily, he never completely lost sight of the town no matter how far he zoomed out. The sphere of available techs glowed like a lantern through a storm. He could see faint outlines of other spheres in the fog, but couldn’t make any other details. To make it even more difficult, the globes seemed to gradually shift in and out of sight, like they were being moved by a slow moving current.
Richter looked over the tech window. As he panned out further, he finally got a feel for the scope of what he was looking at. There had to be thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of spheres. He wished he could see what was hidden under the fog. If each science sphere could be researched multiple times, which seemed to be the case, it would take eons to learn all of this tech!
He kept zooming out and saw only grey, but then something caught his eye. In the bottom right corner, well away from the sphere that surrounded the model of his village, there was another well-lit break in the mist. He focused his attention in this new area and saw that several spheres were revealed, but again only one was glowing. The reason why this other patch of fog had been revealed became clear when Richter zoomed in on it.
The globe read, “Portal Construction III,” and had several other spheres branching off of it. There was also another a filament leading off into the surrounding fog, but he couldn’t see what it attached to. This was the knowledge he had obtained from the Tefonim queen. It was an actual tech! Richter’s mind started flooding with possibilities! He didn’t know what to research first!
After a moment, Richter decided to look at the other prompts that had come up with the first one to see if they added any clarity to how to proceed.
Know This! As Master of this Place of Power and village, you are bound to your settlement. As with all rulers, your character, abilities, and soul will affect your land and your people. Your Limitless ability now applies to the techs that your settlement can research. You are not limited by race, alignment or any other specifics in the techs which you can pursue. Purchase and procure technical manuals to jumpstart your science. Steal, bribe and co-opt technology and knowledgeable people to increase the capabilities of your people! Be warned, something once known can never be fully unknown. “The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”
Well that’s awesome news, Richter thought. He wasn’t sure why certain techs would be limited to certain races, but it was still good to know that his people could advance in any direction.
Congratulations! You have unlocked the ability to do research! The following areas of tech are available to you.
1) Farming I. Cost: 89 Research Points. Successful research will increase yield from cultivated crops by 5% total.
2) Animal Husbandry I. Cost: 102 Research Points. Successful research will increase the health of your animals by 5%. Usable products from domesticated animals are also increased by 5%. *Requires your settlement to have domesticated animals.
3) Soldiery I. Cost: 98 Research Points. Successful research will increase the learning curve of your soldiers by 10%. Also, increases attack and defense of trained soldiers by 5%. *Requires a barracks. UNAVAILABLE!
4) Construction I. Cost: 132 Research Points. Successful research increases building speed and building durability by 5%. *Requires a workshop.
o This Tech provides new blueprints!
▪ Mason’s Shop (level 1): When built, will decrease waste and increases efficiency when quarrying stone. Increases usable yield of local quarries by 10%. Increases productivity when quarrying stone by 10%.
▪ Logging Camp (level 1): When built, will decrease waste and increase efficiency when logging. Increases usable yield of local wooded areas by 10%. Increases productivity when harvesting forests by 10%.
5) Enchantments I. Cost: 61 Research Points. Successful research opens the possibility of learning, altering and creating basic enchantments.
6) Astronomy I. Cost: 52 Research Points. Successful research will give a basic idea of the movement of the stars, planets, and other cosmic bodies.
7) Basic Spell Theory I. Cost: 56 Research Points. Successful research will provide a basic understanding of the magic of the Basic Elements and ley lines.
8) Metallurgy II. Cost: 214 Research Points. Successful research will decrease the amount of metal needed to make arms and armor by 5%. (Tech advanced by one level due to inherent knowledge of villager in the Job: Smith) *Requires access to smithy.
The Metallurgy sphere was the only one of the eight that was glowing. Apparently, the techs lit up when they had been ‘researched.’ It seemed that Krom, in addition to having the practical skills of a blacksmith, also understood the science of Metallurgy to a certain extent. Since the dwarf’s designation as having a village Job was mentioned, it seemed that assigning people to various positions had more importance than Richter had originally thought.
Richter examined techs that branched off of Metallurgy
1) Alloy I. Cost: 202 Research Points. Experiment with new combinations of metals to increase their capabilities. Successful research will increase the likelihood of forming new alloys. This tech also increases the durability and either attack or defense of new alloys by 10%. *Requires: Access to smithy + whichever metals need to be experimented with. **Metals used in this research will be slowly consumed.
2) Smelter I. Cost: 254 Research Points. Increased heat in the smelter allows for greater malleability of worked metals. Successful research will increase production speed of forged items by 10%.
3) Smithing Tools I. Cost: 207 Research Points. Better tools increase the chance of a higher quality product. Successful research will increase the chance of your smiths to create arms and armor of higher qualities.
All of the techs could be useful and beneficial to Krom. Best not to tell the dwarf about these research options, Richter thought with a smile. His smith wouldn’t stop hounding him, especially for the Smithing Tools I tech. The chaos seed wasn’t rejecting the idea of pursuing this research branch, but he wanted to explore his options before he committed. Richter examined the portal tech and the research that branched off of it.
1) Portals IV. Cost: 2,302,583 Research Points. At level three, you are able to build a portal that can be linked to the same number of portals as ley lines in the immediate vicinity. The receiving portals must be built upon ley lines that mirror those which the home portal is built upon. Successful research of Portals IV allows receiving portals to be built upon any type of ley line.
2) Local Portals I. Cost: 67,956 Research Points. This tech allows unlocks the blueprint for local Portals. Local portals are linked to a home portal and only allow travel between these two points. This ignores the limitation of portals being built a minimum of 50 mile
s apart. Local portals do not count against the maximum number of portals that can be linked to your home portal. At level one of this tech:
Local portals can be built within a ten-mile radius of the home portal.
One local portal can be created per ley line present.
A traveler can enter the home portal and arrive at the local platform. Travel is not possible from the local portal back to the home portal.
3) Pedestal Activation I. Cost: 32,743 Research Points. The process of placing and removing an activation key to control the workings of a portal can be laborious and time-consuming. The creation of a pedestal key will greatly streamline this process. The creator of the pedestal can assign varying access rights to individuals or allow unrestricted access.
4) Microportal I. Cost: 58,311 Research Points. Learning this tech unlocks the blueprint for microportals. Microportals are devices that will give instant transport back to the home portal the device is linked with. At level one of this tech:
The maximum distance this device can be used is five hundred miles.
You must be in close proximity to a ley line of the same type that the portal is built upon.
Individuals and objects within five feet of the microportal user can be transported as well.
Richter’s eyes bulged slightly as he read about each tech that was available to him through his knowledge of the Portals. Building a portal had always been high on his agenda, but now it was skyrocketing. He had actually started to lay the groundwork for building one, but there were factors that were stopping him.
Prompts had appeared that told that building a portal required a level of technical expertise. Both a Construction skill of forty-seven and a Crafting skill of eleven were required. The prompt had indicated that he could work under a builder of the appropriate skill, so Roswan could handle the Construction half of the requirement. Richter himself would have to assemble the various items that formed the portal, though. Because of this, he had been devoting at least an hour each night to working with Gloran and learning the skill, Crafting.