“You’d have to ask Sam.” She shrugged. “I work with wood.”
“I’ll be right back.” I nodded at her.
“I need my hammer, Arthur.” She watched me for a moment. “I earned it.”
“Use one of theirs, okay?” Then before she could protest more, I made my way to Sam’s new shop.
It was a lot bigger than the old one had been and had been attached to the armory, which was cool. As I stepped inside the armory, I found her apprentice busy polishing a set of swords that looked way higher quality than what the angels normally used.
“Hello,” her apprentice said, and as she caught sight of me, her face turned red, and she swallowed. “Oh, sorry, Mr. Arthur, sir. I’ll go get Sam.” She vanished so quickly, I could have sworn she’d left a dust cloud in her stead.
Still, a moment later, Sam came out, wiping her face with a rag. “You scared Mixy.”
“I have no idea how,” I said, shaking my head. “I literally said no words to her.” I frowned. “I probably should have said hi, but she ran off too quickly.”
“It’s because you’re a big deal.” Sam walked over to me and leaned over the counter.
“I am not. At least I don’t feel like it. I’m just me.”
“Be that as it may,” Sam said, shrugging. “You make her shy.”
“Um… sorry?” I shrugged. “Anyway, I have a question. Do we have any steel ingots? Grade A preferably.”
“Yeah, I think so. Why?” She looked from me to the hammer and back. “You do know it only takes one ingot to make a hammer right?”
“Yes, but Maribelle can’t equip the better ones.” I waved off the line of thought before Sam could ask me what I meant. “And she really likes this hammer.”
“Right…” Sam shrugged. “I’ll go get some.” She cocked her head to the side. “Mixy bring me three grade A steel ingots.”
“By get some, you mean order your shy apprentice to get it for me?” I asked as the girl emerged, looking so flustered, I actually felt bad.
“Pretty much.” Sam turned and looked at the girl. “Help Arthur with anything he needs, okay?”
“Anything?” she squeaked going wide-eyed.
“Yeah.” Sam stepped through the curtain, leaving me alone with the girl.
“I won’t need much, okay?” I said, nodding to her. “If I could get the ingots?”
“Right. Sorry. Okay.” She came toward me in a flurry of motion before dropping the ingots onto the counter. “What else do you need?”
“A moment.” I put the hammer down and stared at it. I’d never actually done this before. What if it exploded or something? “And maybe stand back.”
She did as she was told, moving against the far wall, and seeming relieved by it. “Is this far enough?”
“Yeah, sure.” I turned my attention back to the hammer and initiated the upgrade.
Sapphire light wrapped around the hammer and the ore both. Then the ore seemed to sublimate into gas before coalescing around the hammer. There was a loud pop, and another flash of light, and then the hammer sat there, looking cleaner, but not a lot different.
Only it was different.
Journeyman’s Hammer
Type: Tool
Class: Carpentry
Grade: A
Durability: 2,000/2,000
Enchantments: None
Ability: None
Do you want to upgrade Journeyman’s Hammer to Grade S? Base cost 16 steel ingot (Grade S).
27
An hour later, I set out in search of Maribelle and found her sitting on a tuffet eating curds and whey, which seemed strange because she was talking to a spider that had sat down beside her. I know, right?
“I’ve got something for you,” I said, marching over and proudly displaying the hammer. “Bask in the Glory of an S double plus hammer.” I waggled it.
“Oh wow,” Maribelle said, eyes going wide as she caught sight of the tool. “It’s so big.” She bit her lip. “Can I touch it?”
“Of course,” I smiled. “This tool is all for you, baby.”
“Really?” She flushed, looking from the hammer to me and back again. “You mean I don’t have to share it?”
“Who would you possibly share it with?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
“Other girls?” She shrugged, taking it from me. “Wow, it’s so light, but I can feel the power throbbing inside it.” She ran her hand up the handle a few times, stroking its length. “I can’t believe you did this for me.” She beamed.
“Well, you were right. I hadn’t been very fair to you. The others all have Dark Blood enhanced weapons, so…”
“You mean?” Her eyes got huge. “This is a Dark Blood infused hammer. Those cost a fortune.”
“Well, I made it, so it just cost us some materials.” I kicked at the sand, suddenly embarrassed. After I’d upgraded the hammer to S double plus and used a total of one hundred S Grade ingots, I’d gotten Sally to take a break long enough to refine some Dark Blood. Then I’d gotten Sam to do her infusion thing. In retrospect, it seemed like overkill for a hammer, but I was willing to bet the hammer would pound the fuck out of a nail.
“It’s not nothing,” Maribelle said, getting to her feet and wrapping her arms around my neck. “It’s really thoughtful.” She nodded. “I can tell you put a lot of work into it.”
“Well, you mean a lot to me, Maribelle. I know I’m busy and don’t have as much time to spend, but even still, I do want you to be happy.”
I was going to say more, honest, but she kissed me then, and I sort of forgot about it for the rest of her lunch break.
“I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore,” I said as Maribelle finished buttoning up her shirt, which was, quite literally, one of my least favorite things to watch.
“What do you mean?” she asked, picking up her new hammer and putting it into her tool belt. “You have lots of stuff to do.” She nodded. “As do I. Need to build you an Alchemist’s lab.” She fingered the hammer for a second. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I nodded to her, and as I did, I pulled open her stats menu.
Name: Maribelle
Experience: 217,376
Health: 78/78
Mana: 121/121
Primary Power: Carpentry
Secondary Power: None selected
Strength: 35/100
Agility: 43/100
Charisma: 27/100
Intelligence: 53/100
Special: 66/100
Perk: Rank 10 Carpenter
I blinked a couple times. “Whoa.”
“What’s wrong?” Maribelle asked, looking up from her hammer.
“I haven’t upgraded your stats?” I asked, unable to believe it.
“You did a little bit with my skills, but never with my stats, no.” She shook her head. “Why?”
“I just feel dumb. Give me a second.” I quickly spent the thirteen thousand or so experience to bring her Strength, Agility, Intelligence, and Special to ninety-five.
It was a touch strange since for most classes, it requires either strength or agility, but carpentry seemed to require both. Still, she had so much accumulated experience, it was a moot point. Even after that spend, she still had over two-hundred thousand experience left. The thing was, I didn’t really have anything to spend it on since most of her trees were maxed. No. Her problem was the same as before. She needed a higher rank to unlock better gear and more skill trees.
That needed to be fixed, but at the same time, I couldn’t spare her for the time to fix it. Man, I was becoming my old boss.
“What did you do to me?” Maribelle asked, shaking her head in disbelief as newfound intelligence filled her eyes.
“I basically doubled all your stats. You are literally two to three times stronger, faster, and smarter.” I smiled. “I could do more too, if there’s something else in particular, you would like.”
“This is like what you did to Sally and the others, huh?” She looked at he
r hammer, and some of her excitement had faded.
“Yeah.” I clapped her on the shoulder. “I’m sorry I didn’t do it before.”
“I’m almost glad you hadn’t.” She shut her eyes and took a breath. “I’m sort of thinking about things I never had before. Nothing seems so simple.” She sighed.
“Annabeth complained about the same thing, but you’ll find you get used to it.” I gave her a hug. “Besides, you were always smart. Like, really smart.”
“I know that.” She shrugged. “It’s just strange.” She shook her head. “Anyway, I better get back to work. Sorry about getting so bent about the hammer. It’s really great, and I like it a lot, and you totally can’t have it back, but we probably could have used the resources elsewhere.”
“Pfft, resources.” I rolled my eyes even though I could still hear Sam screaming at me after she’d found out how much ore I’d used. It turned out I could combine three ore to make one of a higher quality…
“The look on your face tells me I’m right.” She bounced. “I’ll make good use of that.” With that, she turned on her heel and strode off, leaving me to stand there beside her tuffet and her stupid spider.
“I’m a girl spider,” it said, even though I didn’t ask.
“Of course you are,” I said, right before I sat down beside it.
“I make really nice webs, but alas I have no one to share my webs with.” It moved a bit closer. “Would you like to come into my web?”
“I’m good.” I picked up Maribelle’s half-finished bowl and looked at it. The contents looked unappealing in a way I couldn’t explain, but I was intrigued nonetheless. I carefully put my index finger into the goop before sucking on it.
“Ugh!” I exclaimed, putting the bowl down. “How can she eat that?”
“Are you actually asking me?” the spider asked. “Because I don’t know either.” She gestured at the tuffet. “All I know is people like to come to my tuffet to eat it.” Have you ever seen a spider shrug? It’s kinda weird.
Not sure how to take that, I nodded to the spider before making my way to Raphael. Now that I’d settled the whole alchemist thing, I needed to get a move on with the next achievement Restore the Hallowed Host.
If I didn’t, then it wouldn’t matter if I finished the others because I’d still be down thirty-five percent Legitimacy with the angelic armaments, and that wouldn’t be enough to free the angels or save Gabriella.
28
The claxon sounded as I reached Raphael’s archives, and as I turned toward the horizon and saw even more creatures coming through the breach, a trumpet blast filled my ears.
“Ow!” I cried, reaching up and clasping my ears as the knights hit the battlefield like a tidal wave of force, wrecking everything in their path, including a new crab monster that seemed like it’d be fun to fight. Only before I even had that thought, the crabs and everything else was dead.
The claxon stopped, and I sighed. Goddamned OP motherfuckers. Ah well, I didn’t really wanna fight monsters, anyway. I had achievements to get so I could become the mother-fuckin' hero of Heaven, fight another dude and take all his women. Or something. I wasn’t even sure anymore.
I turned back to the door and knocked. There was no response, so I knocked again. Then I waited an appropriate amount of time before knocking again. This time the door opened to reveal Raphael, only she had bags the size of Texas under her eyes.
“Hey there pretty lady,” I said, smiling at her. “How you doin’?”
“Fine,” she said, looking me up and down. “Do you need something? I’m busy.” She heaved out a breath. “It’s why I didn’t open the door. You were supposed to just go away.”
“I was wondering if you have any more information about the Restore the Hallowed Host achievement.” She frowned as I finished speaking.
“No.” She shook her head. “I got really excited because new text appeared in one of the pages after your statue buddies showed up, but it doesn’t make any sense. I’ve been trying to figure it out, but alas, all my research has turned up nothing.”
“Can I see it?” I asked, wondering what it could say. “Maybe I’ll have a different perspective?”
Raphael looked at me for a long time. “When was the last time you slept?”
“I don’t know.” I scratched my head. “I vaguely recall sleeping a few days ago, I think?”
“And you don’t think that’s a problem?” she sighed. “You’re acting weird.”
“How am I acting weird? I just wanna know about the achievement.” I narrowed my eyes. “That’s literally the main thing I’ve been doing. Trying to complete these achievements. I created an entire industry to do that.”
“You used almost all our steel to make a hammer.” She looked at me. “Yes. I heard about it. Michelle is livid and don’t get me started on Uriel.”
“The herb garden?” I asked, rolling my eyes.
“They’re medicinal.” Raphael waved off the comment. “I’ll show you the book, but after you have to promise you’ll go take a nap, okay?”
“I will promise to think about a nap.” I flexed. “I feel great.”
“Did you just flex at me?” the Archangel of Providence asked, one eyebrow snaking up over the top of her glasses.
“Yes?” I rubbed my face with my hand. Maybe I did need a nap.
“I’m really more of a brains than brawn girl.” She shrugged. “Anyway, let’s get this over with. Most of what I found is just the myth of King Arthur. You know, Sir Bors, Galahad, and Percival set out and looked for it. Galahad eventually found it. You know that stuff.” She yawned.
“We could nap together, you know.” I followed her inside as I thought about what she had said. So Galahad had found the grail in the stories but not in real life, and he’d had Percival and Bors with him. Interesting. “You seem tired too.”
“I’m not going to sleep with you, Arthur.” Raphael glanced at me over her shoulder, and she didn’t seem slightly amused. “Ever.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.” I waved off the comment because I hadn’t, but I didn’t want to defend myself. “I think the whole damned city could use a nap.”
“Right.” She rolled her eyes as she opened the door to her study and stepped inside. “There’s the book.” She pointed to a green, leather-bound tome.
I obviously could not read the book, but I could read the tooltip next to it.
The way to the grail has been lost but is now found.
“Well, that’s helpful,” I sighed and rubbed my eyes. Maybe I did need a nap.
“Let me guess, you expected to come in here and just figure it out?” Raphael scoffed, and I suddenly realized why she had been icy toward me. I was stepping all over her shit. I’d have never done that with Sam, Sally, or any of the others, so why had I thought I could out scholar the scholar? Because I was tired and an ass, probably.
“I need to apologize.” I sat down on the plush crimson couch along the far wall. Man, was it comfy. I could just lay down and…
“For what.” Raphael looked at me, more curious than anything else.
“For not taking your skills and such seriously. I wasn’t trying to imply I was better. I am way not better.” I gestured at the room. “I’ve read lots of books, but most are about elves. None of them are academic. That you have read all this and know it so well? That’s amazing.”
“What kind of elves?” Raphael moved across the room toward a shelf on the bottom left. “Tolkien or…?”
“I lied. I don’t know about elves at all. I was making a joke. In fact, I think I’ve read exactly one series with elves, and no one else has.” I sighed. “I was just trying to sound cool. Mostly I read books about vampires and stuff, but not any of the girly stuff.”
“Pity, I quite like elves.” Raphael frowned at me as she pulled out a book with a dragon on the cover. “This is my favorite one.”
“That is literally the only book about elves I have read… how did you?” I shook my head. “Are
you fucking with me?”
“Yes, a bit.” She moved and sat down next to me on the couch. “I’ve read every book you’ve read Arthur. Every book.” She thumped the cover. “I’ve read your school records, your tax returns. Everything.” She smiled crazily. “I know everything about you.”
“That’s kind of an invasion of privacy.” I swallowed, wondering all what she knew about me since she had said everything. Hell, even I didn’t know what my school records said since they wouldn’t give them to me because I still owed them money.
“It is, isn’t it?” She put her arm around me. “Now then, care to take a nap.” She gave me a really creepy smile. “I could read you a bedtime story.”
“Actually, I have to go…”
“Good.” She glared at me and got up. “I was hoping you would leave. Not trying to be rude, but I’m busy.” With that, she moved back to her desk and sat down. Had she just made all that up to freak me out? I wasn’t sure, but it’d worked.
“I’ll just show myself out.” I got up.
My response was met with only laughter, but I didn’t care. I was too tired to argue. A nap was sounding pretty good.
There was just one problem. I had a lot to do, and Gabriella didn’t feel any closer to being rescued. Rubbing my eyes with my hands again, I wondered if they had coffee in Heaven, and if I could pour a five-hour energy drink in it.
Only as I stepped outside, the only thing I could think about was the line about the grail from the book.
The way to the grail has been lost but is now found.
As I turned the phrase over in my mind, another claxon sounded, and the horizon came alive. Once again, the knights charged into battle, and as I watched them tear apart a wave that dwarfed the one from a few minutes ago, an idea hit me.
29
“I want to take Bors, Galahad, and Percival back to the Plains of Desolation to search for the Holy Grail,” I said, and yes, I could hardly believe I had said those words, so take that for what you will.
“You can’t take thirty percent of our defenses,” Michelle replied, looking at me like I was crazy. “And not on some hunch.”
The Builder's Wrath (The Legendary Builder Book 4) Page 16