War Aeternus 2: Sacrifices

by Charles Dean

  Wait . . . That’s right! I can craft anything so long as I have the Intelligence, the skill, and the materials! He looked around him, desperately trying to find something to work with. He could probably try to craft a stone sword out of one of the pillars, but he wasn’t sure how helpful that would be. The only thing I have here is sand, but if it has lime, silica or something else in it, the most I could hope to craft would be glass. Wait! Lee suddenly had an idea. He wasn’t sure what the sand was made of, but it was at least somewhere to start. He didn’t have the book on him, since he had left everything in his inventory to Amber, so he ran as far ahead of the slime as he could to create a large enough gap to give himself some time to work.

  “What are you doing?” one of the Firbolg guards yelled. “We all know you’re going to die. Stop dragging it on.”

  “Your kind should just be more accepting of your fate, scum!” another jeered.

  There were a few more jabs at him, but Lee ignored them. Instead, he bent down and pushed his spirit into the sand beneath his feet. From there, he was able to use his mind to picture, and then subsequently form in real life, three small glass throwing stars. He had never held a throwing star in his entire life, but it was the first thing that came to mind, and he sincerely hoped that his bow training with Ling would somehow carry over to his ability to accurately aim this projectile as well.

  You have learned the divine skill Glass Smithing. This skill is currently at Initiate Level 1. This skill improves one’s ability to create and shape glass structures using sand.

  You have been awarded 2 Intelligence for discovering a new skill without the assistance of class trainers or a manual. Current Intelligence: 133.

  He carefully hefted them to test their weight then turned around and hurled one at the Glubinsa. It was pretty far off, and as Lee watched the piece of glass soar through the air, he instantly knew he’d never cut it as a sewer-dwelling, shell-covered, reptilian warrior. His throw let down generations of children who grew up worshiping the mystical arts of the culturally-insensitive television ninja.

  Disheartened, he circled around the slime and away from the wall so that he’d have clear room to run once the Glubinsa got closer to him. He knew that he was likely to miss his next throw as well, so he waited until the Glubinsa drew close enough that he was confident he could hit it. While still laughably bad, his next shot sent the ninja star whizzing straight through the slime and into the sand on the other side.

  Lee ran around the Glubinsa, drawing it out again, and then circled around and grabbed the piece of glass, a sly smile creeping onto his face. His makeshift projectile had passed through the creature without doing any real damage, but unlike his leather armor and skin, the glass didn’t seem to be vulnerable to the Glubinsa’s corrosive damage.

  Okay, Augustus, I got you now. Lee grinned as he ran to the other end of the colosseum as fast as he could. Once there, he knelt down, placed both his hands onto the ground and began channeling his spirit in a large circle. He pulled and moved the sand, drawing it toward the center and condensing it as quickly as possible. As if it knew that Lee was setting up a trap, the Glubinsa began shooting acid projectiles at him again. Lee tried to dodge the globs of slime without withdrawing his hands from the sand, which resulted in an awkward type of squirming contest as he dodged the fly blobs, and he ultimately ended up with his other shoulder singed horribly by the caustic, corrosive jelly.

  “Look at that!” one of the guards called out with a laugh, misinterpreting what Lee was up to. “The little Human is finally accepting his fate!”

  “You think he really gave up? I thought he’d have more spunk than that. I kind of wanted to see him die kicking and screaming to his god,” the other guard added, laughing at Lee too.

  Lee clenched his teeth and jerked his head at the last second, successfully dodging the slime’s next projectile. Unfortunately, the Glubinsa also spit out another quickly after that he had no chance of out-maneuvering, and he lost another 13 hit points when he was struck on his right knee. Lee felt like he was suffering from the worst case of ‘need to scratch my nose but both of my hands are full’ ever with the two new, irritated, itching wounds brought about by the jellyfish-level acidic slime, but he resisted the urge to retract his hands and touch them.

  Lee cursed and continued pushing his mana through the sand, readying his trap. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of sweating, hoping and even praying to his actual god, the Glubinsa walked into the trap. Lee activated his crafting skill and started transforming the sand around the Glubinsa into glass. The process wasn’t very fast, but neither was the Glubinsa--and, thankfully, he had chosen an area of sand that was just large enough to prevent it from escaping. While the walls of the thin glass circle were rising, the Glubinsa shot its acid out, trying to corrode the encompassing crystalline wall.

  Lee kept his spirit flowing into the structure, constantly reshaping the glass into a smaller and smaller prison. It was eating up his mana a few percentage points every second, but it was worth it as the ten-foot diameter shrank to six feet and then three feet, and the glass wall doubled and then tripled and then quadrupled in thickness. By the time he was done, he had safely enclosed the entire Glubinsa in a large, spherical glass ball without any room to move. It had cost him over a quarter of his mana, far more than he spent using Nectar of the Gods or making any of the cooking and crafting recipes from the book had ever taken, but he had essentially recast the skill over and over again as he reshaped the dome into smaller and smaller increments.

  Your mastery of Glass Smithing has progressed from the rank of Initiate Level 1 to the rank of Initiate Level 2. Glass Smithing now allows for faster formation and manipulation of glass at a lower Spirit cost.

  Due to improving Glass Smithing, you have received +1 Intelligence. Current Intelligence: 134.

  The glass has a slight red tint . . . Like the water he had transformed, the glass had changed color once it had been infused with his spirit. Is it stronger than normal glass?

  “You might have trapped it, but the fight isn’t over, boy,” one of the guards said.

  The other was too busy staring at the scene with his mouth hanging open to comment.

  You really want me to convert one of these jerks? Lee grumbled.

  “If you don’t let it out and kill it by sunset, we’ll have to kill you,” the guard continued.

  He thinks that I’ll be corroded and die once I let it out. So, I either let it out and ruin my hard work, or I wait until sunset and get stabbed to death by pointy sticks. Maybe I could just throw the glass at them and let the Glubinsa swallow one of them hole? No, no, that won’t work.

  “I see. Aren’t you the clever one . . .” Lee nodded to himself and scratched his chin as if he had a deep thought. “You’re certain that I’ll die if I let this beast out, right? And if I don’t, it gives you the perfect excuse you want to kill me. You think this is a win-win for you, don’t you?”

  “You got the gist of it in one try, boy,” the guard taunted. His partner was still slack-jawed and staring in awe--and he wasn’t the only one. Over half the sparsely-populated arena had been shocked into silence.”

  “You’re certain of my death then?” Lee asked.

  “As certain as I am that you can’t pull another stunt like that. You’re out of tricks now, aren’t you, boy?” the guard said. “If you weren’t, you’d have used another one to kill it instead of just leaving it trapped. “

  “Mmhmm. You’re positive about this?” Lee questioned, continuing to bait the guard. “After all, you’re better than me, and you probably can’t kill it, right?”

  “Right. Why do you have to keep stating the obvious? Just let it out and hurry up and die so that we can move on to the next act,” the guard grumbled impatiently.

  “Oh, I’m going to let it out, but what you want wouldn’t be very much fun for me. How about we make a bet instead?” Lee asked. “I take it that someone like you, someone of supposedly-wonderful mor
al character, isn’t the type to break his word, is he?”

  The guard stared at him. “Of course I wouldn’t break my word. I’m sure you’re a dead man, but what do you have to bet with me?”

  “I can tell you where the money is.” Lee shrugged, pretending as if it were a little thing. “The money I made from selling beer.”

  The guard’s eyes widened. Even his partner’s did. “What do you want?”

  “A good bed, for starters. A larger, cleaner room, preferably one with some space to stretch my legs. A pillow. Can you get that for me?” Lee asked.

  “I can, but what’s the bet, exactly?” the guard asked hesitantly. He was likely able to meet Lee’s terms, but he’d probably have to pull a lot of strings to arrange it.

  “I bet that, not only will I not die when I let this beast free, but I’ll even be able to touch it without being harmed. I’ll put my whole fist inside to prove it.”

  “If you die, who will tell us where the gold is?”

  “I’ll tell you with my last dying breath,” Lee said. “You know that I’m a holy man, right? Then you should know we don’t bend the truth or deal in falsehoods,” he lied. That’s all he had been doing since he took up the mantle of Herald.

  “Fine. I’ll take the bet, but you need to hold your hand in for a few seconds. None of that quick in-and-out stuff!” the guard barked. It seemed he had already started to suspect that Lee had a trick in mind, but he wasn’t going to back out now that Lee had built him up and goaded him into accepting the ploy.

  “Great. Now, give me a moment.” Lee chuckled to himself as he placed his hand on the sealed-off glass bubble. As he looked inside, he could clearly see the golden core that was the Glubinsa’s nerve center, the brain that controlled the creature.

  Now, come on, magic liquor machine. Show me what you can do! Lee let his spirit flow through the glass container and into the Glubinsa. Just as he had guessed, the liquid itself wasn’t actually a part of the Glubinsa: the creature just had the ability to control any liquid around it. The liquid surrounding the core was just a compound that happened to be very acidic. Lee pushed his spirit further and further into the liquid, imagining the same process he had used to make beer and the purple mana and health potion. He didn’t specify beer, he just started imagining that the liquid wasn’t corrosive and was a liquor instead. He felt his spirit drain out of him as it cycled through options, trying to change the base ingredients into any alcoholic beverage possible. He was at a little under 80 percent when he started, but by the time the process was done, he barely had 45 percent left.

  Your mastery of the divine skill Nectar of the Gods has progressed from the rank of Initiate Level 1 to the rank of Initiate Level 2. Nectar of the Gods now allows for the production of stronger and more delectable drinks at a lower Spirit cost.

  Due to improving Nectar of the Gods, you have received +1 Intelligence. Current Intelligence: 135.

  As soon as he finished the process, he could feel the Glubinsa twisting in agony as it had trouble coping with the new alcoholic liquid in which it was drowning, trying to make it more acidic but failing. Lee used his magic to reshape the glass one last time, making a hole in the top, and reached his arm into the solution and grabbed the core, yanking it out of the beverage.

  Just as he was about to crush it, ending its existence once and for all, he heard Augustus’s voice in his head: “Put it in your inventory,” the deity told him.

  Huh? I can’t put living things in my inventory, Lee thought, but he still attempted it and was surprisingly successful. What the? How is this possible? Lee was curious until he realized that it wasn’t a living entity. It could move, it could attack, it could pull energy from its environment and make it into acid, but it didn’t need that to sustain itself. It was a construct, like a golem or a homunculus from his favorite video games, made by someone’s magic and spirit the same way he had crafted Little Ethan, and it was now his. This is going to come in handy later, Lee thought, wishing he still had the three pages from the last Herald on him as he did these death matches.

  “I said a few seconds!” the guard called out.

  “Oh, right,” Lee nodded, sticking one hand in for a few seconds. “This suit your tastes better?”

  The guard stared in disbelief, his face now matching his companion’s.

  “My faith in Augustus is far stronger than any acid or poison. Do you think this will harm me when he protects me?” Lee asked, taking advantage of their dismay to proselytize some more.

  “That’s it. Pile on the compliments, you professional sycophant. If you keep this up, I’m just going to have to think of more ways to help you,” Augustus laughed into Lee’s head. “I just didn’t know your belief was so passionate.”

  “That’s . . . That’s not possible. That acid is strong enough to slowly erode even iron! How are you doing that?” The guard’s now-saucer-wide eyes darted all across the container as if to see what the trick was.

  Lee guffawed. “You’re not understanding, are you? My faith is stronger than the beast. It hurt me because I had yet to pray, but now that my prayers have been answered, what damage can it do to me?”

  “That’s . . . N-no, no, this . . .” the Firbolg stuttered, tongue-tied. “H-how . . . How can a Human . . . That’s not right. A Human shouldn’t . . .”

  “Watch and learn then,” Lee said, deciding to risk a few more percentage points of his mana as he reshaped the glass container once again. This time, he formed it into a glass barrel, which he was able to hoist up and drink the liquid from. Imbibing the monster wine was hard due to the size of the rim, and some of the alcohol spilled across his chest, but the effect must have been beautiful to watch as he could hear the entire crowd gasp while he swallowed several large mouthfuls of the once-acidic beast. This . . . This kind of tastes like . . . like a really delicious sangria. I didn’t think I’d get such a fruity flavor out of such an absurd slime. And . . . Lee looked at his arm where the burn had happened earlier as he put the barrel down. Sure enough, just like the purple liquid he had created earlier from water, this alcohol had a good amount of his spirit in it. And it healed him as he drank the beverage. The stinging disappeared, and his hit points climbed from 205 all the way back up to 270.

  God, that feels so much better. Lee sighed happily with relief as the persistent, stinging pain subsided, and his body was enveloped by the serene, warm feeling of the healing spell.

  “Now, you see that anything is possible with faith. Even the deadliest of fiends can be pacified and made inept should Augustus bless you.” Lee surprisingly felt completely comfortable lying to these people, guards and popcorn-eating spectators alike. You get off on watching innocent people fight to the death? Fine, then don’t mind me if I trick you some for my own purposes.

  “I . . . I . . .” The guard’s stammering returned, and Lee noticed that he wasn’t the only one who was dumbfounded. There wasn’t a single person in the entire audience that was still talking as they stared at him.

  “Will you get right on my accommodations in the jail?” Lee asked, not letting the guard keep up with his arguments. “I mean, you wouldn’t want to have lied before Augustus, would you? While he is kind to those with faith, he is equally cruel toward those who break vows before him, and you don’t want to know what curses he can strike a guy down with.”

  The guard’s face fell. “I’ll take care of it,” he said seriously with a nod. Lee didn’t care whether that was because he was actually an honest man despite his horrible prejudices, or whether he was scared of being cursed. Lee was just happy that he was going to have a nice bed to sleep on.

  “That’s great to hear,” Lee said. “I appreciate it. So, when do we leave? I didn’t sleep well last night, and I’d love to lay my head down now.” Lee said as he cracked his neck and stretched his arms as if making a point.

  “Go back?” the guard asked in astonishment. This time, he was the one to laugh. “I think you’re mistaken: this was only your first fight
of the day. Since you’re still alive, you get to fight the next challenger.”

  “Are you serious?” Lee asked, absolutely aghast.

  “It . . .” The guard looked down at the ground as he answered. “It’s not my choice. Just stay in the arena and wait for the next contestant.”

  “Can I at least get a weapon?” Lee asked incredulously.

  “Maybe you should start praying now to your god so that he has the time to hear your pleas. Your next fight is against three Devilkin, and I doubt even he can save you from their scorching flames.”

  “And no weapon?” Lee repeated. “Didn’t you say something about earning points earlier? About being able to exchange them for a weapon? Well, where is my weapon for this fight?”

  The guard snickered and asked derisively, “Didn’t you say that nothing could hurt you as long as you had your faith? Just do the same to these that you did to the Glubinsa, and you’ll be fine.”

  Lee swung through the full range of the emotional spectrum, going from feeling happy and relaxed after having defeated what was a life-threatening foe to raging mad. He reached down into the sand and quickly used his newfound magical glassblower skill to craft himself a medium-sized shield and a scimitar. He dug up a stone and used that to form the handle and cross guard so that, if the blade shattered, it wouldn’t rip his own hand to pieces in the process. He wanted to do the same with the shield, but his spirit wasn’t infinite, and he was already down to 30 percent. He figured that he’d just discard the shield altogether if they were using metal weapons or something that would be strong enough to break his magically-reinforced glass.

  The less-talkative guard snorted as he watched Lee create his sword and shield, but there was clearly a little bit of awe in his voice when he said, “See? And you wanted a weapon from us.”