by Charles Dean
Once it was done, Lee held up a new and improved, larger, shiny metal golem. He considered activating Golem Sculpting right away and completing it, but he decided not to, opting instead to wait until he could use the tiny bit of remaining space on the golem’s maximum volume bar to add a last finishing touch.
Since one of his golems was busy fetching food and storing it up for the day, he had the other start working on his plan to get out of this prison cell. He didn’t need to bust out right away if his captors were going to do nothing but spend the entire day power leveling him with monsters and fights, but he did need to plot his escape soon just in case their game plan changed. He couldn’t rely on this mysterious benefactor’s word that they wouldn’t harm him and that he would be safe in jail.
Before he could make any headway, however, Lee was once more thrust into the colosseum. The day went by much like the previous one, with Lee doing as much as he could to support Dave, but with Dave carrying the brunt of the work. Unbeknownst to the older man, he was also power leveling Miller, Ling and Amber. Lee was somewhat concerned by the fact he didn’t see any experience coming from those three, but he brushed it off as Miller working on his army instead. It was hard for Lee to imagine that the Firbolg would be capable of not killing anything for very long if he was in the incredibly-irate state implied in Ling’s letter, but he had to assume that Miller was focused on breaking him out of prison.
He made sure to use crafting skills every time his mana regenerated over the fifty-percent mark so that they would be leveling up as well, and he soon noticed the efficiency of his healing was going up as well. He started at a comfortable 300 hit points when the day began, and by the end of the day, he was able to convert 1% of his total mana into 15 health. That meant that the rate of healing either scaled with his total hit points or scaled with the unviewable total mana. The latter was a strong possibility. Since he only ever knew the percentage of mana remaining, not the actual number, the best he could do was guess.
“You know, you're getting a little better at this,” Dave commented as they stood over the corpses of their enemies at the end of the day. Lee had raised his level quite a lot: after a full day of killing, he had gone from halfway through 20 to just starting 23, his Swordplay skill had increased to Novice Level 7, and Glass Smithing had increased to Initiate Level 6.
“Nah, you’re just getting the hang of things again. Gotta polish off those cobwebs and kill a few people to get back in shape,” Lee said, picking up a shield he had dropped. Only moments ago, he had used it to split a Leprechaun’s chest cavity in two, slamming it into him over and over again.
Your mastery of Blood Shield has progressed from the rank of Initiate Level 1 to the rank of Initiate Level 2. It is often said that the best defense is a good offense and that a shield is one of the best offensive tools a soldier can use. Through unorthodox use of the shield, your skills with the tool have improved, and your reflexes have improved when both blocking and assaulting enemies with the shield.
Due to improving Blood Shield, you have received +1 Intelligence. Current Intelligence: 152.
That particular fight had been both clean and messy in one sense of each word. The Leprechaun had taken Lee for an easy fight and rushed forward with a two-handed mace. Lee had known that his modified shield wouldn’t block the blow very well, and it might even have knocked out some of the spikes that he had been using a lot to catch and twist enemy blades, so he had tried using a slightly different tactic. He had dodged to the side while using his sword to try and divert the hefty weapon’s trajectory. It had been somewhat effective, giving Lee just enough room to outmaneuver the heavy steel head before it dug deep into the sand.
He had then used the edge of the shield to slam the Leprechaun in the chest, disrupting his opponent’s flow before he could bring his weapon up again. Then, taking advantage of the semi-stunned foe, Lee had punched forward with his sword, piercing through the man’s chest. Unexpectedly, when Lee had tried to retract his blade, the Leprechaun had been pulled forward along with it. It was likely due to a combination of bad footing and a firmly-lodged sword, but it turned out to be advantageous to Lee. Before his opponent had been able to regain his balance, Lee had thrust his next stab straight at the man’s shin and followed it up with another slam from his shield. The net effect had been to leave the screaming Leprechaun on the flat of his back.
Lee normally would have gone for a quick and clean kill, but that’s when Bloody Shield had activated and things had gotten messy. Lee had ended up dropping his sword, grabbing his shield with both hands and lunging on top of the fallen man. The bottom edge of the shield wasn’t designed for what Lee had in mind, but that hadn’t stopped him from slamming the shield down into the Leprechaun’s torso with all of his strength and body weight. Yet, as painful as the brutal attack had looked, it hadn’t done very much damage. Undeterred and spurred on by Blood Shield, Lee had repeated the process time and again, driving it back down into the exact same spot on the man’s chest. He had hammered away on the man’s sternum like it was a stubborn nail he was trying to push through ten inches of the finest hickory one could buy, and little by little, the screams that had originally punctuated his attacks had softened as his shield had dug deeper and deeper into the victim.
Lee probably would have kept going until the shield’s dull metal edge hit the sand, but one of the blows had ended up getting the shield caught in the Leprechaun’s spine. Lee hadn’t taken any damage at all, so the final fight of the day had proven to be quite neat and easy; and, given that Lee was now dripping from head to toe with blood, it was by far the messiest and fiercest fight of the day.
“So, after that . . .” --Dave pointed at Lee’s victim--“you gonna drink his blood like you do with the monsters? Or you think the poor bugger has had enough corpse defilement? I mean, you could leave the poor sod’s mother an open casket if you want, but if you want to keep on, that’s fine too.”
Lee looked down at the dead Leprechaun and said, loudly enough for everyone in the audience to hear, “Actually, I feel awful about having to kill him.”
“What? Why?” Dave asked, walking over and kicking the body. “He was going to murder you. Don’t be silly! What’s there to feel bad about?”
Lee turned his attention to the audience. He knew that the eyes of a full colosseum, nearly half of which was Human, were watching him intently. Even with all of the speeches and all the acting he had done and all the miracles he had performed in the past, this was the largest crowd he had seen since he arrived--and its total silence left him anxious and put his stomach in knots. Well, this is going to have to do, Lee thought, letting a moment pass as he reached down and covered the Leprechaun’s eyes in what he hoped would look like a somewhat caring moment. It’s not like I’ll have another chance if I keep waiting. The golems have been working hard, and the plan for tonight is already set up. Lee had managed to exchange letters with Connacht’s man during his lunch break, and in one exchange, he had gotten every piece of information he needed.
“I feel awful about it because, just like us, they were made to fight their brothers. They were made to dance like puppets before a crowd. But . . .” Lee paused, waiting a moment for dramatic effect. “If we had met in the street, we could have been friends. I’d have bought him a beer. I’d have poured a tall one in the name of Augustus and toasted the meeting of a stranger and new friend. But, instead, here he lies.”
Dave didn’t seem to catch onto what Lee was doing yet, but he was playing the perfect fiddle. “You would not have bought a Leprechaun a beer. That’s stupid. They’d never accept it!” he proclaimed.
“Why wouldn’t I? After all, in the coming days, we’ll be facing mutual extinction. Why couldn’t we have been polite to each other before we all possibly died fighting shoulder to shoulder?” Lee could feel the confusion from the audience. He even saw Dave blink a few times more than needed.
“What are you talking about?” Dave asked in confusion. “What exti
nction are we facing?”
“The great one. The one that I have come to herald: the end times for Kirshtein.” Lee kept his words as vague and ominous as possible. He knew that those watching weren’t there because they were impressed by his speechcraft, a skill he was so poor at that the system didn’t even recognize it. Rather, they were all there and listening intently because of the miracles he had performed. That’s why he didn’t hesitate in keeping them properly entertained. He knelt down in the dirt and started pouring all of his remaining mana into the sand. This was much more complicated than making a large bowl like he had previously when he trapped the acidic slime, and his mana bar dropped pretty quickly.
Dave looked incredibly concerned. “What end times? Out with it. What’s happening?”
“Well, Augustus told me that this city would face ruin--that a force would come in and divide its people,” Lee said as he finished his structure. It wasn’t nearly as detailed or intricate as he would have liked, but there beside his feet was a model of the town made of solid glass, shining with a glowing a purple light. It was at this point that Lee began working on a second sculpture, much smaller than his first: an army with a dragon soaring above it on wiry glass supports.
“You see,” Lee continued, “Augustus knew that Kirshtein was doomed. He knew that the Dwarves, Humans and Aes Sidhe would leave in droves. He knew that, as soon as the other races were trampled, the Firbolgs and the Leprechauns would vie to be kings of a shrinking hill.”
Lee used his sword to cut a line down the center of the city, splitting it into two pieces. He looked around to make sure that his magical display still held the audience’s attention and realized that, while they were watching, it was only in disbelief. Most of them didn’t even believe in Augustus despite the fact that Lee had changed monster blood into alcohol right in front of them along with countless other miracles. It might have been because he was the weaker of the two contestants, but more likely, it was simply that their bias against Humans prevented them from believing one could be a representative of a real deity. No matter what the case, their apprehension was visible.
“So what?” Dave asked matter-of-factly. He had caught on to the fact that Lee was up to something and was playing along now. “That’s just the way life is. These things happen.”
“Do they? Has no one ever wondered why the town was split and broken into so many pieces so quickly? More damage has been done to this city’s social structure in the past few months than has occurred in the last few hundred years, yet no one has wondered why.” A few people whom he could see nodded their heads at that.
Lee knew that people who didn’t have modern distractions like video games and television or books were likely to spend their free time gossiping and discussing the state of affairs. They probably had a very firm grasp on the situation, and even if they didn’t want to admit it, they were likely very keenly aware of the fracture he was calling attention to. There was no way to avoid the noticeable decrease in the city’s size when nearly half of its population had abandoned ship in the last two months.
“Well, I’m here to tell you why you are being split up. It’s not because it is for your own good, and it’s not that Humans or Firbolgs are any worse than one another. No, as I have come here to this colosseum to prove, we Humans can hold our own just as well as Firbolgs or Leprechauns. It’s because they need us to be separated. They need us to be split apart and at each other's throats so that they can break us with little to no effort,” Lee said.
“Who are they?” Dave asked. He was playing his part verbally, but his face had no expression even closely resembling shock, surprise or even curiosity.
“They will be revealed in due time. I know you think that I’m a prisoner here . . .” Lee looked around through a golem’s eyes, deciding this gamble was worth it. There was a small chance they’d shoot him, but he needed to take it for dramatic effect. “But I am not,” he continued. “I came here of my own volition and will leave as such before you see me again. Don’t bother showing up to the arena tomorrow. I will not be here. The purpose Augustus has given me for Kirshtein is almost complete. I have brought merriment to the downtrodden in the form of alcohol, I have brought miracles to the faithless, and I have heralded tidings of what is to come. How you prepare and what you prepare . . . it will all be upon you. When I do return again with the Paladins of my order, it will be at the eve of war, and your final trial will already be at your doorstep in plain sight for all to see.”
Dave blinked. “What are you talking about? ‘Final trial’?”
“That will be easy to tell soon enough. Time is short, and if you people choose squabbling and infighting over working together to prepare, that’s on you. I have said enough.” Lee took one last look at the glass city, the army and the dragon he had created. “I’ll see you all again very soon, and I hope you are not fractured to the point of dying when I return.”
With that, Lee left. Seeing the performance was over, Dave simply shrugged and followed after him. “You didn't really mean all that stuff, did you?” Dave asked. “Is Kirshtein really going to be attacked soon?”
“It is, and we will be free before it happens,” Lee responded. “So, when we get back, you better enjoy your dinner. Tonight will be busy, and you will need your strength.”
The two reached the guards at the exit.
“Hey, how many points are we up to?” he asked Oran. “How much loot can we purchase now?”
Oran looked at him and said, “Well, if we go by adjustments, he’s got a few hundred, and you’re at one hundred and seventy-three. I can round it up to one hundred and seventy-five for you,” he said, eliciting a stare from the other Firbolg.
“So, what is the nicest armor I can buy?” Lee asked. He wanted a weapon--badly--but he was worried that they might take it away from him if he purchased a good blade, and that would defeat the purchase.
“Well . . . depends on the type. You can afford a full metal plate armor set. That’s about one hundred and fifty points. There is also a reinforced steel shield you can get, and that’d be roughly fifty points, or you can get a fine studded leather armor set for the one hundred and seventy-five total.”
Lee liked the idea of plate, but he wasn’t confident he would have any comfort with it since it wouldn’t be a custom fit. He also didn’t know if they’d need a ton of adjustment time to get it to fit him properly. With leather, he was confident that he could just tighten straps and that it would work out. They likely had plenty of armor roughly his size, but unfitted plate armor would be much worse. On the other hand, he really did want a stronger shield. The one he had now had done him a ton of favors, as the bone spikes that had gotten stuck on the front thanks to the now-blood-soaked and hardened adhesive spit were working wonders for him, but he still wanted something with better durability.
“You know what? Screw it. I’ll go for the studded leather armor,” Lee said.
Dave patted Lee’s back. “Studs for the stud, eh? Good choice. You’ve already got that shield, so what’s the use of doubling down on killing your mobility?”
It was the ugliest brown imaginable, and the condition of the studs varied from a smooth lustrous shine to tarnished and dull, and there were scrapes in a few places that made Lee wonder if it had seen battle before. No, of course it probably has. Why wouldn’t they just fix up a piece of armor and toss it to the next guy instead of making a fresh new set? Despite its ugly appearance and preowned status, it didn’t stop him from eagerly opening up the stats page and smiling as he looked at the impressive numbers. Both the top and bottom pieces of the set gave him 25 armor each, a drool-worthy increase over the armor he had received the day before, which he had thought pretty good at the time. Lee couldn’t help but shake his head and grin a little stupidly.
It seems like basically everything offered to the prisoners here is better than anything that can be bought back in Satterfield, Lee thought as he looked over the numbers. He took a moment to equip the armor, turn
ed the old equipment back in, and then left to the prison cell with Dave.
As soon as he was locked inside, he immediately began stacking plates of bacon on the tables and filling up mugs of beer so that the other prisoners would have food and drink. He also took the time to retrieve the supplies he needed from the golems. He didn’t intend to begin his plan right away, but the time wasn’t far off, and he needed to be ready when it came.
Alright, I’m going to have you drag Miller here as quickly as you can, Lee thought, sending the message to one of his golems. The prison break is likely going to be rough, and we need his crew in position to help us in case things get dicey. Miller had made it all the way to Satterfield and organized a small army. It was impressive how fast the Firbolg had acted.
After making sure that Miller would be waiting for him, he leaned against the door and acted like he was praying. Dave hit the table when he saw what Lee was doing and muttered something along the lines of, ‘If he’s praying, then we should too,’ and, ‘Only good meals we’ve gotten in months, so we should show some respect.’ The hungrily-eating bunch of prisoners stopped stuffing their mouths long enough to get down on their knees, lower their heads and at least looked like they were praying as well.
Lee was too focused on observing a mouse as it carefully snuck through the maze of guards to deliver the last remaining bottles of black ink and folded pieces of paper. Lee’s warning about what was to come had the guards on high alert, making the task even harder now than it had been before. To make matters worse, there were even more stationed nearby than there had been before, ostensibly so that they could keep a watchful eye on Lee and whatever it was he was planning.
Well, that just means there is a much higher chance of this getting bloody, but it shouldn’t disrupt the plan at all though. “Hey, you guys need to stop with the praying and get to the eating,” Lee urged.