by Aleron Kong
There were four pods left hanging on the plant. Two were small and immature, but the others were large and full. He could see the contours of three beans inside of each of the mature pods. The apprentice effect of “strengthening his body” sounded great, but who knew if a human body could process the beans. The toxic metal had drawn the scorpions, but had poisoned him. The same thing might happen here.
Richter thought about it for a minute before regretfully shaking his head. Stuck underground without any help, access to medicine, or any other information, it was too big of a risk to eat these. This was especially true with the curse still hanging over his head. He didn’t even have any shoes.
That had nothing to do with eating the beans, but it was just sad and annoying.
He wasn’t going to eat the beans, but that didn’t mean he was just going to leave a potentially useful resource behind. Richter reached out and picked one. It separated from the branch with a small snap. The pod was heavier than he’d expected. He was about to harvest the rest when a new notification window appeared.
Quest Update: Chaotic Flux
You have discovered a powerful resource that can help nourish your Tier 2 body! Would you like to absorb the power of the White Iron Beanpod?
Yes or No?
His eyebrows rose in surprise. He certainly hadn’t expected to find something that could nourish his body so quickly. It also looked like he could just absorb energy from the beans directly. That meant he could use the rare herb without having to roll the dice by eating it. Not seeing any downside, he chose “Yes.”
The window disappeared and black-and-gold light surrounded his hand. It flowed into the beanpod before being absorbed back into him. On its way back, it had a small bit of white light attached. As he watched the pod shriveled, and felt energy flow into him.
It tickled a bit.
Quest Update: Chaotic Flux
Tier 2 Points absorbed: 2/100.
2% chance of skeletal system being iron-strengthened when flux period is over.
98% chance of Quest Failure
25 days until flux period ends.
Absorbing a total of 100 Tier 2 Body Points will trigger an automatic change to your body.
He smiled, not only because he’d found a way to advance the Quest, but also because he understood it better now. Before now, he’d had no idea what the “relevant energy” in the original quest prompt had been talking about. Apparently, it meant substances powerful enough to be considered ascended.
Just one little beanpod had gotten him 2% of the way to a bonus to his body. If he was reading this right, it meant that the plant could infuse his bones with metal. After his initial excitement died down, he realized he actually wasn’t sure how he felt about that. While it would be great to not have to worry about a monster biting through his leg, would it also make him heavier? Would it interfere with his mobility or his archery skills? There were too many unknowns for him to absorb any other pods. At least right now.
Richter plucked the other three bean pods, including the immature ones. He wouldn’t consume any more right now, but even if he didn’t eat them there were other potential uses. His thoughts were of the future. This plant had already been beneficial and who knew what other hidden uses it might have.
Both Elora and the Hearth Mother were high level herbalists. They would be able to see if the rare plant had other uses. At the very least, the beans inside of the last pod might serve as seeds when he got back to the village. He stopped a moment and reflected that after filling his belly and getting some rest, a safe return to his village seemed way more likely.
Touching the plant itself didn’t let him absorb any energy, unfortunately. After the pods had been picked, Herb Lore didn’t register anything else useful about it. He tried to uproot it. Who knew if there were any hidden roots he could use? He might as well have been trying to pull down a mountain. Even with his sixty-four points of Strength, he couldn’t snap off a branch. It didn’t seem possible, not looking at its stringy appearance, but then again, it was magic, right?
He was still giddy from just having food and water, so it didn’t really bother him. Finding the plant also made him think. He’d already come to the conclusion that monsters might build their lairs near water and food sources. What if they also gathered around useful herbs and resources? It made sense. It was even how animals acted back on earth. Deer would often congregate near a salt lick.
If he raided other lairs, he might find more herbs that could nourish his Tier 2 body. He needed XP anyway. If he got strong enough, there was even a chance that he could go back and pay his ichorpede friends another visit, he thought with a savage smile.
Fucking dicks.
With a broad smile on his face, he looked around one last time. There wasn’t really anything else in the chamber. It seemed his gut feeling had just been nerves. On a whim, he scooped some water onto the plant, one good turn deserving another, then made his way back up. He lost a bit more skin, wiggling his broad shoulders up the narrow tunnel, but a quick Life spell fixed that. The flash of golden light showed that Sloth silently awaited him, looking like a stalagmite in the dark.
From where the golem was situated, it hid the already difficult-to-find tunnel entrance. There was no way a large monster would have been able to enter his sleeping cavern without passing by it. He realized he’d just found a pretty great home base. He even had food in the form of the slain scorpion babies. Richter sent the golem to stand guard at the cave mouth and cast Far Light and Simple Light. In the candle-weak white glow, his sight fixed on the dead scorpions.
He approached the first body. As crazy as it sounded, he was already a bit hungry again. The increased metabolic needs of his ascended body were no joke. He couldn’t wait for the adjustment period to be over. This first carcass wasn’t for eating though. It was time to use his new bloodline.
Richter searched inside of himself and found his new power. He marveled at how easy it was to use it. Even though it had only been a day, triggering his bloodline was easy. It was just like when he learned a new spell. The calculations to cast even a weak spell could fill a dictionary-sized book, but after the knowledge flowed into him, using it was as simple as walking.
When you thought about it, walking should be difficult. Two hundred muscles were required to take a single step. If anyone tried to control each individual muscle, they’d slam their face into the ground. Instead, you just “walked.” Using the bloodline was the same. The power flowed through him. He wasn’t sure if it was creating new pathways in him or just awakening never-before-used conduits.
His veins glowed purple-green, lighting his mahogany skin and making him look like a fell creature. His gaze flicked to his interface, the new purple status bar in the upper right corner of his vision. It was full, containing seventy-two Bloodline Points. He already knew that the scorpions were common-souled creatures. That meant usage of his bloodline should expend ten BPs. He’d be able to use Harvest seven times before his points ran out.
He hoped his bloodline ability wouldn’t fail because he was using it on a younger monster. One of the great things about collecting souls was that it didn’t matter if a creature was young or mature. You still got the same yield. That was why he was now the proud owner of fifteen common souls. Now he just needed something to enchant.
The energy finished building in him and a beam of purple-green energy shot into the carcass. The power flowed into it, lighting the body up from within. The body began to soften like melting wax. Fell purple energy continued to leak through the cracks, growing brighter as the energy looked for a foothold. All of a sudden, the magic winked out.
Attempting to Harvest… Failure!
Crap. All that was left in place of the body was a small heap of burnt black matter. A faint curl of foul-smelling grey steam rose off of it. Shrugging, Richter turned his attention to the next.
Attempting to Harvest… Failure!
Richter’s cheek twitched a bit. He tried it again
.
Attempting to Harvest… Failure!
And again.
Attempting to Harvest… Failure!
It wasn’t until the fifth try that he finally succeeded.
Attempting to Harvest… Success!
Each attempt had turned the dead scorpions into piles of black goo. This time, the remains turned into a black crap pyramid, just like the rest, but something else happened as well. An item floated up from the scorpion’s remains. It was a square of grey metal about six inches across and a quarter-inch thick. It hovered several feet off the ground, waiting for him to grab it.
Richter plucked it from the air. To his surprise, it even had the feel of metal, but was as flexible as cloth.
You have found:
Malleable Iron
Item Class: Scarce
Durability: 9/9*
Weight: 0.25 kg
Traits: This is a scarce drop from an ironspine scorpion. It can seamlessly meld with other pieces of malleable iron and contour to nearly any shape. This material is highly prized by crafters and seamstresses as its durability will increase by a factor of ten when treated with magic. Despite this great increase in defense it will remain flexible, and will provide far better defense than simple mined iron.
Latent Power: 22
*Increases to 90/90 when subjected to magic
There was no denying that this stuff was cool. At first, he’d been disappointed. This was his new bloodline power after all, and all he’d gotten was a sheet of metal. He now knew better. It was absolutely perfect for light armor. Not only was it easy to manipulate due to its low durability, but once it was in the right shape, it could become far harder than forged iron. In fact, its final durability would be harder than moonstone. Unlike that creamy white metal, malleable iron was impossibly light. He had to have more!
Richter also noticed that there was a new line item in the description, one he’d never seen before. This was thanks to his new Enchanter Talent, Latent Power. He could pour more soul stuff into this material because of the Talent. With a value of twenty-two, it meant anything he created using the malleable iron would be able to hold a very strong enchantment.
If he used the harvest drop to make a superb quality armor, for instance, the malleable iron would more than double the item’s base enchantment potential. Richter was actually rather relieved the value was so high. That was because it had “iron” in the name. Raw iron was notorious for having a low enchantment potential. Iron weapons and iron were just as likely to explode as to hold an enchantment. Thankfully, this material only shared the name.
Hoping his Luck would finally kick in, Richter used Harvest again. His prayers must have been answered, because his next two attempts were successes. Two more six-by-six squares floated up. Unfortunately, that left him with only three Bloodline Points. Unlike his mana, his bloodline pool did not fill quickly. Thankfully, there were no negative consequences from bottoming out the purple status bar. That wasn’t the case for health, mana or stamina.
Having a low health caused a diffuse pain that could become excruciating. A low mana made it hard to think and focus. It was one of the main reasons wizards couldn’t just spam spells, even if they had replenishment potions. A low stamina caused dizziness and disorientation, and risked loss of consciousness. It was great that he didn’t need to worry about anything similar with his bloodline.
He dragged the rest of the scorpion carcasses to one of the side caves. The rock room would serve as his larder. Once he was done, he turned his attention back to the harvest. This new material gave him an idea.
Once he was situated and had summoned more magic light, he took out the ichorpede pincer. The tip and inside edge were both wickedly sharp. He’d cut himself more than once struggling through narrow tunnels. Now though, he was glad he’d kept it. Using the point, he carefully scratched at the malleable iron. Without too much effort, he was able to cut it. With a smile on his face, he carefully carved off a long thin strip.
“This is going to work,” he said in delight.
CHAPTER 35 – Day 152 – Juren 3, 0 AoC
Richter accessed his Profession tree and prepared to spend the majority of his remaining Talent Points. This time, he didn’t meander. He just went straight to the Talent he needed.
You have Purchased: SPATIAL FOLDING
This Talent allows you to create enchantments that fold space. At the lowest rank, you can create Bags of Holding and Expansive Quivers. The size of objects that can enter the dimensional space will be limited to a ratio of 1:5, when compared to the external size of the bag.
At Rank 1 of this Talent:
Bags of Holding can have 1x1 to 5x5 slots. Each slot requires 1 Soul Point at the time of creation. Bags can range in size from a small pouch to a satchel.
Expansive Quivers start with 10 slots.
Upgrade this Talent to rank 2 for 61 Talent Points, to create larger dimensional spaces and attach them to smaller physical objects.
And like that, he was Talent Point-poor once again.
You have: 7 Talent Points remaining
Richter wished he could have held onto more of his TPs, but he had to bow to practicality. He’d been using a torn piece of shirt to hold his meager belongings. His soul stones had fallen out more than once. If that had happened over a crevasse, or while he was running, those resources would be lost. Down here in the depths, that could mean death. He needed a way to keep his belongings safe.
Also, the ichorpede pincer was being held in a tear of his already ragged pants. It had drawn blood from him several times already. The cuts hadn’t been life threatening, but they had been insanely irritating. Richter just consoled himself that Spatial Folding was a Tier 1 Talent, otherwise he would never have been able to afford it. Also, that nagging feeling in his stomach didn’t flare up, so he felt like it was the right choice.
Congratulations! You have revealed 3 new Tier 1, Orbit 4 Talents!
The fog that surrounded his blue Profession Talent Tree pulled back and three new Talents were revealed. They all focused on making better Bags of Holding. They could reduce weight, make more slots and increase the size of objects that could be placed in the bags. All of them were attractive, but no matter what they did, he couldn’t afford another Talent.
On the plus side, purchasing Spatial Folding had answered a question that had bugged him for a while. He’d always been curious why it mattered if a Bag of Holding was a belt pouch or a bookbag. A smaller container had always seemed like the better choice. It’d be easier to move around with, more innocuous. Now he knew better. An externally small dimensional pouch wouldn’t be able to store large weapons and armor, not without the Enchanter buying upgrades.
It also showed how his previous bag was a bit of a Cadillac compared to the Pinto he was about to create. His old one had one hundred slots, four times as many as the basic version he could now make. Just that difference meant it would take 100 Soul Points to create a comparable bag. That meant he’d have to use brilliant-ranked souls. Those only came from monsters on par with the dark aberration that had nearly tentacle-raped him.
The memory of that battle was horrific, but thinking about using a brilliant soul just to make a pouch was terrifying as well. Brilliant souls cost hundreds of gold each. Just the monetary cost of the captured spirits would be the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars, not to mention the cost of the other materials and the skilled labor.
His old bag had also reduced the weight of whatever was put in it by 90%. Coupled with the fact that it was soul bound, he could understand why he had needed to pay thousands of gold for it. Of course, the price had also been inflated because he’d unknowingly been dealing with a Professional Trader, but best not to focus on that.
Knowledge had flooded into him when he bought the Talent. He now knew everything he needed to make a Bag of Holding. He had the Talent and he had the souls. All he needed to begin was the pouch and powdered crystal. Thankfully, the malleable iron filled in the first
missing piece.
Richter laid two sheets of malleable iron next to each other. What happened next astonished him. Even though he’d read about it in the prompt, seeing the two pieces join together seamlessly was miraculous. A moment after putting them side-by-side, he had a six-by-twelve-inch piece of flexible metal.
With the ichorpede pincer, he cut pieces away from the sheet. Between his Strength and its sharp edge, it was an easy process. Soon, two flask-shaped mirror images appeared, each six inches long. He folded the metal cloth so that the mirror images lay atop one another. Once again, the malleable iron fused so flawlessly that you couldn’t tell it hadn’t always looked like that. It was obvious why the material was highly sought after by craftsmen. Now all he needed was a way to cinch it tight. In a pinch he could have used his own hair for thread, but that would have been super weird.
Using the ichorpede pincer again, he made several small cuts at the top of the pouch. For the last step, he threaded the small strip he’d cut from the remaining piece of malleable iron. With that done he cinched it closed, and he had made his very first pouch. To his surprise, it earned him a prompt.
Congratulations! You have crafted an:
Ironscorpion Pouch
Item Class: Uncommon
Quality: Exceptional
Durability: 17/17*
Weight: 0.7 kg
Latent Power: 22
Traits: This pouch has been created from Malleable Iron, a scarce drop from an Ironspine Scorpion. It has the possibility of greatly increasing its durability if exposed to mana.
Bonus Trait: The powerful materials used will have a particular effect on any stored poisons, adding a corrosive quality over time.