The Land: Monsters

by Aleron Kong

  He guessed that the plant had so much mana that some had leached into the surrounding stone. It was just a guess, but it made him wonder. Is this what ambient mana does? There was no way to know, and it really wasn’t important right now. What mattered was that he might actually have a chance to make powdered crystal!

  It had become abundantly clear that though his Tier 2 Talent, Crystal Touch was amazing, it required something to work with. It didn’t let him convert something worthless into a valuable resource. He still needed something of value as a base material. In this case, stone that had a higher level of mana. Once again, The Land proved it possessed checks and balances.

  Excited, Richter gathered up every rock that had a higher mana density. From stones the size of golf balls to tiny pebbles, he collected everything that seemed magically active. After that, he made his way back up the tunnel. He healed his bleeding shoulders and sat down to try again. This time, the process flowed much more smoothly.

  Not only was it easier to gather the mana, but it coalesced in a way that he hadn’t seen before. Richter’s heart thudded in excitement. He had to force himself not to rush. About twenty minutes later, the rock crumbled. At first his heart dropped, but then he saw that it hadn’t turned into grey sand. This time, the stone transformed into a pile of shining dust!

  CHAPTER 36 – Day 152 – Juren 3, 0 AoC

  Congratulations! You have made 0.35 measures of powdered crystal!

  It wasn’t a full measure, but it was a success! If he did that two more times, he’d be able to enchant his pouch. That amount had come from one of the golf ball-sized rocks. He had eighteen more of those and what he guessed was the equivalent of about ten more measures-worth of pebbles. Richter got back to work.

  The next attempt was a failure, leaving only grey dust, but the one after that was a success. When he had finally exhausted his supply of rocks, his proficiency in creating powdered crystal had clearly increased. The first couple of times he’d only had a 25% success rate, but over time he was able to make the mana coalesce every other attempt. After four hours, he was the proud owner of five measures of powdered crystal.

  Richter was finally ready to make his Bag of Holding. After focusing for so long, he was hungry and mentally tired, but his excitement kept him sharp. Also, the odd feeling of disquiet had come back several times and seemed to be suppressing his appetite for some reason. He put it out of his mind. Instead, he focused on the enchantment he’d been building up to for an entire day.

  First, he sprinkled a measure of crystal onto the pouch. Then, holding the three common soul stones in his hand, he accessed the power within them. The first amber jewel shattered into small pieces and a ribbon of rainbow light flowed into the metal pouch. In his mind, a mental image of the pouch formed, showing a single grid square. He focused and the grid split, and split again, making a 2x2 square. More energy flowed into the pouch to accommodate the matrix. One after another, the amber jewels shattered, leaving dull shards behind. With each influx of soul stuff, the grid grew. Ultimately, three ribbons of energy flowed into the pouch, and he was rewarded for all his hard work.

  Congratulations! You have enchanted the Ironscorpion Pouch and created a Bag of Holding!

  Richter grinned like an idiot. He was about to examine the pouch when he received a pleasant surprise.

  Your Enchanting Skill coupled with your Personal Touch Talent has increased the grid space from 5x5 to 6x6. Well done, Enchanter!

  The Personal Touch Talent both increased the chance of his enchantments to take hold and increased their strength by 25%, as long as he was using powdered crystal that he’d made himself. There was no denying that his Tier 2 Talents had increased the power of his Profession drastically. Just now it had increased the grid squares of his Bag of Holding by about 40%. Personal Touch was also not the only new Talent that had been triggered.

  Congratulations! You have used the souls of Ironspine Scorpions to enchant an item. These souls contained elements of metal and corrosion. Your Soul Flavor Talent has added a bonus to your item: Ironscorpion Bag of Holding.

  Bonus: A vial of Weak Ironspine Scorpion Corrosive Venom will be produced by your Bag of Holding every 7 days.

  That was shocking enough, but there were even more prompts waiting to be read.

  Know This! The souls of the Ironspine Scorpions had a high affinity with the material used to craft your Ironscorpion Bag of Holding: Malleable Iron.

  The bonus from Soul Flavor has been increased.

  New Bonus: A vial of Enhanced Ironspine Scorpion Corrosive Venom will be produced every 7 days.

  Richter’s eyes widened in shock. Not only had the bonus provided him with another weapon that might just keep him alive, but he’d also learned something new about his Profession. The Soul Flavor Talent let his items gain extra bonuses based on the soul that was used to enchant them. It seemed that using materials and souls from the same type monster could increase those bonuses even further. Richter was finally starting to see the true power of Crafting.

  To his delight, the final product had the red coloring of a rare item.

  You have Enchanted the Ironscorpion Pouch as a Bag of Holding

  Item Class: Rare

  Quality: Exceptional

  Durability: 170/170

  Weight: 0.7 kg + total weight of items

  Traits: Can hold a large number of items in a 6x6 grid. Thinking of a desired object will retrieve it from the bag.

  Any stored poisons will gain a corrosive effect over time

  Bonus Trait: 1 bottle of Enhanced Ironspine Scorpion Corrosive Venom will be produced every 7 days.

  His Bag of Holding had turned out better than he could have dreamed. It was all thanks to the Harvest power of his new Bloodline and his Tier 2 Talents. The Enchanter still wasn’t done. Richter pulled out three more captured souls. Using them would leave him only eight more, but it was well worth the expense.

  It appears you wish to Soul Bind an item. For a Level 1 soul bond, you must spend Soul Points equal to the maximum base enchantment potential of the item’s quality. This will impose serious penalties on anyone other than yourself who tries to use this item. Only you will have access to the item’s magical properties. To soul bind the Ironscorpion Bag of Holding, you must spend 30 Soul Points. Do you wish to do so? Yes or No?

  Richter smiled even as he chose “Yes.” He hadn’t been sure how many SPs it would take, but it looked like crafted exceptional quality items had an enchantment potential of thirty. It was twice the cost of an exceptional sword or piece of chainmail, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. In fact, thanks to his Increase Soul Stone Yield Talent, he only needed two soul stones to meet the quota, leaving him with nine to spare.

  He accessed his power once again. More rainbow-colored soul stuff flowed into the pouch. Finally, he was done.

  You have Soul Bound: Ironscorpion Bag of Holding. This can only be transferred with an open heart.

  An icon appeared in the corner of his vision. It looked like a miniature version of his new pouch. Accessing it, a grid popped up in his vision. He’d expected it to be empty, but to his surprise, one of the tiles was filled.

  You have found:

  Vial of Ironspine Scorpion

  Corrosive Venom

  Item Class: Unusual

  Durability: 5/5

  Weight: 0.1 kg.

  Quality: Enhanced

  Traits: Causes 25 points of damage for 8 seconds. This poison has a corrosive effect and will melt through anything it touches. Double damage to non-living materials.

  Richter whistled softly. This poison was serious. It wasn’t just the two hundred points of cumulative damage, it was the corrosive effect. If this got on a suit of armor, it could eat through it in seconds before falling on an enemy’s flesh. Deep gouges in the cavern floor showed just how effective the scorpion’s acid was.

  As great as it was to have a new weapon, it was the 6x6 squares that brought an unexpected relief. Having an inventory ag
ain felt like he’d rejoined civilization. It was like he’d been stranded in the wilderness and had found an essential piece of technology. Actually, it was exactly like that, he thought with a grin.

  Before falling into the abyss, he hadn’t known how much comfort his items brought him. Richter immediately started storing his meager possessions in the pouch. His nine filled stones went in first. They each glowed with the light of a captured common soul. Another slot was taken up by thirty empty amber jewels.

  His ichorpede pincer went in next. Everything disappeared easily, and the outside contours of the metal pouch didn’t change at all. The bean pods went in after that. Surprisingly, they took up two slots, one for the mature and two for the immature pods. He ever-so-carefully put in the vial of chaotic noxious scent as well. Twenty-eight slots remained empty. He didn’t own anything else that needed to be stored.

  His rings, bracelet, necklace, the rags he was wearing, and the monocle stayed on. Those few things, along with his makeshift club, comprised all of his worldly possessions. It really put things into perspective. He, Lord Mist, Master of a Place of Power, slayer of thousands, didn’t even have a clean pair of underwear. It didn’t bother him at all.

  He was alive, he was fed, and he was stronger than ever. The things that lived down here were going to regret letting him live this long. They should have gotten him while he was weak, because now he was coming for them!

  With grim anticipation, he examined the leg bone. It was scored with numerous bite marks, but none of them went too deep. It was solid in his grasp. Even banging it against the adult scorpion hadn’t cracked it. It just lacked any real stopping power. Which drew Richter’s gaze back to the remaining ironspine scorpion bodies. He needed more materials.

  Richter had one more piece of malleable iron and fourteen carcasses left. He’d considered saving all of them for food, but he’d already pushed the envelope on their freshness. Anything he killed from here on out could go in his pouch. These had already sat out for a day. The decay was already well and truly begun. He’d save a few for his next meal, but then he’d need to hunt again.

  Dimensional spaces had an anti-entropic effect that was as good as a fridge, but if something was already spoiling, it wouldn’t reverse that fact. In regard to these bodies, he’d be much better served by obtaining Harvest drops. The seven hours he’d spent making powdered crystal and enchanting his bag of holding had let him regen thirty-nine Bloodline Points, bringing his total up to fifty-two. It was just enough.

  He channeled his bloodline; as he did so his veins stood out once more, purple-black energy stark against his skin. He was really looking forward to freaking Sion out when he saw his friend again. The only current observer, the golem, just stood impassively at the cave entrance and continued to scan for enemies with its magical senses.

  Attempting to Harvest… Failure!

  Attempting to Harvest… Success!

  Attempting to Harvest… Failure!

  Attempting to Harvest… Failure!

  Attempting to Harvest… Failure!

  Attempting to Harvest… Success!

  Attempting to Harvest… Failure!

  Attempting to Harvest… Failure!

  He’d failed more than three-quarters of the time, but it should be enough. One of his successes yielded the same six-by-six piece of metal that he’d gotten before. The other provided a smaller piece. That had come from the scorpion he’d already eaten the claws off of. The harvest was enough for his purposes. He fused them end-to-end, then started shaving strips off with the ichorpede pincer. He was struck again by how miraculous the material was. He considered harvesting the last bodies, but set them aside. They would be useful in the future.

  More sure of himself this time, he easily shaped the malleable iron. He cut slashes into one end with the ichorpede pincer. One cut got away from him, but pushing the grey metal together again erased the mistake. Once the slits were just right, he laid it over his left hand and covered his palm with more metal. After that, he just pinched the strips around his fingers. The edges fused together, creating a glove. The remaining material he wrapped around his arm like a bandage. Each spiral melded with the ones before, making a sleeve that covered almost his entire forearm. To finish the project, he etched two lines of text into the glove where the flat side of his fist would rest. His luck stayed with him, and the quality was exceptional.

  You have created an Ironspine Forearm Glove

  Item Class: Uncommon

  Quality: Exceptional

  Durability: 174/174

  Defense: +8

  Weight: 0.9 kg

  He saved the final pieces to augment his weapons. The first was cut into strips that were then fused into a single long strip of the material. Wrapping it around the base of the ichorpede pincer finally let him wield his improvised dagger without fear of cutting himself. He then used the remaining pieces to wrap around the head of the bone club. Both minor acts of crafting earned him prompts.

  You have created an Ichorpede Dagger

  Item Class: Common

  Quality: Well-Crafted

  Durability: 20/22

  Attack: +6

  Weight: 0.6 kg

  Traits: Made from the torn-off pincer of an ichorpede and bound with malleable iron, this makeshift weapon has a serrated cutting edge, blunt back side and sharp point.

  Binding the ichorpede pincer with malleable iron didn’t seem to do anything, yielding only a common crafting. Not surprising, as an iron dagger would have the same attack whether you bound the hilt in deer hide or dragon skin. On the other hand, wrapping the head of the large bone in iron like a duct-taped baseball bat made it register as a +8 weapon. When he applied mana to the iron to harden it, not only did the durability and attack shoot up, but the prompt shifted from the white of a common item to the green of uncommon.

  You have created a Malleable Iron-bound Bone Club

  Item Class: Uncommon

  Quality: Well-Crafted

  Durability: 92/92

  Attack: +12

  Weight: 1.1 kg

  Traits: This club has been made from the large leg bone of an unknown beast and malleable iron.

  He finally had proper weapons and that could only be good news. Not only that, but his DIY mace had a damage that could rival a forged steel sword.

  He looked at his glove and decided to enchant it. He still wasn’t willing to risk the bone club or the ichorpede pincer. Not because they were more valuable than the glove, but because he didn’t think they could bear the flow of soul stuff. The high durability on the prompts didn’t mean they were a safe bet. He’d learned that when he’d made the mistake of enchanting a spear once. The high steel head had been fine, but the spear’s wooden shaft had burst into splinters. After that, Richter had only enchanted spear heads before they were mounted.

  The glove was different. It was completely made out of malleable iron. The defensive enchantments he knew weren’t high rank, but they were better than nothing. He sprinkled powdered crystal on the metal glove and accessed his enchantments. To his great surprise, both the attack and defense enchantments were available. He’d expected the attacks to be greyed out. He didn’t know if it was because the piece of armor was crafted rather forged, but he didn’t care. Richter was about to make an attack gauntlet!

  He chose to use his strongest enchantments, Freeze and Sonic Damage. The first was a level one, rank five water enspellment and the second was level two, rank four. Thanks to one of his new Tier 2 Talents, Latent Power, the glove could hold more soul stuff than almost anything else he’d ever augmented.

  Malleable iron could take twenty-two points of soul stuff. The glove’s quality added another thirty, his Talents and Crafting skill increased that to forty-eight. His status as a journeyman Enchanter added another fifteen. Altogether, the glove had a grand total of eighty-five enchantment slots! It was more than enough for him to maximize his enchantments.

  Sadly, he just didn’t have that much soul stuff
to wield. He could only use three soul stones at a time. His strongest scorpion souls had eleven points each. With his 25% Talent modifier, that meant the most he could harness was forty-one points. His Tier 2 Talents were powerful, but again, they demanded a high cost to truly use them.

  With only common souls to work with, he could bring Sonic Damage to rank four and Freeze to rank three. All three amber jewels shattered and rainbow energy sank into the glove. He felt some resistance before the enchantment took hold, but then a prompt told him about his attack gauntlet’s powerful stats!

  You have created:

  Ironspine Gauntlet of Shattering Ice

  Item Class: Scarce

  Quality: Exceptional

  Item Class: Uncommon

  Quality: Exceptional

  Charges: 257/257

  Durability: 174/174

  Defense: +8

  Weight: 0.9 kg

  Traits

  +15 Earth Damage

  +5-6 Water Damage

  10% chance to Disarm

  4-5% chance to Shatter

  3-4% Chance to Freeze

  He might be surrounded by danger, but his powers had grown to match. While it might be true that he couldn’t go toe-to-toe with a Warrior in a stand-up fight, with his enchantments and magic he could kill his fair share. The gauntlet would add twenty points of magical damage with every hit. That wasn’t even counting its special traits. They wouldn’t happen every time, but when they did trigger, they could end a fight all at once. He couldn’t wait to use it!

  Richter’s life expectancy had just gone up. The only weakness of the gauntlet was that it relied on charges. Every hit he landed would drain it. Once it was depleted, all the enchantment effects would be gone. That was another reason he wasn’t interested in making more enchantments; he’d need his captured souls to recharge it. It would refill over time, but that could take days.