“Well, the totem will take just over two months, something like sixty two days, once it’s done and we’ve got it all packed up we’ll use the other totem to send people back and figure that all out,” Erik said.
Domonos nodded and added it to the notes that he had been taking.
“Okay, lets get settled in for the long haul and see if we can repair up the castle a bit more, so we have some firm defenses. Rugrat I added in a Mana storing formation to the Bala Dungeon but could you take some formation specialists down there to make sure it’s working and add the mana cornerstones?”
“Can do,” Rugrat said as he added the note.
“At the end of a week, we’ll have a barbecue. We made it to another realm and took over a city, two beers per person and a healing potion after if they’re going on watch,” Erik said, tapping his notebook against the table as he stood up. Chairs squeaked and creaked as the others all stood up as the meeting came to an end.
“Also, I know we talked about it last night but make sure everyone knows to treat the demi-humans in the valley with respect. Treat them just like people from Alva. I’ll deal with anyone who causes trouble personally.” Erik stabbed his finger into the table.
All of them had dark expressions on their faces. They had all been trained by Erik and Rugrat. Although they respected them, they also understood just how they could make a person’s life hell.
“Alva is a place that accepts all. Wherever we go, we will demonstrate those same values.”
Glosil raised his hand.
“Why don’t we send supplies down to Alva?” Glosil said. “We can send them to the third or the second realm, have the adventurers, the traders hold them. If it is in their hands and not up here then no one can take it from us. We can place orders for formations ammunition and other supplies from Alva? Also it’ll raise morale getting messages from their family member back home.”
Erik looked at Rugrat.
“What is your plan?” Rugrat asked.
“We send people down with the carts, have them contact our people, let them know the situation up here. We set up times that we open the totem up, our people teleport back between those times and then we close it down again. Saves us having to sort through the loot, have Alva council look after that issue. We just have to ship it down, get the carts back and then repeat,” Glosil said.
“Chances are slim that someone will randomly make it into the city. I think getting supplies up here and ship them back down to the lower realms instead.”
“It’s a fair point, we can get their help and aid,” Rugrat said and looked at Erik.
“Alright, I still hate leaving the back door open like that.”
They swallowed and nodded as they felt that deadly calm that Erik and Rugrat showed before they turned into demons.
“Good. We’ve all got work to do. Let’s get to it.” Erik concluded.
***
Fred was lying on the ground, taking in the sun. He chewed on a piece of grass, looking like a teenager just wasting away the day in the sun.
Fred’s smile turned into a frown as loud snoring disrupted his rest. He cracked an eye and looked over to Old Xern. He had spent the last few days searching for metal in the surrounding mountains around the valley, only stopping when he was tired and passing out wherever he was comfortable.
He was on his back in a pond close to Fred. The beasts of the area had all left them alone, not having the strength or willpower to try to get close to the high-leveled creatures of the dungeon.
Old Xern’s mottled brown and blue skin had changed, taking on a more metallic finish, and the blue lines and runes on his body seemed to be brighter than before.
Reaper was off looking at the different water and dirt deposits in the valley. To the former tree spirit, good dirt and water were like metal to Old Xern.
Racquel spent most of her time sleeping in the sun, enjoying its rays like Fred. Then, at times, she would go off hunting, capturing strong animals, fish, and beasts on the land. None of the local creatures were her match and she consumed them whole. Roots pushed Fred upright and created a chair underneath him. He pulled out a book. The chair moved across the valley as he headed for one of its sides.
He had borrowed the book from one of the people in the Alvan army. It was a book on Alchemy. Fred was fascinated—it was a practice of combining plants together to create a stronger product that could change one’s body.
Alchemic study had then led him into healing studies and then to the makeup of human bodies.
Fred might look like an elf but his body wasn’t like a human’s on the inside. Humans had a Mana system; he did, too but it was like a tree within his body that was centered around his monster core. His Mana system had grown with time but his monster core was more effective at drawing energy from what he consumed: other monster cores, the nutrients from the soil, from other beasts. This was much more effective at progressing one’s Strength. Which returned him to Alchemy. What might be poisonous for humans wasn’t necessarily the same for beastials who had much stronger bodies and consumed items, not just for survival, but to increase their Strength.
“I wonder if the person who created Alchemy got the inspiration from watching beasts consuming each other?” Fred held his chin, thinking on it as he reached the top of the valley.
His thoughts turned blank as he looked over the landscape: the rolling hills of black, gray, and white mixed with shoots of green. The low-lying mist and the clouds created a ceiling above, with rays of light breaking through the natural cover.
Fred stood. The wind whipped at his body as he looked around at it all. Indescribable emotions and thoughts made him smile. Silent tears fell from his cheeks. He was stunned as he touched his cheek, looking at the water on it.
He laughed and blinked, trying to clear his blurry vision to take it all in. There is so much to discover, so much beauty to be found.
Fred closed his eyes and raised his arms to the side, stretching them out, feeling the wind on his body, smelling it—cold, wet, and earthy.
Slowly, he opened his eyes again.
“There is always a valley beyond this one.” Fred grinned as he ran forward. Vines started to grow out from his body, expanding, changing his form as he jumped off the peak.
He waved his arms and they turned into wings. The wind fought and tried to pull him down as he fought against it, growing larger and turning into a massive wooden hawk.
On that day, a tree that had been rooted in the ground and buried, spread its wings and soared in the skies.
Chapter: Boom Tubes
Rugrat and a group of smiths reached a large building. Half of the building had been destroyed, revealing the forges inside.
“All right, it’s time that we got to work!” Rugrat exclaimed. After talking to Erik, he had called an emergency meeting. Shifts changed as people were expected to work for two days before resting. Most of them had only been sleeping for a few hours a night anyway. Their Stamina and Stamina Regeneration had all undergone a change with their increased levels and their Body Cultivation. Sleep just wasn’t as necessary for them anymore.
Now all of their free time disappeared as searches continued through the night and four army sections headed to the dungeon every day now. The panthers moved on patrol and went to hunt beasts with the roving patrols, increasing their Strength and their understanding of the area.
Rugrat had studied the road toward the west, comparing it with the information Erik had sent over. He worked on a plan of action, noting down locations where they could make an advancing armies life hell, if they did come.
They had been bloodied with the fighting at Vermire, their missions in the different realms and the battlefield dungeon. Their minds and actions refined with the training provided. Given time and materials they were able to come up with plans to make the enemy’s lives a living hell. The more time that they could prepare the harder it would be for someone to try and dig them out of Vuzgal.
The smithy
, under Rugrat’s control, produced ammunition and casings, repaired armor and heavy repeaters.
When riding on their mounts, Rugrat couldn’t help but think of heavy weapons that could be mounted on vehicles. He had been thinking about trucks and how he missed having one. That errant thought gave him an idea.
“So I thought, why not add weapons to our mounts? Attach them to their armor, mounted between their shoulders and above their heads. As we charge the enemy, we fire the mounted weapon. Our tactics are not to attack an enemy formation straight on. We go around them, we hit them from the rear, from the sides, from the air. Stay mobile, stay deadly stay hidden,” Rugrat said.
“What weapon system would you want to mount?” Gong Jin asked.
“I’d like two heavy repeaters. If we shorten the limbs of the repeaters but increase their strength with new reinforced bracers, then they will hit with the same power. While the shorter size will allow us to mount them side by side. With the ammunition being top-fed, it’s not hard to reload them. And we add in a charging handle so that one can yank back, clearing the old bolt and pulling the string into position,” Rugrat said. “Thankfully, we made a few extra, so we can use those as a test bed.”
“How many extra do we have?” Gong Jin asked.
“Well, after a month, Alva produced three heavy repeaters and five regular repeaters every week, so around seventy or so? Thankfully, I brought them, the extra mortars, and all of the ammunition,” Rugrat said.
All of the smithing teams looked at him. Their expressions seemed to bounce between praise and just sheer inability to understand his reasoning.
“Never know when you need more firepower,” Rugrat muttered, not acknowledging his weapon hoarding.
Han Wu had been released from the medics’ care and was in a private house in a corner of the city. He had made a number of bombs while they were training back in Alva and a firearms assembly line had been created at the limits of the Alva Dungeon. He was recreating that facility, to produce more bombs and explosives.
Glosil went over refresher courses with the people who had learned how to handle the new mortars, checking their ranges and observing the area around the city, creating firing zones so they would only need a few adjustments to turn onto target.
“Also, I want to see if we can get this to work. I’ve been thinking about it for some time but the rifles came first.” Rugrat showed them a blueprint—it was a monster, Rugrat’s latest brainchild was a thing of beauty, destruction, brilliance and simplicity.
Rugrat headed out to the wall and pulled out a grenade launcher.
Once he had finished creating the rifles, he turned to his other passion, explosives—specifically, explosives delivered through someone’s window at range.
It took Rugrat a day to complete the first prototype. His ability with smithing was such that he might be faster than machines back on Earth.
Now, in his hands, a bastardized version of the M32 appeared in the Ten Realms. It had been an obsession of his and if there was a grenade launcher to be found, he would find it.
It looked like an oversized six shot revolver mated a potatoe gun and then had a fling with a flare gun. The gun industry was an interesting one. It had the cylinder of a revolver, but held forty milimeter grenades, six beautiful, and highly destructive grenades, then a stumpy barrel with a foregrip to try and tame the beast, a butt stock to beat your shoulder into submission or to clamp in your sweaty pit.
The one main difference between this grenade launcher and the one someone would find on Earth, this one didn’t have a sight on it.
As a Master level trainer of the M32 it was childsplay for him to recreate it. Making the grenade rounds had been the hardest part.
They weren’t chemical explosives. Instead, they were metal packed around a poison vial. When the round hit the ground, the enchantment on the round would activate, causing it to explode. Rugrat was excited to see what kind of destruction the power pouring into the formation carved into Mortal metal could create.
Rugrat went to the wall and split the weapon system. He pulled out a filled six shot and clicked it into the weapon. He had made a second release on the front of the weapon so that one could replace the entire magazine or they could choose to reload it while it was still in the weapon system.
Rugrat twisted the magazine, charging the spring inside. He shut it and aimed out from the wall and pulled the trigger.
Doumpfh. The grenade arced and landed on the ground a few hundred meters away. Rugrat was easily able to see and rate the explosion. Dirt was tossed out and smoke appeared before he heard it.
“Shit!” Rugrat only smiled wider as he fired the launcher again, working to improve his accuracy.
“Who needs sights anyway, made some of my best shots just guesstimating ranges. The sight just gets in the way of explosions,” Rugrat snorted to himself a wild smile on his face as an vein on his head thumped with excitement.
He dumped the entire magazine and then reloaded the weapon. He cast Sure Shot on the rounds and fired. They reached out nearly twice the distance, nearly a kilometer away with only a few seconds delay.
Rugrat laughed and he patted the weapon with affection. The casings were all there, too; he just needed to clean them out and reload them.
“All right, so need to make three per section, so twelve for a Platoon, and twenty four for the Company. Then twenty for the Special teams, one a piece, give them options. Need to get an assembly line up and running to make the rounds, we’ll manufacture at least one hundred and twenty rounds for all of the grenade launchers before making more. I want to have everyone armed with a grenade launched if we can.” He let out another laugh and tapped the weapon system. “Now that is some impressive fire!”
He looked around and loaded up another six shots and fired into the now-pitted target area a southern sized grin on his face as explosions bloomed over the battlefield.
The grenade launcher was simple and to rush the build, Rugrat had only added one formation socket to it, the weapon system not able to handle a second. Still, with the first one, he had upgraded the blunt damage of the round so when it hit something, it would destroy it and then the enchantment on the round was activated, causing an explosion. The blunt damage would still be active, tearing apart everything in the area.
“Instead of acting like the forty-millimeter grenades they were modeled after, they hit with the strength of a mortar,” Rugrat muttered. He wanted to get more grenades to play with. “Awesome,” he said in a breathless voice.
These test rounds didn’t have the poison within them but were still hollow. If he were to make solid enchanted rounds, then the area of effect would increase and the poison-filled rounds would spread death over a large area, affecting people outside of the blast zone, or those who ran through the area afterwards.
Rugrat’s excited expression focused as he heard a mortar firing behind him.
The area in front of him was torn up with mortar rounds landing.
They had brought ten mortars. They were simple to make but so were the rounds they used. There was: the shaped metal charge filled with shrapnel, a concoction that would make smoke when it was exposed to oxygen, filled with poison gas, or the close-range Mortal-grade iron mortars with an explosive enchantment. Rugrat stood there, watching the mortars land. They did the different rounds one by one, checking their effects. They had tested dummy rounds in the Beast Mountain Range but they didn’t want to draw attention so the testing had been limited.
Now they might need them and they were away from anything that might care; they had the perfect range to play with.
“The smoke was effective and the shrapnel rounds’ blast zone was around fifty meters, about what to expect with an artillery piece,” Rugrat said to himself.
“We’re going to be testing the heavy round now,” Glosil said.
“Okay, let it rip,” Rugrat said.
There was a deeper noise as the round disappeared into the skies. The ground exploded wh
ere it landed.
Rugrat ducked slightly from it. “Hot damn! been some time since I’ve been around shit blowing up.” Rugrat laughed at his own actions as he looked at the damage.
He took out a rifle, using his optics to observe the blast zone. “I’d say that’s a seventy-five-meter blast zone. Damn. Max range of about two klicks? If we were to use Sure Shot on the round, might hit three or four klicks. The stress on the firing tubes isn’t much as the rounds are the lethal part of the system. Shit yeah.” Rugrat lowered his weapon and put it across his chest, resting his arms on it. He looked at the blast zone.
What will Alva’s military become in the future? It’s not inconceivable that we could have artillery batteries, mounted cavalry, scouts, infantry, broken into mages, medics, hand-to-hand and the like. Would it be one role-one unit, or do we continue down this path where any unit can use any weapon system?
The first would turn the military into a machine; the second would turn them into groups that worked as part of an organic whole. It would take more time and resources to develop the second group but Rugrat felt that it was the right path to take.
“All right, now we need some more boom tubes.” Rugrat put away his weapons and headed back to the smithy, whistling the whole way. There was plenty to be done still.
***
Roska looked over the convoy, there were five carts packed with storage items filled with items from Vuzgal.
There were two panthers for each of the carts, they were annoyed at being made to take the carts.
“Good to go?” Erik asked from behind Roska and Davos.
“Ready,” Roska said.
“I hear that Hersht is great this time of year,” Erik said.
Rosja let out a whistle and the convy moved through the gates of the totem. She pulled up her hood as power surged through the totem as it went active.
The rest of Special Team two followed her.
She reached the totem teleportation area as Erik used the totem’s interface, light appeared around her as they chill of the mountains was replaced with the heat of the desert.
The Fourth Realm (The Ten Realms Book 4) Page 28