Ogre Tyrant: Chapter 29 - Space and Ti - Part One
My brief exchange with Harut had changed my perspective on matters sowhat. While I had intended to resolve all the issues on the fourth floor before moving on to the fifth, I now realised a glaring flaw in my plan. The Settlents I leave behind would be isolated and vulnerable.
How would Stone Well defend itself against an assault by a dedicated enemy? It was far too isolated and lacked enough defenders to put up a fight long enough for reinforcents to make the long trek to the third-floor portal. Furthermore, unlike the second floor, which had plentiful resources, convincing the Asarusian governnt to establish their own settlent on this floor was incredibly unrealistic. I would need to be able to guarantee a number of vital resources to make it worth their while, most notably water.
So that got thinking about portals, specifically, making our own. Technically, as a Nexus Binder, Ril could already open temporary portals herself, as well as teleport just about anywhere she has already been before. But so far, Ril’s modest set of Abilities did not include anything permanent.
Still, it was worth talking to her about it. Like the other Daemons, Ril might just be waiting for permission before attempting it.
Both Chief Uday and Chief Izsa had gathered their people to the village centre and were explaining what changes the Settlent ant for their respective peoples moving forward. Taking particular care to ntion that Stone Well now effectively had a much more powerful and incredibly permanent Ward that would maintain itself without the maintenance of dedicated Shamans. Furthermore, once sufficiently literate, the Settlent’s Totem would provide individual prompts to help each mber of the greater Clan learn one of the many Basic and Advanced Classes known throughout the alliance.
Not that I wanted to force anyone, but I made it known to Izsa that having at least one Pact Binder per tribe would be a very smart idea. After I explained what the Advanced Class did, she was of very much of the sa mind and promised to personally scout the undecided villagers for potential interest.
To no one's particular surprise, there were close to twenty people who wanted to beco Shamans. Even if their Wards would not be of much use in the village, they still had other useful Abilities against Summoners and Spirits. With Mors on hand, and the manaflower seeds brought over from Sanctuary, unlocking the Shaman Class would actually be one of the most simple and straightforward options. Similarly, it would follow the sa process for anyone wanting to unlock the Summoner and Pact Binder as well, so I told Mors to hold off for at least a day or two in order to give Izsa ti to find volunteers.
The hunters had been spending just about the entire morning retrieving Stalker corpses while most of the warriors were diligently digging fresh reclamation pits. A rough estimate held the number of Sand Stalkers at only around a hundred at most. When I heard that reported estimate, I found I had to agree with the Labyrinth’s decision, there had been far too few enemies to represent a decent challenge.
The absence of razorbeaks also made it pretty clear that we had been lucky to find them at all. They had most likely migrated southward over ti, or without the safety of numbers, it was entirely possible that they were being spawn killed by the giant spiders. In either case, it only served to make them more valuable.
Sowhat greedily, I commandeered thirty Stalker manastones and fed them one by one to the boar I had elected to serve as my personal mount in the future. The evolution process drew a decent crowd from the mounted warriors and hunters, which was good since it was a nice learning experience for them in investing in force multipliers.
Since the boar wasn’t a variant, it had no interdiary evolutions to go through. This ant that it would have fewer stats and be unable to evolve again, but would also have a new variation on its Abilities according to the chosen evolution.
[Razortusk Boar: 1 Strength, 1 Toughness, 1 Willpower. (Common)]
[(Racial Ability: Vicious): Deals additional damage to fallen enemies and those with {Negative Status Conditions}. {Willpower} increases the amount of bonus damage.]
[(Racial Ability: Primal Ferocity): Remains conscious while reduced to {Negative HP}. Gains the {Enraged} Condition, dealing additional damage when reduced to {Negative HP}. {Willpower} increases the amount of bonus damage ]
[Confirm Evolution: {Razortusk Boar} (Accept/decline}]
[Hulking Boar: 2 Strength, 3 Toughness, -2 Agility. (Common)]
[(Racial Ability: Primal Ferocity): Remains conscious while reduced to {Negative HP}. Gains the {Enraged} Condition, dealing additional damage when reduced to {Negative HP}. {Willpower} increases the amount of bonus damage ]
[(Racial Ability: Ironside): Takes less damage from {Piercing} and {Ranged} attacks. {Toughness} increases the level of damage resistance.]
[Confirm Evolution: {Hulking Boar} (Accept/decline}]
Comparing both evolutions, and confident I could just pick another boar and start over if necessary, i decided to choose the Hulking Boar evolution. Razortusk sounded cool, but we already had a relatively high ranked Vicious from Toofy. Loosening the collar to its widest setting, just in case, I confird the evolution and shielded my eyes.
In the span of a couple of seconds, the boar had close to doubled in size, its hunched back now roughly the sa height as my shoulders. Despite still being covered in bristly fur, the boar’s muscles seed ridiculously well pronounced. It was like soone had taken the broken genes from the Belgian Blue cow and spliced them into the boar. After leading it around by the tusk for a couple of minutes, It was easy to see why its Agility had taken such a heavy hit. The boar was just too big to coordinate sudden turns. While it didn’t fall over, the boar would slow way down before attempting anything greater than a thirty-degree angle turn.
As much as I wanted to test ride it, I couldn’t. The weavers hadn’t expected such a radical increase in size, so the toggled straps weren’t even remotely close to fitting properly and had to be altered.
Stepping back from aptly nad Hulking Boar, It seed to that it should be capable of pulling one of the wagons all on its own without any real trouble. In fact, its poor turning pretty much locked it into such a role. Well, that or a heavy cavalry charge…
Wanting to have a conversation with Ril about the viability of portals anyway, I went looking for her. Unsurprisingly, she was still dozing in the cast iron cauldron and Toofy was doodling on a fresh section of wall. To her credit, Toofy’s drawings were getting much better with practice.
After describing to Ril what I wanted, she seed far more confident than I would have expected, simply replying, “Kay,” before lounging back into her cauldron again. Recognising Ril had entered one of her ditative states, rather than just sleeping, I just had to assu she knew what she was doing.
Seeing off the hunters who were setting out late, I made a point of formalising the ownership of certain mounts to hunters that had proven themselves during the protracted fighting during the night. I had authorised Osa to do the sa for anyone he felt particularly deserved recognition. Most of the remaining mounts were given to the weavers in recognition of their work in making the saddles but were on loan to the hunters and warriors in the anti.
There would be more opportunities for capturing new mounts, but the demonstration of wealth to the remaining nomad tribes would go a long way towards securing their interest and participation in the alliance. Gaining access to Classes and a position of assured safety would go a long way to doing the rest.
With more hands at the task, it would only be a matter of ti before Stone Well becos a veritable oasis amidst the otherwise barren landscape. But that only made establishing a direct route for reinforcents all the more important. The more Stone Well recovered, the more appealing a target it would beco. Attacks wouldn’t be limited to the Slavers either. I did not doubt that rcenaries of different rchant enterprises would attempt to use force to secure favourable trade deals, or outright commit outright theft if they could manage it.
That was one of the reasons for my visiting Osa. Stone Well needed to be fortified as much as was possible. Having given him that overarching objective, the best I could think of was digging a deep moat around the village and making outward spiralling tunnels for the spiders to make their dens in. Assuming the moat was dug deep and wide enough, it would strongly discourage anyone from attempting to cross it. Anyone ‘clever’ enough to rappel down and attempt climbing the other opposite side would be easy pickings for the spiders.
With little else to do, I volunteered for moat digging duty. As an afterthought, I brought the Hulking Boar with . At worst, I figured I could use it to haul away the extra dirt with one of the wagons.
Using a mattock I hacked out a decent sized outline for a section of the moat and then got to work.
To my imnse surprise, while the giant boar didn’t seem able to dig all that well, it proved an adept shoveler with its wide snout. By digging its face into the earth I was loosening with the mattock, the Hulking Boar would then jerk its head up and to the side, flinging the dirt clear of the area. While amusing to watch, I had to be careful to get too close to its tusks for fear of being gored.
Working in the evening and morning probably would have been smarter, but I was trying to make the best use of my ti, not make myself comfortable.
Osa had organised several work details that ca and went throughout the day, taking shifts to help loosen the dry-packed dirt and remove the larger stones from the worksite. By the late evening, we had managed to reach half the depth and the full width I wanted, but excluding the work ramp, it was only about fifty feet long. Considering the number of rocks and how densely packed the ground was, it wasn't a bad effort. All the sa, it still felt disappointing.
Waking up early, I set to digging again, and the sa the next day.
I hadn’t spoken with Nadine and Clarice since successfully claiming the Settlent. I had seen Kestrel shadowing though, and could only assu they had asked her to keep an eye on . Besides feeling more restless than usual, I didn’t think their concern was warranted.
Or, that was what I thought until I checked the necklace Lash had given . “Fifty days?” I muttered aloud and began doing so quick math in my head. Try as I might, there was still a disconcertingly large segnt of ti unaccounted for. Having just started working for the day, I set down the mattock and approached the watchtower Kestrel had been using to keep an eye on . Climbing the wall, I sat down on the outer ramparts and waited.
As I expected, Kestrel made her way down from the watchtower shortly afterwards and sat down a short distance away.in the shade. “You stopped digging,” Kestrel comnted, the inflection in her voice suggesting she was both surprised and a little relieved.
“How long?” I asked quietly. Staring down at my hands, I could see they were shaking but couldn’t make them stop.
“Since you last ate sothing?” Kestrel asked with a mildly exasperated tone, “Maybe three days?” She replied uncertainly, “Since you last slept?” Kestrel now sounded very worried, “About five…” She took a mont to look at my necklace and nodded, “Five days,” she confird, the dark rings under her eyes making it clear that she had likely been awake most of that ti in order to keep an eye on .
“I don’t feel tired,” I comnted, clenching and unclenching my hands to try and stop them from shaking.
Kestrel looked surprised, “You’re joking?” She insisted.
I shook my head, “Besides losing track of ti, I feel fine,” I replied defensively.
Kestrel made a point of looking down at my hands before eting my eyes again, the expression on her face was like ‘really?’
“They’ll stop on their own,” I insisted dismissively, “I just need to...to…”
“Sleep?” Kestrel suggested worriedly.
I grunted noncommittally and got to my feet. With the choice between returning to work on the moat, which was showing real signs of progress, or going to bed, which honestly seed like a waste of ti. I chose a compromise instead and headed ho to see if Ril had co up with a solution or at least made progress on the whole portal problem.
To my imnse surprise, she had.
Ril was outside of her cauldron and wearing a damp towel like a robe. Two very small arches had been put together from spider silk and flat stones. One arch was plastered onto the side of the stairs, and the other on the wall opposite.
Running between them with a manic grin on her face, and a small skillet on her head, was Toofy.
Wincing as Toofy ran headlong into the wall, I was stunned when the only sound I heard was Toofy’s laughter coming from the other side of the room.
“Again!” Toofy squealed in delight as she sprinted at the opposite wall.
This process repeated three more tis before Toofy seed to tire out and acknowledge my presence, “Tim!” She tiredly scrambled across the room and grabbed my hand, dragging towards the archway under the stairs, “Co! Portals fun!” Toofy insisted, disappearing as she made contact with the stone contained within the archway. ‘Tim try!” Toofy called out supportively from the other side of the room.
Standing this close to the ‘portal’ I could see dozens of divots in the brickwork, and glancing back at Toofy’s improvised helt, there were noticeable signs of it having recently impacted stone.
Experintally pressing my hand against the chipped brickwork, I suddenly felt lightheaded and imnsely tired.
“-mana exhaustion,” Nadine whispered, “Why isn’t it recovering above that level?”
“Don’t ask !” Clarice sniped back, “Nearly lost my fingers putting those manastones in his mouth!”
“It’s the spear,” Ril interjected quietly, her speaking voice sohow quieter than Nadine's whispering.
“But it’s in the other room-” Nadine sounded confused.
“Fuck!” Clarice cursed.
“What is it?” Nadine demanded.
There were the muffled sounds of soone leaving and then coming back, “Did you ever read the description on this thing?” Clarice asked nervously.
“Uh-” Nadine didn’t get the chance to answer and was interrupted.
“Mana reservation,” Ril answered in a level tone.
“That’s why his mana shows as zero?” Nadine asked worriedly.
There was the sound of rustling fabric, “Not zero, close, but not zero,” Ril corrected.
“Right, doesn’t show fractional progress…” Nadine murmured in agreent, sounding sowhat relieved. “So how do we get his reserved mana back? Do we just need to take it further away? Or?...”
“Won’t work,” Clarice grunted, “He has to ‘give’ it to you. It’s how powerful artefacts work. You either kill the owner or have them pass it on voluntarily.”
“Then how did it get here?” Nadine demanded, “I was certain he left it in Sanctuary.”
“He did,” Clarice confird, “But we are his minions. When he gives us things, it isn’t the sa as giving it away forever. It’s like a loan, and that spear has an ability that specifically returns when he calls it.”
“Great…” Nadine grunted in frustration, “So how do we convince him to hand it off to soone else in his coma?”
“Not sleeping,” Ril interjected, “Resting, listening,” I felt a smooth, damp scaly hand press against my forehead montarily.
“So Tim can hear us?” Nadine asked with a mounting sense of relief.
“Yes,” Ril replied, “Can’t speak, can’t move, but can hear us.”
“Hey!” Clarice demanded, shoving for good asure, “Handoff the damn spear already Tim! You're upsetting Nadine!”
“Hey, you're the one wh-OW!” Nadine yelped in pain, “Damnit Clarice! That hurt!”
Already feeling exhausted just trying to follow the conversation, I tried to visualise Shiverfang in my mind.
*Clang*
“Bloody hell!” Nadine cursed.
“Told you,” Clarice snickered.
“Figures you would pay attention if it had sothing to do with weapons,” Nadine grumbled defensively.
Trying to shift the bonded link, I wasn’t sure who exactly I was tethering it to, struggling to maintain my current level of awareness as it was.
“Careful!” Clarice warned anxiously, “Don’t touch the blade! It will take your damn fingers off!”
There was a muffled reply and then nothing, only silence.
Feeling a chill wind pass over my skin, I opened my eyes and found I was outside. Only, I didn’t recognise my surroundings.
I was standing on a crested dune in a sea of sand beneath a bright crescent moon so large that I felt I could almost reach out and touch it if I really tried. Looking around the silvery landscape, I was not surprised to find I was alone. After all, this was a dream.
The absence of otherwise omnipresent irritants and minor pains was a bit of a dead giveaway.
It was easily one of the most lucid dreams I have ever had, but thus far it seed rather devoid of aning or purpose. It was just, empty.
“Only if you want it to be,” Ril had appeared by my side, still wrapped in the damp towel as she stared up at with her pitch-black eyes.
“Where are we?” I asked, understanding that the place I was dreaming of was a reflection of sowhere real.
Ril shrugged, “I am just visiting. How would I know?” She replied and took a deep breath of the cold air, “Mmm, water…” Ril murmured and began walking away.
Breathing deeply, I slled it too, the saltwater of the ocean. I knew where we were.
In less than six steps, the entire landscape changed. Dunes rolled away revealing a rocky beach and rolling silvery waves.
Ril was already waiting for , staring at her reflection in a tidepool.
“This will be our special place…” A barely audible voice whispered, manifested from a half-forgotten mory.
My eyes were drawn to the rocky shelf just on the edge of the dunes and I slowly walked over for a closer look.
‘Our place’ was crudely scratched into the stone, and was so badly worn that it was almost gone entirely.
Sitting down on the large flat rock, I numbly watched Ril continue poking about in the tide pool. “Why am I dreaming this?” My voice sounded tired.
Seeming to find what she was looking for, Ril walked over and sat down next to . Opening her hand, she held it out to expectantly. A painfully ordinary shell was laid out on her palm, “For when you want to co back,” Ril explained as she pushed it into my hand.
Accepting the shell, my eyes drifted to the waves again, and I quickly beca lost in the soft crash of the surf on the sand and rocks. I barely noticed when Ril leaned onto my arm.
Blinking my eyes, I found I was sitting against the wall inside our borrowed house on the fourth floor of the Labyrinth. I saw no sign of Ril, but opening my right hand I found the shell she had given in the dream. Retrieving a length of hide cord from my pack, I bound the shell securely and made it into a necklace which I then tied around my neck alongside the other necklace given to by Lash.
Soone had adjusted the beads and I could see that I had been asleep for another two days, leaving only forty-eight days at most until I would return to Sanctuary.
Looking for Ril and Toofy, I couldn’t find them anywhere in the house.
Recognising Mors’s presence and that he was sowhat distracted, I tethered our connection on my end to make sure we wouldn’t be interrupted.
I asked bluntly.
There was a telling pause.
Severing the connection, I walked outside and made my way towards the centre of the village. The olive tree was now joined by two others, their roots and branches entwining a large stone archway approximately fifteen feet wide and roughly just as tall at the highest point. Each stone of the archway had a manastone held tight on the inner side of the arch by the thick gnarled branches and roots. Furthermore, the entire archway as well as the lower trunk and roots of the trees were covered in the special manaflowers.
Just looking at the archway, I could feel the concentrated mana coming off of it. However, considering how few manastones were involved, I doubted it would be capable of activating independently.
Turning my attention to the village centre at large, I was a little surprised to see that Mors appeared to be teaching a class of around thirty people of varying ages. Each person had two pots in front of them. The first seed to be taking the place of an incense burner and was kept shut the majority of the ti. Every so often, a student would remove the lid, inhale deeply and then replace the lid again, confirming my assumption. The purpose of the second pot was even more obvious. Filled with loose moist soil, each of these pots had a small number of small green shoots that would sporadically experience accelerated growth.
Just by judging the ambient mana at play, I could see Mors’s influence on each of the plants. But what was more surprising was that so students seed capable of keeping the growth going for very short periods of ti after Mors’s influence was removed. Considering the inherent difficulty of manipulating mana inside of external sources, and the students limited ability to see said mana, I was very impressed with Mors’s teaching thod. All the more so since it seed like a quarter of his students were already Apprentice Druids.
For the apprentices, the Plant Sense Ability would improve as they levelled up and it increased in Rank. But it was also important to practice their sensitivity and control while they were comparatively weak in order to assure they could control their power properly later.
Checking in on Hessin, I very nearly had a coughing fit. Teaching a much larger scale class than Mors, Hessin had covered all the doors and windows with sheets and had been hotboxing incense to such an extre degree that it made my head hurt from all the mana aura’s suddenly brought into painful focus.
To my imnse surprise, Wraithe was present and keeping a watchful eye on proceedings, or a summoned copy of her was. It had taken a mont to reconcile the difference in the different intensity of her mana. Making sure to give the rat-like Daemon a thumbs up, not wanting to breathe in any more incense, I ducked out of the house.
Checking the village records, I could see that in addition to a number of Apprentice Shamans, there were also four Summoners and a Pact Binder. Although I had not seen her through the smoke, it was Izsa’s daughter who had unlocked the Pact Binder Advanced Class and likely made the summoning that brought Wraithe.
Reminded that Izsa would likely be gunning for a promotion, I was surprised to find that she had already unlocked the Warlock Advanced Class. That made her the first Warlock in the entire alliance, which piqued my curiosity.
[(Class Ability: Daemonic Pact): Expend MP to attempt forge a {Pact} with a Daemon. Gain extre resistance to hostile {Telepathy}. {Borrow} or {Loan} MP in accordance to the {Pact}. {Angels} and their {Celestial Champions} beco hostile and will attempt to kill the Warlock on sight.]
[(Class Ability: Daemonic Boon 0): {Daemonic Pact} generates a permanent {Boon} in accordance with the established {Daemonic Pact}. {Restored Youth} maintains the {Warlock’s} peak physical condition and reduces the negative effects of ageing.]
[(Class Ability: Daemonic Manifestation 0): Expend MP to take on {Daemonic} Characteristics. Reserve MP to gain {Daemonic Vigour}.]
Reading through the starting Class Abilities, I was actually a little disappointed. Having spent a great deal of ti around Daemons, I had shed the majority of my initial prejudices, but I still expected sothing a bit more nefarious from a Class nad Warlock. Near as I could tell, it was literally just an exchange of services. Already very much aware that the Daemons used MP gained through the Pact Binder summons to fuel their own growth, I couldn’t see this arrangent as anything other than symbiotic in nature. By the looks of it, Izsa’s vanity was ensuring the Daemon she made the Pact with was probably getting a slightly better deal, but that was on her, not the Daemon.
Having thought about it so more, I was curious which Daemon she had made the Pact with. I was well aware that Gric’s Daemon Overseer Class gave him final say over Summonings of the Daemons, and while I hadn’t asked, it would be safe to assu he regulated potential Pacts too. Fudging the rules of the quest system a little, I issued Gric with a quest to provide with the answer.
Within a few minutes, Mors established telepathic contact. He provided a ntal image along with the na to provide better context.
Senn was one of the female one-horned Daemons. Taking heavy influences from the reptiles in the swamp, Senn was covered in erald scales, four lithe arms and a long serpentine tail accented with hidden barbs. Judging by the snake-like facial features, I wondered if Senn had been chosen by Gric because of appearance rather than her competence or abilities to fulfil the role.
I asked candidly.
Mors hesitated. He admitted with embarrassnt.
I asked, trying to keep my amusent to myself. Being useful was a pretty big deal to the Daemons. To have a hatch-mate discovered to be striving for anything less was probably mortifying.
Mors replied morosely.
I comnted.
There was a very, very, long and telling pause.
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