69 Chapter Sixty-Nine – To the Nearest Battle (1/2)
”Crafting time!”
Their pell-mell running through the forest faster then a startled deer came to a stop in a hillside clearing. Sama stopped power-skating and glided to a stop over the rough ground as if her legs were shock absorbers, coming to a halt in a fairly shielded alcove.
Briggs rose immediately, having no complaints. With his ki, his bones didn't even creak from the long ride.
He'd spent his Naming Karma on Endure and Wut, the Name of his Armor, the first of a long process that would take many months, if not years, to come to fruition. After all, he didn't have endless spawns in front of him to grind, and tough ones, at that.
This day's reward was Auto-Equip, meaning his Armor could fly on and off with just a mental command. Normally this would take a word and harmonization… but with it being Soulbound to his Essence, that was already taken care of.
”What are we working on today?” he asked calmly. After all, there was an endless amount of Stuff that they needed, mostly bunches of minor crap for special situations.
”Well, I'm going to be working on Doc. You can assist, but I'd like you to be making Healing Potions. I'd like to have a good stash if others need them.”
He stroked his chin thoughtfully. ”How about a Healing Trap instead, if it's for others?”
She tilted her head to consider that, weighed the options, and nodded once. ”Makes sense. Let me get the silver.”
”I seem to remember using Healing Traps in Nightmare, but not specifically…” murmured Tremble.
Briggs grunted as he began to unload Forge's other Cabinets. ”Know how you can make magical traps that, say, explode in fire when someone walks over them? Healing Trap turns that on its head, makes something that works healing magic instead.
”To keep the cost down, it works only once a day for any living person, per person. However, if you're harmed by positive energy, it'll work against you over and over. So, an anti-undead sort of thing.”
”Has to be made of silver, approved by the Good gods, and we'll make it of the lowest power level to keep the goldweight cost down. Basically, you use it on a battlefield to save heavily-wounded men. Instant stability, healing of otherwise mortal injuries, and gives them time to get to a healer, sometimes under their own power. Combined with an Amanan Healer, you can restore a large number of men back to full Health very quickly,” Sama added on.
”Potions are more emergency use stuff then anything, not very efficient over the long term, but very necessary. It's always better to have your own healing then rely on Potions, especially for protracted fighting.”
”Hence Vigor and Battle Vigor!” Tremble bobbed in the air excitedly. ”We learned that lesson very, very well in Nightmare…” Sama grunted agreement as she put the Anvil of Silent Thunder in place, and started digging out her metals.
”That's right. So, what's this Doc about?” Briggs asked with interest.
”Doc is a +Soulbound Healing Edge Katar,” Sama replied.
”Oh? OH!” He blinked. ”Barebones, straight Weapon, aye?”
”Yes. I would use him to last through some very, very, VERY extended fights in Nightmare. If we're going to be involved in protracted fighting, I want a potentially unlimited way to get our Health back.”
”32k of work needed. Two days of QL tops, and then a k a day Investing.” Briggs drew a long face.
”Uh-uh,” Sama smiled. ”Two days of QL, and then Tremble drops in her harvest from a +III Warp Knight's Sword she ate, and we're done.”
”Oh! Well, that's much quicker. The bad guys are helping us already!” Briggs opened up the alchemy cabinet and began to lift out the stuff he needed. Sama had gone in detail through the set-up, and he was already thinking of improvements. Of course, said improvements would cost time and money, neither of which they had unlimited amounts of at the moment.
However, he couldn't hide how impressed he was with the QL30 woodwork of the cabinets. Ancients loved working with wood, and so her skill definitely resonated with the beloved weapons and items carved by his people growing up. His tribe had fawned over the cabinets, especially when she opened one up and demonstrated the Compressing magic that could store just an incredible amount of stuff within.
And given that they were basically carved from petrified wood, they were even more impressive. He hummed when he thought of the day he could pull off something like this easily. He could easily make Master's Work stuff, and his spear hafts were much-loved by the hunters in his tribe.
Some higher QL woodworking, in between his Smithing, would be a great change of pace… when it was time.
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”Sama, crows…”
”Seen 'em ten minutes ago, but the hill line is the fastest way to get close.” He wondered why she had deviated from the trail of the dwarven company, and now had his answer. The Mask of Clarity, if trained up, could both magnify vision and expand it into other spectra. Since it was one of the Tats she had bothered to etch on herself, naturally she had topped it out.
This wouldn't be the dwarves, and hopefully not the elves. It could be a stray band of rangers who had the misfortune to run across a prepared bunch of marauders, or what not.
Sama zipped towards the crows on an arc, following a river cutting through the forest so Forge could float along behind easily. It was a few miles out, and she made it there in just minutes.
She halted at the tree line, and they studied the field before them for a couple long minutes, looking for signs of life, and finding none save scavengers… which were a big enough threat in and of themselves.
He watched her reach into the Masspack on her back, and pull out a long length of what looked like tempered glass. When he heard the clack of gears, and the sprits reversed off the stock, his eyes lit up.
”You made an autobow!” he murmured excitedly.
The sprits unwound to full length, and the cogs within the bow ratcheted the string tight, pulling them back as runes began to play over them, making the crisscrossing lengths of black cord look like a web of light.
She pumped the action on it, just like a shotgun, and the bowstring racked back to the catch.
”+Soulbound Force Speed. Yours if you want it.” She passed it over to him, and he sighed despite himself as his hands settled on it.
QL 35. He took a deep breath, feeling the emptiness waiting in it to be filled, and injected Essence from his Vajra.
Lines of light lit up on it, starting at the pump where his hands were gripping it, flowing down it as Runes lit up and then faded back into the glass and bone, leaving only sharp edges of silver light behind here and there.
With a crackle and a surge of pressure against his feet, the string snapped back to the catch, and a dark quarrel made entirely out of force hissed into existence.
He looked at the wolves moving around the field, some of them pretty big, and obviously working at what looked to be the remains of a few horses.
It wasn't Named yet. He naturally didn't have a true ranged Weapon yet, he'd been throwing his Hammer for that purpose, but nothing beat an Autobow this side of gunpowder weapons when it came to such a thing.
He adjusted the stock for the length of his arms, snapped it up coolly as Endure waited between his legs as he settled into a shooting crouch. ”No scope?”
”Didn't need one.” He glanced at her Mask and mentally cuffed himself. ”Ready?”
”Yeah… wait.” He lifted up the end of it, reached forward, and twisted the small tube underneath it. A narrow silver beam that would be invisible to anyone not able to see magic suddenly reached out in an arc representing the flight path of the bolt, and he swore to himself. ”You even installed a leyser?”
”It was a prototype. After I got it to that stage, I realized I messed up with what I really wanted to do.”
A +Vier prototype. He shook his head despite himself. ”What were you looking for?”
”My Autobow is named Fall. I intend to build him as Morphable from Hand Crossbow to Siege Crossbow. However, I haven't completed the final build yet, and it hasn't been a priority to have long range combat yet. The mass offset in small size is a bitch to make, too.”
He grunted. She definitely had high expectations of proper gear. He was more then happy just to have some truly ranged punch he could Name and grow. ”I Name you Reach.” There was a hum at the spiritual level, a turning of a key and crystallization of identity washing across the Autobow. ”Let's go poke some things. Those look like warp wolves on the far end. Let's baptize you in some fresh Naming Karma, shall we?”
Sama skated smoothly into motion. Tremble slid out into her hand so smoothly it looked like water, Runes dancing across the Bondsword and settling into Animal configuration.