Ellake
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Chapter 152 - I Create, I Destroy
🕑 Added 2024-10-27 19:00:05 +0000 UTCNate sat in his workshop staring at the finished product before him. To date, most of his creations had been functional in nature rather than beautiful. The two bracers he wore and the single armband were just simple bands of metal, concealing the runes within. Even looking back at his Legendary Acid Wand, it had looked like a gnarled, if expensive, piece of wood. Of course, up until recently he had a major limitation as a crafter. Without being a blacksmith or carpenter, his ability to alter the shapes of his materials had been relatively limited. With his Material Shaping Skill that was no longer the case. He wondered if that was why this creation received an Achievement, since it had been a while since he got a new Achievement for creating an item.
Bringing up the identification again he reviewed it one last time.
Runecrafted Soulrending Dagger (Legendary)
Stats: +6 Willpower
Features: Soul Bleed (Legendary), Reinforcement (Epic), Illusory Blade (Legendary), Innate Repair (Rare)
Soul Bleed: This item has been Runecrafted to cause any wounds inflicted by it to bleed soul energy until the wound is healed, either naturally or by magical means. The rate of soul energy bleed is vastly enhanced by the daggers' affinities.
Reinforcement : This item has been Runecrafted to reinforce the material, making it exceedingly hard to break.
Illusory Blade: This item has been Runecrafted to allow the user to expend mana to overlay an illusion, disguising the shape, size and appearance of the dagger. Requires users mana to function.
Innate Repair: This item has been Runecrafted to repair itself over time using ambient mana. Feeding the Enchantment mana can accelerate this process.
He smiled, looking over the dagger. The blade was longer than the ones Kiri normally used, the shape elegant and slender, with detailed scrollwork along the length of it depicting a gryphon, finally ending in a razor-sharp tip. He had shaped the guard to mimic an eagle's wings. The hilt was wrapped in Rare grade black leather that he had been assured would not break easily. It was definitely going to be the first thing that needed to be replaced.
Kiri had been using the Rare tier Dagger of Torn Souls for a while now, and it was clear to Nate that she had outgrown it. But it wasn’t like Legendary tier equipment was just lying around the Capital. So, having resolved his own defensive problems, he thought he would spend a little time making a couple of things for Kiri. The other item was a mirror of his own defensive trinkets. A Legendary bracer that flooded an area around her with the effects of a Soul Release. It would keep anyone from preventing her from using the soul energy that so many of her Skills relied on.
Of course, his efforts had not gone unrewarded as he glanced at the newest Achievement.
You have created a Legendary item that utilises Soul Energy.
Your achievement has been recorded.
He wasn’t completely certain, but he thought that this would be considered a Legendary tier Achievement. That was already cause for celebration, but he had learned how important the language the System used was. The fact that the Achievement included the word ‘created’ made him extremely pleased.
Sending a mental message to Frick to ask Kiri to join him at the workshop, he set to cleaning up the space. Now that he had finished his crafting it was time to focus on the next step in his development. One that had been a long-time coming. It had been almost a month since the last Dungeon run, and that entire time his Conceptual Insight had been absorbing excess mana and storing it in preparation for this moment. It was time to learn his first Grandmaster Tier Sigil. The only question left was, which of his Master tier Sigils should he raise. Once upon a time it might have been a simple coin flip between whether he went with Mana or Barrier. But that time had passed with his new Sigils. Now Sound, Illusion, Space and Soul were also on the table. Six options and he could only improve one of them.
The discussions with Frick had gone back and forth for days now. Mana could improve his mana gathering operation and also the subset of his defences that focused on making sure he could use mana externally. But, he didn’t really need to improve his mana gathering operation. He was already syphoning off enough mana from the Capital to fund his experiments, workshop and the production aspects that he handed off to Jacque. In terms of defence, he was confident that there would be few enough in the near future that could oppose both his Spatial Release and Mana Release Legendary items.
On the topic of defences, there was an argument for him to upgrade his Barrier Sigil. It was his ultimate protection. Something he made use of in every battle. It was also the direction he was leaning and had pushed for. His ability to heal, for now, was tied directly to being able to drain others, which meant that the smartest thing to do was simply not get hurt in the first place. Unlike Mana, Barrier was definitely still in the race.
Soul was an option he had already discarded. That was Kiri’s domain, and while he was interested in understanding the energy type and the things you could accomplish with it, it was not his path. The only reason he might have chosen it would have been to further improve the item he had created for Kiri. He didn’t need to ask her to know she would’ve told him off for that.
The second serious contender was Space. It was both a part of his path going forward and a core piece of his skillset. Expanding his options by utilising creations that controlled space was a strong option. He already had ideas for ways to expand his usage of space in combat, but that wasn’t the key draw. The tome given to him by Arikanvil that detailed how to try and find the Dead Realm that Earth resided in was still inside his spatial storage. He had held off on looking at it, knowing that there was nothing he could do yet to try and cross those kinds of distances. A Grandmaster tier Space Sigil would change that. Portals, Spatial Searching and Multiversal travel might suddenly be an option.
That left Illusion and Sound. The former drew him for two reasons. The first was how the idea of an Illusion could draw parallels to his goal of ‘living art’. It wasn’t quite the same, but it did advance his ideas of moving art. The second was the ability to misdirect and conceal things. It had become a major part of every single item that they produced in the workshop. A multi-layered Illusion and Obfuscation rune was a part of every item produced at the Rare grade. The purpose was to conceal the Sigils involved. It might have been a concern if Jacque didn’t already know that Nate held a Mythic tier Class, but since the man was bound by a System Contract there was no harm in sharing a Grandmaster tier Illusion Sigil with the man if he went that way. On the other hand, he didn't really need a Grandmaster tier Illusion Sigil to do the things with it that he wanted to do.
Sound should have been an afterthought. It had been one of his more recent acquisitions and it worked perfectly in tandem with Illusion, creating the ultimate ability to conceal anything he wanted. Admittedly he was being hyperbolic, given the myriad variations in detection abilities, but it certainly meant he could both conceal and silence the things he created. It could also be used as a weapon. Sound was just a specific type of vibration, and with his ability to focus his runes on individual Subconcepts he could definitely use it in battle. The idea was actually a little frightening. He had no idea what would happen if he vibrated something at a high enough frequency but he guessed that it would produce heat. A lot of heat. Watching someone suffer from heat death, or worse, explode, wasn’t exactly high on his list of priorities.
The war went on inside him for a few more minutes. Space or Barrier. In the end he chose Space, even if it ran the risk of interfering with his goals for changing his Embodiment, he was pretty sure that Barrier wouldn’t have assisted with his plans anyway.
Conceptual Insight activated and he felt the mana stored in the Skill drain away as the image formed in front of him in the air.
Space Sigil (Quality: Grandmaster)
He had wondered if he would get an Achievement to go with it, but nothing was forthcoming and he was forced to accept that he would need to create a Grandmaster tier rune to get the desired Achievement. Looking over the rune he used Conceptual Runic Creation to copy the Sigil before confirming it was a perfect replica. The symbol continued to hang there in the air in a sturdy mana construct and he supposed that it was meant to give the individual time to make sure they could copy it down correctly. Instead he used the extra time to study the geometry and symbolism involved. It was an order of magnitude more complex than any other Sigil he knew of, but it still paled in comparison to the image on his puzzle-box. That gave him a little encouragement that his puzzle-box really was using a Sigil on it, even if he still hadn’t figured out how to activate it. The interesting thing to him was he could feel the pressure the Space Sigil was putting on the environment around him. His sphere of awareness was sensitive to spatial fluctuations and he could feel how items around him felt like they were both closer and further away. It was as if he could reach out and touch anything in the room, the very idea of space having become fluid. The feeling slowly faded as the mana construct started to dissipate and he was thankful. It had been a slightly disconcerting experience and he was definitely going to have to practise under such conditions to get used to the potential future capabilities of his Realmwalker Class.
Kiri chose that moment to enter the room, forced to walk in like a plebian as the workshop was warded against Soul and Spatial entry. If he had a Sigil for Demonic or Celestial energies he would’ve included those as well.
“What’s so important that it couldn’t wait till tonight?” Kiri asked with a smile.
“Didn’t think you would want to wait for your presents,” he replied with amusement, waving a hand at the bracer and dagger on the table.
“You didn’t!?” she exclaimed, her visage warring between annoyed and elated.
He knew she wanted him to focus on their burgeoning mercantile empire. The Auction House had finally started to mention ideas for a few custom pieces that they might be interested in. Instead he figured they could wait a little longer while he finished off Kiri’s upgrades.
He let her stew for a few seconds longer and was rewarded with a frustrated grunt before she started beaming again.
“Alright, alright! I give in. What do they do? You know I can’t identify them myself.”
Nate brought up the identification results for both items, making them visible to his sister. It still felt a little weird to think that word in regards to Kiri. That wasn’t to say it felt wrong. It was just new and he was still getting used to it. But she was the family he had chosen.
“No way! That is amazing!” she gushed, already playing with the illusory blade ability to make it invisible, or match the appearance of her other daggers, before dropping the illusions to look over the true blade. “The gryphon from the Dungeon?”
He nodded with a contented smile plastered onto his face.
“Artwork worthy after all. I love it! I love it so much! Thank you!”
He dropped his barrier at the last moment as she threw her arms around him and hugged her back for a moment. That moment may have continued for a little longer, but they both stepped apart, glancing upwards to the front door of the shop that housed their workshop. It was closing and two bodies had entered the workshop. That was one too many. Jacque was one of the individuals, but he wasn’t to let anyone else in. That begged the question of who the second was. If Kiri’s frown was anything to go by, she already knew who the second individual was. Nate reformed his barrier, watching as Kiri hid her dagger in plain sight and clipped on the bracer of Soul Release he had gifted her. Glancing at each other they nodded, before the pair made their way upstairs.
Nate audibly sighed when he saw who it was that was holding Jacque hostage.
The dark-haired Guard Inspector Koriolos watched them with brown eyes alight with a sense of triumph.
“You two are exceptionally difficult to get a hold of,” said Koriolos, his tone clearly one of frustration. “That has made me look bad. I truly, truly, hate looking bad. So, now that we’re finally alone, I am going to get some answers to my questions. Drop your soul protections or I am going to be forced to arrest you both on suspicion of involvement with the death of a member of the Etruan Nobility.”
The man punctuated his statement by shoving Jacque so hard that the man collapsed to the floor with a scream of pain. It only took Nate a moment to tell that Koriolos had already broken the ex-Professor’s arm. Likely as part of gaining entry to the workshop. The wards would’ve kept the Inspector out without a key to get in. A key that Jacque of course had.
Turning his attention back to Koriolos he mentally sighed. This was a complication he didn’t need, but there was no way in the Nine Hells that he was going to drop his Soul Barrier around the man. He didn’t even need to glance at Kiri to know how she felt about the situation. She already seemed primed to kill the man, consequences be damned. Still, Nate wasn’t there yet. His hand was being pressed, but it was yet to be forced.
“We won’t be doing that. So you can either ask your questions, or you can leave.”
His voice sounded calmer than he felt, but not by much. The fact was, after everything he had gone through, he was unwilling to submit to anyone, let alone some Guard Inspector who only held a Rare tier Primary Class after his second evolution.
“The hard way then,” Koriolos replied with a confident smile. Nate understood where he was coming from, albeit barely. Koriolos was level eighty and even if his Embodiment was only Fragmented, it likely still gave him some additional bonuses. Enough that the Inspector believed he had the upper hand.
Koriolos flashed forward in a burst of speed, blade drawn as the swordsman tried to target Nate. It was the right decision he supposed. Closing on the mage first. He didn’t bother to dodge. The speed Koriolos showed was decent, but nothing compared to Kiri. A wave of soul energy accompanied the man's rush, washing over Nate as he sensed the pressure against his Soul Barrier. Pushing a little extra mana into his Soul Barrier he felt the resistance firm even as he watched Kiri handily drive the Inspector back using only two daggers.
Koriolos’ eyes transitioned from focused to fearful as the reality of the situation dawned on him. He was being beaten by someone that should be over thirty levels lower than him. Nate didn’t have a Skill that would let him know what the soul attack had been meant to accomplish, but whatever it had been, it had no effect on the pair. Worse for the man, was how easily Kiri was beating him. Another three seconds passed as dagger met sword, the sounds of each impact ringing off the surrounding walls. Then Kiri, with a burst of speed, stepped inside of a slash from the swordsman, catching the sword and arresting its movement with one dagger as she hooked the pommel with her second. Yanking the blade out of Koriolos’ hand she kicked out in the opposite direction. The Inspector grunted as he fell to the floor, eyes alight with fury.
“You’ve laid hands on a Guard Inspector. You’re dead. You’re both dead!”
“Does it need to go that far?” replied Nate. “You’ve broken my employee’s arm and attacked me. We could just let it go at that and you could go on your way. Continue your pointless investigation. You have to know I could just talk to Princess Morgane about this.”
“Talk to whoever you want, you common trash! The law is on my side now! Even the Princess will be forced to accept it! I’ll see you executed for this!”
Nate sighed, turning to Kiri, “Should we get Deverell?”
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Koriolos lunge forward. But it wasn’t for Kiri or himself that the Guard Inspector went for. Gripping Jacque’s broken arm, Koriolos stared them both down with a knife to the man's throat, ignoring the screams of pain.
“Don’t go anywhere,” Koriolos whispered viciously, a victorious smile on his vengeful face.
Kiri glanced at Nate, her eyes asking him for permission. The sound of Jacque groaning in pain and the huffing of Koriolos were the only sounds in the room as he defeatedly gave his sister a nod, acquiescing to her request. He stared at the scene as she vanished, appearing behind the Inspector and plunging her Runecrafted Soulrending Dagger into the man's back. Nate maintained his watch as she drained his soul dry. It was the least Nate could do after agreeing to the man's execution. With Jacque quietly sobbing on his knees, Nate suppressed the emotional response he was having, and started figuring out how the fuck they were going to hide the man’s murder.
Comments
87894354
I don't think it's that bad. Yes, he almost certainly could have spent some time to make the security system check for a person's soul / mana signature, instead of checking for a physical key. (Mind you, we don't know much about the key. For all we know, it only works when it's in the vicinity of Jacque). This is guy who knows how to make mythic-grade gear. He could put a more time into improving this hideout. But... that would have taken time. Time is a resource to be managed. He had a choice. Expend time on improving the security of his own hideout, improve his own equipment, or improve Kiri's equipment. It's a question of resource management. Supposed he'd instead chosen to spend time improving the hideout's security instead of Kiri's equipment, and then we see Kiri losing a fight due to her having sub-par equipment. Should we criticise that decision? Should we say that her defeat would be "pretty stupid", and that his decision not to focus his time on equipping Kiri would "feel incredibly forced"? The guy is spread thin. There's going to be compromises. Sometimes they pan out, sometimes they don't.
87894354
Thanks for the chapter. Tiny tiny typos: "The rate of soul energy bleed is vastly enhanced by the daggers' affinities." daggers' -> dagger's "Requires users mana to function." users -> user's
Zach
He likely would have ended up dead anyway, but probably would have been best for everyone if their mentor's could have taken him elsewhere for that to happen. They also likely could have gotten information about his motivation/who he's working with. I could definitely see trauma making Nate much colder than he had been so it makes sense that he could order the execution. That said he's a thinker, and should see the value in keeping that guy alive at least for a little bit.
Zach
Not covering it up puts a lot of power over them into the nobilities' hands. I think the biggest thing is that while the princess might back them it puts pressure on the guild, and beyond that drama like that is unlikely to get handled all that quickly. Clearly others are the instigating force behind idiot guard, and depending on connections they could easily take advantage of the situation to if nothing else greatly slow down their growth.
TechB
"...Koriolos flashed forward in a burst of speed, blade drawn as the swordsman tried to target Nate..." Image - https://i.imgur.com/aXJzONy.png
Bosparan
Thanks for the chapter :) Sooo ... trouble raises its head once again. They truly live in "interesting" times ^^ A few thoughts on the matter and other comments on this chapter; > "This could (and should) have been avoided" Maybe. We're not stuck in the events but (fairly) dispassionate readers with 20/20 hindsight to help us out. Nate is a pretty stereotypical nerd, stuck in a lot of issues he is deeply invested in. I think it is rather fair he would consider the matter closed with the Princess' intervention. Kiri might be another story, but she too is not exactly a capital politics expert. Furthermore, they _did_ make sure to not be caught anywhere the inspector should have had access to. So if they believed the location to be safe - a fair assumption, who expects an officer of the law to take hostages? - they could have gotten away with ignoring the man. Makes me curious, under what pressures Koriolos was working. > Thoughts on Fallout when going public The officer took an innocent man hostage and forced entry into a house owned by a diamond rank adventurer, then attacked targets he was investigating without being threatened. This is complicated by the fact that the only witnesses come from one side but supported by the injury of the ex-professor. And the fact of the location itself. Problem here is of course that with sufficiently muddled waters, this becomes a contest of politics, rather than legal procedures. I'd argue the adventurer's guild is sufficiently motivated to pull major weight, but we also don't know the full weight behind Koriolos (and whether they'll double down on it). An uncertain venture, but has the advantage of forcing public closure if it ends well. Of course, if it goes wrong they basically have to flee. > Thoughts on Fallout when hiding the incident The key problem is, that they do not have any idea who the backers of Koriolos were. While they can keep this quiet to avoid the trouble, they also prevent trouble to said backers, not only leaving them to repeat the attempt, but also potentially adding more ammunition. In other words, they'd probably have to find some other reassurance as a counter-weight, which would basically force them into a faction (possibly the princess' one, and wouldn't it be a fun surprise if she was the backer of Koriolos, aiming for just that?). All things considered, assuming they can secure full guild support, going public might just be the way to go in my opinion, but only time and Ellake will tell :)
Beggar of Freedom
Divines bless your kind heart! And fuck your defense system.
Jason Hardman
The main issue is they didn't involve their mentors, especially after having a meeting with them immediately after their first encounter. After that what follows is fruit of the tainted tree. I have no special issue with the destination this is going to, I just think the path to get there needs some work to not feel forced on the part of Nate and Kiri. Maybe switching up the order of events and putting some reasonable barriers in the way of convenient communication with their mentors or something. Don't think that would fit with him seeking to be a Life Mage though. Maybe if they did involve their mentors and they started getting the guild involved, but Koriolos went off the reservation in a way not predicted, and Nate had a case of PTSD due to Koriolos' behaviour, triggering an out of scale response. It would raise a massive political fuss, and drive a bigger wedge between the noble faction and the guild, and Nate would become a piece in political shenanigans on both sides. I presume after this Nate and Kiri might be sent off to a dungeon to let air clear a bit, at which point the assassin attack will come along and cause issues, although I think it likely everyone survives due to both Nate and Kiri being massively underestimated. If they can figure out who's behind that attack it's going to set off some massive political fireworks I'm sure. It'd probably make Nate a bit more unstable toward nobility and plots though.
Secret Weapons
This is pretty stupid. They put all that work into the defenses of the Workshop only for some lackey to be able to let a random person in this easily? That's absurd. They literally are experts in the SOUL. Jacque having like an actual physical key is beyond stupid, the defenses should just be geared to their soul energies... or mana... or anything besides this brutal set up. The only reason to not do that is so lame crap like this can happen. Feels incredibly forced... I mean, this entire character feels forced honestly, but this part is especially terrible.
Dan M
But they did involve others. The main adventurer crew knew about this, they were in a secure location, Nate just reviewed his own personal security and upgraded Kiri's, and a princess literally told this guy off for not following the law in this case. Koriolos was acting outside of the law for a different master, and abusing his trusted position to accomplish it. He didn't wish to suffer the consequences of failing the 2nd master, so he reattempted at his earliest opportunity. That's exactly what a desperate crooked police officer would do to cover his own ass. Humans are tricky opponents because we're creative and can be unpredictable. Koriolos forced entry through leveraging a single weak link in the vast system that makes another persons day to day life. It likely took every moment of the days between their last interaction and this one to establish a pattern of behaviour for Nate and Kiri that was tight enough to find that weak point. Especially when you consider how little old fashioned walking the pair are doing now. So what you see as impossible confluence, if perhaps viewed through Koriolos' own eyes, would look like desperate effort. 22hr days back to back to back until victory or failure. The burning shame of being brushed aside by a pair of teens who you _just know_ you outrank and outclass. The bone chilling fear of the criminal organisation bearing it's brunt on your own head, knowing you've been responsible for delivering that special flavour of justice onto others. Plenty of motivation to force the point, even against royal orders. I dunno man, seems real enough to me if you start to think of Koriolos as a person instead of a plot driver...
TerrestrialOverlord
While it feels a bit forced I'd argue that both Nate and his sister are traumatized by what happened to Nate and both are denying that they are doing very badly. They think they have delt with it but this might be to bring the issue to a head. Deal with your issues now and stop doing dumb shit like killing a corrupt royal investigator. It might also be a way to link them closer to the 2nd prince to also make that confrontation that much closer..
Kemizle
True but I feel this is where the guild could step in no one said they had to admit to Killing him the guild can take the heat
ReadingObsessed
It does feel very forced.
Dash Marley
They wouldn’t get away killing a law-enforcement officer in self-defense in modern America, let alone in some medieval society where commoners are routinely oppressed as a matter of policy. He gave them the option to surrender and be arrested and they killed a law officer while resisting arrest.
Enthernal
yes, now you have to get deverell. Seriously, it's not his job to figure out, they've allied themselves with experts in the field for a reason.
James Squibb
Meh, serves him right.
Zack
Totally true, but Nate and Kiri are kinda nobility, just without the title. The guild is their backer and they are favored talent, putting them in a similar position to noble scions. Covering this up like the last incident would just invite further investigation when the guy disappears instead of publically laying out how the guy was out of line and attacked important people without reasonable cause.
Justchillin
That'd be the case if the country wasn't heavily corrupted in the nobility's favour. As it is, it'd expose Nate to their games even more.
Zack
Honestly feels like they shouldn't have to cover this up. The inspector guy threatened them, then attacked them, then threatened to kill their employee. All of this after being told off by the princess for skirting the rules for investigators. At this point, they should be able to turn in this guys corpse and get a very nice thank you gift for exposing corruption. Also an apology from the Adventurers guild for failing to protect them or get recompense once again.
Jason Hardman
This is so much nonsense. They should have involved others ahead of this, and had counters and strategies prepared. The confluence of events feels far too forced, instead of flowing from the natural behaviours and reactions to the situation.
GoodMornin2U2
Thank you for the chapter! He had it coming
dakota dodson
The cover up is gonna have to be good this time
Shawn
Easy peasy. Get rid of the body. Create a lie obstruction artifact.
Kanyau
Well... damn. Wanna bet the princess offers to 'make it all go away' if they join her faction or agree to work for her/the royals?
