Karp
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Chapter 165
🕑 Added 2025-02-06 11:05:48 +0000 UTCAfter Varrus had finished his speech, the party came to a swift end.
Many of the Elves, having been severely shamed by Varrus's speech, got to work with gusto.
Before long, several levitating buildings had been repaired, and took to the skies.
Crafters started to work overtime, and the soldiers began to train harshly under Rho'dan's watch.
With the return of the Sunwell-and the limitless energy it provided-Rho'dan worked the warriors to the bone.
Meanwhile, the mages were practicing their spells, and unleashed large, Elite tier magics into the ocean, in preparation for the invasion.
Satisfied with this arrangement, Varrus took a Rune Stone teleportation portal to the Kobold city of Duhn'Dah'Row, where he spent the next 24 hours grinding for raw materials necessary for the war. Several times, he caused cave ins, due to his rapid progress, and abuse of Telekinesis. Thankfully, he had the Undermine spell on hand, and was never trapped for long. Collecting ore was pretty easy, because any odd colored rock that was broken from the mine could be collected by his inventory. Useless rocks made their own pile, and everything else was sorted neatly.
While he traversed the underground, he brought along with him some enchanted instruments to cut away at the tedium. Feeling nostalgic, Varrus often played the main theme from Minecraft. It was pretty therapeutic to mindlessly mine away, to, for a moment, forget about his responsibilities, and just do something boring and repetitive. At first, he was worried by the shifting earth, and a cave in, but as he experienced several such events, he came to worry less. His Demigod tier spell power was kind of insane, and he could literally hold the ceiling up with Telekinesis with one hand, and then create an escape with the other by casting Undermine.
In one insane raid on the land beneath Quel'Thalas, Varrus accumulated as many resources that took the Kobolds a month of digging for, in a single day!
Furthermore, as he wasn't expecting any fights, Varrus had been going Legendary on his Alteration skill tree during this entire grinding session. Telekinesis was one of the best methods of leveling, and he gained a handful of levels during this interlude.
Currently, he was at level 200.
While he wanted to dump his points into stamina to increase his speed, or health for his survivability, he decided to stick with mana, which increased his base spell power, and increased the number of summons he could have under his control.
The stronger his spell power, the stronger his Ebony Flesh. Currently, it wasn't strong enough, as evidenced by Malfurion ganking him from behind, and piercing his chest. This told Varrus that he needed to go even deeper on the all in for his mage build.
Once he could comfortably tank a Demigods point blank attack, then he might consider upping his HP/Stamina to match.
For now, he was all in on Spell Power.
That being said, leveling was still an incredibly tedious problem, and slow af. But this new method of grinding was a nice break from generating Mana Stones.
He definitely would have to do more mining in the future. He still had a dream of creating an autonomous army. Because while his stern words had moved the Elves to action, Varrus wasn't under the delusion that as soon as peace came around the corner, 90% of the Blood Elves would return to their decadent ways.
As leader of the Covenant, Varrus would have to find alternative sources of manpower, and the gear he could make, as well as the golems/levitating buildings would be key components to his new empire.
Additionally, Mana Stones were still important to craft, because they refueled enchanted weapons, guns, cannons, and were the power source for the Towers of Jenga/golems.
Dirty, and covered in grime, Varrus only knew when to stop, because he had set an alarm on his scrying orb. It had been difficult to keep track of time in the endless darkness of the mines, and with the Sunwell, he never got tired, so it was a little surreal to have an alarm break him out of his rhythm.
By the end of his self imposed mission, Varrus was mentally exhausted, yet a small grin was pressed across his lips. He had worked a miracle, and gathered tons of materials.
Afterwards, he went back to the Sunwell, and for another 10 hours, grinded out his Mana Stones, and rebuilt: 10 Towers of Jenga, 15,000 Iron Golems, 5,000 Glass Golems, 50 Mithril Golems, 5,000 new sets of Glass Armor, 2,500 sets of Elven Armor, 10,000 Rune Pistols, and 1,000 autonomous Dwarven Cannons.
Each and every one of them was enchanted with the power of the Sunwell buffed Common Soul Gem! In short, the weapons transformed commoners into Elites, and Elites into top tier soldiers. The rune pistols and golems benefited most from this increased proficiency, and Varrus couldn't wait to see them put to good use.
Actually, it was quite easy making all of the gear, as just like Skyrim, his system allowed him to craft things at lightning speed. Overall, it took him something like 3 hours to smelt all the ore, and craft the gear. An hour to assemble the Towers of Jenga, and as for the golems, Varrus crafted them limb by limb, then dropped the parts off for the magisters to put together. What really ate up his time was the creation of the Mana Stones, which with the 300% buff that he received when he was within the radius of the Sunwell, were absolute monsters.
If the largest Mana Stone he made before was the size of a large boulder, then now, each Master tier Mana Stone was the size of a school bus. These babies would be used in the upcoming war as fuel, as well as for the secret project Telonicus was working on.
It was tedious, mind numbing work, but it had to be done. Besides, Varrus was accustomed to grinding at this point. The only thing he missed, is that when he was in the mines, it was a solo operation.
Nightsong had gone off to join Rho'dan training the troops, Omen was sleeping at home like a good doggo, and Syra had gone off claiming she wanted to press a few more flowers into her diary before they went to war.
Varrus was actually fine with Syra's arrangement, because after what she had gone through in the Emerald Dream, he figured that if she relaxed her mind, and engaged in her favorite horticulture hobby, it could only be a good thing.
Besides, she didn't know about the adamantium buster sword. He couldn't wait to make it, and gift it to her!
And so, the first day before their invasion was over, now it was on to day two.
Crafting the buster sword was easy, but damn did it take a ton of materials! By smelting down Thaladred's suit of armor, half the bars went into the damned sword! He used the remaining material to make himself a full suit, and as he knew Syra didn't wear much armor, made her a pair of gauntlets.
He also made himself a set of adamantium armor, but that wasn't as exciting as the piece de resistance!
The 300% boosted Legendary Soul Gem!
Until now, this would be the strongest enchantment he had placed on an item. Varrus decided that this would be his masterpiece, he would create a Miracle.
Yes, in fact, under his Smithing skill tree, there was a perk by that name that had gone unused until this very moment.
Miracle - You put your heart and soul into the next item you enchant at an Arcane Nexus, placing up to three enchantments upon it that are 25% stronger. Try as you might, you will never be able to repeat this feat.
It was an absolutely incredible ability, one that he was loath to part with.
However, there was no better time than now. He had the weapon, he had the 300% buff-in addition to the various other enchanting buffs-and he had the Legendary Soul Gem. It was highly unlikely he would have better conditions to invoke a Miracle in quite some time.
Afterall, what kind of Soul Gem would be beyond Legendary? Godly?
Such a hopeful prospect seemed fanciful at the moment. Varrus couldn't even tickle a God's foot with the power he currently wielded. If the chasm between a Hero and a Demigod was vast, like a man challenging a car to a foot race, then the difference between a Demigod and a God was even more extreme.
With that in mind, Varrus enchanted the adamantium buster sword.
His enchantment perks, when combined, boosted any enchantment by 95%.
Enchanting Master: New enchantments are 40% stronger.
Gem Dust - You may choose to destroy a Flawless Gem when you begin the enchanting process and sprinkle its dust on the Arcane Enchanter. New enchantments are 25% stronger when placed upon an item of the type corresponding to the gem.
Regalia - New enchantments placed upon robes, circlets, hoods and necklaces are 30% stronger.
Add all these things together, and that was 300% + 95% + 25% = 420% increase.
That meant that this Legendary Soul Gem could output a mind boggling 21,504 stat points per enchantment. It was enough to make Varrus shake with excitement.
For context, Varrus had the 395% buff as a standard number on all his enchantments ever since the Sunwell returned.
The Grand Soul Gems he used on himself were each individually offering him 5,056 twice (since he could enchant any item with two enchantments). In total, he had 6 new pieces of gear enchanted, which provided him with 60,672 total stats. Or in practical terms, he was a low level Demigod, who could hang in Malfurion's tier.
In comparison, Syra's weapon would grant 64,512 stat points.
[Stat Point Distribution:
1 spirit = 2.5 mana +hp/sec
1 intellect = 10 mana
1 strength = 5 dmg on a weapon
1 agility = ×0.05 cast/swing/move speed
1 stamina = 10 stamina + hp
1 spell power = 5 dmg on a spell
Petty: 5
Lesser: 20
Common: 80
Greater: 320
Grand: 1,280
Legendary: 5,120]
The creation of this weapon would easily upgrade his wife, and transform her into a true terror.
Of course, when it came to enchanted gear, he couldn't stack the same stat on top of one another. So not all the points could go into something like say, str.
There also was the option to apply an offensive spell to the blade, like fire damage, or a vampiric effect. However, this would drain upon use, and as powerful as it would be, Varrus would rather modify Syra’s stats.
Having a giant flaming black blade would be slick, but Syra was already proficient in a terrifying type of magic.
He decided for the three enchantments, to go with str, agi, and spell power.
Intelligence was left out, for the simple fact that mana pool wasn't as important now that they had the Sunwell to draw upon.
As soon as Varrus took the black blade off the enchanters table, he held it aloft, and looked at it in wonder.
The midday sun reflected murderously off its edges, and Varrus was almost tempted to claim it as his own.
However, this weapon was better suited for a spellblade, which he was not. Sighing in admiration, Varrus put it in his inventory, and decided to find Syra and surprise her.
Rho'dan, who had been training nearby, and stepped over to see what Varrus was doing, whistled in admiration.
“A fine blade, Highlord, and a gift for the Lady?” Rho'dan questioned.
“Yes, it is magnificent. One day, I hope to clad you in a suit of similar material, refined to my standards of course.”
“Of course.” Rho'dan smiled at Varrus's naked display of arrogance.
Varrus lightly chuckled at the byplay, then got serious.
“I take it you have something to report?”
“Nothing urgent, just a status update.” Rho'dan saluted, and handed some paperwork over.
Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Varrus began looking over the documentation, and signed his name in a few places. Most of the material was orders pertaining resource distribution, and needed his approval. Nothing earthshaking, but he oversaw food, potions, building construction, and now, the resources that would go to the Goblins. The little green gremlins were building factories where the Amani lands had been, and Varrus needed to sign off on some of their requests & provision them.
“Anything else?” Varrus questioned.
Rho'dan made a gesture, and a shroud of Muffle covered them.
“Vaermina has warned me that a great number of dreamers have suddenly vanished in a region on our continent. Millions. She hasn't specified where exactly, and my connections do not reach deep outside of Quel'Thalas. All I can confirm is that our nation did not suffer any tragedy.” Rho'dan reported.
“Hmm, this is grim news. Lost souls means more bodies for the Scourge. Send a message to Gilneas, probe their sources, and see what you can discover.” Varrus said, stroking his chin in thought.
“Will do. On a less grim note, I have also looked into the various leaders, to discover what they are doing to prepare for this incursion. There is a detailed docket amongst the paperwork I handed you, but to keep it brief, morale is high, and we are ready to go. As for the rank and file, they were greatly affected by your speech, and felt a great sense of shame. Your words proved to be highly inspiring, and the act of restoring the Sunwell has engendered great confidence in the Vandercross name. For the first time since your first public appearance, your fame is net positive. Congratulations, Highlord.” Rho'dan this time, saluted with his fist, and bowed his head.
“Ah, don't think I can't see that cheeky grin there. Raise your head, let me get a good look at you.” Varrus smacked Rho'dan on the shoulder, and chuckled.
“Cheeky, sir? I am only proud of my service, to see you finally grow into your own. This is a great day for all of House Vandercross.” Rho'dan raised his head, and smiled at Varrus with an expression full of pride.
Now it was Varrus's turn to feel embarrassed, as now it felt like he was being praised by an Uncle for moving out, and being on his own.
Blowing away a strand of loose hair, Varrus rolled his eyes at Rho'dan, then turned away and crossed his arms.
“Well, if that's all you have to report, I'll be seeing my wife then.”
“You do that, Highlord. I'll see you before we set out, the men are eager to smash the Scourge to bits.” Rho'dan nodded his head, then departed.
As soon as he left, Varrus went to find Syra.
However, while he searched after her, he couldn't help but have a niggling thought in the back of his head.
Who was the culprit that silenced millions in a day?
Comments
Ryan Helmbold
Lol I hope varrus doesnt figure out the flower pressing is a sort of trophy fir assinations
Ryan Helmbold
I like these tech and kingdom building chapters a lot. This fic is great, but it needs more slice of life and kingdom building moments, it can tend to feel like theres no moments to breathe a bit
Karp
Well in this story, Quel'Thalas had pre Scourge a total pop of 1.2 mil. Kul'Tiras never suffered under the Scourge invasion.
Kasikan
Did they have a population in the millions? I figured somewhere more populated got hit to get numbers that high. Though I guess if this was one of several places all hit at once it'd amount to millions. Them alone though, I didn't think they had that high of a population.
santhinal
Dude we already know what happened. Kul'tiras fell remember?
Kasikan
I'm guessing Arthas took the opportunity to massacre some place clean of life. That or the Orc's have started butchering their way across Kalimdor. Last option I could see is without the Kaldorei's old leadership, Maeve might have failed to prevent the dumb druid that planned to plant a corrupted world tree for everyone to live on. I could see them all dying to one of the Old Gods with that. So many other options exist too. That world is an awful death trap with all of the evil creatures that live on it and the machinations that the non evil species get up to with the involvement of either Fel or Void gods.
