Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 565
🕑 Added 2024-02-21 23:08:33 +0000 UTC“Alright, are you ready?” I asked Adam. He, Callie, and Benny were out near the site of the old bakery with me. Camden had used up all five of his wishes setting the foundation for the wall when we got started building it, and we could now set the bricks without worrying about them sinking into the ground. Once he was done he’d headed back to the manor, though.
The small enchanter nodded. “Go ahead. If you’ve repaired the Skill it should be easy enough to grasp the pattern.”
After a night of rest, the pain from Belial’s reconstruction was mostly gone, and I was going to be using the crown to channel the Skill so it wouldn’t be putting much strain on my soul in the tender spot that was my Skill pattern. Reaching down, I picked up the brick from yesterday, the one I’d made after all the practice, and focused hard, triggering Belial.
Once again, the smooth edges turned pitch black and green glowing cracks opened up along the surface. Adam stepped closer, staring down into the rock intensely. Finally he smiled. “I can work with this. It’s stable, even if it’s not perfect. I’ll need some practice to interweave the Skill between multiple stones. Let me study the enchantment for a while, you can get started on the wall if you want.”
I nodded and then headed over to the rock pile. With the enchantments being worked on, it was time for me to officially test out the full extent of my crafting.
Holding out my hands, I triggered Pit of Despair, floating the dust into the air with Dust Construction and condensing it. As I did so, I triggered a single triple stack density shift. As soon as I felt the density increase, I ended Pit of Despair, hardening the condensed dust into a full block and letting it slam into the ground with a resonating crash.
Whooping with joy, I ran up to it, grabbed it and HAULED with all my strength. I was able to lift it…barely. The weight hadn’t tripled (that wasn’t what triple strength meant) but it HAD more than doubled. Twenty five tons of dense stone strained my muscles as I dragged it over to the foundation that had been laid down by Camden’s wish. There was a carefully cordoned off area where we were supposed to fill in the bricks.
I dropped it onto a layer of packed dirt surrounded by strange black rock partitions in vaguely a wall shape, and despite a loud noise and the ground shaking slightly, it held up fine. I wasn’t sure what the hell this structure was made of, but whatever it was it was a LOT sturdier than most E-ranked materials.
“Alright folks.” I announced. “I need someone with a lot of damage potential to try to put a mark on this thing before I add the next one.” I was going to be doing the bottom layer first, so Adam could reach them all, but I wanted to make sure the bricks were a finished product first.
Callie, grinning, strolled over and cracked her neck. Drawing one of her daggers, she gave a shout of effort as she drove the point down right at the block…where it stuck.
Pulling it out, she knelt down to run her finger over the spot it had hit. “An inch deep, maybe two. With my Might that’s nothing to sneeze at. A wall of these should hold up against most things below D-rank. Maybe over some stuff above it, at least for a bit.”
Reaching down, I poured a handful of sand over the knick in the stone and condensed it down into a patch before allowing it to set. Knocking on the result I was satisfied with how it had come out. Then I got to work. Another brick, and another, I stacked them next to each other, having to adjust a few sizewide until I’d completed twenty density shifted bricks, creating a huge chunk of wall about fifty feet by ten filling in part of the foundations.
Turning to Benny, I gestured him forward. My friend whistled at the progress. “Not bad. That density shift is useful I take it? I thought it was just a temporary effect, how are you making them stick like that?”
I chuckled. “I’m cheating. It’s a small flex of Pit of Despair. It converts ground to dust, then converts it back. By forcing the conversion to settle after the dust has been altered it freezes it in that state. Takes some extra effort to push the change, but I think it’s worth it. I’m tapped on density shifts though, so if you’de be so kind.”
He barked out a laugh. “Sure, as long as I’m not the one expected to do manual labor. I wish for twenty points of Focus, I’m paying with twenty charges of density shifted attacks.”
Wish detected. Grant wish?
I confirmed, grinning at the building charge on my skin. “You couldn’t life these blocks with a full crane setup. In order to use you for manual labor you’d have to be USEFUL.” I snickered at his outraged expression as I grabbed his shoulders, the flash of purple electricity running into him and then back to me.
Not that I felt much. Collecting F-ranked attacks at my level wasn’t much more than the tingle of some strong toothpaste.
With the new charges in hand, I got back to work, creating and slamming down bricks on by one. With the foundation as a guide it was easy, and honestly kind of fun. I got lost in the work, enjoying the mild soul strain by the end. Without Piece of Mind active or using Belial directly I wasn’t prodding the sore spot in my soul so I was fine on that front, and it was nice to just…work.
Finally, I used up all the new charges of density shift, and was left staring down at forty fairly large and very sturdy blocks. “Man, we need to get you to E-rank soon so you can do this for me. Twenty at a time isn’t going to do it. Though I guess its good to have a starting point for the enchanters. Once Adam figures out how to tie multiple skill runes together they’re going to need to practice.”
If they fucked up I could replace the bricks, which was why I hadn’t joined them all into one big stone amalgam yet. That would come at the end. I was hoping to get a few more ranks in Dust Construction before the battle too. Three months, three weeks left until showtime, and so much to do.
Adam strolled over, a glowing green brick floating next to him on a cloud of shadows as Callie held it up. I could see a bit of strain on her face, but she was trying to play it off like it wasn’t an effort, so I just ignored it. “So, you get it done?”
He gestured proudly to the brick. “I did. Enchanted with a modified version of your ‘Belial’ Skill.I heard you mention a density enhancement, but that shouldn’t have much effect on the enchanting. I just need you to examine it and make sure it’s functional, then I’ll attempt it on one of the new bricks, and then another and try to link them.”
I studied it, triggering Eye of Revelation with my crown. I examined the weaves of power inside the block, and I was amazed to see a recreation of the very Skill I’d smashed and reworked just yesterday.
“It looks pretty good.” I admired. “Looks like you’ve tweaked the makeup of a few of the fragments, specifically Touch of Tears. I can see they’re different but not what you did?”
He looked pleased. “I did make some changes. The granular macro construction of the pattern was decent, but the more granular makeup was off. I switched some of the Might stats from the poison fragments for Vitality. It might seem counterproductive, but most dangerous poisons have a life component, it gives them more versatility and helps them persist in the face of healing.”
“I hadn’t considered that.” I said with interest. “You’re saying you can reword patterns down to the granular level? Like with particular stats assigned?”
He waggled a hand. “More that I see weak spots with certain analysis Skills and see how to patch them. It’s not perfect, or particularly deep, but it helps now and then. So you think that’s ready to be applied to the wall?”
Poking it again, I checked to see how much resistance I felt. It was hard to calculate freehand, but I was pretty sure it was tougher than it had originally been. Stone Limb reinforced structures but not so much actual rocks. It had a bit of a hardening effect though. Most important was the powerful heat and damage I could feel briefly when I touched it. That was why Callie was floating it instead of carrying it.
“Alright, looks good. Go ahead and try it on one of the blocks already set out.” I pointed to the area where I’d packed in the bricks. He scurried over, kneeling down over one of the outer blocks, and placed a hand on it, beginning to murmur. “So this is one rune right? Does that mean you only need one Impact per enchantment?”
Unlike the style of enchanting they used in the conglomerate, the empire engraved theirs internally using a Skill. It lasted longer but was less immediately powerful. Despite his focus, he was still free to answer though. “Hardly. A natural pattern rune isn’t the same as a form rune. It encompasses multiple aspects of Skill usage. This rune isn’t taking one Impact. It’s taking ten. Why do you think Sonia is only doing one set of that armor per day?”
I nodded in interest, but quieted down. I was using Eye of Revelation again to watch him work, and it was amazing seeing the pattern rune slowly form inside the stone. It looked almost natural there, which was the point, but watching him make it was amazing.
My own forays into enchanting had been lackluster and uninspired. Singular functions modified by specific runes that I had to create by hand, and not particularly powerful ones. I briefly wondered what my runes would look like under Eye of Revelation. It didn’t matter now, I wasn’t an enchanter anymore. By the time he finished, he looked winded, presumably because he’d just used twenty Impact of his sixty three total.
When he was done, the stone had shifted, no longer dark grey, it was now a glossy pitch black with the same lines of erosion. The stone around it was WAY too dense for corrosion to spread too fast, but we would need to take some of the bricks out to prevent them from being damaged between sessions.
“Next one.” He said tiredly. “This is delicate. I know you said you’ll merge the blocks, which means I need to tie the enchantments together so when the objects combine neither one overloads. Otherwise the one will either consume the other or explode.”
Placing his hand on the next block, he began again. I watched once more, intrigued but also wary. When I combined the blocks with my Dust Construction (I’d been training using Pit of Despair more surgically by working on targeting specific rocks) I’d have to make sure not to mess up any of the internal engravings. Song of the Soil would help with that too.
Finally, he finished, slumping onto his side, nearly half his Impact depleted. No wonder he said they’d need help. Luckily enchanters were a dime a dozen here, and now that he’d created the enchantment he could just show it to them instead of relying on their own Skills. Sure, finding enough E-rankers would be tough, but for a job this specific even F-ranked enchanters should work.
I reached down, placing my hand on the bricks, and triggered Belial using the crown. I pushed on Dust construction, noticing how easily I could flex and move the enchanted stones with Belial as a carrier, like they were a part of me. Laughing, I plopped down on the ground next to him, staring in awe at the beginnings of what would become a true masterpiece. I’d need to improve Dust Construction up to hopefully Expert or at least Intermediate…but I could think of so many ways to use this.
Comments
Benjamin Mukasa
This stuff is great. If the goal is to be a holistic ruler in future books then eventually Shane has to grow from just being a warrior
Dylan Alexander
It’s okay, nice to shift it up now and again. Makes sense for when they have land for their own, not to mention if in the future you give them even larger territories in other places. Just think, they could have this massive black-sickly looking fortress as home base.
Malcolm Tent
How is everyone liking the crafting sections? I know in the earlier books they weren't a favorite, but I really enjoy this new skill and its possibilities for city building.
