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HC: Pacifist | Ch. 304 - Crafting Zone
🕑 Added 2024-07-16 11:55:37 +0000 UTCThe Lord of the Oak had successfully created four galleries that branched from the Benefactor Tunnel, cutting across the Great Green. The plan was to dig the tunnel like a tree. Extensive galleries branched from the Benefactor Tunnel into ever smaller galleries. Eventually, the whole Great Green would be connected.
The number of trees hooked up to the grid had grown to 6, and the results were promising. The extra surplus in bioenergy was already being used to encourage growth. Plants in the holdings passed on some of their vitality to their new neighbors, allowing them to stretch their roots and reach for a neighbor to hang on to. The potential of the grid grew with each new connection.
Adding some of the trees at the entrance of the Great Green was already enough to make the stinger operate more smoothly. It wouldn’t be long before more drills could be used without overloading the power grid. In the Oak Palace, weavers worked tirelessly to spin silk, which helped braid roots, while chitinsmiths and engineers did their best to finish two new drills.
Everything was going well. Whatever resistance they found in the tunnels was disposed of quickly, and at this rate, perhaps in a week, they could reach a point where they helped the benefactor reach his goals.
BWAAAAAAAAAA!
The ground shook. It wasn’t the usual tremor of the giants' steps above or the intruders in the tunnels. No. This was a different kind of vibration. It was gentle and melodic. It infected the Lord’s mind with a buzz. The tiny sparks of energy running through the colony grew quicker and mightier. They became almost like lightning.
Problems that had been impossibly complicated became simple. Knot-like conundrums came untangled before the Lord’s eyes. Inspiration for new living constructs and ways of using chitin, leaves, silk, and bioenergy surged through the Lord in an overwhelming moment of clarity.
It wasn’t just the colony's communal mind that felt inspired. Diggers who had been blindly striking the ground suddenly could identify and hit the weak points in the gallery, loosening the soil. The stinger drill operators were also suddenly inspired, squeezing the potential of the drills and of the energy grid with incredible results. It was as if, suddenly, the number of workers in the colony had doubled.
Back on base, the artisans and workers quickly finished their current tasks and were already planning for newer, grander ones. It was as if someone had suddenly removed gravity, and the colony was lighter and faster now.
How was this possible? The Lord stretched his mind, trying to understand the reason for this phenomenon, and with the added clarity of this beautiful vibration, it finally honed in on its source. He could feel the benefactor’s mind deep underground, radiating and pulsing like the molten core of a living world. He was the source of this inspiration. He was sharing this ascended state with the empire.
Thrilled, the Lord reorganized every team and reformulated his every plan. The benefactor had produced yet another miracle. He had elevated the great empire to new heights. In return, the empire would carry out the mission the benefactor gave even sooner than they had promised.
*
When Jack blew that horn, Roth became stuck in a daydream. He couldn’t hear the hammers that struck the anvils with precise, fast rhythm around him, like a complex melody on a metallophone. He couldn’t hear the utter silence that dispensed Jack’s or Godsfried’s directions or the single-minded, scary devotion of each craftsman on the 82nd floor. He couldn’t hear the hissing valves, the roaring forges, or the sizzle of fiery metal being tempered in oil.
It wasn’t just Roth’s senses that felt numb; his mind was too. The allhorn had turned him into a horse with blinders. He was blind to his past. Memories that usually bothered him and that he had to repress, such as the people he’d mistreated during his adolescence and his time in New Earth, the time when he beat Loki half-to-death, or all his time in prison, became too distant and faint to have a hold on him.
Whenever his mind tried to think of his present, his thoughts slippered, unable to hold on to his worries about his current predicaments or how he was stuck in a death trap. Likewise, the impossible cascade of notifications from the Leafies or the messages from his brothers, Mel, and friends failed to reach him.
The allhorn also veiled his future. Anxieties about his future, how to reach the top10 and what his life would be like if he ever broke out of AstroTerra were too distant. In his whole universe, there was only the laser, the glass gun, and the vacuum maker.
Roth kept drawing the same shape repeatedly: a square with its corners linked in an X shape. His hand never wavered or trembled. He steadily fired the laser on every piece of armor passing by his hands. Instead of making slow, repeated passes over the pattern, he made the whole pattern in one slow, fluid motion.
Finishing one more trap in but a minute, he grabbed the glass gun. He placed three flat mirrors in three corners and rotated the dial of his glass gun to the new shape at level 15 of light trapping. Instead of bulging outward like a ‘D’ shape, the mirror bulged inward like a ‘C’: a concave mirror.
Instead of dispersing the laser, it concentrated it, making it much easier to align the final beam of light in a sealed trap. Without hesitation, he placed the four glass beads in their position on the first try. The whole thing took him two minutes, and he was already repeating the process on a shield.
Piles of chest plates and shields waiting for their turn to be sealed littered Roth’s workstation. In the time it took the vacuum maker to seal one trap, Roth could carve two. However, Roth never stopped.
Beep!
The vacuum maker finished sealing a shield. Roth placed a new piece of equipment in the vacuum maker, took the sealed shield, and pointed the laser at the concave mirror, adjusting the angle until every mirror caught the beam in the trap. The concave mirror focused the red energy beam, and the trap quickly charged.
The beam of light bounced between the four mirrors of the square until there was a shiny red square. Roth then readjusted the angle, charging the two straight lines crossing the square.
Congratulations! You’ve crafted [Crossed Diagonal Square Trap].
+2000 [Light Trapper] XP.
Light trapper level up!
Roth threw the shield to the pile of finished equipment and got working on the next one. Halfway through the trap, pain flashed across his temples. The concentration bubble burst and Roth became aware of the other dwarves around him, groaning and shaking their heads. As he glanced over at Jack, he gasped. He was drenched in sweat and had red eyes. Did Roth also look like that?
Roth looked at one of the shields near him, caught his reflection, and gasped. He, too, looked disheveled and spent. Before Roth could call out to Jack or check any of the messages, Jack was already blowing the horn again.
BWAAAAAAAAAA!
The horn crumpled to dust in Jack’s hand, and Roth was dragged back into the dream-like state of the crafting zone.
*
Loki sat on the comfortable gold-leaf-covered chairs with purple and silver cornucopia upholstery. He perused through the many reports and memos as he sipped on the tea served by O’Shaughnessy’s assistant.
“That’s not what I was expecting,” Loki admitted as he saw the video filmed by Anak. When he heard of a big fuss in Sapphira with reports of earthquakes and weird warcries, Loki sent the local division to investigate. It turned out that it was related to the floor purchased by the dwarves.
The floor was on lockdown, only stirring Loki’s curiosity further. The dwarf patrols successfully intercepted all Pegasus rogues sent to check in on what was happening there. Given how Sapphira was the hometown of O’Shaughnessy, Loki asked Anak to send someone who would get some answers. Finally, a rogue from the intelligence division infiltrated the floor and recorded this video.
Pale dwarves with sunken red eyes, disheveled hairs, and beards swung their hammers with scary passion. They all seemed to be working on the same kind of item, even though Loki couldn’t identify it. The video was cut short when the rogue tried to steal one of the pieces of equipment, alerting a nearby patrol.
Dwarves were infamous for their crafting abilities. However, that was all they could do. Crafting. While curious to see the details of the items they were making, Loki dismissed this as a local game event and decided to focus on the more pressing issues at hand.
Jaw-Long had finally answered him back. He read through the message carefully, and his lips broke into a thin, bloodthirsty smile. The old fox had agreed. All that was left was to make the preparations for the ambush. This was the best news he’d received all week. He typed a reply to Jaw-Long and arranged a personal meeting in the Core to fine-tune the details. He would meet him down there after he was done here.
Moving on to the Pegasus situation in the Dark Abyss, things weren’t looking good for the guild. Despite Yillian and PutridMouse’s valiant efforts, the number of players traveling to Crownia kept increasing. Even though Pegasus PKing was slowing down the growth of newly arrived players, they couldn’t hold them indefinitely.
The Ogres, the Griffins, and the Basilisks had moved a considerable portion of their forces into Crownia, and several other small guilds were looking to start a branch in the new region. Loki was the first to get there and knew the area better than anyone, but he couldn’t fight all these guilds alone. Additionally, there was a powerful NPC on top of Crownia. No one was allowed to the top of the dark tower, and all the scouts and rogues Loki had sent to investigate had been one-shot. They reported seeing a dark shadow before being killed and spawning in another region, even though they had saved their spawn point in Crownia.
Stilettos clacking against the stony floor drew Loki’s attention away from the reports, and he spotted a lady in a business suit approaching. “Mr. Loki, the president will see you now.”
“Thank you.”
Loki followed after the assistant and found the powerful NPC who had secured him a ticket into number 7 of the rankings of the top 10 guilds.
O’Shaughnessy was wearing a vest that weirdly reminded Loki of the upholstery of the chairs outside. He could swear that the fabric was almost identical. His long forehead had harder lines than before he assumed the presidency. The office had aged the NPC somewhat.
“Mr. President,” Loki said respectfully.
“Loki, please have a seat. What can I do for my good friend?”
“How goes the political scene of the capital, Mr. President?”
The man smiled gently. “Even though the gardens back home are being hit with some kind of pest, thanks to your contributions and the stockpile the family kept, I finally cut a deal with Captain Byrd. He has promised me a meeting with the North General later this week. I hope that with his help, I can steer the senate more easily.”
“That’s great, Mr. President.”
O'Shaughnessy leaned back on his chair and stared at Loki, amused. “I doubt that asking about my well-being is what brought you here, Loki.”
“Mr. President, you know that I have a soft spot for nurturing scientists and explorers, and I have made a sizeable personal investment in the Dark Abyss.”
O’Shaugnessy frowned. “The dark lands are better kept alone, Loki. Men forgot them for a reason.”
“Oh yes. True. Although, I was surprised to hear that they discovered a city in the region.”
“A city?”
“You haven’t heard? Crownia, they call it.”
“A human city? In the Dark Abyss?” O’Shaughnessy asked.
“It must be one of the ancient cities. Who knows what secrets it lies? They say that birds inhabit the place. Crows, from what I hear. But there’s a functioning infrastructure with a marketplace and a teleportation gate. All unregulated by the capital.”
There was a flash of greed in O’Shaughnessy’s eyes. “That’s unfortunate.”
“I was wondering if you would consider maybe regulating the city. Of course, I’ll be willing to help, but without the capital’s military, it would be impossible to secure the city.”
O’Shaughnessy drummed his fingers on the table. “Moving the army can be expensive, Loki, and the city’s budget is tight. Would you be willing to donate if we went through with it?”
“Of course, Mr. President.”
“Let me see how the meeting with the North General goes. However, what you propose is interesting. Come back with enough money for a campaign in three days, and we’ll discuss this further.”
You’ve received a new quest: [Conquering Crownia].
Conquering Crownia (Legendary)
Description: A city was discovered in the Dark Abyss, and the president wants to add it to the capital’s domain.
Objectives: Come back after three days with 10 million gold, ready to finance an excursion to the Dark Abyss.
“I’ll be here, Mr. President.”
Loki was surprised. Legendary quests were incredibly rare. Maybe the appearance of Crownia was a blessing in disguise.
Ch. 303 - Allhorn
Ch. 305 - Symbiotic Craftsmanship
Comments
Coleman
Loki has finally discovered that the game was designed to be interacted with. Everybody is in danger.
Daniel
"Loki leaned back on his chair and stared at Loki, amused. “I doubt that asking about my well-being is what brought you here, Loki."" Looks like somebody here quite likes to talk to himself 😉
