Emerilia Box Set, page 71
part #1 of Emerilia Series
“I know you need those forms for something but I was wondering if I might be able to do some experimenting with a few ideas I’ve got from Earth.”
“You get me thirty-five panes of glass and one malachite sculpture, then you can experiment as you desire. The sculpture has to be detailed, though!”
“Deal.” Dave held his hand out to her. She nodded and shook it. “Never really been an artsy kind of person, though.” Dave scratched his head.
“Ahh, when needs must, you’ll learn.” Jesal laughed.
***
Dave watched as his sculpture solidified.
“Impressive.” Jesal looked at it. “What is it?”
“It’s Benvari Mountain.” Dave showed it in all its detailed glory before he turned it onto its side and ignited a flame near the peak of the mountain. On the dark wall, a picture appeared of Benvari Mountain from the Nadorf side.
“Impressive. You carved an image in the bottom, using the glass’s ability to allow light through to make a projection. Okay, fine, you get to do your experimenting. Let me know when you have your final project in mind,” Jesal said.
“Thanks, Jesal,” Dave said. He had a lot of work to do.
***
It took him three days to get the supplies he needed, watch as many videos as possible, and start to attempt to work on blowing glass.
“Oh, come on! Damn marble!” The marble Dave was working on was getting warped as he hadn’t turned the glass fast enough. He didn’t even want to try true glassblowing yet, so he was still trying to figure out how to roll things into shape.
He took the malachite and went back to the furnace. His marble deformed under the heat as he returned it to a block. He rolled and turned it into a cylinder, pulling it back out and getting to work on it once again.
“What the heck is he doing now?” Jasper, one of the other smiths who showed promise of becoming a Master Smith, asked.
“I have no idea. I wonder why he needed that hollow piece of metal. Hasn’t even used it yet.” Gorrund stroked his beard in deep thought of the mysteries that Dave had created and brought into his and Jesal’s forge.
“You sure he’s a Dwarf-Halfling? With all of his crazy ideas, he seems at least three-quarters to me.” Jasper grinned.
Gorrund let out a rumbling laugh and slapped Jasper’s back. “Mighty tall three-quarter, and three-quarter just sounds weird. Now go and check out factory three. Check to make sure their rolled support beams are up for holding the new floor coming in.” Gorrund opened his interface, sending the information on the cable’s needs.
“On it.” Jasper opened his interface and walked out of the shop.
“I’ve been thinking about those cables. What if we were to put a thin cord of ebony through them and add in strengthening and anti-corrosion circuits?” Jesal asked, moving from where she had been standing, trying to get another view of Dave’s work.
“Hmm, ebony would be a good conductor—would also make it stronger over time—though how are you going to power it? Get under the houses and put a soul gem to it every time?”
“Well, maybe Dave has a fix for that. He’s the rune dude,” Jesal said.
Gorrund stroked his beard. Replacing cabling was one hell of a chore. With time, metal fatigue and corrosion set in and the cabling fell apart. Having cables that would never fall apart would put a lot of people at ease and ease up on the mandatory checks that ran throughout the year to make sure that a housing district didn’t drop ten feet onto the floor below it.
***
It was another six days until he finally went for his exam.
Dave used tongs to turn the hot metal, spraying it with a blast of fire before blowing on the tube again. He checked his work, moving the glass once more. He moved to the end of the pipe. He pulled out a piece of hot malachite with his tongs, attaching it to the side of his creation.
He pressed it into the rapidly cooling first part. He’d been rolling, using various tools to open it up and give it an edge. Finally, he took his cutting tool to cut the finished product free from the malachite still attached to the blowing rod.
It dropped into a cushioned box, already pretty cool from all of his work.
“So, what is it?” Jesal asked as Gorrund looked over her shoulder.
Dave didn’t answer as he grabbed gloves and held his creation.
Gorrund laughed as they found themselves looking at a large tankard.
“Pretty.” Jesal took off her goggles and looked over the tankard.
“I colored different shards of malachite to add some color to the thing. It should keep your beer nice and cold without having to be made from wood.” Dave grinned, still wearing his goggles and covered in dirt.
“It’s nowhere close to as beautiful as the things that the Ashal Islands can make, but damn if it ain’t functional!” Jesal grinned.
“Well, I say that we go try it out!” Gorrund agreed.
The other Dwarves looked over from their work, checking out the glass tankard Dave had formed with his odd techniques.
“I’ll agree to that!” Dave said.
His notifications were blinking at him once again.
Active Skill: Builder
Level: Expert Level 1
Effect: 65% speed and efficiency.
Required: Tools
New Active Skill: Alchemy
Level: Expert Level 5
Effect: Combine multiple ingredients together. Creations gain a 73% boost in effectiveness
Required: Alchemy tools
Active Skill: Smithing
Level: Master Level 2
Effect: 87% improved quality of smithing creation. 10% Chance to imbue metal with skill. Able to analyze items made of Stone, Iron, Steel, Malachite and Silver.
Active Skill: Soul Manipulation
Level: Expert Level 7
Effect: You understand Soul Manipulation 77% better. Tools you make to manipulate souls and their energy are 77% stronger.
Cost: Dependent on creation.
Active Skill: Magical Circuits
Level: Master Level 5
Effect: 93% chance of creating better Magical Circuits and understanding them. 20% Reduction of cost.
Cost: Dependent
Level 60
You have reached Level 60; you have 285 stat points to use.
Stat Increase
+2 Strength
+7 Intelligence
+1 Willpower
+1 Endurance
With all of these new techniques and ways that I’m using, it makes sense that my Intelligence is still increasing. I have a feeling that it’s going to be my largest category by far.
As he swiped away the notification, he could almost feel as if the world weighed less on him and that he was able to think clearer. At the lower levels, there had still been large changes but it was only now that Dave was truly paying attention to them.
At higher stat levels, when he gained a level, it was easier to see what the difference was. At a lower level, his stats went up so fast that it was hard to figure out which was doing what to his body.
Character Sheet
Name:
David Grahslagg
Gender:
Male
Level:
3
Class:
-
Race:
Human/Dwarf
Alignment:
Chaotic Neutral
Unspent points-285
Health:
2,600
Regen:
2.12/s
Mana:
1,390
Regen:
5.70/s
Stamina:
690
Regen:
3.25/s
Vitality:
26
Endurance:
106
Intelligence:
139
Willpower:
114
Strength:
69
Agility:
65
With a grin, he followed Gorrund and Jesal, who studied the glass tankard with interest, talking about different temperatures and about using glass for more things. Having something that was see-through and could be shaped to contain items was useful indeed.
Chapter 24: Creatures of Metal and Malice
Boran-al looked up as his lord entered. He bowed deeply as the figure, vaguely Humanoid and wreathed in shadows, glided into his area.
“My lord, I was not expecting you,” Boran-al said to the floor, remembering his own cultists’ losses all too soon.
“It is no worry, Boran-al. I have come to see how our Creatures of Power fare,” the Dark one said.
Boran-al nodded and bowed. They had recently found that the balancer had his vision lessened. The Dark Lord had never before seen Boran-al’s experiments as the balancer was sure to see them if he went into the unknown area. With the creature’s vision limited, the Dark Lord was checking over his various projects that he had started.
“We have created a number of Demon classes, based off different iterations we have had in the past as well as creatures that the People of Emerilia have encountered. We were also finally able to complete the Lich Lords and Banshees,” Boran-al said into the floor, not daring to come out of his bow.
“Rise. Show me,” the Dark Lord said.
Boran-al raised himself and moved between the various altars and Magical Circuits that lay around them. They came to a table with what looked like a skeletal creature wearing a crown upon its head and almost ethereal shadows clinging to its form.
“Rise,” Boran-al said.
The Lich Lord floated from its position, grabbing a staff of darkness with red runes written down its length. It was hunched over, as if its body had given up trying to support its mass.
Boran-al could feel the power that emanated from the being. He had been experimenting on creations for thousands of years. Although the Undead Demon Lord was one of his creations, he had not powered it and it was only made up of the combination of things that people could find on Emerilia. It was because of this that it was not classified as a Creature of Power. The cultists had attained the body and then proceeded to animate its undead flesh with their own powers, firmly making it a creation under their power.
With so much time on his hands, the ability to change and form creatures as he wanted and with his lord’s permission, Boran-al had spent centuries playing with different forms of monsters and listening to the Players who talked of great dark and powerful beasts.
The Dark Lord walked around the Lich. The Lich bowed its head, understanding the power that the Dark Lord wielded.
“Very well. Begin seeding them across Emerilia. For now, they are to lie in wait and build their strength.”
“Yes, my lord.” Boran-al’s voice caught as he bowed.
“Speak,” the Dark Lord said, sensing that he had something new to say.
“We worked with the Demons a lot and we started a breeding program for them. Using my own power, as you instructed, I created a place for them to study their habits. It was an experiment but there have been a number of interesting results and their population is rather large.”
“Show me.” The Dark Lord’s voice was hungry and cold.
“Yes, my lord.” Boran-al guided him between the various creatures that he had spent hundreds of years creating. They moved to an area where a magical crystal looked over a large town of Demons. There were all kinds, from those that flew to those massive ones that stood at twelve-foot-tall or quicker ones that stood at just five feet.
The Dark Lord’s aura seeped out as a hand of shadow manipulated the controls. Different scenes were shown as Demons ripped apart one another with a viciousness few other monsters would show.
“I adapted them from the Demons of Xelur. They have the symptoms of the same Demons—an unending hunger that twists and warps their mind with hunger for more. Unlike the Xelur, they gain little respite for killing their prey. They cannot absorb souls. At a later stage, if they teach themselves, then smarter ones might rise to power. Those that advance the furthest are those that dabble in magics to feed or curb their insatiable hunger for souls.”
“I am impressed, Boran-al. Make sure that these creatures understand who their ruler is. I do not want to destroy them all over again,” the Dark Lord said.
“Thank you, my lord.” Boran-al bowed, shivering slightly at the aura the Dark Lord emanated.
The Dark Lord’s hands stretched and contracted in anger.
I knew that the Demon princes angered the Dark Lord. I forgot how angry he was when his incarnated Creatures of Power turned against their master, attempting to kill him.
He had delved into the death magic and manipulation magic born of the Dark Affinity but the Dark Lord’s aura made him feel insignificant, as if an ant looking at a magnifying glass.
“Get the Dark Elves to prepare for them. It is time that they once again marched across Emerilia.” The Dark Lord left the room.
“Yes, my lord,” Boran-al said with a hungry voice. His people had long ago looked into the darker arts; their Elven brethren had discarded them and turned to attacking them as the Elves delved deeper into the magic of the Dark.
Dark magic had turned to death magic with curses, hexes, and necromancers as the Elves continued to attack their cast-out brethren. It had grown a hatred within the Dark Elves that led them to allying themselves completely to the Dark Lord.
Boran-al was one of them. His parents had died on the run and he had been raised by his uncle, a man who had fully turned to the dark and deadly side of magic. His uncle had died later on, sowing the darkness deep in Boran-al’s soul.
While the Elves had lived their lives ignoring the things that they had done to their brethren who were interested in Dark magic, the Dark Elves had worked and studied to become masters of death and Dark. They no longer just tried to understand the inanimate of Emerilia. Now they lived to cause others pain and sow destruction across the land so that only the inanimate remained.
“I wonder what a reunion it will be as we meet with our long-lost cousins.” Boran-al sighed softly, his face warped into a cold and twisted smile that made even the Lich Lord back away in fear.
***
Suzy looked at the small metal figures that moved across the training square.
“Well done,” Malsour said, looking over the different creatures.
Suzy smiled. Malsour might love to nerd out over magic but he was also a really good teacher. He had certainly taught her a lot about creations made from metal. She could create and control two Human-sized golems and had quickly moved on to metal. It was harder to make creatures of metal and the Mana cost was many times that of the golems.
The metal figures were a hand tall but there were only four of them. They needed Mana to not only transfer her presence into them, but to keep them moving. Earth creations would fall apart if they were not powered by Mana.
The metal creations would stop moving, needing the Mana to heat up their bodies so that the metal was supple. They were also surprisingly interchangeable. With the metal, it took a decent amount of Mana but Suzy could turn them from people-looking models, to roaming squids and anything in between.
With Earth, it was easier to create one doll and then imbue it with energy. Moving earth, rocks, and sticks around was much harder than melting metal and shifting it around.
“Now try to hit that target with one of them.” Malsour pointed to a target ten feet away.
Suzy sent a command to one of her servants and it sent out a lance of metal. She frowned as the lance failed to reach the target and it rebounded back into the model.
“Now try that again and detach the metal from the model.”
The model sent out a lance of metal again, but this time the end disconnected before it ran out and sped out to slam into the target.
“Good. Now why weren’t you able to hit it the first time?”
“I wasn’t close enough.”
“That is one factor. The other is because you didn’t have enough metal. When you are fighting with your metal figures, it is most likely that they will transform their bodies into weapons. The more metal they have, the more damage they can do as they can hit targets farther away. With metal, you need to move away from the melee aspect that you would get with your Earth creations and toward the weapons based.”
“How do you mean?” Suzy asked.
“There are the six different creations based off the different Affinities. Earth is good at close combat; they are usually heavy and not all that mobile but their hits are extremely powerful. Air is created from different types of gaseous chemicals that can be used to create area effect damage with either their stored gasses or the air blades they have. Water is much the same. Fire is good at close combat but they are more agile than strong. Dark is good at range; give them a supply of metal and they will be the best archers you know, hurling metal spears into battle. Light has a greater range and they can hit faster, but their hitting power is greatly decreased. They are the hardest to create and least versatile as you need to have a supply of Light to keep them active and replenished. Dark creations can fight no matter the time.”
“So how strong are the Light creations?”
“It reflects on a person’s ability with Light Affinity and their ability with summoning. They are the hardest to make, but in no way impossible. Right now, you don’t have a grasp of them.” Malsour shrugged. “But in a few months, who knows?”
Suzy nodded, taking it in.
“Now, another thing that metal creatures are good for is providing reconnaissance. If a place you are attacking has good air defenses, they’ll pick up the disturbances that an air servant makes. If their ground defenses aren’t as good—and they rarely are—then you can get your servants inside to create havoc.”
