Chương 77: BECMI Chapter 76 – Prepping for Adventure

Belle already had the additional Hit Die for elves, of course, and was enthusiastically throwing herself into martial skills. The only thing she was using magic for was improvement to her Armor and Weapons, her Stat improvements, and downtime crafting add-ons, Energizing, and things like Eternal Lights she could give away, as well as Healing duties.

Gaining the blessing of Heaven for a Healing Reserve was also on the table for her, but it required a lot of Healing spells be Cast without compensation to earn it, and even more to upgrade it. She had many such spells under her belt, but after learning that it would take a thousand Valences of such spells to qualify, she had resolved that one of the things she would be pursuing would be the use of lots and lots of Healing magic, even if it was only on herself.

Using spells in combat to solve problems was off the table almost entirely. This trip was to hone her martial combat skills, not show how powerful spells could resolve issues more quickly and efficiently. As such, her combat spells were limited to those of a non-Wizard elf, severely restricting her choices, even if her high Caster Level of 30 meant those spells would still be quite strong when used.

For instance, her Greater Magic Weapon and Magical Vestment spells lasted all day, and could easily be tied-off to ensure that she always had at least one greatly superior Weapon. There were no true master bowmen among the King's forces, that skill being fairly distinct to the elven clans living in the Darkmoor area… which would be among our next stops. I was not surprised to learn that there was active higher technology here after encountering the lich Benjamin Horst.

I was surprised that it was out in the open and being used so blatantly, however, but it was clearly considered to be just another brand of ancient and unknown magic.

"Gaining such an archaic beast-robot from a Dungeon is impressive, however." I ducked back and away from another blizzard of thrusts, watching his form closely. His spear and lance work was exceptional, after all, and I was upgrading my own skills. Grandmastery waited for no one!

"Have you gained aught else of such a strange brand of magic?" I asked him shortly.

"Aye, there have been… strange trophies acquired in battle. Some of them come from the Ei of Hazz, some are believed to come from the Palace of the Gods," he confirmed for me quietly, intimating it was not something spoken of much. Well, didn't that sound all kinds of ominous. The Ei I'd heard of before, and its magitech was clearly unclean and bent towards mental domination.

"The Palace of the Gods?" I twisted aside from a thrust, danced over the sweep, parried a butt-snap at my knee, and nearly skewered his ear in return. We both sprang apart, him smiling excitedly at a good bout.

"Aye, that is what they are calling it. Whispers and rumors of a great fortress spun entirely of silvery metal, that descended from the heavens themselves," he nodded somberly.

"Supposedly it lies in the mountains to the south and west, near the Korshwa lands claimed by the Duchy of Elb and its Khirifi conquerors, and the tower of Daffid the Red." The foremost Wizard of the North, there. Well, that was right where the FS Barhund had crashed. I guess the source of some of the tech was now easy to explain, although how much Darkmoor had gotten ahold of remained to be seen. The fact I could advance the technological paradigm of this place very quickly was also very much on the table.

I continued my training with the Azure Knight, only exhaustion slowing us down. I could Heal away any injuries either of us suffered with my own Reserve, so enthusiastic sparring was the rule, rather than the exception. That, in turn, generated many Healing opportunities for Belle, who was upping her spellcounts by a score of Cure spells a day!

The fact One a Day had made the Free Company the most awesomely tough bunch of bastards the locals had ever seen didn't hurt either, giving plenty of hit points to work through and thus be Healed up! A similar situation existed for the Clerics of the party. Revered Cruxin was very circumspect about such Healing, of course, as there were no known dwarf-clerics in this time period!

Questioning the local dwarves, especially the Master hammer-wielder who was giving him lessons, had confirmed much of what I'd said, and Clangyr was utterly unknown to the dwarves here by that name. They served the Immortal Harnadin the Smith-Father, also lauded as the creator of the dwarves, a somewhat distant Immortal who largely left them to their own devices. And yes, dwarf-mages did exist, exactly as I'd told them.

That was the major impetus of my dwarven followers: to learn the secrets of Earth Magery and bring them back to the future! If Revered Cruxin was contemplating using a Commune with Immortal Harnadin, his beliefs in Clangyr shaken by this news, that was for him to decide. Prince Ukker, on the other hand, was totally looking forward to mastering the magic of the dwarves.

In a spatial pocket bound to his hand, a Soul Crystal with forty-five spell Levels of gammathauma energy was bound inside a Shaped Ruby that shielded it all from the effects of the sun, binding and mixing it with the Earthpower he himself had been shown how to bring in and combine with it. It formed a Power Orb, a tool and Implement of magic that could hold the arcane energies that 'modern' dwarves no longer could.

The other dwarves with potential to be Artificers or Earth Mages also had Power Orbs, although theirs were either of diamond or black opal, respectively, with ten to twenty charges within them. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. They'd spent a lot of time in Meditation at night with me, learning to feel the earthpower that ran through them and powered their own resistance to spells and magic.

That same power imbued the gammathauma energies with solidity and resilience, removing the poisonous effects of it, and made it available for use as magic. They had the power available to them, now they just needed to learn the magicks to use them! As a result, all of them were looking keenly forward to journeying to Mount Krynstyr and meeting with the Regent of the Mines, gaining instruction in the means of their ancestors and bringing such knowledge home to their own clans.

They were also clearly not of native dwarven clans, as their skin tended to be in lighter shades of tan to gray, while the native dwarves varied from a deep ruddy honey to almost coal black in hue. More of the native dwarves were red of hair, with Prince Ukker's gold a rare and very respected hue among them, although the tendency to graying and silver among the Rukheim dwarves also attracted attention from the locals.

A Geas had made sure the dwarves could not speak about the future and what it held, and especially say nothing of Clangyr. Given that the aghast dwarves now knew their forefathers were not the first of their kind, and the faiths of their true ancestors had no mention of Clangyr at all, they were in fact keenly interested in discovering the truth of the matter. This timeline was going to have completely different results than our own, I was certain.

The native dwarves had also been utterly astonished that so many elves, especially one as strange as me, had been named Dwarf-Friend. After seeing how smoothly and viciously elves and dwarves worked together, they also held their tongues at such strangeness, as it was totally plain that all of them had been through dire combat together, and trusted one another with their lives. That, and they all trusted and obeyed me without hesitation.

It was also plain to anyone watching that Princess Brittabelle was nobility, given the deference all of us showed her, but there was never any mention of her title or station, and she was only called 'Belle' by everyone.

The power of her Healing magic was as great as any Priest, however, and it was readily apparent that she had at least as much magical power as I did, albeit she was coming up short in the martial area and was working zealously on that weakness, to the great approval of everyone in this warrior society. Indeed, no one had ever seen elves with Healing magic before, so it was obvious that they were as new and strange to the area as the Rukheim dwarves were.

Although they spoke nothing of it, the fact was also that I'd spent Wishes during my forty-year imprisonment to raise the Intellects of every dwarf following me to 13, thus allowing each and every one of them to learn a magical art. The gold value to purchase so many Wishes was beyond them to meet, a king's ransom each, and the gift that allowed them to wield magic priceless in comparison. Naming me a Dwarf-Friend was a small thing for them to grant after what they had received from me.

Wishes and Miracles were thus the main use of my IX Valences. I was more concerned about raising their weak Stats than increasing their high Stats, as it was a more efficient use of my time. The lowest Stat among them all had been a Northman named Bronk with an Intellect of 6, basically told whatever he needed to do by the others and once considered as dense as an oak.

Guy's Wisdom of 7 wasn't much better, but his rashness had evaporated over the years of our trip back through time as I helped everyone improve, and his impulsiveness had given way to cunning and thoughtfulness as he, too, was at a solid 13 there now. It was a lot of magic to spend, but I had spent it on them, IX's released to that intent during my forty years in the Inn. The Wishes native to here cost nothing to Cast, and if they couldn't exceed mortal limits like Matrix ones could, that was totally fine.

Matrix-style Wishes and Miracles could exceed mortal limits with Inherent bonuses and a lot of sacrificed goldweight, but those I couldn't use without risking a lot of attention. The Immortals here had made it very, very difficult for mortals to attain Immortal-level Stats, and giving them to my followers would have attracted attention neither they nor I wanted. Easier instead to spend the native magic, slowly and surely upping the Stat lines of those beholden to me and around me.

It did mean that my Free Company didn't have a single Stat below 13 now, which was life-changing for all of them, and made them elites in every sense of the word.

Time passes in hard Weapon Mastery training...

"Lady Edge, we have a problem!" a rather frantic King Antius called out to me, coming into the training area we were using near the Thisbean Inn. The training of the Company was almost complete. Every single one of them was at least Expert in a weapon now, most Skilled in a second, with the higher-Level members actually touching on Mastery. A little Karma and field experience would seal the deal, so I was waiting on that, with only Belle trailing behind since she had started from basically base proficiency.

She spent a lot of Healing magic on herself pursuing greater aptitude, too. Her people back home would have been shocked to see how their demure and retiring ruler was handling herself here! I myself needed to be a Fifteen to attain Grandmastery, so that was going to have to wait regardless of any other matters. Rank H was very close...

We were located near the Thisbean Inn because the Permanent Distance Distortion area had given the Inn a large amount of room for expansion, all while completely disguising that fact from the ordinary clientele. Making up additional living quarters as an impromptu garrison for the Free Company was a given, as was expanding the stores of the Inn itself to compensate. Procuring more rare and precious victuals to bolster his larder made the eyes of Master Lalo gleam with good cheer.

"Your Majesty?" I responded, eyeing his carefully non-frantic demeanor.

"We have lost one of our most important young nobles, Lady Edge! Allisa Biergart, Baroness of the Lochs, has gone missing!" he informed me worriedly, and swept a keen eye over the closer members of my Company.

"You need an investigation with all speed and haste," I deduced at his expression, and maybe something a little bit more than just concern for a noble.

"Tell me what facts you know."

"She was leading a patrol along the edges of her Barony, near the Great Vile Fen. It appears her patrol was ambushed by hostile forces, and any survivors and bodies taken away and into the Fen itself." He paused to see how much I was following.

"I assume they moved to the water, or your scouts could have tracked them. It would also be quicker," I reflected, watching him nod.

"Who do you believe is responsible?"

"The Batrachian Cult," he winced slightly, but grimly. I'd had dinner with him several times over the past month, as well as Great Jordie the Bishop of Darkmoor and various other notables.

"The cult of frog-worshipers?" I asked in some disbelief. There were definitely demon lords of frogs, type II's even looked like them, but an actual cult of frog worshipers? I wanted to roll my eyes in shame at what mortals would follow...