Chương 11: Picking the Bones Clean

Ch. 11 - Picking the Bones Clean The goblins gloried in their feast for over a week, and every night they dined, the Ebon Blade did, too. It tried not to consume them completely, but sometimes, it misjudged their strength and left them as one more corpse for their companions to devour. That wasn't so bad. It needed something to feed its growing tribe. After weeks, the pile of dragon meat had slowly been reduced to nothing but scales and bones. That didn't matter to the weapon.

By then it reached a full 2000 points of Life Force.

That was quite an achievement. It would have been enough for the blade to last for a season up here in solitude. That was a large margin for safety, but that wasn't what it needed now, not as long as the goblins continued to feast and fight like there was no tomorrow. What it needed was options to extract it from this mess. It considered several. Increase Control 3 was the most promising but also the most expensive.

It would certainly let it control even stronger wielders, which was something it craved to do, but whether it would allow it to do some from a distance was a more open question, and that seemed unlikely. Increase Control 3: You can already dominate a weak wielder, but as your power increases, a strong one can be directed and pushed more readily. Where your interests align, they are powerless against you. Every day, and nearly every hour after sunset, at least one goblin would pass within a few feet of it.

Sometimes, they would pass within a few inches, and yet none of them would lift up that cursed wing membrane and investigate the glow they would surely find. It was maddening. If I was in the hands of a goblin now, I could simply cut my own path back to civilization and find a proper wielder, it roared silently to itself. Increase Control would be very expensive if it was the wrong choice. So, instead, it considered other, cheaper options. Parasitic Link and Increase Senses 2 were both very cheap.

Both of them together could be had for less than the cost of increasing its reserves again, but would they actually help it in any scenario? The blade had no idea. It simply knew it would be a cheaper mistake. Still, the taste of lesser monster souls made it crave the killing of humans once more. It had three of the things now, and though it didn't know when it would devour them, it relished the moment. In the end, after more than a day of deliberation, it decided to go with Increase Control 3.

Despite the expense, more control was a choice it would never regret. It wanted absolute control over whoever picked it up. As soon as it tried to spend the lifeforce, though, it encountered an error. Error, Increase Control 3 cannot be obtained without first selecting Increase Connection 3. That infuriated the Ebon Blade. It didn't want to understand those who held it. It wanted to own them. The idea that it needed one to do the other seemed pointless. One did not need to understand or even persuade to command.

Out of sheer irritation for that pointless requirement, it opted not to go down that road for now. Instead, it went with the cheaper options after momentarily considering repairing its soul further. Both of those purchases were completed smoothly, but neither of them appeared to have any of the unexpected side effects it had hoped to find. Parasitic Link: Why bear the cost for your existence when your wielder could do that for you?

This ability prevents you from falling to zero as long as you are wielded by someone, but it still does not allow you to drain your own wielder. Increase Senses 2: Dim shapes become sharper, and light is entirely optional for you. You can see more than just weaknesses in the armor of those around you now, and in so doing you can better understand the world, and what it is you must do. Though it had no way of testing the first power, the second one seemed to work exactly as described.

That reduced its available power to 1600/2000 Life Force. It still had enough to do almost anything it wanted within reason, though its options had grown smaller.

Aura of Hunger: Multiple enhancements available Increase Reserves 7: 500 Life Force Increase Connection 3: 600 Life Force Repair Soul 2: 1000 Life Force Increase Control 3: 1500 Life Force - needs Increase Connection 3 Empower Blade 2: 2000 Life Force - not currently accessible Improved Siphon 7: 2000 Life Force It could devour its foes faster, hold on to more Life Force, expand its connection with its wielder, or repair its soul. Almost all of those were useful, but none of them were what it needed at this moment.

It began to kill goblins more often after that. It didn't do so out of boredom or even out of frustration but in an effort to make what meat that remained last longer and gather their souls for later use as a sort of emergency reserve. They had already tried and failed many times to break open the dragon's bones to suck out the marrow, but dragon bone was a hardy thing, and it resisted all their efforts, which left them the gristle, the sinew, and all the other parts that had been picked over time and again.

Truthfully, the blade began to lose hope that it would ever leave this foul cavern. Fortunately, that's when the humans arrived. The goblins heard the sound of strangers approaching first, but when it saw them perk up, it focused more on what was happening. Two men, followed by a third, entered the cave, one at a time. All were armed, but the way they fought the goblins implied that they weren't particularly skilled. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

These aren't warriors, it told itself as it observed the newcomers. Still, one did not have to be skilled to kill goblins, and as much as it hated to see its flock slaughtered like that, it welcomed the arrival of them. When it became clear that the men would not be dislodged, the surviving goblins retreated to a more defensible position deeper within the crag.

The blade responded by spending 250 Life Force to increase the breadth of its Aura of Hunger so it could affect five of them and began to drain the weakest immediately. It could no longer graze on the entire tribe, but it could gather as many souls as possible if this didn't go well for it. While it sucked the wounded goblins dry, the explorers or adventurers or whatever they were seemed content to throw a few torches back there to make sure that the red-eyed vermin stayed as far away as possible.

"How far back do you reckon it goes, Gern?" the youngest one asked.

"Not too far," the one who seemed to be their leader grunted as he tore a bit from his cloak to wrap around a nasty bite on his forearm.

"Dragons like nice small spaces they can fill, so I doubt this leads to a full-fledged goblin warren. More like this bugger died of old age or something, and these little bastards found its corpse."

"Old age?" the third one asked.

"Don't you think this one's a little small for that, Pa?"

"Don't you get smart with me," the older man grumbled.

"I don't care what killed the fire-breathin' bastard; we can just clean this place out and cash out big time. This could be the big score. Retirement money."

"Cash out? Retire? You? Never?" the man's son said. Both of the younger men laughed at that, but even as they were chatting, they got to work. +1 Life Force +1 Life Force +1 Life Force You have gained a lesser monster soul! Once the goblins were well away, they unloaded several packs that seemed to contain more mining equipment and sacks than weapons or camping supplies. The blade could appreciate that. Unlike the simpering shepherd it had been stuck with before, these people obviously had experience and a plan.

They started chipping slag off the walls in various places, looking for where the metal was thickest and of the highest quality. Not all dragon shit was apparently created equal, and there were several times when they argued whether or not a section was platinum or silver. Gold never caused an argument, though. Each time they found that they immediately marked it. +1 Life Force +1 Life Force You have gained a lesser monster soul!

While they did all of this, the blade not only finished off the weakest of the goblins, and started feasting on the strongest. It also learned about the new people. Gern was the oldest and seemed to have been a less-than-successful prospector, treasure hunter, and mercenary his whole life. He was accompanied by his son, Mika, who was in his thirties, and his apprentice, Kell, who was barely old enough to start growing a beard.

With as thorough as they were being, the blade thought that they would find it in the first hour or two, but that didn't happen. The way that the goblins had rolled the giant carcass to get at the last bits of flesh, they'd all but buried it. So, it wasn't until the second day, when Kell was gathering loose dragon scales and adding them to a pile that they might or might not take with them, that he finally saw the red glow from the blade's ruby hilt. The Ebon Blade did not sit idly by in that time.

First, it killed all of the goblins and then it increased its storage, but only because it noticed a new qualifier on the ability that made it more appealing. After that, it only had 1178/3000 Life Force and 12/14 souls. The blade had no idea if that was a little or a lot, but as things stood right now, it had one dragon soul and eleven lesser monster souls from the goblins, and all it wanted was to get the ten human souls necessary to increase its death rank.

In fact, it wanted that more than anything, but that was still a ways off. It would have loved to start with these three humans, but if it killed them, there was no telling when someone else would arrive. Instead, all it did was nibble at the old man while he was asleep to see if it would wake him up which it fortunately did not. In the morning, he complained to the others that he'd slept like shit, but that was it.

With three people to feed on while they sleep, I at least won't start to drop again for as long as they're here, the blade reassured itself. It didn't dare try to nibble at them while they were awake until it was somewhere more public. Fortunately, it never came to that because eventually Kell called out, "Hey, I think I found what killed it!" That got both men to stop what they were doing and help the younger man.

Though Kell didn't have the strength to pull the dragon's carcass away from the wall, all three of them together did, and when they moved it just enough, Kell slid in and yanked the blade free. Suddenly, a hand closed around its hilt after more than a month of solitude, and the Ebon Blade felt reborn. It didn't attempt to communicate with the young man or even to control him. It didn't want to do anything to spook him, not in the middle of nowhere. That could come later.

For now all it did was look at him, and gauge him as a possible wielder. Name: Kell Occupation: Prospector's Apprentice Toughness: 5 Strength: 6 Agility: 5 Speed: 5 Status: Normal Intelligence: Average Willpower: Average Bloodlust: Low Morality: Good Martial Skill: Low Armor Proficiency: Low Dodging: Low Athletics: Medium Goal: To go on many adventures and strike it rich! Instead, it endured the humiliation silently as the three men passed it around and discussed what they'd found.

It took a peek at the souls of the other two as well, but saw little to inspire it. Of the three Kell was certainly the strongest and the best choice.

"Well, it's a hexblade alright, it might be cursed," Gern volunteered as he looked the blade over.

"The thing definitely has magic, but in an evil sort of way, you know? Maybe I should—""You know the rule, Pa," Mika said, "Kell found it. Finders keepers. Besides, he's better in a fight than you've been in years!"

"Bah," the old man yelled, handing the blade back, "He wants it? It's all his. Me, I think you should have a mage check it when we get back to town. Gods above know we'll have more than enough coin to do it after a haul like this."

"Really?" Kell asked excitedly.

"It's all mine? I can keep it?" The old man nodded, and even he seemed relieved to have finally discovered the reason the beast was dead. Unfortunately, he had no way of knowing the truth. The blade didn't belong to Kell. It was Kell who would belong to the blade now.