Chương 13: Out of the Way

Ch. 13 - Out of the Way Trodden didn't seem to be their home. In fact, as much as Gern talked about buying some land and retiring on a farm somewhere, the Ebon blade wasn't sure the little group he was with even had a real home. They seemed to just sort of wander from place to place. That helped them know a lot of people, though, including a blacksmith whose forge they borrowed so they could fill up a crucible cup with slag and melt down what they'd brought with them.

The blade saw greed in that man's eyes and would have fanned those flames further if it could have. Unfortunately, the smith was not the wielder, so all it could do was siphon away at his life force. That one action was enough to make it change all of its plans. Instead of continuing to save up for Increase Control 3, it freely spent all of its current reserves on Aura of Hunger enhancements. The logic was simple. Until now, all it wanted was to dominate its wielder more.

However, where it was now, all it could see was all the delicious Life Force that was slipping past it every time someone walked by the establishment's doorway. Siphoning away a point or two sporadically, from a distance would never feel as glorious as the electric thrill of devouring it, ten or twenty points at a time from a beastman as it stole their soul. Even so, letting any of it go to waste was negligent. So, instead, it increased the Breadth, Reach, and Strength of the aura by one level each.

This reduced it to 288/3000 Life Force, but this time, it would be able to rebuild even faster. This caused its ruby to flash rather brightly, and Kell looked down at the blade in confusion, but fortunately, he said nothing to the other members of their little group, who were too busy trying to decide what to melt down first. Instead, he merely wondered. All that terrible strength, and suddenly it's gone just like that? Where did it go?

The blade remembered only belatedly that its wielders could feel large outflows of power and reminded itself that it could only do major upgrades when Kell was sleeping from now on. Even so, it didn't talk to the boy, and eventually, it felt his concerns died back down. Aura of Hunger: Breadth 2 -> 3 - 1000 Life Energy - Affect up to seven people instead of five. Reach 3 -> 4 - 800 Life Energy - Reach up to seventeen feet away instead of fifteen.

Speed 2 -> 3 - 1000 Life Energy - Drain a target over twenty seconds instead of half a minute. Strength 2 -> 3 - 300 Life Energy - Increase Aura of Hunger's Drain from 20% of your Siphon to 25%. If only I'd had this ability with those fools at the crossroads, it thought. I would have been able to suck the tavern dry instead of existing in that horrid fugue state.

Once, it had cherished the ability to slip back into the oblivion of sleep, but the more powerful it became, and the more it understood the world around it, the more it feared the return. Now, it wanted only to grow more powerful at every opportunity, and at this point, with the right wielder, it could just wander through a larger city, soaking up the life of everyone that wandered by.

Even now, when it was draining two to four Life Force from the nearby victims, it had to be careful not to drain any one person for too long, or they might notice the problem. Still, right now, that didn't seem to be the issue. Gern and Mika were consumed by putting metal into the forge while Kell pumped the bellows so they could see what the fires might reveal. This went on for hours, and the blade occupied its time by harvesting Life Force from those who walked by the blacksmith too slowly.

Eventually, though, the men got their results, and seemed more than happy with them.

"That's nearly a hundredweight of metals right there, all tallied up," Gern said, satisfied after their hours of labor reached an end.

"Think of it… 30 pounds of slag, worth nearly a hundred golden coins neatly stacked. That's real alchemy right there."

"Aye, if you include the smaller trace metals, I grant you," the smith said.

"I'd still have to do a lot of work to separate the good stuff from the impurities, though. The highest I could go is only eighty."

"Do you even have eighty gold, Rolph?" Mika asked with a laugh.

"The Gods above know I don't," he nodded.

"I doubt any man, but the Lord of the whole damn region has half that, and he's all the way in Kalraka. But I could get you twenty now and the rest by the time you come back with more." Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

"What makes you think there's more?" Gern asked cagily.

"Dragon droppings? That many? That much gold?" the smith countered.

"You found some old lair that ain't been picked clean by a long shot. I'm certain there's more to take, and as I seem to recall, taking is your middle name." Gern laughed again at that.

"Aye, that it may be," he agreed finally.

"As to more, well, for now, I aim to use some of our hard won coin to buy a hot bath, a good meal, and a long rest. I'll play the rest close to the vest for now if you don't mind." The negotiations kept going even past that, and eventually, they settled on a scheme. The prospectors would receive twenty gold coins in cash, another ten in credit, and they'd leave half their current metal with the smith.

When he parceled that out into ingots of raw, concentrated wealth, they'd trade that for the rest of the metal, and another batch of coin. In the end they'd get 60, and the smith would get 20, or 40, depending on who was arguing how much which metals were worth. Everyone was set to make out like bandits.

"Aye," Rolph said finally, shaking on it, "But I get first crack at the next load you hear? I don't want to be told you decided to cut me out on your second trip after such a fine deal." There was a lot of friendliness here but not much in the way of trust. The blade could respect that, at least. If it had been unfortunate enough to be made of flesh instead of steel, or whatever dark metal it was made from, it wouldn't trust anyone either. It didn't trust anyone now, of course, but then, it didn't have to.

If a dragon's molten blood could not harm it, then the only thing that anyone could do to it was lock it away for a few decades until it forgot everything about itself once more, and soon, they would not even have that option. As its wielder and the rest of his group celebrated at the inn with dinner and drinks, it was busy.

While they bathed, it drank deeply of the drunks, and by the time they retreated to their rooms, several of those men who looked passed out were very nearly dead, even though it had frequently cycled throughout the room. Of course, the blade had not forgotten the requirements of the death aspect it had chosen so recently.

As it left the room, it chose the drunkard who appeared to have no friends in the room and finished him off, feeling the warm flow of Life Force even as it got the alert that it had been waiting for. You have claimed a human soul. The blade felt a surge of power go through it in that moment. This is my calling, it whispered to itself, just loudly enough that Kell stopped partway up the stairs. He didn't find who had spoken to him, though, nor did he notice that the man lying face down on the bar was dead.

The blade knew all that and more, though. It had felt overwhelmed by the energy of the Dragon Soul surging through it, but the human soul was different. The smaller scale made it more understandable. In an instant, the blade knew that his name was Norm, and he'd been a carpenter, a drunk before he finally became a corpse. The blade instantly became aware of other options, too, thanks to another pop-up.

Congratulations, you have obtained your first human soul and may use it to do any of the following: You may save it until you have two more to advance further along the path of death. You may burn it for approximately 100 Life Force. You may use it to gain some bit of knowledge or information that the previous owner possessed. Using the soul in any of these ways will consume it.

As if I would ever need to know something about one of my victims, it thought quietly, making sure that it wasn't loud enough for Kell to hear again. As the young man laid down for the night, the blade was eventually forced to retract that statement. If it were to run into someone who knew about it, it might be tempted to rip that truth from them rather than burn their soul for more power. As it contemplated the question, it realized it might also be tempted if it ever had a proper army.

Such a thought had never crossed its mind before, but it had to concede that it would be far easier to rip the information out of a scout than to torture the information out of them. Why would I know about torturing scouts for information, it wondered. The blade didn't know, but it thought about it often, as it stayed awake that night. In the morning, the men woke late and came down to gossip shortly after breakfast about the dead man. No one considered it foul play or even seemed to care that he was dead.

Even in death, Norm was the butt of jokes, which meant that the Ebon Blade had chosen well. Still, it was not greedy that day, just in case. It lay largely quiescent as the men restocked their supplies and prepared to return to the mountains. There were rumors now and other people asking about their good fortune, but Mika and the others did their best to play them off. Despite those efforts, the blade could feel the tension.

It was growing clearer and clearer to everyone that people were figuring out just how big they'd scored. It wasn't certain that the blacksmith had talked, but if it had the wealth that its wielder and his friends had, it would have bet it all on that. They'd been smart enough to use silver at the inn, both to buy drinks and when they used a little gambling, but it was clear that a few of the less savory characters could smell gold and were looking for an excuse to try to take it.

The blade considered relaying that information to its wielder but decided against it. A less savory sort would undoubtedly do more killing than Kell, it decided. Instead of warning them about this, it simply watched the noose draw tighter. It knew that when they stayed for a second night rather than leave town immediately once Mika started to get paranoid, things were going to get rough.

So, it was not at all surprised when they went back to the blacksmith first thing the next day and found themselves at the center of a well-planned ambush. No, while they were busy being surprised as they walked outside the man's little shop to find eight men with swords and a few more backing them up with crossbows, it was delighted. It couldn't wait for what was going to happen next.