Chương 77: Chapter 76 - Bombard of Instant Annihilation and Doom.

"You were supposed to get a starlit tier artifact from Luck, though you would have had to equip a full set of Frost equipment just to wear it without burning up your Ember-Frost scale, it would have given you quite the boost" Veymur grit his teeth and looked angrily off into the mists. Nythera scrambled to help "I got this nice circlet now, my favorite piece of equipment. Oh and the siege rod is quite nice, but Borris made that. It wouldn't happen to be a mistake would it?

This circlet is really quite nice, could it be this?"

"It is not the fucking circlet. Look I don't have anything suitable around here, just legendary weapons." a great broadsword, bigger than she was, appeared in his hands a moment later. Every twitch of the blade was felt through the room, as if such a simple move could cut reality itself.

"These are useless for someone with such a specialized combat skill, not to mention all they would do is incite your death. No. We intend to ensure our investment in your isles is protected." Veymur sighed "Your heat score is already running hot, your pushing a 40 on the Ember-frost, even with your wisdom, be careful." Veymur leaned back into the chair for a moment of contemplation.

"Fucking LUCK, look I am going to have more than a few words with him, don't concern yourself with the matters of the gods" Veymur sat up straight.

"We have reached a deal, however painfully, so it is time for the fun part" he smirked, crooked old teeth throwing show his lips. Ancient malice shown through his eyes, a pressure bore down on her soul, she could not remove her eyes from his crooked face.

"If you can guess which of my forms is the real form, I will give you a real prize. Something far in excess of anything you have received tonight. And for no cost" his words poured out like gravel. Guess his true form? But there were like three dozen, or even more than that, and half the time I wasn't even looking at him. How the fuck am I supposed to get his real form? Alright Nythera, you got this, I can solve this…. Ok, yes I think that's it.

"The first man, the one with brown hair and oversized muscles" She said with tentative confidence.

"Heheheh" He breathed in deeply "HAHAHAHAHA" the laughter reverberated throughout, mist pulsing with each syllable, as if alive. Black mists surrounded her and she lost sight of all but darkness. Gasping, Nythera tried desperately to open her eyes. And found herself in front of the statue, still on the prayer mat. To her side, the priest in orange bowed.

"Oh great one, you have returned from your meeting with the gods bearing their power, the mists that swirled around you show Veymur's favor. Welcome, reborn mist-shaper" he chanted. Time to nip this one before its born.

"No worship, if you start worshipping me I will talk to Veymur again and you won't like it. Are we clear?" The priest sat up quickly.

"Of course, exalted one, we will refrain from praising you too much" he nodded "but certain formalities must be respected. As one who met the gods and returned with their power, you hold a sway within the Assembly of Kronan now that normal beings cannot."

"I must go now, if I catch sight of a single statue of myself, I will be back here far sooner than you want, are we clear?" He nodded vigorously "of course." She shielded her eyes as she came out from the dim temple, finding the sun a glaring mass of fire above her. God, it's barely lunch, I've already had enough for the day, time to go to Marco's. Before she was even halfway to her favorite drinking spot, a stoney silhouette met her on the road.

"Did you get the title?" Halt had basked full of fruits in one hand.

"Yes, how did you know?" she asked with an incredulous look. He shrugged "All competent Aurendorians get it eventually. It is not particularly difficult if you rule well, requiring nothing but competent governing. Though doing it with so few subjects is impressive" Halt nodded to her.

"I'm going into the mountains to brew, my mentoring with you is done until you advance further and I've set your delvers school up with a decent teacher. I look forward to seeing what you build, Empress" he strode down the road toward the foothills with a spring in his step. Well that's nice, no more of those horrible titles for a while at least. She pushed the doors open with gusto and pulled a seat up to the counter "I'll have a drink". A moment later, Marco slammed a frothing beverage on the counter.

Next to her sat Oswin, bags overflowing with parchment and books lay on the ground around him as he guzzled glass after glass.

"Oswin, you were supposed to report to me when you got back. Is this not far too early?" Nythera asked. Wasn't it supposed to be several months still?

"I only got back to Grandport an hour ago, forgive me but I figured a few drinks would help me survive the council meeting" Oswin chugged down another one before continuing.

"I go what I needed way faster, turns out its easy to move when most of the towns have been emptied out. When I got back to the Edge, I just kept screaming your name into the fog until Leo picked me up" Oswin shrugged, not taking his eyes off the incoming glass.

"And what about that map?" Nythera sipped on her own glass. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"I'll be right back with that, but first I got to report to the council about you-know-what" Oswin winked, and slammed down the third glass she'd seen him with. With a single motion he had three bags on his shoulders.

"I have to report to the council now, you coming?"

"No, go get Rowen, he is my official liaison and it's about time he started pulling his weight" Nythera waved him off.

"Marco, if you got anything edible, I'll take it" Gods know I'm starving, far too much shit for a morning. Time to do some changes, before the big fight at least. Free Points: 44 That is a lot… but where to put them? Strength - 31 Dexterity - 57 Constitution - 103 Endurance - 42 Intelligence - 48 Wisdom - 176 Charisma - 22 Flow Quality - 315 Flux Control - 275 Resonance - 584 Attunement - 20 Authority - 232 Well, to say I am unbalanced, a tad off my footing, perhaps, is a massive understatement.

While I can fire artillery for hours without stopping, I think one well timed blow to the head or chest would kill me. Obros-Ka will kill me with one lucky hit unless… All 44 points went straight into Constitution. Health: 2, 205/2, 205 Workable atleast, I have no idea if that's a lot or a little. Is my flux capacity good or terrible? Don't know that either. Flux: 20, 440/20, 440 Hyper-Flux: 306/306 I think it's a lot? Probably? I've got what, three shots of Hyper-flux before it runs dry. Thats barely moved at all.

Nythera shut her status and down the glass before her.

"Great Cannon of Instant Death, hmmm no, how about, Barrel of Devastation? Nah, Hey Marco, what do you think of Bombard of Instant Annihilation and Doom? Sound good" Nythera asked.

"You've been running through strange names for the last ten minutes and none of them sounded better than the last. What's this even for?" Marco poured another drink, then tossed it across the room, it landed on a distant table without spilling so much as a drop. Fucking cool, that is definitely a skill at work.

"My new cannon, built it up in Waketown, it's quite the thing, you should come see it some time." Nythera grinned.

"I'd love to, but my fellow folk would never let me leave the bar" Marco sighed "Everyone knows it's only good when the bartender pours the booze." Claws dug deep into her shoulder, her hair sent into a tizzy.

"Talvik? You're back! Took you long enough" Nythera muttered over her glass.

"The lady of the palace is quite frankly, pissed. I managed to negotiate a delay, when you reach strata three, we will make our way straight to the Mythral Palace. If she detects you've reached that strata and do not come swiftly, she will burn Grandport and a few other townships to ash" Talvik's voice was oddly calm. Nythera whispered to the bird on her shoulder "What the fuck is going on? Who the hell is this lady?" Several patrons cast eyes at her, then turned away.

Well, I've had enough beer, they might just think I'm drunk. Talvik did look so amused.

"This is not a primary concern, as you are still merely a strata one, but we will have to deal with that problem before you are capable of defeating it. Which means you must focus on governance and self-development, it would be best to impress her… disappointment could be bad" Talvik advised. Nythera nodded. As if I don't have enough problems. Dominic came in an hour later, dirt clinging to his clothes.

"Get me your strongest class, something with constitution penetration" Dominic demanded.

"This stuff is going to kill someone one day, make sure milady does not try so much as a sip" Marco reluctantly set down a glass of frothing green. Dominic had the glass down in thirty seconds "no risk of that if I drink it as fast as you can serve it" he shot Marco a shit-eating grin.

"Milady will be pleased to know the plant tome was a farming skill based on life flux, the moment the appraiser spoke its name, the farmers went to war over the damn thing. Some young farm-lad managed to win it by bringing in the biggest stalk of Geldgrain I've ever seen, as tall as a man and as wide as an arm" Dominic made exaggerated faces as he told his tale.

"A farming skill? Well anything to increase the crop yields is good. If we can get more tomes from that dungeon, I imagine the farmers would be happy" Nythera thought out loud. She reached into her cloak and pulled an item out of Boxy. With a push, she sent it rolling across the counter to Dominic. Dominic nodded along.

"And what is this?" he picked up the quartz band "Was this not from our dungeon delve?"

"It was, but I forgot I had it and I have no use for it, I am already running too hot as it is. Can you give it to someone who can actually use a strength booster?" Nythera wolfed down a plate of lightly-grilled meat.

"I have many people who would pay a handsome price for this, but out of everyone I think Hugh would appreciate it the most" Dominic stuffed it in his bag "Do you want anything for it?"

"No I've got more than enough sparks" Nythera waved him off. As if I'd charge a friend for a trinket I can't even use. … Many drinks and plates of hearty food later, Lance stumbled into the bar, plunking down where Dominic had sat before.

"You just drank your way straight through the council meeting? Sent Rowen in your stead?" Lance was already halfway through his own drink. Nythera shrugged "what is the point in a liaison if I never use them as a liaison, besides I can guess as to what Oswin had to report" Lance bore a deep frown "it was not pleasant news, to hear of what lurks beneath our feet. But let's ignore that for now, I heard you were looking for me?"

She nodded "it is time I kill the big green bastard, I need two ships and men to crew them." He stroked his chin "We can manage that, we have two new caravels, made with fine mistvale pines no less, but it'll hurt our shipping routes to the western towns for awhile" Nythera nodded "and the men?"

Lance let out a deep sigh "That is going to be another matter entirely, being the queen, you can probably get enough volunteers to man the ships and that fancy cannon, which arrived just this afternoon, though mounting on the caravels will take some time. Frankly I am more worried about how many able-bodied men you'll take from our workforce" Lance said.

"It'll only be for a day or two, I need delvers mostly, as many competent archers as you can manage and men fit to sail ships in nasty waters" Nythera cast a side-eye at Lance.

"I figured you'd ask, we got some decent archers and a mage or two that I'll send your way, as long as you bring them all back it should be passable" Lance nodded. They drank their way into the night, Nythera eventually returning home. Just a bit longer now and I'll have that thing mounted on a spike.