Chương 134: Ingredient Preparation

My next step of 'ingredient preparation,' as I had started calling it, was bribing the druids for potions. Sure, Anchor and Brawl would return soon with the minddrake bile, but it was just bile. I needed something to dilute it with, otherwise my slurry would have no liquid in it. I was going to have to add water anyway, but if I added water right away, it would dilute the arcane potential of the bile too quickly. So I had to add potions, then I could slowly mix in water.

There were too many steps, but these were the hoops I had to jump through if I wanted to hit the right pace of advancement. So, the evening before our next Labyrinth run, I found a cluster of druids hiding in an alcove along the castle's outer wall. Well, to say I found them made it seem like I hadn't planned this. I'd been watching for a few days, trying to figure out who was the most malleable among the druids. This lot would do perfectly, and I knew where they would hang out.

I walked up to them, watching as they filled their pipes with tobacco and lounged against the castle's wall, smoke getting trapped in the alcove. I said, "Hey. You five. Any of you want some extra infused rations?" They weren't lazy. That, I knew. No one here was, and I doubted anyone would pass up the notion of doing nothing and improving their physical stats. But they were also from relatively important families, who would surely be providing most of their potions to them.

With any luck, they wouldn't know the true value of what they had.

"I assume this is a trade?" one of the druids asked.

"Correct," I said.

"I've got extra rations. What I need from you is a potion or two. Or four."

"What sort of potions do you require?" a different druid asked.

"Do you have any Focus-enhancing potions?" I knew there was such a thing—some potions were just designed to temporarily boost someone's base stats, and nothing else. It'd align with my blessing, though.

"I need four flasks."

"We could get some, yes," the first druid replied.

"It would take a week to get them for you. What are you willing to trade?"

"A cup of Shepherd Beans, a large potato—raw—and a chunk of salted pork. All infused, of course." I almost laughed at the notion of trading a raw potato for a potion, but these were special potatoes. Silence. I could always offer them more, but the less I gave up, the better… Finally, one said, "It's a deal. We'll put in a few requests. Seems like a fair trade, wouldn't you say?" The rest of the druids nodded.

"They will be here in a week."

"Wonderful," I said.

"I'll have the trade ready in a week, too. Four potions, no more, no less." Without waiting for a response, I walked away as quickly as I could, before they could change their minds about trading four potions for just infused rations. ~ ~ ~ Brawl and Anchor returned that evening. I didn't see them come back, but I met them in our barracks as they were taking off their armour. I whispered, "Did you find any minddrake bile?"

"Three tiny vials," Anchor said.

"There would've been four, but one was shattered."

"I hope it's enough, brother," Brawl said.

"It'll do the trick," I said.

"Now I just have to wait for those potions, get a little more monster loot, and I can get started…" ~ ~ ~ The next day's Labyrinth run was almost standard—until we reached the lower city. Our squad stayed tight together, but I took us on a slight detour on the way down. I had one last step of ingredient preparation. I could use the bone marrow from the skeletons, just like Sage had, and the pearls from the shamblers were fine. They would hopefully have some gravitational essence in them.

The golem crystals, if bashed into a fine powder, would help give the slurry thickness. But I needed something better than just gravitational essence and minddrake bile. Something a little bit stronger, that aligned more with my end goal. On the way down through the hallways, aiming toward the city, I considered what I wanted to accomplish. Obviously, I was a skirmisher. A close-range damage dealer who could soak up a little damage if I needed, while supporting the squad with commands and gravity arts.

If I was going to enhance my body with magic, it'd have to reflect that. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. And my Agility was falling behind. I could fix that. When we reached the balcony overlooking the underground city, I stopped and took in the sights. There were more than just ruin-hounds, skeletons, and shamblers down here. The golems were a natural feature of course, but I'd seen them carting in wagons of airborne threats too. There should be a… Aha!

I pointed at the opposite corner from where we'd been working on the water golem, on a route we didn't usually take. Perching on the ruins of an ancient arena—like a miniature version of the colloseum—was a flock of enormous bats.

"The membranes of their wings," I said.

"According to the books I've read, those should help with Agility if I include them in the slurry. We don't have much time, so stick close, and stay with me." When we reached the arena, we'd only killed a few monsters, having opted to run from most of our encounters instead. It would lower our overall score— if we didn't have a destination in mind. I stepped inside the arena, keeping my eyes on the bats as we passed through an ancient gateway into the open fighting ground at the center.

The bats, hanging from their arches on high up on the arena, were much larger up close. They had to be the size of a wolf each, with foot-long talons that seemed excessively massive.

"These are landbain," Sage said.

"Disgusting blood-suckers."

"They're going to come from all around once they wake up," I said.

"Formation five." Sage moved directly behind Brawl, using him as a shield, and Anchor stuck closer to me, holding his bow at the ready, an arrow nocked. He aimed up at the top of the arena. I kept guard, facing the opposite direction from Brawl, so we could cover two directions. Our only weaknesses were directly from either side, but we'd drilled this formation hundreds of times. Anchor knew to cover them. I gave my spear a whirl, and prepared to switch to my crossbow if needed.

But we couldn't waste any more time getting ready. Yesman and Habit were already waiting on us. I pointed at the hanging bats, then whispered, "Anchor, when you're ready, shoot one." He pointed his bow, then let an arrow fly. It wobbled through the air, then struck one of the bats in the back. Not enough to kill it, but enough to make it screech and wake all the others up. I glanced at Sage and whispered, "How strong are they?"

"Steels," she replied. It wouldn't normally be a problem, but there were at least twenty of them.

"Get ready," I said, widening my stance. Today, I planned on working on my defensive Skills for my spear. That meant using a form known as the Cooper's Column. It was one of the strongest defensive styles we knew, and Lieutenant Owl had insisted on teaching it to us to pair with our common offensive styles. Put together, they would be a formidable pair. The landbains unfolded their wings, then leapt from their perches. I said, "They're awake now, Anchor. You can start blasting them."

"You say 'blast' like I can cast fireballs."

"I say 'blast' like you're our walking anti-tank rifle, but you don't know what that means," I countered. One swooped at me, its wings twice as wide as my own wingspan. I jabbed it in the chest, thrusting with my spear. Well, so much for focusing on defense.

"I know what all of those words mean individually, brother," Brawl provided.

"Together, they are meaningless." He swung his flail, smashing a landbain out of the air, but another blasted past, slashing his shoulder. Sage healed him, keeping him battle ready, and he swung again, taking down a third with his flail.

"I still only have thirty-eight Presence," Anchor said, firing an enhanced arrow and piercing straight through a landbain's head.

"That's thirty-eight enhanced shots, assuming I use no other Skill."

"We have Presence to spare now," I said. A cluster of landbain swooped at the center of our formation, trying to cut across the sides, but I used my Art, creating a V shape, and pulled the creatures in. They slammed to the ground, drawn to a single point, and Brawl smashed them to a pulp with a single enhanced flail swing. I jabbed another landbain, taking it down without even using a resonance Skill, then switched to my crossbow and shot a second time—this time, I did use the relevant resonance Skill.

A third beast rushed us, swooping toward Anchor. Its mouth was wide, and it bared long fangs. I turned my shoulder to the beast, ramming my pauldron into its mouth, then reloaded my crossbow and In less than a minute, the landbain were dead. I couldn't spare much time, but I made sure to fling one to the edge of the arena, out of the overlookers' sight—I made sure there were a few walls between me and the hanging viewing booth. Then I cut off the landbain's wings with my spearhead and stuffed them into my kit bag.

There wasn't room for much else, but there was room for the wings. Once I had them secured, we rushed to meet up with Yesman and Habit's squads. The two of them were waiting on us, but we weren't that far behind. The detour had taken, at most, ten minutes.

"We thought a ruin-hound got you," Yesman said.

"Sorry for the wait," I replied.

"We've got work to do, though. And I have a defensive Skill to earn." Against the water golem, I had many more opportunities to practice the Cooper's Column. I couldn't directly block the golem's attacks—the haft would shatter—but I could give it a whirl, using my increased speed and Focus to knock rock shards out of the air before they hit me and my squad. I could practice the stances it used, and practice switching between different starting positions.

When all was said and done, I returned to the surface, but there was no joust today, so I used the time to check my reading slate. I needed to know where I was at before reforging my body. The tablet read out my general stats: Vitality: 45 Agility: 31(+4) Strength: 35 Perception: 16(+1) Focus: 53 Presence: 59 Overall, one hundred and eighty points. But I could do better.

My skills sat at: Skills: Spearmanship (Apprentice), Quick-Witted Crossbow Use (Journeyman), Art: Mass Hammer (Advanced), Memory Modification (Novice), External Squad Synergy (Apprentice), Jousting (Novice), Lancework (Novice), Sun Splinter (Apprentice), The Cooper's Column (Novice) Now I had a baseline. As soon as I got those potions, I'd have everything I needed to give myself a massive leap forward.