Chương 98: An Improved Siphon

As winter dragged to an end, and as warmer winds swept across the land, Lord Ceonwin sent us out on a few more missions. It was nothing as intense as our mission with the 294th, but it still occupied a day or two at a time. The orcs who had crossed the river were getting more desperate, especially in these regions. We'd cut off their supply lines when we replaced our scouts along the river banks, and they had to scavenge for food over here.

Most of our tasks were related to defending farms and storehouses from small raiding parties, which was no challenge, but it was a waste of time. Then again, that was how the orcs worked. Use their immense numbers to spread you thin, force you to defend everything, and watch your country slowly decay. There were a few documentations of it in the books I'd read. When we returned from our missions, we continued training. The next daily conditioning task added to our schedule was to lift a riftrock dish.

It was about as wide as a tractor's tire, but much thinner. First, all Lieutenant Owl wanted us to do was flip it from one side to another. At first, I could only get it a few inches off the ground, but day by day, I improved, until finally, after four weeks, I flipped it. Then Owl revealed that we had to flip it all the way across the training field, getting it from one side of the castle to the other. That was far more difficult, but at least I wasn't the worst at it.

As usual, before each meal, Anchor and I continued using the tinctures, and soon, our ratings adjusted to match. Our Perception slowly climbed, point by point. But the problem was our hearing and other senses. We couldn't just enhance our sight forever, and eventually, we were going to hit a plateau of improvement if we didn't also work on our other senses. But I had no ideas off the top of my head, so back to the books it was. When I figured something out, I'd let Anchor know.

As for my Focus, the standard procedure seemed to be working. Spending an hour every day, using up the last of my Presence over the span of an hour and forcing myself to read under the weight of eight times the regular gravity was more than enough to get my Focus to improve. The next problem was, as my Vitality climbed, it lessened the effects of the gravity well on me—and the others in my squad.

Our evening sparring matches, where we struggled through the gravity, didn't seem to help us nearly as much—and that meant we were getting better at it. Sage was the only one who stayed relatively stable, because she was still preparing for her druid advancement ritual—which would then improve her physical capabilities greatly. I needed to enhance the Art. If I could get it to Advanced tier, it would hopefully be stronger and help us far more.

To that end, I spent all the Labyrinth runs after our scouting mission trying to improve my Skills and the rest of my squad's Skills. Brawl was working on tank Skills, so he'd have something to merge to improve his Art. We helped him get into situations where he could best practice his tank Skills. There were ways to take hits, as the sappers taught us in our sparring sessions, to make the impact more bearable. It wouldn't knock you flat onto your back, but instead, just glance off your shoulder.

It just took practice. Slowly, Brawl earned [Absorbing Hits], [Unshakeable Stance], and [Defensive Maneuvers]. He was getting better at fighting on his own, too, simply because even if someone did get close to him, he could handle it long enough, shrugging off the hits, to swat his enemy away. I slowly adjusted our formation. Instead of using myself as a backup tank, I was able to hold back and support with my Arts, then lash out when we needed to do as much damage as possible.

I gained the [Skirmishing] Skill—but only at a Novice level. Anchor continued trying to advance his archery, but it'd take time. Journeyman [Archery] needed three other Journeyman-tier skills before it could increase its tier. His goal was to accumulate as many general Apprentice-tier Skills as he could, using the Labyrinth to bring them up to an acceptable level, before merging them into Journeyman Skills, and then finally, he could merge them back into Archery.

Like I had done in my early days of Labyrinth exploration, he earned crafting Skills and knowledge Skills, exploiting the Presence of monsters to increase the danger of his surroundings—and most importantly, not making it obvious what he was doing. If the sappers watching us found out we were shirking objectives or monster hunting just to learn Skills, our ranks would go down. In their minds, that wasn't the point of this, and we'd gain Skills as we went, regardless of how successful we were.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. As the dungeon runs progressed, I continued practicing with my crossbow, earning a few related Skills for myself as well. [Archery] stayed the same, but I earned [Crossbow Charging] and [Weapon Swapping]. Either you couldn't get a skill for drawing the crossbow quickly, or I just hadn't gotten fast enough—or enough practice.

But I found it hard to believe that a gunslinger wouldn't get a Skill for being able to draw and shoot his pistol quickly, for example. Not that there were any firearms here to begin with, but if there were, it felt like a Skill to earn. As spring came into full force a week later, melting the last of the snow, and the grass began growing again, Shatter summoned me to the blacksmith stall and said, "It's ready. The siphon."

"Completely?"

"For now," Shatter said.

"It will extract Presences with an aspect. When you use them…well, you'll see. Dupes are designed to purge certain aspects from their bodies if it comes with our Presence." I always tripped me up when Shatter referred to himself as a Dupe, but he was still a Dupe—just with damaged leys and resonance nodes. It took me a few seconds, but I nodded along and said, "Thanks."

"More importantly," Shatter continued, "even outside a Labyrinth, the siphon has a ninety-percent success rate for collecting Presences. About half of those will end up with an aspect." I nodded again. I'd have to figure out what I could do with the aspects, but having a custom-built siphon would allow the missions outside the Labyrinth to be far, far more efficient. I said, "It's really appreciated."

"That's not necessarily the best a siphon can be, though," Shatter added.

"No?"

"It could have a one hundred percent success rate, and it could…well, potentially it could also extract an entire soul. Not just the Presence."

"What benefit would that have?" I had been about to walk away, but now my interest was piqued. I turned back to the blacksmith stall and set the siphon down on the counter casually. At the moment, Drywsone and his other apprentices were assisting another Dupe with an order, and we could talk freely as long as we kept our voices low.

"Well, consider it more as a weapon," he said.

"If you could start stealing someone's Presence in a battle, doing damage over time to their soul…"

"Are there weapons like that?" I breathed.

"Up north, yeah. Some of the most powerful Ealdormen have weapons capable of damaging someone like that. They have siphons integrated into their weapons."

"And you think you could make a weapon like that?"

"Not yet. You'd have to be a master blacksmith. But I can keep upgrading your siphon, and eventually…we might be able to pull it off." I considered for a few seconds, then nodded.

"Alright, what do we need to do?"

"First, I need a new core for it. You'll need powerful stone, at least Gold tier."

"That'll be coming up…shortly," I said.

"I don't know what our timeline on the floor guardian is."

"Keep the siphon on you until then, then," Shatter said.

"And good luck. I saw Lord Ceonwin return earlier today, looking tired as a whipped pig."

"I'll keep it in mind." Before I left, I asked, "How's your advancement been going? And progress?"

"It's…going." I nodded.

"Leys giving you trouble?"

"This is the best way I can be useful. But something is stopping me from using Presence properly. It's like I can't connect the well of Presence to the central nodespace to activate Skills." He sighed, then put on a chipper smile and said, "But it's no matter. I'll figure it out at some point." I nodded slowly.

"Should I—" Before I could say anything else, footsteps clomped behind me, and heavy armour clanked. My Perception, especially on the hearing front, needed more work, but from the way the man walked, I knew it wasn't a Dupe. His footsteps were just heavier. I turned around, only to find Sir Sidal behind me. He said, "Sergeant Levi. Lord Ceonwin would like to speak with you. He has an assignment for you."

"Yes, sir."

"With me." We travelled together to his office, where he deposited me in front of Lord Ceonwin and said, "Levi, sir." Lord Ceonwin's office had gotten more crowded since I'd last seen it. Barrels completely blocked the windows, save for a thin sliver of light, and candles burned all day. I had to turn sideways to get through the door, and there was only a small channel of walking space to his desk.

"We'll get it cleaned up shortly," Lord Ceonwin said.

"Now that the seasons are changing." He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table, and heaved a sigh.

"A rider arrived yesterday. The 294th has sent a few squads north, Dupes and mercenaries, trying to reclaim a farm. It hasn't gone well. They found more orcs than they expected, and they're currently surrounded and pinned down. There's at least one shaman, too."

"You want me to deal with them, sir?"

"Yes. After we're finished, Sir Sidal will show you on a map whereabouts they are. But more importantly, we are expecting another messenger from up north, coming along that same road. A representative of the Warlord has crossed the mountains, and has an important note for me. I need you to ensure that he reaches me safely and in a timely manner."

"Yes, sir. Is there any message you expect from him?"

"Whatever it is, I don't expect it to be good."