Chapter 5

A FEW HEARTBEATS LATER, the darkness retreated. After softly clearing my throat, I rubbed my eyes and looked around.

WHAT HAPPENED? WHATEVER it was, it didn’t last very long. Based on my friends’ faces, none of them had noticed. And no wonder. Everyone in the room was now staring dumbfounded at the empty space where the huge block of lilac ice had been just a second before. The fusion must have gone swimmingly...

Everyone held their breath and froze awaiting the verdict. Onyx pressed her hands against her chest like a little kid. Mouth slightly open, eyes like a pair of tea saucers. How tomboyish. She really must have gotten on her parents’ nerves.

I started reading out loud. And the deeper I delved into the changes to our supply, the more my friends gaped in astonishment.

“So then,” I said, trying to keep my voice from wavering. “That fusion increased the size of our supply by two and a half times.”

Onyx clapped her hands in excitement. I chuckled. The little fox was certainly keeping things interesting.

“But there’s more!” I acclaimed with a smile. “Check your mana supplies.”

“Mine has twenty-percent higher capacity!” Amber said, dumbfounded when she finished reading her stats.

“After the fusion, our supply got a passive spell,” I replied. “The Great System calls it a mana aura. All mages inside the city get the effect.”

Both magisters immediately nodded in understanding. They had just been given the ability to place those markers.

When I finished talking, they all looked at the second block of lilac ice without breathing a word. Not a smidgen of doubt in their eyes. I’d have to thank the blind old woman somehow. She really gave good advice.

The fusion procedure went like a knife through butter after that. One after the next, we fed all the crystals to our supply, which nearly doubled its capacity.

As expected, the second chunk of lilac ice increased the size of the supply, increased mana restore speed and improved the aura. Now, while in Foreston, any mage’s personal supply would go up by a grand total of forty percent.

Two fragments of fiery ruby activated another constant aura, giving those in the city a fifty-percent boost to their life supply as well as twenty-one extra regeneration points.

For some reason, that made me think of Papa Gino, who Mee used to heal every day. If that old man were still alive, he could live happily in Foreston without having to worry about his disgusting wound. But alas, the old lanista chose a different path. The path of a traitor.

“Ha! I’d wager our city is the first one in this whole world that heals its inhabitants.” Brown commented with pride.

“I’m scared to even imagine what will happen when word gets out,” Amber muttered cautiously.

Like the fiery ruby, the chunks of smoky crystal increased personal energy supply capacity for those inside the city, as well as it’s restore speed.

The last ingredient we fused was the black granite, which reinforced the tree bark on the city’s living fortress walls. Those two stones doubled the walls’ defensive capabilities.

And by the end, the Great System handed out an impressively generous bonus of eight hundred thousand development points, which I was saving especially for my trip to the Stone Forest. I would need them soon enough.

When we came outside after that, we were greeted with shouting from seemingly the entire city. That was despite the late hour. Apparently, we had somehow sparked a spontaneous celebration.

“Would you look at that!” Onyx shouted through the din, slapping Brown on the shoulder. “And you were afraid! See how happy everyone is!”

“DON’T WORRY, EVERYTHING will be fine,” I reassured Mee, getting into the small pool filled with hot water.

The time had come for the temporary growth spheres. There was no reason to draw things out any longer. I think we managed to buy up every tablet the gnomes had for sale. And that was without the juicy stack I got from the caverns. Around fifteen million esses, two and a half thousand gold tablets, almost twenty-six thousand silvers, three hundred diamond tablets, two hundred twenty thousand tokens and twelve thousand orbs. Add to that several iridescent tablets, my mountain of crystals and useful ingredients and I’m sure I am currently in possession of the world’s largest collection of tablets.

The first thing I did was bring up my pets’ levels to forty-five. Mee hit thirty yesterday, and the foxmaidens were up to forty. Beyond that, I gave Murk thirty Intellect tablets to hand out to his worthiest troops. A mana supply is practically useless without spells and magic abilities, but it would be a first step. The Hunters’ mage roster was growing unstoppably.

After getting the ring and fibula for defeating the demon of the abyss, I finally had the entire True Armor of the Founder collection. After being powered up with runes, my Will was up to one hundred twenty points and my Regeneration and Mind were at fifty. Plus, I had two special effects.

The ring gave me something a bit like my magic sixth sense. I could now see not only mana streams, but also energy and life as well. The fibula meanwhile unlocked Reveal Essence. The artifacts Master Chi, the king’s chancery men and Madi’s cousin used to examine me used something similar. This skill was directly linked to the Will and Mind figures. The higher they got, the more I could see and recognize. In other words, from now on, I could read the majority of living creatures inhabiting this world like an open book. And approximately the same thing was true about lifeless objects. As long as there weren’t any particular limitations such as skill or profession levels.

Beyond that, I got an additional bonus for having the whole set. A spell called Founder’s Hand. It activated a five-hour magic aura increasing defense against dark magic by sixty percent for me and my allies.

The iridescent tablet the demon dropped contained around twenty spells and abilities, but most of them were off limits due to anatomical incompatibility. After a long time debating between the magic shield and attack, I ended up choosing a legendary offensive spell with the short name Decay of the Abyss, an area of effect spell. Despite the spell’s simple and laconic name, its description left me shaking at the knees.

This must have been precisely what the demon of the abyss wanted to use on us. I was scared to imagine what might have happened if he had managed.

When I tried on the ring and fibula, I was in for an unexpected surprise. The Great System told me the higher powers were awarding me the honorary title of Arbiter in recognition of my zeal.

The thing was, as it turned out, I had fulfilled the two main conditions needed to attain the rank. Five hundred points of Will and a hundred of Mind. After becoming an Arbiter, I was able to place a defensive block on any ally, protecting them against mental attacks!

The ability used up a huge amount of mana, but it was more than worth it. To be frank, with every passing day I was more and more concerned with mental magic. After all, it doesn’t really matter how many warriors we get together or how we arm them. If we’re up against even one mage with mind control abilities, we will lose the battle. They would have no problem ordering our warriors to kill one another or turn their weapons on us.

And her it was like the higher powers had heard my plea! Now we can do some fighting! And considering my block could only be evaded by mages with Will higher than mine, the picture this painted was very interesting indeed. Ugh! As soon as I’m done with the growth spheres, I’ll get straight to placing blocks.

I was distracted from the pleasant thoughts by Mee fussing around by the pool. He was hurriedly arranging bottles of satiety potion around the edge of it.

I chuckled and repeated something I’d told him a number of times over the last half hour:

“Brother, don’t you worry. Everything will be fine! Why do I need so many potions? You know about the restrictions.”

“Oh well,” the gremlin muttered, continuing to remove small containers from his pockets. “There’s no such thing as too much. After all, you wouldn’t want to lose consciousness at the worst possible time.”

I breathed in. Strange as it may have been, he was right. I remembered perfectly well what happened when I activated a few hundred tablets at the same time back in Master Chi’s house. I spent the next few days lying around like a vegetable. Of course, now such a thing would not be likely to happen. I was no longer the kid I was back then. But still, there’s no harm in taking insurance.

Mee and my two regeneration spells plus the muckwalker magic, which was the reason I had gotten in the water, potions of satiety and the ability to activate avatar at any moment ― I was confident that would be enough to survive a mass improving of figures and levels. After all, it would all only take a few minutes.

“Of course,” I chuckled back. “You saw the mountains of loot I got in the caverns. That was all thanks to my level, or rather lack thereof. And after cohesion with pets, the process is going even faster.”

“Agreed,” the gremlin nodded and added: “In any case, you have one sphere left.”

“Well, what’s your Cooking at?” Mee laughed and gave me a light knock on the head with his fist. “A hundred Mind, but still can’t think up a simple solution?”

“Ah, that’s right!” I exclaimed and facepalmed. “It’s so simple! Cooks have to try the food they’re making!”

“And that’s not all,” Mee snorted. “I’m one hundred percent certain that skill would also allow you to enjoy food prepared by others.”

“So then, what are we waiting for? I saw the chefs are making fruit pies for lunch. I’ve always wanted to try one. Let’s get started!”

“HOW’D IT ALL GO?” ONYX asked. She was now sitting on a small bench placed along the side of the wagon and distractedly polishing her blade with a soft rag.

I was on the way to Stenborg with my bodyguards, Mee and another ten foxfolk. On the bottom of the cart, covered in plain rags and straw, we were hiding three magic stone chunks. The future internal organs of the Bronze Legion.

“Surprisingly, it was all fine,” I responded, breaking off a big juicy piece of fruit pie. “It was over in an hour.”

“And how did you feel?” Amber asked, watching my intense enjoyment of the fruity treat with suspicion. The thing was that it was already the fourth pie I had eaten in a row. I swallowed the three previous ones in two bites. To put it briefly, I was overindulging. The last time I ate something this tasty was when Mink was cooking for me.

“Excellent!” Onyx said loudly, distracting me from the heavy thoughts. “You’ve grown even stronger.”

The tablet absorption process really was painless. Using Clay, I brought up all my main characteristics to level five. Added a couple new ones, too. For example, Intuition and Flexibility.

Using silver, I then brought all my skills up to maximum. But alas, I did not manage to get any new spells. Other than the ones I got in the battle with Livid and the Order of Mages executioners.

As for physical skills though, that was much better. Stealth, Camouflage, Sword- and Knife Wielding, Hunter, Fisher... Cooking and Butchering. I had plenty of that goodness. And by the way, Mee turned out right ― fifty points of Cooking was enough for me to not only cook for myself, but also eat dishes cooked by others.

“I think the time has come to go to the Stone Forest,” I answered firmly. “We’ll bring the crystals to Gallia, give Madi a command to find us some jewelry, wait for the elven prince and get on our way...”

“At first, just me. Hm... Or rather, I’ll be going with my pets. We’ll scout around, feel things out, then you can come move in.”

They all nodded in perfect timing. Based on the pensive looks, I was not the only one worried about how it would all go.

“When he found out we were feeing crystals to the supply, he suggested we do the same with our other loot.”

“Didn’t you say the remaining crystals you’d be giving to jewelers to rework?” Amber asked in surprise.

“I’m not talking about crystals. Wheeze suggested we feed shells, fangs, mandibles and other loot we took off the monsters’ bodies to the supply.”

“To be honest, I don’t know yet. We haven’t tried it. We’ll take care of that when we get back from Stenborg. I think the supply will have cooled off a bit by then.”

“Do you know what’s happening to it?” Mee piped up. He was the first to notice the anomalous temperature of the now larger crystal.

“Nothing to be frightened of,” I responded confidently. “It’s trying to adapt to its new shape and size.”

“Didn’t you say that loot would be going to our craftspeople?” Amber came again.

“I did,” I nodded. “But the problem is that a lot of the loot is stuff our craftspeople can’t use. And we were planning on using it.”

“What about selling it to the gnomes?” Amber asked. “There’s probably lots of interesting stuff in there.”

“Perhaps before I might have sold it,” I answered. “But while we’re at war, I do not intend to make an enemy stronger.”

“I’m not talking about the gnomes,” I objected. “Everything they buy from us will be resold to craftspeople, armorers, smiths and alchemists in other lands. I would not like to find out one fine day that weaponry or some alchemical compound made from those ingredients ended up causing the death of one of our warriors.”

Onyx wanted to say something else but stopped short and started frowning just like the others. I was frowning, too. I just couldn’t get used to this. My mouth filled with bitter saliva.

“Dark forces!” Onyx hissed through her teeth, saying what everyone was thinking.

“Let’s get ready to fight them!” I barked and left the wagon before the others.