Avyck3721
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Ch 54
🕑 Added 2025-03-11 02:54:02 +0000 UTCNo one hesitates. Everyone can sense the urgency of preparing for six raids hitting our territory.
The fighters gather–together we total well over 100. I empty my storage. First I start by laying out the weapons I’ve collected from the past fights. By the time we sort through it, everyone is equipped with something new—except for Durkil.
He eyes the pile of weapons but shakes his head. Then speaks briefly to Ellison who translates his words.
“Durkil doesn't feel like any of these weapons suit his style of fighting. He wants to stick with his club for now.”
I give Durkil a look and am hit with a slight pang of guilt. He would still be using the club he came with but I cut that in half when we sparred earlier.
Now he is armed with a club he made himself–a massive chunk of wood he’d fashioned from what looks like a tree trunk.
By the time everyone combs through the loot, we still have an assortment of extra weapons and just as many suits of leather armor left over. The suits unfortunately didn’t auto fit and our burgeoning army reminds me of a bunch of orphans.
And yet I can’t help but smile fondly on the progress we’ve all already made.
Once everyone is comfortably suited we gather the rest of the weapons and Jared stores them to pass along to Jessica. Jared tells me she is becoming a promising gemcrafter and enchanter and with more to work with her abilities will be pushed even further.
With that taken care of we make plans for all our fighters to make final preparations.
The five days in the dungeon had passed in a blur for me. It might have felt like I barely left but the growth of our small village said otherwise.
Our small town had undergone even more changes in my time away.
The palisade? Gone.
Jared had decided it was useless. Anything that couldn’t climb the wall wasn’t a threat, and anything that could, the wall wouldn’t stop anyway. Instead, the town had shifted toward real infrastructure.
A sawmill had been built. In five freaking days that had built a sawmill. Proper tools were purchased from the interface which helped the process along. Couple that with skills and levels lending to the work? Progress was accelerating.
The rudimentary log cabins were disappearing, replaced by more modern, structured buildings. Everywhere I looked, the village bustled with movement.
I felt something I hadn’t expected—pride. It wasn’t to the point I had imagined when I first left the wave trial so long ago but it was inching along.
Without much to do I stop by my cabin quickly to grab a few items from my storage room filled with dimensional chests. Once I have what I need I head to the last place on my list before meeting up with our slowly growing army.
My destination is the most impressive building yet. A two-story structure with a stone foundation and a mixture of stone and lumber walls.
Damon's new forge.
I can hear a soft rhythmic clinging through the wooden walls. Swinging open the door I step into a large open room. To my left is a staircase likely leading to Damons living quarters, and in the back a counter stands before an archway leading to the back. I hear movement in the forge itself, but I don’t intrude.
“Hello? Damon?” The clinging in the back slows and then stops and is replaced by loud thumps of items being shuffled about.
Soon enough, Damon appears, wiping his hands on a rag that he tosses on the empty counter.
“Layton!” He’s wearing a thick apron filled with an assortment of tools.
“It’s great to see you. What do you think of my new forge?” He beams.
I smile taking it all in. “Damon, this is incredible. How did you finish it so fast?”
It had barely been over a week since we first spoke about setting him up. Damon gestures toward the walls with pride.
“Most of the credit goes to Jared and the carpenters. They’re fast—faster than I ever expected."
“Jared really is a miracle worker,” I say, my mind already spinning with ideas. “And you? Did you get your full smithing set?”
Damon nods enthusiastically. “I sure did. Want to see?”
I smile. “Lead the way.”
The back room is even bigger than expected. The walls are mostly lumber, except for a reinforced stone corner where the forge sits coals glowing slightly.
A proper chimney flue. A smelter. I recognize some tools, but most are foreign to me.
“Damon, this is amazing. Was all of this included in the set?”
He nods. “Everything I needed to get started. And let me tell you, it’s made a world of difference.”
I glance toward the corner of the room. A small pile of swords sits neatly stacked.
“Already been working, I see.” I gesture to the blades.
Damon grins. “I’ve wasted no time.”
“Where are you getting the ore?” I ask, frowning. “I was going to bring you a gift, but if you already have a source—”
Damon chuckles. “You’re the one who cleared the dungeon, remember? The mine is open now. I’ve been paying Stetson—one of our gatherers who wants to specialize in mining. I pay him, he brings the ore, I craft the weapons, and sell them back to the system. Small profit, but it works.”
The collaboration is music to my ears.
“I totally forgot about that mine!” I laugh. “Glad to hear people are taking initiative. In fact, that’s where I found these.”
I pull a block of raw iron from my inventory. Damon’s eyes light up.
“A full chest of this stuff,” I add. “I have no use for it, but I figured you might.”
Damon claps his hands together. “That’s fantastic! But I can’t take it for free.”
I shake my head. “It’s not exactly charity. I do have a favor to ask.”
Damon raises an eyebrow. “I figured as much. Lay it on me.”
“Durkil.”
Damon snorts. “Oh, so you do feel bad about cutting his weapon in half.”
I sigh. “Yeah, yeah. The guy fights with bludgeoning weapons—either a hammer or a mace. I was wondering if you could make him something.”
Damon scratches his chin. “How soon?”
“Sooner the better, but I don’t want you rushing.”
“Common grade weapons aren’t far off. Maybe a month, maybe longer.”
I nod. “I can live with that. What do you think? Can I count on you?”
Damon extends his hand, and we shake.
-
With my business finished at the forge, I regroup with Jared and Ellison.
The map is laid out. The target location is set—two territories east.
We move immediately.
20 miles through thick woods and untamed country.
We cover it in just over an hour, sprinting at speeds that would have been impossible before the induction.
Ellison leads the way. As we run, he explains.
“Points of interest can take many forms. Some appear as system objectives, some emerge naturally. Mana surges create anomalies—some speculate it’s caused by ripples from beings of immense power using their abilities.”
I frown. “So, these anomalies… what happens if we don’t clear them?”
“They open.”
“Meaning?”
Ellison shrugs. “If unresolved, they break free into the world. Some are minor. Others… catastrophic.”
His words settle uneasily in my stomach.
We arrive.
I look around. It looks like any other patch of forest.
“Are you sure this is it?”
Ellison steps forward pointing. I can barely make it out, but something is definitely there. It’s similar to a dungeon, but fainter. I open my status screen to get more details, it’s not much.
[You have discovered a Mana generated anomaly level 17]
“If this was in your territory, you’d have been given a direct objective to clear the anamoly.” He touches the air where the shimmer distorts. “But since it’s not, it’s hidden.”
“So… how long do we have?”
Ellison shrugs. “Some last months. Others years. Depends on the anomaly.”
“I have limited knowledge myself. Any anomaly near Ulm was always cleared by representatives from the Devorites.”
I exhale. “Well there are no Devorite’s here, let’s get this party started.”
Ellison nods and accepts the objective.
We step through.
Comments
Avyck3721
fixed
Carolyne
You could just remove the ...to and end the sentence with preparations. And leave what preparations to the readers imagination. One thing I like about reading author releases her or on RR is that I can give feedback on this or that. when I find unfinished or odd things in a "published" book there is no way to let the author know. Anyway this is a compelling story.
Avyck3721
I swear I read and reread every time
Avyck3721
Crappp
Avyck3721
Holy crap haha good catch I need to get that
VoidAutarch
“Most of the credit goes to Jared and the carpenters. They’re fast—faster than I ever expected. In fact,” was there supposed to more to this sentence? 🤔
Carolyne
"With that taken care of we make plans for all our fighters to make final preparations to [....unfinished sentence...] The five days in the dungeon had passed in a blur for me. It might have felt like I barely left but the growth of our small village said otherwise."
