WilburWoods
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Chapter 48 - Escape Artist
🕑 Added 2023-10-01 16:38:47 +0000 UTC“Okay, we got everything,” Logan said. “Now we have to work fast, since it’s a disaster if they come in now.”
In front of Logan were various objects. A broken bucket kicked to bits, a metal cup and pieces of rock rubble. For some it might look like a pile of trash, but for Logan it was a treasure trove.
First he picked up the bucket. Tumor told him the measurements and provided a red hologram to fashion the material.
“[Transmutate] this piece of wood into a cylindrical barrel, the length of 1.66 feet, make it solid throughout, but hollow inside, with a diameter of 0.4 inches. Have the other end of the cylinder be 5.5 inches wide in diameter, which then gradually narrows to 0.4 inches.”
The pieces of broken wood in Logan’s hands morphed into something resembling liquid rubber, before they took the shape of a blowpipe and solidified again.
[Attribute Level Up!]
[Control: 13]
“Nice!” Logan said. “What do you think, Tumor?”
Tumor, being the pain in the ass that it was, insisted on tight, exact measurements. Logan sighed and complied, making the minutest changes in the wider mouthpiece of the blowpipe and the smoothness of the inside of the blowpipe. All in all, producing the blowpipe reduced Logan’s internal Numa charge to 82%.
Next up was the bracing of the bucket. Logan collected it into a pile and asked Tumor for measurements.
[Calculating VO2 max of user…]
[Adjusting for lack of fletching…]
[...]
[Running simulations…]
[Determining optimal measurements…]
One by one, Logan used the bucket bracing to create two inch needles that had a round blunt end which tapered into a sharp point. He managed to create seven in total from the material at hand.
[Sub-class Level Up!]
[Transmutation level 14]
[Attribute Level Up!]
[Efficiency: 15]
[Durability: 9]
Logan pocketed the darts and checked his Numa charge. It was still a healthy 64%. Immediately after he tried to enchant the darts to paralyze the targets, but not only did he not get a prompt for level requirement being high, he simply got no prompt. That was odd, considering he had made a big pit of paralyzing goop when fighting the beetles.
Logan decided to think on that while he made flashbangs. Those were easy to make. He figured three would suffice.
Logan simply asked for Tumor to provide a value of impact force which when exceeded, would detonate the enchantment which blinded and deafened anyone in the radius of twelve feet for five seconds. This way it wouldn’t accidentally activate by Logan handling the rock-bangs, or cause an explosion if for some reason Logan fumbled and dropped the flashbang.
[Sub-class Level Up!]
[Transmutation level 17]
[Attribute Level Up!]
[Potency: 13]
Logan heard some distant sounds behind the door. His heart stopped as he listened for the chinking of a key or turning of a lock. He sighed in deep relief as no further sound, except idle chat and passing footsteps followed.
“Tumor, we need to act fast,” Logan hissed. “How do we enchant these needles?”
[Well… I do have an unorthodox suggestion.]
“Oh great…”
*
Logan gingerly aimed at the metal cup. It would fill easily fast enough. The rest of his business he’d aim at the corner. He smirked at the thought of a Dorf having to clean it up.
[You humans have such a complicated and interesting waste disposal system. To think that something as delectable as pie becomes… This.]
“I suggest you try not thinking about it too much…” Logan muttered as he pulled up his pants.
Then he knelt down to the cup filled to the brim and placed a finger gingerly into the liquid.
Never thought I’d be enchanting piss…
“Make this liquid paralyze anyone but me if it touches their skin. Make the effect last for two hours. Make them first lose muscle control and then sight and hearing. Make it non-lethal and non-damaging. No tissue damage, and no attacking the respiratory or the blood circulation system.”
A faint blue glow appeared and vanished about the cup of urine Logan was holding.
[Programmed Random Occurrence: Naturally Enchanting]
[Attribute Level Up!]
[Potency: 14]
[Focus: 13]
[Class Level Up!]
[Artificer Level 5]
“Well, damn,” Logan said as he enjoyed the minty feeling passing over him. Of all the places he expected a level, a cell wasn’t one of them. Sadly there were no skills or anything such that he gained. He could have really used an edge.
Cringing with discomfort, Logan dipped the darts in the cup one by one. The first dart he placed inside the blowpipe and the rest went into his pocket after a dip in Logan’s trademark poison-piss.
Man, now my pants will smell of piss. Well I could use a new pair in any case…
Abruptly, a chink of the keys and turn of the lock. Logan’s heart rate shot up like a hummingbird on caffeine. He reached for the blowpipe and prayed for Fat Buddha and Tumor that he would hit his mark.
It was a good thing the panic and sudden threat had made him inhale deeply. He blew a sharp exhale
The first Dorf collapsed at the door. The poison needle hit him on his hand. He staggered and looked at his hand stupidly for half a heartbeat. Then his eyes went blank and he toppled.
[Skill Level Up!]
[Marksmanship level 10]
The second Dorf with the baton yelled and charged at Logan. Logan quickly plucked another needle from his pocket and blew it point blank into the angry Dorves face. It stuck to his fleshy cheek and Logan watched him weakly grasp at the air in front of Logan, as if to drag him into his stupor, before he also fell over.
Logan felt triumph swell in his chest, but it wasn’t over. Someone yelled out from the torchlit corridor.
“Hey! Tumir? Valir? What happened?” A low rumbling voice called.
Logan wasted no time. He threw one of his rock-flashbangs into the corridor and after a quick flare of white light, he charged in holding a needle. He had a plan.
The Dorf with large hands and black cornrows was flailing around with a torch and growling. Logan kicked him in the legs and toppled him over. The angry stout man swore and growled. Logan placed one of the two unpoisoned needles at the enemy’s neck. He couldn’t afford paralyzing his only way out.
“Do not move,” Logan said. “I hold at your neck the Jom Jobbor, the deadliest poison known to my people. It is a death so painful, humans write lamentations about it. The instant you betray me, you die. Nod if you understood.”
“There is no way you smuggled a vial of poison through!”
“Who said anything about vials,” Logan whispered to the Dorf. “How well do you think your friends searched me? Go on then. Take your chance.”
The Dorf almost turned his head, but then thought otherwise. Logan watched him and saw his shoulders sag. Eventually the Dorf nodded.
“Good,” Logan said. “Now keep your voice down, if you want to see your loved ones.”
“A poison is a coward’s weapon,” the Dorf hissed.
“Okay,” Logan said. “And?”
There was no answer.
“Let’s get moving,” Logan said and grabbed the Dorf on the collar to pull him up.
