The Land: Swarm: A LitRPG Saga (Chaos Seeds Book 5) Read online

  Soon, the metal was glowing red and Krom brought it back out. The clanging of the hammer on metal filled the Forge. Another dwarf continually worked the bellows to keep the fire hot. When Krom had been working with high steel, he had been able to keep it out of the furnace for long minutes, but with the elementum it seemed that Krom had to continually reheat it. He also swung the hammer harder than before, seeming to struggle with shaping the powerful metal.

  Clang, clang, cling. Clang, clang, cling. Richter listened to the dwarf shape the metal and marveled at his tireless strength. Sweat poured from Krom’s face, his visage a study in concentration. An hour passed, then another. Even Krom’s endurance began to flag and the dwarf left the nearly-formed blade in the furnace while he grabbed a green stamina potion. While the smith drank the brew, Richter used Analyze, curious as to how far Krom’s stamina had dropped.

  Name: Krom Race: Mountain Dwarf Disposition: Loyal

  Mountain dwarves are a hardy folk that get bonuses to Constitution and Endurance each level. They have keen eyesight that gives them excellent night vision. Natural miners, it is said mountain dwarves can “smell” veins of precious metals. Increased resistance to negative physical effects. Mountain Dwarves get three points to distribute per level, and each level gives +1 to Constitution and +1 to Endurance.

  Age: 47

  Level: 9, 2%

  Health: 190 Mana: 130 Stamina: 15/220

  Strength: 28

  Agility: 14

  Dexterity: 13

  Constitution: 19

  Endurance: 22

  Intelligence: 13

  Wisdom: 12

  Charisma: 10

  Luck: 10

  “Krom! You’re only one level shy of your Profession,” Richter exclaimed.

  “Oh, aye, yer lordship,” Krom said with a smile. “Taking out that big beastie put me over the top!”

  “We need to keep hunting,” Richter said seriously. “I need you to get your Profession.”

  “That thought occurred to me as well, yer lordship,” Krom replied with a laugh.

  “Tomorrow morning then,” Richter said. “Besides, we’re only one fight away from finishing our challenge.”

  “Ay’ll be ready, yer lordship,” Krom said. Then he reached into the furnace with the tongs and took the elementum out. He placed it on the anvil and started raining blows upon the glowing metal again. Richter walked around the Forge and enchanted the other projects as the opportunity presented itself, using the last of his low level stones. He checked on Krom periodically, but the dwarf kept shaping and heating the green metal with single-minded intensity. Soot covered his body, and muscles stood out like braided cables on his arms. More time passed.

  Krom kept at it and it wasn’t until about three p.m. when he called Richter over. The smith had made a mirror image of Richter’s already-existing short sword. The blade was two feet long and double-edged. The quality was ‘superb’. The dwarf finished swinging the hammer and was about to speak, but a green light flared from the heart of the anvil. Krom’s face became extremely happy and he said, “Yer in luck!”

  The light shot out of the anvil and enveloped the weapon. It was so bright that Richter had to close his eyes against the glare, but it disappeared a few moments later. When he opened his eyes again, the blade looked the same, but Richter saw that the quality was now ‘exquisite’. Krom laughed and reached into the pouch at his waist to grab some powdered crystal. He was about to sprinkle the crystalline dust onto the blade when Richter told him to stop. The dwarf looked up, confused, but stepped back. Smiling, Richter opened the bag that Sion had brought to the forge and examined the contents.

  You have found: Powdered, Concentrated Crystal. Resource Class: Scarce. This has been the created by grinding down the remnants of a crystal guardian’s body. The magical properties of this concentrated crystal are significantly more powerful than normal crystal. Any potions or items created may gain extra potency or powers.

  Sion had told him that he needed to use half of the contents of the bag, about a handful. The sprite had also warned that there was only enough concentrated crystal to make another ten handfuls. Hoping for something spectacular, he sprinkled the sparkling dust onto the blade.

  The following weapon is available for enchantment: Elementum Short Sword Blade. Damage 33-37. Durability 162/162. Item Class: Scarce. Quality: Exquisite. Weight: 1.9 kg. +10% damage vs. spell barriers.

  This weapon has 54 enchantment slots (base 30 for weapon quality + 15 for journeyman Enchanting skill rank + 20% for Increase Enchantment Potential I). Available enchantments: Freeze, Increased Damage, Increased Durability, Sonic Damage. You have seven minutes from the time that this prompt appeared to finish your enchantment.

  Know This! Your use of concentrated crystal has increased the power of your final enchantment and all additional effects by 237%.

  Richter smiled. He had no idea why the bonus was 237% and not like, 238 or 216, but he sure as shit wasn’t complaining! Choosing Sonic Damage he saw that the enchantment cost was 1.5n just like Freeze. He was able to get eight enchant ranks, costing forty-three and a half enchantment points. Richter took out two soul stones that contained a common soul. Then he painfully took out one stone with a luminous level soul. Using such valuable stones made him feel like he was shitting a pine cone, but he knew he needed a powerful weapon. The rock giant had proven that.

  All three stones held their maximum capacity of soul points. The common stones held ten and the luminous stone held seventeen. With the 25% increase in soul stone yield, his most recently acquired talent, it gave him just enough points to max out the sword’s enchantment! Wasting no more time, he expended the stones. The glowing amber jewels fell to dust and rainbow light poured into the elementum blade. There was a building pressure in the air as the soul power entered the weapon. Then the tightness in the air bled away… and nothing happened.

  Not believing what had he was seeing, Richter stared at the blade in shock. Had he just fucked his whole thing up? Wasted a precious handful of concentrated crystal, one of his few ingots of elementum AND three valuable monster souls just to have a plain and unenchanted sword? “Fuuucckkk!” he shouted.

  Everyone in the forge started at him in shock. Alma had been sleeping on a nearby weapon’s rack, but she shot into the air and screamed a battlecry at hearing her master’s frustration. Krom looked at him in shocked concern and said, “What? What happened, yer lordship?”

  “The enchantment didn’t take! I don’t know how this shit works! We wasted all of this time and resources!”

  Krom looked at him in alarm and concern, “Ye don’t have any more soul stones?”

  “Of course, I do,” Richter spat. Why was the dwarf asking him stupid questions?

  Krom’s eyes looked to the left and right while his mouth bunched behind his beard, “Thennnn why na just try again?”

  Richter blinked, then blinked again, “I can do that?” When his enchantments had failed before he had just waited til there was something new for him to enchant.

  Everyone in the Forge was just kind of quiet because no one wanted to call their lord a dumbass. One being didn’t mind though, *Gyoti! You made me upset for nothing.*

  *Nobody asked you,* Richter thought at his familiar irritably. He quickly pulled out another three glowing, amber jewels out of his bag. Each had that strange electric feel that the soul stones adopted when they contained a soul. The combination was again two common level stones and one luminous. One of the luminous stones contained only sixteen soul points, but it was still enough to max the enchantment.

  Having to use more of his meager soul stone stock was even more painful than the last time. In fact, this time Richter felt like he was shitting an even bigger pine cone… that had the spiky parts pointing down. Nonetheless, he accessed the power in the stones. He held his breath while the stones crumbled to dust. Rainbow swirls of light flowed into the blade just like the last time, and the pressure built in the air again. It felt like wh
en he had gone scuba diving on Earth. The sensation continued to build and Richter could feel the magic starting to swell out of control. His heart beat harder in his chest, thud-thud thud-thud, and the chaos seed wondered if he had bitten off more than he could chew! Then, with what Richter could only describe as a pop, the soul power overcame the metal’s resistance to be enchanted and the weapon glowed green. It was enchanted!

  He quickly checked the stats of his new weapon.

  You have enchanted: Sonic Elementum Short Sword. Damage: 33-37. Durability 158/158. Item Class: Scarce. Quality: Exquisite. Weight 2.3 kg. Traits: +25 points of sonic damage per attack. 19% chance to trigger secondary effect, Disarm. +10% damage vs. spell barriers. Charges: 350/350.

  Krom looked at the weapon’s stats at the same time and said, “Fuuuccckkkk!”

  CHAPTER 7 -- Day 111 -- Kuborn 1, 15368 EBG

  Richter wasn’t done yet though. He still needed to use one of his other talents. Focusing his will, another prompt appeared.

  It appears you wish to Soul Bind an item. For a level one soul bond, you must spend soul points equal to the maximum base enchantment potential of the item’s quality. To soul bind Sonic Elementum Short Sword, you must spend thirty soul points. Do you wish to do so? Yes or No?

  Richter closed his eyes. He was almost sure that the last two pinecones had mated and left a spiky mutant pinecone baby inside of him that was now slowly crawling its way out. At least this time, he didn’t have to use one of his few luminous level soul stones. He pulled out a basic stone and two common stones and paid the price. A clear gem appeared next to the sword. Richter picked it up and answered ‘Yes’ on the resulting prompt. A final prompt appeared.

  You have Soul Bound: Sonic Elementum Short Sword. This item cannot be lost. If taken, the enchantment will not work for anyone else. This can only be transferred with an open heart.

  Richter looked at the item’s prompt again and saw that it now included the blade’s soul bound status. He breathed out, slightly exhausted, even though he hadn’t expended any physical energy. The chaos seed stopped and reflected on everything that had gone into making this two-foot blade. It had required a precious metal, the powdered body of a magical monster, smithing skills that had taken decades to hone, enchanting skills and soul stones. Just the soul stones meant that there needed to be someone to create the empty stones, someone else to cast Soul Trap and then someone to kill a nearby monster or beast. The special properties of the blade would not have been possible without a magic core to make the Forge of Heavens, not to mention his Profession. He didn’t even want to think about the month of torture that he had undergone to earn his title of Enchanter. Richter shook his head. Thinking about how much was needed to make this seemingly innocuous piece of metal, he now fully understood why enchanted items sold for the equivalent of tens or hundreds of thousands of US dollars. He realized that he wasn’t looking at just a forge-heated blade. He was looking at a piece of art that had taken many skilled people to create. This blade might truly be worth a noble’s ransom.

  The other smiths came over to gawk at the heavily enchanted weapon. He understood their fascination, and, for the first time, Richter really saw the beginnings of potential for his Profession. He had to get more talent points. Krom took the blade and doused it in a nearby barrel of water. When he spoke, there was more than just a touch of respect in his voice. “Ay will have this mounted and bound immediately, milord. Ay had no idea ye could do something like this. It just goes to show the power of Elementum!”

  “I didn’t know I could do that either! What do you mean about the elementum, though? The metal didn’t make the enchantment any stronger.” Richter said. As far as he knew, the metal he used didn’t affect enchanting at all.

  Krom looked at him like he was a bit crazy, “This here fancy green metal be the only reason the blade did na explode! If ye tried to pump tha much power into a steel blade, we would be digging shards of metal out of our teeth and arses! Ay still did na think this blade could take such magic, but who knows? Maybe the fey metal could take even more. Ay do know one thing, yer lordship. Ye made a one hell of a blade!” The smith grinned and clapped his lord on the back.

  Richter smiled back, “Haha. Thanks man.” He couldn’t quite believe it himself. Hearing that certain metals could only hold certain amounts of enchantment energy after he had invested several souls worth wasn’t the best way to get the news, but it had worked out. The chaos seed knew that he would be a bit more careful in the future though. The pressure and the ‘out of control’ sensations he had felt when enchanting the blade made more sense now. Immortal or not, the idea of picking shrapnel out of his body did not sound like a good time. He put it out of his mind as something to worry about later. Now that his blade had been created, he realized there was another pressing issue. He still hadn’t eaten, “I’m going to get some lunch and check on the members of our war party that are still being held hostage by Sumiko.”

  Krom chuckled, “Tell the wee lady tha big Krom says hello.”

  Richter looked at him and chuckled back, “Yeah. I’m not going to be doing that.”

  Krom just kept making eye contact with a maniacal grin on his face until Richter grew creeped out enough to leave the forge. While leaving, he sent out a mental call to the adder. Alma flew down and rested on his shoulders while he walked, and Futen floated along beside him. Richter had the remnant guide him towards Sumiko’s makeshift infirmary. Before long, he stood in front of a large tent. It was made of a patchwork of beige and white swatches of canvas. Sewn on the front was the golden glyph of a circle with an opening at the top, like a cup that was to be filled. Richter’s Gift of Tongues ability identified it as part of an old pictographic language. The glyph was an ancient symbol for Life.

  A woman came out wearing light tan clothing and carrying a load of dirty rags. She smiled at Richter, giving a warm “Greetings, my lord,” before continuing on about her business. Richter smiled back. It pleased him immensely to see his people happily at work. He walked inside the tent and was instantly impressed. Despite Sumiko’s complaints about not having a proper place to work, what he saw was a study in efficiency.

  The grass was cut low, and a small brazier in the center of the tent made it pleasantly warm, but not oppressively hot. It also filled the air with a pleasantly soothing scent. A row of cots lined one wall, and the other side of the tent had tables laden with bandages, red vials of what looked like healing potions, and numerous dried herbs. Sumiko was standing over a cot and was speaking to a group of villagers dressed in the same tan clothing the woman carrying the rags had been wearing. He couldn’t see the patient initially, but when Richter walked closer, he saw a very unhappy Caulder laying while Sumiko described his condition.

  “This particular guard decided to attack a monster made of solid rock that was twenty feet tall. Can anyone tell me what is wrong with this patient? Besides the fact that he also has rocks in his head?”

  Many of the villagers raised their hands. Sumiko pointed at one and the man spoke up, “He broke his right clavicle and dislocated the same shoulder when the giant kicked the shield he was holding.”

  “Correct. Now it was a simple matter for me to diagnose that with a spell and mend the bone with another, but what would we do to figure that out and fix it if we could not use magic?”

  Again a forest of hands shot up. Sumiko chose a woman, who answered, “Physical inspection followed by manual investigation of the bone. If we found it was broken, we could align the bones and then immobilize that arm to help it heal.”

  “Anything else?” Sumiko asked.

  This time, there was no rush to answer. After a few moments, though, another villager, a teenage girl, raised her hand. When she was called on, she spoke in a hesitant voice, “We could use sirana extract to reduce any swelling and crushed ulin leaf to help the bone mend.”

  “Good,” Sumiko said, clearly pleased. “A tea brewed from krim berries will also serve to preserve the strength of m
uscles while the bone heals.” Her gaze scanned the tan-clad villagers, and when she spoke again, it was with the firm tone of a head mistress, “Remember this! Whether you have healing magic or not, if you are under my command you will learn to be a healer. Each of you will inspect the sergeant’s arm and clavicle, one at a time. Pay special attention to the musculature of the arm. Though the injury has been healed, you should be able to detect a difference in the elasticity of the muscles when you compare the right to the left.”

  “Now wait just a minute,” Caulder protested. “I did not agree to be poked and prodded by your band of junior leeches!”

  Speaking sweetly, Sumiko leaned over the guard and said, “Do we really need to have another talk about the penalties of not being a good patient?” Despite her tone, there was just the slightest bit of ominous emphasis on the word ‘talk.’

  The sergeant’s eyes widened slightly, “Ahhh, no. I don’t think that is necessary, Lady Sumiko.”

  “I am pleased to hear that,” she said in the same sweet tone. “I will try to forget that you called my healers ‘leeches’, Sergeant Caulder.”

  “Ahhh, thank you, Lady Sumiko. Much obliged,” he said, chastened.

  Richter observed the scene with no small amount of amusement. He cleared his throat and said, “How is the patient doing?”

  Everyone turned to see the lord of the Mist Village standing in the tent. Each of the villagers bowed slightly and placed their hands on their hearts. Sumiko was apparently not as impressed by his august presence and just snorted, “I let the rest of your war party go an hour ago. This one had to have several bones reconstructed though and so I have been watching him a bit longer. I hope you are not here with some foolish request to get him back on duty now!” A bit of heat made it into her voice at the end.

  Caulder grasped at the chance to be released from the tent like a drowning man reaching for a life preserver. Already starting to stand, he said, “My lord. I am ready to face any danger that you need. I am your man, and all you need to do is say the word. I am ready to fight by your side.” His eyes locked onto Richter’s, pleading for all they were worth.