The Land: Forging (Chaos Seeds Book 2)

CHAPTER 3

The party arrived at the edge of the Confusing Mist enchantment mid-morning on the third day. Richter gave the entire party immunity, and they continued on. Over the past several days, Yoshi had taught Richter a third form, Cat Swatting at Mouse. It focused on quick stabbing attacks while keeping his center of gravity low. Yoshi drilled him in all three, randomly calling out the name of a form. The goal was to have Richter’s body respond without thinking. Yoshi made sure that Richter knew he had a long, long way to go.

Richter’s time with Sumiko had not been wasted either as shown by the prompts he had accumulated.

Congratulations! You have reached skill level 2 in Life Magic. New spells are now available.

Congratulations! You have learned the spell: Slow Heal! Restore 30 missing health over 60 seconds upon casting. This is a spell of Life Magic. Cost 40 mana. Duration: 6 seconds. Range: Touch. Cast Time: 1 second. Cooldown: 1 min.

Congratulations! You have learned the spell: Cure! Remove minor poison effects! This is a spell of Life Magic. Cost 50 mana. Duration: 1 second. Range: Touch. Cast time: 2 seconds. Cooldown: 30 seconds.

Neither spell was exceptionally powerful, but Sumiko assured him that as his level increased the spells increased in usefulness correspondingly.

A few hours passed as they walked through the mists, and suddenly the village was before them. Richter and Sion had been gone a little over a week. The village was showing the same hustle and bustle that had been there when they left. There were also a few welcome developments. The framework for a wooden cradle had been started by the river, presumably for ship building. Work had also been started on the forge, three walls already having been erected. Also, the crude earthwork walls at the inner edge of the moat surrounding the village had been leveled in long stretches. It would let people stand on the walls to see a greater distance. Richter wondered who had taken the initiative to do that. He certainly approved. As always, Futen met Richter at the boundaries of the village.

“Hey you sexy beast,” Richter greeted the remnant. Futen was the fragment of an ancient magician’s soul. He had been tied to this Place of Power and was meant to serve whomever was the current Master of the Mist Village. He looked like a grey floating sphere with a white light in the center.

The orb just pulsed slowly hovering several feet in the air.

“Well don’t go getting all mushy on me,” Richter laughed. “Okay then, what’s been happening since I’ve been gone?”

“Would you like a full report, my Lord?” Futen’s deadpan voice was no longer strange to Richter. It was even comforting after a fashion. Like the unique sounds and smells of your grandmother’s house, Futen’s voice just served to remind him on a visceral level that he had come home.

“No, just anything that requires my immediate attention.”

“All events can wait until you are settled then, my Lord.”

“Good! No news is good news. Futen, this is Lady Hisako, the Master of the Hearth Tree, and leader of the wood sprites. She and all members of her party are honored guests. Extend them every courtesy and respond to their questions when asked. Now please go ahead of us, and have some accommodations prepared for them. The men can bunk in the barracks. Lady Hisako and Daniella,” he indicated the other female sprite, “will stay in my room.”

“Richter that isn’t necessary,” Hisako protested.

“I won’t have it any other way Hisako. I do not have much hospitality to offer yet, but what I do have is yours. Now please come see my village.”

The party continued walking forward, and the various new settlers of the Mist Village looked up as they passed. Whatever tasks they were attending to were forgotten. How could carrying water compete with the Master of their new home being accompanied by a squad of armed sprite warriors? By the time they had walked to the foot of the hill leading to the first floor of the catacombs, more than a hundred villagers had gathered. Richter partly climbed the hill and then turned to look out at his people.

“I was planning on gathering everyone later, but enough of you are here now. This is Lady Hisako, the leader of the wood sprites. They are our friends, and we are lucky to have them. This is the first time she has graced us with her presence, but I look forward to a warm and profitable relationship between our two peoples for many years to come. The benefits of our friendship start for us today. The Hearth Mother has come with a blessing. We will be planting an enchanted tree, and the blessing will make sure that it grows strong.” The people nodded and smiled. It wasn’t exactly a resounding cheer, but it seemed they were on board, so Richter would take it. He hadn’t really thought about the logistics of keeping close to three hundred people happy when he had recruited them, but he had a feeling that morale wasn’t something he just wanted to ignore.

Richter looked at Hisako, “When should we do this?”

“I see no reason to wait,” she said. “The weather is clear now, but there are clouds on the horizon. We can do the ceremony before the weather breaks.”

Futen floated towards them from the entrance to the catacombs. “My Lord, am I correct in assuming that you plan to plant a Seed Core in the village?”

Richter was somewhat surprised that the remnant knew what the Seed Core was. Futen had been around for tens of thousands of years, but his memory was fragmented. “That is what I’m planning. What do you know about the Seed Cores?”

“Only that they are powerful relics, and that several previous Masters have attempted to obtain one but had no success. They always lamented that the sprites would not provide one.”

Hmmmm, the remnant’s memory seemed to be improving, Richter thought. “Do you remember anything else?”

“No, my Lord, many specific details still remain beyond my grasp. I would offer a suggestion, however. I heard the sprite Mother suggest planting the Seed now, but I believe tonight would be better.”

“Why do you say this?” Hisako asked. She was looking at the remnant with curiosity, but also with caution. Richter didn’t understand why she looked so pensive.

“I believe you are operating as if you were at your own Place of Power, Master Hisako. I can sense that you are a Master of Light, Life and Earth. Were we planting the Seed at your seat of power, then this would be the perfect time. The Mist Village, however, is built upon a nexus of Life, Dark, Water, and Air. The most auspicious time would be when the environment compliments those Powers. I suggest that we wait until nightfall. That will coincide with our Dark Power. The presence of the storm will fulfill the obligation of the Air and Water Powers. The Seed Core itself is Life magic. I believe that waiting will provide the highest chance to obtain a powerful tree.”

Richter looked at Hisako, “What do you think?”

“His reasoning is sound. When I advised to plant the Core now, I admit that in the back of my mind I was applying reasoning that would be best for the Hearth Tree. The blessing will easily last until tonight. It will also let me find the best place to plant the Seed Core.”

“Okay then,” Richter said. “I will let you all explore and relax after our trip. If you need anything, just ask. I’m going to check in with my people.” He looked over at Sion, who, as usual, had not been able to shed Daniella’s company. His Companion looked at him with hope in his eyes, expecting to be asked along. Richter smiled toothily, “Sion, why don’t you show Daniella around. I won’t need you until the ceremony tonight.” He then turned and walked to greet his people. Sion’s glare washed over him with the comforting warmth of sunlight.

Richter’s first stop was to check in at the half constructed smithy. He was greeted by his wood elf carpenter Roswan. The elf was a gruff six-foot tall man, with a somewhat terse manner. What made him truly stand apart was his hair style. Most elves had long straight hair that they wore loose or plaited. Roswan cut his hair short and wore it high and tight with a large part on the left. He was also one of the few elves with facial hair, and he sported a thick brown mustache.

“Hello Roswan,” Richter said.

Roswan just made a half mmmm, half growl, and kept working on his current project.

Richter gave a sigh. The cantankerous man was not the easiest person to work with. If only he wasn’t so good at his job! “So how is the construction of the forge going?” The framework was up, as were the walls he had seen upon coming back to the village. They had also apparently laid the floor, using slate as opposed to wood. Probably a good idea seeing as how there would be countless sparks and embers from the forge.

The elf gave the same response he had given before when Richter had asked for a progress report, “It’s being built.”

Richter waited for any more information, but as per usual, nothing more was forthcoming. “I love our little talks Roswan.” Grrmmm was the only response. Richter gave a half sigh, “Where are Hilda and the other dwarves?” Hilda was one of the dwarf elders that had initially agreed to come to the village.

“Grrmmm, they are poking around in the mountain,” he said gesturing to the foothills and mountains north of the village. “Might be back tonight for dinner.”

“Well is there anything you need,” Richter asked.

“More wood… more help… more bacon and eggs,” the elf said without looking up.

Richter just shook his head at the man. Not even a “grrmmmm” that time. Richter walked on. He tried to say hello to everyone. Most just gave a polite smile or wave, and then went on about their business. Luckily, his Analyze skill let him know everyone’s names, or he would have had no clue as to most. His skill did require mana, though, which wasn’t limitless, so there was a fair amount of “Looking good!” and “My man!” thrown into his greetings as well.

Richter walked past the walls of the village, out into the newly cultivated farmland. Dozens of people were planting various crops. He had bought corn, wheat, potatoes, some soy like plant called ifiz, tomatoes, and a host of others. There were no citrus or other fruit trees, unfortunately. One of the things Richter planned to buy from Hafiz was a series of fruit trees. He had bought several barrels of apples and a type of large citrus fruit that tasted like a mix between passion fruit and limes, but with no refrigeration, they would not last long. Richter had wondered about getting a balanced diet. Of course, he might be worrying for nothing. After all, who knew how his body here matched up with his old Earth body. It would be the bonehead move of all time, though, to become a powerful warrior and mage, and then develop scurvy.

All of his impromptu farmers seemed to be on task and happy, so Richter didn’t rock the boat. He was not one to micromanage people who knew their job better than he did. It was a well-stressed point during his upbringing, that a smart leader found people smarter than himself, and then put them to work. Richter had seen no reason to think he had chosen his new villagers poorly. He spent an hour walking among the farmers and speaking with the guards who patrolled the edges of the forest.

It had never been far from Richter’s mind that though the mists were an effective deterrent against most humanoids, wild animals, and certain monsters would not be affected. Luckily, the guards said there had been no incursions close to the village. They also reported though, that the hunters had spied several cave bears to the north, and a pack of wolves had been close enough to hear their howls a few days ago. Richter decided to start organizing larger hunting parties. The site the village was being built upon had been wild and untouched land for hundreds of years. There was no overestimating the dangers that lurked nearby, and he swore to himself that he would not forget that.

After walking through the fields, Richter then walked to the river that was to the west of the village. His destination was the wooden cradle that had been set up to start building the village’s first ship. The closest hub of trade was the Kingdom of Yves. On foot, the journey took almost three weeks. With a ship to navigate the countless rivers in this part of the world, the journey could be accomplished in a fraction of the time. If trade was to become a regular part of life, the ship was of paramount importance.

Richter had been lucky enough that a high elf adept shipbuilder and her two apprentices had agreed to come to the village. Skill ranks were not arbitrary in The Land. Novice was skill level one through nine. Ten through twenty-four granted initiate level, and levels twenty-five through forty-four meant you were an apprentice. Journeymen were levels forty-five to sixty-nine, adepts were seventy to ninety-nine, and masters had achieved skill level one hundred and above. What the ranks meant seemed to vary from skill to skill as far as Richter could tell. Magic masters and adepts could teach spells without spell books, and training with someone of a higher rank than you would increase the rate that someone leveled their skills. Other than that, Richter really didn’t have an understanding of how the ranks impacted anything.

“Ho the ship,” Richter called out.

“Very funny, my Lord,” the ship builder said. Shiovana was short for a high elf at five and a half feet. She had long black hair plaited to her waist, a petite figure and broad hips. Rather broad and round actually… Richter had noticed that she switched when she walked in a… very distracting way. Richter liked her for her confident attitude and competent manner. When they had first come to the village, she had caught him staring a time or two. She never seemed angry, though, she just gave him a challenging little smile and then stared right back. He decided to forgo that this morning, speaking up before she noticed him.

“I’m glad to see that you’ve started on the ship.” The ribbing was well on the way to being completed as far as Richter could tell. “Is there anything you need from me?”

“Things are moving well, but if I could have one of those Mist Workers allocated to me, then things would move a good deal faster,” she said.

“Done,” Richter said promptly. Mist Workers were magical constructs that Richter could summon. They lacked any real intelligence, but they were strong and had good reserves of stamina. They couldn’t be trusted with complicated tasks, but were perfectly suited for manual labor. Unfortunately, he could only summon so many per day, the amount dictated by the 1,000 mana limit on the village’s mana pool. It did regenerate every hour, but only so much. When the villagers had found out about the magical beasts of burden, they all decided they had to have one. Needless to say, demand was high. Ship construction was a priority for Richter, though. There were no internet or telecoms in The Land. The only way for his village to be connected to the rest of world was to physically travel to neighboring towns and settlements. He had arranged for one of the ships that had brought the settlers to the Mist Village to return to the boundaries of the Confusing Mist spell in several weeks’ time. The cost of arranging that had been several gold coins paid upfront. That amounted to several hundred US dollars that were eating into his potential profits!

“How long until the ship will be ready,” Richter asked.

“She should be river ready in three months,” Shiovana said with certainty.

Richter widened his eyes, “That soon? I was expecting it to take the better part of a year!”

“Ha,” she scoffed. “Maybe it would take that long for ham-fisted humans…,” she looked up with a stricken look when she remembered the lord of her new village was human. Richter just gestured for her to keep going with an amused expression on his face. She nodded gratefully and continued, “As I was saying, high elves are the finest ship builders in The Land. Each of us are proficient with a certain type of magic as well. I have affinity for Water and Earth magic, both at apprentice skill level. My aides have affinities to Water and Air magic respectively.”

“So you cast spells to make the work go faster,” Richter asked.

“That is part of it, but also, we just maintain a low level of ambient mana when we are working.” Seeing that Richter wasn’t following, she explained further, “You can cast different types of spells, correct? I am sure you have noticed that right before casting spells of different types of magic, there is a recognizable feeling. For myself, casting Water spells feels different than casting Earth spells.”

Richter nodded, his Earth magic spells made him feel ‘solid’ for lack of a better description. Water magic gave him a cool “fluid” feeling, and his Ice Dagger spell made his hands feel cold right before casting, though that may have been specific to that spell.

“Well my Lord, we focus on that feeling while we work, not actually using mana, just accessing it. We have found that the ships will ultimately be stronger and faster by infusing mana while we work. That’s one of the reasons high elves are such excellent craftsmen. In addition to having a high shipbuilding skill, we increase our skill level in magic as well. Of course, this ship won’t be as strong as enchanted ships and won’t have anywhere near the power of kytachi vessels.”

“Just call me Richter,” he said absently. It wasn’t often his Gift of Tongues ability didn’t automatically translate every word. It seemed only to happen when the word expressed a concept he wasn’t fully familiar with. Kytachi seemed to translate as ‘caught souls.’

“I don’t understand,” Richter said. “Are you saying you can make the ship stronger? Why don’t you?”

Seeing his confusion, Shiovana explained further, “A jewel can be infused with a spell and attached to the ship. An example would be the Earth spell Durability. The spell could be infused into a jewel and then attached to the ship. The ship’s structure would be stronger. The size of the ship usually means that several jewels need to be strategically placed in key positions, though. Otherwise, you have one part of the ship much stronger than the others. It might not seem important, but the boards of a ship need to swell and shrink together. If one area is much stronger than the others, it creates a stress point that might snap the ship in two. I’m sure you can see that using several jewels for one effect, while beneficial to the ship, would be very costly.”

Richter nodded his understanding. He wasn’t completely disregarding the possibility, though. He still had many jewels in his inventory, and it might be worth using a few to enchant the ship. “What about a kytachi?”

“A kytachi vessel is something else entirely, my L-, Richter. It requires that a soul stone that has been invested with a spirit to be irreversibly bonded to a ship. The stronger the spirit, the stronger the vessel. It is not an exact process, though,” she cautioned. “Over time, the vessel takes on the characteristics of the spirit. I’ll give you an example. There is a monster called a water dancer that skips over the tops of rivers and lakes on long thin legs. It spreads its weight out so each point of contact only dimples the water, but never actually penetrates the surface. Dancers are detestable creatures, and will use a paralytic poison to stun you. While you’re immobilized, they insert a thin proboscis into your body and drink your blood.” She shuddered for a second before continuing. “As horrible a creature as it is however, if its spirit was caught in a soul stone and then bonded to a ship, that ship would skip over the waves and move faster through the water than almost any others.”

“So if I got you a soul stone filled with the right type of soul, you could bond it to the ship,” Richter asked.

“Well that takes a shipmaster who is also at least a Journeyman in the subskill kyatchi bonding,” she said regretfully. Richter’s hopes fell.

“Lucky for you, I am just that amazing,” Shiovana said with a smug look on her face.

Richter smiled back at the saucy elf, “Really? Oh, I could kiss you!”

“Settle down, Richter, it’s not that kind of party!” She was still smiling, though.

“How do I get a soul stone,” he asked.

“Now that is outside of my realm of expertise,” she said, “but some of the other mages here should have some ideas.”

“Fair enough,” he said delighted. “Then I will let you get back to work. Futen, send over a Mist Worker daily from here on out. Instruct it to follow the instructions of Shiovana and her apprentices.”

“Yes, my Lord,” the remnant said.

Richter started walking back towards the village. He needed to talk to Randolphus. As he was entering the walls, he was greeted by his Companion Terrod. “Hello my friend,” Richter said clasping wrists with the former innkeeper.

Terrod had large bags under his eyes and a harried look. Barely two weeks ago, the man had carried the dead body of his best friend in a desperate escape from Law, the capital city of Yves. That loss, coupled with trying to be pillar of support for his psychologically damaged love, Isabel, was clearly wearing the man down. Richter felt a bit of guilt over having left his Companion in charge for the last week. Terrod needed more time to recover. He would speak to the carpenters about building a small private cottage for Isabel and his friend as soon as there was time.

“Hello back,” Terrod said with a tired smile. “Did you accomplish everything you needed to on your trip?”

“I did. I’m not sure if you know, but the leader of the wood sprites has come back to perform a ceremony for us.”

“I had heard a contingent of sprites had come back with you, but I wasn’t sure why.”

“Well, either way, it is good to see you. Is there anything I should know about what happened over the past week,” Richter asked.

“Some predator animals were seen by hunters, but none came close to the village. As you can see, all the villagers are settling in well. Randolphus has been amazing in foreseeing problems before they arise.”

“I’m glad to hear that. It brings up the other topic I wanted to talk with you about,” Richter said. He looked the man in the eye, and spoke softly but firmly, “I think you should have some private time with Isabel. You don’t need to do anything else for a while. Just let me know when you’re ready.”

“That isn’t necessary,” Terrod protested. “I can pull my weight!”

Richter continued to look at him with a serious expression, “I know you can Terrod. Look around you. None of the people you see would be here if it wasn’t for your efforts. You are the one that included me in the raid with the Night Blades. You are the one that organized for me to speak with the five elders. And you are the one who introduced me to Mama.” Richter paused before continuing, “You have already done more than I could ever ask. Now I need you to focus on just one thing. Be there for Isabel. Help her heal and heal yourself as well. I have a feeling there will be many trials in the days to come. I will need you at your best.”

Terrod looked at Richter a few more seconds, and then reached out and squeezed his friend’s shoulder. “Thank you. I will take a few days to be with Isabel, and will be ready when you need me.”

Richter smiled, “Good! Now walk with me for a moment, until I find Randy.”

Terrod smiled back, “You know he hates being called that.” Randy, or Randolphus as was his proper name, was a wonderful aide but was also a bit stuffy.

“Why do you think I do it,” Richter asked with a laugh.