CH4: The Goddess Solari
As it turns out, woodworking doesn't translate to working with cordage, especially silk. It snapped, stuck to things, and was a nightmare the first few days he used it. Red watched the wheels he made spin to relieve some of the lifting strength needed to pull back the crossbow's drawstring. More complications were needed early on; it was just the proof of concept. He planned to make a repeating crossbow. The neck the wheel sat on snapped, and he had to start over completely. Hours of work, planning, and opportunity went down the drain, but he anticipated it.
Perhaps the vampire in the room watching him work was making him nervous.
Maybe the compound bow wasn't the right move for the crossbow, but pullies were needed to make the pump action work. He thought about building a simple track with a lever attached to it for a repeating feature. Lever actions took the sights too far from the target, taking more time to turn a lever than to pump a slide.
It added more weight, and he could use a cartridge filled with five spring-loaded bolts. Wooden springs were another nightmare to make, but it was possible thanks to a happy accident. When Verdant Wood was oversaturated in Totem Oil, it became springy. That would work, but it wasn't the turn crank crossbow on a gravity feeder or the Diablo 3 demon hunter's auto duel hand crossbows.
He needed more crafting skills, and to get them, he needed more SP. 10,000 SP would earn him ten skill token pulls and allow him to acquire the necessary skills to make better weapons. Smithing was something he could get and then use to make metal weapons.
Once his repeating crossbow hit the battlefield, it would spark demand. Most medieval societies would be interested in repeating crossbows when their knights die like flies. He only wished the local leaders weren't so blatant in their spying.
Even when he looked directly at her, she didn't look away. She was utterly blatant in her spying, and it was annoying.
…
Darien had a quest from the goddess Solari that was more important than casting the vampire menace. He needed to acquire heartwood from Eldren Hollow and have a statue made from it in her image. After he freed his sister, which would be his primary goal, he found a half-turned-tanner willing to help him. Together, they were heading for the vampire base of operations, the ancient half-broken castle on the river.
The key was heavy in his pocket. He was having trouble with the vampires at night. Their bat familiars flew at incredible speeds and were almost impossible to put down with his spear alone. He needed long-range crowd control to have a chance.
Despite how well his spear turned out, he felt nothing but resentment for the shopkeeper. Solari whispered in his ear as he slept that he paid nearly 3 times the worth of his spear. That greedy shopkeeper needed to be taught a lesson.
…
Mary watched the human take exactly 15 minutes for his break and then return to work. His enchanted workshop was impressive. She had seen similar mage workshops when she toured the academy in town, but his shop seemed built more for an artisan than a mage. The enchantments were those of a mage. So why was he so pitiful?
She had returned to the central room where the dreaded enchanted wooden weapons waited. How did he get a permit? It must have been a mistake that no one bothered correcting. The only enchanted wood capable of harming her kind was the heartwood, or that's what she thought. After being near the spears, she was disabused of that opinion.
Fortunately, her obfuscation ability kept the human blind to her presence. He worked as if she wasn't there.
She even allowed dawn to occur and found he hadn't noticed her still. Mary could remain awake if she had to.
…
Wallet 4800
Red sold anything he couldn't use, and the value of what he made increased with every level he gained in woodworking. He managed to bring the skill up to level 5.
At five rolls, every product had tons of durability. Every level increased what he could do, and he even got a feel for the enchantments. Until he gains the enchanting skill, he can't control what kind of enchantments appear on the armor. But once he did achieve it, it would be a matter of levels for the enchantment's power instead of a random chance to determine what appears on it.
"What rank is the enchantment skill?" Red asked.
Would you like to purchase the Trash Tier skill Catalog for 1000SP
So he at least knew it was trash tier, and maybe rolling ten skill tokens would give it to him. He didn't know how many trash-tier skills there were. Supposedly, rolling ten would ensure he would get what the shop needed. Predictable enchantments seemed right up that alley. Having weapons people wanted to buy would be far more profitable than weapons with random enchantments. Better than that, why not a bunch of repeating crossbows with armor piercing, expanding clip, and who knew what else?
If whatever country Mary and Darien went to war, that would be great for him. As a weapon shopkeeper, that would be best.
He wiped his sweating forehead with a microfiber rag and tossed it in a bin he had bought for the rags. When he had time, he planned to buy a washing machine for the rags. There was no sense in wasting them when he could wash them. 1SP was a full meal, after all. He could leave and take one of the return keys with him, but what if it was lost or stolen or someone took his bag of holding?
No, he wasn't in any shape to leave yet. At least not until he could grow stronger and outfit himself with the best tools possible. Maybe that would compensate for his severe lack of social skills and foreign nature.
He sold another crossbow. It was a simple five-repeater with a set of piercing bolts. It wasn't that he had figured out the enchantments. Red could make a batch of 30 bolts at a time, five of which had multiple enchantments, including piercing.
Wallet 10500SP
Red
Shop lvl1
HP 19/19
MP 13/13
CON 19
STR 13
DEX 15
INT 13
WIS 7
CHA 10
LUK 17
Before he purchased the 10 Skill Tokens, he decided to upgrade the shop's level to see what would happen.
Shop lvl2
1 Perk Roll
+1 Bed Room
+1 Event Token
Rooms expanded
Before anything, Red read over the event token to see what it did. Somehow, something wakes up, returns, is summoned, or revived, creating a change that could be economically beneficial depending on what Red sold in his shop and the world it was used upon. He didn't have to take care of it himself; he could sit back and sell it to his customers. If he rolled ten event tokens, he would have a good chance of making a profit.
From what he could tell, he had been the shop owner for around eight days. Oh, he had a bedroom. Red made a beeline to it. He couldn't believe he hadn't leveled up before. He'd been sleeping on the floor because a bedroom cost 500SP, and he was saving up for the tokens.
He opened the door, and it wasn't terrible. It was a bed fit for a summer camp, with a hard-looking mattress and no sheets. There were shelves and a dresser to keep clothes he didn't know. He would need to get into spinning cloth or summon something that could. Being in the company of one person was exhausting. Red hoped somewhere in the multiverse, someone was enjoying his weapons.
…
Mary felt ashamed of herself for sleeping in the human's bed on the third day of her investigation. She admittedly had nothing going on at home except denying suitors from neighboring cities. The cold-blooded males didn't interest her as much as this human and his never-ending attempts to make ever more deadly wooden weapons. There wasn't a scrap of metal in use, and she felt a cold shiver crawl up her spine when he wasn't watched for even a moment. She had finally exhausted herself and took the bed since he didn't use it.
…
Red found the vampire in his bed, sighed, and returned to his workshop to sleep on the floor. He felt like he was in his teens again, but not in a good way.
He was in his gym when he used the tokens. Fortunately, when he chose ten skill tokens to roll at once, the shop allowed him to choose a skill with a guarantee of getting it. Of course, it didn't tell him what he could choose, but when he decided on enchantment, it seemed to select just fine.
Magic Trap Infusion(Trash) lvl1
Cost 1MP
Select 1 of 20 enchantments
Area 1d4 + (INT x lvl)
Damage 1D4 + (INT x lvl)
Weak Rune Etcher lvl1
Roll (1d20 + (DEX x lvl)) / 20 for the number of enchantments per rune etched.
Enchantment lvl1
Roll (1d20 + (WIS x lvl)) / 20 for each selected enchantment.
Silent Boots Crafter lvl1
Cost 1MP upon crafting boots.
Sneak 1D20 + (DEX x lvl)
Fire Dampaner: Infuses armor with decent fire resistance
Resist 1D4 + (CON x LVL)
Spell Link Crafter lvl1
Cost 1MP x items enchanted
Weapon Damage 1D4 + (INT x lvl)
Armor Durability 1D4 + (CON x lvl)
Crude Battle Enchanter lvl1
Weapon Damage 1D4 + (INT x lvl)
Cracked Focus Engraver lvl1
Spell Range (1D4 + (INT x lvl)) x 1ft
Spell Damage (1D4 + (INT x lvl)) x 1ft
Spell Area (1D4 + (INT x lvl)) x 1ft
Wooden Rune Crafter
Roll (1d20 + (DEX x lvl)) / 20 for the number of enchantments per rune etched.
Bolt Charger lvl1
Weapon Damage 1D4 + (DEX x lvl)
Red went from having two skills to having a bunch that did the same thing in more specialized ways. His head ached from the sudden influx of information, and he was excited. Wooden bolts with no metal tips could be considered wand foci. He could fire off a crossbow bolt that cast a fireball thanks to magical trap.
He was good at making crossbows, and that was it. Fortunately, all crafting skills should increase in the shop, so he can make an expanded clip once he raises them. Thanks to spell link crafter, he could make individual parts enchant them and then combine them with their effects, combining them into a single weapon.
The shopkeeper took a break and sat at the screen door where Rexy waited. He purchased a 72oz steak still bloody for 1SP, opened the screen door, and tossed it out. The T-rex caught the steak in her mouth as quickly as a snake. That, more than anything, proved to him he wasn't escaping unless he got on her good side. A skill for bonding with the big killing machine would go a long way.
He returned to his workshop and built a big crazy crossbow and managed to add an enchantment that altered space a little. As a result, he ended up with a crossbow that could fire 35 bolts enchanted with magical traps to use fireball upon striking their target. He could use it in batches of 100 because the magical trap spell worked on areas even when it was individual items. He was able to link an enchantment to impact, so a little jumping around wouldn't make them go off.
Bolts Magazine x 70 (Trash++)
Durability B+
Damage B+
Enchantments
Light ArmorPiercing (Trash)
Splintering (Trash)
Minor Homing (Trash+)
Magical Trap (Trash+)
Fireball (Trash+)
Wand Foci (Trash)+
Value: 10,000SP
Verdant Pump Action Dragon Crossbow (Trash +++)
Durability A-
Damage A-
Enchantments
Weak Etched Wooden Runes+
Spell Linked
Bolt Charger
Lesser Silenced
Lesser Sniper
Value: 50,000SP
Red loaded the bolt and pumped the string back before pulling the grip forward for it to lock into place. His pump-action crossbow was, in his opinion, badass. He fired it at a tree before Rexy, and she snatched it out of the air. It didn't even explode until she bit down on it. The T-rex seemed surprised but not as much as himself at the fact she was undamaged.
He happily added the price tag of 3500 silver coins to one of the fat stacks or explosive ordinance. Red was confident in his enchantments. He threw them outside, and Rexy caught one in her mouth. It did explode, but she seemed to like it. After getting over his shock, he threw them at her to snatch them out of the air. Rexy wasn't a normal T-rex.
Oh, she would absolutely eat him if given the opportunity, but while he was here and not on the menu, she seemed to enjoy playing with her food. Maybe he should get a Frisbee the size of a swimming pool or something to play with her.
Red shook off the insanity as Mary, the vampire stalker, entered the room. He had to wonder if she was using some magic to hide herself and, if so, did not work in the shop. Did the shop have protections? He stared at Rexy and then looked back at Mary. The shop had protections. Well, what were they?
"Would anyone pay 15,000 ounces of silver for a crossbow? I didn't see him use anything but wood and string. Even the screws were made of wood, and it looks seamless." Mary said.
…
Darien felt that something was waiting for him at the shop. He felt it in his changed blood. That's why he worked hard to rip the silver buttons off the coats of the well-dressed vampires after he put the head of his spear through their eyes. Or he took the whole coat when it was intact. He had helpers. People from the church were a good help in selling off or redistributing the supplies of the vampire army camped out.
A war was on, but Darien Hawke seemed the only man willing to fight it. Blasphemous vampires weren't bad enough; a vampire lord wasn't bad enough; no, he found a silver tablet with ancient writing about the revival of a vampire king that once challenged Umbrenna, the twin to the light goddess Faevalis of the three twin goddesses' pantheon. Solari was the sun goddess, while Lunethra was her sister and goddess of the moon. None of the goddesses wanted one of their counterparts replaced, so the goddesses took a more hands-on approach.
He ground his fangs together, and it was almost time to feed. One of the warrior priests had a hog ready for him. When dawn came, he planned to glut himself before going to the next village and handling their vampire problem.
While he waited by the firelight, a girl stepped out of the shadows. Her skin was black as night, and her eyes were silver like the moon above.
"My sister is a fool, but you are handsome enough for our tastes." The goddess licked her fangs as she scanned him. "If you are to be my champion, then you'll need more power than you have."
"If you can descend, then why not put Hermes down yourself."
"Descend is the correct word. We must descend or risk destroying everything our followers include to fight on this mortal plane. We are still stronger than the beast, but not by as much as we would like. Even together, it isn't a good match. Combat is where he has the advantage. It's his crude little stage, and he knows all the tricks. So I've come to offer some of my blood and a bag of gold. Spend it on yourself or your allies, whichever way you think will help the most."
"Thank you for your trust." The goddess smirked.
She held out her arm, and he sank his fangs into her flesh. Calm, silvery light entered him through blood like white lilies and moonlight. He pulled away when he could stand it no more.
"Only a drop, at least you know, when you're at your limit. Search out the giant bats in the cave depths near Elden Hollow. They will bind to you as familiars and collect blood for you. It has to be better than feeding on pigs." Lunethra said.
She winked at him and vanished after leaving behind a heavy sack of gold. With the gold, he had a war fund capable of arming a thousand men in the best steal, or he could see the shopkeeper. Darien had done more damage to the vampires than a thousand knights with the best armor and weapons on the market. With his spear, Darien cut a bloody trail through the battlefield.
His war chest was mostly filled with the silver buttons of wealthy vampires he'd slain. It had only been weeks, but he was sure the shopkeeper would have something.
…
Lord Dainak was furious with his officers. They should have already laid siege to Basin City, but the foul spearmen had torn holes through his lines, targeting camp after camp, slaying officers, and stealing the buttons from their coats. He hadn't attacked during the day. It spoke of some bandit being turned by mistake and was a disaster.
He glanced back at the row of cute blonde vampire girls he collected from the villages. Lyra Hawke, an adorable young girl with an ironic hawkish nose, fought valiantly against her nature. He let her struggle. The longer she resisted, the more powerful she became when she finally turned. Most were unaware that a strong will played an important part in what kind of vampire someone became. Those turned without resistance or thought were weak often throw away foot soldiers at best. A girl like Lyra would make a terrifying creature with her strong will. Their children would be phenomenal. If only the Hermes in his veins hadn't awoken, if only this age weren't the time of his ancestor's return. If was the word. Blood was needed in vast amounts for the revival; for that, he would need to sack entire cities.
Dainak wasn't the only lord. If he failed in his duty, others would succeed. Their ancestors would rise; it was a matter of time, not if.
"Did he say anything about my brother?" Lyra asked.
Her bravery touched him. He hoped she would handle the news well. If she grew to hate him, he may need to dispose of her, which would be a waste.
"We believe he fled for Basin City."
"I see."
…
The door opened, and Darien Hawke stepped onto his clean floor, tracking gore in. The boy looked like something out of a nightmare. His face was encrusted with dried blood, there were visibly regenerating wounds all over his body, and his spear glowed with innumerable red and golden lines running through it.
Solari Verdant Spear (Common++) lvl8
Damage: S+
Durability SS
Enchantments
Lesser Heavenly Piercing
Vampire Killer
Blessed By Sun
Value 250,000SP
That spear he sold him had undergone a few changes, including gaining a leveling system and numerous blessings. It was also on the verge of evolving into an uncommon or tier 3 weapon. He checked the Verdant Pump Action Crossbow, and yeah, after all his sweat and tears crafting it, the item was only a fifth of the value of the spear Red sold the guy.
The door opened again before it could close, and a woman with paper-white skin, a toga, and eyes like the sun strode in. Her eyes zeroed in on Red's crossbow. Then she saw the magazines of bolts. "Yes, this is exactly what we need." Her voice echoed and rattled his brain.
She had flowing blonde hair like spun gold, a flowing dress ancient, no bra, perky breasts, and a figure carved from marble. She seemed like any other beautiful girl, but just seeing her made his heart race and his tongue tie itself into knots. He chose to look away. When he did, his mind began to clear.
If he wasn't mistaken, he had just seen a goddess. It hadn't even been a month since he owned his shop, and he was already dealing with the divine. Red felt more annoyed than anything.
"Mr. Red, I was going to ask you to commission something for me, but my patron must have already sent you a revelation of what I would need." The goddess in question smiled and shook her head.
"I can't agree with the price; it's three times what it's worth." Red felt himself sweat, and the goddess smiled, revealing her fangs. She tapped her arm. "The enemy may influence this shopkeeper; perhaps you should bless him by turning him into your first disciple."
Darien shook his head and smirked. "I would rather not. Look at him. He's fat, and he's just a money-hungry shopkeeper. But I will tell you now that I'm only paying a third of what you charge from now on. Oh, and I get my 20% off, too."
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