The Land: Catacombs (Chaos Seeds Book 4) (36 page)

Something else happened, though, he saw excitedly.  A section of the Talent tree revealed itself.  Three filaments lit up, leading from the Talent he had improved to three more spheres.  The picture resolved to show more upgrades.

Increase Strength Weapon Enchantment I
: Accessing this Talent will increase the strength of any weapon enchantments by 10%.  Talent Cost:
10 points
. 

Increase Strength Armor Enchantment I
: Accessing this Talent will increase the strength of any armor enchantments by 10%.  Talent Cost:
10 points
. 

Increase Strength Item Enchantment I
: Accessing this Talent will increase the strength of any accessory enchantments by 10%.  Talent Cost:
10 points
. 

These spheres had even more filaments extending from them, but again, the new threads were muted and everything past those three globes remained shrouded.  He wanted to see what else he could uncover, but decided to hold off on any further experimentation.  Besides, there were more prompts to deal with and he could see Sion and Randolphus approaching from across the feast area.  He quickly accessed them. 

You have been offered a Quest:
Practice makes Perfect I.
  Trust thyself, every heart vibrates to that iron string.  You are an Enchanter, in the same way that you are a man or a chaos seed.  Practice your new Profession and honor who you are.  Will you enchant ten items?  Yes or No?  Reward: Five Talent points. 

You have completed the Quest:
Hunters or Hunted I.
  At your instruction, Krom has outfitted your hunters with better leather armor and arrows.  Nothing special was done to complete this quest so you will be granted no extra rewards.

Reward: 1,250 (base 1,000) experience. 

Reward: Village-wide Loyalty +5 (+10 for hunters).

Reward: Increased regard of the hunters for you. 

You have unlocked the Quest:
Hunters or Hunted II
.  Speak with one of your hunters for more information.

You have completed the Quest:
Splat the Rat!
  At your instruction, your chamberlain searched through the new villagers and found a human with the knowledge and ability to alter a standard repel vermin charm.  Your food stores are now safe from burrower rats. 

Reward: 1,250 (base 1,000) experience. 

Reward: Village-wide Loyalty +5.

You have completed the Quest:
Noises in the Dark I. 
At your chamberlain’s order, your guard captain took a squad into the iron mine and discovered the source of the strange noises.  It had been a nest of gibberlings.  Though foul smelling and aggressive, in low numbers these monsters posed no threat to your guards and were quickly destroyed.  Your miners are already back to work and normal iron production rates have been restored.

Reward: 1,250 (base 1,000) experience. 

Reward: Village-wide Loyalty +5.

Reward: Access to the second floor of the iron mine.

You have unlocked the Quest:
Noises in the Dark II
.  Upon exploring the second floor of the iron mine, signs of more monsters have been found.  Sending your miners there without protection would risk their lives.  Will you explore the second floor of the iron mine and do what is required to ensure the safety of your people?  Yes or No?  Reward: Unknown.  Penalty: Failure to accept or complete this quest could endanger the lives of your miners. 

He accepted the quests and dismissed the prompts for the completed quests.  His people had been busy while he was gone.  Richter had never thought that asking Futen to keep Randy in the loop would have ever paid so many dividends.  It was true that the rewards for each quest weren’t very much, but then again, he really hadn’t done anything to complete them.  It was amazing that being leader of this community meant he could start delegating not only the work that needed to be done, but also experience-gaining quests.  Richter supposed it made sense though.  As the village got larger and larger, if he had to deal with people’s needs personally and by himself, then he would be run ragged within a week.  He resolved to follow the old adage of the successful administrator: hire good people, then take credit for their work. 

Before he could ponder the implications of delegating quests any further, his Companion and chamberlain walked up.  He clasped wrists with both and then Sion asked, “Back from your vacation?  Always like a lazy human to disappear when there is work to be done.”  The sprite plopped down across from him and grabbed some meat from his plate. 

Richter scowled at Sion, but he could only keep the expression on his face for a moment before he broke out into a wide grin.  It was good seeing his friend again.  “Trust me when I tell you, it wasn’t a picnic.”

“Did you come back with anything nice?” Sion asked.

Richter raised his arm and made a muscle. “You are looking at a Professed Enchanter.  Feel free to be impressed.” 

“Congratulations, my lord,” Randolphus said with a bow. 

Richter forcibly raised his chamberlain’s arm until his hand was up.  Then he gave the man a high five.  “Randy!  You totally crushed it while I was gone.  Thanks for knocking some of those quests out while I was gone!”

The chamberlain smiled weakly while he shook the hand Richter had slapped, slapped perhaps a bit too hard considering his thirty-seven Strength points.  “It was my pleasure, my lord.  I always endeavor to provide both for your needs and the needs of the village.  If we are done slapping palms, however, there
are
several matters to discuss…”

Richter chuckled and settled in. Same old Randolphus, he thought.  The chamberlain proceeded to catch Richter up on the events of the past week.  Besides resolving the quests, precious little had actually happened.  One of the hunters had been injured by a wild boar, but otherwise, there hadn’t been any violent incidents.  The patrols continued to circle around the borders of the village, but except for the two groups stationed to protect the mist workers, stayed near the walls.  Terrod had apparently curtailed all other trips deeper into the mists after the battle with the skaths.  Futen had floated up while the chamberlain was speaking and now hovered silently over the table.  Alma continued to gorge herself on meat off of Richter’s plate. 

At mention of the skath fight, Richter was suddenly reminded of the eggs. “Randy!  Did Futen tell you about the eggs?”

“Yes, my lord,” the chamberlain said, nodding.  “We were lucky enough to have found a pair in the second wave of villagers with the skill Beast Taming.  They are a bit… eccentric, but I have had them check in with me daily.  They say the eggs are doing well.  I would like to ask though, my lord, what exactly do you plan to do with them?”

“I’d like to tell you that it’s all part of some master plan, Randy, but honestly I have no idea.  I have already gained some interesting skills because of the clutch though.  Let’s just see the eggs hatched, then we will go from there.  Has an enclosure been built around the nest?”

“It has, my lord.” 

“And is a mist worker stationed there to watch it every hour?”

“I made a slight alteration to that command, my lord,” Randolphus said.  “With the speed of construction happening around the village, not to mention the mining and ship building, mist workers are extremely valuable.  Some of our new workers have very little in the way of useful skills however.  I have assigned three to watch the skath clutch in shifts.  In addition, I asked Captain Terrod to station three guards in the meadow at all times.  Two to keep other villagers away from the lake and the third to guard the entrance to the waterfall.”

Richter nodded in agreement.  Conversation was halted briefly as he stood up to greet Krom, Sumiko, and Shivona.  He embraced the women and clasped wrists with Krom before having them join him at the table.  One of the village women brought more food and drink when she saw her newly returned lord holding court.  He got a report from each in turn. 

Krom told him that the moonstone had been a richer vein than he had originally thought.  He had already smelted two dozen ingots of the white stone and told Richter that he should be able to make three full suits of chainmail armor from them.  The dwarf warned, that making the white armor would take a fair bit longer to forge than the highsteel armor he had been making.  Richter nodded, now understanding why Terrod’s armor was mismatched.  Krom also said that he had been able to master the creation of Heavy Arrows and had used the moonstone to make two bundles of them.    

Richter thanked him and said he would need to work with him soon anyway to practice his new Enchanting Profession.  He moved on to Sumiko, who said that she had been working with Roswan to make the latrines more sanitary and she had also dealt with the pit that the hunters threw offal into.  It had apparently been breeding a bad disease when she first examined it.  She had ordered the entire pit burned for three days and then had cast a series of cleansing spells.  There was also a new ordinance that trash was to be placed in a central pit and burned weekly.  She said the ash could be used to make a high quality fertilizer.

Richter thanked her.  Then he thanked her again.  He was truly grateful that she had stepped in and helped to put some new health protocols in place.  In retrospect, he should have immediately known that a pit filled with rotting remains was a disease risk.  He hadn’t seen an outbreak here, but even on Earth, plagues had still existed.  True there was magic here, but didn’t that also open the door to magical plagues?  Richter started considering the possibilities of that and shuddered.  He closed the mental door to that particular brand of horrors and just thanked Sumiko again.

Shivona didn’t have too much more to report.  The ship construction was going well.  Krom had done a good deal of work on a scorpion ballista.  It would have the capability to fire both bolts and pots of various weaponized potions.  The boat itself would take another five to seven weeks to complete.  Richter did some quick math in his head and realized that, as suspected, the timeline to finish the ship had increased once he lost the bonuses for increased Morale and Loyalty.  The fact that he had changed his request for her to make a war vessel rather than a simple trading boat also probably had something to do with it.  He still felt that the decrease in production was more than a fair trade-off for increasing the population of the village. 

Roswan and Terrod had joined the table as well.  Richter asked if anyone else had pressing issues to discuss.  Randolphus of course had his unending list of notes to go over, but when Richter glared at him, the chamberlain begrudgingly said there was nothing that couldn’t wait.  Richter nodded calmly, but internally was doing a fist pump and cheer that he had been able to back Randy the Reporter down. 

“Terrod, get our war party together.  The same people and no one else.  We have a Challenge to complete.  Everyone is to be ready to go and at the gate at midday.  Have everyone go by the Forge first though.  Krom, outfit them with the best gear that you can.  Also go to the Philosopher’s Cauldron and pick up any helpful potions.  Speaking of which, how is our newest marvel, Sion?  How has Beyan been?”

Everyone looked at each other uneasily until Sion said, “We have been able to make some potions in the Cauldron, but we haven’t been able to use any of its abilities.” 

“Why not?” Richter asked, confused.

“You didn’t give anyone permission to use it before you were taken to your Trial.”

“Oh, my bad,” he said.  He still didn’t understand why everyone was looking like they had bad news.  If anything, he would have thought that people would be irritated with him for wasting a week of potential potion making.  He looked at Sion quizzically until the sprite started speaking again.

“Beyan has been having a few issues with the other alchemist, Tabia.  They don’t exactly… mesh.”

“Ha,” Sumiko said.  “I’ve seen wet cats with dysentery trapped in a bag that get along better.”

“Well thanks for
that
visual, Sumiko,” Richter complained.  He turned back to his Companion. “So you’re basically saying that this is a problem that requires my direct intervention?”

“That might be best,” Sion said brightly.  The sprite was clearly happy not to have to be put in the middle of the two alchemists anymore. 

“Fine, I’ll deal with that too,” Richter said with just a touch of irritation.  “As I was saying before, Terrod, make sure everyone is equipped with at least some health and stamina potions, because then we’re going hunting.”

“Yes, my lord,” Terrod said. 

Richter dismissed everyone except for Roswan and Randolphus.  Before leaving, Krom handed him the copper cylinder and piping that he had requested.  Richter’s grin almost split his face in half.  He placed the entire five-foot-long device into his Bag of Holding.  No matter how many times he saw a large object disappear into the small space, it never got old.  Of course, that was the way all of his exes had felt as well, he realized. 

Richter chuckled to himself as the rest of his informal council stood and left.  Before Richter could start speaking again, Randolphus placed a small pouch on the table.  Opening it, Richter saw that it contained at least two dozen glowing soul stones.  The chamberlain said they had been collected by the hunters and the patrol that had cleared the iron mine while Richter had been gone.  Richter opened his mouth to ask a question, but the chamberlain preempted him by saying that the bonus had been paid for each soul.  Then the man went on to say that it would be nice if such financial decisions were communicated to him
before
villagers came up asking for money.  Richter took the slight rebuke in stride and said, “Yes, dear.”  Randolphus just gave a long suffering sigh and flipped through his notes.  Richter winked at him and said, “You’re pretty when you’re angry.”  Randolphus didn’t respond.