Chapter 10 (Patreon)

Flint felt a lot better after a short nap. It wasn’t as good as a full night’s sleep, but he didn’t want to waste any more daylight. He found a head-sized package of bread, cheese, cured meat, and fresh fruit sitting by the Hearstone. Someone must have dropped it off while he slept. He offered Maya a bite, but she nudged his hand away. Her eyes danced between him and the bear corpse, and pride followed. Since Maya never said to food, it confirmed his suspicion that she had indeed tucked into the fae-touched beast and filled her stomach. However, her ears perked up when he bit into the apple. She accepted a sliver before leaving him to sniff around the square.

After draining half of the gifted waterskin, Flint returned to the cart. It came as no surprise that the mule had a giant chunk missing out of its neck. Something half the bear’s size had ripped open the belly too. Flint guessed it was the smaller creature’s work. The cart was overturned, and the axel had snapped, but the tools and supplies within were untouched. Flint piled the tools on to the tarp he used to cover his belongings and bundled them together for transport. He was glad the cart’s covering had come with a new length of rope. It made transporting his belongings much easier.

Flint climbed to the top of the wall before pulling his belongings up. Once done, he took the cart apart and moved the wood over too. It was high quality and treated for water. He’d get good use out of it sooner than later.

Once he returned to the inside of the gate, Maya came trotting back to meet him. Flint sensed disappointment off the sheepdog. He guessed she had tried using her entry holes to follow him out but was now too large for them. Maya hadn’t just gained height but bulk too. As Flint walked back towards the Heartstone, he wondered what part of [Soul Link] influenced her growth?

Did the ability improve everything about her? Or could she be benefiting from my skills?

The only explanation for her increased size was either a passive boost from the class or [Builder’s Brawn]. Flint recalled having a much skinnier frame when he first got the ability. Years of working in the Building Division had improved his physique. He wasn’t sure whether it was all-natural or the passive ability had played a role in it too. If it did, that meant [Keen Eye] and [Steady Hands], and all other passive abilities would benefit her as well. Maya could potentially become more invaluable than she already was.

[Builder’s Brawn] gave Flint the strength necessary to haul the load back to the Heartstone, and he found himself wondering where to set up base. Eventually, he intended to make the fort his home. It was a long uphill trek, though, and he didn’t want to carry tools back and forth on a daily basis. As a result, he needed something far enough from the wall so future attackers would struggle to locate him.

“Have you found any water, Maya?” Flint asked, wiping the sweat from his brow. He guessed she must’ve washed her white and brown snout somewhere after devouring half her former body weight in bear meat.

Maya yapped at him instead of her usual barks and took off uphill. Her new calls sounded more like a child’s babble than barking. Flint didn’t mind since it reminded him of Maya’s puppy days before she learned to bark. He found it adorable and couldn’t help but smile. He followed her, enjoying the quiet and cold air.

The weather around the Slumbering Fort was much colder than Hammercrest. It was by the Gator Tooth mountains, after all. Fortunately, the cliffs bordering the pass kept the wind out. Unwilling to catch a cold, Flint hesitated for a moment before peeling his leather coat off. His shirt clung to his chest. After two weeks of travelling, it needed changing. However, Flint didn’t want to put on his new clothes without bathing first.

When the sound of running water reached Flint’s ears, he couldn’t be happier. When Maya sent him the image of a pool, he expected a puddle or a pit. Instead, he found a source of running water. The stream exiting the eastern cliff face was only a couple of feet across, but Flint suspected it was part of something much larger, and some digging could turn it into a valuable resource. The water gathered in a deep hole, most likely with an exit somewhere inside. Otherwise, there’d be an overflow. It wouldn’t take long to turn it into a well.

Initially, Flint had planned not to do any building on the first day. He was still pretty worn out from the fight and communing with the Heartstone. However, the water source’s vicinity felt like the perfect place to set up camp. Many would’ve preferred staying right by the Heartstone, but Flint found the multi-coloured runes and their light show unnerving. So, for the first time in over two weeks, he got back to what he did best: building.

Even though several buildings’ skeletons remained, Flint didn’t trust them to hold up after half a millennium of neglect. The fort above appeared in decent shape, but he guessed individuals with high-ranking skill stones had worked on them. Meanwhile, novices built the structures between the inner and outer walls. The Iron Army’s Building Division used the more straightforward, less-important projects to train the newcomers and help level their skill. Often a veteran and their apprentice would supervise their work and ensure their buildings were structurally sound.

For the first time in several months, Flint put [Shape] to good use. Most builders would mould the surrounding earth to build themselves a hut, but he wanted a more permanent structure. Besides, Flint didn’t have anyone besides Maya to watch his back. He wanted her to rest in reasonable safety too. So, he opted for a structure that would hold up a while against bear and war beast attacks.

Before starting, Flint used rope to draw lines in the dirt and put together a shape parallel to the neighbouring ruins. Sooner or later, he’d rebuild them all and wanted something well laid out from the start.

Starting the structure against the cliff face would’ve reduced Flint’s workload and given him extra security. However, he planned to carve out parts of the stone, find water sources, and create hidden tunnels for his future dogs to travel up and downhill swiftly without obstacles.

There is no point in building without planning around the current project. You’ll end up with an untidy, uninhabitable mess.

During his first term in the Iron Army, Flint had disagreed with the sentiment, but in his eighth year, he changed his mind when he started planning sections of larger builds. Even though he didn’t sketch it all out on paper, Flint had a rough idea of how he wanted the area to look. The location could provide housing or storage during regular times. If someone attacked, it could turn into a maze or even a death trap.

[Shape] let Flint take a chosen material and mould it into a desirable shape. There were several unsaid limitations to the ability, which he had learned through trial and error as most builders did. It worked with stone, clay, wood, and a couple of other materials but only let him make simple shapes. Veteran builders often displayed the ability’s unsaid applications too. After a fight with an older brother-in-arms, he recalled their commanding officer had ordered them to dig trenches for sewage. The offered tools were old and unstable.

The old builder had shaped a solid block out of the ground without tools. He had laughed on seeing Flint’s wide-eyed amazement and requested he e same around someone outside the Building Division. They’d slash the company’s budget. It had taken a long time to master the application, but it had proven its worth over the years.

Most [Shaping] involved working with an almost homogenous material. It required the user to have a clear image of what they wanted and then activating the ability to burn energy and mould. The more impurities or oddities there were in the material, the less energy-efficient [Shaping] got.

Flint imagined a rectangular block two feet long, one-foot wide, and one-foot thick. Then he poured his energy to the floor and focused. Much to his relief, the ability absorbed minimal energy before the rectangle dislodged from the ground. The material’s previous roughness was gone, and he held a near-perfect version of what he had imagined. Then he set about going around the square and extracting similar blocks out of the ground.

He was just finishing up the foundation when Maya returned to him barking. She had wandered off while he worked and the concern she projected worried him. Flint tried to get a clear image out of her, but he didn’t get one like last time. Assuming it was a one-time thing, he picked up his crossbow and followed her.

When Flint spotted a trail of several hours old blood, he guessed what she had found: the sylph’s second beast. Maya maintained a brisk pace ahead of him, occasionally pausing to look back with her large expressive eyes. He sensed that she didn’t fear the creature, suggesting it was too injured to do them any harm. He followed her with a plan of putting it down swiftly and burying all three bodies once he finished his shelter.

A wave of unfamiliar emotions crashed down on Flint as he approached a crumbling square structure near the pass’s opposing cliff-wall. It was one storey high, and the lack of windows suggested it was once a storage structure. Flint detected terror and sorrow in more detail than he ever had before Maya’s sudden growth. He signalled for her to stay before peeking his head into the structure, looking down the crossbow’s sights. Flint’s finger faltered on the weapon’s trigger when he spotted another canine.

Flint wasn’t entirely sure whether it was a dog or not. The creature in front of him was wolf-like in size but looked very much like the sled-pulling snow dogs he had encountered in the northern icy wastelands. A crossbow bolt stuck out of its side, and the fur around the wound had fallen out. The beast bared its teeth when their eyes met, and a weak growl vibrated in his throat. Another wave of emotion washed over Flint, and pain accompanied the other feelings.

As Flint left the doorway and entered the structure, more sunlight reached the beast, illuminating the wounded area. His chest tightened when he saw burn marks. He knew they weren’t born of fire straight away. The dog was fae-touched and reacting to the iron stuck in its side. Flint found himself torn. Killing the beast would be the rational move, but the thought of killing a dog broke his heart. If it were any other canine, he’d find a way to deal with the guilt, but he didn’t want to kill the beast in front of him unless absolutely necessary. If the Heartstone hadn’t given him an ability called Totem of Healing, he’d have justified that he was putting the beast out of its misery, but now, he had to try.

“I’m going to help you,” Flint said, maintaining a gentle tone. He sent calm, friendly colours through his empathic link to the creature until the growling stopped. “I’ll fix you up. Then you’re free to be my friend or run away. It’s your choice.”

Flint removed the belt from around his waist, getting closer to the beast. It eventually pulled its teeth in, but the dog’s tail remained between its legs. He lunged and wrapped the leather around its muzzle and tightened it. The dog wriggled for a moment but yelped when the arrow scraped Flint’s shoulder and then stopped.

“I’m sorry, buddy,” Flint said. “It’s just so that you don’t get any ideas and bite me.”

The creature stiffened and whined when he picked it up. Flint had to put up with its weak wriggling until the dog but saw Maya waiting outside. Flint carried it back to the building site and placed it by the running water. The whining got louder, but he focused on securing the beast first.

Next to the base Flint was constructing stood a large stone pillar. Of all the surrounding structures, it was the most intact. He picked it as a test subject for his newest ability. Flint pressed his hands to it and thought of [Totem of Healing]. Nothing happened at first. He opened studied the structure, rubbing his hands against the rough surface. When he tried activating [Shaping], his hands suddenly stuck to the stone. A powerful force drew on his strength, making his joints ache, and his knees wobble. Darkness bordered Flint’s vision, and he was worried he was going to pass out. So, he pulled away with all of his remaining strength and stumbled to the ground.

Maya rushed to Flint’s side and licked his face, but his eyes remained focused on the pillar. A green aura swirled around the structure before coalescing and sticking to the stone. It formed fluorescent, flowing lines, much like vines and then leaves sprouted from it. When the shapes stopped moving, a wave of sapphire energy pulsed from the pillar and washed over all of them. Flint’s aches disappeared, but he again felt drained as he had before the nap.

When he returned to the dog, its eyes were closed and breathing slow. The burn marks around the arrow wound had lessened, so he carefully pulled the bolt out. Much to his relief, the dog neither stirred nor bled. Flint tied the dog to the new Totem of Healing and washed the wound. After some thought, he shaped a stone to form a bowl and filled it with water. Flint carefully undid the makeshift muzzle and left the beast alone.

“Keep an eye on him, will you?” He said before settling down for a meal.

The stone hut would have to wait until morning. Flint was exhausted. So, he ate a quick meal and went to sleep facing his latest creation.