Dungeon Myst Part 15 (Patreon)

Harry scowled when a particularly loud crash caused him to miss the spot that he was trying to hit on the Thaumium silver blade that he was trying to craft, making the metal 'ring' in a way that it shouldn't. "So much for making a perfect blade," he muttered as he dropped the blade into the oil.

"Blacksmithing increased by 1," the voice announced.

Harry pulled the ugly chunk of vaguely sword shaped Thaumium silver that had taken most of his mana to forge out of the oil. "Come on, it wasn't even close to that bad," he complained as he tossed the piece of shit into his transmogrification box, selected the exceptional blade pattern he'd created early using steel and hit the button.

"Exceptional Thaumium Silver Blade created," the voice announced.

Harry pulled the unfinished blade out of his menu box then walked over to the grinder and got to work putting an edge on the blade, wishing there was a better way to spin the grinder than using the pedals.

"Sharp Thaumium Silver Blade created. Grinding increased by 1," the voice announced.

Harry took a breath then let it out and tossed the blade back into his transmogrification box. "Let's try that again." He hit the button, undoing his progress. He tried to put the goblins out of his mind and got back to work sharpening the blade.

Several restarts and a couple of skill increases later, the ethereal voice announced, "Exceptional Sharp Thaumium Silver Blade created."

"Finally!" Harry cheered as he tossed the partially finished sword into his transmogrification box and pushed the button to make a template so he could transfigure things into an exceptionally sharp blade. He walked over to the workbench where there were dozens of different handles and dropped the mostly finished blade into his blacksmithing box along with a wooden handle and some brass pegs for the hilt. He pushed the button and let the system guide him through the motions.

"Thaumium Silver Blade created," the ethereal voice said.

Harry used the option to disassemble the sword and scowled when he only got part of the pieces back and his blade wasn't exceptional. 'Seriously? Okay, screw it, if you're going to cheat, so am I.'

He tossed the blade into his transmogrification box and hit the button, turning the blade back into an exceptional piece of work. He picked a different wood for the handle along with a leather wrap and added them to the blade.

"Thaumium Silver Blade created," the ethereal voice said.

Harry focused and inventoried the leather wrap then the wooden handle and the brass dowels he'd used to secure the handle, leaving the blade. 'I didn't get any experience for reclaiming stuff but at least I got everything back.'

He went to work mixing and matching the material until the ethereal voice said, "Exceptional Thaumium Silver Blade created!"

Harry tossed it into his transmogrification box and hit the button to get a new template. He glanced at the door then looked at the various polearms leaning up against the wall. 'They're probably too heavy but it doesn't hurt to try.'

He walked over and tested each of the spears until he found one that was surprisingly light. He dropped it into his inventory and looked at the description. 'Darkwood spear, half the weight of marple, double the strength of iron wood? And they used a steel spear head? That's almost criminal.'

He pulled the spear out of his inventory then focused on the blade and inventoried it, leaving him with the shaft. He inventoried the brass dowels that were used to secure the blade then inventoried the darkwood shaft and ran over to the forge to get started on a Thaumium silver spearhead.

Several dozen attempts later.

Harry tossed the screwed up blade into his transmogrification box, selected the mostly finished exceptional blade and hit the button, changing the mangled Thaumium spearhead into an exceptionally sharp exceptional Thaumium blade. He spent a couple of minutes forging a pair of Thaumium silver dowels then tossed them into the blacksmithing box along with the exceptional blade and the darkwood shaft and hit the craft button.

"Exceptional Darkwood Glaive created. Woodworking unlocked," the ethereal voice announced.

Harry swung the spear around a couple of times to get used to the length and the weight then stuck the spear in his inventory and headed over to the door. 'If I open the door they're going to charge in and I'm going to die. If I don't open the door, I'll starve to death and they don't have a bathroom in the workshop.'

He took the heavy chain he'd picked up off a goblin out of his inventory, tossed it in his transmogrification box and hit the button to get a template then swapped the chain for a gnarled looking Thaumium silver club that had been his first attempt at making a sword. He hit the button and turned the club into a Thaumium silver chain. He threaded the chain through the loop on the door frame that held the crossbar then around the metal loop that functioned as the door handle.

He stepped back a couple of steps then over so that he could stab the spear through the gap between the wall and door. 'Should get one or two hits before they're ready.' He pulled the darkwood spear out of his inventory then used telekinesis to lift the metal bar so the door could open. He stabbed the spear through the gap into a surprised goblin. "Die!"

Harry stabbed the next goblin before stepping to the side when a couple of goblins with polearms stepped forward and tried to stab him. He yanked the polearms out of their hands with telekinesis then sent a blast of fire through the gap, catching some of them by surprise.

"Congratulations on your dedication to killing goblins, you have received a boon from the fae. Cobbling Unlocked. Magical Cobbling Unlocked," the ethereal voice announced.

'Weird,' Harry thought as a spherical metal object was tossed through the gap. "Shit!" He cursed as he tossed the object back through the gap and slammed the door shut with telekinesis. Everything shook as the device exploded and the door was forced open the half a foot the chains allowed.

"Congratulations on turning a bunch of goblins into chunky salsa, you have received a boon from the fae. Tailoring Unlocked. Magical Tailoring Unlocked," the ethereal voice announced.

Harry rubbed his ears for a couple of seconds, trying to get the ringing out of them then listened for the sounds of survivors. He opened his new tailoring menu and looked at the three patterns he had. 'Spinning straw into magical thread? I have the mana but I don't have the straw or the spinning wheel. Turning thread into cloth requires thread and making an invisibility cloak requires magical cloth.' He glanced at the option to cut clothing up to get patterns that were grayed out because he didn't have a pair of scissors. 'That should come in useful later.'

He closed the menu then pulled up his Cobbling menu and looked at his options. 'Looks like I can mix and match the boots with the magical effect. Basic traveler’s boots and a Seven League effect that increases the maximum distance people can travel with each step. This would be easier if I had leather and a decent collection of tools.'

'Shouldn't be too hard to make a pair of scissors, it's just two blades and a rivet,' Harry told himself as he walked over to the forge and pulled two steel ingots out of his inventory and got to work. It didn't take all that many botched attempts before he admitted that he wasn't actually sure how to make scissors, mostly because he'd never actually studied how they worked.

'I'm going to have to find a library or a bunch of patterns,' Harry decided as he closed his menus and walked over to the door. He stuck the chain in his inventory. 'I should probably make sure someone isn't waiting to kill me.'

Harry took a couple of steps away from the door and grabbed a fist sized chunk of metal out of his inventory. He pulled the door open with telekinesis then tossed the chunk of metal into the hallway as he called out, "Fire in the hole!" He swung the door shut most of the way, as if he was trying to protect himself from the blast.

He was slightly disappointed that he didn't hear any scrambling. 'Hopefully that means I got everyone.' He pulled the door open and quickly checked both directions before relaxing when he found nothing but mangled goblins in both directions. 'It looks like one of Dudley's horror movies.'

He checked the door and was a touch surprised to find that it wasn't damaged in the slightest from the blast. 'If I didn't already know I couldn't keep everything, I'd pop the hinges and steal you. It's probably better to have somewhere I can retreat to.'

Harry quickly looted the goblins, picking up a couple of interesting looking knives and several pairs of boots that gave decent boosts to his physical stats. He swapped his shoes for the best boots then deconstructively took the rest of the boots apart to try to get a better idea how everything worked, picking up a decent amount of leather and laces for his trouble. 'The tougher the leather, the better the armor rating and the more magic I shove into the boots, the more of an agility boost they give.'

He headed back inside the workshop and over the bench then used the salvaged components to make a pair of agility boosting Seven League Boots.

"Clumsy Seven Step Boots created. Cobbling increased by 1," the voice announced.

"Seven step?" Harry muttered as he read the description on the lopsided looking boots. 'These boots reduce agility by two points and allow the wearer to increase the distance traveled by up to seven steps if they wish. That's useful, just not what I'd want in a dungeon unless I'm trying to leave the monsters in the dust.'

Harry glanced at his stats. 'I can probably soak the negative to agility if I have to but I might as well try for something better since I have the material.' He walked back over to the door and shut it then put the chain on so that nothing would be able to sneak up on him while he was distracted then got to work making boots.

0o0o0

The cat girl glanced at the wall when she heard yet another squeal coming from the other side of the wall. "They're really noisy."

"Yep," Myst agreed as he headed towards the bathroom, doing his best to focus on his mana pool and not the naked and extremely attractive cat girl that was sprawled out on the waterbed waiting for him to finish spending his mana.

"What are you making this time?" she asked as she stretched her arms over her head and wiggled, enjoying the way the waterbed moved.

"A resource card, it basically creates a magical node that people can harvest for special resources," Myst replied as he stepped through the bathroom door and onto the tiled floor where he could summon a slime beast without wrecking the carpet.

"What type of resources?" she asked, curious how the spell worked.

"No clue. This will be the first time I've used the spell." Myst focused on ten of the mist crystals in his storage and cast his Conjure Resource Node spell, drawing the mana from the mist crystals and his mana pool. He smiled when something that resembled a foil game card with a picture of an overgrown forest appeared in his hand. He used devour on the slime beast his curse created then read the text on the card. "It should give us five hundred units of Frost Iron Wood, an extremely hard wood that is always cool to the touch, repels bugs and doesn't rot."

"Wood that doesn't rot? That sounds perfect for cabinets since they'd stay cool," she mused.

"Just about anything that you don't have to move all that often," Myst mused as he walked over to the window. He focused on an empty patch of float stone and used the resource card, causing a massive oak tree with blue highlights and leaves to quickly grow out of the stone. "Damn, I was expecting an overgrown patch of wood or something ugly that I wouldn't mind cutting down."

The catgirl rolled to her feet and bounced over to the window. "Ooh!" she squealed when she saw the magnificent tree. "Are you sure you want them to cut it down?"

"Not really but I need the wood," Myst admitted, wondering if he should just leave it or if he'd just end up murdering a bunch of gremlins because they cut his tree down for resources.

"Can you get seeds and plant more?" she asked hopefully.

"It's worth a try," Myst replied as he selected the Duchess of Death from his minion list and assigned her to get seeds from the tree. "The system didn't give me an error message when I assigned an herbalist to collect some. So, maybe?"

"Good," she agreed as she heard another squeal of delight from next door. She opened the window then took a step back, leaned down and placed her hands on the windowsill. "Fuck me until I scream, if I can't beat the girls in volume we'll grab Vivian and double team them."

"Yes ma'am," Myst replied with amusement as he got to work, glad that she was taking charge as it made him feel less like an asshole since he was basically her boss.

0o0o0

Harry took a step and 'slipped' between where he'd been standing and a spot nine steps further down the tunnel as easily as if he'd walked the distance. 'Six feet.' He took another step and ended up six feet forward then another and ended up eight feet closer to the bend in the tunnel that he could see thanks to the light coming in it. 'That's probably enough testing of my nine foot boots.'

He carefully snuck up to the corner and stared at the brightly lit mist filled cavern filled with a massive mound of gold coins that would make a dragon jealous. 'Why the hell are the goblins putting cauldrons in the rainbow?' he asked, trying to figure out what the group of five goblins dressed in business suits was doing. Everything became a bit more clear when gold coins started overflowing the cauldrons and the goblins walked off, only to be replaced by another group of goblins with cauldrons. 'Are they related to leprechauns or is this something else they stole from the fae?'

'Not sure it matters.' He focused on his fire creation ability and poured mana into making a large ball of fire over his hand until he'd just about spent all of his mana pool. He tossed the basketball-sized ball of fire toward the chamber and sprinted down the long tunnel back the way he'd come, using his boots to eat up the distance as he didn't want to be anywhere near the blast.

Harry hit the ground and tumbled as the earth shook and a roaring inferno of magical fire rushed down the tunnel. He scrambled to his feet and sprinted for the end of the tunnel, he'd almost made it when he found himself back in the black void.

"Congratulations on wiping out the goblin thieves that stole secrets they shouldn't have and completing the tutorial. You have been given a boon by the fae and the Cauldron of Rainbow Transmutation schematic has been added to your blacksmithing skill. Fire Creation increased by 1," the ethereal voice said.

"That's it?" Harry asked warily, not quite ready to go back to reality.

"Defeating the goblins completed the tutorial. It's time to start your actual adventure," the ethereal voice announced.

"Thank you for the help," Harry offered, wishing that the voice had told him that killing all of the goblins would complete the tutorial because he would have loved to take a couple more trips to St. Trinians and ask about alchemy.

"You're welcome Harry," the ethereal voice said cheerfully before Harry found himself back in the living room at the Dursleys.

Dudley stared in disbelief as Harry appeared in the middle of the room two feet in the air and promptly crashed into the floor. "Mum! Harry teleported!"

Harry pushed himself off the floor and got to his feet, wishing the tutorial hadn't dropped him right in front of Dudley. "What are you talking about?" he asked, trying to confuse his cousin.

"You appeared out of thin air!" Dudley blurted.

"There is no such thing as magic!" Petunia snapped as she stalked into the living room from the kitchen. "Get back in your room, now!"

Harry turned to look at his aunt and realized that she knew that magic was real. "You're lying."

"What?!" Petunia snapped.

Harry glared at his aunt when he realized that he could still feel his magic. "Magic is real."

"Get in the cupboard!" Petunia shrieked.

"No," Harry replied. "You've been lying about magic."

Petunia slapped Harry's face as hard as she could and shrieked in pain when she felt a couple of bones snap in her wrist as he didn't even move. "Get out! You're not part-"

Harry tossed his magic at Petunia, knowing that if she finished the statement something would break and he'd lose something he'd never get back. He wasn't quite expecting Petunia's skin to clear up or the years to fall away, leaving her looking a good ten years younger. "Shut your mouth!"

Petunia's mouth snapped shut.

"Freak!" Dudley shouted as he charged Harry.

Harry ducked out of the way then kicked the coffee table in his cousin's way, causing him to tumble and go sprawling. He pushed magic into Dudley, turning some of the fat into muscle. "Stay on the ground Dudley!"

"What?!" Dudley sputtered as he found that he couldn't move.

Harry glared at his aunt, feeling all of the rage bubbling up now that he knew she'd been lying to him his whole life and he could do something about it. "You're going to tell me the truth, what happened to my parents and what do you know about magic!"

"They were murdered by a dark wizard!" Petunia snapped. "I don't actually know all that much about magic, I was jealous because Lily had it and I didn't so I stopped paying attention because it hurt. Your mother got a letter when she was eleven inviting her to a magic school, they wouldn't take me because I didn't have magic. She was always bringing strange things home and making potions."

"Magic is real?!" Dudley blurted out.

“Bet you were happy that she was gone,” Harry muttered angrily.

"I didn't want her dead," she said, ignoring Dudley's question. "I didn't want to take you, they should have found someone else to take you in."

"If you didn't want to take me, why did you?!" Harry demanded, wishing they'd let someone else take him.

"There was a letter that implied that a number of dangerous magic users would come after me if I didn't take you in because of my connection with Lily. I just wanted to forget about magic and you never let me! What did you do to me?" Petunia demanded, wondering why she was answering his questions.

"I gave you magic, there's a loyalty clause," Harry admitted, not seeing a point in explaining that she could be free of the loyalty clause if she didn't use the magic for a year and a day, at least before the magic truly settled in.

Petunia glared at Harry. "That's impossible, you can't give people magic."

"Go look in a mirror, you look years younger," Harry told her, not actually sure how to convince her about her magic.

Petunia scowled as she headed towards the bathroom to look at a mirror, doing her best to ignore the sliver of hope trying to crawl out of her twisted and broken soul.

Harry turned his attention towards the cupboard under the stairs and stared when he saw a set of stone stairs going down where his mattress should be. 'What the hell? I guess this qualifies as my starting location?'

Harry conjured a ball of flames over his hand for light then carefully went down the stairs, expecting a spider web covered cellar or dungeon. He wasn't prepared to find a brightly lit bedroom with a vaulted ceiling or the small yet functional kitchen and he certainly wasn't expecting the large bathroom with a tub that could have fit a couple of Dudleys, not that he was ever planning on letting him use it.

He glanced at the metal door set into the wall with an 'Exit' sign over it that had a wheel built into it like a pressure door in a ship. He froze and let the ball of fire vanish when he spotted the leather collar on the nightstand next to a note and two expensive looking glass bottles filled with a sparkling substance. 'That's probably my reward.'

He sighed when he tried and failed to pull up or sense his inventory. 'Yeah, that was probably part of the tutorial. Would have been nice,' he mused as he walked over and read the note, 'Collar of Magic Catgirl form, safe for use. The red bottle contains an elixir of Restoration, which should be enough to heal someone of any ailment and the blue bottle is an Elixir of Knowledge, which will grant the drinker godlike knowledge of one subject, untested. P.S. The Collar has a S.E.P. field on it that keeps other people from caring about the fact that the person wearing it can turn into a cat girl, either by making them think that the change is special effects and a costume or just making them not focus on it. It also keeps people from thinking about her clothes or lack of clothes or any weird behavior, you're immune.'

'God-like power? What's the catch?' he mused as he walked over to the suspiciously quiet fridge and opened it. He glanced at the runes carved into the frame of the fridge that he could see now it was open. 'At least they can't complain about the electricity. Scratch that, they'll just complain that it's magic.'

Harry closed the door to the empty fridge then glanced at the hood on the wall that would suck the smoke out. 'Did they use magic or did they tie things into the vents?' he mused as he walked into the bathroom and looked around, noticing the frosted glass stall around the toilet that was set in the corner near the sinks. He glanced over at where the massive tub was and noticed that it had several levers. 'Hot, cold and jets? Okay, I'll have to test that.'

He glanced over at the full length mirrors that lined the corner where the shower was. 'Is that so you can see yourself or so the people in the tub can get a better view? Probably both,' he admitted as he headed back into his bedroom and walked over to the vault door. 'I should probably figure out where this goes before Vernon gets home.'

He twisted the metal wheel, finding it surprisingly easy to spin though not easy enough that it would spin on its own. He pulled the door open and looked at the stone hallway lined with magical torches that lit as he stepped into the hallway. "Awesome."

He walked down the dusty hallway and stopped when he spotted a partially open vault door to another room after he went about a hundred feet off to the left. "Is anyone here?" he called out. He waited ten seconds then peeked through the gap and stared at the dust covered room with a dust covered glass coffin in the middle of it. 'Those look like feet.'