World Sphere - 189 - Monumental Task (Patreon)

Chapter 189

The Adventurers Guild transferred 100,000 gold to Remy after I signed the Myththorne contract. The Maelstrom would have to make exceptional speed to reach the city to get the daily bonus for starting early in a day and a half. The plot worked out, but we would not be able to stop, and the harmonized aether crystals would be slowly drained during the trip. I was also going to have to work with Rippon during the trip to complete the repairs to the Maelstrom.

“Can I fly the ship?” Freya asked excitedly while looking at the maps. She had been on the Maelstrom before, hopping back and forth from the Black Spire to the Shiny Platinum, but this was her first time leaving the islands, and I had never given her the controls. Although I heard Cilia had let her sit in the pilot’s seat a few times.

“When we get back to Skyholme, Cilia can teach you,” I replied, checking the course and accelerating past the sound barrier.

Freya walked to the forward window to stand between the two phantom cats. “Can I delve into the Cavern of the Thunder Witch with you?”

“Mother would kill me,” I said, deflecting. I had no doubt my team could protect Freya from the creatures in the dungeon, and it was the other delvers I worried about.

“So that is not a no. I won’t tell her. You know I can keep a secret. Adrial and Kiara can protect me.” She scratched both cats, who started purring loudly. Sitting on their haunches, the two beasts were as tall as Freya.

“Maybe. You brought all the defensive artifacts I made you?” I inquired.

“Really!? Do I get a share of the harvest, too?” Freya said with her puppy dog eyes that didn’t work now that she was a teenager.

“No. And how did you need coin? Remy said you are taking home almost two hundred gold a month from the contracts with Hens Hollow’s farmers to the Shiny Platinum.” I grumbled. Freya was probably the most spoiled young woman on the islands, with a steady income and thousands of gold worth of artifacts.

“It is closer to five hundred gold, and I have a network of suppliers all across Titan’s Shield now. Remy wouldn’t let me negotiate with the foreign merchants.” She said, annoyed.

“Five hundred gold? Where does it all go?” I asked incredulously.

“It only jumped that high in the last few months. The Shiny Platinum can’t keep up with demand even with the outdoor seating.” Freya explained.

I shook my head, and Bleiz’s voice echoed from the corner of the bridge. Adrial hissed, annoyed that she had not heard him. “If she is going into a dungeon, we should continue your weapons training.”

Freya put on a haughty look for a teenager, “I’m a mage now. I don’t need to practice with a staff.”

Bleiz took three strides across the room, blocked Freya’s feeble defense, swept her legs, and pined her face first to the floor with her arms behind her back. I was able to restrain Kiara with our mind link, but Adrial was confused about what to do. “Adrial, stay.” I ordered.

In a calm voice, Bleiz asked, “Cast your magic now.”

With difficult breaths, she squeaked out, “I…I…I can’t access my aether. What did you do?”

“Aether restraints,” Bleiz said, letting her up. Freya stood annoyed and looked at her wrists. She sported two dark metal bracelets on each arm. I had artificed a number of the mage restraints from the runic patterns on the shackles that Aelyn’s mother wore when we found her. They blocked access to the mage’s aether core unless you had a defense against it. I had a spell called Aether Fortress that prevented such low-tier artifacts from working on me, but Freya had no defense.

“I don’t think you are ready to delve into a dungeon, Freya. If you can’t defend yourself, you are a liability,” I said with a smirk, and Freya understood.

“Fine!” The teenager whined. “I will practice with the spear. I have to get ready for Academy next year anyway.”

“So, you are attending?” I asked, surprised, and realized how little I had talked to my family in the past two years. I saw them frequently, but we rarely talked.

“Yes, I told you I am going to your Dungeon Academy!” She paused, “Oh, I think I told Sana I was going to her Dungeon Academy, but she said you pay the bills.” I rolled my eyes but didn’t really mind if no one knew I owned the Academy that was being rebuilt.

“No time like the present,” I pulled a spear from my dimensional closet and tossed it to her. Freya caught and spun it in her hand to find the center of gravity.

“The shaft is too thick, and I prefer a wider leaf tip for slashing,” Freya said, appraising the spear.

I frowned, “That spear has durability and hasten enchantments on it. It can greatly enhance the speed of your attacks.” The hasten enchantment was extremely complex to pair with any other runic workings on such a small area as the tip of a spear. That spear was easily worth over two thousand gold to a discerning adventurer.

Freya tried to test the enchantment and frowned, holding up her cuffed hands. “I think it best you keep those on and spend some time not relying on your magic,” Bleiz advised with a wolfish grin, ushering her down to the cargo hold to practice.

Adrial was still confused by the entire interaction, not knowing if she should attack, growl or watch. I rubbed her head, “If Freya yelled for help, you should have helped her. You did the right thing.” She purred and pushed her head into my hand but probably didn’t quite understand.

The trip to Myththorne was relatively quiet for me. I spent most of the time on the bridge, artificing small utility items. Cleanliness bracer artifacts that could be used hundreds of times, water condensers, thermal plates, heat sinks and variable brightness lamps. All were large runes and very quick to make for me—nothing like trying to artifice weapons or rings. The magic shop at the Dungeon Academy would offer more than just delving gear.

Remy should leave it up to decide on the price points for the artifacts. If he priced them too low, he would have visiting merchants coming in and purchasing the entire stock. My goal was to increase the quality of life in Skyholme. Maybe I should require citizenship to purchase in the shop and limit it to one artifact for each person to prevent merchants from using a middleman with citizenship. Remy’s problem, not mine.

As we approached the colorful city, I went and checked on the runes for the Maelstrom. We had been overloading them the entire trip. The mithril feeds were still intact, but the gold insulation greatly deteriorated. Coating all the mithril runes in adamantine was just not feasible due to its cost. It would take me a day and a few thousand golds to reinsulate the runes.

Rippon had also finished the repairs on the Maelstrom’s structure. I would have to find the time to replace the copper plating and redo those runes as well. Without them, the Maelstrom’s invisibility could not be used, and the aether shield was much weaker.

Captain Delilah walked us off the ship in a mini procession after we landed outside the palace. A ceremonial guard formed around us and quickly ushered us to see King Nirhaan. The King didn’t hide his relief at seeing me, “Thank you, Master Artificer Storme, for coming so quickly. Dinner is prepared for you and your crew, and we can talk during the event.” Neoma and Tibault were the only crew to remain on board. Even though we were in a friendly city, I sided with caution.

Freya was awed by the size and scope of the palace, and her head was whipping around on a swivel. “Captain Delilah, if you have time after the meal, could you give my sister a tour of the palace?”

I knew Captain Delilah had taken an interest in the Wolfsguard training of Freya in the last day and a half. She smiled slightly, responding, “I would be delighted to show her around after your meal.”

The meal was beyond extravagant. The phantom cats were each given a massive platter with twelve different kinds of raw meat. I was about to inform them that Kiara liked the meat she cooked when she started wolfing down one selection, foregoing her normal manners. “More. This. Meat.” She spoke into my head.

“I think Kiara found something she likes. Can you bring her more of whatever that was?” I said, chuckling.

A server leaned into King Nirhaan’s ear and whispered so he could supply me with the answer. “That is shadow dragon wyrmling meat from the fifteenth layer of the Cavern of the Thunder Witch. Young dragon meat is always extremely tender, although some species have toxic flesh. We will bring out more for your remarkable cat. I can tell she has grown in more than size since you last visited.”

“Thank you,” I nodded, ignoring Kiara’s pleas for more of the meat, telling her it was coming. “I am not familiar with shadow dragons.”

“They are more like lesser black dragons relying on illusion magic and the ability to turn themselves incorporeal,” King Nirhaan explained. “The ones in the dungeon are young and small, no larger than a thousand pounds.”

Adrial had finished her plate and was eyeing Kiara’s untouched raw meat. Kiara’s tail twitched anxiously as a plate stacked with the dragon meat entered. When she moved off her plate to greet the uneasy server, Adrial attacked the abandoned plate to the amusement of everyone at the table. There was a pleasant conversation after the cat entertainment, and then King Nirhaan motioned for me to follow him.

We walked to a balcony high in the palace, giving an expansive view of the city. “We are preparing the structures for your artificing work.” He pointed at some distant scaffolding. “The shield will encompass about 90 percent of the city and as I mentioned, time is of the essence.”

He produced a large binder, which I took and started paging through. It was not the schema for the array but the information on the World Walkers. “I will summarize for you as I have studied the reports in detail. The World Walkers live primarily on the moon Magna, the largest moon in the Sphere. There is a colony about forty million miles from here on the surface of the Sphere as well, but they do not travel from the great valley in which they are located.”

I paged through the documents and asked, “Who sent them?”

“The Adventurer’s Guild thinks they are coming from Magna. There is not only a giant forest on the moon and the walkers. The Guild is sending exploration teams, but searching the entire moon for the cause will take time,” King Nirhaan explained.

“Is there any reason for the particular cities they are targeting?” I asked as I scanned the information that chilled me. These creatures were virtually impenetrable to attacks by the descriptions. I remembered how outmatched the Maelstrom was when it defended itself with the wave attack.

“The best theory is they are targeting cities with the ancient portals,” he answered. “The ancient network of portals can take you anywhere in the Sphere. They are virtually indestructible, but a World Walker, when it comes to siphoning from a dungeon, can destroy one.”

“Talk about using a hammer to kill the flea,” I muttered.

King Nirhaan nodded in agreement. “It is not the first attack on the portal network. Over the last five hundred years, dozens of indestructible portals have been destroyed within this region. Someone is trying to isolate cities.”

“The ancient portals have unlimited range but just require more aether. To my knowledge, all the new portals built are limited by their aether crystals. The ancient portals somehow draw on the aether from the ley line themselves?” I voiced aloud.

“Not exactly. They still require aether to activate but somehow use the ley lines in their functionality to transport material.” King Nirhaan explained. “It is also believed they are connected to the dungeons somehow.”

We stood silently while looking on over the city. The colorful buildings built exclusively from dungeon stone were an acquired taste. I could see the large Adventurer’s Guild Hall and asked, “When is the next monthly auction?”

“Sixteen days if things remain calm. It should be one of the largest in recent memory as the crown is selling off considerable assets to build the array,” he said heavily. “My box is yours if you wish, but I will not be bidding on anything.” I nodded but could feel the weight on his shoulders so I didn’t press.

“Do you have the schema for the array?” I asked.

“All twenty-five tomes. One is for each array, and the other is for the collector and the guide for problem-solving. Follow me.” We left the balcony to a blue-marbled tiled hallway into a study guarded by six of his personal guards. On the table were stacks of massive ancient-looking books. “We purchased them from the stone giants of Akwatia. We need funds from the auction to purchase the synched aether crystals, but things are progressing smoothly. We just need to hope the World Walkers give us time.”

“Or that they don’t even show,” I replied hopefully, but King Nirhaan didn’t look optimistic, and I guessed there was something he was not telling me.

“You can peruse the books and get started if you like. Your suites for your companions and yourself are halfway through this. When you wish to visit a site, tell the guards, and an escort will take you.” King Nirhaan explained. He then went over the extensive security around the tomes and each building housing one of the arrays. The central controlling array would be in the old cathedral of the balance.

Before he left, he pulled off the adamantine ring and handed it to me. I immediately had Kiara break her connection to me and contacted Sana. “Sana, have any problems arisen?”

Her voice rang in my head. “Relik returned with an adventurers guild called Maven Seekers, and they found tracers of the shifter but have not found the shifter itself.”

“And the construction?” I asked.

“Storme, you don’t have time for idle chat. I have everything well in hand. Remy is handling your finances extremely well, the dungeon is still sealed, and Toblin has still not made an attempt on the Black Spire. Focus on what you need to do and check in once a day, or I will use the communication ring to contact you,” Sana said in a motherly tone. She then cut the connection.

I was wondering what I would find when I returned in one month. One thing I was certain of is I would be broke. I sighed and opened the first tome. The script and runes were large as I paged through the first book. Most of the runes were redundancy runes, so if one of the arrays failed or was destroyed, the other runic towers could take the load. There was nothing special about the runes other than their size. Each tower had five floors, and each floor was covered in runes. Looking at the required thickness and scope—not overly difficult.

After paging through the books, I had a headache. The runes themselves were relatively easy, but each floor orientation needed to be perfect to the other floors, and the angles among the twenty-three different arrays needed to be perfect. It would require math done over miles. I wish I had brought Remy along; he would have done short work on this aspect. I started to scribble notes, and the time passed.

Adrial’s massive head appeared in my lap, her green eyes looking at me expectantly. I must have been working for hours undisturbed, and Adrial was either hungry or needed to go. No, she wanted both. “Let’s go for a walk and find the others.”

A walked into the hallway and Bleiz was leaning against the wall. The six palace guards remained. “Everything well?” I asked.

“Fine. Freya is sleeping, and Rippon is exploring the skyship ports in the city. Aelyn went shopping.” Bleiz informed me.

“I am going to walk the cats for a bit and stretch my legs.” As I moved down the hallway, Bleiz joined me.

“There is a representative from the Adventurer’s Guild in the palace,” Bleiz stated, and I groaned.

He cackled his Wolfsguard laugh. “It is to serve you. Your contact says you have eight hours of rest and four hours to delve daily. When you want to go, the guild representative will clear the way, and you will be the only one entering during that slot.” I nodded, remembering the entrance of the Cavern of the Thunder Witch cycled to different locations on the first floor every hour.

“That is actually good news. I think I will pull the aether crystals from the Maelstrom and store them in my dimensional space with the disruptor cannon. I don’t want to leave Neoma and Tibault alone on board for a month. They can join us in the dungeon as well.” Bleiz nodded at my statement.

We found a terrace with a garden and I let the cats go do their business. After they did, I used my cleanliness spell to clean up after the cats. Kiara nudged me, and I let her back in my mind. “Make. Coat. Shiny. Clean.” I used my cleanliness spell on her and she rippled her coat and purred in appreciation.

“Bleiz, go get some dungeon guides and study them. You can be in charge of preparing everyone for when we delve. Too bad we never got Remy’s dungeon transport sled.” The passion project was still in the works of having a mini-skyship I could take out of my dimensional closet and use in dungeons. I handed Bleiz five large platinum, and he left for the Adventurer’s Guild.

I wandered back to the room and dove back into the tomes as I planned to start the monumental project.