The Shatterplate War Chapter 35 (Patreon)

Kay grinned as he continued to address the crowd that had gathered in the Avalon’s main square; as he continued his speech, “And it is now my pleasure to announce that after weeks of discussion and planning, the constitution that forms the government of Avalon is complete!” He turned and took the completed and signed document from the aide next to him and held it up for the crowd to see. It was one of multiple copies, with the original somewhere safe, just in case.

The crowd burst into cheers as they started celebrating.

Kay let the noise go on for a while, then raised his hands to quiet everyone. “Explanations of our new constitution will be available at any government building, with the exception of the palace, as it’s still under construction. A full version of it will also be available to read at request, although those copies will not be available to take. Instructions on voting, including how to vote, the extent of each region that currently exists for the Regional House, and how to become a candidate to run for either house, will be posted across Avalon today. Anyone who wishes to be a candidate for either house must complete the application and meet all criteria by one week from today. There will then be one week before the actual election itself! If there are any questions, please direct them to the Office of Information!” Kay, done with his speech, waved at the crowd and headed down off the podium they’d constructed for this.

The Constitutional Congress had ended up taking almost a full week longer than the original planning had called for, which was annoying but not unacceptable. Kay would rather it take longer the first time than have to redo it later. He didn’t want an Articles of Confederation type problem to have to deal with later.

It had taken longer because there were multiple things that needed changing in the end. A majority of the delegates that had been selected to help mold the constitution had just accepted whatever Kay said, and it took several days of diligently poking at them to get them to realize that he was being serious when he wanted critiques of what he had proposed. Things that Kay had taken for granted back on Earth had to be tweaked to make them useful on Torotia, and a few things had been thrown out entirely.

In the end, though, they had created a government that everyone could accept if you ignored the whiners looking to build up their own personal power. Those people had been taken aside and given a stern talking to, after which they’d behaved. There may or may not have been threats to their well-being involved. Kay couldn’t say for sure one way or the other, so he wasn’t going to address any hypothetical threats.

Anyone that was an actual citizen of Avalon, which meant they were sworn to Avalon via the System, could vote as long as they were an adult. The age of adulthood shifted from species to species, but most people accepted that the age you got your first Class was the age of adulthood, so Avalon’s constitution used the same age. Correcting what he felt was a huge issue from the USA, there were term limits for members of Avalon’s Parliament, with each elected official being allowed two terms, each lasting five years. Sadly, because he was, for all intents and purposes, a constitutional monarch, even if he wasn’t a king yet, there were no term limits for him or his ministers. That was why he’d pushed through a portion of the constitution to make the formation of a special office that would be overseen jointly by all three branches of government that would be tasked with rooting out corruption from all the branches. The Office of Insight would be staffed with the most trustworthy and dependable people Avalon could find once they actually started making the Office. The first thing they needed to do was find a Minister to run it. Like Isla, their real identity would be kept a closely guarded secret known by only a few people, and they would rotate the position frequently to make sure that there was always someone watching the watchers.

We also need to think of a different name for them than ‘Minister’, Kay mused, because that makes them sound like they report to me the same as the other Ministers.

Kay thanked each of the people involved in this speech, from delegates to some of his Ministers to various workers who’d helped, then checked his schedule. Thankfully, he’d finished everything government-related on his schedule, and now all that was left for him to do today was train! Part of him had fully given over to the training maniac lifestyle, and he wanted to keep growing stronger as much as he could. The rest of him was more pragmatic and wanted to grow stronger for what it would let him accomplish, not just for its own sake.

He took a moment to look over his status.

[————————————————————]

Name: Kenneth “Kay” Davis

Race: Outworlder Human

Age: 26

Highest Tier: IV

Total Tiers: 33

Class Slots: 11 Combat Class Slots/7 Non-Combat Class Slots

   6 Combat Class Slot Used/5 Non-Combat Class Slots Used

Classes:

Combat:

- Expert Blood Manipulator: Tier IV -

Skills: Manipulate Blood - Level 35

- Expert Swordsman (Bastard Sword): Tier IV -

Skills: Swordsmanship (Bastard Sword) - Level 31

- Polearm Wielder (Halberd): Tier III -

Skills: Polearms (Halberd) - Level 28

- Expert Blood Shaper: Tier IV -

Skills: Shape Blood - Level 35

- Blood Melder: Tier III -

Skills: Meld Blood - Level 23

- Simulacrum Creator (Blood): Tier III

Skills: Create Simulacrum (Blood) - Level 20

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

Non-Combat:

- Bloody Healer: Tier III -

Skills: Blood Transfusion - Level 25

Healthy Blood - Level 28

Blood Regeneration - Level 28

-Novice Cartographer: Tier III

Skills: Spatial Determination - Level 20

Expanded Sight - Level 20

Sharpened Memory - Level 20

Stable Footing - Level 24

Drawing - Level 30

Cartography - Level 30

-Novice Mapmaker: Tier III

Skills: Effective Communication (Drawing) - Level 22

Drawing - Level 30

Cartography - Level 30

- Blood Enhancer: Tier III -

Skills: Enhance Blood - Level 21

Blood Boost - Level 20

- Blood Lord: Tier III -

Skills: Leadership - Level 22

-Empty-

-Empty-

Non-Class Skills: Identify - Level 5, Appraisal - Level 5, Inspect - Level 5, Punch Daggers - Level 5, Writing - Level 5, Reading - Level 5, Running - Level 5, Sprinting - Level 5, Domain of Blood - Level 2

Titles: Class Line Progenitor, Class Creator VII, System Access (Minor), Blood Lord of Avalon

[————————————————————]

Kay had had very little free time over the last few months, even less than he had had before the former citizens of the Weathered Clans showed up. He’d spent any time he wasn’t doing government and leadership stuff training. Thankfully his Prime Minister was so damn resourceful and good at her job that he actually did have a glut of time to work on growing stronger. He hadn’t gained any new Classes or Skills, but he’d gotten all of his Classes to at least tier three and several to tier four. He’d spent the most amount of time working on Create Simulacrum (Blood) and Meld Blood to level them and get their Classes’ tiers up, which had meant those closest to him had received a number of magical blood gems that enhanced Skills slightly to offset having to watch clones of themselves and others wander around or fight each other and such.

Kay spent time helping the healers to train Blood Healer, he’d made a huge number of maps, some of them incredibly fancy and used as decoration in his growing number of offices and rooms, and he’d spent a lot of time running around and sparring people, most noticeably Meten, the new Minister of Adventuring. Like the names of most of the government posts they were making up, it didn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but it was serviceable.

Along the way, he’d managed to level Domain of Blood once. One single time. To be fair, he’d not been focusing on it; instead of letting his, at first two and now nine, students train their own Skills before he started trying to use his own Skill to make it so they couldn’t use theirs. Along the way, Tyuah and Lauren had become quite adept at both Blood Manipulation and Shape Blood, and the two healers that had become his students had done quite well gaining and tiering up Bloody Healer. With some work, they’d managed to get the Class with Manipulate Blood as one of its skills instead of ever getting the Blood Manipulator combat Class.

As he thought about his students, Kay mentally signaled one of his simulacrums that he’d left behind in his training area. He ordered it to communicate to whoever was there through the sign language they were developing that he was on his way over. The Class effect that he got from tiering Simulacrum Creator (Blood) to tier three was an increase in the time that his simulacrums lasted as well as how far away Kay could get from them before they dissolved. The increased range of that skill gave Kay an interesting workaround that let him escape his own lack of range with his other Skills. By creating a simulacrum of himself, which had the same Skills, he did, even if weaker, he could then send it out past his own Blood Manipulation range and let it do the work for him, greatly increasing the size of the area he could work in during combat.

Tyuah looked up at him from her own training inside the blood pool room as he walked in; the rough outline of an arm slowly rising from the pool started to sink as she lost concentration. “Hello, my lord. How was the speech?”

“Don’t get all formal with me when we aren’t in public.” He scolded her, “And it went fine.”

“Lauren was mad you didn’t take anyone as your guard again.” Tyuah frowned at him, “And I’m annoyed about it too. You can’t take your safety as casually as you have been.”

Kay answered her absently as he looked at the now mostly submerged blood arm, “I wasn’t alone or without guards; I just didn’t take you lot.” He glanced over at her, “But if both of you are insisting I take the Blood Guard around with me, I’ll stop arguing.”

She stared at him like he was being suspicious, “You will?”

“Yes, I will. I think that there are enough of you that are trained to at least a decent amount that it won’t be all of you guarding me at once, so at least one person will have time to train or rest.” 

Seven of his nine students had sworn to him as part of his household troops, which had ended up being named the Blood Guard. Lauren was the leader of the Blood Guard, with Tyuah as her second. As more people had gotten settled and people started looking for longer-term employment as part of Avalon, the increased workforce had allowed several people who wanted to make changes to their lives the opportunity to do so. Three people that had come with the exodus away from the Weathered Clans and two people that had already been in Avalon had ended up becoming Kay’s students and then joining his troops once his title upgraded to Lord. Both healers were staying as healers for Avalon as a whole, not joining the Blood Guard, but Kay had high hopes for one of the potential recruits Lauren and Tyuah were inspecting.

“But!” Kay interrupted whatever Tyuah had been about to say, “We can talk about that later.” He turned away from the pool of blood to grin at her. “I think I’ve got it.”

“You’ve got what?”

“Everything I need to make you real prosthetics instead of making you concentrate all the time,” He gestured at the flowing almost-arm that hung from her stump. Constantly using Shape Blood and Blood Manipulation let her walk and grab things, but if her concentration ever waned enough, it could lead to some catastrophic failures, which made it almost useless in pitched battle. “Let me get a little of your blood.”

Tyuah pricked herself with a needle and drew a small amount of her blood out before letting Kay take control of it.

He focused on her blood as he mixed it with other blood under his control. Using Manipulate Blood and Shape Blood simultaneously, he made it into a physical arm shape that floated in between them. In the same way that he gave over conscious control when he was making a simulacrum, he stopped thinking about the details of what he was doing and just focused on the final form he was seeking. He let the magic itself take over the tiny details of the process while he held everything steady.

The arm began to solidify and change as Kay worked on it. Most of his physical creations out of blood were crystalline, with faceted edges that caught the light. This became smooth, almost like real skin, and the scarlet blood began to dull a little as it became darker and darker red until it was almost a maroon color.

Kay pushed with his will, and an almost palpable wave of mana condensed around the arm before surging into it. He felt what he was making come together, like clicking the final piece of a LEGO build into place, and in that same moment, his notifications started blinking.

He looked up with a wide smile to meet Tyuah’s shocked gaze. “And that’s the first one done.”

She gaped at the floating, deep red arm. “What was that?”

“I made you a prosthetic arm out of blood. Also, I think I probably got a new Skill, but I don’t think that’s the most important thing right now.” He held it out to her. “Want to put it on?”

Tyuah gently took it in her hand and continued staring at it. Kay felt a brief usage of mana from her, and she gasped. “This is a magic item!”

“I definitely got a new Skill, then,” Kay muttered in response as he Identified it himself.

[————————————————————]

Sanguine Grasp

- A prosthetic arm made of blood by Lord Kay, the Class Line Progenitor of Blood Manipulation and Blood Lord of Avalon, for a member of his Blood Guard. Created to replace a limb lost in duty to him, he made this personally with his own magic and will, providing a limb, a tool, a weapon, and a path of growth all in one item. This item will bind itself to the person who puts it on. Functions like a real limb under the control of the one it is bound to and cannot be controlled magically by anyone else unless it is overwhelmed by magic more powerful than it.

[————————————————————]

“That’s… kind of awesome.”

“Kind of awesome!?” Tyuah shrieked, “This is amazing!”

“Thanks.” Kay grinned, “Now put it on.”

She stared at him, still gaping a little, “You want me to just put it on? Just like that?”

“Yeah, since I made it for you.”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Okay. Good point. I’ll just go ahead and put on the incredibly valuable magical arm you made just for me.”

“Good.”

Tyuah slowly placed the end of the Sanguine Grasp against her stump. For a moment, nothing happened. Then suddenly, the end of the arm stretched a little and engulfed what remained of her arm up to the shoulder. She flinched and staggered in place, grunting in pain. A few seconds later, she straightened up, her clenched expression smoothing over as she looked down at her new hand. Incredibly slowly, inch by inch, the hand rotated and moved in front of her face, where she slowly clenched and unclenched it.

“Do you have any idea how expensive something like this must be?” She asked, wonder in her voice.

“Once I’m done making the world into something new, not that much.”

She turned to look at him and saw him grinning widely. “You might be insane.”

Kay shrugged, “Eh. You say tomato, I say tomato.”

“What? You just said the same word twice.”

Kay snorted a laugh. “Never mind, it’s a saying from home that doesn’t translate properly.” 

After a few more moments of getting her mind off of how much something like Sanguine Grasp would cost her otherwise and letting her focus on testing it out. While she did, he took a chance to look over his notifications.

[~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]

New Skill Gained!

-Skill: Create From Blood gained!

Skill: Leadership has reached level 25!

[~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]

That’s a big jump in Leadership right there. Kay thought. He looked up at Tyuah, marveling over her new limb. I guess doing good things for people that work for you is beneficial in the System too.

[————————————————————]

Skill: Create From Blood (Level One)

- With enough mana imparted into it, any random object can become a magical item. It takes real power, however, to make a magical object that will last beyond mere moments or a single use. Through your control over blood and your mastery over imparting mana into it, you are able to turn the liquid of life into magical objects that can stand the test of time. As this Skill’s level increases, the objects you are able to make will become more complex and more powerful.

[————————————————————]

Interesting. So this is similar to Meld Blood, except instead of fusing magical blood with an item to make a new item, I’m just making something directly out of blood. His mouth stretched into a smile as he contemplated the possibilities. I was already working on making gear for my Blood Guard with Meld Blood, but what kind of interesting things can I make with them both? 

An idea came to him suddenly, and he stepped up close to Tyuah and placed his hand on the new arm.

“Kay?”

Without responding, he pushed some of his own blood out of his body through his skin, not even bothering to make a puncture or cut. As it slowly began to drip out of him and pool in his palm, a faint sensation of intuition floated in the back of his mind. He paused for a moment as he looked down at his hand.

“Sir? Are you alright?”

“Every once in a while, I have a moment where I realize why powerful people want to control Class Line Progenitors and why people are flocking just to be citizens under me. And I just had two of them in a row.”

“Uh, what?”

He shook his head to chase away the sudden mood, “We can talk about that later. Let me finish with this.”

Kay fused his own blood into Sanguine Grasp, focusing on using Meld Blood as he did. A few seconds later, Kay completed what he was attempting and used Identify on it again.

[————————————————————]

Sanguine Grasp

- A prosthetic arm made of blood by Lord Kay, the Class Line Progenitor of Blood Manipulation and Blood Lord of Avalon, for a member of his Blood Guard. Created to replace a limb lost in duty to him, he made this personally with his own magic and will, providing a limb, a tool, a weapon, and a path to power all in one item. This item will bind itself to the person who puts it on. Functions like a real limb under the control of the one it is bound to and cannot be controlled magically by anyone else unless it is overwhelmed by magic more powerful than it. This item has been magically infused with the power of a Skill, making the use of Blood Manipulation easier and stronger for the wielder of this item.

[————————————————————]

Kay spun away from Tyuah and started doing a dance. “Yes! It worked!”

Tyuah stared down at it, then up at him. “… Fucking shit.”

Kay whirled back to her with a slightly demented grin. “Let’s do the leg now!”

****

Waaaaay longer than I planned for, but I think it turned our alright. I'll just have to figure out a way to fit in the next bit that drives the plot forward into its own chapter, because I wasn't making this another 2 or 3 thousand words longer.