Augmented Aspects: Chapter 122 The Land Claim Project (Patreon)

Chapter 122

The Land Claim Project

(Three Days Later)

It has been three days since I last had to prove myself to anyone, about my magical prowess. This was a nice rest and reprieve, as it meant I could actually focus on my job, which was what exactly?

I am sure others have a list of plans and functions that they are assigned to accomplish, as for me I must make up my own workload, which is fun, but I never quite feel accomplished. Mainly because no one is ever there to praise me for my work I have done? No, that’s not it, though a bit of recognition would be nice from time to time.

No, I think the reason why I don’t feel accomplished is that we have so many huge monumental tasks hanging over our heads, like the Guild Quest: A Land of Your Own, a quest we failed the first time. Though this time I am certain we will win, as I’ve spent the last three days running around trying to make sure I have gotten everything I need in place to succeed. Not just for the land of our own quest, but also for the Hidden Guild Quest: Reclamation Project (Upgradable), where we had to make 20 acres of continuous land airable. My external chunk of land that I have been working on separately from the main 16 acres we have claimed thus far is close to being completed. Right now, there is just one long strip of desert land that separates the two areas from being counted towards our empire. This is the strip of land we assume the enemy Blighted monsters will attempt to traverse, to strike at both our main forces and the new land waiting to be added. Sort of the system’s way of preventing us from completing two quests all at once.

This is fine as we have made contingencies within contingencies. Just like last time, we are prepared to have to evacuate, as evacuating zones last time did not count against our land that we had claimed. Thus, we made it so the new zone of over four acres would not be used for habitation, at least not for humans and humanoids. Rather, we would use that land as a native space where cleansed animals could live freely without fear of being claimed by the Blight.

This was where all the previous animals that I had already healed were sent. All but the crows and other vermin that are easily able to make it past our border regions.

As part of our preparations we have real and manmade fences, guard towers, and turrets. Even a fleet of paratroopers is on standby ready to repel down to areas that might be attacked that we are blind to.

In all, Mallory has done her part as leader and made this place as defensible as possible. Now all I must do is defend my one little strip of land. A strip of land that gradually inclines more and more until it is a nearly vertical thread that will connect both the old and new sections of our society.

The strip of land is by no means short, in fact it is over ten meters across, meaning multiple diseased animals can climb up the incline, or fewer large animals can climb up. But I have plans for this as well, as over the past three days I have set up a few Master Enchanting runes around the place to help amplify my spells. There are two sections set up. The forward section is what I call the storm section, while the aft is the cleansing section. The idea is that I will wear down the Blighted enemies that come up the ramp. Then quickly send them over to Gwen who will use her Cure Blight spell that I taught her, while aided by the amplification runes to heal the monsters and set them loose to wranglers who will then ferry them across the land bridge of sand that connects both he primary and secondary lands.

Then if we need to fall back, we have two other sections just like this one set up, where we can continue to wear down the enemy forces. Meanwhile, we will also be protected by what has to be half of the elite forces of the Midnight Hunters.

“Men, I don’t think I need to tell you how important this is for us. This is our home; this is our livelihoods we are talking about. We failed our first time, due to being unprepared. This time we will not let that happen.” Mallory begins to speak and as she does, I can feel and see the slight influx of magic in her words. Subtle uses of Voice Amplification, along with Autotune, which make her sound more charismatic to people who can hear her.

“I don’t think I have to tell you this, but we have several key personnel set up throughout the area. The two here that are the most important are of course the Doctor,” Mallory says, as she points to me. Then she turns and points to Gwen, “and her daughter. You might ask yourself why these two in particular? Well, the fact is simple, if you die, the doctor here WILL bring you back to life. Do not accept death, do not accept your fate that was handed to you, but create your own fate by defying the afterlife and holding on for as long as possible. I promise you, that as long as you are here in this plane of existence we will find you and bring you back to life.”

Hearing that, there was a slight pause as Mallory let those words sink in.

“Unfortunately, we can only bring you back if our expert at resurrections is alive. As for the daughter of the Doctor, she is the only other healer who has been able to learn the Cure Blight spell. As you are no doubt aware, we are facing the Blight. Every monster we face will have the Blight. Not that I need to remind you all, but the Blight is…” With this Mallory trails off, as she clearly remembers something deep within her own mind.

“The Blight is all consuming. It latches onto you, and will slowly drag you down, devouring your life force until you are a husk of your former self. Worse, it can be spread through constant contact, meaning that after time, your loved ones will wish to stay away, for fear that they too will catch the disease. Then you are left with nothing but wanting to die.” Mallory states, and it is clear that everyone in the Guild is both aware of her particular set of circumstances, and just how much suffering she went through for over two and a half years while dealing with the disease.

“This isn’t me trying to get you to lose all hope, far from it. The Blighted monsters are easy experience. They are slower, have clear health values that are half of regular monsters of their type. And the best of all, there is no level restrictions, killing a level 1 Blighted creature will give you just as much experience at my level, as it will as if you too were level 1. Meaning this is our chance to gain levels and strength quickly. The biggest fear of contracting the Blight is negated by having not just one, but two healers on hand who can eviscerate this disease. This is our chance. Everyone here will be brought back to life, whether I must go to the land of the dead myself and drag you back here for our healer to resurrect.”

There was a pause, as she let those words sink in.

Then seeing that everyone was properly motivated, Mallory gave the command for the entirety of the army to disperse.

“You all are dismissed to your perspective zones.”

With that, all but a hundred and three people took their leave of the area. Once everyone else was out of earshot, she smiled brightly, before turning to the remainder of the soldiers, the so called hundred soldiers that would be needed to hold the line for the last line of defense.

These were also our secondary healers, our animal tamers that would help guild cured animals out of the way, and those that would subdue Blighted creatures while Gwen and I healed them of their afflictions.

With the other groups out of the way, Mallory could speak directly to us, the last line of hope for this quest, “I don’t need to say it, the fact that you all are here with me now proves how much I value you all. How much I want you all to be here with us. Know that this time, since we failed our first trial not only are we expecting to have to fight greater monsters, but we now know that we need to keep at least 100 men alive. Don’t worry, that is why in addition to our healers, we have set up the rear guard, some of our most elite soldiers mixed in with some of our up-and-coming stars. While you all will be off the front lines, do not miss the fact that your contributions will not go unrewarded. We wanted to save this until after the battle, but we wanted to make sure you all were aware that you volunteered to stay back here. You will have the first chance to undertake and learn about Qi. We also realize that some of you chose to stay back for other reasons, whether it be for healing or other factors, and we wanted you to know that this reward will be transferable, should you so wish. You can sell this, to other members of the Guild, or turn it in for a million guild bucks.”

Yep, Mallory still pushing that fun money on people. Still, I had to give it to her, she did make this seem to be a great reward. Especially when this all began as me saying that I needed a few guinea pigs to train first, before we start selling this to outsiders. At first, she was hesitant, until she realized that I also meant we wanted to keep any potential new classes that come from this, within the Guild. Even if we do have a guild full of QiFFers. I know, I still can’t get that name out of my head, especially after Mallory called me out on it.

There was a moment of pause as everyone turned from Mallory and then to me.

Finally, the Captain that had possibly been assigned as my permanent bodyguard asked. “Is it true?”

“Yes, I will gladly train all of you in the ways of finding and moving your Qi. What you do with that is up to you, but I will be able to guide you to finding your inner self, and the extra power source.” I begin, and then decide to give a quick rundown on what I have figured out about the mysterious power.

“Since we have time.” I begin, as I mentally look at the quest and see the timer counting down until the first wave of judgement arrives. I decided to get everyone even more excited about this new facet of the game.

“Obviously it would be easier to not have been gifted with magical powers to use Qi, as the easiest thing to do for a Qi cultivator would be to cycle your Qi through your unused power core. With this process, you would then continually learn to break and then reform your own core as you wished to get more and more powerful. I can of course assist with this process, and heal any that are damaged, but I think at first we should see the difference between advancing on your own, versus advancing with assistance. While I might get you a better result to your core, you might get rewards for doing it on your own that my assistance might negate. But this only means we should try as hard as possible to see what our true boundaries are.” I say, trying to make using the core and expanding our knowledge of this world even further. I have no doubt that I could increase people’s cores to accept Qi better and at higher ranks or Tiers, but should we do that is an entirely different discussion. I also have a feeling that this world would punish those that took the easy route. So, while having me around to fix a botched advancement would be possible, it would not be something we should bank upon.

“You can fix and or improve people’s cores?” The guard captain asked, apparently he was either the quickest on the uptake, or the one that felt the most comfortable asking me questions.

“Yeah, of course.” I say, feeling somewhat confused.

“Could you do this for increasing magical tiers?” A healer in the back asked.

Hearing this, I feel like I have missed something as everyone’s attention in the group suddenly has changed, as they are now looking at me like a freak.

“Wait, wait. Time out.” I say, even going so far as to create the “T” with my hands. Then turning to Mallory I tilt my head slightly as if to say, what gives?

Mallory bites her lip, a clear sign she might have kept quiet for my own benefit. That or she might have lied, or it might have skipped her notice. I’m going to go with the first option, but her being forgetful might not be too far of a stretch.

“You see…” Mallory began.

I of course cut her off, as I want this narrative to be out correctly. Or at least in a way that I can rest assured with.

“You all saw the message stating that I was a Magical Enchantment Surgeon, right?” I ask.

There is a pause, and then a few people that are looking get that oooh look to them. Seeing their responses, I nod and point out the people that seem to remember the deluge of messages that all but called me out and forced me to run into the desert. Not that I ran, I Teleported, then ran to increase my skills that could once again increase. Never something so cowardly as running from possible responsibilities.

“I have been so graciously accepted into this guild. I also have the title of Doctor, which denotes my ability to perform complex Magical Enchantment Surgeries, on patients. This is a title that has carried over into my position here at the guild, where I intend to make performing these surgeries a thing in the future. So yes, if your question is can you, as a magic user, trade in this Qi reward for an elective surgery to improve your core’s capacity and potential, then I will allow that also. That will be a trade done directly with me, after this you will be given a crafting token that I will mark. You can then trade that in to be one of the first people in the world to learn to use Qi on your own. Or if you would rather, you can trade it in for a two-Tier increase in a magical field of your choice.” I say.

“Ohh.”

With that everyone, even the mages are ecstatic in this, as they can get a two-Tier increase to their core. Something that is normally unheard of. I really like this option as in most cases I could get by with just using my Bloodline flaw to enact this reward, meaning it will be easier than me trying to train a mage to find their Qi and then circulate it without channeling it through their cores.

“Did you hear that, with a two Tier increase, I could be a Tier V healer!” One of the mages called out.

Hearing that, I felt a pit rise up into my stomach. Then I turned my attention to the mage and just felt sick to my stomach. He was so happy at being a Tier V? No wonder he didn’t want to go to the front lines, that meant right now he was a Tier III healer, which made it so he either had to be very good or very economical with his spells.

Looking around I realized he was not the only one here who was a Tier III mage. Seeing them, I felt a slight cringe. Again, I am not a magical snob, but I couldn’t help but feel sorry for these people.

“You there, come forward.” I say, pointing out the Healer who was excited to become a Tier V Healer once this was over.

“In fact, you, you, you and you.” I say, pointing out mages that were clearly Tier III right now.

“Us?”

“Yes, you magical users that are Tier III or lower, come forward. This is not your final reward. You will still get that reward later. But this is just my way of saying that you for choosing to guard me during this time.” I say.

The Healer was up and standing before me. There was a slight look of hesitation in him as he didn’t quite know why I called him out from the group of final protectors.

Taking off my right glove, I made sure to channel energy into the hand, getting it to glow with magical energy. This didn’t do anything, other than make it so my hand looked like it had changed in some substantial way.

“Wha, what are you doing?” The Healer asked.

“Behold the power of the Doctor.” I stated, then bringing down the glowing hand I touched the Healer.

Bloodline Flaw: Children of a Magical Destiny activated.

With that, I felt the power of my bloodline flow through the Healer’s body, awakening certain components within him and causing his mana and core to expand with a flood of energy.

I did feel part of my own mana drop at this, not much, and what mana I did lose was immediately recovered by my high regeneration, but I did feel that my own energy pool was the catalyst for the change.

“What? What just happened?” The Healer asked after a second.

“Check your magical potential now.” I said.

“What?” He asked clearly confused at first, then I could see his expression change as he did as I asked.

“Tier Five! I am a Tier Five Healer!” He shouted, then ran to hug me, but I quickly sidestepped the attempt and held up a hand. Not a snob, I just don’t like people randomly touching me.

“This is just my way of saying thank you all. You will still get the reward that you can then turn in to increase your core size again or use to learn Qi.” I say, then I proceed to do the same thing with every other mage that followed their hearts, and not their heads when it came to magic. Honestly, these were people that were mages, people who had devoted themselves fully to the cause of magic, and their full potential was Tier III. Honestly, If I didn’t do this, I felt I was wasting their zeal to live.

In all there were only five that were below Tier V and chose to be a magic user of some kind and stayed behind to be with me.

When it was over, I first put back on my right glove. Then I looked around to see that the atmosphere of the reserve unit was excited, even as word of the first wave coming into view could already be heard echoing across the fields.

I could see also that satisfied smirk on Mallory’s face. Seeing her, I went over to her and asked, “you did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Did what? That was all you.” Mallory said.

“No, I am a terrible person, and we all know this.” I said.

“Yeah, said the person who got all puppy dog eyed at hearing about a Tier III Healer giving their all to magic, and offering to increase them up by four Tiers if they just tried.” Mallory said.

“I did not give puppy dog eyes.” I said, somewhat angrily.

“Oh, you totally did. I could almost see the beginning of a mana tear forming on the side of your face.” Gwen, my traitor of a daughter said, chiming in on this conversation.

“Oh, come on. What was I supposed to do. A Tier III healer, desperate to learn magic. Clinging to the path of knowledge for the sheer fact that they love magic, despite their predisposition to being naturally terrible at it. Sticking with it for over a hundred levels, despite the grind and pain that this would cause. Knowing they could never make something of themselves without sweat and perseverance.” I say.

“You know, you make him sound a lot more heroic than he is. He is just a plug and play healer for the guild. He goes along on these expeditions and gets splash experience from killing monsters by healing people who are in combat. He is actually quite lazy, and adverse to risks, which is why he chose to stay back here.” Mallory stated.

“Oh, come on. You can’t do that to me.” I state, a note of defeat filling my words.

“You are going tot have to face it. Not many healers are as brave or brazen as you are.” Mallory stated.

“I am not that brave.” I state.

“You stared down a behemoth of a dragon that could have swallowed you up whole ten times over. Then you managed to train it without saying so much as a single word to it, and yet you had it bowing and scraping at your every word and action.” Mallory said.

“That dragon just needed to learn a bit of discipline.” I said.

“Or the time you healed that level 700 warrior and told him to shove it.” Gwen stated.

“What?” I ask.

“Oh, I remember. He was so ticked that you instantly threw him out despite his guild and stature.” Mallory stated.

“What?”

“Remember he was like the third or fourth person you cured of the Blight?” Gwen added.

I tried to remember, but honestly at this point other than Mallory I don’t remember many people that I healed of the Blight. Maybe if I saw them and their energy patterns, but that would have to be something far later.

Ding, dong.

The alarm bells began to ring from the airships above us in our area, letting us know that we had about ten minutes before monsters would start to come our way. This was part of our early warning system we devised, the ships would float around the area looking for areas of the most activity and ring out warning bells.

Seeing them, I decide to begin my own acknowledgment spell.

Holy Curing Rain.

All around the area are tons of Master Level Enchanting amplification runes that only do one thing, help me cast my modified curing rain.

Within seconds strands of my energy are going out filling up the different runic constructs and filling them with power. Then after a second the energy could be seen rising upward, as a golden light began to fill the area. Then finally a burst of golden energy rises up into the sky, piercing the clouds, before it begins seeding the clouds with mana infused rain particles.

Seeing our acknowledgement, the ship moves off, just as the first trickles of rain begin to fall.

Thick trickle.

This is the first step, as we begin to make it so the dirt ramp leading up to us becomes like mud and begins to impede the monster’s approach. All while the advance units can pick off the even slower than usual Blighted creatures.

With the initial defenses in place, all we can do is take one last quick tally of ourselves and our situations before the true battle begins.

While I have been running around, preparing for a mini-apocalypse, my Simulacrums have been doing their part, by reading. Again, so jealous. But they are doing great work, as the amount of experience they managed to generate for me is rather impressive.

Simulacrum Book Reading Experience Gained:

4,470 / 2,235 / 2,235

Ding.

Level up.

Akashic Qi Master has risen to level 92.

Ethereal Healer has risen to level 196.

To read a book, or be stuck here in a potentially life or death battle that has the possibility to forever change the fate of BiPrism? It is a tough choice, but I think I can safely say that so long as my family is here, there is no place else that I would rather be.

With that, I mentally place a mental tracker on both Mallory and Gwen, as we prepare for this final battle to claim our own Guild Territory to begin.