Ep. 1013 City Life Part 10 (Patreon)

"I am thinking about the castle and everything I want to be able to use it for. That way I can think about how to make it happen."

Lin says "Oh, I thought you might be stuck on something that I might be able to help with. Sorry to disturb you."

"Don't be. I will need plenty of help with this spell, I just haven't even gotten that far yet. The reason I was thinking things through was to determine the path I need to take."

Lin says "Oh, I thought you had already figured it out?"

"I know the end point and now I have the starting point, but I still have to figure out the path between them. In doing so I need to make sure that I don't forget anything."

Lin says "I get it. So, have you figured everything out?"

"Yeah, at least I think I do. I won't know for sure until the spell is done and I can test it."

Lin says "Alright, let me know when you need help."

"Of course. Although, if you want to help right now, I could use a kiss."

Lin laughs and then leans over to kiss me before we both return to our work. I focus on the spell and start writing out the next parts of it, but it isn't easy. Again, I go through multiple sheets of paper for each section of the spell that I write.

Luckily, it doesn't look like the library is going to run out of paper anytime soon. However, I am careful to make sure my failed papers are destroyed so no one else can read them. Even though they are failures, they still contain advanced knowledge that I don't want to get out.

Besides, someone playing around with the incomplete spells could cause a disaster. Tearing space open without proper control could tear the entire city apart. It is dangerous even in my hands, but at least I am being careful with it.

It is taking a lot of time and effort, but I am slowly making progress with the spell. Before I realize it, Lin is shaking my shoulder and telling me that she is ready for dinner. I was so lost in working on the spell that I didn't notice the passage of time.

So, I clean up my mess and return to the suite with Lin then we order dinner. While we are waiting for dinner to arrive I notice that the crates in the room have changed. The crates with the enchanted weapons are gone and a few new ones have replaced them.

When I open the new chests I find some brand new, unenchanted weapons. Thinking about people coming in while we are gone, I scan the room for surveillance spells. I don't find any, but I decide to make scanning the room a habit just to be safe.

After the delicious dinner, I revert to my normal form, lay down on the floor, and start enchanting weapons. Lin joins me, lays down on my back, and starts reading her book. After I enchant a dozen weapons, I stop to open a soulscape, and invite everyone.

After ending the soulscape, Lin and I have our fun time until she falls asleep. Once she is asleep I return to enchanting weapons, but I try doing it while meditating. My hope is that I can figure out a way to enchant weapons while working on my core.

Both tasks are fairly boring, so if possible I want to do both at once to save time. Since the enchantments on the weapons are all identical I figure I should be able to do it without focusing. Basically, I am trying to figure out how to split my mind and do two things at once.

It doesn't take me long to figure out how to set the enchanting as an automatic process. The hard part is working on my core with only part of my focus available. It does work, but it isn't very efficient, I barely make any progress before I run out of weapons.

Core Upgrade Progress: 19%

While it isn't much progress, it is still better than nothing and now all the weapons are enchanted. It makes me wonder if I could do the same thing while I have a soulscape open. Although the time difference would probably make it impossible, it is an interesting thought.

For now, I double check all the weapons to make sure I didn't make any mistakes. When I don't find any, I crate up the weapons to be picked up later in the day. Since it is the middle of the night, I go back to working on my core until morning.

Core Upgrade Progress: 22%

When it is time I wake up Lin and we have breakfast together before heading to the library. I work on my spell and Lin skims through books, but a few hours later we are disturbed. The sound of bells echoes through the city, but they sound a little different than last time.

Looking around I notice that no one seems to be reacting to the bells at all. Spotting an employee that I have interacted with before, I ask her what is going on. She tells me that the bells mean there is a ground attack against the wall.

She tells me that there is no need to worry, the attacks never get past the wall. If somehow it does, the bells will sound again, only then do people in the city need to act. However, I am rather curious about the attack so I turn to look at Lin.

"Fancy some fresh air?"

Lin says "Sure! Let's go take a look. I could use a break anyway."

So we get up, find the nearest balcony, and then I revert to my normal form. I put my saddle on, wait for Lin to climb aboard, take off, and fly towards the wall. From the air I can already see that a battle has started outside the outer wall.

Several thousand demonic beasts are currently attacking the wall, but they aren't having much luck. The beasts are a mix of different types, from lions, tigers, and wolves, to buffalo, deer, and elephants. The city's defenders are sitting atop the wall raining death down onto the beasts.

The beasts cannot reach the humans and are barely able to damage the wall. In this situation, the battle is simply a one sided slaughter, the humans aren't even in danger. This explains why no one was worried, unless the wall breaks the beasts can't do anything.

Under these circumstances the battle doesn't last very long before all of the beasts are dead. There isn't a single loss on the human side, although there are a few injuries. A small number of the beasts had ranged attacks that could reach the top of the wall, but not enough to matter.

Lin says "I can see why no one was worried when they heard the bells. Why did they even bother to sound them?"

"Just in case something went wrong. People ignore the bells, but I bet if they sounded a second time it would be a different story."