Chapter 249: Being What He Needs to Be (2/2)
Zato rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“We could prepare them for use as additional vessels, but that would take too long. Maybe…”
Zato’s gaze lingered on the ruined body of the Builder’s withered husk of a body.
“You’re about to abandon that vessel,” Zato said. “You have instructed me to see it destroyed, but perhaps we can put it to a better use.”
“Explain,” the Builder said.
“We feed it the bronze-rank clergymen. Fatten it up, then send it after the Rejector and his people. An energy vampire gets little from feeding on monsters and will go hunting for richer meals. It may well be able to sniff out the souls of our enemies. We can make it our hunting hound, flushing them into the open, or even killing them outright. It might not work, but what does it cost us to try? A spent vessel and some priests we would probably have to execute anyway.”
“Your proposal has merit,” the Builder said. “An energy vampire will have no interest in our people. The soul and body modifications you have undergone make you unpalatable to them. If we are going to convert all the clergy or feed them to the vampire directly, then it will have no more interest in us.”
The Builder nodded, dry skin flaking of its face at the gesture.
“Very well,” the Builder said. “Seize the clergy, prepare the iron-rankers for conversion and collar the bronze-rankers. Prepare a binding circle to hold the vessel once I am done with it and we shall conduct the vessel exchange. Afterward, we can begin the conversions.”
“The more thorough conversions than we originally intended will add to the time required,” Zato said. “It will better prepare us for the next step, however. We have to assume that once we start sending teams out, the Rejector will try and intervene.”
“Let him,” the Builder said. “His rejection of the star seed may have inured him to further implantation, but his companions enjoy no such immunity. I will take them, one by one, and he will watch. Once that is done, they will be the ones to kill him.”
“How many potions can one person carry?” Belinda asked, looking at them all stacked up. “We didn’t bring in this many for six people over a series of months.”
“These are iron, bronze and silver-rank,” Jason said. “This is probably the supply for his whole contingent.”
The team was going through what they had taken from the Archbishop. His most important gear had been on his body and destroyed along with it, but looting his personal storage space had still yielded a slew of valuables. Since they were already going over loot, it seemed like a good chance to tally their collected loot from months of monster hunting, which they added to the pile.
They had a lot of materials that would be valuable for crafting. At an earlier stage they had purged their stocks of the iron-rank materials to make room for bronze and silver. They also had what had become a huge stockpile of monster cores, on top of the essences and awakening stones picked up along the way.
Fully-functioning magic items were produced by Neil and Jason’s looting powers far less frequently than materials. The rarity of such items was mostly low, although the silver-rank monsters they fought had produced a few items that were more impressive. They were all silver-rank, so not yet of any use to the team. One item in particular stood out amongst the others.
Item: [Orb of Ascension (Silver)] (silver rank, legendary)
An orb containing the most precious power of all: potential (consumable, magic core).
Effect: A single epic or legendary quality bronze-rank item gains the ability to be increased in rank through a ritual of ascension. Additional material requirements vary based on the effected item.
A few of the bronze-rank items had been claimed by the team. Jason had replaced his iron-rank boots with a pair of black boots taken from an insectoid monster called a night hopper. They new boots were higher rank but lower rarity than his existing boots, lacking the whip-blade function that Jason had used only occasionally, but always effectively.
As they moved onto bronze and silver-rank monsters, the iron-rank boots had become increasingly battered. Without the self-repair function of his main armour, they had become so ragged that he feared they would be too damaged and lose the enchantment.
The new boots also lacked self-repair, but were very sturdy, even for a bronze-rank item. Most importantly, they replicated the most important functions of his old boots. The jumping power was even stronger than on his old boots, which had became a critical part of how he moved around. Added to his heightened, bronze-rank attributes, the new boots gave him more of exactly what he wanted. It was the final trait that was the true reason he made the switch, and without it, he would never have picked the new footwear. They colour-coordinated with his armour.
Belinda had done the best out of the entire team, largely because she could use such a wide array of gear. Her various abilities that replicated different roles each needed their own gear set to have full effect. This was especially true given that she would never match up to a true specialised with her stop-gap powers.
She had purchased a variety of bare-bones equipment sets before they left, picked out with the aid of Gary’s expert eye. She had sacrificed everything else at the altar of cost-effectiveness, giving her what Jason described as a ‘quest reward hodge-podge’ look. This was only exacerbated as she added items looted from their opponents, but the results had been worth the effort. She might look a bit unprofessional in her eclectic outfits, but her ability to be exactly what the team needed was stronger than ever.
The Builder’s walled encampment was filled with screams.
“You did an impressive job arranging for so many to be converted at once with the available space,” the Builder said.
“Thank you, Lord,” Timos said. “I know that you like efficiency. I managed to create enough stations that all of our ritualists can be work simultaneously. It’s grisly, but hardly the first place we’ve painted with blood.”
“Things are moving quickly because this is their field of expertise,” Zato said. “Our problems have all come from their needing to take on the astral magic duties after Landemere Vane was killed.”
“That was a grave disappointment,” Timos said. “I’d been cultivating him for years. I was quite pleased with how he’d turned out.”
“There is more astral magic to be done,” the Builder said. “Now I am here to direct things personally, however. All that is required is that they follow direction.”
“That much I can assure you they are capable of,” Zato said. “I made quite certain of that.”
“The next obstacle is that the altered state of the ambient magic,” the Builder said. “Naturally, I have the knowledge to compensate in activating the gates, but this vessel isn’t powerful enough to open portals and transport our people around the astral space.”
“Once the conversions are complete, we will be able to put together teams strong enough to navigate the dangers outside the walls. The need to physically travel to each location instead of just portalling is logistically more involved, but ultimately all it will cost us is time and a few casualties to monsters.”
“And the Rejector,” Timos added. “His team are coordinated and fearless. I escaped immediately and it was still enough time to see that. They are also powerful enough to deal with Hendren. Only the best bronze-rank teams could have done that.”
Timos was still shaken by his encounter with Jason’s team. Jason’s spell that landed as Timos was fleeing had burned a symbol into Timos’ face that the Builder had identified as the word ‘sin,’ from a symbolic language older than their world. The builder had to remove the curses before the light but prominent mark would heal.
“We will lose people to the Rejector,” the Builder said, “but we hold the advantage. We still have the strength and we still have the numbers, while they do not have the luxury of staying hidden. They will be forced to climb out of their hole if they intend to understand what we are doing, let alone attempt to stop us.”