The eldritch artisan fat.., p.36
The Eldritch Artisan: Father of Constructs: Book 3 (LitRPG), page 36
Waving her apology away, he said, “See, all that sounds fine to me. I haven’t been much of a person for violence, but I’m coming to see it a bit different.”
“How so?”
“Craftsmen make things. If I could, I’d travel the world, getting levels and learning from the people who make things. If we’re lucky, the things we make improve some lives.” He pointed at the spear. “Every monster that spear destroys is someone you protect. It’s someone we protect.” He waved, indicating Reacher, Milly, and himself. “I’d put that under the definition of helping folks.”
“But isn’t that a complicated topic, since the Screws spawn monsters based on local levels? Aren’t I sort of stealing someone’s opportunity to get more powerful?”
Harvey shook his head, thinking back to Saito and their recycled magic engines. “That’s thinking too deep. Don’t use your head to stop your heart from speakin’ to you. Savin’ lives is always the right thing to do, and anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to make your heart quiet.”
“Make my heart quiet?” She lifted her hand to her chest.
Harvey nodded. “Smart folks like to make everything complicated. Sometimes it is. Sometimes, you pull on the bottom of the house and the whole thing crumbles. I’m not saying don’t think. I’m just telling you that if you’re acting out of love, you’re doing a darn sight better than the folk who choose out of ambition or greed. As far as I’m concerned, every time you fight something, or help someone fight something, that’s one less bad thing to hurt someone. It’s not our responsibility to oversee folks leveling up. We protect people who might not be able to do what we do.”
“Is that why your perspective on fighting is changing?”
“Ayup. I’d already been leaning that direction, but this Delve has me convinced.”
She tilted her head, giving him a quizzical look.
“I had to do what was necessary to save my friends. If there ain’t no choice but to do violence to save my friends, that ain’t much of a choice. I prefer peace, but I’ll do a whole bunch of violence to keep all of you safe.”
Szzth! A serpentine metallic sound filled the hall as Reacher drew one of his machetes. He pumped it in the air proudly, then sheathed it again.
The display was so animated and enthusiastic, Milly found herself laughing despite how scary Reacher looked. “He really does want to help people too, doesn’t he? I remember what the DM said, but there’s something about being told a thing and seeing it. He has a soul, doesn’t he?”
“Coulda told anyone that weeks ago,” Harvey muttered. “He’s my best boy.” Eyes shifting down, he quickly added to the air, “And as soon as I can give Concierge the love he deserves, he’s going to fly properly again, too. We know he enjoys flying.”
Reacher patted Harvey on the head, then tilted his injured palm up, in offering.
“He’s saying you can use his wiring to improve the other construct, isn’t he?” Milly asked, eyes wide.
“Of course he is. He always does that though. You won’t meet anyone more generous than Reacher. You know how I know?” Harvey’s eyes sparkled.
“No, how?”
“He’s got more helping hands than anyone else!” He barked the line, grinning maniacally at the end. Reacher joined in, popping a row of furnace flaps open to create a grin.
Laughing despite herself, Milly shook her head. “Hey. He changed.”
Reacher pointed at himself. Question mark?
“Yeah. Your smile. It’s all childlike now. It was a little scary before. What did you do different?”
Harvey said, “It’s about what’s in your heart that changes, Milly. Not what’s in his. Reacher’s too pure and innocent for anyone who knows him to be scared.”
Enthusiastic Thumbs-up! Popping hearts! The construct made hearts in the air, then separated his fingers in little popping, flapping motions.
“What’s he doing?” Milly asked.
“We’re calling it butterfly hearts,” Tabitha chimed in from just ahead. “The best thing about being Reacher’s friend? Teaching him cool new things.”
When Milly eventually resumed her position at the front of the party, it was with a lighter step.
Six hours into their trek, the tunnel ended at an intersection. The new corridor was far wider and smoother than the last.
“I think we’ve arrived,” Milly called back, lifting her spear. Runes along the haft glowed, producing just enough magical light to illuminate the area. As the rest of the group filed in, and Reacher added forge fire to the ambience, they took in a catastrophe of a scale with their Delve Boss encounter.
A smooth tunnel, nearly thirty feet in diameter, ran from one direction to the other. An ankle-deep ocean of yellowed bones filled the area as far as they could see, both ways. Blackened marks covered the walls, which glistened with hints of reflective metallic ore.
Narrowing his eyes until he could barely see, Harvey lowered his shades and peeked out. He gasped. “The walls are full of Rittium. But there’s esoterica on top of it all. Some sort of spell, I think.”
Lifting two hands, Felodin muttered the words to an incantation. Levitating a foot off the ground, he hovered over the bones as he floated to inspect the wall. A tiny corona of blue-white energy gleamed around his head as he said, “This is something I’ve never seen before. The magical signature isn’t in any of the forms I know.” Extending a hand, he ran his fingers against the stone and immediately jerked them back. Hissing in pain, he said, “It’s dangerous. This residue is as potent as any recycled magic I’ve seen. Whatever happened here, it was like a war.”
“Or maybe a Boss?” Lucas asked.
The mage considered a beat, then shook his head. “This isn’t Oasis magic.” Rotating toward the right-side tunnel, he held a hand up. “There’s something that way. A door, I think.”
Wading through the bones, Milly groused, “I don’t suppose you could levitate me, too?”
“It’ll Bend me more lifting all of you, compared to just myself.”
Sighing, the group’s tank rolled her shoulders forward and proceeded to forge a path through the skeletons.
“These aren’t human,” Tabitha observed as Reacher picked her and Harvey up. Carrying them into the new tunnel, the construct showed no issues smashing the remains to powder.
Settling his shades back into place, Harvey looked down. He was no expert on anatomy, but he could tell immediately that she was probably right. The skulls were elongated, with a stretched space for a snout, and the bones were thinner than he’d have expected. Seeing tatters of black cloth hiding among the remains, he said, “I think these are Voices. Remember, the creatures from back in Laldodem?”
“Sure do. I guess that means we’re on the right track for sure, doesn’t it?”
They traveled another thirty feet before they came to a large, round door. Something had carved the metal apart, leaving razor-sharp scars in it. Three blackened and scorched latches dangled to one side. There was a seven-foot gap between the door and the wall, leaving plenty of room for them to pass within. A dangling black sheet behind the door blocked their view of the interior.
Felodin held a hand up, casting a spell. “Careful. There’s a curse around the door. It was cast by someone of a much higher level than me. If you touch that door, you’ll trigger it.”
“What kind of spell?” Lucas asked.
“Hard to say. It’s powerful and complex. I think it’s here to keep this entrance from being sealed properly, but I can’t be sure. This feels like Continuum magic.”
A high-pitched, fearful voice called from beyond the door. “You’re not with them? Not with the mean fish people?”
Felodin flew back to the group, taking up a position near the middle. As he did, Lucas said, “We’re not. They trapped us and were going to kill us. We escaped through a Delve. It gave us a quest to stop them. Are you the shonmeah?”
The black cloth rustled to the side, revealing a humanoid construct. It was short, maybe three feet tall, with an oversized head made of flesh-colored material. Two glowing blue eyes took in the group. “You’ve found the shonmeah. You say the Continuum is your enemy?”
“They are,” Lucas confirmed.
“And you have a quest from an Oasis to stop them?”
“We do.”
A little seven-fingered hand waved at them. “Please come. The Guardian will want to speak to you.” Its other hand stretched out, elongating smoothly in a piston-like action to push the curtain to the side.
Behind the curtain, illuminated in chaotic blue, green, and yellow colors, was a vast space filled with metal. A catwalk ran from the hatch into a maze of stairwells and ladders. Just behind the entrance, flanking the opening, was a round pillar. Tall enough to vanish out of view in the floor and ceiling, it was full of pulsating, bright colors that swirled entrancingly.
“Come, come,” the figure said, waving. “You are safe. We promise. The enemies of our enemies are our allies. Trust. We do not fight the Oases.”
Lucas hesitated, taking in the group’s opinions silently. Once everyone nodded or, in Reacher’s case, held a thumb up, he took the lead. Passing Milly, he gave her shoulder a squeeze as he went.
Harvey and Reacher followed as the group ventured inside. At the open door, he jerked to a halt. He whispered, “These cuts. This was tantalite.”
Their guide piped up ahead. “It was indeed. Tantalite has ever been our bane. We believe the Continuum has several tantalite weapons in their arsenal. This is why they dig so deep into the old places.”
“Oh.” Harvey thought about the shards buried deeply in Reacher’s mouth. Reminding himself to remove those as soon as they had time, he continued through the door.
The catwalk went past the pillar. Lucas and the rest drew away from it, but Harvey couldn’t help but lean over to touch it. His screen floated around his face, colorful text flashing a warning.
Warning: You have touched the Eldritch. This power was deemed too dangerous for the Oasis Network to manage. Prolonged contact may have unforeseen consequences, including warping your class powers permanently.
A serpent of metal slithered down from scaffolding nearby. The head of the construct opened and a deep voice projected from the throat. “Careful, human. Only our kind may touch the Eldritch and not become spoiled. We would not want our honored guests mutating.”
“Oh. No, no we wouldn’t. Thank you.” Pulling back, Harvey hurried off after his friends.
There was one clear path through the maze of the shonmeah habitation. It included dozens of switchbacks, stairs, and ladders. None of the group, especially not Reacher, had any difficulty navigating it, although it did slow them down considerably.
“We keep this path open to honor the old ways,” their guide explained. “After the attacks began, we had to change it. All the access doors use a different layout now. We’ve found it is safer and makes defending ourselves easier.”
“Defending yourselves?” Felodin asked, looking around. “I see no sign of…”
“Felodin,” Tabitha said, tugging at his arm and pointing at a bundle of strange objects bolted to a bit of scaffolding. “Those all look like projectile weapons. They’re aimed back at the door.”
“They are?” Turning, the mage looked around, gawking in realization as he counted dozens of similar objects all around the cunning warren. “The placement. There are so many. How could they possibly be precise enough to shoot any attackers and miss the scaffolding?”
The guide made a soft clicking sound that might have been a laugh. “Constructs are good at being precise, mage.”
Reacher held two Thumbs-up.
“Your construct. His design is familiar. Was he, perhaps, from the city of Soth Kartha?” It was the snake again, following along the rail next to where Reacher and Harvey walked.
“He was,” Harvey confirmed.
The snake’s eyes lit up. “Wonderous. We had many dealings with Mas Shebal. He conferred many times with us on designs.”
Harvey nearly stumbled as a feeling of wondrous excitement rose in him. “Really? Do you think you could help me repair him? He’s been terribly damaged, and I lack the skill to get him whole again.”
Reacher helpfully held his pierced hand up.
The serpent made a dry, rasping laugh. “Oh yes. We can help, and more. Soth Kartha was long, long ago. If you help us deal with the Continuum, I have no doubt that we can do many wonderful things for your…” the construct hesitated, head bobbing back and forth from Harvey to Reacher before settling on, “companion.”
“That would be great.”
With a flicking motion, the serpent vanished from view.
It took them a solid half an hour to reach their destination, although they weren’t moving very quickly. Everyone gawked as the immensity of the shonmeah home came into view. Like so many things in the underground, it was built inside a huge cavity. Warm air circulated throughout the space. Harvey glimpsed a hint of magma red from near the center of the area, leading him to suppose there might be a volcanic aperture beneath their feet.
Unusual machines were everywhere, and few of them made sense. There weren’t many rooms for humans, maybe twenty or thirty in total, but otherwise there were no standard buildings or amenities.
“It’s so magnificent,” Harvey exclaimed, gleaning insights into new ways of thinking simply by being there. “Why didn’t I think of any of this?”
Question mark?
“We can fabricate in other ways. New ways. We don’t need to limit ourselves to our hands.”
Reacher flexed his fingers doubtfully.
“Remember our forges and extrusion devices? What we did with Concierge and the steel presses?”
Thumbs-up.
“We can do that better. More efficiently. We can build the methods of manipulation into our devices. With the right esoteric symbols, we could…”
Harvey continued that way up until they arrived on a flat, solid steel walkway. Two small square buildings flanked a much larger, rectangular one. Above them, cables wound through shonmeah construction. Glowing with bright, colorful magic, the cables all met at the top of the tallest building.
“The Guardian will meet you here,” their little guide said, pointing at the closest of the small structures.
Out of the corner of his eye, Harvey saw the serpent construct enter the building. At the same time, his screen flickered and vanished.
“Uh, what’s happening?” Felodin asked. “Where did our screens go?”
A warm voice spoke from the room next to them. It was modulated with a metallic edge but had a personable quality. “Do not worry, friends. Our Eldritch Engine is next door. We siphon all the excess magic from the Primordial Pillars there. The corona will prevent the Oasis from reaching you. Fear not, your abilities and magic are intact. You’re just not being…managed as you are used to.”
Felodin paled, looking uneasy. “The Oasis is what makes my spells only require a few words to activate. It’s a shortcut. Without it, they will take a considerable amount of time to cast.”
“You will not need your spells here, mage,” the voice said. “We are all friends, united against a common enemy. Please, come in. Let us talk face to face.”
With a sense of trepidation, they entered the chamber.
Sitting on a plain steel throne at the back of an empty, unadorned room, was a silver and gold construct. It looked a bit like a man, with overly large eyes and a big, almost leering, smile. He wore a jaunty, broad-brimmed hat. A tube of wire ran from his back, into the ceiling, and the construct serpent rested beneath his hand, its tail coiled around his wrist.
Waving, the figure said, “Hello, friends. I’m the Guardian of the shonmeah. If you would, I’d love to hear more about your grievances with the Continuum?”
Chapter 32: A Quick Turnaround
Lucas hesitated, looking around the room. There was nothing, other than the scarecrow king, the chair, and the cable reaching from the ceiling. “I, ah.” He waved at Harvey. “You’re more comfortable with this sort of dialogue than I am. Would you mind taking the lead here?”
The old man, startled by the invitation, looked owlishly at the creature on the throne. “You’re a puppet, aren’t you? I can see the symbols.”
“I am indeed,” the Guardian said, still affable. “I take it you encountered this technology before?” He tugged at his chest with a subtle motion, creating a small opening through which a tentacle waved.
“Oh, yes.” Harvey quickly ran down their experiences in Laldodem, including finding the discarded puppets next to the controlled Oasis.
Bobbing his head in time with Harvey’s revelations, the Guardian waited until he was done to exclaim, “Yes! That’s it. They came down and stole from us many times. Only recently were they so brazen as to steal our very people from us.”
“Your people?” Lucas asked uncertainly. “The squids?”
“What Harvey calls control squids are but hollow shells of our people,” the Guardian corrected. “They’ve been lobotomized by the Continuum, if they are being used in the way he describes. It is the same as death.”
Milly said, “Are your people all like that?”
“Not at all. The shonmeah come in a thousand, thousand varieties. But we often use the squids inside bodies like this,” he waved down at himself, “to operate the devices our creators left behind.”
Harvey picked up the story, explaining how the Continuum were replacing people in positions of power, in addition to manipulating the Oasis Network for their advantage.
“And that’s when they kidnapped and brought us out here.” Lucas added to Harvey’s narrative, recounting how they’d come to be imprisoned.
The Guardian clapped. “This is excellent, friends. Truly excellent.”
Lucas gave the construct a confused look. “It is?”
“It is!” Pointing upward, the Guardian explained, “We are at a most opportune moment. You see, since the Continuum’s last war against us, we have been preparing for just such an event.” He waved at the group. “Your arrival now is a true gift.”
