The ceiling of the cavern was filled with shadows from the landscape of stalactites that covered its entire surface, following the forms created from flickering lights of the camp’s torches that were spread all over this part of the cave. As Ethan laid there he could hear the dwarves working on the corpse of the star nosed mole, the sound of hacking and the all so familiar wet sound of meat getting pierced and cut. He shivered as he remembered the tutorial and the damage he alone inflicted there, it seems that experience would haunt him for a long time, especially the fight in the desert.
Only when he heard the sound of clinking metal next to him did Ethan pull his eyes away from the ceiling, looking to the side he saw Andrew, his body covered in blood and small pieces of bone. His beard was soaked through and he rhythmically slapped his warhammer into his gauntlet. “Tell me….” his voice was quiet and filled with sorrow. “...why does the system hate us? We just wanted peace and a place to belong and now one of my valued friends is dead.” He turned to Ethan, Andrew’s eyes were filled with tears that ran down his cheeks, drawing two clear lines in his otherwise blood covered face.
Ethan sat up and sat crosslegged in front of the dwarf, he laid his staff over his legs and gently rotated it with his hand, the staff twirling around its own axis. He looked to the ground for a while, seemingly deep in thought until he found an answer. While it wasn’t something he was satisfied with, it felt the most honest in his opinion. The elf looked at Andrew, his eyes filled with the same sadness.
“The system doesn’t hate us, it doesn’t like us either if you ask me. It’s indifferent to us, to the system we are just a speck of dust. You can gain things from it, you can level, earn skills, make a new out of yourself and as far as I know…achieve godhood. But we’re just an afterthought. Do you remember the beginning of the tutorial? We were the 152nd integration, universes filled with billions of lifeforms, maybe more and the system governs all of it. It’s not unfair or treats us badly, it just...exists and governs.”
Andrew sighed, it sounded heavy and final, like he made a decision he might regret later on. “I thought about our situation last night. You did mention a war that was about to break out. I will be honest with you…I can’t watch my people be killed for nothing, we fight and we die but only for the things we can believe in, we put our life on the line if we see purpose in those sacrifices. Today you showed me something, a path forward you might say.” Andrew looked over to the beast, thick chains of ice still embedded in its body, parts covered in ice and frostbite from his attacks and skills.
“I don’t know the answer to everything, hells I was just a foreman back then and you also don’t strike me as a person that commanded a lot of authority in his pre-system life.” Andrew smiled and grabbed Ethan’s shoulder “But you know what? Fuck it, all of it and then some more, because…when we only have ourselves we might make the best of it and show this world and the system that we’re not to be trifled with.” Andrew stood up and brushed some dirt from his armor which just smeared more blood over it. He offered Ethan a hand and an honest smile spread over his face.
Ethan took it and got pulled to his feet by the dwarf. “It would be an honor.” said Ethan and smiled. Andrew laughed and waved him off. “Honor? Fuck honor we fight as dirty as possible, honor is worth shit if you’re dead, better remember that. The strong survive in the system, right? Well then we just need to get to the top, consequences be damned. I fought enough knife ears already, it doesn't matter what comes our way as long as they bleed.”
Ethan cracked a smile and nodded, Andrew was right there was no sense in dying an honorable death, so Ethan and the dwarves shouldn’t even try to play the heroes at all, not to say they wouldn’t help anybody but they wouldn’t run into every kind of danger. Ethan already tried to be a hero but failed miserably. Maybe this time he could make things right, especially since he now made a new friend. Ethan grinned and grabbed Andrew’s shoulder. “Say…do you have some iron sand for me that I could use? I want to try something…” Andrew raised an eyebrow but nodded.
“Are you sure that is a good idea Ethan?! You told me you never used that skill before, right?!” Andrew yelled from behind some cover, the dwarf and some of his soldiers watched from behind some stones while Ethan worked. Further back in the massive cavern the dwarves had cleared a large area of any kind of debris to provide an almost flat surface for Ethan’s experiment. He was running around with a sack of iron sand in his hand building a spell circle, some empty ones were already laying around the circle. After countless hours of ritualism under his belt, plus the amount of experiments and theories he had stuck in his head Ethan was quite confident in his abilities even when his work was child's play compared to the multiverse.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
What Ethan was trying to do was a combination of two skills which in itself wasn’t that complicated because he knew the right symbols. At first there was his [Chilling Nexus] the special skill he picked up as a reward after the tutorial, he didn’t know how it worked so he of course ran some experiments. The chilling nexus was a core made from a dense dark blue ice, it connected to his mind like his soldiers and frost wraiths. He could issue commands then, what kind of constructs it should provide and where. The first thing he noticed was the staggering mana cost, it drained around 75% off his mana pool just to summon the nexus. It drained his mana constantly but it was negligible compared to his mana regeneration and the fact that the high rarity seems to tone down the mana cost for him.
Well after summoning it he tried different constructs, from bridges, spikes, walls, large shields that could even be picked up by his soldiers, Ethan even managed a ballista based on his memories, sadly it didn’t work because the string was also made from rigid ice and just looked like one. Something he had to work on for sure. While there were still hundreds of possibilities to explore he wanted something simple and well…massive at the same time. The dwarves took him in so now he wanted to provide something for them too….a fortress.
Ethan brushed some iron sand from his hand as he looked at the finished ritual circle, the second skill he incorporated was a given, he used parts of his [Bulwark of the Northern Peaks] as the basis to form the structure, the nexus would refine it and give it the needed longevity. While he could have created a fortress with his bulwark skill it was temporary while the constructs of the nexus were permanent until destroyed, the simple fact that the nexus cut off all mana drain once the construct was created made the whole thing possible. With his special ice variant keeping everything from melting.
For that he picked runes from both spells, the spell circles that appeared when casting during his testing face gave him some clues and furthered his understanding of the runes as he saw them anew during each cast. With a smile he stepped into the middle of the circle and slammed his staff into the ground, the grandmaster rank staff was an excellent spell focus and even reduced the cost of his abilities. After taking a deep breath he began the ritual, a spell circle appearing over the jewel of the staff while the iron sand lines started to radiate an oppressive cold.
Andrew watched as the tall elf stepped into the circle, his staff firmly planted in the ground, at first nothing seemed to happen but then a shiver ran down his back, the lines of black sand were turning white and the cold spread over this entire part of the cavern. His soldiers started to shiver, frost starting to cover their armor despite the distance to the elf and his magic. While they retreated back Andrew stayed and watched, he wanted to see it, feel this magic. His own people couldn’t use it, none of them were capable of using mana even if they had it, dwarves just weren’t supposed to be magicians and wizards.
The giant spell circle lifted from the ground, a ghostly copy made by the frozen air started to rotate around Ethan, it shrank and grew, following the breathing of the man in the middle. Slowly it rose higher and extended outward, at the same time ice seemed to grow from the ground, rising with the spell circle into the air. Instead of forming a circle itself it grew in straight lines, each of them as wide as the man casting the spell was tall. They grew higher and higher into the air, the ice a brilliant white all the way through but slowly pale blue lines like veins appeared throughout the entire structure.
When the walls stopped growing they were tall, four times the height of Ethan and radiating with an unnatural cold. Directly in front of Andrew and his group of shivering soldiers was a gate, a mighty archway that opened into the newly created courtyard. Andrew stood up from behind his cover, ice cracking as it broke from his armor, his beard was covered in frost.
He watched as Ethan walked through the archway, wiping some pale blue blood from his nose as he smiled. He looked exhausted and drained of energy but incredibly happy at the same time. “Well Andrew…what do you say? You think this will work as a secure location for your people.”
The dwarf stepped forward and grabbed Ethan’s forearms, looking up to him with a smile on his face. “Thank you Ethan, with this I’m sure we can repel anybody that decides to attack us.” He smiled and turned around, looking over the group of curious dwarves. “Let’s celebrate for we have been given a new home for our people!”
Loud cheers rose from the dwarves, a few already walking back to the tents to gather their things. Ethan’s smile only grew while watching the crowd inspect the fortress, their eyes filled with wonder.
