Sell you a Bridge chapter 126

Doomhollow hall December 12th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

I  stared out the window of Doomhollow Hall in interest as we watched the  distant skyline, hoping to see some trace of what was happening in  Gotham. We didn't, of course, but I'd taken to looking out across the  bay as a form of relaxation. Zee has next to me, a sheet pressed to her  front and curled against my side. In the last month we had picked up  quite a few people who were calling the island home now. Bette was here,  as was Arthur's daughter Stephanie. Steph and Reggie's sister Callie  got along like a house on fire, so having the girl around was actually  really nice.

I closed my eyes,  focusing on my point's total and grinned. Eleven thousand points. I'd  been stockpiling them non stop, the only time I'd spent anything was  buying the restaurant for everyone a few days ago. I'd been in Outer  Body meditation the whole month and hadn't even been there yet, since  devil's didn't really need food. Still, I'd officially completed the  mission I set for myself. As of last night I'd managed my first real  victory against Myrina in the Outer Body trance. It had taken absurd  amounts of time and practice, but I'd done it.

We'd  stayed off the mainland for the last month as I trained and hoarded  points to upgrade the island. We'd decided that none of what was  happening was going to be safe or clean to be involved in, so we would  build up our power while we let things stagnate over there. It  was...kind of a mixed bag in terms of success, but admittedly there  hadn't ever been any hope for Gotham to become peaceful or pleasant.  Still, the city had settled into a kind of factional state with areas  carved out by warlords.

The  Shadows controlled a part of thing, having recruited a pretty decent  following using Ivy's food production capabilities. They also traded  heavily with the other factions and between that and Ra'as al Ghul's  reputation outside the bubble were pretty much the closest thing to a  neutral party the city currently had. The Amazon's had taken the areas  just off the docks and built fortifications there, but when they tried  to expand further inland they'd met much harsher resistance than  expected. Infighting was rampant in Gotham but people pretty much  universally hated the Amazons.

They'd  ended up basically stranded at their initial insertion point, and even  their strongest warriors had some trouble getting through the literal  hail of gunfire that rained down on them when they tried to get further  in. From what Jim heard on one of his scouting trips someone had an  actual cannon. Gotham was considered one of the most dangerous cities in  the world, and the percentage of gun owners here was absurdly high.  Amazon's or not they were finding the city a tough nut to crack.

Unfortunately  the other factions weren't having the same issue. Since they weren't  outsiders there was a pretty high sign up rate from locals and the  response was much less universally negative even from those who didn't  actually join. Two Face and Penguin had a sizeable chunk of Gotham each.  The family had carved out a small area in the Diamon District they were  holding and from what I could tell The Court had their own territory in  Cherry Hill, though they appeared to be operating through a front man.  Apart from those there were various small operations and gangs that had  stocked up on magic items and were holding small areas as their own  territory.

I  turned to Zee, grinning down at my lady love. We'd spent all of last  night celebrating my victory over Myrina, and we'd both enjoyed  ourselves (I will neither confirm nor deny that Outer Body Meditation  can be used to improve sexually) and now we were just relaxing getting  ready for the new features on the island. I raised an eyebrow. "So, from  what I can find we can afford two of the most basic tier one workshops.  The question is of course which ones should we choose? Not to mention  we still need to go check out the restaurant. There's a custom order  section for dishes made with points, which I suspect is why it only cost  two thousand. The real impressive stuff costs on its own."

She  chuckled. "I mean, you obviously know which workshop I want. The  casting rooms are all amazing but that ritual chamber is a game changer.  The ability to automate parts of a ritual beforehand and play it back  after checking it over to make sure you perfectly executed the step is  just...I can do so much with that," Her blue eyes were wide with  excitement and she was nearly salivating over the possibilities. I  reached out and slapped one of her already red ass cheeks as I did a  little salivating of my own but it was enough to shake her out of her  reverie. She gave me an adorable pout and rolled her eyes looking away  sulkily as I interrupted her magic workshop fantasy.

I  desperately wanted to go back to bed, but we had training to do so I  forced my hand off her cheek and went back to thinking over my options. I  pulled up the workshops, narrowing it down to the five thousand point  variants at tier one. Workshops: Ritual casting chamber- 5000  points. Alchemy lab-5000 points. Biogenic mutation lab-5000 points.  Chemistry lab-5000 points. Smithy-5000 points. Curse chamber- 5000  points. Immortal kitchen-5000 points. Soul casino- 5000 points. Skill  library- 5000 points. Goblin explosives lab-5000 points. There were drop down explanation under each as well, but I zeroed in on a few I felt might be necessary.

The  labs were out, mostly because I didn't have the skillsets for them. I  could GET the skillsets for them with my power, but realistically I  wanted to focus on improving with the multitude of tools I already had,  not get new ones. Reggie could use the Goblin lab but we were trying to  maximize usefulness to everyone not just one person, which kind of nixed  the smithy for now too, we didn't have enough mats for Artemis to use  it properly. My first instinct was to do the Skill library. Rather than  wanting it for the skills I could learn, I was excited because it  enabled me to record skills I had an teach them.

Things  that used points wouldn't be transferable, but I could record my skills  learned in the outer body and pass them to my crew which was a huge  boon for us. Experience was hands down our biggest weak point as a team.  As for the second option...I paused, thinking hard. "Be honest, aside  from long term research what are the benefits for us to getting the  ritual chamber?" I did note that it came with a library of books, but to  be fair I could just get a ritual master lesson from me email and  transcribe that with the skill library. I didn't actually need the  books.

Zee  was positively ecstatic at even the possibility of getting the chamber,  and she lit up as she explained it. "So many things. The ritual chamber  lets me basically record a part of a complete ritual personally and then  play it back. Kind of like those youtube videos where the person  records a bunch of parts of a song and cuts them together. That's a big  deal for a bunch of reasons. First off it lets me essentially stack my  power, which is already pretty nuts. It also lets me micromanage and use  powerful rituals I would normally be incapable of casting."

She  gestured out the window at the now ever present green shield. "For  instance, that ritual would have taken hundreds of Amazons to complete.  Granted, Circe could have seriously lessened the requirements by  participating, but it still wouldn't be a one person job. With the  ritual chamber I could cast that ritual all on my own. Granted I'd need  to know the ritual first, and I don't, but I can solo cast massive  powerful spells all by my lonesome. Plus ritual magic is dangerous and  exacting, since I can double check the portions of the ritual before  casting I can adjust for minor difficulties that in a live casting would  ruin my chances of success."

That  did sound really useful in all honesty. I furrowed my brow as I thought  about our lacking defenses. Casting new defensive spells would save me  from having to spend points on them. I hadn't been planning to do any  myself because it seemed like a huge waste since they wouldn't be nearly  as good, but this room seemed like the answer to our problems. "So  could you cast defensive spells that wouldn't disrupt the concealments  of the island and would be up to the same stard of power? Or at least  close, I don't know. Because if so I can agree to that."

She  grinned. "Of course I can, especially with the ritual library. Of  course it won't be at the same level of complexity but my mana is crazy  high, I can just massively overcharge the spell to achieve similar  results. Plus there's a ton of other rituals we can try." She gave me a  lascivious wink. "Including some very fun tantric rituals we can look  into." I rolled my eyes and purchased the two workshops. I'd arranged  them to show up out of sight so we could just tell any of the others  that they'd been here all along. I closed my eyes as I did it, watching  those ten thousand points vanish into nothing.

There  was a very minor tremor as they manifested in the basement under the  hall, but not enough to really alert anyone who wasn't looking. Zee was  almost bouncing with glee as she felt the small tremor, which she  actually had been looking out for, and she took off for the closet to  throw on some shorts and a tank top so we could go down and check out  the new facilities. I threw on my own clothes and we linked arms as we  headed downstairs. I still had a thousand left so I was in perfect  condition and wasn't about to pass out from overdrawing myself.

Before  we headed down to check out the new workshops though we stopped in at  the restaurant tucked back in the corner of the top floor. It was  basically empty this late at night so we didn't have to share the place  with anyone. I sat down and picked up a menu and a waiter dressed in a  suit and tie came to take our orders. I glanced through the available  options before deciding to splurge a bit. I tried the custom order.  "I'll take a bowl of Jambalaya. The Tier One version please." Since this  was a Tier One restaurant we could only order limited meals, but they  were able to do a Tier Two order at an upcharge.

I  felt ten points deducted from my power, as well as knowing with  certainty that I could only order a custom meal once a day. Zee ordered  the Lasagna, since she had eaten here before and knew what she liked.  Non Tiered meals from the menu had no cost, though the restaurant made a  limited amount of resources to cook with per day. Luckily there weren't  many people on the island so the ingredients were plenty. The Jambalaya  came out and I smiled at the heavenly aroma as I inhaled deeply and  then took a huge bite.

The flavor  was complex and nuanced as it hit my tongue, the rice juicy and  perfectly cooked, the meat cut into flawlessly sized pieces and the  vegetables crisp without being crunchy. I almost moaned just from eating  it. Tier One ingredients really were next level in terms of freshness. I  cleaned my plate within minutes, desperately wishing I could order  more, but I knew I'd have to wait until tomorrow. Though I wasn't sure  exactly why that rule was in place. As if that question had conjured it I  saw a new notification pop up on my screen. Tier One fare confirmed. Strength plus one. Huh...that was interesting. That was very interesting indeed.