Chapter 40

“What are you planning for your second summon?” Gwyneth asked after Baba left.

“I’ve got an experiment in mind, and I’m not sure whether it will work,” Diya answered.

“Do you need to purchase the prerequisite cards, or can we go straight to an upgrade station?”

“First, I need to use Spell Thief to get the object’s blueprints. I reckon the Climber’s Market can help us with that.”

Gwyneth sighed. “I wish I could stay and watch, but I don’t have long until my follow-up meeting with the city council.”

“That’s not done yet?” Diya asked.

“Unfortunately, no.” She sighed. “They’ve taken my testimony and will be interrogating the De Lawneys. I’m afraid half of them are in the house’s pocket, though.”

“If not theirs, the bastards probably work for the Ansons or Montagues.”

“The Montagues aren’t too bad, from what I hear. Anyway, you go experiment and perhaps get supplies for us? I’ll meet you when I’m done.” Gwyneth turned to exit the room but paused. “All my funds are tied up because of the De Lawneys. I’m afraid I won’t be able to contribute until we find Arthur’s caches. There should be one on the fourth floor, but I can’t make any promises.”

“It’s fine,” Diya replied. “We can even up after crossing a few floors. With your help, we should be able to kill more beasts and gather more cards. If that doesn’t work, we can harvest materials from them to sell.”

“Thank you,” she replied, smiling sweetly as she left.

After everything he’d learnt about the Boleyn house’s state, Diya didn’t want to waste more time not climbing. However, he wanted nothing more than to rest a while longer after the past week's stress.

A tired mind is worse than an exhausted body.

Neer’s words had made little sense to Diya at the age of ten, but now he understood their meaning. He reminded himself that he had a companion now and had reached tier-two, as well. Gwyneth’s lightning spells would help them take on more challenging foes. Thanks to her healing aura, they could push themselves harder, too. If he prepared thoroughly and got enough supplies, they could potentially reach the twelfth floor by the end of the month. He already had his next soul upgrade, after all. Hopefully, they’d find something adequate for Gwyneth on the tenth floor.

Breakfast turned into lunch before he finished planning his experiment. Since Gwyneth worried the De Lawneys were looking for them in the hubs and markets, it was for the best that he went about it alone. First, Diya visited the armour shops in Climber’s Market. The attendants and merchants didn’t like him standing around, so he humoured them by studying different armour pieces.

It took him an hour to find what he wanted. Diya felt tempted to copy the piece with Spell Thief and leave. However, since a struggling novice craftsman had created the perfect shell for his desired summon, he purchased a light, bladed staff from them, too.

Next, he entered the tower’s primary hub and found a quiet corner near the upgrade stations. Creating the coat’s card had used a third of the inkwell’s total stores. Manifesting the summon used a quarter. Since the garment stood out, he had dispelled it before leaving the inn and reclaimed the ink. Now, he hoped no one would see his project and figure out what he could do.

It took half an hour to accurately trace the card for Slimeskin Gauntlet. He didn’t give it softer patches like with the coat. Instead, he worked Harden into the runes and the drawing for the piece. After some thought, Diya also added Haste and Silence to the script. The end result was a tier-zero card.

Once done, he used the tool card to summon the armour. The resulting piece felt strong enough to block a glancing blow or two. He bashed it with his axe lightly, and the guard over the hand and forearm suffered dents, but the insides didn’t warp. It would sufficiently absorb damage from glancing blows. He’d have the Slimeskin Coat’s padding reducing the impact, too. Unfortunately, when Diya wore the gauntlet, he discovered a fault in the design.

Since he’d added the Harden rune to the script, the entire gauntlet had formed as a solid piece. He couldn’t move his wrist or fingers at all. The resulting product was more of a punching weapon than a gauntlet.

Due to the journal’s page size, adding minute runes to each joint and piece of the gauntlet would be too much work. So, Diya added the drawing from scratch and made a handful of changes. First, he added individual Relax and Harden runes to the wrist, making the former the default state.

Next, Diya stopped drawing the gauntlet’s fingers at the first joint after the knuckle. The resulting gauntlet only covered a third of his fingers and the top half of his thumb. He inscribed Relax on each of the knuckles and added an extra Harden to the domed guard that stuck up over it.

“Damn it!” He swore on completing the card. All the additional runes had increased its ranking to tier-one. Diya made another version without Haste and Silence and a third with Haste included. The tier didn’t drop.

Diya would need to combine the gauntlet card with not one tier-zero card but two to get the desired effect. Or, he could fuse it with another tier-one card. The result would be a tier-two card, making all the options much too expensive. He didn’t yet know whether the fountain pen’s inkwell would accept a summoned tool after he’d combined it with non-inkwell cards. He could always create the desired cards out of ink, of course. However, the testing had reduced his total stores to less than a quarter. Diya didn’t have enough ink to spare.

After some thought, Diya resolved to run his experiment with the first inflexible gauntlet he drew. Once the nearby upgrade stations were sufficiently empty. He approached it with his creation and a rope card he no longer needed. The resulting product grew to tier-one but was mostly useless. It manifested as a gauntlet with a rope tied around the forearm. Gaia had added a hook to it, too. If the fingers moved, it would’ve served as a climbing implement. Perhaps a hunter with ridiculous levels of strength could utilise it. Thoughts of Lawrence came to Diya for a moment, but he shook his head and focused on the work instead.

Diya’s heart pounded in his chest as the moment of truth finally came. He used Spell Thief on the gauntlet, willing it to disappear into the inkwell.

“Yes!” He exclaimed much too loud.

The scouts milling not far away stirred, raising their heads to gaze at him. Diya turned his back to them and swiftly fled towards the stalls spread around the primary hub. The experiment had worked. He willed the summon to exit the pen, and instead of manifesting, the card rose out of his tattoo.

To upgrade the gauntlet containing Silence and Haste, Diya needed to use another tier-one card or two tier-zeroes. Since he already had one tier-zero card in mind, Diya set out looking for another. As they were among the most common card types in the markets, he was spoilt for choice. The unregulated prices varied incredibly, and despite his swelling bank account, he refused to waste money on the rare cards.

After some thought, Diya settled on a passive spell card. He worried an active spell would fuel itself with the gauntlet’s ink, ruining the armament’s integrity. Satisfied, he returned to the isolated upgrade station and held the three cards against it. He ensured the gauntlet card’s face touched the stone monolith to ensure Gaia understood it would serve as the new product’s shell.

A wide smile spread across Diya’s lips as silver light shone from the card, and they fused into one, and the artwork took shape. The gauntlet appeared almost identical to the original version except for a raised section on the forearm guard. A peach-pit-wide barrel to the arm peeked out just before the wrist, too. The runes followed along with the tier-two designation.

“Inken Gauntlet Launcher,” Diya whispered, reading the card’s name out loud. Two keywords appeared under the artwork, named after the tier-zeroes he used for the upgrade: Launcher and Marksman.

So far, Diya had only used Seeking Inkfire Bolts only once in combat. He’d barely struck his target, and it was primarily because of the close range. Marksmanship had never been Diya’s speciality, and he hoped the passive effect would improve his otherwise terrible aim. Meanwhile, his deck had a free slot with the Launcher added to the gauntlet. It wouldn’t just help launch his vine. Diya hadn’t tested the tool with his other journal spells yet, but he wondered whether it would help throw Frozen Ink Lance and the bolts further. Testing would have to wait until they started climbing again.

When Diya summoned the gauntlet, he found a lever on the arm’s outside. It didn’t show on the artwork. A quick test proved he could slide it back towards the elbow where the lever locked. After some fidgeting, it folded into the gauntlet, explaining why the artwork didn’t show the lever. He needed to do some testing, but Diya guessed it cranked the launcher mechanism.

The lever’s outside had a section which moved when he put pressure on it. A soft bang sounded from inside the gauntlet. The lever popped out, becoming perpendicular to his arm, and it slid towards the wrist.

Diya couldn’t help but grin while absorbing the tool into the pen’s inkwell. It felt perfect. Finally, he started the preparations for the climb, pursuing deals in high-quality rations that would keep them fed and fuelled for the long excursion.