RTA Book 2: Against Ruin's Fate - Chapter 5

Spitter-fire raked the tree-line as a werewolf looking beast tore out of the trees, half of its body looked like it had been struck with lighting that glowed through the furrows in its body.

The mana mutated werewolf clawed the ground, skipping between boulders and bodies, only for another burst to strike it, the steel enchanted rounds detonating against its hide, before penetrating and detonating inside it.

It staggered forward, two other spitters joining in to end the threat.

Len waved his hand at the sounds of movement from the men sleeping against the back wall of the pillbox. “Stand down its dead.”

They settled back down to return to sleep.

He turned his attention back to the blueprints he was working on. They needed better weapons and quickly. It had taken half a burst to just get through the creatures skin and it was one of the weaker creatures out there.

The mana density was a threat to man and creature. Corrupting and mutating them. They were rotating people in and out of the scattered fortifications Rick had built through the rock pile he’d brought down the mountain side.

There were just a few pillboxes finished so far, built to observe what was happening in the Halem forest and dungeon—as well as deal with any creatures in the nearby area.

The aurora overhead flickered through colors rapidly before settling on green, waves of red, yellow and purple washed through it, then settled on red, the morning sun just starting to lighten the world.

The dungeon itself glowed with power.

A density of mana that made an instinctual fear rise in Len.

Only a dumb or dead dungeoneer ignored their senses.

The pressure the dungeon gave off was well above that of the Crystal Dungeon. It had evolved into a Common dungeon and the creatures within had been a threat already.

He couldn’t accurately pin down what grade of dungeon Harmonia had become.

Len felt mana contract as he grabbed his spitter and aimed at the point the mana compressed.

A snake as thick as a man was wide had reared its head, its upped body unfurled into a gory glowing flower.

A shriek created visible shockwaves in the air as it slammed into the eastern outpost building and Len fired.

The wall cracked under the shockwaves impact.

The creature turned its head, blasting shockwaves in Len’s direction. His rounds detonated as they met the shockwaves—making it further each time.

A shoulder cannon fired from the western outpost—hitting the creature and cutting off its screams.

Len’s rounds reached the creature, its flesh peeled back he hit its fleshy insides.

Two other spitters took up firing, three more shoulder cannons fired. Those in the pillbox were in their positions.

A second shot from the same position as the first shoulder cannon shot hit the snake.

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You have earned: 556 XP

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Fire ceased, the rounds hitting stone and careening off or striking dirt.

Len pulled out the magazine and loaded a fresh mag.

“Shut the fuck up! People are trying to sleep here you snake asshole!” Rick’s yell carried across the firebase—from where the two shoulder cannon shots came from.

Those in the pillbox chuckled as they put their weapons back on safe, and into their ready positions.

“I can take watch,” Aidan, one of the soldiers offered Len.

“Run healing spells on everyone, body tempering sucks but mana poisoning is worse.” Len held out his arm.

Aidan used a healing spell on him. Len felt a tingle but not pain.

“Your body stat must be insane,” Aidan snorted.

“Mana control lad. Learn how to guide it around your body and from forcing its way through your mana channels,” Len held Aidan’s arm. He grimaced but nodded.

Len used Accelerated Healing on him.

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Ability: Accelerated Healing

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Skill: Healing

Grade: Journeyman

Speeds up the rate that the body heals at.

===

Aidan hissed in pain as Len dumped mana through the spell to speed it up as much as possible.

Mana flared through Aidan’s skin, like diseased veins, lighting up his eyes before they faded in patches across his skin before everything was gone.

Aidan staggered in relief, Len supporting him. “Fuck that’s rough.”

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You have earned 90 XP

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“Wake Edwin, tell him I want everyone doing buddy heals. That was more advanced than I like,” Len said. He released Aidan’s arm as the man nodded.

“Well at least it pushed up my body tempering,” Aidan grunted.

“I think doing it the experience route is much easier,” Len said.

“Yeah one moment of oh fuck that hurts, instead of a whole lot of ‘why-in-the-fuck-did-I-sign-up-for-this?” Aidan said.

“Precisely.” Len grinned.

“I can take watch,” Urdan, another soldier interjected, rubbing his ear. “Fucking snake woke me up.”

Len held out his hand. Urdan grimaced and grasped it.

Aidan moved up to a mounted spitter, watching the forest as Urdan tensed up, grunted, and went through a forced body tempering.

“So the mana breaks down our bodies if we have too much of it. Though if you heal your body gets stronger and we can deal with it,” Aidan said after a few moments. Urdan was still doing his fish on a hook routine.

“Yeah that’s about the short and skinny of body tempering,” Len said.

“So, is that useful then? Like we can increase our body stat and mana stat at the same time? Plus the experience we get for healing ourselves and one another.”

“In controlled situations, yes, but—well it fucking sucks and there’s a lot less room for safety.”

===

You have earned 90 XP

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Urdan let out a breath as he blinked his eyes open. “Gotta be one of the shittiest wake ups I’ve had in a good long while.”

Len released his hand and smiled. “Don’t worry we’ll soon be headed back to Goran soon now.”

“Here’s hoping.”

Len smiled it was a soldier’s duty to bitch. He headed out of the pillbox and through the tunnels of fused stone and material, going deeper into the mountain to emerge in the main cavern.

Len surveyed the branching tunnels from the central junction, mentally mapping their expanding underground network. In a week they’d made impressive progress.

Even now there were people working. Rick had come up with a basic outline for the mountain base that could be adapted and expanded over time.

Thick bands of stone, reinforced with enchanted steel and then enchanted themselves acted as the main supports of the new firebase, criss crossing the rubble pile—turned worksite--that Rick had brought down.

Len watched the ongoing work. Fusing enchantments had turned all the rubble into a solid mass. Large stone plinths had been give a steel edge which was mana blade enchanted.

The teams quarried up the stone and handed it off to an assembly line.

The stone went through the line, remolded into a new shape before being reinforcing with rebar, compressed and finally enchanted.

Once finished it was placed back into the firebase—a complete modular section.

The whole rubble face was a series of square cut-outs of stone being pulled out and others going in.

The massive support columns and beams had been first so the crews could work without worry of the whole thing collapsing.

A model of the new firebase lay off to the side of the worksite.

The mountain rose on a sheer angle. Dozens of angular pillboxes created the first story. Topped with a single barrelled turret. Between and above them were more pillboxes also topped with turrets. So it went, the next layer between and higher than the first, moving up the mountain-side. Each pill box a bit bigger than the ones below, every third level they gained an extra barrel to their turret. At the last ninth level there were three barrels on the turret.

On either side of it was firing ports for the eastern and western battery.

Where the cavern was located, in front of it was the fourth story of pillboxes. Each pillbox was isolated from one another and two pillboxes fed through a series of switchbacks where defenders could bleed anything following after them.

The corridors had to be widened and heightened according to Harmonia standards. Increasing the body stat made people bigger and allowed them to wear bigger armor.

The exterior was sheer angles, firing arcs and turrets. The interior was a maze filled with murder holes, switchback and defenses to stop anything that breached their defenses. Rick and Len had spent three sleepless nights going over the design—making it modular so they could quickly produce the parts on the assembly line and preparing for the future with better weaponry, taller people with higher body stats and their oversized armor.

There were also plans in place for train elevators and a gate that would require a truly massive amount of resources.

Progress had ramped up. With the additional experience, upgrades to skills and new abilities, the crews were only becoming faster with their work.

Len spotted Captain Sam talking to some of her combat engineers, he altered his path to meet up with her.

She finished her briefing with them and waved to Len as he approached.

“How are we looking?” Len asked.

"We’ve got water heading this way now. Mining team reports iron extraction exceeding projections by seventeen percent which I know will make you and the Xintas happy." She grinned.

“Ammunition and carts. Most of the steel went to creating the supporting columns and braces,” Len gestured at the enchanted beams. “How is the new firebase coming along?”

“Getting in the first guns laid in the Eastern battery. Hoping we can get some in the west by this afternoon.”

"The West’s pillboxes for this level are nearly complete…" she hesitated. "East is at approximately forty percent. The rock density there required additional drilling."

That was the problem with carving a base into a mountain, especially one that had been altered by a mana storm—every section presented unique challenges.

“Should make the defenses stronger at least,” Len said. “That also why they’re getting the first turret?”

“Less firepower over there. Turret help evens things out a bit,” Sam shrugged. “People are getting faster at their work though, I’m hoping this will be a good learning experience for the other pillbox levels.”

“Glad to hear it. I’m going to check in on the Civvies see what they’re up to and the barrels,” Len said.

“Catch you later Len,” Sam gave him a smile and headed off to her own tasks.

Len continued deeper into the complex, passing through a completed section where reinforced stone walls gleamed with embedded enchantments. Workers nodded respectfully as he passed, some pausing briefly from their tasks. The contrast between finished and unfinished areas was stark—rough-hewn passages where support beams held back unstable ceiling sections and temporary lighting cast long shadows, and the finished areas which were enchanted, clean and uniform.

The smell of metal grew stronger as Len approached the new production chamber. They’d built it perpendicular to the train tracks so raw materials could be easily fed into the production and assembly lines that filled the space.

It was the firebase's industrial heart. The clang of molds being opened and closed, people calling out to one another and the rumble of carts moving items between stations formed a constant background rhythm.

Christina Xinta stood at a large drafting table, surrounded by engineers arguing over schematics. Her finger traced a line on the blueprint, her expression intent as she made a correction to the design.

"The bearing assembly won't handle the loads we want to put it under," she said, barely looking up as Len approached, just shifting her position so he could see the blueprint better. "We need to reinforce the central axle or redistribute the weight."

"Using steel would be easier," Darby, one of her engineers standing to her right pointed out. 

“We need that steel for building up the firebase and supplying ammo to our guys,” Christina said.

Len studied the design—an enhanced version of their stone carts, modified to carry significantly heavier loads. The current carts served their purpose, but the mining operation's expanding output demanded more efficient transport.

“Can you put in more axles?” Len asked. “Have eight instead of four. Gives us redundancy and solves the distribution problem."

Christina looked up, eyes narrowed in consideration rather than dismissal. Their professional relationship had evolved into one of mutual challenge—each pushing the other toward better solutions.

“That is an annoyingly simple solution,” She said.

“If something don’t work the first time, just build it bigger the next. It works,” Len shrugged.

“Hurts to hear you say that,” Darby acted pained, holding his chest.

The other engineers gathered closer, offering suggestions as Christina refined the design. This was how their best innovations emerged—collaborative problem-solving under pressure, each person contributing from their specialization.

"How soon can we implement this?" Len asked.

Christina calculated quickly. "Just need more assemblies—say two to four hours?”

"The mining output is backing up. We need these carts operational and that steel flowing this way," Len said. “Faster we can get it the better.”

Len moved toward the far end of the cavern where a different team worked on an even more critical project. The enchantment-powered engine prototype sat on steel blocks, partially assembled. A technician was securing pipes to the steam box.

“How you feeling about this one Clyde?” Len asked as he walked up.

“The math works out and with the ability to alter the amount of power going to steam box we’re going to be able to regulate a lot more,” Clyde finished securing a pipe and released tension on it.

“Its small for a train.” Christina joined them.

“We can scale it up to a train- a lot less components we can use these smaller systems for other vehicles that aren’t hauling as much weight,” Len said.

“Carts with engines?” Christina frowned.

“Its an idea,” Len smiled.

With storage devices and how fast people will be able to move in the later years after the apocalypse, even when they could have repaired or built new train lines, mechanical carts and trains had been made redundant.

Though storage devices and the materials to make them were rare and costly. Also someone had to have a really impressive body stat to be able to run faster than a train.

Hopefully with these projects we can outpace people’s speed on foot with the trains.

Also they carried a lot more firepower.

“Hope you don’t mind me asking, but why do we only have the one set of enchantments on the steam box?” Clyde asked.

“Mana resupply. The more enchantments you have in an area the more mana they’ll draw in, reduce the density of mana in the area and then you’ll get uneven amounts of mana flowing through the system,” Len said.

“What about people putting in their mana, or mana stone and cores?” Christina asked.

“That smooths out the problem—yes, but mana stone is really pretty rare and cores allow you to store more mana which makes them really useful. When we scale up the engine I’ll use a core to store more power in the engine. People—well you saw how much mana we all had to give to the train to keep us moving,” Len said. “Also there’s another reason—here there’s lots of mana. Most places not so much. If there’s not enough mana then you can set a fire around the steam box, heat the water up to steam and you start getting some movement out of it.”

“I was wondering why you got all the tubes through it, that makes sense,” Clyde said.

“If you have a fire around the steam box anyway then it’ll just reduce the mana you need to use too. I’ll leave that up to you all to design. I’m just the enchanter,” Len grinned. “What have you come up with?”

“Miss Xinta was the main lead on this one,” Clyde jutted his chin towards her as he continued to assemble the engine.

“Water fills your steam box that you enchanted—?” Christina’s voice rose in question.

“To vaporize the water into steam and heat it,” Len supplied.

“That goes into a steam dome that removes the water content, tubes feed that into the pistons that drive the wheels. The steam goes through a condenser that reduces the heat and feeds the water back into the steam box.”

“What’s that pipe coiled around the condenser and the pipe feeding into the pistons?” Len pointed to it.

“A heating pipe. I was wondering if you could enchant that to draw the heat from the condensing stage and push it into the steam there—super heating it,” Chrstina said.

“I want to keep the number of enchantments down. Have this one work through normal means with some enchantment assistance. Then with time add in more enchantments. Mana density isn’t that high right now, so we’d need cores or mana stone which are really valuable resources,” Len grimaced. “This is just version one. In later versions we can add in thermal transfer, air accelerating and water moving enchantments.”

“So make it modular to be upgraded later on?” Christina made a note.

“And simple so that we can make a lot of them quickly,” Len said. Christina nodded and kept writing.

“Well I guess I know what we’re going to be doing,” Clyde said dryly.