DCD - B3 - Chapter 46 - Send in the Goliath!

Inside her Sanctum, Enya was making full use of her maxed-out Soul-Energy. She guided spirit thread and metal chains around the skeletal goliath, slowly mixing in the five hundred liters of blood stored inside her ring.

The spirit thread secured the skeletal spine, running along it and holding most of the structure together. The metal chains were cut apart, portions wrapped around the major appendages and limbs of the dragon. They set the limbs in place, reinforcing and supporting the joints. Finally, the blood was used to form vertebrae—tiny connections between the bones that bound the entire structure together.

Now that she had all the materials, it was only a matter of time before she finished.

“Alright, let’s get the plan straight,” Pell said.

He was leaning over the sanctum’s workbench, where a crudely drawn diagram had been sketched out. A terrible drawing of several mansions and an especially annoying-looking goblin kid were scribbled across the page.

“His son’s estate. We hit this first. Since it’s nighttime and Eiyuria doesn’t see much action, security should be lax. We scout the place, find where he is, kill the guards, and kidnap him.”

Pell reached into his inventory and pulled out the metal binding cuffs. “These should come in handy. You cut a seam in them earlier, but they should still work if you repair the metal using the forge here.”

To the right of the workbench sat the beginner’s forge that Javey—the meek helper from the Crafting Association—had installed for Enya.

“I’m just going to assume the kid can fix this,” Pell continued, gesturing toward the cuffs. “Crafting class and all.”

He was mostly winging this part. He didn’t actually know if Enya had enough experience to repair them. But her entire class revolved around making things. And while she’d crafted items before, she’d never forged anything. Still, this wasn’t forging—it was just repairing metal.

Elria stood on the edge of the paper diagram in her crystal spiderling form. “I’ll handle the scouting using the dead fly’s body. If I get close enough, I can probably kill the guards—assuming there aren’t too many—which should make everything easier for us. But I’ll be out of power for at least a week afterward. That means it’ll just be the two of you dealing with the noble.”

Pell nodded. “That’s fine. If we can kidnap the kid without wasting energy in a fight, that’s a win.”

Enya didn’t look up from the goliath as Pell finished speaking. Her hands continued to guide the spirit thread, fingers moving with careful precision as the skeletal dragon’s ribs locked into place, one by one.

“How much money do we have left?” she asked.

Pell paused. He straightened slightly, a finger tapping against the edge of the workbench.

“After buying your warp bracelet, the spirit thread, and an illusion talisman to fight Amberdean…” He exhaled through his hollow nose. “Twenty platinum. We’ll have twenty platinum left.”

He still wasn’t used to having so much money. It hurt—more than he’d expected—to go from nearly ninety platinum down to just twenty in a couple of days.

Enya hummed softly, as if committing the number to memory.

“Pell?”

His skull turned toward her. She didn’t look back—still too focused on the goliath.

“Yes?”

“I need a favor,” she said.

That got his attention. It didn’t bode well, especially after she’d just asked how much money they had left.

“What is it?”

She finished locking in the spirit thread around the lower spine, then turned to face him, scratching the back of her head. “I got a new passive skill,” she said. “Well, it’s not new—I just haven’t used it yet. I got it as a reward from when I joined the Paragon of Crafting.”

Pell raised an invisible eyebrow. “A new skill?”

Enya nodded. “It was the reward that lady promised. Lady Chia or something.”

Elria’s mandibles clicked. “You mean Lady Jira?”

Enya nodded quickly. “Yeah! That one!”

Pell glanced toward Elria. “You know her?”

“No,” Elria said. “But when I was imprisoned in the dungeon, souls passed through constantly. You learn things. Names. Histories.” She paused. “If I’m right, Lady Jira is several hundred years old—possibly closer to a thousand. She’s the head of the Crafter’s Association in your time, right?”

Pell turned back to Enya. “Okay. A crafting skill, I’m assuming. But what’s the favor?”

“I can make the goliath stronger,” Enya said. “A lot stronger. But I need you to buy me something. And I have a feeling it might be really, really expensive.”

Pell didn’t like the sound of that. “Alright. Out with it. What do you need? We only have a budget of twenty platinum.”

Enya hesitated for a moment. “I need dragon material.”

Pell stopped and stared at her.

“Dragon,” he repeated.

“Anything,” Enya said quickly. “A tooth. Blood. A fang. Skin. A scale. Even a small piece would work.”

Pell pinched the bridge of his hollow nose.

“Dragon parts are absurdly expensive,” he said. “Any single piece of a dragon can be turned into something valuable. Even scraps.”

“That’s okay,” Enya said. “We just need one.”

With a resigned sigh, Pell pulled up the marketplace interface and filtered the listings.

Dragon. Dragon. What in the nine hells was he supposed to find that he could afford? Even dragon spit could probably be used for some kind of alchemical potion—and that would probably cost hundreds of platinum at a minimum.

Pell scowled as the listings populated in front of him.

Dragon scale. Dragon bone. Dragon blood. Dragon tears.

Each result came with a price tag that made his soul-flames flicker in irritation.

One hundred platinum. Two hundred. Five hundred. Some didn’t even list a price.

He sorted it from least expensive.

Then he stopped.

“…Huh.”

Enya glanced back toward him for the first time. “You found something?”

“Yes,” Pell said slowly. “But I hate it.”

Dragon Egg Shell Fragment
Seller: Shell King
Seller Description: A small fragment of a baby dragon egg shell that was once urinated on by a hatchling dragon.
Also, don't ask. I have no idea what dragon it is.
Price: 4 platinum.

He stared at the listing in silence.

“…Why,” he muttered, “is someone even selling this?”

“What is it?” Enya asked.

“It’s… dragon pee.”

Her eyes lit up. “That works! I think!”

He sighed, rubbing beneath his jaw. “I can’t believe I’m about to spend four platinum on… this.”

She smiled brightly. “Thank you!”

Pell closed the listing, purchased it, and immediately felt worse.

“There,” he said. The item appeared in his palm, and he set it on top of the workbench. “Is that it?”

Enya hummed in acknowledgment. “Yep! I’m almost done here. Just a few more minutes…”

Her eyes drifted once toward the far end of the sanctum, where the minor demonic phylactery rested against the wall. After receiving the soul-repairing skill from her class quest, she’d checked on Zerus. Her soul was very close to being fully healed—especially after Enya had poured nearly four hundred points of Soul-Energy into the casing.

For now, she needed to conserve what remained and focus on the goliath. She could regain the energy later and revive Zerus then.

After twenty minutes of pure focus, Enya finally finished placing the last of the spirit thread, metal chains, and settling the blood across the dragon’s frame.

She knew she was done the moment she heard the familiar ping.

Quest Complete:
Craft a skeletal goliath.
Please choose one skill from the three offered below:

Spell: Adaptive Bone Ward [C-]
Gradually increases resistance to damage types the target is repeatedly exposed to. Damage types include bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing. This effect can increase defensive attributes by up to 200%, but quickly dissipates when subjected to a different damage type.
[Mana Cost: 100]

Spell: Living Ossification [D+]
Allows the target’s body, whether flesh, bone, or spiritual essence, to grow, thicken, or reshape itself in response to stress. This includes forming auxiliary limbs or reinforcing portions of the target’s body.
[Mana Cost: 100]

Spell: Deathly conflagration [B-]
The enchanted creature or item may be remotely detonated for a massive necrotic explosion. Explosion strength scales with the construct’s power rating. If the item or construct is destroyed or heavily damaged, the explosion is automatically activated.
[Mana Cost: 300]

Enya took a few minutes to read over the rewards. This time, she even mentioned them to Pell and Elria.

Normally, she would have wanted to decide on her own—but things were different now. She was here to help Pell with his mission. She wanted to be useful to him.

She knew how much he was hurting inside.

So she asked for their opinions, especially since choosing felt harder than usual.

“Definitely not ossification,” Elria said. “That sounds like horse droppings.”

Pell nodded. “I agree. You already can make practically anything you want with that construct spell of yours. If I need another arm, you can just make it.”

“Okay. No living Oscar.”

That wasn’t even a person’s name this time, and yet you’re still making things up. How did you get the pronunciation wrong when the word is right in front of you? Pell wondered.

“Deathly Conflagration sounds neat,” Elria said. “Send a walking skeleton in to say hi, then have it blow up the city. Sounds romantic.”

“We don’t want to blow up the city,” Pell said flatly. “Also, that’s just a waste of a minion, even if the spell is strong. That mana cost is ludicrous. I say the bone ward is better. At least you can use it on all your minions and not have them commit suicide.”

“You’re already dead. What’s wrong with committing a little suicide?” Elria pointed one crystalline leg at Pell.

“Newsflash—you’re dead too,” Pell shot back. “How about you blow yourself up and see how well that works out for us?”

They began to bicker again.

Enya ignored them and stared at the two remaining options. Truth be told, she was already partial to one of them.

After she made her choice, she heard a soft click in front of her. A new sensation settled deep within her mind. Pell and Elria stopped arguing, both turning to stare alongside her.

A creaking noise came from in front of them. Two balls of blue soul-flames appeared.

The skeletal goliath was complete.

And Enya already had a name for it.

Name: Cinnamon Bun
Level: 29
Type: Soul-Forged Skeletal Dragon Goliath
Class: Unassigned
Power Rating: 7,666

Without hesitation, Enya moved to the workbench and picked up the small, broken eggshell fragment.

“Kid, you better wash your hands after,” Pell said, crossing his arms and wincing as she handled it.

Enya ignored him and stepped back in front of Cinnamon Bun. She held the fragment out. The massive dragon lowered its head, obedient.

She pressed the fragment against its skull.

Her new skill—one she’d received when she joined the Crafter’s Association—activated.

Skill: Gene Revival
Gene: Earthcrawler Dragon
Please choose one of the following gene attributes to apply.

So the fragment belonged to an Earthcrawler dragon, she concluded.

A small list of three abilities appeared before her eyes—unique traits that only an Earthcrawler dragon could possess. Until now, Enya had only been able to revive undead while preserving their basic structure: a rat’s speed, a horse’s gallop. She couldn’t mimic anything beyond that.

This skill changed everything.

She tapped one of the options and made her choice.

She wouldn’t settle for a dragon made of simple bone.

No—she would make a real dragon.

A dragon that could do what dragons were meant to do.

Cinnamon Bun’s skull shone brightly, absorbing the shell fragment as it dissolved into light.

Enya grinned.

⬥⬥⬥

Amberdean’s son’s estate sat on the quieter edge of Eiyuria, surrounded by decorative stone walls and trimmed hedges meant more for appearances than defense. Lanterns burned low along the perimeter, casting uneven pools of yellow light across empty walkways.

It was late.

Too late for visitors. Too early for patrol rotations to fully wake.

It was perfect.

From above, Elria watched through the compound using the dead fly’s body, her senses threading through its nerves like a marionette. Guards stood lazily near entrances, weapons resting against their shoulders. A few leaned against walls. One yawned.

I forgot how fun it is to put in effort to kill people, she buzzed softly.

She descended.

She used the last of her power, extending witchcraft curses outward. Around their necks, a dark mist began to form, solidifying into a sticky sludge. One man felt it and scratched his neck, only to see the sludge on his fingers. He tried to scream—but the sound wouldn’t come out. From his neck, black veins began to pour down his body and crept up his face.

Each guard stiffened, eyes wide in shock and horror, before crumpling to the ground.

Two seconds passed as their bodies thumped.

No sounds. No shouts. No alarms.

“Welp. That’s it for me. No more fighting for the next week,” Elria murmured. She decided to then take a small rest on top of the gate’s hinges. She was completely spent.

Pell was already moving upon seeing this. He leapt the tall metal fence, carrying Enya in his arms. They slipped through an open window of the estate’s side hall. They kept completely still as they moved. Enya’s eyes flashed yellow as she activated Absolute Focus.

It wasn’t long until she found the room of their target.

Inside his room, a young boy, around thirteen or fourteen was sleeping. But then he heard something shift outside his room. A small shuffle, rustling of noise as the door creaked. His eyes peered open just slightly—

Just to see a skinny figure enter his room.

“W-w-what—” At first, he was confused. But after the second stutter, he realized something was wrong. On instinct, he formed a spell and unleashed a large blast of fire toward the door.

Pell’s form vanished.

The spell discharged harmlessly into the wall as Pell reappeared at the boy’s side and slammed the butt of his scythe into his stomach.

The impact drove the air from the boy’s lungs in a sharp, silent gasp. He folded instantly, entering the fettle position on his body. Pell grabbed him by the collar and threw him on the ground. Opening his inventory, Pell slapped on the metal binding cuffs along his wrists that Enya repaired.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t hard to fix. Simply melding the metal back with some heated flame, so that they connected, fixed its effect.

The boy’s eyes widened as his system screen flashed in front of him. He coughed, eyes watering from the sharp jab to the stomach he just took.

“W-who are you?” he rasped.

Pell leaned down, close to the boy’s face.

“Your father’s past ghosts.”

Before the boy could respond, Pell whacked him on the back of the head with the butt end of his scythe handle, knocking him out. Then, he shoved him unceremoniously into a medium-sized brown sack. He sealed it with a practiced knot, slinging the entire sack over his shoulder.

Enya walked into the room a few moments later.

Pell stood and turned to face her.

“We got what we need. It’s time for Amberdean.”

⬥⬥⬥

Amberdean sat comfortably behind the broad desk in his office, fingers steepled as he spoke.

“We had a productive week,” he said. “Better than expected, honestly. Several promising candidates. Even a duke’s son.”

Across from him stood the cloaked figure with glowing yellow eyes. Within each iris, were a pair of wings.

The Godsworn did not sit.

“Good,” the man said. His voice was calm, distant—like it belonged somewhere else. “No. Great, even. The hard work you’ve shown me is to be applauded.”

Amberdean smiled faintly. “The Veiled Ones have proven quite useful. As I said before, money is all they care about. As long as the coin flows, they don’t ask questions.”

The Godsworn inclined his head slightly. “And when will the shipment be prepared?”

“Tomorrow morning,” Amberdean replied without hesitation. “Most of the children are already secured. I have a few agents still out tying up loose ends—precautions, in case anyone comes looking for them.”

“Good,” the Godsworn said. “A duke’s son… the potential there should be outstanding.

Amberdean leaned back in his chair, confidence returning to his posture. “Once this shipment is complete, my usefulness should be beyond question. You promised me power. Godly power.”

The cloaked man turned his head just enough for the faint glow beneath his hood to shift.

“And you will have it,” the Godsworn said. “Continue to prove yourself valuable, and you will be rewarded accordingly. I’ll make sure to tell my superior about your achievements and efficiency. The next time you see me, you may be bestowed a Godsworn’s eye.”

Amberdean’s lips curved into a smile.

The God’s Eyes… Finally—I’ll get a taste of godly power!

Before the Godsworn could say more—he stilled.

The Godsworn’s posture changed, subtle but immediate. The air in the room seemed to tighten.

Amberdean frowned. “What is it?”

The man did not answer at first. His head tilted, as though listening to something far away.

“…Something is happening,” the Godsworn said.

Amberdean felt it then—a strange pressure crawling along his skin. A growing brightness seeped through the thin gaps in the window blinds, faint at first, then steadily intensifying.

“What the—”

Amberdean stood abruptly and rushed toward the window of his office. He reached out and pulled the blinds aside.

Outside, suspended in the night sky, was a massive sphere of green fire.

It was already too close.

The next instant—the world detonated.

A violent explosion tore through the estate, the entire side of the second floor was engulfed in roaring flame and debris. The shockwave alone rattled stone, shattered glass, and sent furniture skidding across the room.

What remained was a large plume of burning smoke, along with lingering green embers along the broken walls. The sound alone could have woken up the town.

And yet—not a single soul heard it.

The illusion talisman was in effect.

No one would notice—that Amberdean, the town Baron—was under attack.

Authors Announcement:

Hey! Just wanted to give everyone a heads up that I'll be releasing a new story soon; its called The Exalted Mage. I'll be releasing it around Christmas or the end of december on Royal Road. This means I'll also have +10 advance chapters available on patreon. Look forward to it!