The Fusionist Book 5 -- Chapter 14

Chapter 14

“What you’ve managed to do in such a short time is absolutely ridiculous, but it’s going to quickly make the Providers useless.”

Larek listened to Vanders as they – along with Fendra – sat in the dining room, which had thankfully been cleaned up after the mess that the Combat Fusionist had inadvertently created two days ago when he chopped off the Supreme Provider’s head. He nodded, agreeing – at least in part – with what the Martial was saying.

“That’s exactly how it should be,” Larek stated.  At their confused looks, he explained. “I told you before, my goal here was to acquire supplies – and the axe that you located for me, for which I must express my heartfelt gratitude – and to do that, I needed some supplies that I could actually have without people starving if I took them. That is already well on its way to becoming a reality, what with the crops starting to bring in an excess of food now, and the monster hunting by refugee hunters starting to show some promise.”

That was a huge understatement, given that the dozens of volunteers had been eager to prove themselves against the monsters that had driven them from their homes. While they weren’t the exact monsters that had been near Harvana because the Apertures were different, that didn’t stop the armed hunters from pretending that they were.

It was so obvious that they were out for revenge when their first encounter with a Horned Boar, a 7-foot-tall and 14-foot-long charging behemoth that had to weigh nearly a ton, they absolutely obliterated it body in a matter of seconds after they bombarded it with flaming balls shot out by a virtual army of nearly 100 hunters wielding staves with VREP Fusions on them. It didn’t even know what hit it and didn’t get to within 20 feet of the group, who had cheered and shouted as a result of their kill, though that was tempered by the fact that there were barely any chunks left of the giant boar to bring back to the city for meat.

After that initial explosion of destructive force against the Horned Boars, they had learned to slaughter the monsters with a bit of strategy and tactics, using fewer hunters and Icy Spikes that constantly battered the charging boars as they were impaled by hundreds of frozen shards – which would then melt and disappear later on, leaving a holey (but largely intact) corpse that they could transport back to the city. Not once in the full day that they had been hunting had the Boars even gotten close to them, but even if they did, the Automatic Ice Repulsion Field they had on some wooden medallions around their necks would be enough to block at least a single charging blow by the monsters, and they also had a few people with Graduated Parahealing copper bracelets that they could use to heal anyone who had gotten hurt.

It was still a dangerous job and Larek expected some would get careless and die if they were too overconfident, but with Larek’s Fusions to help them, they were less likely to die in at least the next coming days.

Which brought him to what to do with the so-called Providers now that they were out of work.

“I also told you that you should be doing what you were trained to do, which is to help people. The SIC or not, the Martials and Mages throughout the Kingdom were always designed to help defend the people from monster attacks, and from what I’ve seen of both of you, that’s exactly what you want to be doing. Your abilities have been wasted on feeding these people, and while it was necessary for a while, you are no longer needed. Instead, as I mentioned before, you should be going out and fighting monsters – just not for the purpose of gathering their corpses for food.

“The only way the Kingdom is going to survive, what little is left out there, is to fight back against the advance of the Apertures. You used to let the monsters come to you behind the walls of a town or a city, but that’s all changed; now, you need to go to them. You know all of this, of course, as you’ve been doing the same over the last, what, nearly 5 years now? Unfortunately, it hasn’t been working, as they apparently have been too strong for you to combat. Am I correct?”

They both nodded solemnly at that.

“That’s where I come in,” Larek continued, pulling two medallion necklaces out from his pockets. “You’ve already seen the staves I can create in the hands of the refugees acting as hunters, but there’s more. And don’t worry, you’ll be getting some of those to help you out, as well as a few other things.

“First, each of the Mages and Martials will be getting one of these,” he said, offering one of the necklaces to Vanders and the other to Fendra. The way they jerked in surprise once they grabbed it and the power flowed through their bodies made him smile. “Normal people can’t really take advantage of a Magnitude 10 boost to their stats, but you can.” He pulled out two more things from his pockets, and he handed over a brass armlet he’d asked for the day before to each of them. “Nor can they use a boost to their non-existent Mage and Martial Skills, but guess what? You can.”

Larek pulled out yet another pair of armlets from his pockets.

“Then there’s the healing Fusions you’re going to need if you’re going to be traveling around and closing Apertures. There is one that is specially created for Martials here,” he said, handing one to Vanders, “and the other is the same as the hunters have, which is designed for those without Body Regeneration as a Skill.” So saying, he handed that one over to Fendra. “Lastly, as I said before, I have staves that will be going to all the Mages here, but they will also be including a utility-based Directional Illumination Fusion on it that might come in handy if you’re ever fighting at night – or run into something as horrendous as the Umbral Demons beneath the desert of Lowenthal.”

Larek shivered in remembrance of the shadowy Demons, but he cheered up when he remembered that he’d killed them all. Or at least he hoped so.

“But I will also need to see all the weapons used by the Martials, as I want to improve them as well.  There’s a special Fusion I can add that can increase your effectiveness against many types of monsters, and I think you’ll like it.” Larek thought about it for a moment, before shrugging. “I think that’s it.”

“That’s… it?” Fendra asked incredulously. “That’s more than I could’ve even imagined. This alone,” she said, slipping the medallion necklace over her neck, “is worth half a Kingdom by itself. Why?”

Larek was confused. “Why what?”

“Why do all of this? And don’t give me that crap about needing supplies. I’m sure you would’ve been fine without something readily available to eat. You could’ve hunted for monster meat much easier than any of us could.”

Larek nodded slowly, trying to figure out how to explain without sounding callous. “That is true, I will admit. At the time of our arrival, it had been more about getting something to eat and finding somewhere for Nedira to rest safely. Yes, we didn’t absolutely need supplies for our travels, because I’m sure I could’ve scrounged some up when needed, but that all changed when I saw all the starving people outside.

“Now, I’m not on crusade to right all the wrongs throughout the Kingdom, but I also couldn’t help but think about my own family. I could only hope that if they found themselves in a similar situation, then someone would come along and help them as I’ve done here. As for you,” he said, looking at both Vanders and Fendra, “the same applies. Not by helping to feed everyone, but to help protect them. With so many Apertures out there, it is almost inevitable that they’ve been threated by at least one or two, and I can only hope that a team of SIC members, or even just a loose organization like the Providers, were there to help them escape from certain death.

“So, while my purposes might seem altruistic, I’m helping you because it might help my family one day. It’s a bit selfish, I’ll admit it, but as long as my selfishness helps other people, I figure that’s alright.” He thought about it for a moment before he smirked. “Oh, and I just really like to make Fusions, so there was an added benefit for me. Especially since I needed to stay here anyway while waiting for Nedira to recover.”

The two Providers just stared at him, their expressions a bit blank while they evaluated what he said. Eventually, it was Vanders who spoke first. “Are you telling me you made all of these already?” he asked, holding up the Fusions that Larek had given him. “For everyone?”

Larek shrugged. “Well, I didn’t really have much to do over the last couple of days, so… yes? I’ve probably made a bit too many, but I’m sure if you find some more Mages and Martials out there that need a little extra help, you wouldn’t mind passing them along, would you?”

They both shook their heads. “Not at all,” Fendra answered.

“Excellent. So, as you send people up to get all the stuff in my room, which is getting a little crowded and the ambient Mana level is steadily dropping from the presence of so many Mana-hungry Fusions, bring up your weapons and I’ll finish those off. Once I teach you how they work, I have a few separate projects I need to work on before we leave tomorrow, as I believe Nedira will be ready to get moving by then.

“Any questions? No? You seem a little overwhelmed, so I’ll leave you to it, then. Don’t forget to send people up for my finished Fusions along with your weapons!”

At that, he got up and headed back upstairs to his and Nedira’s room, which had seen extensive use over the last few days. Not only did Nedira sleep a lot to regain some of her strength back, but it had been the main headquarters for Larek’s Fusion creation – and it certainly showed. There was barely any room to move around inside with everything he’d created, and he had to walk carefully through the objects strewn all over the room and even hung up on the walls so as not to trip over anything. Even the bed was half-covered with stuff – the half that didn’t possess a sleeping woman, of course.

Fortunately, it was only a few minutes by the time he got back that Vanders and Fendra arrived with a veritable army of both Mages and Martials, who exclaimed in shock at the new Fusions as they took them and all of the extra ones away. They even took the extra few dozen plates he’d went ahead and applied additional Strong Watered Growth and Furrow Field Fusions, so that they could expand their cropland in the future.

They also left behind dozens of melee weapons and even a few bows, along with quivers full of arrows. For the melee weapons, whether they were swords, battleaxes, knives, or warhammers, he added both a Variable Elemental Gust Sphere Fusion (the same Fusion that he’d added to his own axe that had ultimately led to its destruction), as well as either a Strengthen and Sharpen Fusion, or just a Strengthen Fusion.

For the bows, he didn’t add anything to the weapon itself, but instead added them to the arrows. After adding Strengthen to the projectiles, which would allow them to be reused, he also added an altered version of the Variable Elemental Gust Sphere Fusion to each and every one – which was made much easier through use of his Focused Division Skill, considering that there were about 200 arrows in total. The altered version had another Input and Variable pair tied to its Activation Method which only allowed the destructive gust sphere to activate after it impacted something with significant force. He designed it that way so that casual handling of the arrows, or an accidental dropping, wouldn’t set them off – only after it had hit a target.

When they were all done a few hours later, they were all taken away by their owners after Larek explained how the Fusions worked and to warn them about how sharp some of them were now, and he was left alone. Or at least he was no longer bothered by anyone from the city, as Nedira had slept through most of the commotion and had only woken up toward the end of his marathon Fusion creation session.

Sitting back in the bed with his back against the wall, he sighed, glad to be done with it all. While he loved making Fusions, it did become sort of repetitive after a while of making the same things over and over. Which was why he was excited to get started on something else.

“So, what now? Are you going to make another Air Skimmer since the last one blew up?” Nedira asked him, snuggling up against his side and Larek wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close while he closed his eyes. The two of them had become a lot closer after spending so much time together, despite the fact that Larek was creating Fusions most of the time while Nedira slept through most of the day. Ever since she had woken up on his chest a couple of days ago, they had been together most of that time and it felt comfortable, exciting, and… worried.

The old doubts crept in on whether he was unknowingly using his Dominion magic on her, though he didn’t think that was the case. While he wasn’t exactly an expert on his Dominion magic yet, he had become quite a bit more sensitive to its use and was 99% sure he hadn’t used any of it on her – at least not after he’d used it to wake her up after being possessed by the Umbral Demons. But there was still that 1% that he wasn’t sure of, which made him wary of whether or not he’d been able to keep from influencing her.

Thankfully, his logical and emotional sides of his mind told him to ignore that possibility, so he was enjoying it as much as he could. It was, to be honest with himself, wonderful to be with her again and it felt like they had never been apart nor had any falling out over his Dominion magic before. It was almost like no time had passed, though he knew that wasn’t the case, especially when he took into account everything that had happened to her; there were multiple times while she was asleep that she had visibly struggled with nightmares, and he didn’t have to ask to know that they were most likely due to her experience with being possessed by an Umbral Demon.

That trauma still obviously haunted her and would continue to do so for a while, but when she was simply nearby him, she seemed much calmer and put together.

“I thought about it, but I think I might have another solution to the Air Skimmer.”

“Oh? Something land-based, or something bigger than the Skimmer?” she asked, clearly intrigued.

He chuckled. “Actually, I was thinking smaller. With no Fusions whatsoever.”

“What? What do you mean?”

In answer, Larek pulled out a chunk of his Pattern Cohesion and shaped it into an empty cube with thin walls that was approximately 4 feet wide and 3 feet tall, with an open top; it floated above the bed where they could both see it.

“After using my Pattern Manipulation Skill, which has really improved lately, I got to thinking about how I could apply it in a slightly different way. I can already create a shield that I can then move around quickly to block attacks… so why not change its shape to allow me to stand on top of it and then move it around.”

She looked up from where she was pressed against his side. “Do you really think something like that could work?”

He shrugged. “I don’t see why not. I still need to try it out, of course, but that’s not actually what I want to work on next.” Pulling the Pattern Cohesion back inside his body, he turned to her. “Do you happen to know any spells that use some sort of void element?”

“Void? Like the one that you were trapped inside and which transported you halfway across the world?”

Larek shook his head as an involuntary shudder passed through him at the memory. “No, I’m more thinking about something that my Perceptive Misdirection Fusion uses to conceal a pulsing wave of Mana via something called a void carrier. Here, look.” Larek pulled up the aforementioned Fusion from his list, and projected it in front of him so she could see it, similar to how he would do it with his Status.

She looked at the line that mentioned the void carrier and slowly shook her head. “For some reason, it sounds familiar, but it’s not a common element. Nor uncommon or even rare; it might be something that was used by a Mage at some point, but none currently... if I even remember correctly. Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it; I was just curious. I feel like I have a good enough understanding of it through the recreation of this Fusion, as well as my own experience in that nightmarish place, to perhaps use it in a different way – but it isn’t something that I’ve ever done before. Every Fusion that I’ve personally created, and wasn’t just a variable of something I already knew, has been directly related to a spell I have knowledge of; I’ve never used a concept taken from another Fusion that I don’t at least have a semi-parallel spell that goes along with it.”

“What are you planning, Larek?” she asked suspiciously.

He chuckled nervously before he answered. “Oh, I just want to create a pocket of the void that I can store things in and then take that stuff out later, where no time has passed. That’s all.”

“Really? That’s all? You’re talking about something that held you captive for years and then dropped you somewhere completely different after it released you, and you want to… what? Put it in a bag?”

“Bag? Bag! That’s a great idea! I was thinking some sort of necklace like the ones I made for the Martials and Mages here, but a bag makes so much more sense! I can even have the opening of the void be the same opening of the bag… though it would have to be flexible, I suppose. Fortunately, I think I can apply the same flexibility I originally discovered in my Multi-Resistance Fusions for that. Should I compartmentalize it into different sections of the void? Would that even work?  Different pockets – not in the bag, but different pockets of the void?” He looked down at Nedira in excitement. “Thank you for the suggestion!”

“But I didn’t—”

Unfortunately for her, the Combat Fusionist was already lost as his mind started to put together the Fusion he was going to need to construct for it to work. It would strain his abilities, but that was exactly what he needed; he’d been stuck at Level 59 in Mana Control, Pattern Formation, and Fusion, and something that pushed the boundaries of his Skills might just push him over the top.

He rubbed his hands together as the elements of his plan started to come together.