[Beastborne: Tower of Blight] (Book 6) Chapter 19

What astonished Hal most of all was the lack of bandages or limping from Val. He took the cocoa gratefully, his eyes scanning the back of the room. There, on the other side, working over a cauldron of all things, was Hamrin.

He sprinkled something into the bubbling mass. A flash of magic erupted from his fingertips, and a thin plume of purple smoke wafted from the black cauldron.

“How long?” Hal asked.

It had felt like only a day, maybe two at the most, but surely they could not have built all this in just a day.

“Nearly a week,” Val told him. “As you can see, I’ve made a full recovery, and we’ve had time to build up some infrastructure to help take care of those who returned.”

“Muh brews!” Komachi wailed, paws on her eyes. “Their elemental mana must be outta balance!”

Agda Proudbeard stepped up to Komachi, her hands on her wide hips. She tossed a long braid of golden hair over one shoulder. “Aye, have no fear little one. We took care o’ yer casks as well as we could!”

Komachi peeked past her paws. “Really? Dang. You’re the best, Agda.”

“Ye wanna come look? It’s an awful storm out there. Ye might get blown away!”

“Later. Machi has had enough of muh rump and toe beans bein’ cold.”

For some reason, the little pobul stared at Elora.

The Wildsmaster grumbled about doing her best and shoved Komachi into the inner lining of her coat. “I need a bed,” she mumbled and staggered off to one of the many empty beds.

“How was it?” Val and Tristal asked at the same time as they led Hal away from the rest of the group. Noth followed after them, and at a nod from Hal, Ashera went to join Elora in finding a bed to lie down in.

Hal could hear Kow ask something as they left, “Ma’am, if I might ask… What did Mira mean by ‘getting some’?”

Hal didn’t envy her trying to explain that.

“It was a lot worse than I expected, and yet better in other ways,” Hal admitted. “The Tower is vaster than we had any right to assume. The entire time we were gone was just a single floor.”

Tristal whistled. “Towers are usually pretty beastly, but even that seems like a stretch. I know you took quite a few people who were lower Level than seemed viable, but everybody survived. That’s a massive win, Hal. You should be proud.”

Hal didn’t feel proud. He barely managed to keep everybody alive and together. By the end, they were running from more things than fighting, purely because to do anything else would have spelled their doom.

He had thought that he was all powerful. A Beastborne that could take on anything. But he was learning rather quickly just how limited that power really was.

As humbling as it was, it was also important to understand his limitations and where his strengths truly shone.

Hal explained everything they had gone through, sparing no detail. They talked into the night, with Tristal or Val asking questions now and again.

Hal thoroughly enjoyed multiple cocoas. The drinks warmed his very bones and tasted just like the drink he had been treated to as a kid by one of his nicer relatives. For some reason, he couldn’t quite remember much about her, other than she was particularly good to him and was so unlike the rest of his family.

Noth curled up on a cot and went to sleep. Buffrix came by and checked on them. He informed Hal that it would take days before Noth’s Blight stacks wore off, and for now she and all the others needed rest.

So long as they were not exposed to any more of the affliction, they should make a full recovery. Which meant that if Hal wanted to go in again, he would need to pick a different group to accompany him.

While Brightsong was home to over a hundred people, not all of them were battle-hardened warriors. Those that had followed him–at least the dwarves–were the strongest they could provide, but those who had stayed behind to build were considerably weaker than their cousins who manned the gates or went on patrols.

There was a severe disparity in Levels that meant Hal had less than 10 fresh bodies to pull from. All of them, except for Val, would be far weaker than any of the other alliance members.

It didn’t help that Hal wondered if forming an alliance had been a mistake. After all, the Tower seemed to respond to their numbers with greater numbers in kind.

Hal had seen just how easily a smaller group like Angram’s could move about without attracting too much notice.

Even if they knew precisely where to go, the larger alliance attracted unwanted attention. Ambushes that should have gone off without a hitch were far more complicated.

In the end, it had worked, and that was what mattered, but Hal wondered if perhaps a smaller group might do better.

They sat at a small table near the cauldron of stew Hamrin and Val were making. A stew that would bolster everybody’s Ice Resistance to help tolerate the severe winter squall.

“It’s likely,” Tristal told him, wrapping her fingers around a hot mug of cocoa. “Many Dungeons change various aspects about themselves based on what you take in. I can’t be sure that is what’s happening here, but what would be the worst that could happen?”

Val rolled her eyes. “Spoken like somebody who can’t functionally die.”

Tristal colored, but she didn’t snap at Val. There seemed to be some slight tension there that had sprung up in Hal’s absence.

“Val’s right,” Hal told her, sipping on his own rich velvety cup of cocoa. He had no idea they even had chocolate! It had been so long since he had any, and even back in Seattle, he only ever had the instant packets.

This was truly gourmet stuff, the sort of thing that he always dreamed about as a kid reading The Polar Express.

“I suppose going in yourself is out of the question,” Tristal said, drumming her tidy fingernails on the tabletop. “Then your best chance is to assemble a group of the strongest people you can find, just a single party, and test the theory. If it’s easier, despite having fewer people and less overall fire power, you have your answer.”

“And if I’m wrong, we’re in for the fight of our lives,” Hal countered. But he didn’t have any other option.

There was no telling how long it would take people to recover from the Blight. He wouldn’t risk bringing anybody who had even a single stack unless it was absolutely necessary.

Getting rid of the Tower and reclaiming it was only the first step. Hal wasn’t going to sit around and let the Shadesblight learn from its mistake and take another stab at his home.

He needed to keep everybody alive and strong so they could go after the Shadesblight’s roots.

“What are you thinking, Hal?” Val asked him, noticing the light shift in his eyes.

“I need to do some crafting before I go back in,” Hal told her, keeping his thoughts to himself for the time being. “We got quite a good bit of loot, and I have some new schematics that I could use to make better equipment for the Tower. Coupled with the monster parts I can break down into essence motes, I might be able to outfit a small group of people in a day or two.”

“That would likely take less time than waiting for this Blight affliction to wear off,” Tristal mused. “From what I can tell, it’s a pretty nasty piece of work.”

Hal nodded, knocked back the rest of the cocoa, and despite his desire to visit the land of sleep, he stood up and headed toward the door.

Val grabbed his arm just as he was about to reach the door. “Let me help,” she pleaded. “I’m on the mend, truly. Let me go with you.”

Hal looked back at those who had gone with him. They looked withered and worn. Even the indefatigable Durvin looked worse than he had ever seen him, and that included the Dungeon where he reclaimed his soul fragment.

But Hal would need all the help he could get if they were to claim the Tower. He could not afford to be soft. Against his better judgment, he agreed to take her with him.

Over the next few days, Hal spent all of his time crafting with Osseochemy. Since his crafting skill was now wrapped up in a Class, creating items now granted Experience points. Not as much as fighting monsters, but a sizable, steady amount all the same.

It was almost frightening how effective of a combination his Beastborne Class and Osseochemist Class were.

Better yet, it seemed that his crafting Class didn’t require the same staggering amount of Experience that Beastborne or even Oathforger needed. Since Osseochemist couldn’t get any Experience from direct combat, it made sense.

If they both required a huge mountain of Experience, then anybody with a crafting Class would never be able to effectively Level Up.

As he began to wonder something, a chill seeped into his bones, one that had nothing to do with the winter. Had this been the Kindred of Dream’s plan all along? Or was something else awaiting him?

He shook his head. Why should I be suspicious that a godly figure of incomprehensible power actually did some good for once, with no ulterior motives at all?

Yeah right.

People in power never seemed to do things entirely out of the kindness of their hearts. Even the Kindred had plans for him. Why else help him along this path?

Still, she did seem rather endeared by him, like he was a little kid with a serious injury that was holding him back.

Hal couldn’t figure out why, but he didn’t need to. With a score of monster parts to turn into essence motes, Hal was able to experiment to his heart’s desire.

He could create armor plating from the sturdy bones of the creatures, distilled into essence motes that he captured into mana-sealed bottles and then poured into rough molds of bone.

What should have taken him hours for a single step took him minutes instead. Without the heavy draw of creating essence bone blanks from his own stores of mana, Hal could iterate on any design he chose multiple times before he even needed to think about taking a break.

Working through that first night, he realized he would never be able to make a full set of armor for every person. Even 5 sets of armor were far beyond his ability in such a short time.

Instead, he made amulets with a powerful imbuement of the blighted creatures’ essence. The first few batches went rather poorly, nearly blowing the roof off his cottage and filling the entire place with an acrid stench that would have had Noth kicking him out into the cold if she wasn’t peacefully sleeping somewhere else for the time being.

Eventually, Hal managed to create a set of amulets that would blunt the effects of the blighted creatures’ attacks and enhance the damage done to them at the same time.

Try as he might, Hal hadn’t been able to figure out a way to inoculate a person against the Blight effect. It had been his ambition that by using their essence, he could create something like a magical vaccine or ward, but it simply did not work like that.

The best he could do was attune an amulet to their signature, and use that as a means of bolstering defense and offense against those same creatures.

Now watch the Tower bring out some entirely different creatures to fight us, Hal thought to himself tiredly.

As the sun rose, Hal’s head drooping over his latest creation, he finally dragged himself to bed to get a little rest before picking it up again in the morning with fresh eyes.