[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 157 – Forest Trouble

Sam was about to get started on another [Bronze Ingot] when he remembered something Raiko had said about the missing dullahans.

As much as he wanted more Blacksmith levels—considering the next one would net him a juicy Voidknight level—Sam gathered up his materials and put them back into his Inventory for the time being.

It was getting pretty damn cramped in there, but he managed to make everything fit. I really need to find a way to expand my Inventory further, he thought to himself.

Maybe there was something a Blacksmith could do that would allow him to improve it. Like some sort of special expansion beams to shore up his pocket dimension.

Even shelving would be good, despite the slight cost to space, just to be able to display everything like he had wanted.

With everything gathered up, Sam headed out of the dome and into the dappled early morning light of the settlement.

By then, Komachi had scampered into the common grounds ahead of Raiko. The [Spirit Lantern] glowed a ghostly blue at her hip, scattering spectral flames in her wake.

That was one less thing Sam had to worry about then and distract him from crafting more.

It’s nice having someone else I can rely on, Sam thought with surprise.

With the [Spirit Lantern] revitalized, the Professors from the Aker Academy would be doing all right.

His cat, Queen, and mimic looked around for those willing to join them.

He immediately had to mentally correct himself. Raiko was not his Queen, he wasn’t Kai.

Sam waved when he saw them, shaking his head to dispel the weird thoughts of Raiko as his queen, while he mentally emphasized the lower-case “q”.

“I was just about to go look for the dullahans,” Sam told Raiko as he caught up to them. “Do you have any idea where they might be? I figured with this—” Sam hefted up his [Bronze Ingot] “—I could maybe do some proper patch work and fix things that were shattered or broken that I could only maintenance before.”

Raiko smiled at his approach, only splattered with just a little blue. Even Komachi perked up at Sam’s company, who had been seeming somewhat stressed and worried.

There were also the mandys. Nobody had seen them either since the Aker Academy, and Sam hoped they were in hiding.

The death of the Dungeon Core should have killed any monsters that made their way to Sil’mara, but only if they were born from the Dungeon Core.

General monsters would still be alive, and Sam didn’t exactly enjoy the thought of having to explore the entire Skyshard just to find them all.

There was a reason they made the settlement and its walls. It was small and defensible. If only I had thought to keep the dullahans here.

“I’ve a general read, but it’s hardly specific.” Raiko motioned towards one side of the Skyshard, past the wall of [Ironwood]. “It’s at least better than searching the entire Skyshard.”

“Absolutely,” Sam told her, placing the [Bronze Ingot] into his Inventory. He wasn’t sure what else he could make with it. Maybe some rivets? Nails of bronze weren’t any good, were they? Probably too soft.

He could make plates. That would be useful for patching up the dullahans, and it was a simple process of beating the ever-loving-shit out of the ingot until it was flat. Simple.

“You could try to repair them with that.” Raiko glanced at the ingot while he put it away, seeming impressed. “But they don’t seem to be made of the same material.”

“What are they made out of?” Sam asked. “They’re dark like cast iron but they don’t rust, so I don’t think it’s that.”

“Well,” Raiko began, checking on her new katana and sheath. “They used to be largely a mixture of adaman and mythril, aside from their core and other parts. Since then, their metal might have transmogrified into their lesser First Layer forms.”

“Wait,” Komachi butted in. “They didn’t spawn here like those Treants on the [Forest Tile]?”

Raiko shrugged. “How they arrived here, I’m not sure. However, I’m certain they’re the same dullahans from my homeland.”

Sam wasn’t entirely certain at what point adaman and mythril were a thing, but he had a very faint idea that they were light years away from anything he could create.

Even with his achievement providing him access to new recipes sooner, they weren’t even on his radar.

“If they were once adaman and mythril,” Sam said as he shaded his eyes against the bright morning sun, “then they sure as hell aren’t anymore. There’s no way they would have taken damage from creatures that, by the large, weren’t even Copper. Hell, I doubt I could have even polishedadaman or mythril with my skill levels.”

“Probably not, though you are strong.” Raiko grinned at him as she led the way out of the walls. “I don’t think this is the case, but it’s possible there are Layer variants of materials that go beyond rarity. Such as there being a lesser type of adaman, and a true adaman higher up. Just a theory, really.”

The horizon was quite different with the Aker Academy’s Skyshard hovering nearby and his old Skyshard above with its cross-like shape.

Sam almost felt like he was crawling out of his apartment back on Earth to see the light of day again after a rare day off work spent gaming.

“I like our new home,” Komachi said, full of contentment.

Sam realized that more and more every day, Sil’mara was actually starting to feel like home.

“Me too,” Raiko said, then added softly, “There’s just many missing.”

Sam nodded in silent agreement.

Coming from the Aker Academy were Kai and Lenal, bracketed by a pair of ghostly professors who were hovering like helicopter parents as the pair gently carried the Mana Engine toward the settlement.

The two groups saw one another at the same time.

“I’ll catch up with you,” Sam told Raiko. “It looks like they’re struggling with that thing, and I totally forgot about it.”

Komachi looked torn between them. She leapt from Sam’s shoulder to Raiko’s and gave him an apologetic meow. “I gotta watch over her just in case.”

Sam looked a little surprised, but smiled all the same. “All good, Komachi.” He looked Raiko. “Don’t wait up. I’ll be done in a flash.”

Raiko nodded and went off to search, darting across the hill with great speed. Komachi almost flew off, clinging to her armor by the tips of her claws.

Sam hurried toward Kai and Lenal, and once there he took the Mana Engine in his arms and carried it like a baby despite its prodigious weight.

Even Kai, who looked far stronger and larger than Sam at a glance, looked stunned.

Sam looked back at him a bit sheepishly and said, “360 Strength, my guy.”

Kai’s mouth nearly fell to his chest, and it was all Sam could do not to laugh and spoil the moment. He turned and carried the surprisingly girthy Mana Engine to where the professors told him to place it.

They hovered around him, as did Kai and Lenal now, with nothing to do until it was placed.

The ghosts, for their part, took careful measurements to determine the best location, which meant that they flitted this way and that way until they finally decided upon a location that was perfect.

Setting it down gently, Sam couldn’t help but smile at how easy it was. He knew the damn thing was heavy, but still, it hadn’t been that much worse than carrying two armfuls of groceries into his apartment.

That was the odd thing, he realized, about his high Strength. He could feel that it was a strain, but whenever he felt like maybe he couldn’t keep going, he was able to press on without much trouble.

The sensation of strain and weight never truly went away most of the time. Things that were far below his Strength were the only things that changed, becoming hilariously light by comparison.

But for most heavy things, they stayed relatively heavy. Only he could move them instead of struggling fruitlessly.

Sam felt reasonably confident he could suplex a dullahan now with limited back strain.

In all honesty, he wanted to try it, though not if the dullahans were wounded or worse. He didn’t want to think of what might be worse than a few scratches and nicks they had taken from defending Sil’mara.

They may not be a people in the stereotypical sense, but they were still loyal citizens of his kingdom, weren’t they? They should be respected as such and cared for.

Sam waved goodbye to the ghosts and left Kai and Lenal in their capable spectral hands.

He could see Raiko and Komachi far away, much farther than he would have expected them to get in such a short time, but he just shrugged and sprinted after them.

For the first time that Sam could remember, he wanted to test himself. There were all these new muscles, a huge increase in stats, and yet he never tested to see just how much stronger he’d gotten.

And then, over his shoulder, he saw the Black City looming and remembered why he hadn’t. There never seemed to be any time. There was always something to do, some danger or threat. But if Volquist was right… maybe they could put some space between them and the Black City.

Buying themselves time.

Sam tore up the ground between the settlement and Raiko with surprising speed. Strength alone propelled him to a ridiculous degree and his higher Agility and Dexterity allowed him to keep his feet beneath him.

Since the ground wasn’t difficult to walk on or odd in any way, his [Traversal] skill was all but worthless, and so he relied on his raw stats, which were more than up for the task.

Lightning crackled into the sky, except from the wrong direction. There were no storm clouds of any sort.

Raiko dove into the [Forest Tile], scarf dancing into the personification of lightning while her katana crackled with purple mana.

The music of [Haste Mazurka] trailed out of the woods, the green notes swirling about Sam’s legs, imparting him even greater Agility.

He continued to accelerate all the way into the [Forest Tile] when Komachi’s song hit him, and he started to slow the fuck down before he Wile E. Coyote’d himself into a tree.

Until he saw the scene before him.

Oh, fuck that.

Part of the [Forest Tile] was caved in, fallen and dead trees heaped on top of each other. There were no small number of defeated [Treants], and more were emerging from deeper in the Tile.

Fighting was going on in the massive hole. A Treant was in the process of lumbering down on the pit. It toppled as Raiko carved a Lightning rift across its trunk.

Sam let loose more speed, trusting in his stats and [Traversal] to keep him safe as he bellowed at the top of his lungs. “How many times do I gotta teach you a lesson, you filthy old trees!?”

Within, he saw a devastating scene. Two of the dullahans were collapsed, wrecked with significant damage, forming a protective barrier around the huddled militia of mandragora.

Two dullahans were standing, vaporous mana leaking out of their cracked and damaged shells. One was without his sword, the other was barely standing.

A Treant crashed into the dullahan with a blade, and a strange barely feathered flying monster clawed with its taloned feet at the weaponless one.

Sam leapt, and when he used all of his 360 Strength, it launched him like a catapult through the air. He unsheathed his new [Vulcan Blade] in a shower of sparks and molten droplets.

He charged [Heavy Blade] in the span of time it took him to travel through the air like a ballistic missile and he brought the [Vulcan Blade] down into the nearest [Treant] with all the force he could muster.

Which was a lot.

A fiery explosion rocked the forest and threw up a cloud of steam and smoke as the Magma mana combined with the force of Sam’s [Heavy Blade] obliterated the first [Treant]. The dead creature turned into a flaming fragmentation grenade of burning flinders that spread to the nearby [Treants], goring them with the fiery shrapnel of their fallen brother.

Later, Sam marveled at the brutality of what he’d done. Killing the other [Treants] with the remains of one of their own. He was surprised the Shard didn’t give him an achievement for it.