[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 80: Grunt Work

Climbing the [Makeshift Rope] up to Sam’s Skyshard was easier and faster than ever with his newly attained [Traversal] skill.

He went up, hand over hand, without bothering to grip the rope with his ankles. It was as close to effortless as he had ever experienced.

With the [Traversal] skill, Sam was hauling his own body weight, Komachi’s, his armor and weapons. With just two hands.

The marvel of stats and skills still hasn’t worn off, Sam thought with great satisfaction.

Some things had changed on the Skyshard while he was gone.

Such as the social dynamics of the mandragoras. It seemed in his absence, they rapidly formed a militia. A number of them were marching, completely out of sync with one another.

Were they wearing oversized cut-out seed hulls as helmets? They look like coconuts….

One of the mandys was marching with a stick being raised and lowered in time with their little footfalls. They saw Sam, scrambled like a bunch of startled kittens, and then rushed up with tiny plant-based weaponry that wouldn’t have frightened a child.

Sam played along, raising his hands in surrender. “It’s me, remember?” He smiled at them. “You’ve done an excellent job keeping Sil’mara safe. She owes you a debt of gratitude.”

Your mandragoras complete a Quest.

Your mandragoras Level Up!

That caught Sam by surprise.

“Woah, the mandragoras can complete quests too,” Sam said.

Their levels jumped up anywhere between 6 and 8. No evolutions, but it was surprising they earned Experience, anyway. And even more surprising that they were considered his.

Sam didn’t even see Komachi’s levels most of the time.

“They’re so cute,” Komachi said, then grumbled. “Why do I feel threatened? Am I being out-adorabled?”

“You’re fine Komachi. Two things can be cute at the same time without one being lesser for it.”

Sam looked at the notification. Did I do that by telling them they protected the Skyshard?

He shook his head. Best not to look too closely at it. They had gotten levels from it, whatever it was, and that could only be a good thing.

Lowering his arms, Sam walked through the opening in their ranks. They let him go with a solemn air of soldiers who had performed their task well. And now that the Skyshard no longer seemed to be in any danger, they went about their tasks as if that was all they had ever done.

Sam left them to it and approached the center of the Skyshard. He intrinsically knew where that was from his connection to Sil’mara, but now anybody would be able to tell because the [Sourcestone] was sticking up ever-so-slightly from the surrounding soil.

A shimmering crystalline pyramid glittered in the morning sun. It was perhaps half a foot tall and resembled an erupting tooth to Sam.

Raiko’s Settlement Core is a Tree. Does that mean my Settlement Core is going to be visible from all sides too?

It made him rethink the wisdom of burying it. If it would just rise to the top anyway, then there was no point.

[Sil’mara (Level 10)]

(Skyshard) (E-Class)

(★ Common)

Attributes

Mana Reserves (90%)

Mana Density (First Layer I)

Sockets

Settlement Core (Sourcestone)

Tiles (0/4)

“The level’s gone up,” Sam said with an air of satisfaction. “That’s new. And it has more Tiles available.”

Komachi scratched her ear aggressively with her back paw. “Probably the mandys taking care of it? Is dat a thing?”

Sam was about to agree when he remembered the quest. It had given an “immense” amount of Skyshard Experience. Technically, his [Sourcestone] had been a part of the battle. It was the way they traveled there, after all.

And he could see, just from a glance at where the tents were, that there was nearly twice as much landmass as before.

That wasn’t much, given how tiny it was before, but it was surprising that it could just… create mass out of nothing. Then again, dirt was largely composed of Earth mana.

It was amazing that levels roughly equated to landmass.

Sam suspected there were alternative ways to collect landmass, but this certainly was straightforward and reliable. Provided he could continue to find the means to earn Skyshard Experience.

He wondered if there was some sort of correlation between the amount of landmass and the amount of mana a Skyshard had. If larger ones meant more mana, or if they were in some way disconnected from the other.

What was most important at that moment, however, was that his Skyshard was larger. And that meant that he could build something more than a single shack.

Sam went back to the edge of his Skyshard and looked down.

His earlier concern seemed to be true.

Raiko’s Skyshard was smaller than he remembered. Worse, he could see the edges crumbling away like an oversized cookie.

Bits of land were turning brown and desiccated as they fell into the clouds below.

The Tree was nowhere near the outer edges, so it seemed safe. But already nearly a quarter of Raiko’s Skyshard was gone if his memory served. And he was fairly sure the Tree was smaller than when he first saw it.

“Whatcha gonna do?” Komachi asked.

“I don’t think there’s anything I can do about Raiko’s Skyshard shrinking,” Sam said, sitting down with his legs dangling over the edge. He was glad he wasn’t afraid of heights.

The view from up here was tremendous.

When he had fought Raiko, he remembered those threads of Chaos. Had they come from the Tree? If so, was it possible that her Sacred Tree somehow had cannibalized its strength to empower her to keep the Skyshard—and presumably itself—safe?

There wasn’t anything he could have done about it, but it was hard not to feel a little guilty about directly causing damage to the Skyshard and her Tree.

Sam pet Komachi’s fur as she curled up in his lap. The sun was rising to his left, arcing through the sky and making large blotches of shadows—distant Skyshards—dance across the clouds.

Komachi looked up at him. “Wonder if Raiko’s Skyshard has any Tiles, or if it’s just really large. If I saw one, don’t think I’d know I was lookin’ at it.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Sam said. “In fact, I’m curious if you need a Profession to create Tiles. That seems likely, but damn if I know how you would go about doing it.”

“Maybe. You got that concept of water thingy, didn’t you?”

“I did, but I can’t tell what I need to do to turn it into anything more. Right now it’s just a jelly like crystal that summons fresh water. Useful as all hell, but not exactly something I can set down and create a lake with. Not unless I just let it fill up a depression in the ground.”

“So a concept is a part of making a Tile, or can be. We could try digging, see what happens?” Komachi suggested.

“Digging and doing what?”

Komachi shrugged. “Letting the water fill up.”

“So make a muddy hole, is what you’re saying.”

Making the most of his downtime, while taking the occasional look around for any monsters or islands getting close to his group’s Skyshards, Sam went to work mending his gear.

Since he couldn’t wield the [Dullahan Greatsword] just yet, despite how badly he wanted to, he took care of the [Charred Claymore] first.

After pulling his [Gear Tool Set] out of his Inventory, Sam inspected the blade closely.

“Wow, this weapon is barely holding itself together.”

“Looks fine to me, what’cha mean?”

Sam pointed out the nicks in blade’s edge, and the collection of fractures running alongside the fuller. For a moment, his eyes could see cracks of green mana, showing him just how thoroughly worn the weapon was.

He could just barely see beneath the metal’s surface, where the durability was further weakened.

Huh, what was that?

He strained, trying to conjure the effect again, but it didn’t highlight his vision again.

Sam grumbled and gave up for now. He had repairs to make. Not just in the thoroughly damaged [Charred Claymore], but in the rest of his gear, too.

The work was mundane and, some might say it was tedious, but Sam found an odd sort of comfort in the simplicity of the maintenance.

He couldn’t reforge or repair the deeper damage, but he mended what he could. Eventually, despite his ministrations, the blade would break.

It could be a week, a month, or a year, but it would. He was dead certain, even if he didn’t know how he was so confident.

If he had a forge or access to a blacksmith of some sort, they could deal with the deeper repairs that were needed. For the time being, Sam patched up the sword as best he could and was rewarded with a skill up for his efforts.

Your [Basic Maintenance] Skill has reached (☆ Primitive IV).

Sam felt rather pleased with himself. Two tiers just from fixing his sword to a usable state? Not bad at all.

Just from repairing his sword, he was able to increase his skill. He wondered what more he could gain from maintaining the Thanas armor.

Though the claymore was a comparatively basic piece of equipment, it was more thoroughly damaged than anything else. The damage both Void and Chaos mana had done to it was deep.

Is there some way I could use that to my advantage in a fight? With [Smother], wouldn’t I be able to create an area that Raiko could infuse with Chaos mana, causing the entire space to explode violently, like our weapons did?

He wasn’t sure it would work like that. The amount of mana involved was very different, after all.

And the danger to those nearby—including himself and Raiko—was too great. The amount of Chaos and Void mana that had been wielded was tiny by comparison. It’d be like a stick of TNT versus a nuke.

Sam stripped off his gauntlets and looked them over. While not as badly damaged as the [Charred Claymore], they bore a number of deep nicks and cuts that would widen if he didn’t do something about them.

His tools had several pastes and polishes that he could use to bring it back to near mint condition, but it wasn’t as straightforward as maintaining his weapon.

Armor was a different kind of beast entirely. With all those plates and straps of leather, it was quite a lot to work on.

Still, Sam was undaunted, and he got to work immediately. Piece after piece of the Thanas set was set aside, oiled, patched, polished, and cared for as if it was the most precious thing in the world to him.

Considering it had saved not just his life, but Komachi’s, Kai’s, Matt’s, and of course Raiko’s as well, perhaps it was.

Without consciously meaning to, mana seeped from his fingers and into the tools he used to work on the equipment. It seemed to lend them slightly more effectiveness, suffusing with the armor, restoring it a little closer to its previous unbroken state.

Another skill up greeted him upon completion, bringing a smile to his face. It was nice to get rewarded for just doing something. There was no danger. No threat of death or anything like that. And yet he was still getting measurable progress.

It felt good.

Your [Basic Maintenance] Skill has reached (★ Common).

No further knowledge seemed to pop into his head, but just out of curiosity, Sam pulled out the [Charred Claymore].

The green lines, the fractures deep within the metal, were there again. Not only that, but they were clear and vivid instead of ghostly and difficult to see.

He had, unfortunately, done all he could do for the weapon. He knew that much just looking at it with his newfound awareness.

There was little that he could do that he hadn’t already done. Maintenance was just surface level, after all. What the blade needed was a true craftsman.

It was a little sad seeing the weapon that had served him since the very beginning in such a sorry state, but what could he do?

Sam turned to Komachi. “Do you see these green lines, Komachi?”

“Nah, still don’t.” She paused in entertaining the mandragora with the soft music of her bell. “Seems like you got a connection to metal. I definitely don’t.”

“I do have Metal Affinity, but this seems… different.”

Just to be sure, Sam looked over the rest of his armor and was able to find a few minor imperfections that he could fix up. They were easy to miss, but with the green shining light to illuminate the weaknesses, Sam would have to be blind to miss them.

I could get used to something like this, he thought, wondering if this was how most Professions saw things.

With his equipment fully maintained, there was just one more thing to do. “All right, Komachi.” Sam held out a hand to her. “Give me your equipment. Might as well fix both of ours while I’m at it.”