Blood Shaper

Book 2: Chapter 44

Kay glanced around the basement that had been built under his office. “When did this get put in?”

“Yesterday,” Eleniah answered as she climbed down the ladder behind him and nudged him out of the way. “Darten made it as kind of a temporary vault for us. Once we actually have a need for a real vault, we’ll make one, but for now, a hard-to-get basement somewhat hidden under a building most people don’t need to go to is fine. It’s not like we have anything that’s worth stealing yet.”

“Why did we come down here then?”

Eleniah held up a familiar-looking brown leather pouch. “Neither of us has anything better to do after the last few days, so I thought we could finally go through our ill-gotten loot.”

“Is that the dimensional bag I sort of stole from the Nelamians?”

“Yeah. Want to see what’s in it, finally?”

“Of course I do!”

Eleniah grinned at him and turned the bag upside down.

“Wait, what are you doing?”

She sighed and shook her head. “That memory skill you got really isn’t perfect. First, you don’t remember talking about Dungeons; now you forget this. We don’t know everything that’s inside the bag, so we have to empty it out completely.”

Kay sidled over to the ladder and hoisted himself up a rung. “Cool, cool. And when we get crushed by a giant wave of random items?”

“This bag can’t hold that much,” She rolled her eyes at him. “I’ve done this before. I’m not going to get us hurt or anything.”

“Alright…” Kay stepped back down and gestured at her to continue. “Go ahead.”

She snorted dismissively and shook the bag a few times like she was trying to get a single coin out of it without reaching inside. It flopped in her hands, then suddenly, the mouth of the bag opened wide as the bag stiffened and inflated to its full size. With the tingling sounds of coins hitting the floor and each other, a wave of metal dropped out of the bag and started to flow across the floor.

Kay stepped back and danced his way across the growing pile of coins and random items that flowed out of the bag and started to fill the bottom of the room. With some difficulty and the help of his Sure Footing Skill, Kay managed to stay on top of the wave. Eleniah just held still, and by the time the bag emptied itself out and became limp in her grasp again, the pile of money and things came halfway up her shins.

Kay looked around the room and marveled, agog, at the amount of money he was looking at. “Holy shit.”

“Mostly copper,” Eleniah commented as she pulled her legs free of the coins. “Then silver and gold in the proportions I expected. Mostly bribe money, I’d say.”

“Huh?” Kay took a closer look and saw that in the light of the lightstones set in the ceiling, most of the coins were copper, with a few lumps of silver and the occasional glint of gold. “You’re right… That’s still a lot of money, though.”

“Yeah, totally. I was just wondering if my cousin’s spy managed to get the Nelamian’s actual treasury or if she got the money they didn’t want anyone tracing. Looking at the makeup, I’d say this is the bribe money.” She reached down and grabbed a handful of coins. “A copper here, a copper there, and then eventually you have a sizable bribe that no one is actually going to work too hard looking into if they don’t already have a good reason. Who cares about coppers and the occasional silver? That’s normal people’s money. The powerful people and any decent adventurer works in gold.” She let the coins fall from her hands and grinned at him, “And now we have a sizable starting treasury.”

“Won’t they come after us for this?”

“Probably, not unless one of these items mixed in is more valuable than I think they would be. This would be the stuff that they were going to give away as bribes, so they already accounted for not having it at some point, and they can’t know for sure that we have it.”

“I don’t think all of that logic tracks.”

Eleniah shrugged. “I don’t think they’ll come for us. There’s a chance I’m wrong since we kind of fucked up their plans and also have their money, but most groups acting on a national level don’t go for petty revenge. We provided them a minor setback at worst.” She shrugged again, “If they do come for us, we deal with it then. We’re already building walls and other defenses, so what else can we do?”

Kay sighed and nodded, “You’re right. I’m just being a bit paranoid.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that as long as you don’t let it get in the way of life.” She grabbed a necklace from the pile and held it up. “Start grabbing stuff, and we’ll see what we got.”

Everything Kay pulled out was mundane non-magical jewelry, small sculptures, and other valuable items useful for bribery. Eleniah found a couple of enchanted pieces, but they were minor things like making you slightly more attractive or decreasing bad breath. Shifting through handfuls of coins that he dumped back into the dimensional bag, his fingers touched another larger than money-sized item hidden beneath a layer of coinage. He fished it out and held it in the palm of his hand as he started using Analyze on it. At the same moment that his Analyze attempt got rejected by the item’s own magic, he noticed a small piece of paper attached to it.

“I’ve got something magic here, and it’s got a note on it,” He informed Eleniah as he pulled the note free and opened it up.

“What’s it say?”

“’ Dear Teacher, by the time you empty out the bag and find this, my people should have successfully convinced both factions of Nelamians that the other faction stole it. Please bring it home when you get the chance. With love, your best student.’ Is this from your cousin?”

Eleniah waded her way over and took the note, “Based on the contents, I’d say yes… Yup, that’s her handwriting. Someone might have written it for her, but this has some of the little secret marks she uses to mark it as authentic, so it’s from her.” She tossed the note aside and peered at the item with an interesting look. “So what item did she go to all the trouble of having stolen that I’m totally never giving to her?” It was a small, thin piece of flattened metal in the shape of a perfect square. Kay held it up for her to see, and she stiffened. “It can’t be…” She breathed out quietly. Her eyes narrowed, and Kay knew that she was using Identify on it. After a moment, Eleniah leaned back, her eyes shocked, but a grin spread across her face. “Damn, it really is.”

“What is it?”

Still blinking and staring at the item, she waved her hand in Kay’s direction and used her class ability to share the information with him.

[————————————————————]

Crest Plate

- One of the different kinds of items that can grant Noble Titles, crest plates are some of the more common ones, although that is only in comparison to the rarity of other kinds of Noble Title items. Crest plates evolve over time as the Title Holders Title and Classes do, forming a personal crest based on the individual Holder.

[————————————————————]

Kay stared down at the plate in his hand with eyes even wider than Eleniah’s. “Isn’t this the kind of item people fight over?”

“And kill for.” She whispered. “The Nelamians must have brought it over to use as the ultimate bribe for whoever they used to rule Tumbling Rapids. It’s a perfect idea; it would make the person they selected incredibly loyal to them both because they gave them the Noble Title and because they’d have to rely on Nelam to help protect their new Title. And it would cement Nelamian rule through the fealty oath they’d make the person take in exchange for it.”

“What do we do with it?”

Eleniah glanced up at him with wild eyes, “What do you mean? You use it right now! Getting you a Noble Title is at the top of the ‘Things we want to happen list’!”

“But doesn’t your cousin expect you to-”

“I literally said that I wasn’t going to give it to her when I thought it wasn’t this important. We’re not giving it up now!” She grabbed his arm and squeezed it. “This is good for you, and for us as a settlement in a lot of ways, and the only downsides that come with it are the same downsides there always would be no matter the source of the item. People want them and might show up trying to take it. The fact that it’s Nelam and my cousin only means that we have more information than someone normally would about potential threats. Use it!”

Kay stared down at the plate and started to will his mana into it to claim it. Right before he did, a feeling washed over him, and he stopped immediately. Something was missing. Or, no… This could be better, somehow? Following the feeling by instinct, he reached in his pouch and pulled out the Unknown Bloodstone. He’d managed to play with it a bit over the last few days, but he hadn’t figured anything out about it yet. He used his magic to unfold it and turn it liquid, where he floated it over to hover over the plate.

“What are you doing?”

“I think… I think this is from the Class Line Progenitor Title. It says that it gives hints towards other Class paths, right?” He manipulated the green and copper blood to cover the plate and engulf it. “I think…” Kay used Meld Blood. The blood from an unknown magical creature shivered, and then it sunk into the plate. The plate turned from a simple copper color to the same green and copper mix as the blood, and it shimmered back and forth in the light.

“What…” Eleniah leaned forward and started to Identify it, and Kay followed suit.

[————————————————————]

Sanguine Crest Plate

- One of the different kinds of items that can grant Noble Titles, crest plates are some of the more common ones, although that is only in comparison to the rarity of other kinds of Noble Title items. Crest plates evolve over time as the Title Holders Title and Classes do, forming a personal crest based on the individual Holder. This crest plate has been enhanced through melding with the blood of a powerful unknown magical creature. It will have effects on the Holder that differ from that of regular crest plates and may affect their Title and Class.

[————————————————————]

“Well, that confirms it.” Eleniah muttered, “It’s definitely going to do something interesting related to what Class you get from it.”

The feeling gone, Kay started to push mana into the changed crest plate. The surface of it shimmered and danced as he started to claim it. It began to shine dimly, and then the shine vanished, and in the center of the plate was the outline of a shield, etched in black, with a single deep red drop of blood in the center of it.

[~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]

- Noble Title Claimed!

- Based on your current holdings and followers, Title: Blood Mayor Gained!

- New Class!

-Class: Blood Mayor Gained!

- Please name your holding: Unnamed Village

[~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]

Kay snorted after reading his notifications. “I’m a Blood Mayor.”

Eleniah giggled. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

“That sounds dumb.”

“A little, yeah. Anyway, it wants me to name the village.”

“Got any ideas? I know you got a bunch of suggestions from everyone.”

“I have one… It might be a little selfish to choose, though.”

Eleniah stepped around piles of money and wrapped her arm around his shoulder, “So? Be selfish sometimes.”

“I was thinking… Do you remember I told you about those legends from back home that I told you about, Kind Arthur? The ones my sister loved?”

She smirked at him, “I remember.”

Kay rolled his eyes, “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. I was in the middle of a magical contest of wills with a literal madman, and I had a bit of an embarrassing thought based on my love for my family and my desire not to lose. So funny.”

“I’m glad you see things my way,” Eleniah laughed.

“So! In the legends, at the end, when Arthur is dying, in a lot of versions, we’re told he doesn’t die; he just gets whisked off to some far-off land where he waits until his people need him again. My sister loved those stories, and I do too, and there’s a lot of symbolism that I really like there, with both the other world thing, and my name, and leadership and the kind of leader I want to be, so…” He focused on the notification asking for a name, “So, I’m Blood Mayor Kay of Avalon.”

With a small “ding!” noise, the notification vanished.

Eleniah nodded appreciatively and said something, but Kay couldn’t hear it over the sudden raucous fanfare in his ears. Trumpets and drums and cheering voices deafened him enough that he took a step back and stumbled on coins that slid around his feet.

╠═══════════════════════════╣

System Quest!

Become an Administrator!

Requirements:

1) Gain System Access (Any Level) (√)

2) Gain the Interest of a current Administrator (√)

3) Reach Tier Ten ( )

4) ??? ( )

5) ??? ( )

*This System Quest cannot be shared or talked about with others that do not have the same System Quest

╠═══════════════════════════╣

Kay stared at the brand new, gold-edged dialog box in confusion as he read it over. Why was it just popping up now? Why not earlier when he’d gotten the first step done? What the fuck? He read it over several times until he finally heard Eleniah calling his name.

“Kay! What the fuck happened!?”

He opened his mouth to tell her about the System Quest, and nothing came out of his mouth. He tried again, and there was no sound. He stopped and reread the last line. “I… can’t talk about it. The System won’t let me. Oh good, I can tell you that.”

“What!?”

“Don’t freak out; it’s nothing bad; I think it’s just supposed to be secret.” He read it over again, then dismissed it and went over to Eleniah to comfort her. “Sorry, weird shit just keeps happening to me. Cindy’s supposed to be the main character here, not me.”

“If I didn’t already know it was a confirmation bias thing, I’d say the Outworlder Curse is real.” She complained before punching him lightly in the arm. “Stop making me worry about you!”

“Sorry. I didn’t actually do anything, though.”

“Still!”

Kay apologized a few more times while she complained, and eventually, she calmed down.

“Can you tell me anything about it?”

“It’s an answer to a question… And also a goal, I think. A reason to get stronger.”

“Huh.”

“Yeah… You know what?” Kay pocketed the Sanguine Crest Plate and gestured towards the ladder. “We’re the in-charge people now; let’s get a lackey to clean this up and count our spoils.”

Eleniah laughed and followed him up and out of the basement area. “And what do you plan to do instead, Mister Blood Mayor?”

“I’ve been talking to Senik, and I think that we managed to get a good enough recipe for pizza, plus some of the new people helped Darten make a stone oven for it. I say we go have a celebratory lunch of food from my world and tell everyone the good news.”

“That sounds awesome!” Eleniah smiled at him, and they started walking towards the eating hall.

Kay opened the System Quest again as they walked, then immediately dismissed it again. There would be time for that. Hell, he was tier four now; there would be a lot of time for a lot of things. Plus, with reaching tier ten as one of the requirements, that System Quest would take a lifetime to complete or even several.

As they walked, Kay glanced around at the village of Avalon that was growing even then. You know, with how long I’m going to live, I might have enough time to complete more than one life’s work. He grinned when he saw the eating hall and sped up a little. Like spreading Earth food across Torotia!

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