Chapter 123: Book 2: Chapter 24

Chapter 24

 

The militia squads were already busy at work looting and clearing away the dead mobs which were summarily dumped into the lake water. Sadly, we couldn’t dump the corpses on the ship and absorb them for that extra energy. They had to die on the ship for that to work. But they wouldn’t befoul the bay area permanently. The dead mobs would dissipate in a few hours after they were looted.

“Hey there, Torin,” Tommy Collins called out and jogged cheerfully over to me, waving enthusiastically.

A simple glare from LT who was standing at my shoulder had Tommy stumble in his stride and the smile faded from his face.

“Um, uh, I mean, uh, hello, Captain?” he stuttered and made an unsure saluting gesture.

It was a struggle, but I managed to keep a straight face. Anastasia made no such effort, and her snorted chortle was heard by everyone on the dock and Tommy’s cheeks reddened with embarrassment.

Tommy was in much better physical shape since we’d first run Anastasia’s dungeon together. A month of nutritious food, no junk, and plenty of exercise had helped shed most of the pudge. He had a way to go before you could describe him as being fit and in shape, but he would get there sooner rather than later.

Even in a magical apocalypse weight loss takes time.

“Did you have anything to report, Tommy?” I asked after a brief pause.

He scratched the top of his head. “Not really…uh, Captain. We killed all the fish guys that came out of the water.”

“I noticed. Your team did a good job, Tommy. Probably you best get back to your squad before your sergeant thinks you’re slacking.”

By this point, Carlos, and D-Ball, had spotted Tommy and wandered over behind him. I’d found out D-Ball’s real name was Diego Balkowski after analysing him. He had a Guatemalan mother and a Polish American father. His mum had passed a few years earlier and his dad never came home on the first night of integration, he was presumed dead.

They couldn’t be sure, though, he could have just taken off. Apparently, he and D-Ball had endured a somewhat adversarial relationship since his wife had died and D-Ball spent most of his time at Carlos’s house anyway.

All of Carlos’s family had made it through the early weeks and were back in Stormblade Harbour, including his sister, Rosa. She was a sweet girl and nothing like how that asshole Carl had described her. Which made me doubly glad I’d run the prick through back in the dungeon.

Carlos grabbed a hold of Tommy’s shoulders and urged him to come back with him. “Let’s not bother the captain, Tommy. We got shit to do.”

“Oh yeah, right. Um, bye then.” Tommy mumbled and let his two friends draw him away.

I’d not had many chances to spend time with any of Jackson’s friends, though I suspected he may have told Carlos a few things about the dungeon run. Carlos’ distrust of me was palpable, but it did seem as if he kept his own counsel on that front. He was a promising young recruit who had taken the Hexblade class, and I hoped he could get past his burgeoning suspicions of me. I’d hate to have to exile, or worse, kill him.

“Got a problem with authority, that one,” LT commented as they made their way back across the dock.

“What? Tommy?” Shana asked with some confusion.

“Nah, the other one. Carlos. He doesn’t like to take orders, nor the people that give ‘em. I can respect that, reminds me of me, but it can be a problem for an organisation if not properly managed.”

I nodded my agreement. “Keep an eye on him for me, will you. He is good friends with Jackson, and I don’t want any schism where his loyalty or happiness is concerned. Not if it can be easily avoided.”

“On it.”

“Thank you, LT.”

“Hey, LT,” Shana mused as if a thought had just occurred to her. “Why don’t you have a word with Amber over a meal or something and ask for her help? She’s in the militia too and very friendly with Jackson’s girlfriends, Britney and Celeste. She can listen in to all the gossip. Jackson is bound to tell the pair of them everything.”

“Thanks for the tip, Shana. I’m gonna get this lot started rounding up the collared goblins. I think I saw a few of them trying to hide out and lay low.”

With that, LT hustled away so he missed my pointed look, directed at my meddling lover. Who only mouthed what back at me and grinned impishly adopting an air of innocence.

“Am I missing something?” Fang Mei asked, having spotted the silent interplay between us.

“Ambers got the hots for LT in a bad way. Shana is not supposed to meddle,” Anastasia grunted while kicking a stone across the dock. The very image of a spoiled and bored schoolgirl in her uniform.

Shana walked over and hugged the small blonde from behind. “Are you still sore about the fomorians touching the ship? Is that why you are in such a foul mood.”

“No!”

“Really?”

“Okay, maybe a little. But more like, it’s kind of that time of the month, you know,” Anastasia confessed in a very low voice, barely a whisper.

I think she may have forgotten how keen my hearing was, but now that she mentioned it, I did feel a current of frustration coming from her via our bond.

“Uh, I’m not sure I understand,” Shana whispered back. “Aren’t you a gemstone now?”

“Yeah,” Anastasia huffed in frustration. “It’s like menstruation, but it isn’t. I’ve been feeling like something has been building up and needs to be released, but I’m not sure what. Maybe when I upgrade the ship it will go away.”

“Torin,” Shana called over to me. “Do you need us for anything?”

“I don’t think so,” I answered truthfully.

“Good. Anastasia and I are going back to the ship for some girl time. Get her mind off the fomorians. Fang Mei, you should come too.”

Shana practically frog-marched Ana back to the ship. Fang Mei looked up at me and I nodded, and then she skipped after them. And just like that, I was on my own.

Not for long, though.

I found myself a comfortable perch on a bunch of crates on the dockside while I oversaw the crew’s activity. Just as I was getting bored of watching forest goblins being rounded up and escorted into the bowels of the ship a familiar thin figure in a green cloak came racing towards me from the direction of the centre of Ludington.

Jackson stopped running as he reached me and bent over breathing heavily, his hands massaging his thighs. “Damn…I…uh…I need to work on my cardio. I don’t get any con bumps being a pyromancer,” he gasped.

I decided to overlook his lack of a proper greeting and give him a bit of good-natured ribbing instead. “Indeed, mate. You’re going to need your stamina if you want to keep your growing cheer section satisfied. If you know what I mean.” I said as suggestively as possible.

The rosiness in Jackson’s cheeks from the exercise darkened as it was replaced by a blush.

I clapped him on the back and chuckled loudly which engendered a reluctant smile from the target of my teasing.

“What got you running over here in such a hurry anyway? Anything wrong?”

“No, Captain. Nothing wrong,” he said hurriedly. “I wanted to let you know that we had reached the town limits and finished off any resistance. There are also more collared goblins than we expected. I think the fomorians may have captured another incoming cadre of them last night.”

“Good news for us. You didn’t have to run back to tell me that.”

“Ah, yeah. When I reported the outcome to LT a few minutes ago he mentioned he’d noticed you were at the docks by yourself. That the ladies had returned to the ship.”

“And you what? Charged over here to keep me company,” I asked, my tone amply conveying my scepticism that this was the reason.

“No. I wanted to ask you something…kind of privately. Shana tends to pry and get involved, and Anastasia would only make fun of me.”

“If you need a ‘birds and the bees’ talk, I think I will have to pass,” I joked.

“God damn it,” he grumped. “I know what I’m doing in the… you know…in the bedroom. You’re as bad as Ana.”

“I think we both know that’s not true. She would have gone straight to insinuating you couldn’t get it up.”

Jackson had been about to retort but he paused after digesting what I said. “Yeah, she probably would have.”

“So…what is that you did want?”

“Time off?” he asked a bit nervously.

I crossed my arms and gave the young man a stern business-like stare. “This isn’t a job, Jackson. There are no government mandated vacation days.”

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“I know. But I just need a few days. Maybe a week. Britney and Celeste are ready for their character do-overs, and I wanted to spend some time levelling them up afterwards. It’s been a month since I completed the Grace Nguyen and Alfred Willis dungeons, so I can run them through those and then we can spend a few days grinding mobs on the island.”

“What the hell, Jackson? How are they still level one Civilians? It’s been more than a month,” I snapped a little more harshly than I’d intended.

It boggled my mind that they had somehow not accrued the one thousand experience necessary to revisit their Framework representative. As an official faction, we had work quests regularly posted to the podium for non-combat classes. They should have been able to rack up the necessary XP in a week. Two at most.

I hadn’t been observing them very closely as I wanted to give Jackson the space to let his relationships develop naturally. But maybe I had been too lax. Had they been taking advantage of the situation to coast?

Jackson held his hands up to forestall anything else I might say. “I know what you are thinking, but they’ve not been taking advantage of my position to slack off. They’ve both been working very hard. It’s not a lack of experience that has kept them from switching over. I’ve been taking them through all the information we have about their options and, well…we may have had a few minor disagreements about which future development paths they should take.”

“Trouble in paradise?” I ribbed him, feeling much less hostile towards Jackson’s plea now.

“Nothing like that. Britney and Celeste, well, they were in favour of speaking to Shana and formalising our situation and wanted to take classes relevant…to…to that.”

“I need the details Jackson if I’m going to give your request proper consideration,” I told him.

I didn’t need the details at all, but this was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Jackson glared at me, and for a second, I thought he’d tell me to forget it and storm off, but then he relented. “Courtesan. They were going to take the Courtesan class.”

I knew all about the Courtesan class. A special kind of non-combat class that grants skills and abilities for pleasing a lover both physically and emotionally. The class also allowed the courtesan to gain experience for their successes in that arena.

“Wait a minute,” I said slowly. “Am I hearing you right? You’ve talked them out of choosing this? Is your brain fracked?”

“Yes, and no, my brain is fine. That’s why I wanted to talk to you without Shana around. If she found out, she’d likely intervene to try and change their minds back. It’s taken me a fortnight to talk them out of it.”

“You’re not wrong about how Shana would react. But why, Jackson?”

He pushed his lens-less glasses frame back up his nose and looked at me seriously. “What if it doesn’t work out between us? Everything is great, right now, but people and circumstances change. Fuck, I could be killed on the next raid. I don’t want them to be obligated to that kind of life when they could have other options.”

“People can change classes, Jackson,” I pointed out.

“That costs points, though. That is not an optimal choice for a character build,” he answered as if I’d just said clouds were made of porridge. “And it’s not like they need to have a relevant class to become my concubines. If that’s what they want. I’ll be happy whichever way they decide.”

“Alright. I get it. You’re looking out for their best interests instead of your own. That is very upstanding of you. Probably why they like you so much. What classes have you talked them into?”

“At first, I tried to sell them on taking combat classes. So that they could protect themselves better without me if the worst should happen.”

“I take it that suggestion went down like a lead balloon.”

“Yes. They understand that this world will likely require them to fight at some point. How could they not after what they went through? They are willing to do stuff like venturing into the dungeons I want to run them through, but they don’t want to make it a life choice. Something they had to rely upon for their growth.”

I grunted my understanding. Britney and Celeste weren’t the only ones to feel that way. You couldn’t make people stand on the front lines against their will.

Well, I could, but I wouldn’t unless there was literally no other choice. Reluctant soldiers are poor soldiers.

“What are they going for, then?”

“We think with Celeste’s background, she will be eligible for Baroness and if she has enough aptitude leftover will bump herself to become a Noble Human. Britney should be able to become a Wyldwood Elf with the Apothecary class. Apothecaries can use their mana to craft potions and pills for healing and buffs.”

I nodded sagely. I had to admit those would both be useful classes for the faction. As much as I wanted Jackson to get ahead in the bedroom gymnastics department, having the girls contribute to the Shattered Storm ultimately suited my aims more.

“And of course, if Celeste is a Baroness, you have an excuse to bring her along on missions so she can salvage abandoned podiums for us. Much like any fighting force could use an onboard apothecary to replenish their healing pellets and brew up something special to cure negative status ailments they might become afflicted with,” I said with a sly wink.

“That’s…That’s not…” Jackson stuttered and blushed crimson as he tried to wriggle out of the implications of my astute observation.

That may not have been the rationale behind Jackson’s recommendations, but I could practically guarantee Britney had thought of it. I couldn’t help but laugh heartily as the same realisation befell Jackson and he started to connect the dots which led to Celeste and Britney sharing his cabin on Marena’s Mercy whenever he left port in the future.

There would be no hiding that from the rest of the crew. Any hopes he may have had of keeping his polyamorous relationship on the down low were rapidly fading.

Jackson’s sudden discomfort had caught the attention of his Ionian friends and Carlos stared over at me suspiciously. It had to be kismet, as a commonality of purpose occurred to me.

“Shore leave for one week granted,” I told him with sudden seriousness.

It had never really been an issue. Marena’s Mercy would be out of action tomorrow anyway.

After that, we were on ferry duty for a day or two. Once Anastasia had confirmed she could upgrade the ship I’d sent a message to Manistee with an offer to save them for the low-low price of 250,000 gold. At first, they tried to claim they didn’t have that much, but when you have an imp who had interfaced with their podium on our earlier visit and snooped about, you could confidently call bullshit. They hadn’t accepted by the time we left for Ludington, but they would. They didn’t really have a choice.

“As an added extra I’m going to assign Amber to help with their levelling for the week. Let them all reconnect and mend any broken bridges.”

Of course, part of my motivation came from the earlier conversation with LT about monitoring Carlos and his influence over Jackson.

“Um…Thanks, I guess. You do know Amber doesn’t like me much.”

“She’s mellowing out,” I told him.

Jackson eyed me doubtfully.

“Gradually,” I sighed after a brief pause, which elicited a knowing smile from Jackson.

I spent a few more minutes shooting the breeze with Jackson before he wandered off to spend a bit of time with his friends who by now had finished the clean-up of the dock area.

We spent the better part of the rest of the day in Ludington. Thoroughly looting the place of everything we could get our hands on.

This included any materials that could be used in sturdy construction like timber and brick. Basically, what we discovered was that despite the materials the goblins had used in their building work not been mana infused, by dint of the structures being constructed by a mob they became so.

There were a few non-combat classes that could have the same effect on naturally occurring materials. Masons, Carpenters, Builders, etc.

Quixbix tried to explain how this happened. His explanation didn’t make a lot of sense, but it had something to do with drawing in ambient mana as they worked and accelerating the natural infusion process. There were a lot of factors involved in how successful they would be including the size and density of the materials in question.

Living things naturally absorbed some of the ambient mana over time. In a few years, a decade at most, all the surviving fauna and flora on Earth would have reached a balanced saturation point. Any materials made from them would already be compatible with mana usage.

Non-living things, on the other hand, took much longer and needed to be exposed to the ambient mana in the atmosphere. Which meant the denser and deeper the material, the slower the absorption, until it halted completely. Even on planets that had become part of the Darkwyrlds at the beginning, balanced mana saturation had only penetrated perhaps a metre into solid rock and ten or eleven metres into the soil.

This meant anything we built with Earth-sourced materials, during the first few years at least, would be somewhat lacking in the durability department.

There were buildings that received Framework protections like schools, prisons, and some recognised institutions like the BuyMart. These buildings had essentially been force-fed mana by the Framework and had Darkwyrlds levels of durability and often shielding of some variety. Everything else though was much more vulnerable. Unless you bought directly from the Framework or were granted buildings as I was.

This was important as the scripted proscriptions that barred mobs from forcing their way in declined further with every day that passed. In the first week, something as simple as closing the windows would have kept them out.

No longer.

A coastline of deserted towns spoke as a testament to that. However, soon they wouldn’t just be breaking through glass, plywood, and snapping door chains, but actively attacking stone and metallic barriers. That’s when you needed some real durability in your defences to keep your citizens safe.

Quixbix’s comments about the slave markets who risked dealing with mobs in order to get their hands on collared goblins began to make sense.

The goblins we had collected were of the forest subtype, so they worked best with timber. Their infusion capability was not limited to wood, but like many abilities, it utilised their inherent mana pool. When the pool was exhausted, so were they, until it was replenished. For the forest goblins, wooden materials used up less of their available mana, so it would stretch further before they needed to recharge for a day or two. They could also reinforce wood that had already been infused either by them or naturally to make it more durable.

Mountain goblins were the most sought after and attracted the highest price with their affinity for stone, but we didn’t have any known locations for that goblin subtype. Nevertheless, Ludington was now a place of importance for my future plans. The forest goblin spawning crystal was somewhere to the East in the Manistee National Forest.

There was no rush to lock the place down, though. Ludington was exceedingly remote by the new Darkwyrlds standard. Muskegon to the south was forty miles away and Manistee to the north which was a few miles closer would soon be evacuated and empty. Anywhere else was simply too small to count even if they did have some people holding out there.

We would be back once the goblin population had a chance to recover

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