Chapter 62: Sixty

“Damn, sis, when did you make dynamite?” My brother asked as we jogged to catch up to our departing guild members. 

“It’s not dynamite.” I informed him with a broad grin. 

“What is it then?” 

“Just something I mixed up in the lab.” I said evasively, grimacing slightly as I remembered the fire that had swept through my lab and consumed my last Firestone, leaving nothing behind. 

Such a waste. 

The explosives I’d used, had been created during my experiments with the fragmented remains of a Firestone. I’d been trying to break up one of the stones with a hammer, having had the idea to make smaller stones that I could use like Bunsen burners. When I’d slammed my brothers forging hammer down onto the Firestone, it exploded with such force that I died before I could even comprehend what was happening. 

After reviving, I gathered up all the fragments, and found that inside the Firestone were smaller crystals which had formed in the hollowed center of the stone. The crystals were fragile, and crumbled easily with the slightest bit of pressure, leaving behind a fine red powder. 

This powder was extremely volatile, and I’d almost killed myself again when trying to ignite it with the fire poker. Any contact with mana would cause the powder to explode, as would contact with heat or fire. Mixing this Firestone powder with charcoal, saltpeter, and sulfur resulted in a working black powder mixture, though a very weak one. While mixing the crystal powder into the mixture of saltpeter and sugar to make smoke bombs had resulted in a smoke bomb that released a loud explosive sound. Similar to that produced by a flash bomb, just without the flash. 

The ‘Not for Tink’ sticks, as Noctus jokingly called them, had come about when I’d mixed the fire stone powder with saltpeter and sugar, but instead of cooking it as I did with the smoke bombs, added water to create a syrupy substance. Then under the watchful guidance of Zosimos, I dipped cotton strings into the mixture, where they formed tiny red crystalline granules on the string. After scraping off the crystals, I packed them into a vellum tube with a mixture of powdered sugar, before sealing the tube with wax to form an airtight seal. 

 As the need for more firestones became much more prevalent with my discovery of ‘red powder’. It had been decided that instead of a single team hunting fire drakes, we would take several of the training teams from the encampment under the guise of training, in order to increase our supply of the Firestones. I’d used all the Firestone powder I collected from the one I’d destroyed making as many ‘Not for Tink’ sticks as possible. If I’d had more of the red powder, I was sure I’d be able to incorporate it with the Drakus flower oil somehow, to make a much better fireball. But I was loath to pull apart the sticks I’d already made to steal the red crystals out of them. 

Our guild's departure through the settlement was subject to more than a few wide-eyed looks, but we kept our heads high as we left behind a pile of rubble. 

“I reckon we’ll be seeing a bit of trouble from The Primordial Brotherhood from here on out.” Roderick commented as we strode past the line of gathered guild members to the front of the group. 

I’d seen my team amongst the gathered guild members, but when I moved to rejoin them, Darius had shaken his head, gesturing for me to remain with the commanders. 

“Is that who those guys were? That’s an interesting name they’ve chosen for themselves.” I snorted, glancing back towards the settlement. 

“They’re a newly formed guild of only players who’ve been getting a strong reputation as swords for hire.” Corvus informed me.

“I was kind of hoping I’d kill a few of them in the explosion, but I guess they survived.” I said with a sigh, ears drooping as I thought about all the power I could have gotten from killing those men. 

“I’m sure you killed most, if not all of them.” The lion assured me in a low murmur, as Darius moved to stand in front of the gathered crowd.

“I didn’t feel the rush of power I normally do when I kill something though.” 

“That could be due to two factors, which would be your distance from them when they died, or that it was an indirect kill.” Corvus responded, and I nodded, not verbally responding as Darius began addressing the gathered guild. 

So, bombing a building or city won’t give me a mega power boost. Good to know. I mentally noted, crossing that off from my list of ways to increase my strength in the fastest and easiest way possible. 

Why did Darius want me standing here with the commanders? I’m only a craftsman, which is the equivalent to a knight when compared to those of the fighter ranks. I’m nowhere near the point where I should be standing here. I thought as I edged slightly behind my brother's large form, while Darius spoke about claiming land outside the settlement. 

Once Darius finished addressing the gathered guild members, he called for Conrad to join us. After speaking with the water mage in a low voice for a few moments, began a long trek across the desert. For almost half an hour we walked in the dungeon's direction, before Darius turned to the left and led us in that direction for another ten minutes. 

“Here,” Conrad said, and Darius stopped walking. 

“How far down?” The guild leader asked.

“A thousand feet give or take.” 

“Kads, can you dig that far?” Darius asked, looking over at me and I shrugged, having absolutely no idea what either of them was talking about. 

“Maybe if I know why, and what I’m meant to be digging.” I grumbled in annoyance, feeling frustrated by the heat of the desert and the fact that I hadn’t been able to ride Arion, as he’d been turned into a pack horse carrying bags of supplies.

“The aquifer that feeds the oasis is a thousand feet below us,” Conrad explained, pointing a finger down at the ground. “I’ve been scouting the area around the settlement, and beyond this point the aquifer is much further down.” 

“What about closer to the settlement and the oasis? Wouldn’t it be closer to the surface there?” 

“It’s about the same, the oasis was artificially made by the dwarven earth mages and a druid the Whispers hired.” The water mage explained, and I nodded, staring down at the dirt beneath my feet. 

“It’ll take me weeks to dig that deep,” I said with a sigh. “Just building the wall took me all night.” 

“The wall only took you two hours,” Corvus corrected. “Most of the time you were just sitting around waiting for your core to refill.” 

“It still took me all night, because I can only use my transmutation magic for about ten minutes before I drain my core. I’m only able to last that long due to it being a basic level transmutation, which is changing the stone to something it’s already close to on a molecular level.” 

“If we were feeding you could you do it faster?” Darius asked, and I sent a questioning look in his direction. 

“How is eating going to make my core refill faster? Bron said he hasn't discovered any food that gives buffs.” I responded skeptically. 

“He means feeding you mana, Kads.” Markion said with a chuckle. 

“Explain.”

“Mages can feed each other mana, similar to how you would absorb mana from a slain foe, but in this scenario you would be absorbing mana we’ve willingly released from our core.” The high elf water mage informed me.

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“Think of it like a magical battery pack, you use the other mage's mana to fuel your spells, and when they run low, swap 'em out for a fresh one.” My brother added.

“I didn’t need you to dumb it down for me,” I grumbled, annoyed that he’d guessed that I’d been struggling to understand how what Conrad was explaining would help me dig the well. 

“How many mages do we have that can keep Kadia going?” Roderick asked, looking at Corvus. 

“We’ve got twelve, if we time it right we can have enough time for the first to recover by the time she burns through the last.” 

“Can we put some tents up before we continue this conversation?” I whined, undoing my water flask as the commanders began talking about what order to set the mages up in.

“I’m sure everyone else is hot as well.” I added, jerking a thumb over my shoulder to the nearly eighty people staring at us, waiting for some kind of orders from the officers. 

As Darius gave orders for tents to be pitched, and the commanders split up to oversee the setting up of the new encampment, I headed to find my team. 

“Kip, time to earn your keep.” I called out as I spotted my team heading towards me. 

“Oh, are we pimping him out for coin? Cause I know a few chicks who’d be interested, so long as we gag him first. He ruins his good looks the moment he opens his mouth.” Pia asked excitedly, pulling a strange-looking ball with leather straps attached from the pouch at her waist and waving it around in the air. 

“What? No,” I spluttered, at the same time Victoria smacked Pia over the back of the head, almost sending the Faun face first into the sand. 

“What’d you need, Foxy?” Kip asked, sending a glare towards the Faun before turning his attention to me. 

“I need you to help me broker payment,” I informed the Dwarf, who looked like I’d just told him he’d won the lottery. 

“Payment you say?” Kip drawled, twisting his braided mustache around a finger. “I might be able to assist with such a task.” 

“Consider this a test, do well, and I’ll give you a few things to sell that even Darius isn’t aware of yet.” 

“Jeez, Foxy, don’t say stuff like that to him in public. He’s about to cream his, oomph, ow, Vicky.” Pia whined, rubbing her head with a pout. 

“Cream his, what? Oh, that’s gross, Pia.” I exclaimed, my already sunburnt face burning even more, when I realized what the Faun had been insinuating. 

“It’s best to just ignore her when she’s like this.” Rainy said, letting out a sigh. 

“Right, well, my brother said we can bunk in his tent until we’ve got somewhere else to sleep.” I told them, moving to take Arion’s reins from Victoria. 

After leading my team to where Markion was pitching his tent, I introduced them all to my brother, who’d only met them in passing the previous day when we’d been leaving the settlement for the dungeon. Once the tent was pitched, and we’d set our bags inside, Rainy, Victoria and Pia left to take the horses to where a pen was being set up. 

This left Kip, Markion and myself to work out the sleeping arrangements in my brother's tent, which was difficult considering Markion and Victoria were both larger than a normal person. Though, Victoria's six foot eight frame wasn’t quite as large as my brother, who was just over eight feet, not counting the horns.

As I argued with Markion over who would sleep where, and tersely informed him I’d be smothering him in his sleep if he snored as loudly here as he did in the real world, someone called out from the entrance of the tent. 

“Excuse me,” called a leather clad woman who I vaguely recognize. 

“Craft Master Kadia?” She asked, and I blinked in surprise. 

“Er, it’s Craftsman actually.” I informed her, and she returned my surprised look with one of her own. 

“The guild leader requests your presence in the command tent.” The woman told me. 

In response, I looked at Kip who stood from where he’d been kneeling in front of a saddle bag. Smoothing out his shirt, and running a hand over his hair, the dwarf nodded to himself before striding over to me. 

“Let's go get ourselves some coin shall we?” He asked, a broad grin on his face. 

“Mana crystals.” I corrected, and he chuckled, giving me a wink. 

“No reason we can’t have both.” 

“I don’t want the guilds gold Kip, it’s needed to prepare for future endeavors. We’ll make gold elsewhere,” I told him as we left the tent. 

“Ah, fine, but don’t tell them that. Let them think they’re getting a good deal giving you the crystals and not gold.” Kip coached in a low voice as we followed the female guard to the command tent. 

Reaching the tent, I saw Darius, Corvus and Roderick already inside waiting for us. I wasn’t surprised Markion wouldn’t be joining the meeting, even though he was a guild commander, and one of its founding members, my brother preferred to stay away from the administrative side of things. 

“Guild Leader, Commanders.” I greeted formally, as I entered with Kip following just behind me.

“Craft-Master Kadia,” Darius responded, looking a little amused by the formal greeting. His amusement only grew when I was unable to conceal my surprise at his using a much higher rank to address me. 

Since when did I get promoted to Craft-Master? And what happened to the Journeyman rank in-between Craftsman and Master? 

“This is Kip Kirkland, my financial advisor.” I informed them, gesturing to Kip who gave a little half bow. 

“Good day to you officers,” Kip greeted as he rose from his bow. “Shall we get down to business?”