Part 1 - Unicy’s Death Threat

 

“Hey *$%(#.” In the haze, a familiar voice rang out to the floating Urist. 

“What?” Confused Urist called out looking around trying to find the source only to see static and black clouds around him.

“Don’t forget about us ok?” 

“What are you talking about?”

“You must…” Before the voice could finish the static and clouds scattered from the sharp pain to his head.

Waking up from the dream Urist rubbed his eyes and sat up. He found out why his head had a dull pain seeing that Yri had elbowed him in the face. 

This cave entrance is getting too crowded for my taste. It was fine when we only have ten but with the new migrants, we’ll need to expand soon.

I hope today we get a miner so I don’t have to spend points, just in case we need it for other things. Heading to the back of the cave Urist yawned and slapped his face, it was time to greet the new dwarfs.

Walking to the back of the cave four dwarfs sat around, drinking water and eating some dried fish. Urist had these placed here since the dwarfs that came before told him they were quite hungry and thirsty coming out.

Weird this time they are not standing like dolls. No one came to greet them. Was it because of the food and water this time? I mean they are still silent and not talking. Their gaze is expressionless so they must still be in a daze like the ones that came before them. Tomorrow I’ll take away the food and water and see how they react for now let’s see what they can do. 

Finishing his assessment Urist walked into the room and greeted the dwarfs. He watched intently as the haze in their eyes disappeared and their eyes began shining. They all stood up and began to ask him the usual questions to which he responded one by one. When all the questions and introductions were out of the way. Urist explained to the dwarfs that this was their new home for the foreseeable future.

Tänzer the Dancer, Roche the Miner, Saera the Carpenter, and Unicy the Huntress. Going to the armament stone Urist was curious about what skills the dwarfs had. First, the male dancer Tänzer was a pretty boy with a beauty mark under his eye. He had short flaming red hair and deep ocean colored eyes, he was also the tallest dwarf in the group standing at 5ft. 2in.

Urist didn’t know how to feel about a man that looked like a girl dancing. He wasn’t into that sort of play and read over his skills. As a dancer, he had a slot alignment of 1: H 3: B 3: L and his personality was carefree or for a better term an airhead. 

Still, he was quite interested in the dancer's skills which had Leg strengthening, Body charm, Quick movement, and Dance were some of the more special skills. Urist wondered what leg strengthening would do so he asked Tänzer to equip it and show what he could later after integrating the skill.

Moving onto Roche who was a miner that Urist was quite happy to receive with his help they could expand the tunnels. Checking his skills out Urist found that he had a 3: H 3: B 1: L skill set and he had a stoic personality that didn’t say many words. 

His personality matched his looks being short and heavy built with black hair and gruff bread. His eyes were a deep black and his face was quite average. 

He job skills were Ore Sight, Danger Sight, Night Vision, Stamina Increase, and Oxygen Store. Just reading the skills definitions were something to behold making Urist grab Roche's shoulders.

"We will be counting on you, Roche."

"Eh? Ah. Yes, Boss, I wish not to disappoint."

Moving over to Saera, Urist noticed that she had the same slot alignment as Roche. Unlike Roche though she was built quite well and wasn't a heavy figure. She had a tan going on and her hair was like seaweed black as night and her eyes were a blue color. She had an above-average face and seemed her hands were itching to get to work.

The skills she had was thus; Design Sight, Material Sight, Nimble Hands, and Steady Hands. Reading over the abilities Design sight could project a 3D image in the person's mind to see the finished product. 

The material sight could check the grade of the material, Nimble and Steady hands helped her to craft objects. Reading over her skills she would work perfectly together with Roche to help plan the caves expansion.

"We will also be counting on Saera!"

"Understood Boss! But... What is our work you need us to do?"

Unlike Roche, Saera got straight to the problem to which Urist smiled and replied.

"Our home needs expansion! I hope you two can work together and make the expansion safe!"

Now understanding the job the dwarfs were at ease and nodded their heads.

"Understood Boss!"

With that dealt, Urist turned to the final dwarf Unicy the huntress. As the name implies she was a dwarf with the hunter job, knowing how to hunt and set taps up and she had the tracking skill. Her skill slot even had one extra in the head. 

Looking at her appearance she looked unlike the others as she wore fur clothing. She had a bow and quiver in hand she looked out of place in the cave.

She had two piercing eyes and having two swords like eyebrows. Her hair was long and brown, and despite her being shorter than him she felt a foot taller thanks to her aura. 

She also has a noticeable scar running along the bridge of her nose align with her brown eyes. This was the first time Urist noticed that a Dwarf appeared with a scar on their face which threw him off.

Of the four she was the most silent and only said her name, job, skill slots, and skills. Besides that, she was studying Urist with curiosity as if she wanted to say something.

Seeing this Urist figured she wanted to talk alone and sent the other three dwarfs ahead to rest as the skills entered their bodies. Now that it was just him and Unicy alone Urist felt it was right to ask now.

"What is wrong Unicy?"

"Why am I alive? Where am I? Who are you? And why do I have the urge to call you boss? Speak or I shall kill you."

Such a question confused Urist and he was even more shocked as the huntress pointed her bow at Urists head. The situation had turned into something unthinkable.

To be threatened in such a way made Urists eyes widen. He didn't expect to be in such a life and death scenario when he came to receive the new dwarfs. 

His mind was racing at a million miles an hour thinking about this dwarf girl in front of him. Who was she? Why was she here? Why did she come with such hostility?

"If you don't speak I will kill you!"

Part 2 - People to Lead

 

What kind of a scenario is this?

Urist almost wanted to laugh that such a thing could happen but forced it down as this wasn't time to laugh. He had to earn Unicy’s trust and that he wasn't here to harm her.

"You say that you should be dead Unicy? Can you tell me why you think of such a thing? I'll have you know the story I told you before was the truth and like you, we were brought here. For what reason would I have to lie to you?"

With the light crystals in the walls, he could see the clear confusion that lay in Unicy's eyes. As if she was fighting for control trying to remember something that was out of her grasp.

"I was... the cities top hunter... what was the cities name? I remember fighting against the hated elves and they killed my brothers and sisters. I shot and shot killing droves of elves... Then a spear was launched and it entered my head from the bridge of my nose... Then darkness."

Seeing Unicy letting slack in her bow Urist tried to approach her.

"I don't know what you went through, but there are no elves here. Only allies. Come let's go meet the others and get a bite to eat. What do you sa-”

“Stay back! Not another inch or I'll kill you!”

Urist felt troubled at how to handle this unruly confused girl. He didn't know about this city she was talking about since no such city existed.

In the chats and the forums, no such place existed that had been found. The only possibility being that she was from another world like him. It wasn't his world though since he didn't have elves.

At this time Uria appeared behind Urist she looked at Unicy in confusion.

"Urist is she trying to kill you? Do you need help?” "No, it’s just a minor misunderstanding I can handle it.”

“Alright if you say so. If she kills you for your stupidity I’m going to slaughter her. Besides that we’re going to start the smelting are you going to miss it?"

“I’ll be there shortly after I finish up matters here to watch. Can you prepare some food for the expedition we have planned today? Also, I want you to get someone to make some more charcoal while we are heading out on the expedition. "

"Sure be easy enough. Who are you taking with you this time?"

"I'll be taking Arben, Reaver, Uroa, and Rat. Let the new dwarfs settle in before getting them to work. Give Unicy some time though she is quite shaken by this experience. When Roche and Saera are ready have them look over the cave plan I made."

"Understood anything else?" Urist noticed that icy tone in her voice knowing she meant if he needed help dealing with this girl.

"No that is all Uria."

Uria gave Urist a look then a glare at Unicy who was still pointing an arrow notched at Urist. She turned around not scared that Urist could die since his voice had such confidence to handle the problem.

Her figure and steps soon left Urist and Unicy alone once again. Currently, Urist inwardly was sweating bullets trying to figure out how to handle this psycho. He had just talked calmly to make sure that Uria wasn’t in danger now. Outwardly he kept a somber look after his surprise gave way which seemed to work as he could see in Unicy’s eyes she was wavering. 

He decided to risk it all and deal with this in one motion. In slow and steady motion, Unicy watched as Urist turned his back to her and started walking after Uria.

"Stop where are you going?! I didn't say you could leave. I can shoot you!"

Stopping, Urist turned his head to look at her before replying.

"As a leader, I have things to do. If you are gonna shoot, shoot now and take over my place. If not, then don't get in my way I have people to lead."

Without another word, Urist turned around and left his back completely defenseless. For Unicy her mind was in utter chaos unable to form any words at how bold this Urist was to leave his back open. She thought to herself she should shoot or not? What if he comes back with a group to deal with her? What if something else happens and she dies again? What if?

She raised and lowered the bow three times before sighing. 

I already died once. Does it matter if a ghost dies again? She lowered her bow for the last time in the defeat of his conviction, relaxing the string without loosing the arrow. 

After walking a few feet and feeling no arrow dig into his back, he wanted to let off a sigh of relief but kept his composure. Inwardly he was cursing himself for being so foolish as to pull such a stunt. Still, if he was going to keep this up he might as well see it through to the end. Putting one step forward over the other Urist left Unicy all alone.

With him gone out of sight, Unicy fell to her knees. Her expression confused, ”Me a general of an army beaten by this man's iron resolve? How strong must he be to not fear an arrow in a back? Is this why I died?”

If only she knew that Urist was also sweating bullets inwardly.

...

Urist walked out of the cave and said hello to everyone and seeing everyone's excited gazes it seemed Uria didn’t tell anyone. 

Good, since no one but us three know, it shouldn’t cause and disharmony to appear in the group. The last thing we need is for factions to start forming now.

Feeling he dodged an arrow, he bought some food on the market since they were still lacking on food supplied due to the increasing population growth. 

It wasn't that bad yet, but we’ll need to forage and catch more fish to save on points.

Your Item has sold for two hundred points.

A notification rang out into Urist’s ears saying he had gained points, looking at the number he was surprised. He didn't think the tiger would sell that much for points, at best 100 points by his estimate.

He wasn't one to kick a gifted horse in the mouth though, with this he could easily feed the dwarfs for a few days with it. Moving his thoughts along he ate out of his bowl and joined the crowd at the kiln.

Everyone watched as Baikm fill up a heat-treated Fire Clay Crucible. This was the first batch of bronze they were going to make so no one in the group wanted to miss it. By now the fire was already heated to a high temperature and along with some Calcium oxide as flax for the bronze, everything was ready to go.

The smith Hot moved with experience as he placed the crucible into the blazing fire that burned using charcoal. After placing it inside, Hot began pumping air into the kiln using the temporarily made bamboo bellows. The heat kicked up a notch and the kiln turned a deeper shade of red. Soon enough the Crucible could be seen heating up as it gave off a faint orange glow.

To save on energy and arm strength Hot passed on pumping to another. Switching around a few times Hot used his skill and found that the bronze was ready to pour. Using the copper tongs Hot grabbed the Crucible and took out the slag with a copper ladle and put it in a dirt hole to cool off.

The rest he poured into the firing clay mold to settle and cool too which the dwarfs watched in bewilderment as the metal cooled to nice cosey bronze color.

Everyone roared in excitement and cheered for Hot pulling it off making him became embarrassed by the dwarf's shouts and tried to hide his face.

Still, he gave a warning for the dwarfs not to touch it until it wasn't hot anymore. It was under Urists command for him to tell them that, it would be pretty nasty for someone to have their hand burned for no reason.

Now that Urist knew that they could smelt metal he felt more at ease and that everything was good Urist called his team together and decided it was time to set out.

When they were ready to depart a shout behind him appeared.

"Wait!"

 

Part 3 - Dangers of Oxygen Crystals

 

The group of six departed from home making their way along a small animal trail. On their persons, they carried weapons, supplies, and empty sacks. At the front, Urist and Rat were cutting through the jungle bush with their machetes. In the center of the group was Reaver with her tamed dogs and tigers walking along with Uroa. Finally, at the back was Arben and Unicy taking up the rear in case of animal ambush.

While cutting through the brush, Urist's mind was inwardly scratching his head. Just a few minutes ago she was pointing a nocked arrow at me. Now she was jumping to go, ready to explore under my lead... It makes me question why women are such fickle creatures.

He understood that they were strangers meeting in strange circumstances, but it didn't justify threatening him with death. Knowing that she was now watching his back placed him on edge and couldn't stop himself from wondering what she was scheming.

What is her angle? What does she want to accomplish? Such thoughts came and went as he and Rat took turns in cutting the path forward. Although he was having an inner struggle, they were making good time towards the mountain holding the oxygen crystals.

His only worry besides Unicy putting an arrow in his back and wild animals attacking them had to be if any of those creatures had been born. 

If just one of them is born one of them might just die. It’s a good thing I did a little research on the item beforehand.

Thanks to his whim for information, he found out how devilish oxygen light crystals could become. In the document he brought from the market, he found that the diamond-like crystals were not just simple stones, but instead was a strange lifeform. If that’s all it was to the material it wouldn’t be such a flaw.

To start their food source was carbon dioxide to which they then could expel breathable oxygen and light. The consumed carbon dioxide would be used to then grow their bodies bit by bit to which is where the problem lay. 

When they grew to a certain mass the unmoving and unintelligent crystal would gain sentience. And if the crystal grew big enough it would grow into a golem which could be considered an adult at that point.

When such a crystal grew into an adult, it would become a hyper-aggressive creature that smashed all living creatures in sight with exception to its own kind. And that wasn’t the end of the report, the golem crystal could, in theory, keep growing way past this point and be a force to be wracked with.

He grew a bit excited thinking that Reaver could tame some of the golem’s only to be disappointed. The report said it was untameable as the whole body was its brain, the problem was that the brain was broken into crystal stands into the millions if not billions.

There was more in the report saying if a crystal grew large enough it had the potential to destroy cities with ease. He didn't dwell on the report anymore, the information he got on it was enough to form a plan of attack. Which is why everyone was carrying a pick or hammer in case they came across one. Since even if it's diamond-like, diamonds can still crack and break.

It took a few hours to get into the mountain that was marked to have the crystal resource.

“Be careful from this point on, we don’t know if any golems have been created. From the info in the book I got, the bigger they are the smarter they get. And don’t let their large bodies fool you, it also states that they move faster than us. So if we run into one and are spotted by it we must fight!”

Everyone nodded their heads and got ready to move out to gather the crystals. They walked slowly towards the mountain keeping their wits about them. Still, they had become quite surprised at what they found when they got closer.

Small little crystals were poking out of rocks, the ground, trees, and even in water. Their size was as big as a fingernail and seemed quite harmless. Urist breathed a breath of relief, it seemed that the crystals were just in their growing phase.

With such a size it must mean that there was a healthy supply of oxygen. The dwarfs got to work picking out the pinkie-sized stones out of the ground. It was easy going to pick them up and place them in their bags. They worked, quickly filling their bags with the stones as Unicy watched the surroundings.

They finished filling up their bags and headed out when Unicy heard movement. By the sound of it, the thing was rushing down from the mountain at a good clip. So there is a grown adult golem what our bad luck.

He wasn’t greedy for the crystals of an adult since they could raise their own. He made the call with Unicy told him at what clip it was moving at, saying they wouldn't be able to outrun it.

“Tch. So an adult is protecting them. Everyone, get moving we are heading to that hill since it’s a defensible location!”

Listening to Urist, the dwarfs moved to a nearby hill with their loot and readied themselves for a fight.

Soon even Urist could hear the sound of the crystal monster coming to their location. He could painfully hear the grinding of crystals charging at him.

Readying themselves for a fight, Urist stood at the front, hammer at the ready. With each passing second, the grating sound grew louder in his ears. The other dwarfs frowned at the noise and asked if they couldn’t just leave the crystal here and retreat.

As he readied himself to fight, Urist thought about his decision to come to this dangerous area Thinking was it even worth it to risk their lives for some rocks in the ground? They were already living an alright life. So why risk their lives for some stones?

The answer that nagged at the back of his mind were the events, who knew if one day a dragon descended upon them? What if a poison fog covered the land and they died from not being able to breathe? What if?

Those what questions of what might happen in the future, drove him to make sure they needed to be ready for anything. With that line of thought, he knew he couldn’t cower from challenges that the world threw at them. They needed to fight for their future one step at a time.

That was the price that they needed to pay for survival.

“It’s almost upon us. Get ready to fight!”

When Unicy declared so, the crystal being jumped out from the bush. The appearance of the creature gave them a fright even for Urist who had mentally prepared himself. The crystal being was the shape of a wolf, it wore translucent crystals armor that was bulky like a bear. From within he could see that It had tense carbon fibers that made up its muscles.

Its eyes shone like the wicked moon, cold and full of bloodlust. The beast struck fear into the dwarfs as they held their hammers and pickaxes at the ready.

Urist raised his hammer into the air to increase morale and roared, “Brothers and sisters follow me into battle!”

“OHHHHHH!”

 

Part 4 - Battle the Crystal Wolf

 

The crystal wolf stood majestically, eyes flashing with bloodlust as it gazed at the dwarfs. Giving a big sniff of the air, it could sense that these fleabags had stolen its children right from under its nose and must be slaughtered for this transgression.

The wolf screeched full of rage and charged straight at Urist full of killing intent. On the dwarfs' side, Urist held his ground and readied his hammer with a slight regret of not having a shield.

Its size is no joke, standing over four feet high and seven feet long. I guess being made out of pure crystal the weight should be an easy 300 pounds if not more. If it tackles one of us we’ll likely break a few bones if not crushed outright.

When Urist thought about this, he regretted not taking any fighting classes in his past life. One of the reasons being that at the time, his hands were useless at doing anything constructive. 

These thoughts were thrown away, as he had more pressing matters to deal with. Such as this crystal wolf climbing up the hill with the intent to slaughter them. The crystal wolf bared its fangs and jumped at Urist who was assessing it with wary eyes. He was ready for the beast and used his strength to smash its head away with his trusty hammer.

Small chips of crystal fell away revealing some carbon fibers. Still, this strike was nothing for the beast as it regained its footing and swiped a paw at Urist in quick retaliation. He dodged out of the way mere inches away from having his face ripped off. 

It was at this time that Urist yelled, “Now! Surround it! Cover each other and make sure to attack when there is an opening!”

Following along his plan, the dwarfs readied their picks and hammers as they moved into position. The wolf snorted coldly wasn't just going to allow them to surround it without a fight. Opening its jaw wide it lashed out at Uroa with the intent to rip her throat out and escape the encirclement.

Unicy didn’t dodge out of the way and held her ground preparing to hit the wolf head-on with her pick. Before the two could clash, Arben roared from the side smashed into the wolf's stomach. His immense strength allowed him to throw the wolf up a few inches and cracked its underside.

Although cracked, the crystal wolf seemed to be unfazed by the damage as it tried to lash out at Unicy again. Only to be once again stopped by Urban who aimed at the wolf’s neck with his hammer.

The strike caused the wolf to fall forward stripping more crystals off the beast. Still, the beast quickly stood up unaffected by the blow and charged again.

And like this, a battle of attrition began between the two forces. The wolf would try to attack and one of the dwarfs on the other side would hit it. With each hit, more and more crystals fell off the wolf revealing its tight carbon fiber muscles underneath.

Despite losing its skin the wolf didn't lessen its movements. On the dwarfs' side, they were exhausted drenched in sweat. They had been fighting this thing for twenty minutes already but the thing wouldn't fall.

No matter where they hit it, it got back up like an undying creature. Urist mind was working overtime trying to figure out how to kill the creature.

At this rate, they would be the first ones to give in. Right now he was so hungry that his vision was getting affected. They needed to kill it before they became exhausted which wouldn't take long happen, at most a few minutes.

It was either life or death and extreme hunger that he figured out what to do. Finding his resolve, Urist readied himself waiting for the next time one of the dwarfs smashed it down. When he saw the opportunity, he pulled the flames from within himself gathered it into his hands and let it fly forth in a stream of fire.

He didn't spare his flame sending it all but a small flicker of flame in his body. Sending a massive gold fireball at the crystal wolf. Sensing for the first time danger it tried to doge only to be stunned by Unicy's pickaxe.

The wolf was now held in place was hit by the fireball and the beast started to scream. The massive fireball on contact grew at an explosive rate. The heat grew so hot the dwarfs had to distance themselves from the flaming hellstorm.

Urist smiled that his hunch worked and smiled at the dwarfs that returned to his side.

“Nice thinking boss!”

“As expected of the boss!”

“Heh. It was nothin guys. Come on let's go h- UROA!”

Urist smashed into the soil with his last ounce of strength and rushed at the confused Uroa. She hadn’t noticed that crystal wolf wasn’t dead and was charging at her with the intent to kill only a few yards away.

“Eh?” She slowly turned towards the wolf in confusion.

She’s not reacting fast enough. I’ll have to risk it all!

Gritting his teeth Urist muscles bulged full of strength as he used everything he had for another sprint. Roaring at the top of his lungs Urist managed to reach her and push her out of the way just before the claws descended.

Urist tried to block the attack with his hammer handle but the wolf smashed through it easily thanks to his lack of strength dragged across his chest. But it wasn’t done, the wolf used its weight and landed on Urist trying to bite his throat. Roaring at the top of his lungs Urist dug deep and used whatever strength he could gather to hold back the burning inferno.

He pushed it’s neck back not caring if his hands were horribly burned in the process. At this time the dwarfs had finally reacted and smashed into the wolves side knocking the beast off of Urist to which they quickly dragged him back out of range.

Unicy and Arben held the defense ready for the creature to attack again. Only it seemed that this time the wolf was down for good, burning under crazy heat. On the other side, Uroa was assessing the damage of Urist’s body and breath a sigh of relief.

She was expecting third-degree burns from Urist since he was in contact with the flames for such a long time. The only wound he had was the claw slash across his chest. She breathed a sigh of relief after hurryingly cleaning up the wound right then and with Rat as her assistant. 

She judged that the wound wasn’t deep enough to reach the bone to the intestines. Getting out her needle and thread she was about to sew up the wound when Urists hand flashed out and caught hers.

“Boss what are you doing?! Stay down you are wounded and I need to treat you!”

“It’s not that bad. Treat me after I eat that flame, it’ll be a waste to not use such a limited treasure.”

“What?! are you insane?”

 

Part 5 - A Selfish Desire

Getting up despite Uroa’s protest, Urist stood up from the ground causing more blood to drip down his bare chest. Walking through the pain he made his way over to burning corpse of the flaming wolf. 

Reaching the blazing fire he stepped inside the hellish fireball without fear allowing the intense heat washed over his body. He knew full well it wouldn’t hurt him so he instead sat down cross-legged and began to focus. 

Imagining himself as a container and the flames being the water; he began to feed the flicker of origin fire that remained inside him. The dwarfs watched dumbly as the flames licked across Urist’s body and began to be sucked in at a visible rate. Though surprisingly his clothes weren’t burning to ash.

Urist sat in a trance as his flames not only refilled but his extreme hunger seemed to be satiated. Even the pain of his chest seemed to become numb as he felt at ease as if being wrapped in a warm blanket floating in the clouds. This warmth wiggled its way across every cell in his body making them scream with joy as they greedily took in the vast flame energy.

It didn’t seem like a mere top off, but some sort of rebirth!

This mini rebirth didn’t last long though as soon enough he reached the limit of what he could store inside and could only regretfully feel what was left of the fire's embrace. Alas, it seems like I can’t remove the fire from the crystal despite it having quite the amount left.

He could only sigh and return to the angry Uora to get stitches along his chest. They used the purified water they brought to clean out the wound. Then got bandages and medical tape to cover his wounds.

Since Urist was wounded Rat took his items under Uora's order as not to agitate Urist’s wounds so they wouldn’t open up as they walked. Urist was placed in the middle of the formation and they decided to not check the traps until they got back to camp.

The walk back was quite quick allowing them to get back around mid-afternoon. When Uria saw Urist injuries she nearly flipped out at him for doing something so dangerous. It warmed Urist at how caring she was and told her he would be more careful from now on.

“Promise?”

“I can’t promise that I won’t do dangerous things, but I will make sure it’s the last resort from now on.”

Uria was fuming at Urist response how could be so unreasonable and carefree about his life!

“You!”

Urist scratched his cheek, “I rather not lie to you or others when things need to be done. We can only count on each other, no one is going to save us.”

Uria looking down, bit her lip drawing blood, “You’re a fool! Your life is too important to lose here when you have so much to accomplish here! Don’t you understand!”

Grabbing her shoulder Urist lifted Uria’s chin and looked her in the eye,  “Hey… Your bleeding did you bite your lip? Here let me get some salt and water to help stop it.”

“It’s nothing your injuries are worse than mine. You should go to the cave to rest.”

Seeing that she wouldn’t look him in the eye and how much pouting she was doing Urist ruffled her hair with a smile.

“Hey now I don’t plan on dying anytime soon, yet I won’t stand aside when one of you guys are in trouble.”

“Whatever go get healed y-y-you, big dummy! I’ll come over to get you some water and boar meat the guys caught after cooking.”

“Thank you Uria, can you have Hot and Baikm talk with me on how the metal production is going? I wanna ask them if they need anything.”

“Understood, I’ll tell them to meet you once you are laying down. So go get some rest first you big dummy or I won’t forgive you!”

With those words, Uria left Urist’s group then headed over to the cave to drop off the plants and oxygen light crystals. Later on tonight they would line the walls and keep the remainder outside covered with dirt so carbon dioxide wouldn’t get to them.

The group got to work except Urist who laid down on his bead. Before he got inside Elrish had somewhat recovered and was doing some less intensive work by learning on how to make rope.

It made Urist happy knowing that he was alright and he decided to rest his eyes and take a break after so long. Only it seemed that he’d have to wait for his break for a little longer as Unicy hung over him like a specter.

“Hey.”

Urist opened his eyes and stared at her from below, “Yah?”

“Why did you put yourself in danger for one girl? You are the civilization leader without a successor if you die then everything is lost. So why did you do it? Do you believe that one life outweighs the many?”

“Hmm give me a second.”

Closing his eyes Urist thought to himself about the scenario in his head that he saw before. There was a train moving along the tracks heading for five people you didn’t know and you had the choice to change the tracks to one worker you know.

The question always bugged him to allow one person to die just because there would be more people to live. There was actually a third choice he thought was quite crazy since no real human could actually accomplish it and that was actually.

“I’d just stop the train myself.”

“Huh?”

“I was just thinking about something from my other world. To answer you all I need to do is become the strongest so I don’t lose anyone.”

“That’s pretty selfish of you. You know that you’re deluding yourself with such thoughts right?”

“What can I say, I'm pretty selfish. Why compromise with death when I can just kick his ass? If he wants to take something from me he’s going to have to come down himself and fight me.”

Unicy bit her lip listening to Urist crazy words, “Even for me?”

“Even for you.”

“If you truly wish to create such a world then I’ll give you my everything.”

“Good. Huh?”

 

Part 6 - Learning about Magic Items

Hot and Baikm came over shortly after Unicy left grinning silly at Urist who was resting. The two talked to him about how they were currently forging up spears, arrowheads, and knives. Each dwarf was given a spear and a backup knife to use. As for the arrowheads they were being saved up for later use in the pit traps near the base and traps for hunting.

They would’ve been used for bows only they didn’t have enough sinew to make any. They could buy the bows on the market, but Urist wanted to save on points in case they had emergencies. For now, archery would be on hold with the exception for Unicy and Urist to use. Speaking of Unicy, Urist was still thinking over what she told him before leaving him to rest.

After mulling over her memories for a bit she remembered a bit of her past. She was a general of a dwarven kingdom once and served under a tyrant king that treated their people harshly and robbed its allies. 

She had worked her way up from common blood soldier to the rank of general. Despite the fact that the common people serving in the army were made to be expendable pawns in constant warfare. She had fought through many of these hellish wars and always came out alive until that fateful battle at the capital.

She took to battle with her retinue of Horse Archers to face the invading enemy with hit and run tactics. Thanks to her and her army they claimed thousands of lives of the invading elves before they reached the capital. 

The only thing that was her downfall was that as the enemy closed in her army wasn’t allowed back inside thanks to the gate tightly shut. She yelled at them to open the gates as they had enough time before the enemy closed in. Only for the cowardly king to standing on the wall to give her the order to fight outside the walls saying that it was too late to open the walls.

They shouted back and forth as she told him they were low on arrows and were already surrounded. If they weren’t let in they would be slaughtered. Her words landed on deaf ears as the king coldly looked at her.

In this time the elves had surrounded the capital leaving no way to escape for Unicy and her army. In a fit of rage, she turned her bow on the king and pierced his brows. In a roar, she leads her band of brothers and sisters forth to defend the capital. 

She fought to her dying breath killing all she could to protect her race. She fell finally after killing one hundred elves thanks to a thrown spear that impaled her skull. 

After finishing her tale she told him as long as he didn’t betray his people; she would be his general that would reap the lives of his foes. That was what she meant when she told him she would give him everything.

His heart started beating wildly over her announcement as he wasn’t ready for until she explained it to him with a blushing face. Although she was a famous Horse Anchor General she could show such emotion meant she was quite relaxed.

Finished talking with the two Uria brought over Urists meal then left. Now all alone in the cave, Urist lay down bored, not able to do anything so he decided to check over the forums and chats he was on.

By now there were tens of thousands of forum posts going around talking now about food, survival, and information on strange creatures. Over to the chats, trade was going pretty high with semi-useful objects being put up for sale. He was put off by someone asking to buy corpses of strong creatures for a nice price.

It made him wonder if this person was the one who bought the tiger corpse for a stupid amount of points. If so how could they have so many points when he noticed that the generation was around 1.5k. That was thanks to the new base being added with point gain being increased every day ever so slightly.

Thinking about points now Urist decided to check the market to see if anything could be sold to increase them. Doing a few searches he found a section about magic items that had the effect to increase points generation by equipping them and doing tasks.

I wonder how much it costs?

Having curiosity taking hold, he looked over the items price and wanted to curse. For a tier-one stone pendant that could increase points by 1% it cost a ludicrous 1500 points.

He wished he could throw the screen in anger at how much of a rip off that was. But calmed down, as he thought about the magic items, meaning they should be craftable. On that line of reasoning, he decided to check a tech on how to craft Tier 1 magic items and found a book costing 500 points.

Which was much more manageable for someone at his poor lifestyle. He brought the book without a second thought and began to read the book in earnest. He was excited at first, then frowned, and then once again cursed at the requirements.

To create a magic item wasn’t easy, you needed to be a runesmith, a regular smith, and a blood mage. You also needed the main material of the item, blood from a large powerful creature or many small creatures.

And he barely knew anything about smithing except mixing metals and creating a furnace. To make a magic item he didn’t have a clue as to where to begin and how to work the material.   

Since he had such useless hands, he decided to never try learning how to do things, instead, he learned how to do the process was done. Those might seem like the same thing, but reading how to drive a car and driving a car are two different things.

Besides that, this book only described the method in detail of how magic items were created. It didn’t have any advanced recipes to go on searching it up each one cost around 100-1000 points for a tier-one recipe making him sigh. He checked for the point increase one and saw the price at 500 points.

Checking out the books of how to learn blood magic and rune smithing each book cost around 400 points almost made him faint with anger. At that point, he might as well summon the two himself and take the two hundred point loss. He had enough to summon them, but he figured he would think about it more. He didn’t want to face a scenario where they needed those points in case they were in danger.

He could only sigh and make a note to get or raise two dwarfs whenever he had the chance to. Swallowing that bitter pill Urist made a vow to check the forums next time before making such a hasty buy ever again. With nothing else to do, he decided to spend the rest of his time surfing the forums before heading to sleep.

Bamboo Seeding timer activated 2 Days 14 Hours 15 Mins

Rat Tide timer activated 9 Days 14 Hours 15 Mins

Beast Swarm timer activated 17 Days 14 Hours 15 Mins

Point Amount:  2993