RinoZ
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B3C3 - Cores
🕑 Added 2023-05-11 06:33:20 +0000 UTCIt was interesting to see the mixed response to the previous chapter. I was EXTREMELY hesitant about it and unsure how it would be received. I had plans to go both ways, leaving Dove dead, or bringing him back, and in the end I went with what I felt better served the story.
Feel free to disagree of course!
Chrysalis tomorrow!
Cerry Tiln said goodbye to her mother as she stepped out the door into the bustle of Shadetown, the door closing with the ringing of a bell behind her.
It was dark this early, as it always was in the shadow of the wall, they wouldn’t get direct sunlight for another hour, but even so she felt invigorated by the dawn… shade.
She giggled at the thought as she stepped off the doorstep and onto the narrow road, already filled with people going about their day. Farmers were bringing crops and produce in from the fields, stocking their stalls of supplying business preparing for a days trading. Market square was the centre of trade outside the wall and she’d been lucky to be born in the prosperous area.
“Mornin’ Cerry,” her neighbour, Lyla called as she stepped from her house. “Off to the store?”
The younger girl nodded happily.
“That’s right. It’s been so busy over there, Lyla, you have no idea.”
The florist chuckled as she pulled her shawl around her shoulders, falling into step behind her young friend.
“I’m not surprised. I can’t ever remember an Arcanist opening a business outside the wall. Normally you find them closer to the castle, not out here with the rest of us.”
Cerry sniffed.
“That’s because they charge way too much. Master Almsfield is different, his prices are much more reasonable.”
“Well, whatever the reason, I’m grateful for it. I got a heating pan for my bed last week and my old bones have never felt so spry in the morning. My hip barely aches anymore.”
It was pleasing to hear the wonderful things her employer had been able to do for the people of Shadetown. From Glow-lights, to heating pans, to filters and dozens of other nick-nacks the more well to do citizens of Kenmor took for granted, the products had been flying off the shelves. Cerry grinned.
“I hear so many stories just like that,” she said, “people come in all the time to tell me how wonderful it’s been. Most of them have never owned anything enchanted in their lives.”
She leaned forward conspiratorially.
“My father came to the shop and bought a temperature controlling array and installed it in the kitchen for mother. She’s been singing his praises for the last week, since it always gets so stuffy in there.”
She knew he’d done it because he was too cheap to pay for the renovations necessary to achieve proper ventilation, but her mother had been happy either way. She baked for a living and with so many ovens going at once, it was like a furnace in there most days. Now at least the corner she did most of her preparations and decorating was pleasantly cool the whole day around.
“I told him to fork over and purchase heating plates for the ovens, but he’s still leery.”
She snorted, affronted that Master Almsfield work could be doubted and Lyla laughed.
“Well, I’m sure he’ll come around. I’m not likely to get time to come into the store, but do pass on my thanks to Mr Almsfield for me, would you?”
“I will when I see him,” Cerry shrugged.
The owner kept strange hours, sometimes working upstairs all day, sometimes sleeping all day and working all night, and sometimes just straight up vanishing for days at a time. On the one hand, it was odd, on the other, it was pleasing to know how much she was trusted.
“This is me, Cerry. You have a good day now,” Lyla patted her on the shoulder before turning down a narrow road.
“You too!”
Another two streets down and she arrived at the market proper, crowded already, hawkers calling to the crowd, advertising their wares. It was a familiar sound that felt like nothing so much as home. Around the corner, onto Office Street and she was standing in front of the shop.
She rummaged through her bag for a moment before she found the tightly bound ‘key’ Master Almsfield had made for her. She waved it in front of the handle and after a moment there was a slight ‘click’ as the door unlocked.
It was difficult to restrain a small laugh, as it was every morning. Something so ordinary, like unlocking a door, had become ever so slightly magickal, and she loved it. Stepping inside, the store was immaculate as always, gleaming display cases, polished hardwood flaws with curved trimmings and finishes. However much it had cost to setup the store, it must have been a small fortune. Half the time she was afraid of slipping and damaging something she couldn’t afford to replace!
She closed the door gently behind her and began her normal morning routine. Cleaning the floor came first, then the benches and tables, before she moved onto the glass.
It was hard to avoid the sad reality staring back at her from those tassled cushions however, they were running dangerously low on stock. Many of the displays were empty, almost half of them in fact. The store had been extremely successful since it opened, but perhaps Master Almsfield needed to hire more workers?
Apprentice Rivner worked hard, his handsome face pinched with worry and concentration whenever he was in the store, but perhaps just one apprentice wasn’t enough?
She wondered about that as she cleaned the windows in the front of the store. Did they need to expand already? There was probably room upstairs for more apprentices to work….
Lost in thought, she ran through her chores until the doorbell rang and she turned with a squeak, caught by surprise. Flynn Rivner stopped and stared at her, a slight blush on his face.
“O-oh, sorry Cerry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
She felt furious at herself for looking so foolish in front of him.
“It’s nothing, Apprentice Rivner,” she smiled, trying to regain her poise. “How are you this mornin? I mean, morning?”
Control your tongue, Cerry! You want him to think you’re some country bumpkin!
“Ah, I’m fine,” he said, shuffling his feet a little before he realised he was still in the doorway. “I-I should head upstairs… then. Nice to see you… uh… Ms Tiln.”
“Nice to see you as well, Apprentice Rivner.”
Her eyes trailed after him as he strode across the shop floor and towards the steps, without trying to make it obvious. He was just so tall, and dignified!
She sighed.
He must have all sorts of fancy women inside the wall chasing after him. A promising Arcanist apprentice with his whole life ahead of him had a lot of prospects.
She returned to work only to turn back when she heard Flynn coming back down the stairs, a rueful expression on his face. She glanced down and saw the elaborate case used to hold the finished cores in his hands.
“Oh! Has Master Almsfield been working last night?”
“It appears so,” Apprentice Rivner sighed before he placed the case carefully down on the counter and shook his head.
There was something about the look in his eye that prompted her to ask.
“Is something wrong? We certainly needed the work done, half the store is sold out,” she gestured toward the cases.
“Sorry? Oh, it’s nothing. I’m just… shocked is all.”
Cerry was confused.
“About what?”
Apprentice Rivner went to speak a few times before he finally settled on what to say.
“He’s just too fast,” he said finally with a sigh, gesturing at the case. “I had a look, there’s a hundred cores in here, easily. And I’ve studied the Master’s work carefully, it’s flawless.”
He looked a little despondent as he spoke, which only confused the girl further. Wasn’t that a good thing?
“Is that… a problem?” she asked.
The Arcanist in training chuckled a little and blessed her with his shy smile, causing her heart to skip a beat.
“No. I-it’s not a problem, I just don’t know how he does it. I’ve tried to keep up to his pace, but I fail two out of three times if I work that quick.”
“You’re a wonderful apprentice,” Cerry said firmly, “Master Almsfield said so himself on several occasions. Don’t worry, soon you’ll be able to catch up. You’re still an apprentice after all.”
“I’m only two years younger than he is….”
“That doesn’t matter at all! Not everyone completed their apprenticeship as quickly.”
“Nobody completes their apprenticeship that quickly. It caused quite a stir. That’s why I applied to work here, you know. I wanted to learn from someone that extraordinary.”
“Well, now you have your chance,” she encouraged him. “Don’t be downhearted because it’s hard. It was always going to be hard!”
He nodded thoughtfully.
“You’re right. If I’d wanted an easy apprenticeship, I would have stayed where I was. Thank you Cerry.”
“Not a problem, Apprentice Rivner.”
“Please. Call me Flynn.”
She blushed.
“Of course… Flynn.”
They gazed at each other for moment until a loud thump accompanied by muffled cursing rang out from upstairs.
“I should go and get these set,” Flynn said quickly, grabbing the tray and heading to the backroom.
“I should finish cleaning!” Cerry darted back to her chores. The store would be open shortly, and she had a lot to do!
—
There was something soothing, something meditative, about the work of an Arcanist. Taking the cores, the condensed power of magick itself, and rewriting it, one line at a time, was a mysterious and powerful art. The process itself, however, was tedious, finicky, and required an inordinate amount of fine-motor-control, along with a level of focus that bordered on impossible.
In other words, it suited Tyron down to the ground.
Crafting Classes required an absurd amount of grind in order to level, day after day of relentless, gruelling repetition. Coupled with the necessity of experimentation to breakthrough any bottlenecks that arose, and it was well known how notoriously difficult it was to become a master craftsman.
This went doubly so for those with a crafting sub-class. As an Arcanist, Tyron was limited to only forty levels, and one class advancement. That meant eight Feats in total and a limit to the number of Skills and abilities he could purchase.
This meant he could never truly equal a master of the craft. Someone like Master Willhem was in a stratosphere he could never reach, able to take the most powerful cores and transform them into enchantments only gold level Slayers, or the nobility, could afford.
That level of control and finesse, he could never possess it, but he didn’t need to. Instead, he had aimed every new ability, every new Feat in an entirely different direction. He wanted to squeeze every drop of power from the simplest and smallest of cores. Efficiency, efficacy, with not even a wisp of lost magick.
Tyron leaned back from the glass with a tired sigh before he rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. No matter how he tried to sit straight, he always ended up with a slight hunch as he worked, leaning over to bring his face to the glass and see even a little better.
Another one done, only a hundred or so to go.
It sounded like a lot, but his pace was good, completing each core in roughly two minutes. An absurd pace for the work and the key reason behind the success of Almsfield Enchantments.
Arcanist’s work was useful for a lot of things, heating, cooling, cleansing, healing, lighting, basically every aspect of daily living. Of course, most in the trade focused their attention on where the big money lay, weapons and armour for Slayers. Fighting was a constant part of life in the provinces, even if it happened out of sight for most people, at the rifts. The Slayers made the bulk of their money from selling rift-kin components and cores, and they turned around and spent that money on improving their gear, or on alchemical potions or other supplies. Some held exclusive contracts where they traded the best and rarest cores directly to famous Arcanists in exchange for preferential treatment or discounts.
The constant demand for new and better enchanted weapons and armour, as well as the churn caused by lost gear within the rifts, meant that the majority of cores harvested went to this cause. That meant enchantments for daily life were expensive and rare.
Rare, unless you could produce the same effect using smaller, more easily obtainable cores.
Tyron could make a heating plate almost seventy percent as effective as what the best Arcanists in Kenmor could make. Except his were a tenth of the price, formed from a hyper-efficient network of the lowest grade cores.
Naturally, this meant he was essentially alone in targeting this particular market, poorer folks outside the walls who never dreamed of owning such luxuries.
In the end, this was an unintended benefit to his true aim. All along, Tyron had focused on maximising the power he could gain from weaker cores because that was all he could afford to use in his undead. No matter how wealthy he became, it would be too ridiculous to engrave and set a high-grade core within a simple skeleton. His current business model came to be after he’d thought long and hard on how he could maximise the benefits of enchanting for his minions, and be successful enough to provide cover for his other endeavours.
Diligently, and with absolute focus, he continued to etch the runes with his pliance, placing each completed core into the case with cores, before he checked the order sheet, picked up another core and began the process again.
Three and a half hours later, he was done.
He stood with a groan and stretched, feeling his back pop. Muttering about old age, he shook out his hands, grabbed the case of finished cores and walked downstairs.
It wasn’t too busy in the store, given it was roughly lunchtime, only five people wandering amongst the display cases and reading the engraved descriptions of the wares.
As always, Cerry was a bright and cheery presence, moving from cleaning the shop, to answering questions, to ringing up sales with ease and grace. He shook his head. The girl hadn’t even had her Awakening yet. If she gained some sort of service Class, he’d triple her salary to keep her on.
A warm smile greeted him as she saw him wander onto the shop floor.
“Master Almsfield! Nice to see your face today.”
At the mention of his name, several customers turned to catch a glimpse of him, but he ignored them. Cerry nattered on.
“I have to tell you, my friend Lyla….”
He nodded along as he walked, entering the back room where he found his apprentice hard at work setting the cores into the various wares that they sold. It was a delicate process, but by far the easiest part of the job. A core inscribed to create flame down the length of a blade was particularly useless unless it was set into a blade, after all.
The back room was filled with the various plates, wheels, dials and other pieces they sold. All of it was ordered from local craftsmen in Shadetown.
Tyron set the case down on a bench to the side.
“Here’s another lot. I need these set today, if possible, Flynn.”
He hesitated before he turned away.
“But don’t push yourself too much. Whatever you can get done by closing is fine. Finish up the rest tomorrow.”
The younger man looked at the case with an odd, queasy expression, which Tyron ignored.
“Are you two alright closing up? I’m going to bed.”
Now he turned and stomped back upstairs, throwing off his clothes and collapsing into bed. When he woke, he could check on his experiments. He greatly anticipated the results.
Comments
Sparky357
Also with dove I think it's just wrong that the vampire snatched him that should be illegal give him back to tyron he needs him !
Sparky357
Would like to to extend congrats to you for writing a beautiful ending to book two looking forward to the shop/grind arc.
Aertheron
Author is a man, who probably should consult a cleaning expert xD
Seeker10
Ye I also believe that the cap will go higher as the main class improves as it does not make sense if you are level 100 necromancer but only level 40 enchanter those 40 level will not stack up well with the one 100 and practically will not be used or not mandatory to use. That said the cap could be for those who don't want to level the main class or can't (in case of burning class). In that case it would be consistent that burning class basically criples you.
Jonathan Williams
There's is nothing stopping the author later allowing the sub classes to go past 40. No humans in The story know what happens when you hit 80 or later levels. The gods have stopped the spread of knowledge. Might be that hitting those levels allows higher subclass to level, or duel classes.... Or removes all classes and combines into a new class based on all classes and subclasses... Frankly it'd be silly if he isn't able to level the sub classes skills more after getting higher leveled.
Icharris
Same here. Holding out hope. I’m of course not hoping he brings all 4 classes to 100. But breaking through the limit and getting 1 more advancement and raising the cap to 60 would really be great. 40 just feels to much like he’ll cap out his sub classes well well before he gets anywhere close to level 100 (or even 80) in his main class.
Nathan Quitugua
Might still have some hope for that. This is a magical settiing with old gods vs new...and i'm sure others before Tyron have chaffed at having a hard limit of 40 so someone, somewhere mustve come up with a way to increase that limit through hard work, epic magic, long lost artifacts or dangerous rituals. I'd hold out hope
Lennert De Jaegher
Sub-classes being strong, but significantly weaker (they usually give less stats) than the main class is what makes this system so interesting. It's all about powerfull, but hard and life altering choices. The main class is who you fundamentally are and the sub-classes are there to support them. This is why your main class being burned out is such a Big deal. You destroy a fundamental part of what makes you you. I hope that there isn't a cheat for this cause that would make the whole system lame and the main-class irrelevant.
Nathan Quitugua
True, but the impression I got was that he gained alot of money from his parents. So at this point, i doubt money is really an issue for him since he was the son of 2 of the greatest slayers so i can only assume they were able to get him a new identity, a bank account with money to last him a lifetime and possibly people they trust 100% to watch over him using various means. Hell, thier gifts might be enchanted with an SOS or spying function from his in the shadow protectors his parents have set up.
87894354
Thanks for the chapter. A pair of tiny little typos: "polished hardwood *flaws*": should be "floors", not "flaws". "affronted that Master *Almsfield* work could be doubted": should be "Almsfield's".
stubs
I mostly agree, but the business is more than a side benefit. It is critical to his whole undercover operation. Danger to his business, is indirectly a danger to his plans. The main danger is not arcanists going to Shadetown for customers (as you said, they're probably too snobby to stoop to picking pennies), but of established arcanists start losing custom from within the wall to Tyron's cheaper, if marginally inferior, product. Undercutting their prices. Not every arcanist can be top tier, and not every citizen within the wall is necessarily too prideful, or loaded, to scoff at the chance to sacrifice 30% output for a massive discount. (e.g. getting two cheap weaker heaters for half the price of one expensive one) And the danger in this is not Tyron losing profits, but risk of industrial espionage or sabotage attempts accidentally uncovering something they shouldn't. Also, even though it's a facade, I think Tyron still needs the money to maintain the business/secret lab, and to acquire any resources he might need. Money is just a tool to him, but a necessary tool nonetheless.
Icharris
Honestly the subclass thing was my favorite thing of this novel. Was always a huge multi class and gestalt character fan in D&D. Kinda crushed they have such a limit compared to main classes which can seemingly go to 100? Platinum slayer is 80 so I assume the cap the gods don’t want you to reach is 100. 40 is just so low compared to 100 of the main class… plus Tyron already has 2/3 subclasses filled out. 😔 will see how things work out I suppose
Icharris
Bit sad about the subclass thing. I was always curious what made them “sub” since they seem to gain same number of feet’s/skills/etc as main class. I was hoping it was simply a fact that subclasses level slower than main classes. This hard limit is really quite sad. Hope he finds a way around it. It’d be more tolerable if it was 2 advancements and level 60. But one advancement only is disappointing…
Sam Miller
Chrysalis tomorrow! Hell yes!!!
Nathan Quitugua
Not to be a stickler, but we are all still waiting for that status page :) On another note, i love this little bit of slice of life portion. If it wasnt for the events of the last couple of chapters, I could see him transition to being more scholarly and just plumbing the depths of magick.
Sean Hibbitt
Thanks for the chapter!! Dove, no dove, I trust you. You're a great writer and botd has been such a nice read this far! :)
Nathan Quitugua
I doubt any arcanist worth his salt is trying to corner the poor people market. And im sure anyone that wants to know how he makes his stuff just has to ask and he'll freely share it because thats just the kind of guy Tyron is and that this whole thing is really just to improve his undead anyways. The business is just a side benefit and a cover.
Hammy
great Chapter, But I am most disturbed by her cleaning habit. You clean from the top down! You don't start at the floor and work your way up!
stubs
it's gd he's not competing with the market. if his mote affordable product starts attracting the less well-to-do within the wall the diminished sales might attract the ire of his competitors.
I think it’s a far better way of bringing him back then my idea of him calling his soul to talk to find he’s sad or bored or being tortured by the gods.
CentaureHeart
I would think there is nothing holding him back from learning to enchant bigger and stronger cores. We've seen that you can learn stuff without your class to improve it. So of course he's limited compared to other main class Enchanter but nothing is preventing him from learning more on his own. It will be less efficient and take way longer to master but it's not an unbreakable wall. The limiting factor is more that he doesn't care about bigger cores because he doesn't need them for Necromancy. Can't wait to see the result of his experiment
CentaureHeart
Well I mean, the action that led to this consequence is that he fucked with an ancient vampire and got trapped as a result
David Burchfield
I am happy to have Dove back he made a good foil to Tyron. However he deaths were both dramatic, with the second one doing a great job highlighting Tyron's character (keeping his word and facing a hard reality of his situation without giving up). I am along for the ride and will enjoy getting to see him again but I do think it would have been more impactful and meaningful to keep him dead (actions have consequences).
