Mist of Shadows
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Dungeon Myst Part 5
🕑 Added 2023-09-02 05:56:21 +0000 UTCMyst twitched and nearly fell off the edge of the stone platform when his HUD's alarm went off, letting him know that the smelter was done and pulling him out of his thoughts. He turned to look at the smelter and found himself staring at a large grime covered cobblestone building with three crooked chimneys sticking out of a shoddy slate roof, distracting him from the fact that he'd been drifting for a couple of hours.
"Pretty sure a group of fifth graders could make a better structure," he muttered as he glanced between the poorly constructed wooden door and the vaguely rectangular gaps in the wall that were probably supposed to be windows. 'Stop bitching, it could be worse,' he told himself, thinking of the survival games that a couple of his friends were always talking about where you had to build everything from the ground up.
He opened his HUD and pulled up the menu for the smelter. He scowled when he looked at the amount of wood he'd have to burn to smelt enough iron to create the lumber mill. 'I'm going to need an entire team of lumberjacks, at least I don't have to feel guilty about clear-cutting the blight.'
Myst selected the undead miner and the scrap iron that he'd collected from the trollocs and pushed the button, causing a cloud of nasty looking smoke to start pouring out of the chimneys. "I'm going to have to fix that."
"Do you want me to help with the forge or head back to the Blight to 'recruit' more minions?" the skeleton mage asked as he walked over.
"Give me a second to check something," Myst replied as he glanced at the forge's progress bar and checked to see if reassigning 'people' would help. "No real point in helping with the forge, you'd only save us a couple of minutes and they'll be done in less than fifteen. Go ahead and work on creating more skeletons, we'll need them if we have to deal with an army."
"Thy will be done," the mage replied in his gravelly voice as he headed for the portal.
Myst glanced at his mana bar, noting that it had finished refilling while he'd been drifting. 'No point in sitting on a full tank of mana.' He checked the smelter, curious if recruiting miners took mana or gold. He glanced between the grayed out option to recruit a miner and the option to train a miner. "Fifty mana to recruit a unit with mining skill isn't that bad. Of course, I'd need a connection to a town or a decent population. Two hours to train someone but you need someone with the mining skill and access to rock, I wonder if I could use that to teach people advanced skills,' he mused, thinking about the skeleton with advanced blacksmithing.
Myst checked his stone reserves. 'That's enough for the lumber mill which means I might as well start training more miners.' He selected one of the trolloc skeletons and frowned when the required training time jumped up to ten hours without the Accept icon lighting up. 'Is that because he's stupid?' he mused as he selected the miner, making sure it wasn't just a glitch. 'Lovely, fucking braindead undead.'
He swapped the trolloc skeleton for the undead knight, noting the fact that the required time had dropped down to two hours. He hit the accept button then selected the skeleton with Cooking and Farming, getting a warning about how unintelligent undead could only have one skill via training. 'I guess that shouldn't be a surprise.'
Myst closed the menu for the smelter as he didn't have another miner to train anyone and pulled up his Enchanting menu, wishing the system had included some basic enchantments or that he'd had enough time to learn some of the cursed enchantments. 'At least it comes with the ability to study magic items and disenchant them for patterns,' he mused as he walked over to where one of his minions had left the fade's folded up cloak and its cursed sword on a block of stone so they wouldn't accidentally step on the cursed blade.
He picked the sword up and dropped it into his enchanting box. 'Fifty mana to try to reverse engineer it without damaging it, chance of failure based on skill level and the complexity of the enchantment or I can break it for free and get material and have a chance to get a random, yet related pattern.'
'Yeah, no point in duplicating the tainted piece of shit.' Myst hit the disenchant button and let the system guide his hands through the process of deconstructing the cursed sword with magic. He smiled when he finished deconstructing the blade and got two ingots of magical steel and a new pattern for his trouble.
'Vampiric blade,' he mused as he dropped the magical metal in his material storage and pulled up the details for his new enchantment. "Heals the user based on how much damage they deal, living or undead, nice. Recommended: Death Affinity and a weapon created from magical material? Would it kill the system to actually explain things?"
'Then again, maybe it's just explaining things that I should already know based on learning the enchantment,' he mused, not actually sure how everything worked. 'I'll just have to run some tests." He picked up the fade's cloak and dropped it in his enchanting window then hit the disenchant button, letting his hands and magic tear the cloak apart, picking up a bolt of phase silk and two patterns.
"Cloak of Twisted Invisibility and a Wind Cloak?" he muttered as he checked the description of the invisibility enchantment. 'Activating this cloak partially pulls the user into a shadow dimension that slowly consumes anything living, dealing one point of damage every second the user is cloaked. Yeah, that sounds like a good way to end up looking like Deadpool, fuck that.'
He looked at the Wind Cloak enchantment that let you control how the wind affected your cloak, including billowing when there wasn't enough wind. "That's basically just a cosmetic effect, but it's cheap and you can stack enchantments."
Myst dropped the bolt of phase silk into his storage then walked over to the edge of the platform to watch the sunset while he waited for the team of idiots to finish building the forge. 'This would be so much easier if I had flying minions or minions that could survive the fall.' He briefly considered the merits of turning the phase silk into a parachute before discarding the idea as he didn't have a method of retrieving the unit and he didn't want to waste the silk.
"Relax and take a breath that you don't need," he told himself then promptly jumped when the system alert informed him that the forge was completed. He glanced at the system clock on his HUD, wondering if he'd lost track of time while disenchanting the fade's gear or if he'd just lost track of time. He turned and stared at the forge that was basically a fire pit and a rather lumpy and rusty anvil.
"I hate survival games," he grumbled as he pulled up the menu for the forge on his HUD, not particularly surprised that the option to recruit a smith was grayed out. He opened the project tab and sighed in relief when he saw the patterns for the draw blade and whipsaw that he needed for the lumber mill. 'This would probably be easier if I had an actual woodcarver that didn't have mold for brains but it's a start.'
He assigned the smith to make the blades he needed for the lumber mill and sighed when a notice popped up informing him that he needed a file to create the whipsaw. He pulled up the pattern for the file and scowled when he saw the notice that the resulting file's durability stat depended on what it was made out of, implying that it had a durability rating you needed to worry about. 'I'm going to fucking kill someone if I have to micromanage this shit once I get things rolling.'
Myst added an ingot of steel then selected the fire treated option that probably came from having a blacksmith with an advanced skill. He frowned when he got a popup notice that informed him that his forge wasn't good enough to heat treat the file. "Fuck it," he grumbled as he swapped the steal ingot for one of the magical ingots then assigned his fire mage to help when the system complained that he wouldn't be able to get it hot enough.
"When in doubt, toss magic at it," he muttered as he hit the icon to start the project. He checked the time that it would take to create the rest of the blades for the lumber mill then checked the time it would take to make the metal half of a mining pick out of the magical metal using the mage's help. 'Ten minutes? Yeah, I can wait on the saws.'
Myst swapped the order he wanted the projects created so the smith would create the pick then the draw blade and the whipsaw last in case there was a problem with the file and he didn't notice. He frowned when he looked over the collection of patterns that the smith could create and noticed a decent number of gaps. He added a skinning knife to the queue on the off chance that you could pick the skill up by using the tools then closed the page as the mage walked out of the portal.
"Change your mind…" the mage trailed off when he noticed the condition of the forge. "You're going to need an actual stone mason to fix that."
"Probably," Myst agreed. "Unfortunately we don't have one which means we need to cheat. Can you get the fire hot enough?"
"Of course," the mage replied as he walked towards the forge as the undead blacksmith walked over with his hammer.
"We're going to have to upgrade his anvil and tongs if you're serious about making decent weapons," the mage pointed out as he started pouring fire magic into the fire pit so the smith could start crafting the file.
"They're on the list." Myst used his possession ability on one of the undead with combat ability then headed for the portal. "I'm going to make some explosive crystal skulls, let me know if there's a problem with the product."
"Understood," the mage replied as he focused on heating up the magical metal in the fire pit, doing his best to make up for the barely functional forge.
0o0o0
Harry finished double checking the supplies he'd grabbed from his neighbor's garage then glanced at the stairs. "She's been in there a while, I should probably check to make sure she's okay," he muttered as he headed up the stairs.
"Stealth mode, when you're sneaking and you get caught, you'll often miss valuable opportunities," the voice announced as Harry walked down the hallway.
Harry felt a little silly as he dropped into a crouch like he was a character in a video game and walked the last ten feet to the bathroom door. He frowned when he noticed that the door to the bathroom had a weird skeleton key lock, the type that let you look through the lock. 'Yeah, I'm not Dudley.'
"Are you finished…" Harry trailed off as everything faded out of existence and he found himself in a cave with hundreds of glowing mushrooms growing out of the walls and three weird creatures sitting in hula hoop sized rings carved into the ground. "What the hell?!"
"Welcome to the pet tutorial," the voice announced.
Harry sighed in frustration as he realized that he'd forgotten that he wasn't supposed to use the word finish unless he wanted to end the other tutorial. 'Hopefully the girl's okay,' he thought as he glanced around the cave, not sure what to think of the glowing Exit sign over the tunnel that he was standing in front of as it seemed out of place. "How does it work?"
"Simply pick one of the pets I've provided and you'll find you have a number of icons on your display. I'll lead you through a short tutorial then you'll possess your pet and run through an obstacle course," the voice announced as three weird looking animals appeared in front of him.
Harry glanced at the large fluffy house cat that was a bright orange then at the cat sized yellow rat with a bushy tail that looked to have just gotten out of the dryer then focused on the dog, wondering why it looked normal, at least until he noticed that it had two tails. "Let's go with the cat."
"Kneazle hybrids make excellent pets and are more likely to follow your directions than other cats, unless they're hungry or think you're being silly," the voice announced as several cat toys appeared scattered around the cave. "All you need to do is focus on an object and use the retrieve command."
"Muffin?" Harry blurted out when he saw the cat's name appear.
"Meow," the cat replied, as if to say, 'What can you do?'
Harry focused on the toy rat and tapped the retrieve command, causing the cat to walk over and grab the toy rat. "Nice…" he trailed off when Muffin just sat down with the rat and started gnawing on it. "You're supposed to come back here."
Muffin glanced at Harry then went back to gnawing on the toy.
"Get back here." Harry tapped the return icon and sighed in relief when Muffin got up and walked over with the rat in its mouth.
"Try some of the other commands then use your Possession ability so we can start the obstacle course," the voice said.
Harry double checked his pet bar. "I don't have a button for possessing things."
"Unleashing Ripper, please use your available pets to defeat the abomination," the voice announced as a familiar bulldog appeared on the other side of the cave.
"Shit!" Harry cursed, worried about the cat since his aunt's dog was an antisocial monster. He quickly selected the dodge command when the yapping monster charged at Muffin, intent on killing him. He lashed out at Ripper with his telekinesis, sending the dog skidding backwards before he felt his spell collapse.
"I'm sorry, only pet abilities can be used to defeat Ripper," the voice announced.
Harry unconsciously reached out with his magic as he turned to look at the giant yellow rat and shouted, "Kill Ripper!"
Ripper growled and charged the rat that dared challenge him since the cat was moving too fast.
'Attack, dodge, fetch, two eyes?' he mused as he tapped the icon on Boo's action bar that had two googly eyes, causing the rat to let out a spine shivering squeal and jump at the dog, easily clearing the twenty feet in a single leap.
"Blinding your opponents can be quite effective," the voice announced as the rat clawed Ripper's eyes out before dashing out of range.
Harry focused on the two tailed dog and tapped the attack icon on the dog's action bar when it appeared, causing Spot to charge Ripper. He tapped the attack option on Muffin's bar and watched the two pets take Ripper apart, feeling a lot better about his life when he watched the evil beast turn into motes of light and vanish, leaving behind a book and a collar.
"Congratulations, you have dealt with a significant source of mental trauma, you will be rewarded with one Elixir of Knowledge when you complete the tutorial," the ethereal voice stated.
'I'm not sure that dog counts as a significant source of mental trauma, but he was certainly annoying,' Harry thought as he walked over and grabbed the book and the collar. "One Hundred and One Uses for Possession?" he asked as he opened the book, causing the book to burn the information into his mind.
0o0o0
Myst's attention was pulled away watching the undead smith put the finishing touches on the skinning knife with the magical file when he heard the sound of metal scraping on stone behind him. He spun around and stared at the violently thrashing human shaped pincushion that was being dragged across the stone by eight skeletons and two rather thick ropes looped around its ankles. "How many shots did it take to drop it?"
"Seven, the rest were to make sure it wasn't faking," the mage replied as he circled around the trashing and mostly dead creature. "I was curious if you could create another gem."
"Worth a try," Myst replied as he walked over and cast his magic extraction spell on the arrow-ridden shadowspawn, causing it to stop moving and creating a glowing blue gem in his hand. "Yeah, we're good. How many skeletons did you lose capturing it?"
"Nine, it teleported out of the shadows when I tossed a fireball at a patrol," the mage replied.
'I'll take that trade,' Myst thought as he walked over, unhooked the creature's cloak and disenchanted it, getting another bolt of phase silk and a pattern. "Nice, I just got an enchantment to increase the user's ability to move silently."
"Cloaks only?" the mage asked, wondering if he was going to have to figure out how to wear a cloak without it interfering in his casting abilities.
"Not required," Myst replied as he put the phase silk in his storage. "Toss the body and keep patrolling, I'll send some more woodcutters once the team finishes building the lumber mill."
"I'll take care of it," the skeleton mage replied as he directed the skeletons holding the ropes to turn around and drag the fade's corpse back through the portal.
Myst turned his attention back to the smith that was making a skinning knife. "Did any of the trolloc skeletons manage to get skinning?"
"Nothing so far, undead generally only end up with skills if the person they were created from was exceptionally skilled or if they end up intelligent," the mage explained.
"Good to know," Myst replied as he turned back to look at the mage. "Can you have the skeletons collect the heads of the broken skeletons? I can turn them into explosive crystal skulls."
"I'll have them brought back," the mage replied, then turned and walked through the portal.
"Thanks," Myst replied as he turned his attention back to the smith working on the knife.
0o0o0
Harry blinked as he walked through the exit to the cave after spending an hour running through the obstacle course with each of the pets and found himself floating in a black void. "Hello?"
"Congratulations on finishing the pet tutorial, unfortunately we're out of vouchers to give your pet laser eyes so you'll have to settle for an upgrade to your collar to include a Someone Else's Problem Field," the voice announced.
"Okay," Harry replied, not sure why anyone in their right mind would want to give a pet the ability to blast people with lasers.
"Thank you for being understanding and welcome to the relationship tutorial," the voice replied as a large collection of pictures appeared in front of Harry of people he'd never met.
"Great," Harry muttered.
"Is there a problem?" the voice asked.
"I haven't exactly had a lot of experience making friends and the Dursleys aren't exactly normal," Harry complained.
"Don't worry, the tutorial system has your back, we can provide 'helpful' conversation options and we'll freeze time between talking points to give you time to consider your options," the voice assured him.
"Okay," Harry replied, knowing better than to skip the tutorial as that was usually what screwed Dudley over.
"Let's start with something easy, making enemies and friends with people inclined to fit their respective roles. Make friends with the red haired kid and insult the blond child, bonus points if you can get him to attack you," the tutorial said, causing the picture of a blond haired boy to light up for a second before Harry found himself in a train compartment with a red haired boy in hand-me-down robes.
Harry took a couple of seconds to look around the cabinet, curious why the kid was wearing robes and had a chess set on the table as he didn't particularly like chess. He glanced down at his clothes, not sure if he should be surprised to find himself in robes that appeared nicer than the shabby robes the other kid was wearing, something that seemed out of place. He looked at the floating text bubbles floating around the kid's head like a video game. 'Why are your robes shabby? White or Black? Why is your family poor when they can use magic? That's easy enough,' he thought after reading the options. "White or Black?"
"Black, that means you go first," Ron replied as he finished setting up the board.
'No shit? Seriously? Is the system trying to get me to fail? Then again, that has to be better than 'Do you have any naked pictures of your sister?' Harry glanced at the other option floating over Ron's head. "Sure," he offered, figuring it was the safest bet. He'd barely moved a pawn when the door opened, revealing the blond boy in the picture and two large kids that looked like they were held back a couple of years.
"Is it true? Is Harry Potter in the compartment?" Draco asked as he looked at Harry and his scar.
'Sorry, my name is Jack Frost and you're ruining my chill? Or, why are you looking for Harry Potter? 'My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!' might be amusing but that wouldn't let me figure out what he's talking about and actually admitting that I'm Harry doesn't sound particularly fun.' He focused on Draco. "Why are you looking for Harry Potter?"
"Because he's famous and I can help him make the right sort of connections," Draco looked at Ron with disdain, "unlike some people. Hand-me-down robes, red hair and a worn out wand, you've got to be a Weasley."
'Connections? Are you offering to set your sister up for a date? I think I can figure out my own friends, thank you very much or 'Have you considered buying some manners?' Harry mused as he looked over the options. He briefly considered going with the second and the last option as he figured that would piss the prick off but figured he might as well go for the gold since it was just a tutorial. "Connections? Are you offering to set your sister up for a date?"
"What? I don't have a sister," Draco replied.
Harry barely avoided laughing as he read the first option, figuring it was better than saying, 'I guess we have nothing to talk about then.' or 'Well, damn that was just about the only reason I'd want to talk with you since I could buy your entire estate with my trust fund and still have enough left for seven years of school.' He sighed. "Your mother? Wait, how closely are we related anyway?"
Draco sputtered then grabbed at his wand, forgetting for a second that he didn't know enough combat spells. "Leave my mother alone!"
"Are you saying you wouldn't bang your mother?" Harry sputtered, forgetting for a second that he wasn't supposed to be reading them outloud.
"No, what the hell is wrong with you?" Draco sputtered.
"I just figured it had to run in the family, right? How closely are your parents related? Hair that shade has to be in the same family, right?" Harry asked after reading the other options that sounded like they were trying to talk his way out of the hole he was gleefully digging. He had a moment of satisfaction as Draco's face turned purple and the redhead sputtered before the goons lurched forward to grab him and he found himself back in the black void.
"Objective failed, you weren't supposed to piss everyone off," the voice offered. "Would you like to try again?"
"How did I piss the redhead off?" Harry asked, trying not to laugh about the insane dialog options.
"His parents have remarkably similar hair colors despite not being all that closely related for purebloods, thus your comments implied something you didn't intend," the voice explained.
"Okay, let's try that again," Harry said, looking forward to exploring all of the options.
0o0o0
