[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 105: Settling Down

“Are you secretly a cultist?” Raiko asked Lenal bluntly the next morning. “You have to tell me, if you are. That’s… the rules? Yes, that sounds right.”

The elf hesitated, put on the spot. Who would expect a question like that after all?

Basically, are you secretly an assassin or what?

“N-no, Sage Raiko,” she answered nervously. “I would never—”

“Good enough for me. Don’t worry, you’re welcome here. Just… couldn’t help myself, really.”

Kai carefully placed his bundle of logs and kindling into the firepit, surrounded by the low barrier of molded stone. The additional [Wind Crystals] Raiko was in the middle of setting into the chimney would help channel the smoke away.

Otherwise, that’d be a quick and pointless way to die.

All it took was climbing a chimney with nothing but her bare hands. Dexterity was far from her highest stat, and yet the [Shinobi Finesse] Skill Sphere did wonders for climbing just about anything with nimbleness.

Wall running and wall jumping were quite easy as a Ninja.

Though the opening was narrow enough that she could brace against the sides anyway, it was hardly a difficult task.

Hopping down, Raiko swept her senses through her mana.

What element is it now? I swear, better not be Stone mana. That’s the worst one for a cutting edge, Raiko thought.

Tapping into Chaos was a risky business, but less so after rejoining with her body. It seemed that was her way of asserting claim over the Apocalypse Gate, however much one could control Chaos, anyway.

Though Raiko was more than capable of wielding Chaos mana now, the means to handle it directly were not clear. Truthfully, she didn’t particularly like the idea of Chaos coursing through her spirit and mind.

This way, it seemed as if there were two sides to the apocalyptic mana. One where it was Chaos, and the other its manifested mana type through the elemental wheel.

When Raiko seized it, it turned into whatever type of mana it felt like. And when she observed it, such as what she was presently doing, it behaved similarly.

She couldn’t even tell if it was Water mana laced with Chaos mana. It outwardly acted like Water mana.

Finally, it switched from Water mana to Fire mana. Her blade flashed out, slicing a curl of flame into the logs.

The hunks of [Zuu Meat] sizzled above the cookfire.

“It would seem that this structure isn’t quite the caliber a Builder might make,” Lenal spoke up, unwilling to look at her directly.

“I would hope they could make better than this,” Raiko admitted with a laugh. “The materials we found are exceptionally useful, but this dome is more akin to surrounding ourselves with [Loamstone], [Ward Bamboo], and [Nature Crystals], along with the Skyshard’s durability itself.”

Which in itself was important. What else were the Skyshard’s levels and mana for?

Durability, strength, and defense. She could only hope that theory held true. If the Skyshard was level 50, presumably it might hold up better against a level 25 monster hacking away it, whereas a level 10 Skyshard would probably just disintegrate from each blow.

Likely, it was all further complicated by the materials it was made out of. Clearly, the [Loamstone] was stronger than some of the other landmass that didn’t even identify as anything.

Sam stepped through the doorway, after dragging aside the crudely tied together bamboo “door”. “Nice place you guys got here.”

Was he even bulkier? His Strength must have gone up even more. He hardly resembled the worn-out man she first met. He already seemed so much more like his true self.

“I’m sure it’s better than your beat-up tent,” Raiko said with no small amount of satisfaction, tearing her gaze away.

Komachi followed Sam atop her puppy-like mimic, looking everywhere at once. “Smells nice. Like outside!”

“It is certainly better than being out in the open at night.” Kai sat by the cookfire, watching over the food. “The Nature mana feels strong here, so much so I gained a temporary MP bonus overnight.”

“The perks of a Shaman being in their element,” Lenal said.

Sam looked around the place. “It’s large enough for all of us. I wish I could bring the [Sourcestone] down here. But I did one just as good.” He pulled out the [Archflame Coal] from his pocket. It was no longer the dull black thing he had inherited. It was a white hot glow that warped the air with its heat.

And yet Sam was holding it in the palm of his gauntleted hand as if it was little more than a rock.

“I figure we can put it down here or somewhere central and, well, the Archflame can grow and contribute to the Skyshard. I found out this morning that if it’s near a Settlement Core, it doesn’t require fuel. In fact, I’ll swear it made the [Sourcestone] regenerate faster.”

“That’d be quite the advantage.” Raiko went over and studied the [Archflame Coal] closer. Its heat was uncomfortably intense, yet it was plain how incredible of a treasure it was. “The Tree is terribly low on runestones. The energy used to heal and other things.”

Sam set the coal into the firepit. Raiko had to shield her eyes from the conflagration that sprang forth.

“Sorry, sorry!” Sam said, holding out his hands to soothe the others. “My bad. There’s just a lot of mana here for the Archflame, way more than my Skyshard.” He went quiet and pensive.

“What is it?” Raiko asked. That look meant something. Sam wasn’t what she would consider smart, but he was clever. And of the two, that was far more dangerous.

“I think I have an idea, if you’ll humor me.”

“Always.”

***

As Sam explained his idea to Raiko, she became increasingly skeptical. Sam couldn’t blame her. But it was a solid idea and despite her misgivings, she was on board.

It wasn’t terribly complex, but there was a high chance of failure and he didn’t want to get anybody’s hopes up. Least of all himself.

Returning to Sil’mara, Sam put his hand on the [Sourcestone] feeling its pulsing lifeforce like a second heart. “I know you can’t exactly talk or anything, but what I’m about to do, I’m doing to help you. It’s lonely up here, and we’re exposed. Just try to keep that in mind, yeah? Mahalo.”

Down below, Sam could see Raiko hard at work, Sculpting the valley surrounding the hills where she had made a home of sorts. It wasn’t much, but it sure as hell beat tents.

As soon as Sam stepped foot into that dome, he could feel he was home. It was roomier than he figured, and she had already set up partitions for individual rooms.

With a little extra work, he could cut down some trees and roughly chop wood to make planks and beams for some proper doors and walls.

It wouldn’t be anything like what a proper Profession could do, but until they had those, doing it the rough and tumble way was the next best thing.

Sam looked toward the horizon, thinking about Kale as he often did whenever he looked at the big blue expanse all around him. “Where are you, buddy?”

Knowing him, probably having the time of his life. Not struggling to get by or having to build things with his hands and no tools.

At least, he fervently hoped so. The man had a hard enough life back on Earth, at least let this one be easier on him.

Turning back to the [Sourcestone], Sam knelt by its base. He put his hands on one of the chains and pulled with all of his might. The chain inched out of the stone ever-so-slowly, but even with his considerable Strength behind him, he could tell something would give before he could pull it out.

Very likely his back, but he didn’t want to break the rune stones at its base. They were very much like those around the Sacred Tree’s pool.

He thought of Breaking it, but the risk was far too great.

“Help me out here,” he pleaded with the [Sourcestone]. “You know what I want to do.”

As always, there was no reply. The [Sourcestone] wasn’t exactly a living creature in the same way as a person, or even an animal as far as he could understand.

It was alive, but not in any way he could relate to.

“All right,” Sam said. “Let’s try this again.”

The next hour passed in a flash as he tried everything he could think of to move the [Sourcestone]. He had known it would be a permanent thing back when he first put it into the ground, but he had hoped he could do something to undo it.

And then it hit him.

If he couldn’t remove the [Sourcestone]… he could remove the Tiles, couldn’t he?

That would just mean more land needed to be Sculpted out of the way. It was a big ask of Raiko, he knew. Her Sculpting took energy from both Raiko and the Sacred Tree, potentially the same sort of energy source as the healing pool.

Nobody wanted the Tree to be drained of energy.

But something about this just felt right to Sam.

Shutting his eyes, Sam reached out to the Sil’mara, his Skyshard. He could feel the tether between the [Sourcestone] and the Tiles. They were part of an intricate web of energy that crisscrossed the entire Skyshard and even seemed to arc through the air toward Raiko’s Skyshard below.

Gently, Sam released the [Sourcestone] from the [Barren Tile], rather than trying to pull the damn thing up by force or any of the other attempts that had failed spectacularly.

Strangely, it worked without a hitch.

There was a clean break along the border between the [Sourcestone’s] Tile and the [Barren Tile] nearby.

Holding his breath in case something went wrong, he focused on drawing the [Sourcestone] to the Archflame. They were two powerful sources of magic that he was intricately tied to.

He hadn’t been able to move the [Sourcestone] on its own, but he could draw the two together. And since Raiko’s Skyshard was the bigger of the two, Sam’s tiny Skyshard was pulled downward.

That left a cross-shaped piece of Sil’mara floating up in the air, oddly enough. Before they had gotten too far, Sam redid the [Makeshift Rope], tying it to a stone on the [Barren Tile].

It would be just his luck if they had a Skyshard up above that they couldn’t easily reach.

At least this way, they could climb the rope.

He still wanted to make something more permanent, but for now the [Makeshift Rope] would do. It had served so far. It could serve a little longer.

Resuming his previous attempt, Sam drew the two sources of magic closer and closer together. It took nearly an hour, and everybody seemed to be out in full force watching the spectacle.

Something Sam didn’t blame them for. It wasn’t as if they could help, and he had chosen to do this alone in case it failed catastrophically.

As the [Sourcestone] Tile fitted into the depression that Raiko made, he received two major notifications that put a smile on his face.

Your Sourcestone has joined with the Sacred Tree.

Would you like to create a Faction?

For a brief moment, Sam could see Raiko’s amazed expression as she read the same notification as his.

They shared a look, and both accepted at the same time.

They were already a faction in all but name. Joining their Settlement Cores was apparently a step in the right direction and the following information on factions only confirmed that what he had done was the right thing.

Besides the notifications though, Sam could not only feel the Sourcestone, but the Sacred Tree as well.

Its presence was friendly and welcoming.

He noted that the notifications no longer listed his Sourcestone as an item with brackets around it and wondered why that was.

But that paled in comparison to the vastness of the Skyshard before him. He could still feel the connection to the Tiles above, but also to each and every one on Raiko’s larger Skyshard.

This is just the beginning.