The Dungeon Raid Pt4

Personally fusing Hardened Hickory and Elder Oak to produce a Hardened Elder Wood, I quickly put together only a dozen planks and a simply three-ply sheet to make a round-topped coffin of sorts.

What else would you carry an undead familiar or golem in when it is inactive? The Player Inventory was off limits due to current and general combat restrictions so that was a no. this guy weighed almost two hundred pounds alone and now came in a forty-pound magic box. That was a large chunk of my carrying capacity that originally only a fourth of which was in use when coming down here.

Having been curious about the effects of other magics, I transported my cordycep strung puppet over to the divine pond where the energies were rampantly swarming the area without anyone condensing them. I barely made it within thirty yards of the pond before a notification and Melpomene's voice stopped me in my tracks.

[Chaotic Soul Golem has been exposed to holy mana and is being Cleansed]

[Chaotic Soul Golem Cleansed: 3%]

[Chaotic Soul Golem Cleansed: 5%]

The notifications continued for as long as I stayed in place and actually reached ten percent in only a few seconds before I finally started walking away. Two steps back the way I came, the notifications stopped and I ask, "What's this cleansing thing about?"

[You created an inanimate soul infused with chaos and dark elements, the holy mana of what was once a spirit spring is cleansing the soul you created. Because it was created from these impure elements, it can never be fully Cleansed. The limit of Cleansing for your creation is fifty percent and will not bear any negative effects. The body itself will simply be refined into a stronger substance while the soul will gain some sentience]

Deciding I should take advantage of this for now before attempting to study and experiment with material enchantments, I carry the coffin marked with a simple blackened cross branding on the upper area of the lid down into the pond. Closer to the source of the mana, the rate of Cleansing sped up and I did not even need to go all of the way down into the pond before I had achieved fifty percent.

Even the box itself had been blessed with 'LongevityII', allowing it to repair itself twice after dropping below fifty percent durability.

A peek at the contents of the box both in person and among my familiars list showed me that the ratings and specs for the body's material and parts had risen sharply while the once black crystalline substance was now a smokey gray like the discoloration in its otherwise purple eye fire. The 'bones' still shone with a dark purple light but the light itself was somewhat muted but the smoky frosting on the crystalline pieces.

The golem was not blessed like the box had been but I was more than satisfied with the results. The others were silently meditating and refining mana much slower than they had been earlier, having forgotten completely to condense the mana around themselves. However, I did not bother to bother them as I laid the coffin on some small boulders in the side of the dried pond and opened it to work.

Infusing my mana and perception into the material of the skeleton itself for the first time since I had acquired any soul bone, I find myself breaking down and reassembling its crystalline microstructure in my head while searching for forms and fittings that suited different purposes.

After achieving a few basic transmutation and material enchantments, I start actually working the magic on the golem by strengthening the resilience and shock absorbency of its body while increased the hardness of its claws and fangs. Once the material phase was over, I take out from my belt a few divine mana crystals and transmute them into a triangle of flat prisms above and between the golem's eyes.

Between each of these I placed conduction enchantments before giving them all the strongest Flash Step enchantments that I could muster. The trio of mana crystals created a compounded enchantment, giving the golem eight uses of a one-hundred-yard Flash Step that recharged every hour. Into each 'knuckle I embedded sets of four more divine mana crystals and cast on them individual stat enchantments.

Each enchantment with these materials was worth thirty points apiece, with two crystals for either Strength and Endurance and four crystals for Agility. Upon its sternum were placed my current last two divine mana crystals, both in roughly teardrop shapes so that I could place them facing one another at angles.

Instead of actually enchanting these two, I channeled the essence of my Shadowmancy into each crystal for the full worth of my MP, taking several minutes of rest in between each crystal. After either crystal could no longer sustain my mana, I gave the sternum itself a conduction enchantment that immediately began drawing in the darkness energies.

[Learned Skill Enchantment: Shadowmancy]

[+1500XP]

[+1500 Expert Enchanting XP]

This, hopefully, meant that my golem with its 'slight' sentience should have access to my own Shadowmancy skill with twice the mana darkness mana behind it as well as the divine crystals for overall mana pools.

Content with these works for now, I leave the closed coffin and its contents resting on the inner wall of the pond before carefully and quietly making my way around the others to get to my sword. The energy ripples around the sword were strong enough that my friends had to sit around ten feet away to meditate. Any closer than that and the ripples actually started pushing me back.

Getting to my own sword actually took a few moments of effort, but when I finally got there it was to find that the split and its preceding seam had extended past the guard and down between the central fullers on the spine of the sword. Both halves of the sword were left with traces of golden light emitting from the splitting spines, contrasting noticeably with either the black darkness or white light expelled from either half of the weapon.

I was unsure of how this would turn out because no information would come up in my menus or from Appraisal and Melpomene would simply ignore my few inquiries. After a few moments of just studying the weapon up close while bracing against the ripples of energy, I simply hop up and silently open my wings to let the ripples push me back and up.

While I kept myself busy around three hours had passed and yet I had heard no news from the scouts above the cathedral or reports from the other leaders. Zekrom himself seemed to still be busy organizing minions in front of the property because he was not present to condense the graveyard. Any of these people would have surely noticed enemy movements if there had been any.

Yet, there were no signs of anything of the sort. Even when I flew a few hundred feet up into the air to scout the surroundings, there were no demons at all in sight around the outposts. It almost appeared as if they were hiding.

Since the sounds and light shows would have been impossible to miss no matter the distance, it was impossible for the enemy not to know their siege had failed. Could they be scared and doing their best to limit the spread of information both ways while they plan a secondary course of action?

All of the front outposts closest to us had been reinforced the most by the outposts on the far side of the city manor so they would most likely be responsible for any further actions. Since they had all they people, they also had all the cards right now and thus were the most important parts of the encirclement around the manor. If something happened to them, the others would be heavily weakened as a result.

Gliding down from my scouting position to land out front where Zekrom was still hard at work I silently joined him and his few dozen humanoid undead minions putting together different designs of more minions. I had no means of permanently reanimating undead the way he did and I was not patient enough to sort through bones, so there really was not much for me to do here.

Except to tell him, "When you're done here, I need you to work on converting the cathedral's skeleton people. If we can reconstruct their bodies out of our materials, we can make them equal to most of the demons in physical combat power. How long do you think this will take?"

"If I leave it to these lesser servants, it would take them the rest of the night and some of the morning before they finish sorting and I can raise the fiends at once," he replies without stopping in his work of bone sorting. "Converting the people of the cathedral, though, will take about a day even if I can manage it safely. How much did were you planning on wasting?"

"I was going to take my people out to greet our new neighbors while you reinforce our troops," I reply honestly while watching him keep himself busy. "You'll be left in charge of the place once we head out, but there's not really much for you or the skeletons to do besides work on crafting weapons after you're done converting their bodies.

"My current crystallized soul is much stronger than what you consumed, what weapons we manage to make while you're away will be among the strongest possible," he assures me quickly. "My magic might not be meant for it, but I do know a few techniques for magic crafts passed down by the ancestors."

Nodding my head as I turn to leave, I simply say, "Good, keep up the good work," before flapping off into the air. Gliding into a quick landing in front of the cathedral, I head inside in search of the other clan leaders.

The three leaders and not just their elites but their elite crafters were all gathered together off to one side of the grand entry hall that was mostly dedicated to large groups of crafters working by hand. This few dozen people in particular were currently fashioning hundreds of polearm spears with large glassy heads that glowed with heat or crackled with electricity.

After examining a few items I find that their material processing was not much different from my own in method despite mine having buffed effect. The PATK of the weapon had gone up despite the one-time use of its head, meaning the shaft itself was just that overwhelming. Without making some for everyone to naked enchant I could not tell the actual difference but then again I only kind of wanted to know.

What is they resented me being better? What if someone among them turns out better than me?! The shame itself would be one thing but the actual repercussions could negatively affect my titles and abilities.

My first real crafting achievement was Top Hammer Noob and I got that just because nobody answered my excited challenge in the municipal smithy!

For the time being, I could only slowly psyche myself up to go through with such a challenge while simply stepping forward to call for attention by saying, "How much longer until you guys are done? We needed to be ready to move out yesterday."

Answering the call with a level but resistant gaze, Mr. Thirteen says, "We'll be done with these in about half an hour. This isn't all we have to do, though. We haven't even come close to outfitting all of the NPC."

"Zekrom will be able to handle that," I reassure him while resisting the urge to give him a dismissive wave. "We'll be converting all of the skeletons into crystal like Zekrom's armor and then they'll be able to craft their own weapons. Since his evolution, they will probably be even stronger than the sword blanks I gave you up top."

"Yeah, about those," Donna cuts in a little hotly. "They're great and all, we converted the blanks into a thousand arrows that do more than fifty damage apiece, but that's still not much. that's basically one PVP battle if it's easy for us. If it's hard, it's only enough to open the fight with. If you can shit these materials, lay us a few more golden eggs."

Oh? You seek to piss off the golden goose? You have succeeded!

"Fine, but you'll have to earn it," I say after coming to a final decision. "All of you, have your people finish these works and prepare to move out with at least half of their rations and field supplies. The four of us will play a little game. I just made a new familiar who still needs weapons, each of us will make a simple English longsword from the same material as those spear shafts. You will each be rewarded based on the quality and level restriction of your weapon. Come with me!"

Not even waiting for any of them to respond, I start walking off toward a relatively private location among several low tables stacked high with siege supplies. Here I simply produce four four-foot bars of chaos soul stone and say, "Help me, Melpomene, you're my only hope."

After blessing the sword blanks, I look around to find that only Mistress had kept pace with me while Donna and Little Thirteen were walking at a more leisurely pace still catching up. "I have high hope for you already," I say while watching the other two with a meaningful look, passing one of the sword blanks to Mistress. "Go ahead and get started."

Honestly, my hopes in her work were there because she led a crafting clan while the others led top clans in general but I left things ambiguous on purpose to give her more motivation. Even though I originally intended to cut ties with her and her clan after the boss battle, I ended up getting tricked into completing the raid for them and they had made it down into the dungeon.

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