Chapter XXIII: The Eternal Grind Continues

The surprise party at the Respite ended without anyone getting hurt, mortal or otherwise. The locals had some fun and everyone went on their merry way once the party died out and whoever caused the atmosphere finally left, which one was first no one will ever know.

Though Reyvin had a sinking feeling that this was not the last time this kind of thing would happen.

'Eh, a good old party never killed no one' He put it out of his mind and focused on what is truly important: The ever evolving march of the grind.

(Reyvin's POV)

Slowly and carefully I apply more and more pressure on the artificial bone in my hand, the force of my grip spreads across the whole thing almost perfectly while it bends only slightly allowing the force to dissipate further without compromising on its base integrity.

"Definitely slightly above baseline Imperial." I press a bit harder and push it even further until I foresee that any more would break it "Just above baseline Nord as well." I comment as Marwyn furiously scribbles down my words.

"As predicted." Phineas comments from his standing table "We could have pushed it further but the goal is to create a functional living body, not a combat... suit." He settled on the word, a hint of morbid amusement in his tone.

I let out a dry chuckle "I'd say that was disturbing but at this point, I've disassembled so many people myself that not looking at bodies like they are just meat bags would just end up with me becoming a monk."

Phineas cackles "Oh woe is us when Reyvin the Butcher realizes the weight of his sins."

I blink and point at him threateningly "I don't like you very much right now."

And of course, the only answer he has is another Skeletor-esque cackle.

"In any case." I say, pointedly staring at the lich "I believe our next goal should be the circulatory system."

"Naturally." Phineas half scoffs "We cannot even begin with the neural system without it so we must trudge through the ancient art of bloodworks."

"Speaking of blood." I cup my chin thoughtfully "I might be able to get us an ancient vampire to help with that one whenever she returns from her most recent excursion."

"Ohoho!" Phineas rubs his hands while Marwyn just sighs in silence "You did not inform me you have made such a... prestigious acquaintance." The lich seems almost offended at the fact.

I shrug "Eh, I've had other priorities but seeing her drain corpses into blood potions like it was a damn art tells me she could be useful for this so I remembered her."

"As if you are even capable of forgetting such things at this point." He outright scoffs this time.

"Remembering something and keeping it in mind are two very different things." I say with exasperation only to realize that the whole conversation was pointless "But you already knew that and are probably fucking with me right now."

"Oh don't be such a stick in the mud." The dead man rolls his inexistent eyes "The ladies won't appreciate you if you keep ruining everyone's fun."

A beat of silence passes "What would you know about ladies, Phineas?" I ask with a cruel smirk "After all, you don't even have the tools necessary to even consider the ladies."

He stops completely, slowly turning his head to me, and then to his apprentice, his bones creaking audibly "Marwyn." The lich says with immense gravitas.

"Sir?" The Breton gulps.

"Fetch me my tomes." Phineas commands.

Marwyn scratches the back of his head "Um... which ones?"

"All of them!" His undead master snarls.

"I will leave you to it then." I cackle and skedaddle out of there as Phineas starts throwing curses, verbal not magical I feel I need to point out, at me at increasingly worrying speeds.

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"You need another number three in between the fourteen and sixteen to properly support the movement." I absentmindedly tell my Retainer as I focus on disassembling Mzark's puzzle box.

Edrassa stops tinkering with the spiders as does her assistant.

One of the guards showed a surprising affinity for dwemertech and I've since had him following Edrassa about when she does her own research or I give her a quick lesson. The young Mer could perform quality maintenance on spiders and spheres after only a couple weeks of tutelage so he was definitely going places some day.

"That makes complete sense!" Edrassa exclaims as if she were the one to come to the conclusion.

Ignoring her egotistical wailing I refocus on the massive centurion chassis in front of me, I had so far managed to construct the legs, arms and most of the torso but the central systems still eluded me for the most parts.

I could just ram a dynamo core in there and be done with it but that was not the point of creating it in the first place. I wanted to truly understand how the Dwemer managed to mass produce these damn things and then improve upon the design until I could practically drown my enemies in heavily armored automata.

The only conclusion I've come to so far has been to personalize a massive enchantment matrix for the automaton, giving it far more autonomy and power but at the cost of production speed and expenses.

Still, giving Gatecrasher a younger sibling would be a worthy first step on the right path.

Might as well get to it then.

[Dwemertech Adept => Expert]

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"Slowly." My teacher for the day comments quietly "Gently, like you were caressing a newborn."

The incredibly thin bubble of Magicka surrounding me slowly spreads to the dozen or so scamps we had summoned for the purpose of testing and envelops them, their expressions growing confused and then content after only a couple seconds of contact.

"Good." Master Neloren praises "Now invert the feeling, stop holding back and let anger flow into your targets!" His demeanor shifts into a far more aggressive one as he speaks.

The bubble of Magicka grows much more unstable, though nowhere near the point of turning into a destruction spell, and the scamps are slowly forced out of their stupor, their eyes narrowing and involuntary growls leaving their tiny throats.

"Excellent!" Drevis Neloren exclaims "Now calm them down once again."

This time it takes my Magicka thrice as long to revert the weakling Dremora into a state of peaceful contentedness but I do manage it with enough focus.

Neloren looks over the scamps, both of us noticing one of them frothing at the mouth as his mind is no doubt damaged by my meddling but neither of us cares for the little creature. "You are getting the hang of this surprisingly quickly, it is almost astonishing." He comments after completing his observation.

Retracting my Magicka I shrug "This feels like it is essentially just following the principles of alteration and adding a bit of finesse to it, so following the steps is relatively easy. I doubt I will be able to do ridiculous things like the sound trick you did when I first arrived."

The illusionist nods, only a tad miffed at my comparison of the two schools, but I had offered a minor favor to him if he helped me learn to fuck with people's minds on a large scale as quickly as possible so he swiftly refocused on his task "Very well then, try angering them again and then we shall move to courage."

Dozens of scamps had their minds utterly shattered before we were done.

[Illusion: Adept => Expert]

[+Large Scale Emotional Manipulation]

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"Come on, get up and attack as one!" I bark at a large group of my nearly exhausted guardsmen as the rest of my house members stare at the scene with a mix of fear and respect.

The twelve Dunmeri halberdiers return to formation with surprising efficiency after the beating I gave them and point their weapons at me, all of them positioning in such a way that would allow them to defeat someone of my supernatural speed and strength with minimal casualties.

Hjolmir, the Captain of Winterhold's own guard force gives them an appreciative nod as they do so. He had offered to help my men train up into a respectable force for my aid during the infiltration debacle and I accepted instantly.

Both of the Ebon-frosts I knew were absolute monsters when it came to their profession of choice, I would have to visit the clan at some point to see if it is just the two of them. I both dread and anticipate the mind-breaking discoveries I would make there.

My trailing thoughts halt as the Dunmeri unit advances as one, only some among them faltering due to the pain coursing through their limbs. With a challenging smirk I launch myself into the formation once again, slashing and kicking through their ranks as they attempted to imperil my path at every single movement.

Only two of them managed to come close to delivering glancing blows before we were done.

"Excellent work everyone!" I clap my hands happily but only groans of pain and exhaustion answer me "You can take the rest of the day off and order whatever you want from the cooks, just don't make their jobs unnecessarily complex please." The groans are far more enthusiastic this time.

"Hjolmir" I turn to the Captain as most of my subjects leave.

"Reyvin." He nods with a smirk, already predicting my request.

"Up for a bout?" I flick my blunted sword at him.

His grin widens as he grabs a practice mace from a nearby rack "I'd thought you'd never ask."

We then proceeded to bas each other into near unconsciousness for an entire hour before we were forced apart by a mildly disturbed Davos. I did manage to convince Tolfdir's descendant to visit more often so that we could train with our full power, he was almost giddy when I asked in fact.

[Swordsmanship: Adept => Expert]

[Dagger Wielding: Apprentice => Adept]

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"You are surprisingly good at this." Davos mutters almost inaudibly as we sneak by a guard patrol marching through Winterhold's less wealthy quarters.

We stop sneaking about and stand behind a hidden nook just in time for me to give him a glacially cold deadpan look.

He blinks "Right... patron."

"For someone so competent you can be a downright idiot sometimes Davos." I comment, though there is no real heat or judgement in my voice.

"What is going on over there?" A voice interrupts our conversation and we are soon met with a group of five or so guardsmen.

Both of us send a glance to the other before swiftly bolting it out of there, leading the poor guardsmen on a wild goose chase through the poorer sections of the city before loosing them fully in the sprawl of poorly repaired homes and houses.

"I'd say you would pass as an experienced recruit in the guild." Davos grades my performance.

I shrug "Eh, I prefer blowing my problems up to sneaking around them."

"Can't argue with that." He chuckles somewhat awkwardly.

"Want to try and sneak into the college?" I ask, only half joking.

The paleness of his face makes me break out into laughter.

[Sneak: Apprentice => Adept]

Ah, the sweet smell of progress!

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Some grind for stats

I grind for stones

We are not the same.

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