Chapter 57

Sam used his pliers to twist the hardened leather around the sole of the boot, as he asked Jen, “Captain Crane Claw was the guy we met when we left the pass wall right?”

Jen continued to hold the boot in place, while Sam struggled with his modification, and she replied, “He is running the show in Domino Hill until Lady Domino returns. One rumor is that Lady Domino went into the goblin territory to defeat the goblin chiefs once and for all. Other rumors say that she should’ve returned already, and may be dead.”

The hole he punched into the leather eyelet was unsatisfactory, so Sam used his leatherworking skill and pushed mana into the tear, mending it, and then reworking it properly. He then commented, “My guess is that he knows she’s dead. How much do you think the bounty ticket we found in Lady Domino’s storage device will pay out for killing her?”

Jen just shrugged, and replied, “It’s a good thing you were able to break into her storage ring, or we’d never gotten her bounty ticket. At least we didn’t pay too dearly for learning the Lesson about not leaving the default loot option on placing all items in the closest storage device.”

Sam activated his gnome vision as well as his dwarf sense of touch. He then started engraving his durability runes on the leather sole of the boot he was working with. With his extra senses, he was able to work and direct his enchantments on both the exterior and interior of the leather. Next, he started working some modified storage space runes throughout the material as well. Before finishing the enchantment, he said to Jen, “O.K., as discussed, I’ll guide you through the enchantment, and you use your new mana skill to help me modify my mana, to maximize the output.”

Jen placed her hand on Sam’s back, and he opened his mana channels and mana core to give her full access to his mana system. Jen started to understand how dangerous and risky the sharing and empowering mana was, when she and Tamako had started healing the disabled and homeless. She’d realized how incredibly lucky they were in the past, that their mana was almost a perfect match, as a result of them arriving in the Decks together and being exposed to the same environments. Of course they didn’t know it at the time, but since they started filtering their mana using the same techniques, the environment hadn’t caused their mana to diverge and lose its compatibility. Jen’s learning and realization of the disaster they avoided, only made her worry about what unknown dangers she might be taking now.

When they’d been at the pass-wall, she’d just charged Sam’s enchantment, but today she was going to try and help Sam give the enchantments its initial mana structure. Sam was like the 3-D printer, and she was hoping to help him fill it with liquid steel instead of liquid plastic for printing. Jen calmed her mind, then said, “I’m ready. Guide me to the first enchantment that needs its structure enabled.”

As Sam’s and Jen’s AI helped them to communicate the process, Sam activated his words of power skill and said, “Here is where we need to drive the mana down and through the runes, we want to focus on making the runes indestructible, as we concentrate on fusing them completely with mana.”

Jen was mentally knocked back from feeling the strength of Sam’s Words of Power skill. She tried to focus on his skill to understand what it was doing, but it was like trying to apply her understanding of how a kid’s pedal-car worked, while examining the engine of a 963 Porsche twin-turbocharged race car. She then re-evaluated what was needed, and quit examining his skill, and focused on what would be the best fuel/mana that was needed to enable the enchantment, and she let his skill handle what needed to be done with the mana she manipulated.

After several hours, and an unknown number of attempts, Jen said, “Check it this time.” They both evaluated the effect of the mana weave she’d sent to the first few runes of his enchantment.

Instead of stripping the mana out of the enchantment, Sam dropped his Words of Power skill and said, “That’s a hell of an improvement, and I think we’ve hit the limit of the quality, in contrast with time and diminishing returns. Let’s rest a while, and then finish the enchantments on all these boots.”

Jen replied, “Unfortunately, we’re out of time, and need to leave to take Melvin back to Crossroads.”

Sam grumbled in frustration, “Dammit! I can’t create those mana weaves like you do, and even if I could, without you or Tamako here, I really can’t do much testing of these enchanted boots.”

Unknown to Sam or Jen, Tamako had stepped into his lab to check on their progress, and said, “Jen can stay here and help you, and I will take Melvin back by myself. I can use Sam’s Ear-loop to stay in touch with you both.”

A thousand thoughts raced through Sam’s mind about Tamako’s safety, without Jen’s psych skill to spot dangers, and he quickly replied, “Oh, it’s not that big of a deal. It can easily wait. I’m just grumpy and tired from us being up all night loading the ballista bolts into the rings.”

Tamako shrugged, and replied, “Either way, there is no reason Jen can’t stay and work on this with you.”

Jen replied, “I know you can handle anything I’ve used my psych skill for us to avoid, but it’s an unnecessary risk. Sam can work on other experiments until we return. But if you insist on going by yourself, that’s your call.” Jen added the last part because she’d been sensing Tamako’s feelings of frustrations at her and Sam’s level of paranoid caution. She knew that Tamako felt like she was being protected like a little kid.

Sam whipped his head towards Jen in surprise at her words, but he wasn’t going to contradict her decision, as he then looked at Tamako thinking, She’s being a f'ing moron. We were just talking last night about how unstable Crossroads was becoming with the absence of Lady Domino, and how Plinko City, just across the river in Lord Token’s territory, was threatening to invade and capture some of the Oracle teleports.

Tamako could see the disagreement in both Jen’s and Sam’s eyes, but she was relieved they didn’t try to forbid her from making her own decisions. She then nodded,and said, “Great, you help Sam, and I’ll be back in three weeks to retrieve Dropshot and the kids.”

Sam handed Tamako one of the ear-loops, and the crappy boot covers he made last night with the speed enchantment for Melvin, and explained, “These will definitely last until you get to Crossroads. However, I didn’t use the best materials with the boot covers, and the enchantment was a rush job, so the enchantment will probably burn out on his return.”

Jen pulled the one dungeon core out of Lady Domino’s ring, and placed it in a ring of her own, then as she handed Domino’s ring to Tamako, said, “I’m going to try and let Slim know to be on the lookout for you. If he does cross your path, see what split of the loot he might take to let us keep the mindstone. Also, let him know we purchased the Oracle quest for him if he wants to go with us.”

Tamako kept her face patient with Jen’s directions, and said, “Don’t worry, I will take care of everything. Plus, you are forgetting the ear-loop. If I see Slim, you can talk to him yourself. Now, excuse me while I gather up Melvin, and we get going.”

Jen jumped up, and said, “Not so quick,” as she gave Tamako a long hug and light kiss. Then, as she released Tamako, she was about to give her all kinds of cautionary advice and words of love, but changed her mind, and simply said, “Love you. See you soon.”

Tamako squeezed Jen’s hand one last time, before turning and heading out of Sam’s lab, to gather up Melvin and prepare to leave.

====

A little while later, Dropshot, her kids, and Jen came back inside the cave after watching Tamako and Melvin disappear into the treeline, and out of their hidden canyon. Jen said to Sam in private, “I can see in your face that you’re still ticked about Tamako going off by herself.”

Sam frowned, “Sorry, I’ll try to get over it, but it’s hard to get over stupid. Also, if nothing happens, it’ll only encourage this kind of stupidity in the future.”

Jen gave a wry smile of her own and said, “Yea, it really sounds like you’re trying to get over it. Now take your feelings, ball them up, and shove them into a multi-focus for meditation. We need to get to work on finishing up your enchantments.”

Sam looked past his lab door and out into the rest of their cave, and asked, “Dropshot and the kids are trying to meditate, to earn the skill right?”

Jen huffed out of her nose, and replied, “Yes, but all of them have the attention span of a squirrel, when it comes to meditating. We’ve got our work cut out for us if we’re going to teach them how to make healing charms in the next few weeks.”

Sam simply nodded in reply. To make Jen happy, he would try and teach them to make the healing charms, but he wasn’t too concerned if they failed to learn to make them. His focus was on finishing the boots, and then working on the gnome ring.

=====

Tamako pulled a potion out of Lady Domino’s ring that she’d seen the previous day. She thought it could be a great skill to add to her repertoire. The menu labeled it, Killing Intent - this potion activates The System requirements for learning this skill. Skill causes enemies to freeze in fear of you. She didn’t want to deal with Sam or Jen’s nagging about the risk of taking Lady Domino’s potions, and she felt this trip would give her the perfect opportunity to get the skill.

Melvin was flustered after Tamako killed the four spiked boars that attacked them, and finally found the courage to ask Tamako, “Why did you have us change the anonymous masks to make us look like heavy, lazy merchants? I’m sure heavy humans looked like easy pickings for the spike boars.”

Tamako rolled her eyes, and replied, “Because we’re more likely to be attacked looking this way, and as you saw first-hand, it worked wonderfully!”

Melvin stammered, “wh wh what?? You told Jen that you would try to avoid any trouble.”

Tamako nodded, and replied, “And the best way to avoid trouble is by facing it straight on. Also, I appreciate your screaming. I’m sure it has attracted more beasts to our location.”

Tamako didn’t care, fighting was exhilarating, and she was tired of hiding the true power of her skills and weapons. Tamako’s blood lust was building up uncontrollably, until she finally just let loose a roar of challenge to anything in the area.

System Message:

You have gained the Killing Intent skill: Level 25

All creatures at or below level 25 will either freeze or flee in your presence while this skill is active. Have your allies join your party, if you don’t want them affected by this skill. Higher level creatures will be taunted by your presence. With enough practice, you may one day be able to control when this skill is activated and deactivated. Improving this skill will increase the level of creatures affected. Improving this skill will increase its area of effect.

Melvin immediately froze in terror when he heard Tamako’s scream. He thought to himself, I will never, never, never go anywhere alone with this crazy woman again. I hope I’m not pissing myself right now. Oh shit! Here she comes.

Tamako was pissed, What in The Seven Decks. I don’t want this skill. It was just supposed to freeze my enemies? And the blood lust is driving me ANGRY! She then turned, and noticed that Melvin was frozen by her new skill, and said, “Melvin! Snap out of it! You’re just being affected by my Killing Intent skill.”

The kangorilla landed behind Tamako as it punched her in the back of the head, knocking her through the air almost 20 feet. As Tamako was yelling at him, Melvin wanted to warn her of the kangorilla coming towards her, but he simply couldn’t move any part of his body. Fortunately for Melvin, his stillness kept him from coming to the attention of the kangorilla. After it punched Tamako, he watched it use its two massive legs, to hop straight up in the air, and it looked like it would come smashing down on Tamako’s unmoving body.

After being punched, Tamako’s AI activated her healing enchantment before she even smashed into the ground, but it still took a few moments before the fog in her head cleared, and when it did, she noticed the Kangorilla was about to crush her entire body with its feet. At the last second, she rolled out of the way, and to the backside of the Kangorilla. She then immediately jumped, to dodge its tail that was swinging towards her. As Tamako was in the air, she kicked off of the Kangorilla’s tail, landing on its back, and wrapping her arm around its neck into a choke hold. The kangorilla reached back punching and grabbing at Tamako by her hair, trying to pull her off. Tamako used her legs to lock onto its back to keep from being pulled off, as she kept constricting her choke hold.

Melvin watched as the kangorilla ripped chunks of hair from Tamako’s head, causing her to scream in pain, but she didn’t release her hold, and choked it to the ground.

As the kangorilla finally relaxed and fully slumped into unconsciousness, Tamako switched her hold, and quickly snapped its neck. She then rolled over to her back gasping in lungfuls of air, and after a minute, croaked out, “That was satisfying,” and her Killing Intent finally faded away.

Melvin’s straining arms, unexpectedly shot up in the air, when Tamako’s skill suddenly ended. He then collapsed to the ground from the exhaustion of straining, while being frozen in place. Melvin’s legs were wobbling as he stood back up, and headed over to where Tamako was laying on the ground covered in blood. He noticed that at least half of her hair pulled out, and he yelled, “Stay away from me! I’ll get back on my own!” He then started walking in the direction of the main traveling road.

Tamako called out to Melvin before he was too far away, “Wait! I need your help!”

===

Sam stabbed at the boot again, and then he hollered to Jen, “Come and take a look at this boot when you get a chance.”

Jen was using her psych skill and hypnosis techniques, to help Dropshot and the kids with their meditation, when she heard Sam hollering for her. She groaned inwardly as both the kids completely dropped their state of meditation. After spending another 15 minutes getting the kids back into a meditative state, she quietly walked into Sam’s lab, and activated the silencing rods.

Sam waived the boot he was holding at her, and said with a grin, “I knew you would answer my booty call.”

Jen couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped her at hearing his stupid joke, but said, “Last warning, if instead of messaging, you holler for me again while they are trying to learn the meditation skill, you’ll have to do your own shopping next time you need materials, ”

Sam frowned, “But you know I hate shopping.”

Jen snorted, “Well, I’m hating trying to teach them the mediation skill. I’m not kidding. I know you don’t like to give your AI too much independent freedom, but set it to give you a warning before you holler for me again.”

Sam was still thinking about how much he hated looking for supplies, and quickly said, “You’re right... I’ve just set up the alert. Now, take a look at this.” Sam grabbed one of the boots they’d finished enchanting earlier, and tried stabbing and cutting it with a knife engraved with a sharp enchantment. “My normal durability enchantment makes the leather just strong enough to hold moderate mana enchantments, and protect against a minor hit with a bladed weapon. With the deep engraving the gnome and dwarf senses allow me to make, and your mana weave hat we used in creating the enchantment, it’s now as strong as mana-infused steel.”

Jen grabbed one of the other boots and started trying to shred it with one of her own daggers, and said, “Damn! That’s amazing, and It’s still soft and flexible. We need to make full leather armor sets with these enchantments. I wonder if we could reinforce it with metal plates or something to help with blunt weapon attacks.”

Sam grinned as he put the boots on his feet, and viciously swung a hammer at the upper-leather area of the boot, that covered his shin, “With the kinetic energy storage enchantment, you don’t have to worry about blunt damage either. Well…unless you don’t see the attack coming in time to activate the enchantment.”

Jen snatched up the other enchanted boots, put them on, then said with a big grin, “Let’s do some testing. Last one to the cabin is a boomer,” and ran out the door before Sam could even get out of his chair.

Halfway down the mountain, Jen turned to taunt Sam, but stopped in disbelief as she watched him jump off the sheer face of the mountain off to her left. He’d noticed her looking at him, and gave her the finger as he jumped. She ran to the edge of the path in horror, confused at why he would jump. She saw him standing at the base of the mountain perfectly fine, and he yelled up to her while pointing at his boots, “Kinetic absorption - millennial.”

“You idiot! What if a gust of wind blew you sideways and you fell on your head!”