Last Words chapter 72 (Patreon)

I woke with a groan in my bed at the house in Derkholme. Well, bed was a generous description. The house was small and cramped, and the bed was more like a roll of feathers on a wood frame. It wasn’t comfortable or even really functional, but I’d been so exhausted I’d dropped right onto it and fallen asleep immediately.

The only reason I wasn’t in spasms was that I’d happened to fall asleep wearing Galen’s armor, which had protected me from the soreness of getting jammed in the bones by board edges and stabbed with feathers. Though it had done less to protect me from the inevitable consequences falling asleep in a giant metal suit.

Groaning, I rolled out of bed, falling into a pushup position in a motion that WOULD have looked really cool if it wasn’t immediately followed by me cramping and curling up like a dead spider.

It took about ten minutes for the pain to pass, and then for me to stagger to my feet and drag myself over to a nearby chair. I slumped into it with a teethrattling thud that made me briefly worry the chair might collapse, and then I took stock of my situation. Skills, spells, I had quite a few tricks up my sleeve, and my weapons were definitely useful. Shield of Faith’s synergy with Electrum was staggering, and even with this damaged armor it seemed to be easily combinable.

Speaking of which, while I couldn’t analyze it, I COULD sell it, and I hadn’t bothered to check for how much. I focused on the armor triggering my sell skill just to get an idea what it was worth.

1 Ruined Sunsteel Platemail Suit - 2000 Delyrans = 1,000,000 USD

I frowned. That wasn’t…bad. But it wasn’t good. Same value as the shard. Which would have been fine, except the suit was stated to be “ruined”. Given the way mana fruits worked, I was pretty sure I had no chance of buying a better condition version,  and the suit was too useful to me to sell since I’d have to just rebuy it anyway.

This wouldn’t have been a problem, granted, except that I could HEAR the fucking suit groaning. Even the battle against the lich fragment had strained it to the point of near collapse. It wasn’t called ruined for effect. This shit was falling apart, and if I bought a new set, I’d essentially be paying a million dollars for a metal pair of breakaway clothing. I grimaced, stripping the suit off and setting it on the bed.

What I needed was someone who could fucking FIX it, but I was pretty sure, based on Galen’s comments, that his power had been leagues beyond mine, and unless I was planning to track down a Journeyman or higher Blacksmith, the chances of that happening were slim.

“I thought I heard you clanking around up here,” Ron said, climbing the stairs from the basement. “How’d you sleep?”

“Like a sardine,” I said blandly. “What were you doing down in the basement, anyway?”

He shrugged. “Slept down there. Just in case someone found the tunnel. Doesn’t seem like it ended up being a problem, but it could have. He walked over to stand next to me, staring down at the armor. “Beautiful suit,” he complimented.

“It is,” I acknowledged. “It’s also ruined. I don’t think I have a way to fix it.”

“What about the fae?” he asked cautiously. “You said they make deals, right? Could you pay them for a repair job somehow?”

I shook my head. “It’s steel,” I said grimly. “Fae hate iron. It burns them and weakens their magic. I’ve heard that dying of iron poisoning is literally one of the worst things that a fae can experience. There are a few that might be able to do SOMETHING, but not only would I be unwilling to summon them because they’re basically gods, I wouldn’t have close to enough mana to even attempt it in the first place.”

Ron looked at me sideways. “Gods?”

I nodded. “The Tuatha De Danann, or the Children of Danu, were worshipped as deities in some cultures. How connected they are to the fae varies depending on the story, but a lot of people consider them to be…” I paused. “Well the closest comparison that feels valid is that they are to the sidhe, the high fae, what megalodons were to sharks. Same basic shape, WHOLE other scale.”

“And you think you’ll be able to summon them?” he asked quietly. “And more importantly, that you SHOULD?”

I shrugged. “It’s a hard call. The thing about the Tuatha De Danann is that they were impressive. Most of them got merged into stories in Irish history about heroes and kings, and some of them with craftsmen and women. Let's take Airmed for example. She’s a goddess of healing, and an herbalist. Airmed supposedly invented herbalism, and was so good at it that she could brew tinctures of literal immortality with normal herbs. In fact, she is supposedly the ONLY being who remembers the true lore of herbalism, and that knowledge is claimed to be lost from humanity.”

“You think that’s true?” he asked with interest. “That some magical goddess is the only one who knows how herbs really work?”

“Probably not,” I shrugged. “But she was worshipped as goddess of herbs for a reason. Imagine what she could do with the herbs they have HERE. With mana fruits. What she’d trade for that alchemy book that my cousin has been working on.”

He stared at me calmly. “But you don’t want to summon her.”

“I CAN’T summon her,” I corrected. “I barely have enough mana to call a damned brownie. But even if I could I would be…cautious of doing so. Airmed is fairly benevolent as gods go, but not all of them are so cuddly, or want what we could offer. But on the other hand-”

“On the other hand they’re an asset you might need,” he finished. “The world is going to end, and you can’t afford to overlook advantages you might have.”

I nodded. “And the fact is, I will be interacting with gods eventually. Sooner than later, in fact. When I hit Iron grade, I’ll be contacted by patrons from the court most likely, and those aren’t just gods, those are speakers.”

“Whats the difference?” he asked with interest.

I shrugged. “Not totally sure. I know there are gods that aren’t speakers, but not speakers that aren’t gods, at least at the higher grades. As far as I can tell, you can become a god through the native systems of your world through hard work and luck, but you can’t become a speaker. Not really. There are a few SPEAKERS that can apparently do that, but they’re basically murder bait and Alistair said to avoid them.”

“It messes with my head when you say stuff like that,” he grimaced. “You’re not a god, Gus. No offense meant, but when I think deity I don’t think…you.”

“None taken,” I waved him off. “I get it. But I don’t have the luxury of impostor syndrome. When the year is up and the barriers drop, the forces of who knows how many worlds are going to flood the planet. And it’s not just going to be natives. These other wordworlds have doors from speaker worlds. Other speakers might be coming through. Hell, we don’t even know if all the speakers from the LAST selection are dead. There might be some terrifying Silver grade old monster lording it over the back half of this planet and waiting to charge through the door and conquer earth.”

He winced. “Do you think there is?”

“I think IF there is, the court has a plan,” I said slowly. “It wouldn’t be good for their test if some cheating old timer jumped us all into the deep end. I think Alistair mentioned the barriers dropping by grade. Weaker stuff will come through first. But the scale is still enormous. Not just magic shit, there are LASER guns and mechs and all sorts of nonsense. The worldworlds are complicated and dynamic, all with their own unique mechanics. Some of which have undoubtedly been shaped by past speakers.”

“So we get you stronger,” he said finally. “You and Alice and Alistair and Connie and anyone else we can recruit.”

I nodded. “I have a call in to my best friend Riley. He should be on a plane out soon if he isn’t already. He’s a speaker too, and based on my fae bargain skill, I think his word is a LOT more versatile than either of us thought when we first heard it.” I didn’t tell him what that word was, it wasn’t mine to share, but I was looking forward to helping Riley try to learn some qigong or something.

“Well, I can’t say I’m unhappy about backup,” he allowed. “But will it be enough? What you told us you faced down there…” his voice was uneasy, and I could understand why.

“This place has never been safe,” I pointed out. “But it has always been an opportunity. We need to take better advantage. I made most of my money earthside selling my gains here at a markup, but we haven’t been doing the opposite. We’re in a position where people assume we’re importing goods from elsewhere, and we can do a lot with that.”

He seemed skeptical. “You want to sell the locals ipods or something?”

“Hardly,” I chuckled. “There’s going to be limits. But there are things we can offer that won’t be TOO alien that can bring us wealth. We’ll need to do some research, but I plan to head into town tomorrow and look into renting a storefront. The Silent Pond have made it clear they want to work with us, and they’ve benefitted from that relationship already. They’ll gain more as we go, but it wouldn’t hurt them to extend a hand to help us get started.”

At the end of the day, what I needed to get stronger wasn’t complicated. It was money. I needed money for weapons, for fruits, for patterns. I needed to boost my sell and purchase skills, boost my mana to boost my fae bargain skill, and hit the one hundred mark in verbosity so I could hit Iron.

I ALSO needed to find a word here to use, not just for me but presumably for the others too. Once we hit Iron we would be a lot safer, not to mention the improved strength would be useful for expanding even more.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and paused, blinking away my reverie. “Take a breath,” Ron advised. “If you fall too deep into it you’re going to end up spiraling. One step at a time, that’s how you walk a path, even one that leads to the top of a mountain. You said our next move is the storefront?”

“Yes,” I agreed. “The storefront will help me boost my sell skill, I think. Purchase went way up when I bought the Shield of Faith, but sell is falling behind. It’s clear that using my power as a one stop shop doesn’t benefit me as much as interacting with other markets.”

Most of my levels in sell, if I recalled correctly, came from my sales to Alistair. My power was valuable because it allowed me to act in a vacuum, but it BENEFITED if I didn’t.

Which meant I needed to push forward my trade industry here. I needed to create a business, and use that business to make the money I needed to get stronger. That would be how I would reach my full potential. Unfortunately, I knew how much work that was going to be. A lot. I sighed, turning to smile gratefully at Ron. “You’re right,” I admitted. “Today will be a day off. Tomorrow we start planning. Let’s see how big of a business we can grow in this world.”