Tunnel Rat

Chapter 43: Research

Cichol sat in a chair, smoking a pipe, watching Milo as he lay quivering on the floor. After a few minutes the younger Bonecaster staggered up and collapsed into another chair. Digging through his pack, he brought out a two-pound slab of cheddar cheese and began to devour it.

Cichol said nothing. He wasn't all that worried most days about the affairs of the living. It was one reason his spirit had retired here after his last death. The current master of the library would speak if he wanted to. After he quit stuffing his mouth with cheese. Currently his cheeks were extended like a squirrel carrying too many nuts. Eventually Milo ate enough cheese that a mild euphoria overtook him, calming his frayed nerves.

"What is Volat-Repax?"

"Such an interesting question. I've often wondered that myself. I used to have a telescope out on the landing and would scan the void looking for Volat-Repax, or one of the other rumored void hunters. Volat-Repax is of course famous for putting an end to the plans of the Golden Sorceress to explore the void using airships. Only seven out of thousands of people survived that disaster."

"Did you find a reference to the creature in some old book, or did you actually catch a glimpse of it just now. The latter is much more exciting in my mind."

"I think", Milo said, looking at the old ghost with narrowed eyes, "That maybe you won't need the telescope so much. It came to visit and perched like a damn bird atop the doorway."

Cichol insisted on the entire story, and took copious notes about the size and details of the creature. "Bones with inscribed rune work? You're sure? Oh, of course you are, it did teach you a rune after all. Simply amazing."

"Amazing and terrifying. I came here for a rest and to see about studying level 4 and 5 spells. Now I'm exhausted and still have work in my other world to do."

Cichol made shooing motions. "Then off with you. In exchange for this lovely information on one of the void hunters, I’ll prepare some notes on possible spells you might like. I'll have them ready in a day."

That sounded good for Milo. His heart was still racing even after a rest. He needed some time in Section E to relax.

=*=

Section E was the same as usual. That is to say, just barely functioning. Milo's repairs kept a couple of steps ahead of things. he really hoped to change that soon. He wanted to to put the money he'd gained to good use, but he had to be careful.

He checked on his orders and deliveries. He should have a total of six clog eaters waiting for him down in the new warehouse he had set up. Along with them had been delivered a large assortment of belts, circuit boards, power adaptors and all the other parts that kept his machines running. It was going to be so much nicer to just install new parts and not have to scavenge half broken machinery from abandoned areas.

Along with the machine parts were a few treats for himself. The medical analysis the pod had done on him had showed a lot of gaps in his diet. He had ordered better food and vitamin supplements to start correcting his shortcomings. And of course, a nice selection of real cheese. He was excited to see how it compared to cheese in the game.

After spending a few hours getting the clog eaters into the pipes and upgrading a huge water pump with a new control board he hid the rest of the parts in one of his storage areas. More orders were placed and then he moved his money around to different accounts. Leaving money in one place too long was how it got stolen. He should know, having stolen quite a bit of it.

His work done for the day, he cleaned up, ate a bit, and left his body to sleep in the pod while his mind ran off to see what new spells Cichol had found for him.

=*=

"Alright, take a look at these. You have a couple of options. You can keep collecting offensive spells of different kinds, or you can start learning to enchant bone and inscribe runes. Concentrating on one doesn't mean you lose the other. But we can only do so much until you decide to earn enough experience to leave Tier 1."

"For offensive spells, I have the following for you: Delayed Blast Skull, Bone Armor, Bone Spurs, and Harpoon.

"If you want to start crafting to achieve better spells and items, then I would suggest: Imbue Bone, Lesser Empowered Rune, Lesser Bone Construct, and either Harpoon or Flensing."

Cichol explained briefly what each did. Delayed Blast Skull was the same spell he already had, but let him decide how the spell activated; either by time or an activation word. Bone Armor granted mitigation at the cost of movement, which Milo didn't like the thought of. Bone Spurs was a dispellable curse that caused pain when the victim walked and slowed their movement. Harpoon was a bigger version of Bone Spike that penetrated armor easier.

Imbue Bone let him add mana to normal bone, turning it into a magical material that could be used to craft runes, wands, or other magic items. Lesser Empowered Rune was the start of Rune Carving. Flensing was a spell used to remove flesh and tendons from a carcass to more easily harvest the bones.

"Why the Harpoon spell instead of Flensing if I was to concentrate on crafting?"

Cichol was turning a thigh bone into a pointed stick. He held it up. "This is a poor harpoon. Basic bone to use with the spell. It will penetrate about 20 points of armor or crack open the carapace of a cave mantis." He cast the spell and the sharpened thigh bone launched across the room and stuck in the wall.

"But what if we were to imbue the bone? And then add a rune, and empower it?" He pulled a smaller projectile from his robes. "I always use to keep a few of these handy." Milo could see the glow around the bone, and see that a rune was carved into it. Cichol tossed the bone, and it rocketed across the room and stuck 6 inches deep into the wall, sending chips flying. "See the difference? That piece has a Speed Rune carved into it. I will add that the Speed Rune is a lesser version of the Rune of Velocity you learned so recently."

Milo couldn't pull the second projectile from the wall. And that was with the lesser rune?

Cichol continued. "And I am curious to see what you do with Lesser Bone Construct. The most basic use is to construct a poor man's skeletal servant. Unlike real undead it won't have any sort of sentience. It will only do simple commands that you issue when you create it. However, you can make something other than a humanoid servant. Self-firing catapults for instance. Always popular if you can find big enough bones."

Milo summoned his Stash and pulled out more cheese and a loaf of bread. He had a lot of reading to do.

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