The Builder's Sword (The Legendary Builder Book 1) Read online

  Gwen bristled as a slot in the door opened, and a single, immense bloodshot eye looked out.

  “Password?” spoke a voice so deep, it made my stomach rumble.

  “Satan’s black balls,” Maribelle said without even a hint of sheepishness.

  The door swung open to reveal a girl with pale white skin, purple hair, and a single immense eye in the center of her face. It was weird because clad in her black pants and white tank top, she was banging, but that eye… that eye was a deal breaker.

  “You may enter,” she said, stepping aside and waving us in. “If you cause any trouble, there will be consequences.”

  Maribelle nodded to the cyclops before making her way inside. Gwen followed behind leaving me last in line, and as I passed through the door, the cyclops looked me over before snorting dismissively and sitting back on her stool by the door.

  “Having two eyes is so disgusting,” she muttered, shaking her head.

  “Don’t mind her,” Gwen said, reaching back and giving my arm a squeeze. “I don’t think you’re hideous.”

  “She said disgusting, not hideous,” I said, glancing back at the cyclops. As I did, she looked away and began whistling. As her head slowly drifted back toward me, she made another point of looking away and whistling louder.

  “Yeah, don’t be pedantic,” Gwen said, releasing my arm. “Just take your compliment.”

  “Fine,” I mumbled, turning back to the inside of the bar, and this time I got a good look at the place.

  It was just one huge room. The walls were made of that same green material as the outside. It both glistened and glimmered in the light of the torches in the sconces. Heads of all sorts of beasts I couldn’t identify were mounted around the room, and as I looked around, I nearly cried out once again.

  “She seriously mounted a unicorn?” I asked, gesturing toward the head on the wall directly in front of the massive green bar.

  “Have you ever hunted a unicorn?” Gwen asked me, eyebrow raised. “Because they’re quite common in the Blood Hills. Nasty things. Eat all the crops.”

  “Only good unicorn is a dead unicorn,” Maribelle affirmed.

  “Oh, well, on Earth they’re kind of cool.” I stared at the three-foot long prong on the horse’s skull.

  “Hey there, boss. You’re early!” Buffy called from our left, and I spun to find her sitting at a table beneath one of the establishments many ceiling fans with two other demons. One looked almost like how I pictured an angel with long blonde hair and deep sapphire eyes. She had a kind, cherub-like face and was wearing a white gown.

  The other girl had a similar skin tone, but her hair was red and close-cropped, and instead of a dress, she was wearing a tight-fitting catsuit covered in pockets and sheaths.

  “Is that okay?” I asked, waving toward her as I weaved past the high tops strewn across the bar’s floor in a way that suggested the patrons regularly moved them around.

  “It’s fine,” Buffy slurred, slamming one fist down on the table. The contents shook, and the redhead reached out and snatched a bottle before it could topple over.

  “Your friend is drunk,” the blonde said, looking at me. “You should probably take her home.”

  “I am not drunk,” Buffy said, looking at me a touch unsteadily. “I’m just celebrating. I made three times my normal haul, and it’s all thanks to you, Builder.” She got to her feet and took a step toward me, stumbled, and fell into me. She gripped my shirt and pulled herself upright, looking up at me. “I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”

  “With money. We had a deal, remember?” I said, looking down at the goblin. “I’m not sure how I was being unclear.”

  “Pfft, of course, you’d just want me for my mind,” Buffy said, releasing her hold on me and turning toward the table. “I found you an alchemist by the way.”

  “I’m not an alchemist,” the blonde said. “I do not have the right to practice as an alchemist and therefore cannot claim to be one.”

  “Cut the horseshit, Sally,” Buffy said, moving back to the table and flopping heavily into the seat. “Can you or can you not refine Dark Blood?” She gestured for the three of us to sit.

  “Well, yes, I was taught to do that at the academy, but as I told you before, my license was stripped.” Sally looked at me and blushed as I sat down next to her. “Really, I can’t help you. It’s one hundred kinds of illegal.”

  “What’s gonna happen, you get more blacklisted?” Buffy said, grabbing the bottle and taking a swig before wiping her mouth with the back of one hand. “As if.”

  “I’m hoping to get un-blacklisted,” Sally said, shaking her head, and I realized in that moment, we might be able to get her to join us. She wanted to do it, she just needed to justify it to herself first. I’d seen it happen all the time back at work.

  “That’s never happened, ever,” Buffy said, reaching across the table and taking Sally’s hand. “You know that.” Buffy smiled brightly and pointed at me. “He’s the Builder of Fucking Legend. Really, seriously. He can make you awesome beyond all recompense. You just need to agree to work with him.”

  Sally looked at me, her sapphire eyes sweeping over me. “I don’t believe you. It’s not personal, but she’s a very drunk goblin.” Her eyes shifted to Gwen. “And she runs a crappy town.” She nodded toward Maribelle. “And she’s got apprentice stripes. Not exactly glowing recommendations.”

  “I can prove it,” I said, meeting Sally’s eyes. Once I showed her what I could do, she’d join up. I just knew it.

  “Let’s assume you can, or this conversation is stupid, but believe me when I say this, I won’t take any job that doesn’t also employ my friend, Crystal,” Sally said, turning to look at Crystal. The two women nodded to each other, doing that whole silent communication thing I really needed to get a translator for.

  “I’d be happy to take both of you,” I said, glancing at Gwen who made no outward facial expression. She did, however, squeeze my leg in a way I took to mean she trusted me.

  “You don’t even know what I do,” Crystal said, eyeing me for a long moment. “I will not sleep with you.”

  “While that sounds like a great offer, I don’t need you to sleep with me. I just want to make Lustnor the greatest town on the map so we can defeat the Darkness at the border. I need people to do that. You can be one of them.” I gestured to Sally. “If she can really refine Dark Blood, I’m willing to bet you’re just as bad ass.”

  “Not so much,” Crystal said, putting her other hand on the table. Only it wasn’t a hand at all. It was a hook. “I’m not good at either of my trades like this, unfortunately. I know a lot, but alas, I can’t do much without both of my hands.”

  “Knowledge is power though,” I said, nodding to her. “I still think we can work something out. I’m quite sure you'll make a valuable addition to our team.”

  “That settled,” Sally said, turning to look at me. “Prove you are who you say you are.”

  “Okay,” I said, offering her one hand while gripping the hilt of Clarent with the other. “Would you like to join my party? Both of you?”

  “What?” Sally asked, staring at me like I’d grown a separate head. “What in the blazes do you mean by that?”

  “Just accept,” Buffy said before putting her head in her arms. “It’s his thing.”

  “Okay…” Sally looked me over one last time before huffing. “If you’re lying, I will tear your still-beating heart from your chest.”

  “I’m not lying, just accept.” I held my hand out.

  “I accept,” she said, taking my hand.

  Sally has joined your party.

  “Me too,” Crystal said, waving her hook at me. “Um, do you want me to shake?”

  Crystal has joined your party.

  “It doesn’t seem to be necessary.” I turned my gaze onto the orb above Sally’s head. It was time to show them the goods. “Now then, just give me a second.”

  Name: Sally

  Experience: 7,700
>
  Health: 36/36

  Mana: 142/142

  Primary Power: Healing

  Secondary Power: Alchemy

  Strength: 10/100

  Agility: 26/100

  Charisma: 25/100

  Intelligence: 56/100

  Special: 86/100

  Perk: Rank 4 Alchemist (Currently Blacklisted)

  “Whoa, why didn’t you say you were a healer?” I asked, tearing my eyes away from her Stat trees. “That’s really awesome.”

  “Um, how did you know that?” Sally asked, raising an eyebrow at me. “Did you see my signet?” She checked herself over before pulling a locket with a white pentagram emblazoned across it. “No…”

  “I can see your Stats. It tells me things like that. I’m the Builder, remember?” I waved off the comment as I looked through her skills. She had an entire tree dedicated to Buffs, but had only learned the Haste Skill. That didn’t seem useful, so I turned my attention to her healing tree. “Wow, you seem to be pretty adept at healing, but you can’t regenerate limbs.”

  “Obviously,” Sally replied, glaring at me. “Do you think that if I could, Crystal would be like that?”

  “Oh, well, I can fix that for you. It’ll cost five thousand Experience, but you have enough. Want me to do that?” I looked at the Abilities to let her heal Crystal for a moment.

  Limb Regeneration: This Ability allows the user to regenerate the limb of a friendly upon touch. Skill can be used once a day and requires Mana commiserate to the damage. For example, a finger will cost much less than an entire hand. This Power must be used within twelve hours of injury.

  Requirements: Special: 50+, Intelligence: 40+

  Cost: 4000 Experience

  Restore Old Injury: This Ability allows the user to cause an old wound to reopen. It will then function as a fresh wound. Can only be used on a friendly target. Skill can be used once a day and requires Mana commiserate to the damage.

  Requirements: Special: 75+, Intelligence: 55+

  Cost: 1000 Experience

  “I basically have to give you two Abilities. One to make her wound into a new wound, and another to heal said wound.” I looked past her at Crystal. “This is going to hurt a lot, I’ll bet.”

  “I don’t care how much it hurts if it works.” Crystal pulled the hook off, revealing the stub of her hand. “Let’s try it.”

  “Sally, it’s your Experience, and you may not be strong enough to heal that much damage at once. You up for trying anyway?” I asked, and when she nodded, I confirmed the Abilities. Blue light enveloped her for a moment before fading away.

  “That’s it?” Crystal asked, turning to regard me. “Because my hand is still missing.”

  “I can’t heal you,” I said. “I just gave Sally the Ability to do it.”

  “Sally?” Crystal said as her friend turned toward her and put one hand on the old wound.

  “I can do it,” she said. Blue light sparks leaped from her fingers and enveloped the nub. As the magic seeded deep into Crystal’s flesh, her skin turned raw and angry. Crystal bit off a scream as her wound reopened, spilling fresh blood on the table and causing some people to look at us and others to start to rise from their seats.

  It felt like forever, but was only a second or two at best, then Crystal’s hand grew out from the nub so quickly that I couldn’t exactly see the where and when of it. Crystal’s eyes got as wide as dinner plates as she slowly opened and closed her fingers.

  “I can’t believe you did it,” Crystal said, looking at me with tears in her eyes.

  “I didn’t do it, Sally did,” I said, smiling at the two of them. “And I can teach both of you to do much more if you decide to join.”

  16

  The trip back to Lustnor from the Royal Centre was rather uneventful even though we were assaulted by demon dogs a couple times. This time, the tables had turned because Gwen, Sally, and Crystal made short work of the creatures.

  What I wasn’t prepared for, however, was to arrive back at the city and find two armed guards at the back gate. It had been previously unguarded since only Sheila and Agatha were trained, but now I found myself staring at two of the Stained clad in full guard armor.

  “Well, this is new,” I said as we pulled up in Buffy’s buggy.

  “Welcome back, my liege,” the left woman, Polly, said in unison before nodding their heads at me. “Agatha sent us back here to guard the far gate. We had a couple demon dog attacks, and she wanted someone out here.”

  “Ah, well, good to know,” I said, glancing at Gwen who seemed more shocked than me.

  “Have demon dogs really been attacking the back gate?” she asked, leaping down from the buggy and landing lightly on the road beside the buggy. “That shouldn’t be happening. The wards protecting the town should keep them away.”

  “Agatha thought you’d be concerned. She’s prepared a full report,” Polly replied while somehow managing to look both uncomfortable with Gwen’s scrutiny and semi-confident.

  “Okay. Please open the gates,” Gwen said, before turning to look at the rest of us. “Let’s get inside. I need to look into this. Usually, when demon dogs start attacking the town, it means the Darkness has taken another town and pushed into their habitat. There becomes more competition for resources, and they attack until the population is thinned.”

  “Good plan,” I said as Polly opened the gates, allowing Buffy to move the buggy inside. Unlike the front gates, these weren’t spring-loaded or as well made. We’d have to fix that.

  I stared at the gates and walls as we made our way through, and I was struck by the absurdity of it. Wouldn’t it be better to have our people inside the walls? Then they could fight without getting into harm’s way.

  “I have a question,” I said, glancing at both Crystal and Maribelle. Both of them looked less than satisfied with the town, which was probably because it hadn’t been built up at all.

  “If it’s about the buildings, I think we may need to knock them down and rebuild them from scratch. There’s no saving this shoddy construction.” Maribelle pointed to an abandoned shop to the left of Taylor’s shop. “That doesn’t look even close to up to code.”

  “Yeah, okay, whatever,” I said, waving off her comment. “I was thinking about the walls. Would we be able to build some kind of platform so the guards could stand within the walls, and like attack with long poles or bows?”

  “Possibly,” Maribelle said, rubbing her chin as she turned back toward the gates. “Honestly though, those walls are wood anyway, and pretty shitty. We’d be better off using cement walls with a rebar skeleton and making them three times the height. Then we could even carve wards into the stone to make it stronger. Those,” - she gestured offhandedly at the walls - “a good-sized bull demon would just run straight over it. What we should do is build a pit on the other side, so if they broke through with something like that, they’d fall into the pit. That’s what I read they do in Rage Canyon, but they have a lot more bulls there. Are there bulls here?”

  “No,” Gwen said as she walked alongside the buggy. “I haven’t seen one. We get big Dark Ones sometimes, but they’ve never broken through the warding.”

  “Ah, so maybe wood is good here then…” Maribelle turned back to me. “To answer your question, yes it can be done, but it’s sort of like, I dunno, putting expensive windows in a shack next to a dump. People do it, but they’re dumb, and it’s dumb.”

  I shook my head at her. “I see your point. It doesn’t make sense to spend time making something we can’t really use.”

  “We probably don’t have the materials for that anyway,” Buffy said as she pulled her buggy into the spot Gwen had pointed out. “We’re really limited in what we can do until we get set up properly. Then it’ll be less of an issue.” She pointed at the surrounding forest. “For instance, you have a lot of lumber to harvest, but I don’t see anyone actually doing that, nor a mill for processing. That could be lucrative. Then we’d have another good avenue for trade, and besid
es, it’d clear out the trees closest, providing us with farmland, and giving us the ability to build things cheaper.”

  “That makes a lot of sense,” I said, glancing at Gwen. “Any particular reason we haven’t done that already?”

  “We can’t afford to get people to do it.” She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “It’s the story with everything. Lots of potential, but you can’t pay people in potential.”

  “That’s true,” I said, nodding to her. “Okay, how about you get everyone settled? I would love it if Sally could get started refining whatever Dark Blood the guards have gotten as soon as possible. Then maybe we can get to work on whatever. Is that okay with you, Sally?”

  “Yeah, I can do that. I just need some floor space and to get the equipment we bought set up. I don’t have the materials to refine very many, so I’ll do what I can, but we’ll have to sell some to do more.” Sally shrugged. “Way of the world.”

  “I’ll worry about the selling. That’s my job,” Buffy said, hopping down from the buggy. “You just do your thing, okay? I’ve got this.”

  “How about I go meet with Agatha and get the report and the Dark Blood they’ve gathered. I’ll meet everyone at Sam’s in say ten minutes?” Gwen offered, in a way that made it seem like she wasn’t asking. “If someone could let Taylor know to be there, that’d be great.”

  “Okay, sounds good. I want to look at these buildings first, anyway. Maybe we can do some easy stuff to fix it up,” Maribelle said as the group started to disperse.

  As I watched them go, I took a step forward and put a hand on Crystal’s shoulder. “Can I chat with you for a moment?”

  The girl stiffened and looked at me. She nodded once and turned to face me, causing Sally to do the same. As both of them stood there, I sighed.

  “Sally, you go do your thing,” I smiled at the alchemist. “This is just gonna take a second.”

  “Um… I’d rather not.” Sally fidgeted uncomfortably with her hands.