Warsinger by James Baldwin (most important books of all time txt) 📕

if it gets gnarly.” I savored another spoonful of stew and rice. It was fluffy and tender, a world away from the bleached rat droppings that passed for ‘rice’ in MREs. “I’m going to have to replace the bed with some kind of purpose-made sandbox.”

“That will be an interesting challenge,” he replied archly. “Do you need it due to your… affliction?”

“Yeah. My affliction.”

Rudolf let out a little sigh. “Understood. I will look into it. Perhaps, if you are willing to expend some Build Points, we can expedite renovating this apartment more to your specifications?”

“Sometime. Not yet. We’re not going to be here that much, andI can’t justify pampering myself while there’s cities and villages struggling to survive.” I brought up my Kingdom Management HUD, and was pleased to see I’d gotten another 20 Build Points from leveling up, giving me a total of 140: not a bad start. I had about 5,000 olbia left in the bank, so I committed half of the points and two thousand gold to rebuilding roads, importing some more food, and opening up the marketplace, easily the two most important factors in restarting the county’s economy and getting people back to work, fed, and housed. The rest of the points and another thousand olbia went to building the temporary accommodations that Ur Gehlan had requested: shelter for the refugees-turned-harvesters who would help us ride out the coming year.

My Level 24 level-up was next. I hadn’t seen the need to rush after the Tomb Guardian battle – oops – mostly because I was one level away from being able to unlock Level V combat abilities. For now, I dumped my two combat points into Shadow Dance and Rain of Glass:

>> Rain of Glass IV

Chained from Master of Blades. Twist acrobatically mid-air, unleashing a second blast of Dark energy shards down on a group of enemies. 1350 damage to 6 enemies. Damage and number of affected enemies increases when you level this skill.

Shadow Dance III

Basic Evasive Dash reduces damage by 85% at the cost of HP (8 HP per dash). Can now be used twice in a row before recharging, including while in mid-air.

I’d been resisting leveling up Shadow Dance, because I’d been pretty sure there would be better mobility dashes going forward, but after the Golem and Assassin fights I wasn’t waiting any longer. Shadow Dance had saved my life more times than any other ability. Rain of Glass was also a no-brainer: The MoB-RoG combo was one of the best heavy-hitters available to me, made even better by the fact it was not technically magic. That meant it didn’t consume mana, couldn’t be dis-spelled, and was spammable as long as I had enough adrenaline points. I was up to 400 AP now: enough that I could use the MoB-RoG combo, then Whirlwind Butcher, then Mob-RoG again after Butcher regenerated AP. In theory, if I could somehow manage to stay in the air, I could just keep doing that over and over again…

My HUD chirped: it was a message from Rin.

“Heya, Hector!” she said. There was no video today – just voice. “I wanted to let you know Vash opted for the surgery, and it went great! Masha had this really clever idea to like… fumigate the room with alcohol to make sure no baddies got in while she was fitting the osteo-fusion implant. I ran some tests to see if he could accept the titanium alloy, and he doesn’t seem to react to it at all. I think he’s gonna be okay.”

“Great. Is he awake?”

“He was never asleep. He refused to be anesthetized… he just meditated through it all. I’m kind of in awe, actually. He said he wants to see you.”

“Sounds like Vash. I’ll be down soon.”

There were a couple more things to take care of first: namely, the preparations for Dalim. For me, that meant a lot of brewing and mixing of potions. I used up my remaining stock of green moss to make Green Moss Tinctures. It was a common herb able to be found almost everywhere, so I had a stack of six hundred doses or so. I crafted about twenty potions, plus two dragon-sized ones for Karalti. Other common potions followed: stamina-boosting draughts, a couple of Bonefuse potions, and some other odds and ends. I needed more King’s Grass. There were places to get it in Taltos, and I planned to stock up.

About ten minutes later, I was in the hospital with Istvan while the others were getting ready. Vash was looking down curiously at the big titanium rod-and-socket that now extended from his shoulder. The skin around it had been stitched and slathered in a healing balm that was being left to dry before bandages went on. He had an I.V. in his other arm, which was drip-feeding him fluids, and someone – probably Masha – had finished rebraiding his hair.

“How do you feel, metal-man?” I asked from the door.

“Much better than last time. No burning, no itching.” He looked a bit wrung out, but his weathered face split with a cheerful smile. “So, I’m coming with you all now, you know that?”

“Ridiculous man,” Masha muttered.

I eyed the freshly-sewn arm. “I think it would be really stupid for you to come with us to Dakhdir.”

“You would rather take me than have me follow you,” he said. “The Masterhealer here has told me that, with the help of these potions and poultices of hers, I should soon regain my health and be able to attach the arm within three days. It will take us four to reach Dalim by airship. That means I should be in fighting form by the time we arrive. In the meantime, I plan to take Karalti up on her desire to become a Baru.”

“Think you can start her on the Advanced Path in that short amount of time?” I asked.

“She is bonded to a Starborn rider,” he replied. “Which means that she learns at freakish speed, so long as she has the ‘points’ for it.