CHAPTER 512: AUGMENTS

It’s not real, lord.

Dariya’s voice echoed over a burning grassland of smoke and ash. She sounded close to an eye roll. Mason had to admit he was disappointed.

“This is ‘hell’? Where the infernals come from?”

One of the places, said the seer.

Mason frowned and walked, feeling like he was moving as he did in the fey. Every step seemed to take him a hundred paces, the fire and smoke shifting around him in winds he couldn’t feel. It vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and Mason was standing at the edge of a cliff, overlooking a molten river of lava.

No. Not lava. He inhaled and grit his teeth at the coppery scent. It was blood. Boiling blood. And he could see… things floating down the river. What he’d thought was some low, distant rumble soon became clearer. The sound wafting up from below.

Distinctly humanoid forms came floating down the stream, wailing and crying in dull agony. Their flesh was half melted, their hair stuck to torn scalps. Some of their eye sockets were empty.

“Jesus.”

Mason said it reflexively, then tried not to think about religion. He stared and followed the path until he saw a rocky beach where the creatures washed up on a corpse littered shore. Multi-colored and sized demons walked there with spears, lifting half dead drifters and inspecting them like slabs of beef.

Some they passed off to others to be dumped in a cart. Some they stood and handed a club, sending them to wander elsewhere with a snarl. Some they picked up and started to…eat.

Mason summoned his bow and put a Power Shot into an ‘eater’s spine. It flashed, and the image flickered like a sci-fi hologram, the arrow vanishing into nothing.

I told you, immortal, it isn’t real.

“Then show me something useful,” Mason snapped, keenly aware the ancient woman was mocking him every time she called him ‘immortal’. No doubt she found it amusing, and maybe annoying, that a creature so young was so blessed by the gods. “Watching people suffer when I can’t help them just agitates me,” he added. “Is that your goal?”

Patience, young lord. Her tone softened. Your mercy does you credit. But these are not victims. That is the first lesson of the inferno. There are no innocents here.

Mason saw flashes of images—a hundred faces of humanoid creatures doing terrible things. Some went to ‘hell’ when they died. Others were…taken. Grabbed by demons in the prime according to some kind of rules, and in countless ways.

Evil is a mortal word, Dariya said, based on what is good or bad for each creature who so names it. Every god exists for a reason. The planes exist in a balance. The great scales of justice tilt to and fro, and my mistress watches and tips if they move too far. So do these infernals.

“Divine, karmic garbage men, is it?” Mason shook his head. “What gave their ‘master’ the right to judge? What gives these gods or any of you fucking people the right? Tell me something useful to kill them, Dariya. You’re testing my patience. I don’t recommend it.”

The images of hell faded like a movie cut, and Mason was again standing in the portal room in the demon infested mountain. He walked towards the previously sealed doors, and this time stepped right through.

A pair of demon hounds the size of bulls stood guard, each with two heads and a prehensile tail ending in a spike. Mason smiled, and walked right past.

You only have a few minutes, Dariya warned.

Mason narrowed his eyes and didn’t bother asking if he’d have more if she hadn’t wasted it earlier. He knew what she was doing. Trying to manipulate him—she’d probably call it ‘educate’. Doing her goddess’ work to get him thinking and behaving how they wanted.

He didn’t mind letting her think he was too stupid to understand. Sometimes looking like a meathead was useful. And she may have been an ancient creature of legend, but she wasn’t half as subtle or as good as Blake.

Mason’s smile widened when he realized the dungeon was actually mapping to his Wayfinder. Past the guards there were narrow strips of rocky ground overlooking pools of lava. Dozens of goblin machines were scattered around the edges, mostly broken, but some seemingly powered by steam or heat.

The narrow walkways led to a wide, circular platform, surrounded on all sides by lava fifty feet below. There was an iron grate in the middle, and as Mason approached he could hear something underneath. It growled and clawed at its cage like a wild, angry thing. Mason looked down, and red eyes full of hate stared up, then narrowed as the creature screeched with a huge maw full of fangs.

Time’s up!

Dariya sounded like she lifted something heavy, and Mason let himself be ‘pulled’ back. He blinked and opened his eyes again in the real world, inspecting the tired looking oracle.

“Thank you, that was useful,” he said, not voicing any criticism as he stared. Dariya slowly withered beneath his gaze.

“Glad to be of assistance, lord. Be wary of these demons. Some are mindless, as most abyssal creatures. But there are also cunning predators built to destroy living things. They will hunt you and your warriors.”

“No,” Mason said, standing. “It’s us who’s hunting them.” He put his hands on Ayet’s shoulders when she tried to rise, then walked for the door. “I’ll see you after it’s done.”

He closed the door, but still heard both elves let out a held breath when he was gone. He heard Dariya mumble something about terrifying human champions, and repressed the smile.

Good. He wanted them to fear him and his people. There were no rules to protect them except his, and they were right to be afraid of the outside world.

With a sigh and a quick glance at his crafter quarter, he forced himself to walk towards the squat buildings. It wouldn’t hurt to check in, at least, and thank them for all their gear for the others. Then it was time to get his already twitching hands doing something…more familiar. Holding weapons, and killing.

Demons, he told himself. Killing demons. But if he was honest, he wasn’t sure his hands really cared.

**

“Power gems? Hmm. No, sorry boss, can’t do those yet.”

Peni the blacksmith pushed half a dozen items back across his desk, and Mason nodded like it was no big deal. As expected, none of the items the crafters showed him would be useful. He wasn’t surprised, but he was a little disappointed.

“Oh, uh, but we do have augments,” Peni said. “You have any uh, slots?”

Mason blinked. His bow and claws had several ‘slots’, but he’d assumed it was all for more power gems. He summoned his swords and held them out, and Peni grinned and pointed.

“Yeah that’s them. Right there. Connor, get the augment tray.” The big man shrugged as if in apology. “We haven’t really had much of a chance. Only Carl and Seamus have any slots we can use. Phuong has some but it’s some kind of affinity we can’t do. We’ve only got Arcane, Martial, and Nature. At least for now. Hurry up, Connor, it’s the boss for Christ sakes.”

“I’m comin, calm down.” The sweating Connor pulled out a tray of stones from what looked like a forge. They were glowing hot, all colored in obvious shades of blue, green, and red.

“They, uh, lose their charge if you don’t keep ‘em hot,” Peni explained. “Well, I think any kind of energy will do. We bring up the stones from the mine, then shape ‘em with whatever formula we’ve got. I could get you a list, and uh, do we have a list?”

“I dunno.” The crafters stared at each other, and Connor shrugged. “Sure. I think maybe…well, we had something…”

“Nevermind.” The big man shook his head. Though Mason actually found he was interested. “Don’t know Nature well, boss. But this one says it’s supposed to speed up cooldowns. Sorta like cycle time for powers, yeah? That useful?”

Mason looked at the gem, then looked at Peni. He had several attacks with re-charge times in range and melee, and with his increasing physical speed he could usually keep them all triggered. Speeding them up, in other words, was extremely useful. Especially for his new Exploiting Strike that ‘scaled’ in power as he used it.

“Peni,” he said, “you get that in my weapons in the next thirty minutes, and you’ll be getting a raise.”

The big man snorted and pointed at the other gems. “Won’t take a minute. But hold on, we’ve got other stuff. This one makes your weapon powers more effective against magic shields. This one adds a bit of, uh, shit Connor, what do you call it?”

“Reverberation.”

“Yeah, uh, that. It makes some kind of magic pulse, does a bit of damage right after you hit. Can come in different types, I guess, fire, sonic, acid. Haven’t really seen it work to be honest.”

That sounded pretty damn good, too. Mason took a second to think, but he decided it would be wise to try both. He could probably swap things out later.

“Alright. Cool down augment for the sword,” he said, “put that reverberation on the bow for now. Might as well try it. And I can hit a lot faster with basic arrows. I assume these can come out again?”

He summoned his claws and bow and set them on the table, and the crafters stared like hungry animals. Peni touched the longer blade’s scabbard and grinned.

“Shit, boss. When you got the time, you should let us really look at these. Might learn a thing or two.”

“When I’ve got the time,” he agreed, knowing that would probably be never. The crafters took their gem augments and got to work, moving them with tongs and coating the ‘slots’ with something that looked like glue or grease before putting them in.

“Sorta like thermal paste. Helps with the binding,” Peni explained. “Doesn’t always take. Won’t matter to the weapon, but if it fails we have to take it out then make the damn gem again.”

The glowing hot green gems were placed, Peni’s face contorting with careful attention as he settled and lined it up. He grinned as he let go.

“That worked. I can tell.”

Mason waited but took the man’s word for it. When Peni said it was safe, he lifted his longer blade and bow and saw the augments immediately listed in his profile.

[Innate weapon: Ranger’s Claws. Augment detected. Power Recharge (minor). 10% re-charge speed.]

[Innate weapon: Bow of Anshan. Augment detected. Sonic Reverberation (minor). Small sonic strike added to all arrows.]

Mason grinned and met both men’s eyes. “Good work, gentlemen. I’ll let you know how it goes.”

The big blacksmith grunted but looked genuinely pleased. “We’ll see if we can get better ones. Maybe…” The man’s face went a little pink. “Since we’ll be…talkin’ to them elves a bit more. Might be they can help us. New recipes or…well who knows, really.”

It was a good point and Mason thought about Ayet. They had a genuine elven ‘enchantress’ in Nassau, and really weren’t using her. Except to close demonic portals during an invasion, of course.

“I’ll send over my…” now it was Mason’s turn to feel a little flush of heat, “there’s an elven enchanter named Ayet. I’ll ask her to talk to you.”

“Enchanter? Shit. That’d be great. We haven’t had a main class one since…” Peni cleared his throat. “That business with Mateo and all. Connor here is just a dabbler. Though he does alright.”

Mason nodded and saluted the crafters with his augmented weapons, then headed for the door. He was glad he stopped, and reminded himself yet again that the civilians had more to offer than he ever gave them credit for. He hoped the other players had gotten what they could, but he didn’t want to delay.

He walked towards the others, seeing the infernal dungeon’s entry in his mind’s eye, considering how they’d handle whatever came out of that grate in the platform.

He could have Becky wall it off, he decided. Or they could keep everyone back and lure it out. Run it away from the dangerous ground.

His pace increased, excitement for the challenge overshadowing any concern. They could do it, he was confident. And who knew what sort of rewards it might give them? It was time for Nassau to do their first ‘raid’, and find out.

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