Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Drew found his wife and several other people near the gate of the defensive wall.  It looked like they were preparing to head out and hunt in several groups, which wasn't a terrible idea since all the newcomers needed levels badly. Having so many of his "home-team" out and about was a bit concerning from a security standpoint, but he would remain on the property. Sindra was around somewhere also. The group noticed Drew walking up pretty quickly, as he'd equipped his armor right after leaving the house. He figured it would be a good habit to have, staying prepared for the worst. At least in the short-term.

"New armor?" Mark asked.

"Hey hot stuff!" Amber catcalled.

"Yeah, the goddess sent it to me via Valkyrie Prime. It's a new courier service." Drew chuckled.

"Valkyrie?" Mark asked.

"Ohhhhh... the winged lady that's been hanging around. What was her name again... something really complicated..." Amber said.

"Yeah, Sindra. I'm surprised you haven't heard more about her. We kinda had a giant lightshow yesterday evening."

"To be honest, I've been spending time with Miranda, ever since I got injured in the bird attack, she's been sticking to my side like a shadow." Mark replied.

"Yeah, and I've been taking small groups of people out to hunt beasts." Amber said.

"I figured that's what ya'll were up to right now. Before you head out though, I have something for you Boo Bear."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, remember before I went to visit The Baleful Lady, and you were talking about James Woods?"

"Sure."

"Well... funny story. Turns out James Woods was there, and he actually is a god named Hades."

"I fucking knew it!" Amber yelled in excitement.

"Yes, yes. You were right, and I was wrong. Butttttt... I asked him for an autograph for you."

"Really!? And he gave you one, just for me??"

"Yeah, actually he made you a bow, by hand. I watched him grow the damn thing with my own eyes. He then signed it for you."

Drew took the bow out of his inventory and handed it over to his wife. She took it from him with greedy fingers, and began to visually inspect it.

"This thing is badass! Have you seen the stats and enchantments on it?"

"No, I haven't had the chance. Been super busy. But I figured you might like it."

"Like it? I love it! This is soooo cool. I would almost feel bad using it, something like this should sit above a fireplace."

"But you're going to use it anyways."

"Well yeah! It's extremely powerful, it looks badass, and it's made by Hades! The real Hades no less, who just happens to be James Woods. Of course, I'm going to use it!"

"Good. He did say that you'd like it. When ya'll get back, I'd like to have a meeting so I know what everyone is up to, and what the current plans are. What are you planning to hunt?"

"Eh, it doesn't really matter. Whatever is nearby is fine, as long as it isn't in a huge group."

Drew called two of his crows over that had been perched on the roof of the house.

"Here, take these, it's dangerous to go alone."

"But...I'm not going alone..." Amber said.

"Quit ruining my joke. Take the birds with you, I can communicate to you with one, and send the other one out to scout for critters. It should make it easy to find prey for the newcomers to level up with."

"Alright. I'm going to get back to my group."

Drew would feel a lot better with her having access to the bird for communication and scouting. Come to think of it, he had tons of the things. He sent the mental command for more birds to join the other groups.

"Cool, let everyone know about the birds. Be safe out there, I love you." Drew said as he walked off.

Maybe he should start working on his minions Intelligence and wisdom down the road. Not for spellcasting purposes, but for them to be able to operate more independent of him. He'd feel a lot more comfortable if the minions could use basic logic and problem-solving skills to resolve issues without the need to involve him. That way, he could focus more on the things he needed to get done, rather than needing to check in with people constantly by possessing his undead pets. Oh well, that was a long-term goal. Short-term was survival and building up security and levels. Drew sent several other birds out to find Sindra.

The flying rats managed to find her quickly. Or rather, what he assumed was her 'dwelling'. She'd somehow pulled a stone house out of her ass and plopped it down on the southwest corner of his property. It was on the smaller side of things, but it still looked like two or three people could live there without issue. Buttttt it stood out. It stood out a lot. It was almost easier to say the stone house was a tiny castle. There weren't any walls or turrets, but it had that castle-type look and theme to it. At least she hadn't used any of his construction materials for the community to build it. If yesterday's events were anything to go by, she probably pulled it straight out of the ground, like she had for the dais for The Rites of Passage.

He knocked on the wooden door to her house.

"Come in!"

Okay... He opened the door and found Sindra, in a fuzzy pink bathrobe and slippers relaxing in a hammock, playing... a video game... on a TV...that was attached to a wall. Right, demonic stuff, technology. He was a bit peeved that both his mom and now Sindra had access to the luxuries that no one else did now. Not that he had time to truly relax anyways. There was always more crap to be doing, but still! It was the principal of the matter.

"Enjoying your vacation?" Drew asked while slightly irritated.

"Yes. I've been trying to kill the boss for a while now, and I think I've figured out the strategy."

"Right, sorry to bother you and all. I just had a question relating to my profession and figured I could ask you here rather than bothering The Baleful Lady."

She continued to smash the buttons on her controller, a controller that was shaped like two demon horns fused together, and with precious gems as buttons. Must be nice...

"Oh? What questions do you have?"

"Well, I picked up some skills and wanted some advice about them. One summons a lighthouse, and the other summons a smith's workshop. I wanted to know how big they were so I knew where I should put them on the property."

"The Baleful Lighthouse and the Soulsmith workshop. Excellent choices considering your circumstances. Personally, I would have gone for the Soulflame Barracks, but those are still great choices."

"I...I don't think I had an option like that, what does it do?"

"Oh? That's strange. I might be misremembering when you gain access to it. It allows you to recruit garrison forces from The Lady's Cadre."

"Fuck. Yeah, that would be good. I definitely didn't have access to anything like that, otherwise I would have grabbed it. Anyways, the building size?"

"Come. I'll show you some areas that might work for your purposes."

"Uh...aren't you going to change first?"

"Huh? Oh. Yes, I will meet you outside."

She paused the game, and he left to sit outside the stone 'house'. The rest of the early morning was spent with his winged guest as she showed him several areas that would be suitable for the new buildings. Summoning the buildings was about as eye catching as the rest of his abilities and skills were, so it wasn't that surprising when he activated the skills. Much like when Hades grew Amber's bow, a small black dot appeared and cracked open, the plant it contained then quickly grew into the buildings themselves. He would have been pretty surprised about the overall spell effect if he hadn't already seen the god do something similar.

The lighthouse had a distinct visual appearance, somewhere between Roman architecture, and a gothic fantasy-style theme. When he thought of a lighthouse, he typically thought of the ones someone would find on the coast...the place lighthouses typically were. This was still the overall form of the building, but instead of a light, or glass, there was just a big blue flame sitting in a brazier underneath a roof. To Drew, it looked a bit like the tower where The Eye of Sauron sat in the Lord of the Rings series, but with a roof over the eye, and the eye was a flame instead.

The workshop was much less exciting. It was a squat, two story building with a basement sub-level. It was made out of the same plant that the lighthouse and the bow were made out of, but it didn't really have a distinctive style from what Drew could tell. Or maybe all blacksmiths pretty much looked the same. There were some outdoor working areas with anvils, and several more complicated contraptions and machines within the building itself. There were forges littered throughout the building, and it looked like the basement was used for storage. The second story that sat above the workshop area had 2 small apartment-style rooms, and a third larger apartment. It seemed like people were meant to live and work there.

In between the building placements and tours, he'd checked in with the hunting parties, and relayed messages of nearby beasts they could use for levels. Luckily none of his birds had run into any other monsters, nor any large groups of hostiles. He was cautiously hopeful due to none of the parties having had any issues by that point, and the fact that the community hadn't been attacked. He decided that it was relatively safe for the time being, and sent some of his minions, including Scolder, out to do some hunting as well.

"Champion, a promising Soulsmith apprentice is en route with some additional workers." The Lady sent her thoughts to him.

"Already? Cool. That will help out big time."

"They won't arrive for another day or so, as their mode of transportation is slower than your current guest's wings."

"That's fine, at this point, we could use all the help we can get. You're not mad at Sindra for crashing at my place on her days off right?"

"Not at all. What my Cadres' members do on their time off, is their own business. Although, I would recommend asking her to help train you in swordsmanship, and help your other guests out also."

"I just got a skill for my sword though? But if she's willing to help the other folks out, that would be awesome."

"The skill will help, yes. But it's ultimately a tool for assistance, going through the motions and getting some experience yourself will help build your confidence."

"Hmmm... That's not a bad idea. I'll ask her. Cool. Anyways, thanks for the heads up on the smith. Take care!"

Sindra ended up being pretty receptive to the idea of helping to train Drew and the others with combat. Something he was starting to believe would be a significant help in the way of survival for people. She had said a C Grade monster would be fairly easy to wipe out, so that had to mean she was incredibly powerful, despite the image of her in fuzzy pink slippers in his head. She'd told him that she would be ready for people to come train at dawn tomorrow morning.

Drew went through the rest of the morning, and a good portion of the early afternoon raising more of the corpses. By now, they'd all begun to rot...badly. So, he made the executive decision to use corruption to remove everything from the bones. He had enough of the zombie minions, the skeletons were quicker, quieter, and most importantly, they didn't stink to high heaven. Although he eventually ran into an issue. He'd hit some kind of cap.

It was a small headache that started as he tried to raise more minions. The spell ritual would then fail, and he was left standing in the battlefield with his thumb up his ass trying to think of why it wouldn't function. Another quick visit to Sindra and the mystery was solved. Willpower, he needed more of it if he wanted more minions. He had plenty of minions as far as numbers went, but it was a quality thing at this point. Many of them were low level, and would require experience and combat to grow in strength, and given his previous track record of most of the boney critters falling apart so quickly meant he was still a bit nervous over the prospects.

So, for the time being, he decided he would start putting all his free points into willpower to help shore up his defenses. With no minions left to raise, he cleaned up the battle site using his corruption spell, and stored the bones leftover in his inventory. He was almost finished when his patrolling birds alerted him. The hunting parties were starting to trickle back into base. Drew quickly finished up with the bodies, and went to get washed.

It was time to figure out what everyone else was up to.