“Drones need rest? I’m… not sure why I didn’t realize that. Now I feel like an asshole. I guess they need food and water too, huh?”
“They need everything any living creature needs, but in smaller amounts. I’m sure they’ve been getting food and water on their own, and they should only rest for an hour or two at most. Perhaps you can see what Anima crystals they’ve found in the meantime? There may be enough to make this into a proper bedroom, and I can show you how to use Anima to craft things directly.”
That piqued his interest. Keaton felt like he always had moments after pulling off a big score. Secure in the knowledge that what he’d gotten his hands on was now his, and just eager to see how well he’d actually done.
He spotted the sack the lead drone had carried, the bag propped against the wall. Padding over there, Keaton retrieved it and stuck his hand inside. His fingers touched smooth, fragile crystal, and he turned the bag over to gently deposit the contents into his palm.
A bad idea, since they started to overflow. The dragonkin caught one that made a beeline for the cave floor.
“Shit, sorry,” he said, wincing.
“You must take care, my lord. Anima crystals are precious, and there are times where you might not get a second chance at obtaining them.”
He nodded, suitably chastised, and carefully took the crystal from her. There were five in total, all of them different colors from a ruddy brown to a bright, vibrant green. That one sparkled slightly when Keaton held it up to the light.
“Why is this one different?” he asked.
“Oh, that is a rare crystal!” she exclaimed, excitement lacing her voice. “Likely from something organic, as creatures and plants tend to hold on to their Anima a little more strongly than inanimates.”
“But they’d be… dead, right? If the drones got a crystal from them?”
That settled like a stone in the pit of his stomach. The idea of pulling the essence from stone and wood and whatever else was no problem. But getting it from living creatures bothered him, for some reason.
The fungus they got that one crystal from was alive, he reminded himself.
But that was fungus. To the best of Keaton’s knowledge, a mushroom didn’t feel pain when you dug it up with your grubby little fingers. At least… no pain that he could hear. But when you were starving in the woods, the sound of a rabbit screaming seconds before it was killed was something you’d never forget. Definitely something Keaton wouldn’t ever forget.
“In most cases, yes. There is… advanced dungeon lord powers that allow for an experienced Anima user to drain Anima without the creature being deceased, and sometimes that leads to a crystal, but—”
Keaton shuddered. “Yeah, I won’t be doing that, thanks.”
Her shoulders fell, and he realized she’d let out a sigh of relief. Good to know they were on the same page about him not fucking with what was definitely something evil.
“Well, here goes nothing then,” he said, transferring all but one of the crystals to his left hand.
The ruddy brown one remained in his gauntlet-clad hand and he crushed it, feeling that knowledge seep into him.
Source of Anima: Earth – This fragment of Anima represents the structural components and necessary building blocks of a specific form of matter. Those with advanced abilities in Anima manipulation may crush the crystal to draw the Anima into their body and learn the knowledge it contains.
As with the others, it was immediately followed by more information.
An understanding of “Clay” is now available to all workshops.
An understanding of “Clay Wall” is now available to all workshops.
An understanding of “Clay Pottery” is now available to all workshops.
An understanding of “Clay Crockery” is now available to all workshops.
He crushed the others, one by one, and ended up with Anima sources for peat, limestone, and copper. He was surprised by the last, assuming that should have been a rare material, but maybe that only counted for living things like the green crystal he’d saved for last.
Keaton looked to his companion as he transferred the final crystal into his hand. She stared at it with eyes as eager as his own, and when he crushed it, she held her breath.
Source of Anima: Fur.
He ignored the rest of the text that appeared as usual, wishing it away so he could see what came next.
An understanding of “Treated Fur” is now available to all workshops.
An understanding of “Fur Cloak” is now available to all workshops.
An understanding of “Fur Rug” is now available to all workshops.
An understanding of “Fur Blanket” is now available to all workshops.
“We should be able to make a pallet from fur, right? Something we can sleep on?” Realizing what he’d said — mainly from the fact that she was blushing scarlet — Keaton stammered out a few more words. “Two pallets, I mean. Two beds.”
“Of course, my lord,” she ducked her head as if in deference, though he caught sight of a small smile. “Let’s go see what materials your drones brought back before they decided to rest.”
He nodded, heading down the passageway to where the drones had built the storage facility. He was interested in seeing it anyway, as he hadn’t looked once the messages came in saying it was complete.
“Oh, check the crystal first, Lord Keaton. Otherwise you may be searching for some time.”
“Right. Of course.”
Gods, he felt like an idiot when it came to this stuff. The learning curve didn’t seem all that steep, but he kept sliding back down. Mainly because his first instinct was to get his hands on everything. He wasn’t used to the idea of delegating and giving orders from on high.
As they returned to the central chamber, he considered the fortifications they’d made. The crystal was now barricaded within stone walls that reached to the top of the chamber, a wooden door on each side the only access. He wanted to make that something sturdier, but wooden doors were all he could build right now, so they had to suffice.
Even looking at it now, though, Keaton thought of more improvements. A choke point funneling attackers, with traps waiting for them at the end. Ballista positioned on each side of the crystal, perched atop tall stone walls. Maybe the kind of trap they used from atop castle walls — burning oil poured down on unsuspecting attackers.
It thrilled him to think of all the ways he could improve on the design, but he didn’t have the material for any of that yet, or the capacity to make it.
Opening up the wooden door, he let the dragonkin through with him — making yet another mental note about spell-warded doors — then approached the crystal. He touched his skeletal gauntlet to it and found the inventory for the storage facility on his own. There he was given both a visual representation of the resources at his disposal as well as a numerical tally.
Okay, to make a bed I’d need… well, it should tell me what I’ll need, right?
“Show me… uh, show me everything I can make using fur,” he told Anima.
A list was displayed with crude images off to the side. Considering they resembled things Keaton had seen before, he wondered if Anima wasn’t just pulling from his own memories. It would make sense, at least until he encountered something he’d never seen before.
There was only one problem.
“There’s nothing here for a bed. I should have the materials for at least a simple one. Wood for the frame, the furs to go on top…”
“Anima will only provide you with very basic recipes,” the dragonkin clarified. “I’m sorry, I should have told you that. Anything more advanced that comes from combining materials will have to come from you.”