Blood and Cupcakes Page 9

  “Hello... Maam. My name is Fluff and I was wondering if you could help me with leveling my sewing?”

  “Might I ask what level is your sewing skill?”

  “Level 1. I just got the skill an hour ago. I really think I want to do embroidery if possible.”

  “When you unlock level 5 I can help you with that. But I have everything you need to get you started.” A small, friendly smile popped up on her face.

  Mayah walked closer to the counter. Peering under the glass, she saw all the implements of her only trade skill. Bobbins and pincushions, specialized threads, thimbles, needles, and seam rippers were all laid out for a customer’s purview. She looked at her sewing skill in her interface for a moment.

  Trade: Sewing

  Level 1 novice

  Needlework 1

  Tools needed: Needles, shears, Thread, fabric, and pins

  She had the needles and scissors, but needed everything else. She asked the saleswoman for more information. “What can you tell me about these?” She put her needles and scissors on the counter.

  “Ooh, these are fair quality for a beginner. Definitely not the greatest, but definitely not rubbish. Rubbish is the grade below F, if you didn’t know. Practically unusable stuff—a rubbish needle misses nineteen stitches out of twenty. Your D grade needles will only miss four in twenty, and that’s pretty good for beginner’s gear. Most come in here with F or E grade needles. So, you have a nice little advantage. Also, the better your needles, the better your overall speed of sewing.”

  “So, better needles mean I can sew faster?”

  “Every tool will earn you an increase of some kind. Say you have good needles and poor thread. The thread may snap or tangle and you’ll be slowed down, also the quality of the garment would drop. If you had fine thread and poor needles you may have to work harder at pushing the needle through the fabric or it may snag and cause a run. Best to stay away from poor materials if one can help it.”

  Mayah thought. For what she had in mind she was gonna start off with lots of small swatches. She would need lots of bobbins to experiment with.

  “Show me what you have, and could you please explain the whole grading system for me?”

  “Right this way.” Maam smiled and ushered Mayah over to the bolts of fabric hung from the walls.

  She pointed to a placard on one of the supports. “The grading system for items is right here.” Mayah leaned in to examine it.

  Item Grades:

  Rubbish

  F

  E

  D

  C

  B

  A

  S

  SS

  Item rarity:

  Common

  Uncommon

  Rare

  Unique

  Legendary

  Restricted

  “I understand everything listed here except restricted,” she said to Maam.

  “Let me explain then. ‘Restricted’ is for an item that the Emperor deems extremely dangerous. And when I say dangerous, I mean cities exploding, water on fire, sky on fire, world-endingly dangerous. If you find one, turn it in to any guard station as quickly as possible. And I do mean as quickly as possible. If you are in the middle of a dungeon and find a restricted item, turn around, leave the dungeon immediately and head to any guard station as quickly as possible.”

  “Okay, why?” Grax asked.

  “The penalties that affect you within a week of having touched a restricted item are considered to be the worst tragedies that could ever befall a person.” Maam visibly shuddered.

  “Like what?”

  “Nasty stuff. Lots of pain, lots of blood and the like. You wouldn’t want to hear about all of that, though.” She waved off any further questions.

  Yes, I would like to hear, but Maam had definitely closed that topic. Stupid parental filters.

  …..

  After haggling Maam down to 50 silver for three yards each of four different colored fabrics, she got a thimble for +1 needle work and a pincushion that repaired the durability of any needles, and pins +1 to durability after they were inserted into the pincushion ten times for only 10 silver. She also spent another 70 on some C grade bobbins. She practically emptied the store.

  Maam was about to offer the final price when Mayah thought Skinflint and Maam dropped the price by the expected 5%. And she seemed none the wiser. Thank you, Ibn Daw. Her eyes glanced up in appreciation.

  1 gold, 23 silver, and 50 coppers later she was approaching the apartment building that she had learned was called the Dorm. When she opened the front door, a red stripe with arrows moving away from her along its length appeared. She froze, unsure of what to make of it.

  “Red stripe. Always points you to your room,” Grax filled her in.

  “Thanks.” She followed the flashing arrows and made it to her door. “You wanna come in?”

  “Nah… I don't wanna watch you sew. I'm gonna go find some shadows to step in.” He stood up and took a bow. “Catch ya later?”

  “Sure thing,” she said returning the bow.

  Closing the door behind her, she set her purchases on her desk, then slung her bag onto her bed. She plopped down into the chair at the desk.

  “Okay, time to get to work.” it was 5:30 MJT in game.

  She placed the bobbins onto the desk in nice little rows, and put on her enchanter’s kit. Placing one of the bobbins in her hand, she activated enchantment. Her mana dropped as the tiny spool began to glow. There was a pulse in the power. She could feel the enchantment leaking out of the glowing thread. She used her willpower to somehow fight it down, and focused the energy back into the thread, feeling it just “click” in place. The glow died and she looked at the thread.

  Name: Thread of speed

  Grade: B

  Durability: 20/20

  +1% to Max speed for each yard of thread used in garment.

  Interesting…

  She pulled out her shears, cutting some fabric into 4-inch-wide strips, then cutting each strip into 4x4 inch squares. She was going to train her mana like she did her stamina. She looked at the pile of 100 or so cloth squares and 67 remaining bobbins and let out a little laugh that sounded much too dark for a princess named Cuddle Fluff.

  One by one, she enchanted a bunch of the bobbins, casting enchant over and over again as soon as her mana would allow for it. Roughly every four minutes she was casting enchant since the spell had no cooldown. One bobbin enhanced strength, one mana, another shadow element. She realized that enchanting in battle might be possible if she had a good tank. But seeing how each item was imbued with a random trait would lessen its combat effectiveness. Adding to that fact that being unable to move while casting was always a pain. Better stick to enchanting before battle. Her grandfather, Ugo Butler, had been a marine and taught her the seven P’s: “Proper prior planning prevents piss poor performance.”

  Gonna make me a dress with all kinds of power ups and buffs. Shazam!!!!

  After many rounds of enchantment and explosions, she sat back and looked at her work. She still had more fabric and bobbins to enchant, but they could wait for now. While she had worked her mana had increased by 2 points. She had swatches, she had thread. Now what am I going to sew? She was so focused on enchanting that she hadn’t thought this far ahead.

  Hmmmm… bookmarks? No, there would be no way to equip them. Ooh even better, let’s make bandanas. She arranged 16 pieces of fabric into a square and all of them were +1% or a few +2% towards mana regeneration. She opened up her sewing primer mentally and found the section on stitches. She selected the running stitch and closed the primer, clearing her field of view. Using mana regeneration imbued thread, she began sewing two swatches together with a tight running stitch and tied her knot off. It took a fair while, and she learned how to use a thimble after pricking herself a few times. She added another swatch, and as she began to sew faster and faster, she understood how each stitch was holding the swatches in place. She made a correction when one
of the stitches was too long and uneven and was rewarded with another bump in her awareness skill. The bandanna started to come together. She held up her final creation. It lacked any information tags as It didn’t have an ID. The system ID’d the swatches as swatches and the thread as thread. This item wasn’t registering in the systems but it did give her an idea what to do next.

  She put on her enchanter’s gloves, flipped down her mask and cast enchantment. The energy was wilder this time, leaking out of the seams and any loose threads she had forgotten to clip off. She wrangled at it with all of her strength. It took an extra 10 points off of her mana as everything clicked into place

  Ding!!!

  New Ability And Title unlocked

  Enchanted Seamstress

  Level: 1

  Create garments with enchanted textiles. Garment’s capabilities will depend on Level, Material, Quality and Durability.

  +1 to needlework when working with enchanted sewing tools or textiles

  DING!!!

  You have created a new item

  Name: Kerchief of Mana Regeneration

  Grade: C

  Material: Various Fabrics

  Durability: 20/20

  +3% to mana regeneration

  Created by Pretty Princess Cuddle Fluff (Enchanted Seamstress)

  For creating new items in Majesta 50XP (bonus)

  DING!!!

  Level Up!!!

  Princess Cuddle Fluff

  Level 3

  131XP till next level

  DING!!!

  Enchantment Level 2

  Infuse an object with your mana creating a new item by altering its base structures. Properties and qualities of enchanted objects will vary with amount of mana used and quality of objects. At higher levels, you will be able to use mana from external sources. Objects created with mana from external sources may retain some of the traits of the external source.

  Cost 100-???MP. Mana cost is dependent on energy needed to complete the enchantment

  99% chance that failed enchantment will destroy any objects involved.

  Mayah blinked in surprise. She put her hand over her mouth as she mumbled, “This is just too much.” Her mind shot far and wide into the depths of possibility. In a few moments, she snapped back to reality. This is gonna be ...EPIC!!!

  “I’ve got a lot of work to do.” She rubbed her hands greedily, thinking of the gold she could get for items like these when her skills grew or how she could thrash someone with a powered-up strength cloak. “Mwahaha-hahahaha… Mwahahaha-hahaha…!!!!”

  She was sorting the swatches into separate piles by their likenesses when she was startled by a beep in her ear. She opened the blinking message icon.

  Reminder: Meet Jensen at the tavern.

  Time: Now

  Hey, Lassie we’re waiting on ye - Jensen

  Oops, late again. She tied the kerchief around her neck as she hurried out.

  …..

  2.2 Mana and Monsters

  “We’ve been waiting for you forever,” Grax mewled, sounding more than a bit upset.

  “Forever is a very long time, young Destruir. Ye should remember that before ye go destroying everything, ye hear me?” Jensen waggled his finger at Grax who slit his eyes and dropped his ears menacingly. Jensen turned to Fluff. She caught sight of Grax sticking out his tongue and crossing his eyes behind him.

  She stifled a snort of laughter. “Hey Jensen, Sorry I’m late.”

  “It’s good to see ye too, little sister, but it may’na stay that way fer long. Tonight we train mana since ye both got yerself some spells. I'm goin’ta have Grax jumping from shadow to shadow while holding onto the spell fer as long as he can each time. Since I heard ye got yerself that difficult enchantment spell there’s nothing fer ye to do but enchant rocks. Did ye bring your kit?”

  “Why, yes I did.” She stroked her kerchief lovingly. “I’ve also brought my new kerchief of mana regeneration.”

  “Where’d ye get that from, lassie? It must’ve cost a pretty penny.”

  “I made it.”

  His eyes popped open wide and his jaw dropped. She suddenly felt an irrational urge to move her feet back so his tongue wouldn’t drop on them.

  “Ye… Ye made it???? Just today?”

  “Yep.”

  “In the few hours since ye left me stall?”

  “Yep.”

  “And are ye gonna tell this dunderhead how ye did it?”

  She blew across her fingertips and polished her nails on the front of her dress, winked at him and said, “Trade secrets.”

  “Oh lassie, I do love yer style,” he laughed as Mayah took a seat.

  They ate a quick meal and Jensen ordered two mana teas for them. It gave them a +5% boost to their mana for the next two hours.

  “Well, come on. The night’s not getting any younger, ye layabouts.”

  They headed over to the Magic Range, which was on the far west side of the village. It was surrounded by nothing. No trees, no buildings, just a solid slab of stone etched with runes that that rippled when they stepped over them. Large, granite pillars the size of city busses were covered with runes and bull’s eyes of differing sizes. Stood on end, the pillars towered over them. Bright, glowing light spheres hovered above the range, dispelling the shadows. It had the feel of a huge community tennis court.

  “Welcome to the magic range. I had a friend prepare a little something for us.” He upended his pack and emptied out a quarry full of small pebbles.

  Whoa, how strong is this guy?

  “These will get ye set right, lassie. Grab a stone, enchant it, and then throw it in a pile over here where I'll be standing. And as for ye,” his voice became stern while looking at Grax, “ye’ll be going from Fluff’s shadow to mine holding yer spell all the while. The goal is to not be seen. Understood?”

  “Yeah, I guess.” Grax muttered.

  “Last thing. I should teach ye how to turn stamina in mana. Be ye ready?”

  They both nodded.

  “Now try your spell and focus on your stamina bar instead of your mana bar.”

  She did as told, instantly wincing as her stamina bar dropped to 5%. A violin string popped in her head bringing with it a sharp, cutting pain. But then she looked at her mana bar. It had only moved 60 points, instead of the normal 100 it usually took to enchant.

  “Every half point of stamina can become 1 point of mana. That fact has saved me own life more than a fair amount of times. It even gets easier as ye learn. So, keep pushing yerself and we’ll see what we get. Fluff, ye’ll want to take that kerchief off fer this.”

  She undid the kerchief and put it in her bag.

  “Be ye ready?”

  “No, not really.” Grax disclosed

  “But I guess we have no choice.” Fluff dramatically conceded.

  “Don’t be a bad influence on her,” Jensen made to reach for Grax, “or I'll show ye how many ways there are to skin a cat.” Mayah and Grax laughed and ducked Jensen’s playful cuffing, and happily beginning their training.

  …..

  Feedlink detected

  Enhancing stealth frequencies

  Exiting back door

  Shutting down feed

  Rejected

  Signal mutation detected

  Backdoor open

  Feedlink corrupted

  Unable to sever connection

  Main firewall breach

  Time remaining until total security compromise

  2:37:29

  2:37:28

  2:37:27

  ...

  …..

  First Lieutenant John Nathan Auset paced the Command Center. He had shed all evidence that he was ever at the school or that a teacher named Thomas Weathering had ever existed. He had any videos wiped and every loose end tied. Thomas Weathering wasn’t even a blip on the radar of time. But time was not on his side here in the very heart of his bunker. He was under attack. Not only had his feedlink been discovered, but the code had been mutated by At
tactus’s AIs. Now his firewalls were under an attack the likes he had never seen. Each Attactus AI was individually hacking his code. It was like being eaten alive by voracious fleas. Ironic, since his Nano flea had started this whole debacle. Attactus had over four thousand Individual Mind Cores (IMCs). They were independent of each other, but had somehow learned to network together through their own volition. The military grade AIs he was using were all made to spec, meaning they all had the same weaknesses. It was only a matter of time before the Attactus AI’s elegant, brute force attack would make quick work of the souped up military grade AIs he was currently allowed to use.

  Allowed? He snorted at that thought. Allowed would have been a major stretch of the word. To be allowed one had to exist. But he and his crew were beyond triple redacted. If you looked past their faked deaths, you would only find their humble beginnings with no mention of even their military service. He was a ghost. Not just in the sense that he was a government shadow, but because life had moved on without him. He existed as a shade, a remnant of a life forsaken. But that had been his choice. He was here to protect the lives of everyone else. Even if it meant getting his hands a little dirty.

  “Sir…” one of his men said pointing to a screen. He turned his head and looked at the monitor.

  WARNING:

  Unable to sever connection

  Main firewall breach

  1:54:13 remaining until all security is compromised

  The damnable AI’s were getting faster. He listened to the reports from the stations around the command center. He knew it was a losing battle.

  “What should we do, sir?” Sergeant Major Hicks stood at his shoulder.

  “Shut it down.”

  “But what about the girl?”

  He grimaced, giving it some thought. “Better to lose the foot than the heart.”