Asheron's Fall: The Power of Ten, Book Six

“That would… cut down on costs t’ repair things, or the need t’ replace ‘em,” the Mick considered thoughtfully. “Would play havoc with the repair economy, no?”

“What happens is that people start getting their hands on better and better stuff lower and lower on the income scale, poor people grabbing up what the wealthy set aside for more artistic stuff, and the money that used to be sunk into constantly replacing stuff is spent on other things. Yes, it means the smiths don’t do as much repair work. The money starts being in doing better work, more artistic or ergonomic, and the like,” I related. “That is, if some guild or organization doesn’t manage to monopolize and delay the use of Stone for their own benefit,” I added, and he grinned in grim understanding.

“People also end up owning and passing on more things, as they last longer,” Kris added on. “Also, things don’t break as easily, or wear down, so they simply endure longer without being broken up as sets via accidents or something.”

“Aye, those be indeed Crafter’s spells,” the Mick agreed after a further moment of thought. “The fourth?”

“Valence IV, Iron. Gives a metal object the hardness of iron, or 10, while retaining all other properties. There’s variants for most substances, Ironwood being the most famous. But there’s Ironstone, Ironkilned, Irontwine, Ironleather, Ironhide, and the like.”

The Mick sat forward. “Ye directly make wood as strong as iron, before any other magic,” he pressed for clarification. I nodded. “How do that work with fire?” he asked instantly.

“Its harder to set alight, but once it starts burning, will burn just as long. Amusingly, a Stone torch will burn twice as long as a normal one, by other example. Still, wood is by its very nature susceptible to flame, and its fibers align to be able to be split with hacking damage, so none of those factors change… they are simply harder to affect.”

“And you can still treat the wood with oils and slakes and alchemy and other things to resist fire,” Kris informed him, to which he inclined his head in acknowledgment, familiar with those treatments.

“Lastly, Adamant, or Harden. Directly increases the hardness of any object it is applied to by one-half the Caster Level of the spellcaster. It’s a V Valence, but very, very valuable,” I finished up.

“One-half the Caster Level… could become very, very hard,” the Mick murmured. “Cast multiple times?” he was quick to ask.

“No, it doesn’t stack on itself. It does stack on Iron, however, and it does stack with direct magical enhancements, if applicable.” I waved at Kris. “Her Quaver probably has a Hardness around 50, all told, and a Titan couldn’t break it, probably barely bend it.” I smiled winsomely. “Yet you’ve seen it seem to bend and twist in her hand with her ki, flexible as an epee, if needed.”

“That strong?” He’d plainly not seen the like before. “Can ye demonstrate?” he asked quickly.

“Certainly.” There was a flash of motion, a ding!, and Quaver was full length, Lost Light spiraling out its point, and buried a foot into the surviving stone wall with one flicker-quick thrust.

Without apparent effort, Kris rotated sideways on the hand holding the hilt of her Sword, flipping upside down on one arm and balancing without any effort, her long black hair not even bothering to fall down as it wrapped about her neck.

There wasn’t the slightest bend to Quaver at all. Kris began to bob up and down, flexing her upside-down one-handed push-ups, her long legs shifting only the minutest amount for balance, and she might as well have been working on a balance bar as the Sword just didn’t bend at all.

The Mick whistled at the show. Then Kris smiled, tapped Quaver, and suddenly the Blade sagged a full foot, bouncing and then snapping all the way up and back, as if suddenly made of rubber or something. Kris tossed herself a few feet into the air, reversed herself, and landed on the Blade as it snapped back to an obdurate bar, not giving a millimeter as she landed on it with one foot.

The Mick clapped his hands in delight. “Every smith I know would kill fer the secrets o’ steel that can do that,” he declared honestly. “The lugians will come crawling t’ learn it!”

“Oh, it’s worse than that,” I said, as Kris stepped back down onto the water, and the Sword that had impaled the stone and failed to move was pulled out of the rock as if it were greased, not stuck. “Her Sword is made of adamantine. I don’t know what the lugians call it, but in Isparian the source metal is worldbone. In the Matrix system, it’s called tungsten.”

“Worldbone?” The Mick turned the name around on his tongue. “I only heard some whispers about it as some unworkable metal, too resistant t’ heat t’ work on a forge without some incredibly powerful fire magic t’ help. Ye said the source metal?”

“Pyreal is Air-Energized Gold, if you remember.” He nodded quickly. “Adamantine is Earth-Energized worldbone.”

He gave Quaver a look. “So, ye made a damn-near impossible t’ work metal even more impossible t’ work?”

“Yes,” Kris said, as Quaver shrank to a long dagger size, its spirals of Lost Light similarly contracting. “But adamantine has two additional characteristics. The first is that it is twice as Hard and Tough as steel. The second is that it cuts through any substance less than its natural Hardness as if that substance has no Hardness.”

She reached out, grabbed a thumb-sized chunk of raw steel on the Disk there, turned Quaver on edge, and dropped the steel on that edge from about a foot above it.

There was a quiet protesting chink as the thin sliver of steel hit Quaver’s edge, and was sliced neatly in two as it did so.

The Mick’s dark eyes narrowed intently. “Damnation...” he managed to say. “That must chew through enemy armor and weapons like nobody’s business!”

“That’s the narrow way.” She picked up one of the two chunks, and turned it the thick way, dropping it again. It hit the edge, but only sank through a millimeter before stopping, stuck there. “To cut into something, you overcome Hardness, then attack Toughness, just like getting through armor before attacking the meat. So, armor will stand up to a certain amount of attacks, and considerably more if magically enhanced. Adamantine doesn’t just pretend the armor is not there, but the armor will just have a lot more gouges, gashes, and holes in it than when dealing with a mere steel weapon.”

“But if they not be prepared for it...” the Mick hedged.

“Shattered swords, splintered spears, and broken shields behind you,” she nodded, smiling sweetly. “Sundering Cleave is a very nice Feat for exactly that reason.”

“What about hides, shells?” he asked reasonably.

“No real additional effect. Most organic Natural Armor is a combination of Toughness and thickness, not so much Hardness. Steel can cut most Natural Armor, so Adamantine can, too, it’s just got to get through the rest of the stuff involved to get at what’s important,” Kris pointed out as she flipped Quaver back home behind her waist.

“Hrm.” The Mick’s dark eyes glittered. “Be nice t’ have something that could chew through olthoi shells.”

“If it relies on rigidity, adamantine can work on it. The real world effect, I’m not sure. Halving the effectiveness of the natural armor? Ignoring the first so many points of it? The interactions with Natural Armor can be pretty complex, considering how many kinds there are.”

“Armor as Shell, Armor as Ablation, and Armor as Damage Reduction are all true,” I pointed out to both of them. “It’s just the real world is a bit more complex than one way or the other, here’s some easy math.”

Both he and Kris laughed softly. “True,” the Mick said. “Armor as shell… making an attack bounce?” he asked, and we both nodded. “Armor as ablation?”

“The armor takes the damage instead of you, until it can’t take anymore and falls apart. Attacks which avoid the armor naturally are not ablated.”

“Huh. And Damage Reduction… it softens the blow, but doesn’t really take any damage itself?” He scratched his beard at the thought.

“You can see it best with blunt damage on leather. If someone slams you in the gut with a mace while you’re wearing leather armor, some of the force gets through, but it is softened. The leather doesn’t really take any damage while protecting you.

“Taking a hacking cut from a sword that doesn’t bite into your breastplate, but you might end up with a bruise regardless, is another example,” Kris added.

“Aye, aye, I can see it. And various armors at better at certain things than other kinds, an’ magic trips them all up somehow.”

“I think we’re starting to see some of that start to manifest as magic becomes more complex,” Kris said. “But, yes, the ratings on what can be done are not simple, but there’s a damn reason humans have been wearing armor for all these years. Armor is very good at what it does, compared to not wearing armor.

“Magic, magic just makes things annoying.”

I pursed my lips and looked away. “It’s like smart people try to come up with ways to get around armor, or something,” I said under my breath, and they both snickered at me.

“And the other side promptly decides to make it relevant again,” Kris rejoined with a haughty sniff. “Are we done here? We can probably still get to the last site before dawn if we run.”

“I didn’t sense anything more. Let me Call up a minor Water Elemental and task it with emptying the place out. The next time anyone comes here, the floor should be dry enough to really agitate the K’naths.”

“Mayhap even rebuild the first floor, then?” the Mick pondered, looking up at the remains of said floor another thirty feet above us, and the second floor ten feet above that.

“I don’t think anyone would turn down more shelter, and this basement is big enough for two, three stories in between, easy. Be a nice building project when I’ve got more time,” I noted.

His eyes widened slightly. “Aye, ye can work with stone. Did ye fix the leaks and all?” he asked shrewdly.

I pointed at a corner. “You can’t see it, but I put a drain into place there, while I was fixing the cracks in the walls. The pipe is getting clogged up on goo and gunk, however. The Elemental just has to keep the pipe clear, and this place will drain out within a day.”

“Ho, I can see me using this as an advanced base, then, if we are going t’ be using it t’ transit to the islands. I’ll hold ye to the rebuilding then, lass!” the Mick said, as Kris hopped on another Disk, and all of us rose towards the entryway above.

“I’ll get to work on some plans, Lord Mick,” I replied calmly, as we headed up and outside, the Mick calling up to his scouts to get ready to depart.

---------

Before we departed, I took another tour around the Mansion there, putting up a low screening wall around it, fixing the steps going up the motte, and generally tidying up the place and leveling out the ground all around it.

The Called Water Elemental didn’t mind the task it was given. As soon as the water was all drained out, its job would be over, and Elementals always preferred water that was living and in motion to that which was still and stagnant. It didn’t want to be in that dank pool any longer than was necessary, and so was quick about getting the water moving and pouring out through the pipeway I’d extended down and out the hillside there.

I’ll have to do something a little more ecologically sound with the sewage when it is time, I considered, as everyone piled aboard the Wagon or accompanying Disks, Princess Kristie started running, and the rakishly shirtless Lord Mick matched her pace, to the hooting enjoyment of his female underlings who were with us.