Path of Spirit (Disgardium Book #6): LitRPG Series, Dan Sugralinov [the reader ebook .TXT] 📗

slept too, but not long enough — he yawned, reminding me of that guard from Jiri.

“I checked up on the castle. Raidohelm promised to be done in a couple of days,” Hung told me as he wolfed down an omelet of artificial eggs with soy bacon. “Some goblins turned up on Kharinza with some equipment and headed into the mountains. Looking for natural caverns for traps.”

I told him what I’d done last night and opened my comm. Yoshi had forwarded me a message from Big Po in which he described in detail the history of his interactions with the Destroying Plague. It was similar to mine, and I had been partially responsible for Polynucleotide getting the Mark of the Destroying Plague: he’d gotten infected by killing Punisher, the undead wolf who had recently become my pet Crusher.

Wesley ended his story with a note of bitterness in his voice: And then you finished me off! You and your friends!

It was something else that interested me: both I and Big Po had seen an Emissary of the Destroying Plague — not a legate, but someone else. I remembered that nightmarish beast, its mouth stretching across its face, its tentacle stingers. Did that mean the Nucleus had servants in the wider world? After all, it was the Emissary who gave me and Big Po identical quests to capture Tristad.

In any case, Wesley had held up his end of the bargain. I wrote back that I’d invite him to the clan and make him an adept of the Sleepers as soon as I could. He’d have to wait until the second temple finished building.

I told all this to Hung and shared my thoughts:

“Two options. The Emissaries are just generated by the system, it’s just a script. Or: the Nucleus has servants, and they aren’t legates. Why would he need me and Big Po otherwise? But then the question is — how many are there and what else can we expect from them? And how did they reach Latteria?”

“You told me yourself that the Nucleus spread plague dust all over Dis. Maybe someone got infected and went into hiding. Maybe he can only take messages from the Nucleus and deliver them to others. Don’t worry,” Hung said. “Better eat, or it’ll get cold.”

It was good advice, because Hairo soon turned up to drag me off to train, but when he saw our empty plates, he just shook his head:

“Find time to log out of Dis today, Alex, and don’t eat before you work out! You said yourself, you need to be in shape for the Demonic Games!”

“Don’t know if I’ll even enter them,” I muttered, getting up from the table.

But that wasn’t really true. There was no other way to get Concentrated Life Essence, and it was a good thing I still had time to solve all our problems before I had to fly to the Games.

“By the way!” Hung said as if reading my thoughts. “Registration closes in a week. You going to sign up before it’s too late? You can back out if it comes to it, there won’t be any penalties… well, almost.”

“Just the title of Cowardly Slug and minus rep with all factions? Alright, I’ll think about it…”

After logging into Dis, I found myself outside the palisade surrounding Jiri again. The sky was already brightening in the east, but there was still time before dawn. I decided to make use of it. First I checked on Kharinza to see how the construction was going.

The dwarves were ahead of schedule.

The entire area of the former fort was now occupied by the castle, which looked more like ruins from the inside. The builders had already erected the walls, which glimmered with purple bars of Corrupted Adamantite.

Raidohelm, unhappy to be torn from his work, dryly explained that this was just the shell. The walls would get thicker, to the point that several horseman abreast could ride along it. Well, or one dragon.

That was hard to imagine for now.

“The castle itself will be ready tomorrow,” the dwarf informed me, nodding at the unfinished structure in the center. “But there’s still a lot of work to do: merchant stalls, housing, sawmill, smithy, stable… We’re going to put down a road to the mine, build a fishing pier. There’ll be three taverns — one inside the castle, another two outside. The boys are cutting down trees now, and then they’ll start reinforcing the moat and finish off the fortress walls.”

All around were huge piles of stone, adamantite, logs, makeshift materials. Builders swarmed around like ants: some moving fast and light, others with cargo. Shouts carried from all over. I couldn’t see the Tree Protector or Trixie’s gardens.

“There is a gardener in the crew,” Raidohelm reassured me. “In the meantime, he has transplanted it all beyond the build site.”

The only thing that remained unchanged was Behemoth’s temple. Now it was hidden by the castle wall; in the end, it would be in the castle’s inner courtyard, with a single passage leading in from outside. The passageway would be protected by two adamantite gates in case of attack, and the gates would let us trap enemies that broke through.

“We’re installing the most powerful mana crystals available. Any thoughts on the shield you’d like to use to protect the castle?”

I showed him the Righteous Shield, and Raidohelm nodded respectfully.

“Wow. Transforms damage into mana? I’ll tell the boys that we’re building an invincible fortress.”

Once done looking around, I said good-bye to the foreman and I left for Mengoza.

Bomber was already there, as were the others. Gyula had finished building a Small Fort, so we held our clan council meeting in the tavern, which Crawler had called the Bone and Fossil.

“Infect dragged all kinds of crap back here from his excavations,” the mage explained.

“You just don’t get it!” the archeologist said, wounded.