SLV Chapter 10: Am I a Source Arts Master Now?!
April 12
Milya blinked open her eyes in a drowsy haze and immediately turned to look at Lin En lying beside her.
She reached over and carefully held her small hand just beneath his nose.
Feeling the steady, warm flow of breath across her fingertips, she finally relaxed.
"Master is still alive today!"
A wave of relief rose from deep in her chest, and a faint, quiet smile crossed Milya's face.
Only then did she slip out of bed without making a sound.
The morning light had only just begun to brighten.
Shivering in the desert chill, Milya quickly wrapped herself in the coarse linen she had washed the day before.
She moved the clay urn away from the door and was about to head outside to collect source stones from the remains then, at the edge of her vision, she caught sight of the wooden staff sitting beside the old table.
"Hm, the staff..."
"Wasn't Master keeping it close by?"
She glanced back at Lin En, still sleeping soundly, with a look of puzzlement.
She had been sure she felt something pressing against her just before, and had assumed it was the staff.
It was some time later, as the desert began to warm again, that Lin En woke.
He opened his eyes, and the slight unfocused look in them sharpened quickly.
His first move was to check the Slaveowner's Manual in his mind.
The old manual turned its pages, moving swiftly from the title page to the first.
He had meant to check how far he still was from unlocking the 50-point settlement reward, to plan out the day ahead.
Whether to go buy a few slaves to pad the numbers, or to continue training Milya but when his eyes landed on the score displayed in Milya's catalog entry, his heart gave a jolt.
[Overall Score: 34 (+16) = 50 Points]
Already at 50?
That fast?
Lin En immediately looked through Milya's entry in detail.
When he finished, he realized the way they had reached 50 points was not quite what he had expected.
A new trait had indeed appeared, but it had only added one point.
[Untrained First Aider (+1): When someone is in danger, she may be able to do something. Though... only just something.]
The real source of the increase was, once again, those two heavy dependency traits.
Severe Dependency on Security had shifted from (−10) to (−11).
Heavy Dependence on Slaveowner had leapt from (+7) all the way to (+14).
The Heavy Dependence on Slaveowner trait had doubled its bonus. Offset against the one additional point deducted by Severe Dependency on Security, the net gain was a full 6 points.
Add the binding progress bonus at 148%, and it had been just enough to reach 50 points but why had the dependency trait jumped by so much?
Could it have been yesterday...
He had been busy teaching Milya first aid all day, then rushing to repair the arrow towers afterward, without paying close attention.
Thinking it through carefully, Lin En found the thread.
"Master, can you please not die."
...
"So if I learn this, Master won't die."
...
He recalled Milya's expression and her words at the time.
They had seemed strange to him then, but now, looking back, the meaning was clear.
"I see. I accidentally triggered Milya's fear of losing me. And because she's already so dependent on me, the two things fed into each other."
"Through a complete accident, her dependency on me deepened."
Thinking about it further, wasn't this essentially what people called emotional leverage? Manipulation by another name?
He hadn't expected that he, of all people, would accidentally play the part of the scoundrel.
In that moment, Lin En felt he had gained a new and rather different understanding of how to grow this kind of trait and with it, a few ideas he hadn't considered before.
After thinking it over for a while, he turned his focus inward. The Slaveowner's Manual flipped rapidly to the second-to-last page.
When he read what was written there, Lin En's eyes went wide.
[50-Point Slaveowner Score Settlement Complete]
[Reward: Source Stones ×40]
[Reward: Sand Spirit Arrow Tower Upgrade Guide]
[Sand Spirit Arrow Tower Upgrade Guide: Consume specified resources to upgrade a sand spirit arrow tower.]
Upgrading sand spirit arrow towers?
Was this the kind of upgrade he was thinking of?
The kind that required thousands of source stones in materials, plus thousands more on top of that, and on top of even that, swallowing your pride to go beg one of those exalted source arts masters from the inner city to lend their hand?
Now that he had the upgrade method himself, the cost would effectively be cut in half and the process of upgrading would no longer be monopolized by others, no longer something he had to beg for. It would be entirely under his own control.
No need to grovel his way into the circles of the inner city nobility.
No need to spend every day calculating how to sell his dignity in exchange for the approval of those who sat above him.
He could upgrade his own sand spirit arrow towers standing on his own two feet and he could build an entire oasis filled with upgraded towers, entirely as he saw fit.
As far as Lin En knew, the largest slaveowner oasis in the outer city had only two upgraded sand spirit arrow towers but no, that wasn't all...
He had been thinking too small.
His mind shifted.
He could only upgrade sand spirit arrow towers, not every source energy device the way a true source arts master could, drawing on years of learning and natural talent but by any reasonable measure, he was still something close to a source arts master.
The main tiers of the city-state, from highest to lowest, were sovereign, nobility, slaveowners, freemen, and slaves and source arts masters held a position of extraordinary prestige, ranked alongside astrologers, sitting just above the nobility.
Source energy devices, such as sand spirit arrow towers and heart wells, were the foundations of survival in this world.
Without sand spirit arrow towers, flesh and blood could not hold back the nightly assault of the undead.
Without heart wells, no natural water source in the desert could sustain a meaningful population, and every desert dweller would die of thirst but all source energy devices shared one fundamental trait: none of them could be newly manufactured.
As for who had originally built the devices currently in use, no one knew.
Because the number in existence was fixed, prices had climbed without stop, until they had reached a state of being effectively priceless.
Since new devices couldn't be made, the only way to develop was to get more out of the limited devices already in existence.
Assessing a city-state's future, the number of source arts masters it had was an indispensable factor.
That was exactly why they held such an elevated position.
With that identity backing him, combined with already being a slaveowner, he would find it far easier to secure more resources and grow his oasis much faster and beyond that, he could charge others to upgrade their sand spirit arrow towers, pulling in a thousand source stones a job without breaking a sweat.
And who knew how many settlement rewards were still ahead. There might well be upgrade guides for other source energy devices too.
Lin En's eyes dropped to the text at the bottom of the page.
[50-Point Settlement: Source Stones ×40, Sand Spirit Arrow Tower Upgrade Guide]
[Next Settlement Threshold: 100 Points]
"I wonder what the next reward will be."
He claimed the settlement reward, and the source stones materialized in his grip. The Sand Spirit Arrow Tower Upgrade Guide dissolved into an intricate rune and embedded itself into a page near the middle of the Slaveowner's Manual.
From a long-term perspective, having the ability to upgrade sand spirit arrow towers was invaluable beyond measure but for the present, even with this ability, he didn't have nearly enough source stones to use it.
He had been hoping the reward would be something that could boost his oasis's strength immediately, given that the blood moon was arriving tonight.
"It's not what I was hoping for, but it's still a good thing. As for how to make absolutely sure we get through tonight's blood moon..."
"Maybe I should go buy some slaves quickly to serve as additional defenders. Though I have no idea how many the source stones from last night's haul would cover."
Lin En glanced at the various upgrade paths beginning to appear around the rune in the manual, and moved to close the Slaveowner's Manual but that single glance made something strike hard in his chest.
"This... how is that possible?"
He looked again, several times, at the text that kept appearing, before he was sure he wasn't misreading it.
[Sand Spirit Arrow Tower Upgrade Guide]
...
[Upgrade Path 1: Sand Spirit Mechanism Tower]
[Fire Rate +50%, Accuracy +50%, Power +50%]
[Cost: 50 Source Stones per upgrade path, Mountain Copper ×1 camel-load]
...
[Upgrade Path 2: Sand Spirit Sniper Tower]
[Accuracy +500%, Range +200%, Fire Rate −50%]
[Cost: 50 Source Stones per upgrade path, Mountain Copper ×1 camel-load]
...
[Upgrade Path 3: Sand Spirit Guardian Tower]
[Durability +1000%]
[Cost: 50 Source Stones per upgrade path, Mountain Copper ×1 camel-load]
Each upgrade path required only 50 source stones and one camel-load of mountain copper.
A camel-load was the most common unit of weight used in the desert, equivalent to the average carrying capacity of a single-hump camel. Roughly 200 kilograms.
Mountain copper was easy to obtain and far from expensive. One camel-load would cost no more than 20 source stones.
In other words, the total cost of upgrading a sand spirit arrow tower came to only 70 source stones?
Wait, not quite. Upgrading wasn't like repairing. It required tearing down the old structure and rebuilding.
So that would mean an additional 20 source stones.
Even so, this was a world apart from what Lin En had always understood, that a source arts master's upgrade required materials worth thousands of source stones and yet the evidence was right in front of him.
"Could it be that the source arts masters have all been lying about the cost, padding the price to pocket the difference?"
The thought surfaced, then Lin En dismissed it immediately.
Guessing served no purpose. He needed to find out the real reason through investigation and faced with this unexpected and bizarre situation, Lin En decided to revise his earlier approach.
There was clearly more going on with source arts masters than met the eye.
Wading in without understanding the full picture could easily get him drowned.
He sat with his thoughts for a long while before finally closing the Slaveowner's Manual entirely.
"At the very least, I can go with the original plan. If I can get hold of some mountain copper, the blood moon tonight will be manageable."
"The question is whether the source stones Milya has collected so far are enough to buy a camel-load of mountain copper."
"And mountain copper has to be bought in the inner city."
"I don't even have a camel. I'm worried there won't be enough time to get back."
He got out of bed and walked toward the door, mentally calculating the time. It felt uncomfortably tightand if he didn't make it back, Milya would be left alone in the oasis. There was no telling what dangers might find her.
He stepped outside and saw Milya moving quickly, circling in one direction as she picked up source stones.
The linen bag in her hands was already bulging. The haul looked substantial.
"That lame she-wolf again. She actually survived another night in that dangerous wasteland."
Scanning the surroundings, Lin En spotted the desert wolf from the day before.
She was sitting like a dog at a considerable distance from Milya, watching her every movement.
When Milya gradually drew closer, the wolf would actually stand and move farther away, keeping the gap between them.
It didn't look like wariness toward Milya. It looked more like the wolf was afraid of startling her.
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