“I'm on board.” Joe contemplated one of his other quests that was still in progress, where he needed to make a new workshop for Jake the Alchemist. He could practice and refine the workshop he created and outfitted with the Dwarven Alchemist as a practice run. “Do you have any blueprints for alchemy shops? I can get started right away!”
Havoc stared Joe down, long enough that Joe started to get uncomfortable. “You realize that we are masters at creating buildings and architecture, correct? Have you considered that if we had the blueprints to an alchemy workshop that was better than what we have currently, we would have already built it? No, of course not. Fact of the matter is, it takes an Alchemist of a higher level working in conjunction with an architect in order to create a building that is specific to them. Our guy is not there yet, and it will be years until he is. Unless, of course, he is able to work in a better workshop. Then he would progress faster…”
Joe caught on to what Havoc was getting at. “That would also help my case.”
“Exactly. Here’s the hard part. You want to get a better place, you gotta steal it. If you can get into a major fort occupied by Elves, they’re almost guaranteed to have an Uncommon alchemist workshop. At minimum. If you can get into one deeper in their territory, you are looking at Rare, or something better. If you get into their capital? There are rumors of a Legendary alchemist’s workshop.” Havoc caught the flash of greed that crossed Joe's face, and he approved of it. “What you need to do is sneak into a fort and see how they are laid out. It's chaos every single time, since they just throw up buildings willy-nilly. Nothing like us; we plan our cities. Still, at least you would get a glimpse of what the building would look like.”
“Can we make that happen?” Joe had to swallow his excitement. Perhaps it was because he had been with the Legionnaires for so long, but it took a hard question by Havoc to bring him back to reality.
“Are you ready to go into a fort?” Havoc looked at the dark cloak that Joe was wrapped in, the giant Cube that contained all of his compressed and destroyed materials within it, and the human’s weaponless hands. “Looks to me like you would get splattered across the ground if an Elf looked at you funny; and I gotta warn you, they are pretty funny lookin’. How about we get you outfitted and ready for combat before sending you to your death for no particular reason? What do you need?”
Joe barely needed to think about it. “In terms of weapons and armor… I have a cloak and a codpiece. Hard stop. My Cores are somewhere in that Cube, so I am going to be stuck using rituals that are under Rare quality. I need a weapon, as well as clothes or armor, and aspects. Any chance that you have access to lots of gear or weapons that you don't need? Maybe a little-used workshop I can reduce for aspects?”
Havoc looked at Joe, and a slow smile started spreading across his bearded face. Joe didn't particularly enjoy the look of it, but before he could run for the hills, Havoc grasped his arm in a vice-like grip and started walking. “I can do you one better. Have you ever been in a Dwarven landfill before?”
Chapter Fourteen
Major General Havoc absolutely abused the ability to transfer between major forts. Every time someone tried to call him out on it, he would just point at Joe and mutter ‘Candidate rights’. Every time they needed to walk from one area to another, the Dwarf would loudly talk about the area, as if he was trying to prepare Joe for a mission. Not a single person dared to actually stop them, which was what Joe assumed the point was. Act confident, like you belong there, and people look the other way. “Over here is the Fields of Blood; it was one of my first conquests. The scars are still healing, hee…”
“See that?” Havoc pointed at a pillar of smoke in the distance. “Minor fort that got hit by a meteor recently. Pointy-ear mass-murdering beasts.”
Joe decided against pointing out that he had proudly just pointed out the ‘Fields of Blood’. A place didn’t earn a name like that casually.
“Over there is the rest and relaxation area. The light one contains the Caves of Solitude, one of the best places to try out new things without interruption.” On one of their last stops, Havoc waved at two mountains that appeared tiny due to the sheer distance. “The dark one is Gramma’s Shoe, the most active volcano on all the planes. Practically an eruption every week. It’s so dangerous to be nearby that it’s almost the only place in this Zone that hasn’t been a battleground. Even though we can see it, that’s a three-day forced march from here. I point these out so that this next transfer means even more to you.”
“On to the Capital.” One last flash of light, and Havoc pointed to the mountains again. “See that? Now they’re only about a full day’s march from here. That should give you a clue to how vast our territory is, as well as how much uninterrupted supply lines between forts means to our people.”
There was one final surprise on the trip, right as they were finishing their journey. Somebody zipped past the two of them so quickly that Joe could only make out a blur. A panicked voice trailed after them, “Oh-abyss-someone-help!”
Joe stared after the afterimage that was already vanishing into the distance, before turning to Havoc, “What was that? Should we go and help whoever that was? Was there an attack?”
“Yeah… don’t worry
