<23 August 2024, GRAND MESA OF SUMMER, A+> [Theo and Julia]

Time to Primordial Flight: 37H - 45M - 17S

Theo and Julia talked with Sylvi as they worked. Sylvi then surprised them by channeling a skill that enabled her to carve into the dense bricks with nothing more than the tips of her fingers. With that, they completed the first five of the twenty-eight runes around the base of the plinth.

At the same time, they looked over to see Ordus and the Dwarves moving piles of dirt and stone out from the ramp. They turned to go back down, and Julia moved to place the next ward when they all received a message.

>Homestead Message: New tasks available for all parties. Please report to the core plinth to receive your tasks.

Theo and Julia looked at each other. Sylvi looked up at the core. "Do I need to touch it?"

Julia nodded. "I think so. She said that Theo and I would be automatically enrolled in new tasks, so why don't you touch the core and then tell us what happens?"

Sylvi nodded and then stepped up to the core, placing her hand on it.

[Sylvi] Sylvi was slightly confused when she placed her hand on the core; she had expected the voice that she typically heard when leveling up. A cold, calculating voice whose only purpose was to get and distribute information as efficiently as possible. What she heard instead was a warm, inviting voice that was soothing to her and speaking her native language.

"Hello, User Sylvi Kalla Karzun-Morrakai; my name is Hestia. You currently have two tasks available. Would you like to accept them both?"

"Hello, Hestia," Sylvi said, happy at the surprise of the experience. "May I ask what the tasks are?"

"Of course. The first task is to continue and finish the ward runes that you are helping User Theo Sorrenson and User Julia Brahmin with. The second task has yet to be started, and it is to learn from the Sigil Lexicon currently located in User Theo Sorrenson's Runesewn Pouch. Completing both of these will unlock another task for you, possibly more." Hestia explained this in a fraction of a second. "Would you like to accept both of the tasks?"

"Yes, please," Sylvi said excitedly. And then pulled her hand away from the core.

[Theo and Julia] Theo and Julia watched Sylvi place her hand on the core for less than thirty seconds, then she pulled back and gave Theo and Julia a brief rundown of what had happened. "... I also enjoyed it because she was speaking Dracish."

"She was?" Theo asked. "That is interesting. I wonder if this means that in a pinch, Hestia could act as a translator?"

"Say, Sylvi," Julia said, confused, "how is it that the dragons of the Karzun family speak English?"

"Oh, that is a bloodline perk from the Founder of the Karzun Family," Sylvi said as if it were the most commonly understood thing in the world.

Theo chuckled. "Sylvi, I think that you forget Julia and I have been a part of the system for a very short time. Can you explain a little more?"

Sylvi blushed, "Sorry."

"Not a problem," Julia said as she watched Ordus, Kreldar, and the other dwarves heading to the core.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Perks come in several varieties. But the two most common are simply called perks and bloodline perks." Sylvi said. "Perks are kind of like a little bonus that the system has decided you have earned. However, some Perks can be purchased from the right merchants; I'm not sure how that works. As to bloodline perks, they are Perks that will be passed down through the generations of your family forevermore."

"So you were born with Perks," Julia asked.

"Well, one Perk." Sylvi said, "It's called Karzun Language Legacy. Any language learned by one person with the perk is shared with all the people who have the perk. And when you have a Patriarch who is regularly meeting many kinds of people. You pick up a lot of languages."

Theo shook his head. "Magic. The answer was magic."

Julia and Sylvi glanced at each other and laughed. Julia smiled, "Alright, let's keep going; I want to get this done; then you can go help Ordus and Kreldar while Sylvi and I take a look at that Sigil Lexicon."

"That sounds like a good plan to me," Theo said and turned back to his work.

A few hours later, Julia and Sylvi were headed to the camp with the Sigil Lexicon to rest and try to figure out what her task required. Theo walked over to the ramp, expecting to see how far the dwarves had gotten. What he found surprised him. The ramp was complete. A flat ten-by-ten area at the bottom of the ramp turned left into what would become the basement. Kreldar was standing there, looking into the area where Theo imagined the other dwarves were.

"Kreldar," Theo said from the top of the ramp.

Kreldar looked up and saw Theo, "Lord Sorrenson."

"What do you need my help with?" Theo called out.

"If'n ye' wanted to bring down some of tha' bricks ye' brought over. It'd be 'preciated." Kreldar said, then turned back and started yelling out in Dwarvish. "ZHÛ! ZHÛ! UZÛR VOKN ZHÛGRUM NOR KHÛRZ, KRAGMÛL!"

Theo shook his head and walked over to the bricks, loading up about a thousand of them, unsure of how many they wanted. When he walked back over to the ramp, an eight-foot by eight-foot by eight-foot block of stone had been pushed out onto the landing of the ramp, and several dwarves were arguing while gesturing at the stone.

Theo started to walk down the stone ramp, only to begin sliding a bit due to its smooth cut. He got to the bottom and then looked for Kreldar. Finally, he called out. "Kreldar, are you all right back there?"

"Aye, Lord Sorrenson, we're all right. Don't think there's anything ye' might do ta' remove this block of stone, is there?" Kreldar called back out.

Theo placed his hand on the stone and tried to put the stone block into one of his regular slots. Nothing happened. He again tried to place it, this time in a raw materials slot, and it popped away. The dwarves sounded surprised. Theo scrambled back up the ramp and then placed the block of stone to one side before returning down. "That help?"

"How did ye' do that?" Kreldar asked.

"I have a Runesewn Pouch that was specialized just for me first by a System Admin and then by the Royal Crypts of Karzun dungeon core," Theo said, missing the look of shock on Kreldar's face.

Kreldar sent the other dwarves up the ramp, "Theo, ye' understand that is beyond valuable, right?"

"I do, but it is System-Bound to me, so I am not that worried about it," Theo said with a shrug.

"Oh, aye, that is a bit o' comfort then." Kreldar laughed. "Alright then, how many o' those blocks can ye' haul at once?"

"If I take the tree out of it, twenty," Theo said.

Kreldar laughed and then called out for the dwarves. Theo was led into the freshly dug, soon-to-be basement. "Alright Lord Sorrenson, if ya' wouldn't mind, a couple of the lads have a quarrying skill that allow blocks of a variety of sizes. The most common of which are like the one ye' just saw. As they come out of the suroundin' stone, please gather 'em up and take 'em up the ramp."

"I can do that. Also, where do you want the bricks?" Theo asked.

Kreldar pointed to a corner of the flat spot at the bottom of the ramp. "Put some o' 'em there, and we'll get ta' workin' on the stairs in the ramp."

Theo nodded, walking over and dropping a pile of one hundred bricks out of his pouch. He looked back to see three dwarves starting to use their skills while two others walked over to begin working with the bricks. Kreldar was overseeing everything, and the remaining four dwarves were doing more detailed work, smoothing out the floor and walls and chiseling away seams of stone that were left over from the blocks being skillfully cut out.

Theo glanced at the timer.

Time to Primordial Flight: 33H - 09M - 47S

"Just over twenty-one hours until people arrive." Theo thought as he walked over to the first blocks that were being maneuvered out of the surrounding stone. "I hope that we live up to whatever it is that the Patriarch expects from us."

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