Aethelgard: The Survival Game (Chloe) novel Chapter 13

Chapter 13 A High–Tier Building Blueprint

Chloe wasted no time putting the unstable wish rod to use.

She could feel something magical humming inside the rod, though she couldn’t explain how she knew. It just felt alive, somehow.

The current moving through it reminded her of blood pulsing through a body. Life had a presence you could pick up on if you stilled yourself enough to listen.

That was just her own way of putting it, of course. To anyone else, it was nothing more than a purple fishing rod.

She cast the line into the water. ‘Cubic yard soil plot, cubic yard soil plot, she chanted silently. ‘Come on, give me more land.‘

Even so, her mind started to drift while she fished.

The rod’s magic threat level read mid–risk, the first time she’d ever seen that kind of rating on an item. The rod also came with a warning. It could hook something dangerous.

As a glass–cannon ranged mage with barely any combat power, on a sliver of territory this small, she didn’t love her odds against a real monster.

The dropping player count in the Trading Post wasn’t just a number ticking down. Every digit represented a real person who’d lost their life.

Chloe valued hers too much to take chances.

She was still lost in thought when the rod gave a sharp twitch and started pulling hard. “Huh?”

This loot–fishing effect kicked in way faster than her common rod ever did.

She set her staff down within reach but kept her guard up.

The pull on the line turned brutal, and she nearly went tumbling into the water.

Chloe planted her feet and reeled with everything she had.

After a long tug–of–war, whatever was on the other end finally surfaced.

It was a chest. No, a Mimic.

A silver chest, half–cracked open, with gnarled root–like limbs spilling out from inside. The roots served as its arms and legs.

The thing looked vicious. The second it hit dry land, it came barreling straight at her.

Chloe lifted her staff, gripped the rod tight, and fired off three Aqua Spheres in quick succession.

All three landed.

She’d compressed the spheres down to the size of fists, and they punched clean holes through the Mimic’s body on impact.

The thing didn’t slow down. Within seconds, it was right on top of her. Chloe’s pulse spiked, but her hands stayed steady as she kept hurling water spheres, several of them slamming into its legs.

The Mimic closed the gap and lunged for her shin.

On instinct, she threw the rod up to block its teeth. The moment she did, her stomach dropped. ‘Not the rod, please, not my epic rod, she thought.

She didn’t have time to dwell on it.

Chloe hauled her staff overhead and brought it crashing down on the Mimic’s skull, or whatever counted as a skull on a thing like that.

A mage clobbering something with her own staff. Made perfect sense, right?

The Aqua Spheres had already done a nu

Mimic reached her, its health bar was

Successfully unlocked!

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Chapter 13 A High–Tier Building Blueprint

nearly empty.

One swing of the staff was enough to put it down for good.

[Congratulations on slaying the Silver Chest Mimic! Double rewards granted for first–time kill! [Silver Chest x2 acquired!]

Chloe let out a long breath. She wiped the sweat off her forehead and checked her energy.

Down to 95. She’d have to ration it from here on out.

Aqua Sphere hit hard, but the energy cost was brutal.

Chloe checked her rod and found it still in fighting shape, though a few faint white tooth marks now ran along the bottom of the shaft.

The rod twitched in her grip, almost like it was scared and pissed off all at once.

She remembered the thing was alive in its own weird way, so she gave it a gentle pat. “I won’t use you as a shield next time.”

The rod hadn’t taken any durability damage, so Chloe went ahead and cracked open the two silver chests. [Spinach Seeds x3 acquired

[Random Stat Card x1 acquired

[Vitality Ooze x1 acquired

[Special Magical Blueprint acquired: Basic Arcane Defense Tower

[Loaf of Bread x3 acquired

[Basic Arcane Defense Tower: A defensive tower that auto–targets and auto–attacks enemies. Quality: Epic. Construction Requirements: Arcane Workbench, environment rich in magical elements, and a builder capable of channeling magical energy.

[Build Materials: 6×6 ft of land, 10 magical materials, 100 premium wooden logs, 20 premium iron ingots, 50 premium adhesive substance, one epic high–magic medium.

[Function: Continuously draws ambient magical energy to release magical attacks dealing elemental damage.

[Durability: 600/600

[Vitality Ooze: A rare drop with extremely low odds when slaying living creatures. Quality: Epic. Properties: High–energy bioactive / Alchemical Ingredient / Vitality Fuel / Primal Life / Advanced Adhesive Material [Spinach Seeds: Just plain, uncorrupted little spinach.]

Her luck had been off the charts lately, and now she’d pulled a special structure on top of everything else.

Chloe used the new Random Stat Card on the spot.

[Luck +1]

[Current Luck: 6]

Higher luck meant better pulls. It was a clean win all around.

Her attention drifted to the defense tower. She stared at the listing, still half in disbelief that she’d landed something epic–tier. ‘So this is what an epic–grade rod can do? This talent of mine is paying off, she thought. ‘Wait, wasn’t I supposed to be pulling for a soil plot?‘ she thought. ‘How’d I end up with a defense tower instead?‘ The whole thing puzzled her at first, but then it clicked. Maybe the rod had picked up on how vulnerable she’d been feeling out here, how much she wanted something that could actually protect her. That had to be it. Apparently, she just wasn’t meant to land a soil plot, since she hadn’t pulled a single one yet.

Still, an epic–grade build was an epic–grade build. The required materials were nothing like the standard fare. Chloe scanned the list. Premium logs, premium iron ingots…

When she tapped the build option, the system flagged everything she was missing.

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Chapter 13 A High–Tier Building Blueprint

[Premium Wooden Logs (0/100), Premium Iron Ingots (6/20), Premium Adhesive Materials (10/50), Rare High -Magic Medium (1/1)

[Missing: Arcane Workbench, available soil plot. Construction unavailable.]

After looking it over, Chloe realized survival had just gotten a whole lot harder. Even logs and iron came in tiers.

The reason she had six premium iron ingots at all was that she’d scooped up a bunch of weird–looking iron ore back when she was bulk–buying supplies.

Looking back, those random ores, things like black iron chunks, were the only reason her premium iron count wasn’t sitting at zero. None of these materials came easy, and the higher the tier of the blueprint, the rarer the materials it demanded.

Chloe didn’t have the means to build any of it yet. A shame, really. Good gear was no good if you couldn’t use it.

She tucked the blueprint away and went back to fishing.

While she worked, she pulled up the trading post and saw that something big had broken across the channel. Eureka: [I’ve been going back and forth on this for a while, but I figure I should put some of what I know out there as a public post.

[My talent is A–rank. It’s called the Stargazer, and it lets me see the future and break down what I see.

[I triggered it earlier today. The first day after the 15–day novice period ends, player survival rates are going to drop to somewhere between five and 30 percent of where we are now.

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