Chapter Twenty-Six

Can We Build It?

Freed from his need for greed Dev decided it was time to build his shops, which were the key to their success. He’d gotten lucky when a few would-be murderers had the tables turned and were killed for their intended transgressions. They came with complete memories, bodies full of blood, and some shady skills that he was sure that he would put to good use in the future.

Dev had decided that while he would not actively seek to kill people that entered his dungeon, which was most undungeon-like, that he would not hesitate to use the dead of the town for his own purposes. He also realized that missing people tended to draw attention, and so he had returned the Robinski family back to the dungeon minus their murderous intent. He had scoured all malice from the three brothers and their sister, Babs; leaving only an intent to help their employer Horsetooth and work hard. He didn’t bother to enhance their intelligence or physical traits, opting to leave things as they were with the family. It wouldn’t do for someone to realize that Van Cleef could now add two and two correctly.

They reappeared on the surface in the standard puff of greyness and returned to their home. They had no memories of their crimes, and the ability to harm others had been completely scrubbed from them with the exception of self-preservation. It just wouldn’t do to lose minions just because they lacked a survival instinct.

Dev was satisfied that he now had a female template to work with, as up until now all the murder victims had been male. That meant that Goulcrest was either very chivalrous or very sexist. Either way, he didn’t care. Dev used all of the dead equally. His only regret was that he had only tasted human forms so far. He hungered to get meshes from other races just so he could mix and match. He had also absorbed a cat that had been run over by a wagon, several rats, and a fish that a young boy had dropped after spending an afternoon by the river. The boy had looked futilely for his catch and went home short one bass.

The mesh of Byron Robinski was perfect for his needs. He just tweaked it here and there, making one taller, the next shorter, and the third one heavier so that none of them bore little more than passing semblance to their original mesh. He took the Cutler skin and randomized the appearance by blending the looks of all the bodies he’d amassed that had viable skins. He toned the skin color of the first to a deep tan and the last to a near albino white. The second remained the same. Hair colors were altered from brown to blonde, red, and salt and pepper respectively. In the end, he had three never before seen human templates in his body inventory.

He manipulated Bab’s mesh so that it was thinner, and less busty until she was a lean and fit with a runner’s body. Dev altered her skull shape so that she had strong cheekbones and a stronger chin. Her nose had cartilage added so that it would have a slight upturn. It was the only way for him to effectively randomize her face without making it masculine. He had only one female skin, and could not pick and choose features like he would be able to if he had more female bodies to work with. Dev was sure that even if Goulcrest was a chivalrous town there would be more female victims in the future. Until then he had to work with what he had.

By the time he had finished, he had four empty vessels that just needed knowledge in order to work in the shops. He increased the intelligence of the group so that they could handle speaking and interacting with customers. They would even be able to make correct change. That was enough for him.

Dev named the men Frank, Hans, and Shu; and the female, Fen. Frank would run the weapon store, Hans, the shoe shop, and Shu the rubbish bin. Fen would operate the clothing store. Which meant that he was ready to build his stores.

He pulled up the mesh for an oak board that Toot had bought on his initial foray into town. He added the repair enchantment and the resist fire spell as well. He learned that he didn’t need to overlap an entire item with an enchantment. All it required was for it to have it over one part of the object he wanted to imbue with magic. So, he’d made both enchantments smaller so that they fit over each end of the board. The one exception was the cutting enchantment, it had to completely encompass whatever needed perpetual sharpness. If Dev only covered part of a blade then that was the only part that remained sharp. He still had some trial and error to get passed before he really had enchanting down, but he was satisfied with his progress.

Next, he empowered a nail with the same spells, as well as glass panes and hinges and so forth, until he had highly durable and flameproof building supplies. Dev overlaid the standard shop mesh with the empowered materials and determined that he would be able to build one shop before he ran out of mana. The others would have to wait until he could store more. He planned on making mana gems that would fill up with the energy at the same rate that he did. Once he had enough of them, Dev could harvest them for emergency power or to just expedite his task’s completion rates. By this time on the morrow, he would have four shops completed. Then he could work on stocking them. The lack of supplies meant that the first building was going to be the Rubbish Bin, the pay for trash site. All he would need there was a counter, a stool, and an empty room for the garbage to be tossed. Dev would supply the coins as they were needed, and since he was only paying a copper per load, he didn’t need to make change. It was time to begin.

The core’s mind swept the streets, checking for any onlookers, but it was four after mid night and the town was mostly asleep. Finding no potential witnesses, he absorbed the crevice and cleaned the adjoining lots of debris so that when he was done the ground showed no sign that a crevice had ever existed.

A pattern that only Dev could see rose up and appeared where the finished building would stand. He began to materialize parts of the frame piece by piece. They were already nailed because it would be practically impossible to drive a standard nail into one of his boards. Dev had to do this piecemeal since he had never built anything before and he wanted to do it right. The next building would go up wholly completed, but doing it bit by bit gave him a sense of accomplishment.

The sun was just beginning to shine when he had completed making the secret trap door and ladder that now led down into the still gold-filled cave. Dev gave the shop a satisfactory mental nod. His workmanship was impeccable and had matched every inch of the building’s design. He was about to take his consciousness back to his hidden cubby when he noticed the streets. He did not want people tramping horse muck into his beautiful new store. His pride simply would not allow it. So, he simply absorbed two inches of compacted horse manure from the streets of Goulcrest in a grey fog that came and went in a blink and you missed it moment. He also fixed every imperfection of the underlying road itself by filling in potholes and removing stones and other debris so that it provided a smoother ride. When he had the time and enough mana, he decided that his street would be paved with bricks, but that could wait. The town was starting to stir and he didn’t need them seeing him making any more improvements; so he sank back beneath the earth and waited for Toot to come home.