“Wow.”
“I know, right?”
“It’s so… big.”
“Big? It’s a fucking monster!”
“Well it has to be big, to be proportional. We’re giants.”
“But how the fuck, I mean, it’s just—How?” Bridget waved her arms in disbelieving consternation. “It’s too big! Uh, I mean, no offense? I just, I guess I don’t know how that’s even supposed to fit?”
“Fit?” Eir tilted her head curiously.
“Through the gates!” Bridget exclaimed. “That wagon is as big as a building!”
After almost three weeks of prep work and training, Jadis and her team had gathered around to look at the almost completed new company wagon. They weren’t the only ones around to gawk at the construction, though. A few dozen craftsmen, dock workers, and off-duty soldiers were also loitering nearby, talking in low voices to each other as they took in the sight of the massive vehicle. What Jadis could overhear of their commentary mirrored Bridget’s shocked exclamations.
The wagon was unreasonably large. It was closer in size to a train car from back on earth than it was to any of the standard wagons Jadis had come across on Oros up to that point. It was twenty feet tall including the wheels, ten feet in width, and forty feet in length. Rather than just two, it had four axles spread out across its length, with four wheels on each axle giving it a total of sixteen wheels. Each wheel on its own was an iron-studded monstrosity compared to the standard wagon wheels normally used, so all sixteen together made for an intimidating visage. The wheels were necessary though, since the solid, fully covered wooden structure of the wagon was no small weight. Bridget wasn’t wrong in questioning the feasibility of getting the colossal mobile structure through the city gates. The thing really was a building on wheels.
“Honestly? It’s a lot more than I was expecting when we were discussing the plans for it,” Jay said as she stepped up close to the behemoth. “I feel like it might have gotten a little out of hand.”
“Maybe a little,” Norbert admitted as he slapped his hand down on one of the wheel spokes. “But I promise you it’ll serve you well. It’s sturdy as a rock. A mountain, even! And the enchantments you paid for will make sure it endures for just as long!”
The craftsman beamed as he boasted about his creation. Norbert was an older gnome, short in stature even for his vertically challenged kin, and wizened like a raisin. His gnarled face sported an odd collection of blue markings that disappeared into the folds of his many wrinkles. Jadis still wasn’t sure if those were natural colorations for gnomes or if they all just got tattoos like that. Considering his advanced age, when Sabina had first insisted on using the old man’s services, Jadis had been hesitant to agree. Now, though, she could see why Sabina had insisted. Not only was the man incredibly skilled, but he was also probably just as crazy about making bizarre and unique creations as Sabina was.
“Mind if we take a look inside?” Jay asked the tiny man as she checked out the driver’s seat.
“Go ahead, it's your wagon,” Norbert creaked out with a laugh. “We still need to paint it and seal all the seams. And we’re not done with the custom harnesses you asked for, not yet. But it should be ready for the road in two days’ time, I think. In the meanwhile, everything else is done, so go ahead and play.”
Before Norbert had quite finished, Jay had already bounded up onto the front section of the wagon where the seat for a driver was. It was a giant-sized seat, which meant Jadis could comfortably seat two of her selves side by side on the bench. However, she had no plans of driving the vehicle herself.
“Up you go,” Syd said as she took Aila by the waist and lifted her up to Jay. “I think we might need to get a ladder for the side. Should have thought of that.”
“A ladder is quick work, I can add that on in no time,” Norbert chuckled in the background. “No extra charge!”
Not that Jadis needed the ladder, or anyone else who had decent strength stats. She was sure that even Eir, the least athletic of them all, could easily do a pull up and wouldn’t have that much trouble getting up on the wagon. Still, there was something to be said for ease of access.
“I told you I didn’t plan on driving wagons anymore,” Aila said with her typical reserved expression once she was up with Jay. However, as Aila took a seat on the bench and kicked out the built-in footrest that made the seat more comfortable for her height, her eyes twinkled with mirth. “But get me a few seat cushions and I can see myself driving this one.”
Behind Aila was a small door that allowed quick access to the interior of the wagon. Small, of course, being relative. Jadis had to duck down to get inside, but no one else but Kerr with her horns would have to.
Checking inside, Jadis saw that Norbert had once again gone above and beyond her expectations. The interior was tall enough that Jadis could stand at her full height without bumping her head, but more than that, there were rows of shelves and cubbies along the right side and back wall, designed to make storage easy and efficient. The shelves were nicely finished, too, with no rough surfaces and even a few embellishments to make it look nice. There were also a couple of lantern hooks on the front and back ends of the ceiling so that the interior could get some light, though the lanterns were something Jadis had to add herself later.
The left wall looked bare at first glance, but that was for good reason. As Jay and Aila looked around inside, Jadis’ other selves demonstrated why.
Pulling on a few cleverly hidden latches, the left wall detached along the base and opened upwards on strong hinges. Dys and Syd pulled open a couple of folded struts on the corners, allowing them to fully push open the wall so that it became an extension of the roof while also turning the struts into support pillars. In no time at all, the inside of the wagon was open for view and the side of the wagon had gained a canopy.
While she didn’t pull it all out since they were still on the streets of Far Felsen and already taking up a lot of space, Jadis checked to see that Norbert had indeed included the stack of wooden barricades she ordered as part of the wagon, too. Detached from the rest of the wagon, the barricades were based off of the absurdly impractical shield Sabina had once made for her. In fact, Jadis was fairly certain that the same shield was mixed in with the new barricades. There weren’t enough to enclose the whole canopy, but they could be stacked and attached along the front and back ends to create walls on either side or set out as free-standing units with the struts that had been attached to them.
“This is something else,” Kerr whistled low as she leaned against the edge of the opened side of the wagon. “I’ve been on a fucking lot of caravan details as a guard and I can promise you I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“Me either,” Aila said as she walked the length of the wagon interior. “This beast is more of a mobile fortress than a transport wagon. The only question is, how are we going to actually move it?”
“We’ve got it handled,” Jay said as she rapped her knuckles against one of the thick wooden walls. “We won’t be speed dem—er, we won’t be going as fast anymore when we’re travelling, but we’ll get where we’re going in style.”
“There are still a lot of improvements we could make to it especially as far as enchantments go but I think this work is amazing and it should work great as a base camp wherever we go on our expedition even if it isn’t going to be able to handle the more treacherous mountain paths since its so wide but I’m sure we’ll find a way!”
Sabina continued to praise the wagon, half directing her words to Jadis’ selves and half towards Norbert who seemed to take the onslaught of quickly spoken comments in stride.
Most people wouldn’t bother with enchantments on a simple wagon, Jadis knew from talking over such things with her companions, but most people didn’t spend as much time and money making a giant-sized custom vehicle, either. Jadis had paid to have two enchantments put on the wagon, ones that were typically only used on ships, but considering the investment she figured they were worth the extra cost. One of the enchantments made it so that the overall structure of the wagon was stronger and more resistant to wear and tear. The wood would be less likely to rot or crack, the metal parts less likely to bend or rust, and the vehicle would just generally hold up better against the rigors of regular use. The other enchantment was specifically for fire resistance. The wagon was a giant wooden structure, after all, and Jadis had already run into at least one demon that breathed fire. The enchantment couldn’t necessarily stop the wagon from burning down if attacked, but it would definitely make it harder to do so. She was only able to afford those two enchantments, though, since the cost of the two combined was almost as much as the cost of the wagon itself.
“Okay Norbert,” Jay said as she leapt down off the wagon. “You did a great job, truly. We’ll be back to pick her up in two days, and I’ll bring the final payment for your work.”
“A pleasure doing business with you,” the old gnome said in his crinkled but still sing-song voice. “I hope it serves you well! Especially if it means other mercenary companies start ordering more like this one after they see it in action!”
“I guess we’ll see,” Jay laughed around a grin as her other selves put the wagon wall back in place.
With their inspection of the nearly completed wagon done, Jadis and her team headed back to their small guild hall. It was only midday, their daily training with Noll taking place in the morning, so there were still plenty of hours left to get out into the hills and grind out more experience.
Despite her best efforts, Sabina had not yet reached level twenty. Partly due to how much time Sabina devoted to her crafting instead of helping kill demons, and also partly due to the overall reduction of demon activity in the area. Despite the many losses the army and mercenary forces in Far Felsen had suffered, it seemed the demons had come out worse overall. As the weeks passed, there were fewer and fewer demons to be found wandering the Broken Hills. From what Aila and Thea had gathered by speaking with their sources in their respective fields, mercenary and military, the demonic presence was still high in the tunnels, but above ground sightings across the region were decreasing. There was a lot of speculation as to what that meant, with rumors ranging from a second large force of demons building up to launch another assault on the city, to the decrease being attributed to a reduction in “materials” for the demons to work with. With less animals in the wild to corrupt, the demons were running out of easy bodies to use. That didn’t mean there would be less grundwyrms or bramble fiends, but for demons that depended on flesh, blood, and bone, the reduction in wildlife meant a reduction in their forces as well.
Since Sabina hadn’t reached level twenty yet, Bridget hadn’t yet committed one way or another on whether she wanted to risk a lewd class from performing a ritual with Jadis. Instead, the orc had been mostly sticking with the rest of the team while Jadis had helped Sabina level and hadn’t taken advantage of any of the many opportunities to level alone with the Nephilim. Jadis didn’t mind too much, since there was still some awkwardness between her and Bridget, but the more they spent time together the more comfortable the orc seemed to get with her. She would still occasionally say things that were brash and bold, then bail on them in the next sentence, but Jadis got the feeling that was just how the woman was. In any case, she wasn’t going to push Bridget. If she wanted to hold off on getting more involved, that was her choice and Jadis couldn’t fault it. At least she was proving to work well with the team as a competent fighter, whether she ended up getting a ritual boost or not.
Jadis wrapped up her thoughts on Bridget and Sabina as they gathered their equipment from their base, getting everything on and ready to go. With any luck, Jadis was hoping to get Sabina to level nineteen that day, and maybe even a few more levels for the rest of her companions who had stagnated a bit with the lack of challenge lately. Even she had gone a long time without gaining a level despite all the fighting she’d done. It seemed once a class passed level twenty, the speed at which that class progressed dropped dramatically as the experience requirements increased. The only person in her core group to gain any levels at all lately had been Eir with her low-level secondary class. Thinking about it, Jadis had some newfound respect for how high a level Noll had.
“Oh, that strap's rivet is loose, let me fix it.”
Jadis was jogged out of her thoughts by Sabina’s words. Looking over, she could see that the half elf was fiddling with one of Thea’s new gauntlets.
One of the reasons Sabina had not spent as much time out in the field was the crafting of Thea’s new armor. Partially made from the hydra scales they’d collected down in the tunnels, the new scale armor the smith had made for the former guard made her look less like a soldier and more like a true adventurer. The gray-silver scales definitely gave Thea a lot more style, at least, and the helmet that Sabina had crafted for her had a snarling monster motif that was halfway between Jadis’ helmets and what Kerr wore. She’d even improved the shield that Jadis had cobbled together for her, reusing the giant pill bug carapace to make a more solid creation.
“D—do you need to go b—back to the forge?” Thea asked Sabina as the smith fiddled with a piece of her right gauntlet.
“No, I can do this with a few tools,” Sabina chirped as she pulled out a few of the said tools from her apron pockets. “Just needs to be tightened and crimped and there we go! Oh!”
Sabina stopped midway through handing the gauntlet back to Thea.
“What?” Syd asked, looking over at the frozen woman. “Everything okay?”
“Oh, ah, yes! Better than okay!” Sabina looked over at Syd with a wide and happy grin. “That little repair was the final push! Level nineteen! Huzzah!”
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