Maid with Necromancy

Chapter Forty-Seven

"You did it!" Jenny's excitement at the now dingy-looking bits of metal was overenthusiastic.

Taking one of the bits, Harmony squeezed the metal, flattening it by about half. It wasn't soft, but she could squish it. "You sure this will be usable?"

"How freakishly strong are you?" Jenny blurted out, before shaking that off. "What matters is that I can modify the metal now, form bonds, temper, and fold it. We don't have a lot. I can make maybe two more outfits for you. We can't overlook the value of armor, swords, and the potential to make more as we haul things out of the Sacred Valley, even if the Games try to make it useless. Now strip and lie down. You know how long it takes for me to piece another one together."

It took twice as long as the last one because she kept getting distracted by the pile Harmony had returned to her. Reaching in to touch the pile like it was a lover she'd been a long time away from.

The red tribe acquired its first metal sword, and that wasn't the only change as days passed. More people and bonds were discovering hidden talents with the use of the growth chamber.

Papi Viner could now possess his great-grandson, Milo, for a short period of time for quick surgeries if needed, and not without some arguments. "You don't need to possess me to practice removing a splinter!"

Socks, Owlsley's sloth, slowed the targets it had licked. Harmony insisted everyone in the tribe experience the effects once to know how they handle a sudden change in speed.

Kenny could temporarily shift his luck onto others.

That slowed mimic farming. "You almost killed me this time, Kenny!" Eric complained.

"That was the Mimic and not me."

"It was your fault for going into that stupid chamber. Can't you think of anyone but yourself!"

Kenny unintelligibly mumbled a response as he walked away.

The days of plenty were slowly coming to an end, as facing mimic copies now had an added danger of random accidents. The Kennys were still easy to kill, but every clash brought back some self-inflicted or extremely random injury. Ming got stabbed by her pet bull in one of those freak accidents, but Harmony wouldn't have counted out the creature's belligerence. But a hunting trip wouldn't go without a concussion, fractured skill, or something that needed attention from one of the healers.

Two competitions passed in the sacred valley. One won by Len and Felix's team for breaking down a wall the quickest. Felix's polyamorous blades cut stone like butter. The other they won in a competition to solve matching puzzles, as Papi Viner's ability to phase through individual testing rooms let him share the six possible solutions with the rest of the team despite their number disadvantage in the timed event.

There had been no chance to hunt Saccerate or confront Rosaline. No return of Adric. Only being able to check her pet's condition in the growth chamber kept Harmony from doing something drastic.

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"Do you want your reward?" Gareth asked as he sat down beside her, holding one of the golden apples provided.

There were two hundred of them. Competitors all received one, and the rest were to be dumped onto the contribution reward options. Each promised a year of extra life for those who consumed one. True sight from chewing on a bit of fate revealed the complex layers of energy inside each apple, not that she could make sense of it outside of gut feelings and intuition.

Evolving already gave one a longer life; every time you progressed, you added more. One apple or even being able to eat all two hundred wouldn't matter in the long run unless you decided to stop progressing and live a life of leisure. Then you'd have to make it to old age.

Harmony took her reward, but didn't feel like taking a bite. "Maybe I'll put it on a necklace and let Night eat it. I can't seem to shake that hungry condition even after going through all the metal. Or save it for Adric when he returns." Would it work on undead?

"I know you miss your pet prince. I'm sure we'll resolve it soon." Gareth assured her.

At this point, Harmony wasn't sure that he'd come back with her even if she was voted off. He'd been gone for over ten days and two competitions. What was keeping him in place?

"Adric would have loved the growth chamber, if only to be able to check on Bowe."

"Yes, and he will still get a chance to use it. They can't hold him forever. Maybe there will be a reward to help retrieve him?" Gareth added.

A high-pitched whine pierced the air, interrupting Harmony's increasingly common moping about Adric being missing.

Charging towards the source rather than fleeing, Harmony kicked off with three giant skips toward the obelisk that quivered enough to produce the wicked sound.

"I swear it wasn't me!" Loap answered.

Words shifted on the stone away from a ranking of completion times for the puzzles from the previous competition.

Immunity has been claimed. A rejection of the possibility of safety. A promise to fight to survive untold dangers that lie ahead for greater rewards. Felix Campbell has acquired one of the three marks needed to be eligible for one of the titles.

The Ascendant Games' difficulty has increased, but so have the prizes. Do you wish to continue or flee? Continue / Flee?

That bloody notification again. Why hadn't she gained a mark when she unlocked the first one? "We'd be better off if he had been voted off." Harmony groaned.

No one left early. Night ate the apple, and it was still hungry.

In the middle of darkness, the first assault on the camp came out of the woods, and every competitor slept through it. A dozen giant black king spiders. They climbed over the makeshift wall that had been built around the camp.

Jenny snored in her shelter, the coals of her forge keeping her warm as she hugged the last of the ingots available after running out of materials for Harmony to process. She held them in her arms like they were a baby to be swaddled. To be close to fuel, wood for her forge, she'd set up the furthest from the obelisk and lake.

The long, sharp leg of a spider nudged her door open and reached inside, extending close enough to brush her hair. That was not enough to wake the forgemaster, but she did start to roll over.

That king spider stabbed forward, driven to kill. As quick as its strike was, it was yanked back even quicker. Confusion, surprise, and finally fear ran through its primitive mind. Crunch!

That night, Hyacinth's lunch came to him. Seeing if he could take them out without anyone noticing was good training.

That didn't mean people were happy to wake up to a pile of half-eaten spiders or the subsequent attacks that came every twelve hours.

A new element of challenge for the games.

To add to the stress, the next day's competition notification came with no ticking, no warning, and increased risk.

Meet at the Sacred Valley for the Sixth Competition! Send ten from your tribe to compete for increased prizes, but it will not be without risk! Six of the thirty competitors will be eliminated. No votes will be held after this match.