Chapter: 105

Yet you, prince, shall find more satisfaction in one single day than those who live forever.

A little poison taints a whole keg, as a little foolishness tarnishes your wisdom and honour.

Drunken adulterous foolishness will not cause you any contentment but instead only more pain, and more foolishness, my child – and one day you will be judged for these actions.

Therefore, knowing you will be judged by the grand council, as well as God, for your actions in this meaningless world, I commend you to live and enjoy your days – but do so with honour, integrity, righteousness and wisdom; then you will wake up with gladness all your days, and endure judgement when the time comes, being found to be above reproach – The mockers shall be silenced, the whisperers quieted, and the nay-sayers embarrassed for their own words.

Then a fool – even after drinking all the wine in the world will not be able to reach your level of fulness.

Looking forward to your return. Peace, grace and love to you, my young King.

– Philosopher King Helotian, Empire of the Broken, Counsellor of the wise.


Bones floated in front of Jay as he channeled his mana into them, giving them a light-green tint as it mixed with the bone particles. Slowly, the bones began to soften and meld together before flattening out. It was a round disc of bone at this point, looking nothing like a shield.

Jay tried to mould it into a shield shape, but he couldn’t hold the shape. Losing control over the bone disc, it fell to the ground, splintering into pieces.

“Damn…” Jay thought as he picked up the bone scrap “My scrimshaw ability is still level 1, even after all the dagger crafting. Surely I’m close to levelling it up though…” Jay thought as he pulled more white bones from his ring “Guess I’ll just have to change that.”

After a while, Jay was getting faster and more efficient – finding he could shatter daggers with his mana before recrafting them, though he did lose some material in the process.

Two hours and 23 white bone daggers later, Jay finally received a notification.

[Scrimshaw Level 2]

“Finally.. What was I doing again?” He looked around at the bone residue and splinters on the ground, wondering for a moment..

“Oh yeah, making a shield” he chuckled, grabbing more bone for his shield.

This time, as he crafted the flat circle he had a feeling that he needed to add more bones, so while holding the forming bone-pancake, he shifted his ring. To Jay’s surprise, the circular bone formation pulled bones in from the ring itself, as if they were magnetized. Seeing it slow down, Jay added more mana and restored it’s formation speed.

The shield drew an additional six bones into itself along with a soap rat skull; one of the bones was one of the blackened marsh bones. After Jay forced the mana-filled semi-solid bones into a shield-like shape, the process began automating itself.

Before Jay’s eyes a shield formed. The rat skull increased in size while it’s snout shortened. It found its place on the front of the shield as two glowing green eyes appeared in it.

[Item Complete]

“Nice.” Jay thought, grabbing the shield after the process finished, looking at the menacing rat skull on the front as it stared back at him.

The shield was the same shape as a knight’s shield, yet lighter. The edges were thicker and black, with claws at the three points, facing towards the enemy-side.

Artery-like structures seemed to stem out from the rat skull at the centre, It seemed to Jay like there was a green-ish liquid coursing through them.

Pleased with the design, Jay analyzed the shield.

[Dealthwalker’s Sentry] (Unique Shield)

[Aware – Alerts the owner when it detects a threat]