Chapter 349

The problem that King Blade has with Jacob Cloud is that he already told Jacob that the Lullaby is probably something that he needs to figure out himself. But the reality is that King Blade has no idea what Jacob was talking about when he was complaining about Mana nodes before. And even now that he’s raising the same objections, King Blade has not yet figured out anything.

And he’s the most famous miner since Rafnov. He’s the one who built the dynasty that’s currently ruling Zamorye. He’s the one that developed the Skill to mine Mana nodes better, to make sure that miners would not be just lowly peasants dying in dark tunnels, but that they could be elevated to something greater.

But he’s at a loss for words. He doesn’t know what to tell Jacob.

Does he back away from this? Does he just tell him, yeah, sure, let’s see if you can practice in the mines — and then probably watch Jacob just fail? At which point he would have to admit that he has no idea why Jacob got the Lullaby Skill at all. And that would be a massive loss of face.

Not to mention the fact that what he told Jacob is true. Jacob was the one who extracted the cores of the Skill Crystals from the murals. And so Jacob is the only one attuned to those cores, and the only person who can insert them into the Mana nodes.

So King Blade has decided to do what a very wise person does, and not take responsibility for this matter, completely dumping it on Jacob.

“Grandson,” King Blade says, stretching his arms wide. “I am sure you are fearful of such a trial, but fear not. Karma never lies. If you’re here in front of these Mana nodes now, after all that you went through, it is for a good reason.”

“What’s the reason?” Jacob says, exasperated. “I can’t do this. I don’t want to destroy these Mana nodes. If I—”

“Do not worry. The way will be shown to you,” King Blade says.

And everybody interprets it as a sort of I will personally teach you in a second. But then King Blade does nothing, and Jacob asks, “Okay, Grandpa, so what do I do?”

“Why are you asking me?” King Blade replies with a frown.

“You just said that it will be shown to me.”

“Well, not by me. By Karma,” King Blade says, pointing an index finger up to the sky.

“Oh my goodness,” Jacob mutters, looking at the Mana nodes. “Are you serious when you say that it’s treason if I break one of those?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, but can I go practice before I do this? Maybe in a few months—”

“My projection will not last a few months,” King Blade says. “And this domain is currently tied to my own existence. My spirit will be exhausted soon. So you don’t have that much time. You must start now. You have no time to practice.”

Jacob couldn’t believe those words. He was being trapped. And if he destroyed any of these Skill Crystals, then he was absolutely dead.

Stupid fucking Karma, Jacob swore under his breath. Why do people keep bringing up Karma? Karma and Karma. What the hell is Karma anyway?

“Your Majesty,” Princess Yekaterina says, “are you sure about this? Perhaps we could find a way to connect this domain to the keep. We could notify my royal parents and—”

“Nobody would be able to connect this domain to the keep, young lady,” King Blade instantly replies. “It is tied to my Mana signature. Those nodes that you see, I excavated them personally. If someone reconnected this domain to the keep, they would crumble to dust.”

Princess Yekaterina sends an apologetic glance to Jacob, as if saying, well, at least I tried to help you.

And Jacob sighs, saying, “All right, all right. I guess that I can just trust Karma, then.”

“That’s the right attitude,” King Blade says, thinking that he might actually have to execute the kid if he breaks one of the Mana nodes. But he’s ready to do it in the interests of the kingdom.

Jacob floats with two wings made of Heartfire in front of a Mana node and takes a good look at it. He thinks and thinks.

Okay. What would King Baalrek do here? he tells himself.

And he thinks that maybe King Baalrek would just create a massive Primordial Spell array to figure this out. But Jacob doesn’t have the same knowledge that King Baalrek has, and the Grimoire — his only weapon — just shows flaws. And those flaws that he’s seeing are the same reason why the damn thing crumbles when he touches it.

So he’s back at square one.

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He hates to think about it, but there’s one person who’s good at solving these kinds of puzzles. And it’s Nimirea. But when Jacob thinks about what Nimirea would do, an image of her trying to stab him to death with her now pink sword is the only thing that comes up.

That’s another can of worms he will have to deal with sooner or later. What he’s done to the Dark Champions, and finding out how mad they are about him knocking them out and delivering them to the Academy on a silver platter after destroying their contract with Asmodeus.

I guess that if I die here, Jacob thinks, at least I’ve killed the incarnations of two Evil Gods. It’s not much of a track record.

“So, grandson, what is your plan?”

“I’m thinking, Grandpa,” Jacob says awkwardly. “I am visualizing the solution. Just give me a moment.”

“I am sure that your great artistry will lead you to the right solution.”

Sytin, who has come with them, nods fervently and is making a large sketch of Jacob floating up in the sky. Princess Yekaterina is curious to see what kind of epic drawing Sytin has been working on of Jacob. The royal painter is extremely fast in sketching out things, and she imagines it will be something extremely beautiful.

But then she looks at the painting, and it’s just stick figures.

“The way of the stick is truly superior,” Sytin mutters, drawing weird glances from Princess Yekaterina and Count Myshkin.

“If he gets killed for treason,” Princess Yekaterina says, “at least we’ll get rid of the sticks, I hope.”

“Hopefully. But if he fails this, then we’ll have to evacuate Zamorye, Princess. I think that it’s not going to be long till the enemy swarms all our ranks. The Nightmares have been growing stronger and stronger, and we’ve been taking more and more losses. The situation is truly dire. Jacob is in many ways our only hope. He needs to figure this out. Who knows? Maybe he is going to find an artful solution. Maybe we are the crazy ones. And maybe the Way of the Sticks is a genius form of artistic expression.”

But Count Myshkin doesn’t look convinced at all while speaking those words. Princess Yekaterina nods, doubtful.

And that’s when they hear Jacob Cloud singing something.

Nine of us went down the seam…

“What are you doing, grandson?” King Blade says, slowly levitating, but staying several feet away from Jacob and the crystal, not wanting to interfere with the process.

“Well, I’m thinking,” Jacob says. “Or, to be more precise, I had a revelation.”

“Oh, pray tell.” King Blade nods. “What is it?”

“If Karma is the way, then I must follow Karma. And Karma, in Rafnov’s trial, handed me a Skill. The Lullaby Skill, right?”

“I suppose,” King Blade says, unsure. “But what’s your intention here?”

“Well, I will sing a lullaby to the Skill Crystal. I will quiet maybe all the flaws with the lullaby and put the core inside of it. Right? I mean, if the core is already developed, then this is all about just maintaining that neutrality until the core has fully entered the virgin Mana node.”

King Blade looks at Jacob as if he had just heard the biggest load of bullshit in his entire life.

In fact, this might be. It’s such a preposterous thing, to sing to a Mana node, that the man doesn’t even know what to reply. But he’s in too deep in the lie, and so admitting that he had made things up and dragging Jacob away would solve nothing. Jacob still has to be the one turning the Mana nodes into Skill Crystals. So what choice does King Blade have but to let this young man actually sing to the Mana nodes?

“So you want to sing a lullaby to—”

“Yeah, I, uh, in the meantime I was already sort of practicing, and I’ve maxed out the Skill.”

“What? It’s Imperium Rank?” King Blade frowns.

“Yeah, but it’s probably because it’s based on a Bronze Rank Skill, right?” Jacob lies through his teeth.

Without the Grimoire, he would have never been able to perfect the Skill in such a short time. In fact, it had quite the huge number of flaws, and if it wasn’t for his proficiency and now grown talent and Mana vein resilience, he would have had a hard time performing so many level-ups.

“Um. Right,” King Blade said, frowning. “You must have had an easy time, then, indeed.”

“Yes, yes, it was quite easy.” Jacob keeps lying. “So now I’m gonna sing a song that I know to the Mana node, and I think it will put it to sleep.”

Sytin, even Jacob’s most fervent follower, looks at Princess Yekaterina and says, “Is he joking? It’s a Mana node. It’s not a baby. Does he really think he can just sing to it?”

“You’re the one drawing sticks,” Princess Yekaterina says with a disgusted expression on her face.

But Count Myshkin is actually scratching his beard. He has been working his entire life with Mana nodes, and he knows that they respond to more things than one might believe. But still, it is such a preposterous idea that he wouldn’t put his money on Jacob Cloud.

And plus, if Jacob fails…

King Blade, however, has staked his whole face on this and says, “Of course. That is the most genius solution I have ever heard. And since you are a master of the arts, I expect you know quite the song. Quite the masterful lullaby for this Mana node.”

“Um, sort of,” Jacob says. “It’s certainly about mining, this, um, ‘lullaby.’” Jacob made air quotes with his fingers.

“Right. Then please go ahead.”

Jacob cleared his throat, looked at the rock — at the Mana node, the Diamond Rank Mana node — and started singing in a terrible, off-pitch voice.

Nine of us went down the seam,

eight came back for supper.

One’s still down there with his dream,

and the rock don’t give a bugger.

“What the hell is that?” Princess Yekaterina says, blushing at how ridiculous it sounds.

But Jacob just continues.

Hush now, hush now, quit your crying,

the beer is cold and the lamp is dying.

Sleep in the dark where the dust is deep —

the mine don’t pay you extra to weep.

“It sounds like a mining song. Like a peasant’s mining song,” Count Myshkin cringes.

Even Sytin is having a hard, hard time trying to give a good interpretation to the ridiculous song they’re hearing. And King Blade is actually on the verge of crying, thinking to himself, is this the damn song? Is this the masterful lullaby?

But as Jacob launches into the next verse, something happens.

King Blade sees the light from the Mana node become compressed. It becomes a thinner layer on the Mana node.

What in the name of broken pickaxes is happening? the king swears in a very unkingly manner, as if he had just become a peasant miner himself.

Eight of us went down the seam,

seven came back for beer.

Foreman swears the count is clean.

Foreman can’t count worth a damn round here.

And then, as Jacob goes down number by number, the Mana node’s power seems to be sealing deeper and deeper into its structure.

That’s when Jacob started approaching it mid-air, and everybody started holding their breath.

If this failed, Zamorye could be doomed.