"Ha~ Give me a moment to write it all down. Harder to mess up that way." I said shaking my head with a sigh.
I pulled a pencil and some paper from my storage plane before carefully step by step writing down exactly how one made a pizza. I went into vivid detail so there was absolutely no possible way to fuck it up unless you just didn't follow the directions. At that point however whatever is made is not my responsibility. Once the recipe was completely written down I handed it to Haskill who looked it over before nodding and fading away into purple smoke.-
'Well hopefully that will be the last distraction for a while.' I thought in an act of self deception.
I knew better than to hope for peace when the Madgod was involved. Still I chose to focus my mind on the ruins up ahead. They were made of stone with a few statues of various creatures broken and imbedded into the ground. All of it was covered in creeping vines and moss that had long since set in place. Surprisingly the stone was still hard and strong despite clearly having been left to rot for a LONG time.-
'Then again this is the realm of madness. Who knows what sort of half mad half genius technique the builders used to create this place.' I though shaking my head.
There was a loud croaking sound in the above ground part of the ruins I was in that told me there were more Grummites here. I cast a solid [chameleon] spell on myself that made me semi transparent before slipping into a stealth stance as I moved forward. It was not a skill I used often but I DID learn the art of being unseen from the guild growing up.-
Being stealthy with my bulk was a lot harder than for normal folk but I could still sneak well enough. I silently crept around the ruins with my sword in hand and quietly killed the Grummites. I'd wait for the stragglers to be distracted before cutting their throats or stabbing through their spinal columns. Grummites might be native to the isles but they weren't true daedra as they were born from eggs rather than the waters of Oblivion. This meant their biology still followed some of the rules that mortal races had.-
In this case the weakness of the central nervous system.
From these patrolling Grummites I retrieved another six crude chitin weapons that I fed to my blade as well as another three chunks of Madness ore.
'One more and I'll have enough for a longsword.' I thought excitedly as I put the ore away.
I was still mostly trying to follow the list of worst to best materials for my blade so I had a strong progression with it. I could also use the ore to make armor as well even if not for myself. Don't get me wrong I understood that adding armor to my already ridiculous durability would be like giving cocaine to a troll, I just wasn't a fan of armor.-
That's it, no grand reason or bad experience or anything like that. I just didn't enjoy wearing armor so I didn't, simple as that. A bit silly of me I know but this life was a second chance for me and I wasn't going to sacrifice my comfort and happiness unnecessarily. Anyways once I dispatched the Grummites above ground and fed my blade their crude weapon I headed for the massive stone double doors that were carved with intricate Madgod iconic symbols.-
The stone hinges groaned under my hands as I pushed the doors open to reveal a wide and tall stone hallway leading down. At it's bottom I saw a door held with a latch but operated via a set of chains. While maintaining my stealth I walked up to this door that appeared made of several long rectangles placed against each other to form an image of the Madgod himself. I flipped the latch and the door came apart as the chains tension pulled the segments apart like the teeth of a predator.-
This was not a quiet process and I sunk into the shadows after it happened since I didn't know if anything heard it. My caution paid off as an ugly round face with needled teeth stepped through the now open doorway. I resisted the urge to run the Grummite through in the off case it wasn't alone but after it fully walked into the dark hallway and no other followed it I stabbed out with my blade and poked a hole through the back of it's head. With a twist and a pull it's brainmatter was severed and ruined while my blade had been retrieved.-
I quickly checked the thing for goodies and after finding none fed it's cudgel to my blade as I crept forward deeper into the ruins. The other side of the doorway led to a chamber with a short set of stairs, a large statue of a fierce looking bipedal beast that almost reminded me of a Daedroth but with a wider more aquatic apelike head and body. I recognized it as a Scalon, the isles version of a Daedroth. The things were roughly seven feet tall and had cyan or yellow skin. Their heads had the long canines and flat teeth that apes tended to have but were in truth predators of opportunity.-
They were ambush predators that lurked in the watery areas of the isles and could turn mostly transparent and leap great distances to attack prey or enemies. Their fins were a valuable alchemical ingredient that could be made into potions with four completely unrelated effects. Water breathing, damage health, shock damage and burden were the potions that could be made with the fins. The first was the only one that made any sense and that was only because the things lived in and near water.-
The chamber was brightly lit as the Grummites had a large bonfire burning on the stone floor. They had fish and .... other things on spikes being cooked over the flames. I grimaced at the sight but couldn't see any other Grummite nearby. There was a large stone drum though that I walked over to and pulled the head stone cap off of. Inside I found a few chunks of Madness ore, some shiny rocks and a handful of gold that had seen better days. Obviously the drum had been being used by the Grummites as a sort of treasure chest.