Unnamed Longsword
A sword crafted within a maelstrom forge by Alexilios, The Hero of Linden
Infernal Aura: The user may provide mana or use the lumina stones attached to the weapon to creat a flaming aura hot enough to melt infernal iron (will not damage the metal of the blade)
Magnify Conflagration: This weapon can be used as a focus for flame based magic and skills and will amplify such skills to a veritable degree.
Infernos embrace: passively grants the wielder protection from the flames conjured by the blade
I stared at it for a few moments, reading through it and realizing that Infernos Embrace was the addition added by [Maelstrom Modification]. I had worried a bit about what it would do, if it would add something that was antithesis to the weapon but it seemed that using fire mana on infernal iron was enough to manipulate the enchantment to be a beneficial one. And beneficial it was, I hadn’t thought about protecting the wielder from their own flames.
After taking probably too long considering the weapon I turned to Helga and her students. She looked at me expectantly, almost impatiently. I sighed and tilted my head at her. “What are ya waiting for, check it out?” I saw her smirk a little bit as he eyes flashed with mana. A few of the novice’s did the same but the rest didn’t seem to have the skill.
One muttered “Hero of linden?” And started whispering to one of the teens beside him. There was only a single girl in the group, unsurprisingly. The trade was heavily dominated by men, much like adventuring.
“Three enchantments? What the hells...” Another started to say before catching my smirk and glancing away.
“Impressive for a smith so young! May I ask what your smithing class is at Lios? I understand if you don’t want to share.” Helga asked with raised brows as she approached me. She reached out as if asking to hold the blade. I passed it over, sheath and all, and watched as she slowly drew it halfway from its housing taking a look at the swirling pattern of red and blue.
“Ah, I don’t mind. Level twenty one when I started, unsure if it rose from crafting this though.”
Her eyes flashed from the sword to me in shock. “Level twenty one and you're making a sword like this? Who trained you? The dwarves? Thats the only way...” She trailed off and pulled the scabbard off entirely, grinning as a blast of heat hit her, the passive heat of the metal was enough to char the inside of the scabbard. I’d need to put a heat resistant enchantment on it on the morrow.
“Oh, no dwarves. I was trained by Derren of Arborton.” I shrugged a bit, glad that the blade turned out so well. I was ready for a bath, however. “Apologies, I need to go and get some food and needed rest.” She nodded and handed back the weapon which I attempted to store in the [Forge] but was unable to. I sighed and rushed it up to my room, letting it remain there before I went back downstairs, saw Eva and Rose at a table and walked over.
“No, Lios! You smell of sweat. And where is your shirt. No sitting here till you’re clean!” Rose said immediately as I approached, soot covering my sweaty body.
Eva reacted even worse, glaring at me as she went to pet Sky and pulled metal shavings and shards from her fur. “Lios! What did you do to poor Sky. And Luka. Did you throw them in the forge? They're covered in soot!”
“Actually, no I didn’t throw them in the forge. They helped me make a sword. But thats what I wanted to talk about. Do you know of any bathhouse that would let me take them with me? Preferably somewhere affordable. And where I could get a brush for them? I realized recently I had been neglecting that the past several months away from Arborton.” I blushed at Evas furious gaze and Rose’s judgment. I swallowed a bit, noticing a few adventurers were chuckling at my chastizing.
“I could use a bath. Wanna come Eva? I know a place that may let us in.” Rose announced as she stood up. It was still a bit early for supper but she had a tankard before her that she promptly downed.
Eva stood up and scooped Sky into her arms, still glaring at me as I followed them out. Luka, jealous, jumped into Rose’s arms despite her protesting about his sooty body. Rose led us to the edge of the city, near the west gate, the one opposite the Dread Wastes. We approached a dingy looking bathhouse, but I could see the steam rising in the back and the smell of soap and shampoo. It would do, especially if they let me bring the foxes. There was no sign with a name above the door, as though they couldn’t be bothered to advertise past word of mouth.
“Kanna! Heyyy.” Rose called out as we entered the shack that acted as a reception area. A young looking tiger beastfolk looked up and grinned at Rose before her eyes fell on the dirty fox in her arms, then at me.
“Rose! Eva! Welcome back. And you brought... friends?” She tilted her head glancing at the pair of foxes then at me again. “Rose you know we don’t have a coed bath yes? The boy will be separated no matter how handsome he is. Rules are rules.” She clicked her tongue playfully, taking in my still shirtless self. I hadn’t bothered to don my shirt yet, despite the looks we got on the way here. They may be self cleaning but I still didn’t want to get them dirty.
Rose rolled her eyes and leaned forward. “My friend here was hoping to find a bath to clean these adorable rascals, and himself. No need for coed, but Eva and I will take the foxes. They don’t need to bathe with those nasty old men in there. The gals will appreciate them more.”
“Wait, why will you take-”
“I will not hear it Lios! We are taking them to make sure they are properly bathed. Knowing boys you’d just dunk them in the water and barely soap em!” She whipped toward me and gave me a feisty growl. The tone she took held no room for protest so I simply nodded, ignoring her adorable expression. “Good! Three baths please, is it extra for the foxes? He’s paying!”
She rushed through the door labeled for women before I could protest, Eva following after. I sighed and reached into my coin purse. “How much for the five of us?”
“That’ll be a silver a piece. Thank you for the patronage. The boys bath is through that door. Please rinse off a bit before entering the bath proper, there are buckets and cloths to do so, after that feel free to soak for a bit. Don’t mind the old fellows, they’re here often.”
I nodded, thanked her and went to the bath. After rinsing down I settled on the bench and finally took a look at my skill and class level ups, grinning as I did so. While it wasn't a rule, classes tended to gain new skills at fairly regular intervals. For secondary classes, a lot of them gained skills every twenty five levels for the first evolution, with a high variance after. I hoped to reach level twenty five in the class, granted that would require me gaining four full levels.
Because the sword took a number of my skills to create, as well as an exorbitant amount of preparation, I felt that it would provide five or six levels if I was lucky. The fact that I had successfully cast an enchanted weapon also helped to boost my levels further. Even after all of that I worried that It wasn’t enough to raise my level that much. I had only created one item, after all. I took a deep breath and soaked in the pool. The older gents were masked by steam and while they had greeted me, and I them, they minded their own business. I opened my status, ready to see the notifications and a blue screen appeared before me.
[Class]
[Bladedancer] lvl 79-->101
[Class Skills]
...
[Compendium Actualization] LVL:38-->54
[Secondary Class]
[Wayfaring Craftsman of the Tumultuous Maelstrom] LVL: 21-->28
[Secondary Class Skills]
[Runesmithing] LVL:21-->28
[Runeweaving] LVL:21
[Ephemeral Forge] LVL:21-->28
[Runic Inscribing] LVL:21-->28
[Maelstrom Modification] LVL:19--> 25
[Arcane Analysis] LVL:21--> 22
X4 Unavailable
I breathed heavily in relief, seeing that my class had increased further than I had expected. Given that this was likely an epic class, per the adventurers guilds classification, I was a little surprised to see it go up by so much. Perhaps it was a larger feat than I expected to craft a sword, especially one using [Runesmithing] and resulting in having four individual abilities. The weapons description didn’t even include the durability, self repair, or persistent grip enchantments that I had etched it with.
A blinking in the corner of my vision told me that some of the other notifications I had put off weren’t related to level ups. I was hopeful that it was an offering of a new skill or even an upgrade, though I wasn’t sure what skill would have upgraded. I closed my full status and pulled up the other notifications.
The skill [Detect Metal] is now available for your class [Wayfaring Smith of the Tumultuous Maelstrom]
[Detect Metal]: A wandering smith is likely to find themselves deep beneath the earth or in the mountains. Detect Metal is a passive skill to allow the wandering smith to feel metal around them. It will not inform the user what metals are near them, but will simply reveal the location. Is not more powerful than warding spells or enchantments.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
I quickly added it to the class, wondering how useful it would wind up being. I still hadn’t done all that much ‘wandering’, despite it evidently having some implications within both of my classes. I had traveled, sure, but wandering felt different to me. Even still I could see it being useful as I added it to the list.
Immediately I was inundated with the knowledge that metal was all around me. The spouts for the bath, the bowl that held coals that heated the water we poured in, the buckets themselves. I sensed a mans golden tooth, and another mans unfortunately placed piercings. I did not need to know old man Jenkins over there had nipple rings, or that his buddy had one that made me wince just thinking about it. Seriously, and piercings didn’t even seem all that common as a fashion accessory.
The instant overload of information made me clutch my eye, not because my eye itself hurt but the headache sprang up from behind it. I trembled for a moment as I took a deep breath, my [Pain Resistance] helping me out alongside [Meditation]. One of the nearby patrons, an old man with a touch of metal in his knee, turned to look at me in concern but I quickly waved him off.
I stayed in the bath for a few more minutes, making sure I was sufficiently clean and that my new skill wouldn’t distract me and cause me to trip as I tried to manipulate it. I couldn’t. Unlike other passives, I couldn’t toggle it off or expand its range by thinking about it. I couldn’t filter out different metals, only sense them. I could, however, register a few properties of the metals, which is why I knew the one man had a golden tooth. Mostly, just the density of the material and the softness of it.
Soon, I left the bath and got clothed, finally putting on my soft silk purple shirt and black silk pants. I stepped out and back into the reception area to see Kanna kneeling down and petting both of the fully dried, poofy furred and pampered foxes. Luka and Sky relished the attention, and clearly had enjoyed their bath. I glanced up at the women and smiled.
“Thanks for taking care of them. You're right, you probably pampered them more than I’d have especially cuz I needed to scrub my skin off myself.”
“No problem, they were filthy Lios. Be better!” Eva teased much to my shock. Usually it would be Rose, but it felt like Eva wasn’t quite so... bitchy as the aura she gave off. I grinned at the playfulness and started walking toward the door.
“Thanks, Kanna! We will probably be back on the morrow. More smithing to do, after all.”
We said our goodbye to her before leaving. Rose glanced over at me curiously. “I thought you completed that sword you were working on... Did you lie?”
“Not at all, I just have to make another couple of them. After that, the next few days, I’ll need to enter a dungeon and retrain myself. Haven't tried fighting with one hand yet. Any dungeons you’d recommend?” I shrugged, shocked that Sky was staying with Eva instead of occupying my shoulders. Luka stayed beside me.
“We planned to do the ‘Spiders Web’ guild dungeon in two days. If you want we can wait for you for the day after. But only if you buy us drinks for making us wait.” Rose said after a few moments of thinking and exchanging a glance with Eva. With [portent] active once more I didn’t miss the nod Eva gave her after a moment of reluctance.
“Deal. I’d be happy to. Thank you for the invite, I’m eager to see how you both fight.”
“Think nothing of it, the ‘Spiders Web’ requires three and companions don’t count for it. It’ll take us all day, most likely, so be prepared to wake before dawn to meet us.” Eva said dryly.
“I see, well thank you anyway.”
“Papa! Smells yummy. Said anything we wanted?” Lukas voice rang in my head as we passed by a food vendor. It smelled like roasting meat and I turned toward it.
“One second, I promised the foxes a treat for all of their hard work. Would you like some?” I asked Rose, wondering if there was a vegetarian food vendor nearby. When she nodded after a few moments of deliberating I ordered four orders of sliced meat, shawarma style. Right off the edge of the spit, charred to perfection. I set the foxes on the ground not far from the cart as I looked around and found a vendor selling cups of fruit with some sort of cream, a dessert.
“Eva, would you like one? It feels rude to buy everyone food when its not something you eat. My treat.” I threw a glance at the cart and watched her eyes narrow, before she could protest I sighed. “Come on let me treat you, as a thanks for brushing Sky. She really enjoyed it, she told me so.”
She hadn’t said anything but I knew from the look on her face. Finally, Eva relented and nodded, agreeing to let me buy one for her. I quickly went over, glad that it was just before the dinner rush, and bought a bowl of the dessert for her. When she took a bite her face briefly lit up, but she tried to hide it.
“Thank you, Lios,” She said after the second bite. “Its really yummy. You and Rose should try a bite.”
Rose wasted no time taking the spoon and filling it with both the sweet cream and fruit cubes, taking a large bite and squealing with delight. I took the spoon from her, wishing I’d gotten a second or third one, and took a smaller bite. It was delicious, sugary. It reminded me of sorbet. The flavors exploded in my mouth, complimenting each other. I got a hint of orange and some other citrus fruits that I loved.
Soon we made our way back to the guild hall and settled down for a meal. We chatted a while, enjoying our cups and food. I had juice rather than ale or mead, wanting to maintain a healthy relationship with the substance. After we parted, I spent a few hours in my room working on an enchantment for a wind attributed weapon. It would be similar to the flame blades enchantments, of course, but not exactly the same.
It would still have an aura of wind attached to it, as well as an enchantment to send such an aura out toward a foe. But also, I wanted it to help speed up the user itself. Not in the same way as a haste spell but to passively quicken the wielder. It was a complicated enchantment, and difficult to fit within a hundred twenty five runes. But I was confident it could be done. I was able to fit the durability and self repair runes within the first twenty five runes, leaving me with one hundred runes to create a cohesive three part enchantment.
After putting down the books, I slept. I didn’t have any nightmares this time. Perhaps it was due to me exhausting myself with my focused smithing. I woke up feeling refreshed in a way I hadn’t felt in a while. The foxes protested as I started to move, to get up, wanting to sleep longer. They rose with me anyway. Before I left to work on another weapon I put a heat resistance enchantment on the scabbard, etching it into the entoak. It was only a five rune enchantment but it was fairly simple so it didn’t need much. It drew mana from the atmosphere to work.
It was still dark out when I began smithing the second sword. I made it exactly the same way as the one the day before, using the same enchantments and everything. I finished it that same day, including the scabbard. The process took an hour less than the first time due to two reasons: one, I was now able to impart two whole runes when I activated my spell, and two I was that much quicker at creating the circles than I had been the day prior.
The sword was exactly the same, save for two things. The last ability, Inferno’s embrace, was different, confirming that it was provided by [Maelstrom Modification]. The enchantment was still fire related, but in my opinion not quite as useful. It was called “Wildfire” and, contrary to the first ability, would cause enemies of the wielder who were struck by the blade to catch fire, but it wasn't reliable. It didn’t occur on every strike, and it could even spread quicker than one might wish it to. The wielder had no way to control this flame.
The second difference was on the pattern of the damascus blade. Instead of arbitrarily folding the metal over and over, I did so with intention. What I wound up with was a series of diamonds stretching over the fuller and central ridge of the blade. It was layered with red and blue metals, creating a much cleaner and more symmetrical look over what I had made the day prior. Still, I didn’t like the lack of control from the last enchantment and so I knew I would sell it.
I completed the last sword quicker than the others as well. It still took most of the day, but an extra hour was cut from the forge process as I became even more accustomed to the routine. My helpers aided in that a lot as well. Each day we returned to the baths, and Rose and Eva even went with when I offered to pay for them. It was only a few silver, which used to seem like a lot to me but now it felt like much less.
The last sword was different from the others in the same way the second sword had been. This time I went with a pentagon pattern rather than a diamond, it was a bit more difficult to do and I had to practice it with a few bits of scrap, but I felt it would be fitting to set up a signature of sorts. Of course I was still planning to mark the other blades as mine with something more official, but since I was a wielder of maelstrom mana I thought it would be fitting to do something to play to that. I used rune circles starting at five, I wielded five types of mana, and I would soon be seen with five swords of different styles. A pentagon felt right even if it was more difficult and purely aesthetic.
With this final sword, I decided to design the handle and crossguard a bit more too, hopeful that the last enchantment would make it useable for me for a while. With the entoak, I carved a sort of spiral into it on which I wrote the runes. For the crossguard, I twisted the svertim and had it hold the lumina stones at the end, the tines twirling around it artistically and meeting in a point. The pommel received a similar treatment, giving the final sword a much fancier design than the other two.
It turned out pretty nice, to be honest. Much better than I had expected. I had become pretty practiced with the crafting of patterns while working for Derren, but still it was nice to see success on a first try. For both this sword and the other, I enchanted the insides of the scabbards rather than etching the outsides, deciding to keep the outside clean and blank. I used the same stain and oil to polish them as well, giving the handle and scabbards a nice contrast from the seemingly - from a distance - purple blades. I even had just enough infernal iron left, already forged into plates, to make another sword and even a dagger. I was simply out of lumina stones for the time being, but I could make something later.
But the important difference was in the final enchantment. I had yet to look at it with [Arcane Analysis]. I was nervous. I had tried experimenting with [Maelstrom Modification] by trying to add some intention to the final enchantment. I wanted something similar to the first one, inferno’s embrace, but that would also allow the wielder themselves to take on the aura that the blade had. It would likely cost more mana to maintain but would be ever more powerful. With a bated breath I took a look at the sheathed blade, hoping I hadn’t ruined it, and felt mana gather behind my eyes.
Unnamed Longsword
A sword crafted within a maelstrom forge by Alexilios, The Hero of Linden
Infernal Aura: The user may provide mana or use the lumina stones attached to the weapon to create a flaming aura hot enough to melt infernal iron (will not damage the metal of the blade)
Magnify Conflagration: This weapon can be used as a focus for flame based magic and skills and will amplify such skills to a veritable degree.
Ignium’s Shroud: A shroud of flame surrounds the user upon the weapon gaining its aura, shielding them from their flames and the flames of others. Those near the user may be burned by the flames of their shroud. The user may grant the aura to anyone in direct contact with them
I first felt elation at reading the description, before I looked at the name again. Ignium. Who was that? It wasn’t a god amongst the pantheon of Ravos, nor did I recognize it as a historical figure. I gulped a little, nervous. It was a named skill, named after someone or something of such significance that it held despite being enchanted onto my weapon. I wondered who this entity was, and hoped they would not notice that I had likely siphoned a sliver of their power.
______________________________________________
Ignium’s left eye slowly opened. It was slitted like a lizards, with lids coming both from the sides and the top and bottom. Its right eye opened soon after. It had felt a small draw, like a needle pulling blood from its hide. It growled softly, poking at itself with a clawed hand. After finding nothing missing it took a look at its status.
Its eyes narrowed, flicking back and forth as it scoured the lines of text. The same lines that had been there for millenia. It found that nothing was missing, or added. It frowned and shook its head, ready to give up, before it caught something peculiar.
[Ignium’s Shroud] LVL 2068-->2067
Someone, somewhere, had taken a level from it. How, it did not know. It raised its head and let out a roar, shaking the foundation of its cave. It worked hard for its levels, slaying ice elementals and water elementals and all sorts of other things. Its wings unfurled and it crawled to the entrance of its cave, and roared again. Stepping out, it breathed flame on the thing nearest it - a stone elemental. Low level, not even worth the energy Ignium expended to breathe fire. It didn’t know how it would do so, but it wanted to find the one who had stolen from it.
It flew about in the massive Maelstrom. Not a facsimile of it, but the true Maelstrom. And it slaughtered, it fought against the other elementals in its rage.
A single entity watched all of this happen, a grin forming on their ever shifting visage.
