We decided to keep the cloak for the time being, but would maybe sell it on auction at a later date. Part of it was that, though none of us could properly make use of it given our classes, it felt too powerful to give to an assassin. Too dangerous. We were aware that it was hardly the only one in existence but still didn’t want an item like it on the market. It would take a bit more deliberating to decide, but for the time being we would keep it. As it was, we had more than enough of the common loot from the normal monsters to make back what they had spent to reserve the dungeon and refill our purses a bit.
We were back in the guild, the sun setting over the town to my surprise. We had spent around sixteen total hours in the dungeon between breaks, fighting the standard mobs, and taking time to harvest webs. Well, the last bit was all me but that was beside the point. We had just settled down to eat a hot meal after having eaten jerky and bread all day.
“So, what’s your guy’s plans the next few days?” I asked, taking a sip of some honeyed mead. The foxes had decided to settle in our room and nap after expending so much energy through the day. I had asked Garth to send a platter of food up for them along with two bowls of milk.
“I think we’re gonna spend a few days selling everything. Do you want to come with?” Rose tilted her head. Rather than mead she had a cheap glass of wine sitting before her though she had hardly touched it.
“I shouldn’t as much as I’d like to. I have to finish designing an enchantment for another sword and maybe a spell or two if I can. It should go quicker now, but it’ll still take a while.” I shook my head, my ponytail swishing behind my head.
“Maybe a haircut first? No offense, you look like a bum even with your hair pulled back.” Eva chuckled as I turned to her aghast.
“What, are you volunteering? And no, I don’t look like a bum. I’m totally suave with my hair like this. Dashing even! Right Rose?” I turned to the giggling bard to come to my defense.
“Well I mean... You’re cute enough but Eva is right, your hair is too long. You’d look way cooler with it shorter.” She suppressed another giggle, her face pink with amusement.
“Wow. Just wow. I can’t believe it. Betrayed by my own party.” I shook my head, lamenting the treachery. My tankard was quickly emptied in dramatic fashion. It thunked onto the table as my arm fell. At that same time one of the guild workers came forward and dropped off our plates of food, as she turned to leave Rose drew her attention.
“Excuse me ma'am, I have a question for you if you're willing to settle a debate?” She had a cheeky smile, a devious look in her eyes.
“Rose you don’t-”
“Shh Lios, I want a third opinion!” Rose chastised, and I decided to sigh and play along, a flare of red encroaching on my cheeks.
“Fine.”
“What can I help with, Miss Rose?” The barmaid asked with a soft sweet voice. I turned away as she flicked her eyes toward me and back toward my friend.
“Well, I was just wondering what you think about our Lios’s hair style, Eva and I both think he should get it cut because it'll make him more handsome, what do you think?” Rose giggled softly and shot me a mischievous glance. “If you want, send the other gals here to judge to. You don’t have to. And don’t worry, even if Lios doesn’t like what you say he wont hold it against you.”
“Oh uhm. Lios, look at me?” The girl took on a serious tone, placing a hand on her hip. I turned to look at her and smiled with some hair hanging to the sides of my face and the rest pulled into a loose ponytail. My hair wasn’t outrageously long, reaching just past my shoulders when it wasn’t pulled together. The girl looked at me intently for around twenty seconds making me feel a touch awkward.
“I’m sorry Lios, but I have to agree. I think you’d look a little more handsome with your hair cut.” She smiled then turned and walked away quickly. “I really must keep working though, I‘ll return with your mead sir Lios.”
“Fine Fine, I’ll get it cut. Know any barbers or did one of you want to volunteer?” I grumbled at them as Rose burst out laughing.
“I know one, I’ll introduce you tomorrow.” Eva laughed at me as well. “I really do think it’ll look better, you know. Besides it’ll only take like ten minutes tops.”
“Whatever. I think I’m gonna head up after I eat. It’s been a long day.” I grumbled good heartedly, smiling to let them know I wasn't upset by any means.
We chatted for a while more and I stayed for two more tankards of mead before going to sleep. Luka and Sky were both asleep already and I wasn’t long after them. That night I dreamed of the assassin spiders at the end of the dungeon run. It wasn't a horrid dream but it did wake me in cold sweats. Those little buggers were horrifying. I’d still take it over dreaming of people I’ve killed.
It didn’t take long the next day for Eva and Rose to escort me to the barber. I went with something a bit more military, the sides and back shaved down and the top of my head a couple inches long. We parted ways then and I quickly got my hair cut before heading over to Krickets store.
As before, the isolated store was fairly empty. This time a single customer was purchasing something from Kricket when I entered. Per his request the last time I left the foxes outside to watch the place.
I had my pack on as I had brought my notebooks and the books I had purchased from him before. I came to see if he had any insights on a proper haste spell. That one took priority for me at the moment as the five rune one I had was incredibly damaging to my body and only lasted a short while, and I was now at a point I could cast a twenty five rune spell on the fly with [Compendium Actualization]. I knew I didn’t need his help, and that taking a few days here and there to work on it between working on enchantments was a valid path, but I was impatient and also wanted to provide Kricket a touch more patronage.
I waited about three minutes for him to help his customer before I approached the counter myself. He grinned with his yellowed teeth, pointed and jagged like stalactites. Curiosity spiked in his eyes. “Ah the enchanter who would steal Krickets customers, you have returned. Kricket offer no refunds!” He slashed his arms in an x pattern making me chuckle.
“No worries, I actually came to request your help with a personal project.” I said as I glanced at some of the items behind him. A lot of them were ingredients from dungeons that could be used in another form of enchanting, alchemy, and other craft trades. “Specifically, I was hoping to work on a new spell using either Frith or Lexico runes.”
“Hmmm. Krickets services are not free human boy!” his voice was high pitched and not so pleasant to the ears, but his words were clear and carefully enunciated.
“I’m well aware Kricket. By the way, My name is Lios, or Alexilios if you want to deal with a mouthful everytime you say it.”
“Then, Alexilios, allow Kricket to take you into my study?” The goblin glanced behind the counter to a door leading to the back. I nodded and followed him through his shop. It appeared the goblin lived here as well as I saw a few more doors before we reached the study. With [Portent] I was able to see various furniture and even a full looking kitchen before we reached his study. Inside were a number of tables with various research projects and dozens of notebooks with the goblins personal notes in them. He scurried to clear one of the tables then pointed at a chair on the other side as he himself sat down, his chair padded to allow him extra height to see the table proper.
“Now, Alexilios, what can Kricket help you with. How far along is the spell?”
“It’s actually a new one I want to make based off of one I made with five Lexico runes. I call it haste, but I want to create something more robust. As it stands this one has a short active time and using it a few times in succession makes me unable to fight properly for days after.” as I explained it I pulled out my notebook of completed spells and a separate one for spells in progress. The complete spell book was a bit nicer in both the leather cover and the paper itself being of higher quality.
“Hmm. Haste? You wish to move faster for brief periods of time?” Krickets head tilted as I showed him the current spell. “I see I see. And you wish to work with me not simply have Kricket do it?”
“That’s correct. Like I said, I could likely figure it out in the next few months, but I’d rather have it done and practiced before the tournament. One other factor that may inhibit this spell is I’d like it to be compatible with up to five different elements of mana.” I sighed a little knowing that last factor would be difficult to achieve. I wasn’t sure how earth mana would interact with a haste spell, nor water, but I felt either could still work.
“Hmm... Kricket is very intrigued. What elements? Oh, and no need to worry Alexilios, Kricket would never disclose information on a client unless said information is needed by law.” The goblin stroked his hairless chin as he pulled my research and experimentation notebook to him. “Do you mind if Kricket peruses your research to get an idea of your methods?”
“Hmm... I suppose that would be fine... and the elements are wind, water, earth, fire and lightning.” I watched as the goblin flipped through some of my old experiments, his eyes lingering on the notes for “Flash step lightning bolt” for around a minute after I told him the elements.
“Kricket sees. Instead of haste, how about enhancement? The lightning and wind mana would likely enhance speed. Earth would enhance strength and constitution. Unsure on water or fire. Fire could be a combination of strength and speed or just raw power. Water could influence the fluidity of your movements. Did you want to use all five at once? That would likely require a third circle spell. Or one at a time? Twenty five runes? Kricket can help. Three gold. For two.”
“Three gold? Hmm.” I didn't really have a baseline to go off of for rune services, but that felt steep to me. I thought it over a few moments as Kricket turned his attention back to my notes. “Fine. Three gold.”
He beamed at me and reached out a hand to shake. I shook his hand and passed over the gold up front. Shortly after I withdrew my books on Lexico runes, him saying they would be better than a mixture of Frith and Lexico. Lexico was, per his explanation, better for longer lasting effects and enchantments while Frith runes were better for something that occurred instantly. It came as a bit of a shock to me, as neither book had explained this when I was initially studying them. Typically they would be better for a direct attack spell, and were what allowed flash step to work as well as it did without tearing my muscles to an extreme. It still wasn’t a fun spell to use, hence wanting to create something a bit less volatile.
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We sat down together and perused the available runes, first making a list of those we thought would be compatible with an enhancement spell. We found a few that we would want that dealt with the senses, particularly eyesight and sound. After about two hours of working we decided the enhancement would work better if it were focused on the element and set out to make five different spells instead of just one, with several runes that would be swapped out and the rest that were standard across the spells. The runes that were different dealt with the different senses, the overall intention, and the reliant element. Enhancing vision for a lightning enhancement was different from a flame enhancement, we decided.
With Lightning mana I would be moving faster than my eyes could keep up so we needed to increase my ability to perceive and analyze the data that came in. With wind I needed to enhance my sense of touch instead, similar to how Sky sensed entities around us by changes in air flow. Fire, because we determined it would be combination of strength and explosive speed, we thought would be best to make a spell that allowed me to register different heat signatures, senses otherwise not needing an upgrade. With water mana we wanted to increase my own physical flexibility, to match the fluidity of water. This one didn’t require any sense changes but we still changed the sense of touch to register movement immediately near me through water vapor or water itself, and provide a moment of recognition even in events that [Portent] wouldn’t pick up on approaching entities. Finally, with earth mana we increased my ability to feel tremors while using the earth mana to strengthen both my physical strength and my durability. Water and earth I felt I’d likely use the least, given they were already the elements that most often went to the wayside.
Working with Kricket was an informative endeavor. The goblin was truly passionate about runes and magic. It was clear that each book in this study, his own personal copies of books from seven different runic languages, had been perused frequently and heavily studied. The leather covers were frayed in places and worn down by the oils of the goblins hands. The goblin seemed to know each and every rune like the back of his hand, and wasn’t afraid to share some of the knowledge with me. We still resolved to only use the runes from my Lexico books, at least until I learned more, but that would be enough for the spells we were creating.
“Ah, see, if you place the rune for ‘increase’ before the rune for ‘earth mana’ you’ll only increase the amount of power the spell can hold, but if you place it after and follow up with the rune for ‘Power’ or ‘Strength’ you’ll be able to increase your own physical capabilities.” He would occasionally break into an explanation like this that turned rather long winded. Despite likely being able to produce the spell himself in minutes or hours, he helped to walk me through each choice and each rune placement. He explained much of what the intro to Lexico runewrit lacked. How individual runes interacted based on the order in which they were drawn, how certain runes were incompatible, and how others exacerbated each others effects.
“Oh yes I think we need some strengthening runes, a hardening rune, and possibly a solidification rune. This will apply to your skin, but you could also further solidify your bones if necessary.” Kricket spouted off after I asked about strengthening runes, the hardening and solidify runes to be used for defense and the strengthening to increase power output.
“And what about using runes to gather mana? I used to have two in my five rune circles but removed them to add more total power to the spells, what do you think?”
“Well, if you gather ambient mana it can have detrimental effects on the spell itself. Non earth mana, specifically any that are antithesis to it, could cause total spell failure since it is designated as an earth spell.” the explanation made sense and had me wondering how I’d gotten so lucky to never have experienced total spell failure before.
He continued to walk me through some rune choices, though he did let me mostly lead the research and development. I knew more of what I needed than he did.
By mid afternoon the first of the five spells was complete. As it was the furthest from what I asked for, and therefore likely the most challenging, we had worked on the earth based enhancement. I memorized the individual runes and smiled, bringing the circle up in my compendium. I had yet to transfer it to the book of completed spells, but that was the next step. Overall, it was a good way to decompress after our dungeon venture and a way for me to realign my focus for forging for the next few days.
“Well, go on, test it out! We must see if it works Alexilios!” Kricket croaked as I finished committing it to memory.
I looked about, frowning at the amount of space in the study. “Perhaps I should test it at the guild. Or do you have somewhere a bit more open in case it goes wrong?”
“Alexilios, do it here. There are many enchantments in place here this, is safest.” The goblin looked sure of himself so I started a quick dance. Well, not that quick considering I had to write twenty five runes, but within half a minute the runes were drawn and I was ignoring the incredulous look Kricket was giving me. “Alexilios, that was not the-”
And then I activated the spell, earth mana cascading from my pathways and into the magic circle. Instantly I felt my body shift in weight. It was as though I were heavier, beefier. Harder to hurt. I looked around and realized I was moving a bit slower than normal, maybe fifteen percent slower. In most battles this would be a problem, but in some it would be helpful. I nodded at the goblin.
“Okay, we probably should have tested this before too but try to hurt me. See if you can cut through my skin. And then we should do some sort of strength test?” I asked the last bit unsure how much testing the goblin wanted to commit to.
“Hmm. Punch this.” He pulled out a two inch thick piece of stone that looked rather dense. I furrowed my brow but decided to trust the goblin, he hadn’t done anything to inhibit me thus far and so there was no reason not to have faith in the small man.
I punched it with about half strength, causing the stone slab to shatter into tiny splinters of rock. With sharp pebbles peppering us I looked at my hand in shock. The knuckles were barely red and I hadn’t felt any pain in the slightest on impact. A toothy grin appeared on my face as Kricket took one of the stone shards and pressed it into my palm afterward. It took nearly all of his strength to pierce my skin and even then it wasn’t much. With a fully powered stab he was able to puncture my abdomen, at my insistence that he try.
The spell itself only lasted around five minutes, but that was a significant improvement from six seconds. Since it was midday we decided to keep going, hopeful to have the other four done in two more days.
He performed a short, excited dance after we tested the spell over the next several minutes. He had to reach up to do it but clapped my shoulder as the spell faded and my body began moving like normal. “First try Alexilios! Wonderful wonderful! You are as skilled as I feared Human boy!”
“As if I could have accomplished this without your help Kricket!” I guffawed and clapped him on the shoulder as well, excitement coursing through me.
“Let us continue Alexilios and craft another perfect spell!”
We continued with the next spell, one I would actually be able to use in combat. The earth spell was great for what it did, but my class and fighting style could hardly utilize it with my current weapons and techniques. It would take a massive amount of training to be able to properly adjust to moving so much slower in a fight, even if the spell would protect me against most weapons at my level.
And so, we began to work on a flame spell. The intention behind this one was to have a spell that could push my muscles to the extreme in such a way to both increase my power and speed. It would be different from the lightning based spell or wind one, both of which would focus on allowing me to move faster. Lightning with more jerky movements by electrically charging my muscles, and wind with more fluid movements, with a flowing motion.
Because this spell was so different from the stone based version it took a solid two days to complete. With Krickets help I learned much about the runes I had been using, much I didn’t know before. For instance, Lexico runes tended to hold more mana within them than most of the other languages, making them more potent, as he had said, for longer lasting spells and effects. Alternatively, Frith runes absorbed mana more easily before expelling all of it in a flash, causing those instantaneous effects Kricket had mentioned before. Lexico runes were also deemed one of the safest languages to use and Frith were considered one of the more dangerous types due to its volatility. Frith runes also tended to take less intent to influence changes in the literal meaning of the runes, whereas Lexico was easy enough to change from the literal meaning of runes to the intended meaning of them.
“Alexilios, try a simple spell with only Frith runes. Here here! This one!” He thrust a three rune spell into my hands. He had spent the last day or so helping me to better understand the differences between the languages as we continued to work on a new spell. The spell would likely have already been completed if he didn’t take so much time to teach me too, but neither he nor I seemed to mind. Esoteric though he was, he was good company.
I took a look at it and read the runes - Create Light Orb. Those were the three individual runes, fairly simple ones that I had learned from my first book on Frith runes. I did as he said and, as expected, an orb of light floated up after I drew the runes and fed it with mana.
“Good! Now attempt to make one without changing the runes that will follow you and last longer than fifteen seconds.” Kricket instructed as he seemed excited to teach someone else about his passion. He was hopping from one green grey foot to the other, barefoot since he was not attempting to help customers.
I didn’t hesitate to rewrite the runes, using my fingertip in the air rather than dancing, focusing on the changes I wanted to make. I fed the circle with generic mana and activated the spell, watching as the same orb of light lit up the disorganized study. I wanted to make it last at least a few more seconds, and follow me as I stepped back, but to my dismay neither effect was changed. As soon as the mana I had fed ran out the spell dissipated, and it certainly did not follow me as I walked about the room.
“Good! Now attempt the same spell but with runes of Lexico!” The eccentric goblin bounced back and forth excitedly. He passed me a sheet of paper with the same runes written on it in the other language. The differences in the languages were somewhat clear visually. Lexico tended to use more round edges and curves while Frith was often more rigid and jagged.
Without hesitation I drew the runes into the air and activated the spell. I poured zero intent into the spell and watched as the orb of light floated into existence and even lasted longer than the Frith spell. Immediately after the spell dissolved I, following Krickets enthusiastic instructions, focused on drawing it a second time and easily created a light orb that lasted a full minute and hovered near my shoulder. It followed me as I moved, a bit slower than me but it wasn’t bad enough to worry about.
“See! See Alexilios. Kricket wasn’t fibbing, Kricket knows what he talks about.” With self satisfaction the goblin nodded twice, watching me as I smirked at him.
“Never doubted you Kricket. Thank you for teaching me. I look forward to seeing what else you can help me with in the future.”
After that intermission we continued to work on the flaming spell that I decided to call ‘Visceral Conflagration’. We worked for hours for the remaining couple of days, with Kricket teaching me more and more about the nuances of Lexico runes. Alongside their idle longevity and ease at which they could be manipulated, they were known for their compatibility with other languages. They tended to be overall weaker than other languages but more than made up for it with their versatility.
He also informed me that one of the notes in my first book on them was incorrect. The author had claimed that they were inefficient and difficult to use for a spell greater than a single circle, but as we had seen with the earth and now fire spell, that was simply not true. The spells they were a part of just needed greater attention to their structure. Essentially, they were unstable the more runes you used in a spell but were very stable if organized correctly. This was a known fact with the other languages as well, but Lexico runes needed to be ordered more precisely than the other runic languages.
Frith, given their already volatile nature, tended to still work even with some discrepancies in their structure considering spells made with them were already meant to be instantaneous and powerful. Lexico suffered so much from this requirement because the spells crafted with them were intended to last a fair bit longer.
Those were only a few of the things that Kricket had taught me about the runic languages while we were finishing up ‘Visceral Conflagration’. I hadn’t expected the spell to take two and a half total days, but by the time we completed it I couldn’t keep the exhausted grin from my face. I tested it a couple of times with Kricket before leaving, happily paying the goblin a few silver as a tip as I moved toward the guild hall to get some needed rest. It wasn’t physically tiring of course, but mentally so.
Three gold well spent, I would say. I didn’t see much of Rose or Eva during those days except for breakfast on the second day when I asked them to let Luka and Sky accompany them. The foxes had grown antsy waiting for me to exit the shop.
Now, I just needed to work on practicing the two spells. That would have to wait a little while, first I needed to meet with Eric over at Orvacks armory to collect some more metal to use and to sell two swords. And so, four days after we left the dungeon, I gathered the two swords, ensured that my sigil was placed on them - the runes for blade and dance in Lexico -, and ensured I had plenty of room in [Ephemeral Forge]’s inventory. There was, it had leveled up a bit and now could hold even more metal. Still not that much, about fifty six pounds, but that was a fair amount.
