[Name: ??? (Lost to time), Nora (Former)

  Condition: Battered → Mended (Now usable… Yet not perfect)

  Rarity: Common Sword (8 → 16 ATK)

  Skill(s): Spirit Vessel

  Quest 1: Bind yourself to an owner

  -->Status: Complete

  -->Reward: Cimed

  Quest 2: Recover from 'Battered' condition

  -->Status: Complete!

  -->Reward: Name (Pending Cim)

  [A 'mended' bastard sword, useful for its ability to be wielded with both hands or just one. There appears to be more to this bde than meets the eye… Currently owned by Grail Initiate Romeo.]

  At some point during the hammering process, Nora watched in real time as her status updated. First, her excitement was at her attack score doubling, finally it was at the level of starting equipment… And no longer something you’d sell too the first in-game merchant you saw.

  More importantly, the condition indicator had changed.

  Battered was gone.

  In its pce sat a new designation: Mended. The wording carried a quiet implication that the repair was incomplete, but the difference was still dramatic. The crack that had once threatened to split the bde had been carefully reinforced, the warped edge reshaped, and the rust stripped away under the bcksmith’s relentless hammering and grinding. Nora could feel the difference in a strange, almost abstract way… like a dull ache disappearing from a limb she hadn’t realised was injured until it stopped hurting.

  Yet the most interesting change wasn’t the condition or the attack value.

  It was the final line.

  Quest 2: Recover from ‘Battered’ condition

  -->Status: Complete.

  Reward: Name (Pending Cim).

  Nora felt an odd sensation run through her awareness. In the game, naming mechanics were usually cosmetic rewards for pyers: a way to personalise equipment or companions. But here the implication felt heavier. The first line of her status window still read Name: ??? (Lost to time), Nora (Former). That parenthetical bel had always been slightly unsettling, a quiet reminder that the system didn’t truly recognise her previous identity anymore.

  Still, it didn’t matter what the system thought, as long as she could remember it then everything would be fine and dandy. So, after giving herself a silent countdown Nora accepted the reward… Nothing happened. No system window, as she had remembered from the st Quest reward, no fsh of light… Just the sound of Havel’s rhythmic hammering.

  “Sorry, Romeo.” Said the smith suddenly, snapping Nora from her thoughts. “I didn’t realise what a marvel you had brough into my shop.”

  “Pardon,” said Romeo, looking up from the spot on the ground he had been staring at. “What are you talking about.”

  “Right here,” remarked Hazel, tapping at where there had been a yer of rust just a few seconds before, “Theres an engraving. A name for the sword.”

  Romeo stepped closer to the anvil, curiosity repcing the earlier fatigue that had weighed on his expression. The bde rested across the metal surface while Havel held it steady with a thick leather glove, the smith’s calloused finger tapping lightly against a faint line of lettering that had only become visible after the rust was ground away.

  “An engraving?” Romeo asked, leaning in slightly.

  Havel grunted and shifted the sword so the forge light fell directly across the fuller. Under the orange glow, shallow letters had indeed been carved into the steel near the base of the bde.

  “Strange thing,” he muttered. “Rust must’ve been sitting thick enough to hide it all this time.”

  Romeo studied the metal carefully, squinting as he tried to make out the faded letters. From his angle the engraving looked uneven, parts of the strokes worn almost smooth from age. “Can you read it?”

  Havel nodded slowly.

  “Aye,” he said. “Though it’s not a common name.”

  Inside the bde, Nora felt a faint tightening in her awareness, the same strange sensation that had appeared when the quest reward first activated. The system window still hovered in the corner of her perception, the final line waiting patiently.

  Reward: Name (Pending Cim).

  For reasons she couldn’t quite expin, Nora suddenly felt very nervous.

  Havel cleared his throat.

  “Bde’s name is etched right here,” he said, tapping the metal once more before looking up at Romeo. “Looks like whoever forged it meant the name to stay with the steel.”

  Romeo folded his arms. “So what is it?”

  The smith gnced down one st time to confirm the letters, then spoke the word aloud.

  “Caliburn.”

  For half a second the forge continued exactly as before; the furnace crackled, the hammer rested on the anvil, and Romeo simply blinked in mild surprise.

  Then Nora’s system window erupted.

  [System Notice][Name Engraving Detected]

  [Quest Reward Synchronising…]

  [Original Designation: ??? (Lost to Time)][Former Identity: Nora]

  [New Registered Name: Caliburn]

  Across the anvil, Romeo scratched the back of his head. “Caliburn,” he repeated slowly. “What does that even mean?”

  Havel chuckled under his breath and lifted the weapon from the anvil before offering it back. The steel gleamed far more cleanly now, the edge straight and the reinforced guard catching the forge light.

  “Well,” the smith said, pcing the hilt into Romeo’s hand, “The forge work looks too be done by a Dayne, so maybe it mean’s something in one of the northern nguages.”

  Romeo weighed the bde once, testing the bance. The motion was small, but Nora immediately noticed the difference. The weapon moved more smoothly now, the weight distributed correctly through the tang rather than pulling awkwardly to one side.

  “…Feels better,” Romeo admitted.

  Havel nodded with quiet satisfaction. “It should. Still not perfect, mind you. Steel like that’s seen too many battles to ever be fully restored. But it’ll hold together now, and it’ll cut just fine if you treat it properly.”

  Romeo gave the bde another small test swing, the motion producing a faint whisper through the air.

  “…Caliburn,” he said again.

  Inside the sword, Nora processed the name in stunned silence.

  ‘…That,’ she said slowly, ‘is a name I’m rather happy with.’

  Romeo paused mid-motion.

  “Why?”

  Nora hesitated.

  “Hmm?” She said, wondering if expining folklore about a country that doesn’t exist was a very good idea, “I wonder… Maybe I’ll tell you when you’re older?”

  Inside the bde, Nora was still recovering from the shock of the system message. The word Caliburn continued to echo faintly through her thoughts alongside the fading window notification, and the more she considered it the stranger the situation became. In the game she had pyed, legendary weapons often carried names tied to ancient myths or forgotten heroes, but Caliburn was not some obscure relic from Hero of Orichalcum. It was something far older, a name pulled straight out of Arthurian legend. The coincidence was unsettling. Either the system had an unexpectedly poetic sense of humour, or the world she now inhabited had a deeper historical overp with Earth’s mythology than she had previously assumed.

  Romeo rolled the bde once more in his hand, clearly satisfied with the bance, before lowering it respectfully and giving the smith a short nod. “Thank you, Master Havel,” he said, the earlier tension gone from his voice. “I know you said it wasn’t worth the effort, so I appreciate you taking the time anyway.”

  Havel snorted softly and waved a thick hand dismissively as he returned to the anvil. “Don’t get sentimental about it,” the smith replied, reaching for his hammer again. “If that thing really does have some kind of enchantment buried in it, then letting it rust away would’ve been a bigger waste than fixing it.”

  Romeo nodded once more, then stepped away from the forge, adjusting his grip on the newly restored sword as he headed toward the open doorway.

  Nora waited until they had walked several paces down the dirt road before speaking again. ‘Hold on,’ she said quickly. ‘Before we go too far, you should ask him something.’

  Romeo gnced down slightly while continuing to walk. “About what?”

  ‘The northern settlements,’ Nora replied. ‘If that name really comes from some northern nguage like he said, then there might be people up there who know more about it. You should ask him where those settlements are.

  Romeo slowed for half a step, considering it, then shook his head. “I can’t.”

  ‘You can’t?’ Nora repeated incredulously. ‘You literally just walked out the door. Turning around would take five seconds.’

  “That’s not the issue,” Romeo replied, adjusting the sword at his side as he continued down the quiet road. His tone was calm, but there was a hint of urgency beneath it now. “I have somewhere I need to be.”

  ‘Somewhere more important than investigating the mysterious origins of your newly repaired talking sword?’ Nora asked.

  Romeo did not answer immediately. The ntern light from the distant tavern flickered faintly across his face as he walked, casting shifting shadows across his expression.

  “…Yes,” he said after a moment. “I have an appointment.”

  Nora paused, mentally recalibrating again. ‘An appointment?’ she asked suspiciously. ‘At this hour?’

  Romeo nodded once, his eyes fixed ahead on the darkened road leading deeper into the vilge.

  “Yes. He takes priority,” Said Romeo, his eyes narrowed to a point, “The captain of the Grail Knights.”