The Artifact Hunters all arrived in an armory near the center of town. It was one of the few buildings not hit by the combat. Construction workers with the bags of gold symbolizing Freedman’s Guild plastered across every workers crew. The group entered the sweltering shop with smiths smashing silver and steel. At the back of the shop a large array of weapons and armor decorated the noisy shop. A few people stood by and looked at equipment but their group made up the majority of customers this early in the morning. A Large muscled man who had clearly poured a bucket of water over himself recently walked up without a shirt on. “Good morning ladies and gentlemen. How are we doing today?”

Forala looked at him unimpressed. “I am Forala Medot, leader of The Artifact Hunters Guild. My guild member is looking for his first magic sword. He is a spellsword with very high flow and is level 14.”

“Well I’m sure we can accommodate that. My name is Runewriter Ron, I’m in charge of Runewriter’s Gear. Come on back and let’s take a look.” He turned around and lead them to the countertop in the back. He pulled out a short sword with an orange and yellow blade emblazoned with a phoenix as the guard. “This is Blaze Blade rank 2 a sword that amplifies flame magic and allows you to cast rank 2 fire bolt. It also keeps the wielder warm even in severe cold. It’s 450 gold.”

Victor smiled tilting his head back and forth. “That’s a pretty good choice.”

Serena sighed and stepped in front of him. “We would like to see and speed scaling weapon types, especially short swords and rapiers that cost 500 gold or less.”

Forala noted. “Thank you.”

Ron turned around and pulled down a couple more swords unrolling one from a cloth. “This next one is a Target Blade Rank 2 . It locks on the target. If the target escapes and isn’t currently under the effect of stealth rank 3 or higher you’ll be able to track it indefinitely knowing direction and approximate distance. It’s limited to 1 target at a time. It’s 300 gold.”

Forala shook her head. “He doesn’t need that.” Victor blinked realizing he was not really the one shopping for his blade unsure if that was a good thing or not.

He unfurled another sword with a small slit down the middle covered in slight black ink. “This is the Quill Blade Rank 2 it allows you to bypass the casting time automatically casting it to either create or remove magic symbols for magic circles. It also raises the rank of your magic writing by 1. Unfortunately for creating them you still have to cast the circle spell which sometimes requires contact. It’s main value is breaking circles from a distance since the ink travels far and fast. It’s 350 gold.”

Victor immediately leaned forward. “Could this be used to break slave crests or tattoos?”

The man blinked for a moment. “Well I suppose you could but in general you wouldn’t need to do that in combat.”

Victor looked at the Quill Blade and really liked it. Serena shook her head. “He needs more raw power. The blaze blade isn’t super far off but he’s not using fire magic. Do you have a lightning or cold equivalent to the blaze blade?”

He scratched his chin. “Well there is one thing.”

Jenora leaned forward. “Come on big guy don’t keep us in suspense.”

He turned around and pulled out a completely empty hilt with two dull but shiny blue stones on the top and bottom of the hilt. “This is The Frigid Foil Rank 2 I generally wouldn’t recommend it but it does improve all frost spells of the person holding it by 1 rank while it is active. It’s usable basically only by spellblades since to create the blade you have to channel frost magic into it. It requires you to cast a spell into or through it every 10 seconds or it will recede and leave you vulnerable. Additionally you chose the form the blade takes. It costs 650 gold but I’ll let it go for 600 to be rid of the damn thing. No one wants it but the materials used to craft it are expensive.”

Victor slowly reached for it. “Is there somewhere I can test it?”

Ron turned to the right where a large damaged wooden post stood with several rocks sectioning off the area. “Please keep your magic to the lowest rank possible and don’t damage the building.”

Victor held the hilt and raised it up effortlessly. It was even lighter than the elven blade. “Frost Bolt.” He slashed imagining a longsword and it formed into a longsword. He frowned as the ice cracked apart a few moments later. ‘What if…’ he cast speed boost and the blade reformed to a rapier of ice piercing the post. He waited 10 seconds, then 20, then 30 looking at it. The blade remained as long as he kept up a boost spell. He walked back and put it down. “Swordie what do you think?”

“An excellent choice sir.” Swordie agreed.

Serena smiled. “Since he can select any weapon shape that is incredibly helpful. Not to mention the frost spells being increased by 1 rank while it’s active.”

Forala asked. “Why does no one want it?”

Ron sighed. “If you run out of mana its completely useless. It also cost 2 mana to activate it when you activate its form shift. Not weaker or low quality its blade will literally vanish even if it’s the only thing standing between you and death. Unless you can guarantee running out of mana is impossible this thing is a death sentence. I want to be clear it doesn’t care why you run out, it doesn’t care when, only that you do. The second you do, you’ll die. If you do use this consider using another weapon to go with it.”

Forala turned to Victor. “How much gold do you have?”

“I have about 161 gold remaining after you gave us our cut.” Victor noted.

“Pay 150 I’ll cover the 450 and you owe me 495.” Forala nodded.

“Wait are you sure I should get this? Isn’t it risky like he said?” Victor asked worried.

Serena laughed. “When was the last time you ran out of mana while paying half attention?”

Victor immediately took her point realizing if he just focused on flowing the magic through his hand in the morning when he activated his vigor boost he’d never have an issue keeping it up so to speak. Forala pushed him toward the counter and put the gold on the table. “I’m sure. Go ahead.”

Victor smiled and put his gold on the counter. “I’ll take it for 600 gold.”

The Frigid Foil Rank 2

Rarity: Rare

Weapon

Hilt with 2 blue stones on either end. This weapon requires mana to form a blade consuming 2 mana when formed. More mana may be used to change the shape of the weapon. While the weapon is manifested the rank of frost spells cast through the weapon are increased by 1. Spending more mana reinforces the blade.

Ron breathed a sigh of relief pulling out a leather belt with a small holster on it. “I’ll throw in this holster for it for free since you’re taking this off my hands. If you ever need another weapon or armor please return and I’ll be happy to help you. This artifact was sold to us a long time ago but it’s been here for so long I never thought I’d sell it. What’s your name?”

“My name is Victor Vogal.” He smiled.

“Oh! You’re the angelic knight right?” He said sullenly. “Sorry about Lightbringer Luke. Everyone in the city feels it. Everyone in the entire country knew of him. A hero to ever house and a light in any night.”

Emilie hung her head. “I can’t believe both of them are gone. I’d met both of them before and they really exemplified everything the Golden Goddess stood for.”

“Oh right Reynold was also killed. Sorry about that. I’d never spoken to the man but I heard good things about him.” Ron put away the other weapons.

Emilie frowned upset. “No one outside of the guild will remember him.”

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Ron immediately seemed to console her. “I’m so sorry for the loss young lady. I’m typically lost in Freedman’s Guild business so I’m not really familiar with many people in other guilds. Luke was an exception among exceptions.”

She sighed. “It’s alright. There was nothing we could do for him. I just wanted to get to know them better. The world is a darker place with their absence.”

Jenora slapped Victor’s back. “You’ve got big shoes to fill friend.”

Brice spoke up. “Victor do you have a weapon enhancement spell?”

“I don’t I was waiting until tier 3 to take one.” He noted.

“I think that weapon might be able to remain effective at higher levels if you had access to one since it would naturally radiate though it.” Brice noted. “The weapon is almost definitely an old ice elf blade. They live on top of mountains and used these to easily switch between bows and blades.”

Victor envisioned a bow and pointed his hand at the wood. A bow made entirely of ice with a string made of water suspended in place of a string. He began pulling back and cast “Frost Bolt.” It landed blasting the wooden post unseating it from the ground. The bow quickly disappeared as he stopped focusing on funneling his mana through it. “Oh wow. If I don’t focus the sustained spells it disappears. It’s incredible that it actually works for ranged weapons too. This really is a great choice. Are there any other tricks to it Brice?”

“Yes but I can cover them later with you.” Brice enthusiastically smiled.

Ron walked over and physically planted the log back into the ground hammering it down with his fist. “I’m glad you’re satisfied with your purchase! Is there anything else I can do to assist any of you?”

Emilie stepped up. “Well, I wanted to buy a Full Flow Ring Rank 1 if you have one.”

He shook his head no. “Sorry young lady I don’t have anyone here who makes jewelry much less magical jewelry. That item is also something almost no one could craft so you’d likely be looking for one at auction.”

Emilie snapped her fingers. “Rats.”

Victor smiled and turned to her. “We can go to the auction house next if you want.”

Ron shook his head. “Sorry to tell you this but the auction house was destroyed. Freedman’s Guild is up in arms about it because they have a shipment of slaves to sell and they have to keep feeding them until they can sell them.”

Emilie tossed her head back looking up at Forala without turning around. “You win, here’s the 600 gold.”

Forala with a smile dropped the gold into her pouch. “Now that we’re finished here Runewriter Ron we’ll take our leave.”

Ron extended his hand. “If you ever need equipment please come to us. We’ll help you here and if we can’t we’ll use our connections to find who can.”

Forala shook his hand. “I will make keep your shop in mind.”

The group turned around and left the shop to the city square. As they walked away from the shop Brice whispered to Victor. “You’re really lucky!”

All of the girls turned to them as Victor cautiously asked. “Why?”

Brice excitedly explained in great detail, a nerd obsessed with the new toy. “That weapon is really hard to use, and it’s a very low quality version of the weapon, likely one given to a beginner but those weapons are renown in elven enclaves for magic users. Typically it’s used as an offhand weapon instead of a main weapon. If you can actually use it as a main weapon with your spell at maximum rank indefinitely it’s a versatile weapon too. When we camp on the way to the necropolis I’ll show you what you can do with it.”

Victor asked to no one specific. “How far is it to the necropolis?”

Brice piped up. “Normal travel speed it’s about 8 or 9 days. If you rush you can probably shave a day or 2. It’s close to halfway to Kival between here.”

“We’re leaving today right?” Jenora asked. “I’ve already bought supplies.”

Emilie added. “Me too. I’m sure Victor didn’t but I bet Serena already did.”

Serena smugly noted. “I did, I actually bought supplies for him too, knowing-“

Victor interrupted. “You didn’t have to do that I’ll pay you back.”

Serena finished with a small chuckle. “That he’d pay me back. I love that you are so predictable dear.”

Victor turned red. “Love you too sweetie.”

Emilie giggled delighted. “It’s so much fun to watch you two get used to each other.”

Brice hung his head. “The four of you are so lucky. I’m terrible at anything related to relationships.”

Jenora gasped. “Oh my Goddess Emilie. I think Brice needs help.”

Forala chuckled. “He’s not the only one.”

Emilie disappointed glared at her. “Yeah but your problem is that Victor is taken. That’s totally different than just not having someone. We can’t match you to Victor unless he can duplicate himself like Marten the Many.”

“Marten the Many?” Victor raised an eyebrow in confusion.

Brice started to recount the legend. “Marten the Many is a legend from 9000 or so years ago. It’s said that back then because so many men went to war and women weren’t permitted to go to war that there ended up being a massive imbalance between men and women resulting in many houses with 2 or 3 wives. Few of these worked out well. So few it became a law in virtually every country in the world that only 2 people could marry. Marten the Many was the exception to this. Marten the Many was born with the Innate Spell Perfect Clone .”

“That sounds incredibly overpowered.” Victor immediately recoiled.

Brice nodded. “It was. He was an undefeated warrior in his day and eventually he settled down to have a family but there was a problem. He went on a mission that required him to spend months in two places at the same time and then report it back. He fell in love at the same time with two different women. Instead of abandoning one all 3 of them realized that with his clone spell no one had to be left out. There are a number of skills that briefly duplicate yourself but his skill was a permanent stamina reduction for a permanent duplicate. The clone also had different memories until it returned to him.”

“Wait then the clone is effectively a different person right?” Victor was shocked that such an ability exists.

“That is what those two women felt. Those 2 women became 5, then 10, then 25. A small town formed around Marten the Many and his many clones. The strange aspect of his life is that all 25 of his marriages ended with the wife dying. It turned out he was an elf and as his wives died he reabsorbed the clones one by one until he was left all alone. He killed himself immediately after his last wife died despite having more than 100 children.” Brice sighed. “Elves who love mortals often end that way.”

“That’s so tragic, but it is better to have loved and lost right?” Victor smiled to Serena.

“Better to have loved and lost? I don’t think I’ve ever heard that.” Jenora raised an eyebrow.

Victor explained. “The idea is that love is always temporary. It ends either in the relationship ending in a heartbreak or death but love is beautiful. Missing out on love because the ending could hurt, well that’s just a terrible choice. That is why where I’m from the saying is it’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.”

Forala laughed heartily. “Hey Victor? Do you think you can learn the Perfect Clone skill?”

Brice cut in. “Oh I’m sorry Innate Spells can’t be learned. I didn’t mean to provide false hope.”

Victor contemplated hard looking at Emilie before shaking his head and reconsidering. Forala laughed and shook her head. “I know. It’s fine as long as he’s happy.”

Emilie clapped her hands. “You seemed to be attracted to Lightbringer Luke though!”

Forala fondly smiled. “Yeah he was something else too.”

Emilie smugly had a devious matchmaker smile stretch across her face. “You like immaculate good men. I’m going to find you another angelic knight and introduce you.”

She actually threw her head back laughing. “I’d be interested.”

Serena smiled at Victor. “I’m just glad I got him first.”

Victor felt warm acceptance saying nothing. Brice commented. “If you can help me I desperately need it. I don’t really understand women.”

Jenora took a quick look at Brice. “That checks out. You seem sheltered and easily commanded. I bet everyone you spent a long time around had authority over you.” Brice nodded along. “You just have the mannerisms of it.”

Emilie nodded along. “Jenora is really good at sizing people up.”

Jenora chuckled. “It’s why you’ll never come up short Emilie.”

The group laughed and Forala bid them farewell. They departed the city jogging with several of them including Victor carrying heavy weights. Victor would give half of it to Serena after reaching the achievement for the day. Brice slowed them down day by day but Emilie used her boost skills on him every single day to help them. After 8 days passed before they finally arrived at their location many stat points stronger than they were with Brice passing out completely at the end of each day and sleeping in each and every day.