Before Lanek could begin his descent, Kazuma shouldered him aside, the mist cat glaring at him in reproach before chuffing at Sanguineus. The wolf nodded before taking up Kazuma’s former post next to the door, keeping a watch for enemies.
“You want to go first? Why?” Lanek asked. Kazuma immediately made Lanek feel like an idiot for even asking as the mist cat rolled his eyes before misting and retaking his physical form. “Fair enough, bud. After you.” The cat nodded before descending the stairs, Lanek following a moment later once Kazuma sent a calm feeling through their link.
At the bottom of the stairs was a large cellar, much like the one he had hidden from his first gaunt in. However, this room did not have an exterior entrance leading to an alley, its sole entry being the trapdoor from the shop above. All around him, Lanek could see ingots, unprocessed ore, coal, and other materials that he assumed had to do with smithing by the faint glow. At the far end of the room was a metal-banded wood door, beside which rested the source of the glow.
Lanek had feared that the glow had come from one of those orbs that would alert the dungeon to his presence, but it turned out to be a lantern, glowing with some kind of blue flame. At first he thought it had to be fed by some form of gas, but he was able to remove it from the wall and found nothing feeding the lamp. He was also completely baffled by how it had been lit, seeing no mechanism that would have triggered the lantern when he opened the trap door. Let’s just go with magic. I don’t have time to puzzle this out at the moment.
He turned his attention to the door, seeing that the smith had apparently been a paranoid individual as the door was locked with a large padlock. Realizing that this was going to cause a lot of noise and he hadn’t found a key, Lanek beckoned Kazuma to follow him back upstairs. He walked next to Sanguineus, hearing the battle continue to rage in the distance.
“Okay guys, here’s what we are going to do. Sanguineus, I want you to come downstairs with me while Kazuma keeps watch. Kazuma, I’m going to close the trap door behind me and I want you to see if you can push the stone back over the hatch. It’s really light, so you shouldn’t have a problem. When I’m down there working on the lock, I want you to let me know if the battle stops. If something starts coming toward this shop, mist and join us downstairs and we’ll hide out until it passes. Got it?” Both creatures nodded before Lanek and the wolf went back into the cellar.
Shortly after beginning his descent, he heard a muffled thud from the trapdoor letting him know that the hatch was hidden once again. Nodding in satisfaction, Lanek had no fear of being trapped down here, he should be easily able to push the hatch open from underneath even with the thin flagstone on top of it.
Breathing deeply, nervous as to the noise he was about to make, Lanek swung the pick of his mattock into the lock, causing sparks to fly. The lock remained intact, so Lanek swung again and again, before asking Sanguineus to dismiss himself so he could put more power into this strikes. He considered using [Ethereal Salvo] to blow the door open, but the skill did not allow for him to use only one projectile, it was all or nothing. Additionally, he wasn’t sure his eardrums or the rest of his body would survive an explosion in the cellar.
With the added strength from not having the blood wolf summoned, he finally saw the lock starting to deform under his blows. With a final crack, the lock broke, and just in time as he received a pulse of alarm from the mist cat. He waited for it to pass, but the sense of alarm persisted until Kazuma misted into the cellar and looked at him with wide eyes.
Lanek was about to ask what had spooked the cat so much when he felt the ground shake rhythmically. It was followed by the booming sound of large creatures marching in time with one another. The myrmidons had entered the plaza.
Please don’t be looking for me, just be looking for gaunt stragglers. Please. Lanek looked at the cellar and felt confident that it wouldn’t collapse from the myrmidons’ movements, but he also had no illusions that they couldn’t simply rip the building open and drag him out if they knew he was here.
Well, might as well take a look behind the door, I might be in here for a while.
Lanek, to satisfy his own intense paranoia, removed the lantern, walked into the next room, and shut the door behind him to eliminate any chance of light leaking upstairs into the shop. Also, another barrier to dull the noise couldn’t hurt.
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Turning around, he smiled. Despite the threat literally looming above him, it was hard not to be pleased by the sight of weapons leaning against the walls. He didn’t yet know if any of it was enchanted or anything, but he could see some weapons he desperately wanted to add to his arsenal, such as a sword or spear. Unfortunately, the only ranged options he could find were throwing daggers. They could definitely be effective, but he had only ever tried throwing such weapons once or twice back on Earth, so his skill left a lot to be desired.
Regardless, he grabbed a set of throwing knives, briefly puzzled at the harness-like appearance of the sheath before he realized that he was meant to slip each arm through a loop on either end of the harness, which allowed the throwing knives to rest under each arm. The knives themselves would be against his ribs with the small handles angled upward for easy drawing. Each side had three knives and the harness itself was highly adjustable. He could adjust the tightness of the harness, remove one of the knife holders, or even remove the harness and use a set of shorter straps to attach the sheathes to his belt and strap them to his thighs if he wanted.
Once he selected the knives, he turned his attention to the remaining weapons. He liked idea of a spear or other polearm, but his current tactics relied on mobility and stealth, which a long weapon would interfere with. Besides, his chain whip had longer range than the spears down here. Likewise, he discarded the war hammers, maces, battle axes, and great swords for the same reason as the spears. Additionally, with his low strength stat, he wasn’t confident in his ability to handle such weapons with anything approaching effectiveness or tolerable speed.
That left him with the smaller axes, such as hand axes and throwing axes, and lighter swords. He had no training in either, just a single visit to one of those axe throwing ranges that had become popular a year or two before coming to this world. Hell, his old hometown had ended up with seven of those places in a city of less than 50,000 people. As for the sword, like many teenagers he had purchased low quality mall swords when he got his first job, ending up with a katana, rapier, longsword, and gladius on proud display in his bedroom. He remembered giving them to a cousin of his when he moved out of his parent’s house and got his own place. Lanek suspected that he was trying to distance himself from his cringe-worthy mall ninja phase.
His next acquisition was a pair of bearded axes, clearly meant as a matching set judging from the carvings on each axe head being identical. The head itself had what looked very much like the Celtic Tree of Life carved on both sides of the axe. The shafts of both axes were dark wood wrapped in places with leather. Each axe measured about 60 cm in length. He had no clue if he would use them and he wasn’t planning on carrying a full armory on him, but he wanted to keep his options open and was going to leave here with a nice selection.
While he set aside the axes, Kazuma walked over and nudged a sheathed blade at the back of the room. Wondering what the cat had found, Lanek walked over and discovered a curved sabre. The hilt was wrapped in black leather of some kind and was slightly curved with a metal crossguard that curved over on one side to create a hand guard that connected to the pommel. Pulling the blade from the scabbard, he gazed at the blade, finding something compelling in its appearance. The blade itself measured roughly 80 cm in length with a 5 cm curve and a 3.5 cm blade width. The sheathe was black with dark metal bands, but no adornments.
While staring at the blade he finally realized why it caught his attention, he had seen pictures of similar blades when he had studied the winged hussars after first learning about them from a video game. His fascination with the blade also came from the fact that he had always been partial to curved blades in terms of their aesthetic. Lanek utilized [Identify] on the blade.
Masterwork Sabre of the Bladeshaper [Unique]
This sabre is the finest creation of the master smith, Darius Bladeshaper. The blade is of the finest quality, being both lighter and stronger than a common sabre and is crafted from an unknown metal that Darius refused to identify when asked. This sabre was intended to be passed on to an enchanter to complete the weapon for Darius’ client, but the client fell in battle before the enchanter received the blade. Rather than pay for the sabre enchantments out of his own pocket and unwilling to sell the blade, Darius set the sabre upon the wall of his smithy to show prospective clients what he was capable of creating.
Without warning, Kazuma lunged at the blade, transforming into mist and flowing into the blade.
Your bound companion, Kazuma, wishes to make the Masterwork Sabre of the Bladeshaper [Unique] into his vessel. Will you allow it?