* * *
Zilnek watched as Joe walked towards the chest, all three apprentices stepping back to give Joe room to retrieve his reward. This dungeon obviously offered weapons as a reward and he was very curious to see what Joe would receive.
Zilnek glanced towards his sister before grinning excitedly which she returned with the same emotion before they both looked towards their senior apprentice, excitement also plain on his face. Their eyes glued to Joe’s back as he bent over to lift the lid although all three continued their hushed and excited conversation with each other, discussing the weapons and curious about what their master would receive in hushed dialog.
When Joe opened the chest, the conversation stifled in hushed expectation, and the chest brightened with the god’s and goddess’s gifting light, the gifted weapon appearing from nothingness as it traveled from the god’s and goddesses realms to appear before them. Zilnek felt his breath stifle as six different weapons appeared before Joe, and he gulped in surprise. A soft exhalation to his side let him know Garnedell was responding before he heard him whisper to the other two.
“I knew master can use three weapons, but… six!”
Zilnek felt himself nodding with some shock, staring on what was before him. The sword, bow, and sword and shield were expected as he had seen Master use them. The daggers, staff and half-staff came as a surprise, although Zilnek quickly realized that Master would of course have access to the half-staff since all people did. All three apprentices felt their breath hitch as Joe raised his hand, all three expectantly waiting his choice when Joe did an odd swiping motion with his hand, causing the weapons in front of him to change, all six weapons being replaced with six new weapons.
The excited and prideful joy that Zilnek felt at having a master capable of wielding six weapons quickly was overwashed with shock which only grew as Master swiped again and again, each time revealing another six weapons. His mind quickly blanked in overwhelmed surprise as he heard Garnedell gasping beside him and Kilniara quickly mumbling numbers under her breath, counting up for some reason he didn’t quite understand.
* * *
Joe scrolled through the weapons available to him, looking over them. He could look at and was able to appraise them a bit with what he knew of what a good weapon would be, but refrained from touching them as he didn’t want to accidently pick one by touching it. His perusal quickly became a bit more rapid as he quickly swiped through dozens of remarkably similar weapons before he finally sighed and found the end of available weapons. He took a deep heavy sigh and quickly returned to the first few weapons, deciding to go back to the basics. He already had two spears and both of them proved impossible to use with any electrical enemies, and so far he had already met quite a few in all of these dungeon and decided he might as well go for a more traditional spear with a wood shaft. He’d seen several available to him, including some with spear and shield and others quite long and ridiculous in size, which he quickly dismissed. Who would even be able to use them? He thought to himself as he ignored them and quickly settled on three possibilities. All three seemed decent enough, but he quickly tossed another aside as he realized it was just too long. The other two were much better picks, although one came as a set of three and he took some time to consider it carefully before he realized he was actually looking at a set of javelins. Huh… guess that settles it! Joe swiped back to the third page from the beginning and grabbed the last spear, and held it in his hand, smiling as he liked the feel.
He swirled it around a few times and looked back up in a bit of surprise when he realized the chest was still open offering him weaponry. He pursed his lips a bit with some thought before cocking his head when he finally noticed the popup in front of him. Huh… too focused on the spear, I guess!
It was a rather simple popup to ask him to confirm his choice, which he did quickly and moved through several simple movements before flourishing it to his side and turning to face the three kids while holding his new spear, eyes focused on its beauty while ignoring the chest shutting behind him.
The spear was ornate, even beautiful. Joe had always measured the beauty of a weapon as most warriors of earth always had, its function was its beauty. This weapon, however, had a beauty that went beyond its function with delicate traceries of metallic lines, knots, and curlicues of gold, silver, and other metals beyond Joe’s abilities to identify. The etching was focused on where the wood bound the metal spear point to the shaft. From there, several traceries of the various metals lanced their way up the spear point while what looked like an equal number threaded their way down the shaft. Some of the tracery seemed almost Celtic in formation, noting and moving in straight lines with few curves. Others flowed, like liquid, with sinuous curves and a flow that left the impression of a flaring beauty and wonder. The distinct and different styles seemed so disparate yet the overall impression was of a harmony and beauty that deeply pleased Joe and he found himself smiling as he flourished the spear and focused on it as it played through his hands. In the end, Joe found himself with a new favorite weapon that felt better than anything else he’d ever held in his hands as it seemed to have been literally made for him, balanced and responding so well to his movement and thoughts that Joe could almost swear that it was able to read his mind and respond.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Joe’s smile hadn’t dropped even once, and he soon looked up at the other three with a giant grin to see each of them clutching their brand new weapons with excited and open mouthed wonder. Must be as good as mine! Totally worth taking this dungeon!
“Right! We got our prizes! Ready to head back home? It’s been a long day.”
The other three didn’t respond but did respond with quick nods of their heads and Joe turned to lead them out. He looked around the room once more, but found nothing else to really explore, and he glanced over the chest, pedestal, and floating crystal one last time before turning to head out the short hallway back into the throne room, the other three chatting quietly and excitedly behind him.
Joe took a moment to inspect the dais and back wall one last time before shrugging and heading back out of the dungeon with a purpose, moving quickly. He made it down the hallway and pressed against the large doors which opened easily enough before slamming shut behind them once all four were through. Joe felt his eyes relax subtly as the warm glow of flame light replaced the harsher glowing white in the throne room and Joe looked to the chandeliers with a sigh of thankful relief.
Joe looked back at the doors one last time before shrugging and turning to head out, pulling the map out of his pack and using his new spear as a walking staff for lack of a place to sheath it. As they began walking down the way out, Joe struck up a conversation with the other four, wondering how they were feeling about the whole affair. Besides, he was curious about their conversation.
“So. What you guys talking about? You guys have been chatting up a storm since we left the treasure chest.”
The other three fell silent and Joe took the time to glance back at them, seeing their silent worried glances, Joe cocked his head and offered them a reaffirming nod.
Kilniara glanced at the other two before finally responding, “Master… I saw…”
Joe stopped, turning to face back at the other three, “Please… don’t call me master. Really. Just… Joe is enough.”
Kilniara swallowed a bit, discomfited by Joe’s statement and Joe mentally berated himself when he remembered what Kukurnal had said only a day ago. I haven’t done the official apprenticeship thing… Gotta remember to do that. Maybe I should do it now… no… right… public and official. Joe decided to try to comfort and Kilniara and smiled, gesturing for her to continue.
“Ma… Joe. I counted… you changed weapons ten or fifteen times,” Kilniara trailed off shyly at the end.
Joe grimaced but hid it as he had dropped back to walk beside Kilniara to hold a friendly conversation as they were heading back out. Joe was always annoyed by insinuating sentences, mainly because he felt too dumb to understand what they were trying to hint at, but considering the other three were already feeling a bit flustered, Joe responded politely and tried to ask what they wanted to know, “Yup, although I don’t know how many there were. I didn’t really count. Do you have a question?”
Kiliniara didn’t say anything, although she shot a glance towards the other two, seeking solidarity and strength before pressing on, “We… we were all wondering how much… how many weapons do… can you use?”
“Hmm… I’m not really sure, to really be honest. I’ve been trained pretty well, basically all my life since I was a kid by dozens of masters; the best on my world. They taught me hand-to-hand combat first before I was ready for weaponry, but I’ve trained extensively in a dozen or so weapons and am an expert in all of them. I have my favorites, but I can use all of them well enough. Besides those, I’ve also been trained in another dozen forms of combat and various weapons specific to those martial arts and although I can use them well enough, I am no expert by any means. I use them well enough, and against another who isn’t very well trained, I’ll do well enough against them, but … yeah… I’m not that great in them. I can use them, but… I’d rather stick with my expertise.”
The other three said nothing and Joe felt concerned about how to respond as he looked at the other three, seeing their withdrawn looks, “Look, like I said… I’m not some genius martial artist. I might be a bit better than most on my world, but I’m pretty average when it comes to those who are serious about that pursuit. I’m not that big of a deal.”
Joe felt his concern rise as he noticed the other three didn’t take his statement with comfort, but reacted with surprise and a hint of fear. Joe felt lost and decided to drop it, attempting to change the topic.
“So, how do you guys like your new weapons,” Joe tried to interject brightly.
The other three didn’t respond immediately but Joe did notice Garnedell brighten considerably as he held out his staff, “I received a blessed staff!”
“Nice! It’s good?”
“I… I don’t know. I still have to learn of it, but… It’s blessed so it must be of some benefit.”
Joe smiled in response and glanced at the other two before they both responded in kind as well, soon relaxing and jabbering excitedly about their weapons, each of them claiming their weapon was better blessed than the other. Joe didn’t reply and let their conversation go, although he smirked at each of them trying to one up the other. Joe was laughing quite a bit at their antics but didn’t interject even though he was quite certain there was nothing magical about any of the weapons anyway. They were snazzy weapons, true, but were nothing more than that: well-made and balanced for their craft.
Joe dismissed their conversation and glance down at the map once more and saw they were coming up on the long hallway escaping the maze and leading to the third floor when he noticed the small empty space embedded in the walls right near the entrance to the third floor. That single area of emptiness did seem to draw his eye, especially as the map showed the entire rest of the floor without any wasted space; all of it taken up with the hallways of the maze without any wasted space but for the walls. Joe felt his eyebrows drop, a frown coming to him as he considered the implications of such an obvious gap. Even as Joe looked at it, Joe found a half dozen ways to extend the maze by a small amount to remove this empty space.