After collecting his reward Joe and the others left the office of the barracks command and asked for directions and other information. Rather than rent several inn rooms, Joe decided to inquire whether there were entire residences for rent, as they would likely be staying a week or more so Malcolm could make the transportation and enclosures they'd need to move the livestock. Sure enough there were such places available, so Joe paid for a week and they all took some time to sit and rest on real cushions before going out to explore the city.
Joe decided that the six others split the funds recovered from the bandits treasury, as well as the trade goods. He had plenty of money on his own, and was about to become even richer, although this new money would be for Rust's Edge. Kerras, Tess, and Gymmie went to sell the trade goods from the bandits, with Joe transporting the wagon for them. After they were done they split up while Joe took the wagon back to their house along with the shares for Melanie, Eleanor, and Malcolm.
Melanie had decided to start researching her class options as soon as possible, so went to the nearest library. Malcolm went to buy the tools he'd need and ordered a supply of lumber to be delivered to the house to start building things for their journey as a mobile barnyard, and Eleanor decided to go work on some alchemy.
After Joe had time to himself he went around to a few taverns to place some inquiries on which smiths in town were known for making the best magic weapons. Rather than sell the magisteel to a merchant, Joe decided to sell to a smith who would be the one using the metal anyway. Joe got several good recommendations on skill, speed, and quality. Ultimately he chose the one who seemed to have the best personality, as he wanted to see if he could learn more about smithing from something other than a book or scroll.
Davis had a smithy near the western market. He was known for making good, quality magic weapons and armor, as well as being someone who took the time to really listen to what his customers wanted. Joe found him without too much trouble and waited for the human to finish his current job, it looked like a sword, but Joe didn't sense any magic from it. He did, however, sense a whole lot of magic around Davis.
As Davis made the last few swings on the blade then quenched it in a barrel of oil, he noticed Joe standing there watching him work and said, “Oh, sorry about that, I'll be done here in just a few minutes, if you don't mind.”
“Not to worry, I find what you're doing fascinating. I know the rudimentary skills of smithing, but watching a master at work is something else.”
Davis just nodded indicating that it was fine for Joe to watch then took the nearly finished blade to a wheel grinder and sat down to work the pedal to spin the whetstone wheel. Sure enough, after just a couple of minutes the blade was sharpened on both edges and Joe could see the magic moving from Davis into the blade.
David stood up, “Ah, finished. The client will be happy with this sword, I'd wager. Now, what can I do for you?” Davis asked as he stowed the sword in an empty barrel to the side.
Joe took off his backpack and opened it, finally removing the first two ingots from within. He held them up for Davis to look at and said, “I have two questions. First, would you be interested in buying these? Second, can I watch you work for a couple of days? I feel like I can learn a lot from how you make things.”
Davis saw the ingots in Joe's hands and his eyes went wide in shock. He leaped over the sales counter separating the front of the store from the forge area and ran to the door, quickly locking it. After seeing the expression on Joe's face he quickly turned red and apologized. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you. I'm not about to rob you of those, I just don't want anyone to know about their existence just yet. Do you understand what those are?”
Joe nodded, “Of course, it's magisteel, the most magical metal in existence. I had uncovered these ingots deep in some long forgotten cave near my home. We don't have anyone capable of working them, and our town is rather poor. Rather than use them ourselves, our mayor decided to sell them. I was chosen to come here to Trenos to do that. I figured a smith would buy at better prices than a merchant who would then charge the smith more, so I dropped the middleman from the equation.”
“Most people don't know how to work magisteel efficiently. There are few situations where something needs to be made entirely from magisteel. Magisteel is so rare these days that no one gets enough experience learning how to use it well. My master was well-versed in the intricacies and taught me. I only ever made one thing myself with magisteel, but it was a suit of armor. An entire suit of armor, and it only required one ingot of magisteel. It was the most powerful thing I have ever made, even though I have years of experience in making other things since then.”
Davis looked like he wanted to reach out and touch the ingots in Joe's hand, but he restrained himself. “I'm prepared to offer you 20,000 gold for each of those ingots. I don't have the funds here in my shop, but I can stop by the bank and have it for you first thing tomorrow morning.”
Joe realized that the merchant severely underpaid for that bag of mana dust, as it was the primary ingredient in magisteel. That's okay, neither Joe nor Ferric knew any better, and it's not like they would be hurting for money in the near future.
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“Yes, that's a good price. I accept,” Joe told Davis.
A huge grin appeared on Davis' face, “Wonderful! I've always wanted to surpass that armor I made so long ago. I'll finally have the chance. And I'll let you watch me make it. I imagine it would take about a week. Is that okay?
“Yes, that sounds perfect. I'll meet you here tomorrow morning, then.”
Joe used the rest of the day to make some minor purchases, such as lockboxes to keep his money and Rust's Edge's money separate. When everyone gathered back together for their evening meal, which Joe prepared, Joe told them all that they'd be staying a second week as he found an opportunity he couldn't pass up. No one objected, as staying in a furnished house in Trenos was much better than traveling on the road.
Tess asked Joe more about their destination. She knew he was reluctant to give specifics of the locale, but he was able to tell her that the journey here had been about 5,000 kilometers. The journey back would hopefully be faster than the thirteen weeks here as they'd be able to purchase horses or other beasts of burden for the trip. Joe was getting ten times more money that he expected for the magisteel ingots, so Ferric's list, which seemed daunting at first, felt rather simplistic now.
Using the new information Tess was able to inform Malcolm about how much space to put into the livestock transports, as they needed room for them to grow. Joe also shared his list of supplies with the group, asking if they had suggestions for additional things they thought a growing town would need.
Melanie had done a lot of research at the library, but still hadn't come to a decision. She said there were so many options for humans that she still hadn't even read about all the ones available, but she planned to finish the next day, as she only had two weeks until her birthday and needed to make a decision soon.
The next morning Joe got to Davis' shop and found it closed with a sign on the door. “Shop closed for special project, no interruptions.” Figuring that was about what Davis planned to do with the magisteel, Joe felt no qualms about ignoring the sign and knocking. Sure enough, Davis opened the door with a bright smile when he saw Joe on the other side. He ushered Joe in, locked the door, and handed him a large, heavy sack.
“Four thousand platinum coins for the two ingots.”
Joe pulled a lockbox out of his pack and unlocked it to reveal the two ingots reserved for Davis. He dumped the sack of coins in, barely having room to fit them all.
Before Davis got to work, Joe made sure to activate his Read Aura ability. At Rank 4 it lasted a whole hour, but it also had an auto renew function, so Joe could keep it going all day, especially as it was so cheap mana-wise that it wouldn't even be a noticeable depletion of his mana reserves.
As Davis got to work he began to narrate what he was doing. “The secret to making a magic item as a smith is the Imbue Metallic Object spell. You have to have it active during the entire creation process. It's a major stamina hog, but luckily being a Smith brings the Endurance and Heat Tolerance skills which improve your Vitality and Toughness respectively, which both work to raise your stamina pool. Stamina Growth is important as well, of course, which comes naturally from expending so much stamina in the long hours of pounding out metal.
“There's two ways to use Imbue Metallic Object. You can let it guide the magic itself to produce a random enchantment based on the quality of the materials and the amount of mana used in the process, or you can choose a known recipe of an enchantment you've created before. Starting out you always let the spell guide it until you know enough enchantments to offer them as guarantees to your clients.”
“Mana? You use mana in your creations?” Joe asked.
“That's right. Imbue Metallic Object has an ongoing stamina cost, in addition to that it drains all of your mana the entire time it's going, funneling it into the creation. Most smiths don't bother with their Intelligence, but the best ones here in the city all know the secret to being a master craftsman is mana. I'm an avid reader, myself. Between Reading and Mana Channeling, the mana equivalent of Stamina Growth, my Intelligence is an impressive 600. Not the highest among the smiths in town, but higher than all the regular ones, assuredly.
“Of course, the addition of magisteel in this armor is going to make it better than anything the others can make, even with their larger mana pools. Another thing about the spell, though, is you have to keep making the item. If you go for more than 10 hours without recasting it, you lose the entire magical matrix of the enchantment that's been forming. You also can't cast it on anything else in the middle, or the magical matrix will be fractured and fail when you resume the original object.”
The information about the magical matrix made what Joe saw the day before make sense. The reason he hadn't seen any magic on the sword before it was finished was because the matrix was still with Davis until the sword was complete and the matrix transferred over to it.
“So if you use older enchantment recipes, does it take less mana if your mana pool is larger now?” Joe asked.
Davis shook his head, “No, that's the beauty of the spell. Since it always takes all your mana, and the amount of mana fed into the matrix determines the strength of your finished product, you get stronger versions of your old creations. That's how I can guarantee that this new set of armor will be far better than what I made last time I used magisteel for armor, because my pool of mana is so much larger now. But even so, I'm not making the same enchantment, I'm letting the spell influence it.”
“What about if you have a specific direction you want a new enchantment to go in, can you influence the spell?”
“To some extent, yes, but you typically get better results by letting the enchantment pick itself.”
Joe spent the rest of the day watching Davis pound on steel ingots flattening them into rough sheets as the magic around him grew. He also learned a new spell, not the Imbue Metallic Object, but one called Stoke Fire.
Stoke Fire (Level 1). This spell allows the caster to funnel oxygen into a fire to increase its heat at a stable level. The temperature maximum is the caster's Toughness multiplied by the spell level. At the current level the new temperature can be maintained for ten minutes.
Stamina cost: 25 stamina