Jeffery looked between Agnox and Mathew. Mathew could tell he was confused as to whom summoned him.
“Did you just summon my wolf?”
“You mean our wolf now!” Agnox exclaimed.
Mathew checked his spell list and saw he still had access to the wolf to summon himself. The spell didn’t use his mana. He was maxed out with no loss from having Jeffery summoned like normal.
“Can Summons even summon?” Cherry asked. “Is this normal?”
“I think I can since I just did,” Agnox said with a beaming smile.
Rubbing at his face, Mathew decided to roll with it. “Okay, anything else you can do you want to bring up.”
Agnox opened his menu and scrolled through it. “Profession is still the same, but each stat went up one per level. So instead of +1 across four stats, it’s +2 now. [Fire Bolt] can now be used in a constant short stream versus individual bolts. [Parry] just lets me disarm people easier. Ah, well there is [Wrath Armor].” The imp looked it over. His face was a cross between worry and excitement.
“Boss. I think you are going to want to see this.” Agnox made a flicking motion and a blues screen popped up in front of Mathew’s face.
Wrath Armor | Beginner 5
Your flames of wrath will persevere. You can conjure a suit of flaming armor to protect yourself. WARNING: This armor is a physical representation of your own path. To deny this skill is to deny your path
Flexible Movement: This armor does not restrict any movement while you are wearing it.
Mathew didn’t know what to think about this. “A physical representation of his path. Does this mean Agnox has chosen his path? That seems too easy. Too fast. He is my familiar. And ever since then he has been my main offensive summon. I just don’t like that warning.”
“We can test it out later when I do my tests,” Mathew said. He looked up at the sky, noting the sun's position. “I have a meeting with everyone this evening. Making a few announcements. After that, I am going to train and work on myself until we find that other zone that attacked my Dungeon.”
Agnox nodded and gave a thumbs-up. “Sounds good to me.”
Mathew turned to his contracted dryad. “Cherry, I want you to work on leveling up your powers. You are not even Level 20 yet, but you have a mix of combat and non-combat skills. So, when we do get in a fight, your options are limited. Keep helping out and push your skill set more. Think you can do that?”
Cherry nodded slightly. “Sure, but I don’t really know how I want to grow myself. Things are moving too fast, I just need some time to think.”
“Hopefully you can get that time. I need it too. This past week has been hectic. We can only hope that I’m needed less and less as things start to self-sustain themselves.”
Cherry gave a small nod and smiled.
Mathew drove back to Di’s shop. Agnox flew off to do his own thing. Cherry stuck with Mathew to be there for the announcement. She and a few other non-humanoid creatures would be introduced to the masses as friends.
Entering the Egyptian-styled store, Mathew was greeted by the faceless shopkeeper. “Mr. McGonald! I take it you are here for the items I looked over for you?”
“That I am Di. Anything outstandingly interesting?”
Di waved a hand for Mathew to follow. A door appeared that wasn’t in a wall before and it opened automatically. Mathew knew that from how the store looked on the outside this room should not exist.
“This is my backroom storage. I set a chunk of space for all the weapons, armor, and other things you brought.” Di snapped his fingers and fluorescent lights turned on. The entire area was clean and empty. Shelves with metallic boxes stood in equal rows.
In a nearby corner Stands and tables had similarly styled gear laid out. “Whoever made these items was decent. It is obviously different makers. I say the highest quality was at least Apprentice ranked crafter. Perhaps a low-skilled Student ranked individual. It’s hard to tell with a style I am unfamiliar with.”
The majority of the gear was what he traded from Tulido. The Lost Soul race’s style wasn’t anything special. They didn’t have showy extras to the armor or weapons.
“Out of all the weapons and armor, I sorted things out from Common to Very Rare quality. There were only two items of that quality.”
“Which ones?” Mathew asked.
Di pointed to a nearby table. On it was a shield and bow. “The bow, sadly, is Novice ranked. However, the quality and enchantment are pristine! I imagine anyone who uses a mixed fighting style of ranged and melee will get their worth out of it. But, I suggest breaking it down and learning the enchantment instead. Higher quality items are easier to learn the enchantment from.”
Mathew looked at the bow in thought. His chin resting in a hand. “And the shield?”
“This is the Apprentice ranked shield. The enchantments focus on making the shield lighter, tougher, and evenly dispersing the damage. Simple enchantments, but powerful ones.”
“Sounds like something Zack could use,” Mathew said out loud in thought.
“He would value the enchantments, but I recall conversations that he wanted larger shield variants. Tower shields. This is for someone who uses a sword and board fighting style. A classic for your fighters and warrior classes.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Hmmm. What about everything else? What’s worth keeping and handing out as rewards, versus scrapping and learning from?”
Di led Mathew to the rest of the gear. “I would suggest the basic enchantments be learned. Lightening, further strengthening, improving sharpness, all enchantments that are simple, but needed for even the most basic of weapons.”
“What about the enchantments we already have?” Mathew pointed to the crystal pile.
Di tsked. “No conversations just straight to the next item of business Mr. McGonald?”
“Sorry, I’m tired and I have the mass meeting in a few hours. I need to get through this now and figure things out.”
Di waved a hand, “I understand. I’ll be sure to wrap this up quickly for you then. Now for the enchantments, The Fortify Material is a sister enchantment of the simple weapon or armor-strengthening ones. It’s for cloth or leather. While the ones on the current weapons and armor are for metal.”
Di gestured to the next pile of crystals. “Among these are a few interesting ones. Namely two. One that is an elemental adaptability enchantment. It allows the material to withstand harsher damage types. Cold, Fire, and Acid, are all damage types that could damage an item. It allows the enchantment to eat mana to resist the natural wear and tear it suffers.”
“The latter is a mana surge enchantment. It’s more for staves and wands. You can overcharge the attack more safely.” Di pointed to two staves. “Those two have the enchantment, but I see no point in dismantling those to learn it when we have the enchantment already.”
Mathew nodded, looking at everything. “Perfect. This is great. Give me an itemized-”
Di handed Mathew a piece of paper. “Already done.”
Mathew grinned. “Thank you, Di. What would I do without you.”
“Suffer at lack of proper service.”
Mathew piled all the gear back in his enchanted bags. “What about the other items? Ores, pelts, Golem Parts, and other miscellaneous gear.”
“Already on that paper and summarized of what should be kept, sold, or dismantled,” Di said as he gestured to the door. “Most of it I suggest to either sell or give to crafters. The ore is a wonderful variant of iron ore that when properly refined will be tougher and lighter than your human steel. It has a small life affinity as well, which is very rare. You don’t find life or death affinity in metals often. Especially one of this own rank.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. See you next time Di.”
“Always a pleasure when you come Mr. McGonald. Have a pleasant evening. Good luck with your meeting!”
Mathew left the building with the bags slung over his shoulder. He barely felt the weight. He loaded up his vehicle and headed to meet up for the giant meeting in a few hours. Mr. Melton should have a list of topics prepared for him, as well as questions to expect.
The hours leading up to the start of the event were chaotic. Last-minute preparations were implemented. They still used the old speakers and microphone since no magical substitution existed.
They also officially had no room for everyone that showed up. People were forced to stand or sit on the ground. Several people with some sort of earth manipulation created crude benches for people thankfully. There were a series of complaints leading up to the start of the event.
Guards complained about who was working and who was not working. People bickering about being outside and not inside some sort of building. Food. The long wait times. Anything people could complain about, they did.
Word of a few groups of people not showing up due to a protest started to spread just an hour before the meeting started.
Mathew rubbed at his face, “Why?”
Mr. Melton looked over a written letter. “Apparently they are afraid magic will replace them. It’s a group of people from New Watago who were scavengers. Your guards showed up and now people are afraid of not being needed anymore.”
“They are guards. Nothing else. We will always need guards. These guys are to help alleviate the stress of the job by having something that doesn’t require sleep or food.” Mathew groaned. “Send word that isn’t the case. It’s too late for them to try and join the meeting, so have someone prepare a scribed version.”
Mr. Melton nodded and started to walk off.
“Wait. We don’t have anybody with a recording device, do we? Do those exist in the magic world?” Mathew rolled his eyes and corrected himself. “I know they exist, but do we have any?”
“No. We haven’t invested into acquiring any of them.”
With a sigh, “Then we rely on the grapevine to spread the word.” Mathew waved off Mr. Melton and walked into a tent that had all the people who would be recognized for various feats. Crafters, fighters, medical staff, and people who would be given rewards. Not pretty trophies to put on a shelf, but physical rewards.
Mathew clapped his hands, “Everyone knows their cues? When to come onto the stage? Any last-minute questions?”
Only half the people did Mathew know. Zack was one, for his crafting accomplishment, along with his work inside the World Dungeon. Various guards that had remained behind and helped police Blue Oaks from various troublemakers. Alan was there and raised his hand. “Yeah, uh, what are we getting rewarded with exactly?”
A few nods of agreement nodded. “Everyone will receive a unique item. For crafters, it’s materials or a recipe of some kind. For fighters, it’s weapons and armor. For everyone else, it’s money, prestige, and a unique item or two as well.”
“Not money?” A woman asked. Mathew assumed it was one of the researchers who was receiving the highest of rewards for her discovery of using magic in cooking for various effects. She herself had a decent Beginner rank cooking skill related to her discovery. The System itself even gave her a title.
“Money is included yes,” Mathew admitted. “Not a lot, since it’s a scarce commodity throughout Blue Oaks. I promise you, the items will be worth their weight in gold. Each custom item is selected for you based on recommendations of your peers.”
Mathew had people tasked to do the research for who would need what kind of reward. Low leveled helpers. Few of them are over level twenty. If anyone had complaints about their rewards, he would be open to exchanging things after the event.