Chapter 41 Happy Birthday.
“Magically reinforced light armor, Cloak of Shadows, Paired compasses, two Scabbards of Cleaning and Oiling, seven healing potions, Ocean in a Bottle, Orb of Shadow Projection, a medium grade mana stone, and the Sending Slates.” Clayton summarized. “Thirty seven thousand gold exactly.”
“Now for the important part.” Isaac replied in agreement to Clayton’s confirmation of their shopping cart that was sprawled on the counter between them. “Custom rings.”
Clayton nodded to signal Isaac to speak. “I’m ready.” He added with a pen and paper in his hands.
“I want the ‘glowing when in pain’ function with a maximum range of at least ten miles. I want another pair with the ‘protection from divination’ ability.” Isaac told the wizard and gestured for the paper and pen. “I want them to look like this.” Over the course of the next few minutes Isaac drew out a pair of interlocking rings.
The rings would be his and Lenna’s engagement and wedding rings. When the two rings would be slotted together they would become inseparable as the magic runes would weld themselves together via the magic flowing through them. The Protection From Divination rings would be their engagement rings which was a good thing because they actually had the more complicated enchantment on them. The rings would be made entirely out of onyx and diamond as crystals held and conducted mana better than metals. They would be covered in the golden threads of their enchantments and the gold would give off an almost imperceptible glow from the large amount of mana they would be consuming. Isaac’s request for ten miles of range was not going to be efficient in the slightest.
Clayton was no jeweler but he knew that his master was well versed in magic that could manipulate different mediums. Usually making the rings entirely out of crystal would be almost impossible but with magic the impossible because a mere mild annoyance. The runic engravings would all need to be done by hand however so the creation process would not be quick. Usually he would tell people who arrived for custom enchantments to find a different artificer as his master refused to ever take commissions but he had a feeling that Eliza would like Isaac’s idea of fusing the rings together. His brows were furrowed in thought for a long time as he made note after note on Isaac’s drawing while trying to add up potential expenses. “I can’t see these costing anything less than ninety thousand.” He told Isaac honestly. “If there are any problems at all in the crafting process it could be closer to one hundred and forty thousand.”
Isaac visibly winced at the cost. That was as much as they had ‘liberated’ from Mr. Nobody. “That’s… doable.” Isaac replied.
Clayton nodded. “I’ll talk to the old man for you.” He promised Isaac. “He’ll need a down payment if he agrees to do it. Crystal is expensive. Most of the cost for most of our magic items is labor and gold for the runes. For your rings it’ll be split even at best between labor and resource cost.”
“So he’ll need forty five thousand up front.” Isaac surmised.
Clayton gave Isaac an apologetic look. “Fifty thousand based on what I’m seeing. And that’s if it goes well.”
Isaac sighed. “Let me know and I’ll get you the money. How long do you think it’d take him to make them?” He questioned. At the very least they would need to be done by the wedding. The wedding that didn’t have a set date yet. The wedding that Isaac had been specifically not thinking about because it made him nervous. He wasn’t even sure why it made him nervous as he and Lenna were already a mated pair but something about an actual ceremony gave him the jitters even if he knew that it was all just in his head.
Clayton eyed the concept sheet in front of him. “Best case, five weeks. Not a day sooner.” He told the duo. Five weeks for magic items of the caliber that Isaac was asking for was a positively insane rate of production. Eliza was known for his odd experimental magic items that seemed to be limitless. The reason for their seemingly unending supply was that the man was an absolute genius in the art of magic item creation. There wasn’t a better artificer within almost a thousand miles. There wasn’t a faster artificer known on the continent. The closest artificer that a customer could meet and actually make requests of was in Sapphirestone.
“Worst case?” Isaac questioned.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Clayton shrugged. “Worst case would be that it was impossible.” He told Isaac honestly. “If it’s possible he’ll get it done in six months or less.” Clayton shivered. “I hope it doesn’t take him that long.” He added in a whisper. Only Clayton and Eliza knew what went on in the crazy artificer’s lab but whatever it was seemed to unnerve Clayton.
—
“I know it’s a day late,” Isaac began as his way of greeting when he arrived at the Adventurers’ Guild. “but Happy Birthday.” He told the small woman behind the receptionist desk.
Alice looked up and smiled while giving Isaac and Lenna a wave. “Welcome back!” She told them. “How was the trip? Where did you go? What cool things did you fight? Did you get us a present?” She barraged the duo with questions.
“Thanks, both interesting and boring, Ben’s End and Outpost Charles, Tunnel Horrors and assassins mostly, and yes.” Isaac answered all of her questions in the order that she asked them.
“Oh? What’d you get us?” Alice pressed. It was clear that only one of the answers actually registered.
Isaac chuckled and shook his head. He looked at Lenna and nodded towards Alice. “Don’t keep the kid waiting.” He told his mate. “She looks like she’s ready to vibrate through the chair.”
Lenna chuckled and pulled the Sending Slates out of her Bottomless Bag. She showed them both to Alice but only handed her one of them. “Now you and your sister can talk all day instead of working.” She told the twin. She pressed her thumb on one of the letters towards the middle of the slate and the corresponding letter on the other one lit up. She shifted to another letter and the old one went dim again as the other lit up. “Have fun.”
Alice’s eyes kept getting wider as all kinds of horrible ideas started flowing through her head. “Thanks!” She replied and took the other one from Lenna as the older woman offered it to her. “These are going to be so much fun!”
“And get you both in so much trouble.” Isaac added.
Alice looked at him and beamed. “Yeah.” She agreed with excitement that looked like it was threatening to burst out of her.
The Guild Hall was mostly empty so Isaac had an idea. “Go.” He told her and nodded towards the door. “We’ll hold down the fort. Just make it quick.”
Alice stared at him for a long moment. “You’re serious?” She asked.
Isaac nodded. “Yeah, hurry up, I’ll have work for you when you get back.” He assured her.
Alice hopped down from her stool and ran around to the other side of her desk. She eyed Isaac for a quick moment with a fair degree of hesitation before deciding that she could get away with it. She took a quick step towards him and gave him an extremely brief, extremely light, hug before darting over to Lenna to do the same. “Thanks!” She called back at them as she took off in a run out the door.
Isaac was chuckling and smiling towards the door. “Are we sure they aren’t twelve?” He asked Lenna.
Lenna shook her head. “They look their age.” She countered. “They act their height.” The twins did have appropriate proportions for gnomes their age even if they were still the height of human or elf children. Their faces were round but not quite childlike which always gave them an air of being incredibly young yet showed that they weren’t.
A few minutes later Alice returned out of breath with a huge grin on her face. She was already pressing letters on the slate in her hand and giggling. She hurried over to her desk and hopped back up onto her stool. “Okay, what can I help you with?” She asked while trying to look professional. Her hair was disheveled and she was still out of breath from running so any professionalism was long gone.
“You can get confirmation on two Tunnel Horror kills from Ben’s End. I’m hoping we can get some kind of payout for the kills.” Isaac told her.
“Okay, I can do that. Yes, there is an outstanding bounty of sorts for killing them but it’s more of a consolation prize than anything.” Alice explained. “Wait. You killed two Tunnel Horrors?!”
Isaac looked extremely annoyed. “They think I’m tasty.” He grumbled. “I can’t go all out without drawing them in from a mile away.”
Alice shook her head. “You attracting them isn’t what’s surprising.” She told him. “You killing two of them is.” She shook her head as if to clear it. “You didn’t bring back any part of them?” She questioned. “Most of their internal organs are very valuable to certain mages.”
Isaac shook his head in the negative. “Too much acid, too gooey.” He replied.
Alice sighed. “I saw a report that the academy is willing to buy a properly contained living specimen for three hundred thousand gold.”
Isaac whistled. “Can’t a wizard just catch it with reality spells and telekinesis?” He questioned.
Alice shook her head but it was Lenna who answered. “They are immune. They devour mana. They’ll eat through it.” She explained.
Isaac nodded. “That actually makes a lot of sense, yeah.” He agreed. “On to the next topic, all this drow assassin gear we have laying around.” Isaac didn’t want to keep most of the gear save for the magic circlet and some stuff that he wanted to pass on to James and Lenny. It turned out that Lenna was correct on the circlet’s function. Isaac would have gotten stuck with it even though the gold didn’t go with his monochromatic aesthetic but his mana would have fried the thing after three seconds of use. Instead, Lenna got it. Her mana would still cause the item to degrade quicker than it normally would have. Her mana was close enough to normal that it could still handle hundreds of minutes of telepathic communication though so she begrudgingly agreed to wear it. She wouldn’t have complained at all if she was able to use it to talk to Isaac but because of his ring he was immune to even positive magical targeting.
In the end Isaac and Lenna ended up only down a few thousand gold by the end of the day but the day was far from over. They still had at least three stops before they could rest. One of them was bound to be very interesting.