Selvara awoke refreshed and rested. As a dungeon fairy and familiar, she was closely connected to the feelings and thoughts of the dungeon heart. Sleeping through the night without being woken by an attack, accident or other catastrophe was almost unusual.
She opened her eyes and blinked. Had spiders managed to get into her room? Her bed was surrounded by cobwebs. She took a closer look at the web. The pattern didn't really match cobwebs. And it surrounded her in an exact rectangle. What the...
As her mind caught up with her body and also reached full working capacity, she realized that Malvorik had converted her bed into a four-poster bed with curtains while she slept. He had done it without waking her with his usual mental giggles. His self-control was improving.
Four wooden pillars held up a fabric roof. On the sides, he had placed curtains made of a fine silk weave. She pushed aside a curtain and looked around her room. The furniture still looked the same, but the floor was now covered with a red fabric. Not exactly a carpet, but close enough. She stroked her toes over the soft material and smiled. Then she walked through the corridor to the heart room and opened the small door. To her it was a fairy-high portal, but to humans it looked more like the door to a doll's house. She cautiously stuck her head through. Malvorik had surprised her too often with his experiments.
She could feel how active the Dungeon Crystal's mind was. For the first time in a long time, Malvorik ignored all other problems and gave himself fully to his true passion. Arcane research. The basic book for mages had given him back enough of his lost spell knowledge, that he would be able to reconstruct some of the spells he had known in the past. If only he was given enough time. He could now also create a variety of artifacts that were standard equipment for adventurers.
As there were no dangerous objects moving through the room, Selvara flew carefully into the heart room and looked around. The sketches of swords, spears, armor and shields that had dominated the mirrored walls a day earlier were gone. Instead, she now saw numerous versions of finger-length staffs, surrounded by sketches and notes. She sensed Malvorik's mental grin and hesitated: "Is it safe? Are pieces of armor about to swirl around here?"
Selvara flew up a little further and watched as a summoning circle, similar to those used by dungeons to summon their dungeon monsters, appeared at the bottom of his heart room. Stone sank into the floor in the shape of the lines and the gaps filled with silver, which began to glow shortly after. The air above shimmered. A finger-long wooden stick appeared. A network of fine, metallic lines covered the surface. Fine, as if painted. As a Dungeon, Malvorik could create things with a precision that a mortal artifact mage could only dream of. He created another layer of wood that hid the network of mythril. She noticed two fine lines that led from the mythril pattern to one end at the top and to the upper third of one side at another point. A tiny aquamarine appeared at one end of the stick. With her close connection to Malvorik, she knew that the semi-precious stone was not created, but came from Malvorik's supply. A number of small semi-precious stones that Weylan had purchased.
A ring of fine silver lines appeared around the aquamarine. A rune formed on the side of the staff at the point where the other mythril line came to the surface. She studied the rune and glanced briefly at the notes on the mirror wall. An unobtrusive glance was not enough to find the right rune in the crowd of runes. She turned around and studied the mirror openly. "Is it this rune here? Purification?"
Selvara cautiously fluttered closer and gently tapped the artifact with her foot. When the wooden staff rolled harmlessly away a bit, she landed and picked it up. "Aquamarine and a rune of purification. What exactly does this thing do?"
Malvorik let a dirty shirt with numerous tears appear.
"Where did you get that from? Stole it from the ground after a battle?"
Selvara had to place the artifact, which was far too large for her, over a bent knee and bend a little to align everything correctly. Then she placed her hand on the rune. She felt a pull on her magic. It took no effort for her to let her magic flow. A bluish light shone from the semi-precious stone onto the shirt. The dark stains of earth and blood became lighter after a while. Then they disappeared completely.
"Nice. That hardly used any mana. Maybe just as much as a level 1 spell. Isn't there a level 1 spell that can do that much faster?"
"That contains mythril? Can't you create whole bars of gold? That would certainly be easier."
"Weylan bought the aquamarines cheaply on the market. Just 1-2 carats are enough for the weak effect. All you have to do is create the wood and a touch of mythril. That could actually be economically viable."
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Selvara grinned, as she had seen filthy revenant groups return to the city several times. Revenants who hadn't taken any spare clothes, tents or even blankets with them.
"Can I see what you made?"
Selvara waited patiently until a few more wooden sticks appeared in the summoning circle.
Selvara wondered: "You can reverse spells?"
"What happens when you reverse the Mend spell?"
"Have you tested it yet?"
The dungeon fairy looked around curiously: "Do you have anything else? I’ve got used to more outrageous ideas."
A mental laugh rang out:
A rod fixed to the ground appeared with the sphere already attached to the top. Selvara flew around the construction and then carefully placed her hand on the sphere and let mana flow. The sphere greedily drank up the magic. Nothing else happened.
Selvara did so and the sphere glowed reddish. A faint but warm light spread. Warm like a cloudless spring day. Pleasant and not too hot.
"That could be interesting in a room or tent. It's of little use outdoors."
Selvara saw the list of spells on a mirror wall: "Create metal or earth are level 1 spells? I thought only dungeons could create matter."
"So, no conjured tools?"
"How much do these cleaning artifacts cost?"
Selvara rubbed her chin thoughtfully: "It's hard to say. Weylan said that according to the academy, the guideline for artifacts is about one gold coin per MP plus material costs. But no revenant is going to spend 200 gold coins on it. They just don't have that much at the beginning."
Malvorik sent out his thoughts.
He heard the mental equivalent of a grunt and some vague images. Only slowly did the Assassin Apprentice's thoughts become comprehensible: "Do you know what time it is?"
The dungeon heart could not clearly understand the next thoughts. The images looked like someone was smashing chunks of glass while banging his face against a desk.
"What do you want to know?"
Malvorik explained his new developments in detail. After a while, he also had the distinct feeling that Weylan was waking up and listening attentively.
"By Peituwin, this could be a gold mine! I'd ask 200 gold pieces each for the staves. Then make one with both runes. That saves the cost of the aquamarine and mythril... You can incorporate two spells into one artifact, can't you?"
Weylan was silent for a while: "Then make a set out of it. A backpack with customized leather straps for the spell-foci. Plus an Everfull Flask, of course, all the normal base adventurer gear, one of each of these cold/heat artifacts, clean/ dry and mend spell foci. All for… let’s say 500 gold pieces."
"You need a good name for these things."
Weylan interrupted him: "I like spell-foci. We call the whole thing: The Hero Master Pack. Every hero group needs one. A whole group can certainly afford one after a few quests. I visit a few leather makers during my lunch break and order a sample for the backpack. See what you're missing for the equipment part. We need a rope, climbing hook, folding spade, carving knife, plate, tin cup, a small wooden axe, a few fishing hooks, fishing line, a rolled-up bedroll on top ..."
"Revenants are lazy. If they get everything they need in one package, it will be much more interesting for them. It only costs a few gold pieces of additional equipment, too. Believe me, it'll be worth it."