Chapter 81 The Offer
As soon as the taxi neared the weapon area, Meira hopped off the still moving taxi, using wind magic to land gracefully on the concrete road, with Evernya following a second later. In a rush, they weaved their way through the crowds toward the tracker a few blocks to the left.
Evernya surveyed the familiar surroundings as she worked her way toward the booth. She breathed a sigh of relief when Meira pointed at the booth she bought them from. “He wasn’t lying. I bought them from him.” Evernya commented before asking, “Is this where you found me?”
“Yeah, right in the middle of the street in front of his stall,” Meira replied.
“It’s almost as if he placed me here on purpose. That’s so weird.” Evernya muttered.
“You might have been.” Meira agreed.
The women worked their way through the crowd to the guy’s nearly empty stall.
The man glanced up from his phone, locking eyes with Meira, prompting her to speak. “We came to collect her black moons.”
The man nodded in greeting before replying, “One second I have them in back. How is she doing? I hope she makes it. Whatever happened to her must have been nasty.”
Evernya poked out from behind the much taller elf, attracting the man’s attention. “I’m fine, thank you.” Evernya chimed in.
The man stared at Evernya for a few seconds, frozen in shock before stuttering out, “Holy crap you are, how did you recover so quickly!? You looked like a mummy when I last saw you! Did the beautiful artifact hurt you?”
“It wasn’t so pretty looking when it started, but yeah, it did.” Evernya commented before asking, “Do you know how I ended up here when I collapsed?”
“No, you just appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the street screaming your lungs out.” The man replied.
Evernya glanced to the right in the direction of the missing rundown stall they passed on the way back before commenting, “So I really did teleport or something. Last I remember I was a block down the road.”
“Freaky.” The man stated.
“Did you see who stole my other purchases by any chance?” Evernya Inquired.
The man gave Evernya an apologetic look as he responded, “No, I’m sorry. After you appeared, a crowd formed, blocking my view. I couldn’t leave my stall in fear the same theft would happen to me. At least I could keep your black moons safe.”
Evernya let out a disappointed sigh before smiling up at the man. “Thank you for saving the black moons.” Evernya thanked.
To cheer the depressed man up, Evernya added, “It looks like business was good. You only have a few swords left.”
The man perked up, gushing, “Yeah, this year was good. I even sold some of my higher-end swords.”
While examining his remaining stock with a critical eye, Meira complimented, “You are talented for your age. Most take the safe route with steel, yet you work with adamant and Mithril.”
The man beamed from the praise as he passionately rambled, “I like the challenge of working the more defiant metals. Steel is boring to work with but is a consistent seller so I still have to make them.”
Before the man got too carried away, Meira cut in. “How much for your last four swords? I enjoy buying weapons made of Adamant and Mithril because I can enchant the hell out of them. Unfortunately, weapons made of anything other than steel are scarce in this area.”
The man did a quick count in his head before responding, half expecting her to back down. “Fifty thousand crystals for all four, three mithril and one adament long swords.”
Meira paused for a second, reinforcing the man’s assumption before countering, “I’ll pay sixty thousand for all four. I can’t justify buying such high-quality swords for such a cheap price.”
“You sure!?” the man exclaimed in surprise.
“Yeah, these swords may be worth even more,” Meira confirmed.
The man almost glowed in happiness as he bowed, exclaiming, “Thank you so much, miss!”
Unaffected by the man’s response, Meira stated, “My name’s Meira. Where is your store located? I would like to buy more weapons from you in the future.”
The man reached his hand over the counter to shake Meira’s as he replied, “I’m Jason. I live here in Minea, but I haven’t been lucky enough to get a spot for my own shop. I make the swords as a hobby in my garage, then sell them either online or here.”
Meira frowned as she offered. “Sounds like the owners iced you out. Would you mind relocating? I could get you a shop in Druth within a couple of months.”
“Even in a Tier 3 city, it would take years to get a spot. How could you do that?” Jason questioned before the name sunk in. “Wait, your name sounds familiar. Meira the Enchantress, holy shit the Enchantress wants to enchant my swords!?”
“Yeah, that’s me. Why wouldn’t I want to enchant such masterpieces? You’re most likely the most talented weapon maker here, including the shops. I’ll pull some strings, have a shop set up for you near me in exchange for twenty percent share of ownership, a discount on any weapons I buy, and priority on any custom order.” Meira offered.
Afraid his benefactor will take back her offer, Jason enthusiastically replied, “I would be a fool to pass upon such an opportunity! I’ve had the money saved up to start my own shop for a year now, but I couldn’t find any open stores to set up in.”
“You wouldn’t I am sure the shop owners know about your talent and either want to recruit you or block you,” Meira commented.
Realization dawned on Jason as he revealed, “I got multiple job offers from shops in Minea, but I don’t want to work under someone I want my own shop. So I refused them all.”
“Well, now is your chance. I know it’s Tier 3 city, but as you have probably heard, I do just fine out there.” Meira smiled.
On the verge of crying on the cusp of fulfilling his dream, Jason grasped Meira’s hand while staring into her eyes. “Thank you for the opportunity. I won’t let you down.”
Meira said with a smile, “I’m sure you won’t.”
After Jason calmed down, they exchange contact information, before Jason retreated in back to retrieve Evernya’s toys.
Jason returns a minute later, red-faced, veins bulging as he wrestles the crate containing the black moons onto the counter.
Evernya immediately opened the box to make sure her toys were ok while Meira floated one of the black moons over to her to examine to avoid cutting her fingers on the sharp edges.
“Wow, these are even better craftsmanship than the swords. These must have taken you months to make.” Meira gushed.
“Six months because I couldn’t work on them full time because of my job, which I will soon quit if you can find me a store,” Jason replied with an expression of gratitude.
Meira glanced at her kitten before requesting, “Could we go in back? I would like to show you something in private.”
“Why?” Jason inquired with a tinge of panic.
“I want you to examine Evernya’s new artifact away from prying eyes.” Meira requested.
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Jason tried to hide his relief as he asked, “The black spider?”
Meira smiles knowingly as she replied, “Yeah.”
“Of course I would love to examine a beautiful artifact,” Jason replied.
Jason vibrated with excitement as he opened his gate to allow the women in back. With a skip in his step, he retreated through the curtain, expecting the women to follow.
Evernya grabbed Meira’s arm before she could follow before whispering, “You sure it’s safe to allow someone we just met to examine my artifact? Didn’t you say it could be dangerous to allow someone to know too much about it?”
Without a hint of worry, Meira replied, “It’s in his best interest not to screw us, since I have the key to what he wants. Besides, he has proven trustworthy when he kept your black moons safe.”
“I guess you are right. I’m just worried someone will take advantage of me.” Evernya whispered.
Meira rested her hands on her kitten shoulders as she advised, “You are right to feel paranoid. Always be careful who you trust.”
Meira nudged her kitten forward through the curtain. Inside, they found a small two by three meter room with a wood plank floor and one walls shared with the booth butted up against it on the next road. Meira fished out the cube, activating it before giving her kitten a go-ahead nod.
Evernya lifted her right hand as she called upon her artifact. A substantial amount of mana emptied from her mana core as the artifact materialized out of thin air. As if pulled from a from the black void the razor-sharp spiderlike artifact came to life dimming the lights as the blue veins running along the central piece brighten.
Silence reigned in the room as the trio stared at the domineering artifact, demanding respect while somehow remaining subdued, as if wanting to remain unnoticed, like its owner.
Unable to resist any longer, Jason questioned in awe, “is that a Mana Bound Weapon?”
After receiving a nod from Evernya, who was still staring at her artifact mesmerized, Jason inquired, “So this caused the incident from earlier today?”
Evernya glanced up at the pale weapon maker for a moment before returning her attention to her artifact as she answered, “Yeah, when I first touched it was a small rusty fragment.”
Jason’s passion for weapons leaks through as he comments, “Fascinating for it to reform itself from such a state, it must have a high tier repair enchantment.”
“I wouldn’t know since it blocked my examination, but I’m sure it does and much more,” Meira replied, while staring at the artifact as if it offended her.
“I’m guessing you want to know its composition?” Jason inquired.
“If you can but be careful, it has a bite to it.” Meira requested while crossing her fingers for his success.
Jason focused on the artifact, sending his metal magic into the central piece to examine it. However, the moment his magic contacted the artifact, it gobbled his mana up, severing his connection, inducing backlash on his mana veins, causing him to stumble into an empty shelf.
After taking a minute to shake off the backlash, Jason commented, “You weren’t kidding, it just gobbled up my mana.”
“Same happened to me when I checked its enchantments.” Meira replied before inquiring with a hopeful expression, “You get anything?”
Jason remained silent for a few seconds as he mentally went over what he read before responding, “I think so, but I don’t know what to make of it. Most of the materials I didn’t recognize so I can’t help there, but it has small amounts of Adamant and Mithril, maybe five percent at most.”
Meira nodded to herself before she said, “I figured those results, but I wanted to confirm. Its sister artifact had the same results from their tests.”
Jason’s gaze cut from the artifact to Meira from her bombshell as he questioned, “Sister artifact? You mean there is another one of these unbelievable masterpieces out there?”
Meira winced at her accidental admission but recovered immediately, stating, “There is, but I don’t know if I trust you enough to tell you that much.”
Jason looked disappointed, but took the snub in stride. “I understand if it’s anything like this artifact, it must be famous and powerful.”
Meira glanced down at her silent kitten’s artifact before revealing, “You have no idea. I’ve examined multiple Mana Bound Artifacts over the years, and none can even compare to this one.”
“No wonder you wanted privacy. Its mana suction alone would tip many people off of its significance.” Jason commented.
Done with the examination, Meira shifted topics with a request. “So, could you make a sword for her? Since we don’t know what her artifact is capable of, she needs a weapon for hunting. We don’t even know what type of weapon it is.”
Jason stared at the artifact, deep in thought, for almost a minute before speaking. “I don’t want to overstep my bounds, but I think I have an idea what type of artifact it is. While I could make her a sword. There is no way I could replicate a weapon similar to hers without the very best materials and enchantments.”
Unable to resist her curiosity, Evernya inquired, “what is it?”
Under the unrelenting gaze of the curious shifter, Jason rambled, “as an independent weapon maker I get several unusual requests like the black moons. Unlike established shops, independent’s like me are more willing to take a shot at off-the-wall designs. Several years ago, a man I would best describe as ancient requested me to forge a weapon suspiciously similar to your artifact.”
Evernya’s eyes widened as Jason continued, “after looking over the designs and the required materials, most of which I had never heard of, I had to turn down the man as his designs were far beyond my capabilities. I’m not even sure how he thought how such a weapon would be physically possible. The shell itself was within my capabilities but there’s no way I could make the impossibly thin wire nor am I an enchanter making the propulsion and retraction impossible as well.”
Unable to take the suspense any longer, Evernya prodded, “well, what is it?”
To the inpatient shifter’s annoyance, Jason fell silent for several seconds before responding, “I think he called it Nenoneko. No, it was Nekomata’s tails after the mythic era feline race, which made little sense since when I looked up the race they had two tails when he only wanted one of these weapons.”
The moment Jason spoke the name, a splitting headache speared through her mind. She swayed on her feet with her eyes clenched, prompting Meira to stabilize her kitten by wrapping her arm around her kitten’s waist.
While scanning her kitten’s body for anything wrong, Meira inquired, “What’s wrong, Evernya?”
The question fell on deaf ears as all of Evernya’s concentration focuses inward as a burning sensation assaulted her mana core. Evernya watched as the brands of her artifact changed. The rune for mana bound artifact summon dulled as a new rune took its place. This new rune read Neko summon, alongside another rune reading Neko integration, which forms but remained grayed out. After engraving the runes for Neko, her mana continued. However, pain shot through her core as the process ground to a halt, as if missing an important piece, leaving two undecipherable half-formed runes to the left of the Neko runes.
Meanwhile, the veins running through her artifact shined brightly, forcing Meira to lay her kitten on the floor before joining Jason at the edge of the room as the artifact’s oppressive aura ticked up several notches.
Several minutes pass before Evernya’s eyes reopened just as the oppressive aura retracted. She blinked several times as her mind rebooted. What happened? After standing up, Evernya stared down at her artifact, which she now knew as Neko. Evernya prodded the artifact with mana to test that out, but nothing happened, as if it couldn’t activate. Out of curiosity, Evernya pulled up her mana system, focusing on the brands while pushing mana into the artifact. As her mana contacted the artifact, the integration brand pulsed once before returning to its faded state.
Meira approached her kitten as she inquired, “How do you feel?”
Evernya continued to stare down at Neko resting in her right hand as she answered, “fine, apparently knowing the name of my artifact changed a few things. I now know the basics about my artifact, but unfortunately, I can’t use it without activating the integration rune, which I can’t do.”
Meira glanced at Jason, who remained near the edge of the room, pale and trembling before inquiring, “do you know what type of weapon your artifact is? Maybe we can find a weapon similar to practice with until we figure out how to activate it.”
“I’m not a percent sure, but it seems to be a sort of hybrid weapon acting as a wrist guard and a mono wire or mana wire-like weapon. Learning its name only gave me basic functionality, but beyond that, I have no idea what it does.” Evernya replied in an uncertain tone.
“mono wire? What does that mean?” Meira questioned.
Well, I guess I can scratch mono wires off the list of known weapons. I suppose outside of fiction such a weapon wouldn’t be practical as it doesn’t weigh enough to cut anything, but maybe mine has some magical attribute allowing for it to work. Either way, I won’t know until I figure out how to use the integration rune.
Evernya dematerialized Neko before turning her attention to Meira and Jason, who overcame his fear, returning to the group. “Monomolecular wire or mono wire for short is a nearly impossibly thin wire capable of performing devastating cuts. Of course, that is all theory as I’m not sure how a wire that thin could be possible.”
Jason added his thoughts to the mix. “The wire itself isn’t the problem. It’s creating a compact propulsion and retraction mechanism that causes issues. I could theoretically create a device capable of adjusting wire length with a small mana motor, but even then it would be several times bulkier than your artifact and prone to failure. It would take a lot of time and precise control, but it is definitely possible to make hair-thin wire with the proper enchantments.”
“So creating a wire weapon is impossible,” Meira questioned.
Jason went over designs in his head before explaining, “I wouldn’t say impossible but more impractical as even with reinforcement enchantments, I don’t think a wire could handle long-term abuse and the mechanism itself has many failure points. A weapon like this could be a liability in the wilds.”
Both Evernya and Meira grimaced as they imagine the weapon failing during a life or death fight, prompting Meira to state, “I think we will shelf the wire weapon idea for now. Instead, could you make Evernya a short sword?”
“Yeah, I can do that. What material are you thinking of?” Jason inquired, eager to help his new potential business partner.
Meira tapped her chin in thought for a moment before requesting, “I liked the enchanting potential of the black moons, so could you make a single-edged straight bladed short sword with the same alloy?”
Jason did a bit of mental math before responding, “I can, but that will take at least a month.”
“That’s fine as long you finish them before she goes to college in late August,” Meira replied.
“The design is fairly simple, so I should easily have it done before then,” Jason assured.
“Good, let me know how much it will cost. You have my number. I’ll get back to you on options for your store as soon as I can.” Meira stated, as she shook Jason’s hand before storing away the glowing cube and walking back through the curtain to the front followed by Evernya.
Meira paid for her new swords while Evernya secured her black moons in their storage box. After saying goodbye to Jason, they levitated their purchases behind them and went on their way.