Millin is a small town within the nation of Admia, which is itself part of the larger continent of Nedluca. This town harbors something immensely powerful. Something unbelievably dangerous and highly sought-after by any human who draws breath as soon as they learn of its existence. This object is a magic gemstone that has powers that make the one true fear of man nothing more than an inconvenience. This stone has been lost for hundreds of years, and many don’t even believe that it exists at all. Those who still sought the stone were seen as nothing more than fools wasting their time chasing a fairy tale. Although, if you have enough power, even chasing dust in the wind can be seen as productive by your peers.
This world is a place that revolves around similar magic infused gemstones that separate those with power, from those without. Gemstones like diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, peridot, amethyst, aquamarine, garnet, etc, all have the small chance to harbor a random magical ability that can be used by those in possession of the stone as long as it is touching their skin, or placed within jewelry made of gold. With gold being the only metal able to conduct and transfer the abilities of the magical gemstones, it is the most valuable resource in every nation, except, of course, for the gemstones themselves. Money, power, fame…everything revolves around having the correct stones in your arsenal to give yourself the upper hand versus your opponent. These abilities have an infinite number of possibilities. This means that even those without immense wealth can get their hands on gemstones of their own, however, usually the powers in these stones don’t provide much of an advantage to the person in possession of it. Every magical gemstone has use of some kind though, even without an overpowered ability attached to it. Many would not even know what they would do with an immensely powerful gemstone if they didn’t already have protection of some kind. Having a powerful gemstone does little more than put a target on your back, and that is something that Kenrich Caulfield will now learn firsthand as a random discovery ends up making him the most wanted man in the world.
Kenrich is a man who has lived in the quaint town of Millin within the country of Admia his entire life. He is slightly under six feet tall, with light brown eyes, and has thick medium length brown hair styled only by the gravity that brings it down. He is clean-shaven, and is quite fit due to his profession as one of the town's few miners that works in their small gemstone mine in the outskirts of the town. Only a few able-bodied men work in this mine, so, very often Kenrich spends his whole workday without seeing another soul. It is lonely, grueling work, but in a small town such as this, work can be hard to come by. The one benefit of working in a registered mine in the nation of Admia is that the government guarantees pay to those who work in these mines. Having a consistent flow of income is a good thing to many, but the mortality rate of working in the mines is high, and the pay, while consistent, is not so. Many make the same if not more money doing far less backbreaking work. In small towns like Millin, it usually is not very difficult to get enough miners to go into the mines, but in many other places, the government itself conscripts people to work in the mines due to the lack of willing workers.
Admia is seen by most as a very difficult nation to live in. They are led by a very warlike regime that is bent on nothing but the desire to control all of Nedluca. Having many mines that are constantly being worked in helps the Admian military acquire a plethora of gemstones that are useful in battle, which is why many are forced to mine six days a week in order to supply the war effort. However, small towns like Millin are not very often tracked by the government due to the mine not producing a significant magic infused gemstone of any use in decades. Inspectors come once a month to check the mine’s progress, and while pay for their work still comes in, they do not allow any others to apply for the position within Millin due to the seemingly dry mine. Many within Millin feel as though the day will come soon where the mine is shut down and another is built in a far-off area to replace it. A town without a mine is often a death sentence in Admia. Towns with mines are the only ones Admia is keen on protecting during the war, so if Millin were to lose its own, there would be no more protection from the military other than what the town inhabitants could manage themselves. This fear is exactly what keeps Kenrich coming back to the mines sunrise to sunset while many of the other miners instead stay in the bars or mingle amongst the people while faking to the government that they are indeed working.
“C’mon, you worthless stone!” Kenrich grunts. “This pickaxe might as well be a mallet at this point.”
Everyday is like this for Kenrich. He wakes at dawn, grabs a quick breakfast at the Wyvern Tavern, then goes straight into the mine until sunset. He is single-handedly the only reason the inspector has not yet shut down the mine. He spends a large percentage of his money buying magic-infused gemstones from the only place to buy gemstones in the town, Gaen’s Gems, in order to convince the inspector that the mine has not run dry. Only roughly ten percent of all gemstone deposits are actually imbued with magic, and Kenrich has yet to find a gemstone deposit in the past couple years. His father didn’t find one for a much longer time before he passed. Kenrich’s father, Kregrind, had taught him everything about mining and everything about how to lie and keep the mine, and by proxy, the town, alive. Kenrich’s mother had died while he was barely able to walk during a barbarian raid twenty years ago, so being raised by his gruff, mining-obsessed father was definitely how Kenrich turned into the person he was today. Now twenty-one, Kenrich continues his father’s wish of keeping the mine alive by any means necessary in order to protect the town they had lived their entire lives in. This purpose of his would soon turn to something else entirely though with the discovery he was about to make.
It was about to be evening, and Kenrich was still in the mine, hacking away at the rocky walls at the end of a branching tunnel within the labyrinth. Kenrich knew this mine like the back of his hand though. Any normal person would immediately get lost without a way to return to the surface, but Kenrich knew exactly where he had and had not gone on any given trip underground. It was second nature to him. Pawing at the wall with his dull pickaxe his father had left him, Kenrich saw something strange embedded within the wall after his last swing. It looked to be the corner of some sort of wooden object. Definitely not something you would expect to be this deep underground.
“What the hell…” Kenrich said to himself. Buried treasure? Maybe I won’t need to buy more of Gaen’s stupid, overpriced jump gems. He charges way too much for those useless stones.
Kenrich excitedly swung his pickaxe at the area around the wooden protrusion trying not to damage it in case it was actually something of value. Small pebbles started to fall off of the wall and before he knew it, a small wooden box popped out and landed on the cold, hard ground. He picked up the box and examined it. There seemed to be small remnants of paint that was lost to time, as well as some strange emblems carved into the side of the box. They looked like ravens.
A box? Kenrich thought. It looks old. The lock doesn’t even work anymore.
Kenrich slowly opened the small wooden box and inside was a small golden ring with what looked to be a white opal in the center of it. Inspecting the ring, Kenrich noticed that this was no ordinary piece of jewelry. It too had emblems on it that looked like a large, jagged bird reminiscent of a raven. The ring looked very expensive, and meticulously crafted, like something you would see in possession of a member of nobility.
“You gotta be kidding me,” Kenrich said. “A magic ring this deep underground? There has to be a catch of some sort. I’m dreaming right? That lack of sleep is finally coming back to bite me…”
After a few moments, and a few arm pinches, Kenrich finally realized that he was in fact, not dreaming.
This has to be worth a fortune with this amount of gold. Thank God those lazy bastards didn’t show up to work again. They definitely would have tried to pry this thing off of me…I have to show this to Gaen.
For the first time in years, Kenrich decided to end his shift early so he could find Gaen before his shop was closed. Practically sprinting out of the mine, Kenrich kept the box in his back pocket while keeping the ring secure within the grip of his rough and blistered hands.
“Hey, Kenrich!” A man called. “What gives? You always spend your whole days in those mines. You’re like a mole. Where’re you going?” Kenrich stopped.
“Oh. Hi, Ren,” Kenrich said, annoyed. “Something important came up.”
Ren was one of the miners that “worked” with Kenrich. He was a very lazy man who was both much wider and taller than Kenrich. He had no hair on his head, and his dark brown eyes made him appear like he had one giant pupil in each eye. Ren was the human equivalent of a pig, if there was such a thing. He was definitely the type of person to take the magic ring if he had been with Kenrich at the time.
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“Hey, now! Don’t you start slacking! I read the board, and we’re expecting an inspector here within the next couple days. I don’t want to have to go back down in those mines, especially with my bad back.”
“Uh huh,” Kenrich responded. “I gotta get going.” Kenrich continued towards Gaen’s shop.
“I’m not well enough to go back to those mines! Do the right thing!” Ren called.
“Jackass…” Kenrich mumbled to himself.
Kenrich was running through the small shopping district of Millin which Gaen’s Gems sat at the very end of. It was not a very popular shop as many in small towns find very little need for a magic gemstone of their own, especially paired with the prices that Gaen charges. Walking up the stone steps of the store's entrance, Kenrich entered the establishment to the obvious delight of Gaen, whose eyes lit up the second he laid eyes on him.
“My boy!” Gaen said. “Happy to see you! Here for some gemstones, I presume? I know an inspection is coming up.”
Gaen was a well-fed man of short stature with brown hair that was combed into two equal parts on each side, making his head resemble the shape of a bell. He also always wore small glasses that made his head look comically large in comparison. Gaen was a man who thought of every situation in respect to the financial implications of it, and very rarely operated off of good faith or emotion. That is not to say that he was an entirely cold man, as he had been known to do shows using his magic imbued gemstones for the children of the village. Most argued this was just for advertising, but the smiles of the children were genuine, nonetheless.
“Not this time, Gaen,” Kenrich responded. “I actually found something in the mine that I wanted you to take a look at.”
“Did you find a gemstone deposit?! I never thought I’d be alive to see the day! Maybe I won’t have to skip town after all,” Gaen said.
“Well…yes and no,” Kenrich said. “I found a ring while mining today and I just wanted to know if it was imbued with any sort of magical power?”
“A ring you say? Now, that is strange…” Gaen said. “Let me have a look.”
Kenrich handed the gold ring to Gaen who took out a small looking glass and inspected the white stone in the middle.
“Ahhhh…a white opal. That is quite the rare stone,” Gaen said. “I can’t remember the last time I saw one of these. Most are not imbued with any power at all, but the few that are, usually tend to have restorative properties of some sort.”
“I see,” Kenrich said. “So, does it have any magical power?”
“Hold on now. Have patience,” Gaen said while grabbing something under the counter. “I won’t know until I use a gemstone imbued with sensor magic.”
Gaen took out a small green stone and held it near the gold ring.
“Does that thing even work?” Kenrich said. “That gemstone looks barely bigger than a grain of rice…”
“Now, now,” Gaen said. “A magic gemstone can still be used at this size. The rule of thumb is always that a gemstone has to be at least as large as a pea, and this one is just the right size. Carving smaller magic stones is just good business. You get more stones per deposit that way.”
“Yeah, yeah. Now, does the ring have any pow-”
Kenrich was cut off as a small green glow started emanating from the green sensor stone. The green glow was at first dim, but then started to get brighter.
“Does this mean that it’s magic?!” Kenrich said excitedly.
“Y-yes, but this isn’t supposed to-”
The green sensor stone kept getting brighter and brighter and then got so bright that it was blinding both of them. Green light started shooting out of Gaen’s shop windows, filling the vicinity outside of the store along with the entirety of the store itself.
“I-I’ve never seen something like this,” Gaen said.
Suddenly, the green stone shattered, shooting green dust all over Gaen’s counter and white button-up shirt.
“Good Lord!” Gaen yelled. “That’s the only sensor stone I have! Those aren’t easy to come by, Kenrich!”
“How was that my fault?!” Kenrich said. “Does that mean the stone is powerful?”
“Yes…immensely so,” Gaen said. “It is true that my sensor stone wasn’t very large, but even so, it would take an incredible amount of power to completely shatter one to dust.”
“It must be valuable then,” Kenrich said. “So, how much you willing to pay for it?”
“I’m not paying you anything!” Gaen yelled. “You broke my stone! You need to pay me!”
“I will! I promise. But I can’t pay you back until I sell this ring somewhere,” Kenrich said.
“You’re not going to be able to get any sort of value unless you can figure out what kind of magic it has,” Gaen said. “You need to figure out what this ring is capable of before someone will pay any amount of gez for it. Too many get scammed these days for people to just take any ol’ magic ring.” (gez is the currency of Nedluca).
“How should I go about it?” Kenrich asked.
“Experiment,” Gaen said. “White opal tends to have restorative properties, but that doesn’t mean everyone is going to follow that trend. Just wave your hands around or cut your skin and see if you can heal it or something.”
“There’s no way for you to tell me what it does?”
“Of course not,” Gaen said. “The only way to see what specific power a gemstone has is with a description stone, and those are only held by massive gemstone shops or the government. There’s no way I’d make enough gez in my life for one of those stones.”
“Damn,” Kenrich said. “So, I just have to try different things?”
“Correct,” Gaen said. “Just don’t try anything in my shop. I don’t need you breaking anything else.”
“Alright. If you say so,” Kenrich said. “I appreciate the help, Gaen. I promise to pay you back for the sensor stone.”
“You’re my best customer. I’ve gotta throw you a bone sometimes. Now, get out of here.”
Kenrich gave Gaen a nod then walked towards the door. He made sure to slip the ring back into his pocket before entering the streets. There is no doubt that if he was wearing the ring, the townsfolk would bombard him with questions seeing as how no one in town could afford a gemstone ring, let alone a miner. The sun was now setting, and the shopping district was completely silent as Kenrich made his way back home. The air was crisp and unpolluted. It was slightly chilly out due to the autumn weather and the stars above were shining brightly. This sort of weather was Kenrich’s favorite. It reminded him of the many autumns he would spend with his father. They would help the villagers harvest pumpkins and gourds which would then be made into pies for the harvest festival which was one of the few times his dad would take a day off from working the mines. This type of weather always brought that nostalgia coupled with both negative and positive feelings of his comfortable, yet frequently lonely past. All of the positive feelings were what drove him to protect the village, and all the negative ones made him unsure of his future outside of this quaint, yet mundane life he had built in Millin. He never felt like complaining before and that was most likely due to his similarities with his father as a creature of habit. But, now with this “immensely powerful” ring, life seems to be taking a very different turn, bringing an even greater air of uncertainty to what the future holds. Little did he know that this future would be filled with so much dread.
Arriving back to his comfortable but small cottage, Kenrich was brimming with excitement as to what kind of power was dormant in this ring and was determined to try and find out. Throughout the night and to the early morning, Kenrich tried many different things. He tried jumping, flailing his arms around, cutting himself to see if he could heal it, throwing things, putting himself in complete darkness, holding his breath, but no matter what he tried, he got no closer to seeing any sort of magical abilities come from the ring on his finger. Kenrich figured that he might have to think outside the box, but it can feel futile when it seems like there are infinite possibilities as to what could trigger a gemstone’s magic to activate.
“If only this were just a simple flame or jump stone…” Kenrich said to himself. “I really wish there was a hint or something…”
Just then, Kenrich decided to take the box out of his back pocket and examine it for clues. Inspecting the heavily weathered box more closely, he saw what looked to be a small button near the bottom of the inside of the small chest. It was crusted with dirt, but it was indeed a button, and after pushing it, the bottom of the box came out which revealed a small piece of folded paper that, while discolored, was largely preserved. Unfolding the paper, Kenrich saw that it was in fact a note. Hoping it had vital information, Kenrich read it.
To thee that finds this cursed ring, please hide this chest better than I did. It must be kept out of the clutches of those which wish to use it for evil. This ring is one of the original magic artifacts and therefore cannot be destroyed, so I beg of you, hide it, and hide it well. The very world hangs in the balance.
Kenrich stood in silence. Suddenly, the thoughts of this being his ticket out of poverty were starting to become less farfetched. The value of an ancient magical artifact is a difficult thing to calculate, but the results will always be extraordinarily large. Definitely enough to both save the village and live a lavish life. The warnings are what keep those feelings of excitement at bay though. In public school, children are usually taught about the most powerful known gemstones and the people that own them, but none of them were described as a white opal ring with ravens engraved on it. After quite a lot of thinking, Kenrich decided it would be best to get some rest and see if he wakes with any new ideas of how to test the stone so that he can then plan what he is going to do with it.