The golden dice began to spin giving off waves of power that pressured his body. Urist held his breath hoping to be lucky and smiled when the number landed on 95 causing a blinding light. 

Congratulations! You have obtained the unique weapon Greedy Serpent!

Now able to open his eyes, Urist gazed upon the detailed green copper spear filled with tribal markings, inlaid with topaz on the helm and with the spear tip made out of a pale gray bone with a sharp edge.

With a frown, Urist grabbed the floating spear out of midair. He could judge that the spear was at tier-one since it was made of copper. Why is it treated as a unique weapon? The second thing he noticed was how heavy the spear was despite its size.

He had to use a bit of his strength skill to carry it around. Since he opened the boxes he decided to drop off the iron bow to Unicy. Then he would make a trip to the runesmiths to ask what kind of weapon it was since he had no other information besides the name.

Unicy’s eyes sparkled at receiving her gift and thanked him, saying she would be able to put this weapon too good use. Giving a nod Urist left and headed over to the smiths who were still creating weapons with their dwindling amount of metal. By tomorrow they would be out, but at least every dwarf would have a spear to use and a knife as a backup.

He spotted Ajan and the other Rune Smith were working together with the smiths to get the spearheads done faster. Pulling Ajan away for a bit Urist asked him nicely, “Can you tell me anything about this spear? I got it as a reward but don’t know what it does.” 

Ajan looked at the spear his boss was holding had his curiosity peaked, “May I study it closer boss? I might have some answers as to what it is.”

“Alright, but be careful it’s heavy.”

“Please, it shouldn’t be that heavy even if it’s a copper sp- holy shit you weren't kidding boss!”

Setting it on a table Ajan looked over the markings of the spear for a good twenty minutes in silence before looking at Urist.

“Do you know the name of the weapon boss?”

“It’s called Greedy Serpent is that important?”

“It is. You see boss words draw power over the world in certain ways. It’s how Rune smithing works. The name of the weapon and the Runes along it complement one another. Thankfully we don’t have to ponder on the name and you can use it right away. You see this spear has a few interesting qualities. It eats the souls of what it slays and consumes metal to become stronger.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“If I’m reading these runes correctly and with the name as the key, I can roughly say this spear can become strong. Very strong. But it’ll be a picky eater as it grows stronger. Exotic gems, souls, metal, special items its demands will be endless. As expected of being dubbed greedy serpent. Do you want to know what it needs to rank up? Because frankly, it’s weak as crap as it stands.”

“What do I need?”

“Well first, what you need to do is bind it. Which will take a few steps first requiring a drop of your blood to start the process. Next, I need to tattoo a part of your body. Tell me, boss, what is your dominant hand.”

“It’s my left. I’m going to guess it’s the one that needs to be a tattoo?”

“Correct. I need to tattoo the rune you see on this spear to allow you to speak with it safely.”

“And if I don’t get the tattoo?”

“Well, there is a high chance you become brain dead from the spear trying to steal your soul.”

“I see how long would this take?”

“Just an hour, if you got the time and the ink it isn’t that big of a tattoo. Oh, I almost forgot it needs to be magic ink or it won’t work. I don’t need much just a single vial. Can you buy it?”

Going to the shop Urist frowned at the cost of 100 points but decided to spend it. He didn’t know how strong he could make it before the final battle of the rats. But he wasn’t about to throw away a potential trump card.

With the vial of ink, a primitive ink pen, a rag and a bottle of alcohol the two entered the cave and Ajan began his work by telling Urist to poke his finger for a drop of blood. He didn’t make much of a fuss and had the blood drop land on the spear which was greedily sucked inside.

Urist could instantly feel a connection with the spear forming but was told by Ajan to not touch it until he finished inking the tattoo on his skin.

Although he was tempted, he held restraint knowing he could lose his soul stupidly by doing that. Ajan touched Urist arm a bit before deciding to place the tattoo under the forearm.

Ajan offhandedly remarked, “It’s the best connection area to mana. Oh yes, this will hurt quite a bit so grit your teeth and don’t move. I got a few helpers to come in case you try.”

One of the earth twins came inside to craft stone restraints locking the confused Urist quite snugly.

Giving a cough Ajan looked to one of his helpers to which the helper pulled out a piece of wood that had leather wrapped around it, “When I say it’ll hurt a lot I mean it. Bite this as to not lose your tongue.”

“Why not just get me plastered then?”

“It’ll ruin the mana connection area. Now bite.”

Begrudgingly Urist bit on wood covered leather.

“Now let’s begin.”

Dipping the pen into the magically infused ink Ajan poked Urist skin and it was then that Urist who had just spent six hours of pain and thought it was pretty bad. Wasn’t ready for the pain brought upon that single poke.

His vision doubled over as the pain throbbed throughout his entire body. He teeth clenched on the leatherwood as he screamed his lungs out.

Pulling the pen out of the skin Ajan gave Urist a look before rolling his eyes, “Oh stop being a pussy we only have a few thousand pokes to do.”

It was right then that Urist sorely wished he was training instead of doing this form of insanity. Or at least looked for another way to be not in such pain as the pen pierced his skin once again.

For the next hour, muffled screams could be heard coming from the cave making the nearby dwarfs move faster to getaway.