Kevin’s smithy hadn’t changed at all. As far as Will could tell, there were as many random pieces of armor and weaponry showcased as there had been the last time he’d been there, in the end of the iron shortage quest.
Kevin, who was still one of the strangest beings Will had ever seen, was standing in front of a grinding wheel and sharpening what looked like a set of metallic teeth. Will had no idea who would even be willing to use that kind of weapon.
No, scratch that. On second thought, Will was fairly sure that Jeremy, for one, wouldn’t even think twice before using them. The lizard would probably find a way to pose so that he’d get sunlight to glint off of the things.
The smith seemed completely engrossed in his work, and Will was content to wait until he’d finished. There was something oddly soothing about watching the process. Even though the noise was making his ears itch.
About ten minutes later, Kevin seemed satisfied with his work, and let the wheel slowly come to a halt.
Placing the metallic teeth on a convenient table, the brace of racoons turned towards Will.
“Welcome back, Will the Wombat. Been a while since I’ve seen you around.”
Hi, Kevin. Yeah, I didn’t have any money on my last cycle, so there wasn’t much of a point in stopping.
“I thought I was supposed to be located after the general store, so that you can sell your loot before getting to me, no?”
Yeah, but I didn’t stop there either. I had the opportunity to get somewhere that would have been impossible if I’d stopped, because of the way my ability to move around this place works.
“I see. This whole mini world does seem to be somewhat unique, and some things work in really strange ways.”
I don’t know about it being unique, but it’s certainly strange.
“Above my pay grade, either way. I take it that you being here now means you have some money to burn? Or is this another quest you need to finish?”
This time I’ve got some money, and I’m looking for some upgrades.
“Fantastic! What do you need?”
I think that the most important thing is some armor for my backside. I’m fairly well covered other than that.
“I think I remember talking to you about that. You’ve got natural armor on it, right?”
Yeah. It’s actually fairly effective, but I’m still getting hit there, and it’s still painful.
“I get that, but getting armor for it might not be a good idea.”
What? Why?
“Can’t double up on armor. That’s the rule. And natural armor counts.”
So what does that mean? Do I lose the natural armor if I wear pants? How does that even work?
“You get the armor itself, but any enchantment or aspect won’t work. And it’ll give you the full skill penalty, even if you have armor skills.”
Ouch. I’m just now starting to manage those skill penalties. Going back to the full penalty would be annoying.
“I can still find you some basic armor. But there wouldn’t be any point in getting anything above common rarity, since the enchantments won’t work.”
I think I’ll pass. Maybe if I can get more boosts to mana and stamina at some point.
“Thought so. Anything else you might need?”
Hmm. Armor for my minion maybe? It’s using Warrior skills, and I can get it Medium Armor Proficiency, so some armor might let it survive longer.
“What kind of minion?”
Lesser Mana Beast. From a skill.
“Can’t help you there then. Not unless you have a whole lot of money lying around.”
Why not?
“Armor interferes with the mana flow for that kind of spell. Unless it’s made specifically for mana beasts, it will disrupt your skill and cancel it.”
And getting armor specifically made for it is expensive?
“Yeah. Starts at rare tier and goes from there. That kind of minion is meant to work with other skills from its set instead. That’s probably a better direction for you.”
Yeah, if I can actually find those skills. Fili didn’t have any of them.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
The smith just shrugged.
Fine. I think that just leaves me with replacing some of what I already have. We’ve talked about new claws before, I think?
“Might be. I don’t have a lot of options for you, since there’s still an iron shortage around here, but I’ve got a couple of uncommon sets, for five silver marks and a rare set for fifty.”
Can you remind me what they do?
“Sure. One of the uncommons deals one extra damage category, while the other ignores two levels of armor. The rare gives your attack a bleed effect which deals damage over time.”
Didn’t you have a set that boosts attack speed?
“Sold that one a while ago.”
I see. I don’t think I want bleed. There’re too many monsters here that it won’t work on. I think I’d rather just get the straight up extra damage.
“That’s a solid choice. I can take your old claws as a trade in, for twenty copper bits.”
That works for me. That makes it four silver marks and eighty bits, right?”
Will took his Bronze Claws off, and handed them and the money to Kevin, getting a new set of claws in return.
Heavy Steel claws
Rarity: uncommon
Type: claw enhancement
Cover a beast’s natural claws with sharpened iron, increasing claw damage by one category
Increase the wielder’s claw damage by one more category
Don’t ask me why the claws being heavy gives them extra damage. Seriously, don’t ask. I don’t have an answer. You could say I’m clawless.
Groaning at the description, Will donned his new claws and bid Keving farewell, before leaving the shop to find a private place to roll his dice.
***
image [https://i.imgur.com/PtU89wQ.jpeg]
Ruined Castle
The once-great city of Boardenville has fallen into ruin. Even the majestic von Boardenstein castle, once known far and wide for its opulence, has been reduced to a shadow of its former glory.
Cluster rank: 3
Variant enemies may now appear. Chance of variants moderately increased.
Will was standing inside a building that had clearly seen better days.
Much better days.
The floor was filthy, covered in dust, ashes, and congealed fluids of a suspicious source. The walls were covered in crude graffiti which showed through the tattered remains of tapestries. For some reason, torches still burned brightly in sconces, providing more than enough light to see the destruction by.
Main quest
Find the key to the throne room
Reward:
Space rank-up
200 XP
1 skill shard
Just find the key, huh? Why do I get the feeling it won’t be that simple?
No answer was forthcoming, and Will shrugged and started to walk along the corridor. The ruined castle was a full-scale maze, with branching corridors and more rooms than Will bothered counting. It was bad enough that he didn’t even try to keep track of where in the structure he was.
It was also, as far as Will could tell, completely empty. There wasn’t a single living (or unliving) being to be seen everywhere in the halls. At least until the first one decided to stab him.
In the wom-butt. Because where else would a sneaky bastard of a thief stab him?
Though to be fair, every other part of Will’s body was covered with plate armor, so really, where else would a sneaky bastard of a thief stab?
Not that Will had any intention of being fair to someone who’d just backstabbed him in the butt. Was buttstabbing a thing? Will wouldn’t have put it past whoever designed the Board to have an actual buttstabbing skill somewhere. Maybe as part of the Annoying Sneaky Bastard skill set.
At which point, Will was stabbed again, having completely failed to pay any attention to the fact that he was in a fight. The pain was enough to snap him out of whatever contemplative loop he’d been stuck in, and the wombat immediately retaliated by using Thunder Burst to push the attacker away.
With his enemy knocked back, Will could turn around and actually look at it. Or him. Or her? It was hard to tell, what with the black cloak and mask. They were, at the very least, humanoid. But any other detail was hidden by the dark garments. Except for the dagger held in their right hand, still stained red by Will’s blood.
Will charged at the thief, with the Mana Mandrill charging next to him, but before they could reach their target, the thief threw a small glass orb on the ground and vanished in a puff of smoke. Will, who was moving too fast to stop before the smoke, decided to just run right through it and out the other side.
And by the time he did, the thief was nowhere to be found.
Until, of course, they stabbed Will again.
From behind.
In the butt.
Like the kind of person who would intentionally stab a wombat in the wom-butt. Which, in Will’s admittedly biased (but not bi-butted, because that would be weird) opinion. Really, a decent opponent wouldn’t be so crass as to repeatedly stab one’s backside so vi…
Will got stabbed again, breaking his train of thought. Which was a good thing, since said train of thought was hurtling down the railway without anything even vaguely resembling breaks. It was the kind of runaway train scene that would inevitably end with the whole thing just hanging precariously over a destroyed bridge somewhere in the middle of a desert, with a whole bunch of vultures flying overheard and…
Will got stabbed again, breaking his train of thou…
Will stopped himself before starting to go off again, and used Thunder Burst to throw the thief away again. And for the first time since the annoying battle started, luck was actually on his side, and the thief was hit by the stun effect, giving Will and his Mana Beast time to close in and attack.
That was all Will really needed. Unstoppable Lance Charge dealt its damage and knocked the enemy down, and Power Attack made sure they didn’t get back up again.
1 Sneaky Thief slain!
Gained 20 XP
Gained 20 copper bits
What the hell just happened to me? I mean, I know that I’m not always the most focused guy in the world, but that was something like three times that I just got so distracted that I completely lost my ability to notice anything around me.
I actually forgot that I was in battle! Three times! There’s no way this was just me being flaky.