"Let me make sure I know our plans," Kyron says as I pull some stuff out of my ring. "First, we're going to do one or two Dungeons, then go and try to stop a pair of frauds from pretending to be us. After that, we'll do one or two more Dungeons, see if some dragons are still around, retrieve Durazmakis, pay a visit to the haunted ship's cave, visit Rezovekk, then go to the locations for Great Bathhouse of Ancient Memories and the Temple of Mysterious Things."
"Those last three aren't necessarily in that order," I add.
"And while doing all of that," Kyron continues. "We keep our ears open for any possible rumors of Durazvokir and Novabodos, as well as see if we can find the Golden Knight, and if we can find any of those, do so?"
"Yup!"
"Anything else in the plans?" Kyron asks, and I start to respond. "Apart from the three sleepless nights in a row I promised you we'd do after dealing with the frauds."
"No," I answer. "Now shush, I'm gonna make your new sword and this is going to take some effort."
Kyron chuckles, then wraps the blanket fur around himself as I begin working, utilizing both of the staffs I created yesterday. It's necessary in order for me to manipulate the mithril into an actual object now that I've refined it. I first cut off a portion of it of a suitable size for the sword and send the rest back, then begin the process of actually making the alloy and the weapon. The earth crystals I shatter and work into the metal doesn't help with shaping things, as it begins to resist my magic at that point.
As soon as I enhance the mithril with those, I have to work quickly, before it becomes resilient enough that I'm too weak, even with these staffs. Ice crystals and ice monster cores are shattered and added to the metal, then the weapon begins to take shape. Items are added as needed, and the crystal solution I make while working is poured onto the weapon to help it cool.
The solution sizzles and seems to evaporate, but I know that it's absorbing into the frosty-white metal. As soon as that happens, I rush to finish the rest of the weapon, managing to do so just in time.
As soon as I cool the metal with the crystal solution, there's only two minutes before its resilience becomes even greater.
I inspect the sword, pleased with my work. Crystal-etched runes are in the fuller of the frosty-white blade, and the hilt is simple yet elegant, more silvery than white. The crest of ice is on both sides of the crosspiece, an ice crystal set into both of them, and another is set into the pommel. The grip itself is a spiral with a thin, bluish-white coating over it that gives it a frozen look.
The very edges of the blade are pure white, while the rest of the sword sparkles like ice when the light catches it. A trio of small, but high-quality, monster cores are hidden within the crosspiece, while another trio of them are within the grip.
Frezolmiax, the Sacred Frost Grade: Mythical Remaining Uses: 5,000 This sword forged of frost mithril was crafted by an expert among expert spellsmiths. The durable metal of this sword will resist damage and keep its edge for a long time. All ice magics channeled through the sword will cost 20% less Mana and possess 50% more Magic. While this sword is imbued with [Enchant: Frost], the spell [Freezing Bite] may be cast for 30 seconds at a cost of 1 use, and will utilize the Magic of the [Enchant: Frost] for its power. Fear those who hold the heart of frost.
"Caleb?" Kyron asks as I hand him the sword.
"Yes?" I begin cleaning the tools used for the alchemy portion of the spellsmithing. "Is there something wrong with it? I know I've made better ones before, but this was a bit of a rush job, and I didn't want to annoy Nozvinel by taking the better cores and crystals."
If I had better magic crystals and monster cores, I could have improved the bonuses even further, or given it a higher amount of original uses. Well, I could have given it a higher starting amount, anyway, but I sacrificed that for only a twenty-percent reduction on how much it can be recharged up to each time. That will net it more total uses than just giving it 8,000 starting uses.
"Never mind," Kyron snorts. "And before you start working on the staff, why don't we get dressed and head out for breakfast. It's nearly sunrise and I'm starved."
"Can we-"
"I'm starved," Kyron says. "And if we start doing more, you're going to want to keep going. I'm already sore just from doing more after we woke up. Just remember, Cay – roughly two more weeks, and you'll get three nights in a row of as much as you want."
"Alright!" I put everything away, then start getting dressed. "Let's go get breakfast! I'm starving!"
Kyron laughs as he starts getting dressed, and I end up having to wait for him to finish. My robe is much faster and easier to pull on than Kyron's tunic and vest are, especially since he has to lace up the front of the vest.
Once Kyron finishes dressing, we leave the house and head to the fire, where Meredith, Tasha, and another resident of the camp are talking. There's a large pot sitting on the fire this time, and the trio are eating from bowls. Kyron fetches a couple of bowls and spoons for us as I greet the trio.
"I don't think I know you," I tell the man.
"My name is Frederick," he introduces himself. "I'm the camp's alchemist."
"Oh! You're the one who made the sex oil for us!" I exclaim. "Can you give me the recipe you used? I want to know how you modified it and the ingredients."
"I can do so in a little while, if that's okay," he responds.
"It is, thanks!" I tell him, then look at Meredith. "I didn't see the greedy merchant lady at all yesterday after we got back from the dragons, or the trio of guards she came with. I'm also fairly certain everyone except some of the guards were there for the tour of the bathhouse, and I could see those guards at the gate."
"Yes," Meredith answers. "I asked those three to escort my son back. As for that woman, I sent her back. She was a merchant, but some of her goods were not what I want in this camp."
"Okay," I say. "You're a mage, right?"
"I am," she nods.
"Awesome!" I say. "The Dungeon we're going to is primarily earth-based, so we'll get some pretty decent magic crystals from it. I'll make you something when we return. Would you like a staff? A wand? An amulet? A ring? A bracelet? I can even make you a tiara, but I don't know if the rulers of this kingdom would be happy with that."
"There is no need to do that," Meredith tells me. "You're already doing plenty for us, there's no need to-"
"Oh, I know," I tell her. "Think of it not as a gift, and more as an apology for what's about to happen, just a delayed apology."
"What's about to happen?"
"HI, OVRODONOS!"
I wave to the lake as I shout this, and just as I finish speaking, the surface of the lake close to the shore breaks. A turtle twelve feet in height and many more in width and length rises out of the water, the movement not quite slow, but not speedy. He lands with both of his front feet on the ground, shaking it as everyone awake and nearby jumps back in shock. Meredith nearly falls into the fire, but a touch of wind magic from me shields her from that.
Crystals glimmer on the turtle's back, his shell accentuated with both those and veins of metal. Last time I saw him, most of the crystals were only about half an inch in size, with the largest of them being a full inch, at the center of his shell. Now, his shell is mostly covered in crystals, the veins of adamantite on his shell almost invisible. The largest of his crystals are well-over a foot in height, and I can see traces of adamantite streaked through his brownish-grey crystals.
"Heard you were dead, big guy!" I walk over to him as he pulls himself fully out of the water.
"You would be amazed," the great turtle's speech is only a little slow. "At what you can do when people believe you dead, O Saint of the Endless Stars."
"How could you tell he was coming?" Kyron asks.
"Just because the sun hasn't risen yet," I say. "That doesn't mean the water's not still clear. Still pranking people, Ovros?"
"You know it," the adamantite turtle winks at me. "I heard the spirits say that you had been resurrected, and thought I would come to see it for myself."
"Yeah… dunno how that happened," I shrug.
"Even to those who know the Truth, there are many secrets yet to uncover."
"Indeed!" I nod. "So other than pranking people, what've you been up to, big guy?"
"Oh, you know… this and that," he says. "Paid Rezovekk a visit a few years ago. If you didn't already know, he's still around. Not many people know of this, though, as he doesn't leave his mountain very much these days."
"Too big?"
"He's quite content with his home," Ovrodonos informs me. "And really only leaves to put lesser dragons in their place."
"Cool, cool," I say. "Hey! I want to make an adamantite sword for Kyron once the mithril one I made for him earlier is no longer effective enough, would I be able to use some of your crystals for that?"
The great turtle gestures towards the lake with its right foreleg, and a sphere of water rises up from the surface of it, then flies toward us. Some fairly sizable adamantite-laced earth crystals are floating in the center of it. Ten of them, each one the size of my fist. There are also ten quarter-inch monster cores floating around in the orb, along with ten half-inch monster cores and ten one-inch monster cores, all of them adamantite monster cores. I can tell even before the water reaches me that the crystals are of an exceptionally high quality, and I'm certain the cores are, too.
Just where did Ovrodonos get this many adamantite monster cores from, especially the larger ones? Even finding a normal, generic metal monster core is rare enough, but these ones are specifically adamantite cores. Well, they're actually earth monster cores with adamantite laced through them, but still – that's rarer than plain metal monster cores!
Once the large orb reaches me, it bursts, the water falling to the ground faster than the crystals and monster cores can drop. I catch the crystals using air magic and send all but one into my ring, examining it. This is definitely a fairly high-quality one.
"I was not able to prepare these for you before you sacrificed yourself, O Saint of the Endless Stars," the adamantite turtle tells me. "But I thought it would be good to prepare them for the day that another worthy person walked this world. If those are not enough for you, I do have more crystals and cores within my den. It is the same as the one you knew before the war."
"The war?" A resident who approached during this discussion asks. "What war?"
Most of the camp was woken up by the small quake caused by Ovrodonos slamming his legs down (that was definitely magically-induced, just for his own amusement), and they've all gathered here to watch. Listen. Something like that.
"The one you humans call 'The Great Demon War'," Ovrodonos answers. "These are the two young men who brought it to an end."
"I was trying to see how long it would take for them to figure it out on their own," I tell him. "Though I guess since we did tell Tasha and Meredith, it's okay."
"We were still doubting," Tasha says. "But that… that is Lord Ovrodonos! Everything says you died seven hundred years ago!"
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He already said that he tricked people into believing he was dead so that he could get away with stuff. Come on, people! Pay attention!
"Looks like the Saint of Endless Stars still blurts things out," Ovrodonos says, referring to the fact that the only reason I didn't exclaim that was because Kyron stepped behind me and put a hand over my mouth. "And it seems you still haven't gotten used to him licking it."
I grin at the giant turtle as Kyron wipes his hand on my robe, then wraps his arm around me in a hug from behind.
"Do you happen to have plain earth crystals and earth monster cores?" I ask Ovrodonos. "The ones I took from Nozvinel are pretty decent in quality, but I didn't want to take the extra-potent stuff from him, those are more of a pride for him than the ones I took."
Monster cores are really only found from monsters in Dungeons, which actually confuses me as to how he has so many high-quality adamantite-laced earth monster cores. If he has those, though, that probably means he traded with humans for them. That also means he might have regular earth monster cores. Since he also lives in an adamantite mine, I'm not too surprised that he has plenty of crystals, and he might have plenty of normal earth crystals, too.
"I do not have earth crystals," Ovrodonos responds. "What size of earth monster core do you desire?"
The lack of crystals is surprising, but he lives in an adamantite mine. The magic flowing through it causes magic crystals to grow. Chances are, Ovrodonos simply doesn't have any harvested at the moment.
"I mostly use quarter-inch ones for setting into things," I tell him. "But can go with larger ones. A four-inch orb if possible would also be nice, but those are rare enough even at lower qualities."
Ovrodonos inhales deeply, then begins to exhale. The air ripples for about a foot in front of his mouth, as if his breath is having an actual effect in the air. Then, brownish-grey motes begin to form in the space affected by the ripple. As I watch, I'm reminded of how dragons enchant objects.
Some of the motes begin to float to others, swirling together as they expand in size. Soon, ten quarter-inch earth monster cores form in the air. Ovrodonos gestures with his right foreleg as his breath stops, and the cores float over to me.
"Whoa?" I exclaim. "How did you do that, Ovros?"
"Monster cores," the adamantite turtle says as I examine one of the cores after sending the rest into my ring. "Are simply a manifestation of our essence, a portion of our existence. Monsters in Dungeons are made of pure essence, and it crystallizes into a core when they die. To those of us who know how, we can simply portion off a section of our aura."
"I've never heard of that technique before," I say. "But wouldn't it weaken you?"
"The quality of the core," Ovrodonos says. "Is representative of the quality of the essence used to create it. That is why all of mine are of the same high quality, much higher than you find in most Dungeons you could enter. It is this very same essence which enacts ripples upon the world simply by existing."
Even if we don't do anything, we create ripples around us. Our very presence influences the world around us no matter how hard we try to hide it. People can 'feel' something about us and will defer to us if the power gap is significant enough. Lesser wild monsters will avoid us. Skittish animals might approach us.
All just by us existing. I knew it had to do with our power but it's actually our essence? That's another term for the life energy within our souls. Ovrdonos is saying that Dungeon monsters are actually made up of this stuff, and that monster cores are the raw manifestation of it.
Also that he just weakened himself and his life essence just to extend his life.
"How common is knowledge of the ripples?" Kyron asks in our old language before I can finish realizing all of this, which really only took me about half a second.
"Not very common," Ovrodonos responds.
Which means this next part will be in this language instead of the local one.
"So you're using it to extend your life?" I ask. "Oh! By reducing your essence, you reduce its effects on the world around you!
"Indeed," he responds. "It also makes it easier on me, as a powerful enough life essence is what creates a need to draw in ambient Mana to support yourself."
"You're waiting to see how long it takes Rezovekk to ask you your secret, aren't you?" I grin at him, and the great turtle chuckles in response.
"It is his pride which keeps him from doing so," Ovrodonos informs me. "Now… in addition to the larger ones, of what size cores would you like?"
"Hm…" I think for a few moments. "Well, I do use half-inch monster cores and one-inch monster cores fairly often, too."
Ovrodonos spends the next few minutes make more cores for me, ten in each of the three I requested that he hadn't made yet. I examine one from each time as he makes the next, marveling at his ability to do this. Though I'd love to ask him the trick, it's probably something that will take awhile for me to properly observe.
We have a Dungeon to prepare for.
"How did you learn this trick?" I ask.
"You want to one day come and learn it properly, yes?" Ovrodonos asks.
"Of course!" I answer. "This is an incredible trick! All I know how to do with life essence is use it as fuel for a spell, and the only reason I even learned that was because the Golden Knight-he taught you, didn't he?"
"He did," Ovrodonos nods once, speaking in the local language once more. "When you have time, I will have no issue teaching you the trick, Saint of the Endless Stars. Humans cannot perform it, but I am sure you could make use of it on your own."
Like figuring out how to extract them from wild monsters instead of relying on Dungeon monsters for them. Dungeons are a major source of them and essentially have an unlimited amount of monsters to produce cores from, but they don't always have what's needed.
I'm confident a core from a wild dragon rather than a Dungeon dragon would be vastly superior in quality. Actually convincing a dragon to let me steal their essence would probably not be easy, and I don't want to teach any of them the trick, anyway. As Tyzlevir said, only Rezovekk deserves to know it and should be able to live abnormally long.
"Thanks!"
"By the way," he says. "Over the last thousand years, the way to rank Dungeons has been changed. Not on their entrances, but by how people classify them. Now, it is something such as Tier 1-1 through Tier 1-4, then it becomes Tier 2-1 up through Tier 2-4, and so on. So a Tier VIII Dungeon is Tier 2-4 now."
"Whoever changed the system for that is a coward," I say. "But I guess it's more convenient in some ways."
"Indeed," he responds. "And I have a Tier 5-1 Dungeon in my mines, O Saint of Endless Stars. Knowing the two of you, once you are at a sufficient Level, you could clear it in only a week or two."
Taking it on would mean being around Level 80-85 to try it if we want a struggle, or Level 85-90 for 'standard'. That would require at least two to four more decent runs after the one we'll be heading to shortly.
"I'll keep that in mind," I tell him. "We aren't going for power unless we need it for something, but it might be fun."
"Though I know that the two of you are well-rounded," Ovrodonos says. "The Dungeon is a fire-ice Dungeon, which is perfect for testing your original talents."
"Ooh! That doesn't sound fun!"
Kyron snorts, then squeezes me a little more tightly.
"We'll make sure to come visit your den when we have some time," Kyron tells him. "Though we'll be busy for the next couple of weeks. We need to run a Dungeon we'll be heading to today, then after that, try to locate a Dungeon around Tier 3-4. There are some frauds pretending to be us and scaring people into believing the Great Demon King has being resurrected or reincarnated or something like that-"
"Reincarnated," I say. "Some accounts did mention resurrection, but the frauds are saying reincarnated, like them."
We did a little investigating before returning yesterday, on top of me grabbing and preparing some branches from mystic oak trees.
"Right," Kyron says. "They have ancient magic artifacts, and we're concerned they'll attempt to attack us using them when we approach them to ask. So that will take some time from us to prepare and get stronger."
"Have no worries about that," Ovrodonos tells us. "It has been a thousand years since we last saw each other. If you'd like to wait until you're strong enough to run my Dungeon, then I am not going to complain. If you do stop by and I am not home, then simply leave me a note. You are free to use the Dungeon as you please. Will you be staying here awhile?"
"We're planning on using it as our base for now," Kyron confirms.
"Yup!" I add. "It's located pretty conveniently for us, right in the middle of a lot of things! The furthest thing from us right now is Rezzy's domain, while everything else we're planning on looking into is within about five hundred miles!"
Except for the Great Bathhouse of Ancient Memories, but even that isn't too much further away. Since we'll be heading south to look into some stuff anyway, going further south wouldn't be too much of an issue. Only Rezovekk is really out of the way, since there's not really much for a thousand miles before him.
"Okay," Ovrodonos says. "I may stop by again on occasion just to say hello."
"Alright!" I say.
"Enjoy your journeys, Kyron, Saint of Endless Stars."
"Goodbye," Kyron respond.
"Bye, Ovros!" I wave to the great turtle, who dips his head to us before turning around and returning to the lake. Once he's completely disappeared under the surface, I turn my head to look at Kyron. "Think he still has the golems I made him?"
"Those were fairly high quality," Kyron says. "And they are golems made by you. Yes, they're probably still around. He did say he was going to use them to guard his mines while he was gone, and it's unlikely anyone in the last thousand years who happened to enter his mines were strong enough to fight them."
"Wait," Tasha approaches. "I have a lot of questions, but… the adamantite mines under the forest – that's Lord Ovrodonos's lair? And you're the one who made the golems that protect them?"
"Yup!"
"You know of them?" Kyron asks.
"There are adamantite mines underneath the forest?" Meredith asks.
"Under this section of it, yes," Tasha answers. "Deep, deep, deep below. Not that anyone in the last thousand years knew how to mine it, mind you, but when they were discovered two and a half centuries ago, golems showed up and chased the workers away. Researches wanted to study the ore to see if they could figure out how to work it, so some pretty strong adventurers went down. Then a stronger group. Then an even stronger one. In the end, it was declared a lost cause, the golems possibly the relic of an ancient civilization. That was you?"
"Yeah," I answer. "Ovros didn't want people messing with his home, so I made him those golems. Their cores were made using materials from a Tier C… er… uh…"
"Tier 25-4," Kyron supplies.
"Yeah, a Tier 25-4 Dungeon," I say. "I actually originally tried to make them by condensing the power from several monster cores together, but that kind of exploded on me, so I had to rework things and create a core entirely on my own. There are fifty of them."
"You told me you only made ten, Caleb," Kyron reminds me. "Remember? After you said you were going to do fifty and I suggested ten because fifty would be overkill?"
"I did?" I ask. "Oh, right! Yeah. There are only ten. Definitely not fifty, because I definitely didn't get carried away and make more than what Kyron suggested."
Kyron just thunks his forehead against the back of my head as he chuckles.
"That was… that was Lord Ovrodonos!" One of the locals exclaims, finally overcoming their shock. "The ancient turtle that died seven hundred years ago! Or, uh, I guess he didn't die?"
"He's using the fact that people think he's dead to do stuff he couldn't if people knew he was alive," I say. "So he'd appreciate it if you didn't spread it around. Please and thanks! Thanks!"
"And… and he said you two are the heroes of old?" The man frowns. "Resurrected?"
"Yup!" I answer. "Don't try to twist your head around it, the gods don't know the answer, either!"
"How did you make the golems?" Tasha asks. "Their origin has been a mystery for a long time, as well as their construction. No known golems are able to do react the way those did. Nor how they were able to tell when someone was too close to the mines."
"Unfortunately," I tell her. "The full explanation would take hours, and most of it would go over the head of anyone who's not a spellsmith experienced in the right arts. Not just golem-making or earth magics, but animation magics, core-creation, air magics, fire magics, and water magics. There are a few others as well, but each of those are essential to making those golems."
"I see," she says. "That's a shame."
"Yeah," I nod. "Sorry, but you made it clear you were just a scholar and not much of a mage, so it really would go over your head. If there was someone here who understood all of the stuff that was needed for it, I'd be more than happy to share a toned-down version of them, but there's not."
"Cay," Kyron softly says.
"Also," I tap Kyron's face with the back of my head. "I still have a staff to make before we set off to take on a Tier VIII, er… Tier 2-4 Dungeon. That one is kind of an urgent thing if we want to deal with frauds before they do something that will mean taking longer before we can do so in an effective manner."
"Alright," Tasha says. "I'll let you two get to it, then."
"Don't forget that it's only a Tier VII Dungeon," Kyron says as Meredith starts shooing the crowd away, speaking in our old language instead of theirs. "I know you're excited to make something with the cores and crystals that Ovrodonos gave you, but that can wait until after we've done this Dungeon."
"Right," I nod. "The most important thing is preparing for the Dungeon, which is primarily and earth-based Dungeon, so I'll need to do an air staff. Can I get a kiss for motivation?"
Kyron snorts, then lets go of me so I can turn around and kiss him. Once it's over, I take a seat at a nearby table and get to work on the air magics staff. Since I'm taking my time to do this right, the staff takes almost two hours to prepare.
In the end, I'm once again pleased with my work. The staff is simple but elegant, made of a pale mystic oak branch. Whitish-grey crystal etchings are set into it from base to tip, and the tornado-like holder for the fist-sized crystal has some accenting its swirls. My staff also has the typical grip for a magic staff, because I hate making them without it. As usual, I used actual air crystals for it instead of just a similar-looking, but non-magical, crystal.
Ventozobral, the Endless Wind Grade: Mythical This staff carved from the branch of a mystic oak tree was crafted by an expert among expert spellsmiths. All air magics channeled through the staff will cost 20% less Mana and possess 50% more Magic. For the purposes of movement through [Air Manipulation], this staff counts as an object of the air. Watch closely those who have mastered the wind.
That last line of the description is always worded a little weirdly, but basically, I can use [Air Manipulation] to move the staff around, as if moving it through telekinesis – a spell told of in myths but never proven to exist. Naturally, we can't use it – it's not a spell of the four elements.
"Can I ask something?" Meredith asks as I close the window.
"Sure!" I stand and stretch. "That really stiffens up my muscles. Ky, can I get a massage before we leave?"
"Sure," he answers. "But let's wait until after Meredith's question."
"Of course!" I look at Meredith. "What do you want to know?"
"Why did Lord Ovrodonos call you 'Saint of the Endless Stars'?" She asks.
"Oh, that's easy!" I say. "I have a lot of titles from back then, and you guys even know me by may of them. 'Saint' and 'Sage' are used almost interchangeably with me, but I did do quite a lot of stuff. From what I know, you have several different 'heroes' that are actually just me."
"That didn't answer the question," Kyron tells me when I stop.
"It does!" I nod. "She now knows that I have many titles, and that's just one of them! Now! We'll see you in several days, Meredith! We're off to the Dungeon, now!"