- 48 -

Drew kept below the roof lines, gliding around the heads of people walking down the streets. He was looking for Ireal’s blacksmith’s shop.

I need to modify this armor and level my proficiency up. It should be enough of an advantage that I can hold my own against that bastard Skyclaw.

As Drew came around the last corner he saw Damien enter the smithy. He flew in and landed on the counter where the smith completed her sales.

“Damien, glad you are here.” Drew said.

“Oh Drew! What are you doing here?” Damien asked with a jump. “Why are you so filthy?”

“Got in a fight, need to craft armor” Drew replied.

“Wait, Damien, isn’t this your familiar? Why are you surprised he is here?” The apprentice smith asked, stowing the iron he was polishing.

Ireal quenched some iron she was forging and walked over.

“That’s right, you sent him in here earlier to purchase some iron disks, and I sent him along with 8 my apprentice made just this morning.”

“Well, no, not really. He is not my familiar, but an acquaintance of mine. And we have an understanding. I’m teaching him enchanting as an experiment.” Damien rambled a little through the explanation.

“So you finally took a monster apprentice? Ha! I didn’t think I would live to see the day. But you were always such a picky one. Looking for a star pupil.” The smith turned to Drew and gave a friendly wave of her hand. “Nice to meet you officially Drew, I’m Irael Stroonghammer”.

Drew bobbed his head and replied. “Nice to meet you.”

“Hah ha! It is indeed. It’s not often you meet a Skurr that can talk. And Damien claims you can carve enchantments? Might you carve something for me?” Irael asked. Her cheerful demeanor set Drew at ease.

She reached over and set a blank hammer on the counter. It was rough around the edges and recently fitted to it’s handle. Unlike the other tools in the smithy, this one was brand new and pristine. Irael also brought over a small leather bound folio and flipped through the pages until she found what she was looking for.

“Here give this a try. This is an schematic for the Stamina Efficiency enchantment. I’ve got an order for a training hammer here. It should be a good test of your mettle.” She said with a grin.

Drew read the page and a prompt popped up in his vision.

Learn the Enchantment [Stamina Efficiency] - Stamina Efficiency reduces the Stamina costs of whatever it’s been enchanted on. Yes/No

“Wait Irael, I haven’t shown him any schematics yet.” Damien said.

Damien swiped the folio off the counter but Drew selected yes on the prompt.

“No problem.” Drew Said. “Give me some tools.”

“Hah ha! Well said little bird. If you can lift it, bring that little hammer over here to this bench and get started.” Irael plucked the folio from Damien’s hands and pushed the enchanter back so Drew could fly past the customer counter.

It took half an hour. Drew was able to trace out the enchantment onto transfer paper and then to the face of the hammer and the handle. It was the first time he was doing these initial steps and that took most of the time. Now he was in the etching and carving stages he was familiar with and he finished quickly.

Quest Complete: Puzzling: Learn [Enchanting]: [Enchanting] lvl 1 Unlocked. Exp 450.

Quest Complete: Puzzling: Learn [Carving]: [Carving] lvl 1 Unlocked. Exp 450.

New Skill: [Enchanting] lvl 1

New Skill: [Carving] lvl 1

Damien sat nearby and read a book, writing notes in the margins. Irael had gone right back to work at her forge.

Irael quenched her iron and walked over to congratulate Drew on his level ups. Picking up the finished hammer she looked it over.

“Great work for an apprentice. For this kind of work, you need to carve the enchantment a little deeper, helps the piece survive the rough treatment it’s going to receive. Not something an apprentice would usually need to do. There are other skills you’ll need first, but ask Damien to show you the Mana Reinforcement skill when you are ready. It strengthens your body and mana paths and allows you to produce higher quality work.”

Irael picked up the carving tool and quickly went through the whole enchantment. Her hand moved so quickly and precisely that it seemed to glow.

New Quest: Puzzling: Learn [Mana Reinforcement]

Irael stopped what she was doing and looked at a screen.

Drew is asking to learn the skill [Mana Reinforcement]. Would you like to teach it? Yes/No

“Well now, seems like you are not quite the beginner apprentice I thought you were. Here you go knock yourself out.” Irael said as she selected yes.

New Skill: [Mana Reinforcement] level 1 - Mana reinforcement imbues your body with Mana. Extensive use and proficiency will increase your physical stats. This skill cannot exceed your level of [Mana Channeling].

“You can use it to make your fingers more precise, and your arms stronger. Now me, I use it pretty much all the time. On my whole body. I know some monks that can maintain the skill even in their sleep. These guys can punch through boulders. Crazy I know, but I have seen it myself.” Irael said with a wink.

Drew activated Mana reinforcement and focused on his claws.

MP: 99%

Its not that costly. Is this going to be one of those abilities that turns me into a super saiyan?

Drew gripped the workbench and his claws sunk easily into the wood.

“Hey now, don’t go scratching up my tables.” Irael said.

Drew nodded in apology and pulled his bracer out of his storage ring. He used his reinforced claws to slice through the stitching.

Wow I can cut through the stitching easily now.

“Well now where did you get that?” Irael asked picking up the bracer. “Isn’t this one of mine? I think I sold this to the guild a while back. How did you come upon it Drew?” Irael asked.

“Found it.” Drew said quickly. “Need armor.”

“Were you taking it apart? Why would a young Skurr like you need armor?” Irael asked.

“For defense.” Drew said and ignored the rest of the question.

“Hmm, that’s not an easy thing to accomplish. This is all triple stitched and reinforced. It would be better to build one from scratch… Or we could scale down some Gryphon armor and design something new for you.” Irael was off and thinking to herself.

She crossed the smithy to her drafting table and started drawing out a new schematic.

Damien put away his book and walked over.

“Irael, what are you doing? Do you really have time to be playing around making armor for a Gallow Bird?” Damien asked.

“Gawh, don’t get your robes twisted Damien. It won’t take all night. And the little guy here is going to enchant everything in my shop’s backlog for me as payment so it’s a win win. Isn’t that right?” Irael said.

“Aye aye Ma’am.” Drew said and gave a salute.

“Weird bird Damien, you got a weird bird.” Irael said and laughed as she got to work.

New Enchantment [Durability]

New Enchantment [Resist Rust]

New Enchantment [Resist Grime]

New Enchantment [Emit Light]

New Enchantment [Emit Warmth]

New Enchantment [Absorb Warmth]

New Enchantment [Weight Reduction]

New Enchantment [Stamina Regeneration]

Skill Upgrade: [Speak Common 4]

Skill Upgrade: [Enchanting 2]

Skill Upgrade: [Carving 2]

Wisdom +2

Mana +1

Stamina +1

Strength +2

Willpower +1

New Item: Skurr Breastpiece - Fine - reduces incoming attacks by 2 points when taking piercing or slashing attacks to the breast.

Drew did not sleep that night. Irael had not stopped working on the breastpiece so she expected Drew to keep working as well.

Her apprentices had shied away from any chores that didn’t involve a hammer and a forge, so there was an understandably large backlog of hammers, shields, swords, rings and all manner of dinnerware that needed enchantments.

Damien left after the third hour past sunset claiming that they were both insane.

Irael only stopped for a moment when her apprentices tried to head home for the night. The two apprentices were both dwarves and they looked so similar they could have been brothers. Their beards would have reached the floor if they weren’t tucked in behind their blacksmith aprons.

They looked older than Irael by at least twice her years. Each one called her master blacksmith, and she hit them with a length of stock iron before getting them set up forging other jobs for the shop. They knew their business and needed no further instruction after they got started.

As dawn came around, Irael had finished up the breastpiece. It was a hardened leather harness that Drew could remove with his beak using a single clasp at his belly. It had a fine mesh of steel wire sandwiched between two layers of Drake leather. There was a beveled triangle of iron in the center stamped with the guild’s gallows image. Irael had dyed it all black. The inside was enchanted for Weight Reduction.

Quest Progress: Light Armor Mastery: Equip a full set of light armor. (1/4)

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“You look rather fearsome Drew. At least for a young Skurr. This kit is going to be a little small on you once you grow up. But by then we can make you an even better one.” Irael said as she admired her work.

“What would I need,” Drew squawked “For a full set?”

“Ho ho, never enough for you eh? You keep that attitude and you’ll be a great adventurer. For a Gryphon, the full set of light armor would usually be the breast-piece, helmet, gorget, pauldrons for the shoulders and wings, vambraces for the arms, and greaves for the legs I won’t even mention what the tasset is for.” She said.

Ireal consulted a folio with blueprints. One of her apprentices leaned over and whispered to Drew.

“Tis for the arse.” He said discretely before hurrying away.

“Since you haven't got four legs we can do the breastpiece, mantle for your neck and back, a pair of greaves, and a circlet instead of a helmet. A visor would make it hard for you to see. So a 4 piece set? That sounds right.” She said.

Sounds great to me! And that aligns with the quest so it should count. Right?

“Anything else will just slow you down. Will you be wanting a sword too? Hah ha!”

“Thank you Irael.” Drew said with a nod and slumped down exhausted. “Now I need rest.

Drew flew up on top of a shelf of the smithy and found a spot amongst some oily rags to lay down.

I’ve got enough exp to purchase the 6th and 7th Racial Points. May as well bite the bullet and spend them.

Race Upgrade Point: (7/8) (373/1000) purchase Yes/No?

He fell asleep despite the sound of hammering.

- 49 -

Damien returned to the smithy by midmorning to find Drew carving a Weight Reduction enchantment into a buckle on leather belt.

“Drew, would you care to join me on a monster hunt? There are anomalies to the south at the perimeter fence, and I suspect slimes are eating our mana crystals.”

“Certainly, just finished.” Drew said and finished up the enchantment he was working on. He used Mage Hand to quickly put away the tools.

“Be careful out there with my new carver Damien!” Ireal shouted from her forge.

Damien scoweled into the back of the Smithy.

“Certainly Ireal, when have you ever known me to not be careful?” Damien scoffed.

“Why, there was that one time in Callapeia, what was the name of that little fishing village again?” She said.

“No! That’s quite alright! We are on our way now!” Damien said and hurried out the door.

“Drew, don’t let any fishwives get Damien into too many ales. Hah ha!” Ireal sang.

I’m not sure I want to know what happened.

Drew and Damien crossed the city to the southern gate quickly. Nobody offered any greetings to the old enchanter and they did not seem surprised to see him moving quickly towards a town gate.

They arrived at the edge of the woods to the south of Rottervale within 30 minutes. As they approached the area, they noticed a group of slimes gathered together, bouncing and squishing around.

Each slime was taller than Damien, flat against the ground and twice as wide as they were tall. They bobbed around the fence like water balloons on a lawn. Squishing up against each other to envelope the mana crystals. Each was a transparent blue of varying shades, and there was one really dark blue one that was larger than the rest.

“Aha! See! Didn’t I tell you that there must be some slimes around sucking the mana from the crystals? These vermin are basically 50% water 50% mana and 100% a pain in my backside.” Damien pulled a staff out of his inventory and set down his toolkit.

These things are as big as a car, and they are pests to Damien? These would likely wipe out a beginner party.

“Drew, take this wand. It’s got a few charges of Chain Lightning. Don’t bother with physical attacks, they will barely do any damage to slimes. And you better take a combat talisman.” Damien said as he held a wand out with one hand and had his other arm in his toolkit up to his elbow.

The wand was made of white wood with veins of copper and silver wandering from handle to tip. And he pulled out a 18” wooden stake with a complex script spiraling around it. There was already a charged mana crystal slotted into the top.

“The talisman will activate once you channel mana into it. So stake it down in the middle of those slimes. And you have 5 seconds to get clear once you activate it.”

Damien activated a shield spell and stood behind the shimmering circle, ready to cast his spells. Drew flew up into the air and held the wand tightly in one claw, and the enchanted stake in his other. He took a deep breath before channeling some mana into the combat talisman. It whirred to life and he threw it at the slimes below.

It stuck squarely in between 5 slimes. The enchantment hummed into action sending mana tendrils out to grab the 5 slimes, anchoring them in place.

With a flick of his wand, Drew shot a bolt of lightning, striking one of the slimes and sending it bouncing away. The lightning carried on and struck another slime. Drew fired 4 times before the wand’s charges ran out.

Combat reward: Slime lvl 7 defeated - reward 365 exp

Combat reward: Slime lvl 9 defeated - reward 387 exp

The rest of the slimes responded by bouncing and rolling towards Drew and Damien, attempting to engulf them.

They aren’t very fast are they.

The closest slimes started lobbing globs of slime. But the force shield protected Damien, and Drew was too quick to get hit by the projectiles, flying out of the way of any incoming globs. The five slimes trapped by the combat ward were still out of the fight.

The battle turned as Damien drained the mana of the slimes to fuel his spells, casting a variety of offensive spells, and recharging Drew’s wand when it ran out. Drew continued to shoot lightning, taking down slime after slime as it chained to 2 and sometimes 3 targets with each hit.

The combat enchantment ran out of power and those 5 slimes joined into the brawl. They moved slower than the first wave and when they were in range they didn’t throw any globs, just moved forward like a wave in slow motion as the duo wore them down.

Drew and Damien slayed 13 slimes in about 30 minutes. Drew earned enough exp to pay for his last Racial Upgrade point and his next level. He spent his 6 Stat points to raise his HP, MP and Stamina up by 1 point each.

Skill Upgrade: [Flight] lvl 8

Skill Upgrade: [Light Armor - Novice] lvl 2

Racial Upgrade Point: (7/8) (2375/1000) purchase Yes/No?

Level Upgrade: Level 6 Skurr (Juvenile) - (1375/1300) Purchase Yes/No

HP +1

Mana +1

Stamina +1

Heck yeah! Finally done with those racial points! Going to rank up and challenge Skyclaw again.

Drew glowed with his level up and swooped and spiraled around Damien.

“Well done Drew! Much better than working in a smithy if I do say so myself. Remind me to teach you how to charge your own wands when we get back. You would be a force to reckon with!” Damien said.

Drew flew over to the closest puddle of slime and noticed a couple globs of blue jelly.

Is this all that is left of the slimes?

He went around to touch the goop and pull it into his gathering ring. He collected 9 globs of Blue Slime Jelly in his ring.

Now that the area was clear of slimes Drew flew down to inspect the combat talisman.

“How does this work?” Drew asked while he brought the wooden stake back to the enchanter.

“Take a look for yourself. What does the script instruct the mana to do?” Damien encouraged him to look over the enchantment while he focused on repairing the fence wards.

The script details the activation conditions. This part waits for a source of mana to ignite the script. Then this part would drain the mana crystal, and turn that mana into what are essentially mana vine spells. But something else is mixed in there too. And then here is the complex phrase for targeting.

Wisdom +1

It finally clicked for Drew after several minutes. “This targets stamina.” He cawed to Damien.

“Correct, at least partially. This phrase here targets sources of stamina, that is true.” Damien pointed to a phrase in the middle of the script that Drew had interpreted correctly, then traced the script to the next phrase. “But if that phrase targets sources of stamina, what does this part do?”

It’s doing something with the stamina the previous phrases found. This is similar to the sockets for mana crystals. It’s how the scripts identify sources of mana.

“Does this drain Stamina?” Drew was still confused, and Damien smiled patiently so Drew looked again. “Powered by stamina!”

“Exactly, this ward is powered by the stamina of any thing it catches. All you need to do is turn it on. And as long as the mana crystal has a charge it will target sources of stamina for 10 feet in every direction.” Damien excitedly copied out the targeting script in a page of his book.

“Stamina drain is one of the best non-lethal combat enchantments. Second only to mana drain. The way this script is set up, your target will become unconscious before they lose any HP. It’s great for duels against all classes and beasts. Except for ghosts, they don’t have stamina, nor do they have health pools. They are just beings made of pure mana, bad luck, and regrets.” Damien’s excitement dropped off near the end and he rubbed his neck with his other hand. “Well, time to get to work.”

It took Drew and Damien an hour to replace the rest of the medallions that had been damaged by the slimes.

They both were exhausted and stopped for tea and scones once they were back in town.

Damien started on his second cup of tea and finally broached the subject that had been on his mind.

"Drew. Why do you need the armor? How do you know about armor? And if you are going to be grinding levels then there are things I need to teach you." Damien said.

"I'm a Juvenile Skurr." Drew said. "The flock won’t let me hunt."

Drew pecked at his scone some more. Damien waited quietly while Drew struggled with the long explanation.

"Only Adult Skurr hunt, and I'm going to rank up quickly." Drew said with a shrug.

"If you were to rank up, would that solve your problems?" Damien asked.

"Not all of them, but that's a start."

"We can go hunt more slimes, or Drakes, there are standing kill quests in the guild hall. I've got an array of talismans that could take down a rabbit warren given enough time."

“I won’t massacre rabbits.” Drew said. “I don’t want to become a butcher.”

“Alright then, I can respect that. Its time we head back to my workshop. I have an idea.”

- 50 -

Damien laid out three combat talismans on the table for Drew to look at.

Each of these is similar to the one I’ve already seen. Except this one targets and drains sources of Mana. This one targets Stamina, but inflicts noise? Or Deafness? Like static in a radio. This one inflicts absorbs light, for a set distance, 5 meters.

Damien pulled a folio from his pocket and showed the schematics to Drew.

New Enchantment [Drain Stamina]

New Enchantment [Drain Mana]

New Enchantment [Inflict Noise]

New Enchantment [Absorb Light]

Skill Upgrade [Enchanting] lvl 3

Wisdom +1

“Drew, I want you to craft your own talismans. Starting with these four. I recommend you make multiples of each one.” Damien said.

Damien brought out 10 wooden stakes about a yard long and set them on the work table. He also brought out the Chain Lightning wand.

“Wands are a lot like talismans. Both are prone to overheating and exploding after too many uses. Wands tend to last longer since they don’t need to manage their own power supply like a talisman. They draw from the caster directly.” Damien handed the wand over to Drew.

“You need to channel your mana into this part of the script on the wand. It will take 1 Mana for each charge. So be mindful of your Mana Pool while in combat.” Damien said.

“Now get to work on your talismans and then we can go clean up some slimes.”

Skill Upgrade: [Carving] lvl 3

Skill Upgrade: [Enchanting] lvl 4

Mana +1

After an hour of crafting Drew had created 5 Stamina Drain Talismans, 3 Mana Drain Talismans, and one each of the light and noise talismans.

What’s to stop me from changing these enchantments around? Could I create an inflict HP Enchantment?

He wrote it out on some drafting paper but the ink sizzled and burnt itself through the paper when he sent a test charge of mana into it.

Huh weird. I’ll need to find different words for restoring health.

“You seem ready to go Drew. If we head south, we should find more slimes. I’ve been interested in exploring the area anyways. Something is going on with the flows of mana to the south and I have the feeling it’s going to cause more problems for us if we don’t go and sort it out soon.”

The southern fields looked the same as they had a couple hours before. Damien led Drew past the fences and onto the path made by the slimes.

Easily 3 meters wide, the ground was scorched bare by the passing slimes. It meandered a little for a mile or so and then turned south west.

Oh man, these things melt everything. Does that mean there was mana in the grass here?

Damien wore boots enchanted for Stamina Efficiency and Weight Reduction and he still had a hard time keeping pace with Drew’s flight speed.

Drew had plenty of time to circle about overhead and check their orientation to the city behind them. Twice he saw vine monsters moving through the treetops, but they weren’t close and they were heading in the opposite direction so he left them alone.

The sun hung low on the horizon, casting long shadows as Drew and Damien ventured through the dense forest. Their steps were cautious, the foliage showing traces of many kinds of monsters having passed by recently.

They were following the path of destruction left behind by the slimes, like a snail trail of bare earth, glistening with a light coat of slime.

Drew flew down to perch on a branch near Damien’s shoulder while he took a sip of water.

"Damien, is it normal for slimes to travel this far?" Drew asked.

Damien's brow furrowed as he analyzed the surroundings.

"Slimes are sensitive to changes in mana flow. If they're moving this far in these numbers, something's drastically altering the natural mana currents."

"Mana Currant, is that a fruit?”Drew asked.

“What nonsense is this? Are you scavengers hungry all the time? No currents, like a river.” Damien said.

“Mana flows like water? Or like the wind?" Drew whispered.

His voice had transitioned away from his squeaking and croaking into a high alto raspy voice. He hardly got choked on his words anymore, especially while whispering.

"Exactly. It's a cycle.” Damien paused again to look through a prism he was carrying.

“With this Mana Lens I can see the mana flowing and take measurements for my enchantments.”

Damien held it up again so that the sky above them was reflected in the prism and Drew could see the mana in the sky flowing towards a single location to the south.

“You see. The mana flows from the stars, through the mountains, the trees, and everything." Damien said as he made some notes in his journal.

“Seems like the mana is all moving towards a tower over there. I’ve seen it a few times already.” Drew said.

Now that I can see the mana flowing towards it it’s hard to miss.

Damien squinted into the distance, narrowing his eyes as he spotted the towers peak.

"Your eyes are better than mine.” He looked through the prism again. “That tower... is all wrong, it's disrupting the mana flow."

They headed off the trail and made a bee line for the tower. An hour later they broke through the thick underbrush and could see the tower clearly.

It was still a mile away and its strange aura was a palpable distortion in the air around them.

Is that tower made of mana crystals?

"Look at that, Drew," Damien murmured, awe and concern lacing his words. "The mana is solidified on the tower. It's as if the very stone has been corroded like the medallions, transformed."

As they watched, a pulse as fast as lightning went through the tower from the bottom to the top and the whole area was illuminated in a purple/blue glow.

“The magnitude of power being collected here is outstanding. Even the arrays in the capital don’t gather and store this much at once. The wizards involved must be experts in their field. What are they doing out here?”

Drew finally peeled his eyes away from the tower itself to the clearing surrounding it. The ground was parched, devoid of all living tissue. Withered trees were scattered everywhere, petrified where they fell. And the ground itself glowed faintly.

Its like radiation. This tower is toxic.