The adventurers took the better part of a week off. They rested, ate, meditated individually and went through group sessions. It was during one of these that Auster found them all sitting in a circle on pillars of earth and juggling smooth orbs of dirt to each other across the circle. Seemingly at random but it looked choreographed with no one dropping a single ball. They transitioned from sitting to standing, then to one leg, then to tiptoes. Eventually Ragnar dropped a ball and it burst into powdered dust as soon as it hit the floor and he had to return to the sitting position but carried on.

After a while it seemed that they hadn’t noticed her and she cleared her throat.

“Err excuse me.”

There was a flurry of dropped balls as they all reacted.

“Well what does this mean? Who wins?” James asked as they all looked round in confusion.

“Win?” Auster asked in confusion.

“A weeks worth of cooking when we get back on the road.” Kyra replied as she moved her hands in a circle at waist height and the earth dust from the balls collected up and sank into the floor. “What can we do for you Auster?”

“I have been sent to invite you to a festival in two days hence. A feast held annually for our people to celebrate our culture. It is customary to present a gift of what our culture means to you as an individual but as outsiders you will not be expected to contribute in this way.”

“That’s very kind of you! We will accept, thank you for thinking of us.”

Auster still looked uncomfortable around the outsiders and made her farewell’s and left.

They started setting up for dinner, their game of skill has gone on far longer than they thought it would, everyone being too stubborn to give in. Just as they were about to sit down and eat there was another knock on the door to their accommodation.

Kyra recognised the Stonewaller’s strange aura signature on the other side of the door and used her terraform power to open the door to admit their next visitor. Before he had time to speak she enquired with concern.

“Orcnig, what’s wrong? Why are you here? Is Teddy ok?”

“Master Theodore is still below, his stamina and focus remain.” The older Stonewaller looked uncomfortable, their accommodation was on the boundary of the comfort for Ragnar being outside the effect of the array and the Stonewallers being able to visit and Orcnig spent most of his time down in the deepest parts in the forges where the effect was strongest. “He is at a critical stage of his development and cannot be interrupted. He is working on what will be his last piece while you remain here. The delivery of your weapon will soon be at hand to continue your journey.”

He looked around with his too-large eyes and found Lucy, wearing the vambraces Teddy had made. “Mrs Mitchell, wear those with pride, they were an achievement from your kin, they would not have left the workshop otherwise. He has surpassed all expectations and created an equal to accompany them.”

He pulled from his pack a thin package. Wrapped in what they now recognised as a fabric made from the tightly grown together roots of mushrooms and washed and dried to form a fabric. He placed it on the table they had used to unwrap the Vambrace of Menagerie and the Armour of the Combat Witch.

“For me again? Surely it should be someone else’s turn?”

“He has made this bespoke for you to compliment what he has already made. He said he has held the design for many cycles in his mind and now it may be made reality in our forge. You must know, we only allow our best students to forge weapons, after proving themselves on armour and then after many cycles of hard work only the best works may be permitted to leave our deeps into the world.”

Lucy moved to the table top and almost reverently started to unwrap the parcel.

She looked at the item in her hand. It was obvious to see it was a item of two halves, a sword hilt sheathed into a plain wooden peg, the same size as the hilt and rounded at the bottom. Lucy worked out that the peg half was some sort of dimensional storage.

Paying attention to the hilt they recognised the dark, tight-grain wood looking material as the Bahumut scale, it has been carved with a grip and she felt it almost stick to her hand as she grasped it. The sword handle was curved and James’ mind immediately went to Count Dooku’s lightsaber, especially with the sword in the dimensional scabbard. The hilt was a simple guard, a thin crosspiece that had a narrow strip that protected the fingers in a gentle curve but didn’t connect at the bottom. She grasped the peg in one hand and the sword hilt in the other. When she slowly pulled it out it was not a normal sword. It had a narrow single edged blade, with patterns engraved on it in blackened swirls. There was a pair of hooks spaced out a hands width apart on the spine of the blade, just above the hilt that lead into a barrel that; as she pulled it out finished with the muzzle around halfway. The sword gently curved away at this point and slightly thickened, it swept back into a double edged point with a shark fin looking spike on the rear that didn’t impede the barrel. It wasn’t a very long sword and quite slender, giving it a robust rapier-like look. It played to her strengths at not being an unwieldy size or weight, a very utilitarian blade but also looked a little sinister. The dimensional scabbard would fit perfectly into her wand holster taking up two or three wand spaces but she was ok with the trade.

Item: [Athame of the Combat Witch] (bronze rank, legendary)

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*Part of: Arsenal of the Combat Witch*

A bespoke weapon, crafted with care and thought from exotic materials. The creator’s deep bond to the recipient has shaped the design on an intrinsic level. The nature of the weapon calls out to its familial creations, strengthening each in turn.

Effect: The magic imbued within the exotic material is recharged by ambient magic to provide a reservoir of power to enhance the blade with a special attack, when activated the blade will conjure dimensional rift energy along the edge of the blade causing catastrophic damage to the target.

Effect: The magic imbued within the exotic material is recharged by ambient magic to provide a reservoir of power to Power the wand rather than the user’s inherent mana supply, allowing for multiple castings at the same time. Stored wand may be instinctively selected and fired.

Effect: When the Athame penetrates an enemy it will drain targets mana to refill its reservoir.

“That is a bad ass sword.” James said in awe. “Makes me wish I could use swords.”

“So that you can fight your wife?” Kyra asked with a raised eyebrow.

“No! So Teddy can make me one with a Gatling laser or something. The dude is cracking out some awesome kit.”

“If you are commenting on the quality of the items he has so far produced I agree. We understand that there may only be one or two per generation that may be truly gifted and it is strange to see an outsider produce such items. He is a natural.” Orcnig said.

“What was that comment about being part of an arsenal?” Kyra asked.

Lucy had to concentrate on the part of the description which forced open another descriptor box on the interface.

Arsenal of the Combat Witch

Items in arsenal:

Armour of the Combat Witch

Athame of the Combat witch

Effect: When multiple items from the arsenal are equipped they bolster each other, effect is multiplicative for the amount of items added. Magical reservoir can be shared between the items to power attached magical weapons.

“Well that’s a nice bonus.” Lucy said, still marvelling over the blade. She swung it in a few circles and held it up to check the engraving on the blade. The dark steel marked by darker lines of engraving in the same style as the box Hero had presented her essences in. Either side of the blade above the hilt were two sigils. On one side was the crossed sword and staff that had been on her essence box, on the other side was a swirling constellation like what was on Teddy’s essence box. “I think Teddy has decided on his brand!” Pointing it out to the others.

Kyra bent over to look and was offered the sword. She took it and spun it through a complicated sword form. As she had a conjured sword she was an extremely proficient swordswoman and would probably take the bulk of training Lucy. Teddy was extremely gifted at sword fighting but his style was impossible to replicate. A combination of his speed from the swift essence, burst speed powers, his unsettling Dimensional Instability which was off-putting to even the most experienced swordsman and that his Dimensional Blade cut through most enemies and weapons in front of him meant that he was not best suited to teach.

Kyra summoned her diamond blade in her other hand and put them together for comparison. The flawless diamond was slightly longer than Lucy’s new blade and straight where hers was slightly curved. The diamond blade was double edged with a small hilt, a traditional ancient Chinese-style design. There would be a host of differences in how they fought but they had both been trained in multiple weapon types at a base level in the academy annex and Lucy could find skill books to augment her training.

She handed back the sword. “Seems like Teddy isn’t done yet. That description says items in arsenal as if you can keep adding. Do you reckon he has more in the works?”

“Creating sets of armour that work in harmony is a special category of the work of an armourer. It is possible with magical items, weapons and armour so long as the originators design, intent and nature is followed.” Orcnig stated matter of fact, as if he was teaching.

“So you’re saying that if I work with Teddy I can keep adding to the set?”

“Adding items after a period of time can become difficult. Sets are, as far as we are aware down here, commissioned in one order so that they are guaranteed to compliment each other. Such orders may take years to fulfil such is the nature of balancing the items.”

“What you’re saying is adding items is difficult because it affects the nature of the balance already in existence between the items?”

Orcnig’s head rotated left then right, a bizarre gesture that had him stare intently at Lucy with one over-large eye then the other. She felt like he was judging her, weighing her with his eyes.

“You would have made a fine student in the finer points of magical artisan.” He looked around the others. “I must go.” Then unnervingly he turned and left them in their accommodation.

………

Sebastian felt his way forward over the loose rock. His stealth powers made it easy going as he crept into the gangs camp. They sat about restlessly, all eyes flickering to the middle where their leader sat brooding staring into the fire.

The failed antagonism of the two adventures and subsequent cowardly retreat from the silver rank monster had left a bad taste on the mouth of every one in the gang. The leader had resorted to a few beatings to get the crew in line but he knew that wasn’t a long term solution.

Most gangs had a higher rank leader, silver rank normally leading a pack of bronze and iron. This gang had formed from a shared sense of dissatisfaction with the constant tyranny of rank. They thought having their own rank in charge would create a more level structure. The current leader was the toughest of the bronze rankers but he wasn’t stronger than all of them.

He eventually noticed Sebastian sat next to him when the man leant forward to grab a spit of meat off the fire. He controlled himself and kept a poker face, showing none of the distress he felt. Sebastian was a scary man. He had been fooled into taking cores early in his career and unlike most core users he was a dedicated combat user. This meant that whoever had the cores had control of him and his particularly nasty set of powers. He had been bronze rank for a long time and had a meticulous grasp of his powers and had developed quite the reputation. He didn’t want to show how much he was bothered by the man who had crept up on him with no warning and could have done anything to him. It also wouldn’t do for his gang to see even more weakness from him by wetting himself and falling off his log.

“I take it you ain’t here from Miss B. I wouldn’ta seen yous if’n you were.”

“I think as she hasn’t been mentioned we can leave her name outta it yeh?”

The gang leader swallowed on a dry throat, that was another mistake.

“So what can I do for you Seb? Or you just here for company?”

“An opportunity for you, to do a bit of a regain after those big bastards got away. You still got that smash, snatch and grab guy?”