<~> CHAPTER 77

Luna looked appraisingly over the chunks of crystal set on the table in front of us. ("Helena? What do you want to do? It sounds like these are a lot more useful than we thought they might be.")

"How useful would these amulets be for you two?" I asked Piper.

Piper looked a little guilty. "Extremely useful... If the mana regeneration is strong enough it could mean that I could use the rings freely. If it's even stronger than that, I could even use my healing magic more liberally than I do now."

"Rings?" The female drakken from earlier asked.

Piper paused before pulling her telepathy ring off and placing it on the counter for the drakken to examine. "They're a set of four linked telepathy rings."

The crafter pulled out a jeweler's loop and examined the plain ring on the table. "Fine craftsmanship... but there's five of you?" she finished the statement as a question.

Piper picked the ring up and put it back on her finger, the ring resized itself to fit her as soon as she slipped it on. "We only had four before we met these two."

She looked across us before picking out the only one of us not wearing one of the rings. "If your catkin friend over there likes, one of these smaller ones could be fashioned into a ring that could be connected to them. It could even be powered further by the stone to speak with all of the rings at once." Luna perked up at the news. Being able to talk with only one of us at a time was a major drawback for her.

Piper frowned. "Why the sudden offer?"

The drakken grinned but shied back, looking guilty as well. She pointed at one of the amulet-sized pieces. "This crystal would be very valuable to me... I would be willing to pay our smiths to work on all of these pieces into fine jewelry for you, in exchange for it."

Maxwell stepped back in shock. "It's worth that much?"

"Well..." she scratched her face scales for a moment. "Not exactly. Crystals of this purity are very rare. They could be worth that much if you went through the trouble to auction them, because few people actually sell them when they come across a find like this. They're too useful for mages to give up that easily. I've been trying to get a hold of something less pure than this for a while now. It would be expensive to turn all of this into jewelry, but I could easily cover all of that work for you in exchange for one of these crystals. If what you want, which I suspect you do, is to have all of this turned into jewelry for your personal use, then it would be cheaper for me to get the work done for you in exchange for one of these crystals than it would be for me to buy a piece like this on the open market. It would be a good exchange for both of us."

("Being able to talk with all of you at once would help me a lot, especially if Maxwell could power his ring with the crystal...") I could tell that Luna was trying to hold back her eagerness, but this would make a huge difference for her.

"I would like to take the trade," I admitted. "But there's an issue. We need to be in Ironcastle very soon and I don't know how long we can stay here waiting for the work to be finished." I looked at Maxwell.

He hesitated. "We need to leave within the week. We can't delay any more than that without repercussions. Tomorrow would be ideal."

The drakken squinted at the stones on the table between us and started counting something on her fingers. After a moment she nodded. "I can have it done by tomorrow, but only if you agree right now. Some of the jewelry smiths owe me a favor."

The smith that had been quietly standing there nodded. "It's a good deal for both sides. I'm biased toward my niece of course, but I recommend that you take the deal," he said.

"What about the other materials? Metal and the other stones you mentioned?" Piper asked.

"Included, that's not a problem," she said dismissively.

I looked at the group and everyone seemed to nod in agreement. I took a breath and nodded. "Okay. We'll do it. Let's talk about what we're going to make everything into."

The drakken woman smiled with her sharp teeth. "Great! Uh, first thing though, none of us can do anything with that big chunk. You're better off having it made into a staff somewhere else anyway."

"Sure, that's fine," I replied.

She smiled. "Good, next these ones, like I said before, they'd make great amplification amulets, but if you're interested in regeneration, one of these would be good for that too."

I looked the palm-sized stones over. "One for regeneration and two for amplification? Can two be used at once?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No. They don't play nice together if you try to use them both at once. You could switch between them but if you were to do that, I would make one into an amplification amulet, and the other into something like a bracer to keep them separate."

I looked at everyone. "Would anyone be opposed to Piper getting one of each? From what I could tell regeneration was an issue for her but amplification would give her better healing."

It looked like everyone agreed but I chose to ask Luna through the rings for a more direct answer. ("Luna, what do you think?")

("I don't need the regeneration as much and I would be receiving the other amplification amulet right? I don't have any issue with that provided I receive the ring that would allow me to talk with everyone.") The comment at the end had her tail swinging back and forth behind her.

I nodded. "Okay. One of these for you, Angela, two amplification amulets, and a regeneration bracer?" I got nods in return and so I moved on to the six smaller crystals. "A ring that can connect to all the other telepathy rings at once. Could one of them be used for improving water magic with the frost salamander gland we have?" I asked.

The older smith nodded. "A frost salamander could be paired with a gem and this crystal to make a strong water magic focus."

"Good," I continued pointing at the remaining ones. "One of these should be turned into a mana store ring for Maxwell so that he can use the other ring more freely." I looked up at Aria. "Is there anything that would be helpful for you?"

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Aria looked surprised and caught off guard. "Me?"

I nodded. "Sure, all of us are friends now. I'd like to give everyone at least one ring."

She hesitated. "Something for stealth then?"

The older smith looked at the bow she carried on her back. "I can make something that can both mute footsteps and deepen shadows near you. It is useful for an archer that wants to take shots while hidden and relocate silently after."

Aria smiled. "That would be useful to me, both as an archer and as a scout."

"That leaves two," I said looking at the remaining fingernail-sized crystal shards. "I'm not sure what would be useful for me... something to hide my eyes?"

The smith paused, lost in thought for a moment before shaking his head. "I cannot think of anything that would hide your eyes that could be made from this. Is there something wrong with them that could be addressed?" he said while studying my blindfold.

I hesitated. "Maybe that's not the best way to go..."

The female drakken looked at the large axe slung over my back. "Perhaps a spatial ring? They are normally expensive to craft but using corscant crystal, we can make some of the more affordable spatial materials go a lot farther. You would be able to carry at least your axe and the contents of your backpack."

My eyebrows rose. "Something like Maxwell's backpack?"

Maxwell gave me a flat look. "Please don't tell people about the valuable things we carry. But yes, a ring that would do the equivalent of my backpack."

I frowned. "How would I stuff things in a ring though?"

The younger drakken tittered. "It converts things to mana to store them. You wouldn't need to 'stuff' anything into it the way you would a spatial backpack. Rings usually carry less space than an actual container does, but they have the benefit of being small and discreet. Most people wouldn't be able to detect one without proper safeguards. I do not suggest trying to smuggle things out of the dungeon though, that's a way to quickly get on the association's bad side. I'm officially telling you that you should inform the hunter's association that you possess one. But that's up to you."

I could see the benefit of a ring like that. At the very least I wouldn't need to lug this dumb axe around everywhere. I also wouldn't need to drop it constantly if I wanted to fight with my claws in situations where I need the ease and speed of them.

"Let's do that then. It would make things a lot easier on me if I could switch between weapons easier."

"Great, and the last one?" she asked.

"Well the only one that doesn't have a ring set aside yet is Piper..." I said.

"Helena, you're already giving me an incredibly valuable amulet and a bracer. I'm already hesitating to accept both. Perhaps another ring for your fiancé?"

I blushed and glanced at Luna who looked back at me bashfully.

The drakken tittered again and sized Luna up. "From the sash, I can guess that she's a fire mage who's getting a water magic ring as an amplifier. Any weaknesses to speak of?"

Luna hesitated before nodding to me. Getting the point, I answered for her. "She's functionally mute, maybe something that could give the effect of silent casting?"

The younger drakken scratched her jaw before looking over at the older smith. He crossed his arms and looked down in thought for a moment before shaking his head. "No, I cannot think of anything that would have that effect. But if what you lack is casting magic quickly enough without chanting, perhaps a ring that could help with that instead?"

"A ring that can increase the speed of casting?" Piper asked.

He nodded. "Yes, it's not a common thing because most people wouldn't benefit from it much unless they regularly cast large spells that require channeling. But, if you cannot chant, it would also help with casting smaller spells as well."

"Isn't channeling large spells Luna's specialty?" I asked Piper.

She nodded. "She loses less efficiency that way so she mainly casts channeled spells. A ring like that would help her normal casting style and cover her weakness."

("Yes! That sounds great!") Luna excitedly said while patting my arm.

I laughed. "That sounds perfect then. Let's do that. Will that ring cause issues with the water one or the telepathy one?"

The younger drakken shook her head. "No, the corscant crystal would only be amplifying other stones, the problem is that the ones we talked about both use altotite, not that both use corscant crystal."

"That sounds perfect then." I glanced at the large chunk. "Hey, this might be a weird question but... rather than making this large chunk into a staff or scepter, could it be made into a lantern that gave the same mana regeneration effect?"

"A lantern?" the female drakken said in confusion.

I nodded and tapped my blindfold. "This lets me see magic. The thing that originally attracted me to this crystal was that it lights things up to the vision I gain with this blindfold. Rather than using it as an amplification weapon, couldn't it be used as a strong mana regeneration field centered on a lantern made with this crystal?"

She tapped her lip with her clawed finger before turning to the older smith. "What do you think?"

"I think it could be done. I can attempt something if you would trust me with such a large piece of crystal. But that wouldn't be part of the deal, I can still have it done at the same time, but I'll have to charge something for my time and the additional materials."

"If they both use Altotite, would the regeneration field it emits conflict with the amulet for Piper?" I asked.

He shook his head. "I would have to use something other than altotite for it, so no. But I have a good candidate, it is better for larger area effects but it is weaker than altotite for individual effects. It would also likely make the lantern glow purple. Would that be an issue?"

I smiled. "That sounds rather cool actually."