After hugging his father Jien sat back down with a smile on his face, something that wasn't necessarily common unless you were like family to him. In fact, this was really the first time that Mark and Emily had seen Jien quite this expressive. His usual attitude was often mirroring his father's stoicism. He would smile what would be considered a polite smile to his guests and would generally keep to a neutral expression with those he knew as acquaintances, while only showing this genuine side to his father and Runa.
As if knowing that if she let his mood settle too much that he would return his usual state Runa stood up and picked up a small, wrapped package that she brought forward to his seat. Jien, still smiling, received the package, thanking her even before he opened the wrapping with care.
Beneath the wrapping were three books, bound in colors of burgundy, royal blue and spring green. Jien didn't get a chance to open them before Runa chose to explain her gift. "I know that you are a fan of reading and that in itself definitely contributed to my decision to acquire these for you. However, the books themselves are only part of the whole of my gift." She paused for a moment to take her seat again. "The books are a guide to introductory alchemy, blacksmithing and arcane formations. These are often considered the top three fields for external arcane research, though blacksmithing only to a latter extent."
"I felt that with these you would be able to not only learn something new but may be able to also be more self-sufficient in the future as opposed to having to rely on others to meet your needs in regard to potions, medicines, weapons and the like." She took a sip of the tea that was sitting on the table prior to continuing her explanation. "While I can definitely imagine you being interested in alchemy and definitely in arcane formation theory, I hope that you won't overlook blacksmithing. There are blacksmithing methods that aren't all muscles, especially if you have fine mana control. Being able to smith your own weapons and maybe even armor is a skillset that will never betray you, much like the ability to create your own medicines and create formations."
"The last part of my gift will be waiting for you in your room after we finish here. I have provided you with the basic supplies for you to be able to work on these three skillsets as well as some base materials for each." Runa gave a glowing, almost motherly smile to Jien. She herself knew a bit about each of these three fields even though she often did not use the knowledge from a day-to-day basis. She had known Jien since he was a baby and knew that though he may not comprehend the utility of these skills now that he would both enjoy learning them and would thank her later in his life when they assisted him.
Jien was still smiling genuinely after receiving these gifts and thanked Runa as well for her gifts. He didn't know how much trouble she had gone through to get the materials for him to learn these trades, but he knew that it would not have been easy. Though these were the big three of the various arcane trade skills it was well known that they were heavily gatekept. Those that were good at them didn't want those that wanted to learn taking their customers, often purposely trying to smother any talent that may crop up to keep their business within their families.
Jien took the green book from the stack and opened it seeing that it was an introductory guide to alchemy and included a number of basic recipes with instructions and guidelines that were thorough and yet easy to follow. However, before he could get too far into the first pages, he heard someone clear their throat and looked over to see Mark Blood standing on the other side of the table.
Mark walked around the table, followed by Emily to his back. When Mark reached Jien, he reached down to his side and unhooked a brown leather sheathe. The item itself was the size of a dagger, the handle slightly longer, allowing for about one and a half hands worth of length, crafted from a metal that was a deep blue in color and wrapped in brown leather to match the sheath. "This is my gift to you. I know that you prefer the rapier, but it is always handy to have a backup weapon." With that said Mark handed the peculiar dagger over to Jien, who promptly unsheathed the blade.
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The dagger itself was actually about three quarters the length of a short sword, its blade curved like a talon with both edges being sharp. The blade and hilt appeared to be a single piece of metal, though the simple guard almost made it seem otherwise. Along the inner curve of the blade was a number or runes inscribed into the metal, though slightly above the level of the blade as if someone had carved the symbols and then filled them with a glass like substance.
Mark smiled when he saw the obvious curiosity in Jien's eyes in regard to the arcane symbols. "That is a type of basic enchanting. It is not the best type unfortunately because that would require building a formation into the blade itself rather than just imbuing it with the runes. Still, it should serve you well. It has two enchantments, one that will allow the blade to produce light and the other to force the blade to heat up to better cut through tough materials. Just be mindful of the amount of mana you use when using them as one can lose track of it when funneling mana into an external spell."
After presenting his gift to his student and saying his part Mark turned to allow Jien a straight line of sight to Emily even before Jien could tank him. Emily in turn reached into a small pouch attached to the other side of her belt from her rapier. The pouch itself was a nondescript brown leather pouch about the size that someone might expect to be a coin purse. Yet what she pulled from the inside of the pouch made it apparent that it was a spacial storage device made to look extremely ordinary, likely to fool possible bandits or the like.
From within her pouch Emily withdrew a sheathed rapier. The sheathe though thin was made with a black scaled leather that would match well with his new satchel. The hilt was made of a black metal, wrapped in soft, black leather. The guard of the rapier was likewise made of the same black metal, however, smithed to look like faint swirling gusts of wind stretching out from the blade in a mesmerizing pattern. On the pommel of the weapon was a single smooth green crystal.
Before handing over the blade to her student Emily demonstrated a hidden utility of the weapon by twisting the green crystal like a screw until it came off from the hilt. This showed a thin hidden compartment in the handle of the blade. "This will likely come in handy at some point. This compartment is best used to hold a vial of healing elixir or a healing salve. I have provided a vial of salve here." With that she tipped the opening onto her other hand exposing the top of a thin crystal vial, before tipping the blade back and allowing it to slide back into the hidden compartment before screwing the top back on. She then handed the sheathed blade to Jien who stood and unsheathed it.
The blade itself was half as thick as his current rapier. If he didn't know better, he would thing that using the blade in actual combat would shatter it due to how thin it was. Yet Jien knew better. This black metal that formed the blade as well wasn't metal at all. It was likely smithed out of the bones of some powerful beast, perhaps blended with an allow to assist in shaping it but not entirely metal. Along the blade were drawn ephemeral lines, unlike the crystal filled etchings of the long dagger these lines did not appear to be etched into the blade at all. In fact, one would hardly notice them unless they paid close attention and faced the blade into a certain light.
Emily gave a brilliant smile when she saw that Jien had noticed these lines. "One's main weapon should always be of the highest possible quality. It is your partner and will be the thing that determines whether you live or die along with your own skill. This blade was custom forged with a formation inset. All of the materials for the formation are built into the blade itself, though you are the power source for the formation. What mana you provide it will be what it can use and will determine its output, though unlike Mark's gift a formation doesn't need as much mana and doesn't require a continuous stream of it either. The formation on the blade is a rough representation of the wind spell you have been training with. It will help with the swiftness of your strike. There is also a secondary component, though you should be careful with its use. There is a paralysis spore array built in. If used correctly you can temporarily stun your opponent with it. Just use it wisely, you don't want to inhale it yourself or have your friends do so while in a fight."
With that everyone had presented their gifts and Jien thanked each of them again. He was excited to spend some time acclimating to the new gifts, especially those given by Runa. In fact he was interested to see the portion of her gift that she had stated would be waiting in his room.