It sounded a little odd, but Vultressant made the attempt. He grabbed the weapon and focused his mana as if to cast a spell. After a moment, he received a notification: ‘This weapon will amplify wind magic spells of the bearer by increasing their spell damage by between 15 and 50 percent.’ After reading the notification, he immediately received another one: ‘Congratulations! You have learned the spell wind magic identification.’ Excitedly, he asked, “Is there an identification spell for each type of magic?” Rena just nodded. He thought for a moment. “Is spirit magic usable on all types of magic?”
“Knowledge of spirit magic will allow you to identify most things, but you need the specific magic type to determine what the effect is. I do not have skill in wind magic, but I can tell that the item will amplify spells of that magical type. It could be added duration, speed in casting, reduced mana cost, additional damage, potency to an effect, or any number of other things.”
Vultressant nodded. “This one adds 15 to 50 percent to spell damage... for wind magic spells,” he added, although it should have been obvious. He remembered that the gems were supposedly magical, so he turned to Taloc. “Hey, give me those gems.” Taloc gave them to him, and he attempted to identify each of them without success.
Rena held out a hand, and Vultressant gave her the small blue gems. He had some knowledge of gemstones, and if he had to guess, he would say that these were topaz. Rena studied the gems for a moment before focusing on them, as she had done with the weapon. “These are mana vessels, specifically for divine magic.”
“That’s probably why Vanya knew that they were magical,” Taloc said as Vultressant thought the same thing. “What are they for?”
Rena rolled them in her palm. “Many things really, but normally there are two main applications. They store mana. Mana vessels are used in item creation; these can be attached to an item to power it to perform a certain task. These are small and of poor quality, so you will be lucky to get ten points into any of them. Another use is to help a caster with spells where they have to maintain a spell at a mana cost; these allow the caster to do so for longer. These only work for divine magic spells and tasks, but there are stones for each magic type, and some that work with multiple fields of magic.”
Excitedly, Vultressant asked, “Can you use these to feed a bunch of mana into a spell, or maybe use them to immediately replenish your mana pool when you run out?”
“That is not very practical, and I will explain to you why,” Rena said, holding up a finger as she counted off the reasons. “First, these are designed for a slow passive exchange of mana, so attempting to draw more out than the stone naturally allows causes a strain on the caster. You might have to actually use your own mana to be able to withdraw the stone’s mana at a faster rate.” She held up another finger. “Second, that would put a strain on the stone as well, and would likely break under that amount of strain.” She held up a third finger. “You already have the ability to feed mana into a spell, so adding more from another source would only be useful if you wanted to overcharge it past your maximum mana capacity, and that is not advisable.” Another finger came up. “Last, the stones are tied to a specific power type, while your power is not. You have the ability to use wind magic, but your mana is not wind mana, so taking it into yourself when you are not actively or passively using a wind magic spell would not increase your mana.”
Vultressant found the explanation to make sense, even if he wanted it to be otherwise, but he was still determined to experiment if he ever found a stone that he could use. Her third point sparked a memory. “Would using the stone to go above your max capacity be the same as casting when you have no mana points?”
Rena looked at him as if he were a crazy person, and he almost regretted the question, but he did want information even if he sounded like an idiot for asking. She was about to speak, but then her eyes narrowed, and she said, “I assume, given your question, that you have already attempted casting or maintaining a spell without mana.” When Vultressant nodded in response, a small smile touched her face. “How did that work out for you?”
Taloc laughed loudly. “Bad enough that I doubt he’s done it again since.” Vultressant pursed his lips but nodded in agreement.
Rena nodded knowingly. “In all seriousness, you are more likely to end up incapacitated or injured than not, and obviously the more that you push past, the more spectacularly bad the result, so try to avoid that in the future.”
“I won’t be doing it again,” he promised. “Back to the identification spells. Anyone who has, say, the wind magic skill will be able to easily learn the identification for that type of mana, correct?”
Rena took on a lecturing tone. “Not usually on the first attempt as you have done, but my knowledge of the subject is high, and you benefitted from my instruction in your attempt.”
“Does it work the same way with language instruction?” he asked.
“Not quite,” she said. “While an instructor with a higher rank in the language is useful and usually needed to help you increase your own rank, learning languages does not work the same way that learning spells works, or the same as learning other skills for that matter.”
“All this is fascinating, I am sure,” Blassie said with feigned interest, “but we need to get down to business. I am a busy Dwarf.”
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Taloc pulled out the creature core that they had obtained from the Demon of Shadows; Ewtain had agreed to part with it to help out the Ranger, who needed a good weapon. “Are you able to put this into my sword?” he asked, offering it to Blassie.
The Dwarf held up his hands with the palms facing Taloc, and Rena moved to take the core. She then pointed at the sword sheathed at Taloc’s side. “That sword?” He nodded. She held out her hand, requesting that he give her the sword. He obliged, and she set both items onto the workbench. She held her hand over the core and concentrated, focusing her mana to learn what she could about it. After a minute, she nodded admiringly. She performed the same procedure on the sword. The examination of the sword took far less time than the core had.
“There are two problems with that request,” she said, facing them. “The first problem is that this sword is not a magic item, and so it cannot be upgraded in this manner. The second problem is that while I can enchant an item during its creation, I lack the skills to imbue it. Imbuing can enhance an existing item, and it is a different process than enchanting. We have an Imbuer on staff, but Bitty is off today. She might be able to imbue the morningstar.” She regarded them for a moment. “Where did you come by this?” she asked, motioning to the core.
“It dropped from a demon we killed,” Taloc said.
She looked at him skeptically. “The creature that this core came from can quickly incapacitate its victims and kill them at its leisure. It has been known to torture some for weeks before either killing them or letting them go, broken and mad.”
“One of our party members is immune to its attacks,” Vultressant offered.
Rena frowned. “Then why did it not simply flee? Known powers of the Demon of Shadows are flight and the ability to move through objects.”
“It was trapped in a room. It tried to get away from our friend Ewtain, but it had nowhere to go,” Taloc said. “We think that Orcs had either trapped the thing or were trying to free it.”
“Orcs again!” Blassie exclaimed and then spit on the ground in disgust. “It’s been decades since we had any problems with any of the Orc clans. The clans be ruled by Shamans, and the clans mostly squabble with each other for power. Now, there’s some Warrior who started uniting the clans; wish I knew how he’s been able to cow the Shamans.”
Rena put a hand on the Dwarf’s shoulder. “Those are surely just rumors.”
“Aye,” he nodded without really seeming to agree. He motioned to the work table. “I suggest a new weapon creation unless you have another magic weapon in your fancy storage container there.” He waved a hand in front of Taloc.
“No, that was all of them,” Taloc said.
Blassie nodded. “All right then, you asked for a price on the morningstar. I would say about twelve hundred and fifty for that.”
The Dwarf looked to Rena for confirmation, who nodded and said, “That seems appropriate for what it can do. It’s tier one and only fully useful for larger races. Fifteen hundred would be our buy price for a normal-sized weapon, but the lower price is due to the far more limited market for oversized weapons. Now, if you do have us make something for you, then we can give you a higher value for the trade.”
“Is that in gold?” Taloc asked.
Blassie coughed as if he were choking. When he finally stopped, he eyed Taloc suspiciously. “That would be silver, lad. Did you happen to find a pile of gold in your travels?”
“Well, we found a couple of magic gems that are supposed to be worth five gold pieces each,” Taloc said. “What’s the exchange rate for gold and silver?”
Blassie stroked his beard, considering. “The standard rate is one hundred silver pieces for one gold coin, but there are kingdoms that mint their gold coins at a larger size, so it could be more elsewhere. I can give you all prices in gold if you prefer.”
Vultressant remembered that Vanya had put the value of each of the magical gems at one gold coin each, and he asked, “I guess that silver is fine. So, those power-storing gems sell for 100 silver?”
Rena glanced at the gems. “100 would be about what we would pay for something like these, more if you traded it for something that we were selling. This is not the sort of thing that we would be selling, but if it were, we would certainly charge more than we would pay. Are there no merchants where you come from?”
“We’ve been in a forest for a while,” Vultressant said lamely.
Taloc looked to be growing impatient. He was fidgeting and looking away from the group, which was a sure sign that he was annoyed with how things were going. Vultressant decided to direct the conversation back to what Taloc wanted, which was a new weapon. “Thank you for the information, Rena, but I think what we need to do is discuss buying a weapon for Taloc here or trading for one.”
“You think that I just have magical weapons lying about?” Blassie exclaimed in a huff.
“Well, we have one,” Vultressant said, pointing to the morningstar. “So I assumed that a fine establishment such as this would have plenty.”
“Argh!” was all Blassie could get out before Rene interrupted him. “We create or imbue weapons by request. Generally, the customer supplies us with the materials unless the materials are common or relatively easy for us to stock; they tell us what it is that they want, and we try to produce that result.”
“Try?” Taloc asked. “You mean that you don’t always succeed?”
Rena nodded in agreement. “That is correct.”
“Do you charge less for a lesser result?” Taloc asked in almost a sneer.
Rena did not acknowledge his tone but said, “No, and we do not charge more for a better result either.”
Wanting to avoid any tension as well as any price gouging that might occur if they didn’t end up getting along, Vultressant interrupted. “We want a sword for Taloc, and we want to see if you can enchant it with that demon core. How much would that cost?”
Blassie brightened at this, probably due to the fact that they were finally getting somewhere. “Well, I need to know what kind of sword you want and what materials you have to know what materials we may need to provide. You have plenty of scrap metal for the base, but I do no see any hardened metals here. I could break down the morningstar, but it is more valuable as it be now.”
“We have some cobalt,” Vultressant said.
Blassie brightened. “That’ll do, provided that you have enough of it.” Blassie motioned to Taloc. “Follow me, lad; those two can talk while I fit you for a weapon.” The Dwarf led Taloc over to a large weapons rack.
Rena waited for them to start the fitting process before taking on an instructional tone. “The enchanting process requires creature essences, the number of which will be determined by the size of the weapon that will be crafted as well as the tier desired. You have cobalt, which is a tier one metal, so you will need four or five tier one creature essences, also known as ruby essences, as well as a tier two, or emerald creature essence.” See paused to gauge a reaction from him. He gave her none, so she went on. “We can sell you the ruby essences, but you will need to find an emerald on your own.”