Taloc and Vultressant arrived at the foundry very early, but everything appeared to be ready. The sword was lying on a table next to all of the essences and the core. Rena had Taloc sit down and place his hand on the hilt of the sword as she prepared to begin. Vultressant was told to stay out of the way, but he was close enough to see everything. The sword was beautifully crafted, and it put their other weapons to shame. They would have to upgrade their normal weapons as soon as possible.
Rena placed a ruby essence on the sword blade just above its crossbar. She concentrated for a minute or two before she began her spell. Vultressant watched as the first ruby essence began to glow faintly. The glow brightened slowly. At about the ten-minute mark, he could see whisps of light move from the essence into the blade. A minute later, the process was complete; the spell had directed the essence, container, and all into the weapon. Rena repeated the process with each of the ruby essences placed at different parts of the weapon; each one took roughly the same amount of time. She rested for several minutes between attempts, and she seemed to become more fatigued with each essence applied.
Vultressant was fascinated by the spectacle, but he was unable to discern how she was able to perform the task. His attention kept turning to his ring; he would have to ask Rena if she could sense an essence in the gemstone. Taloc looked excited. As more of the essences entered the weapon, the sword began to shine with its own light. Everything seemed to be going well.
When Rena finished infusing the last ruby essence within the blade, she sat down and drank a cup of something. She rested for another ten minutes before standing up and placing the emerald essence on the blade. Infusing the stronger emerald essence took considerably longer than the individual ruby essences. More than fifteen minutes had passed before the essence even started to glow, and she was at it for just over forty minutes before it disappeared and entered the sword. The moment the essence disappeared, the glow around the blade amplified, and it shone brightly.
Rena looked completely exhausted, and she had to rest again before handling the demon core. A Dwarf came and filled her cup with a brown liquid. She quickly downed the drink and held out the cup for a refill. She sipped at the second cup as she rested. She finally finished her drink, stood up, and brought the demon’s core over to where Taloc was sitting with the sword. “This is the critical step,” she said in almost a whisper. She sat the core on the blade, and it immediately began to send out smoky coils of black in all directions. Rena waved her hands, and the coils began to turn back towards the sword. After about four or five minutes, the sword and Taloc’s hand were completely black. The core smoke had blocked all light from the sword, and Rena appeared to be directing it to now enter the weapon. In an instant, all of the smoke went into it, and Taloc inhaled deeply in surprise.
The sword had transformed, and it was now completely black. “It is done,” Rena said in a weak voice.
Taloc lifted the sword and turned it in his hand, admiring it. As it moved, tiny wisps of black smoke seemed to leak out, and he took a practice swing, which intensified the effect. Taloc accessed his HUD, and after a moment of reading, he said, “You were able to bind it to me, and it does psychic damage when I successfully attack. There are also two other properties, but I don’t know how to use them.”
“And we do not charge more for a better result,” Rena said, smiling despite her obvious fatigue.
Blassie, who hadn’t taken part in the enchanting of the weapon, came over to look at the sword. “I worked hard on that blade! It had been beautiful. You have ruined the weapon with your cursed demon core.”
Rena walked over and put her hand on his shoulder. “It was truly a fine bit of craftsmanship on your part. This is something new. Is there not beauty in that?”
The Dwarf scrunched up his mouth in a pout. “You always be changing the weapons. You can barely see the forging any longer.” He shook his head, walked towards another Dwarf, and began shouting orders.
“He will get over it,” Rena said. “He always does.”
Taloc was grinning broadly. “I think that Shadowbane is a good name for it.” He took a few more practice swings and then put the sword into a sheath that a Dwarf assistant provided for him. Vultressant wondered if he meant it to be a bane for shadows or a shadow causing problems for others, but either way, he liked the name.
“That took less time than I would have imagined,” Vultressant said. “Is that normal?”
Rena nodded. “It was only tier one, and it was a weapon. Increasing the tier or enchanting armor adds an order of magnitude to the time of the process.”
“Good to know,” Taloc said. He held up his sword and hooted in delight.
“Rena,” Vultressant said, “could you tell me if you sense an essence in this ring?”
“What?” Rena asked, looking both weary and confused by the request.
“The Goblin that was wearing this didn’t have an essence, so I want to test the theory that his essence is in this ring.” Vultressant took off the ring and offered it to Rena.
She accepted the ring and studied it closely before taking a drink of the concoction that helped her replenish her magic. She waited for several minutes before casting a spell. The gemstone began to glow, and a moment later the light gleamed brightly, making Rena appear green. She dropped the spell, and the light winked out.
“I do detect an essence in the ring,” Rena said, and she handed the ring back to Vultressant.
“What does it mean?” he asked.
Rena looked at him through heavy eyes. She shrugged. “I have never heard of a way to do this. The essences that I used to create the enchantment on the sword are spent; their energy is used to charge the weapon and give it its power. An essence alone charges nothing, so the essence inside the ring does not give the ring power.”
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“Could the power or function of the ring be to house an essence?” Vultressant asked. “Maybe it took the essence of the owner into it when he died.”
“I have never heard of that happening, and I think it is unlikely. The ring itself does something, but the essence must have been present when the ring was enchanted or imbued.”
“Well, thanks for the help,” Vultressant said. He put the ring back on.
“Are you sure that you want to keep wearing that?” Taloc asked.
“It does something, so if I keep it on, I might be able to figure out what it does.”
“I guess,” Taloc replied. “For now, let’s go see what Shadowbane can do!”
_________________
Vultressant sat with the rest of the group at what had become their regular table. He smiled as Taloc showed off his new sword, and everyone seemed very impressed with the weapon. Taloc was twirling Shadowbane about as he said, “The sword does bonus mental damage, and I can even shoot a wave of damage if I point the sword at something and activate that ability. Hopefully, the mobs that I hit will go fetal like we did. Well, all except Ewt.”
“That’s excellent!” Isla said. “Does it do anything else?”
Taloc smiled. “I can basically turn into a shadow for a short time. I would show you, but I tried it earlier, and it needs time to recharge. There’s no cooldown timer, but Rena at the foundry said that specials for weapons usually reset daily. The sword is infused with a core from a demon from the nether realm, so she said that the ability will probably reset at night. I’ll have to figure it out.”
Ewtain whistled appreciatively. “Had I known that they could make something like that, I would have kept that core and commissioned a sword for myself.”
Taloc’s expression changed, and it looked like he was clearly uncomfortable. “Sorry dude. I can’t even let you use it, because it’s bound to me.” Ewtain made a dismissive waving gesture that indicated that he was fine and wanted to drop the issue. It was difficult to determine what he actually felt about the subject because his face was almost entirely shrouded by the hood of his cloak. Taloc seemed to take the gesture at face value. “We’ll get you the next one,” he said.
In general, the six of them did things with the betterment of the party at the forefront, but it was understandable that some or all of them would want items for themselves. If they truly were stranded in this world, then there was no guarantee that they would remain a group forever. It was likely not just Ewtain who wanted items to better his chances in this world, and he certainly had a legitimate claim to the core. They knew of two other people that had been in the game for a long time, Oeister and the man that the Sage knew, and there were likely more given the dozens of people who had signed up to test the game at the convention where they had been sent from. It was only a matter of time before they came across others from Earth. That could shift the paradigm in this new world, and they would have to adapt.
“I finalized our delivery mission with the council today,” Isla said. “They’re sending a representative here tomorrow at midday, and he’s going to go with us. He knows the way to a Dwarven hold in the mountains, and we need him to vouch for us in order to get paid.”
“I’ll try to talk to him about the route and see if I can update my mapping feature,” Vultressant said. If this guy died on the way, he wanted to know where they were headed. He could certainly get them back to Ildul, but it would be better if they could complete the mission, especially if they were close to the hold.
Isla nodded and took a drink from her wine glass, and looked at the glass appreciatively. “I have to say that I love the town stuff. My skills are far more suited to this than adventuring. Maybe after a few missions, I can work on things here while you guys run about and do the hero thing.”
This revelation was not surprising. Isla had wanted to be a bard, and her persuasion skill was certainly more useful in town than in a fight. She did have plenty of combat skills, but she lacked the desire to do battle, and unless she was in the rear using her bow, she really had to get into the thick of it to be useful. In games, bard-type classes typically buffed the party through songs or spells, but Isla had none of these abilities. Her class was Skirmisher, which might not be an analog for Bard, so she might never be able to fully play that role. Vultressant hesitated to dismiss Isla’s idea because she might eventually just balk and go do her own thing. He did want to say something, however, so he raised a glass and said, “We would miss the extra help in battle, but if you can find us missions that we can manage, then it might be worth it.” He knew that he was hedging but he sounded like he fully agreed with her idea. It appeared to work: Isla smiled broadly. She leaned across the table and clinked her glass to his in response.
“I would like to get a place set up in town here where we can all stay,” Taloc said. “It would be better if one of us looked after it instead of hiring people to do it, so that might work out fine.” Isla smiled at Taloc in response, and no one else appeared to have an objection. This was likely a good plan; Isla had clearly been unhappy in the wilderness, and she was very useful in town.
“I have some potions to hand out tomorrow,” Vanya said. “They’re healing potions, and I have two for each of you. I have four of them for myself as well, so I can administer them to anyone who goes down in combat. Remember that the healing potions are less effective when drunk too soon after the first one. You have to wait an hour before you can drink another healing potion. This prevents the interaction. I have potions that offer protection against poison, but those are more situational. I’ll give each of you one. If we fight something with a poison attack, drink it then. The neutralize poison spell only works on someone who has already been poisoned, and it’s also a touch spell, so it can be tricky to use in a fight. The potions should be more useful.”
“Good work, Van,” Taloc said.
“Do you have any of the frost breath ones for me?” Maroftis asked.
Vanya shook her head. “I only got three of them from the hedge witch, and I want to have something to protect myself with if something gets on me. My bow is a good weapon, but I have nothing for melee. I could try to use a dagger or something, but I would be terrible with something like that. If we were going to a forest, then I could hide with the concealment skill that I got as an Elven racial ability. The problem is that we’re going into the hills. Maybe if there are enough trees, it will work, but I doubt it. The ability specifically states that it works in the forest.”
“No problem,” Maroftis said. “I just thought it would be cool. Oh, and your concealment thing is not fool-proof; I can tell where you are when you blend into the surroundings.”
“What, do you smell me?” Vanya asked.
“I have heat sense, so I can see you Predator-style.”
Vanya considered this. “Thanks for letting me know. I had really only worried about things that could find me by scent, like wolves.” She looked at Taloc. “Can you see me too?” When he frowned at her, she added, “With your see invisible ability.”
“My ability works on things that are invisible or trying not to be seen,” he said, “so I can probably see you even though you’re just blending into your surroundings and not actually invisible. I was even able to see the scorpions in the bushes once I knew to look for them, so maybe it works the same for your ability. I’m not sure. With the scorpions, I was alerted to the parts of them that could be seen through the cover, so someone behind something opaque, like, say, a solid wall, would not trigger my ability. I’ve never noticed you concealing yourself, so you probably just look normal to me when you do it.”
“One more thing that we probably should have tested,” she said, nodding to herself.
“Anyone else have anything to add?” Taloc asked the group. When no one spoke, he raised his mug and continued. “Then to our first job!”
The rest of the table held up their drinks and replied, “Our first job!”