After that, I made a Ring of Defense that gave the wearer a plus fifteen to defense. After that, I made one that I hadn’t made before that I was really proud of.
The thought behind it had been similar to a ring I had made for James that gave him the ability to cast Stone Skin. But this time, I wanted to give Fainnir a little added umph to that spell, so I had the impossibly hard facets of diamonds in mind when I engraved and enchanted the ring.
Diamond Crust
Wearer can use this ring to cast the spell Diamond Skin, twice per day without a mana cost. Duration: 1 minute.
Charges return the next dawn.
Sometimes all you have to do to see something shine is polish it, or in this case, wear this ring.
Diamond ring made by master smith Kelty Binson and enchanted by adept enchanter Zekiel Erebos.
That leveled me up by one level, putting me to level 41 as an enchanter. Awesome! Three rings down, one more to go. Rather than making him a normal ring, I decided to try and get a mana storing ring going for him, but no matter what I did, the rings failed. Thinking about it, it was likely just too hard for my current level. Oh well.
Instead of going for spell storing again or anything, I wanted to give him another “oh shit” button that he could use to get himself out of trouble. The main source of said trouble being enemies that got too close. Kind of like a magical panic button. Except this one blasted the offending party away from them.
Danger Zone
A flex of will with this ring held up will send a blast of force at whatever is in front of this ring, sending it away. Cost: 15 MP.
Aptly named for the place where whatever undesired presence is before the wearer deems they should not be.
Diamond ring made by master smith Vren Slet and enchanted by Adept enchanter Zekiel Erebos.
I chuckled at the name and just set it on the ground before me. Now for an earring. I decided to give him a boost to the powers of his perception, so for a small mana cost, he could see farther with the earrings I made him. It was really interesting to do, and I liked this aspect of enchanting. I would be working on it some more while we were down here, trying different things here and there, maybe. See what worked best.
The last thing I took care of while I was here doing this was the cloak. I took a gander at it, trying to figure out how I would weave my mana through it and make it do what I wanted. I tried on a sock and let it fail over and over until I got a feel for it. It seemed doable.
So, I put myself to work and trickled mana into the item like I would if I were sewing. I made a little chameleon on the inside of the hood. Next, I grabbed some dirt, leaves, and water from the surrounding area, then focused my intent on what I needed the item to do when the hood was up. I wanted it to help the wearer blend into their surroundings. As I infused the mana I had threaded into the hood with my power, I sprinkled the components I had collected over it, and they disappeared as they usually did. This time, I felt the shifting and imbued magic changing the properties of the item.
“That’s wicked,” I muttered as it stilled, then the information populated in front of my eyes.
Chameleon’s Cloak
When the wearer dons the hood of this item, they become significantly harder to see. Does not assist against creatures with sight enhancing abilities and the ability to sense magic.
Wearer beware: just because you may be harder to see, does not mean that you are harder to smell or hear.
Cloak woven by craftsman seamstress Ilona Nileth and enchanted by Adept enchanter Zekiel Erebos.
I smiled at my work and put the bundle together so that I could hand it all over to Fainnir as soon as he was done talking to Shellica.
It was roughly an hour before he was finished, and when he was back, he was sniffling, but happy.
“She said to thank ye for lettin’ me use yer magic item,” Fainnir said happily, his accent returning full tilt. “She also had me tell me ma where I was, and who I be with. They said to thank ye proper for takin’ me in like ye have. And to listen to ye.”
“Solid advice.” I raised my eyebrows and nodded sagely. “Here, let’s trade.”
I offered him the bundle in my hands, and he happily returned my raven. I pocketed it and watched as he excitedly put each item on and admired them on his person.
He turned to me, his cloak freshly in place and put it up over his face, not the hood, his arm. Like a kid playing at Dracula. “Ye can’t see me now, can ye?”
His chuckle was adorable, really, but he needed to learn, so I told him, “I can see you perfectly. I have true sight. But also, the hood has to be up for it to work. You really should read the item descriptions first.”
His cheeks flushed a bit, reddening, and he smiled, “Thanks.”
A thought occurred to me as he held out his axe to me. That was a gift from his father, a birthright, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to mess with that.
Another firing of the synapses in my gray matter led me down a different path. I had an axe that could steal mana, why not give him one that could act as both a melee weapon and a staff?
I had some talented crafters here with me, but was it possible? I would have to speak with the experts.
I waved him away for a second. “Not if I don’t have to, that was a gift from your father. I wouldn’t sully it if I can help it. But you still have that bandolier of throwing knives, right?”
He nodded and dug into his inventory, pulling them out. I smiled and took them. These I had enchanted for accuracy, so they were good enough, for now.
“How good are you with them?” He sputtered, and I tossed them to him. “I think I just saw Balmur leave the shadow dome. Ask him if he will help you learn to throw them.”
I pulled the raven from my pocket as the dwarf scampered off to do as bidden and sent a message to Vilmas.
“Hey Vilmas, I hope all has been well,” I began, then continued, “I have a question. Have you ever heard of a melee weapon that acts as a staff? Or some kind of amplifier for magic? I was thinking of making something for Fainnir, like an axe that will amplify his power or something.”
A few minutes later she replied, “No, I can’t say that I have. It is an interesting idea in theory, but in practice, it could be difficult to see through. You might try with master Xiphyre? The materials you would need for that would need to be able to handle a large amount of power, and… I’ll think on it more and see what I can sort out. Try Lady Shellica or master Xiphyre. Also, Vrawn misses you both. Talk to her, please. Be safe!”
Shit, I swore vehemently inside my head. Of course, I would forget to talk to her with all the bullshit going on around us. Okay. I’ll talk to her soon.
Next on the list of things to do was get in touch with Xiphyre. “How’s my favorite Ragalfr doing today?” I said, expecting a witty comeback. “I wanted to know if you had ever heard of someone trying to make a melee weapon a magic amplifier, kind of like a wizard’s staff?”
Barking laughter rang out when the raven returned. “That’s the most idiotically absurd idea I think I’ve ever heard!” His chortling died out. “Oh, I would call you stupid, but I quite like your ignorance. Melee weapon ‘like a wizard’s staff’ what a crock. Let me guess, you were thinking of making an axe that would do something like amplify spell output or strength, is that it?”
I blinked at what sounded like a high level of joyful condescension in his tone, my cheeks burned fiercely as I responded with a hundred more mana. “Yeah. No need to be an ass about it.”
I barely even got the chance to respond when a bird that looked similar to the raven I had just sent soared from the stone above my head and landed on my shoulder. Xiphyre’s voice filtered from it into my ear, “I send this to you so that you might know that my reaction was as it was because I have never had someone ask me such ignorant things and had them be so brilliant. This would be a wonderful idea—deadly if it works—and expensive. The materials used would all need to be extremely porous to magic, both ambient and
infused. I will speak with Thogan, Vilmas, and this ‘Shellica’ of whom she dotes excessively on and try to draft a blueprint.”
That was…actually nice of him? I kind of regretted what I had said.
My raven returned, and Xiphyre’s smug voice came from the open beak, “Well, if I weren’t your favorite Ragalfr, I wouldn’t speak to you so.”
“Oh, you little shit!” I spat, and the bird on my shoulder flapped away swiftly.
Closing my eyes, I took a moment to gather myself mentally and then released the pent-up air in my lungs. This was going to be a long journey.
While Balmur went through the process of teaching his protégé the subtle art of flinging bladed weapons, I approached the others.
“Before you go into the whole shebang.” Yohsuke held up a hand. “They heard everything. And I also told them a little about what we could do to help him grow a little quicker.”
“What’s that?” I pulled the shadows around us toward me with a flex of will and then let them go, needing to do something with my mind in that moment.
“I think we should split the party,” James stated. I looked from him to the others who nodded grimly.
“I thought that was a no go,” I sputtered.
“It was, but then I got to thinking—they aren’t going to level nearly as fast as we did at their level if the experience they get is being constantly poached by us,” Yohsuke explained. “I looked into it, well really I looked into the party settings and saw that things could be done differently. All of us are in a party, except Maebe. If we break it down to just you and Fainnir, then he stands a chance at getting some more experience, and we can power level both him and Bea. Which, by the way, you should let her out, now. She needs to socialize.”
I nodded, that was fair. I tapped the stone on my collar, and the slumbering hatchling filtered out onto the ground. She opened her eyes for a moment, glanced around, and when she saw there was nothing to kill or eat, decided sleep was better.
“Okay, so what does that mean?” I looked to the others and opened my status screen, then went into the party features.
I never really liked tinkering with it. One, because it was fine that we were all in the party together. Two, because the information was so minimalistic that it was painful. All it had were the names of the members. The coolest thing it did was give me a live feed of everyone’s health bars above their heads and in the upper left-hand corner of my vision if I focused on it really hard. Kind of gave me a headache, so I didn’t do it that often.
There was the option to leave the party. “Leave the party, and then send an invite to Fainnir.” Muu made a shooing motion, and I shot him a glare.
“Why not just have Fainnir leave the party and be on his own, that way, he gets all the experience he needs.” I tried to reason, but their stoney faces said enough. “It’s for Bea, too, right.”
“Don’t worry, man, we’ll still be right there with you, it’ll just be a little different.” Bokaj tried to reassure me. “Besides, we will still have our earrings and everything.”
“Okay then, before we leave here, I’ll do that.” I sighed and prepared myself for that, but decided I needed a distraction. “So, group name?”
“Do we need one?” James rolled his eyes and snorted as Muu and Bokaj nodded vigorously. “Fine, what would you suggest?”
Bokaj blurted out, “Bad Company!”
I chuckled at that. “Dude, we want to be liked here—no one is going to know that ‘bad’ is meant to be seen as good.”
“Knights of the Fae Table?” He offered again, and the rest of us groaned. “This is going to be hard, isn’t it?”
“That’s what she said.” I laughed as he flipped me off, then offered, “What about ‘The Outsiders?’”
“That’s taken bud, great movie though.” Muu nodded and waved a finger at me. “Matt Dillon really shined in that one. And I am totally not okay being known as a greaser.”
“No one is going to be a greaser.” I shot him a dirty look, and he just grinned. “I just figured it would be a good idea since everyone seems to view us as outsiders to this realm. Interlopers.”
“Because naming ourselves, ‘Outsiders’ calls attention to us, man.” Balmur joined us and gave me the duh look, making my cheeks burn a bit. “But something that could work is Storm Company?”
Bokaj looked at him oddly. “Explain your reasoning.”
Balmur blinked, then grinned and pointed to Kayda. “We have the storm with us here. Bea is an incarnation of the wind. Bokaj and Maebe are the cold, and I bring the heat. Jaken has divine fury, and we have two types of dragons with us, while Yoh and Maebe bring the darkness too.” He pointed at me last. “Not to mention, we have the only being that we know of in existence to be blessed by both Mother Nature and all of the elements except one. We are the storm.”
“I’m not mad about that at all.” Jaken looked surprised and nodded slowly out of respect.
“I am honored that you see me as a member of your party.” Maebe smiled at the Azer dwarf’s reckoning. “And it does seem appropriate to the party as a whole as opposed to some of you.”
“All in favor?” Balmur posed the question, and everyone’s faces lit up as the whole of the party raised their hands. “That’s decided then. So, what’s up with Fainnir? No, no, you keep throwing those knives, man. I want you to hit the target at least five times before you take a break.”
The younger dwarf nodded excitedly and paced back toward the line in the dirt that Balmur had drawn for him. He eyed the simple bullseye twenty paces away and flung his arm forward and loosed a knife. It sailed through the air, whirling beautifully and twirled three times before hitting the center. Fainnir howled in delight.
He looked to us excitedly, but Balmur simply pointed to the target. I hadn’t noticed before, but as both Fainnir and I looked, the blade thumped to the ground.
The others chuckled good-naturedly at the boy’s distress, Balmur took pity and joined him once more. He gave him pointers while we watched, then came back to us. Fainnir threw the blade again, and this time, it hit the outer ring, but it stayed.
Good shit.
Balmur joined us, and this time, Yohsuke spoke, “Zeke had the right idea. We figure out a way that combat works best for him—using all the tools he has and tricks we can teach him—so he can stay alive.”
“And the others we have to find?” Jaken took the time to eye me as we began dishing food out to each other. It smelled great.
“We do what we can. Until we have leads, there’s really nothing to do except try and approach each elemental and find out what they can feel.” I shrugged, going with my best thought toward it. “When I was in proximity to Villeroa and Fainnir, was when the elementals took note of the kids, so I need to be in the area. How close, I couldn’t say. But it’s our safest bet, I guess.”
“Sounds good,” James said around his food. He glanced up and shrugged as I eyed him. “What? Not killing those things made me hungry.”
“You suck, James,” Muu teased, and the two began playfully shoving each other.
“Yohsuke,” Maebe spoke from beside me. “Come, it is time for your training.”
The two of them moved away, and Maebe erected another dome so they could practice undisturbed.
“Well, that means it’s our turn.” Jaken grinned at Muu. “Practice bout?”
“You know it!” Muu hopped easily to his feet and greedily plowed through the rest of his meal. “What weapons?”
I left the others to their own devices as I watched over Fainnir. His form as Balmur corrected him gently improved swiftly. Soon enough, he was able to at least hit the target every time. After five sets of five hits on the target, Balmur let him rest and eat some food.
He munched happily, admiring his handiwork with his throwing knives. The scores on the tree signaling his growth and improvement. The kid was a sponge, and he was eager to learn everything after we had laid out what we thought for him. Good.
; “While you’re eating, I want you to listen to me, carefully,” I spoke from behind him. He rocked back and forth, trying to turn to look at me. “Stay there. I want you to face the tree and the walls and really listen.”
He nodded and ate, then pointed to his ear.
“When you summon your magic, I imagine it feels very natural for you,” I began, and he nodded again. “In that natural kind of feeling, you have to be careful not to grow stale, or become complacent. In our training, I want to have you meditate before we move on and before we sleep. During that meditation, I will take you through exercises designed to strengthen your bond with the earth. And with Pebble, hopefully.”
“His bond with me will grow according to our time spent together and the quality of it,” Pebble spooked me as he spoke behind my left ear.
“Holy fuck, Pebble!” I snarled as I whirled on him. “Warn me when you’re behind me, damn it!”
“Maybe you should become more attuned to the earth as well, Zeke?” His face was as blank as it usually was, but I suddenly the urge to hit him battled against my will. “Besides, the meditation practice is one that father recommends, as well.”
It took me a moment longer than I was comfortable with to realize that he meant the Primordial Earth Elemental.
“Finished eating, Uncle Zeke!” Fainnir called excitedly. He turned and smiled at his friend. “Nice work, Pebble.”
I frowned and turned to where Fainnir motioned with an exaggerated nod. A pile of chunks the same color as the ore that he had been tasked to gather earlier sat on the ground by the water.
“Thank you, there is more, but to take it all would deplete the vein and leave the stone around it compromised.” Pebble sank into the ground, but stopped at the waist. “I will rest, now.”
“Good work, you’ve earned that and more.” I nodded at the elemental, and he just ignored me. I moved toward Fainnir, and we chose a spot near the tree for our meditation.
I taught him how to breathe with his tongue touching the back of his top teeth, letting his exhale out, breathing in for a four-count, then holding it for a count of five. Exhale and repeat. Anything more was just complicated.
Into the Darkness: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Axe Druid Book 4) Page 38