Into the Dragon's Den (Axe Druid Book 2)

by Christopher Johns

  “Let’s worry about that one after I can talk to Shellica.” He looked confused. “She’s the crazy, old Dwarf who trained me in enchanting when we were in Djurn Forge. I may make a trip to see her soon. For now, let's see about getting those other enchantments going, yeah?”

  He doffed his breastplate, and I got to thinking about the design I would engrave into it. But I didn’t want it to be visible for anyone to see and get an idea of what it would do, so I put the engraving on the inside near the neckline.

  As skillful as I was, I did let my mana recharge between jobs. My wisdom was high enough that after a little over a minute, I was back to full from all that work.

  I closed my eyes and reached for the mana within me. I brought it in a line from what represented my mana pool near my navel to my finger. I envisioned the design in my head and began pushing the mana forward out of my body steadily. While my eyes were closed, I could sense the drain on my MP, represented by a blue bar. It was steady, but the cost was low, so I wasn’t worried. I pressed the design, a simple feather repeated five times with each pointed tip of the quill faced inward, almost like a star.

  Once I was finished with that, I took a moment to pull out of myself and focus my intent. I willed the armor to be lighter, as light as the feathers I imagined those in the engraving would weigh. Once I had that thought firmly in place in my mind, I began to channel my mana into the engraving. Around 200 MP filled it, and I pushed no further. There was no reason to, and after a week of getting my ass handed to me for doing just that, I had learned to trust my instincts. Or get whacked by said crazy Dwarf.

  I hated her whacking me. Get your mind out of the gutter.

  I repeated the process for his padded plate breeches with the same engraving. This time I had to flip up one of the plates and engrave it under there. The symbol worked fine, and the desired enchantment took.

  I let him throw the items back on. Each one now had the feather identifier before the rest of the item. It significantly lowered the weight of his armor. Both items total only weighed eight pounds. I took his boots; they were hearty leather with nothing really all that spectacular about them. The soles were thick though, and that was enough for me.

  “Hey, Jaken,” I called the Paladin over. “You have any thin metal plates small enough to cover this sole from just above the bottom and a little way up? So that his movement won't be hampered?”

  Jaken took the boot and eyed it for a minute. “I have some small pieces of leftover metal I thought were cool. Think you could melt them? If you can act as the forge, I’d be happy to try and hammer them into a usable shape. You have a desired thickness?”

  “Yeah, let’s go for no less than maybe an eighth of an inch?” I thought for a moment, then added, “They don’t have to be long or too wide. Maybe about an inch and a half squared?”

  He nodded, reached into his inventory, and pulled a few rock-like pebbles of iron out. “This work?”

  “You have anything that may conduct magic better?” I asked. There was no need to beat around the bush here. “Copper, mithral, ebon?”

  He nodded and reached into his inventory and grabbed a couple nuggets of some kind of whitish metal I hadn’t seen before.

  “This is something I found at Granda’s forge.” He showed it to me. “I think he called it ‘Spell Steel?’ They don’t like working with it unless they have to because the process to forge it is complicated. I didn’t think of it because they hated it. They let me have some though because I was such a hard worker—and I thought it was cool as shit.” He chuckled.

  “What’s the forging process like?” Muu asked, taking an interest in the metal.

  “Well,” Jaken took it in his hand and closed his eyes as if trying to recall, “it takes a lot of heat, a lot, then cools down quickly, so no one but a grandmaster level smith can form anything worthwhile out of it with any sort of efficient or reliable results. Also, you can’t hammer it all that hard because when it heats, it’s a little more fragile. It’s as close to ideal as some metals for enchanting, but it's hellish to forge and costly to find. Not to mention the amount of money it would take to actually have a weapon formed from it.”

  Muu looked at Jaken as if he had a horn growing out of his forehead. “Ballpark estimate?” he asked in a hushed tone.

  “For a dagger?” He rubbed his chin, mumbled a bit, then looked at Muu and said simply, “Probably around three hundred gold. Give or take.”

  “Jesus fucking hell!” James spat his drink out. “Fuck that. An actual weapon? That shit would be expensive as FUCK.”

  I thought about the price of my axe if it had been made with that material and shivered. Oh hell no. I mean, sure, as a Druid, I was drooling for material like that, and honestly, we could likely afford it. But just knowing that that had been a ballpark estimate was troubling. My first great axe had been about five gold. Storm Caller? Around a hundred, and I had supplied the main materials! Fuck, man.

  “Alright, let me see if I can get it heated for you, and we can try and get it into position.” I took the first nugget from him and stuck it into my palm.

  I focused on the vision of flame in a forge, then brought the mana into my palm. I felt the metal take the heat, and after two minutes of steady heating, I sat it on the ground for Jaken to hammer. He tapped it to check the heat, then handed it back. “Hotter.”

  “Very well then,” I mumbled. I poured more mana into the palm of my hand. This time, I brought the image of lava streams inside my mind. I felt the Mark of Flame, the blessing that the Primordial Flame Elemental had bestowed upon me, begin to pulse. That never happened. I almost lost my focus, but it seemed benign enough, so I continued pouring mana into the Spell Steel nugget. If I let something like that bother me, Shellica would have hurled a hammer at me if she could find one.

  After working through most of my mana and having to wave my palm off multiple times, we were able to make two almost identical squares of metal thick enough for me to engrave. Jaken had lightly hammered—tapped really—until they were close to the shape I had in mind.

  Rather than engrave them while they were outside the boots, I took the two boots and sat them in front of me. Taking a single clawed forefinger, I began to dig out a shallow square in both just above the heels in the thickest part of the leather sole. The layers were glued together, thick and grimy on the inside, but this was a portion that was never supposed to be seen, so it didn’t bother me.

  Once the now-cooled pieces fit snugly in place, I heated the leather and metal together so that they became fused, and I also smoothed any hammer marks or small imperfections with heat—like a little bit of welding on my part. I let them cool for a moment once more as I tried to think of how I would engrave the metal. I had limited space, so I had to be precise.

  I grinned at the idea that began to settle in my mind, and it was simple enough that I could accomplish my goal and still tease my friend. I brought the image into my mind and settled into a better-seated position. Then I began engraving the outline of a frog as if seen from above. After that, I included three bars, like an upside down WiFi signal beneath the legs. I repeated the process for the second boot.

  After they were both done, I enchanted them for jumping, just as Muu had suggested. When they were done, I was surprised by how well the enchantment had taken. It had cost me 100 MP per boot, but the results were stellar.

  Frog Boots

  + 20 feet to a forward jump, + 12 feet to an upward leap. All impact from leaping or jumping while wearing these boots is lessened by 85%.

  When these boots are worn, the wearer takes the phrase—“If you’re feeling froggy, leap,” to heart.

  Enchanted by Journeyman Enchanter Zekiel Erebos.

  “Holy fuck, man!” Muu gushed as he held the items and looked at the stats. “These are insane!”

  “Some of my best work, man,” I replied with a grin. After all the enchanting I had done, my level in the craft had gone up by one, so I was currently level 28 in ench
anting.

  In another twelve levels, I’d go up a level overall. So, if I were to get to level 40, right at that moment, my total level would be upped to level 21, as if I had earned that experience in a fight or through questing.

  “Well, let’s see what you can do, man?” Jaken encouraged.

  “But what about my weapon?” Muu asked, flashing the short spear forward.

  “You don’t need that to fucking jump, fool.” Yohsuke growled. “Let Zeke rest, man. He’s been working himself over for you, and you haven’t even said thanks yet.”

  “Shit, man.” Muu turned on me and frowned. “I’m sorry—thank you.”

  “Jump, motherfucker!” I smiled good-naturedly. “That’ll be thanks enough. I’ll take your spear once you show off a bit.”

  He tapped on his boots and grinned, his sharp teeth shining. “Let’s see how high I can go.”

  He squatted down a little bit, then pushed his hands up and pushed with his legs. He leaped an easy twenty feet into the air. He landed with an audible grunt and then grinned at us. “I didn’t even try that hard that time.”

  “Leap forward!” James urged. “Like, long-jump style.”

  Muu nodded and set his feet in much the same way and propelled his body forward as hard as he could. He skidded to a stop thirty-two feet away and began to throw his arms around like crazy trying to keep his balance.

  “Oh, dude,” I whispered in awe to the others. “If we don’t use that for an attack, we are shitty gamers.”

  I looked over in time to see Jaken and Yohsuke nodding. James stood in stunned silence, and Bokaj just grinned as he looked on.

  I made a grabbing sign for Muu’s weapon, and he got the idea. He jogged back and handed it to me. It felt odd in my hands, but it wasn’t a great axe, so I couldn’t complain.

  “What kind of enchantment were you thinking?” I wondered. “I know you said elemental, but there are elements to choose from and, well, now you know what I can do. If you want to try some shit—we can try some shit.”

  Muu seemed to start thinking, then began to frown. Then he closed his eyes and began to scratch his head. Finally, he looked me in the eyes and said, “I have no clue. I know that, theoretically speaking, you could do pretty much whatever you want. What would you suggest?”

  I thought a moment. That was a good question. After another minute of thinking, I got an idea.

  “Well, we all have racial abilities,” I began. I pointed to Bokaj. “Bokaj can cover his weapon in ice for an attack to potentially freeze an enemy. Balmur can cover his weapons in flames. Yoh can fully recover his MP once per day. And I’m pretty sure I saw James cover his fists and claws in acid.”

  “Don’t forget, I can come back to life once per day,” Jaken interjected. When the rest of us looked at him in alarm, he shrugged. “It’s an Orc thing.”

  “Where the fuck was this information?!” James growled at Jaken threateningly.

  Had to admit—I wanted to know too. He’d been holding out on us! Fuck. Maybe having a new guy in the group was useful after all. And I swear to all the Gods in Brindolla if you don’t stop saying, ’you never asked,’ I will turn this story around so fast!

  Too far? Too far. Cool. Sorry.

  “Well what about you, Zeke?” Muu wondered.

  “Zeke can see hidden things. I think I heard him call it True Sight?” I nodded at Yohsuke to confirm his statement. “Not to mention, he has his tails.”

  “Right,” I agreed. “So, what is it that makes your race special? What special ability do you have that you could incorporate?”

  Muu opened his stat screen and began to tinker a moment before answering, “Sheera’s Venom? It says that the user can imbue his weapons and attacks with venom for one minute. It has a twenty-four hour cooldown.”

  “That’s cool as shit, dude,” James said. “Dragons are dope.”

  The two Dragons of the group bumped fists and chuckled conspiratorially.

  “That’s pretty fucking cool, I agree.” I put a hand to my head and began to think. “Okay, so you use venom. Does it say anything about your weapon being protected from that venom? How about if I make your weapon envenomed? Oh! That reminds me, Bokaj, Nora had something for me, right?”

  “Yeah, man, you just forgot to actually grab it from me,” he explained. He reached into his inventory, pulled out a small box, and handed it to me with the attached note. “She said to read the note before you do anything with this box.”

  “That’s fair,” I mumbled as I opened it up and read it aloud.

  Zekiel,

  I included two of the most potent products I could in such a short amount of time. If you intend to use these poisons on any kind of weapons, know that they will cause the weapon to erode—not the way acid would but no less seriously. If you treat the weapon with the white powder I have included, it will allow you one safe use of the poison in the bright green stoppered vial. If you use the black powder for the yellow stoppered vial, it will provide the same result. The green will cause a burst of poison damage in one go and may cause the target to become confused. The yellow causes the target to take damage over time and may lower their speed. You have enough powder and poison for two uses of each. Do not mix the two or confuse the powders. Either could result in a rather… nasty bit of business.

  —Your friend.

  “That’s not cryptic,” I muttered. “Okay, so we have poisons.” I began to tap my head in thought. “Maybe we can use one of them for your weapon?”

  “Could you do that?” Muu wondered. “It says that you only have two uses of each. How would you make that work?”

  “Well, and this is me spitballing here,” I began, “I could make a protective barrier, like the ring of storing, that is designed to keep the poison there. After that, I add a portion of the powder, then the vial, and lock it in place. With that, the poison could be there forever or for a certain amount of time. There’s no telling how it will work or if it will work. And honestly speaking, it could backfire, and you would have no enchantment for your weapon. It won’t be safe, and honestly? I would rather wait until we are in a safer environment to experiment like that. At least that way we can commission another weapon if I fuck up.”

  Muu looked disappointed, but he seemed to understand. “Could you maybe make it armor piercing? Extra sharp?”

  “Lemme see what I can do for ya,” I said and began to think of ways to enhance his weapon.

  It was already a wicked weapon. I had no doubts that it would easily cause a bleeding effect just from how it was made. Armor piercing? That would be lovely, but was there something… more I could give it? Piercing was necessary. That was kind of the point with spears. Pun… mildly intended.

  It would be nice to have it come back, maybe? Like Storm Caller did for me, but it didn’t have the raw elemental power that my weapon did. Though, I was sure that I could probably do it with a certain range. Besides, having him throw his weapon and call it back would be a little more practical with him as low leveled as he is for right now.

  Fuck it, may as well try, I thought to myself.

  I looked down at the tip of the spear and began to outline a drill-like etching into the metal at the tip. I finished that with more than enough mana to spare, then began to channel mana into it with drilling through armor in mind, watching the cruel tip of the spear puncture armor as it would part flesh like a hot knife through butter. That took a majority of the mana I had, so I sat for about two minutes to regain all my mana for the other engraving I had in mind.

  Moving to the handle, just above the leather grip, I began to engrave a shooting star, complete with tail. The star portion itself was a pentagram. It was a small thing, two inches long from tip to tip, but I made the engraving slightly deeper than I normally would. The MP cost for that engraving was trivial, and by this point, my mana was just about full—literally points away. I recovered 360 MP per minute thanks to my thirty-five points in wisdom.

  It seems ridiculous, right? Lik
e, with that much mana, you could do so much! Well, that 360 MP is divided by twelve five-second intervals. So every five seconds, six one-hundredths of my mana returns to me—or 30 MP for those of us who are bad at math. So every five seconds for a minute to get that back. Now, I have 500 MP total. That’s almost a minute and a half to get the full thing back.

  Out of combat? Not an issue. In the middle of a brawl where my friends and I were fighting for our lives? That’s a long-ass time.

  As I focused on what I wanted the weapon to do, I began concentrating on the stars in the sky at night, like the ones I had seen across Maebe’s arms and face.

  The thought of the Unseelie Queen made me blush slightly, but I kept pushing the images I saw in my mind’s eye to get back on track.

  Like the stars that were present in my own fur, I saw the motion of the falling stars, the comets. The heavens themselves moved, and they moved so fast. As I poured my mana into the weapon, I saw that speed, and I held it fast in my mind’s eye. I used all of my mana for this enchantment, and it left me with an unbearable headache.

  “There.” I groaned and tossed it to him. “Pick it up and throw it.” He looked at me like I was dumb. “What the fuck did I just tell you to do?!”

  He jumped at my sudden outburst, bent to pick up the weapon, and threw it away from him like a javelin. As soon as it landed in the ground, in the ground. The tip was buried in the stone solidly, and with that, I told him what to do next.

  “Close your eyes, hold out your hand, and will the weapon to return to your hand.” Enough of my mana had returned by now that I cast Regrowth, and the headache began to dull.

  “Look, man, it’s not that far away, I can just go ge–” Muu began, but the look I hit him with shut him up, and he did as he was told.

  After a moment of concentration, nothing happened, and I sighed. “Don’t think about it happening. See it happening. Will it to happen.”

  Muu looked withered but sighed, closed his eyes, and then thrust his palm forward with his fingers skyward. The weapon disappeared in a blur of light scattered darkness and reappeared in his grip.