“At this time of the morning?” asked the guard, with a skeptical smile on his face as if it was not the best idea.
“It has to do with the security of the kingdom, but I’d rather not discuss it in the open,” said the master.
“Maybe it can wait until normal hours of the day, then,” said the guard insistently.
Phoxas turned to Ceras and said, “Just show him your hand. Hopefully that will get him moving and he’ll let us in.”
Earlier in the night, the disguise had run out of power so the goddess mark was now visible again on Ceras’ hand, which he showed to the captain of the guard. His face immediately reacted - not with the fear that the mark had produced in the actors, but curiosity.
“This looks important. Open the gates,” said the captain. The large gate creaked at first before starting to open, allowing the three men to squeeze through before it closed with a clang behind them. The captain now led them at a fast pace up the tunnel, where they soon found themselves entering the grand doors to the castle.
--
Ceras was standing in the throne room, with the captain and Master Phoxas arguing with the chancellor of the royal court about getting access to the king at this early hour of the morning.
Eventually it took a shout from Master Phoxas to have any effect. “He made a legendary weapon yesterday and it was stolen from me this morning!”
This produced the desired response from the chancellor who just said, “I’ll get the king immediately,” and ran out of the hall.
The wait for the king was silent as the captain tried to look anywhere except at the two other men, as if he didn't want to be anywhere near them when the king arrived. The king arrived with a clatter of armor and the chancellor behind him.
Ceras thought, Does this man ever remove his armor?
"What’s this about a legendary weapon being stolen? I didn't even know that one existed in the kingdom.”
As Master Phoxas explained the story about the theft of the item, the king’s face grew grimmer and grimmer until by the end he was rubbing his large hands over his head.
He looked at Ceras. “Nothing but bloody trouble since you first became a dungeon master, and now you create a legendary weapon and lose it. Don’t you know how dangerous they are in anybody’s hands - especially if not mine?”
“Your Majesty,” said the chancellor in a concerned tone of voice, “I don’t want to offend His Majesty Ceras, but we need more proof that there is a legendary weapon out in the kingdom before we turn the world upside down to find it.”
“Good point. Can we have some proof from you two?”
“I think I can provide what you want,” said Ceras, as he was keen to show the king that he was not lying.
Reaching into his bag, he pulled out his staff and several other items, mostly metal ones. He placed them on the floor of the throne room under the gaze of the king and the others who had started to gather. Ceras started to cast the ‘Matter Transformation’ spell. Again as he cast the spell, he gathered his full magical energies and light surrounded the material, enabling him to envision what each of the items was made of. He imagined in his mind what new item he wanted to produce by concentrating on the image, structure and function of the weapon. The material on the floor start to glow and fade into a red mist of matter that swirled around in a tornado of force, as it started to move into the shape of the item Ceras had envisioned. Suddenly, the red mist disappeared and a sword fell to the floor with a clang.
Ceras had wanted to impress the king, so he had put a lot of effort into the sword by combining several magical effects. The goddess blessing showed the stats of the weapon for all to see:
Equipment Name
Carry
Type
Effect
Worth
Sword of Power
4
Legendary Magical Weapon
MP storage unknown.
Flame effect when drawn and fireball magic
Unknown
As the clatter of the falling weapon had echoed throughout the room, all eyes were now on the sword. Some of the warriors showed hunger and desire for the sword that was in easy reach of them. The king walked forward as if he was scared to touch the weapon, but eventually he picked it up, seeing that it was the same size as the heavy weapon at his side. Holding it by the hilt, he pulled the blade out of the scabbard. When the long, dark sword left the scabbard, it burst into flame as the king raised it up into the air. The flame surrounded the weapon with an intense orange and golden light and lit up the throne room, casting light and shadows all over the walls as it flickered and glowed. The king waved the sword around to test the weight, and then pointed it toward the back of the room. Several fireballs shot out of the end and hit a tapestry on the wall, setting it aflame as the waves of fire washed over it.
“I never liked that tapestry anyway,” said the king as he undid his old weapon and replaced it with the new magical blade. “Best if you don’t make many more of these types of weapons, as it will tear the kingdom apart. You don’t mind if I keep this one, do you?”
Ceras just shook his head, as the last remark from the king had been said with a tone of voice suggesting it was not something he could argue with.
The king looked back at the chancellor and said, “Convinced.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
“Well, don’t just stand there. Get the weapon back!” the king ordered the chancellor, who nodded and started to shout orders at the assembled people to start the hunt.
As the gathering crowd started to move into action, the king bellowed at Ceras, “Well, I must say congratulations for becoming a legendary wizard. I need to talk to you later about what that entails, but you now have the title of a duke of the kingdom that all legendary-level people carry. The information you need to know for now is that you are required to protect the kingdom from the higher-level monsters, but we’ll go into that in more detail later.
“You’ll of course be helping in the retrieval of the weapon, when we find it.”
The king made this last remark with a stern look, as if Ceras was the court dog that needed to clean up a mess he had made on the carpet.
“Of course, Your Majesty!” he replied quickly.
“Good, but we need to find it first and then I can do my job. You may want a good weapon yourself, as retrieving it is going to be dangerous and we’ll need all the advantages we can get. But, please - no more giving out legendary weapons to people who can’t look after them,” said the king, turning his gaze to the master in his white robes. “Be ready to help at any time I need you.”
When the king had finished addressing them, he started to shout at his team to begin organizing the hunt. Ceras and Master Phoxas figured that they had been dismissed for now and with a nod of relief, the master said, “Let's get out of here while we can, as I think that we’ve caused enough trouble.”
“Right you are.”
Chapter 6 Preparation for a Hunt
Ceras was banging his fists on the door of the magical weapons shop where he had bought the Dense Star Staff some time ago. He had just left Master Phoxas, who was going to his rooms in the college to get some clothes to replace the white cotton sheet, and would be meeting up with Ceras and Hidden-Caverns in a few hours to select the skills Ceras had not yet obtained. With the hunt for the legendary staff ongoing, Ceras would need all the advantages he could get.
The precinct was quiet and the first rays of dawn were just hitting the tops of the buildings as he went to knock on the shop door again. His fist was mid-hit and just about to pound the door again, when Ceras heard a sound from the shop.
After a few more minutes of impatience, eventually a sleepy man with a sleeping hat on his head came to answer the door with an annoyed look on his face.
“Thank goodness! I need to get the metal you were using to make the staff for me,” said Ceras, breathing heavily in his excitement.
The shopkeeper wiped his eyes and looked at th
e large young man for a moment, before suddenly recognizing him as the customer who had spent so much gold on weapons in his shop.
“Oh, it’s you, young man. Come in. The staff is not quite ready yet.”
“That’s OK, I’ll finish it off and pay the full price. I’ll buy the rest of the material you’ve been making it out of, too.”
“Whatever you say, sir. As long as you’ve got the gold.”
The shopkeeper led Ceras through the dark shop and workshop at the back, into the rear corridor. Up the stairs Ceras could see several children watching with inquisitive looks on their faces as the man led Ceras to the large safe located in the back of the building.
“My young children, sir. You woke them up.”
“Sorry.”
After opening the magical safe, the man brought out the staff with both hands. It was thicker than a normal staff. After handing it to Ceras, the weapons maker went back into the safe and pulled out a large bag full of metal that he dragged, with Ceras’ help, to one of the work benches. The staff was still in a rough form, lacking any of the detailed work Ceras had seen on the man's other staffs.
“Do you mind if I do some magic here and now to finish it off?” Ceras asked the shopkeeper.
“As long as you pay me first for all the material, at the price we agreed when you commissioned it.”
“That’s not a problem,” Ceras replied as he passed over a sack of gold coins that the shopkeeper counted with the smile of having made a good sale, as if all the annoyance of the young man waking his family had faded away.
The now inquisitive man moved back to give Ceras some room to work his magic. This time, Ceras took a few minutes to concentrate on the design of the staff as well as its magical properties. Thinking back to all the times he had worked with his father on staffs for others and everything he’d picked up about what made a good fighting staff, Ceras envisioned the precise dimensions he wanted for this legendary weapon. Once he had a detailed vision of what was required, he cleared his head and cast the spell. The white light and red mist appeared to reform the staff into:
Equipment Name
Carry
Type
Effect
Worth
Black Hole Staff
50
Legendary Magical Weapon
MP storage (unknown) and transmission
Unknown
When the mist cleared the shopkeeper just muttered, “My goddess, it’s a legendary weapon. What did you do?”
Then he noticed Ceras’ palm with the goddess image on it and bowed slightly. “Sorry for questioning you, Your Majesty.”
“That's fine. Thank you for the use of your workshop to finish off the staff. I must be off, as I’ve a lot to do.”
On his way out, he started to fill up the staff with a steady flow of MP as he held it in his hand. His plan was to constantly input any spare MP into the staff over time, to see how much it could hold.
--
Ceras was passing his heavy new staff from hand to hand as he talked to the goblin that was Hidden-Caverns, and Mater Phoxas who was still in the white robe he had been in since his resurrection that morning.
“... so they didn't even allow me into my own room as they had some of the king’s wizards using tracker spells to try and trace the staff. They were quite rude about it and even threatened me if I tried to enter.”
“I'm getting some clothing made for you in the dungeon at the moment. They should be ready for you in a few minutes,” said Hidden-Caverns considerately, as he had gotten to enjoy the older man's company.
Ceras’ new staff smashed onto the floor with a loud thud, as he’d missed catching it. When he picked it up off the floor, he could see the tile where it had landed had been smashed into little pieces.
“My goodness, how heavy is that thing?” asked Master Phoxas, shocked at the loud noise and the small crater the staff had made.
“Here, have a try at holding it,” said Ceras with a smile.
The older man attempted to hold it up but dropped it to the floor, creating another hole in the tiles.
“What in heavens is that made of?” asked the master curiously.
“Some really heavy metal, with a lot of balls in the center of the sphere that is at the heart of all material.”
“Are you still on about those spheres that make up matter, even though you're a legendary wizard?” asked the goblin with Hidden-Caverns’ voice.
“Yes. I’m going to get to the bottom of what it all means eventually, but for now, we need to select my skills for the levels I’ve gained. I have four skills to select, so how do we do it?”
Master Phoxas stood up and walked around the room with the white sheet flapping around his legs, rubbing his head with a serious expression on his face.
“There is a spell that the colleges use to predict the outcome of skill selection. We could use that since we’re short on time for an extensive study. It works by modeling the future and how your choices affect your powers. I could cast the spell on you and then you can make your choice using the prediction based on what you most want out of your skill. This is probably the best option if you want to select the skills today,” said the master.
“I’ll do that, then. So, what do I have to do?”
“Just sit down, and I’ll cast the spell on you. You'll find yourself in a landscape with many versions of yourself and you’ll see how the choices you make affect your magical abilities.”
Ceras sat down as he had been instructed by the master and the older man began to cast a spell on him. Ceras felt his mind starting to drift, as if his body remained in the room with the other two and he was still aware of what was going on around him, but in his mind he found a vision of himself on a plain.
The plain was covered with green grass that stretched off into the horizon and a version of Ceras himself was at the center of a large field. In the air above him was an array of symbols representing different skills, with arrows beside them indicating how the skills affected his attributes. In Ceras’ mind he envisioned the attributes that he was interested in and the selection was cut down to the following:
Intelligence
Charisma
Knowledge
Strength
Fortitude
Agility
MP
HP
Stamina
Spell Efficiency
Fire
Frost
Lights on the array of attributes indicated what he had previously chosen as his skills:
Skills
Name
Mastery
Effect
Spell Efficiency
Master
Increase the spell efficiency by 150%
Double Mana
Master
Double your Mana
Double Knowledge
Master
Double your Knowledge
Double Intelligence
Master
Double your Intelligence
Double Charisma
Master
Double your Charisma
Ceras looked at his choices for a few seconds and then selected increasing his fire spell efficiency. As he looked out onto the plain, another person appeared to the side of the simulation with a line between the two, indicating an increase of fifty percent. The Ceras figure cast a fireball spell as the second person was also casting the same spell.
As he was able to visually compare the two spells cast with the difference in skill, he could easily see an increase on how the skill under consideration would affect any fire magic he cast. The HP damage numbers also appeared in the magical simulation, taking its damage from two thousand HP to three thousand HP.
Ceras was immensely excited by the increase and blown away by the raw fire power this would give him if he chose this skill. The increase in fireball efficiency, added to all of the greater spell efficiency than normal due to the method developed by Hidden-Caverns, meant that he had close to a kill sh
ot for most creatures who were not heavily armored.
Taking the simulation of his skills further, Ceras added onto the second figure an increase in the frost efficiency spell. Ceras was able to see the combined effect of choosing two skills within the simulated field where three versions of himself were now casting spells. This meant that not only would his fire spell increase by fifty percent, but the frost spell increased by the same value.
Testing out something he was hopeful would have a cumulative effect, he made the third figure cast ‘Temperature Extreme’ and smiled, as the power of the spell was amplified by both spells giving an increase of double its normal damage. This was a significant advantage, to have a spell that gave a potential of four thousand damage points – he was truly venturing into the realms of legendary power now.
Deselecting the two skills so that only his original image was left, Ceras started to play around with different combinations of skill selection. The images on the plain reappeared and disappeared, showing how the different combinations would affect his magical power. As there were many permutations of the number of skills he could choose from, he spent some time with the selection until he got what he thought would best improve his character sheet.
When he had decided on his skills, the goddess blessing showed him his choices and the effects on his stats:
Skills
Name
Mastery
Effect
Spell Efficiency
Master
Increase the spell efficiency by 150%
Double Mana
Master
double your mana
Double Knowledge
Master
Double your Knowledge
Double Intelligence
Master
Double your Intelligence
Legendary Weapons Page 6