[Ilima] "I'm done here."
Ilima looks back to me after having dealt with each of the remaining spirits. Her scythe seems to glow in the light of the rising sun.
[Ilima] "I preferred your other face."
The petite reaper's remark causes me to realise that I'm still disguised as Arthur. I won't lie, I'm tempted to do something horrible while wearing his face, just in case he ends up here as well. In the end though, I think better of it. I mean, how much more satisfying would it be if everyone slowly turned against him. The thought has me practically drooling in hope, excitement and anticipation.
Calming myself down, I return my face back to its' old, grey-eyed form before quickly placing my mask back over my face and my hood back over my head. I only closed my eyes to blink for a moment but when I open them, the reaper is staring into my eyes from below.
[Ilima] "Much better. They look dead."
Ah, so that's what you liked about them. Figures.
[Kai] "Thank you. I think?"
A small smile caresses her face before she walks past me, presumably walking back to the Graveyard a small way out of town. I suppose I should follow suit and head back to the tavern. Though, as I think that, I look over to the pile of armour and weapons lying amidst the carcasses.
[Kai] "To the victor go the spoils."
I mutter with a slight chuckle as I begin collecting the items from the dark guild personnel. Amongst the items is the fire dagger from Josie, the glowing sword I used, two battle axes, a wood-carved bow with a thin, almost luminescent string, a few more mundane weapons and the pair of gauntlets from the fire demon. These items raise an interesting thought though. With my ability, would I be able to simulate my own version of enchanting?
Entering the tavern, I receive the familiar cautious stares from the waking patrons, seemingly unaware of what happened while they slept. Not wanting to deal with that, I ignore the stares and make my way to the counter, placing some silver on the table.
[Kai] "I'd like my meal in my room, if that's alright?"
The woman at the counter, seeing the silver, gives me an odd look. Was she expecting gold? Don't go getting too greedy, I already payed you extra gold. I give her a cold stare through my mask and she seems to get the message. Perhaps I shouldn't have cleaned myself of all the blood before I came back, I'm sure that would have got her moving.
[Woman] "I-Is there anything particular you'll be wanting?"
[Kai] "Something hot."
I end the conversation by walking away, making my way up the stairs and into my room. The poorly crafted and crumbling room actually feels somewhat homely after the events of last night. Taking a seat on the hay bed, I pull out the small ring and twist it between my fingers. Do I have to put it on to access it?
Placing it on my finger, a flood of information courses through my mind. Each item, like an inventory list, is sent directly from the ring to my brain. If I hadn't been training my mind to better suit my ability, I may have just gone insane. Weapons, armour, money and most importantly, information appears. Thinking about what I wanted to bring out of storage, the ring begins to glow before a small stack of parchment appears in front of me. Taking the first page, I begin to mull over the contents
[Kai] "This is worse than I thought..."
As it turns out, a Royal is the one that ordered the request, although it seems his servant handled the dealings. Lord Dreyfus, Royal of a smaller vampire family. According to the info here, he's a power hungry, ambitious man with refined taste and a love for the female body. He already sounds like a more troublesome Lors.
As for his servant, the one who actually came to Solben to order the request. His name is Juren; as pompous as his master but much more conniving. It's listed that between him and his master, he's the more dangerous one, unless dealing with them in straight forward combat. So Dreyfus is just the powerful figurehead while Juren's the one pulling the strings behind the scenes. I'll have to give them both a visit sometime. Perhaps I could learn more about whether the Royal vampire's anatomy differs from a regular vampire.
I was about to continue reading when I hear a knock at my door. I place the parchment in my storage and open the door cautiously. I expected to see a surviving dark guild member or the lady at the counter with my meal, what I see instead is a small boy, looking around 12 years of age with a hot meal in his hands. The boy has green skin, long ears and short, messy, brown hair. A hobgoblin, I guess.
[Kai] "Thanks."
I take the food off of his hands and give him a modest amount of silver. His eyes seem to sparkle for a moment and he doesn't appear to know what to say. He's about to respond when I close the door in his face. I'd feel sorry about that if I didn't hand him that money and besides, I need to do what I want to and head back to report as soon as possible.
I sit down and eat my meal which, to be honest, wasn't all that great even when compared to the meals I got when I was doing forced labour turning water into blood. Following this, my mind travels back to the weapons that some of the dark guild members possessed. I take out the glowing sword from before and inspect it. Strangely enough, I can't find anything that differentiates it from a normal sword. However, once I swing it, or even have the intention of swinging it, that same glow reappears.
[Kai] "No doubt. This is an enchantment."
I'm honestly getting excited about the prospect of enchanting. I'm curious to see whether I can emulate the effects and achieve my own version with my ability. Let's try it out immediately. I take out a worn blade from my storage and place it on the table nearby, though before I do anything...
[Kai] "
I've sealed the room so no sound can escape and no one can enter or leave. That should keep any wandering eyes from seeing what I'm doing.
[Kai] "What to try first?"
Looking back at the blade, I run my fingers along it while thinking; My fingers pressing against the cracks and dents in the metal.
[Kai] "
Wait, that's two words...huh?
The iron crafted blade begins to mend itself in front of my eyes. The cracks fill out and reconnect while the dents appear to buff themselves out.
[Kai] "Why...why didn't I ever think to try two words?"
Am I an idiot? Or perhaps I've only just become able to do this. Yes, I'm going with the latter. It makes me feel less idiotic.
Looking back at the blade, while it has been fully repaired, I still don't know whether the enchantment worked. Doing the logical thing, I take the blade and snap it halfway. Nothing.
[Kai] "Damn...failure."
Oh well. I'll just have to think of something else. Perhaps taking another look at the already enchanted weaponry will give me some ideas. Placing the enchanted blade on the table in place of the one I just broke, I analyse it, then an idea pops into my head.
[Kai] "
The idea behind the word just now is reverse engineering. To take apart a complete work and see how it's put together piece by piece. What happened to the blade is almost exactly what I was hoping for in that aspect. The glow fades as words begin to appear on the centre of the sword.
The words begin to disappear slowly, as if they were being peeled off as they vanish into thin air. In the end, I'm left with a completely ordinary sword. One thing I noticed is the phrase used to enchant. Does it have to be a phrase? It seems like you could get the same effect if you used something like
With the formerly enchanted blade in front of me, I place my fingers along the centre of the blade, where the phrase once was.
[Kai] "
The weapon begins to glow as the word appears in the centre of the blade, hopefully indicating success. All that's left now is to test it. Picking up the blade and giving it a few swings, it feels as though it's cutting clean through the air, or rather, there's no resistance whatsoever. Searching my storage for something, I manage to find the piece of old, rotting wood from my parent's home in this world. I don't even have to swing the blade; Merely touching the piece of wood against the sword is enough to split it in two.
I can't help but let out a small chuckle at the power I've just discovered. It looks like I know what I'm going to spend today doing.