"He was skilled enough to hide his signature from his owner," I shrugged dismissively as I leaned against the wall by the door.
"That's the only reason?" Sekka scoffed at me angrily.
"No," I smirked, "It's the only one that has proper words to describe it. Call it a hunch if that makes you feel better."
Sekka didn't push to find out anymore after that. I guess he was just getting used to my insanity to a certain degree. Plus he couldn't really argue with my desire for a dwarven blacksmith. Dwarves were known for the great artisans, and craftsman. When a dwarf learned to do something they went all in.
They perfected their craft going far beyond what was necessary to be proficient. Having a blacksmith of dwarven descent among our ranks would only make us that much more formidable. He wasn't likely to betray us once I removed that collar. Now all we needed was a bit of patience. We'd go about our normal sales routine as if nothing had changed.
Because as far as the elves knew, nothing had changed for us. I continued to create new artificial crystals while Sekka caught up on his rest. It wasn't difficult for me to get all the sleep I needed. I wanted the runic knowledge the dwarf possessed as well. Dwarves had taken the runic language far further then humans or dragons ever dreamed in the old days.
There was no reason for them to stop. Many of the runes that Balock used on the blades on those walls were unfamiliar to me so I did not know their function, but runic constellations functioned as a sort of instructions for the mana to follow allowing the wielder to do things with magic that they normally wouldn't be able to do. Giving a wind mage the ability to use fire was just one of many common examples. Acquiring an affinity was the best way to gain reliable insight into any element, but that was easier said then done. I'd had to force myself to acclimate to the earth element because my body did not have a natural affinity to it.
I looked around the room a bit before deciding to sit on the ground, and work on my spellcasting. My ice needles was one I really wanted to work on. Combining ice needles with my dominance over poison would be a nice lethal combination. Some of my poisons were situational, and could be snapped out of, but that was if you knew you were being poisoned. Some of them would wreak havoc on your insides if you weren't treated.
Others would just kill you as long as you were given a big enough dose. I hadn't discovered what a big enough dose was just yet. Not for elves anyway. I was glad that the room was mana sealed. I could do whatever I wanted in here without giving away the fact that I could use mana.
I wanted the ice needles to be hard enough to pierce armor. That wasn't an easy feat, but if I needed to make them a little bigger to pull it off then that was just what I was going to have to do. I wanted to fill them with poison so I could kill or disable with ease. Preferably without being noticed. A needle was the ideal way I could do something like that.
Small mostly clear ice needle would be difficult to spot in the daylight let alone at night. I smirked to myself as I set to work on my ice needle project. Hardening the ice as much as I could, and aiming to put a scratch on the deceased city lords blade. The blade was self repairing so it was a good target when I was looking to pierce armor. Damaging it would only be a minor annoyance at the worst.
Given enough time the blade would repair itself, and then I could use it for target practice again. At first the needles just broke on the surface of the blade so I made the needle a little bigger, and concentrated. The needles started to develop a blue color as I concentrated the water within them. I started experimenting by adding various poisons as well. Some poisons actually improved the hardness of the ice.
Others seemed to weaken the ice. The basilisk venom was one of the ones that improved the hardness, and durability of the ice. The pain poison also seemed to help. The paralytic one, and most of the others weakened the ice. My dreams of creating knock out ice needles were quickly dwindling.
It was looking more like I was going to be making knock out ice arrows. That was fine, but not nearly as sneaky as I wanted. The pain toxin wasn't that great of a poison to use either. Leaving a trial of screaming enemies in the worst agony they could imagine was a fun idea, but it really didn't agree with our plan of sneaking around. Tomorrow night we were going to rob one of these noble houses.
Just not in this city. There was another equally big city to the west of us. I could fly there easily given enough time. Flight was one of the fastest ways to travel. That feeling of something being different with my body reverberated through me a second time.
I placed my hand over my heart, and just listened to my body for a little while. What was different? I didn't understand it. I wanted to know. I really did want to know.
I could feel my heart, my lungs, and the rest of my organs doing exactly what they were meant to be doing. Even my skin felt somewhat odd. Something was very much different. What was it? Maybe if I were in my true form I might be able to understand it better.
I couldn't do that right now. Taking my true form while on another planet, and when I was being possibly heavily monitored was a bad idea on every level. I may be willing to push my boundaries on multiple fronts, and not have any real qualms with getting caught, but elves remembered the power dragons had. They feared that power. Letting them know I possessed such power was not a good idea.