Sitting at the table with the three runemasters I had to start with a good question, if I ask a dumb question, I doubt I'll get the table's attention.
"Teacher Frey, I tried a lot of things during this test, but what intrigued me the most was the aura weapon the elves had, especially Caliban's shield and Merilren's whip. Although I believe that I understand the effect of the red and gold aura, I cannot say for sure what properties are involved in these colored auras."
The three Runemasters looked at each other as if they were deciding whether to tell me the truth or to make an excuse.
"This is a sensitive and complicated subject for several reasons, but before we explain the nature of those weapons, I want to know your opinion of them, Ulric?"
"Well, where should you start? First thing I noticed they were aura weapons and armor, obviously I don't know what kind of aura material was used on them, it's the first time I've personally seen this kind of weapon. But I noticed that these weapons were different, weapons and aura armor can amplify a warrior's aura, but as far as I've read, they don't change the color or property of a warrior's aura."
"My analysis changed after I studied Merilren's whip closely, I didn't notice anything different about the runes you can see on the whip, so I believe the difference in this aura weapon is in the ingredients or an unusual process. I believe the second and most likely option, I noticed that the weapon has a strong bond with its user, I even noticed that staying away from the weapon can affect the mind of the warrior who is attached to the weapon."
"I believe that the tricky part for you to explain to me, professor must be ethical, this weapon must have an addictive characteristic, the warrior who uses this weapon must end up suffering an unhealthy dependence on the weapon. I'm wrong?"
"Not bad, your student is smarter than I expected, Frey."
"True, your analysis is extremely correct, Ulric. But for you to fully understand this weapon you need to hear the story of another type of weapon."
Before the teacher told me this story, he was interrupted by Master Dimas even Master James seems to have a problem when the teacher said another kind of weapon.
"Another type? Frey, these cursed guns have only been modified slightly to appear different, I'm sure the Eliure family will regret condemning the future of these three young men."
It seems that this kind of aura artifact is quite dangerous and has a pretty bad track record.
"So, this type of weapon isn't something new?"
"Despite Dimas' opinion, these three aura armaments were made with a new method, but it was based on a type of armament that has caused a lot of trouble in the past. The creator of this new technique claims that he has innovated this art of forging and is able to create safer weapons."
"It's only a few months or a year and the problems of the past reappear again, you yourself heard your student Frey, the young elf's mind is already under the whip's influence, she'll probably be the first to freak out."
"Don't take Dimas' comments too seriously, Ulric. This type of weapon appeared on the market of the kingdom several years ago, it must be a little over fifty years ago the movement started small but in less than a year more than a hundred warriors used this type of weapon, as you yourselves experienced Ulric this type weapons and armor are very effective in increasing the aura wearer's power."
"The process of creating this weapon is basically imbuing a characteristic into the aura materials used in the weapon, usually purified elemental materials are used in a complicated process to imbue those characteristics into the materials, so the weapon will have the ability to create an aura with that characteristic and very simple, but this special aura contaminated the warrior and over time the warrior suffers a psychotic break and often many people died during these outbreaks."
"If the son of a bitch who created this method of forging was not greedy and used the strategy of creating few weapons and did not spread the method to other blacksmiths, the number of deaths caused by mad warriors would not be thousands but billions. It took a long time for healers to discover the connection between aura weapons and incidents of madness, the problem that many people who used these weapons were already addicted to them, when our realm and neighboring realms began hunting these weapons to destroy them. them the addicted warriors became desperate and fought against the royal army and the common citizens were killed in the crossfire."
Master Dimas seems to have a personal grudge against this type of weaponry, he doesn't seem to be that old so I have no idea how he's connected to this incident.
"A few years ago, a new blacksmith wizard created a new method to create this type of weapon which he claimed did not have the same defect as the old method, during a lecture he gave presenting this new one in a simple way that was not well received, he developed a new way to imbue the characteristics of a warrior in materials instead of using purified elemental materials. He claimed that his method caused the weapon to be influenced by the warrior and this would prevent the war from being contaminated by the aura of the weapon and so they would not have psychotic breaks."
"He had help from several warriors who were examined and tested to their limits to see if they became unstable, after three years of use the thirty warriors showed no mental instability. After this rigorous test the royal family allowed him to take more orders, but limited the number of armaments he could make for a year, obviously he didn't like that, but as the kingdoms around ours are of the same opinion as the family. of our realm and several temples supported these conditions, the artisan Magnus is being very restricted."
"But Merilren already seemed to have a pretty big attachment to the whip, if I had taken longer to return the whip to her or teased her a little longer, I'm pretty sure she would attack me like a wild animal. Are you sure these aura weapons are safe?"
"See, Frey. Your student has the same opinion as mine, just give it time or a bad day and this elf will freak out."
"Maybe, but I think this instability is being caused by the elf's personality and not because of the weaponry, Caliban didn't show any kind of change in his attitude or the way he fought while using his shield and they both received the weaponry in the same month."
"Then Magnus should choose his clients better and not try to win some families' favor by making aura armaments for the younger generation of the family."
The teacher was already ready to start arguing with Master Dimas, but their discussion was ended before it was deepened by Master James who was silent.
"Although I see you two arguing, I'm more interested in hearing Ulric's views on the test and some of the actions he took during the test. Time will tell whether the young elf or other Magnus client will have a mental breakdown."
"Okay, I'm not going to insist that these weapons are a bad idea, but I'm also curious about some of the things that happened on the test."
Now I have a bad feeling, maybe it was a mistake to sit at this table.
"Actually, I wanted to know the opinion of the rune masters at the table about which students stood out the most during the test?"
Obviously, they noticed that I tried to change the subject for the other students to avoid answering their questions, but it seems the GMs found this fun, the mood at the table was much lighter.
"How about we start with your position in that rank, Ulric. The director obviously liked your performance a lot, but even she doesn't think you stood out that much during the audition, even considering your disadvantages."
"That was a good point, James. Among the three students who entered the maze without even a piece of equipment, you were the only one who couldn't steal good equipment, in the final fight you almost broke your hands because you didn't have a good weapon."
"Was I the worst? But among the three of us I was the only one to participate in the final and most important battle of the test."
"That's because you had the advantage of being one of the team leaders, having your teammates on your side protected you from various dangers, and your two unarmed teammates were eliminated in a very intense confrontation in mine on the test, in fact Richard didn't just eliminate Mars how he took three more elves with him."
"Young Richard has a great fighting ability, it was really a shame he got knocked out so early in the test."
The rune masters started to tell me which were the young people who stood out in the eyes of the examiners and the nobles who were watching the test, it seems that there were a good number of spectators.