"My family serves the Vindras family for generations, and I like it here to begin with. I could earn a hell of a lot more – but the outside world is too troublesome for me to deal with. I am not that young anymore, and don't have the confidence to deal with all the different noble families and their scandals."
Bossac shrugged his shoulders and explained in a dismissive tone, but Viria could tell that the helpful man's past must have been a lot more lively than he let on to believe.
*CHING*
"...?"
"...?"
A sudden sound of a metal breaking apart made the two turn towards the stall owner.
"Sorry, sorry – this little trash-grade soul artifact does that from time to time. Hold on."
Chux raised his hand and nodded at them apologetically, pointing at the dark-gold knife missing its tip after accidentally hitting the thick femur of the relatively small rodent monster.
The stall owner closed his eyes and focused his spiritual energy, and within a few seconds, the blade repaired itself, although judging by the heavy breathing and drops of sweat on Chux's forehead, that action sure took a toll on him.
"Wait...! This is your soul artifact, and it is a trash grade?! But it looks like it is at least middle grade!"
Viria pointed at the dark-gold blade and asked with a confused frown.
"No, no. This is a brass knife. A utility soul artifact. Although it looks like the powerful gold knife artifact that is middle grade, this one is not meant to be a weapon and doesn't have any offensive abilities. It doesn't have any abilities, actually. But since it looks fairly similar to the golden knife, I was able to scare a few merchants into handing over their money to me without a fight back in my banditry days."
Chux waved his hand dismissively and casually returned to cooking, holding a steady grip on his soul artifact.
"Oh. That reminds me – I gotta repair my own artifact."
Viria's eyes widened in realization and since there was little space, he put the plate with the leftover bones on his lap before he reached out his hand and closed his eyes.
After focusing for a moment, he felt pieces of the broken prison shiv appear in his palm.
"Oh? A fellow blade user?"
Chux glanced at the metal pieces in Viria's hand and asked with a smirk.
"Not only that – a fellow trash grade should artifact user."
The young man raised his hand and shook it, making the fragments jingle in his hand.
"Repair."
[You chose the repair option.]
Viria said and a dialogue option appeared in his vision right by his soul artifact.
The next moment the weapon shone and reassembled itself, looking just as feeble and unreliable as always.
"Done. Mister Bossac, with that we can... huh...?"
Viria was about to recall his weapon but his attention was picked by the dialogue window that opened automatically the moment he laid his eyes on the prison shiv.
It has changed...!
[Prison shiv (tin) – trash grade soul artifact – it's easy to break but can be remade from any kind of trash in your possession.
Ability – none
Mastery – level 10/10 (max)
Durability 7/7 –repair– -remake-]
"Excuse me...?"
"...?"
"Is something wrong?"
The young man shook his head and rubbed his eyes to make sure that he isn't just seeing things, but his actions made Chux and Bossac look at him with worry.
"It's my soul artifact... there were always question marks showing up in its description, but now they are actual words and values..."
Viria said in an anxious voice without taking his eyes off the dialogue window.
"I never heard about something like that happening..."
Chux tilted his head and rubbed his neck with the hilt of his brass knife.
"I never heard about something like that happening with a trash grade soul artifact..."
Bossac said, gulping down his saliva, and making the other two look at him.
"What do you mean by that?"
Viria asked, clenching his hand on his prison shiv.
"If there are question marks within the soul artifact's description, it means that it has some hidden properties or options that are yet to be reviled under a specific condition. There are no hints about what the condition is, but once it is completed, it usually reveals some awesome powers or the weapon's hidden potential, but..."
"But what...?"
Bossac muttered, stroking his chin with a concerned expression, which caused Viria to lean towards him, barely keeping himself balanced on the edge of his seat.
"But something like that is only supposed to happen with the mythic grade soul artifacts – that's why they are so troublesome to train with, and can actually range from being worthless to equal god grade souls artifacts all depending on whether the condition to unlock their powers would be met..."
"!!!"
The man bit his lips before looking the young man in the face and explaining, causing Viria to lean away from him, taken aback.
"But... no, impossible – it clearly says – trash grade – by the artifact's name."
Viria shook his head looking back own at his prison shiv.
"What showed up instead of question marks, then?"
Chux hurriedly served the mole-rabbit roast to the customer and didn't even put the next one on the fire, too preoccupied with the interesting thing happening right in front of his eyes.
"First one is about the weapon master – which for this one reached its limit at level ten. The other one shows the durability of the artifact, with the options to remade or repair it."
The young man revealed, not feeling particularly pressured to keep the information hidden.
"That doesn't sound all that useful, considering that all soul artifacts can be remade with spiritual energy..."
Chux frowned and took a step back, returning to cooking with a slightly disappointed expression.
"I will speak about it to the lord warden tomorrow if you want. Now, let's..."
"A moment, please."
Bossac breathed out and stood up, patting Viria on the shoulder, but the young man raised his hand and shook his head.
"Repair."
Viria said the word that he spoke hundreds if not thousands of times already, wondering whether it would cause a different effect than usual just because it was now an option included in the soul artifact's description...