Runeblade

B2 Chapter 225: Payment, pt. 2

Kaius grinned as he looked at the stacked boxes on the table—the first of their rewards, and a source of gear they would otherwise likely not have the funds or connections to get ahold of.

He’d hoped that they would be able to get some today, but after Ro and Rieker had warned them that it might take more than one mission, Kaius hadn’t wanted to get his hopes up.

A quick glance at his team showed him they must have been feeling similarly excited, both Ianmus and Porkchop looking on with undisguised avarice.

“Between the platinum piece, and the extra hundred gold for the mineral seam finders fee—which was unfortunately reduced due to the current difficulties in exploiting that resource—we were able to pick out some good pieces for you.” Rieker said, smiling at their obvious anticipation.

“We were even able to come up with a little work around for our problem with finding if Kaius’s blade would resonate with any of our materials on hand.” he continued, eyes flicking to Kaius. “Or at least, Ro was able to.”

Ro nodded, though she frowned at the latched box at the bottom of the pile—the same expression he’d seen her make every time administrative work came up. Sometimes, he wondered what she was doing here as a manager. It clearly didn’t suit her.

“Took two days of asking around, and combing through our records, but it turns out we’re within our right to create samples. That bottom box contains a scrapping of everything we have on hand—if your blade resonates with any of them, we’ll either give it to you now, or reserve it until you’ve completed enough missions to earn it.” Ro said.

Kaius nodded, staring at the box with open yearning. To know that it potentially held all that he needed to finally awaken his blade made him want to dash out of his seat and snatch it up immediately. It took considerable will, and squeezing his own knees in a deathgrip, to stay still.

After all, it made sense for him to go last. His teammates were getting hand-picked gear, and it would be cruel to make them sit through him rifling through who knows how many materials.

The looks of gratitude were almost enough to quell the hoarding dragon inside of him that squealed in outrage at the prospect of waiting.

“Ianmus can go first, it’s his first time getting loot. At least the good kind.” Porkchop said, nodding to the mage.

“Are you sure?” Ianmus asked, surprised that Porkchop had forfeited without a fight.

Porkchop rolled his eyes. “Just hurry up! I don’t want to wait all day.”

Ianmus nodded, and approached the desk.

Rieker and Ro watched them with wry smiles, clearly amused and well used to the antics of a delving team deciding their loot rotation. The guildmaster nudged one box forward, indicating to Ianmus which one he should take.

The box was long—by far the largest of all of the boxes at what looked to be just over six strides, though it lacked the heft and depth of the lacquered box holding Kaius’s materials.

Hurrying back to his seat, Ianmus lifted the thin pine top, revealing an interior wrapped in cotton padding.

Laying inside was a staff.

Kaius thought it was a pretty thing, the wood somehow grown in a tightly bound spiral—like the braiding of a rope. At its top, the strands of honey coloured wood unravelled, weaving themselves into a cage that had tightly bound some sort of stone streaked with seams of glittering yellow.

Runes covered the faceted stone by the dozens, dense workings revealing few secrets—the telltale script of the Depths hiding its intent from even Kaius’s trained eyes.

Ianmus reached out with a shaking hand, touching the inset stone with what looked to be awe.

“Infused sunstone…” he muttered to himself, lifting his new staff out of the box, and setting its container on the floor.

As his friend turned his newest focus over in his hands, Kaius took the opportunity to analyse it with Truesight, curious at what had gotten Ianmus so excited.

Staff of the Woven Corona:

Unusual - Tier I

A Dawn Maple, waiting for purpose. The essence of the sun, waiting for a home. Sacred to the weaver, their destiny is made manifest—a union of the disparate, and an act of worship.

Made from Dawn Maple, directed to grow around a faceted chunk of high grade sunstone, this staff has been lacquered with an infused stain. Being made of materials that are almost exclusively aligned to the solar affinity, this staff provides an exceptional boost to mana control and channeling speed when using that affinity. Solar spells cast through this staff are empowered, and it has been inscribed with a meta magic to drastically increase the speed at which tier I solar beam spells may be cast, at the expense of drastically reducing their range.

Depths-wrought Artefact.

Casting Focus - Staff

Durability I, Solar Empowerment I, Solar Focus III, Self Repair I, Quickened Ray II

Kaius nodded in appreciation of the artifact. Even just the simple increase to the efficiency of Ianmus’s casting would have been a potent boon, but the fact that it also allowed the mage to cast more swiftly in close quarters was astounding.

“That one was a lucky find—there’s a delve near Deadacre with a Solar themed biome at the fifteenth layer. Most avoid it, due to the difficulty of dealing with enemies that have attacks that are difficult to block or dodge.” Rieker explained.

“How’d you get it, then?” Ianmus asked, getting a feel for the staff’s balance.

“Had a Steel team with a mirror mage come through a few years back, they were uniquely suited to it. Let me tell you, that mage was apoplectic when their best Champion reward was a staff that he couldn’t use.” Rieker chuckled, shaking his head at the memory.

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“I can understand why—it’s an amazing piece. I’d be furious if I got something like this, but found out it was useless to me.” Ianmus mumbled, still cradling the staff like it was made of glass.

Ro waved him off. “Don’t feel too bad, he managed to trade it in for an amulet that increased the potency of abilities that deflected or redirected attacks—he made out like a bandit.”

She paused for a moment, looking to where Porkchop was ‘patiently’ waiting. His brother looked like he was using all of his concentration to avoid tearing Rieker’s carpet to shreds with his honed jade claws as he continually readjusted—restless anticipation flooding across their bond in waves.

“Perhaps we let Porkchop check his reward, before Rieker’s floor gets ruined, eh?” she continued.

Ianmus jumped, before he looked to the side and shuffled his chair to give Porkchop room.

“Sorry!”

“It’s okay!” Porkchop replied, before he loomed up on his hind legs, towering over everyone else in the room.

Gods, it was easy to forget just how big he was—filling the room like a direbear—when he so rarely stood up to his full size.

With a surprising delicacy, Porkchop pinched the next pinewood box between claws on opposing hands and placed it in front of him as he settled onto his haunches.

This box was by far the smallest—perhaps the size of a large book.

Porkchop flicked it open, revealing a similar lining to the one that had been inside of Ianmus’s package. Laying on the bed of cotton wadding was what looked to be a bracelet—a length of flexible metal plates, each embossed with a series of runes.

Kaius leaned in, peering closer with Truesight. It was Ykkardian, he realised—he’d recognise those standalone glyphs anywhere—combined with some unknown script.

Without the system's help, he had to fall back on his mortal training. Thankfully, that had been considerable due to his father’s efforts. While he had no clue as to what the unknown script was doing, he could recognise about half of the sigils on the bracelet. Armament, Stalwart, Empowerment, Reinforce, and Shield.

A defensive artefact, without a doubt.

Satisfied that he still had some of his capabilities, Kaius looked up to find Porkchop watching him expectantly.

“Yes?” Kaius asked, confused.

“I don’t have Identify.” Porkchop said plainly, looking at him like he’d been dropped on his head.

“Oh. Right, sorry.” Kaius replied, scratching the back of his head.

He pulled up the item's description, curious as to if his assessment had been correct, and read it out to Porkchop.

Bracelet of Tangible Ghosts:

Unusual - Tier I

The Chittari Militia has a simple doctrine. Gear that is summoned needs far less logistical support, and allows resources to be funneled to more useful purposes. Indeed, their harassing skirmishers are let loose to nip at the heels of their foes, with only a pair of boots, a pack of rations, and a single Bracelet of Tangible Ghosts provided to them.

Crafted from mirage infused steel, and a length of alchemically treated mithril bindings, this bracelet Significantly improves the durability and effects of all summoned armaments produced from both skills and items.

Depths-wrought Artefact.

Accessory - Bracelet

Durability I, Stalwart Apparition V, Self Repair I, Resizing I

Porkchop hummed appreciatively when he learnt of his latest artefacts capabilities.

Kaius too could appreciate its benefits. Something like this would empower Porkchop’s armour, and—if he was correct—the blades of mana that coated his claws thanks to one of the artefacts they had found on their initial delve.

“Where’d you find this, then? It’s perfect.” Kaius asked, curious about the object's origin.

“No idea, it’s been sitting in the vault for decades—not many people focus on summoned equipment, so it’s been languishing untouched. If anything, you’re doing us a favour by taking it off our hands.” Rieker answered.

“Technically, we pushed the limits with this one. We had to get an artificer to add the resizing enchantment, and working with a depths-wrought artefact is always expensive due to the difficulty. It was too perfect not too, however.” Ro continued.

Kaius nodded, before he got out of his chair and helped Porkchop don his bracelet. The metal warped unnaturally, stretching to a size where he could easily slip it over his brother's dinner-plate sized paws.

Standing back up, Kaius had his focus immediately latch on to the final remaining box. It was deeper than the others, perhaps a stride tall, and made of far higher quality furnishings. He looked at it with hunger, eager to see what waited within.

Rieker saw his face and grinned. Leaning forwards, the guildmaster flicked open the latch and opened the box. As he did so, the lid slid back and up, revealing cleverly hidden cantilevered metal struts.

The box split into five distinct parts, the wood having joined so closely that the seams were hidden even to his enhanced sight.

Each part moved back and up, revealing five interior shelves that were covered in a soft grey velvet.

Glass vials lay inside small holes, each one holding the barest grains and drops of material. The bottom was the most complete, with dozens of bottles stacked in tight. As Kaius moved his eyes up the tiers of the container, the vials grew fewer in number—the fifth compartment holding a bare handful.

With the box opened, a thin mist of mana wafted free of its confinement. It was a churned mixture, dozens of different affinities blending into an undifferentiated whole. Still, as the thin energy rushed over him, Kaius felt the blade at his hip keen in excitement—hungering for something within.

“There’s something in there, my sword is reacting.” Kaius whispered, surprised. He’d half expected that they would have had nothing—the sword rousing itself on the simple basis of trace amounts of emitted mana set his heart racing, and his nose tingling at the myriad unexplainable scents.

If the resonance was this potent, how would his sword react with a whole piece of the material?

“Really? That’s good. Records on how growth items work is spotty—we’d been ready to let you touch the materials to the blade directly.” Rieker replied.

Kaius set a hand on his hilt, half expecting his sword to fly out of its sheath of its own volition, so strong was its want.

“I’m not sure if that is a good idea. It feels even hungrier than when I found the Spent Forgeheart.”

Rieker laughed at that, leaning back in mirth. “I’m sure you’ll have it handled.”

Then the guildmaster nodded to the box.

“Before you figure out which one it is, I’ll explain how this will work. We’ve separated the materials into value. The lowest sections are the cheapest—anything from the lowest two you should be able to afford straight away. As you go higher though, you might have to save for another mission or two depending on its value. Potentially a lot more, for the highest tier—those have more variability in their price than the rest of the box combined.” Rieker continued, waving his hands across the various open compartments of the box.

Kaius nodded, still fixated on the many vials before him.

“Let’s hope it’s nothing at the top then.”

He stepped forwards, reaching out to start searching for what had his blade so excited.