It actually took almost half an hour for her to return, during which Lucia speculated on who she'd be calling up. There were a few demi-humans who were quite good at their jobs, and she knew of one, a hunter by trade, who fit the bill of information gatherer really well. Or heck, someone like a bard would even work, as they tended to know everything there was to know about news and events, both local and abroad.
What came through the door though was a shock, as Ray herself was dressed to the nines, and looked ready to throw down. She wore a tabard of white and black, with them in a four piece pattern on her body, as well as armor beneath it that looked shiny and new, like it hadn't seen use in some time. Her tail was hanging out behind her, wrapped in a chain mesh sleeve too, protected like the rest of her.
It was her weapons, however, that I was interested in, as they popped up as 'Artifact Level' gear to my senses, which refused to provide more info as she walked around the desk. They were a pair of short swords sitting across the small of her back, the sheaths looking like the sort of thing you'd keep on a display case back home, given they had intricate writing on them in golden script.
Before we could even process that another woman came walking in. Or rather, pounding, as her footfalls were quite strong. She was a goliath of a woman, standing almost a foot taller than even me, forcing her to duck and then turn to get through the entrance thanks to her broad shoulders. Better, she wore a shirt without shoulders, but instead disconnected sleeves, with horns on her head, and leathery red wings on her back to match her outfit.
She honestly, if she'd been smaller, would have looked like a ninja, and truth to tell, she had the build for one, tall and massive as she was. The gear on her back told me nothing of her profession, however, as it looked like she was carrying around some kind of covered pot that was strapped there, as well as a tiny hammer and several bags on a belt, as she walked up to stand beside Ray, and then looked down at us.
"I thought you'd be taller," she said at last, looking at me, and this was enough to make me laugh as I nodded at her.
"I get that sometimes, Miss…?" I said, subtly asking for her name.
"My adventurer name is Souka. I'm told you're looking specifically for demi-humans to round out your party," she said, not a question, but simply a blunt statement. I liked her, as she was obviously judging me by what I was going to say next.
"I am. Two of the other heroes have all human parties, and nothing against them, but I figured if we're to save this whole world, we might at least represent it, if we can," I said, and she seemed to consider that for a bit, before nodding, and then sitting down, kneeling on the floor instead of in a seat, as someone with her mass, thin looking, yet heavy due to being all muscle, would have probably broken even the solid chairs here. The fact that she was looking me in the eye despite me sitting in a chair myself didn't hurt.
"Souka is the best of the best when it comes to using the Traveling Forge here in this nation, if not all of the world. Her class is Rogue, which gives her plenty of bonuses when it comes to appraising and even making items, so she fits your criteria for someone with that skill," said Ray as she took her seat, moving easily despite the armor showing that, while it appeared she hadn't worn it in some time, she hadn't forgotten how.
"I, myself, am a Paladin, a leader and a defender. I'll admit to being a bit rusty when it comes down to it, but I'm no slouch when it comes to skills, and more importantly, I know every wanted monster den and lair between here and the coast in three different directions, and I'm pretty sure I could up that to four with a few hours of study," she said, not boasting, but making her case.
"You certainly make an excellent case for yourselves, but can I ask for a demonstration of this, 'Traveling Forge'. I've not heard of that, and browsing my help menu, it just says it's too complicated to use," I ask, and she doesn't question that, she just nods, and Souka pulls the 'pot' off her back, allowing me to see it was made of some kind of ceramic like material, but far heavier, if the thud it made as she placed it on the ground was any indication.
The moment it was on the ground, she had us move back a bit, standing and pulling the chairs away so she could slide out the bottom of it, which was a small tray that looked positively covered in small recesses that were themselves covered in writing too small to read. Runes of some kind, if I missed my guess. She then 'folded' that tray out until it was far larger than it had been before.
"Do you have a piece of gear you've been looking to get upgraded, Lucia?" asks the demi-human, and Lucia nods, eagerly in fact, and pulls the ring that boosted her elemental powers off her finger, handing it over to the woman. She takes a moment to study the thing, turning it over in her hands a few times, before she pulls open a small bag at her hip, and then pulls out the prettiest things I'd seen here.
They were pearls by the look of them, smooth, round, and all that. But the coloring on them was like a rainbow had been plucked from the sky. She began to easily move them around in her hand, dropping a few back into the small bag, and then twisting the top of the 'pot' at the end of the tray off, before dropping the ring into the space, and then popping the pearls in one at a time, as if counting them out.
The sound they made as they hit was silvery, even musical in a way, as they rolled along the curve of the inside of it, before she placed the lid back down with a dull clunk, and then twisted the top. Instantly, the 'Forge' began to glow, and I could see a bit of steam rising from beneath the lid for a moment as it did…something to the contents, as Souka watched it with a measuring eye, and finally tapped on the side of the pot.
The spigot, which I had failed to notice until now, which poured out onto the tray soon sprayed forth liquid that resembled the pearls, but was obviously hot, as you could see the shimmer from it in the air. The moment it was in a puddle on the tray, the demi-human pulled the hammer off her belt, and then struck it, getting a very metallic clanging noise from it, as she did so, while the puddle deformed and shaped around the strike.
She seemed to pause, and look at the thing, before taking a deep breath, and blowing out, her breath not turning into fire exactly, but it was certainly hotter than the puddle, as it warmed it, causing it to glow. She then did that again, making it actually hard to look at as she proceeded to pound the piece again, even seemingly hitting it four times at once somehow, with a single blow from her hammer.
A few moments of this, and she nodded, placing her hammer back onto her belt, and then pressing something on the tray's edge. Instantly, the puddle stopped shimmering, and in fact, seemed to evaporate the moment the magic stopped flowing into it, and revealed that underneath the thing was the ring, looking perfectly fine, in fact it was better than it had been before, by the look of it.
"Hmm, only a plus three this time. This was fantastically made, Lucia, who'd you buy it from?" she asked, as she handed the ring back to the mage, who looked at it with some awe. She slipped it on, and her status sheet popped up with the things stats, which now included a '+3' at the end of the name, along with the bonus to her casting abilities doubling, which was not insignificant.
"This was from that guy in the magic shop down in the third district. Not sure where he got it from," she admitted, as she admired her new toy, and I had to whistle…or try to, but regardless, I was very impressed.
"Is that something all the Adventurers can do?" I asked, and Ray was the one to answer.
"Not even close. Learning to use the Traveling Forge is a lifetime of study, and getting it to the level Souka is at takes talent and skills you honestly have to be born with. As I said, she's the best," said Ray, and Souka breathed onto the forge, with a cooling breath this time, and within about three minutes, she had it packed up onto her back again, and was standing there, as if nothing had happened.
"She'd be fine for support then. Now Ms. Souka, how are you at combat? Looking at your stats, you're very heavily leaning towards the defense, but what weapon and combat style do you use?" I asked, and she seemed to grin as she pulled out her hammer again and 'twisted' the bottom. Instantly the handle of it fell down, at first making me think it had fallen off, in reality, it had extended into a haft.
She then spun the weapon in her hand, the action causing it to 'blur' briefly as it did so, and when it finished, the hammer for forging was now a spiffy warhammer, one that looked very strong, and slammed into the floor with a dull thunk that spoke of its weight and mass. Anyone hit with it now would feel the full power of the forge master's muscles, and she had more than enough of those to go around.
"Excellent. A defensive build too, to compliment our party of mostly attackers. Now then, what about you, Ray? What do you bring to the table in terms of combat prowess?" I asked, not needing her to verify her knowledge, as I trusted her. She didn't seem to mind, and I saw as Souka placed her 'Forge' back onto her back, that Ray had cat ears. Or rather, she had cat ears now, ones black fur covered that blended into her head.
They were noticed now as they twitched a little, like she was listening for any sound around her. Then, when she was done, she leaned forward and tapped something on her desk. Instantly, script, runes and things began to be 'drawn' onto the walls, completely covering them, and casting the room into darkness for a moment, as the window became covered. When they were done, the room returned to normal, but I could feel the runes sort of 'cutting us off' from the rest of the Hall.
"I fight well, Hero of the Bow, and was selected for this post after earning my rank for the occasion of the Waves specifically, as it was known they'd center in Melromarc, if not when. As such, I am armed with weapons that know no equal in the world, save the ones you and the other heroes wield," she began, and then drew the twin short swords from the small of her back, holding them in reverse grip, so the blades were pointed out.
I could hear Lucia suck in breath as she saw the things Ray held in her hands, and to be fair, the moment they were out of their sheaths, the protection they offered left my (Insight) skill to tell me some things about them, especially after I shifted to a Bow form that boosted my Appraisal ability just a bit, allowing me to literally go boggle eyed at the things before me.
"Elsenrail and Gloomenthal," she identified, and my stat sheet, which had only had Light and Dark Glass Swords filled in the names automatically. That was in keeping with how it hadn't known the names of the brothers until they'd given them. However, (Insight) did have the histories of the two blades, and I just had to stare at them, as the glass they were made of sparkled off their forms, which looked like silver and brimstone respectively.
"Forged from sand taken from a Dragon Hourglass almost a millennia ago, these blades are said to be part of a set of nine such weapons, made to allow the people of this world to combat the Waves without the heroes. One for every element, and one with none. The others, if they were real at all, have been lost to time, in the same way other such projects have been lost, like the Lance of Light, or the Replica Weapon," she said, and I nodded, my own interface having that legend, and even supplying, as she spoke, little bits of lore on the ones she mentioned.
Sadly, my interface didn't say if any of these things were REAL or not, but merely mentioned them as legends of the world. Still, it did say that about one-thousand years ago, a great mage who had assisted the Heroes of her lifetime had sought to make something able to fight Waves without needing to summon more. She had run her kingdom into near ruin in the making of these things, especially as its neighbors felt this was some kind of violation of a treaty that claimed no nation would weaponize the Hourglass' power.
She soldiered on, regardless of the dangers, and using the sands, blew nine Glass made weapons. Unbreakable, despite the material of their creation, the weapons were lost when the Kingdom was destroyed by a massive attack from…oddly the name of who attacked them, with some kind of massive blast of magic, was an error of some kind, like someone had smudged it out of existence.
I made note of that, but then looked at the weapons I was seeing, and whistled…tried to whistle, in appreciation. My interface said they were potentially stronger than something called the Vassal Weapons, which it was infuriatingly vague on, but claimed they had something to do with the Four Cardinal Weapons. That meant that these two swords before me were probably amongst the strongest weapons made by mortal hands.
And by the Old Gods did their stats show it. Ray, whom I noticed was level fifty-three, had stats, while wielding the two, higher than…anyone I'd seen yet. Even Motoyasu and Ren didn't have anything close to hers, and looking down her skill list, she had a great build for defensive fighting, mostly in terms of interception and things that depended on her weapon's durability to be useful, which was a non-issue for the Glass Swords which had an infinity symbol for their durability stat.
"I'll be honest, when I asked for adventurers to come with me, I wasn't expecting this. Why weren't you forward with offering your assistance before? I mean, I can guess since there were only humans at the castle, you weren't allowed there, but why offer now?" I asked, and she nodded, understanding my question.
"Because the Heroes were unknowns, and not everyone who's come to wield one of those weapons was a good person. Tyrants have done so, and once the Waves concluded, they carved out Kingdoms with their power, rather than return to their own worlds," she began, as she resheathed her swords, and sat down.
"Worse, since the worlds the Heroes come from have no demi-humans or beastmen, they tend to see our kind as less than people, and that's if they even see the humans as people," she explained.
"While the Waves strike centuries apart, the records of the Heroes are kept well, even if some ascribe religious symbolism to them. I myself, and most demi-humans, are raised on stories of the Shield Hero being a kind of Patron Saint for our kind, for example," she said, and pulled out her charm that she'd been looking at when I asked for demi-human adventurers to add to my party.
"I was taught when I was young that only the Shield cared about us, because, at least three times in the past, they fought for us, and our rights. If he'd come here, on that first day, I would have offered to join him, but he didn't, and hearing instead that he bought a slave a week later, I figured the stories were just that, and that the heroes, who are always human, only really care about their own kind," she said the last in a defeated tone, and I had to bite my tongue.
If she wanted to help Naofumi, she could have done it easily. Gone to him, rather than waiting for the other way around, after all, we had little to no knowledge of this world's particulars. Sure, I understood some of what was going on thanks to Dimensional Sign, this Wave business and even the Weapon mechanics were straight from that, but specifics like the religion and even history were different.
Still, it was a trust issue, not a knowledge one, on her side, and I could understand why. This world was not a kind one. The Waves, the way magic worked, it spoke of a world of adventure. Great for someone just dropped into it like I and the others were, handed magical dominance, and a way to quickly grow stronger. Not so for those forced to live through it day after day. Worse, Melromarc was not a pleasant kingdom at the best of times, and with the Waves hitting it, it was hardly close to those.
"Then you and he saved a village. A human one, to be fair, but still, a gesture not common amongst the nobility, as Lucia's report to me says the Knight Captain actually abandoned them to pursue the other Heroes and glory, rather than do his duty to the people," she said, and I turned, as neither Fast nor Lucia had mentioned that, but the Sorceress just shrugged, like it didn't matter, and Fast looked like it was to be expected anyway.
"And now, not only do your former slaves stay with you, after their seals are removed, but you tell me you would free them all. I want to believe that. That you are a good person, a noble person, and so, I'll help you, as much as I am able, and hope that the world will be better for it," she said, finishing and returning her weapons to their sheaths, before sitting back down, and facing me across the desk.
"Well then, you have certainly made your cases for why I should want you in my party. Now comes the other side. Why do you want to join me? I was thinking of offering at least one-hundred silver for a hiring fee right off the bat, but given your swords could buy the whole of this kingdom a dozen times over, that would seem an insult now," I asked, and the two seemed stunned for a moment, before laughing, as did Lucia.
"Lord Bowman, simply BEING in a Hero's party is enough payment for most adventurers, so long as they are not fools or dullards," she said, and I cocked an eyebrow, asking a question without having to voice it.
"The work of an Adventurer is hard, and long. It can take a year to go up a single level, and in that time, you will face death, both from monsters, and those monsters wearing human skin," explained Lucia, and I wondered how many of the latter she'd dealt with in her life, but left that question unasked.
"With you, in one week and some change, the three beastmen have not only started down the road of the Adventurer, but reached the first plateau of power, a feat I do not know has an equal," she then pointed to herself.
"As for me, I started this month at level twelve, a feat that took me almost five years of constant danger to achieve, and one that, if I may be immodest for a moment, is quite rare," she said, and Ray leaned forward to draw my attention to her.
"It is, humans in the level range beyond twenty happens, to be fair, you'll see a few dozen in most large cities, and there are some rulers that have reached into the triple digits via extensive use of their armies, but to go from below the teens, all the way to class cap, in less than two weeks? That's the potency of a Hero, and the reason any adventurer would give their eye teeth to join their party," she interjected, and Lucia nodded, as did everyone else in the room.
"Very well then, I welcome the two of you board, and hope that with your support, as well as those of Fast, Strong, Shadow, and Lucia, we can continue to beat back the forces of evil…and maybe make you demigods as a side venture," I said with a smirk, hoisting up the Bow, and everyone else seemed transfixed for a moment, as my interface soon bloomed in my eyes, and added my two newest party members, rounding out my team.
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(Now then, an author's note. Haven't done one of these in a while, but I wanted to give some info about the 3 newest artifacts I'm showing off, mostly because I want to briefly explain where they come from and why.
Elsenrail and Gloomenthal are referencing the Might and Magic series of games. There hasn't been a real one of those since 2001(What about Ubisoft's games? Those aren't real, stop imagining things). In this case, they're from the last finished M&M game, number 8(9 was not finished, it was rushed out due to publisher bankruptcy). There, the two curved swords are artifacts you can find, and are some of the strongest weapons in the game.
Here, they're straight swords, because I like those better for ease of use, but more importantly, they represent a question I had to a few other users. Namely, has anyone tried to weaponize the sand in or the other bits of the Dragon Hourglasses? Mind, that made them ask if I was talking about throwing it at someone, and while pocket sand is an acceptable attack, I meant literally breaking them down and making weapons from one of them.
That led to a discussion about how hard it would be to destroy one, given their origin, and then reforge it, which led to my question, what about blowing glass from sand? After all, they have to be able to take the sand from it to give the Heroes their fast travel weapons. BTW, for anyone who thinks Glass Weapons are only from Elder Scrolls, lots of fantasy stuff has them. I remember them first from the Dragon Prince novels(not the cartoon, these are from the 90s), where a group of assassins use daggers of glass, filled with poison, for various backstory reasons.
So, that led to the idea of swords, made from the Dragon Hourglass blown sand. Nothing too fancy there, save yes, these are probably the strongest weapons in the world besides the Heroes' own weapons, or the Vassal stuff. Of course, they're just weapons, no special features, and no, they don't grow stronger, so Ray will start as the best DPS character, and slowly level out with everyone as they grow stronger.
As to the Traveling Forge? It's the fun sized forge from Dragon Quest XI. Why is it here? Honestly, I just didn't have any other ideas for how to make a blacksmith who could be mobile, and decided to throw this in, along with the Perfectionist Pearls that let you level up equipment. Mind, it comes with the same restriction as the one in DQ11, namely, she can't make NEW things with it, the thing already has to exist and she has to have a pattern and specific ingredients to make it. It will have another use later though. Nothing insane, just something useful for dealing with excess monster bits.)
