Apologies for the wait, I tried to upload a while ago but it didn't work. Page kept refreshing, very annoying.
Anyway, hope you enjoy. I'm all but finished with the next one, but it's mostly talking. So I'm gonna finish the one after that and upload the both of them together.
Hope you guys have a good one and I'll see you shortly.
[Titan: Siren's Watch]
[Lost Sector Event: Methane Flush]
The screams of a pack of thrall filled the halls, Acolytes chittering and throwing fire, Wizards and Knights directing the chaotic flow of their lesser.
They were met with Light.
A Titan, one of the accursed Sky creatures, rounded the corner into their claimed territory, interrupting their ritual, followed by two more of varying sizes.
The first, the Medium Titan, had foregone a helmet for some mad reason.
Green eyes locked, one pair piercing, and the other a triplet of burning pits.
Khzit Tahm, Knight, took exception to that.
Sword raised, he charged the Titan.
Thrall were reduced to blue cinders as they came in arms reach of the Sky Creatures, the acrid smell of burning flesh and the overbearing static in the air itched at the chitin.
Gunfire showered over the helmet less fools shoulders, cutting deep into Khzit's forces, but he would not be dissuaded.
He swung, the Sky Creature moved with the blow, as though the two were both positively charged, pushing the other away.
Khzit grit his teeth, a trick, surely.
Before he could consider much more, blue suddenly filled his vision, the abomination had buried its fist in his face.
The force was impressive, enough to force him back several steps.
More gunfire barked, none so much as scraping him as it culled his brood.
It would take work, but he would use these creatures, their Light will feed the young.
Once more he found himself uncharacteristically distracted, the Titan was on him again.
Not to be out done, Khzit formed a shield before him, absorbing the blow.
The creature made a noise that stank of annoyance, Khzit once more, took exception to that.
Pushing through the shield he was greeted with the shocked face of the Titan, his sword swinging down as his free hand reached to grapple.
Just as he felt his heart sing, the creature turned to mist before his eyes.
All the inertia carried and he stumbled, barely managing to right himself.
Only to see a flash of blue once more, and the horrendous sensation of his head being caved in with a boot.
[Lightbearer C-: Determines your ability to manipulate and channel The Light.]
[Sword Logic of the Sky E+: Determines the potency of reward for participating in the practice of Sword Logic.]
[Three Upgrade Quests are available.]
Zach was slightly confused that Lightbearer hadn't appeared earlier, but was more shocked at the rank.
Then a little voice in his head reminded him he asked for this.
Mentally accepting both of the quests as he idly fiddled with the Knights sword, Zach took a quick scan of the surroundings.
It all looked about as he remembered, even the Shriekers.
The whole room he was in was huge, two stories of open space, filled with various crates and crap.
All soon to be food of the Processor to break down into raw materials for crafting later.
He would feed his magic box all of it.
Witches performing some ritual or other, off in the smaller room connected to the one he was in.
They seemed to be aware they were fucked, because they sent another wave of Thrall with some Cursed mixed in.
Asterios and Astolfo formed up near him, but with enough space that they couldn't be boxed in.
[Lightbearer Rank-Up Quest:
Defeat 50 Minor Enemies with Arc (0/50)
Defeat 50 Minor Enemies with Void (0/50)
Defeat 50 Minor Enemies with Solar (0/50)
Defeat 10 Major Enemies with Super (0/10)
[Sword Logic of the Sky Rank-Up Quest:
Set recipient of Tithes.
Tithe 250 Minor Enemies to ? (0/250)
Tithe 20 Major Enemies to ? (0/20)
Tithe 5 Boss Enemies to ? (0/5)
[Lightning Mastery Rank-Up Quest:
Defeat 200 Enemies with Lightning damage (0/200)
Cast 300 Lightning Spells (0/300)
Unlike many other times he saw question marks on his quests, this time he had a drop-menu to select.
Tithes are offerings, to kill in the name of something. The process generates real tangible power.
So much so that Eris Morn for a moment, became so powerful that she could lock Xivu Arath, the Hive God of War, from her Ascendant Plane.
Rendering the god mortal, and closing her off from her wellspring of power.
To give that power to anyone was something to consider seriously.
There were options one would expect, like the Xivu, Oryx and Savathun.
Sure, tithe to a dead god. Nothing could go wrong.
Other, weirder options were the Traveler, the Nine, Riven.
None of which he wanted to give power to.
So he chose the obvious choice, his Twice Critical.
Doubles up his grinding of it, and keeps the power he's offering in a place that only he can access.
"Aiat, brothers." He said, shouldering the Knights sword.
It was a Dark artifact, by all definitions. The sword shrieked with hatred, mired in years of bloodshed.
Zach threw it into his inventory, as a background project he was gonna see if he could make Destiny's version of the Ashbringer.
Take something corrupting and dark, and fill it with light and see if its nature could be flipped.
He'd been neglecting his Asauchi, and this would put that idea on the back burner.
It would probably take a much higher rank of Lightbearer to achieve anyway.
The plain katana appeared in his hand, a shame that it wasn't an option for tribute.
Though considering it wasn't even really a Zanpakuto yet, it made sense.
You can't give tribute to something with no spark of life.
Twice Critical just barely qualified, as it was made with pieces of Ddraig. Dragons are so fucking Uber buster in DXD that even their parts qualify as having life.
Placing the hand covered by the Gear on the corpse of the Knight, he activated Devour.
It was, in a word, unexpected.
A red haze of energy gathered around his hand before what looked like dozens of tiny dragon heads started literally devouring the corpse.
He assumed they were dragons, given the everything about his Sacred Gear but they honestly looked like goofy little snakes with horns.
They moved quickly too, within seconds they'd eaten the whole thing, each burping before the energy dissipated and so too did the tiny dragons.
"How fun!"
BOOOOOM
Zach looked over his shoulder to see what remained of a wave of Thrall scattering to the four winds, the familiar blue scorch marks of Cursed Thrall giving him an idea.
Astolfo reloaded his 'lance' which ended up as a shotgun, the silver weapon's barrel smoking.
"Did it live up to expectations?" Zach asked the pink haired man who smiled at him.
A wondrous smile even if his face had been smudged with viscera.
"Exceeded! You were right, Master. They do pop!" Astolfo seemed to take great joy in killing the Hive, something I could get behind.
I looked around at the corpses, "Can you guys help me pile these up? I got an idea."
Asterios, always one to entertain weird shit, immediately began throwing the Hive in a Haphazard pile, grabbing the wizards he and Astolfo had killed.
The room was filled with bullet holes, part of Zach felt his Berserker just really liked mag-dumping.
Within minutes they'd gathered all those that hadn't been completely destroyed into a pile, a decently sized one at that.
"Alright, idea one." Zach said, holding up his Twice Critical, the gem facing towards the pile.
"I offer those slain as tithes, aiat."
Eris used 'aiat' like an exaltation when she truly became the grind, Zach just thought it sounded cool.
Something very fun to know, using the Light to fuel what is ostensibly a Dark magical ritual to sacrifice beings to something.
Has weird reactions.
A blue sigil burned itself into the ground beneath the pile, arc energy crackling menacingly as steel buckled beneath the pressure.
Lightning began to leap across the bodies, each time two arcs intercepted they got faster, within seconds it was like a swarm of incredibly agitated wasps were attacking the corpses.
The worms of the few who had not been shot in the head began to scream.
Not screech.
Scream.
The Light, that which gave life was being used to completely destroy and subjugate.
So something went wrong-ish.
The pile had turned into a writhing mass of energy that exploded in light.
Zach was pushed back but easily caught by Asterios who stood unmoving.
The light died down and in its place was a horrendous thing.
About nine feet tall, broad as a car, with huge scythe-like claws, it had no legs and slithered - badly - on a huge compacted mass of tissue and chitin that seemed haphazardly out together.
[Event: Faulty Ritual.]
Your first attempt at Tithing to your patron has gone awry, but this does not mean it has failed. Defeat your Misbegotten Creation. And in the process innovate a new method of the Logic.
Reward: [Light Ritual Magic D] Skill, 2 Arcanist Crates.
The creature lurched forward, massive claws digging trenches into the metal as it moved.
Lightning burst from Zach's body, a humming noise crackling in the air.
"BOOST!" Roared the Twice Critical.
Distantly Zach noticed it sounded like many smaller voices together, but that thought quickly melted away as the power flooded him.
One moment he was in front of the creature, as it swung down its right hand, looking to disembowel him.
The next, a clap of thunder sounded as his boot collided with the side of the Misbegotten's head.
The creature howled and lurched, but remained unmoving even as a flash of lightning exploded from the Titan.
Once more he disappeared, shimmering into view above the creature to stomp it from above.
Arc light pulsed and screeched as the Titan descended.
"BOOST!" Screamed the Twice Critical, a vehement vitriol on the voice.
Light exploded out again, the pulses becoming more erratic and violent.
This time, as the boot met skull, the creature completely buckled under the weight, the potency of the Arc Light carving through the haphazard chitin.
Sinking to his knee, Zach quickly extracted himself as the creature rolled suddenly.
Flashing away once more he drew his Asauchi and tossed the sheath to Astolfo.
Gripping the blade with two hands, Lightning quickly exploded around it.
A searing line was the only trace of his movements, metal bubbling and bursting as he flew towards his creation.
Not to be outdone, the creature rolled onto its chest with shocking agility and fired off a beam of raw energy from its maw.
If he wasn't completely juiced on Arc, Zach would have been punched through the wall.
If not erased by the blast, much like the poor wall.
It was not to be however, for even with the amassed power of the dead Hive and their Worms, the creature was barely sentient.
As the light died down in front of its eyes from the blast, it did not see the bright flash of blue.
It did feel the excruciating pain of being erased but the stinging, hungry bites of Arc Light.
Throwing all that remained of his Super into the strike, Zach was treated to his very own sword beam.
A feeling of delight came over him, ignoring the writhing corpse or his creation.
He looked at the Asauchi, stray bolts or lightning discharging from the simple katana.
"Very cool." He praised the sword.
[Event Completed.]
Skill Created!
[Light Ritual Magic D: Determines your ability to create and perform ritual magic using The Light.]
Ritual of Tribute Created
Ritual of Forced Rebirth Created
2 Arcanist Boxes added to Inventory.
For breaking unwritten rules of the universe and somehow having it work out, +1 Magic.
Knowledge burned itself into his head, his vague ideas now being filled in with concrete methodology.
Like he'd done it a hundred times, with confidence Zach lifted his Gear, gem facing towards the corpse.
"You were born strong and found weak, so we shall feast upon you. Aiat." Light burned in his eyes as they glowed a bright blue.
The creature's essence was greedily consumed by the Twice Critical.
A red haze grew from the Gear once more, this time the dozen little snakes were easily the size of anacondas, with matured horns growing from their heads.
No longer silly little guys, they had broad, hungry maws.
Beards of stone-like scales on their jaws. Though still ultimately immaterial beings it was like their images were coming into focus.
They lashed out and ate the physical corpse of the creature after feasting on its spiritual essence.
"I should probably vary your diets, the last thing either of us need is you developing like a Worm." Zach said absently, watching the energy dragons eat.
They abruptly stopped eating the corpse and all looked at him, they whimpered at the idea of being worms.
"Come now, I'm sure you'll be fine. You're all smart boys aren't you? You'll only take the good parts, I have faith." The Titan assured, putting his Asauchi into his inventory.
He knelt down and offered his hands to them, they collectively crowded into his palms as best they could.
Having a dozen heads all trying to take up the limited space quickly seemed to be a fool's deal.
Several wrapped around him, all attempting to wrangle the attention for themselves.
"Now-now boys, no need to fight." He assured, the energy beasts began to dissipate, sustaining such a form seemed difficult.
There was a blunt sort of symbolism to it, Zach observed. If the many heads simply formed a single being they'd be much stronger.
Much like his own indecisiveness.
The team met at the halfway point, being the Lost Sector chest.
Kicking it open a pile of glimmer greeted him, along with two Prime Engrams. Purple Engrams that have bold white light from within.
[Wyrmhunter Set Discovered]
Set items are slightly weaker pieces of gear individually but provide stacking buffs for each piece.
[Wyrmhunter Chestplate.]
[Wyrmhunter Greaves.]
[2,000 Glimmer.]
Items added to Inventory.
[Lost Sector Completed.]
+2 Stat Points.
Dumping those two points into strength brought it up to 7.5, which noticeably felt different.
His Super augmented his speed, coupled with Boosts, he could manage without more Agility for a time.
Popping the two Arcanist Crates as the party left the Lost Sector, Zach accepted his sheath back and affixed it to his sword.
[Arcanist: Trade Skill Card]
[High-Grade Incense (12/12)]
From a quick Analyse, incense increased the potency of rituals per stick burned, up to a maximum of 4 per ritual.
Having another trade skill never hurt, and all the metal and resources he'd collected from just this Lost Sector would be good enough for Blacksmithing.
As he thought of this, he tossed another storage crate into his inventory, they were basically just metal boxes.
No use having them sitting around collecting dust when he could have ingots of them.
[Arcanist E (0%)]
[Create Lesser Rune] Active Skill Added
[Create Lesser Incense] Active Skill Added
[Create Lesser Ritual] Active Skill Added
Similar Skill already exists.
Skill Upgraded.
[Light Ritual Magic C]
One did have to wonder if just grinding Arcanist would be a roundabout way to also level his Sword Logic.
The more efficient and effective his rituals became, the more he'd be able to Tithe.
Or, more accurately each Tithe would get it's full worth if he did it well enough instead of pieces.
The armour upgrades were nice, though Zach was certain these items were not from Destiny.
As he slapped them on his character sheet, he was immediately engulfed in heavy-ish armour.
It didn't weigh much, but was classified as Heavy.
[Wyrmhunter Chestplate: Physical Damage Resistance (Minor), Frost Resistance (Minor), Dragonbane (Minor).]
[Wyrmhunter Greaves: Physical Damage Resistance (Minor) Frost Resistance (Minor), Dragonbane (Minor).]
The Set bonus allowed each armour piece to compound on another, two Minor traits making a Medium, and two Medium a Major.
The Dragonbane trait added a multiplier onto the end of his damage calculation against dragons and things like dragons, which was incredibly dope.
So at the moment, say he swung his sword at a Dragon, any buffs he had would be applied and then after all other buffs, Dragonbane would then multiply it.
Which was, fucking insane frankly.
[Wyrmhunter (3/5):
2PB (Piece Bonus): +5 Body
3PB: +5 Agility
4PB: +1 Rank to Weapon Mastery
5PB: +10% To all Stats
'3? How do I have three?' an Analyse told him what he wanted to know, but it was somewhat disquieting.
Armour Forged from the scale and bone of the True Dragon, Zachandr.
As armour forged by the Dragon Slayers, it has gained the Anti-Dragon trait.
How incredibly morbid. He was wearing himself.
And it looked correct, the scale pattern over the plates did look identical to his own sealed form.
His Greaves bore strikingly familiar talons grafted into the metal.
It somewhat explained the ⅗ on his set bonus, he was technically a piece of it himself.
Gross and cool.
Multiverse shenanigans.
So speeketh the Overseer, he decided not to dwell on it. The bonuses were good, and if he could angle his rituals the right way, Tithing would become increasingly easier.
If he could imbue the Dragon trait onto those used in his offerings during the process, killing them would be a breeze.
It could technically be done, or at least his inbuilt knowledge seemed to think so, his brain was still catching up and sorting the new information.
He could use his own blood during the ritual as a catalyst, Malleable Form would rewrite any body he was in.
He was by definition, a dragon in a man's skin.
Experiments could wait, but would be marvelous to behold.
"Any particular reason we came down here, Master?" Astolfo asked, walking with a slight skip in his step.
"Practice, mostly. Also wanted to familiarise myself with it all properly. I wasn't really paying attention in the Prison of Elders."
The black haired Titan turned to the pink haired one with a smile, "Also much appreciate you lookin' after my sheath."
Astolfo waved him off, "Pshaw, Master. Pshaw I say! I'll hold whatever you need."
A devious glint entered the smaller man's eyes.
"I'll keep that in mind." The black haired man commented, a wry smile on his face.
Items Deconstructed.
Items added to Material Pack.
To the brim, dozens of stacks of ingots of high quality, given that even random crates were made with futuristic refining.
'Now, I'll need to think of a spot to set down for a while to work. I wanna do some actual crafting, since Ritual Magic got jammed into my brain, I feel a lot less intimidated about applying knowledge I've been given.'
If you'd like, you can exchange currency for items in the Shop.
The Overseer summoned a Window in Zach's vision as the world suddenly lost all colour and everything ceased to move.
This is technically exploitable, but time stops when you're in the Shop.
We trust, you will not abuse this in any way and conduct yourself ethically.
'Sure, I doubt I'll be thinking of the Shop if I'm already pressed enough to exploit it. Hello handy search bar.'
'Workshop'
Several tabs opened up but the first, the tier zero items, were displayed. What immediately caught his eye was the very first entry.
Skill Orb: Summon Basic Workshop.
Very much does what it says on the tin. It's a conjuration, technically. But seems to operate almost like Territory Creation.
The skill allows you to summon a small, mundane building with all the things you'd need for all your currently learned Trade Skills.
Summon Crafting Hut, basically. Which was, frankly, incredible.
It was absurd that such a thing was considered basic, what the hell were people getting up to?
Items in the shop are created generally by your peers, others who have been chanced upon.
We serve as an intermediary, all prices are fixed and have remained the same since our inception.
This is to prevent seniors from dominating the market.
'Well that's good, at least it means that if I want to sell something I know I'll get the same amount each time.' A reliable revenue stream was probably a good thing to have.
It'll be perfect for slipping back to the Battle Tower and setting up a spot in one of the unused parts.
He purchased the Skill Orb and used it, already giddy at the prospect of having some time to make some stuff.
After Misraaks, and before going to Ahsa because there's no way in hell he's going to go diving in the Methane sea without giga-protection.
Something Zach noticed only once the team had crossed the threshold leading back outside.
Ghost had been mighty quiet.
It has been muted. To prevent potential tampering.
The option of overwriting the Ghost with Overseer exists.
'Wouldn't people notice?' Seemed a Public Event was on, Fallen rained from the skies to protect one of their tanks.
A bounty of Scorch Cannons were locked up tight behind protecting fields.
Asterios leapt into the fray with reckless abandon.
As far as anyone else would be concerned, nothing will have changed.
'Sure. Go ahead, I don't like Ghost that much.' Zach raised Sunshot and fired a round through the head of a Dreg, who quickly exploded into a ball of fire.
There wasn't even a tingle, Ghost appeared. Shell a sleek spiral of black metal suspending a single burning, blue eye.
"Overwrite successful." The voice changed, deeper and quieter.
A Captain leapt from the overhead piping down at Zach, the Titan hopped back to draw the Asauchi.
Shockblade met Spirit Sword, arcs viciously jolted down the length of his blade trying to nip and bite at his nerves.
Arc Light flickered around the Titan who lunged forward with a headbutt.
To the Fallen, that was insane, he had no helmet on.
They did not know about the helmet toggle display option.
They could never know.
A blast of lightning followed the collision of face to helmet, the Fallen Captain's shield imploding before releasing a large wave of Arc energy.
His grip slackened at the sudden pain, only for that pain to increase massively as a grey blade staked itself into his head.
Zach kicked the Captain off his sword before lunging at a Vandal and cleaving it across the chest, for a moment blood coated the ground.
Only to be washed away in the rain.
The tank opened up, standing to its towering height and began firing at Asterios with its heavy cannon, and peppered Astolfo with its turret.
Asterios roared, a flash of red rising up his skin, as he leapt into the air over the shot.
With maneuverability one would not expect from a Berserker, Asterios kicked off one of the overhead pipes and sailed down on the tank like a particularly furious meteor.
Cleanup, after that, was pretty quick.
The Scorch Cannons were popped open, the second Walker tank came down but Asterios just threw it into his Labyrinth and it was dealt with.
From the chest they got a pile of glimmer and a worse, blue chestpiece.
Into the processor it went.
[Battle Tower Demiplane]
'Well that was underwhelming.' Zach thought as he stepped into the master bedroom of the Battle Tower.
A plush king sized bed was situated against a wall, with a fireplace opposite to it. Red velvet drapes surrounded the bed, to close it off.
There was a magic mirror, one could change their appearance in it, and it did actually function.
[Blacksmith D (67%)]
That was his current goal, Trade skills worked interestingly, they didn't have Rank Up quests like his active skills and instead just accrued EXP.
Looking further down the tree told him yes there would be quests, but those were things like Armoursmith and Weaponsmith that then doubled down in the focus of those two specific things.
The rabbit hole went deep enough for Swordsmith to then break down into several other swords.
It also came bundled with a title he could equip.
[Winter Court Faesmith (False): Your lineage gives you an implicit understanding of the ways of the forge, and though your blood may be diluted you still retain that impossible spark.]
[Effect: Whilst this title is active, all weapons forged have their quality raised one teir, and have a chance to gain the Major Cold Damage, and Keen Edge Trait.
Which begs the question, how fucking good are the Far at making shit that a diluted buff was so good?
Well, Excalibur and probably many many others.
He stared at the piled of bars sitting quietly on the bench before a frown crossed his face.
'Butthead didn't even talk to me, just bailed.'
It still counted as a quest complete, which was cool enough.
It felt almost scripted though, the second Zach made it clear he wasn't going to kill him, Misraaks bowed his head and vanished.
Three of the five points he'd gotten went into magic, bringing it up to 10, and the other two were Divided between Body and Agility.
His stats, dispite looking low were not horrendous. Translated, each point had the value of one of himself.
So his magic was ten times stronger than it was prior.
The '?' reward was a Rare Gacha token.
Which he used.
[Sacred Gear: Absorption Line Rank-A]
The glowing purple sphere sat beside the iron bars on the bench, he'd not slammed it into himself quite yet as he had an idea.
Faesmithing works differently than regular human craft. It was one half performance, one half magic.
For a brief time, you had to 'convince' the materials that they'd actually been a weapon this whole time.
It was fueled by his magic, resonating with his voice to basically influence reality in a closed space.
He grabbed one of the journals he'd come upon from his inventory along with something to draw with.
The amount of random crap he'd acquired was quite substantial.
Blessed be the Sort function.
He sketched a few ideas out as he began speaking directly to the Vritra Sacred Gear.
It was the closest thing to 'alive' he could have a conversation with.
"So I'm thinking about a sword, obviously. Swords are dope, my idea for you is basically changing the method you absorb."
[Absorption Line Rank A: This Sacred Gear houses a piece of the Prison Dragon, Vritra.
Active: The Gauntlet fires off a line of energy that seeks and attaches to targets. Current max Lines 3.
Power Drain: Scales with the user's abilities. Draining from Targets several magnitudes of strength above the user will have minimal effect.
Power Transfer: The user is able to hook unused lines up to allied targets to transfer power to them.
Subspecies Potency: Something about this Sacred Gear is different, but it has yet to reveal itself. Adds 75% Increase to this Sacred Gears effects.
Busted, frankly. Though the caveat is his own strength, the 75% could give him some room to punch slightly above his weight class.
"Yes, what you can do is excellent, but in weapon form you have the option of completely locking someone down."
His basic idea was that Vritra was going to be his 'dragonkiller'. Anything that needs to be contained and eliminated before it can cause havoc.
A marvelous little 'Oh Shit' button.
Also his Tithe monsters, it'll make killing them a joke.
"Hmmm… but I've only got one shot at this. So I'll need to make sure the Sword itself gets the buffs before I realistically do anything."
"Maybe a more long-term goal than I thought." He tapped the pencil against his chin, scrutinising his drawings.
"The limiting factors are two-fold, my Blacksmithing, and my Ritual magic."
"So, first off. Level my foundations, mundane smithing first. We'll do some grinding in ID's for Ritual practice and I'll read some stuff relating to both in the evenings."
Placing the book and pencil in his inventory he stood up, "Sassan~!"
The brunette poked her head through his doorway in second, "You called, my Lord?"
"Would you mind terribly, getting me some books on Blacksmithing and Ritual Magic?"
The woman immediately nodded, "I would not mind at all, my Lord. Laiken had many tomes on profane rituals, though for the other? I could simply ask our resident Smith."
The elfin eared man smiled brightly, "Thank you very much. How have you been, Sassan?"
Her stance relaxed as she walked in, looking over his shoulder at the materials laid out before him.
Her expression was puzzled as she took in the sudden inclusion of a workshop in the Master Bedroom.
"I have been well, my Lord. To be among the living once more, to have my vengeance. I am content. You have given me much, by your slaying of Laiken."
She seemingly dismissed the workshop and instead looked down at the man, seated in his chair.
A smile grew on her face as she nodded, "I would be grateful if you allowed me to remain at your side."
She was treated to a radiant smile that filled her with warmth.
"You'll always have a home here, Sassan." The man swore.
Sassan was pleased, gesturing to the bench she asked, "What are you working on?"
"An idea for a very cool artefact, though I've realised to make it something worthwhile I'll need to bring my skill up to par with my ideal."
The brunette nodded, "A wise approach, many times fools will rush blindly forward. It is good to pace yourself."
"In the meantime, I'm going to be making some literally cool weapons with a very strange method. Would you like to see something weird, Sassan?"
The look on his face was mischievous, Sassan noted. Not something she'd seen in her few interactions with the Dragon.
She sensed no foul play, so she nodded. Deciding to humour her Lord.
"Okay, this'll be a first attempt but it should hopefully be dope." He very excitedly got up from his chair.
Sassan took a few steps back as he bustled about and set things up.
The forge, instead of it's typical glowing red heat turned icy cold.
Literally, crystals of ice began to grow, all around the room in fact.
Sassan felt no noticeable drop in temperature but took note as her Lord gently hummed a tune.
A low, rolling note like thunder in his chest, his hands gracefully dancing across the ingonts, lines of magic began to permeate the air.
"You were red, now you're blue."
"But this shape, wasn't meant for you."
"It's time to wake, see the morning dew."
"Now you break, and be made anew."
Sassan felt a little lightheaded as his voice grew quiet, as her Lord turned around.
It was as though he had forced ice into a blade not metal. It glimmered like a jewel in his grasp, yet held the defined menace of a weapon made to kill.
The hilt was comprised of black metal, wrapped coils of silvery leather, a crown shaped pommel resting regally on the end.
A creeping frost seemed to emulate from the weapon, chilling the air around it.
It was easily as tall as Sassan was, yet her Lord wielded it as though it weighed nothing.
[Fae Forged Greatsword of Frost C]
[On hit applies Creeping Frost, each stack of Creeping Frost reduces target stats.
[When 10 Stacks have been applied, the target creature suffers Extreme Cold Damage and is encased in ice for 1 second.]
[Keen Edge: Attacks with this weapon penetrate armour and deal full damage.]
[Fae Forged: This weapon only requires a sufficient magic stat or heritage to wield. (150)]
'Okay wow holy shit. Maybe I don't need to make the gear into a sword.' Zach blinked owlishly as he examined the weapon.
"Y-you seem impressed, my Lord." Sassan comments, being bold and smirking at his expression.
"That's putting it lightly, this thing is a bloody beast!" He crowed excitedly.
[Blacksmithing D has risen to C-]
"And the next one I make could be even better." He stared at the sword, his first creation, and it was immaculate.
"Sassan, do you have a preferred weapon?" He asked, eyes straying from the sword finally.
The woman blinked for a moment, seemingly processing the words, there was a war in her eyes debating whether or not she should acquiesce and accept her Lord's offer.
Any gift from Laiken was a poisoned apple, there was always a consequence.
The Dragon, however, had not displayed this trait. Going so far as to perform something so magnificent before her own eyes.
"A longsword, my Lord." Her struggle over, she almost felt the need to gasp for breath.
"Cool stuff, consider it done. I'll make you something awesome." The elfin man promised a wide grin on his face.
Sassan saw the true delight in his eyes and felt her heart quicken, such a wondrous expression on her Lord's face.
With a twist of his wrist the sword was in his hands one moment and gone the next, an incredible display.
"Well that took way less time than I thought, I'm gonna keep pumping these out until I run outta stuff to make them with."
Sassan watched as with another wave of his hand, boxes full of materials were suddenly strewn about around him.
"Gonna do some weird combinations and see what comes out." He whispered, wiggling his eyebrows as he did.
Sassan stifled a laugh, "Best of luck to you my Lord, I'm sure you'll make things of beauty."
She bowed before leaving his quarters, off to collect whatever books she could find for the Singing Dragon.
Her face flushed, 'Such a wonderful voice.'
Back in the room, Zach had a maddened gleam in his eye.
First Craft Completed, Bonus EXP rewarded.
For each different item he made, depending on the quality of the final product, he was rewarded with a lump sum of extra experience.
Something he was blatantly going to abuse.
A chime noise alerted him to the fact that his runes had finished.
The magic needed to settle into the stones he'd inscribed on, apparently.
[Minor Frost Rune] X 4
[Frost Rune Rank E: This rune houses a level 1 Frostbolt. And can be activated with a small flicker or magic.]
First Craft!
[Arcanist E has risen to E+]
Onward, to glory then.
End
After Destiny, which will probably be a good couple of chapters as I'm actively holding myself to not just skipping ahead, will most likely be Baldur's Gate 3.
I lost my spirit to that game, I am but an empty vessel for Larian to fill with cool shit.
Side-note, I cannot tell you how gratifying it was to be singing Larian's praises for so many years to so many people and to be proven so right by how much that game fucking slapped.
It was also very fun to watch the Spiderman enjoyers pitch a fit.
Anyway, conquest of the moon, meeting a big snake-whale-worm to come.