Dungeon 42

Illusions

Chapter 194

The bullshit cursed crystal sat on my desk in my workroom amdists piles of layout drawings and random doodles of other ideas. Like most of the magic items I’d encountered that originated from the outside, it was garbage quality aside from the curse mechanism.

It wouldn’t have even given off as much light as one of the pebble sized stones I used for lighting despite being nearly the size of my palm. Like the crappy healing potions the hero’s party had, I found it offensive on a basic level. I put more time into designing tabards for the dungeon raid games than whoever had made this had expended in its creation.

“Cheap garbage quality-” I cut off, swatting the crystal off my desk in frustration. Normally I didn’t have much force but this time it actually tipped over and fell. I watched with interest as it plummeted to the floor and shattered. Even a lump of crappy glass wouldn’t have done that.

“The fuck?” I muttered as I picked up a shard. I’d been expecting a chunk, but no.

“I’m not surprised it was hollow,” Aaron offered.

“Whhhyyyy?” I asked. I knew almost nothing about magic or what one should expect from it.

Aaron ignored my question squatting down to shift through the pile of shards. After a moment he picked out what looked like an iron ball carved with crude symbols.

“Even your magic items aren't so clean as this was. There should have been lines of runes or other magical diagrams on it to create the effect, but I saw none,” Aaron explained, pocketing the ball.

“I didn’t get any indication it had more magic on it to hide anything, just that it carried a curse function,” I protested. I should have been able to see the ball inside the fake crystal but I hadn’t despite examining it.

“It's likely a property of the material they used, check it now that it's no longer part of it,” Aaron said with a sigh.

“Oh… I hadn’t thought of that,” I admitted as I did as he suggested.

“Yes, you seem to forget that you only get an item's effects and triggers rather than its composition unless you break it down,” Aaron said flatly.

“Well- I can't forget what I didn’t actually know… I honestly hadn’t put that together,” I admitted. I tended to eventually break things down to study them with my materials table, but hadn’t considered what the two step process meant in context. I’d have to be more mindful about putting things in the deconstruction sooner.

“I suppose I’ll have to settle for you knowing now,” Aaron said. As far as jabs went that was almost playful coming from him.

“Neat, now give me the ball back so I can break it down too,” I said, holding out my hand. I hadn’t intended to let him just walk off with a cursed object in the first place. Now I had a reason to be a little less polite about asking for it back.

“Mistress, I would prefer to study it in its intact state, not just the blueprint,” Aaron said even as he handed it over. It went into my inventory but I didn’t immediately throw it into the deconstruct tab.

“Why?” I asked.

“I wish to compare it to the other Stromholt items we’ve acquired. Their construction bothers me,” Aaron explained. I considered for a moment before making a copy to keep for myself and handing back the original cursed ball thing.

It wasn’t exactly a strong argument, but it was enough. Aaron didn’t often ask me for things outside of lab equipment and even that had tapered off once he had the basics.

“The fact they’ve all been trash tier bothers me. Magic is precious here, but low quality ingredients and other things are mixed in,” I said with a sigh of my own. It might have been an issue of access, but I couldn’t be sure. That would involve finding magic potion and item makers and checking how they source their raw materials.

“I understand. The designs of the spell structures are effective but… inelegant. I can't see a true mage making such rushed work even if the item isn’t a powerful one,” Aaron agreed.

“Well, I’m lucky you know that. I’d have just assumed it was ugly because they sucked at drawing,” I said with a chuckle. As irritating as Aaron could be at times, he understood magic in a way I didn’t.

“Luck has nothing to do with it. You summoned a magic user and I was an apprentice wizard in life,” Aaron said. I paused, curious what brought on that admission. I understood his skill set didn’t match up with his current sorcerer class, but he’d never talked about that or why he’d wanted the class specifically.

“Apprentice?” I said, genuinely a bit surprised.

“Of fifty years, on the cusp of becoming a journeyman within the magic tower. Exceeding a mortal span is a basic requirement of lasting long enough to learn anything,” Aaron explained.

“Huh, I had no idea,” I admitted.

“I’m sure it's not entirely dissimilar in other worlds, even if perhaps they don’t have towers. Speak with the others and they’ll likely outline something similar,” Aaron said with a rare shrug.

“You haven’t really talked to the other mages, have you?” I asked, despite knowing the answer.

“No, I don’t generally find their company productive. I have little interest in comparing whose fireballs are bigger,” Aaron said flatly. I couldn’t help laughing at that and he didn’t seem entirely displeased by it. If I wasn’t misreading things, it was the first time he’d ever told a joke that I was aware of it.

“Okay, but seriously, they don’t have your level of skill in theory. It's why I’m always bugging you about this stuff instead of sharing the workload more fairly,” I explained.

“Hm… I suppose I should be shocked, but I’m not. I hadn’t noticed much of a scholarly attitude among them,” Aaron said with faint disgust.

It was interesting because I wouldn’t have said the same. The other magic users tended to spend plenty of time in study, but they seemed intent on understanding spells they’d already selected rather than novel ones or designing their own.

They all understood it far better than I did, but I still felt confident that Aaron was the skeleton I should depend on for magic issues.

“Too busy worrying about their balls,” I offered. That got me a look of disgust, but not the sharpest one I’d ever been subjected to by him.

“Let me know if you figure anything out about the magic items,” I added. That got me a respectful nod before Aaron turned on his heels and simply left.

I took a moment to examine the glass now and found it was called Fey Glass and would hide anything enclosed within it. That explained the iron ball but I tossed it into the deconstruct tab to see what else I could learn.

It would take an hour, but that was fine. I didn’t have any pressing projects to worry about and the slot was free. I probably should have found something to do in the meantime but I couldn’t help ruminating.

I had a problem with shitty items, but It wasn't just about shoddy craftsmanship – there had to be something to it. Something that had to be related to whatever the hell it was Stromholt was trying to pull.

A kingdom that had already enslaved part of its population producing items to enslave more people wasn’t exactly a reach. Using them on foreigners also probably made as much sense as using them on your own if you were fucked up in the head.

That wasn’t the part I was having trouble with. My issue was why they’d created the hero party, altered personalities, then went and did something so broad like this. The fact that they were trying to bind people through seemingly innocuous religious ceremonies was deeply troubling.

As much as I didn’t like to rush things, it seemed like I was going to need to step up my plans a bit. Dr. Satan needed to be dealt with, then it would be time to get serious about figuring out what the hell Stromholt was doing and how to kick their plans right in the dick in a more lasting way.

Stumbling into plots or having them drop into my lap was not an acceptable long term plan for dealing with an enemy. I was going to have to get a raid party together and start cleaning up my neighborhood.