Mantle of the Gods

Tophua wasn’t ready for us.

He was in the process of soaking the katana in purple liquid when we walked in.

“I’m almost finished!” He laughed, “How was it? Best you ever had?”

“It was good.” Fray’s voice was so soft that I could barely hear her.

Apparently he didn’t because he moved straight into a new topic, “You can watch this last bit if you want.” He motioned for us to get closer, “Never going to turn away a chance to make the scenery nicer.” His laughter was so contagious I had to work to keep from joining him.

I glanced over to see how Rix was doing, but she wasn’t with us anymore. I wasn’t sure when she’d slipped away, but with her stealth skill, I wasn’t sure if Trent would even be able to detect her if she wasn’t wearing the seal that he’d put on her.

“I’m always eager to learn new things.” I looked at the tub that he was working over. “So what are you doing now?”

The blonde man pointed at the purple sparks in the water, “I broke the enchanted sword down to essence and mixed it into this enhancer.” He motioned at the tub, “Added a few level one crystals that I broke down to energy to make this soup.” He stirred it with the metal rod in his hand. “Now I’m applying heat to fuse the enchantment back into the katana.” His red eyes focused on Fray, “You can’t apply too much heat or else you’ll melt it down and if there isn’t enough, it won’t fuse.”

He took out the rod and blue light shone from his fingers and focused on the sword.

“Now I’m using magic to bind the enchantment to the blade.” He wiggled his fingers, “Yes, I know. I’ve got magic hands. It's such a burden, but someone has to carry it.” He laughed again as Fray shrank away from him. “Don’t be scared, miss, these hands are reserved for those that aren’t taken…” His eyes sparkled, “Perhaps you have an older sister or Aunt you’d be willing to speak to on behalf of this poor talented man.”

“Could you transfer an enchantment from like a pair of gloves to a sword?” Ren diverted the conversation.

“Depends on the enchantment, but mostly no.” The blonde man smiled as he turned to the woman to my right. He nodded at his CB, “I’ve got a library of what enchantments are unique to which pieces of gear.”

“What about upgrading gear?” I pulled the SnakeSword out of my CB, “This is a level two sword. What would it take to upgrade it to level three?”

“Gimme a moment…” He reached over and grabbed a pair of tongs, then pulled the katana out of the liquid. The blade was purple now instead of silver and there were runes up and down the blade on both sides in gold.

“I had a low level enchantment lying around and the Sribs are never going to use it, so I threw it in there. Turned out pretty good, I think.” Tophua tapped the blade with his finger a few times like he was checking to see if it was too hot to hold. He picked up the katana and offered it to Fray. “I believe this is yours.”

She took the weapon and used her CB to appraise it. It was now a Cursed Consecrator. It not only applied curse to the wounds and gave her an extra Speed while she was holding it, but it was also more effective against Zombies.

“That’s a pretty useful bonus.” I looked back at the Smith and realized he’d taken my sword without me noticing.

“Around here, sure.” He turned the sword over, “But anywhere else in the Ward?” The blonde man looked at me, “I don’t think there’s another Zombie dungeon in the whole Ward. Plus it’s only useful on Tier Zero, which none of these Scribs are mapping anymore.” He offered me the sword back, “Maybe once this place becomes an actual town, but for now, it might as well have been a blank sheet of paper.” He nodded at the sword as I took it and put it in my CB. “You’re not going to find the materials I need to upgrade that around here. Sorry, but unless you’ve got a lot of snake crystals on you, there’s nothing really that I can do for your weapon.”

“It’s okay.” I shrugged, “Maybe I’ll find something out of the second floor boss tomorrow. Speaking of, we should head back to camp. Thanks again!”

“If you have anything else you need worked on, bring it by!” He called after us as we walked out, “And maybe bring some more of your friends to meet me too!”