The bag spilled out its contents across the table as Kay dumped it out. It wasn’t some huge pile of loot, but there was enough that a few coins and baubles rolled and scattered across and off the table. Eleniah policed the fallen items as Kay started sorting through the pile.

“Ignore the coins.” She told him. “I’ll sort those. Practice your Appraisal on the other stuff.”

Kay grabbed a ring and used his level one Appraisal skill on it.

[————————————————————]

Silver Ring

- A simple, thin band of silver forming a ring.

[————————————————————]

The descriptions of the various items continued the same way. Appraisal couldn’t give out some exact value in coinage, because why would it? Supply and demand shifted all the time, and the cost of things would always shift one way or the other. The skill just gave a vague description of the item.

The bandits that Kay had defeated weren’t very experienced, and their loot was meager, if you excluded what they’d gotten from the noble and his guards. A few rings and a couple of necklaces were the only spoils they’d plundered, most likely from traveling merchants who’d risked traveling between safe areas to peddle their wares. The noble’s small entourage had more jewelry, valuables, and coin than everyone else the bandits had attacked.

Eventually Eleniah finished sorting and counting the coins, and Kay had appraised most of the items. There were only four things left when Eleniah called out a total.

“Eighty five copper, one hundred twelve silver, and sixty eight gold coins.” She pushed the three piles off to the side of the table. “Find anything good?”

“It’s all been regular jewelry so far.” He waved at the small pile on his side of the table. “A few pieces with gems, probably from the noble, but thats it.” He picked up the ring in front of him, then set it in the pile as it appraised as exactly what he'd been expecting, a normal gold band.

Kay appraised the next ring and found the same thing as the previous one, then grabbed the last one, a small silver ring that looked like it’d been braided into shape. He focused on the feeling of the Appraisal skill, concentrating magic power into his eyes, and focusing that power onto the ring, concentrating on learning the ring’s secrets. Normally, the magic power formed an invisible link between his eyes and the item, which then caused a screen to pop up in front of him with some level of information. Through the last half hour of work, he’d managed to raise it twice, to level three, which had given him slightly more information from each item. This time though, the link fizzled as it connected to the item, then flaked away.

“What?” Kay flipped the ring over and inspected it manually, looking for some clue to what happened.

“What?” Eleniah looked over from where she’d been stacking the coins neatly.

“It didn’t appraise.” Kay frowned at the ring. “It kind of felt like the skill bounced off.”

“Oh!” Eleniah reached out and plucked the ring out of his hand. “When something like that happens… Yup, it’s magical.”

“Oh, really?” Kay leaned closer to it. “So it needs Identify.”

“Yup!” She handed him back the ring. “Which makes this the perfect time to learn the skill! Remember the steps?”

“It’s like using Appraisal, except I need to concentrate on what the magic does, not what the item is.”

“That, and it’s harder. The magic of any enchanted or otherwise magical items blocks Appraisal, so you have to Identify it, but the magic of the item fights back against that too.”

Kay sat back in his chair and stared at the ring as he focused. Over and over again he made the magical link, then felt as it broke apart. He studied it carefully each time, trying to get the trick. It felt a bit like echolocation to him, he sent out a pulse, and it bounced back with the information. Except with this thing, the pulse hit and broke apart, like it was made out of that foam they put in recording booths. Except that absorbs the sound doesn’t it? So what breaks sound apart? You can’t really break vibrations… Kay followed that thought along until he realized he’d distracted himself again, and got back on task.

A few minutes later he got distracted again as he watched Eleniah scoop up handfuls of coins and put them into small bags, divided by type. “You know, I’ve been meaning to ask, but why is coinage here so regulated? All the coins have different faces, depending on the country that minted them, but they’re all worth the same and every country uses the same system. How did that happen?”

“Oh, The Merchant did it.”

“The Merchant?”

She nodded. “The Merchant was a tier seven when she decided to go around and force all the nations across the three closest continents to use the same system of coinage.”

“And she got away with it?”

“A tier seven with a mercantile class? She sure did. She started manipulating prices and supply of goods to such a point that every nation gave in. Now it’s been long enough that it’s just how things work.”

Kay shook his head. “Damn. How long did she live after that?”

“What do you mean? She’s still alive. She’s a tier eight now.”

“She’s still alive?” Kay frowned. “Wouldn’t everyone go after her after something like that? If you mess with the economy so much that entire countries give in to your demands, wouldn’t a lot of people want revenge? Even if it was just the regular people who had family or loved ones die, I feel like someone would get her.”

“Oh!” Eleniah chuckled. “Yeah, if she’d done that she’d be dead. But she didn’t mess with regular stuff, like food or medicine. She only did it with luxuries and non-essentials.”

“Huh?”

“Things like delicious food, precious gems, really good enchanted items. She made the markets for stuff like that go nuts. Eventually the different merchants and nobles in each country forced their leaders to capitulate. Then she went on to found the Banking Guild, which manages and oversees various lenders, and helps maintain currency.”

Kay’s frown got even bigger. “How do you manipulate things like that and not effect other things? The economy doesn’t have clear dividing lines between ‘luxuries’ and ‘non-luxuries’.”

Eleniah shrugged. “No idea. She was a tier seven, they basically do whatever they want. Tier sixes are strategic weapons, tier sevens are walking disasters, and tier eights are basically demigods for all the rest of us care.”

“What about tier nines?” Kay asked.

“There are no reliable records of anyone ever getting to tier nine. There’s conclusive records of one tier eight that’s been around for the last few thousand years who hasn’t managed to advance, but most of them end up dying or disappearing while trying to get to the next tier.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah. Anyway,” She pointed at the ring, “You done with that yet?”

“Uh, no.”

“Then get back to work.”

Kay started trying to figure out Identify again. Eventually he managed to get somewhere. With Appraisal I bounce the magic off of the item back at me, but with this… Ah! Got it! I have to connect my magic with the item’s magic.

[————————————————————]

Braided Silver Ring of Minor Illusory Beauty

- A braided silver ring enchanted to make the wearer look slightly more attractive. This is an illusory affect, and the viewer may resist it.

[————————————————————]

[~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]

- New Skill!

- Skill: Identify Gained!

[~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]

“It’s a Braided Silver Ring of Minor Illusory Beauty.” Kay read out to his teacher.

“Oh, yeah that’s the kind of thing a noble would wear. Not really useful for you.”

Kay shrugged. “I can always sell it.” He put it in the pile of other jewelry. “Now for the last thing.” He reached out and grabbed the small rectangular box off the table.

“Saving the most interesting for last?” Eleniah asked with a smirk.

“Damn straight.” Kay looked for a latch. “Shit.” On the front edge was a small keyhole. “It might be open.” He tugged at it, to no avail. “Shit.” He cursed again.

“Ha!” Eleniah laughed at him and held out her hand. “Give it.”

He handed it over to her with a sulky look on his face.

She stared at the box for a second, then shook it near her ear. “It’s just a box with a lock on it, not that valuable. You care if I break it open? I can do it without damaging whatever’s inside.”

“Sure? I don’t know what could be in it, but why not? Especially if the box isn’t worth anything.”

“I mean, you could sell it for a few silver, it’s a nicely decorated box with a lock. But you don’t have the key, so…” She shrugged and held it up. “Ready?”

Kay nodded.

“One. Two-Three!” Rushing the count, she twisted the lock and snapped it like a twig. She kept it balanced so the lid stayed on and handed it back. “Here, it’s your prize so you get it open it.”

“Thanks.” Kay took it back and pulled the lid free. It folded up on small hinges. “Oh wow.” He reached inside and pulled out the item.

On a silver colored chain hung a small glass ball, about the size of a golf ball. Inside, a tiny dragon stared at him from where it was curled up.

Kay pulled it free from the box, the dragon uncurled and stared back at him.

“Wow.”

“Oh, it’s so cute!” Eleniah murmured as she leaned in close.

The tiny European dragon curled it’s neck to look at Eleniah, then it shot a burst of fire that was as gold as its scales.

As Eleniah cooed at the dragon, Kay reached out with his new Identify skill. There was no way that this was anything other than a magical item, not with a moving dragon in it.

[————————————————————]

Illusory Dragon Bauble

- An enchanted sphere of glass containing an illusion of a dragon, it is also enchanted to resist damage.

[————————————————————]

“Oh, its an illusion.” Kay said after reading the Identify prompt, the dissapointment he felt leaking into his voice.

The tiny dragon whirled to face Kay, it’s head whipping back in forth.

Kay frowned, his brows furrowing as he pulled the sphere a little closer. “Are you saying no?”

The dragon nodded vigorously.

“So, what, you’re saying you aren’t an illusion?”

It nodded again, just as emphatically.”

Kay looked at Eleniah. “Do illusions usually try and convince you they aren’t illusions?”

“Not unless the person who made them designed them to.” Eleniah reached out. “Can I see that for a moment?”

He handed it over, and she stared at it. As she did, her face got more and more serious as her brows dropped down. After a few moments of glaring at the necklace and the connected sphere she huffed and held it out in front of her. “Huh. Someone used Falsify Identify on this.”

“Falsify Identify… A skill to give false info?”

“Right.” She pointed at the bauble. “It lets you layer a fake description over the real one, for whatever reason you’d do that. You have to have a similar or higher skill in Identify to get passed it to the real information. Looks like my Identify is high enough to break it.” She handed it back over.

“Look at it now.”

[————————————————————]

Size-Reducing Imprisonment Sphere

- A glass sphere enchanted to shrink a target and trap them inside. The sphere renders all Classes and Skills of the prisoner unusable, prevents all communication by the prisoner, is highly resistant to damage, and repairs itself over time. Created to trap a dragon that refused to bow, this sphere was entrusted to the safekeeping of noble family loyal to the man who commissioned it.

[————————————————————]

“Wow.” Kay pulled the sphere closer to his eyes so he could see the dragon better. “So some dude wanted you to obey him, and he trapped you in here when you said no?”

The dragon nodded, it’s lips pulled back, exposing tiny fangs as it snarled.

“Yeah, that does sound like a dick move.” He looked at the description again. “And it sounds like the dude is a Nelamian noble, since it was entrusted to the family of the noble who died, and they listen to him. At least, that’s my guess.”

The tiny dragon nodded.

“So he is a Nelamian noble?”

More nodding.

“Good to know… Wait.” Kay read the description a third time. “Where did that bit of info at the end come from? I haven’t seen any other item’s histories.”

“It’s from my higher level Identify. At level ten and above you start getting more detailed descriptions from Identify and Appraisal, level twenty and higher and you start getting information on the history of the item.” Eleniah stared at the tiny, trapped dragon, a small frown on her face. “Leveling inspect just gives you more and more information about the person or creature, it doesn’t give you their history.”

“How am I seeing a description from your skill?” It wasn’t supposed to work like that, at least from what Kay had been taught. It’s why people who used Identify for money had to be trustworthy, since they could hypothetically lie about what an item did.

“Huh?” Eleniah glanced at him, then went back to staring. “Oh, it’s from one of my classes. Once you hit tier three classes start having effects on your skills. My tier three Talent Scout class lets me share the descriptions I get from Identify, inspect, or Appraisal if someone uses the same skill within a short time.”

“You have a tier three class with those three skills? I thought you said you weren’t an Appraiser!”

Eleniah smirked at him. “I’m not an Appraiser, I’m a Talent Scout. Remember, there’s all kinds of classes out there, you can’t just assume you know what someone can do.”

“Ugh.” Kay looked away, a faint blush on his face. “Anyway…”

Eleniah smirked at him again and he scowled.

“Anyway! We’ve got ourselves a dragon trapped in a magic ball, and a Nelamian nobleman who had it done. Think it ties into the stuff you’re looking into?”

“Could be, or it could be completely unrelated.” She shrugged. “No way to know until we find out.”

Kay held the sphere in front of his face. “Well, either way, I guess I have myself a new long-term goal.”

“What’s that?”

“Freeing this guy, of course.” Kay addressed the dragon directly. “I don’t know how long it will take, but I’ll do my best to free you. No one deserves to get locked up just because you refused to serve some asshole.”

The screen Kay had seen up till now were light gray in color, and mostly translucent, except for the black text on them. The one that appeared just then was very different. The background was a shining silver color, with shimmering gold scrolling covering the top and bottom. It had a weight to it that made it seem important, which was probably the effect that it was going for.

◄═══════════════════════════►

Quest: The Imprisoned Dragon

- The dragon, Murunel, has been imprisoned in a magical artifact made specifically for her. Trapped for refusing to bow before a tyrannical noble, she has languished in her prison for decades.

Objective: Free Murunel from her enchanted prison.

Rewards: Murunel’s gratitude, One Class Related Item (Tier Three Equivalent)

Failure/Refusal Consequences: None

Difficulty: Moderate

◄═══════════════════════════►

Kay stared at the screen in shock. “There are Quests!? No one told me there were quests!”

“You got a Quest?” Eleniah yelped, her tone as shocked as Kay felt. “Seriously?”

“Why didn’t you tell me there were Quests?” Kay demanded.

“Because you basically never see them until you hit tier three and start traveling around, you almost never find them in large cities! They only show up if you’re in some way having a large effect on the world, and only rulers and important figures get them in cities!” She pushed her way into Kay’s personal space, trying to see the screen even though she couldn’t. “What’s it say? It’s to free the dragon, right? What kind of rewards does it have?”

“Wait, stop, don’t push me!” He grabbed her shoulders and held her back. “Yes, it’s to free her! The rewards are her gratitude and a class item, it says.”

“Oh you’re a girl?” She glanced at the dragon, who nodded, then processed the rest of the sentence. “Wait, a class item? What’s difficulty is the

Quest!? What tier item!?” She asked excitedly.

“Uh… Moderate and tier three equivalent.”

“Yes!” She fist pumped. “That’s the best item reward you can get from a moderate difficulty Quest!” She fist pumped again and danced around in a circle.

“What’s a Class Item? I mean, I can guess, but explain anyways in case I’m wrong.”

“Well the obvious part is it’s a magic item related to one of your classes. The tier equivalent part is what tier it will be good until, at higher tiers than they are they start to fall behind. What class you get them for is random though. The last quest I got mostly involved fighting, but it gave me an item that boosted one of my non-combat classes.” She shrugged. “They’re awesome no matter what class they’re for though.”

Kay glanced at Murunel in her glass cage and saw what he thought was hope in her eyes. “Well, Quest or no Quest, I’m not going to leave you in there if I can help it.”