Their arrival at the village had caused quite a large commotion. The enormous monster corpses descending onto the village hat caused the people to panic, but Mash didn’t think there was a much better way to do it. Kirk had come out to meet them along with several other hunters. They were easily identifiable as they held obvious weapons like swords and bows. Their swords were curved, their blades forming semi-circles. While interesting, he didn’t really care to investigate their weapons.

Kirk flew up to meet them, and Mash realized it was the first time he had seen their people fly. They didn’t flap their arms like wings, instead, their feathers began glowing in a greenish light, before billowing as if it was hit by the wind. It didn’t seem to inhibit the movements of his arms, and Mash guessed it worked similarly to his own when he was in his cat form. Kirk noticed Mash and flew over to him while signaling to the people below.

“So, it looks like you have succeeded. Well, I would expect nothing less of a lord.”

Mash rolled his eyes after hearing Kirk’s words. he was obviously speaking to uphold his image to the watching crowd. Normally, he was one of the most uncaring about his status as a lord. Honestly, it seemed like Kirk didn’t believe he was a lord and Mash was grateful for the fact.

“Where should we drop them off? And can we get the cores immediately? We are going to be leaving soon.”

Mash was able to see Kirk visibly relax, probably glad to hear that they would be out of his hair soon. His presence had done a lot to raise the tension of the Vians, and he felt a little bad for it. Kirk only turned and led them to a much larger space than the room from before. It was a short distance outside of the city, but still atop the clouds. Mash dumped the enormous crab bodies and watched as several people came out and began working on them. He was surprised to see that the common workers were able to break the shells. They were essentially using pickaxes, though Mash could feel the mana radiating off of them. The items were heavily enchanted and were probably the only reason for their strength.

Mash watched for a short while and was disappointed to learn that not every crab had a core. However, they only really needed one as it was extremely large. They were lucky enough to find one too, and Mash and Luke went to find Aifell once they had dug the core out. Mash told kirk he was free to do whatever he wanted with the monster bodies, treating it like payment for the items. He still felt like he had been taking advantage of the people and wanted to do a little to pay them back. Plus, he didn’t want to waste any more time than he needed to, and just left after dumping the rest of the cleanup on Kirk.

Finding Aifell was easy as she rarely left her workshop. It wasn’t hard to figure out that Aifell and Kirk were the leaders of the town, and one of the two of them would handle anything important. Kirk probably had been busy back when they had first arrived, and that was why Aifell had been called to deal with them.

As expected, she was working on something in her workshop. Mash and Luke waited as she finished whatever she was doing, as interrupting her could be dangerous. Creating magic items could be dangerous, which was one of the reasons that many people didn’t try to go down that path. Also, why Aifell was so particular about making sure that his glyphs were perfect. Small discrepancies usually resulted in catastrophic failures.

After handing Aifell the item, they learned that it would only take a few hours for her to finish the item. Jill and Red might have been fighting, but Mash still sent a signal via the imitations he had left with them. It was a simple gesture but indicated that the items would be done before the end of the day. It would be pointless for either Mash or Luke to head out to meet them. It would be a waste of time, and they wouldn’t arrive in time to help. No, they would finish soon and return, then the four of them could leave the dungeon.

Mash watched as she wove the core into the magic items, somehow using it instead of pure mana to fill the enchantments. The process was long, and he was surprised when she worked after the sun fell. Maybe she was treating it as a relaxing activity, and Mash didn’t mention it. If she was willing to get the items done, then he wouldn’t argue. He just watched as she finished the four bracelets, looking at them with excitement. He wanted to grab the items and test them, but he couldn’t actually test things. At least, not attuned items.

Luke and Aifell could test the items though and did exactly that. The test was simple and consisted of them switching languages mid-speech. Luke only knew one language beyond Lingesh, but Aifell knew dozens of them. Mash had known that there were other Vian cities, but he was still surprised by how many different dialects there were. When he realized that he could understand what she was saying despite not having the item on, he realized that it was working perfectly.

“Judging by your smiles, I guess it works.”

Luke was grinning like Mash, both of them excited to receive such a valuable item. A communication device like this didn’t exist in their world, and he had a small idea of how valuable the item would be. That sounded like a go-ahead to him, and he slid one of the bracelets on. He did it on his other wrist and examined the glyphs carefully. He noticed that there were more flowery shapes on it, and he wondered what the symbol meant for their people. Before attuning to the item, he asked Aifell.

“What does this mean?”

Mash pointed at the flower-shaped symbol but positioned the bracelet for his attunement. He slid it as far up his arm as he could. It would be easier to hide that way.

“It means connection. The center point indicates you, and the connecting sections represent others.”

Aifell seemed confused but didn’t try and pry. Mash just let out a sigh and started the attuning process. It burned and he was surprised to feel a headache start. It grew painful quickly, and he fell to his knees clutching his head. His fingers dug into his hair, and Luke moved to start healing him. Mash forced his own healing item to activate, and the pain lessened significantly from the two types of healing magic. Mash managed to remain conscious and heard Aifell panicking.

“That wasn’t supposed to happen. It was just a normal item, I didn’t- wasn’t trying to do anything.”

She was stepping away slowly as she spoke, but Mash rose his hand placatingly. Luke started explaining the situation too, as Mash was busy gritting his teeth.

“No, it’s not your fault. This is what happens when he attunes to items.”

His words didn’t seem to help much, but Aifell did stop backing away. Kirk arrived in the room, looking somewhat panicked, and Mash wondered when she had sent a message to him. He didn’t seem to understand what was happening, but Mash would leave the discussion to Luke. The pain had been growing worse, despite all of the healing. It felt like his entire arm was being stabbed with needles.

Sweat was building on his forehead, and he realized that this hurt more than getting his bones broken by the crab. He needed more than healing and tried getting Luke’s attention. Weekly, he mumbled something his body clenching uncomfortably from the pain.

“Luke! Buffs!”

It was a struggle to even get the few words out that he did. He had wanted to yell, but it came out weekly. Thankfully, Luke was close enough to hear, and he started buffing him. He also grabbed the vial of Red’s blood that he had and dumped it into his mouth. The combination of the buffs was enough to raise his mental stats so that he could better handle the pain. It helped a little, but not as much as he would’ve hoped. Mash tried to feel for the energy in his body, to try and understand what was happening. He got a vague impression of what was happening and saw the glyphs and beast core, connecting itself to his own mana core. It was growing by feeding on him somehow, and Mash watched in awe as it seemed to invade his body.

After a few minutes, the process was over, and he looked to see that his entire arm was covered in the tattoo. It had grown significantly, and the glyphs covered his entire arm in a mixture of tattoos. The glyphs were all connected too, exactly like it was when the enchantment was made. There were flowers that seemed to be connected by branches. A few other glyphs were there too, including symbols that he had never seen before. They separated some of the flowers and the whole tattoo had turned black to match the others across his body.

He stared at the markings, and the others were looking at it too. Mash could tell that the tattoo ran along his entire arm, and even covered his shoulder. How powerful was the item for this kind of reaction? He wondered if the pain he felt related to the strength of the item or maybe there was something else he wasn’t considering. This time he checked his status again, trying to see if anything had changed from the process. Scanning it quickly, he was surprised to see a change.

Golden Body (Passive): Having stolen the techniques of another world, your body evolves beyond its old limitations. However, even this transformation is incomplete. Seek out the next Step and truly make this power your own.

Trial of the True Body: 2 / 100

Whatever had happened, it had brought him closer to a true body. He didn’t know what it meant but guessed that the item had somehow improved his body. Did it have something to do with how his energy moved out of his core and mingled with the tattoo? The previous time it had gone up had been with his earrings, so maybe there was a relationship there. His other two items might be too low quality to do the same, but it was too late for regrets now. Perhaps he could simulate the effect. He sent the message to Priscilla to see if she could figure out what had happened. However, he spoke easily, addressing the others normally.

“Sorry about that, but I’m fine now. Attuning to items is always taxing for me. Something to do with my unique constitution.”

He was able to speak normally, as the buffs and healing had suppressed the lingering pain. Aifell looked like she wanted to interrogate him about it, and he encouraged her with his next question.

“There’s a chance the item will do something extra now. Any ideas for how to figure out?”

His words seemed to invoke something in Aifell, and she grabbed his arm examining it carefully. She was trying to read the glyphs, though Mash didn’t think it was possible. It just looked like an interesting pattern and not something so specific. It was interconnected somehow, but not in a way that made sense to him, and apparently, her too. She seemed like she wanted to study it more, but Kirk dragged her away saying that the sun had gone down and that she should not be working. As they left, Mash felt the wooden imitation of Priscilla getting closer. It felt like Red and Jill were done too.