Elemental Ring (Lightning)

Details: A silver ring set with four pink garnets. Enchanted with a lightning effect.

Composition: 90% Silver, 5% Copper, 5% other.

Durability: Unknown

Damage output: Unknown

Estimated value: Unknown

“So, just tell me what happened again?” Skunk asked and Will rolled his eyes. He’d already explained it all twice but Skunk was already on his third by the time Will reached the Saloon and fifth by the time Will had explained the brief situation.

Will had figured that’d be the best place in town to find Silvia when she returned with Herald. So he grabbed one of the treasures he had to evaluate and found himself a bar stool.

“Well, I can tell ya one thing… Miss Kate’s ill with ya-” Jakob started after realizing that Will wasn’t about to explain again. It wasn’t just that he didn’t want to, he was also busy staring at a ring with [Zoom] activated. He was still paying attention though, he hadn’t brought his tome so it was a lot of observation to check later. A pre-evaluation.

“He knows that, he’s the one that said it,” Skunk interrupted.

“Shut up skunk, I wasn’t finished… Miss Kate’s ill with ya cause the entire lot of them out at Deathbane are bakarna breeders. Don’t think even the Landrys could keep that place goin’ if folks stopped buying their bakarna. Don’t think the little lass is gonna be buying a bakarna though, I reckon,” Jakob said… which made sense. Will had seen the pastures, the stables, how they treated their mounts, how they herded wild beasts in for the bakarna to hunt, All to increase their levels and their worth.

“Why’d you do it anyway, don’t seem that bright?” Kitty asked, she was seated for once, having a meal on the other side of Jakob. The deputy didn’t mind the company but Will had noticed an annoyed looking Betsy leaning over the bar shooting Kitty some dirty looks for sitting down next to one of her routine customers. It looked like the duel had ended but the feud had not.

“I’m not sure. It just seemed like it’d be a bit of harmless fun when I saw her facing the other way. She didn’t seem that afraid of the idea. At least when we got there,” Will said and then cut off the next question, “I didn’t expect that it’d work in the first place with her hearing. Or that she’d back up like that.”

It was something he’d thought about during the ride. Not to try to shift blame but he didn’t understand why she didn’t hear him. He tried to keep Void from hissing but his big feet still made noise. The only unknown Will had seen was the blurring she’d done. And the way she seemed to be focused on Herald for some reason. The only thing he could think of was maybe they were bickering again and she was entirely focused on that for once. There wasn’t really any other explanation he could come up with and like Kate had said, they were in town and Silvia didn’t need her Skills unless she felt like spying on people. He couldn’t imagine those Skills were always on. It’d be torture hearing every conversation around at once.

“Still didn’t answer her question,” Jakob pointed out while ordering two rounds and sliding one down to Will.

“I actually don’t know, just seemed like a good idea at the time,” Will said and looked away from the ring, which he’d determined had some sort of lightning enchantment on it thanks to [Identify] but he also recognized the rune when he studied it to confirm. The information from the Skill wasn’t very good though so he understood the need to have an enchanter look it over.

As for the topic at hand. Will really didn’t know why he’d even tried that. Well, he did but he didn’t.

If it was a member of his squad, he would have. If it was a member of his fire team, he probably wouldn’t have been the only one in on it. They were a unit and they knew each other's antics. But Silvia wasn’t a member of his unit and never would be… He’d never see them again.

Will felt a pang of longing hit him for a moment. He missed those assholes.

There was no question, Will would have done it to them because he knew they could take it and even the victim would have appreciated the scare. There would have been laughter all around and the next time they had downtime again, Will would have to watch his back because he’d be the butt of the next joke. That’s just how they were in the corps. They spent most of their time sitting around the ship in their designated areas.

There was of course physical training, operational training, briefings, weapons inspections, certifications to go after, courses to study, deck patrols, and more… but all in all they were almost always bored when deployed. It made Marines a plague within the ships from the fleet’s point of view. And they’d likely be constantly in the brig but they usually didn’t include the crewman. They had the important job of chauffeuring Marines to the fight after all.

He huffed a laugh thinking of the fleet as nothing more than a big metal mount… his guys would have loved Void. Big, mean, fast, and destroys everything in his path…

He shook his head after picturing Master Sergeant Yakonva’s reaction if someone had just shown up with Void… His thoughts drifted away from his unit and back to Silvia. Maybe he had hoped that she would like Void but still, it wasn’t exactly a substitute. She wasn’t a comrade in arms… or was she.

Silvia was a fighter. There was no doubt about that. But she wasn’t a ‘spook’ with their spook shit, a Special Space Service with their advanced powered combat rigs, a true hell diver… the crazy bastards that dove en masse to a planet's surface. Will wasn’t even sure how you could have hundreds or thousands of drop pods flying in at those speeds and not worry about colliding. She wasn’t like any of them or any of the other specialties in the Coalition Military that even marines tread softly around, and then talked shit about behind their backs…

No, the more he thought the more Will realized that Silvia, at least attitude wise, would have fit right in with the Marines.

She was good in a fight obviously and was quick to jump into the fray. Yet, like when they started chopping off snake heads and skinning them, she let loose. They had still been in danger but it wasn’t immediate so she took the moment to crack a few jokes and poke him in the ass to mess with him. It reminded him of his squadmates… weren’t they joking about the coming fight with the frogs? Like they could take an armada alone? Thinking that no one could compare to them?

Will guessed that Silvia had a bit of that too. She seemed like the type that thought highly of her abilities, maybe a bit too much. Maybe even her appearance with her form fitted clothing. That wouldn’t be too out there either, a lot of Marines had the mentality that they were God’s gift to women. Or men, depending on a few things. Even those that didn’t think like that were proud of their physique, Will had been. Still was in fact, even if his new body needed a workout or two… that was still a little weird but he was getting there.

Also, Silvia had little regard for bullshit and was quick to improvise, he’d seen that in the fight and even in little things like walking behind his counter… most likely to snoop… and hopping up on it when he didn’t have a chair to offer her. Both of those he could see his fellow grunts doing. She’d even diffused a tense situation with humor when he’d grabbed her by the runes. Not just humor, she told him to take another feel, so inappropriate humor. Not only that, she even had a bit of the 1000 yard stare going on once she realized what it was. Signs that she wasn’t just some POG or a fresh set of boots. She’d been through shit and seen shit… She really was a lot like a Marine, wasn’t she?

“You know you did right though… Only a fool would have continued to argue when he was in the wrong. Ya don’t have to worry much though, spent some time talkin’ with Miss Kate in Vicksby. I’m sure she was just heated… once she calms a bit, she’ll come by so you two can hash it out properly and politely,” Miss Kitty consoled him but then got a devilish smile on her face suddenly as if she was reminded of some juicy bit of gossip, “Most men don’t get that one bit. Their woman gets mad and they don’t know when to close that hole in their face. Knew one married couple in Vicksby. She could be blowing steam out her ears, fire coming up from her boots… and he’d speak over her to try to argue or try to apologize too quick like, right there, no sense to do it right. Seen it happen more than a few times. Not just with them. Wife comes into the saloon, see’s the husband drunker than a skunk… or as drunk as Skunk. Starts goin’ off at him for spendin’ money they don’t have or ‘bout the girl he was talkin’ to. She tells him to shut it and they’ll talk about it later at home when he don’t smell like booze and other women. Folks be whispering to him that it’ll give her a chance to cool her heels but those type never can take a hint… next thing you know we’re listening to the husband digging his own grave one word at a time.”

“Hells have no fury like a woman scorned,” Will muttered, it was true, he’d seen it too. Not just men making that mistake. He’d seen plenty of women do it too. Communication was important in any relationship but that also meant knowing when not to talk. There were times when people just needed to vent. Times where people just needed space. And of course, times to just shut up and take the verbal beating. He’d had been through plenty to learn that lesson, motivational PT for opening your mouth is also one hell of a teacher.

Still, with Kate, he tried because it wasn’t a verbal beating really. But he didn’t push, she was right and he knew that they needed a civil discussion about it when they were both calm.

“Oh, I like that one… kinda poetic,” Kitty responded. Will gave her half a closed mouthed smile and went back to studying the ring. He wasn’t about to bring up where that particular phrase was stolen from.

“So whatcha workin’ on over in your shop?” Skunk asked, changing the subject. He didn’t have much to add about the conversation on how to talk with women or the complexities of relationships, even platonic ones, beyond drinking and telling stories. He did pay attention though, or at least tried to in his drunken state.

“Ah…” Will bounced a few answers around his head, deciding whether or not to go into detail, “Besides the stuff, well this... for Herald, Silvia, and Alvin. I have that stuff I need to get done for Kate… as for projects? I still have one more wand I can enchant, not sure what to do with it… I’ve also been thinking about enchanting my carbine, just durability for now. Or start making a few items to sell… little things. Something other than the maps… Ah, yeah. By the way, do you know anyone who can make copies of that?”

“Copy a map? Old Miss Gertrude up at town hall might be able to do somethin’ like that… Dunno though, she’ll be asleep by now in any case... But what sort of little things?” Jakob asked but Will could only shrug. He’d thought about it while riding Void to try to clear his head but he hadn’t come up with much he could actually do with the materials at hand.

“Truth coins,” Will gave an example. He didn’t have iron coins but he could still try to recreate the enchantment on one of the silver ones that belonged to him if he wanted. The metal should be soft enough for him to hammer the minting flat without heat. He’d even wondered if he could alter it, make it a real truth coin that vibrated when someone told the truth. Since the ones everyone used were more like lie detectors. It was just an idea but would make his unique and maybe useful to have both kinds on your person, “Or things people can use in the dungeon. Something like my wand to rinse off the slime’s acid. Maybe a light enchantment of some kind. Not sure if I want to waste my last unenchanted wand on that.”

He also planned on trying to alter his last blank wand a bit to see if his ideas could work. He’d come up with the idea of building a rudimentary trigger system onto a bent wand that would push a mana crystal into a mana gathering rune. Basically turn it into a gun where as long as you pulled the trigger, the wand would work. And if you ran out of mana in the crystal, you could quickly reload it with a fully charged crystal. Bringing the simplest amount of tech to enchanting.

There was no telling if the idea would work but it was worth a shot. It would make using the wands a lot easier in his opinion and for things like the pressure washer, it would make sure it was properly aligned at all times. Not really that useful for a light wand though, so there was no reason to make one. He still hadn’t decided what to make. Maybe lighting, since he was working with a lightning ring.

Will followed the runework and smiled to himself. Even without his tome, he thought he knew what the ring did. He’d have to test it out later after double checking. Not seeing any other reason to keep it out though, he put it in his shirt pocket. A moment later a short whistle got his attention. He looked over to Skunk who nodded to the door.

“Time to get this over with, huh?” Will said and hopped off his stool to walk over to Silvia and Herald, who had just walked in. As he approached Silvia stared up at him and crossed her arms over her chest while tapping her foot, “Listen, Silvia… about earlier. I’m- damn!”

Will hopped as a small foot slammed into his ankle with a lot more force than would be expected. No sooner than he recover that he was kicked three times in rapid succession in the other ankle.

“Augh… I was trying to say I was sorry,” Will explained, switching his weight over to the foot that didn’t sting. She could really kick for such a small thing, “How’d you kick like that?”

“My secondary class… You don’t need to apologize, Will. It wasn’t your fault… I-” She started and looked at Herald, “I was already a little…”

“She was reminded of something unpleasant, Mister Tempest. Before you even came out of the stable. It made her… jumpy,” Herald explained, “Her actions after had little to do with you or your choice of mount. He startled her but that was it.”

“Ah?” Will looked at her questioningly but left whatever had actually happened alone. If she’d had some sort of anxiety issue or something it wasn’t his place to pry. Especially if she was at least talking to someone about it, “Then why kick me?”

“I said I would… Well, I said I would for scaring me and again if you brought it up but I also said that I would kick Alvin twice. I can't do that since he's a deputy now,” she simply stated like it was completely understandable logic.

“So you kicked me two more times since you couldn’t kick him?” Will asked but her smile flashed mischievously and he knew the answer.

She walked past him to head to the bar and Will switched his gaze over to Herald, he was still questioning it all. Was that really it? Was it really a misunderstanding on all parts?

“She really isn’t mad at you if that’s what you’re worried about,” Herald said with a shrug.

“Where’d you find her?” Will asked but quickly added more to his question, “Kate was worried about you getting to the ranch. They’ve got fields of bakarna out there running around.”

“We didn’t get that far but you may wish to bring Miss Kate a gift,” Herald said.

“You saw her?”

“Her and a few others. They had people searching to make sure Silvia didn’t wander into a paddock… it was only a few. She had said she wished to keep the incident quiet and we offered her our discretion in the matter. Silvia and I prefer that anyhow,” Herald explained and Will cringed. He couldn’t shake the feeling he would most likely be dealing with more than one angry or annoyed Landry. But if Kate had wanted it kept quiet and only informed a few members of her family, at least that likely meant that Miss Margret wasn’t involved.

Will breathed out in a bit of relief though. He was still in the wrong but no one had gotten hurt, except him but the sting was fading fast, and he’d apologized. He turned to take a step towards the bar and fell flat on his face. Or almost, he’d managed to catch himself on the way down. Will looked up and saw the entire saloon looking at him, a few like Skunk and Silvia laughing their asses off while some were moving to join them.

“[Numbing Strike]. It works with kicks as well,” Herald helpfully informed him from a few steps away.

Of course, it did. But one more checkmark for the Marine like being that was Silvia, she didn’t waste any time getting even.

It had taken a minute for the Skills effect to wear off but had lasted longer, it was apparently on a delay. It’d hurt like a solid kick for a bit but when he thought the pain was fading, the Skill was only setting up. Will could see how that would be useful, the moment the enemy thought they were good to go, they would join Will on the floor.

He joined them at the bar, made sure things were good with Silvia, dodged another kick for bringing it up again, and had a drink with them. He didn’t stay long though, he had plenty of other work to get done.

So as a few more townsfolk and adventurers made their way into the Saloon, Will headed out and walked across the road to his shop.

“Ring first,” he said to himself and was quickly double checking his analysis of the ring. It wasn’t that hard to do. It had a mana gathering and activation rune on the inside carved extremely delicately but also surprisingly deep. He wasn’t sure how they had done that considering the band’s other side would be in the way but the fact that there must be other tools out there dawned on him pretty quickly. He only had a beginner’s set after all.

From there it split and looped around the band a few times in a mirrored pattern, seemingly for aesthetics but also linking a couple of flow runes. One on each side. And then ended on the top of the outside of the band where there were two hexagonal shaped, pointed protrusions sticking up. They were small but also dead center of the two effect creating points.

“It’s a ‘taser’,” Will grinned. He realized he wouldn’t be able to describe it like that to anyone because they didn’t have that word but that’s exactly what it was. It was a tiny stun gun shaped just like a woman’s ring. He figured it was a woman’s ring. The few nonmagical gemstones were bright pink and the ring had slight carvings besides the magical engraving that looked like flowers, "Not bad. Probably a self-defense weapon.”

Will decided to risk it and put it on his pinky finger. He looked at it with the tiny hexagon pegs pointing up but noticed that the flowers and gems were now the wrong way. He twisted it around and studied it.

“Supposed to be used so you can shock someone you’re grabbing then,” He held his hand palm up and pushed some mana into it. Small sparks flew out of it but it was immediately apparent there wouldn’t be the arc effect that actual stun guns had. The points were too small to actually direct them and the burst of mini lightning shot up, searched for ground, and chose his hand.

“Damn it!” Will said and started shaking his hand. It’d hurt, but not that bad and he couldn’t see someone really fighting off an attacker with it. But he could definitely see a woman giving a man a shock to get him to let go if he’d grabbed her. Giving her a moment to escape. His mind immediately went to the girls at the saloon. It was a simple, non-fatal tool that would actually work quite well for them.

Well, as long as it didn’t arc back on their hand even when the ring was touching their assailant.

He had to test it. So Will tested it on the only thing available. His other arm… he could have used it on the desk but he wasn’t all that worried about the shock, he’d been more surprised than hurt.

“Fuck,” Will yanked his hand back and looked at his arm. It’d hurt a little worse since there was direct contact but still, besides some tingling in his arm and a small red mark, there weren’t any after effects. He laughed.

“Well, that’s the first one down. A… stun ring… lightning stun ring,” He decided on the name, not sure if there was one that worked like Silvia’s skill that didn’t involve lightning. He made a copy of the engraving. A slow and tedious process that required [Zoom] and [Mapsight] with a very rough sketch of the ring. All of that before tearing off a bit of paper and digging around to find some old string in the old office and made a quick label for it before putting it back in the safe. He looked at the two piles of jewelry sitting there next to the one item he’d identified so far. All of it alongside the bundles of clothing from Kate.

It only took him a moment to decide on his next step. He reminded himself to go over the boot enchantment he’d gotten from leveling up again later but for that moment he should probably get Kate’s order at least half filled. He still had a saddle to do too but it might be a while before he could repay that part of the debt. All in all, it wasn’t too bad as long as his tools held up.

Will walked into his bedroom and sat down at his desk, carefully opening the first of the bundled up outfits. It was a dress… he turned it around and looked at it again…

“Where the hell’s the enchantment?” Will asked. He knew it wasn’t one of the ones he would be enchanting for Kate, it was for a heftier set woman and also didn’t have a spec of dirt on it like it was the one with the cleansing enchantment but he didn’t see it. At least until he turned on [Map Sight], “Oh.”

Will carefully laid the enchanted dress down with its nearly invisible thread work and sighed. He opened up the other ones and set aside the other example outfit, an apron with what he assumed was the durability enchantment. It was old but still solid if a little stained. He nodded to himself after inspecting it with his Skills as well.

“This is going to take a while.”

Will grabbed a spare sheet of paper and started making notes on the much easier to follow apron while setting the rest of the clothes aside. He realized he might need a lesson or two from Herald for the amount of sewing he had to do. No wonder it was only going to be a total of two simple outfits and a bit of etching to pay her back. Still, the formal looking dress was going to be a nightmare to figure out considering its layers but at least the riding pants and silk shirt weren’t going to be too hard.