Ed spent the next half an hour looking for the missing Shard, but eventually had to give up when he heard what had to be the rest of the goblin tribe on their way back. Cursing the fickleness that gave him a good drop and then immediately took it away, he passed through the door, and back into the cacophony of the bazaar.

Ed found himself on an upside down walkway, the bazaar in all its glory hanging above his head, and the distant sky below him. The walkway continued for twenty meters, before ending in front of another door, likely one leading deeper into the Labyrinth. On his left, a stairway rose up towards the ground, and Ed quickly started going up, a feeling of vertigo gripping him as up suddenly became down, and he was suddenly moving downwards towards the ground, the upside down walkway stretching above him.

Moving away from the stairway, Ed started looking for an alchemist who might buy some of his loot. Between the horns from the four rabbits he managed to kill, and the goblin's tooth necklace, Ed estimated that he'd be able to afford a new Skillshard. Quickly locating a booth advertising potions and salves, Ed went over, approaching the young looking gnome manning (or perhaps gnoming) the booth.

"Congratulations on your first successful Labyrinth delve", called out the Gnome as soon as Ed stopped in front of his booth, "and welcome to Albert's Apothecary. How can I be of service?"

"Is it that obvious?" asked Ed, scratching his head self-consciously.

"You don't look nearly experienced enough to be a professional Solo, and very few newcomers try more than one solo delve. Too much danger and too little to gain."

"Makes sense, I guess. Anyway, I've got some things to sell. Rabbit horns and a gob necklace."

"Let's see them then. Always a market for sharpness salves."

Taking the horns and necklace out of his bag, Ed placed them on the booth in front of him, when a spot of color on his left hand caught his eye. The crystal pentagon from his Phantasmal Worker Shard, which was previously completely clear, was now colored a light green along one of its sides.

Shards came in just about any color imaginable, and would normally become more and more opaque as they gain essence, but as far as Ed was aware, Shards never changed their color. You could, sometimes, Slice one Shard into another, and in that case you'd see a pentagon in the color of the imbedded Shard inside the pentagon from the host Shard, but that was the only case Ed knew about when a Shard could gain a new color.

"…don't have any butchery related Shard, so I'm not going to be able to give you the full hey! Are you even listening to me?" The raised voice of the gnome finally managed to nudge Ed's mind away from his Shard.

"I'm sorry. I got distracted there for a minute. What were you saying?"

"Stress finally catch up to you? Don't worry about it. Happens to a lot of people after the first time. I said that the horns you have there are chipped, since you don't have any butchery Skill, so I'm only going to be able to give you six credits for the lot of them. Would have been 8 if they were in better condition. I'll add ten for the necklace. Decent essence in it."

"That's good. I figured I wouldn't be getting full price on the horns. You've got a deal."

The gnome handed Ed a silver ten credit coin, and six coppers. "Good luck in the Labyrinth. Come again if you have any ingredients to sell, or are looking for any alchemical product."

"Thank you." Ed pocketed the coins and waved goodbye to the gnome on his way towards the exit from the Labyrinth.

Credits, of which Ed now had sixteen of, were the only legal tender inside the Labyrinth. Coined and enchanted by a bank controlled jointly by the Five Families, credits couldn't be forged, and couldn't even be touched by anyone who hasn't Sliced at least one Shard. The amount in Ed's pocket wasn't much, but would be enough to buy one or two low tier Shards. Ed originally planned to buy an Impact Skillshard, which would let him spend mana to increase the damage from blunt weapons, and enable him to damage creatures immune to normal weapons, such as the slimes that were often found in the lower levels of the Labyrinth. However, he really wanted to understand what happened to his Phantasmal Worker Shard before his did anything else.

Barely even noticing the changed guard on the exit, Ed hurried back to his motel room, and brought up his status.

Eduard Fergusson

Race

Human

Class

None

Shards

1/2

Strength

6

Dexterity

7

Wisdom

4

Constitution

7

Agility

8

Intelligence

6

HP

16/20

Mana

2/16

HP regen

0.7/hour

Mana regen

6/hour

Shard

Level

Essence

Conjure Phantasm

1

0/100

"What the hell is Conjure Phantasm?" Ed muttered to himself. "I've never even heard of it, not to mention a Shard changing its name."

Concentrating on the Shard in question caused its one information window to pop up and replace the status screen.

Conjure Phantasm

Tier 0

Level 1

0/100 essence

Creates constructs made of pure mana to serve the user. One construct can be created per skill level.

Available phantasms

Phantasmal Worker

Creates a construct that can carry out simple tasks and will take up to ten points of damage before being dispelled.

The construct cannot attack or use any weapons.

Mana cost: 10

Duration: until dispelled

Phantasmal Goblin

Creates a simple goblin that can fight and carry out simple tasks.

The goblin has no weapons skills.

Slice more Shards to give the goblin more abilities.

Mana cost: 10

Duration: until dispelled

The information window faded away long before Ed came out of his shock. It was obvious now that the goblin Raceshard must have accidently been Sliced into his phantasmal worker when the broken horned rabbit caused it to smash into Ed.

The problem was the Ed has never heard even a rumor that something like this was possible. Impediment Shards were supposed to be almost completely useless and impossible to level, but if the goblin summons by his new skill could fight, then the Shard could gain essence. But the real import of the change was that it created a summoned entity that can power up from using Shards. And if those Shards work the same as they normally do, the goblin could gain essence and level up itself. Summoning Skills were notoriously limited by the fact that almost all of them remain static, and a summoned entity useful in one level of the Labyrinth would be nothing more than fodder five levels later.

Ed quickly decided that he's going to have to test how the phantasmal goblin works. See precisely what Slicing a Shard into the goblin would do, and then test it in the Labyrinth to see if it could gain essence.

He didn't have the mana to summon his goblin yet, so he opened up his laptop and entered the Labyrinth wiki page, trying to decide what Shards would be best to test on his new goblin. He'll probably have to postpone getting his Impact Shard, but if the phantasmal goblin worked out, it will definitely be worth it.

Two hours and a trip to the bazaar later, Ed summoned his goblin for the first time. The now familiar feeling of mana draining out of him was followed by the formation of a larger than usual blue orb. The color of the orb swiftly changed to green, and took the form of a meter and a quarter tall goblin wearing nothing but a loincloth.

A quick mental command brought up a status screen for the goblin.

Phantasmal Goblin

Race

Goblin

Class

None

Shards

1/2

Strength

3

Dexterity

5

Wisdom

2

Constitution

2

Agility

4

Intelligence

1

HP

7

Mana

4

HP regen

0.2/hour

Mana regen

1/hour

Shard

Level

Essence

Goblin

1

0/500

"Fairly decent for a tier 0 summon," muttered Ed thoughtfully. "Let's see what happens when I add this."

Ed opened his bag and took out the Shard he bought earlier in the bazaar. Colored a silvery gray, its size was somewhere in the middle between the Phantasmal Worker Shard and the Goblin Shard. Ed placed the Shard's point on the goblin's chest, and pushed it in. The Shard slid easily into the goblin, and as soon as it was fully Sliced, Shard and Goblin both vanished.

"Damn it. I was hoping to see its status, but it'll be two and a half hours before I can summon it again. Let's see if the skill changed though."

Conjure Phantasm

Tier 0

Level 1

0/100 essence

Creates constructs made of pure mana to serve the user. One construct can be created per skill level.

Available phantasms

Phantasmal Worker

Creates a construct that can carry out simple tasks and will take up to ten points of damage before being dispelled.

The construct cannot attack or use any weapons.

Mana cost: 10

Duration: until dispelled

Phantasmal Goblin Spearman

Creates a goblin spearman that can fight and carry out simple tasks.

Slice more Shards to give the goblin more abilities.

Mana cost: 15

Duration: until dispelled

"Looks like it worked, but it's starting to get late. I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow to see it in action."