Colin stood at a crossroads. Literally, he could either go left or right. Left and he could make his way to see the High Guard Captain Eldrin and figure out why he wanted to see him a few days back. Right and he could go see Solis and see how the selling of the Stone Mastiff went and get his cut. Also, seeing her would be quite nice considering they had a good relationship.

He was always one to take dinner before sex or eat his peas before his cookie, Colin took the left road. He was a little nervous that the Captain might have put it together that he defeated the Dungeon, and it was interestingly timed with the prompt everyone received. He wasn't sure anyone would suspect him of being the Avenger, but the Captain was no moron. Hell, he felt like he was taking a risk just by letting Nox stay in his shadow.

So Colin walked past the ever-present crowd that always smelled like armpits and up to the training grounds. A High Guardsman stood next to a dark-skinned man who was holding a metal pole spear. It looked heavy and unwieldy, but the High Guardsman with him talked him through an attack, and he performed it. Colin got to watch as the man thrust the spear into a dummy's straw guts only to pull it out a second later and spin it around to bash the dummy's head off with the butt of the spear.

The man raised the spear in the air with both arms and cheered at his accomplishment. The High Guardsman seemed pleased as well because the moment the spear returned to one hand, both men high-fived.

He considered asking this Guard where Captain Eldrin was but didn't want to ruin the men's moment. So he continued on and walked to the offices where he knew the man would be eventually. He got stopped once by a Guard, wanting to make sure he knew where he was going and ended up confirming that their Captain was probably in his office.

He reached the building and stepped inside. A moment later, a woman who was sitting behind the front desk and looked up to see him. It was not the same woman as the last time he was here. Her eyes had dark rings underneath them, and her voice dripped with exhaustion. "Can I help you?"

"I hope so. Is High Guard Captain Eldrin in?" Colin queried. He pushed his hands inside his pockets to seem as safe as possible. Tired people were either slow or jumpy, and he didn't want her to sound a false alarm on him.

"He is, May I ask who's looking for him?" she drawled, a yawn following quickly after the words.

"Ma'am, are you okay? You seem extra tired," Colin said, a little concerned for this professional, if exhausted, woman.

"Ever since the announcement that 'Last Demon Lord Candidate has risen' bullshit, the Captain has been having everyone work extra hours. I've been here since midnight last night, and I still have a few hours to go. Hell, except for now and in the smallest hours in the morning, I have had people come in here panicking because they saw the Demon Lord Candidate. One old lady said he was trying to poison her ficus," She said exasperatedly. "In a crisis, people will do the darndest things."

Colin could only nod his head in agreement. "Yeah, I remember this one time in my home. There was a virus outbreak because someone ate a bat. People went crazy, buying up all the toilet paper, eggs, milk, water, anything they could think to grab. Hell, it was still weeks after the store situation returned to normal, and the toilet paper was still missing from the shelves."

"Wow, that's insane. Why toilet paper, though? Why not just focus on the food?" she asked curiously.

"No one knows. It's just a mystery that no one can answer," Colin said, shrugging. "I'm sorry I've been very rude. My name is DevilWalker, what is yours?"

Her eyes widened at the mention of who she's been talking to, "wait. THE DevilWalker? The one who the Captain is saying conquered the Ruins of Old Willows Cross?"

"I don't know about THE DevilWalker, but I am DevilWalker," he confirmed.

The woman stood up, all tiredness was gone from her movements, "it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Verona Perosa, Office Manager here. It really is nice to meet you," she said, taking his hand and giving it a shake.

"Likewise," he said, shaking her hand back.

Then retaking her seat, the tiredness settled back in as she took in a deep breath. The Captain is in and left me instructions should you appear. Wait here, I will fetch him," she said, deadpan and unmoving.

She stayed in her place and waited for long moments, eyes drooping as she leaned her face into her hand. Colin gave her a few seconds as maybe she was procrastinating, getting up, and working. Then a tired smile spread across her face as she sat up straight.

"Eldrin! Get your ass out here!" she hollered through the building.

She grinned at Colin, waiting expectantly. A few seconds later, he gave in, "Why?"

"You'll see," she said slyly.

A handful more seconds later and the sound of clanking armor and running boots coming towards them. A moment later, Captain Eldrin entered the room in full armor, looking just as haggard as the woman in front of him.

Captain Eldrin looked at Verona with some alarm, "what's wrong? What did I do?" His voice was quick and defensive.

"Nothing," she said, grinning innocently. "DevilWalker is here and waiting for you."

He looked at Colin, then looked at Verona exasperated, "Honey, why are you so mean to me?"

"Because I love you. Now deal with him so I can take a nap," she said, looking back at the paperwork on her desk.

"Women, huh?" he said, just loud enough for Verona to hear and loudly scoff at it. "Come on, DevilWalker, let's go to my office. I have a few questions for you, and I am just too tired to take too long."

Having no reason to argue, Colin followed him to his office and took one of the seats opposite the Captain's desk. The Captain walked around his desk and practically slumped into his chair, a happy sigh escaping his lips. "Oh, DevilWalker. I'm exhausted," he moaned.

"I can believe it. Verona explained the last few days to me. Sounds harsh," Colin empathized.

"Oh, yeah. Especially since all of them proved false. The only thing credible we got didn't have anything to do with the Demon Lord Candidate. An old lady's ficus was being poisoned with breath fertilizer by her neighbor. In a week, it would have tried to eat her," the Captain explained. "Glad we caught that one, at least."

Making a mental note of breath fertilizer, the applications sounded interesting, Colin coughed into his fist to get the Captain's attention. "Eldrin, as happy as I am to see you, why did you want to see me?"

"You're kidding, right?" Captain Eldrin said, surprise tinting his voice. "You conquered the Ruins of Old Willows Cross! The High Guard has been trying to conquer that Dungeon since the entrance was discovered. You have to tell me about it. Start from the first room and tell me what you fought," Eldrin instructed, excited about this subject.

So Colin did. Omitting only the parts involving Nox and any help he gave. He ended up making up a story of how he snuck around patrols of cyberpunk guards to get to the door that led to the fifth chamber. At the mention of the Columbine Mutator, the Captain went wide-eyed. He could understand why, after facing it, and Colin had to explain how he/ Nox defeated it. It was eighty percent lie, but the Captain didn't seem to notice. Thank God.

After that, Colin explained the Cathedral and left out anything that could implicate him as the Antagonist.

"So what did you take?" he asked curiously.

"What?" Colin questioned.

"You had to take something," Eldrin said expectantly. "Unless it's dangerous, I won't confiscate it, but I gotta know what you got."

Thinking quickly, Colin pulled out the bag Nox had given him and withdrew the sword that had impaled the last Demon Lord, Ari, to the wall. He carefully set the tarnished blade on the High Guard Captain's desk and hoped it would be enough.

Captain Eldrin quirked an eyebrow as Colin withdrew the sword and set it down in front of him. He stood up from his seat and looked over the weapon. It was a longsword, obviously of once elegant design. Maybe Elfin, fey, or even Draconic-make. There were elements of all three in the handle, crossguard, and blade. It was enchanted once, the runic work on the flat of the blade proved that to be true. He recognized none of the runes except for one that closed the string of enchantments.

The Captain explained all this Colin with no small amount of sadness. "It's regrettable that this piece is almost completely useless. It's devoid of magic and hasn't been cared for in enough time that its tarnished beyond care. You might be able to sell it to a collector if you knew its history," Captain Eldrin said with a shrug. "But what do I know. I'd keep it and explore the possibility of repairing it. This might be a formidable weapon again."

Initially, he'd kept the sword out of a sense of curiosity. The symbols etched into it were obviously magical in origin, and he had been considering exploring the field. Now it was almost guaranteed. If this was the weapon that killed a being as powerful sounding as a Demon Lord? Then he wanted to know what powered it.

"I think I will do that," Colin agreed, smiling a little at the prospect. "Anywhere you recommend?"

"Clyde's, of course," the Captain said, mouth open wide in a grin. "He knows weapons better than anyone in the city, and he's fairly knowledgeable with enchanting too. If anyone person in Willows Cross can help you, it'd be him."

Cursing internally at the mention of Clyde, Colin had one more stop that he'd forgotten to add to the list. The burly shop owner would definitely want to know about his brother, and this was now his next stop,

"I'll head there next. Was there anything else, Captain?" Colin asked, getting ready to stand.

"Actually, I have one more thing to ask," Captain Eldrin said, less jovial than he was a moment ago. "What aren't you telling me, DevilWalker. I know you're not telling me the whole story. I just don't know what you're holding back."

Colin's heart dropped but forced his face to remain as neutral as possible. He will either walk away from here intact or without his head if he stated the wrong thing. While the Captain did appear to be a happy go lucky man, he was a professional that upheld the peace. If he believed that Colin was a threat, then he would eliminate him.

"Captain Eldrin, I will admit that I am not telling you everything. I would love to tell you what I'm not telling, really. Due to circumstances, I cannot tell you what it is," Colin said, praying to whoever was listening that the Captain would not press the issue.

He stared at Colin for long moments that felt like they were dragging unnecessarily long. When the Captain released a breath, he asked Colin one question, "does what you are not telling me to pose any knowable threat to Willows Cross?"

This was an easy one, Colin had no interest in being a threat to Willows Cross, So Colin answered, "not in the slightest."

The smile returned to his Eldrin's face, and Colin found his heart rate returning to normal, it looked like he was going to live another day. "Thank you, DevilWalker. It's nice to know that some Outworlders willing to talk instead of rushing everywhere."

"Yeah. Well, it was good to see you, Eldrin. I gotta go," Colin said, taking the damaged sword off the desk and slid it into his Dimensional bag.

"I hope you don't mind that I'm not gonna stand and shake your hand unless you insist," the Captain waved his hand in farewell.

Colin returned it and walked out the door. Only to nearly jump out of his skin when Amai Levesque appeared a few inches in front of his face as he turned around. The stuck up young woman eyed him, her gaze quickly displaying her annoyance.

"What?" Colin asked, calming back down.

"You were given a thermos the last time I saw you. I'd like it returned," she stated. Her hand extended out and palm open, expecting Colin to just obey her.

And she was right. Colin silently withdrew it from his pack and placed it into her outstretched hand. As she tried to pull it away, Colin held on and gave her the sweetest smile he could. "Say please, Miss Levesque."

She just glared at Colin, he could almost hear her scream' die die die!' in his imagination as she tried to death glare him into submission. When he still didn't let go, her lips quivered in barely contained rage as she spoke, "DevilWalker. Please! Give me the thermos," she said, giving the thermos a hard pull.

Colin released the item and stepped past her before she could spit out an angry retort. As he stepped out of the building, he could hear her growl angrily through her teeth and throw something against the door behind him.

"That's me, always making friends," Colin mused as he walked towards Clyde's Arms.

<><><><><>

Twenty minutes later, Colin was walking through the door into Clyde's shop and patted the hammerhead looped into his belt. He was ready to get that quest done and move onto the sword. The curiosity was eating him alive.

"DevilWalker, I've been waiting to see you since you brought down Harvey's Gang!" he said happily. Walking around the counter and moving towards Colin. "Thank you for bringing that bastard to justice."

"Your welcome, Haversham," Colin said, unable to hold in his mirth at the man's actual name.

A grimace covered his face as he looked around his shop to the few perusing customers. When none looked like they were listening, he turned the same look to Colin, "I beg you. Don't call me that. I've been teased about it enough and would rather not have it widely known. Some Outworlders are the worst."

Unable to disagree, Colin nodded and took a step closer. Patting the burly man's shoulder in consolation, "yeah, no problem, man. Hey, listen. I've got a few things for you."

Colin started with his brother's hammer. He extended the engraved ball-peen hammer out for Clyde to take, and he hesitated. After a moment, he took the hammer in his shaky hands and ran his fingers over the tool and the engraved initials for long moments, treasuring it.

"Thank you," Clyde said, his voice trembling. "I know I said to bring this to me if you find his body, but still, It's good to see."

"I can imagine. I'm sorry about your brother," Colin said, empathizing for the man. While he hadn't lost any siblings, well now maybe, he had lost people close to him. It was never easy, and the emotion displayed actually moved Colin.

"Me too," Clyde wiped away at his eyes and took in a large breath.

"Sir! I'm ready to buy!" one of the women in the room called. Cheerily waiting for Clyde to come on over.

Gripping the hammer tightly, Clyde smiled at Colin, "wait a moment?"

Colin nodded, and Clyde moved behind the counter. A few short minutes later, Clyde had finished with that customer and immediately was met by another customer. This order was completed quickly, and Colin stepped up to the counter.

"Hello sir, I'd like some advice on a weapon," Colin said, overly cheery and waiting for a reaction.

"Really?" Clyde mocked, rolling his eyes. "I wouldn't have guessed. You know, given that you mentioned you had a FEW things for me. Come on, let me look at them. I have high hope it's something good."

Colin grabbed the dimensional bag and withdrew the sword for the second time today.

Immediately, Clyde threw his arms over the weapon and looked around his shop in a panic. He looked around the shop to make sure nobody was looking in their direction. "Wait, are you an idiot? You don't just go waiving things like this out in the open!" he hissed.

"Well, how should I know. I don't even know what this actually is, man." Colin gestured at the covered weapon.

He removed his arms slowly, making sure no one of the three or four customers in the shop was looking at them. "Alright, let me just haze the two of us so no one can see or hear us. Blocking Haze," Clyde intoned.

The air around the two coalesced into a mist thick enough that Colin was tempted to try and cut it with a knife. A slight chill surrounded the two of them and the counter, making it feel like a morning in San Francisco. Cold, damp, and unable to see five feet in the street.

"Alright, let's start with the basics," Clyde said, tapping the tarnished sword's blade. "This is a fantastic piece. Where did you find it, in the bottom of a troll horde?"

"No," Colin said, not planning to enlighten the man unless asked.

"Well, the metal this is made from is one of the hardest to work in the world. It's called Ivoran, and it can only be found, literally, in the celestial realms. It has a melting point that is just a little lower than tungsten and is even then resistant to forging. Unless you have the right, high level, enchanted tools and forge," Clyde explained. "You can tell its Ivoran because of the slight whitish sheen the rust still has."

"That's interesting," Colin truthfully.

He was going to continue, but a prompt appeared.

You have gained a new skill; Knowledge: Metallurgy level 1. You get a 1% increase in charisma when applying this knowledge near other people. Gather or discover more knowledge in this area to level this skill and get more detailed prompts towards anything made primarily with metal.

Another knowledge skill is always a good thing, Colin mused as he looked back at Clyde who was looking at him with a smile. "What?" Colin asked cautiously. That look he was getting seemed… expectant.

"You just got the Knowledge: Metallurgy skill, didn't you?"

Colin nodded once, and Clyde let out a single massive laugh, "Ha! I knew you would. To get a knowledge skill, you have to understand something about it. I can tell you all the specifics of this weapon, and you might retain nothing. Make sense?"

Colin nodded, "makes sense. So what else can you tell me?"

"Well, the metal gives the weapon holy qualities which would have made the entire product more effective against undead, demons, and other similar creatures. The esthetic of the weapon looks both Elfin and Draconic, and that's obvious even with the damage. Weird but Obvious," He said, pointing to the handle and the fuller of the blade.

"Also, before I go into the enchantments that were on here, I'd like to point out the broken weapon enhancement right here," he directed Colin's gaze. His eyes fell to the broken gem embedded into the sword's guard above the handle. "It's hard to know for sure what this was, but given the black and red coloring, my guess that this was an Anti-Unit Bane Enhancement."

"What does that mean?" Colin inquired, getting a closer look at the gem in question.

"Well, let's start the basics. The Bane Weapon Enhancement comes in four different varieties. Anti-Race, Anti-Family, Anti-Unit, and Anti-Alignment. The only thing that really makes a difference is what they target. For an easy example, this weapon is an Anti-Unit Weapon, and that means that it is designed to make the weapon much more effective and damaging against a single specified target. Whoever made this weapon really hated someone," Clyde stated.

"Okay, I think I can infer what the other types are. Anything else I should know about Bane Weapon Enhancements?"

"The only thing is that the more specific the target and the higher the quality of the Weapon Enhancement gem itself, the greater the effect. I can't tell in its broken state how good the enhancement was, but I would assume in the higher tiers. Let me just say before you ask, there are six tiers of weapon enhancement gems. Weak, subpar, standard, strong, greater, and legendary. Each one is a significant improvement on the last. you follow?"

"Yeah," Colin said quietly as he processed the information with what he'd observed with the Crystal of Learning that he'd fed to his weapon. "Does it say on the item prompt what tier the Enhancement is?"

"No, you need the correct Knowledge skill to do so," Clyde said, confirming Colin's suspicions.

"Cool, what else?"

"The enchantments. First, you should know that this one is very, very complicated. High-end enchantments have complicated effects that usually involve a lot of magics working together to create the intended effect. This one is very complicated and involves both of the blade's flat sides," he turned the weapon over for Colin to see. Indeed, both sides of the rusted weapon were engraved, and both were different from one another. "I could make educated guesses what this weapon actually did, but without a lot of research time, I'm afraid that's the best I could do," Clyde said regretfully.

You have gained a new skill, Knowledge: Enchantment level 1. You get a 1% increase in charisma when applying this knowledge near other people. Gather or discover more knowledge in this area to level this skill and get more detailed prompts towards anything enchanted.

"I'll take a guess, since it's kind of useless to me with how messed up it is," Colin told Clyde.

"Alright," Clyde said, grabbing the blade and carefully looking it over. He turned it over in his hands and looked at both sides over and over before settling on one. His eyes ran over the inscription several times before turning it over and starting over on the other side.

After a minute or two, he set down the sword and looked at Colin, "where did you say you found this?"

"I didn't say," Colin told him.

"Well, whoever had it before you should have been glad they weren't whatever this weapon had the Bane Enhancement for. These lines of enchantments seem to focus upon using this enhancement as a base to target this destructive enchantment. If I am reading this correctly, and I am probably wrong somewhere, this is meant to flood the intended target with the full force of the sword's celestial power. Several of these enchantments are power enhancers meant to multiply the overall effect. Several more add to the effect by converting all-natural mana around the impaled target into celestial power to increase the effect. Whoever this was meant for was supposed to die, painfully, and in one stroke. I'm not sure whether or not the destruction of the tool itself was supposed to happen, but I'd say that it happened when its full effect happened." Clyde finished his little monologue and gestured to the weapon. "There is no way for me to know the full effect of the enchantments unless I am allowed to study it for a while. My apologies."

"It's alright," Colin said, picking up the weapon and returning it to the bag. "Thank you for looking at it."

"Hey, it's the least I can do. You know, other than the ten percent discount I promised," Clyde chuckled. Then with a gesture, the haze around them dropped, and the chill around them started to bleed away. And don't think that I've forgotten your monetary reward," he said, reaching into a pocket on his breaches. A moment later, he counted five copper coins out and handed them to Colin, "Five CC. As promised. Thank you again."

Colin pocketed the coins and extended a hand that Clyde clasped, "your welcome. Oh, I have one more question. Do you know anyone who sells books on enchanting? Preferably basics to intermediate level books and anything else I might need?"

The shop owner's smile became a little bigger, "you want to learn how to enchant?"

"Yeah, sounds like it could be useful," Colin told him.

"Useful! Ha! You could say that! Yeah, I know a guy. Me! I have extra copies of the books you will want for this endeavor," he said, moving to a different part of his counter and looking around underneath it. Moments later, he returned with three books.

"First, we have the book 'Primer for Enchanting.' It'll help get you through the first few levels for the Enchanting skill AND help with the subskill. Next, Flournette's Guide to flowing Enchantments will help for a while when you get deeper into the craft. Lastly, We have the book of basic runes and sigils. It is necessary to at least have the book as a reference to explain each individual rune. Also, you will need a tungsten carbide tipped scriber pen. How does all this sound?" Clyde asked, dusting one of the covers off.

"How much?" Colin asked, excited.

"Normally, it would be one copper coin per book. But for you, ninety CB each totaling two hundred and seventy bits or two copper coins and seventy bits," Clyde told him. "The engraving pen would normally cost around fifty CB, so I will give you a bundling discount. Three CC for all four items. How does that sound?" Clyde asked, idly dusting off one of the books.

Shrugging, Colin pulled the amount suggested and handed it to Clyde. A minute later, Colin was stuffing the books into his dimensional bag and leaving the store. The engraving pen was precisely as expected, A cylindrical tube that tapered to a sharp tungsten carbide tip.

He replaced the cap and put it into his regular bag. Now that he was outside, he didn't want any wandering players to notice that he was using that kind of magical item. At least until he could stop people from trying to take it. This was based on his assumption since he hadn't seen anyone using a bag or item like this.

Colin pulled out his map and confirmed his route to his final stop before leaving for The city of BriarThorn.

Twenty-ish minutes later, he walked through the front doors of the Brewed Perfection.

Pleasant smells hovered around the room like delicious clouds. Fresh bread, searing beef, and freshly opened alcohol pervaded the pristinely clean room. Taking someone's order, stood Solis who was smiling happily at the customer who was red with the booze he'd probably been ingesting.

Colin watched her for a moment to see where she'd go after the order and waited while she finished and walked away from him. Her face held relief as she turned away from the customer and a smile as she saw Colin. She started towards him and was stopped as the drunk man she'd been serving, stood, and grabbed her wrist.

"Where are you going? I'm not done talking to you," he said, smiling toothily. "Why won't you go out with me? I'd treat you right. Ssssssssoooo, come on," he slurred. "Reconsider."

She looked genuinely panicked at her wrist, "let me go, you're hurting me." Solis looked around the room before looking right at Colin, distress written clearly on her face.

Groaning, Colin said to himself, "I hope you're an Outworlder. I'd feel bad if I kill an NPC."