It had been two days since Colin had talked with the unnamed thieves guild, and no one had gotten back to him yet. This included his inquiry about the Outworlder guild, Krimson Spire. This was the guild that Monty and his group had claimed to be a part of, and Colin figured that now was a good time to start looking into it.

He knew he wasn't ready to take them on yet. He needed more levels and stronger skills and equipment.

So, to counter their experience in the game, he was working on both. After paying a Copper Coin and twenty Copper Bits, he had twenty-five new throwing knives in his pack and walked back to his room in the tavern that he was now paying for. He and Harrison had come to an arrangement where if he played his role as a Bard, he got the night for free.

He hadn't played the night before, and he wasn't going to play tonight. Colin was going to be occupied with his enchanting projects and training the skill. He figured he could do some pretty scary, intricate, and specialized stuff if half of what he read was possible. To do any of that, he needed to level up his skill to unlock the ability to do them.

Hence, the daggers were a cheap-ish means to practice his skill and maybe earn a little more Copper Bits or even Coins if he did well. The Blacksmith that made the steel throwing knives had also offered to repurchase the weapons from Colin when he mentioned the enchanting training. This, of course, assumed that he could enchant the weapons well. Still, Colin already had an excellent example of his work and felt no need to justify his surety.

Opening the door to his room, Colin was immediately greeted by the sight of an enshadowed Nox vanishing. On his bed, a small pile of copper rings and other simple items laid strew on the pillow. It wasn't a lot, but when Colin had told Nox that he intended to work on his enchanting skill, the Goblin decided to get proactive.

For the past day, he'd been plundering storerooms of the guild Nightmare Asylum AND the Cult of Scylla. He'd been digging through their things, and taking items that he claimed wouldn't be missed. While Colin wanted to reprimand the Goblin for his theft into the group's stash, he decided that he couldn't fault him. The longer he stayed in the city, the less he cared for the two outlaw groups.

He wasn't sure what he was going to do with the items, but Colin knew where he was going to start. According to his Primer for Enchanting book, he could do any enchantment he wanted as long as he knew the runes to complete it. The problem lay in the fact that any runes or rune combinations that were considered above his Enchantment skill level had a chance to fail or worse. Every level higher than your enchanting level had a higher chance of failing. Exponentially more so if you do anything complicated.

Colin was not too concerned about that for the moment, what he was going to attempt was just a little about his level.

He took a moment to pick up one of the brass rings, checking it to make sure it was thick enough and free of other purposeful marks. He wasn't surprised when he had to set aside the first ring and go with the second, the first must have been someone's wedding ring.

Colin took out the book of runes and the engraving pen, turning to the page with the runes he was going to use. Since he couldn't use Attune Item with two mana types at once yet, he had to keep the enchantment to a single element.

Taking the ring and engraving pen, Colin took in a deep breath and attuned the ring with fire mana. He could feel the mana flow through his body and watched his mana bar drop as the ring became charged with the fire magic.

With that first step done, he started cutting into the outside of the ring, continually looking back and forth at the book. Neither rune wasn't too complicated, so the carving didn't take long to complete. He had to go over a part of the runes another time or two to confirm that the symbols were deep enough. After thirty minutes of work, the rune work was complete, and he waited as the ring's new runes started to glow with a light like hot cinders.

Seconds passed, he continued to watch his mana bar drop, and the thread of power that connected him to the ring changed. The connection between his magic and the ring seemed to stretch, and the magic flow appeared to fill the bridge more and more. Colin briefly considered cutting the flow and suffering the consequences with the comparison he made in his head. He didn't want his mana flow to act like a wire with too many amps going through it, the magical short circuit would not be pleasant.

The seconds turned into minutes, and he felt the power he was flowing into the item vibrate like a guitar string. The mana going into the ring tensing as it left his body and loosening again as it entered the object. The Runes on the ring changed from the dim light of dying cinders to the dull orange light of heated iron.

Another few moments passed, and he finally got a prompt.

Congratulations! You have enchanted a Copper Ring and created a Ring of Fire Resistance (lesser). This simple, enspelled ring gives the wearer a 10% resistance to magical fire, 20% resistance to accelerated fires, and a 30% resistance to all other non-magical fire sources. Every cumulative minute the ring is used costs 1 charge. Charge rate: 1 charge equals 20 mana. Currently mana charge: 1/30 charges remaining. Your Enchanting skill is now level 2. Your potential in this skill has increased. Your Attune Item subskill is now level 2. Attuning efficiency has increased by a small margin, mana control while Attuning has increased by a small margin.

With his only fire spell being one that lit things on fire, Colin had decided that it was a good idea for his well being to have something to keep him healthy. With his mana bar nearly empty from the enchanting process, Colin decided not to wear the ring until he had given it a few charges. He was unsure what would happen if he let an item lose all of its charges but decided not to leave without his protection.

While not as good as he was hoping, Colin had taken the standard fire rune and placed it next to one of the typeless runes in the book. This one for the lowest tier of the five resistance runes strengths.

"May I?"

Colin almost fell off the bed in surprise as he looked at the Goblin, who seemed to appear out of thin air. His hand was extended with an open palm, waiting for the ring to be given to him. Sheer spite for the scare made him spend a few moments, just breathing and gathering up his lost wits. After a minute, he took the ring and set it down on Nox's open hand.

"Nicely made, I think the ring should have been higher quality, but still," Nox muttered.

"Higher quality?" Colin asked.

"Did your stupid book not warn you about item quality?" Nox asked, clicking his tongue several times while Colin silently fumed. "Item quality is just one of the factors that determine how good a finished magical product will be. This item's quality is passable for enchanting, but only barely," Nox informed him. "Item quality has a lot of factors that contribute to its overall quality level. This ring, for example, it's pure metal content is high, but the craftsman who made it must have had an average skill level in forging. Then there's the care it received since it was made, there are so many factors that it's hard to know them all."

Colin nodded, understanding most of it. "Is there a skill to help me recognize item quality levels?"

Nox smiled, "indeed there is, DevilWalker. And I can help you get it. In exchange," Nox paused, leadingly.

The Antagonist sighed, "what do you want?"

Grinning, Nox raised a single finger, "just one thing, and it should be nothing but a detour for you when the time comes. Every church dedicated to Anaheim has a relic that will probably be a gold disc with her holy symbol. It'll likely be in the basement of all of the churches in the city. I want it, simple as that."

Narrowing his eyes at the Goblin, the man simply waited for his advisor/ friend/ extorter to tell him the hard part.

He held out for a few moments, long enough for Colin to assume that there was nothing else to add. Then he breathed out, "I will warn you that it will probably have an aura that will deal damage since you have an evil alignment. You are only Evil 1, so it should be minimal and only hurt you while you are in direct contact with it."

"Frowning a little, Colin asked, "anything else?"

"Actually, now that you bring it up," Nox said, in mockery of the thoughtful expression. "That relic will power the churches demonic repellent systems. Once you take it, the systems will go down soon after."

Groaning, Colin thought about it. "Once I take the item, the system goes down a little after that. Is that what you are saying?" Colin asked, getting a nod of confirmation from Nox a moment later. "That means I will have a little time between when I take the item, and someone will come and find out what happened. Any idea how long it will take for the systems to go down?"

The Goblin shook his head, "unfortunately not. It depends on factors like how strong the head priest is, how big of a celestial battery system they have installed, what rank the church is, and so on. I think you can do it, though," Nox grinned. "You won't have a choice."

Suddenly annoyed at the game Nox was playing, Colin snatched the ring from the Goblin's hand. He looked at him with anger painted across his features and spat, "what do you mean, I won't have a choice?"

"You need to get a demon out of a building with a demon repellent barrier set up around it. If it were a shield, you'd be fine. But a barrier permeates the entire space within the building, removing any chance of demonic beings gaining entrance within it. Except, of course, the space where this demon is being held. What would happen if you were to get him out of this space, and the barrier isn't taken down?" Nox queried.

After taking a few seconds to think about it, the option with the highest likelihood of happening was simple, "it would die, wouldn't it?"

"Worse. Since it would be bathed in divine energy and not just have it ran through its physical form, it would likely end its immortal life," Nox told him, shrugging. "Who knows for sure."

"Well, fuck," Colin said, releasing his exasperation at the Goblin in that single curse. "So you want me to take this item instead of just… shutting it down?"

"Yes," Nox confirmed simply.

Shifting his attention to the ring in his hand, Colin connected his mana pool to the ring and funneling mana into it. The act let his active mind focus on the ring, while his passive mind thinks about what he'll need. It all usually came back to one word, levels.

He needed more skill levels in almost everything to be prepared for nearly anything. He needed character levels to advance his base attributes and his overall effectiveness. More than anything, though, he needed to increase his knowledge of this world, its systems, and its histories to be able to not be caught off guard when things occurred. This thought made him think about the books that Clyde back in Willows Cross had sold him, and only hoped he didn't realize how many holes the books had.

After taking a deep breath, Colin closed his eyes and ran his hand over his face, "fine, Nox. You have a deal. I will get the item for you if you teach me this skill."

"Good," Nox said, smiling. "So DevilWalker, do you want to get the skill now or later?"

"Now," Colin told him quickly. "Looks like I will need all the help I can get."

Grinning, Nox effortlessly leaped onto the bed and started sifting through the items that he'd been collecting. After a few seconds, he picked up a pretty trashy looking monocle with scratches marring up the lens and dirty bronze making up the frame. It had a one-foot piece of string connected to a rusty clip hanging from a loop on the eyepiece. The Goblin turned to face Colin and presented the item. "This is considered the lowest tiered item without being the zero tier of unusable. This tier-one item is usually pretty cheap and doesn't have much durability left or is ruined to the point of near unusability. Do you agree?" Nox asked, extending the item out for Colin to take.

Colin looked it over and found he agreed. The scratches made it almost useless to see through, and the amount of tarnish the metal had would make it irritating to use. Then he noticed something else, "It's durability must be almost run out," Colin voiced. "I think I see a few fractures in the metal. Right here, near the loop," Colin pointed out.

Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Appraisal Level 1. At a flex of thought, you can summon up the status sheet for an item you hold. At level 1, you can only see a limited number of things: the name, the item quality, and the durability. The number of things you can see will increase with the growth of this skill.

Smiling at the instant help this skill provided, Colin looked at the ring in his hand and triggered the skill.

Ring of Fire Resistance (Lesser) This enspelled copper ring gives the wearer a 10% resistance to magical fire, 20% resistance to accelerated fires, and a 30% resistance to all other sources of non-magical fire. Every cumulative minute the ring is used costs 1 charge. Charge rate: 1 charge equals 20 mana. Current mana charge: 1/30 charges remaining. Item Quality: 4. Item durability:14/32.

"Nox, what's the minimum item quality usually needed for enchanting?" he queried, not wanting to risk making a mistake while enchanting. The pain and damage he received for the mana backlash had made him especially cautious.

"Four," Nox answered. "And just to make sure you know, the minimum item durability suggested for enchanting is half for safety. Broken or damaged items are not good for storing condensed magic, wouldn't you agree?"

Colin nodded, "good to know. Anything else?"

"Not for the moment. For your current level, you should be fine with everything you know now. I would recommend keeping an eye out for a reagent called mana stabilizers. In higher-level enchanting, they are almost indispensable to help control the mana in items you are enchanting. It keeps them from detonating or worse while you fix the issues," Nox suggested.

"Worse?"

The Goblin adjusted his hood as he spoke, "one worse thing I heard is a portal opened. Allowing the denizens of whatever was on the other side, access to the town. When the Sakura Knights arrived, none of the over a thousand townsfolk were to be seen. Only a tower of drying, rotting, biomass stood as a testament of what happened there. Just to be clear, it was an actual tower, literally."

"Holy shit," Colin said, imagining the sort of creatures that would do such a thing and shuddering at the abominations.

"Indeed, "Nox agreed. "I've also heard of the consequences of unstabilized mana flow creating stronger items. One such item is a treasure back in Grimhold. It is a set of five ringed handflowers called Momento Certo. I've never seen it work, but it is supposedly very, very dangerous. But that is a rare chance, so it is better not to tempt fate," Nox said.

Thinking about this, Colin looked at the now mana charged ring and slipped it on one of his fingers. There was a small snap, like a rubber band snapping against his finger, and the power took hold. Colin started looking through the piles, finding that most of the things Nox had brought back from the two groups' stashes had been mostly tier four and five items. With two exceptions.

Unknown metal rod, 43 grams. Item quality: 10. Durability: ????/????. Unknown ingot, 5444 grams. Item quality 7 Durability: ????/????.

"Nox," Colin called, picking up the two items and holding them in his lap. The first unknown item was a small rod, maybe an eighth-of-an-inch across and a few inches long and was an impossibly clear silvery color. Weirder yet, the small, unmarked item seemed to buzz with static as if it were a live wire. The second item looked like a single bar of precious metal, not unlike the gold bars back on Earth, only this was a pale shade of red.

The Goblin looked over, and his glee was palpable. "Ah, so you found the good stuff," Nox said, happily taking the small bit of Sansinite from Colin. "You got the Knowledge: Metallurgy skill, right?"

Colin nodded, and Nox continued, "probably a low level then. This, my friend, is one of, if not the, rarest substances in this world. It is called Sansinite, and it is nicknamed Godsteel. Sansinite is widely known for being the base metal in almost every Mythic and Legendary item. It not only soaks in magical energy like a sponge, but it also can absorb Celestial energy AND Infernal energy without the opposing powers causing a catastrophic failure. It also has natural mana stabilizing reagents AND can generate its own mana. You know, like living things!" Nox exclaimed happily.

Colin wasn't sure what to make of all that info, but if it made Nox happy to have the metal, he was glad too. Then the Goblin looked at Colin and his not excited expression.

"Maybe this will tell you just how powerful Sansinite could be. That Mythic Sword you are carrying? I would bet my stash of Treated Vaccinium Root that it is made from Sansinite," Nox said, pointing to the crystal hilted sword that hung on Colin's belt.

Colin drew the blade and looked at the dull grey steel of the blade and compared it to the small rod that Nox was holding. He looked back and forth between the two for a moment before putting his weapon away. "Really, it doesn't look, right?"

Nox shrugged, "the nature of Sansinite makes it hard to tell by sight. The biggest proof that it Sansinite is the energy you feel around it. Do you feel it, DevilWalker?"

Colin nodded and reached to retake it, only to have Nox pull his arm away and slide the metal into his coat.

"What the hell?" Colin asked, glaring at the Goblin.

"DevilWalker, this little piece of metal is worth enough Copper to fund a small war. Trust me, it would be better for me to hold onto it until we find a use for it or more to use."

Clenching his teeth and releasing his breath, Colin froze for a long second. "Wait, does Sansinite get addictive?"

A small grin appeared on his face, "oh yeah. But I wouldn't worry about it too much, DevilWalker. After a certain level threshold, the power will not affect you at all."

Taking in another breath, Colin released it and was glad that his exposure was brief. "Wait. If its that rare, how did these thugs get it?"

Nox shrugged, "who knows. I only know they couldn't have made it. All magic metals are alloys, and one of the base ingredients for Sansinite is a metal deadly to ALL mortals. That's why it's called Godsteel, only gods can make it."

Colin followed along and wondered about that fact. If all magic metals were alloys, then what was the ingredient in the alloys that made them magical. He was about to ask when a prompt appeared.

Your Knowledge: Metallurgy is now level 5. Your prompts will now reflect this increase in knowledge. For skipping three or more levels in a knowledge skill, you have gained an achievement: Knowledge Dump 1. While knowledge is power, too much at once can be irritating. However, you have shown that you can just absorb it to no end. This decreases the amount of knowledge you need to have to gain experience in knowledge skills.

Colin's facial expression must have changed since Nox was raising an eyebrow at him. "What happened?"

"I just got an achievement. Knowledge Dump 1," Colin told him, rereading the prompt to make sure he understood it. This would make it easier and more worth it to spend time in a library to help with those skills.

The Goblin whistled, "That is a nice Achievement. I personally don't have it, and most mortals don't. To jump more than a single level in anything is rare. But to jump three? Well, good on you, DevilWalker. Anything helpful is a good thing."

"Oh yeah," Colin wholeheartedly agreed.

Deciding to test his new levels in Knowledge: Metallurgy, Colin picked up the other unknown metal and looked at the prompt.

Scarletite ingot, 5444 grams. Item quality: 7. Durability: 600/600. A metal prized by intelligent species of the fire element like the Surtr, Fire Nymphs, Magma Sirens, and fire Djinn.

Colin reread this Prompt too. He reached into his belt and produced the heavy dagger he'd gotten from the Dungeon where he'd met Nox. He looked at the blade and compared it to the metal on his leg. While the dagger's red color was duller than the ingot, it was there.

A short Prompt appeared.

Scarletite Heavy Dagger. Item Quality: 7. Durability: 450/450. Traits: Fire Resistance.

And to think, he'd been carrying this around as if it were just a regular large bowie knife. For a moment, he considered getting the engraving pen and enchanting it with fire damage but decided against it for the moment. If he failed, he would risk losing his special dagger. Since it was heat resistant, he was sure that he knew that one of the base materials was Tungsten since it had the highest melting point of any metal known to man.

Your knowledge: Metallurgy skill is now level 6.

"Hot damn, I guess I was right," Colin said out loud.

He told Nox, and he agreed, "indeed. Tungsten is one of the ingredients for Scarletite. That fast level up must be due to your new Achievement. Congratulations."

Colin put away the dagger and put the Scarletite ingot into his bag. He took a moment and leafed through the pile of stuff again, finding nothing that he missed the first time. So Colin decided to get to work on his actual project for the evening. He removed his pouch of throwing knives, grabbed the engraving pen, and started working.

None of the enchantments he worked on was impressive or hard, but all of them were different. The first throwing knife got a slow effect from the water magic runes. The next was a fire damage rune from, surprise, the fire magic runes section of the book. Then he moved on to other runes, like the drench rune, haste rune, and fog enchantments went on to the thrown weapons smoothly. After the sixth rune, he stopped to let his mana regenerate and pulled up a prompt he missed while working.

Your Enchanting skill is now level 3. Your potential in this skill has increased. You Attune Item subskill is now level 3. Attuning efficiency has increased by a small margin, mana control while Attuning has increased by a small margin.

The level was good but nowhere near what he was hoping for. He set the enchanted throwing daggers into his throwing dagger pouch that had been empty for too long and put the rest back in his bag.

He stood from the bed where he had been sitting and walked to the window. He opened it and looked up and found that the moon was high in the sky. It was a pretty sight, telling him approximately what time it was and making him wish his enchanting would go faster. One of the few higher-level enchantments his 'Primer for Enchanting' was for a bracelet that told the time according to where you were. Time zones, he had to say to himself. It meant it adjusted for time zones.

Colin looked down into the alleyway just below his window and watched the empty area for a moment. The fresh air and still space below him helped to relax Colin while waiting for his mana bar to come back. Seconds ticked by, and pale moonlight illuminated a cat that was sprinting by on the alleyway floor.

Only a moment behind the feline, a man that Colin could only define as elegant, walked into the alley. The man must have been around six feet tall, had clean golden blonde hair that extended to just below his ears, and fair skin. His sharp features worked well with his long frame and dark leather armor. Colin squinted at the man and found that he was not just wearing armor. He was also wearing a cloak of thick, smooth black material trimmed with a rose gold cord.

He stopped walking just under Colin's window, paused, and looked up. A grin spread across his face, and madness was evident underneath. "Ah, there you are. I've been trying to find you for weeks," the man said, his smooth Scandinavian accent adding a melodic tone to his words.

Colin stared at the man who simply stared back. Colin blinked, and the man was gone; he leaned out the window to see if he had moved closer to the building, but he was just gone.

"I would be careful, that fall might hurt one such as yourself," the man spoke from behind him.

Colin's heart beat faster as he pulled his torso inside the building and looked at the man before him. The only real difference the light in the room and their current closeness gave him was that he could now see the man's mouth. A dozen cuts, starting half an inch above and below his lips, sliced into them, giving the man a freakish appearance, despite the way the rest of him looked.

"Who are you, what do you want?" Colin asked, hand moving towards the Mythic Xiphos at his waist.

"Oh, not much, Avenger. I am actually here to speak to both you AND your little green friend stalking in the shadows about business. You know, Antagonist to Anarchist," the man said, giving Colin a little half-bow.