Feeling the strange pull, Regis turned towards the table beside him. The sunstone of his staff glowed up for a moment when he reached out to touch a twisted piece of metal. At first he thought that it was just an old piece of dark bronze wire, but as he touched it, he felt as if the piece of wire was ready to worm its way through his skin if he held it any longer.

“I’ll take this.” He said to the woman, earning a strange gaze from her.

“You have a chance to pick a rare treasure and you want to pick an old piece of bronze?”

“My staff reacted to it.” He told her as he stared at the greenish brown item.

“Soulbound items do have a mind of their own,” Chera nodded.” If it wants that thing, then take it. I guess that’s it then. If there’s nothing else; I’ll head back to his lordship.”

“I should head back too. I have a lot to do and I don’t know how much time I’ve left?”

“Why?” The wizard turned towards him with a puzzled expression on her face.

“My friends and I are waiting for the river boats.”

“Oh,” Chera’s face softened. “You can rest until late afternoon. Verner said that he’ll make a decision by then. There’ll be a gathering at the market and the decision will be made public then.”

“Thanks for telling me!” Regis said as he gave her a slight bow and left the lord’s manor.

On his way back to Bray’s place, the young dark elf thought about the things that happened and what he heard. He had a lot to do, but first he decided to head over to the church. The old temple was less busy than before and none of the guards stopped him from entering either. When he got close enough to the shrines, a soft voice called out to him.

“Regis, you’re back!” Lithia greeted him with a relieved smile.

“Sorry for making you worry!” The youth said it out of reflex as the young priestess circled around him.

“You’re not hurt, are you?”

“No,” he shook his head. “I’m just here to say hi and to pray.”

“I’m glad you could return unscathed. When Norma told me what happened to you, I… I didn’t know what to say. I know that you outlanders can cheat death, but it still sounded terrible.”

“It was quite painful,” he admitted while instinctively touching the slowly self-repairing hole in his armour. “But I’m back and that’s what matters. Were you busy after the battle?”

“I was, sadly. Did you hear about what happened after you were gone?”

“Amanda and Sophie told me about the rioting refugees and all that.”

“So many people died needlessly and even more left Hunor to try their luck on the road. I can only pray to the saints that they’ll arrive safely. Sorry for bringing you down. I’ll let you do what you’ve come for.”

“Thank you Lithia and it was good to see you!” The youth gave his courteous farewells before hurrying over to Avenar’s shrine.

He stepped in front of the statue of the hooded figure wielding a magic staff,. After a bit of rummaging through his satchel he placed the parchment on which he copied the scribe’s quill spell earlier into the offering bowl before bowing slightly in respect.

He stayed in a bowing stance as the flames danced around the parchment without harming it. Floating words of a myriad colour flickered into his vision.

{Do you wish to make an offering and pray to Avenar?}

“I plead to you Avenar, patron saint of spell weavers. I came to seek your goodwill in hopes of your aid!” The young man whispered in a firm tone as he stared into the flames of the offering bowl.

His words echoed with power as the offered scroll caught on fire. It burned away, accompanied by faint growling and hissing sounds before golden motes of light floated out of the flames and seeped into his mark.

{The spirit of Avenar accepted your offering and bestowed a shred of his wisdom upon you.}

{You have learned the rune of harm.}

‘That’s a rune I could surely make use of.’ He thought as the knowledge regarding the rune settled in his mind. The youth gave another bow to the shrine before leaving the temple. He hurried back to the out of sight alleyway where he pushed the button for the secret door. It opened up with a low creak, revealing the familiar staircase leading below ground.

“Back already,” the grey haired man greeted him. “I thought that you’d be away for the better part of the day. I was about to head down to the docks to get a fish or two for us.”

“I’ve managed to get things done sooner than I’ve imagined. I also brought back some rations and a full waterskin.”

“That’s fine as well. Who knows how hard it’ll be to get food with all the new ships mooring one after another. There was a lack of folks in the morning, but that’s changing quite fast with the new refugees pouring in. Anyway, I’m off to get those fishes. You just do what you’re ought to do.”

“Stay safe old man!” Regis nodded as the elderly man pulled his worn-out cloak’s hood on his head before closing the stone door behind himself.

Once he was alone, the young dark elf stepped next to the large bundle of loot he left beside the old crates to untie it. He spent a few minutes to roughly sort out the items before taking a better look at some of them using charlatan’s wisdom.

{Iron great sword (scratched)}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Lesser enchantments: 2}

{Durability: 92/110}

{Damage: 35/38)}

‘That’s some serious damage.’ He thought as he looked at the runes he recognised as the durability and sharpening enchantments. The youth then picked up the other iron weapon from the pile to examine.

{Iron broadsword (scratched)}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Lesser enchantments: 2}

{Durability: 81/110}

{Damage: 28/32)}

“These two enchantments seem to be quite common for weapons.” He mumbled as he put the weapons aside.

There were also a pair of non-enchanted iron daggers as well, but those were so damaged that it was pointless to use them for anything besides recycled material. The armour of the entitled knight was made from non-enchanted bronze, just like the other brute’s. It made the youth frown about his opponent’s poorness. The items taken from the dead wizards were somewhat better though. He found two damaged robes that were folded into small bundles, along with an amulet and a nice looking square belt pouch. Regis used his identification spell on them and he couldn’t help but smile.

{Woollen mage robe (worn)}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Greater enchantments: 2}

{Lesser enchantments: 1}

{Durability: 79/110}

{Armour type: light}

{Armour Value: 21/25)}

{Woollen mage robe (worn)}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Greater enchantments: 2}

{Lesser enchantments: 1}

{Durability: 74/110}

{Armour type: light}

{Armour Value: 20/25}

{Patterned leather pouch (scratched)}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Durability: 81/100}

{A decorated square leather pouch with small inner space to store items in. It’s meant to be worn on a belt.}

{Gateway talisman (unbound)}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: well-made}

{Gateway’s memorised: 0}

“This is a keeper for sure.” Regis said as he pricked his finger with a knife and dropped some of his blood on the amulet.

The strangely carved jewellery glowed up for a moment as the binding finished. He put the amulet on his neck before turning his attention to the rest of his loot. A torn satchel caught his attention and the small journal inside it proved that it belonged to one of the wizards. It held the description of a few initiate spells, and the man’s experience with them, but sadly, Regis knew all of the spells except the fire bolt which he already had a runic version of.

The rest of his loot was made up from damaged leather armours and bronze weapons, a few torn linen and woollen shirts dotting the pile. He looked at the whip Valerie put into the pile along with a few bronze weapons and the youth decided to get that done first after fixing his own gear. After he removed his almost completely self-repaired armour, Regis began to cast lesser mend on every item he deemed worthy of keeping. As for the rest; he began to salvage them one by one, turning his loot pile into assorted stacks of materials.

After a good hour and a half of salvaging and meditating, he had a few bronze bars and leather sheets to work with, coupled with a decent roll of linen. He nodded with a relieved sigh before turning towards the whip. Charlatan’s wisdom filled his vision with the simple yet familiar description he was looking for.

{Leather bullwhip}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Durability: 100/100}

{Damage: 15}

‘It’s quite dangerous actually.’ The young dark elf mused as he saw the damage the whip could deal. He folded it up and placed it on a trio of bronze ingots. After retracing the durability rune a couple of times in his mind during a quick meditation, the weapon gained a dark bronze hue and some extra weight. Remembering how Valerie mentioned using either a whip or a great sword, he put the whip back on the half melted ingots.

He imagined the whip folding itself into a sword as he created a weapon shift rune. When he was done, the whip looked just as before, but once he channelled some arcana into it and thought of the sword; things changed. The whip neatly folded itself in half, its end forming a small cross guard before a bronze edge appeared on the straight sides of the whip. It was a unique sight for sure, but as he lightly hacked on a nearby wooden crate, the large weapon proved quite effective. ‘Now comes the fun part.’

He thought as he spent some time to create a few ‘waste’ quality fire elemental stones with the appropriate transmutation circle and his runic searing touch spell. Once he was back to full arcana reserves, the youth added the first level of sharpness enchantment to the whip before trying his hands in his first elemental enchantment. The fire rune was manageable, but the moment it was finished, he wanted to throw the weapon away due to the heat it emitted. When he opened his eyes, golden words floated in front of him.

{You have successfully created your first ‘waste’ quality fire elemental enchantment. Your Erudition got permanently increased by 1.}

As he looked down, the bronze coloured whip was back to normal, so he had to identify it to see the difference.

{Smouldering bullwhip}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Greater enchantments: 3}

{Lesser enchantments: 1}

{Durability: 125/125}

{Damage: 20}

{Fire damage: 5}

“It has a unique name?” He muttered as he held the weapon to take a better look at it.

The whip looked as if it had been woven from bronze strips instead of leather and when he swung it in the air, he could see small embers glow along the tight gaps between the weaves. ’Maybe I should try to enchant it again with a higher quality fire elemental stone.’ His inner craftsman made him think about taking it one step further. He fused three ‘waste’ quality elemental stones together with the second transmutation circle into an ‘ordinary’ one before taking a short rest to meditate. When he was ready, Regis grabbed the whip again and began to retrace the fire rune in his mind. A good quarter of an hour later he knew he succeeded when the rune turned white from the original grey, but he immediately threw the weapon away. He opened his eyes and looked at the slight sooth on his blistered fingers. ‘Son of a bitch!’ He cussed in his mind as he saw the golden letters floating in the air for a moment.

{You have successfully created your first ‘ordinary’ quality fire elemental enchantment. You have unlocked the ‘Pyro-infuser’ infusion path. The apprentice pathway is unavailable.}

{Your erudition and mind got permanently increased by 1.}

‘Oh damn! Nice.’ He tooted his horns inside his mind with a smile before identifying the whip once more.

{Scorching bullwhip}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Greater enchantments: 4}

{Durability: 115/115}

{Damage: 20}

{Fire damage: 10}

“Wicked!” He couldn’t help but praise himself as the weapon reached a new height.

It seemed like even the ‘ordinary’ fire rune was enough to turn a simple whip into a burning death bringer. With the whip finally done, Regis decided to sacrifice the overly damaged iron knives. After some hesitation, the youth used the transmutation circle to scrap the daggers and reshape them into an iron ingot that had a dull grey colour. Once he was done with his short meditation to regain his spent energy, he used his identifying spell on the metal ingot.

{Iron ingot}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Crafting material}

The ingot turned out to be an ‘ordinary’ quality one, but with only one of it, he had no chance of fully enchanting his staff. He knew that he either had to pick the weapon-shift or the durability rune to upgrade, and even then, it might not be enough. In the end he chose to infuse the blade form of his staff, almost depleting his arcana by the time he finished.

The result was lacklustre as he felt the ingot melt beneath the staff, but the rune didn’t change in colour. When he opened his eyes, the bladestaff was barely different from before. It only had a grey hue to the edge of the blade. It made him wonder how a whole iron ingot that could be forged into an actual dagger wasn’t enough to turn his own blade into a higher grade.

After sighing dejectedly, the young dark elf turned his attention towards his other prize, the strange and twisted bronze piece made his staff vibrate with a low hum of excitement. Regis held the item towards his soulbound weapon and an invisible force pulled the greenish brown wire into the air, right above the staff. It seemed to have come alive, twisting itself around the root covered crystal of the staff before it melted away and seeped into the weapon. Once the ordeal was over, the only visible difference was that his staff took on a slightly darker hue. Regis stared at the weapon with his mouth still open, shaking himself before casting charlatan’s wisdom on it.

{Soulbound sunstone staff}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: well-made}

{Greater enchantments: 2}

{Lesser enchantments: 1}

{Durability: 125/125}

{Damage: 26/26)}

{Mana cost reduction: 5%}

‘It seems to have increased in item quality and got two points of extra damage. Not bad from a piece of wire.’ Regis hummed elated by the small, but important changes. Looking back at Valerie’s scorching whip, he was tempted to infuse his own staff as well, but that would have been troublesome.