Chương 127: (124) 2.77. Upgrades

"What the hell, Alka?!" Vin gasped, looking the Slayer up and down.

"What happened to you?!" At first glance, it looked as though Alka's spirit had been moved yet again, this time going from the library golem to a rather intimidating jet black suit of armor. But upon closer inspection, Vin realized what had actually happened. Alka's body was definitely still that of the golem, but it looked as though she'd received something like a paint job.

There were a few new pieces, such as the full plate helm covering most of her featureless face and small adornments here and there to make it look like she was in fact a regular person wearing a suit of armor rather than a golem, but overall her body was still that of the golem.

"Crazy right?" Alka laughed, turning her body this way and that to show it off.

"After Deorer finished my sword and realized it still hadn't been enough for the Gods to allow him to prestige, he got mad and told me I wasn't leaving until he'd figured out something that would get him there. It took a lot of experimentation, but he finally discovered a way to make an almost paper-thin version of darthsteel, their super weird black metal. I think he called it a leaf or something like that.

Using that, he covered me in the metal, and then added the helm to make it look like I'm just a regular person wearing a full suit of armor at my request."

"You look like a knight of nightmares," Scule said, shivering as he took in Alka's new intimidating look.

"Seriously, I think I might actually pass out from fear if I stumbled upon you in the dead of night."

"I have to admit, you are pretty scary looking now," Shia agreed.

"Awesome!" Alka said, the green lights of her eyes flaring behind the visor in her version of a grin.

"According to Deorer, the layer of darthsteel he put on me should be almost impenetrable. Granted, he also said whatever mystery alloy my golem body is made from is actually even stronger, so unless I'm up against any more strange, divine powered swords, I don't think I need to worry about being hurt anytime soon!"

"That's good to hear," Vin smiled, glad that they shouldn't have to worry about losing Alka again once this whole mess with the divine warrior was taken care of.

"Can you take the helmet off? He didn't make it impossible to change out your mana gem, did he?"

"Oh yeah, speaking of that…" Alka said, tapping the back of her head.

"Turns out, that's not actually a problem. Deorer ran a lot of weird tests and determined that my golem body is actually designed to recharge its own gem from ambient mana, just like how a regular artifact works. When I told him what you said about the library, he said his best guess was that the mana stones were used as a supplemental power source. Something about the hundreds of these golems in one building probably using up all the ambient mana."

"Well, glad to know I risked my life for nothing," Shia said, rolling her eyes.

"But that's fantastic news! I'll admit I was a little worried about you basically dying anytime we needed to swap out your mana gem."

"So what do we do with the extra two gems we swiped?" Scule asked, glancing at his cape they were keeping them in.

"Think they're any valuable?"

"I'm sure they'll come in handy sooner or later," Vin shrugged, his eyes traveling toward the sword on Alka's back.

"Want to show us Dancing Leaf 2. 0?"

"I decided to retire the name, in honor of the sword," Alka said, reaching over her shoulder and pulling out her new blade.

"This… is Dream Shredder." Vin stared at the gleaming blue-black blade, his jaw dropping at the sheer beauty of the weapon. He knew next to nothing about blacksmithing or weapons, but even he could tell the sword was crafted by an expert. The sword was identical in shape and size to Dancing Leaf; a perfectly sized longsword handmade to Alka's obvious specifications.

However, rather than glowing green wood, the sword was an alloy of the strange black darthsteel Alka had covering her form and some sort of dark blue metal focused along the edges. As Alka turned the blade this way and that, Vin found himself unable to look away.

"And the Gods didn't think that was worthy of prestiging?" Scule asked, letting out a low whistle.

"Damn, I don't even want to know what I have to steal to be able to hit level 40."

"There's a good chance snatching the golem from the divine sanctum was good enough for you actually," Shia said, reaching out and running a tentative finger along the metal of the blade.

"I have to say, Dream Shredder is certainly a tad more menacing than Dancing Leaf was. How does it fare in comparison?"

"The darthsteel should make it mostly indestructible, and the mythril he included should allow it to cut through harder materials like stone and metal more easily. All in all, this new sword isn't technically as durable as Dancing Leaf, and I may have some more issues with magic defenses now unfortunately, but it will fare better against physical materials. I figured it's only a matter of time before I can get Vin to enchant it the same way Dancing Leaf was anyway."

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"Are you kidding? I don't think I'm ready to try making an artifact just yet," Vin chuckled, remembering Shia's explicit warning about brain melting.

"But I can promise you it will be one of the first ones I try when I am."

"Good enough for me," Alka shrugged, returning her new sword to its sheath.

"Anyway, what have you all been up to? And why is there red smoke leaking out of that room?"

After the golem that didn't have any lungs to worry about brought Scule's equipment outside and got permission from one of the guards to cut a small hole in the outer wall to help the room air out, Vin and Shia filled Alka in on what she'd missed while Scule got some much-needed rest. Even after receiving some magic healing, Vin could tell the petian's near death experience from his own carelessness has shaken the man a bit.

Alka was happy to learn that Shia had finally gotten a chance to speak with her master, but the part of Vin's story that she was most interested in was clearly the strange extradimensional corridors and rooms connecting all the fragments.

"Huh. I wonder if I'd be able to enter the dungeons now that I'm a golem," she wondered aloud, crossing her arms.

"Madam Trebella bound me to this body tightly enough that I can't even drift out as a ghost anymore, so the barrier would have to either stop the golem entirely, or let us both through."

"No way to know without checking," Vin shrugged.

"And we've already broken into this dungeon once when we weren't supposed to. Shia, how did you even manage to get in and cover your tracks anyways?"

"Hm? Oh, I just broke through the stone wall and left a wooden one there in its place," she said, glancing up from pruning Blossom.

"Not the stealthiest I know, but I sure as hell wasn't going to let something like a stone wall or Nohral's requests stand between me finally getting to see my master again. I'm sure Nohral will fix it when he realizes." Well that settles it, there's no way Nohral doesn't know everything we've been up to. Shaking his head, Vin headed off to the corner of the room and pulled out his journal.

A lot had happened since the last time he'd gotten the chance to update it, and now was as good a time as any to make jot down his thoughts. The next few hours were spent filling out his ever-increasing encyclopedia on Edregon. Vin included everything he'd learned about the trogums' strange society and their fragment filled with tunnels, the dwarves' Crater and their dislike of strangers, and even his discovery of the strange system of corridors and rooms stretching all throughout this new world.

By the time he was done, he had a few new messages waiting for him. Drawing increased to lvl 3! 300 exp gained. Drawing increased to lvl 4! 400 exp gained. Drawing increased to lvl 5! 500 exp gained. Grinning, Vin finally shut his journal, promising himself he'd try and be better about updating it more frequently. Standing up and putting his journal away, he stretched, before taking a look at what his friends were up to.

Shia was once again meditating, her staff laying across her lap and her grip tight around the wood. Alka had pushed all the furniture on one side of the house aside and was experimenting with her new sword. From what Vin could see, it looked like Deorer had gone to great lengths to make sure his additions didn't impede Alka's strange new mobility, and the Slayer was seeing just how her joints' new range of motion could be utilized in battle. Scule was still napping, and Reginald was busy giving himself a bath.

But not like a regular rat. He'd used Vin's waterskin to fill a small bowl he'd somehow gotten his paws on and had what looked like a tiny bar of soap. Staring at the sight of Reginald lathering himself up in his makeshift tub, Vin shook his head, not surprised in the slightest at this point. Vin had just begun wondering when Nohral was going to show up and tell them they could leave when he heard what sounded like shouting coming from outside.

"Well that doesn't sound good," he sighed, rolling his shoulders and grabbing his staff.

"Up and at 'em everyone. I have a feeling we're about to fight our way out of this Crater."

"But we've been such good guests," Scule yawned, getting to his feet and looking around the room.

"I only stole like one thing. Hey, is that my soap?!"

"Why does it feel like we end up making enemies of more fragments than we do friends sometimes?" Shia frowned, cracking her neck. To Vin's surprise, Shia's staff shifted some of its branches, revealing the top half of Dancing Leaf sticking out of the small canopy once more, just like when he'd used it back in the library to cut through the magic glass. Seeing his wide eyes, Shia grinned.

"You like it? Figured it made a nice addition to my staff when it came to fighting."

"You know, I'm not really much of a weapon guy, but even I'm starting to feel left out now that you and Alka both have super cool ones," Vin admitted, glancing between Shia's altered staff and Alka's new sword. Oddly enough however, Alka hadn't unsheathed her sword, or even taken so much as a combat stance. In fact, the Slayer was calmly standing there, watching Scule wrestle with Reginald in a sudsy bowl of water for his soap.

"Uh, Alka? You planning on helping us fight our way out of here?"

"Obviously. But we're not quite at that point just yet," Alka said, finally turning to look at him, her glowing eyes flaring.

"That shouting shouldn't be anything bad. I made a house call last night is all." Vin stared at the golem, trying to wrap his head around her statement.

"…you made a house call? To who? And why?" As if the Gods themselves had deigned to answer him, it was at that moment that the door was finally flung open, revealing two cowering guards scrambling back across the ground to safety, and a horribly scarred dwarf with a bag of tools strung across his back. Stomping his way into the house, Deorer stopped in front of Vin, tossing his bag of tools to the ground with a heavy thud and looking him up and down. Glancing over at Alka, he grunted.

"I take it this is the guy who needs a new arm?"