Chương 25: Book 2 Chapter Twenty-Two: Weapon Browsing

TWENTY-TWO Roan had been putting off buying a weapon for a while now. He had argued with himself a few times, but for the most part his warhammer had been more than enough to get him through the fighting that had happened. It was a heavy, solid, weapon that had been perfect for his works against the slow-footed ogres. Until he'd met that shield. Until he'd seen the dragon. Until the hobs terrifying speed or the shielding that the shamans could do.

It was a good, common-grade weapon but he was starting to enter the realm where he needed more. Jerry could enchant it, or teach Roan how to enchant it, but that didn't fix the problem of having a mundane weapon with magic attached to it. It would work, but it limited the strength of the enchantments that could be laid on it. The first rule Jerry had taught them. Enchantment relied on materials, will, and a power source. A plain steel hammer didn't have the depth needed to become something special.

Not in comparison to some of the Uncommon-grade weapons on the market that Roan was staring at. It was just the price tag on the weapons was enough to make him wince. The jump from common to uncommon good was staggering. His common grade gear, the canteen and ring, were each five-thousand credits. At the time it had been a hefty-sum, but the uncommon grade jump multiplied the cost by ten times. STAR-ALLOY WARHAMMER UNCOMMON GRADE 50, 000 CREDITS FORGED FROM A DROP OF FIRE FROM THE HEART OF A STAR.

THIS WARHAMMER RESONATES WITH CERTAIN ENCHANTMENTS. ENCHANTMENT SLOTS 0/2 THUNDER HAMMER UNCOMMON GRADE 50, OOO CRAFTED IN THE HEART OF A STORM THIS SHORT-HANDLED WARHAMMER RESONATES WITH CERTAIN ENCHANTMENTS. ENCHANTEMENT SLOTS 0/2 ULTRA-DENSE WARHAMMER UNCOMMON GRADE 50, 000 CREDITS THE FORGES THAT CRAFTED THIS UNIQUE WEAPON BROKE UNDER THE STRAIN OF ITS WEIGHT. RESONATES WITH CERTAIN ENCHANTMENTS. A GRAVITY ENCHANTMENT IS ALREADY PLACED ON THIS TO MAKE IT USABLE FOR ANYONE.

ENCHANTMENT SLOTS 1/2 Roan didn't just look at the warhammers. As much as he enjoyed his current weapon it wasn't his most proficient. Old Bao had drilled him hard in all manner of weapons and unarmed fighting. If anything, it was a spear where he excelled the most at. It was just hard to give up the devastating power of the warhammer." Why give it up? Pick both." CRUSHING POLEARM UNCOMMON GRADE 50, 000 CREDITS A WARHAMMER MARRIED TO A SPEAR, FORGED WITH INTENT TO CRUSH.

RESONATES WITH CERTAIN ENCHANTMENTS ENCHANTMENT SLOTS 0/2 HALBERD OF EVERYDAY USE Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. UNCOMMON GRADE 50, 000 CREDITS AN ARMORER'S ATTEMPT TO FORGE A WEAPON THAT CAN BE USED FOR ANY SITUATION. AN AXEHEAD WITH A CRUSHING HAMMER ON THE BACK END WITH A TWO FOOT LONG SPEARPOINT TO TIP IT. NO PARTICULAR RESONATION ENCHANTMENT SLOTS 0/2"That looks practical," Roan said with a smile as he clicked buy.

Air popped louder than ever before a six-foot long halberd appeared in front of him. His hand streaked out and caught the weapon before it could hit the ground and grunted as the weapons still jerked his hand downward for a moment. The weight of the weapon was several times what his old hammer had been. The haft was made of a polished steel that shone blue as he turned it this way and that, the light catching on it to reveal shimmering depths.

The axe head was wide and long to balance out the nub of a warhammer on the other side. Compared to his previous warhammer this one was tiny, looking closer to a garage hammer than the mallet of his old one, but it likely weighed the same amount with a third of the surface space. The speartip that came out the top of the polearm added another two feet to the length of the weapon. Made of the same polished steel-like metal it shone while he twisted the weapon to inspect it.

A few fingers width of it was unsharpened, but once it rose up and past the tip of the axe blade it tapered down into a sharp, flat blade. CURRENT BALANCE: 53, 111 CREDITS"Ouch," Roan said, wincing as he dismissed the bank account. The weapon alone had halved his bank total and he still needed to look at finding armor to keep himself from getting filleted. The wounds the hob had given him didn't hurt, but he could feel the tightness of the scars when he twisted wrong.

Putting the polearm on his shoulder he almost staggered backward as the weight of the weapon pulled at him, but he corrected himself after a second of strain. It would take a while to get used to the strange weight of the weapon, but he had no doubt he would manage it. Grabbing his old warhammer he marched toward the temporal chamber that Jerry was assigned to. The classes should be ending soon to allow the next stream of candidates in to learn from the mentors he'd tricked into the village.

Roan could only hope that the others weren't taking it as bad as Jerry had." Can't have them all wanting to rip my tongue out." One pissed off tower native was enough per level. That he and Jerry had entered into a possibly lucrative deal wasn't the point. Until the money hit the rabbit's account, the native had no reason to keep Roan alive besides the rules of the level.

"Someone finally upgraded," Moira said, breaking Roan from his thoughts as she strode out of the alchemy building, stretching for all she was worth. The short woman sighed in relief as something popped loud enough that Roan could hear it from ten feet away.

"Have you seen the prices of uncommon-grade weapons?" Roan asked. Moira froze and then leapt toward him, covering the ground faster than Roan anticipated. She landed beside him gracefully, but pulled his robes to turn him so she could have a better look of the polearm.

"Can I touch it? Please?"

"Uhhh, yeah?" Roan said, raising an eyebrow at the weird interaction. Moira hardly waited as she ran a finger along the shaft of the polearm.

"This is good. Way better than normal earth metals, but not as powerful as some of the weapons that my sect has on hand. Or the tools. We've pulled some good stuff out of the towers," Moira said.

"You can tell all that with just your bloodline?"

"Yeah. Most things have a…taste? It's hard to describe, a mix of taste and feel, I guess? Anyways, part of training my bloodline was being exposed to all sorts of materials, mundane and mana-attuned. This is just on the side of mana attuned, but the quality is phenomenal and the materials could hold more. It's like touching a bag full of air, you know there's room for stuff inside of it," Moira said, sounding more excited than Roan could remember her.

"You really like this type of stuff?"

"More than alchemy. I'd be a damn good smith, but got to do what we can for the association. Anyways, I can learn how to smith once we get outside of the tower."" Such confidence. Morale is good if she's speaking like there is a future." Roan could only assume their session of explosive makings had gone well.

"Everything ready for tonight?" Roan asked. He could assume all he wanted, but it was better to get confirmation.

"Yeah. Another round of alchemists are going in with Tyler and that should get us to where we need. We'll come through on our end, it's the rest of the plan I'm not so sure about," Moira said.

"Volunteer only for a reason," Roan said, shrugging. He'd do what he could to make sure that the newly founded Support Guild would be leaving with enough guards they'd be fine. The challenges on the next level would be just as dangerous as this one, but hopefully it wouldn't snowball as badly.

"I need to get in there and get some enchantments going. I'll see you in a bit," Roan said as the last of the enchanters left Jerry's house and the next wave started walking up it. Roan didn't have a ton of time if he wanted to succeed with his plans.