Loremaster of the Amaranthine lands

Sometime later, Amanda shook Regis up and the young man noticed that half of the defenders had already climbed back down from the ramparts.

“Time to go,” she said. “The first couple of fallen had already showed up.”

“Lead the way.” He nodded and the two of them climbed down as well.

“Hey Regis,” Khan called out to him. “Sophie told me that you’re supposed to be a wizard or something. Is that true?”

“I aim to be one.”

“But you fight with a spear. Shouldn’t wizards have magic...staves?” The young man swallowed his words as the bronze blade melted away from the dark elf’s staff.

“Wicked!” Khan mumbled with the others nodding in agreement.

“That thing has to be a rare weapon, or even above that. Where did you get it?”

“It should be an uncommon soulbound staff.”

“I haven’t heard anything about soulbound weapons while wandering around in Hunor,” Quentin stared at the staff in the dark elf’s hand. “Is it powerful?”

“It’s supposed to be, but I can’t see its damage numbers due to its rarity and it only has two runes on it so far.”

“That’s not much,” Amanda shook her head. “You might need to get a better one soon.”

“No need,” Regis patted the bronze coloured staff. “It will become stronger later on.”

“Hold on a minute,” she realised the meaning of his words as they walked forward. “It can grow stronger?”

“How can I get one of those soulbound weapons?” Khan grabbed the elven youth’s arm. “Does it come in sabres?”

“Soulbound items are usually armours and weapons that are mostly used by wizards and those that follow the path of magic in some way,” Regis looked at his weapon. “You have to make it yourself, but it has strict requirements and once bound, only their owner can enchant them. Unless you want to follow the path of magic and study enchanting, then it’s better to just get new gear wherever you can. Of course, you can try to make one and later destroy it if you find better equipment, but few would want to start from scratch. Soulbound equipment is meant to follow you for life.”

Khan’s shoulders dropped for a moment, but the sound of the horn pulled him out of his thoughts.

“Here they come!” Quentin said as he raised his shield up in front of himself.

“It’s time to earn our breakfast.” Amanda gripped her hammer as she stepped forward.

Regis picked a nearby fallen soldier as his target while his staff grew its blade. He sprung forward with a red glint running along the weapon’s edge as a firm stab through its eye socket snuffed out whatever unearthly flame burnt in it. Hunor’s defenders fought back to back against the waves of fallen enemies, but not without paying the price.

The occasional death screams made everyone shiver as they knew that another one of them had died. Regis killed five more undead infantrymen with his bladestaff and quartz shot spell before the wave ended.

“Rest up folks,” one of the guard captains yelled. “Gather the dead and the wounded while we wait!”

“You’ve heard the man,” the dark elf wheezed. “Grab your loot and we’ll go back to the ramparts.”

“Hey Regis,” Khan’s voice made the dark elf sigh. “I’ve got to say; you kind of suck at being a wizard.”

“What?” The youth turned towards him with a growl, his fingers turning pale from gripping his staff.

“Khan!” Quentin tried to stop his friend in vain.

“I mean, I’ve always imagined that you people would fling spells left to right, but you pretty much just stab and slash at these things, along with a few of those shiny finger gun shots. I thought that you’d be mowing down these things with fire and lightning, but even Amanda and Quentin have a higher kill count than you.”

“I hate to burst your bubble,” Regis gritted his teeth. “But I don’t have infinite arcana reserves or potions to replenish it. And besides; spells aren’t as easy to come by as you think. If you thought that magic just grew on trees then you’re sorely mistaken, and besides; most wizards are built like a glass cannon. We can dish out a lot of damage if we have the right spells for it, but only one or two shots at a time.”

“Don’t take him seriously,” Quentin punched Khan in the shoulder slightly. “He still thinks that this is a game or something like that.”

“He’s right,” Sophie nodded. “I haven’t even met any other spell-casters out here, nor did I come across any of those spell gems. Your luck is already quite good.”

Both Amanda and Quentin nodded in agreement before the group headed back. Everyone had their own bundles of armours and weapons to drag along. Dozens of bronze swords and leather armour were piled up beneath the ramparts. Amanda and Quentin both stripped their respective corpses for the bronze plate armours they now wore. The tall woman looked at the pile of loot with a sigh.

“That sure is a lot of spare materials to work with. It’s too bad that they’re all low quality. We won’t get far using these.”

“We’ll make do with what we have.” Regis said as he tossed his loot beside the others’.

Thinking about Khan’s painfully true words, he wanted to use his downtime to gain an edge. He sat down and grabbed the sceptre he gained earlier, studying its enchantments. It had three runes, out of which he recognised the one that granted extra durability. The dark elf pulled out the tarnished journal he got from his stone spike slinging opponent and began to quickly sift through it. A wealth of information greeted him on the cheap leather pages that seemed to be far more organized than Taveran’s journal.

Between the notes regarding the dead wizard’s travels, five beginner spells took up a page for themselves. Not counting the one about turning the soil into stone which he already had, the other four were new to him. The first one was called arcana shot and as its name implied, it created a small bolt of arcana that was fired forward similar to his quartz shot. Regis cursed his bad luck for only getting the self-described ‘beginner’ spell after so many fights. The second spell on the list was referred to as wind blast. It was meant to form a strong gust of wind that pushed back the incoming enemies.

It did sound like a must have for basic crowd control, but the third spell was the one that truly caught his attention. Lesser mend was a utility spell with an ability similar to lesser heal. The difference between the two was that it was meant to work on inanimate objects from simple knives to stone walls. With this one spell, Regis would never have to worry about keeping his kit in good condition, but instead of trying it out, his eyes were drawn onto the fourth spell.

Searing wave was a close ranged spell that seemed to be the local equivalent of the burning hands spell from his table top RPG days. It was the same flamethrower spell the priest of malice used against him. All four of the new spells were welcome additions to his lacking arsenal of magic mayhem, but the pages after these proved to be far more valuable to the greedy youth.

The first thing that caught his attention was a page long description of a drawing he recognised as a transmutation circle mentioned by his grandfather’s records about alchemy. It described the method of the artificial creation of elemental stones. The same magic stones he would need for enchanting. Despite the fancy description, the method of creating elemental stones was surprisingly simple, if time and arcana consuming.

He would need to create the transmutation circle first and put clear crystals in the middle of it before casting elemental spells on it. The magic circle would then absorb the elemental energy and fuse it to the crystal. With enough elemental energy fed to the circle, a new stone would be created. Simple, yet convoluted at the same time. After quickly drawing the magic symbols on the hard ground, he pulled out one of the small quartz pieces he created with his grow cluster spell from his satchel and placed in the middle of the circle.

Regis then tried to cast windblast on it, but it failed spectacularly. He was barely halfway through with his chant when the whistling ball of air that formed between his fingers got sucked away into the transmutation circle. He watched it in awe as the symbols glowed up with a faint white light before the clear quartz piece turned somewhat milky white.

After repeating the spell once more, he ran out of juice and had to meditate for a few moments before being dragged away to fight an incoming wave of undead. Half an hour later he shambled back to his experiment and sat down, casting windblast two more times. The third time he tried to do so, the transmutation circle didn’t absorb any of the spell, forcing him to raise his hand towards the sky. His spell went off with a loud boom, drawing terrified gazes at him from the people around.

“Sorry about that,” Regis waved the dust away in the air. “My magic got a bit awry. There’s nothing to worry about.”

With the not so reassuring words out of the way, he identified the now milk white quartz stone.

{Wind stone}

{Crafting material}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: chipped}

‘Okay, back to the drawing board. Or the journal or whatever.’ He nodded after seeing that the white quartz was indeed a finished product. Hastily searching through the pages, he had found four lesser and one greater enchantments recorded in it, although two of the lesser ones he already knew from Taveran’s journal.

Regis saw that the only enchantment in his repertoire to need air elemental stones was the ‘lightweight’ rune, so he went with that. While meditating, he placed his hand on his gambeson and he traced the combination of symbols in his mind over and over again for about twenty times before a sudden heat flared beneath his fingers for a moment. He felt the elemental stone crumble in his palm while his gambeson became a bit lighter. Regis focused on his armour with a wide smile as the changes became more evident after using charlatan’s wisdom.

{Bronze reinforced gambeson}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Lesser enchantments: 1}

{Durability: 98/110}

{Armour type: medium}

{Armour Value: 14/15}

{Item weight is decreased by 5 %.}

“Success!” He muttered as he read the description of the enchantment.

With one more enchantment added to his collection, Regis decided to gamble one last time. He pulled out the chestnut sized arcanite from his satchel before grabbing his staff. Between the three runic symbols on the bronze sceptre, he now owned both the durability and the lightweight enchantments, but he lacked the third one. Judging from the note about the arcana cost reduction, it was one of the recorded greater runes known as the ‘spell focus’ rune.

He studied the method of creating the rune along with the necessary material for it which was the arcanite he got from Amanda earlier, but had no way of using at the time. Regis began to meditate as he retraced the thin lines and the four circles with their respective partial symbols that were connected in a ‘Z’ shape. After fifteen or so repeats, the circles began to merge until only one large grey symbol remained. Regis felt the arcanite crumble between his fingers as power rushed through him and into the staff. Bright golden words wrote themselves through the air as he opened his eyes, dizzied by the sudden turn of events.

{You have successfully created two greater and two lesser infusion enchantments.}

{You have unlocked the ‘Infusion Enchanting’ skill-line.}

{You have unlocked the ‘Infusion Enchanter’ craft.}

{Your erudition got permanently increased by 1.}

‘Hell yeah!’ Regis smiled with pride as he succeeded not only in getting his 4th staff enchantment, but also unlocking an actual craft.

“Here they come!” A sudden yell shook him out of his happy moment as if on que.

He jumped on his feet with staff in hand before joining the others. The night was running late and the unnatural darkness made it harder for people to see the size of the incoming waves of undead soldiers. Sophie took down the first fallen with a well-placed arrow before Khan and Amanda followed her example with their own attacks. Regis killed a fallen swordsman and a wolf that lacked half of its maw.

“Help!” A high pitched scream from their left side sent a chill through the group’s spine.

The young dark elf thought that it was just another poor defender in trouble, but the sight of captain Grego and the 9th guard troops running made him rethink it.

“What’s going on?” Quentin asked.

“I don’t know,” Regis shook his head. “But it has to be something serious if the whole troop ran out.”

“Should we go too?” Amanda huffed as she finished another enemy.

“It up to you guys.” The dark elf shrugged before another scream from the same direction spooked them.

{A man’s scream caught your attention. Whatever threat this stranger faced, he and his group needs aid. There’s danger in the dark, but also opportunities. Should you face the threat and succeed in saving anyone of importance, the rewards would be substantial. Make your choice and do so quickly. Lives are at stake.}

“I think that’s our cue!” Quentin spoke up after seeing that everyone’s eyes turned distracted for a moment.

“Fucking floating shenanigans!” Khan cursed as he tried to swat his hands at his invisible enemy.

“Let’s go!” Sophie pulled Amanda by her arm as the group headed out.

They ran towards the same way as the guards, but the dark elf soon noticed that a part of the ramparts in their direction was already abandoned with the torches barely burning. Their true target was beyond the torchlight’s range.

“Over there!” He pointed at a group of refugees fighting the fallen that was about to wipe them out.

Theys made their way to the guards and refugees that were surrounded by dozens of undead soldiers. A shrill scream cut through the air as Regis saw a well-dressed youth getting rammed through by the weapon of a plate armoured abomination. While the first noble died, another one tried his best to run away, throwing the refugees aside.

“Out of my way,” the young man screamed. “I’ve said out of my way peasants! I’m the city lord’s son. I can’t die here! ”

Another scream followed as the first refugee whom the noble threw aside was slain. Regis stabbed at the nearest fallen with his bladestaff. The undead was stabbed in the skull and collapsed as fell on the ground.

“Get that screaming idiot out of here before he brings a whole damn horde on our neck!” Amanda yelled as Quentin and a few of the guards tried to lead the nobleman away, but the panicked youth almost stabbed him when he got close.

“This dude’s going to get us killed with his whining!” Khan said as he beheaded a rotting swordsman that was stupid enough to step in front of him.

Regis tried to push back another fallen one, but the sight of a faint light flowing out from the dead noble’s body awakened his greed. Skill crystals were valuable and there was no way that a nobleman would have only learned some basic skill. He ducked under the attack of his enemy while still checking out the corpse from the corner of his eyes.

With a quick stab towards the enemy, he managed to impale it through the chest and pushed it on the nobleman’s corpse before beheading it. No one noticed the corpse covered magic stone in the dark, securing his prize for the moment.

“Get lost!” He swung his staff at the next undead that tried its best to skewer him.

The much practiced low swing at its kneecap earned a sickening crack that echoed through the air. His enemy fell on the ground face first and Regis stabbed it in the back of its head, but he barely managed to draw his bladestaff back before he had to dodge roll away.