The Pinnacle Warrior

The meal went quickly, with the Wanderers answering questions from the others but largely just luxuriating in the relaxation of not being in the Dungeon, eating fresh food, and just being free from any pressing responsibilities. At least, for a short time. Gabriel, unsurprisingly, ended up not having much to say to the waiting audience. He enjoyed the food and then retreated to a corner of the room, where he sat on an overstuffed chair and seemed to almost become one with the piece of furniture. Liora sat nearby, the two only occasionally speaking quietly to each other before she made her quiet escape.

As the Wanderers grew full, however, Benedict allowed himself to become more animated until he was telling stories of the fights against the irregulars before they all reached level 90.

“—the hydra fell, its last head finally unmoving. Though its body fought to rise up once again, Astrid, Muti, and Skandr fell on it with blade, hammer, and magic. The body was torn apart, leaving only mana-formed flesh and experience behind.”

Vera, Olafson, and Michel made small noises of appreciation, and any attempts at storytelling died away. Instead, Benedict sat back and looked at the rest of the people in the room.

“Well, I’m tired,” he said, looking at Vera.

The awkward segue was painfully obvious, if nothing else. Before any results could come of his desire for time alone with his paramour, Astrid raised a hand and interrupted.

“Well, you can go get some rest, but I’m pretty sure that Olafson brought that bag for a very specific reason. This hammer he’s lent to me isn’t bad, but I miss my echo stone one. It would’ve helped a lot against the mana eaters, I’m sure. Then, he also mentioned a new platebody and gambeson, both of which I want. But if you’re fine just seeing your new duster and the other planned upgrade he mentioned in the morning, then go ahead. Get some rest.”

The way that the Bard glared at her was deliciously angry, and Astrid allowed herself a little laugh as he shook his head. Benedict settled himself and tried to fold his arms angrily at her, but before long, he instead allowed himself to lean forward in excitement. The rest of the party seemed to take the same excitement to the new equipment, and Olafson smiled. Only then did Astrid realize that he had circles under his eyes and lacked half of his usual energy. Regardless, he didn’t hesitate to take the attention onto himself as he started to speak.

“If you all want to see it tonight, I have just about everything ready,” Olafson said with a shrug. “Astrid, your hammer still needs a little bit of tweaking, as well as Felix’s gauntlets. Everything else is all wrapped up, and I’ll be leaving in just a little while to finish those enchantments tonight. Who wants to go first?”

“I think Muti might explode first,” Astrid laughed, glancing at the Barbarian. Her teeth were bared more in a threat than in excitement, and she stared at Olafson’s spatial pouch with her sharp teeth gleaming in the light from the dozens of magelights around the room.

“Then Muti is first,” he nodded. “The replacement armor, would you return it?”

She didn’t answer verbally, instead standing and starting to undo the straps up and down both sides as she continued to stare at him. Different from what the party had bought from him for her before, the new armor was just protective instead of focusing on how to integrate her with shadow. With the equipment that Olafson was upgrading, for most of the party, he was just upgrading what they already had with additional materials or enchantments. Part of why he’d been able to get great high Steel tier armor ready for them as quickly as he had was that he used Mithril tier materials but didn’t process them as much as they were capable of. As such, they were great for Steel tiers and could easily be retrofitted to become Mithril tier.

Muti’s upper body armor was an example of that, with the same materials as before, just with additional pauldrons, underlayment, and enchantments attached to the cave basilisk leather and midnight Mithril. When Olafson passed it over, Astrid saw the faint glitter of silver threaded through the spaces between the scales on the armor.

“It’s largely the same as before, just with additions,” he said. “It’s also had Dungeon Silver threading added throughout the entire piece. It’s barely visible outside of direct light, but it has made everything much more cohesive while heavily improving the end result. The cohesiveness of the enchantments has skyrocketed with this addition, and you’ll find that it works quite a bit better now than it did before.”

Muti’s eyes widened as she fumbled to finish removing her own armor. It would still take her a short while yet, due to how tight the equipment fastened, so she could only look as Olafson pulled out her two rope darts. He held each by the cord, which was an inky black that seemed to drip shadow. What she had used until now had lacked any real attributes, instead only functioning to carry her mana through the thread and into the dart itself. Now, it was obvious that quite a bit had changed.

The cords each were seemingly almost insubstantial, but of course they would be strong enough to survive being whipped around by her. The blades, also, had gone from a relatively regularly shaped two-sided dagger to something that was a bit more than half of a circle. The blade went along the entire circular edge, the rope connecting into the center, so that when it was spun around, the blade would cut through the air as it was moved.

“Part of the reason that I added the pauldrons,” Olafson said, pulling one of the weapons over towards the equipment that sat on the table, “is because now it’s able to circumvent the typical restrictions on being able to bind weapons with your equipment Skill. You only have your primary hand and offhand, typically, but like this, we can avoid that.”

As he spoke, he demonstrated how the coils of the cord could be wrapped into the shoulder of the pauldron, looking almost like an ornamental aspect of the armor. Then, by grabbing a coil that came out of the bottom, the rope dart could be removed once again.

“Took me a good amount of experimentation,” he said, smiling, “but by using a lodestone in combination with these particular fasteners, I’ve made it so the equipment Skill considers the end result to be a single piece of equipment. You’ll be able to always be gaining the benefits of the attributes given by the rope darts without necessarily wielding them. Much the same as Astrid is able to receive the attributes from her sling, even when it’s wrapped around her wrist and threaded on one of her fingers, you won’t have to be actively using them just for the attribute bonuses.”

By the time his explanation was complete, Muti had finished stripping her armor and stood in her gambeson. Then, even before putting on her armor, she pulled out the rope dart and executed a few short, testing swings.

“This will be something to do outside,” Olafson warned, “but if you provide mana to the cords, they can extend.”

Muti’s excitement became overwhelming at that, and she seemed to have to fight against herself to keep from bolting out of the building. It was a testament to her own growth in patience that she instead stuck around to see what the rest of her party ended up getting. 

The Craftsman didn’t seem to care to continue explaining to her what he’d done. Instead, he turned to Skandr and Benedict.

“You two are the only other ones with everything already finished, so I’ll do your equipment next. Skandr, before I give you your things, I have found a new leather to use for the binding of your enchantment book that I think might work for upgrading it to be able to accommodate stronger enchantments. I’ll hand it over to you sometime, but you’re going to need to incorporate it into the piece of equipment itself. I haven’t had time to even try anything with it, so it’ll take a fair amount of experimentation on your part.”

“That’s more than enough,” Skandr smiled. “I really appreciate you being willing to do as much as you have.”

“As well you should,” Olafson chuckled as he pulled out Skandr’s equipment to pass it over. “Your brigandine already had frost dragon leather on the outside, and has now also been studded with something called storm quartz. It’s somewhat rare and very brittle, so it’s on the inside, to rest against your body. As such, it actually doesn’t markedly change the amount of attributes that the piece gives, but instead makes it similar in effect to your robe. You’ve spoken at length about how you’re learning more about what makes a storm, and storm quartz should work very well for anything storm-related.

“The material itself is from when there’s a particular storm phenomenon that occurs underground. Effectively, it’s lightning that can be generated and strike in caves. I don’t know much more about it than that, but as a result, just contact with the quartz should increase your storm affinity. The specifics of what it’s capable of are entirely beyond me, but I’m sure that you can figure it out. I tied the fabrication enchantments to just be supportive and connect it to  the piece itself. Other than that, I left a lot of open space to you. As you understand the material better, you can change the enchantments to reflect the effect that you’re looking for, it should be more than sturdy enough to hold up to some experimentation.”

“That’s exactly what I was looking for,” Skandr replied as he took the piece of armor from Olafson. He handed back the rather simple replacement equipment he’d been using and took the chest piece from the man. He immediately turned it inside out to take a look at the so-called storm quartz, scratching his chin as he looked at it. His smile widened, and he made a conscious effort to pull himself out of his curiosity.

“And the boots? I really am interested in this, and I don’t want to be ungrateful for everything else you’ve done. As soon as I let myself go, I know I’m going to lose myself in this research.”

“That’s the impressive piece,” Olafson waved Skandr off with a laugh. “They’re more of the same, just better now than they were. Nothing special.”

Skandr accepted back the boots and put them to the side, again gathering his things as he returned the borrowed boots to the Craftsman. His hands gently touched the inner lining of his brigandine, stroking the storm quartz, no doubt, as he watched for Olafson to return Benedict’s equipment.

“You know I’m holding onto a surprise,” Olafson said as he pulled Benedict’s duster out of his pack. “First, there’s this, on which I’ve created a complementary enchantment to your breastplate. It’s your primary protective effect, with the barrier you can generate. Well, and the teleporting boots. Anyways. The duster now pairs with your breastplate, but instead of having to activate an additional barrier at the same time, the way that these enchantments interface should mean that the duster simply strengthens the breastplate’s end result without needing anything additional from you. Nothing flashy, but it will give you some more attributes and will also keep you protected even better.”

Benedict took the proffered equipment without a complaint, happily throwing it on and mentally calculating the difference. Then, without waiting for any comment, Olafson continued, “The ‘surprise’ is not actually a piece of equipment. Instead, it’s an addition to something you already have.”

The Bard cocked his eyebrow and tilted his head at that, but didn’t argue. Instead, he just waited for the Craftsman to continue to explain. Instead of saying anything more, Olafson pulled a small piece of metal about a handspan long out of his spatial pouch. It was a silver cylinder a bit wider around than Benedict’s flute, but quite a bit shorter. Instead of more than a dozen buttons and levers to press on the flute, this “addition” had only three holes to plug with his finger, then the largest hole that was like that at the end of the flute.

Astrid had no idea what it was, but Benedict obviously did, as he softly gasped and reached out for the item. Olafson happily obliged his curiosity and handed it over without any fuss. It almost looked like the part of his flute that he blew into, and he pulled out his flute and slotted the new addition over the mouthpiece. Like that, it almost became a thicker, shorter flute that ran in parallel to the main body of the instrument.

“They don’t really make these outside of stories,” Benedict said, storytelling more than actually asking anything. “Supposedly, there are attachments to flutes to give them the ability to play polyphonically.”

“I think it works,” Olafson warned. “I’m no musician, though, nor am I a luthier, fluter, or whatever else, so I can’t say for sure that it’s a success. Give it a try, though, and if you can think of any quick changes to make, we might be able to before you move along. Even if it doesn’t work quite right, it should strengthen every effect of your flute.”

Benedict voiced his gratitude at that, immediately covering the three holes on the bottom of the... whatever it was called. Astrid couldn’t say that she knew what “polyphically” was either, but he liked it, it seemed effective, and that was about all she needed to know. Benedict didn’t play it immediately, making an excuse about wanting to make sure that he could use it well before he performed for anybody.

Once the Bard had voiced his gratitude, Olafson turned to Felix and Astrid.

“For you, Felix, I just need to finish the enchantment that ties everything together for your new gauntlets. They’re totally new, with basically nothing being reused. The Boss materials you used are good, but you’re growing too quickly for them to keep up. However, your helmet has been upgraded. The new barrier it generates will be stronger than it was before, less mana-intensive, and just generally an upgrade while also giving more attribute points. As for the specifics about the gauntlets, they can expand a protective barrier over themselves or whatever you’re holding. Your shield or axe will both be strengthened by spending just a bit of mana. They’re cooler than they sound, I promise!”

Felix didn’t respond verbally, but nodded. He summoned the replacement helmet he had been wearing and unfastened it to pass it back to Olafson as the Craftsman handed over the draconic helm he’d been working on. It looked just the same as always, but he was definitely telling the truth, going off of the way that Felix’s eyes widened at the attributes the equipment gave.

With an apologetic shrug for having nothing else to offer, Olafson turned away from Felix, though the Guardian didn’t seem to care at having his larger upgrade reserved for the next day. Instead, the Craftsman smiled at Astrid. 

“So, I promised you a new platebody and gambeson, though only the second is all new. The existing platebody hasn’t received any exciting changes, though it has changed. Until now, it was as tough, protective, and durable as possible while remaining a Steel tier item, and now, it’s the same but a low Mithril tier item. In truth, it could quite feasibly be made into a middle tier Mithril piece of equipment, but I suspect that will be its limit.”

“Great,” Astrid smiled, summoning her own replacement equipment to begin stripping it off. She, along with Felix, had the equipment that was most complicated to put on and take off. Muti’s was close behind, as the three of them had their equipment Skills and the equipment was made with that in mind. It made it cling to them almost as a second skin, but the massive series of buckles, straps, magical fastenings, and more made for a complicated session of putting it on and taking it off. As she continued stripping off the breastplate, Olafson pulled out the next piece.

“The gambeson is going to give you slightly less in terms of attributes than before,” he said, smiling widely. 

“Which means you’ve got a great additional enchantment for it,” Astrid said, her smile broadening as she thought about what kinds of changes he might have made. What could he have used for it? Would it be a strengthening—no. That would just be attributes, wouldn’t it?

“Well?” Astrid asked as her fingers danced up and down the straps along her sides. With how high her Alacrity was, she was making great progress, but still had at least another full minute before she would be able to switch it over. Given that the gambeson was the next piece of equipment, she still wouldn’t be done and ready, so she just wanted to hear it all already.

“I was going to say that you should just see what the effect is, but I just realized that you won’t be able to tell,” Olafson laughed at himself as he pulled the new gambeson out. Unlike before, it wasn’t a simple quilted item, but the inside was a soft linen of some sort while the outside was leather. When Astrid picked it up, she was surprised by the weight, being at least fifteen kilos. She cocked her head at the Craftsman who smiled and shrugged. 

“It just so happens that your own fighting style is complemented by a material that you’ve brought a whole loe of back to Neverwood. I worked with Vera to see how we can soak the stuffing of the quilting with a particular material for your benefit.”

“Speak, man,” Astrid grumbled. He laughed as he shrugged.

“It’ll strengthen your healing. It’s from the red shimmerbugs.”

She smiled widely as she looked at the new equipment. Her fingers still rustled up and down her buckles, getting her closer to equipping the new pieces of armor, and she asked, “What about my hammer? What did you do with it?”

“We’ll let you see tomorrow, shall we?” Olafson teased. Astrid laughed, but couldn’t bring herself to disagree. As he said, tomorrow they’d see their equipment, and finally, finally, be on their way.