The Strongest Spellblade

I had been thinking I wanted to find and fight Abnormals to find natural treasures of the dungeon. But after the last fight, I had no interest in such things.

Even after five full days of rest, my health and stamina reserves were slightly below their maximum, and my Mana reserves were at half.

As for my heavy armor, it was a complete mess. Everything was damaged except my boots. The gloves tore. My belt was partially ripped apart. My plate armor had more holes than chain mail.

I had bent the pieces back into place, and Ozy had used a bit of Alchemy to bind the metal back together, while fixing the runic structure as I directed him. I couldn’t fix everything because Ozy was exhausted, but I could fix the worst of the damage.

I carefully stitched the underlying cloth back together. It was tedious and slow, but there was nothing else to do during these five days. Lanner worked on his armor and clothing as well. While he bounced back quicker than I did, he hadn’t pushed himself as much.

He was injured, but that only affected his healing point reserves, not his stamina or Mana. The morning we were going to leave, I slowly put my armor back on.

It felt slightly more restrictive and different. The patch job hadn’t been that great. Ozy and I were no craftsmen to make a high-quality piece like this. We could make repairs so it wouldn’t fall apart, and the enchantments kept working, but returning it to its original state was impossible.

My blade had repaired itself. If it had been stronger, I could have cut through the monster. Another thing to take care of once I got out of the dungeon would be getting a tier 4 blade. It would be insanely costly, but the priority of getting a better weapon had moved up on my list of things I needed to accomplish once I left the dungeon.

Standing up, I slowly moved about. I made some adjustments to the straps holding my armor in place. When I was satisfied, I packed everything else.

Lanner and Ozy were already ready, waiting for me. I would have preferred to rest longer or leave the dungeon, but resting for a month would be pointless.

With my sword and spell skills, I could handle monsters. The actual risk was running into another Abnormal, but that was highly unlikely. And if we did, I could only curse the dungeon itself.

We followed the tunnel the Abnormal had come from. Several hundred Blade Bugs filled the next chamber, but they didn’t have tails or scissor mouths. I took my time to prepare a runic circle.

After completing that, I incinerated many of them with Ozy’s help. Lanner killed any that broke through the firewall. I followed up with my blade, easily cutting through these weaker versions of the Abnormal.

As for the monsters being the same type as the Abnormal, that could happen. Abnormals could be their own unique monster or be related to a monster type within a chamber. Reports showed that both were common occurrences.

After I killed off all the Blade Bugs, I began searching everything carefully. I did one pass around the chamber first but spotted nothing. Then I slowly checked everything piece of wall and floor, knocking on them and carefully staring at them.

Ozy was also looking around to see where the natural treasure of the dungeon might be hiding. Searching for the rest of the day revealed nothing.

”Are you sure there is something here?” Lanner asked me.

”Yes. The beastkin believed that Abnormals and natural treasures were linked. They considered it common knowledge that they let slip. Their Perception stat and related sensory skills are stronger. This might seem like a regular stone chamber, but there must be something.”

”What about the wall or ceiling? The Abnormal could climb with its blades,” Lanner said, and I nodded.

”We scanned the floor carefully today. Tomorrow we will check the walls. Or Ozy will, at least higher up. If that fails, then we will use Alchemy and spell skills to rip the chamber apart.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

”That could take days.”

”That is fine. I still haven’t fully recovered. I am going to get that natural treasure.”

The next day we checked the walls. This time Ozy found something halfway up the curved wall of the chamber. Most walls went up vertically before curving tightly near their roof to form a dome.

There was an illusory wall. Ozy brought up a rope and secured it with Alchemy, allowing me to climb up. There was a large alcove with a chest at the back. I also noted the demonic runes that created the illusory wall.

The runes were familiar, yet this combination was unique. Carefully, I pulled out a notebook and recorded them. I thought someone knew such a combination, but I might sell it to the College if no one did.

Approaching the chest, I checked it for traps. While rare, it wasn’t impossible. Opening it up with my sword caused nothing to shoot out at me. Resting inside it was an amulet.

It was golden on a gold ring chain. The amulet itself had the shape of the sun. There was no face or other iconography associated with it.

I could only wear an amulet or bracelet. My current bracelet stopped experience gain. I had been considering removing it but didn’t want Xanatos to benefit from me any more than he already had.

I could check what the Amulet did though without worry. Taking off my bracelet, I put the amulet on.

Eventually, I figured out that it was a tier 3 Sun Amulet. Fire damage would imbue all weapon-based attacks. Pulling out my sword, I swung at the chest.

Fire left a streak in its wake, and flames burst out when I struck the chest. My sword was warm, but it wasn’t melting. It was strong enough to handle the power of the Amulet.

”Fire Blade.”

I swung again, and it was like I was holding a raging inferno. My strike made me stumble back as a small explosion occurred. I quickly stopped the spell skill and blocked the Sun Amulet from enhancing my weapon.

The Sun Amulet worked by repurposing a small bit of my Mana and Mana in the air itself to empower the blade with the fire attack. It wouldn’t work with something like a wand. I had some guesses as to the runic structure inside the amulet.

It would use only demonic runes, of course. I couldn’t use a bow with this amulet unless I struck a monster with the bow itself. The effect wouldn’t linger on arrows. And unless I had tier 3 arrows, the fire imbuement would break the weapon apart after a single use.

This kind of boost was incredibly rare and valuable. It was a natural treasure and held comparable value to an orange soul fruit. I would have preferred a Soul Fruit over this Sun Amulet.

As for making something like this, it would be a struggle. While it looked like gold, the metal wasn’t gold. It was a special metal imbued with Mana. If I were a craftsman, I might have guessed the type of metal used.

I took the Sun Amulet off and put my experience-countering bracelet back on. It was nice, but ultimately not that useful. As for Lanner, he had no use for something like this either. I would put it away and trade it for lots of money once I returned.

With it, I could pay off my debt to the College and look at getting Ozy some more skills. I had a second spatial pouch as well which I kept tucked away. I hadn’t traded that to the gnomes. A spatial pouch was too valuable for me.

I might give it to Lanner depending on how things went for the rest of the dungeon. He had helped in that fight and hadn’t run. I climbed down from the alcove.

”Find anything?” Lanner asked.

I pulled out the Sun Amulet and let him look.

He used his sword while wearing it, creating a burst of flames when the point struck something. He gave me a look when I held out a hand to take it back.

”It’s useful.”

”And when you can defeat an Abnormal like that and find the natural treasure, you can decide what to do with it.”

”You are just going to put it away?”

”Yes,” I replied as he took it off and handed it over.

”Couldn’t I use it while we are together?”

”And we leave, you will ask for it back,” I said with a shake of my head. ”We discussed the loot rules. I have full priority on our team.”

”Alright,” he said with a sigh, but I wouldn’t change my mind about this.

The Amulet was too valuable to let him use it. When I took it back later, the feelings would be much heavier. Better to avoid that drama early on.

”Nothing else?”

”No. Just a chest and an alcove. The dungeon probably placed the Abnormal there when it created the chamber. Its sensory skills were probably higher. So, once we got one chamber away, it moved in to launch a surprise attack.”

”Well, hopefully there is something that suits me when we find the next one. Like a wand.”

”If we find a wand, it is all yours,” I said, and he nodded.

I doubted we would find a wand, but if we did, I could only call it fate or destiny and let him keep it.

If we did go to the surface, then I would put the Sun Amulet on.

I would not take chances against demons and beastkin. There was no reason to return to the surface now. We had food for several more years. I just needed to get back to the Eldarin continent.

It’s a shame that the natural treasure wasn’t a dungeon compass or something similar. That would have been far more useful. Or even a soul fruit to help me learn skills more quickly. But beggars couldn’t be choosers.

Surviving and getting any natural treasure was still a win. I would not get too worked up about that. A good fight was any fight I survived without a lasting injury. The natural treasure was something I didn’t have before. Getting upset about something like that was foolish. It was the will of the dungeon, which I had no way of controlling.