บท 32: Crystals and magic items.
"Please wait here Lord Edevane, the clan leader will be with you in a moment. Is there anything else you need?" The clerk asked. A man who must have been in his thirties.
"No, I'm fine. Thank you for your service." Marcus replied as he sat down in a red armchair. He then pulled out a silver Rael and handed it to the man.
The store clerk accepted the tip and walked out, leaving Marcus all alone, who kept admiring the furniture in the room.
The room was on the third floor of the building and was quite spacious, about 9x9 meters(29.5ft) and almost 5 meters(16.6 ft) high. But the room was not the only big thing.
Except for the armchair where he was sitting, all the furniture in the room, including an armchair that could seat three people, was abnormally large. Even the table separating the armchairs was quite large.
But despite its large size, all the furniture in the room was of exceptional quality indicating that it had been crafted by an exceptionally skilled master craftsman.
'What kind of person will this Hadrif be?... Sigh, I just hope they don't charge too much for his services.'
Earlier at the auction, Marcus had met the deputy leader of the Giant Clan, Hans Renier. Although they hadn't talked too much, Hans recommended that if he needed to repair any items or get quality equipment he should visit the weapon store owned by his clan.
From what little Marcus knew of the place, this store was the best in the entire city and the quality of the weapons produced here could easily compete with the best weapons in the kingdom. But that was not all.
Apart from the large mercenary clan that ran it, the port city of Neima was ruled by two medium-sized clans and one small clan.
These clans were: the Red Axe Clan, the Gale Clan, and the Giant Clan. But each of these clans had a characteristic that set them apart from the other clans in the city.
The Red Axe Clan was the largest of the three and had a fighting force of over 400 members. The Gale Clan had the largest number of wizards and had an almost absolute monopoly on potions, elixirs, and spell scrolls in the city.
As for the Giant Clan, they were few but all their members were mercenaries of high rank or above. But the reason why the Giant Clan could compete with two clans that outnumbered them was because of the equipment they produced here.
*Stomp...Stomp...Stomp...Stomp...Creack.*
Loud footsteps were heard from outside the room and a few moments later, someone opened the huge door over 4 meters (13.12 ft) tall and entered the room.
"Seriously who the f**k is coming to bother me at this hour?.... Tch, I need a drink."
Marcus had his back to the door, so he couldn't see what the person who had entered looked like. But there was a certain authority in the tone of his voice and just by the energy radiating from his body, this person was at least a wizard on the pinnacle of the 3rd realm.
The person walked over to a large cabinet in the corner of the room, pulled out a cask of wine, and sat down in the huge armchair in the room.
When Marcus saw the person in front of him, his jaw nearly dropped to the floor.
The person in question turned out to be a woman over 3 meters (10 ft) tall and was quite muscular. Her white hair was short, her skin was a bright copper color and her eyes were completely blue without a hint of white in them.
The woman was wearing only black pants, a pair of black boots and a tank top that highlighted her six-pack and prominent breasts.
But the most striking thing about the woman was her four arms, which were thicker than a human head.
================================
Name: Hadrif Treikar
Titles: [Great Blacksmith] [Relentless Warrior].
Race: Asrakian
Profession: Master Blacksmith (Clan Leader/Mercenary)
Rank: 4
Level: 51
================================
HP: 3812/3812
MP: 9930/9930
Strength: ??? Stamina: ???
Defense: ??? Intelligence: ???
Vitality: ??? Wisdom: ???
Agility: ???
================================
'Holy cow! I had heard that Asrakians were big, but this woman is even bigger than the large skeleton!' Marcus was a bit shocked by the clan leader. After all, this was his first encounter with a non-human.
Not counting the monsters, the total population of Genaerrsis was composed of almost 65% humans and the rest were members of other races. While it was not that uncommon to see these races in other parts of the world, their population in the port city of Neima was so low that there were only a handful of them.
Hadrif glanced at Marcus but quickly lost interest in him. She pulled the cork out of the wine cask and began to drink as if she didn't give a damn.
Although it annoyed him a little, Marcus understood the clan leader's behavior. Clearly, she would show no respect for someone who had come to bother her so late at night and who was also just a wandering wizard much weaker than she was.
"Huff... There's nothing like this stuff to lift my spirits! Would you like a drink too?" Hadrif asked. Unlike the people in the VIP box Marcus met that night, there was not a hint of elegance or respect in her voice.
"I'm sorry but I don't drink. Besides I'm not sure it's a good idea to drink when we're about to do business."
"Hmph, how boring of you. I'll guess, you're one of those bitter people who are committed to their work and don't know when to relax. As for the drinking thing, don't worry about it, it takes more than this to cloud my judgment." Hadrif said as she took another drink from the cask.
'Did she just insult me...? 'F**k it, I better get this over with before the sun comes up... Shadow Hand.'
At that instant, a dark hand reached out from Marcus' shadow and stopped in the middle of the high table separating the two seats.
"I'm sorry to have disturbed you at this time of night. My name is Edevane and I came here on Hans' recommendation. He said you could do any equipment I requested."
Seeing her guest's greeting, Hadrif smiled and shook the dark hand. A few moments later the giant woman released some of her magical energy causing Marcus' spell to destabilize and forcibly cancel.
Hadrif leaned back in her seat and took another drink from the wine cask.
"All right, you have my attention. Now tell me, what was so important that you would bother me at this time of night."
****
"So let me get this straight, you want me to make you an armor that is resistant to fire, blunt force, doesn't affect your mobility, can resist decay from necrotic energy, plus you want a sword that you can imbue with magical reinforcement spells?"
Marcus and Hadrif had been chatting for several minutes and although the Asrakian drank about three casks of wine for the duration of the conversation, they had finally gotten to the main topic.
Although Marcus had great skill with magic, he was a Semi-lich Warrior so it would have been a waste if he didn't take advantage of his physical abilities and only focused on magic.
So by using special equipment Marcus would be able to reduce his weaknesses and increase his combat strength at the same time.
"Can you do it or not?" he asked.
"Who do you think I am, a fourth-rate blacksmith?! Of course, I can do it! It's just that what you're asking me to do is a bit unusual. I thought you were a wizard and not a warrior. Also, if I may ask.... why the resistance to necrotic energy?"
"I'm not exactly a warrior, but unlike other wizards, I have a bit of experience in weapon combat. As for necrotic energy, it's because I tend to encounter undead quite often in the ruins I explored."
In the days practicing his magic, Marcus had learned multiple spells with which he could infuse necrotic energy into his body to strengthen himself or his weapons so that his attacks would generate necrotic damage.
The only drawback was that exposing common equipment to concentrated necrotic energy caused it to deteriorate much faster than normal. The only way to solve this was for Marcus to obtain equipment that could resist his spells.
"Hmm... Very well, I will make your equipment. As it happens, I happen to have the materials needed to make it." Hadrif leaned forward and her face became serious. "But what I'm wondering is can you pay the price?"
"How many gold Raels is it going to cost me?" Marcus asked. Part of him didn't want to hear what the huge woman was about to say.
"Gold raels? HAHAHAHA... Oh, you wish. The price of the equipment is one hundred grade 1.5 Rehi crystals or sixty grade 2 Rehi crystals, and they have to be freshly extracted crystals."
"Sure, one hundred... WHAT?!!"
*scrunch*
Marcus was so shocked by the price of the equipment, that he had unintentionally applied force to the armrest of the armchair he was sitting on and ended up destroying them.
"Wow, you're pretty strong for just a wizard of the 2nd realm. But I'm going to charge you 80 silver Raels for breaking that armchair." Hadrif said nonchalantly as she took another swig of wine.
"I apologize for my behavior..... But a hundred freshly extracted grade 1.5 Rehi crystals?! What you're charging me is almost 3000 gold Raels!"
In Genaerrsis Rehi crystals were the basis of magical technology as they could collect and store magical energy from the environment. Their use ranged from energy sources for arrays and enchantments to the crafting of potions and magical artifacts.
These Rehi crystals were classified into grades according to the amount of energy they could store and the number of times they could be recharged before their life span was exhausted. While the lowest grade could be recharged only a couple of times, the highest grade could be recharged hundreds or thousands of times and could last for years.
Therefore, the newer a crystal was, the higher its value, but that was not all.
When a crystal was extracted, it still had a certain amount of residual magical energy stored from the monster in question. Such energy had an infinite number of uses, so even a freshly extracted 0.1 grade crystal was worth tens of silver Raels on the market.
Hadrif finished her fourth cask of wine, opened another one, and continued drinking. What was most impressive was that the woman wasn't even a little drunk.
"Gasp...And what did you expect... What you're asking me for is practically a High Tier enchanted artifact. A price like that is quite acceptable."
After hearing this, Marcus understood why the price and calmed down a bit.
In Genaerrsis artifacts with magical characteristics used to be divided into two types: Enchanted and magical items.
Enchanted items were objects to which one or multiple spells had been incorporated during their manufacture.
These spells could be activated by anyone and their effect was almost instantaneous, but they had a time limit, and once the spell was exhausted one would have to wait for it to recharge before using it again.
There were also cases such as spell scrolls which were of one-time use.
On the other hand, magical items were objects which were imbued with multiple magical abilities in their manufacture. The abilities of these items had no cooldown time and their effects were usually much better than enchanted items.
In addition, magical and enchanted items were categorized into 10 tiers according to their magical capabilities. These were: Inferior, Low, Medium, High, Royal, Imperial, Legendary, Mythic, Semi-divine and Divine.
But, since magical items were more powerful than enchanted items, even if both items had the same category, the magical item would be stronger by at least one tier.
'That means I would get an item with similar power to the staff of Bairus... Considering the circumstances, this is the best I can get for now.' Marcus thought.
After the fourth age, many production methods and magic items had been lost, which caused the level of manufactured magic artifacts to drop to such an extent that even a magic artifact of Royal-tier was considered a national treasure in some kingdoms.
Although Marcus had obtained many magical and enchanted items at the auction that night, they were all below medium tier. So this equipment would cause an incredible increase in his combat strength.
*Pack*
Marcus reached into his robe, opened his [inventory], pulled out a bag and threw it on the table. The bag was filled with grade 2 Rehi crystals from Arsenis ants and other jungle monsters.
"How much time do you need to finish the equipment?"
Hadrif saw the bag full of crystals, stopped drinking, and a smile formed on her face. For the first time since she started the conversation, the Giant Clan leader showed some interest in Marcus.
****
'Wow, no matter how many times I come to this place, this is still very surreal.'
Marcus was in a dark space that distorted, stretched, and contracted all at the same time and apart from the absolute darkness, there was nothing around him.
He walked around for several minutes trying not to get dizzy and lost by the strange composition of the space around him until finally, he managed to see something glowing in the darkness. As he got closer he saw the glow more clearly.
Several meters above his head were three rings of transparent energy set at different angles, surrounding three spheres each the size of a tennis ball. One was white, the other black and the last had a purple color, but this one radiated cold, sinister energy.
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