“Let me see if I’m hearing you correctly. You don’t want to pay me to do a job for you, you just want to pay for the use of my shop to do it yourself? Do you think I’m not good enough or something?” the blacksmith said.
Alix had already visited half a dozen others and had received similar replies from all of them. For some reason their default reaction was to take offense at his request.
“I never said I didn’t think you were good enough, it is just that I am the only one that can do the work. You are a member of the Blacksmithing Guild are you not? Then you should know fine well about guild secrets. Just think of this as one of my personal guild secrets.”
“And you won’t let me oversee you to make sure you don’t make a mess of my workshop? Or run off with all my tools when my backs turned?”
“That’s correct,” Alix wearily replied, walking through the script he had gone through at every previous blacksmiths.
Just hurry up and tell me you are a moron so I can be done for the night and go for a drink, Alix moaned to himself.
“You’re having a laugh kid. No blacksmith worth a damn would trust his workshop and tools to a stranger, especially one outside of the Guild.”
“Did you not hear me when I said I could pay you whatever you ask?”
The blacksmith turned and went back to his work without a reply. Alix groaned in frustration and headed back out onto the streets.
“Why don’t you just make the sword yourself? From everything the ring has told me, you should have more than enough skills.” Pinum asked as Alix stood there wondering what he was going to do. He really didn’t want to have to travel all the way back to the keep to forge the sword but he was beginning to think that would be his only choice, unless he wanted to outright buy a whole blacksmiths forge.
“What do you mean, from what the ring has told you?”
“I get bored when you don’t talk to me so I started talking to the ring. He is very interesting. I’ve never seen that kind of metal before. You have the Blacksmithing Skill yourself and all the materials you need so why can’t you just craft the sword yourself, or whatever it was called.”
“I have the Skill, and the materials, but I don’t have the recipe. Or in this case is it a blueprint? Whatever. I know what I’m trying to make, but I don’t know how it was made. The Sword of Selene is a Spellblade but I don’t know what spells it is imbued with.”
“Really? Couldn’t you just read the glyphs?”
“You mean like spell forms? I couldn’t see anything like that on the blade.”
“I guess if they are high level glyphs then they might not be visible to you.”
Is that right? Alix asked the ring.
If there are glyphs on the blade then it is possible that a more advanced Analysis Skill could uncover them.
Why the hell do you keep these things from me? Alix screamed internally but there was no reply.
“I could have a look for you. Can you show me the sword?”
“I guess the Cathedral is on the way back, but we will have to be careful. It’s not exactly the safest place for me to be.”
I promise I’ll behave, Pinum replied, switching to internal communication.
Somehow I’m not filled with confidence.
Alix’s anxiety built as he climbed up the rings. Even the sight of the cathedral was enough to fill him with a dread that arms were about to shoot out of every patch of shadow and bind him in chains. There was an evil there that no one else seemed to be able to sense.
The Grand Cathedral was filled with a reverent calm when he entered, evening service having ended. Countless candles filled thousand tiered racks around the room, but despite the sea of flames there was still a chill in the vast nave. Alix quickly crossed the room before any of the robed Priests of Babyl could stop him and inquire if he needed any assistance. The Chamber of the Sword was open to everyone so he just acted like he belonged.
Well, do you see anything? Alix asked once he was back in front of the Sword of Selene.
Of course, I’m surprised you cannot with all of the rings claims of your prowess.
How is it that a slime can read spell forms and glyphs?
I’m not just a slime, Pinum replied in a low voice, clearly offended by his choice of words. I am a Divine Slime, a Metal Divine Slime. I can read the glyphs, but I don’t understand them. Interesting, it looks like one of them is damaged. I’ve seen enough to recreate them later, we can go now.
Pinum brooded in silence until they were safely back in his room. Once there she slid off his arm and coalesced back into her disturbingly curvaceous form. He would have to find some way to clothe her if she was going to be staying with him for the foreseeable future. He still didn’t know what he was going to do with her, but if this worked he vowed to treat her better. It wouldn’t be fair to have her confined to the bracer forever. Maybe he could think of an illusion spell or something to change her appearance. He hadn’t seen any other slimes around the city but he didn’t think her appearance would be so simply accepted.
“Alright, can you-“ Alix began to ask Pinum if she could draw the glyphs she had seen but instead she thrust out her arm, which shimmered and flowed into a replica of Selene’s blade, but this time the blade’s surface was covered in unmistakable spell forms. He quickly pulled out a pencil and some paper and began to draw the glyphs. All the while Pinum pouted. Once he was done drawing, she followed him to the bed and sat uncomfortably close to watch him work.
Alix analysed the spell forms and using his knowledge from Spellgenesis reverse engineered their meanings and purpose. The damaged glyph looked more like someone had tried to erase it. Had it been Selene herself trying to stop anyone from using her sword? Once he figured out what the original spell had been, he burst out laughing.
Pinum jumped back at the sudden outburst. “What’s wrong?” she asked, breaking her silence.
“With her powers, Selene could have done anything and yet she chose to create this.”
[Crafting Recipe Unlocked – Sword of Selene]
“I admit I’m surprised to see all of you here,” Sylvin Gyle said once they were all assembled again in the classroom once the two weeks were up. “This assignment usually causes a few to crack but I see we have a confident bunch this year.” He couldn’t have said it with a more condescending tone of voice if he had tried.
The rings of seats were filled with nervous faces. Some of the students looked like they were going to throw up at any minute. Alix could almost smell the anxiety wafting through the chamber. Amongst it all he was a pillar of calm. His confrontation with Gyle was close. It was a moment he had been dreaming of for days, imagining what the look in the smug bastards eyes would be.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Let’s get this over with then, shall we? Baxter, you look like you are closest to defiling my classroom so why don’t you go first so you can be excused. If I see any of you trying to change your answers after hearing what others have said I will automatically place you last.” Gyle took a seat at his desk and stared emotionlessly as a trembling boy walked down to take his place at the podium.
Baxter took a deep breath and began, reading from his prepared speech. All of the students had their papers in front of them ready to present. Alix was the only one with a conspicuously empty desk, something Gyle had instantly noticed, and grinned as if to say ‘I knew you were full of shit’.
Baxter’s proposed theory on ‘killing the liquid silver’ amounted to a form of distillation, to mix the Quicksilver with a highly unstable material named Teinemite and contain the resulting reaction so as to collect the released vapours. These would then be condensed into a theoretical new material which-
“I’m going to stop you there,” Gyle interrupted. “An interesting premise, but ultimately a fruitless endeavour. I haven’t heard of Teinemite being used in the process before, but attempting to vaporise the liquid silver, in an attempt to separate any solid from liquid, has already been tried and every experiment has been a failure. You cannot separate the liquid from the silver, as the liquid is the silver. In the process the Quicksilver is destroyed. I will award you points for the imaginative theory, as many Alchemists still believe the splitting of the liquid silver is possible, but next time I recommend doing more research to see what has already been done. Next.”
Baxter took his papers with shaking hands and returned to his seat, slumping on his desk in a sweaty mess.
One after the other each student was called up to give their own theories. Alix was impressed at the wide variety of ideas the students presented, with only several appearing to have come to similar conclusions, awkwardly trying to come up with something slightly different enough on the spot.
Genevieve Charmain was the next student to stand and give her presentation. She was one of the rare few that looked confident and she spoke her theory calmly and clearly. She was one of the last few left to speak, and Alix was only half listening, until he heard something that caused his heart to skip a beat.
“The mold would then be surrounded by a sarcophagus of sorts made of Frostite. Frostite is known to keep its low temperature for centuries, and it is possible this attribute could be passed on via osmosis to the prepared liquid silver in the mold.”
“Frostite?” Gyle smirked.
Genevieve grimaced at the interruption. She quickly reformed her smile before turning to face Gyle.
“Yes, if liquid silver cant be forged traditionally then I thought it might be possible to freeze it into shape.”
“If your theory is correct then the sword would likely have melted by now.”
“It is possible the spells of protection cast over the sword and its chamber are prolonging the effects. I have accounted for that in my paper.”
“Is that so? Well, it is an interesting theory but I think it’s one we can disregard. The sword gives off no discernible heat or cold. Did you also mention how you would harvest and work the Frostite into a casing for the mold? If you aren’t careful, a single touch of it could cause instant and permanent frostbite.”
“No, I hadn’t thought of that yet.”
“Until you have an answer for that your theory is inviable, but so far it is better than most of the drivel that’s been presented today.”
Genevieve went back to her seat, a conflicting look on her face, a mix of fury and relief.
Gyle wrote down a few notes on the paper in front of him and then called on the next student.
Alix listened with rapt attention to the next few presentations, but nothing else came close to impressing Gyle.
Finally there were no more names left to call, other than Alix’s.
“Mr Marshall. I can’t help but notice you have no paper ready too present. Is your theory so short and uninspired that you have no need for notes? Or, like I suspected, were you unable to come up with anything at all?”
Alix stood and picked up a long object from where it was lying beside his desk. It was wrapped in a white sheet of silk, tied with a golden cord. He stepped down towards the podium, but stepped past it to Gyle’s desk and laid the object down in front of the professor.
“What’s this? A bribe? I expected nothing from you Mr Marshall and still you disappoint.”
Alix calmly untied the golden cord, unwrapped the white silk sheet, and exposed the scabbarded sword that lay within.
There were gasps of surprise from the seats behind him, but Sylvin Gyle was silent. Alix watched him hard, watched that smug smile twitch off his face, watched the condescending spark in his eyes fade into stunned wonder. The change was annoyingly brief. After only a few short seconds his looked once again unimpressed.
“I asked for a theory on the method for killing liquid silver, Mr Marshall, not for you to pay someone to create this prop for you.”
“Incorrect, Professor Gyle. You asked for a theory on the method for killing liquid silver, or another plausible method for creating Selenite. I’m afraid I have to admit I cannot present you with the method for creating Selenite,” Alix replied, lifting the sword and drawing the blade from its scabbard. Creating the sword had been easy, but replicating the scabbard had been another story. It had taken several more trips to the chamber in the cathedral to study the scabbard, and a not insubstantial amount of gold to commission an accurate remake. Once the blade was free he placed it back down on the desk so that Gyle could get a good look at it. “This isn’t a prop. It is real Selenite. More than that, it is a perfect copy of the Sword of Selene, but like I said, I cannot tell you how I made it.”
“If you cannot prove your claims then how do you expect me to grade your work?” Gyle said, his voice wavering as he studied the blade, finally recognising the work as something better than a mere cheap copy, something he had likely seen countless times before.
The students whispered to each other, with confusion, reverence, anger. Alix could hear some of them crying quietly.
“What is it that the Sword of Selene is supposed to do?” Alix asked loudly and all the whispering suddenly stopped.
Gyle was silent for a moment, staring out expectantly at the students that had eyes only for the blade. They all looked like they wanted to rush the stage and grab it.
“No one? How disappointing. No one knows what the Sword of Selene is supposed to do. The only reference to its powers is Selene referring to the sword as her Magnum Opus. Debate as to what that means is as fierce as how she created the sword in the first place, although it looks like you think you have the answer to both of those questions. Why don’t you enlighten me?”
Alix turned to the crowd. “Does anyone here have any skill with magic?”
Only one raised their hand, the girl Gyle had been so hard on before. “I can cast a little magic,” Beth said.
“Not enough to be accepted into the Magician’s Guild though, isn’t that right? Surely someone like her isn’t strong enough to wield the blade of a Solknight?” Gyle asked after his cutting remark.
“The sword can be used by anyone with the ability to use magic. That’s all that is required to activate the spell.”
“And what spell would that be?”
“I’m afraid that wasn’t part of the assignment. Just watch and see for yourself. Beth? Can you come down here and give me a hand.”
Beth rose from her seat and walked down to stand beside Alix in front of Gyle’s desk, wringing her hands until the moment Alix thrust the sword into them.
“W-w-what am I supposed to do?”
“Just channel into the sword, and then hit something with it.”
Beth looked terrified under Gyle’s piercing gaze, but she did as Alix told her and fed a small amount of magic into the blade. None of them could see it but Alix felt the swords spell activate. He could tell Beth felt it as well. She laughed to herself a little, before looking around for something to hit. There wasn’t many options so she turned to Gyle’s desk.
With a loud donk Beth tapped the sword on the desk’s rich mahogany surface.
In a blink it became solid gold.
The room behind Alix erupted. He calmly took the sword from Beth’s shaking hands and returned it to the scabbard.
With the power of a god at her fingertips, all Selene had been interested in was creating what had been an impossibility for her before, but she had taken her obsession further. Instead of finding out how to turn base metals into gold, she had created a spell that would turn anything into gold. Alix was sure there was probably an easier way to create such a spell in Babyl but he had to admit the sword was an incredible creation, if overly convoluted. The touch of gold was the catalyst the spell needed to determine what it was transmuting materials into. He hadn’t expected Beth to turn the entire desk into gold though, only a sheet of paper on the surface, or a quill or some other small object.
Alix suddenly realised that word of what had just happened would likely spread all over Galdea by nightfall, but that was Gyle’s problem now. Alix had no need to return to the class after today and the person they all knew him as didn’t really exist.
Alix leaned over the golden desk.
“You will listen to my request now, and you will help me,” Alix whispered just loud enough for Gyle to hear over the manic chattering.
“Of course,” Gyle replied, eyes only for the fortune in gold in front of him, and the sword that kingdoms would go to war over.
