The Newt and Demon-7.73 - Enchant Weapons

A field of darkness flowed from Theo’s feet, spreading out over the arena as the spell fulminated. Mass Bind rolled over hundreds of the small creatures, shadows latching onto their legs and holding them firmly in place. Elrin was already dashing between them, sweeping his halberd in a wide arc. Yet despite the power he put behind each hit, he couldn’t take them down in a single strike. His weapon bounced off their hard shells, sparks intermingling with the paper-like material to fill the air with a strange burning scent.

“Hold on, let me craft a spell,” Theo said, closing his eyes and digging through his memory. He discarded properties from reagents related to poison, since those didn’t affect the beasts. For a moment, he considered using Dragon’s Dance, but it was incompatible with his method of creating spells.

Instead, the alchemist modified the spell to affect allies. He pulled from the Spiked Conch Shell, drawing on both the Poke and Sharpen properties. Although those properties fought him at first, he soon felt it flutter through his chest. The pieces locked together and he cast it, draining most of his mana away in an instant. He delayed reading the system message, chugging a mana potion first.

[Enchant Weapons successful]

3 targets affected.

“There we go!” Elrin shouted, bringing the edge of his halberd down on the body of one monster. Although it didn’t go all the way through, it did peel away the first few layers. “More of that, please!”

Theo smiled to himself, navigating through his screens to find the spell’s description.

[Enchant Weapons]

[Advanced Mass Tero’gal Spell]

Creates a field of magic that enhances the power of friendly targets’ weapons.

Derived Properties:

Poke, Sharpen

He read it a few times. Was this the first true mass-style spell he had created with Tero’gal’s magic? It was a combination of Toru’auni principles mixed with the developing magic his own realm was creating. The result was a spell that pulled from alchemical properties, infusing them into spellwork to create something novel. One thing was certain. The effect, Poke and Sharpen, weren’t as effective as their potion version. Elrin might’ve split the monsters in half with a single stroke if he had used the potion.

With a few hundred monsters barreling down on them, the alchemist saw no better time to practice with this new magic. Theo pulled a simple spell together, focusing on the Dissolve property from the Living River Water. He sucked in a deep breath and threw his arms wide, sending the shadowy spell forth. It latched onto each monster, causing a ripple of water to flow across each creature.

[Mass Dissolve Armor]

238 targets affected.

28 targets resisted.

“They’re getting even easier to kill!” Elrin shouted with delight. “What did you do?”

“Weakening their armor,” Theo shot back. “And sharpening your weapon.”

Once again, the Dissolve effect wasn’t as powerful as it could be, and it was functioning differently from the potion version. But this was enough for Elrin to make a dent in the many monsters scattering around the area. He darted between them, having a much easier time whittling the monsters down.

Theo was chugging Mana Potions to reapply his buffs and debuffs during the fight. The monsters kept coming for a while until another light appeared in the center of the room. Elrin and Trevor knew what to do with that, dragging monsters with corresponding colors along to the center, where they soaked in. Before long, even that light in the room’s center was whittled down until it glowed bright white, flooding the area with a blinding shine.

“This next part is complicated,” Elrin said, blowing the whistle around his neck.

Theo shielded his eyes as the arena filled with a blistering wind. Trevor, in his dragon form, beat his wings. His form barely fit in the area, straining not to press against the walls. Cracks formed in the paper-like material, although the alchemist wasn’t certain it was from the dragon or the deterioration of the dungeon.

“Hop on,” Elrin said, jerking his head toward the dragon.

Theo blinked a few times, taking stock of the massive creature. It was the same kind of dragon as Pogo, having four legs, a long tail, a slender neck, and a pair of wings. Trevor snorted, producing a wave of heat that came with a shimmering cloud of magic. When Elrin clapped his hand, it snapped the alchemist out of his thoughts, and he climbed the side of the beast to find a perch behind his shoulder blades.

“You’ll want to hold on tightly,” Elrin said.

A moment later, Theo’s stomach dropped. Trevor pushed off with enough force to shatter the ground beneath them. The arena’s walls came next, crumbling after the dragon burst through the side. They were soaring through nothingness moments later, what little of the dungeon remained vanishing like shreds of paper being blown by a stiff gust.

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“You can see why these dungeons weren’t ideal for our adventurers,” Elrin said. “Sometimes the dungeon core doesn’t appear. The dungeon simply vanishes, consuming everything inside.”

“Not that I’m an expert on dungeons,” Theo said. “But that seems to run against the designs of the system.”

“Yet here we are.”

Theo’s point was that his core should’ve said something about it, right? Perhaps this was something Tresk was better suited to take care of. The Dreamer was the hand of the Herald, and the one in charge of ensuring the operation of the mortal plane. Although the dungeon was on the void island, it followed mortal rules… Mostly. That was because it was a chunk of the mortal world sent adrift in the void, which made it a confusing mix of worldly and otherworldly rules the alchemist wasn’t sure he truly understood.

Trevor banked to one side, then the other. Before them hovered a massive portal—large enough to accommodate the dragon. He barreled into it, forcing Theo to close his eyes as they soared through. The next time he opened his eyes, they were gliding over the void island, the jungle landscape below whipping by. He barely caught sight of the crumbling dungeon as they banked, landing back near the ziggurats.

“Well, that was something,” Theo said, realizing his iron grip on Elrin’s cloak. “More dangerous than advertised, I think.”

“They get much worse than that,” Elrin said, dismounting off the side. Theo joined him, and a moment later he blew that whistle again. Trevor turned back to his tiger form and yawned, stretching and kneading the ground a few times. “Anyway, how about we get that shard?”

Theo scoffed as he followed behind Elrin. “You’re acting like this is business as usual.”

“Because it is,” Elrin said. “I might’ve been locked away for however many years, but this was what I did. Clear a dungeon, crafting in town, coffee at my favorite cafe in Vesta.”

“What a charmed life.”

They found the shard in question. Elrin claimed it sometimes mattered which shard he moved where, but Theo couldn’t feel the difference between them.

Elrin approached the shard, placing his hands on the surface and closing his eyes. He cracked one eye open, looking back at the alchemist. “This will just take a few minutes.”

Elrin then vanished, leaving Theo standing there awkwardly. He narrowed his gaze at the shard’s surface, thinking he saw some difference in the material. Energy swirled from within, although he couldn’t tell the flavor of it. Perhaps it was magic related to the shards themselves. It took a good half-hour, but eventually the man himself returned looking slightly worn.

“What a pain,” Elrin grumbled, tapping a finger into the shard. It righted itself, hovering a half-foot above the ground and rotating. “I swear the Shard Network grows less cooperative by the day.”

“Is it any worse than the system?” Theo asked with a smile.

“Somehow worse. I had to deal with the system back in the day, and it usually cooperated. The Shard Network pushes back against most things. She is very willful. Anyway, drop us into the void. I’ll give you basic directions… if I can find the damn island.”

Theo shrugged, surrounding them with his aura. Elrin had taken care of the beacon and tracker part of the problem already, making it easy enough to follow the subtle directions. The alchemist got the impression of the location and became slightly confused. Something about the elevation of the place threw him off, but the beacon did its job. When his aura’s bubble pressed against the mortal world, it bent. A moment later, the pair were standing on weathered stone blocks, sparse trees scattered here and there.

“Where is this?” Theo asked.

“Somewhere off the coast of… the elf place. What’s it called?”

“Tarantham,” Theo said.

“That’s right. South of modern-day Tarantham City. We’re on a floating island,” Elrin said, jerking his head to the side. “We’ll plant the shard over there.”

Theo nodded as he followed along. There were stranger things he had heard during his time in this world. A floating island near the elven capital was normal as far as he was concerned. The only thing that stuck out to him was that he hadn’t heard of it before. He would save those questions for later, reserving them as they planted the shard.

Just like when they placed the shard on the farmer’s mound in, a tower sprung up around it. Stretching high into the sky, it created a shadow that spanned far into the distance. Theo took a step back to appreciate Elrin’s good work, instead finding himself distracted by the strange landscape. It truly appeared as though someone had abandoned this place. And when a monster appeared in the distance, the alchemist cocked his head to the side in complete confusion.

“What the hell is that?” Theo asked, gesturing toward the monster.

The creature seemed to be made of dull red ceramic. It lumbered along, shifting from one foot to the other without moving at any joints. Elrin laughed, clapping Theo on the back.

“More questions I could never answer,” Elrin said. “I’m surprised this island survived the change, but it moves sometimes. We’re high enough to go unnoticed by most, and it has a way of blending in with the clouds. Those monsters are strange remnants from something I never understood. But they were a good source of experience back in the day… Even if they were a pain to kill.”

“I think they’re alchemically reactive,” Theo said, licking his lips. “Mind killing a few?”

Elrin laughed, shaking his head as he readied his halberd.

With little effort, Elrin added some pottery shards to Theo’s stock of new reagents to check out. The small paper fragments from the dungeon still appeared as nothing in his inventory. Those small chunks of paper still showed nothing when he focused on them. The shards held a description that required a loremaster to reveal. With that in mind, he waited to reveal the properties until he got back to town. There were enough weird things going on to distract him for now.

Once he was done being distracted by the new reagents, Theo turned his attention back to the island. “So this place existed in your time?” he asked.

“That’s right,” Elrin said. “First time I saw it, a dragon was hanging around. I stayed away until the dragon left.”

“Now you have a dragon of your own,” Theo said. “Comes full circle, huh?”

Elrin scratched his head, shrugging. “Guess so. There’s no way I could’ve tamed one back then.”

“Guess we should get back,” Theo said. “I was kinda doing something back in Broken Tusk.”

“Right,” Elrin said, casting his eyes back to the tower. “Yet the shards are likely more important than what you were working on.”

Theo actually agreed with that. Siphoning foreign energy from the mortal world was important. It fell under Tresk and Fenian’s domain, but the alchemist was happy to lend a hand. Without prompting, he dropped them into the void.

“Next stop: Broken Tusk.”