B5 C35: Eternal Blizzard

With Cal back and Verin able to use her mana again, there was a sizable part of me that was itching to set off and start clearing regions ag

With Cal back and Verin able to use her mana again, there was a sizable part of me that was itching to set off and start clearing regions again. Unfortunately, three things kept us from venturing off immediately.

Firstly, Cal was due a break. Even counting our debacle in the spatial region, none of us had ever been away from the prairie for so long, and she wasn’t keen on turning around and doing it all again. That was doubly true considering she hadn’t eaten or enjoyed any creature comforts in all those months, and if half of what she told us about her journey was true, she more than deserved some time off.

Of course, even if she did want to keep fighting, we wouldn’t have let her. Secondly, there was the matter of all the damage she’d received. Perhaps if she hadn’t pissed Sett off so much, he would have healed her, but as it stood, we’d need to wait until next month to get Arbor to restore her missing fingers.

Unlike the first two reasons, the third had to do with Verin. No longer confined inside, the noble spent much of her time in the original outdoor garden or even walking all the way to the forest. Nearly all of her autonomy and combat potential had been restored, with only one singular snag.

While the Mammoth Yeti Core did its job, it was undeniably unwieldy. That was even more true for the block of Eternal Ice Cal had brought back. I’d managed to hastily wrap it up with some metal wire, fashioning it into a slapdash pendant, but it was clear that couldn’t be our long-term solution. 

If the core wasn’t snug and tight against her skin, then any jerky movements would cause it to temporarily jump away, severing the connection. If we did fasten it down, then the relatively large sphere dug uncomfortably into her chest, a constant source of discomfort. Plus, a thin necklace was hardly the most secure accessory. None of us wanted a necklace breaking during a fight.

No, for all that her original ring hadn’t survived the flame quill that had taken her hand, the ring truly had been ideal for her.

Anticipating that this might be an issue, I’d made sure to bug Sett with a few questions before he’d gone back to sleep, mostly about the nature of the enchantments he’d applied. Thankfully, it turned out that whatever method he’d used was different from the enchantment matrices I’d been learning. Cutting up or otherwise carving the materials wouldn’t remove the enchantments, which meant I was free to do with them as I pleased.

Right after Verin had lost her hand, the first ring I’d made for her hadn’t really panned out. Months later, with plenty of new levels in Smithing and Jewelry Making, perhaps I could change that. 

But first, it was time to make a brief trip to pick up some new materials for myself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Standing at the bottom of a deep pit, I conjured a ball of water over my head, letting it drop down to wash away all the dirt and dust that clung to me. After numerous shifts in the past months, I was finally ready to clear the last of the rubble out from the Ore Muncher’s chamber. The space, once filled with literal tons of caved-in rock, now sported only a scattered handful.

Pulling the largest of the offending rocks into my storage, I grinned as I was greeted with something besides the endless gray monotony I’d been faced with thus far.

“Gotcha.” An unblemished surface of blueish-green metal awaited below, signaling that I’d finally reached the boss’s rocky corpse.

I cleared away the surrounding space a bit more just to give myself some solid footing, but seeing no reason to clean the entire room, I summoned my pickaxe and got to work.

Friction Foot and Heavy Step ensured that I wouldn’t budge from my spot. Miner’s Mitts encased my hands, raising my Mining skill. Arcane Armament quickly went to work, channeling mana into my weapon. When it was brimming with power, I then slammed it down, putting every point of my Strength to good use.

Down the pick fell, slamming into the metal.

CLANG.

Up the pick rose, revealing an infinitesimal divot, likely invisible without heightened Perception.

“Right. Damn.” Logically, I’d known that the metal was hard. I’d only stood a chance in the first place by turning the entire pit into a furnace. Still, I’d kind of just assumed I’d be able to brute force it now that there wasn’t a boss trying to punch me. 

I tried a few more times to similar results before admitting my defeat. Maybe if I found a smaller piece, I could just take it as is? Barring that, I could try to melt some of it down. Either way, I could stand to see what I was working with a bit better, so I spent some time clearing out the last of the rubble.

And to my great shock, I did discover something. Just not what I’d been expecting.

The boss was there as I’d left it. Without its magic to maintain its form, bits of its metal had started to leach back into the surrounding cave, though at a far slower rate than I was used to from the munchlings. Its bulky, club-like fists lay sprawled before it, and between them, there was one final stone that looked decidedly out of place.

Namely, because it was shaped exactly like a chest.

“Huh. I never really considered if there was loot for this region.” If anything, I’d figured the resource room was already fairly generous, especially when coupled with the boss’s presumably valuable corpse. Evidently, there had still been more waiting for me.

Prying the chest open, I found only a single object waiting for me inside. As luck would have it, though, it was exactly what I needed.

Ore Muncher’s Pick

When I first attempted to remove it from the chest, it resisted my pull, far, far heavier than I’d imagined. Even a few levels ago, I wasn’t sure I could have managed it. Eschewing the standard wood, the pick’s shaft was a gleaming silvery gray, perhaps either tungsten or titanium. The pick head itself was the same blueish-green as the boss, and I could only imagine its durability was likewise through the roof.

If that wasn’t enough, the set of bonuses on the tool were even more impressive.

+1 Strength

+1 Endurance

+5 to Mining

Stat bonuses are tripled while mining.

Amplifies all force used while mining.

With a thought, the entire pick disappeared, now resting comfortably within one of my Bind Weapon slots. A moment later, I braced myself and summoned it to my hands. Repeating my earlier actions, I revved up to smash into the boss’s metallic body. This time the results were much more satisfying as the dense pick head carved through the metal.

Note! The substance you are mining is beyond your level. Metal yield and quality drastically reduced.

Augment of the Ambitious has kicked in, reducing these penalties.

The going was still slow, and it took me a few sessions to get any reasonable amount of metal to work with. I also strayed from the boss, finding a few ore deposits in the walls sporting many of the metals that went into the boss’s strange alloy. Of particular value, I grabbed a solid supply of adamantine, too. 

And perhaps all that hard labor was for the best. A week later, a much-desired notification popped up.

Mining has reached level 20!

Congratulations! You have reached the Apprentice rank in Mining!

Based on your actions, you have been granted a new skill augment for achieving a new skill rank.

Dungeoneer Augment

+5 to Mining while inside a dungeon

Increases the quality of all ore, metal, and stone you mine within dungeons, adding additional bonuses to the quality of items produced from them.

Along with the usual message about Mining not being class-aligned, I even got some progress on one of my class trial quests, too.

Gloves of the Arcanist Trial Quest Updated

Reach the Apprentice rank in at least three professions - 2/3

In a way, though, wrapping up my mining was bittersweet. While I had all the materials I could ask for, now came the hard part. Bidding the dusty cave goodbye, I returned to my forge, ready to make the best ring I possibly could.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first time I’d tried to make a ring for Verin, I hadn’t been particularly imaginative with the metals I used. After all, I was trying to replace her old ring, and her old ring had been made of mithril. Why bother with anything else?

Worse yet, both Jewelry Making and Smithing had been stuck at the Novice rank back then, making any higher level experimentation feel ill advised. With a bit more experience and a few more levels under my belt, I was ready to up my game, though. 

And so, the first step: taking stock of what I had to work with.

Many of my metals were long familiar by now: copper, tin, iron, tungsten, a handful of precious metals from the resource room, and of course, mithril. As for the newcomers, there were five. From the deposits in the boss room, there was adamantine, a durable green metal that was supposed to be loosely on par with mithril in terms of rarity. 

Three more came from other regions. I’d mined a fair deal of black ore from the caches in the darkness labyrinth, and Tal’Ket had included some whitish green metal in our final rewards after clearing the sky region. To a lesser extent, I’d mined a small supply of reddish ore from the hidden alcoves in the fire region, as well. I’d had little luck identifying any of them at the time, but whether it was from my heightened Smithing, Mining, or God’s Eye levels -- or some combination thereof -- it looked like I could finally get some basic information back.

The elemental trio was fairly straightforward.

Obsinite

Sky Steel

Incidium

I wasn’t entirely sure how useful any of them would be for Verin’s ring, but I still had a few weeks before Arbor would be up to heal Cal, so I had plenty of time to play around. As for my newest metal, I had even less details to work with.

Advanced Alloy

A nameless alloy, stabilized by the powerful magics of an Ore Muncher over the course of centuries. While its properties are unknown, the Ore Muncher instinctually combines its constituent metals in the most advantageous way, resulting in a substance that is more than the sum of its parts.

Luckily, even if I didn’t know much about the alloy, it was already fully metallic, saving me the step of having to refine any ore. That sadly did not hold true for the other three, and my first day at the forge was spent undergoing the painstaking process of transforming raw ore into pure ingots. Under the brutal heat of the Forge Heart, the obsinite and sky steel easily submitted to my will. Perhaps as to be expected, the incidium was a bit less cooperative. Protected with a layer of frost armor and my Forge Fingers, however, I barely managed to flare the heart to the temperatures necessary to melt it.

From there, the actual ring smithing. At the temperatures involved, any mold I made would crack under the heat, which left to lean into Forge Fingers as much as possible, sculpting the molten metal like clay, Rarely, for the harder metals, I’d have to transfer them to my anvil and pound away at them to beat them into shape, but with my Perception and Dexterity, I much preferred to rely on my fingers whenever possible.

As a final step, I imbued the simple bands with my mana. I’d long ago confirmed that mithril could accept some mana if I sent out a few tendrils into the metal with External Intrinsic Mana Manipulation, though it remained to be seen if the same would hold true for other metals.

Unsurprisingly, the elemental metals greedily sucked up their corresponding mana types. To a lesser extent, they could handle a bit of the others as long as the supplied mana type wasn’t diametrically opposed to them, but when I tried shoving some light mana into the dark metal, it rebuffed me entirely. Perhaps if I had better mana control, I could have fought past the resistance, but I wasn’t sure I’d have gotten anything worthwhile from doing so, either.

Adamantium was almost as bad in this regard, and getting it to accept even a single point of any type of mana was an intense struggle. As the advanced alloy had a similar greenish hue, I’d half expected it to react the same way, but evidently, the bit about being “greater than the sum of its parts” held true. If anything, it tore the mana from me with an even greater fervor than standard mithril did.

Theoretically, that should have been enough testing to make Verin’s ring, but a part of me wondered if I could do better with different alloys. Not that I actually expected Verin to take another devastating flame attack to the hand again, but if she did, it would be nice if the ring survived this time. Was it possible to use the barest bits of incidium to grant the ring some heat resistance without compromising its compatibility with frost mana? 

I wasn’t sure, but all I could do was try.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Smithing has reached level 14!

Jewelry Making has reached level 13!

External Intrinsic Mana Manipulation has reached level 13!

Heat Resistance has reached level 14!

A week later, I had a number of solid prototypes. Keeping it simple for now, I’d forged each of the metals into solid bands, leaving only a small hole for a gemstone to sit, going all the way through the ring to constantly make contact with the wearer’s skin. Not wanting to use any of the frost treasures yet, I’d been making do with standard precious gems instead.

And if nothing life-changing, the results were pretty good!

Mana-imbued Mithril Band

+1 Wisdom

+1 Intelligence

+2 to Frost Magic (up to Apprentice rank)

In addition to looking a bit cleaner than my attempts a few months prior, the new mithril ring had an extra level of Frost Magic tacked on, too. It wasn’t anything super drastic, but it was a sign of steady progress.

Mana-imbued Sky Steel Band

+2 Dexterity

+1 to Frost Magic (up to Apprentice rank)

Mana-imbued Obsinite Band

+1 Dexterity

+1 Perception

+1 to Frost Magic (up to Apprentice rank)

Adamantium Band

+2 Constitution

+1 Endurance

Mana-imbued Advanced Alloy Band

+1 Wisdom

+1 Intelligence

+1 Constitution 

+2 to Frost Magic (up to Apprentice rank)

With the goal being strictly to make a ring for Verin, I hadn’t bothered using anything but frost mana. As observed earlier, the sky steel and obsinite accepted the mana, but not nearly as well as their own mana types, and the bonus to frost magic suffered as a result. Still, that was better than the adamantium band which wasn’t even marked as “mana-imbued.”

I hadn’t bothered with a pure incidium ring, but I’d been able to mix the tiniest bit of it into the advanced alloy, giving it a brownish purple tint. It was far worse in terms of durability and mana storage, but much as hoped, it raised the melting point of the metal to a truly obscene point.

Mana-imbued Incidium Advanced Alloy Band

+1 Wisdom

+1 Intelligence

+1 to Frost Magic (up to Apprentice rank)

+1 to Heat Resistance (up to Initiate rank)

Ultimately, it probably wasn’t worth the tradeoff, but it was an interesting result nonetheless.

Honestly, I had the feeling I was just scratching the surface of all the materials, and with another few months, I felt that I could tease out far more secrets. None of my rings, for instance, had come with any actual secondary effects besides raw stats and levels, and with some work, I thought I could get them there.

Still, that was for much later. Knowing what I now knew, there were really only two more things to take care of. Firstly, I wanted to do better than a basic solid band if I could help it. Only then would I feel comfortable taking the second step, which was to carve up the ice treasures.

With Arbor’s month of slumber rapidly coming to an end, I threw myself back into my work with a vengeance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Countless attempts later, I was as ready as I would ever be. Another week of trial and error had helped me to settle on a design, and without months to slowly level up my skills, I was as good as I was going to get.

To that end, it was finally time to bust out the treasures. Much as advertised, cutting into them didn’t remove their mana conversion enchantments, so the first thing I did was chop up the Eternal Ice into cubes. A few were stored away, and a few more were given to Verin, ensuring that no matter how badly I screwed up, she’d still be fine.

The band came first. With all of its advantageous properties, the advanced alloy was the best metal to act as the core of the ring. While not quite on the same level as the incidium, it was still monstrously hard to melt or manipulate. My core groaned as I overcharged my frost armor, kept Forge Fingers active, continuously cast my bellows spell, and pushed frost mana into the molten metal, and I thanked both the archmage and the grand magus for all the mana manipulation exercises they’d given me.

From there, it was time to make room for the treasures. Rather than relying purely on my class skills, I’d first forged an adamantium needle, tweaking it a few times until my class accepted it as a weapon. While the metal seemed strangely resistant to magic, my class skills seemed to bypass some of that resistance, letting me charge it up with Arcane Armament and Overcharge Weapon. When fully charged, it was likely the toughest material I’d ever come across, letting me cut into even the advanced alloy with ease.

Around the ring’s perimeter, I carved out a series of holes. Most were tiny squares, while four were slightly more complex hexagons. In each square hole, I slotted in a small cube of Eternal Ice, whereas the hexagonal holes received a slightly more impressive, multifaceted gem of the yeti core.

For now, all that held the treasures in place was a bit of glue, but that would change shortly. Not satisfied with a simple design using only a single metal, I decided to go one step further. While I’d initially tried to use every type of metal at my disposal, I hadn’t been able to make them all play nicely, partly from a system bonus perspective, but more so from an aesthetic sense. The many colors clashed until whatever I was working on looked like a piece of prop jewelry.

So, this time I only heated up two metals: mithril and sky steel. Funneling as much frost mana into them as they would accept, I simultaneously rolled them between my fingers, thinning them out. Once I had a fine, molten wire, I began carefully wrapping it around the band around each gem. Pinching and pulling at the wire, I did my best to coax it into the rough form of a snowflake. Each gem received a flake, either in mithril or sky steel, simultaneously acting as detailwork and a clasp to keep the gems in place.

And then, it was done. As a final step, I repeated what I’d done with Verin’s first ring, etching in a tiny “V” on the inside of the band, but other than that, I had nothing left to do. There was no doubt it looked far better than the basic mithril ring I’d made months ago, even if I could have done a bit better with the snowflakes. All that remained was to see what the system thought.

Jewelry Making has reached level 14!

Congratulations! You have crafted an item: Frost Enhancement Ring.

The quality of your work is: Good. Due to the mana contained within, additional effects have been added.

Note: This item was made using components harvested by the crafter. 

For creating an item using your own materials, a vertical bonus will be applied. Along with your augment bonuses, the quality of your work has been upgraded to Great.

Frost Enhancement Ring

+2 Wisdom

+1 Intelligence

+1 Constitution

Dependant on skill level, up to +3 levels in Frost Magic.

While wearing this ring, all ambient mana will be filtered and aspected into pure frost mana.

I was well used to this section of notifications, although it was nice to see that I’d originally made a Good item rather than a simple Standard one. Much as hoped, the filtering effect had transferred to the ring, too. Still, that wasn’t what I was waiting for. With bated breath, I read on, needing to know if I’d done enough.

Only a single line later, I released my breath as I let out a triumphant laugh.

Note: This item has a unique design! Due to the Prestige of the crafter, the unique design, and the vertical bonus, this item has been upgraded into a named item.

Calculating…

Congratulations! You have crafted an item: Eternal Blizzard.

Based on the quality, rarity, and tier of your crafted item, you have been awarded 25xp.

For crafting a named item at the Initiate tier, you have been awarded 100xp. Further copies of this item will not grant this reward.

Eternal Blizzard

+3 Wisdom

+2 Intelligence

+1 Constitution

Dependent on skill level, up to +5 levels in Frost Magic.

While wearing this ring, all ambient mana will be filtered and aspected into pure frost mana.

Binds to the user when worn. If destroyed, damaged, or lost, this ring may be slowly regrown with a sufficient supply of ice and mana.

I couldn’t help but don a sort of dopey grin as the notifications arrived. If there was anything I’d made that deserved a name, it was this, and it felt fitting that the system agreed. The upgrade to the quality managed to iron out some of the imperfections as well, turning my so-so snowflakes into pieces of art fit for a noble’s finger. I always felt a bit sad seeing my work transformed past what I’d actually made, but in this instance, it was a clear improvement.

And better yet, there was a new effect added, too. While I was strongly hoping we wouldn’t have to use it, it looked like Verin wouldn’t have to worry about her ring burning off any time soon. Much like Cal’s Chicken Itch or my own soulbound weapons, it appeared that Verin’s new ring could reform no matter how much damage it took. No more would she ever half to worry about being mana shifted.

Surprisingly, that wasn’t all, either. One final set of notifications awaited me.

Achievement Unlocked: Artisan

Create three named items.

+15 Prestige

Slightly reduces the requirements to make a named item.

Crafting future named items grants +5 Prestige.

Achievement Unlocked: Multi-Artisan

Create three named items using at least three different professional skills. (Woodcarving, Jewelry Making, Smithing, Alchemy.)

Slightly reduces the requirements to make a named item.

+10 Prestige

+5 Prestige for each new professional skill used to craft a named item.

Gloves of the Arcanist Class Trial Quest Updated

Craft at least three named items - 3/3

Both exhausted and deeply satisfied at once, I was half tempted to run to my bed and crash for a day or two. I even might have, had it not been for my recent changes to my mental fortress. Instead, I prepared myself for the final task of my ring-crafting saga: actually giving Verin the ring.

Knowing that she’d been on a bit of an emotional roller coaster in recent times, I didn’t make a big scene out of it or anything. Instead, I simply pulled her aside after we cooked dinner one day. 

Perhaps feeling that I’d seen her cry too many times already, she only allowed her eyes to grow a bit watery as she wrapped me in a hug. Already, that was far more emotion than she would have allowed not so long ago, and I gladly returned the embrace, squishing her into me with my higher Strength.

Verin’s mouth opened, doubtless to offer some sort of thanks, but she was interrupted. In true Cal fashion, the warrior appeared out of thin air right then.

“Yay, ring! Very emotional. But Tess, we’ve barely seen you in the last month, and there’s only so many times Verin can draw me before we both go crazy, even if I look amazing.” Tugging on our sleeves, Cal began yanking us towards the front door. “Why don’t we skip the sappy bits and go to your tree guy to get me healed, and then we can celebrate by taking a trip? Verin, don’t you want to use your new ring and explore after being cooped up for so long?”

Unable to contain her eagerness, Cal broke out in a wide, almost manic grin. “I mapped out at least half the regions in the dungeon by now, and I picked out a few I think you’ll both enjoy. Come on.” With one final tug, she pulled us out the door and into the prairie beyond. “It’s time to head back into the dungeon!”