The door to Hüterin des Ambosses thudded closed behind him slowly as he took a deep breath of the cool three am air of the night city of Floor Zero. Gone was the heat of the forge, replaced now with the thin bite of cool air tinged faintly with coal smoke and the lingering iron tang that clung to his clothes.
The lamplight lining the narrow street buzzed softly overhead, lighting up a couple of the bodies and faces of those who roamed at this early into the morning. Deacon paused a few steps from the doorway and looked down at the familiar weight strapped across his back.
He reached up and unhooked the Echoform Reliquary, drawing the twin short swords from his back – after having checked that he was out of sight of the nearest patrolling guards.
The blades now out of their sheaths caught the amber light with a dull shimmer; it was no longer the steel that he had known for years, but now something slightly darker, and quite a bit denser. The twin edges had taken on the hue of charred iron with veins of dull bronze rippling faintly along their length, looking like the ripples of Damascus Steel – if only a cheap knock off in that regard.
I wonder how much it would cost to have used Damascus Steel as the next upgrade component, Deacon mused. Probably all the credits I had left and it would have to come with a much more pain in the ass magical contract I would have to sign.
After he had agreed to pay 12k credits for the Inconel-Tungsten upgrade, Murdren had taken out a twelve-page magical contract that Deacon had to review over and sign.
Why did he have to sign the magical contract over what should have been a simple upgrade? Because Echoform Reliquary was Soulbound to him.
Soulbound items do more than making it so that you and only use them. When binding said item to your soul, some of their essence intertwines with your soul, making it so if you want to get it upgraded or altered in any sort of way, either you need to be the one upgrading it or altering it, or you need to sign a magical contract in which you give full and temporary co-ownership of the item.
Obviously, this could be abused and were abused quite heavily throughout the history of the Tower. It hadn't been until one hundred and twenty years ago that the first ironclad magical contract between the owner of a Soulbound item and upgrader/alterer was made.
The contracts would, in the more general terms, effectively entrust the Soulbound item to the upgrader/alterer, and in return, they must provide a successful upgrade or alteration as demanded of them with no harm done to the item, unless, of course, agreed upon within the contract.
And on the owner of the Soulbound item's side, they must not let any harm or have any intent to swindle, kill, steal, or anything along those lines the upgrader/alterer in question while the upgrade/alteration is being done, and must pay them their due payment.
And those terms effectively summed up pages 1 - 7 of most magical contracts most Production Classes would have to sign, and even then, those were seven to nine pages long.
And depending on your requirements and the requirements of the other party the magical contract could potentially reach up to a thousand pages or so, just like the infamous magical contract between the Head of House El Hindi, the richest and most influential noble house within the Tower, and Ludwig Schmidt who was the greatest enchantsmith within the Tower before his unfortunate death on Floor Twenty Three.
Activating Identify on Echoform Reliquary, Deacon smiled at the upgrade but frowned at the next requirement he would have to fulfill to upgrade it.
Item Name: Echoform Reliquary
Type: Weapon
Rarity: Artifact
Description:
Forged from Livingwood, Echoform Reliquary can shift between multiple forms stored within, seamlessly in response to the wielder's intent. Currently, it is made out of Tier 1 Inconel-Tungsten. The Echoform Reliquary is designed to accept upgrades, allowing stronger materials to improve its durability and additional forms to improve its combat effectiveness.
Current Forms (2/2):
▸ Form I: [Broadsword]
▸ Form II: [Dual Short Swords]
Effects: Soulbound, Self-Repair & Swap Form.
Requirements: Humanoid.
Current Material: Tier 1 Inconel-Tungsten
Material Upgrade Requirements: Tier 1 Damascus Steel
Materials needed to Increase Number of Forms: Tier 1 Artifacts x3
"I forgot that I needed to gather Artifacts in order to get more forms onto it," Deacon sighed. "And if I want to keep adding more forms to fit my fighting style, I would… fuck me, man."
"Guess that leaves me with no choice but to gather a metric fuck ton of Artifacts, in order to have a form for every type of weapon I can use," he muttered under his breath as he kicked a pebble away from him as he continued to make his way toward the Academy of Beginnings.
"Which means my time as a treasure hunter will have only just begun," he murmured, sheathing the blades again with a quiet click.
He rolled his shoulders, readjusting his spatial sling bag on his chest and the pack that rested just beneath it. It truly was unfortunate that small spatial pockets were unable to go inside the other.
Passing by yet another guard patrol, Deacon pulled out his mana phone and quickly dialed the group's number.
Sam and Bonehead had left nearly four hours ago, as unlike him, who had to kill time in the Online Archives while waiting for his upgrade to finish, they had to prepare for when they would begin climbing Floor One.
Deacon rapidly tapped the side of the manaphone with his thumb to raise its volume and watched as everyone in the group's icon started to vibrate and ripple across the dark screen. After a couple of seconds, a thin line of mana shimmered down the device's length as the call linked through Floor Zero's Cross Floor Mana Transmission Tower, or CFMT Tower for short.
Bonehead picked up first, and judging by the tilt and chaotic bob of the feed along with the various colored flasks, he was sprinting through his alchemy room.
" –I just got into the zone, man," Bonehead shouted from across his room, barely even within range of his camera. "Currently I'm making large ass batches of Health, Stamina, and Mana potions before I get to making my own undead versions of them so I can actually use them," he shouted before mumbling, "Then I'll test out Flash Freeze potions again, using Coldspike as the main focus."
"I thought you weren't touching Coldspike again after what happened to your arm," Deacon said, brow raised, having heard Bonehead's words through the sensitive internal mic within every manaphone.
"Ah, that was attempt number 23, it was within expected parameters. This time I'll buffer it with a glyco-binding agent. That should probably solve that issue," Bonehead replied. "Worst comes to worst, I'll get frostbite."
"You don't have skin to be able to get frostbite," Deacon chuckled as he saw the academy a few blocks away from him.
"Suck my undead dick," Bonehead shot back as he came back into view and began dropping various herbs into a massive cauldron. "Listen, I'mma be holding off on most of my experimentations until I reach Floor Three, okay? So I'm gonna need you to go to Meadow's Reach on the Floor Two World Map and grab the herbs I'mma send you, okay?"
"Yeah, okay, I can do that and stuff them into my spatial sling bag to preserve them," Deacon nodded, he'd been wanting to finally be able to connect his manaphone to the Cross Floor Mana Transmit Towers that he'd heard so much about and get access to all the Climber Only Info.
"Anyway," Bonehead continued, practically vaulting a stair rail, "I'll brew what I can tonight, label 'em, stash 'em in the group bag. Sam there?"
"Yeah," came Sam's voice from the second tile on the call, his camera angled perfectly level, room behind him dark save for a single bright magic circle etched in soft blue across his desk. "Been here for a while, but I was making the final markings for a magic circle. Here lemme show you both."
As Sam lifted up his manaphone and flipped the camera in order to fully show the magic circle he'd etched onto his desk.
"Is that… what the hell is that?" he asked, surprised. "It looks like some sort of light spell, but… I don't know. I only recognize the light element being called on."
"It's a light-based Obscuring ward," Sam said, not looking up from the screen. "I found this one in my family archives a couple days back and practically got on my knees to take it out of the family library and into my room."
"Ah, shit, thanks, man," Deacon said as he took out his Academy Graduate ID Card and flashed it to the guard who nodded before opening the gates to allow him entrance into the academy.
"You send me that list yet?" Deacon asked, adjusting the strap across his chest again. He would need to figure out a better way to move with the pack, carrying the two other spatial sling bags along with his own. "I'm like five or so minutes away from reaching the Waystone."
"… You should have received it… now," Bonehead said just as he received a long message from Bonehead. "You remember how to carefully collect herbs, right?"
"Yeah, I took that Intro to Alchemy Class like three years ago before dropping it, remember?" Deacon said, who saw Bonehead immediately still for a moment while mumbling a small prayer on how thankful he was to the System for him not continuing to Alchemy I.
"I wasn't that bad," Deacon said, staring into Bonehead's empty eye sockets. "I know how to create my own salves and health potions."
"The fact that you were even able to brew them is nothing but a testament to how great I am at alchemy," Bonehead immediately replied, getting an "Amen" from Sam.
"You really were pretty shit at Alchemy," Sam followed up and chuckling when Deacon replied with a finger to the camera.
"Ah, right," Sam said, looking as though he remembered something. "So when I was looking through my family archives, I found a couple of mentions about finding races with the Tower being Level 0, but nothing really concrete. But I'll be able to properly go over them once I finish researching wards."
"Alright," Deacon said. "What about your magic progress? Any spells above Common tier so far?"
"Yeah, right," Sam replied, rolling his eyes at Deacon's question. "Like I'm actually able to push anything past Common without actually using them in real combat. What do you think I am, some bullshit fantasy protagonist with hundreds of thousands of girls on my arms?"
Bonehead and Deacon became silent for a moment, looking at each other at the same time via the screen before shrugging.
"I mean, you live in a mansion," Bonehead pointed out, and Deacon followed up by saying. "And those girls were throwing themselves at you during the graduation party, as well as almost any time you would be out in public."
"The first is because of my family and their rules," Sam said, in defense of himself. "As for the girls, it is to be expected that they throw themselves to me, as my face isn't all fucked up like the both of yours."
"The hell you mean by that?" Bonehead quipped. "Deacon, I get, he looks like something a Horsehog would shit out on a good day. But I look a thousand times better than you."
"And who told you that?" Sam shot out. "The whores you visit at the brothels?"
The both of them ignored the "Heys," that came from Deacon.
"And Marnia Viller," Bonehead said, sounding entirely pleased with himself. "I even recorded it."
"Just because a streamer on the mananet tells you that you're amazing and handsome, doesn't mean that you should believe it," Sam deadpanned. "Especially if they say this to you after you'd just dropped a 5k credit donation to them."
"Fuck you! She-" Bonehead shouted, before his father suddenly burst into his alchemical room and began shouting at Bonehead for waking both him and his mother up from their sleep.