Runeblade-Chapter 226B2 : Payment, pt. 3

Kaius nodded, before he set the vial to the side—ignoring his sword’s primitive dismay as he did so. “Just want to see if there’s anything else—I might be able to leap straight to awakening A Father’s Gift if there is.”

Rieker merely nodded, waving at him to go ahead. Thankfully, his team seemed happy to wait, both Porkchop and Ianmus more focused on fiddling with their latest artefacts than what he was doing.

Continuing his exploration of the materials, Kaius found nothing of note within the rest of the third section. Nor, much to his disappointment, did he find anything in the fourth.

There was only the top compartment of the box left—holding a bare seven vials, all of which were the most valuable of the lot. Even if he did find something here, Kaius doubted he would be able to get access to it any time soon.

After all, Rieker had said some of them were expensive to the extreme. Still, if there was, it was an option he could pursue if the opportunity arose, though he would wait until after he had updated his armour to start saving.

The topmost compartment held materials that were by far the strangest—and blazed like the sun to his mana sight. Ash that whirled in a vortex of its own creation. Grains of sand, floating in a ball in the vials centre.

A shard of bone, dripping with enough magical potency that it visibly distorted the very air around it.

Kaius nearly buckled as he picked up the vial—so strong was the desire of his blade. It hungered for the bone, needed it in a way that Kaius had no name for. A simple fact of its existence.

A bundle of unliving desire that the blade may have been, Kaius instinctively knew that this material was far better than anything else he could hope to secure otherwise. Regardless of its cost, he had to have it.

Kaius placed it on the table, his hand shaking.

“This one resonated too.” he said, looking up.

Only to be surprised to see a Rieker letting out a sympathetic wince.

“I was afraid you’d say that—it’s bloody expensive. Not the most economical thing to save for.” the guildmaster said.

“I can also tell that it’s invaluable for the development of my sword, it’d be worth the cost.”

Rieker nodded, scratching his chin in thought. “You’ll see why it’s so pricey when you analyze it. I can’t in good conscience let you funnel all of your rewards towards it—at least not until you’re in a new suit of armour.” R̃𝘢ℕǒ₿Ɛś

Kaius frowned—even if it was costly, he’d been hoping it would be an attainable goal with enough work.

“How long?” he asked.

“For the first material? Another mission would net you that, and some proper greaves to go over your boots. Another two missions would finish off the armour—you’ll be earning more with each one. By then…you should be well into Iron. If I were to guess at the growing difficulty of the missions you could take, I would say it would take…another fifteen or so before you accrued enough for that material. And that’s with us fudging the numbers on its value significantly.” Rieker replied, giving him an apologetic smile.

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Kaius’s shoulder’s slumped as he realised the magnitude of work it would take to earn that final material. Fifteen missions was far too much, if he delayed acquiring other equipment for that long, he’d be vastly undergeared—especially considering the rate of their ongoing advancement.

He couldn’t be brushing up on the second tier and using uncommon equipment—it’d be suicide, especially considering the caliber of threats that they came up against.

“I see you understand the position we’re in.” Rieker said, before he leaned over and gave him an encouraging clap over the shoulder.

“Listen—there’s a chance we can make it happen. Upgrading your weapon is a worthy goal, but I'm bound by my oaths to the guild, I can’t just give it to you.” Rieker paused for a moment.

“However, extraordinary service to the guild would allow me to bend the rules. There’s nothing that would count at the moment, but with the phase shift it’s just a matter of time. If a settlement under Deadacre’s sphere of protection falls under assault, or there’s a beast wave like the old tales…well, if you’re strong enough, let’s just say it’s likely there will be plenty of opportunities to prove your value to the guild. Hells, if we didn’t have to hide your sharing of Honours and Aspects, that’d be enough right now—if you still need it by the time those are revealed, you can have it then.” the guildmaster continued, giving him an encouraging smile.

Kaius nodded, feeling somewhat mollified. Clearly, Rieker wasn’t being difficult because he wanted to, and if there were alternative ways to secure the final piece he needed for his sword, he would do so.

Besides, if worst came to worst, he would still be better off than he had been before. There was always the hope that his enhanced Guardian rewards would provide him a viable alternative when they next delved. Hells, if the final material he had picked from the guilds stores was truly that good, he could always stockpile valuables of his own to trade for it.

“Thanks, Rieker.” he said, before he turned his attention to the two glass vials he had set on the guildmaster desk.

He picked up the first one he had found—the material he would have his hands on by the end of their next mission.

Swirling the strangely liquid bead around the glass, Kaius analysed it with his Truesight.

Elder Blood:

Unique - Tier I

Affinity - Blood, Metal

Power is the essence of blood, congealed and crystalised it becomes accessible.

A potent metal, found only in the ancient gravesites of powerful beasts. Where enough blood has spilled, the iron gravitates to the locus of residual power—shifting and transmuting in the presence of Blood and Metal affinity to become something more.

Reagent

Kaius read the notification in surprise, blinking it away when he was done. Unique? That was more than he had expected—after all, it had only been from the middle layer of the box. If something from there was that valuable, how expensive was the bone he had pulled out?

“I’m glad that you picked out that one—it would have been terribly disappointing if the only things you found were out of reach.” Rieker said when he looked up.

“Where’d it get found?”

Rieker looked to Ro—it seemed she knew far more of the logistics of the guild than the guildmaster did. Hells, for all Kaius knew, she was the one who had collated the samples in the first place.

“A guardian drop—layer seventeen. One of the local Steel teams found it recently—they’re rushing for Silver with everything that’s happening. None of them had much use for a material, so they traded it in for gear.” she explained.

Kaius nodded. It made sense. He even suspected that the reason he could even get access to a Unique so quickly was that it was a raw material. Few artificers in a place like deadacre would have the skills to make full use of the stuff, so he doubted there was any great demand.

That only made him more curious about the bone shard. Things tended to get increasingly expensive per tier increase, but even with that it would have to be something singularly potent to fetch the price that the guild was asking for.

Kaius placed the droplet of Elder Blood back on the table, and pulled up the description of the last material.

Infant Wyvern Bone:

Epic - Tier I

Affinity - Arcane, Draconic, Primal

Even the least of dragonlings will raze an empire.

A scrap of bone from an infant wyvern—the lowest member, of the lowest order of draconic lesser beasts. Even with the barest hint of the power of their primogenitors, wyvern remains bristle with the potency they burn with in life.

Reagent

Kaius was suddenly very glad he had left the vial on the table, because he doubted he would have been able to keep a grip on it after reading its description.

Epic—and draconic at that? Where in the great heavens had this come from. Even the least of draconic creatures were feared for a reason.

Possessing singular magical potency, a body that would put even a greater meles to shame, and terrifyingly powerful breath weapons, they were usually given a wide berth. It was often easier to leave them be, and hope that they were simply migrating, than it was to drive them off.

When they did prove too much of a threat? The cullings were the stuff of bardsong—he’d heard of people gaining a rarity increase in their class simply from participating. Though, now that he thought about it, that was probably an exaggeration.

Kaius looked up at Rieker and Ro in shock, still struggling to believe what he had seen.

“Where the fuck did you find a wyvern?” Kaius asked, causing his team to snap towards him in shock.

“Wait, that’s from a dragonling? I didn’t think you’d find them out here where the mana is so thin.” Porkchop asked, looking at the shard of bone with curiosity.

Ianmus only watched the guild administrators closely, interested in their response.

Grinning widely, Rieker jutted a thumb to his chest. “That’d be me. A runt flew down from the mountains and settled in the Hanset woods. I had to cull it before it grew out of the first tier—letting it do so was a dire enough threat that I couldn’t trust it to anyone else.”

Kaius gave the man a nod of respect. That battle must have been legendary, even if the guildmaster had outlevelled the creature significantly. Even an infant draconic beast was no wilting daisy.

“I’ve got its skull mounted above my bed, but I sold everything else back to the guild. A single femur is all that’s left after the other guildhalls got their mitts on the choice cuts.”

Kaius’s eyes drifted back to the shard of bone. A dragonling…that was a powerful resource. One that he could see benefiting the growth of his sword immensely—especially since it was the first Epic anything that he’d ever seen, even if it was simply tier one.

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He made up his mind. Regardless of what he had to do—short of stealing the damned thing—he’d get his hands on that bone.

He could already imagine how good A Father’s Gift would look with a dragonbone hilt.