The metallic skin looked alien but felt right. Simple Weapons huh. He focused on his fingers and on extending the tips into points.

A cascade of chimes ran down his arm, shortening the armored portion and two-inch-long claws grew off his fingertips. They were straight and tapered from finger thickness to razor sharp. Dnoeth grinned and found himself with an itch to test them. He considered the tunnel wall eagerly but stopped after reflecting on the merits of defacing the ancient home of an Order of Dwarven Knights.

Instead, he pictured an image of eagle talons that he’d seen recently. The metal responded, ringing in his mind as it lengthened and curved around. The talons were vicious looking, much more intimidating than the strait points, but the hooked curve was more well suited to grabbing and holding things than fighting.

Mentally, he reshaped them to become long gently curving talons. The chimes surrounded and the fishhook curves straightened and elongated to match his mental image. The armor rolled down his arm a bit further to gain the extra metal needed.

The blades had doubled to be as long as his fingers. Curling them back, he found the first knuckle joint was frozen in place by a thick backing of Daedrium. It was a bit like the tang of a blade.

Interestingly, the added support was not part of his mental picture. Moving the blades about some, he could intuitively sense that the change dramatically increased the leverage and power he’d be able to bring to bear. “Huh. It’s kind of smart.”

“What’s that?” Roxanna asked, glancing back. “Woahh!” She exclaimed and stopped. Ramal turned back too. Dnoeth proudly held up his clawed hand for their inspection.

“I’ll be damned.” The big man said, as he leaned over Roxanna’s shoulder to admire Dnoeth’s claws. “Now, that’s a weapon.” Ramal moved to step past Roxy. “Excuse me Roxy, do you mind?”

She shook her head, “Not at all. Get a good look.”

He stepped closer and took Dnoeth’s wrist to inspect them from all sides. “Nice shape. But these are pure offense. You’ll have to be aggressive.”

Ramal’s attention shifted to Dnoeth’s smiling face. “Provided your arms can deflect a sword, we’ll need to work on your first strike parry technique.” He smirked. “Get you inside your opponent’s guard within the first couple exchanges and it’ll be a short fight.”

Ramal pointed at the tips. “I love the shape, but depending on how strong that metal is, but you might consider increasing the thickness toward the point.”

Dnoeth nodded and made the adjustment. Ramal gaped. “Dammn. That’s simply unreal, Dnoeth. I don’t mind telling you, I’m more than a bit jealous. When we get you trained up”–he shook his head slowly, then nodded–“you’re gonna be a dungeon boss’s worst nightmare.”

Ramal straightened. “I don’t suppose you can make me one of those?” He glanced to the claws, then to Dnoeth. “Well, not like that. A knife with a handle, maybe?”

“I hadn’t considered it.” Dnoeth replied. “Let’s see.” He held out his left hand and projected an image of a knife with a serrated back, a small blade guard and a wrapped handle. The image of the Marine surplus knife he had at home.

The sound of chimes cascaded as metal rolled down his arm, baring it to the wrist and forming the knife, in seconds the handle was resting in his palm. It was the mirror image of his real-world knife.

Dnoeth turned his hand over and the knife stayed, it was still attached. When he sent an image of the knife detaching the chimes didn’t answer. “Humm. I don’t think so. Seems like I can only create attached weapons.”

“Ohh, okay. Well, now we know. No great loss really, we’re headed to an armory anyhow.” Ramal indicated the knife with his chin. “That’s an old school K-bar. Good knife.” He nodded approvingly. “Not very efficient use of your metal though.”

“No, it’s not, is it.” Dnoeth agreed. He reabsorbed the knife and the metal rolled back up his arm.

Dnoeth then filled them in on the rest of his system notifications, including his unlocked Electrum equilibrium bonus. They’d both figured as much but still offered hearty congratulations.

After he explained that his Condition had become Aura of Trust and explained the buff effect it granted by forming a party, his companions were eager to give it a try. When Dnoeth focused on them and on extending his energy to form the party, he was compelled to get within arm’s reach of both. When it triggered, two additional health bars appeared in everyone’s vision.

Dnoeth had an instantly increased sense of cohesiveness with his companions and with his eyes closed, he could also sense where the other two were. They both reported a shiver of energy, a stronger sense of unified purpose, as well as the same sixth sense type of directional awareness that he’d gained.

Soon after they started walking again and Dnoeth continued to experiment with manipulating his Daedrium. He found that fifteen percent correlated to a full breastplate and a single hand-span long blade that bound two of the fingers on his right hand together for strength.

Alternatively, he could maintain all four blades and armor his right side from his hip to his neck as well as his whole arm. Turning sideways this presented an armored profile to his enemy but seemed less than useful unless he was fencing. And he didn’t imagine fencing with short claws was a good attack strategy, although it was a fun experiment.

When He covered his legs the Daedrium didn’t go as far as expected as compared to the breastplate. From this Dnoeth began to get a better sense of surface area, his legs had more surface area then just his chest. He moved the metal around, covering different parts of his body learning how fast it transitioned and listening to the sound of the chiming.

Covering his head was by far the strangest. His lips clinked when he tapped them together, which did not seem natural.

His curiosity sated, Dnoeth focused on his fighting setup. In a short time, he settled on one that felt good to him. It included three curving blades on his right hand, with armor that extended to just below his elbow.

On his left hand, instead of the claws, he went with a single wide blade, three inches long and extended from his middle two knuckles. It felt like a punch dagger. From the wrist back to the elbow on that side he formed a narrow shield large just wide enough to cover his face.

As a final thought he moved the Daedrium on the inside of his forearms to cover his heart and upper chest, it wasn’t much but it would keep an arrow or unseen sword thrust from killing him instantly.

The door to the armory was also formed from Daedrium. Dnoeth opened it with a touch that caused the metal to melt into the floor. When they were all through, he stood next to the opening and managed to close the door without touching the metal.

His powers all seemed to be based upon an arm’s length range of effectiveness, which made him a kind of elemental melee specialist. Dnoeth found that was just about perfect. He preferred to fight in close.

The room they found themselves in, really wasn’t as expected. It was the size of a high school gym and scattered throughout were round tables with curved benches pushed beneath.

Centered on the left and right walls were inset stone alcoves, like fireplaces with more comfortable chairs gathered about them. These had the distinct feel and look of hearth areas, except the inset fire alcove wasn’t vented to carry the smoke away.

In the whole room there wasn’t a single weapon.

“Maybe the armory is further down?” Roxanna said, indicating an arched opening at the far end of the room through which they could only see darkness. She and Ramal both turned a questioning look to Dnoeth.

“No. Well, maybe. But I don’t think so. Let’s check these other doors before we go down there.” He waved a hand to the closest one on his right. On either side of the hearths were wood doors banded and wrapped about the edges with hand-width belts of Daedrium. There were two on either side of both hearths for a total of eight.

The closest unlocked at a touch from Dnoeth. Within was a short hall that went back perhaps twenty feet. A few paces down, a right-side opening led to sleeping quarters. There were six bunks, three to a side, with significant room between each. Footing each bed there was a wide footlocker and above the headboard a hollowed area of stone held three shelves.

Between each pair of bunks, broad wardrobes of honey-colored wood, were back-to-back providing a bit of separation. Fronting the central isle, each pair of sleeping areas shared a long bench that sat about a pace from the side of the wardrobe.

The appointments make each bunk area quite large and the entire sleeping space was equally so.

A pace further down the entry hall, a left-side opening led to a communal washroom. Within, to the left, three private alcoves had perforated ceilings and floor drains with a long bench of the same honeyed wood running the full-length opposite.

To the right were three more alcoves, each with a broad, thick walled stone pipe protruding to knee height from the ground. Across and facing these was a long, waist high trough. On the wall, where one would expect a faucet, were instead wide flat slots. Above each, a triplicate of glyphs stood out from the stone.

Both of these areas they took only moments walking in a cursory inspection before gathering at the end of the entry hall in front of a heavily rune inscribed door of pure Daedrium.

His anticipation thick, Dnoeth pressed a metallic palm to its surface. To his astonishment, the Daedrium door refused to open. Confused, he tried again.

He could sense the metal was aware of him, but there was no response. After a long moment of testing Dnoeth received a gentle rebuke and understood. The rune inscribed metal was bound and attuned differently. He couldn’t open it.

After inspecting the second bunk room with the same result, Dnoeth realized each of the bunk areas had a slightly different resonance, probably corresponding to their prior occupants. They just needed to find theirs.

Moving to check the next bunk room, he got an idea and went back to the door instead. The metal had a kind of intelligence in it, it wasn’t smart, but it was somehow aware.

His bonded Daedrium could communicate with him and had an instinctual knowledge of this place but seemed not to understand berthing assignments, whereas these doors did. Since they weren’t responding to his intuitive communication, Dnoeth decided to try with the powerful gong behind his sternum.

With a mighty strike, Dnoeth sent, Where my door?

In his mind, the reverberations of the question rang through the space as if he’d struck an actual gong.

The reply was immediate. The melodic chimes of the door seemed to cringe at his question. Then, with tones deeper than his bonded Daedrium, akin to larger brass bells, sent No yell. Go seven.

Dnoeth smiled and considered, he wasn’t sure how not to yell with his gong. Silently, he resolved to work on his gong speak soon.

“We’re number seven.” He stated, turning back to his waiting companions, and finding, to his surprise, Roxanna alone at the entry door and turned away from him.

Ramal’s voice came from out in the common room. “I think I know which door is number seven.”

Roxanna glanced back at Dnoeth with abnormally large eyes. Beyond her, the common room was illuminated in a cool bluish light, like that of moonlight. The blue white tones cast Roxy and everything in dramatically clean lines, that felt almost uncomfortable to look at.

In seconds the discomfort faded. Our night vision, Dnoeth realized. Since sealing themselves beyond the ventilation room, there hadn’t been any natural light and his eyes had needed to adjust to this ethereal light.

Roxy cleared out of the door opening and Dnoeth stepped into the common space. His eyes immediately tracked to the source of the light.

There, to the right of the hearth across the room and caddy corner from the door he exited, a door, same as the other seven, shone bright, its Daedrium bands and frame glowing sky blue.

Ramal was standing warily several paces back from the door. “Did you make it do that?”

“I think I did. Not directly and not on purpose though. I managed to shout at the Daedrium in this room and I think it must have done that.”

“You yelled at it?” Roxy asked from behind him. “That seems like a less than genial way to converse with a new…” She struggled for a moment, then finished, “acquaintance?” Inflecting the word as a question. “Is the metal intelligent?”

Dnoeth shrugged. “I don’t really know how to communicate any other way yet. And, it’s definitely aware. It has a kind of sensory intelligence that I’m still figuring out.” He put a comforting hand on Ramal’s shoulder as he passed. “It’s not going to bite bud.”

Ramal’s eyes followed him. “While I appreciate you reassurance, and I trust that you are right, it would be nice if you weren’t the only one who could interact with this sentient metal.”

Dnoeth paused just a pace from the door. The sound of chiming resonated from the door in his particular tone. It had increased from a whisper as he crossed the room and a yard away was close to that of his bonded Daedrium. “That’s a good point.” He said, looking back at the large fighter who was standing comfortably, but had a stone baton in either hand. “Without me, either of you could get trapped in here.”

He tilted his head and listened to the musical interplay between his bonded metal and the door, there was communication occurring. In it he detected an amorphous answer to Ramal’s concern. “I think.” He shifted his head, listening closely. “Yeah, we’re going to be able to fix that.” He met his companions eyes with a smile. “Why don’t we see what kind of goodies an Und Varden Strike team gets?”

Ramal’s face split with a grin. “Now we’re talking. Weapons and access cards, that’s my language.” He moved forward behind Dnoeth as the smaller man turned back to the door.

Roxanna added. “I hope there’s something in here.”

Dnoeth touched the door and a bit of his bonded Daedrium spread through it and back into the room like wildfire. In nearly the same instant an equal amount of door’s Daedrium took up the void left behind and raced through his body. This new Daedrium blended with his and lit up his senses in a rush.

A link between Dnoeth and this place snapped into place. He could feel the room, but not just the room. He could feel the whole Und Varden facility.

The door swung open, and Ramal bumped into Dnoeth. “Hey, bud. What’s the hold up?”

“Whoahh… gimme a sec.” Dnoeth responded as he floated through a virtual representation of the place in his mind. It was so much more than just an armory. These were the Und Varden barracks as he’d thought, but also on this level were training facilities, an amphitheater, a smithy, a runelry, a kitchen with a larder, a chow hall, a staging area, a bunch of elevators, and a command center.

Below them, there was a town, a mine, smelting facilities, a fabrication area with production capacity for weapons, armor, and other general utility things. There were gardens and kitchens and so many more levels, Dnoeth’s mental tour halted. “There’s a garage,” he whispered in awe.

Ramal’s cautious eyes locked onto Dnoeth. “There’s a what?!” A large hand gripped his shoulder, and the stone baton Ramal held pressed uncomfortably. Dnoeth instinctively relieved the pain by armoring his shoulder with Daedrium. Ramal pulled his hand back, discomforted by the sudden shift.

“A garage,” Dnoeth said again. “This place has vehicles, war machines, ore smelters and smithy’s, there’s manufacturing and food production, and...” He broke off as his awareness focused upon a discordant overlay that was imbued in the visual-vibrational data. In his excitement, he’d looked right past it. His jaw tightened and his gut clenched.

Dnoeth rolled back through every location he’d previewed with his virtual eye. His stomach twisted tighter with each area. All of the them had the same warning marker, all except this uppermost floor of the Und Varden. His face must have reflected his sudden shift in emotion, because Ramal and Roxanna both reacted.

Ramal stepped back and dropped into a defensive stance. “What’s wrong?”

Roxanna moved toward him, “What did you see?” She asked putting a concerned hand on his shoulder.

Dnoeth exhaled heavily. “The whole place, everything but this area, is corrupted somehow. Everywhere but here has been quarantined and locked away.” He looked at the ground as sadness and pain came through his link to the facility. It was old pain. No, it’s more than old, he thought. It’s ancient.

Time was ambiguous to the Daedrium, but he felt relatively certain the pain stored in the facility memory was well past a thousand years old. More the threat was not passed. It wasn’t exactly active either though. It was either dormant or… What is that? He peered into the data, trying to understand.

Full understanding eluded him. But he got that the enemy had left behind some kind of toxin and they weren’t too far distant. He also knew they were safe here; this area had been protected by the Daedrium. “It’s ok Ramal. We’re safe. This area was shielded by the Daedrium.”

“Safe from what, exactly?” The large man asked, relaxing his stance and grip on the batons. “Are there more demons?”

“I’m not exactly sure,” Dnoeth admitted. “Whatever happened here to corrupt this base, happened a very long time ago. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of years ago.” He straightened and stepped through the door. “C’mon, the best thing we can do is get geared up.”

Roxanna and Ramal followed. Ramal elbowed Roxy, “Gear time.” She snorted a smile back.