Kent had considered for a long time as he strode through the city, from side alley to side alley, what his next steps should be.

The uncommon shattering spell core swaying in his pocket, driving him to seek out a buyer.

The institute – while paying good money in his opinion – was not an option. He couldn’t risk gaining another quest of similar magnitude and impact that required him to stay even longer in Farburg. The conquerors were out too. If Estes hadn’t told his aunt of Kent’s status yet, he might do so very soon. Or the conquerors had learned of his condition through other means.

He did have one he could approach. But maybe the word had reached Alexus already – if they knew of his status as a traitless by now. The institute of course was not an option. If any institution was aware of him being a traitless, it was without a doubt the very same. He could consult the foreign goods market again, but he knew from experience that prices there were fractions of what an enchanter or crafter would pay.

The thought of visiting his recent friend in an individually tumultuous time felt right. And one had to take risks in life.

Should I just try it? He still had his token to enter the second district, given to him by the institute so he could come to their lessons, but what were the odds that they were more than they seemed to be. If they were more than just bound to him.

###

Maybe I should have taken a different gate. But before Kent could turn around the guard had already addressed him.

“State your name and purpose of entry,” the guard inquired.

“I’m here to attend…” Kent began, holding out the token granted to him.

“A bit late today, are you not?” the guard asked. “Well, don’t blame me for coming late to class. On with you then. Don’t tardy.”

“Thank you, Sir. Good morning.”

That went well. Just like the other days.

He breathed out relieved after taking a turn. His heartbeat calmed down and his brain began to work again. This was a stupid risk, all for some personal comfort. But it hadn’t been as bad in hindsight. Surely, they wouldn’t have expected to escape from their temporary prison and his escape would take a while to be noticed. And Kent needed – well wanted – a few more funds to make it easier for him the next time he struck out into the wilderness. He wanted proper food and needed a new canteen. Something better than sharing mugs with the woodcutter crews. Something sturdier.

Distracted by his thoughts he stopped confused in front of Hymdal’s, not remembering actively walking there, barely remembering his path. Only slightly distraught did he greet the shopkeeper inside and ask for Alexus. His friend rushed out from the shop a few minutes later, beckoning him to follow him into the backroom, with a smile on his face.

“Good to see you, Kent. I need to share this with you, but you look like you have something on your mind as well. Lemme go first please.”

“Morning Alexus, let’s hear it,” Kent nodded, not yet sure what to say anyway, besides getting the spell core appraised.

“You won’t believe it, but I finally managed to get one of my spell-core skills up to rank eleven. You won’t believe the skill it unlocked. Spell Core Interconversion allows me – as soon as I have the skill point to split spell cores into multiples of a lower rarity or into one of greater rarity. Master says maybe splicing will be an option later as well.”

“That…,” Kent began before reconsidering his words. “That sounds really strong. Like insanely strong. Not just for your own profession, but for all professions.”

“Yeah, it’s not a common ability that’s for sure. There are two enchanters in town that are suspected to have a similar skill, so you’ll need to be quiet about this, until I’m a higher level, ok?”

Kent affirmed his friend quickly. He had bigger secrets anyway, and it wasn’t like he was planning to stick around for long enough that his newfound knowledge would matter. He shouldn’t and he did his best to not let his friend see, but at the thought, he lost a few tears. More than he had spent for his family.

“I’ll be leaving Farburg soon anyway. So, you don’t have to worry much about it.”

“Thank you so… Wait what? Are you serious? Why’s that? Hold up. There is literally no reason for you to move on. If you want to become a conqueror this is the best place for your in hundreds of leagues. This far on the outskirts of Issar, there are even places that have fourth-stage monsters. What more could you want? And most places up to level two hundred are well documented.”

Kent interrupted his friend before he could actually try to sell him on sticking around.

“That’s not it. I just learned of a potential family situation. With the invasion going on, I might be needed home soon.”

The lie hurt. But it was leagues better than telling Alexus the truth.

“I came here to bring you a sort of goodbye present,” he pulled the shattering spell core out of his pocket.

“Well, I won’t accept a present whatever it is,” Alexus said before he’d even see what Kent was pulling out. “My master will get me basically everything I could want anyway – as long as it’s reasonable – and my parents aren’t very different.”

Then he laid his eyes on the spell core.

“Oh, wow. Ok, maybe I’ll take it back. Shattering is rare in these parts. I’ll buy it off you, with master’s money mind you. And your country bumpkin will need the money for your trip back anyway. I’m not sure what the current rate is, but I probably can do sceat mancus without getting into too much trouble.”

“That’s a lot less than what the institute paid for a minor spell core,” Kent responded. “But it was meant as a present anyway. So, I’ll take it. I appreciate it too Alexus.”

He’d only spontaneously decided on gifting it to Alexus, having initially intended to try and get it appraised, so getting money back was a plus overall.

“I could always check our ledgers and see what they’ve previously gone for, but I honestly doubt it’s more. While uncommon here, they aren’t really great for most crafts. As far as I know, their most common application is arrow tips that shatter upon piercing a monster’s body. The shattering nature makes them uniquely sorted for one-time-use items. And those just aren’t worth much.”

“That’s actually sort of cool,” Kent said, already considering the options this might open up for him. “So, you could also make a spear tip or a dagger with this core that would harm an opponent even more from the inside? Or what about making it shatter into thousands of sharp little objects before impact?”

“All that is possible, but sort of pointless. At higher levels, surface cuts aren’t enough to take out any kind of monster, even if you manage to overcome the toughness with penetration-like skills.”

Alexus and Kent ended up speaking a bit longer about the random odds and ends, but not overly long.

Somehow, after a good while of talking about recent events, they had ended up in the forge. Kent had previously been rather interested in learning more about smithing and metal in general given his seemingly natural inclination but knowing that he had a timetable to adhere to he found the thought of indulging in a casual interest almost stressful. The friendly environment and the trust he had in the apprentice helped alleviate much, allowing him to enjoy the forging processes Alexus showed him.

Kent had merely mentioned a fleeting interest and Alexus had insisted on showing him the application of his Infuse Spell Core skill.

According to Alexus the act of infusing a spell core into moldable materials wasn’t difficult even for people without the skill, but there was a plethora of issues to overcome if one did so. There was also a difference between the materials used. Alexus’ skills worked purely on metal, but water and other liquids apparently simply slowly drained the aspects of spell cores on their own so he could in theory use spell cores infused liquids for quelching without issues.

Air interacted similarly with spell cores, which was news to Kent. Alexus explained that the effects were drastically reduced so that you only had to worry about spell cores giving their aspects away if you kept them for years without special storage containers.

For working with metal, the main difficulties arose from the high-temperature gradients and the force exerted through the forging process. That wasn’t to say that those were insurmountable issues, but efficiency was greatly reduced, even if one did everything perfectly.

But skills came to the rescue.

Watching Alexus accomplish his task was a satisfying and fascinating experience. Kent had seen wood carvers do miraculous things with their tools, but the metal still felt like an unfoldable substance to him, so seeing it change shape and color was fascinating.

The boy heated the ingot he was working with, a yet undisclosed alloy, repeatedly to a red-hot glow. Not knowing what to expect Kent trained his eyes on the spell core in the other’s hand.

He was a bit shocked as the smith’s apprentice just chugged the unworked crystal into the forge next to the alloy. Alexus explained himself before Kent asked for the reasons behind the brazen action.

“It is vital for the two materials that become fused to each other to share as many properties as possible,” Alexus claimed. “So ideally, I would try to infuse some metal mana into the core and shattering or shattering-adjacent mana type into the metal to make the binding process more efficient on my resources. Hardness and most other physical properties of course are something that is very difficult to adjust on the fly and change through the welding and forging process regardless, so I’m ignoring those. Also, the rapid heating might have already shattered the core if I weren’t using my Infuse Spell Core skill on it right now.

“My master said that the crystalline properties of both metal and crystal are similar enough already to facilitate a merger, but I haven’t managed that thus far, so I’m using another property, the heat, to line properties up. Seems to me like that is the best and easiest option.”

Kent merely nodded in response, finding what the boy said to sound reasonable. Even with the superficial teachings of the institute, he wasn’t well-versed in materials at all. Material sciences had only been a cursory mention in the first place. The process he was observing was interesting regardless. Especially once the crystal started slightly discoloring as well. Instead of a red glow, its glow turned slightly blue-grey. At that point, Alexus pulled it out again, together with the metal alloy. Over the next few minutes, Alexus slowly shaped the metal with heavy hammer strikes – each deforming the metal just a little more than what felt natural.

When the apprentice had hammered a finger-deep indentation into the metal, he dropped the still-glowing crystal inside and forged the opening closed again. Seemingly not worried about shattering the crystal he merrily hammered the alloy into a longer rod.

The deformation of the metal during this forging process was a lot slower though, while it didn’t seem like Alexus was putting less force behind the strikes it was obvious that something was happening. The dull orange shine of the unknown metal changed to a darker sheen over the reheating processes and with due time the alloy became almost black, only a shimmer of the previous color shining through.

Shattering Mana-Reinforced Bronze (uncommon) – A bronze ingot that has its crystal structure slightly purified and stabilized. Has been infused by a Force-type spell core.

As soon as the other boy held the ingot out to Kent, he analyzed it. The information he had gained was interesting but not valuable to him.

“Shattering Mana-Reinforced Bronze is a great arrow material,” Alexus explained. “The bronze, or specifically its components are cheap to come by and easily forged. It’s similarly as hard as steel but easier to work with. Mana-Reinforcing has a decent mana cost, but still affordable for most crafters that have some willpower. Though I can’t do mana reinforcing myself yet, as I’m missing the skill. Shattering, as I’ve already told you, will – if everything goes to plan – make the arrow explode after entering a body. With certain skills, one could even adjust some of the magical parameters a bit. But that’s more in the realm of enchanters and core crafters.

“And my skill leveled up,” Alexus grinned. “Rank four after roughly a week is pretty good if you ask me.”

“That’s great!” Kent smiled as well. While it wasn’t really that fast, especially for someone of level twenty, it was a decent accomplishment, given that it was hindered by the availability of spell cores and the fact that crafting skills apparently didn’t level from resource usage alone. Kent had learned that most crafting skills were sort of like a Kata, only worse. Alexus specifically gained experience through successful crafts, and only successful ones. Often the skills required additional stamina or mana which was lost on a failed attempt. So, all in all, it was more difficult to train than what he had available. It was also a lot safer as it didn’t require monster contact so there was that.

“Congratulations, that was super quick,” Kent continued. Almost certain that it was actually quick. “So, has it gained a new ability as you hoped, or does it keep scaling?”

Kent had learned a bit about crafting skills in his off time and versions of the Infuse Spell Core skill were well documented in the library of the institute. Several professions had access to skills of that name that had similar functions. And while all did essentially the same thing, their effects varied throughout the materials used, the traits that offered the skill, and even individuals. And while the latter factor was the smallest, it could still end up becoming significant after a dozen ranks in the skill.

Alexus had told him of his initial values quite freely and was seemingly not as hesitant as Kent. But it made sense. It was free advertisement for crafters.

“Indeed, and it even grew to 132% efficiency of spell core infusion,” Alexus shared. “However, I do need to supply the extra mana for it. Which isn’t too bad since I do get a bit of Willpower. The new ability it gained is that at a small mana cost I can gauge the compatibility of a spell core and metal. I basically lucked out. I hope that it’ll allow me to grow my skill faster and get better intrinsic effects on top.”

They enjoyed a fizzy drink as a sort of celebration after Alexus had crafted a few arrow tips and they went to try it out in the back of the shop. The results were as expected when it came to the spell core.

Almost immediately after an impact, the arrow tips would explode in every direction.

Though in all fairness the term explosion was generous. The majority of the small metal pieces didn’t even exit the straw target.

While the arrow's effects were underwhelming, something unexpected had happened. Kent had attuned one of the eight arrow tips before it had been nailed to a shaft and observed his connection to it. As it exploded in the wooden stump his connection didn’t break. The whole piece of metal still registered as a single connection to the skill in his mind.

If he hadn’t been around Alexus, he would have immediately tried to accelerate them further away from him. As things stood the effect would be too large and the target would most likely be not heavy enough to overcome the skill's natural capstone weight. Even less likely if each of the shards had their own skill cast associated with them.

This required further testing.

***

Half an hour later he left the shop, poor again. Something had driven him to spend his three newly gained sceat on the remaining seven of the arrows.

He held the idea in the back of his mind to get a dagger from a ‘Shattering’ spell core at some point. It would be a one-use weapon, but if everything went right, it could be a devastating one. Especially should he have a skill like Ten Thousand Punctures available. For now, he would try out the less fitting arrows to see if they could on their own catapult his offensive abilities by a bit. And if they could, he might even be able to accelerate his personal growth by a seven-five percent monster encounter. It would be an expensive 5% but that might be worth it.

Kent checked his status just to make sure that this would get him to his next milestone.

Kent Larsson [Level 29] [80%]

Pools:

Health: 413/413

Health Reg: 99 - 938 /d

Stamina: 378/386

Stamina Reg: 110 - 1042 /d

Mana: 730/764

Mana Reg: 1296 - 12286 /d

Effective Stats:

Vitality: 99

Toughness: 17

Endurance: 83

Strength: 30

Agility: 27

Senses: 18

Mind: 90

Magic: 382

Willpower: 432

Regeneration: 212

Skills:

Accelerate Metal (20/20) (999/1000 Exp.)

Accelerate a previously attuned piece of Metal towards or away from you. Gravity does not affect the metal for the duration of acceleration.

Acceleration: 357 m/s

Weight: 100 kg

Range: 400 m

Cost: 2 mp/sec

Penetrate (11/20) (275/550 Exp.)

Part of the damage dealt to armor is dealt to the wearer, as long as hardness is overcome

Armor Penetration: 85 percent damage passthrough

Cost: 9 sta/use

Metallic Affinity (20/20) (999/1000 Exp.)

Skills and Spells that interact with Metal are boosted

Boost: 200 percent

Metallic Extension (5/20) (178/250 Exp.)

Infuses a touch-based skill into an attuned metal piece.

Retained Effect: 0.5

Mosquito (4/20) (194/200 Exp.)

Teaches Dagger combat-forms

Metallic Presence (17/20) (44/850 Exp.)

Gain regular impressions of metal in your environment.

Resolution: 0.014264233908999256

Range: 100 m

Cost: 10 mp/sec

Effect: Temporal Fitting (12/20) (94/1800 Exp.)

Redistributes the majority of channeled skills effect into a smaller interval.

Interval Strength: 0.9256745553123299

Interval Length: 0.015625

Magical Wellspring (20/20) (999/1000 Exp.)

Increases mana regeneration by a static factor

Regenaration Boost: 200 %

With 80% progress to the next level, he was almost guaranteed to level up in a single night and he had set his eyes on the most useful skill of all. One that would hopefully allow Kent to get through his heist unharmed and with something that he could sell for a good chunk of money elsewhere.