Quest Academy: Silvers, page 48
Sal blinked as he took a step back from the sword. With a slight shake of his head and a pinch to the inner edges of his eyes, he turned to Upgrade with a wry smile. “Maybe apprehensive more than nervous. I think we’ve prepared enough to represent ourselves well, even if it’s not enough to be competitive. The aim is to avoid relegation rank and put all of this behind us.”
He looked at the equipment on the table with a proud smile. Information about each piece popped up in front of him, pulling his smile wider. “I know that you said you wouldn’t help, but I really appreciate you getting the other Crafters onboard. I’d still be queuing in their backlogs if it wasn’t for you.”
Name
Pulse Gauntlets
Origin
Crafted
Age
New
Grade
Uncommon (Higher)
Dimensions
Circumference 8.5 inches
Materials
Refined Mythcrafter Essence | Faux Bovine Leather | Iron
Attributes
Repel: Creates a pushback effect in targeted area.
Essence Bullet: Creates low impact projectiles at high speed.
Abilities
Repel | Essence Bullet
Power Source
Basic Core
Evolution
No
Quality
Excellent
Condition
100%
Value
Est. $2,200.00 – $3,500.00
Name
Tactical Boots
Origin
Crafted
Age
New
Grade
Uncommon (Lower)
Dimensions
Size 11
Materials
Refined Mythcrafter Essence | Faux Bovine Leather | Infused Rubber
Attributes
Feather: Weight of wearer is reduced, increasing jump height and movement speed.
Abilities
Feather
Power Source
External Essence
Evolution
No
Quality
Excellent
Condition
100%
Value
Est. $1,000.00 – $2,000.00
Name
Shield Guard
Origin
Crafted
Age
New
Grade
Uncommon (Upper)
Dimensions
Length 8 inches | Circumference 9 inches (Adjustable)
Materials
Refined Mythcrafter Essence | Infused Iron
Attributes
Barrier: Creates a protective shield in front of the wearer.
Impact: Negates incoming attacks with chance to reflect damage.
Abilities
Barrier | Impact
Power Source
Basic Core | External Essence
Evolution
No
Quality
Excellent
Condition
100%
Value
Est. $3,000.00 – $4,500.00
Upgrade shook her head. “Nothing to do with me. I just told them that we might have a competitive team in the Combat class this year…and they decided to prioritize those commissions themselves. I know a lot of them are curious about how you assembled them and what they look like now. Sure you don’t want to invite them in for a peek?” Upgrade gestured over her shoulder, but Sal shook his head.
“The less people know about them, the better. I don’t want the other teams creating countermeasures before we even get started.”
Upgrade snorted then brought her hand to her face with a laugh. “Sorry! It’s just adorable how you think the other teams are that tactical.”
When Sal frowned, Upgrade looked at him in disbelief.
“You do know that it’s going to be a complete shit-show, right? They start this thing off in the first month so you can all learn how shit you are, so you throw yourself into your training earnestly. The big stakes aren’t going to happen until the inter-cohort segments, which won’t be until later in the semester.”
Sal shook his head at that. “Divinity looked into the future and saw that we get relegated unless we took it seriously, and I trust her judgment.”
Upgrade shrugged. “Well, if she was able to see into the past, she’d know that historically…there’s not much to expect of the first few fights. I didn’t mean to discourage you or make you complacent. Just remember that this is all about learning, and that trying your best will be noticed by Rust. That’s all that matters, really.”
When Sal didn’t answer immediately, Upgrade’s expression softened. With a feigned sigh of exasperation, she moved over to the sword and gestured for him to move out of the way. “Come on, let me have a look at your latest masterpiece. Walk me through it.”
Sal’s face broke into a smile as he moved to the side. “I was going to use Restoration on the blade, but I took your advice to get it reforged completely. It’s even better than the original state, but it meant we had to redo all the runes on it. I got Jack to trace them out, but I channeled the essence into them because his ability isn’t strong enough yet. He was able to enchant the blade, though, which is something the original sword didn’t have.”
Sal gestured at the intricate hilt at the base of the sword. “This was cracked before, so we recast it with the help of Forge. I switched out the core for one with more essence storage capacity, and it adapted well to it. The weave of metal that acted as a guard was broken, so I tried to design them as little tentacles, but I don’t think it really worked.”
Upgrade raised an eyebrow as she inspected it and burst out laughing when she saw the little face at the bottom of the sword. “Did you create a little octopus?”
Sal laughed as he shrugged. “I’m pretty sure I was delirious at this point, but I thought it might add a little bit of character to it. All the components are in place. I just need to flood it with essence, and it’ll be complete. I’ve got the Skill class with Professor Lombardi later, so I’ll probably have to wait until tomorrow. Need my essence at full strength to push through more gates.”
Upgrade tilted her head as she looked at the sword. “I kinda want to see it now, though…” When she looked at Sal, she held up the key to the core storage room. “What if you didn’t have to use your own essence?”
Sal grinned. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”
Chapter 65:
Overcharge
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Upgrade chided as she shot a meaningful look at Sal’s hands. Sal gave her a pleading look, but she shook her head. “You’re not going to get better at it unless you practice. Even if your Mythcrafter ability allows you to manage everything with your essence, you need to learn how to do it with your hands too. Control the tools with your essence, and I’ll be here to guide you.”
Sal sighed in defeat as he started to channel his essence through the Epic-grade gloves that Upgrade had Crafted for him. In the last few weeks, he had tried a handful of times to use them like Upgrade did, but it was incredibly difficult to maintain and slowed his pace dramatically. After a few false starts, Sal’s heartbeat started to race. He didn’t want to jeopardize the sword by using a technique he couldn’t control.
When that panic blended with the pressure of Upgrade’s expectations, Sal’s gloves continually failed to activate.
Before he could say a word, Upgrade spoke to him calmly. “It’s actually a relief that you’re not perfect at everything. Really warms my heart as an educator that you’ve still got shit to learn.”
Upgrade stood beside him and raised her own hands. “You’re overthinking it. Essence is something that you need to carefully negotiate with, and when it comes to Crafting, it can be particular. It needs to be smoothed out with precision.”
Sal nodded, as he felt the exact same way about it.
Upgrade pointed at his gloves. “Those are tools that are made to withstand ridiculous amounts of punishment. Overloading, or supercharging…whatever you want to call it…is all about aggression. You need to flood the gloves with your essence and control them. Tentatively asking them if they want to comply with you isn’t going to work. Drown the fuckers in essence and make them work for you. When they activate, pull the leash and control your flow of essence. Understand?”
Sal just stared at Upgrade. It was by far the most outlandish instruction he had ever heard, but it strangely made sense to him.
Upgrade looked at the gloves and pointed at the sword on the table. “Show me if you understand.”
Sal nodded as he raised his hands. He had a core set aside for essence, so he didn’t really have anything to lose from trying it Upgrade’s way. He threw his essence at the gloves aggressively and felt an immediate resistance from them. Rather than backing off like his instincts told him, he pushed the essence through them as he was told.
Just when he was sure the gloves had hit a breaking point, they activated fully and synergized with his uniform. A warm sensation in Sal’s collar told him that the core in his uniform had activated, and the black circuitry from his shirt shot straight to the gloves.
Upgrade’s voice sounded out beside him. “Push more for the transformation and then yank on the leash.”
Sal didn’t acknowledge her words as he was desperately trying to get control of the gloves. All his instincts told him that he needed to back off, but he trusted in Upgrade and flooded the gloves with even more essence. The result was immediate, and his entire torso transformed into a mechanized suit of armor. Both of his arms were plated, but the most impressive thing by far was that his fingers had turned into mechanical claws.
“Leash it!”
Upgrade’s warning snapped him out of his stupor, and he yanked at his essence to control the flow, leaving just enough to keep the transformation active. When he did it, he felt a sense of harmony, as if he were cloaked in a reassuring blanket of essence. His hands practically itched to get to work on the sword, and Sal instinctively knew that he could control every component of his armor. Raising his left hand, Sal imagined it as a sword, and was shocked to see a blade slide out from where his knuckles would have been. Upgrade’s laugh brought Sal back to reality, and he deactivated the sword attachment.
When he looked over to where she stood, Upgrade was happily admiring his new appearance. “Now, isn’t that just gorgeous?”
Sal didn’t know how much longer he’d be able to use the setup, so rather than talking it out with Upgrade, he focused on the sword. The first thing he did was tether himself to the essence core on the table, which gave him more breathing room for maintaining the mechanical arms as well as full rein with the Mythcrafter ability.
For some reason, Sal wanted to try redesigning the little tentacles on the guard. They were clunky, which he put down to his own lack of design experience. Now that he had the mechanical arms, Sal had a growing sense of competence and he wanted to fix them a bit. It was only an aesthetic modification but would be a good test for the new arms.
Upgrade raised an eyebrow as she moved around to watch him work.
Each of Sal’s fingers were imbued with essence and were like fine needles as they scratched away at the metal. Sal couldn’t explain how it was happening, but the vision in his head was being translated perfectly through his fingertips.
What had once been a crude attempt at a creature turned into a lifelike replica of a tiny octopus. Intricate little suction cups were being carved into the tentacles, and Sal’s eyes started to make minor suggestions on how they could be improved. Before he could debate on including the rune suggestions, his fingers had masterfully etched them onto it. Complete runes the size of Sal’s fingernail now lined the tentacles of the octopus and made it look even more lifelike.
After about ten minutes of refining the tentacles, Sal moved to the small head, which he shaped even further. He knew that it was the core and he needed to be careful, but the Mythcrafter ability and his fingers knew what needed to be done. He didn’t have any time to think about his actions as they were completed almost automatically.
Sal was exhilarated by how efficient everything felt. There was no second-guessing, just action. When the guard and hilt pieces were done, Sal started to notice other little aesthetic elements that could be improved with his newfound precision. He didn’t feel any guilt in tweaking the sword at this stage, because it was just about making it look better. There were some runes that were tightened, and the Mythcrafter ability made suggestions that Sal had previously ignored as he lacked the necessary expertise.
With more space on the blade, Sal instinctively added additional runes that popped into his head. This went on for another thirty minutes, where Sal’s fingers moved rapidly across the sword, all under the watchful eyes of Upgrade, who smiled in approval.
Just when Sal was about to move back to the guard of the sword, Upgrade coughed. “I know you’re having fun, but it’s time to put it all together with your essence.”
Sal smiled ruefully at that. He was running the risk of reworking it constantly, so he heeded Upgrade’s caution and lifted his hands away from the sword. With a quick check on the core’s essence, he was surprised to see that more than a quarter of it had been used already.
With a flex of his now-mechanical fingers, Sal channeled his essence into the sword. It was nothing like the experience with the sniper rifle. As most of the components were extensively worked on by Sal, he was already heavily attuned to it. The sword happily drank the essence, and Sal was able to meticulously guide it with his needle-like fingers. Areas where the essence didn’t smooth out, he was able to manually massage it into the blade. Pommel, guard, hilt, and blade all took the essence without issue. The area that was most greedy for it was the little octopus, which ultimately brought the essence core down to about ten percent.
Sal continued pouring essence into it and was happy when it reached a point where it couldn’t take any more. The sword started to glow vibrantly, which was similar to the sensation he felt with the sniper rifle. Sal’s eyes looked for any sort of issue, but the Mythcrafter skill was telling him that it was done. With that in mind, Sal took a step back and deactivated his suit transformation, as well as cutting off the Mythcrafter ability.
“That’s it?” Upgrade asked as she moved around the table to wait for the completed result.
Sal nodded. “That’s it!”
Both watched in silence as the glowing sword pulsated with essence for a few moments, continuing to vibrate slightly on the table. When the glow finally disappeared, Upgrade whistled.
“That doesn’t look like the sword from the blueprint.”
Sal laughed awkwardly as he moved forward to have a closer look at the result. “Yeah, I made a few changes when I had the gloves activated…and I think I probably went off script in the heat of the moment. The Mythcrafter ability kinda put me into autopilot, and I think I ended up adding more stuff than was necessary.”
Upgrade frowned. “Build quality is very important, but don’t over-engineer it. Otherwise, it’ll end up being a conflicted mess of runes and fail to activate. Are you going to Appraise it now or later? It still looks like a Rare grade to me.”
Sal debated whether he should leave early to get to the next class or just get the Appraisal done. In the back of his head, he was disappointed that it turned out so lackluster with all the effort that he had put into it. After a moment of deliberation, Sal reached out and picked up the sword. “Might as well check out the—”
Upgrade gasped as the tentacles started to move around Sal’s fist. The dull blade that looked the exact same as before suddenly transformed into a vibrant silver. Without wasting any time, Sal activated his eyes and started to Appraise the sword. His eyes widened as he saw its secrets.
Name
Voracious Rapier
Origin
Portal Artifact (Reworked)
Age
New (Reworked)
Grade
Rare (Upper)
Dimensions
45 inches | Blade length 36 inches | Blade width 1 inch | Blade thickness 1/4 inch
Materials
Refined Mythcraft Essence | Enhanced Core | Reforged Hellfire Titanium
