Leveling Up The World 8: A LitRPG Adventure, page 46
The truth was that despite some individuals being able to achieve the feat, there came a point after which an item simply could not be improved. The level would increase, but the material would remain the same.
The weapon that Phoil brought was by no means as advanced. Dallion could recognize the iron silver alloy brought to him. It was a popular combination, preferred by nobles in the last century or so. The weight made it impractical for ordinary people, but an awakened—even a child—could handle it with ease.
“Heirloom?” Dallion asked.
“It’s not screaming, is it?” Phoil avoided the question. In all probability, the weapon had been procured from some dubious merchant such as the general.
“And you want it changed directly to—”
“Silver glass,” Raven finished the sentence for him. Both seemed rather impatient.
In different circumstances, Dallion would ask what was so special about the material, but he doubted he’d receive an honest answer. Also, he was the one asking the favor of Raven, so it was in his best interest not to ask too many questions until he got what he wanted.
Carefully, he took the sword and placed it on the floor.
“You might want to take a few steps back,” he said.
“Why?” Phoil asked.
“In case it doesn’t work.”
“You said that—”
“He’s not a Moon, Phoil.” Raven made the smart choice. “Accidents are always a possibility.”
“I knew that,” the large boy grumbled, then stepped away from the weapon.
Dallion smiled.
Here goes nothing. He placed his hand on the blade.
ITEM AWAKENING
A green rectangle appeared. The surroundings blinked, replaced by reflective metal walls.
Too soon, Dallion thought, brushing away the subsequent rectangles that emerged. Anything mirror-related was still giving him urges to go all out and shatter it to bits.
“Sense anything, Nox?” Dallion asked, making his way to the single archway leading outside the large room.
Nope, the familiar responded in yawny fashion. Just you.
That was good. It meant things would be simple. Dallion reached out to summon his harpsisword, but then stopped. Using magic was more beneficial. As Nil kept on repeating, he had to start thinking as a mage from now on.
There were over a dozen combat spells he could use, half of them rather well. In the end, he chose to go with aether projectiles. Purple markers appeared. Visible only to him, they floated near his hand, indicating the symbols he had to draw to execute the spell.
The moment Dallion stepped in the guardian chamber, the spell was cast, obliterating the unfortunate creature—a male silver colossus—before the red combat rectangle could emerge.
“Sorry,” Dallion whispered, knowing he’d have to do the whole thing again moments later.
COMBAT INITIATED
TERMINAL HIT
DEALT DAMAGE IS INCREASED BY 1000%
The rectangles emerged, catching up to events. The combat was over. Now, it was time to focus on changing the material.
Dallion burst into instances, reaching out to the improvement rectangle with his magic. All the time spent training the discipline had let him be a bit better, though he still had to rely on splitting.
SWORD’s level increased
The SWORD has been improved to QUICKSILVER
The realm attempted to eject him to reality. Dallion concentrated, triggering a second awakening before the first could end. As a result, he remained where he was, facing a quicksilver colossus.
“Sorry again,” he said and recast the projectile spell with each hand.
Three rectangles flashed in rapid succession. Dallion concentrated on the last. His instances plucked the endless stack, pulling out materials the sword could turn into. A hundred and fifty options crossed Dallion’s hands, yet none of them were silver glass.
Crap!
Not losing his calm, Dallion chose a silver alloy he was used to, then let himself be brought back to the real world.
“What’s the holdup?” Raven asked as Dallion slid his fingers along the blade.
“Give me a moment,” he grumbled.
No air bubbles or structural weaknesses seemed to have formed on the weapon. The sides of the blade remained adequately sharp. Only the color had slightly shifted, though not to a degree that the others would notice.
Attempting four improvements in a row was generally not recommended. There was always the chance that an item could become distorted. Improving it four times in immediate succession could well be devastating for the guardian as well.
Are you hanging on in there? Dallion asked.
That was rough, the sword replied.
Yeah. Sorry about that.
Only now did it cross his mind that all of this could have been avoided if Dallion had acted the way he had back in Nerosal. As much as he hated to admit it, he was still obsessed with defeating guardians just as much as achieving the result.
I should have asked you to surrender, Dallion said, using his music skills to appease the sword guardian.
You should have.
If I do now, will you agree to it?
You want to improve me again? There was more surprise than fear coming from the sword. Why? Do you really think you can achieve what they want?
I take it I’m not the first to try?
Heck, I’ve stopped counting. You’re better than most but no different. It’s impossible to create silver glass. They said it themselves.
That didn’t sound at all good. Yet, if that were the case, why hadn’t Nil mentioned it before? And why was he so adamant that it was nothing special? If the people behind the echoes had invested so much time and effort, there had to be a reason, and it was more than having a “shiny” sword.
Hold that thought, Dallion said.
PERSONAL AWAKENING
Reality changed, this time taking him to his own realm. To little surprise, Nil was nowhere to be found. However, Gen—Dallion’s first echo—was there.
“I knew you’d try that,” the echo said. “Even before you thought of it.”
He turned, looking in the direction of the realm’s library.
“There’s nothing there about silver glass. I’ve gone through all the scrolls and tomes I could find. And when I was done, I sent Ariel to check. If there ever was anything on the topic, Nil must have destroyed it.”
Dallion wasn’t surprised. Fortunately, there was one other expert when it came to metals he could go to, one who didn’t hide feeling neglected lately.
“Lux,” Dallion said. The firebird appeared, surrounding him in blue flames, then flew him right to the bay, or more specifically to Onda’s new tower.
The nymph hadn’t spared any effort into an even greater masterpiece than before, which in his view meant making it as close to a futuristic cyberpunk building as one could imagine. Given the race’s affinity for magic, and the artifacts they had created, Dallion was starting to think that they were a lot more technologically advanced than they let on.
A small magical portal formed in the air a few feet away, then flashed out of existence, replaced by Stone.
Hello, Boss Dal! the aetherfish greeted. And Boss Lux.
“Boss Lux?” Dallion asked. He dreaded to think what the firebird had taught the newest of his companions.
Boss Lux told me that’s the proper way to address beings of a higher level. And since I’m just a level one…
“Figures.” Dallion sighed. “Onda!” he said loudly. “I need to talk to you.”
Nothing but the sound of wind and distant waves replied.
“Onda?”
“Yeah, sure. You only think of me when you need something!” a reply came from within the tower. “Will you ever forge anything? When I joined you, I thought you’d make masterpieces, instead—”
“Do you want me to leave?” Dallion was in no mood for whining. It wasn’t that the guardian was wrong. Dallion had been somewhat neglecting the inhabitants of his realm while focusing on progressing in spellcraft and magic.
In his mind, there was a fifty-fifty chance that Onda cursed him off. Then again, the guardian’s desire proved stronger than his apathy. A section of the tower opened, letting the gearpunk nymph emerge.
“What’s bugging you?” he asked, giving Dallion an unmistakable glare.
“What’s silver glass.”
The nymph whistled. “Jumping to the big leagues?”
“I thought magic metals were the big leagues.” At least that was what Dallion’s understanding was. Back when he had acquired his forging skills and had chosen his first “hammer,” he’d received lots of grief choosing an ability he wasn’t ready for.
“Nah, that’s basic stuff. Thread forging, magic forging, those are the big leagues. You’ve got a good boost, but you’re far from forging silver glass.”
Technically, Dallion didn’t want to forge it, but improve an item to it. That made matters even worse. If that was beyond the improvement barrier, he could make a thousand attempts and none of them would work.
“What’s so special about silver glass?”
“How much time do you have?” Onda smirked. A tendril of water emerged from the sea nearby and made its way to the nymph. “What’s this?” he asked as it changed form.
“Onda, I really don’t have the time for this…”
“Want my help? Tell me.”
Dallion felt like using a spell or ten on the guardian. Of course, that would hardly speed things up. Besides, for all his current attitude, Onda was a child and helpful, as he’d often described himself.
“Water in the shape of a cube,” he said.
“Nope.” Onda tightened his grip round the object. Instead of splashing, the water disappeared. “It’s nothing. Because…” he paused, “almost nothing can cross realms.”
Nice save, Dallion thought.
“Silver Glass is one of the materials that can cross realms. Not have an identical copy in the realm, not have some other item to bring it in. Silver glass allows an item to pass on its own.”
“And what can that make it useful for?”
There was silence.
“You don’t know?”
“Hey, I know plenty! It’s just that it can’t be used for much. Silver glass is unstable. After a few months, it reverts to some other material. Steel or silver alloy, or something. It never had any practical usage, just people used to show off.”
That made even less sense. Dallion had grown accustomed to Nil hiding certain facts, but now that Onda had confirmed it, he was at a complete loss. There was no question that nobles were vain creatures, but not to this extent. Besides, the current time was the worst to be showing off. With internal and external wars raging, the last anyone would be interested in was the glow of someone’s weapon.
“Anyway, can you teach me how to create it?” Dallion returned to his original line of questioning.
“That’s tricky. Only otherworlders can create it,” he said. For some reason, that didn’t seem as surprising as Dallion thought it would be. “I can still offer advice, though.”
“Any suggestions on how to improve something it?”
“Concentrate on it?” The guardian shrugged.
Not the best advice by any means, yet it was better than nothing. Leaving his realm, Dallion went back into the sword. This time, he intended to take an entirely different approach. Upon entering the guardian’s chamber, he didn’t cast any spells, nor did he attack.
“Hey.” He waved to the colossus. “Ready for another go?”
“No fighting this time?” the guardian asked, iron muscles tensing up.
“No fighting,” Dallion said. “Have you ever been silver glass?”
The guardian shook his head. A moment later, a blue rectangle emerged.
The SWORD guardian has admitted defeat.
Do you accept his surrender?
Dallion accepted, then used combat splitting to transform him into quicksilver. That step was easy, just as before. Of a hundred possibilities, five offered the option. Now, it was time for the next attempt. Although the guardian hadn’t mentioned it, Dallion knew this would be the last one.
Concentrate on it, Dallion thought.
It would be nice if he could simply will things into happening, but improvement didn’t work that way. Or didn’t it? An idea came to mind. So far, he had been so focused on getting the result that he hadn’t considered that he might become the driving force.
The second time the surrender rectangle emerged, Dallion didn’t immediately accept. Walking up to the guardian, he placed his hand on the entity’s biceps. Magic threads emerged from his fingers, establishing contact. Then, he pressed the thumbs up icon with his free hand.
Hundreds of rectangles filled the air. They were like skills, at the same time not like skills. Each was attached to the guardian, and each held the name of a material.
Wow, Dallion thought.
That was the proper way of improving, not the brute force method that he’d used so far. In this instance, there was no chance, no luck, nothing but certainty. There was no telling whether the mage had tried to subtly guide him to this or even he had been so focused on old tomes and theories that didn’t know better.
So much for learning all the probability trees, Dallion said to himself. Through this method, he was able to bypass everything and pick the result he wished for.
Splitting into instances, he skimmed through the cloud of rectangles. After a while, he found the desired goal—one single rectangle with the words SILVER GLASS on it. There was just one among a thousand, glistening in the light that identified it as being from another world. The odds of finding it by chance were a tenth of a percent at most.
“Let’s see what happens now,” Dallion said and extended his magic to the rectangle.
SWORD level increased
The SWORD has been improved to SILVER GLASS
VORTEX CLUSTER
Athin shimmering layer covered the sword once Dallion returned to the real world. It wasn’t the standard shimmering of an otherworlder, at least not entirely. There was a slight nuance to it, making it appear both to be part of this world, but also not.
“This what you wanted?” Dallion stood up.
Based on the intense emotions resonating from both Phoil and Raven, the answer was obvious. Even so, the black-haired noble had no desire to surrender a compliment.
“How many tries did it take you?” he asked.
“Two. Does it matter?”
“Not particularly.”
Internally, Dallion frowned.
“All right, then. Now, about your part of the deal? I need to be out before dark.”
“I’ll keep my word.” Raven pointed at the sword in a slow, dismissive fashion. That was more than enough for Phoil to pick up the weapon. Instead of heading outside, he went up the stairs to the private area of the building. “It’ll take me a bit to get my seal adjusted. Meet you at the door in half an hour?”
“Half an hour.” Dallion nodded. “See you there.”
This was the best deal he’d get, so there was no point in rocking the boat. Besides, hehad something to pick up from his room.
Onda, did you get all that? Dallion asked as he went back into the corridor.
Well done, old man. One could almost near the nymph clapping. Lamer than me, but still cool.
What did I do wrong?
Nothing. Everything was perfect. The set up, the way you convinced the guardian, the selection of the material… It’s your logic that’s messed up. No, not exactly messed up, just too dependent on other things.
Hmm.
Keeping himself from running along the corridor, Dallion made his way to his room. The new feat he’d achieved filled him with more energy than was healthy. He tried getting rid of some of it by extending magic threads out of his hand—weaving them into a rope, as Katka had instructed—but that made him even more restless. Magic had a way to make its owner feel invincible, almost as if he’d drunk a bucket of energy drinks.
“Ruby, we’re heading outside.” Dallion pulled back the cluster of threads back into him, then took the aetherizer he kept hidden in a drawer with an invisibility symbol on it. “How do you feel about that?”
The shardfly stoically flew off the spot on the ceiling, taking its place on Dallion’s shoulder. For some reason, that reminded Dallion of Gleam.
Within seconds, the euphoria he had accumulated fizzled away. Was he capable of bringing the shardfly back? It had to be more complicated than opening a portal to the banished world. And even if it wasn’t, Dallion had no way of reaching that realm again.
“Tell me when you sense nearby illusions, okay?” Dallion said.
Okay. Ruby flicked his wings.
“And don’t get into any fights, even if I’m attacked. Got it?”
Dallion looked at his heavy gear. Considering what he would be facing, having his armadil shield and harpsisword would help. Unfortunately, he’d have to make do with his Nox dagger.
Less than a minute was necessary to reach the main door of the building. Judging by the occasional look of disapproval he received from passing apprentices, it was safe to say that the glamor from the challenge was starting to wear off. And then there was the waiting. Every second dragged on. Unlike Dallion, Raven didn’t seem to be remotely in a hurry to get there.
Now you know what it feels like for guardians, Nil commented.
Precisely thirty minutes after he’d promised, Raven appeared, walking calmly down the corridor. Surprisingly, he wasn’t alone.
“Mage Tisaku?” Dallion asked.
The man didn’t seem at all pleased to be there. The fact that he was showed the pull Raven’s family had.
“Dallion,” the man acknowledged the other’s presence as he walked by, stopping right in front of the door. “Two hours,” he said, fingers drawing an intricate pattern faster than the human eye could see. A top level awakened would have trouble following the design. Unlike the standard spell, this was composed of a single pattern.
Purple light blended with the threads and symbols covering the door’s surface, melting them away.
