"Where did you get those, lad?"
After arriving in the Crimson Anvil, which was fortunately still open, and showing my two recently acquired weapons to Goromir, he instantly snatched them, using a small metal dagger he had laying around to knock all over them, intently listening to the resulting sounds.
"I encountered a hobgoblin yesterday."
"By the gods, lad! You are a magnet for trouble. Where did you even find one around here?!"
"I was clearing a goblin nest. Apparently, some recent earthquake opened up a side tunnel. I think those tunnels with arcane moss are called the Dark Regions?"
"Huh? What you found does sound like a Dark Region tunnel. To be clear, those tunnels are not the Dark Regions – the real Dark Regions are farther down. Those tunnels do lead there, though."
"So, what can you tell me about those weapons?"
"They are made of the same alloy - Twilight Steel. It's a special alloy popular in the Dark Regions. When I say popular, I mean the few races and species who live there – dark elves and deep dwarves, among the best known dwellers of that place, as well as the occasional hobgoblin clan."
"So you think this one was part of a clan?"
"He definitely didn't make those weapons himself. If he was alone, perhaps he was exiled, or separated during their travels. The Dark Regions are a ruthless and treacherous place, and from what little I heard about them, the same can be said about hobgoblin clans."
"Do all smiths know this much about the Dark Regions?"
"Ha ha ha!.. No. Back in the day, me and my.. friends used to go on expeditions there. The Dark Regions are filled with danger, true, but among the danger lay countless treasures – not least among which are the many ores, minerals and gems one might find down there."
He shifted his gaze back to the weapons.
"As for this alloy, it is made using something called Midnight Iron – an ore with faint arcane residue, which can produce alloys that are very strong, yet maintain high elasticity. However, it also has a weakness – exposure to sunlight turns this alloy weak and brittle."
The half-dwarf looked me straight in the eye.
"That spearhead was clearly exposed to direct sunlight for way too long. I'll pay you 1 gold for it if you want – partly for the shaft, partly because that metal can still be smelted and used to make some decent tools."
"...fine. And the sword?"
"I assume you traveled with both of them under the sun, yet the sheath helped shelter the sword - to some degree. You need a special scabbard to truly isolate Twilight Steel from sunlight, and this one was clearly made in the Dark Regions, for the Dark Regions. The metal did not come out unscathed."
He smirked.
"However, this level of damage is still salvageable. A skilled smith with the right knowledge and tools could undo this damage, at a negligible cost, too."
"But with its properties, is this metal really useful on the surface?"
"It has a weakness, but for those who operate away from the sunlight, that weakness is negligible compared to the benefits. A standard ingot of this steel can go for over 80 gold in the right place. And this sword has at least 2 ingots worth of material, albeit damaged."
"Are you saying-?"
"No, I'm not going to buy this sword. This town has no clientele for such metal, and I couldn't properly process it with my tools even if I wanted to."
"Then why even-?"
"I said I won't buy it – but I know someone in Silverveil who will."
I raised my eyebrow in question.
"You'll need to move this sword somehow. 3 gold – by tomorrow, I'll shatter the steel, and prepare a proper sealed box that will fully protect it from sunlight. I'll also give you the name of the buyer."
'Why do I feel like I'm being bamboozled?'
Well, if this was any other random smith in this world, I'd probably refuse, but..
"...fine."
Well, now that I swung it, this greatsword really felt slightly different from when I tested it back in the cavern. Still, coming in expecting to make money only to come out with a lighter purse didn't feel great.
"That'll be 2 gold with the spear. You can pay when you pick it up tomorrow."
"Nah, it's fine. Anyway, I also have this…"
I took out the helmet and chainmail.
"Oh! This one looks good. You should count your lucky stars - not a trace of Midnight Iron here. Just high quality steel. And a very good condition, too. Just need to wash off the blood, and I wouldn't mind putting it up in the store. You looking to sell?"
"No. Actually, I was looking to refit this."
"Ah! No problem, lad. Let me just take your measurements. At first glance, you'd have some rings left from the chainmail for future repairs, too. The whole thing will be 5 gold, and should take until tomorrow evening. I'll throw in a maintenance kit, too."
The last remark was added after seeing my face, which probably did not look happy upon realizing I'd be walking out of here with 7 less gold coins instead of a few dozen more.
"Alright. Thank you."
"See you tomorrow, lad!"
Leaving the armor and weapons behind, I exited the shop and looked around, only to see everything else - including the alchemy shop - was already closed.
'I hope there's something left for dinner at the inn'.
Making my way back to the inn through the night town streets, seeing the warm light shimmer through windows of passing houses, hearing the few men and women just now returning home, to the faint sounds of their children's greetings - for some reason, this walk felt different than usual. More.. melancholic.
I shifted my focus from my surroundings, focusing instead on my plans.
Right now, I had about 29 gold. Hopefully, I'd have at least 33 tomorrow.
I've used up less than a week so far, so even if I got 1 gold per day from here on out, purely from plant collection, I'd have enough for that true interrogation in less than three weeks.
I came to the conclusion I might just do that, unless I found some fitting missions on the board. I wasn't good at hunting beasts, but if some area in the forest showed a high level of goblin activity, I'd gladly take up a general extermination mission (which was quite open ended) to supplant my income.
Beyond that… train. Eat. That was pretty much it.
There was no public or guild library in this town, and any book I'd want to read here was not a book I could afford to buy right now.
No, actually, I could ask Amelia about more stuff.
'She clearly knows a lot about this world's history and workings, and that knowledge could definitely come in handy. The price is not very high, eithe-'
I cut off that thought. What even was this line of thinking?
Was Amelia some cost efficient information dispenser? Oh course not! She was a person I could trust. The first good person I met in this world. The only person I could truly call a friend.
'The only person left who'd call you a friend.'
I shook my head.
'Soon, you'll be leaving that person behind, anyway. Why not squeeze as much worth as possible in the meantime?'
"shut..up.."
'Why are you pretending to care? There's a reason you haven't told her more about your condition. Or where you're from, really. Think of all the knowledge you could gain in just a few weeks! This could save you dozens of gold at some library, or even more - time! You were given a perfect tool - use it.'
"Shut up!"
Suddenly, clarity returned to my eyes – I realized I must have randomly shouted in the middle of the street. In the corner of my eye, I saw a small child running towards a woman standing at her home's doorway, quickly shooing her child back inside before throwing a suspicious look my way and closing the door.
"Huuuu… Haaaaa."
I took a deep breath.
This has never happened before. Come to think of it, I'd been strangely resilient in the last few days. Well, those last few days have been most of my days in this world.
—
[Soul Contamination] - Your soul shall be corroded in 1041 days.
—
It hasn't even been a week – this was way too early to have a breakdown. I had way too much left to do!
'Maybe this mission took a bigger mental toll on me than I realized.'
Quickening my pace, I soon made my way back to the inn.
"Welcome back, Sebastian!"
Arthur, the owner, who was at reception this time, gave me a friendly wave. I did my best to return a faint smile.
"Anything left from dinner?"
Arthur shot me an awkward smile.
"Sorry, dinner time has long passed. We still have a few scraps of meat and bread if you'd like."
"That'd be great. Thanks."
I went to the kitchen, and had the stable boy (or general inn helper, whose name I hadn't asked for so far) bring out a medium plate with what Arthur described.
The meal was a bit cold and meager, but compared to water, jerky and a few dried fruits, this meal was the stuff of kings.
Feeling my spirits slightly uplifted, I made my way to the bath. The water was lukewarm, so I made sure to wash up quickly, before picking up my bag and equipment, and carrying everything up to my room.
The bed has been made – beyond that, the room was just as I've left it. Beyond the bed and basic furniture, as well as a single unlit candle on the small bedside drawers, it was completely empty, barren of any signs I have ever stepped foot into it.
'Had I not returned from that mission, I wonder how long it'd be until this candle was lit again. I still have 5 nights prepaid, so I guess they'd keep it reserved. After that, who knows? If this town has a rush season – probably until then.'
'Afterwards, it would be as if I was never here at all.'
I wanted to do something to distrust myself from my own thoughts, but there was nothing left to do.
I sorted through my herbs and mushrooms, putting them in a separate sack. That took about two minutes.
'Hmm… maybe I could check that thing. Haven't done a full sweep in a while.'
When the familiar translucent text appeared, I leisurely looked through the first section. Only to do a double take – this time, something was different.
—
[Attributes]:
Strength: 13
Agility: 12
Endurance: 12
Intelligence: 14
Awareness: 19
Charisma: 9
—
'My.. Intelligence has increased?'
Did stats increase over time, or maybe with training? I had a feeling they might, but I didn't exactly study complex mathematics in the last few days, so this probably wasn't it.
—
[Skills]:
[Charge Thrust] - Lv2 (85/100)
|__ [Charge] Lv2(38/100)
|__ [Thrust] ???
[Arc Slash] - Lv1 (41/100)
—
While the next section did not answer the first mystery, it definitely held a few revelations.
First and foremost, both of my skill proficiencies had greatly increased compared to regular training.
'So it real combat- no, the intensity of the skill usage environment greatly affects proficiency gain.'
This meant that using them against goblins was better than swinging my sword in the training yard, but doing so in a life-and-death situation would probably lead to even better results.
'Not that I want my fights to be like that.. still, this is useful knowledge.'
The second interesting part was that my [Charge Thrust] skill now had two "sub-parts".
I already guessed that if [Charge] could be used as a standalone skill, [Thrust] could probably be used as one as well.
But it seemed the moment I finally "got" the former skill, the latter got automatically "listed".
'Although this could be a case of filling information by omission. It could also just be showing what I already deduced – after all, it doesn't have any level or proficiency indicator yet.'
Anyway, this would definitely be worth training, at least for flexibility's sake.
'Also, the proficiency of [Charge] is lower than the main skill.'
I understood the main skill was obviously more complex than each individual sub-skill. Was there some sort of formula? Could training individual sub-skills contribute to the main proficiency, and vice versa?
'This is all too complex to think about blindly. Maybe when I train [Thrust], I'll get a few clues.'
Scanning through the rest of the sections, there was only one new addition – but one that solved the earlier mystery.
[Traits]:
—
[Inspired Creativity]
Intelligence +1
Intelligence is treated as +2 higher for the purposes of learning, training, improving, creating, deconstructing or combining skills.
—
While this was definitely not a busted trait like [The Self] or [He Who Gazed Into The Abyss], this was definitely very useful.
Also, this was probably something I've actually gained myself – not a leftover from Sebastian, or one of those traits I got hell knows were. This was a trait that resulted from my own choices and actions. It actually made me feel a bit of pride and accomplishment.
'By the way, this confirms another suspicion I've had since talking to that Harold guy.'
Harold said one of the possible guaranteed ways to gain a Path was to have a total of six of any combination of skills, traits and abilities.
However… even if the sub-skills of [Charge Thrust] didn't count, with my newest trait, [Inspired Creativity], I had exactly six! And no Path to speak of.
This could mean one of three things:
One – Harold could either lie or be wrong. However, those two possibilities seemed equally unlikely.
Back then, Harold talked about this as if it was common knowledge.
He wouldn't lie about something that could be easily refuted by talking to any Path bearer or going to the guild library in the city – not only did he have no reason to, but he also looked like the type of person who cared about how others perceive him. Well, others he needed, at least.
He wouldn't be wrong about something this basic, either. From what I've seen in this world - even though the lens through which I looked has only been this small town - people in high positions of authority were held to certain standards. Harold got scolded for cutting out the hobgoblin entry – this level of scrutiny guaranteed he had at least some level of competence, otherwise he probably wouldn't survive in this position.
Two – The common knowledge of this world could be wrong.
I did not completely discard this possibility, but it was extremely unlikely – after all, common knowledge is common for a reason, and there must have been millions of recorded cases that didn't dispute this rule.
If I was some special case that proved the exception… I was inclined to believe the reason lay neither in the world nor in me. Which led me to the third option, which I considered most likely.
Three – The Path acquisition rules that Harold knew only applied to traits that originated from this world, and either [The Self] or [He Who Gazed Into The Abyss] - or maybe both - did not fit that criteria.
This would explain the peculiar effects of both, and the busted attribute increase of the latter.
What good did this knowledge do me?
Well, at the very least, it told me I'd probably need one or two more traits, abilities or skills for a Path.
It also confirmed another thing in my mind – something happened between the moment I opened that damn black book, and the moment I opened my eyes in this body. And throughout that something, I've gained one or both traits.
'Well, this was an unexpected gain.'
I didn't open the panel with any particular expectations, but by the end of it, not only was there significant new information, but the initial goal of helping me fall asleep could be considered a success - I could barely keep my eyes open.
'I should really make this a habit.'
Despite the tiredness, I tossed and turned for a while before fading into slumber.