[D'sP] Bone Relic - Chapter 480

Out in the forest, a man moves away from Wolf’s Rest. No, not just away from Wolf’s Rest. He moves away from the community as well.

Billy Brown never saw himself being in this position. Then again, he never saw the arrival of magic coming either and yet here we are. It is a bit of a shame for him to be in this position.

His future had been secure, being a polyglot, fluent in 7 regular languages and 7 conlangs meant an assured job. Whether as a translator, professor, or what have you. Though even if he has ended up not wanting to do anything with his language skills, it would make him valuable in whatever profession he decides to take up or place he may want to live.

And it isn’t just a pre-magic thing. Billy had become an adult at exactly the wrong time. A bit earlier and there was an easy life. If instead he grew up a bit later? Well, in the short term, they’ll eventually need translators when they contact other communities.

The system might have made sure that everyone in his current community could speak the same language. Which included the various kin. It isn’t going to do that going forward.

Even further on? His talent would be all the more valuable. There might be spells and devices which claim to be universal translators, but the basic status screen gave a lie to that in the first place. The fact that even among the people in his community, there are those for whom the name of their stats is different.

Which is actually the niche someone like Billy helped fix. A translation spell cast by someone who knows a language, will do a lot better translating that language. And this is only amplified if the caster knows both languages involved.

Like the fact that at least one of the conlangs that Billy knew turned out to be a legitimate language, only meant he was all the more valuable. Once the world is open to the rest of the universe, he will be worth so much.

Not right now, though. Right now? Knowing languages meant finding another job or danger. Well, everything is dangerous, so Billy chose the danger he could see.

His choice was to explore the wilds in search of the thing that would make use of his skill. Billy was searching for another community. Was it likely that the nearest community spoke their language? 

That is hard to guess at. On one hand, the system might have placed people near those like them or at least geographically close. As could be seen with Billy himself, who is from overseas. It is also possible, though, that the community next to them spoke a different language.

In theory, the world should look much like it had before. While literally everything was reduced to non-existence when magic swept through. The system rebuilt it all as it had been. Except after that, anyone who was sapient got drawn into the tutorials and the rest of the world was left to change and decay.

Billy Brown might not have been the biggest geography buff, but others are and they had the various books. Though none of that should have been needed. There are towns! Pre-system towns and their road signs just sitting around.

Except for the fact that having so many modern towns, all arranged to be about a day’s walk apart and in the shape of a rough diamond without any roads connecting them? Yeah, no, the system did something. Maybe the terrain hadn’t been shuffled, but towns had been.

Though if Billy was honest, he hadn’t asked about that kind of thing during the tutorial and so he did not have firsthand information on the matter. Maybe the entire world got shuffled. He doubted it as balancing everything would be difficult.

Anyway, none of that is important. What mattered right now is that no one had found a recognizable landmark. Which, to be fair, isn’t the hardest thing given the size of the world. Maybe if they were next to the ocean, they could have spotted something using a map. Match up the coastline.

Then again, if the planet shifted in any way when put back? That may be useless. There are already some who claimed the moon is now closer to the planet. Billy however believed the theory that some lensing effect based on magic is to blame. Even so, that was the point, wasn’t it?

Magic represented change on a level never before seen. Basic rules for reality can be bent now. The weather itself is proof of this, what with the system keeping things mild. So what is a little bit of terrain?

None of that really matters to what Billy is doing right now, anyway. Even if he knew exactly where he was on a map, that wouldn’t point out where other communities are. So all he could do is tempt fate and go in as straight a line as possible.

Though he isn’t going in completely blind. Jim had gathered some air mages and got a scout quite high up. Not the most useful for details, but gave the general lay of the land.

On top of that, Billy brought with him a bit of sympathetic magic. A compass of sorts, except instead of magnetic North, this special compass is attuned to a very powerful locus of magic. The dungeon itself.

And while the compass likely isn’t powerful enough to point towards the dungeon from anywhere on the planet. Billy planned to turn around well before the theoretical limit. That or run into an ocean with about the same results.

Because Billy had focused his growth in one particular direction. To be a scout. Not just any scout, though. He wanted to move through dangerous territory unhindered and unseen.

To this end, he had a number of things working for him. Billy, of course recieved personal training from the Barrais. Magic is fun and all, but it is better simply not to be seen in the first place.

Not that he didn’t have magic. There was the bevy of combat options, of course. You practically couldn’t be in the inner circle without Ruby making sure you knew how to cast fire ribbon. The spell is just too effective compared to similar Mana spells and certainly so much better than fire dart.

However, what Billy is really proud of, are his own spells. The mage tower had been of great help as they are stocking select pieces of historical literature. Books that they carefully copied from the originals, which contained records on many rituals and beliefs.

They provided a double whammy of help. Just as the one conlang he has learned turned out to almost exactly match a major elven trade tongue. Some of the rituals described were legitimate rituals from the greater universe. Though maybe more important, is that for some reason, the old runes began to work at some point, which had knock-on effects.

It isn’t perfect, but many rituals and rites could be adapted now. In particular, Billy had dug up a hunting ritual meant to bless someone with quiet steps, a scentless trail, and a lowered presence. This originally was meant for hunting deer and other skittish creatures.

With a bit of work on Billy’s part, it is now quite effective for sneaking through a forest. In particular, Billy felt the “scentless trail” aspect had been improved. About the only downside is the ritual reserved a portion of his Mana pool instead of being a simple buff you cast and occasionally would re-up.

And it is a ritual, the system said so. Not that Billy would have said otherwise. Part of how it worked is channeling the forest around you and required you to set up some runes. 

Though thankfully it isn’t a strict ritual and so a few stones with the runes carved on them worked just fine. It would be a much less effective scouting spell if you had to carve runes into the ground. That would leave so much evidence!

Of course, depending on any one thing was a good way to fail. So along with the regular stealth skills and his magic, Billy had some equipment. Self-made equipment, at that.

The main piece was a relic, fetish, talisman, or whatever you wanted to call it. Billy is partial to “relic” because it matched the terminology of a few video games he had played. In particular, some of the roleplaying types also tacked on “slotless”, because it didn’t go somewhere.

Magic didn’t always want to infinitely stack for some reason. Sometimes trying to stack socks that keep your feet warm with shoes that cushion your steps only ends in pain. Which is where relics come into play.

They do small things and just need to be on you. Though that does mean directly attached to you or your clothes. You can’t just have them stuffed in your pack.

In this case, it was a bone ornament. Billy had personally hunted lesser shadow wolves until they dropped a decent bone for his purposes. Not that he needed the full bone.

Rather, all that is needed is a decent panel. Billy had Jimmy prepare the blank for him. Though it is Billy himself who did the functional carving. Without a skill for it, the carving is rough. That is fine though as it mattered more for him to have carved it personally.

Once the carving was done, Billy made use of silver wire to gently fill in the lines. Silver because of the connection with the moon. Though the moon also had elements of revelation, what with it being the main light in the night sky. So that wasn’t where he stopped.

After a bit of effort, he gathered a small amount of caustic lye and sulfur. Which when mixed together, made for a nice black patina on silver. Perfect for this relic.

Billy wasn’t certain if this is a connection made in the past, but to him? Black silver represented the new moon. The darkest of nights, when things are most easily hidden.

Anyway, with the crafting done, Billy spent a couple of days shoving magic into the thing. There seemed to be a limit of how much Mana could be shoved into the relic and further research by others seems to point towards it being consistent. Basically, a normal person can put a third of their day into enchanting something.

Of course, that didn’t even count the need for a masterwork piece, which Billy cheated his way through the requirement for. After all, dungeon drops count as masterworks and the bone did drop from a dungeon. Now, this wouldn’t have worked if anything more had been done to the bone.

Any shaping or even just adding something besides the silver would have been enough to make it no longer count. Thankfully, the silver counted as part of the material being used to enchant the bone instead of part of the relic. This did mean that all but a thin layer of the silver ended up being burned away during the enchanting process. But whatever, Billy got his magical trinket.

As for what it did? Well, the middle finger long piece of bone made the person with it harder to detect when not in direct light. So less than useful against other humans. After all, even a simple light spell would counter the effect. However, against beasts and monsters while under the canopy of a forest? Quite useful and all it took was having the relic strapped to his arm.

Well, it didn’t have to be strapped to the arm or leg. You could hang it off your clothes or basically anything else that was directly worn by you and didn’t stick out too much. So no, you can’t hang it off a backpack, even if you aren’t wearing a shirt. Though it does seem that undershirts don’t get in the way of your armor counting? 

Yeah, the rules still weren’t fully understood. Not like people had been grilling the tutorial guides on the specifics of wearing magical trinkets. Anyway, Billy wore it strapped to his arm for a much more obvious reason once you think about it. This is a piece of bone. It has all of the properties of bones and the lesser shadow wolf wasn’t a strong enough monster to change that.

So yeah, the relic was bone white and if it rubbed against or knocked into something, it would make noise. Therefore, if you’re trying to be stealthy, much better to have the bone covered by your shirt and not able to swing into things like branches or your own gear.

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