World Sphere - 167 - King Nirhaan of Myththorne

Chapter 167 King Nirhaan of Myththorne

The elven guard came below deck with me to the Maelstrom’s bridge.  Adrial and Kiara both cocked their head in curiosity, and the woman was suddenly questioning her life choices.  “Don’t worry.  They are both trained only to eat bad people,” I joked with the elf.

The elven guard did not like my joke and remained stern.  “Approach from that tower there,” she pointed.  “They are tracking my communication stone.  There will be white stone circles at the base of the palace.  Land on one of them.”  She nodded as the Maelstrom moved where she indicated. “Who will be going with you for your audience with King Nirhaan?” She asked.

I hadn’t really thought much about it.  “Just myself and my phantom cats,” I announced.  I figured Adrial and Kiara would make me look impressive, and I trusted them to behave.  The guardswoman looked at the two cats.  Kiara stood on her six legs, stretched her back, and yawned, showing her assortment of fangs.  She was not helping the situation, and maybe it was on purpose.  Kiara now understood a fair amount of common speech and had a mischievous streak.

The guardswoman studied the cats and then spoke softly into a communication stone.  I focused on the approach and landed on one of the white circles as I had been instructed.  Twenty-three palace guards in gold and silver armor marched out to serve as an escort.  It was a very impressive procession, and I was not sure if it was to honor me or because I had requested the phantom cats to accompany me.

When the ramp descended, Aelyn was in the cargo hold and looked ready to join me.  “Sorry Aelyn.  The King did not permit me to bring anyone beyond Adrial and Kiara.”  The elven guard arched her eyebrow at me under her helm.

Aelyn looked slightly upset, “Fine, Bleiz and I will explore the city.  Where is Sana?”

“The Mountain Goat Tavern,” I said, recalling her note.  At least, that was where we had planned to meet when I arrived.  I handed her a bag of ten large platinum coins, which disappeared into her small dimensional storage.  Aelyn still had a sour look at not coming to meet King Nirhaan, but it was probably better this way.

I followed the guardswoman, and the two phantom cats trailed on my hips.  The escort of twenty-three formed around us as we marched into the green palace.  The green stone had a translucent quality like jade.  Inside the palace, the floors were a milky white stone and the walls a rich blue.  It was all dungeon stone and extremely impressive. Our steps echoed through the hallways.

The cats were on high alert as we entered deeper and deeper into the structure.  I was expecting to be brought to a large audience chamber, but we halted at a pair of double doors.  The female guardsman knocked firmly, and the doors swung inward.  She then stepped aside, and I presumed to enter.  It was a modest office with lean elf behind a desk in white robes.  His desk was covered in dozens of piles of papers, and he looked relieved for company.

The elf looked at me, then the cats, and then addressed the female guard, “You can leave us.”  The guardswoman bowed, backed out of the room, and then shut the doors behind her.

King Nirhaan did not look like a king.  His age was hard to discern as he was an elf, and there were many ways to slow your aging.  “Phantom cats?”  He asked.

“Yes, King Nirhaan, this black one is Adrial, and this white one is Kiara.  Both are almost two years old and very disciplined,” I announced.

“Impressive.  I have never seen a white one before.  There are such creatures on the seventh level of the Thunder Witch dungeon, and I know they are a nightmare to fight,” He stood and went to another table that had a black sword on it.  “You can approach artificer.”

I came to the table to see the black adamantine sword on the table and dozens of adamantine coins scattered about.  “You will be the fourth artificer who has come seeking to complete my task to forge a truly magnificent weapon for my heir.”

I looked at the black blade on the table and was confused. It looked well-shaped, but I could not see any of the runes, “How have they failed to live up to your expectations?”

The King smiled and did not look that old, “The first to attempt it was a dwarven smith.  He worked the adamantine but lacked the fine touch to place the enchantments that I wanted.  The next was a foolish con artist who planned to escape with much more than he was due.” He eyed me for a few seconds, maybe as a warning. “The most recent sorely overestimated his abilities and this was the result.”

“May I?”  I asked the King, and he nodded.  I picked up the sword, sent my metal shaping skill, and frowned.  “He tried to make an alloy of the adamantine.” The King arched an eye in surprise but nodded.

I tried to figure out what he had been trying to do.  Finally, I said, “I can’t work with this.  The adamantine will need to be purified from the other metals.”

The King exhaled, frustrated, “I know.  We have tried and failed, and I am not quite prepared to start over with more adamantine.   If I can find a buyer for this lump, I might...”

“I can purify the adamantine, but that was not part of the task,” I said a little too smugly.

“Really?  Prove it, and we can negotiate.  I have had too many come and fail, so forgive my skepticism.”  The King nodded to me.

I took the sword in my hand and focused.  I slowly ran my hand down the length, each stroke pulling some mithril out of the metal.  After a few minutes, I had a small pile of mithril flakes on the table.  I probably could have squeezed out the impurities, but I didn’t want to show too much of my hand.

“Remarkable!  Tier four spell?”  The King inquired.

“Something like that.  It will take a few hours, but I could cleanse the metal.  Another eight or nine hours to shape the sword and work in your chosen enchantments,” I said confidently.

“Just half a day!  Impossible!”  King Nirhaan was in disbelief.  Adrial had collapsed on the floor and was stretching for a nap.  She knew very well how I got when I went into an enchanting focus.  Kiara was still alert and focused on the King.

“Not impossible, but not easy either.  Shall we discuss terms for the work?”  I asked, placing the blade on the table.  The original terms were three adamantine coins, equal to three hundred thousand gold.

“If you let me watch the process, start to finish, six adamantine coins,” the King offered.  His eyes danced with the prospect of getting what he sought for so long.

“Eight coins if you want to watch, six if you do not.”  I figured eight coins was just enough to finish one of my cannons. “I also wish to purchase ten adamantine coins.”

The King stepped back and considered. “We do not sell the adamantine. We have agreements in place to sell the adamantine to certain parties.”

“But surely, you are the King and can decide to make an exception.” I pressed. I was not looking forward to the possibility of spending months creating adamantine. I had enough platinum and mithril to buy the coins I needed.

The King smiled, “I may be the King, but I am slaved to my advisors. The city’s economy is a living, breathing thing, and my job is to guide it. Besides what you see in this room, the rest of the adamantine coming into my possession is destined for other parties.”

I couldn’t help but brush it off and laugh, “You and the rulers of Skyholme would get along.”

King Nirhaan couldn’t help but laugh with me, “All rulers are slaves to the coin. If we are not fighting with the Adventurer’s Guild for dungeon resources, we are taxing what we can to protect our people from the dangers of the Sphere.”  He picked up the black blade, “Master artificer, eight coins it is. I would be fascinated and honored to watch your process.” He handed me the blade.

I took the blade and got to work under his watchful eye. Whoever had tried to make this alloy had not done a bad job but was adding the alloy to make the adamantine easier to work, which defeated the purpose of the indestructible material. The smith then ran into a problem when laying out the runes, as there was too much interference with the metals they chose for the alloy. My progress was slow, and the King hung over me and watched intently as I flaked out the array of mixed metals. I soon found myself sweating as it got harder and harder to purify the adamantine.

King Nirhaan had visitors on his door every thirty minutes until he finally told his guards that we were not to be disturbed while I worked. “Have you almost purified the adamantine?” He asked after I had been working for almost three hours.

“Almost,” I told him, trying to hide my irritation at being interrupted. I was used to working in complete solitude and silence. He was paying for the show, so I tried to be accommodating. I placed the black blade on the table a few minutes later, “It is done. I have the dimensions of your blade, but if you have a replica of the type of blade you want forged, it would be easier and take less time.

King Nirhaan went to the wall and pulled down a typical long sword. I took the blade and sent my senses into it.  “Dungeon forged blade?” I asked when I encountered the complex runes within.

He nodded, “From the human fort captain on the second layer of the Thunder Witch. I got it in the Auction a few years ago, and it is my favorite blade to practice with.”

I studied the blade again, trying to figure out what the runes did. Anti-speed runes…no, some type of slowing runes. There was also the typical enchantment for durability as well. The dungeon that had created it also had a unique flourish to its runic script—not quite elegant, but definitely artistic. “Does this blade slow your opponent’s movements?” I finally asked after studying the blade for an extended period.

The King beamed, “It does. How did you read the runes? I have never seen someone discern its purpose without a diviniation spell.”

“I read the runic script and have studied runes long enough to translate them,” I informed the King.

“I have never met anyone who could read dungeon runic script so easily,” the King said awed.

“All the runes are the same, and it is just being able to eliminate the flourishes the dungeons add to their runes. It takes a long time and a lot of study of numerous patterns. I need to focus,” I told the King, hoping not to get interrupted again.

I spent the next four hours shaping the adamantine blade while the King watched, fascinated. I was interrupted by my own communication stone and had to answer and respond to Bleiz and let him know that I was fine. They had walked the city and were checking out items being auctioned off in two days through the Adventurer’s Guild. These were mostly items that had been harvested from the Cavern of the Thunder Witch or other nearby dungeons.

I planned to check out the Auction myself. I couldn’t use dungeon essences as my ability core was full, and any more additions might possibly kill me, but Freya and others who worked for me could always use some new abilities.

I also had to take a break to feed the cats. Kiara had remained on watch while the bored Adrial had taken up a lounging position in front of the door. It was not a bad place to be as she would be alerted if someone entered, but Kiara did not think much of her sister’s guardian’s efforts.

With the blade finished, I selected the aether crystals to power the enchantments. An assortment of tier-seven crystals was casually in a bowl on the table. King Nirhaan couldn’t contain his questions any longer as I sorted through the crystals, “How did you maintain the spell for so long? How are you going to add the runes now?”

I don’t think I ever realized how unique and powerful my tier-four shape metal ability was. I knew it was a combination of two tier-four spells: shape metal and sense metal. In researching them, I learned both spells took a lot of aether to sustain and needed to be leveled to improve their effectiveness. My ability was a shortcut and took a minimal amount to aether to utilize and sustain. I think it was somehow tied to my tier seven ability to create any metal from aether, supercharging the shape metal ability by its synergy.

I was stalling while trying to decide how to answer the King’s query. I selected a good-sized violet crystal, just bigger than my thumbnail.  “I have a fair amount of aether, and a lot of my evolutions have focused on efficiency,” I said while pressing the crystal into the guard.  He gawked at the ease it appeared to go in. It took quite a lot of focus and effort to move the adamantine out of the way and fold around the aether crystal.

Next, I took some mithril ingots and proceeded to draw out the runes from the hilt up the blade.  I took out the diagrams of the runes I had redrawn with my own signature. The King had two runic patterns he wanted on the blade. The first was the common runic pattern sharpness. This was not required for an adamantine blade unless you were fighting creatures with strong resistances. The second was a much more complex leadership rune.

The leadership rune was unique, and I still had not found anything similar in all my searches. The rune magnified allies in a fight by creating an aura, improving their focus and tenacity. As I laid out the runes along the blade’s exterior, the King hovered over me and kept whispering to himself. As I proceeded, I referenced my drawings and used my telescopic eye and my metal sense ability to confirm they were correct.

The telescopic eye spell was a huge assistance when I worked on rings and greatly sped up the process of creating detailed runes. For this adamantine blade, I just wanted to make sure it was perfect for the commission I was being paid. With the runes finished, I began the hardest part of the entire process, sinking the runes into the adamantine. It took a lot of concentration and effort to push the mithril into the adamantine as it naturally pushed back like opposing magnets.

The final step took nearly an hour, and my back ached from leaning over the table for so long. A quick healing spell, and I stood and turned to the King, who was shaking his head in disbelief, “That had to be the most amazing display of metal craft I have ever seen. If you do not mind, I want to confirm the functionality of the blade with my mages.”

“Please do. You will find it perfectly meets the specifications for the job posting.” I gave Kiara and Adrial some attention while King Nirhaan took the adamantine blade to have it tested. I was slightly surprised as he had left me with the surplus material on the table.

The King returned all smiles a good hour later, just when I was starting to worry. “My advisor couldn’t believe you crafted this blade in half a day. He swore it was a dungeon creation. So I must ask you, and it is ok if you are, are you a dungeon avatar?”

My blood chilled a little at the accusation. “What is a dungeon avatar?”

The Elven King’s eyes twinkled, “I think you know.” He explained anyway, “Sentient dungeon entities that are released into the world to explore and bring back information to the dungeon consciousness.”

“No. I can assure you that I am not a dungeon avatar,” I informed the King. He studied me, gave a noncommittal shrug, and then handed me a small black leather pouch. I took it and poured the contents out—eight adamantine coins. On one side was a Pegasus, and on the other was a horned abomination.

“Coins from the deepest part of the Cavern of the Thunder Witch. I have sent word to the Adventurer’s Hall that you completed my commission. That is your payment, but I may have another task for you, Master Artificer. If you are interested in a simple adamantine ring?” The King offered.

“I am actually exhausted from working on your legacy blade, King Nirhaan. I also wanted to check out your Auction House and see if there are some unique dungeon essences for purchase. If you send your requirements for the ring to my skyship, I will take a look at them.” I rose, planning to excuse myself.

The King sucked on his teeth, “The monthly auction is in just two days. I would be honored if you joined me in my personal box for the event,” the King offered. Aelyn was right; I was getting the vibe that he wanted to keep me around like a pet.

“I am traveling with my companions. If they can join us, I would be happy to take you up on your offer,” I made to leave with the cats.

King Nirhaan started to walk me to the door, “Are you sure you are not hungry? You worked for over half a day. I can have rooms prepared for you and your companions in the palace.”

“I am content to remain on my skyship, King Nirhaan.” Four guards were outside the door as I exited, and they escorted me back to the Maelstrom.

I followed the guards out of the palace but knew I had not heard the last from King Nirhaan.