(Book 2 Complete!) Tales of the Endless Empire [LitRPG Apocalypse]

The mood in the city was great, at least from what Thalion saw while flying over it on his way to the alchemist's workshop. The large influx of treasures from the palace had definitely made most people very happy. The fact that hunting parties were being captured or killed by the elves didn't seem to bother too many, or perhaps it simply wasn't common knowledge yet.

It was already getting dark, and Thalion was looking forward to hearing what the alchemist had discovered. Sadly, it wasn't much... They were still testing. It seemed they truly weren't all that skilled when it came to runes. The alchemists still had time and now it was time for Thalion to finish his sword. To do that, he needed to accomplish two things. First, upgrade the sword's crystal. Second, test the new runes. Maybe Lucan had gotten lucky with the explosive runes for the armor.

He found the man standing in the dim light of the lowest and largest chamber. The crimson glow of the runes he was currently working on lit his face from below. Lucan had a wild grin as he worked.

"Hey Lucan, how are things going?" Thalion asked with a smile. He was a bit exhausted from all the fighting and scheming. Things definitely had the potential to get rough, and he wasn't exactly in the best condition to deal with it personally at the moment. Okay, it wasn't looking that bad, but fighting the female elf right now was not something he wanted to do. Not before he gained more control and got his major upgrades. For now, the sword was his first priority, and right after that, the armor.

"Yes, I am in fact making great progress. If I continue at this pace, I might have my first results in two to three days. Then it will only take another few days of testing to make it perfect," Lucan said, smiling broadly when he saw Thalion standing in the chamber's entrance.

That meant almost another week until Thalion's full equipment would be ready. Too long. He might need to fight the female elf with the crippled Eclipsari, or with eagly. His human form, without armor and sword, likely wasn't strong enough.

"Good progress. I'll be working on the sword," Thalion said thoughtfully before leaving and heading to the chamber one floor above.

What he wanted to do next was experiment with the ring that allowed him to recall the Blade of the Blooded Templar to his hand, or control it remotely. First, he wanted to make sure the return function worked flawlessly. For this, Thalion prepared a few test swords, since he only wanted to engrave runes into the Blade of the Blooded Templar once.

Over the next hour, he engraved runes into two sabres, one rapier, and one broadsword. He wanted to see if the size of the blade affected how well he could control it. He also needed to know how much power he could infuse into the blade. The more power, the faster the movement, if his theory was correct.

Besides the crafting, Thalion's fingers were itching to look at the scroll on ritual magic he had bought, which supposedly contained some powerful spells. Sadly, that would have to wait. For now, it was testing time. For every sword, he made a matching ring to control it. It was truly amazing that, if he was correct, all of this only required four tiny runes.

Now it was time to see if what he had copied from the rings of the fishman in the catacombs actually worked. A training dummy still stood at the far side of the room, and Thalion released the first sword—it hovered in place, the blade angled downward toward the ground.

"Not too bad for a first try," Thalion commented. He had expected more problems, like the sword failing to hover at all or flying around uncontrollably. This was actually better than he'd hoped.

Next, he tried to move it toward the distant dummy. The sword obeyed, but the way it flew didn't look good. It drifted forward pommel-first, with the blade dangling behind. Thalion had intended the opposite. More work would be needed. The sword came to a stop beside the dummy, blade still pointing downward. It didn't look entirely stable, either.

Thalion already had a dozen ideas for improvements. Maybe he should have tested one blade first instead of engraving so many at once. He hadn't expected the first attempt to work this well, and now he needed more testing to find the flaw.

He already knew which runes needed adjustment: one rune created the telepathic link, and the other two controlled the blade. The fact that the link worked perfectly was almost too good to be true.

He commanded the blade to slash at the dummy. It didn't go well. The sabre attacked with the eagerness of a drunk man, turning what should have been clean, sharp strikes into clumsy, weak swings.

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There were two runes Thalion needed to change slightly. He had a good idea of how to adjust their shapes to make the sabre more stable in the air and give it more power with each swing. Yes. This was good progress.

Thalion gave the sword a mental command to fly back into his hand. He watched as the sabre returned, the blade swinging loosely behind the pommel, looking rather funny.

The wobbling could also be because of the sabre's shape, he thought aloud. It would be best to try the straight rapier.

Since he had engraved the other swords already, it would be a waste not to test them. The rapier was indeed a bit more stable in the air, which was good, because the Blade of the Blooded Templar was not curved like the sabre.

After finishing his tests, he revised the runes on the practice blades, only on the rapier and the sword most similar in shape to the Blade of the Blooded Templar.

By the time Thalion was done, it must have been the dead of night. He now spent much more time ensuring the runes were perfectly precise. The testing with these weapons went flawlessly.

Until now, the Blade of the Blooded Templar had been a conduit to enhance his skills, but with these new runes it opened up possibilities mid-fight that most opponents would never expect. The strikes weren't overly powerful and against heavy armor, they probably wouldn't do much, but simply having the option to throw the blade at someone was already a huge advantage. Most wouldn't expect a swordsman to just throw away his weapon.

Another possibility was to have it fly alongside the Crimson Eidolon. Maybe it could even wield the sword too. After it was destroyed or deactivated, Thalion could simply call it back. This upgrade opened so many new paths and fighting styles for him.

Now he could finally begin engraving the sword with the improved runes. These runes would enhance all of his skills channeled through the Blade of the Blooded Templar, especially blood-related ones. Thalion was really looking forward to seeing what the blade would become.

He had just begun engraving when it must have been early morning, because Maike suddenly stormed into the chamber with a wild expression.

"Thalion, what is wrong with you? I messaged you over ten times! Althirion is back with news from the elves, they're on their way to us, to make it short," Maike shouted, snapping him out of his work.

Thalion quickly checked his messages and realized he had indeed missed quite a lot, over thirty notifications while he had been fully focused on testing and crafting.

"Ah, sorry Maike, didn't notice. So, I guess you're all waiting for me?" Thalion admitted, scratching the back of his head.

"Yes, we are. It looks like a big confrontation lies ahead. Also, we need to talk about that pillar. Its aura has grown so strong that people have started moving out of the homes nearby. We already have housing problems with all the newcomers. In fact, I have no idea how we can even manage in the new world," Maike complained with a sigh.

"Good. Then let's get moving. I want to get back here as soon as possible," Thalion said in relatively good spirits, motioning for Maike to lead the way. Together they moved quickly through the streets toward a building near the main gate.

"Why are we not meeting in my tower?" Thalion asked, confused, as they approached the house. It was larger than the others to the left and right, but otherwise looked fairly ordinary.

"I am not doing official business in the tower with that pillar in the entrance hall. Do you have any idea how strong it's become? You can feel it even here if you pay attention," Maike snapped, clearly annoyed. It had probably been a rough time for her, with all the recent attacks.

They moved quickly through the house, which was far larger on the inside than outside thanks to space magic. Multiple families and fighters bustled about the wide entrance hall, hurrying up and down the stairs.

"Where are we?" Thalion asked, a bit puzzled, nodding to the people who rushed past him and bowed, something he found a bit much.

"This is where Kaldrek, Jack, Josh, and I live, along with all these others," Maike said with a huff, pushing her way through the crowd on the wide staircase.

"Ha," Thalion managed as he followed her. On the tenth floor, they entered a door where Kaldrek and the elf Althirion sat at a table. Kaldrek was eating meat with vegetables Thalion had never seen before, washing it down with beer. Althirion had a glass of wine, which he sipped from time to time.

"Put that beer down, Kaldrek, if you don't want something bad happening," Maike shouted with such fury that even the elf set his wineglass down.