Loremaster of the Amaranthine lands

That growth spell was indeed simple, yet quite fascinating. Regis sat down beneath the cloak roof and quickly began to organize the pieces of arms and armour he’d be working with. The sack he took from Amanda held three dozen bronze ingots along with some leather and what he believed to be pieces of a deer’s antler. Once he sorted things out, he decided to begin his creative rampage as he created a finger-sized quartz crystal using his grow cluster spell.

Regis drew the familiar transmutation circle on the dirt ground and placed the quartz piece in the middle. He then began to cast the spell Letty had taught him on the formation, letting it suck up the pale green light provided by the spell as a welcome sight appeared in front of his eyes.

{You have successfully cast the ‘Lesser growth enhancement’ spell. This spell is now carved up into your Shardwaker’s mark.}

With the Heart informing him about his success in learning yet another spell, the dark elf continued spamming it on the crystal with a renewed determination. Switching between creating nature elemental stones and meditating, he managed to make three ‘waste’ ranked stones which he then fused into an ‘ordinary’ one. He then began to study Letty’s sceptre, and as it turned out, it wasn’t that different from his own staff or from Fabien’s sceptre.

The key difference was that it had no binding rune on it, just like Fabien’s own tool, but Letty’s was made from ashwood instead of bronze. It was little more than a glorified cudgel that had a hole carved into it where the opaque and bubbly white quartz was glued, surrounded by the poorly made runes. Regis had to admit that it was a shitty design. He grabbed the nature elemental crystal and a larger piece of rosewood from the pile he brought over and placed it into the creation based transmutation circle he drew on the ground.

The dark elf rummaged around for a few supplementary materials, deciding on a strip of leather, some fish glue he kept in a clay bottle and a nearly fist sized piece of antler. After some meditation to restore his arcana reserves, Regis placed the materials into the transmutation circle and began to channel his power and will into it. He began to imagine a design that could function as both a mace and as a sceptre. It took almost all of his arcana to power up the formation for the creation process, but in the end, he got away with a mild dizziness.

The light died down, spitting out a glowing bubble that burst above his hand. A unique looking piece of weapon fell into his palm, making him smile as he took a better look at it. The sceptre had a length similar to Letty’s original, but the head was more refined. It took after the dark elf’s own staff, a spiral of thumb thick root like wood pieces surrounding the light green nature elemental stone. They had a gap just wide enough between them to allow one to see the crystal core, but they were tight enough to prevent any accidental damage to it.

The weapon also had some weight to it, allowing the welder to bash in a few heads if needed. At the other end, a strip of leather was coiled around the shaft, forming a firm grip with an almost doorknob styled antler pommel at the end for an added bludgeoning option. Using the transmutation circle allowed Regis to secure the ends of the leather into the wood firmly. The pommel’s end got turned into a bolt-like shape that was screwed into the shaft, the fish glue adding some extra bonding strength to both the antler and the leather. All in all; it was a pretty cool looking piece.

Not wanting to waste too much time gawking, the young dark elf meditated for a short while to regain his strength before he would begin the second part of the sceptre’s creation. He held the weapon in his hand and began to meditate while recalling the partial runes that covered the other sceptre. Creating an unbound sceptre didn’t require any special resources, just pure arcana and someone proficient in infusion enchanting. One by one, Regis drew up the symbols in his mind-space, channelling arcana into them until all of them turned grey at first, then white.

A strong dizziness took hold of him, bordering the edge of his consciousness as he fell out of his meditation, but the sight of the rosewood sceptre with the tiny runes spread out along the spiralling roots made all of his efforts worth it. After another round of meditation, the dizziness faded away and he had the strength to finally identify the weapon he created with his spell.

{Floral rosewood sceptre}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Greater enchantments: 0}

{Lesser enchantments: 0}

{Durability: 100/100}

{Damage: 14}

The description of the sceptre was both surprising and a bit lacklustre. For one; it had a slight moniker in its name, just like Regis’ staff. The word ‘flora’ obviously referred to the nature elemental stone while the rosewood part was obvious due to it being the main crafting material. No enchantments were present yet, but the low damage was quite troublesome.

It did a bit less damage than Valerie’s whip before he enchanted it, but he couldn’t use bronze to upgrade this one, or it would interfere with Letty’s nature magic. Regis didn’t know if using earth elemental stones instead of bronze for the durability upgrade would also increase the base damage, but since he had to work with that, he would soon find out. Before that though, he wanted to compare his craftsmanship to the other sceptre. He cast charlatan’s wisdom on Letty’s other sceptre, a half see-through description appearing above the weapon.

{Apprentice ashwood sceptre (worn)}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: trash}

{Greater enchantments: 0}

{Lesser enchantments: 0}

{Durability: 87/100}

{Damage: 10/12}

It was just a bit worse than he imagined, the damage being lower due to the difference in quality and its lack of maintenance. With his ego satiated, Regis spent one of his ‘ordinary’ quality earth elemental stones to upgrade the rosewood sceptre’s durability with a second ranked rune. Once done, he checked out the difference once the white coloured rune appeared on the weapon.

{Floral rosewood sceptre}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Greater enchantments: 0}

{Lesser enchantments: 1}

{Durability: 125/125}

{Damage: 16}

‘Two points of damage increase.’ The dark elf nodded with a smirk plastered all over his face he checked the numbers. It was still low compared to the other weapons he saw, but it was obviously better than before. Even if by just two points. Regis put the sceptre aside, since he didn’t want to tinker with it too much without asking Letty what she actually wanted. He shifted his attention towards the pile of items he had to work with. Cruz’s staff was a fast job, since he only had to put a few bronze ingots down beneath it and infuse it with a durability and a weapon-shift rune. Before doing so, he identified it for the record.

{Hickory quarterstaff (scratched)}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Durability: 97/100}

{Damage: 20/20}

It wasn’t a bad weapon, but it could be a lot better with some work, so he did just that. The end result of the enchanting session was a bronze coloured staff that could grow small Morningstar-like edges on both ends. Charlatan’s wisdom proved that it was a good enough weapon too.

{Bronze infused quarterstaff}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Greater enchantments: 1}

{Lesser enchantments: 1}

{Durability: 125/125}

{Damage: 24/24}

‘Not bad. It seems using actual metal for the reinforcement adds more damage though. It’s most likely due to the added weight or something.’ Regis hummed as he saw that the staff’s damage got increased by four instead of two. He put it aside and grabbed Osmond’s cane, identifying it out of curiosity.

{Ashwood cane}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: trash}

{Durability: 100/100}

{Damage: 8/8)}

‘Bloody hell Osmond! How the fuck did you survive this long with a weapon like this?’ Regis stared at the cane’s description with a horrified look on his face. It was a literal piece of garbage; little more than a straight piece of ashwood branch that got roughly carved into the shape of a cane. Osmond must have either mended it after every fight, or he had a secret stockpile of it stashed away. There was no other explanation as to how he managed to still have it around.

“We’ll come back to you later.” He sighed as he put the cane aside, deciding on going forward with Amanda’s hammer.

{Bronze great hammer}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Durability: 100/100}

{Damage: 30}

Its description was still impressive, even without any enchantments. After recharging his arcana reserves, the hammer got infused with a second rank durability rune and an ‘ordinary’ fire rune, turning it into a burning weapon of melee ranged destruction. Regis almost threw the hammer away after enchanting it with the fire rune due to the scorching heat, but he managed to hold back.

As he opened his eyes from his meditative state, the sight of the bronze hammer greeted him with two white runes on it. One of the runes had a thin red aura around it, making it obvious that it was the fire elemental one. When charlatan’s wisdom was cast on the weapon once more, it revealed a pleasant sight for the dark elf.

{Scorching bronze great hammer}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Greater enchantments: 1}

{Lesser enchantments: 1}

{Durability: 125/125}

{Damage: 34}

{Fire damage: 10}

‘Damn! I hope she’ll never swing this beast in my direction.’ Regis swallowed his saliva as he looked at the weapon’s description. He put aside the weapon, but before continuing on, he got out from his improvised workplace and stretched his limbs. It was pitch black at the edge of the camp, although it wasn’t really apparent for the dark elf at first due to his dark-vision.

The campfire was still there, but only as a small pile of dying embers. Regis walked over to it and stirred it with a thin twig, putting a few pieces on top of it to help revive the fire. As it slowly grew in size a bit, the dark elf stepped beside Quentin, gently kicking his feet. The sleeping warrior woke with a small start, but he soon calmed down as he noticed the dark elf standing in front of him.

“Wha… has it already been two hours?”

“Almost three I think,” Regis noted. “I’ve got a bit carried away with my work and forgot about waking you up.”

“You could have forgotten about me for another hour or so.”

“Sure, but then who would kick Khan awake?”

“True enough,” The wannabe paladin nodded with a matter of fact expression as he got up. “Are you heading to sleep?”

“No,” the young spell weaver shook his head as he turned towards his workplace. “I still have work to do.”

“Just don’t overwork yourself,” Quentin sighed as he sat beside the still growing campfire. “You need to sleep like everyone else.”

“Yes, mom.” Regis chuckled as he headed back inside the cloak roofed workshop.

He spent the next hour infusing his companions’ armours with second rank durability and first rank armour value increasing runes. Once he was done, his earth elemental stones were gone as well, along with most of the bronze ingots. Now he had only one thing left. He turned towards Osmond’s cane and shuddered at the memory of its description.

“Let’s get you something that can actually be called a weapon, shall we?” He mumbled to himself as he created a piece of clear quartz which he then proceeded to transmute, using the shadow claw spell as fuel.

As the transmutation circle’s light died down, a pitch black stone greeted him that looked like a shard of obsidian. Regis knew that darkness elemental stones were the perfect choice for a shadow touched spell weaver. When three such stones were created and fused together, the resulting ‘ordinary’ quality darkness elemental stone seemed to swallow up the light near it.

He then grabbed a large piece of rosewood and put it into the second transmutation circle along with the elemental stone and a piece of leftover bronze. After some meditation to regain his spent arcana, he began his next crafting session. The dark elf began to channel his arcana as he imagined a finely carved cane that had a doorknob style handle made from bronze, the shadow crystal embedded into it in the middle. When the circle’s light dimmed and the bubble popped, a cane similar to the one he imagined landed in his opened hands.

The wood was smooth with the grains clearly visible. The end of the handle part was round, a flat piece of coin shaped black glass like crystal embedded in it with an X shaped bronze strap holding it in place. ‘Pretty.’ Regis nodded and began to meditate to regain his power before going through the motions of infusing the cane with the runes required by sceptres. With the process done, he identified it with a proud smirk.

{Umbral rosewood cane}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Greater enchantments: 0}

{Lesser enchantments: 0}

{Durability: 100/100}

{Damage: 12}

‘That’s much better. Now comes the fun part.’ He mused as he placed a pair of bronze ingots beneath the cane and proceeded with another round of meditation and enchanting. First he had to infuse it to increase the weapon’s durability, using up half of the bronze ingots in the process. When he was done with that, the cane shaped sceptre’s description changed according to expectations.

{Umbral rosewood cane}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Greater enchantments: 0}

{Lesser enchantments: 1}

{Durability: 125/125}

{Damage: 16}

The obvious change in damage and durability were most welcome, but the important part was only about to begin. Regis meditated a short while to regain his strength before he would begin infusing the cane with the weapon-shift rune. He imagined the cane lengthen a bit, growing an edge in the process. The rapier-like blade would also grow a small cross-guard with a cup hilt to protect the hand.

Deciding on adding a bit of flourish to the weapon, the dark elf made the cross-guard end in a bone like shape with the cup having a simple skull shaped engraving on it. By the time the new white coloured rune was complete in his mind-space, a mild dizziness began to overtake the young spell weaver. As he opened his eyes, and the sight of the familiar bronze coloured cane greeted him, but as he channelled his will and a bit of arcana into it, the cane began to change shape according to his will.

Dark brownish red bronze bled from the entire length of the cane, forming a wide rapier style blade while the bony cross-guard and the skull adorned cup hilt also took shape. It was an admittedly stylish and surprisingly light weapon. Using the last specks of his arcana, Regis cast charlatan’s wisdom on the weapon to check its base stats before moving on to the next step of the process.

{Umbral rosewood rapier}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Greater enchantments: 1}

{Lesser enchantments: 1}

{Durability: 125/125}

{Damage: 18}

‘It seems that the name changes along with its form, plus it does a bit more damage as well. Adding a second ranked edge rune to sharpen it should push the damage higher by another four, if it goes the same way it did with my bladestaff.’ The dark elf mused before beginning another meditation session to refill his emptied arcana reserves.

When he felt ready to go on with the last enchantment of the night, he rummaged through his knapsack to get out one of the few ordinary quality air elemental stones and he began to infuse the rapier with the second ranked rune of sharpness. This process took him a bit over five minutes, but once the rune turned white, he could finally breathe up. Charlatan’s wisdom revealed the expected results, soothing the spell weaver’s tired mind.

{Umbral rosewood rapier}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Greater enchantments: 2}

{Lesser enchantments: 1}

{Durability: 125/125}

{Damage: 22}

“Finally!” Regis yawned as he stood up, stretching his numb arms and legs.