The Legacy of Muspelheim

  Volume 2 Chapter 4

  68 pages, 163350 characters, 29784 words

  In a dark room of an unknown building, a group of seven noblemen met to discuss the information given to them by one of their own.

  -How can this be correct?

  -The source has never been wrong before.

  -But there is always a first time

  -Not with them I think.

  -But he has been missing for twenty years!

  -Yes, and of all places, Purgatory.

  -That’s right, so what if he is alive, if he is in Purgatory, he is dead to all rights.

  -No one leaves purgatory through any means other than death, that is why they call it Purgatory.

  -But this is no ordinary opportunity, until now we have had no legal means to remove that despotic uncle of his from the throne. If it were possible for the crown prince to be returned, should we not try?

  -I’m still not sure if I buy this, even if all of this is true and our king sent his nephew to purgatory when the boy was only four years old, even if we find some means to get someone out of there, would it make any difference? Could a four year old boy survive there until adulthood?

  -You men forget that this is no ordinary council. We are all here because of our loyalty to the prince’s father. To abandon his son, the rightful heir to the throne is something we will not do!

  The room went quiet for a moment. Each person looked at one another to try to gauge everyone’s reactions, to see what they felt would be the most appropriate. One spoke up.

  -I will devote every resource I have to returning our prince. Who is with me?!

  -I am.

  -I as well.

  -Count me in.

  -Very well, but how will we do this?

  The last member who had remained silent through all this smiled and said, “Well that is the easy part. We get the prince back through the same means I acquired information of his whereabouts.”

  The nobleman turned to an empty corner of the dark room and said, “We have a request.”

  From the shadow of nothing emerged a cloaked figure. In a low voice he said, “We of the Dark Djinns grant wishes to any willing to pay our price.”

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  -You have been assigned a mission for the guild

  As Crane was leaving the town a pop up screen with a message appeared.

  "Show guild Menu."

  Below the menu was a new icon that was flashing, Crane tapped it and two more screens showed up..

  Crane knew this quest would come soon but he wasn't sure if it would be given to him. He didn't know what system the guild used to allocate such things, but as he was the source of the information in the first place it seemed the guild figured he had the best chances of succeeding.

  Crane clicked the 'Accept' icon.

  The only question now was whether or not to accept help on an impossible mission from the guild or not. However this was a rank B quest, something he had never done before. In fact he was not aware of anyone who had done a B rank quest before. It was more than likely that this was something he could not do on his own, that and he was curious as to what kind of member the guild would choose that 'match his traits'.

  Crane tapped the 'Yes' icon.

  Suddenly Crane's stats and skill windows opened up.

  After that they disappeared.

  Crane wondered for a moment the likelihood he was given the quest just so the guild could get an up to date read on him, but let the thought go and left the town to find Keagan. He looked larger than usual so Crane opened up the fire cat's stat and skill menu.

  Over the past few months Crane was in the town, Keagan had been training and getting stronger, just as Crane had taught him to. He was twelve feet long from tooth to tail thus had grown large enough to comfortably accommodate four people on his back. Crane jumped on and said, "Our destination is one hundred thirty miles north."

  Keagan dug his back paws into the grass before launching into the forest. The speed of his running was much faster than before, if he didn't stop the pair would make it to the capital city by sunrise the next day, but Crane expected it to take a little longer. Since they had a destination, Keagan would weave around to avoid monsters that would slow them down.

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  Noon, after a few hours of rest earlier in the morning, Keagan sprinted the rest of the way to Ouranil, by far the best time he ever made for such a distance on the fire cat. Crane got off Keagan's back and walked to the entrance. The capital city was at least a few miles across, filled with towering white spires, buildings and even a castle or two. The whole place was clean and tidy, bright and shiny, and generally overwhelming. Although Crane wanted to tour every inch of the city, he had his priorities. Crane asked around for awhile and found the Inn that was the cover for the Dark Djinn's guild base.

  "Hello, how may I help you?" The Inn keeper was polite but to the point.

  Crane answered, "I'm here to meet up with a group sent from the guild, my name is Crane."

  The hostess moved her hands around opening an unseen menu and after a moment said, "You were not expected to arrive until tomorrow, and your group the next day. I can have a room set up for you for the next three days if you like."

  "Thank you mam, please do."

  Crane received a key and went to unload his stuff. The last time Crane was in a guild base he received new equipment, a fact that served to remind Crane just how under level his equipment really was now. Crane left the base for the shops, he had three days to explore the city and maybe find some new armor before his quest mates showed up.

  After wondering around for half an hour Crane found a shopping district with many distinctive stores. He browsed the weapons, armors, clothing, and accessory shops for various good he could use, but not much was useful. Back when he was a Kallamore Warrior he could equip a fair variety of armor, but as a spell sword he was more limited. The strongest he could wear was leather armor, for now. When his blacksmith skill reached intermediate he would be able to wear armors outside his own class restrictions. When it reached advanced he could wear armors or use weapons with different class restriction and when he reached advanced level 10 he could equip anything. But for now the only thing in this shop that looked useful was a thick leather vest. The item's stats and price were shown just below it.

  The price was a little high but it could be worn under Crane's overcoat and he was in need of higher defense now, at least until he worked his blacksmithing skills to intermediate.

  "Sir, I'll take this vest."

  The shop owner removed the piece from the glass case and Crane handed over the coin.

  After equipping it Crane looked through the supply of the different tailor's shops. Most of it was for magicians, an overcoat with good defense for high levels wasn't easy to find. Crane did however find a shop that did custom work with custom materials.

  The old seamstress at the counter said, "You want an overcoat? You're going to have to be more specific. What do you want it to do? I can make clothes that give stats, increase skills, impart magic resistances, or even weather immunities."

  A small pain went through Crane that came from thought of how much this was going to cost him. He couldn't just ask for it all so he had to think about it. His own training provided him with extra stats so paying for that was pointless and his own magic resistances would be enough for now. After a moment of thinking he said, "Something with a high defense that doesn't cut speed or get in the way during a fight. Something that resists the effects of high heat"

  The seamstress said, "To what degree?"

  "A summer in Purgatory."

  She almost flinched at the name. "Purgatory you say... Aye, I have something that fits the bill. The skin of a Inferno Serpent, it is light, strong, and completely heat proof given you can take the heat it gives off itself. I can make you a custom overcoat of it, but it will take two days, the cost, 2300 gold."

  As he suspected, it would cost him nearly all the gold he had saved up, but he wasn't going to pay up without a fight. "I'm sorry but it is just a little over my price range, 1800 is really all I have right now. If you know of another place that makes custom clothes, I'd be most grateful." After a moment of silence between them, Crane turned and walked for the door.

  "Wait!" Crane turned around and with an innocent smile said, "yes?"

  "1800 is fine."

  Crane said, "Thank you so much mam, I promise to spread word of your shop to my guild, the Dark Djinns."

  At this her eyes lit up. In the public's eyes, the Dark Djinns was a famous guild known for their high level members, and as a seamstress she would be able to tell that Crane was in fact wearing clothes made for Dark Djinn members. Crane had just cheated her out of 500 gold, so he needed to give her incentive to do the best work she was capable of.

  The old woman got out a tape measurer and said, "Lift up your arms."

  The woman measures every inch of Crane while asking questions like, "Would you like anything special in the coat? Free of charge of course." Crane had basically said he would advertise her shop to his guild so she added things to her initial sketch of it like hidden pockets he requested for throwing knives in the sleeves and small pockets inside the lining for glass vials and a few other things he asked for. All in all it would have costed Crane more than he actually had but he got it all for 1800 gold.

  After her sketch was finished she asked for half the gold now and the other half on delivery.

  Crane passed the old woman 900 gold, thanked her graciously, and left the store.

  Crane spent the rest of that day wandering through the city and the following day in the city's library. Most of the books inside were ones he had already read at Yarsan, the reason he came was for history books, specifically for Purgatory. What he found wasn’t pleasant.

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  Crane had found documents in the restricted section of the library in Yarsan that a certain heir to a certain kingdom to the southeast was brought to Palmer Kingdom with orders to ‘Throw him somewhere no one will ever find him.’ Since the guys who did it chose Palmer that meant the guy could only be in one place. Crane had informed the Dark Djinns of this some time ago but it seemed it took awhile for them to find someone who would pay for the information and pay to use it.

  Crane did his best to look up all relevant information the library had to offer about the remnants of the Muspelheim Empire and the details about the Scorched plains. There were no users he heard of who had reached the level they could repair a teleport gate or teleport themselves that great a distance, so Crane would have to escort the guy across the Scorched plains, something no one had ever successfully done. Unfortunately there were almost no records of the Scorched Plains. The entire area had actually been declared forbidden and since no one who entered returned alive the only documents available were unreliable ancient reports describing a dark race of beings who now reside there.

  The next day Crane returned to the seamstress shop. "Welcome back, your overcoat is complete." Crane set a bag of 900 gold on the table, but didn't release it until the old woman put an overcoat made of dark red scales on the table. Crane released the bag and with the same hand placed it on the overcoat. "Identify."

  This was the first equipment that required magic resistance and gave it as well. This meant that the wearer would have a minimum of 80% fire resistance. It seemed the tailor had some skill that allowed her to find out Crane's stats as she measured him and she was able to make a piece that reached to the very edge of that limit. Crane would make sure to keep his word and spread word of this shop the best he could in his guild. After deeply thanking the woman Crane left the shop to use what was left of his fortune to buy some heat resistant boots and gloves, and get someone to dye his hat.

  His entire wardrobe was now dark red to match his overcoat. He thought maybe he should lose the feather hat but he had grown fond of it. He still had a fair bit left so he spend every coin of it on herbs and food ingredients for the trek across the Scorched plains.

  Crane returned to the Dark Djinn's Inn. "Hello again."

  The innkeeper said, "Your party arrived a little while ago, they said they would meet you at the dining hall at noon."

  Crane nodded, noon was in two more hours so he went to his room to get his smithing materials then went outside and found a bench. Crane put a small anvil on the ground, then took out a small Crucible and filled it with iron ore, sand, glass, and a tiny pinch of charcoal. He capped and seal the lid of it with clay, set it down, and took out another small crucible and filled it with the same, only he used a slightly bigger pinch of charcoal. He took out the Engraved Knife that Dighilt made for him and set it where he could see it clearly and picked up both crucibles. "Kenaz." Crane's hand's started glowing orange then bright yellow, it hurt to look at them as they heated up the cement urns.

  Crane used Rune Call for Kenaz even though Rune sword cost about 3X less mana, but if he used it with his rapier he would have to immediately drop it to prevent melting the hilt so he wouldn't be able to put it back into his inventory. He could find a way around this if he really tried but this was a good way to train his rune call skill up in proficiency.

  The two urns got to the melting point of iron after a while and Crane took out his blacksmith hammer and smashed the crucibles. He chipped off the debris and began his work. He set the low carbon steel on the small anvil and grasped the high carbon steel with both hands, stretching the thin metal to about ten inches long. He put it on the anvil, then took his hammer and shaped the low carbon steel into a small triangle with a hilt. He then bent the the high carbon steel rod and placed it on the edges of the triangle, and hammered the metals into one another. Crane kept one hand in place to prevent the metal from cooling down till Crane was finished with the general form. One big difference between hammering on crucible steel as opposed to regular iron is that when you hammer regular iron the impurities come off as sparks and flaky metal layers, but when working with crucible steel you don't get those sparks or flaky layers when hammering. After finishing the general shape Crane let the metal cool for a while. Now that he had been trained he could see the carbon rise to the top and coalesce into veins that permeated the knife, making it rigid. When Crane saw the veins reach the length he wanted he quenched the blade in water, causing a minor explosion within the barrel from both the blade and Crane's hand which was holding the hilt. He removed it after five seconds and sat back down on the bench. Crane then did something fairly tricky, he concentrated the heat from Kenaz back into the cooling blade but only into the high carbon steel, reheating it for a minute until it glowed a dull orange, then he let it cool down on its own. Tempering, the act of reheating after forging made the steel stronger at the cost of flexibility, which is why Crane only tempered the high carbon steel while trying to leave the softer low carbon center unaffected. With a hard steel exterior and a soft steel interior it would have the hardness to be sharpened to the extreme with the softness to take impacts allowing it a high durability. When it was cooled Crane took out his whetstones and started sharpening the small knife the best he could. Crane then polished off the raised carbon veins to till they were no longer visible.

  Crane looked at his finished knife and said, "Identify."

  Crane was happy about the increase in proficiency but not with the knife. With the exception of Dighilt's engravings, the knife Crane made and the knife that was made by Dighilt looked the same, but Dighilt's parting gift was much stronger and had options that Crane's didn't.

  "At least it won't be a total loss." Crane took out his Sculpting knife and began to carve into the soft iron center of the blade a straight bold line. After getting the depth and width right Crane imagined the blade as a link between the world of ice, Niflheimr and this world through his knife and said, "Isa."

  "Identify."

  Crane had successfully imbued the knife with the effects of the rune Isa. Crane was actually surprised he got two effects out of it, but the effect strength of the Rune Smith skill was determined by sculpture master which he had gotten to intermediate and the effect may have increased from his handicraft skill as well.

  The rune in the knife was now glowing slightly, Crane slipped it into his sleeve but when he looked up he realized he had a fair sized audience. It seemed that someone smithing with their hands instead of a mana smelter or furnace was not a common sight. Crane opened up his menu and saw it was about time. Crane walked wordlessly through the crowd and into the Inn, then into the restaurant within the Inn. Two people who had watched him followed him inside, a large man wearing chainmail and a thin female elf. The man said, "That was pretty interesting, lunch is on me kid."

  At that Crane realized that because he had spent all his money on herbs and food ingredients he did not have any left over to pay for a meal at the restaurant. The cooking skill Crane leveled up working at a restaurant wasn't bad but Crane could tell from the smell that the chefs here were quite a bit above his own level. That being said, "Sorry, I don't accept gifts from strangers."

  The elf giggled a bit before saying, "Well, I'm Aurora, this is Titan, and you're Crane. There, we're not strangers anymore are we?"

  Crane bent his head down and smiled before saying, "I see, will anyone else be joining us for lunch?"

  Titan said, "Nope, just us three."

  'So the quest to recover a man from an inescapable prison would be done just by us three huh?'

  The three of them ordered some food off the menu and sat down at the table furthest from the door.

  Aurora said, "Is this your first quest from the guild?"

  Crane nodded so she continued, "After the members are chosen from the guild, a short profile of the other members are sent to each one. Check your messages."

  Crane brought up his message screen and opened up the new message there.

  Crane looked at both charts then said, "Crystal form creation?"

  Titan said, "You heard of mananite?"

  Crane answered, "Yea, its a crystal that grows when exposed to mana, it is illegal to have in some areas because it grows out of control. I heard that long ago an entire city got encased in the stuff because the area was rich with natural mana."

  The knight nodded, "That's right. It is considered a nuisance because it is uncontrollable... By most." The man pulled out a small grey crystal Crane recognized as mananite. He then put a finger on it and it started to glow, then grow. Four points sprouted out, three of which stopped growing after a bit. The fourth grew till it was about five and a half inches, then all the surfaces filled out a bit until Crane recognized a form. The knight removed his finger and a grey crystal dagger with the same shape as the one Crane had made was on the table. Crane tried not to look impressed but he was pretty sure he failed, it took Crane two hours to make a dagger and this guy had made one in about two seconds. Crane asked, "Can I see it?" Titan replied, "Can I see the one you made?"

  Crane swiftly extended his arm out causing the knife in his sleeve to slip out into his hand, and put it on the table before reaching for the crystal knife. Crane said "Identify," almost at the same time he heard Titan say it while holding Crane's knife.

  The knife was sharper than Crane's but had zero flexibility. A single crack would drop the attack to barely nothing. That being said if they could be mass produced it would be a formidable throwing knife. Crane said, "What's your weapon of choice?"

  Titan gave Crane's knife to Aurora who seemed to want to look at it as well and said, "I can use most weapons but I prefer a large crystal club. With something so simple even if it cracks to pieces in my hands I can use those pieces to grow another one or any other weapon I choose. An elongating Crystal spear for instance."

  "Can you make anything?"

  On this he thought for a moment. "No. I can make any form but there are forms which are useless to make with Crystal, a Crystal Bow for example."

  Crane only had one last question. "What did my chart say?"

  "Hmm, said you were a Rune master, you used ancient magic, had several craft skills, and was good in mid to close range combat."

  Crane supposed that was accurate, it seemed that his stat and skill windows were recorded to make that chart which was likely the basis of the matching system.

  Aurora said, "This knife is quite good. You started blacksmithing recently, no?"

  Crane answered, "I found myself a good teacher who taught me the basics and introduced me to the secrets of understanding true blacksmithing, though I must find the actual secrets myself. But the reason this blade is decent is because of the rune on it. Carving that alone gave it those effects."

  Aurora asked, "This is ancient magic?"

  Crane nodded and Aurora returned the knife to Crane who put it back in his sleeve just as a waiter came with their orders. Crane ordered the stew, whenever he got food at a restaurant it was always to compare his own recipe to. This one was spicy, but well balanced with the potato chunks and sweet meat.

  Titan spoke up, "So, you got a plan for this quest?"

  Crane nodded. "First we gotta get there. Which would you two prefer, the fast way, or the slow way?"

  "Fast," both said aloud.

  "Ok, then we need to use the teleport gate."

  Titan spoke up, "As if we could. Even if we broke in there, the gate requires a group of mages to activate. The only respond to official orders to do so. Unless your plan is for all of us to become criminals and get sent there."

  Crane looked at Aurora who didn't reveal any discontent about the idea, but Crane said, "If all the mages need is orders then I already have that covered." Crane whipped out a sheet of paper with several lines written on it.

  The spot that should hold the number of prisoners was blank but the rest look very official, it even included a mark that appeared to be an official stamp.

  Aurora asked, "Where did you get this?"

  "I made it, though this was actually like the fiftieth attempt. I used a skill called Forgery so it should pass preliminary inspection." Aurora asked, "So how are we going to get our stuff through while being prisoners? They don't just send people fully armed with lots of provisions, that is one of the main reasons people can't escape alive."

  Crane smiled, it was good to work with professionals who went as far as to research the small details. Crane pulled out another piece of paper.

  Again, despite a large blank area the paper looked quite official. Crane said, "Every once in awhile a bag of supplies is sent to Purgatory. We will stuff all our equipment and supplies into a bag, then with this piece of paper take it with us to the prison. I know a shop that will make prisoner clothes for you no questions asked, but you will have to buy your own."

  The plan to get there was pretty solid, it had few repercussions and the risks were fairly minimal. As long as the forgeries weren't uncovered prematurely, they should get there without any problems.

  Titan spoke up, "And how are we going to return after finding the prince?"

  Crane said, “I can summon a large fire monster at will. We can ride him all the way to Donriel.”

  Aurora smiled, “So we have a way to get there, we have a way to get back, now we just need to know how to find him. I don’t know about you but I wasn’t even given a name. How are we supposed to find him?”

  Crane answered, “He was four when he got there twenty years ago. I doubt many people arrived there at the age of four. Also I’ve seen a painting of his father. I’m sure I’ll be able to recognize him after we’ve narrowed down who it could be.”

  Aurora paused for a moment before saying, “It sounds like you could do all of this yourself. Why do you need us?”

  At this Titan shot questioning Aurora a look before coming to the same realization she had. ‘Why share a quest that splits the rewards when you could do it on your own?’

  Crane answered. “To put it simply, what I need to do there is more than just retrieving the prince. I think there is a spell I can learn there. It has to do with fire giants so I will need your help infiltrating the fire giant camp.”

  The pair stared at Crane for a while, there expressions changing every few seconds. First was humor, they thought Crane was joking. Then realization, he wasn’t. Then fear, Crane expected them to get close to what was publicly recognized to be some of the most powerful monsters in the Versailles continent, just behind dragons. Then acceptance, Crane established that he could do the quest without him so if they refused he would not allow them to partake of the quest with him. They had to make a choice, to go into the heart of one of the most dangerous places in the world, or stay behind.