Rare Longswords and the Soul Mystery
Vulcan had originally planned to deliver ten longswords along with several more decent weapons suitable for the soldiers.
But a thought that struck him during crafting, combined with a certain experiment, forced him to settle for just the ten longswords due to time constraints.
"You made all of these yourself?"
"Yes. I did my best."
The quality was simply so exceptional that ten swords were more than enough.
Every single one was Rare grade, with attack power and durability befitting 200-level restricted items—quite impressive indeed.
"Incredible. These are too good to hand out to regular soldiers. We should supply them to the knights instead. Most of them use weapons of lesser quality anyway. And this... don't tell me these have magic enchantments?"
"Yes. They have an agility-boosting enchantment, and additionally, each one can cast the 'Telekinesis' spell. They'll be useful for defending against lizardmen ambushes."
Not only did the weapons themselves boast excellent performance, but the enchantments boosted the user's agility, and thanks to magic engraving, they came with a Telekinesis spell as an option skill, just like on Vulcan's shield.
'I didn't know magic engraving and enchantments could be applied together.'
- Isn't that just because you're an idiot who didn't know?
'......Then maybe tell me ahead of time.'
Thanks to that, Vulcan learned something new too.
Magic engraving literally inscribed magical power into the item itself in an engraving format, while magic enchantment used magical ink to write spells on the surface—making simultaneous application possible.
That meant enchantments could be erased and overwritten, but their effects were relatively weak, whereas engravings were powerfully fixed and couldn't be replaced.
'Thanks to that, even my own specs got an upgrade.'
Anyway, discovering this allowed Vulcan to upgrade his own gear as well.
He'd been saving engraving slots since he didn't have many extracted spells yet, but now that he knew they stacked, he went ahead and enchanted everything without holding back.
His weak point—agility stats—was now supplemented.
He considered boosting vitality too, but since the stat gains from enchantments weren't that massive, he judged it better to prioritize agility to avoid hits altogether rather than tanking one more blow.
'At this point, I don't even need to dual-wield the Serpents of Death for agility.'
Since he couldn't sell or keep them anyway, he'd experimented and practiced freely, resulting in an unexpected power-up.
No more need to pull out the agility-heavy Serpents of Death just to patch his weak agility with dual-wielding. Which meant he could repurpose them differently.
'About time to extract from them.'
Extract the instant-death option on the Serpents of Death.
The instant-death option itself seemed to boast considerable difficulty, but if he could engrave it somewhere, wouldn't he gain an unpredictably powerful one-shot?
Since it was a plus-alpha effect, even occasional procs would be thank-you-worthy, and if it triggered in a boss fight? Dungeon clear in the bag.
"You're a true master craftsman. My eye for talent never fails!"
"Uh, yeah. Thanks for the recognition."
While Vulcan was lost in thought for a moment, the quartermaster NPC flashed a satisfied smile, patting himself on the back for discovering him.
He didn't seem to have scouted him out intentionally, but as long as it built a good relationship, Vulcan played along and casually revealed his intentions.
"If I could watch them fight up close, I could make even more suitable weapons."
"Better than these? If I could see the battles?"
"Of course. Studying how weapons perform in real combat would let me devise ways to craft gear that's even more efficient against those reptiles. But without the chance..."
He was floating the idea that observing lizardmen battles firsthand would allow for more efficient anti-lizardmen weapons.
"No chance? Just apply for the arena."
"I tried, but got rejected. They said a greenhorn like me couldn't join."
As expected, the quartermaster took interest.
Weapons specialized against lizardmen? Even if not Rare grade like these, they'd be a huge help.
So the quartermaster urged him to apply right away, but Vulcan put on a slightly downcast expression and badmouthed the war support officer.
A petty little revenge.
"What? That narrow-eyed bastard... Ahem. Must've been a misunderstanding. I'll sort it out, so get ready. If you want in, you can join the arena anytime."
Naturally, sparks flew toward the war support officer in the quartermaster's eyes.
He nearly spat a curse but restrained himself in front of others, though he looked ready to storm off and chew the guy out.
Perfect.
"......Until then, could you make a few more longswords or repair the existing armory gear?"
"Of course. If you're providing such conveniences, I should help wherever I can. Just make sure to reward the contribution points accordingly. As you know, time is gold for artisans..."
"Of course, of course! I'll be generous. Don't worry about it!"
"I also handle alchemy and architecture besides smithing. Need anything there?"
"Oh ho! A real gem. We need that. Come back quick, and we'll continue."
"Heh heh heh."
"Heh heh heh heh."
Vulcan and the quartermaster NPC, having revealed their ulterior motives, shared a laugh.
They knew neither was purely altruistic, but that made things straightforward.
After excusing himself from the quartermaster, Vulcan hurried off and returned panting just minutes later.
With eyes on him, he'd given the war support officer a veiled threat—"We'll talk later, punk"—added Vulcan's name to the arena roster, and come back.
They then dove into a meeting.
Confirming what Vulcan could do, the quartermaster unloaded all the plans they'd shelved due to lack of skilled artisans.
The arena mostly attracted useless combat users, not skilled craftsmen.
After the meeting with the quartermaster, Vulcan stayed busy but never skipped chats with him.
This built rapport, letting him glean plenty of intel on the Right Wall through him.
During one talk, casually mentioning his honorary baron's title unlocked info that was normally hard to access.
"That's odd... Not here?"
- Who knows. Could be because it happened inside the arena, or maybe they can't see souls.
However, nothing connected to Tiran's message.
No reports of souls vanishing or anything; hard to see any impact on the Right Wall.
Both the wall and arena were business as usual, save for fiercer arena battles lately.
The lizardmen's assaults had intensified.
"Wait, this soul disappearance. Does it have to be humans?"
- Hm? What're you getting at?
"They're suddenly going berserk. What if the missing souls are lizardmen, not humans?"
Suddenly, Vulcan proposed a hypothesis that shattered the frame.
Tiran's hint mentioned the Right Wall and soul disappearances but didn't specify whose.
What if it wasn't humans? Lizardmen shamans who handled souls might've noticed and gone mad with rage.
- ......Plausible.
Like orcs, they're sensitive to kin souls. They believe warriors' souls who die honorably protect them, right?
Tud saw the possibility too.
Orcs believed honorable warrior souls went to the warriors' land; lizardmen thought combat-dead souls lingered on the land, guarding descendants.
Thus, orcs raged at those dishonoring souls or causing shameful deaths; lizardmen rarely did, but used possession rituals to overlay ancestors' souls on living warriors.
They'd eat dead kin's flesh and blood to inherit power too.
If Tiran's missing souls meant lizardmen, their fury made sense.
"So, the culprit's human?"
- Likely. It all fits. And that narrows the suspects.
Lizardmen wouldn't steal their own souls, so a human doing it.
Thus, the culprit was one of two.
"NPC or long-term resident player. Probably NPC."
- Why?
"The culprit's inside. Been here long-term. Their assaults ramped up from some point and stayed fierce; points to NPC."
"Players stand out too much. EXP and contributions are juicy, but not worth sticking around."
Players leveled up, farmed contributions, then moved to the next city.
That was the main reason to come here; stays were short.
If a player lingered despite outleveling hunts, they'd be suspicious—but would they act so blatantly?
Unlikely.
He didn't rule out a quest-taking player stirring trouble via soul collection, but decided to watch NPCs closely first.
'This won't be easy......'
Direction set, but still frustrating.
If an NPC culprit, they'd have status and stayed hidden long, meaning subtle actions.
'No friend-or-foe ID, hard to get cooperation.'
No guarantee it was solo either.
Unknown how many or how deep the conspiracy; couldn't confide in quartermaster or general.
This main scenario quest demanded secrecy anyway.
'But if they act, Dragon Eye can spot it, right?'
- Depends on you. Whether you know exactly what to look for and stay focused.
A deflating answer, but Vulcan relaxed.
Dragon Eye could confirm it, at least.
"Lord Vulcan. Get ready. Arena opens in 10 minutes."
Right on cue, a soldier approached with the news.
While bonding with the quartermaster, he'd befriended some soldiers for minor intel.
A few potions made them chatty—life was precious, cheap investment.
"Ten minutes... Got it."
Good timing? Bad? No, good.
He had ten minutes to prepare.
"Ah, where's the quartermaster?"
"Over there. I'll guide you."
Vulcan, with a new plan, sought the quartermaster first.
To tweak his arena position and role.
Someone of the quartermaster's pull could accommodate him easily, so Vulcan flashed a sly grin and made his "request."
Entered the arena.
In the arena, acquired experience and contribution points increase by 1.2x.
And finally, the massive gate creaked open, revealing the arena.
In the distance, bright lights marking the lizardmens' positions blazed into view.
"......Huh?"
Amid them, Vulcan spotted an unexpected color of light.