B2 Chapter 219: Looting and Leaving, pt. 2

Reading through the descriptions of the reagents that he’d discovered in the shaman’s tent for the second time, Kaius focused on the Least Nature Condensate. It was by far the most valuable of the bunch.

Condensates were rare. Only in the perfect conditions would they manifest, requiring unnatural mana density with an unusual bent to a single affinity—on top of needing something to encourage it all to crystallise, though no one had ever discovered what to his knowledge—something he could easily be mistaken on.

Least ones like he held in his hand were by far the most common—accounting for something ludicrous like ninety-eight in all hundred discoveries. Unfortunately, they were by far the least valuable. Larger condensates had a myriad of uses in alchemy, runework, and large free-cast spells. Ones like the splinter in his palm lacked that potency, and were mostly just used to empower or intensify reactions that made use of their affinity or a closely aligned one. They could still empower spells, but they didn’t have the staying power or ritualistic might of the rarer finds.

Even still, they were expensive—both due to their rarity, and because even if they lacked much of the use of their larger cousins, they were still useful.

Regardless of its value, Kaius thought it was likely they’d hold onto the nature condensate. If he’d stayed the path of a standard Runewright he would have been able to use it as a reagent in any number of potent inscriptions. As it stood, it would still likely have some value to Ianmus—it could be used to potentiate spells of a similar affinity, and Solar was close to both Nature and Light.

Scooping up his spoils, Kaius left the tent to find his team sitting on a clean section of stone far from the smears of spilled blood that splattered the stone—even though the area around the tents was only relatively clean.

“Find anything good? You were in there for a while.” Ianmus asked, looking at him with curiosity.

“Yeah—there was a lot to get through. Found a few things though, including this.” Kaius hucked the affinity crystal towards Ianmus, who jolted before desperately trying not to drop the crystalline shard.

Ianmus scowled at him, though there was no bite to it. He only shot him a grin—even a least condensate wasn’t fragile enough to shatter from being dropped.

“Check it out, you might find it useful. Happy to sell it if not.” Kaius said, nodding towards the shard in Ianmus’s hand.

The mage looked down, focusing on the white and green shard, before his eyes widened. “A shard of Nature? That’s a surprisingly good find—yes, I’ll keep it. In a pinch I can use it to empower a spell or speed up my channeling.”

“Even your light beams?” Porkchop asked, tilting his head at the reagent.

“I could, technically, but it would be a waste. The healing and growth aspects of Solar align much closer to Nature, so that is where it would get the most effect—and probably where we would see the most use, if we’re ever in a spot where we need healing without a lengthy channel time.”

Kaius nodded—he’d hoped for that, and it sounded like it would be far more beneficial for them than the hundred or so gold they’d be able to sell it for.

“Can you use it more than once?” he asked, mostly out of curiosity.

Ianmus nodded. “Though not too much more than that. A handful if we’re lucky, two or three if we are not—though the potency will drop each time.”

Satisfied the crystal would be put to good use, Kaius walked over to take a seat with his friends. “What of you two, anything good?”

Porkchop snorted, shaking his head. “I wish—just junk. Best I found was a handful of silver that the warchief had piled up as some sort of decoration.”

That was a moderate disappointment, though he knew that even finding the reagents was a boon—only in the Depths would you ever consistently be showered with rewards.

Though, there was still the stone.

“How about you?” he asked, turning to Ianmus.

The mage tilted his hand back and forth. “So-so, it’s only a Common Earth-infused stone. From the looks of it, it’s quite the vein though, so it could have some bulk value for fortifications.”

“People would lug blocks of stone from here to Deadacre?” Porkchop asked incredulously.

“They probably would have, a year ago. Now, with the beasts, the only ones who’ll even be interested would be the local towns. A few days journey could be worth material for fortifications made from infused stone.” Ianmus replied with a shake of his head.

“Well then, if we’re done here, should we start making tracks? Dawn’s approaching and it would be nice to get away from the stench of offal.” Kaius suggested.

He grinned when he got hurried nods in return, the whole team jumping to their feet.

Deadacre, and Rieker, awaited—it’d be rude to dawdle.

….

The stars were out, clear and bright.

Kaius sat reclined with his back against one of the small trees that dotted the plains of the frontier. Porkchop was next to him, lying on his back and staring up at the sky.

They’d decided to leave Ianmus to sleep in the tent—neither of them feeling particularly tired yet. It’d been an easy day’s journey, without any flashes of excitement to burn off their energy.

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After so many years of training, then the ordeal that was the depths, Kaius found it difficult to sleep early without working off some steam. Thankfully the night was young, and he had no issues with spending some time stargazing.