Chapter 246 – Weapon testing.

“Haaa!”

“Hyaaa!”

After a flash of green light, a large log descended down to the ground. It looked like it was sliced apart by something sharp but the person performing the attack was quite a bit away. Next to it, another log was engulfed in flames which caused a large pillar of smoke to emerge.

“Wayland, these weapons are interesting… let me just try this out…”

A halfling woman was standing with a dagger in her hand. It was glowing green for the moment but after a few seconds passed it changed color to blue. When activating the spell effect this time around, instead of the green blade of wind one of ice replaced it. The previously sliced apart log was cut again but this time, it was also covered by a layer of ice.

To the halfling’s side, there was a human holding a large two-handed sword that had previously been engulfed in flames. Yet after a moment, the flames started changing color to switch to deep blue frost instead.

“Hey, this thing really works… and it’s not that hard to use!”

“If the blockhead can use it, then everyone can use it.”

“Hey, I heard that, screw you Senna!”

An angry Orson fired off a blast of ice energy towards the burning target. After performing this magical attack his head started spinning and he had to catch himself from falling.

“Take it easy, you’re a warrior and your MP pool isn’t that high. It’s better if you don’t use that many magical attacks in succession.”

The voice of the craftsman that inscribed these weapons with runes came from the side. He was watching his four adventurer friends playing around with his simplified products. It was a new line of runic gear that was designed for adventurers without mana-related skills.

“Hah, leave that idiot be Wayland, he learns better this way.”

Senna laughed while he glanced over towards Grisalde and Dalrak. While the dwarf didn’t have trouble exchanging the basic mana shield for one made from the earth element, the big barbarian woman was confused. Her weapon was changing colors from red to different shades of blue before going back to the red one.

“Want me to explain it again, Grisalde?”

“N-no… I can handle this myself…”

She replied in a meek voice while turning her head to the side. All of them were gathered in a specially made testing area. It was made so that his clients could get used to some of the more innovative weapons. These testing weapons were made of simpler materials but were enough to show off what the costlier ones were capable of.

“Is that so… anyway let me demonstrate again…”

He decided to grab a large axe from the side that was similar to what the muscle-bound woman was holding. After holding it out with one hand so that she could see what he was doing, he started to talk.

“It’s simple, if you place your thumb into this groove here and start injecting mana, you’ll notice that the color is changing right?”

“Yeah?”

She nodded while looking at the metal axe blade lighting up faintly.

“It’s hard to see because it’s daylight but when you’re in the dungeon it will be easier. What you want to do is stop letting your mana into the weapon after you get to the elemental color you want, see it stopped at green. There is a second when the color won’t change so make your decision fast and remember to remove your thumb from the grove.”

“I see…”

Grisalde continued to nod while looking at her own weapon that was changing colors. After shifting her hand to a more comfortable position the color solidified into a red one.

“Each of the weapons comes with elemental variations of the same spell and one basic non-elemental spell.”

Roland performed a side swing with the axe and directed it towards a log in the distance. A blade of green energy left the weapon, it was much bigger than the one previously released from Senna’s dagger. When it collided with the log it sliced it diagonally before ramming into the stone wall behind it.

“How about you try it?”

“No problem!”

Grisalde started injecting her mana into the axe and stopped the moment it switched to green. She was an experienced warrior so it wasn’t hard to reproduce Roland’s more sluggish movements. Yet the blade that she created was about half the size and traveled in a wide arc into the sky.

“Shit… Hey, why was that green blade so much smaller? Is this axe worse than yours?”

“No, they are exactly the same.”

“Pff…”

From the side, a squeaky voice escaped from a smaller halfling that overheard the conversation. Quickly the giant of a woman turned toward her nemesis with a frown.

“What are you laughing at pipsqueak!”

“Oh, nothing.”

Senna laughed which brought a few veins to appear on Grisalde’s forehead. Before the two started fighting Roland quickly chimed in with another explanation.

“I have a lot more mana than you, magical weapons will always be better in the hands of mages.”

Roland’s high intelligence stat boosted the power of every runic spell. He also had various other buffs which allowed him to raise the power of runic weapons. A regular warrior like Grisalde could not feel mana in her surroundings, she could only use it. This was the same for the other non-mage denizens in the world, they only had an on and off switch when it came to mana.

There weren’t that many people like Roland that had a mana sense, some even died due to mana sickness as the previous owner of this body. However, there were ways of getting that skill later in life. Some advanced classes could unlock it later, there were also things like magical elixirs that could produce it.

There were also less virtuous ways of getting them, red-colored crystals that were sometimes sold at the black market auctions were the usual way. They were gotten from fallen mages that had their skills extracted during their deaths. These were quite rare so they didn’t reach the usual black market and were hidden away in the thieves guild that hosted auctions to gain more money.

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From time to time a tier 3 class holder would attempt to get a mana-related skill after gathering enough money. Raising the mana pool was a clear enhancement of one’s skill and capabilities. After reaching a high enough tier, magical equipment became far more affordable and a good quick way of bolstering all-around strength.

“And that’s about it, the base effect for the axe is the impact rune, it uses the least amount of mana.”

After the demonstration was over Grisalde began to play around with the new toy. Just as he had explained it went through a set of spells in order. The weapons had one varied elemental spell that could be switched to fit a monster’s weakness and then a basic effect like sharpening or impact.

Through experience, he had discovered that most adventurers weren’t that good at handling runic weapons with multiple uses. At most he could add two different spells before it became too confusing for them to use. They could not change the mana frequency or output at all, only turn it on and off.

Thus he decided to try this new system of selecting spells on a timer. By introducing mana into the systems the selection process would start. It was then represented by a faint outside color to make it easier. After the spell was selected it would be the active one and the only one that could be activated.

‘While you can’t switch the effects fast, it should not be needed.’

These weapons were meant to be multi-purpose and for dungeons. In the Albrook dungeon where the monsters were fire-based, ice was the desired weakness. Before even entering the dungeon a person could switch to this effect and be prepared for the flaming creatures inside.

Then when the adventurer decided to go to another dungeon they could switch the spell effect again without having to get a whole new weapon. While the runic components were altered even other runesmiths could repair it with the help of their automatic skills like Rune Mending.

To change the spell the person needed to hold the weapon in a specific way. It would be hard to activate the changing effect mid-battle which was intentional. It was still possible to do it during a pause in combat as long as the enemy didn’t pursue.

This was all achieved by changes to the runic operating system. The hardware components of the spells it circled through were very similar. An executable was activated to change into the desired effect to make it all work. Someone like him was able to activate the desired spell without going through all of them. But for people without rune-related skills, this was a simple process to go through.