Law, page 3
Especially the left one.
Chapter One
Questionable Origins
Part One
Fizzy exited Castle Arin’s main keep in an infectiously good mood. Between the sleek shininess of her Service Mode, the excited smile upon her metal lips, the spring in her step, and the strangely adorable way she was hugging her oversized red wrench, she was a sight for sore eyes. It certainly brightened the day for the adventurers and soldiers stationed at this forward operating base. They’d been fighting the disorganized remnants of the orcish Rampage for weeks, and it would be a long while before they were done mopping them up. The immediate threat to the natives of Velos had been quelled, but there were still a lot of greenskins around. As if that weren’t depressing enough, a few were privy to the not-yet-public information that one of the Boneshaper’s underlings was involved in this mess. Even after the roaming orcs were reduced to normal levels, they still had to deal with this ‘Blight Lord Aleister.’
Under such depressing circumstances, a cute girl overflowing with joy skipping through the courtyard brought some much needed levity to Castle Arin’s residents. Naturally, spreading good vibes was not Fizzy’s intent, but she couldn’t physically contain her giddiness. She had just received word that the enchantments she commissioned from Nao had turned out significantly better than she could’ve hoped. The Hero of Magic managed to imbue her favorite tool-turned-weapon with all the additional magical properties she requested and in doing so officially boosted the item’s Quality rank to Artifact. The golem was so ecstatic that she could barely control her electrical output. It spiked like crazy the moment she saw the post-enchantment Appraisal results, causing the document in her hands to instantly combust. Thankfully, she had burned that information into her memory before it turned to ash, and thinking back to it was the source of her overflowing jubilation.
Enchantment Order #164
Performed by Nao Shoki, Hero of Magic, no guild affiliation
Item Appraisal by Xacc of Clan Vass, Head Scribe to the Verdan Mist Guild
Shield Titan’s Wrath
A novelty two-handed wrench repurposed to a bludgeoning weapon and repeatedly upgraded by Fizzy Rustblood. Of particular note is a mysterious device of unknown make and origin that grants it an unidentified Innate Ability. The weapon’s solid titanium construction allows it to withstand great impacts without suffering a single dent, and its dense mass allows for incredible striking force. Requires immense strength and skill to wield effectively. Original enchantments altered and expanded upon by Nao Shoki.
Type: War Maul
Quality: Artifact
Offensive Ability: AA
Defensive Ability: C+
Durability: A
Magic Amplification: +20% Lightning, +5% Force
Enchantments: Recall, Impact Amplification, Greater Lightning Focus, Greater Cold Resistance, Major Enhanced Durability, Innate Ability
Estimated Value: Priceless
Fizzy didn’t even complain that her latest invention was reduced to a ‘mysterious device of unknown make and origin.’ It couldn’t be helped since it was common practice to have a third party perform the Item Appraisal once an enchanting order was finished. That duty had to be entrusted to the locals, and raptors were completely ignorant of Arclight Artificer technology. It wasn’t as if there hadn’t been attempts to introduce gnomish tinkering to the southern continent, but this really wasn’t the place for it. High humidity, rampant vegetation, overabundance of pollen, and countless bugs made it an extremely hostile environment towards delicate devices and complex contraptions. Thankfully, the Scribe’s ignorance was of no concern since Fizzy’s latest addition to her wrench wasn’t ‘mysterious’ or ‘unidentified’ to her.
The ingenious construct had permanently incorporated her Direct Impact Lightning Discharge Oscillator into her wrench’s construction. The device looked like a mithril donut adorned with a few small coils and was fused to the side of the tool near the base of its ‘bottom teeth.’ It was connected to a metal plate bolted onto the business end with several wires. Its primary feature was a revolutionary arcane circuit that could store up to 2,000 MP of energy. If charged to at least quarter capacity, it could be primed with a trigger pull. The next significant impact the weapon made would release this energy in a burst of lightning and force. The stronger and faster the hit, the more focused the jolt. Fizzy’s preliminary tests proved she could punch a finger-sized hole clean through unenchanted mithril plating with a fully-charged, all-or-nothing swing. Conversely, a lighter blow would result in a wider blast ideal for crowd control, though not as lethal.
At least, that was how the device performed before she handed it over to Nao. Since then, the addition of the Greater Lightning Focus and Impact Amplification properties had boosted the weapon’s offensive rating to double-A. In theory, this meant the weapon was now powerful enough to punch through a dragon’s notoriously tough scales if Fizzy really put her back into it. And if the first hit didn’t do it, then the second, third, and fourth would finish driving that invisible nail in. The golem could fire the DILDO as often as she liked so long as she fed it enough MP, which she’d have an effectively infinite amount of once her Engine of Destruction was spooled up. Its output was also significantly higher than anything she could generate through Static Field since the energy would be stored and released in a single burst.
All in all, it really was a weapon worthy of being called an Artifact, and updating its name from ‘Iron Teeth’ to ‘Shielded Titan’s Wrath’ was not at all premature or overly dramatic as far as Fizzy was concerned. The new label was, for once, not a reference to a lofty moniker of the narcissistic construct’s radiant self. The Shield Titan was an obscure mythological figure the pint-sized Paladin learned of while researching metal golems. According to ancient myth, titans were entities of godlike power that roamed the world before the advent of enlightened civilization. The one depicted with a shield was supposedly the most invulnerable of the lot and commonly associated with lightning and fire. Size aside, that was more or less how Fizzy imagined herself, so she enjoyed associating her favorite weapon with that legend. Also, ‘Shield Titan’s Wrath’ sounded way cooler than ‘Iron Teeth,’ which was something she came up with on the spot and stubbornly clung to even though it didn’t really fit following the wrench’s transmutation into titanium.
All of that aside, Fizzy was eager to try out her new toy. She’d run a comprehensive battery of tests before handing it over for re-enchantment and couldn’t wait to do them all again. Literally. She barely spotted a quartet of colorful birds flying overhead before she went into Skirmisher Mode right in the middle of Castle Arin’s busy courtyard. The nearby troops had no idea what had gotten into her but wisely gave her plenty of space when they saw her two-handed grip on the wrench and the buzzing golden arcs leaping from her frame. The parrots she was glaring at sensed the incoming danger and picked up their speed, which only motivated the golem to concentrate harder. There was no such thing as ‘too much target practice,’ after all.
Once her weapon was fully charged, the mechanized Paladin unleashed her least-used technique.
“Hammer Toss!”
The wrench was wrapped in a mix of golden lightning and the dull red glow common to Martial Arts as it was hurled skyward. The item spun around horizontally at such speed that it became a disc-shaped blur. The poor birds barely had time to scatter and dodge out of the way before the improvised projectile was upon them. They might have succeeded if Hammer Toss didn’t track its target. The rapidly spinning lump of titanium suddenly jerked to the left and instantly turned one of the parrots into mush. This miniscule impact was immediately followed by a spherical pulse of electricity that vaporized the other three, scattering their remains in all directions as a fine red mist. Its target eliminated and magic spent, the wrench’s momentum continued carrying it off into the distance. It would have inevitably landed somewhere deep in the jungle if its Recall property didn’t trigger a few seconds later, causing it to teleport straight into its owner’s open hand. Unfortunately, this was Fizzy’s first time using it, and she failed to consider what position her hand was in, so she unintentionally slammed the Artifact into the cobblestone path underfoot.
“Ah, crap. Nearly chipped the paint,” she grumbled quietly while inspecting her wrench. “Guess I need to be a bit more careful with Recall.”
“Maybe we should go ask Tony to give us some pointers,” Plus suggested.
“No fucking way,” Minus immediately rejected it. “You have any idea how long it would take to get back to Tascuna?”
“Meatbag input is unnecessary,” Null chimed in. “Live combat trials are the most efficient means of building expertise.”
“I agree. Not worth it just for that.”
“… Can we go see Tony, anyway? I kinda miss him.”
“Eh, might not be the worst idea, actually.”
“Seriously, Fizzy?” the negative personality scoffed.
“He’s alright for a meatbag, but I was thinking of checking in with Krak and Krum. See if they dug up any juicy bits of Katya’s old tech.”
“Yay!”
“Don’t celebrate yet, Plus. I haven’t decided anything, but I am considering it.”
“Works for me! Thanks, Fizzy!”
The golem continued walking and talking to herself, completely ignoring the startled and confused onlookers around. Normally, she’d appreciate the attention, but she was still far too hyped about the upgrade to notice it. That was a promising first test, and she was eager for another. Sadly, there weren’t any viable flying targets. She had her eye on an Inquisition griffin coming in for a landing and wondered if it was worth aggravating the organization just to put her wrench through its paces. She quickly deduced it wasn’t and started making her way back to Oar’s Rest. She saw no reason to dilly-dally, so she transformed into her Assault Mode as soon as she was out of Castle Arin’s outer walls and used her Jump Jets to dart from treetop to treetop. It wasn’t the quickest method of traversing the Velosian jungle, but it was the cleanest.
Along the way, she conducted a lot of Null’s suggested ‘live combat trials,’ which was a roundabout way of saying she mercilessly assaulted any monsters she came across – primarily orcs, wyverns, and hydras. Fizzy was disappointed to find out the damage numbers her Status was reporting were more or less identical to the tests she’d run prior to handing the Shield Titan’s Wrath over to Nao. She then realized she was doing all this in her Assault Mode, which didn’t have as much raw power as her default form. She saw the expected increases once she reverted to her Skirmisher configuration. That Impact Amplification thing really did the trick, just as Nao said. Fizzy originally wanted Increased Weight since it would achieve more or less the same thing in terms of boosting her striking damage, though without the added benefits that came with greater momentum. However, that was a gravity-type enchantment, which could compromise the item’s integrity if paired with the opposing spatial-type Recall function. Fizzy really should’ve known about that considering Boxxy still occasionally bitched about the time Nao broke its favorite mithril dagger because of a similar situation, yet it completely slipped her mind.
Fortunately for the golem, the wolfkin certainly hadn’t forgotten that incident and replaced Increased Weight with Impact Amplification to avoid a repeat. He even pulled a highly-caffeinated all-nighter just to make sure the magic he wove into the transmuted metal was as stable as possible. The relief he felt from Fizzy’s approval was so overwhelming that he passed out from exhaustion as soon as she left, much as Kuro expected. The Hero of Magic already had his hands full helping Sigmund and Orrin track down the Blight Lord. He wouldn’t have taken that emergency enchantment job if Keira didn’t practically beg him to help her shiny friend. Thankfully, it turned out so well that Nao didn’t even ask for any payment beyond reimbursement for the rare materials he used.
He really should have charged more, though, especially considering the urgency of the task. Fizzy had taken a while to perfect her DILDO – the name stuck despite her intentions – and wasn’t able to get it to Nao until yesterday at noon. That gave the Hero of Magic only about twenty hours to finish a thirty-hour job before his client had to board a ship to Velos. It was extremely short-notice, but as per usual, the boyish wolf-man couldn’t pass up a chance to work on such an exotic and curious article. Nor would Fizzy allow anyone else to touch it. Nao was the only Enchanter in the world who even knew what titanium was, and that wasn’t likely to change since the metal’s only source was on a bloody moon. If he didn’t get this done today, then Fizzy would have to wait either for the next Atica-bound ship or until the next time she and Lunar’s chosen crossed paths. Both could take months, and that was far too inefficient for the golem’s liking, so she forced the issue. All things considered, it was remarkable she walked away from such a rushed crafting process with an Artifact, and she certainly had no illusions that a great deal of luck was involved. Fizzy just hoped that she hadn’t used up all her good fortune on an inanimate object when she still had a notoriously treacherous voyage ahead of her.
She later discovered luck would not be a factor for the return trip to Atica. Keira’s group would make the trip aboard the S.S.S. Teresa’s Judgement much as before, except this time the naval convoy was so large it was practically a fleet. While not as formidable since there were far fewer adventurers on board, it didn’t seem that way to the Shimmering Ocean’s monster population. From their perspective, attacking an armada of that size would surely result in a swift, pointless death, so practically none tried. This made the voyage significantly less harrowing than the first. The vessels still had to contend with massive waves, powerful winds, impenetrable fogs, and terrible thunderstorms on a near-daily basis, but the unpredictable climate was far easier for the sailors to deal with than the beasts of the deep.
So it was, on the evening of the fifteenth day since leaving Oar’s Rest, the S.S.S Teresa’s Judgement finally returned to the Alliance port called Ambershore after over a month of absence. Most of the convoy dispersed to other destinations as soon as they hit the safety of Attica’s continental shallows, so they wouldn’t need to wait in line to reach the docks.
“Ugh, finally,” Keira grumbled. “I don’t wanna see another ship as long as I live.”
“Are you sure it’s just the ship?” Rowana asked, concerned.
The two of them were currently atop the vessel’s deck and leaning on the wooden railing along with most of the other passengers while the ship did its final landing maneuvers.
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve been really tense and on edge these past few days, but you weren’t like this during the trip to Velos. Is there something besides travel fatigue bothering you?”
“Rowie, you’re overthinking things,” the catgirl reassured her. “I’m just bored out of my skull. There was, like, nothing to bloody do during the entire trip, and there are only so many laps around the deck I can make before I start itching for something more. I’m not saying I wanted monsters to attack us, but it would have at least broken up the monotony.”
“Do we really need to have this talk again?” the elf pouted. “How are we supposed to settle down when you constantly run off on thrill-seeking whims? It’s like you’re allergic to peace and quiet.”
“I keep telling you, it’s not like that.”
“Then why are you so jumpy?”
“I just hate staying cooped up for so long, makes me feel like a prisoner. Especially when I’m stuck in a tiny cabin on some rotten, god-forsaken tub!”
“Kindly mind your language, madam,” a passing sailor called out to her. “When you insult this fine vessel, you insult both her crew and the workers that put her together.”
Keira glared daggers at the nosy mariner, giving him a none-too-subtle hint to buzz off if he fancied having all his limbs attached. The message was received loud and clear, prompting the deckhand to mumble an excuse before speed-walking away.
“See? That’s what I’m talking about!” Rowana exclaimed. “The look you gave that guy was so mean it even scared me.”
“I said I’m fine, Rowie,” the redhead insisted. “I just need to stretch my legs a bit and I’ll be back to normal, I swear.”
“… Fine, I won’t push. Just know that I’ll be here for you if you ever want to share what’s eating you up inside, alright?”
“I keep telling you, you’re overthinking it.”
“Don’t insult me, Keira. I may not be some big-shot adventurer or expert archer, but I can still tell when my wife is hiding something.”
There was an extended period of awkward silence before Rowana spoke up again.
“I should go get our luggage ready. Do me a favor and find where Minic’s gone off to, will you?”
“Sure.”
Rowana gave her lover a peck on the cheek before slinking off back to their cabin, leaving Boxxy alone with its thoughts. It had to admit, it was both impressive and annoying how perceptive that woman could be sometimes, though mostly annoying. Something was profoundly bothering the shapeshifter, just as she sensed. It was so agitated that its anxiety kept bubbling to the surface of its Facade despite its best efforts. It would impatiently tap its foot, twitch an eyelid, bite its lip, grind its teeth, scratch its arm, and otherwise nervously fidget. These involuntary tics appeared sporadically and infrequently, but enough for the elf to take notice. It was honestly surprising she realized it considering her head was full of nothing but pink thoughts.
Then again, those feelings were likely the reason why those little things stood out to her in the first place.
“Ahh! Solid ground, how I missed you so!” Keira exclaimed with arms raised when she finally set foot ashore. “Rowie, I’m going to go for a run, can I ask you to find us a room for the night?”
