Runeblade

Kaius breathed deep, clenching his fist and concealing the new sigil that was splayed across his palm. Sitting up from his brother's side, he grasped A Father’s Gift by the hilt and lifted it up. Firelight danced across its surface, shimmering like oil across the waves of darkened metal that were impressed into the steel.

It was a strange sense, the one he had of his blade. Almost similar to his bond with Porkchop, but different in nature. Afterall, his blade was no living thing. Still, he could feel the link empowering the blade. If it had been sharp and durable before, now he could tell it would be sharp enough to shave with.

Reaching out with a finger he brushed it against the edge. A feather touch, barely a whisper, but still enough that a thin line of red welled for a moment before his healing wiped away the small cut.

If it was stronger now, what would happen when he actively used the skill and flooded his connection with empowering Stamina? Unfortunately, his testing would have to wait. No reason to wake Ianmus by hacking at logs.

Prodding at the link with his will, he felt something else. An eagre readiness to grow, one that hungered for more. An instinct was there, how he could feed his blade and encourage its development. The Spent Forgeheart!

Kaius’s eyes whipped over to the saddlebags. Restraining himself was an effort of will, but he slowly lay his blade on the grass in front of him, before he crawled towards their belongings.

“What are you doing?” Porkchop asked, looking up from the fire to watch him with curiosity.

“Grabbing that material we got from the Guardian. I want to see if A Father’s Gift can absorb it now that there is a link.” Kaius pushed along their bond as he reached their bags. Sneaking a hand under the flap, he connected with the spatial box held within, withdrawing his prize.

A fist sized rock appeared in his hand, glossy and covered in jagged edges. It was warm, like it had been resting a few strides from an open fire. As he pulled it out, the strange glass hunk lit up his surroundings.

It was a soft light, almost invisible in the day, but under the cover of the stars it glowed with the fadinging luminance of a guttering candle.

Kaius’s eyes flicked over to Ianmus. Seeing the elf still deep in his slumber he breathed a sigh of relief and hurried back to his blade.

“What if using it wakes him?” Porkchop asked.

Kaius shrugged. In the end, it would be better if the elf figured out a new secret than to have the nature of his weapon revealed while they stayed in Deadacre. After everything, the magi was likely to at least acquiesce if they said it was something they didn’t want to share. If the process did let off some signal, an overzealous artificer or mage might not be so generous.

Sitting in front of his sword once more, a keening desire started to emanate from the link he now felt with the blade. A want for the hunk of glass he held in his hand. No, something baser than a want, something without emotion or assigned value.

Acting on instinct, Kaius pressed the Spent Forgeheart to the sigil that now adorned the flat of his blade just above its hilt.

**Ding! Material appropriate for A Father’s Gift detected! Facilitate absorption?**

The words of the system rung clear, revealing themselves to him in his mind's eye. He accepted the prompt.

Immediately the pull on the Forgeheart intensified. Yanking itself from his grasp, it sealed itself to his sigil with a soft tink. Kaius looked up, gladdened to see the noise hadn’t roused Ianmus.

Snapping back to his blade, he watched the soft glowing obsidian start to melt. Fine drips of glossy black emitted a soft orange light, sinking into the shallow engravings of the glyph beneath it. There was no mana, no pulse of light, and no clap of thunder. Just the slow drip of glass, and the ravenous hunger that pulsed from his sword in waves.

Fully liquified, the Forgeheart started to flow like treacle, shimmering its way up the fuller that marked its centre. Glossy black covered runes and steel alike, sealing itself tightly to the metal in a thin film.

Desire intensified, and the soft rhythmic pulse of orange from within the glass started to increase its tempo, flashing faster and faster. Then the suction started, and before his very eyes Kaius watched his blade drink the fluid.

Solid steel absorbed molten glass with agonising slowness as he watched on enraptured.

Just as his blade had almost fully absorbed the Forgeheart, liquid black began to bleed from the edge of his sword. Collecting like morning dew, at first there were only a few droplets, but as more were excreted they merged together to form an unbroken coat that stretched just barely less than a fingertip into the body of the blade.

That wasn’t all. Glossy black welled up from his pommel too, morphing with pulsing change as the filgreed block of steel formed a disc of black on both sides of its coin-like figure.

The thin layer of black that covered the fuller, edge, and pommel of his sword let out a low hiss and started to boil. Kaius jumped, half expecting a searing heat to burn his legs where the sword lay flat, only for nothing of the sort to happen.

He looked over to his brother with wild eyes, only to find Porkchop staring at the blade with the same impassioned intensity that he had been.

Minute by minute, the black boiled away, absorbed fully by his sword.

What was left in its place filled him with awe. Everywhere the liquid Forgeheart had touched had been transformed, wave patterned steel transfigured into a solid black crystal. The edges tapered to a point so fine he could see through the material, barely able to make out the subtle jagged edge his blade now had. Almost like it had been knapped. ɽᴀNỗᛒËs̈

Yet there was none of the jagged lack of refinement of a primitive tool. Where the edge transitioned into the body of the blade, as well as the fuller and orb of black crystal that sat embedded in his pommel, it was perfectly smooth - like a polished and rounded gem.

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Light gleamed off the surface, shining resplendent in the soft light of the fire. He lifted the blade up to get a better look, and suppressed a gasp as the firelight shone through his fuller in a smokey grey.

It revealed his glyph, and the runic enchantments. They soaked up the light, shining suspended in glass with the same pulsing orange light that had once lived within the Spent Forgeheart.

With the transformation complete, Kaius felt only a faint whisper of …fullness come across his link with his weapon. It seemed even if another material was already in his possession, he would have had to wait for the changes to settle before adding more.

Similarly, he could simply tell that the blade had improved. Sharper, tougher, and more penetrating. Yet, there was a glimmer that this was but a hint of potential barely revealed, that the changes were only skin deep. Most of the energy seemed to have been squirrelled away, saved for some greater purpose. Only when he had provided the rest of what it needed would its transformation be complete.

The familiar ding of a system notification sounded in his mind.

“Well. That was more dramatic than I expected.” Porkchop said plainly, still watching his sword in curiosity.

Kaius snickered, doing his best to keep quiet. “You can say that again. I’ve got to check some notifications.” he replied, and then opened the waiting communication from the system.

**Ding! Growth Weapon - A Father’s Gift has absorbed Spent Forgeheart! Absorb two more suitable materials to complete the upgrade!**

Kaius frowned as he read the notification that told him exactly nothing other than what had been blatantly obvious. Hopefully whatever changes had been wrought would be visible on the blade's description.

Channeling his True Sight, he focused on his sword.

A Father’s Gift:

Common - Tier I

Forged in the dying days of Unterstern. Quenched in the fading light of prosperity. The final work of a master. Birthright of the last Scion.

A two-handed longsword, forged from meteoric iron, orichalum, and Deep Essence, this sword hides a sliver of morphic Craexia crystal in its hilt. If the right conditions are met, this shard of potential may bloom. The complex network of a binding ritual is hidden under its hilt wrap. A core of crystal formed from a Spent Forgeheart now threads the blade, honing its edge even further.

Artisan-wrought Artefact

Growth Item

Materials needed for advancement: 2

Bound & Linked

Longsword

Honed II, Self Repair I, Durability II, Bloodline Veil V

Kaius pondered the description, surprised to see such minimal changes despite the rather drastic difference in his blade's appearance. He hoped that whatever changes his sword’s eventual transformation would bring would be significant. As it stood, the blade was only a Common. Apprehension gnawed at him as he thought of his rate of growth. He was loathe to think of it, but unless he could acquire more materials quickly there would come a point where he would outstrip its usefulness.

Thankfully, beyond the simple effects listed on the description, A Father’s Gift was durable as hell. If all it took was a few more Guardians, he was sure it would hold up well enough.

There was something odd about growth weapons, that was for sure. It already had been butting up on the limits of what he knew to be possible for a Common item, and it was almost inconceivable for it to still be that rarity with another rank of Honed and Durability both.

Unfortunately, there was no expert on growth weapons around. Even if there was, he didn't have the power to keep his blade protected. Kaius sighed, leaning back into Porkchop as he sheathed his blade and rested it on the ground beside him.

“Anything big?” Porkchop asked him with curiosity.

“An extra rank to a couple of basic enchantments, but there's something odd about it. The blade seems…tougher than it was, and it feels like most of the energy from the material was stored for later. Which makes sense, but I just wish the whole thing was less opaque.” Kaius grumbled, reaching over to scratch Porkchop behind the ear as he stared into the fire.

More annoying was that with the visible change, they would have to avoid any decent fights until they reached the city. Otherwise it would be too obvious to Ianmus that something was off about his sword.

He paused, thinking of the coming days. Thankfully, after all their travel, they were getting remarkably close to Deadacre. As best he could tell, from his memories and the prompting of Explorer’s Toolkit, they were at most a few days off from their destination.

He expected to find the city changed. With the awakening of beasts and the growing danger of the wilds, plenty of people would be flocking to the city. It was no metropolis by any means, but it had solid walls and was the biggest population centre of the region. All sorts of surrounding villages and farmers must have fled to its perceived safety.

That meant guards, ones that most likely had some sort of identify skill. Nothing that would reveal anything damaging, but almost certainly one that would show his class tag, and that Porkchop was a greater beast.

A troubling problem. While a simple class tag would be easy enough to explain away, after all there were plenty of lesser known class types that it would only be obviously off to someone with significant learning on the subject, Porkchop would be much more of an issue.

“We need to think of some way to get you into the city.” Kaius said, after explaining their problem.

While he might have been comfortable with revealing Porkchop’s nature within Three Fields, elsewhere was a different matter. Greater beasts rarely interacted with higher races, and those that did were usually mature and powerful. Porkchop’s nature would bring far more attention than they were ready for until they had the power to defend themselves.

Porkchop fell silent, musing on the issue before he looked over to the sleeping form of their resident mage.

“Are there items that would hide that effectively? That I am a greater beast?” He asked after a moment.

Kaius nodded. “There should be from what I've heard, at least if that is all we try to hide. They would be expensive though, and we would need to get into the city first before we could get access to one. That, and I doubt anything we could get here would be useful against the higher level defenders of larger cities.”

Pausing for a moment in thought, Porkchop eventually turned and looked at him. “Why don’t I wait an hour or two out from the city with Ianmus? Then you could go in and collect what we need. With our bond, we should surely still be able to at least send impressions from such a distance.”

Kaius thought on the idea, scratching his chin. It wasn’t bad. Even if he was loath to leave Porkchop behind, it wasn’t like they had any other solution.

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to ask, though let's leave it till we are walking tomorrow.” Kaius replied, before a yawn snuck up on him and his creeping fatigue made its presence known. “Anyway, it's late. We should sleep.”

Porkchop rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah.” he replied, though he put his head down onto his paws all the same.

Smiling at his brother’s antics, Kaius pulled over his travel blanket and draped it over himself, before he lay down next to Porkchop. With the soothing warmth of the fire on one side, and the steady rise and fall of his brother's chest on the other, he was out in seconds.

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