Ember of Invention

Everyone stopped as Dorothea spoke, looking at her as she examined the Hotpond Band with an intensity and excitement that he recognized from the dungeon.

“Wait what? It’s actually an Artifact?” Rosato’s voice rose before he dropped down to a hushed whisper upon saying Artifact, all of their aversions to saying the word momentarily broken.

“Yeah,” Dorothea looked to Lindle, hand outstretched. “May I?” She asked.

Lindle nodded mutely, curiosity filling his face as he took off the Hotpond Band and gave it to her. Dorothea looked over the item again, before showing it to Rosato, the other two adventurers leaning in to read the status too.

As they read, Lindle made a new mental note. He had guessed that statuses for his items only seemed to show up if someone had possession of the item, or if whoever had possession wanted to display the item to someone else in some way. Judging by the way he could no longer read the item’s status when he looked at it, the idea seemed to have merit, likely because Dorothea wasn’t trying to show Lindle the item, and only was thinking about showing it to her teammates.

“Well, I’ve never seen an item with a status before, though it is an interesting ability if the description is accurate, it doesn’t seem like something with an enchantment couldn’t do. Why would you believe it to be an Artifact Dorothea?” Chip asked.

Dorothea tapped the top of the band. “The status is why I know it’s an Artifact.”

The rest of them tilted their heads curiously, and Lindle did too. He knew having a status wasn’t normal, even if he hadn’t seen many enchanted items in general, according to his mom their abilities worked like Spells or Techniques according to the system, they could be acknowledged or named, but the system didn’t define their abilities like Skills or Feats in a description, but he she hadn’t known what the difference meant aside that it was because his Skill had made it.

“I suppose it makes sense none of you know,” she glanced at Lindle and elaborated for his benefit.” Most people don’t concern themselves with information about them until they find one themselves or they study dungeon theory in one of the academies, no one really expects to find one, they’re just too rare. I haven’t seen it myself, but the headmaster at my old academy confirmed that his Artifact had a status that described it’s abilities for the benefit of the program a long time ago. He didn’t share what his were exactly, but this status matches what it is said he described to look for to identify an Artifact. The only difference, aside from being a lot weaker than I would expect from an Artifact, is that it has only one effect line, and they’re supposed to have five.”

“Five effects?” Lindle echoed. How would that work? His items had been able to do more than one thing, but they were part of the same effect. The Hotpond band for example had its main ability to heat up liquids, and it also said that it granted resistance to being hurt by hot liquids. Those were connected by the types of Ethos he used, but to Lindle they seemed like two different abilities.

As far as he could tell, all Ethos he used when making an item as the primary aspects coalesced together to form the item's effect, even if it could do more than one thing. He wouldn’t be sure where to even start to add another effect entirely, separate the Ethos somehow? Before he could get too sucked up into theorizing, Rosato interrupted him

“Even so, it’s still recognizable to someone who knew what they were looking at as an Artifact?” The knight asked.

“Probably, yeah. Even if most people wouldn’t know it, word of an item with a status is odd enough that it’s not impossible that word could get around far enough that I’m sure someone would realize that an Artifact was found.” Dorothea confirmed. “There are actually some historical records of that being how Artifacts were identified when adventurers don’t realize they had found one.”

“So keeping quiet about it was the right move.” Rosato said, looking at Lindle. “You’ve been keeping quiet about it right?”

Lindle blinked, he had felt like it had been fine when he made the decision to tell Thalia and Humphrey yesterday, but he still felt an unwanted spike of anxiety as if he had done something wrong at Rosato’s gaze. “Mostly yeah.” As Rosato seemed like he was about to say something in panic, Lindle hurried to finish. “I told two of my friends yesterday after I got my class, but they’re trustworthy, I promise.”

Rosato pursed his lips, while next to him Theodore sighed and shook his head, and Chip let out a soft series of chuckles. “Friends?” The kitsune seemed to search his memory. “Those beastmen you spend time with at that training field? The girl with the raccoon tail and the boy with the bow and reindeer antlers?”

“Yeah, that’s them.” Rosato seemed like he still wanted to say something, so Lindle tried to inject some confidence in his tone. He trusted Rosato and his party, and it was at their own suggestion, but it still was his own secret to decide on. ”We’re actually planning on forming our own adventuring party.”

As he said the words adventuring party, he saw a lot of the hesitance bleed away from the adventurers. He knew Soarian’s put a lot of cultural significance on the trust between party members, they lived or died by the amount of faith they had in each other after all . If they saw Lindle’s friends as part of his adventuring party, that would do a lot to put a lot of immediate confidence in them and curtail their nervousness.

“You know them best, if you say they’re good, they’re good.” Rosato nodded. “The important thing now I believe, is now that we know your class can make Artifacts, albeit weak ones, and you’re level 1, what the plan is for you.”

“Same as before, I level up, practice making items, and I join you guys during the dungeon raid.

“I’m unsure about bringing you back down there.” Chip said. “I remember how close of a call it was when the Librarian attacked.”

Lindle winced, remembering how close to death he had come, but he didn’t change his mind. “There are going to be a lot more people coming this time, and I’ll have several levels under my belt by then. Besides, there are probably a lot more Artificer related things down there, I might need to be there to get them, like the door to Nothing.”

“How are you going to do that and keep attention away from your class with all the extra adventurers there then?” Theodore pointed out. “The plan is for you to pose as a porter and guide again, not much point in keeping your ability to make Artifacts a secret in town from them if they all see you do something eye-catching in the dungeon directly.”

“Oh… um… I’m not sure yet.” Lindle responded. He really wanted to see if there was more to learn about his class and Ethos down there, but doing something like using the door again to that hidden workshop would bring a lot of attention to him. “But we have time to figure something out there. I’m still going either way,” he turned to Chip.

Chip sighed. “Fine, we’ll just have to be careful and prepare thoroughly. As long as you level up enough, maybe make something to defend yourself with.”

“Speaking of which,” Dorothea said, perking up in realization, “your skill that lets you make items. Can I see it?”

Lindle brightened with excitement. “Yeah of course!” His Ethos had fully recovered after a while of helping out around the store, so he was ready to get back to crafting new items with his Skill. Or new Artifacts, he should say.

He looked at the other three adventurers. “Do you want to come watch too?” They seemed to consider for a moment, but they shook their heads.

“This is more Dorothea’s thing, your class is exciting, but I’m not really interested in crafting or magic.” Rosato shrugged. “Besides, you probably don’t want an entire crowd looking over your shoulder while you work. We have some things we can do, even with the storm keeping us from taking any quests.”

Rosato and his cousin exchanged a few words before they left, leaving Lindle and Dorothea in his mom’s store.

“Lead the way.” The kitsune mage said excitedly, rubbing her hands together.

Lindle showed her inside to the workshop, where Nothing greeted them from their fireplace.

Hello Lindle, and Dorothea. Let me grab my writing supplies.

Dorothea watched fascinated as Nothing extended a tendril outside of the flames to grip a piece of charcoal, writing on a strip of paper meant for them. They simply wrote ‘Greetings Dorothea.’

“It is nice to see you again as well Nothing.” Dorothea said. “You’ve learned Helvetician remarkably well.”

Nothing nodded in thanks, communicating to Lindle at the same time.

Are you going to show her [Artifice Crafting] as well?

“Yeah, my Ethos strain is all gone now, so it’s fine right?”

Nothing inspected Lindle, pausing for a few seconds before nodding.

Yes, you have fully recovered.

Grinning, Lindle turned to look over his stockpile of reagents and materials.

“Ethos strain?” Dorothea asked.

“It’s fine, I just can’t use my Skill too much or my Ethos starts to need time to recover before I can make items again, I did a lot of experimenting.”

Dorothea nodded knowingly. “I’ve done something similar before when I learn a new spell or break through to a new tier. Sometimes my Mana just needs a break no matter how many Mana Potions I take.”

Lindle started picking through his materials, trying to find something that spoke to him. “I’d think potion toxicity would have stopped you before that.”

She shrugged. “It has, but sometimes it’s worth powering through the sickness.” She watched as Lindle picked up a flower, and then set it down. “How does your Skill work anyhow? Where do you start?”

“First I need to pick a material, and think of how I want to use the Ethos inside. Any suggestions?”

“Hmm…” Dorothea walked up next to him, looking over everything he had in consideration. “Well, Chip wanted you to be able to protect yourself, how about this?”