Chapter 31: 31. Date Night

Damien opened the car door and looked at the muddy ground, deciding to protect his shoes he activated levitation and floated over towards the entrance of the tavern. 

 

“Are you sure this is a blacksmith Fay?” Damien asked in puzzlement as he opened the doors and was greeted with a few empty tables and chairs with a bar at the far end.

 

Before Fay could answer a heavy bang of metal hitting metal resounded through the tavern. Damien raised an eyebrow in surprise. He never remembers there being a blacksmith here, since drinking in the game was purely for role-playing, and was often seen as a waste of time by the players, Damien had never bothered with this place before.

 

“Yo Dalon!” Fay shouted towards the backroom but she was ignored as the sound of metal smacking metal continued. Damien followed Fay into the backroom where a burly dwarf was hammering away at a sword placed on an anvil. 

 

Despite the extreme heat being emitted from the three forges in the room, not a single drop of sweat could be seen on the dwarf's face. Damien looked over the small man’s shoulders and inspected his work.

 

“Oh an enhancement rune, although it's overly complicated, and would lead to higher mana consumption…” Damien commented without thinking, causing the dwarf's hammer to stop mid-swing.

 

Dalon turned around and eyed Damien with a slightly surprised look, “You know runes lad?”

 

Damien just nodded and pointed towards the runic inscriptions on the blade. The runes had been melted into the swords structured with mana dust. Damien calmly pointed to a certain line of runes, “ᛁᚾᚲᚱᛖᚨᛋᛖ ᚢᛋᛖᚱ ᛋᛏᚱᛖᚾᚷᛏᚺ means ‘Increase user strength’ which is a rather long winded way of just saying ‘Enhance’. ”

 

Dalon went silent as he studied the runes he had just inscribed and then shook his head, “I only have C grade in rune engraving, such an efficient rune would be impossible for me.”

 

Damien was confused by the dwarf's words, “Why would you need a certain grade in a skill to write a different rune?”

Dalon didn’t respond and instead grabbed a blank sword from a barrel, he placed the sword on the anvil. He then grabbed a low-grade beast core and smashed it into dust with his hammer onto the blank sword. He then closed his eyes and placed his hand over the sword.

 

“ᚱᚢᚾᛖ ᛖᚾᚷᚱᚨᚡᛖ (Rune engrave)” He activated his spell and the mana around him fluctuated and his hand’s emitted a soft blue glow. He then muttered while concentrating, “ᛁᚾᚲᚱᛖᚨᛋᛖ ᚢᛋᛖᚱ ᛋᛏᚱᛖᚾᚷᛏᚺ (Increase user strength)”.

 

The blue glow increased and the crushed mana dust began forming into runic words and automatically melding with the metal. Damien watched with interest as he had never obtained the runic engraving skill in any of his previous playthroughs, crafting classes weren't really his thing. He preferred mage or assassin-type characters.

Damien thought to himself, ‘When this was a game this was how runic engraving must have been done. I guess it makes sense since when this was a game I couldn’t read the runic language. It's only now that I can understand it as English for some reason.”

 

Dalon finished his spell and took a deep breath, his mana was empty after engraving the rune into the sword, “I can only engrave runes that are imprinted into my mind as the spell does the whole process without my input. Also, it takes most of my mana just to engrave a single sword, hence I sell them at higher prices.” He said as he shakily put the sword in a barrel filled with engraved weapons.

 

“May I give it a try?” Damien asked and the dwarf hesitated. Although he didn’t care too much, the materials to make a sword certainly weren't cheap, but after pondering for a bit he nodded.

 

He watched Damien move to the side and grab a blank sword. When Damien moved Dalon caught sight of Fay who had been hidden behind his figure, “Oh lass its you!”

 

“Hi Dalon” Fay waved back towards the talkative dwarf, “Is this here yer boyfriend?” Dalon asked with a chuckle and Fay just blushed without responding.

 

Damien walked back towards the anvil with a sword, however, the sword was floating next to him, and he had his hands firmly in his pockets.

 

The sword floated onto the anvil and then a mana stone floated over. It exploded into pieces as Damien surged his own Psychic mana into the stone causing it to implode. Damien then activated automatic writing and the dust particles began to move along the sword's surface.

 

The sword shuddered as the mana dust was forcefully embedded into its surface, the dust spelt out  ᛖᚾᚲᚺᚨᚾᚲᛖ (Enhance). Damien then floated the sword over to Dalon. The dwarf looked on in amazement and inspected the sword, “The runic engraving is indeed there and only a eight letter rune!”

 

He swung the sword but then frowned, “The effect doesn't seem to activate…”. Damien was also confused and the dwarf and vampire both looked at the sword with confusion.

 

Dalon then said, “Perhaps the runes need mana to work”. Damien nodded his head in agreement. Dalon sat beside the sword and activated his skill again, “ᚱᚢᚾᛖ ᛖᚾᚷᚱᚨᚡᛖ (Rune engrave)”. 

 

The blue light that appeared around his hand was greedily absorbed by the sword and the runes began to glow. Dalon almost fainted from mana exhaustion but managed to hold on. After a few seconds the blue glow vanished and the sword had a new presence to it. 

 

Despite feeling terrible, Dalon picked the sword up and gave it a swing. Compared to his previous swing which seemed like the swing of an amatur, this time the sword cut through the wind with force, causing a sudden vacuum of air around the sword as it descended.

 

The dwarfs eyes went round with shock, “Despite my fatigue I was able to produce such a powerful swing!”

 

Damien was glad to confirm a suspicion he had, ‘It seemed I can indeed write runes but I need to figure out how to imbue my mana into the runes, perhaps I can find the records of that spell and how it works somewhere, as ‘rune engrave’ doesn’t tell me how the spell is supposed to work…’

 

Dalon then shouted in shock, “I understand the rune… did I gain enlightenment?” He began running around like a little kid trying to find a measuring stone. 

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“Darn where did I put the little bugger” he exclaimed and after a few minutes he gave up. “Look after the shop for me, I'm going to the crafting guild,” he said as he ran for the door.

 

Just after he left, his face and impressive moustache reappeared around the corner shouting, “Take any booze ya want lad and if you want a room to sleep there's one upstairs, enjoy ya date, see ya!” The merry dwarf didn’t even bother to close the door and ran down the dimly lit street towards the west side of the city.

 

Fay and Damien looked at each other and grinned, “Did I hear free booze?” Even though they had money now, Damien had been drinking cheap servant wine for the last week and it left a terrible taste in his mouth.

 

The duo investigated the bar and located a few dusty wine bottles that looked rather fancy, Damien popped the cork and took in the deep fragrance. “That's some good stuff!” he exclaimed as he poured the contents into a wine glass. 

 

Fay also grabbed a bottle of wine and poured herself some. She sat on a wooden stool while Damien stood behind the bar and they stared into each other's eyes. 

 

Fay blushed slightly as she studied Damiens handsome face that was showing a smile for once, “So… when will I officially become your Blood Queen?” Fay said with a bashful smile on her face.

 

Damien chuckled at her straight forwardness and replied, “A few months at least, you still have the smell of livestock to me.”

 

Fay looked down into the wine feeling dejected, Damien laughed again and added, “Although a few months may seem long… compared to the eternity we may spend together it is a mere fleeting moment.”

 

Fay was puzzled and tilted her head, “Eternity?”.

 

Damien swirled the glass with a profound look on his face, “Noble vampires are immortal so their Blood Queen will naturally have to serve them for eternity. What use would a Blood Queen be if they grew old and died after a few years?”

 

Fay’s mouth hung open like a fish out of water. She would become immortal? 

 

Damien added, “But the Blood Queen’s entire existence is to serve the Noble Vampire, if I die then you would naturally follow within a few years…” 

The two drank in silence, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere in the quiet tavern. Even after two hours the dwarf never returned. Damien let out a sigh, he planned to rent out an expensive inn tonight, but he didn’t feel okay with leaving the dwarfs shop unguarded, he seemed like a nice enough guy.

 

“Let’s see the room.”

 

“Hmm.” Fay nodded in agreement and they both went upstairs.

 

The room was rather basic with just a large bed next to a window. It was a little dusty which made Damiens nose itch.

 

Fay noticed her master's reaction to the state of the room and grinned. 

 

“ᚲᛚᛖᚨᚾ (Clean)” She chanted and a small gust of wind combed the entire room and gathered all the dust. The wind tornado then dumped all the dust and debris outside the window. A small water tornado soon followed and washed the floors and bedding clean. Damien lifted an eyebrow at the sight but the spell wasn't finished yet. Following the water tornado, a hot gust of air dried everything leaving it smelling of fresh flowers.

 

Damien was genuinely surprised, “What level is your cleaning spell?”

 

“B grade.” It was finally Damiens turn to be surprised, she had learned the cleaning spell to such a high level in only a few days? Was she actually a magic prodigy? 

 

They then both looked at the bed.

 

“So… we sharing?” Fay asked with a red face.

 

Damien opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted as the ground violently shook.

 

Fay exclaimed in surprise as she tried to stop herself from falling, “What the hell is that.”

 

Damien answered with a surprisingly calm voice as if he had experienced this before,

 

“An A grade monster is heading this way…”