From their perspective, it had been over in an instant. The fallen man’s teammates saw a thorn impact their friend, then saw him drop and hit the floor, for some reason almost naked. I left his wool clothes on his corpse as I already had a few sets of those to work with, but I got all of his armor and his well-made sword. Neat, apparently he had been fairly rich, the sword was really well made! They tried to pick the remains of the fallen gear back up, but I had bound it all to the floor by growing a layer of stone around it while I worked to break each piece down and study it, making it impossible for the frustrated humans to take. Furious, they grabbed their fallen comrades’ corpse and departed, faces grim, when the dead man’s Essence finally made its way to me.
<Oh, yeah…> I moaned in pleasure. The D-ranked man had far more pure and abundant Essence than any I had ever had the pleasure of absorbing. Carefully adding it to my spiral as densely as possible, I watched as my energy re-grew to nearly half, this time much stronger than before I had compressed it. <That’s the stuff. Dani, you wanna try any of this?> I groaned in ecstasy.
She looked on, hungry but unable to touch the Essence until it made its way to her through our bond. “Brute, you know I can’t take that directly. And, what happened to taking out groups slowly?”
I thought quickly, we had made a plan after all. Finally, I mentally shrugged. <Well, there is no way anyone will blame anything but that man’s overconfidence. Removing your armor when in a hostile area? Tsk, tsk. Not a smart move.>
“To be fair, he only removed his helmet, you removed his armor. You dirty dungeon!” She chuckled at her own joke, “But you make a good point. Congrats on the Essence! I’m glad to see that that worked out so well. Also, how good is that armor?”
<Eh, it is ok I suppose. No enchantments or anything fun on the armor, but I got a full set of plate mail and the chainmail it goes over. I’ll adjust the size for medium and larger guys and put them out as loot, most likely. The sword is more interesting though.> I left off tantalizingly, knowing her rabid curiosity would make her ask...
“How so?” She was rather impatient today, wasn’t she? I smiled to myself.
<Well, it had a temporary enchantment on it. I think it is an augmentation that sharpens and cleans the blade. I think I can alter it a bit to add it to the spikes the Bane shoots, but that isn’t what I am interested in.>
“Oh?”
<Correct me if I’m wrong, but the enchantment like this is temporary because it was cast on the sword, but looks like tightly woven Essence, not something else like Mana, and it is always active. Permanent enchantments are formed by cutting Inscriptions like on that pendant, then putting your own Essence into the Inscriptions right? That allows you to turn it on or off at will.> She was keeping up with me so far, I could tell.
“Sounds correct so far. Just so you know, cutting those in is called ‘inscribing’ and when done properly, it is called a ‘Rune’.” She took a quick second to boost my knowledge.
I acknowledged her input, and continued. <Well, I am wondering if I can use the Beast Cores to power enchantments. Since they can store Essence it should be possible to draw the energy from them, and not yourself right?>
Dani went quiet for a moment, “Well, in theory. It is possible to use specially refined Beast Cores as Mana accumulators, but the cost is usually so high for even a normal Core that no one - that I have heard of anyway - has tried it for just Essence.”
<Ok, good. Next, I am wondering if I could use the corruption in a stone for anything.> From her reaction, I think the answer I was about to get was ‘no’.
“What? Corrupted stones are useless. No one can manipulate it so...” She went silent, realizing that I had been able to move the taint around rather easily.
She walked right into my trap! <Right! I can, and when I put it back in items that naturally have the stuff, like rocks and metal, they become stronger and sturdier, closer to their pure elemental form! I’m wondering what would happen if I used the corruption instead of purified Essence to fill a Beast Core, then used that stone to create an enchantment!>
“I don’t know,” Dani slowly thought through the implications. “It is an interesting idea though. Go for it, I mean, you can always make more Cores, right? Remember though, you haven’t encountered all of the different Essence types that exist, so make extras.”
I set up a few more Cores next to the ones I was planning on using for Essence overflow, then increased the amount of them to six each. One for fire, water, air, earth, infernal, and celestial Essence. Since my main prey was humans, I figured I could eventually fill them all up. Next, I looked at the sharpening augmentation on the sword. An enchantment is just a specific pattern of Essence placed onto an item, and if it was inscribed without mistakes it could become a Rune, which is a permanent enchantment powered by Essence only when you wanted to pass energy through it.
The reason permanent enchantments, or ‘Runes’, were rarer was due to the pattern needing to be perfect. If there was a flaw, the Essence would flow out of the Rune and the pattern would be useless, at best. At worst, it would activate and have an unintended effect. Conversely, when done properly, it was difficult to remove an enchantment because the Essence that flowed through it would eventually strengthen the pattern, again known as a ‘Rune’ or ‘Inscription’, placed on the item, to the point where if it were made on wood, you could burn the log away and the Rune would still be stable. Not that they were indestructible, far from it really. It would just take a lot of strength - or applied knowledge of where to strike - to destroy a well-used Rune, but it could be done.
The downside to using a Runed versus an enchanted item was obviously that you needed to provide Essence to it, in order for it to function. This is where the Beast Cores would potentially come into play. With Mana being a far more potent source of energy that would last far longer, I could see why people would wait to get Mana accumulators set before going to the expense of creating really good ‘Runed items’, as correctly and permanently inscribed items were properly named.
I had some time before the next party would come to fight, so after resetting the place - not hard as the last group barely made progress - I tried to apply the enchantment to the daggers I could make. I was quickly frustrated, as I could not directly integrate the Rune into the pattern. I could splice creatures together for goodness sake! Did I not have enough knowledge to cut a pattern into a chunk of metal?! Oh. Wait.
A flash of inspiration struck, and I ‘grew’ a dagger in the Boss room. Then, with infinite patience and precision, I formed the most accurate lines possible, by creating acid molecule by molecule onto the blade. A new group had entered the dungeon and cleared the first room by the time I was finished with my newest creation. Now, to test it! I extended a few lines of Essence into the Rune, and... It flared to life!
Under my watchful gaze, the edge of the blade constricted at the molecular level, forming tighter bonds along each edge. Along the entire blade, tiny imperfections fixed themselves, leaving no space for blood or gore to find a foothold. It had worked! Now it would never need to be sharpened, and a quick flick of the blade would cast off all viscera that it accumulated.
Now for the dangerous part, as I might lose all of my effort. I absorbed the dagger and looked at the pattern that appeared in my mind. Yes! I could now directly create this dagger, with a Rune attached! I called it a ‘Honed Steel Dagger’, and I was very proud of my work. Turning my attention to the fighting happening in, oh my, the third room already? I quickly and gleefully took control of a large Basher and made a concentrated attack on the group attacking me. Bashing into the legs of the least armored human - as the creature’s namesake suggested - the archer stumbled and I was able to do some considerable damage to him before his pals finished off my remaining defenders.