“Can it absorb more than one spell at a time?”
“Nope. Have to discharge the last spell before you can store another one.”
That was unfortunate, because I was hoping to be able to mix mana types inside. Having a relatively safe and reliable way to make compound forms of mana would be extremely useful. “What’s the capacity on it?”
Keras interjected there. “I’ve been advising against trying to test that. If we hit the limit, the whole sword could explode. The last time I heard about an artifact exploding, we had to take a city off the map.”
I winced at that thought. “That’s…bad, yeah. But we really need to find out before she can use it in a combat situation, otherwise it could explode at an inopportune time.”
“Right, I’ll make sure we break it precisely at explode-o-clock.” Sera folded her arms.
I laughed. “That’s not what I meant. A powerful Enchanter or Diviner might be able to figure out the capacity. There are spells for testing material capacities, similar to what my mana watch uses for testing personal mana limits.”
“Thought of that.” Sera set the sword down on a nearby table. “Problem is that no one seems to know what the sword is even made out of. Thought the blade was just some kind of hardened mana at first, but it’s definitely not.”
Keras walked over to the sword and tapped on the blade. “It’s similar to a type of crystal I saw once before. It was a green gemstone with ancient enchantments. Unfortunately, I don’t know what that was made out of, either. Normally I can use stone sorcery to get a feel for the composition of most types of stone, but the enchantments on this artifact prevent me from sensing it properly.”
“That might block Enchanters or Diviners in the same way. Hrm.” I took a look at it with my attunement on. The aura around it was colorless right now, which didn’t tell me much. It clearly wasn’t just a Quartz-level item, so it probably used a completely different form of enchanting than modern ones, much like the Jaden Box.
“I’ll see if I can start researching spells for analyzing items. Could be useful, considering the number of magical items we’ve come across that don’t use standard runes. I don’t know if the spells will work, but it’s worth trying.”
Sera nodded. “Thanks.”
“Have you figured out anything else about it?”
Keras shrugged a shoulder. “It has some standard magic sword properties. Tougher than steel, but it’s hard to say if that’s because of enchantments or the crystal itself. It’s sharp, but nothing particularly impressive. Then there’s this.” He picked up the sword, then hit the target with it several times in rapid succession.
I could hear a faint ringing in the air each time he struck, with a slightly different tone — like musical notes.
I blinked. “That’s…really strange. Is it doing anything other than making sound?”
“Can’t tell.” Keras set the sword back down. “Might be some kind of vibration based attack, but if so, it doesn’t seem particularly potent. It seems to change based on where I hit the target, so it might also be some kind of information for the wielder.”
“Information?”
“I think the tone might indicate points the sword considers more vulnerable than others. If it was built for use against powerful monsters, for example, the tone might be useful for finding areas where scales are thinner, or that sort of thing.”
“Like knocking on dungeon walls to find a hollow spot. Huh.” I’d thought of some pretty strange ideas for enchantments over the years, but that definitely wasn’t the type of thing I’d ever considered. “That’s…weird, but I suppose it could be useful.” I thought about it for another moment. “Does it make a different noise when you have a spell stored inside?”
Keras’ eyes and lips narrowed as he considered. “Haven’t noticed a difference, why?”
“If the sword is about storing and distributing mana, and it also has some kind of weak point detection, maybe it can be used to detect for elemental weaknesses as well.”
“Not bad.” Keras tapped his fingers against the table. “I hadn’t thought about it, but that does make sense. I generally don’t bother with figuring out monster weaknesses.”
Probably because you’re so powerful you don’t have to worry about them, I realized with a hint of amusement. But the rest of us mere mortals need to strategize more.
“Wish we had an easier way to test that.” I finally said. “I could build an elementally aligned shield sigil, but it’ll take a while.”
I considered the idea of testing it on a summoned elemental for an instant, but then I realized that was horrifically immoral and dismissed it entirely. Fortunately, no one else brought it up.
Another idea did occur to me, though. “Keras, what about that bond you can make with weapons? Wouldn’t that give you a better idea of how it works?”
Sera frowned. “We talked about that. There are some risks with trying to make a contract with an artifact with unknown properties, especially when we know at least one of them involves absorbing mana. We’re probably going to try it, but we wanted to figure out what we can from safer tests before we make a decision.”
That sounded wise. “Have you figured out if there are only specific types of mana it can absorb?”
“Seems like any of them, at least from what we can tell.” Sera formed a little sphere of ice in her hand, picked the sword back up, and absorbed the spell into the weapon.
There were a lot of possible applications for that. “Could you store a healing spell inside, and then use it to heal someone later?”
Sera blinked. “You want me to use this as a healing sword? Really? That’s your brilliant, non-standard application for this?”
“Hey, I just learned about it. Besides, you know that’d be hilarious.” I folded my arms. “Okay, better one. Teleportation.”
Keras whistled. “That’s not a bad idea, actually. Most people around here block offensive teleportation with their shrouds. But if you could get the sword to hit them directly, it’d be inside the shroud, and completely ignore that defense.” He glanced at Sera. “You’ve got travel sorcery. You should try that.”
She shook her head. “Summoners can learn teleportation spells at higher attunement levels, but I’m a long way from that point. Especially now.” Her expression sank.
“You’ll catch back up.” Keras patted her on the shoulder. I winced on her behalf, but she didn’t seem to mind the contact. She’d never been as sensitive to random people touching her. “Maybe Corin could help with that?”
“We’ve talked about it, and I don’t think using my attunement to strengthen her is a good idea while she’s still recovering. Overcharging her mana is what got her into this in the first place.”
“Agreed,” Sera added quickly, with obvious nervousness in her voice. “Maybe after I get back to the point where I was before the spire.”
Keras glanced at me, then back to Sera. “No need to hurry, I suppose.” From his tone, it was obvious he disagreed with the decision. He didn’t seem like the type to prioritize safety in general, so I could see why.
Fortunately, he didn’t push. He jumped back to the last topic instead. “Anyway, teleportation was a good idea. Maybe you can find some other clever things to store in there eventually. For now, though, it’s an amazing defensive tool if nothing else.”
That was certainly true — being able to pull a spell right out of the air was a great way to stop an attack spell without much effort. I thought Sera would be missing out by using it exclusively for defense, but she could make that choice on her own.