Mist of Shadows
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Dragon King Part 6
🕑 Added 2021-03-16 06:02:17 +0000 UTCMyst jumped back when his artifact of doom wheel stopped spinning and a familiar looking sword fell to the courtyard, covered in frost. He scowled when he checked it up with his upgrade ability and saw the name of the sword, confirming his guess. "Not quite what I was expecting but that certainly counts as an artifact of doom."
"Is that Frostmourne?" Dawn asked warily, having seen the distinctive blade on the screen more than a few times when the Lich King killed her raid group because Andrew sucked at avoiding the breaking ice with his rogue.
"Or at least a version of it," Myst replied as he glanced over the various abilities and qualities he could upgrade.
"You're not using it, right?" Dawn asked warily.
"I'm not insane, I don't want to end up as an undead puppet," Myst replied as he checked the sword's durability. "Besides, the sword only has one master, Ner'zhul."
"Any trace of Arthas?" Laurena asked warily as she took another step away from the weapon she'd heard a number of horrible stories about, doing her best to ignore the voice in the back of her mind whispering that she needed a blade worthy of her skills and power.
"Nope which means we should be able to destroy the sword and save Lordaeron or at least a version of it," Myst said as he pulled his rusted and pot marked blade out of his ring's storage.
Dawn frowned as she looked at the rusty sword that was generating wisps of crimson colored fog. "You're going to break your sword."
"Probably," Myst replied as he pulled a silver coin from his pocket. He walked over and set the silver coin on a stone then swung his much abused sword at it, hacking off a slice of the coin and bending his sword.
Laurena winced. "You're lucky my old weapon trainer can't see this, he'd tan your hide."
"I'm planning on fixing it," Myst replied as he focused on the shard of silver he'd managed to hack apart.
"Reforging or magic?" Dawn asked, not particularly concerned with the sword that looked like shit even if the crimson mist was sort of neat.
Myst spent mana to 'upgrade' the length of the silver fragment, changing it from a small shard to a jagged fragment as long as his hand. He set the badly abused and rusted greatsword on the ground then carefully picked the length of silver up and breathed fire on it, working the fire back and forth, trying to melt it.
"Nice trick but I don't think that's going to cut it," Zara said, wondering if she could talk him into sharing his fire breath ability.
Dawn nodded. "You're going to need a forge."
Zara glared at the frost covered blade that was making her nervous and probably the source of the whispers she could hear telling her to pick up the blade and claim her rightful place in the legends. 'No thanks, you're nothing but trouble.'
Myst held the silver over the sword then spent mana to 'upgrade' the amount of heat until the silver started melting. He quickly moved the silver around so the drips filled the various pits in the blade, doing his best to fill them or at least partially fill them. "You were saying?"
Dawn glanced up at the tower on the off chance that the feeling of being watched wasn't coming from the cursed blade then focused on the rusted blade on the ground. "Is there a reason you're filling the pits with silver?"
"I wanted to see if I could upgrade the percentage of silver without losing the cold iron quality that makes it effective against various fey monsters," Myst replied as he spent mana to upgrade the amount of silver in the blade without losing the anti fey quality, causing the silver to grow and spread through the rest of the blade in strange chaotic patterns.
Laurena took another step away from Frostmourne. "Can you fix the edge?"
"Yeah," Myst replied as he spent mana to upgrade the quality of the edge, condition and quality of the craftsmanship then tossed mana into upgrading the metal, changing the entire blade into a gleaming silvery metal. "Close enough," he muttered as he spent mana to improve the durability and sharpness of the blade past the durability and sharpness of Frostmourne.
"Are you sure you want to break it?" Zara asked, turning her attention towards Frostmourne. "We could probably learn something from studying the sword."
Myst picked up the greatsword with both hands, doing his best to get a decent grip. "You might want to step back."
"Let's go," Dawn ordered as she grabbed Zara and Laurena's arms and headed for the door to the tower. 'Fucking cursed blades.'
Zara pulled her gaze away from the cursed sword and let Dawn 'drag' her over to the door to the tower.
'You could be the greatest king this world has ever seen,' the voice whispered in the back of Myst's mind. 'I'd have to care,' he replied as he brought his sword down on Frostmourne.
Dawn brought her hands up to guard her eyes as Myst was tossed backwards by an explosion of magical frost and ice shards. "Are you alive?" she asked, wanting to see if he was conscious before she risked touching the frost covered ground with her slipper covered feet to stuff a potion down his throat or bandage him.
"Yeah," Myst muttered as he got to his feet, his regeneration already dealing with the damage that had slipped through his durability. "I should have expected that," he grumbled as he walked over to examine the two broken pieces of the silvery greatsword that were lying on the ground encased in ice. "This is almost as bad as the One Ring."
Dawn snorted. "Not even close..." she trailed off as the broken blade sticking out of the hilt regenerated before her eyes, restoring itself to perfect condition. "That's new."
Laurena glanced between the broken blade and the blade that looked to be in perfect condition. "I'm going to want that on my sword."
"It's not an enchantment, I just upgraded the percent remaining of the blade," Myst replied as he glanced over the various qualities he could improve, wanting to make sure Frostmourne hadn't managed to curse his sword. "If at first you don't succeed, toss more mana at the problem," he said cheerfully as he spent his entire mana pool to increase the sword's durability, going from extremely durable to the next best thing to actually indestructible.
"I can almost hear a certain tool man shouting about more power!" Dawn teased, glad that he hadn't hurt himself trying to break the cursed sword. "Do you want me to try? I've got a bit more leverage."
"Sure," Myst replied as he looked through the blade's various qualities until he found the entry for cutting through metal. "Let me improve the sword's ability to cut through metal and boost your hero's vigor and health a bit more. That blast would have killed most people outright."
Dawn glanced at the cursed blade, wondering what it would take to destroy. "Thanks, I'd rather not end up a popsicle. Can you upgrade my slippers? I don't trust the frost and my slippers."
"Give me a second." Myst spent all of his mana to improve the silvery sword's ability to cut through metal then picked it up and walked over to where the girls were. "Here," he offered as he handed the sword to Dawn. "I upgraded the sword's ability to cut through metal. If this doesn't work, we'll just have to stick Frostmourne in the spatial ring and try something else when we get better gear."
"I vote dropping it in a volcano if we can't find a way to destroy it. You should probably upgrade its ability to cut through ice," Dawn suggested, fairly sure the ice covering the blade was supernatural and might help with its defense.
"Good point." Myst used his equipment page to take his magical boots off and handed them to Dawn. "You can use mine until Zara can make you something better."
"Thanks," Dawn replied as she dropped the boots on her feet slot and dropped the slippers on the ground. "I love having an equipment page."
"How come you didn't copy her equipment page when you were handing out abilities?" Laurena asked.
"Because I got sidetracked copying and boosting everyone's elemental resistances," Myst replied as he watched his mana bar fill the rest of the way. He spent a decent chunk of his mana to upgrade the sword's ability to cut through ice until it should be able to basically ignore it then spent the rest of the mana on Dawn's health, pushing it from well into the supernatural range to the point where he was fairly sure she could tank hits from battleships with her health points alone. "That should cover the ice and I boosted your health just in case."
"You realize that ability is gloriously terrifying, right?" Dawn asked with amusement as she took a couple of practice swings to get a feel for the blade.
"I'm aware," Myst replied with a grin. "If you can't destroy the blade, we'll figure out something else."
Dawn raised the silvery sword as she walked over to Frostmourne, ignoring the angry whispers about how she wasn't worthy and how the blade could help her. 'Make up your mind.' She brought Myst's sword down with all of her strength, shearing through ice and metal, much to Ner'zhul's shock.
"What have you done!" Ner'zhul's ghostly spirit screamed as he poured out of the broken artifact.
Dawn swung the sword around and through the ghost, curious if the enchantment would damage the ghost.
Ner'zhul screamed in pain as the silvery sword ripped at its essence, leaving a glowing gash across its stomach. "I'll kill-" whatever else it was going to say was cut off as Dawn swung the sword through the ghost's neck then stabbed it through the chest as several ghosts flew out of the broken blade.
Myst opened a rift next to the broken fragments and jumped through. He reached down and touched his ring to the broken hilt and shoved it into his storage as Ner'zhul tried to retreat towards the broken blades.
Dawn impaled Ner'zhul from behind as it dove for the remaining piece of the blade. "Go to hell!"
Myst quickly stored the other piece of the blade then sprinted back towards the door, trying to avoid getting possessed or cursed as he really didn't want the evil warlock ghost to have access to his power.
Zara plugged her ears to try to block out the banshee like wail as Ner'zhul was ripped apart by the other ghosts. "Do you think he's gone?" she asked once the wailing stopped and the other ghosts faded out of existence.
"We can hope," Myst replied as he bought the last two items on his gacha menu then closed it and opened it to see what else he could get. 'Artifact of Doom, Magic Cloak, Minion: Ninja, Sexy Underwear and a Skill Book wheel.'
"I don't suppose I can keep the silvery sword?" Dawn asked hopefully.
"Sure, it gives me an excuse to have the other half of the sword reforged into something I can actually use," Myst replied as he walked over and stuck the broken silvery blade into his ring storage.
"I don't suppose you can magic up some decent cloth to play with?" Zara asked hopefully.
"Hopefully," Myst replied as his sex toy wheel slowed to a crawl, giving him enough warning to reach out and catch the hot pink viberator that dropped. "Yeah, that's practically useless. At least I can steal the batteries."
Dawn laughed as she held out her hand. "Can I talk you into letting me borrow it first?"
"Can I talk you into letting me watch?" Myst asked, figuring she'd say no.
"Maybe later," Dawn replied with amusement.
Zara glanced between Myst and Dawn. "I'm missing something, aren't I?"
"Yep," Myst replied as he stuck the vibrator into his ring's storage. He bought the sexy underwear, skill book and the magical cloak wheels, figuring they wouldn't cause too much trouble. 'I probably should have waited until I had a larger area to play with,' he mused as he watched his electric vehicle wheel come to a stop.
Dawn grinned when she saw the dune buggy-like golf cart appear next to Myst. "At least it wasn't an electric train."
"True," Myst agreed as he watched his various wheels spin. "It would have been a bit noticeable."
"Just a bit," Dawn replied as she walked over to take a look at the gold cart.
"That looks like something a gnome would invent," Laurena said as she walked over to take a look at the strange vehicle.
"Close enough," Myst replied as he reached out and caught the heart shaped red box when his underwear wheel stopped spinning. He looked at the box with his upgrade ability and grinned when he realized the box conjured sexy underwear with a small chance of getting something magical. "I might have just solved our cloth trouble, the box can conjure up to five pieces of sexy underwear a day. I should be able to expand the underwear into sheets that you can cut up."
"Sounds good," Zara said, looking forward to getting everyone decent armor.
Myst stuck the box in his ring's storage then caught the book that dropped when his skill book wheel stopped spinning. "Slime summoning?" he muttered as he opened the book, not really expecting it to be all that useful. He pulled up the details for his new skill. "Okay, that might be more useful than I was expecting."
"Why?" Dawn asked with a raised eyebrow as she walked over.
"It lets me summon slimes that are aligned to various elements which might let me learn a couple of spells and some of the oozes are great for cleaning up sewage and other organic messes," Myst explained as he brought the skill up, glad that he had his HUD as it made using the skill a lot easier. "Huh, they have a chance to drop loot when they're killed."
Dawn shook her head. "Your luck score is insane."
"I'm not complaining," Myst replied with a grin as he reached out and bought his ninja and artifact of doom wheels as he had a good feeling about them. He reached out when his magical cloak wheel started to slow down and almost missed catching the small box it dropped. "Weird," he muttered as he examined the small fist sized box with a button on the top and a magnet on the bottom of it. He checked his upgrade ability and laughed when he realized it was a magical cloaking device for a vehicle. "Okay, that actually makes sense."
"What does it do?" Dawn asked.
"It's a magical cloaking device, it turns any vehicle it's attached to invisible and cloaks the noise which means we can sneak a ship past anyone keeping watch," Myst said happily as he stuck the box in his ring storage.
Dawn grinned. "Or run around on the cart without anyone noticing us."
"Yep," Myst agreed as his artifact wheel stopped spinning, dropping a gold necklace on the ground. He focused on the necklace with two serpent heads that formed a clasp. "That's a nasty piece of work but probably something we can learn something from."
"What does it do?" Zara asked as she studied the strange necklace.
"It keeps the wearer from aging physically at the cost of decreasing their luck while they're wearing it to the point where they'll eventually end up dead," Myst explained as he reached down and transferred the necklace to his ring's storage, taking care to not actually touch it even if he was fairly sure he was immune to bad luck, he wasn't willing to chance it.
Dawn grinned as she thought about the profit they could make selling knock off versions to nobles if they could reverse engineer the useful part of the enchantment. "I might be able to duplicate it."
"It's certainly worth trying," Zara agreed, fairly sure they'd be able to sell them to the various nobles in the kingdom for enough to bankroll the rest of their projects.
"You're welcome to try once we get everything set up," Myst replied as his ninja wheel started slowing down. "Incoming minion."
Laurena tensed, wishing she had something other than the crappy bow Elia had found for her.
"Hello?" Myst blurted when a familiar looking teenage girl with bushy green hair appeared out of thin air sans clothes.
"Welcome to Westeros," Dawn offered, studying the green eyed girl that was a dead ringer for a certain actress other than the hair and eyes.
The ninja girl bowed towards Myst. "Trainee class ninja Hermione Granger reporting for duty."
"Ninja trainee?" Laurena asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm still technically in training but I've finished all of the classes, I wanted to get some extra credit before I got my test results," Hermione replied as she glanced around the courtyard. "Where did you get the golf cart?"
Myst pulled his attention away from Hermione's bottom. "One of my abilities summoned it. Does that mean you're from Earth?"
"Originally, I've been stuck on a twisted version of Azeroth for a year with some friends," Hermione explained.
Zara raised her eyebrows. "Twisted version?"
"Think tentacle demons, rape happy orcs and perverted adventurers and you'll start to see why I needed a break," Hermione grumbled.
Laurena shook her head. "Yeah, I think I'll stick with my version, less tentacle demons and the adventurers aren't generally that bad."
"How long are you here for?" Dawn asked.
"A year and a day," Hermione replied with a smile. "It's worth a fair amount of extra credit and a couple of rare skills so I'm hoping I can get decent reviews."
"Aren't you going to miss your friends?" Zara asked, curious what type of person their new recruit was.
"Probably but my friend Ron has been tap dancing on my last nerve and with the time difference, it's basically a long weekend for my friends while I get a much needed break so I don't strangle him," Hermione explained.
"Do you have any useful trade skills?" Laurena asked hopefully.
"Alchemy, enchanting, jewelcrafting and mining," Hermione replied.
Zara glanced at Dawn. "I'm starting to feel like an underachiever."
"I haven't exactly mastered any of them but alchemy just expands on the basic potioncraft I learned at school so that was easy enough and enchanting wasn't all that hard to pick up," Hermione explained.
"Welcome aboard," Myst offered as he checked her abilities. 'Ninja stealth and enough magic I doubt she has to worry about running out.' He checked her skills with his skill book ability, not particularly surprised to find all of the Hogwarts classes in addition to a couple of ninja skills that looked useful.
"Thanks." Hermione glanced down at her breasts. "What is the dress code around here?"
"The less you wear the more you'll get bothered so we should probably find you something to wear before we leave the tower." Myst pulled the heart shaped box out of his ring's storage and looked through the entries until he found the entry that controlled the chance of the box creating a magical set of underwear. He spent the mana to boost the percentage up to 90% then boosted the number of sets of underwear it could make in a day up to a thousand, figuring he could always increase the number later. He opened the box, pulled out a pair of blue panties and looked them over with his upgrade ability.
"Did you conjure the box?" Hermione asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Technically," Myst admitted as he handed her the panties. "One of my abilities is basically a gacha wheel, it summons or conjures random things, magical items, monsters and people in exchange for magical energy. I conjured the box a few minutes ago then stuffed it in my ring's storage. It basically conjures underwear with a 90% chance of them being magical. These should stay dry, clean and comfortable in addition to changing size to fit."
"Thanks, I sort of got used to seeing people running around with nothing on back in Azeroth," Hermione said as she pulled the panties on, looking forward to reverse engineering the enchantment.
"That's almost worth dealing with creepy orcs," Zara said thoughtfully.
Laurena shook her head. "No thanks."
Myst pulled a blue silk halter top out of the box and examined it with his upgrade ability then handed it to Hermione after spending all of his mana to increase its defensive value. "It's enchanted with comfort and an armor rating for your chest."
"Thanks." Hermione pulled the silk top on. "What do you need help with?"
"How do you feel about research?" Myst asked, hoping she could help him with the pyromancer's guild.
Hermione laughed. "My friends have had to drag me out of various libraries before. What do you need?"
"We have a group of alchemists turned pyromancers in the city that I'd like to convert back to alchemists." Myst shrugged. "Long story short, magic faded to whispers, tricks and the occasional person that could barely do parlor tricks over a century ago when the last dragon in the area was killed or maybe it died because magic was fading. Either way, the guild shifted over to creating wildfire almost exclusively because they couldn't get most of their more impressive tricks to work anymore. A couple of their leaders decided that helping the old king burn the city down was a great idea, so I'm questioning their sanity."
"Understandable," Hermione admitted. "What do you need me to do?"
"Right now? Nothing. Eventually? I need someone to sort through their records and see what looks worth testing. The old king had a nasty habit of burning people alive with wildfire, I'd rather lose the focus on wildfire before someone decides to destroy the guild and whatever useful secrets they might have."
"Like turning lead into gold?" Hermione asked with a raised eyebrow.
Myst snorted. "I'd rather not. We'd either screw up the economy, spend more than we get back or do a half assed job and give someone lead poisoning or worse. I'll settle for healing potions, tonics that are actually useful or a way to get the ingredients for cement but I wouldn't mind being able to point at something more interesting to justify the expense of keeping them around."
"I should be able to sort through their records and give you a decent idea of what's possible with a few days' work. Proving things one way or another will take longer," Hermione warned him.
"I'm not in a hurry," Myst replied as he walked over and stuck the golf cart in his ring's storage.
"Have you figured out how to duplicate your ring yet?" Hermione asked hopefully.
"It's on the list," Myst said as he glanced at the tower, wondering how many spies were watching them. "Speaking of projects, do you want 100% resistance to Arcane, Frost, Nature, Shadow and Fire damage?" he asked in a whisper.
"How?" Hermione asked, hoping it wasn't a dark ritual as it sounded extremely useful.
Myst pulled up his Chill of the Night ability and created a skill book. "Nightborne have a racial resistance to Arcane damage of 1%, void elves, have chill of the night which gives a resistance against shadow. Dawn had resistance to frost and nature. I had the next best thing to immunity to fire so I just upgraded everything and copied it into books that I could share with the group."
"In that case, I'd love resistance or immunity to most of the elements I have to deal with in Azeroth," Hermione replied, looking forward to being able to ignore a fair chunk of damage from the wandering monsters and adventurers when she got back.
Myst handed her the book. "In that case, let's head inside and you can meet my family and we can share stories and figure out which skills and abilities you'd like."
"Just like that?" Hermione asked as she opened the book, causing it to turn into motes of light and vanish.
"Exactly," Myst replied, looking forward to hearing some stories of Hermione's adventures in Azeroth or the strange version she landed in.
Dawn smiled at Hermione as Myst started walking towards the tower. "That's how we roll."
