•••
Henry could have spent an hour in the bath. He could have spent more. Really, he just did not care.
After days of sleeping in a cage and navigating the minefield that was the control cuffs, he was just glad to be able to relax. He let his eyes close and tried not to be too bothered by thoughts of the future and the things he now had to do.
When he stepped out of the bath eventually, it was thick with the steam of the warm, almost hot, water that had been renewing itself every few minutes for his benefit.
Everything he needed was already provided and as he dabbed his head with a towel, he seed to realize for the first ti that his hair was getting longer. It was getting close to his shoulder now and he still didn't quite consider a haircut.
Dressed in one of the many bathrobes he had found in the bath, he turned toward the large mirror in the room and gave himself a critical review.
It seed like so long ago that he ca into this body. This familiar yet strange body. Long gone were the almost-childish innocence that had been evidenced in his face and sowhat cute cheeks.
He looked more manly now and that was besides the abs that were very indented into his abdon. His black eyes looked aged like he had grown a lot in a short amount of ti which was true.
His cheeks were a bit sunken but not in the malnourished kind of way, not really; More in the matured sort of way. His skin seed more in contact with the bones underneath now.
He was handso.
"Ugh, get over yourself," He mumbled with first a mockingly disgusted expression and then a small smile, just as he made the assessnt and shook his head.
Of course, even if he wanted to deny it, he really couldn't. He
was
handso just as he was always going to be. Just as he had been in his past life even if he had done very little with it.
And that seed to be a trend he was going to continue here. Unless sothing changed soon, of course.
When Henry turned away from the Mirror, he found a wardrobe in the room stocked with clothes. Complintary with the room, he assud, and he wasted no ti putting on a shirt and a pair of fresh pants because he certainly wasn't going to wear his discarded ruined leather armor stained with blood or the pants with all the holes in it that were also stained with blood.
Dressed, he stood in place in front of the mirror again to see just how the clothes looked on him. They were fine. Not quite the perfect size but close enough to be manageable.
"Alright then," he said, "Ti to go."
Elminster's brand glowed in his palm and the oval portal arrived to whisk him into the Grumpy Old's Man's workshop.
"You owe 3660 Gold," Elminster said imdiately as though he had been waiting for Henry with his debt calculated and ready to be demanded.
Henry paused at first and blinked and then, with a smile playing at the corner of his lips, he stepped forward,
"Hello to you too."
Elminster scoffed, but looked at Henry more critically before he said with just a bit of concern,
"You look well."
"I feel well," Henry said.
"Seed like you were in a bit of trouble before," Elminster pressed.
"You know how it is with dangerous adventures," Henry said and waved him off.
Elminster grunted,
"Yes. Yes, I suppose I do. So do you have my gold?"
"I'm hoping for a trade," Henry said and passed his hand over the slab to unleash all the weapons and equipnt he had made away with within the Dungeon. There was quite a bit of them enough for Elminster's eyes to widen a bit.
And then, his eyes returned to their normal size as he picked one of the weapons up and studied it more closely. He scoffed a few tis mumbling 'Shoddy work' over and over in his head.
"You want to trade with this?" Elminster asked, now eyeing Henry over one of the weapons.
"You can't?" Henry asked, noticing the reluctance.
Elminster searched his eyes for a while and then sighed as he dropped the weapon he had been studying back onto the pile,
"Listen, Kid, these are not up to a standard I'd even display as prototypes. The best use I could think of is to use them as materials to tinker with and create diocre prototypes to be used as bases for far better creations.
And since I don't value them even as materials, I won't value them enough to satisfy your needs. Take them outside and find sowhere to sell them off.
Those on the outside are used to diocrity so they'll want to use them. They'll value them more and pay you more.
Return here with the gold you get and pay your debt."
Henry was not disheartened. If anything, he wondered why he had thought to batter and not thought to sell the weapons and equipnt from the Dungeon for a profit. A profit he really needed.
"Alright," he said, and in a second, he had it all back in his Inventory.
"You'll have to wait till I can pay you back though," He pointed out to the craftsman who rolled his eyes.
"What else is new?"
Henry grinned at that and then he beca thoughtful,
"Alright then. What about this?"
With a wave of his hand, Henry retrieved the orange orb he had gotten from the Sarcophagus in the Dungeon. It still pulsed with energy and did so at a regular rhythm like a heartbeat. Again, Henry noted its similarity with the Vinculum.
"I'm not sure what it is," he said slowly.
He wanted to sell the orb but his instinct told him not to say that out loud just yet. This was so clearly different from the weapons he had brought out earlier and he would be foolish to jump the gun by showing his intentions of sale.
"Hmm," Elminster let out and lifted the Orb to peer harder into it,
"Okay,
this
is a good find. This is a 'Virtutis'. It's a Power Source created through a stringent and laboring process and can be worked to power all manner of items. It can also be imbued with varying enchantnts. It's quite valuable for crafting.
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You see, because they're too ti-consuming to create, craftsn have made workarounds. So workarounds better than others but working with a Virtutis, a ready-made masterpiece —if done well, I an— is far better."
Henry thought about that. The purple gem on the Vinculum must have been a Virtutis, he realized.
"Is it possible for a Virtutis to have sentience?" He asked as he could still rember the Vinculum trying to influence his decisions.
Elminster nodded,
"Of course," he said, "The best ones do. It's caused by their creators. They give more of themselves into the creation and end up giving it an ego. Egos can be good but they can also be pushy. It's all about balance."
That confird Henry's thoughts about the Vinculum so he pressed on.
"Does this one have a sentience?" He asked.
He had not sensed it when he held it but who knew if it had been hiding it. Anything was possible when dealing with magic like this.
Elminster shook his head,
"No. It's a good Virtutis but not
that
good," he said and then his expression changed as he said in a slower voice,
"So, how much do you want for it?"
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