Eisen was staring at the sword, feeling rage bubble up in his chest. Whoever, or whatever, made this sword was a deeply abhorrent being from his point of view. It wasn't Samuel, of course; that guy simply didn't have the skill or understanding of craftsmanship to create this sort of item himself. No, it was soone else. Though it shocked Eisen quite a bit that there was soone else that he hated to this degree.
He explained this to Brody, who just looked down at the blade, "Seriously? Huh. The item description doesn't say much about the creator. It just talks about an ancient craftsman."
"Yeah... It does feel a little weird, but I just can't help myself," Eisen practically shivered for a mont, shaking his head angrily, "Just put that away, please. If you really want to try the fire elent, I can whip you up so fla oils to add to your sword."
"Nah, it's good. I'll just keep using the cursed sword you made . But seriously, you've gotta figure out who this guy that you hate so much is. What, is it an ex of yours? Soone that wronged you in a way?"
The old man thought about it for a mont. Apparently, Eisen had taken quite a few lovers here in this world, so it was possible that a few of those had beco enemies over the years. But it didn't quite feel like that. There was no sort of 'lingering attachnt' hidden in this hatred. It was just pure, unadulterated hatred. Eisen sure hoped that he wasn't capable of feeling this way about soone that was once his lover. It was like this emotion ca from soone that Eisen always hated, past, present, and future, in every iteration of either of them.
"I have absolutely no idea. But I'll let you know if I figure sothing out," Eisen sighed, "Do you have anything else that looks like it was made by this guy?"
Brody hesitated for a mont. He put the sword back onto the scroll and swapped it out for another, "This one here has my miscellaneous weapons. Things that don't really fit into a collection. Items with unique or special abilities, or that simply look and are handled differently. There's sothing in here that could fit," Brody threw the scroll into the air and it quickly unfurled. As he had said, there were a ton of random items on there. They looked quite interesting, to say the least.
The item that stood out to Eisen the most at first glance was a khopesh – a sickle-shaped sword that, on earth, originated in ancient egypt. Here in this world, it was originally found in so orcish tribes from the deserts of the wastelands. Its blade was made from bone, and the handle was wrapped in leather. It felt like blood was flowing through the sword, as if it had a heartbeat. Like it was breathing. As if this sword was... alive.
Not in the sa way that an ego-sword could be considered 'alive', of course. Rather, it felt like when a living being had their soul stripped from them. They beca an empty husk that only had their basic survival instincts like breathing and not much more than that. Before Brody could, Eisen stretched his hand out to the weapon and took it into his hand. It was just like he thought. This sword was truly alive. Now he knew why that sword from before made him so mad. It was made by the sa person that did... this. Soone had turned a living being into a sword, and had sohow preserved that life in the process. Just holding it like this was...
"Disgusting, huh?" Brody pointed out, smiling nervously as he looked at the sword, "That's what I thought when I realized what it was. The main reason why I picked this up was so that nobody else could use it."
Eisen ground his teeth together, "Are those red dragon weapons the sa?"
"No, they're not. From what I can tell, the craftsmanship is similar, so it should co from the sa guy. But the difference is that the dragon weapons were definitely made from dead dragons. This khopesh was made from a living goblin."
"A goblin..?"
"Mhm. You wanna know the part that really sucks about this?"
"... What?"
"It's a failure. It's a rank 0 item. Absolute trash, at least from a system perspective. It's beautifully crafted, it's well-balanced, and clearly a master was at work... but even the system despised this creation so much that it refused to acknowledge it," Brody scoffed, "Whoever made this... they did it for absolutely nothing."
"..."
Eisen didn't know what to say. He didn't know if he wanted to laugh, or vomit. Either felt equally reasonable at this mont.
"Y'know, I was gonna show you at so point. But I think I knew you'd see it and react like... that," Brody looked at Eisen's hand. The skin on his fist was torn, and blood was dripping down onto the ground. Eisen hadn't even realized, "You just had a lot on your mind recently, so..."
"No, no, I get it. Thanks," Eisen slowly opened his hand. He could feel his skin peeling away, being stuck under his nails, "Do you have a use for this, still?"
Brody shook his head.
Imdiately, and without a mont's hesitation, Eisen incinerated the sword. He hadn't purposefully made flas this hot, because it was hotter than anything that any regular material could handle. The bones burnt away and crumbled into dust, and very soon, nothing was left anymore. Eisen closed his eyes for a mont. He wasn't religious, and he wasn't sure if the goblin that used to be this sword would even appreciate it, but he left a short prayer in his mind, hoping that the goblin's soul was able to move on to a decent afterlife.
"Once we're out of here, imdiately bring to where you found not only this khopesh, but also the red dragon weapons," Eisen told, no, instructed, Brody. This was sothing that Eisen couldn't just let be. It was truly one of the most despicable things that he had ever seen. And worst of all, he knew how to achieve this. He knew what it would take to make an item like this.
But that also ant that he knew what it would entail. That the creature it was made from would be feel the pain of existing in this form every second, every hour, every day, every years... until it was finally completely destroyed. The worst part was that, without a soul, that empty body wasn't even able to express that pain. It could still feel it perfectly well, but not express that pain. The body had no defenses or instincts against it anymore. Bodies with their souls taken away felt pain more intensely than any other being in this world.
Eisen looked at the ground, jumping off the roof. He turned back up to Brody, "I'll let you know when everyone is ready to go. We should head out as soon as possible."
"Right. I'll get ready as well."
"Thanks."
Whatever the details were on this, and whoever made this item... it really ssed with Eisen's head just to think about it. Like always, he tried to distract himself, throwing himself into his craftsmanship. Though Brody had turned it down, Eisen quickly started conconcting up so fla oils, which would be able to imbue fla elental magic onto weapons if you used the oil to polish them. He didn't stop there, though. He made anything that he could think of. Oils of different elents, resistances, and use-cases. There were so that even absorbed blunt damage. So of them were made with recipes that Eisen didn't even know about right now; he just threw whatever into the mix that he thought could co to so sort of conclusion. Mushrooms, bug husks, bloods, animal droppings; basically anything that he could think of. Many of them were useful in certain ways, others would just... make an item sll like animal droppings. Of course, not everything that Eisen did was a masterpiece, especially when he was experiencing what could only be called a mindless rage. The quality was still fine... it was just a bad effect. He really wasn't thinking much about what to do.
When left with a ton of bottles of different polishing oils, Eisen stood in front of the table that he was using for his work right now, tapping his foot on the ground. It was like he was just waiting to pass the ti right now. Staring out the small window at the stairs leading down to this zone's dungeon boss.
He could feel his ego-sword laying heavily in his soul, as if it was feeling Eisen's anger and knew just how he was able to get it out. And the mont that Eisen heard Brody approaching, telling him they would head out now, the old man turned around and made his way to the front of the group.
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