Dark Magus Returns

Inside one of the many Alchemist rooms that were available for rent, Reno was mesmerized as he held what would have been a simple pestle in his hand. Yet when he touched it, his whole body was surging with energy.

Never before had Reno touched such an item in his lifetime. He had felt great power from ancient herbs and even certain items that came from other dimensions. At times, when visiting other clans, he did stumble across treasures that were on display that would emit somewhat the same type of energy, but he never got close enough to directly feel it coursing through his body like this.

And he imagined that those treasures that other clans kept under wraps would still not amount to much compared to what he had in his hands right now.

"This... it feels like I'm holding onto a legendary item!" Reno mumbled.

Hearing this, Raze couldn't help but chuckle. "Not quite at that level," Raze commented, referring to the rankings that Alterian mages had come up with to determine items' rankings.

What Reno had in his hands was a Mythical type Item, which was underneath that of legendary and finally god-level items.

"Alright, let's not get too carried away," Kizer commented. "After all, it's just a pestle. It's not like you can directly use it in battle. Even a piece of crap, if it was dressed in diamond clothing, would still be a piece of crap."

Waving his hand, a small amount of Dark Magic spread from Raze's hand and entered into the item. It vibrated slightly before the mist started to turn into text. Doing this, only one that cast the magic could see the information that was being displayed, just like he had done when they looked at the unique-grade item.

Raze had decided to read the facets of the item out loud for both of them to hear.

[A Mythical Cursed Pestle]

[Using this item in the creation process will allow for the item to have a 25 to 30 percent stronger effect.]

Immediately, Reno's heart started to race. He could feel sweat running down his body and adrenaline coursing through his body. He was feeling the same sensation he would if he was in a fight, yet he was standing perfectly still.

"This item... it can really do that?" Reno repeated, to which Raze nodded.

Even Kizer was taken aback by this. He didn't say anything and wasn't involved in the world of creation, but a 25 percent increase minimum just for using an item, that really was something that would be worthy to be called legendary.

The only thing that was on Kizer's mind now was what type of item he would get. Just what type of effect or trait would his weapon have for him. With these items their clan could use, it was a Great Leap Forward for them all.

"I hope you don't mind," Raze picked up the unique-grade pestle from the table, and it soon vanished. "I wanted to keep this pestle as well as the others for myself. I know we didn't really discuss the details, but it can really help me out."

"Of course!" Reno blurted out, still shocked by everything that was happening.

Raze was pleased with this. Now he could see the remaining Cursed Pestles on the market at some point for some extra coin. On top of that, he wondered if he could, in some way, use the pestle to create his own items. Rather than using magic, if he could make pills in a more natural process, then using the pestle, maybe he could increase the effectiveness of his own pills by around that of ten percent.

This did mean he would have to learn the full process of creating the pills, but there was someone that would be willing to show him, and Reno seemed to be quite good at it.

"I would still need to add the magic formation at some point. It will be a large trial-and-error process. I could try to create the pills first, with the pestle, and then use a power stone and magic circle to infuse the magic into the pill, but would that work?

"I doubt it since the pestle wasn't in the process of the added effect, only in the base of the Qi pill."

It was certainly a head-scratcher for Raze, but it was a part of him that he enjoyed. There was one point in his life that was most enjoyable for him, and it was when he was a professor at the academy, doing research on subjects like these.

It brought him back to those days.

"I don't exactly have a place to store this, so if you could keep these somewhere safe for when I need them, that would be helpful to me as well," Raze asked, referring to the rest of the pestles.

As if a new man, Kizer immediately went ahead and started to place the pestles into the empty crate. Getting on the Dark Magus' good side was a must. The more work he did for him, perhaps the harder the Dark Magus would work on his item. Already, Kizer was imagining all the stupid things he had said in front of him and wondered if he was already in the Dark Magus' bad books. After all, they did state they would just create an item for him.

How strong or weak that item would be, it wasn't really mentioned as part of the deal.

"I have to... do whatever I can to make up for this."

When Kizer was done placing all of the pestles in the crate, he was ready to ask about his item. He had already prepared what was needed at the same time as Reno had done. In fact, he had what was needed even before that, since Alba had suggested that he be the first out of the Crimson Crane to receive a trademark Dark Magus item.

Opening his mouth, he was quickly interrupted.

"I... I need to try this, I need to try this right now!" Reno said like an obsessed man, and he was ready to shoot off. He had to get rid of the adrenaline in his body one way or another.

But before he did, Raze needed to stop him.

"Wait!" Raze shouted out. "You forgot an important part. Do you remember the name of the item? In order to make it that strong, there is an effect."

"Ah, right," Reno held the pestle in his hand a little tighter, and he had sensed it at first but had somewhat ignored it. When holding onto the item, there was a strong overflowing energy that surrounded him, but underneath it all, there was a chill that crept in.

"It's a Cursed Item, right? What exactly does that mean?"

"This is something that all of my powerful items will hold," Raze explained. "It is important that all of your group know of this, for each of your items, the Curse will be different.

"Some simple, some complicated, some worse than others, and it's up to you if you wish to continue to use these items or not, as almost all the Cursed items I create, when used for the first time, are bound to the user."

Reno thought that this had to be the case, for something this amazing, there had to be a drawback, and he was ready to hear it.