Magin's Help

The sewers were pitch black, but suddenly appeared with a dim light from Lucky’s sword.

Dante: “Huh? Lucky! Where did you go, Lucky?”

Dante looked around in desperation and panic in his eyes. He turned the corner and saw his wife crying. He screamed out her name, “Aki! How did you get here? Is Goro here? Where is everyone?”

He ran over to her. She was lying on the floor with his other son Eren lying dead on the ground. ‘What is this?’ His mind rushed with mixed emotions. Tears ran down his face as he fell to his knees.

Dante: “Aki…H-How did this happen? Where are the other kids? What is this? Eren…”

Dante picked his son up covered in blood. He closed his eyes, still crying from the scene before him not wanting to let him go. He opened his eyes and Aki and his son were gone. No signs of blood anywhere. He cried out, “What is this?!”

He turned where he entered and saw a man in a dark green hood that looked familiar.

Dante: “You—Why are you doing this? You bastaaaard!”

Dante leapt forward pulling the sword off his hip and swinging it with all the strength he had, desperately trying to hit the man.

Dante: “W-Why? W- Why? Why? Why?!”

Dante’s sword began to speak out loud, “Martyr King’s Resolve achieved.”

The sewers turned to ice with a chilling wind combined with snow. Icicles came from the ground attacking the hooded man until it pierced him. The man laughed as his body dispersed like an illusion. Lucky approached…

Lucky: “Dante! What happened here? I lost you coming down the sewer and heard you screaming. What is all this ice?”

Dante: “I…don’t know.”

Dante looked down at his sword and opened the panel. ‘Martyr King’s resolve? Everything else still has question marks around it, except for this.’

Dante: “I’m sorry Lucky. I made you worry. Let’s find another exit out of here and meet up with Astro. My mind isn’t right.”

Lucky: “I think we can keep going north through these sewers and it might put us on the outskirts of the city.”

Dante: “Wait, let me focus for a second Lucky.”

He recouped himself from the scene he had just witnessed and focused on the task at hand. Dante’s keen sense of smell had greatly helped him as an assassin. He was able to smell scents from a good distance to sense danger.

Dante: “I smell food. Maybe a restaurant or tavern.”

Lucky: “Is it safe, though?”

Dante: “I don’t know. It might be a trap to lure people in, but even in a city of killers there still has to be other businesses in order to survive. It’s your call, Lucky.”

He hesitated for a moment before confirming that they should both go. The boys continued north in the sewers. A large shadow appeared on the walls. Both boys stood side by side in a swordsman stance with hands on their weapons.

Both: “Who’s there?!”

The shadow approached, but a small looking dwarf man appeared before them with a rusted looking staff. In a low pitched voice, this creature, this boy, this…miniature person talked.

???: “Hello there boys. I’m just a blacksmith, but I heard some noise down here and wondered what was going on. I never run from someone who needs help. Plus, I don’t really get a lot of visitors down here. Come with me. We can talk more. I’ll show you where my shop is.”

Lucky: “Do we trust him, Dante?”

Dante: “I don’t know. I can’t tell if he’s lying. He has no expression. It’s as if he’s dedicated himself to his craft his whole life. He must be telling the truth.”

Lucky: “Let’s follow from a distance.”

???: “My name is Magin. No need to stay so far away, but I understand your concern. This is a rather harsh city. Best not to trust anyone, not even yourself.”

The dwarf winked as he said this, but they continued onward for some time until they came to a large opening with 6 different entryways. “Stick of Truth,” the old dwarf chanted, and an opening appeared in the middle of the area completely separate from the entryways going further underground.

Lucky: “Do we go?”

Dante: “What other choice do we have?”

Underneath the sewer, Magin led them to a tavern looking area with a workshop for blacksmithing.

Magin: “You boys can rest here until the morning. It’s about to hit 12 midnight, so better here than anywhere. Nobody is stupid enough to start fights in the morning, so you can go back to the surface and roam the streets all you want. After all, this is a business city in the morning and a street fight city at night.

Dante: “Why are you helping us? We don’t have anything valuable anyways. Even if you were going to betray us, there is nothing you would want.”

Magin: “Just because there are bad people in the world doesn’t mean there aren’t good people. Plus, I don’t get many visitors down here. It’s hard to find this place. Only the best of the best come to find me here. I like to craft swords, so it’s not a problem anyways. Although you don’t look like you have anything valuable on you, I'm sure one of you boys has chaplets of some sort.”

Lucky scoffed knowing he still had 2 rose chaplets in case he needed his brother’s help.

Magin: “Don’t worry. Boy, I have no interest in your chaplets or sword. The black circular designs and spikes around the handle with plated gold covering the whole thing. Let me guess, that’s Aldrin’s Light. Am I correct?”

Lucky: “What? How did you know that?”

Magin: “Bwahahahaha! I haven’t had a good laugh like that in a while…I made that sword, boy.”

Lucky: “Huh?”

Magin: “That’s a rare sword using extracted light particles. Craft together the uncommon swords, ‘Ember’s Terror and Gut Spiller,’ and you can obtain that sword. I made those for a lot of royalty members and guards back in the day. Let me take another guess. I would say just by looking at the texture of that sword, that is number 48 out of 367?”

Lucky: “Y-Yeah. You're right. Unbelievable. Wait, no. There are only 25 of these.”

Magin: “That’s because when I made those, I was experimenting with switching the numbers. Something that is very frowned upon, and I forgot to change the ones I switched back. Silly me.”

Dante chimed in wondering something.

Dante: “You said you can craft swords into better weapons?”

Magin: “Yes. There are blacksmiths like me all over the world. Each of us specialize in making certain swords. Depending on what you want to make, you need certain types of swords and have to venture to who can craft those weapons. Just like your swords, there are levels of blacksmiths. Common, uncommon, rare, and legendary.”

Dante: “Interesting. So, I can craft swords I find to increase the rarity and buff the attack and defense power. Can this help me increase my mana too if I can end up crafting a good sword?”

Magin: “If you continue to craft a sword, then it will most certainly increase your mana and its powers. If you want a highly ranked sword, then you have to get very lucky though. Only a handful exist in their specific category. The more weapons you craft together, then the better chance you have at getting a good sword.”

Lucky: “Sorry Dante. I was going to explain all this to you, but he’s better at it since he is an actual blacksmith.”

Dante: “Okay, then what about my sword? The majority of it is just question marks. I can’t even put much mana into it because I don’t know what it does.”

Magin: “Hmm…Do you mind if I took a closer look at it?”

Lucky: “No Dante, don’t give him your sword. We don’t know what he might do.”

Dante: “It’s okay. I trust him for now”

He tossed the sword on the floor next to the dwarf making sure he kept his distance.

Magin: “Hmm…The gold running up the left hand side of the sword into the handle is somewhat old. It’s most likely from hundreds of years ago. The eel symbol on the bottom is from the Watatsuma clan, but they were wiped out a long time ago. The blue reflecting light in the sword most definitely resembles the ocean, however I don’t know what this sword is. Be proud that you stumped a blacksmith. I’ve been around for 178 years and there isn’t a sword that I don’t know. I guess my age is catching up with me. I might be nearing death.”

Dante: “How do I figure out how to use this sword?”

Magin: “Well, I would tell you to visit my friend blacksmith Dinil up in the Windchill Mountains, but I assume you came to this city for a different reason for now. So, let me teach you how to access your mana and connect to your sword. You might be able to learn something.”

Dante: “Anything that gets me back to Aki.”

Magin: “Aki? That’s a beautiful name. Is she your lover?”

Dante: “Yes sir. I have to see her and my family again.”

Magin: “Love at such a young age. You two must love each other dearly to already have kids. You must be older than you look. Are you an elf? Fairy descendant?”

‘Oh, that’s right. I’m a kid in this world. I always forget that,’ he thought.

He looked over at Lucky and ignored his own question that he just asked.

Magin: “Young man, do you have such a relationship as well?”

Lucky froze up.

Lucky: “Uh…no…not at the moment.”

The old dwarf laughed again.

Magin: “Ok let’s get to it boys…Let’s start with the mysterious sword we have here. I’ll concentrate a small amount of mana into it to see if I can access any of its thoughts and try to connect. Lucky, care to join us?”

The old dwarf and Lucky held out his hands. Mana lines crossed on their hands and a small light focused onto the tip of the sword.

Magin: “Dante. I’ll transfer some mana to you, since you can’t really produce your own. Forgive me boys, I might be deep in thought for a little while. You will see me, but I won’t be talking.”

Dante’s sword began to light up a dark shade of blue on the outside edge. They became lost in thought as he entered the surface of the sword’s memories. “W-W-What is this?” Magin spoke aloud in the sword’s memories as he stood in a black room full of nothing. Lucky stood close behind Magin. Visions of the past appeared before him. A vicious cycle of haunting and relentless images that neither of them were prepared for.