Selling Parts and Creating Motes

After leaving the cathedral I made my way to the Flask and Anvil. I had a number of items that I wanted to sell and possibly get a commission started. The shop wasn't too busy when I entered and Vegaror was in the main room. He looked past me then gave me a scowl when he didn't see Lariss with me.

"Where is she? She'd better be okay." He said.

"She'll be fine. The forest took a toll on her but she's recovering with a friend in Greendew." I said.

"That's good to hear." He replied.

"We're alive in part thanks to the potion you made. It saved our lives. Thank you." While I was grateful, I hoped that flattery would ease some of his hostility.

"You're welcome, I'm glad my work could be of use. Did you just come to report that Lariss is alive or do you have other business?" He said.

"I actually have a few items that I'd like to sell and would like to commission some armor from Uhtric." I said.

"Follow me." He led through the door at the back of the store. Right past the door there was a staircase leading up on the left and another leading down. The back of the building opened up into a large workshop. A few younger assistants were working on a number of items while Uhtirc was working the forge.

"Uhti, we have business if you have a moment." Vegaror said.

"Where's Lariss? She better be alive." Uhtric said when he saw me.

"She's good. Just taking some time to rest with a friend in Greendew." I replied.

"As long as she's alive." He placed a hand on my shoulder and let out a sigh of relief.

The three of us were soon in a side room where there was a large rune covered table in the middle of the room and a few instruments that were used to rate items on shelves. I began to pull out the monster parts that I had for inspection. It included two small spider brains, a half dozen venom sacks, three spider queen legs, one of her mandibles, one spinerat sack, three low quality monster cores that I had found in the Storage Rings, four monster cores that I had harvested from near the Spirit Stone, and over a dozen miscellaneous parts that I had collected from the various abominations.

"There's a lot here to look over. Are you the harvester?" Uhtric asked.

"For all but these." I indicated the monster cores that were from the Storage Rings.

"You've got a good hand. Most adventurers end up damaging the parts. These only have battle damage." He said.

"Thanks."

"It's going to take most of the day to look all this over. If you want you can come back tomorrow to finalize the pricing. I'll give you a slip with what's here." Uhtric said.

"I trust you and I was actually hoping to trade for some armor." I pulled the small buckler he had given me out of my Storage Ring.

"At least it got some use." He said.

"I found a replacement but was hoping you'd craft one for me." I said.

"I have a few commissions lined up at the moment so, you'd need to give me about 15 days. What type of enchantments are you looking for?" He said.

"I'd like that unique Defensive enchant I saw on the display items for now." I said.

"I could make a full set of armor if you'd like. What you have here would cover most of it." He said.

"I have a few other items that I need to purchase. Do you sell Mana Powder by chance?" I asked.

Every living thing had some mana in it. When reagents used in alchemy or artificer were prepared some mana would be expelled. It started as Mana Light and quickly started to degrade to Mana Mist before becoming Mana Liquid and finally Mana Powder. They had a number of uses but mostly were used as an energy source in crafting and creating mana cores or motes.

With the proper care you could capture it at any stage but crafters usually didn't have the time to focus on the capture and crafting. It lasted the longest as Mana Powder, so that was the easiest to acquire during the refinement process. If they collected anything other than Mana Powder, they'd use it themselves or it would sell for much higher than I was currently capable of paying.

"We don't usually sell it. Most of what we produce we use or sell to a specific buyer. But for a friend of Lariss we can make an arrangement." Vegaror had been sorting through the monster parts while we had been talking. "I take it you plan to create a mote?"

I summoned the spider queen's brain from my Storage Ring. "You don't come across something like this too often and after what we went through in the forest I'd like to have a psychic mote at my disposal."

Vegaror's eyes brightened when he looked at the brain. "That is a high quality catalyst. I could refine the impurities out if you'd like. It would only take a few days and I'd charge only a nominal fee."

"That's okay. I've never bothered with refining my motes." I said. Vegaror rolled his eyes with a look of disdain.

When a mote was created it could contain impurities that slightly lessened the effectiveness of the mote. And I do mean slightly. For someone like me, it wouldn't make much of a difference compared to the cost and effort to purify them. One day I might decide it was worth it and from what I understood, it didn't make much of a difference if they were purified before or after they were created.

Those who dedicated themselves to the path of a mage often disagreed with that point. To them pure motes were a must, even if they only increased their power by around 1%. Mote purity did make it easier to upgrade a mana core and was essential in creating a Celestial Mana Core. Since I didn't plan to upgrade all the way to a Celestial Core it didn't matter to me.

"If you insist on doing it now, we have a room you can use." Vegaror said.

I hadn't planned to do it exactly now but all I had left to do was meet with Raginhard and creating a first mote in an element didn't take too long.

"I'll gladly accept any aid you can give me." I said.

Uhtric stayed to inspect the items while Vegaror led me down the stairs. There was a large storage area in the basement with a few small rooms. In one of them there was a small library with a number of crystal clusters hung from bronze chains. In the middle of the room was a rug stitched with a number of glyph formations. I had used similar formations when creating my other motes.

Vegaror poured some herbs in a silver bowl at one end of the room. The enchantment on the bowl slowly started to burn them, releasing a pleasant fragrance. He then pulled out a pouch of Mana Powder from his Storage bracelet and handed it to me.

"Feel free to take your time." He stopped at the door and half turned back to me. "Lariss has been a loyal friend to us. That's why we've been so accommodating to you. Make sure you don't abuse our hospitality or her friendship." With that he left.

His comment made me wonder what had happened that left him so distrusting of others and what Lariss might have done to get past that.

After taking a moment to calm my mind, I began to set up for creating my first psychic mote. I sprinkled the Mana Powder at the key places on the formation then pulled out the spider queen's brain and set it in the middle.

I sat crossed legged facing east. From what I remembered psychic motes were easiest to create at sunset or sundown but that shouldn't make too much of a difference for the first. The more motes you had overall combined with how many you had of that element affected the difficulty of creating new ones. Since I only had 11 total motes and none were psychic, this shouldn't be too difficult.

On the exhale I segregated my motes by type then stopped their rotation, this was why it became harder with more motes. I then opened my silver mana core and let the energy surround all of the motes. It was possible to damage your motes if you didn't keep them supplied with mana, that's why a higher grade mana core made this process easier by supplying a greater amount of mana.

In an empty space around the core I pulled in the rest of the energy being let off. After I had a sufficient amount of mana condensed I sent a small flick of mana into the formation. The Mana Powder began to glow and convert back into pure mana. With the air around me filled with mana, the preparation part was complete.

I reached out my mana and implanted it into the spider queen's brain. Parts of it began to burn away in a foul black mist. With my mana I pushed the black mist away and watched as it was absorbed by the crystals overhead. This would help with the purity. At the same time I created a conduit with my mana, pulling the rest of the energy from the brain into my soul.

The energy floated wildly around my core and tried to infuse itself with my current motes. Pushing it away from them, I directed the energy to the condensed mana I had already created. There was some resistance at first but the energy began to meld with the condensed mana.

This process was what took the longest and where younger mages tended to mess up. For nearly an hour all I did was maintain my conduit and channeled the energy into it. It was boring and tedious.

Before the energy of the brain even expired I had enough to finish the process. There was always a risk of not having enough energy with your catalyst and failing to create the mote. To finish it off, I compacted the mana and psychic energy from the brain. There was a popping sensation from the mote when it had solidified.

Leaving the mote for now, I started to pull in the rest of the energy from the spider queen's brain directly into my mana core. If I ever decided to try to upgrade it to a golden core this energy would make that process easier. Since there wasn't enough to create a second mote, this was the best option.

With a Silver Mana core and 12 motes, I could now be considered an adept in magic. Unlike with aura where you had to break through your current limits to enter a new stage, making it easy to know when you progressed, magic ranks were based on an arbitrary set of values. They had been established by the Royal Academy of Magic centuries ago based on mana core quality and number of motes. With a Silver Core I'd need 28 motes to advance to the rank of Sorcerer.

When the last of the energy was absorbed from the brain it crumbled into a dark powder and I released my motes to rotate freely around my core. After cleaning up the remnants of the brain I left the room, everything else had been consumed during the process.

I checked with Uhtric and Vegaror before I left. They were about half done evaluating my items. To my surprise Vegaror handed me a scroll. It contained three simple spells that only needed one psychic mote. One was a minor protection of thoughts, one would allow me to send simple mental sensations to someone I was in physical contact with, and the last allowed me to gain a minor insight into the demeanor of someone near me.

He let me know they'd take the cost of the spells out of what I earned. After that I made my way back towards the Union and let the main counter know that I was looking for Raginhard. The main hall was nearly empty since it was between lunch and dinner. Grabbing a small meal I sat down and didn't have to wait too long for my representative.