Smith handed him the scabbard. "Try this scabbard, it should resize itself to fit the sword, but I still need to double check and make sure that the spatial power isn't touching the scabbard."
Taking the scabbard Chronos tried to draw his sword from the original scabbard only to have it flash and cut it in two injuring his hand in the process. Shrugging Chronos chose not to wipe the blood off the sword as it absorbed it and sheathed it in the new scabbard.
With a click he watched as the runes glowed before suppressing the rising power he sensed.
"The spatial power is being returned to the sword and refined inside of it." Smith muttered as he examined the sword. "Looks like it's doing its job properly. It should swiftly grow into a powerful sword but you're going to need to think about what runes you're going to apply to it. With the right runes it could become a legendary weapon but with the wrong ones it'll be no different from a cripple."
Chronos happily nodded then slowly stopped. He realized that in the heat of the moment Smith had mentioned something he shouldn't know anything about.
Cautiously he asked, "Smith, how do you know about planes? There shouldn't be anybody in this world that knows about the existence of planes."
"Hm, I've been to some ancient temples on remote islands that are dedicated to forgotten gods. Every now and then one of them will record the existence of other planes and my group had the chance to stumble upon a working gate to another realm. It was called the Fae realm, but they weren't very fond of us 'trespassing' on their realm." Smith grimaced at the memory.
"Because of that I became interested in other realms and planes and did some research into them. I wasn't able to find a way to connect with them, but I do somewhat understand how spatial powers work now."
"They tried to arrest you, didn't they?" Chronos gave him an understanding look.
"Yep, for a little while they thought about having us work to pay for trespassing but something about our world didn't sit right with them so they only threw us back through the gate and locked it down. Never did have the chance to find out what was going on there."
That made sense, Chronos had read about the Fae realm in {Spatial relativity for kids. The place to begin your journey!}. From what it had said it was a massive realm that touched upon nearly every world.
While they were open to people visiting their realm it was only if you did so through the proper channels and followed their rules while you were there. From the number of complaints in the book, they seemed to have a lot of rules.
And the gate in an old temple meant that there might be others that knew about planes, realms, and layers. Chronos would have to be careful who he told about his powers in the future.
"Right while I've got you here can you look at my spear again? Its appearance changed." Chronos took out the spear that had injured the lord rank boar he had fought in the past.
Originally the black marking on the blade looked like a small flame but it had recently expanded to cover both the blade and a part of the shaft. The air around it twisted like immense heat was being emitted from it, but the steel was cold as ice to the touch. The spirit in the air burned and vanished the longer the spear was exposed.
Smith glanced at the spear thinking that it was just another minor change to look over before doing a double take. The power flowing through that spear and changing it wasn't normal. Taking the spear he carefully turned it over in his hand like it was a violent beast waiting to snap at him.
He gingerly traced the flame markings as he examined the material. The more he looked at it the less sense it made.
Finally, he returned it to Chronos saying, "Put it away, that thing is way too dangerous to leave in the open."
Putting the spear back into his armory amulet Chronos asked, "Is it really that bad?"
Smith nodded as he scowled.
"That spear is cursed. Even if it's purified, I doubt it can ever be used normally."
Chronos motioned for him to continue, Smith took a few minutes before speaking again.
"The original material is common steel, but the miasma has altered it to become something I've never seen before and the power it emits burns everything around it. The material world, spiritual power, everything gets burned to nothing under it. If you could find a way to control the flame or suppress it in another space until you need it, you could make it into a very powerful weapon but I wouldn't advise that.
Right now, the spear is containing the flame but that won't last long. Once the original spear is consumed by the black flame mark it will explode and kill everything around it. At the very least an arch priest will be needed to deal with it." Smith said.
Chronos knew that the spear was bad news, that was why he had consulted with experts before, but he didn't expect it to be this dangerous.
Hang on, if the spear needed to be contained or sealed to use it maybe he could use it as the base of that skill he liked.
"Can the spear be used as a material?"
Smith hesitated for a moment, "Maybe, what did you have in mind?"
"In my spatial skill list is a skill called [Rift Spear] that allows me to create a spear from pure space but if I used something as the material it would improve the power of the spear or give it special abilities beyond the basics of the [Rift Spear]. Can we use the spear for that?"
Smith thought about it for a few minutes then shook his head.
"The black flame is producing miasma. Miasma isn't something that any living being should handle, unless you can get rid of the miasma that devil spear will turn on you and kill you."
"That.. might be possible." Chronos hesitatingly said. "My bloodline counters miasma so if I make it using my power and blood it would force out the miasma and replace it with another power. One related to space."
"That might work but it would need to be somewhat different from your usual spatial powers. Most space only contains things, it doesn't destroy other powers."
"That is true. Space isn't the best at purging other powers, perhaps I can find a skill that would work better. There are some skills that talk about returning to nothing." Chronos concluded
"Regardless of what you plan to do you'll have to hurry. That spear can only suppress the flames for another month, two if you're lucky."
Not a lot of time to work with especially if he needed to learn two skills to work on it but travelling like this might work to his advantage.
"Alright, thanks for warning me. If all else fails, I'll take it to the Tri-Goddess temple when we arrive at the capital. They'll be able to purge it." Chronos conceded.
"You seem awfully calm for someone that's just been told he's carrying a ticking time bomb." Smith looked at him with concern.
Had he gone crazy?
"There are dark beasts everywhere, tears are opening all over the place, nations are going to war and anyone with devil blood seems to have a personal grudge against my clan. When you've got so many ticks crawling on you one more doesn't really matter.
Besides I have a defensive skill that can dispose of the spear if needed, I just don't know what the collateral damage will be if I use it." Chronos explained with a look that said he was tired of this BS already.
"Hahahaha, sounds like you've had an eventful couple of months." Smith laughed as he realized that Chronos had everything under control... for now.
"If you'll excuse me, I need to ask for a favor from Micheal. Take care of yourself Smith." Chronos bid goodbye.
"See ya."
As he walked through the hallways, he started making plans to create his new powerful weapon.
The first thing he would need was system points; the [Rift Spear] skill alone cost 150 points but that wouldn't be enough to destroy the miasma. He would have to find another skill that could destroy miasma and use that one at the same time, which would cost even more points.
And to gain all of these points he would have to do more than just sitting around waiting for them to accrue.
Hrólmir had said that you would gain one point a day for doing nothing, but experience had taught them that if they accomplished something significant you could receive a lump sum.
Even regular training would usually give you an additional point as long as you seriously tried to improve.
So far, the things that granted them the most points were fighting the devils and closing tears. He doubted that he could find devils in the core of the Leighla Kingdom but with tears appearing anywhere that power gathered he could go around closing them for points.