Symbiotes

~

Once the charging time was over Enzo and Ivan went back into the game. They didn't need to sleep as using the headgear alleviated a lot of their tiredness, and they only needed to swallow another pill to alleviate their hunger.

Enzo pulled up his messages to see if he had any. There was one from Jane and one from Hephaestus. He decided to open the one from the dwarf chaser first.

[Hephaestus:

Where can we meet up to talk about this? I am in Stonewall city currently.]

Enzo messaged him back immediately.

[Atlas:

I am in Stonewall as well, let's meet up at the Silverwind Inn.]

He believed the inn would be a good place to meet up because he knew they could use his private room for it.

He then opened the message from Jane.

[Best Store Clerk:

I am in Stonewall right now, so if you need any help with anything just let me know, but I am going to just go solo if not.]

[Atlas:

Of course I'll let you know. I think I am going to run the solo dungeon for a while, but if I need any help I'll message you.]

He then checked Hephaestus' response, who told him he would be at the meetup place in a few minutes.

Enzo went down to the entrance of the Silverwind Inn and waited for the man to arrive.

After a few minutes, "Atlas!", a man called out to Enzo.

"Hephaestus, hello. Let's go inside. I already have a room we can talk in."

Enzo could already see why the man may have chosen to go with the dwarf race.

He was only around 5'4 (1.63 m) tall, which may be average height for women but is considered short for a man. However, he had the muscles needed to compensate for his shortness. He looked like he worked out every single day and it could be seen through the standard brown tunic and pants that all players wore. He had short, light brown hair that was faded on the sides, but a very long beard that went all the way down to his collarbone and was very thick. His deep blue eyes stood out amongst his tan skin and brown hair very well.

Enzo and Hephaestus shook hands in a greeting before Enzo led him up to the room he was still renting.

'His grip is strong.' Enzo thought in his head.

Once they reached the room Enzo closed the door and sat on the bed while pointing Hephaestus to the chair in the corner which he then sat on.

"Before I give you any information or we start with negotiations, I would like to ask about your class and subclass." Enzo told him.

Hephaestus' eyebrows raised.

"Why?" He asked.

"Because I would like to make sure I am not revealing any information about my valuables or inventory to a thief or a bandit.

I don't know what skills they have, but I am assuming it is something that could help them take my shit."

"That's fair. I am a monster slayer with the blacksmith subclass."

It was Enzo's turn to raise his eyebrows now. He knew there would obviously be other people with the same class, but it was cool to find another one for the first time.

"I am a monster slayer as well, and I have the alchemist subclass." Enzo responded.

"It is cool to meet another monster slayer." Hephaestus said with a smile.

"Okay, now down to business. I recently collected a symbiote synthesization recipe, and I also have some items related to that. I would like to hear anything you might know about symbiotes before I potentially sell the recipe to you."

"Hmmmm. Well, to be honest I don't know much at the moment. All I know is that it is incredibly difficult to find symbiotes and even harder to create a good weapon with symbiotes."

"They are used to create weapons?" Enzo asked.

"Yes. From what my teacher told me, symbiotes have three forms. They have an animal form, a jewelry form, and a weapon form. The blacksmith has to shape it into all of these things after synthesizing it with a metal. The problem is that it has to be a certain combination of metals and not all of the combinations are known."

"How many combinations have you seen?"

"Only the one my teacher has. His recipe includes a few different metals, but the problem is that he has only ever had one customer with a symbiote ring and he failed to synthesize it correctly."

Enzo ignored the fact that his teacher failed because he realized Hephaestus' teacher must have been someone special to have even gotten that opportunity based on what he said about the rarity of symbiotes.

"Who is your teacher?"

Hephaestus smiled at this question.

"He is a renowned blacksmith in the Kular Kingdom. I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but I trust Prometheus and you are a friend of his so by association I trust you. I received a quest for a unique blacksmith class from him."

That was indeed something he probably shouldn't be telling someone he just met, so Enzo decided to share his own little secret as a show of mutual trust. He didn't want to be on bad terms with the dwarf chaser because it already seemed like he was on the fast track to becoming the dwarf king.

"I received a unique class quest as well, and I found a lot of unbound symbiotes in the same place where I got the quest." Enzo revealed.

"Amazing!" Hephaestus shouted in excitement.

"I will synthesize those symbiotes and create something special for you once I have the skills to do so if you give me that recipe!" He said loudly.

Enzo knew there wasn't much he could do with the recipe other than sell it to a different blacksmith, so he didn't really mind taking this deal even if there was a risk that Hephaestus wouldn't hold up his end of the bargain.

"Deal." He said and shook hands with the short man.