Chapter 53 - Spell Enchanting

Despite her hopes, the grimoire didn't contain anything particularly groundbreaking to help for the next floors. It was a book on the basics of enchanting, both weapons and people. Still, she scowled at it heavily as she made her way through it. She'd had yet to make use of the spells learned from her first grimoire either, giving her a ton of spells and building blocks to work with.

Thinking there had to be something useful, she read until it was time to head to the next floor. When Yarrow announced that they were moving on she put the book away with a sigh and mulled over what she'd learned as they started down the steps to the next floor. The weapon enchants were different from what she'd used earlier but she was uncertain if there was a difference in results.

Pulling out her daggers, she decided to experiment while they were safe on the stairs. Casting the first version of weapon enchants she'd learned, just putting her fire spell on a weapon, didn't visually change the dagger in the slightest. She knew from its description, though, that the weapon would deal a small amount of fire damage as long as the enchant lasted.

Using the other enchantment she'd just learned had a marked difference visually, the fire that wreathed the blade drew the attention of the entire party. She apologized immediately, knowing she'd likely startled them into thinking they were somehow being ambushed on the stairs.

Yarrow waved the apology away before looking at the blades, "Glad you learned elemental enchants," he incorrectly said as she hadn't used the one she'd made earlier in combat yet, his eyes on the flaming dagger, "They're useful," he sighed again, "Really need to get you to the proper trainer in the temple, though. Chances are we've forgotten something you need to know."

"Both of these weapons are enchanted with elemental magic," she corrected, watching as everyone scowled slightly and looked at her as if confused.

She explained that both had been enchanted but each with a different spell. Fel's eyes lit up at that and she made her way back to stand by Ash and demand her daggers get each of the enchantments. She'd find out the difference between them, she promised with one of her wolfish grins.

The first and most obvious difference was visibility, the dagger wreathed in flames acting as a small torch. Fel scowled at it slightly and her presence seemed to fade slightly as it had each time she took point to keep an eye out for traps and scout for enemies. The light faded as well and Fel stalked off down the stairs and into the tight corridors that comprised the underground floors.

Fel returned several minutes later, "No traps on this floor. No good opportunities to test out the enchantments yet either. Enemies are in groups of three at the smallest, got a few groups of five jammed into the corridors blocking the way too. Nothing major, just elemental undead like a lot of the floors before here," seeing the slight concern on Ash's face she waved dismissively with the fiery dagger, "Vine zombies. Fire's just fine on them."

Yarrow nodded slightly, "Find the stairs?"

Fel nodded once more and let Yarrow take the lead as she silently pointed each time they hit an intersection. At the fourth such turn she paused slightly and signaled that there were enemies ahead, three so long as her count remained accurate.

Yarrow led the way into combat, unsurprised when the vine zombies immediately attempted to tie him up using their own version of Snare Vine. Fel was swift, a strike from the flame-wreathed dagger barely grazing the vines to set them alight and allow Yarrow to free himself easily. That was the enchantment she was used to.

The other dagger came into play seconds later. Yarrow cast his aggro spell, garnering the attention of all three of them. Fel only intended two to have even the slightest chance to reach him, though, and singled out one for her own target. Her other blade sliced into it, the results surprising her.

The zombie charred heavily where she struck, as if it had caught fire and been extinguished faster than she could perceive. It also reeled from the blow, staggering back as if Yarrow had struck it instead of her. A second blow destroyed it entirely.

The others had taken out the remaining zombies at around the same time and Fel turned her attention towards Ash, "I like you, this is the most interesting thing I've seen in a long time," she grinned. Her gaze slid to Gardenia, though, "You get to do the explanations, I don't do fancy magic."

Gardenia had, luckily, been paying close attention to Fel's fight even if it meant Yarrow and Ash were their only sources of damage for a moment. She'd expected something like this and the vine zombies were an easy fight so long as no reinforcements showed up.

"The enchant we're all used to wraps your weapon in an element or, in the case of just attack boost in magic. For the elemental attacks, it adds damage over time. The negative impact, though, is that your enemy can see what element your weapon is enchanted with. If they have intelligence, they react accordingly. The other one seems to add elemental damage onto the attack itself, as if you were striking with both your weapon and the elemental spell at the same time. I'm certain there are other differences, but do not know them as of yet. Right now, it would appear that Ash's enchantment is the stronger one by far unless faced with an enemy that needs to be consistently taking damage."

They moved on, making their way through groupings of zombies until they reached the stairs to the next floor. Gardenia kept a close eye on the enchants, patiently waiting for something to happen to tell her more. They'd just started down the stairs when the slight glow to Fel's second blade doused itself. The one that was on fire continued burning merrily.

"And there we have the other difference," Gardenia said with a slight nod, as if she'd expected the outcome, "In exchange for far more power, the other enchant lasts for a far shorter amount of time. It lasted a third of the time the normal fire enchantment does."

"It'd likely need to be refreshed during longer fights, like those with bosses," Yarrow added, glancing back over his shoulder as he paused near the bottom of the stairs for Fel to slip out onto the floor and explore again, "It'll have its uses, though. Is it something you can teach Nia or something you built custom for yourself that you want to keep secret?"

Ash frowned slightly at him, almost afraid to tell him how simple it was. Eventually, she caved, almost timidly explaining that it was just the attack spells she'd first learned but put onto a weapon instead.