The First Legendary Beast Master

While Min went looking for employees, Karl had the new Runecrafters gathered in the Guild House, facing a whiteboard, which he had covered in essential runic phrases for basic magical items.

They were all ones that worked well together, or could be added to other phrases as a modifier to give items a specific bonus.

“Alright, this is the single most common runic phrase that you will be using. I know that the System taught you to read the basic runic languages, so you should all see that it simply says Titanic Strength. However, simply writing it wherever will not be as effective as proper placement. If you’re writing it on a ring, you want the full enchantment to make even loops so that there are no empty gaps in the phrasing. So, this is the first thing that we will practice.

All the warriors of every Clan want these, unless they have better. So, you can sell a tonne of them to the traders.

On your tables are a bunch of wooden rings. Pick one that you like, it doesn’t matter the size, they will adapt to the bonded wearer. So, pick one that you think you can write the runes one well. They’ve all got flat outer rings, for easier practice. Getting the runes just right on a curved surface takes more practice.”

The Lycans picked up the rings, and memorized the four runes that made up the enchantment. That was one for every quarter of the ring, evenly spaced. It was not difficult, even without practice writing the language.

Slowly, they carved the simple wooden rings, careful not to mess up any of the stroke orders for the runes that they were carving. That was one of the great dangers of Runecrafting, the Lycans decided. There were many runes that were nearly identical, but carved in a different direction, so one end of the stroke was wider than the other. By basic layout, they were identical, but by width of the lines, they were not, and it was easy to make a mistake as to what you were writing if you messed up the order.

However, for many of the Lycans, they never actually wrote much of anything. They could read just fine, and sent System Messages regularly. But physically writing? That was for nerds and mages. Not for the average Lycan warrior.

Karl knew how most of them felt about the situation, and that was why most of the warriors hadn’t signed up for the Runecrafting option. It was mostly Elders and druids in here.

That wasn’t a bad thing. You didn’t want all the protectors to be inside creating gear when there was an attack. But you couldn’t cut them out entirely, or they would just end up poor.

Well, normally.

The Guild was very generous with giving out fun stuff, and the Pack was even more so, as they viewed it as the duty of the group to ensure that everyone had everything that they actually needed. So, gear would go to the warriors because they need gear. It would go to the mages, so things got done with magic, and to the druids to keep the gardens and forests healthy.

Then, whatever you made on top of what it cost to keep the pack running was yours.

Now that they were in the Darklight Host, it would quickly stop being a concern. The items they would sell would cover all of everyone’s expenses and more, so money would quickly become meaningless, and it would be the same as in the mortal world, all about the coolest new things.

Custom items tailored to your class were the peak of Darklight Host wish lists.

Even now, while they made their very first item, an Uncommon Grade ring of Titanic Strength, many of the pack members were already dreaming of the day that they had good enough mastery of Runecrafting to make themselves custom items with bonuses for their favourite skills, or the ability to use a spell that they could never master.

That last one was easier said than done. But it was still the dream.

Karl watched as everyone finished their rings, and a few had to start over after making a mistake. It was easy to mess up, but he had made all the wooden rings in about ten seconds, so it wasn’t any real loss if a bit of wood got damaged.

“Branch Leader, we’ve got the rings done! What comes next? Do we practice with more?” Elder Blackwood asked.

“Nope! You’ve done so well that we’re going to move on to a compound phrase that every Warrior wants. There are two options this time, and you can pick whichever you like. We’ll give them to the pack, if they need them, or trade them to Elder Malcolm to sell on the merchant ships.

The options are adding skill damage to titanic strength, or adding agility.”

The Lycans ears literally perked up at the thought. Just adding some, or a lot of strength, wasn’t bad. But strength and skill damage was a great combination. Perhaps not for the senior warriors, who got that good or better from dungeons. But for the students, and the younger Lycans.

The layout was also simple. You had to change the spacing, but it was all still one sentence, and you didn’t need to do anything fancy with it. That was why Karl had picked these combinations. Ease the new crafters into the basics first, and then spend a few weeks building up their skills, and the Guild’s stockpile of loot, before they moved on to Epic Grade items and made to order pieces.

The mass-produced “Just good enough” type items were the backbone of any Guild store.

If they didn’t have the basics, they didn’t have a store. It had to be good enough that visitors would want it, and come here to get it. But not so expensive that they would struggle to find anything to trade for it. In the Immortal worlds, the prices for good things were always in other goods, unless you were in the same Clan. Which made everything difficult.

Unless, of course, you were dealing with the Darklight Host, who would take nearly anything on trade.