After school, I headed to the guild hall with Emma. Luna was busy at the temple, so the two of us planned to take a request on our own. We’d barely even said hello when Lola gave us some great news.
“I’ve been gathering information on magical implements like you asked, and I heard something very interesting. Mr. Noir, are you familiar with Klaston Cemetery?”
“I’ve heard of it.”
Normally, people were buried by the church, but there wasn’t enough space for everyone, so several graveyards had been established just outside town. Klaston Cemetery was one of them.
Lola held up her index finger with a solemn look on her face. “Rumor has it that there’s an enchanted sword there.”
“Who put an enchanted sword in a cemetery?”
“No one knows. All they do know is that it’s sticking out of the grave of a fallen knight. I don’t know if it was enchanted to begin with or whether it transformed over time.”
I’d heard about that happening. It was rare, but there were reports that, when someone died with regrets, their swords gradually absorbed those emotions and became enchanted blades. I supposed their owner’s wishes kind of leaked out of their corpse.
“Ugh, that’s kinda creepy,” Emma said, taken aback by the awfulness of the idea.
Lola seemed to be against the idea of pulling the sword from its resting place too. “Honestly, I think it sounds ghoulish. I thought you’d wanna know about it, but you should give it some serious thought before you try anything. It could be cursed…”
In other words, that meant I should bring someone who could lift curses, like Luna. The trouble was that if I waited too long, someone else might try to take it.
“Why don’t we just go check it out?” I said. “I have a Discerning Eye, so if it really is cursed, then we can get out of there without touching it.”
“You’ve grown so brave, Mr. Noir,” said Lola.
“Have I?”
“You have. Of course, you’re still cautious, but you’ve developed a more…manly side. I like it!”
I felt a little embarrassed. I probably had the hidden dungeon to thank for my development. I’d started to really enjoy adventuring. Of course, I was still a chicken at heart, but maybe I’d developed a touch of boldness that helped balance it out.
“In other news, I have a message from Luna,” said Lola. “She wants to see you this evening. I think she wants to talk about something.”
“Got it,” I said. “I’ll go see her when we get back from the cemetery.”
As we left the guild hall, I checked in with Emma to make sure she wanted to come. She’d seemed scared, and it wasn’t like this was an official request.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said. “Of course I’m coming with you. But if it really is dangerous, let’s not push our luck, okay?”
“Of course.”
“Also, about Luna’s invitation… You’d better not go back to her place!”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I mean, this is Luna we’re talking about. If she wants to talk, it’s probably something serious.”
“Well, I sure hope so.”
I was curious about what Luna wanted, but I was more impatient to find out about this enchanted sword, so we hurried to the cemetery. I knew roughly where it was, so we didn’t get lost on the way.
The cemetery didn’t have a caretaker or anything. It was just a plot of land with a bunch of headstones. It almost looked abandoned, but it did have a fence around it, and families of the deceased came by periodically to grieve, so it wasn’t completely neglected. People often came by between morning and four in the afternoon to bring flowers, and it was around that time now.
“There are people here and there,” I said. “I wonder where that sword is.”
Emma looked around until something caught her eye. “Hey, isn’t that man looking at something?”
He had a sword at his hip and looked kind of rugged. It was hard to tell whether he was a civilian or an adventurer. There were monsters outside town, so it was common for people to carry weapons. He was looking down intently at a sword that had been thrust into a mound of earth. That had to be it.
“Let’s get a closer look.”
I approached the man as I observed the sword carefully. It looked a little old, but the handle was fairly clean. The strangest thing about it was the blade, which was marked with what almost looked like black rust. It spiraled around the blade like a black serpent. It was hard to believe such a pattern was natural, no matter how badly the sword had deteriorated.
“Are you adventurers?” the man asked.
“Yeah. We were curious about this enchanted sword thing.”
“Figured,” he said. “Looks like that’s it.”
Just to be sure, I used my Discerning Eye for Items.
Incensing Blade
Grade B
Skills: Slashing Blade; Poison Blade; Electrified Handle
It certainly had…personality. I’d seen that Slashing Blade skill somewhere before, and Poison Blade was pretty self-explanatory—it inflicted poison on anyone it cut. But the most curious skill was Electrified Handle. I investigated further, and apparently, it gave anyone who grabbed it an electric shock. The skill only affected the hilt, but the blade could still poison you. If you made one wrong move, you’d be in real trouble. Even worse, it could well be the kind of poison that damaged skin on contact.
The man put his hand on my shoulder. “I bet you wanna try pulling that sword out. Well, I’d recommend against it. Everyone who’s tried has collapsed on the spot.”
“You didn’t come here to try it yourself?” I asked.
“Nope. I just wanted to get a look at it. I’m not laying a finger on that thing. I don’t want to get cursed.”
Well, you don’t have to worry about that, because it isn’t cursed. Of course, I kept that to myself. Didn’t want to give him any ideas.
The real question was how I could pull it out of the ground. I could make my body able to withstand the shock or nullify the shock itself. I had C-Grade Paralysis Immunity, which I thought would probably work, but the operative word was “probably.”
Some manner of Thunder Resistance would also up my electrical affinity, and it might come in handy later.
Besides, destroying the Electrified Handle skill would cost 1,000 LP. I had no idea how much LP the sword would give me when I converted it, and I definitely didn’t want to spend more than it was worth. At least giving myself a skill had other benefits.
But which grade should I go for? S-Grade Thunder Resistance cost 2,000 LP, while A-Grade was 1,200. I decided to splurge on the S-Grade and went to grab the sword.
“Hey—didn’t you hear a word I said?!” the man demanded.
“Yeah, Noir!” Emma agreed. “You don’t know what might happen.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve already taken measures to protect myself.”
I steeled myself and gripped the handle. I’d probably have been fine touching the blade, given that I had A-Grade Poison Resistance, but I didn’t want to chance it.
“Ow…”
Even a resistance skill wasn’t always enough to completely nullify a powerful attack, but it wasn’t too bad. It did make me wince, but it was nothing I couldn’t endure. Although holding it for an extended period of time would be tricky.
“Y-you’re okay?!”
“Wow…but…”
They seemed both astonished and concerned. Time to find out how much LP I could convert this thing into. When I saw the number 2,300, I went for it immediately. The weapon vanished, and the man’s expression froze in horror.
“I-i-i-it disappeared?! It was a cursed sword, so you made it disappear to dispose of it, right? I don’t wanna get dragged into this! Sorry, but I’m out of here!”
He ran off. Talk about an active imagination. I couldn’t hold back a chuckle, but Emma seemed just as scared.
“We have to run. If it really was cursed, we’re going to be in serious trouble!” she cried.
“Don’t worry.”
When I explained the situation, she looked deeply relieved. It seemed she’d been genuinely concerned that I might get cursed. In the end, I was up 300 LP and I’d acquired a strong elemental resistance skill. I was glad we’d made the trip.
On a related note, even identical weapons were worth different amounts of LP, depending on their condition. For example, when I converted some lances with the C-Grade Dragon Killer skill, the ones in poor condition were only worth 500 LP, while the good ones were 1,500. If a weapon was in a poor condition, it was potentially more efficient to just wear it out rather than convert it.