Tale Of A Knight

His blue crystalline hand was on full display, Bakit thought that if anyone knew the answer to what was happening to him, it would be Rolgo, the magic expert.

"What is the diagnosis, Rolgo?"

"It is definitely an infection from a crystal elemental, though, instead of skewering your body into pieces, it seems to have laid dormant and somehow bonded to you…I never thought it was possible….Do you feel anything strange?"

"I can hear its voice in my head"

"Ooooh! That"s just a further proof that the shards of the crystal elementals retain a portion of the crystal elemental"s personality or maybe the shards are like spores that attach themselves to things, to absorb their life force….I can"t be sure, but in your case, instead of becoming a parasitic, the crystal shard seems to have developed a symbiotic relationship with your body."

"Symbiotic, you say?"

"Indeed, lad. You see, when the crystal shard embeds itself into the human body, it has a very quick life span, as long as it is absorbing the mana into itself, but as soon as the shard kills the host, the shard dies as well. Yet, maybe due to incubating for some time within your body, which has extremely low levels of mana, this crystal shard adapted to extend its own lifespan by making its relationship a give and take. I theorized the possibility of something like this happening, but seeing one for myself…Bakit, you sure are full of surprises."

"Whatever. So what should I do with it?"

"Can you move the fingers?"

"Well…Not really. The voice of the crystal shard within my mind makes the fingers move when I tell it to, but I can"t feel a thing with them"

"In that case, may I take a sample?"

"Go ahead"

Rolgo proceeded to take a hammer and a chisel, and with them he proceeded to try to get a piece of the crystal hand.

But as soon as he struck the crystal hand, the hand ended up shattering into pieces, leaving a stump for hand, covered by a thin layer of crystals.

"Rolgo!"

"I didn"t mean to do that! But wait…Just maybe…"

Rolgo ended up searching his inventory before taking a stone size of a grain.

He proceeded to put the stone on top of the layer of crystal on Bakit"s right stump.

Immediately, as soon as the stone touched the layer of crystals, the crystals started to grow aggressively, growing downwards, like a small stalact.i.te.

Then, it stopped growing, shattered into pieces, revealing a new crystal hand underneath.

"Just as I thought, it still feeds on mana, huh"

"Rolgo, what the h.e.l.l was that? One second the hand was gone, and then it grew back…What was that thing?"

"Simple mana stone. As soon as it touched the crystals, the crystals absorbed the mana within the stone, allowing them to grow….though, I wonder…."

He proceeded to put a grain sized mana stones on the shattered pieces of the crystals that were lying on the floor.

Like blades, they quickly grew into meter long sharp icicle-like structures. Rolgo barely avoided being skewered by them.

"Ooops, shards of the crystal elementals are this dangerous even in such tiny amount, though; there are so many things I can use them for…."

"Rolgo"

"Right, sorry, Bakit. What did you want to know?"

"How long do I have before this thing kills me?"

"Honestly, I am not sure. But didn"t you notice it growing before? Did it spread to the rest of your body?"

"No, so far only the right hand"

"Hmm, how strange. Maybe the crystal shard has adapted and has deemed it necessary for you to be alive, for itself to retain its life."

"That"s pretty much what Blue told me"

"Blue?"

"It"s what I call this thing, Blue"

"Short and concise, not bad"

Now looking out of the window, Rolgo saw a light blue haired girl standing outside.

"She has been standing there for quite a while. If she was a customer, she would have already come in, so I a.s.sume, she is one of your friends?"

"Not even close. Just a watchdog the Aristan family sent to spy on me"

"Aristans? The Sword Saint Household!? Why would they want to spy on you?"

"Not important. Crystal hand issue aside, there is this thing…"

Bakit showed the dagger on his belt.

"No matter what I do…."

Bakit threw the dagger away from him.

But after five seconds, the dagger flew back towards him, which Bakit proceeded to catch with his left hand.

"…It always comes back. I can"t get rid of it"

Rolgo took the dagger into his own hands and examined it.

"A ceremonial engagement dagger, it symbolizes devotion by being attached to the one who accepted it, which in this case would be you. A very powerful spell, a contract type, and once accepted, the dagger recognizes the one who took it as its owner, and no matter what circ.u.mstances, this magic weapon will come to you. It was made with a level 8 spell, and my strongest spells are only level 5, so I am afraid I cannot do anything about this…but at the very least, you have a permanent weapon"

"More like a permanent pain in the a.s.s…"

"Still, how did you come by this weapon? And you mentioned the Aristan Household, a very prominent n.o.ble family, so it wouldn"t be odd for them to have such a magic item…but still…"

"Don"t worry about it, Rolgo. Let"s just say I got myself into a one huge sticky situation and now I am looking for a way out. And I may have already found it, but I need to ask for my master"s approval…"

Bakit proceeded to head out of the Rolgo"s shop.

"Thanks for everything, Rolgo, see you around"

"You are welcome to come by anytime, lad, I will need more things to be tested after all!"

Bakit could only sigh at Rolgo"s statement.

"A magic shop owner obsessed with making strange gadgets, Master Swordsman who doesn"t know how to hold back, cross-dressing prince, ax wielding maids, crystal elementals, and now a Household of Sword Saints …Weirdoes are everywhere. Not a single normal one among them….Except maybe Desti…but everyone else just makes me mad…"