Chapter 6

It didn’t take long to outfit a room as a dojo. We used mattresses as pads for the wall and floor. The instruction began immediately, and was planned to last for six weeks. I cut out all of the disabling moves from the stick fighting training and stuck to the killing moves. At the end of six weeks, it was time for Almo to begin field work, so we had to get him a baton. We had found a piece of hardwood and had made him a fist weapon similar to mine.

Okay, it was back to Tonto see what he might have that Almo could use as a baton. We went through the usual greetings and settled down to trying to find something for Almo that I approved of. “Tonto, I am so pleased with my mace that I would like to find a similar item for a gift. Do you have anything that is similar. Even a short staff might be okay.”

“I don’t know, Jill. I’ll pull out some things for you to look at, and maybe that will point us in the right direction. I must say that you are my most interesting customer—you never fail to surprise me. I’ll look through what I have in the back room first. That’s where I think that we will eventually find what you are looking for.”

Tonto was gone for almost 30 minutes, but he returned with seven items in his arms. “Please look through these items and see if any of them are like what you are looking for.”

I started off with a short staff that was still a little longer than what I really wanted. As soon as I picked it up, I felt considerable pain throughout my body. I dropped the staff immediately—I simply could not hold it. I guessed that it was intended for a magic user and completely incompatible with a warrior. I said, “Please set that item aside. I causes me pain even to touch it. Also, if any of the other items are intended for specific kinds of magic users, please remove them too. That experience was too painful to want to repeat!”

“I’m sorry, Jill. I had forgotten about that problem. This short staff and this long one are both intended for a wizard, and I should never have brought them to you. This war hammer is attuned to the magic of a paladin, and it may give you the same kind of problem. What do you think of the remaining four items?”

“I’m not sure. This mace looks promising. What is its magic?”

“That mace projects a protective aura that is like a hemispherical shield. The shield is about 10 feet in diameter, and it keeps out monsters, though it has no effect on demons. Frankly, I am not sure how useful it really is.”

“This mace looks very much like mine, except that it is heavier. What is it’s magic?”

“It has no inherent magic, but it does have a socket on the shaft that can accept a gem. That would let you turn it into almost any type of weapon that you might want.”

“That is an attractive idea. I may choose it after I have looked at the other items. What is this item?”

“I am not sure how to describe it. Right now, it just looks like a stick, but it has the ability to morph into either a mace or an ax, depending on exactly what the user wants. Take it in your hand and think ‘ax’ to see it morph. Once it changes, think ‘mace’ and it will change again. After that, think ‘neutral’ to change it back into what you see now.”

I followed the instructions, and it was amazing to see what looked like a simple piece of wood turn into a double-bladed ax and then into a mace before turning back into a simple piece of wood. In both cases, the shafts were too short to serve as a baton.

The fourth item was a cudgel with a handle that was too short. “So far, the only one that fits my idea of what I want is that mace with the gem socket. Do you have anything else?”

“No, I’m afraid not. However, I can make you a good price on that mace. What do you say to 275 gold pieces?”

“Make it 260, and you have a sale.”

Tonto’s face lit up and he reached out to shake my hand. I shook his hand and paid him the 260 gold coins he wanted. I took my new weapon and dropped it into my belt pouch. After some general conversation, we left. I said, “Let’s visit the jeweler to see what he has in gems.

We went into the jeweler’s shop and exchanged the usual greetings. “What can I show you today? I have some beautiful baguette-cut diamonds that would look wonderful when formed into a necklace.”

“No, I am looking for a gem to be added to a weapon. What I have is a mace with a setting for a gem, and I would like to improve its usefulness by adding a stone. What do you have in stock that might fulfill my needs?”

“I have a princess ruby, which is the most powerful in raising the damage quotient of a weapon. Be aware, though, that this gem costs over a million gold coins.”

“Very well, since I don’t have a million gold coins to spend on a ruby, what can you supply for 30,000 gold coins.”

“I have this baguette ruby for 29,000 gold. I will boost a weapon’s damage quotient by a factor of 1,000. Will that meet your requirements?”

“I don’t know if it will meet all of my requirements, but it will certainly help. I will take that gem if you can mount it immediately in the mace I have with me.”

“Yes, I can do that while you wait. There will be no extra charge for the mounting, unless I have to do some special work on the setting.”

I handed him the mace and piled the money on the counter while the jeweler set the gem. I had to admire the appearance of the mace after the ruby was set into the handle.

Almo and I stepped outside and teleported home. When we reached there, I handed the new mace to Almo and kissed him. “Here you are, Dear One. I hope it serves you well. Now that we are almost broke, how about us going after monsters and demons today.”

Almo agreed to that, and we jumped to the last place we fought monsters and demons. We soon came to a cave; the plains were permeated with them. From the bones scattered in front of the cave, we figured on something interesting being in the cave.

We entered the cave mouth and had no trouble seeing because of the boost given to our vision by my ring and Almo’s charm. Almo had his new mace/baton in his right hand and his poison sword in his left hand. I had my new baton in my right hand and my lightning sword in my left. This cave was rather large, so we stayed side by side.

Almo was so new at using his baton that I was ready to jump in if he needed me. However, I was sure that he would do fine because his baton was so powerful and he was used to using a mace. In fact, until I met him, Almo had rarely used anything else. Both of us were confident of our swords, and we were totally competent with them, so we were not worried. Actually, we may have been too far on the cocky side. Well, we should know in a few minutes.

We had gotten only about 70-80 feet into the cave when we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by a mixed lot of monsters. No demons yet. The monsters were mostly satyrs and lion dogs, and there were a lot of them. They rushed us on all sides at pretty much all at the same time. We turned to stand back to back and began the fight with considerable enthusiasm because of our self confidence.

With my back turned, I could not see what Almo was doing, but I could hear him grunting as he put his effort into the fight. I was facing the greatest number of satyrs at the same time as I had ever seen. Had they all been living in the cave? The air sure smelled like it.

My sword was doing well with its five lightning bolts, and the satyrs were rarely able to get close enough to me to make much difference. The biggest problem I had was that I had to hit an attacker with my sword to get the bolts released, and that meant that I had to allow a few satyrs to get very close to me. My new metal armor was doing a good job of protecting me from serious injury, but so many nicks and scratches from enemy swords were quite painful.