The human clerk sets the claw aside and picks up something that looks almost like a pearl. It is an opalescent sphere, but is not actually made of pearl. “Do you know where this came from, at least?”
Rosha shrugs, “It was found in a cave protected by a human-sized mantis. The bug didn’t have anything special going on, but this was at the meeting point of a stalagmite and a stalactite near the center of said cave.”
The man nods, “Not quite a literal sword, but certainly less natural. I know of a few components that could be? Though the fact that a giant insect was guarding it points towards certain facts.
“A couple of potential uses, off the top of my head, would be any kind of external defense made of solid pieces. So plate armor, a shield, stuff like that. The accessory might be more restrictive though, only improving defenses based on chitin.”
Rosha raises an eyebrow, “Could you explain why that would be the case? You seem quite certain when all we know about it is where it formed and the monster that was guarding it at the time.”
The clerk laughs, “You underestimate how much the guardian will tell you about natural treasures! It is important to remember that guarding a natural treasure is a balancing act for a monster. It could be out hunting, growing, and maybe finding a better treasure.
“So for a monster to stick around a treasure? It will be strong enough to receive a significant benefit from the treasure, because it isn’t like other monsters are going to sit back and let them peacefully camp it! Thus, the balancing act a monster must calculate on whether to defend a treasure.
“If the monster is too weak? Eh, the delusional monster dies. Not that a weak monster won’t try and claim a stronger resource if they find it first. They’ll stick around hoping something stronger doesn’t find said treasure. But at a certain point? A stronger monster won’t bother because either the potential damage they’ll take outweighs the worth of the treasure or they’re so strong that the treasure doesn’t matter anymore.”
Rosha shrugs, “That makes sense and I guess if a treasure was only good for a certain type of monster, that’s who would be defending it, but this doesn’t seem like that kind of treasure. So why an insect?”
The clerk nods, “You aren’t wrong. This faux pearl would likely improve their defenses and maybe help with their bones, horns, claws, or whatever other hard parts they might have. Though, despite the pearl-like appearance, I would guess that in the records it will be recorded as a pill as I assume the monsters would have to eat it for the effect.
“Anyway, treasures like this always have something they’ll improve better than others. Which adjusts the calculations for any monster that stumbles across it. If this pill makes bones five percent more resilient, but chitin gets a ten percent boost? A stronger insect will be willing to fight over it than any beast with a skeleton.
“So while I will admit that not every natural treasure will be guarded by something said treasure will be optimal to help. The defender at least provides a good place to start.”
Rosha nods, “An interesting balance. Continue.”
The clerk nods in turn and sets down the faux pearl. After a pause, deciding which to choose next, he picks up the second to last component, a snail shell.
In a change of pace, this shell looks and feels exactly like a normal shell. The clerk raises an eyebrow, “Well that’s odd. I’m pretty certain this shell picked up the needed power to be a component long after the actual snail died.”
Rosha shrugs, “We’re not really sure what is up with the shell either. It was found among a bunch of other shells. Which just brought up more questions as there was no sign of what left them.”
The clerk grabs a thin, flexible rod of wood and pokes the hole. The rod bends easily enough and allows him to measure the depth, while checking for anything left in there. Then, with a pulse of Mana, the wood begins to release a gentle glow that illuminates the inside of the shell.
After more observation, the wood dims back to how it started and the clerk sets it aside. “Another fun mystery you’ve got for me. I can’t be certain, but since it gained the power after the inhabitant was already dead? The resulting accessory isn’t likely to do anything with defense. After all, the shell's defenses already failed to defend the snail and this shouldn’t have been a fully grown snail so it isn’t like they died of old age or some such.”
Rosha, “Any clues on what it might improve?”
The clerk shrugs, “Not a one. I place the chance of this actually becoming an accessory at one percent of the usual success rate, which isn’t too high to begin with.
“Sometimes magic is weird. We’ll never know why it formed, but along with our services, we provide a breakdown of what is discovered while working with the material. So if we do discover something, you’ll be informed.”
He sets the shell down and looks at the last accessory component. “Left for last. The exact opposite of how people would pick it.”
The clerk picks it up out of the case, a small lizard scale. “I’ll say right away, this isn’t something crazy like the scale from some things with dragon’s blood in their veins. Which almost makes it rarer as dragons are–
“Well, there’s no polite way to say this. They’re prolific outside of their species. To find a lizard without at least a ghost of dragon ancestry, if not blood, is actually hard to do. A shame that degraded dragons blood almost makes it harder for something to purify and grow said bloodline. Then again, if it was easy, we’d have a plague of dragons. So I guess it is a balancing feature.”