Finding and Awakening the Dormant Relic in Simply Swords
The 
Dormant Relic in Simply Swords is a rare unique found the same way as the mod's signature weapons — as loot while exploring — and it holds a sealed power that grows through an awakening system.
How the Dormant Relic Is Obtained
The Dormant Relic belongs to Simply Swords' pool of lootable uniques, the same rare-drop set that holds the mod's unique weapons — 
Emberblade, 
Frostfall, Soulpyre, 
Mjolnir and dozens more. You do not craft it at a bench; you find it while adventuring, and obtaining it unlocks the "Batteries Not Included" advancement.
- Because it sits in the unique-drop pool, it turns up as a rare reward from exploration rather than from a fixed recipe.
- Even in packs that switch off unique-weapon drops, Dormant Relic progression stays enabled, so its own path is handled separately.
A Faint Power Within
When first obtained, the Dormant Relic reads "A faint power seems to emanate from within." That power is not fixed — the relic uses the same Awakening system as the mod's unique weapons:
- Uniques and the Dormant Relic line carry an Awakening level, shown in the tooltip as "Awakening: x / y."
- You raise that level at a
Runic Forge, which the tooltip marks with "Upgrade this weapon at a Runic Forge," unlocking sealed effects at higher levels. - As it awakens, the relic's sealed potential opens up instead of staying dormant.
Companion Remnants
Alongside relics, Simply Swords uses Remnants as upgrade energy. An 
Empowered Remnant — obtained by smelting a 
Runefused Gem or a trophy such as 
The Watcher — is the concentrated catalyst behind the mod's relic and weapon progression. Keep a supply on hand as you awaken your finds at the Runic Forge.
Why it cannot simply be crafted
The relic sits outside the mod's normal crafting entirely. Simply Swords has 275 crafting recipes and 77 smithing transformations, and none of them produce it — the item exists only as loot. That is the mechanical reason exploring is the whole acquisition path, rather than a suggestion.
Where the mod's other uniques come from
The relic shares its source with the rest of the mod's signature gear, so a trip that hunts one is a trip that finds the others. Runic weapons and the tablets used to reroll them turn up the same way, which makes chest-heavy structures worth clearing fully rather than skimming for one item.
Once you have a runic weapon in hand, the smithing table takes over: a 
Runic Tablet plus a 
Diamond rerolls its properties as often as you can supply the materials, and the weapon itself is never consumed. A relic and a rerollable runic weapon together are the realistic end state of a loot run, not one or the other.