Exploration- Chapter 38

So as I was writing this the loot ended up taking up too much time, so I've decided to move the final dungeon encounter further down the road. Next up will be an interlude.

Chapter 38- Strings Attached

We hovered there, breathing hard, surrounded by ruin that was already being absorbed back into the dungeon floor. My heart pounded, adrenaline singing through my veins, and I could feel the dungeon recalibrating again, already preparing whatever came next.

The loot box made me feel much better though. We all flew down because when it comes to loot, everybody loves large chests. I offered to let Clay open it, but Selena said, “Nope, you’re opening it.”

“Fine, but out of curiosity, why?”

She stepped up next to me. Her voice was soft although I expected everyone here had the Perception stat necessary to hear her words. “Because only one of us is a Forerunner with a looting ability that automatically upgrades low tier loot and has a reasonable chance of upgrading even higher loot, not to mention the upgrades to consumables.”

“Okay, good point. It just feels wrong to be the one to open all the loot boxes. We don’t even know of my ability affects the box or if the loot has already been determined when the chest was created.”

“Right, but that’s one large chest and if there is even a chance that you can affect it, then I don’t know why we would do it any other way.”

I didn’t debate it any further. She was probably right. I just reached out and opened the chest. As soon as I did, I got a notification.

For repeatedly looting corpses and now a loot chest within a dungeon of another system which is connected to you, your loot ability is upgraded.

Loot (Epic 53%)–Pelt Skinner, Final Blow  >> Loot (Legendary 1%)

Three variants exist for the upgrade, all versions will maintain the bonus to loot whenever you land the final blow on a target.

Loot- McScrooge:  All of your loot will have dramatically increased monetary value and an increased probability of obtaining credits or other negotiable valuables will significantly increase including property deeds, and merchandising contracts.

Loot- Crafter: All of your loot will have a significantly increased chance of being crafting materials and will be multiplied. All crafting materials will have a minimum tier of rare tier with the average being Epic tier. There will be a 20% chance that epic tier crafting loot is upgraded to Legendary and a 2% chance that it will be upgraded to Ascendant tier.   Note: this ability does not convey the skill necessary to craft with high tier materials.

Loot- Upgrader: An expansion of your basic ability and connected to Save for Winter. All loot will be a minimum of Rare tier, with Epic tier being the most common. Epic items will have a 20% chance of being upgraded to Legendary tier with that chance being increased to 60% for consumables and a 2% chance of being upgraded to Ascendant Tier with a 6% chance for consumables.

Rather than waste time, I shared the notification with everyone. The conversation happened fast and furiously, but in the end, as nice as it might have been to progressively build up wealth for my newly founded House, I choose Loot-Upgrader. The chance for getting ascendant tier gear was too much.

When I choose it I got another notification.

As special consideration for the first time using this upgraded ability and as a thank you from the dungeon with ulterior motives, the majority of your loot is shifted to consumables and all of your loot is upgraded to Ascendant Tier.

Note: The Ways have influenced this outcome. Take of that what you will.

Now, I absolutely had to get into that chest. It sprang open and then dissolved, leaving the loot on the ground for us all to see. There were 12 potions, a pair of metal discs, and dagger, and a pair of hooked swords.

I gestured for Selena to pick up the swords first. Her hands were trembling as she reached out. “My father only got an ascendant tier weapon after his time of compulsory service was over. To have one now…”

Her words faded away and her face glassed over as she must have been reading the description of the items. We didn’t have long to wait before she pushed the notification for all of us to see.

Twin Hooked Sword-  Set, Artifact

Ambient- Recharge 6 hours.

Perception: +100

These blades function as a set and grant the user A trait which they should not otherwise have access to:

Geared Up- this trait is normally reserved to the royal line of the Void fey but only as regards these swords. All stats boosted by 23% while wielding these swords or simply carrying them on your person.

Left Sword: This sword grants the user the ability to cast the spell: Void Rift once per charge. This will create an opening from any physical realm to the void or from the void to a physical realm.

Right Sword: This sword grants the user the ability to cast the spell: Reality Schism once per charge. Reality Schism will create an alternate reality where the user can manipulate events and then if successful can overwrite the base reality with the new one. The changes which are possible are broad and only limited by the user’s imagination but there will be resistance from the base reality depending upon the extent of the changes made.

Both swords have 75% increased physical damage and 10% of the damage caused is converted to spiritual damage. Spiritual wounds caused by these weapons will gain the Soul Decay status if the target is reduced below 10% health, making it almost impossible to heal from.

Selena was practically crying and while these items were called artifact rather than ascendant, it was clear that they were consistent with ascendant tier gear. My mind was already racing about the possibilities. The stat boost alone would have made them worth it. The increased damage was also impressive and the fact that it could cause spiritual wounds. As for the two special effects, well they would require some experimentation and the cool-downs made them trump cards rather than regular attacks, but I could already see uses for both, including a possibility to get home now.

Clay didn’t even wait for me to call his name, before he picked up the dagger. Likewise he projected the notification right away.

Dagger- Ender of Mortal Clay-  Artifact

Ambient-Recharge 1 hour, Channeled.

Agility: +100

This weapon is the anti-thesis of mortal existence but can not harm ascendant tier or higher beings. Any wound inflicted by this blade can not be healed by less than Legendary tier  magic and even then it is not a sure thing. Normal biological healing will never work.

This dagger gives the user the ability to cast the spell- Assassinate once per charge. The spell gives a 10% chance +1% per % of lost health to completely extinguish the life force of the target.

This dagger can inflict curses of weakening with each wound so long as the user channels 100 levels of mana per minute into the weapon. This will lower the targets physical stats by 1% per second. The curse cannot stack but can be inflicted again after the 1 minute duration.

The damage caused by this dagger will completely bypass any armor or magical defense of Elite tier or lower. It will likewise bypass 75% of the defense or armor at Master iter, 50% at grandmaster tier, and even up to 25% of the defense provided by an artifact. The base damage inflicted is increased by 100%.

We all congratulated him on his new weapon. It certainly would have been useful against the behemoth. Even if assassinate had failed, the ability to deal wounds that wouldn’t automatically heal was huge. It was difficult for me to say who got a better item. The nomenclature for these items was from the Fey System so that that complicated it.

More than once, I had wondered why their items granted so few stat points, but it struck me that they had few stats, only 7 to be precise while we had 10. I supposed that meant that the relative value of each stat point was greater because they governed more things whereas ours were split up. I still preferred the way the Heavens System did stats, but that might be because it was what I’d first become accustomed to.

After that it was onto the two discs.

Iron Golem Control Discs- Artifact, Growth

These consumable items can be implanted into a new crafted iron golem. Note only iron will work. No other metals can be included. Each one will be cued to the user and will grant absolute control over the golem. They will also assist in the animation process.

As growth items, the golems created with these items may evolve and grow, from Iron to Mithril to Adamantium. Significant XP will be required.

The required body must be 12 feet tall and weigh 5000 lbs.

Starting Level: 500, evolutions will come with changes in ability

Iron Golems take no damage from electrical attacks but are slowed by a sufficiently powerful electrical attack for 30 seconds. In turn, they are healed by fire based attacks and any slow effects are dispelled by fire.

These golems will possess a breath weapon which creates a cloud that curses any who are touched by it. The curse weakens their Durability and Endurance by 5-20%. The curse may stack over time. The breath weapon may be used once per minute.

Starting Stats:

Strength:  10000

Agility: 500

Durability:   10000

Endurance: 10000

Magic: 2000

Will: N/A

Perception: 1000

The description was for these discs was a bit lacking about how to use them, but I got the basic understanding. Hopefully, Tad would be able to form a golem body out of iron for us to try these on.

A pair of them wouldn’t be enough to completely defeat Tad’s enemies but the would surely help.

After that it was just the potions that we needed to cover. I definitely saw the influence of the Ways on this and how these items had been perfectly made for us, but I wasn’t going to turn down the advantages.

8 x Potions of Awakening (Artifact) – these potions will provide the ascendant tier energy necessary to awaken an individual. Authority will still be required.

I guess that the power we’d poured into the dungeon had gone a long way to solving Tad’s problems, but there were still four more potions that I wanted to look at.

Potion of Ascension (Divine)- This potion will allow a single individual to gain 500 levels  (up to a max of 750) and break the bonds of mortality, but in order for the effects not to overwhelm them, they must  have a patron to manage the flow of power.

3 x Stat Boon (Artifact)- An individual may only consume one of these potions during their mortal life. Each potion will grant a boost of +1000 to any stat chosen by the user.

Note: this will translate into 1429 stat points under the Heavens System.

All of the rewards were amazing. We would have to discuss who got the potions, but the obvious choices were Samvek, Lexa, and Oliver. Of course, that was because the Potion of Ascension was meant for me. There were problems with that though. I hadn’t considered this before, but if I ascended like this, I’d undoubtedly gain a Fey System class and that would be what would ascend. I would still only have a legendary class core in the Heavens system. While that would add extra power, I didn’t know how much of a change this would make for me. I wondered if it would be better to give that potion to Tad.

I was going to need to think about this, but now, we needed to leave the dungeon. There was still a keep in the distance that gave me an eerie feeling and I very much wanted to visit it, but it wasn’t going to be now. We needed to touch base with Tad and find out what we could make of the loot we’d just collected.

I said the same to everyone and they all agreed. Lexa was always quiet, but she didn’t even look at me. Instead her eyes were locked onto where the loot had been. Was she feeling left out? It was difficult for me to read her reactions even with my Charisma. I guess I’d just have to find out the old fashioned way.