The hall turned to the side then shortly opened up into a large room, this one larger than the others. In the middle of the room was an amorphous blob of complete darkness. As Felix increased the strength of his light spell, the amorphous blob shrunk and formed the shape of a suit of armor. Felix continued to increase the intensity of his light spell until the armor was completely lit.
The armor seemed to be made of a completely black leather with matte black metal plates fastened on top of it. Touching it, the leather was soft and pliable while the plates were shaped to keep the armor as mobile as possible while still protecting vital organs. It had small metal rivets holding the leather and metal plates together giving it an overall tight and fitted look. It was also impeccably crafted. Felix wasn't particularly familiar with armors at all, but this one stood from the other's, like the crafter spent more time and care on this one.
[D - Epic] Shadow Stalker's Hide
[Regenerative][Skill: Shadow Domain]
This set of leather armor is crafted from the hide of a predator that completely blinds it's prey before silently killing it. The creature used it's ability to consume light for both offense and defense making it's hide inideal for armor. This armor however, was crafted to replicate it's signature ability while increasing the level of protection using metal plates and the leather hide of other creatures.
This armor provides protection on the level of Epic level plate armor in some areas and Epic level leather armor in others. This armor grant's the wearer the ability, Shadow Domain. Supplying energy to the armor, a radius of complete darkness will spread from the armor that consumes all light. The size of the domain depends on how much light is consumed and how much energy is provided. The wearer is granted the ability to sense anything the Shadow Domain touches.
Felix carefully lifted it off the armor stand and was instantly blinded as the armor's effect of eating light turned off. His light was so strong, he had accidentally blinded himself. It took him a few minutes to regenerate his retinas so he could see again. Once he had, he saw the armor stand had a simple enchantment on it that was generating energy and providing it to the armor. He memorized the enchantment then walked back outside to the others and handed Alan the armor along with the results of his inspection.
World Event
The Natural Armorer's Vault
You have successfully found all 5 of the noteworthy treasures in this vault. Exiting the vault at this point will seal the entrance and make inaccessible to anyone else in the future.
Before even handing it to the other two, Alan declared, "I pick this one."
"What's it do?" Benjamin asked.
"You'll see." Alan winked then ran off into one of the hidden rooms in the previous chamber.
Benjamin shook his head then turned to Felix, "I take it you didn't want it?"
"I'm pretty happy with the armor I have now." Felix shrugged.
"Which of the armor sets do you want to take then? Probably sell for quite a few credits." Benjamin asked.
"Oh. You guys can keep them. I'm more than happy with the books."
"Really? You should at least take one of them."
"No seriously. You guys keep them."
"More for us." Will shrugged, "I want-"
"Woah, hold it. I'm taking the Chitinous Plate. You can have whichever of the other's you want." Benjamin cut him off.
"What? How is that fair?" Will pouted.
"You got the boots."
"You got the bag?"
"You want to trade?"
"No… Ugh. I guess I'll take the Scales."
"You sure you don't want the Blade Defense Coat? Seems like it would be the most useful for you."
"Yeah… it would. I don't want to look like a furry badger though."
Benjamin chuckled, "Fair enough." and handed him the Scales of the Traveling Beast.
At that point, Alan returned wearing a beautiful set of armor that was completely black. With the effect turned off, the armor was easier to see and it made Alan look like death itself. Even with the effect off, he trailed black shadows behind him like a cloak that whipped all over as if he stood in an invisible tornado. Felix gave him a thumbs up and Benjamin opened his mouth to repeat his earlier question but Alan interrupted him by activating the armor. In an instant, the entire room went pitch black. Felix couldn't see anything then a few moments later, light returned to the room and Alan was standing behind Benjamin with a hand on his shoulder. Benjamin whipped his head around and saw Alan wink at him.
"Well that is…" Benjamin started.
"Awesome." Alan finished.
"What. That is not fair. How was I supposed to know we'd find this in the next vault?" Will pouted.
"There was always the chance. You knew that." Benjamin said, shaking his head.
Will continued to pout and argue for a few minutes but eventually resigned himself to finding something even cooler in the next vault. Both Benjamin and Will went off into their own rooms to change armor. A few minutes later, Benjamin flew back into the room with a set of rapidly flapping insect wings on his back.
"Want me to enchant the helmet with a light?" Felix offered.
Benjamin handed him the helmet and thanked him then flew around the vault, practicing his new ability. The enchantment was simple, using the wielder's mana create a light a few inches above the helmet. That way Benjamin could enable and disable it at will. He was also not likely using much of his mana pool and a light would consume barely any of it. Will returned a couple minutes after Benjamin and the armor he wore made him look like a beast. The scales and plates were positioned to make it look like he was some kind of humanoid alligator. Felix handed Benjamin the helmet when he returned and then they headed back out of the vault together. Benjamin touched the portal and they all proceeded through after him, the vault sealing itself behind them.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
"You sure you don't want any of the armors? You could take the other two-" Benjamin started.
"Seriously, I appreciate it… but no thank you." Felix interrupted.
"Before I head off to find another vault… uh… What do you guys know about energy cycling? or just energy in general?"
"I use it for my skills." Will responded.
"Restore it with sleep, but you need food to do so. If you're too hungry, you won't restore much." Alan replied.
Huh, I don't think I knew that. I mean it makes sense, I might have assumed it… Never actually tested or paid attention though.
"Endurance makes it go up." Benjamin shrugged.
"Yes, yes and yes. All of the systems in your body consume energy to function. Your muscles, nervous system, brain and so on." Felix explained, "If you're interested, I want to teach how I almost double all of my stats permanently."
Felix proceeded to direct them for just a half hour or so to learn basic energy cycling. It was much faster for them than it was for him because they already had and used a bunch of skills that consumed energy. They were all familiar with what energy was and felt like already. All they had to do was push themselves a little to intentionally move it, instead of letting their skills do it for them. It would still take a lot of time and practice for them to actually earn skills for it, but they were much faster than Felix had been way back when he learned it, so they were in a good spot. They agreed to meet up after the event for Felix to bring them all furniture and then parted ways.
Felix took off into the air and continued flying around the second level, heading mostly east this time. He spotted a couple of untouched estates but nothing stood out to him as particularly interesting, they were all very similar. Though he did loot a small library worth of books and got more information about what had happened in the city, he never really got an opportunity to test the minor modifications he had made to his body. So while there were estates that were untouched and seemed available, likely with vaults, he was looking for either a large number of Devoured, or particularly strong Devoured. Luckily, one presented itself just east of the northern most estates.
Felix spotted an estate with a large yard, not quite as big as the zoo he and Jackie had found earlier, but larger than most. What stood out though was the Devoured chained in the backyard. The creature appeared to be either a large lizard or a wingless wyvern with six legs. He was leaning towards wyvern only because it's scales were much bigger than he would expect a lizard to have. Unfortunately, having been Devoured, a good number of it's scales were falling off and littering the yard. It was also walking around aimlessly with it's tongue falling out of it's mouth. Felix felt bad for the creature because it looked like it had been drugged, but he knew it had had it's intelligence and soul forcibly ripped out of it's body.
[D] Devoured (Lvl 149)
He was happy to have found a higher level Devoured because he was worried he would have to remove his armor. The low level, mindless creatures had a lot of trouble getting through his armor so he would have had to swap out his pants. He wasn't sure, but he was hoping this creature wouldn't have as much trouble. Felix descended to the ground, far enough away from his prey to make sure he didn't alert it prematurely.
Instead of just letting it hit me…
Felix reached his hand out and summoned the axe, experiment 43, and immediately dropped it. When he had first found the axe, he hadn't picked it up so he wasn't ready for how absurdly heavy the axe was. Felix had over 6k strength and trained almost daily with weights, this axe was ridiculously heavy. He was able to lift and swing the axe, but it strained his muscles every time he did so, to the point where he was losing small amounts of health. He wasn't necessarily hurting himself, but he was straining his body to the point where he was hindering his ability to recover in general. Last time he had identified it, unhelpfully, all he got was great axe, which he already knew. This time, he had the ring.
[D - ???] Great Axe
[Soul Bound][???]+
Appears to be a Great Axe.
Stupid ring.
Isn't that a good thing? Doesn't it mean the rarity is higher than Epic rarity?
I guess. What if it's just cursed or something though?
Only one way to find out.
It's interesting my inventory didn't help identify it.
Yeah. I guess it has limitations?
Man it would have been really nice to have an owner's manual or something.
Didn't you sleep through that?
Yeah… I've been thinking about that. You really think The System couldn't wake me up?
Maybe it has a conviction that doesn't let it do that?
Yeah or it let me sleep through it on purpose.
You don't actuall-
No I don't actually believe that.
Felix picked the axe up off the ground and adjusted to it's weight, slowly swinging it around. Once he was somewhat confident with the axe, he made sure his cell modifications covered the front, back and outside of his thighs then walked towards the creature. As with most of the Devoured he'd encountered so far, it didn't seem to notice him until he was just a handful of meters away. The creature suddenly lifted it's head. It's empty eye sockets sickeningly tightened with attention and it's front two legs lifted off the ground. It swiveled it's upper body towards Felix and screeched a familiarly awful cry then, with a short leap, the rest of it's body followed.
As soon as the creature's hind legs landed, it scurried along the ground towards Felix, it's lizard body slithering along. Felix's lower body naturally fell into a stance from the Dragon's Dance of Death he had been practicing every day and his upper body tensed, ready to strike with the axe. The creature was overall, much slower than Felix was, so positioning himself to have it's bite hit only his thigh wasn't overly difficult. He simply crouched down a little and pivoted his other leg away from the creature, it's teeth biting down around the thigh covered in his second experiment.
It wasn't ideal for protecting against piercing attacks like the creature's fangs, but it should help somewhat. It's teeth sank into his armor but never quite got through it. His experiment did help to spread the impact over his thigh though. Instead of bruising one small point where the fangs were blocked, his skin was tighter and the new cells he had implanted reacted to the force. The cells tightened their connections to each-other, the force of the fangs essentially caught and slowed by the net within his skin.
It was functioning far better than he had hoped originally. All he had hoped for was the cells to give him a slightly better resistance to being cut. What he didn't realize was that the cells were able to react to sudden impacts and forces. Not only were they hard to separate from each-other generally, creating a web of cells beneath his skin, but they also tightened and hardened themselves in reaction to being stressed. This would likely make his skin feel dramatically different, but he could accept that considering it only happened when he was struck. In normal circumstances, his body wouldn't change much.
The other thing he noted after the second bite he let the creature get, was that the cell's reaction felt a little weird, but it wasn't too bad. He was worried at first that if he spread this mesh throughout his body, he would suddenly be squeezed like a ripe fruit every time he got hit, but his skin wasn't pulled together at all. Instead, the cells simply swelled, increasing the surface area of their connections with each-other. This did strangle the cells between them a little bit, hence the slight discomfort, but it wasn't extreme and wouldn't kill any of the compressed cells any time soon.
Felix thought about testing his other experiment but decided against it. It was mostly healing anyways so he could test that himself, without the aid of an enemy. Also to test it here and now, he would have to remove his pants. He did want to test and make sure the healing cell layer would heal back the new mesh cells, but again that was something he could test himself. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .