The mountain of items was interesting, but after a quick glance, he could tell that the majority of the items were worthless. They might’ve been valuable once, but they decayed over the passage of time. Now, most of them wouldn’t function and could even be harmful to use. He had a thought, and summoned Priscilla, speaking aloud for the benefit of his friends.
“Can you use my mana sense to determine what items are still useful?”
He had thought about this earlier too. She had some connection to his own senses and figured that she would be able to benefit from his mana territory. Plus, she would have her own knowledge to add to the search. Her memory so far has been perfect, and he guessed that she would know what some of the items did. He was more interested in inspecting the bodies. Initially, they looked human, but he noticed some subtle differences among the skeletons. At first, he assumed they were just people with changes from their class, but they all had the same differences. Realizing that they were a different species, he inspected the bodies more carefully.
The most unique feature were the arms and hands of the skeletons. There was an extra joint along the arm, a second elbow from which to bend at. Eight long fingers sat on each of their hands, each finger an equal length. Opening and closing his own hands, he wondered if that was an improvement or not.
“You can just try it.”
He was surprised to hear Priscilla’s voice, glancing to check on the pile of items. Mash had come to the same conclusion and didn’t need her to point it out. He grew additional fingers on his hand, extending his own figures in an emulation of the skeleton. At first it felt awkward, but after flexing his hand a few times, he adjusted to the changes. It didn’t seem to be much better, if anything it made it a little harder to grip some things. Trying to imagine what a hand like this could be used for, he only thought of one possibility. The extra fingers could make playing music a lot easier, a few instruments already seemed designed for people with them. The other noticeable difference was their skulls. On top of being wider than a typical person, he noticed two rows of teeth on the top of their mouths, and their mouths seemed like they could be opened more fully.
Their clothes were interesting too. Not particularly fancy, they seemed designed to work around any abnormal growths or injuries. They were essentially wide strips of cloth, that draped over themselves, tying it in certain places to hold it together. There were plenty of gaps and their arms were completely exposed. Honestly, he thought it was a design that was well suited for combat and considered taking some. Realizing the implications immediately, he quickly moved to inspect the items with the others. He didn’t want to rob the dead of their clothes; he could just have it custom made later.
As expected, most of the items were useless, but Priscilla had managed to find five that still seemed to function. Looking over all of the items, he quickly realized that there were no weapons present. At least nothing that looked like a weapon, though a few of the objects were completely unknown to him. Priscilla recognized a fair bit, sending him images of these people fighting her. She had more bodies at the time, and the group was defeated easily. Thinking about it, he realized that he was bonded with the creature that had led to these people’s deaths, and now he was going to take their items. Even he knew how evil that was, guessing that the people would curse him for it if they were still alive.
Well, it didn’t matter, they were dead and that wouldn’t change. Also, these items were too valuable to let rot in this small cave. Asking Priscilla about the first item, he received an image of it in use. Priscilla pushed the item towards Jill, already knowing Mash’s thoughts. He shared the function of it with the group, while learning about the specifics himself. Priscilla was able to analyze the mana. The combination of her own skills and his mana territory was proving as useful as he expected it to be.
It was a series of metal rings, each connected by a series of thin chains. It was entirely black, the metal lacking any rust or blemishes. He didn’t even find any scratches along the metal. There were seven rings in total, each was designed to fit around a limb, and the chains would connect them across a creature’s body. It was designed to work with creatures that weren’t humanoid and had extra rings to place around addition places. It was a matter of coverage, not of finding a separate limb for each ring. Explaining how to wear it, he told Jill of its function.
A magical armor of a high quality, it grew in strength with the more mana a person had. Any of them could use the item, but Luke’s size changes might damage the item, and Red and Mash already had armor. Jill’s armor was of a simple leather variety, and the upgrade would be big. From what Priscilla had sent him, he knew that it would form into an armor of ice and was as flexible as his own creations. None of the others bother arguing, knowing that they had no reason for the item.
Red made a wall of blood, Jill moving behind it to change into the armor. It didn’t take her long, and she came out wearing the armor beneath her clothes. Well, the chains ran beneath her clothes, the actual rings were too large and hung on her ankles, wrists, and neck. She had an extra ring around each ankle, and it reminded Mash of prison shackles. Deciding it was better not to say that out loud, he watched in amazement as Jill poured her mana into the armor. Immediately, the shackles tightened, fitting tightly to her limbs. The one on her neck grew a little thinner, resembling a more traditional necklace. Soon the other parts did too, becoming more like accessories than shackles. It was the next thing that really surprised him.
She didn’t get an armor of ice, instead the space around her warped. It seemed to blur, to distort like it would when she used her spells. It blurred her body, and he didn’t know if it would function as armor. With his mana territory he could tell what was happening, the armor took the aspect of whatever mana fed into the object. As a test he threw a small piece of wood at her. Rather than being stopped completely, it bent and slowed, moving out of the way.
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“Try a sword.”
Excited, she prompted Mash to try something else. He didn’t refuse, equally intrigued by the strange armor. Forming a staff out of wood, he swung it lightly at her. He wasn’t trying to hit her, instead testing to see how it would respond to a swung weapon. Bending unusually as it entered the armor, he was unable to feel any strain on the wood and continued his swing. It took longer than he expected for the weapon to reach her, and when he did make contact the force had been dispersed thoroughly. He would need to strike a lot faster if he wanted to do real damage to her. Priscilla showed him an image of what she did against the ice armor. She used her enormous size to crush the man, ignoring the armors presence in its entirety. The more scenes he got from Priscilla, the happier he was that she only had a few bodies at the time of their fight, and the more excited he was to see her power when she had access to more bodies.
Jill deactivated the armor, excitedly moving towards the others, where Luke and Red were looking at the four remaining items. Mash’s eyes lingered on her for a second, the new jewelry looked nice on her, but he kept the compliment to himself. He felt like Priscilla was going to say something, but he stopped her, asking about the remaining items. She must have realized his intentions moving her focus to the remaining items. The next item would go to Luke, it was another storage device. Previously, Mash thought that the items were supposed to be rare, but now every member of their group would have one. The designs were overtly feminine, the engravings resembling fine jewelry, each was a light shade of pink.
“It’s a storage space for Luke.”
He tossed the item to him, but Jill snatched it out of the air. She took off her own bracelet, removing the items from it, before handing that one to Luke. He didn’t seem to argue, glad to receive one that wasn’t so feminine. Looking at the flower tattoo around his forearm, Mash muttered something under his breath. He hoped Luke would end up being forced to use the feminine accessory, forgetting that his condition with attuned items was special. Well, it didn’t matter much both items were relatively the same size, while his seemed to be growing. It seemed like the unusual method of his attunement was causing his item to grow as he got stronger, approaching the size of Red’s storage space.
Moving onto the next item, he stared at it uncertainly. It was a complex picture, a painting of something he did not know. It even took Priscilla a while to figure out what the item did, but then he felt her use some of her mana on a skill.
“What was that?”
He asked the question while observing how the mana was moving within Priscilla’s body. He normally wouldn’t be able to do this, but his connection with her allowed him to peer into her mana.
“A simple way to identify magic. Even the most basic creatures should be able to do this.”
She sounded condescending in her response, but she showed him how he could do it as well. Before getting the information on the item, he attempted to replicate what she was doing. He began the process, but it fell apart quickly. However, Priscilla managed to guide his energy, and direct him to complete the spell. He got a feeling for what the item did, only slightly better than what he could tell with his mana territory.
It was a flight item, though he didn’t have the vaguest idea of how to use it. Asking Priscilla for the details, she just sent him an image of himself shrugging his shoulders. It was an odd gesture, though it did get the message across. He informed the others as well, and only Red had seen a similar item before. A flight item was useful, for everyone but Mash, so they got into a small debate about who should have it.
Ultimately, they decided that Luke should get the item. Mash and Jill had ways to escape from fights, and Red had a high degree of survivability with her skills. Luke was also their primary healer and giving him the ability to move about the battlefield quickly was valuable. Red explained how it was used, and Luke began using it.
To use the item, Luke needed to lay the painting out across his back, then attune to it. It would meld into his skin but should still be removable if he ever lost the need for it. Immediately, Mash tried unattuning to one of his items, but found that he couldn’t. He expected as much but was still a little disappointed. His necklace was fairly obsolete now, Priscilla’s boosts to his healing being more significant than the item, plus she could immediately close flesh wounds by expending some of her own flesh. When Luke was finished with the item, he was left with a strange looking tattoo. Upon testing the item, he grew wings of pinkish light from his back, they were unlike anything he had ever seen, shaped into almost perfect triangles. They didn’t beat or sway, he simply rose from the ground, the wings unmoving on his back. He wasn’t all that impressed and was more excited by the remaining two items.
One was a mask of some kind; it covered everything but a person’s eyes. Similar in shape to a human’s mask but had a long slit around the jaw. It seemed to open with a person’s mouth, but a human couldn’t possibly open it to its full size. The mask was entirely white, unblemished despite its years of unuse. It was magical in nature, but neither he nor Priscilla understood what it did. It had some type of magic on it, but it was not something either of them had experienced before, their identify skill also yielded no results. Rather than risking using something that might be cursed, he placed into his storage space. They kept most of their valuables in his space, after they realized that no one would be able to tell that he had one. It also seemed like stealing it was out of the question.
The final item was similarly beyond them, and he placed it into his space after a quick examination. It looked like the bone of some creature, though he did not know what. It was thin and long, at first, he thought it was a tooth, but noticed a hole that followed along the inside. The bone itself was as big as his palm, and he wondered what creature this piece originally belonged to.
With the items out of the way, they made their way to the exit. It was a short trip, and he made sure to check every wall as they passed. The trip that should have only taken an hour or two, took almost five with how thorough he was being. By the time they got to the exit, they were eager to get out of the dungeon. They had learned of the time alterations ahead of time and knew that almost eight days had passed. Mash had learned from his friends, that they had been in the dungeon for almost two days. He never realized, only now considering how long he was unconscious while in the dungeon. Thinking about how many times he passed out, he was amazed to realize how many close calls he experienced. This dungeon almost killed him several times over, though one of those was Leah, and another two times were Priscilla.
Priscilla apologized as he stepped through the exit gate of the dungeon. He dismissed the apology quickly, instead locking eyes with the group of people waiting for them. Standing there was Ellis, her mana suffocating the air around them.