Broka 21st 10,391
He found it.
It took him longer than he expected, his time extended when he found a patch of regular blue berries. He and Nibbler had feasted on those berries. But what he had found now? He was sure it was the same bush, the same purple berries hung heavy from it. Six still wasn’t sure if they were poisonous but his herbalism skill might tell him this time.
He picked one and wafted a sniff over.
Plant Identified
- Empress’ Appreciation -
Quality: Superior
Rarity: Rare
Weight - 0.1G
Durability 5/5
Traits: Can be eaten to provide a minor boost to experience point income. 15% more gained experience points for the next 24 hours. Material, Reagent.
Holy shit. This was broken. This was something that would help him immensely. The snowball effect would be far more pronounced as everything would just be worth more to him. His Herbalism skill went up by a level.
Nice.
Six examined the bush, there was maybe a pail of berries. Not enough for everyone. He knew Plant Growth could cause regular plants to fruit but he was unsure regarding magical plants. He didn’t want to risk transplanting the bush and having it die. Also, there were only a few berries missing, whatever animals that fed on this were not that greedy.
Six ate a berry, it was pretty sour, he gave one to Nibbler. He gained the Empress’ Appreciation condition and noted its place within his buff list. He wondered if the effect would be concentrated had these been made into a pie. It would be a gross misuse of such a limited resource but still he wondered. Fuck it he was gonna do it, he went to pick enough for a pie but something caught his eye near the back of this mountain alcove. It was a crack in the earth.
A cave.
Six sighed. He hadn’t wanted to spelunk today, ever really, but he needed to clear it, make sure it wasn’t anything important. Best do it now he thought, so he moved forward with purpose.
The opening was a little bit bigger than Six on all sides and for once Six had an easy time entering, walking a little deeper into the cave before being confronted with a smooth stone door. It stood tall and complete. Something made harder than nature. Uniform and unblemished.
“What the fuck?” Six whispered, and made eye contact with Nibbler at his side
He moved forward cautiously and he barely touched the strange surface before a prompt presented itself.
Welcome Master of the Deathspire Ley Nexus.
Would you like to unseal this door? Yes/No?
Six looked at the simple prompt for a bit. He selected Yes and both he and Nibbler took a step back when the smooth stone door melted away, soft light and stale air rushing out of the exposed passage before them.
What was this? A large part of Six was telling him he found what he had been searching for.
He looked about it. There were pot lights spaced every so often, shining down a calming soft glow. The stone corridor looked square and it was worked with simple line designs that were carved into the lower surfaces. The thick layer of undisturbed dust on the tunnel floor told him no one had been moving inside for quite the while.
A tremble of fear rose along his spine but he shook his head in rejection. This was his quest, it was for him to seize his own power and he would be lying if he said he did not crave power. He could not turn back. He walked forward and moved deeper into the mountain, perception alight After a few minutes the passageway opened up into a large open area with many connecting tunnels, three of which were larger and more prominent than the others. Signage and lettering was present in this room which when observed quickly organized itself into something comprehensible for Six.
You have learned: Ancient K’gan
Neat.
Six looked to the main sign that hung above a crumbling desk. It read, Talon Leyline Research Initiative Facility. A skeleton sat below it.
So they were in a magical research facility. That was probably pretty dangerous. He read the signs above the three prominent corridors. Living. Science. Maintenance.
He was going to clear the entire facility eventually but he needed to start somewhere. Living and maintenance seemed like the safer options but Six felt that the science corridor would lead to the best immediate loot and direct access to the leyline nexus. So science it was and he slowly went down that way.
It wasn’t long before he felt something in his gut, a great ominous feeling. The hair on his nape rose and his ears began to pick up a low hiss. Then he saw it. A darkness, vaguely humanoid shaped. It came from ahead and floated towards Six.
He analyzed it.
Minor Spectre
Level 9
Six braced himself and pulled out his glaive. As soon as the dark shape floated within range Six lashed out with a slash but it passed through the spectre, just as he expected. A dark tendril managed to unfurl towards Six caressing him through his armor with a cold tentacle. It burned cold and Six grunted through the pain. His health dropped by a bit but there was no physical damage. Still, Six kited away from the thing with Nibbler leading the fall back. He fired a few Stone Spears at the thing, unfortunately the erupting shards of stone were completely ineffective.
He swung with his glaive, stepping back down the corridor swiping the glaive back and forth. It took almost ten slashes before the enchantment activated and a wave of deep green earth energies spewed forth.
The thing recoiled and moaned, clearly disturbed by the magical energies but not overly so. Six noted its effect and switched to his force spear before continuing to kite the apparition again. It was a lighter weapon and he could more easily apply multiple strikes, increasing the chance of activation.
The force mana also proved better than the earth mana as it produced a far more pronounced reaction from the spectre and it only took two more force strikes to disperse the spirit creature.
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Six looked at a wide eyed Nibbler. “Fuckin ghosts.”
You have killed level 9 Minor Spectre. Experience gained 451+(67).
The Empress’ Appreciation condition was immediately noticeable with the additional 15% already netting him 67 more experience points. He would have to figure out how to cultivate that plant.
He quickly encountered another spectre and tried to weave some Double Strikes into the kiting tactic and although he couldn’t do more than one Double Strike periodically it still increased his chances of activating his enchantment. His stamina regen kept him topped up and all he had to do was be mindful to stay above 50% so it was a slight improvement to damage output.
He defeated seven more of those cold wandering ghosts, kiting them each time. He continued through the long stone tunnel before coming to another large cylindrical room. This room was dotted with five sealed doors, four that led to different elementally labeled areas and the far opposite door that was clearly labeled Ley Nexus.
Well, he was pretty sure whatever was blocking his connection to the Ley Core was in the Ley Nexus room. Should probably open that one last.
The elemental wings were that of his Ley Core, Earth, Fire, Water and Darkness. Thematic artwork was sculpted into the surrounding frame of the door, the stone worked to look like the froth of a wave, or the lick of a flame. One was worked to accentuate its own shadows, one was simple stone but it emanated a weighty aura. He would start with these, he started with the one of deepest darkness.
It did not respond to his touch, it did not respond to his push nor pull.
Not darkness, nor water, nor fire.
The only door to respond was the weighty earth door, and it opened to a large workshop that was most magical. Artificial light streamed down from the ceiling. It contained some larger tools that Six recognized, drill press, shearing press, pressing press. There were many that Six did not recognize. There was a station for all of the finer workings, small inscribed hand tools lay next to broken spectacles. Several desks butted the far wall, one more prominent than the others.
He found three skeletons upon the floor and immediately their spectres leapt from the shadows of the bone and descended on Six while Nibbler hissed impotently. There was a slim intelligence in the creatures as they worked together to corral him on three angles. It was only marginally harder to banish these creatures one by one. Their cold lashes were painful but irrelevant in the face of Six’s magical weapons and healing.
He soon banished two and the third melted backwards into the wall, never to be seen again.
Six recharged his spear with a mundane mana core and continued his examination of the room. There were steel racks spaced evenly across the room, many points of suspension allowing for easy movement of heavy objects. This looked more like an automotive workshop than something he would expect from magical researchers. He began to poke around in the room, he needed a reliable way to detect magic. Still he could take the obviously magic stuff and come back later. He inspected all the tools, finding that they were made of a material called stillver, whatever that was. There were workstations for quite the range of professions, from smith to cook almost any crafter could work here. He found where they kept their materials, and while the textiles had long since turned to dust, the metals and gems were still readily available.
There was plenty of mundane metals, copper, bronze, iron, steel. But there was also a selection of various magical metals, Immortal steel, stillver, orichalum, glassteel. He inspected the magical ones.
- Immortal Steel Ingot -
Rank: Enhanced
Rarity: Common
Defense - 250
Weight - 5 KG
Durability 2750/2750
Traits: Material, Reagent.
- Stillver Ingot -
Rank: Enhanced
Rarity: Unusual
Defense - 250
Weight - 5 KG
Durability 2750/2750
Traits: Material, Reagent.
- Orichalum Ingot -
Rank: Enhanced
Rarity: Unusual
Defense - 250
Weight - 5 KG
Durability 3200/3200
Traits: Material, Reagent.
- Glassteel Ingot -
Rank: Superior
Rarity: Rare
Defense - 450
Weight - 5 KG
Durability 10000/10000
Traits: Material, Reagent.
Skill increased: Inspect - Initiate - 11
Pretty basic readouts. Ravna might know more, she should be able to make him some full plate with some of this look so he’d be hitting up the smithy at some point.
Amongst the three piles of bones he discovered gold and silver. Tiny little bars of it, like coins but rectangular in shape. He placed it all in his ring and just read the item count, 41 gold tabs and 97 silver.
Ancient gold. Nice.
His examination of the desks revealed much. There was only one that had any real drawers, the others being glorified tables. It was larger than the rest and centrally located. Upon it sat the scraps and dust of degraded paperwork. A obsidian name plate sat there, it was inscribed with Ancient K’gan and it read, “Head researcher Kytaligan.” Six carefully searched the drawers for signs of traps and found nothing. He tried pulling it open with a little bit of rope and found it impossible to budge. He tried the barest of movements with his hand and found it capable of being moved, it was just magical.
His mind screamed of danger, but also of loot.
So in a weird limbo crouching position Six slowly pulled the drawer open while covering his face, he braced, for nothing. A sigh of relief went through him as he stood and examined the contents.
There was a stack of papers that had somehow held up, a pristine book, ten enhanced cores and two superior mana cores. He had never seen such rare materials, the superior mana cores were different, a deep green shade had changed them. When Six inspected them it was clear something had been done to them.
- Superior Configured Earth Core -
Rank: Superior
Rarity: Rare
Defense - 1000
Weight - 0.05 KG
Durability 7999/8000
Traits: Crystalized Earth Mana, Material, Reagent, Catalyst.
So they’ve been attuned to earth mana? Six was ok with that. He didn’t know what “configured” meant though.
The stack of papers comprised a journal of sorts, a work log of a K’gan mage by the name of Kytaligan, he read the small stack of entries.
The entries mostly rambled on about his project of most importance. Kytaligan was seeking to transfer his soul and memories to an artificial body. Android style. He used the words “eternal life,” enough times to make his motivation clear enough.
There were some ramblings about how close they were to perfecting the procedure and how his respective elemental peers were jealous of his authority and station.
A log entry detailed how the empire was losing a war against the aelfs, and that the hynyks were created by the aelfs for war. This is when Kytaligan became increasingly aggressive.
The last entry talked about the fall of Kolo Gano. The aelfs used some sort of super weapon to vaporize the entire city. With that point in mind Kytaligan refused to allow any others to leave as he was close to finishing his work, the infusion of his soul into a golem, thus granting eternal life.
“Eternal life, heh, classic trope.”
Then there was what was clearly a magic book. Six wondered about what spell he would be learning, but a quick inspect informed him otherwise
- Magical Manual of Golem Genesis -
Rank: Superior
Rarity: Rare
Defense - 100
Weight - 3 KG
Durability 120/120
Traits: Capable of raising a user’s Enchantment skill to level 58 provided the user's affinity is sufficient. Provides the techniques and skill evolutions of Kytaligan the Golemgineer.
“An inheritance, heh, classic trope.”
Skill increased: Inspect - Initiate - 12
“Nice, a twofer.”
So he had found a skill book eh? And mythic rarity? Not being able to select his skill evolutions was a bummer but the incknowledge going forward. But not here. He needed to be safe or atleast hidden before he would try a random magic book like that. But he breathed out and relaxed, he was excited but there was still a big possibility of more ghosts being present.
He left that room to try the main doors in the open science area. A wandering pair of spectres gave him pause but despite how good they were in experience returns they were simply a minor distraction at this point. That being said, they gave just enough experience to level Six up.
He was now level nine and quickly assigned his points. He put two into strength and one into dexterity, charisma, endurance and luck.
His strength had been steadily climbing and he had noticed it during work and combat.
With that done he approached the Ley Nexus doors he received a prompt.
Welcome Master of the Deathspire Ley Nexus.
Would you like to unseal this door? Yes/No?
Six braced himself before selecting Yes.
The doors swung out towards Six and he gazed into the chamber. Every surface was inscribed with glowing runes and the entire room hummed with the arcane power of the ley lines.
Six could feel the difference. It felt like being underwater yet he wasn’t impeded, it was more a tidal pressure.
In the center of the stone chamber was a squat altar that was surrounded by piles of bones, atop it lay a man. His model-like nude form was absolutely still but he seemed to be absorbing visible power from the altar itself. The man’s skin was as dark as obsidian. The man reminded SIx of Keegan, just far less muscled. This must be-
The form twitched.
Six hesitated and analyzed the thing.
His analyze failed and the naked pristine human shaped thing immediately sat up and lifeless eyes locked gazes with him and Six could feel the smouldering intelligence inside whatever that thing was. It moved to stand.
Six stepped back and began to repeat himself, willing the door to respond. “Seal the door, seal the door, SEAL THE DOOR!”
The golem moved slowly at first but it quickly picked up speed. It spoke as it closed towards Six, it spoke the ancient K’gan language with a voice most beautiful.
“Don’t you dare seal me in h-”
The doors managed to shut with a low boom that pushed a cloud of dust at Six. Sealing whatever that was back inside.
Six breathed a sigh of relief. “Fuck that, I’ll be back. Might need a team for you.” So he made his way out of the facility, emerging back on the mountain.
He took a deep breath and smiled at the sky. It was dark but he still made his way home fine. After he wedged his door closed and made himself comfortable he pulled out the magical manual and went to open it.
You have activated a magical manual for the skill Golem Genesis
Using this tome will impart the skill knowledge and consume the item. Continue? Yes/No?
He selected Yes.