Naho, the 13th, 10,391
Amos returned a couple days later, his boat creaking into the quiet village, by then Six knew a bit more about the woman Kathy. The ineffable tension had subsided after a while and Six was no longer constantly reminded of the bounty that was this woman’s heart.
She sought him out each day to talk about their experiences.
He had learned her story first. She had spawned here much the same as he did and was lucky to have spawned near Lhorn as she didn’t have starting clothes, nearly dying from the cold. Just like Six she started with a single item, a half charged smartphone with no signal. It had since died but she had kept it safe since.
Kathy found a job at the inn and had up to this point been trying to come to terms with her situation. Working and living much like a person from their old life.
Something Six didn’t understand, but everyone was different.
Her story about how she came here was disturbing though. She detailed how everything was normal before an ‘apocalypse’ befell earth. There were days of earthquakes and storms and then blue boxes came. She described a system incredibly similar to the one they currently operated in but different in slight ways. Multiple classes from level 1 and more experience from crafting. There were probably more differences but she died shortly after the “integration” as the system called the shitshow it placed them under.
She had been a student in a political science program back home, living on campus. She held up in her university and saw the degradation of human society occur around her. Inevitably she was forced to join a faction of students, one that saw the previous authority of the faculty as null and void in favour of tribal democracy.
Between the monsters and system trials and psychopaths she was surprised she lasted the few weeks she did.
She died to something she described as a swarm of hybrid mosquito-cats. An insect the size and shape of a cat with bristly fur and clawed appendages. Once one latched onto her its proboscis stabbed deep and began to draw her blood. It slowed her down enough for more to get her.
She died and awoke here.
When Six heard her story, he was stunned silent. Earth had a system of its own now? The implications of dead earthlings continuing to show up here weighed on his mind. Was everyone being reincarnated here? How many other Amogs would he have to deal with? Even if he managed to get enough power to get back to earth, what kind of place would it be when he managed that?
What happened to his friends and family during this ‘apocalypse?’
But her questions were endless and didn’t allow him room to contemplate the new info. Not that it would really change his general goals or direction.
Six told her of his origin, he judged his ignorance of earth’s new system wouldn’t be an exploitable weakness.
Most of his time here he kept under wraps though. She didn’t need to know his capabilities, he didn’t trust her, and keeping them secret was simple good practice.
She was nice enough to confirm her status as a threadling when Six asked so she most likely had a gift and the luck stat. Two things that could change much. Just because she was level 1 right now didn’t mean she would be forever so he held much back about himself but got most of the plot across.
She let some skeptical expressions slip through when he revealed he led a village but didn’t call bullshit.
She also loved Nibbler.
Everyone loved Nibbler though.
Amos arrived and Six just ended up paying for Kathy as it was easier than arguing with the man.
On their trip back Amos told Six of the Bay of Catastrophe and the few other enterprising captains that were braving its waters. Tales of monsters in the water and ships losing their crews but already Amos had dredged some rare materials, turning a profit while avoiding destruction.
Copperback planned to stop at Eridea for two nights on the way back and Six had no objection to that. A couple of extra days to the timeline meant little at this point. Poh Doh was alive and well so Six had no reason to assume the worst had happened.
Six spent his time grinding on the boat, working on his sailing primarily but also spent time on his combat pursuits. Chainsaw and magic work dominated most of his practice.
Aclo gained his attention one night on the boat, “Six,” he began hesitating. His mouth trying to make words but stopping each time.
“What?” Six asked.
Aclo pursed his lips and presented the cracked faceless white mask. “This mask is broken, can you fix it?”
Six shrugged and Aclo handed it over. Six took some time to attune to Kotagan’s Encyclopedia of Esoterism before attempting.
Then he examined the item. The shape and contours, the separation that the crack created and how severe it was. He admired the fine craftsmanship and polishing present in the item.
- Moonstone Mask of the Bloodguard -
Rank: Enhanced
Rarity: Mythical
Defense: 35
Weight: .6 KG
Durability: 461/750
Traits: Protects the wearers face from damage. Increases user’s dexterity by +12. User can perform active meditation to access Blood Records of previous users. User can expend 20% of health or 8 charges to cast the Fervor spell. Charges 16/28.
(DAMAGED)
Six examined the artifact. He wasn’t an artificer, he was an enchanter. This kinda felt like a hardware problem while he was a software engineer. He inserted a blip of mana into the thing and felt his mana interact with the enchantments present in the item.
While it was cracked and broken, the arcane ‘circuit’ still held a connection in many places, it just lacked all of the intended interactions.
This needed to be repaired by a skilled artificer to be properly fixed… but…
Six cleared his throat. “I can't fix it but I might be able to bridge some connections to give you a sense of what it might be like. The blood record ability anyways.”
Aclo looked conflicted, but shrugged. “If it is all I can experience for now, so be it.”
Six smiled. “Aight, lemme see. Hold on right here.” Six guided Aclo and began to gather mana but Aclo stopped him.
“Bark, Narhurin. Are you interested?” The assassin asked.
“I don’t know if it will work with all of us,” Six warned.
“It might?”
“Yee”
Aclo extended the offer again. “Then are you two interested?”
Narhurin stood immediately and nodded but Bark scoffed and rolled his eyes.
“Not for you, Bark?” Six asked.
“Uuuum. No. They are dead. What would I gain?”
“Direction,” Aclo said.
“Heritage,” Narhurin added.
“I have direction and I have no need for the other,” Bark said, plucking a playful riff on his lute.
“No problem,” Six said, moving on before Aclo’s glower could get any worse. “Alright boys, grab the mask and relax your miiiind.”
Aclo and Narhurin grabbed the mask and Six could see them close their eyes and relax. He then began to radiate his mana into the mask. Searching for the broken connections in the energies dormant in the mask Six sewed them together with his transient mana.
Slowly the enchantments began to feel normal. Six desired a more precise way to sense the mana within the objects than a vague feeling but felt confident that he had bridged enough gaps. Then flexed the arcane lever that governed the Blood Records ability.
Six nearly broke concentration as with the activation of the item, his world changed. The ground fell away, the world fell away, all that remained were the three individuals holding onto the mask and the black void that surrounded them.
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“Do not let go,” murmured Six.
“Where are we?” hissed Aclo.
A rich voice rose from the darkness around them. The alien words it uttered quickly redefined themselves within his own understanding, it spoke Imperial Zleenish. “You are within my mind.”
Six pondered that implication and then asked what came to mind first. “Is that ok?”
The voice replied in mirthless anger. “Who are you to speak here, human?”
“Hhmm,” Six didn’t know what to say.
Aclo took the lead, “He is our guide, he brought us here. The mask is damaged.”
“Oh? And why are you here?”
Aclo looked between Six and Narhurin. “To learn,” he stated. “To know what it truly means to be tsunken Aelves”
“Tsunken Aelves?” The voice questioned, and from the darkness came the sounds of soft footsteps until a tall tsunken aelf stepped into view. His ashen grey skin was a shade lighter than either Aclo’s or Narhurin’s. No longer did his voice boom from all around, instead it flowed from him smooth, and deep. “I.. I can only tell you what I know?” The noble aelf seemed to hesitate at his offer.
“But, what are you?” asked Narhurin.
The man donned a bittersweet smile. “I am but a collection of shattered memories. The last warrior who possessed this mask was a man named Yanzo. I am predominately his memories although… there are other fragments that constitute me.”
Six was intrigued. His enchanter knowledge informed him of the value and rarity of such an occurrence. This was an amalgamation of memories that were somehow coming together to form a singular personality and consciousness. Artificial minds were not easily created and if this mask's quirk could be replicated, Six would be able to improve the overall capabilities of many more golems.
Yanzo continued. “I am not… real. I am just a projection and an incomplete one at that. I could not presume to speak of what it truly means to be a “tsunken aelf.’ I lack too much.” He made a dismissive gesture.
“You are the last vestiges of our culture,” Aclo gritted. “You have a duty to tell us what you know.”
Yanzo sniffed. “You tanned things are not of my culture.” Yanzo pointed at Narhurin. “Some of us would have killed a half-breed like you, and yet, you wish to learn?”
Narhurin nodded. He didn’t even flinch at Yanzo’s proclamation.
“Why?” The projection asked in a whisper. “Human blood runs through your veins.”
Narhurin rolled his eyes with a friendly smile. “Hey. Some humans treat me poorly, some aelves treat me poorly. It's all the same. My mother is tsunken and my father is human. She loved me while he hated me. Is that not enough?”
Yanzo winced before he nodded. “Just so.”
“We just want to know who we are,” murmured Aclo. His lips quivering.
“Then listen.” Yanzo spoke of what the aelves were thousands of years ago. He spoke of the cavern, of their homeland Ichur. The words of Yanzo filled the dark empty streets with people and a vibrant culture. A rich empire of multiple peoples and disciples. All unified under the blood mages. Their way of life was backed by the martial power of the hynk shock troops that were designed by the Ichurian blood mages to be stronger, faster, and more aggressive. Their people worshiped many god but Yanzo worshiped Byhomoto the god of justice, symbolized by a platinum dragon.
He spoke of how humans grew like a virus, something to be purged like insects.
At that Aclo and Narhurin spoke of the virtues of human society.
Yanzo scoffed. “What do you know. Do you wish to learn? Or do you want to argue with me?”
So they quieted, they listened, they absorbed.
Six couldn’t maintain the link forever and warned them of his eventual lack of mana, he would have to cease maintaining the connections.
Aclo and Nar bowed in respect before making their goodbyes.
Yanzo seemed at peace and smiled at the two, giving them a grumpy old wave. “I have more to impart. Please, attend at your earliest convenience.”
Aclo bowed again. “Yes, Master Yanzo.”
Narhurin watched before realizing himself and jerking into a quick imitation of Aclo. “Yes, Master Yanzo!”
The Master gave a curt nod and Six let the connection end.
He breathed deep, now realizing the amount of stress such continual channeling could really put on oneself. He looked about judging about a half hour to have passed, which was interesting because it felt like they were in the darkness for two hours or so. Six couldn’t tell for certain but there was definitely an effect on one’s perception of time while there.
Skill increased:
Meditation - Initiate - 18
They approached the bay of Eridea and Six stood at the fore of the ship taking in the sights of the fast approaching shore. On either side of the bay's tips stood an imposing stone lighthouse, the pair providing a full range of observation of all ship traffic. The looming stone walls that surrounded the city, combined with its vast naval fleets, spoke to its significant development and entrenched status as power in the east of the sundered empire..
A ship broke off and much like last time they were interviewed by an Eridean captain, this one not evolved but still radiating confidence and power.
They made it in without issue, with Amos paying a small toll. The waters inside the bay were highly regulated and there was an inland captain to guide Amos to the designated dock amongst all the other traffic.
Six had never seen so many sailing ships all at once and he’d worked at a few bougie marinas before. Not to mention the variety, from tiny cargo vessels to massive warships, there were ships of every kind to behold. Six wasn’t a ship guy but it was still very cool to see.
The density of the city was far more apparent on the inside as well with layers of parisian apartments and estates rising up towards the tops of the walls like the tiered seating of an amphitheater.
The Dancing Racer carefully moored at a densely populated dock, Amos’ crewmen lashing her down expertly. Six joined in with the simple task, trying to boost his sailing skill.
They had no need for an inn as they could just sleep on the boat so Six grabbed Narhurin and Indigo for personal guards while he explored.
Eridea was much larger than Olisrosa and there was no way to truly explore it all by the time they had to leave so instead Six elected to focus in on a few of his interests. Food, materials, and enchantments. The streets were populated with about half human, half everyone else, with far fewer slaves than Olisrosa, so overall very imperial.
Six looked for the imperial colours of black and gold but found none. Yet there were town guards and order in the streets. Eridea must have already completed the consolidation of power and it looks to have weathered it well.
Six and Narhurin sampled the street food of the city as Indigo guided them to the magical portion of the main bazaar of the city. They walked with skewers of prawn and octopus, roasted squash and tomatoes as Six passively inspected the various baubles he walked by.
Most were weak magical items of the common variety. Unlicensed bush mages making natural enchantments, exactly what he had done. It seemed there was no system based creator signature and no legal burden to prove where your supply came from or went so it went to reason that a lot of bootleg enchanting happened.
Six wondered about the climate behind guild licensure right now.
It was easy to spot the other enchanters, an entire street of stalls set up right next to each other.
Indigo went to pursue the alchemical section while Narhurin searched amongst the magical weapons on display, keeping Six in his sight.
Six had to be careful about how he approached this, and the first step was gathering intel about the locals feelings about the imperial mages guild. He was never good at the whole chatting thing and he had neglected his charisma stat but he decided to just start talking shop and seeing if he could turn that in the direction of the guild.
Sure enough his fellow enchanters didn’t hesitate to sing the praises of the licensing process but they emphasized that they were relieved that they could experiment with less oversight from the guild now. No one cared about the guild in Zleen anymore, and the local chapter had left for the capital so there was no one to regulate anyway.
Six then gauged who seemed most likely to share in knowledge. It's not like he could just go from stall to stall, offering to trade knowledge but if he could make one good rune trade his stop here would be worth it. So Six, with a little bit of judgement and a lot of gut instinct, picked an eccentric human man. The man was named Rotilo and had black hair and lustrous pale skin. He wore fine dark green clothes and was bedazzled in a selection of rings and amulets.
Six talked shop establishing himself as a wandering journeyman looking at the local work to see if he could see anything interesting. He bought a few knickknacks before making his offer.
It took little convincing, Rotilo basically jumped at the opportunity for a new rune, criticizing the other practitioners as too secretive.
Six gave Rotilo the choice between the Moderate Rune of Perpetual Resilience rune and the Moderate Rune of the Arriving Cloud
Rotilo chose the Moderate Rune of the Arriving Cloud. It took a bit for Six to explain it properly, he had to roll his explanation around a bit before Rotilo got it. But got it he did and the elation was evident on the man’s face.
In exchange Rotilo had offered his most powerful, Moderate Rune of the Second Foundation of Growth. He recited the effects for Six,
Physical Growth: The primary effect of the Rune of Growth is to stimulate physical growth and development. It can accelerate the growth of plants, crops, or even living beings, promoting health and vitality.
Observation Advancement: Enchantments incorporating the Second Foundation of Growth could stimulate intellectual growth and observation, enhancing memory, and manipulating experience gain.
Six learned the rune easily, only requiring a single demonstration from Rotilo, his Master skill rank and Unbound Comprehension coming into his quick uptake.
Impressed, Rotilo then offered Six another trade.
“I have a collection of enchanted items for trade if you’re interested. Some of my family heirloom things. Very esoteric things, not for the likes of the common man.” He motioned for his helper to take over and began to pack up his personal things, Six’s attendance already decided apparently.
Six wasn’t getting any serial killer vibes from this guy so he decided to take him up on his offer and once his party regrouped Six followed Rotilo up to what was essentially an estate section of the city, to where the rich resided. There was an internal checkpoint where Rotilo showed a pass of some sort before being allowed entry and then it was like being in an entirely different city.
Less traffic. Less people. Less stank.
Every so often they encountered a misting fountain featuring a statue of what SIx could only assume was a water elemental.
They entered Rotilo’s estate, a large building with pastel ceramic tiles for both wall and roof. Guards stood out front, wearing well made leather armor and holding simple and vicious weapons. Inside a well dressed dwarf with the dark grey skin that marked him as the meteor variety took their coats and led them to a fancy room with high vaulted ceilings and various cabinets and bookshelves scattered about.
The dwarf was a professional and completely polite but had an air about him. A certain solidity that made Six re-evaluate the dwarf a few times.
Six hadn’t analyzed anyone here yet, and he didn’t need to sate his curiosity about the dwarf’s capabilities. It's not like he planned on robbing Rotilo. Best not chance the dwarf having something that could tell he was being analyzed.
“Six my friend, and you two as well I suppose,” Rotilo said, gesturing at Narhurin and Indigo. “I have an extremely wide collection of rare curiosities. While most of my collection I would be willing to part with there are some things I simply cannot trade.”
Six nodded. “Not a problem, totally understand.”
Rotilo then took Six through his entire collection. Item by Item, it was good training for Six’s Inspect skill, which he did use. He didn’t want to reveal the existence of Kotagan’s Encyclopedia to this collector within his own estate, so he kept that hidden. Rotilo was nice but Six didn’t trust him to take no for an answer if he demanded the tome.
Overall the collection was quite interesting and Six figured he could make a perpetual golem in exchange for something. They were easily the most valuable commodity he could leverage.
A simple wand,
- Wand of Triplicate Mana Dart -
Rank: Enhanced
Rarity: Unusual
Weight: 0.38 KG
Durability: 120/120
Traits: Users can activate this wand at the cost of 8 charges to cast the Mana Dart Spell in triplicate. Creating three darts of force mana and launching them with great speed at a target. Charges 21/21. Cooldown 2s.
Very neat. How does that work? SIx wanted to break it down to learn.
There was also a talking halfing skull that spoke a dead language,
Knowledge Gained: Knowledge: Ceremonial Hoglander (Mortal)
It cackled and chattered relentlessly. “ALL I WISH FOR IS PEACE FROM THIS ETERNAL TORMENT! END MY EXISTENCE N-”
Pass on that.
Many minor marvels were presented but what really caught Six’s eye was something Rotilo didn’t seem to understand the true value of.
A staff of gnarled wood, it was more root ball and stem than finely crafted. Still the enchanting was most intriguing.
- Flowering Staff of Profound Verdance -
Rank: Enhanced
Rarity: Rare
Weight: 0.38 KG
Durability: 235/235
Traits: Users can activate this staff at the cost of 1 charge to channel the Plant Growth Spell, affecting the growth of plants in the chosen area of effect. Charges 22/22.
On first impression the item would seem useless for anything other than a party trick but after his experimental forays into the mask his examinations were more thorough now.
There was something odd about this enchantment and on second inspection the strange feature revealed itself to him.
Is capable of cycling and amplifying the Plant Growth spell at a return of 567%.
If Six was right, his Plant Growth output would increase by over 5 times if channeled through the staff.
“This wand, Rotilo. I want this staff.”
Rotilo looked surprised. “Oh? Really? It's kinda useless.” He held his hand out for the staff and Six passed it over. The man flicked it at a potted shrub and a little twig and flower bloomed out of it. Rotilo looked at Six and shrugged before handing it back. “You sure?”
“Yes.” Six gestured at the table. “May I?”
Rotilo waved dismissively. “Go right ahead.”
Six blasted his Plant Growth spell through the staff and the shrub lurched upwards as it grew by about a foot, fruiting in several places. That was only with a sliver of his mana.
Rotilo looked at the leafing table in dumbstruck wonder. “I see, I did not know it was capable of such an effect.”
“Well it is, you still ok to part with it?”
Rotilo nodded, a small smile coming to his lips. “I would want something of equal or greater value. Perhaps a major rune?”
Six lifted an eyebrow. “Oh? A major rune?”
“You are clearly very skilled with how quickly you picked up my rune, and your explanations were so complete it was impossible for me to not understand. I can see a master of the craft.”
“I’m no master,” Six lied, and it was an easy one. “But I have something else you might wish to consider. What do you think about golems?”
Rotilo smiled.
Six had him.