Chapter 13
I decided to make a stop at the Cursed Coin. I had a lot of loot that I took off those men that came to kill me. Was it still considered loot? Or did I just rob them after killing them. Whatever the case, they came after me to kill me and what they got, they deserved. If I had managed to get away, they would have continued to come after me. Not to mention that they would only find more victims in the future to kill and I’m sure they had already killed many in abundance. Whatever it was called, I was keeping what I got from them.
I managed to squeeze in as much as I could into two backpacks that I got off them. I really needed to start carrying my own backpacks. Or even better if I can get a bag of holding or something.
“That was cold how you killed that last guy, Gatsby,” Jimmy said.
“Yea maybe but he deserved it. They all deserved it,” I replied wondering if this was the first time Jimmy had called me by my first name.
“Yea I get that. This is a cold world. I mean sure people do bad things back home, but here it’s rampant and The System encourages it by giving you levels and skills.”
“It does take a strong soul to survive this mad world, Jimmy. You are a good egg, Jimmy. You should try and keep that goodness about you for as long as you can.”
The store had been booming and was much more crowded compared to the other two times that I had been there. Theon saw me as I walked in and excused himself from the customer, he was talking with to make his way towards me.
“Where is the lovely lady, I have missed her visage and saddened to the utmost to not see her. But my heart soars to see you again my friend,” Theon said.
Did this man talk like that all the time, or did he just put on and act for his customers? Whatever it is, he’s great at selling.
“She couldn’t make it. You seem to be doing well,” I said glancing in the direction of the crowd in the store.
“Yes, I have been most fortunate since the curse of the coin was lifted from me. I thank you once again for that but understand, I still am not able to take it back.”
“No, it’s not about the coin. I’m here because I was hoping you could identify a few items for me.
“Ah yes! I am able to provide such a service to my most generous friend. Alas, however I cannot offer the service free of charge this time. The last time, the wife was too unhappy with me, and it made for many cold nights if you know what I mean.”
I laughed and agreed to pay him the coin. I still had that bag of coins that I had brought to pay the dwarf for the maps and the money I looted off this last bunch that attacked me.
I laid out all the items on the counter except the robe. I figured the robe belonged to the Order and identified a person as such. It was likely the same robe as the one I previously got from that other mage and if I can keep that hidden then maybe I can keep prying eyes at bay.
I had picked up 3 leather armors, 4 daggers, 5 short swords, 2 long swords, 3 bracelets, 7 rings, 2 necklaces and 1 spell book from the lot of them. I didn’t need the spellbook identified and out of the rest, 2 daggers, 3 short swords, 2 long swords, 5 rings and 2 necklaces were magical. I had also found 300 gold, 40 silver, and 60 copper on the group but I didn’t share that knowledge with Theon.
Midway through identifying them, Theon took on a serious grimace and leaned forward as if to whisper. I did the same.
“My friend, this necklace, you must not be seen wearing it or let people know you have it. This necklace belongs to the Order of Tarlus,” He held the item close to show me, “see this small symbol. It may be hard to see but the order can sense it when it’s nearby. The necklace is used to communicate with another member of the Order. My advice is to never bring this item to light in public again.”
He wrapped the necklace in a cloth and handed it back to me and I promptly placed it into a pocket of the pack. Theon went back to identifying the items right after as if nothing had happened. Once done with all of them, he shared the descriptions of all the items.
Long blade of Might (dagger)
Item Type: Magical Weapon – Uncommon
Alignment: Any warrior classes
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Material: Steel
Durability: 180/200
Description: This dagger was originally created by and used by halflings as a short sword. Its blade is elongated compared to most daggers.
This dagger gives the user +10 strength and +10 dexterity to the wielder when used.
Silent storm (Dagger)
Item Type: Magical Weapon - Rare
Alignment: Any class
Material: Silver
Durability: 270/350
Description: This dagger gives an increased chance of making a critical hit. Critical damage is increased by x3
Silent storm seemed fantastic from the description. Critical hits normally caused two times as much damage and some classes like Assassins could raise that even more. I was not an assassin but even for me, the damage, if I made a critical hit, would be increased by x6 since the base damage was x2 and then the dagger increased by 3x on top of that. I had no interest in trying to engage anyone in Melee combat but hell, I would be glad to have this dagger if I had no choice.
“All five of the short swords that are magical are the same. They were likely made by the same Smith and Caster and likely created for soldiers,” Theon said in the middle of showing the items to me.
Short Sword
Item Type: Magical weapon - common
Alignment: Any warrior classes
Material: Steel
Durability: 100/100
Description: This Short sword gives +5 strength and +5% damage to the wielder.
“Both of the long swords are the same as well, my friend. Were the people you acquired these items from soldiers of a faction somewhere? They are certainly not of the soldiers from our fine city,” Theon added.
Long Sword
Item Type: Magical weapon - common
Alignment: Any warrior classes
Material: Steel
Durability: 100/100
Description: This Long sword gives + 5 strength and +5% damage to the wielder.
Ring of Defense
Item Type: Magical Jewelry - Common
Alignment: Any class
Material: bronze
Durability: 50/50
Description: These Rings are given to the warrior class as a reward for finishing their training. They provide 10% protection from all physical attacks.
Four of the five rings were the same Rings of defense. They likely belonged to the same army or men or whatever faction.
The Shocker (Ring)
Item Type: Magical Jewelry - Legendary
Alignment: Spellcaster class
Material: Gold band with Sapphire jewel
Durability: 185/200
Description: Created by a Mad Mage, that fancied himself a god of lightning. He was shocked to learn he wasn’t, when the real god of lightning, removed his ring and sent him to play with some lightning elementals in their home plane of existence.
This ring provides the wearer with complete resistance to all electrical damage.
This ring increases the damage of all lightning/electrical based spells by 2x the level of the caster.
This ring allows the user to cast Chain Lightning 1x/10 caster levels per day.
Spell Chain Lightning
Cost: 200 MP
Cast time: Instant
Duration: Instant
Cooldown Period: None
Effect: Caster chooses a target. That target is hit for Damage = Intelligence x Caster Level. The lightning bolt then bounces to a random person within 10 feet of the initial Target. The second target is hit for half the initial damage. The bolt, continues to bounce to a random person from the new Target for up to 10 targets and the damage is reduced by half for each target.
The two necklaces were not anything special usage wise. They had a slight enchantment on them to hold images. One of the Necklaces held my image which I found very concerning though not completely surprising. The other necklace held the image of another man though I had no idea who that was and neither did Theon when I asked him.
I put on the Shocker immediately. The name of the ring was interesting. I doubt it was on purpose but still, it was a funny name for a ring. It was too bad that at my current level, I could only use the ring once a day but still if used properly, that ring was a game changer especially against multiple opponents.
I also put on one of the Rings of Defense. Unfortunately, due to some System rule, a person could not put on more than one of the same type of rings to stack up bonuses. I tried to sell them to Theon who refused. Theon said he didn’t want to get involved in buying or selling certain items that may cause him to become the enemy of a faction and these swords and rings were very obviously such items.
I also switched out my nonmagical short sword with the magical one and the nonmagical dagger with the silent storm.
I considered selling the dagger, long blade of might as Theon was interested in that but then I changed my mind thinking that either Demira or one of her kids could benefit more from it.
All the nonmagical items Theon bought without a concern. I was not the type to haggle, and I felt that Theon would probably give me a decent deal, considering our past though, you could never tell with merchants. In any case, I did not want to have to carry that stuff around the whole way back to manor.
I was excited to get back to the manor and check out the spell book. I may not be able to learn spells from the book directly or at least not right away, but you never know.
The only direct way to quickly learn a spell was through a learning scroll. Spell books though written in Arcane, were written specifically by the caster that owned them. Spell books were not a necessity if you had high enough intelligence to remember many levels worth of spells. However, if you did not or had a lot of spells, the books would act as a way for you to rememorize them as needed in exchange for ‘forgetting’ one that was already in your memory.
Spell books also helped in case the caster suffered some type of trauma which erases his memory or causes him to forget. The spell books were essentially like a cloud back up at that point.