Landing on the ground, a familiar sight greeted Lucas, announcing he was back in real world. Enormous pride swelled in his chest caused by realization they were probably the first ones to clear this dungeon, doubled by the fact the dungeon wasn’t an easy one and they were even under leveled by a large margin. Lucas was certain there weren’t a lot of people here on Earth that would be able of achieving something like that.

“Yo, fucker, where is a title for this?” Lucas asked the System mentally, sudden realization immediately frustrating him. System just gave him passive indifference, as per usual, leaving Lucas swearing and cursing the stingy entity that governed their life. The lack of the title meant System either didn’t agreed with Lucas’s assessment of the achievement or it just didn’t think it was something to write home about. Forcefully pulling himself from his thoughts, Lucas’s gaze fell on a massive golden chest with all manner of precious stones on its edges that laid in front of the party.

“It’s loot time, baby” he said, his party eagerly approaching the chest.

“As our glorious leader, would you do the honors of opening the chest up?” Margaret said in mocking voice, but Lucas didn’t miss notes of respect in it. He rolled his eyes in excessive manner, before chuckling with the rest of the party. Finally ready, he approached the chest and opened it, immediately amazed by the amount of stuff in it. In the sea of different valuables and materials, the same he got after clearing the Naga dungeons way back when he was still an exile, he found what he was looking for. One by one, he started emptying pieces of gear, fifteen in total, three per person, a mighty good haul in Lucas eyes.

Assortment of leather and metal armor, weapons and some cloth was put, the party begun the hard work of finding what belonged to whom. Lucas immediately ruled out all weapons simply due to the fact there wasn’t any swords and concentrated on pieces of armor, especially on two pair of gloves, one of them made from some kind of metal and another pair made of leather. Although he didn’t like spying on other people gear, there currently weren’t any other choice, so he activated “Sharpsight”, focusing first on the metallic gloves.

Plague enhanced brass gloves (Rare)

The lands of the Rat King are poor with crafters of renown, but laden with all manner of scholars and caster dabbling in poisons and diseases. This gloves come as a result of one of the experiments produced by this dabbling, the simple pair of brass gloves enhanced with energies of some of the most foul diseases found in the Rat’s King lands, making them not just extremely sturdy, but also able to corrode enemy weapons if in direct contact. Part of the Plague enhanced set.

Bonus ability: Durable, Corrosive

Lucas then proceeded to read about leather gloves, but after first sentence, he realized they didn’t belong to him, so he picked up the brass gloves, immediately replacing his old gloves he got after murdering Big Kong that were in terrible shape. The same thing that plagued his old gladius was also a problem here, lack of knowledge and materials to successfully maintain them combined with their lack of ability to maintain themselves meant that their life was bound to be finite. Checking the mobility of his hand and fingers and pleased to found them unhindered, Lucas placed his old gloves into his ring and went back at looking at gear that was still unclaimed, wondering what else did he got.

The next item on the list that most certainly belonged to him was a ring, due to the fact that decoration on its top was depicting a sword. Activating “Sharpsight”, he dove into information the System provided.

Ring of vehement swordsman (Uncommon)

This ring, while looking ordinary on first glance, holds residues of the powers its wearer wielded. Crafted for a sword user of considerable power from times past, this ring boost the prowess of any aspiring swordsman. Part of the vehement swordsman set.

+2 Agility, +2 Strength

“Well, this sucks” Lucas thought as he removed one of the gloves to put his new ring. Any stat boost was good and Lucas had a place to put it, but he still hoped for more than measly four stats. Once again cursing the stingy System, he tried to remember what little he knew of sets. In his talk with Bruce, he learned that the completed sets would most likely come from having your gear crafted that from chasing it as a System reward, due to inherent randomness of the award. But this set of vehement swordsman was certainly something that piqued his interest and he wondered is there perhaps a way to find it. Prompt immediately appeared in front of his eyes, the System himself telling him he was on the right path.

New quest: You found a piece from the set that looks like it was tailor – made for you. Find all of the pieces of it.

Rewards:

+2000 EXP

+1000 Credits

Additional set bonus

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Potential hidden awards

Accept quest (Y/N)

Without thinking too much about it, Lucas accepted the quest. It was certainly something he was going to explore, and it always felt nice to get rewards for something you had already plan on doing anyways. Casting an eye on his party, he saw that everybody got at least something out of it, Ted looking especially intimidating with his new helmet. His gaze lingered on Maggie for a moment, admiring her, almost made him forgetting about the last item, before he refocused on it, his cheeks burning. The last item he guessed belong to him were some shoulder plates, looking extravagant, especially the statues of Rat King. His “Sharpsight” still active, he went to identify them.

Extravagant brass shoulder plates

The majestic feat of crafting in the Rat King lands, these shoulder plates were meant to be worn by the Rat King, inspiring awe and reminding his subject of his overwhelming presence.

+2 Charisma

Bonus ability: Intimidating presence

“Well, this is certainly interesting” Lucas thought. He was no stranger of boosting his Charisma through his gear, and by the sound of it, the bonus ability would slow down, or potentially stun his enemies. But the thing is, it was redundant and he would lose the bonus set from his current Armor, which had both more relevant stats and just more stats in total. Sighing, he turned to Ted.

“Want these?” Lucas asked, Ted immediately identifying the shoulder plates before getting into a hearty laugh.

“Yea, this one is definitely meant for you” Ted said through his laughter “In all seriousness, I am tempted. Give me a second” he finished when the laughing subsided. Lucas simply nodded before remembering he still had points to spend, nine to be precise. His new reshuffling of gear left him on the same path, unfortunately, so he spilt his points between Willpower and Constitution, five in the first one and four in the second one. Calling up “Status”, he was pleased to see his new numbers.

Name: Lucas (surname N/A)

Class: Blade of Doom level 61

Attributes:

Strength: 112

Agility: 165

Constitution: 34

Intelligence: 40

Willpower: 40

Perception: 84

Charisma: 30

Luck: 40

Health: 3808

Stamina: 24.090

Mana: 1600

Skills:

Sharpsight

Aura severing

Doom infusion

Dodge

Strikes of doom

Soul – shattering strike

Punch parry

Doom – infused punch

Infused Piledriver

Guiding strike

Battlerush

Blade spin

Bulwark of balance

Vengeful doom strike

Double strike

Equipment

Exquisite Naga steel coral breastplate

Exquisite Naga steel coral shoulder plates

Exquisite Naga steel coral gauntlets

Exquisite Naga steel coral leg guards

Ring of the Abyssal Depth

Pendant of Truesight

Disease – holding falchion

Plague enhanced brass gloves

Ring of vehement swordsman

Quests

Treasures of the times past

Titles

Monster Slayer

Colossus Muncher

Home – schooled

Scenario dungeon diver I

Vengeance Bringer

Class Advancer

Prodigy

His Health made some nice overall progress, but his mana still lagged behind, and will continue to do so until he fully commits to it and Lucas decided he will do just that, needing only one more point to nicely round up his Constitution. He glossed over his Stamina, not even paying attention to that number as he wasn’t starved for it in a long, long time. His mana, however, continued to concern him, more so now that he lost his gloves and with them few swings of his mana skills, most notably “Infused piledriver”.

“I’ll take it” Ted’s voice pulled him from his lamentation. Lucas cast a confused glance for a second, before remembering the shoulder plates he still held in his hand. Without a word, he gave them to Ted, who quickly put them on, replacing his old ones. The effect was instantenous, as soon as he put them on, everybody started laughing, his intimidating helmet bizarrely juxtaposed with the shoulder plates with small statues of the giant ratman they defeated.

“That bad, huh?” Ted asked, laughing alongside them.

“When we get home, you are looking yourself in the mirror” Maggie responded through the fits of laughter.

It took them a good ten minutes to calm down, all pent up stress and pressure from the dungeon gone. When they finally settled down, they made camp and Chen started cooking a meal which was soon done and as they ate, they discussed their further plans.