It was the end of another tedious week of red and green stamps in an endless bureaucratic paper trail. Ethan juggled the grocery bags as he searched for his apartment keys, cursing under his breath while attempting to unlock the door and not spill their contents. Hurrying inside he kicked the door closed as he set the bags on the table and shrugged off his wet jacket. Ethan shuffled on his slippers and headed for the kitchen.

Fortunately, his new book was in a plastic bag so it shouldn’t be wet; Ethan did a quick inspection just in case, before putting away his frozen pizzas, soda, and ice cream. He had his weekend planned out, read the latest and greatest from one of the sci-fi series he followed and get in some game time.

He preset the oven to 450 and grabbed a bag of shredded cheese to church it up a bit. As he was working his culinary magic, he heard a knock at the door.

“Be right there, he yelled” as he tossed the pizza in the Oven.

“Page set a timer for 25 minutes, Ethan instructed his Personal AI.”, The AI acknowledged and he headed for the door.

“Oh, Mrs. Richards how are you doing, come in before you’re soaked.”

Shaking her head as she hefted a small plastic bag “Dear, it’s only a slight drizzle, besides you’re not my only stop today” His elderly neighbor had a slight satisfied look in her eyes.

Ethan accepted a few envelopes along with assorted junk mail, “Oh, again huh?”

Smiling she responded, “Old Joel probably thinks I don’t get enough visitors, so he gives me the excuse to go out and see a few people each week”

“Or he’s getting lazy in his old age and needs the help” teased Ethan.

Waving her hand as if to shew away his comment she smiled kindly at him and was on her way. Ethan tossed the mail on the table and went to check on his pizza.

Ethan had just finished making an extra-large root beer float when Page spoke up. “Your Pizza is ready.”

As he was pulling the pizza out, he heard another knock on his door. He set the pizza on the stove and put away the hot mitts.

There was a second more insistent banging on the front door.

“Coming, coming yelled Ethan” at first he had thought maybe Mrs. Richards had found another scrap of junk mail, but he seriously doubted she would be pounding on his door like that.

Ethan’s first impressions of the man outside his door was of a professional wrestler who was moonlighting as a used car salesman, he was massive but had somehow managed to stuff himself into a cheap-looking suit that appeared several sizes to small for his bulk.

“You, Ethan Ryder?” grunted the giant of a man.

“Uh yeah, that’s me” breathed Ethan feeling slightly intimidated. Hell who wouldn’t feel insecure next to this guy. Ethan quickly glanced down at his own underwhelming self. He would best describe his physical appearance as mediocre, average, with a touch of let himself go on the side; his desk job and sedentary lifestyle were plain for all to see.

The overgrown man grunted and pulled out a small package, “got a delivery for ya.” He pulled out a small package covered in brown paper. Ethan was mentally questioning where the hell he pulled that out from when the man held up what looked to be old parchment paper, “sign here”.

Ethan was about to go look for a pen when the man rolled his eyes and growled, “Touch the identity seal”. Ethan inspected the paper closely, the words where blurry he could only make out a small ornately designed circle, roughly the size of a silver dollar next to what he assumed was his name near the bottom of the paper. It reminded him of those old tribal tattoos people used to get, but with considerably more detail and asymmetrical shapes integrated inside the bounds of the circle.

Ethan looked up at the man about to ask what he meant, but the impatient gaze leveled at him gave him pause. Not really expecting anything he brushed his finger over his name and his fingertips came to rest over the detailed circle.

After the briefest moment of hesitation the paper shimmered slightly and his name appeared in rich burgundy scrolling calligraphy, he had seen some temperature changing paper before and thought it was a neat trick but as he was going to ask the man what this was all about the man shoved the small package in his chest grabbed the paper, turned and walked away, it was so fluid and controlled Ethan stood there a moment amazed this brute of a man could move so gracefully. After a puzzled moment of watching the man depart he remembered that his pizza was getting cold, so he shut the door and headed to the kitchen.

As he walked, Ethan examined the package; it was not, in fact, brown paper but some sort of thin leather that bound the object, how curious. He set the package down next to the rest of the mail and set to work on his pizza.

“Page, was I expecting any deliveries?” asked Ethan as he took a large bite out of his third slice.

“You have a pending delivery of a pre-order on the fourth installment “Son’s of ager and flames, Chaos is not enough series by LL Grant” Delivery is secluded for, release date, no records of shipment detected. No other pending orders” page intoned in her Received Pronunciation.

Damn, was that guy ever going to finish, it’s been almost a year and no word on the release date; he had forgotten about the pre-order. Turning his attention back to the package, he looked for a way to remove the leather binding.

It was strange, the leather was seamless, no stitching or holes that he could see, that was impressive. Ethan was about to ask Page to search for leatherworking information to see if he could learn the trick behind this marvel when he noticed another one of those circles, what had the burly wrestler called them, identity seals. Mentally shrugging Ethan brushed his fingers along the seal.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Just as before he could see his name scrolled out beautifully inside the ring, only this time the shimmer did not simply fade away but rather grew slightly brighter and the leather biding dissolved into motes of light leaving behind the contents inside.

“Page lookup dissolving leather, with cross-reference delivery packaging, whispered Ethan”, as he sat stunned looking at the ornate chest left behind. It was similar in shape to the standard pirate's chest but much smaller.

As Page began to rattle off a response to his inquiry, he heard a soft chime and a blue window appeared with white text hovering above the chest.

Identity Confirmed: Ethan Lucas Ryder

Ethan stared at the window his eyes growing wide, his heart thumped in his chest and he could hear the blood rushing in his ears.

“Ethan, I am detecting elevations in your heart rate, said Page”

Ethan continued looking at the window.

“Yeah, I huh can you see this? Said Ethan”

“As you are well aware Ethan, I do not have eyes, besides your biometrics, my sensory input is relegated to the microphone and camera on your link. Retorted the AI”

“Right yeah um right said Ethan,” mumbled Ethan distractedly.

Ethan lifted the link so its onboard camera was facing the chest.

“What about now, can you see this blue window now, he asked”

“Ethan, shall I contact emergency services, you appear to be suffering some form of mild hallucinations, and your elevated heart rate and perspiration are symptoms of several…”

“No, no I am fine, just give me a minute to think, interrupted Ethan”.

The blue window apparently in no hurry continued to hover in front of him; he re-read the text again, what’s complete about this he thought, apparently the window took that as some form of an acknowledgment as the previous text faded out with new text replacing it.

Establishing new owner: Ethan Lucas Ryder. Beware once you claim ownership of this item it may not be traded, lost, or stolen, upon the occasion of your unfortunate demise, this item will, of course, remain your property, unless a successor has been identified.

Accept? Yes/No

Ethan was feeling a little unsure of the situation, he was fairly certain that he would have remembered ordering something this crazy and would have heard about any new tech that could achieve something like this augmented reality interface. And the acceptance of ownership was kind of odd as well. If this was some sort of marketing scheme they deserved to get his money he thought with a laugh.

“Why not, he shrugged I accept”

The window once again faded and as it did the lights in his apartment went out. Blinking he looked around it was around seven-thirty at night and was dark outside this time of year. He stumbled through the kitchen managing to not run into much as he headed towards the living room. Looking through the main window into the courtyard two floors below all he saw was darkness, all the exterior lights were out.

“Page what going on? asked Ethan”

“Mr. Ryder, my primary interlink connection is not currently established. Running low-level subsystems only at this time, replied the AI”.

As he was groping around in the dark for a flashlight the lights flickered, then came back.

“Power loss is pretty rare what the heck happened, asked Ethan”.

“Please stand by re-establishing the primary link, estimated time unknown, intoned the AI”.

Shaking his head Ethan padded back to the kitchen, and approached the small pirate's chest, he studied it closely now, it was made of black metal and had reinforced darker metal bands running along the seams. He reached out and touched the box he could feel grains in the material almost like wood, on closer inspection it was wood but it felt cold like metal. He could just make out the fine scrolling artwork running up and down the metal bands.

As he admired the interesting baby pirate chest, new text once again appeared.

Item Transfer Complete. Horde Chest Rank Legendary (SOUL BOUND)

Legendary Hoarder Chest: Description *adapted descriptions based on Human-ish culture and understanding.

It’s a big ass bag of holding, so go ahead and bring the kitchen sink, shoot bring as many as you can get your grubby mitts on, who knows when you may need them. When soul bound the Horde Chest may be banished and summoned, it’s probably best not to question where the chest hangs out, when you are not rooting around in its endless depths for the damn sink you had to bring with you.

This item is soul bound: Description *abbreviated Soul bound items may not be stolen, lost or accessed by anyone who has not been granted access by the owner.

Functions: Inventory (hoard) sorting: sort by type, quantity, known value…etc.

Item (hoard) stacking: Like items will stack giving you a quantity indicator, for example if you place one iron ingot and then a second iron ingot you will see a quantity displayed as two iron ingots. Items must meet eligibility requirements for grouping to take place.

Inventory (hoard) access sharing: Additional identities may be granted access, either temporarily, permanently, or partially based on the rules set forth by the owner.

Unique: Due to the Human-ish race interface, Inventory may be accessed through the owner’s storage/inventory window.

Item Traits:

Due to hoarder status: Automatically claim loot from fallen enemies.

Due to Legendary status: Time dilation adjustable, negates capacity limitations, negates weight restrictions, and reduces 100% weight when banished.

The item imparts the following characteristics: Hoarder, Finders Keepers.

Hoarder: The Chest is always hungry for more; many crave fame and glory but only fortune feeds this beast. The Chest requires a minimum Hoard to maintain proper functionality if the value drops below the chest deemed acceptable level for a prolonged period of time. The Items it dutifully keeps safe may not be accessible until such time as proper hoard levels have been re-established.

Finders Keepers: Potential to randomly acquire valuable nearby items, the chest has its own appetite and if not satiated by its soul bound partner may seek out its own meals. This effect persists even if the chest is banished if soul bound the chest will be aware of you and your surroundings at all times, if hungry may self-summon when a desirable treasure is nearby.

As a legendary Item, the hoarder chest may evolve under certain circumstances, be aware not all evolutions are beneficial, and if given the option, choose with care.

Durability: Probably Indestructible (previous efforts to destroy this object have yielded negligible results, any claiming the title of a god or above might muster the power to permanently impact this entity, results most likely will vary)

Congratulations! You have soul bound with Legendary Hoarder Chest.

Ethan read the description three times and was still struggling to understand what he was seeing. “It’s a bag of holding, like an rpg bag? And it’s a legendary one at that, no item limits there has to be a catch and what’s with the random effects and evolution possibilities?

Ethan ignored the whole soul bound thing for the moment and took a closer look at the chest. The lid opened smoothly and was lined with crushed red velvet on the inside. He felt a twinge of disappointment as he noticed that it was completely empty.

Ethan looked around for something to put inside the chest to see how it worked, he briefly considered the leftover pizza but was not confident enough in the description to risk damaging the inside with greasy cheese stains. Noticing the mail Mrs. Richards had so thoughtfully delivered he picked up the stack and tossed it all in. The envelopes slipped from his fingers and passed through the red velvet lining and were gone. He tentatively reached his hand and brushed his fingers across the velvet lining it was solid no give at all. Overcome with excitement he looked around eagerly for more offerings to the chest. “That’s amazing, exclaimed Ethan” he once again eyed the pizza and un-hesitantly tossed in the remains of his dinner, he grinned as it too passed through velvet without a trace.