They experimented of course, finding that any normal weapons made by the local smith didn’t work with Jade’s magic at all, though they found Yondol could use the Jade crafted weapons with greater skill, though not as skillfully as with Jade’s magic. It made Amy a little less grumpy when they met back up, though Jade caught her saying things like “Cheat magic” and “Always the lucky ones”. It made Jade feel a little guilty all over again, though he once again had no time to dwell on it as he started his acceptance into the adventurer’s guild.
The first trial took no time at all, Jade easily finishing off both the single and group monsters with his Space Wand. The second trial, though, had to wait until nighttime, Jade a little more nervous as he looked at the items nearly filling up his inventory. He had to make sure he had everything he needed, including what Yondol and Amy called ‘Ward Stones’, which would sound an alarm during the night if any threat walked into their radius. Both siblings gave Jade a look as he explained he’d never spent a night alone out of a town, Amy especially looking like she was going to try and ask more questions. Jade dodged them by paying for an expensive meal out on the town, finding a very delicious sushi restaurant nearby.
Once the sun started to set, he waved goodbye to the siblings as he and a veteran adventurer exited the walls. Paul was a quiet guy, not responding to any of Jade’s attempts at small talk. He looked… familiar in an odd way, though the orcish facial structure made it hard to pin down why. He was exactly Jade’s type, though, being almost two meters tall and very muscular. It made for a good bit of a distraction while they trekked out into the woods.
The only reason he wasn’t bored was that he had bought a fiction book from the local bookstore, having found this universe’s fiction fascinating. He couldn’t learn anything about the world from it, of course, due to his limited knowledge on what could be real with magic around, but it was still going to be useful to pass the time when he was finished setting up camp.
Setting up the camp hadn’t been too hard, Jade taking note from the guidebook the siblings bought him to set it up in a ‘satisfactory’ manner. A simple tent and fire combo was all that was needed, the ward stone sitting in the still roaring campfire. Once Paul gave a nod at Jade’s questioning look, Jade sat on the chair he’d summoned from his inventory, facing away from the fire for good lighting for his book.
He was going to start reading once again to pass the time, when he looked up at the moon and stars. They looked so different from the Earth’s normal constellations, not to mention the light pollution from the city wasn’t as strong, leading to vastly more stars than Jade was used to seeing. He ended up staring at the stars for a few minutes, the book still in his lap, leading him to see the shooting stars appear above the clouds. One even… hit a cloud?
“What the…” he mumbled, squinting up at the now glowing cloud. “Hey Paul? Is that… normal?” Paul frowned as he looked up at the sky as well, though his face quickly turned pale in the firelight as he grimaced.
“A sky island landing…” Paul murmured in awe, causing Jade’s back to straighten in his chair. Sky Islands were normal features in Errant, leading to star and sky themed treasure. He looked at his accessory menu which was right below his armor slots, noting just the gale boots and beginner wings. That left 4 more slots empty for other loot.
Like a blue balloon… It allowed the player to jump higher in game, as well as take less fall damage from hitting the ground. Or a fluffy cloud. That could make it so I couldn’t take fall damage at all. He stood up from his chair at that thought, quickly stashing the furniture item in his inventory. He noticed the glowing island slowly loose it’s luminance, though it seemed to be getting… closer as well?
“It’s going to land around here!” Paul shouted, Jade’s eyebrows raising at that fact. “I need to see where it lands. You stay here.” Jade had no time to say anything before Paul rushed into the woods, Jade sighing as he looked to his tent and campfire.
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“Screw that.” He stashed both items into his inventory, rushing off with the usual puffs of smoke coming off his boots. I’ll get there first. He quickly sped past the surprised veteran adventurer, not stopping even as the cloud landed with a loud POP, sending fog all into the surrounding area.
“Here goes,” Jade muttered, jumping into the air. He’d not tried using the beginner wings accessory before, fearing what would happen if he hit the ground too hard. Unlike other games, having the wings did nothing to help fall damage negation, though they could be used to glide after hitting the height of their flight. Even with the fear of hitting the ground too hard, he felt the wings extend into the air around him from his back, flapping as they lifted him even further up into the air and above the fog bank.
He took a second to see that he was still heading towards the island, focusing on moving forward, even as the wings stopped flapping. Glide… Glide! he shouted in his mind, nearly missing the island in his focus to not fall too fast to the ground. The wings successfully kept him off the ground, Jade needing to make multiple circles around the island to land safely.
Once on the island, he saw what looked to be a yellow and blue house, though Jade immediately recognized it as being made of sky blocks. Half temped to see if he could try and collect the rare material, Jade shook his head and instead opened the skywood door, revealing a largely empty room with banners hanging from the walls. The only other feature of the room was a sky chest, sitting directly in the center, Jade excitedly running up to it. He was about to open the chest when he felt his magic give him a nudge. Jade instead pulled up his inventory and tried to connect to the chest that way. He’d already heard of the materials people could get from the chests, and he wanted the loot only his power could bring him.
With a simple mental command, his magic connected to the chest, pulling up another inventory window with the loot inside. He ignored the sky furnace, money and healing potions, going straight for the rare item that always spawned in chests. His face fell as his eyes landed on a familiar pink object, Jade collapsing to the floor in dismay. A Star Staff. One of the weakest summoning items in Errant, as it spawned one weak starling to the players’ side that would bounce into enemies to damage them. It was… useful early game, but could quickly be swapped out with even the Slime Staff, the slime doing even more damage and being able to spit out globules of acid at enemies.
With a sigh, Jade put the star staff into one of his hotbar slots, immediately summoning it into his hand. At least he could have a companion to help him defeat monsters, though he already had two dependable ones. Pulsing a bit of mana into the staff, similarly to how he operated the wand, the tip of the staff glowed, summoning the promised starling, this one a dark blue, the color of the twilight sky. It looked like a miniature star with a cute smiley face on it, letting out sparkles as it flew through the air. The creature twirled once, letting out an excited chime before flying onto Jade’s shoulder. “At least you’re cute…” he muttered.
“Are you kidding me?!” a voice shouted, making jade fly to his feet and aiming to swing the staff towards the voice. He lowered it however, when he only saw Paul standing at the door, though, he backed up a step at the angry face he was making. “Did… did you contaminate the site with your magic? Those materials could have helped countless adventurers!” Paul pushed Jade off to the side as he scrambled for the chest, opening it up and letting out a relieved sigh at the materials laid out inside. “At least you didn’t use all of it.”
“I uh… these islands are shared with other adventurers?” he asked meekly, flinching at the look Paul gave him and raising the staff in defense.
“Of course! Star loot is rare as it is without people hoarding it to just the person who found the island.” Paul’s expression softened at Jade’s guilty look, sighing and shaking his head. “At least some of the materials are still there. I’ll let you off the hook this time, but no more messing with sky chests!” Jade gave a nod at that, moving out of the sky house and leaning against the side in relief.
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Star Staff
6 Summon Damage
Very Weak Knockback
Average Speed
5 Mana per use