He was eager to use his passive ability stone right away, but since there might be a lengthy decision involved, he decided to use the token first. While he was debating which piece of gear he wanted to upgrade, Nick walked over and picked up one of the matriarch’s mandibles, which had been sheared off in the attack that claimed her life.
Unfortunately, the other had been shattered during the final moments of the fight. He walked out onto the sand and slipped the razored length of chitin into his pack, figuring that the high-grade material might come in handy later. By the time that the wicked scimitar of chitin had disappeared into his magical backpack, he was ready to use the upgrade token.
Unsure if this was going to work, he touched the token to his blade and said, “This. I want to upgrade my sword.” Nick felt a fierce tingle of excitement. By now, he had grown accustomed to his unusual weapon and was eager to upgrade his primary offensive tool. But five increasingly frustrating minutes later, he realized that it wasn’t going to happen.
The lack of reaction wasn’t all bad news. Thus far, the System had stubbornly refused to identify his pockmarked blade. While he had received several hints that the sword might boast hidden properties, the token’s failure confirmed that his weapon was a rare item, possibly even epic.
With the sword out of the running, his next choice would have been his flask of restoration, but it was too rare for the token as well. Ok, wand it is. When Nick tried using the token on his wand, this time, a message from the System appeared.
This item is incompatible with the upgrade token due to a hidden modifier.
Now that is interesting. Nick had suspected for some time now that his wand was special, and its description had mentioned hidden modifiers the first time he had seen it in his inventory. It might explain why my Force Adept trait wound up boosting the wand too. I’ll have to investigate it when I get a chance.
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This left him with a three-way tie between his dimensional storage pack, his toolbelt, and his leather jacket.
Nick had fallen in love with his toolbelt from the moment he first strapped it on, and it had become integral to his fighting style. That being said, the item could already repair itself and its utility came from its form, not its modifications, moving his tools closer to his hands, where he could use them in battle. He wasn’t sure how the toolbelt’s usefulness could be improved, although he was curious to find out.
His leather jacket, on the other hand, was a solid pick for an upgrade. Whether the leather became tougher, more resistant to various destructive energies, or gained some other property, it was sure to come in handy in the days ahead.
But given all of that, the jacket was still an article of clothing and not proper armor. Nick strongly suspected that he would eventually swap it out for something more specialized, upgraded or not. But his bag was another matter entirely.
His backpack was already far more useful than an ordinary pack. In addition to reducing the weight of the items it carried, it was only limited by mass, not the dimensions of its contents. If he could fit something through the flap, the bag could hold it, even if it was a fifteen-foot pole.
Not to mention the trick he had discovered when crafting the pollen bomb back on the Searing Isle, when Nick had learned that he could manipulate the items inside of the dimensional storage. At least to some extent. The bag was crazy durable too. So far, not even attacks that had penetrated his toughness modified jacket had been able to leave a scratch on it.
In short, his bag was an inherently useful tool. One that he intended to use for the foreseeable future.
Breaking into a broad grin, Nick pressed the stone against the pack and said, “I would like to upgrade my backpack please.” For a breathless moment, nothing happened. But then the token grew warm before crumbling into dust. His backpack began to glow, and when the light faded away a few seconds later, the bag looked just the same as it always had.
But when he read the System message that appeared in front of his face, he let out an enthusiastic “hell yes!” of triumph. It was exactly what Nick had been hoping for. A clear cut, across the board upgrade of the pack’s primary function.
Bag of molding (rare)
This dimensional storage space can carry up to two hundred pounds, reducing the weight of the items inside by 25%. It can store any discrete item, regardless of its shape, if it can fit into the bag. The rate of decay of items stored within this space will be reduced by a small amount.