Lucius let out a deep breath of relief when he saw the familiar sky of Earth above him. Once his feet were firmly planted on the floor, he turned around and observed the anomaly he had just passed through. It began shrinking at a rapid rate the moment he came out of it, and he watched as the event horizon became smaller and smaller until it reached the size of a quarter. Instead of disappearing completely, the anomaly began to take on the form of a ring, and once the shape was fully formed, the color changed from the watery clearness it had been into a shiny black metallic color. The black metal ring dropped from the air and Lucius reached forward to catch it, holding it up to his eyes.
Now that it was up close, he could see that it wasn't just smooth metal, instead it was covered in engravings that he could not decipher. He concentrated on the ring to prompt a description from the system.
Ring of Holding - Metal Ring - Quality [Magic]
A ring of holding is a utility item commonly given as a system reward to the residents of newly integrated worlds. The ring contains a dimensional space that can be used to store nonliving materials. The space is approximately 3 x 3 yards.
It was the item he had been rewarded for closing the anomaly. Lucius placed the ring on his middle finger and began to test out its functions. Whenever he concentrated on the ring, an image appeared in his mind of a small, empty space. When he held his sword in his hand and imagined it entering the space, it blinked out of existence. Now when he focused on the ring, the empty space contained his sword.
"That's convenient."
Lucius moved the food and bandages from his backpack into the ring before taking the soldier's journal out of his pocket. He intended to store it in the ring but first he casually flipped it open and skimmed through the pages, reading a recent entry.
[November 3rd,
The creatures just keep coming. Gunpowder stopped working completely today. I'm scared.]
"That can't be right... November 3rd is two days from now." Lucius quickly flipped through the remaining pages and checked the dates. The last entry was dated November 15th, a full two weeks into the future. It detailed the dead soldier's reaction to her squad being ordered to enter the anomaly.
"Did she just get the date wrong? That doesn't make sense either though. Even if she wrote the wrong dates, it doesn't explain why there are two weeks' worth of daily entries. That many days haven't passed since the Abyss creatures showed up."
Now he was confident that something unusual was happening, because this wasn't the first thing that did not make sense to Lucius recently, but he had been ignoring his own doubts. When his group had first escaped from the store, he found it strange that the city was already completely deserted, and many of the dead bodies appeared as if they had been there for much longer than they should have. Also, the number of buildings the goblins had constructed seemed like it should have taken more than a few days, and the people he had saved from the goblins looked like they had been kept in captivity for a long time. Lucius decided to ask Paul how long he had been a prisoner of the goblins when he got back to the farm. For now, he placed the journal in his ring and started heading back.
While he walked, Lucius was contemplating how he should use his second system reward, the item upgrade token, when he had a sudden idea. "The highest-quality item I am allowed to use it on is [Magical], so I can't use it on my sword, and I feel like it would be a waste to use it on something of a lower grade. Can I use it on this ring?" The ring was the highest quality item he possessed other than the sword, so Lucius decided to give it a try. The first thing he did was remove all the items he had just placed inside; he didn't want to lose any of his stuff if anything went wrong. He took the ring off his finger and held it in his open palm, then concentrated on the item upgrade token like he had done once before when he created his sword.
Lucius was pleasantly surprised when he saw the familiar magical golden radiance appearing around him, "Nice!", He had decided to try upgrading the ring on an impulse but was doubtful it would work. He watched as a river of golden lights flowed into the small ring, packing themselves tightly around the surface of the item. The shape outlined by the golden lights began to change as he watched. Starting from a plain-looking circle, the shape transformed into a much more ornate looking signet ring. When the lights disappeared, Lucius saw that the black metal and inscriptions remained, but now the ring also contained a large orange gemstone of some kind embedded into the flat surface of the signet. The new look of the ring was quite pleasing to Lucius's sense of aesthetics, and he didn't hesitate to prompt the system for a definition of the new item.
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Adventurer's Ring - Gemstone Ring - Quality [Rare]
A utility ring fit for an adventurer. This ring contains a dimensional storage space of 9 x 9 yards and imbues its wearer with weak telekinesis.
Lucky Dog - All attributes +3
Lucius reread the description multiple times to make sure he had read it correctly. "I need to try this!" He said as he returned the upgraded ring to his finger.
The first thing that caught his attention was the feeling of power it gave him. He felt stronger, faster, and even his thinking became more clear the moment he put on the ring. It was just like how it felt when he was close enough to Jack and the set item bonuses kicked in. He lingered for a few moments enjoying the experience, before looking down at his items on the ground. Reaching his hand out towards his sword, he concentrated his mind, as an unusual sensation began to appear in his mind. It felt like he was moving an invisible hand, using it to reach out and touch the sword. He used his mind to firmly grip the weapon and lift it off the ground.
The sword moved, but quite slowly. Lucius reached out his actual hand and maneuvered the floating sword into it.
"It's way too slow and weak to be useful in a fight. Maybe it has other uses."
Lucius moved his sword into his ring and reached out again for a can of food. This time, he tried to move it into the space ring from a distance without touching it with his real hand, and it worked! He experimented for a few minutes and determined that the maximum distance his new power could reach was about 5 yards, so anything small enough within that distance could be moved in and out of his ring by telekinesis. Now it made sense why a storage ring would come with such a power, it was incredibly convenient for moving items around.
After he finished testing his new storage ring and ability, he returned all his items to the ring and made his way back towards the farm. He wanted to speak to Paul right away and try to get to the bottom of the unusual oddities that had been occurring regarding the passage of time. When Lucius reached the farm, he saw an interesting sight. A few of the survivors from the goblin village were riding the giant spiders while holding shiny new metal spears, they seemed to be patrolling the outskirts of the farm.
"I guess Patrick set up the guard duty."
Lucius released his aspect and allowed the people to see him approaching. The older man and woman stopped for a moment with startled expressions on their faces before quickly realizing who it was and waving at him.
Lucius decided to talk to the patrol first; after all, they had been in the goblin prison as well.
"Hello there. I don't think I ever got your names." Lucius greeted them. The couple consisted of a balding man in his late 50s and a woman probably a decade younger.
"Good evening young man. My name is Scott, and this is Helen. We've been eager to speak with you and say thank you for what you did." the older man named Scott responded happily.
"No need to worry about that. Are those the new weapons that Jack and Paul were working on?" Lucius asked, pointing at the spears. From this distance, Lucius could see that the metal spears had been beautifully inscribed by Patrick.
"Indeed! The young man named Jack is quite the talented craftsman. Take a look!" said Scott as he handed the spear to Lucius.
Lucius took the spear in his hand and brought up its description.
Survivor's Spear - [Iron Spear] - Quality [Enhanced]
One of the first weapons forged by a group of survivors, it has been magically enhanced by its creator's unique aspect and further empowered by inscriptions to enhance its damage.
Grit of the Survivor - Wielder gains +3 to stamina while this weapon is equipped.
The older woman looked at Lucius with a smile and said, "Each one has a different attribute. Some add strength, others vitality or stamina. Jack let us ladies have the spears that add to strength; otherwise, it would be hard for us to use the heavy things."
Lucius gave the spear back to Scott and asked the question that he was most curious about. "Can I ask you both something? Back when you were trapped in the goblin village, how long would you say you stayed there?"
The smile turned a bit stiff on Scott's face, but he thought about it for a moment and answered the question. "I can't say for certain, but it must have been a few weeks at least."