Nero walked out of Valanaegornif's office along with Mayleefa and they went into the other wing, to visit the quartermaster's office.
"I talked to the quartermaster, he was adamant on not handing out anything above blue and even then sparingly. That won't fit with His Highness' wishes at all. He demands at least thirty more yards. I am going with you to renegotiate it. So, please, don't intervene."
Nero could grasp some of the politics. This quartermaster was probably not in Tyre's faction and most likely was sent to keep tabs on the prince's spending. However, he couldn't fathom why they would be stingy with what could be considered trash gear. The kind of stuff Nero could equip was just rubbish compared to what one of the criminals he selected to delve with him - a bitter truth he still didn't swallow entirely - could equip.
"I can only use items without a level requirement. I didn't think it would be such a problem."
Mayleefa frowned. "Thing is, we have hundreds of novice recruits. Every single piece of equipment green and below has been used. We also have problems bringing too many recruits to delve. They tend to pray on each other, unfortunately."
Nero shook his head. It was always the same stupid story. "Can't be helped. Dungeons are lawless by definition."
"Yes. We have some recruits and prisoners farming the Dungeons a couple dozen miles behind us for equipment and cards. It's still not enough. There's pressure on the quartermaster to release the blue cards, usually reserved for promising recruits, to the masses. The yellow ones are reserved for the knights and are out of reach. One thing we could do was to demand the purple cards for your payment, but our agreement was only for Skills and Classes."
"I have no problem being paid with purple modifier cards even if I can't use them."
"That broadens our options. I might be able to coax a couple yellow equipment for magic-users as the knights favor their squire builds first and only branch into magic later."
The squire build was totally bullshit if you only looked at them from a lower-tier perspective. It was entirely made up of passives. Given that all the knights' build was planned to bloom at the fifth-tier or even at the sixth, it was an early investment.
But the time to agree on what Mayleefa should negotiate for ended. They reached the quartermaster's office and the buffalo-kin waved a hand, pointing at the side of the door. "Wait here," he conveyed. Nero just stepped outside where he pointed and stood next to the door leaning on the wall. No military pose for him as a statement of his thin affiliation.
He waited for about fifteen minutes before the door opened and the horned head of the knight popped out. "Please come inside."
----------------------------------------
Nero's assumptions regarding the quartermaster were right. Not only he wasn't in the prince's faction, he surely had orders to curb the prince's spending as much as he could. And probably report everything that was being requisitioned. The blue equipment he offered wouldn't meet the quota the prince wanted and after several rounds of boring negotiation where they had to fight for every inch or every Attribute point they could, they settled with getting Nero's payment so far as the equipment and modifier cards he needed. He was owed twenty-five purple cards for as many days loaning the shelter and his time.
The quartermaster agreed to give him two blue [Permanency I] cards the same ones Altia used that add 100% better chance of modifiers applying. With that in mind, he selected the cards that would make the prince happy and some others that struck his fancy. Nero had at least a few months ahead. The fighting hadn't even started. Their first step was to get the items with a high Reason modifier to improve the shelter's radius.
> [Magician's Timepiece] - purple Equipment - Accessory. Requires Willpower +20
>
> +1 Endurance
>
> +4 Reason
>
> +3 Willpower
>
> +1 Perception
>
> "I hope you can find the hidden planet-tracking device. Good luck."
>
> Special: Increases your mana pool by a fifth of your Reason.
>
> Special: If you are below 10% of your maximum mana, spend X points of stamina. You recover half as many points of mana. This effect has a cooldown of eighteen hours. Your Stamina regeneration is zero for 2 hours after using this effect.
>
> Effect: Tracks time spent inside a Dungeon. Estimates outside the time of exit should [Egress] be used. Tallies mana spent during a Dungeon delve. For every 100 mana spent, temporarily increase your maximum mana pool by 1 until your limiter engages again.
> [Sorcerer's Cloak] - purple Equipment - Cloak. Requires Reason +20
>
> +2 Vigor
>
> +2 Endurance
>
> +5 Reason
>
> +3 Willpower
>
> +1 Perception
>
> "More than even the robes, a proper cloak makes the magician."
>
> Special: Increase your armor rating by 1.
>
> Effect: This item can store mana. Whenever your mana pool is full, spend X mana. Store half as much mana in the cloak. You cannot store more mana until this reservoir is depleted. Mana to pay for spells come first from this reservoir. If you remove the cloak, the reservoir empties.
The purple and orange items had a great variation of power between them. These weren't as powerful as the ones they found in Rafflesia's Meadow but maybe the slots weren't as powerful or the requirements weren't as high. Nero hoped these two items in tandem would have some funny effects because of his level cap. His next set of modifier cards were required to meet the prince's demand. Nero picked six of each Modifier card.
> [Arcane Focus] - purple Enhancement. Requires Reason +40. Willpower +40
>
> "To imbue magic upon the mundane, one requires astonishing prowess."
>
> Effect: Increase the Reason and Willpower modifiers on a piece of equipment by +5, or add a +1 Reason and Willpower modifier if the item has none.
>
>
>
> [Random Attribute Bonus] - purple Enhancement.
>
> "Spin the wheel and set your fate."
>
> Add a +2 Attribute modifier for two random Attributes that are not present on the original item.
> [Enchant +6] - purple Modifier.
>
> "Those that strive to reach God shall find no hardship so long they remain true."
>
> Special: This modifier has a 100% better chance of acceptance.
>
> Effect: Increase all numerical modifiers on a piece of equipment card by 6.
These were good for any first-tier equipment. That was the hardest part of the negotiation but since Nero's contract was between the Kingdom and the Guild and he would be able to write off that part of the debt, the quartermaster relented. The reason they weren't used in higher tier equipment was that there were better [Enchant] cards for those. [Enchant] on the second-tier would give a +3 bonus to Attributes and +1 to other numerical values for every +1 of the former. A green-grade [Enchant] would be as good as this one.
That left him with five cards left to pick. Nero paused and put away all the other cards he was considering and decided to play the quartermaster.
"Say, do you have any purple card in there you consider utter rubbish?" Nero asked. "I'll take my last five picks from these."
The dwarven quartermaster - for some reason the military really liked to put dwarves as quartermasters - raised an eyebrow. "What is the catch, kid?" He asked.
"None, sir. I am sure you can find some purple Skill or Class nobody would be stupid enough to use in your inventory. I like to collect strange cards."
"I have a set of cards here for a collector. However it is incomplete, I only have six of them. nobody wants to pay the price to have them but they're good Skills. I'll show you the one you can't have, and if you like you can have the others."
The dwarf drew one card from his own bandolier.
>
>
> [Strength of the Meek] - Purple Skill. No requirement.
>
> +15 Strength.
>
> "Transform your shortcomings into strength, and improve."
>
> Effect: Increase Strength by 84% of your lowest Attribute even if it's Strength. This effect does not change the rank of lowest to highest Attribute. For every other "of the Meek" Skill you have equipped, this effect increases by 2%. This increase cannot compound with other passive Skills that add an attribute to another.
"So. You can't have this one, as some people would still wish to pay for the fifteen Strength plus whatever they can scrounge. I have five others of this series."
Stolen story; please report.
"I'll take them," Nero said without blinking. "But I want this one as well. Let me tell you. I'll come back in two days. You give it to me in exchange for two days' worth of payment."
Nero believed that the quartermaster wanted to lure him into this kind of deal, to lessen the costs he would have to report to the King or even earn some money by just pocketing the difference. Nero cared not.
"Five," The dwarf smirked.
"Three and you hand all the six to me now."
"Four and we have a deal."
"Shake on it, bearded man."
Nero wasn't wrong. The quartermaster was happy to let go of these. If the profit of this trade went to the King or the man, Nero cared not. He took the six cards and checked them. Some of them used the Attribute name, some didn't. They were Strength, Endurance - "Persistence of the Meek", Dexterity, Willpower - "Wisdom of the Meek", Perception - "Sight of the Meek", and Charisma. He was missing Vigor, Agility, and Reason. It didn't escape his notice that if by any chance someone had all nine equipped, the Skills would have a hundred percent effect.
Was it a hint at something? Nero would hold onto these cards without using them until he investigated it.
"if you are done, then leave my office. I'm busy," the dwarf grunted.
----------------------------------------
The next day, Nero went early to the front courtyard of the castle. He'd meet his new adventuring party of criminals and delve. He walked out of the main gate and saw the four. Cesar and Husk looked like they'd been forced to suck a pound of lemons. Arden looked relaxed but Rodther kept one eye on the minnid duo and another on Nero. Finally, Valanaegornif was overlooking his group of prisoners.
Arden was what one expected from a bear-kin. Eight feet tall, shoulders and hips almost as broad, a lot of fat hiding his muscles. He wore a steel breastplate and a steel skull cap with holes for his round ears. His weapons seemed to be a flamberge and a tower shield. Rodther, at first sight, could be some weird species of lizardman. His triangular body plates covered him from head to toe. He wore just some leather straps around his body to hold a plethora of knives and daggers. A metal band around his tail had five spikes jutting out and looked dangerous. Nero asked around what kind of animal the ietermahue resembled. Pangolins. Just as his own race was named after the animal his beast-kin heritage related to, the ietermahue claimed a distant relative with the pangolins.
"Heh, look who's there, Husk. Our friend Nero Zero," Cesar elbowed his friend.
"Yeah, all decked with noob gear. He didn't even bother to carry a weapon, see?" Husk taunted. "We will have to babysit the VIP."
"Silence, prisoners!" Valanaegornif barked. "Good morning, Nero."
"Captain," Nero nodded. After spending a few weeks with the prince, the salty elf was rather easy on the eyes and ears.
"This is your party," he pointed at the four. "Now, listen to me, maggots. You are going to delve and protect Mr. Nero here. If he dies in the Dungeon, don't even bother getting out. You'll be executed for dereliction of duty and treason by orders of His Highness prince Tyre. If Nero comes out and says you didn't do a good job, you die. So give up on bullying him. You are delving on a rank-III Dungeon. It should be easy for the four of you. If Nero wants to join in the battle, that's fine. If he doesn't, I expect you to do your job. Does any of you idiots have any question?"
Rodther raised a hand. "I do, Captain, sir!"
"Shoot already!" Valanaegornif snarled.
"Is it true that your level is zero and you have no class?"
"My level cap is zero," Nero answered. There was no reason to overshare.
"Can you handle yourself in a dungeon?" The armored beastfolk asked.
Nero just nodded. 'Better than you' would not be a productive answer, even if it was true.
"I just need to activate a few pieces of equipment first," Nero explained. "Then I'll help you as a ranged damage dealer."
The suspicious ietermahue wasn't finished. "Where is your weapon?"
"Dimensional pouch," Nero replied with a straight face.
Cesar clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"Look, I wanted to go solo. I can handle that Dungeon, but they want me to have an escort. I can pull my weight and--"
"And if he doesn't," Valanaegornif interrupted, "It is your job to pick up the slack. No whining. Now move!"
Nero didn't miss Husk exchanging a glance with the elf captain. But the conversation was over. A squad of soldiers escorted the party to the Dungeon, three miles away from the castle. They jogged there, a contest to measure their movement speed. Arden lost by a large margin. Cesar was the second slowest, then Nero. He could very well be the fastest if he used his [Archer] build but instead, he was using his anti-detection build with [Invisibility]. Even if the Perception Attribute of his party of criminals were added together, they would still fail to find him.
They reached the Dungeon in varying states of exhaustion. The soldier escort was fine, and so was Husk and Rodther. Nero was a bit winded but the two slow [Warrior]s drove themselves ragged. That wouldn't matter. They could spend a few days resting. Each was carrying a week of real food and water, besides the consumable food cards.
"Okay, team. Here is what is going to happen," Nero clapped his hands. "I am going inside first. No, no. I'm not leaving the entrance zone. I just need ten minutes by myself. Then you can enter."
"Fine by me," Arden panted. "I don't think you'll get yourself killed in ten minutes."
That reminded Nero he had to reassemble his rifle. "Make that half an hour then. I might need to take a leak in the Dungeon. Wait for it to get absorbed."
"If you are already dead by the time we enter, I'm just dragging your corpse back," Cesar spat.
Nero didn't bother answering. He saw the hatred burning in his fellow villager's eyes, shrugged, and touched the portal.
> Entering "Timber Warg's Hunting Grounds" - Rank-III Dungeon. Grade Yellow.
Nero grinned. Finally in a Dungeon. Tall pine trees with green foliage surrounded him. It was night and a full moon shone in the sky behind a sparse and eerie cover of clouds. Sometimes a larger one would pass in front of the moon and cast a dark shadow over sections of the Dungeon. Despite the different types of trees, it felt like Rafflesia without the flower glade. He wasn't on high ground and the treetops hid the rest of the Dungeon from his sight.
He had no time to waste admiring the bleak and dreary environment, though. Now that they left him alone, Nero had precious little time to get his new Equipment with the blue [Permanency] and three purple-grade modifier cards. Nero thought of the order. To him, opening up two Attributes was more important than the five points of Reason and Willpower. The [Enchant +6] had a 100% chance and could go comfortably last. The blue [Permanency] gave the first one also 100%. This setup gave the pink card in the middle the least chance of activating. That slot was reserved for the [Arcane Focus]. Maybe it was the most desirable modifier for the prince, but the other two were more important to Nero. Since he could shift his build around, he needed to squeeze the most Attribute points possible.
The first was the headgear. The two random Attributes added were Strength and Vigor.
> [Arcane Dungeon Goggles of randomness +6] - yellow Headgear (clockwork)
>
> +8 Strength
>
> +8 Vigor
>
> +7 Agility
>
> +7 Dexterity
>
> +12 Reason
>
> +12 Willpower
>
> +7 Perception
>
> Special: Attribute bonuses from this item are doubled inside a Dungeon.
>
> Effect: While your limiter is off and the lens are covering your eyes, you can detect Essence in the environment.
The goggles were not just an eyewear piece. The "goggles" part were two sets of swiveling lens mounted on a derby hat. There were some mirrors both straight and concave neatly stowed over one another. Gears ran on both sides of the hat to allow the pieces to move. Nero placed the hat on his head and it fit snugly. He willed the device to activate and instinctively knew there were two knobs on each side near his temples he needed to adjust. The hat made a faint whirring sound and the soft clacking of the gears teeth moved the lens.
He noticed the red glow in the shape of a group of silhouettes of wolves in the nearby woods. Playing around, he was able to change the settings to magnify light, making the gloomy Dungeon as bright as a clouded day. Or to shift into other modes that gave the woods both blue and orange hues. The base of the trees being the most blue and the wolves the most orange almost red. A third mode he quickly found allowed him to see the tree line as if it were closer.
Playing and shifting around, he found four packs of wolves waiting to ambush him should he walk outside of the safe zone. He could also see the flow of Essence in the Dungeon. It was coming from the entrance area and spreading through the forest around as if it were being sucked and packed away from where he was. Studying that flow would allow him to tell the depth of the Dungeon and which way the boss was. No more getting lost in large Dungeons.
The next item would be his new Clock. He inserted the cards and triggered them. The item fell on his hand but he checked the Stats first. All modifiers worked and the randomized Attributes were Dexterity and Charisma.
> [Arcane Magician's Timepiece of Randomness +6] - purple Accessory (clockwork).
>
> +7 Endurance
>
> +8 Dexterity
>
> +17 Reason
>
> +14 Willpower
>
> +7 Perception
>
> +8 Charisma
>
> Special: Increases your mana pool by 26% of your Reason.
>
> Special: If you are below 16% of your maximum mana, spend X points of stamina. You recover [6 + X/2] (up to X) points of mana. This effect has a cooldown of twelve hours. Your Stamina regeneration is reduced to six for two hours and six minutes after using this effect.
>
> Effect: Tracks time spent inside a Dungeon. Estimates outside the time of exit should [Egress] be used. Tallies mana spent during a Dungeon delve. For every 106 mana spent, temporarily increase your maximum mana pool by 7 until your limiter engages again.
His previous white-grade [Dungeon Clock] was a simple pocket watch with three hands for the time of the day and a spinning counter for the days. A sun brass icon would shift behind a square slot in the clock face to show if it was AM or PM. This one was fifty percent larger and significantly thicker. It also had a chain with a brass plate at the other end with crystal filaments to attach to his bandolier. He switched to [Gadgeteer] to do so and then back.
Opening his new clock, it now had displays on both sides. The first one tracked his time in the Dungeon but the second moved a bit slower. It was showing him the time of the day he'd find himself should he use [Egress] right now. What was better, it was taking into account his [Dungeon Breaker] black Skill. He was sure it would show something around six PM if he was a normal person.
Nero chuckled at that thought. "Normal person, right."
The clock also had some other displays and a counter. Nero used Invisibility five times and saw the counter tick up, tallying the mana he spent. And if he was right, it would keep the tally even if he left the Dungeon because the wording was "until your limiter engages again" and not "until you leave the Dungeon". Since Nero's limiter was a joke circuit that would never see the light of the day, all he had to know was if the tally reset when he entered a Dungeon or not. Fiddling around a funny part on the top of the main clock that tracked his time inside the Dungeon, he found a sliding part that popped up. A gauge with two pointers showed him his current mana pool as a percentile. A red band on the far left covered the section from sixteen and below, indicating when he could burn stamina to refill his mana pool. He needed to conjure the third item to see how much mana was sixteen percent of his pool now. It was time to get his new cloak. Repeating the process, he found out that the [Arcane Focus] modifier failed to activate on this one. The random Attributes fell once again on Dexterity and Charisma.
> [Sorcerer's Cloak of randomness +6] - purple Cloak.
>
> +8 Vigor
>
> +8 Endurance
>
> +8 Dexterity
>
> +11 Reason
>
> +9 Willpower
>
> +7 Perception
>
> +8 Charisma
>
> Special: Increase your armor rating by 7.
>
> Effect: This item can store mana. Whenever your mana pool is full, spend X mana. Store [6 + X/2] (up to X) points of mana in the cloak. You cannot store more mana until this reservoir is depleted. Mana to pay for spells come first from this reservoir. If you remove the cloak, the reservoir empties.
The cloak was a deep blue on the outside and pitch-black on the inside with a thick embroidered band of gold and silver running all along its brim. It had a flared neck that hid his nape and two clasps to tighten it over his collarbones. The fabric was thick and seemed very resistant. Running his hand over the cloak, he found metal wires underneath the layers of the fabric. It had pockets for some items in its inner seams.
Shifting his new goggles to enhance his low-light vision, he saw tiny starbursts scattered over the fabric. The cloak looked expensive and a bit gaudy but an Adventurer's gear was a mismatched jumble of whatever one could put their hands on anyway. He donned the cloak and checked his Attributes.
> Nero [Jester 0 / 0]
>
> Strength: +64 (+72 in a Dungeon)
>
> Vigor +95 (+103 in a Dungeon)
>
> Endurance +74 (Stamina: 99)
>
> Agility +61 (+68 in a Dungeon)
>
> Dexterity +87 (+94 in a Dungeon)
>
> Reason +88 (+100 in a Dungeon)
>
> Willpower +98 (+110 in a dungeon. Mana: 161)
>
> Perception +65 (+72 in a Dungeon)
>
> Charisma +53
>
> Dimensional Pouch Capacity: 334.4 cu.ft
The final effect from these upgrades was that the +2 bonus from his seedpod shifted to Strength, Agility, and Charisma, his three lowest Attributes now. Nero checked his new Attributes. His Reason increased by forty points, ten more than what prince Tyre wanted. His new items almost doubled his mana pool. And he could charge his cloak for more than half as much. Nero wished he could choose from which source he'd drain mana first but an extra reservoir or source of mana wasn't bad. For example, if he was retiring for the night low on mana, he could use the clock to get enough mana to pay for the shelter's upkeep.
He had little time left before his team entered the Dungeon. Nero reassembled his rifle, loaded ammunition, and summoned a good two hundred extra rounds, storing them in his dimensional pouch. The rest of his mana went to charge the cloak for sixty-eight points of extra mana. That bottomed-out his whole pool. Nero used [Card Trick] to recharge half of his mana pool, burning one white card.
It was time to hunt some monsters. Sentient or otherwise.