Polymath Redux Annex
Chapter 5 – Achievement Unlocked!
Once the specific configurations of his abilities were understood, it had become a breeze for Mordred to descend from the peaks of death mountain. With a relieved sigh, he stared down at his own hands; these hands that were his yet unfamiliar- the hands of his avatar. “it still feels rather unbelievable,” he commented. He refocused his sights to the half-decimated mountain still burning and crumbling from the earlier chaos.
As for the culprit of this scene, Mordred turned to the deceased body of the large red lizard. Wine coloured ooze leaked from beneath it, unmoving and unbreathing. It was a scene he recently became familiar with. I did this… didn’t I?” those words and reality registered in his mind to form facts. A far cry from the normalcy he remembered. The avatar and player as one; this cognitive dissonance would most likely dissipate as he continued to adjust to his new body. That wasn’t the problem.
He raised his hands up to the dragon’s body and conjured a small but searing inferno. [Immolate]; it was about the size of a basketball and danced on the palm of his hands. With an unenthusiastic motion, Mordred hurled the ball at the target. Like dry cotton, the moment the ball of flames came into contact with the corpse, it caught flames with a bright fury. In a mere five minutes, the red dragon’s enormous body was made reduced to a few scorch marks on the floor and a pile of grey dust. For the first adversary of this world, it was only a bit of necessary respect.
With a sigh he decided to move on from the topic. If there one last positive thing about thing about this ordeal, it was the fact that it proved to be a good measure of strength. A red dragon was most likely not going to be one of the weaker races and thus served as a reliable benchmark for his capabilities against this world. “This ‘world’… yeah, it’s probably not Kans- Earth anymore.”
Aside from being lost in this forest, there was another problem that needed to be quickly answered. That was on if his other abilities were available to be accessed. While there were no reasons as to why that wouldn’t be the case, it was still a good idea to check. Though on the off chance his other abilities were sealed off from him, just the ones he had used prior were powerful enough to go by.
“Soft Landing, Blink, Assassinate and Shadow Spear… those are the skills I used,” he reminded himself.
If his situation was anything from like in the game, he would’ve merely had to press the ‘C’ button to bring up his character stats and ‘K’ for skills. “Of course, that doesn’t exist here,” he shook his head but since he knew his character stats off by heart, it wasn’t much of a problem. That he killed a red dragon was a testament he could retain all those stats. There had also been the problem with ‘inventory’, all his most valuable equipment and items were stored there. In-game it was only a matter of pressing the ‘I’ button, but Mordred could only sigh at the lack of directions.
“You’d think in these kinds of situations all I had to do was think about accessing my inventory and I’d be able to…” just as this thought crossed his mind, Mordred’s hand slipped into a vacant space in the air. For a moment, it seemed as though he had been amputated but the feeling of his hand was still intact.
“That scared me, but I think this may be the way to access my inventory. Hmm~ let’s see…” He dug around a little more to summon an item. With the power of thought alone he could feel the sensation of that object forming within his grasp. As he ejected his hands from the inventory space a small red gem carved with mysterious glyphs also came through. With unparalleled beauty in terms of gems, it exceeded to concept of ‘expensive’ and entered the realm of ‘priceless’. Mordred couldn’t help but stare with almost hypnotic intent.
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A faint melodic whisper could be heard from it. Unfortunately, even with his enhanced hearing and focus, he had been unable to determine what exactly those whispers were saying. That said, the soothing and melodic tone drew him. It may not have been entirely weird for him to have stood here eternally tuned in and half-dazed. Yet in the end his rational mind broke through as he returned to reality. “I suppose it’s better to check if my other equipment can be accessed as well. Should get this over with before sundown.”
The following few hours were spent summoning assorted items and equipment he remembered having in his possession back in the game. Doing this and seeing the items manifest in all their glory with physical form gave a rather mesmerizing sensation. It filled Mordred with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. These powerful items were all a result of his arduous work and dedication; they were all truly his.
On an additional note, he had tested a lot of his skill that could be test and found that they too were all accessible with minimal effort. The conclusion drawn from this was that it had been true that Mordred inherited everything from his game avatar- power and equipment. Although, now it’s come to this there were serious doubts in his mind whether he’d get the chance to use any of them. If that battle against the raid party was anything to go by, they were all far too powerful to be used at full capacity.
Once everything had been sorted he looked at the final object in his hand. The crimson gem he had taken out at the beginning. Within the game, a mechanic known as the ‘familiar system’ existed. It allowed players to permanently tame a special monster and used them as a partner in battle. The method to obtain these ‘familiars’ varied slightly between monsters; some required long and arduous questlines while others demanded vast amounts of dedication to hunt them down.
If a player succeeded in completing whatever requirements were necessary, they would obtain a unique item known as ‘insignia gem’. These gems came in assorted colours but all had the same function of summoning a special monster to be the player’s partner. Once they were awakened they would then be permanently bound to the player and could also be given a custom name. A limit existed; only one familiar per player at a time.
It was possible to keep more than one insignia but only one could be summoned at a time. Mordred inspected the red gem in his hand. This was known as the ‘Insignia of the Crimson Dragon Lord’. Even amongst rare and unique items this one stood far above the rest as the monster contained within was the coveted ‘Crimson Dragon Lord’, a boss-type monster that appeared at the game’s hardest raid dungeon, ‘Hellgate’.
A unique monster known to possess two separate forms, a ‘humanoid’ and ‘dragon’ form. Both served different functions, its humanoid form was more agile and swift- not unlike a player- and used primarily physical oriented combat. Its dragon form was far less mobile but had the ‘flight’ ability and used siege-type, large scale destructive magic.
What had made this item so specifically rare was the method to obtain it. It had been given out only as a prize in an event known as the ‘World PvP tournament’ organized by the game’s developers. Suffice it to say, the undisputed victor by a large margin was Mordred. Though he had held onto such a powerful item, there weren’t any real opportunities to use it. A dragon familiar on top of his already overpowered skills would have only been severe overkill.
That said, the situation was now different. While still confident he could survive in this place on his own, he had no allies to count on. Even if it was an A.I. controlled monster, it soothed his mind a little to know there could be at least one dependable ally in this world. “Guess it’d only be collecting dust if I let it rot away in my inventory.”