- 61 -

Drew woke slowly.

“Ughh, wow. I feel terrible.” Drew said.

He groggily rolled to stand up. He had slept on top of a canvas satchel, there was also a familiar large wooden chest nearby. It had an ornate lock and gilded bracings. It sat on a rough wooden floor made from weathered planks that had been worn down by countless feet.

What’s going on? I have never slept in late in my life. In either life. Except for that one time after Kyle’s wedding, but we got really drunk.

The morning air was crisp and laced with the scent of dust and leather.

Damien groaned and rolled over in his sleep. He was curled up on the floor in his heavy robes and a large coat. He was snuggled up with a large canvas bag and he had drooled on it in his sleep.

“What the heck happened last night?” Drew asked.

“Well I’ll be damned. Night watch wasn’t lying. The Gallows Bird can talk.” A soldier said from the other side of some wooden bars.

The man was decked out in heavy plate armor, covering his chest and arms and hands, he wore a full helm over his head and face with barely enough of a slit for Drew to see his eyes.

He carried a spear that was his height and half again as a tall with a cruel looking hook and spear tip. His gear was well maintained and showed signs of heavy use.

“Care to wake up your master over there? It’s an hour past breakfast and if he wants a warm meal then you better hurry before the kitchen closes.” The soldier said as he unlocked the holding cell door and swung it open.

“What happened?” Drew asked again. He took in his surroundings a little bit at a time.

The sun glinted down on them with midmorning intensity. He could see a courtyard beyond the bars and could hear men talking, their voices echoing in the large area.

He checked his logs and he was relieved to see that he wasn’t captured again.

“You two climbed over the garrison wall in the early hours, then proceeded to cause a general ruckus in front of the gatehouse. I w had complaints that your master should never sing the Beastly Maiden again.” The soldier said.

Oh man, it’s starting to come back to me. Ireal and her apprentices really like to drink. I’m never drinking with Blacksmiths again.

He got to work removing a couple debuffs with his Healer’s Blessing ability.

Debuff: Hungover: (4:37)

Debuff: Overtired: (3/8 hours)

“I’m not going to bird sit you all day. Wake him if he’s alive, or eat him if he’s dead. He can head over to that dining area straight ahead. You can’t miss it. Tables and canvas shades on poles near the kitchen.”

“Wait, what are the charges? When can we go?” Drew asked. “We have to leave the valley.”

Debuff: Hungover: (2:16)

“You are already out of the valley, you are in the Bloodstone Garrison. This is just our drunk tank, you are free to go anytime you sober up. And you are free to miss out on breakfast too.” He said and then marched off.

Oh man, I still feel terrible, what the heck happened, how much did we drink last night?

Drew dragged himself over to place a claw on Damien and swapped the target of his healing spell to the unconscious enchanter. After about 10 minutes the man started to sleep a little easier.

Debuff Removed: Hungover: 100 exp.

Drew switched the ability back to himself and tried to piece the events of last night back together.

-

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Drew had found Damien packing his bags when he arrived at the enchanters workshop.

“Wow Drew! You ranked up, Congratulations! I had no idea you were close yet.” Damien said.

He was loading up a chest with all sorts of books and journals. And materials that he thought they would need.

“Come over here I’ve got a gift for you.” Damien said.

He reached into a drawer and pulled out a small coin purse.

“This is a coin purse with spacial storage. I saw that you were completing quests and this is a very efficient and secure way to store coins. It collects and sorts your coins for you when you drop them inside.”

He handed the purse to Drew and continued his explanation.

“You put your blood here on the enchantment on the inside and then it only works for you.”

“Wow Damien this is great! I have so many coins they are filling up half the slots in my Gathering Ring.” Drew said as he took the purse and flew to a work bench.

“Of course, that’s why you weren’t using the talisman quiver for our trip to the tower.” Daminen clapped his hands once. “Wait you have a storage ring? Where did you get that?”

“I re-attached an adventurer’s arm a while back and he gave it to me.” Drew said.

“Wait, you have a healing ability? Once we are on the road we should go over your abilities and see if we can get your build sorted out.” Damien said, mostly to himself.

Drew used a carving tool and sliced open one of his talons to add his blood to the purse’s enchantment. It glowed green and then faded into a discrete silver line of spell script.

New Soul-bound Object: [Coin Purse I - Soulbound] - good quality. This purse can hold up to 1000 coins. It self sorts, and will provide you with an exact amount of coins when you reach inside.

“Ha! It works great!” Drew said. “How does this “Soul Bound” portion work?”

“Oh it’s quite simple once you have the core concept. Here let me show you the schematic.”

Damien brought out two leather portfolios. One was bound in black leather, the other in a warm shade of red. He opened up the red one and turned to the page for the Coin Purse, then flipped over to the schematic he had for a Gathering Ring. Both had variants for soul binding enchantments.

New Enchantment: [Coin Storage - Soul Bound]

New Enchantment: [Spatial Storage - Soul Bound]

Wisdom +1

“What’s great about both of these enchantments is that their capacity can be upgraded with experience since they are soul bound.” Damien said. “They are mana intensive to create and require high level materials and tools to create. And the base quality of the ring has to be of high enough quality to sustain the enchantment.”

“What really? Wait, I never bound my ring to me.” Drew said.

He unequipped the ring and looked inside to see that it held a similar script circle for him to press his blood into. There was some faded remnants of a bloody thumbprint in the script already.

“Wait Drew, what level-“ Damien didn’t have time to finish his question before Drew pressed his blood into the ring and re-equipped it.

New Soul-bound Object: [Gathering Ring I - Soulbound] Good Quality. This ring can hold 5 unique items. You may only store items that could fit in the palm of a hand.

In a burst of light, everything tumbled out of his storage ring. Stones, coins, throwing knives, and three kinds of potions spilled across the table. All that remained were his fishing rod, one stone, one health potion, one mana potion and one stamina potion.

“Oh crap!” Drew screeched.

“What? Where did you get all this stuff? So many coins? These are gold coins!” Damien shouted.

“I completed a few quests.” Drew said quickly. “Why did everything fall out of my ring?”

“When you bound it to you it reset to its base level. The person you got it from must have leveled it up a fair amount to be able to hold so much. There must be a hundred things here.” Damien said looking around at the mess.

Drew looked closer at his status sheet and could see a tool tip for both the coin purse and the storage ring. He selected the storage ring and was given the option to level it up.

Soul Bound Object Upgrade: [Gathering Ring] (2521/4000)

Soul Bound Object Upgrade: [Coin Purse] (2521/3000)

“Oh that sucks! I can’t afford to upgrade either of them yet but it’s going to be worth the experience to have more storage.” Drew said. “It used to told ten of any ten things! Now it just holds 5 unique things without stacking.”

“That’s unfortunate Drew, you will need to rank it up before it gets back to the same capacity.” Damien said. “At least now people cannot loot your ring unless you are dead. What you are able to store in there is very safe.”

“Yes well I guess I need to clear out all these coins.” Drew said and swept up the coins on the table before swooping down to the floor to sweep them into his new coin purse.

I’ve got 40 gold coins, 9 silver coins, and 9 copper coins. This purse holds plenty coins for now, I don’t need to level it up too urgently. Shit that hurts losing the carrying capacity of the leveled up ring.

“That’s quite the collection. If you need all those stones and potions then toss them into this Traveling satchel.” Damien said. “It can hold 100 kilos and make it weigh one kilo. But it won’t sort or organize any of it.”

Drew moved his fishing rod and 10 stones into the satchel, along with all the potions and all but one of the throwing knives, as well as all his unfinished combat talismans.

He kept a throwing dagger, the lightning wand, and one mana potion and one health potion in the storage ring for quick access.

“I won’t need all these stones, do you mind if I leave them in the shop?” Drew asked.

“Fine with me, I don’t expect to be back this way anyways. The next enchanter can throw them out.” Damien said.

“Well if you are all packed then take these books here, and these mana stones into that satchel. We can sell them in Valoria and clear out our reserves then.”

“Before we go we have to swing by Ireal’s smithy. I owe her for this Mantle and I hope to pick up the rest of my armor set.”

“Oh dear, this will be an interesting night.” Damien said.

“Why?” Drew asked.