CJ looked to his right to find Monty standing next to him. The only real directions they could go in was straight toward the pedestal in front of them. As they got closer, they could see objects resting on the angled surface facing them. The spotlight above the pedestal revealed a Roman column shaft of ivory that led up to a slab of marble with a lip running along the lower end. The three items being presented were a crystal clear box with a thick ring inside, a piece of parchment wrapped around two ornate metal dowels, and a leather bound book emitting a blueish-white aura with the symbols of all four card suits adorning each corner.
“I thought the message said an item and a spell. What’s with the book?” asked CJ.
“Look at the rating being projected above the dais. You’ll find your answer there,” replied Monty in awe of everything he was seeing.
Dungeon Rating: S
For completing the hidden requirement “Assassinate the Assassin”, your rating was upgraded and so to your rewards.
Rank S: Successful item stolen, no alarm is raised, the queen must survive, assassinate the assassin. Rewards: Class specific item, a new spell, unlock Quest Pillar, rare class skill book.
“Oh, when we hit the slug with his own knife while he was choking. I get it. Let’s see what we got,” said CJ as he walked over to his rewards and picked up the transparent ring box.
New Item: Mana-Filament Thumb Ring- Rare / item. This thumb ring conceals a mana filament wire. When charged with a point of mana, this wire will glow faintly to the wielders vision. It can be used to cut any substance up to and including mundane steel. This enchanted item bypasses magical creature requirements.
“Why is it a thumb ring? Hey Monty, what are magical creature requirements?” asked CJ.
“Uh, it’s a little early for this but there will be monsters that can only be hurt by magic or enchanted weapons. Rubio could shoot at them all day and they wouldn’t feel a thing. Depending on the strength of the monster, you may have to use something higher up the Arcanum Tier to even dent them. This info is usually part of a dungeon boss’s description or something deep within a highly concentrated corruption zone. Just move on to the next thing. I want to get out of here, the darkness surrounding us is creepy,” answered Monty.
CJ placed the thumb ring on his right thumb. It was more bulbous than a ring normally was, it was silver on the outside with crisscrossing bands of white gold running through the middle. When CJ ran his finger around it, he felt a lip that he could pull on. He did so and the wire spooled out with an accompanying hiss sound. CJ was able to pull it his full arm length before it pulled taught. He could feel a coiled tug from inside the ring and when he let it go it zipped right back in like he released a tape measure.
“This is some close up garrote like shit. Only it’ll take your damn head off if I put some mana into it. Seems weird to give it to a magician. Doesn’t matter let’s check out this obvious spell scroll,” he said before unfurling the parchment.
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New Spell: Now you don’t- Uncommon/ Psychic. Cost 10 mana per minute, persistent. This spell allows your presence to slip between observers conscious and subconscious mind. Not a true invisibility spell, you are just ignored and assumed to have always been part of the background of their lives. Just like car alarms, furnace rumbles, and noisy crickets. Interacting with a person will break the spell and it will continually drain mana while active.
“Okay now that’s cool. This spell essentially lets me go unnoticed. Some kind of Psychic affect. Monty how is that different from magic again?” asked CJ realizing this spell may jump tiers of Arcanum.
“Psychic effects are tier two Arcanum. A little stronger than basic elemental magic. Their downside is that they don’t really work on creatures without a brain. So, slime creatures and golems will just shrug off the effects, to name a few. What’s the book man, the book?!” queried an annoyed Monty.
New Skill Book: Trick Cards- Rare/ Skill. Cost 1 mana/card, you can infuse playing cards with unaspected mana causing diamond and spade suits to slice or stab. While hearts and clubs crush or bash. Higher levels of this skill can infuse elements into the cards. Would you like to learn Trick Cards? Y/N
CJ chose yes. The ornate book in his hands broke apart into several multi-colored shafts of light before pouring into his eyes. Flashes of years perfecting his card tricks ran through his mind. He instinctively knew how many decks of cards he had on him in each of his various hidden pockets. He knew their suits and numbers without even touching them. Only now in his waking mind he knew that he could cut ropes with spade cards and hammer nails with the flick of a club card. The numbers indicated how much damage they could do, and the face cards were multiples of ten starting with the Jack at twenty. Typically, he’d remove the Joker cards to cut down on the number of cards necessary to keep track of and now he knew that was a mistake. Using this skill, the Joker cards would compound the damage from all other cards in a suit used from the same deck. That would be one hundred and forty five health damage to whatever he struck with it as long as he exhausted the whole suit from the deck.
CJ pondered how far he could throw a card now that he had stats. Throwing cards wasn’t about his strength since they had very little weight. It was more about fines. No sooner did he pull a deck out than he could feel the distance a throw would lose its efficacy. It was just a little shy of thirty yards. He could work with that. Then he considered that the cards were an exhaustible resources. He’d have to take a trip to the casinos at some point and stock up. Although most rest stops and gas stations near Atlantic City probably had their share of playing cards. He’d need to keep his eyes open.
“What was it ya knob?” asked Monty impatiently tapping his foot.
“Oh yea. I got a skill called Trick Cards. It’s really cool. Here I’ll share the details with you,” explained CJ before he looked Monty in the eye to share his screen.
“You’re right. You’ll be a blast at parties just like before. The spell you just got is where it’s at. I need you to… crap I can’t tell you. Let’s just get out of here,” commented Monty, looking a little disappointed by something.
“What can’t you tell me? It’s just us in here,” questioned CJ.
“It’s a bonded familiar thing you won’t understand yet. We should find the others. I think I was in here with you because of our bond. I suspect the others were stuck in here alone. Let’s go,” said Monty.
No sooner did he say that, than the podium in front of them slowly spun into the ground. The world around them dissolved into that kaleidoscope of colors CJ had seen when they entered the bolster dungeon.