[Elf Cannon]… Betrayed expectations.
I thought Aerion would shoot out of my inventory, ready to rain death upon whichever unsuspecting foe happened to be in her path.
I failed to account for two factors, however. One was the sheer force of Aerion’s momentum. Even as light as she was, she was a hell of a lot heavier than the swords I’d ejected until now.
That, and the fact that my inventory retrievals were impossible to halt partway, resulted in more power than I would have imagined.
[Launch] amplified that, turning what would have been an already deadly combination into something truly horrific.
Aerion didn’t just jump out. She rocketed, sending me sailing through the air before tumbling to a stop at the very end of our penthouse’s balcony, pulverizing the table that had the misfortune of being in my way.
The table… And the potato crisps.
I got to my feet, coughing and sputtering, and thanking my Vigor stat for keeping my neck from breaking.
“Well, that was… interesting,” I said, gazing forlornly at the crisps as I dusted myself off. After so long on tasteless rations, it felt like a crime to waste proper junk food.
“Indeed,” Aerion said, rubbing her head.
I realized I’d allowed my excitement to get the better of me. “Sorry! How, uh, how’d it feel?”
“About as you’d expect bonking your head to,” Aerion said with a smirk.
I rolled my eyes. “You know what I mean.”
“Not as bad, now that I know what to expect.”
“Great news,” I said. “Now we can practice lengthening the duration, if you’d like. The longer you can manage staying in there, the more tactics and strategies open up for us.”
“I don’t mind,” Aerion said, glancing at the destroyed table distractedly. “And, er, my apologies. I’d not meant to ram into you.”
“Oh no, that was my bad,” I said, scratching my neck. “Or rather, it was intentional. I wasn’t sure how far you’d fly when I activated [Launch], so I figured I’d aim you to fire at me. Figured it’d be a good way to gauge the destructive potential, too.”
“And you never thought to test [Launch] on some mundane item before using it on me?” Aerion asked with a raised eyebrow.
I blinked. That was a good point. I’d gotten so excited, I completely forgot to test it on a sword or something.
Witnessing my expression, Aerion giggled. “Well?” she asked. “Satisfied?”
“You kidding?” I replied with a grin. “That was far beyond anything I ever expected. If you activated [Reave] upon exiting? Or better yet, right before you entered so you’d have it active when you emerged? It’ll be death for anyone unfortunate enough to be on the other end.”
After her rank up to Emergence, [Reave] now boosted Aerion’ Dominion stat by a whopping 120 points on top of her base 63, making for a total of 183.
It was a poor strategy against hordes of monsters, but against powerful commanders and dungeon bosses?
Those Ice Commanders wouldn’t have stood a chance. Cyrus might have survived, but that guy was cheating. One thing was for sure. If I could’ve kept Aerion in there, our harrowing plan to take out the core might have been a lot easier.
Not to mention the slew of other applications, like launching Aerion over chasms or hard to reach places. If she carried rope, she could be my own very bridging vehicle.
I sniggered, which caused the sharp elf to narrow her eyes.
“You’re thinking something vile again, aren’t you?”
“My thoughts are as pure as the driven snow,” I lied, feeling pretty smug.
“Has anyone told you you’re a terrible liar?” Aerion asked.
I sighed. “All the time.”
Now that we knew this system was viable, I had Aerion go back inside to test the limit of what she was willing to put up with. It was unfortunate that she couldn’t signal me from within the inventory, so we agreed on a duration beforehand, followed by a break so that she could recover.
That left me with some downtime, and after we started a ten-minute test, I walked over to my bed and lay down, pulling up my status screen. Specifically, the ability description of my newfound power.
Armor Sets
Combine five unique armor pieces into a Set. Sets consume as much Essence as the item with the highest Essence cost.
Choose any one ability of any piece in the set. This ability retains its current level, and will now apply to the entire set. All other abilities will be lost. Stats of the constituent pieces will be reclaimed in one of two ways:
Option 1) All stats remain as-is, with no change.
Option 2) Allocate 70% of the total stats of the set to any attributes as you choose, while the remaining 30% will be permanently lost.
Pieces must be of similar quality and construction to be turned into a Set.
Sets available: 1
I looked over my Basecrest City Guard armor, agonizing over my decision. I’d thought about it on and off ever since selecting the option, but I felt like I was no closer to choosing. Both which option to take, and which ability to apply to the full set. I thought about the armor I might grab in Sinclair’s vault, Initializing each piece in hopes of gaining some kickass new ability.
But not only would that hog all of my spare Essence, if it didn’t pan out, I’d be left having to destroy that priceless armor. Not to mention I’d pick up [Epic] gear if I could, and I wouldn’t be able to Initialize that for some time. The thought of raiding the armor stores in town crossed my mind, but that ran the same risk of wasted Essence, money, and time.
No, I was sure I’d be allowed to create more sets in the near future. The half-rank upgrade was usually related to the rank up ability, so I didn’t worry. What I needed was power, and I needed it now.
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The abilities my various pieces currently boasted were my Gauntlets’ [Snap], at F - 6, which enhanced my speed, and [Hidden Dragon], on my Cuirass, at F - 3, which was supposed to make it harder to detect.
Taking [Hidden Dragon] to its logical conclusion, it would grant me Invisibility when fully leveled. That might sound like a no-brainer, but it wasn’t that simple. All of my Basecrest armor pieces were only [Uncommon], which meant both of those abilities would cap at E - 10, the maximum level in the Emergence tier.
Which meant I really couldn’t say whether [Hidden Dragon] would attain true invisibility, or just make me slightly harder to see. The former was absolutely lethal. The latter… merely somewhat nice to have.
It was why I didn’t even consider incorporating my old [Stainless Steel Gauntlets] into my Set. Even if the System considered them similar enough, their [Common] [Minor Heat Resist] ability just wasn’t worth considering.
[Snap], while far less exciting than invisibility, was useful at any level. Especially now that it would apply to my entire body. Superhuman speed would make me much more lethal than I currently was.
Especially if I min-maxed my stats. Because right now, they were spread out all over the place, with neither rhyme nor reason. Hell, between my helmet’s 14 points in Order and my Gauntlet’s 26, I had 40 points for an ability I still didn’t quite understand, and currently had little use for.
As if that weren’t bad enough, between my helmet and my boots, I had 30 more points in Passion.
70 points that were utterly worthless to me right now. 113 points in all, leaving me only 44 points in useful stats. If I took the penalty, I’d give up 34 points… But I would then have 79 points to assign freely to the stats as I saw fit.
I thought of the possibilities, and one immediately came to mind.
I saw myself flitting across the battlefield. Untouchable. Firing off attacks one after another, quicker than my enemies could react to. The perfect complement to Aerion’s brute strength. There to catch her and stash her away in my inventory when her Essence ran dry.
I’d agonized long enough. I chose [Snap], and took the option to redistribute my points.
Armor Set creation confirmed.
The status message appeared… And then something entirely unexpected happened. Something magical. It was only when my armor melted into liquid metal and reformed before my very eyes that I realized just how extensive this ability was. It didn’t just reclassify my armor! It physically turned it into something new. Something vastly different.
I whistled. More than the sum of its parts indeed. Optimized stats aside, its condition was now almost double what it had been individually. Not to mention the physical change.
I no longer wore disparate pieces of armor. I wore a suit, which wrapped around my body like a second skin.
In fact… How the hell did I get out of this thing?
The moment I thought that, the suit rippled open, starting from my chest and working its way up top my head and down to my legs, like Eskil had just reached in with his fingers and ripped it open.
When it was done, I simply stepped out, immediately losing all the benefits of the armor. That feeling always sucked.
The suit rippled closed again. I whistled as I walked around the thing. If I hadn’t just gotten out, I’d swear someone was in there. The suit stood upright, its arms at its side. If nothing else, it made for an incredibly cool display piece. I could imagine a half dozen of these things adorning my personal armory.
Or better yet, my Spatial Inventory.
I’d had enough of feeling weak, so I returned to the front of the suit and thought about entering. It rippled open just like before, except this time, I got to see the spectacle from the outside.
“Now that is pretty damn cool,” I muttered as the steel bent and reshaped itself in ways that ought to have been impossible.
I turned around and stepped back into the suit, which closed around me.
Nobody was around to see it, but I was grinning. “Call me Iron Man.”
----------------------------------------
Once I’d had my fun, entering and exiting, I turned to the System Messages I’d ignored until now.
Basecrest City Guard Helmet [Uncommon]
Basecrest City Guard Cuirass [Uncommon]
Basecrest City Guard Boots [Uncommon]
Basecrest City Guard Gauntlets [Uncommon]
…Have been combined to form the Armor Set: Basecrest City Guard Suit [Uncommon] Condition: 1000/1000
79 points reclaimed. How would you like to reassign stat points?
This suit would be fast and nimble. Grace would be its primary stat, with Vigor as a secondary. I already received 34 points to Dominion from Light of the Fearless, and so I wouldn’t bother to put much into that.
Granted, while my Basecrest armor had surprised me in the dexterity department, it was still full plate. Not exactly the most optimal for parkour and gymnastics. It felt a little odd to turn it into an agility-optimized suit, but then again, stats tended to make physical constraints like that meaningless. I bet I could put on solid stone and make it fast and agile with enough points to Grace.
After mulling it over for a minute, I made my decision. 65%, or 51 points, to Grace, 30%, or 24 points, to Vigor, and the remaining 4 points to Dominion.
This brought my Grace up from the previous 27 to 78, giving me over 50 points of headroom, and reduced my extreme Dominion overhead from 83 to 67, giving me 5 points to grow there. Vigor up from the previous 49 to 50, netting me only one new point, but I wasn’t worried about Vigor or Dominion. I could craft new jewelry and baubles that would undoubtedly boost those if needed.
Power wasn’t the point of this build. Speed was. At long last, my burning desire to align my stats for one specific purpose, had finally come true. With those absurd 78 points of Grace, coupled with [Snap], I’d be the fastest man alive.
Chuckling at my admittedly lame joke, I realized Aerion’s timer was up, and I brought her out of the inventory.
Aerion, true to form, sprang out, holding Aurora and ready to strike, before freezing, her arm outstretched awkwardly.
I looked at her with amusement. “No enemies here, Aerion.”
Aerion sheathed her blade and gave me a look of disgust. “Fine. See if I play along with your insane ideas next time. I mean, seriously, Greg… The first thing you think of with this new ability is stuffing me in that bizarre space?”
“I mean, it did say Living Weapons could now be stored, and right now, you’re the only one who qualifies as such…”
Aerion huffed. “Anyway, I think that’s about my limit for now. I might be able to go a bit longer if I had to, but it gets… weird, in there. Would you like to do another—”
“No,” I said, cutting her off and giving her a warm smile. “That’s plenty already. Thank you, Aerion. I mean it. You didn’t have to go along with any of this.”
Aerion shook her head absentmindedly, as if her mind was a million miles away. “It’s fine,” she said. “It’s… the least I could do. After I wronged you so horribly…”
My eyes narrowed. “Is that what this is about?” I said. “Aerion, I don’t hold that against you. You know that, right? You had every reason to believe I was Cosmo.”
“Even so,” she said, averting her eyes. “You blessed me with this incredible power. You saved my life countless times in Dominion’s Trial. You… gave me a future full of hope. One I wouldn’t have dared even dream of before. Suspicions or not, I should not have treated you that way, and while you may have forgiven me, I haven’t forgiven myself. I’m afraid you’ll just have to accept that.”
I sighed. For someone who was normally so mild-mannered, Aerion could get strangely obstinate at times. It was useless arguing with her when she got like this, so I let it go.
“I don’t like it, but I can kinda get it. I’d probably feel the same, in your shoes.”
Aerion rolled her eyes. “Y’know, I think I liked you better when you were on guard against those… what do you call them? Idiots?”
“Idioms,” I corrected with a chuckle.
“Right. Idioms. Anyway, what shall we do now?”
I grinned. “Now? Now, we have a decision to make,” I said as my suit rippled open in front of me. I casually stepped out. “I’d like you to be the one to do it. Do I initialize Aurora, your Soulkeeper pendant… or Rocky? I only have enough Essence for one.”
Aerion’s eyes bulged and her lips curled up into an amazed grin, but whether it was because of my words, my suit’s transformation, or my unbearably handsome good looks, it was genuinely tough to say.
Regardless, I didn’t need to see my reflection in her bright blue irises to know that I had the same exact smile on my face.