The group opted to spend several hours recovering from their harrowing battle with the spider and checked out their new digs before they pressed on.
The dungeoneering pouches were quite amazing. Not only did they allow them to carry around the huge piles of junk they were sure to come across, but they came with a change of clothes, and that was sorely needed.
Each of them received an initiate’s armor set suited for their class. For Calvin and Amy, this amounted to a leather vest, pants, bracers, boots, and a cloak. For Ian and Seth it was a set of cloth robes, pants, boots, and gloves and for Marshall, it was some sort of composite fiber breastplate, durable cloth tactical pants, leather tactical boots, and a nice pair of gloves.
The gear itself wasn’t all that fancy, it granted a total of three points in their primary stats and one point in their secondary stat. The real benefit, however, was the self-repair enchantment. The description on each of these items indicated that as long as 10% of the material remained, it would regenerate to its original form. This was huge. Not only were these items far more durable than what they currently had on and would likely provide much more protection from wounds, they wouldn’t have to keep repairing it.
They’d finished equipping their spiffy new gear and damn they looked good. They looked like real adventurers now. Calvin and Amy strongly resembled the ancient centurions of Earth. Especially Calvin as he stood proudly with his new Obsidian Spear. Ian and Seth looked like your standard caster class from any mainstream video game and Marshall was like a lightly armored riot cop, sans helmet. All in all, they looked ready to kick some dungeon ass.
Calvin guessed that he would be able to access Freya’s storage and experimented with that. He placed his hand on her collar and took a peek inside. Calvin didn’t know what he expected, but this wasn’t it. Inside, there was a veritable mountain of treats. Was the system screwing with them? Did their emotionless robo-boss actually have a sense of humor, or was this just common practice when integrating pets into their new reality? Regardless, Freya had earned those treats so Calvin wouldn’t begrudge her a little joy. She was showing remarkable restraint. Just a week ago, she would have eaten herself sick had she stumbled across such a valuable hoard. Beside the pile of ridiculousness was the real prize. It appeared to be a small, armored harness and some armored booties with some impressive-looking metallic claws. The utility of this gear far outweighed the absurdity of putting armor on his dog in Calvin’s eyes. This was great! With a mental flick of his wrist, Freya’s equipment plopped out on the ground right in front of the wagging pup.
“Let’s get you dressed.” Calvin said to the joyful Freya, as another treat sprang out of the ether.
In addition to their gear, they’d all received various potions of a low grade that restored HP, MP, and Stamina respectively. These sounded like a great asset to their group, especially when reflecting on their previous fight. They’d all been nearly tapped out on resources and had to struggle to close out the encounter. They’d still have to be mindful of their resources, as the descriptions on these potions did indicate that they would have a timer in effect, preventing them from granting more resources for a certain duration. It wasn’t clear how long that would be, but they would certainly experiment with that.
Seth’s pouch contained various useful crafting materials as well as a tablet of sorts. It was very futuristic in its design, essentially just a piece of glass with information displayed on it. This particular tablet contained instructions on creating a single, specific piece of gear. It was called a Kinetic Manipulator.
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This data slate contains the requisite instructions for a new artificer to create a low-quality utility item common to all artificers in system-integrated regions.
Kinetic Manipulator: This device is worn on the wrist and used only by the artificer class. It allows manipulation of the nanite fabric to channel kinetic energy into objects, moving them and potentially imparting them with a great kinetic force. The artificer can use this capability offensively, defensively, and to great utility outside of combat. This is a basic version of this category of item and is thus limited on the total mass it can affect and the force it can impart.
Now this was more like it. It was the first recipe Seth had acquired, as he hadn’t gained any detailed knowledge along with choosing his artificer class. He’d assumed he would have to experiment and learn new creations as he explored the world they were in. He checked the requirements of this particular craft, laid out the materials provided by his pouch, and began channeling his Nanite Foundry skill. Similar to when Marshall used Field Dress, a writhing mass of nanites flowed steadily from Seth’s hands, enveloped the materials, and began the process of reconstruction. Just moments later, a brand new, shiny Kinetic Manipulator sat before him.
He’d also had a chance to begin experimenting with the drone smithing kit. It was quite interesting in its functionality. He was able to pull up a display that showed various options for drones he could make. There were selections from different categories including offensive, defensive, and utility. Ultimately, he settled on a Minor Sentry Turret (Iron). To Seth’s dismay though, the box began whizzing, whirring, clanking, and ticking away, displaying a timer on the screen.
MANUFACTURE COMPLETES IN 11:59
Of course. Patience certainly was a virtue. He packed up his gear and tossed it into his subspace pouch, he was ready to go.
Now that they were all properly dressed in actual adventuring gear and accompanied by their newly armored dog, it was time to set about their business.
“Alright… we’ll take a vote, although I’m sure I can guess the answer. Do we want to take our loot and exit the dungeon? Keep in mind that It’s probably going to get a hell of a lot more dangerous the further we go.” Calvin asked.
Marshall’s face twisted in feigned horror. “There’s absolutely no way I’m leaving now. We’re almost getting our asses beat on the regular and I for one am sick of it. I vote we stick around and extract every last morsel of goodies from this place. Besides we still haven’t found any good solutions to that mess you’re growing on your face.”
The group was nodding unanimously as he spoke. Of course they were staying. It was just a little bit of light administrative work to make sure there weren’t any unwilling participants. With that, the group performed a cursory check of the surroundings to make sure there wasn’t some secret loot tunnel or something, which there wasn’t, and made their way back out into the open cavern.
The scenery was pretty much the same as before they went into the tunnel. Nothing really different about it at all, well… except for the giant purple crystal now illuminating the ceiling. Yeah, that was a new, big difference. On the roof of the cavern, they could now see that three crystals surrounded a large central crystal. One of the three smaller crystals was now radiating a bright light into the cavern. It seemed fairly obvious what was happening. They’d completed one of the dungeon’s side rooms, touched a purple crystal and now a purple crystal was lit up in the main passageway. The group guessed that the other crystals would light up accordingly. Marshall was at least 90% sure that when they lit up all three crystals, loot chests would rain down from the sky and shower them with riches. The remaining party members were not quite on board with that theory. Nevertheless, they had a concrete goal now. They would conquer the side rooms, light up the crystals, and deal with whatever happened next.
With determination and resolve they ambled down to the next ledge, two by two as tradition dictated. They were nothing if not consistent.
It was clear the system did not possess a lick of originality when they arrived. This wasn’t something they were going to say out loud, in case the system decided to take them up on their pointers. The ledge was essentially a carbon copy of the one before. The entrance to the tunnel yawned before them and continued a short way into the cavern wall before it curved away to obscure their vision of the room inside.