Jonas could feel the difference when he crossed the Great Gilded Gate from Gatepost into London proper. There was something in the air that felt slightly different.
“It’s the weather”, he blurted suddenly.
“What?” Guss asked.
“Sorry. I just realized why London’s air feels different than Gatepost, besides the buildings. It’s just not exactly the same weather, even if it’s sunny today on both sides.”
Jonas realized that he had no idea what the weather in early March had been in London. He hadn’t been “outside” for weeks. His last foray outside of the Labyrinth had been to the War Office when Cowen had dragged him there to report on the Core situation.
Gatepost felt like autumn or spring, but London was definitively very chilly, even if there was no snow or frost to be seen across the Queen’s Gardens. The Great Gilded Gate acted as a buffer between the two. For some reason, it didn't bother Jonas when they crossed between various zones, but here it felt slightly off. Gatepost being considered a borough of London probably explained why he expected the two to be the same. It was illogical, but the sensation remained.
The team moved away from the Gate proper and gathered itself away from the main concourse used by supplies coming from the Labyrinth.
“So, where is this Somerset House?” Jonas asked.
“Along the Thames, not too far from the new Lambeth toll Bridge,” Jonathan replied.
“Uh? You’ve been there?” Alton asked, surprised that his friend knew that tidbit.
“No. But my old place wasn’t that far. They finished the place when I was a little kid, and I remember when they brought that newspaper office there,” he replied.
“I don’t understand why they make us go there. Why couldn’t we meet at the Archives in Gatepost, as usual?” Ira complained.
“I don’t know. I just got the note,” Jonas replied.
“The Royal Society is housed there,” Jonathan indicated.
“Ah. And the Archivists’ company was established by the Society,” Ira understood.
“You can probably ask Babbage, but I think that’s correct. The full name is Labyrinth Studies Archives, I think,” Jonas added.
“It’s been an interesting week,” Babbage said as the team entered the meeting room at the Royal Society.
“All those cores?” Jonas inquired.
“We try not to call them cores, now that we know the equipment location. Doing so would call attention on that; let’s avoid it,” Babbage replied.
“So, all of them are good artefacts,” Ira asked.
“Apparently following standard construction rules, but there have been oddities.”
“Which ones?”
“All of them have Presence, for instance. Well, all save for one in more than sixty catalogued so far.”
“Presence? Why?”
“No one has any idea. But the only one not to have this specific potential has a fun name. Maybe it’s meaningful,” Babbage said, passing out a booklet with a list of descriptors notes.
The Archivists were nothing if not thorough about anything from the Labyrinth, and the new type of equipment was obviously not an exception. Jonas quick look at the “core” inventory listed many dozens of items, a handful with special notes. The Presence-less one was highlighted mid-book.
Inert Dull Pumice Orb
Core
Artefact
Requires: Level 277
Provides: +2 Gauge Enemy rank, +2 Weak Point rank, STR+52, FOC+51, +650 health, +619 endurance, +614 aether, +601 mind, +6% fast travel/24 hour, +3% armour
“Wait, it has what? Fast travel per day?”
“Well, we’ve found quite a few new abilities on the left side of Professional's descriptors with all of these new Artefacts. That’s one.”
“How does it work?”
“It seems to work similarly to regeneration. Basically, you appear to accumulate 6% of a full Fast Travel charge every day. That one is seemingly independent of the actual moon or sun cycle, as suggested by the wording. Or the number of charges already in. So it speeds up the acquisition of charges quite a lot if you already have multiples.”
“Does it work…”
“On a so-called moonless zone? Almost certainly. One of the Archivists has a gate to Urgaster, which is how we could check it. The base Fast Travel there requires almost a year to recharge if you have zero left, but the location descriptor shows a progression based on the core’s 6% per day.”
“You said you had cores for us,” Laura asked.
“I did, didn’t I? We’re not that many Archivists, a dozen of us, so we had choices. But the number of under-levelled orbs below 100 isn’t large as I thought it would be. There’s actually two of them here that come from the Royal collection rather than our own stock.”
“Has it been hard to purchase?”
“Well, for those ones, no. His Royal Highness found quite amusing that he’d been sitting on such a treasure trove for years. I have no idea how fast Wellington is tracking the rest, though. We just get a copy of the descriptors when they find some, so that we may have a better general idea of how they work.”
Babbage pulled out a wooden Puppet from a desk, then five silk-wrapped spheres.
“We managed to assemble a set of cores for you, which should suit you all. The two defensive ones are for you to divide, although I’d suggest the Brass one for Sir Bennett since team defence doesn’t accumulate between different team members – only the highest total applies. You can use this Puppet to equip the cores.”
Checking a core’s properties was awkward since the only way was to move it into “position” as equipment through the properties of the Puppet container. Thankfully, someone – another Archivist, since it didn’t look like Babbage’s hand – had written a copy of the descriptors on a paper pinned on each silk wrap.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Jonas quickly sorted through the orbs, before handing them to the team as appropriate. Babbage was right. They might not be optimal cores, but each and every single one was a huge mass of bonuses, even if the skill ranks weren’t the best ones.
Spiral-Threaded Steel Orb
Core
Artefact
Requires: Level 64
Provides: +1 Parry rank, +1 Deflect Attention rank, FOC+16, CON+15, FOR+15, PRE+14, +201 endurance, +160 health, +1% regen, +4% end/STA
Gold-speckled Emerald Orb
Core
Artefact
Requires: Level 61
Provides: +1 Balance Health rank, +1 Aether Window rank, WIS+14, INT+14, PRE+13, +183 health, +168 mind, +167 aether, +1% healing, +1 aether/WIS
Black Glass Orb
Core
Artefact
Requires: Level 44
Provides: +1 Rock Spikes rank, +1 Asphyxiate rank, INT+15, DEX+12, PRE+11, CON+10, +178 health, +125 mind, +1% lightning damage, +1% ice damage, +5% levels
Green Granite Orb
Core
Artefact
Requires: Level 40
Provides: +1 Batter rank, +1 Expose rank, STR+11, CON+11, PRE+11, +163 health, +132 endurance, 131 aether, +0.4 end/STR, +3% end/STA
Brass Lined Orb
Core
Artefact
Requires: Level 39
Provides: +1 Anticipate rank, +1 Deflect Strike rank, CON+12, STA+12, AGI+10, PRE+10, +156 endurance, +120 health, +1% armour, +1% team defence
“Nothing for me,” Alton said.
“You already have a core, and they are in short supply. But don’t worry, we’ll have some small stuff to compensate for that lack,” Babbage said, picking a slightly elongated package also wrapped in silk.
Balanced Reinforced Iron Tantō
One-Handed
Heroic equipment
Requires: Level 95
Provides: 56 piercing damage (+14% DEX), STR+13, DEX+13, FOC+12, +177 health, +5% mind/FOR
“Wow. Now, that’s a dagger. But what’s a tantō?”
“It’s a dagger from Asia, I think. Couldn’t help you with artefacts. We do not have any to give except for the hidden cores, but we do have a small collection of heroic gear that collected dust, mainly because of nostalgia value.”
“It’s almost as good.”
“It has fewer potentials and vitals than an Artefact would have, but given that it’s an under-levelled heroic weapon very close to your level, it’s one of the best pieces you can have for some time.”
At that point, Jonas, transferring the core to his own equipment, had a shock.
“What is that… levels?”
“Ah. We’ve found three cores with that one, and it’s usually an extra boost, in addition to the others. Another weirdness from the cores. Noticed something on your descriptor?”
Jonas Mark Sims
Health: 1222/1222 (762)
Mind: 1094/1094 (730)
Endurance: 468/468
Aether: 2210/2210 (1902)
Effective level: 99 (94)
Level 22 Solid Aethershaper
Level 42 Aetherist
Level 30 Arcanist
Experience: 43435/52800
…
Defence rating: 120
25% faster levelling
1% regeneration
5% levels
15% elemental damage
2% fire damage
1% ice damage
1% lightning damage
“The level total isn’t… the same as the sum of the levels? Is that correct?”
“Yes. The effective levels seem to be what is checked for items. So, basically, you have an additional five levels to use for equipment. We’ve checked, by the way, and if you replace the core with something else, you also immediately lose the benefit of equipped gear.”
“So… it’s not very useful.”
“No. But it is such a weird thing to have, and that’s the first time we’ve seen this particular effect.”
“Makes you hope that there are items with Faster levelling effects,” Jonathan added.
“Those must be rare if they exist,” Babbage speculated.
Alton snorted, drawing attention from everyone.
“I think these would probably be worth killing for.”
Babbage laughed at the idea.
“Yes, but it is a Core. Unlike normal equipment, you can’t simply grab it from someone’s corpse. I mean, Cores are going to be slightly awkward when it comes to resurrecting people. You can remove every health or Constitution item from a fallen team member to reduce the Sacrifice cost, but the Core requires the Professional to actively use his Puppet to move it out of equipment.”
“You can’t use one…?” Jonas started to ask.
“No. You can use a Puppet on your own equipment, but not on anyone else’s. So Cores are immutables unless the Professional himself removes it.”
“Sounds like blackmail or torture material,” Alton said.
“You, Sir Raby, have a very twisted mind. I’m not sure I should congratulate you or berate you.”
“Thanks, Mr Babbage,” the Solid Gouger replied with a slightly mischievous smile.
“Thanks for gifting us those Cores,” Jonas said.
“Everyone involved considers that a good investment. Your team is providing us so many insights in the Labyrinth, and many that help – or will help at one point – everyone, so you deserve rewards. You could have kept everything secret to yourselves, but you did not,” Babbage replied.
“We were not the only ones involved in this,” Jonas countered.
“Maybe. But you are still the rising stars of the British Professional pool, and I am pretty sure you will find more of that. Like every quarter or so,” Babbage smiled.
Jonas laughed along with the rest of the team.
“I wish I could keep that rhythm. But it’s pure luck.”
“Luck is what the ignorant call when it can’t see why things happen. You are not lucky, Sir Sims. All of you are special. Never forget. God has marked you when you underwent that transformation for the Labyrinth. And I trust you will not waste those gifts.”
“He might call it an investment, I can recognize a bribe,” Alton commented as they exited the Royal Society rooms into the central court of the House.
“This is a bribe worth it, we got such a massive boost in Potentials,” Laura replied.
“I can understand why the Scouts were so excited,” Jonathan added.
“They already have slightly better gear than we have yet, but yes. One additional artefact is such a big deal,” Jonas confirmed.
“Just a heroic is good,” Alton said.
He kept his new dagger sheathed out of view, owing to being in London among mundanes, but it was obvious from his grin that he liked the upgrade. And his own core was in line with what the rest of them had gotten.
“Now what?” Guss asked.
Jonas threw a look at the sky. The weather was still mostly clear, and the afternoon wasn’t over by a large margin.
“Faire’s tomorrow, and there’s nothing special until then. Maybe some London trip? How often do we do that?” he said.
Jonas looked at the rest of the team. None of them looked like they had anything they looked for, though.
“Okay. I’ll check with the family, then,” Guss announced.
“Coming, nothing else to do anyway,” Laura added.
Ira threw his hands in the air, indicating his lack of plans. Seeing this, Jonas offered his own idea.
“Then check the docks? I hear they're starting a new, bigger Skyship there. And maybe a tavern before heading to Gatepost? Anyone?”
Neither Jonathan nor Alton had any plans either.
As they were headed toward the docks, Jonas wondered about the list he’d seen from Babbage. There had been a lot of orbs on that inventory, and they’d gotten mostly the lowest. Most of the orbs were in the 500 range, which made sense given the legends that Cowen said the British Professionals faced. But there were exceptions.
He wondered where that nearly 800 level Core came from. The Legend guarding such would be insane. He was years away from even thinking about it, though.
Clear Diamantine Orb
Core
Artefact
Requires: Level 791
Provides: +4 Aether Lock rank, +3 Pressure Burst rank, INT+228, PRE+220, CON+197, FOR+186, +2726 health, +2232 mind, +9% elemental damage, +6% team skill economy