Chapter 44

The item in question was a cloak. Yet when I tried to equip it, I couldn’t. The black and silver cloak, based on the image of the item I could see mentally, wouldn’t let me wear it at all. As I focused more on it, the reasoning became clear…and it was frustrating.

Called the Tower’s Embrace, the Cloak required me to have a Holy stat of 10. Additionally, it required I have an overall level of 15 to wear. Through the magic of the Tower’s Blessing, I could also see, in shimmering golden letters within my mind, that the cloak offered a few unique bonuses. First, wearing it would increase my Holy stat by 1, and my constitution by 1. Additionally, for each piece of the Tower’s set, whatever that was, that I wore, my MP would increase by 1MP per minute within the Tower. That last part, was crazy. It meant this Cloak would let the wearer recover their MP passively, without the need for potions or anything else. Something that would be invaluable, especially for magic Climbers.

“You look like someone shoved a fish in your mouth while you were sleeping.” Nyle’s words pulled me from my internal grumbling. I’d given so much in the donation, and yet I’d received something that I’d likely never use.

“Here,” I said sorely, as I mentally opened up a trade window with Nyle. “Consider it an apology.” I dumped the Cloak into the trade window and sent my confirmation through the magic immediately. The longer that Cloak sat in my inventory, the angrier I got. I had to take a deep breath to calm myself. I wanted new gear. And yet I constantly was getting snubbed. Another breath, at least I’d get Claw and Fang today.

“Really?” Nyle accepted with a confused look on his face. A moment later, during which I assumed he read what the Cloak was, that look changed. From surprise to disbelief to wonder to ‘I couldn’t possibly accept this’, all in the blink of an eye.

“I don’t know what type of path I’m going down,” I grumbled, “but my Holy stat is still at 1. That cloak is useless for me.”

“You could probably sell it for some coin,” Nyle offered, “or trade it for gear of your own?” I felt the tingling as he tried to initiate a trade. I shook my head and declined.

“I’d rather it goes to you,” I said stubbornly, “like Ryker said, we’re a team. And if you’re adamant about going down a magic path, I want you to have the tools you need. Who knows, maybe you’ll find something worthwhile that you can give to me,” I shrugged, “and if not, I’ll consider you healing me whenever I need it as repayment.”

“Deal,” Nyle grinned, and glanced back at the curtains. “How much did you donate anyways?”

I told him.

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“I gave them everything,” Nyle said afterwards. “Well, except for a cow, a chicken, and a pig. And my silver coin. But everything else I donated.”

“Did you get anything out of it?” I asked. Nyle’s eyes lit up and he nodded. A piece of paper appeared in his hand, and he held it out to me.

Holy Scroll of Restoration

Utilize this Scroll to learn the following spell:

Restoration

By the Tower’s Holy Light, cure target of 1 status ailment

Range- 15 feet

Required Stat

Holy- 5

MP Cost- 10

“Can you use that?” I asked as I handed it back to Nyle. I knew what status ailments were. There were a range of them we could be afflicted with, based on our training. Hans had been paralyzed, far as I could tell, when Roxy had hit him with her gorilla tranquilizer laced knives. Poison was the biggest ailment we were warned about in training, since it would slowly kill you unless you had a way to cure it, or you survived long enough for it to work its way out of your system. An, extremely unpleasant sounding situation, by all accounts.

“One more level,” Nyle replied as the scroll disappeared back into his inventory. “I’ve got my Arcane at 4, and my Holy at 4 right now.” He sighed, “had I known about the scroll, I could have put another in Holy instead of Arcane.” He looked at me, “based on the spell and my cloak though, I’ve a feeling I’m just going to level Holy to 11 next.”

“Not 10?” I asked.

“Ryker said hitting 11 in a stat is the first big boost, remember.”

I coughed; I’d forgotten for a moment. In my defense, my mind was still caught up on the luck of everyone in my team, but me. If Lyn had another piece of magical gear…

“Right, right,” I looked in the direction of the booth that Lyn had disappeared into. As if on cue, the curtain opened, and she walked out. She smiled at us and hurried over.

“All set?” I asked as she reached us. I wanted to get back to Ryker and head into the city. My hands were tingling, my patience quickly draining. I wanted new gear.

“Yup, dumped my stats into Dexterity like I said I was going to.” She looked at the two of us. “Did you guys get anything when you donated?”

“I got a cloak I can’t use, so I gave it to Nyle.”

“And I got a new spell I can use next level.” Nyle added.

“Lucky,” she sighed as we began heading towards the exit. “I donated all my goblin corpses but didn’t get anything in return.”

“Just your goblin corpses?” I asked. Granted, she’d had the most of all of us, considering the lethality of her bow on the weak, green skinned creatures. “Nothing else?”

“Should I have?” she asked, pausing, and glancing back. “I just didn’t want to donate too much.” She seemed to make up her mind and resumed walking towards the exit. “Ryker made it sound like it wouldn’t be all that worthwhile for us, and I figured I’d wait till I had more to give safely, before I made any big donations.”

She looked at me, “how much did you give them?”

I told her, and she let out a low whistle, before a smile crossed her face.

“Sounds like I made the right choice,” she practically skipped ahead of us as we left the Cathedral.

“Sounds like I made the right choice,” I grumbled in a mocking tone. Nyle shot me a look and laughed, as the two of us followed after her.

“Come on buddy,” Nyle patted me on the shoulder, “let’s get you your daggers before you bite anyone’s head off.”