Arthe had been repairing and purifying items for quite some time now, the majority of them were items not suitable for either him or Frith to use but there were a couple that would compliment their current gear quite well. He had finished with the normal items and was now moving on to the Ancient Equipment, first up was the Ancient breastplate of the Forsworn.

"Purify! Repair!"

You have purified and repaired an item, its properties have changed.

Ancient Breastplate of the Honorable Knight-Captain:

Durability: 150/150

Defense: 80

This breastplate belonged to a Captain of Numenor who was tricked into betrayal, both his armor and his soul have been redeemed.

Equip:

+30 STR

+20 END

+10 VIT

+5% to all resistances

Requirements:

Level 150

+100 STR

+50 VIT

must have either Neutral or Good alignment

Then came the Chainmail.

"Purify! Repair!"

You have purified and repaired an item, its properties have changed.

Chainmail Hauberk of Tactics:

Durability: 100/100

Defense: 60

This armor belonged to a strategist who was blinded by his own hubris and fell into evil. Both he and it have been redeemed.

Equip:

+100 Fame

+10% Attack speed

+20 AGI

+20 STR

+30% chance to deflect arrows

Requirements:

Level 150

Fame +400

AGI +50

STR +80

Arthe continued with his work and purified a set of Chainmail leg-guards, 2 pairs of boots and a set of shoulder-guards. Finally he came to the cloak and greaves that the named Death Knight had dropped.

"Purify! Repair!"

You have purified and repaired an item, its properties have changed.

The black cloak glowed brightly for a moment and when it stopped the cloak had gained a golden trim.

Cloak of the Unknown Paladin:

Durability: 50/50

Defense: 15

This cloaks origin is lost to time, judging by the design it once belonged to a paladin of Freya. How it came to be in the hands of a Death Knight is unknown, recently purified and repaired.

Equip:

+50 Faith

+20 VIT

+20 WIS

Requirements:

Paladin class

Level 120

+30 STR

+40 WIS

Greaves of the Nimble Warrior:

Durability: 120/120

Defense: 40

These Leg-guards belonged to an intrepid adventurer who fell at the hands of a Death Knight. Worn by the monster for many years they have recently been purified and repaired.

Equip:

+20 AGI

+20 STR

+15% movement speed

Reduces stamina usage on rough terrain.

Requirements:

Level 140

+60 STR

+70 VIT

+80 AGI

Arthe gave the purified items back to Frith to look at, then they began to divide the spoils. Arthe took the breastplate and the cloak as well as a Mana regeneration ring and shoulder-guards, plus a couple of the other items i.e. a bracelet and 1 of the pairs of boots. Frith claimed the chainmail gear as it was easier for her to wear that than plate armor and she also claimed the Nimble Warriors boots, on top of that she also had another set of boots and a ring of her own that increased maximum life. The junk items were divided equally and Arthe traded Frith's share of the ores for the stiletto he had found in the desk, he was going to start seriously focusing on raising his blacksmithing level because it wasn't everyday he picked up loot as good as this.

When they were done they had another quick look around the fort to see if they had missed anything and then they left. Unbeknownst to them they had missed a treasure more valuable than anything else there, a book of ancient magics that contained some of the most powerful spells of ancient times. It sat on a shelf in what used to be the Adjutants room gathering dust and it would be a long time before anyone came along to claim it.

Our adventurers knew nothing of this however and were happily heading westward towards the river so that Arthe could claim the Sword of the Justicar, as they traveled they were periodically stopping to hunt down and kill lone monsters for fun. This was probably not the right kind of behavior for a princess and a paladin to have but it kept them entertained, eventually however the word spread and creatures began to flee when they heard the duo coming.

After 2 days of walking Arthe and Frith finally came upon the river, it wasn't the clear blue they were expecting. The water was brown and full of muck and sludge, evidently something had happened upstream to poison the waters as there were dead fish floating on the surface. Arthe attempted to use purify on the water but the spell wasn't strong enough to clear more than a 2 meter gap and the river was flowing too fast for him to make it any larger, the pair had to resort to filling their canteens with the filthy water and having Arthe purify it there. Fortunately he gained a new skill out of it so it wasn't all bad.

New skill: Purify Nature

There are places in the world where nature has been corrupted and life struggles to flourish, this skill will allow you to cleanse those places. When you do you shall receive the blessings of nature, these blessing vary depending on what you cleanse.

Water: Mana regeneration is increased by 45% for 1 day

Earth: Life points are increased by 300 for 1 day

Plant Life: Experience gain is doubled for 1 day

Animal Life: Attack power and speed is increased by 50% for 1 day.

This skill cannot be increased, effects of blessings may increase depending on amount of corruption or danger of location.

Arthe and Frith resolved to head up river and find the source of the corruption once they had retrieved the Sword, with this decided they made their way downstream to find the cave. It took them another 2 days to get there, part of this delay was because there were numerous small caves along the riverbank that were occupied by small numbers of monsters and they had to clear out each one, when they finally arrived they realized that they needn't have bothered checking the other caves. This one had a door and a rusted plaque set into the entrance, when they cleaned the plaque up a bit it read This is the resting place of a sacred artifact, any person doing evil here will be punished accordingly.

The two looked at each other and then pushed against the door hard to open it, the locks had long rusted through and so the door opened fairly easily albeit noisily. The inside of the cave was musty and the air was stale, obviously no-one had been in here for a long time. However Arthe could sense a number of shadowy presences further into the cave and so he stopped Frith from rushing ahead, calling a light globe he cautiously proceeded into the cavern.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

As he got further in he could feel the strange presences more and more, beyond them he could feel a source of holy power that had to be the Sword. Eventually he and Frith came upon another door, this one was bound with iron and was in much better condition than the first. It took them a while to locate a hidden lever that opened it and when they did they were confronted by a harsh red glow.

The room beyond was filled with monsters sitting around campfires, forest trolls to be more specific, 8 of them. Frith cursed under her breath, she was aware that trolls were among the worst monsters around because of their ridiculous regeneration ability. Arthe on the other hand was focused on a small golden light emanating from an alcove at the far side of the room, the Sword!

He dropped his backpack and drew his sword, Frith hissed at him in warning but he ignored it. Arthe just waved to her to follow him and then walked straight up to the nearest troll and stabbed it in the head before it could react, now he wasn't stupid enough to think that had killed it so before removing his sword he cast the spell Holy Fire through it making the trolls head explode and its body burn.

Holy Fire Intermediate 7

Summons a purifying flame to chastise your enemies and sear their flesh, deals double damage to undead. Lasts 5 minutes.

Cost: 250 Mana

The spell continued to burn the trolls body until it was nothing but dust, it was then that the other trolls woke up and roared at Arthe. Unconcerned he charged at the next closest trolls and slashed them with his blade casting Holy Fire repeatedly as he did, without even stopping to check if they were dead he moved on to the next opponent and did the same thing. He was so quick that by the time the Frith had begun to finish off the first troll the other 6 were already aflame, the room was now occupied by 7 troll candles emitting white flames. Arthe gave his sword a quick wipe to remove the troll blood and then began to spam Targeted thrust on the trolls over and over, due to the flames on their bodies they could not regenerate fast enough to cope with his and Frith's attacks and very soon all of them had fallen. The entire battle had only taken 4 minutes and 46 seconds, if Arthe chose to post this online it would undoubtedly win the prize for shortest troll massacre ever.

With the trolls taken care of and Frith standing over their bodies in shock, Arthe headed for the alcove and the object that lay within.

He leaned in and retrieved the Sword from it's resting place, as he did so a message popped up in front of him.

"Ding"

You have found the Sword of Freya's Arbiter.

Faith increased by 100

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

Sword of Freya's Arbiter:

Durability: 200/200

Attack: 75~92

Holy Damage: 31~43

This Sword is said to have been presented to the last champion of Ancient Numenor by Freya herself. It cleaves through evil souls and empowers the wielder. This Sword grows more powerful as the user does.

Equip:

Soul Severing Weapon

+40 STR

+30 AGI

+ 200 Faith

+5% Attack power

+5% Attack speed

+1500 Fame

When equipped alongside Shield of Freya's Guardian effects are doubled.

[In effect]

Requirements:

Level 300 for displayed stats, stats decrease by 20% every 100 levels

Must have Faith stat generated

Faith+200

Honor+150

STR+100

Arthe admired the finish on the blade and the ornamentation on the hilt, he placed his old sword down on the floor and went to sheath the new one. The sword wouldn't fit in his scabbard it was then that he noticed that the alcove was still glowing with a pearly sheen, he reached inside once again and this time drew out a wondrous scabbard of tooled leather. The sheath was bright white and was embroidered with the fruit laden tree symbol near the top, it had gold chasing on the sides and gold fixtures at the top and the tip. Arthe removed his old scabbard and fastened on his new one, when he did his Guardian belt changed colour to match the sheath and both began to glow dimly with a soft golden light.

"Ding"

Belt has generated new properties.

Freya's Guardian Belt now glows in the presence of evil, when combating an evil monster the belt will decrease the monsters abilities. Evil creatures of a lower level than the wearer will suffer a reduction penalty of 25% across all stats and skills. When fighting stronger monsters than the wearer this penalty is reduced by 1% for every 2 levels difference.

Arthe read this message with wonder, he could no longer be caught unawares by monsters and even if by some miracle he was then the belt would inflict a penalty on the enemy anyway. By this point Frith had recovered her senses and had come over to have a look at the sword, when he showed it to her she whistled in admiration before handing it back.

"That is some sword, too bad you aren't level 300 so you can get the full effects. Still even with the 30% reduction that sword is epic for your level. Oh and by the way..."

Smack!!

You lose 25hp!

"Ow why did you just slap me round the face?" Arthe exclaimed holding his now burning cheek.

"For being a complete idiot and charging a group of trolls without any sort of plan or warning, and for scaring the crap out of me in the process. Freya knows why She chose you as a paladin you've got about as much sense as newborn Orc." Frith replied rubbing her palm, she hadn't meant to hit him quite so hard.

"Oh if that's the reason then okay, shall we leave."

"What you mean you knew it was a stupid, idiotic, dumb-ass thing to do and you did it anyway. I swear sometimes I think you'll be the death of me."

"Hey it worked didn't it!"

Arthe instantly knew this was the wrong thing to say, he ended up leaving the cave with a stab wound in the side and another slap mark on his face. In fact Frith continued to beat on him every time he tried to apologize for the next day and a half. Finally they reached the point where they had arrived at the river the first time and Arthe tried once more to apologize.

"Look I'm sorry alright, next time I'll tell you my plan in advance and request your approval in writing beforehand. Don't worry so much I'm not that easy to kill and I don't even know why you're so angry it's not like I saw you naked or anythi.... Crap!"

Smack, Slap, Slam, Bash, Kick!!!