1284 EXP gained

Level Up!

Level Up!

Named Echo gained: ‘The Liar’.

Named Echoes Stored: [1/2]

Echoes Stored: [2/4]

The burned out eye sockets of Saleh’s corpse stared vacantly up at the stony ceiling. Thin trails of smoke snaked through the still air as his mouth was frozen open in a ragged final, desperate cry of pain for mercy. It was a gruesome sight, but a part of it pleased Nathan to look upon it.

Since their very first meeting, Saleh had been subtly influencing Nathan’s decisions. The touch had been so soft that it had been nearly imperceptible. Nearly. Looking back Nathan was surprised it took him so long to realize in the first place. Either that spoke to the skill with which Saleh wielded his ability, or, a more worrisome possibility, that Nathan wasn’t nearly as sharp as his blades.

He stowed the thought for now and looked up from the smoldering corpse to see the Lynx padding its way over to him, as well as Cleo. The female assassin had her hand to her temple as she slowly rounded the corner of the door and into the room.

“Fuck him for messing with our heads,” she muttered as she approached. Her eyes were brimming with scorn toward the corpse, as if she wanted to bring Saleh back to life just to kill him again.

“How did we not see it?”

“Like I said,” Cleo responded, finally tearing her eyes away from the corpse. “We’re no longer the biggest fish. We’ve been pulled from our pond and thrown into an ocean larger than we can imagine, with no idea what lurks in the water.” She turned sharply toward him, frowning. “You need to be more careful about who you trust. If he hadn’t pulled out that healing potion, we wouldn’t be standing here.”

Nathan chuckled as Cleo turned to walk away from him. She turned back, her frown shifting to a glare.

“What?” she snapped.

“It’s funny, is all.”

“What’s funny? This is serious, you old fool.”

“I know, I know,” Nathan cut her off, brushing a hand through the air as he finished his quiet laughter. “I’m just laughing at the absurdity of it all. Our whole world has been turned on its head. Everything’s changed. A few weeks ago you never would have told me to be more careful.”

Cleo rolled her eyes as she turned away again. “Well, keep your laughter to yourself. It’s giving me a headache.”

Nathan smiled. I guess not everything has changed.

After a time, the lynx dissipated, its energy rushing into Nathan and granting him the same bonuses and ability as all the others. He felt the familiar rush of speed from Moonlit Leap, but soon, that too faded.

The two assassins made their way toward the strange, pulsing statue, Nathan stepping over Saleh to get there. It felt no more powerful standing right beside it than it had nearer the doorway. The stony expression stared down at them as if disappointed. It caused Nathan’s skin to prickle in an unnatural and uncomfortable way. He didn’t like it.

“What are we supposed to do with it?” Nathan asked, walking a slow half-circle around the thing.

“I’m not sure, but I’m not kissing it,” Cleo said as she frowned hard at the statue. Had that been a joke?

“I think Saleh may have been telling the truth. This feels like the end of the dungeon.”

“Does that mean this is where we find the rewards? How’re we supposed to get them?”

Nathan reached forward to place a hand on the statue. “Well, let’s find out then, shall we?” Almost immediately, as his skin made contact with the stone, the pulsing of power increased tenfold.

The statue shuddered, filling the room with a potent energy like the air had become more solid. For a moment, it became difficult to breathe, and it wasn’t just Nathan, Cleo felt the same thing. Her hand went to her chest as the sudden surge of power pressed its way into her.

And then, with the sound of a cork popping from a bottle, the pressure released. The statue ceased its quaking as five different items, a paper scroll, and a whole pile of glowing blue stones clattered down to the ground before it.

Nathan knelt down, taking one of them into his hand. It was a silver, lightly glowing dagger, roughly twelve inches long, with a black leather wrapped handle and a strong sense of magnetic pressure coming firmly off of it. Testing its weight, Nathan found it to be perfectly balanced. He twirled it around several times, grinning wickedly to himself. He’d been needing a new weapon.

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A shimmering bit of text appeared over the dagger as he focused on its energy.

Item: Mistwalker’s Blade

Type: Dagger

Do not fear the fog beneath the moon, or the mists of the morning. They are your closest friend and greatest ally.

This curved dagger is extraordinarily light and perfectly balanced. While shrouded in natural or magical mist, the wielder of this blade is able to become one with the mist, moving and seeing as if it were a part of them.

Agility: +10

Luck: +1

Meld into mist, huh? That could come in handy. I may have to get that one mist ability I was offered earlier, Nathan thought as he stowed the blade into an empty scabbard at his belt – it fit surprisingly well inside, but he would still try and purchase a new scabbard once they were back in Aelsport.

“Found anything fun?” Nathan asked. “I got myself a shiny new dagger.” He patted the blade at his side.

“Actually,” Cleo said, marveling at a dark iron ring in the palm of her hand. “As much as I hate the idea of giving something to you…” She paused, sounding resigned. “This seems like it would be right up your alley.”

Cleo tossed the dark metal ring into the air and Nathan caught it with ease. It was surprisingly heavy for its size. He turned it over in his hands, inspecting the plain metal of the band and the simple symbol on one end of it. The symbol looked as if it had been crudely beaten in with a hammer and chisel, it wasn’t quite center and several of its lines cut noticeably deeper than others. It depicted a design of a simple longboat sailing on calm seas toward a distant sunset.

Nathan fitted the ring onto his finger. It was a bit loose, so he started pulling it– It shrunk to fit snugly on his right hand middle finger. A perfect fit.

“Well that’s neat,” he muttered to himself. “Although I probably should’ve seen what it does before putting it on. I doubt Cleo would kill me, but for all I know this could be a ring of testicular torsion or something.”

There was a pregnant pause as Nathan waited for a fiery pain to erupt within his nether region, but none such pain came. Letting out a sigh of genuine relief, he focused on the magical nature of the ring and soon saw several words appear.

Item: Ring of the Ashen Ship

Type: Ring

A soul always moves from one place to another. They never rest, they never die, they are always in motion. Whether they were once the highest of kings or the basest of bastards, all souls are pulled by the ferry.

The wearer of this ring regains a portion of their health upon slaying another Souled creature.

Endurance: +2

After reading, Nathan felt his throat parch, his skin go clammy as he looked toward Cleo. The woman was holding a shimmering purple metal bow and placing another ring onto her finger. She didn’t look suspicious, she wasn’t looking toward him at all. In fact, she looked rather… pleased. Something was wrong.

Why had she thought this ring was perfect for Nathan? Did she know about his class? About how he had gotten it? They were Soulchained, afterall, perhaps she had been there right after they had both died on earth and seen Nathan kill the Ferryman. No. No, that wouldn’t make sense. She’d either have said something earlier, or wouldn’t have done something so obvious as say this ring would be perfect for me. She doesn’t know. Besides, would it even be so bad if she did know?

Nathan swallowed nervously, but forced himself to relax. It was just a strange coincidence. And Cleo was right, this ring did appear perfect for him. Was it a coincidence that it had been in the dungeon, too?

“What do you have there?” Nathan asked, trying to take his mind off of his suspicions.

“A very interesting bow and ring,” Cleo replied flatly.

“Wow,” Nathan said, rolling his eyes. “That sure sounds interesting. What do they do, Cleo?”

The assassin worked her mouth, shooting an annoyed glare at Nathan. “Here, take a look for yourself.” Cleo stood up and crossed the room toward Nathan, handing both of the items to Nathan and then going back to the statue.

Item: Bow of Spider’s Thread

Type: Bow

Even the mightiest of foes are but flies to be caught within your web.

Any creature struck by an arrow from this bow is slowed an amount proportional to the damage done. Additionally, like a spider feeling the hopeless thrashes of a bug in its web, the wielder of this bow can feel the direction and movements of anyone affected by the slow ability of the bow.

Agility: +4

Intelligence: +3

The bow seemed quite impressive. Nearly as cool as the dagger Nathan had gotten.

Item: Six Eyes

Type: Ring

What is better than two eyes? Six. What is better than six eyes? Eight.

The wearer of this ring has the ability to summon a small spider friendly to them. While summoned, the wearer can choose to see through the spider’s eyes and hear through its ears, losing control of their own senses in the process.

What was up with all of the thematic items from the dungeon? Was this how all dungeons were? So far, Nathan had looked at four different items and two of them had been perfect for him – almost too perfect, as if they had been chosen with his class in mind – and the other two were both related to spiders. Spiders were obviously associated with Cleo, as she was just as creepy and gross as them.

Nathan handed Cleo’s bow and ring back to her and then picked up the fifth and final item. It was a simple metal cube. He turned it over in his hands but was unable to find anything remarkable about it. Six sides, all dark, burnished metal with sharp corners, no symbols or images etched into it. It didn’t even give off the telltale sign of magic that the other items did.

With a shrug, he shoved the thing into one of his coat pockets.

“Are you about ready to get out of here?” Nathan asked as he leaned down to Saleh’s corpse and started rifling through the man’s pockets. He made sure to take the magical pendant that had thrown him during the fight, and also found several healing potions and coins.

Cleo smiled greedily as she stuffed the paper scroll into one compartment of her bag and shoveled the glowing stones into another. “I can’t wait to see how much this stuff is worth when we get back to Aelsport.”

Her smile quickly faded as her eyes narrowed toward the door. She flipped her bag onto one shoulder and silently slid up against the door, peeking out. Nathan mirrored her movements and saw what had grabbed her attention. It would have been hard to miss.

Plodding sloppily through the chamber outside was a familiarly sloppy looking man. Nathan could practically smell the stink of wine on his breath already. Like an overgrown toddler that had been promised far too much sweets. Corvus.

Behind him must have been the entire population of the war camp that had been outside the dungeon.