Chapter 83 – Loot
Jack watched half a dozen notifications flash across his eyes as his vision slowly went black. A warm energy wrapped around his beaten and broken body, wrapping him in its warm embrace. It felt like the universe was giving him a hug. And then it felt like the universe was smothering him.
Then the universe unraveled him.
Jack’s heart beat fast and he tried to let loose a scream. He felt the very fabric of his being unspool itself like yarn until there was nothing left but his thoughts. He floated there deep in the black void of time and space, unraveled and exposed.
Then he felt it. The warm energy that had embraced him rebuilt him, became him. Jack felt his toes wiggling. He gave a testing flex to his hands. He worked his legs, cranked his neck, even clicked his tongue. Jack took a deep breath in, tasting the fresh air as his lungs rebuilt themselves. His vision slowly returned, and he found himself on his back, staring up at a perfect blue sky.
Jack looked down at his body. He was practically bursting out of his clothes as he pushed up off the ground and gave a few slow, tentative test moves. He looked different now. Stat improvements had a way of passively reshaping the body. This, however… He wasn’t quite sure if he could put his finger on what was different now. He was definitely larger in size, as was evidence that he was breaking out of his clothes. His muscles were far more defined as he gave several test flexes of his arms. He jumped up and down a few times, even.
Jack stared at his hands, chewing on his tongue, trying to pinpoint the feeling. He felt different, but he also felt completely the same in that the system had likely uploaded information on how to function in his ‘new body’. It was like the Tower had remade him, building him in the image of perfect human efficiency. He felt like he could summon his full strength, his full speed so much faster. He felt efficient. His muscles were tight and lean, but still covered every inch of his body. The Tower had perfected him in ways he couldn’t quite comprehend, but he could feel. It was going to take lots of testing for him to figure out just what he was capable of now.
Another change he noticed were his mana channels. He had always thought they were something more related to the soul, but apparently a racial upgrade improved them as well. They felt not only a little bit sturdier, but the pathways were better defined, and even a little bigger.
Jack kept inspecting his body and jumping around like a maniac, throwing test jabs into the air and doing the occasional backflip.
“Ahem.” Came a loud cough from his side. Jack jumped ten feet in the air, completely forgetting he wasn’t alone. He spun around and looked at Hannah. She had a disgusted look on her face as she stared Jack up and down.
“What? Am I hideous now? Did It change my face?”
“Yea…” was Hannah’s only response as she squinted at Jack, her face contorting into a deeper frown.
“Shit. Do you have a mirror? I need a mirror. Do I have some sort of disfigurement? Are upgraded humans really monsters?” Jack asked, hands feeling around his face and jaw, inspecting for anything out of the ordinary.
“It’s not that…” Hannah trailed off again, still staring at Jack.
“What the hell is it then?”
“I’m not sure how to put it… You’re so handsome now that it’s actually pissing me off.” Hannah said, crossing her arms and fixing Jack with a stare somewhere between confused and annoyed.
“So, you think I’m handsome now, eh?” Jack said, wiggling his eyebrows and flashing Hannah his most charming smile. His tongue traced his teeth in his mouth. Do I have more teeth now? He thought to himself, counting them down with the tip of his tongue.
“It’s like… It’s making me want to punch you in the face.” Hannah said.
“Huh. Well, how about we don’t do that. My face is all I’ve got. It’s the moneymaker.” Jack smirked. “So what upgrade did you get?”
Hannah just grinned at him, leveling her hand in the air and venting her mana out into the field.
Jack’s eyes went wide as he watched a stream of flaming orange liquid shoot out of her palm, igniting everything it touched in a dangerous flame that burned pitch black smoke.
“Is that-“
“Napalm.” Hannah smirked.
“Your Explosive Core upgraded to a Napalm Core?” Jack asked, eyes still wide as he stared at the growing flames, his mind racing through the possibilities.
“Core got randomly selected. Practically doubled the size of my core and gave me three more ability slots. I think it improved my channels as well.” She said, eyes glazing over as she looked inward towards her soul.
“You're like one more core upgraded away from being a walking war crime.” Jack nodded. Hannah ignored him, eyes still glazed over as she inspected what was likely her stat screen.
Jack grinned and did the same. The race upgrade wasn’t his only upgrade. He pulled up his status menu.
Statistics / Quests / Tower Store / Achievements / Blessings
Name: Jack Atlas
Race: Human Ascendent [Rare]
Floor: 1st Floor
Level: 13
Class: Hitman [Rare] [+1 Str +3 Dex +1 Foc per level]
Core Type: [Modified Lightning Mana Core] [Uncommon]
----------------------------------------
Stats —
Strength: 20 - [Apprentice-High]
Endurance: 12 (1) - [Adept-Intermediate]
Vitality: 10 (2) - [Novice-High]
Dexterity: 63 – [Adept - Low]
Focus: 20 - [Apprentice-Intermediate]
Willpower: 3 - [Adept-Intermediate]
Free Skill Points: 37
Achievement Points [AP]: 5,212,500
----------------------------------------
Abilities [2/5] —
Lightning Centipedes Bite [Uncommon, Novice - Low]
Storm Step [Rare, Novice - Low]
----------------------------------------
Passives —
Multiverse Common Tongue [Non-Upgradable]
Storm Stance of the Lightning Centipede [Rare, Adept - Low]
Sneak [Uncommon, Novice-Low]
Mana Condenser [Rare] [Incomplete]
Jack went over his stats with an extremely satisfied smile. He’d come into the dungeon at level seven, and stayed level seven for pretty much the entirety of the time he was in here. After all the shit he went through, he practically doubled his levels, earning six from completing the dungeon. He was very literally twice as strong. He felt his heart racing and his smile turn menacing as he ran through the possibilities of what he was capable of. He was going to cause so much fucking havoc in the Tower now.
There was an oddity however. Jack narrowed in on his skill points. He had way too many. He had gotten five a piece from killing Onem and Gurthok, plus another five for the quest, netting him 15 points. Jack squinted in confusion as he tried to figure out where the other twenty-two came from. He focused on the only thing that had changed aside from his stat points. His race.
Human Ascendent
Race – Rare
Racial Bonus: 4 Skill Points Per Level.
You have ascended one step closer to the realms of immortality. Your body has been rebuilt to meet the demands of an increased lifespan and increased mana levels as you ascend the Tower.
Huh. Jack mused with a smile. Looks like instead of two points per level, he was earning four now. He technically killed Gurthok and gained a level before his race upgrade, so that explained the 2 straggler points. The Tower was nice enough to hold off on the rest of his levels until after his race upgrade, leaving him with twenty. He grinned, excited at the world of possibilities that opened up with all his free points.
[System Warning: Dungeon Closing in 72hrs.]
Jack looked at the message, and then over at Hannah. He had completely forgotten that he was still in a dungeon for a second there. Then he quickly remembered he was in the middle of an ongoing war. He glanced around in a panicked frenzy, feeling at his side for daggers which were no longer there, likely somewhere on the ground.
It didn’t matter, though. Whatever draugr did remain after the clash between the bosses were just standing there, unmoving. Jack glanced up at the skies. The Valkyries and screechers alike were just hovering in the air.
One by one, any unit that remained alive disappeared. Jack watched as they broke down into an ethereal energy and faded upwards into the sky. He looked around. Several corpses were still on the ground. Draugr they had killed. His eyes fell to Gurthok’s remains. They began to fade out like everything else. Jack watched as a red key appeared in the air and dropped on the ground next two a pair of axes. Gurthok’s Axes. Both he and Hannah walked towards the corpse and stared down at the two items.
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“Pick it up.” She smirked.
Jack reached down and grabbed the key. A notification and a quest popped up the second he touched it.
Key of the Hero, Gurthok the Berserker
Type: Key
Tier: Rare
Unlocks the sixth seal to the Dungeon of Xinnolath
Quest: The Dungeon of Xinnolath
Quest Tier: Secret
Quest Sponsor: The Tower
Not even the seven powerful heroes stood a chance at defeating the foul demon Xinnolath. Instead, they trapped him, locking him away and damning him to a life of eternal suffering. The keys have been hidden until the time comes that new heroes arise who are capable of ridding the world of this dark stain.
Objective:
Unlock the Dungeon of Xinnolath
Reward:
N/A
“Ughh… I forgot this was the reason we came here in the first place. Also, this quest is setting off literally every warning bell in my body. Some shit’s going to happen if we pop this bad boy open. I think I’m done with dungeons. Someone else can take my place.” Jack said matter of fact, accepting the quest and closing the notifications.
“We probably could get a decent price for the keys, but I think Sammy will kill us both if we sell them. Besides, I want the epic class you get for completing it.” Hannah said, bending down and inspecting one of Gurthok’s axes.
“Which is all but an unconfirmed rumor…” Jack said, picking up the second axe and inspecting it. They were simple axes, white wooden handles and slate gray axe heads sharpened to a deadly point. They had worn leather wrappings around the handles. Jack inspected them.
Hatchets of the Berserker King
Type: Weapon
Tier: Rare
Enchantment Slots: 4/4
[Pursuit - Natural Enchant]
Designate a target and throw, this weapon will chase after them. The enchanted weapon will follow after any target for as long as you can maintain the cost of mana.The pursuit speed scales with mana provided. This item can be recalled to the thrower at any time.
[+3 Sharpness - 3 Slots]
Greatly increases the weapons sharpness, creating a slight aura around the weapon.
[Self Repair - 1 Slot]
As long as 50% of the item remains, it will pull on surrounding mana to repair any damage.
The favored weapon of Gurthok. You can run, but you can’t escape.
“Pretty basic. I was expecting them to have some sort of secret ability or something.” Hannah said.
“I think Gurthok was a pretty simple guy. Didn’t strike me as the type to have overly complicated weapons. I’m pretty sure he wanted all the credit for killing his targets, not because he had some fancy new weapon. Speaking of which. Let me see the bow.”
Hannah grinned at him, pulling out the enormous crystal bow from her void sack. The thing radiated with a prismatic sheen as the light bounced off its thousands of facets. Jack gave it an inspection.
The Queen’s Crystal Heart
Type: Weapon
Tier: Rare
Enchantment Slots: 4/4
[Crystallization - Natural Enchant]
This weapon will encase any abilities in a deadly prismatic crystal, improving piercing efficiency as well as creating deadly shrapnel when the crystal cracks. Should the weapon itself be destroyed, it can be regrown from any of the remaining crystal fragments.
[Lesser Duplication - 3 Slots]
Duplicates any attack used by the bow to a lesser degree.
[Magic Arrow - 1 Slot]
Create an arrow from the user's mana.
This bow is made from branches cut down from the Prismatic Tree of Reflection by King Gurthok, fashioned into a bow as a wedding gift for his queen eternal.
“Nice. Crystal thing seems weird, though.”
“I know. It’s going to take some testing to figure out what the hell it actually does. I’m not so sure how covering my spells in crystals will help.”
“Queen seemed to do some pretty cool shit with it.” Jack shrugged. He looked around, scanning the battlefield. Lots of pieces of armor and assortment of weapons remained, leftovers after the draugr corpses were dematerialized, or whatever the hell the Tower did to them. He spotted what he was looking for at the epicenter of his storm step. To his surprise, the headless corpse of Onem still remained.
He glanced to the side of Onem’s body at a fragment of his black staff. Jack inspected it.
Battlestaff of the Shadowmancer
Type: Weapon
Tier: Junk
Enchantment Slots: N/A
[Broken]
This item has been broken beyond repair.
Maybe you should be more careful…
He grimaced at the notification. That was the one drawback of his abilities. He had the problem of destroying any salvageable equipment.
Jack gave Onem’s corpse another inspection, staring at the all black breast plate that covered the remains of his scorched body. Jack unclasped it and pulled it off.
[Warning: You are about to remove a Soul Bound item, doing so will revert the item back to its original status.]
Jack dropped the chest armor and squinted at it. He gave it an inspection before pulling it off.
Living Shadow Armor
Type: Soul Bound Armor
Tier: Rare
Enchantment Slots: 4/4
[Living Armor - Natural Enchant]
Sentient armor that works in tandem with the user to adapt to its needs.
[Growth - 4 Slots]
Feed this item to make it grow stronger…
A shadow harvested from a mimic, bound to armor, and given life.
Well that’s all wildly unhelpful information, Jack mused.
He pulled off the armor again, the same warning message flashed in front of him, followed by a new one.
[Do you wish to bind this item to your soul? Y/N]
Jack selected yes.
He pulled it off Onem’s corpse completely and watched in horror as the rare item devolved.
Living Shadow Armor
Type: Soul Bound Armor
Tier: Common
Enchantment Slots: 1/1
[Living Armor - Natural Enchant]
Sentient armor that works in tandem with the user to adapt to its needs.
[Growth - 1 Slot]
Feed this item to make it grow stronger…
A shadow harvested from a mimic, bound to armor, and given life.
It still had all the same enchants on it, but it had devolved to common. Jack wondered how that was even possible. Not only that, but the sleek black breastplate turned into a black blob that was… it was stuck to his hand. Jack grimaced at the angulating blob of black energy and shook his hand wildly.
“Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff.” He said, shaking his arm harder and harder. It felt like the thing was latching on tighter the more he tried to get rid of it.
“What the hell did you do?” Hannah asked.
Jack shoved his black shadow goop covered hand into his void sack and tried to put the item in there. He pulled his hand out and frowned, the shadow still covering his hand.
“Want me to try burning it off?” Hannah asked after giving it an inspection of her own. Flaming orange liquid pooled up out of her hand and splashed to the ground below.
“Careful with that shit.” Jack muttered as a bit of her napalm mana splashed onto him and burned straight through his clothes, causing him to wince in pain.
Jack cocked back his arms and flung it as hard as he could. The black blob went flying, rolling across the ground and hitting a bracer. They both watched as the glob of black shadow energy wrapped itself around the bracer… eating it? Jack wondered, squinting at the thing. Once it finished consuming the armor piece, it crawled back over to Jack. He grimaced as the creepy thing slid up his leg and back to his forearm, where it transformed into the same bracer it just ate.
“Well, that’s interesting…” Hannah said, poking it. “Doesn’t seem like very good armor, though. Maybe it needs more material or something?”
What transpired next was Jack and Hannah walking around the battlefield feeding bits and pieces of armor to the blob. Some it readily accepted, others it flat out refused. It seemed like it didn’t want anything that was too damaged. After about 10 more sets of bracers, the blob had enough, and Jack let out a satisfied smile as it took the shape of a bracer again. This time it was the real deal though, feeling like a solid piece of armor.
“So if we give it enough of the same types of armor, it’s able to become that thing,” Hannah said with a contemplative look. “Can you make it more than just a bracer? We gave it half a dozen types.”
Jack tried giving the blobs commands. Sometimes it worked. After a fair amount of poking and prodding, it would change into a pauldron, or a thigh guard, or even a greave. What it refused to do was be more than one piece of armor at once.
“Well, this is good if anyone attacks my left wrist, I guess,” Jack said, staring at the bracer.
“You said Onem had it at rare? That seemed to give him a full suit of armor. Maybe you can do the same thing? Feed it better armor maybe? It says feed it to make it grow.”
Jack nodded at that, unstrapping the breastplate, his only piece of rare armor.
Shadow Raiders Leather Chest Piece
Type: Armor
Tier: Rare
Enchantment Slots: 3/4
[Pathetic Vitality] - 1 Slot
+2 Vitality
[Pathetic Endurance] - 1 Slot
+2 Endurance
[Self Repair - 1 Slot]
As long as 50% of the item remains, it will pull on surrounding mana to repair any damage.
The black armor of a Shadow Raider gnoll.
He handed it over to the blob, which hungrily devoured it, and then immediately went still, morphing back into a bracer.
“Ya know. Maybe you should have found a replacement before feeding your one rare piece of armor to that thing.” Hannah mused.
“Who cares? I’m rich now. I can buy all the armor I want.” Jack smirked.
Hannah smiled back at him, the same knowing look in her eye. She was likely just as rich. Between the bosses, the quests, and god knows how many draugr they killed during the war, Jack had over five million AP. He had already decided he was going to buy every single thing in the Tower Store. Or maybe a bar. Time would tell.
“So, what now? Ready to get out of here?” Jack asked.
“First, we’re going to steal everything inside the castle that isn’t nailed down.” Hannah said with a nod towards Gurthoks castle.
Jack just grinned.
“Remember when he said he had a cellar full of mead? Dibs on that.” Jack grinned. Hannah rolled her eyes and stood up, walking towards Gurthok’s castle. Jack chased after her, a smile on his face.
They were finally free.