I could see Emma and Jacob's jaws drop, and for a moment, I feared they might actually hit the ground and stay there. Their eyes were fixed on the gingerbread house, standing proud and plump like a fairy-tale real estate agent's dream come true. Stella, meanwhile, wore an expression that combined the amusement of someone watching a dog chase its tail with the annoyance of someone realizing that said dog was their responsibility. Clearly, she was contemplating the utter absurdity of our candy-crafted situation.
"Before we enter our delectable abode," I declared, puffing out my chest in an attempt to add some gravitas to the situation, "there's something else I should check. That Shadowclaw that attacked you... perhaps there's a way to loot it."
Emma's confusion was visible, almost palpable. "Loot it? It's just a dead monster. What are we going to do, make it into stew?"
I couldn't help but chuckle at her culinary creativity. "That may be true," I replied, focusing my attention on the fallen Shadowclaw. "But in the game, monsters usually drop valuable items or materials. And since everything here seems to be working like a video game with life-threatening stakes and dessert-themed housing..."
“What game are you talking about?” Jacob asked, clear confusion on his face.
Stella answered for me. “The first thing you should know is that the person you see before you is not actually Blake but one of many forms he takes. He is from another world where he played a game in which he could choose who he wanted to be and then would somehow turn into that person to play this game. I don’t truly understand it all myself, but that's the best I can guess. He's able to make the abilities he used in his game work here because our world functions similarly to how his game functioned in his world.”
“That's a whole lot of crazy. I have no idea what you just said, but I guess we'll have to figure it out as we go along since we are now bound to you for life,” Jacob said in resignation.
I concentrated on the Shadowclaw, treating it as I would in Questcraft. After a few seconds of pretending to be in a deep, mystical trance, I felt something shift, and a small window appeared in my vision. It displayed a list of items that the Shadowclaw had on its person—Shadowclaw Claws, Shadowclaw Hide, and a mysterious pendant.
Blinking, I focused on "Loot All," and I summoned the items into reality. Emma and Jacob's eyes widened to saucer-like proportions, and even Stella looked like someone had just told her that tax season had been canceled.
"What are those?" Jacob asked, pointing at the claws and hide as if they were newly discovered species.
"They're crafting materials," I explained, picking them up and examining them as though I had any clue what I was doing. "We can use these to create armor or weapons, or perhaps a nice handbag for the discerning adventurer."
"And the pendant?" Stella asked, her eyes narrowing as she studied the small, ornate piece of jewelry, clearly not amused by my fashion commentary.
"I'm not sure," I admitted, handing it to her. "Maybe it's the Shadowclaw's fashion statement? Or perhaps it belonged to a previous victim?"
Stella took the pendant, her eyes glinting with recognition. "This is an amulet of Shadow’s Might. It's a really good accessory for anyone with a shadow class, such as myself or Emma."
"It was with the Shadowclaw's loot," I explained, still puzzled by the item's presence.
Stella pocketed the amulet. "We'll put a pin in this for now. Let's enjoy the shelter you've summoned. And by shelter, I mean a house made of cookies."
With that, we made our way toward the gingerbread house, taking care to avoid any stray licorice vines or candy cane pitfalls. I opened the door, and the sweet smell of gingerbread wafted out, momentarily turning my legs into jelly with hunger.
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Inside, the house was like Willy Wonka's fever dream. Furniture made of candy, walls adorned with frosting, and a carpet that looked suspiciously like chocolate fondue.
In the dining area, a long table was laid out with a full Christmas meal. There were even buff foods, which I explained would enhance our abilities for a short time. They were served next to what appeared to be gravy boats filled with health potions.
"Is this real?" Emma asked, reaching out to touch a candy cane chair, her voice trembling with a mix of awe and sugar-induced delirium.
"As real as a house made of gingerbread and a world where we kill monsters and find jewelry on them," I assured her, taking a seat. "These buff foods will give us temporary boosts to our stats. So let's dig in before our surroundings tempt me to eat the furniture."
We settled in, feasting on a Christmas meal that would make even Santa loosen his belt. The food was extraordinary, and the buff effects soon began to take hold, making us feel as though we'd been supercharged with festive spirit.
As we ate, our conversation ranged from training Emma and Jacob (which involved some hilariously bad demonstration on my part) to investigating the mysterious pendant and the proper technique for eating a chair made of peppermint.
We were content, united, and full of both food and determination. While the rest of the group continued to discuss our future plans, I pulled up my inventory to look at the icon for the Gingerbread House. Ten hours, eleven minutes remaining. That would desummon the house and start its twelve-hour cooldown. I began looking through the rest of my inventory, trying to see what I might have to make our lives easier in the future.
After being silent for several minutes, the rest of the group noticed and all began staring at me while I sifted through hundreds of inventory slots, trying to find something that would help them. Noticing the room had gone silent, I looked up and saw everyone's eyes focused on me. “What's up? Do I have mashed potatoes on my face? Pumpkin pie? Icing?” I asked, annoyed at being interrupted.
“What has you so deep in concentration? You haven’t said a word in nearly fifteen minutes. Is something wrong?” Stella inquired.
“I am just trying to go through my inventory and see if there's anything useful to any of you. Unfortunately, nearly everything I have is restricted by level. I have a dagger that would make Emma able to one-shot anything up to like level 70, but its level requirement is level 195. Anything heritage-based that I have is soulbound to me, and I can’t trade it to anyone else,” I said, annoyed.
Stella looked confused for a moment then said, “What is soulbound? I don’t think the level requirement would matter here. No weapons in this world have a level requirement, just stat requirements like a sword or hammer requiring so much strength to wield it because of its weight.”
“First of all, Soulbound means that an item is bound to my soul and cannot be traded. It is more powerful than a non-Soulbound item. I can use it, but nobody else can. They are useless to me because they scale with level, and I am already maxed out with all legendary equipment. I can try and pull out the items with level requirements and see if any of you can wield them, but I really don't see how it will be possible,” I explained, and pulled out an uncommon level 195 dagger with 95 agility and 85 stamina with armor penetration and 500-1230 base damage.
The whole group gaped at the dagger as if it were a national treasure. It was a trash drop I hadn't sent to my enchanter yet to disenchant, and they were looking at it like it was the most amazing weapon they had ever seen.
Emma slowly made her way over to the dagger and eased her hand over the hilt as if she were afraid it was going to bite her. When she placed her hand on the dagger, a jolt of power went through her, and her eyes lit up like she was receiving a massive amount of power from the dagger. Emma gasped like a fish out of water, her mouth opening and closing, trying to gain her composure, all the while unable to let go of the dagger as its power flowed into her. Finally, after about thirty seconds of her getting inundated with the power from the dagger, she slumped into her chair, dagger in hand. When her hand went limp, and the dagger began to plummet to the floor, it vanished, appearing in a sheath on her waist.
Jacob rushed over to his sister and asked her if she was ok. Emma replied “My stats just shot up so high. I have over 100 Agility and Stamina now! I got a notification when I tried to equip the dagger that said it would be soulbound to me once I equipped it and when I accepted that is when everything went crazy.”
“Well that certainly changes things. I will have to spend several days going through my inventories and seeing what I may or may not have that will help all three of you and even myself when I am not in my class forms.” I said thinking about the implications of what this meant for all the trash gear I had just laying around in my alts inventories waiting to be disenchanted or to send to new characters I created. This was going to be a serious cheat skill in this new world and I was the only one with the ability to do it.
As the night wore on, we retreated to our candy-themed rooms, which made choosing a bed much harder than it needed to be.