Sitting down to rest, I pulled the egg into my lap to check on it. There appeared to be nothing wrong with it. No chips, no cracks, not even a scratch. That was a huge relief. It must be a lot tougher than I am used to eggs being. Letting out a sigh, I relaxed a bit more. Still covered in purple and black spider juices, I really didn't really have a way to clean it off right now. Taking out one of the water skins and some jerky from the bag of holding, I munched on some of the jerky and took drinks of the water. The jerky had an odd tangy flavor to it, whether that was from the meat or from the spices I had no idea, but the water was nice and refreshing. Feeling better I looked around the chamber. There didn't seem to be any signs of danger or more spiders, the webbing had all but burned up out of the room now, so I decided to take a look at my notifications that were still blinking at me on the right side of my vision. Pulling them up, I started to read over them one by one.
Congratulations!
Skill Unlocked: Swords
You can use Swords with some effectiveness. Train with these weapons to upgrade this skill.
Skill level: 1
Skill Rank: Beginner
XP Notification:
For killing 75 spiderlings you have been awarded a total of 1500 XP
Well, that wasn't a lot of XP, but they were pretty easy to kill. I shouldn't complain about it and just be thankful that they were worth twenty XP each.
XP Notification:
For killing 1 Brood Mother Spider you have been awarded a total of 5000 XP
Now that was more like it! The next notification was also a welcome update.
Level Up!
You have earned enough XP to advance to the next level. You are now level 5! Continue to work hard and push yourself to gain more XP to continue to level up. As a human, you now have 10 attribute points to distribute as you see fit.
I skipped straight from level three to level five! This is AWESOME! There was also a new notification waiting for me now that I hit level five.
Congratulations on reaching level 5:
Now that you have reached level 5 you have access to your skill tree for your class. This does not unlock until level 5 due to the fact that it was deemed necessary to learn more about the other facets of your existence before you began choosing skills. Your Skill tree will be specific to your class. Choose wisely. You will gain 2 skill points per level and this will be given retroactively for your other level gains as well. You currently have 8 skill points to use in your skill tree.
Getting the points retroactively was a huge boon. That meant I had something to work with right off the bat.
"I guess I should look at the skills to see what I'm up against."
Opening the skills page was as simple as thinking Skills and I noticed it was just a new tab on my character sheet that I normally looked at. It was at the top like tabs in a browser, but unlike the character sheet which was set up similar to a tabletop game with info in nice columns and rows in boxes, the skill tab was more of a tree form. It was laid out similarly to others I had seen before, looking like a tree with branching patterns where I could only see the items that were on the first level so far. At the top of the page, it said: "Dragonrider Skill Tree" and each of the skills were in circles that were grey right now with grey lines leading off toward hidden options. It looked like I had four main options right now in the first tier, but from the way it appeared to be laid out, it moved out from the first tier, and the options became more numerous as you grew up the tree. I decided to look at the first skill and work my way across.
Draconic Mind:
This skill helps to sharpen the mental acuity of both the dragon and its rider. It is also the first step in establishing the mental bond between dragon and rider. If the dragon has not hatched yet, the rider will not form this bond until the time of the soul bonding.
+2 to Intelligence, +2 to Wisdom
Mental Resistance +25%
The rider and dragon's resistance to mental magic and mental attacks is increased by 25%
Cost: 2 Skill Points
Soul Bonding? What the heck was Soul Bonding? Inspecting didn't give any more answers so I guess I'll have to figure that out later.
Draconic Attack:
This skill helps raise the attack of both the dragon and rider. Both are also given a special skill, Dragon Slash.
+2 to Strength, +2 to Dexterity
Dragon Slash:
The rider and dragon are both given the attack dragon slash which will emit a physical wave from the attacker's primary weapon at the time, toward the enemy dealing 50 points of damage.
Cost: 2 Skill Points
Draconic Defense:
This skill helps raise the defense of both the dragon and rider. Both are also given the passive skill Dragon Armor.
+2 to Constitution, +2 to Endurance
Dragon Armor:
This skill also raises the defense of both the dragon and rider by 25% of whatever their current armor rating is.
Cost: 2 Skill Points
Draconic Spirit:
This skill helps with the spiritual aspect of both the dragon and rider. Both are also given the passive skill Dragon Spirit.
+2 to Charisma, +2 to Luck
Dragon Spirit:
This skill is the embodiment of what the spirit of the dragon means to people. It is why dragons have always been so revered in folklore and legend. All interactions are 25% more likely to be positive.
Cost: 2 Skill Points
This was absolutely amazing! I had enough points to unlock all the first-tier skills and would be able to increase all of my stats by two points permanently. Plus gain some skills and added bonuses. Thinking about it for a minute, I was curious to see what would appear beyond the first skills. There was no way to know though at this point. I decided to buy Draconic Attack first because I could always use a way to deal more damage, just to see what happened. As soon as I bought it I felt the increase in strength and dexterity flow over me as my muscles grew, then the connective tissue became more pliable, giving me not only greater strength, but also a greater range of motion, and saw the new skill Dragon Slash show up in my list of skills. As I bought this, the next level of skills became visible. I looked at them briefly to see what was available in that tier. It looked like another four options were available for tier two.
Sharp Claws:
This skill increases the slashing damage done by attacks with weapons for the dragon and the rider by +25%
Cost: 5 skill points
I whistled softly. These were two-and-a-half times more expensive than the first-tier skills.
Strong Blow:
This skill is an activated ability that is given to both the dragon and the rider. When activated, this skill causes a 100% increase in the damage done by a single attack.
Cost: 5 skill points
Defense Breaker:
This skill is an activated ability that is given to both the dragon and the rider. When activated, this skill will cause the user to rush forward dealing a massive blow to an enemy's defense. Damage: 35-50, +100% damage against heavy armor or armaments.
Cost: 5 skill points
Breath Attack:
This skill is an activated ability that is given to both the dragon and the rider. When activated, this skill will cause the user to expel an elemental breath attack for a distance of 10x the length of the user's body. Damage: 55-75 damage, Element type (Choose one): Fire, Ice, Earth, Wind, Life, Light, Dark, or Death (Other elements will be available at higher tiers)
Cost: 5 skill points
These options were all amazing as well. But it also meant that if I chose one of these I would only get one more skill. So it seemed like the best logic, for now, would be to buy all of the tier-one skills to boost my abilities. I also had ten more points to distribute. Having been given options for fighting up close as well as with magic, and wanting to keep myself as well-rounded as I could, for the time being, I put two points each into Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Endurance, and Constitution. Taking a deep breath in, I also bought all the first-tier skills. I felt the rush as all the other stats were increased as well and decided to look one more time at my skill sheet before looking at the next tier of skills.
Name: Callan Ryder
Race: Human
Class: Dragon Rider
Level: 5
HP: 180/180 *(+20 Necklace)
MP: 180/180 *(+20 Ring)
SP: 160/160
Total XP: 10250
XP to Next Level: 4750
Attributes:
Unused Attribute Points: 0
Strength: 19 *(+7 Items & Skills)
Constitution: 16 *(+2 Skills)
Dexterity: 16 *(+2 Skills)
Endurance: 16 *(+2 Skills)
Intelligence: 16 *(+2 Skills)
Wisdom: 14 *(+2 Skills)
Charisma: 12 *(+2 Skills)
Luck: 12 *(+2 Skills)
Unused Skill Points: 0
Non-Combat Skills:
Combat Skills:
Inspect: Beginner 1
Unarmed Combat: Beginner 1
Dragon Spirit: 1/5
Spears: Beginner 2
Short Blades: Beginner 2
Swords: Beginner 1
Dragon Slash: 1/5
Dragon Armor: 1/5
Looking at the skill tree next the entire first tier was lit up with the second tier above it now showing in grey. There was also a one-of-five showing on the first tier with new prices of five skill points each showing on them. Did that mean they can all be upgraded?! That was awesome as well. I couldn't wait to start digging into what was in the second tier. Before I could read what was in the next tier for the other skills, I heard some sort of whining and then a scratching noise coming from the back of the cave. It almost sounded like scratching on glass. Closing my windows to go see what was causing it, I pulled my swords free and moved towards the sound near the back of the cave room.
In the back of the room, there were a couple of old shelves that looked like they were carved out of part of the cave itself, and they were falling into the back of the cave which was lower than the rest of the room. Almost like the room was trying to eat the shelves slowly. I moved closer to the shelves with my swords raised. As I got closer I noticed there was a basket that was turned upside down, and from under the basket, I could see something that appeared to be glowing. Putting away one sword I decided to see what was under the basket. Clearly, it was small. Lifting the basket my eyes went wide, and my jaw dropped open in shock.
"It...it can't be..."
A small glass jar with a lid was under the basket. Inside that glass jar scratching at the glass was a small creature. The shock I was feeling was because the creature looked exactly like my rottweiler Brutus, but with fairy wings.
"Brutus?" I said tentatively.
The creature stopped scratching at the glass and cocked its head at an angle. Then the biggest shock of all came when it spoke back.
"Callan?" The fairy dog creature asked.
If I hadn't been holding onto the shelf, I probably would have fallen over.
"You can talk?!" I exclaimed.
"You can hear me?!" He exclaimed back.
"But...how...where...when...WHAT?!" A thousand questions raced through my mind all at once and were fighting to be answered at the same time.
"I'm not going to be able to answer one-word questions. You're going to have to work on using your words, Callan."
I paused. Took a few deep breaths. Centered myself again, and then tried to think of what I wanted to ask.
"OK. How did you get here?" I asked.
"Oh, yeah...that wasn't a fun ride. I heard you coming in at home and there was this shadow. I attacked it hearing you yell, but it got me. I don't know exactly what happened next, but I woke up in this dungeon. I had wings, and I was tiny. I had just finished learning to fly when I was hit with something mentally. It was like learning all those commands at puppy school, but in like five seconds and a thousand times more information. I was totally overwhelmed. When I was able to figure out what was going on some goblins had found me and put me in that jar. Then the spider came and took me from the goblins, and now you're here." Brutus explained.
"I'm just so happy to see you, Brutus. I was told that I had part of my brain removed which made me miss my old life so I haven't really thought about it much. But let me tell you my side as well."
So I told Brutus about everything that happened since the darkness took me. He listened with rapt attention throughout the whole thing. When I finished he looked like he wanted to say something.
"What's up Brutus?" I asked.
"I'd really be happy....if you'd have let me out before you started on that long story, Callan. I'm in a freaking jar!" He replied, indignantly.
Facepalm. Of course. Once again my mind just went on without thinking. I quickly moved to open the jar, and Brutus flew out and around my head. He landed back on the shelf in front of me and did what most people would know as a dog stretch, where he would extend both of his legs out as far behind him as he could. He looked at me and seemed embarrassed.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"I don't want you to see me do dog things," Brutus said.
"Why not? You are a dog," I said.
"I am NOT a dog now. I'm a fairy guide. It's demeaning to me to be thought of as that." He stated.
"I'm sorry buddy. It's going to be hard for me to think of you like that though at first. We were together for four years with you as a dog." I said.
"I know. But please try, for me. It's embarrassing to think of some of the things I did as a dog." Brutus said, seeming ashamed.
"You mean like when you would eat..." I started when Brutus interrupted me.
"YES CALLAN LIKE WHEN I WOULD EAT THINGS DOGS EAT AND THE WAY DOGS EAT AND SO MANY OTHER DOG THINGS!!! WE DON'T NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT!!!" Brutus yelled through the jar at me.
"Sorry, sorry, I was just kidding. Just like back on earth when I would tease you with the ball, or when I would tease the guys that came over occasionally about something they did stupid at work. It just means we are really close friends." I explained.
He gave me a side eye but seemed to be happy with calling him a close friend.
"So, what does a fairy guide do?" I asked.
"We are responsible for helping people learn how the world works when they are not given a chance to learn naturally from people like parents or teachers. I wasn't really sure why I was brought here at first, but finding you as an adult makes a lot more sense now." Brutus explained.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, you told me about your reincarnation story. That is not how people normally are brought into the world of Hogarth." Brutus said.
"Hogarth? Why does that name ring a bell? OH! I remember it was what that A.I. lady called this world when I was doing my reincarnation process." I recalled.
"Yes, it's the world we are on, Callan, keep up. Anyway, normally when someone comes into this world they are born to a family and they grow up being taught how to understand the world. Not just walking and talking and education like back on earth, but actually learning about how to use the system, skills, attributes, etc, parents teach their children all of these things. You being placed here as an adult with no one to teach you is likely why I am here as well." Brutus continued.
"How do you know this?" I asked.
"Remember when I told you I had that moment where I was overwhelmed mentally? That was when the mechanics of this world were mashed into my brain. I don't think I know everything, but I am certain that I know enough to answer most questions you would have about how things work." Brutus replied.
"That is going to be super helpful. I have had a bit of trouble with what exactly to do with certain things. Can you help me with this class I have?" I asked.
"Sure, what class were you given?" Brutus asked me.
"Dragonrider," I stated.
Brutus' face scrunched up for a moment while he thought about it.
"Nope. I've got nothing on that class." Brutus informed me.
"I thought you had all the knowledge of this world?" I asked, partly teasing, partly concerned that he had no information on it.
"Sorry Callan, that isn't one of the normal classes. It isn't even one of the more rare classes. It must be something that is super rare." Brutus explained.
"That's alright. I'm still just so happy to see you." I reassured him.
"Me too, Callan. But there is one thing we need to do first." Brutus said.
"What's that?" I asked.
"We need to complete a fairy contract so that I am bonded to you and can help you alone going forward," Brutus said.
"How do we do that?" I asked.
"Just hold out your hand." Brutus began.
I put my hand out palm up and Brutus landed in it. He was so small compared to his nearly one-hundred-pound earth size that I had a momentary flashback of when he would put his paw in my hand doing the shake trick he learned in puppy school. He began to glow even brighter and a strange circle appeared in my hand. The circle was a glowing blue color and had weird runes written around it. I was a little nervous about what was happening, but I trusted Brutus. A wind began to whip up around us that seemed to come from nowhere, and dust began to fly around the room. Brutus had his eyes closed and seemed to be concentrating really hard on something.
Suddenly there was a shooting pain in my hand that went up my arm. I jumped but realized my hand was locked in place and would not move. It really began to hurt. Just when it was at a point where I was about to cry out, the pain stopped and I fell to my knees holding my hand. Brutus flew around me with a slightly concerned look on his little rottweiler face.
"I'm sorry, Callan. It is a little painful, but it prevents me from being taken by another from you so we can be together always now." Brutus explained.
"That does make me feel better. Thanks, Brutus. I'm happy to go through a little pain knowing we can stay together." I told Brutus.
Brutus flew over and landed on my hand. "Now that we are bound I can help you with your journey. I don't really have offensive capabilities, so I'm not good in a fight, but I can help you with learning about things. If you have a question, let me know and I'll see what I can do to answer it."
"I actually do have some questions, but let's start with the one that would really be helpful for our current situation. Where are we? And I don't mean Hogarth again, I mean this cave system we are in. I got a notification that it was a dungeon a while back, but it had no information at all other than that word."
"Ah, that I can help with. Dungeons are kind of like lairs for monsters. There is usually a single large monster that is like the boss of the dungeon and then other minor monsters that live in the dungeon with it. The dungeon gives the monsters the items they have when they create them, and they can't respawn the monsters until the people in the dungeon complete it or leave the dungeon." Brutus explained as though teaching a lesson.
"Well, that's a relief. I was a little worried about that since this seems to have video game logic to everything," I said.
Brutus looked at me confused.
"What are video games?" He asked.
"Do you remember the times I would sit at the TV and hold a little plastic item in my hand and move my fingers around while looking at the TV?" I asked him.
"Yeah?" Brutus said with an inflection that said he still wasn't sure where I was going with this.
"I was playing video games there and a lot of them had similar workings to this," I explained.
"I still don't think I really understand, but if it helps you understand, that's all that matters," Brutus said.
"OK. So can you tell me where the boss monster is in this dungeon? Or anything about them?" I asked, hopeful for something going my way.
"Nope," Brutus replied.
"Why not?" I asked, my heart sinking a little.
"The knowledge I have is based on general knowledge of how the world works, not specifics of everything in the world. So I don't know anything about this dungeon in particular." Brutus replied.
"Well, that sucks. But I guess that makes sense. It would be a little like cheating if I knew what was going to happen." I said.
"Don't worry too much, I can help you with monsters and some of their weaknesses. I do know that information." Brutus tried to cheer me up with this information.
"That will be helpful! Thanks, Brutus. So what do we do now?" I asked.
"Did you get all the stuff you needed from the spiders?" Brutus asked.
"Well, the little ones were burned up so I assume they are just piles of ash, and big mama over there just seems to have a bunch of slime to give," I replied.
"Sure, but the venom from her fangs is a potent toxin that you could either sell or use on your weapons, and the fangs themselves are good for certain types of crafting," Brutus said.
"Well, I wouldn't have known that. I guess I still need to get a few things from her." I said.
Together we went over to the dead spider and I used the jar that Brutus had been held in to hold the venom. Brutus showed me how to squeeze the sides of the fangs to get the venom to come out and it was a pretty easy process. Then I just took one of the rusty daggers out, cut off the fangs, and put them all in my bag of holding. That showed me having taken up nine slots in my bag of holding. Eventually, I would likely need to use the pouch for holding some of the smaller items, but I felt the bag of holding was better for now.
"Hey Brutus, do you know the fastest way to calculate the mana regen rate?" I asked.
"Sure, that's pretty easy. The base calculation is that you will receive one hundred mana every ten minutes when your Wisdom attribute is ten. That means you get about ten mana per minute or 0.16666666667 mana per second. So you get one mana about every six seconds. For every point, you put into Wisdom however the regen rate is increased by eight percent. So with your wisdom of fourteen, you should be seeing a regeneration rate of about 0.22674816 mana per second or one mana around every 4.4 seconds. Obviously, if you go down a path of using mana more often you will need more points here." Brutus explained.
My head was spinning. That was a lot of math to figure out. I always hated math. Suffice it to say that I gained one mana at almost every four-and-a-half seconds which was not a great time. I was going to have to decide if magic was going to be a priority for me or not.
"And health regen? Can we talk about that for a minute?" I asked.
"Ah...Health regen is quite a bit more complicated really. Your race plays a role, and your class can as well, then there's your Constitution level, and..." Brutus began, but I cut him off.
"No, no, that's fine, my question right now is I thought I saw it wouldn't raise while in battle, and only started again when I was out of combat, is that true?" I asked.
"Oh, well, yes that is true. You can only gain HP in battle by using healing spells, potions, or items. Once you exit combat, your natural health regeneration kicks back in. With the exception of certain races like Trolls, where health regen is part of their special abilities." Brutus replied.
"There are Trolls here?" I asked.
"Yes, along with a menagerie of other creatures too numerous to list," Brutus said.
"Well lucky me that I got a healing spell. However, it's not going to help a lot if I can't recover enough mana. So, I'll have to be better at fighting too." I said.
"That is where your physical attributes will come in. Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, and Endurance." Brutus explained.
"I know, I know. That is just like the video games were." I said, feeling like I was being taught kindergarten subjects again.
"Still not sure what video games are, but OK. Then it sounds like you have most of your questions answered?" Brutus asked.
"Not even close, but we need to figure a way out of this dungeon so we can find somewhere safe to stay while this egg hatches. Right now if it dies, I die, and I have no plans for that to happen right now." I said.
"That sounds bad," Brutus said.
"Well, it doesn't have to be. We can do this. We just have to commit to it." I reassured him.
Brutus nodded with a determined look on his face. I couldn't help but laugh because he was clearly trying to be serious, but he was about the size of my palm now with fairy wings and he glowed slightly.
"Hey Brutus, I did think of something. Did you get to choose your form when you came here?" I asked.
"Choose my form? No, of course not. No one gets to do that. Why?" Brutus asked in return.
"I did. I went through an entire process of choosing my race and everything." I said.
Brutus just stared at me confused.
"That doesn't make any sense. You don't get to choose how you want to come back. You must have been dreaming." Brutus said.
Had I been dreaming? It seemed very real, and I looked like what I had made selections for, even down to the darker skin. I guess it's possible. But it just felt so real. Though thinking about it, it also felt so unreal. A literal out-of-body experience where I got to pick my next body. Floating around, talking to a disembodied voice asking me to make selections of what I not only wanted to be called but what I wanted to look like. How could that have been real? The implications of what it meant if such a thing was real were pretty mind-boggling. Was there an afterlife? Was it ruled by deities greater than ourselves? Was it just a computer-generated reality and existence? If so, who programmed the computer to generate that reality? If I died since I was reincarnated once would I get another chance? Was this world like some of the other worlds where I get more than one life? Nothing had led me to believe that was true so far, so I felt like that one was not something I should test out.
I snapped myself out of that train of thought. We had much bigger fish to fry.
"In any case, let's head back to the previous room to see what way we go next. I've been in the other direction and it's a dead end, and this way seems to be the same. So, there must be something more in the room before this one." I said.
We headed back to the room where the spider had taken the egg from me and peered inside before we walked in. Some of the torches looked like they had lit themselves from the flames that burned up the spider webs. You could tell where the spiders had been lit on fire. They were extremely flammable and left black scorch marks on the ground where they died. I chuckled uneasily at all the scorch marks on the ground, as killing them like that had been a bit of a panic move on my part. I could have been killed pretty quickly if I hadn't done that with as many marks as there were spread throughout the room.
Looking around the room, there appeared to be three other points of entry in this room. One I had clearly come through, as the webbing had been burned from the opening, and the other two were a mystery. I couldn't see much in the way of things worth picking up in the room. The spiders seemed as though they only picked up things that they needed while the goblins were basically hoarders. Just as I was about to move on to one of the other tunnels, I noticed something glimmering off in the far corner of the room. I almost didn't see it, but it sparkled in a certain way when I walked toward the two mystery exits because of the firelight. I veered off course to look at it, Brutus in tow, just like back on earth.
When I got close I could tell it was some kind of gem. It was about the size of my thumbnail and cut in the shape of a teardrop. It was a bright red color like a ruby. I just stared at it for a few seconds before Brutus, who had landed on my shoulder, spoke up.
"Come on, inspect it already," Brutus said, getting impatient.
Of course. I had already forgotten about that. This was going to take some getting used to.
Item:
Fire Gem
Item Type: Slottable item
Durability: 500/500
Enchantment: This item, when added to the slot of a weapon, will add +10-12 fire damage to a weapon.
Item Quality: Excellent
Item Rarity: Rare
"A fire gem?" I questioned.
"Oh! That is a great find! If you find a weapon that has an open slot on it, you can equip it on to the weapon for extra damage. That will be useful. When a crafter was making these they were able to infuse mana into it as they cut it. That is what gives them their special power. I'm sure a lot more goes into it than just that, but that is the basic information on this kind of gem." Brutus explained.
"How do I know if my weapon has an open slot?" I asked.
"It'll be in the description. It will show a slot count with how many open slots it has for gems." Brutus replied.
Well crap, none of my current weapons have a slot for that. I guess that will have to wait. So I put it in my bag of holding for now. Time to go down one of the paths.
"Any thoughts on which to go down Brutus?" I asked him.
"I can't get any reads and have no idea what is in either of them, but it does look like the one on the left might be a shorter distance." Brutus offered.
"What makes you say that?" I asked.
"I see more light down at the end of that one than the other," He explained.
"Hmmm...that sounds like more logic than I have. And maybe that means there is an exit that way if there is more light." I said.
So we went to the doorway leading down the left path first. I used a torch to burn away the webs first, then, after placing the torch back in a sconce, I drew both of my swords, just to be ready. The path curved slightly to the left and at the end of the corridor, we found another room. That was the shortest connecting hall I had been into so far, even shorter than the one I chased the giant spider down. What I saw though, made my jaw drop open. It was a small horde that a tiny dragon would be proud of. Piles of gold and some weapons and armor as well.
"Why is this here?" I asked.
"Are you questioning your fortune in finding this?" Brutus questioned back.
"No, but it seems suspicious, doesn't it? Just a pile of treasure sitting here in a room filled with spiders?" I retorted.
"No. That sounds exactly like what I'd expect to find. Do you know how many spiders were in that room?" Brutus asked.
"Seventy-five, plus the big one," I replied.
"So you think that there shouldn't be a reward for killing seventy-five monsters, plus their queen?" He asked, beginning to sound annoyed and sarcastic.
Brutus had a compelling argument, and he was the one who was supposed to know the most about this world now.
"What about traps?" I said suddenly looking around the room.
"That is a thought with actual reasoning behind it. We should be able to spot them if we look around. Those spiders weren't high enough level to make anything too complex."
We spent about five minutes looking around. Sure enough, there were a couple of web traps, but that seemed to be it. I accidentally set one of the traps off and it sprayed webbing right onto my face. Panicking for a moment, I let out muffled yells of disgust, anger, and fear from behind the webbing, but one touch from a torch on the wall did away with those traps and the webbing on my face. Although, I did need to heal myself after the webbing burned me slightly when I tried to burn it off of my face. Then all that was left was the treasure.
I found that I could just scoop the coins into the bag of holding and it would sort them for me. There appeared to just be copper, silver, and gold coins that all went into the bag. Then I set the armor and weapons aside to look at before putting them in the bag. All told there was about two thousand gold, one thousand four hundred and fifty silver, and nine hundred and eighty copper. Finding this much money all at once made me wonder if money was worth as much as I thought it was going to be from my video game experience. The goblins had next to nothing on them, so I had two different enemies with completely different levels of wealth leading to some conflicting evidence as to the value of money now.
The Armor seemed like it would be helpful, but not right now. It was all heavy and not rated a lot better than what I was wearing right now.
Item:
Iron Cuirass
Item Type: Armor
Durability: 185/200
Armor: +18
Item Quality: Average
Item Rarity: Common
Weight: Heavy Armor
Item:
Iron Bracers
Item Type: Armor
Durability: 190/200
Armor: +13
Item Quality: Average
Item Rarity: Common
Weight: Heavy Armor
Item:
Iron Boots
Item Type: Armor
Durability: 182/200
Armor: +13
Item Quality: Average
Item Rarity: Common
Weight: Heavy Armor
Item:
Iron Tassets
Item Type: Armor
Durability: 192/200
Armor: +17
Item Quality: Average
Item Rarity: Common
Weight: Heavy Armor
Item:
Iron Helmet
Item Type: Armor
Durability: 190/200
Armor: +13
Item Quality: Average
Item Rarity: Common
Weight: Heavy Armor
"That is a complete set of armor you could put on, Callan. It will give you a pretty nice bonus to your armor rating if you do." Brutus said.
"Armor rating?" I asked.
"It's the value of armor you are wearing. When someone attacks you, they have a certain amount of damage that they do to you from each attack. That amount of damage has to match or exceed the armor rating you have for wherever the strike lands. If the value of the attack is lower than your armor, then the attack does nothing. Say someone hits you with a sword for thirty-five damage, and you have a chest armor rating of twenty-five, that means twenty-five of the damage that would have been dealt was deflected by your armor and only ten points of it are dealt to your HP. The higher the armor rating the less damage you are going to take. Though, there is a tradeoff. The armor with the higher ratings is always heavier, which will restrict your movement." Brutus explained.
"I don't think I want that right now. I've been playing dodge tank more than a traditional tank." I replied.
"What is a dodge tank and a traditional tank?" Brutus asked.
"Oh, right, not knowing about the video game stuff. A tank is a person in a team of fighters who is designated to be near or at the front of the group and takes on the damage dealt. They usually wear the heaviest armor possible to absorb the most damage and skills that allow them to draw the attention of the enemies to keep them from hurting the other fighters. A dodge tank is someone who is set up to draw the attention of the enemy from the rest of the group, but instead of taking the hits head-on, they are designed to be more mobile so they can dodge the attacks and strike back. So far I had been fighting with the intention of taking as little damage as possible, and would probably want to continue to do so until I found a more reliable way of healing myself." I explained.
"That all makes sense. Being alone you want to take as little damage as you can. Sounds like you are right about not using that armor, but I bet it will fetch a good price in a town. So you will want to keep it to sell." Brutus said.
I put the items into the bag of holding. That meant that I had thirteen of the slots taken up at this point, and the bag was starting to feel a little heavy. Fortunately, I had increased my strength so I could handle the weight.
Most of the weapons were not much to talk about either. A couple more spears like the one I had, several more rusty daggers, and two more shortswords. The last item though was something I was super excited to see so soon after finding out they even existed.
Item:
Longsword of Knight's Resolve
Item Type: Magical Weapon
Durability: 250/250
Attack: 20-35 damage
Item Quality: Excellent
Item Rarity: Epic
Slots: 2
Enchantment: Once the Longsword of Knight's Resolve has been attuned to the wielder, it will gain XP for the kills its bearer exacts and will grow with the wielder.
Attuned: No
This sword was amazing.
"How do I attune to a weapon?" I asked.
"All you really need to do is learn about it, then use it for a while. Once you become adjusted to its weight and use, it will attune to you." Brutus replied.
I sat down at the back of the cave to study the blade. It definitely was exquisite quality. Its weight and balance were nearly perfect. This was the rarest item I had found so far at epic rank. After staring at it for about half an hour I stood up and tested its weight. Running through a few of the katas from back on earth with it, the sword just glided through the air. It felt almost too light to be made of iron or steel.
"Brutus, I noticed a lot of other items told me what type of material they were made of, why did this sword not tell me what it was made of?" I asked.
"That is likely because your inspect skill is not high enough to see it yet, let me see. Yup, your inspect skill is only at level one still. That skill is notoriously hard to level up because there are so many things that can be inspected, you have to inspect a lot of things to level the skill." Brutus replied.
"Can you tell what this blade is made out of?" I asked.
"Let me take a look at it. Bring it into the firelight." Brutus said.
I brought the blade over to a torch and when it was really close to the light, I noticed the color of the metal wasn't quite silver, but a silvery color with a blueish hue to it.
"I'm pretty sure this is Mithril. A pretty rare metal to be sure, but a smith would be able to confirm that for us when we find one." Brutus said.
As Brutus told me this I felt something click and got a notification.
Congratulations:
You have attuned to the Longsword of Knight's Resolve! This process normally takes many hours of combat, but you have managed to shorten that time to less than an hour! Because of this feat, you have been awarded +1 to your Luck skill!
Well...that was unexpected, to say the least. I inspected the sword one more time.
Item:
Longsword of Knight's Resolve
Item Type: Magical Weapon
Durability: 250/250
Attack: 20-35 damage
Item Quality: Excellent
Item Rarity: Epic
Slots: 2
Enchantment: Once the Longsword of Knight's Resolve has been attuned to the wielder, it will gain XP for the kills its bearer exacts and will grow with the wielder.
Attuned: Yes
Weapon Level: 1
Weapon XP: 0
XP to next level: 1000
"I feel like I'm getting too lucky for some reason. All of the items I have found so quickly, the egg, the money. Like this shouldn't all be happening to me right now. You know what I mean, Brutus?" I asked.
"I really don't know how to explain it either. I would never have guessed this, and you mentioned getting to choose your reincarnation process which I thought was ridiculous, but these things just keep happening to you. Maybe you are just lucky?" Brutus offered.
My mother always said never to look a gift horse in the mouth, and I was not going to do that here. I put one of the shortswords into the bag of holding and replaced it with the new longsword. Fortunately, it also came with a sheath to hook onto my belt.
"Probably shouldn't question it too closely for now. Best to count my blessings or luck or whatever it is, and move on." I said.
Brutus shrugged one shoulder and gave me one of those dog smiles. I couldn't help but smile back and feel grateful that I had found him again. We left the treasure room, intent on following the last corridor down to whatever lay in wait for us next.