Shade's First Rule
Page 5
He reluctantly accepted the quest, and the notification disappeared. He knew he would eventually have to face his friend, but it was too painful to think about right now.
The door remained open, and Ruwen looked inside. Shelves lined the inside of the pillar, and they contained stacks of clothes and equipment. Bliz returned a minute later and made four piles: the first of clothes and a small bag, the second a pair of hard leather boots, the third an oddly shaped silver baton, and the fourth looked like a black wristband that matched the one Bliz wore.
“These are your Novice uniforms and quest money,” Bliz said, pointing to the first pile.
All the clothes were the same dirty brown color. There were three pairs of pants, two pairs of shorts, three long-sleeved shirts, and three short-sleeved ones. Next to the clothes was a belt, a pair of gloves, and a wide-brimmed hat. A far cry from the Mage robes Ruwen had expected to wear today. He ran his hands over everything, but no new notifications appeared. They were all common.
“Now for your specialized gear. If you change your focus to a new Sub-Class, you’ll need to trade these in for new items. Understand?”
Ruwen nodded.
Bliz moved to the next pile and handed Ruwen a pair of hard leather boots.
“Our high Constitution and Strength make us heavy. The extra weight can cause problems. When you’re planting seeds in freshly tilled soil, for instance.”
Tring!
You have discovered a blessing from Uru…
Name: Feather Boots of Grasping
Armor Class: 5
Quality: Uncommon
Durability: 20 of 20
Weight: 4.00 lbs.
Effect: Reduces force of each step by 20%.
Effect: Increases friction against any surface by 10%.
Restriction: Worker
Description: Not as popular as Feather Boots of Massage but more durable.
Ruwen stared at the boots in his hand. They were the first magical thing he had ever owned, and he smiled in spite of his mood.
Bliz took the boots and placed them back on the table. He moved to the next item and picked up the knobby cylinder. He pulled on one of the bumps and a pick head emerged that was much too large to fit in the baton. He folded it back into place and then unfolded a hammer. On and on it went: ax, crowbar, flint, spoon, fork, knife, a long thin rod, and finally a spade. Ruwen stood speechless, amazed by the magical baton.
“It attaches like this,” Bliz said.
The man grabbed the belt from the clothes pile and pointed to squares that were spaced evenly around the leather. He brought the belt near a similar square on the top of the baton and Ruwen heard a click. Bliz briefly pulled on the baton and belt, but they remained together.
“You have to twist the baton to separate them,” Bliz said and then rotated the baton up. It came away with another click.
“Workers have the least problems with storage so you might wonder why this would be useful,” Bliz said. “Trust me when I tell you this will become the second most valuable thing you own.”
He held out the rod, and Ruwen took it.
Tring!
You have discovered a blessing from Uru…
Name: Baton of a Thousand Uses
Damage: 1-4
Quality: Uncommon
Durability: 50 of 50
Weight: 12.00 lbs.
Effect: Produces useful tools.
Restriction: Worker
Description: Not quite a thousand. Cup not included.
It had a nice weight to it, and Ruwen spent a minute pulling on different protrusions to see what would come out.
“Amazing,” he said.
Bliz moved to the final pile. “This last item is different in that it has additional requirements.”
Ruwen replaced the Baton and moved in front of the crew chief. Bliz held up his left arm, and Ruwen got a close look at the thin black wristband. He couldn’t tell what it was made from, but it fit snugly around the big man’s wrist. Bliz reached up with his right hand, grabbed the wristband, and pulled.
Bliz spread his arms wide, and the wristband stretched, leaving a blackness behind it. The blackness hid everything behind it. Bliz moved his arms back together, and the dark hole shrunk. The crew chief touched the wristband to the table, and it stuck there as he backed away, creating an opening large enough to crawl through. After a moment, he quickly walked back to the table and released the wristband. He turned so Ruwen could see that the darkness only existed between the edges of the wristband. His wrist looked like it had been sliced in half, but there was no blood.
Ruwen had spent little time studying Workers. That’s why he didn’t know about their multi-tool. But Ruwen recognized this wristband now. He knew a song that featured one.
“It’s the Death’s Grip from the Farmer’s Ballad,” Ruwen said.
Bliz laughed and pressed the wristband closed. “Yes, it’s in that song, but it’s really called a Void Band.”
“It kills him,” Ruwen said. “Nine times!”
“It’s just a song. And the farmer wasn’t very bright.”
Ruwen looked around at the hundreds of people in the Lodge. He couldn’t see a single person with a Void Band. Bliz pulled a Dimensional Bag from his back pocket and placed it next to the Void Band. Ruwen’s parents both had similar Dimensional Bags. Everyone had something like them.
Bliz pointed to the bag. “A Worker’s Bag. Access to your personal storage. A ten by ten grid of containers you can fill with whatever fits through the bag’s opening. 75% weight reduction. Only you can access it. If you lose the bag, you’ve lost your things, but the bag will appear on your map if you’re near it. Nothing living will go in it. There is no danger in using it. It is only available to Workers. Non-Worker Bags are ten by five, have a smaller opening, and only have a 50% weight reduction. Otherwise, they are the same.”
The Worker Bags had twice the storage of standard Dimensional Bags or Belts, and it explained why Workers had value. Ruwen had met a few Workers in the library, but he hadn’t talked to them. The truth was he had assumed they were too dumb to waste time on. That made him feel even worse. What if those Workers had fallen prey to the same unfairness he had? Why had he judged people based on their Class?
Bliz snapped his fingers, and Ruwen refocused.
“Sorry, I was thinking about how I’ve never seen a Worker with anything but a bag.”
“As I told you before, Uru doesn’t send me many smart ones.”
Ruwen didn’t know about that. An Inventory Bag that could kill you didn’t sound like an intelligent idea.
Bliz pointed to the band. “Access to your personal storage. A twenty-five by forty grid of containers you can fill with whatever fits through the band’s opening, which you can make as wide and long as you wish. 100% weight reduction. Only you can access it. It is soulbound and will materialize like the rest of your body during your revival. Living things will go in the bag. There is significant danger in using it. Not every Worker gets this choice, as your base Intelligence must be quite high.”
“Wait, I know how Inventory Bags work. They’re portals to an alternate space. Everyone knows living things can’t survive there,” Ruwen said.
Bliz grabbed his band and pulled. When he let go, the band stayed open. He reached inside, his hand and wrist disappearing. When he removed his hand, he held a palm-sized wooden cube. One side of the cube was made of glass, and he could see a bright red snake. In a heartbeat, it had coiled its body and struck the glass. Ruwen jerked backward, his pulse doubling in an instant. He hated snakes.
Bliz put the cube back in the band, and Ruwen thought he saw the big man grimace.
“Why in Uru’s name do you have a snake in there?” Ruwen asked.
“That snake is not from around here, and its venom has a lot of uses. It’s too valuable to just leave laying around. Certain types of people will pay good money to keep things like that in a safe place. Pay enough that a man can stop adventuring and spend
some time with his family.”
“But how is that possible? That alone seems like a reason everyone would take the band.”
“Well, now we’ve come to the cost. I’ve died five times since my Ascendancy Day.”
Ruwen winced. That meant Bliz had permanently lost five points from every attribute. Thirty points, gone!
Bliz continued. “Three of those times were because of this Void Band. And when you die, anything living in your Inventory dies as well.”
“But how can your Void Band kill you?”
“Opening it takes Energy. The bigger the opening, the more it needs. Anything living in your Inventory will constantly drain your Energy. If your Energy refresh can’t keep up, you’re dead. Plants you’ll barely notice, this snake is a small strain, a dog would probably completely drain me in under a minute.”
Ruwen looked at the three bars under his Profile icon.
Health: 100/100
Mana: 160/160
Energy: 200/200
Bliz still had the Void Band activated, and the opening looked about two hands wide and a hand long.
“How much is it taking to keep that open?” Ruwen asked.
“About three per second. You don’t want to just stand around with it open, which is another reason you’ve probably never seen it.”
“And the snake?”
“Four per second even when the bag is closed.”
Ruwen had never cared about Energy since it wasn’t valued much by Mages, but he still knew the calculation. Without anything to speed the refresh up, everyone regenerated 1% of their total a second. That meant he could handle a constant drain of two Energy per second. The opening Bliz had created would kill him in a few minutes. He began to see how dangerous the band could be.
“The problem is everyone thinks they’re smarter than they are. How hard can it be to watch your bar and not let it get to zero?”
Ruwen had been thinking the same thing.
“The first time I died because a rancher paid me to move some bales of hay. I made an opening large enough to fit the bale. I planned to use my right hand to pull the hay into the hole. I lacked the strength, so I cast Strong Back to give me the extra strength I needed. You’ll learn shortly how that spell channels energy to power it. Ten per second to be precise. I woke up in the basement of the temple.”
Ruwen didn’t know what to say. He didn’t think he would make a mistake like that.
“And the other times?”
“I’ve made my point. Although I’ll give you one more warning. If you ever get curious what is on the other side of that black hole, regardless of what the description says, don’t stick your head in to look. It kills you, and the view isn’t worth it. Whoever wrote that description is evil. Trading your life for five strange symbols is a poor trade. Hypothetically.”
Ruwen’s eyes widened, and then he laughed. Bliz pressed the band back against his wrist and chuckled.
“Let’s keep that one between us,” Bliz said.
Ruwen wiped his eyes and nodded.
“You mentioned you wanted to leave Deepwell. I’ll just add that Workers with a band are highly prized as they can carry the entire group’s supplies and cargo. You will never have a problem finding someone to travel with.”
The Void Band gave him ten times the amount of storage as a standard Worker Bag. But the one-hundred slots in the Worker Bag seemed like it would be just fine. How much stuff did a person need to keep anyway? The fact that his Inventory could kill him seemed like an unnecessary risk to take just for storage. The ability to store living things was powerful, but also incredibly expensive, energy-wise. It would probably be a long time before he could even keep a caterpillar. The weight reduction was incredible, but again, if he didn’t carry much, the 75% reduction of the Worker Bag would be sufficient.
He had to admit he was a bit absent-minded and he lost things a lot. But Dimensional Bags appeared on the map from miles away, which made them pretty easy to find. Dying outside the city was riskier as it might take a while to find your body. If someone looted your things before you returned, you might not recover your bag.
Death away from the city had consequences, and it tied back to what Bliz had just told him about adventuring. He needed to leave Deepwell if he wanted to find his parents and owning this band seemed like a sure ticket out. That alone made it worth having.
“I’ll take the band,” Ruwen said.
“I need to ask if you’re sure. Once you put it on and bind it, the band will never come off.”
“Never? What if I snag it on something and it breaks?”
“The fabric is part of another plane. It’s indestructible.”
“What if someone cuts my arm off?”
“That is an excellent question. As soon as the band isn’t connected to your thoughts, the portal vanishes. The band becomes nothing more than decoration.”
“And to get the portal back?”
“You have to die. Revival will create the connection again.”
Ruwen spent another moment letting this new information sink in. It didn’t change anything.
“I still want it.”
“Wise choice.”
Bliz picked up the band. “Usually you put it on the wrist of your non-dominant hand. That way, you can use your dominant hand to fetch things and shape the portal.”
Ruwen had done everything with both hands until he was ambidextrous. It was a necessary skill for advanced spell casting, and he wanted to be ahead of the learning curve. Another vast amount of wasted time. It didn’t matter, but he held up his left wrist, and Bliz slipped it over his hand. The band’s material felt like a cross between leather and silk.
Tring!
You have discovered a blessing from Uru…
Name: Void Band
Quality: Rare
Durability: Indestructible
Weight: 0.12 lbs.
Effect: 100% weight reduction.
Effect: Flexible opening.
Effect: Enhanced storage.
Effect: No type limitations.
Restriction: Worker
Restriction: Base (Level 1) Intelligence 15 or greater
Restriction: Energy-dependent
Restriction: Soulbound
Description: The view inside is worth dying for.
Another smaller notification appeared over the item description. It had red borders and couldn’t be minimized.
Warning!
The Void Band requires full integration to function.
Warning!
This binding cannot be undone.
Do you wish to permanently bind to the Void Band?
Yes or No
Ruwen chose Yes, and the notification disappeared. The Void Band grew cold against his wrist, and it shrunk to fit snuggly against his skin. Ruwen rubbed the back of his head, trying to warm the area above his neck that had become intensely cold. After a moment, it passed.
“Open your Inventory,” Bliz said.
Ruwen focused on the lower right corner, and his Inventory appeared. His shirt, pants, and boot slots were filled, their background white to signify the items were common. His left wrist slot had a small image of the Void Band, and the background was colored yellow. Just below the equipment display, his coin totals were displayed. The copper, silver, gold, platinum, and terium were all zero. Below the coins, the inventory grid began, and it was no longer greyed out.
“Now open your band and stow your uniforms and tool,” Bliz said.
As soon as Ruwen touched the band with his right hand, it seemed to stick to his fingers. As he pulled his hand away, the Void Band came as well, trailing inky blackness. His whole body flushed as he felt it remove Energy from his body. Ruwen had made a portal about three feet long.
Bliz pushed back on Ruwen’s hand, making the hole smaller until it was only the size of a hand.
“Look at your log,” Bliz said.
Ruwen opened his log, which overlaid the open Inventory.
Vo
id Band Active!
Void Band has consumed 1 Energy
Void Band has consumed 3 Energy
Void Band has consumed 7 Energy
Void Band has consumed 12 Energy
Void Band has consumed 1 Energy
Void Band has consumed 1 Energy
As he watched, the last message kept repeating. He closed his log.
“This is about a one,” Bliz said. “Do you see how fast you can spend it?”
Ruwen nodded. Maybe this wasn’t as easy as he’d thought.
“Letting go is just like the baton. Rotate your hand forty-five degrees, and it will detach,” Bliz said.
Ruwen angled his hand upward, and it came away without a sound. The Void Band’s edge stayed put. He moved his left hand around, and the hand-sized patch of blackness followed.
“Now add your things and watch your Inventory,” Bliz said.
Ruwen retrieved the rolled-up priest’s robe from the table and dropped it into the blackness. It disappeared without a sound and appeared in the first grid of his Inventory. He made the portal a little larger and then grabbed his uniforms and stuffed them through. The items that were identical stacked in the same grid and a small number indicated how many were there. He took the bag of coins and emptied it into the opening, and his coin display showed 50 copper. He dropped the empty coin purse in as well. In a few moments, Ruwen placed all his things in the Void Band and then closed it.
“Parts of your uniform probably stacked together. All your pants, for instance. That was only because they are identical right now. Once something changes, like their durability, they will require their own grid container,” Bliz said.
Ruwen nodded and closed his Inventory.
“One last thing. You have options when it comes to removing items from your Inventory. For normal bags, you just stick your hand in and think about what you want. That works on your band, too. But, probably because a lot of what we carry is big and heavy, the band will allow things to drop out of it. This is very dangerous.”