“I don’t care. We can take it from your body if you’d like that better.” The men with the crossbows on the street and roof tensed a bit, and I struggled to control my rage.
Would they be able to loot the sword from my body if I died fighting them? I had never really talked to Zarra about the way my equipment worked through respawning, and I was going to guess that her ultra-real tendency of development would mean that my shit would be up for grabs when I did die.
“You are taking too long,” the big man who seemed to be the leader growled. “I hate loose ends, so does Baron Yinnia.” The man shrugged and then gestured to the crossbowmen on the roof. “Just kill—”
There was a flash of light from up above half a second before I heard a scream. I threw myself to the side of the alley, and used Guardian of Fortune on myself as a sonata of crossbow twangs filled the air.
I didn’t feel anything hit me, but that could have been because of my protection ability. My vision was covered with black spots, but I could see enough in front of me to dodge a stab from the leader of the thugs. His blade punched the air to my side as I sucked in my stomach, and my left elbow swung out to smash his nose into red pudding. His skull actually cracked from the impact, and his muscular body spasmed violently as he toppled over backward into the men behind him.
I spun around in time to see the body of one of the crossbowmen from the roof slam into the two other crossbow carrying thugs that were trying to reload. Their health bars each dropped by half, and the impact of the thrown body flattened both of the men like they were bowling ball pins meeting a speeding cement truck. Crossbow pieces, armor chunks, and copper coins flew in all directions when the men hit the street. It was somewhat of a comedic sight, and I might have laughed, or at least smirked at the scene, but these assholes were a half a second away from murdering me.
So I intended to kill all of them.
But it looked as if my bloodlust was going to have to wait in line after Cornalic. The half-orc was on the other side of the three standing men, and I watched one of his short swords slice apart the neck of the closest one to him as if was a blade of grass and his arm was a scythe. A wave of red blood exploded violently across the alley, but the over muscled man pivoted to the side as a ballerina would, and the crimson spray completely missed him.
The other two men drew their short blades as the green-skinned tornado stepped toward them, but he flicked each of his shoulders out with a lazy effort, and the top halves of each man’s head sprung away from the bottom half as if they were those party favor poppers. More blood and brain matter sprayed across the narrow alley, but Cornalic had already floated past them, and he made a final flick to dice the head of the man that I had just elbowed.
Then the half-orc looked to me.
I didn’t recall ever seeing the man not smile, but his handsome half-orc face looked completely enraged, and his yellow eyes bore into mine with absolute hatred.
“Cornalic, I—” began to say, but the man jerked his right hand upward from his waist with a blurred motion, and the short sword in that hand flew end over end toward me.
I tried to dodge, but the blade was too fast, and the movement had been unexpected. There was little I could do but watch the weapon twist toward my face.
Then it spun past me, and I heard the blade thud into something soft.
I turned around and saw another man leaning from the roof top some twenty feet away. Cornalic’s short sword was buried into the man’s skull, and he fell down into the alleyway. His health bar was already empty, but his body made a resonating thud when he landed.
Cornalic was already next to the two crossbowmen that had fallen under the body of the thug from the roof, and his blade made a single arch to slice both of their throats open. The two men let out a soft gurgle as their health bars dropped, but their deaths weren’t met with the shower of blood that Cornalic’s other opponents had offered up when they met their end.
The half-orc walked over to the last thug and then yanked his short sword out of the man’s skull before cleaning his blades on the corpse’s cloak. When he finished, he sheathed the blades with a quick twist of his thick wrists, and turned to face me. My eyes met his yellow ones, and I readied for the man to do… something.
“Dearest friend Leo, you must be careful walking through the dark alleyways of cities like Arnicoal. There are many unsavory types with their hearts set on skullduggery and thuggish pursuits.” The man smiled after he spoke and gestured to the corpses of the nine men he had just easily killed.
“Uhhh, why are you here?” I asked. I thought about lowering my sword, but then I decided against it. Then I realized that if the half-orc wanted to kill me, he would have already tried it, or he could have just let these men do it.
For some reason, the man had saved my life.
“‘Tis a funny story, that I’m sure you will enjoy because you have such a wonderful sense of humor. But first, might you put away that sharp blade yours, retrieve your items, and help me with the searching of these bodies? These men have no more use for their coin, and my belly is reminding me that I missed lunch.”
“Yeah, of course.” I slid my sword into its leather home, and then began to search the bodies. The men each carried a half dozen silver, and the big fucker that seemed their leader had an additional two gold. I examined each of the weapons as I looked through their items, and was half surprised to find that the head asshole’s short sword was a green magical weapon.
Short Sword of Minor Damage
Damage: 20% above standard - short sword
Durability - Magical
Br—
Qu—
In—
Wi—
Pe—
Ch—
Co—
Lu—
The damage modifier was interesting, and I was starting to get a bit of an understanding of how the game did it. It seemed that most green weapons were “10% above standard”, or whatever the base damage was for a white item of that type. The blue weapons I had seen seemed to be around 20%, but a lot of blue weapons all seemed to have other cool abilities, and I guessed that some of them, like this blade, might possess damage of a weapon of a higher color grade. I recalled that The Darkest Death had a 50% modifier to the damage, so maybe purple weapons were able to jump percentages.
I pulled out both of my short swords, and felt their balance in my hands. They were both fine weapons, but the one I most often used for my Ember ability was of better balance, so I set my other one on the ground, slid the better blade into that sheath, and then put the Short Sword of Minor Damage in its new home on my right hip.
I considered taking all the weapons and trying to sell them somewhere, but that seemed like a big hassle as a standard game rule, I had plenty of money at the moment, and we were surrounded by a bunch of corpses. The city guard could show up at any moment, and I would have a whole load of other problems.
“I’m good,” I said to Cornalic after I adjusted the new sword in my sheath, grabbed my pack with the crown in it, and grasped the wrapped staff with my left hand.
“Let us go then!” the half-orc exclaimed as he stood from his own set of corpses. “One of my favorite lunch places is only a ten-minute walk from here. Please allow me to treat you to a fine meal, dearest friend.”
“I think I am the one that should be treating you, Cornalic. I’d be dead right now if not for you.”
“My good friend, you are speaking nonsense, I watched the whole lead up to that little scuffle. You had them right where you wanted them, and I only interrupted because they had those extra five men approach from the other side. I am quite confident that you would have had no problem dealing with those nine fellows, but I had a bit of concern when the number changed to fourteen.”
“There were four more men on the roof?” I asked.
“Aye. ‘Tis true, friend Leo, they did not appear to want a fair fight with you.”
“So you killed four men I didn’t see, then the
three on the roof that I did see, and then the six on the street that had me surrounded?” I wouldn’t have believed that he was telling the truth if I hadn’t just seen him.
“I do not believe they had you surrounded, as I said before, dearest friend, you most certainly had them right where you wanted them.”
We walked out into the main avenue, and I made a right to pace next to the half-orc. We were both large, muscular men, and the crowds kind of parted around us as we strolled across the cobblestones.
“Why were you following me?” I asked after we’d made it a few hundred yards down the street from the scene of Cornalic’s butchery.
“Dearest friend, Leo!” the man gasped. “I would never invade your privacy in such a way. Did I not already tell you that you are one of my truest friends? That is not at all how friends treat each other.”
“Yet… you just happened to be on that rooftop, watching me when those men tried to murder me?” I sighed. This was usual Cornalic. I suppose I should just laugh at his attempts to spin his activities.
“Oh, I can see how you might be confused. Ahh, I am so embarrassed!”
“I’m not confused. You are actually foll—”
“After you left friend Artus’ house, I realized that, while I brought you your fair share of the gold, I had forgotten to repay you for the healing potion that I borrowed from you during our adventure.”
“You actually stole that, as well as my Cat’s Grace Potion.”
“Oh, I also have that! My apologies for being so addle minded. Here,” the man reached behind his back under his cloak, and then pulled out a strap of leather. It looked like something that would hold shotgun shells, only four of the six bays were filled with potions.
“Slide your belt through those outside loops, and you can wear it in comfort. Those healing potions are a bit more potent than the one you had before. Please accept it with my sincere apologies for borrowing without asking.” The man nodded as he spoke, and I noticed that he had put the hood of his cloak up when I had been focused on the gift.
“Thanks,” I said with a chuckle. “So you went to get some potions, then found me on the street?”
“Oh no, dearest friend Leo, I caught up with you as you were entering the gate to the rich area of the city. My half-orc sense of danger made me think that you might be running into trouble at Baron Yinnia’s home, so I took a shortcut to the mansion and waited for you to make your appearance there. Ahh! Here is the place.” The green-skinned man pointed to a small red brick building on the far side of the street, and I saw that it was named Hickory Smoke.
“You spied on me during the meeting?”
“Spy sounds like such an underhanded word. I was concerned for your safety. Dearest Leo, you are so handsome and charming. I think you should smile more. I always try to smile. It just makes challenges so much easier. Observe please.” The muscular man opened the door to the restaurant for me, and then entered after. There was a well groomed dwarf man behind a podium, and he gave both of us a disapproving look when we entered.
“Two for lunch please, and we would like a private room,” Cornalic said as he presented a gold to the dwarf.
“Yes, of course, sir. We would be honored to serve you. Right this way.” The dwarf, motioned for us to follow him, and we were shortly sitting in an alcove on the second floor of the place.
“See? I just smiled at the man and we were given this excellent table,” Cornalic said as he tucked his white cloth napkin into the front of his gray shirt.
“You gave him a gold piece.” I had meant to roll my eyes at the man, but I found myself chuckling instead.
“Two actually, but the smile was the important part. I have a wonderful smile. My mother always said so.” The man grinned at me, and the array of his orc fangs was actually somewhat terrifying.
“I thought you said you were an orphan?” I asked.
“Oh I was. My mother died tragically. A dragon landed on her.”
“A dragon landed on your mother?” I asked. This guy was full of more shit than a bag of fertilizer.
“Dear friend Leo, sometimes I feel as though you don’t believe me. I can understand your doubts, but I feel as though the length and depth of our brotherhood has earned me the benefit of the doubt.”
“I have trouble believing you because of your—”
“It hurts my feelings. They are delicate things, my emotions, and I wish you could just understand how deeply I value our friendship.” The green-skinned man made a slight sniffle, and then nodded as the dwarf returned to our table with glasses of water.
“Would you care for some wine, or beer?” the short man asked as he looked at me.
“Beer is fine,” I said.
“I’ll have the same,” the half-orc replied.
The dwarf nodded, and then left the table. Cornalic and I stared at each other, and then I finally decided to end the silence.
“I don’t think you’ve ever been honest with me. You’ve saved my life, and you gave me this staff, but you have also stolen money from me, and I can’t help but think that everything you claim to do for our friendship is really just something you are doing to further your own goals. I don’t know what those goals are, and I feel like a pawn. If you truly want to be my friend, you will cut the shit and the false praises. Just tell me who you really are, and why you are so interested in me.” I sat back in the padded leather seat of the booth after I had stopped speaking, and I stared at the muscular man’s face to see if I could read his expression.
He didn’t say anything for a few moments, and then the dwarf returned with our beers. The glasses were frosty, and had the perfect amount of head over the golden liquid. When the man left, Cornalic raised his glass to me.
“Dearest friend, you are right in some ways. I have not been honest with you about everything, but I didn’t know your motivations, up until an hour or so ago, and it twisted my heart with dread. Now that I know what you seek, I feel a great relief that has overjoyed me. Will you toast to our partnership? Afterward I will explain things to you.”
“Fine,” I said, and I raise my glass to touch his. We each took a long swig from our beers, and I marveled at how the VRIU was able to give me the beer’s complicated, yet refreshing, array of tastes.
“You have a strange ability to see an item’s properties,” he said.
“Is that a statement or a question?” I asked.
“Seeking confirmation. Since we are being honest.” He nodded.
“I can see what an item does, and what it is called. I didn’t think it was uncommon, but it apparently is.”
“Ahh.” The half-orc nodded. “Then perhaps this will make more sense to you, friend Leo.” He reached up to his pointed right ear, and pulled out the earring there. He slid his arm across the table, and then set the small piece of jewelry in my palm. It was just a small stud of what looked like gold, but on closer examination I could see that it was twisted with a yellow metal, white metal, and a metal that looked like rose gold.
Never, the Earring
Armor Rating - 4
Durability - Magical
Br—
Qu—
In+2
Wi—
Pe+1
Ch—
Co—
Lu+1
For one minute every 2 hours, user is able to use any magical item, regardless of required attributes, but with 50% more mana fatigue. This earring is part of the Never equipment set, and additional bonuses are granted with each additional item worn.
With two pieces worn: Never, the Earring has double attribute bonus and reset time is 1 hour.
With three pieces worn: Never, the Earring has triple attribute bonus and reset time is 10 minutes. Mana fatigue is treated as if user meets minimum requirements.
With four pieces worn: Never, the Earring has quadruple attribute bonus and reset time is 2 minutes.
With all five pieces worn: Never, the Earring gives a +20 to Intelligence and a +10 to both Perceptio
n and Luck. Abilities of items will now give only 75% of their mana fatigue and their effects are treated as if user has twice the required attributes.
These bonuses are in addition to the other bonuses given by Never pieces worn.
If more than two pieces of Never are worn, all pieces are considered Stupendous in rating, and will be colored yellow. If all five pieces are worn, they are considered Relics and colored gold.
I forced my slack jaw to close with a loud snap, and I stared back at the half-orc. Our eyes met again from across the table, and he nodded at me.
“I have another piece as well,” he said, and then he held his large hand out across the table with his palm up.
I set Never, the Earring, back into his hand, and then watched him fasten the piece of jewelry back in his ear lobe.
“What is the other piece?” I asked hesitantly.
I didn’t think the man would actually show me, but he pulled off one of his thick black leather gauntlets, and I saw that he wore a thin bracelet beneath. He unfastened it with a careful movement, and then passed it across the table to me.
“Ha. It has been many years since I have removed either of these. I found the bracelet first, and then the earring. I feel naked without either on my person.”
I took the metal band from his fingers and let it rest in my palm. It was made of the three types of metal, just like the other two pieces I had seen, and I let out a long exhale when I saw the purple letters of the name appear on my UI popup.
Never, the Bracelet
Armor Rating - 4
Durability - Magical
Br+2
Qu+1
In—
Wi—
Pe—
Ch—
Co—
Lu+1
For one minute every 2 hours, user is able to attack at 50% increased speed, but damage of weapons is reduced by 25%. This bracelet is part of the Never equipment set, and additional bonuses are granted with each additional item worn.
With two pieces worn: Never, the Bracelet has double attribute bonus and reset time is 1 hour.
Lion's Quest: Dual Wield: A LitRPG Saga Page 35