by Aleron Kong
One thing was clear, he needed to talk to Hisako or Randolphus about the ring and the Shadow Realm. He was sure one, if not both, of them would have some info about it. His arm had been able to pass right through Alma but it seemed he couldn’t phase through everything. Clearly there were limits or he would have sunk right through the earth, a fact that every scifi episode where you were out of phase didn’t seem to take into account. Why wouldn’t you just sink right through the Enterprise? Of course, then you would be in space, outside of the artificial gravity field so you might just float there, but still, it was a major plot hole!
Richter shook his head. He couldn’t go down that particular rabbit hole again. Way too many hours had been spent on forums arguing about it. Besides, that was just a game, this was real life. He was sure there was a logical explanation for how it worked. Whatever the reason, the ability to phase through enemies in battle was huge. Almost as game-changing as being able to effectively disappear from one place and reappear in another. That was why, despite the Captain Jerry’s-size hangover he was dealing with right now, he left the Ring of Shadow Shift on his finger. It was worth the risk. Now, whether the ring was worth the judgmental glances he was sure to get from Randy and Hisako once they found out he was “playing with unknown magic” again… well, that remained to be seen.
Alma assessed him and a second later a golden glow surrounded her body as she cast Weak Cure Disease. Richter immediately felt a bit better.
1 of the 2 of the disease strains of your Shadow Sickness has been cured! The other is resistant to the Life magic that has been cast. You remain Diseased!
The dragonling started peppering him with questions, but he just thanked her and waved her away, responding, “It’s too sad to talk about.” Then he looked around the chamber again and made a decision. “I want you to go back to the kindir village. Tell Caulder that we won and tell the kindir that the undead won’t be attacking again, at least not in a concerted way. The whole settlement is probably in a panic right about now. I’ll follow behind as soon as I’m done here.”
*Are you sure, master? You’re still diseased*
*I’ll take care of that, love, and I am sure. Now off you go.*
Alma extended her neck and licked his face in farewell. As the dragonling flew out of the room, Richter looked around. He studied the chamber that only minutes ago had held a creature that had filled him with dread. This room had not long ago been a place that might have been the scene of his final death; now he felt no danger. The change was surreal. His neck twinged once again, not completely healed. He was still suffering from Shadow Shock and so couldn’t cast, but he decided sending to let Caulder know what was happening was still worth the risk of being alone.
Richter quickly sorted his rings and decided what to use from Nien’s corpse. His Ring of Hidden Dangers finally went the way of Old Yeller, replaced by the goblin witch doctor’s Ring of Mana, increasing his pool by +48. His new Glimmer Ring went into the bag as well. His own Perception was already fairly high, and it only worked when someone was close to him. Richter rubbed his neck thinking about how it hadn’t helped him against the fast-flying shadow bat. He decided the +82 from the unusual class Ring of Health would serve him much better.
He looked at the rings he now wore.
Ring of Health
Durability: 19/19
Item Class: Scarce
Item Quality: Exquisite
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: +82 Health
Ring of Flowing Thought
Durability: 25/25
Item Class: Rare
Item Quality: Superb
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: +20% mana regeneration
Ring of Spell Storage
Durability: 10/10
Item Class: Uncommon
Item Quality: Well Crafted
Weight: 0.01 kg
Traits: Holds one spell that can be cast upon activating the ring. This Ring can hold one Novice Level Spell. Spell will only last one day before degrading. Spell equipped: None.
Ring of Mana
Durability: 19/24
Item Class: Unusual
Item Quality: Superb
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: +48 Mana
Ring of Health
Durability: 21/23
Item Class: Unusual
Item Quality: Superb
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: +72 Health
Ring of Enchantment Resistance
Durability: 10/10
Item Class: Scarce
Quality: Exquisite
Weight: 0.01 kg
Traits: +32% Resistance to enchantment-type spells
Ring of Shadow Shift
Durability: 25/25
Item Class: Scarce
Item Quality: Superb
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: Allows the wearer to shift into the Shadow Dimension for five seconds real time
Summoner’s Ring
Durability: 22/116
Item Class: Rare
Item Quality: Masterwork
Weight: 0.01 kg
Traits: Increases level of summoned creatures by +5
The rainbow of colors meant he was well equipped, but also that he’d be a big fat target for any other high-level contender. “Power begets power.” It definitely seemed true that the stronger he got, the stronger he needed to be. Unfortunately, simply giving up wasn’t an option, so he needed to keep growing as fast as possible and hope that it was enough.
As great as the magic rings the ghast had worn were, they still didn’t explain the actions of the ghost king. Richter checked the remaining items on the ghast, including the contents of his pouches.
He didn’t find any gold, but one of the bags did contain two topaz, a small ruby and a larger emerald. The next pouch had an even better haul, depending on how you looked at it.
You have found:
Weak Soul Stone x 5
Durability: 10/10
Item Class: Common
Stone Level: Weak
Soul Level: Weak
Status: Filled
Weight: 0.1 kg
You have found:
Basic Soul Stone x 4
Durability: 15/15
Item Class: Common
Stone Level: Basic
Soul Level: Basic
Status: Filled
Weight: 0.2 kg
You have found:
Common Soul Stone x 5
Durability: 20/20
Item Class: Common
Stone Level: Common
Soul Level: Common
Status: Filled
Weight: 0.3 kg
You have found:
Luminous Soul Stone x 2
Durability: 25/25
Item Class: Uncommon
Stone Level: Luminous
Soul Level: Luminous
Status: Filled
Weight: 0.4 kg
You have found:
Brilliant Soul Stone x 1
Durability: 30/30
Item Class: Unusual
Stone Level: Brilliant
Soul Level: Brilliant
Status: Filled
Weight: 0.5 kg
The lower level stones were nothing to him. They were a-dime-a-dozen and had most likely been gained by killing animals. Luminous and Brilliant Level souls were powerful though, and could help him make very strong enchantments.
The third pouch held the key to the kindir king’s quest.
Upon opening it, he found a large silver ring with a square-cut amethyst. The band was an inch wide, though the hole was only large enough to accommodate Richter’s pinky. As soon as he touched it, a prompt appeared.
Quest Update: Lord of the Sepulcher
You have found the signet ring of the Lord of the Sepulcher. You are now given a choice. You may don the ring to force the power of this Sepulcher to obey you. Undead will be created periodically that can be used as soldiers in your armies. Your enem
ies will learn why in days of old, those who opposed the Mists feared the clack of bones. Or… you may choose another path, and try to lay these spirits to rest.
Being honest with himself, Richter was tired. Simply taking the power was appealing. If the prompt was right, and they almost always were, he had just found a way to spawn obedient skeletons. And not just any skeletons, but bodaks. Strong undead soldiers that could retain their Professions and utilize magical attacks. His enemies were mounting, and he needed to protect his people. Could he really let go of such a powerful weapon? Didn’t he owe it to his people, some of whom had already lost so much, to take advantage of any opportunity that he could?
The arguments were all quite good. All supremely logical, yet… something in him rebelled. He’d never been one to take the path of least resistance. And if his village was going to mean anything, he didn’t want to build it upon the eternal suffering of others. Again, only a moron built his house on an old Indian burial ground. Seeing as how he wasn’t a complete idiot, he got to work.
Richter looked at the ring again, but no further prompts appeared. So, he studied it in depth. The etchings on the outside were similar to what he had seen in the tunnels, scenes of kindir performing acts great and small. What was fascinating was that as he continued to turn the ring around to see the other side, the metal writhed under his fingers. When he looked again, the first side had changed to show a new scene. As he continued to turn the band, the etchings continued to shift.
The silver loop flew faster and faster in his fingers, faster than he should have been able to turn it. As the ring spun, the stories of the kindir that had lived in the mists were carried into Richter’s mind. He wasn’t just seeing engravings anymore; the figures had come alive and were acting out scenes from the past. He saw days long gone, of kindir who were both brave and craven. He saw the village, his village, with towering spires, and then saw it brought to ruin, the occupants who had once been kings coming to live in a manner barely better than beasts. He witnessed the lives of hundreds of generations, experiencing and forgetting lifetimes in a moment. The stories passed through his mind faster than he could consciously process and he remembered almost no specifics, but each story left a miniscule amount of residual energy upon him.
Then he saw the forging of the very ring he held, and the flow of stories slowed enough for him to remember them. He saw a kindir clad in the raiment of nobility and saw that same king kneel before the emperor of the mists. Mists that spread for hundreds of miles in every direction. The king swore allegiance to the mists for eternity. The emperor, whose words could change the very direction of the winds, placed his hand on the shoulder of the kindir who had flecks of gold in his eyes, and spoke a name.
A name which Richter repeated now, “Cody, son of Neil.”
As soon as the utterance left his lips, the king’s spirit stood again. It rushed down the two tiers of the dais and stood before him. It looked at Richter again with naked emotion in its spectral eyes. Hope.
Looking at the spirit, Richter nodded to it in sympathy and understanding. He now knew why it had been captive in this sepulcher for millennia. It had been fulfilling an oath, an oath made to the lord of the mists. An oath that Richter could now negate as the new Lord Mist. With a consummate sense of rightness, he finished his pronouncement, “I release you.”
A look of profound relief and peace crossed the kindir’s face. The ancient spirit even quirked its mouth as the barest hint of the playfulness the king had had in life returned. Then it pointed its hand at the ring Richter held; a stream of energy flowed from its body into the purple jewel atop the silver ring. The kindir’s ethereal body grew less substantial as energy flowed out of it, but the flow stopped before the ghost disappeared entirely. Despite the fact that the spirit was now easier to see through, it also had more personality than before. What had been the hint of a smirk was now a full-fledged smile.
With an almost jaunty bow, it paid respect to the Lord of the Mist Village. While still bent over, its body began to blow away on a wind that the chaos seed couldn’t feel. He heard something right before the king completely vanished, however, that sounded like a ghostly whisper, “For the Missst.”
Congratulations! You have completed the Quest: Lord of the Sepulcher
You have done it! You have released the spirit of the last kindir king of these lands. In thanks, it has transferred its control of the Sepulcher of Verget Kunig to the keeper of the Signet of Verget Kunig. The possessor of this signet ring can now:
1) Control and Command the undead created by this sepulcher;
2) Create new undead. The sepulcher will make 10 Summoning Points per day that can be used to summon undead;
3) Assign a kindir noble to serve under you to administer this location. This will bond the noble to you and greatly increase your relationship with him and his settlement.
Reward: Though you do not remember what you have seen, experiencing the lives of countless kindir has changed you on a fundamental level. Kindir now like you instinctually. +20,000 Relationship Points with any kindir of the Verget Kunig hamlet. +10,000 Relationship Points with any other kindir.
Reward: 6,250 (base 5,000 x 1.25) experience points
Do you wish to take command of the Sepulcher of Verget Kunig at this time? Yes or No?
Richter knew he was just asking for another lecture from Hisako, but this time he wasn’t playing with new magic. He couldn’t afford to let someone else take command of the sepulcher if he didn’t. He chose “Yes.”
Quest Update: Helping Hand I
You have removed the undead threat. Return to the Kindir settlement to gain your reward.
Despite the massive headache Shadow Shock was causing him, a faint smile found its way onto his face. He’d cleared the nest. Now he just had to make if back to Verget Kunig and recover from the consequences of his Shadow magic experimentation. Shadow Shock wasn’t something he could do anything about, and one of the diseases he’d gotten from the bat bite had resisted Alma’s magic, but thankfully, that wasn’t his only option.
Richter reached into his bag and downed a Cure Disease potion that Tabia had made for him. He thanked his own doomsday prepper mentality for always planning ahead. The green solution might have tasted like crème de menthe mixed with chicken grease, but it got the job done.
The remaining strain of your Shadow Sickness has been cured! You are no longer Diseased!
He looked at the bottle in appreciation thinking that he absolutely had to get his Alchemist to make more. The fact that the potion had worked when Alma’s magic hadn’t raised another topic to his mind, though. He’d been thinking of his magic and potions as different mechanisms to cause the same effects, but the Shadow Sickness had proved that wasn’t true. Maybe the Life magic he and Alma had access to just wasn’t strong enough to kill the second disease, but his dragonling was a powerful caster. Not only did she get the 50% bonus to her Life magic spellpower from him, but her high Intelligence gave her magic a boost as well.
Assuming the problem wasn’t the strength of her magic, it raised the possibility that it had been a case of needing the right tool for the right job. Had the second disease actually had resistance to Life magic, like bacteria back on Earth were resistant to certain antibiotics? He’d already seen that his enchantments were stronger or weaker than spells in some ways. Maybe the second strain was resistant to magic, but not the potion. That thought made him a bit uncomfortable as he’d come to rely on his magic so heavily.
A moment later, Richter pushed that aside. All it meant was that he had to keep training and growing stronger. It was becoming increasingly clear that there wasn’t just one right way to do things in The Land, and there wasn’t just one “best” pathway to power. In that moment, he knew that if he wanted to become a true powerhouse, he’d have to keep growing in many different directions. That was exactly what he was going to do.
Those were ideas for later, though. For now, he was just happy that the nausea was fa
ding. The headache still sucked, but hopefully it would fade when the Shadow Shock debuff elapsed. In the meantime, he put the signet ring into his bag; he had definite plans for it. As soon as he’d seen that he could choose a kindir to administer it, the gears in his mind started turning. He couldn’t wait to get back to the settlement, but first, he searched the rest of the throne room. Sure enough, there was a hidden compartment behind the throne and it wasn’t even boobytrapped. It took half an hour to find, but it was worth it. When Richter finally left the dungeon, he was richer by one hundred and forty-eight gold, a decapitated body and the head of a ghast.
CHAPTER 73 – Day 144 – Kuborn 34, 0 AoC
Leaving the dungeon was considerably easier than fighting all the way to the end. Even the feel of the place had changed. He was still in a silent tomb, but the entire ominous vibe was gone. In no time at all, he was back at the entrance of the sepulcher. The Shadow Shock debuff was still a major pain in the ass, and he got dizzy if he moved too quickly, but it wasn’t debilitating if he took his time.
There was a slight problem when he got back to the collapsed tunnel that led outside. He’d been carrying Nien’s body, an extremely gross act. The corpse smelled like week-old Arby. Not the restaurant, but his uncle Arby the shut-in, after he hadn’t bathed for a week. He’d still managed to haul the body all the way to the end of the dungeon, but climbing a rope while carrying it was just not going to work, not debuffed as he was. Summoning a mist worker would have been great, but he still couldn’t concentrate enough to cast. Richter considered several solutions, but ultimately decided to just go full gross.
The chaos seed tied the severed head to his belt using thick strands of its greasy, nasty hair. Then he tied the rest of the ghast’s body to the end of one of the secured ropes. He started to climb. When he got to the top, he was not all that surprised to see a familiar face waiting for him.