by Cube Kid
"Should we check it out?" Breeze asked.
"I think that would be a wise idea," I said, glancing at the sign once more. In my mind, it no longer read Donation Pit, but Free Cool Stuff. "Yes. Most wise, indeed."
DAY 7—FRIDAY—UPDATE VII
Austere. Majestic. Breathtaking. The Temple of Entity was all of these things and more.
The double spruce doors gave way to a vast chamber filled with sunlight and opalescent stained glass. Chiseled quartz columns towered far above, to a ceiling so high, the builder in me could only helplessly wonder at how this place had been built. What kind of scaffolding had been used? Dirt blocks?
Red carpet stretched between countless ancient pews, and far away, on either wall, were vast murals of legendary battles: one mural depicted an army of knights against monstrous hordes, rays of light descending from the Heavens, fires erupting from below. Further inside, the windows ended, redstone torches serving as the only light source. Many of these torches surrounded a black altar, a massive slab of obsidian luster, its surfaces etched with various reliefs.
Breeze stepped in first, her footsteps echoing. Mine were noticeably louder. We found ourselves staring at every mural, every statue and etched relief. The further we ventured inside, the darker it became, until it was almost gloomy.
We stopped before a statue of a robed man with two pairs of feathery wings. There was no face under the hood of the robe, and he held a weapon that I can only describe as a farming tool except much larger than any tool I'd seen.
"The White Shepherd," Breeze said softly, running her fingers across the statue's arm. "Entity."
". . ."
Entity . . .
He was a character in a fairy tale, wasn't he? Yes, my mom used to read me that story. Back when all we had to worry about was how fast our crops were growing. He was a god-like figure known as an Immortal, who lived during the time of the Second Great War. The world was nearly torn apart then, and when things grew worse, Entity crafted twelve weapons of indescribable power, and chose twelve heroes to wield them. With them, the world had a fighting chance.
"What happened during that final battle?" I asked. "I forgot how it went. Both sides fell, didn't they?"
"The knights managed to destroy The Eyeless One," she said, "although not completely. They fell to his minions afterward, vastly outnumbered. They had pushed ahead and sacrificed themselves. Their weapons were then destroyed, shattered. Yet, they survived. In some form. Fragments. And some day, those knights were to be reborn, tasked to restore their original weapons and help save the world. For good, this time."
"You sure know your fairy tales." I glanced around the temple once more and felt a little chill. "Looks like they take them pretty seriously around here, huh?"
Her expression suddenly grew dark. Or had she been that way ever since we'd approached this statue? Well, maybe there was some truth to the legend. Maybe a bunch of knights really did end up fighting some evil wizard with weapons of divine origin. And maybe Entity really did exist, so very long ago. Did any of that matter now?
Hey, what is that?
Eyes lighting up, I pointed to a doorway. "Now there's something I can believe in!" It lead to the so-called donation pit, according to a sign.
Call me disrespectful, but through this ancient temple, I all but ran. The doorway led to a much smaller chamber, and the donation pit was . . . never mind. Forget it. I'm just going to draw a picture. Because no words could capture the sheer amazingness of what I was seeing.
DAY 7—FRIDAY—UPDATE VIII
Items.
A pool of them, one block deep.
The majority of these items were gold, but even so, I spotted several pieces of enchanted leather armor and enchanted iron. A diamond sword. Saddles. Potions. Even accessories such as belts and rings, bracelets . . .
I immediately leapt in and rummaged around like a dragon wallowing in its treasure horde.
Giddy with delight, I picked up an iron breastplate. A free enchanted breastplate! And an extra diamond sword, free! And look at those potions, just waiting to be chugged! Why would one go to a shop to trade for items when they could just come here?!
Hold on. Holddd on. Hold on like a noob holding onto a ladder over a lava pit. This isn't making any sense. People clearly left all of this stuff here, but why?
My smile faded.
Indeed, this piece of armor, shimmering faintly with a soft violet light, contained a low-level enchantment. However, that enchantment was one I'd never heard of before, and one that didn't sound like much of an enchantment at all.
I turned to Breeze. "Burden II . . . ? What is that?"
"It decreases your attack speed and movement speed," she said. "By 33%, I think."
"You mean . . . decreases. Not increases."
She nodded. "A negative enchantment. Otherwise known as a curse."
"But who would . . . why would . . . how can such a thing be possible?! I've never heard of negative enchantments!"
"That's because you never spent much time at an enchanting table," she said, wading up to me. "It happens sometimes. For whatever reason, an enchanting attempt fails, and . . ."
No, I thought, this can't be right. Then it started to dawn on me, and I glanced every which way at the gleaming, glittering mountain of items. Everything here was indeed enchanted, from saddles to horse armor to the most beautiful of golden rings, yes—but each of those enchantments had names such as Dullness, Breaking and Vulnerability.
"Dullness reduces a weapon's damage," Breeze said. "Breaking multiples durability loss. And Vulnerability reduces an armor's protective value."
"What about this one?" I asked, holding up a diamond sword with Unblocking V.
"That reduces the effectiveness of blocking," she said. "I think Level 5 is 100% reduction. So blocking with it wouldn't reduce damage at all."
"Wow. That definitely doesn't meet or exceed my standards of item quality." I tossed that sword over my shoulder in a casual way, and retrieved another sword—iron, with Lifedrain III.
"And this?" I asked.
"Lifedrain? Let's see . . . I think that damages you over time."
"Frozen Nether!" I dropped that sword as if it were a miniature creeper ready to explode.
"And don't even touch that one," Breeze said. She pointed at an iron sword with her foot. It had Binding II. "If you equip something that has Binding, you can't remove it, unless you use a specific potion."
"Yeah, I get it now," I said, glancing around in despair. "That's why everyone left this stuff here. We're standing in a trash pile."
"Not exactly," Breeze said. "Many of these items would be of use to someone with no items at all. An iron sword with Dullness I is still better than a normal wooden sword."
"How do you explain all the stuff with Binding and Lifedrain, then? And that dead bush? Trolls? Griefers?"
"Most likely." Scanning the items once more, she bent down and picked up a necklace. "Nice. I guess not everything here is bad."
A necklace, huh . . .
Like bracelets, necklaces fall under the class of items known as accessories. Many different types of accessories can be worn at the same time. Much like a second set of armor. This includes one belt, two rings, two bracelets, and one necklace.
The effect it gave was small. Regeneration I, when applied to a piece of armor or an accessory, doesn't heal very much over time, as each level of Regeneration is approximately 10% of a person's natural healing rate. Still, it was free, and better than nothing. She must have arrived at the same conclusion, for she equipped the faerie charm—or rather, wore it around her neck.
At this discovery, and perhaps feeling slight jealousy at her find, I began sifting through the items again. I desperately needed armor. "Breaking III, Slowness VI . . . oh, here's one with every single negative enchant I've seen so far. Hmm. Okay, how about this . . . yeah, this one isn't so bad."
I picked up an iron breastplate. Strangely, it had either been renamed, or had been g
enerated with the following name: Tarnished Breastplate. Covered in spots of brown rust, it only had Burden I, which, according to Breeze, only reduced attack speed and movement speed by 10%. Only. I stress only because everything else I found was much worse.
In the end, I wound up with a matching set of Burden I armor. Some leggings and a pair of boots, anyway, all covered in rust.
Next, I examined all the shields. The best had Unblocking I—a 20% reduction in blocking effectiveness. That wasn't the worst thing in the world. That wasn't the worst thing about this shield, too. It had that owl sigil on the front. Not exactly what one might call fear-inspiring. How was I supposed to intimidate monsters with a giant owl on my shield?
"Whatever," I muttered to myself, strapping it on.
Finally, a gray cap with a white feather replaced the outlandish red and purple thing I'd been wearing. Moldy Cap. What a name! But the look it gave: the white feather provided a gentle accent to the grays of my armor, a smooth flow of color, subtle. And the bits of green mold really brought out the color of my eyes. Just kidding. What do you think this is, Celebrity Villager or something? I only cared about the +1 armor bonus.
Wait. What's this Resilience I enchantment?
Breeze noticed it as well. "Nice find. Each level of Resilience reduces damage taken from critical hits by 5%."
"You mean the damage I take?"
"Yes. It's not a negative enchantment."
"Thanks, teacher." Thoroughly pleased at this news, I inspected myself. For a moment there, I almost felt like a real warrior. A low-level one, surely, but a warrior nonetheless.
The warrior's white cloak provided a cool contrast to the reddish-brown rust of his armor.
Breeze giggled. "You know, if you swapped that shield for a red one, you could almost pass for a Legionnaire."
"Yeah? Too bad I'll never be able to join them."
"Why not?"
"I asked Kolb like five times already. And Kaeleb. And ObsidianDude. Everyone I asked said the Legion has strict requirements. You have to be a human to join."
"Oh. Maybe they'll change that in the future?"
"Maybe."
Scanning the items once more, Breeze picked up a belt made of iron cubes. It was the only other accessory in the donation pit that had positive enchantments. The rest had curses or nothing at all, offering no benefit beyond a slight increase in style.
She offered the belt to me. "You want?"
"No, it's fine. I think I'm set. Besides, you need some armor, too."
With a brief nod, she threw the belt around her waist. "All right," she said. "Guess I'm good to go. Oh, hmm." She picked up a green circlet and threw it on as well. "There. How do I look?"
Okay, those boots are OP. I really need to trade with Kaeleb when I get back.
"Fabulous," I said. "A true dungeoneer."
Of course, looking at the stats of our many items, it might seem overwhelming. But to the experienced, it was like reading another language, which translated into:
I'd sacrificed the ability to move and attack quickly in return for a strong defense. With a shield capable of blocking most frontal attacks, I could withstand an incredible amount of punishment. In short, I was set up to be a great front-line combatant. A wall. Even so, a 10% reduction to attack speed didn't mean my diamond sword was worthless.
Meanwhile, Breeze was set up to be highly mobile. If injured, she could easily retreat, switch to her bow and attack from a distance while slowly healing up from her Regeneration effects. If there was some monster hiding behind others that needed to be taken out, she could position herself easier to do so; furthermore, if we encountered a particularly dangerous threat, her weakness arrows would reduce its damage. Combined with my high armor, its damage would be cut in half or more.
"Looks like most of the potions here are just poison potions," Breeze said. "Trolls have been hard at work here. They're not entirely useless, though. We could turn them into splash potions. All we need is some gun powder."
"Good idea," I said, and helped her collect the bottles. "Hmm. Y'know, if Emerald were here right now, I know exactly what she'd say. She'd suggest we haul this stuff to the nearest trader, and try selling everything for one emerald each."
"I highly doubt anyone would pay even one emerald for half of these items," Breeze said. "And who knows what might happen if someone caught us. Pretty sure this donation pit isn't meant to be raided like that. Besides, that isn't what she'd say."
"Oh? What would she say, then?"
"She'd say it's time to go trading. Err, shopping, I mean. And she'd show us this." Breeze held up a stack of emeralds.
"What?! Where'd you get that?"
"I asked Emerald for a loan. Didn't say what for, of course."
"And she agreed, just like that? Wait. How many did she give you, exactly?"
"150. And Kolb gave me another 100. Know that he had to trade away most of his stuff to do so. Including his other horse."
Whaaaaat?!
His other horse?!
Oh, this is bad! Really bad! Kolb is going to be so angry. I don't even want to return home! Okay, there has to be way out of this. Think. Think! Maybe I can just buy him a new horse? Yeah! And when he asks why "Meadow" looks different, I'll just say that I . . . um . . . enchanted her fur? How genius is that?!
"Come on," Breeze said. She was standing in the doorway by now. "I know I'm going to sound like Emerald when I say this, but . . . shopping is actually kinda fun."
FRIDAY—DAY 7—UPDATE IX
From a jukebox in the corner came strange, energetic music
Before us, so many enchanted items were hanging behind the counter that the wall actually glowed.
The dwarven shopkeeper, Moomoo, flashed a wide grin. "What you see is what I have," he said, an almost cliche shopkeeper line, along with another: "See anything ya like?"
Such a tease. Was there anything on that wall someone wouldn't mind having? There was a diamond sword with Unbreaking V. A gold breastplate with so many enchantments it actually surpassed diamond. A leash that could affect most monsters. A bed that gave anyone resting in it a day-long buff to strength. Even an enchanted nametag.
Yet, what my gaze fell to was one of the most ordinary items here. A simple potion of Healing I. We needed as many as we could get. Sadly, with ♦582 between us, and each healing potion costing ♦25 . . .
"Twenty five emeralds," I muttered. "We could get them for five back home."
"Maybe we should go somewhere else," Breeze said. She said this openly, so the shopkeeper would hear.
I played along: "Oh, that's right. That other guy was selling them for fifteen, wasn't he?"
"Ten, I think. Or was it nine?" She tilted her head thoughtfully, eyes to the side, one finger on her chin.
Yeah, that Moomoo should have been sweating ghast tears. He didn't look nervous, though. Still, I figured that was just an act. Yeah, what do you think about that, bud: two real traders just rolled into your fancy little shop.
Here's the thing, though: it wasn't an act.
"I believe you two are mistaken," he said with a slight grin, "for every major shop in Owl's Reach follows the Aetherian Item Index. This Index is a list compiled in the capitol annually and used as a strict guideline for determining the base value of an item. Accordingly, you'll find most common items going for the same price everywhere. Of course, you are more than welcome to take a look at our town's many other fine establishments. I'm sure you'll find my statement to be true."
Breeze and I exchanged glances. The look on my face was probably a cross between "What did he just say?" and "That means we can't haggle him down, right?" Meanwhile, the look on her face said: "Don't worry. We've got this."
"Then we'll be needing fifteen bottles," she said, winking at me. Those were ♦1 each.
"Anything else, young lady?"
"Nether wart," she said. "An equal number."
♦3 each, I thought, and suddenly I realized where she was going with this. Nether w
art was required to craft a base potion. A base potion was like the foundation for almost every other potion. We were going to brew our own healing potions to save money. So even if we couldn't haggle, Breeze had found a way around the absurd prices of that smug little dwarf.
He realized this as well. "I guess you'll also be needing some melons and gold nuggets," he said, "since they're the ingredients for a Healing I potion. Unfortunately, I'm out of stock on both. Been getting a lot of adventurer-types lately looking to do their own brewing. It's the strangest thing."
"Do you know where we might find some?" Breeze asked.
Again, another smile from Moomoo. "I'd say your best bet would be asking other adventurers. You'll most likely find some with extra ingredients up for trade. You might try an inn. There's a big one just down the street. The Enchanted Dragon. Can't miss it."
"Thanks a lot," Breeze said. "Oh, we need gun powder, too." She answered my question before I could ask: "We can use gun powder to make splash potions, remember? Splash healing potions are useful because they heal in an AoE, or area-of-effect."
"You mean a single potion can heal both of us," I said.,"with its splash?"
She nodded. "As long as we're close together. We just throw them at our feet. On top of that, it's faster than drinking one. I believe the healing effect would wound any nearby undead as well. And all it will take is a pinch of gun powder."
"Amazing," I said. "Although, I don't recall ever learning this in school. Did your father teach you this stuff?"
"Nope. Lola."
"I might have known."
Thanks, Lola. Even thought you aren't here, you still are, in a very real way . . .
I went over the numbers with Breeze. If we wanted to craft fifteen splash healing potions, we needed fifteen bottles at ♦1 each, fifteen pieces of nether wart at ♦3 each and fifteen handfuls of gun powder, also at ♦3.