As the dust settles

“Shish Kebab? Really? How lame…” Hannah was the first one to speak up, appearing from a shadow in a corner of the courtyard

“Hey, I dealt Fire and Light damage to the vampire thing, and I skewered it up with my spear! It’s relevant! And I could’ve used some way more stupid battle cry…” John’s defense was weak, evident in the faces of the people around him, simply shaking their heads.

Scoffing and mumbling about “Everyone being a critic”, John simply looked at the pile of stuff the Vampire had left. There was a wad of cash lying there, a vial of blood, three essences that immediately floated towards John, some fangs, and an armor. The armor was made out of some kind of dark material and consisted of a chest piece with wings, an attached helmet, and faulds extending from the hips. Upon closer inspection, John realized that the materials the armor was made out of were rubber tires and dark painted chains. As John picked up the armor, he noticed that it was surprisingly light, especially for the sturdiness of the rubber.

Once he had the item in his hands, he used Observe to check out the armor.

Wasteland Angel
Rare
Torso + Head
Medium Armor: Reduces Movement Speed by 15%
+7 DEF
+3 END
+2 STR
+2 HP/h
For 5 MP, you can switch between two modes (cooldown 10 seconds):
Wasteland’s Mercy: Support Spells cast on allies cost 50% less to cast, +3 END
Angel’s Grace: Armor does not impede movement speed, +3 AGI

Apparently, none of the others could see his loot, since all of them were looking at him confused as he held the armor out in front of him. Was this the same as it was with Kim when he was in the monastery?

“So...uhm… You guys don’t see what I’m holding, is that correct?” All of them nodded.

“Well, what is it that you’re holding?” asked Kwang, clearly curious.

“It’s an armor. An armor apparently made out of magic tires.” And an armor he had seen before. He had seen himself wear it… Well, maybe it was himself, maybe it was ‘another’ John. He still wasn’t quite sure how this one worked… He had seen himself fight someone in a fighting pit, and he had been angry. Was this armor now the proof that this would happen to him? Was it inevitable? Or was it, as Odin said, simply a possibility of ‘one John’ that he would fight?

Pulling himself out of his thoughts, John immediately put on the new armor, replacing the one he had created himself. He could instantly feel the difference in the weight of the armor, feeling a lot heavier than the leather armor was. So that was the difference between medium and light armor… good to know. He then channeled his mana into the armor to switch the mode. The weight instantly fell from his shoulders, and he didn’t feel the weight of the armor anymore. Looking down, he could see that the tires were now white, but luckily, most of it was hidden by his dark cloak flowing over the chest piece. The helmet wasn’t impeding with his vision at all, thankfully.

Kaen was looking at him with big eyes, “Whoa! Did you get that armor from that thing there? That’s so cool! Can I get one as well?”

John shrugged to that, “If you kill the next one, I think so.”

“Promise?” the dragon girl didn’t leave him any room to back out from. His nod was answer enough for her.

The chuckling Kwang was enough proof for John that he just dug another grave for himself.

There was something he wanted to know though, “Say, the mutants you killed, did they drop items that were round orbs?”

All the people around him shook their heads. “They did leave some things like pieces of leather, though,” said Kim, pulling out a piece of said leather. It looked just like a normal piece of leather, but John didn’t want to think about if that was actually any kind of animal… or if it was mutant hide… In the end, it wouldn’t even matter. But at least John could say now that the others didn’t get the essences.

Looking at his inventory, the stuff he had gotten from the enemies was piling in his inventory now (apparently there was an Auto-Collect once the boss was dead). Looking around, he asked, “So, are we done here? I’d like to leave this Barrier now… Those Bloodbags will give me the creeps for some time… Where’s Mr. Magus?”

“Please, call me Magoi, and I am right there,” came the voice out of the closest building, revealing Magoi. “I think we are done here then. I think everyone should be able to find the exit on their own.” As he said that, he was already gone. One after the other, they were leaving the Barrier, each one leaving with their own little effect.

As John left the Barrier as well, he was immediately assaulted by the pop-up telling him that he had beaten the Barrier

Dungeon Cleared! Boss has been defeated!
Enemies killed: 9
+522 XP (XP Reduction + 200% Difficulty)
Boss killed by you
+700 XP (XP Reduction + 200% Difficulty)
Dungeon Rewards:
+1000 XP (XP Reduction + 200% Difficulty + Bonus Objective)
+250$
+1 Random Rare Drop (Bonus Objective)
+1 Random loot drop possible from basic enemies (Amount = half of enemies killed)
+1 Rare Essences Chest ++
Progress:
Observe, Lv. 8: You can now see the mood of Observed people

Total Rewards:
+2700$
+2 Flawed Essences of Rage
+1 Perfect Essence of Rage
+1 Meager Essence of Life
+4 Flawed Essences of Blood
+1 Pristine Essence of Blood
+9 Leather
+1 Vampire Fang
+1 Infected Blood
+1 Perk Point

Achievement Unlocked: Giantslayer
Kill an enemy 10 levels above you. Ballsy.
+100 XP (XP Reduction applied)
+250$
+1 Skill Point

DING
Level Up!

Achievement Unlocked: Dragonslayer
Kill an enemy 20 levels above you. Insane. Absolutely insane.
+300 XP (XP Reduction applied)
+750$
+2 Skill Points

Magoi then spoke up again, “Well then, let’s get to the last point of business. For the last part, you and I will enter a Barrier of mine, and we’ll talk. I will ask you some questions, you will ask me some, and then I will give you the result of the evaluation. Is that good?”

John had nothing to say, so he just nodded. The others around him wished him good luck (at this point, even Hannah wished him good luck) as all of them took a step back, but not before Kaen quickly gave him a firm hug.

"You can do it! I barely know you, but I like you. I want to fight with you again, no matter what you two come to in this conversation" Well that was nice, he had made a lot of friends today apparently.

The world around them then shattered into pieces, without the Grande Fateweaver ever twitching a muscle.

They landed in a room that John would describe as a wild mixture of various ages and styles. In front of him was a white marble table with a chess game on it, flanked by two comfy looking chairs. Behind that was a lush, green garden with various small animals running around. Rabbits, cats, some insects were flying around, and there was a pond with different kinds of fish in it. Behind John was a half circle room that looked like it would belong to a library, filled with books and a computer terminal. As John looked closer, he could see the names of the books on their backs, each one written in golden letters. There were books about Alchemy, Sorcery, Elementals, Arcane Bestiaries… It was simply amazing…

“Is- Is this a permanent place you carry around with you?” asked John, clearly astonished by the detail of everything.

“This? Oh no, I just created this place. I just took some random inspirations from my head and jumbled them together. I just wanted to show you the power of Fateweavers if they live up to their potential. If you want to see the degree of detail, you can look into one of the books, but we have something more pressing that would be of higher priority. So, let me ask you the first question: Do you play?” And Magoi moved a white pawn on the chess board.