Fashion Update

John opened the window, through which the drone flew into the room and hovered in place right over the bed. Moments later, two panels opened on the underside of the drone, and several packages that shouldn’t have all been able to fit inside it fell out and landed on top of the bed’s surface. After that the drone produced a small beep before it flew back out the window and went up and out of his sight.

John fished his phone out of his pocket and checked the time. The drone still had eight minutes left until it would have reached the Auction’s 15 minute deadline. If nothing else, they sure knew how to meet their deadlines and even manage to do it with plenty of time left to spare. The packages themselves numbered six in total. If he had to assume, then he would guess that the amulet was in its own box, and then the armor set was probably divided up by its individual pieces. In any case, it was time to open these suckers up and see what Observe had to say about them before he tried them on.

As John looked around for something he could cut them open with, the dark and gloomy thoughts he had drifted to the back of his mind. Right now, his mentality had become completely focused on these items. After all, a set of magical equipment had definitely tickled the gamer parts of his mind that his powers were based on. 

With nothing that could cut through boxes to be found, John decided that instead of looking elsewhere, he would just use what he already had. He cast Soul Weapon to bring his scythe out and held its edge over one of the box’s surface. He carefully tore it through the duct tape that held it together and opened the box. A part of him wondered how much more he would actually need to summon or use Soul Weapon before it leveled up. That was something he could perhaps try to experiment with later, since with these new items, his last few level ups, and the general boost to his stats he likely wouldn’t have too much of a problem if he tried to solo a Barrier on his own now.

But that was that was something for future John to deal with. For now, he just focused his attention on the new item that was in front of him. He reached into the now open cardboard box and pulled out the helmet. It was your fairly typical steel helmet that you would imagine a medieval knight to have worn. With sides that met at the top, a wide, singular slit that he could see through, and several holes to let him breath. He repeated the process for each of the other boxes until he had a full set of plate armor, one amulet, several empty pieces of cardboard, enough packing peanuts to survive a missile strike, and duct tape now on the bed. With each of the items now in front of him, he cast Observe on to see what his Gamer powers had to say about them.

Knight’s Helm of Minor Lightness
Creator: Deus Vult Production Facilities
Gives 10 points of damage reduction against physical attacks where this piece covers. Has also been enchanted to only weigh as much as it would if made from chainmail.
Durability: 100/100

Knight’s Leggings of Minor Lightness
Creator: Deus Vult Production Facilities
Gives 10 points of damage reduction against physical attacks where this piece covers. Has also been enchanted to only weigh as much as its chainmail counterpart.
Durability: 100/100

Knight’s Boots of Minor Lightness
Creator: Deus Vult Production Facilities
Gives 5 points of damage reduction against physical attacks where this piece covers. Has also been enchanted to only weigh as much as it would if made from chainmail.
Durability: 100/100

Knight’s Gauntlets of Minor Lightness
Creator: Deus Vult Production Facilities
Gives 5 points of damage reduction against physical attacks where this piece covers. Has also been enchanted to only weigh as much as its chainmail counterpart.
Durability: 100/100

Knight’s Breastplate of Minor Lightness
Creator: Deus Vult Production Facilities
Gives 15 points of damage reduction against physical attacks where this piece covers. Has also been enchanted to only weigh as much as its chainmail counterpart.
Durability: 100/100

Prototype Amulet of Enhanced Physicality
Creator: Marcil's Enchanted Wears
Originally created by the above company, this amulet was part of a production line with 48 others like it also made. However, when these amulets were shown to be defective due to their side effects, their production was discontinued.

Whenever activated, this amulet grants a random +5 stat bonus to either Strength, Agility, or Endurance for ten minutes before needing an hour long cooldown period. However, it also comes with several relatively harmless but still wacky side effects such as, but limited to: tasting cardboard, smelling gasoline, hearing the color green, feeling the rainbow, and many more. Note that these only last for as long as the amulet’s effects are in use.

John had gotten a pretty good idea of the item’s effects already from the Abyss Auction’s description. Sure, the side effects would be a bit annoying, but they were worth the stat boost. For example, right now his Agility score was at 18, which was already somewhere around Olympian sprinters from what he could tell. With his Endurance and Strength at 17 and 12 respectively as well, those extra five points would ensure that he would be at peak human performance, maybe even superhuman if they went to his Agility.

He opened his character sheet and added each of the new items to his inventory. Where he then dragged them to his equipment slots and equipped them. Each item was instantly placed onto his body until he was covered head to toe in steel plate. He jumped in place a bit to test how it felt. As the metal clanked together, he confirmed that it was indeed a bearable weight. Not the lightest thing in the world, that was for sure, but as long as he didn’t try to continuously run or swim in it, or anything like that, his stamina would probably be fine.

He walked over to the bathroom, the mirror already fairly defogged from the fan, and checked himself out. His amulet was under the breastplate, so he couldn’t see it. But all in all, he thought he looked pretty impressive if he did say so himself. On top of that, with how much damage reduction he received from the armor, he was probably invincible if he went to a lower level Barrier. Although, he didn’t want to try one that was too low level again, lest he had to kill defenceless infants once more. But ones where the monsters would fight back, that he figured he would be alright with now.

As he continued to admire his form in the mirror, he heard a knock come from the front door and the subsequent sound of it being opened. John had a fairly good guess as to who exactly it might be, and when he went to check, he saw that his guess had been correct. Ganzac was now back from the Apothecaries , and if the heavy frown on his face was anything to go by, he wasn’t happy.