Spoils of Battle

The woods had an odd peacefulness to them with no threats present. John and Aeolia took the respite gratefully. John’s battle weariness faded quickly, though he wasn’t sure if it was because of Gamer’s Body putting him back to baseline or because his level up had restored his health and mana to full. In either case, he wasn’t going to interrupt Aeolia’s rest.

‘Looks like she nodded off,’ John thought as he glanced over to her. ‘Or is she just trying to recover some mana? Do people have the same time limitations to it like I do with Bask?’

His thoughts drawn to his mana restorative skill, John began to replay this whole Woad fighting affair.

‘I definitely need more mana,’ he thought, working through his failings during the fights as he pulled up his Character Sheet. ‘And more Strength too. Doing only a few points of damage with Senka really isn’t a good thing. Five points to spend, two areas I want to focus on.’

Increasing Intelligence and Wisdom would help his mana situation, the question that played on John’s mind was how to distribute his points between the mana related stats and Strength.

‘Two into those and the last into Strength?’ the Gamer pondered. ‘Or put two into Strength and divide the last three into Intelligence and Wisdom. Or should I put that third point into Endurance so I have more health?’

John stood at an intersection he had been at many times before: the choice between enhancing one skill area by a large margin to heavily boost his current main damage source or spreading out his growth to open up more varied options.

‘The Goggles have the only real damage dealing Evocation I have,’ John mused, ‘but it takes a lot out of them, and they’re still a close range effect, so being able to both hit with that and having the ability to fight with Senka or another weapon sounds like it’s the better option. But I think I should hold off on making a decision until I see what loot dropped.’

Slowly, John pushed himself to his feet and walked the short distance to the twin piles of goodies.

‘Guess since I wasn’t present when Aeolia beat the Knight, its loot only popped up once we beat the Commander. Or did it only show up once all enemies in the area were dealt with?’

Those were questions for another time and John pushed them aside as he took in his spoils.

“I guess the smaller pile is from the Knight?” Aeolia asked, breaking the quiet of the forest and causing John to flinch in surprise as she flew towards him.

“Don’t scare me like that,” John said as she landed on his shoulder. “I thought you had fallen asleep.”

“I can sleep when we get out of here,” Aeolia replied with a tired smile. “Besides, I want to see what we won.”

“Right,” John said, his thoughts drifting as he eyed the piles.

‘Aeolia deserves more of this stuff than I do,’ he thought. ‘She did most of the actual fighting.’

“Anything jump out as something you’d want?” John offered, giving Aeolia the first pick of the loot.

“Not really,” she answered, jumping down to take a closer look. “Nothing I can really use, and to be honest, you’ve been dropped into the deep end of the pool and need all the stuff you can get your hands on. I’ve still got things back at HQ I can grab.”

Her jovial tone shifted to melancholy as she brought up the empty base of her fallen friends and family. She shook her head to banish those dark thoughts and added, “Let’s just pick this stuff up and head out.”

“Okay,” John said, knowing enough to not prod, reaching down to the smaller pile and touching the two bundles of cash that rested atop two pieces of wooden armor, the $475 disappearing into his money pool. Then he paused as he counted the number of items they had won, frowning as he reached the final number.

“Got a bit of a problem,” John said. “I’m going to run out of space in my Inventory if I try to store all these. I’m going to need to increase my Strength if I want to hold all of them.”

“Can’t we just carry them out normally?” Aeolia asked.

“Um, I’m not sure,” John answered. “In some games, you can’t pick up anything once you hit the limit but in others, you can but it penalises your movement speed. Guess it can’t hurt to try and review them back in my house.”

With three open slots to use, John first moved to stow the largest items, which rested at the bottom of the pile the Commander dropped. A twinned set of greatswords lay in an ‘X’ supporting the other two items, a simple looking block of wood and a far more intricate looking ring.

John ignored both and resisted the urge to Observe one of the swords, instead willing both into his Inventory. Then he focused on the Knight’s pile and put the larger of the three armor pieces and a wooden chestplate away. Leaving a grand total of three items to carry out by hand. John then reached for one of the remaining items, the ornate wooden ring, and picked it up.

“Looks like there’s no problem with carrying stuff by hand,” John reported when no popup appeared.

“I’ll carry the ring. Only fair I do some of the work,” Aeolia offered, extending a hand to take the artifact. John passed it to her and she slipped an arm through the band, carrying it like a sling bag. John picked up the block of wood and the remaining armor piece, a pair of wooden boots.

Loot scooped up in his arms, John carefully lifted a hand, and after a glance at Aeolia to ensure she was ready for the exit, triggered Instant Barrier and felt the ground fall out from under him. A second later, John found himself in his backyard, the sky gaining an orange hue as day inched closer to night.

“That gets easier every time,” John commented, feeling very little of the disorientation he had come to expect with entering and exiting barriers.

“Told ya you'd get used to it,” Aeolia said with a self-satisfied smile. “Let’s get inside and unload the loot.”

John nodded and made his way inside. The darkened halls and rooms made it apparent that his mother hadn’t gotten home yet, which was for the best given his prize laden arms and diminutive passenger. A quick trip up the stairs and John entered his room, placing his held items carefully upon the bed.

Aeolia leapt off his shoulder, adding the ring to the pile, then glided over to rest on John’s pillow, pausing slightly to lay her glaive on his side table before settling down. Before John unloaded the remainder of the loot, he slipped his coat off and draped it over his chair. Then he opened his Inventory, surveying his gains.

“Okay,” he muttered. “Let’s start with getting everything out.”

John divested his Inventory of his uninspected loot, his bed quickly filling up with pieces of wooden gear. The last items to be removed were the swords and John couldn’t resist the temptation to wield one like some heroic knight, tapping one of them on the Inventory screen.

Weapon slot system unlocked. Greatwood Sword equipped to slot two.

John blinked at that, expecting that trying to equip the new weapon would simply replace Senka as his go-to weapon, not unlock a new equipment method.

John’s confusion and surprise must have played on his face as Aeolia sat up from upon his pillow and asked, “Something wrong?”

“Well, it’s nothing wrong, really,” John replied. “Turns out I can have at least two weapon sets at one time. I think that means I can quickly switch between them. Going to try that out real quick.”

John willed Senka to his hand, the knife appearing as it always did. Then, making sure to face away from anything, John turned his thoughts to his new sword and Senka vanished from his grip, instantly replaced with the far heavier greatsword. The two-meter long weapon dipped downwards as it strained John’s wrist until he brought his other hand to the handle to support the weight. Unlike the one wielded by the woad, this was far smaller, more suited to John’s size.

A second later, he switched back to Senka before stowing the knife.

“Well, that certainly is a cool feature,” John said.

“Gives you a pretty good advantage,” Aeolia commented. “Having a built-in pocket space is already a great one, but being able to swap out weapons in an instant is really something I haven’t heard of.”

“Other people have pocket spaces?” John asked, removing the unselected sword and adding it to the pile.

“Yeah,” Aeolia answered, though her tone carried a touch of uncertainty. “Never went out of my way to look them up, but I know the Auction sells them, somehow.”

“Something to look up later,” John said, an excited gleam entering his eyes. “Let’s get cracking on seeing what these things are good for.”

He walked to the head of the bed so Aeolia could look at his displays and focused on the wooden block. It was nearly as long as his forearm and just as thick, a perfect rectangle of dark brown, almost like cocoa powder, the same color as all the wooden material John had seen in his single day of living in the Abyss.

“Any idea what ‘Living Core’ might mean?” John asked Aeolia, deferring to her knowledge before tapping the Attribute to reveal its details.

“Not a clue,” she replied, her tone taking on a jovial note. “Maybe it’s alive and you have to feed it to make it grow.”

“While that would be nice to have a renewing source of this stuff,” John responded with a smile, finger hovering over the Attribute, “it says it's a crafting material, so it might be something more useful for whatever is made from it than it is for itself.”

Living Core: The center of this wood lies dormant, but alive. A supply of mana can enable restorative growth, at a rate of 10% durability per 15 mana.

“Definitely more useful for things made out of this stuff,” John remarked, closing the display, “Earthen Reinforced is something I’ve seen already. Just means it’s highly durable because of earth mana. On to the next one then?”

Aeolia nodded and John turned his attention to the pair of wooden boots. Plates of the expected brown wood were affixed to a sort of viney growth that was close to leather in texture, laces of the same material ran up the inner side of each. Decorative carvings etched the wood, weaving geometric patterns up and down like a maze upon each plate.

“Of course they called a pair of boots ‘greaves’,” John groused. “I hate when they do that. Greaves are lower leg armor, not tall boots.”

“You done lamenting poor naming schemes?” Aeolia asked in a deadpan voice. “‘Cus there are more interesting things about this.”

“Yeah, I am,” John said with a sigh. “Just rubs me the wrong way, things being misnamed. Anyway, back to more important matters, Attributes. Looks like ‘Living Core’ does go from crafting material to the item. As for ‘Cushioned’...”

Cushioned: This item reduces the **** of impacts upon it and remains comfortable for the wearer.

“At least I shouldn’t get splinters from wearing these,” John joked. “Which is a good thing since it looks like I’ll be wearing these if hitting this ‘Armor Set’ bit reveals some sort of bonus for wearing matching gear.”

Knight of the Forest Armor Set: Grown from the trees of their home and marked with the symbols of their great houses and personal deeds, the noble warriors of the Elf Kingdom of Amarlis stand resplendent, ready to defend their land from any that wish to ruin it.

Set Bonus: 2 Pieces: +10% Health Regen, 3 Pieces: +15% Strength, 4 Pieces: +15% Endurance, 5 Pieces: -20% Damage from necrotic sources

“Well, a ten precent boost to my health regen isn’t something to sneeze at,” John said, closing the display. “Assuming the chestpiece is a part of this set.”

“That last one’s a little creepy,” Aeolia pointed out. “Why the hell does the full set give protection from ‘necrotic sources’? That’s like decay, right?”

“I think so,” John answered. “Maybe, whoever these elves of Amarlis are, they’re fighting some kind of enemy with decaying magic and made their armor resistant to it.”

Aeolia shrugged. “Guess that makes sense. Going to check the chestpiece next?”

“That’s the plan,” John said, eyes flicking to the item in question. Like the footwear, the wooden pieces of armor were connected by straps of leathery vines, with thicker pieces of the slightly green material fused to the inside, acting as what John assumed was padding. The front half of the armor was covered in the same decorative carvings as the greaves, some terminating in elaborate pieces of swirling and intersecting lines.

“Well, guess I might go around wearing wooden armor,” John said lightheartedly. “I wonder if these symbols really are the marks of some elf clan or just fake ones to look the part?”

Pushing aside questions he and Aeolia had no way to answer, John looked to the unknown Attribute.

Perfect Fit: This piece of armor or attire will mould itself to its wearer, altering its fit as needed.

“That’s nice, I guess,” John muttered. “At least if I dump all my points into Strength and turn out like a bodybuilder, I won’t need to get another piece of armor.”

“Yeah, and if you get fat, it’ll still fit too,” Aeolia joked, levity momentarily overcoming her tiredness.

“You’re probably right,” John chuckled, suppressing a small yawn as his own weariness began to become apparent. “Not that it would come to that. Got a feeling I’m about to become a lot more active. Moving on, let’s check out that ring. That has to be the ‘Reference Relic’ the bonus event gave us.”

John picked up the accessory, turning it over with his fingers. Like all the drops from the Woads, it was made of wood, though one that was almost white in color. The band was formed out of two twisting strips that weaved over and under each other, in a way that reminded John of the decorative carvings he’d seen in almost every game and movie with a Celtic theme. Ten small glyphs had been etched into the spiraling bands, glowing with the same purple energy John had come to associate with plant-based creatures.

“That’s a whole lot of tens,” Aeolia commented.

“Yeah,” John agreed. “But they’re nice tens. Boosting my mana and regenerations is really good, and making healing effects cheaper is never a bad thing. Wonder if the Evocation will carry over the theme.”

“And yes, it does,” John announced, his sense of symmetry and theming appeased. “Ten glyphs, ten ‘10’s.”

“I only count eight ‘10s’,” Aeolia said, a concerned look on her face.

“Ah,” John exclaimed with a grin, “but ‘100’ is ‘10’ times ‘10’. There’s the last two.”

Aeolia shot John a sour look “I feel like that’s cheating.”

John shrugged. “It kind of is. But sometimes game developers have to get clever when they want to use repeating numbers or other patterns to fit existing templates. Figure that is what’s going on here. Number fuckery aside, the effect is pretty good. Said it before, but things that make healing better will never be a bad thing.”

Unlike the rest of the loot, John immediately slipped the ring on, its uses making it an automatic addition to his on hand gear. With that done, John moved his attention to the final piece of loot, the only one that they had won a duplicate of.

John estimated the blade was around one and a half meters long, a single piece of sanded wood that looked as sharp as steel. The crossguard was fairly plain, a bar with no ornamentation. The grip was wrapped in strips of leathery plant-like material and was topped with a disk pommel bearing only a simple spiral etching.

“Okay, so nothing really new Attribute wise,” John stated, “or rather, nothing I need expansion on. And for the Evocation...”

“Simple,” John said quietly. “But effective. A twenty percent boost to my Strength is definitely a good thing. That’s over two points right now. Well, that’s all of it. What do you think I should do with the extra sword? Sell it, keep it as a backup, use Craftsmanship on it and see what that does?”

When no answer came, John turned his attention to Aeolia. The winged woman had given into the temptation of the soft pillow and slipped into slumber, her chest raising and falling slowly.

‘She really must have burned herself out fighting,’ John thought, a small twinge of guilt upsetting his insides. ‘I really need to power-level. I hate that I can’t carry my own weight.’

For a second, John considered opening a new Barrier to fight again, but dismissed the idea as quickly as it came. Despite his shame over being close to dead weight, he wasn’t dumb enough to rush into another combat situation half-cocked.

‘Maybe if Aeolia isn’t in my party, the monsters will be closer to my level,’ he reasoned, thinking back to how the barrier had set the average encounter level to their averaged level and how the experience he gained from the alpha had been cut because Aeolia hadn’t been in his party.

He shook his head.

‘I can worry about that later,’ John thought, eyeing the assortment of gear on his bed. ‘I still have those stat points to spend and I need to sort out where I’m storing the stuff I keep. I can’t keep it all in my Inventory. And…’

John glanced at Aeolia’s sleeping form.