The Loot Haul

“No fucking way,” Erica swore in disbelief as John pulled the item out of his inventory. It was some kind of glove, with a somewhat discomforting moist texture to it. That was all that John really got to notice about the item before acknowledging Erica’s reaction.

He turned his head to look at her, quirking an eyebrow in question, “What?”

“What, he asks,” Erica sarcastically replied. “What, as he casually disregards the foundational rules of the Abyss like it’s a damn hobby.” She glared slightly at John, and pointed at the glove resting on his palm. “That? It’s impossible. Literally. That glove of yours defies reality as we currently know it.”

John looked slowly from Erica’s serious and intense expression to the morose-looking glove, which dripped ever so slightly, and then back again dubiously. “Uh… Would you mind, uhm, explaining?”

Erica opened her mouth as if to speak, then paused, and closed it again. Her lips twisted slightly, and her brow scrunched in clear thoughtfulness. John wasn’t exactly the most socially adept, but he’d been in her shoes enough in the past, trying to think of how to explain something in the right words and just not being given the time to work it out. In fact, it was half of the reason that he had never truly managed to connect with the more nerdy side of his age group.

So, before he could think to stop himself, he asked, “W-Would it be easier if I went through the rest of the loot first?”

Her eyes flicked to his, and for the life of him, John could not read what her expression was saying beyond the fact that it was positive in some fashion, and then she gave him a nod to give him the go-ahead.

As he turned the focus of his attention away from the blonde once more, and towards the still uncomfortably damp glove, he could admit to himself that his suggestion was fuelled as much by his own past experiences as it was by the desire to see the hard-won spoils of the dungeon.

Speaking of which…

The glove was exactly as the description said, a vaguely red-purple swirling slime material which was slightly off-putting to hold. He quietly said to himself, “Christ, I hope this isn’t so unpleasant to wear…”

It was only at Velvet’s little giggle that John recalled he still had an audience, his head whipping around to look at the blind girl as she hid her smile behind one hand, sightless eyes obviously still twinkling with mirth. From there, he threw a glance over at the blonde berserker, but she just raised an eyebrow at him and kept grinning.

Clearing his throat, he turned his attention back to the loot, and put the glove away, grateful for the absence of that moist texture on his hand. He looked through the inventory list, and noticed two things of particular note. The first was that the items were all highlighted in different colours for the different tiers of quality they were, and organised that way by default, meaning that John was able to decide to pull things out from lowest to highest tier. The second was that there were two items bundled together specifically for Velvet, that John couldn’t properly see, the names being blocked off by the overlaying window which told him they were for Velvet specifically.

That… was potentially worrying.

He decided to do the most appropriate and healthy strategy for the situation: simply ignore it until later. Instead, he grabbed the lowest quality new item out of his inventory. A choice which he swiftly realised the issue with.

“Is… Are you holding a metal ingot, John?” Velvet asked, ever so sweetly, despite the obvious confusion in her tone.

“That he is, Velvet,” Erica replied, amused confusion also flavouring her tone.

“Uhm… John, wh-why, exactly, are you holding a metal ingot? That doesn’t exactly fit with a, uh, mall?”

John sighed to himself, and huffed a laugh at their confusion before giving an answer, “My inventory organises things based on rarity, so I figured I’d start with the common stuff and move to the top.”

Erica grinned. “Oh, saving the best for last? Approval, dude. But, uh…”

John frowned slightly. “Yeah. Apparently, I’ve gotten a bunch of crafting materials in addition to the actual loot?” He quickly skimmed through the common and uncommon stack in his inventory, taking stock of what was there before speaking, “Yeah, looks like I have a small variety of different little bits and pieces that aren’t usable on their own? Like this bar. It’s apparently something common called… ‘lesser infus-iron’? What’s with the bad wordplay?”

“‘Lesser infusiron?’ You’ve got how many bars of that stuff?” Erica asked, slipping her phone out of a pocket and tapping away at it whilst John responded.

“Uhhh… four?” John replied after a quick double-count. “Why, is it important or something? It’s only a common material.”

Erica chuffed lightly, and shook her head. “Nevermind. I’ll explain when you’re done. What else have you gotten? Materials, that is.”

John skimmed the list, reading the names aloud as he did, “Hm… four lesser infusiron, three globs of lust-slime, and three small dented manasteel panels? Yeah, that’s it.” He glanced at Erica when he was done.

After a moment, she looked up from her phone for just long enough to nod at him and tell him, “Alright. Let’s see what the ‘actual’ loot is.”

John hesitated for a second to consider asking her to elaborate, before deciding to trust her to tell him when she works it out. “Alright… Uhm, here.” An item popped into his hand, and he immediately grabbed it with his other as the weight hit him and cruelly reminded the Gamer of how low his STR stat was when he didn’t have the berserker rage buffing it.

Aside from that, however, John was able to instantly recognise this item for what it was, because he’d known he was going to get it from almost the very start of the dungeon.

It was, undeniably, somewhat cute even before it had been switched on. It was seemingly painted in different complimentary pastel shades, and had a couple of small LED panels which would assumedly be the eyes when it started. Aside from that, it was just… small. It was cute the same way that anything was cute when it was a miniature version of a normal thing.

John looked over at Velvet, recalling Gaia’s promise that the blind brunette would adore the thing, and smiled despite himself. Without much further ado, he turned to actually face her, knelt, and pressed the little power switch on the robot, letting it wake up.

Almost immediately, there was a soft musical trill, and the little electronic panels lit up, showing a line which split open to reveal little digital eyes. Slowly, it looked around from Erica, to John, giving a small bleep-bloop to each of them, and finally settled on Velvet, who got another excited musical trill when it saw her. Without further ado, there was a gentle whirring noise, and the little robot began to slowly trundle over to the blind brunette.

For her part, Velvet looked moments away from an explosion of adorable squee-ing the likes of which would rival the deadliest of bombs. Then, it reached her and she let loose another of those adorable noises of sheer joy which made John’s chest tighten and fill with an unfamiliar warmth. He watched her, enthralled with the expressiveness of her features as she played with the Companion Roomba as if it were some kind of small cat or dog, rather than a literal robot.

He only realised how much he was staring when Erica nudged him and gave him a gentle smirk. “Gaia, you’re down bad, aren’t you?”

John felt a crimson blush rise in his cheeks, and went to refute the teasing, social instincts kicking in to protect himself. Then, he glanced over at Velvet again, and the words died on his lips as he found himself totally and utterly incapable of even so much as feigning disinterest in the girl. Instead, he spoke so softly that he barely heard himself, the words escaping him before he could stop to consider them, “...She’s just so wonderful.”

His eyes flicked to Erica’s expecting further teasing, and preparing for it. Instead, she gave him a genuine smile, gentle and approving. The last thing he saw before turning his attention back to Velvet was a subtle wink from the berserker babe.

Velvet held up the roomba as he turned to face her again, unable to stop the slightly goofy smile that crossed his face. She asked, “What’s his name, John?”

“Uh… I don’t actually know. He doesn’t have one in the description, but if you think of any good ones, tell me and we can choose one together, okay? Maybe that’ll, uhm, change the description or something,” John rambled a little, uncomfortably aware of how susceptible he was to her glittering eyes. “W-why don’t we finish looking at the loot, in the meantime?”

“Yeah, do that. I want to see what other bullcrap I need to explain,” Erica chimed in with an unsupportively supportive statement to help him out, which, despite the latter half, he took advantage of to pull the next item out of his inventory. He left the roomba with Velvet for now though.

“...Okay then. That’s, uh, that’s actually some really good armour… clothes? Whatever. That’s a level’s worth of points in Endurance, plus some other protection stuff.” John took a good look at the uniform in question.

It was a dark navy blue, with no adornments on it. There were a slew of different pockets throughout the outfit, on the hips, the legs, the sides of the stomach, even one on either side of the chest. A simple brown leather belt held the waist, and the clips to support the various pouches and such that the Janitor himself had been using were absent. He thoroughly inspected it, and then tapped the button to equip it. Almost immediately, he found that it was ever so slightly too large. Not enough to actually impact his movement or anything, but just enough to be mildly inconvenient. On the plus side, there were no stains or any sign it had been used, although…

“Uhm… It really smells of bleach, John.”

“Fucking hell that thing’s ugly, dude.”

Almost simultaneously, the two girls gave their opinions on the new gear, and despite having expected them, John couldn’t really find anything to refute their points. “I mean, yeah, but… it could be worse, right? It’s clean and five points of Endurance is a lot! A-and don’t forget the whole protection thing, right?”

The girls, despite one being blind, somehow managed to give him identical looks of doubt, as he vainly tried to defend the new outfit, “Besides, it’s functional. I have so many pockets here, and here, and here, and… fuck, why’s this got so many pockets… I-I mean, uh…” He looked at them both, as their doubting looks grew stronger.

Without even batting an eye, Velvet said, “Sorry, John, but… well, it’s kind of bad. I, uh, I think you’d be better with something else.”

Erica snorted lightly. “What she’s too nice to say is that it looks like shit, dude. I don’t care how good the buffs are if it makes you look like Janitor #3 for Nondescript Labs in a movie. Really, you should change it.”

John sighed slightly in defeat, wordlessly acknowledging their points. And yet… “I’m still going to be using it for now, though. Just until something better shows up, honest.”

They wore matching grimaces at that as he clicked through his inventory to take it off again, though Velvet’s was slightly less pronounced than Erica’s. Without giving them a chance to complain about his new less-than-wonderful armour, he put the coveralls away and pulled out the next item, the first and only legendary he’d gotten from the dungeon.

And then he almost immediately shoved it back into his inventory as he realised what it was, a bright cherry blush flushing his face. What he failed to do, however, was close the window in front of him, resulting in a cackle and smirk from Erica, and a blush from Velvet… was she hiding a smile? Damnit, that should make him uncomfortable, not make her look even cuter!

“Uh- uhm… Given that you’ve both seen that already, uh, I’m just going to read the, um, attributes real quick…”

John swiftly busied himself with rapidly clicking through the different attributes and skimming them. Conveniently, it took just about the same amount of time that he needed to stop blushing. Isn’t that interesting?

He cleared his throat. “So, um, apparently they’re basically perfect? There don’t seem to be any downsides to them, aside from maybe not having an actual armour value? But, well, it’s hardly as if I’m going to be fighting in my underwear, so that’s not exactly, um, necessary.”

He glanced over to see Erica still grinning, whilst Velvet? Velvet looked somewhat lost in her thoughts. If he were a little braver… and if Erica wasn’t there, John might have asked the blind badass to share her thoughts. As it was, instead, he coughed to himself and said, “Uhm, shall we, uh, check the last item? It’s apparently ‘unique’.”

“What does that even mean, in this context?” Erica asked, a hint of frustration colouring her tone. “All of the stuff you’ve pulled out so far is pretty much unique to everything else in the Abyss. Made of the same basic stuff, sure. And all of it probably could be made by a normal artificer or some such. But-” She cut herself off.

John carefully replied, “Uh… well, with how you said the rest of my powers work, with the berserker stuff and classes, all that stuff… maybe this being unique means it’ll do something that isn’t otherwise doable by someone with the right skills? Like, uhm, for example… uh…” The Gamer trailed off, his dearly lacking knowledge of this new layer of reality that he’s been dropped into failing him.

Fortunately, as if able to sense exactly the help he needed, Velvet chimed in, “Like creating a relic artifact, or some such?” At John’s confusion, she elaborated with a smile, “Relic artifacts, at least the ones I was thinking of, are specific pieces of magical equipment that gain certain additional benefits because of some catalyst. The most famous are typically divine weapons, which have additional powers granted to them than they had at forging, due to some incident where a deity has either used them or blessed the weapon for another.”

John listened closely, both because of the interesting information and how enthralling Velvet was when she was speaking with confidence. It was as if grace and charm oozed from her every pore, pulling his attention in without any effort. Unfortunately, she clearly noticed as she became more nervous and less confident once more. “Uh-uhm, yeah. The, um, the problem is that most weapons nowadays can’t, uh, they can’t hold the strength of the magic. So, yeah. They’re pretty, uhhh, pretty rare!”

After a moment of silence, Erica clearly decided to rescue the poor cringing girl, looking at John and saying, “Well, only one way to find out. Whip it out, c’mon!”

Whilst both of the shy teens could have done without the innuendo, John sent a grateful look to Erica, getting a wink in response, and he pulled out the final item, surprised at the weight of it in his hands.

It was, frankly speaking, a rock. But it was a damn cool rock, John had to admit. He had to hold it in both hands, mostly because of the awkward shape more than the actual weight. It was clear why it was the Shattered Key Piece, with a lot of rough edges visible and areas where it had obviously broken off. Honestly speaking, the more interesting part was the material it was made out of, and the patterns on the one side that was smooth and unbroken, indicating that it was originally the exterior of whatever it used to be. The stone was some kind of dull black rock, which glittered softly in the light whenever it moved, with grooves inlaid on the unbroken side.

The grooves didn’t make any sense to him, probably since the majority of the pattern was missing, and yet… “Is it just me, or do you guys feel like you could just-” Before he could think of what a bad idea it could be, he felt an instinctive pull to push a little bit of his mana into the Key Piece.

Almost immediately, the grooves began to fill, a soft blue light filling them, mixing with notes of red and gold beneath the blue. After only a second, the grooves filled completely, and the light began to fall from where they broke off, forming an oddly pretty waterfall effect of multicoloured mana-light-stuff. The Gamer stopped feeding the Key Piece, and the light slowly faded away, leaving him to turn his attention to the two women that had been watching silently.

“...What does it do?” Erica asked, first, oddly quiet.

John frowned a little bit. “I don’t actually know. Here, look. It’s one broken piece of some kind of key, and it just says that once they’re joined together, ‘the way will be opened.’” The Gamer furrowed his eyebrows a little. “It’s kinda ominous, actually, when you say it aloud like that.”

Velvet giggled slightly, and John’s expression turned somewhat sheepish at the unspoken clarification that he got creeped out by a rock.

Erica sighed to herself, turning her attention away from the Key Piece. “So, another unclear and confusing thing that shouldn’t exist. Great.” John took that as his sign to put the Key Piece away again.

He glanced through his inventory again, and noted that the only remaining item was for Velvet, and was a bundle item. He briefly considered giving it to her, but given Gaia’s apparent fondness for lewdness and sense of humour, paired with what he and Velvet had actually done in the barrier… it was probably safer to hand that over later, when Erica wasn’t watching.

Instead, he cleared his throat, and said, “Uhm, that’s everything, I think? So…” John trailed off, his implication clear that it was Erica’s turn.

The berserker babe sighed again, and put her hands together, focusing her attention on John. “Yes. Right. Okay, so- You’re utter fucking bullshit, and you have absolutely no idea how valuable you just became.

“Let me start from the top. Barriers like what you made today, when we usually make them, they're full of Abyssal creatures which are entirely fake, and when they die, nothing happens. They don't exist, and nothing anyone does can make them real. You can't harvest them, or anything. That's why we have Natural Barriers, since those have real creatures which people get materials from.”

“Okay, so I get that it's weird,” John said, confused, “but I don't see why it's a big deal if you can do it normally in these natural ones?”

“Yeah, but, the difference is Natural Barriers are random, and sorta rare. We can’t control when we make them, and we can’t decide what’s in them. You get where I’m going with this, dude?” Erica’s expression was hard, as she met John’s eyes, and yet he couldn’t deny the little flash of warmth of the concern there.

It took him only a moment to piece together what she was saying, however, and he did so with a quietly spoken, “Oh shit…”

There was a collective moment of quiet as the girls let John process the realisation.

“So… tell me if I’m wrong, but… this makes me a target, doesn’t it? Being able to grind out resources on demand?”

Erica nodded solemnly. “Most guilds would kill for it. The Order would never have to worry about supply issues again with you on board. Mana factories would have the constant supplies they needed to run for free. Even groups like the Moon Clan could use that skill, given how you can make stuff that isn’t found anywhere else. And if you can make legendary equipment with any regularity, down the line?”

That frightened John. He could admit that to himself. Hell, he could admit that to anyone now, honestly. So much had happened in such a short time that he just couldn’t find it in himself to deny his own fear. The thought that someone might use his new powers in a way to hurt others? To use him that way, against his will? It was like he could feel the ghost of the cuffs wrapped around his wrists again, and he hated it.

“Okay, I get the picture.” John nodded to himself, then met Erica’s eyes resolutely. “What do I have to do to be safe? No, actually, I’m getting the impression that the only way to be safe is to leave. So, what do I have to do to make it so that whoever tries something next will regret it?”

For a moment, the blonde Abyssal simply looked at him, a hint of approval in the way her eyes crinkled slightly. Then, she smiled, slowly and dangerously, and said,