Of Arms and Armories

The elevator whirred faintly as it slid downwards to its destination, though even that faint noise was muted from its occupants by flowing red magic.

For his part, John still found the silence unnerving. It was almost disorienting to have a complete lack of ambient noise around him. He pushed that aside though; he had a conversation to focus on. Since Ela had asked about his inventory, he’d opened it up to check what slots he had available for whatever she was thinking about. That was what he’d been doing before the silence had distracted him.

“What do you have in mind?” Moira asked, turning to face the blonde knight as John resumed his game of inventory tetris.

“Well…” Ela paused for a second to organize her thoughts. “During my training, we prepared to use a small selection of blessed weapons and mundane firearms when handling the summoned undead of necromancers.

“Based on my limited experience with them, many of the monsters within John’s ‘dungeon’ resemble simple undead. Perhaps tools that the Order already has will be effective against them,” she continued. “Though, I must admit that I do not know for certain if these are truly undead or not. Some of the larger forms are… odd.”

That sent John’s mind back to the fight with the Lighthouse Keeper, the winding strands of black ooze and flesh that had pulled itself back together. Then, he thought about the beating heart they’d found in the subway, veins of pulsing color, pumping mana through the infected ground. He still remembered the moment when he’d met eyes with the abomination guarding it - that creature hadn’t seemed all that dead to him.

“Yeah, I’m not sure,” The Gamer said, closing the window in front of him and joining the conversation. “They might look the part, but some of them are, yeah, weird. I dunno.”

Ela looked over at him, and silent understanding passed between them. “You are thinking of the same creatures as I, yes?”

“The bosses.”

John nodded, as Moira looked back and forth between the two, raising an eyebrow.

“What do you mean by ‘bosses?’ she asked. “Does the enemy have some form of leadership?”

“No, no,” The Gamer answered, holding back a smile as best he could. “When I say boss, I mean in a video game sense here. Bosses, in that sense, are strong enemies at the end of missions or areas meant to provide a final challenge or reward.

“Each stretch of the dungeon barrier I’ve opened so far - the one I did alone on the shoreline, and the parts of the city Ela and I explored together - they’ve all ended with a special enemy with some kind of unique power. All of those ‘bosses’ have also seemed a lot smarter and more aware, to me, at least.”

“Hmm… perhaps they are some kind of lich?” the Warden theorized.

John shrugged. “No clue. Maybe you’d be able to tell if you’d seen one.”

Moira nodded, a thoughtful look on her face. “That does remind me. You have mentioned a second excursion into your dungeon a few times - one with Ela. I believe I have only heard the account of your first time though, yes?”

“Oh, yeah.” The Gamer scratched the back of his neck. “I did the second stretch of the dungeon with Ela after my first meeting here. Definitely have to catch you up on that.

Ding!

The noise of the elevator’s arrival broke the unnatural silence in the air, signaling that they’d made it to the floor they wanted. Crimson mana flowed over the heavy steel, their seal lasting only for a moment before being broken as the doors opened, offering the trio a way out.

“After we have the equipment we’re looking for, while we prepare in the training room,” Moira said, gesturing towards the doorway.

“Sounds good.”

Moira turned and led the way into this new sublevel of the manor. This hall, John noted, was significantly less furnished than the ground floor had been. The carpet was still the same red color, but was much thinner and less padded. The walls were no longer brick and wood, but instead metal, lit by cold orange lights hanging above. Despite all that, it was still very sharp and clean - very Golden Rose.

Their footsteps were clearer again, too, though John wasn’t sure if that was due to the magic being weaker on this level or the floor being louder.

’Definitely in a more military part of the place now…’ he thought. ’Guess that makes sense if they’re keeping an armory down here.’

Motion in the corner of his vision got his attention - Ela, waving at him. He turned immediately, raising an eyebrow.

“Did you ever finish looking through your inventory?” she asked with a smile.

“Oh, uh, yeah. I think that I can re-pack enough things to make a good bit of space,” The Gamer said, blinking as he remembered the start of their elevator conversation. “Especially since Reginald is supposed to be bringing us some ration packs and stuff, right? I could leave behind a few things, like my spare clothes and food bag, as long as whatever he’s prepared also only takes a couple inventory slots.”

“Standard field kits should come in a water resistant bag for transport,” the blonde knight replied, a thoughtful look on her face. “I had forgotten that you could nest bags within your inventory.”

John chuckled softly, smiling over at his girlfriend. “My powers have a lot of weird little things going on that I’d forget, too, if I wasn’t living them. Anyway, I don’t mind carrying stuff - it makes sense to use my inventory like that. Just keep in mind that weight and size do factor into how many slots things take.”

“I doubt that I will be asking you to carry that much,” she said. “I just want to try some things on the monsters.”

“I’m down for as much testing as you want, as long as you think we can do it safely,” The Gamer replied, leaning back on the side of the elevator. “We aren’t exactly going to the land of sparkling happiness and rainbows.”

Ela smiled. “And I do not intend to ask them nicely for their cooperation.”

It took only a minute or so more for the group to arrive at the door to what John presumed was the armory - a heavy, vault-styled slab of steel, hewn directly into the bedrock. Instead of a normal handle, it had a turning spindle with four glimmering bronze handles, all shimmering with red magic. He whistled as they came to a stop in front of it, wondering how much the door alone must have cost.

“The quartermaster must be occupied in her own meetings,” Moira said, looking at the locked door. “I can let us in, though I will have to fill out the requisition forms for our equipment myself.”

“At least we’ve kinda got pre-approval from your father, right? That make it any easier?” John asked.

The Warden gave a rare smile as she looked over at him. “It means that if I make any mistakes, we won’t get in too much trouble.”

“Well, that is something, at least.” Ela giggled.

As the couple shared a look, Moira stepped forward, reaching down to loosen the straps on one of her gloves. With practiced fluidity, she slid the gauntlet off, plates and all, holding it under her arm so she could reach her bare hand forward. She placed her calloused hand upon the cold brass of the door’s wheel, holding still for a moment as it reacted to her mana.

“Same kinda stuff as your house, right?” John whispered to Ela.

“A much more expensive version,” she answered.

Pure white light ran across the seams of the door as its handles began to turn with a faint hiss. Moira pulled her hand back, slipping her gauntlet back on as the mechanisms in front of her continued to whir. Wiggling her fingers, she tested to ensure that her armor was fitted properly, then stepped back to allow the door to begin to swing open in front of her.

“The glyphs inscribed on the door track those who enter and exit, though the quartermaster will know that you both came with me,” Moira explained, turning to face the blonde knight. “Now, let’s see if we can find what you were thinking about.”

Ela nodded, and the redhead stepped forward, leading the trio inside the heavily-fortified armory.

In truth, it looked a lot more normal than John had expected. Considering how unusual magic had been in general, he’d thought that a magic armory would have a little fanfare or something. Instead, it looked essentially just like he’d imagined it would - simply row after row of neatly organized, metal racks and weapon stands, bolted to the ground in precisely even intervals. Various suits of armor lined the sides, though he wasn’t sure if they were for decoration or use.

The far wall held a much smaller selection of blades within a set of locked mesh displays. In the middle of those displays was a small cutout in the wall with a countertop and window that peeked over into a small office space, which John guessed probably had to be where this quartermaster would normally have been working. It was currently empty, as the Warden had guessed.

’Swords, shields, maces, halberds… shotguns?’ He paused as he counted across the room. ’Wait… One of these things is not like the others.’

“Most of our enchanted weaponry is forged for purpose, for the higher ranking knights only,” Moira said, unaware of The Gamer’s confusion. “We do keep a selection of anointed blades in the back though. Let me go find the forms and see what is free.”

Ela nodded, and the redhead walked off towards the back counter, her armor clattering loudly against the barren rock floor of the room. Meanwhile, John followed his girlfriend off to one side, in the direction of the modern firearms. Furthering his confusion, instead of plate armor, this section of the room had sets of kevlar body armor on its side.

“OK, wait a second,” The Gamer said, coming to a stop next to one of the racks. “If guns were on the table the whole time, why do you use an axe?”

The blonde turned away from the weapons she was inspecting. “In truth, firearms are really not very effective against most Abyssals.”

“Less effective than swords and axes?”

“Think of it this way, John,” she began, her voice shifting to a more even, explanatory tone, “in the mundane world, there are real limits to how durable a person can be. No matter how hard a mundane human trains, they will never be able to stop a bullet with their skin.

“In the Abyss, no such limits exist. Density of mana within the body leads to dramatically increased resilience. If Moira had had her armor yesterday, I doubt the handguns the gangsters had would have been able to pierce it. For someone of Lord Brighton’s power, it would probably take a weapon on the scale of a tank’s gun to even begin to harm them.”

She paused to take a breath, taking a sword off a rack behind her and holding it up in front of her. Faintly, the blade began to glow a pale, verdant green - a color John recognized as her mana. He’d seen that same shade with his [Unawakened Eye] before.

“We combat this increased defense with our own mana. Even unenchanted weapons can get some boost to attack power this way.”

“That makes sense, balancing the scales…” John said, scratching his chin.

He thought about how he’d instinctively used his magic focus and staff, pouring his mana into them as he channeled his spells. Part of him wondered if that instinct was another gift from his powers or if everyone with mana had some idea how to do it.

“Can’t do that with guns, I take it?” he asked.

The Bookworm Knight shook her head, returning the weapon she’d taken back to its spot. “No, not really. The way it was explained to me is that the mechanical complexity of any firearm worth using is too high to reinforce in the same, simple way we do melee weapons.”

“Someone who understands enchantment better might be able to explain it better.” She shrugged.

“Experience is also a factor,” Moira interjected, walking back over to the couple with a set of papers in her hand. “The Abyss has spent thousands of years mastering the craft of enchanting the kinds of weapons we use. Even if the styles have changed, the fundamentals remain the same as they were in ancient times.

“Guns of usable quality have really only existed for the last half-century or so,” she continued. “Perhaps in a hundred years, someone will learn to make them work.”

John ran a hand back through his hair, processing all that information.

“I’ll… take your word for all that,” he said, chuckling half-heartedly. “If that’s the case, then what’s the plan here?”

“Well,” Ela sang, turning back to the rack of guns behind her. “Where I was stationed before, we did keep a small selection of firearms for use against Abyssal creature outbreaks and weaker undead. They can be a safe option to use against swarms of more fragile monsters.”

“...Like if we get swarmed in a subway tunnel again,” John muttered in understanding.

“Swarmed in a subway tunnel?” Moira asked, raising her eyebrow curiously.

“Second dungeon, again,” The Gamer said, bitterly recalling the trap they’d inadvertently run into. “We found a side area - a shortcut, kinda - that went through an old subway tunnel in the ruins of the city.”

He sighed. “Unfortunately, there was also some kind of… flesh abomination down there that raised a small army to try and run us down.”

“We are lucky that we can run faster than they could,” Ela said, her smile trying to lighten the tone.

“Yeah.” John smiled wryly. “I got a month’s worth of cardio down there.”

Moira crossed her arms in front of her, though she too was smiling. The pair’s levity was infectious.

“I do hope that our expedition will be less exciting,” she said, shaking her head.

“Yeah, me too,” The Gamer replied, “but I don’t know if I’m that lucky. Game levels are supposed to be designed to be beaten, at least, so we probably have that going for us.”

“We will not need luck,” Ela said, pulling a shotgun from the rack in front of her. “We will have ammo.”

John chuckled as Moira raised an eyebrow in question.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “It’s from a game.”

“Very well.” The Warden shook her head again, still smiling. “Come on, we should hurry and get what we need. I want to hear exactly what happened to you both last time.”