Time to do your A.B.C (After Battle Cleanup)

King Agviðr’s **** Arena
Wave 4/4
COMPLETED!
Rewards
300 xp
The Horned Crown of King Agviðr
Summoner’s Armor (Chest piece)

It took John a moment or two of reading and rereading the popup before he actually managed to comprehend it.

‘We… we did it. We survived the **** Arena.’ John let out a tired sigh as his legs gave out from under him, his body slumping against the ground. He couldn’t recall the last time he felt this worn out, despite that time probably having been just a day ago after he first met Surtr and nearly got killed in the same day.

‘I really need to work on my energy levels.’ He looked back up at the notification, lightly tapping the confirm option, the XP filling his meter and the items appearing in his inventory. It was then that he noted another pop up that was hiding behind the main one.

King Agviðr the Mighty Slain!
+300 xp

‘Well, that’s a nice chunk of XP atop the main quest,’ John thought to himself, and after a few moments of him reading and rereading the pop-up (along with various attempts to do math) he realized that the XP he received was just enough to level him up again. He collapsed onto his back, sticking his arms up in the air in celebration

“Wooooo… level up…”

He kept taking deep breaths, trying oh so desperately to catch his breath when he noticed that Talia had decided to stand above him. Her hair was… significantly shorter, now only coming to about the middle of her neck. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot only inches away from John’s head.

“Having fun there?”

John gave a slow nod. “Yeah. Turns out draining my mana and energy into runic magic becomes pretty tiring with time. Especially when all the adrenaline of the fight goes away.”

She smiled a bit, leaning down so that her face was about an arm’s length away from John’s. “Well, Mr. Tired, I have a small quandary for you.”

“Yeah?”

“Tell me, what is a swordswoman to do when she has no sword.”

John tried to look over to where King Agviðr was. “Wait… did the sword disappear with his body?”

“No, but I really doubt THIS,” Talia revealed what had once been her sword, “is usable in a fight.”

John had to agree. The sword seemed to have melted and burnt due to John’s lightning, with a blade that drooped and a handle blackened with ash and bent in an odd angle. It reminded John of a bent paper clip, at least in terms of shape.

John looked over to Talia. “Well. That is one helluva dilemma.”

Talia nodded. “So that’s why you’re gonna give me your sword.”

That gave John the energy to quickly sit up. “Whoa, wait a sec. Just ‘cause you are missing a sword doesn’t mean you can have mine. What will I use to fight with?”

Talia gave him an incredulous look. “Did you forget what destroyed my sword in the first place?”

John wanted to object, but she had a point. He had barely used his sword at all in the battle and was able to easily rely on his runic magic. While, yes, he would prefer to have a sword at his side as relying solely on runic magic was going to be hell for his mana reserves, he had no doubt in his mind that the ruins would have a sword he could pick up and use. Even if it really wasn’t for him, he was certain that Halfdán could help him make another sword.

He gave a small sigh, opening up his inventory and unequipping Firebite. It disappeared instantly from his side, and after pulling it out of the inventory, appeared in his hands. “Treat her well,” John said, handing over his first sword.

Talia gave a small nod and a grateful smile before equipping the seath to her side. “Don’t worry, John. This is a tomb full of dead warriors. I am sure we will find you a better sword.”

John nodded solemnly. “Yeah, but it won’t be the same.” He slowly pushed himself to his feet, wincing at how tired his legs felt. “C’mon, I don’t know about you, but I could use a rest.”

Talia nodded. “Yeah, let’s see if we can find somewhere to sit for a while.”

As they started walking, John realized he forgot something and facepalmed. “Gods above… I forgot to level up and loot.”

He took a seat on the stairs leading out of the pit, and opened up his character sheet. This time it was pretty easy to decide where to put his points. Since he was going to be focusing on runic casting for a while, and his mana and spells both used Intelligence for calculations, it made sense to increase his Intelligence as much as he could. That raised his mana to 88, and his mana regen to 0.82 per second. Before he knew it, he would probably be getting enough mana that any sustained runes would cease to have any sort of major draining effects on his mana. He could have an infinite torch, as lame as that sounded out loud.

Secondly, the loot. Due to the king’s body dissolving to ash, it appeared that he would get no loot from the king. However, the quest rewards seemed to compensate for that. He opened up his inventory once again and looked at the rewarded items.

The Horned Crown of King Agviðr
Legendary Headpiece
+10% Damage to all Non-Magical Attacks

“This is not just the crown of a king. It does not sit upon the head of a coward who grows fat on the backs of his people. This is the crown of a raider. This is the crown of a warrior. This is the crown of a CONQUEROR.”
It is said that the Nordic King Agviðr approached Odin himself and asked for a crown worthy of a true warrior. This is that fabled crown, a crown that would see many battles and wars waged while resting on the head of a great king. This crown imbues the wearer with the strength of the gods and the fury of the cold north, thus making their attacks stronger.

John read over the description, his foot tapping as he thought about what to do with this crown. He didn’t want to throw away a legendary item, but without his sword he wouldn’t-

Oh. Right.

“Hey Talia.” He pulled the crown out of his inventory before tossing it to her. Thankfully she was looking at him and caught the crown just before it hit the ground. “Here. Have a magical crown.”

Talia looked at it, turning it over in her hands. “Do… Should I wear it or something?”

“Yeah. Turns out it will strengthen your attacks.”

Talia shrugged, slowly placing it atop her head. The crown then quickly altered its size, shrinking in both width and height until it sat perfectly on her head as a spiny circlet rather than an oversized crown.

“It looks good on you,” John said, to which Talia responded by blushing. John grinned, turning back to his inventory and looking at the second reward.

Summoner’s Armor (Chest piece)
Rare Armor
+10 Defence against Non-Magical Attacks
+5 Damage with all spells

“The answer to the age old question, “How to ensure my caster will live when he has the defence of a newborn?”
The chest piece of the essential mage armor set. This grants an enchanted boon that boosts the damage of the caster’s spells while strengthening the defence against anyone who tries to attack with non-magical skills or weaponry.

“And that’s for me,” John said, moving it to the equipment slot for his chest. In an instant, his damaged school uniform was replaced by his new armor. The first layer of it was like a blue tank top, leaving his arms bare. Above that was some form of black leather, with two leather straps going over his shoulders to attach the front and back of his armor. The black leather went down past his balls, and around his waist was now a brown leather belt with small studs on the sides. The buckle of the belt was made of black iron and was in the shape of a circle around a triangle, which held three smaller circles inside of it. In addition, on the side of the belt was a pouch that looked to hold a book. John guessed that it was normally made to hold a spellbook, but in his case it would be probably better to slip his glossary into it, which he did.

“Not bad,” Talia piped up, walking over and running her fingers along his now bare arms. “Could use a bit more muscle here, but the armor suits you. You’re really starting to look like a true blue mage now.”

John nodded, rolling his shoulders and patting the armor down. “Yeah, it feels pretty good. I think it will be even better if I get the rest of the set, but for now, it will work just fine.”

Talia gave him a smile before pointing over to King Agviðr’s throne. “While you were checking out the loot, I took a quick look around. There’s something you might want to take a look at on the throne.”

John closed his inventory, taking a few slow steps up to the throne. At first he didn’t see anything, just the spot where King Agviðr must have been sitting for countless generations waiting for an opponent. However, as he walked around to the back of the throne, he saw what she was referring to. On the back, opposite where King Agviðr’s torso would have been, was another rune. This one was glowing bright blue, same as King Agviðr’s magic, and was a simple vertical line. John pushed his glasses up further on his nose, and the Lunettes de Lecture Magiques translated the rune. John sighed as he saw the translation, grateful for the rune but wishing he would not have that nightmare-inducing power in his repertoire.

Rune Obtained!
Isa: Ice Form!

Without missing a beat, John slipped his glossary out from its slot and opened it to the page for his new rune.

Isa: Ice Form (I; Ice)
Skadi has informed me that any references to Vanilla Ice, or his song of "Ice Ice Baby", while using this rune will result in a swift and very painful ****.

The vikings did not fear the cold, rather, they saw it as either a tool or an opponent. With this rune, you harness the ability to turn it into a tool. When used, it will fire a blast of ice magic at the opponent with a chance to freeze them.
Damage=20% Caster’s Intelligence

‘Alright. A spell that deals less damage but at the chance of a good effect.’ John looked down at his legs, and recalled what it felt like having his body frozen by Brett. He could recall the feeling of the ice creeping along his neck, the slow crawl of the cold seeping into his every pore, the laughter of Brett as John poured his very essence into the runestone that housed Surtr’s rune, hoping it would give him a fighting chance.

John slammed his glossary shut and put it away. _‘You know, most people have a spell or two they don’t really use in games. I think I am allowed to avoid ever using an ice rune.’ _He gave himself a mental pat on the back before walking over to join up with Talia, and then the two of them walked further into the barrow hoping to find somewhere to rest.

Skriskrueel was not a happy Skaven.

Now if Znol or Tut had asked him if he was happy, he would put on a smile and pretend and tell them that, “What we not be happy about, brothers? We haves warren, we haves food, we haves treasures, we haves trophies… what not be happy about?”

However, this was just a clever misdirection. Skriskrueel was very unhappy. While, yes, the clan was doing well, and creating a warren in the bowels of an ancient barrow was a smart move, probably the smartest one that Chief Thrueetch ever made, Skriskrueel was still very unhappy. For you see, Skriskrueel was one of the very few of his clan that still worshiped the Venerated Horned One. Ever since they had lost the last warren to that fire breathing lizard, Thrueetch had denounced the Horned One, saying he had abandoned the clan when they had left for the northern land of light and cold. He said that worshiping the Horned One was just a waste of time, that in order to survive they would find their own way in the world. The others agreed, as many of them had lost people to the lizard and spouted hatred and scorn at the Horned One. Even Skriskrueel was mad with his god, having lost his mate and family in the fires. But he knew that the Horned One still watched them and still cared for them, he just was testing them. He knew he was blessed by the Horned one, for many weeks ago the Venerated Horned One visited him in a dream. The Horned One himself visited Skriskrueel and praised him, HIM, for his devoted worship. The Horned One then granted Skriskrueel a boon, saying that with the boon Skriskrueel could even become clan leader soon and replace Thrueetch.

Skriskrueel was a cunning Skaven, cunning and brutal, and he looked forward to the day where he would have Thrueetch’s head upon a pike and Thrueetch’s mate as his personal fuckpet. But he knew that he was not cunning and clever enough yet to outsmart the whole of the clan that was loyal to Thrueetch. So he asked, neigh, begged the Horned One to give him the boon of intelligence, to make him as smart as a Skaven could be. That he would be smart enough to outwit his entire clan so that he could take over and return the Horned One to his former glory in the clan.

That night, Skriskrueel was granted his boon. That night, Skriskrueel became the smartest Skaven in the entire clan.

This was both a blessing and a curse.

It was a blessing that he now knew exactly how to stay alive and sow the seeds that would lead to Thrueetch’s destruction. He knew how to keep his nose just clean enough that he was always exonerated whenever something went wrong. However, he also knew that the only way to keep himself blameless and get rid of Thrueetch would involve people outside the clan, or just waiting till Thrueetch grew much older. Frankly, Skriskrueel did not have the patience for the latter and no hope for the former. He had explored nearly the entire barrow (always taking caution whenever he was in the lair of the draugr) and knew the barrow was separated into two major sections. One had not been touched in about 100 years, and the other had not been touched in a couple millennia. Both told him that it was going to be very unlikely that any outsiders would come here to the barrow.

That was until the hairless male and his mates showed up.

Well, he was assuming both were the male’s mates. He could smell the deep magic on the male, and such power usually came with the bonus of many mates. It was also possible that the older female was simply a matriarch of the male’s clan and was watching over them, and the more he watched them and listened, the more he figured that was the case. He also learned a few other things, such as the drama going on between the two females and that these two were skilled in combat. This was confirmed by watching them fight off the draugr and the king of the draugr, at which point an idea formed in Skriskrueel’s mind. If he could convince the male and his mate to fight Thrueetch for him, he could then rise in the ranks of his clan as the new leader. He easily knew every inch of the barrow, so his bargaining chip could be leading them to whatever they were looking for down in the barrow. He was guessing they were looking for the main tomb, which Skriskrueel had been able to find a few weeks ago.

However, he could tell that the fight tired the two combatants out quite a bit, and that they would need to rest before they would be ready to kill Thrueetch. He decided to give them a bit of indirect help, heading ahead of them in the tunnels and clearing out a path to a cavern he knew about with a small lake in it along with many plants. It was a great place that Skriskrueel wanted to take his mate one day, once he had one.

But for now, it would be used by his future allies. Once they rested and were ready, Skriskrueel would talk to them, and soon he would be the new leader of the Skaven Clan.

“Wow....” John and Talia said in unison, their jaws dropping as they looked around the beautiful cavern they had found themselves in. After leaving the king’s chamber, they were lost for a short period of time and unsure of where to go. Then John had spotted something glowing in the darkness, and after following said light they found themselves in a breathtaking room. The cavern’s walls looked natural, with four statues of gods carved into the stone itself. The center of the room was illuminated by the moon and covered in very soft looking moss and plantlife. In addition, there was a small waterfall near the north wall that created a small pool before heading down a tunnel to the east.

Talia walked forward, her sword still drawn but her defences clearly lowered. “It’s… it’s beautiful.”

John looked at Talia, standing with the room as her backdrop, causing him to sigh. “Yeah. It really is.”

Talia noticed John and giggled, blushing slightly. “Shush.” She then reached into her pack and pulled out a brush, comb, and pair of scissors. “Wasn’t sure how necessary these would have been, but I am glad I had a girl moment and decided to pack these.” She turned around and walked over to the pool, smiling as she noticed the water was still enough to act as a mirror.

John, in the meantime, found an area that was nice and soft with plantlife and set up a small fire pit, quickly lighting it up with a Kenaz rune before pulling out some food and taking a moment to eat. While he wasn’t sure if his body still needed to eat or not, it would probably be best not to test that. Plus, he liked food. He really wasn’t eager to give it up.

“Hey John, could you help me with something?”

John swallowed his last bite, wiping his hands off on his pants before heading over to Talia. “Sure, wha-” It was then that John noticed a couple things. First, that Talia had finished trimming her hair rather quickly and it was cut into the cutest haircut John had ever seen.

Second was that she was standing in the pool stark naked.

She gave John a small smile, a heavy blush across her cheeks. “Today has been… stressful.”