CHAPTER 4

One cool thing that he discovered while bathing were aquatic herbs. Richter hadn’t really thought to search the water for plants before. Two specifically caught his interest.

You have found: Green Waterthread. You are getting a very strong feeling that this plant has healing properties. It also can be used to make waterproof clothing and flavor a tasty stew!

You have found: Muckweed. This a component of a sticky solution, it can make a Water magic based poison, and can be used as a fire repellent.

Both of the plants were extremely plentiful. Richter gathered his fill of each, placing them in his Bag. He withheld one waterthread. Knowing it was a bit creepy, but needing to know about the effectiveness of this new herb, he steeled himself and drew his new short sword against his bare arm. He didn’t cut too deeply, but with the bleeding status he achieved, he lost a small amount of health over time. He started chewing the waterthread.

You have eaten: Green Waterthread. You will recover 65.1 health over 30 seconds.

Richter did some quick math and figured that outside of the bonus he got for his Herb Lore, the base healing would have been 30 health over 30 seconds. That was three times as strong as the previous healing herbs he had been using. Hopefully, it would make a proportionally stronger potion as well.

As he worked, Alma happily snacked on a fish she had caught while Richter bathed. He personally thought she was a bit of a cheat. Rather than try and grab her prey, she had simply directed a Psi Blast towards the water. It was basically the equivalent of dropping a stick of dynamite in a pond, Crocodile Dundee style. It was definitely efficient, but kind of a douche move in his opinion. When he tried to explain this to his familiar though, she just rolled her eyes at him and kept snacking.

Shaking his head and chuckling at his soul familiar, he finished bathing. Happy with his new discovery of the water herbs, and satisfied that he no longer smelled like goblin taint, he got out of the water. He pulled a fresh set of clothes from his bag, and rolled his old clothes up into a ball. Now that he was clean the garments seemed absolutely filthy to him.

When he had walked back into the village proper, he found one of the older children helping with washing. The boy accepted the bundle of soiled clothing with an obviously forced smile. Richter didn’t blame the kid for not wanting any part of that stinky pile, so he tossed the boy a copper, which seemed to help the lad’s mood.

He didn’t waste any more time getting to the room of the Great Seal. Walking into the room, the downward staircase seemed to draw him forward, beckoning him to adventure. Before going down the stairs though, he decided to check out the boxes that Krom had mentioned. Richter had set Randolphus loose before he bathed, and sent Futen to monitor the village, so now his only company was the sated dragonling. He opened the door to the armory and walked in. Making his way to the back of the room, he did see three stacked metal boxes that he had previously overlooked.

One box was about four feet long and a foot wide, a second was half that length and the third was a simple box. Good things come in small packages, he thought. He raised his left wrist to align with the clear circle on the box. It read his Mark of the Mist Village like a bar code and, with an audible click, the lid popped open. Looking inside, he saw a metal collar. It looked like it was made of quicksilver links, each about an inch long.

You have found: Quicksilver Collar of Submission. Durability 300/300. Item class: Rare. Quality: Superb. Weight: 0.5 kg. If you manage to collar a monster with this item, they will become your slave. The monster will be unable to harm you and will strictly follow your commands. Can only be used once.

Why did it always come down to dominance, Richter thought. Academically, he didn’t like the idea of controlling anything against its will, but he also knew himself. If he were able to find a high level monster with some awesome abilities… well let’s just say, he would 50 shades of grey the hell out of it!

Richter moved on to the medium sized box. After holding his wrist to the glass circle, he looked inside and smiled.

You have found: Heavy Cobalt Arrows. Quantity 80. Durability 15/15. Item class: Uncommon. Quality: Above Average. Accuracy – 2. Damage +5. Chance to cause Knock Back.

You have found: Weapon Schematic: Heavy Arrows. This design of arrow requires a skilled bowman. The extra weight makes precise shots more difficult, but most find the extra damage and possibility to knock down their enemies to be more than a fair trade off. This type of arrow inflicts blunt damage unlike most piercing arrows.

These arrows could definitely come in handy! The arrow heads were strange in their design, almost looking like a round weight with a slight point at one end. Funny looking or not, the extra stopping power was welcome. The biggest danger for an archer was for his target to get within melee range. These arrows could definitely help with that!

After seeing the pure awesomeness in the first two boxes, he couldn’t wait to see what was in the big one. He quickly held his wrist to the magic lock and threw the lid back. A prompt appeared with purple writing appeared, and Richter’s eyes widened in shock.

You have found: Ranock Din. Damage 58-72. Durability 900/1000. Item class: Legendary. Quality: Masterwork. Weight 28.3 kg. Requirement: Dwarven or Duergar race. Strength 50. This axe was forged of the finest thorium. It has long been the royal weapon of the Dwarven Kingdom of Stone. Traits: When fighting underground, can activate ‘Weight of the Earth.’ For one blow, The Land itself pulls the axe downward. This massively increases the damage that it can cause. The strain on the weapon will also cause a 100-point drop in durability each time Weight of the Earth is invoked. The unique properties of this weapon will maintain its base damage no matter how low the durability drops, but it will be destroyed if durability drops to 0. +30% Earth Resistance. +20% Dark Resistance.

A named weapon! And it was Legendary! This was amazing… and thoroughly irritating! Richter had finally found a legendary item, of course, it would have to have two crazy requirements. One that he was nowhere near fulfilling and a second that he could never fulfill. He couldn’t deny that the weapon was beautiful though.

The axe was double bladed and the metal was dark grey. A wicked spike extended up from the center of the weapon about six inches past the height of the half-moon blades. It was clearly dangerous not just as a slashing weapon, but as a piercing weapon as well. The haft was composed of a heavy wood and was just over three feet long. Part of the way down its length was another piece of metal that must be present to aid in balancing the heavy weapon. The bottom of the haft was wrapped in a knobbed hide that was midnight black.

He stared at the weapon for a while, just admiring it. After a few moments, he came to a decision. He needed to keep the axe a secret. He would make a discreet inquiry with Randolphus, but this weapon sounded like the type of thing that nations went to war over. If it was as important to a royal family as the prompt said, there were probably many people that would grind his village to dust to get it. The Mist Village just wasn’t ready to fight in that weight class. Growing the Quickening and creating the Forge of Heavens were already enough to make the Mist Village a tempting treat for raiders or other malevolent forces. No, he thought, this needed to remain hidden. He closed and locked the lid again.

He picked up all three boxes. The weight wasn’t a problem, but the shapes made it a somewhat unwieldy task. Despite that he carried them with minimal difficulty to the treasury. He placed all of the boxes inside, but withdrew the chain, arrows and schematic. Almost all of it went into his Bag of Holding, but he placed ten of the heavy arrows into his quiver.

After walking over to the Great Seal, he donned his old set of sprite armor. Though it wasn’t as impressive as the enhanced sprite armor, it was still nothing to sneeze at. Wearing the entire matched set gave a 25% defense bonus to each individual piece. Also the gauntlets increased his accuracy by 25% which should more than make up for the drop in accuracy from the heavy arrows.

He pulled up the hood of his dark green cloak and stood facing the stairway down to the next level of the catacombs. Taking a Potion of Clarity out of his Bag, he gave it to his familiar. Then, bow in one hand and Alma draped across his shoulders, he prepared to take his first steps down into the dungeon.


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