The Land: Forging (Chaos Seeds Book 2) (35 page)

When he was back on the ledge he examined it closely.

You have found: Lightning Prism (broken). Durability 47/80. Item class: Epic. Quality: Exquisite. Weight: 3.7 kg. The Prism is a marvel of magic and technology. It will focus raw magic into a bolt of extreme damage and power. This prism has been damaged, and cannot be used.

He looked into the small hole
and saw thin clear filaments creating a delicate web inside of the double pyramid. Sighing at the loss of such an artifact, he put it into his Bag anyway. Maybe something could come of it later. The sprites were gnawing on jerky, watching him moon over his broken toy. Alma was eating too, but it was clear from the glares she was shooting his way that she still wasn’t happy about the dried meat.

“Congratulations,” Yoshi said. “You found junk.”

Richter just glared at him before quickly drying off. Then he donned his underclothes and armor. He would have preferred to sleep without it, but this dungeon was no joke. He wouldn’t be caught wearing just his skibbies if the eaters came back. He laid down on his sleep roll to just relax a
moment,
but was soon fast asleep.

Richter woke an undetermined amount of time later. He shivered slightly in the cool air. The temperature was lower near the
water
than it was in the central chamber. With nothing to
burn
though, they had to make do without a fire. He took stock of himself. A flashing prompt showed that his Endurance had increased by +1 from his exertions. When he sat up, he heard a squawk and he got a stream of air in his face. Alma flew up from where she had been sleeping on his armored chest and glared at him from midair. Waving away his prima donna familiar, he looked around and saw Daniella looking at him.

“How long was I out?”

“Five or six hours,” she said. “Yoshi and Sion already took a shift standing guard. I’m just starting mine.”

“Why don’t you lay down for a bit longer,” Richter said. “I won’t be
able sleep anymore, and besides,
I feel completely rested.”

“Are you sure,” she asked. At Richter’s nod, she smiled and laid back down on her sleep roll.

He called Futen over and removed the items he needed identified
. He started with the loot from the chest. The remnant flared white, and then Richter knew the items’ properties.

You have found: Shadow High Steel Dagger. Damage 9-11 (Max damage 11-13). Durability 19/25. Item Class: Uncommon. Quality: Above Average. Weight: 0.5 kg. Ignores 10% of target’s defense.

You have found: Steel Dagger of Life. Damage 7-9 (Max damage 8-11). Durability 16/20. Item Class: Uncommon. Quality: Above Average. Weight: 0.6 kg. Bestows +1 life damage upon successful strike (+5 to Death creatures). Charges 20/20.

You have found: Bracelet of Health. Durability 10/10. Item class: Uncommon. Quality: Above Average. Weight: 0.1 kg. Traits: Increase maximum Health by +40.

You have found: Book of Minor Life Aura. Surrounds the caster’s body with the aura Life magic. This is aura will cause damage to Death creatures if there is direct contact, and will cause lesser Death creatures to shy away.

Richter wasted no time in reading the spell book. Just as with previous books, the pages began turning faster and faster, until the book was done. It
crumpled to dust, and Richter had a new spell.

You have learned the spell: Minor Life Aura. The caster’s body is surrounded by a golden shield of pure Life energy. Any nearby Death, dead or undead creatures will be discomforted. Any actual contact with the shield will cause damage to the undead. Cost 50 mana. Duration: 15 minutes. Range: self. Cast time: 2 seconds. Cooldown: 20 minutes.

Last but not least, the potion:

You have found: Potion of Luck. Taking this
potion
will increase Luck by +30 for one hour.

The new spell alone was worth the effort of getting behind the waterfall! When you added the
potion
, there was no doubt in Richter’s mind that he had made the right choice. He pulled out the items from the skeleton. Futen flashed white again.

You have found: Minor Ring of Stealth. Durability 15/15. Item class: Uncommon. Quality: Above Average. Weight: 0.1 kg. +8 to concealment while
stealthed.

You have found: Fish Ring. Durability 18/18. Item class: Uncommon. Quality: Above Average. Weight: 0.1 kg. Allows wearer to breathe underwater for three minutes.

You have found: Minor Stamina Ring. Durability 25/27. Item class: Common. Quality: Above Average. Weight: 0.1 kg. +30 to stamina

You have found: Sustenance Belt. Durability 35/35. Item class: Uncommon. Quality: Superb. Weight: 0.8 kg. The belt makes your body more efficient in managing its basic needs. While wearing this belt, you require 50% less sleep and 50% less food and water.

Hmmm, whoever that skeleton had been, these items seemed like a bit of a cheat. Fish Ring? Way not to almost die twice making it to the waterfall, guy! Richter shook off his grudging feelings that the adventurer hadn’t had to go through what he himself just had. After all, the guy was, well, dead.

He instead focused upon his good haul. Overall, the items would be more than
useful
. What was really strange was the amount of money the man was carrying. The signet ring
indicated he was some type of nobility, but still, he was walking around with more three hundred gold coins. That equated to more than thirty thousand bucks!

Last, Richter examined the leather armor with the rune attached.

You have found: Runic Studded Leather Chest Plate. Defense +8. Type: Light Armor. Durability 30/30. Item class: Rare. Quality: Superb. Weight: 4.2 kg. Contains
rune of Chuthriom.

A rune of Chuthriom
? Well, Richter thought, that’s certainly helpful information! Except, not at all since he didn’t know what a ‘Rune’ or a ‘Chuthriom’ was. Shrugging, Richter shoved it back into his Bag. Having nothing else to do, Richter opened the diary. The strange squiggles resolved into legible words after a moment or two. The book turned out to be a play by play of the man’s life. It mostly confirmed what Richter had already suspected. He was a noble. More than that, he was part of the ruling family of Kailand. If Richter remembered correctly, that was a country on the western side of the River Peninsula.

There was frustratingly no mention of the adventurer’s name, but that wasn’t too surprising. How often would someone write their own name in a diary? Someone named ‘
Kerita
’ was mentioned prominently, though. Richter skipped to the end, having no real desire to delve into the man’s personal life. Only the last few pages were about the dungeon. He had been searching for some artifact that mattered to his family. It didn’t say what it was, he only referred to it as “The Link.”

Richter put the diary away. He was sure that Randy would make better sense of it than he could. He decided to do something he had been putting off recently. He pulled out the
book of magic history that Leandra had sold him and started to read. He had left off when the book was talking about ‘The Basic Elements.’ The same topic Zarr had touched on before.

The Basic Elements are the most widespread use of Power in The Land. This is because of the readily available sources of this type of magic that cross The Land as ley lines. The Basic Elements are Dark, Light, Earth, Air, Water, Fire,
Death,
and Life. Each Element has its own strengths and weaknesses. It is often
said that Light and Life are the province
of good, and Death and Dark are the domain of evil. All Powers are neutral, however. The ill or good that each power may cause lies in
practioner…

Richter kept reading for the next few hours until the sprites woke up. As per usual, the sprites seemed to have no interest in the loot. He did give Yoshi half of the higher quality lock picks, but they wanted nothing else. Richter really appreciated being with The Land’s version of a socialist hippie. It definitely made his pockets fatter, but he did find it creepy to be with people who didn’t
want
money. How could you ever trust someone who didn’t
want to cheat you?

Richter donned the Bracelet of Health
and put the rest of the items back into his inventory. He showed the sprites the contents of the first chest, and all agreed it was obvious the handle was meant to open the bone door. No one had a better idea of how to use the key than
Richter,
but agreed it would most likely come in handy down the road. They all broke
camp
and started walking back towards the central chamber.

Yoshi and Richter led their other two party members along the path of disabled traps, and soon they were standing in front of the bone door again. Richter inserted the long part of
the handle into the door’s recessed cavity, lining up the metal square at the end with the recessed square imprint he had seen earlier. Right after the handle touched the metal indentation, four triangular blades of bone slammed into the handle. They converged on the groove in the bone. The tips of each had a smaller circular indentation still allowing the handle to turn.
Any one that had stuck a hand inside the door, though
would have lost that part of their appendage. Richter turned to Yoshi with a smug expression on his face, the sword adept just stared back
stone-faced
.

“Everybody ready,” Richter asked, gripping the handle. He was about to turn it to open the
door
when Yoshi stopped him.

“Wait, remember the inscription. ‘
remove the distractions of the past or suffer the error of youth. Death comes on swift wings, causing a terrible storm,’
Yoshi recited from memory. Richter stared at him impressed. The adept just stared back and said, “I’m nice like that.”

“So what does it mean,” Daniella asked.

“I’m not completely sure, but think about the phrase ‘distractions of the past.’ Look what is behind us. A floor still full of traps.
If we need to retreat when we open that door, we will be in an extremely bad position.”

Richter’s stomach fell, “You’re not saying-”

“We need to disarm the rest of the traps,” Yoshi said.

Richter looked at the seemingly countless circles left to disarm on the floor and groaned. It took three more days to disable all of the traps. Except for Alma driving them all to
distraction the days passed without incident. Thankfully, Richter figured out that if ordered it, Futen would let himself be chased by the psi dragonling, which kept her occupied. It was actually kind of fun watching her zip through the air after the glowing orb.

Richter’s Pierce the Veil, Trap and Trap Disarm skill reached level 20 and went beyond. He took a Potion of Clarity each day, so he got the bonus 25%. The 12,500 experience points brought over the top, and he reached level 15! Also, even though the experience from each disarmed trap was modest, it added up over time. A final cherry on top was that he gained five more traps.

You have found: Razor Wire Trap. Does 11-14 damage.
Durability 8/8. Item class: Uncommon. Quality: Average. Weight 0.1 kg. On
ce triggered, three razor sharp wires crisscross at ankle level. Possibly will cause Hobble status.

You have found: Dart trap. Damage 5-7. Durability 10/10. Item class: Common. Quality: Above Average. Weight: 0.1 kg. Once triggered, will fire a dart.
x 2

You have found: Sticky Trap.
Durability 7/7. Item class: Rare. Quality: Above Average. Weight 0.1 kg. On
ce triggered, will trigger explosion of sticky threads that have a chance to immobilize anyone within ten feet of the trap.

You have found: Shrink Trap.
Durability 15/15. Item class: Rare. Quality: Superb. Weight 0.3 kg. W
ill cast Shrink on the creature that triggered it. Creature’s size is halved. Spell lasts twenty minutes.

When they were finally done, something unexpected happened. The center of the room had been the only part of the room devoid of random shapes. It was instead a golden
eight-pointed star about two feet across.

When Richter deactivated the final trap, the star rose into the air. It turned out the star was only the top of an entire column of gold colored metal. When it stopped rising, it filled the room with light the color of honey. When Richter examined it, two prompts came up.