Eramith
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Book 2: Chapter 46
🕑 Added 2023-05-22 13:05:00 +0000 UTC“Thanks, you can take them back now.”
“What do you mean? You didn’t even touch them. You didn’t even move.”
“Yeah, I have a skill for that.”
“You took a skill for reading? What a waste.” Jackie shook her head with disgust. “You find anything?”
“Gimme the rest of the minute to check.”
Grim?
Already on it… Ok got it. The key is split up into three pieces. One is in the polar bear, one in some kind of bird thing and the last one is embedded in the amulet he wore around his neck.
“Alright, key is in three pieces. One is in a bird thing you fought, one in a polar bear thing I fought and the last is in in the amulet he wore around his neck. Find an amulet in the house?”
“Yeah… One of the Devoured was wearing a stupid amount of jewelry.”
“I’ll go grab the polar bear, you get the bird?”
“Yeah. Meet back here when you’re done.”
They headed off in opposite directions, Felix flying and Jackie running. The polar bear corpse was exactly where he had left it, legs sprawled out on the ice. Felix really wasn’t looking forward to seeing what was inside a devoured but he didn’t really have any other options. He heaved on the corpses to flip it over, belly side up, then pulled out his staff. He morphed the staff into a giant scalpel and pressed it against the creature’s flesh. After a few minutes, he had to switch the scalpel to a saw because a simple edge was getting nowhere.
You could probably incinerate it too.
The key would survive?
Yes, definitely.
Felix thought about it for a moment then shook his head, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t actually be any faster than this.
Depends how much mana you use.
Meh, maybe. I do kind of want to see what’s inside of them, just a little.
He continued sawing through the flesh, though it was monotonous work. The flesh was hard and rubbery at the same time meaning every time he pushed and pulled his saw, the flesh pushed and pulled with it. Eventually he managed to break through, once he had, widening the opening was a much easier task. Inside the creature, it was actually a lot less gross than Felix expected. There was minimal smell and it was mostly dry shriveled up organs that remained.
It say where in here the key fragment would be?
Nope. It can’t be any of the digestive track though. After that, it’s either in the empty space between or it’s in it’s skull.
You think?
I hope. If it’s buried in it’s liver or something…
Felix sifted through the organs for a few minutes and luckily, he didn’t need to cut into the skull at all. He found a small metal object shaped like the third of a disc just a few inches wide. He cleaned his hands off in the arctic water then flew back over to where they had agreed to meet. Jackie was already there, leaning against the fence.
“Took you long enough.”
“Sorry, had trouble getting through it’s flesh.” Felix handed the key fragment over to Jackie.
“Thanks. I take it you don’t need the books anymore now that you’ve already read em?”
“Yeah, no need. Thank you for sharing.”
Jackie nodded, “That skill of yours, for reading… Still seems like a waste, but it is kinda cool.”
Felix nodded and smiled in response, “Have fun with the vault.”
He waved and she nodded in acknowledgement then they went their separate ways. Felix flew into the air and continued heading west and veered north to stay on the second level. Just about all of the estates on this level seemed to be occupied. It seemed obvious in hindsight but just about everyone immediately ran for the inner area with the mansions and estates.
Hey Felix.
What’s up?
One of the Journals, it’s not anything new but it’s got some of the history. I can filter out the garbage entries about his hunts and whores too.
Yeah hit me with it.
I heard about Ky’bel from that friend of mine that delivered the King of the Lake. Apparently it’s a city with laws that aren’t quite as strict, which is a plus, but on top of that, it’s a city where no one ever has to work. I’ll have to take a vacation there, check it out for myself.
The city is everything I’ve ever dreamed of. The laws are loose and I don’t have to worry about protection. I met with the founder, Erolan and he’s one of those people who only cares about being powerful. The city seems to just be a way to give back a little, find other’s that can fight with him and just be a home. He’s willing to sell me a premium lot in the inner district for an excellent price, the only stipulation that I can’t dig down. If I don’t have to hide my whorehouses and smuggle my pets, I can live with not digging down, though I do wonder what’s down there.
I’ve officially moved into the city and after some careful maneuvering of money, managed to bankrupt my neighbor and buy their land. Now I should have enough room for all of my pets. I also managed to buy a property on the other end of the upper district through that other friend. They’re going to run the whore house. The city doesn’t care about having a whore house, but you aren’t technically allowed to run a business in the upper district. I’d rather fuck a Drakene than walk into the lower district, so let them try and stop me. Erolan is too busy on his conquests to deal with me and everyone else is either weak or a customer.
Erolan introduced these creatures called the Devoured. They look mostly human. Kind of. They’re a little creepy but they perform all of the menial labor in the city. Want a gardener? The Devoured are tireless workers and completely obedient. The only downside, other than how they look, is that they aren’t very intelligent. Now though, you can pay one man to micromanage a hundred Devoured instead of paying a hundred and one people, you can just pay one. Now that most people don’t need to work, what will they do? Drugs and whores. Both things I am happy to provide.
As one of the most trusted men in the city, Erolan has personally gifted me a vault. Throughout his conquests, he has managed to acquire pocket universes. Not one or two like most cities have, but he has hundreds, at least one from each conquered city. Obviously, I was first on the list and got my pick of the litter.
Felix finished reading the entries, Not much we didn’t already know. The context is interesting though. The Devoured were not here originally.
Yeah, hopefully we can find more journals and first hand accounts of what happened. After that last entry, they just talk about building their whore empire then nothing. It just ends.
Hopefully people aren’t just taking and tossing all of the books.
Before finding another vault, you want to figure out what those items do?
How do I know their safe without being able to identify them?
How do you know their safe even if you could? The system could hide something, maybe the item is designed to be a trap. In that’s the case and the system identified it as such, it would ruin the item’s purpose.
I guess. Still feels dangerous not knowing what the items do.
Do you know an appraiser? Are you going to be able to find one any time soon?
No, I still don’t like the idea of just putting it on.
Convince someone else to put it on for you.
That a little too evil for me.
So are you just not going to acquire anything in this world event? Everything you pick up will just sit in your inventory for years until they become useless?
So I just risk it?
I bet you that’s what everyone else is doing.
I’m less worried about traps and more worried about items like the armor we found in the experiment room.
That item takes a while to sink in. You would have time to remove it. Worst case for the rings, you could remove your finger and regrow it.
I could regrow my finger?
With manual attention, I think so. You did it with your hair.
That’s not the same thing. With my hair I just pumped energy into my cells and pushed them to produce faster. If I did the same thing with a severed limb, the wound would close instead of regrowing. I’m not a salamander.
Right but you could direct the cells to do something different.
Maybe? I’ve never tried that though so I have no idea if it would work at all.
It’s obviously your decision, I think you should just risk it though.
Alright fine. I don’t want to be limited to only items I make or commission forever, I guess at some point I just need to go for it. First thing I found was the non fire ring, let’s start with that I guess.
Felix pulled the ring out of his inventory. It was exactly as he had remembered it, a metal band with a wide flat face and some kind of insignia on it. He identified it just to confirm what he already knew, but was astonished when the identification produced different results this time.
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[D - Epic] Merchant’s Ring of Identification
Identified (10%)
Leave the item in your inventory to continue the identification process.
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Wait… Since when was that a thing?
I’m starting to think inventories are not a thing outside of integration universes. I haven’t gotten any useful answers to any questions related to them. Outside of this universe, you probably have people with rings like this or skills to identify things. In here, you don’t, so the inventory fills that gap.
I don’t think that means they don’t exist outside of this universe though.
Think about it, if everyone had one, wouldn’t I have gotten any kind of answer to my questions? I’ve gotten nothing. I’ve posted, What are inventories? What determines the maximum inventory capacity? Is there a limit to what can and cannot be put in an inventory? You would think, someone would have some kind of answer.
So you’re saying, people probably tell the guild what they are knowledgeable in, then questions get sent to them. Since no one knows what inventories are, these questions aren’t sent anywhere? …and that would mean we won’t ever get answers.
Yeah, that’s my guess.
So if I leave the universe, my inventory will just… not exist?
Yeah, I don’t think it will be accessible. Probably dumps it’s contents out in front of you. I bet it happens before then though. Like as soon as you reach a certain level or a certain amount of time since the integration started.
Oh shit. So I need to find an item to replace it then.
Well, soul space.
Right. Well, I’m not waiting for this thing to finish identifying.
Felix took the ring and slipped it onto the index finger of his right hand. It was slightly too big but as soon as it reached his knuckle, the ring tightened until it fit just right. If he pulled on it with intent, it came off otherwise it was stuck there. With the ring equipped, he looked down at his finger and identified it.
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[D - Epic] Merchant’s Ring of Identification
This ring allows the wearer to identify any epic item or below in the D grade and any item legendary or below in the E grade. It will provide a description of the item and it’s effects along with any other relevant information. It will provide limited information for items higher than epic in the D grade and items in the C grade. This ring upgrades the innate skill, identify, while wielded and will also provide the names of creatures when identified. It will not provide any other information such as weaknesses, immunities, resistances, highest stats.
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That is… convenient.
Rothdens were clearly merchant’s so makes sense to me.
That means there are items that let you identify enemies and get all kind’s of information about them.
Yeah, seems like it.
I kind of wish I had one of those, then I would know for sure which spell to use.
Felix pulled the other ring out of his inventory next. He had some idea of what the item would do, but he wanted to know for sure.
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[D - Special] Dragon Mother’s Ring
A ring wielded by the head of an ancient Dragon cult. This ring signifies their position and is considered the greatest honor, wielding an imitation of the great Dragon’s power.
This ring draws on the user’s mana to produce liquid fire around their hands as well as from their mouth. This fire will not harm the wielder and will greatly increase their fire resistance. Amount of fire produced is dependent on how wide the wielders mouth is opened for the breath attack.
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While it’s pretty cool. I don’t think this item is for me.
I know exactly who would love that item.
Who?
Have you heard the name, Kenneth?
No, who’s that?
He led the caster’s in the Tri-Peak defense battle. He’s a caster that surrounds his fists with magic.
That’s actually awesome. Did he come to Atalus afterwards?
No idea, you’re going to have to ask Noah.
I take it he fought well in the battle?
He was one of the top 5 biggest contributors I think. He kept the ground safe, took out anything that got over or under the walls and often fought upwards of 5 enemies at once.
Sounds like he deserves a reward then. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
