Chapter 128: Expedition (1)

The evening was spent recovering from their training and chatting about various things. By the next day everyone was refreshed, albeit most were annoyed at having to awaken so early. There was also the matter of Dealla's request.

"Why do I have to do it? That sounds like some kind of weird hoo doo." Shula said as she folded her arms. She was being rather obstinate at the moment.

"Because...I said so?" Agni said as she and the rest of the group walked towards the Mystic Tower Armory.

"If it's a problem I can always choose someone else." Dealla remarked.

"It works better when the target is someone I like, after all."

"See? She doesn't even like me." Shula added.

The topic of discussion was related to Dealla's unique abilities as a Draken Knight. Her draconic blood gave her a unique disposition, extreme avarice. Instead of using gold as her object of affection, she bonded naturally with people or objects. This would allow her abilities as a Draken Knight to grow more potent. In fact, according to Dealla her true abilities could only be used if she had what she called a Dragon's Longing. An object or person with which she'd formed a bond, the stronger the bond the stronger Dealla's stats would rise in proportion.

Unfortunately this effect would only activate while Dealla was within a certain distance of her Longing. Dealla's request was to use one of her class abilities, 'Fleeting Fancy' to temporarily make Shula her Dragon's Longing. The imp's main objection to this was that she simply thought it was 'weird'. Ultimately though, Agni overridden Shula's childish objections.

Dealla's brown and salmon speckled eyes flowed with golden energy as her ability activated. She placed her open palm against Shula's forehead and a strand of golden energy flowed forth, settling over Shula's heart before making an insignia which resembled the head of a dragon.

"That's it?" Shula asked as she examined herself. She didn't feel any different.

"Yes. That's it. As long as I'm near to you I can make the most of my skill set and also offer slight buffs to anyone I'm in a party with." Dealla explained.

"Oh? So I guess your stalker skill isn't totally useless." Shula reasoned.

Dealla just chuckled and Agni was happy to see that she didn't take Shula's crass nature personally.

Gates the Spirit Mage, Gigi the Spellsword, Katrin the Scribe, Shula The Imp, Dealla the Draken Knight and Agni the Succubus soon found themselves standing before the entrance of the armory. This place was where chapel items and gear were kept.

"Good. Everyone's here." Oliver's voice echoed from a short distance behind them as he walked up to the closed door and placed his hand on a small orb near where a door handle would normally be positioned. The orb glowed momentarily before granting access to those standing outside of it.

Inside they were greeted with the sight of a large rectangular room which resembled more of a gigantic walk-in closet of sorts. On the right wall there were various suits, tools and weapons while the left held many books and trinkets of various types.

"This is the Mystic Tower Armory. Don't touch anything, you can't afford them anyway." Oliver said as he walked past Shula, who was currently eye fucking a large ornate necklace. She clicked her tongue as he passed and cut her eyes towards him.

"Party pooper." She muttered. Oliver led them deep into the room, arriving finally at a square shaped table with various piles of clothing draped over them.

"You can thank your resident Scribe for these. She spent a great deal of time honing her abilities as a Scribe so that she could create special gear for this expedition. Each is suited to your strengths and also provides you with better protection." Oliver explained as he motioned for the group of adventurers to step forward. Visually the clothes looked like sleeveless smocks, all uniform in color. Black with silver trim in various places, the fabric reaching down several centimeters below the waist. Below each bundle of cloth was a small trinket, the type differed based on the person who was to receive it.

Oliver handed specific bundles to each person before continuing his explanation.

"Some of you may not be used to high quality armor, so I will explain a few of the benefits for you." Oliver said in a tone that distinctly made Agni believe he didn't like "broke people".

"Hold up your garment. That will make this explanation a bit easier." Oliver instructed, and everyone obeyed.

[Mage's Gown (Apprentice) - R1

Classification : Magical Armor

Dampen - 15%

Abs - 3

Plate - 250 / 250

Desc: A Mage's Gown created by Katrin Voss. Reinforced to take significant punishment.]

"It's obvious that armor of any type is meant to protect. Dampen refers to a piece of equipment's ability to reduce the damage sustained. This is percentage based reduction. For example, if you sustained 100 points of health damage, while wearing this you'd only take 85 points instead. For a piece of cloth, the Dampen on these pieces are extremely high. Once again, thank Katrin. She worked tirelessly to improve her skill as a Scribe to make these." Oliver once again nodded in Katrin's direction, causing everyone to shoot her glances. Her cheeks felt somewhat warm, as a formerly shy person she still had yet to become totally accustomed to attention.

"But, the benefits of this armor don't stop here. Abs refers to the ability of an armor to negate damage altogether. Sort of like 'defense' in an RPG game, if any of you were gamers--no? Well..nevermind." Oliver cleared his throat before continuing.

"The best feature of this armor is the Plate. Simply put, Plate is like a second health bar for the wearer. Any damage passed onto you will first pass through Dampen, Abs and finally be subtracted from Plate. In other words, wearing these will most likely double your vitality and in some cases triple it."

"Plate is extremely rare to have on armors, partially because it's notoriously difficult to bring out of materials. Only high quality materials can even be used for the process. That means...you'll be wearing something that would cost you hundreds of thousands of gald. You can thank me now, these are my gifts to you -- but only on loan. Once we return here, I'll expect these back."

"Oh! Thank you Oliver!" Gigi said as she clutched the smock near to her chest and smiled.

"Ahem." Oliver said, before continuing.

"Also as I mentioned earlier, Katrin worked closely with the Doyenne to create a secondary item which would further augment your natural abilities. What you got is based solely on that. Except for….you." Oliver said as he pointed towards Shula.

"Eh?" Shula responded, having been called out unawares.

"You. I've never heard of your adventurer class. So I have no idea what your build is like, nor your skill set. We made something generic for you." Oliver said as he pointed towards Shula's cloth and also handed her a bangle which resembled Zura's "present" to Agni.

"Adventurer class? Shula's a familiar." Agni remarked as she cast her gaze towards the familiar.

"You mean you never noticed? You two are together all the time. How could you not?" Oliver asked.

It was true, but Agni had no reason to examine Shula. In fact, she never even thought about it!

She took the opportunity to inspect Shula, only to discover that Oliver was indeed correct.

[Shula the Imp, Sleep Daemon R0]

"Shula! When were you going to tell me about this?" Agni asked, her excitement reached a fever pitch.

"I didn't know I needed to.. Honestly." Shula said with a shrug.

"You really didn't know?" Katrin then asked.

"No…. did you?" Agni asked, even as Katrin shook her head affirmatively. Next was Gigi, Gates and even Dealla. Suddenly Agni felt a bit stupid.

"Don't beat yourself up over it. I suppose I can understand how something like this would happen." Oliver said, offering some rather unexpected sympathies.

"Anyway, the point is that these two items both go together to compliment your natural strengths and protect you during this expedition. That doesn't mean you're invincible though. The enemy we might encounter is a never heard of type of Grimlock."

"Based on Dealla's descriptions it has the ability to one shot even second rankers. At worst this gear will preserve your life for a single strike by offsetting damage to your vitality. At best, you may survive an indirect blow or two. The main point is that it will help you live, but it won't protect you from prolonged attacks."

"The final point about these items is that you won't need to coat yourself with mana to avoid the ill effects of the shard's miasma. These enchanted items will do that much for you as long as they aren't broken. That's another trait of Plate. When Plate is depleted, your gear and all the effects attached to it will be rendered ineffective. Keep this in mind."

Agni glanced down at her secondary item, a small silver ring.

[Silver Band - R1

Classification : Accessory

Desc: A simple silver band. Increases mana regeneration by 50%.]

*Indeed, being able to regain more mana would be helpful.* Agni thought to herself.

"Sleep Daemon huh? We're definitely going to talk about this later.." Agni said as she squinted in Shula's direction. The imp just dismissed her gaze as she pulled the smock over her own dress.

"Great. Everyone's equipped. Now, let's get a move on. The Doyenne is waiting." Oliver said as he moved to lead the group out of the armory.