12. First Item

12. First Item

Their adventure through the mineshaft tunnels eventually led them to a large room of a similar aesthetic, a giant dirt-and-stone chamber supported by wooden beams. Interestingly, there were rails and carts snaking their way through the room, leading nowhere, nor attached to the rest of the dungeon, as if the objects and structures had been randomly generated, regardless that they weren't coherent with the dungeon as a whole.

Inside this large, sprawling space were eight monsters of various types, spread out sporadically. It was a dead end. At the opposite side of where they'd come in from, there was a chest—which, upon Vesper and Flint seeing, had them immediately growing excited.

"That's where all the real loot comes from," Vesper explained in a whisper to Morgana. "The random crafting items and other tidbits from monsters is nice, but chests hold the real prizes. And bosses, of course."

"That would explain why there's so many monsters in here," Morgana replied idly, scanning each of the nasty creatures scattered through the huge room. "Are we fighting our way through?"

After a brief discussion, they decided that they would. While Flint was adamant that they shouldn't tackle a boss should one appear, not until they were better equipped and better trained, a 'challenge room' as he called it wasn't reckless. Especially seeing how Morgana could kill the majority of their opponents in a few blasts at most.

They got to work. Interestingly enough, the noise created from their scuffles didn't draw the attention of the entire room; they were allowed to pick the beasts off one by one. Morgana wasn't sure if that was because they were being as quiet as possible, whether the monsters were apathetic toward each other's fates, or whether the dungeon itself was designed in such a way. It would be awfully unfair should, at the first noise, the entire room swarmed them.

A few dozen [Magic Missiles] later, and they had cleared the room out.

"Mana's starting to get low," Morgana commented. "And we'll have to fight our way back out, right? So after this, it might be time to start our return."

Flint grunted in agreement, but his attention—like Vesper's—was on the loot chest. Morgana was pretty curious about what was inside too.

"It could be trapped," Vesper reminded her brother, crouching down next to him as the two of them scoured its surface for anything suspicious.

"Would be nice to have someone who knew what they were doing," Flint said. "It's a miracle we've avoided hitting any traps, yet."

Vesper eyed him. "Don't go jinxing us, now."

A few moments passed, the two siblings continuing to scour the chest, before Vesper spoke up again.

"Well. I don't see anything. You?"

"It's safe."

"What did I just say about jinxing us?"

"Stand back. I'm gonna open it."

"Why do you get to?"

Morgana was briefly amused at the indignance in Vesper's voice. As if she didn't realize her brother was trying to keep her safe, that instead of being the one to take the risk of opening the chest, she thought Flint just wanted the first peek at their loot.

"Don't be a brat," Flint said, sending an annoyed look at his sister. "Stand back. We didn't see anything, but it could still be trapped."

"Actually," Morgana said suddenly. "Can I take a look at it too?"

Their attention turned to her.

"Think you'll find something we didn't?" Vesper asked.

"Not physically," Morgana replied. "But magically, maybe."

"Oh?"

"I haven't been able to sense much, inside the dungeon," Morgana said. "Which makes no sense, considering how drenched in spells this place has to be, to make everything work. But I also haven't looked especially hard." Rather, she'd been focused on participating in the dungeon as anyone might. Her academic curiosity for the dungeon's design needed to take a backseat when it came to worrying about their survival.

"Go ahead, then," Vesper said.

Morgana crouched down to inspect the chest. She opened her senses and quested out for hints of magical energy. At the same time, she peered around physically, looking for engravings of spell formulae. Unsurprisingly, she found nothing. However the dungeon's architect had designed everything to work, he had clearly hidden its mechanisms carefully.

Eventually, she had to concede defeat.

"I don't see anything," Morgana admitted. "It just looks like a chest. But there has to be something hidden somewhere."

"Yeah."

"Nah," Vesper said. "At least, I don't think so. You can't wear two necklaces, that's for sure. But you can wear multiple rings. Some things are allowed to overlap." She shrugged. "If you wanted to find all the specifics, you could check an adventuring guide."

"What about 'basic'?" Morgana asked. "It sounded like the Announcer emphasized it, almost."

"It's the rarity. So yeah, it's important."

"Rarity?"

"Kinda like how skills have proficiency ratings. Clumsy, novice, so on. Items start at inferior, then go to basic, mediocre, fine, good, excellent—uh," Vesper said, slowing down. She glanced at her brother as if for help.

"Legendary, cosmic, divine, I believe," Flint said. "But we'll never see one of those in our entire lives. Even 'good' and 'excellent' are damn rare. Especially at the lower levels. We're lucky for getting a basic instead of an inferior."

"In lower floors and at higher levels, we'll start seeing some actually good stuff." Vesper peered at the gloves in Morgana's hands. "Not that those are bad. No such thing as a 'bad drop' even when it's not suited to us."

"Because it'll sell for several silver, at least," Flint agreed.

"You know, it does give two intellect," Vesper said. "So should Morgana bind them?"

Flint looked at his sister like she'd gone insane. "We'll sell them and get something that's actually strong on us. Does it look like she's the one who needs bonus stats, anyway?"

"Bind?" Morgana asked. "And what is intellect? That's one of those 'stats' you mentioned, right? What does it do?" Then, she added, "And yes, by all means, sell it and buy yourselves armor. I don't need them."

"Was just a question," Vesper said defensively to her brother. "Wasn't saying she should. Just, intellect is good on mages, so it's half appropriate." She faced Morgana. "When you equip an item, it locks to you. Other people won't be able to wear it. Or, at least, get its effects." She took the gloves from Morgana's hands. "They reshape themselves too. These are obviously too small for Flint, so what if he wanted to use them?"

"Reshape themselves? How?"

Vesper rolled her eyes, obviously getting exasperated—but not annoyed—at Morgana's constant questions. "I don't know, they just do."

"But where are the spell formulae governing that behavior?" Morgana huffed for the hundredth time. She threw her hands up in the air. "It doesn't make any sense!"

"Where are the spell formula making the sun come up?" Vesper retorted.

"That's a natural phenomena. Magic isn't involved."

"Yeah, sure. That makes sense."

"Intellect is a stat, yes," Flint said, interrupting them. "It's one of the ones that affects magical users most. Specifically, how potent their spells are."

"How potent spells are?" Morgana barely bit off another 'How does that work?' How could a pair of gloves make her spells stronger? Clearly, it was all part of this 'class system' some Architect had designed.

Almost more importantly, she wondered whether a boost in her 'intellect stat' only affected system-linked spells. Would the ones she cast herself, using primordial mana and her own spell formulae, also be boosted, somehow? She assumed not, but who knew?

"Now, if you don't mind?" Flint asked. "There was something else in the chest."

He reached in and pulled it out.

Morgana's eyes widened.

Now that was convenient.

Announcement

Thanks for reading!

I've uploaded this story to RoyalRoad. From what I've read, that site is super algorithmic and getting onto Rising Stars is pretty important for visibility, and mostly dependent on how well the story does upon initial release.

So if any of you have RR accounts and have been enjoying this story, it would be amazingly helpful if you stopped by on RR to show your support there too. Early views + follows + favs have a surprisingly big effect, I've heard, since it might boost you onto rising stars. I would really appreciate you taking a moment, if you enjoy the story so far.

Thanks again! Link below