Chapter 32: A den of comfort

Chapter 32: A den of comfort

Nathan turned to look back at the Heirs, eyebrow cocked. Well? Theres loot. Sweet sweet loot.

Aarl was the first in the door, gazing around at the armory with clear delight in his eyes. He reached his hand toward a wide-bladed greatsword that dominated the back wall, but Sarah firmly grasped his shoulders and pulled him back.

She was admonishing, disappointed in her brother. Curses. You know better.

He hung his head. Yeah. That just looks like one of Dads. You know the one. It can cut through anything.

Sarah followed his gaze to the sword. She nodded. It does. But we dont know if its safe.

Nathan stepped forward. Luckily, youve got somebody who can check for curses, and break them if need be. He grasped the sword, hefting it up off the stand with one hand. It was heavy even for him, with a blade nearly nine inches across at the base that slowly narrowed along its eight-foot length. It was the kind of sword that would require skills or magic to wield effectively.

And despite the lack of visible enchantments on the blade, there was definitely magic in this sword. Nathan felt some kind of identity-probing magic activate, but was already running ahead of it with his new [Identify], aided by his high-tier [Spellsense].

Ok, so there wasnt a self-destruct on the door, but there is one on this sword. Really? It looks like itll turn whatever the blade enchantment is on itself, make it consume itself in the next few seconds. Unless I

Nathan jabbed his other hand out, tapping the hilt of the sword right above the crossguard. The blow carried his antimagic, and broke the active connection between the hilt and the rest of the blade. Then he focused his antimagic as much as he could, disabling the self-identification spell while trying to avoid damaging the other enchantments in the weapon.

Then he held onto the sword for a moment longer, risking damage in order to sort through the other enchantments and make sure he hadnt missed anything dangerous to the wielder. Nathan sorted through a few momentum enchantments that seemed geared towards making the enormous sword easier to swing and hit harder. There was also a mass enchantment on the far end of the blade that kept the ridiculous sword balanced.

But by far the most complicated enchantment was woven into the metal crystals of the edge. They included force, void, shadow and metal mana. Almost like a variant of a [Disintegrate] that also applied prying force.

Ive gotten a lot better at [Identify]. Its a good skill to have. This is a pretty damned cool sword.

Nathan turned and tossed the sword to Aarl, grinning. Be careful with that. I think the edges have an invisibly thin disintegration effect going on.

Aarl caught the sword carefully, inspecting it with bemused wonder. He spoke in an amazed whisper Dragons breath.

Nathan went through the rest of the items in the room, checking each for curses with a quick touch. About two thirds of them were cursed in some way, but Nathan managed to clear most of those without damaging the underlying item. His [Identify] really helped with that, helping him figure out the curses and purge them quickly so that he didnt inadvertently destroy the enchantments that made each piece of loot useful.

He let the Heirs take their pick, with Stella claiming a few wands and a staff while Khachi took a sturdy hammer enchanted to deform metal with every blow. Sarah didnt take much, just a couple of daggers and a javelin whose head expanded into a wide wedge of force mana after it was thrown.

She looked it over, sighing. I would have been happy with this weapon, just a few months ago. But now my future is somewhere else. And something tells me were not about to find a gun down here.

Nathan shrugged, approaching the armor in the center of the room. Hed moved around it so far, wanting to deal with the largest enchanted item in the room last.

You know, in case it explodes or something. Ive never de-cursed a suit of armor before.

He gestured the Heirs out of the room, then laid his hands on the woven metal of the armor, lifting it slightly from the rack. Metal filaments probed out from the armor, questing over his hands and up his arms.

Nathan immediately dropped the armor back onto the rack. Some of the metal filaments had been drained of magic, and they snapped off and clattered to the floor.

Whoops. I dont think that was an attack. I dont think the armor is cursed at all. Just weird.

High-tier Identify 2 achieved!

That seems like a good sign, but Im not trusting one of my friends lives to it. Not unless I need to.

He took a few more quick pokes at the outfit to see if he could gleam any more information. There was no instant attack or even an identity check. It just tried to crawl over his body - though the enchantments were complicated enough that Nathan couldnt be sure if it wouldnt run that check after somebody had put it on all the way, and only then decide to eviscerate them.

Nathan turned to the door. I cant be sure about the armor. I'm pretty sure it's not cursed, but not sure enough to trust a life to it. Lets toss it in the quarantine sack and get it checked out later.

Aarl threw the whole rack in, grumbling about wanting better armor to go with his new weapons.

Sarah poked him in the side. Remember that wed have to wait to go back to Gemore before we could use any of this without Nathan. Then she turned and addressed Nathan. I want to see whats past the other door. Take the front, trap-magnet.

Nathan gave one more look around the armory room, looking for any indications of a secret vault or anything. There was nothing, and so he turned and walked back into the wide living area and across to the far door. It opened into another short hallway, with a few doors spread along its length.

The first was a bathroom - and much more similar to Earths idea of a toilet than the standard Gemore toilet. It also held a large shower, and Nathan was excited about the idea of staying somewhere with advanced magical plumbing. Then his hopes fell.

Hell - both the toilet and the shower are heavily enchanted. I probably need to crap outside. Would be pretty rude of me to break the bathroom.

The next door revealed a strange room that took Nathan several seconds to identify.

Well Ill be damned. Its for laundry. Washer and dryer, even if they clearly work off magic. Wait - do they still work now that Ive broken the crystal?

Nathan walked over and poked the washer, trying to feel out the magic inside of it instead of break it into pieces. There were traces of magic inside of the device, but clearly not enough to function. His suspicions aroused, Nathan walked back to the bathroom and tapped the toilet. It was similarly dead.

I hope it will, at least.

The increase to agility sounded great actually. Nathan already had three mobility skills and one mobility Talent, and they synergized beautifully. But there was always room for more. The lack of specificity was again a problem, but something that boosted agility would likely fill a hole in Nathans build. He had [Slow Fall] and [Sprinting] to help him build and control momentum, while [Dodging Footwork] and [Tumbling] helped him rapidly adjust that momentum to dodge attacks.

But none of those skills really helped Nathan adjust his body more quickly. The utility skills didnt let him do supernatural things, they just made him inhumanly skilled.

Though that might change once they get above High-Tier and go unique. Thatll be cool.

A class skill that could help him get his limbs into the positions that [Tumbling] demanded would be pretty great. Though it was worth noting that [Manadrinker Einherjar] would probably achieve something similar with the Stamina enhancement.

The final skill of [Implacable Antimage] was less exciting, but still welcome. Nathan had always been worried about how well he would fare against more physical fighters. This skill wouldnt solve all of those problems, but it was a step in the right direction. At the very least it should let him fight people lower-level than him on an even playing field!

Though it wont do much against the giant monsters. What am I supposed to do, punch a Siegeboar? It would be like punching an Abrams.

Then there were the further developments to each of the classes. All of the classes sounded interesting, but some of the ones off [Implacable Antimage] really stuck out to Nathan. The ability to permanently drain somebody of magic? Maybe he wouldnt have to kill all of the archmages after all - draining them of magic and letting them live might be a more fitting punishment. Though deflecting or controlling hostile magic sounded pretty cool too.

If I cant cast magic? Steal it. Neat. Not as excited about specializing in the close-quarters combat part, but I definitely need to get better at it.

[Magicsunder Siegebreaker] also had the potential to develop in a way that would let Nathan break city scale enchantments. Maybe if he kept along that path hed be able to break whatever causes the Endings.

Thats making a lot of assumptions though. That theres some world-sized enchantment causing the endings, and that breaking it wont break the world.

Regardless, Nathan didnt want to make this decision on his own. He wanted input from his friends, the people he would be fighting besides into the future. He stretched, then waved Sarah and Khachi over.

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Magic Absorption 9

Permanent Talent 2: Perfected Body 3

Talent 3: High-tier Slow Fall 7

Class: Spellbreaker Juggernaut level 81

Stamina: 905/910

Juggernaut's Wrath

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Juggernaut's Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Utility skills:

Battle Meditation 3

High-tier Earnestness 7

Mid-tier Sprinting 10

High-tier Spellsense 8

High-tier Notice 2

High-tier Identify 2

High-tier Dodging Footwork 1

High-tier Enhanced Memory 7

Mid-tier Lecturing 7

Mid-tier Tumbling