Chapter 28: Treasure
When I left the inn the next morning, artificers swarmed me. These professional artifact makers were only interested in one thing, the means I’d used to negate magic interference during the tournament. My invention removed the greatest weakness of artifacts and once the secret behind the MIC was out all artificers would see their business triple.
As I walked down the street, I had a dozen of them follow me, each trying to outbid each other for the secret.
“I’ll pay you 100,000§ if you give me the designs.”
“100,000. Don’t be ridiculous. I’ll give you 1,000,000.”
“I’ll make you a partner, I’ll do all the work and you get half the profits.”
“Half the profits? I’ll give you half the gross revenue.”
“I just want to know if it’s an artifact or a spell.”
“I’ll pay for just a hint.”
As I entered the inner city, the offers grew more and more extravagant. The largest of which came from the head of the artificer guild who, in addition to a great sum of money, offered to get a royal decree adopting me into his family and making me nobility. However, regardless of how big the offers got, I turned them all down. I wouldn’t release the design. I wouldn’t sell a working prototype. I wouldn’t reveal the slightest thing about it. Why would I sell it when I could keep all the profits for myself?
I ditched the solicitors when I reached the Archlord’s manor. A guard out front recognized me and ushered me in while shooing away the others. The guard knew why I was here, to accept my prize from winning the tournament, a single item from the treasury.
After receiving the 100,000§ monetary portion of my prize, I was led down a series of spiraling staircases, deep underground beneath the castle to a large oak double door. Metal supports and crossbars lined the doors and six guards stood watch at all times, ensuring there was no unauthorized access. As I reached the door, the guards removed the bar and let me inside.
The room was dark, but as I entered, mana lamps placed around the treasury lit up. Before my eyes was an impressive assortment of treasures, packing all the walls, shelves and most of the floor space. There were massive piles of gold, silver and other precious gems and minerals, but these things didn’t interest me. Money could be earned anywhere. This was a rare opportunity to attain something that couldn’t be bought. I started picking through the weapons, glaring at them intensely until I could see their stats. Once again, I was thankful for my game powers. With them, I easily determined the effects of each item allowing me to choose the most suitable.
†Arturia’s Holy Sword†
Damage: 337-363
Durability: 1490/1500
Requirements: Level 75
Additional Attributes: Level Requirement for Paladins -15, Stamina Boost +20%, Damage vs. Undead +40%
Description: Ancient sword said to be blessed by Aethelia herself. Once wielded by Queen Arturia during the 4th Xebrya-Drulorian War.
†Thor’s Spear†
Damage: 317-322
Durability: 700/700
Requirements: Level 63
Additional Attributes: Stun Chance +30%, Damage vs. Flying +30%
Description: Crafted by the infamous master artificer, Jayce Remington. Has built in lightning magic that brings a 50000-volt shock with each stab.
†Sculpting Blade†
Damage: 40-54
Durability: 984/1000
Requirements: Artisans only
Additional Attributes: Dexterity: +50
Description: A basic sculpting knife once used by a master sculptor who used it to sculpt all sorts of media, even light.
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I spent nearly an hour carefully analyzing the hundreds of weapons and artifacts. Their stats were amazing. All had more than five times the damage output than any weapon I had gotten my hands on and had amazing additional bonuses the likes of which I’d never seen before. One problem though, they all had huge level requirements. The lowest of the weapons in the treasury required level 50. I was only level 33. Not even close. I could take a weapon now and wait for me to catch up but it seemed like the higher my level got, the harder it was to increase. Long past were the days where I could level up a couple times a week. If I took one of the weapons, it might be a year or two before I was able to use it.
‘Take a look at the books,’ Mai suggested. ‘The secrets in them are worth more than some pointy toy.’
It seemed like a good idea so I looked through the shelf of books as well. The item descriptions indicated they were mostly magic books, or rather magic pamphlets. Each outlined a single special technique allowing anything from underwater breathing to tripling mana regeneration to taming dragons.
I passed on a text on making smelly illusions and started pulling out the next, something about undetectable poisons, when something else fell out and clanged against the floor. It was a thin metallic rectangle 2 inches wide and 3 inches long, that must have been wedged between the two books. From the copious amounts of dust on the books, it had been there a long time. The treasury didn’t have many visitors.
I picked up the metal rectangle, turning it over to get a better look. The entire surface was a plain charcoal color except for a line of golden text across one of the corners. It read: 77206469636B6579. I figured it had to be some sort of serial number, but that wasn’t the strange thing about it. I had spent over 30 seconds looking at it and no item description had popped up. No annoying, blue, creepily knowledgeable box appeared in front of my vision. Each time I had stared at one of the weapons or books, hell sometimes when I was just walking down the street and minding my own business, one of those descriptions popped up. But this time, there was nothing.
‘Take that one,’ said Mai.
“This one?” I asked picking up the last book, the one on poisons.
‘No, the black metal card,’ said Mai.
“Why?” I said. “It’s just a piece of junk. It doesn’t even register an item description.”
‘It’s not junk,’ said Mai.
“Then, what is it?” I asked.
‘A Traveler artifact,’ she said.
“Ooooo, what’s it do?” I asked. The Travelers were the powerful ancient civilization who created Mai and traveled between worlds. I’d been fairly impressed with many of their works thus far and struggled to contain myself at the prospects for more.
‘It opens a door,’ Mai answered.
“A door between universes, between times, what?” I asked.
‘No a physical door,’ said Mai.
“So it’s just a key…” I said dejectedly as the brief flare of enthusiasm drained out of me. I expected something cool and powerful, not something normal.
‘Wait,’ Mai insisted. ‘It’s not a normal key. It’s a key to a Traveler facility.’
“You mean one like where I found you?” I asked.
‘Yes… My knowledge about the other bases is limited but there was one near here,’ said Mai. ‘The key was probably a leftover from there and someone stumbled upon it in the area.’
“Near here,” I repeated with a deep exhale. “I assume, after all this time, it will be buried like the other one was.”
‘Of course,’ Mai agreed.
“Then how am I supposed to find it? For all we know it could be fifty miles away,” I said.
‘No it’s here,’ Mai smirked. ‘Right below our feet.’
I wrinkled my brow and prompted Mai to continue. ‘The humans placed their city here because it stands at a confluence of ley lines, which allows mages to recover their strength much more quickly. The Travelers would have built their base here for the same reason. The world may have changed a lot in 10000 years, but to geography, such time scales are nothing. The ley lines can’t have shifted appreciably in that time.’
The prospect of another Traveler facility was extraordinarily appealing. Even though the last base was in ruins, I had found many
rare materials. It was unfortunate that my limited storage space prevented me from taking more and the mountain base was too isolated for me to make supply trips easily, but I wouldn’t have those problems this time. My Otheristry was now level 5, allowing over 30 cubic meters of materials at a time, and if it was close, I could make multiple trips as necessary. Even if everything inside was broken I stood to make massive profits. And who knew what could have survived? A skyscraper-sized robot came to mind.
“Are you sure it’s here?” I asked. I was still nervous. It’d be a shame to waste my prize on a dud.
‘Have I ever steered you wrong,’ said Mai.
“Ok, I guess I’ll take it,” I said taking up the key card and returning the books to their appropriate places on the shelves.
I exited the treasury and stowed the strange Traveler key safely in my inventory. I felt a mix of nervousness and excitement. Nervous because giant security robots inhabited the last site and excited because all the secrets the place could hold.
The sight of Titania spoiled my mood. I had thought I had ditched all the solicitors when I went in, but apparently, at least one remained.
“Hey, Isaac. Want to buy…” she started.
I didn’t let her finish. “I’m not selling the device I used to negate the interference, nor am I revealing anything about how it works. I may change my mind in the future but for now…” I trailed off.
“Oh, am not interested in interference device. Want to buy the artifact used to swing through the sky,” said Titania.
“Err,” I hesitated. I hadn’t considered selling my Flying Claws. Strictly speaking, there wasn’t any big secret about how it worked. It wasn’t like the interference canceller whose release would likely alter the balance of power between mages and non-mages.
“I’ll think about it,” I answered. “I only have the one pair and I’d need to make another before I’d consider selling.”
“Then make another,” said Titania. “It’s not like the current one is going to fit.” Titania held out her hands, which were easily twice the size of mine.
“I can make them, but the circumstances where they are useful are limited. They can only stick to metal. Are you sure you’re still interested?” I said.
“Yeah, can still use it. In some situations, it’s still a vast improvement over other flying type artifacts. Have tried a lot of them but none of the results saw were anything close to what did in the arena yesterday,” said Titania. She had a point. I had seen two flying type artifacts before, neither of which was very impressive. One was like a boom tube or a fire stick only it shot blasts of air. If directed at the ground these blasts could be powerful enough to lift a person a dozen feet off the ground. The other one manipulated a person’s weight, making them light enough to jump 20 feet. In the right circumstances, my grappling hooks could be a lot more useful.
“I think you make a good point,” I admitted. “When I have the time to make some more I’ll let you know. But right now I’m kind of busy with something else.”
“Very well. Guess can’t force. When are ready can contact through the adventurer’s guild,” grumbled Titania before she swiveled around and stomped away.
“Hmm, so I guess I just need to find a shovel and a quiet place to dig,” I said.
‘Sure,’ Mai said. ‘If you want to spend the next 2 years digging.’
“But I thought you said the Traveler facility is right below us,” I said. “Now you’re saying it’s going to take years. I wasted my reward.”
‘Oh, it’s below us,’ Mai assured me. ‘But if you dig just anywhere it’ll take you ages to find a door.’
“Can’t I break through the walls like the one in the mountains,” I asked.
‘Not if you want to avoid the facilities automated defenses,’ said Mai, reminding me of all the sentinels I’d fought and the gigantic juggernaut I hadn’t held a chance against. ‘We have the key so we wouldn’t have to worry about that this time.’
“Really,” I said. “That’s good, but how am I supposed to find the door.”
‘I can give you a rough idea. The Travelers would have placed the center of their base directly over the confluence of ley lines. Based on your mana recovery speed, the confluence is directly under the Academy. That coupled with the base schematics from my archive, I should be able to give you a rough position for an entrance,’ said Mai.
“Lead the way,” I said.
Mai generated a highlighted path, leading me to the middle of the street just beyond the inner wall. I bought a nearby house with nearly all the tournament reward money and after pulling up a few floorboards, commenced digging.
It was two painstakingly cruel weeks of hard work before I received my first sign of success, a metal slab barring me from digging deeper that Mai assured me was a roof. Then it took another week to locate and then clear the entrance.
The door was also made of solid metal, just like everything else, but unlike everything else, there was a great big † emblazoned across it.
“What do I do now?” I asked. I didn’t see any obvious place to put it. There was no card scanner or key slot to slide it into and the seam was too narrow for it to go there.
‘Just place the key up against the door. An internal scanner should take over from there,’ Mai explained.
I did as she said and placed the key up against the door. The door glowed with a faint violet light before melting into the walls.
After I entered the ancient Traveler facility, the door reappeared behind me, sealing me in with a foreboding hiss.
The entire building was dark, not surprising considering it was 10,000 years old, who knew how much still worked. I felt lucky the door had. It would have been bad to have done all that digging for nothing.
I took out one of my light cubes and turned it on. The light cube was the simplest of artifacts. I had made a hundred of these cubes when I was leveling up my artificing skill so tossing out a few to brighten my path was nothing. The small mana crystal inside didn’t produce much light and wouldn’t last more than a few hours but that was all I needed.
The first chamber was a plain hallway, 30 feet long with a total of five doors other than the one I had entered through, two on either side of the hall and one at its end. The ceiling, floor, all the walls, even the doors seemed to be made out of metal. Once inside, the doors were of the more standard variety, with hinges and doorknobs, so I didn’t need to use the key card constantly.
The only thing that seemed out of place was a small white patch in the lower corner at the far end of the hall. I got closer to get a better look.
†Sense Jeopardy†
A sense of appreciation filled me. Thankful for the skill’s warning, I continued my approach with greater caution.
“What, it’s only a mushroom,” I huffed. My heart rate sagged as I read the description.
†Manasuke Shiitake Mushrooms†
Durability: 10/10
Effects: Drain mana
Description: Bane of mages, consuming all mana from a single bite. Only found in extremely exotic environments. This mushroom needs no water or soil to survive, instead subsisting entirely off mana.
‘Never mock the mushroom, some can help you grow to new heights, while others make you shrivel up and die,’ said Mai. ‘I guess the skill activated because this is the harmful sort.’
“Only if I ate it, what, does the skill think I’m dumb enough to just eat a random mushroom without checking it out first,” I said.
‘Don’t know, would you?’ said Mai. ‘Remember, I’ve seen you eat.’
I picked most of the mushrooms in remembrance of Albert’s pleas for new ingredients, but left a few behind. It seemed irresponsible to destroy them all. I might be wiping out an entire species. In retrospect, I should have taken the mushrooms as a sign, but I carelessly continued onward opening the door at the end of the hall to the next chamber, the main lobby.
I was on the top floor of a large cylindrical room that went six
stories down. The center of the room was hollow so I could see all the way to the bottom, but on each floor there was a washer shaped landing that ran all the way around the room and numerous doors leading out to the rest of the complex. A single staircase that wound about the room’s hollow center connected these landings.
†Sense Jeopardy†
Again, my heart jumped before I calmed it back down. There were plants in this room as well, including several more patches of mushrooms and a plethora of long tangled clumps of vines all over the place, many hanging haphazardly off the edges of staircases and landings.
“Stupid mushrooms, getting me all worked up for naught,” I said.
I started moving down stairs but as I stepped over the vines, they suddenly moved. It wasn’t the motion of shifting vines as they crunched beneath my feet, but more like of a large-scale reaction. Dozens of nearby vines snapped to attention and shot out at me. Before I could react, they constricted my arms and legs, their tight grip thwarting all attempts at pulling free.
I tried reaching for my boom tube or fire stick but couldn’t get to my belt.
“Little help?” I asked.
‘And, how exactly am I supposed to do that?’ she said, waving an arm through my head. ‘Wait, I have an idea. I can help with motivation.’
Mai transformed again, this time replicating into a row of bodies with identical white short skirts and pompoms but slightly different voices and hairstyles.
Arrival Page 31
