It wasn’t until the seventh key that the lock clicked and the secret door swung open.
You have discovered the Warden’s Secret Stash!
Infernal Affinity +1!
James let out a startled noise. “Did you guys get that, too?”
“Get what?” Desiree asked.
He read the notification aloud.
Inara shook her head. “Heroes always gain infernal affinity faster than any other.”
James frowned at that. “How does that make sense? We’re trying to fight against infernal magic.”
She shrugged. “Even so. Infernal weapons were useful against the Warden, yes?”
She had a point there. James fingered the handle of his axe. He’d heard the phrase “fight fire with fire” back on Earth, but this was the first real example of it he’d ever witnessed first-hand. Perhaps by that logic, it made sense.
He shook his head. Perhaps logic had nothing to do with it. Sense or not, it was inarguably true. With anyone else, the axe likely wouldn’t have granted so much affinity as it had for him.
Desiree pushed past him. “What is this place?”
As soon as she walked in, torches flared to life along the walls, illuminating shelves filled to the brim with armor and trinkets. Small nameplates rested beside each set.
PRISONER: Dougal Ironshoes
DATE ADMITTED: 04050001
SENTENCE: eternity
“Looks like these are the prisoners’ belongings,” James mused. “The Warden must have collected their personal effects.”
Inara walked slowly down another aisle. “Why keep them at all? Every one of these sentences says ‘eternity.’ He never would have had to return any of it.
“Why does old Mr. Vagas collect funny rocks?” Desiree quipped. “Some people like to keep things.”
James examined the nearest set.
Raggedy Clothes
Are you tired of feeling warm all the time? Do you want clothes that will snag against every piece of furniture you ever sit on? Look no further; these rags have got you covered.
He winced at the description. “Guys, I think most of this stuff is junk.”
Worry Stone
A small round stone worn smooth by years of anxious rubbing. It’s wrapped in tarnished copper and said to calm nerves and clear the mind — but really it’s just a rock.
“No! I found something good!” Desiree called out from deep within the depths of the room.
“How did you—?” The girl was so fast! Every time he turned around, it seemed, she was ten feet further, examining everything and wasting time on nothing. She had a sixth sense for what was valuable, it seemed.
“It’s a token of armor repair.” She held up a small disc. It looked like jade, circular with a smooth round hole in the center. Inscribed were letters which James imagined would explain the spell, were he able to read them.
“Virgil! Have you ever seen anything like this?”
The scholar approached cautiously. Desiree still treated him as ambivalently as ever, but Inara threw him a dirty look every time he got close.
He didn’t blame her. He knew she was remembering his hesitation to attack, and she knew that if he had spoken up sooner, her daughter would not have been harmed.
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Virgil wanted to argue that all was well that ended well — but he knew it would fall on deaf ears. Years of debate had taught him to recognize an argument which could not be won.
“It… looks familiar,” he hedged, taking a closer look at the token. It didn’t really, but it did look like the kind of thing that might have come up in that room full of books he remembered. Maybe with time — if he cast another spell and gained another memory — he might remember something that was relevant to the token. “I don’t recall exactly what the symbols mean, though.”
Desiree rolled her eyes. “I just told you what the symbols mean. Gods, it’s like I’m not even here.” She handed the item to James. “I guess you should hold onto it until one of us needs it.”
As soon as the token touched his fingertips, James’s inventory began to pulse. He scrolled through his items until he found the little picture of the ancient robe he’d taken off the skeleton in the secret room. It was pulsing with a golden glow, and he knew without a doubt that it was related to the armor-restoration token.
“I can use it!” he shouted, too excited to be discreet. “I picked up a set of armor earlier, and— I’ll just show you!”
He withdrew the robes and used the token by clenching it in his hand and willing it to work. The jade grew hot against his palm, then dissolved in a spray of sparks, which flowed towards the robes and swirled around it. When they were done, the robes were whole. The fabric was a deep emerald green, and there were splashes of embroidery which were vague enough to inspire colorful interpretation, like clouds which almost looked like pictures.
Master Mage’s Lounge Robes
Mages learn twice as much by studying as they do by fighting, so get back in the study and like it! By the time you reach mastery, you too will scholarship and relaxation are synonymous.
INT +20
WIS +20
Battle Initiative -1
James frowned at the last line. “What is battle initiative?” he asked.
As always, Inara had the answer. “It’s your turn placement in the party. Why do you ask?”
He explained the properties of the robes.
She looked suitably impressed by the stat gains. “It’ll be difficult to find robes more suitable to you than those,” she acknowledged. “And you typically move last anyway, so it is no harm done.”
James’s eyebrow twitched. “I’ll wear them, then.”
The robes fit neatly over his regular clothes, for which he was glad. He’d never been much of a robe guy back home, and as comfortable as it sounded, he was terrified they might fall open at the wrong moment, especially with all the running and jumping around they were doing in the dungeon. Far better to treat the robe like a long jacket.
While he was at it, he decided it was time to allocate his stats. He desperately needed more strength, and since the robe was already boosting his INT and WIS, he felt less desperate to keep raising those. When he was done, he looked over his character sheet.
Name: James
Race: Human
Class: Hero
Level: 14
HP: 200/200
MP: 300/300
EXP: 12,500/16,000
Stat Points Available:
STR: 30
AGI: 30
INT: 80 (60+20)
WIS: 80 (60+20)
CON: 30
Skill Points Available: 1
Skills: Meditation 1, Mana Bolt 2, Vital Pulse 1
Fire Affinity: 6
Infernal Affinity: 5
His level was rising slower than he would have liked. If he had to guess, the big bad boss should be close to level 100, hovering around 80 in the absolute best case scenario. His stats were increasing rapidly though; he would just have to hope that was enough to make up the difference.
By the time he was done admiring his status, Desiree and Inara had both found their own armor upgrades. Desiree was fitting on the last piece of light armor, which would be tough enough to put some distance between her and death, while staying light enough to accommodate her tendency to race around the battlefield. Her style was a versatile balance of up-close damage and back row support, and the armor reflected that.
Inara had the same concerns for her own armor. She pieces together a set of leather armor. It was mismatched, pulled from a variety of the prisoners’ leftovers, but it did the job. Most importantly, it offered a sorely needed boost to her stats.
Virgil, on the other hand, had found nothing. He found himself frozen by indecision every time he found a piece of armor that would fit him. Surely anything was better than nothing, but none of it felt right. He had a gut feeling that he was missing something in particular, and though he could not articulate that feeling even to himself, it was powerful enough to stop him from picking anything else up.
“Virgil!” Inara’s voice cut through the air like a knife. “Do you want to explain this?”
He swallowed hard. Even before knowing what she was upset about, the tone of her voice was enough to make him feel like a guilty child about to get the scolding of a lifetime.
The scholar hunched his thin shoulders and made his way to her side. When he saw what had startled her so, his mouth went dry. There on the shelf, clear as day, was a nameplate.
PRISONER: Virgil Evermere
DATE ADMITTED: 0107601
SENTENCE: eternity
