Chapter 63

Chapter 63 - Item Fusion Tickets 

Once the septum ring and horns were in place, Granessa checked the status of her curse.

Curse of Anubis (Mythic)

A curse personally cast by the god Anubis for breaking the taboo curse of the pharaoh Hatshepsut.

Effect: Death escapes your clutches, your goddess cannot be reached. Be cast into eternal darkness if you lay your body with a man.

Suppression in effect. Mythic curse reduced to Legendary-grade curse.

New Effect: Death can now be claimed, but… is that truly what you wish for? Endless battles? Don't you truly wish to see your mother again?

“What does that mean?” Mei asked, standing on her tiptoes to peek at Granessa's screen.

“It means she can die again,” Gracie explained, appearing from the crowd. “But her true wish, to see her mother once more, will never come true. The orc goddess can bring the dead back to life, but only those who share her blood. In essence, only orcs and a few giants. Humans like Granessa's mother can never be revived through her ability.”

“How's that a curse? Isn't that just reality?”

“Sometimes reality is the harshest curse,” Gracie said, slowly shaking his head.

Granessa frowned and reached up to yank the septum piercing from her nose.

“Wait,” Gracie said. “That new curse might actually be a blessing in disguise. I've heard of Anubis before. He's the god of the dead.”

Granessa paused, confusion spreading across her face.

“What do you mean? He can bring my mother back from the dead…?”

“That, I don't know. However, a Legendary curse should at least have the power to conjure a soul.”

“Why do I feel like Gracie is wishing to see Granessa's mother more than she is?” Adam whispered to Mei.

Mei rolled her eyes before answering in an equally quiet voice. “It's a love triangle, obviously. The two brothers fell in love with the same woman.”

Saya, who had somehow climbed onto Adam's shoulder at some point, nodded sagely.

“Definitely. And I've watched enough dramas to know where this plot is going.”

“Granessa's mother will come back as a soul, and Gracie will try to woo her all over again. Then Granessa's dad will find out, and the two brothers will have a falling out again. Likely resulting in deadly consequences,” Mei said.

Saya nodded along, agreeing with every word.

“That's how it works in dramas, so it should be the same in real life.”

However, after waiting for a long time, nothing happened. No ghosts, souls, or apparitions appeared.

“Maybe I was wrong…?” Gracie muttered.

“Uncle…” Granessa said, staring into Gracie's eyes. “You got my hopes up for nothing.”

“Well, no… I'm sure there's more to that curse than what meets the eye.”

Several seconds passed as Granessa continued staring unblinkingly into Gracie's eyes. Slowly, she lowered her horned head and stomped her foot twice against the deck.

In the next moment, her body blurred, leaving behind nothing but an afterimage. When she reappeared, she was already crashing into Gracie at mach speed.

While the uncle and niece scuffled across the deck Adam and Mei simply went back to shopping.

After scrolling through seemingly endless pages of items, they finally found something interesting after Granessa's septum ring.

Item Fusion Tickets (Legendary)

Effect: Fuses two or more items together, combining one or more of their effects.

Added effects are random, but the highest-tier item will retain all of its effects. If two or more items are of the same rarity, a base item can be designated.

Limited to items at or below Legendary

Item Price: 1,000,000,000,000 Game Coins

Below it was a nearly identical item, only Mythic-grade. Beneath that was a single identical item with Universal rarity.

It was the first Universal-rarity item they'd ever seen. It also had the longest string of numbers they'd ever seen in their lives.

The Mythic-rarity Item Fusion Tickets cost ten trillion Game Coins apiece. But the Universal one? They had no idea. Neither of them could count anywhere near that high.

Without even blinking at the price, Adam immediately bought a Mythic Item Fusion Ticket.

“Fuse the gloves and the battery!” Mei said.

Adam stared at her for a moment, making sure she was serious. Unfortunately, she was.

“You want me to fuse the gloves I can't remove with the nuclear fission bomb disguised as a Double-A battery? Are you out of your mind?”

“Fair point. I see how that might not be the best idea I've ever had. Definitely not the worst, though.”

Adam pulled the Mage Cloak out of his inventory, held it in one hand, then used his other hand and his teeth to rip the Item Fusion Ticket in half.

Much like the Class Advancement Tickets they'd used before, liquidized mana dripped from the two halves and splashed against his gloves and the cloak.

Item fusion in progress…

ERROR! ERROR!

Item fusion terminated. Item: Cursed Gloves of Everhealing Chaos (Mage's Magic Gloves), cannot be fused. Ticket level insufficient.

“Huh?”

Adam stared at the maroon gloves covering his hands, willing their item description to appear.

Cursed Gloves of Everhealing Chaos (Universal)

The hidden relic of the Grogroshin worm tribe. They do not know where they originated, but the gloves allowed them to glimpse a path toward imbuing their bloodline with a powerful passive ability. Unfortunately, that ability also made them prime targets for the Roc tribe whenever they sought nutrients for their unhatched eggs.

Effects:

[Flesh is King] (Exclusive Passive):

Unable to wear clothing. In return, gain +1 rank to Magic and Constitution stats, and +500% health regeneration.

Remaining effects locked until wearer reaches S-rank Magic and Constitution.

[Curse of Soul-Binding] (Universal)

This item cannot be removed once equipped, except on death. However, it will also grow alongside the wearer.

“What just happened? Did my gloves upgrade?”

“Ah… no. Looks like you revealed their true name and rarity,” Gracie explained.

He limped over while moaning in pain, a long cut ran along his thigh and blood dripped from his palm after catching Granessa's horns mid-charge.

Adam instinctively cast a [Heal] over him.

“Thanks. But, as I was saying, some items have hidden effects or even hidden names and rarities. Looks like you found one of those items.”

Adam's gaze shifted toward the shop window.

“You wouldn't happen to be able to give me a very big discount on that Universal-rarity Item Fusion Ticket, would you?” he asked Saya.

The tiny sea creature shook her head.

“Get me some of the Legendary ones,” Mei said, barely able to contain her excitement. “I wanna see if any of my items are secretly cursed.”

“I don't think that's how that works,” Adam said.

“It worked for you.”

Adam couldn't really argue with that.

He forked over a few trillion more coins and bought Mei her Item Fusion Tickets.

Naomi suddenly appeared from thin air, standing on the barrel next to Saya. She was still in her tiny fairy maid form, and somehow looked surprisingly fitting beside the equally tiny Saya.

“Do not use those on the magic closet. I'll die…” she warned.

“I wasn't planning to, but good to know.” Mei nodded.

Instead, she pulled out her starter pistol, the purple-and-blue Desert Eagle with star motifs fitted with a mini-reflex red-dot sight and an under-barrel laser attachment. She stared at it for a moment, then glanced between her shotgun and the water pistol.

She couldn't decide which one to fuse it with.

“Why not fuse it with something other than a weapon?”

Mei glanced at Adam.

“Oh… that's a good idea, surprisingly.”

“What's that mean?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

Putting away the water pistol and shotgun, she pulled out the Eye of Ra. She stared at it for a moment before shaking her head again and glancing down at her boots.

“Gun boots…?” she muttered before shaking her head again. “Nah.”

She took out several other items, considered each one for a few seconds, then put them away again, shaking her head every time.

“If you shake your head any more, it's going to fall off,” Adam said.

Mei glanced toward him, already opening her mouth to say something, but stopped when a contemplative look crossed her face.

“Hey, give me your utility belt.”

“Sure, but are you really gonna fuse it?”

“Yeah. I have a feeling something special will happen.”

“If you say so.”

Adam pulled out his Mage's Utility Belt and handed it to her.

The moment Mei tore the ticket in half and let the liquid mana drip over both items, a special effect appeared that hadn't occurred when Adam had attempted his fusion.

Compatibility match! Beginning special fusion. Fusion in progress…

“See! What'd I say?”

“That only happens when two items share a high compatibility,” Saya explained. “The resulting item will be more than just an item that combines the effects of two other items. It'll be an almost entirely new item instead.”

“Nice.”

Mei smiled as she watched expectantly.

The two items floated from her hands and hovered in the air between them. A moment later, they burst apart into countless particles of magical energy. The particles swirled around one another, slowly merging together as the fusion began to take shape.