Book 2 Chapter Fifty-Four: One Man's Trash

FIFTY-FOUR

“Trash,” Roan groaned as he dumped the remnants of another spatial ring onto the top of the ship. Amir had been a hoarder of epic proportions and hadn’t seemed to have any sort of taste. For someone who had managed to steal everything his instance had farmed, nothing in the rings had given Roan any sort of thrill.

There were weapons, which he’d enchant when he had time. Plenty of supplies, more mana enriched foods aside from the steaks that Roan used. Apparently his instance had unlocked more of the menu that Roan had. Plenty of elixirs which he sorted and stored a few in each of the rings he wore and put more aside to hand out as favors.

Nobody hated the guy who gave them healing potions. And it wasn’t like it was his money he was spending. Or giving away the best of the elixirs. He kept the common-grade potions for himself, which there were more than he thought Amir would have needed. They hadn’t done him any good when Roan had settled him down permanently.

He tossed the broken spatial ring to the side where five others sat in a neat row. They would all still work, they just couldn’t be locked. Breaking the sealing enchantment was fairly easy now on the weaker rings, but Amir had a few nice pieces that Roan knew would take him some time to work through.

Including a large necklace that was so intricate it hurt to look at. That was where Roan was hoping the man had hid the good stuff. Not that the stuff coming out of the rings was necessarily bad, it just wasn’t exciting.

“There you are,” Taoya complained as he crawled onto the ship. He was dripping wet and had a bruise on his cheek.

“You look like hell. Nikki tune you up that bad?” Roan asked.

“You fight someone who can change the density of your body. Or hers. Or apparently now, the fucking air I’m trying to breathe.” Taoya grumbled but flopped to the deck with a groan, turning his head to look at the piles of gear scattered around Roan.

“Amir’s shit?”

“Yeah. Not much good yet, but I’m working my way up to the good stuff,” Roan told him.

“Lots of survival gear here. What are you going to do with it?” Taoya asked. Roan looked up from the newest ring he was working on and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Taoya had that look on his face, the one that he got when he was going to ask Roan to be a better person than Roan wanted to be.

“Sell it. Enchant the weapons and auction them. Give some of the elixirs out to friends. Why?”

“Amir’s instance. They had everything except their personal weapons stolen from them. Amir couldn’t force them to give up their credits, but he did have them buy him gear and take it.”

“Yeah. Real dickwad. Glad he met his fate.”

“Roan. Come on man. You know what I’m going to ask.”

“I do and I think you’re asking for a lot.”

“What’s your current balance?” Taoya asked, raising an eyebrow. Roan opened up his accounts and sighed when he saw the numbers.

CURRENT BALANCE: 299,512 CREDITS

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“Alright, I get it. Give to the poor and needy. You want to hand it out? I don’t think I could physically do it,” Roan grumbled, turning back to the ring enchantments. Taoya was right, the pitiful amount he’d earn selling the goods back to the Market paled in comparison to the goodwill he’d generate by giving stuff away.

“Not all of it though. I’m keeping the good shit.”

“You’re a better man than you give yourself credit for,” Taoya said, rising to his feet and starting to grab all of the supplies. Most of it was basic clothes, but there were some of the enchanted canteens that Roan now had three of. Basic non-mana enriched rations, blankets, pillows, tents, soap, and all the other assorted goods one needed to live by.

“You should go and introduce yourself to more of them. Being social is good for the soul,” Taoya said, arms absolutely stuffed with gear.

“You have a black eye from being social. I’ll pass and work on this,” Roan said dismissively. He’d even moved some of the weapons to the give away pile. Poor and Inferior-Grade only, but it was more than he wanted to give away.

The hours passed with him opening each ring, keeping what he wanted, and giving the rest away. People trickled up to him and thanked him, often quietly and without Roan doing more than grunting at them. That was until he finally cut through to the final spatial treasure.

It was a silver circle with a piece of onyx in the center, every inch of the metal carved in tight enchantments while the onyx was just as delicately carved. Roan wondered if these were one of the gems that Jerry had mentioned that could store life force or energy in general.

Whatever it was, when he touched it the hairs on his arms went up and his chest tightened. Twilight was approaching and his light was fading, but Roan continued to study it, following what enchantments he knew. Jerry’s cheat sheet was referenced, pages strewn around him as hours passed.

His headache started to build, a clear sign that learn was stressed to its limits. Roan was learning though, he was starting to piece together all of the many interwoven locks on the piece. Whatever Amir had hidden in the necklace it wasn’t like the simple rings Roan had been cracking.

Before he’d even reached the gem he’d counted four different locks that were all somehow intertwined with each other. He was worried if he cut the lock wrong he’d be sealed out of the spatial treasure permanently. Roan groaned and rubbed at his eyes before searching his new loot that he’d kept.

Most of the gear Amir had that Roan decided to keep fit on two rings. Candles came out along with blank paper and a pencil. The night deepened and a fire was started in the oasis, carefully contained and watched by the mobs. The two caravans of climbers gathered and talked, drank and ate, and someone pulled out a guitar and strummed it to life.

“There’s always a fucking guitar!” Nikki’s high pitched voice broke Roan’s concentration trance. The tiny woman had climbed over the railing and was looking down at him with a frown on her face.

“You start a fire somewhere and it’s a guarantee that some guy is going to pull out a guitar. At least this one is playing it decently,” Nikki continued on.

“Yeah, I guess. Uhmm, I’m Roan, and I’m busy right now.” Roan started to turn back to his work but a small, warm hand grabbed him by the top of his skull. Instantly Roan was on alert, reaching for his polearm and dropping the spatial treasure.

“Easy there, easy there, no harm meant. Moira and Taoya told me to come and get you. They said you can forget to do things like washing wyvern guts off of yourself.”

Roan froze and looked down at himself and frowned. He had forgotten to shower, but the pulsing desire of learn thudded at the back of his eyes. There was nothing more that he wanted to do than continue to sit and study the intricate enchantments.

“You stink dude. Like really bad. Go swim in the lake. It feels good, very refreshing, and better yet, you will stop stinking. Especially if you take some of that soap you took from that fuckhead Amir.”

“Moira told you about that?”

“Why do you think we have a fire and a guitar. We’re celebrating. Now go and bathe and be a human for a few hours.” Nikki turned and left, leaping over the side of the ship and floating down like a leaf to land gently on the ground.

“Shit. I do stink,” Roan muttered, catching a whiff of himself. He piled his notes into his locked spatial ring and put the necklace over his neck. He wasn’t willing to let it out of his sight until he’d cracked it.

“There’s always tomorrow. Let’s see what swimming in a life drenched lake will do,” Roan said, hopping down and walking toward the lake.