Book 3 Chapter One: Level 3 Uniques

ONE

Roan hadn’t slept the rest of the night. He stood on the deck of the ship looking down at the restful camp and wondering who else had Amir’s programming just waiting to activate. Sleeper commands to avenge a dead mind mage was not what he’d thought he’d be dealing with when he entered the tower. It only reassured him that killing Amir had been the right choice.

He could still hear Melissa’s choked sobs, even after the woman had fallen asleep. How many more of them were like that, their memories and thoughts locked behind twisted commands?

“I need to work on figuring out how to embed my bloodline ability into these damn amulets,” Roan thought. He fingered his own now redundant necklace. It provided nearly nothing to him now that his body temper had increased. He made a mental note to see if he could secure an uncommon-grade amulet, but it was far down on the list of things he needed done today.

It wouldn’t be long before the sun began to rise and the camp stirred. The two convoys would split up, Roan and Taoya forced to hold off against the Dreadhawks and wyverns that plagued the air.

“The level skills, dumbass. They should have something that will work in our favor,” Roan muttered, wanting to smack himself. Between Amir, the druid, and then the ambush, his mind had been scrambled with too much on it. He looked away from the camp and brought up the market menu and searched for the level-unique skills.

UNIQUE ITEM

SHIFTING CLOAK

COMMON

100,000 CREDITS

A CAMOUFLAGE CLOAK UNIQUE TO FLOOR 1.03

0/3 ENCHANTMENTS USED

AVAILABLE 500/500

UNIQUE ITEM

WYVERN BONE BOW

UNCOMMON GRADE

100,000 CREDITS

MADE OF WYVERN BONE AND SINEW THIS WEAPON HAS GREAT RANGE

NO PARTICULAR RESONATION

ENCHANTMENT SLOTS 0/3

CLEANSING STRIKE

TIER 1 SKILL

50,000 CREDITS

POTENTIAL: TIER 8

SUMMON OVERWHELMING AMOUNTS OF MANA THAT CAN CLEANSE CORRUPTION.

FLOOR 1.03 UNIQUE SKILL 100/100

LEARNING MANUAL 5,000 CREDITS

MANUALS REMAINING: 1,000/1,000

“I’m willing to bet the bow and cloak are what the druid’s guards are wielding. Doesn’t seem like there’s a limit on the amount I can buy of the bow. Also, three enchantment slots on a piece of uncommon-grade equipment? An extra fifty-thousand for one enchantment? Seems steep.” Cloak to hide, bow to kill Dreadhawks and wyverns, and a singular skill that looked like it was perfectly designed to kill the corrupted beasts.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Roan briefly flirted with the idea of just killing the druid guards and taking their gear. The tower wasn’t stupid though, if it was offering these goods at these prices, then it was likely that the guards weren’t pushovers. That only a handful had come to stop them while the druid did its inspection spoke volumes. Roan decided that it was a bad route to try. Instead he focused on the other skill.

“Except my bloodline is already better suited to kill them,” Roan said out loud with a sigh. He had plenty of skills he needed to work on and finish, but being exposed out on that deck had been frustrating to say the least. Waiting for them to attack him before he could respond grated on him and all the training he’d undergone.

“I do know how to use a bow. But a hundred thousand? Add on my bloodline enhancement and that thing will clean house. What type of arrows can I use for a bow like that?”

ARROWS X24

UNCOMMON GRADE

5,000 CREDITS

“That’s fucking ridiculous. I mean, I can reuse them. No I can’t, we’ll be moving and not stopping to retrieve them. Fuck!” Roan got up and stalked the deck, his eyes moving constantly. He thought it over and couldn’t think of a better way to defend against the Dreadhawks. Not unless he bought a mana core, but he was close to finishing his current quest. There was a sneaking suspicion that Amir’s final locked spatial treasure would hold at least one of the mana shards, if not both of the ones he needed.

CURRENT BALANCE: 305,496 CREDITS

Roan bought the damn bow and the arrows that went with it. Air popped and a massive bow, nearly six feet tall, appeared in front of him. He reached out and caught it before it hit the ground. The arrows that arrived next did clatter to the deck.

The wyvern bone bow was smooth and warm under his fingers, like there was an inner fire in the bone. Bleached white it was light as a feather, but when he tested the pull he felt a surprising amount of resistance. With his stats so high he’d have figured the bow would have been an easy pull.

Each of the uncommon grade arrows was three feet long, pitch black with onyx feathers on them. Their quiver was a simple leather strap that Roan attached to his belt off of his hip. They sat easily, but nearly reached the ground with their length.

“This isn’t uncomfortable at all,” Roan groaned before he looked at the rings on his fingers.

“Oh, duh,” Roan found an empty ring and moved all of the arrows into it. With a thought the arrow appeared in his hand, ready to be drawn and fired. Roan practiced it a few more times until he felt comfortable with the motion.

It took a few hours for him to lay the first enchantment on the bow, his bloodline enhancement enchantment. The practice he’d been getting on the generic enchantment had sped up the process and he wiped away the bone dust from his hands.

Sunlight began to pierce the shroud of branches and the camp stirred. Roan doubted they’d all been asleep, but they were moving now. From the lake the druid came out of the water, antlers still dripping. People backed away from the druid, letting the mob walk straight toward him.

“Where’s Taoya?” Roan wondered. The man was large enough that he was nearly impossible to miss. If Roan hadn’t been looking for him he would have missed the giant slipping off of Moira and Nikki’s ship.

“What’s he doing…oh. Well, good for you big guy.” Nikki had appeared on the edge of the railing in a massive shirt and leaned over, yelling something he couldn’t hear. Roan could watch as dozens of heads turned and looked at the couple and saw more than one group bust out laughing as Nikki tossed Taoya something.

Moira appeared on deck, from the opposite side, and waved at Roan before grabbing Nikki and dragging her back below before she created an even bigger scene.

“I never really thought about that. How many of them are here who are missing their boyfriends or girlfriends. How many of their friends, siblings, or lovers have died already and they continue on? Roan wasn’t the only one who had lost someone.

It warmed his heart to see his ally find a bit of happiness here. The tower had taken a hard enough toll on them already. It wasn’t just Amirs and Graces here in the tower, but also people like Taoya and Moira, good people who Roan could rely on.

“That or they’re planning something against me and came up with the fastest excuse they could to lower my suspicions. Next time we meet up I’ll purify them, make sure there’s no sleeper commands nesting in there.” Roan trusted them as much as he trusted anyone, but paranoia had kept him alive this long and he had no intention of shelving his most reliable defense.

“Better safe than sorry,” Roan whispered, bending over to help the druid onto the ship. He kept an eye on the powerful mob as well, something was wrong with this hidden quest, he could feel it. The druid sat in the middle of the deck, legs crossed and appearing to meditate. Roan watched the mob the entire time that Tev led their massive ship and convoy out of the sanctuary and back into the Deadlands.