After I regained my composure, I noticed a few things. One was that my health was still diminished by that purple by a 5th, another was that I was now level 19 (halfway to 20), and also that there were some Items on the ground where the boss once was. 3 to be exact. I picked the smallest one up, which was kind of difficult given that I still had claws. It was a marble sized opaque crimson sphere with a faint bloody mist coiling around it. A system window popped up. These blue windows are starting to grow on me I thought. The window read 'Item: Crimson Overload. Effect: When used on a dead creature, for around 1 minute the creature will be revived under your control as an undead 3 times as strong as it was in life(effect diminished past level 70.) After the time is up, the undead will fade into a crimson mist, as all its remaining potential has been vanquished.' sounds nasty I thought. I slid it into a pocket carefully, then picked up the next thing.
'Sigil of Ruin' was what it was called. It was a stone engraved with deep, pulsating purple lines that twisted to form a complicated expression that was very confusing to look at. 'When imbued with mana, light and fire magic attacks gain an aspect of ruin' was the description of the sigil. I guess I'll give this one to Winter I thought. I was about to put it into my pocket when I noticed that something about it was different, the symbol was very simple now, it was almost a complete circle that gradually fizzled out towards the end. I looked around for a system window, and found one. 'Rune of Ruin' it now read. "WHAT!!! Rune of Ruin!!!" I exclaimed in exasperation. What is up with this glitchy system! And why do things keep changing!! I thought in annoyance. "Okay well what does this thing do now" I muttered. 'In exchange for 25 mana a second or some of the charge, all light based attacks will be imbued with the essence of ruin, permanently wounding enemies with the light of ruin.' That must be what happened to me, I hope it's not actually permanent. I thought. But there was more about the rune too. 'When charged, you can release a beam of ruin that will deal massive damage to anything that it touches, damage scales with Mana and Hp put into the attack.' That's cool I thought "How do I charge it?" I asked. 'When equipped and not charged, the rune will automatically absorb surrounding light to charge, the closer this light is to ruin, the faster it will charge. Can also absorb ruin inside a being to charge. Light based attacks no higher than 20-30 levels of the user will be absorbed by 35-50%. Symbol will glow purple when charged.' read a system window. I closed it. …that's really good isn't it. I thought after some time. A new unprompted window opened up. 'Would you like to equip? 'Yes' 'no' ' It prompted. Hmm, I don't know, I think I shou-' I was thinking when the yes lit up anyway and the window vanished. Oh, well, I was going to do that anyway. I thought. The rune turned into a ball of purple light and flew onto my right palm, where the symbol that was on the stone previously now lay as a tattoo in the middle of my hand. It also happened to be faintly glowing purple. I guess that means it's charged, I thought.
I looked around at the doors for a second before remembering that there was another object. It was a twisted blade, wooden handle with no hand guard and a 2ft long blade that curved like a snake. I picked it up, 'Twisted blade' oh I was right, I thought. 'Wounds caused by this blade will bleed excessively for 6 seconds before returning to a normal rate. Level required:20' That's a first, a level requirement, I thought I wonder how these work on a blade, in games you just weren't allowed to use it but i'm holding it right now. My question would swiftly be answered as I decided to swing it to test it out. I brought my arm backwards in preparation for the swing but when I tried pulling it forward to actually swing the sword, it stayed where it was, like It had hit a wall. This caught me off balance and I comedically fell down, sword still in hand. I stood up and put the sword down as I had nowhere to put it, figuring I could just pick it up later.
Now that I was done looking at the items. I glanced around at the four doors, which now had handles on them. I walked to the nearest one and went in. The room was unsurprisingly flooded with that blue light as usual and everything was grey bricks, everything except a floating sphere of metal and a small pedestal with a stone tablet on it which was right in front of me. The tablet said 'Test of strength, Break the ball and claim your reward.' That looks like metal, am I strong enough for that? I wondered. Clenching my fist as best I could(given the claws) I went up to it and punched it as hard as I could. "Ow" I exclaimed. Didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. I thought. There was a small dent on the sphere now but it wasn't much. I decided to try with my claws this time. Slashing didn't do much either, and I noticed that the ball was slowly healing itself so it would take even longer if I tried doing that. Luckily for me I had just gotten something that I was itching to test out. The beam of ruin or whatever. I took as many steps back as I could before pointing my arm at the sphere and… How do I use this thing? I thought 'say use rune' read a window that popped up then vanished. "Use rune" I said 'use ruin imbuing or beam of ruin' read another window. This can't be practical in combat I thought. "Beam of ruin" I said. I felt my hand get warm for a second, then there was a bright flash of light and a big meter wide purple laser popped out of my hand for a split second before vanishing.
When my eyes finally no longer had black spots in them I noticed that there was no longer a metal ball. The wall behind it was also slightly buckled, and had purple embers falling from it slowly. In the place where the metal ball was there was now a small transparent sphere with a thin glass lens in it. I was also quite tired, looks like it used all my mana, I thought. I went over and picked up the thing and put it in my pocket before leaving and going to the next room.
This room was much smaller and it only had a metal box in the middle of it. It had inset sides that were glowing slightly and it didn't even reach up to my knees. As I walked to the box I noticed a piece of paper on it, all that it said was 'unlock'. I looked around for a keyhole, but there was nothing other than a small ring shaped hole on the top of it. Hang on, ring? Did I ever give Winter that ring back, I wondered as I felt around in my pockets. As it turned out I had not given it back as I pulled the rusty thing out. Not having too much hope I fit it into the hole, and it fit perfectly. As soon as the ring clicked against the bottom, it lit up a bright blue and a faint glowing outline traced itself around the top edge. There was a bright flash of blue light and the top vanished along with the ring. I looked inside and found a smallish circular metal frame. It was very intricate and was made of bronze or something woven together nicely.
I fished out the capsule that contained the glass disk wondering if there was any connection between the two items. I noticed that you could pull the capsule apart just like one of those plastic ball things or plastic easter eggs on earth. The only difference being the capsule was made of glass or crystal so it didn't bend. I gently grabbed the disk and it seemed to be basically the same diameter as the bronze ring. And the ring was only slightly thicker. Do these fit together like glasses or something? I thought and pressed the disk into the ring. Click, it fit perfectly. But nothing happened. Not knowing what else to do with it, I put it and the capsule back into my pocket again and left the room. As I went into the next door I thought, I wonder how Winter is doing.
Name: Kevin
Age: 17
Level : 19
EXP: 5,500/10,000
Lesser Shapeshifter
Stat Points: 12
Stats:
Vitality : 15
Mind : 5
Endurance : 10
Strength : 20
Intelligence : 5
Soul : 5
Instinct : 30
Tinkering : 5
Luck : 0
Skill Points: 3
Skills:
Language
Lesser Shapeshifting(level 6)