Chapter 182: The Primordial Void Blade
Even as he chased alongside her for several miles, Zach already knew she wasn’t going to change her mind, but he felt he had to try anyway. “Kalana, stop,” he said to her, leaving behind a wispy, jet-like contrail in his wake as he raced across the barren landscape.
Though hardly the thing that was front and center on his mind right now, Zach would be lying if he said he didn’t secretly feel a bit of guilty pleasure at how easily he was able to keep pace with Kalana. Right now, with 205 points into dexterity and 182 points into speed, Zach was definitely faster, more agile, and swifter on his feet than even the mighty Kalana, who in such a short ti, had exploded from a level-1 Elvish refugee into a superpowered princess.
“I can’t,” she said, slowing down sowhat as the dirt began to turn green, indicating a shift to grass and thus the possibility of civilization ahead. “My mom’s gonna kill if I don’t get back.”
Zach chuckled. “Yeah, well, that’s not actually so bad.” He pointed his finger to himself even as he ran at over a hundred MPH beside her. “She’s killed once before, and I’m just fine.”
“Not funny!”
“Yeah, yeah. Look, Kal, whatever’s going on in Shadowfall Coast, I…I don’t want you to see it or be involved with it. I’m just not okay with you going.”
Rather than earn him a smile, his words were rewarded with a surprisingly intense glare. “How can you say that to ?” she snapped. “After what you did.”
“It’s different, Kal. I’m…”
“What?”
“Don’t make say it.”
“No, say it. I want you to.”
Zach kept his mouth shut as he leapt over a fence then began zipping his way with Kalana through a section of farmland. He had to be careful now not to kick up any dirt or disturb the land as he ran.
“Say it,” she insisted. “Umm, we both know what you were gonna, like, say. So just say it.”
“Fine!” Zach said. “I don’t want you to be corrupted like . I don’t want you to be…I don’t want you to have your innocence stolen away like mine was.”
At this, Kalana stopped short, and Zach blasted right past her. He actually had to carefully stop and then dash backwards so that he could once again be beside her. There was pain in the way she looked at him—as well as so anger. “My innocence was stolen before I could even speak, Zach! I’ve seen stuff so bad I would give you nightmares if I told you a fraction of them. Do you know what life was like for when I was just a little girl in captivity?”
Zach knew there was very little he could possibly say in response to that, so instead, he lowered his head. “I’m sorry. I forgot about that.”
“Whatever it is you’re afraid I’ll see, I’ve already seen it. Whatever it is you’re afraid I’ll feel, I’ve already felt it. You dunno, Zach. You dunno what I’ve been through.”
“You never really tell .”
“I can’t talk about it yet. I might never be able to.”
His hands and feet continuing to release fla, Zach grabbed his hips, lowered his head, and spat on the grassy field. “Shit,” he muttered. “I don’t know what else to say, Kal.”
“How about the truth?”
Zach t her eyes. “Fine, here’s the truth. The truth is I don’t have a reasonable or logical argunt for why you shouldn’t go. I don’t have a fucking solid case I can make. There’s nothing I can ever say that relies on objective fact that you won’t be able to just shoot down. All I can say is I really, really love you, and I just don’t want you to go. That’s my only and best reason, Kal, and I’m sorry if that’s not enough. My one and only reason is selfish. I just don’t want you to do it.”
Sotis, Zach was amazed by how badly he understood girls. Because of all things he’d just said, he expected that to be the one that upset Kalana the most. But no. Kalana actually reached out, grabbed him, hugged him tightly, and whispered “thank you” into his ear before kissing him.
“Go back and win so loot, baby,” she said to him. “There’s lots of people dying in Shadowfall Coast, and I think I’m the only person who can talk them down. It’s ‘cause they know I actually care. That’s why I have to go.”
Zach gritted his teeth. “You’re going to see so really, really bad shit, Kal. Blood, body parts, and everything in between.”
“I’ve seen all of that before, and umm, if it was gonna break , it would’ve a long ti ago.”
Zach at last backed down. He could tell her mind was made up, and there was nothing he could say that would deter her. “All right, Kal,” he relented. “Just please be careful.”
“I will. Oh! And make sure you give this to Jimmy. I completely forgot.”
She handed him an item, and as he took it, he held her hand, but only for a few monts. She then gently pulled away, turned around, and took off. Zach, watching her go, remained where he was, his shoulders slumped, his heart heavy. But he did feel a reassuring pat on his shoulder as Trelvor and Seiley, each following a respectable distance behind, stopped for a mont beside him.
“We’ll watch out for her, Zach,” Trelvor said. “I promise you.”
“Yup. Princess Kalana is in good hands with us,” Seiley agreed.
Zach nodded at them both. Afterwards he took a breath, counted to ten, released it, and then he turned himself around in the opposite direction and headed off back to the raid at a moderate pace. With over 40 minutes remaining on Unleashed Phase, he had no reason to rush.
Upon returning, he noticed that the loot had all been taken out of the trench and sorted carefully by rarity. And this certainly brightened his mood. Much as Jascaila had told him would be the case, Zach found his entire deanor changing as he approached the loot, which, having been moved, no longer shined. As Zach ca upon the raid, nurous heads turned his way, many of which were smiling.
This is only my second ti ever rolling for boss loot, he realized, becoming excited.
Seven piles of loot were laid out very neatly on the dirt. The first “pile”—if you could even really call it that—contained just one item, a sword. The second contained two items, the third contained 5, and the fourth, fifth, and sixth each had too many for Zach to bother counting. Finally, there was a seventh pile, and this one really made Zach’s eyes water with desire, for in this pile, there were thousands of gold coins on top of one another.
All hundred-plus raid mbers, adventurer and political alike, were huddled around the loot in a circle, and as Zach squeezed his way in, he arrived to overhear Jimmy addressing the raid. He’d apparently been in the middle of speaking. “…so, I think we can all unanimously agree, right? Since we’re doing need before greed, and since there was only one of us who uses a flute, this should go to Trelvor uncontested.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he projected the item information forward, making it large enough so that everyone could see it, and dual-sided so that it would be easy to read no matter on where in the huddle one happened to reside.
Na
Song from Beyond the Void
Level
85
Rarity
Legendary
Dexterity
40
Intelligence
40
Familiar Type
Warrior Sprite
Ability
Refreshing Life Mist
Cooldown
60:00 (minutes)
Range
50 (Area of Effect)
Description
All allies in target area receive a 15:00 minute HP regeneration buff (type red)
Whoah, that’s got to be worth a ton, Zach thought to himself.
“Nobody else can use this, right?” Jimmy asked the raid. “So then I’m guessing nobody objects if I give this to Trelvor next ti I see him.”
“That’s fine,” Zephyr said.
“Yup, no problem’s here,” Fiona Darkmae added as she flipped her hair and smiled.
“He’ll be so happy,” Lienne chirped. “Give it to and I’ll give it to him.”
“Sure,” Jimmy said. “Whelp. If no one objects, I guess we can move on to—”
“I object!” Zach called out, raising his hand upright like he was in class. This imdiately brought a chorus of varying reactions. So adventurers moaned, most laughed, and a few, such as Donovan, shook his head and muttered a few choice swear words.
“Uh, Zach, why are you objecting?” Reni Sarwin asked.
Zach folded his arms defiantly. “Because I might need that item too. Like, are we seriously just giving shit away? What happened to the law of loot and rolling for things?”
“Kiddo, stop,” Donovan grunted. “You don’t even play the flute.”
“Okay, yeah? So what? I’ve always wanted to learn to play a musical instrunt. In fact, I was just thinking about how sick I am of using a sword. Starting right now, I want to play a flute when I fight just like Trelvor, and you can’t actually prove otherwise, so I object. I want to roll for it.”
“Zach!” Donovan snapped.
Zach continued to fold his arms for several more seconds as the glare from Donovan intensified. But finally, he sighed and uncrossed them. “Okay, fine, whatever. This is bullshit. But whatever. Just give it away.”
System is totally rigged, he thought angrily to himself. I hate need before greed.
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Jimmy carefully picked up the flute, which was made of pure gold and silver with various multicolored gemstones embedded into it. Lienne thanked him and put it in her Bank and Storage. And then Jimmy returned to where he had been standing and instructed everyone to take out their cell phone.
“So, we’re gonna do things a bit differently than you guys usually do them.”
“How so?” Zephyr asked.
“Well, usually you guys go item by item and have everybody roll for each one. I kinda hate this system ‘cause, let’s say you get the second highest roll on sothing, and then you never even co close again after that. It kinda’ sucks, right?”
“So what are you proposing?”
“Well, in so of the simulations I used to play, like DAOC, what we do is we all roll a random number between 1 and 10,000, right? All of us roll at once. Then we go down the list from highest to lowest, and any duplicates along the way reroll among themselves.”
Donovan curled his bottom lip as though surprised. “That…that’s not a bad idea. Certainly speeds shit up.”
“Hmm, but it’s less fun, no?” Maric asked. “Lacks the ceremony of it all.”
“Yeah, true,” Donovan said, “but after the dragon raid, I bet lots’a people just wanna roll and get done with it before fate puts sothing nasty in our way.”
Zach nodded. “That’s how I feel, actually.” To Jimmy, he said, “Can you start showing off the items? Let’s see that sword.”
Zach knew every eye was on that blade, and as Jimmy bent down and picked it up, he found himself already praying to the Gods that it would end up his. It was a damned beautiful weapon. Before even looking at its stats, Zach already found himself impressed. The sword was currently inside its scabbard, which was completely black with little white glowing dots that made it look like a scene from outer space, only there were visible golden trails that would start at the top of the scabbard and travel all the way to the hilt itself. But these golden trails vanished abruptly as, with a shing, Jimmy removed the sword from its scabbard and gently placed the scabbard on the ground.
“Wow,” several adventurers said at once—including Zach.
The blade itself was miraculous. The hilt was made of a dark silver, and the edge was made of a darker, but similar silver. Yet from the sharp, pointed end down to around halfway along the length of the blade, there were several words inscribed in what looked like Elvish writing, and these words would slowly light up a vibrant purple before becoming dull and unlit—only to light up yet again like a pulse.
“Here are the stats,” Jimmy said.
Na
The Primordial Void Blade
Level
85
Rarity
Artifact
Strength
35
Dexterity
35
Constitution
35
Passive Ability
Equalize 40
Zach blinked twice, then said, “Wait, that’s it? Seriously?”
Muttering ca from all around him as his fellow adventurers had the sa reaction that he did. Even Jimmy made a “hmm” sound and then scratched his head right after carefully sheathing the blade and placing it back down on the ground.
“Fuckin’ thing is artifact quality?” Donovan’s deep voice grumbled to Zephyr. “Nowhere near as good as your blade. I guess not all artifacts are equal.”
“That really depends,” Zephyr replied. “What exactly is ‘Equalize 40?’”
It was a good question—and it soon beca the dominant one that Zach could hear people asking as it was raised by one person after the next. Even the political guilds began discussing it amongst themselves. Eventually, everyone turned to Jimmy as if for guidance, but even he could only just shrug and say he had no idea whatsoever.
Finally, after several minutes of discussion, an idea ca to Zach. “Wait, I might be able to tell you guys what it is,” he said.
“Huh? How?” Alixa asked.
“We’re all in the sa raiding group, right? Tell if you can see this.”
Zach, in a way similar to Jimmy, pulled forward a screen and enlarged it so that every single person on the raid could see it. And this, for so reason, caused a trendous stir. Even among those who had seen it before, but exponentially more from those who had not. “Th-there’s such a thing as a glossary?” Alixa asked as though in total shock, her sword-shaped earrings swaying as she jerked her head back.
“How is there a glossary?” Zephyr asked, his mouth fully opened wide. “And how have you never bothered to tell anyone this before, Zach?”
“It’s because I can only use it while in Unleashed Phase,” he said. “And that’s not sothing I’m going to do just for a damn glossary. Anyway, let search it.”
Zach ntally sent the term “Equalize” into the search, and unsurprisingly, it popped up imdiately. Yet despite there being a glossary entry for the term, it still didn’t quite clear things up for him. And judging from the look on everyone else’s faces, it didn’t do much to help their understanding, either.
Glossary Entry: Equalize X
Equalize X is an ability where X = an integer representing an upper bound, which is compared against Player Level P and enemy level Y. For all enemies of level Y such that Y>P, first-order damage calculation is adjusted such that if Y: X
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