Hell's Glitch (initial draft)

I_K 1.14 Raw

Chapter 14 Raw

After selecting the Phoenix Floo item from my inventory menu, my body moved on its own, taking a small purse of the powder in my left hand and making the fingers on my right hand dig into the purse and pull a handful of the grey-blue ash precariously between my fingers and thumb. My entire arm then moved on its own, deftly flinging the ash just overhead in a manner that covered my entire body. I felt a comforting warmth, really a heat I was certain I shouldn't have survived, but the heat did feel safe. My surroundings blurred then all I could see were azure flames in every direction.

The flames then rescinded from my view and I felt the warmth drain from my skin, but felt it stoked stronger than before at my very core, somewhere between my chest and abdomen. The cool air blanketed me and saw that I was standing in front of a Soul Beacon. I instinctively reached out to touch the azure flames in the center of the stone auroburos, comforted by the immense warmth that had warmed me only seconds ago.

I looked behind me and saw Barrington hammering at his forge and Sedwin in the distance hacking away at a shambling revenant in an alchemist's uniform with his claws. Each of the bear's slashes brought a new dismemberment.

"Perfect!" I said looking at the smith. He looked at me for a second with complete disinterest then went back to his work.

I walked over to him and rapped on his merchant's counter.

"What do you want?"

"You really have to work on your people skills if you want to sell more of this stuff."

"Like the weapons I make, I seek the best quality of customer, not the highest quantity of them."

"Then you're a shitty merchant, amigo."

"I have no interest in being a merchant. Those who desire the best weapons seek me out. Occasionally this brings some truly spectacular warriors to my shop, warriors who've attained great spiritual wealth in their travels."

I watched as Sedwin, now done with his skirmish, dragged what remained of the revenant's body from the edge of camp and into the forest. He disappeared into the dark woods shortly thereafter.

The smith continued, "My weapons will be of great use to them and will stay with the warrior, growing to the peak of their power. Each weapon I forge will go on to become legendary when they find the best warrior to wield them."

"You talk as if these things are alive," I said.

"You're a blind, deaf fool if you think they aren't."

I looked at the dagger in my hand and felt like I was looking at it for the first time.

Living weapons?

A lot of thoughts came to me on the subject. Did Barrington just imply that this game had another system to it that I wasn't properly using? I had to know. He said that weapons could grow and "become legendary." Could you really power these things up in some other way? There was nothing in the manual about it.

"Tell me, how can I make my weapon grow and become legendary?"

"From the looks of you, I don't think you'll be making a legendary weapon any time soon. But looking at your weapons, it appears they are already growing thanks to your many combat engagements. But it will be up to you now to guide them down the desired path."

"Explain."

"I will not, but perhaps my apprentice will once he returns."

Lousy old grump, I thought as I quietly waited another minute for Sedwin to return from the forest. Once he was in the camp, I asked him about the weapon system and he basically gave what amounted to a tutorial of weapon crafting minerals, weapon types, affinities, and the potential uses of each type of weapon. It was enough to give me a lot of ideas. For now I settled on one. I needed a lot more DPS than what I currently had and from the sound of Sedwin's detailed lecture, I now had a way to get a ton of damage on my weapon right away. This game took a lot of cues from The Death Planes, even with its weapon upgrading system, but there was enough here to set it apart as well.