Chapter 7: Spoils (1/2)
Would you like to loot [Builder Cultist]?
The idea of rifling through the pockets of a corpse filled Jason with disgust. Would the system just loot the body like it did with monsters? Corpse-robbing was a nasty business, but Jason had no idea what kind of place he was in, or how to leave it without being eaten. He was going need every advantage he could get his hands on. He thought about the snake back in the tunnel.
“It won’t skin him, will it?”
He took a step back.
“Alright,” he said. “Loot the body.”
[Landemere Vane’s Key Ring] has been added to your inventory.[Robes of the Astral Verdict] have been added to your inventory.4 [Gold Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.16 [Silver Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.138 [Bronze Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.437 [Iron Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.228 [Lesser Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.
“Where were you carrying all that? That's about eight-hundred coins.”
The robes the wizard was wearing had vanished, although he turned out to be wearing a full set of clothes underneath. Jason pulled the robes back out of his inventory and held them up to examine. They were dark blue, but covered in the blood of their former owner.
Item: [Robes of the Astral Verdict] (bronze rank, rare)
Robes designed for summoning. (armour, cloth).
Effect: Increases the damage dealt by dimension spells.Effect: Summoned creatures have increased damage reduction.Effect: Damage reduction against disruptive-force damage.
Jason wasn’t ready to wear the clothes he took from a person he killed, especially when they were still wet with his blood. He returned the robes to his inventory and started searching about for something to cover the body. There was a fallen tapestry he dug out and laid over the corpse. Partly he felt it was the decent thing to do. Mostly, he didn’t want the body out in the open while he searched the room, always at the edge of his vision. He needed to find anything he could to aid his escape from this place and its cannibalistic inhabitants.
He started by examining the magic circle in the middle of the room. It was large, around three metres across, the metal set directly into the floor. The lines were intricate and complex, like someone had started with a pentagram and gotten severely carried away. It was also damaged. Some of the metal had been pried up, other sections warped as if by great heat, although there was no indication of burning anywhere.
The circle wasn’t useful to him, so he started going through the rest of the room. He starting with the big desk the potions had been in. There were no more potions, but there were a few tins of healing unguent, which he took. Unlike the plain tins he got from monsters, these tins were branded with some kind of logo.
“Greenstone Alchemy Association,” Jason read from the bottom of the tin. “I guess alchemy is a thing, too. Maybe I can pick up a crafting skill.”
The rest of the drawers contained piles of notes and diagrams that seemed related to the magic circle. Oddly, Jason could read the individual words despite never having seen the language before, but they didn’t make any sense to him as a whole. From what he could gather they were on some set of magical principles, as arcane to him as high-end theoretical physics. During his brief stint at university he studied political science. Regular science had never appealed.
He moved on, searching through toppled bookshelves and overturned tables. There were a variety of what looked like curios and display pieces, mostly tossed to the floor and broken, but nothing useful. He picked up a few of the books, flipping through the pages. There were a lot of them scattered around the room, their bookcases knocked over or even smashed. They seemed to be written in a variety of languages, but Jason had no problems reading any of them. Each new and unfamiliar text came as easy as if he’d been reading it his whole life.
“That’s a little disconcerting.”
Although he could read the words, that wasn’t the same as understanding it. Every book he picked up seemed to be about magic theory, making them as impenetrable as any advanced textbook from a field he knew nothing about.
Moving a large, overturned table from where it had been tossed against the wall, Jason discovered a display cabinet with a glass door. Despite the table that had crashed into it, the cabinet was wholly unaffected, the glass remaining clear and uncracked. Inside were four books, each on their own small easel stand. Compared to the other books Jason had found, these looked more impressive, with intricately embossed leather covers.
Trying to open the cabinet, he found it was locked shut. After a few attempts to break the surprisingly sturdy glass, he remembered the key ring he had looted from the dead body. Pulling it out of his inventory he discovered it was like a dungeon keeper’s key ring from an old movie; a huge array of keys dangling from a large metal hoop.
Item: [Landemere Vane’s Key Ring] (normal rank, common)
The keys for various locks throughout the Vane Manor, as well as personal keys for Landemere Vane’s possessions. A mixture of ordinary keys and magical keys. (tool).
Effect: Open specific locks.
Jason looked over at the covered body laying on the floor.
“Was that your name? Landemere Vane?”
He sighed.
“Sorry I killed you, Landemere. But you tried to kill me first.”
He looked away from the covered corpse and focused on the task at hand. The keyhole on the cabinet door was quite small, so he tried the more delicate looking keys until the lock clicked open.
The cabinet wasn’t very large but there were only four books in the entire case, set out for display rather than efficiency. The embossed leather didn’t have titles, instead bearing patterns like the magic circle on the floor. Jason took out one of the books at random.
Item: [Astral Magic II] (bronze rank, uncommon)
A magical book that can impart the knowledge of intermediate level astral magic. (consumable, skill book).
Requirements: Bronze rank, ability to use skill books, basic ritual magic theory, intermediate ritual magic theory, basic astral magic theory.Effect: Imparts intermediate astral magic theory.You do not meet the requirements to use this item.
Jason was familiar with skill books from video games that instantly gave out spells or special abilities. He couldn’t try this one because he didn’t meet the sizeable list of requirements.
“Does that mean I can be a wizard if I find the right book?”
Jason started checking the remaining books. From the descriptions the four books covered two different fields of magic, with one book at basic and intermediate level for each subject. Of the four books, Jason could only use one.