Elemental Concentration
Divine ring.
Unique item.
The bearer of this ring gains +50% immunity to magic of fire, water, earth, air and electricity.
Chance of loss after death lowered by 100%.
Durability: indestructible.
Thunderbearer
Divine scalable trident.
Unique item.
Damage: 2256-4512.
A weapon of the Old God of Thunder, Zeus. Holds an enormous supply of energy that can summon lightning to strike down enemies once per day (can only be used outdoors).
On activation, summons a lightning bolt that deals 10,000,000 damage to the target.
Cooldown: 24 hours.
Chance of loss after death lowered by 100%.
Durability: indestructible.
“The trident multiplies the damage by your level with a multiplier of four to eight,” Irita rattled off quickly in her saleswoman voice. “The ring with immunity to elemental magic is dope. Similar legendaries rarely give resists to all elements, and even then, their numbers are far lower. The fishing artifact only seems like a trinket. Pro fishermen would sell their souls for it! As for Isis’ Blessing… I already have an idea for how to use that…”
“Create fanning spots in extreme zones?” I voiced the first thought that came into my head as I held Isis’ Blessing, a worn and rough-hewm throne about a foot tall, cut from stone.
“Well… something like that,” Irita shook her shoulders. “But it doesn’t matter to you, you’re undead, you don’t care about the weather. It would be amazing for normal players though. Anyway, you’re forgetting the artifact’s other effect—faster growth. Gardeners, farmers, professional pet tamers… I think we can start the bidding at ten…”
“No, Rita, the artifact is staying with us. Thanks!”
“There’s something else, Alex. It’s my fault for bringing you and Goosebumps together. She might cause problems.”
“What?”
“Karina has her own channel. She put up a video of you and her… well… together, and said she was your girlfriend…”
“Was?”
“Right. Like, she broke it off when she found out you were the Threat. She made out like she was sorry she didn’t identify you right away. Like you turned out to be an arrogant idiot blinded by your fame and all that type of thing.”
Seemed like blondie Goosebumps had decided to have her cake and eat it; get famous and stay safe… Nether!
“Not many people saw the video,” Irita said, putting a hand on my shoulder gently. “I noticed as soon as she put it up, my comm notified me, we’re friends after all… well, we were. I made her delete it all, and she doesn’t have many subscribers.”
“How did you convince her?”
“Secret,” she blushed. “Anyway, I think it’s all fixed, but if you plan to keep talking to her…”
“I explained everything to her! I told her how dangerous it was to say that we even knew each other! I don’t understand people at all… Are you sure not many people saw it? Understand, I’m worried about her, not myself!”
“Five people, all from our circle of friends. I explained to the guys how stupid Karina was and why they should keep quiet too. You’re welcome, Alex!”
“Damn, sorry. Thank you! By the way… Accept this invite and… welcome to the Awoken, Irita! May the Sleeping Gods never wake!”
“And may their sleep be eternal,” I heard from all sides.
“Huh? What? One sec…” She raised a hand, opened her fist. Her eyes gleamed. “Unity… Is awesome! I can imagine how high your stats must be!”
“Almost two thousand adepts, and that’s not the limit. Anyway, 111 leave you in Crawler’s capable hands…” I’d seen that Ed and Malik had logged on, which meant their capsules had arrived and Yoshi had configured access. “Find him. You and he will need to go through the legendary gear and put some stuff up for auction.”
The girl nodded. “Alright.”
“Oh, and we need to sort through the reagents we looted. Whole piles of them… and sell the culinary dishes I made. Not too many just yet. Investigate the demand first. Same deal with Hero’s Heart; Crawler disenchanted fifty legendaries, but decide for yourselves whether to sell the ingredient or not. And it wouldn’t hurt to find out whether it’s worth working with the cartography guild; I have maps of unexplored lands.
“Sounds tempting. A whole new league!” Irita smiled. “I’ll get right to it!”
“Great. Thanks! I’m relying on you. By the way, give this to Hung. He’s our only fisherman.” I returned Ebis’ Inspiration. “And now excuse me, I have to go. Every second counts…”
I hugged Irita, kissed her on the cheek and left her looking around in awe outside the tavern. She stood surrounded by friendly yapping kobolds, growiing troggs and fierce ogres, trolls, ores, minotaurs and members of the other dark races. I thought I even saw a vampire cultist among them. I didn’t interfere with the fresh-from-the-sandbox girl as she met the fort’s residents. Rita was a sharp girl. She’d figure it out.
Behemoth awaited me. His quest was delayed, although Tiamat’s temple had been built two weeks ago now. The quest didn’t count at first because the first temple was destroyed, and the quest giver himself, Behemoth, was floating in plague essence in the Nucleus’ lair. Then Patrick and I flew out for more adepts at Stone Rib, because all the faith was going to Tiamat, and the god couldn’t recover. We took on the troggs, but I got stuck in the Nether, and in that time, Mogwai and his companions almost destroyed the second temple. Now, finally, there was a moment of fragile balance: both temples were whole, and we had enough adepts for the Sleeping Gods to gain strength.
“Hey, Scyth!”
I turned in annoyance. Patrick emerged from the pig and whistle, dressed smart.
“A moment, if you please!”
“I have no time at all, Mr. O’Grady!”
“Just a word, I won’t keep you long.”
Patrick approached me with surprising confidence, upright and with the brave stride of an old soldier. Clear eyes, no smell of whiskey on his breath. Something was badly wrong. Snow would soon start falling in the jungle of Kharinza, at this rate.
“Has the tavern run out of alcohol?”
“I don’t think so,” Patrick asked in surprise, glancing back at the door of the drinking establishment.
