Unadorned Ironice Peytral

(Chest Armor) (Peytral) (Heavy Armor)

45 Armor

40/40 Durability

Effects:

Chance to apply Cold Effect when attacked (Slightly slows enemies)

Requires:

Level 9

Strength 30

Vitality 40

Too bad there was a 2 percent movement speed penalty for each Heavy Armor equipped. But I had only one piece of heavy armor for now, so it was negligible.

I smiled while checking the item I received as a reward for saving Beltis and the firewood. I wasn’t inside my pod. Rather, I was accessing my account on the Nornyr Online website using my RollUp. RollUps were the successors of laptop; basically a screen that you can roll up. It could project 3D images if needed and could also project a holo-keyboard, but I didn’t don’t like using those so I just typed on the bottom half of the unit and fold up as much of the upper half as I wanted to be a screen.

I spent my whole weekend playing, leveling nearly to ten, alternating quests between Zaido and Sumuel, trying to push my intimacy stats up. My end goal was to take them out on a date; the two of them at once. Or maybe it’s better to ask them for items and skills when they get more friendly with me. Yeah, let’s go with the latter option.

The other new gear I had was from Sumuel.

Spiky Crabore Helm+

(Head Gear) (Helmet) (Standard Armor)

20 + 3 Armor

37/37 Durability

Effects:

Reflect 1-3 Physical damage per melee attack

Requires:

Level 8

Strength 24

Vitality 36

The plus sign beside the name of the item was because I used [Armorite Speck] on it when Sumuel offered me a free upgrade as one of my quest rewards. Might as well try it out. I declined most of his quest rewards except for the helmet and the upgrade. I reckoned that I could do what I previously did to get my shield - postpone claiming rewards and ask for better rewards later on. Maybe a weapon? I could already feel that my damage wasn’t scaling well because of my lack of damage skills.

I couldn’t resist the claiming the helmet. It looked like those ancient Greek helmets with plumes, but instead of plumes it had the spikes of the Spiky Crabore. Badass! There was no way I wouldn’t get that.

Unfortunately, when it came to quests rewards from Zaido, there wasn’t much. Mostly just experience, and a ton of reputation points. No rings or other items. It seemed that he wasn’t doing well financially because of his disability. The armor he gave me was part of his spare. That’s a good sob story and all but I needed a return for my investment of four of my skills points getting [Critical Frenzy], which, I couldn’t see being my tank build.

I decided to stick with out with him. I hoped this was not an example of sunk cost fallacy.

“Sir, are you listening to me?” Eclairs said. She was sitting across the table, giving me a ran down of the work done by the senior associates under my command, I mean supervising, the lawyers I was supervising for some work not connected to JYE.

Maybe we shouldn’t be discussing other matters not connected to JYE while we’re on their property and working on their time? I also shouldn’t be checking my game profile while on their time…But I was excited to check out how I looked wearing my new gear. When I was inside the game, I realized that Mardukryons didn’t have mirrors so I couldn't see how badass I looked with my new gear. Fortunately, we could examine our character online.

“Yes, I’m listening,” I said to Eclairs with a slightly offended tone. Of course, she knew I was faking it.

“You weren’t. I have printed the legal memos anyway. The ones reviewing the legal opinion of the Japanese law firm regarding the possibility of the parent company procuring international insurance for the subsidiary we’ll place there.” She chucked a pile of paper on my table. “Next…”

“Did you know, that horses have their chests in front of their body and not below their body?”

“Sir…wat da hell?”

“It’s a serious question!”

“Is this what you’ve been doing over the weekend? Thinking about the body parts of horses? I was wondering why you were delayed in reviewing the documents I sent you.” Eclairs put on airs like she was thinking deeply. “But something like that won’t delay you…So, who’s your new girlfriend? You’ve been dating someone new, haven’t you.”

I snorted. “No, I wasn’t. And even if I was, I wouldn’t tell you.”

“Oh, come on. Tell me. I need satisfy the gossip cravings of the staff.”

“I don't have to tell you. You’re not my mother. The last time I visited her, she didn’t look like you, so I’m quite confident you’re not my mother.” I picked up the papers she placed on my table, stacked them neatly and placed them in a smaller table behind my back. I would read those later. “Anyway, I was just surprised that the chest of the horse is in front. I always thought their chest are below, along with their stomach. I think a dog's chest is measured around their middle?” My new armor, the peytral was a chest armor for horses, and it was attached to the front part of my horse body, below my first chest armor. So, my Mardukryon body has two chests, I have two chest armors, and two bellies; the top humanoid part and beneath the horsey part.

“Did my good lord forget that I used to live in a ranch? I know the body parts of horses. I even trim their hooves.”

“Right, right. Eclairs, you know I always care about my subjects. Speaking of hooves, what do you do with a cracked hoof?”

“Depends on the extent of the crack. Different people do different things, like ointments, even patching up or screwing tight the crack. Did you seriously buy a horse for your girlfriend? Better than your vacation in Japan with your ex. I saw your pictures with snow monkeys in an onsen.”

“Hey, we don't speak of my past relationships. And no, I don't have a horse. It’s just that a friend of mine has a horse with cracked hooves and he’s worried about it. So what should he do about it? Put on horseshoes or something? Or just leave it lying around or something?”

“Suuuure. I’ll believe that. But a horse should walk around. In time, as hooves grow and get stronger, the crack will disappear; it’s like a chipped nail, actually. Instead of a shoe you can use a hoof boot, to keep the hoof together and protect it from stones getting in the cracks. Want me to take a look at the horse? I’m not an expert, but I might be able to help.”

“Uh, no need. That horse is far from here anyway,” I said. Because it’s in the virtual world. “What other business do we have? I’ll meet with the CEO of JYE later over lunch. It’s best to meet with him before our meeting with the Board. It’s best to make the CEO look good before the directors.”

“You asked me to go to our information handling division and have them deep search using our SmartEngine all patents even remotely connected to JYE or the people in JYE. I have this here on my WeeCee. Want me to send it over your RollUp?”

“Please. I have activated my network.”

“Please?” Eclairs chuckled. “You said “please” to me? I’m not worthy, my lord.”

“I’m genuinely nice sometimes.” She did give me an idea on what to do in the game.

“I can’t connect. You have a new password? What’s the password of your network?”

“It’s…uh…HeraldicHard-on. No spaces, the two “H” are capitalized and there’s a dash between “hard” and “on”.”

Eclairs looked at me with an open mouth and brow raised. She then looked back to the holo-keyboard projected by her WeeCee and typed. “Oh, it’s right. I thought you were pranking me.” Then she closed her eyes.

“What’s wrong? Send the files.”

She started to heave. Then she giggled. “What’s up with that stupid password?” She laughed out loud, then covered her mouthing and looked at the glass walls to see if anyone noticed her. She kept on laughing while trying to talk to me. “Seriously? Stupid…password…ahaha.” She placed her hands on her stomach and bowed down while continuously laughing. She was already shaking from laughing too much. "What were you thinking?"

“Haha,” I said sarcastically. “That’s enough or I’ll fire you.” I think it's the best character name. If she ever played Nornyr online, I would PK her all the time.

“Sorry, sorry,” she said. She wiped off tears on her eyes. “I just can’t help it.” Then she burst out laughing again. “HeraldicHard-on, what that's supposed to mean?” She started coughing due to too much laughter.

I just watched her as she laughed. It might be caused by playing Nornyr the entire weekend, but, she looked…beautiful when she laughed. Most of the times her eyes were sad, or steely and aggressive. A lot of the younger lawyers and newer staff were actually afraid of her. But this time, her eyes were-

She looked at me with her piercing gray eyes. “What?” she said.

"Nothing. Are you done laughing?" What the hell was I thinking? Don’t fall for the tricks of the Harbinger of Death.

“Hey, are you picturing me like some demon laughing in hell while dragging down souls?” Eclairs said frowning at me and folding her arms..

“Not really,” I said. “Just send the files already.”

“As you wish, my eternally benevolent liege.”

“Thank you so much for your help,” Zaido said, bending down to give me a powerful hug. “I knew you are a good person when I took care of you."

“Lots of people think that I’m a good person,” I said with a smirk.

Beltis walked around the room where Zaido stayed in as he guarded the people in the jail. Also inside the room were those two Mardukryons who were earlier jailed. Today was the day they were free to go. Both of them clapped as Beltis tried out her hoof boots.

When I went back into the game, I brought Beltis to Blacksmith Sumuel so that he could make something to protect her hooves as they healed. Interestingly, he doesn’t make any horseshoes. Horseshoes were actually different from horse boots. I never knew that.

As far as I knew, horseshoes were nailed on the hooves. Mardukryons probably haven’t considered nailing things to their hooves, although I don’t think attaching horseshoes were painful. But they do have hoof boots. I did some quests for Sumuel in return for the favor. This was probably part of the questline? Or, rather, a possible path to move forward the questline.

“They’re so comfortable, father,” Beltis said. She raised her front hoof and wiggled it.

“Make sure to eat the food prescribed by Healer Gula so that you will grow healthy hooves,” Zaido said to her.

“I used to have small hoof cracks when I started working in the mines,” one of the former prisoners said.

“In time, you’ll get stronger hooves, with all the wear and tear inside the mines.”

I raised my front hooves to check for cracks then I twisted my body to look at the hooves of my hind legs. Perhaps I should get a hoof boot myself? That would increase my defenses. I sighed. Having more equipment would mean more costs for repairs.

“Thanks for taking care of us for our stay, Zaido,” the miner said.

“We have learned our lesson and we promise never to get caught again,” his friend said.

Zaido jokingly punched both of them. “Now, get out of here you two, before you influence my daughter with your evil ways.”

“We’re changed Mardukryons!”

“Take care, Zaido, Beltis, youngling. We’re off to explore the new vein we found a week ago.”

“Later, fucktards,” I said. I waved goodbye to them.

Beltis tugged at her father’s tunic. “Will you be going home now? When no one’s here you sleep at home.”

“I’m sorry, Beltis. Balasi is still here. The one who failed his Trial of Fire. I couldn’t just leave him here. I’ll visit the house during meal times so that we could eat together.” Then Zaido turned to me and said, “When there’s no one jailed here, I usually clean up the place once a day and then do other jobs to augment my income.”

“That’s alright, father. I know you need to guard Balasi here. I hope I won’t fail my Trial of Fire.”

“Let’s say I’m not a Mardukryon and have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said. “What is the Trial of Fire and how will do complete it?”

“The Trial of Fire is a test to open the channels wherein the divine power of our God Ancestor, Marduk will flow. The Golden Fire in the middle of the village will provide the first strike of the match, so to speak, that will ignite our spirits.

“To complete the Trial of Fire, you need to be able to overcome yourself, for, in the end, we are only hindered by ourselves. Only the strong of mind, body, and will, may overcome the trial. The Trial will start at the moment the sunlight touches the Golden Fire, and will end when the sun retracts it gaze.”

“Huh,” I said. “Lots of vague stuff in that explanation. So what happens if I fail?”

“When the sun has turned away and you still haven’t overcome your Trial, then it would mean that your channels haven’t been opened. The Golden Fire will still burn you, and with no open channels, your soul will be hurt. That is what happened to Balasi. It would seem that he didn’t prepare enough for his Trial.”

“The Trial must be hard,” I said. Battle-ax guy did say that, normally, you need to be level fifteen to take the quest. “But I heard that those wanting to be healers could take the Trial earlier.” I should have gone to Healer Gula for the heal skill and the chance to take the quest early, but I really wanted to get something good from Zaido so I delayed it. Damn it, did I really fall for the sunk cost fallacy?

“That is correct,” Zaido said, nodding. “However, those who take the Trial early have to sacrifice some strength and vitality in return for weakening the Golden Fire. Healer Gula then provides them with some amulets to compensate during the Trial.”

Sacrifice strength and vitality? Did he mean stat points? Sacrifice stat points? I looked at Beltis then at Zaido. Zaido’s name was still violet. Time to try out my hypothesis. “When will Balasi get cured? I mean, it’s better if you’re with your daughter. I bet you don't have people inside this jail often.”

“Only Balasi could help himself. Hopefully, one of these days he will remain lucid enough to give the Trial another pass. If he fails again…”

“I bet something bad will happen,” I said. “Anyway, Zaido, I’ve been thinking, and I'm pretty good at thinking. What if I take the Trial of Fire and take Balasi along with me? I think I’m awesome enough to handle the Trial for both of us.”