Chapter 253

Settling Accounts (III)

While Sera, Anna, and Izirdul went to explore the City of Mirrors and search for their new homes, Cain withdrew into the corner of the house and finally caught a resting breath. While everyone else lay fast asleep, he dipped into his inventory and finally inspected the four items that he was given at the quest’s completion. It wasn’t that he didn’t have any time beforehand but rather that he had simply forgotten to do it.

One reason for it was that he wholeheartedly believed that the items would become obsolete by the time he returned to the Tower, and another was, really, that he simply forgot. He first took a look at the ‘Regal’ series of items, exclaiming softly in surprise as he read through the descriptions. Turns out, all three items won’t become obsolete... but they also didn’t increase his personal strength even by an inch.

//Regal Cape (?)

Level: 0

Requirements: King, title ‘Regal Victor’

Bound to: Cain Gregory (destroyed upon death)

Note: Item’s effects are directly linked to the Crowned’s Kingly Strength

Unlock a new sub-stat: Dignity (active only outside of combat)

+35 Dignity

[King’s Will] -- you gain the ability to construct your personal army of up to 10,000 men. All gain boosts to their stats, from 1% to 5%, depending on their titles.

[Armed Union] -- you can form official, Crucible-stamped alliances with native Kingdoms and Empires.

[To War] -- you can declare official, Crucible-stamped wars for territories. Note: if you have no land to lose, you will instead lose 50 levels per a battle loss.

Note: All Special Effects require all 3 ‘Regal’ items to be equipped//

//Regal Blade (?)

Level: 0

Requirements: King, title ‘Regal Victor’

Bound to: Cain Gregory (destroyed upon death)

Note: Item’s effects are directly linked to the Crowned’s Kingly Strength

+50 Dignity

+1 to ‘Personal Guard’ slots

[Awe-inspired] -- your pre-battle speeches are 2000% more effective at raising morale. Each member of your army, additionally, gains a 10% boost to their crowd control resistance for duration of the battle.

[Imperial Dignity] -- your influence spread with the Crucible-natives is 100% more efficient, and tales of your deeds spread thrice as fast. Furthermore, starting with the 5th Crucible, they will gain ability to spread across the Trials.

[The Crowned Never Kneels] -- you are exempt from all traditional etiquette due to your status. Note: you cannot be forced by others to follow them, but you are still expected to.

Note: All special effects require all 3 ‘Regal’ items to be equipped//

//Regal Robe (?)

Level: 0

Requirements: King, title ‘Regal Victor’

Bound to: Cain Gregory (destroyed upon death)

Note: Item’s effects are directly linked to the Crowned’s Kingly Strength

+80 Dignity

[King’s Will] -- you can force any members of your army & personal guard to do anything you want. Note: forcing people lowers their loyalty drastically. If the loyalty drops below 20 points, they gain the ability to rebel against you.

[Principled] -- whenever you don the ‘Regal Set’, you are disallowed from battling non-Crowned. You gain 80% damage reduction against non-Crowned entities, up to 95% if they struck first. Note: the set cannot be equipped or unequipped during combat.

[The King’s Domain] -- you can charter unclaimed land as your own once per Trial and add it to your Kingdom. However, if not maintained properly, all individual lands can rebel against you.

Note: All special effects require all 3 ‘Regal’ items to be equipped//

Cain looked strangely at the three items, an odd look surging in his eyes as the corners of his lips began to twitch. The Tower was trying to desperately push him to become some sort of a holistic general of mankind and form his own, Earth Kingdom. Out of 4 item drops for the floor-ending quest, 3 were essentially worthless during a battle. Rather, if he equipped them, he wouldn’t even be able to fight anyone who’s not a King. And while the massive damage reduction was appealing and he already had a few ideas on how to exploit it, it was still rather depressing.

He took a deep breath after sighing, turning his sights onto the last item and shoving all of his hopes onto it. Even if it would become obsolete before he even got a chance to use it, he still wanted to be at least decent so that he didn’t feel as though he’d lost on everything.

//Ring of Dissolution (Heroic)

Level: 60

Requirements: Cain Gregory

+150% to ‘Intelligence’

+80% to ‘Wisdom’

+40% to ‘Mana Regeneration’

+50% to ‘Mana’

-30% to ‘Spell Cost’

+17% to ‘Cooldown Reduction’

+40% to Elemental Resistances

+20% to Mental Resistances

+1% to ‘Chaos Resistance’

+10% to HP

[God-shielded] -- after suffering no damage for 30 seconds, gain a shield equivalent to 40% of your total Health & 1% of your total Mana

[Impervi0us] -- negate one count of damage once every 24 hours

[Death] -- destroy your body and deal 60x of your Intelligence as damage to everyone within 2 miles of you. Undergo rebirth right after. Can only occur once. The effect is annulled afterward.

[Son of Stars] -- kissed by stars.

[Originator] -- all created Spells are 40% stronger, up to 80% if the opponent is stronger than you. Nobody is allowed to copy and augment the Originator’s Creations. Gain ability to superimpose elements during the creation’s process.

[Son of the Divine] -- touched by divine.

[Gift of the Supreme] -- the ring does not take up an equipment slot

[Beyond Godhood] -- if threatened by a strike that would result in death, and if all other defensive measures are consumed, immediately double-cast every created Skill in the arsenal. Can only occur thrice per a Trial, with a wait of a year in-between.

[He Who is Exalted] -- all your created Skills obtain a quantum trace of Chaos.

[Spellwoven] -- your ability to create translates into deconstruction; dependent on your knowledge, see through any and all skills cast by others, including their compositions, strengths, and weaknesses.

[Herald of the Conquest] -- for as long as your remain your World’s Strongest, gain a 50% boost to ALL stats when battling boss-level and above foes as well as natives of your World.

Note: You are fun, little one; raise all hell on your travels and trials and make my mundane days worth a laugh. If you fail me, I just might take this toy of mine back. He he. //

Cain sat there, stupefied. There wasn’t a single thought in his head, as though he’d turned into a complete, absolute simpleton. No, it was even worse than that-- it was as though his soul had been sucked out of him and now he was just flesh and bones and flowing liquids.

It was one thing to encounter a broken item-- for instance, Taima’s crafted weapon was, by all accounts, broken and overpowered, especially considering it was 2nd floor. It was, in fact, so broken that the Tower was literally forced to nerf it. And yet, without a shred of doubt, it would be considered absolute trash if compared with this item-- even its pre-nerf version. Just the increase of base stats, especially with the last option of [Herald of the Conquest], was world-defying. In fact, Cain was 100% certain he’d have stats of a level 180 and up superstar before even hitting level 60... on the 2nd floor of the Tower.

And then, there were other stat and damage and defense increases, and then there were 2 options that physically shouldn’t exist this early on. In fact, the very first item ever recorded to posses them was dropped on the 70th floor... by the Guardian. And it was actually quantifiably worse than Cain’s.

The two stats Cain was staring at so densely that his eyes nearly jumped out both had ‘chaos’ in their names-- one was the 1% ‘Chaos Resistance’ and the other was that all his created Skills would have a quantum trace of Chaos in them. Most others, at this point, would likely look at these two points and literally consider them ‘filler’ just so the item looked more stat-checked. And yet, in Cain’s opinion, all other options and bonuses could collectively fuck off for all he cared, as long as these two options remained.

Though 1% bonus to some resistance sounded supremely useless, it all depended on which type of resistance. Certainly, if it was ‘Fire’ or ‘Elemental’ or anything along those lines, 1% would essentially be useless. However, for Chaos especially, 1% was... pretty much unprecedented. The item with the strongest Chaos Resistance in Cain’s past life dropped in Australia’s Tower, on 73rd floor, from a Legendary-tier quest. It boosted Chaos Resistance by a whooping... 0.04%. And it was, until the day Cain departed, the most expensive item ever sold in history.

If Cain’s item were to be shown to the public fifteen-twenty years from now, the entire world worth of Conquerors would immediately drop everything to try and kill him. In fact, Tower natives would join in as well. Rather than treasure, it was like holding a ticking time bomb.

To put it into perspective, having 1% Chaos Resistance was like being completely immune to virtually all worldly Elements, such as Fire, Ice, Wind, etc., being immune to all crowd control, and possibly more than that as even Cain wasn’t certain. The reason was simple: any amount of Chaos Resistance allowed one to enter the so-called ‘Primal World Realm’, and the more Chaos Resistance one had... the deeper they would go and, in turn, the more bountiful the rewards. Just the mile-long stretch that the 0.04% Resistance enabled resulted in finding not only the strongest Skill ever used by a Human Conqueror, but also the most stat-stacked sword, as well as the legendary ability to have dual classes.

Cain sucked in a cold breath and awoke from his tremors; it was too much. Too shocking. This was 100% not a Tower’s reward. There was no way, especially after they nerfed the living shit out of the objectively dog-shit item in comparison. This belief was further cemented by the final notation in the item’s description. There was clearly someone above the basic-systems who gave him this item and, apparently, it was because he was a bit of a hell-raiser.

Smiling bitterly, he quickly hid the item away; that thing was dangerous, beyond dangerous. Outside of Emma and possibly Senna, he didn’t dare show this to anyone else, and it wasn’t because he didn’t trust them, but because simply knowing about the item implicated them. If it was ever discovered, especially by the Tower-natives, that he was in the possession of such a heaven-defying items... forget climbing, he’d only have to wait on 1st floor for every Guardian to descend upon him. Ah, whoever you are, my dearest, your gift is the gift of death, for fuck’s sake...