Chapter 29 - Need Before Greed (Part Three).

The rest of the trip out of the Mourning Cave went without any major incidents. Strik kept fumbling the three engrams in his hands and dropping them until Neeka finally grabbed them and forcefully shoved them into the tiny hole in space that went to her inventory while glaring at Strik. Ihza was curled up with the packs everyone had left behind. She had dozed off while waiting for the others. Neeka prodded the wounded archer awake.

"Wake Ihza," Neeka said. "We have much to discuss."

Ihza woke quickly and hissed in pain when she tried to push herself up to a sitting position using her wounded shoulder. She took in the group and bounded to her feet when she saw the condition of Hari's scales and clothing.

"What happen Hari?" Ihza asked as she touched a patch of his skin bereft of scales. It had healed during the trip up from the funerary chamber and was a pale white with a few red splotches.

"Got a Path," Hari said with more excitement in his voice than Neeka had heard during the entire venture. Neeka snorted in amusement and brought up her inventory. She wasn't entirely sure how to manage it, but tried instinctively to pull the items out and was rewarded with success. The dark blue ten-sided rare engram she had placed within her inventory appeared in her hand, the tips of her claws holding it in place.

Ihza then realized that Sehro was missing. Neeka saw the sudden eye movements flicking around to look for the missing member of their group. Neeka held up a claw to Ihza before she could speak.

"Sehro fell in battle, Ihza," Neeka explained as she pulled the other three engrams from thin air in front of Ihza. "But... Søren says Sehro might not be dead dead. Bring back with shard Monarch wanted."

The wounded archer looked around confused and more than a little bit frightened, but the complacent and even happy looks on the rest of the group seemed to placate her for the moment. Hari pulled Ihza to the side to share the story of what had happened after she had been wounded and forced to exit the caverns. Neeka left the two to reconnect and went over to Søren who had sat down to rest against the outcropping of rock on the plateau.

"Analyze," Neeka commanded Søren as she dumped the engrams into his lap.

With a clatter of metallic ringing sounds, the engrams fell into his lap. One of which came dangerously close to certain parts of the body that shouldn't be subjected to such violence. This elicited an over exaggerated reaction from Søren as he sat up and tried to protect said parts of the body by bringing his legs closer together and guarding his groin with his hands and wrists. Neeka tilted her head sideways and looked at him strangely.

"Uh, just surprised me," Søren stammered, not wanting to get into a discussion about the differences between their species and internal and external reproductive parts. He gathered the engrams to him and brought out the other uncommon engram from his inventory. He arranged them left to right based on rarity. The engrams were very light, illuminated from within, and shaped like polyhedral dice ranging from eight to twelve sides. I would guess that legendary engrams have twenty sides. I wonder if there are six- and four-sided engrams too? Common and trash loot maybe.

Søren started to focus on the uncommon engram to his left and then stopped and opened his inventory. If I'm going to pay-to-win, I'm going to do it right. He sorted through his inventory and consumed one of the lowest experience boosters. An icon with a timer attached appeared next his status icon. Ten minutes. A bit underwhelming.

He picked up the green eight sided engram and focused his intent on the Analyze skill and the engram. A context menu popped up with a line attached to the engram. The list of options included Analyze, Trade, Upgrade, Discard. Søren selected the Trade option out of curiosity and a notification appeared in the center of his view asking who he would like to trade the engram to. Neeka was the only person on the list. He dismissed the trade interface and returned to the context menu for the item. Let's see if I can get an upgrade.

The moment he tapped upgrade, the engram floated out of his hands and spun around in the air. He heard the sound of coins jingling together briefly. Then the color of the engram started to shift from green to blue, blue to purple, finally followed by orange. It flickered red for a moment before starting the cycle over. This of course drew the attention of everyone on the plateau. The shifting shades of light stopped and the engram flared white for a moment, blinding everyone nearby. When their vision returned, the engram had dropped to the ground as a blue, ten-sided rare engram instead of the eight-sided uncommon it had been. It flashed with a golden aura of sparkles and a quiet triumphant fanfare emitted from the engram.

"Focain seafóid," Søren said, using a favorite phrase, heard often from his mother, to curse the ridiculousness of living in this gamified world. He slid the uncommon engram to the left and set the upgraded engram into the vacated position; uncommon, rare, rare, rare, epic. Søren brought up the context menu for the uncommon engram and saw that the upgrade option was greyed out. He could still analyze, trade, or discard the engram. Not the time to experiment with discarding loot. He mentally hovered over analyze and tapped the menu.

Lines of Atlantean runes scrolled across the edges of each surface of the engram, outlining the faces of the eight-sided polyhedral. Each of the faces had a larger Atlantean symbol in the center, counting up from one to eight. Nothing else happened for a moment, but the longer Søren held the engram in his hand, the more insistent he felt like he should drop or throw the engram in front of him. The urge grew to the point he felt physical pain from holding on to it and finally tossed the engram onto the ground.

The engram bounced across the dusty, stone plateau and came to rest on the Atlantean symbol for four. The engram unfolded in place and seemed to melt and grow into a larger, flat version of itself on the stone. The opening of the engram revealed a ball of golden fuzzy light and white sparks that grew in size and then faded away, leaving behind what appeared to be a full face, shiny white helmet with a flat black visor.

Congratulations Traveler! You have won a [Guardian Helmet (Copper VI)].

Søren picked up the helmet and lifted it over his head. He felt it shift slightly under his hands, growing a bit wider. Creepy. He slid the helmet over his head and noticed the collar of his jump suit attached to the armor as it slid beneath the edges. There was a slight hiss and then a current of air started to move through the helmet, cooling him down immediately. A notification in the bottom left corner of the visor showed a full bar of oxygen.

"Well this is fucking awesome!" Søren said, his heart quickening a little bit inside his chest. A notification spawned in the center of his interface, which was now synced up with the visor inside his helmet.

Congratulations Traveler! You have just equipped your first bound item. As an option, you may bind the [Guardian Helmet (Copper VI)] to your Avatar. It will respawn with you in the event of your demise. Any bound items will suffer a durability loss however. Bind [Guardian Helmet (Copper VI)]? Y/N

Søren's focus hovered over the option to bind it to him, but then declined and pulled the helmet free. He set it back down on the ground and noticed that the flattened diamond shaped engram had vanished. He quickly analyzed and rolled the remaining engrams, creating a small fireworks show on the ground in front of him. The Fuervens had ceased their discussions and were watching the display of lights and sound with a mix of fear and interest.

Congratulations Traveler! You have won a [Guardian Gauntlets (Copper VII)]. Congratulations Traveler! You have won a [5000 TEK Block]. Congratulations Traveler! You have won a [Flayer's Axe (Copper VI)]. Congratulations Traveler! You have won an [Artemis Scout Rifle (Silver I)].

The guardian armor and the scout rifle shared an appearance similar to the plasma pistol and Søren's jumpsuit. The TEK was a square, bright silver block just sitting on the ground, roughly the size of a Rubik's cube. The axe had a barbaric appearance to it. The curved blade was made from a dark metal and was attached to a haft of red-stained wood. Glyphs and runes were engraved along the haft. The end of it was wrapped with a thick, black cloth material that felt sticky to the touch.

"Hari," Søren called out. "Would you use this axe?" He lifted it up towards the larger than usual Fuerven.

Hari walked over and took the axe in his hands. His eyes widened and he hissed. Søren watched as the haft of the axe adjusted in size beneath Hari's clawed fingers and hands, creating a grip uniquely suited for him. The Fuerven swung the axe around experimentally a few times with casual ease.

"Yes, Søren. I will destroy many with Flayer," Hari said.

"Neeka, can you hold these and see what happens?" Søren asked, holding up the gauntlets. Neeka nodded and took them into her hands, her claws lightly wrapping around the sides to hold them in place. The gauntlets shifted in size and shape to match her hands. Fingers fused and grew and the cuff grew longer and split to fit around the mid-line crest on the back of most Fuerven's forearms. "Do you want them Neeka? You helped."

Neeka looked thoughtfully at the gloves for a few moments and then handed them back to Søren. "No, you keep the rest. Get strong. We will grow with you. Use what we know for now"

"You can use the TEK at least," Søren offered. Neeka tilted her head in a manner Søren had grown accustomed to seeing her do. It was a thoughtful pose.

"I accept," Neeka said, lowering her head slightly to Søren. He lifted the block of TEK and offered it to Neeka. It felt far lighter than it should. Almost as if it were made of air. When he picked it up, he got a notification asking if he wanted to consume the TEK. He dismissed the notification and handed it off to Neeka. She accepted the TEK, unfocused her eyes a moment, and then everyone watched with curiosity as the bright silver block disintegrated into a swirl of dust that flowed into the palms of her hands, where an Atlantean symbol emitted a bright, cyan colored light.

"That was awesome," Søren said. He stood up and grabbed the helmet and placed it onto his head. Slipped the gauntlets onto his hands. The rifle attached to the jump suit, angled across his back and was easily accessible with either his left or right hand. He chuckled inside his helmet and decided to try out one of the armor holos. He opened his inventory and Avatar sheet. There was an empty box for holos on the sheet in the bottom right corner. He dragged the [Scrap Armor Holo] into the slot and triggered its activation.

"So, what do you think?" Søren asked the Fuervens.

Neeka hissed angrily. Hari readied his Flayer's Axe and let out an uncharacteristic roar for a Fuerven. Ihza and Strik both went wide eyed and scrambled for their weapons, hurrying to put some distance between themselves and Søren. Beneath the mask of the guardian's armor, Søren was just as wide eyed as his two fleeing companions.

"What the fuck?"