Looking over all of the other weapons in the locker, he couldn’t help but feel like, for his fighting style, they would all be inferior to his claw and punch dagger set up. His attention lingered on the small wooden shield. He pulled it down for a closer look.

The circular part was no more than a foot across while the elongated part extended another foot beyond that. Holding the thing up by the extension presented a silhouette a bit like that of a gourd. The wood was thicker than seemed necessary and the surface relatively flat. It felt well-worn and smooth, making it pleasant to touch. Upon closer inspection he puzzled over a surface riddled with small holes.

The grip on the back was integrated, more a slot for his hand than a grip. In the same manner, molded to the back of the tapered neck extension was a wide wooden cuff, obviously meant for his forearm. Nowhere could he find a seam, a nail, a rivet, or any fastener of any kind. It had been expertly carved from a single piece of wood.

“Humm,” he puzzled aloud. The craftsmanship and the elaborate grip design seemed extreme for something that was at best, a under-sized shield with added forearm protection.

Flipping it over he furrowed his brow at the holes. “Why would there be holes?” he mused, then had a curious thought. You don’t suppose...

Turning it back around, he inspected the underside of the grip. Not on the handle, but on shield's back, right in the center, he found a shallow cavity perforated by small holes, certainly not as many as covered the shield, but that didn’t mean they weren’t related.

“Okay, so maybe…” He pulled the shield onto his left arm, coated that arm with Daedrium and projected an intention to fill those holes. Dnoeth wasn’t sure if this would work, as he’d needed a specific visual up to this point.

It wasn’t a problem. His Daedrium rolled, the chimes rang, and small shining globules sprang out at each of the holes in the concave surface. Dnoeth smiled, nodding slowly. “Alright... alright then.”

He picked up a plate, touched it to the globules, and it stuck. As he watched, the plate molded itself to the slight curve of the shield frame. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”

He reached through his bond to connect with the Daedrium plate and found he could. Oddly, instead of the cascade of bells he was accustomed to, there was a single clear chime. The shroud of wool was still there, but his connection was passing through a gap provided, somehow, by the shield.

Dnoeth picked up another plate and stuck it next to the first one. It formed to the slight curve then the gap between the two plates disappeared. A second chime joined the first one.

How is this working? I’m not telling it to do that. He knew Daedrium could act as a kind of memory storage device from his interactions so far, but the plates were too simplistic for that. He didn’t think there was any stored knowledge in them. He probed the pair of connected plates, asking for an image of what they were creating. The response was unsurprisingly simple, a desire for the third plate.

With a mental shrug he added another plate, it stuck, merged to the others and a third tone joined the first two. He again extended his request. This time the vibrational response was visual. It was basic, but he still had to close his eyes to grasp it. When he did, Dnoeth laughed at the rendering of just the three joined plates.

“Ok, so no master plans in the plates. Which just leaves this wooden buckler.”

He lifted his arm and inspected it more closely. The craftmanship was even finer than he’d originally thought. It was incredibly smooth; he couldn’t find a single tool mark. And the wood was so dark that he could hardly make out the grain, what he could was vaguely reminiscent of bird’s eye maple. Lots of curves and rings within rings.

Dnoeth closed his eyes, focusing on his web of bonded Daedrium within the shield frame. In his mind’s eye it’s intricate paths rendered quickly. He could instantly tell that there were eighteen holes behind the grip and ninety holes over the shield surface. Dnoeth thought this was strangely balanced, they were good numbers, proper numbers, he wasn’t sure why, but the feeling was strong.

Beyond the numbers, he immediately saw what he was looking for. The slender tubes emerging from the back of his hand connected to a space in the center of the shield from which the ninety smaller shafts ran to the surface of the shield. In the center of that space his Daedrium surrounded a small spherical void.

He sent his intention to that void.

The response was a system pop up. “Woah,” Dnoeth started. “Hello there.” Then laughed at himself, he’d been expecting a musical response.

Und Varden Battle Cyff

Status: Equipped – Unbonded

Equipped user skill level: Neophyte

User’s maximum linkable scales: 27

Default Stance: Protective

Current Configuration: Minor Aegis

Available scale configurations

Minor Aegis Configuration– Protective stance (27) Bladed Aegis Configuration – Blended stance (27) Glaivis Configuration – Destructive stance (27)

His eyes lit up and Dnoeth let out a celebratory, “Helllll yeah!”

His eyes drifted to the stacks of plates. They suddenly looked a whole lot more interesting.

“You got something good there, bud?” Ramal said from just behind him.

Dnoeth responded with a big smile, “Oh yeah I do. This–” he proudly held up the small, black wooden buckler with its three attached plates, “–is an Und Varden Battle Cyff.”

“A wha–” Ramal began and was cut short by a siren. At the same time the armory ceiling began to glow a deep amber. The siren faded and a gruff voice announced:

Potential zone breach detected. West ventilation node. Vanden Strike team seven respond immediately.

Over Ramal’s shoulder, at the far end of the armory, Dnoeth saw the back wall come to life with glowing blue lines. He immediately recognized it as a simple map. In the corner of his vision a system notification light had appeared.

“Well shit,” Ramal said. “You’ll have to explain later. Finish getting geared up. Roxy, you about ready?” He turned back to check and found Roxanna, resplendent in full Daedrium chainmail, already standing in front of the map.

“A map.” Ramal said in surprise as he moved to join her. “This place is full of useful stuff.”

Dnoeth hurriedly began pulling out the rest of his armor while they looked at the map.

“Damn. That’s where we can in, isn’t it?” Roxanna said.

“Yep, looks like it. Dnoeth we’re gonna need your eyes to confirm this,” Ramal said.

“Ok, give me just a minute.” He replied, pulling the reinforced jerkin over his head. It settled like a ten-pound sack on a five-pound dummy, the sleeves hung down several inches beyond his fingertips. “Fuck. My armor’s too big.” He held up the arms, comically long sleeves flopping at the ends, and looked to his friends in consternation. Silently he thought, why did the pants fit?

“Just give it a minute.” Roxanna smiled.

“Give what a minute? What’s that gonna…”

The sleeves of the jerkin began to shrink. He watched in wonder as they telescoped up his arms, cinching just above his elbows. The hem rose at the same time, then snugged about his waist. The whole thing tightened about his torso then loosened just enough to be comfortable.

Just as it settled, Dnoeth felt a weight drop from the front and land on his feet. Looking down he found a wide strip of the Daedrium imbued leather piled there. He picked it up. Conservation of mass in a game, unbelievable. He put it on his bench to deal with later.

He ran a hand over the point where jerkin met pants. They were wedded together. With a little tug the jerkin separated, he released it and they reconnected.

Dnoeth looked back to Roxanna, she was grinning.

“Good stuff, right? Mine’s the same,” she said. “Hurry up and put on the rest.”

Ramal put a hand on the wall and slid it sideways, the map scrolled. “Well, I’ll be damned. Ancient interactive technology.”

A few minutes later all three of them stood before the map, grim faced despite their new gear. The looming proximity breach was, in fact, at the same hub of ventilation tunnels that they’d escaped the enormous demon into. Dnoeth opened the new system notification.

Quest – Defense of Brael Bloudran Eastern Base Station ­– Subterranean proximity wards have been triggered in the vicinity of Ventilation node 19. Respond immediately, investigate, and eliminate any threats. Time remaining– 29min to 2 hours.

Rewards – Combat pay commensurate with threats

Experience: 3500 or 4% of current level

The quest didn’t offer much detail, and the vague amount of time remaining was annoying, but he supposed that the system just didn’t know. Dnoeth dismissed the message and turned his attention back to the map. It was a simple two-dimensional line drawing. Thankfully, it didn’t indicate the breach point as being from the tunnel they’d crawled through. This provided some reassurance that it wasn’t the enormous demon.

Disturbingly, the breach point, as indicated by an amber circle, drifted around the map of the ventilation room. At one point it had even crossed over the south wall before slowly wandering back into the square of the room. Currently, it was in one of the back corners, close to the barrier of Daedrium.

Dnoeth had his hand on the wall, interfacing with the armory to try and get more information, he’d been at it for a few minutes now and hadn’t learned much.

With a scowl, he broke the connection and removed his hand. “Ok, so it’s apparently a vertical breach. The Daedrium are vague but I think something might be coming up the ventilation shaft.”

Ramal pointed at the amber bubble, it was creeping toward the front again. “Are the sensors broken? Why does it keep moving?”

Shaking his head, Dnoeth replied, “They must be, although I’m not sure. The Daedrium are both vague and certain at the same time.”

They both gave him confused looks. “I know. Trust me, it’s confusing. The Daedrium are certain about the threat, and certain that the breach point is in the room. But they give confusing answers about how that’s possible. So, my best guess is that something must be climbing up the shaft.”

Ramal nodded. “Doesn't explain why the dot keeps drifting around, but I gotta agree with you. That’s about the only thing that makes sense.”

Roxanna didn’t seem so certain. “What about some kind of a burrowing creature? Could they come up from below? Or maybe even from above?”

Dnoeth had considered that, he didn’t think it was likely, but he couldn’t rule it out. “I think that’s possible, but it seems unlikely, any kind of burrowing creature would have to come in from the side. Or, at least at an angle I think.”

“It is drifting around, maybe it’s digging switchbacks?” She said.

“Oh shit,” Ramal cursed. “That’s a good point. If the sensors are working right, that could explain the drifting.”

Dnoeth considered. The circle had shifted again and was lingering over the vertical shaft. “It’s a great thought, but I don’t think that’s what we’re seeing. There’s no pattern, it just drifts randomly and sometimes,” He pointed at the circle. “it just hangs in the same spot.”

Any further discussion was cut short by another warning from the gruff voice.

Zone breach imminent. West ventilation node. Varden Strike team seven respond immediately.

“That’s our cue,” Ramal said “We’re either going to go fight or we’re not. There’s nothing more to be learned standing here." he turned to them with a squinting smile that looked menacing. "We’ve got gear. I think we need to fight.”

Dnoeth nodded his agreement. “Me too. This armory is an unexplored treasure trove. I don’t want to lose it.”

“Agreed.” Roxanna said. “I’ve got to do something first thought.” She held a hand to Ramal. “If you’re done with them, I’m going to need your batons.”

“My batons? You must be kidding?” Ramal indicated her gear locker, “You’ve got a medieval arsenal right there. What could you possibly need a couple stone sticks for?”

“You’ll see,” She said with a smirk.

“Okay,” Ramal shrugged, retrieving the batons from the floor of his locker. “This isn’t going to take long will it? We’re kind of under the gun here.”

Roxanna took them, then laid them down on her bench beside hers, arranged in two lines of two. “Shouldn’t take long.” She picked up a pair of oddly angled Daedrium sword hilts from her bench table. Each had a spike of the metal, about six inches long, where the blades should have been.

Kneeling, she lined the hilts up with the batons and closed her eyes.

Dnoeth activated his essential sight and leaned in. Before his eyes, Roxanna’s fingers came to life and essential energy flowed from them into the hilts. The Daedrium sword grips responded and their essential energy motes blazed brightly in a hue tinted with blue, this distinguished them from the pink-violet of Roxanna’s energy. The bluish motes streamed into the batons exciting the essential energy therein.

Whatever intention Roxy had was passed through the Daedrium to the orange-red lights of the stone batons and it spread rapidly. In a few heartbeats the baton essential energies were saturated with excitement and they began and swirl and hum.

Ramal started laughing. “Look at that, you’re like a stone version of Dnoeth.”

As the essential lights slowed and went dormant again, Dnoeth deactivated his essential sight, stood back up and with a smile, said. “That was really cool.”

Roxanna stood and held her two new stone sabers up for a brief inspection. The curving, single edged blades were thicker in the mid-section and the matte brown of pottery. The color along with the forward lean of the angled spike gave the impression of specialized weapons designed for an aggressive fighting style.

Dnoeth didn’t relish going into battle with those without any training in their proper use.

Roxy, however, was pleased. With a curt nod she sheathed them and regarded her teammates with determined eyes. “Ok, I’m ready. Let’s go kill some shit.”