《Cursed Anti-Hero Against the Gods》Ch 26 Mage Loot? I Can't Use Magic!
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Despite how trivial it may seem in the eyes of anyone else, Eradin always felt that he failed as an adventurer the very moment he was birthed into this world. It was very demoralizing to remember the magic ring of the ogre that he slaughtered. Even if it wasn't very good or if it was a treasure from the heavens, to forget to loot was a blunder he wouldn't forget. This time, there was much to look through and he would take his time carefully scouring this chamber for anything of use.
The first thing in the room to catch his attention was the bookshelf and grimoire. Although Eradin had never seen a grimoire in either of his two lives, this one just seemed abnormal for a number of reasons. First, why would a grimoire be in a cave like this, they should be highly valuable. Based on the dust coagulating upon it, it hadn't moved in years, actually the whole room was covered in dust so perhaps the Kvaldir had found this place by chance. Then, it was upon some table inscribed with runes. But the most confusing part, the grimoire was emitting an eerie glow of crimson light and was chained shut. The closer he moved towards it, the more the glow illuminated itself which was taking the meaning of creepy to whole new levels.
Finally, when he was standing next to the table, the crimson glow had turned into a resplendent light that enveloped the whole chamber dying it red. If Eradin didn't know any better, he could've sworn this grimoire was calling out to him and would've attempted to unbind the chain. Thankfully, he was far more abnormal than this grimoire. The Heart of the Evil God allowed him to remain calm and think clearly in such situations. So rather than touch it and possible have something horrible befall him, Eradin instead turned to Farah who was steadily becoming a wealth of knowledge for situations like these.
"I really don't want to touch this yet. Are you sure this is safe?"
Farah inclined her head towards the grimoire and looked at the runes etched upon the table, even she was having a hard time understanding their meanings. It was a chain of the same symbols repeating. They were the symbols for Blood, Fusion, Companionship and Spirit. As for how they were interconnected, it was beyond Farah's level of comprehension. There wasn't any runic symbols upon the grimoire either. It simply had a blank cover with a black spine while surrounded by a black chain locking it shut. The crimson luminescence was increasingly illuminating the longer that Eradin stood next to it.
Just how are they connected? Assuming this is certainly magic, there has to be some type that works with blood. Even so.... what does blood have to do with companionship and the spirit? It should only work like that in blood contracts as our very lives are held at stake. What would fusing blood do, and what is it being fused with? Too many questions are at hand, but at the same time, this can't fall into the wrong persons clutches, who knows what secrets this grimoire holds. It might be one of a kind within the entirety of the continent, but that begs the question of why it is in such a lower leveled area?
It was important to not leave this grimoire here for some ignorant adventurer fledgling that hadn't developed the skills to know something was wrong with a scenario such as this, after all who wouldn't want a rare treasure. But what would happen if Eradin touched it. The Grimoire was clearly somewhat sentient or it wouldn't be increasing the light it emitted the closer Eradin got to it.
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If it were anyone else, Farah would have told them to simply leave the grimiore and then she would have someone of a sufficiently high level that studied magic such as Duke Ravencrest or an important figure of the Mages Guild come and take this away. However the person with her was Eradin, he was a demi-god and really couldn't suffer anymore than he already did on a daily basis. If it was him, something might happen that was beneficial instead, and if there was a problem, he should be able to deal with it.
Her mind was made up, they would take this grimoire of a mysterious origin. "Eradin, if it was anyone else, I would tell them to not even think of touching this grimoire, but if it is you, I am sure that whatever happens, you shall be fine. Take it, we can't let anyone else have it."
A cold sweat went down Eradin's back, he certainly felt the urge to touch it, but he really didn't want another curse. "Are you really sure about this, I know that I am an abnormal freak, but should your faith be so strong to someone like me?"
Farah's started to grind her teeth slightly. Eradin was right, but it didn't matter, if disaster was to befall anyone, it should be them instead of some young adventurer that had a much brighter future than the horrible destiny that she and Eradin were marching towards. "It doesn't matter, you have a True Gods body. Of all the innumberable powerhouses in this world, the only one qualified to not fear a backlash should be you because of your hidden potential."
"Alright, I shall try, but if something happens, we will escape as fast as possible."
Eradin retracted the Death Gods Scythe into his body and raised his right hand. Instead of grabbing the grimoire, he was only going to touch it quickly first so if the event something terrible occurred, he might have a chance to escape with Farah. As his palm was about to rest on it, with not even an inch of space between them, the crimson light intensified more than ever before. Then against all expectations, Eradin couldn't even move his hand. The guantlet formed by the War Goddess Armor was forcefully retracted into his body and the chain unbound itself from the grimoire. A force unknown to Eradin forcufully pulled his right hand onto the grimoire cover. The chain that was unbound forcefully rebound itself around Eradin's arm and hand. The area where his hand was grew spikes from the metal and pricked his fingers. Blood drained out onto the grimoire dying five spots red.
Eradin had a slight trace of fear, but he didn't move an inch. He silently let blood conitnue to drain out onto the cover. After what seemed like an eternity, the grimoire finally unbound the chain again and allowed Eradin to lift his hand. It felt as if a pint of blood was taken from his body. But it still wasn't the end, the black chain morphed into a much smaller chain and attached itself to the spine of the grimoire. Then they both began to float in the air and shrink until they were the size of a pocketbook and a very thin chain that was the width of what a necklace should be, instead it was the length of Eradin's waist. It wrapped around Eradin's waist and snuggly hung at the side of his right thigh much like Farah's tome but it was nowhere near the size of hers. It was only one third the size.
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The Grimoire was still the exact same as it appeared except that it had five red dots of Eradin's blood and drastically shrunk in size. As for what it was he had no clue, even the message recieved was of no help.
[Binding Successful!]
[You have bound a sentient grimoire that can only be used by a master and his disciple. When you achieve a sufficient level, the knowledge within will be at your disposal. No one can replicate what is within this Grimoire, it is one of a kind and the knowldege within can only be used by its master or his ONE disciple who will inherit the grimoire upon the masters death.]
Well that is useless, I won't ever have a disciple and it gives no information. Who gives a shit if its one of a kind. At least tell me what the hell this god damn thing is useful for!
Eradin turned to Farah with anger easily discernable upon his face. "What the hell is this thing. The message didn't give me any information at all! Whats the point of obtaining something high level when it can't be used for a long time. I don't even understand why it is in a place like this."
Farah was tapping her fingers against her outer thighs, from what she saw, there was a couple of truths that came to light. This was most definately a sentient grimoire, even if it couldn't speak with them, it was a given based on its actions. It was a one of a kind rare that had no other copy of itself in the world. As to whether it was a boon or a detriment. Only time could tell, but considering it was bound to Eradin, Farah most certainly thought that it could help him in the future as his strength soared to new heights.
Finally Farah simply sighed, too many weird events would occur around Eradin. Only time would unravel all of this so what was the point in worrying about it. They weren't normal so why would the things that occurred around them be normal, that was a simple philosophy but it explained the situation quite well.
The other items in this chamber were all lack luster compared to the grimoire, but even so it was time to search through them, there was no point in letting all of it go to waste. Found on the weapon racks were magical weapons that would be an upgrade for adventurers that belonged in this mountain range. But with Farah's and Eradin's equipement which was given to them by higher existences, everything else simply seemed like trash. They were however in good condition and should fetch a decent price within an auction house so Eradin stored everything. The armor was not so lucky, the majority wasn't magical and had rusted out in this damp cavern.
On the left side of the room where the grimoire had been was a few alchemical ingredients that neither Farah nor Eradin recognized but they stored them away as well. The rest of the books were about subjects far beyond Eradins grasp of understanding. They included magic theory, enchanting, alchemy and all sorts of other genres that involved tampering with magic to its limits. Some of the books Farah was able to recognize so they weren't valuable, but they kept them for the future when Eradin would learn magic. After all, when you had a spatial bag with infinite space for anything that wasn't living it was expected that you'd become a hoarder.
All that was left in the room were the chests. There were two in total, one was almost double the size of the other. There wasn't anything abnormal about them. Simple wood chest with padlocks were the most normal thing in this entire chamber. When Eradin approached the smallest one, he forced the tip of the Death Gods Scythe into the lock and broke it. Lifting up the handle, Eradin saw through his inner vision what was a bunch of papers.....papers?
Why would there be papers here? What are the contents? Why would there be a chest in the middle of nowhere containing many papers? Better yet, why was such a place in such a low leveled area? The cave was easily spotted from the path that lead through the Celestial Mountain Range, so why was this place undisovered until now?
Eradin took a few of the papers and handed them to Farah. "So what does it say, I don't feel like taking my head band off, read it to me."
The papers were old and worn, but they appeared to be the work of a very old mage. The more Farah read the papers, the more her mouth opened to an "O" shape.
"We need to get this back to the city without anyone knowing about them. This is all research of a rouge mage who probably reached a level where he could fight on par with demi-gods or was one himself. There are countless lab experiments on potions and elixirs. From this paper alone it tells the most efficient way to make a potent antidote for some of the most dangerous pandemics that have occurred in the past. There are even papers on this mages magic theory here. His insights must've been legendary, I don't know who it was but now we know the reason this place was here, no one would suspect a legendary existence living in a lower level zone so his research was safer here."
The more Farah was reading through it, the more she realized this could sway Algon in its attempt to defend itself from all the other countries. If "Eternal Abyssal Night" could produce these things and use all of this research then it would be a jumpstart into the field of pharmacology, even if these were potion and exlir recipes. They would most certainly be of great help because the way regeneration potions were made now was to mix the blood of beasts and monsters with high regeneration together with plants and rare materials that had a healing effect. This was all done randomly so one batch of potions could have one that had no effect and one that had a very potent effect. These papers showed that this was wrong, proper materials and ingredients had to be mixed in finite proportions to have the greatest effect.
Only now did Farah realize how low the level of knowledge was in this continent, even as people leveled up and their stats increased, so to would intelligence, and yet such simple insights were not within there sights. It seems that only the legendary few that have a flash of insight and enlightenment can discover such things.
Farah gingerly put the papers back in the small chest and closed it as if it were the most fragile thing in the world. "Eradin store these away and wait until we return to the city. If we can figure out how to use these recipes to make the pills you told us about then we could not only have the potions and elixirs for instantaneous effects; we might also be able to make the pills with long terms effects that are less potent but work efficiently and have a decent effect."
Eradin absorbed the small chest into his spatial bag without questioning Farah in the slightest, if these old papers were enough to make her think they were a treasure beyone compare then he wouldn't doubt her. All that remaine was the larger chest. Eradin repeated the same action with the Death Gods Scythe and opened the lid of the larger chest, but in this one there was only a letter with a ring sitting on top of it and a small knife that had a visibily sharp edge, this was obviously a magic knife enchanted to be extremely sharp to the point it could probably cut stones with a little effort.
Reaching down into the chest Eradin picked up the ring and the letter. This time his curiosity was intrigued enough that he took off his headband and began to read the letter himself.
To whom it may concern,
Hello, I am the mage Arcturias. I will keep this simple, if you managed to see through my illusion and found this cave then I shall leave everything here to you. It isn't much as I was always more interested in research of the unknown instead of combat. As for why all of this is here you might ask? Well that is simple, I didn't want to be disturbed, after all who in there right minds would disturb someone who spent hundreds of years studying magic to its limits in a place where the average level of anything is in the forties.
If you are reading this letter then it means I have died attempting to figure out the mystery behind the legends of this mountain range. Even if it is a low leveled area, for whatever reason I do sense a dangerous prescence, which is my reason for leaving this letter. Bind this spatial ring with your blood, it contains all the true culminations of my research and insights, everything else in that other chest is stuff I learned on passing whims.
If your thinking there will be items of vast fortune and the such in that ring, well guess what.... your wrong! I don't care for material wealth so there isn't even a copper coin in there! Well best of luck to you, may my small enlightenments guide you on the path of magic if you are able to even wield it that is! And if you can't wield magic, then why are you still reading this, go give my stuff to someone that actually cares about magic you stupid oaf!
Oh yeah, in hindsight I forgot to mention one small detail. That grimoire on the desk is something I have never been able to understand. Whenever I tried to unbind its chains it would attempt to strangle me with that nasty chain. That...thing...... has been my one true nemesis in my entire life. If you ever come across the chance to subdue it, make sure you torture it fore me!
What a eccentric old wizard. What type of person writes such a letter that insults its reader..... Well it doesn't matter he is dead anyways. As for why all of this is here, it seems that my [Illusion Resistance] was why I could see this cave. Maybe the Kvaldir simply got lucky and stumbled into this place. Or when they accidentally came here the illusion was dispelled. Meh, who cares, I don't understand any of this and it was all a waste of time, I can't even use magic without it attempting to kill me. I am losing experience by the hour.....
Eradin bound the ring and didn't even bother with looking at its contents. With Farah following closely behind, they left in search of other caves after looting the entire chamber. The journey in the Celestial Mountain Range was just beginning, and certainly wouldn't end anytime soon, not before Eradin got all the experience he could possibly obtain.
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