Chapter 5
But before any of that, he had to get out of the lair alive with all the treasure he had gathered. He could just die and lose only one or two items as that was the penalty for dying at his level, but Ryan wanted to keep all the spoils to himself. With purpose, his walked his skinny almost naked body out of the lair and into the tunnel that led to the outside armed with his sword and new skill.
He made his way to the fight scene and could see Jeh'miska still fighting against the smaller, more ferocious horde. As Ryan was approaching the snake from behind, Jeh'miska released a ball of light from its mouth that it had been charging up for a while. This was the snake's ultimate ability that it could only use once every 10 hours and only used when it felt its life was properly threatened. As soon as the ball touched one of the beasts attacking Jeh'miska, it started to disappear into nothing. The animal hit was a grey wolf that was as common as grass, its grey fur started to turn white and then fade away, little motes of light flew from the beast as it disappeared and attached to other monsters and repeated the process until the beast horde had suddenly turned into nothing.
"That's not great" Ryan said out loud not caring if Jeh'miska heard him or not. He had hoped that the horde would have at least reduced the snake's HP to under 100 but that was too hopeful, Jeh'miska's HP was still over 250 which was impossible for Ryan to reduce to zero. Even with his new axe that had an extremely high damage stat for this early in the game, he wouldn't be able to do more than 5 damage to the beast due to its massive defence stat at Lv50.
As he lamented his luck, the snake rushed towards him and it mentally screamed at him through telepathy.
"YOU REEK OF MY PRETTY TREASURES! RETURN THEM TO ME!"
"No can do buddy o pal, they is mine now. Catch me if you can. "
The snake chased him around the cave, he weaved around stalactites and under the snake's massive green body. With great frustration, Jeh'miska threw its tail against the wall causing rocks and boulders to fly through the air and attempt to crush Ryan's frail body. But not a single one even scratched him.
Despite only being a 10% increase in effect, his axe granted him greater agility and so he was able to dodge rocks and the massive snake decently easily. Luckily, the snake was already tired from its earlier fight so it was only moving at half speed, if not then Ryan would have been struck and killed ages ago. Jeh'miska was getting more and more tired and it began to prepare for a final attack. Ryan, knowing its next attack, walked closer to the largest stalactite in the cave and rested against it.
The snake lunged forward, propelling itself with its extremely strong tail muscles, its maw wide open ready to swallow Ryan like it was a cat and Ryan was a mouse. Just as the snake was about to clamp its jaws around Ryan's body and pierce his body with its fangs, Ryan darted out of the way and shouted.
"Why don't you mail me your next attack, it might arrive faster!"
A smile was etched onto his face as he saw that the snake had accidentally bitten into the stalactite that was next to him and its fangs were stuck into it, the poison in its fangs were slowly corroding the rock and Ryan decided he had to get out of there. Jeh'miska struggled to free itself but was unable to and upon seeing this, Ryan started to leave the cave without a single glance back.
Running at top speed, Ryan got out of the cave in one piece. Due to the laws of Horizon, Jeh'miska couldn't leave his cave unless he died and was reanimated or there was a special event that allowed all boss monsters freedom.
Due to this, Ryan was able to get into the forest without any trouble.
After planting his ass next to a tree and opening his inventory, he checked the haul from the lair. Of course there was his axe, but other things caught his eyes, for example the mind boggling amount of money he had acquired.
[Coins]
Gold: 6,037
Silver: 3,857
Copper: 10,054
This was well above his expectations, absolutely no one would have this much money this early in the game. In a few years gold coins would become effectively the same as a single credit, but at this point in time one gold coin was worth 10,000 credits which was enough to completely renovate his house and buy food for a year for him and his brother.
Everyone else was attempting to get a few coppers from quests or selling items while Ryan had tens of thousands of them. One gold coin was worth 100 silver and each silver coin was worth 100 coppers, so to put it in better words, Ryan was filthy rich.
Looking through the rest of his gains he noticed a few interesting things, some golden medallions, a set of red armour he couldn't wear due to his level, a shield, a few ornamental things, a large egg, a few rings, some wizarding items and finally some skill books. These were the things he needed most as they would put him leaps and bounds in front of others.
He had gained a few books, there were the skills Lightning Bolt, Corpse Explosion, Mana Manipulation. All of them were for magicians, but Ryan learnt them anyway as he had always wanted to be a wizard in his previous life but was forced by his debtors to be a warrior. Even the Class Hall recommended him being a wizard due to his A-grade Mana affinity.
Next he looked at the shield that lay in his hands, it was cool to the touch and seemed to emanate strength. The shield was an abyssal black that almost absorbed the light around it make Ryan feel as if the shield was something important. Around the edge was a thin golden lining that reached into the middle to outline the shape and design of the beautiful shield.
[Shield of Unyielding]
Rank: Unique
Level Requirement: None
Soul bound: Ryan Spencer
Forged by a grandmaster that refused to let his work be destroyed when his forge was invaded by a myriad of soldiers wishing to kill him. Even as they struck him and carved out his flesh he continued to work, everything he had he gave to this shield. Some say even his soul is engraved in the design. This is a growth type weapon.
Defence: 100
1st stage: +10% Strength
+10% Endurance
+ Block Skill
2nd stage:?
3rd stage:?
4th stage:?
5th stage:?
6th stage:?
7th stage:?
(Block Lv1)
Reduce damage taken by 10% of item defence.
Unlock the next stage by blocking 10,000 damage.
WHAT THE HELL?!
Ryan didn't expect to find another growth type item in the lair, even later in the apocalypse, soul bound growth type. No one thought that in a dungeon so close to the starter zone there would be such good loot. What surprised Ryan more was the fact that this shield had more stages than his axe had, this meant that the shield could possibly be and get stronger and more useful.
The shield had a strap that he would be able to wrap around his forearm so he wouldn't need to hold it in his left hand but instead just raise his arm to use it. Due to the strap, Ryan could also put the shield on his back and have the strap go around his shoulder, but unfortunately Ryan didn't have any clothes and the metal was cold to the touch so he decided not to wear it.
After getting over his initial surprise, Ryan checked over the rings he had acquired. There was no way he would be getting another growth type item so he mainly wanted to look over the egg he had found.
[Ring of Valor]
Rank: Unique
Level Requirement: None
Soul bound: Ryan Spencer
A great warrior wore this ring for every mission she went on believing it brought her great luck. It has bathed in the blood of the strongest monsters and accompanied the great warrior until the end of her days, unfortunately the warrior died of old age and the ring was unable to be used in battle again. Until you. This is a growth type piece of jewellery.
1st stage: +10% Strength
+10% Agility
+5% Widom
2nd stage:?
3rd stage:?
4th stage:?
5th stage:?
Unlock the next stage by felling 1000 beasts higher level than you.
WHAT IN THE FLYING FUCK?!
Ryan was pissed off. If the other debts slaves hadn't been so fucking greedy then he could have probably gotten out of his debt much faster and lived a nicer life. Or at least been killed faster so he didn't have to endure so many beatings.
But that was the past, he didn't have to dwell on it now. Instead, he could rejoice at his luck and be happy for this new life that he would be able to thrive in.
The rest of the rings that he had obtained were a mixture of common, uncommon and rare and he decided to wear the ones that would shore up on any stats that were lacking, particularly the ones mages used. Thankfully, unlike almost every other piece of equipment other than growth type equipment, rings were able to be used without having to meet a required level. After picking out the ones he wanted he was quite pleased, from all the rings he had gained
+5 Agility
+10 intelligence
+5 Wisdom
He was only able to wear 5 rings with the weapons that he wanted. On his left hand he could wear four, which was the normal amount because you can't wear a ring on your thumb as that would hinder its use, but on his right hand, he was only able to wear one ring because when wielding his axe, if he blocked a blow too strong then the shock could potentially cause the rings to collide with each other and explode or stop working as a result of their engravings being damaged. You also couldn't wear one ring on top of the other for the same reason as the materials the rings are made of are the only material that can destroy itself. Basically, nothing but that material can break that material. Kinda like diamonds, I think.
He looked over the wizard it stuff but it was mainly just a set of wands and robes that he wasn't able to wear, but finally the egg. Ryan didn't need to look over the ornamental goods as they were mainly chalices that had no other use than to be sold.
After taking the egg out of his inventory, his eyes began to sparkle. Except for the massive amount of growth type items he gained, this egg was probably the most valuable thing he gained. In Ryan's eyes, even the money was worthless compared to the egg before him.
[Soul Beast Egg]
Hatches a Soul Beast
Conditions for hatching:?
A Soul Beast, just like his growth type items, were able to cross over to Earth once the game is updated and people develop powers. This is a massive gain because unlike people, who only retain a fraction of their in game power, Soul Beasts retain all of their power. This meant at the beginning of the apocalypse, those with Soul Beasts had a massive head start as they could either attack others without fear or defend their pods while they played to get stronger, this was a massive risk in the future because you couldn't trust anyone in the first few years.
But right now, Ryan mainly just focused on how he would be able to grow the beast and hatch it and for that he had to head to one of the major cities and speak to the beast tamers for more insight.
Now that he had finished checking over his gains, he decided to reenter the forest. Luckily, because he had effectively aggroed every beast in the forest, there would be no potential enemy in the lush land of trees for another two or three hours. So Ryan began to run towards his next destination, Ketaren City.