Chapter 5. [Relics]

Days seemed to pass until the library was finally empty, and Hoshi was exhausted. His brain felt like it was about to explode from the amount of knowledge. About halfway through the library, he realised there was a whole second floor with about five rooms. He didn't even dare to go into them before clearing out the big room downstairs. Hoshi lost count of the times he was congratulated for reaching a certain number of books. A hundred, two hundred, three hundred, four hundred, five, six, seven... He probably reached at least two thousand.

"This is going to kill me... Give me my stats, please." He was currently leaning against one of the empty bookshelves, trying to catch his breath. The now very familiar window popped up.

[•Player stats•]

Name: Hoshi Senshi

Title: /none/

Level: 8

Skill: /none/

Health: 100/100

Stamina: 87/150

Knowledge: 3,040

Mana: 0

Points: 850

Seeing as his stamina was down, Hoshi pulled out a few more leaves from his inventory and threw them in his mouth. Having eaten so many, the bitter taste didn't bother him anymore. Gaining back half of his stamina, Hoshi slowly went up the stairs. The old wood creaked from under his feet as he reached the top of the stairs and went straight for the first door. It easily opened with a loud creak and Hoshi went in, looking around the new room. It resembled something like a museum, having a lot of old looking things on displays. It was mainly ancient artifacts. And if gaming thought him anything, it was that the rarer the artifacts are, the more powerful they are.

The first one that caught Hoshis eye was a the sword in the very middle, it seemed to instantly draw attention to itself. Getting closer, the information about the weapon appeared in the familiar form of a game window.

[«The Sword of Tears» lvl.1]

Rank: B

Damage: 52

It was better than the chair, so he considered taking it. Just as Hoshi reached out his hand, a meare inch away, another window popped up.

[«The Boom of Ancient Artifacts» has knowledge about «The Sword of Tears»!]

[...The Sword of Tears seems like a simple sword at first, but being ancient, it has a curse placed it... The one that touches ir starts to slowly loose their vision, going blind and crying tears of blood, hence the name...]

Hoshi instantly moved his hand away, not wanting to do anything with that curse. He moved on to the next weapon, which was a staff stained a dark color of brown and a gem on top of it. The gem seemed to glow a faint yellow light, the color of a bright amber itself. Hoshi didn't move closer to it, waiting for a window to pop up. Soon it did.

[«The Golden Staff» lvl.1]

Rank: A

Damage: 105

Not moving after it was the right choice, as another one popped up, just like last time.

[«The Boom of Ancient Artifacts» has knowledge about «The Golden Staff»!]

[...The Golden Staff turns everything it casts a spell on into gold, and turns a piece of its master into gold... The staff can be used by its master until they complete turn into gold...]

It seemed that all the weapons here had some kind of drawback, a curse of sorts, imbedded in themselves. But still, Hoshi picked up the staff and placed it into his inventory. Just like that, he made his way through the weapons, taking some and placing them into his inventory, and leaving the ones that he couldn't even touch in their places. About half way through, having passed daggers, magic wands, darts, swords and other things, he stopped at something odd.

[«The Gloves of The Puppeteer» lvl.1]

Rank: UR

Damage: 1

The second window, that Hoshi waited for to know if they could touch them or not, never appeared. He didn't know if it was because they technically weren't weapons, or because they had no knowledge of themselves anywhere. The damage was just one hit point, even the chair he had did more, yet Hoshi was intrigued by the Ultra Rare rank, meaning they were definitely something that's worth a lot. The gloves were of black leather, displayed on a pair of wooden carved hands. Deciding to push his luck, he carefully removed them from their stands and placed them on his own hands.

They were a pair of drivers gloves, the kind that didn't go up to your wrists and had a hole on top with a little velcro strap under to keep them fitted to your hand. When Hoshi slid them on, he was surprised to see that they fit his hands like second skin. He wouldn't even know he had the gloves on if the wouldn't be looking at his hands. They seemed of good quality, not medieval, but from his world instead, that being given away by the velcro used instead of a button. Never the less they were perfect for Hoshi, and he kept them. The guy continued through the room, taking what he could and leaving what he had to until the end. He left through the same door he came in through and moved to the next room.

Next up was a kitchen. Now this place definitely looked like a medieval kitchen, with a stove next to the right was made out of stone and being powered by a fire that was lit. There were knives, pans and pots hooked on hooks above it and a hole in the ceiling for smoke. there was also a table in the middle of the room, a block of wood that represented a cutting board on the table top together with a bowl of rotten fruit.

The place reeked, so Hoshi decided to come back later to clean up and headed further. Next up was a simple bedroom with a singular bed to the left and a table with a chair on the right. There was a candle in the candle stick that was a little used, but still in good condition. Every other room and the library hall was lit by torches along the walls, but this one was only illuminated from the light coming from behind Hoshi, from the light in the hall.

The bed was made with greyish sheets that seemed in pretty good condition, but the room reeked of dust. You could almost see the dust bunnies floating in the air. There also was a dresser behind the door. Hoshi looked inside the first drawer to see clothes, mostly just black pants and all kinds of neutral colored shirts. The second drawer had belts of all kinds and harnesses with places for weapons, along a neatly folded black jacket.

Out of curiosity, Hoshi took out the jacket and unfolded it. It was a big leather jacket with a high collar, the bottom of it reaching the middle of his thighs. Hoshi put it on, seeing it was a little big. The jacket also had two breast pockets on both sides, pockets on his biceps and simple pockets under the slim belt going along his waist.

It was warm and comfortable, as the clothes Hoshi was wearing beforehand were made for the Japanese spring, not the cold and damp caves of the dungeon. The waist was a little bit synched, giving the jacket an hour glass frame instead of a square one. Looking at the full mirror to his side on the wall, Hoshi had to admit it looked quite nice on him. Taking the jacket, Hoshi continued on his way.