Overwhelming Firepower

Lucen walked through the treasury, not touching anything and simply looking at them. There was a name and a brief description of the item in question written by whoever placed them here.

Still, there were quite a few that had no description at all and were simply stated as unknown.

He then saw a familiar set of equipment. Just coming close to it made you feel a freezing cold that would make one shiver. It was a full-body armor that had a freezing effect and nullification of fire spells below the fifth circle.

’Now this is unexpected, the complete set of the Frostmark armor... Well, this is quite a good piece of equipment, but it doesn’t really match my current fighting style. Also, the defense of this thing is average; the only thing that makes this special is the freezing and nullification effects.’

Lucen stepped away from the Frostmark armor, rubbing his arms as the cold bit at his skin despite the distance.

”Pass,” Lucen shrugged his shoulders. ”Once I find the dwarves, I can make better armor that suits me.”

He moved deeper. He saw that other items based on the descriptions were of the same level as the Frostmark armor.

The further he walked, the more the air seemed to shift. The temperature changed, mana pulsed differently, and every relic gave off its own presence. Some faint, some oppressive.

Lucen stopped when he spotted another familiar item. The cursed dagger of oppression. As a weapon, it was nothing special, but its special effect was quite something.

’To think this thing was here. A weapon that could make someone submit to the wielder after being stabbed. The problem is that the wielder must have a higher luck stat than the other person. Since the luck stat was one of the few stats you can’t train to improve, this weapon was pretty weak. Still, if you have a few more items that improve your luck stat, this becomes something game-breaking.’

In his past life, Lucen did a run were he tried to make every character submit to the main character, Alexander.

Unfortunately, no matter how you do and how you use items and skills to increase his luck, there are some characters that cannot be tamed using this method, as their luck was beyond Alexander’s, no matter how much he adds.

There were also characters that were too strong-willed, so the dagger had no effect on them, no matter how low their luck stat was.

”Eh, another bust,” Lucen sighed as he shook his head. ”I wonder what other things are in here that would be perfect for me.”

To the side, he saw another familiar item. It was a silver warhorn. Even from meters away, Lucen could feel a low, vibrating hum, like the after-echo of a battlefield anthem.

’The Herald’s warhorn, a support item that gives a morale boost in battle. The effects are pretty good, but not something I need. I know better ways to increase morale even without this item.’

Lucen moved on, scanning shelf after shelf, plinth after plinth. The treasury felt bigger than it looked, almost shifting with each turn.

Then something made him pause. A handheld mirror rested on a velvet stand. Silver vines framed its edges, delicate but unnervingly lifelike, like they might start crawling at any moment.

He didn’t know what that item was, as this was the first time he had seen it, but the second he was near it, his battle instinct skill activated. That mirror was obviously dangerous.

Lucen looked at the name of the item. It was called the mirror of solitude. The effects of the item were unknown.

’Unknown is it?... This dangerous item that’s making my battle instincts skill keep warning me, has an unknown effect... This thing might be useful, seeing how dangerous it is, but do I make a gamble for something unknown?’

Lucen thought about it for a few minutes. ”Nah, why do I need to take risks like that. It might bite me in the a*s later in the future.”

His mind briefly wandered to the old UI screens of the game. If this were still just pixels and coding, he would have already tagged each relic with a mental Sell, Keep, or Maybe Later.

But here, everything breathed, hummed, whispered. The difference between item descriptions in a game and the pressure of the real thing pressing against his skin was night and day.

Lucen continued walking. The treasury was massive, filled with rows upon rows of relics stretching deeper into the shimmering light cast by the floating mana orbs. He hadn’t even explored ten percent yet.

And despite not touching a single item... The feeling of being watched only grew stronger. Some artifacts seemed to whisper as he passed, tiny impressions brushing against his mind. Curiosity, Hunger, Resentment, Loneliness, and many other emotions.

The whispers didn’t form words, at first. They were like breaths brushing against the back of his neck, soft and disjointed.

Some sounded pleading, others resentful. A few were so faint he wondered if they were memories of the metal rather than spirits.

’I see, the king wasn’t joking about those voices. In the game, there were no indications of such voices, or was Alexander’s mental defenses so great that he could not hear them?’

The further Lucen felt, the stronger the relics were and the louder the voices became. Not all powerful relics had some sort of spirit within, but those with some sort of regret or resentment within them.

’At this level, it’s just noise. It’s like playing those old-school horror games. Creepy, but harmless nonetheless.’

Lucen pushed forward, ignoring the overlapping whispers clawing at the edge of his thoughts. If anything, the growing noise only confirmed one thing. He was heading in the right direction.

’I still haven’t felt that invisible pull that those MCs feel when in this kind of place. I’m just heading towards were the voices are louder, could that be the pull?’

Lucen was distracting himself with those musings; he was thinking more loudly so that the voices wouldn’t disturb him as much.

Lucen then saw it as one of the strongest weapons in the game, the sword of Norvaegard. It was a Bastard Sword made from unknown steel enhanced by runes from an age long forgotten in human history.

This was a powerful weapon that could only be wielded by the rightful ruler of Norvaegard. There was a spell placed on it.

The spell made it so that it could only be wielded by someone trusted by nearly the majority of Norvaegard. Someone they recognized could lead them to rule over them.

If you just look at it with stats alone and not the special effects, this was truly the strongest weapon shown in the game.

”Well, it doesn’t really matter to me. I’m not someone who would be able to get it anyway.” Lucen commented to himself and kept moving forward.

As he continued walking and the voices became noisier, it was at that moment that he finally felt the thing he had been waiting for ever since he set foot in this Treasury.

He felt the invisible pull, as a voice that seemed to be clear despite the noises of the other voices was calling to him.

”I have what you seek.”

It was so clear, but Lucen could not identify whether the voice came from a male or a female. The voice layered over itself, deep and high, young and old, human and inhuman, like a choir speaking with one throat.

’Oh, it really happened! The invisible pull from an unknown voice!’ Lucen was rather excited in his mind as he slowly walked towards the area he was being pulled to.

’I wonder if this is going to be some sort of ancient being that wants to trick me? Or is it perhaps some powerful individual from history who wants to teach me? Or is this going to be like an intelligent weapon or item that gains sentience and wants to find a master? There are so many possibilities here.’

Lucen followed the pull, deeper and deeper. Of course, he did not just follow without being a little wary, but his battle instinct skill, which would sense any danger that came, was not ringing.

Even with that, he wasn’t entirely sure yet, but his basic instincts were telling him that this was an opportunity.

He continued walking into a part of the Treasury that you could not reach in the game since it had been destroyed.

The moment Lucen stepped into this place, the other voices behind him didn’t just fade; they vanished, as if cut off by a blade. Only that single voice that called him here remained, clear, steady, and rather calming.

The path ended, and he saw an alcove shrouded in faint mist, as though the air itself refused to reveal what lay within. The mana lamps in this area were dimming, and some even started flickering.

’Oh, that’s some rather nice horror vibes. I did say I wanted to watch a horror movie, but I didn’t want to be experiencing it first hand... Well, whatever, I guess this is interesting by itself.’

As he was doing his one-man commentary in his mind, Lucen saw a vague silhouette within the mist.

It was something unfamiliar to him that he had never seen in any routes in the game. Still, it was too vague to say for sure; he needed to get closer to see what it really was.

When he took another step closer, his heartbeat suddenly started quickening, becoming louder. He felt goosebumps all over his body.

The voice whispered again, right beside his ear, too close, too real.

”Take me. You are worthy!”

Lucen unconsciously took one more step, and the mist parted.