That “thing” was apparently buried right under the ruin. Agravain and Maria had fought in. To call it a ruin was itself an overstatement. There had been barely any of it left before the battle, and now the scene was decorated with so many craters caused by Maria’s haphazard attacks it had been transformed into an oversized whack-a-mole panel.
Still, it had been buried deep, according to Jophiel, and so shouldn’t have been damaged during the fight. She held the Codex before her like a dowsing tool before pinpointing a spot.
Following closely behind with Rania pushing her wheelchair, Soraya was regarding the spot with curiosity.
“So, do we have to dig it up?” asked Agravain.
He had the strength, to be sure, but would be hard-pressed to get excited at the prospect of digging up so much soil barehand. They didn’t have any proper tools for excavation with them, no money to purchase any, nor shameless enough to ask the other group for it.
As for that other group, Hanael and her girls still hadn’t left, and were standing on the other side of the ruin, discussing something, perhaps their strategy onwards after their first loss.
Jophiel at least gave them no heed so it was safe to assume they wouldn’t prove any more threat for now.
“Nah,” presently the angel said, “It’s not something anyone can just dig up by hand. There’s a seal on it. As usually is for most rare items. But I can use my angel power to break it open.”
“You mentioned it before, angel power, huh?”
“Yeah, I’m fairly sure I explained it.”
He was fairly sure she hadn’t.
“Well, I don’t expect a meathead like you to remember everything I say anyway. But with Soraya here it should be fine to repeat it just this once: as an angel, I can do certain things in this world, breaking seals, tapping into dragon veins, making rings and other small tasks to aid you in your quest. But there’s a limit to my power, as most of it is used for my specialty, just as Hanael used hers to imbue or find items of the Holy Elements. I have to expend a tremendous amount of energy to maintain a network of information. My Codex wouldn’t be up to date otherwise. If I use too much of my angelic power for other tasks, it will affect my Codex’s refreshing rate for a while, so keep that in mind if you ever want to ask me to do something with my power.”
Having said that, she hovered her hand over the spot she had located. As she stood there, he half expected her to start chanting a spell or something. But without a word spoken, a deep rumble echoed from deep underground. The earth burst upward with a violent quake, strong enough to nudge Soraya’s chair back on its wheels.
A small box shot up into the air, then dropped to the ground next to the newly made hole with a heavy thud.
It was made of the same marble as the ruin’s remaining pillars, no larger than a normal strongbox for jewelry. There were some bas-reliefs on its surface, but had been worn to an indiscernible state.
Still if the ruin had looked old, this box must have been buried at least before this place was abandoned.
Jophiel sighed.
“There it is,” she said. “Now, now, Mr. Barbarian, you wanted a rare item so bad, so here you go. Have your fun with it.”
“Can’t you sound a bit more enthusiastic about it?”
“I can’t because I’m not.”
Naturally expecting an unhappy twist, the barbarian crouched down next to the box with rare apprehension. The lid was heavy, but nothing that could trouble him. He flicked it open and reached for the item within.
Item obtained:
Rosa Brooch of the Saintess
Rarity: Unique
Quality: Stellar
Effect:
Absorbs and converts 30% of incoming magical attacks into temporary Wisdom bonus
+1 Charisma
+5 religious opinion
+10 male opinion
“Oh hey!” the barbarian called, “Isn’t this actually amazing? What’s wrong with it? This is pretty handy for my weak magical defense!”
“What?” Jophiel cried, “What’s wrong with it, you ask? Why do you even need to ask? Isn’t everything about this wrong?”
Without waiting for an answer, she snatched the brooch from Agravain’s hand and shoved it in his face. “Look at it! Just what about it isn’t wrong?!” she shrieked like a mad banshee.
It was a brooch shaped prettily like a blooming rose, the petals so finely wrought it wouldn’t be strange to mistake for the real thing, save for the gleaming sheen of silver that betrayed the metallic material. Such an item, for its craftsmanship alone, could sell for good money in his old world, let alone in this one where the industrial level was fairly low.
“Just say what you mean. I really don’t see a problem with this.”
“Oh that,” it was Hanael who had come over to provide the answer, apparently amused. One would think she was waiting around just so she could bear witness to this. “Just one of her laughable, childish quirks. You can’t even call it funny, really, more like pitiful. If you’re fine with it then just ignore her.”
“What does it feel like living without principles, Hanael? I hope your curls rot and fall off!”
“What the hell?” Jophiel screamed hysterically. How do curls even rot...No, that hardly even qualifies as a principle! You are just obsessive over the stupidest things!”
“So what is this stupid notion of her? Is it what I’m guessing?” Saying this, Agravainsnatched the brooch back, and presently took it upon himself to secure it on the left side of his jacket.
The thing was dazzling, reflecting the brilliant morning light with colored refraction that caught the eyes. A fancy item, to be sure, much fancier than anything he had got his hand on thus far.
“It probably is,” Hanael said, “see, this girl is hardcore when it comes to aesthetic--”
“No!” Jophiel cut her off with a cry, already snapping and lunging like an animal at the barbarian. In the swiftest move he had ever seen in the slothful angel, she yanked the brooch from his jacket before he could react. “A sin against all refined taste! Against the law of the universe and just about anything that matters! Take it off! Burn it! Bury it till the end of days!”
“You are being hysteric again, Jophiel. Get a hold of yourself,” Hanael sighed, “It’s just an item!”
“Well yeah,” the barbarian said, grabbing Jophiel’s wrist to prevent her from doing something stupid with the rare brooch. “I kinda get what you mean, the thing may not look best on me, but hey, the effects are good!”
“Let. Me. Go!” The angel flung her arms wildly to ward off any attempt to retrieve the brooch in her hand. “It clashes with your image as terribly as could! What kind of rugged-looking barbarian would wear a flower brooch?! This is madness! This is a crime against humanity and all angel folks!...No!”
In the end, it did not take Agravain much effort to pluck the brooch from her dainty hand and replace it on his breast. Angel or not, the difference between their power levels was just too great. “Look, I told you I would follow your lead. But this is obviously not to my interest.” He released the angel then turned away. “What do you think, Soraya? It’s not that bad, isn’t it?”
The young princess was giggling like mad, it was almost insulting. “Yes, yes, it fits you like a glove! You look almost a courtier in the palace!”
“Fine, you’re not the best person to ask,” he said.
Stolen story; please report.
“No, she’s not!” cried Jophiel. Suddenly she lunged for Rania and shoved the maid in front. “Tell him what you think, girl!”
Looking nonplussed, the maid now adjusted her glasses and reluctantly looked from Soraya to the barbarian, trying to discern if it was a serious request. The young princess gave her a solemn nod of assent. Only then did the maid sweep a scrutinizing look at the barbarian, his set of a battered war club, bare chest under the jacket, and a tacked-on rose brooch.
Trait: Honest.
“I mean no offense, sir Agravain, but...” she hesitated.
“Say it!” Jophiel jabbed savagely at her back.
“It’s ridiculous, and,” she said without a speck of emotions on display, “to be frank, sir, like a brown bear wearing a flower wreath. It is rather unbecoming.”
So that’s how it was.
The girl really needed to work on her similes though.
“Fine,” Agravain sighed, “if Rania said it is ridiculous then it is. I don’t need it anymore.”
And he tossed the brooch on Soraya’s lap.
“Really?” Hanael widened her eyes. “After all your hard work? That one item could go a long way to compensate for your weakness, you know. And,” she shrugged, “I’m still against giving advice to a rival, but sprucing him up some and that brooch wouldn’t look too bad, you know.”
Kinda strange that this riled her up even more than the argument earlier though. Or maybe not. Her priorities seemed anything but consistent.
“Well more than anything,” Soraya picked up the brooch, examining it, “we may as well please Jophiel this once. She looks ready to go ballistic if Agravain keeps this on himself. Come here, Rania.”
The maid obediently got down to the princess’s eye level. With some swift handiwork, Soraya fastened the brooch on the girl’s hair. All things considered it looked well on her, even the barbarian must concede.
“Well,” he said, “I guess that means I can hold her up as a shield next time another Player Character shows up.”
That would have just about the same effects as tanking with his own body. She was rather small and light, only the slightest bit fleshier than Soraya.
Would make for a ridiculous image though, and most likely wouldn’t fit well with Jophiel’s sense of aesthetics either.
She was satisfied for now, though. And she was all over the maid, literally. “See! This is what I want! Isn’t it just nice when the right item goes to the right person? Screw stats, screw effects, screw builds! This is how the universe should be! My own cute maid!”
He still wasn’t sure what this “moe” thing the angel was obsessed with was about, but it seemed this fit well according to her standards.
Meanwhile, Rania was frantically trying to get out of the feral angel’s chokehold. Unlike the barbarian, it seemed she still wasn’t quite sure how to deal with the angel, and couldn’t bring herself to act rough physically against her, nor could she find the right level of respect to show the seemingly divine being. If she had been more like Hanael who was refined in appearance, if rather haughty, it would have been easier, of course. But such an angel as Jophiel...
Speaking of a dignified display, Ophelia and her little entourage of young girls had crossed the field to catch up with Hanael. Coming to say goodbye, probably.
Ophelia and Maria stepped out to the front of the group. The latter had calmed down now. She still averted her tear-stained eyes from the barbarian, but her body wasn’t trembling anymore. Point for improvement, he supposed.
They both bowed. Formal, low bows at that. Maria, naturally, lagged a bit behind, as she was only following the other’s lead when it came to social etiquette.
“We thank you again for your mercy and kindness,” said the high priestess, somewhat overbearing mannerism and all that. “We owe our lives to you. And although words alone may not mean much, we will try not to inconvenience you in the future.”
“What she means is that we’ll stay out of your way for now,” Hanael added, “But this quest is something those girls are willing to stake their lives for, not just something either could politely step away from. If the both of us could stay alive till the end, we would have to face each other eventually. I can’t promise any courtesy then, you understand?”
“Fine with me. I’m planning to own up to my decision after all,” the barbarian nodded. Then he turned to the timid girl, “You didn’t do badly today, Maria. So train up, give it your own so we may have a good rematch in the future, alright?”
The girl gave a feeble nod, but said nothing. He highly doubted those words had been remotely enough to lift her spirit, which was evidently in tatters.
“Still, words are empty enough,” Ophelia said, “however you look at it, there are no greater debts than that of spared lives. So at least we want to show you some real gratitude, meager though it may be.”
And saying this, she inserted her hands inside her collar and brought a necklace over her neck. It was one with the same design as Maria’s necklace, but with a silver chain and a silver locket.
“You really don’t have to,” the barbarian began, “it’s only because Soraya...”
“Just take it, Agravain,” the princess said, nudging at him with his elbow, “You don’t need to belittle them. Nothing wrong with taking a gift given with goodwill.”
“Fine then.”
He took the delicate silver chain from Ophelia’s hand.
Item obtained:
Necklace of Regeneration
Rarity: Rare
Quality: Excellent
Effect:
Passively restores the user’s health over time
Skill Bonus
Restoration lv.2
“Hey, this is one quite useful thing,” said the barbarian. At the corner of his eyes, however, a certain angel was staring dagger at him. Although the locket’s design wasn’t exceedingly feminine like the Rosa broch, it would still look rather wrong on his chest. Most things would, in fact.
How limited is the pool of suitable accessories he could equip according to her standards, anyway? There couldn’t be that many necklaces made of human skulls or something similar out there. And if there were some, they wouldn’t be guaranteed to have powerful effects anyway.
“But too bad,” he went on, “I’m not the one who needs to worry about my health all that much.”
So he turned around and put it on Soraya. “This suits you better, and at any rate, I’m not the type to sit around healing things or people. My hobby is more the opposite.”
His sister Estella had never been big on her appearance, seeing that her whole day was spent inside her room, so he wasn’t sure of Soraya’s take on the thing. But she didn’t protest it at least.
The princess fingered her new accessory with a look of curiosity, musing, “I guess sitting around fixing stuff is just about the only amount of legwork I’m suitable for.”
Despite the joke she didn’t seem to hate it, not outwardly at least. “Oh and you too, Ophelia, thanks!”
“That’s what little I could offer,” Ophelia said gravely. “Then I believe it’s time we are moving on,” to Hanael she said, “There’s still a lot we need to do and improve if we want to challenge for the Mundane Egg.”
“Yeah, yeah, so I guess this is goodbye for real this time,” Hanael said, “That leaves only one thing.”
“Still more?” Jophiel complained, “This has dragged out long enough as is.”
“Call it an exchange of favor, if you want. You know well the rest of us can only rely on your specialty for it.”
“Ah,” Jophiel said, eyes wide in realization.
“You know how important it is, I trust,” Hanael nodded. “So what’s the news on Bombay? You know why I asked, right?”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, my memory is not so lacking. But no,” Jophiel shook her head, clearly having anticipated the question. “You can bet I’ve been keeping an eye out, but still no sign of it.”
“Well, it’s only been three days,” Hanael sighed, shoulders drooped in disappointment. “I’ll pass the information on to the others when I can. Raguel seems hell-bent on taking the initiative this time. So watch out for him.”
“I’m certainly not one to guess what’s on that guy’s mind, but that sounds about right. At any rate, it’s something I would have told you anyway if I had it, but since you called it an exchange of favors, let me ask something in return. Feel free to refuse though.”
“That’s awfully petty and generous of you at the same time. Well, shoot.”
“That Golden Crystal,” Jophiel thrust her finger towards the ravaged field Agravain and Maria had battled on. “What is it? Why did you bother to bring it out but not use it in the end? I’m curious.”
“Oh that,” Hanael chuckled, shrugging, “Just a failed experiment. In theory its effect is the most powerful of the crystals. Or at some point it should have been. But you know how some items or skills are so overpowered they are eventually nerfed to oblivion, to the point you have to struggle to justify using them after the nerf? I think this is one of those cases. And yet I thought it was worth a try in case there was something missing in my analysis, in the end it works just exactly the same as advertised. Let’s just say for that crystal to be deployed and activated it would take such a long time that it would never be useful in a normal fight.”
“But you can still set it up with preparation, right? Like placing that crystal there a day in advance then luring or tricking a competition to fight near it. You could almost have done that, if you were sure we would come across this town. Hell, you could have set it up in advance after meeting us last night. Since the only reason for me to come here, by your calculation, was for the brooch, this ruin where it was hidden would obviously be an ideal ground for the official duel. I wouldn’t have suspected it one bit.”
“True, but there’s one caveat to it. I’m betraying my side’s deeper strategy here, but since you are probably going to figure it out again anyway before we meet again, there’s no harm in telling it. The crystals require a constant supply of a user’s magic capacity to be activated. The amount that golden one requires, taking into account all the time to prepare it, would tax even a fully developed Player Character with Wisdom Focus, and still would take long weeks of charging to boost.”
“That’s beyond useless, isn’t it?”
“Tell me about it. Well if that’s all you want to know. Take care of yourself until our rematch.”
“Already making me tired thinking of dealing with you again,” Jophiel shrugged, “but yeah, whatever, later.”
And with that, the angel and her girls turned away, walking out of the ruin, this time headed towards the town, perhaps already looking for transportation to leave the country. Dazzlingly and mesmerizing as they came, a group of young girls walking together in habits, their shoulders slightly slumped.
“Well, what now?” the barbarian asked.
He wouldn’t be opposed to a day off at least.
“Back to Eisharat I guess,” Soraya said. “Ugh, probably walking all the way too, not that I’m going to walk anyway. But still, instead of this necklace they could have offered us some cash.”
He wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of pushing the girl all the way back to the capital either. It would be thrice the distance from the village occupied by the pigmen to this fishing town.
But Jophiel had another idea.
“Well about that,” Jophiel offered, “we do have a means of transportation now.” As she spoke, she pointed to a formation of hillocks beyond the town. “It’s up there.”
