Divine Apostasy Book 11 - Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Ruin’s new and very full inventory had helpfully grouped items by quality. It started with fine and continued with rare, special, epic, and legendary.

The vast majority of fine-quality items centered on the armor and weapons of the warriors in the five towers.

Ruin had stacks with quantities over ten thousand for multiple items: chipped bone shields, chain mail, and helms. With a thought, he sorted his inventory by quantity and sold all the low-quality armor and weapons to the Destruction Realm vendor. He knew Hamma would grimace at losing all that gear, which she could offer to her temple altar, but he couldn't keep everything.

Selling all that gear allowed Ruin to move again, and he sat up and crossed his legs. He marveled at the convenience of the ever-present merchant, and to his surprise, a pop-up appeared over his Inventory.

Destruction Emperor Inventory Bonuses

Mobile merchant

Weight reduction based on level

Remote Inventory expansion

Temporary dimensional storage when Inventory full

Val’dor Heritage Inventory Bonuses

No quality restriction

Val’dor Band of Authority Inventory Bonuses

Vault Binding

Remote Vault Access

Vault Authorization

Three-dimensional storage

The Class-based bonuses Ruin understood, and despite the trouble he’d gotten himself into with selecting Destruction Emperor, benefits like this proved its status as Mythical-Mythical had merit. He’d even get his one hundred percent weight reduction back again someday. Unfortunately, he was only level one right now, but he planned to fix that soon.

It also made sense that such an incredible convenience like a mobile merchant was not available to everyone in the Destruction Realm but was based on important Classes.

When Ruin concentrated on the Individual bonuses that he didn't understand, additional pop-ups appeared.

The Val’dor Heritage Inventory bonus of not limiting the quality of items shined a light on the fact that not every creature in the Destruction Realm could store the best quality items. It demonstrated the Destruction Realm’s emphasis on a tiered system of privilege.

The Val’dor Band of Authority Inventory bonus named Vault Binding turned out to be an amazing bonus.

Vault Binding

Instead of binding a valuable item to one’s blood, the item can be bound to the Spire vault. If the user dies or is separated significantly from the item, it is automatically returned to the Spire vault. In addition, anyone authorized to access the vault is capable of using the vault-bound items within.

This highlighted something Ruin wanted to know the answer to. Did Destruction Realm creatures revive? He’d killed thousands of them with his Prelude of Stillness spell, and none had returned. Even the high-level entities like the Havoc Sovereign hadn’t revived—at least not that Ruin could tell.

If a Core was a necessary part of the process, then it made sense that the Havoc Sovereign hadn’t come back since Ruin had taken it. The previous owner of this band around his arm hadn’t revived either, although that couldn't be used as an example because she’d been professionally assassinated, which meant they would prevent a revival as a matter of course.

This Vault Binding also shed light on the mechanism of binding gear and items in the Destruction Realm. As Ruin had suspected, it centered on blood instead of the soul. Lylan’s magic and the magic of creatures that he called Primal magic used this method. He wondered if that meant the Creation Realm’s method of binding would be based on the concept and relationship magic that Hamma currently explored.

Ruin would ask Varthon about the revival situation when they met next week. It didn't make sense that such a powerful and ancient Realm of beings hadn’t discovered a way to come back from the dead.

Plus, because this universe was some type of test and the Destruction and Creation Realms were on temporary loan from the main Realms, the rules might be different. Maybe Aeonrial had promised to revive everyone when he shut this experiment off.

Ruin moved on to the next Inventory bonus.

Remote Vault Access

Access the Spire vault from your Inventory interface. Access is limited to the Authority Band wearer and those they designate up to a maximum of ten. This vault is accessible anywhere inside the Destruction Realm by all authorized users.

This sounded like storage where anyone in the group could add or take things, which on its own was useful, but the fact it could be accessed remotely made it very valuable, especially for those with limited storage or heavy items that affected their encumbrance.

The next Band of Authority bonus acted just like it sounded. The circlet made him the administrator of who got to use the vault.

The last bonus, three-dimensional storage, Ruin assumed was something similar to his Void Band, where he could change his storage from a grid into a cube.

Ruin studied the Band of Authority once again. As usual, only a generic description appeared.

Name: Val’dor Band of Authority
Description: An ancient silver-colored artifact bound to one of the eight spires.
Effect (Passive): Unlocks a Prime Heritage.
Effect (Passive): Access to a spire.
Restriction: Cannot bind.
Restriction: Contact with an equipped band will result in severe damage for anyone other than the wearer.

Ruin added more questions to the list for Varthon. What were these spires? The Heritage part he would figure out himself shortly—as soon as he took care of his Inventory and peeked inside the Spire vault.

In fact, Ruin decided to try and find this vault and see how much room it contained. Maybe he could offload all the stuff in his Inventory there to lower his encumbrance. Then he could keep a lot more stuff for Hamma to add to her altar.

Ruin dismissed the informational pop-ups and searched for anything strange in his Inventory display. His stomach turned when he couldn't find anything like an extra inventory. An idea occurred to him, and he focused on the cutout person above his Inventory that displayed the gear he wore.

Right now, the only item Ruin wore was the Band of Authority on his right arm. He focused on the band, and an option to access the Spire vault appeared.

Without hesitation, Ruin opened the vault.

Ruin had expected another tab to open, like every other Inventory system he’d used. Instead, his surroundings changed, replaced by the Spire vault where the Val’dor family certainly stored their most valuable items.

Ruin’s eyes widened as the room before him came into focus. Soft, ambient light emanated from the stone walls, casting a warm, golden glow throughout the room. The air felt charged, as if great power hummed just beyond his perception. The vault had the shape of a twenty-foot cube and didn’t contain a door or windows.

Before him, rows of racks stood like silent sentinels, each meant to cradle mythical weapons and armor. Instead, almost all of them were empty.

To Ruin’s left, shelves lined the walls, but only scattered potions were visible. To his right, more empty shelves along with a large bookcase full of various-sized books.

Turning to see the center of the room, Ruin found a small table with four chairs. Journals, letters, and maps covered its surface. He stepped over and glanced at the contents. The largest list contained names of people and families that had betrayed the Val’dor family, along with details of the betrayal. A much smaller list had those that had aided the Val’dor.

On the back wall, Ruin found a combination of shelves, racks, and pedestals that held a variety of items—from packs, to cloth and leather armor, as well as dress clothes meant for fancy events. One section had jewelry and other miscellaneous small items.

This place reminded Ruin of the small statue that had revealed itself as the key into Pen’s private library. Hopefully, that key remained safe in his Void Band, which he prayed would return when he reclaimed his human body.

The Triumvirate Bridge that he’d gotten from Pen and allowed him to cross Realms had been embedded into his palm, and he worried that it might have been lost in the transformation. He hoped that item remained in this body somewhere and he just needed to learn how to trigger it. Or that it had remained with his human body as well. Pen’s sword had survived, so hopefully the bridge had as well.

Ruin had expected a jam-packed vault and felt a little disappointed. Varthon had said that Ruin’s predecessor had been the last of the Val’dor royal lineage. If they had experienced hard times or needed funds for protection, it made sense they’d sell their best items to try and secure safety.

Still, there were things here, and Ruin returned to the first wall which contained the most armor and weapons.