Travels in the Multiverse Part 17

Deckard frowned as he studied the second ring the 'hero' had been wearing when he'd died. "I believe I know why our unfortunate hero died, he was wearing a Constricting Ring."

Myst stared at Griswold in disbelief. "You're telling me he died because he forgot to take his ring off?"

Deckard tilted the band so that Myst could see the faint engraving. "It's enchanted so that it can't be stolen by thieves or removed easily."

"Serpent," Myst muttered, reading the engraving.

"That's new," Xander muttered, thinking about the game's complete lack of thievery.

"Constricting Ring? Shouldn't that just cut off a finger?" Buffy asked as she looked at the gold ring with a red stone set in the top.

Deckard sighed. "Unfortunately, no. It continually drains your life force while you're wearing it."

"If it's cursed, why would he put it on?" Buffy asked.

"He might not have wanted to pay Deckard to identify it," Griswold offered, having overheard the conversation.

'I can't say I blame him considering how much you charged in the game,' Myst thought as he looked over the rest of the hero's gear.

Deckard gave the stocky smith a look of disappointment. "He could have used a scroll."

"Which still doesn't explain why you'd willingly use a cursed item," Harry said.

"The ring grants a great deal of protection from magic and the elements, unfortunately it requires saying the command word to remove," Deckard explained as he carefully set the ring back on the edge of the fountain and picked up the hero's other ring with a sad smile. "This one I remember, Griswold forged it from a piece of meteorite."

Griswold sighed. "I'm going to want the ring back if you don't need it, it was my father's."

"You gave it to the hero as a reward for a quest," Deckard pointed out.

"With the understanding that he'd deal with the demons and put it to good use," Griswold replied with a scowl, less than happy about some upstart walking off with his fellow smith's stuff even if he could see the reasoning on the part of the sage.

"What does the ring do?" Myst asked, fairly sure he already knew.

"It reduces the damage you take from mundane and magical traps, helps you recover from the shock of getting hit, gives you a slight boost to your magic and physical attributes, and glows in the dark when you're wearing it," Deckard explained.

Buffy glanced between the two rings. "That sounds a lot more useful than the Constricting Ring."

"He might have needed the resistance," Myst mused as he looked at the hero's gear, less than impressed with what he'd seen so far for someone challenging the last couple of levels of the dungeon. "What about his amulet?"

"It ties up half of the wearer's mana to boost their health by an equal amount," Deckard explained, having already identified the necklace the day before when the hero asked.

"I'm starting to see why he died," Xander said as he looked at the rest of the man's gear.

"The necklace would cripple his mana pool," Willow muttered.

Griswold snorted. "Magic is just a crutch for a proper warrior."

"I told him he'd be better served using something else and a mana shield," Deckard added. "Not only does your mana cover any damage, it provides additional protection."

"That also requires finding the book," Tara pointed out, feeling like someone should defend the dead hero, if only because he'd died trying to do the right thing.

Myst glanced at the man's red, gold and silvery platemail. "What about his platemail?"

"Arkaine's Valor," Deckard said with a smile. "It boosts your vitality, helps you recover and reduces the damage from enemies."

"He should have been wearing proper armor," Griswold grumbled.

"And a jester's cap," Myst muttered, starting to wonder if someone had swapped out the man's gear or if he was just tragically unlucky. "Drops your attributes a bit and prevents damage, not something a warrior should be wearing."

"It gives a decent boost to your health but you're correct," Deckard admitted, a touch surprised that the stranger knew that much about the Jester's Cap.

Myst glanced over at Griswold. "Is there any reason you didn't sell him better stuff?"

"I tried, he was always broke, he kept buying crap from Wirt, hoping it would help," Griswold complained. "At least his weapon was solid, I made it. You can't go wrong with a flaming sword."

"You can in hell where everything has fire resistance," Myst grumbled as he glanced at some of the glowing blades on display that contained far more magic than the piece of shit blade the smith had crafted in exchange for the artifact level anvil. 'Yeah, I'd forgotten how much of a greedy shit you were.'

"So, what you're telling me is that he had shit for gear?" Buffy asked.

"I wouldn't go that far," Deckard said as he studied the hero's boots. "His boots and gloves were some of Wirt's better items."

"Huh," Myst muttered as he spotted a pair of armored gloves on display that were glowing brighter than just about everything else on display other than a belt. "Huh." He walked over to take a look at the gloves and belt on display, reading the tag on the gauntlets, "Magefist: Enhanced Defense, boosts fire skills, increases casting speed by 20%, boosts mana regeneration and adds fire damage to any attack if you want."

"I don't normally carry sorcerer gear but I got a good deal," Griswold said proudly.

Myst looked at the ridiculous price tag then glanced at the insane price tag on the belt. "Verdungo's Hearty Cord: Enhanced Defense, Faster Hit Recovery, a large boost to Vitality, Regeneration, Increased Stamina and 15% damage reduction."

"It's my pride and joy," Griswold said smugly.

"The hero would probably still be alive if you'd let him borrow it," Myst pointed out.

"Or he'd be dead in the dungeon and I'd be out a fortune," Griswold replied, trying not to snap at the stranger. "Unfortunately, the merchant that delivered the belt got here while the hero was in the dungeon so I didn't have a chance to sell it to him."

"That sucks," Myst offered, fairly sure the hero couldn't have afforded it regardless or maybe someone had pocketed his gold because he'd barely had enough to pay his tab at the inn. He pulled out some of the gems he'd made in Sigil and showed the smith. "Do you take gems?"

"Eh? I can give you a couple of hundred gold each," the smith offered as if that was all they were worth, knowing full well they were worth far more than that.

Myst scowled as he caught the smith's thoughts about how much the gems were actually worth and that he didn't see a point in making a fair offer because he was 'stealing' the hero's stuff. "We both know they're worth far more than that."

Griswold shrugged. "I don't normally deal in gems, I'd have to find a buyer."

"It's not my fault your friend is dead," Myst said as he put his gems back in his pocket. "If you'd helped a bit more or convinced him that Wirt was a bastard, maybe he wouldn't have died."

Griswold glared at Myst. "You don't think I tried?"

"What about letting him use a decent helmet?" Myst asked as he gestured towards the row of helmets the smith had.

"He liked the damned cap!" Griswold snapped. "He said it was lucky."

"Ah," Myst muttered, not sure what else to say. He walked over and picked up the ring that Griswold made and tossed it to the smith. "I'll find something better."

"Anything interesting about his boots?" Xander asked, trying to change the subject.

Deckard nodded. "They provide excellent protection, boost your hit recovery, increase your strength, vitality and stamina, reduce how quickly you get tired from exertion, boost your walking and running speed, increase poison resistance, and continually repairs itself."

"Do they change sizes?" Buffy asked with a grin.

"Of course, they wouldn't be much good if they didn't," Deckard said.

"Go for it," Myst said, gesturing at the boots. "I doubt we're going to be able to duplicate them any time soon so you might as well use them."

"At least we know he had decent taste in boots," Wendy said as Buffy quickly grabbed the magic boots and started taking off her shoes. She glanced at the hero's gloves. "What about his gloves?"

"Vultures," the smith muttered under his breath as he pulled his flask out of his pocket.

"The gloves increase your chance to land a hit on undead and increase the damage of your melee or ranged strikes by 200% against undead. They also restore a small fraction of your mana with every strike," Deckard explained.

Myst sighed. "In other words, nearly completely worthless for the last couple of levels of the dungeon considering it's probably filled with demons."

Buffy smiled at Myst. "If you don't want them, I'll happily take them."

Myst glanced at the arcane enchanter. "I wouldn't mind taking them apart at some point to learn the enchantments but I doubt I'll be able to duplicate everything for a while so you might as well keep them until we can make better."

"Better?" Buffy asked, thinking about how useful the gloves would be against vampires.

"Bonus damage against demons would be more useful," Willow pointed out.

"Fair point," Buffy admitted.

"How durable are the demons?" Harry asked, wondering how much he'd be able to help since he wasn't exactly a combat mage.

Griswold gave the scrawny teenager an unimpressed glance as he swallowed a swig of brandy. "Durable enough to get Ralph killed which means you'll most certainly die."

Myst picked up the Constricting Ring and walked over to the enchanting table and started working on reverse engineering the enchantment, glad that the table did most of the work.

Buffy glanced between Willow, Tara and Harry. "He's got a point, it's going to be dangerous."

"No arguments here," Xander said, familiar with the game and wanting nothing to do with the shit in 'hell' without better gear and spells.

"Seriously?" Buffy asked in surprise.

Xander smiled at Buffy. "There's a difference between ambushing some vampires when they're not expecting a fight and fighting in hell against fire breathing demons that can take a punch from a slayer and keep fighting."

"Or swarms of demons able to rip steel apart without much effort," Willow added.

"Did the Thalmor have anything worth using?" Buffy asked, less than impressed with the hero's gear.

"Good question," Deckard said as he started examining the strange collection of gear that Myst had just piled next to the fountain.

Tara watched the ring Myst was playing with disintegrate. "Was it supposed to turn to dust?"

"Probably," Myst replied as he mentally reviewed the knowledge 'burned' into his mind. "Not bad, one enchant for elemental resistance or at least fire, cold, lightning, poison, arcane and holy damage and one for binding an item so it can't be stolen as well as a drawback for constant damage."

"Arcane? Does that mean it boosts magic resistance?" Xander asked.

Myst shook his head. "No, it just covers resistance to arcane damage, it won't stop someone from cursing you or using indirect methods to cause trouble. It also caps at seventy five percent so we'd need the magic resistance anyways."

Deckard frowned slightly as he studied a set of boots. "If I'm not mistaken these should help someone move silently."

"Makes sense," Myst replied as he turned and gestured towards the ground next to him, summoning a six and a half foot tall golem made out of grey stone and blue crystals.

"Nice trick," Wendy offered as she studied the stocky humanoid formed of stone and crystal. "Is that a power or a spell?"

"Power," Myst replied as he created a golem sized crystal bracelet.

"Can you teach us?" Ivy asked hopefully.

"It's on the rather long list of things to teach everyone when we have time." Myst focused on the enchanting table and got to work enchanting the bracelet with his new resistance enchant, figuring it would help his golem survive long enough to be useful.

Wendy shivered as Myst burned a ridiculous amount of magic creating his magic bracelet. "Are you supposed to use that much magic?"

"I hope not," Deckard said, eying Myst warily, wondering what he was because no one that young should have anywhere close to that much power.

Myst ignored the question as he poured magic into the item, seeing how far he could push things. He quickly stopped when his precog warned him that pushing more magic into the crystal would cause it to explode and unleash a wave of destructive magic that would obliterate the town and most of his friends. He finished sealing the enchantment then turned to look at Wendy. "Sorry, I was a bit distracted, what?"

"How much magic does enchanting require?" Wendy asked.

"Generally speaking, the goal is to spend as little mana as possible but I lack the skill to accomplish much of anything with that particular enchant with skill alone so I tossed magic at it," Myst explained as he slipped the bracelet on his golem's wrist, doing his best not to let his hands shake from how close he'd come to blowing everyone up.

Deckard took a breath and exhaled as he collected his thoughts. "You could have leveled the town for less."

"Probably." Myst focused on his golem and looked through its eyes, feeling like he'd just opened a second window that he'd never known about. He sent the golem towards the rift to 'hell' that had opened behind the healer's house, the golem's first couple of stumbling steps less steady than the fifth as he got used to controlling his golem.

"How long do you think your golem will last against the demons?" Deckard asked, noticing how unsteady his golem was.

"It should be able to take out a couple of demons before they swarm it," Myst replied as he took a step away from the enchanting table. "How many muffle enchants do we have?"

"At least four," Deckard said as he moved a pair of boots to the pile of boots with water walking. "Where did you find so many similar magical items?"

"Off a group of magic users in a different world," Myst explained, not seeing a point in concealing their nature as it might lead to more interesting discussions of the nature of the world.

"The angels created more than one world?" Deckard asked in wonder.

"I couldn't tell you. I've never actually seen an angel, I've just heard stories. Either way, there should be enough boosts to get everyone started learning to duplicate the enchantment." Myst glanced at Harry. "How good is your gemino charm?"

"I'm getting better. What do you want copied and how many copies do you want?" Harry asked as he pulled his wand out of his pocket.

Myst cast his bound boots spell, trading his boots for a pair of near weightless armored boots made out of a bound demon. "My boots."

Harry quickly pointed his wand at Myst's left foot. "Gemino." He frowned as the copy appeared on the ground next to Myst's foot, tattered and missing a couple of sections. "I might need to practice that a bit more." He pointed at the right boot, pushing more magic into it. "Genimo."

Ivy snickered as she glanced at the second tattered boot that was only a touch better than the first boot. "Just a bit."

"If you can do better, go for it," Harry replied with amusement.

Ivy pulled her wand and pointed it at Myst's right foot. "Gemino."

Harry studied the conjured boot with thick spider web patterned cracks in the armor plating. "Rats, I lost I guess you'll have to be the one that duplicates the rest."

Xander laughed. "Nice try but I don't think it's going to work."

Ivy laughed. "Not a chance, we obviously both need practice."

"It's good for you," Myst replied as he mentally piloted the golem, jumping into the glowing crack in the ground that led to the last couple levels of the dungeon. He glanced around the surprisingly creepy room with bone walls and a stone floor and frowned when he saw a wall of red liquid through a gap in the bones. 'Just as well we're not walking down there in person.'

"Gemino," Harry said as he made another attempt, his latest version missing the section that covered the ankle. "Or we could just blame it on the spell to conjure the boots."

Deckard frowned as he studied the duplicates the kids were making. "How long will they last?"

"The duplicates are generally permanent but they might vanish when-" Ivy paused when Myst's conjured boots vanished, restoring his actual boots. She glanced at the duplicated boots and smiled. "So much for that idea."

Harry walked over and picked up one of the duplicated boots and squeezed it. "It's not falling apart and it's practically weightless so it might be worth testing to see if we can enchant them."

"Have you tried repairing them?" Willow asked.

Ivy pointed her wand at one of the damaged boots. "Repairo."

"Maybe because they started broken?" Tara offered when she saw the lack of improvement.

"Probably," Myst agreed as he saw a group of four balrog knockoffs charging out of the darkness at him. 'Eat Crystal!' He stared as the crystal shards ripped through the demons like pretty much anything stuck in front of a machine gun that wasn't tank plating. "Huh, I don't think we're going to have a problem with the last couple of levels or at least the balrogs die like cheap knockoffs."

"You've already killed one?" Deckard asked in surprise.

"Four of them," Myst said smugly as he had the golem start running towards the next room.

"What about the loot?" Willow asked.

"Nothing yet," Myst replied, smirking as he saw movement in the distance. 'Die!' He raised the golem's arm and sent a large shard of crystal at the group of balrogs and dodged around the corner.

Willow jumped as the ground shook. "What the fuck was that?!"

"Language," Xander joked as he turned to look at Myst who was smirking way too much to be innocent.

"There is no kill like overkill," Myst sang cheerfully as he had the golem step back around the bone wall he'd been using as cover and look at the destruction and missing section of the dungeon. "Okay, that might have been a bit too much kill, I might have broken a couple of floors."

"If you collapse the dungeon, we might lose part of the town," Xander warned him.

"Don't worry, once was enough," Myst assured them. 'I'd rather not let Diablo escape before I'm ready.'

"Now what?" Willow asked.

"Now you work on enchanting while I work on killing demons unless Buffy wants to kill some of them for fun?" Myst asked.

Buffy considered the idea for a couple of seconds then shrugged when she realized he had it covered, at least for now. "No thanks, I want to give it a few minutes to see if the entire dungeon collapses before I go down there."

"Probably for the best," Myst agreed as he had his golem shoot kill the succubi flying around the crater while trying his best to dodge the glowing crimson stars flying at his golem. He smiled as one of the succubi crashed into the stone floor, bleeding to death with several holes in her pale skin. 'On the other hand, precog for the win.' He pulled one of his athames out of his pocket dimension, checked his precog then teleported behind the demon and stabbed her before she could turn and blast him. He quickly teleported back to the surface as several demons turned and started shooting him rather than attack his golem.

"Did you even need help dealing with the demons?" Wendy asked.

"I wasn't expecting my golem to be quite this useful," Myst admitted. "Besides, we're going to need help sorting everything and possibly dealing with the magic users so we should probably work on gear with resistances."

Harry smiled as the knowledge of how to enchant muffle 'burned' itself into his mind so that he wouldn't lose it. "It would certainly make hunting Death Eaters easier."

"Death Eaters?" Deckard asked warily.

"Evil magic users. Think cultists that want to rule the world and you're not far off," Harry explained as he grabbed a pair of duplicated boots and started enchanting them with muffle, wanting something easy and useful.

"On that note, I'm going to see if I can talk the witch out of some alchemy recipes," Wendy said.

Myst pulled several gems out of his pocket and handed them to Wendy. "Best of luck."

"Thanks," Wendy said cheerfully as she headed towards the witch's shack.

Myst walked over and sat down on the edge of the fountain to give everyone more room around the enchanting table and because controlling the golem was easier when he wasn't trying to move at the same time. He had the golem duck behind a wall to avoid a series of blood stars then stick his hand around the corner and unleash a stream of crystal shards once the blood stars stopped. "This would be easier if my golem had regeneration."

"You could always try equipping the golem with a life stealing item," Willow suggested.

Myst glanced over at Griswold's collection of magical items. "Something to consider if we can find one in the dungeon."

"Or you could just buy something," Griswold pointed out.

"I don't have any gold, I just have gems and you're not interested in giving me a fair price so no thanks," Myst replied as he worked on killing the demons charging at his golem.

"Are they even real? I saw your friend duplicating boots, what's to stop you from duplicating gems?" Griswold asked suspiciously.

"Nothing," Ivy replied with a shrug. "Technically, nothing stops us from duplicating gold coins either."

"Other than ethics," Tara cut in before Ivy could cause the smith a mental breakdown.

'So much for gold appearing out of thin air, no wonder the hero had shit gear,' Myst mused as he continued mowing the demons down as he headed for the damaged section so he could skip a couple of levels and continue his hunt for Diablo while the rest of the group worked on trading enchantments and enchanting tricks.

0o0o0

Myst felt cheated when Diablo fell and changed back into a young man with a soul stone in his head after being shot to shit with crystal shards for a mere twenty seconds. "Seriously, that's it? You're supposed to be a fucking demon lord, the mages gave me more trouble."

"Trouble?" Wendy asked as the ground started shaking.

"No, I'll be right back." Myst teleported into the room with his golem, ripped the soul stone out of the dead child's head and shoved it into his pocket dimension then teleported back to town with his slightly charred golem. "Problem solved, we've saved…" he trailed off as his precog warned him of a horde of skeletons and demons pouring out of the cathedral. "On second thought, we might have a problem."

"What?" Buffy asked.

"An army of undead and demons coming out of the cathedral."

"For a second there you had me worried," Buffy said sarcastically as she picked up an elven mace that they'd looted from the Thalmor. "Ready?"

"Yep!" Willow said as she raised her hands, ready to test out her new flame wave spell.

"We should probably get a bit closer if we want to stop everything," Xander suggested.

"Probably," Myst agreed as they headed towards the Cathedral.