GOD GAMES

“Are you telling me this throne is a legendary item?” I ask the Gemma, already knowing the answer.

“Yes!”

Myers grunts. “Odd that Valentine would leave such an item. He must not have considered that a throne would be Runed so heavily.”

Shit. Maybe it’s soldered to the ground?

“Emma, are you able to lift it at all?”

She gives me a look for a moment. Then she applies pressure to the throne. The throne tilts, revealing that it is not connected to the ground. But, it is quite heavy.

“Barely. I don’t think my strength is high enough.”

“That’s fine. I should be able to carry it myself.”

“If you require strength, I am available.” Nepenthes slithers to us. Her arm is reattached and her chest is somewhat healed.

“You don’t look fully healed.”

“The damage you caused upon my chest is far more severe than expected. Expending energy in the absence of sunlight would require me to consume other parts of my body. This would weaken my combat potential far too much.”

“I see. Well, if you have the strength to carry this throne, then please go ahead.”

“Of course, [Captain].”

She slither to the throne, wraps her pincers, and lifts it up.

“This is quite heavy, but manageable,” She states. “Is this throne of metal truly worth it?”

“It’s very well runed,” I say.

“Runed?” She tilts her head. “What are runes?”

“Good question. Let’s keep searching while Emma explains runes to you.”

Leaving the chamber, the group continues our journey through the castle. Eventually, we found the library. The entrance is broken and the inside is a mess. Books, scrolls, papers, and various writing instruments are spread across the floor of the room. The room is a mess, though the mess doesn’t look to be caused by mortal means. It looks like the books merely fell off the shelves.

“Doesn’t look like Valentine took much interest in this room.”

Myers eagerly walks inside. “Any books of worth would be locked away in a vault. This is just a public library for the royalty.”

“I see. Sounds boring. Anything here we can sell?”

“Of course. Many libraries will pay large sums for information of old. We merely need to find such books.”

“Right. Well, I think this is a perfect job for you. Cillian, light a torch and give it to Myers. We’ll let the old man look at books while we look for treasure.”

“I’m going with fluffy!” Clay quickly adds.

Myers frowns, but accepts the torch. We leave the library and continue our journey.

“So, Nepenthes, you mentioned something about the Flaming Scourge. What is that about?” The Phytonid stops speaking with Emma about the subject of runes, and then looks at me. Her expression seems to turn hard.

“Yes. My kind saw the message from Pandora, but decided against any preparation. Me and my sisters believed that whatever test we face, it will be overcome with ease. Then the flaming scourge arrived.” Her mouth opens to reveal sharp pincers. “We can hunt, kill, devour. Our nectar is that of predators and everything is prey. If we struggle, then we adapt ourselves to better deal with the adversary.”

I nod. “The tests are designed with a ninety-nine percent chance of killing everyone. I imagine the test involves something your kind struggles to adapt to.”

“That is so. When the test began, the skies became smothered with flying lizards that breathe fire. In moments, our home was set aflame, including the great tree.”

“You can't adapt to fire?”

“We can, but such a process is slow. Growing bark that can withstand flame while shifting our bodies to hold additional water is a process that takes days. We did not have such time.”

Emma crosses her arms with a frown. “Flying lizards that spit fire. Those sound like wyverns.”

“Wyverns,” Nepenthes tests the word. “I will remember such a mighty foe.”

“Considering you are here, I’m guessing you defeated them. What was the requirement for the test?” I ask.

“The test said the leader must be killed and that the killers will have the option to become a champion.”

“Leader? Was it also a wyvern?”

“Yes. It looked similar to them, but was far larger and its flames were blue.”

“Royal Wyverns are larger and spew blue jets of fire,” Emma adds helpfully.

“So you killed the Royal Wyvern?”

“I killed everyone, including my sisters.”

Oh shit.

“How?” Cillian finally speaks. Even he is interested in the story.

Nepenthes gives a sad look of loss. “Our forest was on fire, our great tree was on fire, our homes were burning and our warriors died three to one against the scourge. We were losing, and then morale dropped once the Matriarch perished under flame. As the most senior sister, the duty of leadership fell upon me. In desperation, I entered the inner chamber of the burning great tree. I fused myself with its inner stem and connected to the dwindling power it holds. It was here that I realized the tree was not only burning externally, but also internally. Its inner roots are on fire and the tree will eventually perish if nothing is done.”

The Phytonid slows her slither and eventually stops. She looks down. “I was left with two options. I can purge the flame by excreting water and delaying its death. Or, I can end the scourge.”

“You chose to end the scourge,” I say.

Nepenthes rises up and continues her slithering. “Yes. While connected to the great tree, I forced it to grow millions of poison filled pores across its branches. The poison, heated by the fire, smothered the atmosphere in such potency and concentration that everything outside the great tree’s protection would not survive. For days I stayed within the bowels of the tree, producing as much poison as I could. Only once the tree is fully perished, did I leave the bowels to sight of dead wyverns and my sisters. The sky was still covered in poison, but I already adapted my body to it. I searched for survivors, believing that some of my sisters had the time to create antibodies to the poison, but that was not to be. I eventually found my predecessor- the former Matriarch. Her body is mostly ash, except for her chest. Her chest was covered in thick fire-resistant bark. Curious, I peeled the bark away to reveal something that truly gave me hope. The Matriarch carried a seed of the world tree. With such a seed, I can regrow the great tree and start anew. The moment I picked up the seed, I was notified that the leader of the Wyverns had died.”

“Then you were transported to Tristique.”

She nods.

“Yes, one moment I was staring at the corpse of the former Matriarch surrounded by a burned forest and the next I’m staring at a completely foreign forest. A moment after that, I find myself going unconscious, where-in I meet the Goddess Mus and am given the [Druid] class."

Nepenthes, for the first time since we’d met, seems to chuckle.

“When I awoke, the earth was quaking and fire was raining from the sky. For a moment, I thought, the Flaming Scourge had returned, but no. Nearby, an island violently rose into the sky alongside a large amount of molten debris. One such large debris fell upon the island I arrived at and destroyed half the island. It was only later that I realized the other side of the island contained civilization.”

And probably ships that would allow you to travel off the island. Goddamn you are unlucky.

“So, without any way to get off the island, you chose to create a vine bridge to this current island. Were you expecting to find something?”

“No. From my island, I saw a large vessel land near this island and then leave shortly after. I figured that more vessels would arrive at the island and that I would be able to commandeer transport either through conversation or through force.”

“You chose force,” I say.

“Your form and actions were initially of a mindless beast lacking in the ability of conversation. It was only when I heard speech that I modified my Assessment.”

I shrug. “Your initial assessment makes sense, but you should have backed off when I transformed wearing gauntlets.”

“Gauntlets? Is that not a metal exoskeleton?”

What the fuck?

“Does your world have beast with metal exoskel-”

“Vault!” Cillian loudly interrupts. He raises the lantern up to a stairway leading down and the words Vault at the top of the entrance.

“There better be treasure down there.”

Leading the way, I traverse down the stairs with everyone following a distance away. When I reach the bottom, I’m immediately met with a large thoroughly runed circular metal door that you’d see at a major bank. The runes on the door are glowing and are clearly fully active.

To the right of the vault door is a human-sized hole in the concrete.

“I guess it was easier for Valentine to make his own entrance.” I place a paw on the cut stone. “Though, I was under the impression that mana-rich runed stone is indestructible.”

“Not indestructible, Just nearly so,” Emma comments. She walks up next to me and takes a good look at the stone. “Whoever did this slowly ground the stone.” She traces her finger on the rough edges of the cuts that look like someone used a chainsaw.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. Let's see if he left something for us.”

I enter the vault to find it mostly empty. The wall racks have a few weapons on them and the numerous chests are open and empty. The chests that aren't empty are filled with gems and gold. Lots of gold. Two full chests of gold bars.

“They left the gold,” Cillian yells. He rushes to the chest.

“Why would they leave gold?” I ask. “Is it not worth much or something?”

Emma grabs one of the gold bars and frowns. “These bars have a lot of impurity. It needs to be purified first or it wouldn’t sell for that much.”

At her words, Cillians excitement takes a nosedive. “Shite. What about the gems?”

She shakes her head. “Poor Quality. Sellable, but not as much as you expect.”

“Fuck me.” Cillian stares at the gold and gems, then he looks at the chest and notices runes. “What about the chests?” He taps the container.

Emma looks at the container, and then the other one. And then all the rest. Her mouth opens wide.“These chests are all of exceptional quality. Why would they be left here?”

While Emma and Cillian gush about chests, I shift my attention to the leftover weapons.

3 spears, a longsword, a mace, and two shortswords. Out of these weapons, only the longsword and the two shortswords stand out.

Name

Shortsword of light.

Rarity

Rare - 5 Runes.

1(1-Durability)

1(1-lightweight)

1(3- Illumination)

Description

This Shortsword is +30% more durable, +30% lighter in weight, and glows brightly when held.

Sustain

0.06% Mana regeneration per minute.

Name

Shortsword of Cutting.

Rarity

Rare - 5 Runes.

1(1-Durability)

1(1-lightweight)

3(1- Sharpness)

Description

This Shortsword is +30% more durable, +30% lighter in weight, and is +70% sharper.

Sustain

0.07% Mana regeneration per minute.

Name

Longsword of Slicing

Rarity

Exceptional - 6 Runes.

1(1-Durability)

2(1-lightweight)

1(3- Enhanced Sharpness)

Description

This Longsword is +30% more durable, +40% lighter in weight, and is 100% sharper.

Sustain

0.06% Mana regeneration per minute.

Odd. Boriss’s Shamshir of Slicing has a similar name as the Longsword, except the Shamshir is much sharper. Still, exceptional items do sell for quite a bit, so we can make good money if nobody needs the weapon.

“Hey, take a look at these wea-” I choke when I return my attention to Cillian and Emma.

The two have somehow gotten the bright idea to rope the chests around Nepenthes like she’s some kind of mule.

Glancing at Nepenthes, the woman is just holding the throne in her arms, completely unbothered by the chests now strapped to her and Clay now sitting in one of the open chests.

“You know what, fine. Whatever. Cillian, grab these weapons and let's go find Find Myers. I don’t think we’re going to get much more treasure from this castle.”