NOVEL WEB Chapter 20: Stock Up
The Incarnate spent the next few hours revising everything he knew about his Unique Quality. He had thought he would have a difficult time because of his injuries, but his Demonling body infused with Spirit Essence allowed him to do this comfortably. His flesh clamped down on itself, covering the tears in his muscles. The Incarnate had even though he was slowly healing, but he decided to wait a little longer before concluding that that was the case.
When testing more about his Hermetic Vault, he found that this power had a lot of ins and outs (pun intended) that could be extremely useful, and most of them stemmed from its description, which read:
‘Allows the user to store and retrieve anything – any entity and the forces applied on them – within a two-meter radius, in a special, sealed chamber.’
Apparently, the Incarnate didn’t need to touch something for it to be added to the vault. As long as it was within a two-meter radius of him, he could will it to be transported into his invisible storage space.
The Incarnate, after thinking things through, had decided to add everything he had so far into the vault. After he did so, they were ‘marked’ as old entries, which meant they wouldn’t be counted by the first Limit of the Hermetic Vault anymore.
Something else of note about the Hermetic Vault was that when it stored an item he willed it to, said item retained everything affecting and acting upon it at that moment it was stored. When it was summoned outside the Vault, it would still carry these same factors around it.
To draw all the clarity he could, the Incarnate had conduct a test. As he had stored three items into his vault – Bash Brain, the Valiant Subject’s Ward and the katana – he had two slots left for the day according to his Limit, and he used one to experiment.
He grabbed a rock, threw it in the air, and stored it in his vault before it got out of range. When he summoned it again, the rock shot out with the same velocity it had prior to being stored. What’s more, even though the rock had been ascending when he stored it, when expelling it from the Vault, the Incarnate found that he could change the direction the rock shuttled out; he could adjust where it appeared from around the two-meter range of his Hermetic Vault.
This was incredibly mind-boggling.
The Demonling began to think about how he could have used this property of the Vault to his advantage in his previous life. If he stored enough items with high velocity, arrows, for instance, he would have been a deadly soldier on the front lines.
No, that was too shallow of a thought! He wouldn’t have needed to be in the army to begin with!
This wouldn’t make him invincible, of course, mainly because of the five-item Limit and the need for preparation time, but it would certainly make him hard to kill.
‘To think I assumed the Hermetic Vault was only good for storing things,’ the Incarnate had chastised himself for such ignorance.
These two discoveries really had him thinking that perhaps he could have interesting ways to augment his Far Ji through Definitions after all.
This was only possible because the Incarnate was who he was, though. As a man who had lived through treacherous horrors on the crowded, bloody frontlines of great battles and vicious conditions that almost seemed to be designed to make sure he perished, the Incarnate had developed a habit of thoroughly ensuring that he understood where he was and what was at his disposal.
What many failed to realize in trying times, was that a deep breath, a little scrutiny, and introspection helped in finding hidden solutions. The Incarnate had become a master of this little trick. It only failed him when he grew too comfortable in the army camp that night he died.
Speaking of being aware of what one had, the Incarnate was pleased with the newest addition to his offensive arsenal.
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[Fickle Viper | Grade Potent]
+4 AGI
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Enchantment I: Extends the length of the blade to a maximum of 100 meters, and allows it to distort as the user wishes
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Enchantment II (Damaged): Enhances the sharpness of the blade’s edge significantly
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The katana that the armored figure had wielded gave the Incarnate a boost in confidence.
It was a beautiful, albeit rusted, cerulean blade that refused to completely give up its shine. The guard and hilt were all black with slivers of twisting silver, likely giving hints about the sword’s abilities.
The Incarnate had seen and felt the Fickle Viper’s abilities firsthand, so he wasn’t really surprised by its enchantments. Well, one of them. It staggered him that the katana actually had another enchantment which was ‘damaged’. This enchantment was supposed to make the blade extra sharp.
‘If this enchantment was still in play…’ the Incarnate had thought with dread. He didn’t know if the outcome of his fight would have changed, but he did think it would have been a lot more painful to go against the katana.
Thankfully, it was now in his hands, its enchantments and the four points it granted to his agility all for him to abuse.
Admittedly, this didn’t mean the katana was easy to control. Making it bend and extend required a lot of focus, not to mention creativity. The Incarnate felt he had much of both to go around and he spent a little time getting familiar with the sword.
After this, the Incarnate made a decision he thought was for the best.
He decided to wait for two days in the ovular room.
As he had expended the valuable slots for new additions to the Hermetic Vault, he decided to wait until he could add more items, ‘things’, as the tablet described. The Incarnate had other items he wanted to add to the vault before he left: the blobs.
Their abilities were invaluable, as far as the Incarnate was concerned, especially when they were bulked up like this because of the abundant Spirit Essence. How the blue blob had melted his foe had clearly demonstrated this fact.
Thus, the Incarnate stored ten blobs over two days.
Two blue ones, acidic types; four red ones, resistant types, and four pink ones, mimic types.
The red ones had a powerful buoyance, even when they were tiny. The Incarnate found that the larger ones didn’t even budge when he struck them with Bash Brain. It went without saying that the Fickle Viper was unable to do them any damage either.
The pink ones were capable of mimicking whatever touched them, and this property didn’t change with size. It just created a larger copy of the sample.
The Incarnate had nearly dropped on his butt when he saw a perfect copy of himself – tunic and all – mould itself from the blob. It didn’t move, only assuming the stance he had when he touched it, but still…
The Demonling wasn’t sure how exactly he was going to use the blobs, but for now, he was glad he had them. He would figure out the rest later.
“Alright. Time to go,” the Demonling said.
After two days, he was ready to move on.
To his disappointment, he confirmed that his body didn’t heal. It only limited the extent of his wounds, preventing them from worsening in a short period. Sooner or later, the Demonling had to find a way to heal himself.
‘It’s still great that I can pretend that I’m in one piece though,’ he thought with a smile. The only thing he had on him was the Valiant Subject’s Ward. Everything else was sealed in the Vault.
The Incarnate looked up at the woman illuminated lightly by the Spirit Essence from the two remaining octagons behind her on the raised ceiling. He never discovered what the story was with this woman. Her presence wasn’t really significant. Or so the Incarnate thought.
The Demonling looked at the large boulder that had sealed the way he had come in two days ago. Even with the newfound strength he had earned through Spirit Essence, the Incarnate wasn’t confident he could push it aside.
He didn’t need to, however.
During the last two days, he had surveyed the pathways behind the seven drapes. All of them were a collection of sloping stairs and dead-ends, except for one. There was a path that went further down, but the Incarnate hadn’t checked it out all the way.
He sighed.
‘Here we go.’
He made the trip down the dark space behind the drape. After a while, the light from the oval room disappeared, leaving him blinded. The only hint of light he could see came from the blobs which grew smaller and smaller on the floor as he descended.
After a little more than fifteen minutes, the Incarnate found that the slope fed into another slope of stairs perpendicular to it, on its right a hard wall.
‘Wait… Is this?’ he thought.
As he looked to where the new pathway was coming and couldn’t help but wonder if he was back on the main path from five days ago. It had eventually turned into a slope of stairs, didn’t it?
The Incarnate hoped he was right. No, he was convinced he was right.
Sadly, whether or not he was correct didn’t stop him from having to endure another stretch of trekking. The only saving grace was that he felt invigorated, still wasn’t hungry, and didn’t even feel the need for sleep.
Five hours later, the path became straight, and the Demonling found a gaping opening at the end of the cave-like path he was on. A light, dusty breeze blew on his face, casting small particles of soil in his eyes.
The Incarnate didn’t approach immediately. Despite how he was dying to be embraced by the world outside, he remained cautious. He slowly drew into the beckoning maw of the exit and took a deep breath.
The world expanded before him.
It was rich.
It was dark.
It was diverse.
Before he could appreciate it all, however…
[You have successfully defeated the sons of Marar’bel and reached the Ainfidd Kingdom]
[Your actions are being judged…]
[You have been awarded 8 Incarnations Points for a splendid performance!]