Chapter 10: [10] : Mutating the Step, Nullified Falls
The suspension bridge creaked loudly under their boots. The thick steel cables groaned with every step, and the wooden planks looked like they had not been replaced in a century. Below them, the Howling Gorge lived up to its name. The wind ripped through the massive canyon, sounding exactly like a screaming ghost.
Declan walked in the front. Sloane and Kendra trailed behind him, keeping a very safe distance. They were still staring at the back of his pitch black trench coat like he was a live bomb that could go off at any second.
"You really just killed the guy who runs this sector," Sloane said over the howling wind. "Like it was nothing. Do you even know how big the Black Vanguard is?"
"They were charging a hundred copper for a bridge they did not build," Declan replied without looking back. "That is bad business. I just filed a customer complaint."
"You vaporized three men!" Kendra yelled.
"They brought hammers to a meat cleaver fight," Declan said smoothly. "That is on them."
They finally reached the other side of the gorge. The air here was completely different.
The wet and freezing fog of the Weeping Thicket was gone. Instead, the air was dry and smelled faintly of sulfur and burning coal. The ground was covered in dark gray ash. Jagged black rocks stuck out of the dirt like broken teeth.
A system prompt popped up in Declan's vision.
[Entered Area: The Ashlands]
[Warning: Level 5 to Level 10 PvE and PvP Zone.]
"Alright, let us take a quick break," Declan said. He walked over to a large flat rock and sat down. "I need to check my inventory. You two keep an eye out for anything that wants to eat us."
Sloane sighed and leaned against a dead petrified tree. "Sure boss. We will just yell if a fire breathing bear shows up."
Declan ignored her sarcasm. He opened his system interface. He had a lot of Origin Points sitting in his balance from the hound fight, the boar, and a few other random kills they made along the way.
But what he really cared about were the two items he looted from Gideon's dissolving corpse.
He pulled out the blue glowing book first.
[Skill Book: Dash]
↳ Type: Active Skill
↳ Description: Consume 10 Stamina to rapidly dash 5 meters in any direction.
Cooldown: 5 seconds.
It was a standard mobility skill. Five meters was not very far, but in a close quarters fight, it was the difference between getting your head taken off and stepping right into the enemy's blind spot. But a basic dash was not going to cut it. Not for him.
His SSS Rank Talent, Boundless Enhancement, clearly stated it applied to items and skills. He had not tested it on a skill yet.
"System," Declan thought. "Can I enhance this skill book before I learn it, or do I have to learn it first?"
[Notice: Skills must be learned and integrated into the host's neural network before enhancement can be applied.]
"Fair enough." Declan pressed the glowing blue book against his chest.
The book shattered into dozens of tiny blue lights. The lights sank through his trench coat and directly into his skin.
Declan gasped. It felt like someone had just poured a cup of ice water directly onto his brain. A sudden rush of information flooded his mind.
He instinctively knew exactly how to tense his leg muscles, how to shift his weight, and how to push off the ground to move five meters instantly.
[Skill Learned: Dash Level 1]
He looked at his Origin Point balance. He had well over a hundred points. It was time to gamble.
"System," Declan commanded. "Enhance the Dash skill ten times."
He expected a flash of light like when he upgraded his cleaver and his coat. Instead, a massive and splitting headache hit him right between the eyes. He grabbed his head and gritted his teeth.
[System Enhancement Initiated]
↳ Dash +1. Stamina cost reduced to 9.
↳ Dash +2. Cooldown reduced to 4.5 seconds.
↳ Dash +3. Distance increased to 6 meters.
↳ Dash +4. Stamina cost reduced to 8.
↳ Dash +5. Cooldown reduced to 4 seconds.
The headache was getting worse. It felt like the digital information inside his brain was being forcefully rewritten with a sledgehammer.
The normal safety cap for a skill was +5. Going beyond that meant the skill would normally corrupt and erase itself, taking a chunk of the player's sanity with it.
[Notice: Skill has reached maximum safety thresholds. Neural corruption imminent.]
"Keep going," Declan growled under his breath.
[Talent: Boundless Enhancement activated. Cap removed.]
↳ Dash +6. Distance increased to 8 meters.
↳ Dash +7. Cooldown reduced to 3 seconds.
↳ Dash +8. Stamina cost reduced to 6.
↳ Dash +9. Distance increased to 10 meters.
The pain peaked. Declan felt a strange popping sensation behind his ears. The headache vanished instantly, replaced by a cold and empty feeling in his chest. The blue light in his system menu turned into a deep and swirling black void.
[Dash has reached +10.]
[Triggering Conceptual Mutation...]
Declan let out a long breath. The new information flooded his brain, replacing the old muscle memory of the standard dash.
This was not about pushing off his legs anymore. This was about stepping through a hole in reality.
[Skill Mutated: Void Blink]
↳ Type: Active Skill
↳ Description: Teleport 15 meters instantly in any direction. Ignores all physical obstacles.
↳ Cost: 15 Stamina.
↳ Cooldown: None.
Declan stared at the floating text. No cooldown. He could spam it as long as he had the stamina. And it ignored physical obstacles. He did not just move fast. He literally stopped existing in one spot and started existing in another.
"Hey, are you okay?" Kendra asked. She was looking at him with a worried expression.
"You just grabbed your head and looked like you were going to throw up."
"I am fine," Declan said. He stood up. "Just digesting some new information."
He looked at the second item he got from Gideon. He pulled the boots out of his inventory. They were dark and hardened leather with nasty looking steel spikes on the toes and heels.
[Item: Spiked Striders]
↳ Tier: Forged
↳ Defense: 10
↳ Agility: +3
He took off his cheap burlap shoes and put the boots on. They automatically resized to fit his feet perfectly. The +3 Agility boost was immediately noticeable. He felt lighter. His base agility was only 5, so this nearly doubled his natural speed.
But it was not enough.
"System, enhance the Spiked Striders ten times," Declan thought.
The familiar white light swallowed his feet. The chimes rang out rapidly.
[Spiked Striders +1]
[Spiked Striders +5]
[Notice: Maximum cap reached. Shatter imminent.]
[Talent: Boundless Enhancement activated. Cap removed.]
[Spiked Striders +9]
The boots changed shape. The leather smoothed out, turning into a sleek and matte black material that looked like carbon fiber.
The heavy iron spikes retracted slightly, becoming sharper and more streamlined.
[Spiked Striders has reached +10.]
[Triggering Conceptual Mutation...]
The white light turned a dull and heavy gray.
[Item: Spiked Striders +10]
↳ Tier: Forged (Mutated)
↳ Defense: 30
↳ Agility: +15
↳ Trait Unlocked: Kinetic Dampener
↳ Functionality: Fall damage is completely nullified regardless of height. User cannot be knocked down by physical force.
Declan smiled. Thirty defense, a massive fifteen agility boost, and complete immunity to fall damage.
"I need to test this," Declan said out loud.
"Test what?" Sloane asked.
Declan did not answer. He turned and sprinted straight toward the edge of the Howling Gorge.
"Declan, wait!" Kendra screamed.
He did not slow down. With his new agility stats, he cleared the distance in two seconds. He did not stop at the edge. He just kept running right off the cliff.
He dived into the open air.
The wind roared in his ears as gravity yanked him down into the bottomless gray mist of the canyon. He watched the rocky cliff face blur past him. He fell for a solid four seconds, picking up terminal velocity.
"Void Blink," he thought.
He looked straight up at the cliff ledge he had just jumped from. He focused on a spot of dirt right next to where Kendra was standing.
The world went completely dark for a fraction of a millisecond. There was no sense of movement. No wind. Just a cold nothingness.
Instantly, the darkness shattered.
His boots slammed into the rocky dirt right next to Kendra. He did not stumble. The Kinetic Dampener trait absorbed the massive downward momentum completely.
He just appeared out of thin air and stood there perfectly still.
Kendra shrieked and moved a bit backward onto the ground. She scrambled away from him like he was a ghost.
Sloane dropped her jaw. She looked at the cliff edge, then looked at Declan. "You... you just jumped off. I saw you fall."
"Yeah, you saw it right," Declan said casually.
He checked his stamina bar. The blink had cost him 15 stamina out of his 100 maximum. He could comfortably do that six times in a row before he needed to rest.
"That is teleportation," Sloane said, pointing a shaking finger at him. "That is not a Warrior skill. That is not a Mage skill. What class are you?"
"I told you," Declan grinned. "I have a really good gaming chair. Now, let's get to work. Find me something to kill."
Kendra slowly picked herself up. She looked at Sloane.
"I think we made a deal with a literal monster," Sloane whispered.
"Just stay behind him," Kendra replied, grabbing her bow. "As long as he points that crazy stuff at the enemies, we get to survive."
-----x-----
Chapter 11: [11] : The Sunken Armory, Cursed Chains
They crossed the bridge and entered Sector 5. The system identified it as the 'Ashlands'.
The Ashlands were a miserable place to hike. The ground was uneven, covered in sharp rocks and hidden vents that occasionally shot out bursts of hot and smelly steam. There were no trees, just dead shrubs that crumbled into gray dust when stepped on.
Declan was perfectly fine. His mutated trench coat kept the heat and ash off him, and his new boots made him feel light on his feet. Sloane and Kendra were having a much harder time. They were sweating, coughing on the ash, and looking incredibly tired.
"Hold up," Kendra said, dropping to one knee. She held up her hand to signal a stop.
Declan walked up beside her. "What do you see?"
They were standing on the edge of a large crater. The bottom of the crater was filled with dark murky water. It looked like an underground lake that had caved in on itself.
"I scouted this about ten minutes ago," Kendra whispered, pointing down at the water. "See those stone pillars sticking out of the lake? And the big archway half submerged in the back?"
Declan narrowed his eyes. Through the thin haze of smoke, he could see a massive stone archway leading into the side of the crater wall. The water level was high, covering the bottom half of the entrance.
Above the archway, carved into the stone, were faded letters.
"The Sunken Armory," Declan read. "Looks like a dungeon."
"It is," Kendra said. "And it is a death trap. Look at the water."
Declan looked as they got closer. At first, he thought the dark shapes floating near the surface were just logs or debris. But then one of the shapes rolled over.
It was a player. He was wearing heavy iron armor, but he was completely motionless, floating face down. Next to him were three more bodies, all wearing different types of gear.
Also down in a massive crater, a large crowd of players was gathered. There were at least fifty people standing around the edge of a massive sinkhole.
But it was not the dead players that caught Declan's attention. It was the water itself.
The surface of the murky lake was writhing.
Thousands of thick black slug like creatures were swimming through the water. They were the size of a man's forearm, covered in jagged armored plates, with circular mouths full of spinning teeth. They were swarming over the dead bodies, chewing right through the iron armor like it was wet cardboard.
[Toxic Iron-Piercing Leech]
↳ Level: 8
↳ HP: 150 / 150
[Area Discovered: The Sunken Armory]
[Dungeon Level: 8-10]
"The Sunken Armory," Sloane read again the system prompt floating over the water.
"Sounds like prime loot. Why is everyone just standing around looking at it?"
"Watch," Kendra pointed at the water.
A player in heavy iron armor pushed his way to the front of the crowd. He looked frustrated. "Cowards!" the guy yelled. "It's just water! I have a breathing potion. I'll get the loot myself!"
The guy chugged a blue potion and dove into the green water.
He swam downward, heading for the glowing stone doors. He made it about halfway down.
Suddenly, the murky water began to churn.
Thousands of long, black shapes darted out from the crevices of the sinkhole walls. They looked like eels, but their mouths were perfectly round, lined with rows of spinning, drill-like teeth.
[Toxic Iron-Piercer Leech]
[Level: 8]
The leeches swarmed the swimming player.
They didn't bite him. They literally drilled straight through his iron armor like it was wet cardboard.
The water instantly turned a violent shade of red. The player didn't even have time to swim back up. He thrashed for exactly three seconds before his health bar vanished. His body dissolved into pixels, leaving his ruined armor to sink to the bottom.
The leeches lazily swam back into the rocks, waiting for the next idiot.
The crowd of players on the surface groaned and backed away from the edge.
"Ohh, so that's why," Kendra said, looking slightly sick. "Those leeches ignore defense stats. They are armor-piercing. And they apply a toxic poison effect. I heard a guy say they've killed three dozen people already."
Sloane sighed. "Well, that's a dead end. We can't do this. You'd need specialized water-evasion gear, or a high-level ice mage to freeze the whole pool. We don't have either."
She turned to leave. "Come on Declan. Let's go find more ghouls."
Declan didn't move. He stood at the edge of the crater, staring down at the glowing stone doors at the bottom of the lake.
"I'm not leaving," Declan said. "There's an armory down there. I want what's in it."
He just sounded like the next idiot the leeches were expecting.
"Did you not just watch that guy turn into fish food?" Sloane demanded. "Your magic coat isn't going to save you. Those things pierce armor. They'll drill right through you!"
"I know," Declan said. "I'm not thinking of swimming."
"Then how are you going to get to the door?" Kendra asked, confused.
Declan smiled.
He walked right up to the edge of the water.
The players around him gave him strange looks. A guy in a torn tunic scoffed. "Don't do it buddy. You'll just feed the bugs."
Declan ignored him. He looked at his stamina bar. It was full. One hundred points.
But Void Blink allowed him to teleport 15 meters instantly. That was about forty-five feet. The stone doors were at least ninety feet down.
He couldn't reach it in one jump. He would have to double-jump. In the water.
"This is going to be fun," Declan muttered.
He didn't dive. He just stepped off the ledge.
The second his boots touched the surface of the green water, he mentally targeted a spot forty-five feet straight down, right in the middle of the murky lake.
He triggered Void Blink.
Vwoop.
Declan vanished from the surface. He instantly appeared halfway down the sinkhole, completely submerged in the cold, green water.
The moment he appeared, the water around him exploded with movement. The toxic leeches sensed fresh meat. Thousands of black, drill-mouthed worms shot out of the walls, rocketing toward him from every direction. They were inches away from tearing into his coat.
Declan didn't even hold his breath. He just looked at the glowing stone doors directly below him.
He triggered Void Blink a second time.
Vwoop.
The leeches crashed into each other, biting empty water. Declan was already gone.
The leeches were thrashing in confusion, looking for the meal that just vanished.
Up on the crater ridge, Sloane and Kendra were staring at him in complete silence.
Turns out he was not an idiot.
He materialized directly in front of the massive stone doors. He didn't hesitate. He placed his hands flat against the cold stone and pushed.
The doors were incredibly heavy, but they weren't locked. They groaned and cracked open just enough for him to slip inside.
He pushed through the gap and stumbled forward.
The heavy stone doors slammed shut behind him, cutting off the water.
Declan stood up and brushed himself off. His coat was completely dry. He hadn't been in the water long enough to even get wet.
"Easy," he said to the empty room.
He looked around. He was in a large, dry antechamber. The walls were made of smooth black stone, lit by glowing blue crystals embedded in the ceiling. It looked like an ancient vault.
Weapon racks lined the walls, but they were all empty, covered in thick dust.
It wasn't totally empty, though.
In the center of the antechamber, illuminated by a single glowing crystal, was a man.
He didn't look like a player. He looked haggard, starving, and ancient. He wore a ragged, old-world diving suit, the kind with heavy brass fittings and thick canvas.
But the most noticeable thing about him were the chains. Thick, glowing red chains were wrapped around his wrists, his ankles, and his neck. The chains were bolted directly into the stone floor.
Declan walked closer, his hand resting on his inventory ready to summon his cleaver.
The man slowly lifted his head. His eyes were milky white, completely blind.
"Another rat in the maze," the man rasped.
His voice sounded like dry leaves scraping together. "Did you swim through my pets outside, or did you find another way in?"
Declan stopped a few feet away. The system generated a name tag over the man's head.
[Thatcher, The Bound Diver]
↳ Type: Interactive NPC
Declan casually walked forward, his boots making no sound on the stone. "I took a shortcut. Who are you?"
"I am Thatcher," the old man wheezed. "The last warden of this armory. Or what's left of it. The Grid trapped me here. Punished me for hoarding the old relics."
Thatcher coughed, a wet and ugly sound.
"Long before the Grid started pulling you new players in. I tried to take the treasures for myself. The dungeon did not like that. It locked me in these chains. Left me here to rot."
"I am a prisoner of the code," Thatcher whispered. "Just like you. You want the treasure of the armory, outsider?"
Declan looked at the glowing red chains.
They pulsed with a strange dark magic.
Thatcher let out a dry, rattling laugh. "There is only one relic left. I hid it from the system. If you want it, you must free me. Break these chains, and the weapon is yours."
"I just want out of here. If you break these chains and free me, I will give you the key to the main vault. There is a Relic tier weapon inside."
A Relic tier weapon. That was three tiers above his Scavenged cleaver. If he got his hands on a Relic weapon and hit it with his SSS talent, he would be unstoppable.
"Sure," Declan said. He opened his inventory. The heavy mutated Carnage Cleaver materialized in his hand. The jagged red edge glowed in the dark room. He stepped forward and raised the blade, ready to smash the chains to pieces.
"Wait!" Thatcher screamed in panic. "Do not hit them with a weapon!"
Declan paused, the cleaver hovering in the air. "Why not?"
"They are Cursed Chains of Reflection," Thatcher breathed heavily. "They have an absolute physical counter. Any damage you deal to the chains is reflected back at you at one hundred percent power. If you hit that chain with your sword, the chain will not break. But the force of your swing will hit your own body."
Declan lowered the cleaver. He frowned.
He had upgraded the Carnage Cleaver to +20. It did massive damage, and the Hemorrhage bleed effect was lethal. If he swung at the chains and the system reflected his own damage back at him, he would instantly apply a 500 HP bleed effect to himself. He only had 100 maximum health.
He would literally kill himself in two seconds.
That was a close call.
"It is a puzzle," Thatcher explained weakly.
"You have to find the specific runestone hidden in the dungeon to deactivate the magic. If you try to force it, you die."
"I do not have time for puzzles," Declan muttered.
Declan slowly lowered the Carnage Cleaver. He tapped the flat of the heavy blade against his leg, thinking.
The game wanted him to play by the mechanics. Go explore, fight monsters, find the key, come back.
And Declan hated playing by the rules.
-----x-----
Chapter 12: [12] : Thatcher's Bargain, Absolute Dissolution
Declan paced around Thatcher, inspecting the glowing red chains. They were thick heavy iron, pulsing with a toxic red aura.
"There is no other way," Thatcher rasped, his blind eyes staring straight ahead. "Many players have made it this far. They all thought they were strong enough to break the chains.
They swung their weapons. The chains reflected the damage. Their bones shattered, and they bled out on this floor. Go find the runestone."
"I am not running errands in a dungeon," Declan said.
He opened his system inventory and started scrolling through the junk he had picked up over the last few hours. Rusted daggers, broken shields, rat meat, wolf pelts, copper coins. Nothing useful for breaking a magical chain.
Then, he stopped scrolling.
His eyes landed on a small insignificant item he had looted from a random slime monster back in the Weeping Thicket.
[Corrosive Acid Vial]
↳ Tier: Scavenged
↳ Description: A small glass vial filled with weak monster acid. Can be thrown at an enemy to deal 2 points of acid damage over 5 seconds. Mostly used for cleaning rust off cheap weapons.
It was a garbage item. Most players threw it away because two points of damage was completely useless in combat.
But Declan looked at the wording of the cursed chains reflection rule. Any damage you deal to the chains is reflected back at you. That implied an attack. A swing, a spell cast, a direct aggressive action.
What if he did not attack the chains? What if he just let a chemical reaction happen?
"System," Declan said in his mind. "Enhance the Corrosive Acid Vial. Push it."
He had 70 Origin Points left. It was time to invest.
The small glass vial materialized in his hand.
It was filled with a pale bubbly green liquid.
The system prompts flooded his vision.
[System Enhancement Initiated]
↳ Corrosive Acid Vial +1.
↳ Corrosive Acid Vial +5.
[Notice: Maximum safety threshold reached.]
[Talent: Boundless Enhancement activated. Cap removed.]
↳ Corrosive Acid Vial +9.
The glass vial started to heat up in his hand.
The pale green liquid turned into a bright glowing neon green. It bubbled violently, hissing against the glass stopper.
[Corrosive Acid Vial has reached +10.]
[Triggering Conceptual Mutation...]
The system chimed. The vial mutated.
[Acid Vial of Melting +10]
↳ Trait Unlocked: Armor Degradation. Acid now ignores physical defense stats and melts low tier metal instantly.
"Good, but not good enough," Declan muttered. The chains were magical. They would not melt like regular iron. "System, keep going. Hit it with another ten points."
He dumped his Origin Points into the vial.
The bright white enhancement light flashed rapidly in the dark antechamber.
[Acid Vial of Melting +11]
[Acid Vial of Melting +15]
[Acid Vial of Melting +19]
The glass vial was physically changing now.
The glass turned into a dark obsidian like material just to contain the liquid inside. The neon green liquid turned completely pitch black, swirling with tiny sparks of destructive energy. It looked like liquid void.
[Acid Vial of Melting has reached +20.]
[Triggering Conceptual Mutation...]
A heavy suffocating aura filled the room.
Thatcher gasped and shrank back against the floor. "What are you doing? What is that smell?"
The system text appeared in front of Declan's face in deep purple letters.
[Vial of Absolute Dissolution +20]
↳ Tier: Scavenged (Double Mutated)
↳ Damage: N/A
↳ Trait 1: Armor Degradation.
↳ Trait 2 Unlocked: Conceptual Eradication.
The liquid inside this vial no longer deals numeric damage. It simply enforces the concept of melting. Anything the liquid touches, physical or magical or conceptual, will dissolve into nothingness. Cannot be blocked or reflected.
Declan grinned. It did not deal damage anymore. It just deleted things.
He walked over to Thatcher. "Keep your hands steady old man. I am going to break the chains."
"I told you!" Thatcher screamed, thrashing against the floor. "If you hit the chains, you will die! The reflection will kill you!"
"I am not going to hit them," Declan said calmly. "I am going to wash them off."
He knelt down next to the heavy glowing red chain that bound Thatcher's right wrist. He popped the obsidian stopper off the vial. A tiny wisp of black smoke drifted out, instantly burning a hole in the stone ceiling above them.
Declan carefully tilted the vial. He let exactly one single drop of the black liquid fall onto the cursed chain.
The drop hit the red glowing iron.
There was no explosion. There was no loud noise. There was no damage reflection.
The chain simply stopped existing.
Where the black drop touched, the iron and the magic instantly dissolved into thin air.
The hole spread rapidly, silently eating away the entire length of the chain until it reached the floor bolt and vanished completely.
Thatcher froze. He slowly pulled his right arm back. His wrist was free.
"What... what did you do?" Thatcher whispered in shock. "I did not feel a shockwave. I did not hear a spell."
"Science," Declan lied easily.
He moved to the left wrist and dropped another single drop. The chain vanished silently. He repeated the process for both ankles. In less than ten seconds, Thatcher was completely unbound.
Declan quickly jammed the stopper back into the vial and tossed it into his inventory.
That was an incredibly dangerous item to just hold in his hand. If he accidentally spilled it on his own boots, he would dissolve his legs.
Thatcher slowly stood up. His joints popped loudly. He rubbed his wrists, his blind eyes wide with disbelief.
"You actually did it," Thatcher said, his voice trembling. "You bypassed the dungeon's law."
"I held up my end of the deal," Declan said, crossing his arms. He stared at the NPC. "Now, give me the key. You promised a Relic weapon."
Thatcher nodded frantically. "Yes. Yes, of course. A deal is a deal."
The old diver reached into the thick leather folds of his suit. He pulled out a heavy rusted iron key and held it out. "This opens the vault door behind me. The weapon is inside. Take it. I just want to leave this place."
Declan took the key. He walked past Thatcher and approached a massive heavy iron door at the back of the room. He slid the key into the lock and turned it.
The heavy vault door groaned and slowly swung open.
Declan stepped inside. The room was small and circular. In the center of the room, resting on a stone pedestal, was a weapon.
It was not glowing. It did not look magical.
It was a polearm. A halberd. The shaft was made of dark heavy iron, wrapped in worn leather grips. The axe head at the top was massive, thick, and brutally functional. It was totally dull, covered in a layer of grime, and looked like it weighed about eighty pounds.
Declan walked up to the pedestal and grabbed the shaft.
He had a base strength of 5. When he tried to lift the halberd, his muscles strained. It was incredibly heavy. He had to use both hands just to pull it off the stone block.
A system prompt appeared over the weapon.
[Dull Warden's Halberd]
↳ Tier: Relic
↳ Damage: 80 to 120
↳ Stat Requirement: Strength 20
(Requirement unmet. Attack speed reduced by 80%)
↳ Description: A heavy ceremonial weapon carried by the guards of the Sunken Armory.
It has lost its edge over time, but its sheer mass can crush bone.
Declan rested the heavy iron shaft against his shoulder. His movement was sluggish because he did not meet the strength requirement. The system was penalizing him, making the weapon basically useless in a fast fight.
But he did not care. It was a Relic tier weapon. The base damage was already double what his +20 mutated cleaver did.
"You found it," Thatcher said, standing in the doorway of the vault. The blind man smiled.
"It is heavy, is it not? Without a high level Warrior class, you will not be able to swing it properly."
"The Dull Warden's Halberd," Thatcher explained, panting from the exertion. "It was forged to subdue prisoners, not kill them. It has no cutting edge. It relies entirely on crushing force. It is incredibly slow, and incredibly heavy. Most warriors cannot even lift it, let alone swing it."
"I will manage," Declan said.
He looked at the Halberd. He was completely out of Origin Points. He had spent them all making the dissolving acid.
He could not upgrade the Halberd yet.
"I need to go back outside," Declan said, walking past Thatcher with the heavy weapon resting on his shoulder. "I have two employees waiting on the other side of the leech pool, and I need to get some upgrades."
Thatcher tilted his head. "Are you going to carry that all the way out?"
"No," Declan smiled. He willed the Halberd into his inventory. The massive weapon vanished into blue pixels.