As he looked around the lair Chronos realized that nearly everything here was an artifact, not a magic item.
Magic items were extremely useful for everyday life and could easily be made by blacksmiths, enchanters, or mages. All they had to do was apply an enchantment or rune to an item to give it a magical effect.
However, an artifact was much more difficult to create. The biggest difference between artifacts and magic items was that an artifact could enhance your strength on top of having a magic effect and maintain its power even without having spirit or aura channeled into it.
While magic items required you to provide the power for it to activate.
A room full of artifacts was definitely worthy of being called a treasury. But Chronos wondered if an artifact really could enhance his strength, he had never wielded one before.
On his way over to the weapon racks he paused as he saw that some of the jars next to the rack were empty. He was about to ask what those were for when he heard a faint scream from one of them.
Suddenly he felt an intense urge not to know what might be inside of them. At least he couldn't detect any life signs within the jars, although he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Arriving at the weapons rack he picked up the first weapon that caught his eye, a sword made from wood and bone with a dark smooth surface.
Pulling up his status screen he looked at his stats; his stats had increased! His strength went up by 2 points while his agility had increased by 1 point.
Eager to see what other weapons increased he started picking them up one at a time to see the difference. After wielding several of them he noticed that each weapon gave different stat bonuses and for some of them the stats even fluctuated.
"I'll need to send a message to Hrólmir about displaying what bonuses are applied when you pick up an artifact. If he can have the system display something like a status screen for artifacts it would save me a lot oftime" He thought to himself.
After examining every weapon, he went back to the first sword he had picked up. It had the best and most stable stat bonuses, but he couldn't be sure if the weapon would approve of him until he tried to channel his aura through it.
The reason that artifacts were so rare wasn't just due to the difficulty of crafting one. Each artifact had an affinity that its wielder had to match, if you couldn't match the artifact's affinity you were at risk of suffering a backlash.
And that could be lethal for the wielder, especially when it was a powerful artifact.
Rank three artifacts likely couldn't do much more than be a distraction but even that could be dangerous in combat.
That was why half of the lair was empty while the remainder of the artifacts waited here for a proper user.
Picking up the sword he began to channel his aura into it only to have the sword greedily absorb his aura. It glowed a faint green then some chips and splinters on the blade fell off as its edge became much sharper.
"It seems the Heartwood War Sword approves of you. Would you like to keep it?" Vaelith asked from behind Chronos.
Turning to face her, Chronos' smile grew wider.
"I would be honored to keep such a fine sword but I'm curious what type of magic it possesses?"
"Unfortunately, its magic is a bit weak. The only known effect is to repair itself no matter the condition it is in. It will never rot, warp, or weaken and possess an impressive enhancement for its wielder's strength but that seems to be it. We've failed to find any other abilities tied to this weapon. Are you certain you want this one?" Vaelith informed him.
So, it didn't have any magic but could repair itself instead. That was just fine, he had recently lost his sword, and it didn't feel right to wander around without one of his main weapons. Besides, the war sword channeled his aura so smoothly that it made using his techniques very easy.
"I'll take it. I'm quite skilled with a blade but had the misfortune of losing my last one." He said with a smile.
Looking at his friends, he saw Gregory examining the cloaks, probably looking for one that could hide him in most environments. Lyla was standing in front of the pearl-strings holding out a glowing hand, a few of the pearls glowed in return, maybe they had an affinity with holy power.
Sariah was standing next to the crowns and circlets in an intense debate with Nimsy as they tried to settle on which crown to take. Sariah wanted one that had pearls in it and looked to be made from silver whereas Nimsy seemed to favor a white circlet that had some serpentine runes on it.
Vaelith went over to assist Sariah who seemed to be having the most difficulty.
"Are you having difficulty choosing which pearl to take?" Chronos asked.
Gregory didn't look like he needed help, just time to find the right cloak. But Lyla was currently glaring at two pearls that were nearly the same size and dimensions.
Looking at him, she answered, "Yes, the right one is larger but has a slight deformation while the left one is smaller but is perfectly formed. I could channel more power in the larger pearl, but the deformation will eventually cause problems with more delicate spells. On the other hand, the smaller pearl won't ever have problems but also won't be able to channel as much holy power. Which do you think I should take?"
"The smaller one."
"You didn't even think about it!"
Looking perplexed at her confusion Chronos said.
"Well, in high-risk situations more power isn't always that helpful but being able to cast perfectly is always helpful. If you really want to channel more power, you can just have a craftsman set the pearl into a bracelet or necklace that will increase the amount of holy power it can channel. Why do the naga's have so many pearls anyways? I thought their main product was potions?"
"It is." Came Vaelith's voice.
Sariah had chosen to take the white circlet after hearing Vaelith's explanation of its effects. Chronos gestured for her to continue while they waited for Gregory.
"The main product of the swamps is potions, but I was in charge of the southern trade routes for quite some time before the merfolk invaded. It was not hard to acquire or even learn how to produce the pearls ourselves and our trade partners were very happy to begin trading for them.
We had only just begun trading pearls when the war started. If I had even one more year, I could have provided for many of those who were displaced from their homes." She lamented.
The poor timing of the war had thrown off many of her plans to help the southern tribes grow larger.
While she was speaking Gregory had quietly joined them, but it seemed nobody had seen him. Chronos stared at him for a few seconds before Gregory put a finger on his lips.
"I see, now that we're finished picking our rewards shall we get going?"
"Hold on Gregory hasn't picked his reward yet.! Where'd he go?" Sariah exclaimed as she looked around the lair.
"He's standing right next to you. That cloak is very impressive Gregory; does it do anything other than hide you?" Chronos asked.
"No and it takes a couple of seconds for the camouflage to activate."
Sariah jumped as Gregory's voice seemed to come out of the wall next to her. It was only when he moved that he became visible again.
"That is unfair. Now I'll never be able to find you!" She complained.
"Just call out and I'll show up." He said.
"Alright, now that you all have your reward it's time to go back. Is the water breathing potion still in effect?"
They all nodded as they left the lair. Behind them the elder hissed a spell and the roots closed the door once again.
Bidding farewell to the elder they jumped into the pool of water and held onto the loops once more. The return trip seemed to be much faster than before, but it was hard to tell with all of those strange eye mosaics staring at you.
Once they were outside of the stump Vaelith started teaching Chronos how to speak Nereic, the ancient common language that most underwater races spoke.
He found it similar to Lethariel, the language of the elves. Since he already knew lethariel it didn't take much to begin understanding nereic.
He spent the rest of the day studying with Vaelith and the next morning everyone gathered to leave. Seeing them off were Vessin and Sathrya, it looked like some of the others wanted to say goodbye but didn't want to catch Sathrya's eye.
Ever since the war had started, she had become stricter than in the past.