Chapter

Chapter 39

The whispers, and the people reaching out with shaking hands to touch Drew and Sindra put him ill at ease as they walked past the group of mourners. The grieving looked at him with thanks and reverence in their eyes, which was highly uncomfortable for him. Sindra seemed to be more at home with it, as she nodded her head and smiled at the group while leading Drew away from them. Logically, he knew that sending the souls of their loved ones onto an afterlife was something that would be considered a miracle just a week ago, especially when the ceremony had such... a visual element to it. But from an emotional standpoint, he didn't feel like he'd done anything special, certainly not enough to warrant the almost... worshipping looks painted on their faces.

They walked in peace until he found himself in a half-melted field of ice. She'd taken them back to where she had first arrived. Honestly, it was a good call on her part because people were staying far away from the site of the battle, it would give him some peace and quiet to receive the equipment The Baleful Lady had sent for him, and then he could finally get back to work on raising the corpses. They needed security, and they needed it badly. The community had two major attacks against it and it hadn't even been twenty-four hours since The Descent. He hoped that they would catch a break, but at this point, it didn't seem likely.

Sindra was true to her word, and started pulling out equipment from her spatial inventory, one piece at a time.

"You've been granted the armor of a Warden, more specifically, a Champion's Regalia." She said.

"Is there a difference? I thought being a Champion was tied to accepting the profession."

"Oh yes, there's a major difference. There's a Warden, and then there's a Baleful Warden. In the wider multiverse, there might be one Baleful Warden per galaxy of integrated planets. There are many Wardens, more than I can even put a number on. But, Baleful Wardens are very, very rare. You are above, and outside the normal power structure of The Lady's Cadre. You only answer directly to her, although I'd recommend you give respect to the gods underneath her. Everyone else, myself included, is considered below you in terms of authority. You are both a Warden, and a leader. You will end up leading many other Wardens in time."

She handed him a blackened chest piece of plate armor. It was clearly metal, but when he looked closely, he could see it had a grain to it, like a piece of wood. There were minor bits of silver along several of the edges, and it had a silver relief of a tree above where his left pectoral muscle would be.

"I see. So the armor you're handing me is pretty good then?"

"This armor is worth more credits than an entire galaxy is capable of producing in hundreds of years. It's so valuable, I would go as far to say that it's priceless. The Lady takes the protection of her Champions very, very seriously. The Regalia is an investment to protect her investment."

"Investment? I'm not sure that I'm following."

"It takes a great deal of divine energy to make you into Her Champion. Ensuring that you live long enough to produce benefits is protecting her investment."

"Ah. No pressure or anything."

She smiled at him.

"It is suffice to say that this protection is more limited by you, than you are by it. You're still an F Grade, although you are close to evolving, the regalia will increase in its benefits as you grow and evolve."

"Soooo... It will become more powerful as I do?"

"An incredibly simplistic way of stating it, but yes. That's exactly what it will do. I recommend you inspect the chest piece in your hands."

Drew looked down at the armor and activated his inspect skill.

[Baleful Warden's Breastplate (Unique)]
Created by taking wood grown from the Tree of Life and Death, then treated and processed by over ten thousand master smiths. This is part of a set, and is a growth-type item. As you grow in strength, it will as well. At Grade F, this set grants: +80 STR, +80 VIT, +60 END, +80 TGH, +40 AGI, +30 INT, and +30 WIS.

"Sweet baby Jesus..."

"I'm not familiar with that turn of phrase."

"Ah, sorry. It's like a swear said in disbelief. This thing has more than half of my physical stats. That's insane. Will I even be able to wear it without passing out?"

"Yes. You will be fine. Equipment works differently than your body adjusting to massive internal attribute point increases."

"Well this just feels like cheat codes." He said with a chuckle.

"I agree. I've seen them several times, but the bonuses it grants is still unbelievable."

"Yeah! ...wait... how do you know about cheat codes?"

"Demonic video games." She said with a shrug.

"Oh, of course, demonic video... waitaminute."

"I'm allowed to have hobbies."

"Yeah..."

"Good. Now take the rest of the equipment."

"Sure, but quick question, does the rest of the armor have stat bonuses as well, or do the attribute points come from the set?"

"From the set. But they will become more powerful when you evolve."

Drew nodded his head and started to equip the set of armor, although he needed a bit of help with the attachment points in specific areas.

"Why are you putting on the regalia like that?" Sindra asked.

"What do you mean? How else would I put it on?"

"Right. Newly integrated world. Focus on the word 'equip' when thinking of the armor pieces."

Sure enough, just like a video game, the magic armor started appearing on his body, piece by piece. More System fuckery. But at least it would save him from having to armor up like people did in medieval times. From his understanding, that would become a real pain in the ass, especially if they were in the process of being attacked. Wait...didn't Robert also have plate armor? Did he equip it the old fashioned way, or did Spock tell him about this feature of The System? Oh well, it wasn't that important.

He had to admit, the armor was pretty fucking cool once he had it all on. He felt like a knight, well a knight in dark armo...wait... was he now...The Dark Knight? Ohhhh, that would be so sick! He was like a medieval Batman with the power to raise the dead and shoot flying skulls from his fingertips! Too bad he couldn't sell the idea since The Descent came and all, a comic with that premise would have been awesome!

"How does everything fit?" She asked.

He rotated his shoulders, walked around for a little bit, rolled his head.

"Surprisingly, it seems to fit really well. It's not nearly as heavy as I thought it would be. I wouldn't say that I'm as flexible as I was without the armor, but it's barely noticeable. It's almost like having a second layer of skin."

"Good. It's rare for the master smiths to make a mistake in measurements. All that's left is your helm and your weapon."

"Measurements? Yeah, how'd they managed to get those anyways, and how'd they create the armor so quickly."

"You don't want to know. Trust me. I asked once, and I still have nightmares."

Okayyyyyy... Now he was a bit creeped out.

She handed over the helm. He was definitely sensing a theme here. At least it wasn't shaped like a skull or anything, that would be a bit on the nose. Not that it would help his overall image, as his boots, belt, vambraces, and one pauldron, all had large raised skulls on them. The armor was definitely something he'd expect to see in a fantasy game of some kind. He refocused on the helm in his hands. It covered his entire head, with only two slots open for his eyes. He really hoped it wasn't going to impact his peripheral vision...

Luckily, his vision wasn't impaired at all. It must have been magic, but he could easily see out of his helm with the same field of view he had without it on. But once he had it on, he noticed the skulls across his armor radiating the same baleful, azure glow that souls gave off.

"Hey, did those smiths make this stuff out of souls?" Drew questioned.

"Damned ones, yes. Why do you ask?"

"The light. I've noticed the same color with many of my skills, the souls in general, and those fires in The Halls of Reflection. I was just curious if they were connected at all."

"The easy answer is yes. Damned souls are used for fuel for various things."

"I see."

"Right, now for your weapon. The smiths didn't know what you'd prefer, so they went with the standard option. I highly recommend that you learn how to cast your spells through it, and around you, rather than relying on The System, otherwise your combat skills will falter."

She gripped a long handle from the blackened area around her spatial inventory, and pulled it out. It. Was. Hideous. A long, wide sword, much like Beefcake's. It stood at about four and a half feet tall, and about a foot to a foot and half in width, it was about an inch and a half thick at it's densest portion. The pommel was, of course, a skull with a spike through its head, the grip was blackened leather, with silver script in some form of writing that his [Multiversal Tongues] skill couldn't even manage to translate. Down the middle of the...blade... was the same wooden metal that his armor was made from, but that's where the tastefulness ended.

Another giant skull was raised near the handguard, which of course glowed, more silver script writing, but in large letters were cut into the center of the wood-like metal, but the edges... the edges looked to be made out of bone. Not, oh look, another fucking skull, kinda bone either, but legitimate white bone, as if it had grown out from the center of the blade. Drew sighed internally. If it wasn't for the stats, and the risk of pissing off The Baleful Lady, he probably would have asked Robert to trade him his armor. It was a bit...much. His eighteen year-old self would have loved it, but in his thirties it almost had that tacky feeling to it. Like women who wore one gold ring with jewels per finger, and had giant gold hoop earrings. Sure it matched, but maybe less was more?

"The sword is separate from the regalia, it will have some bonuses, and it's enchanted to allow mana conductivity through it."

"It's just so..."

"Beautiful? I know. I hope to one day to earn The Lady's favor and have something similar to call my own."

"Yeahhhh...there's just a lot of..."

"Pressure? Don't worry. She chose you for a reason, I'm sure you'll do fine."

"Right..."

Drew sighed. She didn't get it.

"I still have several days off before I must return to my duties. May I impose on your hospitality in the meantime?" Sindra asked.

"You want to stay here? Why?"

"I find newly integrated worlds to be rather relaxing. A nice break, or a vacation if you will. I'd be happy to help out around here."

"A vacation? Here? We've been attacked twice in the last twenty-four hours by hordes of monsters and beast that number in the thousands. People have died, and we barely know what we're doing. Right now, I'm trying to get the newcomers some levels, convince some of them to become healers so we don't all croak, and build up a security force of minions. How is this possibly a vacation?"

"Ehh, all the monsters and beasts are either in F Grade, E Grade, or there might be a couple of C Grades around at most. Small fries, and they're all very satisfying to kill at my level. It's a good place to work off some stress, and do something productive."

"Uh-huh. Well, you're more than welcome to stay, and I won't turn down free help... but I don't exactly have any spare bedrooms right now. I could probably loan you a tent, but I don't have much to offer in terms of lodging. We're good on food for the moment though."

"Perfect! Not to worry, I can set up a temporary dwelling."

"Well, alright then. If you're sure... I'm going to get to work and start raising some of these corpses."

"Great! I'll go find somewhere to set it up!"

"Yeah, sure. Go wild, have fun." Drew said sarcastically.

The woman was a grade A whackadoodle. Who the fuck would want to be on a planet teaming with monsters? Oh well, it wasn't his problem. If the crazy Valkyrie wanted to use his property to kick back her feet, that was fine with him. Worst case scenario, maybe he could ask for her help in defending the place in the short-term. He hefted the giant sword in his hands and swung it around a couple of times while she walked off into the distance. Yeah, he was going to need to get a sword skill, he didn't know what the hell he was doing with something this big.

He stored the sword away in his inventory and sat down. It was time to choose some class and profession abilities.