Eritance - Chapter 35

The man in glasses started buzzing around excitedly. “Yes, yes. This is excellent. I’m sure I’ll get a promotion for this. Finding a new relic user for the resistance isn’t the easiest. Only one out of a thousand are compatible, and the chances of the compatible ones coming to resistance aren’t high” he mumbled to himself.

He buzzed around the room shuffling through all kinds of papers and drawers in the cabinets on the wall. “Where is it? Where is it now?” he continued going through the room. “Ah, here it is!” he said excitedly as he tapped on the wall and a panel slid open.

Behind the panel was a little cubby hole. Within the cubby hole there were several boxes with different patterns and symbols decorating them. The man in glasses selected three of them and brought them out of the cubby hole.

He placed these boxes on a small table and beckoned me over. “Do you know what these are boy?” he asked me quite solemnly. “Uh they’re fancy boxes?” I asked him, unsure of why he wanted to show me his box collection.

“Don’t be foolish! These are relics. Compatible users will be able to absorb the power of a relic. These would-be users typically fall into three categories of users. Strength enhancements, magic enhancements, defensive enhancements. There are more categories, but these are the most common ones that you find”.

It was all very interesting to me, I had never met another relic user. I wasn’t sure what the norm was when it came to these things, or how to determine where I stacked up against the rest of them. The only probably is that I already had a relic, so I would have to come clean soon. This would all be a waste of time. Before I could tell the man with glasses that I already had one he started speaking again. Once he got going it was really hard to interrupt him.

“You’ll have to go through another selection process. Place your hand on any relic and chant a special incantation. Once you say the incantation the relic will either merge with you or not. If it doesn’t merge with you, you can just try again with one of the other relics. I’m sure you’ll fall within one of the three here” he confidently said.

I was quite curious about the ritual of getting a relic. To me, this was just educational, because I already had a relic. I decided it wouldn’t hurt to play along for now. So, I learned the incantation and placed my hand randomly on one of the relics. I chose the one in the middle offhandedly.

After I placed my hand on the relic, I said the incantation expecting it to sputter out and backfire. However, to my surprise the relic began to glow, and a bright light shone forth. After the glow subsided the box was gone.

“Aha! I see” he said with a clap of the hands. “It seems you are a physical strength relic user, not bad. Of course, it would have been better if we got another magic user, but it can’t be helped”.

I was in a stupor. I didn’t understand how it was possible for me to use more than one relic at a time. This made me quite excited. I wondered how much my strength had grown.

“Ross, show me my stats” I quickly thought.

Orin Strength 3 (2) Stamina 3 (0.3) Speed (0.3)

I was confused at this. What had happened? The man in glasses told me the relic I had gained would boost my strength, but it didn’t happen. I had a fearful thought at this. What if I could use relics to fill up my stats, but it didn’t work this time because my body was already filled with power? I felt like a golden opportunity had just been wasted.

I sat there crestfallen and the man in glasses kept going on without noticing my expression. “Let’s measure your strength, shall we?” he said. I hadn’t realized that there were methods of measuring strength outside of Ross.

The man in glasses pulled out a crystal from one of his pockets and gave it to me. “Focus your strength and squeeze the crystal. The crystal is extremely durable, so don’t worry about breaking it. It will emit a blue light, the brighter the light, the more your strength has been enhanced”.

I didn’t really think it was very efficient, but I went along with the test anyways. I concentrated my strength and gave the crystal a squeeze. It began emitting a dull blue light. I thought it was a mistake, so I squeezed a lot harder, but the light stayed more or less the same.

“Ah, I see. Well, that’s disappointing. It seems your strength is at around a 4. Hmm, it isn’t that you aren’t strong. It’s just that the boost is usually much higher. Don’t worry though, I’m sure you’ll be able to lead a small squad in the future. Who knows, you might even get stronger with the right training” he said encouragingly.

With that, he led me personally to the yellow arch gateway. “Take this letter of recommendation and follow the path. When you get to the end of the tunnel you will be at your academy. The basic training lasts for several months before you will get your first assignment” he said.

Just as I started off down the path he called out to me “ah, wait. Hmm, your strength isn’t that much but here, a gift. It won’t make you stronger but I’m sure it will be useful for you”. He tossed me a small pouch.

I was somewhat confused, I already had a bag. My bag was also bigger than this one, so it didn’t really make sense to give it to me. “This is a special bag; this bag was made with strong spatial magic. You’ll be able to store many more items in it than just a normal non-magic bag can hold. You could even keep your weapons inside of it, it won’t tear”.