Chương 31: 30. Weapon Awakening

"Haven't you gotten enough?" There was a distinct note of disappointment in the goth's voice. Based on the dozen encounters so far, she had shown that she was adequately equipped to fight. Actually, she was a lot more than that. The weapon she had was a thin, straight saber with an all-cutting edge, making her excel in close combat. That wasn't its true nature, though. Thanks to Harlequin's sight, I knew that it was a dream blade.

One scratch from a weapon such as this and dream beasts would be unleashed within the victim without even knowing. The strength and intensity varied. Sometimes, the effect would be immediate; in others, the beasts wouldn't act up until the target was asleep. I was all but sure that she was the real power behind Sebastian, yet she couldn't have acted alone. Nothing had scarred me before my nightmare attack.

"I need a hundred," I said. That was only borderline true. Preferably, I needed over a hundred. Eleonor had shown that she was familiar with a few specifics of the Grand Arcana, though not everything. One gold could open a lock or obtain information. Ten could create a shortcut, not that I had seen any on this ship.

"I'll make up the difference," Marcus offered. He was also getting restless. Unlike the goth who was itching to see me get killed, he was looking forward to the challenge.

"Keep that," he said. I gathered all fifty coins. With this much, I was pretty much set for the final fight. I wouldn't have preferred to kill another leader-level monster, but daybreak was almost here.

"One more," I changed my mind.

"Just in case." The goth audibly sighed.

"It's not far off."

"Keep what's there as well," Marcus said. So skilled and so impatient, I thought. That was going to turn into a problem for him later on; and if he had problems, lots of others would suffer. We carved our way through dozens of undead minions as we proceeded to the last treasure cabin I remembered. When I tried to open the door, I found out that it was locked. That was an unexpected bonus. Only significant caches were locked. Just to make sure, I activated my Two of Chains and attempted to break the door handle.

The trial didn't allow me.

"Something wrong?" Marcus asked. As usual, his intuition was scary.

"Maybe," I replied vaguely. Unwilling to use any of my gold, I took a silver coin and pressed it against the lock. The coin disappeared, but nothing followed. Always in tens, I thought and kept on feeding it. Five coins vanished. On the tenth, there was a click.

"Get ready," I said, retrieving my swords. Good loot was always protected. I pressed the handle down with my left elbow, then pushed the door open and rushed inside. The area was on the small side with just enough fanciness as befitted a second-class cabin. There was, as expected, a prominent ivory chest. Also, there was a pair of sirens on either side of it. Slightly smaller than an average person, they were lesser versions of the one I had fought a day ago.

My glances instantly focused on their hands and information windows. Sea Siren Level: 5 Cards: Four of Rings Special: Alluring Singing Weapon: None I had no idea what the Four of Rings did exactly, but I had no intention of finding out. The creatures didn't have any weapons and fat shorter nails than the Sea's Minstrel. As I ran, I distinctly saw their mouths open. Aether strands emerged mixed in with their voices. This was the trick.

Even if someone were to charge them, they would get caught in their web before they could take the first strike. Unfortunately, I had cards that let me see the threat. Both blades slashed the air, severing the strands of song. Instantly, a dual attack followed. The siren's heads fell to the floor. They had been so convinced of their victory that they hadn't even tried to defend themselves. Apparently, overconfidence didn't only plague participants.

I scanned the rest of the room, in case there was some other creature standing in wait. There wasn't. Meanwhile, the siren corpses disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving two cards behind. For half a second, I almost expected two booster spheres to join them, yet none appeared. Harlequin had determined me to be too strong to receive a boost from such a fight. This was encouraging. It meant I might have a chance against the Blade Serpent after all.

"It's clear," I said, turning towards the entrance.

"Standard mobs." It was impossible to tell whether any of my companions had seen the monsters in question, but I intended to play it down, nonetheless. First, I picked up the cards. They added paralysis to my attacks. Not a terrible bonus, but I really needed a greater variety of attack skills. Having enhancements was all good and well, but not if I remained a one-trick pony until the end of the trial. The chest followed. Initially, I thought that there might be some additional cost to open it.

Instead, the lid didn't provide any resistance, as if the person who made it had forgotten to place a lock. Rows of gold coins filled the chest. My attention was immediately attracted by the single pearl ring on top. RING OF BREATHING (Item - Rare) The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Allows a person to breathe underwater. That was too good a reward not to swipe. It was also completely out of place, as was the chest.

Looking at it up close, I saw that it wasn't made of ivory, but mother-of-pearl. Such items were more at home on an island or underwater cave trial. One might argue that technically this corresponded to a sea trial, so there was every reason to have it here. Given my past experience, I wasn't so sure.

"There's something here," I heard Marcus' slightly muffled voice.

"Give me a sec." I grabbed a handful of coins. Storing them was starting to be an issue. Even after wasting twenty silver coins, my tubes were mostly full. There appeared to be at least a hundred here, all of which were mine, thanks to Marcus' unwitting generosity. I stashed them in my pockets as quickly as possible, then went to the bathroom.

"What's that?" he asked, standing in front of a full-scale marble statue of a knight.

"A guardian," Eleonor answered before I could. Her silence up to now had deceived me into thinking that she was reserved, but as it turned out she was just as competitive as any veteran participant, maybe even more so.

"You pay it and it does things for you. Like a trial mercenary." So close, and yet not quite, I thought. No one was sure what exactly the statues were. They appeared in the trials without rhyme or reason, only to be brought to life after a certain payment. The amount mattered, as sometimes did the type of precious metal. The elephants in the starting trial only wanted silver. I had heard that some didn't budge unless receiving gold, or even other metals.

"Let's try." I feigned ignorance and held a silver coin in front of its face.

"Silver!" The statue moved, extending its free hand in my direction.

"Feed me silver!" I placed the coin. When nothing happened, I added several more. As usual, on the tenth, the hand closed.

"You're such a cheapskate," Eleonor said, her face expressionless as always.

"Such tricks won't work." Beside her, Marcus remained silent. Despite his lack of Arcana knowledge, he was much better at reading the situation than she was.

"I shall be your shield," the statue looked at me. The previous version of me would have accepted on the spot. It was always tempting to get carried away by someone else during the early stages of the trial. In different circumstances, I might have accepted even it now, yet while it could provide some distraction, there was no way it would survive a clash against the blade serpent.

"No need," I said, choosing my words so as not to insult him. There was no need for a repeat of the elephant fiasco.

"Just keep us safe from skeletons and undead." The helmet of white marble lowered slightly, looking straight at my face.

"I understand," it said.

"Look out for broken scales," the statue added as it walked past, out of the bathroom and into the outside corridor. Broken scales? I wondered.

"Good call," Marcus whispered.

"He can't be trusted." The goth girl also remained rather silent. Maybe she wasn't expecting the statue to react the way it did, or her deity was sharing some new information. The blank expression suggested she might be looking at a sponsor message right now.

"Yeah," I kept an eye on the corridor.

"Time to do this." There weren't many places for a proper fight against the snake. The area had to be big, but also provide enough cover for me to move around. Also, I still couldn't take the monster head-on. Finding an active shortcut might have been nice, though it was too much to hope that it would lead to the proper fighting area. There were a few ways around it. One was to form a pact with a deity, which I had no intention of doing. The other required a bit of privacy.

The lower we went in the ship, the louder the sounds became. Maybe it was the lack of sound-isolating materials, or maybe the monster preferred to be further down, but I felt it burrowing through the insides of the ship like a mole. Twice we had to rush to get out of its way; the chambers were too narrow and uncomfortable for a proper fight. Then, finally, we reached a cargo area. The space was a lot smaller than the atrium, although larger than the pool.

It could be described more like an over-glorified storage area than anything else. It was wide, bare, and had a floor coated in cheap rubber that gave off a questionable smell. Here and there flimsy sections were put in place—an attempt to divide the space into separate areas. Not a single box or crate was to be seen. Good enough, I guess.

"This is the spot," I said.

"Looks like there are two ways to get in. You two split up and make sure no undead come in."

"You're going to fight it on your own?" The goth girl impressively managed to smirk without moving the corners of her lips. The voice said it all—she considered me a rookie.

"That's the plan." I sat on the floor.

"How do you get it to come here?" Marcus asked.

"It'll come sooner or later." I looked at Eleonor.

"Or she might get it to." The suggestion startled her to the point that she had to take a step back.

"You're crazy," she said in an attempt to regain her calm. Obviously, no one had contradicted her so far, far less put her in her place.

"You didn't join the rest at the pool," I said.

"That means you have a way to keep monsters away. Don't you?" It would have been a lot better if I could tell for certain. Of all the cards I could see in her possession, I was only really familiar with a few. The paladin had the skill to cleanse evil, which gave her a huge advantage in this trial. Would it work on the serpent, though?

"I'm not the only one with a Paladin," she admitted. No, but it seems you're the only one who has boosted its level enough.

"Then it wouldn't be a problem, right?" Her eyes narrowed. At that moment, I was almost certain that she'd engage in a fight. If it came down to it, I had no idea who might win. Despite all her arrogance, she remained little more than a spoiled brat, but had a serious stash of cards, not to mention the backing of a dream deity. Pup, get ready. I ordered my dream beast as I mentally prepared for an attack. If she came after me with strength or dreams, I'd counter her with the Bard's ability.

"It's your funeral." She turned around, making her way towards one of the exits. Thank the deck! There would be time to clash with her later after I had stacked up a bit.

"You really think you'll beat it," Marcus said when she was gone.

"I'll try. Either way, I'll hurt it enough for you to kill after." I paused for a moment.

"Make sure you kill it and not her." The man nodded, then left the space as well. I was alone. For half a minute the seconds dragged on. Keeping my eyes open, I focused on every sound, adjusting to the space. When the fight started, I had to be perfectly familiar with it all. There were several cards that helped achieve this. Since I had none of them, I relied on the Bard's music sense and my experience.

Once I had gotten a feel of the entire width, length, and height of the space, I went on to the second phase of my preparation. Retrieving both divine blades from my inventory, I placed them on the floor in such a way that they crossed over each other. Then, I took a gold coin out of my pocket and placed it on top. The coin disappeared. No one knew who first had found the secret of divine awakening, but everyone was thankful for it. I personally had learned it from a deity.

At the time, I had found it absurd that divine weapons could gain more power for a price. Bellen the Living Spark had explained that it wasn't about the money, but the metal itself. Gold, silver, and the other precious metals had supernatural qualities. Maybe that was why they were used in medicine. A hundred coins of gold were enough to allow a piece of divinity to start its transformation.

"Fifty-seven, fifty-eight…" I counted. Somewhere above I could hear faint noises coming from above, as if someone was making repairs. I hastened the speed. Seventy-two. Seventy-three. Seventy-four… The sound was getting closer. I had no idea what the goth girl had done, but the serpent was heading straight my way. By the sound alone, I could visualize the floors above me breaking as the monstrous creature drilled its way through. Ninety-five. Ninety-six. Ninety-seven. Ninety-eight. Ninety-nine. I stopped, waiting.

The monster was close, but not close enough. The whole space shook as the floor above mine was crunched out of existence. A second later, my ceiling followed. Blades ripped through metal as if it were silk, revealing the head of the dreaded creature. Whoever had named it a serpent must have had a very active imagination. The monster rather resembled a giant, scale-covered worm. The only difference was that each scale was a blade covering it from nose to tail.

Ruby eyes the size of boulders glared my way, measuring me up. Then its mouth opened. Segments of steel moved aside in an almost mechanical fashion as the blade parted to mimic the jaws of a constrictor. There were no teeth inside, but there didn't need to be. No one could survive in its maw.

"Everything or nothing." I placed the final coin on my blades. WEAPON AWAKENING You have started a weapons trial!