Chương 28: Additional Types of Relics

Mippo extended his hand, with a fourth finger now raised. A barely noticeable yellow spark ran along the finger, leaving behind a brief trail of honey-coloured glow that dissolved almost immediately into the thick, damp air of the room. — And so, the fourth type of relic is called... Mippo suddenly coughed — a dull, hoarse sound echoed off the slimy walls, rolled across the room and faded somewhere in the darkness of the opening he had recently walked through.

He tilted his wooden head, cleared his throat, and continued in a steadier voice, though traces of irritation still lingered in it. — The stench here is unreal. Well, let me continue. He extended the fourth finger again — no spark appeared this time, as though the finger had decided not to waste any more effort on unnecessary effects, saving its strength for something more important. — The fourth type is the Yellow relics. Lloyd raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to go on.

The lantern at Mippo's feet crackled quietly, the golden light of its crystal trembling in rhythm with every word the guide spoke, reflecting off the greenish sludge around them and casting a strange pattern of glares onto the walls — a pattern that shifted slowly, mirroring every movement of the creature sitting opposite him.

The dark ceiling above them remained almost unchanged, only occasionally flickering with green crystal light, as though the dungeon itself were breathing along with their conversation, listening in. — Well, Yellow relics usually take the form of amulets. They can grant you strength, speed, even extraordinary luck. You might think they're the weakest type, but their echo is never too terrible either. So everything here is balanced.

He pointed a finger directly at Lloyd — wooden, with a sharpened tip, and in the lantern light the shadow of the finger lengthened for a second, falling across the young man's filthy jacket, stretching over the folds of fabric stained with dried green mass. — You've already seen what kind of echo a Red category relic has. Destructive power doesn't come for free. Lloyd swallowed — his throat had gone dry, as though he'd only just now remembered how exhausted and worn out he was.

The tunnel beyond their tiny circle of light remained sunk in complete darkness, and somewhere out there, in that darkness, water dripped — methodically, indifferently, as if counting down the seconds to the next danger. The sludge beneath him had long since gone cold, and the chill from it was gradually working its way through his clothes, reminding him that this conversation, calming as it seemed, was still taking place in the same disgusting place.

"And really, I don't know how I'll handle it if one of my limbs catches fire. I hope I never have to use it..." Mippo stared intently at Lloyd for a few seconds — unblinking, as far as that was even possible for a creature with a wooden face — as though trying to read something in the young man's expression that had gone unspoken. The green eyes beneath the mask glowed steadily and calmly, reflecting the golden glow of the lantern in two tiny glints.

Then he tilted his head slightly and continued, his voice dropping a little lower, as though he were moving on to something more important, something that demanded greater attention from the listener. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. — And the last type.

He extended a fifth finger, and a violet spark ran along it — rich, deep, lingering in the air a little longer than the others before fading without a trace, leaving behind a faint ghostly afterglow, as though imprinted on the retina of the eye. — Violet-type relics. Violet. To Lloyd this colour had always seemed the most mysterious and strange of all — probably because every system window that had appeared before him since the moment he entered this dungeon had been violet.

There was something in that colour that was both alluring and unsettling, as though it hinted at knowledge hidden from ordinary mortals, at the rules of a game written by someone invisible and unreachable. — Relics of this type are too complex to explain in a short time. This requires practice.

He raised the finger upward, and the golden light of the lantern caught his silhouette against the dark, damp wall behind him — a wooden figure wrapped in a green cloak, with feathers on its head that, in this light, seemed almost alive, trembling faintly in some invisible draft. — But most often, Violet Relics affect your soul. Lloyd didn't immediately understand the meaning.

He frowned, trying to grasp the sense behind the words, and unconsciously lowered his gaze to his own chest, as though trying to look inside himself, to find there whatever Mippo was talking about.

"My soul? What's he even talking about?" He had already opened his mouth to ask for clarification, but Mippo cut him off, raising a palm in a gesture that clearly meant "wait, I'll explain everything." — You could say that your strength itself — or rather, a part of it — is contained within your soul.

Mippo rubbed his yellow lantern — or rather, the golden crystal inside it — and the warm light grew slightly brighter for a moment, pushing the shadows a little further into the corners of the room, briefly illuminating the far corner where the slimy wall met the ceiling in an uneven, moss-covered seam. — Your skills are stored there as well. That's why Violet Relics can affect your skills, alter them. Or add new ones. Naturally, you have to pay your own price for that — as with almost every relic.

Lloyd made a thoughtful face and scratched his chin — automatically, not noticing how the long-dried dirt creaked under his fingernails. Somewhere off to the side, in one of the side tunnels, came a distant sound — a drop, perhaps, or something larger falling into the sludge — but Lloyd was too absorbed in the conversation to pay it any attention.

"An echo, right? I'd bet that's what he was talking about. It's probably some kind of fixed price for using a relic. Like an employer who hires a worker and pays them a certain wage for their labour." Before Lloyd could fully work through this thought, Mippo extended his other hand and raised one more finger. There was no spark this time. None at all.

The finger simply remained straight, motionless, without the slightest hint of glow — and somehow that absence of effect made Lloyd feel even more uneasy than any of the previous demonstrations had. The silence that settled in that moment felt thicker than usual — even the drops of water in the corridor seemed to fall silent for a second, as though the very atmosphere of the room were holding its breath before something important.

The crystal in the room's ceiling flickered for an instant — barely noticeable, but Lloyd caught it, since he'd already grown accustomed to tracking the slightest changes in this place's lighting. Somewhere in the darkness of the tunnel, water began dripping again, and the sound seemed unexpectedly loud after the long silence of their conversation, cutting through the tension that had built up, like a knife slicing through dense fabric.

Mippo held the pause — long, unusually long for a creature that until this point had spoken freely and almost eagerly. The wooden head tilted slightly to one side, the feathers on top swaying faintly, though there could be no breeze whatsoever in this underground room, and from that barely perceptible movement a light chill ran down Lloyd's spine, one that had nothing to do with the temperature of the surrounding sludge. — Few people know this, but there is one more type of Relic...