NOVEL NEXT Chapter 54: Would She Ever Even Like Anybody
There were five beds in their room. Four of them were filled, with Angelica's up closest to the wall and Nikola's beside hers. However the arrangement had been before, that was how it was now. Each bed had a small, wooden bedside table next to it, and each tiny table had a tiny lamp. Even the lighting in here was foreign to her; she and her father had always used candles.
When Nikola returned from the bathroom, primped, smelling of strawberries and mint and dressed in silk, she saw Luke on the edge of his bed with his crimson screen pulled up. The room was quiet and dim, the sun setting outside the window. Everyone was settling in and doing their own thing. Finally, she would have an opportunity to heed the Host's words and look through her menus. All of them.
But she wondered why the man had emphasized 'all of them'. Was there a cryptic hint she was supposed to pick up, or did he just know that in her haste to make it in time for the Dungeon's arrival, she hadn't flicked through some of her new menu options post-Phase 2? Could he see when she was looking through her menu, and what she was looking at? It made her desire privacy, a life where she wouldn't be surveilled - which then led to the uncomfortable thought that she had never had a private moment in her life, and that she had always been surveilled.
Nikola shook off a shiver that clung to her bones, and sat down on 'her' bed while Luke and Violet began to chat faintly in the distance. As ever, Angelica was splayed out exactly as she had left her.
She scribbled out the symbol that summoned her Red Box, and it dutifully manifested before her. The new options stuck out: Dungeons and Challenge Rooms, Party Listings and Boons.
Nikola pulled up [Dungeons and Challenge Rooms] first. A list of currently running Dungeons and Challenge Rooms opened up, each one with a location and a vague description of the associated reward. But none were close enough that she could get to them on foot, and she had just completed her first dungeon. As much as a part of her yearned to spill more player blood, her body needed to recuperate. She needed to rest. Fascinatingly, she had an Energy Bar and Hunger Bar on her home screen that showed just how close she was to passing out from exhaustion from either thing.
Her Hunger Bar was about 34 percent full, and her Energy Bar was at 22 percent. She could feel her eyes becoming less and less willing to open up again with each blink. Considering that she had consumed nutrients and slept right around the same time as Luke, his bars were likely similarly lacking.
The World of Wills had its own will, and it seemed to be to distract her. She could feel her insides crawling, her stomach reminding her that it needed food to live.
Nikola poked the [Party] button, which opened up her Party Window. It showed the most recent activity within her party, and in this case that included both Phoenix and the wolf man leaving the party.
PhoenixRisen has left the party.
WhiteMage01 has left the party.
Shortly after, Luke had disbanded it entirely.
Dungeoneers has been disbanded.
With the Dungeon completed, she supposed they no longer needed it.
She could still, by scrolling up, see what she had gotten from completing the dungeon.
Nikola Brightdark has received:
- 1 Silverbark Wolf Tooth
- 1 Silverbark Wolf Pelt
- 1 Dark Lion Armour Set !!!
When she hovered over the Silverbark Wolf Tooth, a small description popped up.
[A tooth from a Silverbark Wolf. Can be used as a material in crafting.]
The pelt said something very similar, but the description that really piqued her interest was the armour's. She held the tip of her finger above the armour, her eyes flicking over the text that appeared.
[A lightweight yet sturdy set of armour made from thin, hollow metal like the quills of the Dark Lion, allowing any class to don it with no penalty - including a Mage. Grants the wearer a 10 percent resistance to Bleed and Cripple effects, as well as the ability to use the Dark Lion's Spray of Thorns spell.
Damage Reduction: 20 Percent, reduces proportionately to how many of the 4 pieces are removed: collar, top, maille, legs, by 5 percent each.
Spray of Thorns:
A cone of thorns manifests from the user's mouth at will. The thorns are thin but deadly and have a 30 percent chance to cause the Bleed status upon contact. A user afflicted with the Bleed status more than once is considered to be Bleeding Out, meaning their health will begin to drain from them at 1 percent per second until they stop what they're doing and get medical attention.
Damage is calculated based on how high the armour's level is. At its base level, each thorn that connects deals 1 damage and the cone has a 20 foot radius. Cooldown of 1 minute.
At max level, each thorn that connects deals 5 damage and the cone has a 30 foot radius. Cooldown of 30 seconds.]
From what Nikola knew of her abilities, she had few attacks that did anything to more than one person at a time. This would harm anybody caught in the cone, a welcome addition to her arsenal and Luke's as well.
Interestingly, Damage Reduction section seemed to imply that she could hand out pieces of the armour to others to give them 5 percent DR per piece. The Spray of Thorns spell mentioned no such reduction in usefulness if she was only wearing one of the four sections, so she wondered if they could one day be spread around to give up to 8 people access to the spell - between her set of armour and Luke's.
Would she ever even like 7 other people, though? Especially enough to consider undressing for them...
The next and final unexplored section of her Red Box was the {Boons} section. It alone was outlined in a golden, sparkly flourish on her home screen.
When tapped on it and it advanced to the next screen, her breath hitched in her throat. Her silvery blues snapped over to where Angelica was resting. Was this...