Evolution: A Warlock's Rise To Power

With the fight over, the team began to split the loot.  Since this was the first clear of the team dungeon, they were guaranteed a higher level of loot.

There were many good things that were collected throughout the teams capturing of the ship but four stood above the rest.

Two were dropped by the first mate that was originally in the crow's nest while the other two were dropped by the captain.

Since Lucan had agreed to a fair distribution of loot he couldn't just take everything for himself.  To keep things moving quickly, the group had agreed before hand to settle everything with an auction. The players would bid on the good items.  The winner would then pay gold that would be divide among the remaining players.

Even though it was an auction, the team didn't expect much bidding since they were a diverse group.  If someone could use something it wasn't likely that the others would be able to make use of it as well.  Since that was the case, as long as the price was good, nobody would raise.

The first item for auction was the first mate's collapsible spyglass.  Depending on how far it was extended it could increase its magnification up to a hundred times.  It was also enchanted to see in the dark.  It was the only 'very rare' item up for bid.

Silent spoke first.  "I want it, I will offer 500 gold pieces."

The others thought about it for a moment, but they didn't seem too interested.  It was a handy item, but it would be of better use to a long-distance fighter like Silent, they didn't want to haggle with her over it.

But there was an exception.  "Put me down for 600 pieces."  Super said.

Silent didn't get angry at the competition, everyone had a fair chance and everyone here was wealthy.  Well not everyone.  Milocara was a mercenary for hire.  He brought in a lot of gold, but he said he spent most of it on his sister's medical fees.  But with that being the case, he wasn't going to waste his precious money on buying trinkets.

"750."  Silent responded.

"1,000."  Super said with a smirk.

"Fine it's yours."  Silent said while pouting.

Lucan looked around to see if anyone else was going to bid.  When he saw no reactions, he passed the spyglass to Super.  Super happily accepted the item and then handed it to Silent.

"Think of it as an early wedding gift.  I heard you and Lucan set a date.  Congratulations.  Although this is just a small token, both of you have given me a lot of opportunities and I dare to say that I wouldn't be where I am if I hadn't met the both of you.

"What! Thanks!"  Silent said, taking the item and then giving Super a hug.

The second item up was a black powder rifle that had a powerful scope on it.  With two barrels it could fire twice before it needed to be reloaded.  It would be the dream of any sniper, unfortunately the group didn't have anyone who used black powder weapons on the regular.

But that didn't mean the bidding was low.  It was still an epic level item.  The bidding war was between bubblegumfairy and DarkX_XAssassin.  Both of them were in debt to Tracker92 and they were competing to see who could get out of debt.  DarkX_XAssassin won with a price of 2,300 gold pieces, but only after he traded his offhand dagger to Bubblegum.

The third item was the captain's coats.  Also an epic item.  It gave improved resistance to slashing damage and doubled the wearers charisma and tripled it while on a boat.  Besides the resistance, it had a good armor rating.  Not only that but it could store ten items inside in magical pockets allowing its wearer to pull them out much quicker than if they were in a bag.

The final item was the captain's pipe.  It was a unique item, a one-of-a-kind spell casting device. That didn't mean that this was the only pipe capable of casting spells, but this was the only one with these carvings on it.  The only real positive to the item was that it could cast spells while being held in the users mouth, leaving their hands free.

Of course Lucan was interested.  He called out the first bid.  "5,000."

He looked around and it appeared that no one was willing to raise the price.  They knew that with Lucan's funds, if he wanted it he would be leaving with it.  Raising the price would only put more money in their pockets and everyone would know that they intentionally raised the price without any hope of taking the item.

Lucan turned to Super.  "What, aren't you going to get me a wedding gift?"

Super quickly shook his head.  "No way, that's too pricey."

Everyone had a good laugh while Lucan put away the pipe.

The team left the dungeon to find everyone else waiting.  The raid chef had already set out a banquet, everyone dug in to restore their energy and gain a few temporary buffs.

Checking his interface, Lucan was happy with the time.  If he set aside four hours to redo the party dungeon, he had a total of thirteen hours to complete the raid.

He wasn't only happy with the timing.  After the team dungeon his level had risen to 151.  He had gained his last thief ability and his Nilan's Ring had also gained a new feature.

His thief ability was called 'Mug'.  It had a five-minute cool down but did good single target damage with a melee attack and stunned the target for two seconds.  Not only that, but it had a 30% chance to steal a random item from the targets bag.  Not only could it be used in combat, but it could be linked to pickpocketing.  Once you were discovered trying to steal you could instantly use Mug.

The chance of stealing was much smaller on Elites and even more miniscule on Bosses, but the chance was still there.  Lucan was happy with the move.  It was perfect for a thief.

During the banquet, Lucan took a look at his ring.

The first ability he had unlocked had been upgraded and he was rewarded with a new ability as well.  Instead of altering just his face, he could now change his whole body.  He couldn't make himself taller of bigger, but he could change his skin, cover scars and tweak his overall appearance. It wasn't a huge upgrade, but it allowed him to hide the ethereal tribal symbols that covered his body and his left arm could be changed to match his skin tone instead of being pitch black.  This made Lucan very happy.  He then took a look at the new function that the ring had unlocked.

>Doppelgangers Insight:  The user is able to transform into the target person that is currently in the wielders eyesight and take their shape for half an hour.  If the target is not a traveler, the wielder of the ring will be able to speak in the same style as the target and will have basic access to distant memories of the target's past.  Such as knowing their family members name, the targets favorite food, whether the target is right-handed or left-handed and so on.  Critical information is not available such as the combination to a safe.  Combat abilities and spells know to the target will not be available to the wielder.  The location of an important secret meeting and so on.  This ability can only be used once per day.

Lucan was very satisfied with his new ability.

After the meal, everyone took a half hour nap to regain their focus.  It was expected that the raid would be a tough fight.