Sworded Affair

Chapter 107: Zenless Zone

[Choose 1 of 3 Attributes for your Crystalline Core:

Compact: Your Core is unusually small, reducing total storage volume. Your Core is efficient; there is no delay in item deposit or withdrawal.

Expansive: Your Core is unusually large, significantly increasing total storage volume. Size impacts efficiency; item deposit or withdrawal takes five seconds to execute.

Unstable: Your Core is unstable, emitting significant magical bleed-off inside the storage space. Magical items stored within recharge over time. A very small chance for each item deposit or withdrawal action to fail, locking the storage for five minutes.]

"Unstable is a solid no," Noah advised, his eyes staring vacantly into the distance. "Take it from me, it doesn't matter what the benefits on the tin say; it only takes one badly-timed jam out in the field, and you're a goner."

For once, he wasn't reading information from his System, but merely reliving old memories of his time in the forces. Emma couldn't pinpoint the specific story there; her Dad had never been one to talk about his work at the dinner table.

"So you'd say reliability is the most important factor?" Emma mused. "That lines up with my own experiences, which has me leaning towards Compact. Five seconds is a long time when you desperately need something now."

Reaching her hand out, Emma touched a finger to the leftmost tablet; it glowed red hot, before all three tablets vanished, taking Emma's fingerprint with them.

"I'm starting to think this entire grotto was built to be as annoying as possible," Emma groused, staring askance at the blister that had taken over her fingertip.

Such minor damage would barely even register as such to her armor, and undoubtedly fade from view after a few seconds of natural regeneration. Her homunculus body did no such thing however; belatedly, Emma wondered if she should've added some customisation instead of asking for bog standard human specifications.

Meow.

[Saint casts Rejuvenate, granting you minor regeneration for 1 hour.]

"Thanks!"

Emma made sure to show her appreciation, giving Saint's cheeks a thorough stroking. Her eyes remained on the bowl though, where the Crystalline Core was steadily shrinking; very slowly, reducing maybe an inch in diameter with every passing minute. Eventually, the shrinkage halted, leaving the core maybe a third of its previous size.

"Compact Core created. Retrieve the core from the bowl to finalise your storage item, or donate another fifty Thrones for a second attribute."

Emma didn't hesitate to reach back into her saddlebag; she'd already spent five hundred and fifty Thrones, and would not be satisfied with the bare minimum to qualify as a storage item. Once again, the money vanished immediately upon reaching the bowl; before any wayward stacks of coin could strike the core that lay within. Three tablets appeared, the same size as before but a very different language.

"Is that Old Eastern Slavic?" Noah gasped. "In such good condition too, I've only ever seen its like in University libraries and museums."

"Two languages thus far, both well over a thousand years old. What are the odds of that being a coincidence?"

[Very low. Coincidentally, Crystal's older brother is a prominent salesman for magical translators.]

"So we're definitely being taken for a ride," Noah grunted. "Nice to know."

[Choose 1 of 3 Attributes for your Compact Core: [2]

Nature's Embrace: Your Core is attuned to the Lore of Life; living beings may be stored within, held in stasis without suffering any harm.

Blood for the Blood God: Your Core can store a single weapon in addition to standard space constraints, but may never be used to store any items of healing.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOM!: Your Core's storage space doubles, but may only be used to store items carrying a significant drawback for the user.]

"Well, that's awfully specialised: all three of the items in fact. What to do?" Emma bit her lip.

"They all build into very different directions," Noah concurred. "Actually, on that note; nobody ever mentioned any rule preventing us from rolling the remaining attributes before choosing. Crystal only mentioned a hard limit of five attributes."

"Good catch," Emma grinned, already reaching for her saddlebag again. "I'll park this choice for later then, once we have a better idea what we're getting."

Tossing fifty Thrones more into the mix, Emma wasn't prepared for the donation bowl to belch a gust of foul black smoke into the air, making her gag. Saint hissed angrily, her feline nose suffering the worst of them all; she quickly recovered, stamping a paw on Noah's shoulder. The sudden gust of wind that followed cleared the smoke, its cause clear.

[Choose 1 of 3 Attributes for your Compact Core: [3]

Rot, Glorious Rot: Your Core is steeped in the shadow of the Black Death. All who touch or behold it suffer Poison Damage, increasing with every second of exposure.

Blessing of Robin Hood: Your Core can only store items that do not belong to you.

Art is an Explosion: Your Core's storage space is increased tenfold, but can only be used to store explosives.]

"...Fuck."

---

"I've never been so angry to get something for free before," Elizabeth grumbled as she reemerged into the Sherwood Gallery, a tiny blue cube clutched protectively to her chest. "A pox on retired arch-mages with too much time on their hands."

The rest of her shopping had barely taken any time at all; every item on her list together taking less than half the duration of her final 'transaction'. Of course, that was only from her own subjective viewpoint; which wasn't exactly reliable where the gallery was concerned. Elizabeth glanced around, taking note that only tents remained, all of them offering various forms of food and drink. This was a configuration frequent shoppers had dubbed the Waiting Area; somewhere with nothing of true value but plenty of time wasters to entertain a shopper until all of their plus ones were also done for the day.

"You must gather your party before venturing forth."

Elizabeth quirked her lip; there was no way around this restriction she knew, everyone who entered together must leave together. Shaking her head, she made her way to one of the larger tents, drawn by the familiar scent of fish and chips. After the day she'd had, a bit of comfort food was just what the doctor ordered.