When Alexander got home he decided to once again cool his nerves in a hot bath. He decided to pour the water cold and use prestidigitation to heat the water. This simultaneously saved his water bill and worked to upgrade his spell casting skill. After the bath he went to the second floor of his room and placed all of his items he recently collected on a fold-out table he brought up from storage. First up he grabbed one of the dark stones he assumed to be a magic resource and placed it on the pedestal.
^
Item identified.
Crystallized Essence of Darkness
Uncommon
May be used as a ritual component or turned into magical resources.
The following magical resources can be extracted:
Dark- 5
Unattributed- 2
Would you like to extract resources?
"Excellent!" Alexander cheered pumping a fist. "Five dark resources for one stone when I have seven!"
That would more than cover the darkness cost for the Encyclopedia. He decided to only extract the four stones worth he was certain he would need. The remaining three stones he placed on his table. Next he collected his quest item, but it felt like claiming a cheap Halloween costume when compared to the stones.
^
Novice Wizard's Cape
A Novice Wizard’s Hat and now a Cape. As the folded cloth dropped into his hands he noted that it was the same garish purple as the hat. He draped it over his shoulders and realized he needed to look in a mirror to decide on the look. His optimism remained low, however. Thinking he might be able to pull some resources out of these items, he first set his Novice Wizard’s hat on the pedestal.
^
Item identified.
Novice Wizard’s Hat
When equipped:
5% decreased mana consumption to all spells you cast.
(10% when equipped with all items in the set)
+1 Intelligence
Other items in set:
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Novice Wizard’s Cape
Novice Wizard’s Staff
-Would you like to upgrade?
-Would you like to destroy and convert to an arcane resource?
Alexander couldn’t argue with the description. This item wasn’t bad.
He had told an untruth to Ridley when he had made the excuse for wanting the ring. He would have been fine giving it to her. However, when Alexander could make something more efficient, or collect a complete set of something he was always tempted. Also, if he could make more intelligent decisions just by wearing a hat…
"Maybe I could wear the hat, just around the house."
With that thought he placed the Novice Wizard's Cape on the pedestal.
^
Item identified.
Novice Wizard’s Cape
When equipped:
10% increased effect to all magical defense spells you cast.
(20% when equipped with all items in the set)
+1 Endurance
Other items in set:
Novice Wizard’s Hat
Novice Wizard’s Staff
"Fine, the Hat and Cape stay... for now." he complained to himself as he put the hat on.
A part of him couldn’t help but enjoy identifying the properties of all these magical items. He went and retrieved the pear-shaped fruit from his refrigerator. He wasn’t about to ingest something from some bizarre shadow world without investigating its properties. It sparkled blue in the ambient light of the room.
^
Fruit of Impartation
This fruit had been cultivated by experts in another world.
Effects: Consume to increase one random attribute
You are unable to modify this item.
Well, now Alexander just felt bad for taking a fruit without permission. They should have put more protection around such an orchard. Maybe that was what those shadowy shapes running away were for. He had the thought that he might have shown up as a shadow person in whatever world he had interacted with. The thought that he was possibly and incorporeal entity to their world was fascinating. He mentally apologized for scaring whoever the forms might have been.
His thoughts then naturally gravitated to the red demon he had encountered and shivered at the idea of meeting them again.
There was at last one final thing to investigate, the piece of boulder that he had chipped off. As he pulled it out he could see the light of the room dimming around it. Looking up, he had not noticed before but there were no light sources in the room. He quickly put it out of his mind as he didn’t like thinking about it. Looking back at the chipped off boulder it almost seemed to exude darkness. Which also made no sense.
He placed it on the pedestal and did not like the results.
^
Corrupted Stone
A stone that has absorbed the negative emotions of the dead.
Can be used as a crafting component.
Energy can be absorbed by necromantic means.
Alexander's did not much like seeing the word necromantic. It just made him think of all the jokes in high school about necrophilia, causing Alexander to shiver in disgust. Then he recognized the root of the word necro which was ‘the dead’ from greek origin. Alexander was a bit put off by not knowing the word necromantic. When he found the meaning after a quick search on his cell phone, it didn’t make him feel any better than when he thought of the word necrophilia. It seemed possible that black magic and witchcraft were very much possible… if you trusted a physics defying terraforming pedestal that is.
Sighing he walked downstairs. He was amazed with how many things he didn’t want to think about. He wrote the two other locations he had not checked out down from memory. This time he wrote it in a new notepad he would use just for wizarding academics. Hearing a scratching noise from the terrarium Alexander saw the lizard was pressed up against the glass. Tonight he fed the pogona a raw piece of skirt steak, which he seemed to enjoy. Which was good because he wasn’t about to let a steak eating lizard destroy his food budget completely.
“I will be upgrading your terrarium to its bigger size soon. I almost have everything I need.” He said looking at the growing lizard. “For now, be happy with this.” He dropped seven more silver pieces onto lizard’s hoard. The pogona circled happily and pumped its tiny wings once before scurrying to reinforce its hoard. It placed each piece carefully, stacking the coins in a stable mound to sleep on.
"Time to review the training material for tomorrow."
