Chapter 71: Awakened Armament

Chapter 71: Chapter 71: Awakened Armament

Victor smiled at the information still settling in his mind. This was what he came for.

This was probably the most important skill he would acquire in Gavalon, if not the entire Dungeon Conquest game.

Of course, it was best to pair it with a kind of Permanence skill.

Hopefully that one was still hidden in that trove.

But for now, this was already great functional harvest.

Just as he passed the skeleton again, he remembered and stopped.

He crouched low beside it, studying the rusted armor, and the weathered bones beneath.

"Sorry, man," he murmured. "I’ll be taking these too. Pretty sure you don’t need them anymore."

He reached for the shield first, working it gently off the skeleton’s stiff arm. Then he wrapped his fingers around the sword’s hilt, carefully prying it from the corpse’s grip.

The moment his skin made contact with the blade, a notification flared across his vision.

[Unidentified Armament Detected]

[Classification or Grade: Awakened — Weapon Soul Present]

[Soul Integrity: Weak]

[Name this weapon to complete Awakening bond?]

[Y / N]

Victor froze, staring at the prompt.

This had never happened in the game.

Not once, in all his years playing, had he ever been able to loot gear directly off this NPC’s corpse like this.

Of course the corpse was also in the game when he came here. But it was an Immortal object.

(Author’s note: Immortal objects in games are things that can not be touched, used or destroyed by the player)

But this. This was an Awakened gear.

Yet again another difference between the game and now.

Weapon grades like all amaments began with Common grade, which was the regular weapon used in gates or the game’s dungeons.

Uncommon was a grade just above common, not because of its strength or capabilities but because of a lack of understanding of the weapon.

Meaning a legendary grade weapon may also exist as Uncommon if it was not understood.

After Uncommon was Awakened weapons

Awakened gears existed mostly as rare drops from specific bosses, fixed loot tables, and were nothing interactive like this.

Victor remembered the theory behind Awakened weapons.

A weapon carried by one wielder long enough, through battle after battle, and eventually, the weapon absorbs something of that person, a fragment of their will, their soul, bonding permanently with the steel itself.

The result was a weapon that functioned almost like a living thing. There were some that granted insane stats and some that even had elemental nature embedded in them.

Unfortunately it was weak in this case, clearly, whatever remained of this fallen warrior’s spirit faded nearly to nothing after however many years it had spent buried down here in the dark.

Still. Weak wasn’t nothing.

He willed his acceptance, and the prompt shifted.

[Name this weapon:]

He thought for a moment, studying the blade. It was still sharp despite its age, and despite the dust clinging to every inch of it.

"...Vigil."

[Armament Weapon Bond Complete]

[Vigil — Awakened Shortsword]

[Grade: Awakened (Weak Soul)]

[Bonus Effects: Stamina +5 | Defense +2]

[Passive: Wielder recovers Stamina 10% faster during prolonged combat]

Victor turned the blade over in his hand, watching faint light trace along the edge of the steel.

The effects it gave looked small, but as someone that had engaged in battle, he knew how important an extra five points in stamina could help. Especially with Berserker Instinct.

And there was the additional defense to his body.

He was not really sure how that would work in a real fight, but he was going to have fun trying it anyway.

"Vigil," he repeated quietly. "Guess you’ve been waiting a long time for someone to pick you back up."

...

Victor emerged from the arena, a faint smile still lingering on his face.

Kiki’s eyes went straight to him. "You good?"

"Good? I feel great. The ancestors have blessed me." He kept walking, offering nothing further.

She frowned, watching him go, the words sitting strangely in her ears. Then her eyes caught the sword at his hip, and the small round shield slung over his shoulder. Neither looked anything like the usual Barbarian craftsmanship.

She turned back toward the arena entrance... troubled.

This place had stood for generations, long before her time, and long before her father’s time.

She’d trained within those walls her entire life. And like every barbarian born here, she knew every inch of it.

And she was also sure that nothing like what Victor carried had ever been there.

So where had it come from?

’Are the ancestors really favoring him this much? First the ability to kill the Basalt Dragonic lizard, then saving Jaja, leaving the boundary, taming beasts... And now this?’

She had no answer, only the growing, uneasy sense that something about Victor made less and less sense the longer she watched him.

Victor made his way to the outer edge of the village, settling onto the broad back of one of the resting Direlions to wait.

There was still some time before the duel. Then he handed his new sword and shield to a barbarian to be cleaned.

Jaja approached slowly, leaning heavily on Coco’s shoulder. Each step looked like a chore.

Victor rose immediately, moving to greet him properly. He owed Jaja his life, and that wasn’t a debt he intended to forget.

Jaja raised a hand before Victor got close. "No need. Sit back down. I should be the one resting, not you standing on ceremony."

Victor stayed standing anyway.

Jaja’s eyes drifted to the Direlions, a faint smirk crossing his face. "Seems the ancestors have been very good to you." He looked back at Victor. "With beasts like these behind us, we’ll finally be able to take Boramo’s head for what he did to our people."

Victor paused.

"Boramo will get what’s owed to him," he said carefully. "But there are more important things right now."

Jaja’s smirk faded into a frown.

Victor understood immediately. Jaja had assumed, reasonably enough, that Victor’s interference in the duel had been about rallying support for a war against Boramo, not for anything else.

That misunderstanding had probably been sitting with him this entire time.

"Are you going soft... like your brother?" Jaja’s fist clenched despite his weakened state, taking a half-step forward.

Victor held his gaze steady. "Boramo will get his due. But trust me, what I’m about to do is going to save all of us. And when the time comes... I’ll bring you Boramo myself. And you’ll take his head personally."

Jaja studied him for a long moment, something shifting behind his eyes.

Then a slow smirk broke across his face. "You’ve changed, Milkshake22." He chuckled, lowly. "I like this version of you better. Feels like King Zaza’s blood actually runs in you now."

He turned, letting Coco guide him back toward the village.

Coco glanced back at Victor as they went, her eyes lingering on him a beat longer than necessary.

He caught the look. Their last interaction had ended with her running away because his male organ had snitched his desire.

Good to see that she held no resentment.

Their gaze held briefly, and she offered a small smile before turning fully away, helping Jaja the rest of the way home.

(Author’s note: I’ll state using ’Dire Lions’ instead of ’Direlions’ so people won’t get them confused as we shall be seeing other Dire creatures. Thank’s for the love guys. Next battle is Victor Vs Popo... Brothers.)