[Alco's fulfilment (Rare): *Through the special way this item was acquired, it's curse has been lifted and it's strength increased.
Attribute restriction: D- or higher INT, C or higher SPR
*You can choose a target to restrict in place and they will be faced against shadow bindings, which will have them pass a STR test, a VIT test and a SPR against you. Passing no tests will have them immediately face a strong rank mental attack and an average rank corrosive attack every second they are bound, while being bound for five seconds. Passing one test reduces the damage caused by both attacks for one rank. Passing two will negate any damage and reduce the time of restraint to two seconds. Passing all three will completely nullify the bindings. May be used trice a day.
*Once a week, you may flood suitable corpses with dark energy and raise them through the power of the ring as either lesser shades, squeletons or zombies. Amount determined by the quantity and quality of the energy. With sufficient energy investure, there may be variants.]
"And there goes one excuse to mercilessly murder my enemies with a lot of pain." Muttered Aki as he picked the ring and doned it on his index finger, the silver and black band fitting perfectly on his hand.
He had heard about curse removal cervices, so that ment there was enough demand on the game for there being a whole market over it. He'd hopped drop items would not be cursed by default, but prayer is truly one of the least effective forms of magic.
The damn curse removal hadn't even been intentional, he'd just been trying to complete his side quest the best way possible. On the flip side, the lich should have been experiencing the most pain he'd ever had the displeasure of being put against during those fifteen minutes he and his apprentice talked.
There was the possibility that sniping a target with a one hit kill would make it impossible for them to curse you, but this was certainly not the case. He was half sure the main quest would have ended there and then had he not triggered the special event too, so maybe such method would not have allowed for the retrieval of the ring. If it'd have worked at all.
As it stood though, Aki had plenty of time and even help on dismantling the ritual that'd been passively raising the corpses on the valley. There were plenty of books on the dark arts of magic, including rituals, necromancy and blood magic, all of which he pilfered for latter perusal, though his backpack was significantly fuller now.
Some documents were also present on an old table to the side, incriminating the lich and showing glimpses of his plan of mad conquest, which was actually detailed enough Aki could probably begin to re-enact the whole thing with plenty of success, though he dared not do so. Maybe this would have also triggered a special event depending of player choise. These were just going to be an excuse for him to go towards the capital though, and he explained so to the villagers, asking them to keep their lips tight on the details, though he also told them how it'd not matter after two weeks or so, but it'd still be better if they all agreed on a story so no one came for them.
This made it so despite the problem being solved, the mood was quite gloomy. Aki himself didn't even enter the village again though, his own rations still intact and more than enough for a trip to the capital, nevermind there were two cities to pass by before said destination. Of course, he only went out after getting the mayor to hand him a request completion form, so he'd be able to prove he'd actually completed it and get the reward from the merc guild. He didn't actually have more than a few coins from the assassins from before after all, and it just didn't feel right to be so poor.
He was a mage, and that ment spending money, beating proudful people with sacks of gold and chugging away the most expensive mana potions he could find like they were water. He just wasn't going to be using points for that yet.
Getting to the city he had supposedly left from to get to the village took Aki eight hours and a half, with a barren nothing decorating the in between the several villages on the way. The climate was clearly becoming more lively as he went further however, green grass and some bushes here and there, the dark mana polluting the surroundings long gone together with his extreme speed.
Running on the more common concentration of energies had him trying to form some kind of wind attribute affinity, but the difference was very much staggering. Sure, the energy was still there or things would have lesser intensity, leading to several problems for everything used to making due with a higher concentration. The cohesion of it however, made it seem more like 'spirit' energy that had a slight inclination to one attribute or the other, everything playing a game of tug trying to change the environment to suit themselves.
Aki had immediately come to a solution by combining several elements with higher presence in the area, namely heat (fire), motion (wind), ground (earth) and roots (nature). Because yes, the system made sure to slightly nudge him to refer to those concepts as part of said words. Not their exact concepts, but the 'elements'.
Unfortunately, he wasn't even a fifth of the way through with figuring how the technique he'd envisioned showed feel and work. Still, he'd reached the city.
And it was somehow even more boring than either the road and the small village he'd been safeguarding. For some reason, most people looked down at him or were very scared. Apparently, it was because he was and looked like a mercenary, a job mostly for the desperate and barbaric, similar as to how prostitution was seen, just bringing different problems. He'd only noticed after seeing someone else similarly suspicious to himself, who was pretty caked in dust for someone in light armour, knives all around, a revolver in each side of the hip, a preference for darker colours...
Aki didn't actually wear armour like the other guy, mostly because he didn't know how to, but their get up was pretty much the same.
Maybe it would be better to shave and cut his hair before handing things over to the royals. He was not going to be meeting the king, but such notices were not exactly the easiest to prove so having a more streamlined appearance would be better.
Buying new armour was also not the best idea, since it might make him seem even more like rookie that got lucky or a liar.
As for how he'd go about reaching the crown about this? That was actually the easiest part. He was already a mercenary and someone known to be proficient in reinforcing himself, getting the clerk to issue a request for him to carry the now sealed papers, including the coded ones, was mildly easy as the amount was simply too big for a bird to carry and he had just fulfilled a rather important request by himself.
Rather, it was hard until he was upfront and pointed out that there wasn't a guarantee there would be someone better for the request on the other city on the way to the capital, nevermind they'd need to wait for someone from there or further away if it was not him delivering the package. He didn't need to explain the advantages of being fast in reporting to the crown despite the lack of urgency.
This gained him a level in his negotiation skill, as he later claimed plenty of money while giving the clerk a look that said perfectly well how interested in charging less he was.
He'd latter went to a potion shop and bought five mana potions able to restore 20 MP each before putting them on easy to reach places of his pouch belt. Which made him realise he should probably look for a magical version of it since having one had already been so good for him, and he needed more space for his ammo cartridges since the potions were too big and too fragile.
Stopping on a magic shop however, was very irritating. From the moment he stepped inside, the clerk was sneering and frowning at him, which made the rather handsome young man look very ugly. He'd even tried to tell him not to touch things he'd not be buying, and instead of answering, Aki instead raised a finger upwards and released a small ball of light, which then turned into a big hand flipping off the clerk.
He seemed to want to complain, his face red, but he shut up after seeing that he was talking to a mage. His face when being ripped off as an intimidating presence stared him down was quite hilarious, but it had been his fault for trying to ask for prices above the ones stated on the shelves. Threatening to make him eat his own parents alive had done it really, the graphic descriptions before that enough to rattle him.
His intimidation skill was starting to be quite usefull now that he had other people that were beneath him on the totem pole of society, his recently leveled up negotiation skill halfway through already. It was usefull in combat, sure, but it was simply not enough against those he'd been fighting yet.
It was getting a bit late, sure, but he had something important to do. He ignored all of the villages on the way, zooming past while keeping track of the road for his targets until he reached a certain place, several people with a concentration of energy higher than normal sleeping and walking around the village.
Naturally, it was the force of paladins and soldiers that should have relieved him on the tenth day of his dungeon dive. Unfortunetly for them, Aki wasn't an ally any longer, and at least their commander should net him a +1 on his ratings, nevermind whatever items they may have. It was only a bit after twilight, yet several men were sleeping already, their marching conditions likely quite harsh, their schedule tight.
That also turned over half of the force into easy pickings, subjects for experimentation with life steal.
The result of his testing on over fifty men and some women was that the skill was a bitch to level up, stuck nearing the journeyman level, and that it didn't matter if he was slower or faster, the amount he collected would remain constant through one factor or the other. What really mattered was his control over other people's life force, to separate it from their will and gobble up the extra energy, though simply pulling more and allowing it to dissipate allowed for killing someone much faster, though it was quite the waste.
That didn't really matter however, as Aki had rapidly used the overwelming amount of energy to silently assasinate all enemies that were actually awake, the ambush on the paladin captain making him quite drained.
She'd dodged silent bullets twice before a super concentrated ray of briliance could cut off her feet and allow another to hit her in the eyes, which killed her before she could scream over the intense five second exchange. To make sure his magic wasn't found out, he balanced the remains with some umbra, mostly wiping the traces of light magic and then cut into the same place with a searing knife, shooting the woman twice on the eye after muffling the sound of the surroundings, making things much harder if not impossible to figure out.
More importantly however, she droped a very shiny one handed sword, similar to a roman gladius made out of pure silver with some darker undertones on the handle. She also had, however, two very interesting rings, a rare ring that would warn her with absolute certainty about an attack that would kill her once a day, and an uncommon ring that would heal ten HP twice per day.
He immediately equiped those, one in his pinky and another in his right ring finger, each changing size slightly as he tried to put them. Either that was a feature not mentioned in their description or the system was up to some fuckery. Aki honestly didn't care. There were a lot more paladins to loot even if most of their equipment was mediocre even to him. After that though, he had to run back to the village right before this one so he could have an alibi, he would not even pass through here again, leaving behind heavy equipment and such while plundering any documents related to his mission.