The Last Experience Point
Chapter 182: The Primordial Void Blade

Chapter 182: The Primordial Void Blade

Even as he chased alongside her for several miles, Zach already knew she wasn’t going to change her mind, but he felt he had to try anyway. “Kalana, stop,” he said to her, leaving behind a wispy, jet-like contrail in his wake as he raced across the barren landscape.

Though hardly the thing that was front and center on his mind right now, Zach would be lying if he said he didn’t secretly feel a bit of guilty pleasure at how easily he was able to keep pace with Kalana. Right now, with 205 points into dexterity and 182 points into speed, Zach was definitely faster, more agile, and swifter on his feet than even the mighty Kalana, who in such a short time, had exploded from a level-1 Elvish refugee into a superpowered princess.

“I can’t,” she said, slowing down somewhat as the dirt began to turn green, indicating a shift to grass and thus the possibility of civilization ahead. “My mom’s gonna kill me if I don’t get back.”

Zach chuckled. “Yeah, well, that’s not actually so bad.” He pointed his finger to himself even as he ran at over a hundred MPH beside her. “She’s killed me once before, and I’m just fine.”

“Not funny!”

“Yeah, yeah. Look, Kal, whatever’s going on in Shadowfall Coast, I…I don’t want you to see it or be involved with it. I’m just not okay with you going.”

Rather than earn him a smile, his words were rewarded with a surprisingly intense glare. “How can you say that to me?” she snapped. “After what you did.”

“It’s different, Kal. I’m…”

“What?”

“Don’t make me say it.”

“No, say it. I want you to.”

Zach kept his mouth shut as he leapt over a fence then began zipping his way with Kalana through a section of farmland. He had to be careful now not to kick up any dirt or disturb the land as he ran.

“Say it,” she insisted. “Umm, we both know what you were gonna, like, say. So just say it.”

“Fine!” Zach said. “I don’t want you to be corrupted like me. I don’t want you to be…I don’t want you to have your innocence stolen away like mine was.”

At this, Kalana stopped short, and Zach blasted right past her. He actually had to carefully stop and then dash backwards so that he could once again be beside her. There was pain in the way she looked at him—as well as some anger. “My innocence was stolen before I could even speak, Zach! I’ve seen stuff so bad I would give you nightmares if I told you a fraction of them. Do you know what life was like for me when I was just a little girl in captivity?”

Zach knew there was very little he could possibly say in response to that, so instead, he lowered his head. “I’m sorry. I forgot about that.”

“Whatever it is you’re afraid I’ll see, I’ve already seen it. Whatever it is you’re afraid I’ll feel, I’ve already felt it. You dunno, Zach. You dunno what I’ve been through.”

“You never really tell me.”

“I can’t talk about it yet. I might never be able to.”

His hands and feet continuing to release flame, Zach grabbed his hips, lowered his head, and spat on the grassy field. “Shit,” he muttered. “I don’t know what else to say, Kal.”

“How about the truth?”

Zach met her eyes. “Fine, here’s the truth. The truth is I don’t have a reasonable or logical argument for why you shouldn’t go. I don’t have a fucking solid case I can make. There’s nothing I can ever say that relies on objective fact that you won’t be able to just shoot down. All I can say is I really, really love you, and I just don’t want you to go. That’s my only and best reason, Kal, and I’m sorry if that’s not enough. My one and only reason is selfish. I just don’t want you to do it.”

Sometimes, Zach was amazed by how badly he understood girls. Because of all things he’d just said, he expected that to be the one that upset Kalana the most. But no. Kalana actually reached out, grabbed him, hugged him tightly, and whispered “thank you” into his ear before kissing him.

“Go back and win some loot, baby,” she said to him. “There’s lots of people dying in Shadowfall Coast, and I think I’m the only person who can talk them down. It’s ‘cause they know I actually care. That’s why I have to go.”

Zach gritted his teeth. “You’re going to see some really, really bad shit, Kal. Blood, body parts, and everything in between.”

“I’ve seen all of that before, and umm, if it was gonna break me, it would’ve a long time ago.”

Zach at last backed down. He could tell her mind was made up, and there was nothing he could say that would deter her. “All right, Kal,” he relented. “Just please be careful.”

“I will. Oh! And make sure you give this to Jimmy. I completely forgot.”

She handed him an item, and as he took it, he held her hand, but only for a few moments. She then gently pulled away, turned around, and took off. Zach, watching her go, remained where he was, his shoulders slumped, his heart heavy. But he did feel a reassuring pat on his shoulder as Trelvor and Seiley, each following a respectable distance behind, stopped for a moment beside him.

“We’ll watch out for her, Zach,” Trelvor said. “I promise you.”

“Yup. Princess Kalana is in good hands with us,” Seiley agreed.

Zach nodded at them both. Afterwards he took a breath, counted to ten, released it, and then he turned himself around in the opposite direction and headed off back to the raid at a moderate pace. With over 40 minutes remaining on Unleashed Phase, he had no reason to rush.

Upon returning, he noticed that the loot had all been taken out of the trench and sorted carefully by rarity. And this certainly brightened his mood. Much as Jascaila had told him would be the case, Zach found his entire demeanor changing as he approached the loot, which, having been moved, no longer shined. As Zach came upon the raid, numerous heads turned his way, many of which were smiling.

This is only my second time ever rolling for boss loot, he realized, becoming excited.

Seven piles of loot were laid out very neatly on the dirt. The first “pile”—if you could even really call it that—contained just one item, a sword. The second contained two items, the third contained 5, and the fourth, fifth, and sixth each had too many for Zach to bother counting. Finally, there was a seventh pile, and this one really made Zach’s eyes water with desire, for in this pile, there were thousands of gold coins on top of one another.

All hundred-plus raid members, adventurer and political alike, were huddled around the loot in a circle, and as Zach squeezed his way in, he arrived to overhear Jimmy addressing the raid. He’d apparently been in the middle of speaking. “…so, I think we can all unanimously agree, right? Since we’re doing need before greed, and since there was only one of us who uses a flute, this should go to Trelvor uncontested.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he projected the item information forward, making it large enough so that everyone could see it, and dual-sided so that it would be easy to read no matter on where in the huddle one happened to reside.

Name

Song from Beyond the Void

Level

85

Rarity

Legendary

Dexterity

+40

Intelligence

+40

Familiar Type

Warrior Sprite

Ability

Refreshing Life Mist

Cooldown

60:00 (minutes)

Range

50 (Area of Effect)

Description

All allies in target area receive a 15:00 minute HP regeneration buff (type red)

Whoah, that’s got to be worth a ton, Zach thought to himself.

“Nobody else can use this, right?” Jimmy asked the raid. “So then I’m guessing nobody objects if I give this to Trelvor next time I see him.”

“That’s fine,” Zephyr said.

“Yup, no problem’s here,” Fiona Darkmae added as she flipped her hair and smiled.

“He’ll be so happy,” Lienne chirped. “Give it to me and I’ll give it to him.”

“Sure,” Jimmy said. “Whelp. If no one objects, I guess we can move on to—”

“I object!” Zach called out, raising his hand upright like he was in class. This immediately brought a chorus of varying reactions. Some adventurers moaned, most laughed, and a few, such as Donovan, shook his head and muttered a few choice swear words.

“Uh, Zach, why are you objecting?” Reni Sarwin asked.

Zach folded his arms defiantly. “Because I might need that item too. Like, are we seriously just giving shit away? What happened to the law of loot and rolling for things?”

“Kiddo, stop,” Donovan grunted. “You don’t even play the flute.”

“Okay, yeah? So what? I’ve always wanted to learn to play a musical instrument. In fact, I was just thinking about how sick I am of using a sword. Starting right now, I want to play a flute when I fight just like Trelvor, and you can’t actually prove otherwise, so I object. I want to roll for it.”

“Zach!” Donovan snapped.

Zach continued to fold his arms for several more seconds as the glare from Donovan intensified. But finally, he sighed and uncrossed them. “Okay, fine, whatever. This is bullshit. But whatever. Just give it away.”

System is totally rigged, he thought angrily to himself. I hate need before greed.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Jimmy carefully picked up the flute, which was made of pure gold and silver with various multicolored gemstones embedded into it. Lienne thanked him and put it in her Bank and Storage. And then Jimmy returned to where he had been standing and instructed everyone to take out their cell phone.

“So, we’re gonna do things a bit differently than you guys usually do them.”

“How so?” Zephyr asked.

“Well, usually you guys go item by item and have everybody roll for each one. I kinda hate this system ‘cause, let’s say you get the second highest roll on something, and then you never even come close again after that. It kinda’ sucks, right?”

“So what are you proposing?”

“Well, in some of the simulations I used to play, like DAOC, what we do is we all roll a random number between 1 and 10,000, right? All of us roll at once. Then we go down the list from highest to lowest, and any duplicates along the way reroll among themselves.”

Donovan curled his bottom lip as though surprised. “That…that’s not a bad idea. Certainly speeds shit up.”

“Hmm, but it’s less fun, no?” Maric asked. “Lacks the ceremony of it all.”

“Yeah, true,” Donovan said, “but after the dragon raid, I bet lots’a people just wanna roll and get done with it before fate puts something nasty in our way.”

Zach nodded. “That’s how I feel, actually.” To Jimmy, he said, “Can you start showing off the items? Let’s see that sword.”

Zach knew every eye was on that blade, and as Jimmy bent down and picked it up, he found himself already praying to the Gods that it would end up his. It was a damned beautiful weapon. Before even looking at its stats, Zach already found himself impressed. The sword was currently inside its scabbard, which was completely black with little white glowing dots that made it look like a scene from outer space, only there were visible golden trails that would start at the top of the scabbard and travel all the way to the hilt itself. But these golden trails vanished abruptly as, with a shing, Jimmy removed the sword from its scabbard and gently placed the scabbard on the ground.

“Wow,” several adventurers said at once—including Zach.

The blade itself was miraculous. The hilt was made of a dark silver, and the edge was made of a darker, but similar silver. Yet from the sharp, pointed end down to around halfway along the length of the blade, there were several words inscribed in what looked like Elvish writing, and these words would slowly light up a vibrant purple before becoming dull and unlit—only to light up yet again like a pulse.

“Here are the stats,” Jimmy said.

Name

The Primordial Void Blade

Level

85

Rarity

Artifact

Strength

+35

Dexterity

+35

Constitution

+35

Passive Ability

Equalize 40

Zach blinked twice, then said, “Wait, that’s it? Seriously?”

Muttering came from all around him as his fellow adventurers had the same reaction that he did. Even Jimmy made a “hmm” sound and then scratched his head right after carefully sheathing the blade and placing it back down on the ground.

“Fuckin’ thing is artifact quality?” Donovan’s deep voice grumbled to Zephyr. “Nowhere near as good as your blade. I guess not all artifacts are equal.”

“That really depends,” Zephyr replied. “What exactly is ‘Equalize 40?’”

It was a good question—and it soon became the dominant one that Zach could hear people asking as it was raised by one person after the next. Even the political guilds began discussing it amongst themselves. Eventually, everyone turned to Jimmy as if for guidance, but even he could only just shrug and say he had no idea whatsoever.

Finally, after several minutes of discussion, an idea came to Zach. “Wait, I might be able to tell you guys what it is,” he said.

“Huh? How?” Alixa asked.

“We’re all in the same raiding group, right? Tell me if you can see this.”

Zach, in a way similar to Jimmy, pulled forward a screen and enlarged it so that every single person on the raid could see it. And this, for some reason, caused a tremendous stir. Even among those who had seen it before, but exponentially more from those who had not. “Th-there’s such a thing as a glossary?” Alixa asked as though in total shock, her sword-shaped earrings swaying as she jerked her head back.

“How is there a glossary?” Zephyr asked, his mouth fully opened wide. “And how have you never bothered to tell anyone this before, Zach?”

“It’s because I can only use it while in Unleashed Phase,” he said. “And that’s not something I’m going to do just for a damn glossary. Anyway, let me search it.”

Zach mentally sent the term “Equalize” into the search, and unsurprisingly, it popped up immediately. Yet despite there being a glossary entry for the term, it still didn’t quite clear things up for him. And judging from the look on everyone else’s faces, it didn’t do much to help their understanding, either.

Glossary Entry: Equalize X

Equalize X is an ability where X = an integer representing an upper bound, which is compared against Player Level P and enemy level Y. For all enemies of level Y such that Y>P, first-order damage calculation is adjusted such that if Y: X <= P, then Y = P. Otherwise, Y = Y-X.

“What is this, homework?” Zach asked, annoyed. “It actually hurts to think about this.”

“You’re not kidding,” Rian said. He shrugged. “Guess the weapon sucks. Next!”

Rather than comply, Jimmy held up his hand, clearly signaling for patience. Zach then watched as he read it over several more times. “Okay, I get what this is saying.”

“Wait, you do?” like five people blurted out at once.

“Yeah, it’s simple once you think about it. The weapon is actually crazy good.”

“It is?” Zach asked, once again feeling the return of his greed. In a flash, he’d gone from desperately wanting the weapon to not caring about it—and now he was back to desiring it again. “Can you explain it to us?”

“Yeah, what it’s saying is actually simple, but I don’t know why it’s written so confusingly.” He pointed at the glossary entry that Zach was projecting. “Basically, as I’m sure everybody knows—and this was like the first shit I even figured out when I started adventuring—when you attack a mob, there’s like two checks that take place. Or at least, ‘check’ is the word I’m familiar with using. First, your relevant stats are checked against the mob’s level, which is why if ya’ll attack a mob that’s really high level, you can end up hitting for 0 below a certain stat cutoff.” Jimmy paused as if to breathe, then continued. “Afterwards, there’s a check against the mob’s defense, magic resist, and all that other shit. And finally, sometimes, there’s situational stuff.”

“And how does equalize fit in?” Zephyr asked.

“What this is saying,” Jimmy explained, “is that when damage is calculated, it’s treated like the mob that you’re fighting is lower level than it actually is, but never lower than your own level. So like, let’s say you swing this sword at something that’s level 100, and you’re level 60. When it checks your strength stat against the enemy’s level, the enemy’s gonna be treated like it’s also level 60 during the first DPS check. But if you’re 65, it’ll treat it like it’s 65, ‘cause it can never go lower than your own level—or I mean, you know, the level of whoever’s holding the sword.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” Zephyr said, sounding content as he nodded. “So, if the mob was level 110, and you’re 60, it’d be like slashing at something that’s level 70, because at most, it can equalize by 40 levels.”

“Exactly.”

Zephyr nodded appreciatively. “That is incredibly powerful.”

Zach, listening along, thought he understood things now, though it annoyed him that it was so confusingly described. In truth, he doubted he’d have any use for the weapon, but it would definitely be worth a shit ton of gold, and who knew what the future could hold? Maybe he could learn to dual wield, or maybe he’d try soloing a boss or whatever. Or who even cared what his justification was? He wanted that weapon!

And so does everybody else who can use a sword, Zach thought, his eyes narrowing at the competition.

As Jimmy continued to show off the loot, Zach struggled to pay attention as his mind kept wandering back to that awesome-looking sword. That was the real prize here. Especially since one of the two legendary items was automatically going to Trelvor, who wasn’t even here right now to accept it. And the other Legendary Item was a steeple-hat that, when worn, caused spiral-looking galaxies to rotate around the head of whoever wore it. It was purely for mages, however, boasting high intelligence and no constitution—and no armor, either. It had an ability on it that raised magic defense significantly.

The Epic Rares were all good, but nothing exceptional or worth fawning over. It reminded him of just how great his own sword was, as despite being an Epic Rare, Zach honestly considered it more powerful and more useful than the few Artifact-quality items he’d seen. But that was also because of the way in which it was uniquely suited to his own ability set.

That sword is the only really good drop!

Jimmy continued on, showing off item after item, and then finally, he announced that for everything rare and lower, people would just have to go inspect those themselves, as there was no excitement or urgency for anyone to really care about those just yet. It was Epic Rarity and up that most people wanted.

“Everybody, open up the random number generator app on your phones,” he said. “And join my chat group.”

Zach hurriedly entered the information Jimmy provided and then felt nervous energy rushing through him as he waited for things to begin. Wanting to get this done with, he fortunately did not have to wait very long. After announcing that anyone who hadn’t yet joined needed to get in right now or miss out, Jimmy seemed ready to continue.

“All right, if everybody’s in, then on three, press generate. Ready? One…two…three!”

In near perfect harmony, every adventurer and political guild member who’d participated in the raid pressed down on their phone. And then the chat filled up all at once with more than a hundred numbers, which caused Zach’s screen to scroll so fast he didn’t even get to see what he himself rolled. This appeared to be true of everyone else as well, because the sight of agitated fingers flicking against screens immediately followed.

What did I get, what did I get, what did I get!

Zach found his name, and then his eyes darted to the right. He gasped.

Zachys Calador: 9,972

That’s a really high number!

All around him, there were disappointed groans from anyone with a number less than 9,500, which was, naturally, most of the entire raid. But following these groans, Zach could see a few individuals nervously checking all the numbers above and below theirs to see if they were the highest—or near the highest—on the list. This turned out to be a waste of time, however, for a moment later, Jimmy simply pushed a button, and the list sorted itself in descending order. And now, Zach felt both excitement as well as disappointment as the official loot order was revealed.

#1: 9,991

Lienne Astafort

#2: 9,982

Zephyr Vextran

#3: 9,972

Zachys Calador

#4: 9,800

Maric Ultdern

#5: 9,702

Fiona Darkmae

Zach swore under his breath, though he did so with just a tiny bit less anger and disappointment than he would have had he been any lower on the list. With only 1 artifact-quality item and 1 legendary item up for grabs, he was almost certainly going to have to settle for whatever Epic Rare item he could argue he needed. With lust in his eyes, he looked back over to that beautiful, super-duper rare sword, with its starry, hauntingly mystical scabbard, and its confusing, but really powerful ability.

Gods! Why am I so unlucky?

Jimmy chuckled. “All right, let’s get this done with. Lienne! You’re our top roll. What do you want?”

She squeaked happily and came running forward. “That,” she said, pointing at the legendary-rare steeple hat, which Jimmy handed to her. She immediately took off her own hat, replaced it with her new boss item, and then Zach watched her eyes lift to the top of her head as she tried to see the miniature, spiral-galaxy-like formations floating around and around her head. “Somebody go and take a picture for me. I want to see it!”

“Pfft,” an adventurer near Zach said, speaking low but still loudly enough for Zach to hear. “Lienne’s walking away with everything on this raid. The flute, the hat. This is crazy.”

“The hat’s going to Trelvor, dumbass,” Rian said, sticking up for his sister.

“So she claims. Who knows if she’ll really give it to him? And even if she does, he’s not even here. Zach was right. This is bullshit.”

Zach kept his mouth shut and decided not to intervene. Clearly, the adventurer was just having sour grapes over not getting anything, and that was something he could clearly understand. After all, he himself was now staring daggers at Zephyr Vextran, the leader of the largest adventuring guild and the man who already had the only known artifact-quality sword. Zach practically chewed his own lip off as he enviously watched the man stand up, strut over to Jimmy, and then look right down at the weapon.

“I can guess what you’ll be taking,” Jimmy said with a laugh.

Zephyr returned the laugh. “Don’t you know it!”

Then, he performed two maneuvers back-to-back. First, he spun his body around, looked Zach directly in the eyes, and winked at him. Right after, he marched all the way over to the common pile, bent down, and picked up a giant box containing 50 packages of Skelly Chips. What followed was a bout of disbelief and confusion from not just Zach but many of the political guild members—but not so much from the other adventurers, who nodded along as though they’d expected him to do just that.

“Zephyr is one hell of a guy,” Maric said with a laugh. “He sure loves us, doesn’t he?”

“Yep, he sure does,” Donovan agreed.

Zephyr chuckled. “I could actually feel Zach’s hatred on my back.”

Zach, shocked, couldn’t even believe the lack of greed shown by the man. Zephyr was like the opposite of him in every single way. The man could have had literally anything on the entire raid, and he picked the most worthless item just so that everybody below him could get something better. It was almost enough to make Zach want to do the same: to make Zach pick a common item as well.

Almost.

Zach shot forward like a rock fired by a slingshot and said, “I’m next!”

“Yup, you are,” Jimmy agreed. “I’m guessing you want the—”

“Sword! Give it, give it, give it!”

“Here ya go, man.”

Jimmy handed him the blade, and Zach swelled with an unbelievable amount of giddiness and enthusiasm. What a score. What a massive achievement. An actual artifact-quality weapon: and it was his. He’d actually won it! He removed it from the scabbard and swung it a few times while his Sword of Light Amidst Darkness was secured on his back. It felt light, fast, and powerful. After taking another few slow, experimental swings at the air, he placed it back in the scabbard, summoned Bank and Storage, and stowed it away for later, when he’d decide what to do with it.

Sell it, probably.

In this moment, Zach, overjoyed and ecstatic, had no idea just how important this sword would be in a bit of time from now. He had no idea he’d be running through a high-level raiding dungeon all alone by himself and armed with nothing but this artifact-quality weapon and a set of crafted Royal Roses junk that was almost as bad as his original set back when he’d fought through Yorna. But this, he’d discover in due time. For now, he simply bathed in the good feelings and envious stares he earned as he watched Maric Ultdern pick out a brand-new shield, and Fiona Darkmae a new staff: both Epic Rare in quality.

He let his mind drift as the loot wound down. But then he remembered: his Unleashed Phase ended in just fifteen more minutes, and there was no guarantee anyone here could save him. Once more, he became nervous.