Ultimate Level 1
Chapter 517: Loot Time

Fowl’s hand trembled as he held a sun-colored potion. It glowed in his hands, and everyone was silent, shocked at what they saw.

“Is that… really one of them?” Cordellia whispered.

“Yeah… I… I didn’t expect this,” their warrior replied, his voice almost unable to be heard. “One is unheard of in the lifetime of an adventurer. But two?”

“Well, stop standing around and drink it,” Max said, patting his friend on the shoulder. “Let’s see what you get!”

Hitting his friend on the shoulder seemed to jar Fowl out of his daze. The dwarf opened the potion and downed the drink, smacking his mouth a few times.

“Still tastes like my mom’s stew…”

The dwarf jerked, mouth open, as a ray of light shot out from it for a second.

Everyone waited as his eyes widened, large tears forming as his whole body shook.

Dropping to his knees, Fowl clasped both hands and uttered a prayer. “Ockrim… thank you.”

As the seconds ticked by and no other words came from their warrior who knelt there in the white sand, their ranger finally spoke up.

“Okay, now I need to know. What is it?!”

Snorting, Fowl wiped his wet cheeks with the back of his hands and smiled.

“Something that… I’d never… imagined.”

Their warrior kept getting choked up, so Max handed him a water flask.

After Fowl took a big swing from it, he grunted and stood.

“In our legends, there are–”

“Who cares about stories, just tell me the damn skill!” Batrire exclaimed. “You’re making me jealous already!”

Laughing, he nodded.

“It’s the skill Ockrim’s Chosen .”

Batrire and Tanila both gasped, and Max was glad he wasn’t alone in not knowing anything about it. Cordellia looked at him with the same confused expression.

“Ockrim’s Chosen… on you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Fowl asked, frowning at Tanila.

“I mean… nothing… just… you’re not royalty. For you to have that… could cause problems in the dwarven kingdom.”

“Well it’s not like I’m going to flaunt it… I mean not for a while,” Fowl said with a wink.

Batrire moved forward, her hand trembling as she grabbed his beard and pulled him close.

“You will never tell anyone about it unless we’re directly asked. Do you hear me?”

Nodding as best as he could, their warrior slid his hands into their healer's armpits and lifted her up, twirling her around and laughing.

“So… does anyone mind if I go next?” Cordellia asked.

Max and the other nodded, and their ranger selected one of the four remaining items to be rolled on. When the timer counted down and only her face was present, a tiny skill stone sat in her hand.

“What the…” she said, staring at the purple, white, and orange swirled stone.

“What skill is it?” Max asked, noticing everyone else's raised eyebrows.

“It doesn’t say.”

“Well, crush it,” Fowl said.

Their ranger nodded and squeezed tightly. Light erupting from between her fingers was almost too bright to look at for a moment.

Orange, purple, and white tendrils of magic wrapped around her arms and raced to cover her entire body in a cocoon of power.

Cordellia gasped as the magic grew thicker and surrounded her, blocking out every inch of her.

It crystallized and hardened, leaving their ranger encased in a glass prison shaped like herself.

“Do we–”

“No,” Tanila said, cutting Fowl off. “Leave it.”

“But she can’t breathe, can she?”

“I don’t think it matters,” she replied, moving a few steps closer toward Cordelllia.

Seconds passed, and then, after almost half a minute had gone by and nothing had happened, Max began to get anxious.

“Tanila–”

“No… trust it. Whatever this is, I’ve never seen or heard of it, but I doubt we’re facing something harmful. The tower wouldn’t do that.”

Their mage’s voice seemed certain, and Max could feel a slight vibration from the crystal cocoon.

“So we wait?” he asked.

“Nothing else to do,” their mage replied. “In the meantime, why not let Batrire get hers?”

Their healer climbed onto her step stool and leaned in, touching one of the remaining unknown objects.

An elixir that looked like pure gold appeared in her hand, and she frowned.

“Fitzbitz Ultimate Elixer?”

She glanced at Tanila and Max, and both shrugged.

“What’s it say when you identify it?” Fowl asked, leaning in to study the prize Batrire had won.

“That’s it. Nothing else.”

“Well then, drink up,” their warrior said. “Who wouldn’t want to be the ultimate one?”

Groaning, Batrire glanced at where Cordellia was still encased and then at Tanila.

“You think it will be okay if I drink this? What if something happens and she needs a heal and I can’t help because it's done something to me?”

“I don’t think Cordellia will need help,” Tanila replied. “But if you want to wait, I understand.”

Frowning, Batrire glanced at their ranger and then at the elixir in her hand, her head slowly bobbing.

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“I… I’m going to go ahead and see what it does.”

With the utmost care, their healer undid the top, storing the glass stopper, dipped a finger into the gold liquid, and then touched it against her tongue. A gagging noise came as she spat.

“Ugg, that tastes… worse than that orange goo from a few tower floors back.”

Everyone grimaced, knowing full well how bad that had been.

“So, you going to drink it or you want me to give it a go?” Fowl asked, raising both eyebrows playfully.

“Oh go hump a troll! No, I’m not giving you this! It has to be something really good based on how it tastes. I just want to know why it has to taste so bad.”

They all chuckled as their healer took a few deep breaths, appearing to be psyching herself up for what would come next.

After the third one, she tilted her head back and downed the elixir, gulping down the entire thing in a single swallow.

Max moved, seeing their healer fall backward, her entire body stiff and rigid like a board.

“Batrire!” Fowl shouted.

Easily catching her, Max gently laid her on the tower floor, summoning a healing potion and preparing to pull the top off.

“Wait!” Tanila shouted. “Her hitpoints! They’re fine.”

Both men paused their actions, and Max saw that she was right.

“What in the gods is this stuff?” Fowl asked. “A crystal skill of legend, a… well, whatever Cordellia has, and now this?”

Batrire began to tremble and shake as if a seizure took over.

Heat began to radiate from around her and Max could feel the power exuding from her.

It pulsated repeatedly as she shook, and he had to hold out a hand, keeping his friend back.

“Wait…”

“But she’s–”

“Wait! Tanila is right,” Max said. “I can feel it and so can you.”

A dozen more pulses of energy came, and then the sound of a giant breath being taken came from Batrire as she began to breathe again.

“My love!”

Panting, their healer blinked, and Max sensed a change in her physical form. Her muscles expanded, and she started to grow taller.

A cry of pain came, and Fowl grabbed Batrire, pulling her close.

“What’s wrong?!”

“Max,” Tanila whispered. “You see it, don’t you?”

He nodded at her, watching as Batrire’s body changed. Gone was the softer shape of her easy life of healing. Now, it was a foot taller, almost as tall as him, and his sonar told him that her arms, legs, and torso were packed with dense muscle.

“Gods, I feel amazing,” Batrire said as she lifted a thicker hand and patted Fowl’s face.

The impact struck the dwarf harder than she expected, sending his head to the side and almost causing him to drop her.

“You hit me?! Why did you hit me?!”

She blinked, saw the red print forming on his cheek, and then glanced at her hand.

“I… I…”

“Check your stats, Batrire,” Max said. “I think you’ve grown a little bit.”

“Grown?” Fowl asked. “What do you–” He stopped talking, moving back as she sat up and frowned. “Are you taller?”

Their healer gasped and clenched her hand, hearing her knuckles pop and crack as she did. A smile began to form as she leaped to her feet, feeling both arms as she did.

“You’re almost as tall as them!” Fowl exclaimed. “You’re… taller than me!”

Laughing almost hysterically, Batrire grabbed him by the shoulder armor and lifted him, holding Fowl above her head and spinning him around as he had done to her just moments before.

“I promise you if you try to do that to me, I’m activating a skill,” Max whispered to Tanila, who laughed at his joke.

“Put me down, woman! Tell me what happened!”

Batrire relented, setting down their warrior, who took a step back. Both eyebrows became one as they furled together.

“The potion. It gave me 250 to my Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution!”

Max wasn’t the only one who appeared to choke at her words.

“250… to each stat?” Fowl asked. “You… you have three skills that are now tier one?”

“Five actually,” Batrire replied, puffing out her chest, grinning from ear to ear.

“Five… you have five…”

Their warrior started to laugh and then shook his head for a moment.

“Gods, that’s so sexy. I’m going to climb you like a–”

A cough from Tanila cut Fowl off, his cheeks turning red as their healer started to laugh.

“It would appear you’ll have to wait till later for that,” Batrire replied.

Max sighed, unsure if he was grossed out or ready for what would come next.

“Tanila. You’re up.”

Moving to the chest, their mage bit her lip, staring at the remaining two items.

“I wonder if it matters which one I pick. I mean, does it change on which one I win?”

“No one knows unless you’re holding back on the information,” Max replied.

She shook her head and then summoned a gold coin.

“I’ll let luck decide which one.”

She flipped the coin and let it fall against the stone and sand floor, the image of a tree showing for everyone to see.”

Without waiting, Tanila leaned over and touched one, and soon, a blood-red gem appeared in her hand. It looked like it swirled and moved with liquid.

Max watched as she studied it, holding it up and inspecting it from every side.

“What is it?” Fowl asked.

“I’m not sure, but I can’t get any information when I identify it. Worse, it says it’s bonded, so I can’t just hand it to someone else to try.”

Max perused his inventory and pulled out a dull orange gem.

“Want to see if this works?”

“Really? You think that would work on this?”

He shrugged.

“It’s the highest gem of unbinding I have. It’s the only one I have. You can’t find them anywhere else as no one seems to have the materials to make them now.”

“The real problem is you bought them all up and used them to unbind your stuff so you could give them away,” Fowl said. “Still… I think Tanila’s right. Would something of this power be able to be unbound?”

He held it out still, motioning once more with his hand.

“Try it if you want. It doesn’t matter if it fails. The last two have failed when I tried to unbind something.”

He watched her chew her lip and then shake her head.

“No, I’ll see what it does the hard way.”

Tanila took a deep breath and crushed it in her hand, gasping immediately.

Her hitpoints dipped slightly, and Batrire cast heal on her. The green glow that surrounded their mage was quickly replaced by a red strand of what appeared to be blood racing up her arm and toward her mouth.

It pushed past her clenched lips, disappearing inside, and Max saw her gold eyes turn red momentarily.

“Tanila!” Batrire exclaimed as she began to cast another heal.

“I’m… fine…” their mage replied. “I… the gem…”

Everyone waited for her to finish her answer as she turned her hand, pulling a sliver of glass that was stuck in her skin.

That gem… You can tell what I think it was.

Max knew the thought that Bob had, and felt his eyes widening.

“You unlocked a bloodline?”

She turned at him and nodded.

“I did… I’m at 25%.”

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