The Systems Challenge

Jonas was excited. He knew there was something behind this wall, but couldn't figure out where the opening was. It was a painstaking process that took at least an hour or two, he couldn't be sure in this place. Especially since there weren't any timepieces with which to keep track of time and Jonas himself never really had that much of an internal clock to help him keep track of how long things took.

However, he was now able to identify where the opening was, he couldn't hold his excitement in. It didn't take him long after that to figure out which block was the key to opening it. Then as the door opened outward, Jonas quickly pulled it fully open. He didn't know what to expect inside, but if nothing else, it was something that he'd found here that would make things at least a little different. If nothing else, it would make him feel better that he found something that he wasn't supposed to have found.

Inside the secret door, there was a small room that merely had a few objects inside. There was a few pieces of clothing, a few trinkets of jewelry, and a few bottles filled with some blue or green liquid that looked more like ooze than an actual liquid.

What he was able to determine easily about the items is that they were all magical in some form or other, with the clothing, there was a gold dress with a low-cut bodice and brown sleeveless shirt. The gold dress was fully enchanted, though he couldn't say how or in what way, but somehow he knew that it would be worth 12k gold. The brown shirt was worth 500 gold and was also enchanted.

With the jewelry, there was a gold necklace that he could say was worth 100 gold, a pair of platinum bracelets that would go for 1k gold together, a single silver earring with a red stone that looked like a drop of blood that was worth 7k gold, and finally a mythril circlet that was worth 400 gold, even though it looked like it was rather beat up and heavily dented. Although, he was surprised to know that it was made out of mythril, since he'd only ever heard of it in fantasy books and movies

Then even though Jonas didn't know what was in the bottles, he could tell that they were pretty much worth 100 gold to 500 gold each. Aside from the last bottle that had a green-brown kind of ooze in it. He couldn't say what that was worth. Though, he assumed that everything in there was magical in some way, even if he couldn't say how.

"What's in here?" Elmo asked, startling Jonas.

He'd been so focused on finding the room as well as the contents of the secret room that he'd forgotten about the rest of his team.

"Not sure," he replied. "But I think we have some valuable treasure in here."

"Treasure?" Elin asked, sounding rather confused. "What good would gold coins do us?"

Jonas shook his head. "Treasure can come in many forms. In this case, we have magical items, even though I have no idea in what way they're magical," Jonas replied as Elmo and Elin entered the secret room.

"I guess you were doing something useful after all," Kim remarked.

"If nothing else, I knew I got something that was supposed to remain hidden," Jonas replied, feeling more tired really than triumphant.

"So, what kind of magic items are we talking about?" Kim asked.

"A couple pieces of clothing, jewelry, and I think potions of some sort," Jonas answered.

"What are they enchanted with?"

Jonas chuckled as he shook his head. "I haven't a clue. All I can say is that they're magical in some way and how much they're worth and I'm not even sure how I know that much about them," Jonas commented.

"Well, if I remember, you did say you have that appraise skill. Maybe you could see how much they were worth because of that," Kim suggested.

Jonas shook his head. "There was one bottle that I couldn't say how much it was worth. I'm not sure if it was from my appraise skill or not. If I could tell what they were worth from that skill, why couldn't I tell how much that one bottle was worth?"

"Maybe it's because your skill isn't built up enough to know," Kim offered. "I mean, I can't say I really understand how a lot of this works, but that could be a reason."

"Maybe," Jonas allowed. "Though, lets see if there's a way we can find out what might be useful to us."

"Identify!" Jonas heard Elmo call out from inside the room.

Then as Kim and Jonas entered the room, they saw Elmo holding the gold necklace, looking into the space in front of him.

"What do you see?" Elin asked.

"I think this necklace is bound to whoever wears it first. That only they can get the bonus from it. The necklace I think makes it so you have resistance to fire and a boost to physical resistance," Elmo said before he put the necklace back down.

"What's the dress do?" Kim asked, as her eyes shifted between Elin and the dress, a small smile forming on her face.

Elmo walked over touched the dress as he called out, "Identify!"

Then he stared into space again for a minute before saying, "Like the necklace, only whoever wears this first can receive the full effects of the enchantment. It can resize itself to fit whoever is putting it on, even if they're not who wore it first. Um, then it can change color depending on the mood of whoever wore it first, regardless of if they're wearing it at that moment or not. Um, I think that one's listed as a curse. Um…oh! The main effect is that when worn, it will restore one MP every hour."

"Every hour?" Kim asked. "That's not that much. Why every hour?"

"Maybe because MP doesn't restore that quickly," Jonas suggested. "I mean, I used up my MP last night before the fight, and I'm maybe around halfway to full MP right now."

"Elin, how much MP do you have?" Elmo asked.

"Status," Elin said, sounding uncomfortable. Then as she stared in space in front of her for a minute, she said, "Um, it looks like I'm only at 4 MP right now- oh! I'm at 5 MP now. It just went up."

"If we have Elin wear it, it should let her use her magic more often. I think MP is supposed to replenish itself slowly so we can't abuse it and make ourselves overpowered with it," Jonas suggested.

"Hmmm," Kim replied, still looking between the dress and Kim. "Fine. I'll accept that. But first, lets see what else there is in here."

"Okay, I'll do this next," Elmo said, picking up the brown shirt. "Identify!"

Then after staring in space for a minute, Elmo said, "This shirt can't be bound to anyone. It merely offers protection like from a breastplate. I guess it's a cloth variation of armor."

"Okay, that's three down," Jonas remarked. "Let's move on to the next one."

Elmo nodded and picked up the earring. "Identify!" Then after a minute he continued. "This earring drains HP from any physical attack that hits a living opponent, restoring the HP of whoever is wearing it. It is bound to whoever wears it first, and… oh! It increases your armor based on how dark it is wherever you are."

"Well you'll get that, then," Kim remarks to Jonas.

"Why me?" Jonas asked.

"Because it's a single earring," Kim answered as if that should tell Jonas something. "If it's not a pair, then I'm not wearing any earrings."

Jonas merely chuckled as he watched Elmo move on to the next item. The bracelets.

"Identify!" Elmo cried. Then waited a minute. "When both of these bracelets are worn, the Str of whoever is wearing them is boosted by 5. Oh, and they're bound to whoever wears them first."

"Looks like we're each getting something from here, at the very least," Jonas remarked as Elmo puts the bracelets down.

"What do you mean?" Elin asked.

"Well, Elmo's getting that shirt, I'm getting the earring, you're getting the dress, and Kim will get the bracelets," Jonas replied.

"Why do I get the dress?" Elin asked, her expression showing how much she wanted it and revealing how she hadn't been paying attention to what they discussed about it when Elmo first identified it.

"Because it restores your MP every hour. Plus, I doubt that Elmo would care to wear a dress," Jonas replied, then started chuckling at the idea of Elmo wearing the dress.

"I see," Elin replied, walking back to the dress where she began examining it closely.

"Identify!" Elmo called out, holding the circlet in his hands. At which point Jonas remembered he knew it was mythril. Was that because of his appraisal skill too? "Okay, this is not bound to whoever wears it first, but it clears your mind of any mind altering effect. Though, until the effect goes away on its own or is dispelled, removing this will allow that effect to return."

"So, it merely prevents whatever effect from showing, I guess," Jonas remarked.

Then as Elmo checked each of the bottles, he found that the bottles with the blue ooze were healing potions. That they would restore HP of whoever drank them. Though, when Jonas heard that, he wasn't sure he'd be willing to drink that, even if he was on death's doorstep.

The bottles with the green ooze would restore MP and the last bottle that Jonas couldn't appraise wasn't something that Elmo could identify either. Which confused Elmo at first, until Jonas put a hand on his shoulder and told him not to worry about it.

"I couldn't tell how much it would sell for either. Kim suggested that my appraisal skill wasn't high enough so, maybe your identify isn't high enough for you to know what it is," Jonas said.

Elmo nodded. "I guess that could be it," he allowed, still sounding a little dejected.

"Okay, now that we've seen everything in here, can you all leave so I can change," Elin said, practically making love to the dress as she held it against herself.

"Okay, but let us know if you need help with anything," Jonas said as he left. "I'm sure Kim will be willing to come back in."

"Got that right," Jonas heard Kim remark quietly.

"I won't!" Elin called after them. Though as Jonas glanced at her before he left the room, he could see her face was beet red.

"How long before you thing she'll need help?" Jonas asked Kim.

"I don't know," Kim replied. "While it's one of those elaborate dresses with more parts to it than a motor, it looks like it's from a time that Elin was familiar with, so I don't know if she won't be able to put it on without trouble."

"Well, who knows," Jonas said, as they waited for a minute. Then added when the quiet continued on, "At least what we found should help us with whatever comes up after this."

Jonas was about to sit down when he heard Elin call out, "Um, Kim? Would you help me with this?"

Jonas merely laughed as Kim returned to the secret room with an eager expression on her face, hunger clear in her eyes.