Sell you a Bridge chapter 66

The Clock Tower July 30th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

I  was in shock. I officially got twenty points over the last day. Each  time I got more it was ten instead of five. I'd leveled up again and put  all five of my stat gains into the points section. It took hours to do  it, even with me taking most of the XP. We didn't challenge The Butcher  yet obviously, but still. We had been down there for another few hours  last night, but we had to go after a while because Zee needed to get  home.

Aside from school, which  was getting more annoying and seemed less worthwhile but which I went to  anyway to both keep up the charade that I was normal and because my mom  wanted me to, I mostly wanted to spend all my time in the dungeon.  Sadly that wasn't possible. Zatara was home today and Zee made me  promise not to go without her so I was stuck back at the tower trying to  pick my next power.

Rather than close my eyes I mentally said Character and  the same gray window popped up. After I'd put my stat gains in I'd  unlocked a point total box on my character sheet. Which was pretty  weird, but the whole thing was useful, it helped me keep track of my  cash and the way my body worked and even my armor class, which was  stupidly low in cargos and a hoodie but oh well. My point total was at  forty right now, which was nice. I wasn't alone though Artemis was here  with me.

She  rolled her eyes as she watched me stare into space "Morgan. I'm still  sitting here you know? Can we try paying attention please. Now, I have  the gear to do my ritual but you want me to wait. Why? Because I kind of  want to be a kickass elf chick right now. Which I could, at this  moment, but somehow you think dragging this out is a good idea." I'd  been trying to convince her to put the ritual off for a bit and she  wasn't taking it well. But I did have my reasons and I needed the best  way to put this.

I  furrowed my brow a bit, thinking "There are items in the dungeon that  surpass magical. Unique they're called. They're mostly random, but  there's a few that always drop. One on each of the next two levels.  First is the one The Butcher drops. His cleaver gives plus ten strength  and does crazy amounts of damage. Second is The Undead Crown dropped by  the Skeleton King in level three. That one gives life steal on hit, and  the two of them are pretty strong, unique pieces that I think will  improve the ritual."

Artemis  moaned in misery "No! Don't tell me that! At this rate I'll have to  wait the whole dungeon to do it. I want to be an awesome elf NOW." I  just stared at her, raising an eyebrow, and she slumped to the table.  "Fine. I can wait I guess. I'm just lucky this dungeon is around. This  way I can tell my boyfriend I found a potion down there that transformed  me or something." She paused, looking concerned then looked over her  shoulder. "I should try to find some kind of magic sex appeal item to  throw in.I know the dungeon doesn't have them but my butt is a little  flat,I could do with some thickening."

I  rolled my eyes at my best friend "Or maybe wasting one of the  foundation aspects your new custom race will be built on on getting a  bigger ass is petty and won't help you survive. You're plenty hot  enough, and becoming an elf will already make you hotter. Giving up a  potential long term power up for some junk in your trunk is just  stupid." Not that I didn't get the impulse, but my power took care of  that for me luckily. Still she only got one shot at this and I was  loathe to let her waste it on magical butt implants.

She  just glared at me "That's easy for you to say Mr. 'my power can make my  dick bigger whenever I want and my girlfriend has a dumptruck ass that  would be at home in a rap video.' There's a charisma stat on my sheet so  adding in a little sex appeal makes sense. Don't want to make it a dump  stat. I'll ask Madame Xanadu if she has something we can use if that's  cool. Or should I not show her the ritual? I don't want to give up the  ghost so to speak about your power." I hadn't considered that but it  made sense. Madame Xanadu was the last person we should show the ritual  to.

I  considered it but finally shook my head. "Maybe ask her about something  you could buy to help with impressing Wally? Don't mention the ritual  it'll raise too many questions. But fine, it's your show, if you want a  sex appeal artifact in there you can have one, but if you do that you  have to use the Butcher's Cleaver and The Undead Crown. I think Unique  and powerful artifacts with a story will have better effects." I wanted  Artemis's new race to have the best possible foundation. Partly because  she deserved it, and partly because this was the first time I was  designing an entire species and I wanted to do it right.

She  huffed a bit but nodded. "Fine. You're right I know, I'm just excited.  This is going to change my whole life. Hell it might change the whole  world. We're inventing a race of elves, how cool is that? I want them to  be badass, my kids will be this race if I ever manage to have any. Or  half anyway. But enough about that for now. You said you doubled your  point gain, do you know what your next power is going to be?" She seemed  almost as excited as I was, and I couldn't help but laugh.

I  pulled up my phone and showed her a list. I'd spent the day flipping  through various offers and trying to find something that would fit with  what I was already doing with my abilities. "A few things actually  though they're all expensive. First up I found a serum that gives short  range teleporting powers. Sort of a blink thing, only within line of  sight and within a hundred feet or so. Really drives home how lucky  Reggie got with that random power because its two hundred fucking  points. Apparently even with severe limitations getting a specific  superpower is pricey as hell."

I  pulled up the next one "Second, and my personal favorite is a magical  ability set called Shadow Dancing. The email comes from some weird  fictional sect of underworld monks offering to train people in the  disciplines of the dark. Shadow manipulation and shadow teleports which  harmonizes really well with my current abilities. That one is only three  hundred actually, I had figured it would be pricier because it's less  limited but I would assume that it costs points per use and probably a  hefty amount."

Finally  I pulled up the final email I had marked. "This one goes in a totally  different direction. It's called Raven Wing. Some kind of weird animal  totem scam where people offer you the ancient secrets to transform into a  bird. It's five hundred, which I assume means the actual transformation  is either free or only costs a few points each time, because there's no  downside there from what I can see." I shrugged "I have no idea which  to pick honestly, they all work with my current abilities. I have no  clue which one to go with, any ideas?"

Artemis  put on a contemplative expression. Despite being so excitable about her  own progression Artemis tended to really mull over anything about other  people's advancement. It was harder to be objective when you were  excited but she was someone I could always count on to tell it to me  straight when I asked. "I'd say probably the Shadow Dancing ability.  It'll take a ton of saving but I think you're right about it harmonizing  with your other powers. Besides you can always get the Raven Wing power  later right? They don't disappear or anything do they?"

That  was actually a really good point. The teleportation power wasn't  necessary with the shadow porting but the Raven Wing ability could work  with my build even after I added the Shadow Dancing. Of course the whole  thing would cost eight hundred points, which meant I would need to do  some serious leveling. But if I got Shadow Dancing first it should help  me kill things a bit faster. I grinned at her "That works then, thanks  Arty, I can always count on you for good advice. I hadn't considered  doing both. I guess I'm just so used to being forced to choose I got  into that mindset after helping you do your shopping on here."

I  was gleeful at the thought of the kind of gear I could earn once I had  these new powers. Not to mention the Shadow Dancing power mentioned  something about "reinforcing your flesh with the power of darkness" and  despite how edgy that sounded I was damn sure it would be useful. I  turned to face Artemis "So, we have three of your items picked out. What  are the other two?" I was curious what stats she would go with. I  assumed something with dexterity in it but the rest was up in the air.

She  reached into her pocket and pulled out two pieces of gear. "First up is  the Amulet of Precision. Plus ten to dexterity. Not crazy but pretty  damn respectable. Second I got the Ferocious belt of the Angels. Ten  percent damage and plus three holy damage on hit. Which seems like it  would be an interesting thing to throw into the mix, what with the undead stuff and the murder stuff from the cleaver and crown. As long as  I get my sexiness artifact I should have a full layout to make  something amazing. I wonder what species we're gonna create?"

I  was wondering that myself. Undeath, slaughter, holy, damage, and  dexterity. I also had to wonder how the use of these pieces of gear  would interact with the leveling system. I considered letting Artemis  know she might be able to level up like I could but it wasn't a sure  thing so I didn't want to get her hopes up. We finished going over the  details of the ritual again just to be safe, and then headed out to talk  to Madame Xanadu. I was actually tempted to tell her about the ritual  because I knew she had something that would be perfect for Artemis.

I  had seen some of the new stuff in Madame Xanadu's back room when I  helped clean up the shop, and I knew for a fact that Aphrodite's Girdle  was back there. An artifact like that would be an amazing foundation to  make Artemis's new race if we could get it, but I was positive she  wouldn't hand it over to Artemis just to make her boyfriend drool a bit.  If she didn't know about the artifact...then I froze. I still had the  choice to take something from that room. One thing. I'd owe her a favor  but for this it would be worth it.

I  went to intercept Artemis and told her my plan, she seemed a bit  worried but Madame Xanadu had been pretty decent to us so far so a favor  wasn't the end of the world. I pulled out my phone and called her. I  didn't know why I was so obsessed with this, but like I told Artemis she  only got once chance at this, and I wanted the species I created to be  something earthshaking. Plus maybe the whole desire and love aspect  would help with fertility and I could tell Artemis worried about never  having kids even if she didn't say it. I got the response from Madame  Xanadu and headed to pick up the girdle. This was going to be amazing.