Warsinger by James Baldwin (most important books of all time txt) 📕

darkened. “Have you talked to Suri yet? I felt the two of you having a lot of fun doing… things… last night.”

I bristled a little. “Do you have to tune in while we’re doing that? It’s private.”

“I don’t HAVE to…” She let go of her leg and tested out the movement of the armor with a few different kinds of kick: axe, side, and roundhouse. “But I enjoy it when you feel good. It’s warm and nice, and feels happy and kind of… I dunno. Squishy-cuddly?”

“Squishy-cuddly is… actually a pretty good way to describe what takes place.” I cleared my throat, glancing at Rin. She was oblivious, muttering to herself as she sketched notes.

“You didn’t answer my question about Suri.”

I winced. “No. I haven’t told her yet. I figured I’d wait until we finished our dungeon crawl fun time.”

Karalti squinted at me, her mouth drawing into a disapproving pout.

“Alright, alright… I’ll tell her when we get home.” I leaned back to slide down the wall and sit. “It just wasn’t the right time last night, okay?”

“I believe you.” Karalti squatted down and began to tooth-groom her cuticles, just like she would have with her claws.

“Okay!” Rin said. “The design on this suit is really good. I’m still only a Journeyman Crafter, so I can’t really improve on the basic design much, but I can reinforce it and probably boost the damage reduction enchantments a bit. Not by a lot, unfortunately… I can probably jack up the basic defense by about forty points and increase the Fire damage reduction by two percent. Per item, that is.”

“That’s four percent damage I don’t have to take,” I said. “Go ahead.”

“Okay! You’ll have to wait for about thirty minutes, alright?”

“No worries. I’ve got books.” Books, and trinkets. I took out the things that I’d looted from Davri and tried to manually read the item descriptions:

Davri’s Dagger

An exquisitely crafted dagger made out of a strange, flat gray metal. You must attune the dagger with your own blood to activate the magic. Once attuned, whenever you sneak attack an enemy, you deal +200 bonus necrotic damage and regain 100 HP from living enemies. If the afflicted enemy does not treat the necrosis within 5 hours, they may develop Gangrene.

“Lovely.” I gave the strange weapon the side-eye before drawing it and pulling the edge down the side of my thumb. It was so sharp that the small 1HP cut was painless. I squeezed to draw a little blood, and when I scraped it onto the blade, it sizzled before absorbing into the matte-gray metal. The dagger hilt pulsed and turned chilly and cold before slowly warming again.

Bangle of the Master Thief

A beautifully worked bangle of gold and bluecrystal mana under glass. +5 Dexterity, +15 to Lockpicking and Safecracking skills. Grants Darkvision when charged. Activating Darkvision consumes one mana slot, and lasts for 1 hour. (Mana slots: 4/5. Fuel Type: 60%+ Liquid Bluecrystal.)

Just as well I hadn’t taken that Darkvision ability. I slid the bangle on and thought I felt a little lighter and quicker. The last item was the Mother’s Coin.

Mother’s Coin

A coin that, once attuned, you will always be able to track. Attune the coin by speaking or thinking the activating Words of Power: “Has, Thra’t, Mor’hem.”

“Hmm.” That was an interesting one. I experimentally flipped it over my knuckles, thinking about what potential uses it had. The obvious one was as a tracking device, something to plant on people or vehicles, but I was betting there’d be other applications. “Has, Thra’t, Mor’hem.”

The golden coin flared with a small, intricate green design that slowly dwindled away.

“Here, Karalti: catch.” I flicked the coin to her.

She looked up from her nails and caught it out of the air. “What’s this?”

“Something for you to hold onto,” I said. “In case you ever get lost and I need to find you. Hide it somewhere no one will find it.”

“In case I ever get lost?” She smiled, but obligingly tucked the coin into her Inventory. “Dragons don’t get lost, silly.”

“I thought I was going to lose you at Davri’s.”

Karalti looked down. “Yeah. Explosion bad.”

While Rin banged away on metal, I pulled out War and Rulership, one of the books I’d borrowed from the Vulkan Keep Library. I was barely two pages into it when Rin got up, twirled my armor around, and held it up to me. “Okay! Here you go, Hector. See how this feels.”

Ruefully, I stashed the book and got to my feet. Rin turned while I changed back into my adventuring clothes. The Raven Suit now had a bit less leather and a bit more metal, and sure enough, +120 armor and 4% more fire resistance between the helmet and the suit, which was inclusive of boots and gloves. “Fits great. Feels like it weighs a bit more, but that’s to be expected.”

“Yep!” Rin beamed at me. “I think it looks cooler with more steel plating. That hammer you gave me is great. Do you think that’s all you need?”

“I think we’re as good as we’re going to get,” I said, bending down to pick up all of the climbing gear. “It’s occurred to me that this quest is probably way over our heads. I don’t know if three sub-level-thirty players really qualify to own an awe-inspiring super weapon like Withering Rose.”

“Well, think of it this way.” Rin planted her hands on her hips. “Let’s say you go to Dakhdir and find Withering Rose, but you can’t use her yet… then we know where to go when you can! It’ll be good motivation to use to level up. Grinding always goes faster when you know why you’re doing it.”

“It’s true.” I offered her a one-armed hug. She stepped into the embrace on her tip-toes, and gave me a friendly squeeze around the waist.

“Take care, guys,” she said. “And make sure to keep me company, alright? I’m worried about Ebisa… and Revala.”

“Have you heard anything?” I asked, reaching for Karalti as she padded over to me.

“Only a little.” Rin’s mouth