"Oi I got it, step off," countered Ethan as he finally popped open the chest while pushing Barik back. "You lot are too impatient, chest isn't going anywhere."
At this point no one really cared about what was being said as we all eyed the contents of the chest. As the lid to the chest fell backwards and the insides started to glimmer and shine in the darkness of the dungeon, my imagination ran wild at what there could be.
Was there gold?
Maybe there were jewels, gemstones, or magic crystals?
Perhaps a rare item, like an enchanted dagger or a scroll that taught a rare skill… the possibilities were endless. I wanted to know, Barik wanted to know, Alan wanted to know, so too, did the frost mage.
"What," Ethan said dejectedly.
"That's it, huh?" stated Barik with a slight sigh.
The four of them backed off as if the chest was empty, much to my confusion.
"Step aside if you're done," I said, trying to budge them so I could see what had caused the sudden depression to spread like a pathogen. Brushing past them, I looked down into the chest that had a number of silver coins and hundreds of copper coins.
That was it?
Couldn't be… a chest of gold or in this case, copper and silver was nice but, there had to be more. I wasn't sold, that couldn't be it. They wouldn't have hyped us up with a chest after this incredibly difficult boss only to provide us with some coinage.
That was almost blasphemous.
I wanted to cuss at the developer, if this was the case.
"Nah, there's gotta be something else down underneath," I said as I started to sift through the coins and felt around the chest. Parting the coins and running my hands through them, I finally made contact with something that wasn't a coin. Grabbing the circular object, it felt a lot like a ring.
"There's a ring," I said with some shock.
Pulling it out and inspecting it, I was actually kind of surprised.
The [Silver Ring of the Outcast Goblin Chief] was an enchanted ring that offered plus five-percent or plus ten, which ever was lesser, to your Endurance and Vitality stat. A scaling item, that would grow with you as the game progressed, up to at least plus ten Endurance and Vitality. That really wasn't too shabby.
No, it was quite strong.
Especially this early in the game, when the other rings that had dropped were only plus-three to an attribute, this one was at least plus-five for me and wouldn't cap out until it hit ten. If I wore four of those, I might not have stamina issues in combat anymore… hell, I could probably run forever.
That didn’t even count the bonus to health as well.
It wasn't that bad at all.
An item that could last you quite a while, disguised as a minor double attribute ring.
Hah, it was perfect for a tank.
"Catch," I called out to Barik as I tossed him the ring. "You'll want a few of those."
"Eh," he replied before actually looking.
Then his eyes seemed to widen as he looked over the details, glancing at me once then back at the ring. I knew what he was thinking, he wanted it. He only hesitated because we were both tanks and could use it equally.
"Roll ye for it?" he asked, somewhat expectedly.
"Hah, nah," I replied with a smirk. "You keep it, it will benefit you more right now."
"Ye sure?" he asked again, not wanting to take my kindness for granted.
"Yeah man, you're the main tank, 'grats," I replied with a nod.
The others looked on, a bit confused as to what had just transpired. I didn't even bother to include them in the discussion but, that was only natural. Items went to who could use them at this point, then it was split by value after. Everyone would get their equal cut eventually, and we had been running together for almost a week.
Plus, they were all from the same guild.
To deny their tank a tanking item, would be pretty stupid.
I was content with my decision.
"Right," he said with a nod of his own. "Thanks."
The others looked at me but I ignored them as I combed through the rest of the items on the floor. Barik ended up filling them in on the ring and its properties and they didn't have any complaints. It was expected, anyways.
As I started to gather the random swords, spears, shields, bows, axes, and jewelry, I finally came across the one unique item in the entire dungeon.
The halberd that belonged to the [Goblin Chief], the one that easily cut-up three people, was lying on the ground next to the corpse of the comparatively large goblin waiting for someone to grab it. It was a two-handed weapon, an axe, and a spear, all in one. The [Chief] had used a variety of skills from both the Axe and Spear proficiencies, such as [Heavy Swing], [Heavy Thrust], [Lunge], and [Quick Thrust], and the last one that caught Barik, [Jab 'n Hook], was one that belonged to the Halberd tree specifically.
That meant, you could utilize three different proficiencies with one weapon.
In itself, that was a bit broken.
Triple the amount of abilities compared to someone using a regular spear… well, there were drawbacks. The weapon was heavier, larger, and definitely more cumbersome. There was also the appearance factor, and it didn't really look as cool.
Yeah, aesthetics were important in an MMORPG.
Well, I was white with red blood stains and somewhat fluffy on top of hardened leather, but I didn't care much for appearance. Everything was practical, and cheap. Fur kept me warm in the harsh winters, the leather offered some minimal protection for the time being, and it at least all fit within the realm of a winter warrior.
Yeah, my fur coat was pretty badass though.
I liked that one, quite a bit.
"You taking that halberd?" asked Alan as he walked over and stood next to me.
"Oh, hadn't thought about it," I replied honestly. "Was just thinking of its usefulness, wasn't really thinking about actually taking it and using it."
"You lost your two-handed axe last time, didn't you?"
"Ah, it's been repaired," I answered with a shrug. "My one-handed axe fits better with the shield combo anyhow, so there was little reason to bring along the other axe."
"Take it," said Barik, having crept up behind me.
"We can split the other stuff mate," offered Ethan in addition. "Might as well take what you can use, I know I'm not coming back to this shit hole again."
Hah, yeah.
He had a point there.
"I don't see any of us returning here really," I laughed out half-heartedly. "Alright, I'll take that and we already split most of the loot earlier so, I'm headed off now."
"Right, have a good one," said Barik, with slight smirk.
Giving them a partial wave, I grabbed my stuff and headed towards the exit, parting with only a simple phrase, "night guys." By the time I reached the exit, I had fiddled with my bag and set all of my items inside, the only thing left was the halberd that was in my right hand. It was considerably heavier than my other two-handed axe, but that was understandable. Really, it was expected to be heavier, so that was normal.
What caught me off guard was that it was enchanted… and not only that.
It wasn't a simple regular weapon.
"Wait this…" I mumbled to myself, stopping right before the portal exit.
In my hands, was a named weapon.
That [Goblin Chief] dropped a [Defiled Halberd of Reaving].
The properties and stats were nearly identical to a normal axe and spear in damage, as most weapons were considerably close in damage range, but the durability was exceptional. A [Rare Grade] item of [Good Quality], with a special effect added on… it was something else, really. Both named portions of the Halberd seemed to have its own effect, with "Defiled" incurring a penalty to one's Vitality, to the order of minus eight-percent. On the other hand, "Reaving" gave a bonus of plus twenty-percent to [Execute] success, which was already quite high on its own.
So, I would lose roughly eight-percent of my total health when using the weapon, in order to almost effectively guarantee an [Execute] on a disoriented, weakened foe that couldn't defend itself. Eh, I didn't know if that was worth it.