"This is an impressive piece, Bors." Aldrich closed his fist, observing the golden glint of his Solar Seal. "How did you manage to implement holy type damage into this? And the healing?"
From what Aldrich could tell, Seth Solar's powers did not involve any form of healing. Or, at the very least, not any healing that affected others. It was true that Seth could recover from wounds quickly, but not to the extent it was considered an Alter power on its own.
At best, Seth could recover a broken bone in, say, a few days opposed to the weeks it took for an Alter of his grade to naturally do so with just cell count alone.
Even Seth's father, Solomon, who had a far more trained version of the power, could at best recover a broken arm in the span of an hour which, though impressive, was not anything close to a specialized Alter power.
For example, the Geist could easily recover an entirely torn arm within seconds. Solomon Solar could not come close to that knitting together a fractured bone, let alone actually growing an entirely new limb.
"Lord gave me some glass from flask you had. Had shiny magic in it. I forge that magic into the seal," said Bors. "Soul you gave me was shiny too. Matched very well."
"I see." So the Death Lord had Bors reforge the healing flask from Amara into something that Aldrich could use more effectively. Quite a good idea, Aldrich had to admit.
Aldrich tested out the sea. He channeled magical energy into it, and it flashed gold. In his hand, a longsword made of solid golden light manifested. An aura of warm light emanated around the outline of the construct, capable of burning any being with negative karma.
Aldrich was curious about that. Beings in Elden World received negative karma the more negative energy they harnessed or created in others with negative energy most easily produced from emotions like pain and fear.
Some beings like undead and demons were inherently creatures that had negative energy flowing through them regardless of whether they caused terror in others, so holy attacks were particularly effective against them.
But how would this work in the real world? Would these attacks do bonus burning damage to those who had caused more suffering? How would that even be determined?
Would this potentially be a good way to spot who was 'evil' and who was not? Even if they put up a goody two shoes front?
It was an interesting topic to think about.
"I like it," said Aldrich. He made three swift slashes in front of him. The golden longsword left trails of dimming light like the comet of a tail. "This will come in incredibly handy. Thanks, Bors."
"That's not all!" Bors said with glee. He reached down from his enormous worktable that completely dwarfed Aldrich and withdrew a cloak and a bell. Both items sat atop the cracked grey skin of his giant palm.
Aldrich's eyes widened as he recognized the cloak. At cursory glance, it looked rather ragged, comprised of tattered dark green cloth with frayed ends. A green glow rose up and down the cloak in a constantly flowing pattern, and wherever that glow passed, it revealed the silhouette of skulls and eyes trapped within the fabric - the ancient souls of countless worthy victims all knitted together to create this revered item.
It was the [Hallowed Gravecloak]. One of the Death Lord's personal items. It was a divine grade item, the highest grade there was, and in terms of sheer defensive usage it was potentially the absolute best in the entire game.
The cloak had a defensive passive called [Within the Grave] that made any attacks below a certain damage threshold just disappear upon reaching the wearer, making the wearer completely invulnerable to units under a certain power level.
It also granted flight to whoever it was on, which was especially useful because the cloak had a third passive called [Spirit Movement] that let it fly around freely, leaving its wearer to attach on others to grant them flight and defensive bonuses or stay fixed in specific spots.
[Spirit Movement] set up the cloak's active ability which really gave it its divine grade status.
Its active, known as [Hallowed Grave], created a circular zone where any unit within was rendered absolutely invulnerable to damage that originated from outside the boundary. It also prevented units from outside the zone from seeing within or targeting units within it.
In essence, it was the ultimate version of the [Spirit Boundary] that the Deildeghasts could cast.
The biggest weakness was that while casting [Hallowed Grave], the cloak had to stay fixed in one position.
There were other issues, too, like the fact that Aldrich was severely underleveled for the cloak. It was therefore [Limited], meaning that Aldrich could access heavily nerfed versions of the equipment's actives and bonuses.
"You get this cloak after finishing quest," said Bors. "But this, you have now." He pointed at the bell atop his palm with a huge finger that threatened to just ground the comparatively tiny accessory into dust.
"What is it?" said Aldrich.
"I dunno. The Lord made it herself for you. Using the rest of the shiny stuff."
Aldrich took the cloak and bell from Bors. The moment he touched the cloak, it flew to his back, attacking to his shoulders and adjusting its length to exactly match Aldrich's proportions.
Decked out in a black suit and dark green, tattered cloak, Aldrich expected to look ridiculous, but oddly, the cloak still had a sort of royal air to it that fit better than expected.
Besides fashion, Aldrich was more interested in the bell. It was a silver construct that he could comfortably hold via a handle of ivory white bone in his hand. He analyzed the bell using his system.
[Item: Death Knell]
[Grade: Divine (Limited)]
[Description: An item reforged using the blessed sun shards of the goddess Amara. The shards, upon being seeped into the waters of death, have quenched and tempered into a form more fitting for a death walker.
The Death Knell is capable of storing graves within it. By ringing the bell, the graves may be used to summon undead or be consumed for healing or mana restoration.
The current storage capacity is at 200. This capacity limit will increase as the user's level matches the item's grade.
Any undead summoned using a stored grave will be 'shallow', meaning that they are temporary constructs that will deteriorate over time. The rate of deterioration increases the longer the undead exist.
Cooldown: 1 Hour per usage
In addition, the Death Knell possesses two passives.
Threat Resonance: The bell will lightly vibrate when the user is in proximity to danger or killing intent directed towards them.
Kindred Resonance: The bell will ring when the user is in proximity to a kindred soul to them. That is, a soul that is similar to their own, allowing the user to more easily determine loyal subjects or allies.
However, the user must be warned that similarity does not necessarily mean compatibility.]
Aldrich equipped the bell, and it automatically floated to his waist, tethering to his hip like a utility belt gadget. Coupled with the Solar Seal, he now had 2/5 of the max amount of accessories he could have on at any given time.
The bell was much worse than the crystalline flask for pure healing or mana regeneration purposes. The 1 hour cooldown was the worst part. But it was infinitely more useful in every other regard.
Made sense.
The Death Lord could not replicate Amara's healing ability, even if she talked big. But the Death Lord had compensated in other ways.
Aldrich was satisfied. His playstyle already involved taking less risk to prevent getting damaged in the first place. The [Threat Resonance] would help Aldrich greatly, not to mention the capacity to summon up to 200 extra undead at a moment's notice.
Overall, Aldrich felt much, much stronger than before. With his as of yet untested [Frosthallowed War Scythe], Volantis's newly gained consciousness, the [Solar Seal], and the [Hallowed Gravecloak], and his new [Death Knell], Aldrich was itching to get into a real fight.
He felt an almost giddy rush that he had almost missed - the kind any gamer got when they scored a ton of rare loot.
With all of these tools combined, Aldrich was confident he could take on an A rank hero by himself if he used Seismic as a litmus test. Depending on combat compatibility, he might even be able to take out an S ranker.
