[TEA] (173) 4.15. The Hidden Sticks

Never before had Asher run out of energy solely from overusing Personal Rift, but he supposed there was a first time for everything. By the time they’d cleared out the library, he’d had to pause on two separate occasions to catch his breath and recover energy, which was strangely embarrassing, seeing as he was simply walking around and laying his hand on different books. Thankfully, Samantha kept the teasing to a minimum.

It might have helped when he jokingly threatened to withhold her half of the shards they were going to get selling the collection of books at the Grand Auction. Assuming whatever collectors who were interested in such books didn’t mind a little imp blood here and there, he imagined they were going to make quite the profit from this little endeavor, even if they didn’t end up getting any potions or enchanted items from the tower. Doubly so when Samantha ended up stumbling upon another fully formed Knowledge element balancing atop one of the larger shelves of books. That alone would be a nice payday.

Finally, after shoving the element and the entirety of the salvageable books into his Personal Rift, and leveling up the skill yet again to level 29, it was time to carry on down the tower. The itch in the back of his skull that had alerted him to the presence of demons had finally abated, but that didn’t mean they could grow lax. They had already experienced one of the lich’s booby traps, after all, and Asher wouldn’t put it past the wizard to have laced its armory with something similar.

Which was why upon reaching the armory where he’d stolen his very first bandolier and mithral dagger, Asher took things a bit more cautiously.

Standing within the astral and poking his head through the door, Asher scanned the room ever so carefully. Just like with the alchemical room up above, he didn’t see anything out of place, but obviously, that meant little when dealing with an immensely powerful wizard. In the end, they really only had two options. Take their chances with setting off another trap, or simply turn around and walk away. And seeing as there were in fact still a small handful of enchanted weapons here and there, Asher knew which of the two options he was leaning toward.

Pulling his head back into the stairwell, he returned to the material realm and shook his head. “It might be trapped, but I don’t see anything. I think we should take our chances though.”

“You made a good point about the lich knowing it needs you alive,” Samantha pointed out. “If this room is trapped as well, I doubt it will be powerful enough to kill you. Kill you for real, I mean.”

“Glad we’re on the same page,” Asher said, grinning at her. “Though maybe I should be a tad more concerned that my girlfriend is willing to let me blow myself up.”

“Bah, you heal fast,” she said, giving him a toothy grin in return. “Now stop stalling, get in there!”

Double checking to confirm Samantha had her wings manifested and at the ready, Asher slipped back through the door and stepped fully into the armory. The majority of the weapons were of the more mundane sort, like the iron daggers he’d originally taken for himself, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any of the more magical variety.

[Longsword] - Excellent quality. Swift Strike enchantment.

[Battleaxe] - Masterwork quality. Ravage enchantment.

There was even the strange, steel warhammer he’d noted during his first trip through the armory, leaning against the wall and just waiting for someone dumb enough to try swinging it.

[Warhammer] - Masterwork quality. Explosion enchantment.

Seriously, who the hell was that even made for in the first place?

Shaking his head, Asher held his breath as he let himself return to the material realm. He stood there for a few seconds, waiting for the room to detonate around him and break off yet another portion of the tower, but the explosion never came. Letting out a sigh of relief, he walked around and grabbed the three enchanted weapons, shoving them all within his rift. His rift was actually starting to get a bit full, but he didn’t have to worry about cramming Samantha into it for the trip back to the capital just yet. Pleased with his find, Asher turned and moved to head back to Samantha, when he paused.

Something was off.

Similar in a way to the itch in the back of his neck that his demon hunter class gave him when there were demons around, there was a similar sensation coming from the back of his eyes. It was incredibly distracting, not at all pleasant, and Asher didn’t have the faintest idea as to what was causing it. Rubbing at his eyes to no avail, he tried focusing on the itch with his mind, realizing it was drawing his attention to a particular part of the room. It felt like Secret Seeker, only about ten times as powerful and almost impossible to ignore. Giving in, Asher walked over to where the itch directed him, and found himself staring at a blank wall with absolutely no notable features.

“Alright,” he muttered, the itch going even crazier now that he’d gotten closer. “What do we have here?” Curious, he slipped into the astral and stuck his head through the nondescript wall, blinking in surprise.

Rather than finding himself looking out of the tower at the surrounding forest, he was instead peering at what could only be a secret room hidden behind the armory.

It is Secret Seeker that kicked in, only its second-tier effect! He realized with a start. While the first tier of Secret Seeker drew his eyes to things he otherwise might have missed, the second tier alerted him to completely hidden compartments or rooms, even if there wasn’t a single sign of their existence. The evolution had been a bit of a lackluster one up until now, but that looked like it was about to change as Asher excitedly stepped into the secret room and looked around.

Jackpot!

Lining the walls were three different wooden staffs, each held in place by a simple metal bracket. There was a fourth bracket that was currently empty, and based on the familiar appearance of the staffs, Asher didn’t have to guess what this room was.

The three staffs all look identical to the one the lich was carrying when I was first summoned, he thought, his eyes flicking between the different staffs. This has to be where the wizard keeps them. And I suppose it makes sense he has more than one


[Staff] - Masterwork quality. Banishment enchantment.

[Staff] - Masterwork quality. Cage of Suffering enchantment.

[Staff] - Masterwork quality. Rapid Summon enchantment.

The staffs enchanted with Cage of Suffering and Rapid Summon didn’t really sound like anything he wanted to mess with, but the one holding Banishment sounded like exactly what they were looking for. He supposed it made sense that a wizard who specialized in summoning beings from the other realms would have an emergency ‘rejection’ button in the event things got out of hand.

He could only guess at what the fourth staff had to have enchanted on it, but hopefully, it was closer to another version of Banishment than Cage of Suffering.

Doing his best to check for traps, Asher shrugged and went to take the staffs into his rift, before pausing at the last second. As his outstretched fingers hovered over the staff of Banishment, he frowned.

Wait
 Could someone use that skill in order to send me back to my own world?

After all this time, it was easy for Asher to sometimes forget that he was technically a realm wanderer, and that this world wasn’t actually his own. Seeing as someone had pulled him to this world in the first place, he could only assume that there had to be a method of sending him back home the way he’d come. And this was the wizard’s own staff. If anyone would be capable of such a feat, it would be the being who dragged him here, after all.

If I were to be sent home again, how would that even work? Would I still have my skills and elements back on Earth?

Asher spent a moment imagining what things would be like if he were thrust back into his old life with his current abilities in tow. He certainly wouldn’t continue working as a mortician’s apprentice, that was for sure. But if that was the case, what would he do? Would he end up trying to become some sort of vigilante superhero? Join up with the government and work with them to see if magic could be awoken in other people? Roam the world and see if he couldn’t find any naturally occurring elements like how they worked over here? He didn’t know what that future would look like, but he did know one thing for sure.

It was one he wanted to avoid at all costs.

His new life here with Samantha and Brian was leaps and bounds better than his old one back on Earth, and he wouldn’t change it for anything. If he did end up getting sent back to Earth somehow one of these days, he had a pretty good idea of what he’d really end up doing with his life.

Figuring out a way back.

With a grin, he quickly touched the three staffs one by one and stored them all within his Personal Rift. He’d have to let someone more knowledgeable than himself investigate them later and explain what they were actually capable of. Firmly holding them would allow him to see the details of the enchantment, but there was also the chance that the wizard had placed some sort of protective magic on them to prevent people from taking its personal staffs of choice. Asher had no idea if curses were a thing in this world, but if they were, he had a good feeling powerful magic staffs hidden within a secret room of an isolated tower were probably where he’d find them.

Returning back to the stairwell, he told Samantha about what he’d found.

“Okay, the staff with Banishment makes me feel a lot better about the two greater demons we have to fight,” she admitted, looking relieved. “We definitely need to have someone check that one over and make sure we can use it safely.”

“It will be a good trump card if it’s actually powerful enough to affect a greater demon, but not one we should rely on,” Asher pointed out. “Remember, even if we can just banish them, there’s nothing stopping them from simply returning to the material realm again to pick up where they left off. I need to kill them with my own hands, or we’ll never be truly rid of them.”

“Good point,” Samantha sighed. “I suppose there’s no getting around fighting more of the greater demons, is there? I still remember how effective my enchanted bow was against the greater demon we fought, the arrow didn’t even break the skin on the demon’s face.”

“Maybe we can find you a more powerful weapon,” Asher ventured. “Or we could combine enchanted arrows with the bow and make your shots more powerful. That sounds like something we could look into.”

“Actually, that’s not a bad idea,” Samantha admitted, looking thoughtful as they continued on down the stairs. “I’ll do some research once we’re back in the capital. Hilariously, Brian might know more about that than I do, so I can pick his brain before he heads off to the truthseeker program. Any other bright ideas as to how we could go about fighting the next greater demon?”

“In fact, I might have one or two,” Asher said, scratching his chin in thought as they stopped before the next room. “Though it’s not going to be entirely up to me.”

“What do you mean?” Samantha asked, raising an eyebrow. “You need someone else’s help to prepare something? Like a smith?”

“Not quite,” he said, unable to keep himself from laughing at her eyeroll at his evasive answers. “Don’t worry, I think it will work out in the end. It just depends on a couple of different factors. And if they’d be willing to help out in the first place.”