So they just handed me down an old cursed artifact?!

And what about this is Heavenly, huh?!

… It is an interesting ‘skill’, though. The Abereth… Does that mean it’s Deep-related?

Could be from the lost epoch, then? Something a previous Marked-one left behind, maybe. Or another item like Ormoncleth’s unbreakable ‘sword’.

What’s surprising is that there isn’t a mana cost anywhere.

Let’s check the auras before summoning it…

[Aura of undeath]: Compatible corpses within the aura range will rise as feral zombies. Living beings within aura range have greatly hindered health regeneration.

I’ll probably have to get rid of that. I can still prevent my aura from raising random skeletons to an extent, but I don’t want to be creating zombies everywhere. Especially not ones I can’t control.

[Aura of silence]: Noises above a certain loudness threshold within the aura are suppressed. Sound-transmitted attacks within the aura range inflict no damage and no negative status.

That completely nullifies things like Alith’s shriek. Interesting. I could keep this.

[Aura of stillness]: Flow and decay are suppressed within aura range.

What the… Flow and decay? Decay I can imagine but flow? What flow? Water? Blood? This one might have to go as well.

And the last one is mine… I hope it’s nothing bad since I don’t think I can get rid of it.

[Aura of just deserts]: Justice is enforced by the Eye of Greed within aura range.

That… I, uh… No more information than that? Not on this thing’s definition of justice nor on the ‘eye of greed’?

Sofia slowly stood up from the bench.

“Already done? You didn’t even finish your bowl,” Kuli commented.

“No, I just have to try my new skill real fast, but it could be nasty so I’ll take some distance. I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Need help?”

“Hopefully not. I’ll show you after I make sure it’s safe.”

Kuli nodded and brought another fork full of salad into her mouth, before Sofia ran off into the mountains.

After a few jumps, she quickly checked her surroundings to make sure there was no one nearby, and used her new skill.

She felt the new mana circuits in her left arm activate, prompting her to unwillingly grab at the air in front of her. An object just appeared in her hand where she grabbed, oozing with a strange red mist.

Oh shit. The name wasn’t a coincidence. This is a genuine relic of the Deep. Sofia though, struggling to keep heavy object from falling from her hand.

Not what I expected to get from the system.

It feels… Unsettling.

The object was strange, some kind of squared rod with pyramidal ends, made in one block entirely of a lustrous black stone. It looked distinctly like a miniature tower plucked right out of a certain city Sofia had visited once, in the Deep. Its flat surfaces were covered in sinewy lines that felt slightly grooved to the touch, from which the red mist lazily escaped, dispersing into the sluggish mountain wind.

This damn thing… Must weigh several tons!

Feeling her arm start to severely ache, Sofia grabbed it with both hands, and tried storing it, or sending it back with the skill, but it did not go anywhere. It was just there, now.

Great.

Wanting to rest her arms, she tied to put it down on the ground, but it refused to go that low, simply hovering some twenty centimeters above the grass, spinning quietly around its central axis.

Sofia sat on a rock in front of the Abereth and just stared at it.

I feel my head spin just looking at it…

It really…

It must be a relic from Ser’Alhtra.

How the fuck…

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Ah, I understand why it felt so weird. It’s not just the appearance.

My thoughts feel slower. My mana feels sticky. The wind is slow and weak… That must be the aura of stillness.

Uck, this is like being sick. How do I get rid of that?

As if hearing her thoughts, the Abereth reacted. The mist-spewing grooves slowly spread open, revealing the item’s true appearance. Weirdly-shaped, elongated eyes stared at Sofia, covering almost the entirety of the Abereth’s surface. The eyes’ whites were bright and clear, without blemishes, and the pupils were of the same reflective black as the original stone the thing was made of. The pupils slowly moved to fixate on Sofia as the Abereth kept spinning.

Among the sea of wavy and curved eyes, a few three-pronged maws filled with tiny sharp black teeth could be spotted, and three of them held glowing rocks prisoner between their teeth.

While Sofia was locked out of using [Identify] due to her specialization’s mana debt, the skill itself still labelled the three rocks as [Jewel of Undeath], [Jewel of Stillness], and [Jewel of Silence].

Sofia unsheathed her dagger, and the eyes and maws all snapped shut.

“... Really?”

Sheathing the dagger back, the eyes slowly re-opened.

After some hesitation, with a sigh, Sofia grabbed the Abereth again. She could feel the eyes lightly squirming under her palm, their pupils still following her as she tilted the artefact, to keep staring at her face even through her hand.

Finding the maw with the Jewel of stillness again, which had moved to a completely different place, Sofia observed it more closely.

Wait… It’s still producing mana…

No wonder this ‘skill’ costs no mana. That explains why it needs stones from recently deceased people only. It’s maintaining the mana hearts alive somehow…

Already determined to get rid of the annoying stillness aura, she slowly inserted a finger between the rows black teeth to scoop out the ‘jewel’.

You better not close now.

The teeth tore through her skin, and, as she pulled the jewel out, it crumbled into dust instead of leaving the object’s mouth. The feeling of sluggishness in the air was instantly lifted.

What kind of a madman designed this thing? Sofia wondered, looking at her mangled finger, the skin torn to the bones, healing at a very slow pace because of the [Aura of undeath]’s interference.

Sofia quickly pulled the philosopher’s stone out of her storage, and her finger regenerated almost instantly.

So the philosopher’s powers are more potent. Good to know.

Since she was already at it, Sofia removed the aura of undeath too, leaving only the Jewel of silence inside of the strange object. The eyes and maws slowly closed shut again.

“Well… I’m stuck with this now. I hate to admit it but there’s hardly a better owner for it… And it’s pretty much exactly what I wanted… It looks and feels disgusting but I can’t even complain… I just need to get the appropriate jewels and I can leave that in the middle of my city and forget about it. If I could get an aura of shielding…”

Sofia reflexively tried to store the item again, frowning when it failed. Sighing once more, she flew back toward Kuli’s house, leaving the heavy artifact behind.

She sat back at the table without saying anything getting back to her meal.

“Neh… So… The new skill?”

“It’s an artefact from the Deep,” Sofia deadpanned.

“HUH?!” Kuli reacted, wide-eyed, almost snapping her fork in half.

Sofia quietly activated the mana circuits in her left arm, and grabbed the Abereth from the void, letting it float quietly above the table.

“Is that thing safe?!” Kuli asked, visibly leaning back away from the accursed thing.

“Should be… You better get used to it because I apparently cannot get rid of it. Double-locked skill. I can’t even put it in storage. Here, read the skill description, because I really can’t tell you much more than what it says…”

Sofia watched Kuli’s eyes quickly go back and forth over the lines of the system window.

She was silent for a bit, then slowly stood up from the table, “I’ll go grab something to drink…”

Pareth and Pestle examined the strange object while Kuli was away, and she came back a minute later with a red bottle and four glasses. She poured a drink for everyone except Bookie, and judging from the smell and the thick mist of mana emanating from the dark-purple liquid, Sofia could guess it wasn’t something weak.

Pareth looked at the glass in his hand, visibly confused.

“I don’t know man, if Pestle can drink I don’t see why you can’t,” Kuli said, downing her glass in one shot and pouring herself another one right away, taking a long sip of it before anyone else even had a chance to taste the drink. “Ahhh… I really needed that…”

“Did the skill shock you that much?” Sofia asked, slowly bring her glass to her lips and getting a tiny sip of the potent magical alcool that tasted strong and fruity.

While Pareth awkwardly moved his mana heart to his throat and tentatively poured the drink into his mouth, Kuli lightly shook her head.

“Heh. Maybe it did. Or maybe I just wanted an excuse to drink. But it is a fucked skill to receive. Nothing I wouldn’t expect from you, that being said.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Sofia answered, glancing at the object still floating in between them, “I’m stuck with it now so better get used to it. It’s not even that bad as long as it keeps its eyes closed.”

“Eyes?”

Sofia awkwardly scratched the base of her horns without saying anything, prompting Kuli to entirely down what remained of her second glass and pour herself a third one.

After some reflexion she said something unexpected, “I can get you more ‘jewels’ if you want.”

It was Sofia’s turn to be shocked. “You… Huh?!”

“Neh, don’t look at me like that. You already got a skeleton out of Xeros, didn’t ya. What I’m saying is, we have a few death row rotting in jail. Might as well make good use of those fuckers,” Kuli explained in between two sips.

“Oh… You’ve got multiple people above 250 in jail?”

“Yeah. Not many, but we do.”

“Why not have killed them right away?” Sofia asked.

The glass in Kuli’s hand shattered, she spoke with clear hatred and disgust in her voice. “That’d be much too nice a punishment.”