Chapter 688: A New Armour
Northern was certainly not expecting two items in a row from fighting in the dungeon. He had been slaying monsters for the past year, both in the Dark Continent and Central Plains, and could count the number of times he had received items.
As a matter of fact, he guessed that those items he received in his early days were because he was not yet considered an anomaly.
However, the moment he specifically stopped receiving items, he was sure Ul had considered him a strange happening in some way.
He did not complain about it at all. Not gaining items on his kills pained him; it restricted him from renewing his collections of weapons and armors.
The only two armors he had gained were Twilight Dawn and Night Terror.
The former, he had rendered to the clone he sent away with Hao; the latter was all that he had left, and it was slowly deteriorating.
His weapons, too. Stainless was a lucky gain from killing Cal. All he had owned to himself was Soul Taker, two daggers, and Dark Mortal.
He had a couple of charm items and utility ones, but he had sold them all to Hao in exchange for this necklace that had never once left his neck.
Being able to dive under the water and fight the Kirithon was no skill work, or an art and act of perseverance; Northern owed it all to the costly necklace. And so, on that note, it was a great buy from Hao.
Because of it, most of the items he gained from his first rift had been gone, leaving only the strong weapons.
And ever since that first rift, he had gotten items perhaps only twice or thrice, and they were not even worth his time. They wouldn't be worth anyone's.
Sucking in his breath and letting it out, Northern propped himself up and managed to cross his legs on the ground while he checked what the good item could be.
He summoned mentally, and the panel came to life.
[Item]
Name: [Molten Vein]
Type: [Armor]
Grade: [Heroic]
Order: [II]
Description: [Born from the depth of heat, is a will fierce enough to burn even the intangible.]
Order Ability: [Heat Absorption], [Fiery Stomp]
Northern's eyes lit up with stars dancing in their depths. A heroic armor!
Night Terror was the only Heroic grade Item he had, and he could testify to how terrifying the armor was. Adding one more to his collection of battle wearables was so amazing he could feel butterflies flutter in his stomach.
Unable to keep the joy within anymore, Northern immediately summoned the armor.
Following his consent, delicate weaves of black threads flowing like sentient beings with subtle sparkles in their trails wove themselves around his body.
Something dark that seemed to drink the little light around it appeared on his body. The plates were a deep, shadowed black, jagged and angular, as if carved from the bones of a forgotten god.
They overlapped seamlessly, each piece fitting together like scales on an apex predator. The surface wasn't smooth; it rippled with veins of cooled molten magma, their glow faint but alive, pulsing with a fiery red-orange hue.
These veins twisted and branched across the armor like living things, casting faint, hellish light that hinted at the dormant heat lurking within.
The chest piece was a masterwork of malevolence. The pauldrons jutted outward, wickedly spiked, as if daring anyone to come too close.
From the shoulders, the veins of magma ran down the arms, creeping across the gauntlets that ended in clawed fingers, each tip honed to a lethal point.
Faint wisps of smoke curled upward from the cracks in the armor, and the air around it was heavy, charged, as though the armor carried the weight of a long-forgotten inferno.
Its helm was the crowning terror. Sleek and sharp, the visor concealed his face entirely, save for the faint, flickering glow of magma-like light behind the slits, resembling predatory eyes burning with restrained fury.
A plume of crimson flowed from the back of the helm, not like hair or fabric, but more like liquid fire, writhing and shifting with a life of its own.
It added an unnatural elegance, a cruel majesty that only amplified the fear it commanded.
Downward, the veins of magma continued to crawl across the greaves, pooling faintly at the knee guards, which were adorned with jagged spikes. The boots were heavy and brutal, their soles marked with fiery trails that scorched the ground he was standing on.
The armor breathed menace with every pulse of the molten veins, every faint wisp of heat that escaped its surface.
Standing before it, the air felt heavier, hotter, as though the world itself recoiled in submission.
It was not merely armor for battle; it was the embodiment of destruction, clad in a living furnace of despair.
Despite its ferocious build, the armor was nice and easy to move within. Northern flexed his hands a bit, rolling his shoulders to see if there were any restrictions, but his hands and joints
flowed freely.
A smile curled on his face, although it was totally hidden by the helm of the armor.
"I love it!" his voice echoed in the cave.
Now, he could let the Night Terror armor rest a bit.
This new armor-Molten Vein-would undoubtedly serve him as well as Night Terror did.
But regardless, he had no mind to go into battle anytime soon. The monsters here were too
strong.
'My stamina is being gobbled up at an abnormal rate; it is so strange.'
Even though he admitted that those bursts of speed he used to break away from the Hefter's illusion were indeed a lot of strain on his stamina.
Northern did not think it was enough to render him that tired in his last battle. He really
almost could not move at all.
And even right now, standing in the armor, his legs, mainly his joints, were aching so much he just wanted to lie down and fall asleep. He felt entirely drained.
It was so unnatural!
Suddenly, the cave began to tremble. Northern frowned, looking around and raising his head.
The sound was like a hundred thunderous steps rushing inhumanely towards a certain
direction.
Northern opened Chaos Eyes for a moment, since he couldn't see through walls yet. He decided to take a sneak peek into the near future to see what was going on.
As Chaos Eyes merged back to his normal eyes, a strained grin framed his face.
'Oh well. My clones and those guys will take it from here...'
He vanished from the scene, going to rest in the bosom of the Limitless Void.