426: Hidden Effect
“... Fine!” Beatrice finally said in a strong tone. “If they’re going to label me an enemy, so be it! I’ve spent a whole night listening to these people wishing to see me dead or fucked or worse. Fuck them! I have people that I want to help. People that deserve my help. Those that try to stop me are in for a world of pain.”
“Oh?” Ember listened to Beatrice with a growing smile.
“I can’t save people from their own ignorance,” Beatrice continued, “and while I don’t want to hurt the fools don’t know any better, I’m not about let myself get killed or let my friends suffer because of bored, gossiping, morally bankrupt scum! I’m the demon summoner? Fuck you! I’ll save this stupid city but I won’t go out of my way to save every single thrill-seeking, immoral bastard. So just stay out of my way, because those that come looking for trouble will get plenty of it! Ember, let’s go!”
“Aye, aye!” Ember saluted Beatrice with excitement and followed the succubus out of Samantha’s armory.
“Wait!” Samantha called out to Beatrice, stopping the succubus just a few steps short of the door. The blonde then caught up to the succubus, held out a short, sheathed dagger, and handed it to Beatrice handle side first.
“A weapon too?” Beatrice wondered how a dagger would compare to her natural claws. She took the dagger by the handle with one hand and with another slowly removed the scabbard. The blade scraped the scabbard from the inside with the sound and vivid imagery of a blade slicing into human bone, creating goosebumps on Beatrice’s arms.
When Beatrice looked at the revealed straight blade for the first time, she could’ve sworn she saw an eerie red mist around it. But when she lifted the dagger up for a closer inspection no sign of any mist was there. Not so much as a single red speck on the thin blade, nor on the handle.
When Beatrice turned the dagger, the blade all but disappeared from sight as it turned out to be barely thicker than a single strand of hair. This made Beatrice increasingly uneasy to even hold the dagger as she clearly imagined how little effort it would take to accidently wound or kill someone with such extraordinary thin blade. And as Beatrice imagined such a wound, the same thin red mist seemed to momentarily form around the blade, only to instantly disappear the moment Beatrice focused her vision on it. Beatrice quickly sheathed the dagger before it attacked her or someone else.
“Is this dagger cursed or something?” Beatrice asked Samantha, about to return the eerie weapon.
“Not exactly,” Samantha said. “But do be careful with it.”
“Yeah, this blade could shatter from the slightest impact. I don’t even think I can use it.”
“No, that’s not it,” Samantha shook her head. “I don’t think you have the power to break it, even if you tried. What you should be careful of is unintentionally killing someone. So don’t unsheathe it unless necessary.”
What kind of crazy blade is this? Beatrice wondered, apprehensively studying Samantha’s latest offering. The item’s description answered that question quickly.
Item: Eerie-Looking Dagger
Item Class: Epic
Physical Attack: +25
Speed: +5
Effects:
· Unbreakable by anything less than A-tier magic.
· Each successful cut with this dagger into the same target’s flesh doubles the damage dealt with the previous cut by this dagger. Stacks up to five times before reset.
· Hidden effect.
Minimum Requirements:
Character level: 25
... Isn’t that completely insane!? Not even considering the impressive attack number, Beatrice could barely believe the weapon’s second effect. A nearly-unbreakable weapon was already good. But It did not take a genious to figure out how quickly this dagger’s damage could get out of control.
The second effect would only be useless if she was too weak to deal any significant damage to begin with. But if she managed inflict even a barely acceptable wound once... Combined with her new set’s stealth back attack bonus, the dagger would not only insure that she basically inflicted her “back attack” five times in a row no matter the location, but it doubled the damage each time. How is this real?
‘If something is too good to be true’, Beatrice reminded herself as she studied at the last two words in the ‘Effects’ section like the fine print in a contract with a devil.
“What else does this dagger do besides the insane damage?” Beatrice asked Samantha.
“Isn’t that enough?” Samantha asked. “I used this dagger many years ago before I changed to different weapons. Back then my only concern was to kill before I was killed.”
“And kill she did,” Ember added.
“Don’t draw a weapon unless you’re ready to kill,” Samantha said. “Other than that I don’t know what else you’re expecting form the dagger.”
“Understood,” Beatrice said, hoping that she will never have to use the ominous weapon, and put the dagger away into the space between her hips and the side metal plate. The dagger fit perfectly, so the plates ended up serving some purpose even if it wasn’t a defensive one so far.