Reborn as the First Boss, Chapter 21 (Patreon)

Chapter 21 – Spoils

The fight against the ‘Copper Skeleton Bandits’ was done, but there was still plenty of work to do in the Irontooth Mine. Obviously, we had to take their heads, for proof of our deeds in killing off the group, and separating forty heads from their corpses was not exactly fun work, for anyone. Beyond that, there was also the matter of distributing the loot.

The bandits had been surprisingly well equipped. For bandits, at least. Simple leather jerkins, bracers, and caps were the majority of their armor. Good enough if you couldn’t get a chain shirt or better, sure, or needed to keep your speed and dexterity up for class reasons. Still, even though none of it was magical, they were all masterwork pieces, which was probably the best that they could get without bringing attention to themselves. Unfortunately, that still meant that none of them were terribly useful to the Ebon Hearts or my Red Dragons.

Their weapons, too, were masterworks, but unenchanted. Mostly daggers, short swords, clubs, a few bows, and so on. The weapons were all quality, so we all took a piece or two to round out our current kit. Jewell and Ran each picked up one of the hunting bows, and split the arrows they recovered between them. While neither had the [Archery] skill, they could pick that up easily enough with some training, and having a quiet ranged option would be useful for the rogues.

The rest of us were a bit more straightforward in our picks. Healers and mages made sure to have at least one short sword and one dagger on them, so that they had multiple sidearms if they were forced into melee. The fighters, meanwhile, just picked up a dagger or two to supplement their fighting style, or picking up a club to give them options when a foe was resistant to piercing or slashing blows.

The only magical weapon in the bunch was the leader’s hammer. A massive, two-handed beast of a hammer, it looked completely unusable as a real weapon. At least, it would have been in my old world. Ask anyone who ever tried to use a sledgehammer as anything but a tool, and they’ll tell you that swinging one around gets tiring, fast. Too fast to be useful to be used in a real battle.

Bonecrusher   Maul

Type

Two-handed   Hammer

Rank

Uncommon

Price

2500   gp

Weight

5 kg

Damage

2.5*(STR+5)

Critical

x4

Range

N/A

Damage   Type

Bludgeoning

This   heavy, two-handed stone hammer is designed for one thing, and one thing only:   to smash whatever (or whoever) it comes in contact with into tiny pieces. Its   size requires the wielder to have significant strength to be able to use with   any degree of skill, but in the hands of one capable of wielding it, this   weapon is something to be respected, if not feared.

Requires:   30 STR to wield

+10%   to Attacks

Bonecrusher: Each successful attack has a   chance to inflict [Broken Bones] on the victim. Effects of [Broken Bones]   depends on injury location, and lasts until the victim receives enough   magical healing to return to full health +20% of their maximum HP. Chance of   inflicting [Broken Bones] is ((Wielder’s Level + STR)-(Victim’s Level +   CON))%, minimum of 2%.

However, this was a fantasy world, where magic was involved, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that such a weapon was actually useful, at least somewhat. It would only be really useful for those who were already strong, and were used to fighting with two-handed weapons. Even then, unless they were picking on someone weaker, or who hadn’t invested in CON, then the special ability probably wouldn’t come up, except one out of every fifty hits. As a tool of war, it was sub-par, at best, but for a thug trying to intimidate merchants and the like, it was serviceable.

My sentiments roughly matched those of the rest of the adventurers, even the elven barbarian. As the only warrior who primarily used two-handed weapons, he was the natural choice for the weapon’s new owner. He took it, but promptly stored it away in his inventory, saying that it would be better for fighting skeletons and constructs than his greatsword, but that was it.

Of course, that item wasn’t the only bit of magic gear the bandits had. Between their own resources and the spoils from their raids on the merchants, they had a surprising collection of enchanted items. They just weren’t exactly weapons and armor. Oh, yeah, and some other good stuff, too.

Loot:

Ring   of Minor Fire Resistance

Belt   of the Dwarven Warrior

Bracers   of Minor Health

Gloves   of Minor Dexterity

Helm   of the War Wizard

Chameleon   Cloak

Ring   of Stone

Shooter’s   Spellgoggles

Ghost-touched   Amulet

Tempestblade’s   Circlet

Various   Trade Goods (10,000 gp)

250   pp, 3400 gp, 80 sp, 500 cp

Sorting through the items was mainly a process of using [Appraise] on the items, to figure out their use, and then seeing who was the best fit for what. Some quick rock-paper-scissors matches were held for some of the more interesting pieces. That was how Ran, the Ebon Hearts’ Rogue, got the Ghost-touched Amulet, which let the wearer go incorporeal temporarily, while Jewell got the Gloves of Minor Dexterity, which just gave her a +10 to the ability.

Dekaed, the dwarven Healer for the Ebon Hearts, got the Belt of the Dwarven Warrior, despite his class, since he was the only one who could use the racially restricted item, but it gave him a solid boost to his CON and STR, which could be useful in many ways. Derek, the Frost Sorcerer won the Helm of the War Wizard, which boosted his INT (increasing his available MP) and spell damage, making him very happy. Saevel, the elven Barbarian, happily strapped on the Bracers of Minor Health, since the +10 to CON improved his HP, as well as his rage abilities. Jasmine, their Fighter and leader, picked the Chameleon Cloak, which gave a small boost to stealth, which was her weakest point, given her armor and weapons.

On our side, Angelina, my Healer, got the Ring of Minor Fire Resistance, which reduced damage from Fire by 5%. Nothing terribly impressive, but it was a boost for her all the same. Astruth got the Ring of Stone, which let him use the [Stoneskin] spell on himself once per day, giving him a good boost to his defense. Linette received the Tempestblade’s Circlet, which added a small amount of lightning or wind damage to her strikes while dual-wielding.

Shooter’s   Spellgoggles

Type

Face

Rank

Uncommon

Price

3500   gp

Weight

0.5 kg

This   pair of goggles were made specifically for those of the Spellshooter class,   though they can be used by any who combine spells with ranged attacks. When   worn over the eyes, the goggles not only provide some protection from glare,   but enhance any ranged attacks or ranged attack spells the wearer uses.

Provides   enhanced information to wearer, based on wearer skills.

Effects   of Glare and blinding effects reduced by 10%

Ranged   Weapon Attack critical chance increased by 15%

Ranged   Spell Damage increased by 25%

And, naturally, these beauties were mine. No one questioned that the Spellshooter should get the goggles that were Spellshooter-themed, especially since the only other mage, Derek, had already gotten his helm. I put them on immediately.

I quickly understood what ‘provides enhanced information to wearer’ meant. A HUD appeared in my vision, with target reticles over different people, and basic [Appraise] information popping up if I focused on them. In the top-left corner of my vision, I also saw bars for my HP, MP, and SP, while the bottom-left had counters for the ammunition types on my current weapons. If I had some kind of skill that let me check the status of my party, those would probably show up, as well.

It took me a moment of playing with the interface, so that I wasn’t constantly getting [Appraise] messages, or seeing targets everywhere, but once I was done, I was very pleased with the results. This was going to be a huge boon in combat. Oh, the damage boost was fine, but the information was the big thing, here. After all, if I’d noticed my situation back before I died, maybe I could have saved myself? Or at least taken fewer bullets, which would have made it easier for someone to keep me from bleeding out.

That was in the past, though. For the future? Well, I had twelve lives, just in case. But I didn’t want to go spending those too quickly, or because of stupid shit. No, I wanted every death I had to be for a decent reason, and after I’d fought tooth and nail and took as many fuckers down with me as I could. Because I was a petty bitch like that when people tried to kill me.

As for the rest, well, there were piles of trade goods. Mostly things that kept and traveled well. Any fruit or perishables would have gone bad by now, and I noticed that there were several bottles that formerly held some kind of alcohol and were now empty. But there were plenty of fabrics, furs, even grains and other goods that took a lot longer to go bad when kept out of the weather like they were here. There was the brief concern about how to get it back to town, before Jasmine and Astruth had found the bandits’ horses, and a wagon that they used to bring in supplies.

After splitting the gold, and loading up the goods for transport to town, Dekaed got up on the driver’s seat of the wagon, since the dwarf had the most experience driving carts, while the rest of us got the bandits’ horses together. The forty bandits, plus their leader, had just over thirty-two horses, which we’d probably be able to sell for a decent price, along with the trade goods.

Leading the horses and wagon back to town was fairly dull, but we passed the time chatting with the Ebon Hearts. Now that the ‘oh this is the Baroness’ surprise had worn off, and we’d fought side-by-side, they were far more relaxed. I didn’t really have any tales of adventure of my own that I could tell, without going into me being reincarnated or all that, but I knew more than a few jokes, thanks to the guys in my old MC. Banter was one of the ways you kept sane, when dealing with all the shit life throws at you. And it was slightly healthier than getting a smack habit.

It was late in the afternoon, almost to evening, when we pulled into town, with everything in tow. Jasmine and the Ebon Hearts knew the best places to get rid of the trade goods and horses, along with all the masterwork gear we weren’t keeping. Derek had the [Bargaining] skill, and a good relationship with the different shop owners, so he was able to get some good deals. By the time we got to splitting things up, we each had an extra 150 pp in our pockets, and we hadn’t even gotten the reward for killing the bandits, yet!

Needless to say, we were all in good spirits as we headed to the Adventurers’ Guild. Jasmine and I just smiled, and ignored the rest of our respective crews as they laughed and talked about what they’d be doing with the money. Dekaed was the first one to bring up going to a brothel for some ‘entertainment’, but the whole group laughed when I happily said that I had no need of a brothel when I had Astruth, especially since his ‘weapon’ was more fearsome than Saevel’s new hammer.

The laughter died, however, when we entered the Adventurer’s Guild, and found everyone in a very grim mood. Doom seemed to hang over everyone’s heads like a thundercloud. And all of it seemed to stem from a group of adventurers who were in the middle of giving a report.

One of them, who looked like some kind of sorceress, was speaking, “As we rode off, I managed one last [Appraise]. Level 23, Class Shift from Fighter to Flameblade, and he has the Hero title. A fucking goblin has the Hero title!”

Ah, the sense of doom made more sense, now.