We went up three floors before we finally stopped, and by that point I was somewhat yearning to step close to the Lionkin and rub myself against her chiseled body after she had almost burnt a hole through my pants with her gaze...
The raw need she was exuding right now was almost palpable, and it made Rhefia glower slightly at the golden Duchess before she just rolled her eyes at me, though this was all right before we stepped onto that floor.
She didn't have the emotional bandwidth available to tease me or 'fight' me after she laid eyes on the mannequin that was 'wearing' a half set of armor; two somewhat twisted vambraces were crossed over the partially bare stomach, resting just beneath the simple metal cuirass that had a large chunk torn out from its left side.
The silver metal was dulled and darkened in some areas, whilst the metal around the missing piece was almost black, yet where it should have been considered weak the threads of mana snaking over it made it clear that that was the opposite of the truth.
Then there was the heavy gorget that rest around the neck of the mannequin, a small 'shield' of metal jutting out just beneath where the chin would be to prevent any blades from easily reaching the throat.
Finally the helmet rested atop the mannequin's head, and like the Queen had said there was only half of it remaining; the left side of the helmet was rent asunder as well, leaving very little to protect the head from any damage.
The slitted visor was expanded by whatever had happened whilst the metal covering the mouth and nose were warped, leaving just the side of the head completely protected; just seeing it made me wonder what could be so good about it, but that was where my System came in, no?
Rhefia seemed to recognize the armor even in this state, and with a somewhat trembling step she got closer and reached for it, her fingers stopping just short of the armor as she took a shaky breath, holding back her emotions.
Stepping forwards beside her, I squeezed her other hand whilst I scanned the armor, starting with the paired vambraces that covered almost all of the forearm; they were rather simple sheets of metal curled around the arm, with the only intriguing part being the spiked elbows as well as the ribbed wrist plates.
[Duty and Desperation (Relic) : 250% Attack, 200% Attack Speed, 125% Mana Regeneration, Imbues Attacks with 100% additional Mana, and can be charged with any Mana Type to release a damaging shockwave of that Mana Type at will (Note: Only equippable by those blessed by Areseta or related to Camara, Blade of Areseta by blood)]
Already I was almost shocked by what I was reading, since the stat bonuses alone already made it an insane pair of vambraces to have, but the additional ability tagged onto the end pushed it over, even if it was just by a little bit.
[Cuirass of Devotion (Relic) : 200% Defense, 150% Stamina, amplifies adrenaline, and converts any imbued Mana into a moveable Mana Shield that absorbs and dissipates all energy or magic up until the Mana Shield is broken (Note: Only equippable by those blessed by Areseta or related to Camara, Blade of Areseta by blood)]
[Warrior's Hymn (Relic) : Improves Supportive Incantations by 150%, improves Offensive Incantations by 125%, and amplifies Mana Regeneration and Potency during recitation of the Hymns of Battle (125%), Hymns of War (175%) and the Hymns of Sacrifice (300%) (Note: ...)
When I got to read those to pieces of gear lumped together I almost felt like fainting was the only appropriate response, since these stacked with everything else and still had room for me to 'improve' everything even more with all the other gear she would be missing.
Her weapon, a shield, clothing, and then everything from the waist down as well... all while also having the ability to don various pieces of jewelry just to make things even more unfair for whatever happened to stand in her way...
But it was the helmet that just sort of seemed to want to really have me faint since it practically blew the other three out of the waters completely...
[Camara's Death Mask (True Relic) : 300% Bonus to all stats, amplifies reaction time by 200%, amplifies thought processing speed by 200%, boosts [Duty and Desperation], [Cuirass of Devotion] and [Warrior's Hymn] relics and allows user to summon the Spirit of Camara to battle once per month
Note : Can be upgraded via completion of tasks from Areseta herself
Warning : Any mortal that dons Camara's Death Mask for long will expose themselves to potent Divine energy, which can result in disfigurement, insanity, death, or the fracturing of the soul. Additionally, cannot be used by those not related to Camara whatsoever.]
Where the other relics all offered an interesting ability or just good raw numbers, this relic... well, it earned its status as a 'True Relic' with an egregious mix of both, and that wasn't even including the fact that it could be upgraded just like my staff could be.
Just where my staff needed to be upgraded to eventually just be considered a normal Relic, this was already well above it, and it had the capability of bringing a dead warrior back to the land of the living, even if it was just in the form of a spirit.
I desperately wanted to tell Rhefia that, but since we were here with other I bit my tongue and instead just marveled at what was being given to us; I could only imagine how swiftly they would refuse to hand this over if they actually knew what it did...
It also made me curious since I was able to see this because Reincantra decided to give me a System like this, so how would they ever learn about the abilities that these Relics possessed, and how did they even really know that they were tied to Areseta..?
Were they relying on the Goddess who seemed only somewhat interested in these things, or was there something else that they did..?
I could feel the power on them, sure, but that didn't equate to anything besides knowing that they were something a step above normal enchanted items, so how would they have ever figured out what these relics did?