Other than the two-to-three hundred selve sprinkled around the circular platform like set dressing, there was far more in a handful of wooden boxes. The total came to around six-thousand, a surprisingly decent haul for so early in the trial. 

The gear was far more interesting. There was a <Wand of a Thousand Cuts> that went to Jinny. Along with a fifteen percent cast speed bonus, it dealt half of the damage of the spell as melee to any target within five feet with a high chance of bleed. Jinny wasn’t a fan of the appearance—it looked like something out of Harry Potter, and not the clean, Hogwarts style either, instead sporting the more bulbous-benign-tumor aesthetic of the Elder wand. Still, as a rare item, it was leaps and bounds beyond her common staff. 

Sae picked up a set of leather gloves with metal accents. They were only uncommon, but had small protrusions set at the base of the fingers, not unlike a more flexible set of brass knuckles. That was apparently a major selling point for her, as her fighting style involved a lot of open-hand work and most knuckle dusters significantly restricted hand elasticity by design. 

That left two items for Nick and I to choose from. 

<Item: Operative’s Belt>

Description: Lowers the encumbrance of all equipped items by a significant margin. Users in heavy armor will be able to move as if they were wearing light armor. Those with a lighter equipment load will find it nearly weightless, as well as their base weight reduced. This effect can be toggled at will.

Item Class: Rare

Item Value: ???

<Item: Broken Legacy>

Description: The result of a failed attempt to forge a legendary item. Tantalizingly close to greatness, this throwing dagger still has utility for those with the accuracy and patience to use it. Returns to the User when summoned unless sold or intentionally abandoned. 

 “You pick,” Nick said, after we spent far too long reading over descriptions. 

“Don’t do that,” I snapped. 

“Do what?” 

“Be so infuriatingly good-natured. No one in this group is going to take advantage of it, but it won’t always be that way. If you want something, say so.” 

Nick blinked. “Maybe I’m being good-natured because I know you won’t take advantage of it.” 

“If we weren’t friends, you can bet your ass I would,” I retorted. 

“But we are friends.” 

“You—”

“Okay,” Sae interjected, her mouth thin, “Just admit neither of you have any idea what you want, so you’re putting off deciding by bickering like an old married couple.” 

We both fell silent at that. 

“Okay, the knife is kind of calling my name,” Nick finally admitted. “I don’t have anything ranged, and the idea of a reusable ranged weapon that I don’t have to worry about wasting sounds bomb.” 

I picked the sheathed knife up by the thick elastic strap and tossed it to him. “Test it out first. It doesn’t say anything about stat requirements, but real-life throwing knives aren’t exactly a reliable method of defense.” 

“True. It would suck if it was tied to agility.” Nick pulled it free of the sheath. The metal looked lighter-colored than normal steel, almost ivory tinted. He held it by the tip of the blade, and made a couple of practice arm movements. He grinned at me. “You know, you’re pretty light as it is. If that belt works out, we could totally pull off a Lord of the Rings.” 

“Hard pass. You’re not throwing me at anything.” 

Nick was about to throw, then he paused, deep in thought. “What about Get Help?” 

I rolled my eyes. “That’s literally the same thing with more pre-amble. And you’re approaching the tolerable limit of pop culture references.” 

Nick shrugged, then flung the knife at one of the wooden selve boxes. 

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It sunk in up to the handle. Nick let out a whoop, and I raised an eyebrow. That wasn’t an easy throw, and from what I saw, the blade hadn’t rotated at all. Nick had thrown it as if he expected it to rotate, and instead, it had flattened out almost immediately and flown directly in a straight line. 

He frowned. “How do I get it to come back—”

The moment the last two words were uttered, the knife flew towards him. It was moving with at least the velocity he had thrown it with, if not faster. And the point was aimed directly at his chest. He shrieked, voice pitched high, and slapped it out of the air. It fell to the ground with a clang. 

Everyone, myself included, took a measured step away from the knife. 

Nick let out a nervous chuckle. “Okay, maybe it needs some work—”

The knife flew at him again, point first. Not as quickly as before, but just as accurately. He narrowly dodged it, his eyes wide as it grazed off his armor. 

“Stop summoning it,” I said, taking a few more measured steps back.

“I’m not doing it deliberately,” Nick stood very still. “I think it responds to thoughts. And it’s really, really, really difficult to not think about—” the knife jumped off the arena floor, traveling low this time. “Fuckin leave me alone!” 

Unsure of how to respond, but aware of the fact that Nick was heavily armored, I watched the absurdity alongside Jinny and Sae as the knife performed a series of frog-like leaps, chasing a man in heavy armor around the arena. 

“You have to intentionally abandon it,” Jinny called out. 

“It’s not listening!” Nick yelled back. 

With a long-suffering sigh, I followed Nick with the sheathe he’d left on the ground, and eventually intercepted the knife. 

Nick leaned forward, panting, his hands on his knees. He squinted up at me and spoke between breaths. “So. Rock-paper-scissors for the belt?”

“Nah,” I strapped <Broken Legacy’s> sheathe to the underside of my arm for easy access. “After that valiant demonstration, who wouldn’t want the knife?” 

The more I thought about it, the more applications there were. A basic throwing knife would be both redundant and less practical than my current equipment, but it was the summon aspect that drew my eye. Assuming I could keep my thoughts in line, and setup properly, it ranged from an excellent distraction at worst to a possible long-range assassination method at best—something I was sorely lacking at the moment. 

At first, Nick looked like he might argue, but either decided I had my reasons or just couldn’t find the energy. He nodded, and walked to the pile of loot, strapping the belt around his waist. “Oh my god. It’s like I’m wearing nothing but air.” 

I ignored him, as something else had caught my attention. During the knife fiasco, Sae and Jinny had migrated to the shelf at the far end of the chamber, across the bridge opposite of the one we’d come in on. They were both poking at opposite ends of the shelf, movements slightly frantic. 

“Problem?” I called out. 

“Big fucking problem,” Sae shouted back. 

Jinny walked back across the bridge to us, her expression harried. “There wasn’t a door, so we were poking around for a hidden passage, like in the first chamber.” 

“There wasn’t one?” Nick asked. 

Jinny shook her head. “There’s two exits, facing opposite directions. With only two holes in each.”

Nick groaned. 

A feeling of dread dawned on me slowly. “We’re going to have to split the party.” 

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