There were a lot of accessories out there with talent effects, essentially freeing up a talent slot by using an accessory slot instead. This gear change made it so that my equipment was as follows:
Main Weapon: Canesword (OEX)
Subweapon: None
Ranged Weapon: Blowgun (OEX)
Ammunition: Sleep Darts
Head: None
Body: Damascus Robes
Arms: None
Legs: None
Feet: None
Accessory 1: Equip Ring
Accessory 2: Rush Ring
My head, arms, legs, and feet were all bare!
We had received the Blood-Dead Robe from this Death Chariot last time we came, but we hadn’t heard of anyone receiving other kinds of gear. I’d asked a handful of people, including the item-loving Homura and our info-brokering Kataoka, but no one knew anything about it.
The question, then, was what had made our party different from the others. The answer? Well, Ryuutarou, of course. This boss had used a skill called Dark Possession to force the Blood-Dead Robe into one of his equipment slots.
And what made Ryuutarou special? The fact that he was naked, obviously.
My expectation was that, when the Death Chariot was defeated, it activated Dark Possession if anyone was naked at the time. Who would fight a boss naked, after all? The Death Chariot didn’t use any skills that forcefully removed equipment either.
To sum all this up, Ryuutarou was the only idiot who would be nude upon the defeat of Death Chariot. We had been lucky enough to witness this hidden mechanic on our first run! No wonder nobody else knew about the Blood-Dead Robe.
First off, I wanted to test my hypothesis to see if it was correct. After that, as I had mentioned to Yano, I wanted to know if he would drop other equipment.
With my change of clothes, only my upper body was covered by Damascus Robes. If everything but my upper body was bare, maybe he would give me a different piece of armor.
When it came to the Blood-Dead Robe’s stats, they were... problematic.
Blood-Dead Robe
Type: Armor
Level: 50
DEF: 77
Wearable by all classes.
Effect: All stats -100, movement speed down.
As defensive equipment, it was beyond useless. However, according to my testing, wearing the Blood-Dead Robe made my Elemental Circle spell much more likely to dredge up dark-type magic.
If there were other pieces of equipment, they ought to come with dark-boosting capabilities as well. And if that was true, then how could I not want them?!
“Here I come, Death Chariot! It’s the final Vermilion Wiiing!” I called out, before releasing the killing ultimate!
Covered in phoenix flames, my charging slash whizzed through the Death Chariot, rending him in twain!
“Graaaaarh!”
Ren activated Vermilion Wing.
Dealt 5,904 damage to Death Chariot!
Ren has defeated Death Chariot.
Woo! Killed him with three consecutive ultimates!
Apart from the three Caneswords I’d lost thanks to Final Strike, we had made it through without any losses. It was a trade-off of money and big damage, after all. The real world was a tough place!
“Graaarh... Raaaaargh!”
The chariot writhed and screamed, falling to the ground. As I watched him crumple, I did my best to cheer him on from afar.
“You can’t go yet! Don’t give up! I need the thing, man! The thing! Please, please, pleeeease!”
Death Chariot prepared to activate Dark Possession.
“YEEEEEEAH!”
As my joyful shout echoed through the arena, the Death Chariot’s body turned into a small, black light. It flew my way and gently enveloped my body. Then, the black light filled my eyes.
Once it faded, something was obscuring my field of vision.
Did he give me a mask? I feel like that’s the most likely explanation.
Akira pointed at me and burst out laughing. “Ahahaha! Ren, you should see your face! It looks good on you!”
“If you wanted armor that wasn’t upper-body armor, I suppose he did give you what you wanted,” Akabane murmured.
Maeda was also trying to stifle a giggle. “But... Pfft, it does look silly!”
“Lookin’ good, Takashiro!” Yano said.
Shizuku was much more blunt. “It’s frankly ugly as sin, but it’s good that you got what you wanted.”
“Wait, Ren, don’t take it off yet! I gotta snap a pic!”
While Akira took screenshots galore, it was clear that the reason my vision was obstructed was because he’d put a mask on me. The mask was long and white, straight out of a well-known horror flick.
Yell Mask
Type: Helmet
Level: 50
DEF: 27
Wearable by all classes.
Effect: All stats -100, movement speed down.
Yell Mask, huh? It’s just as bad as the Blood-Dead Robe!
It murdered your stats, and it slowed you down. Both in battle and mobility, it was hard to see any value in this. All in all, it looked like nothing more than a piece of garbage.
Still, I imagined it would have the same dark-boosting hidden effect as the Blood-Dead Robe. That would require some testing later.
Either way, my hypothesis was correct, and we’d gotten a new piece of equipment! As long as I managed my equipment when I dealt the finishing blow to the Death Chariot, we could get all the other gear. What remained were the arms, legs, and feet!
Gotta collect ’em all!
“On to the next one, girls! We have three more to go.”
I believed that the Blood-Dead Robe increased dark circle probability to about twenty percent. With five of them, it stood to reason that we would reach one hundred percent dark circles! My dream was coming true at last!
A few hours later, I emerged from Aswarth’s Undersea Ruins wearing the following:
Head: Yell Mask
Body: Blood-Dead Robe
Arms: Gauntlets of the Deceased
Legs: Pants of the Raging Wheels
Feet: Fool Dragons’ Boots
By the way, here’s a quick wrap-up:
Gauntlets of the Deceased
Type: Gloves
Level: 50
DEF: 22
Wearable by all classes.
Effect: All stats -100, movement speed down.
Pants of the Raging Wheels
Type: Bottoms
Level: 50
DEF: 32
Wearable by all classes.
Effect: All stats -100, movement speed down.
Fool Dragons’ Boots
Type: Shoes
Level: 50
DEF: 22
Wearable by all classes.
Effect: All stats -100, movement speed down.