'Til Kingdom Comes - The Banished Prince Vol 3: The Prophecy

Further Enchancements

"Tell me more about the New Vagabond Army and why was it called that way? Was Robin Hood heading such a massive army before during that time?"

I asked as I tinkered around with the rest of the accessory in other machines so it would be running concurrently.

After placing in the right pieces of gemstones inside the machine, Ceres sounded again in my mind, maybe she doesn't want to disturb me counting the sockets and the gemstones, I guessed. Hahaha.

"The New Vagabond Army was a mash-up of several types of warriors ranging from rangers, assassins, archers, paladins, warriors, berserker, amazonian women, pugilist, monks, mages, necromancer and wizards."

"It started off with your self alone, then joined by Matilda, followed by a Monk and then a mage. Later on, you had bought and freed a slave from a slave trader and also picked up two homeless girls whose orphanage had burned to the ground by some marauding orcs."

"With the small group of people, you had gathered around those misfits that were entirely rejected by the rest of the party leaders or their levels were too low to be considered as a worthy partner to the rest of them."

"You managed to group them up and slowly it grew from a dozen or so right to more than a hundred over people. 144 army personnel at one stage of time...! Since there were 12 groups of warriors and fighters, you had set a limit to 12 members per group which later increased to 72 members per group at the very end of the stage."

"Just imagine you were commandeering 864 members with the help of Matilda, a mage and a monk. Just like what you are doing today, you used these machines to duplicate the trinkets and hand it over to them but the pieces of gemstones were sockets by gem crafters within the group and each group had their own captains, lieutenants and sergeants."

"You and your pioneers so-called to say had set up several small camps outside some major cities and bodies of water, just like what you had done previously when you set up a settlement before."

"The New Vagabond Army, abbreviated to be the NVA, had upgraded themselves to be one of the powerhouses among the other parties that were listed around the lands. They firstly conquered those lower levels missions and slowly moved on up to gain the fame and wealth as they progressed."

"Those missions that you lead came in several stages of difficulties and as the NVA accomplishes the easier ones, they moved into the next one starting from stage 1 right to the end and continued to move to the following harder levels."

"In short, there were books and manuals that were bought by you and you had the chance to duplicate them and distribute for everyone to learn every single skill available for each class. By doing so, an archer could have skills of a paladin, while a necromancer would have the skills of an assassin as well."

"The NVA is a well-rounded army and with the hundred sets of skill books, socketed trinkets and improved armour and weaponry, it became the number one ranking party in the whole of the lands."

"You are fortunate that you do not use up all the skill books since these skill books once they had been read and memorised, it would disintegrate on its own. I'm not sure if you could bring it back to the real world but there's a huge possibility that it could."

"Go and search around, you might still find some spare armour that you had designed for the NVA back then and also the hundred of skill books that were stored within the crates near the pieces of armour."

After I had listened to what Ceres had narrated to me, my heart leapt on joy and somehow I knew there was something useful that I could find and use back in the real world from the other worlds that had been brought in to this realm.

I searched around after I received a few notifications that the rings that I had newly created had been completed along with the socketed trinkets too.

Since I had no knowledge of enhancing these gemstones manually, it's a blessing that the machines could complete half of the tasks for me.

"Woah...! Is this the set of armour that I had designed back then? It looked so.....familiar, like the one that I had worn ln the dream back in 1453. The black Knight armour. By the way, did the dream in 1453 really happened?"

I was jubilant when I found the crates that had several pieces of armour inside it. It had a pair of helm, pauldrons, vest, upper arm guards, gauntlet, open fingers gloves, half pants, knee guards, shin guards, elbow guards and even boots.

It was jet black in colour and it gleamed as if asking me to take a closer look and pleading to bring it back with me to the real world.

There were 15 pieces of studded leather armour, which was much better than the toughened leather that I am wearing and it was reinforced twice with steel plates, making the steel mesh imbued within each armour piece to be double and denser.

"The incidences that you were shown in the future did happen, Audemars. But you could change the present now to alter the outcome of the future. It is like you knew that it would rain in the next few days and you store an umbrella with you."

"That forecast that you had seen in your dreams did happen but as I've said to you, change the present and alter the future. It's still 11 years ahead of time, you and your family would have a happy life together but if you replay back on what happened, how it happened, why it happened and how it happened, you might be able to change some things now."

"Look at yourself, you are much better spiritually in mind and body than a few days ago and I'm sure you would continue to do so. Certain things cannot be avoided such as old age and sickness and even death but certain calamities could be avoided if you get what I mean."

"I can't teach you how to do it but I'm sure you have your own ways and intuition now. I myself cannot change fate and destiny but you could, Audemars... You're the only hope to prevent the total annihilation of mankind in 11 years time...!"

The last sentence hit me like I'm running full speed and ramming the low wall without stopping...!

Suddenly, I became the only hope to prevent the annihilation of mankind in 11 years time?!

I was happily listening to Ceres replaying what my other self had achieved and leading an army of over 800 personnel and how they went through missions from one level to another when I got stumped and somehow brought me back to where I was.

"One man, to save the whole world, Ceres? Do you think it is possible? The world is not smaller than our town and the opponents were not small like rabbits or hares. So you think you need to rephrase it back once again?"

I asked Ceres after I had arranged the words properly on my head before I say it loud. It would be better sounding rather than to communicate in a telepathic manner.

"Theoretically speaking, you and your army would wipe out the wild beasts and other races that would be rampaging on the earth. They won't be the gnomes or dwarves or even the elves but rather rock golems, lava golems et cetera. But as I've said, what changes you made here in the present would alter the future."

I let out a long sigh after hearing what Ceres had mentioned in my head and after I had discovered the secret stash of 15 pieces of armour, I remembered that the pieces of rings that I had created as well as the socketed trinkets had already completed creating and enhancing.

The moment I touched the finished products, except for the rings, I noted that I could now see a series of +25 mana words floating on it. I put the amulet on and soon the words disappear. After I had put on every single piece of accessory, all the words that were hovering on top of each item disappeared.

I checked the status of my information system panel and saw that my mana pool had indeed increased to 395 points...! That's many times over and I could regenerate them over time.

I chose 4 rings and it had a socket each. Not bad for the first try and I guessed smaller pieces like this would have a minimum of one socket, just like the clip-on earrings.

I chose 2 crystal clear good diamonds and 2 red rubies and enhanced the gemstones into each ring respectively. It only took about 5 seconds to complete each enhancement.

"One for me and own for you, my dear Heather. You had not been given a single piece of jewellery since I got married to you and here are the pieces that I created myself." I thought aloud to myself as I pocketed each ring of different gemstones for Heather and I slipped the other for my own.

As soon as I put the ring on my fingers, I saw an increase of +25 for life which totals to 45 points and +58 for attack rating which increases my own to 78 points altogether.

If let's say Heather and everyone else's attributes were at 20, then if I add these accessories to them, it would be similar to Heather as well. Hmm, would that make Heather like a paper doll where I could simply dress her up virtually in my mind and be able to see the stats myself, instead of relying on the guidance system?

+25 life and +58 attack rating. That ain't too shabby, innit?

I went back to the crates where the few pieces of armours were there and once again after I picked them up, I saw the armour ratings on each piece. It had already been socketed by my old self before and it seemed that he had figured it out for the future me somehow.

After calculating the new enhancements that had been made to the 15 pieces of armours, I discovered that a +375 life had been added, along with +375 mana, +638 attack rating and +66 dexterity points had been added. The total for my mana pool had now increased to +770...!

If I were to put on the new set of armour, my three statistics would be skyrocketed. Since these are separate pieces, I still have to wear the light gambeson underneath the armour so as to prevent chaffing. It would be black and I had to get from Innes the black coloured gambeson instead since all I've got was white.

I carried the 15 pieces of armours and placed it on a clearing away from the other crates because I don't want to accidentally bring them all back to my real world.

I searched the crates again and I found a few crates with literally hundreds of skill books that were bound with twine and placed neatly according to categories.

My old self had made thousands of these copies through the fusion chamber and I think it is one way he saved money and time within the hundreds of teammates.

I browse through the stack and found something for archers and I took a book from the set called 'SHOUT' and I placed it on top of the black knight's armour.

"Well, time to go home now and store these armours first. I want to see if this skill book would disintegrate or not and if not then it would be a jewel for me."

I thought aloud as I prepared to leave the realm and back the real world. I made sure all the items inside the machines had been cleared and reset the machines to its original state.

In a few minutes time, I went through a series of vortex while I'm holding on to the set of black knight's armour and soon arrived at my study room.

"Terrific...! Everything is intact including the book too. I checked the two rings for Heather and it was there as well. I placed my set of black knight's armour aside with the skill book and the two rings on it.

I walked silently and watched the twins sleeping at their beds and I walked to our bedroom and Heather was still in the same position as I had left her. I wondered how long I had been in meditation and discovers that it was not even passed an hour...!

"Ah well, since it's still early, I think I would meditate and be with nature for an hour or so. At least it would strengthen my mind and body thereafter."

I thought to myself as I made my way down and made a mental note to remove my pieces of clothing and armour that I had been wearing the whole morning till now. I guess the gambeson that I wore had absorbed lost of my sweat that it could stand upright by itself...! Hahaha...!