The Archmetamagician: The Weave Collapses Again

Perhaps because the Deck of Many Things was of too high a grade as a legendary item, Anser stared at the card for a long while, but the die only spun uselessly, failing to detect any useful information.

He reached out to pick up the card, but Iris grabbed the back of his hand and pinned it to the tabletop.

”What are you doing?” Iris asked, her eyes full of vigilance.

”Do I really seem that reckless to you?” Anser said with a helpless smile, pulling his hand back. ”I’m just taking a look.”

Iris stood up and warned him, ”You can look, but don’t use it recklessly. No one knows what might happen. Also, remember to notify me when you use it.”

The overwhelming majority of spellcasters had only heard of the Deck of Many Things. They had no clear idea what magical effects it could actually produce; they only knew that it was extremely dangerous.

”I know.” Anser did not explain much. He understood the risks involved, but he had no desire to vanish without a sound.

”Do you want to have breakfast with me?” Iris asked, as if casually.

”No.” Anser was in no mood to eat.

Seeing this, Iris let out an almost inaudible sigh, turned, and left, closing the door behind her.

Without even lifting his head, Anser carefully pinched the card between his fingers.

The instant he touched the card, the die gave a slight tremor and blurred for a moment, then spun at high speed before abruptly stopping.

Ding—

[All things are ever-changing. Current roll: Misfortune.]

’What does that mean?!’ Anser was startled, thinking he had accidentally triggered the card.

He threw the card down. The die’s projection dissipated, and that line of notification also vanished from his mind, as though it had never appeared.

’Misfortune? Is there even a card like that? And why does it still need a die roll?’

He picked up the card again, and the die spun rapidly.

Ding—

[All things are ever-changing. Current roll: Good Fortune.]

’It changed!’

Holding the card, he sank into confusion. Earlier, he had once thought the Deck of Many Things was like a scratch-off ticket: before scratching it open, you would not know whether you had won, but regardless of whether you scratched it or not, the result had already been decided.

Now it seemed that the magical effects inside the Deck of Many Things were not fixed and unchanging, but existed within the shifting state of ”all things are ever-changing.”

’It’s that magical...’

At that moment, the die suddenly bounced into the air on its own, and as it fell, it rolled again.

[All things are ever-changing. Current roll: Inconstancy.]

’Can my die control probability? No, no...’

The die had never displayed such an ability before. Its primary function was the character sheet, followed by detection abilities and various forms of record-keeping.

’Pseudo-randomness!’

He suddenly thought of a possibility: the so-called ”all things are ever-changing” was not completely random. At the very least, there were traces to follow, or the influence of some extraordinary power.

Whichever it was, this vague kind of ”omen” could be detected by the die, but it would only be triggered when he touched the card.

The die’s subsequent changes matched his guess fairly well. The Deck of Many Things was almost always changing, at irregular intervals, but there were only three possibilities: Good Fortune, Misfortune, and Inconstancy!

’Useful, but not that useful.’ Anser fretted inwardly.

The results were far too vague. The die did not display the card’s specific magical effect; everything could only be guessed at blindly.

’If I start praying to Tymora now, I wonder if the goddess will be angry?’ he sighed faintly.

Tymora was the goddess of good fortune, while Beshaba was the goddess of misfortune. Both belonged to the domain of trickery and had never lacked followers.

’Actually, even remembering it wouldn’t be much use.’ He comforted himself.

Reality was not a game; the magical effects would definitely differ quite a bit.

Anser pinched the card between his fingers, sensing each die result sweep through his mind, but he did not detect any pattern at all.

Since ”Good Fortune” represented no danger, he simply stopped overthinking it. When Good Fortune came up, his heart stirred, and he directly activated the Deck of Many Things with his mind.

The card suddenly lit up. On its face appeared a full suit of armor and a shield. No one was wearing them, yet they were posed in a defensive stance, giving off a sense of absolute impregnability.

...

[Deck of Many Things: Shield]

A set of magic armor suitable for your use, of Rare rarity or higher, appears in your hands. If you have no armor proficiency, then while you are not wearing armor, your base Armor Class becomes 12 + your Dexterity modifier.

...

The card quietly disintegrated, turning into a small mirror-like portal. Blue light lingered around it, while surging arcs of lightning coiled around its edges.

Anser immediately took a step back and fixed his gaze on the mirror surface. Vaguely, he saw a luxurious great hall, and a figure seated with his back to him, carrying a metal kite shield on his back.

The next moment, that kite shield vanished into thin air, then passed through the portal and landed in his arms.

He reflexively caught the shield, his eyes blank with shock, completely dumbfounded.

The portal collapsed and dissolved into scattered points of light.

Before that, he saw the man charge furiously toward the portal, his face full of rage, his aura almost tangible and extremely terrifying.

Unfortunately, the portal had already dispersed. He was doomed to accomplish nothing.

A moment later, Anser came to his senses. Looking at the heavy greatshield, the corner of his eye twitched, and he found it somewhat hard to understand: ’Wait... so you just rob people directly... So you don’t produce magic items—you’re just a transporter of magic items!’

When he learned the effect of this Deck of Many Things card, he was actually a little disappointed. At the same time, he had been wondering in what form this magic item would appear—but he never expected it to be so simple and crude.

’The creator of this card… is a bit outrageous. Somehow I’ve gained another enemy for no reason.’ He sighed, carefully examining the shield in his hands, hoping it would not be too poor.

It was a golden kite shield about one meter tall. On the front of the shield was an exquisite relief of Medusa: her eyes closed, her head full of serpents, even the snakes’ tongues clearly visible.

’It looks pretty good.’

The die spun for quite a while before finally detecting a bit of information:

[Euryale’s Aegis, Legendary]

’This… is that right!’

The corner of Anser’s mouth lifted, feeling that everything had been worth it.

A single card and an entire Deck of Many Things were both of legendary quality, but the magical effect of a single card could not compare with that of a conventional legendary item. Even exchanging it for a useful rare treasure would not count as a loss.

Anser’s result was purely a burst of extraordinary luck. It was just that the shield did not improve him very much.

Conventional appraisal methods had difficulty identifying legendary items, but attunement could still reveal the properties of a magic item—though it could not detect any curses that might exist upon it.

However, he roughly judged that this shield was safe, because its previous owner had just ”lost” it.

Just in case, he teleported back to the top floor of the Black Tower, ended his attunement to the Royal Butterfly Cloak, and entered a meditative state while holding the shield.

After an hour passed, the previous owner’s imprint completely disappeared, and Anser fully mastered this legendary item.

...

[Magic Item: Euryale’s Aegis]

Category: Armor

Rarity: Legendary (Requires Attunement)

This gleaming brass shield bears the engraved relief of the legendary medusa druid—Euryale.

While holding this shield, you gain the following benefits:

Euryale’s Blessing: You gain resistance to poison damage, and you are immune to the petrified condition.

Petrifying Heraldry: You may activate the shield at any time, filling the front of the shield with Medusa’s petrifying magic. At this moment, the Medusa relief opens its eyes and emits a bright radiance.

The petrifying light can lock onto any visible creature you choose within 9 meters. The creature must make a Constitution saving throw of difficulty (20). On a failed save, its body becomes rigid and it is restrained.

A few seconds later, the restrained creature must make another Constitution saving throw. On a failure, it becomes petrified for 24 hours.

This effect can only be used once per day.

Spellcasting: While holding the shield, you can cast the following spells: Lesser Restoration, Locate Creature, and Tree Stride, each once per day.

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