Chapter 167: Giant Wheel Universe
“Traveler’s Respite?!’ Anse held the badge, astonished.
He had heard of this place, but only heard of it, and did not understand the situation inside.
Traveler’s Respite is located in the vast Astral Plane, which is a transitional plane between the Material Plane and the Outer Planes. It is said to be a vast silver ocean, the final resting place of fallen deities.
Dungeons & Dragons is a multiverse, also known as the Great Wheel cosmology, including the Material Plane, Inner Planes, Outer Planes, transitional planes, and positive and negative planes.
Toril, where Faerun is located, is in the Material Plane. Besides the world where humans live, it also has two echoes: the Feywild and the Shadowfell, which together constitute the Material Plane.
The Inner Planes include the four elemental planes of air, earth, fire, and water, and the secondary elemental planes between them.
There are seventeen Outer Planes, corresponding to the nine alignments and the philosophical divides between them: the Abyss, Twin Paradises, Limbo, Mechanus, Mount Celestia, Nine Hells, Outlands, Elysium…
Transitional planes are also called transitional planes, including the Ethereal Plane and the Astral Plane, as well as passages leading to other existing planes.
The Ethereal Plane is between the Material Plane and the Inner Planes, while the Astral Plane is between the Material Plane and the Outer Planes.
The positive and negative planes refer to the rest of the universe’s envelope, whose provided primal forces of life and death form the foundation of all existence in the multiverse.
To perform plane travel, the most common method is through plane portals, followed by high-circle spells like Gate and Plane Shift.
Of course, some planes themselves connect to multiple Outer Planes, such as the Infinite Staircase, Oceanus, River Styx, and Yggdrasil the World Tree.
The Traveler’s Badge comes with the seventh-circle conjuration「Plane Shift」. This spell can teleport the spellcaster to different planes. If the rune key sequence of a teleportation circle on another plane is known, the casting difficulty is much simpler, and the destination is more precise.
“The incantation?” Anse focused his mind on the badge and waited patiently.
Ordinary appraisal cannot reveal the badge’s uses and command words, only that it is a magical item. Since the dice can reveal the badge’s detailed uses, they can certainly detect the command words too.
After a few minutes, information on the Traveler’s Badge flashed, adding a full page of Netherese script.
“All pitfalls. What if I encounter an illiterate?” He silently complained, skimmed it simply, then carefully put the badge into the dragonhide pouch.
From the description, Traveler’s Respite should still be in normal operation, supporting mutual transactions, but only once every seven days, with a maximum stay of 24 hours per visit.
Therefore, he must prepare well. What if he doesn’t have enough money to pay the bill, or sees something he wants but can’t afford.
Besides the「Traveler’s Badge」and「Alchemist’s Belt Pouch」, the two most valuable pieces of equipment on the Shadow Thief were「Shadow Armor」and「Frostbrand」, both of uncommon quality.
「Shadow Armor」is a dark-toned studded leather armor, armor class +2, and advantage on saves against the frightened condition while worn.
「Frostbrand」is a silver white short sword, one and a half feet long, covered in frost-like patterns, icy to the touch, with cold air swirling around it.
When attacking a target with this magic weapon and hitting, the target takes an extra 1d6（1-6）cold damage. In addition, after attunement, it grants fire resistance.
In bitter cold environments, this weapon sheds bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet.
When you draw this weapon, you can cast it to extinguish all nonmagical flames within 30 feet（9 meters）, once per hour.
“This equipment… is very targeted.” Anse was somewhat startled.
He had seen two Shadow Thief assassins, whose equipment was extremely counter to assassination targets, especially spellcasters.
These two pieces of equipment made the Shadow Thief Master immune to Fear, unafraid of his signature spells Fireball and Scorching Ray, greatly increasing the assassination success probability. He wouldn’t believe it wasn’t deliberately prepared.
Besides these pieces of equipment and potions, the Shadow Thief didn’t even have a money bag, carrying no extra items.
“The Shadow Thieves Guild has deep reserves.”
He suspected that before assassinations, Shadow Thieves would apply for or borrow specific magical items based on target intelligence to increase success rates, then return them after use.
Both pieces of equipment were valuable, but almost useless to Anse. He was already immune to panic and had fire resistance.
However, they could be sold for money or traded with others.
He was really afraid of going to Traveler’s Respite without money to pay, being detained by the owner to wash dishes, pouring tea and chatting for those weird clients, warming beds.
Thinking this way, he was a bit afraid to go.
Neutral, peaceful—all just labels and titles. Believing them would be too naive.
He put all the items into the dragonhide pouch, removed his own belt, put on the「Alchemist’s Belt Pouch」, then notified Brat to dispose of the body and teleported back to the Federation.
In the room, Kalenno saw Anse appear and relaxed: “Makaria of the Filu Mercenary Group is here, and Carissa is waiting for you too.”
“Bounties distributed?” Anse asked.
“Yes, all sent away. Councillor Quentin is handling casualty pensions, Councillor Graham is with the governor settling commoners…” Kalenno explained briefly.
“Mm.” Anse nodded and pushed the door to go downstairs.
In the living room, Makaria and Carissa sat facing each other, neither speaking, like strangers.
Seeing Anse enter, both hurried to stand, faces full of smiles.
In yesterday’s battle, Anse showed extremely terrifying spellcasting ability, whether the extreme burst of instantly freezing over a dozen werewolves or casually blasting the Werewolf Leader to death with magic missile storm—none of which ordinary spellcasters could do.
Some people’s combat power can’t be measured by class level. Compared to him, Illyas’s genius halo dims.
“Coming so early to block the door, afraid I’ll run?” Anse teased.
“Haha, who dares block your door now.” Makaria laughed heartily.
Carissa stood with hands behind her back, smiling without speaking.
Anse opened the dragonhide pouch, vials of holy water floating out of the black hole, grabbed by him and placed one by one on the table, a shiny white array, 16 vials total.
According to the battle report, the Filu Mercenary Group killed eighteen werewolves total, plus the previous two-vial deposit, not one more or less.
“Count them.” Anse gestured, then sat back on the sofa.
Makaria picked up a vial, held it to her eye and gently shook it, watching the swaying platinum holy water inside, eyes gleaming: “This color, I like it.”
Saying so, she took out the box she brought, opened it, slotted the holy water vials into the cork holders, and secured with the strap.
Carissa at the side narrowed her eyes. She knew these mercenaries were hired by Anse, but didn’t expect the remuneration to be holy water.
“If holy water is drunk before combat, the chance of resisting the werewolf curse is greater.” She shared, all experience accumulated from years of combat.
“After being bitten?” Anse followed up.
“Almost useless. The werewolf curse is a type of lycanthropy curse, belonging to transmutation curses, turning human to beast after infection, not an ordinary negative energy curse.” Carissa explained.
“Pity.” Anse shook his head regretfully, took out four more vials of holy water and put them on the table, “These are for you. No stock left for now.”
He made a few vials a day, and had only saved these in total.
Carissa hesitated a moment, didn’t refuse. This thing had too many uses; it might save a life at a key moment.
