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Their vote decided that the reward would be the shield. The ultimate deciding factor was because of its abilities.

While both the shield and crown had support abilities, the shield was basically fully focused on support. Meanwhile, the crown's passives and one of the actives would only help its wearer.

Upon their decision, they were finally sent out of the dungeon. The other players had long since exited the dungeon, eager to receive their two S-Ranked treasure chests. They were all dying to find out what the chests would drop.

"Well, here you are, Nikki," Elizabeth said, pulling the shield out of her inventory and handing it to her deputy.

The shield was a simple round shield with an intricate design on its front. The group didn't know enough about runesmithing to comment, but they felt that the design was overly focused on appearance.

Regardless, it was a beautiful shield. When Nikki held it, it didn't quite fit with the rest of her attire. Still, it didn't ruin her look. It was just a little odd, what with the shield even being bright gold and silver with a mural of a goddess (Mosfaria, if one went of the name of the shield) on the front.

"Thanks," Nikki replied, taking the shield and checking its stats as she did. Of course, she already knew all about them, but she still wanted to check.

[Mosfaria's Aegis — Tier 8 Magical Shield]

[A reward from clearing the Epic-Ranked Dungeon: "The Undead Invasion". As a special bonus, the attribute requirements can be ignored—at a penalty of reduced efficiency depending on the gap in all abilities, reduction indicated in <> brackets.]

[Armor Value: 110]

(AN: Can withstand attacks from any weapon with a damage value less than 110, and thus won't lose any durability from such attacks. Durability loss scales with the difference between the armor value and raw damage value of attacks.)

[Magical Armor Rating: 110]

[Durability: 2.25M]

[Attribute Requirement:]

[Strength: 520 (met); Agility: 520 (met); Spirit: 480 (lacking 84); Intelligence: 390 (lacking 55)]

[Efficiency reduction: 15.7%]

'Not too bad.' Nikki thought. She wasn't sure what determined the reduction, but 15% was totally acceptable. After all, she would need to reach a higher Tier to close the gap—which wasn't too realistic.

Perhaps it would be if she was like Judith (and all the others) focusing on one class, but Nikki was learning all at the same time. She had been one of the last to reach Tier 5 within the group.

Despite her slower growth, it was still worth it. After all, it allowed her to fill in wherever the guild needed her. And since she often filled the post of commander, she wasn't always needed on the front lines. So a little slower growth wasn't the end of the world.

Besides, the others weren't ready to advance to Tier 6 regardless. Even with them putting all their focus on their respective chosen classes. Eldrian was the outlier. Most players were still mastering their Tier 5 spells and skills.

[Passive Abilities:]

[Attunement: By equipping (and thus soul binding the shield) the soul-bound wielder will gain a permanent connection to the shield.]

[20% increase in all attributes of the soul-bound wielder (increased stats do not count towards attribute requirement).]

[Protection: The wielder will always gain complete protection from magic damage (up to the MR value of the shield).]

[The wielder can choose to share this protection with others, spreading the protection between themselves and others. MR up to 55 (50%) <46.3 (42% due to efficiency reduction)> will always protect the wielder, with the other 55 (50%) <46.3 (42%)> being shared by those chosen to be protected.]

Nikki of course tested this out right away. Asking Ilmadia to attempt to attack her. And just like the text said, all the spells were completely blocked while she held the shield. Even if they landed where she had no armor equipped.

Heck, she hadn't even equipped the shield yet. Which made it even better. Few items worked without being equipped. And this meant she could lend it to others if the situation required it.

And, honestly, an MR value of 110 was insane. Ilmadia's strongest attack, a runic Nova spell, had a raw damage factor of 260 (which would then be multiplied by her INT to calculate the damage inflicted).

This, of course, sounded like an insane value, and it was. But it came at the cost of a mana crystal and its 3k mana. An expendable attack costing 30-ish gold to cast (mana crystal prices have been rising due to the war).

Normally, Tier 5 spells had around 70 raw damage factors. Meaning, this passive ability, 'Protection', would block all Tier 5 spells outside of ones that used outside materials to be boosted—like Nova.

Heck, most Tier 6 and 7 spells would likely also be blocked. And since this protection covered Nikki's entire body, it basically made her impervious to magic.

Sharing the protection could be a handful, but it could also be quite troublesome. Luckily, the shield had another ability to help with this.

[MR Core: Designed to draw power from all other equipment and the ambient mana in the air, the shield can act as a core for all protection of the wielder. Drawing upon the MR value of other items to increase its own MR value.]

[Increase limited to 20% <17% due to efficiency reduction> of other armor pieces' MR (up to 100% <84.3%> of the shield's MR rating).]

While the limitations sounded bad, it really wasn't. Nikki was decked out in Tier 4 and 5 equipment. Each piece of which had anywhere from 30 to 60. Sure, she could only have so many armor pieces equipped, but this was still an utterly insane ability.

'How much will it go up?' Nikki wondered, deciding the equip the shield right there and then. Sadly, the increase was less than she had expected.

'Likely, greaves and gauntlets count as single items.' She noted. Rings and other accessory items also didn't have MR (outside of special cases). 'So, it is limited to 4 or 5 pieces. Like how our equipment screen looks. Not that anyone really uses it.'

A person's equipment was split into leg, chest, arm, head, and cloak according to the system. But, as is obvious, everyone had two arms and legs. And you could stack pieces even. Though this didn't seem to work with pieces above Tier 5.

Their MR values got screwed and, of course, you couldn't activate the abilities of stacked items. Just like how you can't use several weapons to use several of their abilities.

Players could only equip one weapon (class) at a time. Large weapons (two-handed) invalidate one-handed weapons (but one-handed weapons allow you to equip another one-handed item, in the other hand).

If, in this case, the player had a two-handed weapon (say a spear) equipped, the player may still hold anything else in their other hand. But it couldn't be equipped at the same time as the spear. Meaning they won't be able to draw on the other weapon's powers.

Though this rule could be broken if the player learned how to manually activate the item's abilities. It does, however, still hold true for armor. Magical items being too close to one another causes them to conflict.

Not because of interference between the pieces themselves, but rather the interference between them and the person wearing them. The pieces distort and deflect the flow of mana from the wielder to the relative item. Causing them to malfunction.

This effect has been extensively investigated by other players. In particular, smiths and the whales (the rich players). The latter especially since the new market feature came out. Hoping to skip ahead by decking themselves out in premium items. Which surely made Miracle a ton of money.

The last passive ability of the shield was a personal one.

[Clarity: The shield has a calming effect. Reducing the effects of mind attacks by multiplying the wielder's spirit by 1,5 <1.26 due to efficiency reduction>. Effectively halving the effects of all mind attacks.]

'This is cool, but mind attacks haven't really been a problem for us.' Nikki thought, trying to check if she could feel the effect. She could not.

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