INTEGER UNLIMITED

Marem started to rummage through her backpack as the suits of armor stood still, frozen in place. They rumbled while they spoke, but now they seemed as still as statues. Leo put his hand near one of them, and he felt the lightest resistance to his approach. As if there was a thickness to the air. He squinted his eyes and activated his analyze skill.

[CROSSROAD GUARDSMEN]

[ENCHANTED ANIMATED MAGICAL ARMOR]

[ANIMATED: THE SUITS OF ARMOR ARE GIVEN SENTIENCE]

[ENCHANTMENT: PHYSICAL DEFENSIVE SHIELD]

Even when he attempted to analyze just one, both of the armors were highlighted. They were connected, which made sense considering the nature of their puzzle. Leo knew he’d seen this trap before in games, but he couldn’t remember the solution.

Marem muttered complaints to herself as she searched through her bag. She threw out random items and adventuring gear until she finally got her grasp on a book. After a few heavy pulls on the book lodged in the bottom, it burst free.

“My dad gave me a book of common traps and puzzles before I went out. This is one of the worst ones since they always have an asinine twist. Sometimes it’s that both the guards are liars, or they change roles every minute, or both paths are doomed. You need to do a bunch of rituals and checks that take forever,” she complained.

“So they’re not really alive, right?” asked Leo.

She flipped through her book. “No, they’re usually given barely enough sentience to talk. Mages set these up all the time. Usually in a dungeon, but there are some real asshole forest enchanters.”

Leo looked at the hefty tome in Marem’s hands. It was obscenely thick and littered with sticky notes and bookmarks. He really didn’t want to spend any longer in the bandit ridden patch of forest. Especially if he would end up standing guard all night.

“Hey,” he looked at the suit of armor that stood on the left.

“Yes?” it asked.

“Sorry.”

“Pardon?”

Leo pushed through their magical shield with ease. It gave out a soft plop that made Marem look up. She saw as Leo grabbed the suit of armor and spiked it to the ground. The once illustrious steel plate had been reduced to a pile of scrap metal.

Her jaw went slack as she saw him turn to the other armor suit. It stood still, yet the suit seemed to have the slightest tremble as Leo approached. He put his hand on the suit of armor’s shoulder.

“Did I just kill that guy? Or destroy him, break him, whatever you’d call it?”

The suit of armor took a second to reply, “. . .Yes.”

“Cool, now which path is the correct one?”

“. . .The one to your left.” the suit of armor seemed to be shaking.

Leo turned to Marem, “Alright, I found our path!”

Marem realized that it was now too late to do anything about it. Almost every fail safe and magical ritual required both of the guards to be there. She just put her items back into her bag.

Once she was ready to continue their journey, Leo held her back for a moment. He walked up to the remaining suit of armor and looked it over. He reached forward and placed his hands on the helmet. With a slight tug, it ripped apart from the body. The suit collapsed onto the ground with violent clanging.

Leo looked into the helmet as he walked back. “Are you still alive?”

The helmet sat quiet for a moment. “Yes. My core is located within the helmet.”

“Cool, free talking helmet,” he placed the helmet into his bag.

The two of them headed down the leftmost path. If they continued at the same pace of the previous paths, they could be back on the main road within an hour. Leo and Marem were still on edge as they walked. While the bandits were pushovers, they didn’t know what may be hidden on this trail.

The gentle chirp of birds and rustling of leaves were interrupted only by the occasional clanking of metal. The helmet’s facial guard seemed to be loose, as it repeatedly opened and closed with a light thud. Marem bared the sound for as long as she could.

“So, why are you bringing that thing with you?” she asked.

“Why wouldn’t I bring it? It’s a talking helmet.”

“Well, maybe we can find some use for it. There may be a ritual to locate the caster using it. Must say though, I didn’t think you’d be so willing to break the puzzle. Considering your rules on not killing and all.”

“It’s not like I really killed it, though, it was just a spell. It’s alive in the same way that Siri is.”

“What’s Siri?”

Leo let out a slight sigh. He’d been attempting to share some of his culture with her, if you call anime culture, but he kept oversharing. He had continued to slip up and mention things that don’t exist in this world. It was hard to filter almost everything that you knew. He trusted her, and he wanted to tell her the truth. But not yet. He just needed time.

“Just a spell that talks, so it’s the same as this armor. Nothing special,” he lied.

His lie made him think about the fact that this helmet was something special to him. He had no certainty that it would continue to be animated after he disconnected it. There was so much to magic that he didn’t understand. Now that it was still sentient, there had to be some way to use it. He had to figure out how to use everything at his disposal.

What also stood out to him was the fact that he gained no EXP from breaking the first guard. He figured that EXP would have something to do with fighting experience. It seems that only things he killed would give EXP. He just needed to figure out if he didn’t gain EXP because they weren’t alive or if it’s because they were some type of enchantment.

If he encountered summoned golems that gave no EXP, they’d be an annoyance to deal with. EXP was the only resource he had to work towards. Leo made sure to hold his backpack tightly, so the helmet wouldn’t be as loud.