“Alright you handsome Daemon, let's get back on topic,” Su'ong said with a wide grin, “Why would you need help getting into your own Storage Ring? It's bound to your individual Mana signature. Well, at least it is until you either die, sell it, or give it away. So I really don't see how I could do anything that you can't.“
No matter how he looked at it, Alan was going to have to get over the fact that Su'ong was naked, and explain what happened. If only to get to the point that he could tell her why his ring no longer worked, without having to stop and answer questions every five seconds. Ouch… This must be how Su'ong feels every time I open my mouth, Alan realized. I'm gonna have to try to work on that…
Realistically, there wasn't anything left but to spill the beans. Any way he looked at it, he couldn't come up with a short answer that would work. If he said he no longer had Mana, Su'ong was obviously going to want to know why.
“Alright, you win,” Alan sighed. Knowing that he was going to be better off in the long run by being forthright didn't make him any less nervous. He was going to have to trust that he had done the best he could, with the few options he was given, and hope that she would understand. Putting it off was only going to continue increasing his worries, and would most likely worsen any potential backlash. Su'ong deserved to know what he'd done, for better or worse.
“It's probably going to be best if I just start from the top,” Alan said with far more confidence than he felt. “When you pushed me out of the Earth Wyrm's mouth, I thought you were a goner. I didn't know how to help you. So I used up what remained of my Stamina, and the majority of my HP to gather up enough Mana to cast [Gaea's Benevolence].“
“Hold on,” Su'ong held up her hand, “I remember that part, I blacked out on the way to Gaea's Realm. Let's start the story off there.“
Oh man… this is gonna take a while…
******
“You awakened a Bloodline while still in the (G-Stage)??“ Su'ong gasped in disbelief, her hand covering her mouth. “Just how freakishly high is your Luck Alan? Next you'll tell me that you stumbled upon a trove of Mystic Fruit while I was out.“
Alan wasn't quite sure what a Mystic Fruit was, but those Golden Plantains were some pretty good stuff. “Actually that would make sense,” Alan said with a contemplative look towards the Plantain tree by the lake.
“Have you ever heard of Golden Plantains?“ Alan asked, suddenly wondering if he'd hit the jackpot without even knowing it. “I found a few… Trees…” Seeing the fish-eyed stare Su'ong had him fixed with, Alan cocked his head to the side, and fell silent.
“Everyone's heard of Golden Plantains Alan!!“ She said with a long sigh. “Plantains in general come in a wide variety of colors. We have an orchard back home, so I've tried several types. My personal favorite are the blue ones. Golden Plantains aren't rare as far as Natural Treasures go, but they are hard enough to come by that I've only ever seen one in my entire life! Aside from being a prized snack amongst the more well-to-do Races, I once heard grandmother say that Goblins will do just about anything to get their hands them. Including murder. But I guess that's nothing new for Goblins. I also heard her say that Goblins will happily kill anything that moves, for nothing more than not being a Goblin.“
She paused, as if hesitant to speak her mind. “I don't think Beast-Folk much care for Goblins. I've… Never heard of a single one with any redeemable qualities.“
“I can tell you right now that your grandmother speaks the truth. Goblins are assholes. Got a bit of a Goblin problem back home… But they're all fucked when I get back. It's time for some Spring cleaning… Anyways, Golden Plantains,” Alan said, hoping to get back on track.
“There's a tree full of them right over there,” He pointed to the lakeshore, “It has at least a hundred left, possibly more.“
A creepy smile slowly spread across Su'ong's face before she turned and dashed away in the direction Alan was pointing. “Walk and talk Alan, walk and talk!” she yelled over her shoulder, already halfway to her destination.
Arriving only moments behind her, Alan was surprised to see that Su'ong already had a perfectly peeled plantain. “How did you do that so easily?“ He asked as she turned away and devoured the fruit.
“Lotsha practish,” she said, clumsily speaking over a mouthful of food. Right before turning around to face Alan, Su'ong let out a satisfied burp. “That was sooo good! My Beast Core is already waking up!“ She squealed, rubbing her abdomen with one hand, while swiftly plucking a second plantain with the other.
“As for awakening a Bloodline,” Alan took Su'ong's distracted, and downright noisy eating of Mystic Fruit as an opportunity to jump back on topic, “I did, but I think that had more to do with how powerful the energy in Gaea's Realm was. Or something along those lines. All I know is, Gaea said she was going to do something to slow the spread of that thrice damned [Daemonfire of the Impure Realm] Skill… And that's when everything went haywire.“
“Next thing I know, I'm on the ground, surrounded by fucking energy tornados of bright orange light that are pouring into my body. About the time sludge started shooting out of my bellybutton, the pain got… Intense. Think I must've blacked out for a while there. When I came to, I had awakened an Ancient Bloodline. And apparently, it considered the Daemonic influence to be a physical contamination, and… Ate it?“ Alan finished, unsure of his accuracy.
“An ANCIENT BLOODLINE!! Su'ong shouted, spitting out a mouthful of mashed Plantain in the process. “What does it do? Show me your Bloodline tab!“
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Alan looked down at the chunks of chewed fruit sticking to his chest scales in horror. Su'ong continued to await an answer, pointedly ignoring the look of disgust on her partners face. “You big baby,” she stated matter-of-factly, pulling her canteen from the storage bracelet on her wrist and dumping it on Alan's head.
“That's another part of the issue. I can't access my Bloodline information in this form. My Bloodline was the main issue, so the System isolated it, and any remnant Daemonic flames, and sealed them away with my Human half.“
Feigning ignorance to the way Su'ong's eyeballs were bulging, Alan scrubbed the remaining globs of slime off his chest, and continued.
“You'll just have to take my word for it, at least for now, but it's called {Regalia of the Human King}, and it's incomplete. Whatever that means. Regardless, it came with a Bloodline Skill called [Affliction Absorption] and technically that's what ate the Daemonfire. Ate it all up, and then turned it into something called a Bloodline Point.“
And the greedy bastard ate all my Fire Spell Levels while it was at it… Alan sighed. As things currently stood, it didn't really matter. Be it Level 1, or 100, he couldn't use Spells either way.
“By Manasa's thinning hair!“ Su'ong stated excitedly, “There is no way! Not the actual Human's King?! I've heard of him! All Beast-Folk children have!“ Her face took on an ominous look. She slowly reached out like she was going to grab Alan's arms, and perhaps do something unsavory.
“Do not go out alone at night, or the Human's King will get you!“ She growled out. “You had better eat all of that swamp cabbage, or the Human's King is going to come and take you away.“ She dropped her arms and smiled conspiratorially.
“Between you and me, I hear he is a really picky eater. They say there's nothing he loves more than the flavor of a child that doesn't eat their veggies!“ She shook her head and snorted.
“It was a tale that was told to scare the more disobedient children into behaving. Until I met you, honestly… I didn't even think that Humans were real. And now to find out you have a potential connection to that fairytale monster… Well, I guess we all have family that that we would rather not speak of… My family tree doesn't contain any ancient mythical monsters that I'm aware of, but my family has been the hidden claws of the Beast King for as far back as anyone remembers.“ She frowned.
“Though the majority of the Snake-Kin have always had Assassin type Classes, there were a few who had Dark Alchemist, and Arcane Sorcerer varieties. But now that we are little more than minders of the Tutorial Realm, only the very old, or true scumbags, will be found to have those Classes these days. Take my cousin, Genji, for example. When she was unable hack it in the Warden training grounds, she chose the Bog Witch Class! Bog Witch! It's been years since I have seen her, but... I am certain she sold herself to one dark God or another. That girl has always been a musty calamity in the making.“
She gave Alan a soft smile. “While your's might smell quite a bit worse than most others, we all have skeletons in the attic Alan.“
“Now that that's settled, I need to make sure that we are both on the same page. My…” Su'ong turned and looked to where her tail used to be. “…ass, is strapped to the same Taurus as your's, so let us keep all of this Human's King business strictly between us. At the very least until we can figure out exactly what it does. And perhaps we should tell my grandmother, but only if you feel open to do so after meeting her. Agreed?“
“Agreed.“ Alan said with a firm nod. Having never met the lady, he didn't have anything against 'grandmother'. But that didn't do much to ease his apprehension at divulging this secret to anyone else.
Sorry granny. No offense, but I'm not even planning on telling Rexus.
“Thank you,” Su'ong said seriously. “This is for your safety as well as much as it is mine. Now, I Believe you were saying you got a Bloodline Point. Yet another term I must admit to being unfamiliar with, though I wager it works like a Class Skill Point, only for your Bloodline.“
“Ive never had a Class, so I can't say for sure one way or another.“ Alan said, “I didn't do anything with it. The Bloodline Point was automatically allocated by the System, and used to awaken my first Regalia. It's called the [Mantle of Retribution]. And,” Alan held up his hand to forestall the impending interruption, “Before you ask, I don't exactly know what that does either. It works off of accumulated damage, so I won't know anything before I can switch back to my Human Form, and then get hit a few times. I asked Gaea, but until I get through the Tutorial, there's a lot she couldn't say…”
Though he knew his Patroness had already gone to extensive lengths to ensure his, as well as Su'ong's survival, he was conflicted. A part of him couldn't help but wish she'd been able to tell him more. Yet the rest felt he was probably better off not knowing. There was already enough to worry about as things were.
“Next came the Soul-Union, and you know most of that already, but…” Alan hesitated, having reached the dreaded moment. “At the end there, Reggie, I mean, well, the Dungeon Wraith appeared, and asked for my help. If I'm honest, he made me an offer I couldn't refuse. You no longer have any connection to the Dungeon. In return, I have to try to help him escape with us…” With his gaze fixed firmly on his feet, Alan awaited Su'ong's reply.
“Thank you Alan.“ She said sincerely. “I have been meaning to get free of that cursed contract for a long time. The only reason I refrained was because I lacked confidence in my chance of escape. Did you make an Oath?“ She finished quietly.
“Yes… It was a part of the bargain. I could've tried harder, but honestly, all the cards were stacked in Reggie's favor. Oh, I named the Wraith Reginald by the way. But he goes by Reggie.“
Su'ong closed her eyes and sighed. She ran her hand through her short hair, and then sighed even louder. “Of course you did.“
“You know, with everything I lost in the process, I think I miss my braids most of all… Alright, so you named a thousand-year-old monster, and made another Oath. I certainly cannot say I would make the same choices had I been in your position, but I do not see any point in me rubbing it in.“
“Reginald,” she said with a grimace, “Will likely find it easier to survive outside of the Dungeon's area of influence now that he was given a name, so there's at least one positive to be found. I'm afraid to ask, but how many open quests do you have right now?
Now it was Alan's turn to grimace. After opening up his PSA to the Quests tab, Alan turned his shoulder so Su'ong could see the contents.
***DYNAMIC QUEST***
1/15 Survive Your first day in the Tutorial. Completion Reward: Varies depending on completion total and mettle demonstrated in the face of adversity.
***HIDDEN QUESTS***
✓ 1/4- Defeat every Dungeon born monster located on the dungeons first floor. (100/100) Completion Reward: 250 (Iron Grade) Lotus coins, 5 (F-Stage) Mana Crystals.
2/4- Survive the trials of the second floor and locate the entrance to the heart of the Labyrinth. (0/5) Completion Reward: 500 (Iron Grade) Lotus coins and 1 randomly generated (F-Stage) Growth-type weapon.
0/?? Ascend the Heavenly Ladder.
0/?? Stabilize your Celestial Tributaries.
0/?? Unclog your Celestial Deltas.
It wasn't as bad as he'd feared. Once again, neither of his (System Oath-Quest)s were there, yet before he could voice his opinion as to why he thought that might be, Su'ong released a sharp gasp that changed his mind about speaking up.
“Alan, if you were to guess, how long would you say that you've been stuck in the Dungeon?