Jaliete gestured for their group to stand opposite them on the outside edge of a neatly laid ring of silver. Looking around the tent it quickly brought to mind Melisia’s much smaller tent but was just as packed with magical divination equipment, all of which was well above Dalen’s pay grade. He of course had his own array of alchemical equipment, but at least all of that was anchored in the physical laws of the universe and not the strange metaphysical meddling that these tools did. The Elder Jaliete’s expression was a steady neutral as she instructed the second woman through a series of chants. Dalen remembered them as the chants Melisia often did during the first few years after he had met her when she was trying to meditate.
Leo looked at Dalen questioningly but he really had no idea what was going on here. If either of them knew it would be Leo. But clearly, he didn’t know either so Dalen turned to Nyx, “What are they doing? Is it like Melisia’s core divining techniques?”
Nyx shook her head, without looking away from the two women, “I am aware of our ex- sister’s skills and certainly it may appear similar but these techniques are anchored by Elder Traya’s epic skill.”
Dalen’s eyes widened at that. He had never seen an epic skill in action before. Skills of that rarity were immensely powerful and incredibly rare, he had heard rumors of some of the Empire's elite having epic skills. Getting an epic skill was possible by gaining enough accomplishments for the system to offer you an upgrade pushing a skill from rare to epic but you needed to be lucky. To get a skill to epic by using the upgrade method was based entirely on whether the system qualified your progress as worthy of multiple upgrades. Which was significantly harder the higher the rarity was. It was possible to gain higher rarity skills if your class's rarity was high enough but they were even harder to increase the rarity of, hence Dalen’s hard work over the last few years studying alchemy.
“What’s the skill called?” Dalen asked his interest and hope peaked, if something could give them information it was an epic skill.
Nyx frowned but Jaliete spoke up, “You can tell them, Daughter. If they are seen as friends to Him they should be honored as such while He still sees them as such.”
Jaliete’s words concerned Dalen. What did she mean by that? He didn’t plan to ever end his friendship with Kal if he was still alive…
Nyx nodded, “The skill is called Blood Hunt. It is a very powerful divination skill, allowing the user to witness a vision of any creature. Assuming you have a sample of that creature's blood. It is a situational skill but the visions it provides can provide a lot of insight about the target creature or at this time the person,” it certainly sounds useful to Dalen. It could at least tell them if Kal was alive.
“But how are we supposed to get some of Kal’s blood?” Dalen asked as Elder Traya finished her chants.
Nyx smiled and dug a hand into her pocket, retrieving something wrapped in a clean white cloth. She carefully unwrapped the object and revealed a severed finger.
Dalen raised an eyebrow, but he quickly realized whose finger that was. The Prophet’s. “Well, that’s gross,” Kal had bled all over the man’s arm, and when The Prophet was man-handling him, but how she had managed to get time to snag the thing Dalen had no idea.
“Agreed,” Leo chuckled.
Nyx stepped over to Jaliete and handed her the finger, “It was fortunate that your friend drew the ire of the so-called prophet, otherwise we likely would have lost this opportunity,” the elder said as she drew a small knife from a nearby stand and carefully scraped a tiny amount of dried blood from beneath the fingers nail. She looked over everyone in the tent, “You must remain silent for the duration of the spell, or else we may disrupt Elder Traya’s vision. It is a fragile thing but it is the only way we can determine if this boy is alive and if he is worth the effort.”
Dalen scowled but kept silent. He wasn’t about to argue with the woman if she was going to help them, for now at least.
Jaliete gestured around the tent and an array of mirrors flew through the air and hovered around the silver circle, “These will show us a small hint of what Elder Traya can perceive, but like I said what we will be able to see will be but a fragment of what Elder Traya will be experiencing. So do not make any rash conclusions about what we see, we will have to discuss it with Elder Traya once the spell has concluded. Dalen and Leo both nodded but Nyx knelt down on one knee as a clear sign of respect and awaited the spell to begin.
Waving her hand once more and whispering a phrase Dalen couldn’t make out, the circle flared to life, radiating a bright blue light and in turn illuminating the mirrors. Without opening her eyes Elder Traya opened her mouth and Jaliete touched the speck of dried blood to her tongue. Dalen frowned, but his expression quickly changed to shock as the Elder’s back arched and she gasped in pain as a flash of dark red light moved down her throat, and then lines of bright red light appeared as her veins had just caught fire. Dalen thought something was going wrong but Nyx and Jaliete seemed calm, so he kept silent. Jaliete raised one towards Traya and the other waved around in a complicated series of gestures as the other elder groaned from the strain of the skill.
Traya groaned but whispered something Dalen could barely hear, “Something, is… something is there,” Hope was beginning to rise in Dalen’s chest but a sudden breeze made him turn to look at the entrance of the tent where now stood weary and drained looking Melisia. Dalen frowned, but the verbal beating could wait so he ignored her and turned back to spell. Elder Traya continued whispering as she tried to hone in on her target, now back in a more comfortable meditation position, but her body was still stiff with random bouts of pain wracking through her. “I am close som-
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“ Suddenly her whispers ceased, her mouth still hanging open. A whoosh of mana burst from her as Jaliete’s part in the spell took hold and projected the coming vision onto the mirrors. At first, the mirrors remained normal but in the blink of an eye, they darkened, like they had been suddenly covered in soot. Dalen didn’t think anything of it but then he saw Jaliete’s face.
Her face had lost all color, and she took a moment to shout, “Something is wrong! Traya, stop Now!” but the other elder remained frozen, her eyes closed so tightly that the skin appeared almost pure white. Something changed in the mirror closest to Dalen making him jump with surprise. The mirror's darkness now swirled with dizzying speed as things within it began to take shape. Dalen’s eyes widened and his face paled, as his eyes began to pick out what was within the mirror. Leo gasped and took a step back in shock and a primal sense of terror.
Then Traya began to scream.
----------------------------------------
Kal was hacking his way through the oncoming garghounds like a scythe through grass. He ignored the Flame Seers since their attacks were now useless against him, and instead targeted the nobles. Once again his fear aura spread amongst the rabble, drastically reducing the cost of his Wrath Incarnate and allowing him to overpower the first two nobles with little difficulty.
You have slain [Garghound Noble | Abyss Spawn 24]
Mutilation bonus added to total.
You have slain [Garghound Noble | Abyss Spawn 24]
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Lacking a ranged option was still an issue, but his enhanced speed and strength made up for it for now as he hacked through another dozen garghounds and leaped over another to reach the third Noble. The shock value of flame seers attacks failing to slow him spread fear amongst even the strongest of this horde. The nobles still put up a fight but they were much more hesitant and made more mistakes, allowing Kal to slay the third just as easily as the last two.
You have slain [Garghound Noble | Abyss Spawn 24]
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Kal’s confidence soared as the third Noble died, but with each kill, the pain in his chest returned.
Health:
1109/1820
Stamina:
1402/2680
Wrath:
560
He had taken minimal damage due to his heightened endurance and near immunity to fire, but still, the pain in his chest continued to grow as he charged towards the last two Nobles who had grouped and were now surrounded by the flame seers. Kal’s emotions were slowly growing more hateful and aggressive, pushing him to ignore the pain and slay the last of this pack and continue moving before one of the garghound royal guards arrived. Hacking his way through another ten fear-struck garghounds Kal was met by another combined volley of fireballs but the flames almost felt pleasant as he snatched a grievous wound garghound by the forepaw and threw it through the inferno getting a satisfying yelp of pain as he followed closely behind and into the group of unprepared flame seers.
You have slain [Garghound Flame Seer| Abyss Spawn 22]
You have slain [Garghound Flame Seer| Abyss Spawn 23]
You have slain [Garghound Flame Seer| Abyss Spawn 21]
You have slain [Garghound Flame Seer| Abyss Spawn 23]
You have slain [Garghound Flame Seer| Abyss Spawn 22]
Mutilation bonus added to total x 13
Kal eviscerated, the first five with little effort as they tried to stand after tumbling from the hurled garghound. Each kill caused the pain to grow even stronger to the point it was even slowing with the pain-numbing effect of rage. What was going on? Kal staggered as the pain radiated through him in a jolt before fading again. With Kal distracted one of the nobles was smart enough to dart in and cut a large gash across his back making his health drop more than it had during the rest of the fight. Kal grimaced and dealt with the last two nobles.
You have slain [Garghound Noble | Abyss Spawn 24]
You have slain [Garghound Noble | Abyss Spawn 24]
Kal grinned as the rest of the pack froze in horror as the last of their leaders was slain, he turned to begin the clean up but as the rush of experience entered his core the pain returned once again, but this time orders of magnitude worse. It felt like his chest was about to tear itself apart, finally understanding what the pain was, Kal immediately ended his Wrath Incarnate. It was his core, something was very very wrong.
L%@# @p!
Error core not compatible with current level of power.
“Fuck!” He didn’t have time for this, the royal guards would be here any moment but he could feel his body beginning to burn every second that passed. Kal ran through the thinnest section of garghounds, and luckily for him, they were still stunned by the death of the nobles that they let him through without a problem. By the time Kal had cleared the pack his anger was beginning to rise like it had before his customized Wrath Incarnate. He willed himself to keep running while clamping his will down hard on his anger. He could feel his skin start to tear apart and crimson light began to pour from the cracks. It reminded him of his cloud form in his core space. Something was horribly wrong with his core, but how did it happen? It was fine earlier, but something had changed, but what? Kal thought as he distanced himself from the garghounds once more. The cause came to him in a rush when he finally stopped. He had been so caught up in his leveling and first class that he had forgotten all about one incredibly important thing.
His class evolution.