Level up!
Kal’s gorefiend massacre had gone very well over the last two days. Though as he had expected it had quickly become more complicated than that. Several garghound packs had joined the fray. Now however they were nearly all variants. He still hadn’t fought one of the royal guards but it was bound to happen sooner or later with the intrusion of the other demon types into the trial it was obvious that the whole dynamic had changed.
He had also come across his first felflame demon. It was a kind of ghoul creature, a lot like the mud ghouls from Farninghold’s mine except that it was basically made of fire. It was stupidly weak, only being level twenty-six and he didn’t even have to do anything to kill it. It simply charged at him dove onto his body and vanished.
Kal had felt the tingly sensation of his skin warming slightly before the kill notification had come through. Weird, but he guessed if he wasn’t basically immune to fire it might have hurt a bit at least.
The last two days had been almost non-stop fighting or siphoning for Kal. He still occasionally found a dark serpent to kill which also now immediately led to a fight with more gorefiends and what was even better was that their levels seemed to be higher if the corpse was fresher. Some of the fights were even dangerous when the corpse produced enough of them that Kal had to experience their disgusting wound worm things again. But it had all been worth it.
Kalum Lesta
Status
Class:
Slayer of Fate [Epic] [Anomalous]
Level:
40
Race:
Human?
Health:
2140
Stamina:
4040
Wrath:
3220
Attributes
Strength:
384
Agility:
163
Endurance:
404
Vitality:
214
Intellect:
184
Perception:
218
Will:
498
Wisdom:
200
Available:
Titles
Ascendant, Core Bane, Core Smith, Defier of Dhinir, Planeswalker, Planar Appetite, Slayer of the Strong, Endurance Elite, Strength Elite, Will Elite, Demon Slayer, Paragon of Man
Skills
Soul Forge [Rare], Wrathful Regeneration [Common], Wrath Incarnate [Uncommon], Abyssal Consumption [Rare], Flames of Wrath[Uncommon] [Soul Forged], Slayer’s Intent [Rare] [Soul Forged]
Race
Birthright: Confined
His leveling rate had doubled since he had left the cave and started hunting a variety of demons. He could feel that eventually, it would likely be more efficient to kill stronger monsters as he had with the dark serpents but now that he was stronger and closer in level mass slaughter was best.
As usual, he had continued to split his free points between agility and intellect and planned on continuing to do so unless something changed. The first vision had opened Kal’s mind in regard to his intellect. He wasn’t sure if it was actually improving his decision-making skills much but he was certain that it would help him when it came to skill forging and getting all he could out of the guidance he got with every ten levels while in tier one.
Before he sat down to receive his next round of guidance however Kal wanted to get the temporary haven. Things were manageable for now but now that he was making noise and the mists had been cleared, the density of demons was starting to wear on him. Now he barely had time to occasionally cook up a chunk of dark serpent or garghound.
That was another thing Kal had learned. Over the previous two days, he eventually grew hungry enough that he had to eat something, he was initially worried that he would be forced to commit to one creature and be forced to take their trait once he had reached the required amount consumed, but with some testing, it seemed that if he ate a variety of things he was given an option.
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Abyssal Consumption [Rare]
A slayer must feast and one in the midst of battle has limited options. Your past consumption of abyssal flesh has provided sustenance for now, but are you willing to take it further? Upon reaching a certain threshold of flesh consumed, gain a particular passive trait associated with the consumed creature.
Once gained a trait can never be removed, and only one trait can be gained this way per tier.
Active Traits: Greater Fire Resistance
Progress:
Garghound 15%
Completed:
Dark Serpent 100% | Average Rarity Consumed: Rare | Integrate? Y/N
To be safe Kal had eaten mostly dark serpent since he didn’t think it would be worth getting another garghound trait. But the moment he had gotten to one hundred percent instead of immediately giving him the trait it waited for him to accept the integration. When he concentrated on the completed section an additional prompt appeared.
Warning: Upon integration of a demonic trait all other progress will be reset.
It was honestly a relief that Kal didn’t have to starve himself to avoid getting a bad trait. He hadn’t really wanted to get a trait from the dark serpents, the only thing he could think he might get from them was possibly some kind of manasight or maybe a way to hide his mana as they did inside the shadow mana.
But neither of those was very appealing to Kal since he could probably figure both of those out himself and he didn’t know if he could ever change the traits he gained since they apparently became permanent. The skill specifically saying they could never be removed.
The gorefiends were also off the menu. No explanation should be required there.
Just as interestingly Kal hadn’t felt thirsty at all since he had gained the skill. He wasn’t sure if it was the skill that was doing it or if it was just the changes that his body had undergone since his awakening. Since his attributes were relatively balanced his proportions and physique had kept with relatively normal ranges. He had gained significantly more well-defined muscle since his ascension but he had always been fit, now he was just bigger all around. He wished he had a mirror to look at himself through but obviously, that wasn’t an option right now.
Kal wanted to use the guidance now and make his next skill but he knew that he wouldn’t have that kind of time now. Now that there were garghound sky hunters scouting around even the cave where the second pillar was likely wouldn’t be safe long enough to forge a new skill. He was pretty sure he could continue to level before using the guidance without issue but he didn’t want to leave it long just in case he lost it.
He didn’t let himself look over the list of offered skills since he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from forging it immediately. No, he needed to get going and kill this bloody shadow thing. The conduit was less than a day's run away and with his new attributes, it would be simple to get there quickly. The question was if he was ready to fight one of the elites of this wave.
There was really no way to be sure. He had grown to the point that the dark serpents were simple enough to kill. Even without his Wrath Incarnate active he was now as strong as them and could deal with them with almost no issue. But they were not elites, so surely whatever these elites were had to be significantly stronger than their underlings. If he was lucky it would be another stupid beast-like demon that he could take advantage of but the demon’s name didn’t conjure that image.
It was probably something more subtle than that. But did that mean it would be more dangerous or possibly not even combat-focused? These were all questions that Kal couldn’t answer, he checked the wave timer.
Wave: 2
Time: 17 days, 19 hours, 32 minutes, 43 seconds
The trial had already been going for over ten days and he still hadn’t killed a single elite, and something was telling him that allowing them all to remain at the end of the wave likely wasn’t the best idea. The system’s quests had appeared to give him all the details he needed but there were clearly hidden details that he wasn’t aware of and with the demon outsiders in the trial it was even harder to figure out what was actually going on. The system had given him some time by transforming the terrain but he was pretty sure that wasn’t coming from the goodness of its heart. Assuming it had one.
But who knows, he might even get a bonus reward if he killed them all. Kal inspected his basically junked sword. He pretty much destroyed it during the last of his dark serpent fights. He had been relying on the fang for the most part which was still holding up nicely all things considered. It wasn’t ideal for group fights but against the heavily armored serpents, it was perfect. A few stabs to the brain were enough to put them down.
He had no way to get another weapon that could hold up in combat, so he had no choice but to move on toward the shadow with what he had. Maybe if he was lucky it would have something he could use for the rest of the wave.
On his journey towards the conduit Kal was forced to fight two more dark serpents and their spawned gorefiends within a few minutes of starting. He picked up the pace after that and sped through the terrain as fast as he could without significantly using stamina. The pace at which he could now move was frankly ridiculous compared to what he could before ascension.
It wasn’t even close. The terrain sped by him as he leaped across the small chasm and weaved between the spires. He knew that if he was willing to waste his stamina he could move even faster but it wasn’t worth risking his next fight with any less than maximum stamina.
Annoyingly Kal heard the beating wings of a sizeable pack of sky hunters. He thought about simply outrunning them, which he was pretty sure he could do now, but he didn’t want anything interrupting his fight with the seeker shadow if he could help it.
Kal leaped onto the side of one of the many spires and turned back to face the incoming sky hunters. His ranged options were still limited, even with Flames of Wrath but he had found a trick with the skill that had proven handy during his fights with the annoying sky hunters.
With one hand holding onto the spire, Kal began breaking several rocks from the wall with his free hand and put them in his pocket. Then when he had gathered about a dozen he held one in his hand activated Flames of Wrath and infused the stone with his flames. The rock wasn’t really damaged at all by his flame but he ended up being left with a sort of “pseudo-fireball”.
Obviously, it wasn’t as good as an actual fireball skill but Flames of Wrath’s flexibility was already showing itself useful.
A moment later the sky hunter pack finally came into view. There were at least twenty of the bloody things.
[Garghound Sky Hunter | Abyss Spawn 24]
[Garghound Sky Hunter | Abyss Spawn 21]
[Garghound Sky Hunter | Abyss Spawn 22]
[Garghound Sky Hunter | Abyss Spawn 24]
[Garghound Sky Hunter | Abyss Spawn 24]
[Garghound Sky Hunter | Abyss Spawn 23]......
But to Kal’s surprise, they weren’t alone. On about one in four of their backs was a pale demon that gave Kal an almost nostalgic feeling as he identified them and frowned at what he saw.
[Kuroxet Slaughterer | Abyss Spawn 47]
[Kuroxet Slaughterer | Abyss Spawn 43]
[Kuroxet Slaughterer | Abyss Spawn 45]
[Kuroxet Slaughterer | Abyss Spawn 43]
[Kuroxet Slaughterer | Abyss Spawn 42]
[Kuroxet Slaughterer | Abyss Spawn 41]
“Well, that’s not ideal…” Kal hadn’t fought any of the slaughterer variants before, so had no way to judge their strength. If they were like the other kuroxet he had fought, odds were that agility would be their highest attribute. Speed was Kal’s main advantage against the dark serpents and gorefiends. That likely wouldn’t be the case here.
Six demons over forty was quite a few considering he didn’t know their capabilities, but Kal needed to test himself against more varied and powerful opponents especially if he was going to be fighting the seeker shadow.
He could tell his fear aura was affecting them all so it made it pretty clear that he must at least be stronger than them individually. Kal shrugged and checked his status.
Health:
2140/2140
Stamina:
4040/4040
Wrath:
3120
With so many to kill he would need to use Wrath Incarnate just to manage his wrath. Without another thought, he activated the skill and felt the bloodlust wash over his mind. With a flick of his wrist, he sent the flaming stone at the closet sky hunter-slaughter pair with all his amplified strength. The stone flew through the air like a comet and the instant it made contact with the sky hunter the demon exploded into a rain of burning flesh or guts, but the stone continued into the kuroxet punching a hole into its chest and spreading his crimson flame over its entire body.