On the last few miles of his run toward the conduit, Kal came across a couple of unlucky dark serpents. Which were both level forty-seven. Managing the both of them was easy enough now so Kal took his time while using Slayer’s Intent to allow him to regenerate the rest of his health before he finished them off.
Instead of splitting his free attributes between agility and intellect again Kal decided to dump them all into agility at this level since it was clearly a weakness he didn’t need if the seeker shadow had the same kind of speed as the kuroxet slaughterers.
His agility was always going to be a low attribute at this rate. It suffered for a couple of reasons. One it wasn’t an attribute increased by his class and two it was the one of two attributes that were least amplified by his titles. Kal manipulated his status to show his total percentage bonuses from his titles.
Attribute
Percentage Bonus
Strength:
50%
Agility:
30%
Endurance:
60%
Vitality:
45%
Intellect:
40%
Perception:
40%
Will:
70%
Wisdom:
30%
Both agility and wisdom were only increased by thirty percent. His wisdom bonus didn’t bother him really, since it currently didn’t affect any of his skills that he knew of. Agility on the other hand has proven more important especially when he was outnumbered by strong opponents. He was pretty sure his agility was still pretty high for his level of course and he could keep up with singular opponents easily enough for now but that may very well change.
His most increased attributes were of course strength, endurance, and will. His endurance being so high was most of the reason he was still alive he was sure but it was clear to him that if his enemy had high enough rarity skills or highly specialized attributes his endurance could be overcome.
Most of the wounds he received from the slaughterers were only minor. The risk truly came from their corrosive skills, which seemed specifically designed to wear strong opponents down.
The reason Kal was looking at his attributes so closely was that he was trying to decide if he was truly ready to fight the seeker's shadow. The close call with the slaughterers had been humbling. His attributes were very high, high enough that he was quickly dominating anything within ten levels of himself for the most part but the slaughterers were all within that range but still managed to bring him closer to death than he had been since he first arrived in the abyss.
He needed to get stronger, fast. The density of demons was already climbing and judging by the strength of what was starting to appear he was in trouble if he didn’t improve soon. Besides leveling the only other options were to improve his skills or gain more titles. The first of which required time that he didn’t have and the second required luck or a quest. He was surprised he hadn’t gotten a title from killing so many demons but perhaps getting it before his core was replaced had locked him out of that particular title.
In the end, he really just had to man up and kill the seeker shadow. It would get him the time he needed.
The conduit was close now. It was time to find the seeker's shadow.
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Vorayx smirked at the pathetic shadow as it begged him to remove the mortal from its territory. Vorayx had his own plans so of course he was barely listening but he might have done it if his kuroxet could show even the slightest hint of self-control, the pit-burned things had already disobeyed him and tried to kill the mortal.
Another scouting party had found their remains. Vorayx smiled at the thought. The mortal had devoured them, well most of them. It was quite a gruesome act for a mortal, but he supposed they required sustenance so it wasn’t beyond reason to find the leftovers of his most recent meal.
What intrigued Vorayx however was how much the mortal had eaten. Consuming the meat of six whole slaughterers was quite a task. Perhaps he could question his ornament later. He fed a flash of mana into the glowing orb and watched it flicker in agony as the shadow finished his begging.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“Enough! I have a way to secure your life so that you may continue to serve your master,” Voraxy pulled the black ring from his finger and willed its description to appear to the shadow.
Ring of Desperate Flight [Epic]
The wearer of this ring will be transported to a predetermined location if at any time their health drops below 1 point. +20 Strength, +20 Agility, +20 Endurance.
“This will return you to my side safely, but I suggest you act your part once the mortal arrives. The system can be harsh if its plans are ignored.”
The shadow's pale eyes widened at the sight of the ring, “You would grant me this boon?”
Vorayx raised a scaled eyebrow, “Of course, I am sure your master will repay me in turn once the mortal is in his hands. Now go and play the part the system has assigned you.”
The shadow took the ring and bowed before vanishing into a cloud of shadow mana. Vorayx held back a grin as he checked his status and once again read the description of his favorite skill.
Item of Deceit [Rare]
Twist the words of the smiths of old and change an item’s name and description to your liking. Attribute bonuses may be added temporally but will reduce the duration of this skills effect by half.
Base Duration: 24 hours.
Instances:
Ring of Desperate Flight [Epic]: 00:02:39:43.
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Well, he had finally made it. The conduit was less than a mile away now, close enough so that Kal could see the place where it met the dome's floor. The terrain around the conduit was significantly different from the relatively plain stone floor dotted with spires once filled with dark mist.
Surrounding the conduit was a series of hundreds of small stone pillars each covered in small glowing orbs that shed pale blue light over the entire area. However, it did so in such a way that each of the pillars had several shadows pointing in multiple directions.
On some of the pillars, there were protrusions that made even more additional shadows. From where Kal stood it almost reminded him of a spider's web. The light between the shadows was surprisingly bright but didn’t wash out the shadows at all making them stand out clearly even from that distance.
He supposed the shadows made sense considering the demon's name, but he was surprised to see literal shadows and not just a crap load of shadow mana. The change made Kal suspect the demon had skills that required actual physical shadows, not the darkness created by shadow mana but that was just speculation.
Assuming the demon’s level was significantly higher than the others he had fought it would have at least a few more skills. Kal would need to be wary. He didn’t even know what the seeker shadow would look like. The dark serpents weren’t seekers apparently, assuming you could go by the name so they were no help here.
Either way, he was just stalling now. So he drew his weapons and made his way through the last leg of the journey towards the conduit.
He kept his guard up and was ready at any moment to activate Wrath Incarnate. He didn’t want to activate it yet since it was a massive drain on wrath and he would likely just charge in, careless of any kind of ambush some called “shadow” would probably try and pull.
Kal also summoned a crimson flame and coated both of his weapons in it, hoping the light shed by the flames might have use against the shadows.
As he got closer, Kal activated his mana sight and inspected the strange shadowed area for any signs of weird mana movements. There was definitely shadow mana present but it didn’t seem to be affecting the light levels at all, which annoyingly went against Kal’s earlier assumptions. Like all other mana he had encountered before, it appeared that all external mana required an intent or will imposed upon it to produce an effect. Like his Flames of Wrath, normally allowing his wrath to enter his body quickly began to affect his emotions and probably several other things he wasn’t aware of but once it had been converted into the crimson flames its purpose had changed. It seemed to lose its mental effects completely, converting it all into actual physical damage. The thought gave him ideas for some future skills but that was for another time.
What was important right now was, what was the purpose of the shadow mana. Did it even need a purpose or was it just present because the system willed it so for the purposes of the trial? Kal didn’t think the system created it. The dark serpents had been responsible for the concealment of their territory so it made sense that perhaps the shadow had been the one to do it here.
He hadn’t stepped inside the area yet but Kal had expected to see the seeker's shadow by now but could see nothing but lights and shadows. Kal carefully watched the shadow mana for signs of… well. Anything, but in the end he couldn’t tell what it was doing if it was doing anything at all.
“Great,” Kal muttered as he stepped into the lights and shadows.
A golden notification immediately appeared in front of Kal the moment his foot touched the shadowed ground.
Do you wish to challenge [Seeker Shadow]: Yes/No
No outside forces may intervene for the duration of your battle.
Well, that was a relief. Kal was worried the moment he got close to the shadow he would be immediately swamped by a few dozen dark serpents or a hundred slaughterers. A one-on-one fight was preferable, at least now that he had Slayer’s Intent.
Kal made his way between the pillars carefully looking out for any sign of the shadow but for all he knew he could be stepping on the bloody thing. When go about sixty feet into the shadows he noticed a sudden fluctuation of the shadow mana not far in front of him. Suddenly there was a black cloaked figure standing there, about thirty feet in front of him. It hadn’t made any perceptible sound with its arrival, just like the movement of the dark serpents.
Identification failed…
Well, that was concerning. Did that mean it was so powerful that Identify didn’t work or did it have some way of hiding its level? Normally if something was stronger than him by a significant amount the levels were simply displayed as ?. Seeing it like this was new to Kal.
“Mortal, you should not have challenged me. Now I must devour you myself,” the figure said, its voice a harsh whisper and its body fading in and out of the surrounding shadows.
Kal was sure it was the seeker's shadow, what else could it be? But something about the way its form seemed to fluctuate made him paranoid. Apparently, it was up for a chat so why not ask it?
“I’m guessing you're the seeker shadow. Why can’t I identify you?”
Kal blinked and the figure was gone, “Yes, I am,” Kal felt the warm breath of the thing hit the side of his neck and ear making him leap forward in surprise. He hadn’t noticed anything change at all, but somehow the shadow had spoken into his ear.
The shadow laughed and Kal could swear he could hear it coming from all of the shadows around him. He blinked again and then the shadow was standing less than a foot in front of him. Kal swung his sword reflexively but met only empty air as the shadow vanished and reappeared a short distance away.
“Before I kill you mortal, I wish to know how you have lived so long in this place.”