The confusion was eating away at Ren and he really didn’t want to deal with the giant multi-eyed squid demon anymore. It reminded him of a scene from a movie he watched where a giant tentacle came from a lake while… The memory faded, What’s a movie? He questioned himself.

Struck by the curse on him, lovingly put on him by his eldritch patron, he stood there in silence looking into the distance. He only partly regained himself after looking at the aberrant being before him. Half bewitched, his memory was still a bit awkward as he spoke.

“You don’t have a bucket or cup, do you?” Ren asked.

The giant black-toned abomination paused, its twirling tentacles stopping momentarily before it blinked its many orange eyes.

“No…”

An echoing whisper traveled down to Ren from Cella up the hillside behind him.

“We must go, please Ren.” He could practically feel the fear quivering within her voice, even as a distant and echoing whisper.

His will came forward giving his mana purpose. Like a scoop, it pulled up nearly a gallon of water. The mana was struggling to keep a solid form. It looked as though a giant invisible spoon had plucked up a huge scoop of water.

Ren slowly turned, unable to process the situation, but having his wits return. Deciding it was better to just walk away, he carried the magic holding onto the water which was slowly dropping small sloshes onto the ground.

He dragged the magical ‘spoon’ behind him. It was only after he reached the small and huddled form of Cella, that he realized what he had done. It was akin to telekinesis, or possibly an extension of himself made of magic. Trying to analyze what he had done, he was quickly pulled away from it by Cella.

“How did you manage to befriend that Watcher?” Her voice was in awe as she quickly tried to make space from the Watcher.

Ren looked around at the beautifully thriving landscape around them. Yet still in the Underdark, they were surrounded by life. He thought for a moment about what he had done.

“I’m not sure to be honest, something about me, my connection to… well it’s complicated. When we get ready to rest for the night, I’ll try to explain.” Ren sighed, he hadn’t needed to explain it to anyone before. The ones who knew had betrayed him. If she knew what he was, what he may become, would she betray him too?

They continued in the peace of the beauty around them. Nothing else would have dared trespass into the lair of the Watcher, and so they were safe.

As hours passed they had left the biome full of life clinging to the heat vents and moisture. Their path led them to a slightly upward slope.

For quite a while, the dangers of the Underdark had not shown themselves. Only the occasion small creature, that posed no threat to them, crossed their path.

It was not until they reached the giant dome that the situation had changed. Twisting mycelium was thickly rooted underfoot, as giant stems hung high into the sky where moisture clung to them in dewy droplets.

Large formations crossed the great stems where the moisture was drawn. A great colony of flying mammals, not dissimilar to bats, lived all among the fungal growths. Their excretions formed a thick ground in many areas where new, young, and prosperous fungal growths appeared.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The issue came when they encountered the predators of the bat-like mammals that lived within the blackness of the cavern. The dome was populated with unending amounts of needle-launching, quilled vermin that shot at anything that moved.

It wasn’t long before Ren realized the pain he must have put so many through after he was impaled by the tenth barbed quill over the last five minutes. For every bullet he had fired, he had eventually taken a quill.

His kill count rose into the many dozens, as every time another of the foot-tall rodents appeared, he fired immediately without hesitation. They did little to no damage to him, his ascendant body needed to take far more damage than a small barbed quill could dish out to sustain any injuries that would last more than several long moments. This did nothing but irritate him as he continued to walk through the maze of giant fungal stems.

Cella, far less capable of healing her injuries without using magic, used him as a meat shield. Hiding under his cloak, she grasped his sides to keep herself steady as she hid. It only took a couple of stabbing quills to encourage her into this less than seemly position.

Ren began to feel quite irritated at having to reload so often. In this time he began to play with a new idea.

He focused his attention on how it felt when the quiver activated and generated more ammunition. He knew he was nowhere close to being able to just create ammo unassisted. Though did think he could somehow devise a way to speed up the loading process.

His new ascension had made it far easier for him to control his mana, and to impart his will into it without more than a quick thought. Watching the process as bullets were generated, he saw how a crucial part of the production was a catalyst within the quiver. A specific part of the item made the bullet form into an ideal shape. Though, he saw nothing that required the bullet to be created into the quiver.

He slowed for a moment, and so caused Cella to run into his back face first.

“Ahh, why did you stop? Quill in the foot?” She had grown more comfortable around him and had begun joking around.

“I’m experimenting with something, give me a moment,” he spoke quickly, and quietly as he was focusing again on the feeling of a new bullet being generated.

He noticed something as his will was imparted into the creation. The catalyst was responding to him, and so had created the bullet further up in the quiver where it dropped several inches.

Seeing how his will could affect the location of the bullet, he imparted it into the catalyst and made the bullet form in his hand. It took more mana, but the creation was successful. He tried it again, and it worked the second time as well.

Opening the nearly empty revolver, he tried to generate the bullets into the place where his last four spent bullet casings were. The quiver responded and with great effort, it drained his mana and worked. The casings were refilled.

Now I can finally stop littering everywhere I go.

The cost of it was quite expensive, to have the bullets form back in their casings though would save him a great deal of effort in the future.

Without having more poison for the murder rabbit knife, it hadn’t been nearly as useful. Now, he could completely disregard it until he found some sweet venom to use.

His new method was slightly more expensive than firebolts, as they had become extremely efficient with his new ascension, plus the constant practice.

It wasn’t long until they passed through the seemingly endless dome with the quill launching rodents and bats. What had been only a few hours, had felt like an entire day’s work. Ren had eaten through quite a bit of mana and vitality, constantly killing off the rodents and healing himself from the minor wounds.

Though, the killing of nearly two hundred little rodents didn’t come without any benefit.

Congratulations Eldritch Rouge Lv 12

+5 Dexterity +2 Willpower +2 Vitality +2 Intelligence +7 Freepoints

Ren quickly added his seven free points into his endurance and willpower. Three, and four, respectively.

Name: Ren Race: Human Alignment: C/N

Class: Rough level 12, Tier 2 Skill: Ritualism

Marks: Gate-Walker, Ascendant Slayer

HP:81/150 SP:125/125 MP:46/165

Attributes:

Str: 19

Vit: 30

End: 25

Dex: 53

Wil: 33

Int: 28

Free Points: 0

His stats were well-balanced, and he felt quite good about them. He did remember though, when initially picking his class, he had wanted to avoid the headaches of being a mage. This was both literal and figurative. Yet, he had been tricked! That damn monster in the void and his meddling tricks…