The battle only gave him a single level, but considering the fact that the monsters had been lower level than him, it was better than he could have hoped. More importantly, his Runecrafting skill had leveled up.
You have reached Student Rank 2 with Runecrafting!
Unfortunately, Truesight did not follow, but the skill was far less intensive than Runecrafting, meaning that it would take longer to level it up. Simply looking at runes did not give the same amount of experience as actually crafting them, it seemed. Happy with his gains, Jonathan decided to reuse the trap.
The trap worked perfectly over the next few days, and he was able to gain three more levels, but eventually the amount of essence that he was gaining slowed to a crawl. It was that, more than anything else, that led to Jonathan deciding to seek out bigger game. This would prove to be a rash decision, but for the time being, he was confident in his abilities. His plan was to muddle through the creation of the beckoning rune that had led the massive monster to him, using his expertise and knowledge of runes to piece together the gaps in his memory.
He quickly got to work, and found that he was able to recreate about ninety percent of the rune. It was the last ten percent that eluded him however. The middle part of the rune, the most complicated part, was what he did not remember, and as he looked over the inert and incomplete rune, he started to apply his knowledge to it. The manyfold whorls and twists that made up the rune might have seemed meaningless to an untrained eye, but Jonathan quickly recognized similarities to the Rune of Hatred. Despite the difference between the runes, it seemed that they shared similar roots.
He began to fill in the missing pieces, using parts of the Rune of Hatred’s center, and his intuition. Eventually, he was confident in the recreation of the rune, and he sent Divinity into it. Nothing happened. Frowning, he studied the rune again. There was a tiny piece missing in the very center, one that he ended up replacing with the center piece from his other rune. It was an imperfect solution, but he was relatively sure that it would work. When he flooded the rune with Divinity, it glowed, and began to exude a subtle sense of belonging. It was far weaker than the previous rune had been, and Jonathan knew that he had butchered the construction, but it still functioned regardless.
You have learned the Rune of Temptation!
This rune, powered by Divinity, will lure in any living entities within a certain radius. The closer one is to this rune, the stronger the effect.The radius, and the power of the rune, depends on the amount of Divinity placed into it.
This rune added another level to his Runecrafting skill, which was welcome. The noises of monsters began to drift over the horizon, and Jonathan realized that the rune was working. It was nowhere near powerful enough to lure in one of the massive monsters that it had the first time, but he did not want that anyway. He destroyed the rune with a quick Divinity overload, and created a new one in the center of the trap. There was no time for him to make as many Runes of Hatred as the last time, seeing as the monsters were already on their way, but he was able to get five down on the ground before the first of the monsters arrived.
Jonathan hid behind a nearby tower, and watched as dozens of beasts began to cluster around the pit, gazing longingly at the rune in its center. The first of them began to move towards it, setting off the Hatred runes. An explosion of red light ripped through the monsters, killing over ten in a single attack, but still more were coming. As the rest of them began to pile into the pit, Jonathan realized with a sinking heart that he had miscalculated. The pit was far too small for so many monsters, and soon they had covered the rune with their bodies, muting the effects. Even worse, a few elites had joined the fray. Those monsters seemed almost unaffected by the rune, instead spreading out around the area, somehow able to sense Jonathan’s presence. it was time for him to make a break for it.
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Leaving the tower he was in, he ran for his life. A moment later, howls coming from behind him told him that he had been unsuccessful. Four elite Alpha Ash Prowlers were coming in hot pursuit, and despite all the levels that he had gained since facing an Alpha last, they were still faster. Jonathan readied himself for a prolonged chase, and he darted from side to side, trying to confuse the creatures. They were smarter than the normal Ash Prowlers however and they were able to keep up with him, no matter how he tried to evade them. They clearly had excellent night vision, and even when he banished his guiding light, they were able to keep pace with him. His senses had been enhanced since coming to the Infinite Hells, and he was able to pick his way across the ash with consummate ease, but he knew that the monsters following him were even better at this than him. Instead of trying to outplay them at their own game, he decided to turn the tables.
Turning around just in time to see the four creatures tearing across the ash, illuminating it with the light of their fiery attacks, he leaped into the air. The fireballs passed under him, melting the ash in their path. As they landed, they continued to blaze, setting a flickering light over the surrounding area. Jonathan raised his fist, and headed straight for the nearest of the Alphas. These monsters were not the same as the first Alpha he had fought however, and they were all at least seven levels higher than it had been, with the strongest of them ten entire levels greater. Still, he would have been able to deal with any of them individually, if with some difficulty. All four at once was a death sentence however, even with all of his power. Even worse, there was no way for him to set down any runes, and he suspected that doing so would have been futile in any case, seeing as these monsters possessed a modicum of intelligence. Instead he would have to batter them into submission with martial skill and grace.
As he headed towards the closest monster, his hands glowing with energy, the other three flanked him, growling low in their throats. Their fireball skills seemed to be on cooldown, but their razor sharp claws and jaws would kill him just as easily. As his target snapped at him, Jonathan weaved to the side, barely missing the attack. He punched as hard as he could, catching the beast in the side of its rib cage, sending it rolling over the ash. He had felt bones break beneath his blow, but as the monster got to his feet, he knew that it had not been enough.
The other three rushed him at the same time, burying him under their fetid bodies. They tore at him as they writhed in a heap above him, their attacks slicing through his leather armor with ease. Lines of red hot pain formed across his body, and he could feel blood dripping down his front and back. Pushing his hands up into the morass of bodies, he forced his mana into the beasts, melting their flesh. Two of the creatures withdrew, howling in pain, but the third remained, snapping at Jonathan’s hands with its jaws. It caught them in a tight grasp, and he was unable to turn his mana to bear at the monster. Even worse, the first monster was coming towards him, having recovered somewhat from its broken bones. Escaping this would require a drastic effort.
Jonathan took a deep breath and yanked his hands backwards, tearing the flesh off his bones in the process. He screamed in pain, and turned the agony into red hot rage, rage that kept him moving through the pain. He slammed one palm into the base of the Alpha’s skull, sending the odor of cooking flash wafting across the ash. Leaping backwards, he avoided another monster’s leap, letting the two creatures crash into each other. Regaining his confidence, Jonathan tried desperately to ignore his lifeblood pumping out of his body with each beat of his heart. The veins and arteries on his right wrist had been almost completely severed, and the blood coursed out of him in a torrent. Still, he was a lot more durable than any normal human, but he only had about another ten minutes to live, if even that. He would have to up his game if he was to have even a chance at surviving this.