Derrick was hurt. Or dead. Again.
At least that was Ray’s fear. After hitting the floor, he was quick to wake back up but was physically weak. It turns out that it took all five of his Power to create and reinforce the stairs in order to make them usable. After a short discussion in which they realized running out of Power was a very bad idea, it was decided to leave Derrick on the second floor with a couple of Goblins for support.
He would be of no use in a fight and didn’t have any points left to build anything, so he was left behind.
The group split off and the rest of them headed up the newly built staircase. When they got to the third-floor door, the Orkin had to force it open. It took several minutes of heaving and grunting before the muscle-bound minions realized they couldn’t get it to budge. So… they broke it down.
Open was open after all.
The sound of tearing metal sounded throughout the staircase as the Orkin ripped into it with his battle axe. It wasn’t designed to survive a sustained assault by a walking wrecking ball, and the door was reduced to scrap in short order. The two Orkin stepped through tentatively, followed by the Goblins with Ray holding the rear.
Why the door hadn’t opened became readily apparent as he stepped through the door. A thick layer of green mucus covered the ground. After stepping on it, Ray realized it had hardened into an almost concrete-like substance. It was strong enough to hold its weight, although it did flex slightly when he performed a test jump on it.
He turned to the others, “Spread out. Stick to your groups. The System says we have four hostiles, so if you run into anything you can’t handle fall back.”
“You got’z it bozz,” rumbled the larger Orkin with the axe.
The two groups peeled off from Ray, leaving him to defend the stairwell down. It took exactly thirty seconds before the sound of fighting came from his left.
Ray raced around the corner of the cubicles, ducking just in time to avoid a Goblin that had been flung in his direction. Standing there in front of him, in the center of the nest that it had made, was a large disgusting worm like creature.
The thing had a long worm-like body but held itself up. Its two arms tapered to spikes where its hands would have been while its face was a leech-like maw filled with undulating teeth. The body was black, so black that it seemed to leach any illumination from the area around it. He was now extremely glad they hadn’t come up here at night as it would have been impossible to see.
Gagging, he focused on the disgusting creature to try and get any information he could.
LEACH-LIGHT LAMPREY
{UNCOMMON}
The Orkin attacking it swung downwards and tried to strike the lower part of the worm-like body, but it squiggled out of the way. The spray of concrete chips from the powerful swing, however, sprayed out and caused the creature to hiss in pain. Nyx answered with a power bark, but the heavy monstrosity didn’t even budge, only shaking its head as if mildly disoriented.
Ray ran forward to attack, stepping around the Goblins that were holding it at bay with spears. Tucking in close, he swung his blade and drew a line down the arm the Lamprey had brought up to block him with. He scrambled backward as black blood spewed out and began melting through anything it touched with a violent hissing noise.
The disgusting monstrosity went from hissing to roaring, shaking the inside of the building and causing everyone nearby to cover their ears. The Lamprey took advantage of the stunning attack to drop its maw down over a Goblin, cleanly decapitating the small green minion with a single bite.
“Holy fuck!” Ray muttered as the group pulled back. They didn’t have the manpower to sustain losses like that. If Goblins were a bite sized snack for these things, they were going to be in trouble.
He sidestepped until he was facing the creature's back, it was currently snapping at the Orkin who was holding it off with his axe. When he was sure he wouldn’t be noticed he brought his sword down to his side. He was going to need to use his abilities… whatever they were. He seemed to be able to alter things at will as long as he had the Power to invest. So that’s what he was going to do.
What Derrick had told him earlier had resonated with him. Making small changes in order to conserve as much Power as possible. The more you had available, the less you had to spend to get the result you wanted.
He wondered if that applied to physics.
He focused on the blade or, more accurately, on what the blade was made of. Some kind of metal, an alloy that was capable of cutting flesh. Of killing. Of defeating his enemies. For this creature, however, that wasn’t going to be enough. He could already see that. He needed more. More power.
As he focused he could feel the Power leaving him and wrapping around his weapon, seeking a way to fulfill his need. Then a message appeared:
{MODIFY BLADE}
BASIC FORCE – 5 POWER
BASIC FIRE – 5 POWER
BASIC ICE – 5 POWER
BASIC ACID – 5 POINTS
BASIC MANA – 30 POINTS
Swallowing at the options, he rapidly chose fire. He couldn’t justify sinking thirty entire points into his sword. At least, not until he figured out a way to increase the amount he had available. So fire seemed like it was the best option for now.
He nearly dropped the blade when it turned cherry red and began exuding an aura around the blade. Even though he was holding it out in front of him, he began to sweat. Apparently, he wasn’t immune to the effects of the sword either. Small tongues of fire flickered along the sides of the weapon as another message popped up confirming his choice and success:
{BLADE +1}
GRADE – BASIC
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
{EFFECTS}
BASIC FIRE
Choosing not to squander the opportunity for an ambush attack, Ray hopped up onto a desk and threw himself into the air. He landed on top of the creature at the same moment he plunged the burning blade into its back. There was only one thing that he hadn’t taken into account.
The thing's blood was acid … but it was also flammable.
The normal reaction when you ignite a substance in a contained area and it expands rapidly is an explosion. The Lamprey, however, lit up from the inside as the fire traced its veins like a kind of demented coloring book, highlighting every organ and drop of acidic blood the flame came into contact with. The Lamprey went berserk.
With a massive spasm, it threw Ray over its shoulder and through a cubicle dividing wall. It thrashed around on the floor, not bothering to actually attack anything in its death throes. Not that it could, being cooked from the inside out was probably both painful and extremely distracting. The large predators struggle eventually slowed before coming to a stop, it body still brightly burning from within.
At that point, the pressure within the monster finally built to the point it needed to explode and showered the group in stinking hunks of Lamprey meat and bone. Any blood at this point had been consumed by the fire, making them very lucky they hadn’t been dissolved.
“That was unpleasant. If you are going to blow up the thing trying to eat us, warn us in the future,” snarked Nyx as she attempted to get pieces of goop out of her fur.
Ray just rolled his eyes at the dog's antics. It wasn’t like he had much of a chance to warn anyone, nor did he know the damn thing would be so flammable. They now had, however, an excellent idea of what the bug creatures were vulnerable to.
Fire.
Anything that would help them kill these Lamprey would be a welcome tool to their arsenal. A flaming sword was fucking cool, even if he didn’t know how to turn it off. Ray re-examined the weapon in his hand, and while it wasn’t burning him directly it was certainly warming up and lighting up the nearby area. He swung it a few times but failed to get the flames to retreat off the blade. Frowning, he focused on the blade and attempted to activate his ability. He didn’t wait longer than a minute before a message popped up;
{IMBUE BLADE}
CONDITIONAL ENCHANTMENT
EFFECT ON/OFF – 2 POWER
A point for each option. That seemed reasonable. Ray selected that option and was relieved when all of a sudden he knew how to turn it off. With a thought and a badass flourish of the blade, the flames receded into the hilt which continued to contain a slight red glow.
“Imbued weapons must glow with their element or something. Neat,” he muttered.
Nyx huffed, “Something tells me there is another term for what you just did. But I don’t know what.”
Ray was going to fire back a snarky response, but one of the Orkin answered first. “Dat’s an enhanterment… armehant… dat’s a spell Boss,” he grunted out several times.
He had no idea what the Orkin just said.
“Enchantment. He means that’s an enchantment. I didn’t know you could do that,” Nyx said, pawing the blade curiously. “Interesting.”
Ray shrugged. “I don’t think I did it how you normally would… or for that matter what the normal process would even be,” he admitted. “Pretty sure I levied my intent onto the item. That’s all. I think it offered me what I wanted to change and what the price would be. Spoiler, I’ve already spent more Power than Derrick even had to get this thing.”
Nyx was silent at for several minutes while the Orkin and Goblins cleared the floor. When they reassembled near the staircase she finally spoke.
“Do you think you can alter anything like that?” she wondered.
Ray thought about it. “Maybe. I haven’t tried. Want me to try it on something else? A chair, table, or maybe a goblin? Wonder if I could give a goblin fire breath?” One of the little green men magically apparated in front of him, rapidly nodding its head. “I guess we have a volunteer?”
Ray focused on the Goblin in front of him, clearing his mind of any other thought. He focused so hard that his head began to hurt, a slow pulsing of pain that slowly increased in tempo. After nearly five minutes, and with the pain becoming nearly unbearable, he received a notification:
{RACE CHANGE}
GOBLIN
{OPTIONS}
AVIAN GOBLIN – 140 POWER
FIRE GOBLINE – 110 POWER
AQUATIC GOBLIN – 80 POWER
HOLY GOBLIN – 500 POWER
DEMONIC GOBLIN – 500 POWER
With a gasp Ray let the menu go, nearly falling to his knees. He was immediately bombarded with two more System messages.
{ABILITY CREATED}
MODIFY
{LEVEL UP}
RAYMOND ‘RAY’ FINNEGAN
{RACE}
HUMAN
{CLASS}
SYSTEM LORD
{CLASS GRADE}
UNIQUE
{STAGE}
1
{LEVEL}
2
{STRENGTH}
5
HUMAN BASE: 5
{AGILITY}
5
HUMAN BASE: 5
{POWER}
60 (43)
HUMAN BASE: 0
{WISDOM}
10
HUMAN BASE: 8
{LUCK}
10
HUMAN BASE: 2
{ABILITIES}
CLAIM
CLAIM HEX
OATH OF FEALTY
SOUL COMPANION
MODIFY
“That fucking hurt, and those options are way more than I can afford” he grunted as the Goblin looked like it might cry. Ignoring the small green man, he looked at his new information. “The skills are there… but I only got ten more power? That’s annoying.”
“Stupid human. Think about it, I bet you anything you can modify yourself,” Nyx chuffed.
Ray froze at that. “Yeah. Yeah, I bet I could. I wonder how expensive that would be?” he wondered aloud. Then he shook his head. “Set it aside for now. We have one floor done, with three more to go. I don’t want to waste any more time.”
Nyx huffed, “Don’t forget the loot.”
In his rush to clear the building, Ray hadn’t even bothered to check for the loot from the Lamprey. He was used to getting rewards directly from the System itself, but apparently this wasn’t how the new world worked. Ray still had a lot to learn, and a lot to adapt to. It would, in time, become second nature.
Ray walked over to the creature and touched it. Unlike the undead from earlier, it didn’t immediately dissolve into a reward. A chest appeared next to it, larger than the Wendigo but still plain and made of wood, but the body remained.
“Huh. The corpse is still here?” he wondered aloud.
“I have no idea. Most of what I have figured out has been educated guesswork. I educate you, then you guess and do the work,” Nyx said, chuffing at her own joke.
Ray rolled his eyes before they widened as he had an epiphany. “I bet you we can harvest something from the body. Probably some kind of resource. Every other body probably dissolved because there was nothing of value on it, so the System didn’t see any point in maintaining it!” he said excitedly.
He pointed at an Orkin, “Go ahead and see if you can’t butcher this thing. Be careful though, I bet there are some dangerous things in or on the body.”
The big green guy nodded and hefted his axe. Ray grimaced as the warrior swung it into the side of the corpse, opening a large gash. He left the Orkin to his grotesque work and turned back to the chest. Selecting the option to open it, several items appeared on the ground in front of him.
{MEDIUM BASIC CHEST}
NEX – 50
LAMPREY SPIKE – 1
LAMPREY TEETH – 20
LAMPREY SCALES - 150
SMELLY MEAT CHUNK – 5
“Woah. I bet these scales would make some pretty tough armor,” Ray muttered to himself. He examined the teeth and found that while sharp, they were also hollow with a dried residue inside of them. Probably remnants of the acid that the creature sprayed.
He shoved the items into his storage space and turned back to the Orkin, who had just finished carving up the creature's body. The large green man reached down and removed a small black orb from the newly opened cadaver. The moment the orb was clear, the body began to dissolve much like the undead had before.
Ray took the offered sphere, holding it in the palm of his hand. It was pitch black and heavier than it looked. Ray examined it for a few moments before he got a notification from the System.
{LAMPREY CORE}
{CONSUME}
Y / N
“Well, what is it?” asked Nyx from next to him.
Ray shrugged. “I have no idea. The System didn’t give me any kind of description. It says it’s a Lamprey Core and asked if I wanted to eat it. That was it,” he explained, tossing the item into his storage.
Having no idea what it would do to him, he didn’t want to take the risk such an item would be beneficial or not. Particularly not while they had fighting yet to do. There were several floors to go, more monsters to kill, and a base to set up. He couldn’t run the risk of eating that and it putting him out of commission.
Or worse.
“Alright everyone, let's go claim our building,” Ray said, turning to the stairs. They had work to do.