Ray cast Mottling Spiritguard. Once, twice, three times in quick succession. They revolved around him faster and faster, spinning quickly enough to make Ray dizzy if he tried to focus on them.
The high numbers were necessary. The gangsters flung their attacks at him, but the orbs defended him, letting absolutely nothing through to harm him.
Except, apparently, for gas. The Spiritguard orbs couldn’t protect him from something as insubstantial as toxic gas. That was easily fixed with a little bit of motion, though. Ray had to get going anyway. He had to attack, to take the fight to his opponents.
Several men tried to attack him directly. One of them had formed some kind of gleaming violet barricade around himself. His companions followed in close behind as the strange barrier pushed against the storm of chaotic orbs that were striking everywhere and against everyone. None of their chopping, stabbing, or smashing blows could get past the barrier.
All but the use of Soulstrike. Turning the True Mana arm into a grasping point allowed Ray to grab hold of the spherical barricade.
Then he used it like a stone to crush the two other men just behind him. One screamed as he fell, half his body mashed to bloody pulp. The other tried to run. Ray was having none of it. He chucked the barricade. It crashed into the runaway man, smashing him back as the spherical shield itself finally shattered apart.
Someone tried to take advantage of the distraction to swoop in and stab Ray in the back. The Valorous Back Shield protected him from the man’s red spear. And then the assailant froze.
Ray had opened his third eye on his back.
The sudden appearance of the Scouring Eyeball on the back of Ray’s head thanks to Primal Spiritcraft had made the man pause. A fatal mistake.
He tried to correct his error, rushing in with his spear, but Ray cast Soulstrike again. The True Mana arm emerged from his back with the impaling point this time. It stabbed through the screaming man’s midsection and raised him aloft in the air.
Blood from the wounded, shrieking, dying man rained around them all. Ray twisted, eyes darting to his next target, lashing out where appropriate.
Another Soulstrike bashed away a ranged attack from someone else before slamming into the attacker herself. She was sent flying, her body mottling under the effects of the chaos.
A tall man evaded the storm of chaotic orbs, which were absorbed into a dark hole hovering over his head. He charged with blistering speed, seeking to take Ray’s head off with a large axe. Asshole had gotten close enough to do it too, what with Ray being distracted by all the people around him.
But then a draconic maw flew in. The dark hole hovering over the man didn’t affect it one bit. It slammed in, clamping its jaws around the unfortunate guy’s head.
He went down with a muffled scream, the axe clanking to the ground.
Ray was still turning, twisting to face more threats. A Spiritsorb socked one of the charging people in the face, allowing one of the orbs to finish him off.
Someone else got in close to slash at him with ethereal claws. The blow even landed. But the man screamed as he fell back. The second skin Ray had hastily constructed before battle exploded with hidden chaos under the fake skin. Now, there was the defensive capabilities of Fleshed Exchange coming into play.
Yet another guy got in too close. His strike never landed though.
Ray had already teleported with Spectral Step. He reappeared next to the woman with the knife who had been batting away the Spiritguard orbs.
She wasn’t able to react in time to Ray’s sudden appearance. Despite the disorientation, Ray retained enough control to slam his fist into her face. A fist that was quickly surrounded by a draconic maw grafted via Primal Spiritcraft.
Ray’s monstrous hand-head basically ripped off half of the woman’s head. She fell, dead before hitting the street.
His motion was practiced. Efficient. Ray brought his arm to a halt, aimed it one of the last gangsters still standing, and fired. The laser blast of chaotic flames sent the man flying off his feet to strike the wall of the building on the other side of the street hard enough that blood splattered.
The destruction continued. Two people attacked him at once, striking in from either side. Ray drew in his wings just in time.
They got stabbed and shredded in a second by his two enemies’ powers, but they did their job. They hid the fact that he had created another salvo of Spiritguard orbs. As the wings fell in tatters of chaotic black-red energy, the orbs burst outwards and took care of the duo.
Their screams unfortunately hid yet another assaulter landing on top of Ray. Thankfully, Primordial Guage had warned him just barely in time.
It was instinct that made Ray use Spectral Step to get away. He targeted the nearest use of a spell—a Spiritguard just about to attack another gangster—and reappeared there. But the orb had already attacked, turning into a spear that impaled the man’s torso. As such, Ray reappeared inside his target.
The explosion of blood and other fleshy bits wasn’t anything new at this point. Ray recovered from the constricting pressure of teleporting into something in record time, only to realize he was holding a piece of the man he had torn apart.
A piece of the man’s spine.
The shock of it didn’t even register. Especially when the spine was writhing like a snake, turning almost alive with a will of its own under the influence of the chaos, sporting its own flesh and blood vessels.
A wild screech pulled Ray back into the proper fight. He faced the woman who had tried to attack him from above. She charged at him, face twisted into an inhuman expression.
It was instinct that drove Ray. Just as she got in close to swing her sword, Ray slashed his own arm. The living spine thrust at the woman. She couldn’t duck, couldn’t dodge, couldn’t evade. Ray’s makeshift weapon struck her at the throat, where the spine continued to chaotically grow and twist. The woman fell, clutching at her neck and contorting on the ground.
The chaos of the battlefield seemed to run through Ray like a dozen spirits possessing him and leaving him one after the other. It went on and on, blood and flesh spraying. A seemingly unending stream of death and screams.
It felt like there were far more of them than he had counted earlier, but in truth, some of them were returning for seconds. Ray’s attacks weren’t always as fatal as he assumed.
He didn’t come out unscathed. One man chopped into his upper arm. Another woman stabbed into his leg. Someone drenched in enough blood to be dead managed to gnaw off a piece of Ray’s face.
But he survived. He lived. He killed.
The Spiritguard orbs smashed into all his opponents, harassing and harrying the gangsters when not outright killing them. A Greater Windbane Maw chomped and spewed flames, crushing and burning in tandem. True Mana arms slashed and impaled with wild abandon.
At one point, Ray suffered a blow hard enough to knock him to the ground. He had gone down to his knees. A loud, painful ringing drowned out all his thoughts.
But that was fine. He still knew what he had to do. Even if he was incapacitated—for his Recovery was almost depleted and Soullife Cloak had returned his tucked-away True Mana and Recovery earlier—he had other ways to fight.
Other ways to make others fight.
The pain in his head didn’t lesson. It only worsened, for Ray split his mind, grafting spectral draconic maws to the end of his True Mana arms and imbuing them with his own intelligence.
They tore apart the remainder of his enemies where he personally couldn’t. A flood of flames covered the entire area and destroyed several more buildings in the neighbourhood. Those that survived the flames themselves were then devoured by the maws attacking directly. A fact worsened for Ray’s enemies when a third one came into being.
The painful ringing subsided. It took some time, but Ray realized he had been still in one spot for a little too long without suffering any direct contact from anyone. He couldn’t hear any more screams either.
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[Enemy Defeated—Human]
Barricade Overlord [Tier 3] Human: [Level 28] x2
Thunderwhip Bandit [Tier 3] Human: [Level 27] x2
Despoiler [Tier 2] Human: [Level 24] x5
Brigand [Tier 2] Human: [Level 25] x5
Outlaw [Tier 2] Human: [Level 26] x6
Essence: +56,600
Knowledge: +60
True Mana Restored: +5,110
[Level Up!]
Reward
* +5 Intellect, +5 Spirit, +2 Vitality +2 Agility, +10 allocatable free stats.
* 1 New Spell: Spirit Devour [Tier 5] [Offensive]
* Spirit Devour has been converted to Anima Charybdis by Path of Lifeblood Chaos
Essence to Level 31: 52,310/64,600
Knowledge to next Threshold: 1,184/1,250
Ray dismissed his True Mana arms converted into draconic maws. The pain didn’t subside at their disappearance, and he couldn’t fix that with Recovery since he basically had none remaining.
But this was why he had gotten those health tonics from that cranky old man. They sure came in handy now.
Ray popped open one of the vials from his Bag of Holding and swallowed the slightly thick red liquid inside. Immediately, he began to feel better. The wounds on his body lessened in pain and his head could once again process normal thoughts. Wild. These tonics were almost magical in their effect.
He swallowed down one more, just to be sure, then put the rest away. They would need some time to work their full magic.
For the time being, Ray focused on his notification and what had happened in his surroundings.
He looked around, swallowing a little. So many dead. So many he had killed. No point in mincing that fact. Ray didn’t regret it, and he definitely didn’t regret the huge Essence gain, but there was something… strange about the situation. His thoughts felt turgid and slow, but instead of a sombre heaviness, it was more like his mind was trying to disassociate from it.
This wasn’t the first time he had fought and killed people. There had been that group of Wild Tides assholes who had murdered Randall in cold blood.
But was that it? Was it the fact that these people from Everstead weren’t really human beings from Earth like him and the Wild Tides that was making him feel… not much at all?
Or was it that he was getting more and more used to killing?
It was easier to focus on his gains. Enough Essence to almost reach the next level. Fantastic. And finally, finally, he had his new spell.
Anima Charybdis. Anima Charybdis. Ray wanted to cry a little. Who the fuck was in charge of naming these things? It took him a couple of minutes to even remember what Charybdis even was. A sea monster from the Greek myths. Featuring in Odysseus. Wait, no, shit, that was the hero’s name. Featuring in the Odyssey.
How did one not hate a spell name that made one feel stupid?
Ray focused on the description of the spell itself. That lessened his frustration at the name quite a bit.
[Information Request—Spells]
Anima Charybdis [Offensive] [Tier 5]
An offensive spell that tears out chunks of the souls of foes within an area and coalesces them for the caster’s use. Coalesced soul fragments can be used to regain Recovery and Mana or used as a further devastating blast. At Tier 5, this spell affects an area of radius 10 meters at a distance of up to 10 meters from the caster, reducing all affected foes’ Recovery and Mana by 10%, and costs 150 True Mana.
Ray smiled. That was a definitely a unique little spell he had gained. A couple of things that weren’t directly stated in the description really attracted him.
One was that it didn’t seem to be a spell that had to be targeted specifically. It affected everyone within an area, so essentially, Ray would just need to group his enemies into one spot then use it for maximum effect.
The other was the fact that this was the first time he had an ability that operated as some sort of Lifesteal. He would not only be dealing damage, he would also be healing himself and replenishing his True Mana stores. That had a lot of potential for coming in quite handy. And if he didn’t need any topping up, he could just use the gathered soul pieces as an attack. Neat.
Ray stopped glazing his new spell and spent his free points. He put four in Intellect, and the remaining six to Vitality to take it to a clean 100.
[Stat Tier]
Your Vitality has advanced to Tier 3. Your Path can now affect your stats.
You are now capable of imbuing life into 50% more constructs than before. Mental and spiritual toll has been reduced by 50%.
Oh, cool. So he could make even more of his constructs come alive. Since he could create three at any point of time, due to the limits of his Intellect Tier, this suggested he could potentially make all three of his constructs come alive without suffering any more than he did now. In fact, with less suffering, potentially, since it said the toll had been halved.
Ray decided to get going. There was a lot he had to test. Enough of his time had been wasted on these pointless errands.
He took one last look around. The burning of the warehouse and other buildings had stopped by now. Ray’s black-red flames had completed their chaotic corruption.
The formerly wooden structures had turned into twisted versions of themselves, sporting hairy roots, spongy innards, vines that strangled the whole contorted contraption.
Many of the pieces of human bodies had suffered the same. Some of the flesh and innards writhed by themselves, while others had turned into grotesque, but thankfully stationary, abominations of living matter.
It only reinforced the strange emptiness Ray felt, despite the massive death and destruction he had caused.
Ray delivered the package he was supposed to have given the old man originally. He was thankful, but Ray didn’t wait to discover what the parcel was, nor did he wait to converse with the man further. All he did was clean himself up in the small washroom again before leaving.
Cory was surprised Ray had returned so early. He was even more surprised that all the gangsters were dead. “Why?”
Ray shrugged. “Aside from being just the kind of criminals you said they were, they tried to kill me. So I paid them back in kind.”
“It took a threat to your own life to make you act against them?”
“Guess it looks that way.”
“But is that the truth?”
“I don’t care to discuss it.” Ray hardened his expression. “I’ve done my part. Now—who’s the person who makes the Mana shards?”
Cory considered him for a moment. It almost looked like he wasn’t going to reveal the information he had promised, and Ray could feel a vein pulsing on his forehead. But then the lord of Cliff Two sighed.
“His name is Marvis,” Cory said. “You can find him on—”
“Cliff One.”
“Yes.”
“But where exactly?”
“On the west end of the capital.”
“Thanks. I’ll be going now.”
“Already? I’m assuming you wish to go to a dungeon and do whatever else it is you Denizens do. But wouldn’t you prefer to rest after the day’s exertions?”
Ray noted how Cory had called him a Denizen. There was almost a dismissive tone to it. “I’m good, thanks. I’ll see you later.”
Cory was correct, though. Ray did decide to take a break before actually heading to the closest dungeon. He had learned earlier that it was on the eastern side of the Cliff. He could get to it in about three hours at a steady pace on a raptor.
Which meant his wings would take him there in a third of the time. Basically, Ray had some time to rest. He just didn’t want to do it in the middle of Cory’s manor.
Instead, he settled down in a small, wooded area far from the city walls. He had to admit, it was refreshing in a way that this Floor had proper trees for a change. There was only one spot that held actual trees on the First Floor, and that had been in the shadow of Sector 1, where the Floor Lord had parked his dumb ass.
Ray had never actualized to himself how nice it was to have trees around again. The way they provided a cool shade against the glare of the day, the way the roots formed a nice little hollow for him to rest in, the way the leaves swayed gently in the breeze.
It was no surprise Ray fell into a peaceful nap and woke up feeling much more refreshed than he had expected. Alright. Time to head to the dungeon.
Ray did indeed reach it in about an hour from leaving the city. Half an hour to reach his sleeping spot, then another half an hour or so to get to the dungeon itself. The sky was growing darker when he got there, so it felt like an appropriate time to head into the tunnels.
The dungeon was located in a section of the cliffs that stood apart from the actual cliffs that formed Cliff One. The jutting tower of rock reminded him of the pictures of Devil’s Rock he had seen back on Earth. A humongous, flat-topped butte of rock thrust out to reach for the sky, like a mountain that had been chopped in half.
[Primordial Gauge—Dungeon]
Shattered Cliff [Tier 13]
A chunk of the cliffs that form Cliff One was once sheared away from the main escarpment. It suggests that the cliff once extended far deeper onto Cliff Two than it does currently. Standing alone against the elements, it has been weathered down by the aeons till it turned into the home of elementals and drakes that could no longer live in the wilderness.
Elementals and drakes. Ray smiled. Just the monsters he needed. Also, a Tier 13 dungeon. The strongest he had been in yet. He would do well to be wary of whatever obstacles he was going to face.
The tunnels reminded him of the very first area he had been stranded in when he had first arrived at the Tower of Forging. That blasted tutorial zone full of those Feathered Imps.
He almost missed those little guys as he entered the dungeon proper. It was dark, but not too lightless, thankfully. Although, it made him think of the utility of his spell accoutrement.
Could he get a spell just to light up dark areas? There had to be something like that in existence, although it was unlikely Ray would get something that unrelated to combat via simply levelling up.
Maybe there was a specific dungeon about summoning lights. Virko had said that different dungeons specialized in different things.
It wasn’t long before Primordial Gauge warned Ray about enemies up ahead. Earth Elementals. Monsters he had faced and killed already. They ought to be no trouble. Although, the Dungeon Objective that popped up suggested there was more to it than simply killing the monsters.
[Primordial Gauge—Dungeon Obstacle]
Stairway of Bodies
The path ahead lies higher than you might be able to reach normally. But no matter. You have a host of bodies upon which you may climb and ascend towards your goal.
Ray halted himself just outside the opening to the chamber indicated by the Dungeon Obstacle. There was something almost relaxingly straightforward about dungeons and the challenges they offered. No politicking, no people being bastards, no complications.
Just a damn good exercise for both his brain and his growing prowess.
With a grin, Ray rushed in to meet his first challenge in the dungeon head on.