Ray was barely able to grab onto the ledge before plummeting. He struck the cave wall hard, his fingers gripping the crumbling edge of the rocky shelf while his feet scrabbled against the stone. No. He was not going to fall. Ray would—
He screamed. The whole place was crumbling apart, and a chunk of the ceiling crashed down to hammer into this leg. It had nearly quashed his ankle against the rock wall before hitting the ground almost thirty feet below. Ray held onto just enough of his concentration to send his Recovery there and fix up his injury.
Ray cursed. He was too heavy, and his grip too insecure, to heave himself up to more solid ground. Not that the ground was stable by any means. The whole ledge was going to break off any second now.
Desperate times called for desperate measures. More of the ceiling fell around him, striking his shoulders and back. It hurt.
With a grunt, Ray used Shatterclaw. He aimed it above him, sinking the black-red claws into the rocky ledge in an effort to drag himself over the lip. It was all he could think to do. The ethereal slashes didn’t have any direct physical connection to his body, so he wouldn’t have been surprised if they failed to do anything more than leave some gouges in the ground.
But Mystic Knowledge informed him that his intuition was correct. Even if the claws summoned by the spell were ethereal, they obeyed the laws of physics, to some degree. It was why channelling the spell needed the correct, corresponding motion of the caster’s arm too.
They were connected. Maybe not visibly. Maybe not in the tangible, physical world Ray occupied. But there was definitely enough of a connection for him to pull himself up.
As much as Ray would have loved to lie flat on his back and just breathe, he forced himself to his feet and ran. It was dangerous to go into a tunnel when everything was collapsing but staying out in the open had turned untenable. Ray was pretty certain the entire chamber he’d been in was seconds away from being buried completely.
Blood streamed down the side of his head as he hurtled on. It wasn’t blocking his sight, though, so he ignored it and the pain for now. He would need to conserve his Recovery for actually debilitating wounds.
He was right about the tunnel being dangerous… but he also wasn’t. The passageway that continued on the other side of the bridge was cracking apart too. Little chunks of it kept falling on and all around Ray.
But it wasn’t shattering entirely as the large chamber had done. The tremors grew less intense the further he went.
It just made him warier, his skin prickling like he was being led to some kind of trap.
Tectonic Theft. That was what Mystic Knowledge had called the ability. Ray could tell that the skill was stealing away the very earth from all around him, ruining the structural integrity of the cave system to make it collapse. But a Tier 4 skill…
He had thought it might have been Kredevel. The alien guy certainly hadn’t appeared as though collateral damage that ended up killing Ray would bother him.
But then, Ray had seen his ability in action. Total Perception. That had been at Tier 3, if he was remembering right. Unless Kredevel possessed abilities at higher Tiers—which wasn’t at all an impossibility—then Tectonic Theft had been unleashed by something else.
In fact, Ray’s biggest suspect was the Feathered Fiend he was supposed to kill.
Not that he wanted to believe the monster was responsible for the entire cave breaking down. More importantly, he didn’t want to believe that his ultimate target possessed a Tier 4 ability.
At level 7, Ray possessed a single spell at Tier 2. That suggested the Feathered Fiend was several orders of magnitude levels stronger than him, at the very least.
Unless there was something else going on.
The walls of the tunnel started cracking apart faster. Almost as though Ray’s thought about the Fiend had pulled its attention upon him.
That thing seriously better not have a skill that alerted it to anybody thinking about it.
Ray did his best not to stumble as he kept on moving. At this rate, the passageway would bury him alive, he had to reach the next open area. Fast.
He used Lifeblood Sense as he moved and—a crack exploded to his left. With a shriek, one of the Feathered Imps burst out of the wall and launched itself at Ray.
He was too surprised, too shocked, to react in time. It got to him, crashing hard enough to slam him against the wall. Ray was briefly stunned. But his instincts kicked in, and he swung his arm even as the back of his head hit the wall. Slashes of blackish-red energy partially crashed into the Imp and sent it careening to the other side of the passage.
The monster was stunned for a second, but then it was charging at Ray again. It wasn’t dead. Shit.
Taking full advantage of his stunned condition, the Imp rushed in to claw up his body and stab its beak at his eyes. Ray managed to duck and prevent turning blind. Damn monster struck him where he already had a wound and took off his ear to boot.
He screamed, as much in pain as in sheer annoyance, as he slammed in another Shatterclaw. Ray himself was thrown back as the claws collided with both him and his assailant.
Good thing he maintained enough balance to use Shatterclaw one more time. “Die!”
The monster didn’t get up from the third strike.
[Enemy Defeated—Feathered Imp]
Tier 6 Monster: Feathered Imp [Level 5] x1
Essence: +300
Mana Restored: +50
Ray breathed in and out, wincing and shaking along with the entire passageway. He used some his Recovery to fix up his ear.
Had that Imp taken two hits of Shatterclaw to go down, or three? Ray couldn’t say for sure. He had been too focused on gutting the little fucker. Although, on closer inspection, it wasn’t as little as the ones he had faced so far. It was level 5, to be fair. Maybe they grew in size as their levels increased.
And maybe they also gained the ability to secret themselves inside walls and burst out when some unsuspecting mook like Ray passed by. What the fuck?
Ray forced himself to move on. He stuck closer to the centre of the tunnel. His caution, and continuous uses of Lifeblood Sense, was rewarded when more of the monsters burst out of the walls with startling cracks. Good thing Ray was prepared to deal with them now.
Two uses of Tier 2 Shatterclaw. It took two direct hits to kill the level 5 Imps.
It was getting annoying dealing with them, though. For one, he was expending as much Mana to kill them as he was earning by killing them. That meant it was difficult to keep himself topped up with Mana.
More than that, the tunnel kept falling in chunks on him, and he had to keep warding them off his head. His shoulders were already a mess and his back ached with little jolts of agony whenever he moved to suddenly, like when an Imp burst out the walls.
It was a terrible distraction, occasionally letting a lucky Imp get in a good hit he had to heal up with his dwindling Recovery.
Ray had no idea how long he would be able to keep this up. He checked the Map Fragment. There was another open-ish chamber somewhere up ahead, but the twisted scribblings made it hard to tell how far ahead.
He wasn’t even certain he ought to go in there. Wouldn’t Tectonic Theft just make it collapse on him?
Was he going to end up buried alive no matter where he went?
The claustrophobic threat of being entombed here made his thoughts turn disarrayed with panic. He had to get out of here. He had to leave. Where was the fucking exit?
At least he had levelled up to cross level 8 now. More points to all his stats was going to help. He even plugged half the free stats to Vitality just so he could allow himself to heal up a few more of his wounds, and half into Spirit to get more Mana.
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Ray’s next use of Lifeblood Sense provided a new warning. There was a foe underneath him.
Of course. He should have known they could change things up. If they could come from the walls, they could from the floor or the ceiling too.
The monster burst out of the geound with frightening speed. Ray bit down on a shriek as the flesh on his legs was torn apart, but he managed to slam down a Shatterclaw. Too close. The Imp was flattened, but Ray was flung back by the impact too.
He was going to use another Shatterclaw, but then a different idea popped up in his head. Instead of his Tier 2 spell, Ray used Crucible Chymify. The slightly spiralling bolt of red energy bordered with black struck the rising Imp in its face. It screamed out as it fell back. After a moment of struggling, where it tried to get back to its feet, it fell back and died.
[Enemy Defeated—Feathered Imp]
Tier 6 Monster: Feathered Imp [Level 5] x1
Essence: +300
Mana Restored: +50
[Lifeblood Crucible Activated]
Crucible Chymify has stolen the soul of a defeated Feathered Imp. Please select which Aspect of the targeted soul to retain.
Soul Aspects
* Minor Claws: Hardened claws of the Imps that also boost physical damage [Tier 6]
* Shinesight: Sharp eyes of the Imps that makes darkness decipherable [Tier 6]
* Feathered Glide: Shroud of Imp feathers that allows gliding for short distances [Tier 6]
* Earth Immersion: Digging ability that allows one to pass through solid rock [Tier 6]
Ray stared at the options. He didn’t understand what the point of showing the Tier was when the earlier description had stated that his actual summoning wasn’t going to be higher than his spell’s Tier. As in, even if Ray picked one of the Tier 6 options, they would only manifest as Tier 1, since Lifeblood Crucible was at Tier 1.
He also didn’t understand how exactly he would use the Soul Aspect. Lifeblood Crucible’s description made it clear it was only a storage. How could he pull out anything it stored?
Mystic Knowledge came to the rescue.
[Mystic Knowledge—Lifeblood Crucible]
Lifeblood Crucible is a storage spell. Learn a summoning spell to use the power stored within the crucible. Next spell to be learned at level 9.
Okay. So he needed a summoning spell to summon… claws? Or the ability to glide? That wasn’t how he would have assumed summoning would work, unless this was some sort of self-summons thing. Ray supposed it did store Soul Aspects, not entire souls themselves.
But the main point was that he needed another level. That meant killing more of the Imps.
Since the tunnel was still shaking threateningly, Ray kept moving.
He also wasn’t sure which options he ought to go with. Claws he already possessed thanks to Shatterclaw. Gliding sounded neat, but not in a cave. The other two had some utility—
Lifeblood Sense raised more warning flags. Ray was distracted when more Imps came bursting out of the walls. Even as he had been considering his option, he had kept an eye out for more ambushing monsters.
Thankfully, he was now able to regain more Mana than he was expending to kill them. He just had to make sure the first strike with Shatterclaw sent the Imp flying a good distance from him. At least twelve or so feet, by his best estimate. Then he could blast the monster with a Crucible Chymify to end the Imp before it could reach him.
As if the crashing rocks and ambushing Imps weren’t bad enough, things had to take a turn for the worse.
[Warning!]
Mystic Knowledge indicates a wide area-of-effect ability has been activated. Lifesteal [Tier 4] is stealing your Recovery. Exit its area of influence as soon as possible. Arcane Aura lessens the impact.
The description was pinpoint accurate. A quick look at his Status confirmed that his Recovery was ticking down. One point every thirty seconds. He had less than 150 left after healing up his last few injuries. Ray didn’t even have an hour left before all his Recovery would disappear. Just great.
How in the world was he supposed to get out of this Lifesteal ability’s area of effect when he didn’t even know the bounds?
Ray wondered if raising Mystic Knowledge’s Tier would provide whim with more specific details such as the radius of the indicated ability. Something to test later. For now, he had to get out of here.
Several more Imps later, the passage suddenly shook terribly. Ray almost fell again as the whole tunnel sloped downwards.
His breath turned shallow. Up ahead, he could see the opening. The exit of the passage that would bring him into the next chamber. And from there, hopefully the exit out of this forsaken shithole.
But as Ray scrabbled down, his heart slowly climbing in apprehension, he forced himself to stop at the edge. Lifeblood Sense brought up the exact situation that he had been afraid of.
A trap. The whole place was a gigantic trap.
Shit. There were Imps waiting above him too. He couldn’t shoot down at them from up on high like he had in the chamber with Kredevel.
The easiest option would be to find a different way to go. But where? It wasn’t like he had come across other openings, other paths he could take.
More importantly, he needed the kills. Going by his Status, he had to kill at least another Imp before he could reach level 9. Before he could actually use Lifeblood Crucible. If only all the Imps that had attacked him recently been at level 5 instead of a mix of levels 3 and 5.
Ray closed his eyes for a second. There was no time to waste. He had to keep moving. Straight into death? No. He needed some other solution…
His eyes opened. The idea came to him. Ray was pretty certain he had been led here by the Fiend causing the Tectonic Shifts and Lifesteal, taken straight to this trap where its minions could finish him off. It believed Ray, as a mere human, would be forced to navigate its maze of tunnels.
But thanks to his spells, there was another option to take. He just had to level up one more time.
So, Ray rushed into the chamber with the trap.
One more kill. That was his target. Lifeblood Sense told him the exact positions of the nearest Imps. It caught nine in the chamber as far as its search radius went. Since the chamber was significantly larger than just ten meters, Ray was certain there were dozens more of the Imps waiting to kill him. But all he needed was one.
“Come at me, you bastards!” he yelled, halting himself with a sudden jerk a few feet in front of his passage’s opening.
The Imps attacked at once. Several burst out of the ground to charge at him. Ray didn’t concern himself with those. They were far enough away that he could avoid them. His plan revolved around the quadruple throwing themselves right on top of him from above.
Ray jumped back. A second later, the Feathered Imps crashed down where he had just been standing. They collided with the ground and against each other, falling into a heap of feathers and limbs. Ray smiled. Perfect.
He used Shatterclaw on them all at once. After they had grouped up together so nicely, he couldn’t let the opportunity to take them all out at once pass him by.
The first set of five claws appearing together slammed in from above, crushing all four Imps to the ground with piercing shrieks. Ray repeated the motion. His next use of Shatterclaw smashed the life out of them all.
[Enemy Defeated—Feathered Imp]
Tier 6 Monster: Feathered Imp [Level 5] x2
Tier 6 Monster: Feathered Imp [Level 3] x2
Essence: +960
Mana Restored: +160
[Level Up!]
Reward
* +3 Intellect, +3 Spirit, +2 Vitality, +4 allocatable free stats.
* New Spell: Occult Summons [Summoning] [Tier 1]
* Occult Summons has been converted to Primal Summons by Path of Lifeblood Chaos. Conversion has removed one significant restriction on spell usage.
* Synergy discovered: Crucible Chymify + Lifeblood Crucible + Primal Summons.
Essence to Level 10: 840/2,700
The notifications didn’t obscure his entire sight, thankfully. The blue screen was translucent and covered less than a quarter of his right-hand view. He could barely pay attention to the words. More Imps were almost upon him.
Ray turned and ran, adding his free stats to Intellect. The Imps were faster. The nearest one reached him, clawing at his legs and sending vicious shots of pain down his back. Their clacking cries were driving him mad.
He flung a Shatterclaw behind him. As he had entered the tunnel again, the narrow passageway was allowing him to throw all his pursuers back with a single cast of Shatterclaw. Talk about Mana efficiency.
Somehow, one of the Imps managed to jump atop him. He crashed down with a yell, his face smacking the rocky ground hard. It was all he could to turn his head to not break his nose.
Before the beady-eyed monster could stab in with its beak to peck out his eyes, Ray used his new spell.
[Lifeblood Crucible Activated]
Chaos Chymify has stolen the soul of a defeated Feathered Imp. Please select which Aspect of the targeted soul to retain.
Soul Aspects
* Minor Claws: Enhanced claws of the Imps that boost physical damage [Tier 6]
* Shinesight: Sharp eyesight of the Imps that makes darkness decipherable [Tier 6]
* Feathered Flight: Shroud of Imp feathers that allows gliding for short distances [Tier 6]
* Earth Immersion: Digging ability that allows one to pass through solid rock [Teir 6]
Minor Claws. His breath caught in his throat. This had to work, or he was dead. Mystic Knowledge said it would work.
A quick cast of Primal Summon sent Mana surging through him in a very different way, compared to Shatterclaw. His body was overtaken by a blot of darkness. Ray focused intensely even as more monsters reached and attacked him. A shimmer of red glowed somewhere behind his back.
Then the Imp on his back went flying with a cry. Ray twisted around, kicking back the other imps trying to reach him. Perfect. Primal Summons had brought up the Minor Claws right where he needed it most. At his under-attack back.
He could feel it being squeezed between his back and the ground now that he was facing forward. So weird.
But that wasn’t what he was truly looking for in this situation. Another use of Shatterclaw, followed by a Chaos Chymify, and Ray had killed one more Imp trying to claim his life.
That brought up the Lifeblood Crucible activation again, allowing him to pick another Soul Aspect. It was a little sad he could only store one, but he would work on that later.
Ray selected Earth Immersion. There. His real pick.
Darkness blotted him out from the world again, and with it came a sudden rush all over his body. Something strange was occurring along his fingers, his hands, his skin all over, a slight pressure coating him everywhere. A weird impulse ingrained itself somewhere deep in his mind.
Taking heed from the spell, from everything he had seen, and from what he had to do to get out with his life, Ray dug into the earth.