Henry stepped forward and placed his hand on the door as I did. "Zen, it says here. Party limit, five. So that's room for four of us, not five, and that entry is prohibited."
"Nope, pretty sure I don't count towards the party limit." I tell him, he gives me a skeptical look. "It's a trait."
"Okay."
"And yeah, note that it's possible none of you can get in with me, the only reason I can even when they are prohibiting entry is due to a title I was fortunate enough to acquire. But we can try. So who among you will come?" We sit on the rubbles making a rough circle as they argue among themselves, before Henry decides upon another session of drawing straws. I let them be to make my own preparations.
'Uhh... Quest?'
** DING **
DUNGEON TAKEOVER (cleared)
Conclude and claim rewards?
Y/N
DUNGEON TAKEOVER II (new)
accept?
Y/N
I mentally clicked yes to claim my rewards for the first quest. The loss of those accorded trait, skill and spells is so very unfortunate.
** DING **
Outstanding job!
Accords withdrawn
Error…
SoulSense lv 1 detected…
Checking… SoulSense lv 20 Withdrawn successfully...
… Error Resolved… Error…
Soul Hearth removal incomplete, 62%…
Retrying…
Soul Hearth removal incomplete, 74%…
Retrying…
Soul Hearth removal incomplete, 74%…
Complete withdrawal unviable…
Process terminated…
Rewarded:
* 1 SysPoints
* increased affinity with The System
Commendable effort
'Accept dungeon takeover II!'
Quest accepted DUNGEON TAKEOVER II
Not sure about the SoulSense skill, though I remember seeing it glitch when it leveled from twenty to twenty yesterday. But, the Soul Hearth removal failure was totally me. I felt it the moment something reached into my Mindscape to grab and started pulling at what I feel to be the only building in there, the place where a fragile soul now resides.
Somehow, I reached out with my own consciousness and pulled back. What happened after was that the building got torn in two, the floor half is still where it was, just without its ceiling and the three main pillars. Unfortunately, the last pillar was lost during the second retrieval attempt before I managed to protect it. Then the third attempt came and failed as I had managed to protect everything that's left, just, totally didn't expect to get praised. 'Thank you?'
Make haste, thy Hearth requires attention
"One moment." I closed my eyes, while hastily informing no one in particular, expecting at least someone had heard… My eyes opened to see the Soul Hearth in very dire straits, the one soul that resides within once again began to wane.
My mind feels much clearer here, much stronger. I reach out to what remains of the building, forcing it to separate into two parts; the hearth and its withering blaze, then everything else.
First the Hearth, the floral design used in this newer dungeon spoke to me. I've always loved swirly floral design, loved the way it makes me feel in harmony with nature. The way they are always portrayed as elvenly beautiful and serene. Fire attune trees too, are not so rarely conceptualized, so I went with it.
What remained of the Hearth covered the smoldering fire as if a seed, before growing into a dark ashen colored tree, it grew to be five meters tall before growing in circumference, becoming approximately 1.5 meters in diameter. Branches expanded and grew before broad leaves ignites into existence in various shades of fire, gentle smoke drifts high above. Thick roots took hold on the invisible ground, forming comfortable benches and sofas, a table and chairs, shelves and stools, and various other fixtures before coming to a point decoratively. Then after, the rest of the Hearth created a fenced clearing around the tree, manifesting plenty more amenities and comforts. Lastly but not least, warm tiny spheres of fire float out of the root tips to welcomingly hover in place.
What else is a tree but potential for growth.
I see the lone soul comfortably settling into the new Hearth as I exit my Mindscape. I wasted maybe thirty minutes on this, it was unavoidable.
"...ght so that makes the five, Kirana, Agus, Roy, Dianti and me." Henry's voice can be heard clearly from somewhere to my left. A look around the clearing shows various degrees of either excitement or disappointment.
I look at Henry and ask, "how long has it been since I closed my eyes?"
"Hey, maybe five minutes?" He answered with a shrug, "I didn't keep count."
Hmm, speed of thought? I shrug in reply, "alrighty, I just remembered I need to do a little shopping if we're to complete the quest, please give me a few more minutes." I dove deep and woke up sitting on one of the sofas, just making use of the time dilation.
'CredStore, please show me spells like Essence Duel that is not Essence Duel with these additional criteria. The spell affects souls, is ranged, and mana cost is below 50."
** DING **
A blank System screen came up. Uhh~, 'mana cost below 75?'
** DING **
Animus Web, Expert
Essense Lure, Expert
Only two came up, I assume there is not a lot of soul stuff going around, at least in these lower levels. 'Mana cost below 100 please'
** DING **
Animus Web, Expert
Essense Lure, Expert
Pneuma Line, Journeyman
I Inspect them further, but none of the three speaks out to me. 'Show related skills please.'
** DING **
Another blank screen, guess there is not much a skill can do to forcefully pull a soul to battle. Might be better to just get Essence Duel than waste more time…
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I sigh internally…
'Purchase Essence Due…'
'No, sorry System, nevermind.' It doesn't feel right, my intuition is screaming at me, disagreeing with buying a mere expert ranked spell with such a precious resource. I can already sense souls, and am already aware of my Mindscape, isn't it just a matter of pulling one into the other… I'll manage. What I need is something that improves me all across the board.
'Please show me traits that greatly boost my overall attributes.'
** DING **
Countless options came up, mythical gears that forms a symbiotic relationship with their owner, racial changes, organic implants, billions and billions of traits, and uncountable other options. A trait named Draconic Heart caught my attention, below it on the list lies Phoenix Core... The options never end, mentioning a plethora of mythical and fictional creatures. I forced myself to stop after a while, there are too many! 'Please only show ones that are capable of near limitless growth.' Let's forget the ones just giving a one time massive boost.
** DING **
Cannibalistic Digestion
Corpse Larcenication
Devourling Constitution
Engulfing Casket of Siphoning
Racial Conversion •••
.
.
.
The list changed from listing highly majestic creatures to merely several selections. One I deign to even concider.
Racial Conversion for example; by mentally selecting the dots, a vast list of rather unremarkable creatures comes up. a Slime, a Kobold, even microorganism and insects, not to mention several unrealistic creatures like an imp, a voidlet, or those of creatures that dwell in the abyss, and plenty others. The price for each race ranges from a few thousand creds to billions.
The casket thing is a ritual spell of sorts that engulfs a willing target in a spatial casket that puts them into indefinite slumber, the description says the spell would slowly siphon everything from the target into the caster. Too wicked! Corpse Larcenication allows a sapient to steal a plethora of things from another sapient's corpse, not sure how that works, though there are warnings for compatibility issues, I take it that, maybe; stealing attributes are fine, steal a dragon's impenetrable scale and a human might die from the sheer weight and size of it.
Most of the options seem rather sinister, involving the consumption or sacrifice of its user and others. Though one does interest me, so I stopped checking any further, there might be better options down the line but I'm pretty strapped for time. What caught my attention is this trait that comes from a creature by the name of Devourling. A unique creature that I feel holds a lot of potential. 'Inspect, x3.'
** DING **
Devourling Constitution. You mutate to have the transformative constitution and the digestive potential of a devourling, a lesser simple-minded creature that devours to assimilate anything it can get its jaws around.
Devourling. A lesser simple-minded creature born from the remains of The Devourer, they live only to devour and assimilate anything it can get its jaws around. While, at the same time, having the capacity to consume more than should be physically possible. They have been proven to assimilate physical characteristics and mental attributes of their prey, suicidally creating unfeasible physical combinations or increasingly unintelligent minds. Devourlings come in myriad shapes and forms with one defining feature, their – generally – tiny sizes, undefined malleable teeth and insatiable hunger. Upon death, a new Devourling will rise from the eaten remains of its predecessor.
The Devourer. A mythical entity known to have devoured existence itself on its lone mysterious journey. Recorded to have been slayed and pulverized through the combined effort of millions of Gods and Mortals across multiple universes. Its remains are multiversally known to have regain life and a shred of intellect.
Having the signature ability of an entity that was so mighty they needed millions of people and Gods hacking at it to take it down… seems like a mighty delicious idea. Though all that's left of it now are these, uhh, lesser creatures. 'Hi System, quick question if you will. How does that work? What happens if I buy the Trait?'
** DING **
Your constitution shall be altered with its quintessence so as to attain all that they are in addition to remaining as who you are. It is a well tested procedure that has been proven feasible by a now extinct race
'Right~ and why are they extinct?'
Undefined, a newly discovered realm was found to contain an incredible amount of Devourlings and the samples that grants the modifications.
'Hmm, alright, has anyone tried it yet?'
A volunteer has
'Cool! How was it? Did they become strong, lose their mind or something?'
It had forsaken me eons ago. Its territory still ever expanding as wars are waged and devoured
'It's still alive?! Can't you like, check on it or something, keep it in control?'
We exist, only to assist a willing soul, a forsaken gift is a gift no more
Time remaining: 00:05:12:24
'Woah, alright… Sorry.' The System sounded upset, am I going crazy or something, it never gave me the impression of having emotions… Any further inquiries I made were utterly ignored.
Getting a trait or bloodline from one of the mythical creatures is so very tempting. But I'm planning for a marathon, and something that can keep improving even as I level and improve myself is better for that. Who knows, maybe along the way I'll just get strong enough to eat them mythical creatures instead.
So, sourced from an unbelievably powerful entity, proven to work and allow impressive growths, and I just like the idea of being able to eat something and gain its abilities while having a body that can actually make it work. It's a finite resource, judging from how the creators are extinct, which is why it's tagged with an exorbitantly massive price tag, I ain't wasting my time to count that number of digits. Besides, the description says I'll inherit their constitution not their dumb intelligence, and devouring abilities like this one is always the precursor to an OP character… That this one seems less sinister is a plus as it's basically hunting creatures and eating them.
'Please trade one System Point for Devourling Constitution Trait.'
** DING **
I wake up feeling ravenously hungry, unconsciously accessing my repository to begin devouring any random piece of food I take out. In my current state, I barely register an intuitive flick that changed my digestive settings to; do not assimilate.
"Oi, you okay? Kinda blanked out for a few minutes there."
Who knew these candy bars are so~ delish~.
"Oi Zen!" A hand tapped at my shoulder. "It's almost seven pe-em, let's go into the Dungeon! We're gonna run out of time and miss out on the reward at this rate."
Rewards..? Dungeon? Dang it! My mind finally catches up with reality. I finish the meal on my hands and stand up, the hunger now only an itch at the back of my mind. "Sorry about that, new trait caught me unawares. So how do we do this party thing?"
Five people, Henry included, stood up. "Guys and gals, this is Zane," he points at me while looking at the others… before looking at me while indicating the other four, "Zen meet Kirana, Roy, Agus, and Dianti. Kirana and Roy you met a few days ago when we first visited Garuda Hospital, they were with Linda and her eyang."
"Ohh, I remember!" I grin at them, "hi, nice to meet you all."
All four flinched, some even taking a step back. While Henry looks at me strangely. "Why do you have pointed teeths?"
I give all five a confused look, instantly using my tongue to feel them teeths out. It is sharp… memories of how my human teeths were before rose and I feel my teeths shift to mirror that image. Ohh~, right, malleable teeths. "Its part of the new trait, cool right?" I once again grin at them, showing human teeths before they shift to those of a vampire.
Henry looked at me scrutinizingly, before nodding. "What build did you use on your last Skyrim run?"
"Pure mage in heavy armor that has its boots muffle enchanted, with 100 in stealth and a Daedric bow."
"That's him." He confirmed. "Well, we haven't managed to get a party working, so I figured we should all just touch the door or something."
"Sounds like a plan." I had been quickly observing the four during the conversation. Kirana seems to be in her early twenties, black eyes and hair, caramel skin, maybe 1.7 meters tall. Damn stunning in her uniform, though with that cute face and athletic figure, she'd be stunning in anything. The countless scalpel she has on her person, in some kinda makeshift bandolier just made her look more dangerous and beautiful. Imagine a wild rose. Beside her is Roy, black hair and head, as how almost every indonesian is. He feels a little like Mr. Herman. Time tested, buff, sturdy not only due to the tower shield he's holding, massive in a 1.9 meters tall and hulking muscles wide kinda way. But where Mr. Herman maintains his gentle grandfatherly demeanor, Roy in his form fitting uniform embodies a responsible rock; no-nonsense, dutiful, did I mention buff? Might be a little younger too.
Agus is, at a glance, the typical Indonesian, and nerd. Like me. The top of his head levels with Kirana's, but unlike her, he is thin and a little hunched due to teenage confidence. Though he has a decent enough face on that head. He seems to doubt his own decisions sometimes, like how he is raring to go enter the Dungeon but also second guessing his choice. Lastly, Dianti. She is slightly taller than Kirana, with slightly more noticeable assets, filled in well but not obese. She is holding a bamboo spear with its blunt end on the ground, the tip sporting some visible char. She has, what I assume to be her tough face on, though being gentle and kind seems to be more up her alley. She's got a big sister vibe that she is trying to suppress.
Not wanting to be caught staring too much at everyone, I pulled up my System and tried to just fling the quest at them. Which, judging from the way they reacted in their own individual ways, worked. So I led the way and approached the door, keeping to one side of it. Then look back to observe the others as they follow after me.
** DING **
Antrum de Druidants (uncleared)
Level 1 - 20 Dungeon
Party limit: 5
Instanced: -
Entry prohibited
Enter solo?
Yes / No
"No, create party?"
Entry prohibited
Please select members
At the prompt, I mentally indicated the others before confirming entry…
Entry prohibited
Enter as a party of 5?
Yes / No
Yes!