Epic - Level 45 - Earrings of Spiralling Death: Grants the user the ability to sense death energy and detect the undead.

| Willpower +30| Perception +25

Epic rarity equipment was meant to offer unique bonuses, but it seemed that it wasn’t the case for every piece.

Noah just chalked it up to the fact that everything was different. And nothing was equal. It was the same for skills, or Pathways, for that matter. One could counter the other, or one might just be overwhelmingly better.

With the added stats provided, Noah didn’t care about the questionable fashion choice as he neared them to his ears. At first he was prepared to stab his flesh as he had never had the thought of piercing them before, but as they neared, the dual earrings entered his skin without any added strength. As if surgically placed on his ears somehow.

Magic. Noah scoffed. He moved his head, and the earrings followed.The dangling was a bit annoying, but the added ability to detect undead in a dungeon primarily consisting of skeletons, or rotting corpses, it was best to endure the swinging jewellery.

Noah continued through to the other rooms. But unlike the Corpse Bride, none were as strong as it. Of course, that didn’t mean he was able to come out unscathed. Rather, it was easier fighting a single, strong enemy, rather than a group of them.

If he had Krall, he could simply annihilate them with a good old [Charge], but on his own, it was different. Noah had to rely solely on the power of his stealth to defeat the skeletons that filtered into the rooms by the dozens.

As he smashed another skeleton into fragments, he was well aware he had to utilise his Expansion Energy sparingly. Unlike mana, or stamina, it couldn’t be regenerated with a potion. And it was slow to boot. He could use the cores of the defeated undead to charge it up, but he noticed something after the fifth core crumbled into dust after being consumed.

It was poisoning his container. Slowly, but surely. It even eroded his total energy levels. Thankfully, it restored itself after breathing in the pure Expansion energy of the world, but it was a cause for concern. It meant he couldn’t use them like potions.

Overusing potions would cause him to turn sick, sure, but it didn’t have a lasting effect on his power like over consuming Expansion cored did. He had to be careful.

Noah ducked below another cleaving axe swing, and pummelling the skeletons' knees. It fell to the ground, and Noah deftly dealt another blow directly to its skull. Unable to use its legs, it could only wait until it's skull was crushed.

After the strike, Noah retreated back into the shadows. His new body worked a treat. It empowered his strength after leaving the shadows even further than what it used to. At least for this dungeon that was darker than the night sky, it proved to be an excellent choice.

He was like the reaper in the darkness. His death scythe was a mace, but a reaper, nonetheless. Mistakes did happen, and he did receive a few slices, and a couple deep gashes from their aces, but it was nothing he couldn’t endure.

Room to room, it was all the same. Hours had passed and the tiled, furnished area belonging to the corpse bride seemed like an anomaly down where Noah stalked.

However, there was an upside to compensate for how boring the rooms' appearances were. The levels. Noah had levelled to forty-eight after the last room, and was rapidly approaching the fifty border. Just a few more, and he would reach it, but then he noticed something different.

Twin doors, with a stone snake that seemed to lock them shut.

Noah approached them and inspected the snake lock. It was coiled in a figure of eight, eating it. own tail. He was about to grab it, to unlock it, but it didn’t feel right touching something with the image of a poisonous beast. Instead, he looked at it from a safe distance until he judged that it was safe. It was just stone. Identify confirmed that.

He grabbed it, but the moment his finger glanced against it, the entire snake squirmed. Noah used [Shadow Blink], jumping backward as the snake fell to the floor with a dense thud. It was dead. Or, rather, it was already dead. Now it was dead.

Noah shook his head, ignoring how an object could pass into another life, and pushed the door open. A gust of humidity rushed at him, licking his air back with moist air.

Then there was the smell. Acrid earth, like an off mushroom plucked straight out of a bin. Using his darkvision, he peered into the room, only to discover that it was an entire new biome. A jungle. Noah spat. Not again, he thought.

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But, tapping his leg lightly with his mace, he motivated himself forward . It was the only way out of here, and with no other option, he had to face what was ahead.

The room was dark on either side, but light shone in the middle. As if there was sunlight creeping in through a crevice, but there was no sun. Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t the light he was used to. Rather, it was made of some sort of stone that mimicked sunlight. And by the fact that the plants were growing so fervently meant that it acted the same way.

Mushrooms were bigger, grass grew taller than himself, and god only knows what lurked within. Before he took another breath of the awful air, he ripped off a piece of his new clothes, and tied it to his face like a mask.

It didn’t make the air any better, actually, it only made breathing worse. But he wasn’t worried about that. Noah was concerned that, because of the mushrooms, the air was toxic somehow. Maybe pores of the fungi had swept through the air, or maybe he was already poisoned?

Noah ignored the harrowing thought. He didn’t feel any different, so until then, he resisted using his prepared potions. Besides, he had an Uncommon one. It would immediately destroy any disease growing inside of him, so it was better to save it for when he actually needed it.

He dashed into the darkness before anything caught a whiff of his scent. As he stalked within the shadows, he could sense why the System Manual had said there were different types of Expansion. Just like the cores he had consumed, he could feel the air much more clearly here. It was of nature. And

his surroundings practically bloomed with the vibrant energy.

What energy would I best use? If he had to take a guess, it was nature. Beasts loved nature, right?

Noah’s thinking was simple, but it was the best he could come up with now. Maybe he could test breathing it in, then using his Monster Shard?

Right, I don’t have Krall with me. Ignoring the sweat dripping from his forehead, he would just have to test his theory later.

But right now, he felt the back of his neck tingle. [Hunting Instincts] activated. Heartbeat pulsing, he blinked to the side, half behind a nearby tree.

A creature's claws swiped the area where he once stood. It continued, thudding into the ground. The monster used the impact to bounce to the side, before slinking back into the tall grass.

It was flanking him again. Noah could hear it. Feel it.

He blinked again. This time he prepared his spear. The moment he heard the grass part, his spear shot forward at blinking speed. It cracked against its bones, stumbling the monster. Regaining its balance in a second, it readied its four legs on the jungle floor.

Level ?? - Spectral Fang.

Spectral… Noah immediately used the new information to raise his guard. It could mean anything, but he was leaning on it having a movement skill like his own. Something to turn it invisible maybe.

Head on a swivel, he expected the monster to disappear, but that didn’t happen. Instead, sprinted to the side, then swiped the air facing Noah.

Noah wouldn’t believe that the undead tiger would do that for no reason, and leapt to the side. Rolling, the air was sliced apart, and continued. Three blades of invisible energy sliced into the tall grass, reaping it like a farmer's scythe.

He sucked in a muggy breath. It was close. He was too focused on the monster appearing somewhere else that he was almost cleaved in three from the claws of the beast.

But now he knew what the monster did, and how to prepare against it. He clanged his mace against the tree and realised they were the same ones he was used to back up on the surface. They were hard. Impervious to some, but it was a perfect natural defence.

Another bout of spectral claws tore toward him. Noah ducked behind the tree, and raised his shield. He hoped the special bark would stop the attack, but he wouldn’t place all his trust in it.

The blades crashed against the tree, sending fragments of iron-like bark like shrapnel through the air. It held.

Using his new defence as a base of operations, he guided the tiger to attack him. When the claws struck the tree, Noah used the moment where it couldn’t attack, and blinked forward. In a blur, his spear tore through the tiger's skull.

He won. It was dead. But just like the jungle’s surface, the cave held the same properties. Wild. Chaotic. Monsters were everywhere.

Not given a single second to breathe, another spectral fang threw its clawed blades at him. Time after time, the tree was starting to give in. Deep marks cleaved the tree until it stood on only a few rings. Then with a sharp groan, it fell.

Noah blinked to the side, and with a snap of his leg, kicked the tiger into the falling trajectory of the tree. It was about to jump, but the tree fell fast. The incredible density of the tree brought it down faster than it could react.

With a resounding crash, bone snapped, crumbled, and then a bloom of dirt blasted in the surroundings.

Monsters neared, and so Noah used the opportunity to slink back into the darkness. Through the shadows, he could see the life force of the undead, and using the dust as a blanketed veil, he shot forward. He refused to be the prey, for being the predator was much more enjoyable.