Kyle walked through the fortress’s corridors accompanied by Belial and Legion. Legion glared at Kyle’s back in disdain while Belial walked side by side with the adventurer as if nothing had happened. Kyle mentality sighed at the situation, Legion was accompanying him to aid with Dagon’s extraction from Lilior while Belial…simply wanted to watch.
With a mental shrug he turned his focus to his notifications, he had been ignoring them this whole time and decided he needed to come up to speed with his progress.
Evolution! [Ooze(Elder Frost)]’s [Fracture] has evolved into [Draconic Fracture]!
Kyle was surprised at this, skills evolving was a concept he could specifically remember being part of his guild’s main game back home. Unable to hold back his curiosity he focused on the effect and a window opened with it’s description.
[Draconic Fracture]; Similarly to [Fracture] the slime rapidly condenses then explodes from it’s own mass. This skill can be charged up to (6 seconds) for a higher area of effect and blast power (Range + 1 meter per 2 second / Damage +200% of INT per 2s).
He had no qualms with this change, (“The bigger the explosion the better”).
You have unlocked enough requirement skills to receive a sub-class!
Please check in with an obelisk to unlock!
He mostly ignored this notification knowing full well he needed to visit one soon.
Skill are available to evolve on class acquisition/change!
This both worried and excited him, there were some key skills he didn’t want to lose but also thought some could be made better.
Evolution! [Frost Aura] has been altered by gaining further insight through the skill [{Cold Soul}] and became [{Cold Aura}]!
Kyle blamed this skill for scaring the hell out of Reyna earlier, this was further implied after reading it’s description.
[Passive] [{Cold Aura}] (Level 3 – Tier 1): Through will unleash your murderous intent onto your surroundings inducing chilling fear onto your opponents and vastly increasing [Ice] class magic power.
Fear chance + 20% per point of (Chilled Aura)
INT attributed to [Ice] class magic + 40% per point of (Chilled Aura)
INT attributed to [Fire] class magic – 50% per point of (Chilled Aura)
As Kyle read through the description he was reminded of the new resource he had recently gained, the small empty thin bar was barely visible below his (Spirit).
Chilled Aura: ([ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ])
The bar consisted of ten empty black squares which Kyle guessed they’d light up for each point of (Chilled Aura) he could gain up to ten (“So kinda like a stack requirement or a combo requirement?”).
Feat of strength achieved! You have single-handedly defeated a {Devil}!
Title gained: (Devil Slayer)
Racial {Devil} Hostility + 10%
+ 10% damage to {Devils}
Kyle had no words for this, the last thing he needed was to piss off certain Devils more than he already had. Although it did remind him of a lingering question he had, “Uh, Belial? Mind if I ask you a question?” he asked the Devil to his left.
Belial looked sideways at him with an expression that screamed ‘*How can my majestic self be of assistance?*’ “Yes?” he asked.
Kyle restrained himself from snorting “Oh, I-I was wondering why you didn’t use any magic spells or skills during our duel earlier.”
Belial snorted “My physical prowess was all I required to defeat something of your caliber!” he declared proudly.
Legion also snorted “You lost. Also he didn’t use any because he can’t, his body is too young to process mana.”
Belial turned his hand a full 180 degrees startling Kyle, he glared back at Legion “Excuse you?”.
Legion gave a quick polite bow “Excuse me for my insolence but truth must be spoken your sinlyness.”
Belial seemed to contemplate on that response for longer than he should have before responding “Oh…Well…Fine then?...” he turned his head back to looking up at Kyle “Anyway what he said.”
Kyle held back an exasperated sigh “I see…” and returned to reading his notifications.
Insight! You have gained insight on a previously lacking skill description!
Immediately Kyle opened his skill book to see the changes to his Heroic skill.
[{Cold Soul}] (Set skill stats): The winter lord’s blessing is upon you, personally selected by Ymir as a vessel for his immense power. Channel his energy at will making it your own, the power of ice nothing more than another limb under your control.
({Ymir willed this un-shareable}) Your hatred manifests through your spiritual energy and bends the veil reducing time space within range.
Requirement: 10 points of (Chilled Aura)
(“That is still too fucking vague! You made it fucking unsharable cause you’re ashamed of how vague it is too!!”) he mentally cursed at Ymir.
(“Bite me!”) replied Ymir in his head.
(“I just might then use a skill called [Devour]! You know, one with an actual fucking description!”) Kyle continued.
(“Kid, you try to write a description with limiting parameters such as ‘Don’t reveal stats’ or ‘Don’t reveal effects’ and ‘Only reveal cost’. Do you know how fucking impossible it is with the last one!? ”) argued back Ymir.
(“Huh that does sound like a pain in the ass, sorry.”) Kyle apologized after brief consideration of the lazily set rule. Ymir didn’t respond back except for a thought that appeared in Kyle’s mind noting that Ymir had run out of contact time, (“The fuck? You have an actual limit for that?”) he mentally asked but received no further indication of the God’s presence.
His mind returned to the skill at hand (“I need more information on this damn thing then but the requirement doesn’t exactly make it available for testing…”) he glanced over at Belial (“And who better to ask than someone who was it’s victim?”)
“Hey Belial one more question if you don’t mind?” Kyle politely asked.
Belial turned to him with the same expression as before, seemingly enjoying the attention “How can I assist?”.
“At the end of our duel I used a spell that has a very vague description, do you have any clue as to how it affected you?” Kyle asked hoping for a better response this time.
Belial rolled his eyes at the mention of the duel but ended up in thought with the actual question, “My whole body felt frigid as if something was sapping my strength then you tackled me with speed almost equivalent to my own. After that all I remember is tearing your flesh apart, gutting you open, breaking most of your ribs, piercing your lungs and shredding your back before I lost consciousness.” he explained including the gory details.
Kyle noticed a notification joining the almost invisible list to the left of his vision “What about you Legion?” he asked the Devil following behind them.
Legion squinted as the sun flashed it’s light onto them, they had left the fortress’s main building and were heading towards the open third gate. “Same affliction, my whole body felt cold and my strength and mana felt like they were being drained for a few minutes even after the fight ended.” He replied with annoyance clear in his tone, most probably not at the rays of sunlight.
“A prompt called it ‘Soul chill’?” he then added.
Kyle this time paid full attention to his notifications and as he read the last one another joined in.
Insight! You have gained insight on a previously lacking skill description!
[{Cold Soul}]
Insight! You have gained insight on a previously lacking skill description!
[{Cold Soul}]
He then checked the actual skill’s page.
[{Cold Soul}] (Set skill stats): The winter lord’s blessing is upon you, personally selected by Ymir as a vessel for his immense power. Channel his energy at will making it your own, the power of ice nothing more than another limb under your control.
({Ymir willed this un-shareable}) Your hatred manifests through your spiritual energy and bends the veil reducing time space within range.
Targets within range hit by the initial wave of (Chilled Aura) are (Soul Chilled) for 5 minutes.
Following the wave of (Chilled Aura) time is briefly chilled for 8 seconds.
Requirement: 10 points of (Chilled Aura)
(Soul Chilled): Your soul has been assaulted by another’s cold temperament.
-10% all combat stats per 1 minute (STR, AGI, DEX, INT, WIS)
(Mana regeneration) turns into (Mana degeneration).
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
(Stamina regeneration) is halted.
M.S. – 40%.
Duration: 5 minutes (300 seconds)
Kyle whistled after reading the description (“Damn could you have made it any more over powered against mages?”).
“Something wrong?” asked Skill as they approached the carriage, the army had clear from their surrounding area so they were all just sitting around.
“Just here to extract Dagon” answered Kyle after clearing the windows out of his vision.
“Finally!” exclaimed Dagon as he appeared in front of them with arms crossed.
“So what are we doing exactly?” Kyle asked as he showed them to the inside of the carriage, where Lilior’s crystal dungeon core stood glowing an aquamarine green-blue. Skill, Seren, Steph and Ch stayed outside but Cherry and Woody followed the three Devils and Kyle in. Sparta was nowhere to be seen.
“Simply put? We’ll be storing Dagon inside a crystal core where once a suitable birth occurs he can flow into it.” explained Legion.
“Huh, so he has to wait for a newborn? He can’t just be put into an adult?” asked Cherry.
Dagon looked up at the giant Bearkin with surprise “That is possible but it’s immoral. I’d be basically robbing someone’s body. No instead I wait for a body to be in the process of birth and instead of a new soul being born along with the body my soul will flow inside and merge with it becoming a single soul.”
Woody was staring intensely into the core when he spoke “So you’re basically going to have a giant orgy and the first to get pregnant gets a Devil lord for child.” Making everyone inside and out look at him awkwardly.
“Umm…I am not quite sure how to respond to that.” admitted Legion.
Kyle was holding onto his face “You don’t, please for the love of my sanity do not respond to that.” he whispered.
“Hey hey, I think Woody is making a very valid point here.” continued Cherry.
“He is?” asked Dagon.
“I am?” asked Woody with disbelief.
“Instead of waiting for a natural birth why not have a giant orgy?” Cherry was grinning mischievously as he explained “You not only might get a wide variety of choices but also you don’t get to wait.”
Legion and Dagon glanced at each other as Belial gawked at them in disbelief “You’re not actually considering that!”.
---
Birse walked through the gate as a bright blue light enveloped where the carriage stood, it was blindingly bright forcing him, Sly and Death at his side to hold their arms ahead of their eyes as they approached it.
As they got closer a quiet voice could be clearly heard from inside, a high pitched feminine voice clearly Lilior’s “But master I don’t want to…” she whined.
“It’s ok Lilior just! Just let me in!” Kyle’s voice replied.
Death and Sly looked at each other as Birse whispered “The hell…?”
“But I don’t want to!” Lilior cried.
“We’ll get more! Just open up! Stop holding on so tightly!” said Kyle now in an ordering tone.
Birse pushed in the two wooden doors and entered the carriage, followed by Death and Sly as all three carefully looked inside. The light parted revealing the inside. The entire guild save for Jacky were around the core along with Legion and Belial.
Kyle was standing in front of the core with his right hand on it’s surface while he held a black crystal core in his right twice the size of his fist. Kyle was currently in the process of extracting Dagon’s soul from the core but…Lilior was reluctant on letting it go.
“Ooooooouuu…” Lilior whine in annoyance as the last of Dagon’s soul was removed from inside the core.
“We’re going to have a very long talk about morality later Lilior…” Kyle sighed as he held the soul, a dark-green smoky flame. “When to and when not to use it.” He then added as he pressed the black core to the soul and it quickly sucked it in, it gained a green hue.
Legion took the core from Kyle “I would show gratitude if it wasn’t for the fact of who put him in this state in the first place.” He said before turning around and walking away with Belial.
Kyle grinned in amusement “How’d it go boss?” he asked Birse.
Birse closed the carriage’s door behind the two Devils “Advice, don’t barter too much with Imps. Little fuck almost cut us half our resources.” he snorted in annoyance “Anyway we got ourselves a sizable stretch of land nearby the river side we can set up Lilior at but before we start unpacking shit I want to have a short guild meeting so gather up.” He motioned at Sparta who was sitting at the top of the ladder.
“What’s up?” asked Cherry as everyone gathered around Birse.
Birse glanced at Sly “I want your opinions, about Sly leaving alone to an unknown land with unknown circumstances.”
Sly turned to glare at him “It was my choice, we can’t just hang up on an offer like that!” he argued.
“Still Sly didn’t you hear him? You could actually die, take everything into account..” Steph argued back. ” Your bloodline was banished, from what I can tell a direct bloodline to the big man of wrath himself. That doesn’t sound good, at all!”
“It didn’t sound like Mr.Satan would be taking it easy on you either, you really sure about this mate?” added Ch.
Kyle nodded in agreement “There’s still time to back out. The consequences of your ancestors aside, being outside of the respawn range shouldn’t be taken lightly. We’ve already lost o-”
Sly suddenly smashed an aura-clad fist into the wall behind himself “You think I don’t know that?!” he glared at Kyle as his aura oozed out of his body in violet tendrils, his expression reddened in anger.
Kyle felt the emotions stirring inside Sly, frustration, anger, guilt and fear.
Sly leaned back and rested to the wall as Lilior repaired the damage next to him “It was my fault in the first place…If I hadn’t been losing control…if I had been able to fight…hell if only I had been more careful!” he slammed his fist into the wall again sending splinters to the floor.
“Don’t just blame yourself, we were there too.” added Skill with a dark expression.
“But I was the one in charge, I’m the one responsible…” argued Sly sending the room into an awkward silence.
Moments later Birse broke the silence “Yes you were responsible, you were left in command and lost a man due to your incapability to study the situation.” He looked Sly straight in the eye as he spoke but Sly didn’t meet them “So stop bitching, I won’t allow you to leave if you’re thinking of some valiant death for your mistakes.
You know better than that, I won’t be the one to lecture you. You don’t need to be told what to do.” He turned his attention from Sly and continued “Anybody else? No? Then this conversation is over. Next business, what do we do now?” he didn’t give anybody time to reply “Rhetorical question. Me, Sly, Death and Cherry will work on the dungeon. The rest of you need to catch up on your level progress.”
“How do we do that? Is there somewhere we can train here?” asked Seren.
“This area we’re currently situated in is the fortress’s military zone.” replied Death “We were told the fleshy bulges outside are used for training troops.”
“They call them Spawn Hives.“ Began to explain Birse ”A creature they carried along with them out of Nox’s plane. In short it collects environmental mana to grow and when attacked it spawns monsters according to the attacker’s strength as a defensive system.”
“So kind of like a dungeon?” said Sparta.
“Not really, dungeons pre spawn monsters and I don’t think those things dig out extensive underground tunnels.” explained Sly with a still bummed out tone.
“Oh.” replied Sparta “Why does it specifically spawn monsters according to the attacker’s strength then?”
“Cause it doesn’t want to waste mana?” Sly took a guess.
“Anyway, ya all spread out training. If I catch any slackers, well you know what the usual punishment is except that you won’t be just holding up a controller for hours here.” said Birse with a wicked smirk.
A collection of groans and sighs followed.
---
Having left the carriage to Sly and Cherry to push while Birse and Death gave directions, the rest of the guild had spread out around the training field around them.
Kyle stood staring at one of the Spawn Hives. About eight meters in height and six in width the large lump of black flesh pulsated vigorously like a pumping heart, red bulges of glowing flesh grew on it’s surface like a sickening skin disease.
Kyle used soul detection to see that the creature had none, it wasn’t a sentient being like a dungeon at all. “First thing’s first and it’s been long due.” He spoke to himself while raising both arms ahead of himself, he stared down at his open palms “I forgot to see if my Draconic slime is compatible with any of the other types.”
He summoned the brown slime in his left hand “First is fire.” Then summoned the fiery yellow slime in his right. He pressed his palms together and watched as the two slimes merged together.
Skill merge is a success! [Ooze(Draconic)] has merged with [Ooze(Fire)] creating [Ooze(Elder Flame)]
Kyle focused on the new type opening it’s description window.
Slime type: (Elder Flame) variation of (Draconic)
(Elder Flame) Effects:
[Molten touch]; [Burn] debuff deals triple damage as long as contact is kept.
[Elder control]; Control over all variations of [Ooze(Elder Flame)] costs 80% less mana.
(“I wonder why Demonic didn’t work…”) Kyle thought as he tried mixing the slime with Draconic again to no avail. (“Oh well beggars can’t be choosers. Let’s try Acid next.”) he went through each of the other types of slime under his possession but only (Dark) was successful leaving Acid and Swamp unsuccessful.
Skill merge is a success! [Ooze(Draconic)] has merged with [Ooze(Dark)] creating [Ooze(Elder Dark)]
Slime type: (Elder Dark) variation of (Draconic)
(Elder Dark) Effects:
[Undeath]; Dreadful magiks prevent death in the vicinity.
[Elder control]; Control over all variations of [Ooze(Elder Dark)] costs 40% less mana.
Kyle stared at the effect [Undeath] with a doubtful expression (“I’m not sure what to make of this…”) the reason he hadn’t chosen to gain this effect before was because of how doubtful it’s actual effects were. Kyle had learned not to fully trust skill descriptions.
From Kyle’s experience death on Chaoz happened in three ways. One is when your health reaches 0 from all the taken damage, two is the destruction of an important organ or muscle like a heart, brain or monster core. The third as he had recently found out from gaining the (Devil Slayer) title was removal of the soul.
He wasn’t entirely sure what the skill meant by preventing death. It could have been many things from rapid regeneration, denial of death by low vitality and denial of critical damage to core body parts. Other kinds also came to mind but instead of guessing he decided to give it a test run.
Glancing to the side Kyle saw Woody poking and prodding the Spawn Hive next to him, quietly he stalked over and summoned a fist full of the smoky black slime. Next he simply watched hoping he was within range.
Woody grew bored of poking the Hive’s fleshy surface and took a dozen or so steps away from it, he raised his right palm towards it and chanted “Light bolt.” A bright white bolt of energy shot from his palm and singed the Hive’s surface causing it to bleed blue.
---
Author: It’s about to get realllyy fucking gory in here >Very Happy [https://forum.royalroadl.com/images/smilies/biggrin.png]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELBRdubmltI
---
The Spawn Hive started to pulsate twice as quick as earlier as one of the red bulges opened like an eyelid. A thick fleshy grey tentacle like tube slithered out and began to convulse, slowly something flowed though it’s tube before it vomited out.
The creature stood up on it’s two legs covered head to toe in light brown goo. Four feet tall of dark red plated carapace covering a humanoid but insectoid creature. With six arms in total each ending in a scythe like black blade and two pairs of dark grey insectoid wings. It’s torso was slim and the whole thing looked similar to a Mantis.
It’s head just like a Mantis’s was triangular with two large pitch black eyes each having a small red dot for pupil. Instead of antennas three thick black smooth horns grew out the back of it’s head, the middle one grew straight while the two on the side curved inwards like a three fingered claw.
Kyle thought it was something he might come up with in a nightmare.
Until it’s chest opened up vertically revealing two sets of razor sharp teeth and a large mouth with them, from inside came out a dozen or so black tentacles engulfed in red goo each ending in two hook like claws.
The creature was definitely something out of a nightmare. He inspected it.
{Minion} Corpse Reaver [Level 105]
Just as Woody leaned forward and chanted “Horn beam!” the multicoloured beam of light blasted through two of the Reaver’s arms before it lowered it’s stance and charged in a zig zag motion. It came upon him a moment later, stopping right next to Woody the Reaver opened it’s arms wide and spun like a chainsaw making use of it’s incredibly strong legs and flexible wings.
Woody summoned a barrier of light to block the attack which sent him flying back a few dozen feet. The Reaver didn’t give him time to recuperate as it charged in the same zig zag motion as before, this time before reaching him it leaped up and spun into a downwards triple slash.
Woody rolled out of the way as the three scythes crashed down into the dirt, he then aimed his horn up at the creature “Horn blast!” a spherical projectile of multicoloured light shot up into the Reaver’s chest and exploded.
The Reaver’s lower torso was reduced to scattered gore as it’s upper body crashed down into the puddle of blue blood, black flesh and red carapace. Woody sat up as he took deep breathes, he glanced at the creature’s corpse just as it’s arms twitched back into action.
Using it’s wings the remaining top half of the Reaver flew towards Woody catching him entirely by surprise, it’s scythe like arms pierced through his shoulders locking him down to the ground as the remaining two went to work. It chopped off his horn then began gutting open his chest as Woody screamed in agony.
“Oh lord! Christ no! Fuck! Fuck! Stop! H-Help!” Woody shouted out in mixed pain and fear.
The Reaver opened what was left of it’s chestmouth and sent out it’s remaining seven tentacles to pick at Woody’s flesh, bit by bit it began to eat him. Kyle was too baffled by the creature’s savagery to react as Woody remained alive and watching the entire thing.
“F-uc-k! St-Sto-op!” Woody continued to shout out gargled as the creature picked his insides apart, the scythes now held each of his limbs down through nailing them to the ground while it’s tentacles tore away at his chest and inside. Kyle could clearly make out a heart and lung being pulled out before three tentacles joined together to pull out the intestines.
“What the fuuckk…” Kyle exclaimed with wide eyes causing the reaver’s head to turn towards him, it’s actual mouth opened into four mandibles and hissed loudly causing him to snap out of his daze. He immediately dissipated the slime.
Party member [WoodStauk] has died!