Kyle dodged and weaved using [Surge] as the Corpse Reaver chased after him too close for comfort. Wielding two [Slime Cannons] and having summoned two small [Fox Golems V.2], an upgraded version of the earlier golems after having discovered something.
Each golem had two [Slime Pistol]s built onto them, one on each side of their torso, as the golems apparently could use the mana stored in their cores as resource for set abilities or in this case ammunition Kyle ordered them to use from his own skill book.
[Slime Cannon] and [Slime Scattershot] being too large and heavy for the small agile golems while also becoming either a [Slime Pistol] or a uselessly weak scattershot when reduced in size Kyle had left the golems with two pistols. He gave them a single order, destroy the monster’s limbs.
The two golems chased after the Reaver stopping briefly to take accurate shots at it’s arms, legs and wings. Unfortunately, the pistols were less than effective at destroying the hard carapace around it’s entire body. The carapace was damaged but it was either a small crack or a simple scratch that was left behind with every shot landed by them.
The wings were a different story as Kyle noticed, the fragile limbs were easily shot through. “Golems destroy the wings!” he ordered his creations.
Kyle surged left as the Reaver leaped at him with a spinning slash, the moment he came out of the quick dash he fired a couple shots of his newest ammunition type [Corrosive Rounds].
[Corrosive Rounds]: Fire half an armoured shell with a fragile front section filled with highly corrosive acid.
Usage cost: 42 mana
Reload time: 6.1
The Acidic slime tipped projectiles glowed a deadly green hue as they splattered against the spinning insectoid. Smoke hissed out as the acid ate away at the thin carapace on the creature’s limbs revealing the dark-blue flesh below, the thick sections on it’s shoulders and chest were much less effected.
The Reaver screeched in pain before charging at Kyle again, with all six arms wide open in a hug it stopped mere feet away from the adventurer as it closed it’s arms around him. Kyle lowered his stance as he prepared to surge back, aiming a cannon per set of arms he quickly spoke a short chant “Explosive Abandon!”.
The front of his weapon’s barrels glowed a brief blue glow before exploding, sending the both of them flying back. Kyle surged away a couple more times leaving behind the now armless Reaver to get harassed by his golems.
[Explosive Abandon] unlike [Corrosive Rounds] which was an ammunition sub-skill for his [Slime Pistol] , [Slime Scattershot] and [Slime Cannon], was an actual skill like the three weapons. Using [Draconic Fracture] he created the skill by sacrificing most of the (Demonic) slime that made up his cannons. The (Demonic) slime would quickly change to (Elder Frost) slime in its condensed state and then explodes without charging up.
Kyle dissipated the two ruined [Slime Cannons] and watched as his golems shredded the Reaver’s wings. The Corpse Reaver screeched out loudly and charged one of the golems, its speed was cut in half from losing it’s wings but with it’s strong legs and aerodynamic body withheld it’s speed.
It opened it’s chest-maw wide and captured one of the golems with it’s tentacles, it pulled it into it’s chest as the maw closed onto the condensed (Demonic) slime body. The red fangs easily cut through the slime but the golem was too large for the Corpse Reaver to swallow it whole or chew it up.
So it shuddered and spun around with it’s mouth completely full trying to tear a bite off, trying to tear the golem’s head off.
Kyle summoned his [Frostfire Blade] and surged towards the monster, with blade in one hand and black slime forming in his other palm he stopped right behind the creature. He crouched down as he slid over the dirt using his momentum from [Surge] and slashed at both of the Reaver’s legs.
The [Frostfire Blade] cleanly went through it’s legs dealing unseen damage, the carapace was left untouched but the flesh inside was completely frozen over. The Reaver screeched again as it lost all feeling in it’s legs and fell sideways to the ground.
Quickly it let go of the golem and assaulted Kyle with it’s tentacles. Kyle raised his sword arm at the tentacles and released [Devouring Frostfire] freezing them all over, most of the tentacles crashed back through their still unfrozen length or like the rest stood stalk still.
Releasing his sword Kyle stared down at the savage creature, he was out of breath just from trying to keep his distance from it. He then looked down at the black mass of slime in his left hand, black smoke oozed out surrounding the entire thing but there was a clear different from a normal (Dark) slime.
Silver ethereal tendrils of mana flowed out of the slime, barely visible if not for Kyle’s [Draconic perception] and [Mana Detection]. They reached out towards Kyle’s arm but did not make contact.
Kyle continued with his preparations and stood by the creature’s legs as it freakishly screeched at him, it’s torso was entirely hardened and unmoving due to it’s carapace leaving it’s head being the only remaining limb that could move.
Kyle raising his right leg over the Reaver’s frozen knees, a thought came to him before he went through. “Quick Surge!” he called out as his leg was solely effect by [Surge], his leather boots crashed through the carapace destroying the Reaver’s knee and severing a leg.
A couple notifications followed.
The skill [Quick Surge] was created!
Achievement of ingenuity! You have created up to three different skills and or spells!
Skill/Spell viability: [Slime Pistol], [Explosive Abandon], [Quick Surge]
Title gained: (Spell Smith)
Resource cost of created spells and or skills – 40%
{Class Requirement}
You have unlocked enough requirement skills and or titles to receive a sub-class!
Please check in with an obelisk to unlock!
Kyle allowed himself a smile as he read the windows, he had expected a skill creation but not to gain a title. Less so a title requirement for a class. (“I really need to visit an obelisk somehow…”) he thought while opening his skill book to read the new skill’s description compared to [Surge].
[Surge] ((EXP 82%) Level 8 – Tier 4): A sudden and powerful burst of movement, secondary casts cancel previous force giving the ability for sudden changes in direction;
Maximum movement speed * 8
Duration: 1.2 seconds
Cost: 10 stamina
Cooldown: 2.6 seconds
[Quick Surge] ((Exp 11%) Level 1 - Teir 1): A quick surge of movement focused on singular parts of your body.
Attack speed * 6
Duration: 0.3 seconds
Cost: 5 stamina
[Quick Surge] unlike [Surge] had no cooldown time and costed half the stamina, also instead of increasing movement speed it increased attack speed for a brief moment which in turn increased the power of the attack.
Kyle moved on to the second leg and instead of stomping down he kicked at the knee using quick surge, fully expecting his leg to break off and fly off he squinted in preparation for the pain. Instead he cleanly destroyed the Reaver’s knee feeling none of the backlash of pain or damage he usually did.
Kyle cringed wondering how much more of his body would have been damaged if he hadn’t created the skill [Slime Pistol] the moment he tested it out, seemingly making the ability more effective by calling it out as a skill.
Taking his thoughts out of those skills for now he focused on what he was currently testing, he dissipated his two golems then opened his inventory and pulled out a core out of his ever-decreasing stash. He waited for his mana to regenerate back to full then used it all up in one go to create the golem.
Completely made of the (Elder Dark(Undeath)) slime the golem was a seven meter long and two feet thick serpent, when the shadowy smoke formed around it’s entirety it become slightly longer and much thicker. “Dark Serpent” Kyle named the hastily made golem, again he was forced to wait a few minutes for his mana to regenerate.
When enough of his mana had regenerated Kyle turned to the still living Corpse Reaver, unsure if the constant effect of (Undeath) was what kept it alive he summoned a [Slime Pistol] on his right wrist and aimed it down at the monster’s chest.
“Nothing personal.” said Kyle as he fired several [Corrosive Rounds] into the Reaver’s still open chest, it screeched and hissed in agony as it’s insides melted alongside the tentacles. “Dark Serpent, head straight south.” Kyle ordered the golem, the serpent turned and slithered away.
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Kyle was killing four birds with one stone here as he sat down and focused on using [{Be One with slime}] on the Dark Serpent golem.
He was training the skill to hopefully increase it’s perception range, trying to figure out how far the skill could allow him to move away from his actual body, how far the (Undeath) slime’s effect could reach at maximum slime mass and how far could a golem go from it’s creator.
Thanks to [Draconic Perception] and [Spirit Detection] Kyle knew exactly how far he was moving from his body as his mind lay as one with the Dark Serpent. He couldn’t see, hear or smell as neither of these senses were developed on the golem’s body but the creature was a slime based creation so it inherited [{Be One With Slime}]’s magical perception.
As Kyle had found out from his manual movement of that large fox golem he fought Talia with and the [{Be One With Slime}] controlled second golem he used to defeat her and her reinforcements, magical perception could at times be much more effective than sight or even sound.
Kyle could basically perceive anything and everything within the perception range at different stages of concentration. At a relaxed stage he could perceive most of everything around him in a 6-7 meter radius similarly to sight while perceiving the rest of the 22 meter range with little more than positioning and shape.
If he stopped moving entirely and focused he entered a focused stage where he could perceive shapes, colours, distance and elevation of literally everything within a 15 meter radius all around him.
But thanks to his [Spirit Detection] and [Draconic Perception] he didn’t need the second stage at all, keeping the 22 meter radius in full while making use of all three types of perception and detection in conjunction to get a pinpoint location on anything and everything being living or not.
Outside of that 22 meter radius though was utter darkness, an empty world of nothingness as far as he was concerned.
Kyle continued to slither in his serpentine body until he reached a distance of 20 meters away from the Corpse Reaver, he gained a notification in his mind telling him the creature had died.
[Corpse Reaver Level 109] has been killed utilizing [Corrosive Rounds]!
He usually completely ignored these notifications but this one told him exactly how far a maximum mana created mass of (Undeath) slime could reach, which apparently for the system was enough to give him insight as proved by the following notification.
Insight! You have gained insight on a previously lacking skill description!
[Ooze(Elder Dark)]: (Undeath)
He focused on the effect alone to gain a window of it’s updated description.
[Undeath]; Dreadful magiks prevent death in the vicinity.
Range: 1 meter per 1 m3 of slime.
He moved the window out of his mind and focused on his body’s location, he had stopped moving and got himself mentally prepared for losing his body’s position from perception range. Of course, he knew where his body was, unlike a simple slime Kyle was intelligent enough to comprehend existence. Not being able to exactly perceive where it was though? Was still slightly frightening.
He moved forward and a headache instantly hit him. Kyle found himself staring down at his hands as a notification appeared.
Warning! Golem has reached maximum distance!
Golem will remain in place until new orders are spoken!
Apparently 21 meters was the maximum range for Kyle’s golemancy.
Insight! You have gained insight on a previously lacking skill description!
[Golemancy]
Feeling accomplished with his current set of skill only two things now remained for him to do to progress further in strength. One was to go unlock a sub-class, something which would have to wait until Birse and Sly finish with setting up the dungeon. The second was…ofcourse… monster grinding.
Kyle kept this second option on his mind as he turned back towards the Spawn Hive “This is when I start wishing for some music…Fuck oh well.” He spoke to himself while glancing around at the others still fighting in their individual ways, all except for Woody who still hadn’t made it back from respawning.
“Time to farm.”
---
A few hours earlier
Birse scanned the vast area of grasslands assigned to them. By his understanding Barik was around 30 million acres large, he had come down to this assumption by how long it took them to go from one side to another at a certain speed.
Devil’s eye on the other hand was only about 1 and a half million acres and the area assigned to them was a mere 100 acres, about six by six kilometres. Nothing huge but enough for what purpose they were going to give this land.
“Alright boys set up here.” He told Sly and Cherry who were pushing the carriage while Death directed them. They were by average in the middle of the grass lands which was directly at the edge of the river and surrounded by farm land, over the river they could barely see the barrier shimmering from the sun light as it descended into sundown.
Cherry and Sly moved to the front of the carriage while changing back into their normal forms or losing their armor of mana, they stretched and flexed their arms and legs while waiting for the next step. Death came out from inside the carriage and went to stand by them.
Birse who remained standing on the carriage’s roof rested his left hand on his waste and raised his right hand then pointed towards the horizon “Now build my kingdom!” he exclaimed dramatically with a wicked grin plastered on his face.
Death held his face with his right palm while Sly groaned and rolled his eyes. Cherry simply bellowed in laughter.
“Let’s just set this shit up.” said Sly as he looked around “Get off so we can start digging.”
“Ahem! I think master Sly means so I can start digging!” replied Lilior.
“Pssht, nobody likes a sassy dungeon.” said Birse before jumping off the edge, he landed right next to the other three and turned around “Alright, how’s your mana storage doing?”
“Everybody likes sass and about 60% remaining.” answered Lilior.
“Whatever, let’s say two kilometres downwards. How much will that spend?” Birse then asked.
“2% depending on how much earth to stone there is.” replied Lilior after checking with her magical perception, being a dungeon her magical perception spanned a couple kilometres around her core.
“Can you reach outside the barrier?” asked Sly.
“Give me a moment…” Lilior told them replying briefly after “Yes my mana can reach outside the barrier unblocked.”
“Perfect, we’ll set up the hub here then.” said Sly.
Birse nodded in agreement “Mhm, Lilior followed these instructions. Dig straight down for two kilometers then cover up behind yourself after moving your core down there, make sure the earth to stone ratio remains the same and don’t take over that dug out area while moving down. Then dig out a hundred by hundred hall around yourself.
After that start digging a tunnel all the way to the other side of the barrier and take it over along with the hall, block up the tunnel after that. From then on build a tunnel all around the barrier but don’t flood it by digging into the sea alright?”
“Sir yes sir.” replied Lilior before going to work.
Dungeons are a special kind of existence. As their name describes Dungeons are living labyrinths, a consciousness of pure mana held together by a physical core.
As a Dungeon Lilior has many skills at her disposal. One allows her to focus on a non-living material around her and absorb it as mana, exactly what she did with the carriage leaving nothing behind as her core hovered in place unaffected by the loss of ground.
Hovering her core costed her no mana but moving it did so instead she laid her core down on the soft dirt and began to ‘dig’ straight down by absorbing the earth as mana. Earth formed all around the core as Lilior absorbed it, the dirt turning into an ethereal blue stream of mana being sucked into the green-blue crystal.
She continued to dig for some hundreds of meters until she hit stone and then began to absorb that too, her core filling up with mana as she did so. Lilior stopped digging when her core reached the height Birse told her to stop at.
Using the mana absorbed while digging Lilior then began to use another one of her skills, the ability to recreate any material she absorbed before at least once. She refilled the large tunnel above her with stone, dirt and whatever other materials she encountered on her way down.
That part done she then began digging out a tunnel towards the barrier. She did not need to keep her core close to where she was digging, instead she simply needed the area being effected to be within her perception range.
From where the core stood the barrier was at the edge of her range allowing her to dig right through but not far enough, so she used the third skill in her repertoire. A skill that allowed Dungeons to spread their mana as far as possible, similarly to Aura.
But unlike Aura, Dungeons used the spread mana to move their consciousness or part of it through the taken over area of existence in turn increasing their perception range and giving them the ability to see any part of themselves.
This ability was one of the reasons so few dungeons existed on Chaoz, only those that would co-ordinate with the enlightened races and live peacefully with them would be allowed to live.
The reason?
The ability held a close resemblance to Dread corruption, something so wicked that it is still despised by all living races enlightened and monster alike.
Lilior spread her mana through the dug-out tunnel, a greenish miasma briefly filled the air before dissipating. She then continued to dig, spreading her mana throughout the tunnels as she moved her consciousness through. The miasma was her mana adapting to the area, leaving it a bright green-blue and dissipating the darkness.
Lilior blocked the tunnel underneath the barrier with stone then continued digging around, being able to spread her mana even through solid rock. It took her a few hours to dig all around and while she did so Lilior also dug a staircase up to the surface where Sly, Death and Birse were waiting.
The three adventurers, much to Sly’s annoyance, descended the long staircase down to the new core room. Lilior had dug out the hall as instructed as she noticed them descending, “He whines enough as it is.” she said to herself.
The three of them arrived at the bottom just as a bright light shine out from the core, someone was respawning.
Woody appeared with a pale expression “The fuck…”
“Yo did you die?” asked Sly as they walked closer to the core.
“Twice, first I was ravaged by a giant fucking grasshopper then smashed to bits between the core and stone!” Woody exclaimed in disbelief.
Birse snorted in amusement “Tough luck bro, know your way back?”
“Hell no, I’m taking a break. That shit will give me nightmares!” Woody replied as he headed for the exit.
Sly elbowed Death in the shoulder “Keep an eye on him…” he whispered.
“Roger…” Death whispered back before jogging to catch up with Woody “Yo Woodster wait up.”
“Alright I’ll go along the outer tunnel and pick spots of exits, you start decorating Sly.” said Birse as he walked off into the dimly lit tunnel.
Sly looked around the stone covered hall, a small smile on his face “Alright Lilior, let’s get to it.”
Lilior summoned Draxxer and made him raise his arms up in the air “Okay!”.
“Stop that...seriously it’s terrifying with how empty his expression is.” Comment Sly as he stepped to stand right next to the core, he raised both arms and pressed his palms to it’s surface “Mind meld”.
A special skill that Lilior had, being a created Dungeon with a Dungeon Lord made her slightly different than other Dungeons. This ability allowed her to merge minds with another being, giving that being certain control over her.
Sly’s consciousness melded with Lilior’s allowing him full view of the dungeon through magical perception. He began to build, changing the material of the floor, walls and ceiling, adding aesthetics, leaving sizable smooth areas for traps, digging out rooms of different sizes for different purposes and decorating them too.
The dreary stone ground phased out into obsidian black paved flooring, carved into each off tile was the guild’s emblem, a cloaked figure with skeletal wings. The boringly smooth stone walls morphed into white marble chiselled walls with designs of warriors fighting large monsters, mages bending magic to their will and assassins going about their craft in the midst of battle.
The dull stone ceiling changed as chiselled marble took it’s place, the design of a flowing river carved into the tunnels and a great battle carved into the hall’s ceiling. The river depicting flowing blood and the battle portraying the guild’s greatest achievement.
Pillars grew out of the ground, marble carved Greek style. Each pillar stopped half way short of the ceiling, an obsidian statue appearing on each one. Each statue representing every guild member ever, before and after RuneShock.
Sly went through the names as he build the statues, each about four times his size.
(“Mine, Death’s, Birse’s, Soren’s, Kyll’s, Seren’s, Skill’s and…Silv’s”) the earlier members before Chaoz.
(“…Cherry’s, Jacky’s, Woody’s, Ch’s and Steph’s.”) The original and longest standing members.
(“Zombie’s and Game’s…”) Two members from different periods of their guild, neither of which are on Chaoz.
Each statue depicted the character each was most known for, wielding their weapons while each holding a sneer or a grin.
(“Sparta’s too new but in time, another statue could join the ranks.”) he thought while leaving an empty pillar if anything to keep the set of pillars symmetrical.
Sly turned his attention to the tunnel running around the barrier’s edge, Birse was running through it at maximum speed telling Lilior where to dig out. He began to decorate behind them, making sure each tunnel out had the appropriate design of aesthetics and space for traps while also being decently hidden.
Sly cancelled the [Mind Meld] and looked around the great hall “Now how will I fix that fucking staircase…” he asked himself while taking a break from the mentally straining process.