The beachball size flame that had been hovering on the altar exploded outward in all directions and Tilly lost all ability to hear or see. Fortunately, even though the flames were washing over him like the incoming tide, they didn't seem to be doing him any damage.
Well, that wasn't entirely true, his side and the point of entry for the seed were still agony and he felt the flame cauterizing all of the flesh surrounding the wound. Tilly thought for a brief dark moment about cutting through the cauterized flesh to get the thing out... but if the God power blue flame thing couldn't do it easily, he probably wouldn't be able to manage with a primitive weapon.
The roar of the explosion filled the rest of the chamber and Tilly was finally able to move, which he promptly did, falling over the back edge of the altar onto his head. The feeling of fire and acid seemed to be swirling in conflict in his wound and he found himself in a new ecstasy of pain. A scream tore itself from his mouth as he ripped the now shriveled root end from his side.
Even as his vision doubled from the pain, the brightness faded and Tilly was able to see again. Blue flames were eating through almost every inch of twisted vegetation in the chamber. The tree and its roots shuddered while being consumed by the blaze, and a mind-shattering screech emerged from the trunk. The idle question of what unseen part of this creature had been able to emit such a sound just added to Tilly’s already full stock of nightmare fuel.
The fire continued its work, hungrily consuming. It didn't release any smoke and seemed to exude much lower heat than a normal flame, or maybe he was just getting really used to being surrounded by fire.
As Tilly watched, the nearest pod split open in the flames and disgorged its occupant, covered in some disgusting fluid that the flame eagerly consumed like gasoline.
The pitiful corpse was totally covered in flames, but they soon dissipated, leaving behind an emaciated male lapin clutching a beautiful sword in both hands. His face showed an oddly peaceful expression in death. Tilly was going to crawl forward to see if there were any other identifiers on the body when the lapin’s eyes popped open, and he vomited bile and pod fluid all over the charred floor.
A signifier popped up above his head.
Level 42 (25) Samurai Hatamoto
“Holy Hell!” Tilly flinched back before reaching behind him to pull out his satchel.
It, unfortunately, hadn't endured his fiery dash as well as he had and was barely hanging together. The two potions inside had fared just as poorly, both blackened with only powder as their contents.
He looked up from his rummaging to find the lapin sitting up on his knees, serenity returning to his features. He was clearly barely strong enough to move, but he slowly put his sword to the side before looking Tilly in the eyes and making a shallow bow.
As he came back up, his eyes glazed and he fell over, completely unconscious. His breathing was rapid and shallow, and Tilly recognized signs of some sort of internal trauma at work. Tilly clutched at his cauterized side and let out a pained gasp as he began to move towards the lapin.
His side wouldn't stop cramping in torment, but even still, he crawled over to the lapin and began to search his body for any signs of injury. Typically, in the ambulance, he would just cut off his patient's clothing and make sure he didn't miss any major wounds or breaks. But with the regeneration available to anyone with a decent constitution, he figured he was more looking for some sort of obvious ongoing physical problem that might be leading to an internal debuff.
The lapin’s head didn't seem to be bruised or swollen, and his ribs and extremities were all unbroken. In fact, Tilly could find nothing wrong with his physical body, besides the fact that he seemed unnaturally thin.
Yet, while feeling around for breaks, Tilly did make a lucky discovery. Wrapped tightly on the inside of his left forearm was a small vial, filled with a bright liquid that showed with a faint red light.
“Yahtzee! Years of medical training down the drain, how about a health potion instead.” He muttered to himself dryly as he unstopped the vial and tipped it down the lapin’s throat.
Having done all he could for his surprising companion, he finally glanced up at his HUD and was pleasantly surprised to find his health and mana in good straits.
Health:72%
Mana: 56%
Seeing that he wasn't about to die from whatever was happening with the Seed, He looked around at the scattered remnants of the Corrupted tree, slowly being completely consumed by beautiful, blue flames.
“How about them apples!” He triumphantly declared at the burning remains.
Then he lifted his jacket and took another look at the wound. It had closed up with a disturbingly bark-like scab, which was surrounded by what appeared to be burn scars. Tilly bent down as far as he could and saw that all around the scab were tiny spiky growths that were already attempting to burrow deeper into his burned flesh.
At least the pain was finally starting to ease up…
He let out a weary sigh and put down his jacket. Now that the mad dash of the last hour was over, Tilly decided to try and sort out any important information he could pick out from his notification log.
First, he found where he had leveled up after taking out the Corrupted bear.
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Congratulations! You have defeated a level 38 Corrupted Ancient Cave Bear.
For defeating an opponent over 7x your level you have earned a 7x multiplier on awarded Experience.
You are now level 6. 15000 exp until the next level.
You have earned 5 stat points to distribute plus 2 points in Endurance and 1 in Dexterity from the class Son of Flame.
You are now level 7. 20000 exp until the next level.
You have earned 5 stat points to distribute plus 2 points in Endurance and 1 in Dexterity from the class Son of Flame…
You are now level 11. 55000 exp until the next level.
You have earned 5 stat points to distribute plus 2 points in Endurance and 1 in Dexterity from the class Son of Flame.
Woah… that was a lot of stat points he had just dumped into Endurance. Of course, he doubted he would have survived the fire, let alone the invasion of corruption into his body without truly monstrous endurance for his level.
Before he could pull up his character sheet, he saw the next line on the log after he had mentally assigned his points.
Congratulations! You have earned the Title:
[Resolute].
[Resolute]: Your endurance stat is higher than all of your other stats combined. As long as this remains true, you may completely negate one fatal blow per day.
“Hell yes!” Tilly exclaimed out loud. This was exactly the type of game-breaking nonsense he had been waiting for.
Then he took a closer look.
'Shit, I have to keep Endurance ridiculously high if I want to keep this title active. Well, beggars can't be choosers.'
He moved through the rest of the procedurally generated fluff until he got to something else really good. His yellow, mighty morphin power ranger suit!
Congratulations! You have been subjected to an extreme environment while wearing Origin’s primitive leather armor, activating a hidden growth prerequisite. In the presence of fire or extreme heat, your armor takes on the characteristic of Sun Salamander hide and alters to protect you from heat. -75% to any heat-based damage.
“I’ll never doubt you again.” He whispered in awe to his now favorite jacket.
Then the sound of some distant shouting reached his ears,
“...Man Tilly… You… Alive?”
“I'm in the inner chamber with another survivor!” Tilly yelled with a fierce grin, looks like at least one of those tough bastards made it!
Running out of time, Tilly quickly scrolled through the rest of his log to find the moment when his hatchets had erupted in badass flames-
“Oooh, here we are. My first ability!”
Flame Strike: Channel the fire within you to strike at your opponents. Each strike leaves a smoldering ember at the point of impact and does damage over time. Ember damage is stackable.
“Human Tilly!” one of the lapins called as they entered the chamber.
Tilly looked up from behind the altar and saw Nyuk limping in, supporting Kuro, who was absolutely covered in gore and seemed to be walking in an exhausted haze.
“Over here!” Tilly yelled, before looking over to find the unconscious lapin stirring.
“One of your guys made it!”
“Master Ichiro!” Kuro gasped as he came around the altar. His daze faded as he sank to his knees. Tears streamed through blood-matted fur as he beheld the still-living scion of his Lord’s house.
At his words, the lapin came to consciousness and opened his eyes to behold the three battered warriors before him.
…
Ichiro - 20 min earlier.
Something had broken through Ichiro's Level 30 Meditation and instantly his sanity was once again hanging by a thread. He did not know how long he had been here in this waking nightmare, but everything in him howled in animalistic horror at what was being done to his body.
The abomination had been draining his levels and stats for what seemed like years and the feeling of it reached into his very soul evoking such a deep terror that Ichiro had barely been able to enter a meditative trance and shield his mind from the consequences. When he had failed to defeat the Corrupted Guardian of this place, it had simply knocked him unconscious and he had woken up in this torturous prison of liquid and needles. His body was unable to move, but his eyes were locked open, watching as the abomination’s appendages strained towards the defiant flame flickering on the shrine's surface.
It was this act of defiance that gave Ichiro the strength to beat down the madness bubbling up from his subconscious and activate his meditative trance in the beginning. He had drifted there, encasing his psyche and soul in a protective shell of Will. He was unaware of how long he had been captured, losing himself in the meager protections of Meditative Trance but something had changed. Some part of him emerged from his spiritual protections even as all of his senses screamed at him in fresh denial of his circumstances. He channeled his Will and focused on the pink-tinged world outside his prison.
There, amidst all of the abomination’s appendages was a human moving impossibly fast. He seemed to be charging right at the center of this desecrated shrine, yet his movements slowed as he approached the altar. Then he activated some sort of ability, unleashing flame from his weapons and cutting through two of the abomination’s appendages before crashing into the shrine’s core.
A flash of white and blue light. The flash brought a fresh wave of intense pain, starting with his eyes. They had watched the flame for so long that the sudden flash ripped through his vision, leaving a deep darkness, faintly hued with dark dancing patterns.
This was followed by a brief but terrible burning sensation, that cut through the terrible numbness that had pervaded his whole body as the Abomination had turned him into another of its energy sources. His prison became unbearably hot, and the burning sensation flooded his body, sinking deeply into his core.
You have been cleansed from all Corruption. Your mind and body have been shattered and reformed, you have earned a Title:
Reforged Enlightenment.