Magnus was ready to charge as the two empowered Ents prepared their own attacks. The air near Curt’s hands glowed with a vibrant green color instead of the nasty green that permeated this place. Caridus also wasn’t idle as the tip of his spear started shining with a gray light that slowly increased in brightness while he crouched, poised to jump at the spider when everyone was ready. Thanks to the mage’s sacrifice the spider was now busy with tearing the mage apart with two of its legs, its fangs not made for the purpose. Magnus really hoped the Ents didn’t feel any pain. He couldn’t imagine how painful that was. Hopefully, he wouldn’t fall to such a fate. With Caridus preparing his spells they didn’t have anything to do, so Magnus examined the spider closely, trying to figure out its next course of action.

Unfortunately, the spider finished ripping up the mage earlier than the spell was ready. It looked like something big, perhaps the wave of thorns that the first Curt used against the assassin. With power came a cost, however as the spell was taking pretty long to cast. Magnus could tell that Curt was trying his best but even with Magnus’ practically nonexistent experience with spells, he knew that the spell was far from done. Again, the role of the bait fell on him with Caridus also ready to unleash his attack. It wouldn’t do to waste it if Magnus was available to get its attention. Moving made his cracked ribs protest a little and send out a few flares of pain but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. He would probably have worse injuries if he survived. No time to think about pain now. The spider managed to effortlessly win their first exchange. It was injured now yes but it was far from weak. Distractions would only cause death and there was no coming back from that as far as he knew so he completely focused on the spider ahead of him.

Magnus felt [Stealth] passively activate as he approached the spider from its half-blind left side. It was preparing to charge Curt who was gathering more and more mana in front of him but there was probably still time for Magnus to sneak in one unexpected attack. He carefully watched his steps as he tried his best to remain quiet but fast. Thankfully, the spider was so focused on the mage in front of it that it was blind to the threat coming from its left, at least Magnus thought so. The Royal Guard was no slouch when it came to its Perception it turned out, as it quickly spun around and stabbed its dagger-like fangs toward Magnus’ head. That bastard is more perceptive than he realized. Thanks to a warning from [Danger Sense], he managed to avoid what amounted to getting stabbed by two knives in his head just in time. Unfortunately, that was the most he could do with how fast the spider moved and the two nasty fangs penetrated deep into the base of his neck and shoulder, sending out innumerable signals of stabbing pain into his mind. Sadly, his breastplate didn’t cover the top of his torso. Instinctively, he started punching it with both of his hands without [Devastating Blow], not really in the right state of mind to remember to activate the Skill.

The pain from the fangs stuck in his shoulder was slowly starting to fade as even more adrenaline flooded his system. He could feel the venom seeping out of the fangs into his blood and slowly accumulating. It wouldn’t be long before the sheer volume of venom would overwhelm his [Greater Poison Resistance]. That fact dragged him back into reality and he finally managed to empower his right hand with his most powerful offensive Skill [Devastating Blow]. The adrenaline in his veins allowed him to push both his body and the Skill over their limits. The spider, sensing the danger started trying to get its fangs unstuck. Magnus mustered all his remaining Strength and grasped the spider’s fang that was stuck in his neck with his free left hand. With how melted its brain must be, he doubted it wanted to escape to preserve its life. More like it saw that its venom was having no visible effect so it wanted to find another way to kill him. Unfortunately for it, it wouldn’t come to that as when his allies saw a good opportunity for an attack, they grasped it. Curt let out a wave of thorns that had the feeling of an ancient towering forest about it while Caridus pushed himself off the ground and with unbelievable speed thrust with his spear between the spider’s head and abdomen. The Royal Guard thrashed and thrashed with its abdomen but the spider’s head remained stuck in Magnus’ shoulder no matter what it did. Frankly, he was baffled that he managed to hold such a best in one place for more than just a moment.

[Last Stand is now Level 5]

“Well, that must be a part of it at least,” Magnus thought as his punch and the Ents’ attacks connected almost at once. Right before their attacks connected, Magnus let go of the spider and allowed it to move a little just to get the fangs out of him. He wouldn’t want them stuck inside of him when they inevitably got tossed around by their attacks. Predictably, the spider lunged again for his head, not even bothering to dodge the attacks coming its way. The punch rocketing right into its alien face quickly put a stop to that. Magnus heard quite a few cracks as his fist connected with the Royal Guard’s head and surprisingly not all of the were coming from the spider.

[Devastating Blow is now Level 4]

That was a fast level up considering it went up to Level 3 which must have been not even an hour ago. The second attack to hit was the spearman’s thrust and Magnus already knew the spider was done after this when it cried out an anguished roar. The spider was already on death’s doorstep so when the wave of thorns washed over the spider it seemed like overkill. Fearing for his safety a little, Magnus stepped back and watched the spider get shredded to bits as if in a blender. His gaze didn’t sit on the spider for very long because he had to look away or risk getting even more sick to his stomach. He very nearly felt bad for the spider. Still, he didn’t let his guard down yet if it somehow managed to survive getting blended. That turned out to be for naught as sometime during the shredding another notification popped up in his mind.

[You are now Level 12]

[+1 to Endurance. 2 Stat Points gained]

Magnus let out a breath of relief. The spider was dead. With that his promise to help Cardys was done, hopefully, the dungeon would let him leave now. He had other concerns, however, as an enveloping pain blossomed all over his body. That must be the venom flaring up, nothing unusual. In fact, this wasn’t even the worst venom he felt. After all, he was still standing. Barely, but that counted for something. He just had to let [Greater Poison Resistance] do its thing and he would be fine soon enough. Along with his badly bruised arm from using [Devastating Blow] it was time to sit down and relax for a while. His hopes of rest were quickly dashed when a pulse ran through him and made him shake from head to toe. Few seconds later another one. Looking around for the source of the mysterious pulses he noticed what he could only describe as heat haze. The vile mana in the air was stirring. That probably didn’t mean anything good. In that moment Magnus remembered one quite crucial thing. The Quest he received from the System.

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[Fighting the Corruption III]

Defeat the Corrupted Royal Guard.

Reward: Uncommon Body

It wasn’t completed. Time and time again he tried to redeem it in his mind. Unfortunately, nothing worked and he was forced to give up after another three pulses were let out in the environment. The mana could now be visibly seen rushing into the dead Royal Guard’s abdomen. When the next pulse came, he felt it. A subtle pull from inside his chest. Not exactly a green flag by any means. Hoping that it was only a fluke he waited for the next pulse. Just as expected, it wasn’t only a one-time occurrence. Actually, it was a little stronger this time. Sighing, he turned on [Mana Perception] and looked inward to where he felt the pull the most making sure not to look anywhere else lest he go blind from the volume of mana in the air. And inside his chest there it was. Nothing. Only when another pulse came it lit up like a sonar. There was a truckload of mana inside his chest. When the next pulse came his chest lit up even brighter. And it was only expanding. Not good at all. Having foreign magical energy propagate inside his chest that he wasn’t familiar with wasn’t very high on his bucket list. Well, at least he would have it crossed out if he died because of it.

With the next pulse, the pull was gone. In its place was a tearing pain. Not sure, he preferred that, to be honest. A noxious smell of rotting flesh filled his nose and he started coughing. To his chagrin, Magnus realized where the smell was coming from as he hacked out a glob of black something. He was rotting from inside it seems. Searching for a way in his mind to prevent becoming fertilizer, he found the answer in his least utilized Skill – [Internal Mana Manipulation]. If he flooded his body with his mana there wouldn’t be any room for that nasty other stuff. By doing that he was risking mana saturation or however, the System called it but he already knew how that felt and frankly he would rather explode all at once than slowly rot into dust.

Taking a deep breath Magnus prepared himself. When the next pulse came, he was ready and immediately he opened the doors to wherever the mana came from and using his Skill flooded his chest where most of the foreign mana was located with his own mana. Sadly, due to his inexperience, a large portion of the mana that was supposed to go into his chest instead rushed into other parts of his body. Despite that, the mana that actually went where it was supposed managed to purge at least half of the toxic mana. Nowhere near enough to completely assure his continued existence but a pleasing result nonetheless. What wasn’t so pleasing was the wave of coughs the ejected mana brought on. More unidentifiable black globs joined the first one. Magnus managed to reign in the cough before the next pulse came and he answered it with a pulse of his own.

[Internal Mana Manipulation is now Level 3]

This time his mana didn’t have quite that big of an effect but it eradicated a good three-quarters of the mana left. Another coughing fit later and he quickly examined his insides. There was now a permanent glow coming from all over his body. Mana saturation. That must be it. But there was still more of that noxious mana to get rid of. Even [Danger Sense] protested when he tried thinking about using the Skill. Not having the time to think about it, he decided to go all in. Leaving the mana there for longer would most likely kill him but mana saturation probably wouldn’t. Hopefully. Ignoring the perhaps rational voice in his mind telling him not to do it he instead let his mana wash over himself again. A sharp pain appeared all over the inside of his chest but he could see that the foreign mana was gone. This time instead of the solid pieces of what was maybe flesh he coughed out only a smelly black ooze before his body decided it wasn’t done with letting things out and he vomited what must have been a bucket-full of blood. At least the blood looked normal. When all of that was over, he wiped his mouth with the sleeves of his already ruined jacket and opened the notification beeping in his head.

[Common Skill gained – Expel]

Floods your body with mana, expelling out any foreign agents. Overuse causes mana saturation.

Seemed like a useful Skill to fall back on if [Greater Poison Resistance] didn’t work like this time. Though it was safe to say he wouldn’t be using it anytime soon. Satisfied with the lack of beeping in his head he examined his surroundings. The pulses were being sent out less and less often but Magnus wasn’t very keen on finding out what sent them in the first place. Sadly, it didn’t seem like he would get so lucky this time. Looking at the source of the pulses which was the dead spider he saw something stirring in its now bloated abdomen. It looked more like the swollen abdomen of the Broodmother than the smaller but more robust Royal Guard’s. Risking taking his eyes off the corpse Magnus looked at his allies. What awaited him was not a pretty sight. His former teammates lay unmoving on the ground. Their formerly healthy bark-like skin was black and withered. Black ooze was now leaking out of where their fiery eyes used to blaze. Trying not to let that get to his head he instead returned to observing the shaking abdomen.

When the skin stretched so far that it ripped apart and a hand that was half rotten meat and half just bone covered by a few tufts of brown hair and ending in vicious-looking claws Magnus went limp and closed both of his eyes. He wasn’t really in the mood to tangle with the thing that emerged from there. Laying on the ground for thirty seconds while ripping sounds came from the direction of the thing, his curiosity eventually won over his rationality. Opening one of his eyes as narrowly as he could he saw the thing that crawled out of the Royal Guard. Morbidly majestic, it looked as if someone sick sawed a deer head to a dead person’s body. Well, if the person was especially hairy. Brown fur covered every inch of skin that was left on the rotten body. Looking closer he saw guts hanging out of the thing’s belly. Averting his gaze he instead looked at the thing’s head which unfortunately didn’t look much better. It looked just like a deer head with most of its fur intact except that it was missing its lower jaw allowing Magnus to look at dark flesh. Ironically beautiful antlers sprouted from its head and gave the beast a kind of regal air. The antlers were by far the most beautiful he had ever seen and he saw quite a few in his childhood thanks to his father being a hunter. The gawking over he looked at its one remaining eye. It shone with a cruel glee belying some kind of intelligence. Luckily, it wasn’t looking at him or he would have shat his pants here and now. Hopefully using [Identify] wouldn’t bite him in his ass.

[Newborn Spirit of Decay – Level 15] – Tier 0

If that’s a newborn he wouldn’t want to meet it when it was older. Magnus nearly flinched when it started moving. To his glee, it didn’t move towards but instead next to the green pool. Perplexed, he stared as it plunged into the pool. A few seconds later a loud crack sounded out all over the nest and the liquid in the pool started swirling. Soon enough, the liquid was drained completely and, in its place, only a gaping hole remained.

“Shit,” Magnus cursed as he went to address the notification that started beeping sometime when he was looking at the thing.