Wyatt pulled up his Debuffer skill to see what the hell an arcanum was.

Debuffer

Rarity: 1⁄5

Quality: D-Grade

Scion Capacity: 0⁄2

Arcana:

• Devour

Permutations:

• |Disgorge|

• |Torpor|

• |Devitalize|

He focused on Devour and a new message appeared.

Devour

Quintessence Capacity: 65⁄500

He tried to get more information, but couldn’t.

Quintessence capacity… Does it have something to do with Essence Orbs?

He tried using Devour on the Essence Orb he’d just looted from the level 1 mummy like he would with a permutation.

Devour ⦗Essence Orb⦘?

Certainty: 1%

What happens if I fail?

He was tempted to try, but eventually discarded the idea. For all he knew, failure would kill him. Even if it just destroyed the orb, he’d rather not waste it.

He’d keep an eye on the quintessence, see if it changed when he used Debuffer. It felt like maybe that’s what it was eating, like perhaps it charged up by using it on monsters, stealing some of their power.

Can I use the quintessence somehow?

The first thing he did was try to upgrade Debuffer with it, but he could already tell it wasn’t going to work.

He didn’t even need a message, he could feel it. Whatever this quintessence was, it would only work on him, not his skills. At least for now.

The only thing he didn’t know, was its exchange rate.

He focused on increasing his level. This felt different, almost like it should work, but he could tell that it wouldn’t.

He tried increasing his Energy by 1.

Sparks of light floated out from him, changing and morphing before flying back into his body.

60 Quintessence converted

You have been empowered

Energy has increased from 5 to 6

It took 60 quintessence to boost my Energy from 5 to 6. So it costs 10 quintessence per stat point? So 7 would be 70?

But he only had 5 quintessence remaining, not enough to increase any of his other stats.

He tried using it in various other ways, but nothing worked.

After several minutes of this he looked around, remembering where he was.

What was I doing?

He spotted the mummy’s corpse at his feet, then its Essence Orb, which he still held.

Upgrading this orb would give another Energy Evanescence, but when he tried the Reformation Orb on these cerements, the message was slightly different.

• ⦗Destroyed Cerements⦘ → ⦗Cerements⦘

• ⦗Destroyed Cerements⦘ ? Unavailable

• Missing Formula

Interesting. Exploding it with my shield—or maybe using the rune—destroyed the cerements, but it looks like the orb could fix them. The others gave Mantle rather than Cerements, with also one arrow, but those were Decayed rather than Destroyed.

So the better condition something is in, the better the upgrade?

He filed this away for later and dutifully stuffed the destroyed cerements in his belt, then continued on.

Not long later, the corridor nearly doubled in height and he came to a giant golden door, elaborately carved with symbols and colored etchings of something that looked like a dragon.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

In the door’s center was what looked like a large keyhole.

Was I supposed to have found a key?

He pressed his eye to the keyhole. Through it he saw a hazy view of… something. Shifting colors? He wasn’t sure.

He stood up and tried pushing on the door, but it didn’t budge.

Next he hit it with his shield, which actually lost two-percent cohesion from that single strike.

The door was completely unharmed.

He considered the area. There was the corridor he’d come from, which continued on past the door.

That was all.

He’d paid attention as he explored, looking for whatever a sacellum or delubrum might be, but he hadn’t seen anything like a key, nor any branching paths.

Looking down the dark untraveled corridor, he shrugged.

Time to take the road not taken.

🞠

The now-taken road ended at a waterfall that seemed to drop off into eternity.

The floor terminated in a ragged outcropping, smooth dark stone turning to raw rough rock.

Wyatt stood at the ledge, peering down into the abyss.

It was oddly quiet, just a gentle hum as water cascaded down from a place beneath the ledge he stood upon. Mist rose in plumes around him, the air filled with that scent that comes when mountains of water fall.

Normally Wyatt wasn’t bothered by the kind of things other people were, but even he was offput by the depth of this drop.

He wasn’t sure if the drop truly was endless, but there was something nauseating about the idea, about falling until you died of thirst.

Well, probably starvation in this case. Unless the water was poisonous. Or saltwater.

The air’s kinda cold. And humid. I’d probably die from exposure first. Though maybe not with my armor. I wonder if my mantle would save me.

Even he wasn’t interested in testing that out.

At least, not here.

Is the key down there?

He’d been paying close attention as he’d walked the corridor, expecting to come across more mummies or at least something more than he had. Which was nothing.

An old video game he couldn’t quite remember came to mind. There was a hidden key or level down what appeared to be a death-fall.

One of the Marios?

He shook his head. It didn’t matter.

He looked around the area.

The ceiling forty- or fifty-feet overhead was raw stone, not the semi-worked kind in the corridors. It formed a sort of dome that stretched a hundred feet across, though there was no corresponding ledge.

Just like in the rest of this place, there was enough diffuse light to see by, though he couldn’t tell from where it came. It let him know there was no hidden crevice he needed to climb to, as all the stone was smooth, all the way up to the ceiling. The only ragged part was that on which he stood.

Setting his shield down and lying flat on his stomach, he leaned his head down over the ledge, getting an upside-down look at what was there: a vertical slit from which the water spewed.

And that was it.

He sat up, looking around as he wiped mist from his face.

What now?

His attention returned to the endless depths the water fell into. Not even the slightest hint of it hitting anything.

It seems too risky to climb down there.

I guess I should check the corridor again to see if I missed something.

He was almost entirely certain he hadn’t, but it was all he could think to do.

And if he didn’t find anything?

He glanced down into the abyss as he stood.

Then he’d get to test out just how well he could climb with his new armor.

He picked up his shield and turned around to leave, then stopped, looking up above the rocky entrance to the corridor.

There was a small crack, barely the width of his torso, which went up into blackness.

It hadn’t been visible from the other direction.

Well, isn’t it very convenient that I have a cape that reduces my weight now?

🞠

It wasn’t convenient, it turned out. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t jump up into the crevice.

Finally he resorted to turning his feet and fists to spikes and shoving them into the rock to reach the crevice. It wasn’t a very difficult climb, and he probably could have made it without the spikes, but if he slipped and fell there was a good chance he’d tumble off the ledge into the abyss, and he wasn’t going to risk it.

Even if it did take another percent of cohesion from his titan skin.

He shoved himself into the crevice, thankful he wasn’t claustrophobic, and kept climbing. The rock inside was incredibly smooth like it had been worn away by water over eons, so with his spiked hands and feet he moved easily up.

He reached the top after less than a minute of climbing and squeezed through a narrow crack that let into a small, dimly lit stone cavern.

Sitting on a pedestal in the middle of the room, light shining down onto it, was a shimmering golden key.

⦗Key to the Serpent’s Chamber⦘

Is a boulder going to crush me if I take this? The room flood with water?

He carefully studied the room. Other than a tiny crack through which the light shone and the larger crack he’d entered through, it was sealed off.

He circled the room, running his hand along the walls, looking for any kind of invisible passage. He wasn’t expecting to find anything like that, but it was best to be thorough.

It was a good thing he was, because just as he completed the circuit, his hand sunk into the stone, just above the crack he’d entered through.

He pulled it back, staring at the spot. It looked like normal stone.

I wonder if there are any more of these that I missed. Maybe a sacellum or delubrum was hidden in something like that.

I’ll check once I finish here.

He pressed his hand into it again. It sunk in. It felt like pushing into viscous liquid.

Moving his arm around, he discovered the hole was small, not big enough to fit through. Not even big enough to put his head through.

He pushed his arm deeper, exploring around until he felt solid rock.

He kept exploring and after a moment his knuckles brushed against something smooth.

He grabbed it and pulled it free, belatedly realizing this might trigger some kind of trap.

Breath held, he stood still and silent, ready to jump down the crack he’d entered through.

But the room was quiet, no secret door sliding away to reveal a giant boulder about to roll in and crush him.

In his hand was a shiny golden orb. It looked like the other orbs he’d seen except for its color.

⦗Skill Balls, Level 10 (Growth)⦘

Balls? How is that different than orbs? And there’s only one, yet it’s called balls…

He tried running Energy into it, but got that jolting feeling in his spine.

Is it too high level? Or is it that I don’t have enough Energy?

And what does growth mean? That it can level up? That would imply other items can’t…

He studied it for a bit longer before sighing and stowing it on his belt, returning his attention to the key.

He considered going up and grabbing it, but that actually might trigger some kind of trap.

Not willing to risk it, and wanting to try out something he hadn’t thought of till just now, he crawled backwards into the crack in the floor until just his head and one arm were above the ledge.

Then he focused on forming a long claw.

It actually worked, his arm stretching to ten times its normal length and easily covering the distance.

That would have made climbing up here easier.

It was an odd sensation, as he could still control the fingers as though they were at their customary place.

After a moment he realized that’s because they were. It wasn’t actually his arm that had stretched, just the armor, forming a second hand at the end. Though it did use slightly more Energy than just forming a blade or hammer.

He grabbed the key with this false hand, quickly retracted the arm, then let himself slide down the slick crack.

The moment he hit open air he ran Energy into his mantle.

He hit the ground, but very lightly.

He looked up at the crack, expecting to see it close in on itself or water to come pouring out.

Nothing happened.

He shrugged, picked up his shield, and headed through the exit back toward the golden door.

Behind him, a rumble began, and rocks began tumbling from the ceiling.

🞠

Wyatt carefully shoved the key into the door as the entire corridor around him collapsed.

If this is the wrong key, I’m screwed.

He twisted the key.

There was a flash of light and a click.

The door didn’t open.

He pushed on it.

Nothing happened.

He had maybe five seconds before he was completely buried.

He considered his options. There weren’t many.

Lacking anything better to do, he slammed his shield into the door, hoping he could break through even if it destroyed the shield.

But before he could get in a second blow, the door slid open.

He immediately stepped inside and the door slid shut behind him just as the corridor outside fully collapsed.

Good thing I didn’t leave any loot behind to pick up later.

He turned his attention away from the door and to the room.

In front of him, floating in the air, coiled a feathered serpent as big as a house.

“Took you long enough,” a voice called.