Chapter 17
Something was wrong. Jackson knew it the moment his feet touched the final step of the stairs descending to the next floor. At first, he hadn’t been very worried about encountering anything. He had honestly thought the second floor was going to be clear. After all, the players who had been there were killed by the demonic nightmare, and those who survived had left, descending to the third floor. Plus, Riselle and Azlam had to come up from here, so surely they would have faced any new problems already. No, that was a bad assumption—that the dungeon was static. New threats could have spawned, but he had no real idea of how dungeons actually worked after all.
Jackson looked around, his muscles tensing; something was wrong. It felt like...
“Look out, Jackson!” Lazarus called.
Jackson dove and rolled. Something struck the wall beside him—a viscous hiss emanating from the air. He looked over at the noise and saw a large purple snake with gleaming evil-red eyes. It looked like a cobra, except lining its hood were a bunch of eyes, just like the ones found in the demonic nightmare. Jackson analyzed the snake.
Demonic Cobra Level 20
More demons? But how? Jackson didn’t have time to wonder about it; he was forced to dodge another strike as the demon cobra lashed out at him, black fangs dripping purple liquid that could only be venom. If he had his sword, he could have slashed outward with it as he rolled, but he didn’t. Instead, he flung crimson lightning at the snake. Surprisingly, it was effective, tearing into the cobra and blasting it backward, causing it to slam into the wall.
You have injured the demonic cobra.
It wasn’t dead yet, however. The cobra was back up, and this time it reared its head and spit that purple liquid at him, which bubbled and hissed. Not wanting to get hit by it, Jackson moved backward. It hit the stone and bubbled and steamed, burning away some of the stone. Yeah, not getting hit by that was a priority. He flung more lightning, which crackled with destructive power. The snake, though, was not stupid and dove and weaved its sinuous body around the lightning. Jackson scowled. It would be so much easier if monsters just sat there and let him fling lightning at them. Despite the annoyance of the snake's movements, he did not relent. He flung bolt after crackling bolt.
Jackson did not do this just because. He did it because it allowed him to dictate the demon snake's movements. He flung a bolt low; the snake went high; he flung one to the left; it went right. He sent a few in random directions and then flung one low, and he immediately followed it up with one two seconds later that he aimed high. The snake, used to the pattern, had dodged the low one by moving its body upward and right into the bolt he had delayed a bit and hit high.
The snake took the lightning right to its evil red eye. It hissed in utter agony, convulsed, and then fell to the ground, dead.
You have killed a demonic cobra at level 18.
Your blood lightning has increased to level 10.
You have increased in level. You are now at level 18.
Jackson breathed out, and when the snake didn’t move, he allowed his muscles to relax. Having leveled up, he focused on his one attribute point. That made his mind attribute 16, which meant it was only two levels behind his will attribute. Satisfied, he turned to Lazarus, who was simply staring at the snake.
“Are you okay over there? You’re looking gloomy, Laz,” Jackson said.
Lazarus shook his head, as if clearing it. Then he looked at Jackson, and his eyes were almost haunted.
“When you described that demon nightmare to me, I thought it was just a dungeon creature. Dungeons have been known to spawn weird and powerful nightmarish creatures. I didn’t take the demon's name literally. But now…” His voice had grown quiet at the end, almost fearful.
“What? What is it, Laz?” Jackson asked.
Lazarus blew out a breath.
“I don’t know how to tell you. Again, we are stumbling upon information that is dangerous.”
Lazarus trailed off.
Jackson growled, “No, not this time, Lazarus. You refuse to tell me anything! I am in constant danger! This whole world is dangerous! It’s time you tell me something.”
Lazarus' eyes and voice grew cold and hard.
“This information is dangerous beyond the norm. It would put you in grave danger. You aren’t prepared for that. Still, I will tell you that you need to get back to those demon nightmares. Inside of it is a dark, corrupting purple seed. You need to destroy it. If you don’t, more of these snakes and other creatures will spawn from it. Do this, and I will help you another way. Something I should have done earlier.”
Jackson glared at him, wanting to argue further. However, he could see that Lazarus was not going to be pushed. Letting out a frustrated breath, Jackson pushed the matter out of his mind. Then he made his way to the demonic nightmare corpse.
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There were no more demonic snakes. Jackson made it to the corpse with no other problems. It still looked like a huge blob of purple flesh, surrounded by player corpses. The whole area had begun to stink as the corpses began to decompose and release their bowels. It was not a pleasant smell, to say the least. Jackson wrapped a torn piece of cloth around his nose. Lazarus pointed and laughed at him, though his laughter sounded a little forced. The spirit clearly had other things on his mind.
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Jackson walked up to the demon corpse and, without ceremony, wove crimson lightning. Instead of flinging it, he wielded the lightning in his hand like a blade and used it to destroy the flesh of the monster. This was not pleasant, but he did his best to ignore it as he made his way to the center of the creature's corpse. Once he got through all of the guts, the body's juices, and every other unpleasant thing, he found what Lazarus had been talking about.
The seed was a necrotic-looking purple, and it pulsed with a malicious aura that even Jackson could feel. It felt alive, in a way, if you could call the evil aura it gave off alive. Lazarus actually seemed to shudder at the sight of it.
“That is the closest thing to pure evil you will likely experience, my young fledgling. Crush it, if you please.”
Letting it fall to the ground, Jackson did as he bade, crushing the seed underfoot. It let out a squelching, evil sort of hiss and then promptly exploded into purple goo. When he did that, the nightmare corpse completely vanished.
You have destroyed an unknown seed! Congratulations, Jackson! You have been awarded one life, and your level has increased to 20! Congratulations, Jackson!
Jackson gaped and blinked his eyes.
“What the?!”
Lazarus chuckled, “I’m guessing the Judge awarded you well.”
It was more of a statement than a question. Jackson nodded, “An extra life and two whole levels. What gives?”
Lazarus spoke slowly.
“Let’s just say that the Judge approves of you destroying these seeds. So much so that Eden’s avatar rewards whomever does handsomely. Not every time, mind you, but especially well for the first you destroy. It is one of the very, very few actions in all of Eden that will yield you an extra life. Now, I think it’s time we got to what I promised you.”
Jackson looked at him, eyebrows raised. “Oh yeah? What's that?”
Lazarus nodded decisively. “I am going to teach you new weaves.”
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“Uhh, you can do that?” Jackson questioned.
Lazarus laughed, shaking his head at Jackson’s expression of befuddlement.
“I swear, fledgling, you can be so resourceful at times and yet so clueless at others. Of course, you can teach weaves; why couldn’t you?”
Jackson shrugged,
“I just thought they were always rewarded or given upon unlocking your Domain.”
Lazarus shook his head, eyes closed, and a frown on his face.
“No, that isn’t true. Haven’t you ever heard that assumptions make an ass out of you and me? Never mind.”
Lazarus waved the matter away before he continued.
“Weaves can be taught; that’s the important answer. I should have taught you earlier, but all of the weaves I could teach are a higher level. I prefer to be more of a hands-off kind of mentor. Yet, you need to survive if I have any chance of reaching my people, and it looks like the dungeon has become more dangerous than I could have imagined. To that end, I will teach you.”
Jackson snorted. A hands-off mentor, indeed. Chuckling at the thought, he asked,
“Well, what’s first?”
“Well, that’s up to you in a way. I could teach you many weaves, but at your Domain’s level, you can only learn a total of six weaves. It’s all the Judge will allow you at this level. The first is blood surge, which will allow you to accelerate your minor regeneration skill, thus healing yourself faster. Be cautious, however, in choosing this, as it will increase your hunger. Second is the blood mist weave, which allows you to release a thick cloud of crimson mist, disorienting foes and obscuring their vision while you can see perfectly. Blood binding allows you to restrict a target's movement; a blood veil will allow you to distort the light around you, rendering you invisible. The destruction infusion allows you to empower yourself with enhanced movement and increased strength. In addition, it infuses your strikes with destructive power. Which of these should I teach you? Choose well, young fledgling.”
Jackson rubbed his chin. Those sounded like amazing options that would truly allow him more versatility in combat and how he approached encounters. He could only choose four, however, given he already knew two weaves. He decided to go over each of the options.
Blood surge would certainly be useful, as he often found himself becoming hurt, and this would be a way to heal. Except it increased his hunger. Images of Riselle and Adaran's bodies flashed through his mind, and he grimaced at the wave of guilt that pulsed through him. He could always heal by consuming blood, and according to Lazarus and his own experience, he didn’t have to consume the blood of humans. He could consume beast blood and monster blood, apparently. Nor did he need to consume until death, he was sure. Right now, the hunger didn’t bother him at all, but he knew it would be back. He had time to prepare for that.
Yet if he went around increasing it, the hunger would become even more of a problem than it was. Shaking his head, Jackson put that option to the side. Blood mist was the second weave, and it sounded awesome. If his enemies couldn’t see him, he would gain a massive advantage. The last two fights he had experienced came to mind. If he was able to obscure vision with blood mist, he could have easily hit the snake as it would not have known to dodge, in addition to the confusion the mist would have caused.
The goliath could not block weaves if he couldn’t see them. Jackson tried to consider the downsides of the weave, and the only thing he could think of was that it wasn’t really an attack. But that was a weak argument, which he admitted to himself. It was a utility spell, and it made it far easier to disorient and kill his opponents. He nodded, putting that one on his mental list as a likely possibility.
Blood binding was also utility-based, and it sounded like it had a lot of potential. Again, rooting someone in place meant they could not dodge, making it far easier to hit his foe. He chewed his lip and asked Lazarus a question.
“Laz, how much mana do blood mist and blood binding cost? I have never seen any kind of health or mana bar.”
Lazarus nodded,
“Of course you haven’t since there is no such thing. The Judge informs you when you’re about to reach your limit or die, but he is an almost omnipotent being capable of judging such a thing, hence his name. However, it is true that some weaves take more of your strength than others, and that is dependent on what you are doing. Your lightning, for example, does not take much power, so you can fire it off without tiring for a while. Your mass charm likely drains a little more mana because you are attempting to affect multiple beings at once. Weaves like that always take more energy.”
Jackson nodded thoughtfully.
“So blood mist is likely to take a little more mana than blood binding, then?”
Lazarus nodded,
“Correct.”
Even so, the news didn’t deter Jackson much. Blood mist was still looking likelier and likelier for him to pick. He just couldn’t stop thinking about how useful that would be. Blood veil was next, and he had to admit that it sounded awesome to turn invisible. If he paired that with blood mist, that would be a truly powerful combination. He really didn’t even think about it much; he would definitely choose it.
Next was destruction infusion, and it appealed to Jackson. It was almost utility and a direct attack in one. He had no doubt it cost a good bit of mana, but he was unconcerned; it would only get easier to weave multiple times as he progressed. Nodding, he let his gaze meet Laz’s eyes.
“I am ready to make my choices.”