Arriving at the school I remembered that my armor still hadn’t repaired itself completely. Sinking down through the armory portal my old sweat suit combo traded places with my broken armor. The guards on the roof waved to me and I waved back smiling at them.
“Great job man doing our town proud!” I knew they were talking about my spot on the leaderboard and I appreciated the compliment, but I needed to get to the system store quickly so I didn’t stop to chat. Someone must have run inside to tell everyone that I was back because as soon as I walked through the door, I was swarmed by the group of parents again. Rushing past them I slammed my palm on the system store's surface.
The interface surrounded me, and I got to work emptying my pockets. The first thing I looked at were instruments. It wouldn’t be long before I would start unlocking orchestra skills, so I decided to grab a system version of one of those types of instruments. My first instrument was a Silver Song flute. It wasn’t a soul-bound instrument, but the description said that it could become one if I performed the ritual of binding on it. So, I also bought the ritual and the ingredients for said ritual.
Next, I looked at the bows. I loved using Ballads Bow but since it could fight on its own, I wanted another one so we could double our firepower. It took me a while of scrolling in order to find something that I liked but I finally found something. It was called Firespark. The bow was shaped similarly to a Mongolian war bow, except that it had ornate golden dragon heads on both the top and bottom of the grip and a bright red string. I needed to buy arrows for it and a quiver, but it had an enchantment that lit a flying arrow on fire and there was no way I wasn’t getting that. I placed all of that in my spatial pouch and moved on to the next section.
I already had two swords, and I only kept one on my belt, so I skipped those moving straight into polearms. The scythes caught my attention but if I was going to get something like that, I wanted something with great stats. Eventually, I wound up landing on Wind Ripper. The length of the scythe was made of an incredibly hard but hollow bone with holes in several places. The bone seemed to meld into the black metal blade. When I swung the weapon, it created a harmony of whistling sounds and the weapon increased movement speed. Unfortunately, the weapon didn’t have a self-repairing function, but it was self-sharpening.
I thought about getting a shield, but I’d already planned on putting my next point in my orchestra skill tree, so it didn’t make sense to get another weapon right now. Instead, I went ahead and got one more set of armor. It was another set of more modern clothes including a full black body suit, a bomber jacket, boots, and a jacket. It looked simple but it was the most expensive item that I bought. It was loaded down with defensive, speed-enhancing, strength-enhancing, self-repairing, self-cleaning, and hardening enchantments.
The last thing I bought was, of course, a floating light. I would not be fighting blind anymore. Removing my hand from the system store, I cycled through the new items in my armory. My new armor felt comfortable, and I placed my sword into my belt. Meanwhile, Samael had slowly been climbing in strength at level 52. I’d been cultivating and practicing my forms every chance I got, and my aura had increased in power and reach again, but I couldn’t see myself being able to suppress the ocean that was Samael’s aura.
But my plans had changed anyway. With all of the people in the camp, and however many people Samael had added since I’d left there was no way I could fight all of them without killing people. So instead, I would rely on guerrilla warfare. Strike quick and fast steal a couple of people at a time and crush the aura inside of them. For my plan to work though the first person I would need to save would be Santiago.
I left the school with a determined look on my face. As my aura strength grew my flight speed did as well, and I wasn’t as tired either. No monsters in the sky dared try to attack me this time. None of them had the strength to do much of anything to me anymore between here and the city. When I could see the skyline of Seattle, I lowered myself back down into the forest and traveled the rest of the way by jumping through the trees.
When I was close enough, I opened my aura again searching for the person I needed to rescue. My aura could almost cover half of the camp by now, but as I stretched it as far as I could my stomach shriveled up inside me and my heart sank to take its place. I ran straight into the camp and looked around frantically, but there was no one there. “Maybe they’re in the city.” I took off immediately toward the city to search for them.
Maybe I should have been more careful, but I didn’t care right now my friends were gone from where I expected them to be. Flying through the city with my aura completely extended I searched for any cultivators or cores, and I listened carefully for any humans at all. It took me a few hours to cover the city completely and check the dungeons, but I found nothing. “They’re gone.” I’d taken too long and now they were all gone. I screamed into the sky and punched a nearby building my fist going straight through the concrete.
“Where are they? Where could he have taken them?” My mind was spiraling thinking about my friends, their parents, and that damn Samael. That last thought is what focused me. My anger burned throughout me, and I pulsed straight up. They hadn’t disappeared off the face of the earth so I could find them. I checked the leaderboard to be sure that they were still there, and I breathed a sigh of relief. “They’re missing not dead, and missing people can be found.”
Not thinking about anything but finding them I took off in a random direction. There were still about a billion people in this world and the world was only so big. The landscape passed by as I flew. It was my first time seeing most of the new landscape. I saw towns submerged halfway in the water, more giant trees, and dungeons that made me want to run away from them. No people though, I didn’t find any people.
I flew for a week resting only when I was completely exhausted. But on the seventh day, my spirit couldn’t handle it anymore. I sank to the ground and crumpled to my knees. A sob ripped its way from deep inside me and I clutched my stomach trying to keep another from escaping. Shuddering desperate to keep any more anger and sadness from coming out, I stayed like that until I heard a sound. Looking up I noticed that my armory had opened, and Ballads Bow came out playing a familiar song.
“Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day,” floated on the breeze into my ears. It brought back the memory of the day I’d made the promise to Josh that the world would be better one day. I could almost hear the others walking up to join us in the song. Then I remembered how we met Autumn, Santiago, and Damien not long after. The day Santi had joined us in the tent to take a break from wearing his mask, Autumn sitting with me watching the sky after the Venom Trap, and Damien thanking me after the dungeon operation was completed.
They were all mostly happy memories tinged with just a slight sadness. That’s when I felt it, my connection to sound resonated with something, and I immediately shifted to meditation in the middle of nowhere. I could have been attacked at any moment, but it didn’t matter to me now. The only thing that mattered was this insight, it was important, and I could feel it. I didn’t know how long I sat there meditating, but when it finally came, I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t realized it before.
“Sound has memory,” I whispered to myself and took off once more. I’d been traveling slowly before so I wouldn’t miss anything, but now I blasted off pulsing as fast as I possibly could. It still took me two and a half days to reach the camp again but when I touched down this time I had hope again. Spreading out my aura I activated my new ability. Ghosts of voices swarmed around me, and I had to focus on what I was looking for.
Slowly but surely Samael’s voice came into my ears. It sounded much farther away because the sound was so old, but it was still him.
“Ooh yes, I love the look on your face like that. Scream for me! Heehahaa. Oh, you don’t like that? Too bad. Alright go ahead and heal them. I’m finished here, there are no more people. I need more, maybe east.” Nothing else came to me and I was grateful for it. Most of what he’d said sounded sick. But even still I had a direction. I headed east slower than I had before, I had a trail to follow, and I couldn’t afford to lose it or take a wrong turn.
This time I stayed calm, I kept practicing my cultivation techniques and my combat. Any time the trail led toward a dungeon I would clear it just in case someone was in there. It was frustrating that almost all of the dungeons were only level 20 to 30, so I wasn’t gaining anything from clearing them. One day the trail disappeared, and I felt panic rise in me, but I went back and picked it up heading in another direction. Suddenly the average level of the dungeons shot up from 40 to 50. It made me realize that I hadn’t checked the leaderboard for a while.
Samael had overtaken Santi at level 54, and I wondered exactly how much essence he was stealing from them. “I need another high-level dungeon.” The realization hit me, my aura and combat techniques had improved but my level was stagnating. I didn’t know if Samael had any titles, but I did know what his new class was. The man had changed his class to Bard of the Poisonous Mind. I hoped that I wouldn’t lose the trail by taking this detour, but I needed to do it.
My plan should still work, but I didn’t want to take any chances. My friends would never forgive me if I killed a bunch of people just to save them. Peeling off of my course I headed toward the closest level 100 dungeon. It was strange in the sense that it didn’t seem to have a tower, nest, or building of any kind. Instead, exactly where the dungeon was supposed to be a swirling thunderstorm stretched across the sky for at least 100 miles.
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I heard a loud screaming roar and a single leathery wing bigger than at least three of the Tribulation Hawks. Then I saw the head, blue scales, and bright yellow eyes staring directly at me, above its head I saw a terrifying tag. “Level 100 Storm Dragon: World Boss.” The dragon bared its teeth in a facsimile of a smile and each tooth was at least the size of a small mountain. I knew I should turn around and run but it reached out a thin string of its aura suppressing me in less than a second.
“Little human cultivator.” It spoke in a deep rumbling voice that could be mistaken for thunder. “Are you here to be my first test? Hmmm no I don’t think so. You’re far too weak. You, humans, need to start getting stronger so that you can challenge me. I paid several hundred fortunes to be implanted here, and I’m even suppressed! HA!” His small laugh threatened to blow me out of the sky if it weren’t for the Storm Dragons aura keeping me up. “What would you have of me since you have clearly not come to fight me?” My voice almost became lost in my fear, but I somehow found it in the end.
“It was a mistake! My map showed that this place was a level 100 dungeon!” The Dragon cocked an eye at me questioningly.
“Check it again.” I opened it up and suddenly my screen was pulled away from me and expanded to the size that the Dragon could see it. After a few seconds, he bellowed in laughter. “Foolish human!” He turned my map back around and suddenly I did notice something odd about it. Instead of a dot to indicate a dungeon instead it was a skull. “You almost ran headfirst into a World Boss by yourself!” He laughed again.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to bother you! If you don’t mind, I’ll just leave now!” I said hoping that he would release me.
“Well wait just a minute! I see that you’re walking a sound path.” I nodded my head. “Air, and Sound. Have you thought about your third concept?” I hadn’t recently. I just kept trying to gain more insights into sound essence until my core couldn’t take anymore. When I told him as such he put on a contemplative look. “I think I’ve thought of something fun. You’re going to start a storm path for your third concept!” He spoke as if it was already decided.
“Um, I’m so sorry um… Storm Dragon, I think it might be a little expensive to start myself on something new like that right now.” The Dragon scowled at me, and I thought for a second, I was going to die right then and there. But instead, his face broke into a flat look and his giant eyes rolled.
“Access Code 243617 Information request player ID 765289457.” It looked as if he was reading something for a few minutes even bringing one clawed hand up to rub his chin then he spoke again. “Ah, I see. Apollo! Get down here.” In a golden flash suddenly, Apollo was standing in the air between me and the Dragon. “I’m buying him.” That’s all he said to the man that had been my sponsor almost since the beginning.
“You’re aware of his worth?” Apollo asked and the Dragon nodded his head. “And you know that you must adhere to the rules of the system, correct? At least until your vacation is done, do you plan on taking him with you?” The Dragon nodded again. “You’ll reimburse me for the rewards I recently gave him for a task I assigned?”
“Don’t push your luck kid I can break this suppression any time I want.” Apollo bowed his head.
“Of course, I apologize Lord Sage. I’ll fill out the requisite paperwork.” Apollo bowed deeply then in a flash he was gone again. “What the hell just happened? Was I just sold?”
“Alright kid now, you’re taking a storm path.” I felt a new click settle into my system. “Next time you come back to see me you’d better have made some good progress, or I’ll be angry.” He still hadn’t let me go but at this point, I was more curious than I was afraid.
“Excuse me Storm Dragon sir, but did Apollo just say you were on vacation?” The Dragon bellowed in laughter and without my aura it hurt my ears.
“Oh yeah! System-run worlds are great entertainment for the wider multiverse. I decided to take a vacation in your world and see the sights. The only way to vacation in a brand-new world is as a boss though, I paid a good amount to take the single-world boss slot.” The Dragon answered my question with a sly smile.
“And you just paid for me?” The Dragon nodded. “Am I your slave?” A look of distaste crossed the dragon’s face.
“I would not pay as much for a mere slave. No, you will be my disciple. After I leave this place you will travel into the multiverse, and I will sponsor your cultivation up to a point but for now, you’re just a talented bronze. Now go, you said you were looking for a dungeon and you’ll need to be much stronger if you humans have a hope of defeating me.” The Dragon turned and flew into his storm. His aura released me, and I almost fell out of the sky before I remembered to turn mine back on. I flew away as fast as I possibly could and only stopped when I could no longer see the storm clouds.
When I finally stopped, I checked my systems and found that I’d gained a new manual. “Advanced Storm Path Cultivation Manual.” Tearing into the manual I read over every inch of it. It didn’t seem any more advanced than any of the other manuals I’d read but I figured I wouldn’t know until I started practicing the techniques in it. I hadn’t reached the limit of sound essence in my core.
Part of me wanted to just start sucking in essence as fast as I could so that I could start cultivating using this new concept, but I held off. From what I knew about cultivation that would hurt my foundation. Instead, I would continue to work on my aura and try to find another insight. Not wanting to spend any more time on this I searched for another dungeon, this time being extremely careful about checking the icon for the dungeon.
It didn’t take long to find one, but this time the dungeon took on the form of a large graveyard. Some of the tombstones looked different from any that I’d seen before, but most were average. At the end of the graveyard was a large mausoleum. Trying to fly directly to what I assumed was the boss, I was disappointed to find the same kind of barrier that had protected the Ant Hill in my way. It didn’t hurt at all when I ran into it, but I did bounce off of it.
I landed and looked at the tall black metal gate that acted as the entrance to the dungeon. Letting out a long breath I laid my hand on the gate and it swung open. I opened my armory and Ballads Bow flew out on its own, and the armory placed Wind Ripper in my hand. Holding the scythe behind me with the blade up, I began walking slowly into the cemetery.
It felt cold in the dungeon, which was weird because my aura should have done a good job of keeping my body at a comfortable temperature. Even still I could see the chill of the air in my breath. I’d almost made it passed the first row of tombstones when my aura picked up something clawing its way out of one of the graves. A semi-rotten human corpse clawed its way out of the ground and groaned. Its teeth and nails were yellowed and cracked, and its skin looked green and sagging. The smell wafting off of the corpse made me want to vomit.
Before it had a chance to pull itself completely out of the grave Ballad's Bow placed an arrow between its eyes and it slouched over with only half of its body hanging out. It wasn’t the only one though all of the graves in the first row began stirring and hands shot out of the morbid dirt beds. “Zombies. Of course, it's zombies.” Ballads Bow turned into a guitar and started playing “Zombie by the Cranberries.” I looked at my soul-bound weapon and for the first time wondered if it had a sense of humor.
My buffs activated while it played, and I began the disgusting task of cutting through the zombie hoard. There were only five rows of tombstones before the mausoleum. Without having to look I swung Wind Ripper up with one hand. The bone handle whistled, and I barely felt it as I cut one of the rotting corpses in half longways. The tag above the reanimated person's head said, “Level 50 Zombie Thrall.”
The feeling that these were people at one time occurred to me, but I shrugged it off. They weren’t people anymore, now they were monsters. I spun my scythe around and beheaded another Thrall, and my bow took another one at the same time. Soon I was surrounded by a few hundred zombies, and I continued spinning my weapon around. The curved blade slid easily through rotten flesh as I whirled, and soon the Zombie horde was nothing more than unmoving corpses again.
The bodies sank into the ground again making me nervous that they might spring up once more. I attempted to move forward but before I made it to the second row one of the odd tombstones shook. Readying my weapon, I waited for whatever came next. The grave exploded outward throwing dirt around the area. In the next moment, a skeleton jumped straight out of the grave. I read its tag and groaned. “Level 55 Skeletal Warrior (Mini Boss).” The skeleton held a rusty and chipped sword and a shield with bits broken off of it.
Ballads Bow fired at it, and the skeleton raised its shield blocking the shot. It started marching menacingly toward me, but I didn’t let it intimidate me. After seeing the Dragon I doubted another monster would intimidate me again for a long time. I swung out with Wind Ripper spinning behind the skeleton and cut its head off. Figuring that would be the end of it I tried to walk away. Then I heard the clattering of bones. The Skeletal Warrior had reached down and placed its head back on. It started stalking toward me again with its sword raised.
I made my scythe disappear and replaced my armor with one of the first sets that I’d bought. It was a heavy set covering my entire body and it didn’t really fit my speed-based fighting style. With my cutting weapons not working and it consistently blocking Ballads Bow I decided to change it up a bit. The skeleton raised its rusty sword and then swung it down on me. I raised my arms in the form of an “X” remembering something I’d seen on TV one time. Grabbing the blade with my armored hand I squeezed with all my strength and the rusty sword shattered.
With my other hand, I grabbed the Skeletal Warrior by the collarbone and ripped it down causing the bony body to collapse. I couldn’t move very fast in the armor, but I was still fast enough to reach the skull of the mini-boss and crush it underneath my foot. It didn’t get up again. Changing back into my black set I moved forward to the next row of tombstones. The next set of monsters that climbed out of their graves were “Level 60 Skeletal Warriors,” which weren’t mini-bosses, but they were the same type of monster as the last mini-boss. I shook my head and yet again changed into my heavy armor.
Ballads Bow started playing “Spooky Scary Skeletons by Andrew Gold,” and I looked at it in surprise. I’d never played that song before, at least not on the soul-bound weapon. Still, I chuckled at it before slowly stalking forward in my heavy armor. “May need to increase my strength.” I thought to myself. The first skeleton attacked me, and I blocked its sword strike with a gauntleted hand. I heard more than felt the sword shatter and tink against my armor. My aura was still active so I could feel whenever another monster was about to attack me from behind.
These monsters felt even less effective than the zombies while I was in my heavy armor though. Weapons crashed against me, but I didn’t care as I continued to slowly crush and break my way through the Skeletal Warriors. For a while, I couldn’t help but feel inevitable. That is until all of the skeletons were destroyed. Looking toward the tombstone in this row that didn’t look like the others I waited for the next mini-boss to explode from its resting place.
“Level 65 Revenant Assassin (Mini Boss),” The tag above the new enemies’ head read. It wore light leather armor and had two long daggers hanging at its side. Its face looked mostly human with only the slightest evidence of rot having set in. The assassin pulled its daggers and rushed toward me. At first, I thought I’d be able to weather the attacks by staying in my suit of armor, but then it aimed its daggers at my face. I lifted my arms to defend myself and when I did, I felt a sharp pain in my armpit.
The assassin had found a gap in my armor and plunged its other knife into it. When the assassin removed its dagger and jumped back, I felt a spray of arterial blood come out of me and saw it land on the ground. Quickly I changed my armor and commanded Ballads Bow to keep the Revenant busy. I fell back behind one of the tombstones, and I could hear the twang of my bowstring as it continued its rapid fire at the mini-boss.
My blood continued to rush out of me, and I felt like I was getting weaker, but I didn’t panic. Instead, I reached two fingers into the wound and found where I was bleeding from. I screamed in pain as I dug into myself, but I quickly found the bleed and pinched it off. My core sped faster as I began cycling hoping that my veins of venomous sound would fix it quickly. Less than a minute later I could feel the artery fixing itself and withdrew my fingers.
My body still felt slightly weak from blood loss, but I didn’t have time to think about it. My aura warned me of the Revenant Assassin standing right above where I was hiding. I rolled out of the way as it brought its dagger down stabbing into the tombstone instead of me. At the same time, I opened my armory and swung my glaive straight out of the portal. The blade passed cleanly through the Revenant's neck, and I scrambled to my feet stabbing it through the head just in case it could reattach it like the skeletons had.
Leaning against my glaive I decided to take a small break. If the next phase of this dungeon followed the same pattern as this one had, then I would need all of the strength I could muster.