by A P Gore
One of the drops caught Noah’s bare hand, and it burned. Burned like a fury.
Noah quickly applied the curse of pain on the commander, increasing his agony.
At the same time, Rihala’s ice shot hit the commander, taking 300 life from him.
The commander’s life was reduced to a mere 120.
One more poison orb, and the commander dropped on the ground, dead.
Noah too dropped on his butt, exhausted and drained. Rihala joined him and lay next to him. Her chest heaved. It was a breathtaking sight, even in his current foul mood. But his own zombie mage interrupted his view and healed them both to full life with a couple more healing shots.
His vision clouded with notifications.
Experience gained: 1300 for killing 6 level 6 goblin warriors.
Experience gained: 500 for killing 1 level 7 goblin mage.
Experience gained: 3500 for killing 1 level 9 goblin commander.
Total experience gained based on contribution: 5300.
Congratulations! +1 to strength for demonstrating exceptional pain endurance.
Congratulations! +1 to wisdom for draining the wisdom again and again.
Congratulations! Your Poison Orb has reached 100% progression. +1 to poison orb
“Wasn’t the goblin commander level 8?” he asked Rihala, without looking at her breasts.
“He was, but he upped his level with a war-cry. Hence the extra experience. My mother says—sorry—she hates goblin commanders for these abilities.”
“Hmm make sense.” He opened his delta character sheet.
Name : Noah
Class : Cursemancer
Second Class : Zombiemancer
Level : 6
Stats
Strength 15
Wisdom 36
Chance 7
Health: 500/500
Stamina: 285 (7.89/sec)
Spirit: 360 (17.96/sec)
Skills
Poison Orb (Level 7): Damage 47.95. Require 35 spirit per cast. Skill Progression: 10%
Current Experience: 24320/26000
Unused Skill Points: 8
“I need around fifteen hundred experience to level up.” The thought cheered him, and his tone reflected that. The battle had been brutal, but he was one step closer to his goal.
“I need about the same. My mom would be happy to see me at level 7.” A sweet smile covered her face. Her tail was wrapped around Noah’s shoulder now, but it had a totally different meaning than when Thia did it.
Noah lay back on the ground and closed his eyes. He needed rest.
21. The Promise
Noah and Rihala were walking through mist as dense as foam when they encountered and killed another level 5 rat pack. Walking through the mist was like walking through a body of water, thick and wet. Rihala even stumbled into a tree, head on, as soon as they walked inside the mist. It was a funny moment, and Noah had to push his hand inside his mouth, biting it, to suppress his laughter. It wasn’t because she fell, but the way she stumbled into tree after tree after tree. After the fifth time, he wrapped an arm around her and let her walk with his guidance. The intoxicating smell of her sweat and whatever perfume she wore mixed together, arousing him. But thanks to the fresh, clean smell of the forest, he remained a decent human being. Though he doubted she would resist at this point, it would have been taking advantage of her. They remained silent throughout the journey in the mist. Only the sound of their sped-up hearts and dried leaves cracking under their feet was audible for a long while.
By the time they got out of the mist, they had killed a sixth level 5 rat pack and reached level 7.
Noah put all 3 stat points he received in wisdom, as the pain of low spirit was getting a worse with every passing fight. He needed a big spirit pool to survive the ever-toughening battles.
When he was finished, his stats stood at: 540 life, 400 spirit, and 305 stamina. It was a good level up, and now he could cast 11 consecutive poison orbs or 3 curses of fire balls—though he wouldn’t. The limited number of fireball charges was concerning. Each fire ball was doing 85 damage now, and with his -10% to fire resistance, he would be able to do 92-93 damage depending on enemy’s fire resistance. Two poison orbs worked better in the damage to spirit cost ratio, but the poison orb didn’t prove very effective against demons and goblins. He would have to increase the fire ball charges somehow.
The spell department was mostly improving, but the zombie situation was problematic. He could have 5 zombies up at a time, but getting the corpses was a big issue, and they died after two hours. The mage had fared better, lasting for 5 hours and performing excellent healing, but it was a 1/1000 chance of success. If only he had a way to make zombies without a corpse or some skill to generate the corpses for him, he would be able to rule the world.
Wait, I have a spellgem!
Noah pulled out the spellgem. It emitted a soft blue light.
“Where did you get that?” Rihala inched closer to him, almost sitting on his lap, leaning all over him. After their last fight, her closeness had shot up exponentially. Not that he minded it. Her body was warm and soft enough to keep heat flowing in his body. He just had to fight his sexual urges. Then everything would be fine.
Damn! Why is it so difficult to resist those urges?
“I’ve got a skill to combine normal monster crystal cores into these.”
She stared at his face like she was meeting a celebrity, starstruck. “Wow! That’s a rare skill. My mom never told me that anyone could do this. And trust me, she knows everything.”
He stared at the spellgem. It was a work of art, but he couldn’t decide if he wanted to use it right away.
“Use it,” she said, as if reading his mind. “It’s better placed in one of your skills than sitting around in your bag if we are going into that dungeon together.”
“Yes, you’re right. We need all the help we can get to defeat the dungeon. It’s good to have you with me. You make things so much easier.” She was not only a sexy woman whom he loved to hang out with, but also a potent archer.
She rested her head on his shoulder, and her tail wrapped around his torso. “Those are the nicest words I’ve heard in a long time.”
He smiled.
“Let me see where I can use this.” He opened his skill panel. He had a plus icon next to two spells: Poison Orb and Curse of Fireball.
He placed the spellgem in the Poison Orb expansion slot to see what its effects would be.
Poison Orb: Upgrade the skill to have a multiplication effect. 20% chance to grant a new skill only available through spell enhancement gem. 20% chance to fail the enhancement. 20% chance to upgrade the skill with new enhancement. Do you want to use your spellgem? Yes/No?
He checked the fire ball spell next.
Curse of Fire Ball: Upgrade the skill to an unknown effect. 20% chance to grant a new skill only available through spell enhancement gem. 20% chance to fail the enhancement. 20% chance to upgrade the skill with new enhancement. Do you want to use your spellgem? Yes/No?
Standard text, but it had an unknown effect, and Noah didn’t have faith in his chance level to make the unknown effect a worthwhile one. So, he chose to go with Poison Orb.
Congratulations! You have used a unique spellgem of multiplication on a shitty spell. Due to the low level of the spell, the chance of creating a unique spell is raised to 100%
Congratulations! You have created a new skill: Poison Multiorb. Use sentient mana and cast multiple poison orbs. Use it to see the effect. Damage: 50*n, where n is the level of the primary skill. Adds an extra area of effect. Restriction: Requires 12 charges for each cast. Gain 1 charge every 12 hours.
Wait what is this sentient mana? I’ve never seen that before.
Congratulations! You have gained +5000 experience for creating a new skill. +1 to all attributes (except chance and charisma).
“Wow!” Noah roared in happiness. “This is great. I got a big boost.” He slipped his hand around Rihala’s shoulde
r and pulled her closer.
She sniffed him. “Great! The demon god gives bonuses like these randomly. We have a good chance of beating the dungeon now.” Her arms were around him, forming a ring.
Noah quickly glanced at his character sheet. He had 11 skill points unused. He assigned two of them to the Poison Orb skill, bringing it to level 9, dealing 63 damage. The boost in stat points also boosted all attributes, bringing his health to 570, spirit to 410, mana to 80, and stamina to 325. He was also halfway to his next level, and the dungeon would definitely push him over. Excitement surged through his blood. The air was filled with newfound energy, and he was dying to get into the new dungeon.
“I’m so happy for you, Noah. I wish you were a demon.” Rihala hid her face between his arm and torso, her voice sad.
“I said I’ll free you, somehow.” He would do that no matter what. How could he let a sweet demon like Rihala suffer the pain of slavery?
“We’ll see.” Rihala rose, her tail sliding away from him. “We should go and attack the dungeon. How many health potions do you have?”
“Four.”
“I guess we ought to try it out. If we can’t get through the first floor, we can just walk out. I’ve heard stories of adventurers exclusively beating the dungeons to gain great rewards and levels. I hope we’ll level up by the time we come out. I want to get to level 10 and boost my credentials. My mother would be so happy if I can get to level 10.” Her voice was heavy with emotion.
Noah stood next to her and pulled her closer. “Let’s do this together. And I promise you. No matter what, I’ll free you from slavery.” He promised her again, and he meant to keep it. How? He didn’t know that yet.
She leaned closer and kissed him on his cheek. “I trust you, my human friend.” Her arms wrapped around his body. He was reminded of the reputation slider again. It hinted at her closeness, but was it really just because of the reputation? The reputation system sucked, because he could tell that the she demon had been attracted to him for days. Reputation was nothing. Everything superseded its use.
22. Cave of Xamphala
From a distance, the cave looked like a serpent’s open mouth. Spiky rocks imitated the teeth of the snake, above and below. The air around the cave smelled different than the fresh forest air, like someone had mixed a little poison in it. Even the birds’ chirping, which had been loud and annoying, completely vanished as they closed in. Silence prevailed.
“The air is so much worse here. My mom always says to stay away from such places.” Rihala grabbed his hand tightly.
“Let’s move away a bit to eat. I don’t think I can eat in this environment,” Noah said. He wondered how the food would taste if they tried to eat in the circle of the cave’s influence. It couldn’t be good.
Noah gathered a few dried fallen tree branches, and with the help of his fire ball curse, he lit the fire a few meters away from the cave. He had frozen chicken, and Rihala had a bottle of amazing seasoning. As the chicken roasted on the crackling fire, its mouth-watering aroma spread around them, arousing their taste buds. And with Rihala’s seasoning on top of the baked chicken, the flavors just burst in his mouth. She mentioned her mother forced the bottle in her bag, and for the first time Noah thanked her mother.
A tree with green fruit grew next to the pine tree they were sitting under. Rihala plucked one of the fruits and handed him. “Try this. It’s tasty.”
Noah tasted it with some doubt, but the doubt vanished as soon as the sweet and bitter taste sent a shock to his taste buds—in a good way. He grabbed a couple more fruits and bagged them for later.
“Let’s head into the cave. I’m excited. Mom always says excitement before an adventure is good for one’s health.”
Noah mentally ordered his four rat zombies to stay behind him and not act until he order. Though he doubted how much they would listen to him. Only the monsters above level 6 reacted intelligently. Low level rats and snakes acted on instinct, and their instinct pushed them into unnecessary battles.
Noah nodded, and they walked back inside the circle of the cave’s influence.
Today, the entrance glowed with a soft white light, and a prompt appeared in front of him indicating he met all the requirements for the dungeon. Apparently, the dungeon had a subcategory which mentioned a chance dungeon. When he asked Rihala about it, she explained it meant the dungeon had a chance to spawn a boss five levels higher than them.
“Shall we?” He glanced at Rihala’s mesmerizing lavender eyes as she studied the dungeon’s entrance. She knew many things, despite being a low-level demon. Maybe her mom really knew all those things she kept talking about.
“Yes, Noah. For the Zedusa’s sake.” She stepped through the cave door and vanished.
Noah followed her.
The first thing Noah noticed was a red bar at the top of his vision. It was small but filled his complete vision when focused. It was the dungeon progression bar. He willed it away, and it settled below his health bar. He willed the interface to disappear entirely. A couple days back he’d learned this, and it was proving useful to prevent unwanted notifications during combat. He had managed to reduce them previously, but losing the whole interface made his vision sharper and more lifelike. He could forget he was in a game this way.
Noah studied the room they were in. It was a small room, filled with green mushrooms and sponge-like plants covering three of the walls. The fourth wall was filled with a bookshelf containing dozens of books.
The mushrooms glowed with a faint green light. Noah peeled one, and a property appeared.
Healing herb: Can restore 5 life upon consumption.
“Look at this.” He held the fungus out to Rihala. “It will restore five health.”
Rihala grabbed it and threw it away. “Don’t touch anything. My mom says level restricted dungeons are mostly filled with illusion magic. We have to be careful in here.” Her voice was filled with care, and it touched Noah’s heart.
“Are they?” Noah trudged forward and tried to pick up a book. His hand moved through the bookshelves like it passed through the air. The books were all fake. An illusion. “You’re right. We need to be careful around anything we see.”
Rihala approached the only other door present in the room carefully. Her tail moved in the air on its own and wrapped around her waist as she inched closer to the door. Maybe it, too, sensed they were moving into danger.
Putting that thought aside, Noah followed her. The door led them to another cave opening. Rihala stood in front of it like a statue in a museum.
“Rihala?” Noah touched her shoulder, pushing her slightly aside so he could look at the cave room. His legs froze in place when he spotted why Rihala was standing still. The opening lead to a small room covered in stone walls. A door was visible at the other end of the room. The floor of the room was covered in patches of lava. One of his zombie rats stumbled forward and landed on one of the patches. The next moment, their lungs filled with the smell of rotten flesh, disgusting and choking. “What the heck? How are we supposed to cross this? Fly?”
“I don’t know. When I tried to touch it, my skin burned.” She extended her hand. The scorch marks on her fingers perturbed his heart.
“Please don’t do that again.” He brushed her palm with his thumb.
She nodded. “But there is no way to the other side. Even the ground between the lava is scorching.”
“Do you have anything with big ice damage? Like making frost on the surface?”
“Ice shot may produce that effect. But I doubt it would be sufficient.”
“Let’s try.”
Rihala pulled her bow from her back and nocked an arrow. Then she paused, closing her eyes and chanting something. The arrowhead started glowing blue. At first it was just a tiny point, but as the time passed, it transformed into a circle encapsulating the whole arrowhead, and then the blue lines started flowing from Rihala’s hand toward the arrowhead, infusing it with some energy. Ten seconds later, Rihala shot the a
rrow a couple feet away from them. The moment it hit the ground, frost spread across the surface, covering a half-foot-wide area around the arrow head.
Noah was about to jump with joy, but then the ice melted like cheese on a hot pan. Noah loved cheese, but he hadn’t seen it anywhere in the game world yet. One more thing added to his bucket list of things to do before getting back to real life. When he’d first entered the game, he’d looked forward to the day he would be out in the real world. But lately, not so much.
One of the threads binding him there was standing right next to him.
Damn, Noah! Get those thoughts out of your shitty head, and concentrate on the task ahead. You have to go back to the human side, and these two problems stand in the way of your goal.
“We’ve got more trouble.” Rihala’s voice trembled with fear.
Noah’s eyes flicked in the direction she was staring. Multiple rats were standing at the other corner of the room, glaring at them with gloomy eyes. But they weren’t normal rats. Their skin was covered in fiery patches.
Noah shot a poison orb, hitting one. A quick look at damage notification revealed,
You have dealt 63 damage to level 5 fire rat.
A quick cast of perception told him that rats had 400 life each, and there were six of them heading slowly toward them. Noah hit one of them with a fire ball curse, but it dealt only 10 damage. His guess was right; the rats were resistant to fire damage, and that meant... “Rihala, can you shoot one of those with your one second ice shot arrow?” She’d once told him that the extra boom ice shot required 10 seconds preparation, but she could use that skill at low power if she fired it within one second.
“That skill is ineffective against level 5 enemies, even with the added damage of the rare bow. My mom says don’t waste anything.”
“Just try it, babe. And for God’s sake forget your mom sometimes,” Noah replied, irritated.
Rihala gave him a scorching glare. He had crossed the line.