by Elian Tars
And why would she want to deprive me of my rebirth energy anyway? We were still allies, albeit forced ones.
I was 95% sure that Una had nothing to do with this; not 100% though, one should always keep an eye on her. And why was that? It was simple math — after I was informed about the destruction of my resurrection point, I was told that I had lost 10% of my rebirth energy. I assumed that the energy that returned to me was the one that my resurrection point contained. I checked it and found out that I got 30% of it back, which meant that the destroyed resurrection point was at the hunter’s lodge, into which I had invested 40%. If the point in question was the cemetery one, which had 30% of energy left, then 20% would have been returned to me.
I felt somehow relieved to know that my ally hadn’t done me any harm. We were about to reach the decayed lands and real difficulties lay before us, I wouldn’t like to think that the Followers of Rugus were my enemies. However, the situation had only become worse. Who knew about my resurrection point at the hunter’s lodge? Only Vella and Ilsa. The first was free of suspicion, but the second… Hmm, the girl was a ranger in Ekheim. They had a new government there now… Yeah, Carl Tsunter must have already reached the town and has most likely conquered it without much difficulty. Those very captains that had sworn their allegiance to the baron could have easily ordered the guards to open the gates and surrender their weapons. And then the Iron Masks, getting near Ekheim, would have met no resistance. And as soon as it becomes clear that the enemy is already within the town walls and that the former mayor is dead — few people will be willing to waste their lives fighting an unfair battle with the captors.
Even if everything were to end quickly, and if the baron takes Ekheim under his control, he would hardly have time to put me on the wanted list and start gathering information about the mysterious “Secretive Bale”. And even if Ilsa immediately went to the new town governor and told him where and under what circumstances she had seen me, it all would have taken at least a couple of days…
So what other option was there then? Maybe it some stray decayed Bear destroyed it by accident? Might as well be…
Lost in thought, I didn’t immediately realize when came to a halt.
“Rest!” Una commanded. “We’ll rest for two and a half hours. We’re not far from the border of Decay. Can you smell it?”
“Do you want to go into the dead lands at night?” Hulne asked in surprise and dismounted.
“I don’t,” the girl answered calmly. “But we don’t have a choice. We can’t wait till morning. Who knows when the baron’s people will get here? Yes, we had a head start, but we shouldn’t risk it unnecessarily.”
Shaking my head, I looked intently at her. If my calculations are correct, even if we set off in the morning, we would still be ahead of our pursuers. She was obviously aware of it, but was still worried about it which could only mean that she had her reasons for it. God damn it, I was getting tired of not knowing things.
“Una,” I said as calmly as I could, “what’s the rush? Explain, please.” I didn’t care if I would come off as a silly little chap. I needed more information.
Berg kept silent. It seemed like he didn’t fully understand her reasoning either. Maybe my question wasn’t so silly after all.
“That’s right, the enemy can’t get ahead of us,” the healer answered, getting off her horse. “It’s also true that teleports are a rare thing. But we can’t say for sure that there Tsunter doesn’t have someone in his group who can open portals. Though it’s impossible to get everywhere with it, we can’t say for sure that they didn’t use one to get closer to us.”
“In other words,” I tried to summarize the information that I had got, “one needs… Let’s say, a landmark to teleport?” Una nodded. “And someone in his group could have such a mark not far from our treasure or somewhere in the middle of our way?” Another nod. I pondered and remembered something else. “But how were you able to teleport back to the cemetery? Do you have a landmark there?”
Una hesitated for a moment and then answered that she could only teleport only to Rugus’s Abode. However, there had been a residual trace left at the place from which she teleported from, which allowed her return to it within an hour and a half after teleporting to the Abode.
During the halt, Hulne and Jerome took turns keeping watch. I somehow managed to calm myself down, have a snack and get some sleep.
I woke up when Una, Berg and Hule, who was done with his shift, were still sleeping. I was worried about everything. I nodded to the sullen Jerome, drank some wine and opened the skills menu. If anything could give me some confidence, it was the feeling of my own strength. Let’s see what level 5 Gloominess had given me.
The Aura of Darkness
Level 1
Sustainable
Cost: 2 mana per second
Range: 15 feet
All who are under the effect of the “Aura” have a 1% of receiving either “Horror” or “Tranquility” status effects, depending on their loyalty to the Darkness. If “Tranquility” hits and the person takes your side, the acceleration of regeneration of all of their stats will increase.
Cooldown: 1 second
Cost to unlock: 3 skill points
To simplify, every second there was a chance that those within the range of the Aura would receive either Horror or Tranquility. The chance wasn’t too high, especially in a one-to-one battle. But, the more rational the being within Aura’s range the more effective it would be.
I glanced at the word “tranquility” and chuckled. The system chose a rather strange term to describe the skill. The standard Tranquility of Darkness “calmed down” the enemies loyal to Darkness and make them stopped fighting. But, thank the Old Man, it didn’t work the same way on my allies who were loyal to Darkness. An attempt to accelerate their regeneration during combat would’ve left me with a crowd of infantile spectators otherwise. This skill granted me, and those who were on my side, not the “tranquility” that bordered slackness, but the one that was born from your confidence in your own strength.
I learned the skill without hesitation. I now had three skill points left. I decided to save them in case of emergency.
I also had six everyday points. These were a difficult problem. Everyday skills appeared in the second column only after I tried to use the Riding skill for the first time. Who knew what else could appear and what else I would need? Nothing that I had at the moment made me feel the need to upgrade it. For now, at least.
I stood up, stretched and smiled. I became much stronger in just one day. New skills, new armor… And even though some stranger destroyed my point of resurrection, I felt that, if I stayed alert, I would be able to deal anything. This world was dark and bloody, but I was glad to be here, enjoying my modest accomplishments and adventures.
“Get up, lazybones!” I said loudly, feeling a sudden surge of energy. “We have things to do!”
***
I dreaded to think how much money the Rugus’s Abode had spent on our journey; ten Glozeysk Crystals alone would’ve cost ten thousand gold pieces. Their generosity was rather suspicious. But I was sure that the Old Man knew what was going on better than I did. And he certainly knew Rugus and his schemes better.
An hour had passed since we crossed the border; we were now moving quite fast, as much as that was possible in the decayed forest. As soon as we stepped onto the Territory of Decay, I gave my treasure map to Hulne, who had the Location Tracking skill. He pointed his glowing finger at the paper and complained that I hadn’t given him the map earlier as we could have “avoided unnecessary detours”.
“You can consider your allies dimwitted and too arrogant,” I chuckled. But I was sure that all of them understood that I had my reasons to keep the map until this moment. And it wasn’t only because I didn’t trust the Followers of Rugus.
“I don’t like it…” Una said an hour later when our horses had slowed down, riding up a small hill covered with squelchy, decayed grass.
“The last group had been attacked,” the girl explained. “We haven’t. The Crystals are working properly. I haven’t seen any creatures so far. It’s clear enough that we can’t see them in the darkness, but still…”
“You’re right,” Berg said calmly, acting as a sensor device. The ranger and I decided not to hide his convenient and useful skill from our allies, but we kept silent about some details. “I want to believe.”
Oddly enough, he used a very popular quote from the old world… It grated on my ears. I looked with interest at the back of Una’s neck. She didn’t even flinch or chuckle. Heh, I’d love to see her face right now.
“Wolves, Bears, Spiders… They simply scatter, as they should when there’s a working Glozeysk Crystal nearby,” the ranger went on in an even tone.
“Do you think that they won’t try to stop us?” I heard Jerome’s voice behind my back.
“I doubt it,” Una said, sounding tense. “If this Mother of the Decayed that Bale had told us about really controls all the creatures of Decay and is capable of gathering XP, she will most likely gather everyone she can near the treasure.”
The horses reached the top of the hill and broke into a trot. It was much harder to talk now.
Soon we got to the river, rode along the shore a little, trying to find a ford. It was difficult to do in the decayed forest at night. Almost impossible. But we couldn’t let ourselves wait till dawn. Finding the right place, Hulne turned his horse to the river; the others followed the leading man.
We got to the other bank of the river and continued our journey. Our route was different from the one that Vella and I had taken. However, all the decayed lands looked alike.
At least I thought so until we found ourselves in front of a decayed field. It was black and stinky, with geysers that spewed acid-green slush… At least we could let our horses run at full speed.
Half an hour later, we saw an abandoned village to the left of us. The dawn broke and we could all see the fat Spiders roaming about. The Decayed looked at us lazily though the holes in the roofs and walls of the half-decayed houses.
“Disgusting creatures…” Jerome hissed.
We were in the forest again. For some reason, there were a lot of cobwebs on the trees here; decayed Bears and Wolves would occasionally appear in our peripheral vision. There were mostly Spiders there.
Yet again Hulne took out the map and pointed at it with his glowing finger.
“We’re almost there.”
“Stay alert!” Una ordered.
We rode cautiously through the sparse, gloomy underbrush for a couple of more minutes when Berg said in surprise:
“Perhaps it’s this way.” Following his forefinger I saw a tower, rising above the trees. Or rather, something that used to be a tower a long time ago, but now looked like a high lopsided candle, all covered with cobweb.
“I hate spiders!” Jerome spat angrily.
“Dismount!” Una ordered and added in a low voice: “I don’t need us to lose our horses.”
Last time we were left without horses because the Glozeysk Crystals stopped working, and the poor horses got under the Effect of Decay. If we quickly get what we came for, there’s a good chance that we’ll get to ride back home.
Looking around and trying to move noiselessly, we came to the foot of the high hill, on top of which stood a lonely tower.
“For crying out loud…” Jerome helplessly muttered, looking at the horde of Spiders. The giant arthropods were everywhere — on the hill around the tower, on the tower itself, and even on the trees. However it looked like they weren’t going to attack us for now.
“It was the same the last time,’ Berg said. “Though there are twice as many creatures now.”
“We don’t know if they’ll attack us when we get near the entrance of the tower, as has happened in your case,” Una mused and, turning around abruptly, glanced at us with a troubled look. “Listen to me,” she blurted. “If we have to fight, and I’m sure we will, our goal is not to kill the entire horde, which would be impossible for the five of us, but to give Bale a possibility to get inside. And you,” the girl poked my chest with her finger, “don’t waste your time on them. Leave the creatures to us and get the artifact. But be quick. Get back as soon as you find it!”
“I kind of wasn’t planning on going on an excursion,” I chuckled.
“Fine then,” Una nodded.
“Am I going first?” Hulne asked, materializing a long, two-handed sword. An unusual choice for a Follower of Rugus. Though… He wore chest armor, and he did upgrade his strength. He had to be a mighty opponent in close combat.
“Wait,” Una looked at me again. I nodded silently, understanding what she was waiting for. We had already discussed the debuffs and even managed to do some training.
I cast the accelerated regeneration onto the whole group. Surprisingly enough, they were all loyal to the Darkness. Though, maybe it was like that because our Patrons were allies now.
“Well, now it’s definitely the time to go!” Hulne chuckled and, waving his hand at us, ran toward the top of the hill.
Chapter 7
Breakthrough
Unfortunately, we were right. The creatures of Decay weren’t going to stand idly and they attacked Hulne right away. The moment he got some sixty feet near from the tower, several Spiders threw webs at him, and more than a half of them rushed into close combat.
With a surprising ease, Hulne dodged the sticky web and rushed at the enemy with a battle cry. The blade of his two-handed sword got covered with lilac haze, and Hulne waved his control magic imbued blade at the first row of enemies. Slashing through their decayed bodies, like hot knife through butter, the haze dissolved, and the creatures slowed down considerably.
That was a very interesting way of using his magic… Una, the Mayor Elliot and Dina made the enemies fight each other, but Hulne used his abilities to make the enemies attack him, thus agroing them. He wasn’t just surrounding himself with enemies; he was making them an easy target by slowing them down. More importantly, the second and the third rows were bumping at the “controlled” ones and couldn’t reach Hulne. All he needed to do now just strike.
If he wasn’t doing badly on his own, then with the support of three ranged fighters he would become unstoppable. Una controlled four Spiders at once, covering the swordsman’s back and making a passage for herself in case she needed to get close to him and recover his HP. Berg, as a true damage dealer should, shot the enemy tanker. Jerome was covering Hulne’s back, pulling away the most zealous arthropods and stirring discord into their ranks, making them fight each other every here and there.
The guys were doing well for now, but the sheer amount of the Decayed will eventually overpower them. My brothers, and sister, in arms would soon get tired and lose.
Waiting until almost all of the Spiders were distracted by the group, I activated Blind Eye and rushed to the tower. The skill wasn’t very effective against animals due to their keen sense of smell and hearing, but the ongoing pandemonium would definitely make me more invisible.
I reached the top of the hill without having to fight anyone. I froze in bewilderment in front of the cobweb covered walls — there was no entrance. I ran around the tower; Blind Eye wore off, but I still found no door. I glanced down the hill; one of the Spiders managed to glue Hulne’s feet to the ground, but he kept his wits about him, materialized the Simplified Torch of Incessant Fire and, activating the flame, burned down the cobweb in no time.
Despite the fact that this web had a 10 second long immunity to physical damage, fire got rid of it in no time. That was why Una gave each of us a torche that she brought from Rugus’s Abode. Without thinking twice, I took out mine. “Activate the flame” I mentally ordered and ran around the tower. If the cobweb was simply hiding the entrance, I would find it quickly.
I heard the ominous clicking of mandibles. I turned round,
instantly replacing the torch with the trident, and prepared to meet my enemy face to face.
Three Spiders, which had been motionlessly hanging upside down from the tower’s wall and watching the fight until now, decided to climb down and greet me. Two of them were already moving through the decayed grass, and the third froze on the wall behind its companions, some fifteen feet above the ground.
The Spiders were level 49, 50 and 51 respectively, and they had me surrounded. Impressive. Had they attacked me yesterday I wouldn’t have been able to live through this fight, but things were different now.
The effect didn’t work on any of the creatures at first, which really wasn’t surprising. I dashed forward, holding my weapon with both hands. The way my new skill was executed reminded of Power Strike — a wide step forward with the right foot and an upward strike with the trident. The only difference was that you needed to feel the streams of energy and make it flow through the shaft and the prongs.
“Trident of Darkness”
The prongs of Dagon Slayer’s Trishula were enveloped in black smoke; a moment later, they pierced through the chitinous carapace of the huge Spider. I hit its breast the moment the arthropod slightly lifted the upper part of its body with the intent to bury me under its heavy carcass. The Decayed screeched and two black rays burst out of its back, striking the other creatures.
You have dealt 308 points of damage to the main target.
You have dealt 50 points of damage to the secondary target.