Well, I guess we’re back to this choice again, I said to myself as I brought up the skills and abilities available for me to spend my skill point on, noticing that it was the same list as when I had turned level fifteen. Staring at the list blankly for a second, I found my eyes ignoring all the other options and shifting towards the trait that I had begrudgingly passed up before, reading over it again to refresh my memory.
Mana Devourer
Type: Trait, Special
Duration: Permanent
Trait Requirement: Die from the effects of Mana Void.
Description: You have experienced the depths of your body’s hunger for mana firsthand as it consumed your flesh and blood, feeling something stir deep within you. Even now, recovered from your ordeal you can’t quite shake the feeling that there is something just past your perception, something more that you could tap into…or allow to tap into you.
Effect: Unknown
I still don’t feel any more confident about this Trait looking at it a second time around, I thought, trying to tease any sort of hint or insight about what the trait might bring if I chose it. Breaking it down based on the requirements, it seems like it has more to do with Mana Void Trait rather than my Ætherwarped one. But does that mean if I take the trait that it’ll only improve my mana draining abilities and nothing else? Or will it have something to do with that ghoul form that I transformed into when I ran out of mana? Or maybe a combination of both?
Shaking my head at all the questions that had popped into my mind, I realized that I wasn’t going to find a logical solution to my problem, to somehow discover what the game was purposefully hiding from me. The Trait was designed to be a leap of faith, to give me an option to explore the strange circumstances that had given me my mana draining ability and see what lay beyond it.
The question simply was, did I want to?
“Fuck it,” I whispered to myself as I made a snap decision and quickly assigned the skill point, going as far to confirm the choice before I spent any more time endlessly overanalyzing it.
“Hmm?” Halcyon asked, turning his head to look at me. “Did you say something, Lyr?”
“Only to my—” I started to say before I felt something stir inside of me, causing my stomach to twist with nausea as a powerful, all-consuming wave of hunger came over me. Gasping from the sudden sensation, I stopped walking and gripped my stomach, unable to help but feel a sense of panic shoot straight through me. But before I could do or say anything else, a spike of pain shot through my head, forcing me down onto my knees in agony, feeling as if razor sharp claws were dragging themselves along the insides of my skull.
This almost feels like what happened after I respawned from the fight with Carver, just…worse! I thought, the painful memory flashing through my mind. So complete and consuming was the pain, that I barely felt Halcyon grab me by the shoulders, only vaguely recalling it after the fact. As the seconds passed, the pain began to mercifully fade, leaving only the faint sensation of hunger behind as if I had recently missed a meal.
“Lyr! Are you okay?!” I heard Halcyon’s shout as a cool flowing sensation came over me. “What’s going—hey! What are you doing? Hold up! Stop!”
I felt a sharp tug pull me forward, causing me to lose my balance and catch myself with one hand against the ground, the other holding onto something that continued to try and yank itself backward. Not understanding what was happening, I looked up and saw that my hand had wrapped itself around Halcyon’s forearm and was squeezing tightly, an expression of pain written across my friend’s face.
“Shit!” I cursed in surprise as I saw what was happening and forced my hand to let go, the cool flowing sensation that had been coursing through my body vanishing the moment I broke contact, leaving me feeling satiated and no longer hungry. “W-what’s going on?”
“I think that’s supposed to be my question!” Halcyon replied, stumbling backwards half a step from my sudden release before he managed to recover. “What the hell was that about? You don’t just go start stealing mana without at least a courtesy warning!”
“I-I didn’t even realize I was doing it,” I replied, holding up a hand for the mage to wait as I sorted out what I was feeling and waited for my heartrate to return to normal. “I spent my skill point on a new trait just now, and then everything went a bit off…”
“I’ll say,” Halcyon grunted as he rubbed his forearm in pain. “For a second there I thought you were going to break my arm. What Trait did you take?”
“It was the one I mentioned before. The one I wasn’t sure about,” I told the mage, taking deep breaths as I slowly regained control and tried to make sense of what I was feeling, eventually pushing myself back up onto my feet and noticing a flashing notification in my vision that was demanding my attention.
“Hang on a second,” I said as I mentally called up the prompt and saw my vision fill with text. “An alert just popped up.”
You have experienced the full depths of your body’s demand for Arcane Energy, going as far as to have it consume your very life, which has now awoken a primal hunger from within that now permanently lurks at the edges of your mind. As a result of this development, your potency of your abilities have intensified, as well as their drawbacks.
The Trait: Mana Void has been upgraded to Mana Devourer!
Mana Devourer – For as long as you have mana, you do not require to eat or drink, however as your mana reserves diminish, your hunger will increase correspondingly until it becomes impossible to ignore. Should you completely deplete your mana reserves, your body will immediately enter a feral state as it begins to consume itself at a rate of five hit points for each second in a mana deprivation state, the rate increasing by another five hit points every second afterward until at least 50% of your total mana is restored or you are consumed. All mana regeneration is permanently reduced by 100%.
The Ability: Mana Leech has been augmented!
Mana Leech – Its power enhanced by the effects of the [Mana Devourer] trait, you are now able to momentarily enhance your mana leech ability by expending your life force, allowing it to disrupt a single nearby spell. At the cost of 8% of your total health, you are now able to disrupt the formation of any spell within 30 feet, absorbing 50% of mana used to cast it, and prevent your target from casting spells for the next two seconds. Due to its strain on your body, this ability can only be used once every five minutes.
You have learned the new Ability: Mana Torrent
Mana Torrent – By fueling the ever-present hunger that now lurks within your body with your life force, you are able to momentarily draw in all nearby sources of mana directly towards you and absorb it. At the cost of 20% of your total health, this ability will instantly drain all mana sources within a 15-foot radius of you for 200% of your [Mana Leech] rate, and temporarily disrupt the formation of any spells for the next three seconds. Due to the strain on your body, this ability can only be used once an hour.
“Huh,” I grunted as I finished reading the update and dismissed it from my vision.
“Good news?” Halcyon asked, his voice sounding a mix between curious and concerned.
“It…not bad actually,” I replied with a note of surprise as I gave the mage an outline of everything that I’d just read. “The only downside I can see is that I actually feel hungry again, but for mana instead of food. It feels similar to what I felt when I’d lost control during the first battle with Carver, but nowhere as intense.”
“And you think that will change depending on how much mana you have left?” Halcyon asked, homing in on one of the things that I’d mentioned in my explanation.
“That what it sounds like,” I said with a nod, unsure of how I felt about that particular development. At the moment, the newly awakened hunger was barely noticeable in the back of my mind, yet I couldn’t help but wonder how that would change as I used up my mana pool. “Though we’ll have to see how that works in practice.”
“Well, we have a few seconds right now,�
�� Halcyon said, waving at the still assembling raid in the distance. “Cast a spell now and see what it’s like so it doesn’t surprise you later. I can top you up afterward.”
“Good idea,” I replied, pausing for a moment as I considered what spell to use, eventually settling on Lesser Shielding due to its larger mana cost. Casting the spell, I felt the protective shield fall over me, followed a heartbeat behind by the hunger intensifying as I went from being satiated to feeling like I should find something to eat soon.
“It’s noticeable,” I told Halcyon, who offered me an arm to replenish my mana. “But it’s not too bad at the start; it’ll likely get more and more intense the less mana that I have.”
“That makes sense,” he agreed, wincing slightly as I briefly absorbed enough mana from him to replace what I’d used to cast the spell, the spike in hunger that I’d felt fading away. “Though that Torrent ability that you said you got should really help keep your mana levels up.”
“Yeah,” I said while nodding in thanks to the mage as I released his arm. “It has a pretty steep cost in health…but I have a few ideas of how to put it to good use, I’ve seen similar abilities in other games before.”
“I remember too,” Halcyon commented. “And with that in mind, I’m happy you’re on our side. You’re shaping up to be a regular mage slayer, Lyr.”
“I guess I am, aren’t I?” I replied, realizing that my friend’s assessment was true. With my mobility and speed, combined with my mana draining and now spell interrupts, I was a living nightmare for a caster to face. I could get into melee range fast, and then negate anything that they did long enough to inflict serious harm if they didn’t have any support nearby. “Though that’s probably the role that Spellswords would have normally fit into anyway. I just have a few extra tricks that make me stand out.”
“Maybe,” Halcyon agreed as he motioned for us resume our journey back towards the raid. “Though I think everyone is going to start coming into their class roles in the next few levels. I remember overhearing people talking about their new class skills back at level fifteen, and a little bit more now with this point we just got. Options for spell interrupts, buffs, and crowd control abilities or spells are starting to become available.”
“And that doesn’t even include whatever we’ll find at level twenty,” I said, nodding in sync with the man’s train of thought. “And then past that…it’s only nine levels away until we hit our Advanced Class.”
“Definitely looking forward to that,” Halcyon said excitedly. “Though that is probably ages away. It took us two months to get this far after all.”
“That’s true,” I acknowledged. “Though what I wouldn’t give for two months of peace, just to catch up.”
“I hear you, Lyr,” Halcyon said. “But something tells me that’s just not in the cards for the next little while.”
“Probably not,” I agreed with a heavy sigh, Carver and his gang appearing at the forefront of my mind. Even if we managed to stop them here today, we’d have to start looking for their base again right away. They’d proved today that they were simply too dangerous to leave unattended.
Walking the final distance back to the raid in silence, we eventually spotted Constantine, Lazarus and Amaranth standing together in a half circle, with a smattering of the other Adventurers from the raid milling around. Everyone seemed to be interested in coming by to peek into the bag that the two were holding, before moving off to excitedly chat with their respective groups. Curious to what was going on, I motioned for Halcyon to follow me as we approached.
“Want to see the loot, Lyr?” Constantine asked as we approached. “Sierra and the others are just consolidating the last few groups that are missing their leaders or have taken too many losses. We figured we could show everyone else what The Beast dropped while we waited. It was a pretty good haul, though before you get too excited, it’s more crafting stuff and its skull…plus…something else that we’re really not sure of.”
“What exactly aren’t you sure of?” I queried, only to see both Lazarus and Constantine shrug in response.
“Take a look,” Lazarus said to me, shaking the loot bag he was holding. “You’ll see.”
“Uh, okay,” I replied, taking a step forward to peer inside the pack and seeing a list of items appear in my vision.
Pristine Drake Scale
Quantity: 180
Item Class: Magical
Item Quality: Mythical (+30%)
Weight: 60 kg
Pristine Drake Fang
Quantity: 32
Item Class: Magical
Item Quality: Mythical (+30%)
Weight: 10 kg
Pristine Drake Talon
Quantity: 20
Item Class: Magical
Item Quality: Mythical (+30%)
Weight: 10 kg
Pristine Drake Bone
Quantity: 120
Item Class: Magical
Item Quality: Mythical (+30%)
Weight: 60 kg
The Beast’s Skull
Item Class: Trophy
Weight: 10 kg
Greater Essence of Ferocity
Quantity: 4
Item Class: Magical
Item Quality: Mythical (+30%)
Weight: N/A
“Essence of Ferocity?” I asked, looking at the two who then shrugged back at me. “That’s similar to the essence that we found from the Specters in the ruins.”
“Seems like it, Lyr,” Constantine said. “But…what is it for? And why did The Beast drop it? Wasn’t that like…an undead spirit thing?”
“Guess not if we’re seeing it here,” I replied, it being my turn to give the pair a shrug. “I have no idea.”
“Best guess is that it has something to do with crafting that we haven’t figured out yet,” Halcyon suggested as he finished looking through the loot bag. “Maybe for one of the Advanced Tradeskills, like Enchanting or Runecrafting?”
“Huh, I forgot about those,” Constantine said, glancing over to one side as he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. “Well, at any rate, it looks like that’s going to go on the back burner for now. Because unless I’m mistaken, we’re ready to move.”
Turning my head to follow his gaze, I saw that Sierra and the others had just emerged from the raid with a handful of the group leaders following closely behind them. Spotting the five of us right away, it didn’t take long for all of them to make their way to us.
“We’ve managed to get everyone who’s still standing sorted out and are ready to go,” Sierra said by way of greeting. “You guys have everything you need from that Runestone?”
“Yep,” I replied, without a moment’s hesitation.
“We’re all set,” Halcyon confirmed a moment afterward.
“Great,” she stated, giving the both of us a nod, then shifted her attention over towards Lazarus and Constantine. “All the loot is accounted for?”
“It is,” Lazarus replied.
“Perfect. Unless anyone else has something they need doing…?” Sierra let the question hang as she looked around the group, giving time for anyone to speak up if they had any concerns. A few seconds of silence passed as everyone around us shook their heads and stayed silent.
“Alright then,” the red-haired elf said, breaking the silence as she gave us all one last look.
“Let’s go find Carver.”
Chapter 54
It had only been a handful of minutes since we’d left The Beast’s lair. Minutes that had the jungle blurring past us as we recklessly blazed a path through it, sacrificing any pretense of stealt
h in favor of raw speed. The few spirits or creatures finding themselves unlucky enough to be in our path barely had time to process their mistake before a veritable avalanche of Adventurers trampled them.
Yet despite the progress that we were making, it was the most recent turn of events that had me holding my breath in anticipation of what I would find next. Up until just a few moments earlier, our sprint through the jungle had largely included us cutting our own trail through the heavy overgrowth as we headed in the direction of the Ley Line, at least until Amaranth had announced he had caught the scent of several unfamiliar beings, mixed in along with the smell of smoke. With the entire raid following behind me and this being the deepest that any of us had ever ventured into the Grove, that bit of news could have only meant one thing.
We’d caught wind of Carver’s trail.
Shifting to follow the scent, I ordered for Amaranth to scout ahead and to report back on what he’d found as I followed with the rest of the raid.
And here we are, I thought as I cautiously stepped out of the overgrowth with Splinter held high and into a newly trampled clearing, my eyes scanning the area around me and seeing signs of recent battle. Almost all the vegetation nearby was either in tatters, trampled flat, or singed from a blast of magic. It looks like a portion of Carver’s group was jumped by a bunch of the Grove creatures or spirits and were forced to fight.
Legacy of the Fallen (Ascend Online Book 2) Page 74