by Elian Tars
It was a stupid, difficult, and useless thing to do. Yes, I was fully aware of that, but what else could I have done? I lived in this game now and I had to treat those around me well. Especially the dead; they certainly didn’t have any tricks up their sleeves.
“Woof!” the dog barked happily.
“Hush!” Vella looked down guiltily, but not for long. In a few seconds, she was already next to me, digging a pit with enthusiasm.
Her mighty paws, big as buckets, easily broke through the dry soil. I got distracted watching her dig and unwittingly stopped doing it myself. But Vella wasn’t offended that she was the only one working.
“Keep digging and don’t get distracted,” I said, stepping back into the house.
I didn’t know much about medicine, and didn’t know the laws of nature of this world. I had heard you could catch a disease from dead bodies, so I wrapped my hands in a rag, just in case. I doubted very much that it could replace the rubber gloves of a pathologist, but wearing it made me calmer. Admittedly, dragging the dead, torn up bodies was a weird kind of fun, too.
By the time the former owners of the house were lying outside, Vella had just finished with their graves.
“That’s enough,” I grunted. “We’ve also got to bury them.”
I threw the poor souls into the pit, and we started the next part of the funeral. Thirty minutes later, a small mound had been raised on the edge of the clearing.
“I should make a tombstone,” I told the dog. She barked softly, and I suddenly realized that I had been talking to her too much. The lack of normal human communication, even through messengers and social networks, could drive almost anyone crazy. From time to time, I would check the bars representing my needs. The “Communication" scale was slowly, but surely, sinking. While I had been in Trikuni, it had filled up slightly, and now it was dropping again. Thanks to the dog, though, it was dropping slower than before.
We wandered a little through the woods near the house and soon came across a large, angular boulder. Bending down, I grabbed it and, without straining my muscles, I mentally sent it to my inventory. Oddly enough, it worked. After I got back, I materialized the stone the same way at the head of their grave and made sure to strew some dirt on it.
Synchronization with the body has reached 30%.
Wow... That was unexpected. Did Bon appreciate my respect for the dead? A pleasant combination of circumstances had just given me +1 to my intelligence.
I hadn’t decided to bury the mutilated couple purely for altruistic and aesthetic reasons. I had an idea how to use the burial for practical purposes, as well. I was only a little apprehensive about the fact that it was a homemade grave. Would it work?
Putting my hand on the tombstone, I pronounced clearly: “Transfer all of my rebirth energy.”
A message immediately flashed before my eyes:
It’s impossible to transfer all of your rebirth energy.
Oh hell, it didn’t work... I have been wanting to make a new resurrection point closer to the “frontline” so badly.
However, I had hardly gotten upset before I quickly realized my own mistake.
“Make this my resurrection point!” I spoke quickly, without taking my hands off the stone.
This time, I saw a different message.
How much rebirth energy would you like to transfer?
And the scale I was offered ranged from 0 to 40. I chose the maximum.
A new resurrection point has been created.
“A new” one, not “a second” one or “an additional” one…
“Transfer part of the rebirth energy from the other point to this one,” I formulated the request as clearly as possible, without taking my eyes off the tombstone.
And again, I saw the question and the scale appeared before my eyes. Only now, the maximum number was 30. Well, yes, I had left 40 at the previous point and had died once because of the bear. It was logical that the energy from the tombstone had been spent, and not the energy that was inside me. After all, if all of the energy stayed in the body, and not at a particular point, then you wouldn’t be able to resurrect.
I didn’t change anything and cancelled the transfer. I would be able to check whether I had two working resurrection points only after dying. I really hoped that this particular check would be postponed for an indefinite amount of time.
“G-R-R!!!” I heard Vella’s cautious growl behind me. Even though we had been traveling together for a short period of time, we had already experienced more than one fight. From the dog’s intonation, I knew at once that an enemy was nearby.
Instantly turning around, I took the crossbow out of my inventory and started inspecting everything. Crouched low to the ground, the dog was growling, glaring toward the left, between the pine trees. Branches snapped and my old friend, the bear, rushed out of the forest with a roar.
“Get it!” I commanded, firing a bolt into the chest of the Decay’s creature.
Rushing toward the bear, Vella closed the distance in one jump and, dodging the sweeping blow of a large paw, latched onto her enemy’s throat.
I quickly reloaded the crossbow and shot it again. Growling even louder, the creature of Decay rose up on its hind legs without much trouble. The dog hung from the neck of the huge, stinking beast like a keychain.
“R-r-r-a-a!!!” raising its muzzle, the decayed bear roared and got its front legs’ claws into Vella’s neck. The dog’s HP was slowly depleting, as was the bear’s.
You have dealt 17 points of damage.
I reloaded the crossbow again. I had no special skills to use when firing, plus the bear’s natural armor had absorbed part of the damage. I cursed mentally.
Still, the creature would quickly lose its HP. We would win.
As soon as I thought about it, the bear stopped howling for a moment, lowered its head, looked at my dog, and made a barely audible growl. I didn’t understand what the decayed beast was doing right away, but after a couple of seconds, it got Vella off its neck, although not without difficulty, and lifted her up.
With all its might, it threw the dog onto the ground in front of it.
“Wooo…” the dog whined, trying to get back up.
But she couldn’t. The creature of Decay began to tear into my companion with its powerful hooked claws.
Instantly realizing that I could no longer stand on the sidelines, I rushed to aid Vella, replacing the crossbow with my pitchfork along the way. I reached the bear and, tightly gripping the shaft with both hands, activated a skill, striking upward as I skidded to a stop.
“Power Strike” activated.
You have dealt 98 points of critical damage.
Great! Unfortunately, the bear still had about half of its HP left. I could, of course, use the bombs that I had gotten from Tael, but in such a situation, they would hit Vella, too. Those kinds of methods should surely be reserved for the most extreme cases.
I pulled the pitchfork out of the bear’s side and quickly jumped away. Acid-green slush gushed out from the wound, immediately corroding the grass. If any of it got on me, I would have lost some of my HP. Been there, done that. Even though Vella and I hadn’t encountered such powerful creatures of Decay on our way to the house, the “blood” of a Spider, not a Little Spider, had had a similar effect.
My attack provoked the bear. It turned away from the dog and glanced angrily at me with its filmy eyes and swung a paw at me. My upgraded agility allowed me to evade its swipe and counterattack.
“G-r-r-a-a!!!” the decayed beast roared, looking into my eyes. Completely forgetting about Vella, it jumped up on its hind legs and charged at me.
We clashed in a furious melee, one-on-one. The bear attacked and I managed to evade some of its strikes, but the bear couldn’t avoid mine because it was too big of a target.
I had become stronger since our last meeting; my HP and my strength, and with it, the damage I dealt had increased; but the main thing was that, upon getting a skill point when I reached level 19,
I upgraded Dark Part of the World to level 2. Now it looked like this:
Dark Part of the World
Level 2
Passive skill
Noticeably reduces the effectiveness of any natural negative status effects, except those caused by the power of the Gods. The chance of fully blocking such effects is 15%.
This effect had indeed worked, blocking one of the bear’s Sweeping Claw Strike of Decay. A little later I was hit, of course, by the second one, but there was also something to be happy about even then.
You have received 67 points of damage.
The effect of Decay has been weakened. You’ll receive 7 points of damage every 5 seconds for the next 30 seconds.
If I wasn’t mistaken, he had done more damage to me before, and the effect of his attack had been more pronounced, too.
But I could still lose. I already had less than half of my HP. Two or three more blows, or a critical one, and I would be a goner. I would most likely, of course, be resurrected immediately with full HP, but that would spend some of my rebirth energy, and I still didn’t know how to restore it.
“Power Strike”.
You have dealt 49 points of damage.
Dodge! Another poke with the pitchfork!
You have dealt 29 points of damage.
“Gr-r-r!!!” roared the bear and, to my surprise, took two steps back. After getting some distance between us, it plopped down on its front paws and stared at me with its bleary eyes. The skin of the beast began to burst, and the body started getting covered with bubbling, acid-green goo.
Right at that moment, a greenish cloud arose behind the creature of Decay. Dark green stripes on Vella’s body were flickering, emitting gas. Hell, there were way too many shades of green around here.
Sensing danger, the bear sharply turned around. But it was too late; the wounded dog rushed forward, and as before, latched onto the neck of her opponent. Not wasting any time, I began to stab the enemy with the pitchfork. After each hit, I received 10 damage. It was probably because of the slush that was covering the creature of Decay.
Vella’s HP was plummeting, but our opponent was in an even less favorable position.
“Power Strike”.
You have dealt 49 points of damage.
You have defeated “Old Bear Changed by Decay”.
XP received: 394 (50%)
You can use the slaying skill on “Old Bear Changed by Decay”.
The defeated enemy fell dead. The disgusting slush, slowly corroding the grass, sank into the ground. I supposed nothing would grow there anytime soon.
“You did great. Well done,” I praised the dog and came over to her to scratch her neck.
Tranquility of Darkness.
It took a total of sixteen attempts to accelerate both Vella’s and my regeneration.
“Kill this beast, please,” I said, throwing a glance at the bear.
The dog gladly sunk her teeth into the bear’s throat and, tearing out a huge chunk of rotten flesh, started to chew, and then swallow. I was a little bit stressed about her diet. Of course, I didn’t have to think about feeding her, and with so many creatures attacking us, she would always find something to eat, but still…
After taking a couple more bites, the happy dog barked and went off to sniff the countryside. There was no need to worry about her; she would smell the enemies coming from afar.
***
After defeating the bear, I decided not to go anywhere and spend the evening in the house. I ate, read a little, and went to sleep in the bed in the former homeowner’s bedroom. I didn’t know why, but I was able to relax and sleep so well that I didn’t have any dreams. In the morning, I woke up cheerful and ready to tackle new challenges.
When I went down to the first floor, Vella was waiting for me there, breathing loudly, sticking out her tongue, and wagging her tail in a friendly manner. We had a quick snack; I had dry bread, cheese and meat, and Vella was content with the remains of the bear in the yard. She ate all kinds of nasty stuff! Seriously, she was the spitting image of a labrador.
Going out into the yard, I took out Jason’s map. I looked at the mark for some time, figuring out the way. In the end, I decided to go straight.
Just a few minutes later, Vella and I stopped at the border of Decay. From a distance, it looked way too sharp. Up close, it was clear that the luscious grass was gradually losing its brightness, becoming dull and yellow as it bent toward the earth, getting darker still, until it became quite black and rotten. This transition between life and death happened on a stretch of land that was about ten feet long.
The stench was terrible. The evaporations over the territory of Decay were so thick that they seemed tangible. I felt the urge to vomit, but I tried my best to keep it in. I had to explore these lands. If I ended up deterred by just a smell then nothing was going to work.
A bit accustomed to the stench, I turned to my dog. She immediately raised her head, gazing faithfully into my eyes. It seemed like the foul smell did not particularly bother this representative of dogs bred to fight the creatures of Decay.
“Listen,” I said softly, “if I die, run back to the house. I promise that I’ll resurrect and come back to you. Got it?” she thoughtfully tilted her head to the side. “And if I tell you to run home, you better run and not even think of arguing.”
“Woof!”
Well, what was that supposed to mean?
Banishing my gloomy thoughts, I straightened my back and strode forward, crossing the imaginary border.
Chapter 16
The Territory of Decay
You have set foot on the Territory of Decay.
The effect of Decay has noticeably weakened. You will be receiving 1 point of damage every 10 seconds during the next 5 minutes.
I read the system message and almost jumped with joy. After upgrading Tranquility of Darkness to level 3, stats under this spell regenerated 1 point every 8 seconds. My abilities were simply made to resist Decay!
I shook my head to get rid of these relaxing and distracting thoughts. This was just the beginning. You never know what might lie ahead.
However, nothing happened for the next half an hour. Vella and I, carefully stepping on the rotten grass, attentively looked around, trying to see the non-existent enemies behind the black trunks of the dead trees. The stench, the ringing silence that was being broken only by the gurgling of tiny geysers, spewing viscous acid-green slush, and the pressing semi-darkness, caused by the thick poisonous clouds that did not allow the sun to break through all made me feel very uneasy.
“What kind of a terrible disease is this Decay?” I muttered, looking with disgust at a mushroom that looked like a black slug. The nasty thing was about the size of volleyball.
I couldn’t understand how the world managed to be struck by such a disease. Involuntarily, I remembered games, movies and books with a similar theme... Heh, could it be a dying curse of the “Prince of Amber”? Or maybe the evil orcs, the allies of demons did this? Yeah, I would have smiled at my own associations but had I not stepped into the thick, black-and-white squelching puddle. I didn’t even want to think about what it was before it had completely rotted away.
“G-R-R-R!!!” Vella's roar broke through the air like thunder. I glanced at her sideways, and saw her crouching to the ground with her hackles up, growling in a familiar tone…
I materialized the crossbow and pointed in the direction at which my companion was cautiously looking.
The dog then moved her ear and made a sudden U-turn. I didn’t have time to follow her example, noticing ahead a black and green silhouette hidden between the trunks of the dead trees. I followed it with my eyes, and...
It disappeared!
A moment later, a disgusting, filthy mouth appeared to my left. I pulled the trigger, hitting almost point blank. I mentally started to change weapons, but didn’t manage to do so. I had to put out my hand and protect myself from the horrible jaws.
“A-a-a-ah...” I breathed out slo
wly when the powerful teeth pierced my forearm. It all felt rather familiar…
“Black Wolf Changed by Decay” used “Deadly grip”.
You have received 58 points of damage.
The effect of Decay has been weakened. You will be receiving 22 points of damage every 15 seconds for the next 30 seconds.
Finally, the pitchfork materialized in my right hand, and I swung it at the wolf’s side. There was no blood, of course, it wasn’t a skill after all.
You have dealt 17 points of damage.
You have received 12 points of damage.
Shit! As long as it held me with its teeth, my HP would continue to decrease!
“Give me the information!”
Black Wolf Changed by Decay
Level 18
HP: 597/613
I heard roaring and barking behind me. With the corner of my eye I noticed that Vella had been grappled in a tangle with the wolf that looked just like my attacker. I couldn’t expect any help from her any time soon. Shit!
The speed of the decayed wolf was noticeably higher than that of his living comrades. It was so unexpected and so stupid that I got caught having failed to dodge. I will be ready next time. If I survive till then, that is.
You have received 12 points of damage.
You have dealt 17 points of damage.
You have dealt 16 points of damage.
Because of the awkward position, the damage I had been dealing was reduced by almost a half. To smooth out this embarrassing moment, I acted like a possessed man, stabbing the enemy with the pitchfork and trying to get in at least one hit per second, all the while receiving damage from its Deadly Grip every one and a half to two seconds.
Mentally, I once again praised my increased agility. Yeah, I wasn’t able to dodge the wolf’s special skill, but the increased attack speed was now helping me a lot.
My incessant strikes were slowly depleting my energy bar, but I didn’t worry about it at all. It had never reset to zero before.
The wolf was not going to let go. I tried to calculate the results. It was tense, but I managed to pull it off. I should, in theory, win in about forty seconds. However, I would be left with very little HP.