by Aleron Kong
Richter did not have time to pay attention to the valiant efforts of his summoned creatures. With some regret in his “frugal” heart, he invested his last fifteen points into Strength. He had not wanted to invest them all in this one stat, but if he was miserly, his life might end right here, right now. This was not a time to worry about the future. With the points allocated, an honest-to-god bellow ripped itself from his throat. It was deeper than any yell he ever remembered issuing before. Power flooded his body. His physique underwent massive physical changes to accommodate his overall Strength nearly doubling in under a minute. His shoulders broadened, his arms and abs became a topographic map, and his legs bulged through the ruins of his clothing.
Suddenly, the straining battle he had been waging seemed silly. His hands had been wrapped around the ichorpede’s mandibles, fighting desperately to keep it from biting through his face. It had been all he could do to hold it back. Now though, it felt like he was fighting against a child. With a wild grin, he tightened his grip and yanked his arms wide!
The left pincer was forced wide and back. Richter felt something crack in its mouth. That was nothing compared to what happened on the right. The chaos seed ripped the mandible completely free from its head. The two-foot curved bone dripped acid from the pointed end and gushed grey blood on the other. The ichorpede squealed, a surprisingly high-pitched sound that Richter had not heard it make before. Then again, he’d never made the bug his bitch before, so the sound was perfectly understandable. His left hand was cut as it reared back in agony. He barely noticed.
While it whipped its head back and forth in terrible pain, the chaos seed rolled clear. Tumbling backwards, he pushed up in a handstand while he did, easily launching himself up and onto his feet. The ichorpede had reared up ten feet off the ground. Gushes of grey ichor sprayed side to side from the hole Richter had left in its face. For the moment at least it was ignoring him, wrapped in its own personal hell. The chaos seed did not miss the opportunity.
With one hand, he wove a quick spellform cast of Minor Slow Heal. With his Life Mastery, Richter’s spell was 50% stronger than it would have been otherwise. His Intelligence was also high, and Limitless maximized the bonus his attributes gave his spellpower. The extra 36.5% boost to his magic meant that over the next minute he would heal about one hundred and sixty points of health. The golden glow suffused his body, bringing relief from pain and a fifty-six point drop in his mana.
That done, Richter grabbed his bone club and took stock. His health was improving. He’d lost over three hundred HP during his scrape with the ichorpede. The monster’s sharp legs had wrecked the left side of his body when it had pierced him. If his skin hadn’t been thickened due to his Minor Chitin Carapace spell, the damage would have been far more extensive. It had only given his skin another four points of defense, but that had stopped the monster’s legs from hitting any major organs. With eight hundred and twelve max Health Points, he’d been able to endure the pummeling. Within the next minute, he’d restore half of what he had lost. Richter would give a lot for a health potion, but that was just one more thing he would have to go without. His stamina had dipped as well during the struggle, but it was still three-quarters full.
His mana was another story. Preparing for the battle, he’d cast a good deal of buffs. Coupled with summoning two creatures and evolving them, he’d spent nearly seven hundred mana. His mana pool was respectable at seven hundred and seventy-four, but he’d still suffered a large headache from depleting his MPs so fast. Richter had long since become accustomed to such minor annoyances. What he could not ignore was the fact that he needed mana to power his spells.
The saving grace was that he had invested a large amount of points into Wisdom. A value of forty-five, coupled with his Ring of Flowing Thought, let him regenerate thirty-two mana a minute. Compared to his initial regen rate of six MP per minute, it was blazingly fast. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t good enough to let him keep slinging spells nonstop. It would take more than twenty minutes to completely refill his tank. He didn’t have twenty seconds before he would be in battle again.
The two minutes he’d been struggling with the ichorpede had given him sixty mana, but he’d used that to cast his healing spell. Currently, he only had eighty-six points of magic to spend. That was enough to cast two rank one weak spells or maybe one rank two minor spell. That would not be enough. He’d stored a spell in his Ring of Spell Storage that he might be able to use as a trump card, but it could only store novice magic, level nine or below. He needed time!
A cracking noise drew his gaze and he saw that his thorn elemental was being ripped apart. Two ichorpedes had clamped onto it and were pulling it in two directions. Its health dropped quickly. The mesmer spider was surrounded and was only seconds from being destroyed. It did not have nearly the same defense as the evolved saproling. Worse, the ichorpede had oriented on him again, backlit by the flames. It threw the length of its body toward him. Cursing, Richter dove at and under it. A moment before it made contact, he fell into the monster’s own silhouette. He was in the shadow realm.
The first thing he did was frantically look about. This was the second time he’d broken his promise. The shadow realm was a place of intense danger where even low-level monsters could steal his life. Not only that, but it was filled with disease that could be resistant to his magic. He’d promised himself that he wouldn’t reenter the realm unless he was at his full strength. There just hadn’t been a choice though. Thankfully, his luck held. There weren’t any monsters right next to him, though that didn’t mean there weren’t any close by. For the moment, he was safe.
The body of the ichorpede fell through him, having no effect except Richter feeling a faint resistance as they passed through each other. Richter paid it no mind. Until his time in the Shadow Realm elapsed, it shouldn’t be able to hurt him. He glanced at the new icon in his vision. It was the silhouette of a man with the number “5” next to it. That was the time he had before he was ejected from this dark space. Time moved differently in the shadow realm. The last time he’d been inside it had been in the Barrow of the Chaos Serpent. When he had tamed the mauler, he’d had about five seconds of shadow time for every real world second. Hisako had told him it was variable, however, and the further removed he was from sunlight the longer the conversion would last. Keeping an eye on the timer, he started running.
Richter ran past the injured ichorpede and was about to run through the grease fire, but he felt heat even in the shadow realm. The fact that the fire could affect the shadow realm just reminded him of how much he didn’t know about the magic he was using. He could just hear the Hearth Mother’s lecturing tone. It wasn’t that she wasn’t right, but he had limited options at this point.
The chaos seed detoured around the grease fire and kept running through the cavern. A screech of pain made him look back. Three ichorpedes were attacking and eating the one he had injured. Everything else in the dungeon looked like it was moving through honey. He saw the wooden body of the thorn elemental snapping and saw a slow spray of fluid come from the mesmer spider as two of its legs were bitten off by an ichorpede. Its abdomen was also a melted mess as it suffered from the monsters’ acidic spit.
The summoned creatures had not lasted long, but they had bought him time. Initially, Richter’s goal had been to run out of the stone doorway, but as he watched, another five ichorpedes spilled through. He couldn’t take the chance of his time in the shadow realm running out when he was in the middle of enemies. Looking around, there were small holes pockmarking the walls, but half of them had ichorpedes crawling through. He was already not a huge fan of enclosed spaces, but being trapped in one with acid-spitting monsters took his aversion to a whole new level. There was only one exit that didn’t have ichorpedes streaming through it. A large and incredibly ominous hole angling down into the ground.
The further he ran from the fire, the more gloom occluded his vision. Especially in the dim Shadow Realm, it grew increasingly hard to
see. Thankfully, while most magic was suppressed in this realm, Light and Dark magic worked fine. As he sprinted to the hole, he cast Night Vision. Black energy coalesced around his fingers during the one-second cast time. The spell only cost five MP. In the midst of a battle, every point of mana could count, but it was more than worth the price.
Richter’s view became an overlay of green and black. Even the green was muted by the color suppression of the Shadow Realm. The dark hole became much easier to see into, and the chaos seed discovered why no ichorpedes were streaming out of that particular exit. The expletives that flooded the still air around him would have made an orcish sailor proud. All he could hear in his mind was Solo saying, “This is no cave.”
The entire passage was lined with teeth.
CHAPTER 2 – Day 150 – Juren 1, 0 AoC
Richter’s Analyze skill triggered.
Name: Ichorpede Queen
Disposition: Ravenous Hate
Level: 45
When ichorpede nests grow to a certain size, the strongest among them converts into a queen. Much larger and more powerful, the queen pays for this boost in power with the loss of most of her mobility. She relies on the nest to feed her, unless prey is foolish enough to enter the radius of her tentacles. Queens can drastically and quickly increase the size of nests if given enough food.
STATS
Health: 3781
Mana: 517
Stamina: 2006
ATTRIBUTES
Strength: 58
Agility: 12
Dexterity: 51
Constitution: 378
Endurance: 200
Intelligence: 50
Wisdom: 22
Luck: 21
Charisma: 4
SPECIAL ATTACKS
Tentacle Lash – Can perform powerful and acidic whip-like attack
Birth – Can quickly spawn new ichorpedes if given enough meat
The entire tunnel he’d been sprinting for was actually the mouth of the lair’s queen! His feet skidded on the loose debris littering the floor. Looking down, he cursed himself. If he’d paid a little more attention, he’d have seen that the slope leading to the queen was lined with shattered bones, rotting meat, scales and stray tufts of fur. He might as well have been standing in a medical waste trash chute. The darkness of the Shadow Realm made it a bit harder to see, but he knew he couldn’t afford any mistakes. Not down here.
As soon as he was able to stop, he started running back in the other direction. He was greeted by the entire lair of giant insects crawling over and around each other. Many of the ichorpedes were still milling around the spot where he had disappeared. Their pincers clacked and gnashed in frustration. Others were crawling around randomly. The spot that was clear was by the fire.
Looking at the ichorpedes’ avoidant behavior, he realized they had a deep-seated fear of the flames. There was no way the grease fire could do their giant bodies any real harm. It was dying down as the grease was consumed. Even at its height, it hadn’t been able to destroy the first one he’d fought. Still, their fear wasn’t too surprising. The creatures down here lived in perpetual darkness. He’d have to remember that in the future. Those thoughts swirled anecdotally in the back of his mind. None of that was as important as the icon in the corner of Richter’s vision with a “1” next to it.
“Damn!” he shouted in panic. His head darted around before throwing his body toward a curve in the wall. Thankfully, the fire hadn’t died down too much. The flames still illuminated the cavern. That meant there were areas of shadow and areas of light. If his time in the Shadow Realm elapsed while he wasn’t in a shadow he would get the mother of all debuffs, Shadow Shock. It would majorly damage his health and also decrease his ability to concentrate by 75%. Stuck in a lair, it would mean certain death. With no time to spare, he passed through the shadow of a rocky outcropping. As he phased back into existence, he used Stealth and hunched down.
The world switched back to normal colors. Richter kept his attention on the ichorpedes. There were about thirty or forty in the cavern now, crawling on the ground, walls and ceiling with equal alacrity. Thankfully, none of them seemed to be able to see him yet. The chaos seed breathed a small sigh of relief. That was when the queen’s tentacle gouged a deep furrow through the muscles in his back.
Richter has been struck with Tentacle Lash for 204 damage. 13 points of acidic damage per second for the next 11 seconds.
“Aaaaahhhhh!” he screamed. Instinct told him to roll forward. That saved his life. Three more tentacles whipped through the space where he had been hiding. Where he thought he’d been hiding, anyway. Richter spat an incantation even as tears welled unbidden in his eyes. The initial pain from the lash was horrible, but it was growing worse. He could feel the acid eating through his flesh. Luckily, he still had his Secondary Attribute Resilience to rely on. It was the kind of attribute that you rarely had to use, but was absolutely crucial when you needed it. When his body was pushed to its limits and death was only seconds away, he could push through pain and anguish to fight for just one more breath of life. Focusing his agony, he shouted, “Igni!”
Flames shot from his hand, bathing the questing tentacles. They scorched the outside of the fleshy tendrils. The damage was actually minor as each was coated in slimy acid, but the shock of the fiery pain was something the queen had never encountered before. She drew back in shock and caution, a high-pitched cry filling the air. A few seconds later, the boss monster retaliated. Forty tentacles shot out from the hole, quivering in furious rage, but Richter had already run out of her range.
As he moved he tried to reenter the Shadow Realm, but a red prompt greeted him.
Cooldown on the Ring of Shadow Shift has not elapsed. 53:17 remaining.
Shit! Richter had never tried to use the ring back-to-back because of the risk from shadow monsters. He was only now figuring out that that the cooldown was almost an hour. The ring was superb class, only one rank down from rare, but it clearly still had limitations. Pushing himself to run faster, he also cast Weak Slow Heal.
His mana dropped by another twenty points, leaving him with one hundred and three MP. It was worth it just to help alleviate the agony in his back. It didn’t neutralize the acid, but the healing magic was now combating the damage. It itched something awful, but anything was better than that melting feeling. Thankfully, the five seconds of real world time he had spent in the Shadow Realm had been almost a full minute in that dark place. That had let Richter regen about thirty MP and stamina.
The time in the Shadow Realm had also let him gain almost all of the healing from Minor Slow Heal. Of course, he’d just lost those same HPs from the queen’s lash attack. He was alive though, and he was going to stay that way. The healing-over-time effect of Minor Slow Heal lasted a minute, the same as the spell’s cooldown. That was important, because right now he had barely half his health, less than a fifth of his mana and half his stamina.
Gritting his teeth, he cast Minor Slow Heal while running, thanking the banished gods that his high mental fortitude let him cast spells while under so much stress. Most new casters couldn’t cast while moving, let alone in the middle of a melee battle. His mana dropped down into the forties and a wave of nausea hit him. The sudden stomach pain doubled him over slightly. With all his other injuries, the effect of his mana depleting was aggravated.
Richter had to chew back some vomit. His vision blurred from the mana headache, but he could still see the ichorpedes were all surging toward his position. He didn’t have time to be human. They were hemming him in on three sides. It made him wonder how dumb they actually were. The only path they were leaving him was the way back to the queen. The chaos seed’s head darted around frantically as he came up with a desperate plan.
He had to bite his lip to keep another scream from coming out when he twisted his body to the left. The raw edges of flesh in his back rubbed together like an exposed nerve, but he was able to fling his bone club over the ichorpedes toward the stone doorway
that led out of the lair. He didn’t waste time to see exactly where it landed. If his aim was off, he wouldn’t be able to go back for it anyway. He only had seconds to act. When you got down to it, his idea wasn’t brilliant so much as obvious. With the ichorpedes rushing at him from every direction, there was only one way he could go. Up.
Richter jumped, giving it his all. The Spring Steps enchantment on his shoes had been destroyed when his skeeling armor had triggered the Shell effect. The white armor had saved his life, but it had also destroyed itself and the rest of his clothes, leaving only rags behind. At that particular moment, he would have given anything for the +20% jump boost the shoes had provided, but he might as well wish to be back home. Fact was, he didn’t have most of the items that had kept him alive again and again. Fact was, he wasn’t home, he was stuck underground, alone and surrounded. All he could do was jump.
Pain rippled through his battered body when his muscles contracted. The edges of his vision blurred, but he made it into the air. To his pleasant surprise though, he still cleared nearly eight feet. As soon as he reached the apex, he used Cloud Running. This rare skill was a gift from eating the First Fruit of the Quickening and had saved his life more than once. He jumped again, pushing off the air like it was a stepping stone. This time, he launched himself to the side, his trajectory shooting him toward the wall. Once again, he was propelled further than he’d expected. As he sailed through the air, he realized the reason for his huge ups. His Strength was massive now!