《Hand of The Eldritch God》 C1 Second Chances Ren sighed as he stared into the sky above. The stars were different here, they were a scattering of shimmering lights that broke the heavens, yet their pattern was unfamiliar. The air was fresher here, the scent of wildflowers and trees in bloom calmed his very soul, yet nothing could ease his memory. In his mind he saw it, the thing beyond, the one who hurt his mind to remember. The one who dwelled within the nothingness. Did you bring me here? The last memories of his old life began fading from his eyes as he turned to look at the world around him. At his feet lay scattered bodies, small albino creatures with bloody red eyes and great fangs. Bodies like that of great deformed rabbits, they had thrown themselves at him, tore his flesh, and slammed into him. He had broken them in turn. ¡°Sir. What is it that is distracting you?¡± The voice came from the tiny form of an odd being, something that resembled a cat. Tiny white paws like that of a butler¡¯s gloves touched the earth beneath him. Its body stripped and orange reminded him of something he couldn¡¯t remember. ¡°It¡¯s everything. It¡¯s you, the sky, the air here. It¡¯s what I don¡¯t remember and it¡¯s most of all, the thing I can remember¡­¡± -- I was the one at fault. That was the simple fact. Keeping my eyes anywhere but looking towards her. For the moment, I¡¯d been preferring the wall. It was the same thing as usual. She kept going on and on about learning to forgive, learning to let go, and all the exact lines out of the textbook she probably learned from. I just wanted to go out for another smoke. What¡¯s the point of ¡°learning to forgive¡± and all this bullshit, if I don¡¯t deserve it? Why does she insist on being such a pain when I don¡¯t deserve all this? My foot started tapping as my mind bounced from place to place. The past, the future, that night, and all the days before it with those two. All I thought of was everything, everything but what I should have been. She turned her head, slightly leaning forward as her eyes gently touched mine, cutting me off from staring at the books behind her. ¡°Do you remember the coping skills we¡¯ve been working on?¡± Taking in a deep breath my foot stopped. ¡°Good.¡± Good? I didn¡¯t do anything. What does she- I noticed my foot stopped and the heavy breath leaving me. I remembered my two days of trying to cut out all the practice and progress. Remembering how some people don¡¯t deserve to progress or to feel better. Some don¡¯t deserve to be forgiven no matter what anyone has to say. I tried to bring them up in my mind, but the aching in the back of my skull came back. Baring my teeth and squeezing my eyes I took in a few rushed breaths. Her eyes tightened and she leaned in further towards me. ¡°Are you alright? Is it your head again?¡± With the slightest movement of my head, I told her. I held back tears from the aching in my skull. I deserved this, didn''t I? Placing water down in front of me she coaxed me out from my shell. ¡°You¡¯ll be alright. I promise, no matter what.¡± Feeling the throbbing come again and again I reached out for the cool water bottle before me, letting the chill of it rest against my head before I took a sip. I knew all this was pointless. Setting down the water I stood, and she came up to me. ¡°We still have fifteen minutes.¡± She pointed to the clock set beside her chair. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°I need to clear my head, some air maybe.¡± She followed me out the door and I sat on the edge of the concrete slab that led into the office door. I pulled a smoke from the tin in my pocket and flipped open my lighter. Pulling in a lungful of the toxic stuff I sighed out as she sat beside me. ¡°You know, I can¡¯t let a young man smoke outside my office.¡± ¡°I¡¯m your last one. Aren¡¯t I?¡± ¡°Yes but¡­ it¡¯s still not really... well, acceptable.¡± She smiled without it reaching her eyes which remained looking at me sideways.¡± Sighing she put her hand to her chin and looked into the grass and loose stones beyond. ¡°You¡¯re a good guy, I want to help you. You have to¡­ learn to be helped. Does it make sense?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t feel like I deserve it, I was the one who should have...¡± ¡°-You don¡¯t need to be guilty, though it may feel that way. Just remember that. They wouldn¡¯t want all your pain on their behalf.¡± Her same smile came across her lips again looking towards me as I pocketed the remaining filter into my jacket. ¡°See, you¡¯re not so bad. Most people would have just tossed that into the yard.¡± I gave a fake smile. ¡°I¡¯m going to head home.¡± I¡¯ll see you next week. ¡°I¡¯ll be here.¡± Standing, I picked up my bike from against the side of the building and started heading home. While peddling the wind came strong and I felt the wind blow through my hair and whip my jacket. The smell of honeysuckle came to me as I passed several large bushes. For a brief time of less than an hour, my mind was free. I was taken from sensation to sensation. I loved the feel of the clear air and the smell of all the wildflowers. I loved the mountain whose foot I came closer and closer to. Gravity taking me downwards I saw my home in the distance. It was silhouetted against the sun and came to rest just before the tops of the mountain trees in the distance. As I came back up the next slope, I realized how free I had been, and how now I would soon again be eaten up by the dread and the guilt. In my mind, the idea came and would not leave. Why not? What do I have to lose? I have nothing now, so there is nothing to lose. I parked my bike on my side porch. Walking in the door I made my way up the steps. Packing into my old school bag, from way back when, went two sets of clothes, four sets of different socks, gloves, a second jacket, and my thick orange beanie. Pulling up an old loose floorboard I took my grandpa¡¯s old revolver from the war. I checked it, full of six unspent rounds, and a box mostly full of ammunition. His old knife lay at the bottom still in its sheath that was attached to a holster for the revolver. I slid the double sheath into my pocket and looped my belt through its top, letting my jacket fall to cover them. I came to the double doors that opened straight down into the root cellar where I found a handful of things to keep my stomach full. Moving towards the front door I turned but stopped midway. I will not turn back. With my bike, I turned towards the mountains and pushed off. Within a half hour, I had made it to the foot of the mountains. Having had many thoughts of how stupid I was, I kept going regardless. I passed through seeing every animal the woods had to offer. A fox chased a rabbit through a clearing, its attempt to pounce on the rabbit failed and the critter was reduced to scampering behind the rabbit going mad. A half dozen deer pranced through the road ahead of me once I started the steep climb to the top. I had just stopped under a red oak, catching my breath and getting into one of my water bottles, the smaller of the two. I couldn¡¯t help but smile like an idiot. A bear raided a nearby trashed campsite, that a group of college students used to get drunk without dealing with noise complaints. I watched it from a distance, at first, I was a bit worried it would chase me or something like that, but as it turns out, the fat lazy thing couldn¡¯t care less. The light began to fade, so I pulled my bike off the trail, letting it sit under a thick bush. I stepped down into the depths of a tall slope, I found a nice spot nestled between two downed trees to lay where the wind couldn¡¯t get at me. I lowered my head to the earth below me and stared into the sky. Darkness overtook the sky as I watched a hundred tiny lights slowly creep into the heavens above. As a star streaked through the sky above me, my only thought was of a different life. A life where I was free. I¡¯d pay any price, but I have nothing but the skin on my back and my very own soul to pay it. The distant light fell to earth. In the haze of twilight, drunken on my own dreams, my eyes fell closed as the light I believed to be a star fell. Taken by the cold and darkness, I fell into a great void. The darkness devoured me and there was something, a creature, or God. It spoke to me, and I screamed. -- C2 Classes Ren looked at the cat again after staring into the distance for perhaps too long, and in a quite unconventional manner. The striped, orange cat looked up at him as he had finally returned from his daydreaming. Speaking with a voice between an AI robot and a British butler it said, ¡°Sir, I believe you still have not yet looked at the items as I have instructed you to.¡± He peered into a pile of dead murder rabbits, albinos with all white fur and red eyes, they had giant fangs instead of tiny buck teeth. A light blue box appeared before his eyes. Loot Murder Rabbits: Y/N ¡°Why does everything look¡­ like a game?¡± ¡°Sir, this is for your understanding. Humans from your selected planet seem to be extraordinarily fond of such things and so for that purpose, this is shown to increase understandability and quality purposes.¡± The tiny cat remained motionless as it spoke. Mentally ¡®poking¡¯ the yes option he saw a flood of new information. Items Looted: Murder Rabbit Meat x5 Fangs of The Murder Rabbit Upgrade (Unique) Vial of: Murder Rabbit Toxin ¡°Alright so?¡± ¡°Sir, please use your upgrade artifact on your blade.¡± A small fang appeared in his hand as if from thin air. Pulling out his knife, he looked at the two. ¡°So how¡­¡± Use: Fangs of The Murder Rabbit Upgrade¡± on ¡°Knife¡± Y/N The knife transformed into a long and thinner version now made of a crude bone. Its blade had a long groove stretching from tip to handle. ¡°This will allow you to use poisons as an effective agent in battle. Add the vial to the handle of the blade until it drains.¡± Taking the vial in hand Ren placed it onto the handle of the new blade. The venom from the rabbits drained into it where a thin green sheen was visible on the knife¡¯s groove. ¡°Based on information about you this has been deemed a likely choice of weapons.¡± Ren¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°What makes you think I want to go around killing things with a rabbit poison knife?¡± ¡°This is an accurate assessment of your preferences. Now, I must leave you to do things more independently.¡± The cat turned translucent and started to fade. ¡°Wait a minute there! You just made me kill a bunch of evil rabbits, harvest them to make an evil poison dagger, and now are leaving me to look like some sort of villain?¡± Pissed, he swiped at the creature¡¯s fading form, only to have his hand grasp at nothingness. The tiny orange cat disappeared. Around him was a massive forest, the trees stood hundreds of feet high, and their trunks nearly ten feet at their greatest girth. Looking at himself, dagger in hand a screen popped up before his eyes, nearly translucent he could slightly see through it. Name: Ren Race: Human Alignment: N/N Class: N/A Skill: N/A Lvl: 0 Marks: Gate-Walker HP:25/25 SP:40/40 MP:0/0 Attributes: Str: 6 Vit: 5 End: 8 Dex: 8 Wil: 4 Int:6 Free Points: 0 Abilities: Combat: Skill: Misc: -Analyze: The ability given to gate-walkers in areas new to the greater inter-gate collective. Analyzes applicable materials, items, and creatures. -Systemic Itemization: The ability to have information such as data, communication, crafting, combat, and miscellaneous extras to be rerouted through more efficient methods of communication. With a mental trigger, the screen vanished. Taking a few steps forward a prompt came again. Quest: Establish Magical Attributes Become level one 0/1 task(s) complete ¡°Oh, so now I have to go around and murder more things?¡± Walking through the forest his head swiveled constantly, ready for another attack by seemingly innocent creatures. The trees opened up to reveal a peaceful meadow full of deer. Upon walking into the clearing several of the creatures peered at him right away. With his revolver at the ready, they began to charge his way. Shit... Crimson Eyed Doe lvl. 1 Crimson Eyed Doe lvl. 1 Crimson Eyed Doe lvl. 2 Crimson Eyed Buck lvl. 2 He opened fire first on the two low-leveled does, each bullet taking them down. The third, level two, took three of his last four bullets. ¡°What the hell¡­¡± The buck rammed straight towards him as he fired his final shot. Dropping to the ground he smashed into the grassy earth as one of its hooves stuck his back. Turning around its eyes caused him to stop for a moment. Crimson, just as the namesake. Pulling free his knife he readied himself as the buck tossed its head at him, dodging to the side his arm was gashed by an unnaturally sharp antler. His fang blade was lodged into its shoulder as he slammed it home. The animal thrashed for a moment before stumbling. The poison started coursing through it as Ren stood watching while warily backing off. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Before the poison could overwhelm the animal, it charged at him again. Throwing himself to the ground he dodged past the spikes ready to impale him. The buck stumbled to the ground, attempting to pull itself back up, it failed, falling to the earth and going still. Walking over he removed the fang blade, on its shoulder the skin was darkened, already starting to rot. "That¡¯s disgusting¡­¡± He whispered to himself. Looking at the dagger in his hand he saw there was still some of the green venom remaining on the blade. Putting the blade back in his double sheath, he took out his ammo for the revolver slowly putting in the six new cartridges. Walking back to the meadow he sighed, five more deer remained further to the other side that he could at least see. Crimson Eyed Doe lvl. 2 Crimson Eyed Buck lvl. 1 Crimson Eyed Doe lvl. 1 Crimson Eyed Doe lvl. 1 Crimson Eyed Buck lvl. 3 Shifting through tall grasses he tried to get an optimal spot to begin the fight. Looking up he saw a massive tree with relatively low hanging branches. Pulling himself up slowly he hanged onto the large cracks in the bark with all his life. Reaching the first branch he climbed up it. Overhanging the tall grasses, he pulled out the ammo box ready to reload as soon as possible. Pulling back the hammer he sighted the first doe, level two. Missing once he fired four shots, the deer dying shortly after on the final blow. The insane deer ran to the trunk as if waiting for him to come down. In this world of killing, there were no running cowards. Climbing closer to the trunk he saw foaming mouths. The level three buck slammed into the tree hard enough to rattle the branch he was on. Refilling on bullets he expended all six to kill off two does and a buck, all level one. The last one remaining was the level three buck. Its blood-red eyes stared at him as it rammed its massive antlers into the great tree. Just above the deer, he unloaded four shots, falling to the earth the deer struggled up. Ren looked again at his revolver and sighed. The box of ammo was empty. He never expected to use the bullets like this. ¡°Damn deer, how the hell are you so strong? It¡¯s a bullet.¡± As it was recovering, he took the opportunity of advantage. Dropping from nearly ten feet, he plunged downwards with his blade. The poisoned fang dug into the back of the buck. Going limp it collapsed. The spine cut through, it died quickly with the poison adding to the mess. Inspecting the fang dagger the venom was nearly all gone, a faint green line still appeared but the venom¡¯s toxin was almost all used up. His brow furrowed as he got an idea. Mentally activating the ability to analyze he studied the blade. Gate-Walker Blade (Uncommon) Murder Rabbit Fang Upgrade Lvl. 1 Murder Rabbit Toxin Usage ? Description: This blade came from another dimensional space through a gate. Belonging to a gate-walker through inheritance it has the Legend of a Great War behind it. Huh. So, the blade has a leveling mechanic and a rarity score. His curiosity was taken by a notification popping up before him. Level Up! Quest Completed Reward Available: Class Itemization A class? Now this is where things might get a little complicated. A choice that might continue ever onward. Classes: Magic? Wizards? Nah. With a mental cue, he selected rogue without hesitation. Congratulations! Class: Rogue has been selected. Rogue: Level 1 Tier 0 Stats: +1 Dexterity/ level, +2 Free Points/ level Abilities: Ah, the classic. He smiled to himself. But there was one problem, he still didn¡¯t have more bullets. Well, I guess I have no choice. When in doubt, keep stabbing. Ren went back to the only thing he knew how to do. So far, it''d been his only hobby in this odd new world. So, why not just keep killing? Moving through the underbrush of the surrounding woods he crossed the trail of several more of the deer from before. With a mental prompt, the tracking ability came forth. As if highlighted in a faint whiteness the tracks came alive. As he moved along, following the trail, he noticed movement in the distance. Squinting he saw four deer. Crimson Eyed Doe lvl. 3 Crimson Eyed Doe lvl. 2 Crimson Eyed Doe lvl. 2 In conjunction with his tracking, he allowed his stealth ability to naturally guide him. He moved with the curvature of the land, and in between shadows to mask himself. With a cat¡¯s grace, he moved through tall grass swiftly getting in position. Creeping close to the first of the does, he slammed forward, driving the blade into its neck. Falling, the animal almost immediately went limp. Red eyes stared blankly at him as he dodged back into the brush. The bonus damage allotted to his stealth was insanely high. Damn, I¡¯m starting to feel bad about all this killing. Not like any of this could be real. Forgiving himself for the needless murder he looked at the three remaining deer, the buck tossed its head, seeming to notice something was wrong. Taking quick steps over to the doe dead on the ground, the buck''s head bucked up and it began to look around for the murderer. Just as a call of alarm came from it, the sound stopped as Ren¡¯s blade came into its neck just as it had struck the doe¡¯s. The final two turned to look directly at him and charged. Shit. Diving beside the first he slashed along its flank, gashing a thick red wound across its hind leg. The second whipped around and cracked its head against his back. The first falling and struggling to stand was occupied as the second came at him again. This time he was gasping for breath after having the air knocked from him. Its hooves slammed into the earth beside him as he spun to the side and slammed home the bone blade, its length buried more than half deep into the beast¡¯s side. It fell back, the blade coming free as he yanked it. The first doe was now recovered, lowering itself it charged though slowed greatly by its wound. With aching ribs, he dashed to the side and sliced its neck. Falling to the ground it died Within moments of the death, the final doe attempted to slam its hooves down on him again. Coming into the attack he went under it stabbing forwards, ending its life. He sat on the ground, his breath coming raggedly, ¡°No¡­ more¡­ groups¡­ without a gun¡­¡± He struggled for air as his ribs cried out in pain, but then, he smiled feeling alive. The sun was setting and yet it felt like he should have been to bed hours ago. Bloodbaths seemed to have that effect on him. Sighing he slammed the bone blade into a log beside him. With a mental prompt, he looked at the odd screen that came into his mind. Rouge Itemization: With an odd feeling, he prompted the items to appear. In his excitement to begin the murder spree, he ignored the options on his menu. Now, exhausted, he had nothing better to do. Donning the cape, he soon began inspecting the oddly small quiver he was given. Imagining an arrow he felt a mental strain. His mana began to lower, from twenty down to twelve. Placing his hand into the quiver he felt the end of an arrow, pulling it free it seemed far too large to come from the small quiver he held. Feeling the tip, it was razor sharp, enough to cause a tiny bead of blood to well on the tip of his finger. Damn, not bad. With a small smirk, he imagined a single bullet. Placing his hand within the quiver he felt the mental strain but stronger this time. Feeling a small object at the bottom he smiled, pulling it before his face. It was a perfect bullet. Glancing at his mana, he saw the pool had lowered to zero. His mind felt fuzzy and so he closed his eyes, feeling for the revolver as he placed the single bullet inside. The mental strain of depleting his mana rendered him unable to even open his eyes as if his mind was entirely numb. In the fog of sleep, he remembered a face, that of someone beloved, and yet, his heart only ached at it. Longing to forget, his dreams turned to bloodshed, pain, and adrenaline. C3 The Wolf and The Flame This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. C4 Rogue vs Roadrunners? This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. C5 Mid-Morning Meetings Ren¡¯s eyes began to crack open at the light of mid-morning. Birds singing their lullabies, he wanted nothing more than to stay there, unaware of the dangers in the world surrounding him. Exhaustion sat deep in his bones. How was he alive? More importantly, who the hell are those two? Beside him, an elderly man sat beside a small crackling fire. Lifting a pot from the flames, he dashed a small handful of something into the water. His eyes were barely more than a squint held down by old bags. At their corner, the old man¡¯s eyes were cracked with crow''s feet, a long life of half squinting. A cowl covered his head, a blue wool. The rest of him was covered in the blue and white robes. At his neck swung the silver symbol of a Triangle, a line crossing its center vertically. Ren¡¯s eyes swung to a young woman, her head turned in curiosity, their eyes met briefly, a translucent blue, nearly silver like. Her hair hung in a blond braid, it emerged from a green hooded cloak that draped down her shoulders onto the earth underneath her where she sat on her knees. Her clothes were much like his, brown and plain, though hers seemed made of a leather-like material rather than the oddity he was crafted from. The elderly man spoke. His voice was imperial, strong, and clean. Though to Ren his words meant nothing. A language so foreign as to sound like a form of gibberish. The elder¡¯s eyebrows raised as if waiting for him to respond. Ren¡¯s lips parted to speak but he hesitated. Beneath his deep aches and pains, a strength lingered, a power that boiled up from deep inside. With a mental prompt, he opened his menu to see his status. The power within him came to a crescendo. Congratulations, Rouge Level 2 Tier 0 you have met the requirements to Ascend. The world left his eyes as an all-consuming darkness arose to eat him alive. The air, the light, the scents of the forest, and the sounds of its life disappeared. A roaring fear and panic ate at him, the fragment of a fragment came to him, the thing in the void beyond. The infinite nothingness that was impossible to comprehend began to fade, light came again into his eyes and power rushed through him in terrible destructive pathways. Feeling like a hot coal was pressed into his mind he writhed on the earth, the elderly man held him down to prevent him from colliding with the fire. His grip on Ren was strong, far greater than anyone would expect from one at his age. Like iron shackles, he held Ren down as the terror and pain receded. Ren looked at his status to ensure he wasn¡¯t dying again. You have ascended to Eldritch Rouge Level 2 Tier 1 +5 Vitality +5 Willpower +5 Intelligence Skills Acquired: [Gate-Keeper¡¯s Blessing] Eldritch Touch: The power of something vast and unknowable has left its mark upon the user. The power to call upon the mark is deadly to all. To destroy and destroy oneself. Empower objects, attacks, and abilities with this to strengthen them. Eldritch Sight: Eyes that gaze at the face of the void is fooled by none other. The abominable eye has seen you, and you it. The auras of Celestial, Fiendish, Living, and Undead are shown to you. Eldritch Tongue: The voice has spoken to you. No other tongue shall meld your mind to their liking. You may speak to all, and so to all the voice may reach. Craft Gained: [Eldritch-Kin] Ritualism: The power to manipulate mana based on ritual circles and objects placed within such circles. Gasping for air Ren¡¯s eyes darted to the face of the elderly man atop him. ¡°Please¡­¡± ¡°Are you alright? Did you ascend prematurely?¡± His voice came whispered and confused. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. ¡°I don¡¯t know what happened, everything is driving me insane.¡± Ren¡¯s eyes dropped to the earth beside him, unable to hide his shame. ¡°Drink something, come here.¡± The elderly man pulled him up as if helping up a child, his strength was immense. Pouring an exotic odd tea, and handing it to Ren the man spoke. ¡°I am Cleric Hollwin, and you, my child?¡± ¡°Ren.¡± ¡°I healed you. Your vitality must be quite low as I barely made it in time to stabilize you.¡± Hollwin placed a hand on Ren¡¯s shoulder, ¡°Did those beasts run you down?¡± ¡°I hid in the only place I could find; I killed them though.¡± Ren¡¯s eyes looked down into the warm liquid. Taking a sip, he found it lacking, though it felt good to have something proper. Drinking from puddles and streams had him feeling debased. ¡°Drink that down, I¡¯m an herbalist and it¡¯s a strong brew, though weak enough it won¡¯t harm you.¡± Ren noticed the woman sitting down, he had not noticed her. A thin shortsword slid into its sheath at her side. Hollwin looked at her disapprovingly, ¡°Be friendly, introduce yourself.¡± His tone was to the point and seemingly an order. ¡°I am Tayin, from the East, sent here to learn the ways of men in the West.¡± Her tone was bittersweet. Ren slowly nodded in acknowledgment. Taking another sip at the strange-tasting tea, he felt a warmth permeating his being. Strength and energy slowly came to his muscles, his foggy mind the smallest bit clearer. Nearly chugging the rest of the brew, he felt the sensation again, stronger even. The fog of his near-death experience had caused him to tunnel vision in the present. ¡°Didn¡¯t I die?¡± Ren¡¯s eyes stared down at the nearly empty cup. ¡°Nearly so, but a Cleric can heal with a God¡¯s blessing. Those ascendant to a high enough threshold may even resurrect the dead.¡± Hollwin gently smiled. ¡°They can bring back the dead?¡± Ren¡¯s brows furrowed, his mouth agape. ¡°Yes, yes. Have you lived quite a sheltered life, eh?¡± Ren¡¯s expression went blank. ¡°I suppose you could say that.¡± Tayin spoke, curiosity spiking the pitch of her voice. ¡°I hear many men of the West live in shacks or even caves in the wilderness. Do you?¡± ¡°What? No.¡± ¡°A house? Do you live in a house? Where from?¡± Tayin stared curiously. The oddity of her had him taken aback. ¡°Yes. I live in a house.¡± ¡°Ah, so then where do you come from then, that is unanswered." ¡°A place far from here, I¡¯m lost. I¡¯ll be headed back there.¡± Ren fiddled with the grass below him. A nervous angst had him pulling at weeds. ¡°Hollwin can give you directions, a Cleric¡¯s life requires much study.¡± ¡°Well, I think I should be on my way, I can find it on my own. Thank you for everything.¡± Ren stood, and with mild dizziness, he finished off the warm tea and handed the cup to Hollwin. ¡°Just a moment.¡± Hollwin gestured for Ren to sit, and he removed a small metallic sheet from his pack. ¡°In return for healing you, I would like a small favor. May I perform a reading upon you?¡± Hollwin gestured to the small metallic sheet before him. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if I exactly understand what that means¡­¡± ¡°Oh, my child, it is simple for a Cleric. Through the miracles blessed upon mortal men such as myself, I can interpret power. The most common gift given to mortals is the ability to heal or to read ascension thresholds, the effective amount of power one holds, as well as the abilities they have to utilize those powers. The integration of mana into one¡¯s core being, and its shape is also quite important. By doing a reading of you I can add it to the knowledgebase of her holiness¡± ¡°Well, I guess so. I don¡¯t know. I suppose it¡¯s fine.¡± Ren''s eyes looked into the earth below him, the small greens and bugs crawling in the earth. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll need you to place your hand on the back of this.¡± Hollwin showed him the metal sheet. Ren placed his hand on the smooth surface. An urgent anxiety took him, everything about this felt wrong. He wasn¡¯t a people person, this wasn¡¯t right. The very feeling of the smooth surface under his hand spiked the worry. A metaphysical sucking felt at him. As if a current in the air was drawing all in. This was no physical current, neither of the air nor of anything else. A part of him felt itself being pulled at, and the urgency within him only flared. Sweat started to bead on his forehead, and the overwhelming urge to smash the metal sheet and flee overtook him. With the finest hair of self-control, he managed to force himself to let this power read him, to pull a tiny piece off and store it. ¡°Relax, it won¡¯t harm you. It¡¯s very nearly finished.¡± Hollwin spoke, not looking up from the sheet. His eyes squinted even further than their usual bagged-down expression until they opened wider than any Ren had ever seen on a man. ¡°Oh, Holy Mother, you''ve blessed me well¡­¡± Hollwin smiled. ¡°What, is it done?¡± Ren¡¯s eyes gazed into the old man¡¯s, his anxiety slowly fading. ¡°You are the child of a Gate. We are headed to a High Monastery where we can provide you with the things that will be required for you to learn and develop. Accompany us will you?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t, I mean I don¡¯t want to be a burden but thank you.¡± ¡°Child, it is a duty of the Clergy to guide Gate travelers.¡± Hollwin smiled as he spoke. Tayin stood, eyes wide, ¡°My people too come from a gate, it is an honor to meet one such as yourself.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand what a Gate is or why it''s such a big deal.¡± Ren¡¯s brows furrowed as he glanced between the two. Hollwin spoke up, ¡°It is a long history and quite detailed. For now, understand you are an alien here. We will take good care of you though, be assured.¡± ¡°Well, ok.¡± Ren¡¯s eyes moved to the earth beneath him, or is it called something else here, what is this world even called? ¡°What is the name of this world called? The planet?¡± Hollwin raised his eyebrows, ¡°Ah, rather educated on your world then? It is Aethradin, named after the Silver Goddess Aethra. Now we better be off then. Oh, but wait, if we encounter anyone on the road, do not speak of your nature.¡± Hollwin pulled himself up, his hand gesturing towards a direction alongside a mountain. ¡°We¡¯ll be off that direction. Headed to Raedem, a Monastery there will receive you.¡± ¡± C6 Skirmish on The Road A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. C7 Unexpected Talents Tayin and Ren approached the path from opposite sides, Ren immediately activated his ¡®loot button.¡¯ ¡°By the Silver Lady herself, are you blessed or what, what sort of abilities do you have hidden elsewhere?¡± Hollwin was taken aback by Ren¡¯s display. ¡°A hunter? Such abilities I only know of from high-level hunting ascensions.¡± Tayin said. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s all I¡¯ve got up my sleeve,¡± Ren nervously laughed. ¡°Well, what did you get?¡± Hollwin asked. ¡°Oh uh¡­¡± Items Looted: Great Bear Claws (Uncommon) Great Bear Pelt (Uncommon) ¡°Just claws and a pelt.¡± ¡°Well, we better be going then, surprising to find one nearly twice ascended in this area. If I knew it would have been so tough I would not have let it drag out so long.¡± Hollwin put in. ¡°Couldn¡¯t you tell it was? Like, read it, I mean.¡± Ren looked confused. ¡°Well, I can only read ascensions by the same method I used on you, such readings cannot be done easily on a beast such as that, it would be meaningless nonetheless.¡± Hollwin began walking down the path. Following along, Ren noticed the peculiarity of Tayin, she was quite tall, taller than he or Hollwin, and those eyes, so pale blue to almost be silverish. Party beautiful but more than that, unsettling. The path led far into the wilds beyond, looking into the woods several more beasts were in the distance, occasionally crimson deer, other times strange birds or rodents. Not through the great distance was there another bear. The occasional shot at the beasts strengthened him, though it was a shame to hurt the beauty of the world around him, he knew they would just as keenly kill him given the chance. As the sun rose further into the sky at its apex, they made a quick lunch, the elderly cleric seemed to hardly touch anything but some of his tea. Tayin only had a foreign flatbread and odd fruit. On his part, he ate some of the rabbits from his first day in the strange world of Aethradin. ¡°Tayin, how do you make the winds guide your arrows and attack for you?¡± Ren looked up at her embarrassed at his own ignorance. ¡°I swirl my mana around the arrows, forming a point like a horizontal hurricane around my arrowheads. My mana has a strong affinity towards wind, and so it responds to me.¡± She spoke around eating bites of her bread. The way she spoke of it came with a sound of ease as if what she did was second nature and of no consequence. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°In your world, do people not use elemental affinities based on their mana¡¯s properties?¡± Hollwin look interested. ¡°Well, we don¡¯t have mana, not that I know of.¡± Ren averted his eyes. Silence took over the small clearing in which they ate. The two natives of this world staring at each other with knowing glances. ¡°We will speak more of this when the time comes, when we are at the Monastery that is.¡± Hollwin finished his tea and motioned for everyone to get ready and head off. As the sun sank back down to the horizon, they made quick work overcoming the small hills and clearings within the woods. Small talk had evaporated after the ending of the conversation at lunch. What, is it so weird to not come from a world of magic? Ren¡¯s thoughts bounced from one topic to another, his dread of what would come next only mounting further as the day progressed. As twilight began to come over the lands Ren glanced about seeing the trail they had been following split into two directions. One was straight for the most part, bending here and there as far as the limited view in the dim woods let him see. The other led into the mountainside, traversing the Stoney bank of the mountain leading to nowhere the eye could reach. As the camp was set, Ren¡¯s curiosity got the better of him. ¡°I would like to explore a little, seeing as this world is so new to me, I want to get a good look down from the mountainside as the sunsets.¡± ¡°If you think that¡¯s a good idea, I will not bar your way, but I must deliver you unharmed to my people. Take this, as long as it is in your possession I will assume you are safe, channel a small amount of mana into it and we will come make sure you are safe.¡± Hollwin handed him a small silver coin with the symbol of a triangle bisected by a line. ¡°Thank you, I¡¯ll be back, safe and sound.¡± Ren turned and left down the path, later turning onto the mountain pass. Tayin looked to Hollwin. ¡°What if he knows?¡± ¡°He is an ignorant child; he does not even understand the smallest fraction.¡± Hollwin shook his head and laid down by a small fire Tayin was stoking. Ren¡¯s eyes saw better in the darkness than before, the shade under unfamiliar trees blotted out what remained of the sun. To get a better view he would have to be fast. He pushed himself hard, breathing heavily he noticed something, an energy moving within him. The energy flowed from multiple points within his body, pushed into his legs and chest by unseen forces. Focusing on this energy he tried pushing further into his legs, he watched as his stamina depleted faster as he moved quicker up the mountainside. As he reached a clearing, the slope slightly let out, and a small patch of grass grew around a tree, under it he stood staring into the new stars above. Ren remembered stars, though faintly, these were different. The moon though, there were¡­ two? Had his world had two moons, why could he not remember? The setting sun shone in hues of golden grace, lowering into a bed of purple, orange, and red. The sight he desired was before his eyes, beautiful yet simple. Though the grace of these heavenly objects was beyond him, their beauty was as simple as the flowers growing in the fields. The crunch of a broken branch sounded behind him; lost in the moment he was startled at the sound. Behind him was the figure of a woman, clad in a white dress she extended an arm to him. In a horrid yet beautiful duality two feelings came forth within him. The fear was a primal response, his mana rapidly depleted itself burning away the infection stabbing into his mind. His vital energies swelled as his mana burned his own eyes, blood coming as tears when his Eldritch eyes activated. The joy was the beauty and love overwhelming his mind. Something he was forced to forget, yet so buried deep within his mind that this thing had brought it out and shown it to him. C8 Liars Face Before him what he knew as the disgusting liar wearing a false face, was yet the beauty that overwhelmed him when long-lost love returned. As she guided him, the powers within him fought against her deceit. Yet still, he followed her deeper atop the mountain. They crossed old stone and ancient sites where men and beasts had traveled so long ago but now did not dare walk, into a deep cavern in the ground below. A strange feeling came from a coin in his pocket, the feeling reminded him of something, though her lying lovely voice allowed for no other remembrance. With every step, a blazing urge to fight what was happening began to push further and further from the depths of him. Ren¡¯s hands shook as his energies battled at the illusion before him. His eyes bled as energies came flooding through them, pain like knives stabbing into his brain. Under his foot snapped the bones of both men and beasts, the most mundane and magical of them all dead as he followed her into his undoing. The urge became greater and greater as the power over him diminished, the urge to fight and destroy what was trying to control his mind. The mental magic was burned away by his innate abilities. The rotten smell of corpses gagged him, the blackened corpses of men and beasts not yet rendered to bones. Crimson deer, small bears, birds, reptiles, and humans. With a shaking hand he reached for his revolver, malevolent energies swirled around the gun as he gathered his mana, triggering eldritch touch the bullet within began to become blackened and corrupted. His mana churned at the death and destruction around him, consuming the energies within. Feeling a part of himself pulled at, both his stamina, and vital energies were drained away as the eldritch touch consumed and corrupted all around him. The lying figure before him changed as it saw his defiance, confused and angered. Its form changed to a gray vaguely humanoid figure, no eyes or ears were present, only the blankness that gave no true shape to its emotions. Gray hands gave forth to great, tearing claws. A mouth opened in the empty grayness of what should have been, but never had been a face. Stepping back, he aimed at the chest of the shapeshifter. Pulling the trigger an eruption of corruption came forth. The bullet left a blank hole in its chest. Black veins spread from the hole, draining away at the energies within the creature. No mana, stamina, or vitality leaked from it, but was consumed into an endless void beyond. Ren¡¯s body felt like he had fallen down the cliffside they had climbed, he was drained, and the singular shot had taken a great deal of strength from him. Still with several bullets left, he fired. None of the shots seemed to have the impact of the others, only a small jolt when they made contact. As he fired the last bullet the odd creature swung its rending claws at him, and he fell back. Pulling out his knife he failed to dodge all of the attack. The claws tore four raking lines across his torso. Feeling blood well up across him, and pain blooming, he stabbed forwards. A slight hint of mana permeating the blade came from eldritch touch, he felt his energies further depleting as he slammed the blade home into its chest beside the hole from the first bullet. The black veins now covered nearly all of its body. Now being so close to the form before him, he grabbed at the wrist of the shapeshifter, stopping a claw from descending into his neck. His other arm held down the rapidly weakening another arm. The blank gray face lunged forward, the teeth trying to get at his neck. Headbutting it, the fangs instead sunk into his shoulder. He pushed away the creature, falling onto its back. Turning, he ran towards the entrance. Jumping over bones and debris, he sprinted towards the fresh air wafting in from the darkness beyond. The coin within his pocket hummed terribly, nearly jumping around. On an open stretch of ground, he turned his head, in the dim light he saw the gray figure standing, and in moments it began to run after him. Loading in three bullets as he ran, he felt the fresh air just beyond him, once reaching the exit he slammed in the cylinder and fired. Two bullets hit, one in an arm, one in the stomach. A great hissing scream came as it reached into itself and pulled out the two bullets, not wanting to be corrupted internally yet again. Slowed down by pulling out the bullets earlier, and pulling out the new bullets, Ren had the head start to get out into the open air. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. The cool breeze outside hit him, and a feeling of freedom washed over him, yet his fight was not done. Generating two bullets, he loaded them into the cylinder and closed the gun. A small trickle of mana came to the revolver as he channeled again a hint of eldritch touch, he could not afford to drain away the last of himself. For the third time, he would channel power that destroyed his three vital energies into an attack. He could not afford to miss, and so had to make sure the abomination was close enough to land the killing blows. Standing in the mountain winds he waited as it came out of its lair. Dark, nearly black blood oozed down it. Veins of corruption were scattered all across the humanoid shape. As it moved a sense of strain could be seen, no longer did it move so quickly as to be able to catch him off guard. Though the deadliness of fang and claw could not be denied. Throwing itself forward down a small slope, Ren leveled the revolver for the killing shot. Coming down on him, it was unable to move to dodge the attack, instead the corrupted black bullet slammed into where an eye should have been. With haste, he fired the second shot, this one not empowered by the eldritch touch. Hitting the center of what was never truly a face, the shapeshifter stumbled forward, uncaring of the corruption spreading further within it. With a mad dash, it lunged towards him, again scoring down his torso. Bent over after the attack, it hardly could stand straight. He too was on his last legs, stamina, his weakest stat was nearly totally drained. Mana and health were dangerously low but with a little leeway remaining. Stabbing forwards with his knife, his remaining stamina, and nearly all of his health and mana pour into a corrupting wound. As the blade sunk deep into the flesh between its shoulder and neck, his body went stiff. Unable to move, his stamina was entirely drained. It was as if his limbs were all turned to mush at once. Collapsing he watched between lidded eyes as the form before him collapsed. Shaking, then going limp. Congratulations Eldritch Rouge Lv. 4 +3 Dexterity +1 Willpower +1 Intelligence +1 Vitality +5 Free points Higher Ascendant Slain Mark: Ascendant Slayer As his body lay in a limp paralysis, he felt the coin in his pocket buzzing as his health slowly dropped from the blood seeping from every cut and slash across him. Two figures rushed towards him, two pale faces looked down upon him, his eyes barely open, their bloodless expressions hardly visible. Unable to move his lips but a slight twitch he could not speak, he only stared into them. His eyes were no longer blinded by darkness as they had once been. With his new eldritch eyes, bathed in his own blood nothing was hidden from him. ¡°Silver Lady bless me with your divine grace to restore.¡± Hollwin prayed as silver light came from his holy symbol. Ren felt warmth returning to numb limbs too weak to move. Crusted blood flaked away as he opened his eyes further, the two kneeling above him gasped. What was once simple green turned into a shade of dark shade of gray, the whites of his eyes bloodshot as to barely be seen. Lifting his hand to his face he looked at the dark veins lightly faded from his hands. A dark shape of gray, slowly lightening as the corruption done to himself was lifted. ¡°You must never use such powers again. I see now how you ascended so prematurely, and the why of it.¡± Hollwin looked down at him with cold eyes. ¡°It¡¯s dangerous but only because I had to push far, it was too strong for me.¡± Ren¡¯s voice was but a whisper as his strength slowly returned to him. ¡°You do not understand what you have become, even his blessing can barely heal that damage. Normally with healing so strong you should be able to jog back to camp by now, yet you can barely speak.¡± Tayin looked down at him with eyes of pity. ¡°Carry him, will you? I will continue to do my best to restore him so he will be able to travel quickly in the morning.¡± Hollwin stood gesturing to her to pick up Ren. Tayin gathered Ren over her back, and with supernatural strength she lifted him no harder than she could a small child. ¡°It lied to me, made me believe it was someone I can¡¯t remember, someone I loved.¡± Ren¡¯s eyes closed as he accepted what had happened. ¡°I never expected such a thing would be so close to well-traveled roads, though I suppose it¡¯s why it was here. Forgive my misguided choice to allow you to run off sightseeing.¡± Hollwin sighed as he began moving towards the slope down back towards camp. Ren mentally ¡®looted¡¯ the corpse of the shapeshifter. Items Looted: Essence of Change (Rare) Unaware of how truly rare it was, Ren would have to ask the others in the morning. For now, he allocated the free points. Allocating them to cover his weak points and a little boost to dexterity. Tiredness overtook him as his consciousness slowly faded while on the back of Tayin, casually carrying him while jogging down the mountainside. As his mind reached a peaceful emptiness, a presence came to him. Far away, an eye watched him, one that he now mirrored in his own face. An eye that was there, always watching yet was an invisible void within his mind. A great emptiness watched him, one that he was slowly becoming. Within him was the egg of corruption, slowly but surely being nurtured by the alien powers within the world. Incubating, the power only grew strong as another mark left itself on the very face of his soul. C9 Power and Consequence This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. C10 The End of Begginnings The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. C11 Tale of The Explosive Kettle Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! C12 Fates Ugly Face This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. C13 Whats To Be Done Fading light cascaded into the stained glass, before, he had given no thought to the iron workings that outline each changing color. Now, Ren saw the truth behind the iron cast between shades of blue, orange, greens, and yellows. A sunrise stood in the window, though in reality it was a dimming light, soon to turn into twilight. Without hesitation he had resigned himself to die. Not knowing the why or how, he accepted it. A part of him hated himself for this, was he not supposed to live? It was deeply rooted within him, a deep belief of the importance of his new life here. Yet there was a familiarity to the idea of passing into an endless void where nothing bothered him anymore. For a time, he had accepted it. Now, he rather believes he may have another fate. Beginning to look through the books within his rather luxurious cell he found histories, drama, lectures, epic poems, comedies, and books on the nature of the human condition. The last and most important book was the history of magics. Throwing away the books of deep religious importance, historical deeds, cultural relevance and the rather boring others, he selected the book about magic. It detailed the archaic beginnings of magical understanding. At the dawn of man men believed that their thoughts and ideas populated a separate world. Through great rituals, summonings and conjurations they could bring about the entities or abilities they dreamed into the plane of thought. The plane had been named the precursor to the modern term ¡®magic.¡¯ The language now dead, and both languages being gibberish to Ren, the translation did no good, simply naming them both ¡®magic.¡¯ As his translation certainly helped, it also undeniably had its times of oddity. Ascension was viewed as becoming intune with the second self, an imagined perfect version of oneself. For better or ill a man or woman, beast or magical creature would become more attuned with their desired form. A man may become taller, more muscled, and have the ability to swing a sword through stone. Rather a bear would desire about the same as seen by great bears within the wilds. As Ren became more and more infatuated by the book it had become far dimmer within the room. Lacking nearly any mana, and nearly totally drained of stamina he was left too weak to do anything, not even light a candle sized flame for more than long moments before his head began to ache from lack of mana. He curled up inside the covers of his bed within the prison. Though the cold air of the night never came to him, a far deeper chill touched his bones. As he dreamed an eye much like his, but so terribly wrong peered into him and was dissatisfied. Feeling the small amount of his own stamina and mana coming to life and being burned away he knew his passenger was at work. As he slept, a true void overtook him. Dreams faded, falling into an abyss beyond him. It was as if he was rendered unconscious and time passed without his being. Dawn broke, Ren sat up, phantom pains moved through his body. Small and nearly unnoticeable, it was like when he had used eldritch touch. Though this pain lingered deep in his bones, a small energy seemed to be coiled up within him. As he mentally looked at his status, he noticed his mana and stamina were far less effected. Instead of remaining at two or three points, they had begun to linger at ten to twelve. A small amount of power for him to even cast a firebolt or run. He knew his fate if he tried to escape those who were unknowable more powerful than himself. To be killed, destroyed, ruined, and broken. Curious of the strangeness of his higher stats, he felt at the ritual circle surrounding him. His mana moved in tiny strings sliding over the glyphs, runes, and markings that channeled an aura of some barrier, and too the feeling of exhaustion. Delving into these sensations he felt at the barrier, it entrapped the room, lines of power striding outwards and up the walls encasing him within the room. The aura of exhaustion was a sensation of sapping at his physical and mental energies. His health was untouched. As he was transfixed in his meditation, moving strands of mana, as thin as he could create a sound came down the hallway. The very same man who led him into this cell appeared before the bars. The elder cleric stood looking at him. ¡°I am no ritualist, though I can see that you try to interfere with it. Your mana washes over the ritual trying to find a point of attack. Am I wrong?¡± Ren looked at the cleric, terrified of the certain death this man could give him in an instant. ¡° ¡°I am just curious, it is far beyond me to damage such a thing. I apologize if it looks bad on me.¡± ¡°Your curiosity could be seen as a concern, Hollwin has informed me of your recent fascination with learning to manipulate mana. Your world had no magic?¡± ¡°No, I mean, I don¡¯t really know. When I came here the idea of magic was silly, even stupid in some ways to me. Though I see now that it¡¯s true.¡± ¡°Yes, I can understand that. You know nothing of your old world? Mind you, I can hear truths just as easily as I can smell flowers or mold.¡± ¡°I do not remember much of anything, just ideas. Like magic not being real, a childish fantasy or a fake trick by sleight hands.¡± ¡°Good to know that was the honest truth. Now, listen. I did not put you here without reason. Have you begun to understand why yet? Do you know?¡± ¡°Because I am from another world, new ideas or concepts, different God or Gods. Or because my power can be dangerous.¡± Ren looked at the floor, averting his gaze from the man staring into his soul. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°We have no fear of another God or Gods. It is traditional for worlds to be connected through a Gate, such as what has been done with you. You are the connection between two worlds. You hold the power to become a conduit for travel between these worlds if you attain the strength to do so.¡± ¡°Is that why?¡± Ren returned the man¡¯s gaze. ¡°It is normal for men to shelter and aid a Keeper of Gates, there is a problem though. A world without magic means the deity that has sent you was no God we desire in this world. The only reason you have been sent here is the total annihilation of this world.¡± ¡°What? Are you being serious, that sounds ridiculous!¡± ¡°I speak only the truth; you have been touched by something beyond the scope of mortal men. It is no being that we should have come into this world. It is possible for our Goddess to be devoured by such a thing. That is likely the goal of it. It would eat our world and yours. If we were starved of magic, the fundamental source of our being once ascended, we would see mass annihilation of life on this planet.¡± ¡°You really think I¡¯m going to cause something like that? I would never bring some God-devouring-destroyer of worlds into this universe. Not in a million damn years. If you think I¡¯m that sort of monster you¡¯re dead wrong.¡± ¡°I see the truth in your words, young one. The Paladin you had seen by my side has gone on a quest to find a Messenger. The Messengers are the holy mouth pieces of the Goddess. If a way to destroy your link, or at least seal it away is possible you will be allowed to live a modest life under my wing. You may study and become strong, practicing magic for the good of the people. Ascension though, will be beyond you. Such a process would scar you. Something far different than marking a soul. A scar on the soul creates a wound that cannot be easily healed. It will not be unbearable, but if you wish to live you must submit to such a process.¡± ¡°So, to die or to be imprisoned for my entire life, unable to progress into my ideal self, the very purpose of ascension.¡± Ren¡¯s face turned from shock to dismay. ¡°The sound of your words is grim, a fate that is harsh yet livable. You may truly come to love this place and the work you can do to aid the citizens of this great land under her holiness.¡± The cleric nodded and turned his back, bidding Ren farewell. He fell onto the edge of the bed, staring into the distance. I am to die slave to evil, or to die slave to men. Are men not truly evil at times, am I evil? Ren moved thin tendrils of mana across the ritual and began to infuse eldritch touch into it. The strands of mana began to disintegrate, and his physical energy began slowly depleting as well. Phantom pains began to come in small aches and pains across his body and mind. Small corners of the ritual began to slowly weaken, it was overwhelming in strength and complexity, far beyond Ren¡¯s understanding. He had not yet begun to use rituals, though it was his skill acquired during his first ascension. Focusing his will on weakening the array, a slow change came to the markings that were nearly invisible to the naked eye. The rune script was slowly shrinking, though his mana soon came to a near depletion. As his limbs grew loose and hard to control, and a headache flared up he cut off the mana strands that were enveloped by eldritch touch. Lying in bed he slowly recovered, and an hour passed. The time for his stat recovery was slowly increasing as he further damaged the ritual. He could not concede to death, and so he began to push out small waves of mana. Infusing eldritch touch into waves of mana they brushes overtop the ritual on the central floor. Over hours of waiting, recovering, and repeating his stats nearly reached the twenties when fully recharged. The night came again, and he slept, this time having dreams. Odd and deluding, he passed corridors where every door he opened ended in a vast empty abyss. After what seemed like an eternity of voids beyond, a final door sat at the end of the hall. The door instead of being plain and unassuming looked the same as his own door. It was wood and plain yes, but a fixture of iron bars sat atop it. The bars looked into a window of a room. Darkness sat heavily across it, a small light from the moon turned blue through the reflection of painted glass. The blue hued light shone on a darkly clad figure laying on a cot. Ren awoke, a haze sat across his mind like fog sweeping across a field. Blinking, the light of his room was dim, color painted the room in various hues from the window on the small wall his bed sat against. The sun was barely rising. Looking at his stats he noticed they were still quite low as expected. HP:70/70 SP:21/60 MP:23/85 He had made progress, a great deal considering he was dealing with a ritual far beyond his own strength. With newfound clarity he began again, though this time not trying to destroy the ritual. He analyzed the energy that was slowly drained from him. The rune script most damaged was one particular section outlining the inner ring of the circular formation. There, he felt his own energy condensing and being moved beyond his perception. He activated his eldritch eyes, power consuming rapidly, the passive perception he got from the ability was magnified. With the boosted perception he viewed the energies again, this time being able to see how they were being transferred into the barrier of the cell. Congratulations Eldritch Rouge Lvl 6 +3 Dexterity +1 Willpower +1 Vitality +1 Intelligence +5 Freepoints What the hell, that made me get stronger? Not arguing with the increased stats, he allocated his points. Name: Ren Race: Human Alignment: N/N Class: Rough level 6, Tier 1 Skill: Ritualism Marks: Gate-Walker HP:75/75 SP:20/60 MP:19/100 Attributes: Str: 10 Vit: 15 End: 12 Dex: 28 Wil: 20 Int: 16 Free Points: 0 After allocating the points he realized his stamina was a bit lacking. If he survived long enough to continue getting stronger, he should definitely increase his stamina. Feeling strength come into his body, he tested out his new boost. Trying various exercises, jumping up and down, flipping, and then forming a true firebolt. Using his segmented formula, he created a penetrating tip for the bolt. Secondly a shaft that contained the explosive energy of the bolt. A small fireball ready to explode on impact. Lastly the fletching, and his will to have it fly true. Unable to allow the bolt to rupture inside his cell, he slowly allowed the mana to return to him, a small portion lost as the energy it took to formulate the conjuring of the bolt. C14 Eldritch Horror Within the confines of his cell, Ren continued studying the magic circles all around him. Slowly, his attention faded, repeating the same task had begun to drive him mad. Moving, he looked through the various books across his shelves, again, nothing seemed to interest him, and he paced the room. Light footsteps moved down the stone hallways towards his cell. In the absence of most noise and stimuli they sounded like pounding drums. He imagined massive warriors coming to slay him. The paladin returning to smite him, or even a great bear slipping in through old forgotten passages leading deep into the mountains. In truth, beyond his door and half hidden in darkness came Tayin. Her hood drawn tight and her golden braid coming down across one shoulder. ¡°Ren?¡± ¡°Tayin¡­ why are you here? I mean, I¡¯m glad to see someone but, why did they let you?¡± Her face came up to the bars and peered into this cell. ¡°At least you¡¯re not being treated like a sickly animal. Good to see you¡¯re not being mistreated.¡± ¡°Yes, yes. I mean, it¡¯s good to have a big space, but I hate it down here in the dark. I couldn¡¯t see anything worse than being stuck down deep in a cold place surrounded by stone. At least I have things to keep me occupied.¡± ¡°Well, it could be a lot worse considering¡­ well, what you are. It¡¯s not your fault, they recognize that. You still need to be kept from hurting yourself, or others though.¡± ¡°I would never hurt anyone, Tayin, the short time we spent together, it¡¯s been the only time I remember being around people. For those days, it was like my entire life. I don¡¯t remember anything or anyone else from before¡­¡± ¡°We know, the master cleric has spoken to us both. I don¡¯t think you¡¯re some evil creature from another world, yet I know what danger you could be. There¡¯s a reason I¡¯m down here of course. They will try and set a seal over your corrupting powers, seal away the influence it has over you. The men of the west have little knowledge of such things, it could be long before they contact an agent of my people or a higher set member of the Goddess¡¯ legion. I¡¯m here to ask you to do your best, I like you. I am afraid of what is dwelling within you though. Having the power to overcome one¡¯s own nature is not easy, but I believe in you.¡± Her face did not change as she had spoken, unmoving and nearly robotic. ¡°I- Just¡­ thanks. I appreciate it.¡± Ren looked away from her and into the faint light cascading from the painted glass. ¡°We¡¯ll talk more later, just do this for yourself, and for us. For the world even.¡± She turned, a small smile appearing before she left, nearly forgotten. As her back fully turned to him, and she had begun walking away, the small smile turned into a flat line. Her tight lips went white as she lowered her head and quickened her pace. Ren looked into empty space around him. He was alone. When the time came that they would come for him, only then, would he see the face of another again. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Bored of his repetition, he began again anyway. Slowly he hurt himself, the corruption of his power began to spread throughout him. The vital energies of his body being destroyed in a chaotic maelstrom, it was only made worse by his constant use. The ritual circle that drained him was only slightly diminishing. When the time came again that footsteps sounded down the hallway, he stopped. Breathing deeply, he felt the phantom pains across his body in zaps. It was a feeling he had experienced before. Not one he remembered, a slight inclination that he had this feeling inside his head before, similar but different. Yet now it jolted through him, from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. Small buzzes and zaps left him feeling unstable and incapable of controlling himself. Two clerics appeared before the iron bars of the door. One was bald and looked to be well into his late years. The second, far younger and with an emotionless face, had short brown stubble atop his head. Their robes were plain gray, a single holy symbol of the Silver Goddess hung at their necks. The elder of the two clerics spoke, no emotion touched his voice. ¡°You will follow us into the master¡¯s chambers where he will perform a sealing on you.¡± Ren felt his body ready to explode, energy tearing through him. In the darker recesses of the room, sitting on the edge of his cot he found himself unable to move. The power of eldritch touch permeating his body felt ready to kill him. Seeing Ren unmoving and unresponsive the younger of the two touched his holy symbol of the bisected triangle onto the door. It opened, the magic circle creating a barrier around the room faded. Within his mind Ren felt intense energy bearing down on him. Am I going to die? Will this power truly destroy and scar my soul beyond recognition? Will my very soul be devoured by this power as he said? The power only continued to magnify as the ritual began to stop eating away at his energies. Shit, just make it stop. Shit, shit, shit¡­ Ah God, please, it¡¯s killing me. The destructive force continued eating away at him, his hands and feet began to lose feeling as the corruption gained on him. It has to stop, oh fuck, please¡­ I¡¯d rather die, it has to stop- The men stepped into the room. ¡°Young man, if you make this difficult, it will only hurt you.¡± The young man looked slightly pleased. He raised a hand and grabbed Ren¡¯s shoulder with a cruel grip. Is this what they feared? Is this the power of an eldritch God? Or¡­ Pulling harshly on Ren¡¯s shoulder, his rigid body fell forwards, the second priest grabbing at him. Ren spoke; ¡°... is this mine?¡± The energy left him, a wave of eldritch touch exploded out from him. The room began to crack as both ritual circles disintegrated. Corruption flooded the room as everything began to be destroyed. There was no light, no flash or bang, no sound came, for this was the absence of all things. The wave that overcame the two clerics grabbing at Ren made them stop from a brief moment. They grabbed at themselves as black veins appeared across their bodies. Slowly they began to sink towards the ground as their bodies became small and shrunken. The two appeared as emaciated corpses long starved of food and kept unnaturally alive for far too long. Like undead arisen from the grave, with moments left the men looked at themselves, unable to speak or move but small glances and twitches. The two bodies went still within moments. Dust fell to the earth as stone began to seemingly evaporate from the walls. Like radiation causing the slow near invisible death of a man, the force left small traces as its power ravished everything around it. Ren stood, his stats nearly depleted. Looking at himself he appeared normal, shaking and dizzied, yet alive. They were right¡­ C15 The Abyss Beyond In the depths of his soul, he knew he had stained himself. It was not the stain of bright berries on the palms that had picked them. Nor was it the stain of good coffee on a rug. This stain was no simple consequence or helpless accident. This was his deed, his choice to fight against his nature. The nature of his damned soul is marked by the seed implanted within it. It was the seed and mark of something so ancient, so foul, horrid and abominable that it had no name, or face. No word, no sound that could describe its unutterable appearance. Feared by even a God from this alien world, its claws were sunk into him. He had no price to pay for a second chance, so he had given the skin off his back, and his very own soul to pay. Before him were the husks of what were once men. Whether saints or sadists it did not matter. The toll of human life was now paid. With an eldritch touch he rusted away the iron bars while the glass pooled in small piles of dust. The open horizon met a mountain beyond the stone walls of the monastery. Pain bloomed across him in phantom streaks from his further use of eldritch touch. He activated his stealth skill and urged his eldritch touch to corrupt the traces left behind in his wake. The phantom pains slowly eased as his tracks melted away behind him. Falling into the empty yard below his window, he looked upon the walls beyond him. With light, soundless steps he moved towards them. His body was weak and ready to give out. Looking up the stone brick walls he did not have the strength within him to scale them. Instead, he looked into his status. Congratulations Eldritch Rouge Lv 8 +6 Dexterity +2 Willpower +2 Vitality +2 Intelligence +10 Freepoints Two levels huh? This evil fuck likes when I kill priests from his enemy¡¯s order eh. Allocating his points he increased his stamina and strength greatly. Congratulations New Ability Acquired Eldritch Horror: The buildup of eldritch touch has begun to permeate your being. The release of this buildup can reveal the true essence hidden within abilities. A combination skill, or to be released as a singular outward wave of eldritch touch. All it took me was nearly killing myself to get stronger. Well, shit, I guess I¡¯ll have to nearly destroy my own soul more often. Name: Ren Race: Human Alignment: N/N Class: Rough level 8 Tier 1 Skill: Ritualism Marks: Gate-Walker, Ascendant Slayer HP:57/85 SP:36/90 MP:14/100 Attributes: Str: 14 Vit: 17 End: 18 Dex: 34 Wil: 22 Int: 18 Free Points: 0 Abilities: Combat: Sneak attack, Eldritch Touch, Eldritch Sight, Eldritch Tongue, Eldritch Horror Skill: Ritualism Misc: Stealth, Tracking -Analyze, -Systemic Itemization, Eldritch Touch: The power of something vast and unknowable has left its mark upon the user. The power to call upon the mark is deadly to all. To destroy and destroy oneself. Empower objects, attacks, and abilities with this to strengthen them. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Eldritch Sight: Eyes that gaze at the face of the void is fooled by none other. The abominable eye has seen you, and you it. The auras of Celestial, Fiendish, Living, and Undead are shown to you. Eldritch Tongue: The voice has spoken to you. No other tongue shall meld your mind to their liking. You may speak to all, and so to all the voice may reach. Eldritch Horror: The buildup of eldritch touch has begun to permeate your being. The release of this buildup can reveal the true essence hidden within abilities. A combination skill, or to be released as a singular outward wave of eldritch touch. With his newfound strength and boost to stamina he scaled the wall easier than he could have ever before. Falling to the other side, the impact was muffled by his stealth ability. Still using eldritch horror, it eliminated the smallest traces left behind by his movements. Not a single impression, broken blade of grass, or crushed leaf was left behind. Ren began gliding towards the mountains beyond the rear side of the Monastery. With his increased dexterity it was effortless. Downed logs, broken stone eroding down the mountain slope, none of it could slow him. The rate at which his stamina burned was slow, his dexterity meant every point was being used far more efficiently than prior. Just as intelligence had made his willpower flow more easily, allowing the more precise control of mana and magic, so the same with dexterity and endurance. As he further reached the summit of the mountainside, bells rang from down below, their clanging and ringing meant his victims had been found. He burned away at his stamina faster, allowing the energies to burn away as his legs turned up dirt and stone below him. Having run out of eldritch touch¡¯s lingering power, his stealth was no longer the perfect disguise any longer. As the peak came closer and closer in his view he felt a pulse of energy waft over the mountain. Shit, they found me already. He delved deeper into the woods that cascaded down the sides of the mountain. Deactivating his stealth, his energy drains slightly lowered and freed him to move even faster. With his dexterity so highly boosted he grabbed a branch and swung himself gliding twenty feet over a crevasse that went down deep into the earth. Landing, his feet slid slightly before he regained his balance. Dashing forwards, he passed a great dead log nearly half rotten. His foot slammed into its great mossy trunk propelling him over a slope. Again, feet meeting the ground, he had crossed into a rocky area. Before him loose rock and eroded ancient stone had fallen in great heaps and masses. As he stepped forwards, shale snapped under his black boots made of the unreal material all his clothes were generated from. Glancing up the path looked terrible to try climbing up. He had no choice, he grabbed at loose cracks in the high-grade slope. Pulling himself up small bits of stone snapped and broke away. Continuing this way, he had to continuously find new handholds and spots to plant his boots. The stone was nearly ready to all fall down at once. As he reached a small outcropping he looked into the blackness of a small cave. Whether it continued down ten feet or a thousand he had no clue. Anything was better than dying from a rockslide or being found by the dogmatic priests ready to strip him of his will to live. It had been long since he wished to live as strongly as he felt now. The burning urge to keep going no matter what threw him into this mess. Would it be easier to just ask them to kill me, or to throw myself down these rocks? Is it really worth all this? Dammit all, it would be easier to give up¡­ but I can¡¯t. Fighting on, he pulled himself up onto the ledge where the small entrance into a black abyss lay. Looking down he saw the broken and cracked rocks far below him, in a short span he had climbed nearly two-hundred feet. Before this power had become part of him, he could have never imagined being able to do such a thing. Looking into the distance, he had climbed likely ten times the height of the rock face in elevation while running. In the distance he watched civilization roll out in front of him. Small squares of land cut about in property lines, farms, streets, and even the city. Beyond all of that was a blue tint in the atmosphere that blinded his sight of the great distance beyond the cultivated land. The small shapes of forests, trees, hills and meadows was nearly indiscernible from the haze that lay over the land. Further away, another range of mountains arose from the earth shooting into the sky. The blue haze laid on them most of all. Beyond them was a great nothingness as far as Ren¡¯s new eyes could see. He turned looking into the mouth of the cave before him. A great shadow lay over its entrance, cool damp air wafted out touching his nose. The air smelled dank and musty, but what other choice was there? He pushed himself into the small entrance, squeezing tight until reaching a large pocket where the area expanded. Having enough room to crouch while holding his palm forwards a small ball of burning mana came forth in his hand. The inside of the cave was slightly wet, seemingly dampened by the rains washing down the impermeable stone outside and having to find their way into the ground elsewhere. The stone was dark and cool to the touch. Slowly moving forwards, he pushed further into the tight confines of the cave only seeking a sweet release from pressure mounting on him. He couldn¡¯t know how soon they¡¯d find him. Hours? Days? His stealth ability had become useless to him, now he just needed to gain as much distance as possible. Maybe delving into a dark cave wasn¡¯t the best option but maybe, just maybe, they wouldn¡¯t find him here. The tightness got better as he pushed forwards, after nearly an hour unable to stand he could now walk with his back bent over. His slow descent into darkness gained in haste. As the depths opened further, his mana had begun to wane. It would be difficult to sustain his light much further as his mana generation was slightly slower than the rate at which it burned creating his light. Resting and allowing his light to wink out he waited until his mana had recharged. During the two-hours he had to wait, small skittering came up to him in the depths beyond. A distant echo telling of what was to come, chitinous bodies clicking and clunking rang up from unknowable dark chasms. C16 The Descent It was within the darkness that he felt safest. No matter the eerie sounds that crept from the darkness below and beyond him. The darkness of the caverns swept across him as a thick blanket keeping him safe. He regretted the idea of having to create a light again, to show his shameful face to the world around him. Instead, he experimented with his eldritch eyes. They had already begun to allow him to see within the ordinary darkness of night. There was a problem though, the night was not true darkness, this was. Within the night a thousand lights shone. The moon being quite bright, not to mention that great star filled sky that always escorted it along its journey each and every night. Here, there were no stars, not a single one, and no moon to shine brightly. Here, there was nothing. Nothing but Ren and whatever made sounds from the depths below. Channeling mana into his eyes, he gave the willful intent for them to see. When nothing changed, he sighed. Again, he tried infusing mana into his own eyes, this time activating eldritch eyes. Forcing an overage of mana into eldritch eyes forced them to begin bleeding like the first time he had empowered them. Just with the illusion of the shapeshifter way-back-when, his eyes started to burn terribly. As if being remade in his face they morphed. Infusing more and more mana, trying to force his vital energies to heal his eyes, the pain suddenly stopped. Two voids sat in his face, they sapped at his mana as they traced the essence of the world around him. The eyes of the void saw into all things. Within the void, there was no light. Instead, these ¡°eyes¡± devoured a small trace of the ambient mana and essences surrounding him. Half lidded, his black eyes pulled in only a small amount. As his eyes widened, he felt at the nature of all things around him. His senses overwhelmed; he kept his eyes at a tight squint. Even at this level he could read the room around him. With newfound vision he saw in essence the trace of the world around him. A black sheet laid across the world, though the outline of it all was traced in colors his eyes had never known before. His body, a black pool of oil, surrounded by a tracing of something like red, but was not quite red. The walls, gray and brown tracing that showed the basic contours of its shape. With new sight, he stepped forwards into the darkness that blanketed him. The cavern opened further to allow him to finally stand straight. As he walked, he activated stealth and felt his own red trace diminish. It was still there, the small outline of himself, but now the darkness around himself and oily blackness that he perceived as his own body was blurred. The slope began to inch further and further downwards until it seemed nearly vertical. Peering down he saw the outline of a dark insectoid being. Eight legged and with massive pincers, was building a tunnel in the side of the wall. Sticky resin bound the top rim of the tunnel as if it was preparing to attach something to the entrance. Is it building an ambush hole? Ren pulled out his revolver while looking down nearly three-hundred feet at the bug. He prepared a sneak attack while studying the bug. It was nothing he could remember, if remembering was something he was truly capable of. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Repeating his activation of analysis combined with eldritch eyes he was able to read the power of the insect. Assassin Arachnid Lvl 6 Tier 01 Tier 01? Like me, an ascendant, though were the ax beak runners, or the great bear? The great bear had to have been if I remember right what Hollwin said, nearly to its second I believe. Activating his sneak attack, he fired a blow into the bug. Unlike the accuracy of a revolver from a non-magical world, this one hit true despite the distance. His very will empowered the shots, his mana infused into it with sneak attack. Even if the amount was miniscule, it affected the bullet, making it fly true. With his increased levels, the arachnid was blown apart. Split at its thorax, its limbs falling apart by the sheer amount of power behind his attack. He would have to kill a lot of little bugs like this so even notice much strain, let alone gain any levels. He continued down the cavern; its slope would have been impossible for him to climb down in the past. Now, his dexterity and increased strength made him able to flow down it like water. Reaching further into the depths he stopped to listen for anything within the darkness. No shouts from above calling for his death, and nothing scratching its way through the darkness below him. With his new sight he caught a glimpse of the faint trace of another small ambush tunnel built into the wall. As an experiment, he wanted to try using his first firebolt. The segmented bolt shortly formed floating above his hand. With a mental command it fired forth, silently, yet deadly. It slammed home into the hidden entrance of the assassin arachnid¡¯s lair. The bug busted out of its small home. Large pinchers and sharp front legs slammed open the sealed burrow. Jumping, it was burned slightly by the blaze that burst on its front door. Assassin Arachnid Lvl 7 Ren fired a sneak attack as the creature was distracted, the shot blasted through the insectoid face of the arachnid. It fell to the ground twitching before the bug ceased its struggling. Ren smirked, well that worked, happy with himself he continued his descent further into the darkness. This cloak and stealth ability made him nearly invisible to even himself. Though he did not understand how it might affect the senses of creatures adapted to the depths of such a place. If a creature detected by movement in the air with fine feelers, would he still be stealthed? What if the animal read heat signatures, was that masked? Or even by smell, would a giant bloodhound be able to find him? Wait, what is a bloodhound? Shit, I can¡¯t remember. He let himself fall a short distance down the heavy slope. His intensified grip grabbed at a rock and stopped him from falling into the darkness. Man, this is ridiculous, how strong was that paladin guy anyways? When he gazed into the paladin using his analysis combined with eldritch eyes, he had seen what looked like an insurmountable mountain weight down upon him. The power ascension brought, the ¡®tiers¡¯ he gained, or should eventually gain so long as he survived what would likely be a national manhunt, could bring infinite growth. One could become a God or even an ancient eldritch being that could devour even such great ones as them. Well, Ren didn¡¯t know if a person could become an eldritch God, something so vast and ancient it could send someone like him to be the key to devouring universes. It was better not to consider the fate of becoming such as them. C17 Monarchs of The Abyss In the depths of a place unknown to men for countless centuries, Ren dwelled within the darkness of his cloak. Hiding away from the world he struck out at scuttling insects and destroyed them. Assassin Arachnid Lvl 8 Assassin Arachnid Lvl 10 Assassin Arachnid Lvl 9 From the shadows he struck first at the strongest of the three. With an empowered sneak attack, the hearty bug was nearly killed. It charged towards him in the darkness. Fine hairs and sensory organs found him in the darkness. Feeling the vibrations in the hair, the other two charged. The strongest died when two more shots were fired into its odd insectoid figure. Without his sneak attack damage Ren was a bit outclassed. The two charging at him were ridiculously fast, the hundred feet of distance cleared in moments. Their bodies fired forwards like torpedoes aiming to render his flesh with great tearing mouths and sharp forelegs. Dashing backwards he emptied four shots into one, without bonus damage the attack only slowed it, unable to kill the target. Sneak attack being terribly overpower it was his lynchpin. The unhurt arachnid reached him and slammed its jaws at his torso. Falling backwards he sliced through one of its giant mandibles. The bone blade infused with a small amount of eldritch touch leeched corruption into the bug. Ren tucked his body and slid under the creature; its powerful legs left a great gash over his left shoulder. Blood began seeping heavily down his odd black clothes. The bone blade sliced forwards and left a gash across the insect, barely penetrating, the blood was minimal but that meant nothing next to the blackness creeping into its body. With a roll he slid from underneath the insect. It twisted as the infectious corruption poisoned its body with an alien pain. The wounded arachnid came for him next. Jumping to meet its attack he slammed the knife into its mouth as it clamped down on his sides. Thick cuts bled heavily down his sides, and he retracted the weapon from its mouth where it penetrated the skull. Turning, he looked at the remaining arachnid tearing at itself, a black corruption had begun to spread across it as jolts began to travel throughout Ren¡¯s body and mind. A sudden zapping pain that left his head dizzy. Holding a hand forwards, he looked at the insect trying to tear off a piece of its own blackening flesh from its underbelly. With a merciful gesture eldritch horror activated in a small wave. The corruption spread quickly devouring the insect. Congratulations Eldritch Rouge Lv 9 +3 Dexterity +1 Willpower +1 Vitality +1 Intelligence +5 Freepoints Goddamn, about time¡­ Moving through the caverns he had found nearly a dozen of the insects. This was the first time he had encountered them in a group. The insects were insanely weak for their level compared to him. It seemed that a large deal of their power budget was spent on a boost of speed to catch unwary prey and their building of secret tunnels. When caught off guard they were quite easy. Easy, until they group and try to eat you alive that is. He allocated his free points into intelligence and endurance. It was rare that he got truly injured like this, instead he had made easy work thus far killing enemies from a distance. Things changed. After he had rested and allowed his new natural regeneration to take over, only becoming better as he leveled, he encountered far more in groups than before. His bullets were not doing enough damage to keep up with the increasing numbers and levels of the arachnids. Assassin Arachnid Lvl 12 Assassin Arachnid Lvl 13 Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Firing a sneak attack and the remaining five bullets of his revolver into the level thirteen arachnid, it died. Black body falling into the sloping descending far into the abyss, it passed over the second insect. Lunge forwards its tremor sense allowed it to feel disturbances in the air. Within the blackness the giant mandibles and two forelegs came slashing down on Ren. He threw himself downwards falling into the abyss. Summoning a firebolt the flame slammed into the insect¡¯s thick torso after launching forth from him. The burning quickly stopped as the damage was absorbed by the insect¡¯s strong body. The exoskeleton was quite resilient to fire damage, though enough fire burned through anything. Ren caught a ledge on the seemingly endless slope down into the abyss. Like a slide falling steeply into the underworld only darkness rested below him. The insect clattered down the side of the slope after him, he summoned another two firebolts that slammed into the same spot on the giant insect. Giant forelegs slammed down towards him as he rolled. Mandibles struck down across his back as he sliced through one of its forelegs. The razor-sharp leg fell free and slid down into the darkness. Ren fired a point-blank inferno into the creature''s face before it could do any more damage with its sharp body. The sizzling bug tried again to attack him but failed as all of its sensory hairs had been burned off by the blaze. Ren¡¯s bone blade met its head as he put it down. He sighed; more wounds meant more time lost healing. They could find me down here, it''s not like a path full of monsters¡­ not anymore. He crouched down on the steep slope. Without his new dexterity he would have never been able to hold himself up on such a slope, let alone rest on one. The stats had made him into the most athletic human on earth, if he was even a human, or on earth. He was far from home, alone and in an abyss deeper than he could imagine. The slow regeneration of his body took hours. Wounds that would have gone infectious, or bled out began to heal themselves in less time than a scratch from a dog. Maybe he was blessed, or perhaps, damned. When he had stopped bleeding, and had eaten some burned insect bites, he began his descent into the great unknown. Within an hour he saw the reason for the arachnids'' increased number and size as he had descended. Assassin Arachnid King Lvl 14 Assassin Arachnid Queen Lvl 16 As he looked at the pair who guarded over a nest of eggs tucked into a crevasse, the male, was giant. The female, tiny. Yet, she gave off a terrible aura of power. The men he had looked into at the Monastery were like mountains, unknowable and great, a small rockslide off their side would destroy you. She was like a boulder, if it rolls you over, you¡¯re fucked. Ren thought to himself. So, don¡¯t get run over like an idiot. Analyzing the male, he noticed it was at a threshold nearly ready to ascend as the queen had, so, fourteen is the point before ascension, eh? Ren prepared a sneak attack, for nearly an hour he observed the assassin arachnids. Slowly tending their nest, the king patrolled around the big opening to their sealed off chambers. The only time it was opened was when the king left, leaving Ren clear to see the eggs and queen. He figured it was better to try and kill the king first as he was likely able to be taken out before the queen attacked. After his long study, Ren empowered a sneak attack with eldritch touch. The mental indicator for his sneak attack damage was close to driving him insane, its slow buildup was an anxiety in the back of his skull just waiting to destroy his enemies. The attack slammed home, tearing through the insect''s torso, the bullet knocked off the rear leg of the king. Unable to launch himself forwards without one of his rear legs, the king thrashed for a second before trying to dash forwards. The arachnid scuttled forwards heavily slowed down, unable to gain much speed with the heavy damage. Within moments of Ren firing off a second shot hitting the king¡¯s head with an eldritch touch empowered bullet, the queen attacked. Like a missile ready to launch, the queen opened her doorway into the hidden egg chamber. With a moment of readying herself she launched. Firing forward like one of Ren¡¯s bullets, she slammed into him without his attempt to dodge beginning. She tore through his side, flesh severed and blood gushing. The center of his torso was horrifically cut, in shock he was unable to act as she mandibles bit down onto his shoulder. His knife arm in the grip of her jaws, he pulled the revolver across his chest aiming in at her face clamping down on him. Four empowered bullets slammed into her face. Her many eyes exploding in blood, black veins crept across her. Far smaller than the huge bugs, she nearly pulled him down to the ground, the ground being the high slope directly behind him. Nearly wall-like the slope was so heavy she could stand on it and bite his shoulder while still a small creature. The corruption across her head burned away at her body. Slowly it began disintegrating though her mandibles bit deeper into him. The strain of six eldritch bullets combined with his injuries left him terribly low on health. She released him and began to tear at her own eyes. Ren unleashed a blaze from his hand, purely turning his mana into condensed heat that burned with horrific intensity. The blaze combined with the corruption spreading across her face caused her to shriek in pain. The queen slammed herself into the ground in panic. Blinded both by fire and by corruption she was totally blind to the world besides the smell and sound of her down charring. Ren slammed home his bone blade into the arachnid queen¡¯s skull. She fell, in short moments after, her king subsided to the corruption spreading within him and lost himself to the deep darkness below. C18 Those Below Ren had rested for hours within the secret tunnel of the queen¡¯s hatchery. Upon first entry he looked across the eggs, deciding they couldn¡¯t be a threat he left them alone. Sleeping for hours? It was hard to tell within the cavern. The terrible wounds sustained in the battle against the king and queen had healed quite a lot, though they had not fully sealed. When he went to move, he felt old and dried blood separate, and a small trickle of fresh crimson took its place. He held his side, unknowing of the dangers beyond he hesitated to venture deeper. They could find me any minute, what if they seek me out in the depths of this place? Better running and wounded than half healed and sitting here. With disregard for the pain, he moved out into the open carven. Looking around, he saw the trace of his blood and filth left over from the corruption and destruction of the two monarch arachnids. Traveling into the steep depths beyond he slowly descended. It was, by his unknowing guess, three hours. That was when he found the bodies and the floor opened up into a great open cavern before him. The bodies looked harvested, not by teeth or claws, but by tools. The cavern now extended far beyond his sight in all directions but the path he came from, behind him. Distant sounds clattered and clanged as voices came from so far away that even their echoes were distorted. Ren fled to find a place to hide, fuck, they must have passed me while I slept. I¡¯m a dead man. Slow footsteps sounded and slowly echoed closer and closer to him. As they approached, he could hear small bits of what they said. The language, being interpreted by his skill, eldritch tongue, was clear to him, though a part of him knew the tongue was something entirely new to him. The words began to come in bits and pieces. ¡°Arach¡­ above¡± ¡°Monar-range-may-as-dant¡± After a few minutes of silence, the voices came again yet clearer this time. ¡°If it stays above, we might be safer.¡± ¡°What if it comes hungry?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll do as we always have.¡± Ren moved to peak at the people talking as they slowly approached the corpses. A small light glowed from a staff on the man¡¯s staff. He was gray in complexion, he only stood to the rightful height of a boy. Beside him a woman walked, just as he was, her skin was gray, and she too was the height of a child. They both appeared withered, small, and frail while they carried large packs nearly empty but small tools and cutting equipment. Ren sighed as these were not the men likely to be after his life. Instead, they were small humanoid creatures. Their ears long and eyes an orange yellow that reflected the light. Observing them he watched as they began harvesting the bodies. The woman handed the male tools that he used to slowly cut apart the thick pieces of chitin exposing the destroyed flesh. ¡°Whatever did this truly have vile venom.¡± ¡°Will these parts still even be good?¡± ¡°That¡¯s not our job to figure out, let¡¯s just be quick.¡± They quickly began filling their backpacks made of various parts of different creatures blended with strange fungal parts. After a few minutes the corrupted flesh and half ruined chitin was packed up and ready to be moved. They put away their tools and began to head back into the darkness when Ren stepped out from his hiding spot. He hesitated before speaking, the two stopped immediately in their tracks. ¡°I need some information, if you''re corporate, this will be easy.¡± If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°A human!¡± The male shouted; he began running into the darkness. The female humanoid stood unmoving and visually shaking. ¡°Are there others here? Like the two of you?¡± ¡°I¡­ Yes, but¡­ no humans come here.¡± ¡°Well, I have.¡± Ren allowed his echo to slowly travel the caverns beyond as he remained silent. The echoing footsteps of the man came from the distance. The revolver came in front of his eye as he aimed at the retreating back of the ghoulish little man. Boom. The echo traveled through the cavern as Ren lowered the weapon. ¡°Now, before your friends come, tell me, where can I get out of here and to somewhere far away from the surface above.¡± ¡°We do not leave, we never leave. We cannot ever go back, never.¡± She fell to her knees and tears began to well in her eyes. Shit, I should have just shot the man¡¯s leg or something, they probably heard the gunshot anyways. ¡°I need you to tell me how to get out of here, if you don¡¯t, I¡¯ll have to kill your people when they come for me. I don¡¯t know what you are, but you don¡¯t seem that bad. Just tell me, and nobody else has to die today.¡± ¡°We have been here since the fall! I swear, we never leave and never want to!¡± She hugged herself while looking into the darkness where Ren had killed the little withered creature. I was already a murderer, what does some little goblins count for? He sighed as he looked at the creature before him. He tucked away his revolver and ran into the depths of the caves. Within long moments the light she carried was a spec far away in a distant darkness. Ren was again in his cloak of blackness he now found so dear. Two men, something like a man, and how many beasts? The portion he has run down led to several small pockets hallowed out in the rock. Burying himself deep in one, he curled up with his cloak, and his blanket of blackness. Stealth activated as he stared into utter darkness. All but the small traces of the cave were utter black. His new eyes half lidded showed him the nothingness that seemed to stretch forever. By his unknowing count, it had been maybe two hours. That was when the echos came again. Seven of the man-like withered creatures followed his steps against the stone. In their center was a shaman, small words uttered under his breath came and went as a red mist rose from small drips on the stone where Ren had bled. Marked Man Lvl 6 Marked Man Lvl 7 Marked Man Lvl 6 Marked Shaman Lvl 14 Marked Man Lvl 8 Marked Man Lvl 7 Marked Man Lvl 6 His wounds were better, his natural regeneration had become amazing. But it was still not good enough to heal the great gash across his side. The bleeding has ceased again, but would open again if he did not remain still. Hunger struck his stomach as he was waiting for the echoes to come closer. How long had it been since he ate? Since the escape, and how long ago was that? He waited in his small hole in the wall, then began to come close enough that he could read their trace against the blackness all around. A small light sprung up on the shaman¡¯s staff as he slowly chanted, his echo bouncing off Ren¡¯s wall. With stealth activated, he held the revolver and felt the buildup of sneak attack. An anxious energy was slowly building as he infused Eldritch touch into his bullets. An energy began to premiate him and start eating away at all three of his energies. As the shaman looked up at the wall with many crevasses within it, from a hundred feet away a bullet slammed into both men at his sides. With the bright light, Ren¡¯s vision was heavily impaired looking directly at the shaman. Leaving him only the option to kill the others, unable to get a good shot at the shaman. One of the men exploded as sneak attack descended from the wall and obliterate his far weaker body. The second fell to the ground as black veins began consuming his body, screaming the wither and gray figure quickly subsided to the corruption destroying him. Ren fired all four remaining bullets in rapid succession, three hit their targets as the marked men fell to the earth. They all began dying of the black corruption of the eldritch touch. One bullet missed, the man pulling out a small spear made of beast remains and a fungal stem. Looking into the darkness his head turned side to side trying to find Ren. The shaman froze, his eyes stared directly into Ren as he was lit up by a blazing firebolt that flew straight into the spear of the last marked man as he launched it. The firebolt impacting the spear caused it to fly off course and miss terribly. The shaman fell onto one knee and bowed his head as a firebolt burned away the final marked man. ¡°Lord Alkyri, I have long cried for your coming.¡± C19 The Marked Men The small gray figure like that of a man bowed before Ren, he fell down from a crevasse in the wall. Stepping towards the small shaman, he slowly reloaded the six spent rounds within the cylinder. Ready to kill the small man, yet hesitant to break the man out of his odd behavior, Ren stood before him. Bowing deep to the earth below Ren, the man hardly reached the height of Ren¡¯s knees. If standing the figure was hardly above waist height on Ren. ¡°Stand, and tell me where I am, and who you all are.¡± Ren tried to mask his fear of fighting a far stronger enemy while already wounded. Though, if this creature was to bow to him, things may take a far better turn. ¡°Yes Lord, we have long awaited you within the fallen realm. We here know and remember you; do you remember us?¡± The small being stood, looking into Ren¡¯s half lidded black eyes with reverence. ¡°I remember nothing¡­ but just recent times, when the men and women above tried to slaughter me for what I am. Of you, I know nothing, of your Lord, I know nothing.¡± While pretending to be this little ghoulish goblin¡¯s God did sound appealing, he had no desire to be tied down to such creatures. ¡°Oh, but of course you do not remember, for the war was so long ago, and you have returned. The rebirth of the Lord is all that matters.¡± The small gray man smiled with ragged and rotten teeth. ¡°You are the fire that ruins, and the poison that rots all things, the man in black, Alkyri.¡± I will not be this rotten fanged creature¡¯s false God. Ren steeled himself and played along. ¡°Of those three things, I am.¡± He nodded slowly and the small creature¡¯s smile only widened. Ren felt the small words be uttered from the goblinoid wretch. They thrummed, echoing as his translation skill did not recognize them. With the words the goblin spoke, he felt the thrumming enter him, his body vibrating as his wounds slowly sealed. He looked down at his side that had been almost nearly torn open again. The spoken words, a whisper, had healed him. He looked down at what he believed to be a stupid, and barely humanoid creature and felt the falsehood of his preconceptions. Before him, this small, huddled form was powerful. Far too powerful for him to be at level fourteen, the brink of the second ascension. Activating eldritch eyes alongside his passive analysis, he looked deep into the being called the Marked Shaman. A black mass flickered and swirled, mana corrupted and an oddly flowing stream around it. The blackness, it could not be his soul, or could it? Like a burned husk of what should have been a soul, it was the opposite of what he had seen in the souls of the paladin and master cleric. They had been monumental, an unnatural vertigo had overtaken him at looking into them. The being before him was far from being such as them. It was the opposite, tiny and blackned, rotten to the very soul of its being. Yet, when this creature with a ruined soul looked at Ren, he saw a God. What kind of fucked up monster is made out to be a God of such as these creatures? I am apparently¡­ The flickering energy around the blackened soul was like a reinforcing barrier, the man had turned his own mana slowly into crackling energy that infused his very being allowing him to be far more than what such a weak and ruined soul should be capable of. Both terrifying and amazing, the potential of such a being was nothing but a slow and cruel death, yet he had empowered himself to find the brink of a second ascension. ¡°How did you manage to get so strong with your soul so withered?¡± Ren looked down at the figure below him. ¡°My faith in the great return, by my faith I have been sustained for generations beyond my time. We are born broken by the old mark, unable to ascend further until you return to us.¡± The small goblin bowed again and striated to smile at Ren. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Marked? A mark did this to you? Burned your soul and turned you into¡­ what you are?¡± Ren hesitated to insult the being far stronger than himself. An insect stronger than him was one thing, an intelligent mage was another. The shaman had an unknown set of powers, that of all Ren knew, could burn him to ruin -just as he was supposed to be able to. ¡°Yes, Lord. We have been forgotten to time in your absence, now we may again return from the Underdark and take our rightful place when you usurp the false Goddess!¡± A gittiness, almost like that of childlike joy, spread across the goblin¡¯s figure. ¡°Men will likely follow behind me, can you help me to hide away from them? Escape into these caves, some of them were far beyond any strength I have yet to see before or again. They could eradicate anything in their path. I don¡¯t fully understand yet why they have not found me.¡± Ren spoke, slowly assuming the mantle this shaman had placed upon him. He did not want to be the monster these things worshiped. To be the ruler of blackened and destroyed souls, the marked ¡®men¡¯ of the Underdark. But he would be what he must in order to survive what was to come. ¡°We will deal with them in time, let me guide you to the home of your people so you might be crowned again. Oh, my Prince of Venom, my Lord of The Pyres, Rightful Lord Alkyri, let you again assume the throne.¡± The withered figure gestured Ren into a great maw of darkness that only grew as he stepped onto a forbidden path. Through endless caves and the dark, damp depths of underground rivers, the path went unending. Small groups of scavengers and hunters carried strange plants growing along thermal vents, fish from the waterways, and flesh and chitin of the insectoid abominations that dwelled deep within the depths. Faint lamps made of glowing fungi were strewn throughout occasionally. The path had no straight direction and constant twists and turns changed with the environment of the cave. On one occasion they passed an abyss where the shaman quickly hurried him along before a low growl and disturbances of something titanic stirred the cave. At the rumbling of its deep hum, the being within the abyss caused stones to shiver on the ground, while loose rocks fell from the ceiling on the walls. ¡°What is that thing?¡± Ren asked, his black eyes wide. ¡°It is one that is better left alone. When you again become as the Lord Alkyri, and only then shall you know the truth of things. For now, to tell you the secrets of the abyss would be meaningless.¡± The shaman nodded forwards, and with a bow guided Ren onwards. Within what could have been hours, or days within the depths of such blackness unknown to all but those who brave it, he found himself in a place that reeked of death and ruination. The streets were lined with gnarled figures at the brink of collapse, the old and infirm, the sickly and dying. Between them moved the children sized to be infants, women who looked to be far too old to be mothers carried them and tended them. Men worked at the stone and bone structures, water and waste were haphazardly thrown into the streets and rodents and cave insects delighted upon the wastes. Ren looked at it all, his disgust pulling at the depths of his stomach to spill across the ground before him. He held back the bile, knowing that it would only bring the sickly scavengers closer to him. They passed countless of the gray and wither people, those who were long marked by and cursed by the name Alkyri, the name of their Lord, the name to be christened onto Ren. They continued with the inhabitants becoming confused, staring and even one of the elderly people falling onto the ground clutching at his chest. Ren was taken aback, the sight of a human, the sight of Ren killing a man. The shaman stopped with a faint smile upon his face. He watched as the elderly man went limp on the stone beneath. Within the cramped and vile streets, the shaman spoke. ¡°Today shall be marked, marked as well all long have been. For today, today is the day of redemption!¡± The shaman raised his staff as the goblins fell to their knees. Their confusion had died as they looked into the black cloaked figure before them. ¡°The Lord Alkyri, Lord of The Pyre, Lord of Venom, Lord in Black, The King of Despair, the Ruin of Salvation, has returned for the coming of the Underdark.¡± The shaman¡¯s voice echoed in the streets as he infused mana into his voice. Women, children, and even the men wept openly on the ground as the declaration began. When the hate came into his voice, and the shaman spoke again, they screamed for blood. ¡°Again, shall the Marked walk unto the surface and raise the earth with his flame, poison the rivers with his fang, and slay the false Goddess! Ruination shall come, as the lands are salted beneath our feet, and the children of our enemies die in their streets!¡± The shaman stopped as Ren looked into the bloody murder in the eyes of the goblin around him. What the fuck did I just get myself into? C20 The Pit The goblins of the Underdark cheered and called for the blood of humanity. Within their midst was Ren, realizing he really fucked up. The crowd slowly moved as the shaman called forth. ¡°To the arena where we shall see our Lord¡¯s might!¡± The shaman waved Ren forwards. Ren, always a bit nervous in social situations, just kind of went along with it not wanting to ruin their vibe. The crowd moved as dozens, then hundreds joined the procession. They all went towards a giant pit in the stone, it was lined with various fungal lamps. A set of stadium benches were carved into the stone lining the pit. As the great wave crashed against the pit they scrambled to get into the seats, others just standing above with hunger in their eyes. Those who seemed ready to die were newly invigorated, as they began to call out in excitement. The shaman pulled Ren away from the crowd that began celebrating around the pit. ¡°Hey, Shaman, things are getting a little wild, way too fast. Think we could just skip this?¡± ¡°To skip these festivities would kill their joy and hope within our people! You are to be rightfully crowned again Alkyri, just enjoy yourself!¡± Ren looked around at the surrounding goblins, withered little gray men and women were ready, seemingly dying for this moment. This isn''t just a nightmare or fever dream in my cell, is it? Please be an insane nightmare¡­ He looked back down at the Marked Shaman who¡¯s smile reached ear to pointed ear. He spoke a few hushed words before a passage into the stone open before them. ¡°This, Lord Alkyri, is where we will have you enter the arena from!¡± ¡°Ah, wonderful.¡± The shaman scrambled down the stairs and Ren huddled down the small entrance that led into the pit. The shaman led the way as they passed into the pit from a doorway below. Exiting first the shaman spoke again, a second doorway opened and quickly disappeared behind him as Ren stood in the middle of the giant pit. Ren brought a firebolt into his hand as he prepared for what was about to come. Cheering crowds lined the hundred-foot diameter of the arena beneath the ground. A feverish energy burned in them as they anticipated the bloodbath to come. Ren looked at them and saw nothing of the sickly and dying masses that stood before lining the grotesque streets. Only a people long lost, and finally awake to the world again now surrounded him. Though their bodies and souls were ruined by their Lord Alkyri, Ren had awoken something again. Two holes opened in the earth on the other side of the pit. Two canine like beasts crawled out, they were far larger than any dog he remembered. Wait, what was a dog? A dissonance came into his mind as he didn¡¯t quite remember. The single creature similar to these he could remember was the dire wolf. These two mutts felt far more feral, not meaning they were wilder, but more wrong and unknown to his mind. A strong sense of sickness within their minds, perhaps the long years living amongst the Marked had too corrupted them. The call of ¡®Wargs¡¯ came from the crowd in jumbled speech. Ren readied himself as a second firebolt appeared before him. The two hounds began to circle him and their thick, matted brown coats stood up in anticipation. Ren activated analyze and looked at the two beasts. They stared back into him with a deeper hunger ready to render him into bits. Warg Lvl 8 Warg Lvl 7 Thick gobs of drool leaked from the feral animals; their teeth were a yellow brown with pecks of rotten flesh blackening them. Their eyes shone an orange in the dim light within the pit. Ren targeted one firebolt at each of the beasts as he released them forth. Fire bloomed out and slammed into each animal. Oily thick fur stank as the animals yelped. Within moments Ren summoned two more bolts, the mental strain of summoning two together lightly giving him a headache. The animals quickly recovered and began to get closer to him as their blackened and stinking burnt fur continued smoking. The toll to hold two bolts at once was far from insignificant, though he believed it would be easier next time. With a command of his will, the two bolts pierced the Wargs and sent them tumbling back before they could strike at him. The mana within the bolts was the same as before, though his intent seemed far stronger as he used the skill more often. The will within the bolts seemed far more cut and drier and less forced, they slowly were becoming more efficient as he repeatedly used the attack. Watching both animals, he felt them weakening, using eldritch eyes and analysis combined he felt their vital energies were quickly draining as his bodies tried to mend their burning flesh. The two stood again and charged immediately at him. If they had not yet been quite damaged, they might have gotten him. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. With his immense dexterity he dodged past them and fired two eldritch touch infused bullets into the level eight Warg. The creature began to flail as it had black veins consume it. The last beasts came towards him again as he tried to dodge, the toll on him from using eldritch touch began eating away at him, it slowed him enough for the animal to grab at his wrist. Releasing the corruption eating away at him, a wave passed out of his arm and caused the beasts to begin dying. At first it just released his arm, shaking its head. It came at him again and tried to bite into his thigh, it seemed to be in a daze and completely missed as its face became blackened and it fell to the earth in moments. The goblins surrounding him cheered in their bloodlust. Waving arms and great rotten smiles filled Ren¡¯s vision as he looked into the crowd above. A voice came from all around as the Marked Shaman spoke with mana empowering his voice. ¡°As you see, our lord has returned! His flames shall burn our enemies, his poison shall render any who dare touch him to rotten filth on the ground! Wargs are nothing before him, but what is a spore host infected within the depths?¡± Ren looked at the wall as he noticed it begin to open again as what looked to be a mutated goblin shambled out. Using analysis, he watched as the strange goblin walked shuffling towards him. Marked Spore Host Lvl 13 He was confused to see another one of these goblin creatures at such a high level before he realized the truth of it. Something infecting the man had transformed him into something more. If the Marked Man could get this strong from being infected by a parasitic fungus, what was their limit with a ¡®new God.¡¯ Would he be the catalyst for their evolution into ascendency? The shambling host of their infectious spores came closer to Ren as small tendrils began to reach out of his chest. The fungus was seeking him out, ready to try and fuse into his being. Ren again began summoning twin firebolts before slamming them into the host. The fire seemed to be extremely effective against the fungus as it began to shrivel and burn. What was inside the host still continued to power him forwards. Like a zombie, he shuffles towards Ren, burning and yet seemingly unaffected. Ren backed away slowly making his way towards the opposite wall. Long tendrils began creeping out of the host soaked in blood and bile. Two more firebolts came forth as Ren felt himself becoming heavily drained by the twin summoning. Conjured forth they slammed into the host; the burning continued as he slowly made his way towards Ren. Wet tendrils began to wrap their way around the legs of the goblin and the small figure began to pick up speed. The flame continued yet seemed not nearly as effective at stopping the bile and blood-soaked tendrils coming out slowly on the goblins body. One of the tendrils whipped out towards Ren as he tried to duck. The wet slap slammed into his head causing him to stumble to the ground. Pulling out his revolver he resolved himself to destroy the abomination. His remaining four bullets went directly into the chest of the spore host. Eldritch touch flowed heavily through Ren¡¯s body as the corruption spread through the fungal zombie''s. He tried to push out the eldritch touch, but it seemed to linger within him. His mana began to quickly reach it¡¯s bottoming out point as his head began to thump. Black veins began invading the tendrils coming from the fungal infection within the goblin host. The body was not more than a burnt crisp with flailing wet tentacles writhing around it. Two tendrils slammed down on Ren as he felt popping in his chest and a severe pain bloom across his ribcage. With terrible effort he tried summoning the power to pulse out the remaining eldritch touch within him. Eldritch horror seemed unable to activate as Ren desperately tried to rid himself of the force trying to kill him. Standing with painful effort he looked at the host, the tendrils seemed to be unable to control themselves, or whatever intelligence, or instinct within it had lost control. They began slamming into one another as they lashed out uncontrollably. As Ren stood, he pressed his back against the wall and watched the black veins across the tendrils slowly retract as the corruption lost hold over the strength in level thirteen. While creatures such the monarch arachnids had all their stats in physical strength and speed to allow them to instantly kill their ambushed prey, an unintelligent, slow, things such as the host had all its power in durability and strength. Unable to kill the fungus, eldritch touch had slowly faded, Ren¡¯s own body barely had the stats to fend off the corruption compared to the far more durable creature before him. With the backlash of four eldritch shots fire off rapidly, and him missing much of his mana due to the rapid twin conjuring of firebolt, he was in bad shape. Unable to release eldritch horror, and incapable of firing the revolver that was out of ammo, only his knife was capable of damaging the creature. Getting into melee range of the tendrils would surely be a death sentence. Ren raised his hand and felt at his soul, within it was an egg. This egg was nothing that he could see, nor could he touch it. He felt the wrongness deep within it, the promise of something horrible. Reaching into the place deep within him, the hidden place that reached out within his dreams, he felt at a presence. Calling upon the void within his soul he touched it. A force came from the void within him, the egg that was to birth the thing that would devour the world. He gave into its influence, for one thing was strongest within him, the urge to live. An energy, or more like that of something that was the opposite of energy, poured out and grasped the corruption within him. It flowed into his hand as he allowed it to come forth. A swirling purple energy floated within his palm, like a wave collapsing upon itself, the faint violet light of the energy swirled. At its center the light was nearly a neon, vibrant shade, but at its edge the power was nearly a back-purple hue. The power flowed and then, at Ren¡¯s command, blasted forth like lightning into the heart of the fungal mass. Purple streaks like lightning bolts flashed across the tendrils and a violet light shone from its center. The abomination collapsed as Ren felt his body being torn apart. Warning: Premature Ascension Mark: Ascendant Slayer Absorbed Eldritch Rouge Level 10 Eldritch Rouge Tier 2 +5 Dexterity +2 Willpower +2 Vitality +2 Intelligence +7 Freepoints Skill Gained: [Eldritch Blast] Eldritch Blast: Expend eldritch energy to blast forth a beam of pure void essence. The one who welcomes the void shall bring it. Ren felt his body begin rupturing as a volatile force began permeating him. Within moments he fell unconscious as he looked at the silent smiling face above. C21 Changes It was within the dark and damp confines of a dilapidated hut that Ren awoke. The structure was made of bone, chitin, hide and various types of stone. The interior was covered in black grime sourced from a small oily fire burning at its center within a massive skull basin. Looking around Ren found himself on a mattress of hides, across the small hut was the Shaman working at a bubbling cauldron. The acrid smell coming from the bubbling cauldron only worsened a headache tearing through his head. ¡°Where are we?¡± Ren spoke, his voice low and a tad weak. ¡°My Lord, it is so very great to see you awake! The people witnessed your terrible power, yet still gaining, it is quite grotesque. Wonderfully so might I say.¡± The shaman smiled with his long and rotten fangs. ¡°Why did you put me up against one of those¡­ things. The spore carriers, hosts of that infectious fungus.¡± Ren looked down at the shaman disgusted. ¡°Well, many of the Marked have believed them to be an insurmountable evil, generation after generation we have to find new homes, new towns, and new lives. The spores seek us wherever we go, some lost faith in the return after the devastation over and over again. You showed them you can surmount the evil within the Underdark, the evil that spreads, infects, and devours all in its wake.¡± ¡°I see that, but what if I died?¡± ¡°You cannot! You are Alkyri come again, you are what shall bring us liberation and vengeance to those above.¡± ¡°Yeah, I see what you mean¡­¡± Is this guy really that crazy? There¡¯s no way he actually believes all this. ¡°We will follow you, and under your name shall we raise the world, turn it to ash and salt the ground beneath us. When you take the rightful throne from the Silver One, we shall again be the prize people of this world. There are few who would dare not follow you above during our ascendance as a people. Those who are not one of the Marked have long been rejected and thrown to the wilds of the great emptiness within the deep dark.¡± ¡°You mean there are humans who have lived down here?¡± Ren¡¯s eyebrows raised in surprise as a plan started to revolve in his head. ¡°Yes, but we have ostracized them, for they do not belong amongst those who shall fight in the name of Lord Alkyri.¡± ¡°Where are these¡­ evil people¡­ I would like to avoid them, you see.¡± Ren tried him damn best to be deceptive, hoping the little gray goblin could not understand his contempt for the Marked. ¡°They are past the pit for quite a long distance. We will soon deal with them, so do not worry yourself.¡± The shaman smiled again and grabbed his bubbling mixture. Pouring out a cup, he handed some to Ren. The fluid looked a muddy brown swirled in an oily blackness that reminded him of some short of burnt oil he could not quite remember. Trying to drink the mixture he felt himself begin to gag as he forced down a mouthful. A burning sensation mixed with an instant flush to his face. He felt his energies begin to better stabilize as his early ascension had taken quite a toll on him. ¡°So, I have some questions, firstly, why do you need to take care of the humans down here? Would it not be easier to just ignore them? Also, can you explain to me what might happen when someone continuously ascends prematurely?¡± ¡°Well, the humans are heretics against the true faith of Alkyri. As well, they seem to think of themselves as something greater than us, they believe lacking the mark of the Lord Alkyri makes them a more intelligent and powerful race.¡± The shaman shook his head as if the idea was prosperous and had to come out the mouth of a madman. ¡°I see, maybe I could go to them and try to¡­ fix things.¡± Ren said, a tad awkwardly. ¡°You are too good for them my Lord! It simply will not do for you to lower yourself to the likes of those humans.¡± ¡°Well, then what about my second question?¡± ¡°Right, right, I apologize Lord. We no longer ascend, we being the Marked, as our marked souls no longer allow ascension due to our souls being bound to you. Only through your evolution can we evolve. In time, I soon will be able to reach a second ascension now that you have ascended yourself. So, our knowledge of ascensions and the evolution of the self might not be entirely accurate. Though, I shall do my best for my Lord. To continue ascending without reaching the usual physical requirements means the soul has been through enough stress and development that the body belonging to it is too weak. Not to insult you my Lord, simply your soul is so powerful it causes your body to more rapidly change to meet its needs. This can cause the body to be weaker for the level of ascension one is at, though not always.¡± ¡°I appreciate the knowledge, truly. Whether or not you can be an expert with the lack of ascensions within the Marked, you still know enough that you¡¯ve helped me, thank you.¡± Reb nodded his head and attempted to finish off his vile drink. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. The two soon parted as Ren wanted to feel out his new power within the caves outside of the village. Within a short walk he was isolated yet still in range to call for anything if needed, not that he believed he wanted anything from the vile little goblins anyways. He began feeling at his newfound strength having gone through a second ascension, it made sense that he did not know the differences yet as he was asleep while his body truly changed mostly. He still wanted to ¡®feel out¡¯ the differences though. He began by summoning his stats before him. Name: Ren Race: Human Alignment: N/N Class: Rough level 10, Tier 2 Skill: Ritualism Marks: Gate-Walker, Ascendant Slayer HP:120/120 SP:110/110 MP:125/125 Attributes: Str: 14 Vit: 24 End: 22 Dex: 43 Wil: 25 Int: 24 Free Points: 0 Abilities: Combat: Sneak Attack, Eldritch Touch, Eldritch Sight, Eldritch Tongue, Eldritch Horror, Eldritch Blast Skill: Ritualism, Ritual Corruption Misc: Stealth, Tracking, Analyze, Systemic Itemization, Eldritch Touch: The power of something vast and unknowable has left its mark upon the user. The power to call upon the mark is deadly to all. To destroy and destroy oneself. Empower objects, attacks, and abilities with this to strengthen them. Eldritch Sight: Eyes that gaze at the face of the void are fooled by none other. The abominable eye has seen you, and you it. The auras of Celestial, Fiendish, Living, and Undead are shown to you. Eldritch Tongue: The voice has spoken to you. No other tongue shall meld your mind to their liking. You may speak to all, and so to all the voice may reach. Eldritch Horror: The buildup of eldritch touch has begun to permeate your being. The release of this buildup can reveal the true essence hidden within abilities. A combination skill, or to be released as a singular outward wave of eldritch touch. Eldritch Blast: Expend eldritch energy to blast forth a beam of pure void affinity. One who welcomes the end shall inevitably bring it. Having over forty dexterity now he tested out his reflexes. Doing small acrobatics, flipping, jumping around, running off walls, he noticed how easy these tasks had become. Attempting to stretch he noticed the flexibility he had gained, now he could easily beat out any non-magical human in an acrobatics competition. His dexterity was not the only thing to change although. He noticed it was easy to even pick up large rocks throughout the cave that he could have never even lifted an inch prior to the changes. While doing all this he quickly realized he had barely noticed his breath, its speed, had never changed. Neither while doing acrobatics or picking up giant rocks did; he need to begin breathing heavily. After taking note of all his physical changes he began trying to check his new mental abilities. His ability to process and perceive his senses had rapidly changed as well. Even far off conversation in the distance of the cave was able to be heard at great distances. His eyes could find the smallest traces of light, and he noticed the smallest changes within the air and small movements in the cave. All in all, he was getting really badass in his point of view. There was an idea in his mind, a memory of a guy everyone used to make jokes about. But the joke floated right out as his memory again was held from him. Maybe one day I¡¯ll remember everything¡­ Ren attempted to conjure a firebolt and it soon blazed within his hand in a mere moment. The time it required to be summoned had drastically quickened as well, the total mana he required to create it had dropped multiple times in severity. He questioned if it was finally time to upgrade the attack. With his new mental acuity, he believed his prior twin summoning of firebolt would be far easier, he was right. Within a few more moments two firebolts appeared in his other hand as he held onto three of them at once. He attempted to add the two other bolts to the singular one in his primary hand. When he tried to hold onto all three at once an idea sparked into his mind. He allowed all three to burn out of existence and returned the mana to himself. Refocusing Ren created a fistful of fire. Within it three budding bolts appeared, they were not yet focused into a direct shape. They held the will to become three separate bolts whenever he released the attack all at one. He pushed forth the blaze within his hand as it separated into three streaks of fire that blasted in rapid succession. Each individual one slammed into a separate large stone within the cavern. The range of this seemed to be quite diminished compared to a singular firebolt. Testing the attack again he felt the strain begin to build up on him. Realizing he would only be able to use the attack a few times between resting and regenerating resources, he used it for a final time. He blasted three fast rays of scorching flames into a boulder and felt himself weakened with the lack of remaining mana. Three casts, that should kill almost anything. Warily he tried to focus on his new eldritch blast ability. The skill seemed to be tied to some metaphysical energy rather than his stat points as he felt at the connection between himself and the being beyond. The instinctual knowledge that came with having a new skill made him feel confident on trying it out even though he lacked much of any mana. Ren remembered back to when he had chosen rouge as his class, and I really dreaded being a mage, eh? Lucky for me, I still get to deal with bullshit magic anyways. Pulling on the bound between him and his eldritch patron, he channeled the devouring energy that had destroyed the spore host. Feeling himself damaged like the backlash of eldritch touch, the energy quickly stopped attacking him and instead began to focus into the palm of his hand. Purple light swirled like a collapsing wave inside his hand as he outstretched his arm before him. With a stream of purple lightning that neither created light to illuminate nor sound to hear, a large stone portion of the cavern wall pulsed. The purple lightning pulsed within the wall as the energy ate away at it and began disintegrating the stone. A heavy weight dragged at Ren as he felt his body ready to collapse and fall into a deep sleep yet again. He fought the urge and instead spent the day practicing with his eldritch eyes within the deep darkness of the Underdark. C22 The Ones Left Behind As time passed in unknowable hours, Ren began to feel rejuvenated from his time experimenting with magic. The odd energy, or perhaps anti energy, as it felt so strange from his three energies, was also refilled and ready to be used again. With the goblin folk¡¯s ¡°civilization¡± so close, no creatures of oddities of the caverns had crept up on him as he hoped. The prospect of testing out these powers on some vile monster of the abyss was in fact quite appealing. Within the long span where he was alone and draped in his cloak of shadow, he had a long time to think. Should I just run from these insane little men? Would it be better to lead them to their deaths as a mercy to their pitiful existence? What horrific God could these creatures have worshiped to corrupt them into such things and sink them deep into the Underdark? Perhaps it was best to let them fawn over me; to reap the rewards they can drop at my feet. Maybe that makes me a selfish bastard, maybe I deserve these abominations for what I have become. Within his long moments of self-atonement and criticism, a figure began to approach him from the darkness beyond. The darkness around their shape seemed less so. His eldritch eyes showed him the faint outline of a person and their silhouette approached. The dark figure bowed as they neared, in a whisper that barely echoed forth as she spoke. ¡°They name you Alkyri, we remember him in truth as they cannot. Marked by him and twisted they don¡¯t understand he has found the truest of deaths. We, those of his kin, not of his church, know the truth of things. I wish to only ask that you do not let them eradicate the last of us.¡± Ren stood rigid as another human was bowed in the darkness several paces away. Watching her approach, she was so frail and starved he could not tell that her figure on approach was that of a woman¡¯s. The revelation had shocked him. Her body was terribly thin to the point where Ren questioned how she could still be alive. Long, dark, and unkempt black hair hung around a pale colorless face. Her eyes were a nearly translucent blue that took Ren aback at the odd color. Her face was small and showcased her body¡¯s terrible state. A small field of mana delicately swirled around her moving as it encountered objects. It was a bubble that constantly came out from her before retracting when it encountered objects surrounding her from all sides. Ren nearly commented on the odd aura around her before sensing its purpose. All around her was a field of mana that allowed her to sense the world around her even when completely blinded by utter darkness. Ren activated eldritch eyes alongside analysis. Human Lvl. 9 For the horrific shape she was in, she was quite strong regardless. A life living within such a place left no room for the weak. Ren spoke after long moments of staring at the woman before him. ¡°I know they are twisted things.¡± He stepped forwards and kneeled down to whisper softly. ¡°I am no God come again, I have heard of those of you lost inside the Underdark, humans who do not belong.¡± ¡°They have spoken of us to you?¡± Her voice came louder, shock evident in her expression, a small fungal lobe of light appeared in her hand and illuminated as she looked into Ren¡¯s black eyes. ¡°Yes, they seek to destroy you and burn the world above. I believe that so long down here has caused them to not comprehend the powers of those above. Even the master cleric of the monastery above far exceeds the power to destroy all of them.¡± You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. ¡°Yes, they have grown corrupted, and their minds have become something evil. I cannot express even the smallest portion of my gratitude to hear you are not betrothed to the idea of being the false God of such creatures.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t lie, the idea of getting powerful while being worshiped by evil little men does sound pretty easy. I may not have been the best man I could have been, but I can be better than the man who would make that choice.¡± ¡°My people know how to escape the Underdark, the path is long and gruesome. We possess none strong enough to lead the charge. When you are ready to escape this place, we will be at your back. Just know it will be your strength that will guide the journey.¡± She described the path to him, using her mana she created a small map of fungal tendrils and mushrooms that sprouted from the stone after she cast odd magics. Slowly putting to memory, the path Ren nodded along as she showed him the dangers on the way to their hiding spot. ¡°I will come to you and your people soon; I will rest and gather my strength and basic supplies without gaining the suspicion of the Marked ones. When that is done I will find you.¡± ¡°That is more than I could ever ask for, we have long awaited finally leaving the depths of this dark place. Things far beyond the evil of goblins and insects dwell within the darkness down here. For ages this place has been cursed and what has spawned is beyond vile. Please be careful as will we.¡± She gave him a small smile and nodded before fading into the darkness as her small fungal lamp burned away. Ren headed into the blackness between himself and the shaman¡¯s residence where he had awoken. He felt the power dwelling within him, his ascension had taken a toll on him, yet he felt more alive than ever before. The drive within him to escape the fate given to him only burned stronger as he saw his own burning flame mirrored within the eyes of the pale woman. Nearing the shaman¡¯s dilapidated hut, he smelled the rot of the goblin¡¯s ¡°civilization.¡± He tried to ignore the smell of feces openly dumped on the streets mixed with the smells of fungal gardens that dwelled across every inch of the place. Discarded and rotten food melded with the disgusting scent of it all. He arrived at the entrance to the dwelling. Peering inside the shaman worked at the corpse of another goblin. It was obvious at first sight. The creature was butchering one of his own, readying the corpse of a recently dead goblinoid creature. Ren tried to hold in his disgust and yet the putrid scent of the opened creature tore at his gag reflex. He stepped back from the hut and tried to breathe the less putrid air outside. ¡°My Lord! There is something I must present to you, tonight there shall be a feast in your honor.¡± ¡°If that is what shall be feasted on, then I shall pass.¡± Ren covered his nose to avoid the acrid smell of rot permeating the area. ¡°No, no! For the Lord Alkyri, only the best, this flesh will be for the lesser shaman who shall come to celebrate!¡± The shaman smiled. ¡°There are others such as you? Where from, I have seen no others but yourself in this area with souls not crumbling at their edges.¡± Ren glanced into the face of the goblin shaman. ¡°My Lord, I must say, I have neglected much in the tale of our people. We are not all there is down here. Many hundreds of us dwell within the stone, hide, chitin and bone homes of this section. This is only one of eleven sections where we live. The Underdark is crawling with us.¡± His smile widened as he spoke, excitement creeping up within him. As he finished speaking he grabbed the blade he had been butchering his kin with and tossed it up, catching it and slamming it back down into the chest of his dissection project. ¡°So, how many will be coming for this celebration tonight?¡± ¡°Ten more high shamans, in addition, from the largest of our clans will be the bearer of your crown.¡± ¡°My crown? What do you mean, a literal crown?¡± Ren was taken aback imagining a crown made of mushrooms and rotten filth that the highest of goblin craftsmanship could only afford to make for his honor. ¡°Lord Alkyri, take your rest from your training. Tonight, your fire shall truly burn above all others, and forever onwards be known for the death it shall bring.¡± A rotten giggle came from the Marked Shaman, the hideous thing. C23 Crowning A horde of the gray goblinoid creatures had gathered. Flames, festering scents, and every sort of savage shout came from the crowd. The celebration had just begun. Looking across the crowds Ren saw figures all lined up and pawing over an item at the crowd¡¯s center. They were the shamans descended from all the nearby tribes that have come to gather for his crowning. All of them possessed the same strange and twisting soul as the original Marked Shaman he stood next to now. Though, their levels varied from eleven to fourteen. The first shaman beckoned Ren towards the crowd with his fanged smile. The rotten breath leaking forth caused him to scowl while he walked towards the amassing goblins. With long, heavy steps, he pushed into the crowd that parted like a great sea of half dead faces. As he was again and again, he was reminded of what these were. The creatures discarded and lost to a dead God, ones that were so totally ruined and corrupted they could even worship him. Step after step, his black eyes remained nearly closed, only a small amount of the voids showing. His head was bowed as the ebony of his clothes blended him into the black stone beneath. Regardless, he was still the object of every eye within the great mass of creatures. They writhed around him excited and giddy with a childlike joy. The mass of small gray humanoid beings slowly parted and closed, and he passed into the middle of their crowd. Looking around himself, he saw all of the shamans standing at attention. Quick words passed amongst them as Ren tried to contain himself. The shaman who found him presented Ren before the others while one of them showed Ren the item they had been pawing over. A black bracer with a ruby at its center shone within the darkly lit cavern. The shamans swarmed around him as they spoke and chanted. Energy surrounded Ren as the bracer was brought closer to his arm until it flowed. The bracer changed into a pseudo-liquid and poured across his arm where it sealed itself in place unmoving and tough. The shamans continued their ramblings as he did his best to simply ignore them all. Soon, this would be over. Soon, he would flee them. I will deny these vile little men, I will find the humans here and use them to make my escape. These gray little men have no power over me. He tried to reassure himself, yet he felt so entirely wrong about letting this get so far. A roar came over the crowd as he heard his shaman speak. ¡°The beginning has already begun, the false kin of Alkyri are dying at this moment. Those who never were marked by his blessing. Those who never had true faith, they are being purged tonight as we celebrate his second coming!¡± The Marked Shaman smiled his rotten grin. The goblins all around them roared and shouted with excited calls. Fuck! I should have gone with her; I should have followed her to her people! Ren¡¯s heart sank imagining the little gray creatures in a horde tearing away the last vestige of humans who have struggled so long in their fight for life. Ren empowered his voice with a heavy amount of mana. ¡°Shamans, is your ceremony over? For I will go now and seek out the betrayers of the past, I still ensure with my own hand they are slain.¡± This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. The booming power of his voices quieted the goblins all around him. The ruby on his new bracer shone when he infused the mana into himself, and he felt a dreadful power. A thousand glowing sets of red eyes stared into Ren as the ruby shone. With his eldritch eyes he looked into the souls of the goblins around him. A red energy pulse at the core of their souls. The mark¡­. This device is linked to the mark on their very souls. The shaman who found him spoke. ¡°Lord, you command so quickly, as impressive as hoped. We may now evolve as he had in the past, ascension is no longer a dream but a reality. Please, do what you must, our souls have already been saved, Lord.¡± The shaman spoke with an empty stare, he had no rotten smile nor any sign of emotion as the redness pierced into his very soul. Ren stepped away from the shamans towards the crowd. The feeling of having dominion over the very souls of these little creatures sickened him, yet what could be done but use it to find his own freedom. He walked into the blackness and began heading towards where the woman had instructed him. The caverns were true blackness, completely devoid of any color or light. In the long nothingness that was the great blackness, he wondered. The great thing in the underdark that the shaman had refused to speak of. His time amongst other humans at the surface, and his persecution. Would it have been better to live as a slave to the clerics? Or would it be better to die some false God in a deep network of caves far beyond the reach of light? As the darkness began to recede, the light of a single fungal lantern hung unwavering and unchanging. It hung on the entrance to a second branching cavern that shot out from the one he was passing through. It was half a miracle to find himself this far, yet the woman had made it obvious they lived in secrecy, so why would a lantern be hung? The answer donned on Ren as he saw the signs of a large group having passed through here. Small bits of litter and half rotten food bits lay around where the gray goblins must have rested before making their attack on the humans. His step hastened as he charged into the cave beyond. After many long minutes of passing through the dim cave, the long distant echo of crunching and tearing came to him in soft, wet slaps. His stealth was activated as he moved closer to the noises. Corpses littered the stone ground where fungus had grown in manicured patterns. Blood of both goblinoid and human figures soaked the mycelium network from which the mushrooms grew. Ren watched as the remaining goblins ate away at the flesh of their enemies and their own alike. It seemed there was more of a preference for the humans over their own kin. Regardless, he was disgusted. Breaking his stealth, he allowed mana to pour into his voice and activate the ruby gem. ¡°Die.¡± The gray figures feasting on the dead paused as their eyes began to glow. A red light glittered forth from their very souls as the mark was activated. Several of the weakest amongst them simply went slack and unmoving, the red light piercing out of their souls and leaving them. The stronger half of them began to slice and stab at themselves, the command unable to be disregarded. Nearly a dozen of the goblins was unmoving, they did not respond to the command to die. Instead, these remaining were motionless and unable to neither fight back nor move. For these dozen Ren released a full six shots of his revolver. The number halved, he summoned a flame to his hand, four piercing beams of fire launched into all but two of them. Two remained, one shook attempting to move and disobey Ren¡¯s command. He felt his mana being drained as the willpower of the far inferior creature was far higher than the rest. Perhaps some of these could have become mages or shamans in the future. If they would have had a future that is. Ren used his blade and gave mercy to the last two of them. Skill: Eldritch Tongue, has merged with Item: Arm of Alkyri (Mythical) Acquired: Emperor¡¯s Dominion (Skill) Effect: Manipulate The God Emperor''s Chosen, efficiency based off willpower disparity C24 Consequences Ren moved through the gore around him. The bodies of dozens of men, women, and children littered the stone beneath him. Amongst them, was the dead of the goblinoid gray men who dwelled within these depths. Those he had killed, and those who died in their attempt to slay the humans. Mounting his dreadful presence, he basked in the consequences of his own being. The death of countless innocents, all he had to have done was to flee with her. Instead, both curiosity and apprehension had won out. They had won out, and thus these lives were needlessly lost. It was on him. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­ I should have come sooner. I should have torn the head off the shaman when we first met, because I didn¡¯t, you¡¯re dead¡­¡± He stared down at the corpses of children who died huddling away and surrounded by a dozen adults who piled atop them, dying as a shield. Alignment Change: Neutral/Neutral to Neutral/Chaotic A quiet coldness came through him as he shaped the mana he drew upon. A blaze erupted in his hands as he gave those who died a pyre. Silence won out as he turned away from the sounds of the fire burning away the dead. Neither his steps, nor his breath gave a single echo within the great expanses of the Underdark. Neutral, huh? Have my choices not directly led to evil? What, I have not done enough to damn myself, or maybe just my presence kindles disorder. Perhaps I never chose for this to happen, but the chaos I caused sparked the vile things into action, so they slaughtered humans in a false name with me as their excuse. I would be best off, no, the world would be best off if I never had come, if I never had wished to live anew. He stared into the faint darkness around him, the evidence of his mistakes around him. Dwelling on his mistakes did nothing for the chances of finding survivors, and so his task began. Blood and viscera had trailed its way further into the cavern where the humans had hidden. Activating his tracking ability, he looked for any signs of humans that fled or hid away from the cannibalistic goblins. A faint trail alighted as he looked at a wall, at its top was a structure that appeared at first glance to be a supporting mechanism to ward against the potential of a cave-in. Instead, it was masking a large entrance into a secondary cavern above the one below. Either to mask the entrance, or exit into a far more dangerous area, or to block it off from invaders. Seeing as they had not attempted to flee into the cavern above, there must''ve been something, or things far worse than the goblins lurking above. Ren¡¯s immense level of dexterity made scaling it easy, quickly making his way into the cavern above. Quickly he saw the problem. Many insectoid corpses littered the area, the bodies partially harvested. Ant-like in appearance, they were far too large for ants. Mandibles large enough to sever a goblin in half, and legs spiked and hard, they could tear through any group of innocents trying to flee. The tracks continued onwards further into the depths of the cavern. The Underdark grew stranger, holes lined that the walls everywhere as Ren was prepared to be ambushed at any moment. Blue fungi hung all around. Waste from the insects proved a vital fertilizer for the ecosystem as piles of it led to great treelike blue mushrooms. Finding a small patch of the blue mushrooms, he decided to harvest some quickly. (12) Blue Cap Mushroom (Uncommon) He had begun to expect himself to grow hungry down within the abyss. After his second ascension he had begun to notice a lack of his ordinary needs. Food and water, though still needed, didn¡¯t seem as important as powerful energies fused within his body. The memory of the atrocities against the humans had bled from his mind slowly but the sight before him brought it back. A small pool of blood sat semi fresh between two branching caverns, one continued the pockmarked walls and floor that seemed to be made from the ants. The other floor was coated in a thick mucus substance in odd cracks and crevices around its walls. Activating his tracking ability, he saw the tracks double back from mucus cavern into the pockmarked one. Whoever¡¯s tracks they seemed to quickly flee after inspecting the slime residue. In turn he too left behind the odd cavern and continued into the one marked with countless ant holes. Quickly he found the source of the blood. A few drops continued until they stopped. The blood stopped shortly after the corpse of one of the ant-like insects that had its body pierced by thorns and vines. Seeds were scattered across the earth and looked harvested. Something was made out of the plants that stopped her bleeding. Unless someone else has the same magic, which is entirely possible, it may have been her regardless. If she¡¯s left any traps behind her this will be a damn pain. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. He continued until he had to activate his stealth and lean behind a stone formation in the cavern. With two sets of twitching antennae, a pair of the insects traveled in his direction from out of one of the holes. Cavern Digger Lvl 8 Cavern Soldier Lvl 13 It appeared the soldier ant was escorting a worker that was carving out the tunnels inside the walls. A memory of a forgotten life tried to come into Ren¡¯s mind. Alas, he could only remember ants moving in special paths created by scents. The rest of the memory was too far away and hazy to understand. Building up a sneak attack he watches the movement of the soldier, its legs and mandibles ready to tear apart a man given a chance. The worker was much smaller with an oddly shaped head like that of a spade. Its legs were much thicker and chisel-like ends. Regardless, he definitely didn¡¯t want to be struck by those legs. The first ant, the size of a dog, was struck by his sneak attack. The revolver tore its body in two halves. The center of its mass that interconnected two body cavities was severed. Falling apart on the ground the soldier¡¯s lower half struck the worker ant that jostled around struggling to find the source of the attack. With a double tap from the revolver Ren had slain the worker within moments of the first kill. Looking over the two corpses he tried to use his ¡°loot¡± button on them and not a grand total of zero drops from them. I never looted the arachnid monarchs, shit¡­ The pathway through the giant tunnel system continued for what must have been hours. The light tracks revealed by his tracking ability slowly led him further into the great darkness. It was many hours until he finally came upon new signs of passage. A small pile of broken ant-bits lay scattered across the ground where further back several soldiers moved about. Entering stealth, Ren approached. Cavern Soldier Lvl 11 Cavern Soldier Lvl 12 Cavern Soldier Lvl 9 Cavern Soldier Lvl 13 Cavern Guardian Lvl 15 An evolved variant lurked further in the cave. From his eldritch sight, he saw the ethereal traces of blood, within it he could nearly read the signature of the human it likely belonged to. It was difficult but he felt his tracking ability register in combination with his eyes that were as lightless as the endless void. The presence within the blood reminded him of the encounter with the woman, it relieved him to know that at least she had survived the attack. Even if she was being hunted down by these creatures, there was a chance. Ren struggled to find a clear vital shot on the ascendant guardian ant. Instead, he attempted to let his shot slam through the level nine, into the level eleven ant. The sneak attack fired off and blew apart the first ant by tearing through the weak point between its body cavities. The bullet continued to take out a leg of the level eleven but did not quite finish it off. The ants began to look around until the guardian ant seemed to release a pulse of mana out. The act surprised Ren, as an ant shouldn¡¯t have the intelligence nor willpower to release such a radar. The mana had detected Ren, his stealth did nothing against the pulse without him utilizing eldritch touch in combination with it, even then it would likely notice its mana being corrupted from a certain area within the pulse. Ren released a second shot into the level eleven that slowly took its life. In front of the guardian, the remaining two soldiers were nearly taken down by a series of two shots hitting both of them. Black veins of eldritch touch slowly corrupted them as they moved forwards charging towards him. Ren quickly backstepped as he summoned a firebolt to clash into one first, then the other. The fire¡¯s damage helped slow them down as eldritch touch slowly drank away at their body¡¯s energies. The creatures lacked almost any mana, only the level fifteen having enough to perform a basic task such as the pulse. So, when eldritch touch began devouring their energies the first to be fully depleted was mana, this left the ants heavily confused and disoriented as the mental effect from being out of mana took hold. It was moments before the guardian''s speed allowed it to throw the two dying ants to the side, and dash towards Ren with large mandibles ready to render him to pieces. With a gathering of flame in his hand, Ren let off a series of four crackling streams of piercing flame. Like a series of firebolts, yet faster but less accurate. The four piercing bolts of flame burned the guardian ant in rapid succession. The flames did not completely stop it as it threw itself towards Ren as it came nearer. The Gate-Walker¡¯s blade of bone, his long disused blade came in handy as he channeled a large accursed thrust of eldritch touch into the creature. It was faster, stronger, and farmore hearty than Ren. Yet, he had an advantage. The insect¡¯s mouth tore open the side of his chest and cracked his ribs that barely withstood the tearing. His blade seeped out a horrific dose that began to infest the head of the ant. As he felt his ribs began to pop and crack between the slamming mandibles, he released the built up energy from using eldritch horror so heavily. The energy that coursed through his body as a backlash from his corruption coursed into the blade as the ant¡¯s head began to rot and fall loose from the rest of its body. Ren fell backwards as the great jaws left blood pooling under him. The two ants had continued coming forwards not yet dead, with a great effort he conjured forth a blaze into his hand that separated into four rapidly striking bolts that finished off the limping ants. Breathing heavily, he felt at his ribcage. Blood seeped out slowly now, the flow already beginning to subside. The advantage of his new ascendancy was no mere skill gain, or even strengthening to the value of his resources. The ascendancy, his second now, changed his very being. The feeling of his own body was enhanced. Though he had bled heavily while his flesh was being rendered to slices of meat in the jaws of the ant, he felt no mortal danger as long as it had not torn through his ribcage entirely. The places where it had partly begun to break his ribs and pierce the more vital points were where he still bled. His ability to feel the vital energy within him move to his injuries and repair them was on a new level. Now, not only aware of his vitality healing him, but he could slightly influence the energy revitalizing him. He had not grown hungry or thirst since the ascendancy, more of a slight hunger and thirst that could have been subsided with a mere snack and single gulp of water. Now, while being massively healed he began to feel a terrible need for both food and water. Grabbing the weakest of the ants, he used his mana to generate a small fire that sizzled the meat of the ant before guzzling it down. This did nothing for his thirst, but these guys had to find water somewhere, right? C25 Lost in a Cold Dark Place Ren continued in the unending dark caverns of the Underdark. Where it seemed to finally open up, there would be another cavern that ended up tight and confusing. When the endless paths seemed to come to a halt, a small entrance to another appeared in a corner behind a large stone formation. Like this, the continuation of the Underdark seemed truly an unending maze. The need for water continued to gnaw at him after his healing process had ended. In less time than it would have taken him to sleep for a night, his body had restored itself while he was in a slumber so light a gentle breeze or the sound of a cricket could have awoken him. The tell-tale signs of the ants had continued as well. The tunnels were no less often bored through as they were beforehand. Though the presence of the insects had greatly trailed off. After having fought through the guardian, he had seen little to no more of the massive ants. While glad to not be attacked, he felt that he was missing out on the combat experience, and the chance to use his new powers. Though, his few encounters since the guardian had netted him another level. Congratulations Eldritch Rouge Lv 11 +5 Dexterity +2 Willpower +2 Vitality +2 Intelligence +7 Freepoints Utilizing his free points, he increased his strength, for it fell off compared to his other stats. Nearly half the value of his second lowest stats, he upped it by five points, though the final two went into vitality, increasing his damage resistance. Name: Ren Race: Human Alignment: C/N Class: Rouge level 11, Tier 2 Skill: Ritualism Marks: Gate-Walker HP:140/140 SP:110/110 MP:130/130 Attributes: Str: 19 Vit: 28 End: 22 Dex: 48 Wil: 27 Int: 26 Free Points: 0 Even with the strength he had gotten, his body began to feel heavier as every part of his body seemed made of lead. Though he felt weakened, his physicality was still far beyond the scope of any normal human. Miles passed within the darkness faster than any human could have in his own world. A circle within the tunnels took him to a wide opening where ants appeared voraciously searching for something. Feeling weak, he hesitated to enter combat, watching them from afar while using his stealth ability. Cavern Guardian Lvl 15 Cavern Guardian Lvl 16 Cavern Hunter Lvl 17 Cavern Soldier Lvl 13 Cavern Soldier Lvl 12 Seeing the level, and quantity of the ants, he knew his chances of victory would be slim if he were to fight them. Instead, he continued his study of the creatures. In particular, he watched the strongest amongst them, the Cavern Hunter. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. The insect seemed powerful; its build was even smaller than one of the worker¡¯s. What it did not lack was the ability to render flesh, as he saw its mandibles twitching around in the air as its antennae went wild. The insects were looking for something, and that was when Ren saw it. Within one of the holes dug by the workers, mycelium roots twisted and amassed around the corpses of several ants. A large gooey organ was smashed in the cavern that appeared to have been torn from one of the ants. With great curiosity Ren looked at the fluids that leaked from the organ and noticed that it was what was causing the guardian ant to go mad with its antennae. She had torn it from an ant and laid it as a trap behind her, or rather to attract all ants there to clear her path ahead. Maybe, she had intended both things. Ren was not sure, but this was in fact terrible for him either way. He heard skittering in the distance from the cavern he had come from. The lack of ants in the prior cavern system was made clear to him. The one he tracked was baiting them in to cause the caverns to be cleared for passing through unharmed, or less so at least. It was a terribly disgusting, yet terribly effective strategy. The only problem was, Ren was now trapped. The skittering in the distance only echoed louder. He made his decision. Fleeing would have been quite unless, as the ants would likely be coming from any and all side tunnels to meet here at this junction, if he could get through it before others arrived, he could still track her. If he ran to a side tunnel, he could quite likely lose her. With an eldritch empowered sneak attack, he fired four bullets into the hunter. It quickly died as the backlash tore at Ren. His body had become more resilient as he ascended, yet the corruption still tore through him. To kill something beyond his own strength, a price was to be paid. Eldritch horror was building as he released two more shots from the revolver, both powered by a heavy dose of eldritch touch. The weakest of the soldiers was heavily damaged by the twin strikes. Black veins spread across its body as death slowly followed. Two guardians and a soldier remained. Ren attempted to summon six more shots and reload as he retreated. The guardians dashed at him quickly gaining ground. It was a shame he could not learn the hunter¡¯s fighting style for the future, but he was glad he at least knew how to deal with the remaining insects. The revolver¡¯s cylinder snapped into place as the two guardians slammed towards him. A mandible severed into his arm as he blasted the firearm into its mouth. Several rounds pierced into its head, only two of them empowered by eldritch touch. The guardian pulled back from the shots at its head and black veins began to slowly eat away at it. With the remaining bullet, Ren fired another eldritch touch enhanced bullet into the second guardian''s head as his arm was released from the first. Its great jaws tore into his gut as the bullet plowed into its head. The attack was not nearly enough to stop it, and Ren felt his insides being torn. The first had terribly damaged his arm. With his offhand he grabbed the bone knife as he felt a tearing sensation and a pop inside of him. Blood came in a crimson waterfall as he felt himself lighten. Eldritch horror was released as black veins receded from Ren¡¯s body. The corruption left him as it speared through into the ant before him in an invisible wave of death. The soldier behind the guardian soon felt the wave come flowing through it as it stopped in its tracks. Both cavern insects were motionless before they began twitching and writhing on the ground. Ren watched as his vital energy permeated his internal structures that were now torn and rendered to pieces on the ground. His body began to feel shock set in as his hands went numb, and a cold sweat began to run down him. The little moisture he had left in him quickly began to leave him as even more blood poured out. His vitality seemed far too little as he struggled to survive. He forced the energy to permeate his insides and stop the parts of him hurt from bleeding out the little moisture left in him. The thirst was terrible as his body simply did not have enough material to replace the parts of him missing. The vital energy flooded his intestines, what was left of them anyway, as the organs receded further into him and his flesh attempted to reknit together. For all of his efforts, it was simply not enough. There was nothing to remake his flesh from, and there was not enough vitality within him to recover from the damages. In a desperate act of lost hope, he flushed his blood and entrails with mana and tried to will them back into place. The mana was incapable of doing so many tasks at once. He was no cleric and had no divine blessing to aid in the healing process. Instead, he focuses slowly one part at a time, his mana infusing into the flesh and physically putting him back together. His effort meant he had long moments of agony before his death would come, he knew this, yet proceeded regardless as any effort was greater than the plain acceptance of death. It was long and excruciating moments before the earth rumbled. Something vast was awake, and so its very being shook the world. An energy so vibrant pulled at Ren¡¯s eyes. Within the ethereal gloom that lurked within his lightless eyes, within the void, a great light emerged and sank towards him. The ruby of his bracer came alive, and the vibrant light came into him. He was relieved yet horrified for what hand had touched him. - The earth shook. A great rumble filled all things. The body was long lost, and the power was long out of use. Yet on this day the corpse again had its use, a presence came down on the long dead body. The energy swam in an unseeable vibrancy as the world shook, the energy swirled and came to him. With the lightest flicker, the vessel was remade. The Underdark was still again as a great presence retracted from the world. C26 As Above So Below Ren layed on the stone beneath him as the pulsing light permeated his body, the vessel of his soul was reshaping and changing. An alien force had come to him from something deep below, a vast being with unknowable power. Neither did he know if it was the Eldritch God, nor if it was some great artifact long abandoned by the dead civilization he had forsaken. He felt himself enwrapped by an odd euphoria. The euphoria masked something horrific underneath that his mind tried to forget. He tried to force himself to watch what was truly happening. He was changing. His flesh looked the same, though some underlying party was different. His soul was grayer than before. Almost as if the light that was him had diminished. The odd new energy that allowed him to use eldritch blast was far stronger and permeated him as a fourth energy, rather than an outside force sitting in a well to be drawn up. Ren raised himself slowly from the ground, corpses surrounded him as blood and viscera leaked their way across all surfaces. Blood and gore even dripped from the ceiling of the cavern, as arterial blood had spurted a great distance. Sighing, he continued forward trying to get a move on before the follow-up attack by newly attracted ants. While going towards the blocked off chamber, he checked over himself. His wounds had been sealed, his stats restored, and himself¡­ Changed. It disturbed him, yet what was he to do? Try and revert whatever has happened. Return to his dying state desperately trying to hold onto life? No. Whatever has changed shall stay that way, and he will live with it. The thing in the void, that God, or demon, wants me to live. If I go jumping off cliffs, will it save me? Or is it just a one-time thing? Every time I get into mortal danger it interferes. Power, strength, vitality, it gives me all of this, for what ends? To devour me, to turn me into its pawn, its¡­ vessel? He came to the blockage and his thoughts went silent, as he imparted his will into mana. The blockage shifted enough for him to crawl through, and then he released the mana and allowed the blockage to reform its natural shape. If a digger is with the soldiers and guardians, this blockage won¡¯t hold. Activating his tracking ability, he followed the ethereal marks of her footsteps into unending darkness. Drops of blood, and small signs of her passing, lay throughout the cavern. It was not long until he found her. In a small niche in a wall, the huddled form of an emaciated woman lay curled up. Her blood was dried up, covering her shirt. Ren knelt down and tried to impart his willpower to heal her. She was unconscious and didn¡¯t respond until his will touched upon her. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. She jolted awake, ¡°What! Who¡­¡± Her voice trailed off as she looked into Ren¡¯s lightless eyes kneeling next to her. ¡°It¡¯s alright, forgive me, I must have scared you, by forcing my mana onto you,¡± Ren spoke softly, yet with an icy chill remaining from the terrors prior. ¡°It¡¯s alright, I just never expected you to find me. They killed everyone, those fucking monsters.¡± A quiet hate was within her voice, she pushed her head down into her knees, and let out slow quiet sobs. ¡°I killed them, all of them. I failed to come in time, it is my fault they''re all dead. I could have done more, and done so sooner. I¡¯m sorry.¡± Ren bowed his head. ¡°It¡¯s not your fault, you didn¡¯t kill them. It was those cursed little things with their black souls.¡± She looked up at him. He raised his head looking back into her eyes. ¡°We can still live, I tracked you here, if you can guide me the rest of the way, we can escape,¡± Ren spoke while looking at her bruised and bloody face. She summoned a small green light from her mana and tried healing herself further. ¡°I don¡¯t have much strength, I¡¯ve hardly rested long enough to heal my wounds. I can walk, but it will be slow going from here.¡± She nodded and took his hand as he helped her to her feet. ¡°So, while we walk, can you tell me what happened? What made all of this, and why are you all down here? This is no place for life to dwell. It¡¯s eaten away at me, the thought of humans subjected to life down here.¡± Ren looked at her while she continued healing herself with the green light. Stopping her work she looked at him and guided them through the caverns. ¡°This place was once called Alkitar, the kingdom under Lord Alkyri. That was before he died.¡± She said the last part with sadness in her voice. ¡°Alkyri, that is what the goblins called me, they worshiped me as some God.¡± Ren looked at her with anxious anticipation. ¡°Yes, he was, or is, our God. All of us, though we were never marked upon our souls as his devotees were. We were of his kin, his family before his ascendancy, he never marked us for our own sake. One marked by another can never be their equal, but only be their subject. The direct mark of another upon one¡¯s soul is to be theirs in body, soul, and mind.¡± ¡°You are a descendant of his family? Of his bloodline?¡± Ren¡¯s brows raised. ¡°All humans who live in the Underdark were. The Goblins were those he marked, and so corrupted when the Ascendancy Wars had ended. It was when the Silver Goddess was risen to Godhood. It was then that she had overcome all others on the pinnacle of reaching Godhood and took on the mantle herself.¡± ¡°So, was Alkyri one of those contending for Godhood? How many were there?¡± ¡°Alkyri was the only true challenge to her. The others were all subjected by the two of them, and thus their fates were sealed. All in all, there were thirteen Gods-Candidates. Alkyri allied with six, making him the Lord of Seven, while she had only five allies, the Lord of Six. While seemingly outnumbered, truly, she had the advantage. Two of Alkyri¡¯s allies were traitors who served the Silver Goddess. When the war came to an end, the two had betrayed him. They had intentionally lost battles and seeded lies to convince the other four to turn against him. In the end, Alkyri was pierced by seven Holy Blades. It is said that forever since, he has been sealed there within the planet''s depths, encased in a starmetal coffin, bound by a chain, and pierced with the Seven Holy Blades.¡± She gave a small unconvincing smile as if to say everything was alright. ¡°A God, bound in chains, pierced by seven blades, and locked away for eternity¡­¡± Ren looked forward with a hollow gaze, knowing something was terribly wrong. C27 The Aberrant Watcher This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. C28 The Dome The confusion was eating away at Ren and he really didn¡¯t want to deal with the giant multi-eyed squid demon anymore. It reminded him of a scene from a movie he watched where a giant tentacle came from a lake while¡­ The memory faded, What¡¯s a movie? He questioned himself. Struck by the curse on him, lovingly put on him by his eldritch patron, he stood there in silence looking into the distance. He only partly regained himself after looking at the aberrant being before him. Half bewitched, his memory was still a bit awkward as he spoke. ¡°You don¡¯t have a bucket or cup, do you?¡± Ren asked. The giant black-toned abomination paused, its twirling tentacles stopping momentarily before it blinked its many orange eyes. ¡°No¡­¡± An echoing whisper traveled down to Ren from Cella up the hillside behind him. ¡°We must go, please Ren.¡± He could practically feel the fear quivering within her voice, even as a distant and echoing whisper. His will came forward giving his mana purpose. Like a scoop, it pulled up nearly a gallon of water. The mana was struggling to keep a solid form. It looked as though a giant invisible spoon had plucked up a huge scoop of water. Ren slowly turned, unable to process the situation, but having his wits return. Deciding it was better to just walk away, he carried the magic holding onto the water which was slowly dropping small sloshes onto the ground. He dragged the magical ¡®spoon¡¯ behind him. It was only after he reached the small and huddled form of Cella, that he realized what he had done. It was akin to telekinesis, or possibly an extension of himself made of magic. Trying to analyze what he had done, he was quickly pulled away from it by Cella. ¡°How did you manage to befriend that Watcher?¡± Her voice was in awe as she quickly tried to make space from the Watcher. Ren looked around at the beautifully thriving landscape around them. Yet still in the Underdark, they were surrounded by life. He thought for a moment about what he had done. ¡°I¡¯m not sure to be honest, something about me, my connection to¡­ well it¡¯s complicated. When we get ready to rest for the night, I¡¯ll try to explain.¡± Ren sighed, he hadn¡¯t needed to explain it to anyone before. The ones who knew had betrayed him. If she knew what he was, what he may become, would she betray him too? They continued in the peace of the beauty around them. Nothing else would have dared trespass into the lair of the Watcher, and so they were safe. As hours passed they had left the biome full of life clinging to the heat vents and moisture. Their path led them to a slightly upward slope. For quite a while, the dangers of the Underdark had not shown themselves. Only the occasion small creature, that posed no threat to them, crossed their path. It was not until they reached the giant dome that the situation had changed. Twisting mycelium was thickly rooted underfoot, as giant stems hung high into the sky where moisture clung to them in dewy droplets. Large formations crossed the great stems where the moisture was drawn. A great colony of flying mammals, not dissimilar to bats, lived all among the fungal growths. Their excretions formed a thick ground in many areas where new, young, and prosperous fungal growths appeared. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. The issue came when they encountered the predators of the bat-like mammals that lived within the blackness of the cavern. The dome was populated with unending amounts of needle-launching, quilled vermin that shot at anything that moved. It wasn¡¯t long before Ren realized the pain he must have put so many through after he was impaled by the tenth barbed quill over the last five minutes. For every bullet he had fired, he had eventually taken a quill. His kill count rose into the many dozens, as every time another of the foot-tall rodents appeared, he fired immediately without hesitation. They did little to no damage to him, his ascendant body needed to take far more damage than a small barbed quill could dish out to sustain any injuries that would last more than several long moments. This did nothing but irritate him as he continued to walk through the maze of giant fungal stems. Cella, far less capable of healing her injuries without using magic, used him as a meat shield. Hiding under his cloak, she grasped his sides to keep herself steady as she hid. It only took a couple of stabbing quills to encourage her into this less than seemly position. Ren began to feel quite irritated at having to reload so often. In this time he began to play with a new idea. He focused his attention on how it felt when the quiver activated and generated more ammunition. He knew he was nowhere close to being able to just create ammo unassisted. Though did think he could somehow devise a way to speed up the loading process. His new ascension had made it far easier for him to control his mana, and to impart his will into it without more than a quick thought. Watching the process as bullets were generated, he saw how a crucial part of the production was a catalyst within the quiver. A specific part of the item made the bullet form into an ideal shape. Though, he saw nothing that required the bullet to be created into the quiver. He slowed for a moment, and so caused Cella to run into his back face first. ¡°Ahh, why did you stop? Quill in the foot?¡± She had grown more comfortable around him and had begun joking around. ¡°I¡¯m experimenting with something, give me a moment,¡± he spoke quickly, and quietly as he was focusing again on the feeling of a new bullet being generated. He noticed something as his will was imparted into the creation. The catalyst was responding to him, and so had created the bullet further up in the quiver where it dropped several inches. Seeing how his will could affect the location of the bullet, he imparted it into the catalyst and made the bullet form in his hand. It took more mana, but the creation was successful. He tried it again, and it worked the second time as well. Opening the nearly empty revolver, he tried to generate the bullets into the place where his last four spent bullet casings were. The quiver responded and with great effort, it drained his mana and worked. The casings were refilled. Now I can finally stop littering everywhere I go. The cost of it was quite expensive, to have the bullets form back in their casings though would save him a great deal of effort in the future. Without having more poison for the murder rabbit knife, it hadn¡¯t been nearly as useful. Now, he could completely disregard it until he found some sweet venom to use. His new method was slightly more expensive than firebolts, as they had become extremely efficient with his new ascension, plus the constant practice. It wasn¡¯t long until they passed through the seemingly endless dome with the quill launching rodents and bats. What had been only a few hours, had felt like an entire day¡¯s work. Ren had eaten through quite a bit of mana and vitality, constantly killing off the rodents and healing himself from the minor wounds. Though, the killing of nearly two hundred little rodents didn¡¯t come without any benefit. Congratulations Eldritch Rouge Lv 12 +5 Dexterity +2 Willpower +2 Vitality +2 Intelligence +7 Freepoints Ren quickly added his seven free points into his endurance and willpower. Three, and four, respectively. Name: Ren Race: Human Alignment: C/N Class: Rough level 12, Tier 2 Skill: Ritualism Marks: Gate-Walker, Ascendant Slayer HP:81/150 SP:125/125 MP:46/165 Attributes: Str: 19 Vit: 30 End: 25 Dex: 53 Wil: 33 Int: 28 Free Points: 0 His stats were well-balanced, and he felt quite good about them. He did remember though, when initially picking his class, he had wanted to avoid the headaches of being a mage. This was both literal and figurative. Yet, he had been tricked! That damn monster in the void and his meddling tricks¡­ C29 Restless It was within the coldness of a dark and damp alcove that Ren and Cella had attempted to sleep. Though badgered by vermin, insects, and an abyssal monster, the worst part of it all was the lack of any good shut-eye. Ren¡¯s body could continue for a long time without rest. However, his body had gone through a great deal of damage recently, so he desperately needed time for his body to recuperate. Cella, being far weaker than him, just needed to sleep to keep herself from falling over. Her stamina and mana pools had run quite low by now. With great caution, they had sought out a good place to hide while taking turns on watch. Hardly an hour had passed before tragedy struck. Several large insects resembling centipedes, large enough to kill a horse, had come down upon them. Cave Crawler Lvl 8 Cave Crawler Lvl 13 Abyss Crawler Lvl 16 Ren made the first move, four eldritch shots went off, three in the middling crawler, and one in the weakest. He allowed the corruption to slowly seep into them as he drew them away from Cella who was in no condition to fight. Neither was Ren, though regardless he had no choice. The two he had attacked seemed to only be slightly slowed down. He had expected the corruption to destroy them quickly, though it appeared to hardly be affecting them. The ascendant crawler continued chasing after Ren as he passed into a side tunnel, the two slower insects fell behind. I have no choice, they¡¯ll seek her out if I get distracted too long with the big guy. Ren stopped, an idea had been playing in his mind, a new attack. Flame burst alive in his hands as a swirling mass of flames. It was condensed and burned with a scorching heat. The interior of the flame was a mass of mana ready to burst. Allowing the ascendant crawler to reach him, he dodged around it, waiting for the slower two. Once they began to catch up, Ren stopped dodging, venomous pincers slicing into his arm. He felt his body start to react as his arm burned horrifically. The great ball of flames leaped from his palms and landed between the two oncoming crawlers and their leader. The mass of burning mana exploded violently and sent the weakest of them scattering in pieces. The middling crawler was half destroyed with its rear half scorched to a crisp. The crawler whose pincers dripped with venom in his arm had its back end blown up, leaving its body flailing. The insect let go of his arm and reeled its head back in a silent scream. Ren replied by shoving his revolver in its it¡¯s maw. Two eldritch-empowered shots went off, muffled by the creature¡¯s mouth. The first increased the backlash against him, and the second purged that corruption and massively increased the deadly corruption. Though burning, and its head shot twice with the ruination of the eldritch corruption, no black veins spread across its chitinous form. No rot and ruin came to it. Instead, it charged at Ren again. The pincers pierced into his chest, and one stopped by his sternum which was now cracked. More of the insect¡¯s venom was unloading into him. The vile toxin burned at him. Ren panicked and summoned forth the swirling purple energy before him. At a point-blank range, the violet lightning struck into the creature. With long moments of waiting the two of them stared into each other. The crawler was overwhelmed as purple cracks began to seep across its chitinous outer shell. Slowly, it died. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Ren lay on the earth, his breath came heavy and labored. The venom within him was not something he had experienced before. His corruption, what he had resistance to now, was nothing like true poison. It ate away at the very lifeforce of beings, even damaging the soul. This was true poison flowing through his veins. If the creature had resistance to him, which should have been impossible, should he not have resistance to this venom now in him? How is it possible? The question did him no good, at least if he did not purge the toxins. With an irrational idea, Ren stabbed himself. In his arm, where the venom had first entered, a pulse of eldritch touch began to rot away. The venom within his blood was destroyed, while his flesh was only slightly damaged by it. He continued. - Cella had followed the crawlers, waiting to see if she could help in any way. It was not fair that she got to sleep, rest, and rejuvenate after using him as a shield earlier. He had abandoned being the Lord of an entire people for the tragedy that had befallen her and her people. She could not stand idly by and let him fight every battle alone. Too late, the devastation had already been sown, the beasts dead. She came upon the ruined corpses of the creatures that had been blown apart, and in their midst, she saw Ren. His blade was pierced into his chest, and his blood was scattered across the stone beneath him. His black eyes were fluttering half-lidded. Cella came to him, the green light coming to life between her hands. She pressed it onto him, her mana was still quite low, and her mind was still fogged. Yet, she had a duty. With a long minute of anxious anticipation, she watched as his attention focused, and he regained full consciousness. ¡°It resisted my power¡­¡± Ren whispered to her. Cella''s heart fell, imagining him being torn apart while his own strength failed him. ¡°I am sorry, I was, no. I have always been only a burden.¡± She whispered back to him. ¡°A lie, I would never have found my way this far without you. We¡¯ll live. I might just need to rest.¡± He spoke, his eyes fluttering. Cella mustered the strength to pull him up to his feet. She slowly moved him back towards the place where she had slept while he watched over her. It was moments before turning the bend, their little spot coming back into sight when the sounds came. It was as though a small creature was being rendered into a hundred small pieces. At first, it was inhuman shrieking and screaming. Then, it became the tearing, all while the screams began to grow erratic and more like that of shattering glass and chalk on slate. The sounds pierced her ears and caused Ren to wobble his head in a half-unconscious haze. She moved as fast as she could while trying to remain silent. She did not have the mana to keep releasing her pulses of man to watch where she was going. Instead, she called upon life in tiny spores and muck, bringing forth a glowing mushroom that gave off a weak green hue of light. It was with the tiny green light that she guided them through the marked and twisting passages. First she had come to a great open maw that bared stalagmites and stalactites like great white fangs. Covered in a shallow crystalline shine, they reflect the green glow back onto her pale face. Behind the formations were dozens of patches of dark crimson-red mosses. They lurked around great sulfur pools that bubbled and burped foul-smelling gas. Though she knew the dangers of it, she brought him into the jaws of death alongside her. She left him in a corner where the moss made a great natural bed for him to rest. She scouted through the sulfur pools and thick mosses for what she needed. Within a half hour, she had found it. It was nestled between two great clumps of crimson moss and stank horribly of the sulfur pools. The red mushroom was spotted by yellow patches. The smell made her gag and yet she forced herself to eat it regardless. She thought of how he had tried to save her people. Nobody had ever wanted to save them before. She thought of how at least a memory of her people was better than nothing at all. Maybe they could be remembered. She fought the urge to vomit as the disgusting mushroom made its slick and slimy way down into her stomach. It stank of death and sent her to her knees as she vommited again and again. She forced herself to keep swallowing as it returned to her mouth. She sat beside Ren while the fungus began to digest and the warmth permeated her. It felt good, it was quite euphoric. The experience was nice, and she felt herself begin to feel dreamlike. It is time. C30 The Red Mushroom Warmth, euphoria, and powerful energy permeated Cella as the fungus she had eaten began to do its job. Her skin began to turn from lightless pale white to burnt orange. Her eyes began to grow yellowed as if bloodshot. With newfound strength, she picked up Ren¡¯s mangled form. She pulled him along, while he slowly recovered half conscious. The exit to the red moss room was guarded by twisting vines that she bent with a glow of her green life mana. It was long minutes of fast travel before she came to another corridor. Letting Ren go back to the ground, she readied herself as three creatures appeared. They were the spore-infected remains of three of the Marked Men. One of them, perhaps two, might be able to fight if they were weak enough. Alas, she had no choice, and the intoxicating mushroom inside of her bent her mind towards killing. With a flicker of green light, she summoned a glaive of fungal growths to sprout forth. A small smile played on her face as the discoloration of her eyes began to seep into a dark yellow, turning orange. The glaive in hand she charged at the Spore Carriers. The first of them ran towards her, and with a flourish, she lashed and cut off three tendrils of the zombified corpse. A handful of spores left her hand as she let a green light glow. The spores entered the fungal host and rapidly hard growths began to piece through the horror. Its movements were severely impaired, and she quickly decapitated the fungal zombie. Two more of them came towards her. She stepped back as a tendril slashed into her upper left arm causing blood to leap forth. Her arm was mangled, and yet her mind did not register the pain and she slammed the glaive down into the half-rotten, and fungal head of the Spore Carrier. The head not completely severed still functioned as two tendrils battered Cella. The third of the monsters slashed into her leg. She remained standing in sheer delusion under the effects of the mushroom. Her glaive spun as she finished severing the head of the spore carrier. The final one whipped her with three tendrils at once, she scattered to the earth as most of her ribcage was shattered. The glaive lay on the ground next to her, without the madness of the fungus melting her mind, she would have been on the brink of madness with the pain running through her. Instead, she smiled softly. She let spores sink into the earth below her as nearly all her remaining mana left her in a warm green glow. The stoney ground began to pulse to life with fungal growths. They were a minor trick, taking only a tiny bit of mana compared to the hardened ones earlier. The fungal carrier fell when its foot came into contact with one of the small black mushrooms. The mushroom exploded into a thick black oil. The Spore Carrier failed to stand as its tendrils flailed aimlessly around it. Cella stood, a slowly, half gurgled laugh coming from her. From a punctured rib, blood seeped into one of her lungs. Energy flowed from the red mossy biome and slammed into her body. She struggled to try and integrate the energy within her own. Her mind slowly sobered as the euphoria of the mushroom began to fade. This was the difficult part, why they never used the mushroom unless in dire emergencies. She diverted the energy into three parts, one, into her mana, one, into her stamina, and the last into vitality. Her resource pools began to flood as her three vital energies began to refill. She tried to stop the flow, but it wouldn¡¯t cease. She did the only thing she could. With a pulse of green mana, she sent spores into the flick Spore Carrier on the ground several feet from her. In its disoriented state, it couldn¡¯t fight back as she sent hardened roots throughout its body. Swiftly, the glaive took its head. Even after expending the mana and vitality to restore herself and kill the monster, she was still being flooded. Unable to stop the flow of mana, she used it to cover Ren¡¯s unconscious form with several layers of protective fungal growths. She left room for air, but nothing else. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The energy burned at her as she felt her soul begin to become damaged. Looking within herself, she was as if her own form was being damaged. She never expected to ascend any further, yet she still wanted to believe it was possible. With the kind of soul damage it would soon take, it would likely be impossible. She ran further into the trail that led them to the surface. She blocked other paths with growths from the stoney ground, and ran as fast as she could to reduce the energy. The skin of her entire form began to glow a vibrant red as she looked into a great darkness. The pause had allowed the energy to build, but it had possibly saved her. Beyond was an entire nest of insects, weak and small creatures, but they¡¯d do just fine. Calling on nature a green glow came alight around her. From the ground beneath a nest of cat-sized scorpions arose a forest of jabbed growths. A dozen of the creatures were pierced through by the damage. Several of them scuttled towards her as she hesitated before allowing them to slam finger lengths stingers into her body. Venom coursed through her as the red energy burned away. She quickly summoned a new glaive from spores and gave death to several of the creatures. Dozens more began to pour out of the nest as she was surrounded. A colony of the creatures stabbed at her as she summoned growths to pierce them between cleaving sweeps of the glaive that rendered them into pieces. The madness of the mushroom began to bubble in her again as she lost herself to the killing. By the dozens she killed the creatures, their chitin did nothing to stop the blade of the glaive. Her body was pumped full of venom, and yet the red energy kept burning. It was all she could manage, just enough to keep her from killing herself with the excess of power. Soon she felt the energy begin to weaken, her form grew slightly slower just as the scorpions began to come in lesser and lesser numbers. It was a long time after the last of them had left the nest. A giant scorpion left the burrows from which they came. It stood the height of half a man, the height of a Mark Man to be certain. Its stinger dripped with a venom that could be sensed from several paces away. The very toxicity in the air could be felt. She stepped forward and swung the glaive in front of herself. With a gesture and green light, growths slammed into the scorpion king. The A Lord of the nest, it slammed forward and tried to skewer her. The glaive collided with the stinging tail and reflected the stab. Slashing downward she landed a glancing blow across the back of the giant dull-colored beast. It tried to land a pincer on her, swiftly moving herself, but it missed. Cella released another wave of piercing growths to attempt to stop the creature¡¯s movements. This time with more success. With three swift blows, she took away a pincered arm of the scorpion before it freed itself from the spiked growths. Coming at her, the scorpion managed to make a small gash on her arm with its stinger. Cella immediately felt the toxin begin to numb one of her arms. The weakness of the red energy was barely able to overcome the sensation before it struck her again, this time piercing into her side. The numbness here spread quickly. In panic she released spores directly into the mouth of the scorpion causing them to grow rapidly and damaging the beast¡¯s face. With a moment of advantage, she struck at the tail just below the stinger, severing the end of the tail. The remaining pincer grabbed onto her left leg and severed it deeply. The bright flow of arterial blood spread down across the pincer running down onto the ground below. Slamming down the glaive she pierced into the head of the scorpion, it fell limply. Cella fell backward as she pulled her leg free of the pincer. The blood loss was tremendous, potentially deadly if not for the power of the red energy flowing into her. After resting for nearly a half hour the bleeding had stopped, and the red energy along with it. She sighed as she moved to the corpses of the scorpions. With several minutes of work, she had harvested some of the materials from the corpses. The poisonous stingers of many of the smaller scorpions, as well as the giant ones. Along with all of the venom, she harvested them to feed them during their recovery process. She also needed some decent armor, and well chitin did better than nothing. She made her way back to Ren where she had covered him and left him to rest. On her back was half of the large scorpion¡¯s midsection, along with a bundle of stingers in her hand. With a pulse of the green light, a small opening appeared in the safe space she made for him. ¡°Ren, wake up. I have food.¡± She spoke in a gentle voice, that in no way fit her blood and viscera soaked form. Ren¡¯s eyes cracked as the blackness within them ate away the light of a fungal lanturn she had summoned. ¡°What happened?¡± His eyebrows furrowed as he stared deeply into her. ¡°I had to kill some little bugs. It was nothing special, just needed to clear them out.¡± She gave a small smile at the lie. ¡°Oh, alright¡­ well, you said food. Right?¡± She laughed as a smile played on her face. She showed off the large portion of the scorpion¡¯s carcass she had brought back. C31 Above Tayin¡¯s winds swirled around her as she scoured the mountainside. Her winds mingled with the natural chaos of the rising thermals around the high mountain. In an absentminded moment, her winds weakened as she stared down from a high peak. A strong gust swirled around her, one not of her own. It took her hood and long blond braid from its tightly wrapped position around her head. As the green hood and blond braid fell together, the sides of her delicate face were shown. Her ears were tipped, pointed, and long. An unnatural grace was about her slim body. Though thin, it was regal and powerful. Light danced on her skin and an undertone of blue shone under the paleness of her. No woman who walked in the sun had skin as she did, for it was supernatural. Her chin was delicate, yet it was strong and came to a near pointed edge. Blades have been known to be far less dull. Most of all, she gave the sensation of being above others. This was no high and mighty attitude, nor was it a particular power. It was the very mark left on her soul. For some, a mark was a curse, for others a particular mark could separate them from all others unlike them. Her blood, from a faraway world, gave her such grace and beauty. This was not all she possessed, as winds came to her again, she too possessed great power from such a mark. Her face regained its predatory edge. There was no doubt in her mind anymore. What she had done was right. There was no way around it, she could not let the warlock of a void God, and Eldritch God, a devourer, a scourge upon life, a ruiner of hope, and unmaker of joy exist in this world. She knew it then, but she also knew the kind of innocence that was in Ren. She had seen it on his face when the red-faced embarrassment hit him at times, and when he looked at her, unaware of this world, innocent of it. Why his flesh and soul were sold to such a being, she couldn¡¯t know, couldn¡¯t understand. What darkness had eaten him, and why would he give himself to such a thing? Did he understand, or did he do this ignorance? The questions still ate at her, and so did the guilt of lying and deceiving him into thinking she was his true friend. She had a duty, to find him, to kill him. The new mark that had come to her had been when she betrayed him. When her hands shook knowing she lied to someone and they would be destroyed, killed by the clerics of the Silver Goddess. The god of mercy, love, and kindness. Tayin knew such titles were lies. No God could be benevolent. No God ascended by means less than killing every other being who stood in their way. Killing, and devouring all of the power within the world until no other could challenge them. To take and devour the divine spark within every other lifeform that touched such great heights as to kindle it within themselves. Mortal men, humans, and likewise were just the cattle to them. She shrugged off the anxiety that played within her and her eagle eyes looked down on the landscape below. No signs of life escaped her. Below, the trees danced in the wind as birds fluttered through them. On their branches were squirrels and other such creatures. A large feline beast slowly stalked a large deer through the woods and it approached a clearing. The feline pounced, large and powerful jaws snapped the neck of the large antlered buck. The cat dragged its prey over to a tree as Tayin moved her eyes. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. A powerful cleric paced in clearing nearly a half mile from where the buck had begun to enter in at. She watched as the man laid down a ritual and began to pray. He held aloft his holy symbol of the silver triangle bisected by a line. The chanting continued as she turned her attention further away. Tayin had caught a glimpse of someone traveling, and to her dismay, it was only a merchant on a cart. His wagon was pulled by two beasts of burden, either horses, donkeys, or mules, she was unable to tell at this distance. Though, his massive sign of the wagon made it obvious he was advertising himself wherever he went. She paused her search as she glanced out to a large plateau on another peak not quite a mile away. She moved quickly to find a new vantage point. While she traveled, she took glances down at the ritual where the cleric was working. The man was in his later years, elderly usually meant powerful when it came to clerics. She had no doubt this man was likely on the same playing field as Hollwin was. Ascended three times, the elderly man was a monster when it came to healing magic. His defenses were barely enough to stop her own attacks, though he could bring back the dead as long as the body was fresh. The one below held the same wise and aged look to him. His pacing had ceased as his ritual had begun. The ethereal mist came forth in silvery clouds and slowly collided together into four distinct forms. The mist took form slowly as the shapes began to transform into wolves. The tracking ritual had not yet been used. Reinforcements came shortly after a message was passed on by the Lord Paladin who had been visiting the Master of the monastery. The reinforcements had come swiftly and in great strength. They had not planned on using the tracking ritual, as they did not expect Ren to be able to escape. Instead, they had brought nearly a dozen separate ritualists in hopes that their combined power could be enough to break the hold of the Eldritch God on Ren. It was just a nice perk that one of them was adept at tracking using rituals. She didn¡¯t want to work alongside such fanatical religious men, but she had no choice. She was the one who was tasked with learning the ways of the Westerners. When she reached the new peak to look out from, she saw the misty wolves had run into the wilds. As the clerics had said, the wolves could track people for weeks after they had left an area. Even if Ren had made it past the mountains and dozens of miles away through the difficult terrain, the wolves could find him. Tayin herself had been one of the many who had been sent to search for him. Nothing they did showed any signs of tracks. Hollwin had theorized that Ren used the corruption of his eldritch powers to destroy the very tracks under his feet. It was an odd thought, such a thing would require an immense level of power. As a gate-keeper, Ren had been likely granted some kind of power by his patron to better understand and use magic. However it would have made sense to his mind, that the holders of gates were usually granted power by the God of their world. The powers granted by an Eldritch God had been a mystery to the people of this world. Tayin had heard of such things as she was connected to a deeper history of the many worlds in existence. Each world existed in their own ¡®pocket.¡¯ This fact was something many Gods never let their subjects understand as it undermined the very holiness of their God. Therefore, the humans of this world had never really understood that they were only one little dot on a map that expanded over countless parallel worlds. She understood at the very least that Ren shouldn¡¯t have any ability with mana innately. Eldritch Gods devoured all of the energy within a world and turned it into their own source of energy. A unique power that was little understood even by the Gods of worlds that existed as hubs for different dimensions. Tayin sighed, staring down at the sights before her. The world was beautiful, yes, but it also got quite boring staring at the same mountains day and night, day after day. She caught sight of one of the misty wolves searching for a trace of Ren. Her days had gone by slowly, they were forbidden from fighting anything so as not to get distracted. Tayin just hoped that this would all end soon. C32 Below This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. C33 Pact Ren lay on the stone, his body was destroyed and left in ruin. Beside him, the giant body of an adder abomination floated in the waters and spoke into his mind. ¡°Now, I will put back the broken little pieces¡­¡± The telekinetic grasp of the entity before him began grasping at the shattered bones within him. It realigned the broken pieces and pulled them together. His mismatching shape was drawn apart and brought back to a semi-regular form. Ren wanted to scream, yet he had no mouth or throat from the sound. The pain would have driven him to unconsciousness except for the purple energy that entered his being. The massive body of a long-dead being was sunken under the vast ocean around him, it functioned as a battery for his own lifeforce. As he was reshaped into a humanoid form, the energy permeated the broken and shattered parts. Slowly he was made whole again. ¡°Now, little one, your turn to aid me.¡± ¡°Wait a damn second. Why are you down here, did you use mental magic on me to control me into this little trap?¡± Anger touched Ren¡¯s voice as his ability to speak came back to him. ¡°I used no such thing. You are iron to a magnet, drawn by a force beyond either of us to control. You did what was in your nature. I felt this reaction, and so I took the opportunity.¡± ¡°What do you want from me? What is this place?¡± ¡°This is the final tomb of a dead God, nothing more, nothing less. And what I want from you is simple. Use your corruption to break a ritual, then form another.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a hell of a lot stronger than I am, why do you need my help?¡± ¡°I cannot do such a thing myself. Look upon me and see the binding.¡± Ren looked at the central orange eye of the figure. Using his eldritch eyes and analysis, a ritual circle was made visible to him. Trying to study it proved nearly impossible. The runic marks were beyond Ren¡¯s understanding. With a small touch of mana he pulsed out, eldritch touch encountered the ritual carved into the eye of the Watcher. Slowly, be attempted to degrade the ritual. The energy within the ritual was outlined by the very man of the Watcher itself. Though, a fine network of fixed energy was being charged by the corpse of the dead God. Removing the fixed elements made of the purple energy was as easy as using his own mana. The ritual collapsed. Burning symbols scorched into the Watcher¡¯s eye, mana from its own body that had been empowering the ritual went haywire. Four reactions came about as four symbols came aglow. The first symbol came alive with a nearly translucent blue glow. The energy there turned into a blast of force and blasted apart some of the eye. The second symbol turned into a vile green and rotted away another quarter of the eye. Ren saw as each of its eyes were glowing separate colors as a third symbol went off. A red glow appeared as part of the eye disintegrated into dust. The fourth and final symbol petrified part of the eye turning it into stone. ¡°What the f-¡± Ren was cut off. ¡°My own powers turned against me. Vile demon, I will still have my revenge.¡± The mental message came across as though the being was speaking to itself, or possibly another party not present at this time. ¡°So, I did break the ritual, are we even?¡± Ren touched his body now in complete and proper form. He felt his heart racing at the thought of the purple energy. ¡°One more thing, give yourself to me, allow me to control your body and I will complete the final task for you.¡± ¡°Take my body? Are you serious?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. An impact of willpower struck Ren¡¯s mind as he felt the central eye come alive. Though it was barely visible through all the destruction, the central eye glowed an orange-yellow light. Ren felt himself powerless against the willpower of the being before him. His consciousness faded for long minutes. ¡°Now, bind us with your blood.¡± The voice spoke as Ren could see and hear again. ¡°What? What did you do to me?¡± Ren looked around as a ritual circle was drawn on the earth around him. His knife was in his hand, ready to draw his blood. ¡°With your blood, you will be sealing the new ritual. I am now unbound by my old master, I have guided you to create a ritual as to bind us together. With this, you can summon a portion of me to aid you. The more powerful you become, the more of myself you can summon.¡± ¡°Why? Who was your old master? Why do you want me to be your master?¡± Irritation coated his voice. The sound of its terrible laughter sounded. ¡°You shall not be my master, none shall ever be again. I propose to you that we aid each other. I am trapped down here, unable to venture far from the source of this power. If you become strong enough, in time you can share that fourth energy with me. Then, together, we can take this world to be our own.¡± ¡°Tell me, who is this dead God, why am I connected to it? Is this Alkyri? If Alkyri is dead, how can he have brought me to this world? When I came here there was something terrible, it was in a void beyond all life, a lightless existence where nothing could survive.¡± ¡°Ignorance, I forget little one. Alkyri is dead. But what Alkyri was is not Alkyri any longer, it is now the thing you speak of. It has a new name, one not to be spoken. This is the body long dead, the corpse of what once was. Things such as that need no gates, they merely need bodies. In the nothingness of the void, they can come to any world. They can devour the magic of the world, to turn it mundane. This is how what was once Alkyri came to such power. It devoured the magic of a world with no God to feel his presence. Now it had taken a mortal, and with great effort put that mortal into its old world. It will try to become you, possess you, and in time devour this world too. If we prevent that, you may take its mantle, its power. Together, I can teach you, and guide you in your path to slay what was once Alkyri. We can take the power and this world for our own.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to become what that thing is. Never, not in a million fucking years. I just want to be happy, not some goddamned evil God, or servant to one. I want to be me. I don¡¯t even know who I am! Every memory of who I was is gone. I don¡¯t know anything about myself. Every time I try to remember something it¡¯s like my brain gets scrambled. It¡¯s all that thing''s fault! I¡¯m not joining with you to become some evil Gods together. I¡¯ll fucking kill whatever the hell that Alkyri guy became. I don¡¯t need you. I finally just made a friend and now she¡¯s alone while I¡¯m being coerced into a new contract to sell my soul to a new demon. I¡¯m sick of it! If you think I¡¯ll be your ticket to becoming some demon God of your own, you¡¯re dead wrong!¡± ¡° This ritual stipulates that we not harm one another, if that were to occur, our own powers would devour us. I will not try to dominate your mind or control you. I want to kill that being more than you can comprehend with your young mind. I have waited eons for this opportunity. We can slay it together. Finish this with your blood, we shall be bound. I will return you to your friend.¡± ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll sign your devil¡¯s contract if you swear to do your damn best in killing it.¡± ¡° I swear, bound by my own power to slay me in my breakage.¡± Ren slit his wrist as his blood poured onto the ground below him. The purple energy flickered towards him and sealed the wound. A chill came to him. This energy, it¡¯s trying to become me, invade me and bind me together with it so I will be consumed by it. Symbols lit up around Ren as he felt his being become tied to that of the Abyssal Watcher. As the ritual bound them, a notification popped up on his nearly forgotten menu. Congratulations Eldritch Rouge Lv 14 +15 Dexterity +6 Willpower +6 Vitality +6 Intelligence +21 Free points Three levels? Shit. Skill Gained: Summon The Watcher looked down at Ren and used its telekinesis to lift him. It arose out of the black sea and carried him into the sky. Together they flew into the black sky for countless miles until the stone roof above was visible. It found the crack where Ren had fallen down. The ceiling was visibly covered in purple veins and black masses of flesh embedded into the walls. The insects had been tearing away at it like miners at veins of gold. The Watcher brought Ren to where he had fallen from and watched as he crawled into the opening. ¡°With haste and caution, find yourself free. You will need to flee far from humanity to find the power you need. We will speak, begone.¡± Ren rolled his eyes at the dramatic abomination. Its massive black tentacled form floated down back into the sea below. It took nearly a half hour for him to climb his way back from the crevice. When he reached the top he found Cella wrapped in fungal growths, hiding herself in the room. Even in the blackness, and through his ethereal sight, he could tell she¡¯d been crying. He didn¡¯t know what to say, he just gave her a hand and pulled her up. Together, they left. As they walked, Ren told her of his story. He spoke of what he couldn¡¯t remember, what he found in this world, and how he came to be down here with her. He told her of the Watcher below, and his fate to be devoured by something terrible and vast. The only hope he had was to devour the void God himself, a laughable idea. Though, they laughed together as they walked. C34 The Ascent [Part 1] The Underdark had shifted from the crimson-hued moss and sulfurous pools. As the ascent began to increase steadily, the terrain became far more bland. After passing through the growths that Cella had used to block the extra pathways and the destroyed nest of the giant scorpions, the slope turned steeply upwards. Small growths of fungus populated the darkness of the tunnels. They had no luminosity and possessed no great outstanding characteristics besides their ability to grow in such depths. Their bodies were a deep blue nearly indistinguishable from the blackness even when light was present. The upward slope made their travel far more taxing. Ren¡¯s dexterity and high level of stamina compared to Cella forced him to slow down and patiently wait for her. He had passed her by nearly a hundred feet, scouting ahead. Looking down he saw her, unable to see him back, he studied her in the darkness. With his eldritch eyes he could only perceive the trace of her. The ethereal grayness all around her swam around her as a vibrant green traced her body. Looking at her with his unique sight, he could see deeply into her. The very essence of her being was made of the beautiful green light that indicated her affinity for life and the creation of plants. A small smile came to him as he watched the light pulse within her, the same hum of life that dwelled within all life. He felt the pulse of her mana reach out to him. Quickly the smile left him as a pulse of redness came to him as he grew embarrassed. Cella hesitated for a brief moment as Ren turned away from her and slowly began climbing higher up before her. The slope was quite steep, and the markings had disappeared a while back. Though the shape of the Underdark highly indicated they were nearing the surface, she still had doubt creeping through the back of her mind. ¡°Hold for a moment, just in case, I would like to travel closer together.¡± She spoke just loudly enough for the echoes of the tunnel to carry her voice to him. Ren stopped and waited for long moments as she caught up. The distance of a hundred feet was far less to them than it would have been to Ren previously. Merely a week ago, a hundred feet to Ren would take several times longer to run than it took him to climb up the extreme slope of this cavern. Cella, not being as ascended as him and lower in some stats pertaining to movement, still took a little while longer. Now together, they continued climbing out of the depths of the Underdark. Soon, even the dark blue mushrooms were scarce and appeared only rarely. It was not quite an hour past when they began climbing side by side when the chittering of bats started to sound from a branching cavern. They had been traveling for quite a while and Cella had begun to tire, they soon needed to rest. Though bats were not the greatest roommates, it did mean the potential for there being no greater predators around that would massacre the bats. Making the choice to explore the branching cavern they entered. Its slope was only lightly elevating as they passed into it. Small growths emerged from the ground, fat-bodied, round-topped, and green-hued mushrooms polluted the mucky ground. ¡°Maybe this won¡¯t be an ideal spot to sit down and rest.¡± Ren lifted his foot and looked down at the sickly muck on his dark boot. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°We¡¯ll see when we get further in. Perhaps there is a crevice or divot somewhere we can find.¡± Cella shrugged and looked at him. Onwards they traveled as the chittering of bats grew louder. Ren¡¯s ears began to feel a slight buzz that interfered with the sound of the bats. Aren¡¯t bats supposed to be quiet animals? Cella¡¯s eyes were wide as she walked forward nearly robotically. Ren looked at her with furrowed brows. ¡°Are you alright?¡± She didn¡¯t respond as she continued forwards. The pulses of mana that allowed her to see the world around her had stopped. His ears began to buzz and ring even louder as his head began to ache. Passively his eldritch tongue had activated and started eating away at his stats as his mind began to clear. The buzzing in his head and the ringing within his ears faded. Around him the signs of dead prey were everywhere. The bones and chitinous remains of countless dead littered the thick and muck-piled ground. Through the ethereal darkness of his lightless eyes, he saw three figures hanging from the ceiling of the cavern. The ceiling sloped up[wards steeply creating a large dome that was nearly a hundred feet from the disgusting ground below them. Studying the figures he was giant bat features mixed with vaguely humanoid bodies. They hung singing their enchanting song, their eyes fixed on the two of them. Primal Vampyre Lvl 13 Primal Vampyre Lvl 14 Vampyre Lvl 18 The names gave Ren a sense of lost knowledge and forgotten memories. His brain nearly entered its forgetful state where the lack of memories caused his head to swirl. Instead, he focused himself and tried to look at the strongest of the vampyres. It was far more humanoid, and yet far more oddly shaped in its fanged and batlike features. The differences caused a great sense of disgust to pull at him. He wanted nothing more than to burn these abominations and their sickening faces. Ren pulled a great flame to his hand, the mana poured out of his as his will called forth to burn them. The two lesser vampyres continued their song as the third of them lurched into the air. Ren sent the fireball whooshing into the air ready to incinerate the monsters. The third of them completely managed to dodge the ensuing fireball while the two others seemed to be heavily affected by the fire. A fiery explosion would cause any to thrash around, but these creatures tore at themselves and bubbled in boiling fluids. Concluding they were vulnerable to fire, Ren smiled to himself. The third of them dodged as Ren sent twin firebolts towards it. One of its wings was slightly scorched by a passing firebolt, but the being was mostly unharmed. It swung down towards him, and in that moment Ren tried something new. Channeling his affinity towards fire, and a great portion of mana into it, he fired a bullet straight at the flying vampyre. As the flaming bullet collided with the vampyre, the two behind it fell to the muck-covered ground and went quickly silent but for the sound of boiling oils and cracking flames. The bullet that entered the chest of the attacking vampyre exploded as a tongue of flame reached out of the wound and the open mouth of the vampyre. The monster lost its path and flew into the ground. With a splatter of the muck and beastly remains, it thrashed on the ground. Ren fired a second shot into the head of the bat-like creature before the explosion that followed. The three creatures were dead and burning. Cella kneeled down on the ground, her ears bleeding. She clutched at the sides of her head as she panted. Ren dropped to the ground behind her and placed a hand on her back. ¡°Are you alright?¡± He spoke. ¡°Please, be quiet...¡± She whispered as her head throbbed. Ren nodded and helped her up. The disorientation caused her to stumble and so he guided her, keeping her from falling over in her dizziness. They made their way a deal further into the branch off, eventually finding an area for them to rest and recover. In the quiet dark, Ren played with an item he pulled from his inventory. The essence of change. C35 Ascent [Part 2] Ren awoke after a couple of hours of sleep. His body needed little more than that per day to stay in top condition. Cella had taken a shift to guard them while he slept. She, on the other hand, needed several hours to recover, and during that time, Ren had sat in the darkness alone. They returned to the journey upwards as Ren considered what trying to summon the Watcher would have done during the attack from the vampyres. If the watcher could only do a little due to restrictions, it might not have even been worth the summoning. If the being was so much more powerful than him, what resources would it cost him? Ren had made up his mind to begin experimenting with the watcher. They passed out of the side tunnel that they had entered inorder to rest, they left behind the burnt husks of the vampyres and all their victims. Ren didn¡¯t even want to try looting the rancid corpses. Passing back into the tunnel that led them upwards, the slope again returned to the high grade. It greatly reminded Ren of the tunnel he entered in the beginning, though it looked a deal different. The upward ascent began to become a long path of boring climbs. The slope continued coming to sheer rock cliffs then evening out before turning into sheer cliffs again. The traveling was getting quite boring when the eyes of an insect came reflecting light from a crack in the cavern. Shit. Twelve sets of insectoid eyes opened, glowing in an ominous light. ¡°Run!¡± Ren called to Cella. She began to dash up the sheer cliff face above them. Ren gathered mana into his hand as a burning fireball appeared. He slammed his hand into the crevice where the eyes watched him. A fiery explosion let out, as a shiver went up his spine. Several more pairs of insectoid eyes peered out from small cracks and crevices all around him. Cella had moved up the cliff face but had not yet crested the top. Ren fired four splintered beams of flame which each caught a falling insect about to land on Cella. Cave Devourer Lvl 8 Cave Devourer Lvl 7 Cave Devourer Lvl 6 Cave Devourer Lvl 7 The insects were the size of a cat, razor-sharp mandibles ready to render flesh. Ten-legged, and chitin armored, they were the bastardized piranhas of the Underdark. A score of the insects funneled up from the crack Ren had released a fireball into. Ah, shit. He cupped his hands and released a torrent of flame that drained his mana. It killed over half of them, yet more came regardless. Ren began to dash his way up the cliffside. His dexterity allowed him to nearly run up the sheer cliff. Both he and Cella made it over the cliff at the same time. ¡°There¡¯s a lot of them coming. If they¡¯re slow, we can outrun them, if not. I¡¯ll do my best to eradicate them.¡± Ren spoke quickly as he watched the cliffside. ¡°You¡¯re not alone here, I may not specialize in fighting groups of small enemies, but I do have my uses. You¡¯re not alone in this, I¡¯ll do what I can.¡± Ren nodded as he looked over the cliffside. In his ethereal sight, nearly a hundred of the crawling insects had pulled themselves from their hiding space in the cracks and crevices around the cavern. A loud chattering sound came from the crowd of insects as three of a larger variant appeared. They called forth more of their kind as they poured now from the cavern even further forward. Ren sighed as he called forth the eldritch energy that had become part of him. His fourth energy swirled inside him and he activated eldritch touch and fired three bullets into the crowd. The larger variants of the devourers survived the initial barrage, and so he fired another two waves of eldritch touch empowered bullets slamming down into them. The backlash of eldritch touch began to tingle throughout his body. His evolution and subsequent time spent being heavily influenced by the fourth energy gave him a great resistance. The three higher variants of devourers died as eldritch touch corrupted them. Dozens of the creatures were coming from above them on the heavy slope of the cavern. Below, hundreds of them gathered under the cliff, beginning their climb towards the two. Above them, soon hundreds would gather to block their ascent. Ren summoned the Watcher. His mana drained, as well as a small amount of his fourth energy. Two twin black tentacles arose from a puddle of muddy black oil on the stone below them. The tentacles arose twenty feet high into the air before slamming downwards and across the cliffside. Fourty of the insects were crushed and damaged by the impact. The tendrils of black rose again into the air, some devourers clung to them, mandibles stabbed into the fleshy black tentacles. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Ren smiled as he saw the devastation. Congratulations Eldritch Rouge Lv 15 +5 Dexterity +2 Willpower +2 Vitality +2 Intelligence +7 Free points Ren allotted the free points to his endurance and vitality. Hell yeah, finally 200 HP! Ren¡¯s smile quickly faded as he turned to see Cella summoning her glaive. In her chitin armor, she went to battle the insects. As if dancing, she swung the glaive and spun herself to cleave the insects. Some of the creatures jumped at her, just in time, Ren shot two while cleaving another with his dagger. Seven more of the insects came, Cella cleaved through three, taking a bite to an exposed portion of her leg. Green light shone, healing her slowly. Ren shot three himself, using his dagger to pierce the head of another as it jumped for his neck. The two continued their dance, spinning and swirling around one another, Ren constantly regenerating bullets directly into the revolver. Cella called forth spiked growths from the earth killing nearly a dozen of the creatures. The remaining stragglers were slowed down enough by the spikes to be easy pickings. Ren felt himself being heavily worn by the strain of the twin tendrils of oily blackness. The Watcher was far beyond Ren in terms of ascension, and all stats total. Perring towards the tentacles, he saw endless corpses from the devourers dying again and again. Huge pieces of flesh had been torn from the tentacles he had summoned. They were doing well, but Ren knew he couldn¡¯t sustain them here much longer. They pushed forward through what little remained of the insects in front of them. Several more kept popping up from small cracks and crevices around the area, but the flow from up top had lessened greatly. As they passed over another cliffside, they were mostly free from the devourers. Ren felt the strain of his summoning start to eat away at him even stronger. Now even his vitality was being drained as the tentacles were using his own energy to sustain the damage being taken by the army of insects. Ren cut off the summoning. A flood of relief washed through him as the strain on him suddenly vanished. He could feel himself weakened. It was not just his energies being lessened, but it was something deeper, a strain on his very being. He sighed as Cella turned to him. ¡°Ren, will you have it in you to run?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll last long. I feel tired to my very soul. I can build up a big enough attack to kill a lot of them, but I won¡¯t have much of any power left to keep fighting afterward. If I do it, you¡¯ll have to step in and take over. I might as well be useless after doing what I¡¯m about to do.¡± ¡°Very well, I will hold back until after you unleash whatever you''re holding onto.¡± She nodded and walked back, stabbing an approaching devourer as she retreated from Ren. He stood at the edge of the cliffside. A large portion of his eldritch energy still remained, he brought it forth to him. Swirling the energy within him, he gathered the backlash of eldritch touch into a central location within his body. It was like a small rotten pea at the center of his stomach. As the army of insects crested past the cliffside where the tentacles had held, he tried mixing eldritch touch into a ball of flame. The fire became an ethereal gray that no longer let off the light. The flame was unstable and he barely held it together, it was a struggle to keep it from exploding in his hands. Gray veins of corruption began to gather at his core where the concentrated mass of it was. At his hands too, the gray veins began to shimmer with a lightlessness. As the main body of two hundred devourers made it above the cliff, Ren released the attack. His body was nearly empty of mana, while his stamina and health were below half. Ren fell to his knees as he went suddenly lightheaded as his mana was nearly depleted. He watched as a third of the creatures were consumed by the giant gray wave of flames that poured around the impact of the fireball. He gave a small smile before pushing stamina into his feet. With a great push, he jumped into the crowd as the center was cleared of the gray flames. He landed in the middle of the army of insects. In a moment, the flames were gone, in their place, the devourers ran at Ren. Within seconds he was being jumped on by a dozen devourers who tore at him. With a cry of pain from the mandibles tearing into him, he released all of the corruption built up in his body. An intangible wave of energy pulsed from his body as the devourers around him slowed. They looked blankly in front of them, their eyes unfocused. The ones on Ren fell away as their bodies slowly faded into dust. The ones further away slowly withered into old husks. The ones furthest away merely slowed and looked confused for long moments. Cella ran and jumped into the midst of the chaos. Ren slid down to the ground unconscious. The glaive spun as she grew great thorny spikes around Ren, protecting him. She cleaved through several of the devourers before one severed into the back of her leg. Blood poured forth profusely as she cut off the attacker¡¯s head. Twenty of the creatures remained. Growths sprouted all around her, slowing down and injuring many of the insects. Devours were parted left and right as the glaive swung and twirled around her in a blur. For every three she killed, a blow was taken. Not a scrape or scratch, but severed arteries, broken bones, and torn chunks of flesh. In the minute she took to slay the remaining insects, she was torn into a heap of blood and broken bones. Cella stood, her weight propped against the shaft of her glaive. The chitin armor was torn apart, her flesh barely in better condition. Blood soaked the earth below her, both her own and that of the devourers''. She clumsily walked towards Ren. She could feel it, death, coming for her. She pulled back the spiked growths as she fell down onto the ground beside him. Her healing light shone all across her body. The damage was too severe for her to heal quickly enough. Ren was unconscious below her, his condition unknowable to her. She parted a small piece of her healing light to Ren as she touched a hand to his head. She felt herself dying and didn¡¯t want to die alone in the dark. Ren¡¯s eyes fluttered open as Cella formed a pool of hot blood all around him. His eyes shot open at the sight, panicking, he grabbed her but she only gave a small smile as her eyes began to flicker. The healing light left him, as she prolonged her moments left to live. Tears came to Ren¡¯s eyes as an item appeared in his hands. ¡°You¡¯re not allowed to die¡­¡± The essence of change bound itself to her. The healing light flickered and faded as instead streams of green light came in ribbons from her core. They wrapped her being and folded around her, the green ribbons flooded from her very soul. Like a chrysalis, she was born anew. A mark upon the very face of her soul, the mark born from the breaking of fate, reshaped her. Unable to ascend, the essence had bound itself to her soul, allowing her to form a mark to be consumed at her evolution. Cella¡¯s bands of green ribbons unfurled leaving behind a new woman. She wore a gray plain shirt and black pants. Long black hair reached down her back as vibrant green eyes shone in the darkness. Her skin was no longer the sickly and lightless pale, a healthy rosiness arose in her face. She was no longer emaciated and starved. Her body was full and healthy. She was what she always wanted to be, a normal human. C36 Words in The Deep Ren and Cella rested within the darkness of the Underdark. So high within its depths, there was no growth to be seen. Only barren stone lined the area around them. Within the emptiness, a warmth came from the small fire and food the two shared. He sat with legs crossed before the flame, a small trickle of mana left him to sustain the small blaze. Cella sat with her legs outstretched still admiring her new form. The mark left by the essence of change had allowed her to transform. Just like elves and goblins are, she too was now marked and so her physical form changed. She was marked by her own will, Unlike elves, who were marked by their divine ancestry. Her ascension marked her now at a similar level to Ren. With eldritch eyes and analyze both activated, he evaluated her. Human Lvl 15 She was the same level as him, though Ren could tell she was weaker by the merit of having had such weak development earlier in her life. Starved, and half dead, she was a shell of a person. Now, he saw the vibrancy, the very affinity for life energy within her eyes. Before, her eyes had taken him aback with their inhuman color and oddity. Ren smiled as she looked at him. She spoke. ¡°Well, I have to say, it does feel a lot better being a normal person.¡± ¡°You were always human, it¡¯s just¡­ being underground for so long changes things. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re happy with yourself, when I used the item, I was panicking and afraid that I would turn you into a monster.¡± ¡°Nothing could have been worse than being the little decrepit thing I was before. Whatever monster you could have turned me into, it would have been better than being a half-step above the goblins.¡± ¡°You were never anything like those nasty little things!¡± Ren¡¯s face went red as he imagined the vile little creatures compared to her. ¡°I know, I know, it¡¯s just¡­ change is good. I never imagined becoming something more than what I was born to be. I always dreamed of it, sure. But I never really imagined it being a real possibility.¡± She gave a gentle smile as she glanced at him, then looked down at her hands. ¡°I¡¯m happy for you. I have a question though¡­¡± ¡°Yes?¡± She turned a curious gaze towards him. ¡°Well, are you stronger? A lot stronger?¡± ¡°Uh, I believe so. When ascending every attribute a person has becomes more valuable. Even a wizard will become faster even if they never trained in such a thing. Even a barbarian will become more intelligent and their will shall become stronger. Sure, they still won¡¯t use mana, but they will understand all the minute details of combat better.¡± ¡°So, do you think there''s anything different about your fighting?¡± ¡°Well, I feel a lot more power within me, before, being starved for many years, and being so short too, it was difficult for me to fight in melee. I can now, I¡¯m sure my melee abilities are much stronger.¡± This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Ren stood and slowly let the fire fade. Within the darkness, his eyes could still see. Most of all, he could see the light behind her eyes. The light that he lacked. Cella stood as well, she readied for travel as they began to head back from the cozy hiding spot, returning to the long hours of travel. During the climb, they spoke. Ren talked of his experiences that led him to the Underdark, and how he was chased out, which led to his own death. Cella listened carefully and acknowledged him. Ren spoke of the time he spent with Tayin and Hollwin, how all of it seemed so long ago now. He spoke of his first days alone in an alien world. Cella was quiet now. She listened intently, a hint of concern playing on her face. Ren sighed, then spoke. ¡°All I remember from my last day before coming here, it was strange¡­ I had lost people I loved, I blamed myself for it, and I was still hurt by whatever happened. Physically I mean, but also mentally. I resented that I had lived, that they had died. I felt so free while out in nature, and so I decided to run away from it all. I wanted to go somewhere I could hide from all my problems. I did. I wanted to live anew, but I had nothing to pay for that dream. I wished that I could live a new life. I wanted it even if it cost the skin off my back, and my very own soul to pay. Well, I paid that toll, and now I¡¯m here.¡± Cella looked at him, she gripped tightly to her shirt and looked intently at him and water came to her eyes. ¡°And.. now I am the hand of an Eldritch God. I am what will burn the world, I am what will poison the sea. I am what will bring the void into this world and devour its God. I am damned, I wished for death, and I have become it. I have dreamed of a life where I have the agency to decide. I have become the hand of fate. Isn¡¯t it poetic?¡± ¡°Ren, you don¡¯t have to be that monster¡­¡± She sniffled as she watched him. He turned to her. ¡°Cella, you saw the power I have over such damned creatures as the ones who ate everyone you loved. I am that monster, all I can do is dominate that power and take it for my own. When I went into that abyss alone, into the mouth of that wretched little hole where the insects nested, I fell into an abyss. I should have died, but I was bound to an ancient and vile being who served Alkyri instead. Now with that thing, I will try to stop this eldritch God from taking me over and devouring the world. My only hope is to become the monster so the other one won¡¯t kill everything and everyone.¡± Cella wept as she looked into his eyes, she hugged him and his anger fell away. ¡°If you truly believed that you would become the monster yourself, then you should kill yourself long before that. I have seen will within you. You are no monster and will not become one. You can stay yourself and stop what is happening. You can let them seal the power, or even willingly bring the Eldritch One to the Goddess to slay.¡± She looked up at him. ¡°No, to bring it into this world, I would be the vessel, I would have to die. I won¡¯t die, I can¡¯t. They wouldn¡¯t want me to.¡± ¡°Who?¡± ¡° My-¡± Ren¡¯s mind went blank as his memories were torn away from him. He stumbled as his patron¡¯s hand tore at his mind. His memories, the ones he loved, were they ever real? The image of the woman, stolen from his mind by the shapeshifter, flooded into his mind. Ren used the fourth energy, the eldritch energy, in a vibrant hue of purple to shield his mind. The image was clear for long seconds before the energy faded and his memories again were ripped from his mind. ¡°Ren! What is going on?¡± Cella panicked as he fell to the ground. ¡°I saw her, I saw her¡­ It took her away from my mind, I¡¯ll kill the fucking thing!¡± Rage brought Ren to his feet. Ren began to push his way up the slope towards the surface. ¡°We need to get out of here, its influence on me is much stronger when closer to the body below. I won¡¯t be able to fight it so long as we¡¯re trapped in these depths.¡± ¡°Your patron? Was it in your head?¡± Cella¡¯s face was covered in concern. ¡°Yes, I tried to fight it, but it was no use. It¡¯s like getting yourself wet to keep water off you¡­ it¡¯s hard to explain. When we get out of here, I can try again.¡± Ren pushed forward and Cella hurried to stay at his pace. They passed through the unending and unchanging depths. The climb would have been far from the realm of possibility to ordinary humans. They were tireless in the pursuit of freedom beyond. C37 Old Places Stolen story; please report. C38 Light Above Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. C39 Awoken Cella and Ren had lived different lives, Ren still didn¡¯t know what life he had lived. Their personalities and emotions were far from similar, but the two of them understood. It wasn¡¯t wise for them to get into an emotional talk now, and so they avoided what had just happened. Instead they continued forwards towards the peak. They had only been delayed for a minute, but they were anxious to stay ahead of what was to come. They marched forwards into the heights above. At their breakneck pace it wasn¡¯t long before they could smell the sulfurous stench wafting down from the mountain. Soon they could see pools of bubbling water that stank like rotten eggs. Looking around, the mountain seemed clear of the many dangers below. The mountain had evened out to a slight slope while the presence of large stones and bounders nearly ceased. Encouraged by the lack of hazards, they pressed on. The covered ground rapidly, the bubbling sulfurous pools of water surrounding them. As they crested a more sloped portion of the peak, a massive pool of water became clear over the side of a divot at the top of the mountain. The small lake was several hues of gold, orange, red, and bubbling blue. The center of the lake was deep, the bottom far from sight. The whole body of water was shallow, except for the deep center of dark blue that vigorously boiled. ¡°There¡¯s no quick way around it. Do you think you can grow something to run across?¡± ¡°In that boiling pool of water, I doubt even my magic could get much to grow.¡± ¡°Damn it, this will be a long delay.¡± Ren could feel the heat rolling off the lake. The hot spring stank terribly and mist rolled from it making the area humid. Ren jumped down into the large divotted area surrounding the shallow edge of the pool. ¡°If we can swim through, we could gain a half hour on whoever follows.¡± ¡°I doubt you could make it across the middle, it would probably boil us alive.¡± ¡°Yes, but if we avoid it, we can make it across.¡± Cella sighed. ¡°Ren, I know we¡¯re in a hurry, but that might end up killing us if the water is hotter than we expect. Boiling water won¡¯t burn someone at our ascension, but it will hurt like hell, and drain our energy until the point of exhaustion.¡± ¡°Ahh, you¡¯re right. I just want to get out of here and not have to run for my life for once¡­¡± Ren began to walk around the edge of the water and kicked a stone far out into its center. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Cella followed him as they began to run across the edge of the water. - Vok¡¯Ret felt the rippling disturb him. How long has it been? A day, a week, months? A year? He was still tired from devouring the giant ent that had sprung up on his mountain. The wiggling mass of sweet juicy pulp from the ent¡¯s core was still making his mouth water. The warmth of the magma below kept him sated as he healed from the thousand thorns and nettles the ent had impaled him with. Great warmth kept him from needing food to keep his body functioning. The water slowly permeated him allowing him to avoid the need for fluids to replace what he had lost in blood. All in all, his little mountain was his paradise. Sure, those little dwarves had tried to steal his stones, but they were gone now, and he was much stronger after having killed them all and growing up. After his fourth growth, he had finally become an adult. The pesky ent had finally found out why trees shouldn¡¯t play with fire. Vok¡¯Ret slowly stirred as he felt a small hunger bounce around in his stomach. The vibration had awoken him as a small stone landed on his head. Someone, something had thrown a rock at him! It¡¯s the damn dwarves who come to steal his rocks again! No, but what if it¡¯s just a rock? I could keep sleeping, it¡¯s probably not a little dwarf. But it was a rock¡­ Slowly stretching his claws, he cut deep rivets into the stone below him. He had to be more careful, he might accidentally damage his warm little springs. He stretched his arms up and let his scales shiver across his body. The deep red hue of them shone in the dying light that struggled to reach into the deep water. The warmth flooded over him and he regretted waking up. Whoever decided to play with their dwarf rocks today will die. I was sleeping just wonderfully. The great leathery wings on his back stretched and pressed against the stone walls of his pit under the waters. I¡¯ll have to make this place bigger. Vok¡¯Ret slowly flapped his wings. The water around him swirled as he propelled himself upwards. The currents dashed against the stone walls as he passed nearly a hundred feet toward the surface. He began to emerge as his serpentine neck and elongated head broke free. His head was the size of a man, his horns curling back into vicious points. His front legs grasped the ledge of the stone pit, he dragged himself atop the shallow pool of water and shook himself free of the water pouring down him. His body was monstrous. Any man standing beside him would feel dwarfed in his presence. Each individual claw was the length of a sword, his fangs just as horrid. His wings blanket the sky above enough for houses on either side of him to be shaded from the sun. His body shook again as he freed himself from the water clinging to him. With long breaths Vok¡¯Ret felt the sun beaming down on him. Its warmth was far weaker than that of the deep pools below. Many of his kin would fly higher than the clouds to feel its unblocked light. He on the other hand, loved his pools and their warmth far more than the sun. Vok¡¯Ret looked around for the little dwarf who had to have been playing with the stone above. He knew men and elves didn¡¯t love rocks as they did. This meant it had to have been a dwarf. His serpent¡¯s head swiveled looking for whatever stone loving dwarf threw a rock at him while sleeping. As he looked around, the area was completely empty. Where are you little rock lover? His wings flapped and he took to the air. Hovering for long moments, the wind tore at the waters around them. The shallow pool crashed around in waves as his wings beat. Eyes unable to catch any little dwarves, he took off to circle around the peak of the mountain. C40 Dragons Den Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. C41 Black Fire As the dead cleric had wished, Tayin met with his other two comrades. As he had feared, they would not abandon him. Tayin followed slowly behind the two men as they charged forward into the hellscape beyond. Molten earth and blackened plants stood across the mountainside between them and the dragon. Blood fell heavily from the dragon¡¯s mouth as the swordsman cleric was gone. With a heavy heart, Tayin set to charging a wind-empowered arrow. A whirlwind surrounded her as she reached deep into the skies for aid. The chaos of the winds conformed and showered her with their power. From a distance of a half mile, she aimed her bow towards the dragon on the higher slopes. Beyond her, a healing-based cleric, and a hammer and shield-wielding cleric charged. The tornado coalesced around her as she readied her attack. The healer blessed the heavy fighter who summoned chains of mist to bind the dragon. Tayin released her attack, it collided with a wing of the dragon. It had attempted to take flight but was staggered as the great winds tore at its wing. Small cuts and rips through the wing''s membrane sprouted, as sharp wind blades swirled around the wing. Tayin breathed heavily, the attack had taken a great toll. To harm a dragon, even in its weakest spot, was no easy feat. The heavy armor-clad warrior charged into battle with the dragon. It was staggered by the winds, and so his summoned chains managed to pull the head of the monster down. The heavy hammer in the cleric¡¯s hand glowed with a majestic light as it collided with the dragon''s skull. A great ripple of silver light shone forth, as the dragon''s skull cracked. A horn visibly cracked at the base. A great roar spouted out of the beast as it reared back its serpent neck. Glowing embers came alight in the gaps between the scales on its chest. The heavily armored cleric tried to flee. The healer behind him summoned mists to cover the warrior. A great gasping breath of flame roared forth. The fighter fell to the earth as the silver mist of the healer evaporated. A silver light tried to fight back against the draconic blaze. However, it was helpless. Potentially the three together may have succeeded, but now they had no chance. The warrior was turned to ash and disintegrated in the winds. The healer tried to resurrect the dead man, but the draconic essence allowed none of that. Far worse than the damage of plain fire, the draconic affinity within dragon¡¯s fire ruined all chances of life returning to where the blaze had burned. The remaining healer and Tayin witnessed their own deaths staring back within the bright fiery orbs of the dragon¡¯s eyes. She had tried her best with a technique far beyond her, it had drained her and weakened her. But she was far from dead yet. Again she called to the skies as a torrent of winds came down to her. She felt the chaos of the endless horizons swirling down onto her. With every ounce of will within her being, she calmed them to her purpose. A whirlwind quickly became a tornado, it devoured her energies to sustain, and so she quickly channeled the power into another shot. The draw of her bow took everything within her to pull back, her strength was weakened beyond any normal exhaustion. Her body ached terribly as the power around her condensed. The dragon charged toward the healer, he summoned walls of mist to try to stop the strikes of the dragon. He failed time after time as vicious claws tore him. Punctured by sword-like claws, he bled onto the molten stone. Tayin¡¯s charged shot fired forth as the dragon devoured the final cleric. As the half-dead man entered the dragon¡¯s mouth, its wings came over its body. The attack from Tayin collided with it as its wings were shredded. Torn apart, the wings should have been useless for flight. Yet, the dragon stood, its body unharmed, only a small seeping of blood from a single claw, and its mouth showed no damage. She fell to her knees, trembling. The attack had taken all of her stamina and mana from her. Her head ached, and her muscles fought to obey her. She stared into the silently smirking face of the dragon. Vok¡¯Ret felt only joy as his hunt came to its conclusion, it was only inevitable that he slay any mortal who dared challenge him. ¨C Ren followed the dragon, Cella had called him a fool and protested, yet he went anyway. He watched as it killed three clerics, and stared into the eyes of Tayin. A quest appeared in front of him, a mechanic that had been missing since his first day in this world. Quest Acquired: Strike The Final Blow: 0/1 (Optional) Create Your Flame: 0/1 Knowing he would be rewarded for interfering meant nothing to him, for this was about far more than just some prize from his patron. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. He knew she would die, she had no chance at fighting such a monstrosity. She had betrayed him, and so had Hollwin. He should be happy she was going to die. And yet, he was not. He feared for her death, even dreading it. He had liked her, sure she kept secrets, and sure she was odd. Ren had liked her regardless, thought her a friend. He wished for her to live a long and happy life, regardless of what she had done to him. Ren left Cella as she remained hiding in a crevice. He summoned forth the great black tendrils of the abyss underneath the dragon and channeled his eldritch energy. The black tentacles of the Watcher grasped the dragon. Sure, it had nothing compared to the full strength of the Watcher, but the strength the tendrils had was beyond anything Ren could replicate. The dragon fell to the earth as its legs were ripped from underneath it. With an idea stolen from the dragon, and hinted at by the quest, he empowered the affinity of his eldritch energy into flame. Fire in his hand swirled black, a small purple spark occasionally appearing across it. With four rapid strikes of eldritch flames, the dragon was burning. The fire ate away at the scales of the dragon, the impenetrable nature of them did nothing as the eldritch energy devoured the power within the scales. Like great plates of steel, they melted, falling to the molten earth below it. Ren felt shivers wrapping through his body. The combination of flame and his eldritch energy was too advanced for him. His body rejected the concepts as he felt the energy twisting inside him. While the power remained his own, he launched a ball of black flame. The fireball engulfed the dragon. The crimson scales across its body burned and melted away as they were devoured by the eldritch corruption. Ren felt his mind going fuzzy, his consciousness fading as the energy within him fought back against him. His energies were being devoured far more aggressively than when he used eldritch touch. He vomited bile onto the ground as he pulled black flames to his hand a final time. Twin bolts of black flame slammed home into the neck of the dragon. It roared and rolled its body across the earth. Ren fell to the ground, holding himself up with his hands. Cella ran to him as the dragon fled down the mountainside. She had abandoned her hiding spot, disbelief flooded her as she watched his black flames. Green light arose in her hands as she healed Ren. The life affinity was powerful, yet it barely managed to keep up with the corruption eating away at him. The corruption spreading across him left ethereal tracks across his skin. Like veins across his body, they pulsed. They tracked vile eldritch energies across him, rather than vital blood. Tayin sat on her knees down the mountainside from them. She stared at Ren as he recovered on the ground. She had seen the black flames, she had watched as they replicated the evil power of dragon¡¯s fire. She had seen how the dragon fled, and how it laid motionless far down the mountain. A mental prompt entered Ren¡¯s mind. Congratulations, Quest Complete! Rewards: Eldritch Rogue Itemization (Optional) Reward: Gem of The Black Flame Congratulations Eldritch Rouge Lv 17 +10 Dexterity +4 Willpower +4 Vitality +4 Intelligence +14 Free points Ren felt his body grow stronger as a portion of his patron''s power imbued him. He allowed the free points to increase his strength and endurance. The increase in power gave him the energy to stand. He allowed the itemization to activate as his clothing began tougher and more powerful. It changed some but remained the same odd unreal fabric. A black cloak came over his shoulders and went down to the back of his calves. A black hood was attached to the cloak, while a gray scarf appeared to cover his neck and lower face. A thick gray shirt of strong unreal fabric covered his chest, where it met black jean-like pants made of a more real feeling material. It appeared similar to denim but still possessed the odd quality the rest of his clothing had. His boots began larger, and thicker, covering his entire shin with a strong and protective material. Both Cella and Tayin watched as his clothing seemed to warp and upgrade before their very eyes. They watched as Ren lifted his gauntleted arm with the strange ruby. An onyx black gem gleamed there now, a lightless flame burning within it. He mentally looted the corpse of the dragon. The ability gave him three objects. Loot: Ren allowed his dagger to absorb the upgrade talisman as it grew far sharper and far tougher. Now, he had no excuse to avoid using the blade. The infernal core was the blazing heart of the dragon, its source for its internal fire. The hide was far too large to have carried by hand, making him grateful for the magical storage. He looked at the two women who stared at him. Now that he though of it, he had been acting really weird there. Doing a bunch of stuff they didn¡¯t understand and all. He quickly moved towards Tayin, and as he did, she tried to flee from him. She wasn''t able to make it more than ten feet while crawling before he made it to her. Cella followed at a distance. ¡°I will not hurt you. I promise.¡± Ren spoke in a soft voice. ¡°What have you become? What did you do?¡± ¡°I am me, nothing more, nothing less. I¡¯ve come to realize it recently. I wanted to live a new life, so I damned myself for it. It''s selfish, you know? To want to die, want to start again. Some may get dealt shit hands and can¡¯t get anything better. Some of us die as children, and some of us live long happy lives. It ain''t fair, but it is what it is.¡± ¡°What does that have to do with anything?¡± Confusion played over Tayin¡¯s face. ¡°It has to do with me. It has to do with it all. I didn¡¯t realize it until now, but my life has been way better than some others. Cella over there, she was born in the Underdark where she lived a fucked up life. Me, I¡¯m lucky compared to her. I¡¯m going to live this life, either I die a monster or live to kill one. I won¡¯t know until I make it. If you and the others want to follow me, go ahead. See that dragon over there? I killed it, and I won¡¯t go down without a fight. So, for your sake, and mine, go live your life, I¡¯ll do my best to live mine.¡± ¡°They¡¯ll hunt you to the ends of the world. It doesn¡¯t matter if you have an attack that can break the defenses of a dragon. The paladin you met back at the monastery? He could slay that dragon in his sleep, he¡¯s weak compared to who they¡¯ll send after you. Ren, surrender and you may be able to live. You might bring about the end of this world.¡± Tayin sighed as Cella placed healing hands on her. ¡°Or, I could get stronger, find a way to kill the bastard myself.¡± ¡°To kill¡­ A God?¡± ¡°Yup, I have a couple of friends now that¡¯ll be helping me! They won¡¯t turn against me in either.¡± ¡°You cannot hold that against me, Ren.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t actually, I can¡¯t. But I won¡¯t turn myself in, and I won¡¯t let myself die. I¡¯ll find a way to get through this, I will. Or¡­ well¡­ I¡¯ll die trying at least - hopefully not though¡­¡± The last part was a half whisper meant to himself. Ren and Cella turned towards the mountain top, they left Tayin half healed. She sat on the earth and watched them flee into the wilds beyond. C42 Into The Wilds The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. C43 Those Born To Live The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. C44 An Elder Tale [Part 1] The two studied the orks in their celebration. The large harvest fed the entire tribe as the children played, danced, and had mock fights after stuffing themselves. Ren felt a newfound appreciation for the orks after having watched. They were powerful brutes, yet they held happiness and joy in their hearts. Their joy was free, and it was clean of all concerns. They lived in the moment. Stalling, neither of them wanted to make the call to approach the group. They didn¡¯t want to spoil the merry air within the camp, nor did they want to be slaughtered by the powerful orks. Cella spoke up and called it time. They stood from their hiding place within the forest and slowly approached the orks. A dozen figures stood around the fire, while several stood closer to the yurt-like tent at the camp¡¯s center. Heads turned and a call of alarm sounded. Cella couldn¡¯t understand the words, but she knew it was nothing good. Ren watched the orks turn toward him, and speak a call of alarm. ¡°Approaching the camp! Outsiders! Children to the rally point, warriors forward!¡± Ren allowed his arms to hang out, obviously empty. Cella beside him held out her arms to her sides in a gesture of surrender and peace. An older male ork led them. His arms were as wide as Ren¡¯s legs, and his torso was twice that of Ren¡¯s. He stood chest to face height with Ren, swiftly approaching. A party of several warriors flanked him, various weapons ready to strike. He spoke to the others behind him, ¡°Humans, man and woman, they hold no weapons.¡± Ren spoke up, ¡°I am Ren, this is Cella. We come in peace.¡± Cella side-eyed Ren, the shock of hearing his perfect orkish plain on her face. She looked back to the leader of the orks, shock too played across his face. Amusement swiftly followed. ¡°What in the name of all that is green, how do you speak orkish so well? Adopted by a tribe as a youngster?¡± ¡°No, I have a magical talent, it allows me to speak to anyone, in any language.¡± Ren felt awkwardness creep into him, but he fought it off. The memory of his first meeting with Hollwin and Tayin played in the back of his mind. I can¡¯t screw this one up¡­ ¡°Uh? Magic. Yes, yes, we do no such thing ourselves, but we know of magic. Knowing you¡¯re not one of our kin, your approaching us is very odd¡­¡± The orkish chief began studying Ren with suspicion. ¡°We¡¯re looking to learn from you, we are no threat. We¡¯re heavily outnumbered and on your home turf.¡± Ren nodded to Cella, ¡°She uses the life affinity, she had noticed it flows strongly through you. We wish to learn what¡¯s so amazing about you and your people.¡± ¡°I know of no life affinity, but it is true nature, and life is seen differently to us. I have seen men¡¯s cities of stone and diets of fancy drinks and processed foods. It is disgusting. They have no connection to the dirt or the trees. No relationship with the animals and plants.¡± ¡°You are right, nature and its beauty is infinite. That is why we wish to learn from you.¡± Ren smiled and put out his hand in a friendly greeting. Cella looked far less nervous as Ren reached out to the ork.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡°You¡¯re good, for a human. I can work with that.¡± The orkish chief grasped Ren¡¯s forearm and pressed his heavy fingers into the flesh. Ren held back a winch as his far weaker arm struggled against the powerful chief¡¯s. ¡°You¡¯re in need of better food!¡± The chief laughed and was quickly joined by the other orks further behind him. ¡°Ahhh, well at that, you¡¯re right for sure.¡± Ren winched as the long nails of the chief bit into his arm. ¡°Now, come eat then. It is time for humans and orks to feast together again!¡± The chief laughed again as a small cheer came from the warriors beyond him. He pulled Ren along, Cella following behind. ¡°It has been ages since men came willingly into the camps of orks! Do you know how long it has been since man walked away from the ork¡¯s fire?¡± The chief asked. Ren looked confused, ¡°I know nothing of the histories of this world. I am foreign here, I know only a little of very particular histories. Nothing of real merit.¡± ¡°Well, here then, come sit and listen.¡± The chief led Cella and Ren to sit while the feast continued again, them now at its center. Orkish children came to study them. They carried small toys, though, until that of humans, their toys were practical. They had wooden weapons, carvings of animals, and small balls for games. Before the chief could start his story, the kids crowded them. The first was a young boy who carried his wooden deer. The boy was the size of a teenage human boy but was likely a deal younger. His muscles were far from developed, and he wore a tunic of hide. A single strap surrounded his waist, there hung a knife and a small pouch. His dark green hair was pulled back into a single knot, tied by a cord. The boy pushed his wooden deer at Ren, on closer inspection, he saw the deer was covered in over a dozen runes and glyphs. Cella¡¯s eyes opened wide upon seeing them as spoke. ¡°Ren, could you ask if I can study that? The markings, they mean something, something important, yet I cannot quite grasp what it is.¡± Cella¡¯s eyes were wide, she looked almost mesmerized by the object in the boy¡¯s hands. Ren spoke up, his voice in orkish. ¡°May my friend study the markings on the deer?¡± He nodded to the toy in the boy¡¯s hands. The boy nervously shook his head and smiled. ¡°Yes.¡± Came the small voice. Ren was taken aback, the boy was so large, nearly his size, likely to be there in a couple of years, yet he sounded so young. In the tongue of the Underdark¡¯s humans, Ren spoke to Cella. ¡°He said that it¡¯s ok.¡± Cella smiled, and gently took the object. She began studying it carefully. Ren looked to the chief who had grabbed large handfuls for the two humans. The food was hot and ready to be devoured. Ren smiled and thanked the chief as he passed Cella her food. ¡°Now, where was I?¡± The chief asked. ¡°You began speaking of mankind leaving behind the fires of orks?¡± ¡°Ah yes, thank you.¡± The massive man sat down and grabbed a bite to eat before speaking. He took long thoughts, and careful consideration into his next words. ¡°It will be easier to show you, but that is for later. For now, let me tell you of the beginning, and so the end shall make the most sense.¡± The chief scratched at his bare chin and took in a deep breath. ¡°And so, in the beginning, our people came from another place, where our own kind is all. Where we belong the greatest, in the Jungles of Tunikar. Our eldest ancestor came here, and he planted the trees that became our origin.¡± ¡°One second, trees, your origins? What do you mean?¡± Ren blurted. ¡°Trees, from the sacred trees we are born. When we desire children, a man and woman lay their blood bare before the sacred trees, and so grows our kin. Such is the origin of orks. Born of the trees, and born of the dirt.¡± Ren nodded and then took in a deep breath. The chief began again in his story. ¡°We came and found the native men of this world, we taught them to live as a part of the world. We taught them to eat, to sleep, and to continue. To live, and to not die. It is simple, orks are simple in that way. We exist simply to exist. Neither to rule the world nor to change the world. We maintain it, we exist as a part of it. This is what we taught the men, they were taught the way of orks. For countless time, men lived at our fire and ate beside us. Eventually, things changed. Men left us, they left us to rule the world, and to change it. They left us so they could become something they thought was better than us.¡± ¡°So, what made them leave?¡± Ren¡¯s brows furrowed, as he didn¡¯t get the answers he desired. ¡°That is a thing of men. I can show you, but that is for later. For right now, you eat.¡± The chief stood and walked away. He entered the yuri-like tent at the camp¡¯s center and did not return for some time. C45 Elder Tale [part 2] This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. C46 Lessons to be Learned Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. C47 Trials [Part 1] Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! C48 Trials [Part 2] Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. C49 Amber Cella struggled to move the golem as its behemoth body crushed Ren. With the orks, she tried breaking away the stone body that was now incapable of standing. The golem still ¡®lived,¡¯ if one could even call a golem alive. Yet it was immobilized and incapable of defending itself properly. The power deep within the golem was still trying to cling to the pseudo-life that the golem possessed. The power tried to continue fighting, regardless of the state of the golem. Its body began to change. The humanoid form of the golem slowly molded with the solid stone that tried to climb onto its body. A more serpentine form began to take shape from the golem¡¯s broken body. An unceasing wave of attack continued from the orks and Cella together. Desperately, they fought to shatter its stone body and free Ren from the crushing weight pressing on him. The golem¡¯s body fully changed into a serpentine shape. It began moving into the ground, burrowing as the earth moved to form a tunnel before it. Ukkar moved to collapse the forming tunnel, though the earth moved with its own will. The ground was brutally tough, far more solid than it would have been if some animal had dug the tunnel. The golem, now a stone serpent, slithered its way down into the tunnel. In its wake, Ren¡¯s broken body lay unmoving and crushed. Cella rushed to him, she went to infuse a powerful wave of healing into him but stopped. If she did such a thing, the orks may see them as disgraced. Would Ren survive without her magic? She looked to Ukkar who crouched down beside Ren as well. She couldn''t speak the orkish tongue, nor could she understand their odd gestures. They could not communicate, yet she knew what Ukkar meant as a small string of guttural sounds came from him. She healed Ren, the orks turning to avoid gazing at the act. They disapproved of magic, but they knew Ren would die if she did not intervene. Though their orkish beliefs forbid such a thing, the humans had their own way. In a situation of life and death, they did not shame the humans for doing what was only in their nature. Cella sighed as she felt the spark of life within Ren strengthened. The damage he took as his body was crushed was immense, though it would have been a slow death. She was grateful to see the orks turn back towards her. With another string of guttural sounds, Ukkar left the group. He left Cella alone with the two of the orks, as he marched down towards the landslide. ¨C Ukkar felt the honor in the battle, and the strength in the ancient guardian. It truly was an insurmountable foe. Having forced it to change shape, he went to take their prize.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Within the landslide the presence of the ancient amber was obvious. Small pieces of it shone in a honey-gold sheen. He found five small pieces of the old amber, pocketing them in a small pouch. He allowed part of him to enter the soil, an offering in thanks. A pulse of his energy left him and lingered within the soil. It would slowly be absorbed by the guardian, helping it heal and be restored. As he turned to head back towards the group, he ran his hand over the bag of amber. The power within each piece was intense. He wanted nothing but to have his piece, but he reminded himself of the honor of patience. The life trapped within the amber burned with an intense energy. With slow steps, he came back to the group. Crouching down next to Ren, he grabbed the hand of the unconscious human. Placing it within his grip, the amber caught the eye of Cella. She stared intently at the amber. Ukkar let a small smile come to his face as he presented a piece to her as well. As it entered her hands, she let out a quiet human expression Ukkar could not understand. Though he could not understand the human words, he understood the meaning. What else could it have meant, but to be amazement at the amber. He stood tall and gestured the other two orks forward. He presented to them the amber. Each of them getting a single small piece. Joy and excitement came over all of them. They all looked deeply into the amber pieces. The old blood of an ancient, powerful tree. It was an honor to hold such a thing. He looked down on the humans as the man stirred. Ukkar¡¯s smile only grew as the human gripped the amber. An odd expression came over his face as he noticed the object in his hand. ¨C Ren felt a deep aching within his body, but he was alive. He quickly realized the fighting was over, the golem gone. He felt an object within his hand, it was a piece of amber. He immediately thought there had to be something trapped within the amber, but it contained nothing. An odd energy flowed within the amber, something very similar to energy within the golem. He glanced up and noticed Ukkar staring down at him with a smirk across his face. ¡°What is it?¡± Ren spoke with a croaky voice. ¡°The blood of an ancient tree. An ancestor who stood here an eon ago. It gave life to my people, and so it was killed.¡± Ukkar nodded looking at the amber. ¡°Even now, it gives up strength and power, such is the way of orks and our trees.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry to hear, but I¡¯m not surprised. So, what is to be done with the amber?¡± Ren slowly sat up. ¡°We will take the frozen blood back. We will present it before the chief, and from there he will take over. For now, we will rest. You can not travel, and I will not dishonor you by carrying you as a child.¡± Ukkar nodded and turned toward the other orks. Ren looked at Cella and translated what had been said. ¡°Ren, there¡¯s something deeply powerful about the energy within this amber.¡± ¡°I figured so, but I¡¯m not so keen on this type of energy.¡± ¡°I know, so listen when I tell you that this power is something far beyond us, something far beyond the orks. It has a quality to it, something I cannot understand. There is both quantity and quality in an affinity. A forest has a great quantity of life affinity, but this has the quality of something I can not yet understand. It is powerful.¡± ¡°I can tell it¡¯s something special, but I have no clue what either.¡± The two sat and meditated on the energy, resting and recovering. It was not only Ren who was deeply weakened. Cella had a terrible strain put on her from utilizing the life affinity mana she had pulsed throughout her body. They rested as night slowly came to them. Under strange stars, they slept. C50 New Begginnings Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. C51 Long Cast Shadows Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. C52 Purpose [Part 1] It was under the lesser trees and within the tall grasses that they awoke. The charming birds left songs hanging throughout the air, while the morning breeze wafted a chilling air across the land. The orks had already begun to start their days as well. However, they had chosen to sleep in their tents rather than pass out in the tall grasses with dirty platters still next to them. The two didn¡¯t know what to do, so they simply relaxed in the cool, dewy grasses, waiting for someone to approach them. It was not long, though, as it only took Ukkar a half hour to approach them. ¡°We are to present our amber before the chief. It is time.¡± Ukkar offered a hand to Ren, and then to Cella. It was no difficult task for them to stand unaided, but merely a courtesy. ¡°What will we be doing?¡± Ren asked. ¡°We will make use of our amber. I do not know myself, but it is something rather important from what I know.¡± Ukkar nodded and gestured towards the yurt in the middle of the camp. Ren relayed the information to Cella quickly as they headed off to see the chief. They were welcomed by the smell of woody incense, an odd thing for the orks to use, but rather welcomed by the nose of the two humans. The chief had a large braiser at the center of his tent. Above it five small bowls sat warming on the fire. They were made of clay, and devoid of any fashionable designs. As the two other orks arrived, the chief spoke. ¡°As Chief over the Raging Boars, I declare all those who have fought to win their amber true Boars. You have completed your trial to become full warriors within our clan. With the frozen blood acquired, you will be rewarded.¡± Ukkar approached the chief first, he placed his amber within a bowl. The chief placed a small handful of powders within the clay bowl and lit the interior of the bowl on fire. The other two warriors came next, each placing their small piece of amber into a bowl, then the chief doing his part. Next, the two humans began their part. First, Ren walked forward, looking down into the small bowl he noticed a thick sap already bubbling within the empty bowl. Then, he saw the three other bowls. They burned bright as their amber melted in an odd mixture. He placed his amber within his respective bowl, then backed away. Cella came next, repeated the process of all the others before her. She had not yet understood anything that was said, Ren felt speaking during this time was improper, even if it was just translation. Regardless of this, she understood what was happening. The chief picked up the first bowl and brought forth a jug. He poured a thick brown tea into the bowl. A great steam cloud rose from it, as the tea was nearly all evaporated. He repeated this process four more times as he cooled every bowl. When the tea pouring was finished, he added several handfuls of dried leaves, berries, and herbs into the bowls. The concoction smelled strange, but not unlike a fancy tea, though one that was just on fire. Ukkar approached first at the beckoning of the chief. He was handed the hot bowl, which visibly steamed against his hand. The heat within the bowl was still burning hot, enough to scorch a hand, let alone a mouth and throat. Regardless of the pain, Ukkar drank down the fluid. He stumbled and the chief placed an arm around him. He called two orks who quickly entered the tent, taking away Ukkar. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.Next came the two orks, called by their names by the chief, the first was Yunhik. He was tall and broad, though shorter than the other orks in the tent. His width made up for it though, as if he even got one of the others on the ground in a fight, they would be in terrible trouble. He too took his bowl and drank down the contents of the bowl. Swiftly, the two orks called by the chief took him away. The third of the orks, he who came last, was called Ilan. The name did not come off as orkish, but somehow it fit the thinner ork. Perhaps some names came from old tales or old friends of orks, some came from their imagination, and others could know. He drank down his bowl from the hot braiser, being carried away, as he could barely hold himself up. Ren was the next to be called up, the chief spoke. ¡°Tell her what I speak.¡± He gave a moment for Ren to ready himself. ¡°You will be given what is made for orks. How it will affect you, how you will live with it, I do not know. You say the fate of the world hangs in the balance, so take what chances you will with this. You may leave this, and leave the orks. I do not know how your body will handle it. So, if you wish to not risk your life, you may go.¡± Ren repeated the meaning of the chief¡¯s words. ¡°What do you think, should we do it?¡± He asked Cella. ¡°We¡¯ve come this far, I doubt whatever it is will kill us.¡± Ren nodded. ¡°Alright, well, bottom up!¡± He took the bowl of the sludgy tea. A burning lump made its way down his throat, one that barely crawled down. The fluid went down easily, though it did burn. The burning amber though, slowly made its way down his throat, a semi-melted state, it was gooey. The lump in his throat trapped some of the fluid higher up in his mouth and throat, giving him the sensation of choking. Ren fought the urge to vomit out the hard lump that slowly made it way down his esophagus. The overwhelming desire to panic built in him, but he fought it as he felt the lump drop as it neared his collarbone. His throat felt a raw mess, he tried to speak, but the world spun around him. Two orks caught him and aided him. He couldn¡¯t speak, and his body began to not respond to him. A pain began to burn in his heart, a searing pain that left him wanting to begin tearing at his chest. He was powerless, unable to fight the burning that began taking over his heart. It was only for moments long as his mind began to lose focus of reality. Ren¡¯s mind became inwardly focused as he felt an invasion of energy. It was foreign, yet not terribly unwelcome. Part of it reminded him of the dream, the one Cella had rescued him from. Though here, there was no malice. There was only a glowing green light. It touched him, moved through him, and sank deep within him. A golden light shone within the green. Here, an orb of amber burned hot within his chest. At the center of his heart is burned, it had made itself a home there. The green light pulsed forth from the golden amber pulsing within him. It was as if a new heart and made itself within the one of flesh and blood. Though this heart was one of gold rather than flesh and blood. Relief washed over him as all of his thoughts and worries drained away. Only the pulsing euphoria within his chest mattered now. He felt at home, he finally felt safe. 53 Purpose [Part 2] Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. C54 Purpose [Part 3] If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. C55 Talking to An Eye Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. C56 Shadows and Hounds The amber was the antithesis to the influence of the Eldritch God. To have both within him, it felt confusing and unproductive. Both influences gave him power, though they contradicted one another. When he used his magic, the amber wouldn¡¯t function properly. To allow the amber to work, he had to neglect his greatest strength. It was a conundrum he could not think of a ration solution to. On his small hill beside the pond, he felt safe. His mind turned to other matters while looking over the serene waters. The paladin had to have been tracking Ren, similar to the clerics before. Though, how would he have escaped if he had been tracked? OR did the paladin instead think Cella was better to capture? No, that wouldn¡¯t make sense. He was the most valuable target, he was the only true target. If the tracking had stopped when he took in the amber, could it have sparked the attack? It seemed like the only rational solution. The reading Hollwin took of Ren at the beginning of his stay in this world had taken a piece of him into it. It felt as though a portion of him was metaphysically sucked into the metal sheet. If they had a piece of him, through their magic they could track him. Though, if the amber had changed something about him, something fundamental and large, perhaps it changed him enough that the tracking was no longer functional. With the hope that they could no longer track him, it gave him time. Time that should be spent getting stronger, not thinking on a hillside exposed to paladins looking to kill. Ren stood in his small clearing. The pond was tranquil and simple. It was much like the orks, below its surface a great organization of life occurred. Though not traditionally organized, it was organized in a sense. Life came into the world based on the simplest forms first. The algae and the microscopic. Then, the smaller prey fish, and after that, the largest fish who predated on the smaller ones. It was organized, in a sense at least. So were the orks, a simple organization that relied on nature to give it balance. Ren slowly approached the small body of water. A small trickling creek came flowing down from one of the mountains giving life to the little pond. Water that came from either snow or a spring of underground water. Ren smiled as things finally began to make sense to him. His mind had been on the details, not on the whole. The amber was the water. A basis of sorts, it originated from high up, as did the water, In this instance, the ¡°high up¡± was not a mountain, but Gods. The amber was a piece of orks¡¯ ancestry from the Gods. It was of one of their Great Trees, givers of life. Of course it so highly corresponds with life-affinity in the orks, it gave them life. Within Ren the amber did not pulse with life affinity, it was affinityless. Though it did have a high reactivity to the affinity and similar elements. The energy was a basis, the metaphorical body of water for him to grow his fish within. As the pieces began to fit within his mind, a great relief came over him. With the amber pulsing within, he focused on its power. He could feel it, an emptiness within the warmth of the energy given off by the amber heart. To fill it, that was the true task he had to complete. The orks, already could fill themselves with life affinity, and so the amber took that aspect. For Ren, he had no idea how he could utilize the amber. Though it was a starting point. For now, he had to make progress however possible. Heading off from the small pond, he continued westwards, unknowing of where his destination would be. The day slowly began to pass as he ever onward as he moved further from human civilization, and consequently further from Cella too. In a way, he hoped it would be near himself toward the day he had her by his side yet again. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. It was as dusk swiftly approached in his long walk, that an odd figure presented itself before him. It was canine and dark black. It stood before him, hunch over and growling. The creature was far weaker than himself. Stalker Hound Lvl 8 With nothing to gain from slaying it, he ignored it. Turning to move around the beast he passed it as it slowly began to follow him. He passed over a small creek, he lept over it as it was only a short distance. The canine followed after him. Though it followed him, Ren wasn¡¯t worried as he could, if needed, slay in easily. It would not even be the slightest challenge. A single bullet could take care of it. Regardless of how easy it would be for him to slay, it made him uneasy. Why would such a weak creature pursue him? Its natural instincts should be more than enough for it to know that he was far beyond its reasonable expectations for a meal. Regardless of all this, it knowingly pursued a deadly threat regardless. He pressed further into a dense forest that cut out more of the light. The forest was a thin darkness that would mask dangers from a man and leave the hairs on the back of his neck tingling. For Ren though, his eyes opened wide and he saw far more keenly than before. His lightless eyes were far weaker in the light of day, making an environment such as this far better suited for him. Upon entering the darkly shadowed forest, he noticed two more beasts lurking in the darkness. They slowly approached him under the cover of the dense canopy. Stalker Hound Lvl 9 Stalker Hound Lvl 9 Though slightly stronger than their companion, they were still far too weak to hinder him. As he quickly passed the two lurking in the forest, they joined the first hound. As a small pack, the three stalked him as he passed deeper into the depths of the forest. Dusk slowly began to dwindle, the light fading. The small patches of light that shone between the leaves above completely faded. Only long shadows of the trees in front of him remained in the dimming light. In the darkness of a thicket far to his left three hounds lay waiting. As he slowly pushed forwards into the shadows he watched them from the corner of his eye. Waiting for them to give him a good time, he readied his revolver. Now six hounds pursued him as the light wisps of light faded from the world. He analyzed the three new additions to his group. Stalker Hound Lvl 9 Stalker Hound Lvl 11 Stalker Hound Lvl 10 They still posed no threat to him, and so he waited to see if more would join. As the moon steadily rose higher, Ren felt like an idiot. With six hounds at his back, he came to a large formation of stone. Atop it stood an apex hunter, far from the strength of the Dragon, but it still held such a title over all those within this forest. The beast was like a wolf, but far larger. Its fur was short and purest black. Its eyes shone in the light, reflecting the moonlight down onto Ren as he stared at the beast. It was as tall as him, and had to weigh several times as much as he did. Its jaw could fit his head and more. Black Hound Lvl 20 Two beasts stood at either of its sides. Each a smaller version of the strongest amongst them. Black Hound Lvl 17 Black Hound Lvl 15 The dominant hound sounded first, and piercing howling under the moon. Atop its palace of ruble and stone, the wolf looked down at Ren. In response, the wolves behind him and beside the apex predator called into the night. Several more voices came from the depths of the forest around Ren, those he had not yet noticed. Shit¡­ C57 Torn and Burned Immediately Ren burned his mana, empowering his eldritch eyes. Within the darkness of the forest, he saw far better than on a clear day, though any hidden threat was now revealed to him. Phantom Stalker Lvl 15 Phantom Stalker Lvl 16 Two more of the hounds remained lurking in the depths of the forest. Previously unseen to him, their odd forms were now clear to him. The two beasts were similar to the weaker variants that stalked him thus far, but the phantoms were made of shadow itself. Their bodies only looked partially corporeal. They remained back as the six weaker hounds came closer to him. Atop the stone face in front of Ren, the three black hounds slowly crept towards him. It was time to make a decision, Ren didn¡¯t know if he could evade so many at once, or if he could even outrun them. Making his decision, six shots fired off into the night. The bodies of the Stalker Hounds collapsed, those who still lived barely hanging onto life. Ren avoided using Eldritch touch, fearing it may allow the Paladin to begin tracking him again. Even burning mana to increase the strength of his eldritch eyes actively was a risk, but one he couldn¡¯t afford to take. Using his mana to regenerate his bullets, he took off at a tangent from the phantom hounds. With the weakest dead, it gave him a small amount of breathing room. The stalker hounds were far from a threat, though even a minor distraction could cause a fatal slip while fighting the true threats here. As he ran, the power from the amber was nearly nonexistent. The mana he burned to see far better within the dark forest actively decreased the value of the amber heart. The choice to gain speed and endurance in exchange for his sight was tempting, but it wouldn¡¯t do against the phantoms. All three black hounds were close on Ren¡¯s flank, though the strongest amongst them was gaining on him. Unable to turn around and look, he couldn¡¯t tell what the phantom wolves were doing. Pushing forward Ren summoned flames into his hands. As he lept over a fallen tree, an array of fiery bolts slammed into his pursuers. He gained vital breathing room as the three dark hounds were slowed for several moments. It wasn¡¯t long though, as soon the hounds were gaining on him. Sparked by his attack, they seemed to be getting fast. Ren narrowly slid past a tree in his path before entering a large clearing. Dead fungi and infected trees stood bare under the dying sun and young moon. The last vestiges of light were leaving the world, and Ren¡¯s heart dropped in his chest. The young crest of a moon early into a new cycle was rising into the sky above them. The dark hounds only came at him faster. Empowered under the light of the rising moon, two figures of purest black came unseen from the shadows. Like scythes of purest black, they lashed at him. Their shapes were warping and unstable, Ren struggled to move out of the way. The shadows cut deep into his flesh, as he fought to continue onwards through the two scything shadows cutting into him. Managing to move with alacrity, two deep gashes across each arm were the only damage he took from the twin attacks. His blood quickly drained down his upper arms onto his forearms, and he raised one of them. Another flame came into one of his hands as he threw the fireball behind himself. The two shadows writhed as an explosive torrent of flame caused them to take on their hound forms. Struggling in the dead grasses of the clearing, the two beasts burned. Ren felt himself gain a small advantage as the black hounds were delayed by the explosive fire. Gaining ground on them, he prepared. A great deal of his mana coalesced as his head began to throb. Spreading his hands before him, Ren imagined a ritual. Instead of using symbols and runes to create formulas, his will burned.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. The three dark hounds came charging toward him, his will became manifest. With his mind aching, he brought forth fire. It erupted from the earth below the charging hounds. At first, it was a half-circle around them. As the hounds paused, and then moved to run around the wall of flame, Ren allowed his mana to travel further along his imaginary ritual of fire. It burned as high as the Inn he stayed in so long ago. Its walls were as thick as an ancient oak. It burned with a passion and hate that could melt steel. Every part of his hate for the paladin, his hate at his own weakness burned within the wall. He gave it all of his hatred. An emptiness took the void left by it. His mind was empty but the throbbing pain of him overusing his mana. It bought him time. Standing there and thinking of the emptiness he felt would only give them time to kill him when the fire faded. With the last portion of mana that remained within him, he activtaed his empowered stealth. It had not allowed the paladin to find him before, so he felt it was safe. Ren ran into the blackness beyond his flame. The darkness beyond his hate. The phantoms remained. As he ran into the depths of the forest beyond the burning wall he erected, they made themselves known to him. What would have been a killing blow was imperfect, and far from precise. The phantom struggled to aim at him properly as his shape was so distorted and strange in his empowered stealth. The very light of the moon reflecting from his skin was changed, warped, and corrupted. Ren stumbled as thick, hot blood came pouring down his back as two slashing blows tore his flesh open. His ribs were cut with deep grooves, and a segment of his spine was severed. His lower body was numb as his vital energy rushed to repair the damage. Ren summoned fire around him as the two lashed down at him again. One of them pulled back and managed to refrain from igniting itself on Ren. The second of the two was caught in Ren¡¯s grip. Its scythe body returned to an emaciated black shadow that resembled a hound. Ren fell atop the being. It was neither flesh nor a construct of magic. It was something wrong, but so was he. His flesh bubbled as his fat became oil. Immolating himself, he stopped himself from being executed, but now his recovery would be far from swift. Holding down the squirming hound, Ren burned the creature as his flesh charred and darkened. With his blade, he stabbed into the skull of the hound. As the blade drove deep into the head of the creature beneath him, Ren felt no bone crash or shatter. Shifting, Ren still could not use his legs. His body was rapidly weakening. With a partition of his will, he pulled the burning flames from his body and into his palm. A swirling concentration of flames moved into his palm. He was blinded by the fire, his eye burned. With his lightless eyes, charred and ruined, but the smallest trace of it caught his attention. The oddity of the being, the uniqueness of its being caught his attention. The eldritch eyes did not see, for they needed no light. In the depths of the Underdark, he read the energies of those who dwelled in the darkness. Here too, Ren felt the trace of its being. With the torrent of flame leaping from his hand, Ren scorched the phantom hound that yet lurked within the darkness. It fled into the shadows deeper within the forest, its body burned again and again by its greatest fear. Ren knew the black hounds would soon be free from the prison he crafted for them. He was fast, he had made it far from them in the minute he had. They were faster. He had left no trail for them, but now he was burned and crippled. His only solace was to have already burned away the nerves of his skin. Only the deeper parts of him could feel, though they screamed. With his mana completely burned away, his mind was numb. At lower levels of ascension it had left him unconscious, though, in his current state of agony, he wished it left him unconscious. The amber within him was the small salve that kept him sane as he sat crippled and all but blind. To soothe himself he felt the warm glow of the amber. Never before since when it was first placed within him had it been so strong. The warmth of its glow only became stronger as the antagonistic mana no longer coursed through his being. The black web that formed inside of him at gaining the onyx gem was as thin as spider silk. Though so thin, it still held strong. The amber¡¯s glow slowly warped the black strings, they were difficult to perceive within himself as the light grew ever stronger. Though his body could not feel it, Ren could see his stamina draining rapidly. Though it was far more steady than his rapidly declining health. Name: Ren Race: Human Alignment:C/N Class: Rouge level 17, Tier 2 Skill: Ritualism Marks: Gate-Walker HP:76/220 SP:111/225 MP:0/245 Without being able to feel his lower body, nor feel anything with his upper half, his sense of touch was almost entirely gone. It was nearly serene as the warm glow of the amber overpowered the sense of pain from his inner injuries. The minuscule sense of touch he did have told him that something was moving around him. It was tough and strong. Solid, but not like stone. His mind faded as he felt himself finally drift off. C58 Lost Light It was within the dark that Ren awoke from his strange slumber. The numbness and warmth that had overtaken him had passed. His flesh and skin again felt normal, unburned, and healthy. He was cocooned under the earth surrounded by the thick roots of a tree. Reaching out he dug at some of the earth protruding between roots. He was able to dig a small shaft between two thick roots. A beam of light penetrated down into his dusky abode, it shone across half of his face as he peered into the daylight above. No dark hounds, nor any phantom hounds pawed at the spot he had dug. That was a good sign, but he still went forward with caution. Digging further at the small opening, Ren made enough room for his head to pop out. The problem was, that the roots blocked him from digging the hole any wider. Pulling free his knife, he began cutting strips from the roots. Slow work, but progress was made. Soon, he was able to get one shoulder out of the hole. Watching with care, Ren continued cutting away the inside edge of the roots. As he severed a piece, he had to toss it out of the hole. If he failed to do so, he would end up burying himself in layers of loose dirt and cut root shavings. When he had cut off several more large portions, he tried freeing himself. Pushing hard off the floor of the loose dirt, he wiggled his shoulders to get them free of his coffin. The pressure on his shoulders was tight, he even feared dislocating one. After nearly a minute of wiggling free, he finally made it out. Dusting himself off, Ren looked around himself. The forest was far from the dark and dreary nature it had taken previously. However, the state of the tree was that of death made manifest. It had grown forth from him as he lay dying, the light of the amber growing great in his time of weakness. With no mana left within him and his body withering, the amber had grown a protective tree around him. It was odd, but it worked. Underneath his feet, a thick layer of wood and bark covered a large area surrounding the tree. Inches deep, the wood had been torn away from the tree and its roots. Time after time, the tree had regenerated and the hounds had torn at it. By measure of how much material was scattered on the earth, the tree had to have been torn apart three times. For every inch of bark coating the littered ground, the tree had regenerated. Ren put a hand over his chest and focused on the amber. Its glow was damped to a point where its warm light felt all but dead. The only sensation he gained from the act was a sense of weakness. The amber slowly and gently pulled at his stamina, draining some of his energy to refill itself. Ren sighed. Another boon was taken away from him. Very quickly all of his powers had become useless. His eldritch touch, blast, and horror all became useless when the paladin had been able to track him. Using those abilities would only end in his eventual death. Now with the amber gone, Ren questioned if even his eldritch stealth was safe. The amber¡¯s glow was dead, there was nothing to do about that. At least he was alive, and the amber might eventually regenerate enough by consuming his stamina. For now, he simply had to survive and get stronger. Having killed the two phantom hounds, a notification came to Ren¡¯s mind. With the recent death and devastation, a sense of oddity came with the system notification. The early days of constant notifications felt so far away from where he was now. Congratulations Eldritch Rouge Lv 18 +5 Dexterity +2 Willpower +2 Vitality +2 Intelligence +7 Free points Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. With his stamina slowly draining, he believed it to be wise to allot his free points into endurance. Ren pulled up his stats to see what progress he had made. Name: Ren Race: Human Alignment:C/N Class: Rouge level 17, Tier 2 Skill: Ritualism Marks: Gate-Walker HP:230/230 SP:219/220(260) MP:255/255 Attributes: Str: 24 Vit: 46 End: 52 Dex: 83 Wil: 51 Int: 40 Free Points: 0 Ren sighed at seeing his stamina temporarily reduced. Well, he hoped it was temporary at least. The amber needed to regenerate, and so energy was required. Unfortunately, he was already weak enough at the moment. Looking around he checked his surroundings before heading back off. A black ichor stained the tree and several spots on the ground. Moving to investigate the black substance, Ren paused and used analyze. Dark Hound Toxin (Rare) Ren smiled at having finally found another venom to use with his knife. The scorpion stingers that Cella had given him in the Underdark had yet to be used, nearly forgotten. Now with this toxin too, Ren knew it was time to go back to his roots. It was time for him to be a rogue, Ren took some of the toxin and stored it in his spatial storage. Making sure he had several extra bullets, and the toxins ready to be used if needed, he headed out into the wilds. The sun was low in the sky as his journey began, the early morning hours left dew across the grasses in the fields and meadows. His boots gained small streaks of water as he kicked through the dew. A thin chill was still slightly wafting through the air as the sun had only begun to warm the world. In his time spent within this new world, the one called Aethradin by Hollwin and the rest of humanity, Ren had yet to see the seasons change. He felt as though change was on the wind as the dew licked at his boots, and a slight chill continued to find him. Ren¡¯s body was far from susceptible to a cold wind. He wouldn¡¯t slowly die if the temperature went too low, his body was simply too highly ¡®evolved.¡¯ As the body becomes more like the soul, fundamental changes occur. One of these changes is that of warmth. The body no longer needs to function on a purely physical level. The energies of vitality and stamina were all that was needed to have a functioning body. A proper amount of fluids and flesh were needed of course. These factors though were only required when the body was lacking fluids and flesh. Ordinarily an ascendant being like Ren, at least one at the same level of ascendancy as him, only burns energy to survive. The source of Ren¡¯s vitality and his stamina, he didn¡¯t quite understand. If his body were to produce such things, would he not still require food and water? Energy cannot come into existence from nothing, and it would be reasonable to assume the same laws of physics apply to this world. This led him down a rabbit hole. On the long morning walk, Ren thought of a thousand questions he had yet to ask himself about this world. He meant to solve those problems posed by his questioning. Ren felt deeply within himself for the source of his stamina and vitality. The more he looked within himself, the more he slowed in his steps and focused inwards, the more he realized he truly had no idea. His stains flow through his muscles and their fibers. Some key points seemed to house more stamina than others. In his spine, and in large areas around his legs, arms, and chest cavity. He suspected these regions to possess a large amount of nerves. Though, as he was no doctor, he wasn¡¯t quite sure. The vitality, the vital energy that kept his body alive and healed it, flowed through him in waves. It mirrored his heart, though did not go along with the pulsations of it. It was as though a second heart, one with no auditory pulse, or physical veins pushed the vitality through him. A lifeblood of sorts, it moved through him keeping his flesh from withering away. It wasn¡¯t hard for him to realize it. He had a lot of things to learn, and a lot of skills to master. A thousand ways to fight, and a thousand more minute details about himself and the world to study so he can better prepare. It was both worrisome and a relief. He had no idea how to pursue the paladin. The man whose might was that of a meteor coming to strike down on the earth. Now there was somewhere for him to start. There was a path forward, and it began at the beginning. C59 Protomimus When Ren first came into the world, he was ignorant of all things. Now, he was ignorant of the ninety-nine percent of the world he had yet to travel. The new people, those like orks and elves, that he was yet to meet. As well as the places and powers within this world. By whatever means he must, he was determined to find these powers hidden within the world, and like a true rogue to steal them. To take the secrets from whatever strange races of beings existed here and make their powers his own. Ren''s first step was to accept his losses. Having Cella taken, his powers lost, and his only companion being an evil floating eye, he was nearly as lost as he was in the beginning. In a way, Ren felt free, for the moment only. His fate still sat in the hands of the paladin who had taken away the only true friend he had made in this place. One day, he would have to face that power. Whether they would keep her alive, or slay her for her part in all this he didn¡¯t know. The near-midday sun beamed down on him, and he realized it had been quite some time since he had eaten or drank. Allowing his bodily needs to clear his mind of his boundless troubles, Ren the tallest tree he could find. From atop his high view, Ren looked out across the distance. Behind him, the mountains rested in a blue hue, over them nothing but vanishing clouds could be seen. To both North and South he watched as the mountains slowly faded to nothing but forests. To the East, Ren watched as clouds slowly approached him as they passed over the sun. In the far distance, he saw light reflecting from a great body of water. From a distance, he struggled to gauge its size and shape. On its other side, he saw several mountains. The terrain seemed odd to him, a deal wrong. Though such a place may house great monstrosities and beasts. Seeing it, his course was set. Ren began traveling towards the distant water. While he moved on from his tree, he tried to think about things a deal more. His strategy for fighting would have to change as he no longer could rely on his eldritch powers to keep him alive. Even using his fire-based magic would stop his amber from regenerating. If he wanted to bring the amber back to its full strength promptly, he had to give up magic. Solely relying on his stealth and dexterity to win a fight would not be an easy task. A large portion of his combat stats had been allocated towards his willpower and intelligence. These had immense effects on him in every way. If his stats had all gone into dexterity, endurance, strength, and vitality without much love for the two magic-related stats he would be far deadlier. Willpower and intelligence were not useless by any metric though. His intelligence being so high did give him a great ability to process information and make fast decisions. If a human in his old world had the type of intelligence he had, it wouldn¡¯t have been too hard for them to end up as a genius physicist. Having high willpower was not a total waste either, though it was far from useless either. His willpower gave him the ability to ignore things like pain far easier. High willpower directly translates into a person¡¯s capability to be more determined and disciplined. Though with magic this also gave one the ability to manifest that will. Knowing how weak he was compared to before, Ren was ready to go into stealth at any moment. Luckily for him though, his eldritch enhancement to stealth didn¡¯t require an activation of willpower the same way magic did. Eldritch abilities did use mana, but his eyes and stealth didn¡¯t require mana to always be burned the same way as eldritch touch did. Eldritch eyes could be used in an activated form to enhance them and break illusions. This required him to actively perform magic. Though the passive form of his eldritch eyes did not do so. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. His stealth ability was one of erasure. He did not use magic to blend into the environment, he simply allowed the eldritch affinity to erase his presence at the cost of slowly consuming him as well. It did cost him some mana, but it was equal to its vitality drain. It was most heavily dependent on his stamina to keep it going. With his strategy for combat, more ironed out, he felt confident as he moved faster toward the water in the distance. The drain of having been burned alive and torn apart was great. Though his body no longer usually needed food and water, the physical material of his body had to sometimes be replaced. The exact ratios that his body required were not quite equal and it confused him. The amount of flesh and blood he had lost wasn¡¯t something his body should have been able to regenerate, but it would logically have made the most sense to him if he had to consume food and water before his body could put itself back together. Do I have a special resource like vitality hidden away that allows my body to be replaced? He wasn¡¯t sure, but he was not going to be the one to complain about it. He heard the sound of moving water in the distance and quickened his steps. Entering his simple version of stealth his body moved far more quietly. Not entirely sure of why he was doing it, he did so anyway. As the water came into sight Ren looked across the water and its bank in case of predators lying in ambush. The edge of a fresh body of water is always a fantastic place of predators to corner prey. When he could find no traces of a predator around, he approached the water and began to drink at its surface. Scooping large handfuls of water into his mouth, he hoped there wasn¡¯t anything gigantic in the water using it as a toilet. Picturing himself sipping away at water full of a sea serpent¡¯s waste, he smiled to himself. The water was fresh and relatively clean. It was browned, but to be expected of a giant river. It spanned a half mile across, and he had no way of guessing the depth. Knowing his body was far from weak enough to drown in a river, he looked for a place across the bank that was not as wide. Dipping his hand back into the water he looked out across onto the opposite bank. A beast forty feet long, and half as tall broke the treeline. It walked bipedally with two long arms tipped with great claws. Its body was similar to that of the dragon, though far from it in some ways. Not made of tough scales, instead its skin was a leathery brown. The head of the creature was large enough to swallow Ren alive. Realizing he had frozen in place, Ren retreated back behind the tree line and slowly followed closer to the creature. Is that a fucking dinosaur? Ren began to remember something from his old world before the fuzzy haze stopped his mind from remembering. Shit, why can¡¯t you let me remember what that big lizard reminds me of¡­ After his mind began to recover from his patron¡¯s interference, Ren looked back across the water at the gigantic beast, his vision slightly blurred as the buzzing in his head remained. Using analyze, he saw it more clearly as his eyes recovered fully. Protomimus Lvl 23 Protomimus? What does that even mean¡­ Ren stared out at the giant lizard as it began to look around at the water before quickly moving to drink. Dipping its great maw into the water it began to tilt back its head allowing the water to trickle down its throat. The process continued as it took another drink, and then another. On the fourth drink, the beast whipped its head backward and tried to turn around. Jaws wide enough to tear down a cathedral came leaping from the water. A behemoth¡¯s head followed as what appeared to be a crocodilian grasped its jaws around the head of the protomimus. Within moments the entire body of the giant lizard was dragged into the water. Ren sat in stealth frozen and unable to move. A deep redness spread throughout the water and downstream towards where Ren was watching from. He silently watched as what felt like an endless stream of blood passed him by in the river. Ren¡¯s heart sank as he looked out over the water. Interlude [Lost Light] In the lower depths of the monastery, the eldest of the priests of the Silver Lady inspected the body laid across a great stone table. On the cold stone, her body was lax and loose, the priest opening one eye and inspecting it. After long moments of study, the elderly man looked up at the small group watching him. ¡°The woman, she is alive. Though nothing is left within her. Her light has been lost.¡± The golden-plated paladin stood tall within the crowd. He bowed his head and spoke. ¡°I should have known better, I could have cut out my aura far sooner than I had. If I had done so, she would not have sustained such damage.¡± The highest of the priests spoke once more. ¡°Yes. You should have, and yet you did not. Dwelling on this though, it does nothing to change what has been done. The information within her is lost to us. A ritual may return to her part of what has been lost. Though it seems a vital part of her soul was entirely done away with. It is odd, I will study this further.¡± The paladin alongside the lower priests left the master to do his work. The ancient man studied her. A beard of purest white twirled in two fingers, a silver streak perfectly cut the beard into two equal halves. He stroked the silver streak and breathed inward. A flurry of silver runes came forth as he raised his hand into the air before Cella¡¯s unwavering body. The runes formed a circle within the air and sigils formed between each of them. Swiftly a networked formuli was formed. With a wisp of mana from the elderly priest, a singular symbol came alive. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The mana changed swiftly and flowed through the network of the ritual. It activated and a silver mist began creeping from the ritual above Cella and flowing down into her body. A pale silver light shone from her as the priest continued his work. His mana probed at her heart with a sharp bard of silver light. His silver mana merged with the mist, and so his consciousness delved into her. The silver mist swirled within her body and illuminated her very being. Every aspect of her being was shown to the man delving into her. His mind was drawn into the amber glow alive and burning within her heart. How the organ still functioned befuddled him. It was hollow only holding the amber, and yet circulated her vitality as it naturally would. At her level of ascension, it was not surprising it would operate if heavily damaged, but the heart was fundamentally no longer an ordinary human heart. Her heart also circulated stamina from the amber. The priest was only more curious as the oddities continued. The stamina was of life affinity, an affinity change to stamina or vitality was something far beyond the capabilities of someone only twice ascendant. The ability for him to do so took nearly four decades, and yet this amber allowed the young druid to begin the process so young and inexperienced. The discovery was baffling. Something stirred within the amber as he prodded it with a silvery barb of mana. Two forces moved within the amber. One asleep, the other a fading consciousness. He smiled as understanding finally donned on him. C60 Unconventional Crossings Ren had spent midday looking over the surrounding area. Seeing a giant crocodile eat a dinosaur, he worried about his chances of successfully crossing. He figured a giant apex predator such as that wouldn¡¯t be able to thrive in a group, likely even killing and eating its own kind. Carefully watching for the great behemoth croc, he hoped to see it crawl up onto land where he would have a chance to cross. Then, the realization struck him. If a croc could grow to such a giant size in these waters, what¡¯s to say a giant fish or serpent could not have also grown to such a size in this water. Sure, it wasn¡¯t likely that several crocs that size lived here, or at least they likely lived further away upstream or downstream. Ren didn¡¯t want to find out if a water snake the size of a wall around a castle lived here too. Any sort of raft or boat would be useless when the threats to him were of such great size. Just them popping their head above the surface to look at what was floating would be enough to cause a wave to knock him off. It wasn¡¯t likely that he could find a way to make himself fly, but maybe launch himself? Brainstorming he went through his options of propulsion. He could jump very high, but not across a half mile of water. He could swing himself across something, but he¡¯d only make it maybe a few hundred feet. Using his fire magic, sure he could create an explosion, but not the sort that could carry him across such a distance. The only option he could rationalize was ritualism. Finding a small area, more or less free of debris, he cleared it entirely. With an open space above him, he sat down. This would delay his amber from coming back, but was it with it? The biome beyond this river was surely filled with powerful foes, beasts beyond him in power by several times. The only ones he¡¯d seen so far were quite strong. If he were to do this, he would be trapping himself there until his amber again could glow. Ren felt himself hesitate, what if mastering the power of the amber was worth far more than he could understand? Delaying it further by using magic may only harm him. Could he risk the time it would take to get around this river? Could he even do so safely? There were too many ifs and buts. Opportunity was before him, and now was not the time to hesitate. His will became manifest as the innate knowledge of his ritualism came alive in this work. The craftsmanship that took a decade to perfect was given unto him by his patron, and he would use it. Runes and symbols came alive across the large circle he crafted on the open earth. What he was doing consumed a great deal of his mana, and he questioned if he could even finish in one day at this rate. Over two hours, the ritual circle began to come together, yet he found himself running dry in terms of mana. Breathing in and out steadily, he tried to work efficiently. Regardless of his efficiency, it became increasingly obvious that he wouldn¡¯t be able to complete this complicated ritual in one day. Blessed with the knowledge of rituals, he already had known this but stubbornly drained himself of mana anyway. Finding a place in the treetops above his three-quarters completed ritual, he rested as his mana began to slowly regenerate. Ritualism was an extremely taxing form of mana manipulation. While making a fireball, he only had to gather the energy and intent of the conjuring. While gathering a large quantity of energy rapidly was also taxing, it became far easier as he had done it over and over again, as well as his mana pool became far larger. Ritualism was a rigid and taxing process as it was like writing code for a program. A million little pieces all trying to come toward a smooth conclusion. Many had to study it for a lifetime, but Ren¡¯s innate knowledge gave him a cheat. Night came, and Ren¡¯s mana had refilled steadily. It was high enough to complete the ritual, but not entirely full. Instead, he spent some time studying the amber within him. Looking deeply within himself, his mind¡¯s eye saw the weakness within the amber. Not just a weakness in that it lacked energy, but that it physically was weak. His mana sang a song like that of an opera singer as if he sang too high a note, it was going to shatter.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. A dread filled him as he saw how weak the amber had grown as he had formed the ritual. He wondered if it was better to stop now, or to finish the ritual now and allow the amber to regenerate as soon as possible. The danger of destroying the precious amber filled him with deep anxiety. Without it, he would be missing a great power that he had yet to fully understand. Hardening his will, he began manifesting his will. With a delicate and precise touch, he moved through the ritual formation and began again on it. Scrawling the formula needed, he was at a constant state of tension as he only used the minimum amount of mana needed to protect the gem. He was delaying the completion of the ritual with his slow deliberation, but it worked. Over the course of an hour, the ritual was completed and relief flooded into him. Turning his inward eye onto the amber, he felt it. A hairline crack ever so small was on the face of its surface. Ren¡¯s spine shivered, but there was still life yet in the amber. The smallest spark, but still alive. He sighed, knowing how close it truly was. This had set him back further, using his mana in any way now would likely bring the amber shattering. The chance before him to become far stronger, and to fight terrible foes was the only hope he had. To gain power through conquering the unknown mountains across the river. A half mile of deadly water from which there was no return. To cross the river again would be impossible until the amber had healed. The ritual activated and Ren felt a rush as he became stronger. Congratulations Eldritch Rouge Lv 19 +5 Dexterity +2 Willpower +2 Vitality +2 Intelligence +7 Free points Ren smiled as he knew the power would be vital for him to survive what was to come. He split his free points into vitality and endurance, the greater portion in the latter. Name: Ren Race: Human Alignment:C/N Class: Rouge level 19, Tier 2 Skill: Ritualism Marks: Gate-Walker HP:255/255 SP:280/280 MP:265/265 Attributes: Str: 24 Vit: 51 End: 56 Dex: 88 Wil: 53 Int: 42 Free Points: 0 As the ritual activated, Ren felt his weight change. The experience was extremely odd, as he felt like with a single jump he could pass over the treetops. He almost went to test out the odd sensation as the ritual began to change. The lightness he felt shifted as the sense of his body weight was completely erased. He felt himself moving as the ritual began to suddenly fling him. Passing over the water, he hurtled across it with no control over his own motor functions. The ritual had ceased him like a doll and thrown him across the water. He had made it nearly halfway across the river before a disturbance on the other side of the water caught his attention. Glowing eyes within the darkness of night showed themselves. With his eldritch eyes he could see it far more clearly though. It was a reptilian head, though an order of magnitude smaller than that of the croc. As he neared it in mere moments, it peaked back under the surface. As he passed over where the head had gazed out, it leapt from the water grasping onto him. Ren looked down at the aquatic beast latched onto his leg. It was small, the size of a house cat. It had razor claws that dug deeply into his leg and powerful back legs. Ren could not move to kick off the beast as it gored his leg wide open. The ritual continued to fling him across the water and he soon met the edge of the river on the opposite bank. To his surprise, neither did the ritual slow down, nor did the little bastard let go. As he slammed powerfully into a large tree, Ren felt both himself and the small creature be crushed by the force of the impact. Blackness overtook his sight for long moments, just as pain writhed throughout his whole body. He no longer felt the clawing and ripping from his little companion, instead, he felt a large number of broken bones throughout his body. The pain from them tortured him, though he had felt worse. With the great amount of willpower he possessed, ignoring the pain wasn¡¯t easy, but he was able to get up regardless of his terrible state. His vision returned, though blurred, he could see the crushed body of the little lizard that clung to his leg. He scoffed at it, glad to see the little guy dead. Looking around he saw no immediate threats but knew there was certainly more to come. With the weakness in his body from the damage he just sustained, he knew it would be a painful plan. He pulled free his knife and began using it as assistance in climbing into the tree he had just crashed into. Finding a high-up point to lean back and rest, he quickly found himself asleep regardless of the pain he was in. C61 Paleontologist in The Making Restful sleep had taken his mind deep into a dreamless haze. With the heavy injuries he incurred by his ritual slamming him into a tree, Ren badly needed the rest. The night had passed into an early twilight as an eerie sensation caused Ren¡¯s eyes to flutter awake. Looking above him, a small sound came from a lizard above him. It was crawling slowly down into a position where it could pounce on him. With his injuries mostly healed, he leaped up and pulled free his knife. The lizard rapidly moved into position and leaped down toward him. Its body was nearly as large as he was, with two spread arms of wicked claws. He used analyze it as he moved to counter its strike. Arboreal Assassin Protomimus Lvl 14 Ducking down under the leaping strike of its claws, Ren swept his blade across the beast¡¯s back. It turned trying to bite into his arm as he pulled back. His speed was far greater than its ability to counter. Not wanting to cause a great deal of noise, Ren didn¡¯t pull out the revolver. Instead, he dodged a swinging claw to give a deep wound down the lizard¡¯s arm. Luckily the beast was small enough that he would not need to utilize the venoms he had collected. In a pure battle of cuts and stabs, he would win easily. A second arboreal protomimus leapt onto his back where it tore great gashes down his back. Blood began pouring heavily from the wounds. Having just had several broken bones, Ren¡¯s health was already less than full. The bleeding he now sustained only left the pool draining far more heavily. In a moment of desperation, Ren flung off the second lizard, rapidly moving to take a desperate strike at the first of them. Trading a blow with the lizard, he earned a puncture to the left thigh while reposting the claw of its other arm. In the same motion that he made his parry, he stabbed the lizard in the neck, ending its life swiftly. Jumping onto another branch of the tree, he looked at the second protomimus looking to take his life tonight. It had wounded him badly, but his ascendant body could heal the wounds. Pulling free the revolver, he kept his finger from the trigger. The giant lizard pounced toward him, its giant claws ready to rend his flesh again, he dodged the leap. Steadying itself on a branch below him, it recovered from the missed attack. This time, Ren decided to take the initiative. Now, he leaped for the giant lizard below him. It claws swinging for him, he dodged one and parried the other with his revolver. Its mouth came in for a rapid bite, but his knife came in swiffer. The blade punctured into the head of the overgrown lizard. Going slack, the beast began to fall. Ren caught it, still not having eaten, he settled for it for breakfast. His bleeding slowly stopped as he realized he had no way of making fire. Feeling disgusted, Ren ate several portions of the beast raw. Knowing that his body was far more durable than any human had the right to be, he assumed intestinal parasites were far from a concern for him. His body now had food and water in it, he relaxed away in the morning as he regenerated. Though, there was one problem. Ren¡¯s clothing, since he had gotten the strange stuff, has always stayed clean and repaired itself. With him actively making sure to not utilize any of his mana, the clothing no longer repaired itself. Ren sighed as he felt the dried blood on his back, as well as the large damaged portion on his back. Deep in the wilderness, and far from human civilization, Ren didn¡¯t really have to worry about clothes, right? I don¡¯t want to wander the woods naked like some weirdo¡­ Holding his head in his hands, he tried to think of a rational solution. There wasn¡¯t one. Unless he wanted to wear half-rotten lizard skin everywhere, his clothes were going to be destroyed. Looking up from his self-pity, he looked into the mountains that stood back from the shoreline of the river. Before passing, he had seen them from a great distance. Three solitary mountains had caught his eye, well besides needing the water badly too. In the early light of morning, he looked upon a strange sight. A large carved rock formation with a shadow lurking in its center. There were no exact carvings in the rock, but a general shape. It was not something that could have come to be by the slow erosion of stone. The formation was subtle, yet jarring when noticed. Something meant for the eyes of only those who would notice. Not many folks paid much attention to stone.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. As he allowed himself to slowly heal further, he scrubbed away the dried blood across his back and thighs while studying the area high up in the mountain. Where the bank of the river was heavily forested, only one of the three mountains was. The other two mountains were far more rocky. From a distance, it was hard to even tell there were three mountains, as they were in a perfect eastward line. All the while the river meandered around their feet. Not able to see too far into the distance on account of the forest in that direction, Ren guessed the water may even be completely surrounding the three mountains. Three mountains, were isolated from contact with the outside world as the river was far too hazardous for anything to leave or enter the two separate ecosystems. It excited Ren to think about the opportunity to see a biome unique and untouched by the outside world. Making a mental checklist, Ren wanted to first see the layout of the area. Finding out for sure if it was completely isolated from the outside would give him a greater sense of security. If he was completely boxed in from the outside world, it would make the potential for the worshippers of the Silver Goddess to seek him out far less likely, maybe even impossible. Finding out what lived here, the extremes of what ruled over such a fruitful area would help him understand what threats were posed to him here. Finally, he wanted to check out what was going on in the mountains. Finding out why two of them completely lacked forests, and what caused the shone to be carved, or shaped how it was. Having scrubbed off some of the dried blood, Ren slowly and carefully ventured back towards the river. Wetting himself quickly, he cleared off the blood and got another drink. Sure, it was dangerous, but he doubted mega-crocs would murder him for spending ten seconds at the bank. There was much larger prey for them to worry about. Having cleaned off and gotten a drink, he felt quite replenished. Even if his health was not quite full, he began to venture along the bank. Staying back toward the treeline, he hoped to avoid any surprises. Slowly making his way along the bank, the river curved. Following the curvature, he slowly made his way along the land. It was unanimously forested, with little change to plant life. The biome was mostly uniform along the bank. Heavily covered in underbrush, with high-topped trees that reached into wide branches. Along his path, Ren did encounter one more of the arboreal protomimus. Avoiding it, he went deeper into the underbrush below the high tree that it clung to. Moving past where the big tree lizard hung out, Ren found the remains of a small creature. Do they camp out near food and water to ambush scavengers? He wondered to himself. It would explain why they came for me, a seemingly wounded prey item that they could ambush in the night. Perhaps that one had not seen me, or it did not want to attack me while I wasn¡¯t vulnerable. If I had stopped to eat the corpse on the ground, it may have pounced on me, the little tree rats have some intelligence then. Finding himself bored, the life around the bank had quickly become scarce yet again. The river was curving further North, indicating it was coming to wrap around the side of the most westward mountain. Currently, he was South of the three mountains, but quickly coming closer to the furthest mountain. With his high dexterity, he traveled extremely fast. Dexterity did not translate directly into travel speed, but it did give a large boost to it. Mainly, his high endurance, in addition to his dexterity allowed him to travel unburdened by obstacles and obstructions. Over the day he was able to travel from the foot of the most westward mountain to the opposite side of the furthest eastward mountain. His guess that the river surrounded the mountains was correct. As far as he had traveled, the mountains were surrounded by the river. Not yet having seen the northern section above the mountains, he was not yet sure if there was water above them as well. Ren changed his direction to spend the last hours of the day to reach the central mountain. From there, he wished to look out over the northern section of land to see if water washed down above the mountains as well. His path began on the eastern foot of the last mountain. Abandoning his path alongside the water, he traveled West away from the bank. He moved with speed so that he could travel during the daylight hours. With his speed, he activated his basic stealth ability to better hide himself. Not wanting to drain his resources with his eldritch stealth, he also feared it could further damage the amber. Passing across the foot of the final mountain, and nearing passage onto the central mountain, loud steps suddenly rung out from a dense section of undergrowth behind him. Knowing his stealth had failed, he abandoned it, picking up more speed. Rapidly, he reached a large tree, half running up its trunk, then grasping onto branches, with alacrity he had reached nearly thirty feet into the air in mere moments. Looking down, his heart raced quickly. Devourer Protomimus Lvl 21 A variant of the basic protomimus he originally saw, it was very similar. A lizard-like appearance, and standing twenty feet. With two rear legs supporting it, and a large tail for balance. This variant possessed small arms and two horn protrusions from its skull. A black and venomous green pattern covered its body. Unseen from the lower vantage of the protomimus, Ren looked down on it, quite glad he got to safety faster than it could run him down. While he as a human might have high dexterity, and travel quickly, a creature such as this would be far faster than him. Ren stayed high in the tree as the devourer protomimus wandered around searching for him. Today, he was choosing to avoid the battle. C62 Hordelings This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. C63 Mountains Mystery You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. C64 Stone Ren stood stunned along the side of the central mountain. Looking out below him with the stranger¡¯s hand cannon planted firmly against his spine, he saw the boulder field below. It was obvious that this would have been the perfect vantage point for a shooter. He should have scouted out further. ¡°Now laddy, it is about time to go see that strange stone now.¡± Pressing the hand cannon into Ren¡¯s back harder, he forced Ren to walk higher up the mountainside. With the cannon right on his spine, Ren could do nothing but follow the man¡¯s commands. A deep panic fell through him landing right in his gut. The pit in his stomach only grew heavier with each footstep and the stranger pressed the cannon into his back again and again. With his hands up at either side, Ren had no way to turn on the stranger. Neither his knife nor gun could be grabbed in time before the man would have a hole straight through Ren¡¯s torso, severing his spine and leaving him unable to move his lower half. Even with his ascended body, such a wound would still take days to heal and would nearly kill him. He had walked into a trap, though the consequences were yet to be fully realized. Whether this man worked with the agents of The Silver Goddess or was some rogue hunter who didn¡¯t take kindly to his hunting grounds being found. The slow walk meant they made little progress up the mountainside. In this time Ren tried to gain as much knowledge of his captor as possible. The man¡¯s voice seemed to come at a low height when he had spoken to Ren, either he was crouched down, or very short. The man took nearly two steps for everyone Ren took. This led Ren to believe the stranger was extremely short for a man, men in this world being only a little shorter than his world. As they climbed further up the gravel and loose stones that made up the slope, the stranger again spoke. ¡°How did you make it across the river now?¡± His voice again reminded Ren of a memory of his world, the image of a man in kilt and facepaint. The memory again was washed away by the curse of his patron. ¡°I used ritual magic.¡± ¡°A ritual to throw yourself across a river? Now you folk are strange aren¡¯t ya.¡± Ren remained silent waiting for the stranger to speak first if any questions were to be asked. As the terrain became more steep, the stranger guided them toward one side where the earth was suspiciously made like stairs behind a large outcropping of boulders. ¡°Now see, you have no sense of how to climb a mountain.¡± The stranger spoke as they turned for the stone stairs. Hidden from view, the stairs would have been impossible to notice unless you already knew of them. Ren remained silent as he passed up the steps, he had to slow himself for his captor as the man¡¯s short legs left him far slower. Ren suspected his dexterity was far from equal to the short man¡¯s. After they passed the stone stairs, the slope evened out and a path could be noticed by a careful eye. It switch-backed around the mountainside to lessen the heavy slope of stone and loose gravel. Their path was now much easier, and the short stranger had little trouble now keeping up.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Still feeling the harsh metal of the hand cannon pressed into his back, Ren¡¯s mind raced through the possibilities. He was in an alien world and had no way of knowing what the truth of the matter would be. For all he knew, he was taken captive by an insane cannibal who was exiled here. The worry and dread grew as they slowly neared the rock formation at the top of the mountainside. It was obviously carved and worked. Erosion and time had likely changed the details of it, or perhaps it was intended that way so only the more discerning eye could notice it. The earth affinity only grew in strength as they neared the end of the path. Might it be some great golem that the stranger was about to sacrifice him to, or maybe an opening of a volcano that he¡¯d be tossed into? In his travels thus far, it was not hard to believe whenever you encounter strange people they might make you into their false God, or a sacrifice for it. Remembering the goblins of the Underdark, those Marked Men, Ren only feared the possibilities. They soon approached the face of the stone carving, and yes, it was a face. At this distance, Ren recognized that it was a face. It was no man¡¯s face, but something far different. Heavy-browed, and large-nosed, the face was far different than a man¡¯s. What appeared to be weathered stone, cracked and split at places, was a beard. Beneath the great beard was blackness, a darkness that ate away at the light itself. From that darkness, a light appeared. It was a solitary light that began to move, slowly it became more. A large circular formation of runes and glyphs appeared devouring the great shadow underneath the bearded face. What was left behind in its wake was three men, or something not quite three men. On the face of each of the three, was a resemblance to the odd face made of stone. Made in their image, it was the sign for all who saw it. The men wore thick metal armor and tools on their belts. In their hands were great shields of the finest metallurgy, and weapons that could make angels weep. The craftsmanship of every detail of the three weapons, spear, sword, and axe was divine in the making. Beauty radiated from them, and power emanated forth. Behind the three stood a door. It was twice Ren¡¯s height and nearly three times the height of the short folk before him. It was carved of stone and thick enough to stop even the largest protomimus. In awe, Ren stood and gaped at the sight before him. The dwarf standing in the middle of the three spoke. ¡°What have you caught here, a human?¡± He spoke with the same accent as the stranger behind Ren. The stranger stepped forward, taking the hand cannon from Ren¡¯s back. ¡°I was down there hunting, and next thing I know a human is poking around one of my kills. To my surprise, he starts stalking over to me hiding spot. I took him up here, not knowing what to do with a human who somehow made it across the waters.¡± The first dwarf spoke again, ¡°Well, we are dwarfs not sneaky forest elves. We don¡¯t take prisoners, and we sure don¡¯t threaten a man for wanting to get closer to a mountain.¡± The dwarf turned to Ren, putting his axe into place on his belt, and his shield onto his back. Stepping forward he raised a hand and greeted Ren. ¡°I am Borrin, Son of Borac, Greatson of Bor. I hope our hunter didn¡¯t scare you too much there lad, we don¡¯t get humans out here you see.¡± ¡°I- I¡­ Thank you. I am Ren.¡± ¡°Well then, Ren.¡± Came one of the other three dwarves who were guarding the entrance. ¡°What brought you to these here mountains?¡± Ren briefly collected his thoughts before replying. Borrin interjected before Ren could speak. ¡°Now, that ain''t how we do things with a human, we introduce ourselves first Tinar!¡± Tinar spoke with shame, ¡°I know, I know. It has been so long since we have seen humans, I forget how we speak to them.¡± ¡°They aren¡¯t some flippant elf, humans work stone and earth just as we do.¡± Borrin said. Tinar looked to Ren, ¡°I am Tinar, Son of Tin. Might I ask now, why did you come to such a place as this?¡± ¡°I wanted somewhere I could be alone, somewhere I could train to become stronger. I saw from across the water what manner of beasts called this home, and so I decided it would be a good place to gather strength and train myself.¡± ¡°You saw the big beasts and then decided to cross the water?¡± Tinar¡¯s eyes widened. Ren nodded and looked down the side of the mountain where a devourer protomimus was eating the kill of the hunter dwarf. Borrin spoke up, ¡°Now then, come inside.¡± C65 A Welcome Home [END of Part 1] Long hallways of intricately carved stone stretched out as the behemoth gates of dwarven design swung open. Two of the three guards took their places at each side of the great gates. Borrin led Ren forward with the dwarf who had been holding him at cannon point remaining outside. As Ren stepped through the threshold the wide doors slowly began closing. The remaining two guards swiftly moved back into place as the shadow again came alive around the entrance. With the great stone doors closing, and the shadow illusion now cast again, Ren was cut off from the outside world. ¡°Now then, Ren. How are the human colonies of the West these days?¡± ¡°Oh, well, I¡¯ve only seen one of the big cities. Plus a small town too. I don¡¯t know much about it all, to be honest.¡± ¡°The humans built cities here in the West? Well, I do suppose it has been a long time since our people have been separated¡­¡± Borrin trailed off thinking. Ren remained silent, not wanting to spark any interest in why he knew so little about the human settlements, let alone the world¡¯s history. The little he knew was of Alkyri, and such a history was better left dead. With his hand stroking a thick brown and gray beard, the dwarf looked hard in thought. He absent-mindedly fiddled with the metalwork of a hammer at his belt. Ren gazed down the long hallway and tried to make out where it led to. It felt a bit awkward for him, why such a long hallway and giant entrance for such small people? Looking intently around, fine carvings were set throughout the grand hallway. They were not easy to make out, as they were not intended for him or anyone like him. They were dwarven carvings, created by their people to tell a tale to their people. Perhaps any dwarf could have told you the eons of history on those walls, but for Ren, he looked illiterate trying to make out the meaning of every carving on those walls. The depictions were as abstract as they were also practical. The carving of hammers and metals, tools and weapons. The way they fit together meant something, but the pieces of that puzzle were far from Ren¡¯s understanding of how they fit together to tell a tale. Regardless of the complicated yet simplistic depictions, Ren felt in awe of the work done. How long had it taken dwarves to carve a half mile of hallway into a grand piece of art? How have they created such fine works on walls three times their height, and ceiling several paces wide? The low tone of Borrin¡¯s voice snapped Ren from his wonder. ¡°Looks like you¡¯re gazing at the stars there!¡± A cheerful note entered the depth of his voice. ¡°It¡¯s beautiful, yet I feel like I¡¯m missing something.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because you aren¡¯t a dwarf, now are ya?¡± ¡°Of course not.¡± ¡°Well, why would a human understand that a spear, bronze, and a hammer meant the tale of Yardin The Wise?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t.¡± ¡°And that¡¯s what you¡¯re missing lad.¡± Ren looked ahead of himself, on the ceiling above and off to the right hand side, those three symbols were carved. A spear, and the hammering of bronze. ¡°What does it mean?¡± Ren asked. ¡°It shows how Yardin bound together two separate clans of dwarves and hammered them into a weapon to strike out at a stone dragon. The bronze, the forging of two clans into one more powerful. The Hammer shows how he shaped them into something new. The spear is them becoming a great weapon against a larger foe.¡± ¡°It makes sense, but how do you know which carving represents each tale?¡± Ren looked down at the dwarf walking beside him. ¡°That''s because it is all in sequential order. The further we go down this passage, the further back we go into the history of dwarves. Every single dwarf knows his history in stone and by heart.¡± Ren nodded. He felt out of place seeing the history of a race of people he knew nothing about. Grateful that the dwarves were kind to him thus far, there was still an anxious worry playing across the back of his mind. The fear of being again trapped within a cell, bound to a ritual. To sit and wait for men to decide your fate.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. It was far from a pleasant thought for him, and he hoped the dwarves would never be suspicious of him. However, it would be better to have avoided all of this in the first place. ¡°Now then,¡± Borrin spoke as they neared the end of the long hallway. ¡°Prepare yourself, as a human¡¯s eyes might be too weak¡­¡± Rushing forward with a great grin, Borrin pushed open a second set of behemoth doors. The great stone doorway slowly opened into a cavern that spanned miles wide and extended vertically for another mile. Within it hung thousands of orbs giving out light. Each was held up by a great bronze chain. The thousands of lights illuminated the vastness of the dwarven civilization. Cities were erected on great stone and metal platforms throughout the cavern. There were great highways of traffic through large staircases and tunnels. Great lifts operated throughout the open air as entire buildings, great heaps of ore, and food goods were hauled throughout the city. The hollow mountain these dwarves called home smelled sweet from vines that hung alongside the great lights. They bloomed into flowers that were wider than even the heftiest dwarf. The scene was surreal, leaving Ren unable to speak. ¡°Now lad, what do you think of real civilization? Much better than your human cities, eh?¡± The great grin on Borrin¡¯s face only grew as Ren¡¯s eyes struggled to meet his own. ¡°It¡¯s¡­ amazing.¡± Ren looked back out over the cities. He stared at it for long moments while Borrin grinned at him from behind. As Ren stood in awe, eight dwarves left their places guarding the entrance. ¡°Borrin! You run right past us with a human!¡± Spoke a white-bearded dwarf. ¡°How did you manage to find one?¡± Came another dwarf as he looked at Ren, gesturing his axe toward him. Borrin grasped Ren¡¯s shoulder and turned him towards the other dwarves. Still in shock, Ren blinked dumbly at them. Gesturing to Ren with a large hand, Borrin spoke. ¡°This my brothers, is Ren. We found him wandering the mountain! Rungar was testing a hand cannon down on the lower slopes when a human just stumbled out from the rocks in front of him!¡± Borrin laughed then continued. ¡°Now, I thought it would be awfully rude of a dwarf to treat a human likes he is some damned elf, the man is in desperate need of some clothing and the shower house too.¡± Ren looked at himself as the dwarfs stood around him. Without his magic, his clothing had stopped mending itself. He was covered in blood and dirt, even though he tried to clean himself somewhat. He looked like some urchin who needed to steal another potato sack to keep himself warm tonight. ¡°Clothing wouldn¡¯t be bad. Thank you.¡± Ren spoke quietly, trying to keep his demeanor. Two of the dwarves separated from the other eight and began escorting Ren alongside Borrin. This level of the hollow mountain seemed to be rather barren of dwarves, with only the guards present and a few platforms and buildings. Swiftly they led Ren into a building that was quickly revealed to be barracks for these guards. Though their jobs were more likely to be ceremonial than practical, as the chances of some invasion of their land were all but zero. They were well stocked in weapons and armor. The rations of food present made it obvious these dwarves were far from the luxuries of those below. One of the two guards who split up from the rest was the white-bearded dwarf. ¡°Now I know my manners, so let me introduce myself. I am Noc, Son of Arms.¡± Ren thought the ¡°Son of Arms¡± part was supposed to mean something, but did not ask. ¡°I am Ren.¡± He nodded to the white-bearded dwarf. Another spoke, this man with a great orange beard that only had a few silver streaks. ¡°I would be Orin, Son of Ort.¡± Borrin spoke up, ¡°Well I will be off to find a tailor to get this human the right sort of clothing. Not quite sure that Armsman Noc here will have the right shape for you.¡± The dwarves laughed, while Ren gave a small smile. The two guards led Ren to a bathroom where he was able to clean himself up and discard his ruined clothing. Ren turned on a faucet releasing a hot stream of water down him. The dirt and blood on his body slowly began to flake off. The red specks across him turned the water a hint red as it fell off his body. His back was the worst. Where the arboreal protomimus had gouged his flesh and torn him apart, there was no good way to remove all the blood short of what he was doing now. Being clean, it was relieving. Though, an odd familiarity came pouring through him. A different Ren, a different world. A boy barely become a man, pain, pain. Like the bursting of a dam, something shattered within him. He grabbed at his mouth as sour spit rushed to his mouth. He vomited onto the slanted stone floor of the bathroom. Tears rushed to his eyes as he felt his chest. - He was in that room. To his left, books lined the wall. A bottle of water sat before him, but he was too anxious to take a sip. A woman sat across from him, but all he wanted was for his head to stop aching. It was the genesis, or perhaps it was the consequence. His eyes watered as the pain thundered through his mind. His mind was in two places, he was here in the moment, but he was in the past. As his leg shook, his mind only remembered the light that suddenly appeared, how it crashed right into them. How he woke up to find them dead, and how he blamed himself. The way his brain convulsed and cramped within his head was just another thing he deserved. For it was all his fault. He should have been more careful, why was he the one who lived? - Ren felt more of the sickly vomit trailing from his hand. The slight slope of the stone flooring beneath him slowly carried it away as the fog came crashing into his mind. It tried to protect him, to shelter him from the pain of the past. He had rejected the eldritch power within him and embraced the amber light. The worming tendrils were weak, far too weak in him for what they desired to do. The foggy blankness, the fuzzing within his head, it wanted to save him from this. As it had found him, as it would be again. The memories gone to him awoke, the pain fresh again. Old wounds gouged open, only to be salted and torn deeper. The raw agony of remembering what had been lost, only for the memory of loss to be taken. Then again to remember the pain of loss as it was long ago. His mind was jumbled and torn. Silently he wept in a place far from his own world. C66 Memories of Dead Things [Part 2 Beginning] In the foggy evening, Ren sat alone in the wood behind his childhood home, only his own shadow accompanying him. As the sun moved closer to the horizon, he sat alone still. The fog wrapped him in its cold and desolate arms. The stump of an old oak felt damp and weak under his hands. Lifting one hand, it was the first movement he had made in two hours. Sighing, he noticed the deep wrinkles in his skin. The dampness of the log had soaked his fingers. Standing slowly, he felt the same dampness on the bottom of his shirt and jeans. The sensation was uncomfortable, yet it was far from his mind. Stepping forward he looked down to the earth between him. Brushing a slab on stone with his fingers, he traced letters. Soon his fingers moved to play with the pedals of a flower. One, a true purple vibrant and lively even in the deathly fog. The second, a royal blue that stood true and brave even amongst the thick miasma of the world around it. A smile tried to touch his face, but only a tear could break through. It was then that he stood, a deep breath coming through his teeth. He exhaled heavily through his nose, trying to calm the raging storm in his heart. Pain fought against the knowledge that this was far from the fate they would have wanted for him. Regardless, sorrow triumphed over all other thoughts. Turning his back, he headed deeper into the woods surrounding the graves. The swirling mist only thickened as the sun dropped closer to the horizon. Within the dark, the echoes of the past only rang out harsher within his mind. Walking further into the deep shadows slowly growing, he was surrounded by eyes all around him. Whether they watched him with hunger of accusation he did not know. This mind swayed as hurtful memories came and went. It was not long before the eyes began to move around him. Lost in the thick mists, and growing shadows, the eyes began to come closer to him. From all sides, sets of orange glowing eyes closed in on him. They reminded him of the hounds within the forest, though that was all a dream, wasn¡¯t it? Or was this the wondering dream of a madman instead? The eyes circled him from the other side of the thick walls of mist. The shadows darkened as the sun fell rapidly into the horizon. Quickly, the set of orange-glowing eyes before him broke through the mist. It ran for him, a great black dog whose form was barely tangible. Opening a great black maw it moved to clamp down its great teeth around his head. Ren stood paralyzed as blackness swallowed his head. The great maw of the hound bit down on his head, his face consumed by the unending darkness within its mouth. A horrible pain thundered through his head as only blackness was left to him. Within the great darkness before him, his mind ached, and a pinprick of light shone in the distance. Ren begged for the pain in his skull to end, though it only grew as the tin pinprick of light came closer. As the light came closer, it became bright and ever-expanding. Soon it became the size of a lightbulb, then a headlight. Soon, his head was unbearable and he could only beg for death. The great light before him only grew fatter and far more swollen. It expanded ever onward and it came closer to him. As the light grew in luminosity and size, his head only ached onward. The mind-numbing thrumming within his head pounded with his heartbeat as the light collided into him. Opening his eyes, Ren stared into a fluorescent tube of light. A dull ache thrummed through the back of his head. Reaching up, his arm trail wires, feeling his aching skull bandages surrounding his head all around. He tried digging his fingers underneath the bandages in the haze of half-consciousness. A quick hand grasped his and spoke soft and quiet words to settle him. He did not know what they had said, but it almost sounded as though it came from a sing-song voice. It settled him, though a strange curiosity still had his mind. An odd numbness and euphoria had been clouding his mind. His vision was not entirely clear, and he struggled to see his surroundings. Only the fluorescent tubes were very obvious to him, the bed he was in, and the various wires hooked up to him.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it His eyes were again attracted to the light above him, as a memory of a dark dream clouded his mind. A memory of light clashed with the dark dream, Ren felt an odd dysphoria playing in his mind. I remembered, and this is just a memory. He started undaunted into the light, willing himself free of a dead memory, and his forgotten dream. - His eyes peeled open, the floor of a dwarven shower below him. Old memories tried to flood his mind, overwhelming him. With the willpower of an ascendant being, he crushed the memories into a small vault at the back of his mind. There would be time to unpack his memories when the time came, for now, this was the life he was living. Picking himself up, Ren moved back to the hot faucet of the shower. Covered in his bile, he cleaned himself of the past. It was time to move on, to settle old things. Becoming more than you once were, it was the only way to progress. Again clean, he moved to turn off the faucet mechanism within the dwarfs¡¯ barracks. It was a neat place, something that seemed common thus far with dwarves. Leaving the showers, Ren found himself walking naked out in front of three dwarven men and a woman. Not realizing what he was doing, he spoke. ¡°I need something to wear.¡± The realization struck him, he forgot the towel. The three dwarven men practically jumped before the tailor who had come to fashion his new clothes. Borrin called out to Ren with a hint of frustration. ¡°I don¡¯t know how you humans go about things, but we dwarves do not go around without clothes in front of our ladies!¡± Ren looked down at himself, redness entering his face. ¡°I apologize.¡± He turned to go get his towel and dry off, wrapping it around his waist. Quickly returning, Ren allowed the tailor to take his measurements. It only took a few minutes before she could begin creating a proper set of clothes, some without massive holes in them. Ren sat resting in the barracks in a separate room while the seamstress did her work. Allowing himself to relax, he refused to sleep. Fearing the same nightmares might plague his mind again, he fought off the urge to let himself drift off. While he relaxed the tailor readied a shirt made of tough material harvested from one of their subterranean plants. It was durable, and for those ascendant, the material would bend easily. It was akin to leather of sorts, though less tough, and slightly easier to move with. The material was woven and of a dark gray. Though a deal stiff, it was easy enough for a dexterous fighter to move within. Of an odd mixture of materials, she crafted long pants for him. They were of dyed black material, easier to move within though less durable than the shirt she had made. It was a relatively swift process, and Ren soon found himself properly clothed again. The seamstress promptly left, not wanting to talk with the human who showed up naked for her measurement taking. The white-bearded dwarf Noc spoke to Ren shortly after he finished dressing. The two other dwarves follow him. ¡°Now Ren, I do have a few questions for you. My hospitality is important to me, but there¡¯s something a lot more important here to that.¡± Ren¡¯s fear spiked as he looked into the eyes of the dwarf before him. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Noc cut him off. ¡°Now, lad, I need to know firstly how you learned to speak as a dwarf speaks. Not once have you spoken a human tongue. You speak with neither an accent nor a wisp of difficulty.¡± ¡°I use magic. I can understand and speak other languages through magic.¡± Noc raised a single eyebrow while the other two dwarves behind him glanced at one another. ¡°Well, that might not be impossible. So then, what about the eyes? Ren felt awkward now staring back at the dwarf. ¡°Again, it is magic. Magic has transformed my eyes to see better in bad conditions. Also, I can use these eyes to better understand the nature of what I look at.¡± The black lightless eyes of Ren looked back into Noc¡¯s ordinary brown eyes. Noc smiled, ¡°So you mean to say you can do a lot of special things with magic no one else ever achieves at your level of ascension? Things that would ordinarily be impossible until you reach the pinnacle of moral strength?¡± ¡°Yes. It is the truth.¡± Ren may have left out quite a lot of what had happened, but in essence he was not lying. It was through his own magic that he turned his eyes into the black voids they were now. Even if it was through an ability given to him by his patron. ¡°And the hand cannon you carry? It¡¯s fine craftsmanship, and yet there are details to it that made it quite odd.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°The fact that everything you carried, and even you stink of a God of the Void. An Eldritch God has aided you in your journey. It¡¯s quite obvious lad. Dwarves are master craftsmen, and not to mention our magic is nearly unparalleled in enchanting our craftsmanship. I could see easily with the enchantments on your weapons you¡¯ve been directly in touch with a Void God.¡± ¡°So, what does that mean then?¡± Ren stood, ready to run. He knew he stood no chance of escaping the dwarves, but he refused to be caged again. ¡°It means you have a lot of explaining to do. And I don¡¯t mean half-truths and fancy explanations. I mean cold hard truths and good reasons on why you would be void-touched.¡± C67 Questions Silence took hold of the barracks. Three dwarves and a human, all ready for what may happen next. The eldest of the dwarves, white-bearded Noc put his hand in position to grasp his weapon incase Ren decided to get violent. The two younger dwarves followed suit alongside their elder. Ren stood unmoving, unwavering before what was happening. Neither his hand shook from the anxiety of the situation, and neither did his mind break away from what he knew must happen next. He did not possess the power to fight these dwarves, nor did he have the strength to run away back into the wilderness infested with behemoths. Ren looked deep into the eyes of the eldest dwarf. ¡°I am from another world, I never asked to be here. In a way, I suppose I wished for it, but not this. I never wanted this. I just want to be free of what holds me down, seek out a life free from everything that¡¯s held me down for so long.¡± Noc moved to speak as a grimace took over his expression. ¡°I know what happens next, you¡¯ll lock me away, or try to kill me. It¡¯s not needed, I don¡¯t use the powers of the thing that brought me here. If I do, I¡¯ll die.¡± Noc took in a deep breath while eyebrows fell into a furrow over his eyes before he spoke. ¡°So you suppose we just let you go off, doing whatever warlock rituals you wish to bring upon the end of the world, eh?¡± ¡°I have no desire to appease that monster. I saw its body down in the Underdark, it tried to dominate me, take me over time and time again. It stole my memories and tried to make me its pawn.¡± ¡°I have ears to hear you, though how am I supposed to believe you?¡± ¡°My heart. When I ran over the western mountains, out of the human territories, I met orks-¡± Noc cut him off. ¡°Now don¡¯t tell me, you took in the amber?¡± ¡°That I did. Humanity had hunted me down, and so the orks were my only connection to society for a time. With my power I was tracked, they killed them all.¡± A wavering note entered Ren¡¯s voice. Noc¡¯s head tilted. ¡°Who killed all of what?¡± The worshippers of The Silver Goddess, Aethra. A paladin, he came from the sky like a meteor, he killed everything and everyone in the region. A golden aura came from him and turned everything into ash!¡± Redness came into Ren¡¯s face. ¡°He took away from me the only friend I had in this world. A human who was living in the Underdark for so long they had forgotten the stars.¡± Ren¡¯s teeth clenched as he remembered her face. ¡°Now there, that¡¯s a lot to unpack young lad. If you can confirm your story, and prove that you are cut off from that power, things can proceed much more kindly.¡± ¡°How am I supposed to prove anything to you?¡± ¡°Well, we can have a ritualist take a good look at you. Have you had a reading done before? It takes a part of your soul, the tiniest piece, magnifies it, and transforms it into legible information. If you will submit to this, and confirm what you¡¯ve said so far, we can have ale tonight without blood first.¡±This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Ren nodded, still standing his ground before the dwarves. ¡°If this was how things were to turn out, then why even clothe me and give me the chance to clean up?¡± The two dwarves behind Noc looked confused as he spoke. ¡°We are dwarves lad, you are a young human. We give everyone the common decency to be clothed and clean. No matter the criminal or crime, for the most part, you¡¯re not some damned elf.¡± Noc signaled to the youngest of the three to leave, presumably to get the ritualist spoke of. ¡°So even knowing you might have to kill me, you welcomed me in, told me of your people? What if I was an enemy who would flee and bring back allies?¡± ¡°There isn¡¯t much that could break into this mountain lad. Even that paladin you spoke of, anything short of a God, or one on the pinnacle before godhood. Only such a being at the true pinnacle of mortality could break through into this place. Dwarves don¡¯t live under fragile stone.¡± Ren nodded again. The dwarves were so confident even with his patron¡¯s help, it was impossible for someone of his strength to seige this place. Only if the Eldritch God itself attacked could it break into this stronghold. To see a hidden gem such as this before being quickly executed would be at least a small bit of reconciliation. Though, Ren would do everything in his power to avoid such a fate. It was unlikely, but perhaps these dwarves could aid him in what was to come. ¡°Do humans know you¡¯re down here?¡± Noc smiled. ¡°Of course not, when their Goddess ascended long ago humans took this world by storm. They¡¯re lucky that such a talented being was born to their race. If it was not for her, dwarves or elves would rule this world. It is rare for dwarves to seek such power as Godhood, but elves all strive for it. The bastard things spread across the worlds like colonies of insects.¡± ¡°If dwarves, elves, and orks are all descended from the Gods who shaped them, then why are humans like we are?¡± ¡°Well, what do you mean? Everything was once human, all the races were.¡± Noc¡¯s eyebrows furrowed. ¡°Seeing as a Void God rules your world, it is odd you are not all devilish fiends mutated and turned into monsters to spread across into other worlds to devour them.¡± ¡°Is that what happens when an Eldritch God takes over a world?¡± Ren¡¯s voice was quiet. ¡°Well yes, if you were sent here by your eldritch patron, that means all humans in your world are marked by their God. Though it has not reformed them yet, it has not changed them. That is odd to say the least.¡± ¡°My world spoke of many Gods, some societies worshipped one, and another society another. There were several large belief systems who had faith in one God or another, but none told of what I saw.¡± Noc¡¯s expression dropped. ¡°You mean to say¡­ you looked upon the face of what sent you here? You saw what was within the void when you came here?¡± ¡°Yes, but it''s like trying to remember something that happened as a child. It''s unclear and fuzzy, its like I know it happened, but my mind could not understand what it saw.¡± ¡°There is something terribly odd about your situation. I am both excited and terrified to see what our ritualist may find. What you say, I believe you, but it''s impossible. You cannot look at a being such as that. It would shatter your mind, ruin you. Only a true God can look into such a face and survive. The mere existence of such beings destabilizes and destroys worlds. It doesn¡¯t make sense how you can be a normal human, let alone look into the face of an Eldritch one.¡± ¡°In full honesty, can you tell me what they are? It¡¯s dead, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Gods cannot die.¡± Noc¡¯s face was stern. ¡°Not truly as you and I die. When killed, their body dies, but their soul is eternal. It can either be taken into the being of another God to strengthen it, or it can roam free as a faint ghost who can barely touch the world. Such Gods roam the world freely until they are taken in by a living God, or fade away from the world slowly losing themselves. Though there is another option, one can go into the void.¡± ¡°A Void God?¡± Ren asked. ¡°Yes. One whose soul enters the rift between worlds. Where space and time no longer exists, they can rule there. Weaker Gods that have fled into the void act as sustenance for those greater dead Gods. In the void, it is only the willpower and soul that matters. There, they can devour what other Void Gods are weaker than them and become something strange, something wrong.¡± C68 Dwarven Ritualism Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. C69 Chiefs Noc approached the ritual circle, the ritualist brought forth a folded sheet of paper and handed it to him. With nods, Noc and Borrin acknowledged their fellow dwarf as he exited the barracks. Unfolding the paper, Noc quickly scanned it before looking up at Ren. ¡°We are to take you before the thirteen clan chiefs.¡± Noc moved to take the statue now emanating an aura that identified it as Ren¡¯s. Ren stood in his new clothing, finally able to feel them out. They were well-fitted and comfortable, though it did nothing for the anxiety playing at the back of his mind. Again he was to be caged, again he was to be bound until death came for him. It was not as if they were wrong for doing so, the cleric had every right to be afraid of him. The dwarves too, for if he so decided, he could embrace his patron and become a plague on the world. With time he might even be able to bring the Void God Alkyri back into the physical realm. These people had no way of knowing his truth, how he hated the dead God. They couldn¡¯t know how much he resented it for taking away the memories of those he lost, the memories that drove him mad at times. Regardless of how painful it was to remember, he wanted to. Ren followed Noc as he turned to leave the barracks. Borrin came into stride behind Ren, a good precaution. They knew he was something that could spell doom to the world, something like a bomb that could wipe out life across the world. If a bomb was found before it was loaded with a devastating payload, it could be safely defused. For Ren to be ¡®defused¡¯ in this situation though, it may mean something worse than death. Exiting the barracks, Ren felt the coolness of the great undermountain. The biome was fresh and sweet, for a people who put great value in metalwork and craftsmanship, one might expect toxic fumes to come up from great workshops, and the sounds of clanking steel to be heard all over. Here though, it was serene and pristine. Ren felt himself lulled by the beauty of the undermountain, it was beautiful and peaceful. It was only as they cascaded down spiraling stairs that things began to feel serious again. A monotonous climb led down into a great stone hallway, though this hallway was vertical. Down the spiraling stairs they came to a four-way segmented hall. Each opening into the nest hall was wide enough for several protomimus¡¯ girths to fit through. In front of them, a hallway led miles long, endlessly bustling with men moving weapons and armor, craftsmen and their works. A second hall to their left held a series of homes, most were quite similar, though small changes here and there represented a great diversity in occupying families. Banners, each unique though some with great similarities to others marked the various doors. Two of the homes side by side, closest to the entrance into the spiral staircase hall, had banners of arms wielding axes. They were the only two homes to possess the same banner. The rightward hall led into an area where food and plants were being tended and processed. Great ovens and stoves prepared enough food to feed an army. To feed a society of dwarves, there had to be a hundred great dining halls just like this. To the rear of where they had come down the great stairs, men fought and trained. The area was open and wide. The hall expanded nearly a mile wide, slowly tapering wider and wider as it expanded into the distance. Past the large buildings, Ren could not see how wide the hall became, though he estimated it must have become miles wide. Noc moved swiftly towards this hall, the party rapidly moving into the great hall of swords and axes. It took long minutes to travel through this great hall, it was full of training men and craftsmen presenting items to those who had yet to fully equip themselves in fine dwarven attire. The weapons and armor were beautiful masterworks, even those given to those who seemed to be only novices. The youngest of the dwarven men fighting here was still heavily bearded and thick-set. Ren struggled to tell who was truly young, and their race all looked like older men in his eyes.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. As they passed through the training grounds, one of several large buildings before them came alive. Two dozen guards came forth in moments and surrounded its entrance. Amongst them an elderly man in a robe. At his waist hung a belt without tools, but various gems and materials. Far different from the material and tools of the ritualist, the man only possessed gems, stones, and powders. The fact that these men were here for him did not pass over Ren¡¯s head. They were ready in case he decided to attack or to run. The elderly robes man rubbed a finger along a tube at his belt. Pulling it forth a golden dust sprinkled into the palm of his hand. He held it tight as Ren approached, while another hand rested on a warmly colored and roughly cut gemstone. The soldiers flanked Ren as he was led by Noc. The Elderly dwarf in robes came into step before Noc, leading the ground into a great entryway. Great stone and silver worked doors swung open by the work of four men heavily armored. A great expanding room opened up before them, it was wide enough for hundreds of men, and tall enough that if it had been made with additional floors, ten more rooms just as wide could have been made with room to spare. It was with great discomfort that Ren was led before a long dining table. Thirteen dwarves sat along it, each with a great mug and plate of food. A single small table sat before them, one furnished well, and with enough food for several humans. Another large mug sat next to the fine foods. Noc pulled forth the chair at the table, beckoning Ren to sit. He did so, the elderly robbed dwarf standing to his left, while Noc stood to his right. The central dwarf at the table of thirteen spoke up. His beard was thickly braided with beads and rings of fine silver. He was tall for a dwarf, his head one of the highest amongst those sitting. His hair was short, his beard long, both a deep auburn speckled with gray and white. ¡°I sit before you, Haldrin Son of Halbrin, chief of the Mithril¡¯s Home. You have been called before us, we have been told you are a Gate-Keeper, one from another world. We have also been told, you have been sent by a dead God, one of the void.¡± A deafening silence rang out as the echoes of Haldrin¡¯s voice ceased reverberating through the great openness above them. Ren stared at the dwarves before him, not knowing what to say. Noc stood tall and spoke. ¡°Such accusations have been shown true, his likeness has been cast into stone.¡± Showing the stone statue of Ren, the thirteen looked on with unwavering eyes. ¡°And then,¡± Spoke Haldrin. ¡°What may he say in defense of himself?¡± Ren looked hesitantly at the robed dwarf who tossed the golden dusk into the air above Ren. Before he could speak, the dwarf spoke. ¡°By my power, speak no untruth.¡± A magical force ceased Ren, his eldritch tongue attempted to fight back against the magic being cast onto him. Ren held it back, allowing his power to recede as the golden flakes hung above Ren like stars in the night. ¡°Use your magic to force me to tell the truth, it will only help me in this.¡± Ren felt hope as the dwarves would be forced to believe him if they used magic like this on him. The robed dwarf lit up the golden flakes as Ren¡¯s eldritch tongue felt like a whirlwind inside of him, going mad. The skill was far too weak to be of any help even if he wanted to lie. Ren looked into the eyes of the dwarves before him. ¡°I am Ren, of Earth. I knew nothing of the worlds beyond my own¡­¡± Ren spoke of his tale, telling only the truth, for the magic that bound him only allowed him to do so. Every detail, every accident and mishap, every victory and new skill learned. He spoke of it all, and how he desired only to live and to be free. How his memories were stripped from him, and how he wished to kill the thing he saw inside the void between worlds. He told of the amber heart of the orks, and how because of him the entire clan was slain by a single man. Ren spoke of how he wanted to kill the man who had killed every man woman and child among the orks. Ren spoke most of all about Cella. The only friend, the only ally he had made in this world. Even though her people had been slain, even though she was alone in the world, she had been by his side loyal and strong. He was enraged at times, and at other times he struggled through tears as he remembered it over and over again.