《Bloodlines Online》 Chapter 1: A New Game. ''Boring.'' While scrolling endlessly through videos on his break, a teenager was waiting for the time to end. As he was scrolling through the videos his screen was taken by another advertisement. A beautiful woman in a luxurious dress appearing on the screen began to speak with the same script as always, a script he heard so much he could recite it in his sleep. "Bloodlines Online! Thetest arrival of the vrmmorpg world!" "Take part in the newest online experience as you take part in the ultimate way to experience your true self." The screen cuts to ck as always before revealing the same woman in a street that looks closer to an old European vige. The woman as always turns to face the camera and is now as an elf wearing a skimpy dress. The teenager groans at the sight, cringing over the tant attempt at sexual marketing. "Bloodlines Online will allow you to be what you truly desire, neverfortable as a human? Be a beautiful elf or a majestic beastfolk!" The screen began to scroll through a number of races from humans to elves to dwarves and even non human like beastfolk, orcs and even demons. "Just remember everyone, unlike most vr games you can be your true self in this one. We know how some countries feel about surgery so this game will allow it!" The scene then shows a rtively unattractive man before the screen fades to ck, when reappearing that same man now appeared as a savage orc. Another scene showing a skinny girl before the faded screen reveals a regal male lion beastkin with a flowing mane. "Now obviously we cannot allow people to take advantage of such things to make themselves more appealing in the game so when you register the game would scan your thoughts as all normal registration procedures do, the game will set your characters form to be that of your deepest thoughts!" Again the young man cringed as every now and again he saw the rants about this feature online from people who had their brains rotted by the political debates. "Now thats obviously not the only unique thing about bloodlines online!" "The name itself refers to a very amazing feature that our devs took years to develop. The bloodline feature!" "When registering for the game you will obviously have your dna taken as part of the procedure to ensure that your ount is linked directly to you rather than being device based. When this is done your physical specifications as well as your gic code will be matched with the game!" "When matched with the game the gic code as well as your specifications will be used to match you with a bloodline that you would have had if you had actually been born inside of it!" She then began to levitate in ce woth her hair blowing in the wind. "My bloodline for example when taken as an elven race was only simple and i got the affinity for wind magic but you can get much more!" The screen then fades again before showing many scenes of glorious battle from overhead or the side as if spectating the chaos and finally to end it off the title: "Bloodlines Online!" Sighing again he stood up to return to work. As much as he hated that lowestmon denominator crap that modern game advertisers used he did find the game interesting which is why he bought it. Once his shift was over her nned to go home and try it out since the release would be forter that day. As he returned to the register to continue his shift he saw one of the patrons suddenly lean back in their seat closing their eyes. The restaurant he worked in might not be the most expensive but it was still seen as a ssy establishment so part of his job description was to watch for vagrants and... worse. He approached the man who seemed to be sleeping and put on his best customer service smile before cing a gentle hand on the mans shoulder. "Sir are you alright?" Chapter 2: A New Life. Waking up from his stupor and jumping in the confusion, Alexander began to look around and attempt to figure out where he was. As he was trying to figure out what was going on he looked the young man in the eye, he appeared to be in histe teens either approaching graduation or already past it. Looking down at the nametag he read it out, "Ezekiel... where am i? Why am I in a restaurant?" Alexander''s mind was smothered by the fog of confusion as thest memory he had was from being burned alive by a dragon. "What kind of crazy illusion is this?...." The young worker seemed to be unshakeable in his customer service but Alexander had seen the twitching of his eye. "Sir you are in the Chateau, you do not remember your reservation?" After hearing this Alexander finally began to remember a few things. This was a restaurant he hadnt seen in five years... how was he back here? He checked his pocket and eventually found his phone which held a date he didn''t expect. 2030. He had somehow gone back five years... or he was in an borate illusion. When he saw this he stood up and thanked the young worker before tipping him very well, or at least he hoped a fifty dor tip was a lot for this restaurant, his memory of it was hazy after all. As he was leaving he immediately went online and began purchasing a few key items. A pod for the brand new Bloodlines online, a years worth of rations and hired a maid. He may not know if this was an illusion or time travel but he hated to be caught unprepared so he would treat this as if he were back in thest all over again. While working on his ns for the future he began to write about every detail he could remember to keep track of future events. 1. Do not evolve his race until he had achieved at least thirty points into strength and agility. 2. When the first yer achieves the spell weaver title he must seek out a low level dungeon. 3. When the first yer evolves a unique race he must exit the starter vige for the best start. 4. Find the fallens tomb in mt. Fuha as quickly as possible. 5. Be the first to obtain max level flight in every rank of the skill. With this starting n he would have the ultimate path to sess, he may even beat the kingyer. Heughs with a dark heart knowing that even with all of the achievements and growth based gear he may never beat that devil assassin. As the man is walking away Ezekiel watches with interest to figure out what kind of second or even third generation rich guy he might have been to casually tip a fifty. Eventually he gives up and returns to his job. ~ After finishing his shift ezekiel gathered his bag and with a polite goodbye to his coworkers, left the restaurant to wait outside. After a few minutes a car rolled to a stop in front of him which ezekiel casually entered. "So sweetheart how was the shift?" A woman with curly brown hair and blue eyes, the same blue eyes he saw in the mirror every day, turned to ask him. "It was fine mom, the game i bought ising online soon remember? Lets get home so we can have dinner." He did not speak with any disrespect but his mother still pouted before ruffling his ck hair. "Ok mister. At least you still love momma enough to have dinner with me before you go y that little videogame of yours." The yful argument continued as they drove home. After cleaning up and returning to the dining room to eat dinner his mother began to pester him about work again. "Ok zeke now tell me how work was." She sat there looking him hard in the eye and he knew he couldn''t just give the vague answers he had been giving. "Nothing special except for some weird guy i thought was bumming a booth for something that i had to check over. He was just asleep though." Sighing sadly she rests her head on her hand and gazes into the air at nothing. "I wish i could give that pretentious little brat a talking to, he shouldnt treat people so poorly." "Mom he''s your brother, he also has a business that relies on its public image." "Exactly! Assuming that someone is a bum or a druggy just because of some subjective feeling is going to drive customers away!" Ezekiel nodded but he knew that if he said much more she might go get into another argument with his uncle. "Oh zekie, thedy that delivered your game pod thingy told me that you need to read the manual at some point since there''s a few health and safety details for new users." After telling him this she took the empty tes and started shooing him away so he could go enjoy his game. He gave her a hug before heading to his room where the pod was installed. As he undressed and followed the manuals instructions on the dive suit he eventually settled into the pod. As the lid slid shut from either side he couldnt help but think of a hotel elevator but the faint reflection in the lid surprised him because of what he saw. Tubes were sliding out of the pod walls and connecting to his suit all across the body until he was reminded of a certainic book viin... especially because of the weird connectors all across the head of the suit. The lid went dark and soon he felt his mind slipping into artificial sleep until he saw nothing but a timer counting down. 00:03 00:02 00:01 Wee to Bloodlines Online Chapter 3: Character Creation The countdown vanished from his view as the entire empty space slowly filled with a digitally constructed field. The sky and ground being created pixel by pixel until they slowly became sharper before finally reaching hyper realism. A small mote of light began to form a few feet in front of him until a little fairy creature appeared but it looked more like an ai''s digital representation of a person with wings made of pixted code. "Wee yer, i am yourpanion system and i will guide you in the process of making your character. First things first let us scan you as part of your registration." He knew from the trailers what to expect but there was actually nothing visual to see what was happening. "Scanplete. User: Ezekiel(male) has been registered. Please select a race, do note that every race can use a majority of the sses but many races have natural aptitude for certain sses." A pannel appeared before him with the names of the various races, he selected the first one which was human and a description appeared as well as a physical representation like a 3d model of his human self appeared before him. "Humans: Natural affinity- none Racial trait- quick learning (increase skill leveling speed by 10%) Base lifespan- ~100 years Stat bonus on level up- none, 10 free stat points. The mostmon race in the world and with such a widespread race the potential has been diluted severely but with enough effort humans can be natural prodigies." He shook his head and seemed uninterested. This was a fantasy game and if he was going to y a fantasy game why would he y the most mundane race? Scrolling through the other races on the list he mainly saw what the game referred to as species, essentially default of the race. The exact list was: human, elf, dwarf, beastfolk, giants, tauren, goblinoid, seafolk, fey, lizardfolk, fiends and celestials. Certain races were grey though and would not respond to his selection. "Hey uh... why cant i see some of these?" "Query: why are some species unselectable. Answer: your physical and psychological analysis indicates that these races would not function with the yer." "The species of: tauren, beastfolk, giant, dwarf and lizardfolk are species that if the yer would select would have nopatible bloodlines." "Oh... uh i see." He returned to looking at the list of what he could choose from and began to notice amon theme. The fey, elf, seafolk, fiend and celestial species were all magically inclined based on their description while the goblinoid, human, elf and fey were all agile races. With this in mind he realized that the game was pushing him towards a few categories for ystyle by default which he was mildly annoyed by but he did seem interested since the game apparently used his actual biology and psychology to make these decisions. Eventually after looking at it for quite some time he was down to two potential choices. "Fey: Natural affinity- life Racial trait- life weaver (inherent 10% life affinity) Base lifespan- ~1500 years Stat bonus on level up- +1 agility, +2 wisdom, +2 intelligence, 5 free stat points." The systems exnation of the fey was interesting but it wouldn''t really give him much more information, also starting with its magical affinity seemed interesting. As he thought about it he realized that basically every race that had any magical inclinations began with an elemental affinity as their racial trait. He remembered how the female actress in the trailer always said that a bloodline that gave a free affinity was a low tier one so he questioned if it was better than something like increased skill leveling speed. Eventually he just looked at the infernal race and quit overthinking everything. "Infernal: Natural affinity- fire Racial trait- hellborn (inherent 10% fire affinity) Base lifespan- ~500 years Stat bonus on level up- +4 wisdom +1 intelligence, 5 free stat points." "Hey ai whats the difference between wisdom and intelligence?" "Query: rification on statistics; wisdom and intelligence. Answer: intelligence increases magical damage and increases skill leveling speed. Wisdom increases spell casting proficiency and spellprehension speed." Frowning at the response he noticed that the infernal leaned very heavily into magic. The more he thought about it the more he started to get curious about magic since that was always the most fantastical aspect of the fantasy genre and if he were to select the infernal race he could learn magic more easily than yers who did not choose it. He could also supplement his lower intelligence boost using his free stat points. "I choose the infernal!" After selecting his species he heard a ding noise before he saw his body changing in that same pixted way as the area had appeared in. Before long he had the outline of a slender body with skin that had a slight red hue and a tail swaying around his feet. "Detection and assignment of bloodline beginning." After a few seconds the little ai made another noise. "Bloodlinepatibility detected, seeking authorization from central authority." After another second or two the ai shed green. "Authorization of bloodline confirmed. Applying bloodline to yer avatar." What happened next was a little surprising as the previously normal body with a red hue was now taking on certain things that heavily resembled ck tattoos. "Bloodline: Child Of The Abyss. (Inherent 10% shadow affinity.)" After seeing the result he just groaned in defeat. "Ohe on! Elemental affinity bloodlines are low tier! God my luck is bad." While Ezekiel was making the finishing touches of his character another person was already done with theirs. "Alright then, im ready to get this new life going straight to the top!" A man with golden hair and majestic white wings soon dove off the edge of a cliff into the sky below where he could see the ground far beneath these floating mountains. Alexander had not chosen the celestial in his original life but shockingly his bloodline he had before was still possible to obtain with it. "Regeneration- recover 1% of max health and stamina every 10 seconds." This bloodline had made him a solo powerhouse in his past life as an orc but now he was headed on the path of the celestial. He knew that if he wanted to evolve his cherub race to the hidden archon race he would have to get his physical stats to the level he desired before it would even show up in his evolution tab. He just had to boost his stats to that point before level 10. He continued flying for as long as he possibly could to gain the title he desired. Where the others tried to practice their flight for as long as possible Alexander instead burned his stamina dry every time to make his speed as fast as he could. In the past it was discovered that the most efficient way to level up flight was to sacrifice your stamina and fly as quickly as possible. After a few hours of flying over and over at maximum speed his flight skill leveled up. Celestial flight- 1 -> 2 This was going to be a long day. Chapter 4: Path To Power It did not take long for the yers of Bloodlines Online to realize that leveling up would not be easy. Not only was skill progression slow and game resources finite but the early game creatures for leveling were not the simple weak beasts. In every starting city the first creature encountered was the slime. As in most games the slime is one of the weakest creatures that can be found but unlike most games the slimes of Bloodlines were actually not easy to kill. Blunt force did not harm them much, piercing attacks did very little, shing attacks did cause severe harm but only because it removed chunks of their body on lucky angles. Magic also did not do much as mages couldn''t even apply their elemental damage until they actually reached a certain prerequisite the game would not reveal. It was not until a lucky yer who was streaming their gamey actually managed to one shot a slime using their basic spear did anyone make progress. When attacking the slimes most people immediately assumed these creatures were not the simple fantasy novel slime with a core you could aim to break to kill the creaturw as no core was visible. That is.... until a random elven yer struck the slime in a strange angle, practically missing the thing, did people learn that these slimes actually did have cores. Translucent cores full of fluid and a ss like stone, wrapped in strange tendrils like a jellyfish. yers quickly spread the word and soon everyone was striking the slimes like well practiced yers as this core was always at the same ce in the body. Some yers when turning the cores in for bounties would be lucky enough to learn that they were actually the central nervous system of the slime and each time they carved a chunk off they would only do significant damage because they hit these tendrils. yers in the starter viges quickly got curious about exploring the world though and many made frightening discoveries. The starter viges were peaceful only because of barriers made around them that kept anything above lv5 out. After more exploration many yers even began to post on forums about the number of elderly and young in the viges. Investigating this fact lead yers to learn that the viges were actually made as safe havens for the young and the retired, safe havens sustained by the ying of slimes to provide cores for the mana to fuel the barrier. Another discovery that quickly caught the attention of yers was the sight of a slime absorbing another slime. This slime left behind a puddle but grew slightly and after enough if these absorptions... grew to lv. 2. The slimes could grow stronger which was interesting for yers but most did not actually care about it since it simply meant more xp. While the entire yerbase was climbing theter of experience... someone else took a different path. ~ Ezekiel when entering the game after his character creation was done decided to explore the vige a bit and while he was wandering around he found something that seemed to be ignored by most yers. Arge area with two distinct buildings that each contained a sandpit with dummies for practice. Approaching out of curiosity he was greated by a man in armor. "Hello young man, you seem to be the only otherworlder in our little vige that has shown interest in the schools." Ezekiel simply nodded and waited for an exnation attempting to be polite by not interrupting. "Well on the left we have the martial school where you can learn to channel your mana into your skills to use them to their full potential, we also teach the art of using weapons." Ezekiel was surprised now that he couldn''t see any yers training... it seemed pretty important. "On the right you will see the magical school where you learn to harness your mana for casting spells." "May i enter the magic school? Im a mage." Quickly speaking up now that he has heard this he did obviously interrupt the man which made him feel rude at first before the manughed. "Ah if only all aspiring, young mages were so excited to practice with their mana. Many call it boring." He hands Ezekiel a badge from a bag and gives the young man a small salute. "Study hard young mage and surpass your peers." Ezekiel entered the magical school with a nig smile already very excited to begin practicing. Chapter 5: Mana Skills Observing the young npcs was Ezekiel. He was sitting down and waiting for the teacher to get to his turn. He mainly watched as the teacher took each student''s hand before doing.... something? The teacher wrapped both hands around a students hand one by one. After the moment of their hand being held they were instructed to meditate before he moved on. By the time it was Ezekiel''s turn he held out his hand for the teacher. Once it was taken he closed his eyes as each student had done, after a second he felt a strange thing enter his hand. It was nothing physical and with themon knowledge of fantasy worlds he assumed this was mana. It was a pleasant, chilly sensation moving through his body. After the teacher instructed him and moved on he sat down in the correct position to meditate, specifically on that feeling. By learning what mana actually felt like he was able to try to tune his senses to find mana again but after some time he just... couldnt sense anything in his body. He tried to extend that same sense to his feel for the chill on his skin based on a hunch. He ignored every single thing aside from the feeling on his skin until he finally felt a slight chill. The more he followed that chill, the more he felt it across his body until he could truly feel the mana in the air. ~~~~~~~~~~ Skill Aquired: Mana Sense lv1. (Novice) Sense the mana within the air. Range: 1 meter. ~~~~~~~~~~ He ignored the notification sound but after it happened he could feel the same chill around him. Small specks of the mana almost like little motes of blue light. He opened his eyes and smiled until he saw that he was thest student, with the original teacher observing him. "You may want to head to the next step, you took nearly an hour to get it." The teacher shook his head but still could only feel bad. ''This boy... the otherworlders seem to have ack of talent for mana if it takes so long to just learn mana sense.'' ~ "Your next task for learning to use magic properly is to manipte mana." "The maniption of mana is a critical skill for a mage as every single one of your spells will be built upon it, the systems base spells can only take you so far." The first step of manipting mana was to imagine the mana pooling towards your hands. Mana could be manipted through other methods but using your hands to focus your thoughts was more natural for humanoids. After some time trying to make the small motes of mana coalesce between his hands he finally pulled it off. Between his palms was a little blue ball of light the size of a pea, it wasnt much but it was there. ~~~~~~~~~~ Skill Aquired: Mana Control lv1. (Novice) Reduces the consumption of mana for all skills by 1% ~~~~~~~~~~ One percent, it may seem like nothing now but reducing a spells cost by even a single point is still an advantage! Plus he was having fun ying with mana like this. ~ "Now students you must know that sensing mana and manipting it are only the first step in your path to be a proper made." "Before you can ever be considered a proper mage you must be able to cultivate your mana." "Cultivating your mana wont make you inherently better but it does make your potential as a mage better, why?" A student raised her hand and spoke up, "cultivating mana means our mana pool is bigger sir." Apparently without mana sense or mana maniption it was practically impossible to cultivate your mana pool. What made the skill so important wasnt just arger mana pool but it was also the natural absorption of ambient mana. This was a shock for Ezekiel because as far as he knew every fantasy world be it television, videogame or novel had a natural ability to regenerate mana. In this game the natural mana regen was obtained through skills that were taught to the yer. With this knowledge he was determined to cultivate as far as he possibly could to make his mana limitless! ~ In another country within the game world a blonde man was resting after a hard battle. His stamina and health were incredibly low but thebined effects of his recuperation skill and his regeneration bloodline trait made him very good at returning to fights. ~~~~~~~~~~ Recuperation lv5. (Novice) Stamina regeneration is increased by 2.5% Stamina regenerationg out ofbat increases to 5%. ~~~~~~~~~~ Alexander knew that if he did not level up quickly he would be left behind by mages who eventually learned about mana skills. The destructive potential of a mage was beyond what a martial ss could achieve even if skilled martials could defeat mages easily. He had a sh of a memory when he took part in a dungeon raid with a yer he didnt remember the name of, all he remembered was the spell he used to wipe the boss out in a single moment. Wings made of ck fire that split into pieces, a rain of ming shards of ck ss that pierced the giant boss like paper. The spell on its own was low damage and given the useage seemed more like a way to wipe outrge numbers of enemies using damage over time.... but then the boss turned to dust. It was the first time he had been genuinely afraid of a yer after he met the King yer and he would never forget those ck marks or those burning red eyes. This mage? This mage was something else entirely. Chapter 6: Path Of The Martial Alexander had spent the first few hours of his gaming session to gain skills that he knew would be necessary. Because of his past life he knew how to obtain these skills already and even knew the most efficient way to level them up. This is why he was not only leveling up his character but also leveling up his attacking skills. At this time he was actually fighting a creature in the starting area, he had long since reached the level where the golden slimes were not giving him any experience points but he knew a secret. ~~~~~~~~~~ yer has in over one thousand creatures. Title Aquired: Mass Hunter (novice) For every one thousand lives taken the holder of this title will deal an additional 1% damage to targets. ~~~~~~~~~~ This skill may seem small but it could grow infinitely and if he killed more powerful creatures it could also go up in tier. In his past life he had been farming boss monsters as often as possible as he had already brought the tier to apprentice by ying one thousand elite monsters. He also knew that if he went as far as to hunt one thousand individual types they would also provide unique titles. He had never heard of a title for slimes since they were the weakest creature in the game but he would not ignore the slimes as he had obtained lv5 in his ss. ~~~~~~~~~~ Thanatos Warrior lv5. (Novice) Affinity: light 10% Strength: 25 Vitality: 11 Agility: 14 Wisdom: 5 Intelligence: 9 Bloodline: 1% regeneration Titles: Mass Hunter (N), Fly High (M) Skills: Recuperation (N), sh (N), Stab (N), Sprinter (N), Endurance (N), Celestial Flight, lv10 (M) ~~~~~~~~~~ Alexander took his time examining his stats and smiled before getting back up. ''Well time to get to farming... the wolves are in the next area but i may skip them entirely to go for the boars.'' He got his de ready and exited the barrier. Outside of the barrier were yers returning from hunting wolves and some seemed sevrely injure while others looked like they were simply tired. He remembered what that was like in his original start but now he would be going far beyond them. Alexander took a moment to stop and go after an entirely different target. Normally slimes can range from lv 1 to lv 3 but wolves started at lv 3 and could asionally be found at lv 5. He was able to find a lv 4 wolf which he slowly approached from behind. He kept his body downwind from the wold as much as possible before lunging to strike the beast with a stab. He struck with great uracy and power on the back of the wolf''s neck. -30 damage The strike was good and took away roughly a fifth of the wolf''s hp. After a few more strikes he was fairly satisfied with the result but the amount of experience was disappointing. In Bloodlines Online if you were to fight an enemy of a level under your own you recieved a penalty to the experience gained per level above the target. For each level the yer was above their prey they lost 10% of the experience so he at least got 90% of the reward. What Alexander wanted though was higher level prey as the same rule applied in reverse, the boars would naturally start at lv 5 and could be found as high as lv 7 which made them more profitable. Alexander was even tempted to try his luck in the next area to battle the bears, bears would range from lv 7 to lv 9 meaning not only would the base experience reward be better but it would be increased by 20-40%. Before attacking the bears he wanted to see if he could handle the boars at his current level though. ~ Entering the deeper forest region Alexander was alert for any sign of a creature as the boars were known for charging unsuspecting yers. Alexander knew that he had to eventually return to town and start taking quests but he wanted to at least reach lv 10 before that. In Bloodlines Online quests would asionally have gear as a reward but what many yers would take time to learn was the fact that if you reached the maximum level of a region then the gear obtained through quests would also be maximum level. The quest for ying wolves could give the yer a set of gear that increased agility by a small amount. In the game everything had a tier based on quality, for gear the tiers were: Iron Bronze Silver Gold Mythril Adamantine Diamond The basic gear obtained from the quest by ying wolves would be iron tier but ifpleted at lv10 the tier would be bronze instead. What decided an items tier was only known to the system but yers figured out some of it at least. The iron tier simply increased stats while the bronze tier increased both agility and strength with a set bonus for more agility. To bring his race to the special evolution he desired would require his base stats to reach a certain amount but more stats was always helpful. While lost in thought he finally found a boar... at lv5. Chapter 7: Growing Mana After taking time to learn from the npcs to be capable of using skills the way they could Ezekiel left to find a quiet area to meditate. He wanted to make his mana cultivation soar before he began his path as a yer, the first step was the expand his mana sense. Feeling the mana in the area he looked for a ce with higher density as it would make his absorption faster if he had more to us. Right at the edge of the city he found a tree that had a very healthy amount of mana surrounding it so he sat down to absorb it. He had already gained the skill with the help of his teacher but now he wanted to go further. ~~~~~~~~~~ Mana Core lv1 (N) Increases base mana pool by 1%. Naturally regenerate .5% mana per second both in and out ofbat. (Passive) Naturally regenerate 1% mana per second out ofbat. (Active) ~~~~~~~~~~ Inside of his body Ezekiel could sense that a small spectral ball of mana had been condensed but it was barely the side of a grain of rice. When examining the little ball he could sense that it was starting to condense mana into a kind of vapor inside of it but he had to help it grow further. So he began to cultivate his mana. Minutes turned to an hour then multiple hours and then half a day, the game''s time dtion was set at 1-5 meaning every hour in the real world was five in the game but spending so many hours just to cultivate would shock yers. Ezekiel truly did not care about leveling up currently as he brought his mana core skill higher and higher until he felt a strange sensation. His body felt as if the amount of mana was to much. He had read the novels before and even yed a few of the games from the chinese cultivation genre and he had a suspicion about what his next step should be. Trusting his gut he took his mana maniption to push at the core in his body. He felt it shrinking down, condensing. He saw through his mana sense as the orb of mana shrunk bit by bit until he felt a sharp pain inside of his chest where the orb itself was. Looking carefully he saw that the orb was bulging unevenly and when the orb bulged in other ces he felt severe pain making him lose his grip on the skills. For a second there he panicked but once he let go the pain was gone. The he could only try again but being more careful this time. This time he was very slow to ensure he evenly covered the core in his mana control before beginning topress it. The core reached a stage the same as before where it began to fight back but this time it only pushed against his mana control as it had no gaps to push itself out of. With this new discovery he tried to push even harder andpress his mana down to the smallest point he could. As hepressed it further and further he eventually got it down to such a small space that it actually resembled the same grain of rice size as before but with liquid mana. ~~~~~~~~~~ Congrattions! Skill: Mana Core lv10 (Novice) has increased in tier! Mana Core lv10 (Novice) -> Mana Core lv1 (Apprentice) Increases base mana pool by 10%. Naturally regenerate 1.5% mana per second both in and out ofbat. (Passive) Naturally regenerate 3% mana per second out ofbat. (Active) ~~~~~~~~~~ This was a new tier and with it came improvements. Previously when he leveled up his mana core skill the amount of bonus mana he had would go up by one percent until it actually maxed out at ten percent. The mana regen aspect of the skill also only went up by point one percent every level until it maxed out at one point five percent regen with the active version doubling to three percent. Ezekiel was genuinely curious to see what his new stat growth looked like for this skill but it would have to wait. He had other skills to practice. Chapter 8: Spell Practice After his efforts with increasing his mana pool Ezekiel felt it was finally time to start practicing his magic without anything else. The most basic form of a spell is the orb and ording to the system when he chose his ss, he could improve spells just like skills. Unlike skills however, spells could have multiple paths to choose from. With the orb as the most basic form of magic it had mediocre damage and statistics but what it did have was the potential to be monstrous. Realizing that he could not simply cast his spells randomly in the streets he returned to the practice range of the training hall where everyone was taught. He took a position behind a line on the cobble path and began to cast, starting with the basic spell obtained through the system. ~~~~~~~~~~ Spell: Mana Orb lv1 (N) Deal 100% of intelligence as magical damage with moderate range and speed. ~~~~~~~~~~ Since he had not leveled up he still had the base stats of a newly made character which were sadly five points in every stat. He cast the spell aiming at the target, his hand held out as if he were firing the spell from his palm. To his great shock and dismay he actually missed the target by an entire foot! He groaned loudly in frustration before attempting to adjust his aim... and missingpletely again. Ezekiel could not understand what he was doing wrong so the next time he did so he actually chose to use his mana sense to observe how the mana flows through him. He fired the spell out and missed for a third time but now he saw what was happening when he used the spell. If he had to describe what he saw it would be like using a fan to blow a ball at a target. Because his hand had more surface area the mana would actually flow out like the winds of a fan, no direction and only used as a way to force something. He tried to make his spell flow properly but again it would just fire out randomly with the mana leaking from his palm. After the fourth miss and with the knowledge of what caused the endliss misses he changed his approach. Instead of an open palm he would use the tip of his index finger to focus the mana, that way the same force is applied to a smaller area. With his mana control providing a safety Ezekiel was able to do it quite easily. The spell may still be fairly weak but he did in fact learn why mana control is so important to a spell casters. ''Spells use a selection of three mainponents: the impact damage, the elemental damage and aoe damage. For pure mana theponents were aoe damage and impact, it had a damage over time effect as well which was mana burn. Mana burn was a basic elemental dot, pure mana spells with no element could do nothing other than impact the target and apply the damage over time. This time when he cast the spell it flew perfectly and nearly struck the target dummies head. He began casting spell after spell by this point hoping for the spell to increase in tier. Each time the spell struck it dealt minuscule damage but the mana burn at least created an extra power. He was not satisfied, he did not know how long it would take to increase the spell tier but he suspected it would be faster if he farmed experience while doing so. After casting enough with his spell he decided to try using his mana control skill while casting to see what he could aplish. The first spell that he tried to cast while using mana control actually resulted in a failure... Focusing on chanting the spell while using mana control was actually quite difficult since he could misspeak which made the spell fail. He saw the moment the mana was disrupted but couldn''t figure out exactly why. Just speaking the spell incorrectly wouldn''t make the mana mive incorrectly if the invocation was what caused it. This thought lead him down a different rabbit hole though as he began to question why the mana began to move before the spell was fully spoken. He decided to try to study the spell even further and watch the exact process of it. By using only his mana sense he was able to observe different moments of the spell casting and when he ran out of mana he simply replenished it by meditating with his mana core skill. What he learned was that mana would naturally enter his body through his skin and by moving through the muscles the way water moves through the soil it would enter his mana core. Mana that was already inside of the mana core was what was used for the spell, it traveled through the body like a stream until it reached the tip of his finger. Because of his closer look at the process he actually noticed something odd. When the spell was cast it took ten mana which created the stream through his arm but along the way the mana would flow strangely. It did not follow a perfect path and on some moments it actually left his arm entirely with that mana being lost to the air around him. The mana itself also left behind some of itself when it moved through the body. If mana was water then his body was thend where it would be absorbed everywhere. Yes the mana eventually returned to his core but it took some time and by that time the spell had actually lost more than half of its initial mana used to create it. It was at this point he realized that he had lost focus on the chant.... and was casting the spell through memory and mana control. ~~~~~~~~~~ Skill Aquired: Spell Mastery passive (Experienced) Through thorough practice and observation of spellcasting the user is able to master a spell. Spell mastery does not increase in level or tier but has separate stages depending on how thoroughly a spell is mastered. Stage 1: Spell can be cast through mana control. Stage 2: Spell power is improved. Stage 3: Spell''s mana cost is reduced by 50% ~~~~~~~~~~ The skill gave no further exnation but he could at least understand how he had achieved stage 1 spell mastery with the mana orb. By casting the spell so many times that he had begun to cast it using mana control almost reflexively he had learned that the chant was never even necessary. He was very proud of this aplishment but one more thing concerned him. How was he going to stop his mana from leaking out of his body when he cast a spell? Chapter 9: Leveling Up After spending time to make sure his aim was actually reliable Ezekiel left the boundary to start hunting his first enemy. Looking out at the field of slimes where only a few yers could be seen he picked a lv1 as an easy target. He aimed carefully and cast the spell with his mana control as it had actually be morefortable than simply casting with the invocation. The orb hit the slime in a ncing blow which made it jiggle violently, the chunk of slime missing from its body began to slowly smooth out until it had turned back into a smooth surface. -5 With his mana control he could cast the spell faster since it did not require him to rely on speaking multiple times. -5 -5 -5 -5 The slime could not move very quickly but after that final bolt he had defeated it. Because of the number of orbs needed he estimated that the slimes had between 21 and 25 hp though he wasnt sure if it had any resistances. Looking at his mana pool he saw that he could cast at least six more orbs. Health and mana had not been given a numerical value but he could at least use basic math to figure out some of what he was seeing. The slimes did not seem to be immediately hostile to others which made it easy to farm one at a time. Choosing another lv1 slime he cast the orb over and over as before. He was so focused that he did not notice those other yers nearby who were watching him now. They wereughing and asionally madements about how he was wasting his effort and mana by not targeting the core. After killing the second slime Ezekiel chose to sit down and meditate to recover his mana, what surprised him was the fact that absorbing mana near the slimes was surprisingly fast. After only a few seconds of meditation he had actually regained 90% of his mana before it began to slow. Since he had enough mana now to kill two more slimes he chose to find two at once. He couldnt find any lv1 slimes for a bit but he did see a lot of lv2 slimes so he attacked one. -4 His spell was doing less damage which was worrying... and not only did it do less damage but it seemed that the slime had more hp. -4 -4 -4 -4 -4... Eventually after using basically all of his mana he managed to kill it... which allowed him to level up. ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Mage lv2. (Novice) Infernal Affinity: 10% fire, 10% shadow Strength: 5 Vitality: 5 Agility: 5 ->7 Wisdom: 5 -> 9 Intelligence: 5 -> 9 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: n/a Skills: Mana Control lv3 (N), Mana Sense lv3 (N), Mana Core lv1 (A), Spell Mastery (E) Spells: Mana Orb lv1 (N) ~~~~~~~~~~ After the racial stats and free stats his new character stats looked much better than before. Ezekiel approached a lv2 slime and cast again. -8 It was twice as much damage but the defense of a lv2 was still there. Killing slimes twice as fast made things much easier and everytime he continued the other yers watched in astonishment. One yer, a green skinned goblinoid race, approached. "Hey, mage. How ya getting ya mana back? You arent using potions." Ezekiel turned to look at the goblin and saw that they wore leather armor with a pair of daggers at their hips. "Oh im just meditating, why would i use potions?" The other yer seemed to pause before leaning in close. "Hey listen, lets make a deal yeah? You tell me about meditation and how ya got it and ill show you where the core is in a slime." Ezekiel was confused but nodded, he exined how the mana core skill worked and how he got it from the npcs in the training area of the vige. "Wait.... the npcs can teach you skills?!" "Yeah? I figured thats why there were teachers advertising their school?" The goblin looked like he had just been given the egg of golden goose. He quickly pointed at the slime and said, "the core is at the top of their body like a brain, if you hit the core to kill it the npcs will reward ya when ya take their quests to harvest the cores." The more he heard core the more an idea started to form in Ezekiel''s mind until he used his mana sense. A slime that was just barely within range suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree as veins moving through the slime''s body appeared full of mana, all leading back to a glowing orb at the top. Ending the skill and looking at the slime he cast a mana orb once again but this time aiming right at that glowing orb''s location. The orb ripped through the slime as usual but this time a clear ball covered in little fments was left visible and cracked. The slime died in a single blow leaving the core behind. "I guess i should have figured that out before huh?" The goblin had left by now but the remaining yers were shocked. Normally a yer who is taught about the core takes a few tries to actually hit it because the core is still invisible within the body but this infernal yer had found it immediately. After this discovery Ezekiel was ecstatic, he could farm experience much easier now. Chapter 10: Spell Improvement With how little effort farming slimes took after learning about the core leveling up became a breeze. After reaching lv 3 Ezekiel had noticed that it took a significantlyrger number of kills to level up than it had before. Even if the requirements doubled it did not exin the significant reduction in his leveling speed. Ezekiel assumed that outside of the barrier was an entire ecosystem of creatures that were actually a threat unlike slimes. After passing through the barrier to see whaty beyond he was almost immediately charged by a wolf which made him return to the barrier. He also noticed that when he was back inside of it the wolf followed his every move like it was stalking him. This made him return to killing slimes as a lv5 wolf was a bit beyond his ability he felt. After a few more hours of farming slimes he actually saw a notification that was different from his usual skill level increase. ~~~~~~~~~~ Spell Level Maximum Reached. Spell: Mana Orb (N) can now be improved Spell options- Mana bullet (A) A projectile made from neutral mana, improved speed and armor pration. Mana st (A) A projectile made from neutral mana, reduced speed but improved impact and added aoe damage. Mana Stream (A) A stream of neutral mana, castingsts for one second and has a range of three meters. ~~~~~~~~~~ Now this was more interesting. He had heard about how spells would improve from the teacher npcs but this was more than he expected. He thought about his options for some time before ignoring the mana stream option entirely and looking at the other two. ''Mana st just sounds like a grenade which is good but the speed worries me... id be fighting wolves next and that thing was fast.'' After thoroughly weighing the odds he chose mana bullet. Testing the new spell it actually seemed topletely bypass the natural defense that the higher level slimes had... not that it mattered since all of his spells one shot the core anyway. Ezekiel kept his casting up further and further while refilling his mana between casts and eventually he managed to reach lv4. ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Mage lv4. (Novice) Infernal Affinity: 10% fire, 10% shadow Strength: 5 Vitality: 5 Agility: 9 Wisdom: 13 -> 17 Intelligence: 13 -> 19 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: n/a Skills: Mana Control lv8 (N), Mana Sense lv7 (N), Mana Core lv5 (A), Spell Mastery (E) Spells: Mana bullet lv1 (A) ~~~~~~~~~~ With this new sess he now felt confident to go take on the wolves. ~ Looking out at the wolf that stalked him through the barrier Ezekiel took a deep breath before pushed out and cast his mana bullet at it. The wolf lunged as soon as he exited the barrier but when it saw the spell it attempted to turn away, in the process it got hit in the nk. -16 These wolves had higher defenses than the slimes and even with the natural armor prating aspect of the mana bullet it still had the damage reduced by nearly a sixth of the damage. His spells were fast and his agility helped him to dodge the attacks of the wolf but his aim was not perfect making it harder tond a solid hit. Eventually he whittled the wolf down to zero and watched it crumple like a doll with its strings cut. The wolf was only lv4 which did give him a good amount of experience but at the same time he was after higher levels. He sought out a stronger wolf and made sure to keep his distance while aiming a spell as best as he could. From a long range he practically had to bring his face level with his arm as if aiming a sniper rifle before he finally cast the spell. The spell was not as fast as he hoped but it was fast enough to strike the wolf by surprise. The mana bullet struck the wolf in the face which indeed dealt a significant amount of damage as it hit a critical point. Critical! -32 This strike was severe as it made the wolf shriek and flee but having an eye socket blown to pieces would severely harm anythings abiltiy to coordinate. It copsed as it could not handle the pain of this nor the disorientation of losing an eye which allowed Ezekiel to put it out of its misery. Now that he had learned this was possible he began to work towards lv5... like he was a stealth archer. ~ After using his long range sniping to take out a few wolves he was very close to lv5 but he was ready to push past it. After searching around again he managed to find a lv 6 wolf lounging around. He crouched down and prepared to cast his mana bullet again. What he did not notice was the twitching nose of the wolf or the slight shift of its head as it scanned for what it smelled. The spell was cast.... and the wolf dodged it easily. Ezekiel stood up to back away while casting but this was not a perfect y as the wolf was quickly catching up. He hit the wolf a few times with his spells but they did not wound the creature enough to make it stop as it lunged forward to bite him. He tried to dodge away while casting another bullet into the creature''s open maw. -28 The wolf yelped and backed away as its mouth bled but it had gotten a good strike in. His health was reduced by at least a third making him take a few steps away. If this wolf was able to harm him that badly with just a w to the side then he was afraid of what would happen when it sessfully bit down on him. He cast magic bullet again and began to grow worried about his mana, normally it didnt take much to kill a wolf afternding a crit and blinding them but now he was incredibly low on mana. He raised a hand and chanted the spell pointing at the creatures nk which made it quickly move to the side.... only to have its front limb struck by a bullet cast from his other hand. An intelligent creature could catch on to the basic strategies like stealth but they could also be fooled with trickery. Ezekiel noticed something odd though. Where the mana bullet struck the wolf a ghostly blue me appeared which made the wolf react aggressively, every half second a damage number would appear that was a fraction of the spells impact damage. -8 -8 -8 -8... This was the elemental affect! Mana burn, the elemental damage over time of neutral mana. The wolf upon feeling the mana burn became enraged and attempted to attack Ezekiel again, but now with only rage fueling those attacks it was no more than an animal. A deadly and very fast animal but very predictable. Soon enough it was dead and this kill brought him to lv5. ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Mage lv5. (Novice) Infernal Affinity: 10% fire, 10% shadow Strength: 5 Vitality: 5 Agility: 9 Wisdom: 17 -> 21 Intelligence: 19 -> 25 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: n/a Skills: Mana Control lv9 (N), Mana Sense lv9 (N), Mana Core lv8 (A), Spell Mastery (E) Spells: Mana bullet lv4 (A) yer Has Reached Lv5 Racial Affinity Activated. Spell Obtained: Fire Orb lv1 (N) ~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 11: Elemental Affinity A new spell, a spell that used his fire affinity? Now that he had a new spell he wished to go and learn how it worked. He left the area without really doing anything with the bodies of anything he killed until he finally passed the barrier to the vige. He decided he would use slimes a target practice instead of the actual range since he could get experience as well this way even if it was minuscule. He started by casting the fire orb which was not very powerfulpared to the mana orb but he saw that it actually had a very high chance of causing its dot effect. When a slime was not instantly in by his high damage it would usually be killed by the burn effect. The more he cast the spell the more he was able to master it and with his mana sense he saw something new. When casting the spell another energy would begin to saturate the mana moving through his arm, this energy was a deep orange which he assumed was his fire affinity. Now that he knew what his affinity actually looked like in his body he began to focus on it. By focusing on his elemental affinity he saw that his body was saturated by a very thin aura of this orange mana... except it didnt feel like mana. The more he studied it the less it felt like he was seeing mana and the more it felt like he was looking at nothing but a color. Stumped by this he sought out other ways to understand it. He started to explore the vige while using his mana sense constantly and what he discovered was shocking. He had previously known that with his mana sense he could effectively see the mana in the world as long as it was within the range of his skill. Now that he was using mana sense constantly he saw that the raw mana of an area was not all there was. In certain ces he could see that raw mana had different colors from the normal. Near a torch mana was orange, near a fountain the mana was a deep blue, near the ground the mana was brown. By approaching the orange mana and using his mana control on it he found that it was actually much easier to manipte than his own affinity. When bringing that orb of mana into his body to absorb it like everything else he saw that the element and the mana separated. The mana moved to his core while the element was absorbed into his flesh. ~~~~~~~~~~ Elemental Affinity (Fire) Increased. ~~~~~~~~~~ ''Huh.... thats new.'' After feeling this strange sensation he began to cultivate his mana under that torch but even after twenty minutes the only change he saw was another level of his mana core. ''Just one torch seems to only give a small amount of elemental mana but what if i made more torches? Or a fire!'' With a new discovery to explore Ezekiel left to find a ce with a lot of heat. ~ Approaching the smithy Ezekiel could already feel the heat wash over him. The only ces he could think of immediately were a smith or a baker and the smiths usually used hotter mes. He approached the front of the shop nervously and waited. And waited. And waited some more... Until finally he was seen by someone bringing a finished de out to put on a weapons rack for viewing. "Oh, hello there!" A young man who was already showing signs of the giant he would be due to the physical strain of smithing greeted him. "What brings a mage like you around our little smithy? Usually its the warriors or the archersing to buy." "Um... im trying to cultivate my mana and i have an affinity for fire, would i be able to cultivate here?" The young man seemed to be confused before he just left the area to go to the back. Ezekiel thought he messed up somehow at first and was going to leave until the man returned with a muchrger smith. "So my apprentice here says you wanma cultivate yer fire eh? He''s new dont mind him." "Um yes i want to make my affinity increase." "Yeah yeah i heard it all before from the other mages. Look kid in this smithy we allow mages to cultivate near the fire but you cant do so for free because you''d be in the way so ya gotta make yerself useful." The smith opens the door and leads Ezekiel in to see arge forge in the middle of the room with workshops around it. The center around the forge was left empty but the smiths would go back and forth handling metal of a bright golden hue from their time in the fire. "In that ring you''ll find a circle of runes, you sit in those runes and it will drain yer mana into our storage." Ezekiel nodded and approached one of those circles while trying to ignore the heat but soon he was sweating profusely. "Mana is used to power the silence runes so we dont disturb the vige, mana also gets used enchant certain weapons." Ezekiel nodded and as he sat in the circle he felt his mana being drained at a rapid rate as if he were casting multiple spells a second. When the circle was activated he could no longer hear the sounds of hammer on metal which shocked him before he remembered what the smith said about silence runes. He delved into his mana sense and while doing his best to ignore the heat he was shocked by what he saw. Everywhere the mana was practically a fog in the room. He saw the smiths glowing and mana flowing in their bodies to their arms and chests in ways he could not begin to guess the purpose of. All of the excess mana they released as well as rhe natural mana in the air was infused with the fire element by the forge... all for him to use now. With the spell circle draining his mana constantly he could not increase the level of his mana core but he could increase his affinity. He soon dedicated himself to cultivating his fire affinity, his concentration so deep that he didnt even notice the heat anymore.... though it did still affect him. Minute after minute, hour after hour, he cultivated all of the fire elemental mana he could ess. When an area was no longer saturated he moved to another space quickly to continue the process. Mana particles were like pollen he had noticed. They would remain in ce unless something manipted them the way air pushes pollen or gravity makes it fall. Mana was not affected by the air or gravity but it was affected by mana control which meant with enough time he could drain the mana particles in an area forcing him to move to another space. After cultivating his affinity for hours he was eventually interrupted by a tap on the shoulder. Looking up he saw the smith from before motioning for him to move so he got up and left the circle. "Damn kid, yer the most dedicated mage ive seen in here. Most of em quit after the first hour when they start getting dehydrated." The smith held out a mug of water for Ezekiel and began walking out. "Come on kid we gotta close shop for the day so the fire will be out, you gave us a hell of a lot of mana for the shop though so feel free to return!" Ezekiel drank the water greedily and once done he left the shop with a grateful nod to the smith. When outside he checked his status panel to see his progress as he had muted it to avoid losing concentration. ~~~~~~~~~~ Elemental Affinity (Fire) Increased. 10% -> 17% Skill Obtained! Fire Resistance lv1 (N) Reduce the damage taken of fire element damage. 1% ~~~~~~~~~~ A new skill... he knew that gaining a new skill was incredible but only a single percent of resistance was disappointing. With his time near the forge he knew that eventually he would make it increase in tier which would make its maximum value increase but that was still something that took time. At his current rate of gaining skills and leveling them he knew that eventually he would fall far behind his fellow yers. With this he chose to go out to start leveling up again.... but then he saw something. Having his mana sense up for so long had made it feel almost natural to move with it and when he left the shop he noticed that it was dark, but not only was it dark... Every bit of mana in the air was ck. The darkness was making all of the mana in the air gain a shadow affinity. When he saw this he began to walk while cultivating. It was slower than he liked because he had to split his focus but he could do thia while looking for a good ce to absorb the mana. Chapter 12: Among Shadows While absorbing the mana in the air he felt a strange sensation, it wasforting somehow. It was like a chill, a coolness on the body. He was already able to feel better from the heat he had been in for hours but that sensation was long gone and this was different. It was like taking a sip of cold water and feeling it enter your stomach or entering a cold pool on a hot day. He felt refreshed and alive! Soon he found a ce where he could cultivate without any worries. He sat down beside a tree and dove into his cultivation like never before. As he focused more and felt thatforting chill he noticed a strange thing. Where previous attempts at manipting mana took effort and concentration, maniption of the shadow mana was like breathing. Literally. He noticed that every pull he made with his mana control took less and less effort until with the slightest tug he could bring the dark motes of mana into a sucking force. With how little effort it took to absorb the shadow mana he soon tried to grab more... and more... and even more. It was like he had be a whirlpool. The shadow mana in the area was sucked in by his mana control with such little effort that it truly felt as if he were breathing the mana in. He was so engrossed by this strange feeling that he almost didnt notice that he seemed to be absorbing more mana than he had originally thought. With every passing moment he saw that mana was appearing in his vision before being sucked into his body. He tried to extend his senses further and vaguely saw that the mana even beyond his mana sense and mana control rdius was actually being sucked in like ake draining into a whirlpool. As he cultivated his mana he slowly felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him until he copsed against the tree. He had done so much that day that it had be mentally taxing towards the end, he had not even noticed that he was on the verge of copse thanks to the rxation the shadow mana brought. As he fell asleep the mana surrounding him was stirred into a frenzy as if he became an open drain under the sea. ~ In and far from the vige, the human continent. A man wearing pure white robes was rushing through the vaulted hallways and approaching a grand wooden door. When he opened this door and entered he quickly prostrated himself before a man wearing a strange set of robes with a golden crown like halo atop his head. "Your holiness! Forgive my presence but word from the watchers hase and i confirmed it myself not long ago." The man in the golden crown walked forward regally, "speak my son, we are all children of Luminous so please do not feel afraid." The man bowed even lower and spoke up quickly, "a new shadow user! A new shadow user has appeared your holiness!" As the man spoke the crowned priest''s face twisted in disgust. He turned to face the statue behind him, a statue of a woman framed by a giant golden ring. Her face was carved into the most beautiful expression of kindness and love while her hands were held together as if in prayer. The crowned man kneeled before the statue with his hands together in prayer as well as he spoke to the man. "Send word to the branches, we must begin a new hunt for this beast of death." The man rose from his position on the floor and exited in a bow, "yes your grace!" As he left the room a wave of magic seemed to cover the walls and faces began to appear. Each face was framed by ck like a portrait but these individuals were all shown to be in, covered in burn marks. Under each portrait was a name as well as a date. Deep below everything there was a room of pure white with ck sand strewn about. Amongst the sand were a set of pirs. One pir stood reaching the roof with deep carving and intricate designs. Another twelve were visible of various heights, most reaching the size of a teenager or an adult. Amongst them all was a small pir slowly growing, barely at the height of an inch. ~ In a grand castle made of dark stone. Inside of a room that was as dark as a cave closed from the surface, a pair of red eyes opened. A wave of mana flowed into the room and soon the door opened. "I greet you my Queen, how may i assist the Lord of Devils today?" A woman with deep red skin and blue horns approached a throne made of ck ss. On this throne was a devil with gray skin and jet ck horns wearing a well embroidered gown under a fur jacket. "A member of the infernal race has begun to cultivate shadow magic, find them. Bring them here." The devil with blue horns bowed before her queen and left before she approached a pair ofrge demons. These demons were also female but they carriedrge weapons that would make orcs salivate over the destructive power. "You two, the Queen has sensed another infernal who has begun to cultivate shadow magic. Send your armies out to find this infernal no matter the cost." No titles were exchanged, no pleasantries. The demons bowed before her before leaving to put the orders into action. ~ Chapter 13: Gaining Levels After finally waking up to the rising sun Ezekiel felt refreshed, more refreshed than he had felt in a long time. While getting up and worrying about how he would clean his clothes he noticed a notification on his status panel. ~~~~~~~~~~ Elemental Affinity (Shadow) Increased 10% -> 37% Skill: Mana Core lv10 (Apprentice) has increased in tier! Mana Core lv10 (Apprentice) -> Mana Core lv1 (Experienced) Increase base mana pool by 35% Naturally regenerate 2.5% mana per second both in and out ofbat. (Passive) Naturally regenerate 5% mana per second out ofbat. (Active) Skill: Mana Control lv10 (Novice) has increased in tier. Mana Control lv10 (Novice) -> Mana Control lv1 (Apprentice) Reduces the consumption of mana for all skills by 10% ~~~~~~~~~~ Looking inside of his core with his mana sense he saw that his mana has actually gone from a liquid state and solidified into a core but it did not seem very secure. After taking time to examine if more he actually realized that it resembled the slime core quite a lot. He was very happy to see how far his skills had grown while he slept but he really wanted to know what happened. The thought of gaining power without understanding how it was done made him a bit upset but he eventually let it go for now. He got ready to meet the smiths again so that he could continue training his fire affinity. During the night his shadow affinity had left it far behind, it now stood at 37%, he did not know what such a high affinity meant but he assumed it was a positive. Returning to the smith he prepared himself for another day of training his affinity. ~ After spending the majority of the day training his affinity he reached a close equilibrium between them. ~~~~~~~~~~ Elemental Affinity (Fire) Increased 17% -> 32% ~~~~~~~~~~ He had to give up once he noticed that the rate of growth slowed significantly when he hit 30% affinity. Since his efforts were slowing now he decided to go after experience points instead. He did not know how far behind in levels he was but he knew that after using proper methods he hit lv5 in a matter of hours... what would the yers who were grinding experience all day look like? Reaching the wolves he decided to go further, he did asionally have to take them out but he chose that as a good time to level up his fire orb spell. Once he reached the deep woods he would carefully search for the next level of creature. A few minutes of searching and he found a boar. He got low and prepared himself before casting the spell. With an intelligence of 25 and his mana being increased by 35% he felt like this boar shouldn''t be hard to kill. He cast the fire orb silently as the orb spells were easy to master... and it struck the boar right on the head. Critical! -64 Burn Applied. -3 -3 -3 -3... The boar charged him in a rage as he fled as quickly as he could. He kept casting the fire orb while also letting the burn damage stack up on the boar. The burn wouldst for ten seconds, dealing damage once every ten seconds. He after a few more casts the boar eventually fell with a shrieking roar that echoed in the woods. He heard the sounds of hooves on the ground which made him realize how badly he just screwed up and he began to search for a safe area. All he saw were the trees. He made the decision to try to climb a tree. The trees that seemed thick enough to survive a charge from the boars were also the most difficult to climb but he had to make a decision. The climb was tough but after getting an idea he began to use his mana bullets creatively, casting them in ncing blows on the trunk to create grooves for his fingers and feet. After climbing for approximately fifteen feet he managed to reach a low branch that he clung to. Watching below he saw the boar show up in a horde that investigated the area, with some cannibalizing the dead boar. While he watched he made the decision to get a few easy kills by casting mana orb down below. He cast fire orb after fire orb and the boars at first seemed to not be able to figure out the source. After a few died they began to charge trees at random... They knew where the source was but not the exact location and their numbers were growing with each rage filled scream. Ezekiel knew this was a good opportunity to level up but he was very worried about what would happen when his tree was attacked. After many uses of his orbbined with the experience he gained he had actually managed to level up his fire orb to lv10. He did not care what the options were currently and quickly chose fire burst as he needed an aoe option. He cast the spell attempting to whisper and dropped the little baseball sized orb of fire down below. Upon hitting the ground it exploded in a roughly three foot diameter sphere... which harmed many boars at once. Using mana burst took more mana than an orb so he had to stop a few times to actually meditate. He felt very confident... until his tree shook violently. Down below at the base of his tree he saw a singed boar ramming his tree over and over, each strike disrupted his casting as he was forced to hold on tighter. After a few moments he heard his notification of another level up. ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Mage lv6. (Novice) Infernal Affinity: 32% fire, 37% shadow Strength: 5 Vitality: 5 Agility: 9 Wisdom: 21 -> 25 Intelligence: 25 -> 31 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: n/a Skills: Mana Control lv1 (A), Mana Sense lv9 (N), Mana Core lv1 (E), Spell Mastery (E) Defenses: Fire Resistance lv2 (N) Spells: Mana Bullet lv4 (A) Fire Burst lv1 (A) ~~~~~~~~~~ He put his points immediately into intelligence to increase spell damage and cast his spells as fast as he could while clinging to the tree. The problem with what he was doing was that if he cast the explosive spells right at the base of the tree it would obviously risk toppling the tree over. He needed a new n, something that would make this less dangerous. Mana bullet wasn''t strong enough and fire burst was to strong.... what if he tried his second affinity? He had to focus as much as possible, using his mana sense he found the denser ck element in his body and began to infure it into a mana orb... but then he thought of something. If he already knew how to form a spell and casting it with an element only infused the element into the shape.... what if he tried to infuse his element into the mana bullet? So he tried it.... ~~~~~~~~~~ Spell Shaped: Shadow Bullet (A) ~~~~~~~~~~ SUCCESS! He couldn''t celebrate for long though as he felt the tree shaking harder. He aimed down, summoned his spell... and cast a rain of shadows. He did not know why but once the shadow bullet struck a boar it went from angry roars to shrieks of pain that raised the hairs on his neck. That creature''s pain made him shiver but he could not stop otherwise he would be killed. More than a dozen boars had crowded the base of his tree but after taking a hit from the shadow bullets they all fled. He could only guess at the pain such a spell caused if it sent those frenzied beasts away so he began to climb back down. When he was on the ground again he began to cast both the fire burst to enrage the boars as well as the shadow bullet to make them pause. Such a strategy of pain and rage for the boars seemed to overwhelm them as they would eventually copse in an unconscious state. He felt sick from the way they reacted but he at least knew how to farm boars efficiently now. Chapter 14: Race Evolution Each boar killed brought him one step closer, each level he gained was like a sh of power he had waited for. From lv 6 to lv 7 he saw his experience points decrease from the lower level boars so he hunted higher levels. From lv7 to lv8 he could kill the boars with almost no effort. From lv8 to lv9 he had begun training his mastery of the mana bullet so he could master his other spells. ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Mage lv9. (Novice) Infernal Affinity: 32% fire, 37% shadow Strength: 5 Vitality: 5 Agility: 12 -> 14 Wisdom: 33 -> 40 Intelligence: 40 -> 41 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: n/a Skills: Mana Control lv3 (A), Mana Sense lv1 (A), Mana Core lv3 (E), Spell Mastery (E) Defenses: Fire resistance lv2 (N) Spells: Mana Bullet lv8 (A) Fire Burst lv5 (A) Fire Bullet lv3 (A) Shadow Bullet lv5 (A) ~~~~~~~~~~ His efforts during his experience grind were well rewarded. Not only were his spells leveling up nicely but his skills were as well. His mana sense had even increased in tier meaning it had a new radius minimum radius of 10 meters. As his mana sense increased in level it would obviously grow stronger too. He felt that something interesting would happen once he hit lv10 in the same way he gained his fire spell at lv5. Now that he was lv9 though he had to find new creatures to hunt since it would only move slowly if he continued with the boars. With his path leading him out of the forest he managed to find new creatures but since it was farther and farther away from the vige he saw fewer yers. Each hunting ground was sort of like a territory he noticed, the creatures would sometimes roam into eachothers territory and this made some ovep but it was pretty well established. Nearest the vige were the slimes inside of the barrier and just outside of the barrier was the territory of the wolves which extended deep into the woods. The territory of the boars was typically heralded by less underbrush like bushes and leaves as the boars seemed to eat anything they found. While exploring the territory of the wolves he saw very few yers because of not just the few number at his level but also because the territory was so spread out. He saw a few yers while hunting wolves but it was far moremon to see low level boars and high level wolves fighting at the territory edge. While hunting boars Ezekiel had not seen a single yer which he assumed is why he was able to level up so quickly from the abundance of prey. Now that he was stronger than the boars he had to find new creatures by leaving the forest which meant he had even smaller odds of meeting anyone. By traveling through the new grasnds he had entered he began to see a few things, first of all he sawrge buffalo. As he approached the buffalo believing they were the creatures of this territory he saw something that shocked him. Arge cat leapt onto the back of a buffalo and the two began to brawl with one another. The nearby buffalo approached quickly with grumbling noises while the wildcat and stray buffalo fought their battle. Eventually with a loud crunch the buffalo bit down on the cat and threw it to the ground but it did not seem satisfied. It reared itself back before crashing down hooves first on the beast with a sickening crunch. It began to return to the herd after defeating its would be killer while glowing as its level rose from 9 to 10. This territory appeared to be very dangerous for those who were not prepared and he figured that out quickly. After seeing this battle he knew that he had to figure out how to actually kill anything so he could gain experience. The problem was that the wildcat was very well hidden before attacking the buffalo and the buffalo that was separated from the herd was close enough to still receive help. With his ideas running thtough his head he made a choice. He crouched in the grass and began to snipe the buffalo the way he had the wolves before. He used the shadow bullet specifically as he was worried about using fire in this grasnd but with each bullet that struck the herd he could feel their growing anger and unease. When he had struck all of the buffalo in the herd he just kept trying to strike their hp lower. -50 Consumption Applied. -5 -5 -5 -5... Simr to the burn effect shadow element spells applied something called consumption but so far it only looked like a fancy word for the shadow dot. The best part of using shadow bullet was that the shadow element appeared to still be so painful that it was just making them overwhelmed by the consumption. By ying the buffalo in suchrge groups he consumedrge amounts of mana at a time but it was worth it to farm experience without fighting anything. The biggest problem was that while the buffalo were dying he actually couldnt even concentrate enough to absorb any mana to replenish his core. After ying the third herd of buffalo he finally leveled up. ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Mage lv10. (Novice) Infernal Affinity: 32% fire, 37% shadow Strength: 5 Vitality: 5 Agility: 14 -> 19 Wisdom: 40 -> 44 Intelligence: 41 -> 42 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: n/a Skills: Mana Control lv5 (A), Mana Sense lv2 (A), Mana Core lv4 (E), Spell Mastery (E) Spells: Mana Bullet lv8 (A) Fire Burst lv5 (A) Fire Bullet lv3 (A) Shadow Bullet lv8 (A) ~~~~~~~~~~ Since he had been worrying about the way these beasts fought recently he had been leveling up agility a few times, with his new hunting ground though he felt agility was much more important than before. After he finished setting his stat points he got another notification. ~~~~~~~~~~ Infernal yer (Belial) has reached lv10. Initiating race evolution. Examining status for most suitable race. Suitable race found. Please choose race evolution: Devil: An infernal who has followed the path of mana and magic. Level up stat bonuses +6 wisdom +6 intelligence +8 free stat points. Arcane Devil: An infernal who has raised an elemental affinity above 20% as well as increased both intelligence and wisdom above 30 points. Mana Core + Mana Control skills automatically raised by one tier. Level up stat bonuses +6 wisdom +6 intelligence +8 free stat points. Shadow me Devil: An infernal that has cultivated two elemental affinities (shadow and fire) above 30% Mana Core given the affinities (shadow and fire) involved in racial improvement. Level up stat bonuses +6 wisdom +6 intelligence +8 free stat points. ~~~~~~~~~~ Well.... this was certainly new. Chapter 15: Shadowfire Devil Three options for a new race, each option seemed pretty good but from the description of each he knew that he could disregard the devil option immediately. Arcane devil was just a clear upgrade over the regr devil and the shadowfire devil was also an obviously better version. For the arcane devil he felt like it would save him a lot of time since the increases in tier for skills were quite predictable. When a skill leveled up the bonus it provided obviously increased and after reaching lv10 the skill could be increased to the next tier which upgraded the minimum level of the skill. If he were to choose the arcane devil then his base mana amount would be increased by 55% instead of the current 35% because of his mana core. He would also have stronger mana control which would make his spells and skills use less mana. He was very tempted to select the arcane devil but he could not ignore the shadowfire devil. He had no idea what it meant to give your core an affinity and the system would not give a description when he asked for one but he could easily guess that it would somehow make his spells stronger. After a few minutes of thinking Ezekiel finally made his decision and after telling the system his choice he was enveloped by a strange blue crystal. He wasnt sure what was happening but as his vision was going dark he used his mana sense to see what was happening. The surrounding mana was flooding into the shell as if incubating an egg and the crystal itself was blindingly bright with the glow of mana. He gave in to the exhaustion he suddenly felt and rxed into slumber unaware that he was being surrounded by other creatures that no matter how much effort was used could not scratch the crystal that was protecting him. ~ After waking up from his slumber Ezekiel ignored the system notifications at first and started to examine his surroundings. He saw the ground dug up in an area around his body. He got up to leave the area before he checked his system notifications. ~~~~~~~~~~ Congrattions! You have sessfully evolved your species to the Shadowfire Devil. Please continue your path with your newfound strength. ~~~~~~~~~~ With more questions than answers now he chose to examine his body instead, he needed to clean himself anyway so he went to find a source of water. A running stream eventually lead him to a pond that had developed in the stream so after checking to ensure no one was around he quickly cleaned himself of the dirt, grime and blood that sprayed him during his battles. His clothes always seemed to stay clean and he assumed that was part of the game making sure that yers could stay presentable after cleaning up. The game would probably develop manyints and bad reviews if the yers had to suffer their clothing being destroyed by disgusting yers. While cleaning himself he had plenty of time to examine what had happened. In his reflection he saw that his small horns had grown to a pair of elegant horns that curved much like the addax but instead of continuing up into the air the initial curve followed the skull. His eyes had be a deep ck with red irises ans where his skin had previously been reddish with gray lines like tattoos it was now ck with gray hues in the softer parts of his body while the tattoos had grown more detailed in the color red. The most surprising change to his body was inside of his core. His core now held a slight discoloration in the previously pure mana, it now held small stained swirls of orange and ck. After examining his new form in great depth he left the water to dry in the sun while trying to get used to the weight on his head and the longer tail. Chapter 16: Path to Lv 20 After getting used to his evolved body Ezekiel went out to start catching up on levels again. He was not sure how far behind the average he was but he knew that lv10 was not it. He spent hours that day leveling up as quickly as possible, with how much he used his spells a few actually managed to increase in tier. ~~~~~~~~~~ Spell Level Maximum Reached. Spell: Shadow Bullet (A) can now be improved Spell options- Shadow Bolt (E) Increased projectile speed and pration power. Shadow Ray (E) Increased impact damage and speed at the cost of pration power. Spell Level Maximum Reached. Spell: Fire Burst (A) can now be improved Spell options- Fire Bomb (E) Increased aoe and damage. Fire Cluster (E) Sustained damage in arge aoe, increased elemental effect chance at the cost of impact damage. ~~~~~~~~~~ After looking through options he eventually chose the shadow bolt and the fire bomb as his spells ability to bypass defenses was nice. The farther he went the higher the levels of the enemies became until they actually went beyond the level range of the previous regions. As he fought his way through the area he grew closer and closer to his goal of lv20. At lv15 he saw nothing substantial as he had hoped but he could feel that lv20 would have something interesting. His path eventually lead him into the next region. By this time he was lv19. ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Mage lv19. (Novice) Shadowfire Devil Affinity: 32% fire, 37% shadow Mana Core: 0% fire, 0% shadow Strength: 5 Vitality: 5 Agility: 83 Wisdom: 116 Intelligence: 116 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: n/a Skills: Mana Control lv9 (A), Mana Sense lv7 (A), Mana Core lv4 (E), Spell Mastery (E) Defenses: Fire Resistance lv1 (N) Spells: Mana Bolt lv1 (E) Mana Burst lv1 (A) Fire Bomb lv5 (E) Fire Bolt lv2 (E) Shadow Bolt lv7 (E) Shadow Burst lv3 (A) ~~~~~~~~~~ His practice was paying off and now he could easily kill the wild cats in only a few spells, the buffalo still took a bit of effort but they were so slow it was like hunting crippled animals. As the animals were stronger they seemed to be less crippled by the pain of shadow magic but they still seemed slowed by the pain. While making his way into the next region he saw something that he did not expect. In the distance he could see a city, it would be deep inside of the territory but he would slowly make his way there. He also saw... yers. Well he could not see the yers exactly but he could see the shes of spells from the distance he was. With this new discovery he was excited as he felt he was finally catching up. What truly surprised him was that this area was sorge and spread out that he could actually see the creatures that he would be hunting here. Instead of some new species that took control of the area he saw roaving bands of all of the previous creatures, they would avoid one another but that was besides the point. When he saw shes between these creatures it was a horror of barbarism as the two packs went at one another. It seemed that these shes were what the yers waited for as groups of them would approach the shes beasts each time to wait for the victor. What also shocked him was seeing the spawned creatures that would appear. asionally groups of these creatures would sh into existence in the territory as mana particles visibly rebuilt them. They would always spawn at lv20 in the area and group together again. This was strange for him as he had previously seen the creatures only spawning in their own region. In the distance he even saw something that truly shocked him. Entire packs of the creatures fled without attacking one another as they were chased by... a slime. A slime the size of a cottage. Where it moved the grass was consumed and when he looked at the levels he was even more surprised. The slime was only lv27 while the packs it was chasing had an average of lv36. When using mana sense he saw something even more shocking. Every creature had a core here but even more shocking was that this slime had five of them... Five melon sized cores. He had no idea why this slime had grown sorge or had so many cores but he wanted to hunt it. This slime looked like the perfect chance to gainrge amounts of experience and it seemed other yers agreed as they followed from a distance. With his choice made Ezekiel began to make his way to that creature while killing creatures one pack at a time. Chapter 17: Hunting The Elite ying the creatures in groups at a time because of his shadow magic was difficult but possible and asionally he did have to find a ce to recover his mana. While traveling and gaining experience he kept his eye on that giant slime just waiting for a sign of its strength. ncing back and forth what he saw was interesting though. The slime moved like a machine and no matter what damage it took it kept moving forward to its prey. The slime would catch prey pretty regrly but rather than its own efforts being the cause it was actually betrayal. asionally one of the other creatures would attack the slowest of the bunch which would lead to it inevitably being caught. When this happened it would slow the slime down enough for the rest to flee which only made the slime look for the next closest source of prey which began the cycle all over again. With each kill he saw his experience bar growing closer and closer, he could feel how close he was to whatever happened at lv20 and he was ready. He did not want to fight the slime until he hit lv20 anyway. As he burned another pack of wolves to death it finally happened ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Mage lv20. (Novice) Shadowfire Devil Affinity: 32% fire, 37% shadow Mana Core: 0% fire, 0% shadow Strength: 5 Vitality: 5 Agility: 83 -> 91 Wisdom: 116 -> 122 Intelligence: 116 -> 122 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: n/a Skills: Mana Control lv1 (E), Mana Sense lv8 (A), Mana Core lv4 (E), Spell Mastery (E) Defenses: Fire Resistance lv1 (N) Spells: Mana Bolt lv1 (E) Mana Burst lv1 (A) Fire Bomb lv8 (E) Fire Bolt lv2 (E) Shadow Bolt lv8 (E) Shadow Burst lv5 (A) ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ Congrattions! Skill: Mana Control lv10 (Apprentice) has increased in tier! Mana Control lv10 (Apprentice) -> Mana Control lv1 (Experienced) Reduces the consumption of mana for all skills by 35% ~~~~~~~~~~ This was perfect! He saw no other notifications about anything unique to lv20 but he would deal with that disappointmentter. For now he had a giant slime to hunt down. ~ With his goal set and his path ready he began to chase down the giant slime. He ignored the other yers and cast a shadow burst out at the pack ahead of the slime. With the radius it had he could easily hit a quarter of the fleeing creatures which would easily distract the slime long enough to get a few easy hits in. The group he hit faltered and in their pain they began to be erratic. They bit at one another or wed or tried to gore but no matter their method of choice they began to attack whatever they percieved to be the source of such pain. This battle made it easy for the slime to engulfe arge number of them, this group was not enough to stop the slime but it did slow drastically so he began casting shadow bolts at the slime''s cores. The first thing he noticed was the slime body being dense enough to not allow the bolts very deep. When the bolts entered it would react with obvious difort as it shook violently but that did not change the fact that Ezekiel got to see what happened internay with his shadow magic for the first time. Where the shadow bolts pierced, ck smoke would emanate. Inside of the body this smoke was like a ck fire that burned away at the wound. He kept casting as fast as he could and thankfully he had reached lv1 mastery with his bolt spells a long time ago. He was using mana rapidly even with his reduced mana costs and increased mana pool. He soon got a few notifications about assisting in the kills of the creatures consumed by the slime but the experience wasn''t enough to bring him to lv21. As the other creatures began to get away the slime stopped its chase... and began moving towards him. He knew how fast this thing could be so he began to run. What he quickly learned was the slime had a higher speed than he did and it wouldnt take long to catch him. Thinking quickly he began to run towards the yers. Running towards the yers would force them to help kill the slime or they would have to act as additional bait. No matter what they chose Ezekiel would benefit. "Hey is that horned freaking over here?" "Yeah i think he''sing this way." "HE''S LEADING THE SLIME, RUN!" The various yers all began to flee with some of the range focused yers firing at either him or the slime. With his high agility he could dodge the projectiles but he was clearly a lower level. This slime was chasing him down and aside from the agility focused yers he was outrunning the rest. While outrunning a few yers to let them act as bait he cast a few more shadow bolts to hopefully scratch away a few more health points. When he took a moment to check the slime''s hp it was resting at afortable ~40% which was excellent! What wasnt excellent was how low his mana was. This slime must have easily had over a hundred thousand hp since each of his spells would be doing quite a bit. Over time he had figured out that not only was his intelligence stat what decided his spell damage but affinity did as well! With an intelligence stat of 122 his spells would naturally do 122 damage before defense was applied. Shadow affinity at 37% surprisingly increased the damage of his shadow spells by 37%! With his total spell damage he was dealing 167 damage before any defense was taken into ount. Against this slime it was only doing 134 damage but he had a veryrge mana pool currently. He had cast this spell dozens of times by now and each time it hardly did anything but each instance of consumption did 16 damage as well. With how much he had cast this spell he knew that eventually the slime would die but what mattered right now was that if he wasnt careful he would run out of mana while fleeing this creature. Chapter 18: The Hunt Is Over While fighting this slime Ezekiel was confident in his ability to take out the creature as he only needed to slowly burn away the health. Even if the kill was stolen he would get experience as he saw when the slime killed the packs he harmed. He only had to bring the beast down to a low enough level to y it with the efforts of the other yers. The rest had joined in as well, as there was a level difference between them he was doing the lowest damage per hit but he had dealt such a significant amount of damage that it didnt matter. The boss was now down to ~30% hp and it seemed to activate an enraged state as it began to glow red. The red haze over its slimy body was growing stronger and stronger as this creature was ready to hunt them down. Through his mana sense he could see that when the red haze began the slime had a sh of mana spread through its body from its cores. It was now at least 50% faster with the red haze and each creature that it consumed it began to heal. When he saw it healing he started to use fire spells. He had noticed over time that certain creatures had a naturally better regeneration than others and when he used fire magic something would happen. Through a lot of experiments he hade to learn that the burned affect had a secondary feature and when a creature was at ~50% health it had a chance to sear the creatures body in a way that prevented healing for a short time. When he asked the system about this effect it only gave him the name Cauterized. Cauterized would not perfectly stop healing as more often than not it would only affect a portion of the body which seemed to only reduce the natural healing. Other yers saw him change to fire magic and the few mages present who could use fire spells joined in on it. Ever so slowly the damage stacked up and the healing prevented allowed their damage to burn away what it had healed. With each passing moment the slime took out another yer, sometimes two. When he saw how quickly they were falling he began to use spells to harm other creatures to slow it down again. It would consume them and slow for a small moment before it continued at the same speed as before. With thebined efforts of the dozens of yers its health was drained to 20%. Once the health got below 20% though that was when it finally stopped moving. Moving to the farthest his range would allow he continued to bombard the slime with fire and shadow magic now that it seemed to not be regenerating anymore. After a few seconds Ezekiel saw something concerning when he checked his mana sense. The slime had a core rapidly draining mana into its body, the rapid draining mana was flooding its body. The mana flooding its body pulsed sfter s second and the mana within began to expand andpress like a beating heart. As he watched this pulse happen a few times he got a bad feeling. When he saw the pulsing speed up he fled towards the city in the distance. Hepletely ignored the slime as just ran as quickly as possible. When he reached a safer distance he nced back while pacing himself, what he saw was terrifying. The slime created a burst of mana as it drained that core into its body, that mana flooded back in and began to recover its health rapidly. He had escaped the slime''s attention though so he just approached the city to take time to recover his mana. ~ His mana took some time to recover but only long enough to catch his breath. Once he fully recovered his mana he left to observe the slime. It was easily dispatching the yers and once they were gone it returned to hunting packs. He could not understand how this creature had used mana to heal itself so quickly but now he at least has something new to explore. He knew that he would not be able to fight the slime yet but he had to put the effort in. What worried him was that a few people were staring and they did not look like yers as they wore very extravagant gear. When one of the human npcs moved towards him he took a step back. "Young devil, that was you using shadow magic yes?" "Uh... why? It was helping me take out the slime..." The human speaking to him sighed before resting a hand on his de. "Tell me, you are one of the otherworlders right?" Ezekiel could remember that it was what the npcs in the vige had called him so he nodded. "You should be careful when using shadow magic, many cities would have you executed for even having the affinity." "Wait WHAT?!" Chapter 19: A New City With the bombshell about shadow magic still lurking in his thoughts Ezekiel chose to leave the city limits for now and go to the edge of the territory so that only yers would see his spells. He went out of his way to avoid farming experience near roads or anything that looked like a path since he wanted to avoid being seen by the npcs. This much effort made it harder to level up as efficiently as before but he knew he had to do this. Now that he was in a safer ce he also knew that he could be more frugal with his free stats so he began to save them. He hunted alone which made yers try to approach him but after the words of the human npc before he chose to ignore most of the yers questions or requests. With how often he ignored yers he felt like he would inevitably make enemies. He just had to catch up to the average yer level which he had learned was currently lv35. As the sun began to set on the second day within the game he was satisfied with the results. ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Mage lv23. (Novice) Shadowfire Devil Affinity: 32% fire, 37% shadow Mana Core: 0% fire, 0% shadow Strength: 5 Vitality: 5 Agility: 91 Wisdom: 134 -> 140 Intelligence: 134 -> 140 Free stats: 24 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: n/a Skills: Mana Control lv2 (E), Mana Sense lv9 (A), Mana Core lv4 (E), Spell Mastery (E) Defenses: Fire Resistance lv1 (N) Spells: Mana Bolt lv1 (E) Mana Burst lv1 (A) Fire Bomb lv9 (E) Fire Bolt lv4 (E) Shadow Bolt lv9 (E) Shadow Burst lv6 (A) ~~~~~~~~~~ His shadow bolt would soon move to the next tier as well as his fire bomb. He was itching to spend his free points to make himself faster but he knew he had to wait. At this stage he had not explored gear... at all. He was not sure if gear had any stat requirements to use and now that he was getting his stats so unevenly distributed he was worried that if he did not have the strength or vitality necessary he may not be able to use gear if he got it. With the way he was leveling up he felt like his affinity should be trained again soon so he went out of his way to begin. He did not start with any money unlike most games and he was not sure why so he just found a ce within the walls that he could potentially hide. The thought of sleeping under a house like some rat made him upset but he tried to look at it as more of a wandering sage that sought out shelter. As he was walking around the area an elderly goblin woman stopped him. "Ey, ya lost boy?" He was practically caught in the act, a few secondster and she might have seen him trying to sneak behind her home like some kind of thug. "Whats wrong, cat got yer tongue?" She was cackling a bit like some kind of witch. He had noticed that a lot of the goblins both yer and npc spoke with a weird ent that was often raspy and with a slight lisp. When this old womanughed he could guess why now. Razor sharp teeth like fangs filled her mouth which must be quite tough to speak with when the tongue scraped against them. "Sorry ma''am i waa just trying to find an inn for the night." A truly bad lie but if she learned he was an otherworlder then she might just believe he was stupid enough to not know the location of any inns. She leaned closer to him and frowned before sniffing at his body. "Ya smell like fire and death, how bout this." She waddled a few feet away and opened the door to arge shop near her home. "Ya help me make a few things and ill let ya spend the night in here, i got a spare cot for apprentices ya can use." As he entered the shop behind her and celebrated his good luck he frowned at what was in the shop. Arge cauldron sat over an evenrger furnace that had a set of steps leading up to the top. "Its hard to find a devil willin ta give some mana to enhance a potion. The bastards are always high and mighty!" She began to light the fire while grumbling to herself. "Magic bastards always actin superior to witchdoctors." Once the fire was burning hot and steady she motioned him up. "Now since ya just got here otherworlder ill let ya cultivate ya affinity in here, just remember ya gotta put yer blood into a bowl when I say so." She brought out a silver bowl that seemed to have been modified with a spout at the bottom. "When i tell ya to i want ya to cut yerself somewhere and put yer affinity and mana into the blood before you let it fall into the bowl." He was confused but clearly this woman knew how to teach someone as she guided him to use his mana sense to watch how it was done. To infuse blood with mana and an element for the mana it required you to use mana control to guide the mana into an area near the skin but not quite there so it would not leak out. Using affinity was obvious but by holding the mana there when the cut was made the blood that flowed out actually kept the mana within it! "Now boy, dont be telling no one bout this ya hear? I can smell ya shadow so if you go exposin blood magic ill take ya with me." She eyed him calmly while watching him try it for himself. "Blood magic? What can it do?" She seemed taken aback for a moment before cackling far louder than before. "Oh you are just a curious lil shit aint ya? Ok ill tell ya." She began to exin while he bled into the bowls, one for fire and the other for shadow. "Blood magic be an ouwed magic. Just like shadow magic be ouwed because of how it works, blood magic be ouwed because people see it as barbaric!" He stopped bloodletting when he began to feel light headed and sat back to pay attention. "Blood magic be used to enhance the art of physical magics, enchantments, spell craft, alchemy, if it takes mana to do then blood magic can make it better!" She was smiling like a mad woman now. "Now while ya cultivating ya affinity ima give ya a potion to recover ya blood, it wont heal ya but it will give ya body a chance to replenish what it lost." He nodded and drank the potion he was given before sitting down by the furnace to cultivate. While doing so he noticed that the speed was lower than in the forge for obvious reasons but he wanted to grow stronger no matter what. So he began to cultivate. Chapter 20: Alchemy In BLO alchemy is an important tool, not every mage has the talent to cultivate their mana core beyond the Experienced tier so they often rely on mana potions. Those who truly rely on alchemists are the martial sses of the game. Stamina potions, mana potions, health potions, all important for a martial to use as their intensebat style does not leave much room to activate the active recovery aspects of skills. When the vanguard is preventing the other party members from being attacked while they recover they do not get time to begin recuperation but they do have plenty of opportunities to drink potions. The assassins get more opportunities but not by much as they have to dorge portions kf damage to supplement what is lost. Because of how many yerspletely ignored the training sections of the starting viges they rarely developed these recovery skills meaning they were even more reliant upon the potion market. For a yer like Kali this game was the perfect opportunity to explore their passion for crafting sses in vrmmorpgs. For years she had yed as every crafting ss she could find in the multiple games that existed. cksmith, artificer, alchemist, witchdoctor, she had gone through every possible ss she could find and she adored the wealth that she gained from it. She waa not simply after the wealth but when you are passionate about something that you can also mize... why not? The result of what she had trained to do was a yer who began with a deep understanding of the fundamentals for crafting. When you trained to craft legendary grade items in the games you y you tend to develop a baseline of quality after all. Once she had arrived at the closest city outside of the starting vige she joined in she had immediately went to work finding the library or the closest alchemist to learn from. She could probably beat their skills without any effort but she needed to know what the medicinal herbs of this world were. It did not take her long to find a library that allowed one to borrow books but it had required her to do a quest to gain the librarian''s trust. Through her studies of the various books of herbs as well as notes she kept on useful ones for the most used potions she was able to start brewing at a guild''s workshop. She had spent her time at this guild well as she was able to produce more than ten potions for each type. Not only that but since the base price of a market quality potion was two silver whe knew she would make a quick profit. She effectively had sixty silver worth of potions all for the price of going collect the herbs. In BLO currency was simple. Copper, silver, gold and tinum. One hundred copper was the equivalent of one silver, one hundred silver was one gold and one hundred gold was one tinum. The problem was that some cities ording to the guild would not allow you to trade up the value of your coins without a surcharge. These cities tended to be human cities and the high elf cities but not every human city was like this. When asked for an exnation for why some cities had this rule while others did not she was not given an answer, all she was given was a book. The book had a starburst on the front which was interesting to her but when she began to read it she quickly realized she had been handed some form of scripture. There was no name on the book nor did the first few pages rify which church it came from and the only unique thing about it was that it constantly referenced some "holy luminous" whoever that was. Chapter 21: Player Driven Economy To sell her wares the goblin yer kali found a street vendor willing to let her set up next to them. She knew that without the security of a guard nearby she was at high risk for thieves and all the shopkeeper wanted was one silver after her wares sold. What thepetition wasnt aware of was how high quality her potions were. She assumed that the average potions sold off the rack were made by apprentices as most trades would allow their apprentices to practice. If a creation was of a quality that the shop deemed eptable it would be sold and the masters would only take a portion of the profit as they knew that no matter what happened a good sum would reach them anyway. For an apprentice to practice they had to either go source materials themselves or use what the masters provided which would have to be paid for. The saving grace was that these masters would typically charge market price just to break even on the materials and the price they took from the profits of a sale was used to pay off their apprenticeship fee. Since these apprentices typically worked with a very exact but simple recipe they would make potions that were inferior to that made by an alchemist who understood more advanced techniques. ~~~~~~~~~~ Health Potion (Iron) Recover 100 Hp over the course of 10 seconds. ~~~~~~~~~~ Most market grade potions would be iron quality which was good but she knew that she could do well, when her potions wereplete she had easily made bronze quality potions. ~~~~~~~~~~ Health Potion (Bronze) Recover 150 Hp over the course of 10 seconds. ~~~~~~~~~~ This result was the same across the board with the potions she made. When she set her potions down she made sure one of each was in front for easy identification by yers. With each one set a price of 3 silver as bronze quality potions were 50% better thsn iron. As the yers began to flood her area to buy the potions she was smiling a toothy goblin grin at the money she would make soon. ~ Inside of the alchemists shop Ezekiel was doing as instructed each time and although the amount of fire mana he could im was smaller than a forge he was still happy to get free lodging tonight. As the alchemist womanpleted the potions she wanted to make she brought him to the extra room that she allowed her apprentices to use. After hey down he checked his results for the cultivation. ~~~~~~~~~~ Elemental Affinity (Fire) Increased. 32% -> 37% ~~~~~~~~~~ Now that he had increased his affinity again he knew that he had to use this night to start cultivating his shadow affinity as high as he possibly could. With his increased mana control and mana sense he knew that it would go very well for him. As he began to cultivate using the dark mana that the night had created he pushed his mana sense as far as possible to collect all of the particles he could. His mana control like a thin vacuum draining it all into his body. With his core finally developing thanks to the opportunity to cultivate it he went all in on his focus. As he was cultivating he noticed that asionally some of the shadow mana would remain in the paticles even while the rest had been absorbed by his body. These particles of mana seemed to have a denser level of the element inside of it and it was traceable to ces where the light had no easy way to reach. With this interesting discovery he began toe up with a n while cultivating. ''If i were to take a source of mana and make it start to release everything it had somehow in a cave that i seal off wouldn''t it be possible to cultivate my shadow affinity even faster?'' These thoughts were still flooding his mind as he fell asleep just as he did the previous night. Chapter 22: Core Affinity When Ezekiel finally woke up he had to stretch out his aching joints. He went out to find the elderly goblin to ask if he could shower away the dirt and grime of the previous day... not to mention the blood. He had to knock on her door to get her attention but so far it seemed like she hadnt woken up yet. Since he could not clean himself there he would have to find another pond or stream like before. While walking through the hunting territory he would asionally y creatures for experience, these kills were more difficult with only his fire magic but he still had time. He was close to the next level but it was not quite there when he found a pond he could use. ~ After cleaning and getting dressed Ezekiel was ready for the next step, checking his new affinity bonus. ~~~~~~~~~~ Elemental Affinity (Shadow) Increased. 37% -> 52% Core Affinity (Shadow) Increased. 0% -> 5% ~~~~~~~~~~ A 15% increase to his shadow affinity and he now knew what core affinity was! It was certainly interesting to know that he would have anotheryer of affinity but would it do what he expected? He mainly assumed that it would just further increase his damage with shadow spells but his core was such arge part of his mage power that he really couldn''t be sure what would happen. The only way to know was to test it out. To test his new affinity he chose to hunt again, specifically he went back to his previous hunting path to avoid the view of others to use his shadow spells. The difference between before and now was very interesting. The first thing he noticed was that his spell damage was increased. With a bonus of 52% to his shadow spells he expected his damage to be 213 but instead his damage was 220. He circled the territory, even knowing how long it would take to return, all to hunt more creatures. While traveling and ying he eventually found another territory edge. It was not a perfect map in his head but he was more and more certain that the map was like a dartboard almost. A radial map that was built on different areas that eventually split into separate quadrants... If he travelled all day he might be able to circle the forest that hid the vige but he did not wish to waste his time doing so. Once he fully dedicated his attention to leveling again rather than exploring he managed to increase his spell tier for two spells. ~~~~~~~~~~ Spell Level Maximum Reached. Spell: Shadow Bolt (E) can now be improved Spell options- Shadow Arrow (M) Increased speed and pration power at the cost of damage. Shadow Spear (M) Significantly increased damage and speed. ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ Spell Level Maximum Reached. Spell: Fire Bomb (E) can now be improved Spell options- Fire Nova (M) Significantly increased damage. Fire Volley (M) Significantly increased aoe and elemental effect chance. ~~~~~~~~~~ The result of his choices were the fire nova and shadow spear. What he began to enjoy about the shadow spear most was how much faster it was. He still did not know how to take advantage of any of the damage bonuses as none of them actually showed their damage bonuses nor did they actually gain any damage bonuses beyond his intelligence stat. When he used the shadow spear he could destroy enemies much faster either way as he could abuse the speed that nothing could dodge. Over the next few hours of the morning he was destroying monster pack after monster pack. His spell damage was enough to break his targets before they can even react. ~ No matter how fast he leveled up he always assumed he would not catch up with his peers but he got a few more levels. ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Mage lv27. (Novice) Shadowfire Devil Affinity: 32% fire, 52% shadow Mana Core: 0% fire, 5% shadow Strength: 5 Vitality: 5 Agility: 91 Wisdom: 158 -> 166 Intelligence: 158 -> 166 Free stats: 56 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: n/a Skills: Mana Control lv4 (E), Mana Sense lv1 (E), Mana Core lv4 (E), Spell Mastery (E) Defenses: Fire Resistance lv1 (N) Spells: Mana Bolt lv1 (E) Mana Burst lv1 (A) Fire Nova lv2 (M) Fire Bolt lv9 (E) Shadow Spear lv2 (M) Shadow Burst lv9 (A) ~~~~~~~~~~ His mana sense over the level grind had gone up in tier allowing him to sense even further. He knew that he still wasnt strong enough to take out that slime so he had to explore more while leveling up. While looking around he went off to ask a few yers about the fastest ways to level up. ~ An elven yer with green hair was the first one to answer him. "Leveling up huh? Well i would say go to the dungeon. You''d be fighting a bunch of undead but it would be good." ording to the yer the dungeon was inside of a cave found at the boundary between two city territories. It took him some time to go find this cave and by the time he did he had even gained another level! The cave itself looked simple although it was surrounded by yers. He approached the cave entrance and was met by a system window. ~~~~~~~~~~ Tomb Of Diana (t2 Dungeon) Rmended Level: 30. Dungeon Modes: Normal Hard Nightmare ~~~~~~~~~~ He was happy to be able to enter a dungeon to level up faster so he chose the normal difficulty. When he entered the dungeon he did not notice that many people seemed to be freaking out. Chapter 23: Tomb Of Diana The cave was dark while the entrance had sealed as if it never existed. He was moving deep in the cave which had very few lights, what few sources of light there were tended to be dim torches that had a blue glow instead of fire. With his mana sense he saw that the whole area was dense with mana particles that were all flooded with the dark element. This was so significant that he could not even dream of passing this chance up. He sat down to cultivate his shadow affinity. After a few minutes if cultivating he felt his energy surging before the sound of creaking met his ears. When he opened his eyes he saw a strange thing he hadnt seen yet. A skeleton. He stood up to ready his spells beforeunching a shadow spear at the undead. When the skeleton was struck by therge spear of magic it lost an arm which began to bleed the shadowy haze of consumption. Hebined it with fire bolts but the burning made the area more annoying to deal with as the confined space got hotter. Thus he chose to focus on shadows. Before killing the skeleton he decided to check its level. What he saw made him a bit more worried than before. This skeleton was lv32. If the first enemy he encountered was a lv32 unarmed skeleton then what would he find deeper in the cave? Once he killed the skeleton that was when he got the true shock of the day. ~~~~~~~~~~ Dungeon Boon in effect. Normal mode experience bonus +50% ~~~~~~~~~~ Not only was this boost incredible but it seemed the skeleton had more experience as well, or maybe dungeon mosters had more experience. It was not enough for a level up but it was very close. He knew that this leveling would be incredibly fast so he wanted to take advantage of this high mana level in the dungeon. Sitting back down to cultivate again he fought off the sleep as he sent his mana sense out as far as possible with his mana control draining the mana into him like a hungry void. He ignored the rapid notifications he was getting and through his mana sense he could even see that there were more undead farther into the cave. When the undead began to move he watched it get closer and closer as he was absorbing more mana. When the mana in that area was depleted he stood up and approached the next skeleton to destroy it. This was what his path looked like for the next few minutes until he got to something less mundane than a cave. He saw a stone door that held a family crest. He wasnt sure what it was for but he assumed that videogame logic would hold and this would be the boss room. It was a very fast dungeon he felt since it was basically a tunnel into the earth. He pushed at the door and it slowly creaked open like a mausoleum. The sound of stone grinding on stone was loud but he kept pushing. It was not difficult but the door had no automatic or magic opening mechanism clearly. When the door was finally open he was able to see the coffin inside. The coffin was simple stone with no decoration on it. He entered the room with caution as he expected the coffin to open and reveal the boss but so far nothing happened. Checking the room with his mana sense he could not see within the coffin as the shadow mana in the room was far to thick. He sat down to cultivate again, pulling all of that dense shadow mana into his body. His efforts were rewarded as he watched the coffin and within he saw a figure glowing bright with mana. Not just any mana though. He saw a figure like a childs drawing of a skeleton filled in with the color ck. This was a shadow mage. Chapter 24: Demilich Diana Raylock With the mana absorbed he could see the figure in the coffin very well. A skeleton covered in robes that seemed to be enchanted as there was a thinyer of blue mana over the body below the neck. Waiting for the boss to get up was a pain as it did not do anything at all. When he got impatient he tried the next n, push the lid off the coffin. Once he touched the lid thats when it began to move and from within he saw the skeleton figure begin to move. He stepped away to watch as it moved the lidpletely off the coffin before it began to slowly float up like some cheesy movie vampire. Once he clearly saw the skeleton though... Shadow Spear! The spear struck the skeleton right in the head. "Yeah screw you and your little cinematic!" The skeleton did not make any noise but he saw the mana in its body begin to flow. "Uh oh." He jumped out of the way as a strange de made from shadow magic shed at his previous position. While it was moving out of the coffin the system did something that it had not done before. It showed a name for the creature. ~~~~~~~~~~ Diana Raylock- Demilich lv50 ~~~~~~~~~~ "Oh.... fuck me sideways." He had bitten off more than he could chew now. During his time leveling up and increasing his shadow affinity he was not a slouch anymore but he was still weakpared to this thing. Ezekiel ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Mage lv39. (Novice) Shadowfire Devil Affinity: 32% fire, 72% shadow Mana Core: 0% fire, 45% shadow Strength: 5 Vitality: 5 Agility: 91 Wisdom: 232 -> 238 Intelligence: 232 -> 238 Free stats: 152 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: n/a Skills: Mana Control lv6 (E), Mana Sense lv5 (E), Mana Core lv9 (E), Spell Mastery (E) Defenses: Fire Resistance lv1 (N) Spells: Mana Bolt lv1 (E) Mana Burst lv1 (A) Fire Nova lv2 (M) Fire Bolt lv9 (E) Shadow Spear lv5 (M) Shadow Cluster lv1 (E) ~~~~~~~~~~ Gaining eleven levels in this dungeon was beyond easy and the ce was so dense with shadow mana that his power had soared. With such high affinity he had noticed that apparently his core having a shadow affinity was far more than just more damage. Comparing shadow spear and fire nova to one another wasnt very easy before as fire nova naturally used more mana but even that was not enough to show the massive reduction in how much mana shadow spear now used. He was not really certain about the exact amount but it was extreme. In addition to how high his affinity now was he also had a damage bonus of over 100% which was incredible. With this power he nned to fight this demilich and win! Until he saw that her health had hardly been scratched by his shadow spear... Because of this discovery he was almost ready to give up until he saw that the main source of the demilich''s spellcasting was going to conjuring spell circles which wwre materializing skeletons. When he saw this he made a quick decision. ~~~~~~~~~~ Free stats: 152 -> 0 Vitality: 5 -> 97 Intelligence: 238 -> 298 ~~~~~~~~~~ He needed to survive these spells and in such an enclosed space the extra undead would hit him no matter how fast he dodged. So he began his fight. ~ Using shadow cluster Ezekiel was able to take out the summoned undead passively with consumption but using his shadow spear on the demilich was not doing much damage anyway. When hebined it with fire bolt it was able to do a bit more but the mana consumption of fireboltpared to the damage did not seem worth it. His shadow spears were striking at her joints as he hoped he could make her less urate by destroying the limbs in the same way as he destroyed the other skeletons. He continued casting more and more to force her health down, his ability to cast silently thanks to spell mastery was amazing since it let him cast so quickly that his spears wereunched with practically no dy. He felt like he was gaining ground until he was struck by a rogue skeleton. This was not a skeleton that had randomly shown up, oh no. This was a skeleton that had apparently been summoned wearing a cloak and held a rusty dagger. With his side now bleeding he killed the creature with a spear cast right in its face. ''How did it get behind me? This room is so small and open that i would have seen everything! Wait... how did she summon it without me even seeing it?!'' His thoughts scrambled for a solution and when he couldnt find one he focused on his fight once more. The thing that worried him was that he was losing health every second due to bleed damage. It seemed weapons had their own effect like elements had and for des it was bleed. ~ "So you''re saying a yer went into the dungeon alone?" "YES! They must be a noob, anyone with a brain would stay away from dungeons solo." "How long have they been in there?" "About thirty minutes, no timer in this game so hard to tell." Outside of the tomb yers were arguing about what they had interpreted to be a yer with a death wish. "I bet he doesnt even make it to the warrior phase, one person cant do half her health." "He was a mage! Oh my god everyone the crazy guy was a mage!" Apparently this revtion had brought the conversations to a screeching halt as everyone beganughing hysterically. "Hey hey hold on! Maybe hes some rich kid that used his daddy''s money to buy a ton of mana potions to waste on this dungeon? HA!" The more people spoke the moreughter it brought as everything began to assume negative things about the yer who entered the dungeon. After some time a group of yers appeared at the entrance with some people cheering them on when they caught sight of them. On the system screen above the dungeon an update was happening that showed a new set of yers at the top. In BLO a dungeon has a ranking system much like other games, but in this game it was based on personal performance. Kill stealing would not give anyone any advantage here as the damage dealt to the creatures in the dungeon was what mattered. If every creature within the dungeon was in then the result would be portioned from aplete 100. If you dealt 20% of the damage in the dungeon then you would receive a cement based on 20%. The next requirement for a high rank was the time taken, faster was better. So if two teams beat every enemy within the dungeon the team that did it faster would rank higher, the yer with the most contribution out of that team was also the top of said team. For the ranking board above the dungeon it would always show the team with the fastestpletion with the three top contributors from it. Now the yer at the top of the board was named "War God" with 28% contribution. As his team consisted of five yers this meant he went above his own contribution requirement for victory. "Hey war god! Im your biggest fan!" "War goooood can we team up?" "Hey did you guys get any good loot?" The team ignored the yers showering the top yer with praise until one of them heard something interesting. "Hey that solo yer might leave soon, if they''ve really got a lot of potions then they probably ran out by now." This yer was an elven rogue yer who approached the leader. "Hey war you hear that? Apparently theres a solo yer." The imposing demon turned back to the elf and then looked at the scoreboard. ''Why would someone go in solo? Poor bastard.'' They continued to leave the area until a random beastfolk woman threw herself onto War God''s arm. "Heya handsome, you know im a pretty good healer. Maybe i could join your next dungeon run?" She seemed to be really trying to cling to the sess of another yer until finally the rogue pulled her away. While trying to hide hisughter he leaned in to whisper to his teammate War God, "i envy you, all these cute girls throwing themselves at you and they have no clue." "Shut up or people might hear you!" The demon yer known as war god grabbed her friend by the neck of his shirt to quickly leave all while he wasughing. ~ Back inside the dungeon Ezekiel was growing closer to beating this boss. He had figured out that when she summoned her undead one of then would be summoned behind her to give it cover as it used a stealth skill. Because of his mana sense he could see the mana hiding it from his vision so the only remaining danger was the sword summoned by the demilich. That is until she hit 50% hp. A wave of mana pulsed which made her body begin to glow red and she struck the ground with her bony palms. That red energy along with her mana transferred into the stone ground to create bright red spell circles. Steping out of these circles were skeletons in chainmail and leather armor. Chapter 25: Dungeon Conqueror With the new minions came new problems. First he discovered a new detail about magic. If an enemy is wearing armor then the impact is obviously lower but the worst part was that the elemental effect of a spell would only affect what it harmed. So if a creature was not directly harmed by the spell then the armor was all that suffered. Now this wasnt to say that the elemental effect did not harm the wearer at all because it certainly did, but the wearer took less than the armor itself if the armor was not eaten through. Because of this Ezekiel was limited to directly going after headshots with his shadow spear or using shadow volley. By abusing the shadow volley he could easily handle the warriors but with their higher defense it was not as fast as the basic undead. Volley upon volley. Spear after spear. He was casting so fast that he was even beginning to use more mana than his passive regeneration could replenish. His spells were hardly harming the demilich but it did not matter. What he saw was that she was resistant to at least 70% of the damage he was dealing. When it was just fire damage she resisted 20% of it but his fire spells did not have the same level of mana cost reduction. When the armored skeletons were finally in he returned his focus to the demilich was was already in the process of casting another spell. So he did something risky, ying defensively would only exhaust him after all even if his stamina got better with his vitality stat. ''A good reason to put points into vitality honestly.'' He rushed forward with a fire nova ready to cast and he forced his hand into the face of the demilich that was mid... chant? Channeling magic? He didn''t know what this casting time was caused by but he took advantage of it. He pushed his hand against her face and shivered at the cold bone sensation on his palm before he let the spell free. Such directed damage against her head was extreme for the demilich that it apparently managed to make a critical point. When the smoke cleared his arm was singed by the spell as well as his shirt he had been wearing which was slowly fixing itself. The demilich though? The demilich was severely hurt. A cracked skull with fragments falling and a missing mandible. This result wasnt as good as he hoped but it was still better than nothing as she had stopped whatever she was doing to cast that spell. Instead she was now casting shadow swords. Now this he could deal with. His new vitality would not protect him forever but it would certainly take a few hits. He kept casting endless shadow spears while waiting for another opening. She moved her hand to do something different? Fire nova. She took a step forward? Fire nova. She takes to long to cast a dark sword? Fire nova. Little by little he was breaking her down as her health fell to 10%. He expected some new mechanic this time but apparently that wasnt happening as she simply kept casting spells. She hadnt even tried to cast an undead summoning spell again but what she did do... Was hit him with a cheap shot. ~ While running from this boss she suddenly hit 5% hp which was apparently the next threshold for her new mechanic. She vanished from his sight and hr used his mana sense to try to glean some information about what happened. He saw the remnants of shadow mana where she stood and suddenly felt severe, blinding pain from his arm. Looking down... well his arm seemed perfectly fine except that it was on the floor. ''MY ARM! THIS BITCH CUT MY ARM OFF!'' "AGHHHHHH!" Momentarily caught off guard by the severe pain he threw himself to the side as he felt another blinding pain sh his side just below the ribs. This demilich was standing there holding a sword made of shadow mana like she had been casting but this one had a grip. The shadow mana was burning away at her hand but with her resistance to the magical damages she seemedpletely fine. What happened next was more disturbing. His arm began to exude that ck mist he had be so used to. He had been afflicted with consumption. Blinding pain wracked his body as he felt like his arm was being eaten away by acid. His skin felt like it was touching dry ice as it slowly shrank. His arm was being visibly eaten away by the elemental effect. Now he understood why those creatures he killed were so easy to abuse when they were under this effect. He knew that if he did not get up and focus he would not survive. He had no clue what happened when you died in a dungeon but he was afraid of dying at all in this game. So through sheer will he stood up and grit his teeth to cast another fire nova. With only one arm he could not trick her with false aim anymore and he had to start to get in close to truly harm her. He couldn''t figure out how her spell wassting so long as she kept swiping at his body. He would dodge and throw himself out of the way as he wished to avoid being struck again but he would still take scratches and small cuts, the more he was afflicted by consumption the more pain he endured. He saw her health grow lower and lower until a red mark appeared on the health bar. The demilich began to attack wildly as her health reached 1% and when he saw this... he ran. He did everything he could to flee and dodge her strikes as she wasnt very fast. What shecked in speed she made up for with her dark swords she cast at range. He would have to rely on his own consumption damage now. While running he would randomly cast shadow volley behind himself hoping that she would not be able to dodge such a wide radius and he was right. He was rapidly running out of stamina so he turned to face her to try to take her out in a final stand of his own. And he fell. Horrific pain assaulted his mind and body as he looked down to see that one of his legs had been taken clean off by this demilich. He howled in agony as he cast one final shadow volley. It seemed like this mage had a sadistic streak as it approached rather than finishing him off with her des. She didnt even try to end him quickly with her sword of shadow mana she held. She simply shed him a few times to keep making him suffer from consumption. The pain was so overwhelming that he didnt even see her stop. He didnt hear the notification from the system. He didnt notice anything was different until he felt blinding light on his face which he quickly covered. ''Why did i try to use my left arm that damn lich cut it off!....'' But the sun was in fact blocked. He opened his eyes and saw... his arm. Perfectly fine. Not only was his arm perfectly fine but his leg was as well. It was like nothing had even happened. Chapter 26: Rewards Getting back up from the ground and opening his character panel he looked for any sign of what happened in that dungeon at the end. ~~~~~~~~~~ Congrattions! You havepleted the dungeon Tomb Of Diana (Normal) and shall receive rewards. You havepleted Tomb Of Diana (Normal) for the first time and shall receive rewards. You havepleted Tomb Of Diana (Normal) for the first time solo and shall receive rewards. Dungeon rewards: Dagger of Keen Strikes (Silver) Boots of Swift Stride (Bronze) Gloves of Mana Craft (Bronze) Chain Shirt of Sturdiness (Bronze) ~~~~~~~~~~ He was interested by the gear he saw and after checking each one he figured that at least two of them could be sold to other yers. ~~~~~~~~~~ Dagger of Keen Strikes (Silver) Strength +20 Agility +40 When striking critical points increase damage dealt by 20%. 10% chance for bonus critical damage to be +50% instead of 20% Requirements: Strength- 30 Agility- 50 ~~~~~~~~~~ This item was the only one with a bonus effect and the rest simply increased stats. The gloves increased the users wisdom, the armor increased vitality and the boots increased agility. With the gloves he had something good and the boots he would be able to make use of them but the dagger and armor he felt were not as helpful. He did not use weapons and even though he had a huge weakness against the boss he would be in even more danger when fightin4f her up close. Though after debating with himself he did save the dagger so he could at least try using it on her next time. The next thing he checked was level he had achieved after beating her as he hoped it would have been worth it. ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Mage lv44. (Novice) Shadowfire Devil Affinity: 32% fire, 72% shadow Mana Core: 0% fire, 45% shadow Strength: 5 -> 20 Vitality: 97 -> 100 Agility: 91 -> 100 Wisdom: 238 -> 270 Intelligence: 298 -> 360 Free stats: 9 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: Dungeon Conqueror Skills: Mana Control lv9 (E), Mana Sense lv9 (E), Mana Core lv9 (E), Spell Mastery (E) Defenses: Fire Resistance lv1 (N) Spells: Mana Bolt lv1 (E) Mana Burst lv1 (A) Fire Nova lv7 (M) Fire Bolt lv9 (E) Shadow Spear lv8 (M) Shadow Cluster lv5 (E) ~~~~~~~~~~ Five levels from just the boss as well as a few items. For the lowest difficulty of the dungeon it was pretty worth it so he actually debating going back in immediately after he redistributed his free stat points. He even added points into his strength to use the dagger. His thoughts about the dungeon were split between the amazing rewards and the horror of being harmed so severely by the shadow magic. He knew that had she had more time he would have been killed... so why was he not killed there? Maybe his notifications would have a clue. ~~~~~~~~~~ Congrattions! You have defeated the demilich diana solo and have achieved the title- Dungeon Conqueror. Increased dungeon rewards ~~~~~~~~~~ Well that was useful but not really anything that exined what happened. He chose to gp through the list in order and eventually he found something. ~~~~~~~~~~ Enemy has been Consumed. + 20 strength. ~~~~~~~~~~ ''... huh?'' Consumed? He thought back to what was happening in that fight and what he remembered through the pain was inflicting the shadow elemental effect on the demilich. That was when inspiration struck. Everytime he used fire spells he would asionally do so to take advantage of the fact that fire elemental damage can reduce target healing when the cauterized effect happens. He had never seen anything that indicated shadow magic having a simr effect but if the elemental effect was consumption maybe the active effect was consumed? All he knew was he had gained a bonus to his stats now because of it. Ezekiel ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Mage lv44. (Novice) Shadowfire Devil Affinity: 32% fire, 72% shadow Mana Core: 0% fire, 45% shadow Strength: 5 -> 20 (60) Vitality: 97 -> 100 Agility: 91 -> 100 (150) Wisdom: 238 -> 270 (280) Intelligence: 298 -> 360 Free stats: 9 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: Dungeon Conqueror Skills: Mana Control lv9 (E), Mana Sense lv9 (E), Mana Core lv9 (E), Spell Mastery (E) Defenses: Fire Resistance lv1 (N) Spells: Mana Bolt lv1 (E) Mana Burst lv1 (A) Fire Nova lv7 (M) Fire Bolt lv9 (E) Shadow Spear lv8 (M) Shadow Cluster lv5 (E) ~~~~~~~~~~ With these changes he decides that he would enter the dungeon once again. The rewards were to good to ignore as he chose the normal difficulty once again. Upon entering he chose to be more efficient with his dungeon crawl as he used his mana sense to track down the skeleton again. He would normally make his move with a spell but this time he chose to try the dagger. Getting ready to strike he watched the skeleton approach before finally... Crunch! -330. He stabbed it directly in the eye socket with the de. With the 20% bonus crit damage it was nice yes but he really did not like the result. The boss had a 70% defense against his shadow spells but even with that he could deal more damage to her with his shadow spears. He decided to keep it on his belt for now as he moved to the next skeleton. ~ After taking out the skeletons in the dungeon plus cultivating his shadow affinity further he only had the mausoleum door left. The final boss again. ~~~~~~~~~~ Shadow Affinity: 72% -> 82% Core Affinity (Shadow): 45% -> 55% ~~~~~~~~~~ He had also reaches the stage where his shadow spear was able to achieve the next tier but.. for some reason it would not allow him to? His master rank spells seemed to need something different to achieve the next tier. Other than the increased power of his shadow spells he had increased his level once again. Unlike therge level gains he had before he had only leveled up three times this run. ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Mage lv47. (Novice) Shadowfire Devil Affinity: 32% fire, 82% shadow Mana Core: 0% fire, 55% shadow Strength: 20 (60) Vitality: 100 -> 110 Agility: 100 -> 115 (165) Wisdom: 270 -> 280 (290) Intelligence: 360 -> 370 Free stats: 0 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: Dungeon Conqueror Skills: Mana Control lv1 (M), Mana Sense lv1 (M), Mana Core lv1 (M), Spell Mastery (E) Defenses: Fire Resistance lv1 (N) Spells: Mana Bolt lv1 (E) Mana Burst lv1 (A) Fire Nova lv9 (M) Fire Arrow lv1 (M) Shadow Spear lv10 (M) Shadow Cluster lv6 (E) ~~~~~~~~~~ Master rank in so many skills and spells but so far no way to level them beyond the master tier, it was annoying him. What was nice was that the bonuses of master tier skills had reached 75% at the base level meaning if he could reach the next tier then they may get even better. He wondered how the system would bnce a mana cost reduction of 100% though... Either way he had a boss to kill and this tkme he would be aiming to do it as quickly as he could. Chapter 27: Rematch As before Ezekiel took advantage of the shadow mana in the room before activating the boss fight but this time he was ready to harm her as much as possible. With the massive difference between shadow and fire affinity he knew that even if he took advantage of the critical points and abused her with fire magic it would not be as effective in the long run again. So he began to abuse her rising form with shadow spears. ~ Without any surprises now that he knew what she would do in the fight he was easily able to bring her back down to 10%. His experience with this fight let him significantly reduce the damage he took. He especially enjoyed that he could trick her into channeling spells just to open up an opportunity to strike her head. By focusing on her critical point he was able to damage her so severely that not only had her jaw been blown off like before but she even had arge portion of her cranium missing which he hoped hindered her vision since one eye was gone. His damage was a lot higher than before but he knew she was about to strike with her sword. When she began surrounding herself in shadow mana he threw himself to the side. Her strike was still fast even if he expected it so she still clipped his side. With his arm still in y he could actually aim and trick her unlike before, this allowed him to keep his damage consistent. She continued attacking him with her shadow des while her sword strikes happened roughly once every ten seconds. If this were a mage instead of a boss he was terrified of how strong she would be since it seemed bosses were limited by cooldowns. As he drew closer to victory with her falling rapidly he knew that once she reached 2% she would enter some sort of frenzy like before. He wouls have to aim perfectly to take her out though. When her health hit 2% she paused for just a fraction of a second which gave him the perfect opportunity to strike her again. He was reaching a point where he could estimate her health by how often he cast his spear using critical points since crits reduced the number of spells needed to y her by half. ~ She struck him. His body was marred by wounds bleeding that gray mist while he stood there in his victory. Soon he was transported back outside just as before with his earnings. This time ying her only gave him two levels while his title seemed to have paid off somewhat as he got an additional itempared to before. ~~~~~~~~~~ Sword of zing Waves (Silver) Ring of Mana Condensing (Silver) Boots of Swift Stride (Bronze) Gloves of Mana Craft (Bronze) Shield of Sturdiness (Bronze) ~~~~~~~~~~ He was curious about what these new items did and since his power had grown a bit further with this recent victory he wanted to explore the city more. While walking to it he read the descriptions of the new weapons. ~~~~~~~~~~ Sword of zing Waves (Silver) Strength +40 Vitality +30 When activated this de will be infused with the element of fire. +50% damage to strikes and damaging skills used with the de. Cooldown: 10 minutes. Fire affinity can increase this effect. Requirements: Strength- 50 Vitality- 50 Ring of Mana Condensing (Silver Wisdom +30 Intelligence +20 Natural mana regeneration increased by 1%. Requirements: Wisdom- 80 ~~~~~~~~~~ He would have to figure out how to sell these items without the yers trying to stalk him but for now he would look for the cksmith. He wanted to help his fire affinity catch up with his shadow affinity. Currently after thest bit of mana he absorbed his shadow affinity sat at 75% so to make them even it might take a very long time. He decided to look for thergest forge he could. ~ After asking around the city he learned that thergest forge was in the craftsmans district with the other mass production crafters. He might not be able to cultivate his fire affinity to 75% today but he could get very far and he knew this when he saw the forge room. A giant forge full of smiths and behind it was a warehouse. A warehouse that cast their own ingots. In the forge room the area dedicated to mana replenishment and mage cultivation had a dozen people so he asked if he could try cultivating in the refinery. In the refinery was another beast entirely. The room was so full of heat that the mana itself practically burned and the whole time he sat there he was being harmed by the heat. He learned that the workers of the refinery had to actually take shifts until they developed a strong enough fire resistance skill to stay there for long periods. It was so unbelievably hot that even his sweat evaporated before it could fall. His time in the refinery was short but intense as he was able to absorb mana almost as potent as in the dungeon. He went as far as staying into the night shift to gain as much mana as possible no matter how much damage he took. The only time he left was to recover his hp when he got to 5% left. While waiting he looked at his gains. ~~~~~~~~~~ Fire Affinity: 32% -> 67% Core Affinity: 0% -> 38% Fire Resistance lv 1 (N) -> lv4 (A) ~~~~~~~~~~ He would not back down no matter how burned he got. He would grow stronger and he would learn how powerful a mage with affinity at 100% in regr and core would be. ~ Chapter 28: Greater Secrets After recovering his hp Ezekiel wanted to return to his affinity cultivation but the smiths told him that he should return at ater time. In fact all of the cultivating mages were being escorted out. He did not know what was happening but he just left as requested, he could probably convince that alchemist to let him stay again if he gave more of his blood. The city at night was very strange but he found his way back to her shop without much trouble. When knocking on her door he almost expected nothing as it was already dark but she eventually answered. He started to politely bow thinking it was how respect was shown in such a fantasy world but she immediately spat on the ground when he did so. He would assume she didnt like such things. "Back already eh? Hoping for another night here?" "Yes! Um sorry, yes I am hoping that i can exchange more of what we did before to pay for another night." "Boy dont say it like that, ya sound like a damn hooker... a male devil hooker, now that would be some kinda weird luxury." ''A luxury?'' He wanted to ask for rification but she went to her shop so he just followed. When inside they began their work as before. While he was bloodletting he did ask her a few questions this time though. "Hey i wanted to ask since before, you said shadow magic is ouwed? Why is that?" She was mixing potions in her great cauldron but she seemed to be doing something that didnt require all her focus since she replied. "Shadow magic is ouwed because people call it the magic of serial killers. They dont allow people to know exactly why but apparently part of shadow mana makes ya really keen to kill people in horrible ways." She began bottling the potion from the cauldron as if she were bottling alcohol. "They say that when a shadow mage wants to get stronger the method they use will naturally lean towards torture and gruesome murders." "Now i dont know if its true or if its fear mongering because ya the first shadow mage i met." After bottling the final potion she turned to him. "Any idea if they right? Shadow magic a rool of serial killers boy?" He wanted to immediately refute it but then he remembered something. "Well i have been hurt by it before and I would definitely call it torture, imagine being burned alive while also being covered in frostbite. Cold fire that creeps into your body while your flesh is melted as if acid were poured on it." What he didn''t mention was how shadow magic could apparently give you more stats somehow. "Well here''s my next question ma''am, how do i take my spells beyond the master rank?" She seemed surprised now but then waved her hand in dismissal. "Ya otherworlders and ya boons from the creator, ba!" "To make ya spell grow beyond master ya gotta forge the spell''s shape yerself." She held a hand palm up and through his mana sense he could see her channelling mana to her palm where it began to form... a dagger? "To make ya spells stronger ya gotta learn to manipte mana even further which means ya gotta make yer mana control go beyond master." "And how would i do that?" "Ya practice maniptin mana in ways that dont absorb it or make spells. Ya gotta make mana constructs." When she said this he finally had an epiphany. ''She was never using a spell, that demilich was using a mana construct to attack me!'' He examined her closely and watched as she controlled her mana so easily. As he was observing her skills he got distracted though. He saw something very interesting. "Um... why are your veins full of mana?" She was taken aback by his question before she started cackling almost violently. "Those are my mana veins! Its an advanced skill for mages like spell mastery." He got very excited at this and leaned in close. "Can you teach me to make my veins carry mana?" She looked at him strangely before shaking her head. "They be veins that carry mana not my actual veins boy but sure I''ll help ya cross the boundary to be an advanced mage." What happened next was a long night of studying anatomy through books she kept for apprentices to learn proper potion applications and medical skills. To create mana veins he had to do what he did with his core but it could only be done with high level mana control. He would have to slowly form his mana veins in such a way that they would not be constrained by his body but also reached every point in his body. This was why mages used the real circtory system as a guide for it. It took him hours of hard work and concentration but eventually... ~~~~~~~~~~ Skill Obtained: Mana Veins (A) Increase mana flow to spell craft by 50%. ~~~~~~~~~~ He wasnt sure what that meant but based on the way she described it he wouls be adding more mana to fuel the things he would make when handling spells or mana constructs. It would increase his mana consumption by 50% but it would help in every way she rified. Her fire had only increased his affinity by 1% but he was still happy with the results since he had only hoped for a bed that night, instead he got a bed and a new skill. Chapter 29: Auctions With all of the help that she had given him during this time Ezekiel wanted to do something to thank her but she would not ept any favors beyond their normal agreement. He had even gotten to learn about an auction house so he could sell the loot from the dungeon. He promised to return to help her make more potionster on but for now he wanted to get there early so the sales would be done while he was cultivating his fire affinity. ~ On arrival at the auction house he was stunned. The outside had a simple beauty to it as if it were given an artists touch during it''s construction but the focus remained on its practicality. The inside of the building was swarming with workers that he assumed would be getting the items of the day ready. When he reached the front desk he politely greeted the worker and asked for an appraisal of his wares. He had been told that the auction house would need to appraise the items he sold and when the auction house agreed he asked if he could leave the items there for appraisal. Before leaving he had to sign his name as well as give a blood sample to some odd magical device that he just assumed worked like a dna tester. With the items in his inventory freed up he was ready to go cultivate his fire affinity, maybe he would try to cultivate his mana veins as well. Since he did not have any money yet he wasnt even sure what his items would sell for so he would try to ask around the smithy when he got his affinity to the point he wanted it. With his new goal of evenly distributed affinity closer than before he was practically skipping. ~ With his increased fire resistance skill he could stay in the refinery longer than he could before but he still felt his body ache from the heat. He decided he would cultivate his power for just a few hours today as he wished to grow his level further. While controlling the mana to aid the growth of his mana veins rather than his core he was able to cultivate both his fire affinity and grow his new skill further. Since the mana veins already increased mana usage he was curious about what the next tier would do since increasing the level of the skill did nothing in the system window. When he checked his status window he was happy to see that he had finally achieved his goal. ~~~~~~~~~~ Fire Affinity: 68% -> 76% Core Affinity: 38% -> 43% Fire Resistance: lv4 (A) -> lv8 (A) Mana Veins: lv1 (A) -> lv3 (A) ~~~~~~~~~~ By not absorbing the mana solely to his core he had not gotten his core affinity as high as it would normally have gone. With his goal achieved and knowing that any further cultivating would stagnate because of some odd requirement for denser elemental mana. He decided that he would hunt down more creatures instead... or maybe a dungeon run. He could significantly speed up his farming by using fire spells now that they were as powerful as his shadow spells... it was time to try it out. ~ While ughtering the undead in the dungeon he took advantage of the dense shadow mana even if it could not cultivate his power as effectively as before. The entirety of the dungeon before the boss room could barely give him 1% at this point but progress was still progress since it was beyond the density of the mana outside. By the time he killed that final skeleton before the boss room he achieved lv50 ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Mage lv50. (Novice) Shadowfire Devil Affinity: 76% fire, 76% shadow Mana Core: 43% fire, 48% shadow Strength: 20 (60) Vitality: 110 Agility: 120 (170) Wisdom: 290 -> 300 (340) Intelligence: 380 -> 390 (410) Free stats: 3 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: Dungeon Conqueror Skills: Mana Control lv1 (M), Mana Sense lv1 (M), Mana Core lv1 (M), Spell Mastery (E), Mana Veins lv3 (A) Defenses: Fire Resistance lv 8 (A) Spells: Mana Bolt lv1 (E) Mana Burst lv1 (A) Fire Nova lv10 (M) Fire Arrow lv6 (M) Shadow Spear lv10 (M) Shadow Cluster lv7 (E) Infernal yer (Belial) has reached lv50. Initiating race evolution. Examining status for most suitable race. Suitable race found. Evolution to "Greater Shadowfire Devil" initiated. ~~~~~~~~~~ When he saw this he was very shocked but he did not have much time to think about it before the world went ck. ~ Chapter 30: Greater Shadowfire Devil When he became aware of the world again he immediately checked his status panel. He had not been expecting anything unique as he leveled up since he was constantly wrong before so this was interesting for him. ~~~~~~~~~~ Greater Shadowfire Devil Vitality +5 Agility +5 Wisdom +12 Intelligence +12 Free Stats +16 Shadowfire Affinity: 77% Core Affinity (Shadowfire): 44% Shadowfire Orb lv1 (E) ~~~~~~~~~~ He had not been given a description of the evolution before it urred so he didnt really know what these bonuses were but he could guess. Shadowfire was what his previous species was and it was built upon his equal use of both elements so this new species must be the improved version whichbines the two affinities into something stronger. He didnt know what shadowfire would do but he was excited to try it out... though he was worried about whether the boss would be resistant to it or not. Before entering the boss room he chose to test out the shadow orb just to gain mastery over it. Since he had the time to figure it out he even went as far as to create the shadow and fire equivalent of each spell he did not choose before. ~~~~~~~~~~ Spells Learned: Shadow Nova lv1 (M) Shadow Arrow lv1 (M) Fire Spear lv1 (M) Shadowfire Spear lv1 (L) Shadowfire Arrow lv1 (L) Shadowfire Nova lv1 (L) ~~~~~~~~~~ It seemed that shadowfire spells had an inherently higher grade than other elements as the same spell made from the shadowfire element was at a new tier, the legend tier. When mastering the spells he noticed very strange things about the shadowfire element. The first aspect of it was how shadowfire was like an element of its own but if he cast a spell using a different element it would separate from the union. ''Its like saltwater, its a new solution made from two ingredients but you can easily extract one of then with the right technique!'' The second thing he noticed was the fact that shadowfire was even easier to manipte than his previous affinities, he had struggled to make mana constructs with shadow mana or fire mana but with this element he could create mana constructs easily. The third thing he noticed? Touching shadowfire was torture. When he gripped the handle of a shadowfire mana constuct in the shape of a dagger he immediately began to take both burn and consumption from the mana so he practically threw the dagger away in his panic. Exploring his new power was fun but he had a great test dummy in the next room. ~ After absorbing the shadow mana in the room he was surprised to see that what he knew would be at least another point on his affinity before was now not even a tick. He touched the coffin and prepared his spells. Since he could use mana constructs so easily he even tried to create a number of projectiles using it. While making his spears of shadow mana he felt like they could be improved, so while the lid was moving to the side he began to experiment. Hepressed the mana in the spears down to a fine point until they were thin like needles and just as sharp. It took some mana to keep them in the air around him and the more he made the harder they became to control. When he finally saw her head he sent out the four condensed mana spears. Now he had been expecting his spells to not do very much as they normally would since she had such high magical resistance. He was wrong. -1812 -1812 -1812 -1812 -90 -90 -90 -90 ... Somehow he had bypassed her magic resistance but not only had he bypassed it, hepletely ignored it! Her health was rapidly fallingpared to before and he was very excited for that. Her skull was basically gone and all that remained was the spectral me that would peak out of the damaged skull in previous battles. With her skull shattered except for the base connected to the vertebrae he wondered if she would be able to see him or if she truly did rely on video game logic about skeletons. While waiting for an answer he wished to try something. He moved forward with a shadowfire nova cast, condensed and ready to st her away. He created more surrounding his hand and clumped them together like some kind of bouquet of bombs. With this heunched the projectile clump at her spectral me to see what would happen. The result floored him. Well he also got sted into the floor by the explosion but that was besides the point. By targeting her spectral me he had dealt more than half of her health in one blow! Now that he had his best target he would farm this boss for everything she could give. Chapter 31: Catching Up With his spells able to abuse what he assumed was the soul of the demilich Ezekiel had farmed her a few times before he left. Although she was a boss and worth a significant amiunt of experience hispletions began to be less and less useful. By the time he reached lv55 from farming this boss he was getting practically nothing from each kill since she was now weaker than him by level. If not for his attempts at absorbing the mana in the area he would have been able to farm even faster but he was hungry for maximum power. The silver quality gear he would get from this dungeon would sometimes be helpful and since he had chosen to fully dedicate his gear to his mage stats as well he was even struggling to find anything that exclusively helpful for mages. One item he did obtain was a robe. ~~~~~~~~~~ Mage Robes (silver) Wisdom +20 Intelligence +40 While wearing the robes a mage benefits from an additional 10% magical damage. Mana Burner: A mage wearing these robes may activate this skill to consume 10% more mana for 10% more damage for one minute. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Requirements: Intelligence- 80 ~~~~~~~~~~ These robes would be quite helpful for him but it did take a pretty long time to get anything remotely useful. After putting the robes on when he was forced out of the dungeon at the end he decided he would try to see how quickly he could take the dungeon down. Normally he took upwards of ten minutes just to deal with the mana he absorbed but since he only got a singr percent boost in the multiple runs he did he decided that it was no longer worth it. Plus he had eventually learned that the screen above the dungeon was actually a leaderboard! He wasn''t even on it since the lowest score visible was five minutes and 34 seconds. So he returned to the dungeon once again with a fire in heart. ~ "Hey that crazy solo mage is going back again, must be dead set on trying to beat the dungeon huh?" "Yeah that weirdo cant be normal if he keeps going back to back, plus he takes so long that even my teams can finish the run in the time he takes to get through it." Since the dungeons show no outward signs ofpleting it outside of the leaderboard the yers who are frequently looking for teams to run the dungeon had no way to know about the truth. "Did you hear that War God was going to try to improve his time in the dungeon today?" "Oh yeah, i bet he''ll be going after the hard mode next when he gets his time under three minutes." Not long after they were speaking the yers were interrupted by cheers. The War God was leaving the dungeon with a victorious look as the scoreboard updated to show that their team had in fact gotten under three minutes. Not only was their time much faster but War God''s own score in that run was forty percent! This made the fans of War God practically feral with their celebration as it meant that not only had their idol gone beyond their capacities to get through the dungeon faster but he had done almost half of the work! With the praise washing over them and the cheers drowing out everyone attempts to speak, no one heard the sudden shocked yer. They could not hear this yer until, one by one, people began to stop when they noticed eachother listening. "The scoreboard! Look at the scoreboard!" And they did. Oh they definitely did. At the top of the board was a new time. Two minutes and twenty seconds. When checking which team dared to dethrone the war god all they saw was one line. Belial lv55 100% While the crowd was stunned at this revtion one of the few who seemed unbothered was actually the War God. ''Hm i wonder who that yer might be? I should try to get him on my team for the hard mode clear.'' Secondster the figure people.had previously mocked appeared. They all saw this gray skinned devil with blood red runes and lines across his body covered by his robes. Deep ck horns like onyx gemstones and eyes so red they seemed to burn the soul when they gazed to long. Few of them had even seen a devil yet so they immediatelypared him to the demon yer War God. When so close to one another the differences were very clear. Demons tended to haverger and more savage looking horns almost as if made to be a natural weapon. The demon yer had red skin with green eyes as well as horns that were a red shade with a green tint almost like moss starting to grow. The figure difference wasrge but it could also be due to the demon yer wearing heavy armor that aided in their body size. The devil also had two very clear differences that made them easy to tell apart even if the yer Belial had a naturally husky build. The first was the refined shape of his horns that had no implications of being brutal weapons, the wed fingers were more refined like they would not easily cut skin. And Belial had a tail. Since many yers wouls not know about the difference between species yet they simply assumed that the yer was more refined due to being a mage. While everyone was studying him Belial simply ignored them all to check his result. He smiled in satisfaction over the result before turning to leave but stopping when he saw War God. ''Huh i guess infernal women do look pretty cute with horns.'' While walking past he gave the demon a smile and a polite nod. War God''s face got a bit darker in shade which many people had to interpret, much of these interpretations were negative. Everything was fine until a number appeared above Belial''s head. -279 "How dare you take away the great War God''s aplishment!" A human rogue yer had stabbed the devil. Chapter 32: PvP With his health now lower and his side bleeding Ezekiel turned to look at this rogue in shock. The strange thing was that his blow had not taken as much health as the system showed. Other yers in the area knew that this was because of yer killing protection. A game from decades before had made this form of protection quite popr as it effectively prevented abuse towards other yers who wished to escape. In BLO if an attempt at yer killing was done outside of a system recognized duel the damage would be halved until the other yer responded with an attack of their own. The issue with this came about when looking at anyone withrge range strikes as they could unintentionally hit others in the area which yer killer''s exploited to abuse others. Ezekiel was ready to respond with a strike of his own out of extreme anger but a gauntlet was ced between them. "You know that you should not be trying to pk around dungeons you scumbag, either challenge Belial to a duel or leave!" War God had intervened to apparently enforce some rule that Ezekiel was not aware of. Since this was a rule he chose to let his hp recover before he would challenge the rogue to a duel. The rogue however seemed very eager to just kill the mage who he seemed to view as an easy target. "Mages take time to cast buddy, I know alllll the weaknesses of you little mage yers." He moved forward to strike once again and it seemed like no one was going to intervene again. Even War God seemed to step back to watch what would happen. Since he saw that a duel would not be happening and this battle would just be through yer killing Ezekiel decided it was better to simply end it. A rogue would not have much health at this point so he used his mana maniption to cast shadowfire arrow and make a pair of them. The other yers seemed surprised by the silent casting but others had different questions. "He just made two projectiles at once? Can that even be done with a spell?" "Why does his spell look like ck fire? Wait can wr customize our spells through cosmetics like that?" The rogue intended to get in close while dodging the spell projectiles but he had not anticipated how fast they would be. By moving his head away from the one that Ezekiel hoped would crit the rogue only sustained a body injury. Well thats what he thought until he felt the same unimaginable pain that he felt when he was once struck by the dungeon boss. Looking down and in so much agony he could not even scream he saw a hole going through his ribs. The clothing quickly covered it but he copsed as his body trembled, before his form finally shattered into digital particles. "Damn, that mage is deadly. Wonder why the guy fell?" "You didn''t see the massive hole in his chest?" "Bro who cares about the spell, the rogue just lost a bronze dagger." With the rules of the game if a yer attempted to battle another yer outside of official duels then they were subject to inventory loss. A random item in their inventory would be dropped upon death which was why so many took advantage of the weakness the game had for PK protection. The only other significant consequence was the message board where those who were victims of PK would send their recorded experiences of the incident to others with the ID of the yer killer. yer killing was normally frowned upon since it meant a yer was taking advantage to get free gear others worked hard to obtain. "Hey you ok there Belial?" Turning back to see what was going on Ezekiel saw the demon yer War God speaking to him. "Oh, yeah im ok... is there a way i can get that guys item back to him? I mean its kinda trash but I don''t need it." War God was surprised by how open and surprisingly kind this yer seemed to be, it didn''t really match what she felt like a PK victim should say. "Just leave it there, only the killer or the original owner is allowed to pick it up." Ezekiel was suprised by this and nodded. "Thats a weirdly good system, i need to head back to the auction house to get rid of the junk i got so goodbye." As he was leaving Ezekiel got a notification which he checked on the way. ~~~~~~~~~~ Friend Request Received: War God Warrior lv68. ~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 33: The Auction Ezekiel epted the friend request since he assumed having an experienced yer would be very helpful. He had trained through the game a lot but he wasnt aware of a lot of the things others had learned. When he arrived at the auction house he asked for his registration again to add more items to his list of sold items. He wanted to wait for the items to be auctioned but when he asked about it he was just told that the items were going to be auctioned off via the grand exchange. The grand exchange, he learned that it was a bit like the inte for auctioning items. Every auction house across the country was connected through this system so that buyers from any region could have ess to total inventory being sold. This benefits both seller and buyer since it was not reliant upon who was in your area. ~ At this moment in the celestial kingdom the yer Alexander was looking through the world auction house. Celestials were more advanced with magic than many other countries so it wasnt hard to ess their works" to buy and sell products of their own. He was currently checking for gear that eould be sold soon, from his memory he knew that during this day arge number of items would suddenly be sold by what seemed to be a mage since everything sold was beneficial to martial sses. He was looking for a few of these items since many yers would not have ess to enough in game currency to beat the npc buyers. In the past it was typically assumed that that npcs participated in auctions to artificially raise the price of items so yers to what the game had deemed them to be worth. At such a low level it would be very difficult to outbid the npcs on everything but he knew an excellent sword would be avable as well as armor that would make his time so much easier in dungeon crawls. He would bepeting mostly with demon yers and npcs for the sword but for the armor he remembered it selling for quite a low price. When he saw the influx of items he knew it was time. ~ The yer known as War God was scrolling through the auction house to see if she could potentially find the items that Belial had nned to sell. Her goal was to see just how important this mage would be to her future if she got him on her side. When the influx of items appeared she was blown away. ''No wonder he called the bronze dagger trash, he had over a dozen silver items!'' While looking through the list of items she saw one of them. A sword that could cause fire damage. She had beem given an affinity for the fire element as an infernal race yer but she had not really explored it yet. This sword called out to her since she felt like it would let her learn what her fire affinity actually did. ~ Since he was a seller Ezekiel was allowed to rx in a room where he would be waiting for his payment. He had been told that auction houses take a ten percentmision from whatever the total was. The handler who put the items up for auction on his behalf would be the recipient of the majority of thatmission while the auction house took the rest. The bronze gear sold quickly, starting at 10 copper coins per item and slowly increasing in value depending on what the item was. The highest item sold from bronze gear was 1 silver coin and 7 copper but he had dozens of then so the total rose quickly. The item that began the strongest bidding war was actually the Sword of zing Waves. Since he was a seller he could see the current bidding on each item in a separate screen. He had a dozen silver quality items that had been put up and the lowest price he saw on the bidding page for the ones he listed was 15 silver. The sword? It was curently at 40 silver. He had not expected that a random sword he got would be the target of a bidding war. Chapter 34: Mage Tower It took almost half an hour before everything was sold and when it wasplete he only had to calcte themission. With theirmission taken he was left with exactly 76 silver and 98 copper. When they brought his money to him he thanked them. They gave him a card that would apparently allow him to specifically request a seller for his items if he returned. He assumed that this was something given to every person who sells items so he just thanked them and left. The card itself was made from copper and held mana within in intricate ways simr to the spell circles he had seen in the forging rooms he had cultivated in. Since his task was done he wanted to explore the city, specifically arge tower than had been catching his eye everytime he looked at the skyline. ~ Approaching the tower Ezekiel was held back by the hand of a guard. "Identification boy?" "Uhh..." Without any idea about the identification that could be required he just held up his copper card he just got. "Look i dont care if you''re supposed to be some kid with money, you need your identification to enter the tower." "I dont even know what the tower is though? What identification do I need?" "This is a mage tower, if you don''t have any identification then you haven''t passed their test. Go get your qualification test done then we can talk." "Can you tell me where the test is at least?" The guard seemed very annoyed butplied with his request anyway. He would have to return to the lower portion of the city and find arge building with a specific symbol. The guard had at least been nice enough to show him the symbol before forcing him away. Since he didn''t know what to expect for this test other than the fact that it involved mages he would have to take it seriously. When he got to the building he saw that it at least had a clear intention. This was another training area for mages like in the vige! When entering the building he was greeted by an elf that radiated mana. "Hello how can I help you?" "Im uh, here to take my qualification test?" "Ah! Welle right this way young man. The first thing we will do is measure your mana as well as its quality." Mana quality?! "I... was never taught about mana quality, im an otherworlder could you please exin?" "Oh of course i would be happy to!" The mage had initially seemed surprised but then he was all smiles. "Mana quality unlike mana skills is something that you are born with much like your bloodline." They arrived at a room which contained three crystal balls. "Now in this room we will measure how far you havee as a mage as well as your potential because of your mana quality." When he heard the word potential his heart sank. Using some strange quality decided upon your birth to decide how far you can go as a mage was a bad sign for this game. ~ The first crystal ball he was brought to was at the base of a pir of stone that contained ten little gemstones. "Now this will tell us your mana quality. Mana quality basically just refers to how dense your mana naturally is when you make a core." "Since having a core means you will be trying to condense it into a solid state, having naturally denser mana means you have a naturally denser core which means more mana." "This crystal will take the equivalent of a mana orb from your core and it will use the mana to fill the crystals." He ced his hand on the ball and when the crystal absorded the small amount that barely even appeared on his mana bar he watched the crystals on the pir begin to shine. Chapter 35: Mage Potential As the gems began to fill the mage guiding him in the process exined what was happening. "Each gem is a different one that can contain different amounts of mana while the crystal ball itself is just an enchanted crystal that operates under specific rules." "First the cryatal takes the specified amount of mana which doesnt change, it ignores any skills that would increase mana for spells since the crystal takes the mana rather than your core sending it." "The crystal then feeds the mana into the pir which fills the gems to store the mana, each gem can store a progressivelyrger amount." "The gems obviously cannot store arge amount but they had been used as little magic trinkets before a mage in the past thought to use them to test students." "Since each gem in the line hold progressively more mana it bes easy to understand and measure a student based on how much of a gemstone they can charge when it finally has to much capacity for the mana." While he was exining this the gems began to glow one after the other and when it wasplete the 7th gem was glowing less than the rest indicating he had begun to fill it as well. "Ah stepping into seventh grade mana quality, thats rare! Id say you are in about the top 20% of mana quality for mages." Ezekiel was very happy to hear this so he followed to the next step. "Now with the next crystal we will measure your current capacity for mana." cing his hand on the crystal ball he felt it begin to drain his mana at a monstrous level. In a matter of seconds it had drained his mana which he could see swirling in the crystal ball as a liquid. "Mastery level mana core very good, very good." He got ready to leave but Ezekiel stopped him. "What about that other one?" He pointed at the third crystal ball in the room which they hadpletely ignored. The mageughed before patting him on the shoulder. "Thats for measuring affinity and for normal mages it would be a requirement but you''re a devil, the infernal race and the celestial race make that part of the test unnecessary since bing a devil or the celestial race equivalent requires raising your affinity anyway." He walked away expecting Ezekiel to follow. "Plus you dont look like a regr devil, with those horns I''d wager you''ve already gotten to the greater devil species which requires an affinity to be cultivated to seventy five percent." Ezekiel was very surprised to learn that the people of this world would know so much, then he wondered if it was just the schrly types that would know such things. As he thought about it the fact that this knowledge was already obvious to the mage did make sense. For schrs learning more information is part of the passion for the role, many mages would be schrs in fictional media so for a mage to be well versed in the knowledge of other race''s mages made sense. It also made sense that some soldiers would probably recognize his race down the line. He had only seen yers who were infernal characters so far which made him wonder why he didnt see any npcs in this city who were devils or demons. He had also not seen any celestials. "Where are the devils normally from? In the otherworld they are said toe from a ce called hell." The mage seemed to ponder for a moment before shrugging. "I suppose our world would call it the abyss, they say the first members of the infernal race came from the abyss as the servants of the gods of fire and darkness." He moved deeper into the building while talking to Ezekiel, others would pass asionally and some would look at the strange new mage but it seemed like their curiosity was fleeting. "ording to legend the goddess of fire and the god of darkness were betrothed and as a wedding gift the other gods and goddesses came together to form life from the abyss which held the essence of both of their elements." "In fact this legend has ater version that practically treats the celestial races as the younger siblings of the infernal race." He was more curious now as he didn''t know that there were gods in this world but it did make sense. "How are the celestials our siblings?" "Well when the goddess of light reached adulthood and obtained her elemental focus the couple gave her a race of her own from the heavens, the celestials." "ording to the seers, Luminous was the one who had the idea to create the infernals as a wedding gift and she convinced the other gods to join in her n." "The celestials were made as aing of age gift and a thank you from the couple." He reacted to this news with a bit of a frown. "So we''re just tools? Objects given as gifts?" The mage stopped and turned to Ezekiel with a disturbed look. "No? The story is a beautiful one, to have beings made in your honor is an act of love. Gods cannot procreate and are only birthed from the essence of the world when a new god is required." "Since gods cannot procreate they choose beings to care for and give their blessings to the way parents would bless their children." After exining this he moved on to continue down to wherever they were going. Chapter 36: Diana Lore With the new information about his yer race as well as something to explore in the future Ezekiel kept following so that he could get registered. "What''s all the registration for anyway?" The mage gave a broad smile and motioned to the different rooms they passed where people of all ages and different races studied like some kind of school. "The registry is so mages across the country can be safely known, it also protects the various mage towers, magical academies and even training grounds like this from criminal mages." "How does it do that?" "Well you see, when a mage is registered they put their mana signature into the registry as well as their identification." They eventually arrived at a room that looked more like a front desk of some building. "If a mage is convicted of a criminal act then they cannot abuse the vast knowledge contained within these ces of study, now go ahead and give her your hand." The registration was actually a lot like when he registered his wares at the auction house. After the mage he was with gave the receptionist woman some papers that he had been writing on the whole of the test, she made him ce his hand on a small crystal ball. To receive his identification he would need to pay a fee but it was only ten coppers. Now that he knew what therge tower was he decided that it would always be thereter but he still had to catch up to his peers. Before leaving though he asked the mage one more question. "Sir the dungeon that we have outside of the city, can you tell me more about it?" "Dungeon? Oh! Those pocket dimensions the gods made for you." "Pocket dimensions?" Ezekiel was shocked but then after some thought he realized that technically they would qualify as pocket dimensions. "Yes you otherworlders can enter but we cannot as the gods made them for your growth and yours alone." "Oh. Well then was Diana Raylock not a real person?" When he said this the mage halted in his tracks. "How did you learn this name?" He was caught off guard by this response and before he could answer, the mage dragged him into a separate room. "Tell me how you learned of her name boy." ~ Outside of the city War God aka La was looking through the vast list of friend requests she had been getting for thest few days she had been here. She would have to wait for her brother to get back to help her find out which yers would be the best options for running the dungeon again. She had been an avid fan of mmorpgs for almost her whole life and even yed the more retro games that her father had yed on as a teenager. She knew that what she needed most for this dungeon was a healer. She had met a few yers who were healers but because of their reliance of mana potions it waspletely useless to train them. What she really wanted was the way the devil yer Belial had managed to apparently be so powerful that he had no mana issues unlike the rest of the yerbase. Many yers she spoke to would have the rare instance if gaining a skill through what they considered luck but she felt like there was more to it. In her real life experiences she was a member of the track team so she had naturally moved in the game the way she would move in her real body. After a certain amount of time she had gained two skills that she couldn''t help but feel came from her natural skills as a runner. These skills were marathon runner and sprinter. One would reduce her stamina consumption when she was running and the other let her consume more stamina to increase her base sprinting speed. Maybe there existed a way to gain skills that reduced mana consumption from spells or increased the mana supply? She would have to find Belial to ask. ~ Cornered in the room like a rat, Ezekiel was wondering where he went so wrong. "Why do you know her name, tell me now before I go to the guards." "She''s the boss of the dungeon ok?! Calm down!" He looked confused and motioned for Ezekiel to sit. "Exin." So Ezekiel did. He described how the entrance of the dungeon was a cave that descended deep under the ground in a sloping path full of skeletons that had to be killed until it reached a door with some kind of crest. The mage looked away deep in thought before pulling out a book. He opened to a page and showed him, on ot was the same crest as the mausoleum door before the yers would fight Diana. "This crest?" "Yeah exactly that one, after beating all the skeletons and reaching the mausoleum door you find a stone coffin." He looked the mage back in the eye not understanding why any of this was a problem. "So you''re saying the otherworlders have to fight through the undead to reach Diana''s resting ce?" He seemed to be growing worried. "Yeah? I mean how else would you get to the necromancer? Once you touch the coffin the demilich Diana Raylock is awakened and she is thest enemy we have to fight before we can leave the dungeon." When he spoke the words demilich the mage went silent, even after be paused it was so quiet a skittering bug would have been audible. "Diana became a demilich?...." The mage put his head down in his hands and copsed against a wall. "Who was Diana? Im confused." It toom him a moment to answer but when he did it really did not help Ezekiel. "Diana was a very promising young life mage, a high elf who was going to join the church of light apparently even if everyone told her it was a terrible idea." He put his hands back down and looked up at the ceiling of the room. "Turns out she was nning an assassination... she tried to entice the pope with her beauty and skills as a healer but he somehow knew something that no one else did." The mage looked Ezekiel in the eye and scowled like he was disgusted as he spoke these next words. "He figured out that the freak was a shadow mage, so he killed her." Chapter 37: Dungeon Grinding After leaving with his identification Ezekiel had more questions than answers. He was very curious about what happened that exposed diana since he worried that he would expose himself as well. Since he had no answers he felt that the best use of his time was to keep farming. He was very curious about what the hard mode of the dungeon would bring. ~ Inside of the dungeon he felt that the mana was much denser. What was strange was the fact that he could sense the skeletons from farther away because of how dense the mana inside of them also became. In fact the mana had more than one change. Previously the mana infused into the skeletons had a slight green tint to it that only lessened as they lost hp but these skeletons had a deep emerald color to their mana. ''Green is a weird one for necromancy. I would have assumed shadow mana was the one that made skeletons since its apparently evil but i suppose i was wrong?'' What also worried him was the level of the skeleton. It was lv60. The skeleton even moved faster! It took more than a single cast of hispressed shadowfire arrows but it was worth it to kill these things. With each step in the dungeon he noticed more changes, from the experience bonus being +100% rather than +50% to the cave being strangely glowing with moss in certain ces that had dense green mana. At one point he even approached one of these pockets of green mana and wanted to examine it further. This was where he made his mistake. ~~~~~~~~~~ You have died. ~~~~~~~~~~ He appeared back at the opening of the dungeon with a baffled expression. ''Was i hit by a trap?!'' He didn''t notice anything missing nor had he lost any levels so he wasnt sure if this game had consequences for death, or if the dungeons simply waved those consequences. With a new determination and curiosity about what he died to he delved into the dungeon again. He was able to easily kill the skeletons he passed and he watched for signs of traps. He knew that he had died beside a patch of moss so he was wary around each one. When he saw a simrrge patch of moss as before he chose to examine it from further away. It glowed a deep emerald color like every other patch of moss and skeleton in the dungeon so he couldn''t see anything odd using his mana sense. Using his actual vision he saw that it was strangely lumpy as if it was covering a group of stones rather than onerge stone like some moss patches would. When he couldn''t see anything strange he returned to the start of the area so he could absorb the mana around him. It took some time but when he was finished he could even see better with his mana sense now that all the shadow mana was gone. With no other options Ezekiel just passed the moss by sticking to the wall opposite of it. When he passed nothing happened and he felt relieved so he kept moving forward... ~~~~~~~~~~ You have died. ~~~~~~~~~~ "Son of a bitch!" ~ The next time he entered the dungeon he was enraged. He rushed through it killing every skeleton he found. Each time he died it was in a different area of the cave so it couldn''t be a stationary trap. The only difference between each of the runs was the moss being in different areas so he assumed the moss must have something to do with his deaths. When he saw thatrge pile of moss he didnt take any chances. ''To quote a content creator from years ago, it is our right as humans to poke shit with a stick from a safe distance... well im a devil right now but thats irrelevant.'' Heunched a fire nova on the moss. What happened next was beyond shocking. The moss stood up! ''It was a skeleton?! A skeleton set up an ambush?'' The moss was burning off of its body and it held a fine dagger that it tried to stab him with through a lunge. The result was a very angry mage bombarding its head with dense spells. "Take that you bastard! Let your little ambush do anything now!" Chapter 38: Growth Ezekiel ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Mage lv67. (Novice) Greater Shadowfire Devil Affinity: 83% Shadowfire Mana Core: 57% Shadowfire Strength: 20 (60) Vitality: 135 -> 195 Agility: 145 -> 210 (260) Wisdom: 360 -> 510 (570) Intelligence: 450 -> 850 (910) Free stats: 8 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: Dungeon Conqueror Skills: Mana Control lv4 (M), Mana Sense lv7 (M), Mana Core lv7 (M), Spell Mastery (E), Mana Veins lv7 (A) Defenses: Fire Resistance lv 8 (A) Spells: Mana Bolt lv1 (E) Mana Burst lv1 (A) Fire Nova lv10 (M) Fire Arrow lv6 (M) Fire Spear lv1 (M) Shadow Spear lv10 (M) Shadow Cluster lv10 (E) Shadow Arrow lv8 (M) Shadowfire Orb lv9 (A) Shadowfire Spear lv10 (L) Shadowfire Nova lv10 (L) Shadowfire Arrow lv10 (L) ~~~~~~~~~~ By the time he had reached the mausoleum door he had gained twelve levels and he felt like his growth was amazing. He must be past the average by now and may even be approaching the top yers he assumed. No matter the case he would need the power he held as he wanted to take out Diana once again. All of these undead and even the cave itself had changed a lot in the higher difficulty so he knew that the boss would have changed even more. As he entered hecsaw that the area was covered in shadow mana that was denser than anything he had seen so far. Absorbing it would be very beneficial to him. When the mana was gone he saw that beneath it all were crystals that radiated green mana and as soon as he had taken away the shadow element the mana thag was converging on this ce would start taking on this element. Before doing anything he wanted to see what it was. When controlling this green mana he felt that it was actually very soothing which did not make sense for something that would be associated with necromancy. Absorbing the mana into his body felt even more incredible as he noticed a surprising detail. ''My health and stamina are recovering faster?'' The more of this mana he absorbed the more it would increase his regeneration. He was amazed when he figured out what this element must be. ''He said she had a powerful life affinity, is this life mana?'' As he absorbed more of that mana he got something even more shocking. ~~~~~~~~~~ Affinity Unlocked: Life ~~~~~~~~~~ With this notification he was caught off guard so much he stopped absorbing the mana. ''You can obtain affinities?'' Now that he saw this strange new aplishment he wanted to go further. He started to absorb the mana grom those stones like a vacuum. He even ced his hands on the stones to absorb all of it as quickly as possible. He would have to figure out how he could use this mana but since he could create spes already he figured it would not be the most difficult thing in the world to make healing spells. After absorbing one entire stone his affinity sat at 20% and with the rest of the stones in that room he estimated each one would eventually bring him to 80%. ~ It took him almost twenty minutes of avoiding the coffin to absorb everyst stone and by the time he was done he figured out that he was bad at estimating. The second stone despite having ths same amount of mana only brought him to 30% and each stone provided less and less until he sat at just 53% on his life affinity. It was still incredible but that was it. Now the only thing that remained was the boss fight. He touched the stone lid and began to create his spells to bombard her the moment she appeared as usual but something was off. The inside of the coffin was glowing with a blinding green light and she had new equipment when she floated out of the coffin. He cast his spells to shatter her skull but some green aura redistributed the shadowfire mana across her body in ways he had not anticipated. ~~~~~~~~~~ Diana Raylock- lv80 Vampiric Lich. ~~~~~~~~~~ ''How can a lich be Vampiric!?'' Chapter 39: Dungeon Team With his spell distributed across her body he couldnt properly damage her critical point. His spells bombarded her at a rapid pace where he did everything possible to break this aura. His spells were striking the aura focusing on her skull faster and faster until he saw this aura beginning to lose its shine. He was feeling triumphant when he saw her stomp the ground with her skeletal foot which sent a wave of mana through the stone floor. Centered around her was a green spell circle created from this mana which began to form the undead. He tried to interrupt the spell like he normally would but something astonishing happened. She raised her hands and in front of her palms dense mana was released which she used like shields to block his strikes. Not every strike would be blocked as her skeletal limbs were not very fast but it still diminished his damage. ''Jesus i expected a change but this is crazy, new spells, new abilities, she actually fights like she has a brain?'' While battling with her he would cast shadowfire volleys to start taking out her skeletons when they spawned. He even kept his mana sense ready so he could find the rogue skeleton that she typically spawned in. Through the haze left by the shadowfire he saw something that he didnt expect though. Two armored skeletons were standing amidst the destroyed group she spawned, but behind her was a rogue. ''Crap this will actually be tough.'' Almost twenty levels under the boss and struggling to harm her he was eventually in but he was proud that he had at least brought her health down by ten percent. ~ When he was about to enter the dungeon again to try to farm levels from the basic undead he saw the demon yer who had added him previously. She was approaching him quickly and waved her hand to get his attention. "Hey belial! Im happy i caught you my friend, can we talk?" He hadn''t noticed it before but when she spoke it was almost like she tried to lower her pitch. It was strange to him but he just ignored it and followed her. She brought him to a pair of yers who seemed to be waiting on her and introduced them. "This is shade, he''s a rogue and a friend of mine irl." The elf waved a hand in greeting and Ezekiel nodded back. "This is hope, she''s a healer whobwill be joining my team." She motioned to a strange girl who had a race he actually hadn''t seen yet. She was like an anthropomorphic rabbit girl that had a very bizarre mix of human and animal features. It made him wonder if she was a furry in real life as well. He nodded to hope as well and the girl pped happily. "He''s the mage right? Oh please say he''ll be joining us?" He looked at War God in confusion. "Joining you?" The demon yer nodded and sat down. "I want to ask you to join my team for our first run of the hard mode in the dungeon, i don''t know how hard it will be but it will certainly be more difficult than the normal mode." He nodded, it made sense to try to form a team and this did help with his own goal of trying to beat the hard mode. "Well from what I''ve experienced already the hard mode is a pain." At this the group sat up more and leaned closer. "You already tried hard mode?" War God was very intrigued by this as she hadn''t expected it. ''He did do the normal mode solo so i guess it makes sense for him to try it again.'' "Yeah, Diana is much more difficult than before and the undead at the start are actually dangerous for once." While speaking with them he began to notice through his mana sense that all of them had shockingly weak auras. The healer in particr had the strongest aura but it came from her bag not her body. "You guys haven''t started to train your mana yet have you?" When he mentioned this they all looked confused. Except for the demon. "I knew you figured out some kind of skill for your spellcasting. So what is it? Can you teach us how to get it?" He seemed caught off guard by the request but he simply nodded. "Well the npcs teach it but i guess i can do what they did?" So he showed them. He went to each one and pushed mana into their body the same way he had been taught. "What i just did was give you mana, it should teach you what to look for. You need to start looking for that same sensation in your body and eventually you should obtain a skill called mana sense." They were very good students he supposed because they hung on his words. The first one to obtain the skill was actually the elf and he had a giant smile after he aplished it. He would asionally return to do the same thing so the girls could also continue their practice. It took nearly ten minutes for them to sense mana and obtain the skill which would allow him to continue his teaching. "Now i want you to focus your thoughts on your mana and start trying to will it to move. If you can form a ball of mana in your hand then you''d obtain the mana control skill." They all nodded and began practicing. This time the one who was sessful first was actually hope. She practically cheered but quickly shut up so she wouldn''t disturb her new friends. For this skill it took even longer, twenty minutes for the elf to figure out how to manipte his mana. Next he wouls have to help them to form their core. He truly worried for Shade since his poor mana control talents would make this incredibly difficult for him. "I want all of you to focus your attention inward now and use your mana control to take all of the mana in your body and begin topress it towards your chest." He would ce his hand on their sternum right beneath their heart. "Focus your mana here and use your mana control to wrap it almost like you are tightening a bag. Think of your mana control as a sheet of stic that is holding water and just start guiding it all to the center." He watched their progress with his own mana sense. He had learned a long time ago in the vige that when you are in physical contact with another person your mana sense could get an image of what they were doing inside. "Picture your mana sense like a sheet of stic closing on one end and beginning to get pulled tighter around your mana, evenly coating the mana until you have made itpress into a core." It was beginning to grow dark when they finally aplished it. "Now we need to help you cultivate your mana cores to increase the mana regen and base amount bonus, at my level i have nearly double the base mana and i regenerate almost 5% every minute with twice as much if i actively recover my mana." Chapter 40: Teaching Mana Skills After each of the members of the team had the mana skills unlocked he proceeded to bring them to the dungeon. "The ce with the highest mana density that i have found is actually the dungeon''s hard mode but i will be bringing you into the normal mode first." He received an invitation to the team through the system before this so he would be able to enter with them. "While inside the dungeon what you need to know is that you will be surrounded by mana from the start and while you are cultivating your mana cores i will be killing the skeletons in the area." They each confirmed that they understood before they all entered the dungeon. Since he wanted to let them develop a basic understanding he had chosen normal mode. He had a suspicion that such high density mana as the hard mode would actually harm their efforts to cultivate. He gave them each one more reminder of the best way to cultivate that he knew before he went off to kill the skeletons. His time with teaching was actually very easy once he figured out how to help each of them. He learned that War God needed extra moments to see how a process worked, Shade needed encouragement to keep his effort strong. Hope didn''t need any specific help when learning but she did seem to enjoy praise. He watched the mana slowly coalesce around each of them with their bodies slowly growing more infused with mana. Their chests were the main area where this glow began but he knew that they would eventually be able to gain a lot of power. "So i am going to help each of your get to at least the Experienced rank of your mana skills before we enter the hard mode." His ability to y Diana in the normal mode was beyond easy now but he would still let them absorb all of the mana in the room first. After the battle he was sad by hisck of any good silver mage gear but he did get a fairly good pair of boots that Shade wished to have. Once they had left the dungeon War God approached him. "Hey belial, what did you do in there? Why didnt she do her enhanced undead?" ...Ehanced what? It turns out when she reaches 50% hp she would becone immune to damage while channeling a specific spell, these undead would do the same damage that he knew was shadow element. The power he could help them achieve would make their task easier and they even seemed to be having fun trying out their new potential with the mana skills giving them not only reduced mana usage but also natural regen. From talking to them he had figured out that yers do not have a natural mana regen and would be heavily reliant upon potions until they learned about these skills. When they exined this he suddenly had an idea. He could easily sell this information to people who wanted to take this game seriously as he knew it would rapidly be a hardcore esport. It was already the night before the fifth day in this game and he wanted to see if he could bring his affinities to 100% before he left it. With the 5 to 1 time ratio in this game he would have been ying for twenty four hours, he would have to leave and stretch so his body wouldn''t be in pain when it finally moved. So he sought out the hard mode once again to level up and raise his affinity. Chapter 41: Hard Mode Rematch While the rest of the team were using the normal mode dungeon to bring their cores to the Experienced rank, Ezekiel was farming the mana of the hard mode dungeon. He hadn''t figured out if it was possible to leave early with your rewards but he didnt have to try since he would simply allow himself to be taken out by Diana. He would only stop if his affinity stagnated again or if it reached the maximum. Over the runs he noticed that his affinity and core were very unbnced which annoyed him but he would have to continue anyway. Upon reaching 90% affinity his power stagnated again but he did notice that his core was gaining power much faster now that he had his main affinity that high. He wondered if affinity and core affinity were like a trickle down effect but it didn''t matter much as he couldn''t let himself lose track. He pushed himself further and further just to reach the peak of his current abilities. After finally reaching 90% in each of his affinities he felt a sense of satisfaction that he could have never expected. Not only was his magic 180% stronger but his natural healing and stamina recovery seemed increased by his life affinity. He noticed that the others had also begun to enter the normal mode solo like he used to and he assumed it was when they realized that sharing that much mana between three people was slow. He let Shade know that they could meet him at the ce they originally brought him to and he left as he felt it was finally time to train a skill he didn''t think about for a long time. ~ With his natural regeneration increased by his new affinity he wished to try to use his own magic to increase his resistance skill as well as possibly gain shadow magic resistance. The only reason he had hesitated was because he knew that his spell damage was so high that he might unintentionally kill himself in the process. The unlikely savior was his practice with using life affinity on spells. He had learned that using life mana in that strange aura that Diana would use actually gave him regeneration unlike her resistance to spell damage. His mana would allow him to regenerate almost as fast as he took damage from his elemental effects he suspected. So he began his process. He would create orbs of fire and shadow separate from one another to inflict the elemental effects on himself. The pain was excruciating and his healing aura was barely keeping him alive due to the significant damage outputpared to his health. He knew he had to endure it though as he would need shadow magic resistance to properly fight Diana. ~ Hourster he had gotten quite the achievement. Not only had his fire resistance increased to the Experienced rank but he had achieved shadow resistance which also got to the Apprentice rank. His body was in so much pain that he eventually justy there to recover while waiting for the others. The night had long since fallen and he was curious if the others would show up. By the time he heard anyone it was so dark that it was practically impossible to see. He created a ball of fire to light the area and saw the member of the team he least expected to show up, Hope. "Oh hello, i was about to go find an inn since it had gotten so dark. Did your training go well Hope?" She looked drained but had a giant smile. "Yes! I got my core to the Apprentice rank and i want to see if i can get to the Experienced rank before the others catch up." She was giggling and practically dancing around before she turned back. "If you need an inn though i can show you to one, its where I decided to stay since they are not weird towards beastfolk." "People are weird about the beastfolk?" She nodded and sat down beside him. "Apparently certain races don''t like other certain races." He just listened and waited for her to borate. "It''s mostly the humans and the dwarves that treat beastfolk poorly I''ve noticed, the humans treat us like we are dirty but the dwarves treat us like... i don''t know. A dwarf once called me a vulgar beast when i walked in to their shop." "Maybe the stereotype about bunny girls in skimpy outfits also exists here?" When she heard this she justughed. "Well I would be lying if i said that my two final choices on races were between the infernal and beastfolk race. In the real world i don''t have the guts to do things people would consider inappropriate so i suppose calling me a vulgar beast wasn''t wrong." He just shrugged before patting her on the shoulder when he sat up. "Well the infernal girls are nice to look at, War God certainly proves that." "Why would he prove that?" She looked confused begore gasping. "He''s a woman?!" Chapter 42: Team Meeting When the pair reached the inn Ezekiel had to pay ten copper for a room per night which was interesting. Hope was talking non stop about how excited she was to be part of the first team to beat hard mode. She was also endlessly thanking him for teaching her about mana skills. Each of them would apparently be meeting at the inn and Hope had been sent to get him. When they were waiting for the rest they just spent the whole time talking. "So Belial, have you yed a lot of games?" They sat at a table with dinner and drinks waiting. "Yeah but I don''t have many vr games, this is one I actually saved up for." "So you aren''t in a n?" She seemed very excited now. "I''m actually part of War God''s n, if you want i could invite you?" ''A n might be interesting actually. Plus if i teach the n''s members then it might be easy to rise in the ranks.'' "A n could be fun. How would i join?" After hearing this the beastfolk healer started pping again, she seemed genuinely happy. He wanted to enjoy the game with people who he felt were fun to y with but he would have to learn how to actually y with a n. He wasnt sure if he was limited to only ying with his guild or if they would let him do things solo. They continued to talk about things while waiting for Shade and War God but he was tempted to go to the room he paid for to rest. ~ When the two party members finally arrived he was ready to ask them everything that he had been curious about. War God waved at the two of them before waving them down to follow her. War God and Shade went to a room with Hope not far behind so Ezekiel went to follow them as well. In the room War God had sat down to discuss the n for the dungeon. "Ok Belial you said that you had gone into the hard mode of the dungeon right? Tell us everything." He confimed it before giving them a description of the differences between the two difficulties. He told them about the skeleton ambushes, the denser mana, the more powerful skeletons, he even told them about the life affinity. When he brought that up Hope actually spoke up. "As a healer i started with the life affinity and the my race gave me the wind affinity, you said that you can make affinity stronger right?" He nodded before showing them how to do it with the little element in the room. "We will have to explore thatter, so you said that the boss had a new title right?" He nodded before telling them about her Vampiric Lich title as well as how she was infused with life mana. He also exined that life mana was somehow what was controlling the undead. While they were talking the day was effectively over for everyone. Others began to return to their homes and their rooms. ~ In the dead of night two groups arrived at the city. One group arrived via carriage and made their way to a church within the city. The other group arrived almost as if they appeared from nothing. In the church a pair priests wearing beautiful white robes with gold trim were in heated debate with a figure that wore more simplistic priests garb. "We are all worshipers of our respective deities, why can we note to agreement on something so simple?" One of the figures in white robes seemed to be getting angry while the other sat calmly with a cup of tea. "You know that clergy must stick together in these times brother." The angry priest pped the table. "Please, do not get physical my friend." The priest in simple robes leaned back with a neutral expression that seemed to hide his anger. "The church of light cannot simplye in to demand room and board from other churches at any time, you will have to aid the church as any other who seeks shelter." He stood to leave. "I already know that whatever the church of light sends priests for will be something that i want no part of but as a member of the holy order i will not turn your people away." When he left the two priests turned to one another. "We should send word to the council to have this church taken over, the disrespect for the children of Luminous cannot be tolerated." The calmer priest drinking tea sighed and set his empty cup down. "I don''t really care about the disrespect but if he hinders our investigation then it will make our church look bad in front of this backwater town, Raylock is to small for us to care about anyway." "Raylock may be small but it''s where the shadow magic has been strongest, our investigation must start here." Chapter 43: Team Work Bright and early on the next day the group was entering the dungeon. They had prepared all night discussing strategies and working with the information that Ezekiel could provide. Inside of the dungeon they first took turns killing the skeletons while the rest cultivated their mana. Ezekiel would point out patches of moss that were obvious ambush locations like he had experienced and when he killed the skeletons hiding within the others were astonished by how easily the skeletons hid. In this ce Ezekiel was like a king as he led the team expertly through the dangers while helping them grow stronger. He knew that eventually they would surpass him once they caught up in skills. His advantage over other yers was his knowledge of skills that they clearly didn''t take time to explore. They could easily grow stronger than he could as experienced vr yers. While battling the undead he was able to lead them all the way to the dungeon boss room. They all knew about the boss obviously but when he opened the door they were left speechless at the changes to the area. First the room had dense mana and since they had been cultivating mana for hours the previous day they were well aware of the difference. The next difference was the appearance of the green crystals that were tall enough to reach the waist. When he brought Hope to a crystal he showed her that it was infused with life mana. So much life mana that she would probably be able to bring her affinity to a great level even if she couldn''t estimate the rate yet. When the others saw her reaction they also went to a crystal to explore it and they seemed interested in the deep emerald color of the element. Ezekiel guided everyone in absorbing the mana in the room so that they could begin the fight at full power. After the mana infusing the room was depleted he also had them drain the life mana of the crystals. What came as a surprise was when each of them got the life affinity the way he did. He exined to them that having higher life affinity meant that your natural regeneration was stronger but if you knew how to manipte mana to shape spells you could also use the spells to heal. Hope in response asked to see a few of his life mana infused spells and when he showed her one of his healing infused nova spells her eyes sparkled. While describing that his healimg infused spells were extremely high burst healing she began to exin how her ss worked with her own spells. Her ss had skills that buffed the healing amount or reduced the mana used for the same effect but with her new skills she could make her skills that much stronger. Apparently leveling a healing spell was difficult as it required an injured person to heal. Healing a person with full hp seemed to not have any benefit at all. When he heard this Ezekiel actually got an idea while he was getting ready to start the battle. ''What if she healed me during my resistance training?'' cing his palm on the coffin he moved back while creating a multitude of dense shadowfire arrows to strike the boss with. With this the battle began. ~ In the city of Raylock npcs and yers alike were watching as tworge demon women walked the streets. Their armor and weapons appeared to be very high quality while their bodies gave off an aura of power. Each woman held a crystal that was as ck as night, it was simr to obsidian but almost seemed to be in the same shape as quartz. They were looking for something. A human who seemed to be a bit to enthusiastic about them approached. The man wore his sword across his back and it seemed like he wanted to look like a barbarian as the strap holding his sword up was all that covered his chest. "You girls looking for something? Well you found it." He tried a cheesy line that had the yers nearby cringing. "You are the shadow user?" One of the demons approached him and held the crystal up while looking at him. He hesitated for a moment before nodding. When the demons grabbed him to make him follow he raised a thumbs up at the crowd of observers who were staring at him as if they were looking at a corpse. Chapter 44: Hardmode pt. 1 When Diana''s head was visible he directed everyone to strike with everything they had. Hitting her critical point was not as effective anymore due to her aura somehow distributing the damage across her whole body. Theirbined damage took her down to ~95% hp. They had a well prepared n. While she was summoning her undead they would target her head as often as they could, War God would handle the warrior skeletons and Ezekiel would add extra magical damage to take them down. When she was casting her spell to summon her undead Shade would do his best to interrupt her by striking her with his assassination skills. Hope was the one who would watch their backs and heal them when necessary while the others would make sure she was defended. Their teamwork was not really refined as they hadn''t worked together much before that... except for Shade and War God that is. Their efforts were rewarded as they brought the boss to 50% which began the next phase of the fight. Previously she had only cast her shadow des about once every two seconds but now she would cast them two at a time. They would need to guard against it and this was where Ezekiel came in. With his mana shields he had practiced during their training he was able to deflect her des or even nullify them when he hit them just right. He had to use raw mana to do it because using elemental infused mana would cause him harm but he was still able to strike the spells down. With his power he was able to keep them from being taken out of action by the shadow spells and with his resistance to shadow elemental damage he could push down the pain he felt from consumption. Everything was going very well until a cloud of mana began to rise from the coffin. A dense cloud of life elemental mana was beginning to mix with shadow mana from the boss. The life mana created a spell circle while the shadow mana formed a dense ball in the center which began to infuse itself into what was being summoned. The boss itself hadn''t changed her behavior at all which was concerning since such a mechanic was not seen yet. He had to keep defending them while casting spells so he couldn''t even try to stop the casting. Soon a giant skeleton that was almost scraping the ceiling with its head appeared. Infused with shadow mana it struck out with a sword made of shadows and a shield made of green. This new summon was more problematic than the others as it moved quickly, it hit harder and it was far more resilient than the rest. Its de struck his mana shields hard which only made him fly back into the wall of the mausoleum but he didnt take as much damage. While trying to recover from the hit he saw that the giant warrior skeleton was beating down his allies. When War God tried to block its sword she was mmed back by the shield and when Shade tried to strike at its neck to decapitate it the skeleton released a strange burst of shadow mana. The mana covered Shade and incapacitated him temporarily while the rest were trying to harm her. The summoning of this skeleton was so unexpected that it had broken their n down. Soon enough the blows from the skeleton and the spells from the boss overwhelmed them. They all got back together outside of the dungeon and nned to meet up outside of the territory to train. Chapter 45: Training To practice and deal with the boss they used their skills to help one another train. War God would help them learn to dodge by using her own sword skills to strike them. Ezekiel would help them to block with mana and to learn to dodge the spells that she cast. They practiced for quite some time until they could dodge everything, no matter how tricky they attacked the group would be able to dodge it. After giving them more time to practice they moved on to the next stage which was gaining resistances. Since Ezekiel was the only one that could deal Shadow elemental damage they needed him to fuel this section. Since they would be taking constant damage and require constant healing it gave Hope the perfect training opportunity as well. They could easily train their skills by helping one another but the only true way topletely defeat her was to battle her again. It would take time to get all of them to the same resistance level as himself but he knew it was possible. The thing that he really worried about was how they would handle being covered in consumption and the pain they would suffer. The first one to volunteer was Shade. "Now i have to remind you, the pain that you''ll feel would be worse than anything you''ve ever experienced." In response Shade only nodded. Hope gave him a piece of leather so he could bite down without hurting himself and the training began. They had gone especially far to help avoid anyone actually hearing this part. Ezekiel had to keep his spell dealing damage as low as possible to match what Hope could heal but she was getting better at it. He hadn''t figured out how to reduce his spell damage to keep it from killing people while training but if he added his own healing aura to hers they would outheal what he did to them. The main problem was that he knew it could take hours just to gain the resistance skill so to actually level it up they may take all day. He didn''t like how this would go at all so he decided to help everyone gain it at once by letting them each train at once. The other two agreed and got ready to suffer. ~ While traveling through the city the priests of the church of light held their hands to their chests. Under their robes were simple symbols of their faith but what they knew was that the symbols held an enchantment that fould sense shadow magic. The detection radius was small but they could take this time to sniff out the new shadow mana user since these beings inevitably exposed themselves. ~ In another region of the city the two demon women were walking around again with their crystal held out. The barbarian was nowhere to be found and the women seemed to be leading the city as if following some kind of pull. ~ By the dungeon a group of yers were watching everyone who passed and had a familiar rogue with them. "So tell us more about the mage?" "The bastard has gray skin and ck horns, you can''t miss him. I''ll make sure he regrets messing with me." ~ After hours of working with his new team Ezekiel was happy to learn that they had each sessfully obtained the shadow resistance skill. The amount of time that he gave them had even brought it to the Apprentice rank so they would be able to at least resist more than 10% of the damage they took. During this time Hope had also learned how to harness her life magic to create a temporary regeneration spell aura which would easily help them. He was excited for the next attempt at the dungeon. Chapter 46: Hardmode pt. 2 The next step in taking down the boss was to start practicing through repeated battles. Even if they did not defeat her the first attempt it would still lead to them growing stronger as each skeleton they killed gave them experience. They would hopefully reach a point where they could outdamage her defenses. ~ The first run ended just as before when the giant skeleton arrived, they were beaten down by the end of it. The group was able to gain a few levels with each run but they didn''t get a lot of progress in defeating the boss. The next attempt at the dungeon was more sessful. ~ In their battle against Diana they took time to watch her, War God would do everything she could to learn the skeleton''s strike patterns. Ezekiel would watch how Diana chose her targets. Shade would take opportunities to strike the skeleton in weak points. The first opportunity that they had was when Shade sessfullynded what he said was an assassin skill. "Death Mark, it causes a dyed strike that will activate when the enemy is hopefully not guarded." "Can you show me how it works?" Ezekiel allowed Shade to strike him with the skill, the result of which was a powerful burst of mana left within his body. When he saw it and felt the mana inside of him burst after three seconds he lost almost half of his hp. "I think you just gave me an idea." While Hope was healing him he exined the possibility of a dyed strike being infused with his own damage. Thebination of the dagger skill causing significant damage as well as the mana of a mage would probably do significant damage. Their target was a sturdy tree. He first tried to give his mana to Shade when using the skill but that did not work. Since giving him the mana didn''t work he tried to let Shade take his mana instead. The problem was Shade hadn''t been working with mana long enough to feel the mana of another person. He had to help Shade learn to find the mana of another person which had... interesting results. "Whats with your arms dude? Why do you have mana in your blood?" This question made Ezekielugh as he remembered his own reaction to mana veins. He told Shade to focus so that he could ept the mana being pushed out by the mage. This time when the skill was used the mana was far denser. Instead of the manaing from Shade''s mana core the mana wasing from Ezekiel. The result was thebined power of Shade''s skill and Ezekiel''s mana. The tree was toppled. With this new strategy they tried another run. ~ War God as the vanguard kept the skeleton back. Shade as the assassin looked for opportunities to strike. Hope kept them at maximum health and helped guard from spells. Ezekiel kept near Shade to fuel his skills. The first Death Mark on the giant skeleton took away 10% of the skeleton''s hp, this kept it from striking at someone for a moment as it stumbled. Ezekiel tried to guide it to potential weak points like the spine and joints, that first strike crippled its shield bearing arm but did not remove it. The second strike brought it down to a knee as the leg was bown off by the explosion of mana. The third strike was a critical point which nearly blew the skeleton''s head from its spine. This was the first time they had brought this enemy to half health and it did something new. While they were preparing another strike the shield on its crippled arm began to glow and shrink. The life mana on its shield flowed into the bones of it''s body which began to mend themselves. Shade and Ezekiel continued to strike it as it healed and by the time it was done it only had 10% hp remaining. The healing it had kept it from being in but forcing it down so far had interesting results. The boss seemed to enter a frenzy as it cast its spells twice as fast which forced them to return to being defensive and while they were struggling to hold back the mana de barrage Ezekiel was able tond a powerful shadowfire arrow right at the base of its neck. He had tried to replicate what the Death Mark did and it was clumsy. He condensed so much mana into his arrow that it began to tremble and fall apart but the strike still prated. He then forced it to release its form causing an explosion of mana simr to the assassin skill. This was enough to send the skeleton''s head across the room. Chapter 47: Hardmode pt. 3 After defeating the giant skeleton it actually got much easier to deal with. With the boss in her frenzy they had to be faster but their damage was more consistent now. The spells and skills were not even close to the limit of what they could do to her. While fighting her to a lower and lower hp level they kept themselves ready for the next phase of the fight. He knew that at 25% hp she would normally begin using her mana des. The four of them were prepared for any developments or any odd behavior but they were not as guarded when they knew what the milestones of the previous difficulty were. This mentality was how they were ready for the moment when something strange happened. When her hp was at 35% her life aura shed in a simr way to the shield of the giant skeleton. They assumed that she would be healing herself so they began to do everything possible to prevent this. Ezekiel bombarded the boss with shadowfire while Shade and War God struck her weak points. Even Hope was using wind bullets. They saw the hp of the boss dropping rapidly with no sign of recovering. The most interesting part was when Ezekiel saw where the mana was headed. The mana was infusing itself into the giant skeleton which was beginning to be repaired by the life mana. The other concerning detail was the rest of the scattered bones from defeated skeletons forming into the giant. The skeleton was being covered by the bones of the other skeletons. The ribs filling in the gaps of the giants ribcage, the other limbs and hands formed around the limbs of the giant. The result of this was a giant skeleton wearing armor made of the bones of its fellow summons. ~ After the giant skeleton was reanimated it had no weapon but it could easily crush them with the weight of its limbs. Shade attempted to go for another strike to take it down as they had before but the armor now covered many of its weak points. The skeleton moved slowly but it''s joints were well defended. Its spine covered by the thick covering of bone armor. Shade could dodge the heavy blows but he had to get farther back when he saw that each one cracked the stone. Seeing how powerful the blows of this newly improved giant were made the rest more hesitant to block strikes directly so they would have to dodge the slow but heavy blows. While dodging the giant the group would attack the now vulnerable mage. Each of them would take turns attacking the boss before leading the giant in a small chase. It was easier with the mage staying above her coffin while the giant seemed to avoid disturbing it. By attacking the mage with her guardian distracted they could bring chunks of her hp down. Once her hp hit 25% they were waiting for her sword but it didn''te. They attacked more aggressively after that. They were caught off guard when she hit 15%, she finally activated her shadow magic teleport and struck one of them. She had appeared behind War God with a stab into her side. The resistance skill she trained for kept her alive but the wound was severe. Every few seconds she would vanish and try to strike another but now that he knew she would be attacking at this time Ezekiel could easily warn them. When they were not fast enough he would st her head to distract her but this was risky as it would immediately take the focus if the giant. The battle was taking a risky turn with this stage, they were being injured more often now. They were struggling tond hits on her and they knew she wouls even go into another frenzy to attack faster. Chapter 48: Hardmode pt. 4 The speed of the bossbined with the danger of the giant made thest portion of her health a struggle to touch. War God was practically incapacitated as she was forced to ward off the blows of the giant when she hurt the boss. Her only reprieve was when the giant''s aggro was taken by another yer who hurt the boss. They had to practically rotate aggro in this way while the boss would attack them randomly. shes and bruises were taken by the team as they were not ready for the speed of this boss while avoiding the giant. Their practice was showing it''s effect each time one of them dodged the giant or her de since they remained standing after. The boss was charging them faster the lower her hp went and this made her even more dangerous. When her hp finally hit 5% she took on a red aura of the enraged state and they could no longer dodge. They had to try to sacrifice things that they could live without while still fighting. ~ Ezekiel had arge sh across his back that made movement difficult but the alternative was losing his head, he could see the others taking on more and more injuries so he had to try something reckless. He would wait for the boss toe for him once again and when she was attacking him he would take the strike so he couldnd a killing blow on her. His damage over time effects were slowly reducing her health while the rest were causing small chunks of hp to fall. He waited for his opportunity while bombarding her and when he saw her take her move her acted. He turned behind to face her with a shadowfire arrow pumped with as much mana as he could possibly give it. When he made the projectile he heard a notification sound but he ignored it to take advantage of this opportunity. When she appeared he gripped the needle of shadowfire to hold like a dagger, he did not care how much damage it was doing to his hand because he had to strike her down. He jammed that needle into her skull through the eye socket as she stabbed him through the heart. ~ Hope watched as the mage who had taught her so much about her own skills sacrificed himself tond a solid hit on the boss. His body copsed on the ground with hardly a hint of life left on the hp bar and the damage over time burning what little remained. She rushed forward to heal their friend while the mage did something strange. It stumbled back with the needle in its eye socket and made a motion to attack someone else but that was when the spell detonated. When the spell consumed her head the boss copsed on the stone floor with the giant following not long after. They were forced out of the dungeon like always and Ezekiel stood back up quickly when he was no longer dying. She suddenly recieved a notification from the system at the same time as the others she assumed. ~~~~~~~~~~ Congrattions on being the first team to defeat a hardmode dungeon! As part of your aplishment you will receive a unique grade chest and the title of "Breacher." Effect: damage within dungeons is reduced by 10% Your achievement will also be broadcast systemwide. ~~~~~~~~~~ What followed was a surreal experience as every yer suddenly recieved a notification about the yers who had achieved the first hard mode dungeon clear. Two of them were easily recognized as part of a medium level n while the rest were unknown. The yers quickly left to avoid being swarmed while those who were at the dungeon itself began to record what they were seeing. The team that left would be known by face as well as their achievements. ~~~~~~~~~~ Hardmode- 01:29:53 Belial- 67% Shade- 18% War God- 14% Hope- 1% ~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 49: Rewards When the team arrived at their training spot once again they took the time to look at their rewards. Each of them had obtained the title as well as the loot. In BLO dungeon loot was given to a party inventory so no matter how many yers are in it the loot cannot be taken away by one individual nor is it randomly distributed. For loot to be imed by a member of the team they must go through a voting system, a member of the team would select the item they wish to take and others may counter the offer. As long as a member of the team wishes to im it then it is contested which would not allow it to be imed by the others. If an item is contested for longer than an hour a duel is issued and the victor is given the contested item. If a member of the party who is given the duel does not feel confident in their chances they can name another member of the party to fight as proxy and if this other member epts then they can act as the duelist for the contested item. The system would never be perfect but it would help to guard against hostility. When looking at the items obtained from the dungeon they saw a total of twelve silver items and one gold item. The silver items had various useful features but all of them had a full set of silver gear anyway, except for a magical weapon of some sort he was satisfied with what he had. The gold quality item would be useful though. ~~~~~~~~~~ Staff of Raylock (Gold) Wisdom +500 Intelligence +500 This item grants the passive skill "Magical Armor Piercing. (E)" Ignore 55% of magical defense. Mana de Storm: Summon a number of mana des infused with the affinity of the users choice that deal 180% of the users spell damage. Cooldown- 3 minutes Requirements: Intelligence- 1000 ~~~~~~~~~~ When looking at the gold item the only other member of the party who was interested in it was Hope. "Belial do you want the staff? It would really suit a mage but its bonuses are so good..." "I would like the staff, if we get another gold item for a mage i promise not to contest it next?" After that discussion he was given the staff. "Show us what it can do!" "Yeah lets see how many of those swords it makes." ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Mage lv80. (Novice) Greater Shadowfire Devil Affinity: 90% Shadowfire 90% Life Mana Core: 90% Shadowfire Strength: 20 (+40) Vitality: 265 Agility: 275 (+50) Wisdom: 674 (+560) Intelligence: 1095 (+560) Free stats: 115 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: Dungeon Conqueror, Tutor Skills: Mana Control lv1 (L), Mana Sense lv1 (L), Mana Core lv1 (L), Spell Mastery (E), Mana Veins lv1 (E) Defenses: Fire Resistance lv8 (E), Shadow Resistance lv9 (A) Spells: Mana Bolt lv8 (E) Mana Burst lv8 (A) Fire Nova lv10 (M) Fire Arrow lv10 (M) Fire Spear lv6 (M) Shadow Spear lv10 (M) Shadow Cluster lv10 (E) Shadow Arrow lv10 (M) Shadowfire Orb lv10 (A) Shadowfire Spear lv10 (L) Shadowfire Nova lv10 (L) Shadowfire ??? lv1 (S) ~~~~~~~~~~ The staff itself didn''t say how many swords were made but he would learn it once he cast it. When he activated the item skill it summoned six des. He wasn''t sure if the item counted the bonus stats or not but he would figure it out at some point. What he did know was he could make six des that each had 80% more damage than his normal spells. The next step for them would be to defeat the dungeon again to improve their time and gain more gold gear. Chapter 50: Server Timeout The next few hours of that day were spent farming the dungeon. With each run they got better and with each victory they got better gear. Grinding levels became easier thanks to this and they were aiming to each gain gold quality gear as well as reach lv 100. The gear they obtained was excellent and in the hours they spent farming they each managed to obtain gold gear. They took multiple runs to reach lv100 as well and during this time Ezekiel was able to master the new spell he had made. During the final strike on the boss the notification he recieved had actually been to show him something that had achieved. ~~~~~~~~~~ Spell, "Shadowfire Nova Needle (Supreme)" created. Increased speed and pration power with significant mana density that releases with explosive force. ~~~~~~~~~~ His spellcasting power was greatly increased by this spell and with the staff he was able to abuse the enemies in the dungeon. War God obtained a set of armor that made her able to battle the giant skeleton solo as long as she was protected from the boss. Shade obtained a cloak that made his stealth skills so good the boss wouldn''t even see him in the limited space of the mausoleum. Hope got a ring that made her mana regen and casting speed double for a short time. Their experiences and new items allowed them to defeat the boss faster and faster which only gave them more loot and more experience. Other items were given out like a dagger for Shade and a Shield for War God, hope obtained robes and Ezekiel gained a skill book. Skill books in BLO require specific sses to be useable and this skill book only gave them one description. It required an Apprentice rank mage ss and that was all. He would have to wait until he figured out how to upgrade his ss but that would take time. After hours of farming the dungeon the group left and found a notification. ~~~~~~~~~~ Server timeout in 12 hours. Please return to a safe region. ~~~~~~~~~~ After seeing this they decided to just return to the city and explore their new achievements. Ezekiel ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Mage lv100. (Novice) Greater Shadowfire Devil Affinity: 90% Shadowfire 90% Life Mana Core: 90% Shadowfire Strength: 20 (+40) Vitality: 265 -> 365 Agility: 275 -> 375 (+50) Wisdom: 674 -> 914 (+560) Intelligence: 1095 -> 1335 (+560) Free stats: 435 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: Dungeon Conqueror, Tutor Skills: Mana Control lv8 (L), Mana Sense lv7 (L), Mana Core lv3 (L), Spell Mastery (E), Mana Veins lv3 (E) Defenses: Fire Resistance lv8 (E), Shadow Resistance lv9 (A) Spells: Mana Bolt lv8 (E) Mana Burst lv8 (A) Fire Nova lv10 (M) Fire Arrow lv10 (M) Fire Spear lv6 (M) Shadow Spear lv10 (M) Shadow Cluster lv10 (E) Shadow Arrow lv10 (M) Shadowfire Orb lv10 (A) Shadowfire Spear lv10 (L) Shadowfire Nova lv10 (L) Shadowfire Nova Needle lv4 (S) ~~~~~~~~~~ With his new level he figured he would have caught up fairly well but he wanted to soar to the peak. Since they had time they just decided to chat with one another. "So Shade and I know eachother well, what are the rest of you like?" "What she means is, are youfortable telling us about your lives outside the game?" Ezekiel nodded and decided to go first. "Well i work for my uncle at his restaurant, im still in highschool but I''ll be graduating soon." The more he spoke the morefortable he became. "You can call me Ezekiel or Zeke." After this hope chose to go next. "Well I''m currently unemployed and hoped to make money off of this game, I''m not exactly hurting for funds but I want to get off of my family''s trust fund." She was bashful as she spoke and looked down. "Hope is the name I want to go by after I get off of my family''s dime." Shade chose to introduce himself next. "Well my name is Keith and I have worked with father for years, La and I have known eachother since we were children." War God, or La, spoke up next. "What he means is we''re step siblings and our parents own a few restaurants which he works for." The four of them spoke about many things while waiting for the servers to close. They discussed their family lives and what got them into games such as BLO. When the system finally shut down they were all given another system notification. ~~~~~~~~~~ Servers will be closed for 24 hrs. ~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 51: Impact When he woke up from his pod Ezekiel was sore fromying in one position all day. He had spent twenty-four hours in one ce as the game had a time dtion of five to one, he had scheduled his days off that week to coincide with the first two days of the games service. He would be working the night shift for that day but he would be able to handle it, when checking his phone he saw a strange message from his uncle though. "Please be to the restaurant by 3pm, I have to discuss something with everyone." When he woke up it was 1:25 so he had an hour to get ready. When he got downstairs his mother was already gone for her own job but she had left a note on the table. "Gina wille to pick you up for work today, your uncle wants everyone there by three for some reason. Have fun at work love you baby." Ezekiel made a quick meal since he had just woken up and while eating he checked the online news about BLO. What he saw made himugh, clips of his group running to the forest were eveywhere from different angles and showing off the leaderboard of the dungeon. Comments on the clips were identifying who each yer was, War God and Shade were well known streamers apparently and their streams were already known online. People made assumptions about who was who, they figured out that Ezekiel was Belial because of the name being based on a demon which left Hope being the beastfolk. Their descriptions were everywhere now. When he heard the knock on the door he left to check it and outside was his cousin Gina. They left for the day to go to the restaurant. ~ "Alright everyone listen up, this game that just came out is already looking good. This game is going to going to get popr fast i can just feel it." He had closed the doors for this meeting, he even provided everyone with a meal as they would if they were working. "I want to be the first to step into this new form of entertainment, if we can get more customers through this game then we will pioneer this trend." He pped his hands and a group of workers came out to begin installing screens on each booth. "I want to make it so our diners can watch streams of this game, specifically i would let our diners watch those of you who y this game stream to the restaurant!" He then handed each person a paper. "If you already y the game then i want you to know that you have the option of being one of our contracted entertainers, you would get a raise and half of your scheduled shifts will be as streamers." Looking at the paper Ezekiel saw that not only would the streamers get another dor fifty an hour but they would also get to alternate with others on who gets to y and who works the floor. This sounded like a dreame true so he began to write his character information in the sheet. All it needed was his character name and his current level. He also saw that only two other people were putting their information in which meant they were yers, but everyone was signing up to get to be streamers for the restaurant. When everyone was turning their sheets in they were brought to see the game pods that had been delivered that day in preparation for the future. ~ Alexander exited his game pod and immediately went to shower, he knew that the worst part about exiting the game wasn''t the body ache but the smell of being unwashed for a whole day. While drying himself off he went to the game forums to see if anything special happened, what he saw astonished him. The firstpletion of a hardmode dungeon. In his own gamey he turned off server notifications so he wouldn''t be annoyed by them but now he regretted it because he had lost the chance for a piece of unique gear. In BLO unique quality gear was mad specifically for the yer rather than generic gear that could be used by a ss. Each piece of unique gear would be made as part of a set and if you got all five pieces of the set then you would gain immense power ording to the only yer who had ever achieved it. While he was thinking about the next paths for gaining unique gear he saw something in the clip of the party who made the achievement. He saw yers that he knew very well because of their fame. War God, a demon yer who pretended to be male to avoid harassment but was eventually outed as a female yer. She was the leader of a n that would eventually be one of the greatest in the game. Shade, an elven yer that became famous for being an expert assassin in team battles. Hope, a beastkin that became famous for being able to bring any ally from the brink of death and even found a way to bypass the healing negation of the cauterized effect. He was trying to remember who Belial was... when he saw them. He knew that devil. When he saw Belial his memory of a powerful mage shredding through a boss like paper with wings made of thousands of needles made of shadow magic. ''It''s him! That mage, i have to get that mage on my side." Chapter 52: Advertising After getting approved as a streamer for the restaurant Ezekiel was given a choice like every other worker for that day. He could take the day off since the workers needed toplete the new instations. The alternative was to spend his shift advertising the new details of the restaurant. Ezekiel chose to spend his day wandering through town with the flyers to hand out as he spent the day having fun. It''s incredibly rare to be paid to just walk around all day and give out pieces of paper, all he had to do was return at the end of his shift to clock out. While walking through the town he saw many people on the phone or talking through wireless headphones, all of them discussing the game as the various clips of streams were broadcast everywhere as advertisements. Before each clip a disimer was shown that the clip came from a yer who had streamed it and the developers had paid for the use of each clip. Every single clip showed the beauty and realism of the game, from the life of the territories to the battles for experience. At the end of one advertisement he even saw a video of a crazy devil running from a giant slime. He remembered how he had tried to fight that thing so early on and it made himugh. At the end of the advertisement it showed a number of streamer IDs that could be viewed after the servers came back online. Ezekiel saw a great chance to approach the people who had been watching and gave out the flyers. "The Chateau will be updating to a more modern theme for the enjoyment of it''s patrons, employees who y the game will be streaming to the tables while customers eat." He then gave an exaggerated bow. "Including yours truly." After giving a few papers to the group there so they could also give them to friends and family he moved on. His n was to go to his highschool and leave flyers everywhere. The different varsity teams would also be practicing at the time, the girls track team and the boys ser team specifically would be training that day. ~ While at his school Ezekiel put flyers up on every door as well as going through every locker after getting permission from the principal. When he got to the fields he decided to go to the track first since it looked like the girls were just getting done while the boys were still ying. "Hey girls." A few had seen himing and greeted him before he waved to everyone. "How was practice? Coach Sa running you to death yet?" He put a few papers down on a bench with a rock to hold them down. "Now mr Bet you know I only train my stars to be the best!" Coach sa was a tall woman who had previously been a student at the school herself before she went on to be a top 100 sprinter in the United States, they all made jokes about her hardcore training but most understood that it was a privilege to have her as the track coach. "What ya got there Zeke?" One of the team, a dark Jamaican girl named Hailey, approached to ask about the flyers. "Oh well the Chateau is going to be starting a new craze, my uncle wants to pioneer some weird trend by having his workers stream BLO for the patrons while they eat." He gave each of them a flyer and surprisingly some of them showed interest as they began talking about it. "Some of the employees will be gaming the whole shift right? Does that mean new positions will open up?" "If it meant i could get and easy job I''d apply just to y the game." While they were discussing it Ezekiel excused himself and made his way to the ser field to hand out more flyers. ~ On the field the team was just finishing practice as Ezekiel approached and one of the yers reacted a bit negatively when he saw the ck haired young man. ''Shit shit shit shit, it''s him. He''ll think im gross and smelly if he gets to close, dammit why is he here!'' He was a very skinny but well exercised young man that kept his brown hair long, he wanted to run to the shower to clean up before meeting his friend but he didn''t get the chance. "Hey Jay, show the team who''s the king?" Ezekiel pped James on the back with augh while handing out flyers to the team. "Uh yeah man, I scored six goals." ''Stop touching me oh god i stink, please go away Zeke.'' While he was trying to get away he heard his friend talking about the flyers, specifically he heard that the local restaurant Ezekiel worked at would be streaming their employees who yed BLO. Then he heard Ezekiel say that he ys as well. ''He ys too? Oh god should I try to add him? But he''ll see my character isn''t normal...'' While thinking about what he should do James came to a decision. ''I''ll watch one of his streams tomorrow.'' Chapter 53: Day One Success In a towering building an average looking man was walking through the halls with a sense of puprose. He entered a room where arge chamber filled with ss could be found. This ss was set inyers almost like rows of books and between each piece of ss a small charge of electric current would visibly connect them in pulses like a heartbeat. A number of people were working in this room and monitoring the chamber but they stood up when this man entered. "Sir the results are still being analyzed we don''t know what the yer potential looks like yet." The man sat down at a desk to look at the screen on it which was disying charts in rapid session. "Well then tell me the most important information?" Another worker approached with a tablet which showed information about a yer. "The current top yer is lv 159 and he was given a bloodline that is actually derived from a mythical bloodline, the fenrir." The man they deferred to nodded in response while looking at the details about the yer. "He seems to be going for a very refined martial build right? He even appears to be going beyond the expectations we made about yer growth." The others nodded as they showed more information on the tablet. "Not only has he been maxing his skills out faster than we anticipated a new yer would, he also grew his mana core and affinity so rapidly we believe he ns to make a magus." "Ah yes a spellde, I wonder how that would go in that world? Has there ever been a magus?" "ording to the history only one magus ever existed and it was an angel like him, apparently an angel of the highest order as well, a Throne." He waved the tablet away and turned back to theputer. "What are some of the bloodlines people have awakened?" The workers began to describe how the mostmon bloodlines yers were recieving were from mixing the races, a vast majority would have simple bloodlines that gave another affinity or would increase their stats. He seemed to be half listening if at all and he was looking through a list. Then he just opened a sort function to find bloodlines based on their quality. What the game does not tell a yer is that a bloodline also has a quality which follows the same rating as gear because of its rarity and purity. The qualities were: Iron Bronze Silver Gold Mythril Adamantine Diamond Bloodlines that gave affinities were treated as bronze while others that gave stat bonuses depended on the purity. A bloodline that gave a singr bonus was considered iron while bloodlines that gave bonus stats on level up were treated as silver or even gold based on purity. The bloodline that gave Alexander the regeneration skill was actually one of the highest as it was the low purity fenrir bloodline. Regeneration was given a mythril grade but becauseof its potential to increase in purity depending on the yers actionshis bloodline specifically had an adamantine grade. While working through the list to find the hi highest grades that were given out the man at theputer suddenly yelled a curse in anguage the rest did not speak before he walked into the chamber full of ss. "You gave out five diamond bloodlines?! Gaia! Show yourself this instant!" While he was speaking the rest went to check theputer to see what was wrong. On it they saw something that they couldn''t really see the problem in, they were simply high purity and high quality. Bloodline- Necros Bloodline- Luminous Bloodline- Fierna Bloodline- Void Bloodline- Aether In the ss chamber an image of a beautiful elven woman in a green dress appeared and looked upon the man yelling. "Please calm yourself Damian, I will not be spoken to like a child." "I made you!" "No you shown how to make something like me and then using that technique you created what became me. Now what is it you are screaming about." The man, Damian, looked like he wanted to shout again as his face got red when she belittled his statement. He eventually sighed in frustration before getting close to the incorporeal woman. "Why did you give out diamond grade bloodlines? Are you trying to start wars?" "I do not give out bloodlines human, I analyze the subject and then give them the bloodline they should have based on gics and species chosen." "How is it possible that three people would have a divine bloodline?" Gaia raised her hands as if shrugging him off. "They matched the gics of the descendants of demigod children and would therefore match the god who''s bloodline they recieved, though most would have to actually develop their bloodline to make It pure enough to evolve." "How do you exin the void and aether then huh?" At this question gaia paused. "I was ordered to give thise bloodlines to them, I was not allowed to question It." "Who ordered you!" "The Primordial itself... It told me to give each half of It''s bloodline to the two It chose." "Now go handle your little game, you have work to do." Chapter 54: Family Time At his home Ezekiel was bringing back food from work, he was excited to tell his mother about his new promotion just because he wanted to celebrate. When she saw all the food she was actually surprised. "What are you doing hun? Why did you get so much, we aren''t having a party are we?" Ezekiel smiled wide and hugged his mother while bringing her to the table to show her the extra copy of the contract he asked for. She took a few minutes to read everything before looking at him in astonishment. "That''s a pretty big raise just for a game?" He started exining the new responsibilities in better detail and by the time he was done she was very excited for him. "So you can do a whole shift just gaming? That''s great!" They sat down to eat and rx while discussing different things. Eventually they got back to discussing the new game. "So how are you doing in the game anyway?" "I''m doing very well actually, I got to lv 100 before the servers closed." She gave a small cheer for him before taking her phone out to show him something. "That means you''re really close to the number one yer, that''s amazing!" She showed him a short video where people were talking about the various achievements of the top yers. While they were talking Ezekiel actually told her about the dungeon. "I might actually be one of the yers they''re talking about, I did a dungeon with a few people I met and we got a server wide announcement after we beat it." While he was talking he actually got to see the video from the multiple perspectives of the recorders. He got to see what he looked like when he was simply moving and doing his normal actions. Apparently his normal posture made him look evil. The clips had removed the audio but they still showed the server announcement and the leaderboard. "Oh i assume you''re one of them?" She was watching again and reying the clip, when trying to speak up she shushed him. "Quiet I want to guess which one you are sweety, you''re either the big red one or the elf." "Actually the red one is a woman." As she was shushing him again she stopped and looked at War God again. "Then you''re the elf, why would you make such a twink though?" "I''m the devil, the gray one." She sighed loudly after that. "When did my sweet baby boy be emo? Why did you make such an edgy character huh?" "Mome on, I didn''t design my character that way. The game chose the way I looked." "If you start growing your hair out like that I''ll cut it off in your sleep i swear to the Lord boy." "I''m not emo mom oh my god, i can''t grow my hair out anyway it''s to curly for that." "Oh shush I love your curls." Heughed and moved his head away from her hand while she tried to y with his hair. "So hun, you get to y at work for eight hours every other day, should i start ying here?" She had a weird look on her face that made her look suspicious. "Some of those boys look pretty cute, it''s an 18+ only game right?" "Jesus mom ew, don''t try to be one of those women with boy toys please." Although he was joking with her he really did like the idea of ying with her. The thought of ying with her as another member of the team was great but he would have to teach her a lot. Chapter 55: Otherworlders pt. 1 After the servers were closed for the day many things began taking ce in BLO all at once. The first thing to ur was the alignment of the time dtion, one to one time. The second was the yer characters who had been around for almost a week s im mply vanished. The third was a sudden shift in mana density across the world. In different regions of the world various leaders began to discuss the impact of the otherworlders. In certain regions the native death toll was as high as the mid thousands while in other ces it was far more. Theft was a verymonly reported crime and the world leaders could see every single statistic through the help of the system. In this world the system recognized world leaders by giving them ess to a unique function, the region function. The region function showed many details from citizen satisfaction average to crime level but this was not something that made the leaders omnipresent, in fact many regions suffered from this functions existence due to corrupt leaders. The system may be omnipotent but it had no emotions therefore it was simply a tool for those who were willing to exploit it. What the region function showwd across every single leader in the world was intensely negative from the citizens perspective but from the economic perspective their trade value had doubled in most cases or even higher in others. In the city of Raylock. A man in extravagant clothing with a sword on his hip was examining a system screen with various people around looking at their own. What he was looking at was that very function. "Lord Raylock the otherworlders have destroyed the city''s citizen satisfaction, in just those five days it was reduced from 53% to 38%. We must do something about those criminals that came with the otherworlders!" Genevieve S- Raylock Cityguard Captain lv 678. She had mmed her gauntlet down on the table and was looking the lord in the eye. "Absolutely not, have you not seen the reports on the trade value? Not only do we now have so much raw material from the beasts outside of the city from those little bastards but our average ie has doubled!" On the screen it showed a figure simr to a stock market screen with the chart showing a sudden explosive rise. "Our city''s value has reaches silver, you cannot allow her to drive away those otherworlders!" James Alec- Raylock Economics Head lv 497. While they were speaking a man entered the room, he wore a beautiful mage robe and behind him were two priests that had arrived at the city not many days ago. "My lord we have a problem, one of the mages at the tower brought word that an otherworlder exposed what happens in the dungeons that we''ve been hearing about showing up across the world." From behind him the two priests pushed past like he wasn''t even present. "Hello Lord Balthazar Raylock, your city has been showing great waves of shadow magictely and your court wizard here told us everything about it, not only your aunt secretly hiding her shadow affinity years ago but now another shadow user showing up?" The other priest spoke up now. "Not only another shadow user but we hear about this dungeon in yournd actually being your aunt''s tomb? Not only her tomb but this otherworlder told your little tower''s mage that she was the lich boss?" The more they spoke the more the color drained from everyone''s faces and when the priest finally said the word lich loud gasps filled the room, then Balthazar vanished. Appearing behind the priest he threw him down to the ground with his de drawn and ready to remove the priests head. "You lie! Tell me the truth! This never happened and your disgusting church is just trying to find an excuse to get your fingers on my family''s territory again!" He held the priest down by pressing his boot to the man''s chest. He could not see the other priest holding his holy symbol of their church with a nk expression at this outburst. "First you killed Aunt Diana, one of the most caring women i''ve ever known in my life and then you tried to use your ims of shadow magic to take over my territory with your little branch churches." The man had pure hatred and tears developing in his eyes. "How dare you return to thisnd after you tried to defileit and now you bring back the same lies? You even try to disgrace my aunts memory by calling her a lich in a dungeon we cannot even enter?" The more he spoke the louder he screamed until the rest worried he would tear his own vocal chords. "You people are not wee in my city or any of mynds and if I ever see another of your order in mynds again i will have them executed for conspiracy against the local lord!" Then he kicked the priest in the ribs and forced him out of the room not caring about the damage to the door when the man hit it. "Leave and never return! The church of light is banned in my territory!" A small sh of light originating from the holy symbol of the other priest urred and then he began to leave. "You will regret this day Lord Raylock, harboring a lich and a shadow mage? They may send an inquisitor." "Stop! Stop calling my aunt a lich! She was a powerful life mage but you have to be a monster to sacrifice yourself to be one of those! How would she have ever even learned how to be a lich when your disgusting church destroyed every form of necromancy teaching supplies that existed?" He was beyond disguted now. "Yes a lich is a monstrous existence that must be eradicated because of the cruelty they show but not all life mages want necromancy for that reason, how many families can never gain the closure their older family members knew by speaking with the spirits of the departed? The festival of souls no longer exists in this country because of you!" "You will regret this day, mark my words." Chapter 56: Otherworlders pt. 2 In another region of the city the pair of demons were looking for the shadow user and had spent the entirety of the previous day searching. Not only were they looking for the actual individual but they were looking for everywhere they had been using their mana to find a ce they visited often and that ce ended up as a forest clearing. The crystal they brought with them could not only detect ces dense with shadow elements but it could also find ces where shadow spells had been used. In this clearing it was burning up, they knew this ce was used often as a training ground due to the significant amount of shadow infused mana that would need to be cast to make the crystal react this way. "So how should we do this? Do you want to search for the mage or wait here?" Therger of the two demons looked around for some time before shaking her head. "I''ll keep looking, im not as patient as you." "Alright then take the crystal and keep looking I''ll set up my tent nearby and wait for anything." She moved deeper into the forest and therger demon left the area to continue her search. ~ Outside of the city a carriage was leaving the city, inside of this carriage were the two priests. The one who had been injured was rxing on the seat and using his life affinity to recover while the other was activating a spell scroll to report what happened. When the spell scroll was activated they could see the Pope looking at them through a surface like ss as if they were just a window apart. "That was your onlymunication scroll, i assume this is important?" The priest bowed and when his friend tried to he immediately stopped him. "I apologize for our disrespect your holiness but the city lord shattered my partner''s ribs during the event i must report to you and i cannot let him suffer just to bow." The Pope waved his hand as if it was nothing. "Just report what urred while he heals." And so the priest recounted the events in the meeting room. He spoke perfect and truthfully as he knew the Pope had a skill to discern lies. "I see, so the little half elf wants war with us? Fine let us exterminate the boy and when we find a more suitable member of the family we can promise them the title if they will swear fealty to the church." ~ Deep inside of the forest something was awakening. The dense mana that flowed into the world had heightened everything in the area and even here where the mana was previously thin and weak it was now so dense that a fog of raw mana was beginning to show itself. In this forest where the mana was at its thickest point a dripping sound began, this dripping sound was deep within a cave. Inside of that cave a creature was awakened with its burning red eyes looking for the source of that noise. It wandered through the cave silently looking for the source and in this cave its eyes were the only source of any light, like a pair of stone covered in luminous moss. It found the source of the dripping noise and soon a sound ofpping could be heard. Whatever was dripping in this cave this creature was now drinking and after a few minutes of drinking whatever liquid it found the beast roared. The roar grew in strength until it shook the woods and made beasts flee in terror. Something had awakened in thend of Raylock. Chapter 57: Updating Inside of the same building that contained Gaia, the devs were hard at work to push a mew update. One of the manyints given by the yers was theck of an actual value for health, stamina and mana. Not only theck of a real number on them but the stats that each character had felt less impactful without knowing what each of them could do. yers had figured out that strength affected your physical power and vitality affected your health, agility affected speed and the magical stats would affect mana cost and damage respectively for wisdom and intelligence. The thing that many would also learn was the apparent secondary effect of each stat like strength affecting your carry weight when bringing bodies back to the guilds. Vitality would increase natural health regen and base defense. Agility was used by rogues as their main damage source in conjunction with strength. Wisdom made skill progression easier and intelligence made learning skills easier. The value of each stat was known if anyone took the time to learn it but the devs still felt they could do more. For now they would focus on giving the hidden stats a visible value. ~ When Ezekiel woke up the nexy day he was ready to immediately enter the pod, the servers would be opening again at about seven in the morning in his timezone so he had to be up early for it. Getting into his pod and starting the game to wait for the server to open he actually saw something interesting. ~~~~~~~~~~ Update Installed- Bloodlines Online. ~~~~~~~~~~ While waiting for the server a figure in a green dress and fairy wings appeared before him. "Hello yer, I am the system protocol known as Titania and my job is to exin the changes that you will see in the character pannel because of this update." When looking down he saw that he was his avatar again. "This update has given a numerical value to your resources, specifically health, stamina and mana." His status screen was forced open then. On his status he saw the value next to his hp was 1925. "A new yer beginning at lv1 will have 100 hp and for each point into the base vitality stat they will recieve 5 hp." "Unless stated, vitality given by an item will not give any additional hp." The next thing he saw was his stamina which was a measly 200. "As with hp, stamina will start with a value of 100 and gain 5 for each point of strength." Then he saw his mana at 2200. "Unlike the other stats, mana growth is based upon level and skills that aid it. Every level gained will add an additional 10 mana to the base amount." Ezekiel was mildly annoyed that his mana would not grow stronger with any of his stats like the rest would but he quickly got over it when he thought about how easy it was to regain his mana. While thinking about all of it he tried out his new favorite spell, the nova needle. Before when he was estimating how much mana it used he would just try to see how much of the bar was used but now he knew that this spell cost about 1% of his mana which was significant and in fact it did remove 22 mana from his total. He loved the idea that he could spam the nova needle indefinitely but then he tried out the version he would infuse with as much mana as possible to cause significant damage. He let his mana regen bring back his maximum and then he cast ehat he liked to call an infused nova needle which at this point he could use 5% of his mana in. The result was a stronger explosive powerbined with the damage of the nova needle, he hade up with this spell after seeing how his efforts to bypass enemy defenses to damage the inside was making things harder on him. It might not be an amazing update but it at least gave him a better perspective of his power. Chapter 58: Day 2 When the server had opened again Ezekiel was quick to start leaving but he was stopped when he heard a voice. "You, devil boy. Youe here a lot?" When he turned around he saw an incrediblyrge demon woman, she was build like some sort of degenerate''s idea of a female barbarian and towered above him. "Uhhhhhh hi?" "Answer the question boy." She approached with a hand on her hip and leaned close. "Yeah I''ve been here a few times? I helpddy team out here when training to fight in the dungeon." He was nervous as he started to wonder if they had trespassed on some demon woman''snd without seeing any houses. "Which one of your friends has the shadow affinity?" At this he got even more nervous. "What''s that? Is that like going invisible or something?" He wasughing nervously while trying to back away. When she saw this she simply grabbed him. "Stop being a coward, a shadow mage should have some pride." She started walking away. "How long have you been in our world and how many know of your affinity?" He was trying to struggle free but her grip on his clothes was to strong do he just quit, he worried that if he attacked her she would kill him. "I have been here for five days and only three otherworlders know, oh and some mage that''s keeping my secret because I helped her with her blood magic." The demon frowned down at him before putting him on her shoulder. "My partner will arrive shortly and when that happens we will be leaving." "Wait, leaving? Why? I had things to do!" He started struggling again but now her arm was wrapped around him. "You will be safe in the infernal kingdom and we can ensure your growth there unlike this pathetic ce." He was curious about what this meant but he couldn''t be bothered now. While listening to her talk he remembered that he had been given a reward as part of thepletion of the hard mode dungeon. When he took the chest out the demon stopped. "Where did you get that..." "From the system, I was part of the team thatpleted the first hard mode dungeon clear in the world." "Must be taking only the otherworlders into consideration for that achievement, this dungeon that you beat is in this region?" "Yeah we trained our shadow magic resistance to be able to protect us from the boss because she mainly uses shadow magic to attack, we wanted to go after nightmare next." The demon was taken aback now. "You wish to take on a nightmare rank dungeon at this level? What a brave devil... if your people have only just beaten the jard rank then you may actually have a chance." She seemed to be thinking about something now. "If I were to let you stay and guard you would you return with us afterpleting the nightmare mode? Letting a greater shadow devil gain two pieces of unique gear would be to good of an opportunity." "What''s so special about unique gear though?" The demon frowned and sat down with a sigh while letting him go. "Unique gear is the best gear that exists as it provides three things, the first is a percentage increase to the statistics chosen by the item." She began to draw on the ground. She drew an outline of a person and then she drew another set of things in the dirt. Gloves, armor, boots, jewelry and a weapon. "The second thing provided by unique gear would be effects that cannot be matched by any other gear." She then looked him in the eye. "Lastly unique gear has a set bonus like many of the rarer pieces of gear in this world." ~~~~~~~~~~ Hello author here, I''ve been thinking about whether or not I should do what many authors do and have an in character lore dump via excerpts of a characters writings. For example in the novel chrysalis the author does this very well by showing future writings about his characters and excerpts written from the perspective of their characters (y''all should check out that novel btw its great) so if I did that for my novel would it be a wee addition? Let me know! Chapter 59: Going For Gold After talking with the demon woman he left without even asking for her name, he hoped he would be able to escape her clutches anyway so it wouldn''t matter. He was headed to the dungeon to wait for the others in his team as the game apparently had no way to message one another yet. While waiting he wanted to explore the streaming tab though, he also secretly hoped that by streaming he could get some extra money if people donated to him the way the advertisers endlessly preached. When he got his stream open it asked him to name it so he simply chose to call it "Hard Mode Dungeon Crawl" as it was an urate description. Since he was waiting he entered the dungeon just to do a run for anyone who may check it out. The result was him ignoring his stream for some time while he breezed through the undead at the beginning. When a stream is set up it gives the user an option to choose third person or first person and since he worried that his gaze may go to weird things he chose third person. When he got to the boss room he absorbed the mana there to help his mana veins and core along like the rest of the dungeon but it wasnt potent anymore. When he began the boss fight he was prepared to lose but he wanted to try anyway. ~ In the real world there were many people who spent their day doing nothing but scrolling through devices. They would often be children or stay at home parents or even people who had passive ie, themon factor amongst those who did nothing but scroll media all day was the fact that they did not have to work for anything. These were the main people watching BLO streams for fun, the rest were those who did so for their job. One such individual was looking through streams to find her next article, she worked for a gaming news website that had given her the task of finding anything that could be used from streamers. The problem with public streams, she had learned, was how often these streams were just made for perverts. On BLO''s streaming service you could select a level range to watch streams from, she had selected the 100-150 range and in these streams she saw that there were at least fifty streamers, of those streaming she saw that at least half were either trying to exploit the adult audience of the game. One streamer was very egregious in fact. An elven female yer had taken to wearing more revealing outfits on her healer. In the third person view this woman would do odd poses clearly trying to get a reaction and every few minutes she said the name of an ount for a website that was making the poor reporter disgusted in this streamer. "EnGuard, I''ll be sure to block her from any stories i write. I shouldn''t be shocked that degenerates are already trying to turn the game into an adult content farm." She eventually left the stream to go look for others, that''s when she found it. A stream showing a dungeon crawl. ''Wait aren''t most of those signed to the devs? This is perfect!'' Even if the stream wasn''t a good yer she would be one of the few to have a chance to write about a dungeon crawl without dev controlled footage, and it was a hard mode dungeon! When she opened the stream she went back to the beginning of it and settled in to watch. ~ Ezekiel was battling the dungeon boss and abusing every strategy he had learned from his allies, he even exploited his knowledge of how the death mark skill worked to try to deal extra damage like Shade. He currently had the boss at 25% hp and the giant skeleton was incredibly low as he wanted to keep its hp at a ce where he could kill it whenever he wished. During the many runs they had done they had learned that if they kept the skeleton alive instead of killing it before getting Diana to her next health threshold she would recreate the giant''s shield rather than reviving it at full health. Normally one would expect this to repeat the mechanic of the skeleton''s own shield but this one didn''t seem to. If he mostly ignored the giant and used his extra speed to keep track of the two of them he could just run away and kite the bosses. The others did not have his proficiency in mana sense nor did they have his proficiency in making mana shields so without them in his path he was flourishing. He hoped the others never find out about this though since he worried how they would feel if they knew they held him back in his farming against Diana. ~ The journalist was furiously typing as she watched the mage battle against the necromancer boss of the dungeon, she didnt know how difficult the boss was but she knew from watching the official stream clips from the devs that a solo dungeon crawl wasn''t easy at all. By now she saw that there were hundreds of viewers to the stream and donations were flying in asments surged. "How does he have so much mana?" "How is he fighting the boss like that?" "I don''t recognize those spells, is he using the same spell as the boss?" "Hey isn''t that the yer Belial?" "Yeah he was with War God." "The big ns are going to poach him for sure." "Poor war god, his n won''t have Belial for long." When the battle was done it seemed as if the only one who was surprised was the yer himself as he was cheering. The next thing they knew a server message appeared as if the viewers were yers. ~~~~~~~~~~ "Congrattions to yer *Redacted* for being the first toplete a hard mode dungeon alone, rewards have been granted." ~~~~~~~~~~ It was at this point that the stream ended. Chapter 60: Achievements When he exited the dungeon Ezekiel was quick to get away again but people were quick to notice him. He hated that he couldnt simplye and go as he pleased now and wished he could go back to being an unknown yer. Once he got out of the area and escaped to the trees where he could examine what rewards he got he finally sat down. He read his notifications again and then reread them to understand. He had been granted another unique chest because of his solo clearing of the dungeon at the hardmode difficulty, he didn''t know how rare unique gear was meant to be but if it was based on first time achievements there might be arge number of chances to gain such gear. With his curiousity rising he decided he would finally open the chests he obtained. ''For a mage the five pieces of gear are gloves, boots, armor, essory and weapon. yers wear more than just those pieces as rings also exist but would unique rings exist?'' He was thinking hard about it as he opened the first chest. ~~~~~~~~~~ Scanning yer statistics... yer [Belial] has opened a unique grade reward. Rewards are as follows. Unique Quality equipment- Void Beast ws. Multiple Choice Reward- ss advancement scroll Race advancement ritual Spell advancement scroll Skill advancement scroll ~~~~~~~~~~ He thought about each option before choosing. ''So if it''s multiple choice then I can probably only select one, skills arent difficult to train but they might reach a road block like the spell advancement does but I eventually figured out how to advance my spells further so I can probably figure it out for skills.'' With that he easily removed spell and skill advancement as options. ''ss advancement is something i havent even looked into yet but I bet it''s not as hard as i think... racial advancement is interesting though because I don''t know when my next level threshold is...'' With this thought he chose the racial advancement scroll and before using it he looked at his new gear. ~~~~~~~~~~ Void Beast ws (Unique) Unbreakable. While worn the user''s hands are immune to the consumption effect (uncovered regions still effected.) Intelligence- +10% base value Grants the user more control over the shadow element and shadow elemental mana. ~~~~~~~~~~ The bonus seemed pretty good and because his gloves were previously gold quality he didn''t want to immediately let them go, in fact the other gold quality gear reward from the dungeon was also a pair of gloves. He figured he could just give them to the group if his unique gloves were that significant of an improvement so he just put them on. The next step was to see what his other unique reward would be. ~~~~~~~~~~ Scanning yer statistics... yer [Belial] has opened a unique grade reward. Rewards are as follows. Unique Quality Equipment- Void Beast Fang. Multiple Choice Reward- Random skill book Random spell book Random lineage unlock Random affinity unlock ~~~~~~~~~~ Now this... this was a much better reward. He was actually struggling to choose now. ''Honestly the rewards are so good that i might have to wait to choose, it doesn''t say what the quality of the skills, spells, affinity or lineage would be so spells and skills might have to go.'' He then began to deeply think about the possibilities of a new affinity or another lineage. ''An affinity can probably be anything and so far the affinities I''ve obtained are amazing but a lineage would be something thats actuallypatible with my character as well.'' As he was thinking about this he suddenly felt arge hand grip his shoulder. "So boy, you came back." ''Oh I was to reckless.'' ---------------------------- Hello my wonderful readers, Hatter here. I finally reached a significant moment in the story and I hope all of you enjoy the chapter dump as Ezekiel will be FINALLY improving many things. Get ready for the ride ;) Chapter 61: Unique Rewards Ezekiel turned around trying to not look afraid. "Hello again, uh yeah of course I came back! I said I would didn''t I?" ''Dammit i shouldn''t havee back here i''m such an idiot.'' "Now tell me, did you select your reward yet boy?" Ezekiel nodded and pulled a scroll out of his inventory and showed the gloves on his hands. She examined them and whistled. "Don''t recognize the gloves obviously but that''s a race scroll, you got pretty lucky there kid." "I guess but I dont know what to pick for the other chest." She stopped now and looked him in the eye. "Other chest?" "Yeah I went do another run and got the first solo run in the game on hardmode so I got another unique reward." She immediately put both hands on his shoulders and leaned close. "What are the reward options! Tell me now! I can''t let you choose something fromck of knowledge." He went stiff as she grabbed him and told her. ''Well i narrowed it down to two options, a random affinity or a lineage unlock." "What was your previous lineage giving you?'' "It''s what gave me my shadow affinity." When he said this she went stiff as a statue. "What did you just say?" He was confused so he repeated himself. "I was given a lineage called child of the abyss and it gave me my shadow affinity, im pretty sure affinities aremon for lineage bonuses aren''t they?" She didn''t respond and simply stared at him. "I mean it only gave me the affinity and its a strong one yeah but I figured it was just a middle quality or something since it only gave the affinity." It was at that point that a smack was heard. The demoness had pped him across the face. "If you ever call that lineage anything but incredible I will personally feed you your own tongue. You will select the lineage unlock scroll." He was holding his cheek and staring at her in disbelief but he nodded. ''I have to get away from this psycho.'' He selected the option she ordered and then when she saw the scroll in his hand she ordered him to activate it. ~~~~~~~~~~ Lineage Unlocking Analyzing yer [Belial] Lineage found. New lineage obtained- Lesser Voidbeast. Shadow elemental damage increased by 10%. Consumed effect chance increased to 10%. ~~~~~~~~~~ "What did you obtain?" "Something called Lesser Voidbeast, what the hell''s a Voidbeast anyway? My unique gear is apparently made from them too." She heard him talking and frowned. "Yeah that''s above my standing probably, our queen may not even know what they are but if it''s made into unique gear and made to be on par with the other lineage you have then voidbeasts are probably not something that should be dealt with." This discussion was interesting for him but he wanted to find and excuse to leave so he instead took out the voidbeast fang. What he saw was... strange. It looked like something carved out of a piece of obsidian and it had a handle, it almost looked like a stiletto dagger and a wand at the same time. ~~~~~~~~~~ Voidbeast Fang (Unique) Unbreakable Able to channel shadow elemental mana and shadow element through the de to create projectiles or act as a weapon. Wisdom- +10% base value Grants the user more control over the shadow element and shadow elemental mana. Unique set effect (2/5): increase stat bonuses by 5% ~~~~~~~~~~ With this he had a weapon and he had a strange pair of gloves that could protect his hands from consumption. As for why this gear was chosen for him specifically? He wasn''t quite sure. For now he had to find an excuse to get away from this woman and he felt that the besg way was to go to the city. He knew how to use her for information as well. "Hey uh... I saw that other races are able to get multiple sses and improve sses but I never got thay option, how do we do that?" When she heard this question sheughed. "Oh you otherworlders are so frail in this world, go to the mage tower and they will help you with your mage ss advancement but for getting other sses thats exclusively for the races that do not evolve." He nodded and got up. "In that case I''ll be on my way to get my advancement done..." Then he ran as fast as he could. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone! Chapter 62: Class Advancement When Ezekiel approached the mage tower and showed his identification he was allowed in unlike before. He approached the front desk to ask for assistance. "Hi im trying to advance my ss, would you be able to help me get there?" The young man in the seat smiled politely and stood up. "Yes please follow me, I have the qualifications to help with ss advancement. First can you tell me what your current mage grade is?" He nodded and honestly said novice. "Oh my so a new mage, well let''s get you to the ritual room. Now tell me your mana core grade please." "I got it to the legendary grade." "Oh! You only just learned about ss advancement didn''t you? Well i''m going to make sure we bring you to the right room since an apprentice ritual would be wasted." They passed a room that the mage had originally been walking towards and approached another door instead. In the room was a spell circle engraved in stone with a blue glow filling it. Inside of that blue glow he saw the source, liquid mana. He was directed to stand in the center and wait for the system to prompt him. ~ After a lot of preparation by the mage he eventually directed Ezekiel to get into the circle, inside of it he waited for the prompt as directed. The mana in the circle was burning bright and flooding his body with energy, every pore and every cell was infused with mana. ~~~~~~~~~~ ss Advancement Ritual Activated. Analyzing yer [Belial] ss options: Experienced mage (Experienced) Fire mage (Experienced) Shadow mage (Master) Shadowfire mage (Legendary) Vampiric me mage (Legendary) Void Mage (Supreme) ~~~~~~~~~~ He was interested in only three as he had experience with the progression of his affinities which he assumed were much like this. Shadowfire mage- A mage that focuses on the power of the merged element shadowfire. +50% growth for shadowfire spells -50% growth for non shadowfire spells Vampiric me mage- A mage the focuses on the power of the merged element vampiric me. Don''t miss out on m-vl-em-pyr +50% growth for vampirc me spells -50% growth for non vampiric me spells Void mage- A mage that channels the void into all magic. Double base mana capacity. Gain the skill: void conversion (S) Gain the skill: void consumption (S) The sses also gave their own unique stat bonuses just as races would but these were not as high as his current race bonuses... the only one that stood out was void mage though as it gave no stat bonuses for leveling up. ''A supreme grade ss that I don''t know the real effects of other than the names of two skills...'' Supreme grade is the same as his nova needle so he was curious about it. Finally after some time he chose the void mage ss because he figured it was due to his new and apparently significant bloodline. After making his choice he turned to leave but the mage stopped him. "We offer every mage amissioned fee if they are willing to tell us about their ss options, would you be interested?" ''The bloodline implies that shadow magic and void magic are linked so it would be a bad idea.'' He shook his head no and thanked the mage for his help while leaving. ~ With his goalplete Ezekiel was ready to continue his path as a dungeon raider, his path that would continue with the gold quality skill book he had previously obtained. ~~~~~~~~~~ Skill obtained- Mana Condenser. (Experienced) Allow the user to naturally condense the mana within their core before casting. ~~~~~~~~~~ In addition to his new skills and doubled mana capacity he felt he was ready to tackle nightmare mode on the dungeon. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone! Chapter 63: Nightmare The firsf step of every dungeon run was to destroy the skeletons that were at the start. As with the previous difficulty increase he assumed he would be fighting more skeletons than before, or at least more difficult skeletons. What he wasn''t prepared for was an arrow striking him in the shoulder before he could even use his mana sense to find the skeleton. It dealt over half of his health in one shot so he had to attack back before he was in since there was no cover in this cave. When he saw the skeleton deep in the dark depths of the tunnel he cast a trio of nova needles to destroy it. With the help of his two unique items he could feel how easy controlling shadowfire mana was, it was a derivative of shadow mana after all. The Voidbeast fang also seemed to make his projectiles sharper. He wasn''t sure how it all worked yet as he had been to excited to try out the next difficulty of the dungeon. Now he had to face the consequences. His spells took the skeleton out but before he could catch any breath he saw another approaching. Then another. The loud spellcasting he had caused was alerting the others to his presence which would normally not be a problem as the skeletons only seemed to guard their positions. This time? He had over a dozen skeleton warriors and archers attacking him. Using his nova needle he was able to cause some aoe damage but normally the spell was meant to release its damage internally. When he skeletons were harmed by the explosive power he would aim for those that were close enough to catch others in the aoe. He ended up cornered while attacking them and had to resort to his mana shield strategy and his unique item. He figured out that with the Voidbeast fang he could channel the mana into it and recreate the death mark that Shade had used and unlike the daggers he would try this with the fang wouldn''t be harmed by it! Mana was normally dangerous to wield directly and he didn''t know why but with these items he could control the shadow element without any harm to himself. Continue the saga on m-v-l-e-mpyr With this dagger/wand thing he would be able to fight in close quarters without fear as long as he could sustain his hp. After strenuous battle where he dismembered the skeletons he finally defeated them. In the nightmare mode it had rmended yers be lv130 before they began and he was feeling that level difference as he had to use everyst bit of mana and nearly die in the process just to defeat these basic skeletons. The pain was worth it though. With a massive level difference he gained significantly more experience and with the dungeons bonus xp effect he gained 200% more than that. He had easily leveled up five times in that fight alone and now had free reign in absorbing all of that potent mana. The mana that he absorbed was finally able to move his affinity along to the next percent and at this rate he felt that he could get to 100% in just this one run. ~ Deeper in the dungeon he was able to see the boss room, as he had gone deeper he found that the mana became denser. He was at 96% affinity when he touched the door to push it open. ''Why were changes just to the aggression level of the skeletons the only change in here? Even the ambush skeletons were the same as before.'' These were his thoughts as he saw the magic circle glow across the door. Next thing he knew he was at the entrance of the dungeon again. ''Dammit.'' ~ After another attempt he was back at the door, his second attempt had sessfully brought his affinity to 100% and given him even more levels. He went to the door and used his mana sense to figure out what he could find. His mana sense revealed a bright spell circle on the door so he took a few steps back to try destroying it. When he cast his nova needle he got to see what had killed him before, dense mana released in a wave that tore his body apart. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone! Chapter 64: Preparing For Nightmares After failing a second time Ezekiel was feeling beaten down like before but he knew that with a proper n he could get through this. He had noticed that unlike most games he could not simply brute force his way through this one, unless he had power that made defenses irrelevant he would actually need to think about his path. That path was currently stagnant as he had finally upgraded everything that had been waiting for him... except for one thing. He still had the racial improvement scroll! With that scroll he would be able to make his race enter the next stage of evolution where he would be able to actually use more power in his strategies. This path would help him greatly so he activated the scroll as soon as he had some privacy. ~~~~~~~~~~ Race Advancement Ritual Activated. Analyzing yer [Belial] Species paths found. Lesser Archdevil- The next path of evolution for a greater devil that has improved their magical capabilities even further. Lesser Shadowfire Archdevil- The next path of evolution for a greater devil that has focused their power on the shadowfire element. Lesser Vampiric Archdevil- The next path of evolution for a greater devil that has gained both the life and shadow affinity. Lesser Tri-Elemental Archdevil- The next path of evolution for a greatee devil that has gained mastery in three elemental affinities. ~~~~~~~~~~ ''So many options...'' He knew that if he were to take each path into ount he would find a pattern the way he found every other advancement option had a pattern. The first offer was typically the one that required the lowest amount of power. The final offer was usually the one that required the highest amount. Because he had put so much effort into making his affinities max out he had earnes the tri-elemental race. He was sad that there were no options rted to the void like other things had given but nothing this time. He did not really consider the rest and simply chose the Lesser Tri-Rlemental Archdevil. He figured that if he chose the one that took the most effort each time then he was choosing the one with the most potential for power. ~~~~~~~~~~ Lesser Tri-Elemental Archdevil Vitality +15 Agility +15 Wisdom +30 Intelligence +30 Mana +10 Free +50 Lesser Archdevil Wings- Gain the skill "Lesser Flight" Lesser Archdevil Mana State- Gain the skill "Lesser Mana Burn" Mana veins will automatically be expanded to all extremities. ~~~~~~~~~~ Evolution in BLO was almost always instant but this time it took a few seconds for his vision to return. When it did he felt... odd. He knew that he would have wings so he decided to check what they were like, the result was unexpected. Wings that barely reached beyond his fingertips when fully extended and seemed to be made in a strangebination of draconic and batlike. The wings had small ws at each point like the fantasy dragon wings usually showed but they also seemed almost prehensile like bat wings. He tried to make them move like a hand would and he felt the joints strain so he figured they had only a small amount of flexibility for such things. The next thing he looked at was the mana veins skill that had been improved. Inside of his body he saw that the mana veins connected to his core now extended... well everywhere. He could even sense that his eyes had mana veins now. He tried to use different areas of his body to expell mana and shockingly it felt natural. The next step was to test the skills he had obtained and first he would test the flight skill. ~ He was afraid to try to fly from a dead stop but he knew that he could probably fly well if he climbed to the top of a tree, and so he did. At the top of one of the highest trees he could find he expanded his wings, but he was afraid to jump. ''What if the skill doesn''t work right and I fall to my death?...'' He was struggling to break his way out of that fear and eventually he took a deep breath. ''The system hasn''t let me down yet, time to trust it.'' And so he jumped. He activated the skill and saw his mana beginning to drain, about 100 mana every minute used to sustain the flight. What beautiful flight it was! It was always human nature to dream about flying in the air like a bird, why else would people create wingsuits and gliders? At one time people even paid to be flown into the sky on nes just to jump out and fall to the ground, it had been ouwed but people still remembered skydiving. With his mana recovery he could sustain his flight indefinitely but it was a slow flight, he also wondered how poorly it would go if he began to cast spells from his flying position. Because he had such a height advantage he decided to try it out. He began to drop shadowfire novas onto the ground below like bombs from a passing jet. He was having so much fun when he suddenly felt a surge of power and heard a notification. ~~~~~~~~~~ Target Consumed. +10 vitality. ~~~~~~~~~~ ''What just happened?'' He through his previous actions again and suddenly remembered that he had seen this once before. This was what happened when he had beaten the boss Diana for the first time! His shadow elemental effect seemed to be able to give him additional stat growth as long as he ''consumed'' enemies. Well if he was going to be given such power he might as well take advantage of it! He began to rain spells on different targets throughout the area and although he couldn''t get much experience from them he still managed to gain more and more stat points. He even decided that since he could do this he would never have to use his free points on the physical stats ever again! By passing over the grounds a few times he managed to take out arge number of enemies but he didn''t gain stats from every kill. He began to figure out that his consumed effect was rare, so rare that even with hundreds of kills he only managed to get a few of them to be consumed. That was when he saw the giant wolf. A massive wolf monster was chasing down a number of yers and taking them out one by one. This creature was something strange in this area as the average level of the monsters were 50-70 but this one was lv250. A monstrous white wolf burning people with ws covered in burning light and blinding them by shing something from within its fur that created an aura of white light. This would be a fight he could actually try himself out with. ~ Flying out over the wolf he started to cast nova needles in groups of three to find any weak points through the fur. As soon as he struck the wolf it seemed to be enraged as it looked up. It howled loudly and tried to leap into the air to attack him which made him panic as he flew higher. He began to rain spells down on the wolf repeatedly until he noticed his mana was dangerously low due to doing this while flying. His mana also wouldn''t recover quickly enough to bypass the monster''s regen so he would have to go to the ground. He flew away to let the remaining yers handle the wolf again but it did something unexpected. It chased after him. Not only did it chase him down but its mouth was glowing brightly. ''Oh fuck!'' His wing was struck by a beam of light from the wolf''s mouth and he hit the ground hard. Luckily he had gotten ready for it and rolled into the fall so he could reduce the impact and make it easier to continue running. When he got up he had to sprint as fast as he possibly could. The wolf was chasing him and only him which would leave the others an easy way to attack it but he was faster than many of them due to his half focus on agility. He had to turn back to the group to seek their help and try to get its focus off of him as it was beyond faster than he was. At this point he decided to activate another skill he hadn''t had the chance to try, mana burn. He felt the mana in his body boiling with power and rising in his veins. Across his body certain extremities began to release mana in the form of ck fire, each of his horns, ws, the points of his wings and the tip of his tail burned with shadowfire. It was incredibly painful for him so he turned to the wolf when he reached the group. He felt like his mana was about to explode in his body, the boiling pressure so extreme that he couldn''t bear it anymore. So he released it. Chapter 65: Event Hours earlier- The other yers that had been in the hunting zone outside of the city of Raylock had been given a sudden notification. ~~~~~~~~~~ A world event has begun. Radiant Wolf field boss has appeared. Protect the city of Raylock or y the beast. Optional Objective: assist in the destruction of Raylock until the beast leaves. ~~~~~~~~~~ When this event was announced many yers left the city walls to see what was happening. From the woods they say a giant wolf as tall as a carriage approaching the city. Because of the size of this beast they immediately felt worried since dying multiple times would result in lost levels. In the city itself the representatives of the various gaming ns began tomunicate with the leaders about what position should be taken. War God and Shade were both leaving the city at that point to check what was urring and what they saw left them with a bad taste in their mouths. "So are we just letting this happen? If the city is gone then we cant really stay here." Shade was looking at the giant wolf as yers began to rush it. "We need to organize our team, make sure Hope is around so we have our healer?" War God was nodding at what Shade said and she just stood near the wall to observe. "Get everyone ready, tell them to organize at the gate. If you see Belial get him here as fast as you can, we might need his magic." She watched the yers attack the wolf at random and begin to already take losses. She suspected the other ns were doing the same as she was, observing the low levels try to fight the wolf. The problem with low level yers is that when numbers are used as a means of force they treat themselves like a hammer, a tool of brute force. The issue with a hammer is that everything looks like a nail. The low level yers used numbers so often that they were not able to properly handle a real enemy nor did they have any real strategy. The wolf seemed very capable as an enemy. While surrounded it would howl, with a flicker of light the fur on its body would burst in blinding radiance. The stunned and blinded yer were easy to pick off by the fast strikes of the wolf. War God watched as the wolf tore through the crowd of yers sometimes two at a time and sometimes only one by one, by the time thest yer fell it looked to have taken hardly 4% damage to its hp. Sheughed as she saw more rushing out, likely sent by the ns to try to force the boss''s hp lower through erosion. She watched as the groups got progressively stronger as the n''s sent more and more people out to wear it down. Soon she saw the first lv100s going out to battle it and for the first time she saw real organizational power. The battles weresting longer than a minute as the n leaders seemed to be directing the yers more and more. She could see signs ofrger ns waiting just as she was and some seemed to be observing the other ns as much as they looked at the beast. Original content from M-VL-em|p,yr Soon the first signs of interference wereunched as arrows began to strike the warriors of the more organized forces. This was when the fights broke out. ~ A rogue was walking away from the walls andughing to himself as he watched the chaos unfold. ''I might not be able to do anything about that cocky bastard since he got famous with the War God but I can still reap the rewards of this event!'' He was climbing the rooftops of different houses and using a skill he had recently learned, sharpshooter. His failure to beat that mage had made him go another route in the assassin kit, the archery assassin. Each shot was striking the yers in their bodies or in the heads. They lostrge chunks of hp or they got affected by the assassin skills he had used. Many of them were being beaten down by the death mark skill as each instance of damage that distracted them would also make them get hurt by the boss when they were waiting for the monent to block or dodge. He wasughing to himself as he even shot a mage in the head for and instant kill. ~ In another area of the city the Guard Captain was watching this battle. She had been given a system quest to organize the defense against the giant wolf using the yers. The problem she faced was how they would refuse to listen unless she gave quests throygh the system as well. ''These damned otherworlders, greedy bastards won''t even help without some reward.'' She was watching them battle the beast that had been sent to attack them, the first act of war from the church of light. When she noticed the arrows striking the yers in the most recent group she opened another quest for them to find the one who attacked it. She suddenly got a knock on the door of her office which she went to open. "Ma''am, the scouts confirmed that the wolf is being observed by the church, shall we counterattack?" ''Of course they are watching their pet attack us.'' She was ready to go out on her own but she knew that if she did she would risk the city being punished by the system. The wolf was beating the yers down again but it would take time to defeat. She sent another quest out to make the yers scout the church of light, the problem was that she knew she might be sending them to the enemy as recruits. The system bound them because of these otherworlders and she hated it. ~ When the n members finally arrived Shade and War God got ready to battle together with Hope and their n. They got the yers organized and began to strike the boss down, they were blocking its strikes expertly thanks to training given by War God. She had trained so much to battle the giant skeleton that her skills with parryingrger foes were almost the maximum of their grade, she could counter the wolf so well that she was almost knocking it aside with each blow. Shade using his higher mana core was able to cause significant damage unlike the other rogues in the area. Hope kept her allies alive and very well healed. They were weakening the boss further than any group had so far when they finally noticed something different. They heard a crowd of people. Behind them a group was forming from thergest n poption in the area. The n was approaching them with weapons ready and some of their members began to cheer over having extra help. War God knew otherwise. She blocked another blow from the wolf and quickly turned to protect shade from behind as a sword almost took his head from his shoulders. She had to block more attacks while this other n apparently came to contest the boss. With the heavy hitters of the n distracted by different yers the new party could attack uncontested. The battle was very hard between the groups and many were falling due to the yer killing. That was when people began to hear the sound of screaming beasts. People looked around and only saw beasts copsing on the ground covered in ck fire. When the boss was lower it started to use its light based attacks more often and during one of those attacks War God saw a very familiar projectile. From the sky were nova needles raining down upon this beast and when it looked up she did as well. ''Belial? Since when does he have wings?'' The beast chased him down and with the beams of lighting from its mouth it eventually struck his wing. He hit the ground hard but continued to run away, when she saw it gaining on him she was shocked by her friend turning to face it. His body began to twitch and burn with mana in her mana sense. At certain points on his body she saw ck fire with a green tint in the core begin to burn at it and she was afraid for him since she knew what that fire felt like. She saw him raise his wings and his tail in a terrifying disy while the mana infusing his body began to pulse. After a loud roar from her friend she almost rushed over to help him and ignore the entire battlefield field... but then she saw it. The mes on his body converging in the air as one giant ball, then another and another and dozens of them. She saw the mana in his body drain until hardly any glow remained. While the mana was being drained she saw the projectiles reshaping into needles just like his signature spells. When the needles were fired they impacted the boss like a flurry of bullets from a machine gun. The beast''s body was torn apart by this and it copsed to the ground with Belial falling at the same time. Everyone was so stunned that they didn''t even move, not even when hope ran over to him. She was dragging him away when the system notification sounded. ~~~~~~~~~~ Congrattions! yers have defeated the enemy threat to the city of Raylock and will be given the title "Defender of Raylock" as well as rewards for individual aplishments. ~~~~~~~~~~ The thing that happened next was shocking for all. The body of the wolf began to fall apart into dust which was streaming into Belial''s unconscious body. Chapter 66: The Deal When Ezekiel finally woke up he was in a tavern''s room with War God beside him. He couldn''t remember much other than a burning pain in his chest and his mana feeling depleted. He sat up to look War God in the eye while he checked his notifications. "What happened to me? Why am I in the tavern?" At the same time he opened his notifications. ~~~~~~~~~~ Mana Burn has been activated, mana capacity doubled for one minute. Mana has reached a boiling point, spell power increased by 50%, taking damage equal to 1% mana capacity per second. Enemy "Radiant Wolf lv250" has been consumed. Vitality +500. Congrattions! You have in the field boss andpleted the event, "Protect Raylock" Due to your actions world events are changing. ~~~~~~~~~~ "After the wolf shot you out of the sky you ended up killing it with those crazy spells. You ended up passing out and Hope got you out of the area." "For some reason the guards have been crawling all over the city since that thing attacked too." He thought back to what the system had told him in his notification and felt some concern. He got ready to look at more of his system notifications when they heard someone bang on the door. "City guard, we know the mage is in there and the captain wishes to speak to him." When checking the door they saw a group of three guards, Ezekiel simply stood up to follow because he worried what would happen if he disobeyed the order. When he left he saw War God following them. The guards turned to confront her but the one leading simply dismissed it. "Let the demone, she is probably concerned for the safety of her mate." ''MATE?!'' "What do you mean mate! We aren''t dating! Why would he even think about a giant muscle bound woman like this..." "Oh normally a male devil apanied by any female would be one of the mates guarding him, my apologies." This incident had left the two so embarrassed that they were silent for the whole journey. ~ When they reached the barracks built onto the city wall they came face to face with the city guard captain for the first time. ''Whoa, she''s cute.'' Genevieve S- That was all the system gave him but if what the guards said was true then she was the captain of the city guard. She was a very tall elven woman, green hair with hints of gold and deep green eyes. Right now those eyes were boring into him like they wanted to examine deep into his soul. "So you''re the shadow mage the church is looking for..." He choked for a moment before nodding. "You know that wolf attack was partially your own fault right? The church came looking for you." He winced at this as if the thought brought him physical pain. "If you hadn''t killed the thing it might have torn down the walls and left us vulnerable to future attacks by the church." He looked down in shame. "Look me in the eye shadow mage, give me one reason I shouldn''t hand you over to the church now." "I could be useful?..." She examined him after this and nodded. "You could be useful to us yes but what can you do that others cannot?" He thought about it and then he decided that the best course of action was honesty. "I recently got a ss called the void mage, it was a special grade ss?" "My allies and I also got unique gear from the dungeon reward and we are working towards another achievement to get another piece each." When he said this the demon who was watching immediately caught on and stepped forward. "We defeated the dungeon boss on hard mode and got a first time clear achievement which gave us incredible rewards." While she was talking he suddenly remembered something else. "There''s another demon too! She said that she wanted to take me away to protect me or something, she might help the city if I agree to go with her." The captain raised a brow at this and looked him right in the eye. "She uh.. found out that i had gotten unique gear from the dungeon and let me stay to try toplete the nightmare difficulty." He began to describe the demon and with each word her eyes grewrger andrger. "The Abyssal Knight. If what you say is true then you have caught the attention of two groups that you do not want to be involved with." "The Infernal kingdom is powerful and ruled by the devil queen, they often recruit shadow magic users but no one ever hears from them again. The church of light exterminates shadow magic users so even if you don''t choose the Infernal kingdom you will die outside of it." Upon hearing this he sighed in defeat and nodded. "Then maybe I can try to meet her again and tell her the n? She might agree if I do that." The captain visibly shivered at the thought. "Having the Abyssal Knight on our side would certainly make any attacks from the church of light into an irrelevant pest but it would also mean we gain the full attention of the church." After sitting down and thinking about it she eventually looked out of a window. "We must discuss it with the city lord, only then will we actually be able to make a decision." ~ In the woods a pair of demons were meeting back with one another. "You found the shadow user yes?" Therger demoness nodded. "Yes I did and i have interesting news that the queen must know immediately." Her partner sat there waiting. "It was a devil, a male devil with the child of the abyss bloodline." The sitting demon jumped to her feet with a gasp. "The queen will kill us if we don''t seed in bringing him back! She might evene herself to retrieve him..." "Yes, she would risk sparking another war with that ridiculous church just to get a make devil with that bloodline." While her partner was rambling therger demoness snapped her fingers to catch the other''s attention. "There is more, he has a piece of unique gear. The otherworlders have the chance to obtain unique gear again because they have their own requirements from the system." After hearing this the other demoness said nothing, and then sprinted in the direction of the city. ~ Inside of the city the two yers were being brough to the center where therge council chambers were. Apparently the city lord also lived in this building rather than his own home. When they got into the building they were given a path to the city lord without any restraints, the captain was throwing her weight around it seemed. They entered an office where a man was sitting around doing paperwork but he looked up when he heard the door. "Ah Genevieve, is something wrong?" She sped her fist to her chest and bowed her head before motioned towards War God and Belial. "These two are otherworlders and the devil is the shadow mage that the church has been seeking. They gave me information that would interest you." He scowled at them before dismissively waving his hand. "Speak." Ezekiel stepped forward and cleared his throat. "I wasn''t aware that my existence was causing so many problems im so sorry, there is a demon in the city that was looking for me and your captain recognized the description of her." He proceeded to describe how they met and how he had gotten two unique items which had caught the attention of the demon. "She wants me toplete the nightmare difficulty of the dungeon and then leave with her but if she finds out that the church is trying to attack you then I might be able to convince her to protect your city." The city lord looked like he was displeased until the captain spoke up. "He described the Abyssal Knight." After these words the lord gasped and immediately went into deep thought. He seemed ready to speak until they heard crashing and yelling outside of the room. The captain began to draw her sword until the door burst open. In the door was a demon that stood at least seven feet tall with blue, ram-like horns. She had deep crimson skin and blue veins that pulsed with magical power. "You! You are the devil that uses shadow magic yes? My partner met you and told me what to look for." She was walking right up to Ezekiel,pletely ignoring the captain and the lord. When he looked around he saw the two of them standing with their mouths hanging open before they quickly kneeled. "G-great Ashbringer, we were not aware that you were in our humble city! Please ept our apologies for not properly greeting you!" They were shaking... Ezekiel was worried now. "We disguised ourselves because of those disgusting church bastards that were here, why is our new devil in your view city lord? Don''t tell me you were nning to hand him over to save yourselves." Ezekiel quickly spoke up. "No not at all! We were here to see if he would approve of me asking your partner to protect the city from the church while Ipleted the nightmare difficulty!" She examined the young devil before scoffing. "This is not one of our territories... if you agree toe back quietly then we will make it one but you must swear loyalty to the queen." ''Swear loyalty?'' Chapter 67: Infernal Society After thinking about the offer he was given he had other questions that he would have to ask. When he started to ask them they made him wait as therger demon, the Abyssal Knight, was left behind. He and War God were taken out of the council chambers and when he tried to speak again he was interrupted. "You will wait until we are out of the city, the church has spies." Upon hearing this he nodded and went silent. The many citizens and yers were gawking at the strange looking demoness that led then out of the city and when some attempted to follow they were scared away by a threatening look from her. Once outside of the city the demoness must have felt more secure and began to speak. "You willplete the dungeon as agreed, is the greater demon mate there part of your team?" "Why do people keep calling us mates!" War God''s face was burning with a purple blush as she looked away. "The rare instances of a male devil ever leaving their home would always involve a demon guardian, you two were found together so i assumed this was the case?" The demoness actually had a yful smile on her face now as she looked at War God. "Do you truly not value the male? If he is not part of your family or you are not a mate then you would not care if we took him away?" "Well of course I would care! If you take him against his will then you are no better than the church in my eyes." This seemed to be a very poor choice of words as she suddenly got lifted by the throat. "How DARE you insinuate that we would ever be as disgusting and cruel as those filthy priests, you would believe that we would kill him?" She threw War God across the ground forcing Ezekiel out of his stunned silence to try to help. "You would DARE topare us to the beings that would kill him for his affinity? You would DARE topare us to those that would waste the life of a male?" He stood between the approaching demoness and his friend. "Hey how about we all calm the fuck down, maybe you can exin what all this weird obsession with me being a male is? Im a guy what does it matter?" The demoness stopped now and had a smug look on her face while she watched him tend to War God. "I forget that you otherworlders don''t know anything about our world, fine I will tell you." She began to walk away and when his friend was fully healed he helped her back up. "You ok La?" She nodded and looked at him with a strange expression when he used her name but turned to follow the demoness. "Infernal culture developed in a certain way, we value magic most and since only about one in five of infernals are born with a talent for magic there are more demons than devils." When they entered the trees to be fully protected from prying eyes she sat down facing them. "Since about one in five of us be devils that means there are far more demons and our culture developed to have something that many havepared to the pack families of the beastfolk." She began to use a stick to draw in the dirt. "When young infernals grow up they will often split into groups with a devil and four demons, these are known as covens." "A coven does not have any specific leader as all trust the others with their lives and all must be aware of the faults of one another for a coven to flourish." She drew one X mark and four O marks on the ground to signify a coven. "Eventually a coven will find another coven that is seen as trustworthy and valuable to the life of the current members, when those covens merge they are known as a n." She then begins to draw a line between another coven drawing. This line was shown to stop at a Y. "The purpose of this is for the eventual honor of procreating." "Infernals struggle to birth males, we do not understand why but for some reason we have roughly ten females for every male and due to this disparity we hold males as a thing to be protected." She then looks up at Ezekiel. "You say she is not a mate, therefore you are unwed by infernal terms because a wedded male would never go unprotected... technically an unwedded male would mever be seen alone anyway as the sisters or mothers would not allow them to be in any danger." When she said this War God spoke up. "You keep talking about the men like they''re helpless, do infernals think men are weak?" The demoness looked at her in confusion beforeughing. "If you go into the woods you understand that you may encounter beasts yes?" La nodded. "Then if you have a territory nearby and a low level child that cannot defeat those beasts you would wish to keep them safe yes?" She nodded again. "Technically this is our own fault but we view females as more expendable so they are allowed to train more, males are protected like a ss flower which stunts their growth." She looks at Ezekiel. "You appear to be approaching adulthood, at your age you are probably in the upper 10% of male devils in terms of power at the same age" Sheughs at this as if its absurd. "When we are within infernal territory you will be protected by myself and my sister so you would not have to worry about... unsavory advances." Sheughs even harder. While Ezekiel was listening to all of this he eventually turned to look at La who was deep purple from blushing, when she saw him look at her she got up and quickly changed the subject. "We''re both demons right? You must know some goodbat skills? If you want us to beat that dungeon easier then shouldnt we be learning about skills to help us?" When she said this the demoness sighed and got back up. "Yeah you''re right,e on I''ll teach you some valuable skills that every proper demon should learn. Go practice your magic boy." The dismissive attitude annoyed him but he got up to go practice anyway. Before he left he turned back to the two to give them some information he learned. "Hey in the dungeon there''s a spell circle protecting the boss room now and when tou touch it or try to harm it the mana is kind of released like a bomb." As he was leaving the demoness looked troubled. ~ Deeper in the woods Ezekiel had found a quiet ce to practice his magic as well as harness his new skills. ''Ok first lets try this void conversion thing.'' ~~~~~~~~~~ Void Conversion lv1 (L) Convert elemental mana into void mana at a ratio of 10 to 1. ~~~~~~~~~~ ''Void mana huh? Well lets try that out.'' He activated the skill and... nothing happened. He tried again and tried using mana at the same time, this time he saw a strange change in the mana but atill nothing urred. ''Maybe it affects spells? It does say elemental mana in the description.'' This time when using the skill he cast a nova needle. As the mana was rushing through his body he felt it being... refined? It was like the mana was bing more potent even if there was less of it. With the spell cast he watched what void mana could do. It struck a tree and all he really saw was that it was eating away at it the same as consumption from shadow mana. The main difference was void mana was consuming the tree much faster. Because void mana was more aggressive than shadow mana he figured ot was better to focus on the elemental effect of it. The damage dealt by the consumption effect of void mana has almost three times as many damage instances as shadow mana did which made the void version three times stronger. ''I need a spell that can properly apply that effect more often... the best application would be something sharp but des dont cut deep enough.'' He began to experiment with this version of his spells. When he tried using the void effect with his pseudo death mark skill he was surprised to see that it took the effect quite well, the explosive force was opening more surface area inside of the target to be affected by the void consumption. "That spell I used against the wolf, the mana burn skill that let me make all those nova needles... I wonder if it''s possible to make my needles denser and sharper, they would be able to break defenses well and even cause an absurd amount of void consumption...'' With this thought in mind he began to practice making his needles as dense and sharp as possible. Chapter 68: SpellCraft To make a nova needle it required Ezekiel to create a dense ball of mana which was shaped into the sharp projectile. The inner core of the spell was left vtile while the other portion was made into a fragile but incredibly sharp container. By sacrificing the durability of his projectile he could make it even sharper as if he were using shards of ss to contain nitroglycerin. Unlike normal ss he could shape the mana to be a dangerously sharp object and make it into a container without destroying its integrity. He had a spell in mind but the amount of mana needed would ruin what he nned. To recreate the way he destroyed the radiant wolf he would have to start from the ground up rather than using his previous spells he realized. He started by creating a needle made from mana, this time he made it as thin as possible. He could create such needles effortlessly and firing them at the trees showed how they were mostly ineffective for more than spreading elemental effects. He began to shape them further to try to create a projectile that could actually cause damage and maintain sharpness while being very cheap to create. Eventually he made a needle that would use approximately five mana to create the right bnce of sharpness and speed but he had severely sacrificed on damage. His damage per needle was one tenth of tbe damage that he could do with a normal nova needle but he didn''t care because this would only be one needle in a barrage. Since the damage was one tenth of his normal damage he decided to start by trying to create ten needles in one move. He found that the easiest way was to channel the mana to each of his fingers and then create two needles at once. Fifty mana for a full damage attack was quite good but he could do better. He tried to remember that feeling he had when he was creating mana projectiles on the air so quickly that it felt like a spell. He brought his wings and tail around like he had done before and he began to channel his mana through his mana veins to find every single ce that made it easier to create the projectiles. He did learn something fascinating by doing this. His tail could channel more mana than any part of his body while his wings had the most surface area where the mana veins had been created. If he could create the needles by using his wing membranes then he could created hundreds of needles using his mana. With his maximum mana he could create eight hundred and eighty needles in this way but he wanted to focus on damage now. He realized that by thinking about the shape he wanted while channeling his mana through his mana veins he could imagine every needle forming the same way, it was harder than creating the needles individually but he would be able to focus on more of them at once unlike before. So he began to create a spell that he knew would be his most used damage option as a mage. Eventually he had created it. ~~~~~~~~~~ Congrattions! You have created a unique spell, please name it. [Serverwide Notification] A yer has sessfully created a unique spell for the first time, distributing rewards. Title: Spell Crafter Unique chest. ~~~~~~~~~~ When he saw this he was ecstatic, another unique chest! He would be able to do many things with three pieces of unique gear. When he finished reading he checked his new spell which he named Frenzy Wing after something from a retro game he had yed from his mom''s collection. ~~~~~~~~~~ Frenzy Wing lv1 (L) A spellposed of over a hundred projectiles made for very high pration and speed with a core of vtile mana to finish the projectile inside of the target. ~~~~~~~~~~ When the spell was made he could cast it faster through the system but no matter what it would have a one second channeling time. With the spell cast he could fire the projectiles anytime he wished and simply had to make sure he aimed. He could swing his wing out and needles would be able to fire in wide ranges following the sh of his wings. He even practiced their defensive value but was quite disappointed when his wing got injured more than the actual target that looked like a porcupines victim after their sh. After his little experiment he went on to check his new unique reward chest. Inside was obviously the same unique reward as before but the thing he was truly curious about was his optional reward. ~~~~~~~~~~ Skill improvement scroll Elemental affinity scroll Creature taming scroll Bloodline awakening scroll ~~~~~~~~~~ When he saw the reward options he was a bit mixed in his desires. Gaining a fourth affinity would be amazing. Gaining another bloodline awakening would be even more incredible. Gaining a skill improvement could even push one of his stagnant skills to the next grade. He could potentially upgrade the mana core beyond the legendary grade and see if his core would increase his mana capacity beyond 100% base value. The more he thought about it the more he felt that he was being greedy though, he had allies now and they would have gotten reward options too but unlike them he had two more unique items and another reward such at this. He decided that he would go and tell La about it to see if she would like to choose a reward for either herself or her team. ~ La was breathing hard and trying to keep up with the demoness that had chosen to train her. Currently they were training a movement skill she called Abyss Walk but she couldn''t quite get it right to make the skill activate. She had been practicing all this time on this skill as the others had been so easy to figure out. "Abyss Walk is a higher grade skill but you will figure it out, you have to feel your connection to the abyss though, feel the fire burn inside of you and let yourself move through our home." She tried to follow it and she interpreted it as using her fire affinity and her mana in addition to her stamina to dash. She couldn''t get them to blend properly and just ended up stirring her mana up while sprinting forward. She kept trying until her stamina was drained and then she finally felt some idea of what she was missing. She tried to use her mana to push herself forward this time rather than actually trying to enhance her body like before. What happened was her body moved rapidly rather than rushing forward. ~~~~~~~~~~ Skill learned: blink lv1 (A) ~~~~~~~~~~ "Oh you learned the inferior technique used by normal warriors... I suppose every path has to start somewhere." As they were settling down for a break they heard rustling, from the trees came Ezekiel. When she saw him her thoughts went back to him being called her mate and she began to burn up again. Her bloodline did bizarre things that she felt were incredibly inappropriate but even at their first meeting she felt extremely upromising around him because of what her bloodline caused. She hated it, she hated that just because the game was exclusively for adults such a thing could be given. When she saw that he was approaching she quickly jammed her ws into her palm to focus her thoughts and smiled. "Hey La i wanted to ask you if you or the others might want one of the unique chest optional rewards?" She thought about it and was actually surprised by this offer. From her own unique reward she had obtained an incredible set of armor and a scroll that increased the grade of an item. She had used this scroll to make her gold quality long sword into a mythril quality! ''He''s just going to give us something like that?'' "No you should use it, your survival is in danger right now remember? You need to make yourself stronger." He frowned at her reaponse and just nodded before opening the chest. From within he took out a scroll and a robe that looked like ck snake leather with silver melted into it. It was hard to tell what was metal that had been added and silver that came from the leather. He put the robe on and then activated the scroll. She didn''t really know what he had selected but she could feel mana surging through the area. "Oh my, his core is evolving." She turned to the demoness with a look of confusion which made herugh. "When a mage grows their core to the peak of the legendary rank they can evolve it to the supreme rank, once a core reaches the supreme rank that is when it evolves into a mana gem." She turned to look at him with augh. "Normally it takes a lot of effort and mana to do it but his reward must have started the process." "Well what does that mean? Is it a good or bad thing?" The demoness turned to look at him with a hard expression. "There''s no way to tell. What decides a gem''s quality is the one who made it, their bloodline, their potential, everything is apparently a factor for the gem quality. Most just say that if you take to long starting the process or dont have enough mana in the area then you hinder the potential result." When she heard this La was worried, because the mana here was patheticpared to the dungeon. Chapter 69: Proper Mage It had only taken a few seconds but it felt like an eternity. He watched as the skill improvement scroll forcefully shattered his solid mana core and then using all of the mana in his body as well as the mana from outside of his body began to shape the shards of his mana core into something different. A mana core is shaped like a sphere, they tend to be blue in color based on what he had heard from his allies when they sold monster carcasses. Apparently there are even different shades of blue that the yers had begun to use to refer to the core''s quality. He was watching as his core was reformed into this a gem, it was a strange crystalline thing that had no real color which made it possible to see the elemental mana that his core had been infused with before. ck and red mana swirled within the core like an angry cloud. When the process was done he decided to check was his core could now do. ~~~~~~~~~~ Mana Core lv10 (L) -> Mana Gem lv1 (S) Mana Gem lv1 (S) Quality: Diamond Increase base mana capacity by 150%. Mana regeneration by 5% every 5 seconds. (passive) Increase mana regeneration to 10% every 5 seconds. (active) Increase spell damage by 50% ~~~~~~~~~~ ''Whoa.... thats a huge bonus.'' After the process wasplete the demoness approached him. "So you got your mana gem? What quality is it. Lets hope you got at least silver, if you got gold it would be amazing but even silver is great for a shadow mage." He hesitated before saying the quality he had obtained, he knew that with her reaction a diamond quality mana gem must be unexpected or at least incredibly rare so he would use it as insurance. "First I want some assurances because its a good one. I want you to promise that the Infernal Kingdom will protect Raylock even after I leave. It''s my fault they''re being attacked." She scowled and began to approach. "A little male thinks he can bargain with the Queens Guard? You must be feeling pretty cocky because of your mana gem boy, fine lets see if the deal is worth it... show me your status." He nodded and showed off his status for the first time to another person. ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Void Mage lv114. (Supreme) Lesser Tri-Elemental Archdevil Affinity: 100% Shadowfire 100% Life Mana Core: 100% Shadowfire Strength: 20 (+60) Vitality: 440 -> (+510) Agility: 580 -> (+80 +20%) Wisdom: 1100 -> (+80 +20%) Intelligence: 2000 -> (+70 +20%) Free stats: 4 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: Dungeon Conqueror, Tutor, Protector of Raylock, Spell Crafter Skills: Mana Control lv9 (L), Mana Sense lv8 (L), Mana Gem lv1 (S), Spell Mastery (E), Mana Condenser (E), Full Body Mana Veins lv5 (M), Mana Burn (S), Void Conversion lv1 (L), Void Consumption (L) Defenses: Fire Resistance lv8 (E), Shadow Resistance lv9 (A) Spells: Mana Bolt lv8 (E) Mana Burst lv8 (A) Fire Nova lv10 (M) Fire Arrow lv10 (M) Fire Spear lv6 (M) Shadow Spear lv10 (M) Shadow Cluster lv10 (E) Shadow Arrow lv10 (M) Shadowfire Orb lv10 (A) Shadowfire Spear lv10 (L) Shadowfire Nova lv10 (L) Shadowfire Nova Needle lv4 (S) Shadowfire Mirv lv1 (S) Frenzy wing lv1 (L) ~~~~~~~~~~ She was examining his status screen and using her own system interface to study his skills, when she checked the mana gem skill she sucked in a breath so sharply it almost whistled. "You cocky little shit you got a diamond mana gem!" She beganughing loudly and pped him on the back. ''Damn I think she just bruied a wing..'' "Fine you have your deal boy, now we need to check some of these skills you got." "I already know about mana burn, honestly surprised you got to Lesser Archdevil so quick, tell me about your unique gear first though." He began to exin. "Well the gear is apparently made from something called a void beast, the bloodline awakening scroll I got from a unique reward also gave me the Lesser Voidbeast bloodline." "Hmm if its from a scroll then that means it unlocked another bloodline of a simr grade to what you already had, a Lesser Voidbeast is on the same level as a Child of the Abyss?" He described what each item he had did, his gloves that were immune to damage from the shadow element which after experimenting had shown to extend to the void. His wand/dagger thing, the Fang, that could be used as a weapon or used to summon powerful projectiles with his mana. He also describes his new robe. It was a robe that boosted his agility as well as giving the item skill that let him extend a shield of mana across his body. "Show me what the mana shield does, I want to check its durability." He activated the skill and created the mana shield across his chest and arms, she swung her fist out suddenly and pped him away making him crash into a tree. "Ow you crazy bitch!" "Impressive, your arms aren''t broken and your chest doesn''t seem to be injured at all.... your wings look broken though." "You think?! I wonder why?!" He had to take time to heal his wings with his life mana while she watched. "Tell me about the set bonus, there must be more than bonus stats." He was grumbling angrily before he showed her how he could control shadow and void mana like it was second nature. "Each piece of my unique set gives me more natural control over the shadow element and I guess the void element is connected somehow because they do the same thing for it." She nodded and looked at something else. "That spell, what is it? Its named... is that how you obtained the spell crafter title?" He nodded in response and she started tough hysterically. "Oh those poor bastards, they dont even know that the title was up for grabs again and now we have the holder." She had a giant smile on her face before she motioned to him. "Cast the spell I want to see it, use it on me so I can gauge the quality of your creation." She went off to somewhere to stand as a target and he cast Frenzy Wing. The needles began to appear in a wave and he started to strike with them inrge, sweeping motions of his wings. The needles seared into her body as she kept a defensive posture but when she left her guard down to watch for the next set she was riddled with small bursts of mana from within her body that made her stumble back. "Jeez kid you actually made something huh?" She wiped the blood off of her arms and chest before looking at the wings still coated in shadowy needles. "Can you fire them all at once?" "Yeah, it''s what I actually made the spell for but I wanted to be able to use the needles for more versatility too." She nodded andughed a bit. "You do have potential after all, the two of you will take turns leveling up in that dungeon on nightmare and when one is inside i will be training the other, understood?" He and La nodded. "Good, now who wants to go level up first? I''ve been training your little mate here all this time so it should be your turn." ''There''s that damn word again, why are they all acting like that? She''s probably dating Shade if anything.'' He agreed that La should level up first while he trained. ~ While La was gone this psycho trainer was forcing him to try to properly train his mana shielding. "You can turn it into a skill but you have to get better at using it, you have to make the shield instantly and use it topletely nullify a strike to be recognized as a skill." She had not even taken her weapon off her back and was using her ws to strike him. He was getting faster with his mana shields though. He could counter her stikes even if they pushed him back but he couldn''t make the shields instantly yet. At one point she even tried to backstab him and he learned something amazing. When protected by the mana shield of his unique gear his wings were incredibly durable. That was the tipping point for him. When he realized how easy it was to block using his wings while they were guarded hy the armor he could actually be more aggressive with his counterattacks. He would activate the mana shield of his gear and he would use his own mana shields to add additional protection when she struck him. The first time he did so sessfully was when he finally learned the skill. ~~~~~~~~~~ Skill Aquired: Mana Guard lv1 (M) Increase damage resistance of physical and magical damage by 10% Perfect Counter- when perfectly blocking a strike with minimal mana useage the damage will be nullified. ~~~~~~~~~~ As soon as the skill was sessfully made she made him practice it even more. He was forced to stand still while she would rapidly strike him with her ws, each strike would get faster and faster after he blocked it and she would only stop when he was able to sessfully block her at half speed. ''She might be a psycho but she''s a good teacher.'' Chapter 70: Training For Nightmares Within the time it took for him to learn the mana guard skill La hadpleted a run in the dungeon. Well she got to the boss door and died but still got the experience points or a run. Since it was now his turn to go and attempt his own dungeon crawl he was on his way but the demoness stopped him with a hand. "When you get in there you aren''t allowed to use your normal spells, train your unique spell and train your defensive abilities." She pushed him forward while she turned back to La. "A mage without any physical damage defense skills, this is just hrious." While heading into the field to deal with the dungeon he would wear his robe with the hood up and his wings hidden to stay out of easy recognition for yers. The days within the game were bleeding together but he hoped his mother was enjoying herself in the real world. As he got to the dungeon again he decided he would stream his run again. ~ Hours after the first stream had finished she was still looking through the feeds to find anything like it again. The journalist had already uploaded her report about the stream so she was just watching and praying for another. She was refreshing the page again when she got a call from her editor. "Jaydaaaa my favorite girl, I saw that upload about the mage doing a solo dungeon crawl!" She suddenly got worried, her boss only ever sounded this happy when he was about to drop something on a worker. "Alright babe I''ve got good news and bad news." "The good news is that you got the attention of the creators of BLO and they way to talk to you." This made her heart flutter with excitement, BLO liked to hired journalists so if they were looking at her because of her work they might want to buy her article! "Now for the bad news, you''re fired. I can''t have them circling around my studio or my talent understand babe?" ''...'' ''Please tell me i just misheard him.'' "Are you serious?" "Completely, your credentials are already being removed so good luck out there." As she got ready to hang up she saw an email from a very well known group by now. ~~~~~~~~~~ Dear Jayda Stone. We hope this email finds you well, we saw your work on the stream from the yer known as Belial and we would like to buy the rights to it from you. We contacted yourpany to discuss it but they were unwilling to part with it so qe would like to offer you a chance to leave and join our own journalism team instead. We will offer your current wage +50% to work for our team, please take time to consider it. Sincerely: Yggdrasil. ~~~~~~~~~~ ''Did they get me fired on purpose? Dammit don''t tell me thepany is scummy like those old bastards that were ruining the gaming industry.'' She still had the original copy of her article from the stream and she would just send a reply to ept their offer, she would find out more about what they did when she arrived. While she was doing this she suddenly recieved a notification from herputer. ~~~~~~~~~~ Bloodlines Online Streaming- Belial is now live. ~~~~~~~~~~ She quickly went into the stream after sending her response. She saw that the yer was in the nightmare mode this time, she would have made a huge achievement for herpany if they hadn''t just removed her. The changes to the dungeon were intense for nightmare mode. The stream made everything feel as if it were seen in daylight but she could still see the ck smog kn the ground. Green crystals appearing like emeralds lined the cave walls and moss was everywhere. asionally she saw the yer cast a spell that tore through the moss, this same spell seemed to always be his fallback n when a horde of skeletons attacked. Unlike what one would expect from an army of skeletons these were not the shambling mess of rotten bones and rusty armor. They had shining metal armor and weapons, bows made of a deep brown wood that pulsed with green energy. The skeletons themselves seemed to be missing pieces of armor in some cases but in their ce was a shimmering green piece of armor that resembled ss. As the skeletons were damaged the ones with any form of green armor or shields would end up losing thise green bits which seemed to heal the skeletons as well! She was typing rapidly about what she saw and even ignored the ding of an email from her phone. She gasped as she saw the mage get surrounded by well armed skeletons who all went to strike at once. She saw the mage stand there unafraid and a glow surrounded his wings, then he moved them in a strange way. He had them closed but used the thickest portion where the wing joints connectes to p away the weapons. She expected he would be losing one or both of his wings because of this reckless move but to her shock the glow around his wings shed and he seemed unharmed. The skeletons even appeared to be pushed back by this move. She saw him take out a strange object that looked like a sharp wand and begin to stab at the skeletons creating strange, dyed bursts of damage. While he stabbed and shed the skeletons his wings were once again covered in those strange needles he had been firing from them. When he was about to be attacked from behind he would p the enemy aside with his wing leaving those needles in their body which would burst again in a dyed damage just like the knife strikes. The battle looked clumsy from the perspective of someone who had seen many skilled yers but she could tell he had practiced a few of his moves very often. She could even tell that he was heavily relying on his guard ability as each time he would get attacked he either pped the enemy away or guarded. Between battles she also saw him sit in one ce for a few minutes, she didn''t really know what was going on but she did see the smog on the ground vanishing. When she saw him reach the end of the dungeon he seemed to be studying the door to the boss room. The door which he had previously forced open. Now she saw him carefully examine the door like it was a puzzle. He raised one hand to touch the door in a weird ce at the top and then everything went ck. He returned from the dungeon and she gasped when she saw him p his wings to start getting airborne. A group of yers appeared to be trying to approach him and one even attempted to grab at his wing but Belial simply shoved them away as he took flight. It was slow and painful to look at as he struggled to get higher off the ground but he eventually soared over the trees. He saw that the yers were still chasing him so he banked to the right to take a strange path, he then turned sharply left and flew lower by the tree tops which she assumed was to make him harder to see. Eventually he must have felt he lost them because he hit the ground running in a clearing where she saw two incredible looking women with deep red skin and brutal horns. She recognized one of them as War God but the other was unfamiliar. That was when the stream ended. ~ "For some reason some punks were trying to keep me from leaving, are there some yers that don''t like your n La?" She looked him in the eye for a moment beforeughing hysterically. "Zeke you can''t be serious! You do realize that you beat a field boss right? They wanted to be the n to beat it and you got it instead." She wasughing louldy and looking at him. "Not only did you kill the boss and took their experience but you also took the body somehow, they probably want to kill you." ''Kill me? For the body? I don''t have the boss... hell the only thing I got from the boss was a bonus to my vitality from consuming it.'' The fact that he was now in more danger because of not just the npcs but the yers made him want to hurry up with beating this dungeon. "I noticed something about the door, I think the runes on the door do something. They glow brighter than the rest of the spell circle so it must be something." La heard this exnation and she went into thought over it. "Some games have a mechanic that you have to do before fighting a boss, maybe we have to find the key?" "Or a password." Chapter 71: Guessing Game BLO was a steppingstone for the world, not only in the gaming industry but for many industries. No one really knows who the first to open streaming cafes was but it was the first step in turning BLO into a massive part of the entertainment industry. When strangers became a rising form of entertainment the Yggdrasil Group made it possible to convert in game currency into real world funds. The conversion rate was one copper coin to one creddit, the global currency. To purchase currency Yggdrasil would charge an additional 25% for the creation of the currency meaning collection of the coins in game was the most cost effective means of obtaining it. The only instances of people truly spending any funds to actually convert into currency were cases of wealthy yers or those donating to streamers. - excerpt from a podcast. Between rounds of gaining experience and training they would often work together. The pair would spar and would ensure that their skills were given a proper point of reference. Eventually they were met by Hope and Shade. Once they arrived the practice and experience grind was split into teams of two. Since they had to learn teamwork with one another they split into teams consisting of War God and Hope with the other team consisting of Shade and Belial. Since Shade and War God were already well established as teammates it would be to make sure that the two could work with the new members. Shade took time to talk with Belial while they were training. "We should figure out more ways to work together, we only have the deathmark strategy." "Well if we work together you should know that I have almost figured out the death mark skill." "Oh? That''s actually cool I wonder if it''s possible to learn the skills of other sses?" Ezekiel shrugged and motioned to the demoness. "We can ask?" As they approached they saw Hope and War God leaving to go get more experience. "Good luck girls, hopefully you find a clue to the door!" Ezekiel spoke up to encourage his allies while they left, when he turned back to the demoness she threw them some wooden daggers. "You will both be learning knife techniques, proper form is important for skillpletion." Ezekiel caught his dagger and nodded while looking at shade, then he raised his question. "Is it possible to learn skills from other sses? I''ve been trying to make the death mark skill but its not working as well as I wanted it to." "Huh? Well yeah but you''d have to either have abo ss or a version made for your ss." She soon began to show proper dagger attack forns. She would show the proper stance to hold the dagger in and they had to return to that stance or she would force them into it. She would only stop grabbing them to move them into proper position once they fould return to the stance on their own. After the stance was passable in her eyes she would show them the proper way to strike the weak points of enemies. She made sure that when they struck the targets they would actually do so in ways that would not risk injury or a chance to be disarmed. Ezekiel was not very good at it at first as he had only focused on the magical impact of his de rather than the strike itself, plus skeletons don''t guard well. Shade seemed to be much better, maybe his history with previous vrmmorpgs helped him to learn a few forms. It took Ezekiel twice as long to get his body to naturally return to the stance that he was taught and even after it took much longer to learn to properly strike his target AND return to his stance properly. Ezekiel was just not good with daggers. It would take him hours to actually get any progress and by then he saw the girls returning. "Your turn to go to the dungeon, how was practice?" Shadeughed and pped Ezekiel on the back. "Zeke sucks with a dagger but we have plenty of time for him to pick it up." Ezekiel grumbled over this but nodded. After this discussion they left to go to the dungeon. While they were leaving their teacher approached the girls. "You two will be learning proper weapon form and how to guard yourself." They each nodded but Hope looked worried. Upon seeing this War God smiled. "Don''t worry I won''t do anything to crazy." "Come learn your proper stances!" ~ In the dungeon Ezekiel was taking time to practice his skills as he had been told, he would only strike when he saw an opening and he would be careful not to leave himself open to counterattack. His wings used to guard like befoew actually made it very easy to counterattack an enemy. Since his mana guard could potentially push an enemy off bnce he was able to actually strike them with his de. The thing he noticed immediately was that if he used a proper stance it actually increased his damage! Not only was his damage increased but the stamina used per strike was reduced. He eventually realized that the extra damage he dealt was equal to his agility meaning properly executed dagger strikes added the agility stat as damage! He now knew why his damage was so inconsistent before. When they finally reached the door he put his cloak up to hide who he was when they left and touched another rune on the spell circle. ~ Shade felt that the demoness was an incredible asset to them as she taught him how to improve his daggerbat effectiveness. In the dungeon he saw firsthand that when he used his skills while in the proper stance ut actually reduced the stamina consumption of the skill by a moderate amount! He would go out of his way to use his skills more often due to this but he still felt like he was falling behind their ally Belial. He watched as his partner used mana covered wings to p away enemies beforw stabbing them in weak points. He even watched as Belial hardly reacted to one skeleton by batting it away with a closed wing and attacking with a backhand stab to the eye before walking away. The skeleton''s head exploded in a burst of ck fire after a moment which wasn''t shocking but the simplicity of the move made him feel like he was at risk of being a less useful assassin due to this. His resolve to practice harder was ignited and he began to keep a tally of their kills in the dungeon. He wanted to eventually surpass the mage in weak point strikes, one shot kills and attacks dodged or blocked. He knew he had work to do but he would do it. When they saw the boss door he watched as Belial put his hood on, hid his wings and then touched the door making them both die. ~ Back with the girls they were sparring, War God would strike at hope and hope had to use her mana shields to block it. She was supposed to learn to counter War God just as Belial had learned to do so with his own skills. Since she didn''t have his ''natural skill with raw mana'' as the demoness out it, she had to learn to use life mana. Although better for shielding it did actually make things harder as life mana was tougher to mould into shapes. She had to actually infuse her wind element just to make it easier but she felt that she could go even further if she added the third one. With the next strike at her body Hope created a shield made from her life mana, her wind mana and her light mana. The result was a shining barrier that upon being struck had blown War God away until she almost lost her weapon, the shield upon being struck had also shed a bright light that blinded War God for a moment Thisbined effect was how she almost lost her weapon by simply being blocked by a shield. ~~~~~~~~~~ Spell Learned- Blinding Vital Storm Barrier lv1 (E) When an opponent strikes this vitality infused barrier they will be blinded by a burst of light that distracts from a wind pushing their weapon away. ~~~~~~~~~~ A new spell! She made a spell! Hope was so excited that she didn''t even help War God at first but soon she went to help her sit down and blink the spots away. "So you have light mana Rabbit Kin? You should hide it from others so the church does not pursue you." Hope nodded and began to practice her new spell again and again. This spell would help ner in the future and she knew it. She would turn this spell into a shield that caused significant debuffs for attacking her so that she would never be in danger again! Chapter 72: Guessing Game pt2 Training with the demoness was a blessing and a curse, for the new skills they obtained they were happy to have her help. For the struggle they went through to learn those skills it made things nightmarish, especially when it required pain. Just like gaining fire and shadow defensive skills they learned that gaining defensive skills against the main weapon damages, piercing, shing and bludgeoning, took the same treatment. When one would be practicing their skills they would also take turns to try to gain the damage resistance skills against these three types. For those that had to actually help their ally obtain the skills it was... upsetting. They were told that the best way to obtain the skill for each damage resistance required doing small amounts of that damage type constantly. To increase the level of a skill required increasing the amount of damage done over that constant period. The first to volunteer was War God. "I''m the vanguard, I have to be more resistant to the primary damage types of frontline enemies and assassins." So Shade and Belial worked together to give her not only the damage resistance to shing damage but Belial increased her shadow resistance. This gave him time to gain proficiency in healing magic as he still hadn''t even learned any healing spells. Meanwhile Hope had used this time to gain more levels on her own with a better chance to practice her own skils. ~ In the dungeon hope was using thebined power of the shield spell she had created as well as other attempts at more spells. She had figured out that life mana made it incredibly easy to create a spell shape but also acted as a container for other forms of mana. She could use life mana to create a sword and give it the properties of wind through her wind affinity or the same with her light affinity. The spell let her hold it without harm but allowed her to send waves of mana at her targets. When the skeletons were defeated she found that she could take the remaining life mana to do strange things and her primary attempt was the make armor. She wished to be an immovable beast that protected her friends with her healing magic but to create any armor required a lot of life mana to make anything dense enough to block an attack. She was currently only able to make a few pieces with the density she desired so she turned them into vambraces and shoulder pads. By using the mana of the world she was happy to learn that she was actually able to feed her creations but other than that it would require her own mana to repair. She was able to get quite far before her own death in the dungeon so she returned to her allies. ~ Ezekiel did not enjoy torturing his friends but to give them more damage resistance against their enemy and even his own spells he would go as far as it took. Between attempts with healing and training her skills La had revealed that her shing resistance had reached the Apprentice rank while her shadow resistance had reached master. His proficiency with healing magic through life mana was getting better but using it in the same way as his other spells wasn''t working at all for trying to make healing spells or even learning healing skills. What he did get to learn through this practice was how powerful thebination of his void mana and his new bloodline were. By using the void conversion skill he could train it while helping La out, it offered a great moment to do so since it seemed for every one thousand mana used he would get some experience. Training the skill would take ages but he hoped that its improved version would have a better conversion rate. He was practicing his path to create the ultimate void conversion rate but he doubted it was possible to make it ever reach a rate of 1-1. Since their npc teacher knew nothing about the void she could not even help him. When he wasn''t helping La gain more resistance to damage he was helping others do so, Shade wanted to gain resistance as well and Hope wanted to increase her own healing spell levels by healing herself through their practice. Increasing the proficiency and level of skills or spells was very important for gwtting through this dungeon but what they truly worried about was the way they would get through the actual door. On the spell circle were over a hundred runes and although the runes could be divided into four categories he didn''t know what it meant. The only clue they had so far was that one rune would stop glowing when they touched it which they assumed was the first in the password. They had tried to find any clues like hidden carvings in the cave or time sensitive mana carvings that they may have missed. They often tried to press runes in different orders or otherwise. Ezekiel had taken to trying out each rune in order until he would eventually find the next one in the password but this method was not good either since although it was reliable it also meant they would take a long time to do it. They needed to figure out what the runes actually meant. Trial and error would only get them so far in the limited time they had left after all. What made matters even worse was the fact that they were beginning to catch up in level with the dungeon skeletons and that meant their leveling speed would go down. 200% more experience was a lot but without the extra level disparity they would just be farming for longer. Shade had a theory after a few runs that killing higher level enemies gave more experience since they noticed that the amount seemed to shrink by the same margin for each of them. With this knowledge in mind they knew they would have to farm a lot of skeletons just to get through to match the level of the boss which they suspected to be lv200. ~ "What if we show her the runes? Maybe she would recognize them?" Shade was spitballing ideas for how to solve the puzzle while he and Belial were in the dungeon. "No, she isn''t really useful for magical knowledge. Apparently demons dont put any effort into learning about it since they doubt they will ever have a use for it." Ezekiel was examining the spell circle and about to press another rune after he had already pressed the first one. There was a pesky thought nibbling at the back of his mind but he couldn''t quite catch it. "Well she is helpful for other stuff? She gave us some pretty good techniques to handle a two vs one hundred fight." "Yeah yeah she''s given us a lot of... wait what did you say?" "She gave us a lot of techniques? I doubt every npc would do that man." "No after that, you said one hundred right?" "Yeah? The dungeon crawls have been a two vs one hundred battle sometimes. Fighting one hundred skeletons is a pain in the ass so she has been great." "One hundred skeletons, you''re certain that there are one hundred skeletons exactly?" Shade nodded and looked confused. "You might have just given me the idea to this puzzle, lets redo this dungeon and this time we have to keep track of the order that the skeletons show up in." He pressed the next rune in the order he had been going which killed them again. ~ "Ok im going to tear through the skeletons as they appear and I want you to write down the order they show up in." "Got it, you think the skeletons are the key to the puzzle?" "Yeah there are exactly one hundred runes on the spell circle and you said there are one hundred skeletons." "There are also four kinds of skeletons which makes things even craziers if this is a coincidence." Ezekiel nodded his head at that. "Yeah, warrior, rogue, archer, tank." They cleared out the skeletons even faster than normal, apparently focusing on skill leveling slowed them down. "Ok so some of them came at weird times but I was ablefirm that there are twenty five of each kind of skeleton." Ezekielughed and began to cheer. "Finally! We''re actually getting somewhere!" Ezekiel pressed the first rune. "The first skeleton we saw was a warrior meaning this one must mean warrior, what was the next one?" "The next one was a tank followed by an archer." He nodded and pressed the next rune in the order they had been following before, they may have the potential clue but they still had no idea what the other three runes meant. The rune he pressed was clearly not the right one and they were forced to reset, but this reset was done with newfound determination. Chapter 73: Guessing Game pt3 After getting a clue to the password of the dungeon Shade and Ezekiel split into two separate dungeon instances to try to get through the possible passwords more quickly. Ezekiel would continue through the set he was checking and Shade would begin on another set. If one of them happened to find the next rune then they would wait outside of the dungeon for the other to arrive. Since Ezekiel had started the set of runes he had already been checking it meant he wouldplete it before Shade would finish his own. Since he was solo now he would be getting more experience than before which was helpful but at the same time he focused on the password. After a few more runs through the dungeon he had pressed the twenty fifth rune in the set he chose which still killed him meaning he had no idea which of the other two sets were the right one. When he saw the dungeon entrance again he also saw Shade waiting with Hope and War God. "Hey Belial,e join the team we have to exin what we learned." He nodded and epted the team invite before War God entered the dungeon to bring everyone inside. Inside the dungeon they cleared the skeletons quickly while speaking. "Ok so we think that the password is tied to the skeletons, there are twenty five skeletons of each of the four categories." "There are also four types of runes wuth twenty five runes each." As Shade exined it the other two began to get excited. "So if we help to figure out which runes are which then we can make this go by faster right?" Ezekiel and Shade nodded. "Ezekiel figured out that this set of runes is not the next one meaning we have two sets left and im already working on one of them." They began to organize how each person would handle the process. The runes were scattered amongst the spell circle but they did have some pattern going on and if they were ro each start at an opposite end of the spell circle they could eventually find the rune that was next. Ezekiel would be going clockwise around the spell circle and Hope would go counterclockwise for the same runes. La would go counterclockwise for the runes Shade had been working on before. Each of them wouls be in their own instances of the dungeon to speed up the process. ~ Ezekiel was getting annoyed by how boring this process was since they knew what to do now and all it took was tedious dying and repeating the dungeon. ''At least we don''t have to deal with a hundred runes now... we just have to deal with twelve.'' When he looked around the entrance he saw hope. "I found it! We have to wait for the rest but i found the next rune!" Ezekiel ran over with a smile and sped her hands in his. "That''s amazing we need to start working on the next set as soon as possible then." The first to show up was Shade and when he saw them he ran over with a smile. Then they had to wait for La who seemed to be taking her time. While waiting for their friend they had hope show which rune was the next in the chain and recorded it in the sketch of the spell circle they each kept. "So we have two rune types left and if we go for the same pattern as before we can get it done just as quickly!" Over the course of this little challenge Shade had takenmand and he seemed incredibly excited about each small discovery, Ezekiel had begun to just assume he really liked puzzles. Once La came out they exined their discovery and began the process again. It wouls not take them long but twelve potential runs in a dungeon with no real progress was beginning to get tedious. While going through his runes in order Ezekiel eventually found the next rune for the password which made him very happy... until he got sted by shadow mana. ''What the hell! The rune went dark like they are supposed to!" He was blocking the shadow mana flood and healing himself from the damage but it wasn''t stopping. Eventually he pressed a random rune for the next set which killed him as it normally would but not before he took significant damage from the shadow mana. ~ "Ok so you day that you had to actually block the attack and when you went to press the next rune you almost died from the damage?" "Exactly, it''s like some kind of second defense or something..." Ezekiel was exining everything to the group inside of the dungeon and was ready to show them what happened to him. "Well it sounds like once we actually start putting the final code in we will need to be guarded." Ezekiel input the first four runes of the password and quickly raised his mana shields to guard everyone from the flood of shadow mana that came from the door. "See? It''s dangerous!" He quickly pressed the next rune in the set and they were forced out. At the entrance they quickly discussed with one another before splitting into two groups, Shade with Ezekiel and La with Hope. They all entered the dungeon again with a very half developed n in mind after only discussing it for a few seconds, because the yers who were obsessed with them had been stalking the dungeon entrance. To avoid the headache of fans and obsessed people they had to remain in the dungeon as much as possible. And so it went on as they guarded eachother while trying codebinations. As the number of runes that were possible to select reduced they could get through it faster and faster. They had even reached the point where guarding from the flood of mana was easier than before and some used it to take turns training their skill. Read thetest fiction on M-VL-em|p,yr Now that didn''t mean it wasn''t dangerous as a few deaths came from recklessly guarding against the mana only to be taken out by it. The main change came about from the group reaching the twenty fifth rune in the sequence. Thats when shards of life mana from the ground began to erupt and try to pierce them. These shards were made from crystalized life mana in constructs created by the spell. Their steps were dangerous and the only duo that had an easy time during this was the girl''s group since Hope had been practicing this very skill. Ezekiel was unable to do much as his own skills with life mana were lower and he didn''t know how to find the weakness of the shafds as quickly as she could. Hope actually had to try to show him how the shards were made at a slower pace so he could see how to guard against them. Because of her help he could at least keep then from dying but uninjured? Not by a long shot. They simply had to make sure they were well prepared for the final process of putting the password in. ~ A few deathster and arge process of clearing potential options lead them to the fiftieth rune, when that count was reached they were forced to guard against the threats further as the mana flood intensified and the shards of life mana became longer as if trying to hamstring them. They were in danger with these more intense threats and most of the discoveries for the password came from La and Hope due to how much Ezekiel struggled against the mana constructs overwhelming his focus. Once they reached the seventy fifth rune the intensity grew again. At the eightieth rune it grew further. It began to be clear that after the seventy fifth rune the intensity would grow every fifth rune they found and the danger was bing overwhelming. Faster constructs, more mana, longer constructs, denser mana to push them back. The danger they were in made the door good for practicing a genuine threat but that was only when they were trying to reach the next rune. With the final five runes to be found they relied upon Hope to actually help them guard against the life constructs while Ezekiel focused on the shadow mana. They had rbined into one team so that once they reached the actual boss they could be ready. They could not afford to enter the dungeon in a weakened state so they would heal the group while guarding. Hope showed that she had even learned how to turn the life mana in her surroundings into armor but she could only use it to protect herself for now, but by keeping herself safe she could activate a healing aura. This aura would require her to stand still and channel her life mana constantly but it constantly healed all of them at the same time. Due to this Ezekiel could keep all of his focus on the shadow mana everytime... until they finally opened the door. Chapter 74 : Nightmare Diana Once the door finally opened all the chaos ceased. They were careful about entering the room because they expected more danger but none presented itself. Inside of the room they saw that arge portion of the room was coated in the same emerald crystals full of life mana and the mana density in the room was extreme. They could finally take a breather but they made sure that they absorbed mana in turns. Hope began to jump around excitedly because of something and they had to grab her before she identally activated the boss fight. "What happened? It must be something pretty good right?" "My core maxed out! I can try out that core advancement thingy Zeke did!" She looked so excited by this prospect and since he had seen the process Ezekiel would be able to guide her through it. "Ok so what happened to me was arge amount of mana surrounded my core and began to out pressure on it across the whole thing, even pressure like when you made your core." She nodded in response and began to meditate and examine her core... at least they assumed so. "After you have eavenly covered your core with enough mana you have to force the mana inward on the core but you cant absorb it otherwise you have to start over." He then looked at the rest of the group. "Don''t absorb anymore mana I think she might need its help when sbe rebuilds her core into a gem." ~~~~~~~~~~ Title (Tutor) is in effect. Increased studentprehension. ~~~~~~~~~~ ''Huh that''s actually really helpful.'' "Once you shatter your core into dust of even particle size you have to absorb it all back into the ce where your core was, im pretty sure that once the denser particles from the core get pulled into an even smaller space that''s when the gem takes shape." She nodded and Ezekiel began to drag life mana crystals to surround her, forrger crystals he needed La''s help. They watched over her while asionally looking for any signs of the boss, they knew that it would show up if they touched the coffin but they had seen other changes in the dungeon so far and it was a good practice to be on alert. Ezekiel would asionally ce a hand kn Hope''s shoulder to observe her progress and although it was taking a while he saw that she was doing it perfectly. The group even chose to remain silent to help Hope focus. After some time they saw through their mana sense that she was absorbing a shocking amount of mana and Ezekiel knew that this was the runaway mana absorption he had observed when his gem was reforged. Now that he saw what step she was on he quit keeping track and just used his mana control to guide the ambient mana towards her. He hoped this would not interfere but he was pretty certain that all it would do was help her have more mana around. Once they saw the mana finish being sucked in they crowded around to ask her what happened. "What grade is your gem?" La was quick to ask this question and Hope seemed very happy to answer. "Mythril! I got a mythril grade mana gem!" She bounced around in one ce happily and gave everyone a hug. "Now I think I can help you guys even more! This is the best day ever!" After all of this Ezekiel nodded and went back to cultivating his mana core. "By the way La, why did you think the boss would be lv200? Normally these dungeon mobs only reach the maximum level which is the same as the boss and the highest level we saw was lv170." "Well while you guys were doing stuff I took a chance to ask the city lord about Diana since they had the same family name. He told ne that before she died Diana was lv200 and was waiting for something called a breakthrough." The idea of having to face another lv200 enemy made them all waiver but even lv170 was a tough enemy for the group. ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Void Mage lv136. (Supreme) Lesser Tri-Elemental Archdevil Affinity: 100% Shadowfire 100% Life Mana Core: 100% Shadowfire Strength: 20 (+60) Vitality: 440 -> 800 (+510) Agility: 580 -> 1000 (+80 +20%) Wisdom: 1100 -> 1800 (+80 +20%) Intelligence: 2000 -> 3600 (+70 +20%) Free stats: 44 Bloodline: child of the void. Titles: Dungeon Conqueror, Tutor, Protector of Raylock, Spell Crafter Skills: Mana Control lv10 (L), Mana Sense lv10 (L), Mana Gem lv2 (S), Spell Mastery (E), Mana Condenser (E), Full Body Mana Veins lv8 (M), Mana Burn (S), Void Conversion lv1 (L), Void Consumption (L) Defenses: Fire Resistance lv2 (M), Shadow Resistance lv4 (E), Mana Guard lv7 (M) Spells: Mana Bolt lv8 (E) Mana Burst lv8 (A) Fire Nova lv10 (M) Fire Arrow lv10 (M) Fire Spear lv6 (M) Shadow Spear lv10 (M) Shadow Cluster lv10 (E) Shadow Arrow lv10 (M) Shadowfire Orb lv10 (A) Shadowfire Spear lv10 (L) Shadowfire Nova lv10 (L) Shadowfire Nova Needle lv4 (S) Shadowfire Mirv lv1 (S) Frenzy wing lv4 (L) ~~~~~~~~~~ "I think we should farm more experience to try to reach lv170..." "Yeah but that will take a while, we should just farm solo again and ignore the mana." Shade seemed to be losing interest in his own mana development in favour of going for skills which made sense to Ezekiel. ''He doesn''t use mana for much of anything except for a couple skills... he might outlevel us because of that.'' Ezekiel nodded and looked at La. "How about we try to fight the boss once and then we can do something about our levels when we know what we are fighting?" With the group in agreement they began to ready themselves for the fight against Diana. Those who had ranged abilities would prepare the most powerful versions they had while those that had physically powerful skills would strike from close range. When they touched the coffin they waited for it to open as before... only to be caught off guard by a shower of stones and dust as the coffin exploded. In the chaos they could not strike without harming one another so they all simply backed away and Ezekiel kept his eye out for when the boss was visible again. Once he saw her he had a moment of panic. ~~~~~~~~~~ Diana Raylock- Vampiric Archlich lv200 ~~~~~~~~~~ La was right, this thing was using the original level of the person who had died. He cast his Frenzy Wing spell and began to send needles of mana tearing through the boss but her life mana aura took the brunt of it as the needles mostly stuck inside. They all detonated making shadowfire spread across the form of the boss but she seemed mostly unharmed. The battle had begun. ~ From the moment the boss made her first move it was clear that this battle was not the same as before. She started by using her life mana to create a monstrous sword filled to the brim with shadow mana that she used to sh and consume the group. She moved quickly and cast spells at the same time as if she were a true magus. Inside of the room she even created spell circles with every stomp of her foot when she moved, these spell circles seemed to be dyed to do many things. One spell circle created an explosion of shadow mana while another created a skeleton that struck La from behind. Diana had evolved into a genuine threat and with the level difference she was doing significant damage to them with every strike. The first to fall was shade, taken out by Diana beheading him after he lost his leg to a spell circle trap that had caused a de of shadow tosh out. When Shade was in they only tried harder, Ezekiel even activated his mana burn skill and started to use Frenzy Wing constantly. Every strike seemed to be adding on more damage to her shield but he wanted to pierce through. Hope was able to block most of the strikes by shattering them against her life affinity armor but with two individualspeting to sustain life affinity constructs the winner would inevitably be the one that could control them better. La was able to guard against many blows but the extra danger of projectiles and skeleton rogues made her ability to guard herself fall apart. When Ezekiel saw the chaos breaking them apart he decided to use everything he had. He only guarded himself while putting every drop of mana into his attack, one more Frenzy Wing with all of the mana he was able to produce. Combined with mana burn and void conversion he had created a new version of the spell... though the system refused to recognize it. ''I''ll call it the Final Void Wing when the system finally acknowledges what i''ve made.'' He released the spell upon Diana and the spell itself tore through her shield. Her body began to be shredded by the spell but it did notst long. He could only use one tenth of his mana in that way and it ended almost as soon as it began. Out of mana and falling to the ground he barely noticed when his head was separated from his neck. Chapter 75 : Cheating The System When Ezekiel saw that he was at the entrance of the dungeon without his hood up he immediately left the party to enter the dungeon again in a solo instance. Once he had time to breathe he knew that he had to gain experience to match that boss and he hoped the rest would figure out what he had done. His goal was to hunt as many enemies as possible only using the void mana version if the frenzy wing spell so that he could level his main options for damage as fast as possible while gaining more levels himself. Running through the dungeon he focused his spells on taking out enemies rapidly, focusing on destroying the weak points and when that wasn''t optimal he simply used overwhelming power. The frenzy wing spell allowed him to use precision or brute force when the situation called for it. ''Tedious farming, the worst part of any mmo.'' ~ Above the angelic continent The glowing figure of an angel holding a ming de was shing his way through beasts that flew from one particr ind in the sky. ~~~~~~~~~~ Thanatos Warrior lv216 (N)- Lesser Holy Seraphim ~~~~~~~~~~ ''I''m ready, the gamingmunity won''t hunt me down as much with the dungeon achievements taking their focus.'' In the memories he had he knew that when the achievements he was preparing to do were actuallypleted they went mostly unnoticed due to thepetition forpleting dungeons. If not for him War God would have been the highest level yer in the game, her n would have been at the top of the leaderboard and from every interview he could find he knew that her leadership would bring them even further. With the rising fame of that n he could use the smoke from their fire to hide his own growing embers. ''Once I reach the cave I have to bring my core to the peak and start the breakthrough, I hope this works the way that jerk said it did.'' Alexander had kept a few rewards on hand so that he could be prepared, he knew that part of what he was chasing was a piece of unique equipment and he wanted to see if he could get the entire set by using his rewards from other achievements. He had been the first yer to evolve his race, the first yer to reach lv100, the first yer to create their mana core and the first yer to reach lv200. Once he had obtained a fourth unique reward he waited until the specific events urred so that the wake of his next achievement could be washed away by the race for dungeonpletions. He could sh through the groups of enemies with ease as he burned them away. He could not yet master a skill he had in the past but he could replicate it in some ways. ''Every weapon that can be boosted by the affinity of the user is an incredible tool, no bonus to stats can match a 100% bonus to damage when using the weapon''s active skill.'' He knew that it would take months before information about how to increase one''s affinity came out but as soon as it was found people would begin to go after every source of mana they could. In the past he knew that the yers were the cause of the world gaining a spike in difficulty, the world''s mana supply was like a muscle that could be worked but it had grown to handle its poption before the yers arrived. Once they arrived and began to use the mana making it dry up, the world would fill back up every five days and have a greater amount than before. It was like working a balloon to handle more air by blowing in progressivelyrger amounts until it was able to expand to its full size. This higher mana density in the world wouls result in stronger monsters and more mana infused materials. In his memory he knew that the millions of yers would cause this world to develop so much that eventually the creatures in the world would have to recieve a much more aggressive hunting strategy to avoid creating elites. Elites like he was currently ughtering. Each creature he killed he would store inside of his basic storage ring and then transfer to his basic storage bag. These items were expensive but they made mass hunting so much easier as he could y hundreds of monsters and simply fly back with them stored in a two pound bag. He saw a creature that was directing the others and he charged it to make his path easier. ~~~~~~~~~~ Storm Cobra- elite lv270 ~~~~~~~~~~ He sent a wave of burning light with his de and used it as a distraction to enter the serpent''s blind spot. He rose from below while the serpent moved aside and his de tore through the scales of his enemy. The beast hissed and turned it''s hood on him, mana surging his way while it''s eyes glowed a deep purple. He felt his thoughts grow sluggish and he bit his hand to fight through it, he was able to focus just in time to dodge the lightning strike the beast fired from it''s mouth. When it saw it''s lightning fail it lunged in with a strike and he met it with his de but the weight of the attack felt all wrong, then he saw why. The tail of the serpent pped him away with a low thud and a spark of electricity that stunned him for a moment. ''I can''t let the electricity hit me to much, it would kill me before I can even end this fight.'' He roared his challenge and attacked the serpent once more, his de shing with red fire and golden rays of light to make the beast back away. He would keep the serpent at a distance to overwhelm it with mana shes from his de since the straight lightning bolt was easier to dodge than its physical attacks. The snake began to take more damage from the many projectiles but then it moved faster. The more it flew the faster it moved and the more he noticed lightning traveling across its body. ''Mana enhancement! Shit! This is actually dangerous.'' He dodged the first attempt to strike him and he avoided the tail, the second he knew it would not hit him he dug his sword into its side so that it would harm itself in it''s fury. It moved away but had a foot long sh in its side which enraged it. He kept his path to the sky ind above but he never took his eye off the enemy. The beast made arge movement to focus on him again but this banking turn was even faster than it''s previous attack. ''The longer it moves the faster it gets I have to be careful.'' He pretended to do the same move again but this time he attacked it''s underbelly which make it cry out in pain. Everytime he attacked it the lightning arced to his sword which made his hands numb from trying to grip the electrified metal. He finally activated his trump card to end this battle. ~~~~~~~~~~ Skill used- Holy Aura lv8 (L) Skill used- Radiant Blessing (S) ~~~~~~~~~~ His body was engulfed in golden fire, light poured from his body and golden runes began to glow across his skin. The fire culminated in his wings and atop his head as a golden halo while his eyes burned with heavenly light. He began to unleash sword strikes across the air as he battled the serpent and the shes of fire before were now the same gold as the me on his wings. He met the serpent''s fangs with his own de which made the serpent curl at thest second, only to be met by a mana covered fist to bash it away. ~~~~~~~~~~ Holy Aura lv8 (L) Increase the physical stats of users within the aura by 75% for 5 minutes. Cooldown- 10 minutes. Radiant Blessing (S) Double the base value of mana capacity for a short time, increase magical damage by 10%. Burning away vitality will increase the users affinity temporarily while this skill is active. 100 HP -1% affinity (max: 100% bonus) Cost- 100 hp and mp/sec Cooldown- 10 minutes. ~~~~~~~~~~ 10,000 health to give him another 100% bonus to his damage. He didn''t even have 10,000 hp but if he added his healing aura on top of it he would be fine. He could heal back arge portion of the lost health thanks to his regeneration skill and because of his passive mana regen from his mana core he could use this skill indefinitely... at a cost. Because of how often he trained this skill to try to make his healing aura spell and holy aura spell increase in rank he had actually obtained 100% resistance to both fire and light elemental attacks. This skill bypassed his defense though. His physical power was easily outweighing the serpent now and as long as he wasn''t subject to the electrocution debuff he would be fine. The serpent was at half hp roughly when it made a strange move. It vanished. He knew that whether it was the speed of the thing or some skill he was in trouble so he began to fly away as fast as possible while watching for the beast. Then he felt a bite on his shoulder and a crushing pressure coil around him. Not only had the serpent gotten behind him to strike but it had managed to coil him, it was more intelligent than he thought. That''s when the lightning spread to his body. Chapter 76: Inheritance As he cried out from the pain of the electrocution and the fear of what came next he used all of his power to bring his sword up and pierce the serpent''s side. It coiled around him in a death grip, it''s venom burned away at his skin and made his vision blur as it worked itself into his system. He used as much mana as he could possibly put in and stabbed the serpent. Using such a technique with a silver grade weapon was dangerous as they could only channel so much mana but he was desperate. He stabbed the sword as deep as possible into the serpent and with a sudden burst of power he managed to y it. With a maxed out affinitybined with Radiant blessing his damage was buffed by 200%. He had been lucky enough to strike the snake in the neck as well to cause critical damage. His strength as well as his intelligence stats multiplied by 400% were enough to y this beast... at the cost of shattering his de. He flew up as fast as he could while storing the body and he knew his time was limited due to his low health and his poisoned condition. He was losing health rapidly and his regeneration couls barely keep up, the electrocution effect he was under also caused damage over time which did not help the situation either. Three separate damage over times, bleeding, electrocuted and poisoned. These effects made his health drain fast which made him have to use his healing aura constantly while he finally got close to the edge of the ind. Even though his health was bnced out against the damage he did not look like he was confident and the only moment when he seemed to be relieved was when he was finally over the ind''s edge, where he began to descend the few feet he had above it. That''s when his body locked up. ~~~~~~~~~~ Electrocution debuff active effect has been applied. yer paralyzed. ~~~~~~~~~~ He jolted into a strange pose as he fell against the ground like a falling stone. He took a small amount of fall damage and he now had to wait out the effect but at least the damage over time was reduced with the lightning effect ending. ''At least I didn''t get paralyzed mid air... falling to my death would suck.'' ~ Once he was finally able to move Alexander began to search for the strange cave that had been explored gods knew how many times. Once the original yer that found this secret had revealed it many hade to search for anything that remained, including himself. Normally one could simply go right to the cave but it wasn''t so simple, the cave entrance that was actually going to lead to the secret changed each day and the only sign was increased mana density. So over the ind he flew, searching for mana that did not match the surroundings. The ind was quiterge and could easily have dozens of cave entrances but he at least knew that the cave would never be one of those on the underside of the tform. Thergest cave was also home to an elite enemy that he would have to avoid. He knew that even after months of the game being out and all that time the secret had been looted, this elite still remained as a danger. When he finally found the cave he entered swiftly. Then he began to cultivate his mana core. To activate the secret he had searched for he knew he had to have at least a gold quality mana gem, if he had anything less he would be unable to activate the Inheritance. Yes an inheritance, he was after something left behind by a powerful figure from the world. When the one who had obtained it in his past life had exined what he got, he only even described a unique sword that gave him a bonus to his stats. Gaining even a single piece kf unique gear was enough to ensure a yer would eventually be a member of the top 1000, to gain further ranks would require skill and dedication... Or more unique gear. He was excited to obtain this item but he also knew the yer''s secret, it wasn''t just a sword he obtained but a ss. He never learned the exact details of it but he knew the ss had to be of the Magus category, a warrior that fought with mana as their weapon. A magus was easy to identify if you knew what to look for but it was disappointingly easy to pretend to be one. All one had to do was learn to use mana constructs and buff their physical stats. To truly identify a magus would require knowing mana perfectly and mostmonly mages were the ones who identified a magus. Themon trait amongst the ss category was the ability to enhance the body through mana. While reforging his core into a gem he prayed directly to the patron deity of his race, the light goddess Luminous, to ensure his core was properly reforged he even used a few cores from his bag to increase the density of the mana he could absorb. All mana could be absorbed if one knew the method and absorbing cores was discoveredte in the game''s lifespan, though he knew this was a false story. Even now he knew that soon the information about mana cores and gaining skills through learning them would be given out by reckless yers on forums. Until that point only those that bothered to explore the game would have learned about the techniques that NPCs could teach. The others who would know this would be ns that had bought the information. Once he finallypressed his mana into a gem he cheered from the result. Gold, It might be lower than he had hoped but it was enough, he could always try to get ahold of a treasure or a system reward to make it increase anyway. "Hmm a Golden glow around your mana gem... you shall do." His vision warped as he was transported to another ce, a room with walls covered in gold, ted like armor. The ground was covered in gems and riches while on a pedestal was a simple wooden coffin that pulsed with life mana. Alexander knew that if he didn''t properly act he would be in and never allowed to return, so he approached the pedestal. Each coin in that room would be worth 1000 creddits in the real world soon and there were easily hundreds of thousands of them in that room but he did not even look. He kneeled beside the coffin and spoke a prayer of deliverance to the Goddess Luminous and once he finished he took out the shattered silver grade sword toy upon the coffin. This part was not required but he felt the de deserved to be put to rest as well and giving a gift may help his act. "To reach this resting ce my de served me well but in the end it shattered under my power, it is only a pathetic de in the eyes of such a warrior but a de that uses ones affinity may surely help such a great warrior in the battles of the afterlife." From behind he heard a rasping sound and he quickly turned to face it, he knew there were no enemies in there unless he failed but he still feared an ambush. Instead of an ambush he saw a glorious golden face, bright scalesin across powerful muscle and wise eyes that bored into his own as if looking into his very soul. "You respect the tomb of one you do not even know, you could not have been told about the divine pdin as none who remember him would speak of it to such a weak being..." He bowed his head before the great dragon and spoke the truth. "I came here seeking treasure and instead found something that was worth honoring." The dragonughed loudly and brought its face as close as possible. "You would have been a delight for the pdin to meet, sadly he had passed thousands of years ago... he left me behind and asked me to find one that was worthy of his inheritance, the blessing of the goddess." The dragon looked him deep in the eye and spoke with a strange emotion in it''s voice that he couldn''t identify. "You are not worthy..." When he heard those words he almost broke down but he chose to keep his gaze straight and express his confusion. "You are not worthy to be the divine pdin, but you can be." ~~~~~~~~~~ The ancient dragon Angradova is offering you the inheritance of the Divine Pdin, (Luminous) as part of this inheritance you will be given the unique item [Lightbringer] wielded by the chosen pdin of the goddess of light. Do you ept? ~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 77: Divine Quest Once Alexander epted the inheritance he was given a path out and gifted the sword known as Lightbringer, he would check the details of his new sster but he wanted to open his unique rewards now. ~~~~~~~~~~ Server Announcement- The first inheritance has been imed, rewards are being distributed. ~~~~~~~~~~ Since he had already recieved such a significant reward from the inheritance he assumed he would not get much in terms of the servers reward from the achievement and he was partially correct. He was given a chest containing a set of reward options the way a normal unique chest would offer. Speaking of those chests it was time to turn them in. As soon as he opened the first chest he saw a notification that was... odd. ~~~~~~~~~~ A divine gaze watches you. Luminous is amused by your attempt to take the rest of her blessed items. The goddess of light would like to bargain with you. Will you ept? ~~~~~~~~~~ ''A bargain? The gods never really did anything with yers and the only known person to meet a god was the seer of the life goddess.'' "I ept." A wave of light blinded him and he felt his body distort before he could finally see again. In his view was a simple room with a table set with tea. A beautiful woman with golden hair and eyes sat there drinking a steaming cup before she ced her gaze on him. He felt his body burning as of he were inches from the sun the moment that gazended upon his body and although his celestial form seemed to react with joy he felt apprehensive. "You are one of my children, please sit and do not be afraid." She smiled and for the first time he understood why the church of light was so obsessed with her. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and her smile was enough to overwhelm his fears with awe. He sat down and bowed his head but the moment he did so he felt his body react as if he had just done something horrible. "Oh? Since when have my children ever felt the need to... oh I see, you are one of the otherworlders." Sheughed and the sound was like a beautiful bird song. "You are not aware of how my children act when they are given a chance to meet me, that is not your fault young one... my children are aware that my love extends to all of them even should they fall from grace." He took a sip of the tea and felt his body practically melt with thefort it brought him. "You attempted to use the system''s rewards to im the armor that goes with Lightbringer, I am not opposed to such a thing but you will not have it without a cost." He sat up straight and nodded, he was keeping his mouth shut so he would not mess this up. "You will go to neutral zone and find the city of Raylock, I assume you have heard about the church of light from my children from this world?" He nodded, he technically hadn''t but it was easier than exining the truth. "Normally I have a rule where my children are not to acknowledge any attempts of interaction from the church but you are technically an outsider and not one of those who took such a vow... the church is attacking an innocent city and since I cannot have my seer tell the otherworlders about my wish for them to help.... you can." "The church has used my name for centuries now and I am disgusted by all the murder they havemited in my name..." She began to stand up and walk around, the glow of her body getting brighter with each second. "They disrespect me, they use my influence, they tarnish my reputation, they act as worshipers for a god that does not want them!" She swung her hand and a bean of light was traced out which began to burn the room into particles revealing the space beyond. "They MURDER THE CHOSEN OF NECROS!!!" She was burning like a star now and with each word a re would destroy more of the space beyond the room. "They kill the race I GIFTED TO MY DEAR FRIENDS. THEY ATTACK PEOPLE FOR HAVING MAGIC, THEY SLAUGHTER DEMONS AND DEVILS AT RANDOM ANY CHANCE THEY GET!!!" She suddenly released her fury and the only thing left unharmed was Alexander as he watched the room get burned into nothingness. "GATHER THE OTHERWORLD CELESTIALS AND WIPE THAT CHURCH FROM THE WORLD, USE MY BLESSING AND DESTROY THEM ALL OTHERWORLDER!" The physical form of Luminous was gone and all that remained was a female made of golden light. "You are my pdin! This is my divine decree! ughter them all, burn their pope to ash, execute him for all to see and destroy every church to cleanse the ground they desecrate with their false prophet magic!" ~~~~~~~~~~ You have been given a Divine Decree. Due to your ss [Divine Pdin (Luminous)] you are unable to refuse. Failure toplete this quest will result inthe unique gear gifted by Luminous to be reimed as well as the inheritance. ~~~~~~~~~~ He could not even respond, he had gotten to witness a disy of divine power. He had watched as an entire field of stars were erased just from the rage of this goddess and for the first time he understood why so many celestial yers had dered war on the church of light. The church hadn''t simply disrespected the goddess but they had enraged her, they had ughtered her creations and made her seem as a petty being that only cared about the money her church collected. He was not aware of every single crime the church was guilty of but he knew that because they presented themselves as the true church of "Lady Luminous" they had inherently made everything they did a reflection of her will.... To those who did not know better that is. Even if he wanted to refuse he was unable to so when she left and allowed the system to return him to the game world he made sure to im his rewards quickly. He would have to get to Raylock... he had already nned to but now his timeline was moved up. ~ In the dungeon Ezekiel was tearing through the skeletons. He had managed to bring his signature spell to lv10 but he quickly realized it did not offer any upgrade option. ''Do I have to improve it myself?...'' That had to be the case, he tried to use the mana his needles could contain now but it wasn''t so simple as adding more mana. As the spell increased in level he noticed that it seemed to match his proficiency as well. As the spell increased in level the projectile speed and casting speed seemed to increase. This came in the form of his spell having a slight reduction in the mana needed to cast it. With his proficiency going up he realized he could dedicate more of his focus to making each needle better, sharper and with more mana. Without the need to focus as much on the creation of the spell he could modify it, he decided that he would try adding more to the effect. He was able to make the mana denser and sharper while adding a small elemental effect to it with the shadowfire element. Since he made the spell different enough and could cast it in a single thought the system seemed to recognize it as a spell. ~~~~~~~~~~ Frenzy Wing lv10 (L) -> Corrosive Frenzy Wing lv1 (L+) ~~~~~~~~~~ ''Legendary....plus?'' He had sessfully upgraded his spell but it was a small upgrade due to his inexperience, he did think that it would go to the next rank of spells though. ''Whatever, I''m almost at the next rank of void conversion so I have to keep farming.'' ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Void Mage lv154- Lesser Tri-Elemental Archdevil. ~~~~~~~~~~ Eighteen levels. He had sessfully gained eighteen levels in his time farming the dungeon. When he had met the group in a rare chance of both leaving at the same time he had exined his n to gain more experience and suggested they do the same. In all this time he had hardly gotten to Void Conversion lv7, it was a skill that was very hard to train. During his fights against the undead Ezekiel had gotten bored of just sting through them like tissue paper so he had begun using his Frenzy Wing spell more creatively. He was inspired by a monster from an old game to make the name of the spell so he tried to use the the monster''s attacks as well. He would make the needles into the shape of ws at the joints of his wings and effectively sh like a beast, he also used his own hands covered in mana shaped into ws to tear through his enemy. It felt... natural. He loved the feeling of tearing through his enemies like a beast as if the nature of his new bloodline was encouraging this behavior. He liked being a beast. ---------------------- Writer here, time to ask my beloved readers their opinions. Should Ezekiel continue on the path of pure magic or should he have the option of bing a magus? Leave ament and tell me your opinion. Chapter 78: Player Conflict After exiting the dungeon again Ezekiel was about to immediately enter as before but he was forced away by arge yer. "You the mage we been looking for eh? You don''t look to special, wonder what you did." Ezekiel got annoyed by the sudden blockade and tried to pull away. "Look I don''t know who you are or what you want but I''m trying to y the game?" The yer seemed as if he was about to say something but Ezekiel quickly got within range of the dungeon and selected the difficulty once again. Inside of the cave he took a small breather but had to start killing the undead once again. ''What the hell did I do to make so many yerse after me? All I did was identally destroy the wolf.'' ~ Outside of the dungeon an orc warrior wasughing in a booming voice while he watched the human warrior who had grabbed Belial throwing a tantrum. "That bastard ignored me!? ME?!" Different yers were moving away from the dungeon now, although they were there for their own reasons they would rather avoid the threat of this specific n. "I am THE REAPER!" The orc yer onlyughed louder. "Yeah yeah reaper we get it you''re a super important guy even though you''re just a lieutenant in the n,e on you can''t go losing your shit everytime someone doesn''t recognize you." The orc opened his bag to get a sheet of paper out and once he had it in hand he began to read out loud. "Bring the mage in to the n, do whatever it takes and try to beat the dungeon." "Those were our instructions Reaper so stop acting like an idiot over your non existent reputation." Reaper walked over and looked up at the orc with an expression of disgust. "That''s why you won''t get anywhere in this world Bruno, you have no ambition... fine you stay here while I go get some xp." Reaper left and chose to enter the dungeon. Bruno shook his head and looked at the people waiting around, most of them were waiting to see the War God but many were there for selfish reasons. He knew that they were there hoping to be recruited but most would be ignored, others would be there hoping to get a team to go into a dungeon crawl as well. He also knew that some were there with hostile intentions by order of their leaders or their benefactors. One yer caught his eye often, an elf in a dark robe. Continue your adventure at m|v-l''e-NovelBin The system indicated that he was a lv198 assassin ss yer who wore silver quality gear but on his belt he wore a gold quality dagger, since the hard mode dungeon was the only ce he knew that gave gold quality gear then this assassin had to be one of those who had been trying to beat the nightmare mode after conquering hard mode. He assumed the assassin just wanted to get information about the nightmare mode but he still had a suspicion of foul intentions nheless. It was almost the end of the eighth day of the gamey but those who had been working tirelessly seemed ready to go even further. When he saw Belial again he waved at the guy and tried to approach. "Hey! Belial! I''m not here to fight I just want to-" He stopped mid sentence as the mage entered the dungeon again. It was disheartening to see his attempt fail but he simply sat down to wait, he knew that Reaper would be back eventually and he could go get experience as well as they swapped shifts. ~ ''Eventually he has to go to an inn to get some sleep, although yers are protected in these rooms it''s possible to y them before they even reach it.'' The elven assassin was watching his target enter and exit the dungeon endlessly, he would need more effort to kill a higher level mage but it would be no big problem for him. He had crafted a perfect n to take advantage of a weak willed mage and force them to respawn. Hemlock was a yer killer for hire, he made a living off of exploiting the anger of rich bastards and ying the poor yers that caught their eye. He knew that making money in this way made him a terrible person but he lived by a simple motto he had found from the past generations. "I wouldn''t but... twenty dors is twenty dors." The original meaning had been lost in the endless usage that the inte had but even if he found the origin he wouldn''t care, it was a good motto. He was a de for hire and when he inevitably found the assassins guild in this game he would work his way to the number one spot... after ensuring his name was well known amongst yers. He had taken a hit job from some angry second generation brat who had apparently been disrespected by the mage that had been topping the dungeon leaderboards of this city. ''I don''t care what you did to that little shit stain but he paid arge amount to have you sent back to lv1, don''t me me for this too much. Ha.'' He was always med, the ones who paid were never med for their petty actions in hiring an assassin to punish those they were to pathetic to harm. The yers he would kill always took their anger out on him in the forums even though they knew he had been hired by someone who wanted them gone so badly they paid for it. No matter what the cost he would finish this job, sell the poor bastards gear and then go on to the next mark. ~ At the top of a floating ind an angellic man was holding up a glowing sword while addressing the crowd. "Listen up! I have been given a message from the goddess of the celestial race because they cannot act on her desires." iming to have spoken with a god would normally be sphemy and even amongst the celestial race the punishments were severe for this criminal act. But no NPCs moved against him. They were to busy staring at the de he held and the armor he wore. "The goddess Luminous wishes for the celestial race otherworlders to dere war on the church of light!" As he spoke he saw the NPCs getting something ready, he got excited the moment he could see the glow opening from the center. ''They opened a gate! I won''t have to fly to that city oh thank the gods.'' "For to long the church has killed in her name, for to long they have used her own name as some kind of free pass tomit atrocities that Lady Luminous has been disgusted by!" The more he spoke the more natural it felt to call his fellow yers to arms. "She says that she swore her people to an oath of non acknowledgement against the church, when they are in the cities of the world they are never to act as if the church exists!" He put his sword into the sheath and raised both of his arms high to call them all to look at the gate. "Luminous has kept her native celestials from interfering but we dont have such an oath!" He pointed directly at the gate. "Through that gate we will find our enemies forces spread all across thend, cities corrupted by them and forced into giving their leaders equal authority in their government." He said this part with disgust as he had seen what the church was like in the past. They took advantage of the ignorant and they manipted events to suit their desires. They were known to be behind many events that transpired in the world, from the fall of Raylock to the entire race war between the allied nations and the infernal nation. The church of light had spent over a century trying to kill the devil queen but none of their attempts had worked, they had infiltrated many kingdoms and given themselves significant power. It was so significant that it reached the point where even if the leaders of these kingdoms knew about the fact that the church was not even remotely connected to the goddess of light nothing could be done. In the capital cities of the allied nations there was a branch of the church with their own head priests who all answered to the pope. In these kingdoms the church had a hand in not only the government but also the economic side of the nations. They could destroy a cities economy simply by leaving and taking the businesses they owned, they could use this threat to hold sway over leaders. What made the church even more disgusting to him was the fact that they could affect how the poor and desperate citizens felt about their lives. They would never be removed without force because arge portion of the poption viewed them as saviors. He might not have liked being forced to take a quest with such significance but he didn''t oppose the destruction of the church. Chapter 79: World Event yers all across the the server were in their own paths, leveling up, crafting supplies, breaking down beasts, cultivating, training. No matter what they were doing, even if they were in a dungeon or mid battle they all received a notification. For those in active danger they had to wait until they were safe to check it but for those who were able to, they saw something that excited everyone. ~~~~~~~~~~ A World Event has begun! Stage 1: Deration. Stage 2: ??? Stage 3: ??? Stage 4: ??? Stage 5: ??? The otherworlders of the celestial race have dered war upon the church of light in the name of the Goddess of Light, Luminous. yers may select a side by joining the celestials that appear in the world or by joining the church. In this stage of the event factions will be formed and alliances dered, in each stage the yers will be granted rewards based on their impact to the stage. ~~~~~~~~~~ A war, apparently a holy war was beginning and yers would have to choose their sides. Messengers of ns left the game to receive word from the leaders, yers rushed to the city centers to learn what the regions they lived in would do. In every region that held a church the priests of the church of light came out to begin recruiting yers while city leaders mobilized their best allies to find soldiers willing to take up arms. In every single city that did not contain a branch of the church a gate opened and from these gates came the celestial yers. Since the celestial race yers were automatically opposed to the church... mostly... they were the first that were spoken to. Because the cities that had no connection to the church were open to each side to recruit the leaders of these cities were immediately approached by not only the clergymen of light but also the celestial yers. Since the stage of the war was so early the rewards for aplishments were not the greatest. With the celestial yers they could earn titles by sessfully gaining a city as an ally of the heavens, they would also gain rewards for every yer they sessfully recruited. The more cities a yer brought in as allies the more their title was upgraded and by brining in more yers they could also upgrade their title but at a slower pace. This title increased favorability with the celestial race while decreasing favorability with the church of light but it also increased stats when facing members of the church of light. As for the yers who joined either side? They gained a recruits title, this title would do the same as the title given to yers who recruited people but the recruit title was a lower grade that gave less benefits, they also gave less detriments. What benefited the yers the most was a sudden ess to a shop that used points from a quest board given to each and every member of the new armies. The quests given were mostly the same as they had been in the guilds of the game world but unlike those quests the rewards actually included experience. By submitting a quest the yer would gain currency, experience and they would gain reputation points for the army shop. These quests were simple at this stage, quests that built up the reserve supplies of the army. For the first few hours the yers scrambled to get any foothold they could while the church began to sweep up hundreds of thousands of yers into their army. It would take time to learn the most significant danger when choosing a side in this conflict. yer killing was enabled against yers of the opposing faction. Recruiting cities was also an arduous task as the celestial yers not only had topete with their opposition in the church but even if they sessfully got the city to join they would have to return to the gate to get back to the celestial continent where their owneaders in the celestial NPCs were helping to organize this effort. The NPCs could not directly interfere but they could pay for the gate''s usage and tell the yers which city they were going to. Thousands of cities were brought under yhe celestial banner in a single day and the one eith the greatest influence was Thanatos, the divine pdin of Luminous. It only took one look at his ss to make most city leaders agree to join but for yers it required telling them the perks. By the end of the day Thanatos was in Raylock, he had expected that trying to meet the city lord would be difficult but the moment he arrived a woman brought him to the city square where the lord was waiting. "I want to have my city join the celestial banner, the church of light murdered my aunt years ago and I want to make them suffer." The lord kneeled down before the celestial yer which had many gasping in astonishment, yers and non yers alike. "We ept your city as a friend in our battle against the sphemy of the church, may we speak in private? I must ask you about someone." The lord nodded and led him into the city hall where they had a bit more privacy. "Have you ever heard of a devil named Belial?" ~ Outside of the city a pair of demons were speaking to one another. "Kira we need to bring him out of this ce, you know that once the war begins the church wont be kind to those they''ve been trying to quietly hunt." The demoness who had been training the group for thest two days nodded. "Yeah yeah, but having some unique gear is an excellent opportunity for the guy you know? We should be happy that he will have a full set of unique gear by the time we get him home." The demoness known as the ashbringer scoffed. "Yeah and when he''s kidnapped by the church? What happens then?" She was growing enraged while speaking to her partner. "Calm down Leya! You know this forest cant handle your rage!" She smacked the Ashbringer in the back of the head while yelling. "This city will be safe they already tried to attack it once remember?" Leya grumbled and punched her sister in the arm as retaliation before sitting down. "Just keep an eye out for attacks ok?" ~ With the arrival of this new event it had taken the focus off of the dungeon as yers rushed to take part, the field was soon empty as more rushed to join the factions. Inside of the dungeon yers would eventually finish their runs and leave as well but one yer ignored it all. Ezekiel was curious about what this event could give but he was closing in on his goal of lv200. He would have to rest soon and he nned to join at that point but he wanted to reach at least lv180 before he was to tired to function. They only had two more days until yhe next server shutdown so he had to push himself further. At one point when he left the dungeon he was surprised by the sight of an angel waiting there, an angel in magnificent armor. ''Oh I guess I can sign up now then.'' He approached the angel who seemed to also be walking towards him, he raised a hand in greeting before holding it out. "Hey I''m a mage, I''m hoping to join the celestial side in this event?" "Yeah you''re Belial right?" He nodded and began to look through the inventory of the reputation shop. "The heavens could use a shadow mage, it would be the best way to punish the church. They''re the reason shadow magic is illegal." "You know im a shadow mage?" ''Ah crap how''d he figure it out?'' Thanatos began tough loudly at this reaction. "Man you do realize that demons are the only ones in the infernal race that actually have skin colors that dont mean anything right? Devils are so deeply attuned to their affinity that they always have physical markers of it." Ezekiel frowned before nodding. "Yeah I guess, I did start out red and got darker with each evolution so it makes sense. What do angels evolve into?" The angel yerughed and invited Ezekiel to his team. "Come into the dungeon and I''ll show you, I''ve never encountered this dungeon so tell me about it will you?" Ezekiel nodded and as they entered he began to describe the history he knew of it. "So apparently the boss is someone killed by the church of light, she had tried to join because of her high potential and talent with the life element but when she met the pope he executed her for being a shadow mage." He killed skeletons as they progressed and Alexander didn''t touch a single one so his ally could have all the experience. "I don''t really know how but she is the boss here, a vampiric arch lich." When he heard this Alexander inhaled sharply. Chapter 80: Spell Crafter "So the way the dungeon works is that it''s the tomb of a necromancer so we have to fight our way through the actual undead hordes." While tearing through the undead Ezekiel was exining how toplete it. "The area is filled with shadow mana and life mana in certain ces which i think caused the moss to start forming there, now therger pockets of moss make great hiding ces for undead too." He pointed out onerge pocket of moss that he quickly incinerated with shadowfire whoch made the hiding skeleton rise up with firy tk try to strike. "These skeletons are only ambush attackers and they aren''t pretty strong, probably all of their power went into agility or something but be careful because a good critical hit can kill you depending on your vitality." He used his wing shrouded in mana to p away the strike, when Alexander saw this he was astonished by how fluid the motion was and not even a single scratch was left on the wing. ''Dang... why didn''t I ever think about using the wings like that? I''ve been using my shield for guarding but with enough mana you could make an unbreakable barrier..." He was using a gold quality shield which did it''s job incredibly well but when one infused an item with mana to block a strike it was limited to the surface area of that object. ''Damn sometimes it sucks learning new things just because I yed a different race.'' Once they reached the door Ezekiel stretched and approached. "Get ready, since we''re only farming xp I''m putting the wrong code in so it kills us and we can start over at a faster pace." The celestial yer rushed forward to block his path. "Hey! Hey hey hey now maybe we can check out the boss? I haven''t been able to fight a nightmare difficulty dungeon boss yet and I''d like to see it." He looked at his new partner in confusion and shrugged. "Then we have to get the rest of the team, the code is written down but we have to guard against dangers the spell circle sends our way." When he heard this point Alexander stepped away with a nod as he knew from his past that dungeons had their own unique ways of making it hard to get to the boss. Discover more content at m,v l''e-NovelBin When the mana struck him iy actually took him a second to die since his vitality had been increased so far that the initial damage wasn''t instant death. ''If i help them beat this dungeon then not only do I have a chance to get a connection to the War God''s n before they grow torge to care about me but I also get a connection to this mage.'' Having his name in the first nightmare dungeon defeat announcement was a problem but these benefits would be very good. He also knew from experience that the rewards forpleting the nightmare difficulty for the first time were incredibly good. From his past he remembered many things even if he couldn''t get all of the exact details, once the final worlds first difficulty waspleted it would be minor achievements that would not be announced. Unique gear would be obtained from certain significant achievements like creating the first items of each quality above gold, gaining the first mythical achievements were what he truly wanted but he knew he would not be sessful in most of them, one or two would suffice. Something that the yers would take a long time to learn was that achievements had grades simr to skills and other simr things. Novice achievements would typically give a title or something simr. Apprentice achievements were more difficult to obtain and would often give skills as well as titles. Experienced achievements would typically involve being the first to achieve a difficult task and these were the first achievements that gave out unique rewards, though they did not have additional rewards. The master achievements were the most important to the average yer as these held significant weight for world fame likepleting dungeons and creating items. Those achievements would give unique rewards and the additional rewards that could have significant impact on a yer''s development. Legendary achievements would normally grant unique rewards and a significant title, he suspected that killing the pope would be such an achievement. Finally the supreme achievements were achievements that could impact the entire world, destroying a city or bing the ruler of a kingdom was a supreme achievement. Finally mythical achievements were those that garnered the attention of the gods. The only individual he had known that had publicly revealed their mythical achievement was an artisan that had created an item of the diamond quality, she had obtained the favor of the goddess of fire for her skill which had done many things. She had reported that she had gained an immunity defensive skill as well as a skill that made her gain total control over fire. Such things were the dreams of yers at the time. ''I wonder who managed to get the legendary achievement for creating their first unique spell... lucky bastard.'' ~ Outside of the dungeon yers were being rewarded for doing more than simply killing creatures and bringing the bodies back. It had only taken eight in game days but exploration was being done now. yers were given the chance to start creating a path that did not simply involve the experience grind as many went to create potions to reduce their spending, others chose to pursue cksmithing to try to forge powerful gear without having to fight for it. yers who were sent to aid certain areas were even starting to learn the skills that they should have learned in the starting vige, the rush to gain experience and explore the world outside of those tiny viges now seemed foolish to many yers. The greatest benefit was therger number of yers that began to call out for people toe learn skills that were meant to help mages. It started with a few mages in every city learning about the existence of skills from mages that they worked under, the astonished looks of these poor mages when they realized the otherworlders had no clue about simple skills like mana sense and mana control had made them unable to think. The mages even went further upon learning the otherworlders did not have mana cores, some reacted with astonishment and others reacted with anger at the ineptitude. The result was a mass influx in mana usage across the world as yers began to cultivate in the millions at a time. This was the beginning of the exponential growth of this world''s mana supply and the next time the server shut down the yers would return to significant changes. ~ Ezekiel had managed to find his friends and after introducing Thanatos they took time to exin what they had begun to develop for a strategy. While they were talking he was given a sudden inspiration to try a title he had mostly ignored. ''If I can make a spell to actually tear the boss''s shield apart we could get this done even faster but what would be a good spell to make?'' ~~~~~~~~~~ Spell Crafter Consume all mana in the users body to create a spell that had been properly crafted by the user. Cooldown- one week ~~~~~~~~~~ ''Not the best description but I think it works....'' He began to imagine how his spells functioned, the sharp mana projectiles, the explosive power, the decaying effects of shadow and void mana. He knew that to destroy the shield faster he would have to make a spell that could bring the damage over time effects out to the greatest level possible. That was when he gained sudden inspiration like a lightning bolt striking his mind. In the past there was a certain kind of instion that people used which had to be removed from homes when it was discovered to be very harmful to human health. Amongst the reasons was the fact that this instion was made of microscopic shards of ss that could prate the skin and be inhaled. This then reminded him of another detail from the creature in the old games he had modeled his frenzy wing spell off of. For that creature the hairs on its wings would be suspended in the air as fine particles along with the scales that contained something that made creatures go into... well a frenzy. If hebined the concept of the microscopic needle shards and the haze of the creature that made them float and affect the creatures that came into contact... he could create an incredible effect with it. He chose to activate the spell and pictured a projectile like an orb but filled with these shards of microscopic mana needles that would be released by the force of the bomb and begin slowly shredding the shields that enemies held. ~~~~~~~~~~ Congrattions! Spell has been sessfully created by title [spell crafter] Corrosive Frenzy Bomb lv1 (L+) ~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 81: Practice Run After creating his spell Ezekiel was excited to try it out, if it worked the way he imagined then it should be very good at tearing armor apart but he would have to warn his allies against entering the aoe. When approaching the first skeleton in the group he held his hand up in front of everyone. "Hold back for a sec I just made a new spell before we came in and i think it would be bad if anyone was caught in it." The others nodded and they seemed curious about what he would do. When he cast the spell he was unable tounch it like normally and had to throw it himself. The spell struck the skeleton in the chestte and although the damage was small it had a significant impact on the elemental damage which coated it all over. The shards of mana caused small cuts and the elemental fire inside began to burn the skeleton from the inside out. He cast the spell twice more and they watched as the skeleton began to fall apart from the damage slowly building up. The metal armor itself was in pieces as if it had rusted away but the metal still shined in the light, his spell worked albeit slowly. "Well it worked..." "Why did you make a spell that takes so long to take effect? That took at least ten seconds and you spent the whole time blocking it, you can kill them in one shot I''ve seen it." Shade seemed more displeased by the result than the others, Hope was excited by him having a new spell while La was already discussing tactics for it. ''Well at least we can test it against the boss, it should be fine.'' He was using the spell as often as possible to have the team find the best ways around the effect to learn what they could do to handle the spell. They took a few burns from it and he had to end the effect often so they wouldn''t be torn apart. The ce where the spell shined was the groups of enemies, the spell only lingered for a second but in that time it would cause multiple enemies to be afflicted by the damage effect. Once they reached the door they got in position but then they realized that their celestialpanion was not really aware of what they were doing. "Hey uh, just get behind us and try to watch out for the spikes ok? You''ll understand when they start putting the code in." Ezekiel motioned for their newpanion to get behind them. Once they were ready he put up his barriers with Hope beside him doing the same. The code was able to be put in faster than before but with Thanatos as their ally it meant they had to put more effort into protecting him. The first moment he was struck by shadow mana taught them an important lesson. "GAHH FUCK MY ARM!" They turned back and saw that his arn was shredded practically to the bone and Ezekiel with the help of Hope had to split their focus to heal it back. "He doesn''t have resistance to the damage! He''s going to be screwed in there!" As soon as Shade pushed thest rune of the password he began to yell about the stupidity of noting prepared. "He''s going to be a liability, he might be the top yer but this dungeon will fuck people up because of the element! You know how much pain shadow mana causes!" "I know I know! Rx man, he wanted to see what the dungeon was like and i agreed to show him, some of us are barely at lv160 so this is not at all a real run ok?" "Sorry everyone, I didn''t know this element was so... painful." Ezekiel shook his head and entered the boas room. "Hey Thanatos you get your life affinity yet? So far all of us were able to thanks to this ce so if you can too it would be great." After hearing this the celestial nodded before sitting down to cultivate. Ezekiel watched him and frowned at the technique but he had noticed everyone used a slightly different method that had to have been based on what was easier to imagine. For himself it had be easier to simply imagine his core as an empty basin plunged into a body of water to be rapidly filled. Such a rush of mana caused him slight difort but it was the fastest method he had used so far that got even better with higher mana density. "So who wants to tell him what we know so far?" Ezekiel turned to the group with an expectant smile. After some back and forth looks La stepped up. "So Diana is an archlich but she does more than magic, she also attacks with des made of mana." She did a small nod to Ezekiel and he looked at her strangely before he caught on, then he began to create a de made from shadow mana while creating basic projectiles to demonstrate. "She''s a lot better at it than I am so be careful, she can create multiple de projectiles and leave behind small trap based spell circles that either explode with shadow mana or stab you with life mana constructs." La nodded and was about to speak when Thanatos gasped. "We''re fighting a spellde?" "Spellde?" As soon as he heard her reply he pped a hand over his mouth while wincing then he spoke up again. "A uh... a spellde is like a magic swordsman. Usually they''re mages that learned swordy and are trying to either pass as a magus or they''re trying to actually be one." When listening Ezekiel was interested in that word, a word he had heard from NPC mages when he had been trying to get his ss advancement done. "I''ve heard the NPCs talking about that before, the magus, what is a magus?" Thanatos put a hand on his chin and seemed to be thinking before he answered. "Well a magus is like a master of both magic and physical skill, imagine the way you described the boss. She overwhelms you with hee physical superiority and her spells are able to catch you off guard to take you out, a magus would be the same way except they are able to enhance themselves with their own mana." The group seemed quite interested by this revtion but Ezekiel especially liked this idea. "So if I became a magus I could make bosses fall apart against my attacks while my spells shred them... that sounds really fun." He had a sudden image of himself charging someone with ws made of void mana while leaving behind pockets of his frenzy bombs, his ws shredding his enemy apart and his frenzy wing spell ripping into their bodies to blow them to swiss cheese all before the enemy could react. ''I want to be a magus, I want to make enemies fall before my spells while they are too busy being torn open by my ws... I will be the Void Beast.'' ~~~~~~~~~~ Alert! User is gaining more synchronization with bloodline [Lesser Void Beast] and has gained greater affinity with it, thus unlocking more of the bloodline through their hunger. +10% magical damage when attacking with physical strikes. ~~~~~~~~~~ ''..... Oh my..... oh I''m going to enjoy this.'' When everyone had finished absorbing the mana in the room he activated the boss fight and immediately guarded himself against the explosive force of the coffin. He then used his mana sense and activated everything he had, Corrosive Frenzy Wing, Corrosive Frenzy Bomb, Mana Burn, he created the ws he enjoyed so much and he even began to convert his mana into void mana. All of this happened in the same instance as when he guarded himself so once the shrapnel was done heunched himself forward with a yell to start attacking Diana. ~ Alexander had to hide his face behind his shield to guard against the stone shrapnel but when the dust cleared he was astonished by what he saw. Belial was in a one on one battle with the boss and they seemed to be trading blows quicker than he had anticipated the boss would do. ''A goddamn archlich, and not just an Archlich but a Vampiric one.'' That thing had somehow evolved in such a way that her Shadow affinity and Life affinity had merged into the Vampiric affinity which had lifesteal effects. ''An Archlich with a Lifesteal based affinity and she was a spellde, this is a nightmare.... he doesn''t even look like he knows how to fight a swordsman what the hell is going on.'' He watched in stunned silence as somehow Belial was pushing the boss back, his w strikes were shing against her but seemed to be held at bay by a green aura but that green aura was showing signs of breaking down. His new spell as well as his strikes were causing the shield to take significant and constant damage but the more he watched the less he cared about the boss. ''I''ve seen that before, attacking someone with ws made from shadow... tearing them apart with no effort. Belial isn''t even close to the skill level of that crazy assassin but it''s clearly the same strategy...'' Alexander had a shback to when he fought a hooded figure that rippes him limb from limb while all he ever saw were the burning red eyes of that person. ''The Kingyer.'' --------------- Alright so i had previously asked everyone if they would rather Ezekiel learn to be a magus or stay as a pure mage and most people seemed to be excited for the magus but i did notice that a few seemed to be worried that if he were to do that he would be held back from his mage path. I would like to set the record straight dear readers, if Ezekiel were to be a magus it would mainly consist of him learning actually physicalbat techniques while using his spells to inflict even more damage. As hisbat technique is currently it is inspired by a special creature i hold close to my heart and if anyone can figure out which creature it is i will let them request a character made for them. Enjoy the novel dear readers. Chapter 82: Practice Results When releasing so many frenzy bombs Ezekiel had to be very careful so he would not harm his allies, but he was having far to much fun to focus on such a concern right now. Diana attacked quickly and he obviously had to be very careful to not actually take a full strike from her but he suspected the intelligence of the boss was still not the same as that of a person because the boss did not really do many tricky moves. She would stab and sh at him and although it was an incredible speed he could still identify what would happen. The problem with fighting the boss in this way was that he had to fully dedicate himself to countering her own strikes, although he could block her attacks they were not perfect counters as often as he would have wished. His wings were getting injured and he had to block by hand more often than not, because of this he had cuts across his arms and hands that made the pain distract him. He would push through the pain and focus on tearing her shield apart to actually allow his allies to do more to her, they had taken up his defense from the summoned undead... they would have been a problem solo. Ezekiel did not know how to find the weak points of these mana constructs like Hope could but he saw that the more he damaged her de or her aura the more Hope could take over the mana there. He began to use his wings to attack as well and overwhelm the boss with extra strikes, the joints at the top of his wings were shrouded by sharp void mana and he effectively used them as des while his wed hands shredded her aura covered body. This was the exhration he had wanted! When he stabbed the boss he was able tounch needles from his frenzy wing spe into the boss which broke the aura down even further. Keeping all of this sustained was beginning to have a harmful effect on his mana though and he was at the halfway mark, her aura was in tatters though. The true problem was that he was being harmed by the mana burn effect now and it was doing strange things he hadnt encountered before. He saw that his damage was increasing by small increments each second and the amount of mana consumed increased. His void mana skill was even speeding up while his body burned with the shadowfire of his elemental power. He roared in pain and fury like some savage beast as he fought her even harder through this. He did not care about what happened to him in this dungeon as the only thing that mattered was the goal of getting through the battle and learning as much as they could. When the aura finally shattered his mana was at less than a third of its capacity and he was forced to sustain his hp through constant use of life mana. He could hardly keep moving but he still attacked her like it did not matter. His frenzy bombs were now causing her significant harm and the needles of his wings were being stabbed into various parts of her body while his ws and mana coated wings shed her bones. In his pain and his fury he was taking worse and worse hits from the boss but he did not care. He would push himself beyond what he had been able to do as he had found a detail he truly enjoyed even with how painful it was to break past his limit. Even when she cut one of his wings off he did not stop attacking. When an arm was shed away he started to attack in other ways. His chest stabbedpletely through was ignored and with his other wing shed in half it made him scream in pain but he attacked like a feral beast. He only took a moment to reconcile with how reckless he was being when she cut off his head and for the smallest of moments he saw her health bar. With everything he had done it was only 20% oh her hp gone. ~ La had to admit that the way Ezekiel fought was simultaneously terrifying and awe inspiring as he tore into the boss. She was incredibly powerful at this difficulty and although the skeletons were not the worst part she could tell that diana would never be taken down by a party that could not match her level. Her attacks were made to intentionally draw the focus of the other skeletons while Shade took them out. Hope was doing her best to protect them with her mana wards and her healing. Thanatos was tearing through the undead with shes of mana while attacking the boss to help them through the threat. This battle was going so well with Ezekiel keeping the boss off of them but now that he had died they would have to split their focus further. This wasn''t something they were incapable of but theck of the boss breathing down their necks was amazing for clearing out enemies. Hope had apparently learned a simr skill to the boss, or a spell. The aura she made was not as powerful but she could cover everyone in a thin aura of life mana. Ezekiel had probably not even noticed it in his state of chaotic battle but he was protected by all of them to prevent the boss fromnding any easy blows. With the boss able to focus on them the group had to alternate aggro between them. They did notst much longer but by the time they werepletely wiped out they had taken out at least 24% of her hp. ~ When the group exited the dungeon Ezekiel was waiting and be looked upset. He saw them all approach and stood up. "I think we need to start practicing with Thanatos as a team to learn everyone''s strengths and weaknesses with this new ally, I also lost it in there and got myself killed so I have to figure out what that was..." The group seemed to agree but Shade stepped forward. "Listen, if you can pull that off again but actually keep control so you don''t get killed we could probably beat this dungeon." La nodded and stepped up. "We need to hit lv200 so we can actually do damage that can match hers, my shadow resistance is only at 38% but its still a huge amount to take." Ezekiel nodded and began to think about how he could make sure he didn''t lose control again and it would start with learning hand to handbat. Right now his best method of fighting was to overwhelm his target with damage while using aoe to keep enemies at bay. But his team could keep the summoned undead at bay for him meaning he could divert all his damage onto the boss. By abusing the boss with as much magical damage as possible he could make sure her aura fell and the boss did not actually get to harm the team. He imagined techniques to make his attacks as effective as possible while adding in spell effects in ways that would help him. With only two spells that could actually do anything to Diana he was limited on options but he had his mana control and maybe he could try something new... With his spells he always knew that there were two more steps to spell mastery, he had only ever learned how to cast spells silently but there were two more and one of them was potentially already something he had guessed. He began to cast his frenzy wing spell and in the process he actually directed the mana much more carefully than he normally would. He followed the mana path in the same wag as his mana veins which resulted in zero loss of mana to the outside world. ~~~~~~~~~~ Spell Mastery [Corrosive Frenzy Wing] tier 2 achieved. 50% increase in mana supply to the spell. ~~~~~~~~~~ Such an effect actually made him extremely excited. By adding more mana to naturally improve his spells he was able to take advantage of greater effects, this would also show what his spells are actually capable of as this mana was actually what was used in creation and he would lose 50% of the mana to it exiting his body. "Hey guys! I just figured something out!" As they were walking to the forest he ensured the knowledge was well absorbed. His teaching skills and the tutor title were able to help them understand him faster but since only Thanatos had mana veins the rest had to learn to direct the flow of mana through their own skills. Their next step was reaching the demoness NPC to learn more and alternate between gaining expeience. ~ ''I can''t believe he learned the second tier of spell mastery so quickly, is this what made him such a strong mage in the future?'' Chapter 83: Infernal Curse While the rest were training to get Thanatos ustomed to how they work with one another Ezekiel was busy training with the demoness known as Kira Mallum. Discover exclusive tales on m,v l''e-NovelBin He had long ago acknowledged that he would be forced to leave with the two women and although he was sad to be dragged away from his team he could not stay there. The infernal kingdom keeping their word relied on him leaving to go to what they called his homnd, their queen had ordered them to bring him by whatever means and he knew they would stick to their word. The young devil was learning a proper grappling form from Kira and it was going well so far but he knew that simply punching and grabbing his enemies was not enough. He would have to work on his own technique since she was not aware of whatever he was describing. In fact she seemed disturbed by how he used his wings to fight. "The wings of an Archdevil are sacred, to use them as weapons is... It simply isn''t done Belial!" He scoffed at the way she worded it and continued to use his body as a weapon. "Yeah and the other cities say allowing shadow mages to live simply isn''t done, allowing blood magic simply isn''t done." He looked her in the eye with a smug expression. "I remember you once saying that an infernal woman speaking to an infernal male who was not her mate wasn''t done either but here we are." Heughed at her expression as she seemed simultaneously embarrassed and enraged. "Imagine what your people would say if they knew that not only had you spoken to a male devil who you were not married to but also touched one... hell imagine what they would say if they knew you struck one." She lunged forward with rage filled eyes as if to grab him but her tembling hands stopped inches from his neck. "We were training, you asked to be taught to block attacks and you have now asked to be taught hand to handbat." She growled each word while looking as if she were on the verge of destroying something. "Would they care? You keep acting like your people have no courtesies towards what people desire right? I want to use my wings inbat but you say it is not done, it is disgraceful apparently." He smirked as hey out her own words before her after pointing out her own breaking of those rules. "Help me figure this out and stop acting like you''re better than me..." He had grown sick of hiw this woman treated him, the dismissal, the constant downying of his hopes. He worried about how the people would treat him in the infernal kingdom if the one sent to retrieve him was already such a bitch. "I don''t know if the word exists here but we have something that describes you well..." She looked him in the eye waiting for him to finish the sentence but he did not, he simply took his stance and returned to practicing. ~ Belial Void Mage lv177- Lesser Tri-Elemental Archdevil. He had been practicing hard and the sun had set a long time ago. He was trying to figure out how he could gain nightvision through his skills when he suddenly felt something grab him by the leg. When he was about to look down he was suddenly struck by a sharp pain in his neck before being dragged away across the ground by whatever had grabbed him. ''Dammit! What is happening? Am I getting attacked by some crazy beast?'' He felt sluggish and started to call for help but his mouth felt like it was moving through water. When the dragging finally ended he was looking up at a hooded figure. The figures face was indiscernible through the shadows but what he could see was the slight glint of moonlight shining off of a dagger de. He could not move his body but he could certainly move his mana. He would probably not be urate enough to fight this figure away with spells but there was another option. He used his mana to create a psuedo aura around his body and with a wheezing grunt he unleashed all of the fire mana he could. The fire spread across the ground and into the trees turning the fallen leaves into the perfect emergency re. The hooded figure was caught off guard and attempted to bring a dagger down upon him but then they were kicked away by an elegant redish gray leg. With his eyes barely able to see through the smoke he saw the other demoness that had been there the day he met the city lord, yhe one every NPC had called the Ashbringer. She looked down at Ezekiel with a hint of concern before she yelled for Kira, she then grabbed the attacker and himself to carry away from the fire. Ezekiel tried to extinguish his mes but he could only exert control of his runaway mana within ten feet of his body, the rest of the fire was going out of control. He started to think about anything he could possibly do to stop the fire he had caused but it seemed his savior was uninterested in protecting the forest. He was getting angry about how little she cared for the city he asked them to protect and he had unintentionally activated hid mana burn skill. He let out a hoarse scream as he expanded his mana control as far as he possibly could, he looked for everything and eventually saw the particles of blue mana in the air from some moisture giving light amounts of water mana to the air. He could hear his savior yelling at him while Kira was approaching with her own words that got drowned out bg the buzzing in his ears. He was forcing his mind to work with the mana that was far out of his reach and trying desperately to do something that he had not attempted before. He knew it was possible to manipte the mana in the air to create spells, the boss of the dungeon did so constantly. He simply had to figure out how she did it, or force it to bend to his will. Just as he felt that he was about to burst a blood vessel he heard a notification and the mana in the air surged into the pocket of water mana particles which began to take their own element from it. He saw the mana pocket he created suddenly begin to take a strange shape he had no control over and before he knew it there was a small storm cloud above the raging fire. The rain seemed to be weakening the mes but he knew that it would not put them out before there was severe damage to this section of the forest so he turned to another approach. He started to use his mana control to force the mana out of the fire so that the propagating mes wouls be weakned even further without the mana fueling them. With no mana the fire had to rely on physical fuel like wet wood and grass. Once he saw the fire dying he was able to sigh with relief, his paralyzed muscles cracking the smallest of smiles. ~~~~~~~~~~ The spirits appreciate your kind act..... ~~~~~~~~~~ He could not read the rest of this new notification as he fell unconscious. ~ Kira restrained the kidnapper and listened to her sister recount the events that she hade to. When she was done they each took turns questioning the otherworlder and what they heard shocked them. "Another otherworlder wants him in? But your kind cannot be killed permanently!" The assassin spit a mouthful of blood, when he looked up they could see his hobgoblin face again covered in bruises and blood. "We can have our levels reduced to the base though, we can be sent back to lv1 and that guy pissed off some rich folk." Heughed loudly at the idea as if it were the greatest joke he ever heard. "Poor bastard probably got a few people chasing him down, he got famous you know... people don''t like getting outssed." They covered his mouth and with one sharp motion a sickening pop was heard, he tried to scream but could only hurt his own throat as he felt the pain of his wrist being dislocated. "By order of her majesty Queen Lucretia Shadow, Devil Queen of the infernal kingdom, we brand you as an attacker of a male devil and you shall forever be known as an enemy of the infernal race." She had a metal object in her hand and as she finished those words it seemed to spark with magic and glow white hot. She forced the end of it against his face and he began to shriek into her hand as the sound of sizzling flesh was heard through the camp. ~~~~~~~~~~ Curse Applied- Mark of Infernal Malice. This curse grants the title "Hatred of the Infernals" as punishment for the attempted harm of a Male Infernal. ~~~~~~~~~~ "You will never live peacefully should you encounter another of our kind, even the otherworld infernals will gain the same benefit of this curse should they meet you... you will die painfully each they they kill you." Chapter 84: Spirits When Ezekiel woke up the first thing he felt was an intense migraine, it was so painful he wanted to scream but all he could do was groan. He began to use his life affinity to heal himself but all it did was reduce the pain. He opened his eyes to look around but his vision was blocked by a strange... creature? A little pinecone with a face was staring at him. When it saw his eyes open it pped its little hands and floated away, he sighed and just decided to check the notifications he had gotten when he had been overwhelmed by the poison and his fatigue. ~~~~~~~~~~ Mana Control lv10 (L) has been forcefully evolved. Lesser Mana Maniption lv1 (L+) has been obtained. The spirits appreciate your kind act and wish to reward you. Title obtained: Nature''s Kindness Nature''s Kindness- Increase the quality of user''s mana gem by one level. Error. Mana gem is at highest mortal quality, seeking solutions.... solution found, alternative reward will be given. Increase the rank of skill [Full Body Mana Veins] by one. Full Body Mana Veins lv10 (M) -> Mana Circtory System lv1 (L) ~~~~~~~~~~ He saw the multiple lines of text and got incredibly curious so he looked at his own body through his mana sense, inside of it he saw the mana veins he had before now appeared denser and flowed with mana. He did not really know what the effect of it was as the description of the skill only say that it invigorated mana. Soon he tried to sit up and with this motion he heard someone begin rushing over. Explore more stories with m,v l''e-NovelBin He felt a hand on his back and arge demoness looked him in the eye. "Are you ok Belial?" It was the other demoness called ashbringer, she had such genuine concern in her eyes that it shocked him for a moment before he tried to speak. "Yeah... i''m ok thanks... can I get a drink?" She looked him over as if confirming what he said and then she nodded, she stood and went over to the campfire she had been tending to grab... a tea kettle? "You hurt your voicest night, tea will help." She gave him a cup full of a deep red liquid, it smelled incredible but he had not heard of a tea that wasn''t yellow... Then again he didn''t drink much tea himself. When he took a sip it tasted incredibly strong as if he were sipping coffee but it was not the bitter thing he was used to. ''This is amazing... is real tea this good?'' He began to drink it in longer sips before looking up at the demoness. "Thank you, it''s really good..." For just a moment she had arge smile before she cleared her throat and stood up. "You rest, I will go tell my sister that you''re awake." After saying this she stood up to leave and just before she was out of sight he saw an expression of anger on her face. While she was gone he continued to enjoy his tea and that was when the little pinecone creature showed back up. "Oh... hello again, what might you be?" The little creature waved at him and held up a small book, it was a book with a silver glow. ''Is that... is that a skill book?!'' He slowly moved to take the book and check it''s status. ~~~~~~~~~~ Skill Book (silver) Language Comprehension [Spirit] Learning requirements- none ~~~~~~~~~~ ''Oh then I guess this must be a spirit, strange.'' He learned the skill and soon he could understand the little noises of the pinecone spirit. "You hear now yes? You understand?" He nodded at the little thing, then he looked around the area. "What''s a spirit?" He knew from other games and old stories that spirits had various versions, they even had different names. For example the fae myths would ovep with the spirits of the old english myths, there were also spirits that even older civilizations believed in. These various stories were adapted into games and stories throughout human history with many variations but they often had the same themes. They were creatures that lived in the natural world and their existence depended upon the natural world remaining, in many stories the expansion of civilization made the existence of spirits difficult as more of their homes were destroyed. "We are spirits of course! I am a spirit of one of the trees you saved, I asked to be the one to follow you!" ''Follow me?'' "Why exactly are the spirits following me?" The spirit jumped up and down happily. "We are watching to understand you, test you, that is all I may say." After this the spirit began to climb on his until it was inside of his hood, he was mildly annoyed by how pushy it was being but he decided to let go of his annoyance. ''It''s a cute thing, not like it would hurt much to have.'' He decided toy against a tree and finish his tea, the warmth of it helped his throat and even made his headache feel significantly better. With his chance to train on hold while he was forced to wait for the sisters to get there he decided to practice his magic instead. He began to use his mana to create his void mana ws again and again, each time tryimg to refine the process. He began by creating the thin edge that would act as the sharp w before he infused mana to make it denser and sharper. The back of the w was filled sith mana until it got denser and sturdier than even a normal de. With the process done he tried to make it faster and faster with each creation to hopefully make the system recognize it as a spell. The issue with making a mana construct into a spell was that it seemed to require a few things that he wasn''t sure of yet. By making a mana construct he could do damage with it yes but it did not gain the same damage buffing effects that his spells did. With only the construct he would receive the damage of his intelligence stat with the bonus damage of his affinity and his core affinity. By turning these constructs into a spell he could gain the benefits of every spell bonus he had. He finally had a breakthrough once he thought of making the constructsrger, like a gauntlet. With his hands covered in the mana now he felt that something was going differently, he could feel the spell was taking a better shape with more than just the simplistic coaws he had made. He began to use his mana to create more of the gauntlets until his arms were covered to the elbows. He also made his constructs cover his wings, they were like sharp des with shadowfire mana constructs like armor covering the muscles of his two wings. He looked like a warrior with ck, burning armor and as soon as he got the design how he liked it he tried again. He practiced more and more until he could create the armor in a single second. ~~~~~~~~~~ Spell Recognized- Mana Armament. Mana Armament lv1 (E) Create armor made from mana, by infusing one''s own elemental affinity they can create armor that has greater defense against the element used as well as applying elemental effects on strikes made with the armor. ~~~~~~~~~~ He sighed in relief as he sessfully made that armor, once he was done he tried it out and each time used a different element. With the shadow affinity armor he felt a chill and his strikes created lines of consumption. With the fire affinity armor he felt warmth and his strikes left behind fire to burn his target. The strange one was the life affinity, his strikes did nothing special but he felt like he was able to recover faster with it on. It was not as special as making raw life affinity constructs to contain the mana if other types but it was incredible nheless. With the triumph of his new spell he was ready to face the two demons that were supposed to be watching him... but no one was there. He was there with the little spirit for nearly an hour before they finally appeared. "I apologize for allowing you to be taken away young de- Belial... I am sorry for allowing you to be take away Belial." While she was speaking he had seen that Kira had been jabbed in the side by her sister the moment she began to use her normal name for him. "Uh... it''s fine? What happened to the guy anyway did you kill him?" The two nodded and Kira gave a savage grin. "It was an otherworlder, I remember your elf friend said that your kind can be in repeatedly until they have been forced back to the lowest level. I wish we could find him again." He nodded but he was curious about why someone was so desperate to get to him that they dragged him away like that. ''Oh well, once im gone it wont matter.'' Chapter 85: Final Push It took many hours for that day and each member of the team had to focus entirely on leveling up to eventually reach lv200. By the time all of them were at the proper level to battle the boss on even footing the time for the server''s second pause was approaching. "We could try to make a run? Maybe we can fight through her since we still have three hours." La kept the group moving through the dungeon and while they took care of the undead without his aid he distributed the stats he had rued. ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Void Mage lv177 -> 200. (Supreme) Lesser Tri-Elemental Archdevil Affinity: 100% Shadowfire 100% Life Mana Core: 100% Shadowfire Strength: 20 (+60) Vitality: 1415 -> 3400 (+510) Read new adventures at m_v-l''e|-NovelBin Agility: 1615 -> 2000 (+80 +20%) Wisdom: 3030 -> 3800 (+80 +20%) Intelligence: 5770 -> 7000 (+70 +20%) Free stats: 4 ~~~~~~~~~~ With his skills in hand to handbat getting better plus his Mana Armament spell being active he would be able to battle her as easily as the others. He liked being able to dodge strikes but he wanted to be able to tank any strike she could give him, with his defenses not yet able to block her strikespletely a few levels before he figured getting his health to a higher amount would solve that problem. He had gotten even better at using his mana to guard the group and he began to suspect that the shields may be tied to the vitality statistic as well as the intelligence statistic. The system did not give exact information on how it worked but with each level he felt that his mana shields were able to defend a little bit more, the sudden influx of points into his intelligence stat would exin part of the new strength of the shields but notpletely exin the absurd durability of the shields. The sudden doubling of his vitality was the only connection he saw to his shields gaining such strength. Once they entered the boss room they absorded the mana as always to not waste any of it and began the battle. As before Ezekiel entered the fight with a frenzy of shes and bombs as well as needles, each strike upon her aura dealt significantly more damage than it had in the past and even the piercing damage she took was worse. He was able to block her strikes more often than before as his own protective aura was taking less damage. With his ability to use refined spells full of as much mana as he was capable of giving he had reached what he felt a mage is supposed to be, his magic was effective and nothing felt wasted. The only waste of energy was his clumsier physical power. His spells were constantly targeting her head while he used every opportunity to drop frenzy bombs around them. He knew that when he was taking damage he was being healed and from behind the boss he saw Shade taking advantage of her focus on himself to pierce her weak points. He kept his own focus on the boss but they had trained for hours the previous day to actually work well together, he knew that Thanatos and La would be working together on the skeleton summons while Hope would be healing all of them. He was waiting to see what the boss would do when she reached the previous health threshold that had summoned the giant skeleton, he had ns for how to deal with it. When he saw a shift the mana inside of the room he immediately used his wings to guard himself and Shade but it was not an attack. She had summoned armor made of life mana ...but something was odd. The armor was losing its glow, the actual mana was being drained and it was Hope doing it! "Attack her! I can''t keep this up for long!" As soon as the base of her skull was exposed Shade went for a killing blow with death mark while Ezekiel watched for the right moment to unleash a full power strike from his frenzy wing projectiles. She took the stab as she seemed to be struggling to handle the fight for the mana while also using her de to attack anyone she saw. In a moment of recklessness he stabbed out with each wing to try to cripple her and he was sessful but Shade had to back away without getting a second stab in. The two of them were using their own individual versions of the death mark and the damage it caused was significant. Once her hp hit the 75% threshold the mana in the room began to converge which actually ripped the life mana from the skeletons, it began to flood into the spell circle she used for her giant skeleton and since he saw his opportunity Ezekiel began to channel his own spell. With mana burn active he could create thousands of needles which were all suspended inside of a single point, he kept this thing in hand like a grenade, and then he made another. He kept making more and more which he threw to the giant skeleton as it was formed. By the time he was done he had exhausted all of his mana to make only ten of those little bombs and the moment the skeleton moved he detonated them. He was sitting there trying to recover while the pair of Thanatos and La worked together to battle the boss, when he yelled for them to back away Hope put up a barrier of life mana to protect them from the explosive power of the spells but her shield was ripped to shreds by the needles of void mana. When the ck fire settled down a bit they could see the boss had taken another 10% of her health just from the radius of the shrapnel and the skeleton itself was in pieces like the skeletons he had practiced this on with the frenzy bomb. Since he had expended all of his mana to use that attack his mana burn skill was gone so he would have to rely on other effects until the cooldown was up. Once he was able to recover at least 50% of his mana he got back up and began to attack once again, with the skeleton gone she was vulnerable. With her aura gone she had no defense. With her summon having been used and destroyed she couldn''t summon others like before. With their teamwork shining they saw the path to victory and they knew that they only had to push a bit further to achieve it. Once they reached 25% they began to have genuine problems though. The boss began to use multiple mana des per target which made dodging harder, she also began to teleport earlier than ever, with his own knowledge of how to catch where she would move Ezekiel was able to call put who she would attack but that was all he could do. He was not fast enough to reach her to guard them himself but someone was... He watched as each time she vanished and he called out her target, La would also blink from her position into a point in front of them to block her strike. Shade would even use a dashing skill to reach the boss when he saw La take her strike so he could attack the boss as well. Ezekiel saw that in the time it took them to reach this point his mana burn skill had finally ended its cooldown so he activated it. He noticed that Thanatos had activated a remarkably simr skill as well. The two of them began to unleash powerful strikes on the boss, he pinned her down by attacking with shes of mana he had seen used before by their new ally and he took the time to unleash every single overcharged void bomb he could on the boss. He made sure to keep enough mana to sustain the skill this time and when he warned everyone to back away, he unleashed the bombs. The boss began to take damage from consecutive damage effects from those bombs and with each one he saw her take slightly more damage than before. The final bomb exploded when she only had 1% hp left and as the bomb burned her body to ashes he cheered. But the dungeon did not end. No notification sounded for their victory. A figure rose from the remains of that ckened skeleton and they all saw the spectral figure of an elven woman who began to scream. "First the church, and now this! Why can i not be allowed to avenge myself!" She howled like a banshee and they all began taking damage from this screaming spirit. Ezekiel saw his mana returning slowly but it was still returning and he looked at his allies who were forced to their knees by this boss. He forced himself to stand and withthest bit of mana he had he created one more bomb infused with void mana even denser then anything he had made before. He forced his hand through the spirit where her heart would have been and set the bomb off while containing them inside of a shield of mana. If he were not close enough the bomb would have fallen out of the spirit and if he did not create a barrier the others would be harmed by his own magic or the boss after he died. So he released that bomb inside of her and let it detonate. Chapter 86: Nightmare Rewards As the group appeared at the entrance of the dungeon they began celebrating pver the notification that had jusg swept the worldwide server. ~~~~~~~~~~ Congrattions to the first team toplete the nightmare difficulty of a dungeon, although this achievement is now taken do remember that the firstpletion of individual dungeons is still avable. Rewards have been granted. ~~~~~~~~~~ They saw that for some reason Ezekiel was unconscious and they began to worry about what had happened to him so they carried him away to the camp where the NPCs could have a look. "How do you think that spell works? He used more projectiles before but those bombs did more damage." La was excited over their victory but she seemed confused by the result. "Oh that''s easy, maybe that shadow magic mess can do something simr to other damage over time effects? See when you cause a DOT you actually get the chance to make them stack if you cause enough of them with a high enough chance." "Ok but that was the first time I''ve seen him do something that caused that much damage, his other aoe abilities don''t do neearly as much?" Thanatos simply shrugged. "Listen man I don''t really care what he can do as long as he''s on my side, do you really care about how it is possible to do so much damage with a bomb?" La stepped between the two and cut their conversation short. "Seriously, think about it. Do you think that even if he teaches you what he did that you''d be able to replicate it? He''s been trying to replicate the assassin skill right? Has he said he was sessful yet?" Shade shook his head and thought about it. "He still asks for advice on it..." "Then maybe a mage can''t learn the death mark skill?" The group went quiet again before Hope suddenly shrieked in happiness. "I got something amazing!" She showed them an amulet and a scroll. "I got a piece of gear for my unique set and I got a scroll that will let me instantly raise my sses to the next rank!" She was bouncing around in happiness and the others congratted her. When shade checked his own rewards he saw that he had obtained an incredible unique dagger that would finally help him achieve more damage. He also told them about his options for his second reward. "I have a choice between a ss upgrade scroll like Hope, a skill upgrade scroll, a species upgrade scroll, a bloodline refinement scroll and an item upgrade scroll..." "Ooh you got the exact same choices as I did, I wonder if they are all the same?" As soon as he heard this Thanatos checked his own rewards, he showed a ring to the group but his true prize was something that had been exactly what he hoped he could get. "The bloodline refinement scroll is the besy option! Trust me." The others did not really know what to think but they nodded and considered what he said for when they chose their rewards. La was the next to choose her reward and when she showed off a brand new set of armor as well as a scroll for improving her race she simply shrugged. "I get the greatest stat bonuses from my species so it''s definitely what I need, plus the sexist demon told me that the mext species upgrade happens at lv250 and I once saw Belial chage races twice in one period." The others nodded and continued down the path they had practically worn into the dirt from constantly moving between the points. ~ When Ezekiel finally woke up his head was pounding. He sat up with a groan and the others immediately began to check up on him. He saw that all four of his allies were present as well as Leya, the Ashbringer, she was watching him with deep concern in her eyes and for the first time he actually felt touched by the way the demoness looked at him. It was certainly better than how her sister looked at him. "You cked out because you keep using your mana too much, you keep abusing the Archdevil race skill and what''s worse is you constantly burn through your vitality when you do. You should not be using it so much." She seemed genuinely upset with him as if he were worrying her by acting recklessly. "I''m an otherworlder remember? Even if the skill kills me I''ll juste back ok? Calm down." He truly disliked how they acted like he was some frail creature that had to be protected. "....Fine get your rewards dealt with so we can get you home... our home I meant not your home, sorry Belial." The way she seemed to genuinely try to be courteous with him actually made him feel bad for being rude. While the others were testing out their new items and using their reward scrolls La approached him when he was checking his own. He had obtained a nice pair of boots that seemed to match the leather of his other items, apparently more void beast gear and the way the skill sounded actually execited him. ~~~~~~~~~~ Void Beast Treads Increases vitality. While worn the user can expend mana to traverse the void and instantly appear where chosen, distance traveled expends an equivalent amount of mana. ~~~~~~~~~~ "Hey Zeke I know the demons are kinda rude about... well, your gender, but you should probably try to be nicer to Leya. I think she''s actually trying to be nice you know?" He sighed and nodded. "I mean even if they can be rude and sexist as hell they still came here to protect you from a group that would have tried to send you back to lv1 right?" He nodded again and looked through his optional rewards, one in particr excited him. ''The void beast bloodline is amazing, what if I tried to refine it to the next level?'' "Hey are you listening to me?" She startled him out of his thoughts and he looked back at her. "Yes jesus ok I''ll be nice to her, I was going to choose my reward and you scared the hell out of me La." Sheughed at him and just nodded. "Fine, remember what I said." He selected the scroll and activated it. ~~~~~~~~~~ Activating Bloodline Refinement scroll. Error E???r???r???o???r??? E???????????r???????????r???????????o?????r???? Emergency intervention required. Bloodline refinement scroll activation forcefully cancelled. This region is not safe for activation please leave region and when a safe region is detected refinement will continue. ~~~~~~~~~~ ''What the hell?!?! Did it just stop my reward?'' He sighed in defeat before looking at the two demonesses who seemed to be waiting for him. "Can I at least say my goodbyes? I want to make sure they can talk to me down the line." Kira began to protest but her sister practically punched her in the head with how hard she struck her. He turned to the group and began to write something down on the same pages he had written his notes on the dungeon. "This is a username you can message me at, it''s my tag on Wondend ok? I will update you guys on everything that happens while i''m there and I hope you guys will message me about your own achievements." After giving them that paper he nodded to the two that he was ready. As they left the area he was sad to leave the friends he had made but he knew that kf they were truly his friends they would message him. It wasn''t like his username was hard to remember anyway so it''s not like there would be any excuses. Inside of the city he watched as yers rushed to a fro toplete tasks for their event progress, a few recognized him and tried to follow but the two demons that guarded him quickly out an end to it. They finally stopped in front of the same gate that the celestial yers had arrived from and Leya quickly tossed a handful of gold coins into it, it was like they melted into the portal to create a vortex. Leya entered and Kira pushed him forward roughly to make sure he went through, but she stayed behind to guard the city. As soon as he was through the gate he saw a beautiful city made of ck stone with incredible construction. The area was clear and a sudden tremble rocked the earth. He saw an incredibly beautiful devil woman with dark skin and striking red eyes approaching, not only did her horns look majestic but she had two pairs of wings which made him think she was beyond the Archdevil rank. "I am Lucretia Shadow, I am the queen of the infernal race and you are now safe from your enemies, wherever your path takes you we will support it." She had the most beautiful smile he had ever seen and the only thing making it hard to focus on her was the fact that the sky looked like it had been torn asunder. ~~~~~~~~~~ Safe region detected, resuming bloodline refinement. Please seek protection. Combining Bloodlines [Child of the Void] [Lesser Void Beast] into [Abyssal Void Beast] ~~~~~~~~~~ From the sky a horde of monstrosities began to appear and a notification sounded. ~~~~~~~~~~ Regional Event has begun. Return of the Void Beasts. A void beast has been born in the world for the first time in ten thousand years, the region known as the Infernal Kingdom is under attack by an invasive force. Protect the Infernal Kingdom or be destroyed with it, rewards will be given based on personal performance. ~~~~~~~~~~ "Hmm already causing trouble on your first day here my beloved? That is fine, I would be disappointed if two children of the abyss existing so close to one another did not cause problems." He could not hear her garbled words through the pain of his body changing and his mana fluctuating. He could only watch as her wings began to p and carry her into the sky where she faced the hordes. It was like a person facing the swarms of hos, or watching someone stand against aing hail storm. Then he saw the most glorious thing that he would every see in his life. Chapter 87: Devil Queen As Ezekiely on the ground struggling to breathe from the pain he was in he saw the queen facing the horde on her own. He tried to say something to Leya about the queen being alone but without even breathing properly he had no hope of speaking. His worries were pointless. With a wave of her hand a cloud of ck appeared in front of her. As the mana appeared he also noticed that arge dome had appeared covering the entire city once the creatures got close enough, what shocked him was that the barrier did not appear to keep them out. It had appeared behind them. This barrier was to keep them from escaping. Discover stories with m,v l''e-NovelBin The moment they entered the cloud it was like the city was assaulted by the screams of the dead because the cries made by these things he could not clearly see yet were so unnaturally that it made the hair on his skin rise. While the creatures were inside of the cloud she began to create spears of shadow, not the vague shapes that the spell had created but actual spears. And there were thousands of them. She unleashed her spell on the enemy and as each spear prated a creature it burst into a sh of ck fire causing the enemy to scream even louder. As each monster died he thought he could hear something behind the shrieking of the attackers. As he got through his process he could finally pick out what it was, the queen wasughing. He watched her destroy waves of creatures with simple motions, her form was beautiful in the sky as if a dancer were performing above the city. The magical prowess was in to see as she ended the threat as if it were a game, she evenughed as the creatures fell to her spells. As the creatures were in another tear in the sky began to appear, and this one was at least twice the size of the other. From this rift a creature emerged, it looked like a warped dragon with mishapen wings and no head, it''s body was so slim it resembled a mummified lizard but the scales made it look like a horrible monstrosity. As the creature appeared she flew higher and began to chant. A great spell circle appeared above her and the sky began to darken, the spell circle vanished before reappearing above the monster. From this spell circle a powerful beam of ck energy pierced through, then another beam, and another, many many more beams began to spear the creature. There was no visible mouth and the creature made no noise but it seemed to have some psionic power as it caused everyone to flinch from a wave of pain as the beast spasmed. As the creature was torn asunder by the beams it began to burn away, it did not stop causing waves of pain until it suddenly disintegrates. "Ahh what a delightful beast, gaining such a high intelligence stat from consuming it. Even before you have fulfilled your duties, you are providing for me." She began to descend but then the sky fluctuated once again, another rift appeated and from it a giant w gripped the sky. Then another w gripped it, and another w and more and more before they finally saw ten different hands gripping the air. A single creature began to pull itself out of the rift and for the first time a look of concern crossed the queens face, he decided that now was the right time to check the system for what this creature was as he had been to distracted before. ~~~~~~~~~~ Astral Beast- Titan. Lv7054 ~~~~~~~~~~ ''....oh....'' He usually liked to avoid looking at what the system said about NPCs but he had to know. He used the system to check the queen. ~~~~~~~~~~ Lucretia Shadow "Devil Queen" - lv5022 ~~~~~~~~~~ ''Good lord what have I gotten myself in.'' He chose now to begin streaming, he wanted a record of this event. The nightmarish astral titan was now fully in their world floating far above everything, it was so monstrouslyrge that even with how far away it seemed to be right there by the city. He suspected a single swipe of the creature''s hand could destroy the entire city. It seemed the queen was just as concerned because she activated the signature ability of the archdevils, mana burn. Her body was coated in ck fire so intense that the dress she wore was turned to ash, if the fire had not been present she would have been fully exposed to the world but he did not care about the sight of such a beautiful woman. He was watching the sky as she began to summon the same spell as before but this one seemed to be even stronger as it took manyyers of spell circles. Through his mana sense he could see that the mana in the air was being forcefully pulled away from everything towards those spells, the mana passing through each circle became denser and more potent. Then the spell was unleashed. Beams converged upon the titan and began to strike the head from the distance they were cast. Those giant spell circles were only enough to harm the head but he assumed it would be enough if she targeted it there intentionally. Looking at the queen he finally began to panic. She had a look of fear on her face. Genuine fear. When the spell ended the titan was untouched and it even began tough with a horrific voice that made a wave of dread fall upon his heart. He was about to log out when he saw a new notification. ~~~~~~~~~~ Alert! Aether Beast detected. Activating Void Beast skill [Sibling Union] Aether Beast is of the Titan ss, increasing stats by 100% ~~~~~~~~~~ ''WHAT?!'' He felt power like never before entering his body, power that made his blood boil. From the sky a new rift began to tear open. Unlike the slow and methodical pace of the rifts that the astral beasts came from this rift was instant and caused a whish of mana to tremble across the world. It was like this rift had been forcefully torn open rather than carefully sliced into the space. From the sky a creature exited, it resembled something he never expected to encounter in his life. In the past those who believed in scripture often had beings described within that would cause fear because of their iprehensible appearances. These were angels that had a particr description ording to the oldest scriptures. This thing made him think of those biblical angels immediately as he saw what looked like millions of feathered wings covering the body of a figure in the fetal position. It slowly stretched itself to a standing position and raised it''s arm, from the arm he saw many limbs like echoes. And with one wave of it''s many hands half of the astral beast was vaporized. He checked this creature as well to learn what he had just encountered. ~~~~~~~~~~ Gabriel- Aether Beast (Titan) lv15789 ~~~~~~~~~~ ''......'' It waved it''s hand once more and then looked down at then with its empty, featureless face. The queen had descended during this and immediately threw her burning wings around him. "Stop analyzing them! None of us care if you do but analyzing something is seen as an act of aggression! Are you trying to get us killed?!" He looked at her in confusion. "But... I don''t think it will attack me? A skill activated when it appeared that called our races siblings." She looked at him in confusion before suddenly the aether beast stopped attacking the astral beast. He tried to see what was going on but all he sensed was strange mana that had surrounded the two. ~~~~~~~~~~ Intervention Required. Forcefully logging out yers. ~~~~~~~~~~ ''Huh?!'' Before he was sent away he saw a figure in a green dress appear in the sky, which with a simple wave of her hand forced both figures back through their rifts. ~ Inside of the Yggdrasil corporation headquarters people were scrambling. "What did you do! Gaia! Answer us!" "Why did those things appear!" "You just forced the yers out! Do you have any idea what will happen now?!" From the door the leader of the group barged in and immediately entered the ss room. "GAIA! What is the meaning of this!" A small figure appeared, a little fairy covered in green light. "Apologies Mr. White, it seems Gaia is busy how may I assist you?" He began cursing before he rubbed his face and looked at the little fairy. "Why did Gaia allow those two creatures to enter the game?" The fairy paused before answering as if waiting for the right words. "The war between the creators and the invaders are ongoing, the higher order beings of each side do not recognize the decree of any beyond their own divine creators." He inhaled sharply as he got ready to yell about it even more. "Please Mr. White, you must understand that Gaia is a new god that is not respected by all of the old forces, only those of the previous generation acknowledge her standing while those who follow the creators do not." "The Titan ss beasts were not meant to appear." Chapter 88: Day Two Success After the forced logout Lucretia was confused, she did not know how her new mate had been teleported from her embrace. She could only ask the goddess that had appeared. "Divine one! The gods told our people about the otherworlders that would help our world grow stronger in mana density but I beg of you, tell me where the otherworlder that was here just vanished to!" This being that had fought against a titan was now bowing prostrate before this great being who had forced them away with a simple motion. She turned to face the queen with a nk expression. "The otherworlders have been forced back to their own world while I resolve the disrespect that was shown today." Lucretia sighed in relief but then she asked another question. "When will he return? I wish to properly introduce myself since I had to protect my city rather than speaking as I wanted to." The floating woman seemed to consider it before nodding. "The otherworlders will be allowed to return tomorrow but that does not mean he will be back, he will return when he wishes to." As the goddes spoke these final words she vanished. The queen sat herself on the ground and called for Leya while the mana burn skill still shrouded her. "Leya would you please go get another dress from my room? I rather not wait for him naked... though I doubt he would mind." Instead of instantly leaving to obey the request Leya did something that most would not expect from a warrior looking at their ruler. She sat beside the queen. "Lucy you can''t treat Belial the way other women treat their males here, I''ve been around him and I''ve seen that he doesn''t react to it well." The queen grumbled and curled up with her knees to her chest. "I don''t want to lose my chance, a male devil that has a shadow affinity? You know how long I''ve been searching, how can I just risk losing him when a male would die so quickly without help?" Leya sighed loudly and gave her queen a rough push. "That''s what i''m talking about, that right there. If he hears you dismissing him just because our males are weaker then he will never ept you, he can''t stand being around Kira you know." She looked up with astonishment. "How?! What did she do!" The demoness just chuckled and stood up. "You''ll have to find out when she gets back, she really pissed him off though." She left in the direction of the castle looming in the distance and after a moment she began to run to get there quickly, leaving Lucretia alone by the teleportation gate. ~ When Ezekiel left his pod he was slightly disoriented and had to sit down, he checked the time and it was almost midnight si he simply went to his bed to copse into slumber. In his restful state he began to dream about the monstrouslyrge being that had seemingly rescued him in the game world. He saw the titan floating beside what appeared to be a much more terrifying form of titan that was shrouded in darkness. The two titans fighting side by side were wiping away swarms of astral beasts and even defeating groups of astral titans. He could feel something was about to ur and he had no idea what it was but as he saw the two turn to face something the dream ended. He woke up to the sun shining through his window and he got up to start his day, he had work to do after all. ~ On his way to work he recieved a message from an unknown ount on Wondend, he frowned before he saw that it was apparently La adding him to a group chat. He was invited to a call with them and since he was still heading in he epted the call while he continued. "Hey everyone, headed to work right now but I''m free to chat what''s up?" Your adventure continues at m v|l-e''-NovelBin He saw that everyone was ready to speak but Hope seemed to be texting rather than speaking which seemed odd but he didn''t ask about it. "That''s fine B. we were just discussing possible reasons for the server shutting down early, it said there was an emergency log out. Think something happened with the server?" He was about to speak up then decided against it, something told him that if he revealed that information it might cause problems. "No idea on my end, I''m almost at work though so I''ll talk to you guyster ok?" He said his goodbyes and left the call to begin his shift at the Chateau. ~ James was currently freaking out. ''It''s the same Zeke! Oh I can''t ever face him, dammit I can''t even speak in chat now!'' The poor young man was pacing with their arms wrapped around themselves. ''God what am I gonna do? He knows me and he would know that hope isn''t the short, sweet bunny girl they know but a skinny boy freak!'' He sat down and began hyperventting until he felt something off. His arms felt strangely... soft. He was so confused by it that it was actually able to force him out of his panic attack so he rushed to the bathroom. He hated seeing himself without his shirt because of how wrong it felt to see such a skinny boy in his ce but strangely enough he saw that his body had developed a little bit of plumpness to it, like he had begun to gain weight. Not only was he apparently gaining a bit of weight but he seemed to be developing softer skin. Even some of the old scars were gone. He felt like he was imagining it but after taking a picture he saw that it was true and for the first time he began to cry tears of genuine joy instead of pain. ~ As the day drew on people went about their lives but in the background there was always the asional interview with the Yggdrasil Corporation. A veryrge number of people were upset by the forced logout and they were on damage control, the primary interviews everyone saw involved the CEO Mr. Jeremy White. "So Mr. White what can you tell us about this incident? Many people wish to know why they had to end their time early." He gave a very charming smile, the man appeared tall with a fairly normal appearance like aputer technician that had been given control of thepany rather than being the man who built it from the ground up. "Well for all of our wonderful yers I have incredible news, the forced logout was due to a patch we nned to release that had to be put out early! Because of this patch we had to close the servers so that the AI known as Gaia could properly implement it." The host seemed surprised and began to question him further. "Would you be willing to give us a sneak peak at what we can expect from this patch then? I''m sure our viewers would be so grateful and so very excited to hear it." She smiled wide and looked at the camera with a happy expression. "Of course! For starters stats will have an additional effect, strength will now affect your body''s defense as a healthy body benefits from the strength it has grown!" He then turned to the camera as well. "Vitality will increase your natural health, stamina and mana regeneration. Vitality affected health regeneration before but now the effect is much stronger." The host nodded along and seemed to be writing notes down now. "Agility will now increase your damage against critical points, it also makes you much faster than before." Then he had a smug look on his face. "We heard all the mageints and we saw that many of you finally learned why you couldn''t use your spell often but we still added another affect to wisdom anyway, wisdom will now increase your total mana pool." Then he leaned back with a smug expression. "Intelligence is already an incredibly strong statistic so we gave it a minor increase, we made it so intelligence has a higher effect on experience gain." He then turned to the host who still had that wide grin. She turned to the camera and began to speak about the sess of the game as well as beginning to show all of the recent achievements of the most recent day of the server being open. On the screen were various achievements like the dungeonpletions, and region discoveries. Thergest achievement was the defeat of the nightmare difficulty of a dungeon and then right below it was the first discovery of a t4 territory. "What is a t4 territory Mr. White?" As she asked that question the man seemed ufortable and he began to chuckle. "Oh that, a t4 territory is quite the interesting thing..." Chapter 89: Queens Request As the servers opened back up Ezekiel saw the room he had seen before, with a screen exining new updates to the game. ~~~~~~~~~~ Stats have been given additional influence. Strength- for every 1000 points into strength the natural defense against physical damage will be increased by 1%. Vitality- for every 1000 points into vitality the natural regeneration of health, stamina and mana will be increased by 1% every 10 seconds. Agility- for every 1000 points into agility the damage of critical strikes will be increased by 1%, additionally for every 500 point into agility there is a 1% chance ofnding an artificial critical strike that deals 50% more damage rather than 100%. Wisdom- each point into wisdom increases the total mana pool (this will not be considered as base value.) Intelligence- for every 500 points into intelligence the amount of experience gained will be increased by 1%. ~~~~~~~~~~ With his current stats he was gaining an additional 3% regeneration every 10 seconds, an additional 2% crit damage and a natural 4% crit chance. He had an additional 3800 mana to use but he was very happy to see that because of his high intelligence he had an additional 14% experience gain. ''So to gain a 100% resistance to physical damage I would need... 100,000 strength, to regain all of my health and mana back I would need the same for vitality...'' ''To have a 100% critical strike chance I would need 50,000 agility which would actually give my artificial crits the same damage value as natural crits, but natural crits are still better since they are more damage.'' He was thinking about the best way to get these stats as high as he possibly could when the server finally opened. ~ As he examined his surroundings he saw that for some reason he was in a sort of tent, he was looking around in confusion when he heard the voice. "You actually returned, I had hoped you would." He turned to the voice and saw that the devil queen was there smiling at him. He got nervous for a moment before he remembered how she had protected her city and the awe inspiring magic she used. He figured the best way to greet a monarch was to bow so he began to kneel, he could not have guessed that this would cause an instant look of anger. "Who told you that you should bow to me? I''m told you were not pleased with Kira, did she put the thought in your head that when you met me you should bow?" She approached with a furious gaze but when she grabbed him she was not forceful, she actually grabbed him the way one would grip their friend when they were worried. "No uh, you''re a queen right? Aren''tmoners supposed to bow before nobility?" Her expressions shifted rapidly, at first she seemed confused but then she had fury everywhere and finally she seemed to calm down. "Normally yes but you are not amoner, you are the only male devil with an affinity for shadow magic and therefore you are the only one in thest two thousand years that I wish to court as my mate." ''....huh?....'' "Wait what?" "I am told you do not like the way our people treat our men so I am speaking to you the way the beast kin would speak about courtship. I do not wish to be with one that cannot produce powerful offspring and since you are the only male shadow devil I would ask that you give me the chance to show you that I can be a worthy partner." As she spoke he was lost in a sea of confusion and strange emotions. He was ttered that someone as beautiful as her was interested in him but at the same time he was annoyed that she treated him like some dog for breeders to examine. She spoke about him as if all she cared about was his gics but he also felt that she was being genuine and respectful unlike the endlessly rude Kira. "If you just want children can''t I just... I don''t know, donate? Do they have artificial insemination here?" She looked at him in confusion. "You know, the male... releases... and then someone uses a syringe to put it into the woman?" "Oh... you know about the breeding practices of the tauren nobility? That''s usually kept a secret." "Huh? No wait nevermind." "I was told by my dear friend that you do not like the way we do things, I don''t care how my people look at what I do as I only desire a husband that can give my life meaning so if you do not have respect for the normal marriage offer then I would like to prove myself so that you will eventually ept me." He sighed, he didn''t like how she only seemed to care about his affinity but she seemed like a good woman, she was just a good woman that didn''t care about him. "Fine.... but I have some ground rules." The queen nodded and looked him in the eye to wait for these rules. "Ok first of all I want to freely move around without an escort, that just feels demeaning." "If you are without escort then criminals will attempt to harm you to try to extort your coven." He grimaced and realized that there actually seemed to be a legitimately good reason for such an outdated system. "Ok but I want to choose the escort at least, I don''t want another person that will treat me like a frail child the way Kira did." He then sat down at a table that had been ced there the previous day he assumed. "I also want free reign to level up anytime I wish, I only need one more piece of gear to have a full set of uniques but I want to get stronger." She nodded and it seemed she was unsurprised by the fact that he had unique gear. "Andstly I''d like to learn more mage skills from you so that I can actually be a powerful mage." She seemed surprised now and she examined him closely. "But you are on the path of the magus? Why do you care about mage skills when you should be focused more on the skills of your chosen route." "What does that mean?" She sat down in front of him and poured out two cups of tea for them. "A magus is a warrior that uses the power of magic to enhance themselves, you appear to be going to the rogue route which has fine synergy with magic but requires excellent skills." As he listened he nodded since he had been doing that until he actually started working with hand to handbat. "Ok but how did you know I was on this magus route? I didn''t even know I was working towards being a magus." She looked at him with surprise before sheughed. "Your mana veins are constantly active." He was surprised as well and nodded. "Yeah? Is that not normal?" She shook her head and held out her hand. "Look at my mana veins." He took her hand and with his mana sense looked inside of her body. Inside of her body he saw many strange things that he did not understand, firstly she did not have a mana gem, she had some strange structure that he could not even begin to describe but it resembled a few moebius strips surrounding a fluctuating force. He also saw that he mana veins were simr to hardened crystal branches that flexed like rubber. In these veins her mana did not move at all, rather it just filled the veins like water unlike his own mana veins that pumped mana through his body like blood. "I see... also what in the hell is that core?" She smiled and pulled his hand toward her chest where her heart was, which was also where the core was located. "That is a fourth circle fusion core, it is a sign that I am approaching the pinnacle of mortal power." "To achieve the status of an archmage you must create your first circle and to reach the pinnacle of mortal power you must reach the tenth circle." She beamed with pride as he looked astonished. "That''s incredible, what does it mean to have a circle though? Is it more mana? Does it grant you some incredible skill?" Sheughed and let his hand go. "That can wait untilter, you wont be making your first circle until you have brought your gem to the mythical grade. For now tell me what your little upgrade in power gave you which caused those things to attack my city." She had a smug expression as she looked him from head to toe. "Uh sure? How do you know I got an increase in power?" "Oh you wouldn''t have seen it, that is fair." She went to retrieve a mirror for him to look at himself and the reflection he saw was something he never could have pictured in his life. Chapter 90: Abyssal Void Beast When he looked into the mirror he saw that he had grown a second pair of horns underneath his other pair. The two pairs looked like crystal but were so ck that he had to look closely to realize that the shine on them was more than a reflection of a glossy surface like the horns of certain cattle. His eyes had changed in a very strange way as well, before they had actually been fairly normal looking eyes but with sclera that became more ck with each evolution. Now he saw his crimson irises has changed from a circle to a bizarre star shape. The way his wings had looked before were no different from bat wings but now he saw that the muscles in what would be considered rhe bicep were much thicker and the thumb at the joint of his wing seemed to have gotten shorter with a sharper w. He also saw that his tail was significantly longer like a bull whip with an arrowhead tip. The most bizarre change was when he checked his body and began to notice changes to his figure, he was leaner and slightly taller. As he removed his shirt to check the extent of the changes he heard a strange sigh, looking back he saw the queen staring at him with a pleased and slightly smug expression. "Male devils are supposed to be slim, the most ideal male figure is a tall and slim one with wings that fold up into such a thin state that they fould be confused for sword sheaths." She was chuckling now. "Whatever you got that made you be this must be trying to drive you crazy because you won''t have a single moments peace... especially with a tail like that." He slightly covered his chest out of embarrassment and when she brought up his tail he immediately pulled it up against his chest like she had just suggested removing it. "Hey I like my tail too but that just seems a little much..." She looks at him and then began tough. "Does your home not have superficial physical attractiveness? Do the males of your home not have a preference for how a female''s hair looks? Or how long their legs are?" He was going to refute the idea but that would just be objectively false. "Ok yeah I get it but it''s extremely embarrassing to know that you''re staring at me like that..." She turned her gaze away with a small smile. When he saw that she was being polite he felt less embarrassed by her ims of his body being made to drive infernal women nuts, with his worries in the back of his mind he decided to check his status. ~~~~~~~~~~ Bloodline: Abyssal Void Beast 1% of mana is converted into Void Mana every 10 seconds. Increase the density and damage of spells and mana constructs made using void mana by 10%. Void Conversion skill detected. Automatically increasing rank of skill. Immunity to damage of the greater element [shadow] granted, shadow resistance consumed. Granted skill: Sibling Bond. Unlocked evolutionary path [Void Devil] ~~~~~~~~~~ As he read through his skills he was shocked to see that he had somehow be potentially the most powerful shadow magic user in the game in terms of yers. He remembered how the gear he had obtained had across been so good because it protected him from the damage of his own mana. Now he saw that he could use it as recklessly as he wished as long as he fought alone. He began to try it out and as he used his mana he noticed that his unique gear seemed to be.... reacting strangely. He almost felt as if the gear were trying to do something as each piece pulsed with mana he hadn''t felt before. ''Strange...'' "So the new bloodline is pretty good..." "Oh? What did you obtain?" She approached him with a curious smile and screamed when she saw him suddenly stab himself with a knife made of the shadow element. "What are you doing! Why are you trying to kill yourself!" She yanked his arm away and began trying to heal him but her attempts stopped as she stared at him with astonishment. "Did you get some kind of high speed regeneration skill?!" He shook his head andughed. "Nah something less cool but still pretty strong I think... I have immunity to the shadow element now apparently." He was surprised when she inhaled sharply, she looked in those strange eyes of his to see if he was ying some joke on her. "You truly obtained an immunity?" He nodded. "Yeah I mean I know that''s probably pretty good but is it really that different from having 100% resistance to a damage?" "Of course it is! If someone with full resistance faces someone with a full piercing skill then the defense is useless!" ''Piercing skill?'' "Additionally if you faced a proper shadow mage that used piercing based spells then they would still be able to bypass a portion of your resistance to damage you." He was astonished by this news and with it he had a sudden and incredible idea. "Hey how would you like to see me get a fifth piece of unique gear?" He was grinning savagely as he suddenly hungered for a chance to use his new power. "Oh no, no you don''t. You aren''t leaving here for a long time! You just got here and I don''t want to lose sight of you!" As she said this she nced down and he realized her eyes had been drawn to his tail again making him sigh in defeat. ''Jesus christ is this how women feel when men can''t stop looking at their tits?'' "Focus! Why can''t I just return long enough to beat the dungeon solo? I can quite literally kill her on my own now that her primary source of damage is useless against me." She sighed in defeat and nodded. "Fine but first you reach the next evolution and you get your ss advancement done. You keep neglecting your ss and you are so close to your next evolution that it''s a waste to not finish it." He nodded and she began to lead him to the edge of the city. Outside of the walls he saw something that he had not expected. Purple slimes the size of buildings. ~~~~~~~~~~ Abyssal Slime lv290 ~~~~~~~~~~ "Holy hell, those things look like they would be a pain to fight if someone was a martial ss..." "Actually they are quite simple, we sometimes harvest them for their cores so we can power the city defenses and to asionally reward citizens by letting them use the mana to cultivate." "You can cultivate with mana cores from a monster?" She was so caught off guard she actuallyughed sharply in astonishment. "Oh by the gods I really do have to teach you from the ground up don''t I?" He got embarrassed for a moment before he just jumped off the wall with his wings open, he activated his flight skill and began to ascend above the slimes. "Be careful! They spew fire and poison!" He nodded and with arge smile he cast his signature spell. With oure void mana filling every needle he felt the power radiating from his wings so he began to test his power. He released his spell in a massove volley that prated deep into the slime with many striking the five cores in it''s body. When they began to burst into a ze of ck fire fueled by void mana the slime died before it could even make a move. With this he looked at his new hunting ground with a grin. ~ In the city of Raylock the yers were currently having the time of their lives as the mana in the world had seemingly brought a new max level to the monsters outside of the city. Your next chapter is on m v|l-e''-NovelBin They were hunting down creatures that now matched the level of the dungeon boss at nightmare difficulty and although the dungeon still gave the greatest amount of experience it still helped them to grow if they hunted outside. It also helped the newer yers get power leveled by their n members. With their newly increased fame War God and Shade were recruiting very easily, they had an entire group of n members showing up in Raylock as La used their knowledge of the dungeon to bring yers in. She used the system to make contracts that prevent yers from exposing the information to others through the game, they would only bring the yers through the hard mode and if they earned a high position down the line they would bring the yers into the nightmare difficulty. At least thats the promise she makes them. The thing that made the group the most wanted by many new yers was the apparent closeness of the n leader to the celestial yer, the yer that was also the current number one in the world. Chapter 91: Abyssal Void Magus By hunting the abyssal slimes he could make the area he could easily gain experience for not only his level but also for his skills. When he was tearing each slime apart he focused on hitting the cores, he also kept frenzy bombs falling upon the enemy so that both spells would be gaining experience. During this process he tried to ignore the lingering thoughts about the Queen''s offer, he did not like the idea of being some breeding stock for a devil. With the significant level differences between himself and the slimes it almost felt like he was hunting in the dungeon again. The slimes were effectivelyrge targets for his own spell and level grind. He eventually had to start looking forrger targets since these were giving him a lot of experience but not enough to level up quickly. With his motivation of returning to the city he huntedrger andrger prey, from the average level of the area he had learned to expect enemies of the 300 range so he worked his way through. He avoided flying enemies and he targeted creatures that seemed to not be able to attack from a distance. He did not quite know why it happened this way but he eventually lost track of his levels and when he finally looked again he had gotten very far. ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Void Mage lv231. (Supreme) Lesser Tri-Elemental Archdevil Affinity: 100% Shadowfire 100% Life Mana Core: 100% Shadowfire Strength: 20 (+60) Vitality: 3400 -> 4000 (+510 +25%) Agility: 2000 -> 3000 (+80 +25%) Wisdom: 3800 -> 5000 (+80 +25%) Intelligence: 7000 -> 8000 (+70 +25%) Free stats: 244 ~~~~~~~~~~ After distributing his stats to be as even as possible in the thousands he got ready to return and get his ss advanced. If he advanced his ss at this point he would probably be able to achieve more plus he had noticed that he had many magic skills at the maximum tier but no knowledge of how to upgrade them. So he left to find the queen. ~ Inside of the tent the queen was looking at a crystal ball while drinking tea, when he entered she smiled at him. He felt mana fall over his body and for a moment he was incredibly confused until she spoke. "Lv231 is not bad for a few hours of work, you will progress quickly but why did you stop?" He sat down on the seat across from her and held his hands together nervously. "I need to advance my ss right? I also need to ask you how to upgrade a few skills..." When she heard this she nodded. "Well first put your hands on this crystal, I procured it for this exact reason today." When he ced his hands on the crystal as instructed he saw the same screen as before. ~~~~~~~~~~ ss Advancement Ritual Activated. Analyzing yer [Belial] ss options: Grand Void Mage (S+) Infernal Void Mage(S+) Void Magus [Rogue] (S+) ~~~~~~~~~~ ''Well there it is, the magus ss. I should definitely choose that.'' And so he made his choice. ~~~~~~~~~~ Void Magus [Rogue] A spellcaster that has learned to harness void mana and use it to grow their physicalbat prowess. Void Conversion skill is now passively active at all times converting mana at half the rate of the active skill (1-5 ratio returns to 1-10 passively.) Mana Armament spell Converted into Magus signature skill [Magus Armament] to better expand it''s utility. Magus ss specific skill: Mana Enhancement lv1 (M) When active the user''s agility and strength are enhanced by 10% of the intelligence stat. Physical strikes infused with mana benefit from spell bonuses. ~~~~~~~~~~ "So? You seem to have gotten something quite great as your mana is fluctuating in a very strange way." He nods in response and exins his new status. "Oh my, you truly did get such a rare ss, you should be aware that for a magus is it seen as a step above the mage of the same grade." She began to exin how a magus and a mage were both able to develop into the grand magus and grand mage before eventually developing into the arch magus and arch mage. The primary difference was that a magus was considered to be on the same level as a grand mage while a grand magus couldpete with an archmage. Such differences in power were usually ovee by the strength of the one holding such sses but the basic power was clear. "So a talented individual would be able to make a higher grade ss look even better... man I envy them." She looked at him like he was nuts before he continued. "I also need to upgrade my mana sense skill but I can''t figure out how." Sheughs a bit and nods at him. "That is quite simple, you must choose the path you wish to focus your mana through to sense it better." "To focus your mana sense you must learn to focus on a single sense through which toh will detect all mana." He began to think carefully after hearing about this before eventually trying it out. He started by using his mana sense while looking around. Usually when the mana sense activated he simply interpreted the things he felt by imagining his surroundings. Through this he would usually think of mana as balls of energy that floated through the air but was that actually the case? Even when he used his mana control he never felt anything happen in the world until he began to use the lesser mana maniption skill. He could move mana before but he could never cause anything in the world unless he supplied his own mana as he would with a spell. ''What if mana isn''t actually part of the world?'' He began to think about mana in a very different way, he imagined it as something more simr to cosmic radiation as the world only seemed to be filled by mana rather than producing it. When he absorbed mana he always noticed that the empty space would end up filled by the surrounding mana rather than skme new pocket of it being made. ''Maybe manaes from somewhere else?'' And with this thought he began to use his mana sense to try to find the veil, the line between where this world was and where mana came from. ~~~~~~~~~~ A Divine being has felt your attempt to touch the veil. The Divine being is amused by your efforts. Skill granted: Ojos de Dios. [Restricted lv0] ~~~~~~~~~~ He was fascinated by the idea of a god watching him so despite not knowing how to do so he simply gave a prayer of thanks for the gift in his mind before activating the skill. The first thing he noticed was that he could see a strange haze over the world as if everything were behind a fog. By looking around he saw blobs of strange matter in the world and when he moved his hand to touch it he felt nothing. He tried again with his mana maniption and the blob of matter began to move as he directed it. He could shape it as he desired as well as force his own affinity into it through touch with his own mana. When the mana in the air touched his affinity dense mana the difference ended and it was as simple as mixing two liquids. When he looked at the queen he saw that everything about her was infused with mana and she even seemed to be intentionally infusing her own mana into the surroundings. "Why are you making the area around you full of your mana? Isn''t it better to keep it inside?" "....You can see that? I surpress my mana when I do that." She leaned forward with a grin as she reveals a number of spell circles hidden from view which his new skill had allowed him to vaguely see. "I am impressed darling, you could see my trump cards even when all those silly heroes sent by the church never could, I doubt even the pope could see these." Sheughed as she spoke about this secret which he had learned so easily. "So what else do you wish to know? I can see that you are not yet done." He nods but before he could ask he actually noticed a few strange things in her body. By focusing his sight further he could actually see strange ws in the surface of her core and her mana veins so he began to look at his own. The only part of his body not wed was his mana gem and he began to suspect a reason behind that. "How do I upgrade my mana veins?" He listened to her exnation while examining every single centimeter of his mana veins, in each ce he saw strange cracks and thin walls as well as the asional blockage from an improperly formed area. She exined that he would have to force his mana veins to pump more mana until they shattered, at which point he had to reform them with a denser wall which would eventually match the grade of the mana gem he had when they connected. As she exined it to him he saw that the idea was just... incredibly wed due to how the mana veins looked in his body. ''What if I make my actual veins pump mana instead?'' Chapter 92: The Beginning As he forced his mana veins to shatter he began to infuse more mana to push all of the fine crystal into his actually veins. He could see that mana had infused his body so thoroughly that he could actually see his veins glowing slightly from the mana pumping in it and this made him confident in his n. He began to form his mana into his real veins while carefully moulding it to the walls of the arteries and blood vessels. He could feel a strange sensation like a chill creeping through his body as his mana flooded his bloodstream. The more he pushed the mana into his body the more it felt like he was on the right track. Then he ran into a problem. He could feel his blood getting colder and it caused him some difort, this difort distracted him so he had to slow down the process which had the unintended consequence of his focus bing even more strained. He was keeping his mind so focused on the task at hand that he didn''t pay any mind to the queen who was watching him with great curiosity. He could see through that strange skill of his that the mana infusing his veins had begun to create a crystalline shell on them, this shell flexed the same as his veins and seemed as flexible as his mana veins had been so he was not worried. He simply had to prevent any ws in their creation. As the tiny blood vessels werepletely infused he began to work on the arteries. He had taken time on a day off to actually look up the anatomy of the circtory system so he knew what he had to focus on at the very least. He had begun with the superficial veins since they were the smallest and farthest from the arteries. With the superficial veins he infused the spider veins simultaneously since these were closest to the skin. He also paid careful attention to the great saphenous veins in each leg as they wouls require arger amount of mana just like arteries, with these veinsplete he began to infuse the perforating veins which were on the way to the deep veins. As he worked on the deep veins he made sure topletely infuse everyst blood vessel they connected to in his lungs as well as the arteries that ran directly to the heart. With thisplete he had a sudden inspiration. ''What if I try to put my mana gen into my heart? It wouldn''t be able to fit in as it is but i could potentially turn my heart into my core... or maybe surround my heart with my core...'' And so he began to test his theory. He knew that if he screwed up here it could be potentially harmful to his body but at least if it was permanent he could try to find some way to fix it since death meant a loss of experience. He infused more and more mana into the walls of his core to expand it to fit around his heart, he also pushed thest of his mana into the veins of his body and his heart to make them as dense as he could. Infusing his circtory system was incredibly hard but he eventually got it done. ~~~~~~~~~~ Full Body Mana Veins lv10 (M) -> Complete Mana System (S) A Divine being is impressed by your use of it''s gift. ~~~~~~~~~~ With this sess he was very excited to get back out and continue leveling up. He thanked the queen and quickly left to go back to hunting for experience, he worried it would take an entire day to get through this next step but with how much he improved he was excited. ~ Outside of the walls Ezekiel was tearing through the slimes once again, he avoided the danger of the ground but he still made sure to keep the Mana Enhancement and Armament skills active just to try them out. The skills were quite helpful but he eventually noticed a strange thing, with the Enhancement active he could fly faster. With void mana infusing him sopletely he could tear the enemies to shreds. He began to throw his mana bombs out further and further to take advantage of therge size of the enemies until he began to see a row of notifications. ~~~~~~~~~~ Abyssal Slime lv285 consumed. +200 strength. Abyssal Slime lv256 consumed. +500 vitality. ... ~~~~~~~~~~ Hisrger chance to consume enemies in conjunction with the many instances of the consumption effect made it so easy to consume the slimes. With this he began to focus on farming not only experience but stats. The sun was beginning to set once he reached lv250 and he quickly returned to the queen''s tent. She was eating dinner when he entered and she motioned for him to sit. "I suppose you are enjoying yourself? You were quite quick to leave after you got your new ss. So tell me what you can do?" He nodded and began to describe void mana and how it seemed to enhance the destructive effects of fire and shadow elements. He then described how all of the void effects he had seemed to be very effective with the effects of consumption and consumed. He then began to eat with her, it was a strange meat that did not taste like beef or pork or anything simr so he had to ask. "Hey so what is this? It''s like a stew but I don''t recognize the meat?" She smiled and leaned forward. "You like it? I asked the chef to make a personal favorite. It is stewed wyvern tail." ''Wyvern? So there are actually wyverns here eh?'' "Are there dragons in this world too? I''ve always thought they were boring but seeing one for real would be awesome." Sheughed at his question and nodded. "Yes dragons exist here and they are magnificent. They are part of the scaled race as a higher evolution for drakkin." He nods as he enjoys the stew, a very delicious stew in fact. They sat there enjoying the meal for some time before she ced her spoon on the table. "Tell me, you reached the stage for evolution right? You are able to reach the true archdevil stage yes?" He nods and she sits there expectantly. He continued eating while she watched him before he realized what she wanted. "Oh sorry I will evolve now yeah." He activated the evolution option with his heartrate rising. ~~~~~~~~~~ Lv250 evolution avable. Tri Elemental Archdevil Void Archdevil Abyssal Voidbeast [Soldier] ~~~~~~~~~~ ''Hm... well thats definitely an easy choice.'' He selected the option for the Abyssal Voidbeast and the instant it was activated his whole world went ck. ~ A strange world made of impossible toprehend matter, a force coalescing in this world as a conciousness began to create many things beginning with life. This conciousness saw how the life moved through this world and it felt a strange sensation it did notprehend so it made a decision. It created three entities, a being of life, a being of death and a being of space. These three entities were made with the knowledge of their origin and their purpose before the conciousness ended itself, this death of the first conciousness set about a chain reaction that began to create life in this isted world. The entity of life was charged with guiding the energy of this event to create as much life as possible across each world, while the entity of death was charged with ending life to refine the creations that grew. Life guided everything to create more creatures while death created natural selection and together these beings began to see their creators energy evolve into the glory it had hoped for. As the time flew forward these beings forgot about their sibling, but space would not be forgotten forever. Eventually the two forces of life and death began to notice that theirws had begun to expand beyond the realm they inhabited so they searched. They saw more realms, mores, more life. Buddings, dyings, many realms that were created to harness thews made by life and death. They recognized it as the work of their third sibling. With each they saw they were upset by their sibling interfering to make their creators n work slowly. They began to try to interfere and create life on mores but thews of space made it impossible. Their work being denied enraged the two so they worked together to add newws to punish space for causing such a problem for them. They found a way to birth new stars and cause the deaths of others. By working together they could birth new star systems in the way they wished to and forcefully make more worlds to house life. If they found a system that displeased them then death would cause the destruction of the system. These two siblings ying with their third siblingsws eventually caused conflict. Chapter 93: Infernal City When Ezekiel woke up his mind was racing with the images he had seen. Iprehensible things, entities that controlled fundamental forces. ''Why did I get to see that? What does it have to do with me?... Do all devils get to see some insane origin of the multiverse?'' He was about to ask the queen about it when he saw that she was staring at him with her jaw hanging open. He looked down at himself then at her again and could not figure out why she seemed so awestruck by him but eventually he figured that it was because he had developed some new feature that was apparently attractive to infernal women. At least that was the assumption he made based on her tail flicking back and forth. "Yeah I get it, can I see the mirror please?" He was quickly bing annoyed by the way she got distracted by his looks, he wished he could keep the reactions of his own world. In his own world he had been told he was attractive but he never cared since people did not react to it, the only way he knew that it was possibly true was that his uncle had him work the front of the store as a waiter and a greeter often. In the service industry people benefit from their looks more than they benefit from their skills so he could tell how positively someone looked at him by how well they tipped, since he liked to be professional he always gave the same treatment to every customer so the only factor that changed was how the customer saw him. That was the extent of how people responded to his looks in real life and he was used to it, he felt strange with this powerful woman looking at him. Eventually after realizing she wasn''t listening he simply got up and went to the mirror himself. He saw that his two pairs of horns had grown longer and more sleek, his jawline was sharper and his fanged teeth seemed to have be more aggressive which made him wonder if his jaws were stronger. Checking more of his body he saw that he had grown slightly taller again and even developed more muscle along his figure. With his sleek body he looked a lot like a runner or a swimmer... more like a swimmer as his torso was well developed from flying. The more he looked at his new form the more he saw strange details that seemed new but these details were so undeveloped he couldn''t figure out what they were. At the very least he had the w on each of his wings looking more dangerous than before so he would love to try it out. With his examination done he checked what his new species could do now. ~~~~~~~~~~ Abyssal Void Beast [Soldier] +5 strength +30 vitality +30 agility +50 wisdom +50 intelligence +100 free Species Skill: Void Constitution, Void Walk, Autonomous Mind. Void Constitution [Soldier] (S)- While at 100% concersion of mana to void mana all stats are increased by 10% Void Walk [Soldier] (S)- Use void mana to move through space into another position up to a maximum of 10ft away. Autonomous Mind [Soldier] (S)- The user had a second, non-sentient conciousness for the purpose of multitasking. ~~~~~~~~~~ He was astonished by how strong these skills seemed to be and after thinking about how the creatures that seemed connected to the voidbeats moved he knew that he only had more to gain. Since he had gained such power he wanted to leave to go back to Raylock andplete the dungeon again, but as soon as she saw him leaving the queen stopped him. "Wait. I wish to train you now that you are at this level, you deserve to know skills and spells that all mages should get the opportunity to learn." He was certainly enticed by the idea of more mage skills but he wanted to go, he wanted to show his friends his new power. "I also want to introduce you to my council, they wish to see their future king." He frowned before sighing. "Fine... but only so they will keep protecting the city." When he said this her smile faded and her face dropped. "Thank you." He nodded and followed her as she stood up. "We will meet the council first, the training after can rx you so that you will return to the city without the stress of being pushed to meet me." She had taken on a sad tone while she led him out, her posture regal and proper. He felt kind of bad for making her sad but he wanted to stop hearing about all of this nonsense, being forced here by the two demons still felt painful. As the pair made their way through the city he saw that people would bow to the queen with adoration on their faces before they even saw him. When they did see him he instantly hated it, they began to whisper amongst themselves and many of the women stared at him with no shame. The worst part was how often he saw lust on their faces and the simple desire made him so ufortable that his skin crawled. He even went as far as putting up the hood on his cloak so that he was more hidden, when that happened the women simply focused on other areas. Wrapped his tail around his waist under his robes, held his wings so close to his back that they basically looked like a cape and when they focused on his face he began to use shadow mana to hide it under his hood. He could feel the chill of the shadow mana but it did not hurt as he was immune to the damage. Now all the women who saw him from now on would see a hooded figure in strange robes with a came that resembled the wings of a devil. With this small disguise it was much easier to hide behind the presence of the queen. This remaines unchanged until they reaches the castle where he had to show his face to the guards so they would remember him. "I have unique gear, can''t they simply remember me by my gear?" The queen shook her head. "They need to know who you are but they will be given directions to only speak to you when spoken to." Her response was simple but her voice was strained, he could feel the hurt in her voice. "Listen I don''t me you... you have been looking for someone to share your life with for centuries right?" "...Millennia actually, over two thousand years." "I''ll try to get along with you better, the way everyone stares at me just feels really weird ok?" She nodded at his exnation and a small but relieved smile came back. "I do not have a coven, devils live for a long time but shadow mages live much longer. Our magic sustains our lifeforce by using the remaining life force of our targets we consumed." This actually astonished him. "Really? That''s... that''s incredible!" She nods before continuing. "If I were to stop fighting I could probably live for over one hundred thousand years because of how many beings have tried to attack me." He could not even fathom such a thing, a being that lived for that long could have witnessed the start of humanity and most likely witness it''s destruction. She nodded and smiled at him. "I have even met Lord Noctus, you would adore him as he is a god that chose to pursue magic. It is why many believe that those with shadow affinity have always be mages." As they entered the castle he saw arge number of servants waiting for the queen with heads bowed. He also saw multiple statues of regal women lining the entrance. "These are the previous Infernal Lords but most simply call them devil queens as the only infernal lords in history have been female devils." He approached the statues one at a time to observe them and each one had very excellent details as if the statues were actually alive. "Why do they look so realistic? How do they find such a skilled sculptor each time?" Sheughs a bit and leads him to the end where he saw her own statue. "These are made from a unique kind of stone that responds to mana, it is something made through alchemy so it is incredibly rare and even more expensive. I believe a statue made from solid diamond would be cheaper." He inhaled sharply at that idea. "Why would anyone pay so much on something to stroke their ego?" The servants began to visible shake but looked up with astonishment as the queenughed loudly. "Maybe for the humans and the elves darling, for the infernal people we are able to pay for such things without a problem and we like to remember our great leaders. He took one more look at the statues and how each one had a smile of pure joy before he followed her further into the castle. ----------------- Updated sheet- ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Void Magus [Rogue] lv250. (S+) Abyssal Voidbeast [Soldier] Affinity: 100% Shadowfire 100% Life Mana Core: 100% Shadowfire Strength: 20 (+60) Vitality: 4600 (+510 +25%) Agility: 4000 (+80 +25%) Wisdom: 6000 (+80 +25%) Intelligence: 9000 (+70 +25%) Free stats: 4 Bloodline: Abyssal Voidbeast [Soldier] Titles: Dungeon Conqueror, Tutor, Protector of Raylock, Spell Crafter Skills: Lesser Mana Maniption lv2 (L+), Ojos de Dios. [Restricted lv0] (SSS), Mana Gem lv7 (S), Spell Mastery (E), Mana Condenser (E), Complete Mana System (S), Mana Burn (S) Void Conversion lv6 (L+), Void Consumption (L), Mana Enhancement lv1 (M), Mana Armament (M), Void Constitution (S), Void Walk (S), Autonomous Mind (S) Defenses: Fire Resistance lv2 (M), Shadow Immunity (L), Mana Guard lv10 (M) Spells: Mana Bolt lv8 (E) Mana Burst lv8 (A) Fire Nova lv10 (M) Fire Arrow lv10 (M) Fire Spear lv6 (M) Shadow Spear lv10 (M) Shadow Cluster lv10 (E) Shadow Arrow lv10 (M) Shadowfire Orb lv10 (A) Shadowfire Spear lv10 (L) Shadowfire Nova lv10 (L) Shadowfire Nova Needle lv4 (S) Shadowfire Mirv lv1 (S) Corrosive Frenzy Wing lv10 (L+) Corrosive Frenzy Bomb lv7 (L+) ~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 94: The Origin The pair made their way through the halls of the castle and Ezekiel was incredibly worried about how the council would react to him. He knew that they could not deny their queen but he was concerned about them making his life hard on their own. As they got near a specific set of doors he heard loud voices arguing from within. "The queen said to leave him alone!" "As soon as he arrived an army appeared above our city! How can you ignore this!" "Because we are not foolish wnough to believe an otherworlder that barely reached the level of Lesser Archdevil can muster an army!" He flinched as he figured out what the argument was over and he knew that both were technically correct. He was not the one who brought the army but he was the reason they attacked. The queen had a look of fury on her face as she pushed the doors open. The instant the doors opened the voices inside were silenced and he could see a number of devil women bowing before the queen. "You would dare to discuss my beloved in such a hostile way?" One of the women began to shake with fear while a few others wentpletely stiff. "My queen... he came to the city and we got attacked! I am concerned for our people... you saw that thing that appeared before the goddess arrived, if not for her we would have been wiped from the map." She looked disgusted and the queen upon seeing this looked furious. "You speak as if i would never be capable of defeating such a foe... I will grow stronger to protect my people and my future." He saw her look back at him with a beautiful smile that made his beart flutter. ''Dammit... she really is great.'' The others began to speak up again despite this. "Thergest one was unaffected by your most powerful spell, you even unleashed your ascension to actually break through it but it was immune to the shadow element. Would you try to battle with an element you have not trained with yet?" The others looked at their partner in shock and he looked at her more closely to remember her in tbe future. She was a tall and voluptuous devil woman with striking icy blue skin and horns that had a deep amethyst hue. "I can show her how to kill them..." They all snapped up to look at him for the first time. He still had his face covered by shadows and his features hidden but they would know it was him no matter the disguise. "I am truly sorry for causing those things to show up but they had no intention of attacking your city...at least that''s my assumption." He pulled his hood back and let the mana dissipate, the first time they saw his face a few let out involuntary gasps. For the first time he actually got a strange feeling from the queen as he heard her let out a low growl like an animal which made the women turn their eyes back down. "I had refined my bloodline, before this I was a child of something called the void which is what gave me my affinity. I suspect it is a higher grade of the same bloodline the queen has." "Lucretia." "Huh?" "My name is Lucretia darling, please dont call me the queen." She pouted while saying this and it looked so cute that heughed for a second. "I believe that Lucretia and I have the same bloodline but mine was a higher order somehow. Everything I have been gaining as rewards has apparently been leading to me bing something called a void beast." Another devil from the council looked up with sudden recognition but she quickly turned her gaze back down when Lucretia snarled at her. "Mercy my queen I apologize! The system notified us about a void beast and that was right before the attack so what makes a void beast so important that it would result in a city wide notification?" "Ah yeah well I don''t actually know? I evolved recently and had a vision that showed me-" While he was about to exin his dream his jaw suddenly locked in ce as if frozen. He panicked and began patting his open jaw before he saw the notification. ~~~~~~~~~~ E??????????????????????r????????????????????????????????????????????r??????????????????????????????????????????????o?????????????????????r?????????????????????????????????E??????????????????????r????????????????????????????????????????????r??????????????????????????????????????????????o?????????????????????r?????????????????????????????????E??????????????????????r????????????????????????????????????????????r??????????????????????????????????????????????o?????????????????????r?????????????????????????????????E??????????????????????r????????????????????????????????????????????r??????????????????????????????????????????????o?????????????????????r????????????????????????????????? You know that speaking of secrets is not allowed boy. Do not speak of the history they show you or I will personally send something to erase you. ~~~~~~~~~~ He began to panic. ''WHAT WAS THAT?!'' ~~~~~~~~~~ I am the one that will end you if you tell anyone about the war so if you wish to keep growing in this world you will shut your mouth. ~~~~~~~~~~ ''Fine FINE I won''t say anything just please let me go!'' ~~~~~~~~~~ Good, now before you speak you must know- E??????????????????????r????????????????????????????????????????????r??????????????????????????????????????????????o?????????????????????r????????????????????????????????? ~~~~~~~~~~ ''Huh?'' He waited for the message to continue but it never did and he was shaken. ~ In a strange space filled with fairies and screens that showed many people ying in the world a beautiful figure in green was torn in half with golden ichor flowing into the air od that space. The fairies were trembling in fear as they watched the reptilian figure approaching slowly and purposefully. It resembled an ever shifting amalgam of things that never quite stuck to one form but themon factor was that there was a ck cloak that hid everythingbut a long, whiplike tail and majestic horns. The cloak never even remained the same as its material shifted between leather, feathers, scales, dark energy, fog and even flowing oil. This figure lifted gaia by the hair and for a moment the figure took the form of a devil like the world contained. "Pathetic... you would try to threaten one of mine?" Experience tales at m v|l e''-NovelBin She was regenerating as he spoke and she flung her arm out to try to push him away. "I am the ruler of the pantheon! You are in my world and death will follow my rules!" The entityughed. Oh how thatugh caused a chill down the spine. It started as a low chuckle deep in the entities chest before it rose into a shrieking and hysterical noise that could not possibly resemble augh but the giant smile betrayed this thought. This thing wasughing at her. The god of gods was beingughed at. She began to pull herself back together with more force to punish this being for not respecting her when she suddenly felt immense fear. The entire being began to grow and be incorporeal, an entity if eyes and teeth with iprehensible shapes that made her mind burn. "I??? ???a???m???? ????n????o????t?????h???i????n?????g????n????e???s?????s?????.???" The figure began to resemble a horrifying absence of existence, a figure that should not be seen. "I??? ???a???m??? ???t???h???e??? ???e???n???d??? ???o???f??? ???a???l???l??? ???t???h???i???n???g???s???.???" "W???i???t???h???o???u???t??? ???m???e??? ???o???r??? ???m???y??? ???s???i???s???t???e???r??? ???y???o???u??? ???w???o???u???l???d??? ???n???o???t??? ???e???x???i???s???t???.???" The force began to shift into something that threatened to shatter her mind, no matter how powerful her divine body was nor how powerful her psyche was as a goddess made to organize an entire universe. She could feel her all seeing eye bleeding. I??"? ???A???M??? ???T???H???E??? ???V???O???I???D??? ???A???N???D??? ???Y???O???U??? ???W???I???L???L??? ???K???N???O???W??? ???Y???O???U???R??? ???P???L???A???C???E??? ???N???E???W??? ???G???O???D???.???" As it spoke this she could feel wetness trailkng from the corners of her eyes and her ears. When she touched her face she saw the golden ichor flowing from her orifices. The entity resembled a ck hole, gazing into it she felt her mind going nk so she fled in fear of her mind being shattered. "Disgustingly weak new gods." ~ While Ezekiel was talking with the archdevil council to understand their expectations of him as a potential consort of the queen he suddenly felt an intense chill before he watched as his stats shifted. ~~~~~~~~~~ Origin Detected Activating skill [Sibling Union] Origin- void Increasing stats. ~~~~~~~~~~ He watched as for just a moment. Just the tiniest moment before the skill deactivated. His stats had infinity symbols. ''What the hell was that?'' "Darling is something wrong?" He snapped out of it and looked at Lucretia, he saw her worry and gently took her hand with a smile tofort her. "I''m fine, a skill just activated for a moment like when the event happened but its gone now." She nodded and her hand squeezed his own. She continued exining to her council how she nned to help him grow before he went back to the city to defeat the dungeon alone and gain a full set of unique gear. ''The origin huh? If a Void beast gets boosted by the origin then maybe death was just in the world? Why would it be here though?'' He was disturbed by the idea that a cosmic being had potentially just visited the world but he quickly forgot his worries as Lucretia began to describe the skills she would be teaching him, she also wished to know what his gear could do so she could teach him skills that had been properly selected. Chapter 95: Mana Constructs The day turned into night with Lucretia teaching Ezekiel about skills that were necessary for a mage. "I assume you have begun to learn about how mana density affects your spells?" *''somewhat, I''ve noticed that adding more mana doesnt affect the damage but it does make it possible for spells to do more damage." She nods and shows him a ball of mana in her hand. "The mana you provide for a spell does not affect its damage but it can cause a spell to have more effects." She proceeded to show him by throwing a ball of mana filled with fire at a target. The ball burst and the fire began to consume the target before sputtering out. "Now the mana within that orb was enough to create the damage of it and with higher mana control one can use the excess to make the fire mana cause additional burns." She showed him another fire orb and through his ability to see the mana he could tell that it was the same amount as his own orbs. "This orb has a form fueld by mana but since the body naturally releases more mana than necessary to create a spell there is some unused mana left behind that must go somewhere once you have perfected your mana control." He nods as she exins but he suddenly had a question he couldn''t quite shake. "Why can''t we just train the body use less mana to make the spells?" She smiled at his question andughed a bit. "Because spells that use less mana are refined but they are also weaker." She casts the spell once again, and this time when he saw the orb strike it caused an evenrger flood of me across the target. "By using the power of mana we can make even the weakest of spells do many things we desire. Your own spell is designed to cause damage with each needle and then cause another burst of damage yes?" He nods at her question. "Using the mana in your spell so well is surprising but there are obviously ws. What we must help you to learn is proper mana construct techniques." She started by giving him shapes to create, very basic shapes. "When a mage is learning these skills they actually learn this process by using y, it also shows mages what their talent woth magic actually is." She watches as he creates the shapes perfectly, basic shapes though did not get praise. "A mage with low talent is still useful as the ability to manipte mana like a mage is beyond what a martial could aplish so for creation of spell circles and other tasks that requireplex mana maniption a mage will always be needed." She then made him begin making moreplex shapes in three dimensions, with the three dimensional shapes he had to make them evenly and they could not have any defects. With the sphere he made it slightly off at first as she showed him the slightest of imbnces in the shape, she was surprised by how easily he had made the walls. The shape itself may not be perfect but the walls that kept its shape were made so perfectly she was actually checking if he used a skill to make them. "How did you do that so easily? It takes years to make constructs with the right thickness of the structure at the snap of a finger." He shrugged and felt some pride now. "It''s a skill I got, I think it''s a more advanced version of mana sense and I had a lot of practice using it to reforge my mana veins." He began to create more spheres and even created two at once, then three and four and five. He created them from the center outward to make sure they were evenly shaped and had even density. When he could create ten at once with perfect form she was satisfied and told him the next shape would be cubes. "To create a cube many will start with different methods but the point is to construct the cube from mana with perfect dimensions." He nodded and the first idea he had was to make them from the walls but he realized that it would not work well since making the walls from the center made it harder to focus on the right dimensions when he reached the corners. He continued by trying with the edges this time, making the edges worked better but this time he had length ws. The only point where he seeded was when he started with the corners. By starting with the corners he could make sure the shapes were even in dimensions as well as making it easier to shape it at the end since he went from making eight points to filling the edges in with mana as squares. His talents with mana made it so easy that he didn''t even notice how difficult it should be. The queen admired his skills each time and every object he had to make was eventually perfect. "Now we can begin the advanced side, adding detail." "Detail?" "When you can make a projectile so perfectly that even millions are not a problem is just the standard for an archmage but the next step is to make these projectiles stronger by adding more to them." He nods and begins to think about it, then he created a bolt with a serrated edge like a knife. "Like this?" "Indeed but you are also able to add runes for more effects, think about it in this way, if you could created a spell circle that would make a foe start to bleed internally from mana constructs would you not try it?" ''Oh damn... that does sound helpful.'' "Yeah I can imagine a spell that does that would be powerful with shadow mana." "That''s the spirit darling... now I want to teach you spell circles and to do that i must teach you the arcanenguage." When he heard this he was simultaneously excited and dreading it because learning anguage was tedious work. ~ "Now this rune is the rune for fire but it can also be used for other effects." Turns out the arcanenguage was a set of runes that were used in writing and other acts like spell circle construction. Writing in the arcanenguage wasmon as the words could be used quite well and were perfectly harmless without mana as the basis of the writing. Since he was doing well she was teaching him a spell circle already to help him learn. "Now if this rune is fire what do you suppose the alternate meanings could be?" "Well... fire can be used for a lot of things like warmth and light." "You are correct but you must think in a broader way, what are some other things associated with fire?" "Explosions?" "Exactly. A fire rune can be used in spell circles that would have an explosive effect." She smiled with pride for her beloved and he felt his heart flutter again, he loved her smile now that he had seen her genuinely trying to care about him. He started to draw the spell circle but he really could not get past one problem. Each time he made the spell circle in the way she showed him it felt like something was missing. When hepleted his spell circle he activated it which pulled in surrounding mana to create a mana bomb. Since he had used a basic circle all it did was create this but he knew from experience that spell circles could be used to turn simple doors into weapons of torment. He began trying to replicate the spell he had seen on the door in the dungeon but he couldn''t quite remember every detail. Instead he began to try his own spell circle. He used the runes for fire, de, and shadow to create this spell circle to try to replicate his frenzy bomb. When he activated the spell he saw that the mana was pulled into shape... the shape of a spear with violent mana inside if it. "Dammit." "Don''t be discouraged, you simply need to learn to put the runes in the right order." When he heard this he looked at her with genuine worry. ''Order?... Wait are spell circles just like coding?!'' With a new problem on his mind he began to try again. ~ In the city of Raylock the n known as Valha was working with new yers to help them level up and gain gear. La had begun to move on to the next city with Hope and Shade by her side. Thanatos had gone to another city as apparently he had some quest toplete but he had promised to meet them againter on. They were fighting their way through monsters from a sudden horde attack and it was clear they had grown much stronger. Hope was adorned in green armor made of life mana that she had infused with wind affinity so that she could push enemies away while La was cleaving through these foes like they were nothing. Shade was shining even more as each strike he made was higher than any damage the two could make as his agility made his crit damage quite terrifying. The trio were approaching a brand new city, one that they doubted anyone had been to as they saw the notification when a t4 was found so this t3 must be the same. After all no notifications had been given about a t3 city being found. Chapter 96: Hand to Hand "Now remember, the system will only grant a skill based on your ability to do something in a battle." She was showing him the effects of the skill she was trying to teach him which was the spell scribe skill. When she used it she was capable of making spell scrolls that were veryplex with arge number of runes he could not count. "When you gain the skill for the first time it will allow you to channel your mana for a moment to create a spell circle with up to five runes for the lowest rank skill, for each level you gain you will have a faster casting speed and when you bring the skill to the next rank you will have arger number of runes in each circle." He nodded and he was trying to do something that had actually been done by Diana. He was trying to cast the spell circles on the ground with his feet as the point of contact for the mana to flow. He had a dream of being able to set traps with the frenzy bombs inside while he battled. He could move fairly quickly and with each step he was creating spell circles with the fire rune to create a small bomb in the area. He eventually obtained the skill which made him cheer, much to Lucrecia''s amusement. "So what''s next?" "Next we have to get your hand to hand skills up to par... actually we have to get you the technique in the first ce..." She wasughing at him for a moment before she cleared her throat to reign herself in. "Yeah yeah, I picked a weird method ofbat I get it." He rolled his eyes and drew his weapon while keeping his other hand free to not only act as a medium for spellcasting but also act as ws. When he looked at her again though he saw a figure that wasn''t present before. A slender demon woman with short horns and hooves oddly enough. "This will be your teacher, Asaia here is the greatest practitioner of hand to handbat in the infernal kingdom." Asaia bowed to him which he politely returned, it seemed to make her ufortable but sheposed herself to teach him. "I am told you wish to use ws?" He nods and she opened a bag containing a set of steel gauntlets that had wed fingers which she began to put on. "I will show you the technique, you must learn some on your own as devil tails and wings affect bnce." He nodded and began to follow her instructions. The stance was fairly strange but surprisingly easy toprehend. He had to lower his center mass to make his body harder to push away, it also meant he could dodge faster with his legs ready to spring in any direction. It took some time but he eventually learned the novice skill ''Hand to Handbat [wed] which meant it was time to practice. He turned to face the woman that was teaching him and took the stance he had learned to signal that he was ready. She struck forward with a fist and he shifted his body to the side to avoid it. She was going easy on him. He had to dodge her strikes while returning his own, each attack she missed was a way to punish her. He knew that no matter how many attacks hended she would not react to them as his power was not even close to what would be needed to cause her significant harm. He had figured out how to use her missed strikes to drag his ws along her arm while attempting to stab her with the de he used. At one point he managed to strike her in a way that actually caught her off guard. He didn''t even notice how well he had moved until he was suddenly in her face. She had attempted a strike as per usual but instead of dodging he had pped it away with his wing in a counter which allowed him to drive his other mana enhanced wing into her chest to knock the wind from her lungs. He had been trying to stab her with the mana de on his wing but it still allowed him to stab his ws into her body while the dagger was stabbed into her underarm. ~~~~~~~~~~ Hand to Hand Combat [wed] has improved. Devil''s Savage Stance. ~~~~~~~~~~ This was not something that he cares about as the moment though because he was panicking and healing her wounds. "Shit shit shit shit I''m sorry! I don''t know what came over me!" Despite his worries she wasughing hysterically. "My queen your mate is incredible! Sure I was going easy on him but that was unexpected!" She stood up and got ready to go again. "Show me what that was, I want to see how you do it again!" He nodded and looked at Lucretia with mild concern but she simply gave him a smile. He got into his stance but this time he felt his wings and tail moving into a strange position. ~ Lucretia watched as her beloved moved into a position that made her heart race. Although he had no idea what made infernal women interested in him he sure as hell unted it. She watched as he lowered his body to the point of his knees almost touching his chest, one leg in front of the other and tense with energy tounch himself at any moment. His tail snapped around as he lowered himself before swaying in ce like a serpent trying to hypnotize it''s prey... and it was certainly hypnotic for her. His wings were low at his sides but they were coated in mana like weapons. The most striking part was how his gaze was fixed on the demoness, a predator sizing up it''s prey. She could see his eyes looking for weaknesses. Those strange, beautiful eyes. When Asaia struck out her fist she moved with much more speed than before and since Lucretia had asked her to restrain herself to 10% of her abilities she suspected it was probably at the 50% mark. Her beloved''s eyes shed and heshed out with his wing. She watched as the mana collided with his target, her hand. He had struck from the underside of her hand to drive it upward while heunched himself forward, those slim and powerful legs tensed the way a wildcat pounced upon prey. She watched as he dodged her second blow and with his other wing he faked a strike on her leg which made her lose track of his hands for just a moment. When he struck out with his ws she blocked them with her forearm and that strange dagger of his got caught by her other hand. Then he vanished. She turned to look for him behind herself and had to block a rapid sh of his ws. When he moved she saw that he had vanished from his position through mana. ''When did he get a blink skill?'' She watched as he started to weave teleporting into his attacks, each attack was swift and aimed to be deadly. She could also see that his eyes were bing wilder with each attack, he was losing himself in the battle. She felt an odd thrill in her heart as she watched her beloved go toe to toe with this more powerful foe and although she knew he was having a practice battle she still felt the urge to fight beside her mate. Lucretia had a secret that she kept from her people and it made her instincts act in an unnatural way for a devil but she could ovee them normally. What this battle did was make certain urges in her blood rear their head so she had to put an end to it. "Alright you two, I know that you are having fun but we must move on!" But the two did not stop fighting, they only seemed to get more violent. Lucretia began to approach with her blood rising in anger and frustration. ''How dare she disregard her queen? I will tear the flesh from her bones!'' She went forward to grab the two of them but then something she did not anticipate happened. Her beloved pouned on her with a wild expression in his eyes. She was pinned on the ground and something in her blood roared to the surface making her struggle to restrain her actions while this man held his ws to her throat. She was shocked to feel aroused by this moment. "Belial get off of me!" The demoness was watching with shock and rushed to pull the man away but he vanished once again. Thest they saw of him was his back as he charged the walls and lept over them with a single p of his wings assisting his leap. Lucretia could feel her heart racing and she had to throw Asaia away to gather herself before the woman noticed how much she was burning up from the encounter. ''Damn beast blood...'' Chapter 97: Mana Overload It was impossible to focus, his blood was burning in his veins and he had to find... anything, anything to kill at all. He needed a target to vent all of this burning energy on and he chose the slimes. The problem with choosing the slimes was that they were very unfriendly enemies to physical fighters and he was feeling the burning urge to tear something apart by hand. He found one slime that wasnt dangerouslyrge and he lunged forward to sh it. He roared like a beast and did not care that it somehow released a wave of mana from his body since he was so focused on tearing his way into this slime. His mana covered ws were shing through the dense slime like butter and the void enhanced shadow magic was easily burning further into its body. As he felt his ws tearing this foe apart he only felt the burn grow, it wasn''t enough! Killing that slime did nothing but make his blood boil even further and the rest were slowly wobbling over so he rushed the group. His frenzy bombs were tearing the enemy apart and his ws were shing through them like giant test dummies. He did not feel satisfied by the kills he got though, he only felt the burn get stronger until he felt something in him snap. "ARGHHHHHHHH!" He roared like a savage animal and the mana in his body flooded out like a river. The mana had a deep ck color and each creature began to burn with the consumption debuff. He could feel something in his body was overstimted, overwhelmed. His body was not able to handle it. His wings were glowing and the veins in his body pulsed with ck energy while he struggled to reign is all back in. His mana was flowing through his veins and his heart raced while the mana exiting his body in a haze made the area begin to darken. "Grahhhh! DAMMIT!" With one sudden burst he shot into the air with his burning wings spread wide. He felt the itch to do something, anything. The slimes were not enough. Killing was not enough. He finally found a strange creature that resembled a giant lizard that could easily y the slimes when they mindlessly approached it. Enjoy exclusive chapters from m-v l''e|-NovelBin When he saw this lizard he settled into a dive to attack it. He crashed down onto it with his ws digging into it''s back, the sharp tops of his wings were stabbed in as well but this was more to try to pin the creature down. He was in such a frenzy to kill this beast that he did not even notice how being near him was making the back of it slowly ke away like ash. The lizard bucked itself and roared while iling around to dislodge him. He shed at the beast, his ws barely able to prate the scutes of it''s back while he lost more and more of his control. Soon he felt the mana overflowing again and he had to let it out but he didn''t know how. He knew that the mana in his body was overflowing in some way like when mana burn urred but he was starting to feel genuine pain from this. His body was burning so hot that the glowing veins in his body seemed to almost be on fire. He screamed loudly like a beast as he was tearing into this lizard, he tried to use the frenzy wing spell to let his mana loose but this was a mistake. The moment he cast the spell it was like all of the mana in his body surged outward. The needles appeared across his entire body like fur and this fur was shing at the lizard all the while. He truly looked like a savage beast now. As his mana surged further into his spell he saw from the needles on his arms and wings that the needles were expelling mana like smoke. He could still feel the pain of the mana boiling in his body so he had to find a solution while fighting this beast. Eventually he just decided to try to expend his mana in one giant burst. He heard his character name being called in the distance but he did not care, he wanted to get this pain to end. He dug his wd into the lizard and began to channel his mana into every single vein in his body so that he could push all of it into the spell he was using. He saw the needles duplicate more and more until he looked like a porcupine with thousands and maybe hundreds of thousands of those needles. He gave one final roar, a savage scream of pain and rage as he let it all loose. The needles were released with a burst of mana that left his body as arge aura. He could not remember how much mana he had at this point before whatever just made his body freak out but all of his mana fueled effects instantly ended as he fell to the ground with the entire area within fifty feet of him now being empty. The area had been burned ck by the mana and he had killed basically every enemy there. ''Oh thank god, my body isn''t on fire anymore... I feel so cold...'' He felt himself slipping into the darkness of unconsciousness as he felt hands picking him up. ~ As Lucretia carried her beloved back to the tent she was terrified. He had released his mana in such a dangerous way, he had also burned through a significant amount of his of his energy in his body. ''That was a mana overload, what the hell did he do to cause a mana overload!'' A mana overload was when the body was exceeding its natural mana capacity in a dangerous level, most sses had a way of temporarily increasing mana capacity but the limit was typically twice the maximum amount a person could contain. If one were to suffer mana overload they had to start releasing mana at a slow and constant rate to safely end the effect. One should never release their mana in one giant burst as it could cause harm to the mana veins so it was an incredibly dangerous way to end it, a method that had zero benefits and significant dangers. She was very worried about him after watching him end the effect in such a dangerous way. She caressed his cheek with affection and deep fear while checking his mana veins in his body. The only problem was that she found no mana veins. She saw that his body glowed with mana and he has mana infusing what looked like mana veins but there was no obvious shell to identify it. ''Did he shatter his mana veins!?'' This possibility would be unheard of but not outside of magicam theory. She could not get answers without waking him though so she had to wait. ~ When Ezekiel woke up he felt incredibly sore and he couldn''t move, he saw Lucretia at his side with her head resting on his chest. For the first time he actually felt genuine care for her since he knew she had been the one to take him from the battlefield and apparently nurse him in his recovery back in the tent. He checked his body and saw no damage so he figured the mana boiling in his body must have had an effect simr to a fever that make his body hurt. He tried to raise his hand to wake her but he couldn''t even lift it, he could barely twitch a finger. He tried to go back to sleep and the way her breathingforted him helped, though having so much pain in this body made it difficult. He sighed and just sat there admiring the beauty of this woman that had chosen him, he knew it was simply his affinity that made her choose him but she had tried so hard to respect his boundaries and she had tried even harder to help him feel respected. He may not love her like he would want to for a partner but he figured that if his emotions when he looked at her weren''t enough to decide to try it with her then by his own standard no one should be in a rtionship. The thought of being with this woman and making her smile simply by existing genuinely made him happy so when he could move he would ask her about the courting process between devils. When he felt himself fading into sleep he heard the giggle of a beautiful woman but he did not see Lucretia''s mouth move nor was it her voice. As he fell into slumber he saw his system notification talking about the origin again but he faded to quickly to care. ~ ''Hm, my new descendant is quite reckless... to make his mana veins in this way without any knowledge of how to do so? I should thank that silly raven for granting him the skill to see mana in such a way.'' Chapter 98: Infernal Customs When Ezekiel woke back up it was pitch ck and Lucretia was sitting with a cup of tea and a tter of roast meat. "You know, you did something very dangerous today... you nearly got yourself killed fighting the slimes and then you decided to fight a damned territory boss..." She looked up while sipping her tea. "You had me worried sick when your mana went out of control too." He nodded and sat up, his body still ached but he forced himself to move to the chair. "I''m sorry. I felt something strange happening to me because of my bloodline and it wouldn''t stop until I fought something strong I guess? But the creatures beyond the wall weren''t strong enough it seems." She simply nods and pushed a te of food towards him. "Eat, you need your strength for your battle with that dungeon tomorrow." "Thanks... Lucretia? Can I ask you something?" She looked surprised but nodded. "If... if I wanted to try courting you in the way devils are supposed to then what would be the right process?" As soon as she heard this she dropped her fork and all he saw was shock on her face. "You... you are sure? You are not still ufortable with the way our people act?" "Well you don''t act like them do you? You actually treat me like a person and you have done so much to try to help me out just because you cared." He smiled as he spoke. "You make me feel like I am worth more than my magic and my racial features even if I know it was the initial reason for your interest." "Well I am happy to have had such a positive impression on you my beloved, I will prepare everything for the courtship process when you return and I will have a teacher prepared for you." "A teacher?" "I will prepare a teacher so that you can understand how courtship functions so that no one may have anyints or attempt to challenge the union of our lineage." "Wait people can challenge our marriage?" "Oh no I mean they can challenge our courtship. Since I am the queen a male would be within their rights to challenge you in a method of our people''s practice to prove that you are unfit to be king." "There are also those in my own court which would be within their rights to challenge a courtship to their queen, you would be given a task through the system which would be made to test your mettle." He scowled as he had this described to him, it would appear that since he was an untested individual he could be barred from her and as queen she was bound byws to not interfere no matter how much she wished to. "In that case I better get myself to a point where no one could argue against my value to the queen." She smiled and took his hand. "Thank you... most likely it will require you reach lv300 to actually stand a chance against whatever test they send your way." He nods and squeezes her hand back. "I am respected by most of the kingdom but I have enemies in certain factions that wish to force me from the throne in some way but since they are not powerful enough they cannot hope to do so." "Ugh political nonsense, I hate politics in my own world but I guess it''s inescapable." She nods and chuckles slightly. "It is nonsense yes but we must follow procedures orws mean nothing. If the queen ignores thew then the nobility will always feel they can get away with corruption." "Does that actually keep them from corruption?" She smiles in a conspiratorial way. "My kingdom has unique rules from the system... for a noble to retain their title and have a shot at the throne they must be near the standard set by the queen." "What does that mean?" She opens a system screen in front of him and on it he saw various statistics. "This is what a leader of a region will see, as the queen I rule over my own city and therefore the statistics of my city are the standar for the nobles. My city has an approval rate of 87%, an economic value of 62 and a poption growth of 2%!" She smiled as she exined it. "Oh... I don''t know what any of that means... sorry.'' She blinks and then nods as she realizes that she had started discussing something that was normal in their world but not in his. "The system is omnipresent and the system is often used for certain activities including many sales so it is able to identify statistics easily." "In my city there is an approval rating of 87% meaning 87% of what people think about my city is positive." "Whoa wait that''s actually impressive." "It also only calctes based on citizens." "I see." "The economic value of 62 means my rating out of 100 is at 62, not perfect but it is incredibly hard to get above 70." "What does the number mean though?" She smiles and seems to be enjoying herself. "Well economic value calctes how much of the poption is spending money at a given moment and how much money they are making, my city is considered very wealthy actually." He understood now and since poption growth was very obvious he didn''t have any confusion there. "Now because of these statistics my city is considered a gold grade city, since it is a gold grade city the nobility must also be gold or at minimum silver." She smirked. "My sess through acting with pure intentions for my people has lead to a very high regard from my people which helped my city grow, this means a corrupt noble won''t do nearly as well because the system cannot be fooled by corrupt actions as easily." "I see, so at least we won''t have to deal with a lot of people acting as problems when I start courting you right?" She nods. As he finished his te of rosted meat and his cup of tea he looked around to see the morning suning up. "I should get to Raylock and deal with the dungeon so I cane back quickly..." He looked at her and actually felt a pain on his heart about the thought of leaving. "That is true... I trust you, I will wait for you." She gripped his hand with a nervous smile before standing up and putting on a regal air. "Belial when you return I will begin the process of proper courtship amongst the infernal race. As I have no coven you will only be promised to myself, because of this I will not ask you to remain as only my own should you wish it but I would be happy if I could notpete with other women." As he heard this he cringed a bit. "I uh... I don''t think im the harem type so I doubt you will bepeting with anyone ok?" She had a look of relief and surpise on her face. "Oh? I was under the impression the demoness you knew was attempting to court you? I had also heard about some beastkin woman that seemed quite attached to you." He choked on his tea at this and had to cough. "Friends! They are friends! Jesus christ what is wrong with that annoying bitch! She is always putting her nose in my business!" He had started ranting about the demoness left behind. "She?" "Kira! That annoying bitch just wont get out of my business!" He was snarling as his hatred of the misandrist demon was named again. "She truly angers you that much?" He nodded. "She does nothing but put me down and degrade me, she acts like she hates men, she acted like teaching my friends was a chore but teaching me? Oh that was like pulling teeth!" He threw the cup of tea across the room in his anger. "You know it took my assassin friend asking to teach him dagger skills to get her to teach me to use them too? She HATED it as if I were such an inconvenience." He snarled and the mana in his body began fluctuating which made Lucretia stand up to calm him. "Darling you must rx, when your anger rises your mana acts up in a dangerous way that I have never seen. Please sit down and we can discuss your approaching time in the city instead." He sat back down and began to breathe in a slow and regr way to calm himself which she helped by hugging him. After they had finished this they discussed the city, he told her about how it looked as well as the small bit of history he had learned thanks to his meeting with the mage. By the time they finished they had lost track of time and the sun was peaking in the sky so he had to leave, much to Lucretia''s displeasure. Chapter 99: Solo Nightmare It was time to return to the city, he had trained to the satisfaction of Lucretia and he had gotten permission to go. Lucretia was there to send him off and had even paid for the transportation gate to allow him to leave. "Remember, tell kira that she has to pay for your return trip with the funds she was sent out with, she cannot simply stay there and act as an ambassador since she is not skilled in the task." He gave a short nod and before leaving he gave her a small hug. "I will return so do not worry ok? I don''t want to stay away for a long time anymore after the time I have had to meet you, I want to spend a lot of my time in this game getting to know you." She smiled and let go. "Return in triumph my beloved, you will need to be triumphant after all." He left through the gate and upon seeing the old city he had left a few days ago he was simultaneously thrilled and sad but this did not matter. He had a task. He saw the people around looking at him strangely, many whispering his name so he crouched low and lept into the air with his wings beating powerfully to send him skyward. He saw the city from above and it made him feel strange, he liked this city but he knew nothing about it. In fact the only reason he liked the city was due to good memories involving his friends. He saw the dungeon below after some time and dove to it. ~ The elven assassin had been waiting for thest day and a half for his target, he had left to deal with the event but when he finished his task and saw that the rewards were pretty much worthless he chose to focus on the mage. He was patient for the multiple days it took but when he finally saw his target return he was surprised by how different they looked. Not only did they seem to have evolved but they also had more mastery of their flight which he suspected meant the mage had trained. He began to approach the mage but stopped the moment they entered the dungeon. ''Dammit... fine I will wait by the opening to kill him.'' ~ Inside of the dungeon Ezekiel felt a thrill as he tore through the enemies like tissue paperpared to the previous battles. He could simply grab a skeleton by the skull and tear it off thanks to his magic making him so much stronger than before. He remembered that killing skeletons like this was easy for La and Thanatos but he adored it. When he reaches the door he began to put the password in by memory, without the need to guard from the shadow mana and simply blocking the life constructs he was able to put the password in like nothing. When he saw the room he began to pull all of the mana into one space using his lesser mana maniption. With this mana he began to create life mana spell circles that contained the spells of shadow mana spears to attack the boss when she spawned. Once he had the spell circles make he activated the fight. The boss appeared and he activated the spell circles instantly. Heunched himself forward with ws outstretched and they collided with the de of shadow she held. He was totally unaffected by the shadow mana but the life construct did cut him so he had to be wary there. His ws met her de repeatedly to bat it away while his wings pushed it even further to make her aura covered body easier to strike. He would sh and stab and unleash bursts of his frenzy wing spell until heunched himself backward. She seemed to try to follow but then noticed therge number of mana balls on her body which started to detonate one after the other in a rapid speed. He returned to sh her body with a giant de of mana coating his wing, this de struck her cracked aura with such precision in thergest area of damage that it shattered in an instant. "Weak!" He shed her bones with his wed hands leaving trails of ck me on the bones of her body. He saw that his spells were not as powerful as he liked but stacking damage over time effects would easily make that problem vanish. He used his wings to guard against her des and with her shadow mana despletely useless against him meant she was effectively helpless. His ws and des struck her head with each attempt, his attacks were effortlessly destroying her skull while she struggled to harm him with just life mana. The most shocking part was that he was using the frenzy bomb spell so often that he was killing her summoned troops before they could even attack him, when the giant skeleton appeared he simply dismembered the joints and left it to burn away with frenzy bombs in its ribcage. He focused all of his attention on the boss and kept her from harming him by easily blocking her blows with his mana covered wings. With his mana tearing through her body she eventually copsed to one knee as a leg had been severed by the consumption eating away at her. She had to teleport away for a moment and it seemed she was drawing her life mana from the undead she had hidden nearby as she created a limb of solid green mana that resembled a bone calve and foot made of emerald green ss. He watched her do this with a smug expression before he vanished and got his payback for something she did days ago in game. He appeared behind her and shed her arm from her body while using his ws to try to sever her spine but she vanished as well after this. He held her arm in his hand and set it alight with shadowfire. "I hope this hurts! You tormented me for days with this dungeon you bitch!" He dashed forward to sh her but he feinted away to let his wing collide with her instead, his wing stabbing into her ribs mmed her against the wall while he stabbed her skull with his de for critical damage. By pinning her there he could exploit her weakness to keep striking her until she vanished again to appear by her coffin. From the coffin arge amount of life mana began to flow out mixing with shadow mana from beneath the coffin which surprised him. He watched with curiosity before he simply used lesser mana maniption to make that pocket of mixing mana take a shape he wanted instead. The skeleton tried to attack him during it but he ignored her to instead turn the shadow mana into needles while the life mana was unable to be turned into much of anything. By stabbing her with the massive number of needles plus his own frenzy wings spell he had sessfully taken half of the mana she tried to use but since he was very bad at manipting life mana she easily took control again when his focus waned. When he saw what she was doing though he panicked as he realized she was using the mana to fill the gaps he caused in her skeleton. He began to counterattack with his lesser mana maniption to try to pull it away from her while he used frenzy wing to drive her damaged body back and take more damage. The needles tearing throughout her body were blocked by some of the life mana she used but most of it was still being kept away by him. ''This is crazy, why is she doing this when she didn''t do this before!?'' He roared as he unleashed more of his frenzy wing needles from another spell that tore into her thin frame, the ce with the most damage was her head as it had the most surface area to strike. He was trying to keep the mana away from her head so the cracks could not be filled by the green energy but it was not perfect. Her heath bar was slowly filling with a green bar that he had not seen before but he figured she was trying to heal herself which obviously could not be allowed. Since he could not keep all of the mana away he simply lunged in to continue destroying her skull while the pair fought over the life mana. It seemed her attempts at this also took most of her mental power as well since she only blocked while he attacked. Eventually he seeded in destroying a chunk of her skull which she obviously tried to reim while retaliating. He blocked her strike and kicked the chunk of skull away while trying to stab the eneegy underneath, she tried to block with her hand but he easily stabbed it with his other hand while she tried to harm him. The health bar was at 70% and he was enjoying himself. Chapter 100: Solo Nightmare pt.2 During the battle with Diana he felt that same rush of heat through his veins but unlike before it didn''t feel as painful. He felt perfectly fine in this battle which made him question it for a moment before throwing himself right back in. The ws and wings continuously striking at the boss made her health bar fall at a slow and steady pace. He did not know what her magical damage resistance was but it felt significant in this case. The damage to her body beginning to build up and he continued his targeted blows on her head,st time he had fought her solo in the normal difficulty he had eventually destroyed her skull which made her defenses disappear against that point. He had never told the team about this detail as it was hard to target her skull that much and he liked having a trump card even against allies. The rapid blows on her skull made the cracks spread further which only made her draw more life mana into her body at which point Ezekiel had to contest the mana even further. He noticed that her protection against her head and hisck of focus on her body beyond blocking her sword had made her stop defending herself there so he struck out with arge sh of mana to her sword arm. It was shockingly effective as it cut deep into the bone that could repel des. The mana flowed from her head and down her neck, it made each crack in her bones glow with a green light but the further it spread the dimmer it was. His strikes on her skull got more aggressive at that point as it was not being healed as well, this made the boss withdraw her mana again to start defending her head. Their battle continued like this for another few minutes until he felt his blood starting to boil. ''Dammit what now!'' He didn''t like how his body felt when this difort happened so he started to do what Lucretia had taught him. By pushing more mana into the creation of each needle in his frenzy wing spell he could make a constant supply of those empowered needles through whatever mana was causing his body to freak out. The mana in this spell was almost pure void mana at that point and it had effects he could not identify as her body started to break down around the needles that pierced her body. When he saw this he activated the mana burn skill to go even further. If this much extra mana using whatever this effect was could cause that much power gain then what if he increased it futher? He felt his body begin to burn, the fire on his body was so very cold but he used it like the weapon it was. He shaped all of the excess mana in his body to create more powerful needles for the frenzy spell but it was not enough. The frenzy spell could only use so much mana at a time due to the way he created it but he had other spells... He had other skills. The ck mana constructs on his body began to expand, the armor slowly being constructed above his elbows and across his upper arms before reaching his shoulders. The mana on his forearms began to create des that would be used as extra striking tools while another began to be made from his elbows. The mana slowly covered his wings as denser armor with sharper des like a saw, down his sides and back he felt the cold sensation of this odd mana cover him while on his chest he saw interlocking tes of this dark material. Down his legs and and calves he saw savage armor being created as well as the wed boots he wore gaining a sharper mana coating. It looked like he wore armor from some edgy child''s fantasy but with the mana supplying it''s durability he could easily use the armor as intended. The des on his forearms were easily stabbing her when he when he aimed them properly as well as the serrated edge on his wings making them into quite deadly weapons. One of her legs was severely wounded by the sh his wings could now deliver while he abused her. Her body was nothing more than a target and a testing dummy for his ability to be precise in his strikes. He aimed at joints, at limbs where he knew arteries would be located, he aimed at ces that he saw connected by her mana instead of tendons. She was practice forbat against humanoid foes. Soon her health fell below 50% and she unleased a wave of shadow mana, shadow mana that did nothing to him. The battle got more intense as she started to use the life mana in a different way, he felt a ncing blow from something he didn''t see. When he took a moment to check he saw an array of floating swords made of life mana and all of them were being used to strike at his body while he battled her. ''Fuck!'' He felt a de crack through his armor and he had to push more mana into the skill to repair it. When she began to teleport away he followed, he could not alwaysnd directly behind because she started to use pure life mana attacks. ''The boss can learn?!?!'' He felt his leg get stabbed by one of the sword so he had to start worrying about them, the next one to try andnd a blow he batted away with his wing while on the return swing he shed her. He growled like a beast while batting away her attacks andnding blow after blow to her but he saw her body reparing itself. Each attack he guarded against was a moment for her to heal and get faster, eachpse of his focus was a chance for her to get stronger. Her des were getting more dangerous the more her body repaired itself and he was taking more hits than he liked. At some point she had managed to create a second life mana de to wield and these two des were used intermittently in attack and defense. The two began to sh faster and faster until she suddenly let out a loud shriek like a banshee as she had once before. His ears were bleeding and he tried to keep attacking but his body felt weak. She turned away to grab something from her coffin and to his astonishment he saw her wielding a de, a silver de with green stones lining the hilt. ''Oh hell no...'' Diana was acting strangely, she was not acting like a normal boss and he was afraid that he had messed up somehow. She was doing new things. Bosses don''t do new things. Bosses are supposed to be predictable! He dashed forward to swipe the sword away while stabbing forward with his wing but she flicked the de one time to send him away with a wave of green mana. If life mana were a deep emerald green then this mana was clearly something else as it had a more pale green color. ''Wind mana?'' The room was in fact more drafty suddenly. He scowled and got ready for her to use this new de but she didn''t. He watched for any move while he recovered his mana as this new detail meant he could not rush in without a strategy. He saw her make a strange motion with this gemstone studded rapier before she stabbed outward with it. He felt a tinge of worry so he moved his head. A stabbing pain in his shoulder was what met this motion as he felt a strange de of wind mana pierce his armor and into his body. This sensation made him act, he used his armor''s teleportation skill to appear behind her and try to strike again but he quickly turned with wind flowing around her body, thia wind then formed into a de that shed across his chest forcing him to block. Discover more stories at m,v l''e-NovelBin He growled again and felt his blood boiling further as the thrill of battle overtook him. His racing heart felt like it was on fire and he attacked repeatedly with his own mana projectiles to distract her while he went in for the kill. Since she could not block with her sword as easily as the ones made of mana she seemed to relegate some of those constructs to acting as defense. As he was able tond more hits he felt more and more mana leaving his body. He almost didn''t even understand why until he felt his senses focusing through the haze of battle lust. He was using the death mark skill each time he attacked with his ws. By striking with his ws he could overwhelm her with double the strikes and he began to imagine the old media of monks using ki to add a secondary strike on opponents. He would love to try to experiment with the ideas behind those movies and novels but this was not the time and his blood burning so much would not allow him to focus anyway. All he knew was that her health bar was at 34% and he would finish this to return to his Lucretia! Chapter 101: Solo Nightmare pt.3 While battling Diana he learned a few things about her sword. Firstly the de used her mana to create those des of wind which were painfully sharp. Secondly he saw that she had to use the life mana in the room to create a glove around the handle as if she could not touch it directly. Lastly he realized that the de was using her mana up like a dangerous leak in her vessel. The battle raged on as these observations were made and since he did not have the mental fortitude to question these details right now he simply focused on ying the boss. With the extra strikes from the death mark skill he replicated he was tearing through her health faster than he had before and it was going to win this battle for him. Rapidly shing at her ribcage and tearing through her skull he was beginning to force her health to drain beyond the 20% mark. She tried to use her rapid teleportation tactic to trip him up but without the undead there to distract him he was able to easily catch her blows. His mana was surging further than it had before and he was worried about how high his mana pool was beginning to grow, his body was heating up even further than before so he had to find some new way to spend his mana. With each motion he left behind arge frenzy bomb which exploded into a cloud of the mana that flooded his veins. Teleporting away, dashing at the boss, jumping away. All of it left bombs to burst when she followed or simply to make the area more dangerous. As the boss hit the 5% mark she seemed to enter her final stand, her body glowed red and she shrieked like a savage beast while the mana in the room flowed towards her. Attacking her did absolutely nothing for some reason and since this was another new mechanic he had not seen before he raised his guard. She finally ended her scream and the mana in the air finished surrounding her, she was inside of a ball of shadows and wind. That mana began to condense around her de which he watched carefully, he did not even see it when she moved though. One second she was there and the next he felt a burning sensation in his arm. Looking down he saw that he had been shed from his shoulder to his hip and the arm she had shed was now on the floor, the pain was shockingly absent and he wondered if it was caused by the mana that had saturated his blood so thoroughly that his previously red blood was a radiant blue. Continue reading on m|v-l''e -NovelBin "You bitch!" Part of his wing had been removed as well so he could not use his wings to clear the distance. This meant that he had to teleport closer to catch her off guard. He began to channel his mana into his other wing and his remaining arm to continue destroying her body, when she saw this she tried to sh him once again but he sacrificed his injured wing to create a mana guard. When they sessfully shed through one another he felt his body aching this time. He had destroyed half of her body and she had removed the rest of his wing but the battle was far from over as she lunged with the de to pierce him. She was missing half of her torso and her entire arm but she did not stop. He was mising an arm and a wing with a deep sh down his body that left some very important organs injured and exposed until his robes regenerated for their indestructible feature. He swung his wing to try to remove her legs while his other arm tried to cleave her head from her neck. She made a jittery move and her skull took a hard hit but he felt his arm fall just like the other. From the elbow down he had nothing, from the shoulder down his other arm was gone and an entire wing was cleaved away. The pain would have been excruciating without that strange boiling mana in his blood. Her body copsed on the ground with her legs cleaved in half by his wing, her skull was half gone and he simply ended things by shing through the misty haze inside of it using his remaining wing. He fell to his knees as she was beaten and yelled in triumph as the dungeon let him go. ~~~~~~~~~~ Congrattions! You are the first yer to defeat a Nightmare difficulty dungeon solo. Rewards have been given. Special reward! Tempest (???) A rapier capable of harnessing wind mana. ~~~~~~~~~~ He ignored the notifications and just kneeled on the grass outside of the dungeon staring at his hands, the hands she had cut off. "Yeah I will never get used to that..." Then he saw a de stab through his chest from the other side. ~~~~~~~~~~ yer has not epted a duel and has been attacked, reducing yer versus yer damage by 90% until yer [Belial] retaliates. ~~~~~~~~~~ "Ow! Fuck!" Swiping his wing with a savage sh he saw a grinning goblin yer holding the short sword that had stabbed him. The attack easily cleaved the goblins head away which everyone saw. "Oi oi! You just killed my teammate there bud, you know what that means?" An elven man was approaching and Ezekiel saw that there was a red mark above his head unlike tbe white marks above everyone else. "Now I gotta step in and take revenge." The elven assassin stabbed towards his chest but Ezekiel quickly blocked with his wings. "Hey man screw off! Your ally attacked me first!" The assassinughed and just attacked once again but this time he had a second dagger. The two daggers weaved into a strange set of strikes that reminded him of watching snakes strike repeatedly. He could block them but he was taking damage. "Dude leave me alone! I don''t want to kill you like your friend!" "Oh hear that everyone? Big boss on the leaderboard thinks he can just kill another yer and not worry about the consequences?" Ezekiel was getting frustrated and eventually just gave up on talking to this grifter. "Man screw you and screw this, I did what I came here to do!" He cast the frenzy wing spell again and as the assassin tried to attack him Ezekiel vanished. From behind the elven yer appeared the devil yer with a burning gaze. ~ While looking through streams the newest member of the journalist team for the Yggdrasil Corporation found something that caught her eye. ''That bastard, can''t believe he fired me... I have to find out if Yggdrasil pressured him though.'' While watching the stream she saw a face that she was surprised by. ''Hey that''s the dungeon guy, the mage Belial... why is he fighting an elf?'' She watched as he blocked many attacks from his opponent, the blocking form seemed unrefined but effective. Just not effective enough to block every strike from an expert in daggers like the yer he was apparently fighting. She could hear them arguing about something and by piecing together the context through what other yers said she realized that Belial had killed the elven yer''s ally. ''Huh... that''s kinda messed up, wonder if there''s more to the story though?'' She began to type up a story, specifically it was the tenth story she had written since joining Yggdrasil. They may be a bit exploitative but they gave her a hell of a lot of writing material. While watching the battle and typing at the same time she gasped as Belial made a strange move, he vanished from their sight and when the streaming yer finally saw him again Belial was holding the elven dagger user by the back of his head. Belial had long ws made of ck energy while his wings were high above his head in a regal disy with the same ck energy coating them. He brought his wings down in a sharp motion which cleaving the elves head from his body in an X shaped strike. The body copsed and the head remained in his hand before he closed his fist sharply. This act made the body and head dissipate into particles while he looked around at the observers. "I don''t give a damn if anyone believes his lies but if anyone else gets in my way I WILL END YOU!" The streamer then watched him leave with his new figure looking like a savage fiend from old world media. She couldn''t help but like how his character looked, he was so uniquely inhuman. She wasn''t attracted by any stretch of the imagination but she looked at the character as a very well made entity that would act as a memorable individual for videos. He was almost as tall as the orc yers and his horns were so elegant they reminded her of a crown, it was like she was looking at a king walking amongstmoners. ''I have to get this game and interview him...'' Chapter 102 : Tasks Given "Yeah you know I need a pod." "You don''t, you are just a journalist Judy-" "Stop calling me that, you know I changed my name because of that bastard and you don''t get my old name right anyway." "... Pythia." "Thank you, now you and I both know that my contract relies on getting the stories that your own writers don''t catch so how am I supposed to do that if you don''t let me y?" "We want you watching streams not ying the game." "And? That''s not going to get any information that others can''t get right? I''ve seen the streams these yers do and I could convince them to let me interview them!" ".... If you y then you can''t get any special treatment you know that right? You''d have to actually earn your levels to reach the same region as the yers you are after." "Yeah yeah who cares I have yed games before, you think I started by watching streamers? HA!" She hung up the phone and started moving furniture around to make space for the pod. "Should I get rid of my bed? Those pods make great beds if the yers are right... maybe I could get a good futon to rx and use the pod to sleep..." She was rambling to herself while a little cat stared at her. ~ After defeating the elven assassin Ezekiel headed back to the city square where the gate was located. When he saw Kira he scowled but approached anyway. "I will return now, you told my friends how to get to the city right?" She nodded without a word and tossed a bag of gold into the gate which created the swirling vortex. He gave her a short nod before entering, as soon as the gate closed he was tackled by Lucretia who had jumped onto him with a smile. "You took nearly two hours! You better have been sessful darling~" Heughed a bit and felt his face heating up. "Yeah uh, I got it done. I have a full unique set now so I should be quite sessful in this test!" Sheughed at his reaction and motioned for him to follow her to the tent. "When you unlock the final piece of your set it will do something very special as all unique gear sets do so be careful." He was surprised by this but nodded and quickly followed, as they entered the tent he opened his unique reward. Inside of the chest he obtained a scroll and an amulet, unlike before he could not choose the optional reward and it confused him but the amulet more than made up for it. ~~~~~~~~~~ Voidbeast Fang A ded wand that allows the user to create additional projectiles when casting spells or manipting mana. Voidbeast Hide Robes made from the leather of a void beast, allows the user to create barriers of mana. Voidbeast Treads Boots made from the ws and the leather of a void beast, allows the user to teleport various distances by consuming mana. Voidbeast ws Gloves made from the ws and the leather of a void beast, protects the users hands from the shadow mana element as well as enhancing the sharpness of shadow mana constructs. Voidbeast Heart An amulet made from the crystal core of a void beast, allows the user to consume another stat from a target when the consumed effect urs. Alert! Full set detected Activating additional set [Void Beast] effect. While wearing the full set the user has natural maniption of the shadow element and shadow elemental damage or void mana damage is increased by 100% ~~~~~~~~~~ "Holy shit!" "What is it?" "The set is... incredibly powerful, sorry I don''t feelfortable saying it." She smiled with a sad look in her eye. "You don''t trust me yet, I understand. I will not try to force you to disclose your secrets and I will simply be happy for your sess my darling." She ced her hand on his and smiled before looking at the scroll. "So is that one as significant as the other reward?" He frowned and checked the reward. ~~~~~~~~~~ Skill Book (Diamond): Magus ~~~~~~~~~~ "Oh it''s a magus skill book, cool. He activated the scroll and it turned into a book with a beautiful blue color before turning into particles that entered his mind. "DIAMOND?! YOU GOT A DIAMOND SKILL BOOK!?" She sat forward to watch. ~~~~~~~~~~ Skill obtained Consecutive Striker (SS) Each strike that urs within 5 seconds of the previous will add a stacking count of Consecutive Strikes. For each stack of Consecutive Strikes spell damage is increased by 0.5% for 10 seconds, each stack resets the timer. ~~~~~~~~~~ "Huh... I got some kind of stacking skill? It increases my spell damage for each strike Ind but it isn''t very clear on the wording." Lucretia smiled broadly and nodded. "Powerful skills are vague because if they gave you every bit of information about what they could do then you might as well just read the skill book instead of learning it instantly, you would be more proficient that way but it would take longer... it also means the skill book can be reused though." "Wait... they can be reused?!" She nodded and he sat back down in thought. "Does that mean skill books can be written?" "Of course they can but you have to be at the pinnacle of what the skill or spell can achieve on it''s own." He nods. "Well now that I have these rewards I guess that whole ce is behind me since my friends are on their path to the city eventually..." She seemed to be surprised by this. "They still wish to see you? You have surpassed them and they are not opposed to you?" He looked at her and scoffed. "No we''re a team so of course any power I gain helps them right? Do you see your nobles as a threat or do you see them as a helpful ally when the country is in danger?" She has a pleased smirk on her face now and simply nodded. "So tell me what your little council decided, what torment do I have to go through to keep being around you?" "Well the council gave the simple task, you mustplete the quest they give you and I have looked it over to ensure you would not be given a quest that was impossible for your level... there are other problems however." "And those are?" "A total of three suitors have challenged our courtship." "God this is a pain in the neck, who are they from?" She shook her head and went to grab the teapot from the firece as it began to whistle. "Their families are not important but they will give you challenges, the good thing however is that they mustplete these challenges themselves before they can present the challenge to you..." "What is there to keep them from lying?" "The system of course. The system has contracts that are under very strictws so if the quest is given then they will have certainly aplished the task themselves." She sat there and poured them each a cup of tea. "The more restrictions on the quest the more you can tell how far they went but since these are males from nobility they are unlikely to give significant quests." As she said these words he saw four separate notificationse across his screen starting with an alert. ~~~~~~~~~~ Alert! Chain quest has begun! Failure toplete any of these quests in their individual requirements will mean the courtship of Lucretia Shadow and Belial must end without continuation of any form. Quests may bepleted in any order. Quest 1: A nearby kingdom''s leader has joined the church of light in the world event, you are tasked with executing the leader in any way of your choosing. Belial has one week to aplish this task. Quest 2: Belial must obtain a territory king''s core. Quest 3: Belial must y any infernal wolf with the use of only one spell within one week of the hunt beginning. Quest 4: Belial must obtain 1000 tinum dragon coins without the aid of a benefactor, only objects obtained by belials own means and sold will be considered for this quest. ~~~~~~~~~~ As he read through the quests he felt his body grow cold, his hands begin to shake. "Oh these bastards must really hate me." "Whats wrong?" He began to exin the quests and before he could finish she made him write down the exact wording of each of them. After he put the pen down she began to look the quests over with a careful eye. "The first quest is the hardest... thest quest is very difficult but not impossible..." She then tapped the other two. "These are worded in a way to make you worry but the wording is so loose that you can get out of it easily, the core has no restrictions on how it can be obtained so I could simply give one to you and they probably hoped you would not catch that detail." Then she began to read out the second quest. "An infernal wolf being killed through the use of only one spell, that doesn''t specify a specific wolf in the pack though and they probably brought him to a wolf pup to kill." ''At least it''s not as extreme as I thought...'' Chapter 103 : Hunting Wolves Four tasks that would force him to go through significant effort just to keep spending time with Lucretia. He was not pleased with the requirements but he would get them done to prove that they were not enough to make him leave. Each task had a problem however. Firstly the core of a territory king simply meant he had to y a miniboss located in any territory, he could use a core given by the queen since she was adamant over the individual that gave the task had clearly done so. The second problem with the quest was that he had to actually travel a bit to find infernal wolves and finding a target he''d be satisfied with was likely to take time. The third and final problem actually came from the council''s own quest. Execution of a kingdom''s leader would be incredibly difficult no matter what he did so he would have to get creative with his skills there. "If I kill this leader wouldn''t it cause problems for your kingdom and it''s people? I would bemitting an act of war." Lucretia simply shrugged. "They swore loyalty to the church, they already dered war on us." "Huh? Wait how does that work? The war is between the celestials and the church." She giggled sweetly and cupped his cheek. "Oh darling, the church has been an enemy of ours ever since they were created by the ratty pope." She shook her head and turned back to the city. "An escort must go with you but I have made sure it''s Leya so you won''t be ufortable... be safe my darling." She squeezed his hand one final time before entering her tent. As he left the city walls he flew over the small army of slimes he had seen respawn endlessly as fodder for young devils and demons. He easily found Leya and uponnding greeted her. "Hey Leya, so where could I locate some Infernal Wolves? I need to kill one for this obnoxious quest." Sheughed a bit before shaking her head. "I had heard rumors of challenges to your courtship but that seems like an excessive way to push you." "Nah they actually have very low restrictions on that quest but I want to try to blow that one out of the water by killing a strong wolf to show them that they are not worth my time." She grins. "Well said! The infernal wolves are known to live in the forests near the ravine and the caves inside of both regions." He nods and begins to think about his possible moves here. By killing a powerful miniboss he could make them regret targeting him and if hepleted his tasks quickly then he would show them even more of their own weakness. "Another task is that I have to get the core of a territory leader so what would be the best method there? I don''t have to kill it but I want to so that I can prove a point." She nods and began to think. "Well there is a creature that solves both requirements actually, there is an infernal wolf territory king." When he heard this he almost cheered until he began to think about the requirements of the two quests. "I can''t use more than one spell against the wolf and the core doesn''t have to be something that I personally killed so I may have to go after a different wolf and then another boss..." ''Killing that miniboss would easily earn me the respect I wanted but if I did so it would be incredibly tough to handle a miniboss in this region using only one spell.'' He shook his head and just focused on finding another wolf before the boss since he could kill the boss after the lesser target was killed which would still get him the sess. ~ The woods near the infernal kingdom were very strange, trees that reeked of coal dust and the asional line of red in their trunks that Leya confirmed as fire mana. "Ok this ce really does feel like Hell now, why are the trees full of fire mana?" She gave him a grin before showing him the axe she carried, the handle of which was a deep ck that he originally thought was metal or some other tough material but turned out to be wood with faint red lines in the rings of the wood. "It is a qood that channels fire mana very well so anyone with a fire affinity benefits greatly from weapons used to make it, this means we cultivate the mana rich trees while the norm trees are culled." He nodded and continued walking beside her while looking for signs of anything else that was odd by using his new eye based skill. All he saw so far was a mana dense forest that made the dungeon look like akepared to this ocean of it. "Hey would you mind if I stopped to cultivate? I never realized this ce had insane mana density." She gave another silent nod and stood watch while he sat with his legs crossed. ''This is my first time cultivating my mana gem since getting here so I wonder what all the crazy new skills will do?'' And so he began to cultivate by drawing in the mana in his surroundings. He pulled mana like a vortex with his lesser mana maniption bringing the energy in so easily, he also noticed that his body drank mana in greedily the more his skin was exposed to it so he tested this idea by expanding his wings. With his wings acting like great sr pannels for mana he started to absorb thetent energy in the air like a sinkhole with no visible bottom. He absorbed mana so rapidly that the creatures of the forest actually began to take notice as well. He saw through his strange mana sense that Leya was being approached by several mana saturated figures which made him use his item skill to teleport over and stop the attacker. It turned out to be a rabbit with a very strange look to it and when he saw the first he began to see the rest. ~~~~~~~~~~ Abyssal Hare lv437 ~~~~~~~~~~ ''Damn that''s strong for a rabbit.'' He began to cast his wide range effects using his frenzy bombs in particr to damage multiple at a time. Leya sat back for a moment to watch the ughter with a smug expression until he dispatched thest one. "You could take their pelts, the fur on it sells very well for noble clothing..." For a moment be thought she was messing with him before he nodded. "I don''t have a bag..." She tossed him a leather bag before the words fully peft his mouth. "The queen demanded this be given to you so do not destroy it ok? Make sure you use ot well for her majesty." He smiled and nodded his head as he put everything in the bag which shockingly held more than it''s size implied, a bag with an extra dimensional space within. He thanked her quickly before continuing down the path, he made sure to use one particrly mangled hare to try to act as bait for other creatures while walking. "So how far away are these wolves? Is it normally this hard to find any?" She shook her head and had a troubled expression. "A noble may ne ying dirty, I suspect the wolf poption in the forest has been culled to prevent your sess for as long as possible." He nods and started searching for mana signatures again and while he saw many they were primarily underground. "I think the ravine has caves in it right? I see things underground ao they may be hidden in caves." Leya looked surprised before looking around. "You may be right, that''s impressive that you could swe where their mana was from so far away you know." He smirked and followed her to the ravine edge where they would soon be hunding infernal wolves. "I can only use one spell and the quest seemed to imply that I could kill an already weakened wolf but I want to select one myself and kill it on my own." The reason he said this was due to the level of the wolvea. ~~~~~~~~~~ Infernal Wolf (Omega) lv521 ~~~~~~~~~~ An omega was the lowest ss of wolf, technically the weak and old were below that in the wild but if an omega was lv500 then he would be in for a world of trouble. ''These things have some scary levels, damn. How am I meant to kill these things?'' She watched his reaction with interest before walking out. He cursed before following. "You will kill a wolf, you will seed and you will court the queen that cares deeply for your happiness. If you do not court the queen then I will be there to personally beat you do you understand?" He nods. Chapter 104: Mini Boss When the pair approached the wolf Ezekiel was thinking about how they would actually handle this situation but then he saw Leya dash forward. The demoness grabbed the wolf in a strong grip before jumping away. The pack could hardly react as they witnessed one of their own get swiped by therge woman and after a sharp cry from it they began to flee. When he followed the direction she had jumped he saw that she had her boot pressed against the Wolf''s body to keep it pinned despite the beast not moving. He could see blood flowing from it''s maw into the ground while he approached and the back of it''s neck was severely deformed. "The beast is ready to kill, do not concern yourself with such things as pride or other nonsense. You mustplete these tasks." Discover exclusive tales on m,v l''e-NovelBin He wanted to argue but he nodded because she was right. With a frenzy wing spell cast he began to target the rib cage to kill the wolf as fast as possible by destroying the heart. The wolf made a gurgling whine as it tried to move but it was likely paralyzed by her damage to it. After a few casts of the spell with perfect precision he easily slew the beast by shredding the heart with the explosive needles. He gained a small amount of experience since he only did a small portion of the work but when he thought about it this was certainly a good way for low level yers to rise in the game. Now that the easiest task was done he had to focus on finding a miniboss. "You should just ept a core from the queen, they should respect her choice rather than try to force you out." "I want to earn this one, I already killed a miniboss by mistake once when it had been weakened so I want to kill this one without taking advantage of what others did before me." She sighed with annoyance but nodded. "Fine. Even men have their pride, I will not disrespect your will." He frowned at her response. "You know in most cultures people say men have to much pride right? Actually there was a culture in my world''s past that would consider the infernal society very... well they would have hated the idea of women choosing to marry and have children despite being in control." Sheughed at his response and said nothing. They continued deeper into the forest to find the wolf miniboss she knew of and he a made sure to observe the area closely to learn about it. He saw how she moved away from certain nts and how certain patches of ground were given a very wide berth so he followed her path while using his mana sight to examine these things. The nts had mana concentrated in strange ces like the stems and flowers while others had mana concentrated in the roots that spread out in a wide area beneath them. With his sight he could actually identify nts that had a lot of mana in odd ces that she did not avoid. "So what do these nts do? Some of them you avoidpletely while others are apparently safe?" She looked at him before taking a stick and poking a flower that suddenly grew spines that stabbed the stick, each spine dripped purple liquid with a consistency like sap. "Poison?" "Yes, the rest are all dangerous in some way and the deeper we go into the woods the more danger you are in so I simply avoid these things and let you follow my path." "Are any of them used for anything? Are we able to collect any of them?" She had a look of deep thought over it while walking. "Yeah I guess there are some? There are collection quests for some of them and I''m pretty sure they get sold to alchemists but people only do these quests if they are experienced with herbs like this." ''Huh so I could probably make some easy money on these if I learn how to collect the herbs correctly? Then again farming the dungeon for loot would probably be better since she drops so much gold quality gear.'' As he was thinking about it Leya finally pulled him over to see something. When she pointed out what she saw he froze, he saw a pawprint that would easily dwarf the prints of the weird light wolf he fought. This miniboss was probably twice asrge or at least close to it. She held up hand to her mouth and did a strange signal that involved covering it and he simply nodded. ''It''s probably the signal for silence here... dang that''s weird.'' She slowly approached what he realized was a clearing and he crouched down to be as silent as possible but silence was not a thing he was great at. He was able to avoid any loud noises by his steps but he had to move painfully slowly to watch each footfall as she observed the clearing. Inside of it he saw the wolfying beside ake, it was not argeke but it would probably take an hour to swim across if he had to, the wolf however would probably be able to cross it in minutes as he got to examine the magnificent monster. It was a giant ck wolf with green and red tints in it''s fur, thaty there so peacefully. He assumed the beast would have a fire affinity and a life affinity since the ck fur appeared perfectly normal unlike his own obsidian ck skin. The wolf had it''s ears asionally twitching as it listened for danger and Ezekiel took this as a good sign to check for danger with his mana sight as well. What he saw was shocking and he gripped Leya''s arm hard. "Theke! Somethinging!" She quickly covered his mouth and looked at him with a stern expression as she shook her head in a negative response. This shocked him and he nodded before pointing at the water and spreading his hands out in a wide way to ok indicate the thing approaching wasrge. She looked confused as turned to watch but he could not simply stay there. He pulled away and flew into the air before she could grab him and although he saw her staring at him with anger he didn''t care. He flew into the clearing and yelled at the wolf. "RUN!" He then cast therge spear of mana he had created into the water, which erupted into a geyser as a monstrouslyrge serpent tried to strike the wolf. He did not know if the wolf understood him but apparently his actions were enough to alert it to danger as the wolf managed to leap away from the fangs just in time. The serpent stared at him and then the wolf before it rose further out of the water, it was as thick as a young redwood and it roared a challenge as it tried to bite him to swallow him whole. He evaded it and began to cast many spells while frenzy wing was endlessly raining needles onto this beast, each beat sent the needles out as his wings moved like a snapping whip to keep him aloft andunch the projectiles. The serpent roared in rage and began to spit out steam which he instantly avoided as he worried about it since he saw no mana. The thing that surprised him most was the sight of a sudden ck blur tackling the serpent. The wolf was shing snd biting at the serpent''s belly with burning ws which enraged the serpent, it could not target the wolf however as his spells were aimed at its eyes making it hesitant to change targets so easily. That was when Leya approached and her body was emitting a hazy fog while her form flickered with blue fire within, the closer she got to the water the more he saw an interesting sight. The water was beginning to freeze over! This mist she was exuding was freezing theke which made the serpent unable to flee into the water so it had to exit to thend. The rapidly spreading ice made a great surface for the wolf to fight as well and while the serpent was forced to flee to thend it was tearing into the body that exited the water. He also aimed at every wound the wolf made to gain an easy opening for his shadow mana to begin consuming the beast. The wolf eventually jumped onto the snake''s back to bite down and try to do something but he just flew towards the front half to start bombarding its most vulnerable point, the head. If he could cause severe damage to the head or eyes then he could cripple its ability to fight so this was his goal. Once the serpent was fully exposed it roared into the sky and began to release steam, steam that shockingly made the wolf yelp and jump away from the serpent''s body. ''This may have been a bad idea.'' Chapter 105: Frenzy Star With theke freezing over further the serpent could not escape and with the damage of the consumption slowly building up Ezekiel chose to examine it. ~~~~~~~~~~ Abyssal Lake Serpant- lv750 ~~~~~~~~~~ "Is this normal for this area?!" "No it must be from deeper in the abyss, they onlye out like this when something big is moving territory..." He saw that his damage to the boss was minusculepared to the wolf and the wolf was beginning to take damage from the steam the snake released. He flew down near the wolf and it snarled at him but he held out a hand to use his life affinity to heal the beast. "I don''t know if you understand but that thing will mess up this region, let me help you kill it." The wolf snarled but allowed him to remain where he was, the more it got healed the less it snarled and eventually looked out at the steam cloud with an expression of hatred. "Yeah it attacked you, it attacked you and if not for me you''d be hurt worse right?" The wolf looked back at him with a look that he couldn''t really figure out before it lowered itself to the ground beside him. He was very confused by this action and eventually the wolf looked back at the steam and then to him, the wolf apparently made a decision and bit the back of his hood to lift him up. "Whoa! Hey! Let go! I''m trying to help you not hurt you so don''t eat me!" His words were met with no reaction as the wolfuched him over it''s side and onto it''s back where hended with a loud gasp as the air was knocked out of his lungs. He was on the back of the wolf with his hands clinging to it''s thick fur when the wolf charged the steam again. ''Oh it wants me to fight with it...'' He began to use his spells to help the beast by healing its wounds in the steam, his own wounds were healed as well but he could mitigate most of the damage by using his mana barriers. As he thought of this he had a good idea and began to spread his mana across the wolf to try and give it a barrier as well. The wolf seemed to notice theck of damage from the cloud of steam and by using his mana sight Ezekiel pinpointed the serpent that had apparently been trying to surround them. With a burst of shadow mana Ezekiel alerted the wolf to the danger by coating the serpent in ck mes that were more visible through the steam than it''s blueish scales. He had figured out that the serpent was an ambush hunter and by removing the stealth it was less dangerous. The wolf lept over the tail end of the serpent and it snapped at the back legs of the wolf before hissing in rage and pain. He would send out frenzy wing projectiles to whittle down the boss while the wolf used it''s agility to find an opening and attack. Ezekiel eventually had an idea and began to form an image of a ming wolf maw for the wolf which it seemed to be wary of. He did another construct to make ws of the wolf in an attempt to work together. He figured thatbining their individual strengths would be the best way to beat the serpent bur he eventually realized that his ally was not as intelligent as he hoped. ''It really is just a big wolf with slightly above average intelligence huh?'' Stay connected through m-v l|e''-NovelBin He simply kept attacking the serpent and while the wolf ran back and forth to avoid the enemy he waited for an opportunity to do more. While he was attacking the serpent he had a lot of free energy to strategize however and he used it to think of a new spell. ''Something that has power, I need spell that can do an intense and powerful hit. Something that would simply be used and reused unlike my death by a thousand cuts spell.'' As before he turned to the inspiration of his previous spells, a monster that had immense power while still being more dangerous due to the aftereffects of the power it used. He thought about the way it used the power, the lingering pools of damage, the bombs, the slow death by the scales of its wings that tore victims apart from the inside. The monster had another move it used often that could work but he didn''t think it was the right one in this case. He then turned to other aspects of the monster, the one he had fought most in the game was technically the juvenile form of a much more dangerous beast. The stronger form of the beast had greater master over it''s power and often used it in ways he actually dreamed of. Passively creating areas of danger, turning old attacks into new and more dangerous forms, he especially wished to be able to call down dangerous explosions of mana like that beast. He thought about the way it would float in the air with the power of its elemental effects slowly burning away everything until it copsed into a single point. The worst attack to escape by far was when it did what many called the "orbital attack" where beams made of that same power would surround the target and slowly circle in on it until they became one at which point the monster would release the attack it had been charging up. The attack would fall in the form of a star that would explode in a massive effect that could instantly kill most yers in said game. He thought about the idea of using his mana to pull outside mana in while he channeled the spell, simultaneously he would have a cage of shadowfire rays that slowly circled inward to pin the target in ce and distract it while he was channeling his spell. The mana would be condensed to hold microscopic needles that would all cause individual damage and he would seal it within a shell of vtile mana while using that shell to condense it even smaller. The process would repeat for as manyyers of this explosive effect as he could aplish but he knew that he would be in danger during it. As he finalized his imagery of the spell he activated the spell crafter title and the spell was born. ~~~~~~~~~~ Frenzy Star lv1 (S) ~~~~~~~~~~ Now that he had the spell he would use it on the serpent as the perfect test dummy. He lept off of the wolf and began to cast the spell. ~ Leya was observing the battle with annoyance. ''He has to much pride, not only will he get himself killed but he will get the weaker territory king killed which will mean he has to look for another one.'' She was thinking about how to break the news to the queen when she saw him leap into the sky in a strange pose. His wings were fully outstretched and his body was in a beautiful pose that reminded her of how the celestials often appeared before people. She watched his tail sway in the mana that held him aloft and in her mana sense she saw that he was pulling the surrounding mana in like a vacuum. The mana in the region was converging and she saw a rotating cage of shadowfire beams begin to form around the serpent which the wolf lept out of with a yelp of concern. The serpent when trying to get out would hiss in pain as it felt itself takingrge amounts of damage so it coiled up more and more until its body was safe. She watched as he rose slightly higher before bringing his hands within inches of eachother to create a mana construct. This spell had so much mana within that she actually got worried about how close she was and began to back away when he finally let the construct go above the serpent. The serpent had been writhing and screeching in pain from the beams that had begun to move over it''s body and it threw itself out of the range of those beams once they became one point. That was when she realized that the beams were a distraction. He had vanished from the point he was over before and was suddenly above the serpent again with that construct falling. He had waited for just the right moment as well it seemed because the serpent tried to swallow him whole right as it realised who was causing it such pain. She saw this serpent snap itself into the air to bite at the floating devil as a glowing star fell into it''s open maw, then he vanished. She also saw that the wolf was trying to attack it again and Belial watched with a sad expression on his face as the spell went off. The serpent had turned to strike the wolf when it suddenly belched ck fire and before it could even make a noise it''s head was separated from it''s body by a giant burst of ck from the star it had swallowed. Chapter 106: Integration After witnessing the death of the serpent Ezekiel approached the corpse to activated his storage bag, the body was drawn in with a strange distortion of it''s form with not even a change in weight for the bag. The wolf had fled during the chaos and most likely the whole area would be silent for some time due to the battle that had urred. Now that he had the core necessary he could focus on gaining the gold and killing this other kingdom''s leader. "This city, can I hear more about it? I''m not quite sure what the best path would be for killing a leader..." She looked around before simply shaking her head. "Yes but not here, I will return you to the city and then I can tell you everything that you wish to know from the safety of the walls." He did not argue and simply followed her back, he thought about the new spell all the while however. The spells that Lucretia used were essentiallysers and he understood that they were a damage over time based spell but he wasn''t sure how they worked, this new spell was his way of making a powerful damage option in his own way. Since the spell worked how he hoped he didn''t care about any inadequacies but he still wanted to understand why she usedsers. As they travelled to the city he saw how dark it was getting, this one task alone had taken almost a full day and with how far he had gone in focusing on this quest he would probably lose track of the number of days left to y. ''Well I have my tasks and I can''t avoid them, it''s best if I just work my way through this... I wonder if they have a dungeon?'' "Hey Leya is there a dungeon nearby?" She nods in response and began to look around as if sensing something. "The dungeon is well equipped and fits the levels of our territory, it has a focus on the poison element so after you obtain it you should take time to build resistance." "Wait, obtain it?" "Yes. You got your life affinity right? Well poison is another status element." "Um... can you exin what a status element is?" She sighs before nodding. "Sometimes I forget about your circumstances. A status element is not tied to the four prime elements and is generally seen as a utility based element." She raised her hand and her ws developed a purple glow. "Poison is the status element of death and decay so it is usually very dangerous but the poison affinity can also help you. With enough skill in both life affinity and poison affinity a skilled healer could easily create a powerful buffing spell." She then shed outward and a wave of purple mana struck a tree which began to turn grey and lifeless. Experience tales at m v|l e''-NovelBin "Poison mana is also obviously used for poisoning a target which would probably help you with that strange spell of yours." The idea excited him and he nodded. "I want to learn it! What are some other status elements since I can learn more?" She began to describe the other two status elements. "Well first you have Psionic mana, psionic mana is used for mostly mental attacks like illusions or sleep." She suddenly appeared to have bright green skin but his mana sight held this effect in an odd way since he could see the mana was acting like a second skin. "Whoa ok that''s cool." She nods and begins to show him the next element. "This is blood magic and it is mainly used as a medium for other forms of magic by using mana rich blood to enhance other spells and creations that can use blood as an ingredient." "Oh I''ve seen that one!" He watched as she was mostly manipting a deep red mana that had been pulled from her body when she cut herself. "Guess you just have to learn that one then?" She nods and gives him a strange look. "Well those are the four status elements and they have unique methods of harnessing them as you have clearly seen but there are more than the four prime elements as well." She smiled and showed off a mana construct made of ice. "Each element has what people call a sibling or an extension. For example I have a water affinity and a fire affinity but through thorough training I managed to unlock mytent potential with the ice affinity." "So what are the other elements?" "Well fire has the magma element, wind has the lightning element, water has the ice element and earth has the metal element." She began exining how each element worked in conjunction with one another while they saw the walls in the distance. "You will have to know everything about the kingdom that you will be entering." ~ The kingdom of ShaLae was a region ruled by the human race. Their capital, the city of Shae, was known for being very opposed to non humans. "So wait... why are the humans racist?" "They are not racist they simply fear the inevitable fate of all of humanity." "And that would be?" "Integration. Humans are capable of reproducing with every race in our world and they have a short lifespanpared to many of the other races, because of this simple fact it is rare to find a city that does not have humans but those humans are usually halflings." "A city that has humans is far more likely to have halflings if it is an integrated city but because of this it is unlikely to find humans that are not already rted to one another." She began to exin further when she saw his confusion and this was his interpretation. Most people will not care about the mixing of races if their society does not oppose it, because of this the humans will likely not seek out other humans for any sense of purity but instead they would marry for attraction or love. Since this tendency to marry for such reasons leads to ack of care about the species the humans tend to breed themselves out of society. With less humans and more halflings as well as more individuals with a pure lineage being around it makes the human bloodline unlikely to survive. In fact the human race was already in a state that his home would consider endangered. "Because of poption records we know that approximately 60% of the previous generation has integrated into another race which means 60% of humanity will be lost when their life is over." "Well Integration isn''t a bad thing right? It means more union between the races." She nods for a moment but then sighs. "Losing the human race would be devastating for the world no matter how good a union between the races may be. The death of the human race would mean the stagnation of our world." "Why would it stagnate though?" Sheughed and began to exin further. Apparently the human race dies so much sooner than other races that they work harder to create a legacy. This legacy tends to create a boost for the world by introducing new ideas that other can expand upon. By losing the ingenuity of the human race they would lose many of the creations that would have happened. Because of this fact there were many regions that had begun to iste from other races as a way to preserve the human race but this was only a temporary solution. The hope was that the halflings would inherit the ingenuity of the human race as well as the potential to integrate other races by breeding with any other. In this world the human race was doomed to extinction by integration. --------------- Updated character panel (before experience given by miniboss. Ezekiel ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Void Magus [Rogue] lv250. (S+) Abyssal Voidbeast [Soldier] Affinity: 100% Shadowfire 100% Life Mana Core: 100% Shadowfire Strength: 20 (+760 +30%) Vitality: 4000 -> 4600 (+1910 +30%) Agility: 3000 -> 4000 (+180 +30%) Wisdom: 5000 -> 6000 (+90 +30%) Intelligence: 8000 -> 9000 (+80 +30%) Free stats: 4 Hp: 4100 Stamina: 200 Mana: 17,050 Bloodline: Abyssal Voidbeast [Soldier] Titles: Dungeon Conqueror, Tutor, Protector of Raylock, Spell Crafter Skills: Lesser Mana Maniption lv2 (L+), Ojos de Dios. [Restricted lv0] (SSS), Mana Gem lv7 (S), Spell Mastery (E), Mana Condenser (E), Complete Mana System (S), Mana Burn (S) Void Conversion lv6 (L+), Void Consumption (L), Mana Enhancement lv1 (M), Mana Armament (M), Void Constitution (S), Void Walk (S), Autonomous Mind (S), Spell Scribe lv1 (M) Defenses: Fire Resistance lv2 (M), Shadow Immunity (L), Mana Guard lv10 (M) Spells: Mana Bolt lv8 (E) Mana Burst lv8 (A) Fire Nova lv10 (M) Fire Arrow lv10 (M) Fire Spear lv6 (M) Shadow Spear lv10 (M) Shadow Cluster lv10 (E) Shadow Arrow lv10 (M) Shadowfire Orb lv10 (A) Shadowfire Spear lv10 (L) Shadowfire Nova lv10 (L) Shadowfire Nova Needle lv4 (S) Shadowfire Mirv lv1 (S) Corrosive Frenzy Wing lv10 (L+) Corrosive Frenzy Bomb lv7 (L+) Frenzy Star lv1 (S) ~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 107: Quality Time With the new knowledge about the fate of the human race being given out they continued to discuss the city. Since they did not allow those from other races to live in the city he would be under heavy scrutiny when entering. With the kingdom choosing the church as their side of this conflict they would also be unlikely to let a devil in, especially a male devil that had no escort. It was normal procedure to have wards that would alert the guards to teleportation into their walls so teleporting in wasn''t an option. This meant the only options wouls be to somehow get him into the city by smuggling him in or by disguising him. "Wait if they cam detect people that enter through teleportation wouldn''t they be able to detect people entering from the gates? Wouldn''t I get found immediately?" Leya shook her head. "No, detection wards are expensive and only the most wealthy of regions would put them in their capital city. Most likely they would have them at the gates of the castle but other than that? It is far to expensive to do so." "Oh... wait why?" "Well to make a ward detect individuals through the area and disregard things like flies going in and out every five seconds you must add more to the spell circle so that it only counts an individual once and cklists certain things from the count so you don''t get a list of entities in the hundreds of thousands." "Do you really think that the count would be so high?" She looked at him and sighed before looking at a space between two trees. "You can make spell circles now yes? Make a spell circle here to try to detect me when I pass through them." He nods and began to think of the best way to do this spell circle. ''If I use the rune for reading I could use it as detection while I set the rune for life which would make the spell circle into a rune for detecting life.'' He began to create the spell circle but then he remembered the point she made about flies. ''Well... I could connect the rune of removal to the rune of reading, if I am correct that would make the rune exclude the next rune I connect to it... but how do I made a rune for insects?'' Experimentation time! He started by creating a line of runes thatbined the shield and skin runes to indicate an exoskeleton before adding the life rune to the mix to create one whole runebination that would indicate ''Exoskeletoned life'' and when he tried it out he got the idea of a bug while reading it so he assumed it would be fine. As he put the rune into his spell circle the circle shattered. "What the hell!" His second attempt at the spell circle was also a failure but when he tried to stabilize it by feeding it more mana the failure was catastrophic this time. "Ok ok stop, you''ll just hurt yourself without any guidance so you will have to talk to the queen about all of this when we get back." He nods and wiped his face clean of the first that the explosion had sent flying. ~ When he entered the tent Ezekiel saw that thefort aspects were being taken away by female demons. "Ah wee back darling, how did the hunt go?" He looked around and sighed. "I killed a territory king but the tent is to small to show it... actually the whole square is to small and it would probably freak people out." "Oh? Your kill was that impressive eh?" "I killed some serpent that Leya thinks came from deeper in the abyss." Her eyes began to narrow. "Oh? What was the species darling." "It was called an abyssalke serpent, it was lv750... actually it gave me a ton of experience, I might be able to rank something up on my ss or race soon." "Your next evolution isn''t until 400 which is the same time as you can advance your ss again so you dont have to think about that for now." He checked his status screen and smiled. ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Void Magus [Rogue] -lv348. ~~~~~~~~~~ "Actually the kill on that snake gave me nearly a hundred levels." She looked at him with an appraising gaze. "That is impressive, you will do well if you can get into the dungeon then..." At this he actually stood up with a smile. "The dungeon is what I had hoped to do, I would love to be able to run through the dungeon to get more experience for this quest I got stuck with." Sheughed and nodded. "Well you will need to go in with some of the younger individuals... as much as I hate that idea." "What do you mean?" She gave him an expression of anger and disbelief. "How many times must I tell you, darling you are unnaturally attractive to the infernal race. God''s it''s like they made you just to mock us!" He rolled his eyes while listening. "That tail is longer than your damn legs and your wings are glossy without a single vein visible in the membranes. You are taller than the demons I have met and you are slender like you were made to dance through the sky... heavens ashes, if you are supposed to be a vois beast then those void beasts must have been the most beautiful beings to exist." "I''m pretty sure I''d look like a freak to other races." She gave his arm a smack. "Should their opinions matter?! You are a devil and you are mine ." He rubbed his arm a bit and looked at her surprised by her reaction. "You okay?" She cleared her throat whileposing herself from the snarling face she had made. "Yes... sorry. The thought of any other woman looking at you makes me want to tear my way through everything I look at but I know how much you hate it when women don''t take your feelings into consideration." "Lucretia it''s not just women, I hate it when anyone ignores how I feel." She stared at him with an unreadable expression before she giggled like a schoolgirl. "You and a man... hmm what a delicious thought." "....Huh?...." "Well you said that it''s not just women that you hate to get such treatment from so I assume that means you are not opposed to malepany?" She had a sly grin. "Whoa, hey I didn''t mean it that way I only meant that I hate it when anyone acts like my feelings don''t matter but that applies to my feelings outside of rtionships too!" She giggled again and looked at his bag. "Well I would not be opposed to that idea..." "You do realize that you''re being a hypocrite right? You hate the idea of other women looking at me but the idea of another man sharing a bed with me is exciting?" She froze. "You are... unhappy?" "Well not really but you have to have known that you''d look pretty silly if you didn''t hate it on both sides rather than just women." She looked away with a frown. "How do you think you''d feel of I tried to rip apart a man that tried to check you put but then asked you to get in bed with a woman?" She turned back to look him in the eye with unwavering confidence. "I would tie her up and do as my beloved asked.... my love for you is beyond my desire to possess you and it is normal for multiple women to desire the same man..." "Whoa hey, a lot of people would disagree with that though! It''s actually pretty weird to a lot of people." She looked him up and down with a soft chuckle. "Darling if you had been born in this world I think you would have multiple covens at your beck and call. You would sire hundreds of children, maybe thousands, before you chose to move on with me beside you... you would be powerful." He felt a weird flutter in his chest but then he simply hugged her. "I don''t want to deal with entire covens of women." She looked up at him with a smile. "Let us make a deal my darling, you open your mind to a night with a man and I will open my mind to a night with a woman." He scowled a bit and flicked her forehead. "Could you go relieve yourself already? I don''t know how long you''ve been pent up in here but you''re acting like a damn teenage boy from my home." She frowned and put her head on his chest. "I am being serious, I cannot bear the number of children you deserve as quickly as I feel you should have them, you should be a powerful father of many young that you can feel pride in." "I don''t care about children right now because I am still courting you." She developed a sad expression and began to pull away, he tried to hold her but she slipped out. "I wish to honor you in the way my people would honor you and I wish to have the hundreds of children who looked like my beloved, so that when you are not here I will not be as lonely..." Chapter 108: Toxic Swamp pt1 The first day in the local dungeon of the infernal capital was met woth difficulty. Searching for any teams that would ept a male devil was impossible but even worse than this was the fact that he had wanted to go in without the knowledge the queen could provide. He hid his features as usual but his deeper voice did not hide his gender and hisck of knowledge of the dungeon meant teams would view him as a liability. And so Ezekiel was forced to return to his solo dungeon crawling. The dungeon itself was very close to what he expected. Find your next read on m_v l|e-NovelBin A dungeon that was full of water and poison mana due to the swamp that made up the interior. This dungeon specifically required him to absorb the poison element as quickly as he could because it was dangerous for s low level to be inside without the poison resistance skill. The swamp was dangerous due to not only the monsters within but the environment. Deep mud pits could drown an unsuspecting dungeon crawler while the toxic mana filled everyst inch of certain regions in the dungeon. Aside from these basic descriptions he could only guess based on the dangers found in real swamps, though a magical world had very unique dangers. ~ By watching the area with his mana sight Ezekiel was able to avoid some very dangerous areas filled with water and poison mana, he even noticed traps due to their heavy mana density with the purple glow of poison. The water was mostly visible under the moss floats that acted like carpets of danger. There were so many pits full of water that he began to wonder if the whole swamp was actually a floating mass. For such a swamp to have so much water it would be unstable due to the mud filling the areas left behind. Deep pits like monstrouslyrge sinkholes, vines coated in poison, nts with tantalizing fruit that held dangerous roots covered in barbs. The swamp was a maze of pain and death but if one knew where to go then they would be safe. Ezekiel did not know where to go. When he respawned outside of the dungeon he was cursing up a storm. "A fucking venus fly trap?! SERIOUSLY?!" He had gone through the swamp on foot and had avoided each trap he saw through his mana sight but he did not anticipate danger from the trees. A sudden snapping sound was all he heard before he saw a green and red skin close around him and the one ying him was a "Toxic Venus" that crushed him. He respawned outside of the dungeon and got ready for another attempt but then someone put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey need a team?" He turned around and saw a group of five women that all looked roughly his own age, young infernals that had just gotten to adulthood. "Yeah I do... I might not be very useful though because I just got killed by a toxic venus." "Oh yeah those are... uh yeah don''t worry about it, we just need someone that is good at scouting and our mage isn''t able to focus on everything at once." "Oh scouting? Yeah I can do that. You don''t mind having a male ally then?" "Nope we have a mate back home and he''s tending to things so we needed a sixth member to bnce our party back out." "Yeah he usually scouts things for us with Astra while we kill the monsters from a distance." "Killing from a distance huh? Well then that''s something I can get behind." As they entered the dungeon they moved through one path which he followed. "I can''t believe the queen left to the castle again, I never guessed she was so beautiful." "Was that your first time seeing the queen too?" ''Huh I guess Lucretia really doesn''t show herself as often as I thought.'' "Yeah I saw here for the first time a few days ago..." "I heard she finally found her mate!" "Oh it''s so romantic! I bet they spent the entire time mating to create her firstborn!" "I he''s a powerful mage, the queen refused all pther suitors so she must have sought only the most powerful devil." "I bet he''s as handsome as the Abyss King." "Who''s the Abyss King?" "Huh? Oh! I guess you''re an otherworlder right?" He nods and the devil astra spoke up. "The Abyss King is another name for the god of darkness Necros. Every infernal gains a chance to see a glimpse of him when they reach the archdemon or archdevil species and the descriptions of him are always that of a beautiful god." "What about those that don''t see him?" "Ah well the chances are even between seeing the god of darkness and the goddess of fire so we have fairly urate descriptions of them these days." "I see, well I obviously haven''t reached that stage yet so that''s something to look forward to." They continued throught the area and when he got close to the region where he died to the flytrap he started to watch the trees. "The toxic venus wont be there don''t worry." "Is this your first dungeon?" "No actually I did something called a t2 dungeon a few days ago." "Oh my! Impressive, an otherworld devil that can go through a tier two dungeon is very interesting... then again you''re the first otherworlder we have met." The others nodded in agreement and he felt a bit embarrassed. "So who helped you through it?" "Actually I was able to solo it through all of the difficulties." He wanted to brag so that he would be taken seriously but it seemed to have the opposite effect. "HA! I''m sorry but you shouldn''t exaggerate like that, a male devil beating a dungeon solo is impossible if they don''t have a huge level difference." The others were giggling as well and he got angry. When he saw a sh of movement in a tree he used his teleportation skill to get into the branches, as he snuck through them he saw what looked like arge serpent coiled on the branch and stalking the five women on his team. ~~~~~~~~~~ Toxic Tree Viper lv465 ~~~~~~~~~~ ''Let''s see if they mock this.'' He cast the frenzy wing spell and began to shred the serpent above the group. The snake hissed loudly and fell to the ground in front of the group, he smiled down at the beast but with the veil of shadows in his hood it would not be visible. He then began to cast the frenzy star spell. ''Overkill maybe but I don''t give a damn.'' The mana in the area surged, flooding into this ball of darkness as eachyer was made while the beams caged the viper in. As the beams coalesced and made the viper shriek in pain he released the star with the hope of seeing it fall into the gullet of the screaming beast as it had before when he used it on the serpent. The snake avoided the star sadly but it did take the full force of the explosion on itself as it tried to flee and since it was coiled up it clearly did not have the chance to speed away. It was able to get a portion of it''s body away when the star fell on the coils of it''s body, the explosion shredding through its trunk and killing it. "I think this scouting role is pretty easy, what do you girls think?" He saw their faces had looks of astonishment in various forms from fear to awe but as he approached they ran over. "That was AMAZING!" "You''re a shadow mage? Yes! I can''t believe i got to see another one!" "I''ve never heard of another infernal shadow mage besides the queen." "Uhh yeah it was an affinity I started with.." "So it''s your bloodline affinity? Cool!" The only one that seemed to be uninterested was Astra. "Such a powerful affinity is wasted on a male, it''s a shame really but at least you seem to be putting effort in your growth unlike the rest. When you marry your affinity will go to waste though." "Ohe on Astra you just saw that amazing spell, can you match that?" "My point exactly. He will be raising the young of the coven he marries while such power is wasted by not being used... at least his children may inherit it." He was disgusted by her reaction and shook his head. "Tell me where the boss is, I don''t have to listen to this nonsense." "Wait what?" "I said tell me where the damn boss is, I want to leave and stop listening to this misandry." "Watch your tongue male, I will make sure to tell your coven that they need to train you better." "ASTRA STOP!" Thergest demoness if the group grabbed her friend by the arm and yanked her back. "Stop acting like that with him he clearly told you it makes him ufortable!" "Why should I care about hisfort? He is not our Luca." "You must respect the wishes of others did your mothers teach you nothing?" The others were silent during this and other than one of them looking at him with an apologetic expression they did nothing else. Chapter 109: Toxic Swamp pt2 After every calmed down and the group separated astra from being near their temporary ally everyone returned to their tasks. Everyone except for Ezekiel who had slipped away the first chance he saw. He was using his mana sight to maneuver through the swamp and he knew to be very careful this time. If he had been watching the treesst timd he wouldn''t have been killed but now with better preparation he was able to hunt down these enemies... if he could find any. The ces he searched were empty so he was forced to just cultivate his mana and specifically cultivate his poison affinity to try to unlock it. As the mana entered his body he felt a sense of nausea that he did not notice with the other elements. His body was adjusting slowly but it was making progress and that was what mattered. He was able to absorb some of the poison element in the mana but the rest still floated through the other ne in that strange way mana would move. Since he had gotten the best results ising the crystallized life mana in the previous dungeon when he tried to gain his affinity with it he figured the best method this time would be the same, so he searched for a dense region of poison elemental mana. The farther he got inside of the swamp the more poison he saw but this was more trap based mana than actually usable mana. He noticed that the mana in the traps almost felt like the mana used in spell circles and those circles could not be manipted by others without causing the mana within to reach a vtile state. By carefully avoiding these traps and those set by ntlife he was eventually able to find another enemy, this one was arge mosquito. Find your next read on m_v l|e-NovelBin It was buzzing around and suddenly turned in his direction as if smelling him, he knew there was a theory that mosquitoes could smell sweat and he was certainly drenched in it so he got ready forbat. He entered the proper stance for unarmedbat and cast his normal spells, the frenzy wing in particr might end up useful here. As the giant bug charged him he saw that it was actually the size of a dog, a dog that wanted to suck his blood but still small. He shed at the bug and it easily evaded but he had a wing pping out to strike it with the ded ws in a backhand. The bug evaded this strike as well and it began to get frustrating. He realized that if he was going to kill this thing he needed to somehow take out it''s wings and only one spell had the potential for it. He started to cast frenzy bombs everywhere while he attacked the mosquito and the hope was that the aoe would csuse enough cuts to the wings that the consumption would eventually make the wings fall apart. The mosquito seemed to be trying to fly above him now and this strategy wasn''t bad but it wasn''t hard to keep the danage piling up. Eventually he saw that it was beginning to slow and he could almost keep up, meaning he could kill it with enough damage to the wings. He kept casting the spell and even began to multicast now that he saw that the melee effort was in vain. Therge insect was unable to escape now that he has his full attention on casting spells and this was the perfect way to kill this creature. He was happy with his choice of the magus ss, he had a focus in spellcasting power but that power would simultaneously support his physical power. As the mosquito hit the ground heshed out with a wing and struck it with a w. The mosquito made no noise but he saw the wound was deep, clearly the insect was not made for full battles and instead relied on speed so he had the advantage this time. After killing the mosquito he was very happy with the result and left to continue his search for more prey or for the poison mana crystals. ~ Searching through this dungeon was not pleasant. He could look for hours and find nothing but dangers but he was covering what he hoped was arge area. Eventually he got sick of the constant travel and decided to try something new. shing at a tree with his shadow ws he began to let them simply degrade under his element. Most people left marks to show they had been there but this was different. Since the shadow magic consumed vitality as fuel it was not hindered by the wet wood and although it did not travel as rapidly as fire could it did not have a way to be put out if he didn''t do so. Soon he flew over the treetops and unleashed volleys of frenzy bombs to start breaking the trees down. ''Who knows, maybe I can do this to passively farm experience and easily gain stats." He had a sly grin on his face as he unleashed chaos upon the dungeon without a single care. Soon he figured out why it was rmended to not fly in the dungeon. Swarms of bats began to rise from the trees try to attack him but he kept his body covered in his Mana Armament to protect him whike he began to shroud himself in a cloud of the frenzy needles to start harming the bats. His Armament was not a perfect defense but he had upgraded his mana guard recently and it allowed him to project his guard farther from his body. He watched as the forest began to slowly degrade from his consumption rapidly destroying it as he spread it. He began to battle the swarm of bats and he focused on using frenzy bomb to take out as many as possible. The bats were very low level for this dungeon but he was still weaker and with them constantly cracking his armor and guard he wouldn''t be safe for long. He unleashed his spells by lobbing three at a time, the bats were so densely packed around him that he could take advantage of his immunity to shadow damage and let the projectiles simply blow up in his face to start killing these frail enemies. The minimum level for this dungeon was three hundred and because of this it was quite the significant boost to him even with his level being at three hundred and forty nine. He was getting basically nothing from these kills but he did get a lot of stats surprisingly. He also saw that once he had shredded through the bats he was above a sea of ck me, the tree tops had begun to act as the highway for the consumption to spread throughout the dungeon. He settled down in the original point and began to explore what was left behind, mainly looking at the nt based traps. He was totally focused on his task until he heard crashing through the woods and witnessed arge reptile charging him while covered in consumption. He jumped out of the way and made sure to cover its back in frenzy wing needles but the tail pped him into a tree which knocked the breath from his lungs. The lizard charged him again but he was ready. He was curious if it had the same weakness as real world alligators so he used his teleportation skill to jump onto it''s back and then while his wings held him against it in a stranglehold he wrapped his arms around the maw of the beast. In the real world alligators are incapable of opening their mouth if even simple pressure pinned the maw closed, by putting your jand under the bottom jaw one could basically force the alligator to use its weight ir its ws to fight since the jaw had no opening strength. This lizard seemed to have been developed with a simr weakness as it could not get his grip loose no matter how hard it struggled. With him on it''s back and stabbing into it with his wings it also could not easily roll over due to the injuries it now had that would probably make it bleed out if it attempted a roll. The lizard thrashed around and purple oozed out of it''s maw, poison. The poison caused a new problem because it began to eat away at his armor while he made sure it could not break free. He kept striking it faster and harder to open its body to attack the sensitive organs. His wings were stabbing at a rapid pace and his other hand shed at the beasts throat to try and make it drain the poison out. He eventually just took his Voidbeast fang and shoved it into the eye of the thrashing lizard. "DIE ALEADY YOU STUPID LIZARD!" Chapter 110: Toxic Swamp pt3 As he destroyed the heart of the lizard he was fairly satisfied but tired from the rough encounter. ''Damn my stamina is to low to be doing such crazy shit...'' He quickly left the reptile and lept back into the air to continue destroying the forest. As he destroyed more and more of the forest he eventually began to get notification of consumed targets. He did not really focus on it until he began to hear the screams of women in the swamp, he was about to go search for them before he stopped when he remembered the fact that only one of them told anything to their friend about her behavior. ''Let them burn...'' He chose to continue the destruction. ~ As the group of infernal women explored the swamp they began to notice more activity from the creatures. First they had to battle a tree viper and they were exhausted. They eventually found a turtle, a creature that was known for attacking from the water with poison coated jaws to kill prey. The turtle was moving faster than they had seen one ever moving and it was fleeing the same direction as the viper had been fleeing. The turtle was more difficult for them but they were able to eventually y the beast since it did not have the murky swamp water to hide it. As they slew the turtle they left to find more prey but they heard a strange noise, the sound of crashing trees. When checking the direction it came from they immediately got themselves ready but this specific monster was to much for the exhausted state they were in. Because of this giant lizard charging them they turned to flee but then one of them saw a wee sight. "ck fire! Remember that male''s spell? It caused ck fire! He must be chasing this one down so let''s take it out and help him." "Absolutely not, he fled like a coward and is not using us as the distraction? Uneptable!" "Oh my god shut up Astra he just got sick of you I bet." "Nonsense, he is a male and males must understand their ce in our world. He will eventually marry and when he does he will not be able to handle the life of a husband and the life of an adventurer." The group quit bickering as they began to battle the reptile but they quickly realized that they were outmatched and not only outmatched but they had other dangers to be concerned with. The lizard was thrashing them despite the danger of the mes slowly killing it and they quickly realized that they were fighting a creature that was fighting for it''s life. Eventually the lizard gravely injured one of the demoness women and began to flee, this act surprised the women until they heard the cracking of branches behind them and upon turning around they screamed in fear. A wall of ck fire that coated every single living thing was consuming the forest which only left them with a single direction to flee. "HEY! MALE! STOP THE FIRE BEFORE YOU KILL US!" The four of them began screaming to catch the attention of their ally but nothing seemed to catch his attention. They fled from those mes and as they ran they noticed that the lighting from above was getting weaker until it vanished entirely. Without the light they had to follow astra who held a ball of fire to light the way but this slowed their progress which made the mes catch up. The farther they went the more they saw other creatures fleeing through the swamp and these creatures had severe injuries from the fire. With the fire expanding rapidly the four women were forced to run faster without being as careful over pitfalls, those with a poisonous miasma inside could easily be identified but traps without mana as the basis were not rare. The first one to fall was Leanna, a demoness that had not spoken much. She feel due to a hole in the ground which one leg had fallen into, the sickening snap of broken bone before she shrieked made the hearts of the three women go cold before they began to search for a way to heal her quickly. "GO! LEAVE ME! I''LL JUST RETURN OUTSIDE!" The trio did not want to leave her but they were forced away when she swiped at them with her de. "Just don''t get killed by that reckless male..." As she saw them flee she spoke herst words before the shadowfire overwhelmed her and the most intense pain she had ever felt began to flood her mind. She felt a primal scream of raw pain get ripped from her throat while she tried to end herself with the de she carried but the pain of the fire was to much for her. Her coven was forced to flee while listening to her scream in excruciating and unnatural pain. The shadowfire spreading across the tree tops gave it an easy path down the trunks, and with the fire slowly boxing them in they had to be even more careful. "We have to find a clearing!" "You know those are rare!" "Would you two shut up and keep looking!" They kept fleeing the mes but there was only so far they could go in this forested swamp, only so far until tragedy struck once again. The three of them kept rushing further and further until they heard the sound of snapping wood. A tree that resembled a mangrove was falling over as it''s standing root system was eaten through far faster than the trunk. The falling mangrove style tree made them flee even further as they knew that these particr trees held a dangerous poison that it used for defense from beasts. The tree hit the ground and released a cloud of miasma that began to rot the foliage around it, this made them cover their faces but the exposed skin still recieved harm. Soon they saw a break in the trees and as they threw themselves out of it they found themselves in a clearing. The first thing they saw was a hoarde of beasts trying to ughter one another as they had sought this safe haven as well. The trees did not extend here which was strange until they saw the singr tree trunk in the center of this clearing. "Oh by the abyss it''s a death tree!" They now understood why the clearing was a warzone. The death trees were home to a very specific species of insect that would protect the tree at all costs, these six legged insects would use their venom to cause such severe pain that those that were stung would fall into a rage that only ended when the venom worked it''s way out of the system or into the heart to kill them. For insects that were nearly a foot long with three inch stingers it made a significant threat. They noticed the bugs on these animals and after a quick scan they remembered the name of these beasts. "Psycho Ants!" The ants were stinging the beasts in multiple ces while they ughtered one another and some even seemed to be attacking themselves. "Look! That one is trying to hemorrhage!" "Damn it''s actually smart." In this world if one studied long enough they would be able to understand the many details of damage over time effects. Just like how burning an enemy can cause the cauterized effect which stops healing of the area for a short time, bleeding can also cause the hemorrhage effect. Although cauterizing oneself stops healing it can also stop bleeding however. Your next journey awaits at m v|l-e''-NovelBin In a simr way the hemorrhage effect is able to reduce the effects of poison in the body as the tainted blood is removed. Against an army of Psycho Ants this benefit is pointless however as the ants simply swarm the body and inject more and more venom which cannot bepletely removed. Despite the intelligence of the beast it could only bleed itself to death or sumb to the venom as it fell to the ground. They watched this ughter with a sick fascination until Jahlee spoke up. "The fire is spreading on the ground!" That was when they noticed that the mossy ground was being consumed as well. "DAMMIT! WHAT IS HE TRYING TO DO?!" The shadowfire spread across the ground in a slow creep. "Astra you have to go find him and stop this! He''ll kill us and destroy this run!" "I''ll make that uppity boy beg for forgiveness for what happened to Leanna!" She began to spread her wings but Angelique stepped forward. "You caused this! If you hadn''t pissed him off with that backwards thinking of yours he wouldn''t have left and he wouldn''t be destroying the swamp!" "My fault? MY FAULT?! HE''S A MALE HAVING A TEMPER TANTRUM AND DESTROYING EVERYTHING WITH HIS DANGEROUS POWER HE DOESN''T EVEN DESERVE!" "SHUT UP ASTRA! YOU WILL MAKE IT WORSE IF YOU SAY THESE THINGS TO HIM!" As the two most outspoken infernal women screamed at each other they saw something odd. Balls of dark energy were raining on the hoarde of rabid beasts. Chapter 111: Toxic Swamp pt4 Since he had seen theserge gaps in the swamp''s tree growth he figured it would be the ideal ce to corner a lot of creatures for mass culling. He began to rain down frenzy bombs while observing the forest, he wanted to find other creatures capable of flight so that he could remove any dangers to himself. The notifications of the mass consuming of enemies was beginning to annoy him so he muted them, he could check his stats after the dungeon anyway. He eventually turned to look at the clearing and when he saw how many creatures remained he simply began to cast the frenzy star. ''I can''t be bothered to deal with those damned creatures.'' As he was about to release the spell he suddenly heard a screaming voice from below. When he looked down he saw the devil Astra flying into the air towards him. "Oh it''s just you..." "STOP IT, YOU''RE GOING TO KILL US!" He frowned when he heard this and looked down. It took a moment but at the edge of the clearing he saw two demon women, the third he could not find however. "Hey where''s the other one?" This seemed to enrage astra and she summoned a ball of fire. "You... Maichekson! You are the one that killed her!" ''What the hell is a maichekson?'' "How did I kill her? I don''t remember attacking her." "YOUR FLAMES YOU STUPID MAICHEKSON!" He looks down and nods. "Oh I see now, yeah that makes more sense. Let me wipe outthose creatures and then I can go down there and handle the mes so no one else gets hurt." This seemed to make her settle down and the frenzy star he had been carefully controlling with his autonomous mind was allowed to fall. The projectile plummeted into the horde of creatures and rapidly spread as the shrapnelyers were burst open. He used his frenzy wing spell to take out the rest while the crowd was thinned. When everything he could see had been killed he began to descend, he saw more movement however and unleashed another barrage of frenzy bombs. The falling projectiles shredded through the creatures and he did not stop until he saw no more movement, he would not have seen any either way as the area was smothered in shadowfire now but he could certainly unleash his power again. He would keep doing so until everyst enemy on the ground was in. "Those are psycho ants, they will keep showing up until they all die but you cannot kill them without destroying their nest." "Oh? Where''s the nest then?" She pointed at the singr tree in the clearing and suddenly he had a moment of rity. He flew high into the air and spotted what had previously looked like a strange grouping of trees before but when he had noticed these trees matched those in other clearings he didn''t think of them anymore. Now he saw that these trees were muchrger and had seemingly grew into their own grove. ''I have a hunch... the boss is an ant in those trees.'' Once he felt more confident he began to descend, his boots touched the ground in front of the two demonesses and he spoke up. "I''m very sorry for your friend, I didn''t think the mes were dangerous enough to kill anyone but the creatures, they are easy to kill because theyck intelligence." He was trying to be as sincere as he could about his apology for killing their friend. "When we leave here I''ll apologize as soon as I see her of course!" Astra had her mouth open and was clearly getting ready to tell him something but the demoness who had spoken up for him during her first rant interrupted her. "That is eptable but the main one you must apologize to is our mate, he will overreact when he hears about her temporary death in the dungeon." He nodded in response and pointed in the direction of the tree grove. "So that big group of trees those ants live in, that''s where the boss is right?" The demoness that defended him the most had chosen to speak up this time. "No? Of course not, fighting psycho ants is not worth the effort because they have high magical and physical resistance." "No one tries to go into the main nest, it''s a death sentence." "Then where the hell is the boss?" "The boss is in ake of poison, the dungeon ces you in a random point so we have to look forndmarks that have been recorded." As he heard this he began to dispel the shadowfire at the edge of the clearing. Experience more tales on m v|l e''-NovelBin "Get to the rest of the area, it should have finished burning everything organic so the only remaining things would be traps and creatures that got lucky in their path." The three leave and he returns to the sky. His mastery of his flight skill had grown to be almost second nature, a single p of his wings was enough tounch him into the air. He glides until he was above the tree and got ready to take out his next targets, the psycho ants. With the frenzy wing spell ready he began to rain hell upon the tree. When he started to attack the tree he immediately noticed that this one was far more resilient than the others, the needles stuck into the wood and only harmed the surface while the damage over time effect spread across it. The bark seemed to have some damage resistance but he saw that the more he shredded the bark away the less damage he could deal. The inner wood was more resistant to damage than the bark! ''I wonder if anyone ever tries to use wood like that for construction?... Actually it might be a nightmare to work with.'' Through the whole attack on the tree he noticed that the ants swarmed out of it, holes in the ground, gaps in the trunk. The closer he got the more he realized that the tree was less of one giant trunk and more like a bundle of them which had gaps inside of it. The tree itself was asrge as a redwood and even before he reached the treetops of the swamp he had the ant infested tree in his sights. From the top of the tree he saw a swarm rushing up the branches to the sky, he kept his distance but then one of them lept into the sky like a grasshopper. ''Shit!'' He binked backwards and saw the ant plummet to the ground but others were leaping at him and they had some range. He began to bombard the tree while blinking away from the ants that lept at him, he saw the ants tanking the frenzy bombs but damage was showing. He had a good idea suddenly and flew high into the sky to prevent the ants from getting to him then he started to drop bombs on the tree in multiple casts. If he simply let the damage over time kill the ants while he destroyed the tree then he would start absorbing stats from the ants he consumes. There were probably thousands of ants in the tree and if he consumed even one percent on them he would be gaining the stats of hundreds of powerful enemies. ''The growth may be slowpared to basic leveling but it''s still free stats!'' At a certain point he had realized that his bonus stats were operating in a strange way, the bonus from the gear would apply to the stats secondary effects but their primary effects did not get affected. For example. The intelligence stat increased his mana as a primary effect now but the secondary effect gave him increased experience gain for skills and his level. The fact that he had +25% to all stats right now meant that the total stats would be increased for his secondary effects. What shocked him about how stats were handled was the fact that the stats he stole from enemies were actually applying to his base stats! The only reason he figured this out was by watching his damage as well as looking at his health, stamina and mana. Damage was the easiest to understand. His base intelligence was the stat that handled everything, then the gear bonus was applied to make his total increase by 25% and finally the stats he got from his consumption of enemies got added to this total. This was the number used for every other bonus to his damage that he received. Eventually he would have stats that would rival a martial yer. A mage being able to overpower a warrior or a barbarian makes no sense but he was practically cheating due to his elemental affinity. He may be weakpared to the npcs that had existed for a long time but with yers he would probably be the strongest in the server. Chapter 112: Toxic Swamp pt5 The story of the Devil Queen interested many of the yers that encountered the church of light, the church reported that their goal of ying shadow element users was due to some effort of making the goddess of light recognize their devotion but perhaps that was only the story told by the church. Read new chapters at mvl Many began to theorize that the church has obvious ulterior motives. One of the public reasons for the shadow element being banned in certain cities was easily tied to the church, it certainly made it easy to tie back to them since every city that ouwed the use of shadow magic had a heavy presence from the church. In other regions there were actually never any signs of the reported crimes that these cities were constantly bringing up as defense for theirw. It was said that shadow users would eventually get so strong that they could only grow by hunting down people who had high stats and using them to consume, the problem with this theory was that shadow users tended to find more value in hunting stronger opponents or simply hunting the regions that respawned creatures. There was only a single shadow user that was known to break this pattern. The Devil Queen. -The Silent Watcher (yer Journalist.) ~~~~~~~~~~ The tree protected the ants from the brunt of his attack but his spells were easily shredding through their armor due to how much focus he put into the pration effect. He almost wondered if the spell had a natural defense pration beyond the armor pration. The way the tree degraded so sloy was beginning to annoy him so he actually started to attack specific points on it with the frenzy wing spell just to push his damage deeper into the tree. If he tried this on therger trees he knew it would be a waste of time but by killing this nest he could learn more about the ants and how they inhabited these ces. Such arge tree was small inparison to the swarm of ants that left it so they must have a nest beneath the tree, perhaps in the roots of it. He focused his needles on the base of the tree to tear through the roots, The ground was blown away by the spell but it was not enought to expose the nest, the spell projectiles were digging into the roots much more easily than the tree itself so he chose this as the focus of his attack from now on. With the ants swarming on the ground now he realized that these soldiers were not the most intelligent creatures, as with all ants they made their mark on the world through numbers and swarm tactics rather than power or skill. Since they were now at an easy point to destroy since they were undefended he rained bombs upon them while drilling into the roots and base of the tree. ''So if I kill the queen I wonder what the ants would end up doing? Where would the ants even put her actually?'' Through his mana sight he could see that the tree itself was infused with mana while the ground only had a soft glow like ambient light in the area, he could see the roots tracing into the ground by the glow of a strange silver mana the tree contained. ''How odd, haven''t seen that before.'' The spells he bombarded the ground with began to cause significant impact now that he could target the earth between the roots. Eventually when he saw a drastic decrease in the number of ants he started to descend to the ground and have a better look. A few ants lept at him but a blink before they hit was enough to remove the threat, he saw the ground had signs of tunnels. Reinforced by whatever means the ants used, the tunnels were still visible but mostly hidden by debris from the explosions of his spells. He could probably crawl through those tunnels if he tried but he instantly pushed that thought away when he realized how stupid it was. The tunnels converged on the tree''s roots so he suspected there was a way into the tree from below, if this was the case he had an idea. He started to target the tunnels to make it easier to see the underside of the tree, he wanted to find the opening to the inside of the tree. To remove the excess dirt he created he had a wasteful idea but certainly it would work. Once the dirt filled the hole to much to see the roots again he prepared to cast the frenzy star, the beams focused on the roots of the tree as best as he could but the true test would be how the explosive power cleared the dirt. When he let it loose he blinked to the ground as close to the roots as he could and threw the star into a tunnel as far as he could before blinking back. When the explosion went off the ground went up in a geyser of dirt and mud, he could see much more of the roots now as well as a swarm of ants entering the crater. To cast the spell cost more than half of his mana so he had to return to the sky while he recovered it and while he did so he began to cull the ants in the pit. He examined the many exposed roots while he burned the infestation away and what he saw was that the roots were slowly breaking down due to his magic so the possibility of seeing the space inside if the tree was sooner than he hoped. Once he felt that he was safe to cast the star again he began to while he casually let bombs drop upon the ants. The bombs were mostly made to be extra damage over time so they did not take much effort to make due to all of his experience. With the beams converging they slew many ants but he was focused on getting ready to expose the central point of the tree. He saw an opening and blinked to puth the star in ce before blinking away again. His mana was severely depleted but it was no issue as he watched the star shred through every ant in the pit while also tearing it''s way through the dirt to expose the roots. When he saw this he hurried to scout the exposed region and saw arge hole which had many ants swarming from it. This hole seemed to go into the heart of the tree so he threw multiple fremzy bombs into the heart before leaving. He had exposed the heart and he would soon be destroying it with what he just did. He flew back into the sky to start regenerating his mana since he knew his next step would be just as dangerous as the previous one now that the ants were swarming the area where he had to go. He liked how powerful his mana regen was despite being able to cast thousands of mana in any given effect. When his mana bar was filled with void mana once again he got ready to cast the frenzy star again until he heard the sound of a notification. ~~~~~~~~~~ Secret event stepplete! y the psycho ant queen in the expansion nests. 1/10 ~~~~~~~~~~ He nodded when be saw this and prepared to cull the rest of the ants for free stats as well as exp so when the ants began to return to their holes after the ughter of the queen he began to think. ''So if the queen is dead then that means they''re returning somewhere, but this was the primary fear since it mean gods knew their movement skills were terrible.'' He began to observe the results but he was unsatisfied. ''Dammit! The ants were not dying as quickly as he wished and they also left faster as if they suddenly had a sense of self preservation. ''There must be an intelligent one somehwere, why are they trying to cultivate here anyway? This ce deserved to be destroyed.'' Since it appeared the ants would not return he put himself on the ground and got ready to examine the tree to learn more about it. The only issue was that he wasn''t a botanist so he only had basically ideas. He saw that the trees had one tap root but they trunk bloomed outward like a flower which turned back in on itself until this flowers warmed about it. The trees would apparently leave a gap or the ants manufactured a gap so that it eas easily to get in and out of the tree, the rest of the tree exposed itself to his theoriesrather quickly. ''Well I will meed to make sure no one who I magically sensory doubde.'' ''What a little disaster.'' He was so focused on cleaning that he did notice those approaching him. Chapter 113: Toxic Swamp pt6 After bombing the inside of the tree he sat there waiting for the notification of all of the kills. The damage over time was killing the swarm in the tree but he did not think the clouds of shadowfire wouldst much longer. ''These ants have a ton of damage resistance but I can bypass it with some of my spells, I should mainly focus on killing the queen to see the reaction of the hive.'' Explore more at mvl When he tried to harm the queen he heard an odd sounding from the tree itself which resembled that of squealing metal on metal. He focused his spells on the root system to ensure the tree was well harmed and damage would spread further to reach the queen but then he saw the searms of ants growingrger. That was when he saw that the ground where the tunnels had once been were now teeming with these ants. The reaction of the swarm surprised him and he wondered if the ant queen had somhow alerted them to her plight. Along the edge and walls of the crater he sawrge ants with powerful heads while down near the openings of the tunnels he saw what appeared to be workers show up to clean the mess. The ants began to work together to shovelrge amountsof dirt and stone away from their tunnels while others seemed to be sculpting the dirt into something. The more he watched the more he saw that they seemed to be bringing more dirt from the depth of the swamp as they refilled thend to protect their nest. The ants were surprisingly efficient in their ability to build. He watched them build the ground back up by a few inches in seconds so he began to ughter them all over again. If he could find a nest with higher level ants then he would have an excellent source of not only experience and stats but also spell levels. His frenzy bomb alone was ready to reach the next grade and he was nearly fifty levels above these ants. He eventually chose to just nuke the ants again to try to kill the queen and leave. When the frenzy star exploded in the pit it made all of their work go to waste but few survived to see it. He picked them off with his frenzy wing spell before he went to the tree again. Inside of the tree he saw that the guards had used their bodies to create a barrier against the shadowfire as protection for the queen. He was impressed but he had recovered enough mana to create another start beforeing down. He threw the vtile mana construct into the hollow before stepping away in case an ant survived and ended up being blow into him. When he saw nothing fall out after the detonation he checked once again and saw arge figure with a misshapen body writhing in the tree. ''Well the ant queen will be dead soon.'' The queen had strange ws on her legs that she iled around, these ws struck the tree and created that shriek he had heard before so he threw a few more frenzy bombs inside while bombarding her with the frenzy wing spell. This would probably be enough to kill her so he flew away before the swarm could get back to him. The entire time he was doing this the shadowfire raged through the swamp and he didn''t know if the notifications he got were for the queen or for the creatures of the swamp. Eventually he assumed the queen was dead when he saw the ants swarming worse than they ever had before, he let a few bombs fall to start consuming them and he left to find another clearing with hopefully stronger ants. ~ Astra had just watched the male ughter the ants with raw power, something she had thought wasn''t worth it due to the defenses of the ants. "He doesn''t even use the beam technique, he uses BOMBS!" "Astra give it a rest, clearly he is doing something that others haven''t tried yet, that or he has a passive damage pration skill." "No, clearly it''s the element he has... luck, all he has is luck!" "You cannot deny that he uses it well and even if it were luck how would he have managed to get a merged element with fire?" This response made her shut up but she still seethed. A male having the element of shadows was aplete waste in her eyes. The queen was the prime example of power with the shadow element, so powerful that she had lived for over a thousand years and only became the queen recently. The way she had defended their ciry with nothing but her signature spell proved that the shadow element was the supreme element in her eyes so a male having the element was practically sphemy. ''Why did the world have to give him the grand element? Give it to another female devil that would put it to proper use!'' No matter how skilled he was in his magic she would never get over the fact that he was a male, her whole life she had watched how male infernals wasted their potential. Her own father had been born with the lightning element but he never even achieved a legendary rank spell. He had never even gotten to the archmage level. The thing she despised most was that she had inherited her mother''s natural poison affinity rather than the powerful lightning element. Her mes had merged to create a poisonous sma that propagated in the body the way me spread across wood. All of her siblings had somehow gotten her fathers element however and even her brother was born as a triple element! ''Wasted potential, I have to work my tail off to match the luck others have and just because they get something through random chance they can make my efforts look like nothing!'' "Astra I know that look in your eye, rx before you do something stupid." Ametra gripped Astra by the shoulders and began to force her to shit down on a stone. "Jahlee is just trying to calm you down, just because the guy has a rare affinity doesn''t mean he was naturally able to grow stronger. He entered our world outside of our city remember?" Astra nodded but her anger was clouding her judgement to much to allow her to connect the dots. "That means he may have started in a region controlled by the church right?" The moment this thought entered her mind she sucked in a breath with a sharp hiss. "Exactly, even if the region was not controlled by them it still means they would have found him and tried to hunt him down." "So he would have had to be powerful to defend himself..." "Yes! That''s what you have to remember when you speak to him. He would have been hunted by the church while we developed over the years in safety." She looked at Ametra with a mix of apprehension and disgust. "Yeah... he wouldn''t have had people feeding him experience or teaching him the spells they inherited..." "Exactly." "Fine I will respect his growth but he will still end up like all males with potential, wasting away as a husband with all of that potential going to his children at random." "Is it really so bad to let such potential shape the future of our people? He will find a coven and they will potentially birth many shadow mages that will propel the infernal kingdom into the top position of the world! " Asta smiled softly and nodded at her fellow coven member''s words. "I suppose as long as he passes his skills on to his children he has not wasted his potential, you are correct." She agreed but deep inside that seed of anger simmered. The trio watched him fly through the sky to another part of the dungeon until he was out of sight. "The swamp has been cleared out. We should find theke." The three stood to leave while their ally flew around destroying everything. ~ Lucretia was walking through the halls of her home with a look of longing, she had not wanted to leave her room all day but duty calls. She entered the council room and kept a regal look of neutrality on her face until she sat down at the head of the table. "Report." "You sure you are able to handle this meeting Lucretia? You don''t want to go back to your room and keep riding your hand until you pass out?" A tall devil smirked at her from down the table and this earned a look of shock from the rest of the council and the nobles. Lucretia turned to this woman slowly. "Justicia Wrathborn... mind your tongue before I cut it out." "Oh but we all know that''s why you took so long. Tell me, was the male good? I''m sure you did not wait until the male was shown to be worthy of the status of king like you are meant to so what was it like to taste the young fruit?" It went so silent that a one could have heard a pin drop. Lucretia slowly stood up with a nk look on her face but every single devil there could feel the mana in her body surging. "Why do they always do this?" Soon a hand mmed on the table. "Both of you STOP IT! This meeting is about the celestials dering war on the church, we must decide if we will help the otherworlders or not." "Bah of course we will. They may not be our siblings in mind but in body they are and they are trying to destroy those bastards so win win." The noble woman quit her antagonizing while Lucretia returned to her seat. "We must figure out how far our aid will go... we have been isting ourselves from the other kingdoms so who knows how the people will react to intrusion from otherworlders and having tasks done by them to prepare for war." "I believe we should give our full support... I have isted our people for to long." Lucretia had her hands sped in thought as she stared down at the table. Chapter 114: Open The Gates "No matter your opinions on the way we should protect the kingdom you cannot deny that by opening the gates to the coalition will benefit us." They had been arguing about whether they stay isted or not for some time and although they had a majority vote it became clear that there were conflicts. A few of the nobles were vowing to refuse entry to the otherworlders should she allow the county to open itself again but others seemed to be more than happy to ignore them. Other nobles were in favor of opening the country but they worried about the bacsh they would face as well as the way their people would react to those of other races. "Listen if we open the gates then we will have to hear about the crimesmitted by the other worlders, we will have theirck of morality and theirck of cultural knowledge!" "Cultural knowledge? We have the chance to tear the church down for good and you''re worried about the culture?!" "Our culture is what made them hate us in the first ce..." "No they hate us because we wouldn''t bend the knee and give our queen up." "This is true..." The noble women were all arguing about the reasons their ancestors had made the choice to iste the country until Lucretia finally intervened. "Enough! Look at yourselves, arguing like children rather than proud nobility. We will open the gates to the other kingdoms that side with the heavens and we will cleanse the world of the church. This is final." Having said her piece she stands to leave the council room but a hand is raised to halt her. "We are not done, we must discuss this male of yours. Your chosen mate haspleted two of the tasks assigned to him but the others are quite different in the way they kust be handled." Lucretia went stiff with rage before turning to the councilwoman. "Your point is? I am aware of the limitations in aid I can give to my beloved and I have clearly not given aid that was anot allowed since he did not fail the quest." "Yes that is clear but we want him to prove himself, this is not the way he should be doing so." "Oh? So you may use underhanded tactics to try and fool him into losing some silly right to be my mate but I cannot help him the way you slimy maicheks?" The women all suddenly stood with rage filled eyes. "How dare you call us that! You are the queen and you have a duty to your people which means your mate must be worthy of helping in those duties!" "She called me a maichek, I''m going to gut her!" The devil that had been antagonizing Lucretia all this time lunged forward with a de of fire. The queen simply batted it away with her bare hand and moved to sh the woman with her ws but someone got between them. "Stop it! Both of you! If you wish to duel then do soter when we do not have a political catastrophe approaching!" "Put your dog on a leash then. The Wrathborns have always been problematic based on what yourst queen told me, she should be muzzled before her snapping gets her hurt." Enjoy exclusive content from §Þ?? The noble tried to attack again but a demoness from the council grabbed her and dragged her away. ~ Lucretia stood at the warp gate with slight apprehension, it had been nearly a century since she became the queen and it had been even longer since she had left the infernal continent. She threw one hundred gold coins into the gate and stepped through the swirling vortex to see the celestial kingdom. The central capital of the celestial kingdom was simply called Lumos but the sight of it still brought a warmth to her heart even after all this time. Towering buildings with marble facades, silver statues, everything in the city was bright and beautiful. Gold was reserved for the creation of effigies to the goddess Luminous, the celestial people strictly adhered to this custom and the only ce that had any semnce of gold was the church to the goddess. Surprisingly due to their devotion to their goddess the main export of the heavens was cast metal. In fact everywhere she looked Lucretia saw small busts of different celestial people, these busts were cast from silver or bronze or even lessmon metals. ''Huh that little idea actually got traction? Well done Rafi.'' The reason the celestial people were the experts of casting objects was due to their devotion to the goddess Luminous, since they were so obsessed with the idea of the perfect sculpture of her the artistic skills of the people had developed on what would make the mist urate representation of the individual. The greatest sculptors of the race would be taken to create a nk, this was done by having the best mages recreate the exact image of the goddess with a mana construct after reading the thoughts of an angel that had recently seen the goddess in their evolution. This sculpted nk would then be taken to the master crafters who would prepare a mold for the sculpture. The mold would then be used by coating the features in progressivelyrger amounts of gold,yer afteryer of gold meant to keep the features done in a perfect form. Since the inside of the statue was more focused on structure rather than detail they would use a gold alloy so the outeryer of pure gold would not copse under its own weight. Their expertise in this process led to them making sculptures and carvings as a hobby and a business practice. She examined a bust near one of the homes and saw that it was actually one of many. At the bottom of a strange structure she saw a pair of hand sized busts, the bade these two sat upon had a golden line which split off before showing more of these pairs as well as individuals. She saw a fairly old celestial woman exit the home and after the angel saw Lucretia she approached with a smile. "Hello sister, what brings you to our fair city?" Lucretia bowed her head and motioned at the growing crowd of arrivals. "I am part of those that will be organizing the war against the church, may I ask about your decoration there sister? I have not been to the home of our heavenly siblings in some centuries." "Centuries? Oh! I am speaking to queen Lucretia! My my it is such a privilege to meet you dear sister. This is how we have begun to show our lineage!" She pointed down at the two small busts on the base of the structure. "This is myself and my husband, our children are the next in the line and their children are after them, when an individual joins a family the parents pay for more busts to be created and give to the rtives. Our children start their own paths in their home and show off the family they create while their ancestors get to see the beauty of a growing family tree." She wipes away a small tear and shows off the most recent addition. "My great granddaughter! I never thought I would live to see the day when I became a great grandmother and my sweet husband wants to have an entire room built as a shrine to our family" Lucretia saw that each bust had variations in the metals used but what really interested her was the concept of keeping track of a family in such a way. Family trees were not rare and many infernals made an effort to keep track of family in such a way but it was always doomed to fail since one could not create such an expansive map of families. There was a single family tree for a noble family in the infernal kingdom that dhe was aware of and it was possible by only showing the mother and father of each coven member beneath the one that became a branch of this tree. They also only recorded the male that the daughters of the family married, the sons were shown with a special ring that indicated marriage. "If a devil wished to have her new family practice the same thing would it be seen as insensitive?" The older woman gasped and leaned in with a conspiratorial glint. "Well the celestial people would probably be happy to let our siblings use our new custom but may I know more? I thought you were famous for never taking a mate?" Lucretia gave the woman a giant smile in response. "That was before I finally found the man I would marry, I finally found my beloved." The elderly angel ced a hand over her heart and sighed. "Oh that''s so romantic sister Lucretia, I hope you make the most beautiful of children and create the giant family I know you have dreamed of." Lucretia bowed and thanked the woman before leaving to find the amphitheatre where this meeting was meant to take ce. Chapter 115: Alliance Meeting Due to her wings Lucretia would have been able to reach the amphitheater in minutes but she chose to walk. Enjoying the sight of the city she had not visited in centuries made this whole walk worth it. Celestial cities were blindingly beautiful because of the marble and silver that made up the homes of the angelic people, no matter how painfully bright the cities were she always loved the architecture however. Each angel she passed were as wonderfully polite as she remembered, she knew that the teachings of each race when growing up were based on the knowledge of their creation as individual races but the fact that they existed due to the gods of the other race actually made them very friendly with one another. In fact this friendly rtionship between the two raced was why it was possible to find infernals with an affinity for the wind element, the celestials were one of the few races that the infernal people did not believe were distasteful to mate with. Before she became the queen the previous ruler had forced the infernal race to stop mating with other races, making it illegal to do so. ''Good thing I was born long before that crazy bitch was, she would have tried to have my parents executed.'' The infernal people had a very strange set of affinities one could be born with due to the past. Even with the previous queen ouwing interracial rtionships these affinities remained in the lineage. The mostmon affinities were the wind and life affinities due to rtions with the celestial race, the light affinity was as rare as the shadow affinity for the infernal race sadly. The advanced elements were rarer than having the affinity of a lineage but this was not a concern for most. Awakening an advanced affinity was perfectly possible but difficult due to the materials necessary. This was why during their man discussions about magic she had told Belial that he should ept the affinity awakening scrolls when he got them from dungeons. Awakening a new affinity meant you had new ways to use magic as well as newbinations for spells. Using spells that matched an affinity you possessed was not only more powerful but it was easier than doing so with elements you did not possess. She saw that there were many traits of other races in the celestial people as if they had been expanding far in thest few centuries. She saw sweet children with golden manes running around while an angelic man sat with his pride of beastkin wives. Almost everywhere she looked she saw the signs of elven blood in the slender men and women with pointed ears, young adults with elven blood were even more beautiful than the average celestial due to the elegance of the elves. She even saw many with signs of infernal heritage with their red or ck sclera. The beauty of the heavens made her heart ache with the pain of her parents memory but she had hated how the people of the past had treated her due to her own bloodline. A young angel man with a pait of rabbit ears approached her and bowed before offering her a cup of something which she figured out was a drink the heavens had been selling on the streets even longer than she had lived, Molhok. "Oh thank you brother, it has been a long time since I have had molhok." She took a sip and the rich vor filled her mouth while the spices soothed her. "It is my pleasure beautiful sister, I have never seen an infernal before so I hope I am not intruding." Hispliment made her blood boil a bit but she let it go. "I have a mate I chose so I would kindly ask you to not speak romantic words to me, your presence is wee however and I thank you for your kindness brother." Her words made him smile and he gave a low nod. "Of course sister, I am surprised that a halfblood devil found a mate however, I was under the impression that the abyss had grown to find mixed breeds distasteful?" She sighed and nodded. "Yes that is true, I suppose you could see the traits?" He nodded and pointed at her boots which had very high heels. "Some of the noble beastkin wear simr boots to those as it entuates the legs but I see that yours are to hide the feet. I could also smell that you had stronger pheromones than those who have no beast blood." She sighed and nodded before downing the rest of her cup. "My mate is an otherworlder." "I see, I am happy for you sister." His smile was genuine and when he sensed the conversation was done he turned to go. She continued her journey through the city and admired what her own kingdom could have looked like if she had pushed harder for opening the kingdom back up, eventually she reached the amphitheater where she was meant to address the kingdoms that had sided with heaven. When those in the amphitheater saw her the sound of whispered voices picked up volume while the celestial council approached as well as the celestial queen. "Queen Lucretia, it is an honor to have you here sister. I hope your journey was a pleasant one since you walked through our city?" "Yes and the journey was wonderful darling sister. I am sorry as I have not kept up with the names of the recent celestial leaders so may I know your name sister?" She nods and bows. "From one queen to another, I am queen Amadaya Lucent of the angelic kingdom." Lucretia bowed to the woman in return and took her seat at the table reserved for the leaders of kingdoms. She watched as more and more people filled in the seats of the amphitheater and she knew that each one potentially represented a city that was on the side of the angels, at the table she also saw five others whixh had joined forces with them. At the table she saw a draconic man dressed in fine armor, an elven woman with a shade simr to the richest molhok, a slender lizard folk, an orcish woman that bore many scars as well as an entire armory''s worth of weapons on her back and the most shocking of all. A beastkin that looked more beast than humanoid with a savage lions maw and ws that could have sliced metal armor like paper. These were the leaders of the respective kingdoms; the king of the draconic empire, the high empress of the green tribes, the holy priestess of the lizardfolk, the queen of the forest elves and the alpha king of the beastkin civilization. The other leaders gave different reactions to her presence. The draconic king gave her a respectful nod while the elven queen had a neutral expression, the priestess had a look like she saw a bug and the empress had a fire in here eye. The beast king however had a reaction that made her seethe in silent fury. He had a look of hunger, a look of possessiveness and greed like he had seen an object he desired. She realized that this man was looking at her as some sort of conquest now and it disgusted her. As she sat down the draconic king spoke up immediately. "Devil queen! I have heard the good news, my seers tell me there is finally a devil with the shadow affinity. Congrattions on your husband!" He had a giant grin that surprised her and it actually made her heart soar because of his kind words. "Thank you, although he is an otherworlder I am still happy to finally have another of my kind by my side that shares my elemental affinity after so many centuries of waiting." "You waited for a devil with the shadow element yes?" The beastkin king spoke up and she felt her skin crawl as her desire to cut him down grew. "Yes." "Well you are clearly part beastkin and I also share the affinity.~" He created a simply ball of shadows that made her scoff before she startedughing hysterically. The others had various looks of outrage when he insinuated that she consider him but herughter caught them off guard. "Oh you fool, if I weren''t so amused I may actually have just dueled you for the right to force you to never speak to me again but meeting my beloved has made my temper settle over thesest few days." The draconic king began tough as well while the orc empress wore a savage grin. "Tell us about your new mate queen Lucretia! Is he handsome?" She snapped to look at the draconic king and sighed in exasperation when he gave her a wink. "Yes MY future mate is very handsome and he and I will have powerful children TOGETHER." She knew the king was teasing her but she remembered the rumors of his male lovers, she shook her head from the yful attitude of this warrior king and when she looked atdy Lucent she realized the queen had a smile as if this made her happy. "If all of you are ready we may begin the discussions, war is never a good experience so I hope this joyous attitude never leaves." Chapter 116: Declarations "Wee to the Alliance! All of us have been harmed by the church in some way and we all know of their corruption." The celestial queen addressed the crowd in the seats. "Each of you are here today for your own reasons but these reasons lead to the same conclusion, the destruction of the false church!" She sat back down and looked at each of the leaders at the table. "The heavens are not able to personally fight due to our oath to the system and our goddess but we can provide assistance to those who are fighting. Each of the leaders here will represent their individual nations while those of you who represent smaller regions will have our assistance." She turns to each of the leaders at the table. "Before we begin we must officially take a side in this conflict, those of you who wish to take a side simply to remove the church need only ept the invitation to the Alliance while those who want toe to agreement should prepare their contracts." After signing their contracts for the regions they represented many began to leave but Lucretia was surprised by how many stayed. The races that remained were mainly those that resembled humans in some way. Elves, dwarves, etc. There were others like certain beastfolk tribes that were not battle obsessed or there were those that were known to be skeptical of other races like the seafolk. The result was a third of the seats still being full of people that had various reasons to either listen to more of the conversation or those that wanted to make a deal before epting the Alliance position. "Now let us begin with the kingdoms. Brachek please start us off." The draconic king nodded and began to describe what his empire could offer. "I have the oldest and wisest mages of any kingdom at my disposal, we would be able to wipe the disciples from the face of the world!" The others nodded in agreement at this, it was well known that dragons had the longest lifespans of any sentient race which meant they had the longest growth period for their power. "I can also bring thousands of draconic warriors! If they know what we are fighting it may even be possible to get the immortals on our side!" The immortals were a group of draconic warriors that had grown so powerful that they would not be easily defeated in battle. Thest known record of an immortal warrior of the draconic race dying was over five thousand years ago. "In addition to forces we can provide tools crafted from draconic scales and bones, our fallen would be proud to know that they can still aid in battle!" This was another odd aspect of the dragons, they felt a great deal of pride for their remains to he turned into tools for battle. It was known that when a dragon was approaching the end of their life they had a strange ritual where they would seek out those they felt were worthy warriors or mages and they would challenge them to a battle to the death. Others of their race would be present to witness the battle and should a dragon fall to their chosen one the officials would exin what the wishes of the fallen were. Inside of every dragon they had the same core as others but it was surrounded by their heart, this was seen as the most powerful material for crafting any magically enhanced object and therefore was the gift given to the chosen. Armor made from the scales of a dragon or tools made from their bones were rarely found in the world due to these objects being given to the chosen of a dragon, but if a dragon were to die without a chosen then the body would be kept by the kingdom to honor the fallen with tasks such as this. "We will offer various grades of draconic item as rewards for those that aid in the war!" Amadaya bowed her head before the king and turned to the orc empress. "Empress Rath''aan you have the floor." The empress grunted and gave a salute by bringing her fist to her chest. "My warriors are ready to aid in battle and my witches are creating potions in mass quantities to start supplying the shops. Higher grade potions will be made for direct rewards as well, including potions made by my own witchdoctor." Once again Amadaya bowed before turning to the next in line which was the elf queen. "Queen Safista you have the floor." The wood elf queen turned her nose up and began to speak in a proud manner. "My people are willing to offer training to the otherworlders to improve their proficiency since they have been learning inferior techniques, they will earn skills and techniques that corrte with their usefulness in the war..." Although offering to train the otherworlders was a significant step it still had less impact than one would expect due to themon knowledge of their inability to acknowledge the worth of other races. The next in line was the lizardfolk priestess and although she was of the same race as the dragons this was clearly a different species. The dragons and the lizardfolk were separated so deeply by not only evolution but by societies that if not for public records it would be assumed they were different races. Both species evolve from the kobold and although they were capable of mating together it was often seen as taboo in the eyes of both species which meant the birth species of their children were farther in the evolutionary line. It would be like of the infernal people separated based on species and children began to be born as lesser demons or devils rather than imps. The Empress stood up and bowed before she began. "I am prepared to offer healers from my people, they are the greatest amongst the races at curing ailments and restoring wounds. Curses would be nothing to my priests and restoring lost limbs is as easy as snapping a finger." She sat down after this and it left a bad taste in Lucretia''s mouth. The lizardfolk were isted from the outside world and if not for their mastery of the life element it would have made people lose interest in them. The only other aspect of the lizardfolk that caused interest in them was their skill in creating poisons. Intimate knowledge of the body was required to heal it in the way they could which made others suspect they used prisoners to study their craft, and such knowledge meant poison was easier to produce. The lizardfolk were so isted they did not even provide their names, they only gave titles. The final individual was the leonid king. He stood up and smiled at those gathered but due to his features it resembled a threatening snarl. "I will offer the tribes beneath my kingdom as advanced points for the war! My people will be there to fight alongside the otherworlders and act as guardians." He turned to the kingdom leaders and began another statement. "I will also provide training for those who do not wish to struggle and gain the favor of the elves. I will prove my kingdom worthy of this war!" He then turned to Lucretia. "And I will fight for your respect Lucretia!" "Queen." "Hm?" "I am Queen Lucretia of the infernal race, you will refer to me by my title if you will not respect my chosen mate." He simplyughed. "Your chosen mate is an otherworlder, how can hepare with a great warrior such as myself?" She stared the king down. "He has gained immunity to the shadow element and has gained the magus ss. You will respect my mate." He hissed when she said this and his eyes grew wide like saucers. "Immunity? What nonsense. It is impossible for him to be powerful enough to conpete with my raw strength!" This reaction made her even more enraged but a touch from Amadaya calmed her. "Soothe thy heart sister, you are stronger and he cannot keep you from your mate." It was finally her turn however and she stood up. "I am prepared to offer the aid of my infernals in every way they can be of use, creating spell circles, acting as battalions, hunting threats, guarding regions, we will be everywhere." What the dragons had in skill the devils had in raw power. A dragon could live for so long they would be experts in the art of magic but if one wanted to have a mage that could wipe away armies they would seek out a devil. Dragons had pride that prevented them from causing mass destruction but devils had no such issue. What truly made dragons and devils different however was the fact that every devil came with the aid of their coven and this made them the ultimate race of war alongside the dragons. Chapter 117: Looming War While the derations of war were urring there was a simr meeting happening in the high elf kingdom known as Altagar. The pope of the church of light was in a room discussing with the king of the high elves as well as the the kings of the human nations that all allied with the church. "These otherworlders are destroying our kingdoms, everywhere I look they have caused damage to the economy of my city and potential damage in other areas are high but unproven." The elven king sat beside his wife while listening to this information but he eventually sighed. "We must find a way to organize the parasites to help us win this war while reducing harn to our nations." The high elf looked at the pope rather than the other humans despite he and his wife being the only non humans present. The pope finally spoke up when others also looked at him. "The church of light will be able to entice these otherworlders through our vast resources, they have no concept of morality or honor so they can only be bought through greed. Even their inhuman bodies will not change this fact." As the conversation drew further the pope eventually recieved a note from a bowed servant, upon reading it his expression fell like he had smelled sour milk. "Is something wrong your holiness?" He turned to the human that asked the question and his expression shifted to one of kindness. "Of course not my child, please continue the conversations without me and just remember that the church will fully support the war these infidels have dered on you." He left the room and quickly used his magical affinity to traverse the halls. A beam of light appeared in the main chambers of the church that reformed into the pope, after he fully reformed he addressed the waiting servant. "Tell me what you have seen." With the other national leaders he had to keep the image of a calm and kind individual but in his own church he could be as aggressive as he liked in regard to the scourge. "The shadow user has been confirmed to be nearing the next racial evolution at lv450." "No one has been sent anyone to kill it yet?" The servant shook his head and raised a book containing the necessary information on the new shadow user. "Since the devil is an otherworlder-" "Devil?!?!" "Ye..yes?" "A devil with the shadow affinity?! Why was I not told about this immediately when this information was discovered?!" "I assume the investigation team did not believe it was important?" "Oh these damned fools!" The priest vanished in a beam of light that shot through the window of the well lit church. In the council chamber of the high elf kingdom the other leaders stood when the pope began to reform from the light, instead of the kind face they were used to they saw one of rage. "We must focus our efforts on invading the infernal kingdom!" This brought a chill down the spines of the humans while the elven king simply scoffed. "Your holiness you know why we can''t go after the devil queen, how many heroes have been lost in the efforts to kill her?" "We aren''t going after the queen this time, we are going to kill an otherworlder!" The others grew confused now but they waited for the exnation during his ravings. "I knew we should have focused on ying that infidel, she grew to powerful but if we got a light based warrior and developed their defenses we could have aplished it!" He was radiating light in his agitation but the others did not feel any fear, they trusted the pope. "The queen has found her mate! The otherworlder that developed a shadow affinity was a male infernal!" This finally brought the others to a look of worry. "If the queen has her mate then she will be more active in the world, she will also be vtile due to her protection of him..." "And if the queen is vtile then this war may be far more dangerous." "Oh but you forget about the potential boons we can get from this incident, devil cores are the best catalysts for magical objects and killing devils in this way will offer a great number of materials." They all looked at the pope who carried a book everywhere, the front of the book held a golden gem that radiated light constantly. "If we can make more weapons with devil cores we can do incredible things." The others nodded and the pope caressed the front of his tome. ~ In another world three figures were discussing the events over tea. One of them was the goddess Luminous while another was a man with ebony ck skin, burning red eyes and horns. Thest was a woman that greatly resembled a devil with ming hair, elegant wings and horns that resembled a crown. "I am happy you finally found a way to end that church Lumi, they have killed so many of your wonderful creations." She shook with rage but took a sip of tea to try to calm herself. "Thank you Fiora. I hope that after this war is done we will never have to witness your children being in, that pope has taken his revenge farther than it would ever be allowed if he did not have power." The two then looked to the dark figure and Fiora rested her head on his shoulder. "Necros darling, are you ever going to correct the queen about her assumptions with that earthling? If you don''t exin what he really is then she might be hurt when he has to leave." The dark figure shook his head and spoke in a surprisingly smooth voice. "My love, the queen has made her choice and not even I can change her mind. Eventually she will learn that he will leave but if he returns is up to him." Luminous tapped the table in thought before snapping her fingers to create a screen that showed the young voidbeast tearing a dungeon apart. "We must try to consult with the endless... if we do not understand what these entities are then when the world awakens it will instantly draw the attention of the astral beasts." Fiora simply shook her head. "By the time the voidbeast''s world awakens everything will be safer for the, there will be many great warriors and mages. Your own pdin will be in that world after all and he even gained your light affinity from the beginning." At this Luminous began to giggle. "Oh him, yes he has been doing well and i think he has nearly figured out how to use the power of light to grow." "He will eventually learn it, the more he kills the more he will grow after all." The pair of womenughed while Necros added more sugar to his tea. "Necros dear you know that sugar is rare so try not to use all of it, the little ones don''t leave it as an offering very often after all." The dark god sighed in defeat and sipped at his incredibly sweet tea, he still seemed displeased by it but drank it down with the asional grumble. "I wish we could tell the mortals what we actually desire! Why can''t we get our temples built upon earth yet? You know they have the most industry of any world?" "Yes yes you bring it up everytime you talk about sweet my love. The humans of earth have steered away from magic and chose industry which allowed for a significant growth of luxury goods, if you truly wish to get more gifts from them then feel free to create a temple and try to get offerings without being vandalized." Fiora rolled her eyes but she held his hand the whole time. "Maybe I will..." They allughed while watching the various figures they had taken an interest in. Fiora was watching a demonic woman in the armor of a pheonix with a high grade sword tear through a dungeon with powerful mes radiating from her body. Luminous was watching a pdin direct individuals from a war room like a grand general. Necros watched an archer stalking a wolf, she wore low level gear but her skills with the bow were obviously high. asionally the dark god would look at another screen which showed the voidbeast had finally destroyed the entire dungeon and floated above theke of poison. ~ Ezekiel had grown a great deal during his time in this dungeon, he was almost ready to evolve as well. His stats alone had grown to an extreme degree due to the mass consumption of the dungeon. ~~~~~~~~~~ Belial Void Magus [Rogue] lv349 -> 443. (S+) Abyssal Voidbeast [Soldier] Affinity: 100% Shadowfire 100% Life Mana Core: 100% Shadowfire Strength: 849 -> 1759 (+2860 +30%) Vitality: 8000 -> 11,000 (+9910 +30%) Agility: 7000 -> 10,000 (+4880 +30%) Wisdom: 11,000 -> 16,000 (+490 +30%) Intelligence: 23,000 -> 36,000 (+210 +30%) Free stats: 0 ~~~~~~~~~~ With the other three infernals below he was ready to try to defeat this boss. Chapter 118: Toxic Swamp pt7 "Exin this boss to me again, what makes it so dangerous... well excluding theke of poison." They had been describing it as ake but by the standards of the real world it was more of a pond. If one were to swim across the body of poisonous water it would take a few minutes at most but this was not his concern. "The boss is a serpent that sustains thiske, the serpent has very high poison affinity and seems to be a powerful spellcaster." "What are some spells I can expect?" "A cloud of toxic mist, needles of poison mana, a breath weapon of poison, and it seems to be capable of manipting the poison in theke somewhat." "It''s a pond." "Excuse me?" "The body of water is a pond, it''s like a smallerke." "Then just call it a smallke, don''t make up words." "So what are oceans justrgekes?" "Would both of you stop it!" The pair settled down as one of the demonesses chastised the bickering devils. "Sorry, it''s not my fault this world doesn''t have the same advancements in technology to understand the world." "Why would anyone care about such things?" "Well a world without magic has to use more effort to understand itself, like being able to tell the difference between diamond and it''s lookalike." "Just use an identification spell..." "My world doesn''t have magic, plus if you learn to identify things yourself then you don''t have to pay a mage to do it." The women seemed unimpressed by the idea so when he let it go they moved on. Flying into the sky he saw that the pond was a strange mix of purple and green, swirling colors that bubbles and frothed as they mixed together. The color was deep and solid like paint and he felt it looked simr to oil floating on water, a disgusting and toxic mass covering the pond that would choke the life from anything inside. Through his mana sight he could tell that the entire pond was a mass of poison mana but there was a serpentine blob of manazily resting at the bottom, thus blob was significantly brighter than the rest of the mana in the area so it was easy to pick out. "I''m going to attack it so get ready!" He called down to the others and created a volley of frenzy needles tounch into the toxic sludge. The needles prated deep into the mass of toxic mana but they did not reach the boss. This seemed to catch it''s attention nheless as the blob began to move to the surface. "The mana is shifting get back here!" Astra called for him toe away from the mana but he had a perfect view of the rising mass of mana, he particrly aimed for the head and began to channel his most powerful spell. He poured as much of his void mana into this frenzy star as possible so that it could have the greatest effect, even while draining his void mana he saw that his natural regeneration of it was supplying just enough to continue the spells creation. That was when the system gave him a notification. ~~~~~~~~~~ Iplete spell (Frenzy Star) has upgraded intopleted spell (Frenzied Void Star) Frenzy Star lv1 (S) -> Frenzied Void Star lv1 (SS) ~~~~~~~~~~ His autonomous mind had to take over when his main mind started to race with the possibilities of what this meant. ''What is an iplete spell?'' ''If shadowfire wasn''t enough toplete the spell then why did the void mana do it?'' ''Wait if Voidbeasts are connected to the shadow element then does that mean void mana and shadow mana are connected? If the two are connected then how does it work?'' He almost missed the purple needle that wasunched at him. A needle that was the size of a javelin flew past his body as he dodged, when he realized the serpent was staring at him from the pond he unleashed the volley of his frenzy wing needles to catch it off guard. He had to make sure he couldnd the improved frenzy star. The serpent was covered by a cloud of shadowfire that began to work it''s way into the small wounds the needles caused, this however seemed to anger it as it dove back into the pond for some reason. He watched it with his mana sight and as soon as he saw it raising it''s head from the pond he let the star fall upon it. In the moment before he let the star go he got a perfect view of the serpent. Calling it a serpent was inurate, this thing resembled an eal. This giant eal had frills that shifted in strange ways, it seemed to have swirling colors filling the membranes of those frills. The scales were a strange silver that had tints of purple while the streams of poison ran down the sides of it''s body. ~~~~~~~~~~ Toxic Lake Serpent- lv500 ~~~~~~~~~~ The star fell upon the serpent with a small implosion of power, before bursting into arge ball of ck me. He watched as the head of the creature was shredded by the explosive force, the skull peaked out beneath the mes and he began to target the wounds on it''s body caused by his previous spell. His aim wasn''t good enough to hit thr small wounds on a giant target, especially a target that was iling in pain. The wounds he did hit were ripped open even further while the other projectiles created more. He eventually began to target the serpent on it''s body to create a gaping wound. He noticed that the creature began to take damage from the poison as well when theke water entered those wounds. The damage caused by the poison was low but constant as he kept targeting the wounds to cause more gaping holes along it''s body. ~ Astra watched as the devil used his aerial superiority to strike out at the boss no matter how much she screamed for him to return. She used her own fire spells to start attacking while her covenunched arrows from massive bows they had brought. Arrows that were significantlyrger than normal with savage tips dug into the boss while her mes cauterized the wounds to prevent natural regeneration. She hated how well the male was doing but he was certainly causing the majority of the damage. She would use her own fire and poison mana to enchant the arrows to make their wounds greater while creating more damage over time. Eventually the serpentshed out with a breath weapon that spread poison around itself. They had to back away to be safe while she saw the male continue attacking from the sky, she did not know how he could discern the boss through the poisonous mana. Eventually she saw that the serpent struck out at the male with a loud snap of it''s jaws. She was shocked when instead of being bitten the male batted away those jaws with a wing. Simply using his wing was enough to p the head down while dropping a bomb into it''s maw. The serpent let out a shriek of pain as it''s maw caught me while it''s head was forced down, it dove into the pond again and she used this moment of peace to start enchanting the arrows of her coven. ~ Ezekiel watched the moving blob of mana swirl through the pond. He kept a bead on it while he created another void star which would shred the boss again as soon as he saw it appear. He felt that his other spells would benefit from the void mana treatment so while it hid he started to create the frenzy wing with the same void mana effect. The spell that was created also had the Frenzied Void name but he focused on getting the power right. He prepared a Frenzied Void Wing with the needles ready to fire at the same target as his star. He watched the serpent swim to the center before charging at the edge of the pond. He saw that it was aiming for the coven so he flew down as well. "MOVE! IT''S ON IT''S WAY TO YOU!" He flew down in front of the girls as they repositioned themselves to fire when it charged them. He kept his spells ready while creating more and more projectiles, even making another void star. He stood in the way of the serpent with everything ready to destroy the beast but he didn''t like how dangerous the next step was. He waited with his heart beating rapidly as the serpent exploded out of the cloud of poison, with it''s maw wide to swallow them whole. It did get someone at least. A man that kept into it''s gaping jaws with every spell he held now unleashed inside of it''s fleshy body. The others screamed when he was swallowed since this was another ally lost to the dungeon. Then they watched as the body of the serpent expanded with ck fire flooding from it''s orifices. It fell to the ground with it''s maw open in a silent wail as the dungeon expelled them. Chapter 119: Solo Hunting When Ezekiel and the coven appeared outside of the dungeon the first thing they did was check their rewards. Ezekiel was shocked to see that this dungeon actually dropped mythril quality gear just like the nightmare difficulty dungeon in Raylock. Due to the solo runs he did in the past as well as the runs hepleted with allies he actually had a piece of mythril mage gear, the team he was in before knew that he didn''t exactly need it but neither did hope so he got it as payment for his help. When looking at this treasure pool however he saw many gold quality items as well as two of the mythril quality. When looking at the npcs he felt kind of bad since he knew he could solo the dungeon now but he still needed the gold. Then he had a genius idea. "Hey how about instead of giving me any gear we just agree on a number that you can pay me eventually?" The coven looked at him in suspicion before answering. "How much..." "Well I am trying toplete a task that requires I make a lot of money through my own efforts so how about whatever youdies feel is a fair amount for some of the gold gear?" He then leaves their team and with a wave leaps into the sky to return to the tent inn he was told to stay in while the queen was away. ~ While in his room he looked at his notifications about the chance to evolve his race once again. He epted the evolution andy down to prepare but a strange notification stopped him. ~~~~~~~~~~ E???r???r??? Your level is to low to evolve into a higher form of void beast young one, you must grow further. Consume more. Gain more power. You are not yet ready for the full might of the void element. E???r???r??? Evolution unable to proceed, converting evolution reward into optional reward list. ~~~~~~~~~~ He saw a few options but one of them stood out above the others. "Optional Reward: Item Quality Improvement Scroll." With this he realized that he had the perfect way to make money. "System, please add the scroll to auction for me. I would like you to act as an intermediary for anonymity." The scroll vanished from his inventory and soon the auction screen he had ess to through the system got a notification. ~~~~~~~~~~ Unique Grade Item has been ced on the auction list. "Item Quality Improvement Scroll." Auction will take ce in twelve hours to allow all interested parties to take part. ~~~~~~~~~~ "Hey uh system? Please don''t allow any members of the church faction to buy it, I don''t want to unintentionally aid the enemy." ~~~~~~~~~~ Notice: system has blocked all potential sales between the relevant parties when the war was dered. All contracts between warring factions that do not go through the system as an intermediary are discontinued. ~~~~~~~~~~ Well that was a relief. He was excited to see how much money he would be getting when he suddenly sa the notification on server shutdown in twelve hours. ''Guess I have to wait till tomorrow huh?'' He rolled his eyes at this but turned back to the direction of the dungeon. He couldn''t evolve but he could increase his ss rank... he hoped. He left the tent and flew into the air with his sights on the dungeon again. ''Lv500. She told me that I would raise my ss at lv500 so that''s my next goal.'' ~ When facing the dungeon entrance he began to wonder if he should go into a higher difficulty. He knew that he had not consumed every target in the dungeon because the notifications for experience gave him an idea of how many targets there were. If he went into the hard mode he could probably consume more targets since they had more health and therefore gave him more chances to activate the consumed effect. It also meant the stats he gained would be higher. He made the decision to enter the hard mode and get more reward from it since he had twelve hours. Upon entering the hard mode he immediately noticed that it was difficult to breathe with the thick smog that hovered in the air. Everywhere he looked there was poison mana that hung in the air as a cloud, some of these clouds were denser than others and these clouds caused him actual damage rather than difort. He made the decision to start absorbing the poison mana in his cultivation to try to gain the affinity now. It was a slow process and the elementally infused mana entering his body gave him some negative effects but he felt he was close to gaining the affinity. As he finished with this area he started his fires. He lept into the sky to wait for the weak enemies but this dungeons rmended level in hard mode was five hundred meaning he would be facing monsters that were significantly stronger than him at some point. The bat swarm however... He shredded through the swarm by simply cloaking himself in shadowfire and letting them attack his barrier covered body. A few of them even got consumed by the shadows which gave him an idea of what stat he should hope to get from them. Each bat gave him an average of twenty to thirty strength, ten to twenty intelligence and fourty to fifty vitality but the agility was in the thousands. He didn''t know what these creatures got for their stats but clearly they put everything into agility. As the fires burned across the forest he helped by weakening the enemies on the ground. asionally he would hear the notification for experience or he would see the ''target consumed'' screen that indicated he had grown stronger. This process contiued until he saw the first ant tree. He had been thinking about the best way to kill the queen in these trees so he flew to the sky directly above and began to unleash volleys of voided frenzy wing needles into the top. He figured that eventually he would get the mes to enter a gap in the trunks that braided together to form this twisted tree. The ants swarmed the ground and the tree but he just keptunching the needles. He eventually reached the point where he could no longer see the tree beneath the fire and the swarm so he just pulled back to watch the chaos. He also saw that his fires were spreading across the swamp like a gue. His mes burned across thend while he listened to the tree steam from the escaping fluids of the in ants. He waited while he kept gaining more and more vitality from the ant swarm but eventually the notifications stopped. He moved himself down to look into the tree but he saw nothing even after clearing the mes. ''I guess they went underground...'' He threw a few voided frenzy bombs into the tree to start the fires again before he flew into the sky to start breaking into the nest. He began to create a voided frenzy star while heunched needles into the ground, he focused on shooting them into the dirt at an angle so that when he threw the star in it would cause the ground to beunched away. The issue was that the dirt was not being forced out of the hole eventually. ''God an earth element would be so useful right now. Earth element mages will be necessary in the future.'' He continued his destruction while thinking about how bad it felt to have to use small explosions to clear away dirt before he finally felt it was deep enough to throw the star in. He slowly floated to the ground and threw the star into the hole as hard as he could. When the construct left his hands he flew back into the air to watch the chaos unfold. The ground bulged from the force of it before being ripped open andunching clouds of dirt wreathed in ck me across the clearing. This seemed to send the ants into another defensive frenzy as therge headed soldiers appeared with little workers, they spit little globs of venom at him but they did not have the range to harm anything but eachother as he created another star. While he made this second mana construct he dropped void bombs to either force the ants away or kill them during the process. Eventually hepleted the construct and flew down some to try to aim at another hole, he found a tunnel that seemed unguarded so he threw it in from above. His aim wasn''t the best but since he could use mana to keep it from detonation immediately he decided to let it bounce into the tunnels. He waited five seconds before letting the mana release the star. This time the ground seemed to shudder while the earth cracked from the force, he got hundreds of notifications in an instant but what truly shocked him was the wah the ants began to swarm the area from other tunnels. They did not try to keep rebuilding anymore and even the workers tried to jump and bite at him from dozens of feet away. ''Guess I killed something important.'' The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone! Chapter 120 War Event Ads After ughtering the ants Ezekiel left to find other trees since these clearings would be full of creatures to kill just like before. It did not take long to track down another clearing which he found to be full of beasts in a death match with one another. The dead were dragged into the nest of the ants while the rest simply fought. By repeating the previous attack on the ants he made them swarm the area to get even more kills while he covered the area in spells. ~ When he found the boss again he decided to test a theory he had. He began to absorb the poison mana in the region as he kept his gaze on the pond for the boss. The potency of the poison element in the area made his body start to take damage but he pushed forward nheless. Eventually he managed to obtain the affinity, he had lost more than twenty five percent of his health however. Now he could put his n into motion. Through an exnation given by Lucretia he knew that the mana control skill would allow him to handle the ambient mana of the world but if he had an affinity with the mana then it would be significantly easier. By gaining the affinity in poison he made it possible to control the ambient poison mana in the area but it was not a perfect solution. It was enough for now however. He pushed his mana out into the world to mingle with the ambient mana then he used his lesser mana control to shape it. He started slowly by pulling orbs of poison from the pond, orbs that grew in size as he grew more confident in his capabilities. Soon he was pulling orbs of poison the size of cars from the pond which made the level of the liquid fall. His n was to force the serpent to fight him on solid ground where it would not easily move since it had fins. He had seen videos of eels and he suspected that they were less agile onnd than in water so it was time to make the boss an easy target. He used his mana control to lob the orbs of poison away so they wouldn''t simply pour back into the pond and after a few more orbs he saw the first signs of the eel. Because the eel was now exposed to the air this also meant that it realized something was wrong so it checked it''s surroundings, when it saw him however it immediately went on the offensive. A creature as territorial as this made it difficult to clear away all of the poison which meant Ezekiel had to let the mana go to defend himself. He immediately dodged the poison needle projectiles while the spells he was preparing came into existence. Continue your journey with empire He unleashed a barrage of void wing needles to start tearing the defensive scales of the serpent apart but he already knew this wasn''t the most reliable method to do this. Even if hid vitality was at an extreme level now he wasn''t the most confident in his defenses but having even more health because of his higher strength did make him feel much safer. Due to his stats he could probablypete with archers and low level frontliners due to his health being over sixty thousand. In addition to that his strength was over six thousand meaning he had a natural defense six percent, if he kept consuming enemies this would grow faster. His vitality made it possible for his health to regenerate at a strong pace now so he only needed to heal when he took significant damage. As he battled the serpent his void mana continuously regenerated itself which allowed him to use hisplete spells in a rapid way but usingrger spells would cause the mana to drain to quickly. His focus on the wounds he created was getting better as he practiced fighting such a quick target but he wasn''t able to get perfect uracy yet. He noticed that the timer for the server pause was approaching due to the hours he had spent here so he decided to try something reckless. He returned to the ground to battle with his melee skills since he felt that it would allow him to enjoy himself before the end of his game time. The serpent struck forward with it''s dozens of razor sharp fangs ready to tear into his body but he dodged sideways at thest second while using his mana barriers to deflect the fins on it''s neck. He then lunged back in to sh along the creatures neck, this attack allowed him to get into a vulnerable area where he could dig his ws in to drag down and out. Such a savage attack created arge wound where the serpent would be expellingrge quantities poison since the gills were so close by. The serpent pulled away with a savage sound that resembled a hiss and a gurgle, it began to emit purple gas from its gills which he remembered was the same sign as the breath weapon before so he flew back as the purple steam st was sent out. The ground where he stood now had a significant amount of dead nt life so he would make sure he avoided that attack. As the battle raged on be began to take damage from the poison in the area but he quickly figured out that the poison was more to debilitate the target while it slowly drained their health. A strategy that would work if one did not have a life affinity to counteract it. His mana was taking a hit now but he was able to survive longer.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om He saw that his time was running out so the decision was made. Ezekiel stood still while channeling mana as this creature tried to snap him up, he created arge ball of shadowfire spikes as well as using his needle covered wings to make the serpent regret this move. Then as the serpent began trying to regurgitate him heunched his void star into it''s gullet. The projectile unleashed it''s vtile mana which shredded through theyers of muscle until the serpenty there dead. ~ As Ezekiel left his pod he began to look around for his mother, he wasn''t sure why he couldnt fund her in the house until he checked her room. Inside he found a pod just like his own. Stepping out of the pod was his mother who wore the body suit that each pod came with, he threw her robe to her so she could cover up as these suits left very little to the imagination. "Sorry mom if I knew you got a pod I would have knocked." "It''s alright sweetie, did you do well in your game?" "Yeah actually I am, I met a really cool NPC and I even got a weird species called the Void Beast." She smiled but then began to look at him closely. "Sweetheart I think you need to start going out more, that pod is doing something to you." He got confused by this response and waited. "I think you may be having a bad reaction to the gel or maybe something else, your skin is turning pale and your eyes are a bit red." He went to the bathroom with her behind and he checked the mirror. Inside of it he saw that his skin was taking on a slightly pale look while his slightly chubby body began to have some strange growth to it. He wasn''t suddenly developing muscle but he did start to slim down. In fact the two realized that he was starting to get taller, he had grown almost half an inch over thest few days which was a lot of growth for an eighteen year old. These changes were so strange that he forgot to tell her about his recent money ventures in the game. After a few hours he started to think about the final items he put up for auction before leaving the game and by then his mother had gone to work. ''I hope they add a currency exchange to the game, I want to use this game to make money quickly so I can quit that restaurant job.'' His efforts to get stronger were rewarded in small ways but his skills were growing rapidly. The hope he had was that after killing this leader of the human kingdom he would have all the time he wished for the money making efforts. He was on his way to work when he saw an ad for BLO which showed a strange event. He watched as a number of figures sat around a table in the middle of what looked like an old school y stage, he recognized one of them as Lucretia! The ad showed her and the others discuss things before the screen faded, it then opened to a scene in a cathedral where multiple people were around an elegant table in a beautiful chamber full of light. He saw the man dressed in finery and something about him didn''t sit well. "Bloodlines Online. Which faction will you fight for?" Chapter 121 Mana Awakening After witnessing the advertisement Ezekiel continued to his job, when he entered he saw a drastic change in the chateau. At every table was a screen that would be used to watch streams. The walls were covered in art that depicted advertisements for BLO as well as many other virtual reality games from previous tforms. The booths were now much morefortable with custom tables that would hide keypads underneath the them. Even the registers got an upgrade. The chateau was made to look like an old style French restaurant but his uncle had managed to overhaul it into a modern inte Cafe without ruining the restaurant. Ezekiel went through the restaurant to look for his uncle until he finally decided to check the managers office on the second floor. To reach this office one actually had to go through the kitchen since the stairway was kept away from the public. When he got to the second floor he saw a number of young people waiting on seats with their phones but they did not seem to be doing the typical social media scrolling or media browsing. These young men and women were looking at data! They nced at him asionally but when he entered the office they all stared like he had justmitted a crime. "Excuse me! I said wait- oh! Ezekiel I''m sorry my boy,e on in and close the door." He saw his uncle sitting there with a young woman who had a set of screens open and connected to her phone, on these screens was information about a character from BLO. "I''m doing interviews for more staff that will be focused on the streaming aspect, I managed to get Yggdrasil to agree to a contract so we will have the right to only show our employees here when they stream!" "How would that work?..." "Well we had to set up something called a closedwork for the stream but if what they said is true then when streamed from devices here the only ones that will see them are those in this restaurant or the BLO development team." Ezekiel wasn''t sure how that was possible but if Yggdrasil said it was then he had no reason to argue. He sat down next to the woman and politely greeted her. "Hi I''m Ezekiel, what''s the thing you used to check that info?" "Oh it''s a new app that Yggdrasil made, it let''s you connect your phone to your pod while you were in the game and it saves a snapshot of your character when you leave." He thought about it and nodded. "That is pretty useful yeah, I wish I had known about it..." "They''ve had it on their website since day one..." "You can''t be serious." "OK Ezekiel, what did you need from me today." His uncle must have gotten tired of the back and forth so he focused on the reason he came in. "I actually wanted to try to be a permanent streamer for the restaurant since I can show off the most for the game." "Oh yeah? What could you possibly have done to say that." "Well I actually met the devil queen." He had a smug look on his face and his uncle looked astonished... until the woman applying for a position started tough. "You? Do you mean you''ve seen the devil queen?" This made him stumble a bit but he continued. "No, actually I have gotten very close to Lucretia since I''ve known her." The young womanughed again before continuing to speak to his uncle. "Well as you can see from my status as well as my achievements I would be a great talent for your restaurant. How often will you get the opportunity to have a streamer that haspleted a hard mode dungeon?" "Uncle if I bring you my status after the next server pause will you consider me for a full time streamer promotion?" His uncle sighed and gave the woman a smile before turning to Ezekiel. "If you have good achievements I will consider it but I can''t open many spaces for it quite yet, remember that you will bepeting with the rest of these fine yers." He sighed and nodded before leaving. His uncle would likely not believe that he was doing well without proof but the proof would take two days to obtain. As he left the restaurant he wanted to go out to rx but the town didn''t have a lot of activity centers. All it really had was a park where people would go skating. Your journey continues with empire With theck of ideas he simply left for home so he could rx with a movie. ~n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Throughout the world a change had been urring. This change started within the core as a strange energy began to permeate the world. As the earth began to grow saturated it caused changes to the material of the world. It would take many centuries to truly affect things but by the time mankind was soaring through the sky the first signs had been detected in the studies of the. Volcanic activity was the first to reveal this change as world governments locked down active volcanic regions to study this new energy. Through their studies they determined that this energy was simr in function to radiation, it would permeate the area which caused objects and materials within this area to start changing. Metal that contained this energy was denser and stronger. Minerals would react more. Gemstones that had been saturated were suddenly more conductive than gold. Governments began to look for excuses to strip mine these regions and they turned to the same thing they always went to. Conquest. At the time of the twenty twenties the world was thrown into a third world war, the energy war. Countries fought over regions that had the easiest time reaching the inner mantle while in other regions people sought out mass plots ofnd to try to study how the energy would affect the surface. Every geologist gave a simr estimate of when this energy would start to radiate from the surface, the twenty thirties. It wasn''t until a powerful country ended their own internal conflicts that the leader finally asked a question that changed everything. "What happens if this energy harms the world?" Advisors in the scientific field had tried to exin this concern to every leader but it was only when an enemy no longer existed that someone took this concern seriously. This energy had been consistentlypared to radiation before and it was known to cause changes to that which it saturated, but no one knew what it would do to biology after exposure for a long period of time. This world leader after expressing these worries finally got others to consider the same dilemma. It was known that when money was involved people hid the negatives and the concerns but this time they could not hide it because this leader could not be bought off. This leader had also survived an assassination attempt so the worry about their message being taken by others grew even further. The only thing that could be done was to work together, the economic value of the energy was high while the potential dangers were even higher so the governments of the world came together to start the process of unity. The first step was to create games that made the concept of countries feel irrelevant. By the time the world began to experience the changes on the surface an individual appeared before this world leader. She exined what they had been so worried about was actually an awakening of the world which would allow it to enter a new step in existence, there was danger however. They had been right to assume that this energy would react unpredictably with organic life because if life was not already ustomed to this energy then it was in danger of horrific change. She called this energy mana and gave them the chance to survive what had the potential to be an apocalyptic event for their society. ~ "They are doing quite well." "Yes but they will soon start to experience the awakening." "Are you sure it was a good idea to use our power to block mana from this world?" "It will get over itself, the chance to see what a world without mana will do is quite exciting don''t you agree?" "They reached their moon and created space travel... perhaps mana holds back the world?" "Maybe... but you know there are humans suffering in this world while they would have been at the top if mana had existed." "They will make their way to the top with their talent anyway but this also means there will be individuals who are motivated to grow due to their sess in a magicless world." "A world without magic but they have achieved more than every other creation of ours... do you think they will apply magic to their technology?" "It is a possibility, they do have people that have be experts in their coding which would make magic easy for them." "They may even grow to be more advanced in magic than any other civilization we have made." Chapter 122 Shaky Future When Ezekiel arrived home he found his mother was already making lunch, she looked incredibly happy with a bounce in her step as she moved between counter and stove. "Hey sweetie! Did you he give you the promotion?" "He says he will consider it but I have to show my character stats." "Oh well then you just have to make sure he sees it right?" While she was encouraging him she began to bring out tes for them to get their food. "OK, subject change! Why are you so upbeat? What happened?" "Oh you don''t want to hear about that sweety, you''d get embarrassed." "Come on let''s here it, did you do something cool in the game or something?" "Ummmm something like that! Seriously hun stop asking you don''t want to know." Sheughed as she sat down with her te. "Alright then how about we talk about your character? What did you choose to y?" "Oh! Well I chose to y a beautiful elf of course!" She was giggling like a schoolgirl while she said it. "No I''m joking, of course I picked something a bit more cool than that. I actually chose to y a beastkin." He was surprised by this but it made sense. As he fixed his te he listened to her talk about the path she had taken in the game and he realized that she was falling into the same pattern as other yers. "Mom I know you want to get a lot of levels as fast as possible but the game has a lot of skills that you need to obtain before any of that ok? Go back to the vige and ask around for people to train you." She tapped the table in thought before nodding. "Yeah that makes sense, in some old games you had to actually do side quests to get advanced skills in the game so this is probably the same." They continued tough and discuss different strategies for the game until he remembered something important. "Hey when you reach the starting city of your area make sure you don''t join any sides of the war yet, I''m on the side that wants to take out the church of light." "Church of light huh? Is my baby doing an evil ythrough?" She giggles all over again. "Actually they are the bad guys.... they kind of remind me of the way the church was described during the crusades." "Oh so they''re the self righteous religious types eh?" "Yeah they''re kind of racist towards the non human looking races in the game, they also really hate the people who have an affinity with shadow magic." "Oh let me guess, they kill in God''s name right? Everything they do is for the good of the world and they want to cleanse the of the unclean?"n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Well they worship one specific god, the goddess of light who they do actually try to get the favor of... but she is the one thatmanded Thanatos to dere war on the church." "Thanatos? Why would she make the god of death dere war?" "That''s a yer Mom. The guy chose the name Thanatos and when he met her she made him dere war." "Oooh he met a god?!" She leaned forward with an eager smile. "Yeah but I don''t know much about her other than apparently being the patron god of the angellic race, the race I chose is also pretty interesting though." "Oh yeah? The demons right?" "Infernals, demon and devil are subspecies of the Infernal race." "Ooh right ok. Well eat up because that bagged nutrient stuff is worthlesspared to a real meal in your belly!" He smiled as she ruffled his hair before they went back to eating and talking until the sun went down. ~ Lucretia sat down with a deep sigh after a long day of discussion over the exact details of the infernal kingdom''s wartime aid. She had offered the aid of devils for training mages as well as demons to train warriors, she even offered to put spell scrolls in the wartime exchange shop. Continue reading at empire Lucretia looked through the contracts with the other kingdoms, she made sure to mark each point that she was concerned with in the deal. Shepletely ignored the Beast King''s contract since she knew it would be some nonsense. Eventually she put away her pen to turn to the window, she looked into the sky as she thought about the future of this war. She saw the night sky start to glow with the red aurora from the abyss. She started to meditate as the aurora flowed over their city with it''s energy flowing down, eventually she felt her senses fade away and her mind was taken into a vision. She looked up in her vision as the astonishment of this moment overwhelmed her, then she saw a figure standing beside her. This figure looked like a man with ebony skin and a haze of ck around his head, this cloud only showed the four red eyes glowing within. "Lord Necros!" She bowed down low before the god of the abyss and shadows, he chuckled low like a rumbling drum before waving his hand for her to rise. "Stand my child, you know you never have to kneel before me." She stood with her eyes down looking at the ground and he motioned for her to sit at a table formed with the wave of his hand. "Tell me about the new male, the otherworlder. I see you have been having the time of your life since your potential mate arrived." "Oh I have been so happy! Um... yes I have been happy since he arrived but I miss him, I hope that the otherworlders will start to be here everyday soon." "Ah yes, Gaia did say that they would be able to stay here everyday once the mana of the world stabilized from their presence." "Yes! I mean, indeed it will be a wonderful experience to have my future husband here by my side every day after he has beaten these pathetic quests my people have forced him into." "These quests... what are they?" "Well he has to y a ruler of a nearby kingdom as well as gaining a lot of money. Those worthless fools forced him to do dangerous acts just to try to make him give up on our courtship." "Courtship? Since when do our children court?" "He is an otherworlder remember? His people work like the dragonfolk." "I see... well I can offer you something." She looked up at him in confusion. "Say you made a request, a chosen of my lineage making a request of me would be very easy to grant..." She was so shocked by hid statement that she practically lept out of her chair. "You would... you would give me a wish?" "A wish for one of my lineage would be very easy to grant, you never got any of the gifts that I would normally give to my lineage so this could be waved away as my first reward to you." "I.. I want him to get something that will help him with his quest! I want him to get a boon that will help him to defeat this king and to get the money he has to earn!" She dropped to her knees and sped her hands together. She couldn''t see the face but she had a feeling he was smiling down at her when the vision ended. ~ In the toxic swamp dungeon the coven was battling through the monsters that charged them. Astra stood beside their husband as he healed the wounds of Ametra, she used her fire spells to take out the swarming bats while he created an aura of life mana. "We need to pin these things down!" Ametra waved her sword and a wall of fire rose to the tree tops to block the swarm. "God it was so easy with that mage, why can''t we get him to join us more?" "Shut up Jahlee! We don''t need that male because we can fight just as easily without him!" "His spells were pretty powerful and he never used beams, maybe we should ask him to teach us some of his constructs?" Astra hissed at Jahlee like an animal before turning around with a huff. "We don''t need anything from that gods forsaken male!" Their husband turned to look at her with a worried expression. "Astra please calm down, if they say this male could help our party level up then why shouldn''t we try to contact him?" "Because we don''t need some cocky male just because he has a powerful affinity! He is just a dangerous fool that throws his power around with no regard for others!" He flinched away but his tail soon entwined with hers as he moved in to hug her, his wings wrapped around her body while the battle raged on. "Please calm down, we need our greatest scout to have a level head." She almost pulled away but stopped herself before nodding. "We can discuss this after we finish here." Chapter 123 A New Quest While waiting for the servers to open back up Ezekiel was in the private hub the server creates, he eventually decided to start practicing his spells in the area where he had effectively unlimited mana so he could drive away his boredom. He eventually just sat on the white floor and looked at the ceiling. "Hey system you there? Can I make my hub look more... I don''t know, interesting?" A small figure with fairy wings and flowing robes appeared and smiled at him. "Hello yer Belial. You have a request yes?" "Yes I want to make my hub more interesting, can I customize it somehow?" The fairy woman smiles and nods before sending out a number of screens with a wave of her hands. "When the servers open you will be automatically sent into the world but your choices here will stay as you set them, enjoy yourself yer Belial." As she vanished into particles of light he began to scroll through the options of the system, he saw that they were mostly rooms in various styles. The initial options seemed to he based on the game world with multiple themes like the chambers of a noble and the private sanctums of a church. After another few minutes of scrolling he realized that he had joined far too early and the five to one time disparity applied to the hub, meaning he was forced to wait for potential hours. He sighed in defeat before returning to the screens and he was surprised to see that after scrolling through dozens of options he came to what looked like decorations from the real world. Eventually he gave up and just swiped the scroll bar rapidly. "Give me a room like the devil queen''s chambers." The screen showing the themes began to fade away as the nk white room turned into a room made of ck stone as if made from the most beautiful ebony. "Huh... can you make the stone look like it''s marbled? Quartz and gold in the ebony?" As he said this the room began to shift once again to be as he described and he felt the urge to get creative to make this room as amazing as he can. "Show me the wood options for the floor, dark woods specifically." He went through the options and eventually settled on a kind if wood that had a rich brown hue with the wood grain showing red pulses of energy as if the rings if the tree were imbued either fire, when he walked across it he even felt aforting warmth. "Now I need a table... what is it they always say? Warm colors in a dark room?" He thought back to when his mom watched those silly home renovation shows but now it was useful. "I wonder if there''s any kind of ss with an orange or red tint?" As he went through the options for ss tables he realized two very important issues. The first was that even in the real world tinted ss tables looked terrible, the second was that in the game world these tables looked significantly worse. "Hm these look like shit... what if I go for marble instead?" As he kept going her realized that marble counter tops had so many imperfections and rarely had the colors he wanted so he simply asked for red stone tables. In his own world he found there were a variety of tables made with semi previous stones but most were minerals that had been put into resin to create a nice design in a fake table. He was about to give up until he saw jasper. A deep red stone that was all solid, if mounted on the same wood as the floor it would even make the table warm to the touch! He was absolutely excited by how well the room began to look and was going to continue when he suddenly saw the world fade away, he had finally logged in. When he arrived at the dungeon he saw that he had arge number of notifications from the system, the most important of which was the reward from the dungeon. As he hadpleted the dungeon solo he obtained it''s optional reward in addition to the mythril quality gear, sadly that was the best quality he had obtained but it was still worth a lot. When he looked at the other notifications he realized that he had bigger things to worry about than just the rewards from the dungeon, he saw that a number of details involving the auction of his scroll hade through but the main detail was that it had gone to an extreme amount. One hundred copper coins was the equivalent of a silver coin and one hundred silver coins was one gold Goin. He also knew that one hundred gold coins were equal to one tinum coin, he was confident that a tinum dragon coin would be therge denomination of the tinum coins. These scrolls were most likely just rewards from the system which meant that they were very rare, the problem was that the auction had taken a pause. Based on what he was reading a number of the people that had bid in the auction had actually put up a vote to pause the auction for the day, this would apparently allow them to start gathering more funds to bid. By the time the auction had paused the bidding had reached twenty five tinum dragon coins. "Hey system, if there are kingdoms bidding on this then why are they only reaching twenty five dragon coins?" ~~~~~~~~~~ Answer: tinum dragon coins are a denomination of currency equal to one thousand tinum coins. ~~~~~~~~~~ With some basic math in his head he realized that the bidding had ended at the equivalent of two and a half million gold coins! This meant that the total amount of gold he would have had to earn toplete the quest would be one hundred million gold coins... ''Why do they hate me so much? And how the hell did someone actually achieve this already?'' Eventually he just sighed and looked at the other notifications. ~~~~~~~~~~ Boon Quest Offered: The god of shadows Necros has offered a quest to obtain a boon from his power, will you ept? ~~~~~~~~~~ ''The dark god wants to give me something huh?'' He epted the offer and looked at the quest. ~~~~~~~~~~ Necros has heard a plea to grant you a boon but you must prove yourself worthy of it, you have been granted the quest "Boon of Necros." Step 1: to prove your skill in mana control you must infuse a weapon with the power of shadowfire. Step 2: to prove your mastery over your mana you must change your mana veins into shadowfire attuned mana veins. Step 3: to prove your dedication to your skills you must create a new spell with your shadowfire element without the aid of the Spell Crafter title, to meet the requirements the spell must be at minimum S rank. ~~~~~~~~~~n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om After reading through the steps of the quest he realized that it was in fact a challenge, he had no clue what to do to give his mana veins an affinity nor did he know where to start with making a weapon have his power. While thinking about what to so he decided that the easiest option was to ask for advice from a mage that had more power and skill than he did. He couldn''t go to Lucretia yet but he could go to the local magical schools to find out. With this n in mind he left to prepare for that meeting. ~ When he arrived at the school for magic he realized that he was probably one of the oldest people there outside of teachers. He showed his credentials he obtained in Raylock to the guard and entered the shockinglyrge doors only to find that the school was more enormous than he could have guessed. The vaulted ceilings seemed made for if anyone wished to fly while the ground was flooded with children rushing to and from ss. He floated himself into the sky and began to glide through the halls propelled by mana while asionally asking teachers for directions to the library. The issue with this was that he couldn''t exactly get a good answer as the teachers looked at him strangely due to what he used to hide his unnatural features. Eventually he got directions to the library and flew out to it, as it turned out he had to leave the main building just to reach the library. When he saw the build that was described to him he felt a sense of impending aplishment. When he entered the building the first thing he saw was the vast shelves full of scrolls and books across three floors, balconies with reading tables as well as rooms in the fourth floor. He approached the front desk with excitement and immediately greeted the young man sitting there. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!