[System Decay] Chapter 25: More Than Meets the Eye (Patreon)

“Great timing, Caiyeri,” Will hissed.

It wasn’t right to get mad at her. She didn’t control the nature of Will’s fights.

They’d exchanged a few messages after their initial exchange, which had been enough for him to surmise that while she was technically “on-planet,” that didn’t mean that she was actually in the region. She was waiting to be deployed with the rest of what he assumed were something like elf special forces.

Judging from her response, her elves and these elves weren’t the same species or at least not the same faction.

Before Will could tangle out the further implications of her message, the deer was on him.

Thanks to his Space affixation, Weapons Free’s cooldown was only six seconds, so he was able to teleport once more to his Hansel-and-Gretel trail of very sharp bread crumbs as the tentacles spilled forth from it once again.

This time, rather than retracting the tentacles, the deer sent them reaching further, dripping with their death energy. Will tactically retreated, Escape Artist and Wind Walker helping to speed him up and obscure him, but the deer was fast, and it ignored the terrain that he couldn’t, running through trees that barred Will’s attempts to get through them.

He chanced a look back. Seeing the tentacles within arm’s reach sent a spike of panic up Will’s spine, and he drew on his newest skill immediately.

Skill: [Time in a Bottle]

- Spell (chronurgy).

- Cost: high mana per second.

- Cooldown: scales based on how long the skill is used.

Accelerates your perception of time, enabling you to experience ten seconds for each second that passes outside. Warning: your body does not speed up to match your senses.

The entire world slowed. There was no transition, just an immediate shift to extreme slow-motion like Zack Snyder had been chosen to direct Will’s life.

Will opened his mouth to speak his thoughts aloud, which he’d grown comfortable with over the past week, but he found that the motion only parted his lips a little. His body wasn’t responsive right now—he had only his mind to accompany him.

Right.

The skill sucked away mana at a prodigious rate, but that was acceptable. If Will killed it, his Death affixation would enable him to steal a chunk of the mana the deer possessed in life.

All he needed was to win.

Assess the area around you, he thought. That was how he and Caiyeri had won against goblin parties many times their number and higher in rank. They’d positioned well, chosen their fights properly, and used their unique skills to shift lopsided battles in their favor.

It was late afternoon, and the shadows cast by the trees were long. Will had a knife stored in the shadows somewhere, right?

There. Right around a corner, he’d left a weapon that he could teleport to, just beyond the line of sight of the deer.

He hoped it couldn’t see through his skills. If it could, he would have to improvise more.

Will dropped Time in a Bottle and activated Weapons Free in the exact same instant, vanishing into dark shadow.

His mana was half depleted. He had more than enough to use a skill he’d only tried a couple of times.

Skill: [Wraith Cloak]

- Spell (invisibility, movement).

- Cost: low mana-per-second while not moving. Mana cost increases with speed.

- Cost: none.

Bronze

At the boundary of life and death, the laws of the universe collapse. Here, space itself will fold and bend light and shadow for you.

While in areas with low light or no light, you can have shadows surround you and render you invisible. This invisibility ceases to function if you move too quickly, use an attack, or cast a spell.

Also increases your speed while in shadow.

Oddly enough, this had affixed to his Space-bound attribute, Speed, rather than the Death-bound Soul, but it didn’t really change how it worked.

A chill settled into Will’s bones as he seemed to melt into the darkness. He raised a hand in front of his eyes slowly, but he could see no more than the shadow of the tree below.

Will almost gave the game away by laughing out loud. Invisibility. That was just incredible.

The deer, still with its tentacles out, turned the corner. It swept its dislocated head from side to side, apparently not seeing Will, but the tendrils infested the ground, bringing dangerous energy with them. He slowly crept through the shadows, hiding himself between two trees.

The tentacles nearly grazed him in his hiding spot, sliding along the tree’s leaves and turning the green to brown to grey instantly.

Eventually, the deer gave up, retracting its tentacles, and Will struck.

With his invisibility hiding him from sight and Wind Walker hiding the sounds of his steps, he crept up behind the deer and used Decaying Touch.

You have inflicted a level of [Corruption] on [Deer].

The corruption spread quicker than Will expected, smoky distortion coursing through the monster’s body in instants, but it didn’t kill it. Corruption killed painfully, and it was a powerful debuff, but it was still an affliction.

The deer twisted its head a hundred and eighty degrees vertically to look at Will, and its flesh split open.

Right. It could see him now because casting Decaying Touch had taken him out of the Wraith Cloak.

Before the tentacles could reach out again, Will used much of his remaining magic to use The Bell Tolls, inflicting it with the wither condition and worsening its corruption.

The deer screeched in pain, its entire body bucking. It collapsed into a mess of disjointed flesh and tentacles, writhing and thrashing, Will took the opportunity to get a couple hits in with his slayer sword. A small tooltip popped up with each glowing strike.

Senzen’s Seven-Star Slayer Sword

Charges: 3/7

Only heavy hits seemed to charge the sword, which was good to keep in mind for the future. Eventually, the creature started thrashing hard enough that Will backed up further, letting the afflictions do the rest of the work.

You have defeated Filament Deer Subject.

“I knew it,” Will crowed, looting the body. “That’s definitely not just a deer."

1 bronze credit has been added to your inventory.

Bronze Monster Core has been added to your inventory.

“Monster core?”

Despite its size, the deer didn’t have a lot of loot to offer.

The sounds of hooves trotting on grass and through branches alerted Will to the fact that this deer was not alone. He no longer had access to The Bell Tolls until its cooldown ended, though he had received about two-thirds of his mana back from killling this one bronze-rank creature, an abnormal amount.

Will used Wraith Cloak to dip into the shadows again before drafting his next message to Caiyeri.

Will: In a dungeon with what I think is a deer they modified. Filament Deer Subject, the system calls it. I can run, but the grinding is looking pretty good. Can you explain more?

#

Caiyeri knew that she should let the message die. Leaving the party, even, would be a better choice than responding.

The task that Zero had given her was to control or kill the man who’d saved her life and worked with her through the tutorial. The amount of information she could get from a chat pertaining to that mission was completely outweighed by the emotional impact that it would form.

Elves, especially abyssal ones, were not supposed to be emotional creatures, but despite her frigid appearance, the Caiyeri template had deviated enough from the norm to give the genetic markers for an increased ability to grow attached.

She needed to be able to kill without compunctions.

And yet, for some reason, she found herself drawn to keeping contact anyway.

It was stupid. In a way, it was human. But Caiyeri hadn’t been raised like a normal elf—she’d spent her years training with a limited set of other elves in a limited environment full of corruption. Group Two, who she was with now, had had a significantly different experience. Compared to them, she was practically a newborn, discovering other races for the first time and exploring her understanding of the world.

Cursing herslf for doing it, she typed out a reply.

Caiyeri: The life elves are a kingdom of intense magical and biological experimentation. My nation, Abyss, has warred with them since before our cycle even truly began. They’re largely a metal-tier kingdom, though they also have a small contingent of “heroes” in the emerald and diamond ranks. They’re making a coordinated push into a region currently marked as “Midwestern American Region 3.” I presume that that’s where you are.

Will’s response came seconds later.

Will: Uhh… I think I’m in Illinois? I’m not sure. Everything’s changed.

Caiyeri: Check your map. You should be able to get your region.

Will: Ah, there it is. Yep. MAR 3.

Caiyeri: The life elves have been a long-time enemy of ours. They’re hostile to almost all intelligent races, and their renewed presence here can’t be a good sign.

Will: Who’s “ours?” The Abyss elves? I’d say I’m sorry for not instantly assuming you’re the good guys, but I’m really not. Who names themselves that?

Caiyeri: Keep an eye out for the life elves nonetheless. Good or evil doesn’t matter when they’re trying to kill you.

Will: Heard, loud and clear. Anything I should be aware of?

Caiyeri: Every life elf has a Life element affixed. They’re almost all weak to the Death affinity, which I believe you have. They’ll try to kill you for it, but your messages make me think the’re already trying to.

Will: Got it. Thanks. Stay safe.

Caiyeri: Don’t lose.

“Talking to someone?” another elf asked, sitting down next to her.

Caiyeri raised her head, meeting the other elf’s eyes. “Azure.”

Out of the thirty members of Special Abyss Group Two, twenty-five were from the original Two. The remainder had either died or been called out to other postings, leaving Caiyeri and four other clones from different groups to fill in the gaps.

Azure Nine was a blue-eyed male whose template had perished single-handedly killing a squad of emerald-rank heroes of the life kingdom decades ago. Caiyeri had never been on friendly terms with Azure Seven—too big an ego for his station. Four was a little more socially aware, but the underlying characteristics were still there.

In the spire that Abyss had erected in the ocean, cut off from the outside world except for the portals maintained by the reclusive imperial mages, though, anyone that was as much of an outsider was welcome company. Neither Caiyeri nor Azure fit into the established groups of elves here, and as such, he was some of the only company she had outside of Two, who by and large treated her like a tool to be ordered around, used, and eventually discarded.

“No,” Caiyeri lied. “Nobody important.”

“You’re a bad liar,” Azure said, eyes flashing with the trademark cocky pride of his namesake. “I can’t imagine it’s high command. You wouldn’t be hiding that from me.”

“We’re not supposed to have contact with Users outside Abyss,” Caiyeri pointed out.

“Rules are made to be broken,” Azure replied with a dismissive wave. “They got the rest of Nine killed.”

“You’re the last one from your group, too?”

“I am. Rules had us stuck in an outpost under attack from a platinum-ranker when nobody was above bronze.”

Caiyeri’s aura senses were the best of Seven’s, and despite the measures he’d taken to hide his own power, she could tell that Azure was a rank higher than her. A silver, though a new one and relatively weak for it.

“You’ve advanced.”

“And I still would have died if I had obeyed orders,” he said. “Just something to think about, when we go back down in the dirt.”

On that cryptic note, he patted her on the shoulder. “I have a report to make. I’ll talk to you later. Keep in touch with whoever’s on the other end. Don’t trust everything you hear. Obedience is earned, not given.”

Azure stood and walked away confidently, leaving Caiyeri with more questions than answers.

#

Caiyeri’s information about the life kingdom was helpful. Will’s main attacks with the Death element were huge mana hogs or had heavy cooldowns—Ghostflame took his very life energy to fuel itself, and The Bell Tolls needed an hour between uses—so he wasn’t able to use it as effectively as he might’ve liked, but he did have options.

For instance, for every fight after the first, he did what he should have done the first time and marked his enemies.

Skill: [Mark for Death]

- Spell (affliction).

- Cost: moderate mana.

- Cooldown: 1 hour.

Bronze

Target any creature you can see or sense and mark them for death. During the next hour, the effectiveness of attacks and afflictions against the creature are increased, and you can track the creature through your minimap and through walls. This skill’s cooldown resets if the targeted creature dies.

[Soul Link] (bronze) - A fraction of all damage dealt to the marked creature is converted to healing for you.

The monsters the life elves had packed into innocuous forms were vulnerable to the Death element, and while Mark for Death wasn’t directly offensive and therefore didn’t immediately take advantage of that, Will soon found that the amount by which it increased the effectiveness of his attacks was noticeably more than what the skill typically did. He assumed the same went for healing, but he was largely able to keep himself from taking damage.

After the first monster, Will developed a much better strategy for killing. Dropping cheap weapons still proved to have returns. He could buy dull knives for something like ten base credits, so he didn’t care if he ran out of unformed-rank items here.

Beyond that, though, he approached the situation much more stealthily. The fight against the deer had done well to remind him that even though he was far stronger than the majority of the people here, he still wasn’t top dog. There were monsters here that could easily mess him up, especially since he no longer had any party members to make up for his weaknesses.

Will stuck to the shadows, using Wraith Cloak whenever he saw an enemy appear on the minimap. Mark for Death took him out of it for a moment, but he was able to reestablish it quickly enough that the monsters often failed to notice him.

Afterwards, he went on the hunt. The skill let him track them through the maze of trees, so he waited, following the individual monsters as they ran. The mark wouldn’t fade for an hour, so he was able to wait and follow until he got in the perfect position to strike.

Then, once the conditions were perfect, he went for it.

Title: [First Blood]

Legendary

Doubles the power of the first blow you deal against any creature. Increases the chance of getting a critical hit if you strike a creature before it strikes you.

Mark for Death and First Blood combined with the slayer sword to devastating effect. The chances of critting with the sword increased with the number of charges it had—with the increased crit rate offered by First Blood, it was nearly a guarantee.

Critical hit!

The effect of the weapon was something to behold. As Will cleaved yet another deer in half—this one with antlers that started to grow from the rest of its body as well as its head—he witnessed the effect of the slayer sword expending its charges.

It glowed a bright, vivid pink, and waves of radiant energy exploded out of it, enveloping the target and the space around it. The increased of the strength was such that Will had no more trouble slicing through the monsters than he would through an apple. Radiant magic devoured the monsters from the inside out. The attack invariably left its victims smoking.

Will was glad he’d gotten the item. Even though it was still bronze, he could already see the effects of its growth attribute. After carving his way through a solid dozen bronze-rank abominations, a notification appeared attached to the sword’s item the next time he looked at it.

Senzen’s Seven-Star Slayer Sword has gained an eighth charge slot.

He didn’t know how far it would be until the weapon made it to silver, but he eagerly awaited whatever effect would come once he got there.

Bit by bit, kill by kill, Will made his way through the dungeon. All of the monsters only dropped a single bronze credit alongside a monster core, which he didn’t think he wanted to use.

Item: Bronze Monster Core

Common, bronze

Monster cores are a common feature of monsters that are either artificially generated or born from a mana surplus. Intelligent creatures tend not to have a monster core, though this is not always the case.

Can be consumed for experience. Warning: consuming monster cores greatly inhibits your ability to increase your own stats through training.

Can be used as a crafting material.

Will’s eyes had lit up at the possibility that he could advance faster, but once he saw that his progression would be slowed, he discarded the thought completely. This looked like a shortcut, but not an effective one.

The thought of chomping his way through monster cores and finding himself at a completely avoidable bottleneck that could no longer be bypassed was just plainly awful.

It did give him a better idea as to why a number of people were seemingly so far ahead of him on the leaderboards. If they were abusing monster cores to level up, it was possible that they were speeding ahead of him now but screwing themselves over in the long term.

Will cleared his way through the dungeon with increasing ease. His Death affixation let him keep going by refueling on every kill, and his strategies evolved quicker than the monsters could adapt to them.

By the time he was reasonably sure that he’d cleared out all of the monsters, he had twenty-three bronze monster cores and was three-quarters of the way to Bronze 3. Silver Forerunner was putting in a lot of work for advancing him, he had to admit.

Eventually, he found his way to the boss area, which proved harder than he initially assumeed it would be. The minimap showed him the general layout of the area, but the tree-infested meadow was harder to navigate than he originally thought. Certain areas didn’t look blocked on the map but were thick with impenetrable tree leaves that burned and scratched at his skin when he touched them.

When he finally made it to the center, he found himself in a pleasant grassy field about a hundred feet wide, perfectly circular with nothing but a single tree in the middle. This tree had no leaves on its branches, but it was larger than the others, towering over them in a way that made Will wonder how he hadn’t seen it coming in.

In front of that tree was a single person.

Sharp, tapered ears. Elegant, complex patterns inscribed on leather armor that seemed to move independently of its owner. Long, flowing hair. A soft green aura.

She was floating, head slightly bowed, feet tilted downwards. The elf painted an ominous picture, a hanged woman without a noose.

And she radiated power.

Thalia Brooksoul, Priestess of Life. Level: Silver 5.

This is a clan boss.

Thalia Brooksoul is one of the few priestesses entrusted with the protection of the life kingdom’s interests in this region. She will kill anyone who dares to even think about raiding her ward, but she has no interest in others.

The life kingdom reuses all the biological material they can get their hands on. Tread lightly, or there won’t even be bones left of you.

Will looked at her unmoving, hanging form, then at the aura emanating from her.

“Nope,” he said. “Nope, nope, nope, nope!”

He turned around and ran away.