Chapter 419 - Lurkers (Patreon)

Using my anchor again, I teleport to Shayna, who stands there breathlessly, not flying anymore. She holds her arm that is burned, and her barriers flicker around her.

Constantly sending disrupting waves toward the fire mana, she does it with great timing. The flames explode into the area and light up the place, now full of flames burning all around.

I stop myself from helping and watch as a reanimated corpse of an attendee pulls all these flames towards him, compressing them into an orb as big as my fingernail, making it float over the staff.

Shayna curses, but she doesn’t give up. Her hair and eyes are now pure white.

Just for the shortest moment, the fire mage blanks out before he can attack, and Shayna pushed her limits, a disruption hitting the orb. Maybe not a disruption, something a bit different. The orb destabilizes, and the mage, coming back to his senses, tries to put it under his control, the heat burning his skin now and the trees around him turning to ash.

The hand holding the staff burns, melts until it’s only bone holding the staff, and finally, the orb expands more, clearly about to explode, and is flung to the side by the mage.

There the fire orb explodes, burning a big building-sized hole into the hill nearby, the melted edges showing the power of the attack.

Before the mage can attack again, a projectile Shayna shoots buries into his head. Even I have trouble sensing that projectile. It's extremely fast, quiet, and even able to pierce through the barrier and heat around the fire mage.

Finally, Shayna falls to her knees, her head turning to me, “Fuck, you could have helped.”

“I was curious how you would fight,” I answer.

Boosting my body, I reach the corpse and quickly go through the pockets, not finding anything useful. So I just grab the staff.

Emberflame Staff (Upper Epic): Crafted from volcanic glass, the staff ignites fierce flames. By channeling mana, it can unleash fire that devastate the battlefield. The Emberflame Staff also enhances fire abilities, making them more potent and consuming.

Not bad.

Blowing off the corpse of the fire mage, I move back to Shayna.

“Shouldn’t it be mine?” she asks, the color of her hair and eyes turning black with bits of white.

“Payment for saving your life,” I say.

“Fucking hell, just take it. We are dead anyway. We will never reach the safe zone with just the two of us.”

“Why do you think they did it?” I ask, having my theories but wanting to hear her opinion.

“Isn’t that obvious now? Roculus was always a part of their core group and just pretended he wasn’t. It’s even likely there are more in other groups.”

“And Rat?”

“He probably just ran away, and we should too before more lurkers come. It’s probably too late already.”

“It’s fine, continue.”

“We should…”

“I said continue.”

She looks up at me, and a bit more white appears in her hair.

“It’s obvious, they either did it to get our items or to make us lure away lurkers. The more lurkers you kill, the more others are attracted to you. I’m surprised they didn’t create marks here. There are frequencies of mana that attract lurkers.”

“Oh, they did. Eugan left a mark on each of us, and I removed the one on you and blocked mine. I think she activated the one on Rat, so he might be in trouble.”

I still have a mark on me, and it’s funny to observe Eugan constantly trying to activate it. So they did it to avoid killing lurkers and make us kill them instead, which makes lurkers more drawn to us?

While Shayna watches with blank expression, I coat the tip of my finger with resonating mana and cut into my belly, from where I pull out the mana orb that I kept feeding my mana for quite some time. As the wound starts slowly closing, I look at the orb and the amount of mana it contains.

It should be enough.

“Give me a moment,” I tell her.

I use another of my anchors, this time the one I left on Roculus. The man is not that good with his detection, so a safer choice than Eugan.

Teleporting through, I appear next to the two of them, both of them turned to me with weapons already in their hands.

Of course, they noticed the activation.

The orb I hold in my hand starts shining bright white, and I throw it on the ground, then I push through Eugan’s disrupting attempt and teleport away back to Shayna.

Even where we stand, I feel a strong pulse of mana from my exploded orb.

“What…”

Before Shayna can finish her question, I teleport again to the same place as before. This time, the ruins of the old buildings around it are exploded, the shockwave throwing them all over the place. The heat is still in the air.

Roculus is a bit further away, crawling while leaving a bloody track behind his body. Both of his legs are gone, and one of his arms as well. Even so, they are regenerating fairly quickly, as well as the missing half of his face.

He spots me, an emotion flickering in his eyes, “I didn’t know… I…”

I lift my finger, and he stops talking. Then I send a detecting wave into the area, failing to find Eugan.

Did she run away? Teleportation again maybe?

Looking around, I find and pick up the weapons Roculus had, a mace and a dagger.

Serpent’s Fang (Upper Epic): Forged from the fangs of an ancient serpent, this dagger’s blade is perpetually coated with a venom that induces severe hallucinations. The Serpent’s Fang also allows the wielder to launch the dagger at distant foes, releasing a toxic mist upon impact that affects multiple enemies.

The mace seems to be heavily damaged. Did he maybe use it to block the attack?

Impact Mace (Upper Epic, Damaged): Designed for delivering punishing strikes with precision. The Impact Mace features a balanced design that allows for swift, powerful swings. Each hit generates a localized shockwave.

“You cheap fucker, attacking like that,” Roculus hisses.

Turning around, I see him standing, his limbs regrown and body healed. Even so, it must have taken a toll on him, together with blocking the attack from before. I'm still surprised he was able to survive it; the power contained in that orb would give trouble even to Gareth. The ruins left behind after the explosion confirm that.

Still, Roculus charges me first, muscles bulging on his skin and a skin tight barrier radiating around his body.

The anchor I left on him while he was regenerating activates as I send a big part of my stored kinetic energy through, and both of his legs explode again as he falls to the ground.

With a hateful expression, he stands up, not hesitating at all and running on broken pieces of his bones and revealed bloody flesh.

I modify my attack a bit and blast him away with kinetic energy, the area around us clearing from debris and some flames dying off.

Through the mark Eugan left on me that tries constantly to activate, I track her position, and when I focus my senses in that direction, it seems like there is fighting going on there as well, most likely lurkers attacking the group. The waves of mana felt from there confirm it.

With interest, I watch as the mark on Roculus activates, the same one as Eugan put on me. It vibrates with a frequency of mana that is currently very hard for me to grasp and spreads into a big area.

Roculus seems to sense it as well as he stops, his face turning pale white.

Multiple presences start coming from the area where Eugan and her group were fighting, towards the source of that weird frequency.

Couldn't she put it on the ground or items? Does that mark be applied to a living being for it to work?

“N-no,” Roculus whispers.

Waving at him, I activate my anchor and teleport away. I immediately clean the remaining mana from the place and turn to Shayna.

“How much if I help you to survive?” I ask.

She quickly grasps it, and it takes only a moment, “15 thousand shards.”

“Twenty.”

A few more seconds of her gaze.

“Fine,” she says finally.

Maybe I should ask for more, but even though she has been in Beyond longer than me, I don’t think she would have much more.

Incoming transfer of 20,000 shards. Confirm?

Yes/No

I confirm.

Shards: 148,648

“Let’s go this way,” I point in one direction.

Rat is to our right, Roculus and the group to our left, so it’s better to avoid them both.

With both of them grabbing the attention of lurkers, it might even work better than with the group before. The question is, for how long.

Seeing Shayna moving slowly, I reach her and grab her into my arms before I start rushing again, using kinetic energy to boost my body. At the same time, I create a field around us that doesn’t let mana exit it and show our position. I also keep watching Shayna. It would be unfortunate if she tried to attack me and I died just like that.

Lurkers, the true danger of the 1st floor, but probably not the original danger. I know only that much from all the information I have collected.

The first floor is special. If you die here, your body will be revived and controlled by something that will constantly search for attendees to kill them.

If you die as a lurker, it will usually take around 1 year for you to come back to life, together with your equipment that the system will recreate.

From one point of view, it could be abused a lot as a constant farm of equipment. But someone powerful enough to do it wouldn’t have such a need for these kinds of items. Beginner attendees usually have upper epic items at most, very rarely some damaged arcane.

The danger here is also huge. The problem is the so-called named ones. Lurkers of powerful attendees who died here through some fuckery. Either murdered by their guild or party, maybe through a mistake on their part.

There are a few dozen named ones on the first floor who keep respawning even if they get killed, the ones receiving nicknames such as Rookie Killer, Whitey, Specter, Sly Fox, and more.

My problem currently is so many lurkers moving all around and each of them being people capable of clearing Beyond trials. Their corpses retain most of their abilities.

Then there is also that group that wouldn’t hesitate to kill. Everything they did so far smells of desperation, and that makes me wonder what their real objective is.

Sure, I nearly killed Roculus, but it was largely through trickery. If we fought one versus one, it would be a much more difficult fight. And if I had to fight him and Eugan, it could become even worse. Sure, I’m still sure I would probably be able to win or run away, but it’s risky.

Even then, I don’t put them on the level of Savant, Tacita, Lily, or Tess. So far, I’m sure each of these four has more potential.

Good. Earth go go.

[You have defeated Blood Ravager - lvl 279]

It's surprising he was able to hold on for so long. The presences moving towards him were quite powerful. He was quite strong, that guy.

Well, rest in peace, Roculus. It’s a shame I couldn’t get some shards off you.

***

A bit later and much further we find Rat, or what remains of him. The half of his head remaining, the dead eye looking towards the stone ceiling of this place.

Just like that.

Killed by who knows who, deep underground in a place so infinitely distant from his planet.

The chosen one out of the entire population. Someone talented enough to become the top of their First Generation. Nothing but a piece of his head remaining and nothing to show for it. No amazing last stand someone would witness, no great goal he was trying to reach. Only used and then hunted down while he tried to run away and survive.

There is that weird feeling of melancholy to it.

Pushing it to the back of my mind, I boost my body with even more kinetic energy and continue to run with Shayna in my arms. I modify the direction where I was heading and rely on the woman in my arms who has the estimation map memorized better than me.

Checking my timer, there are still over 20 hours remaining of my Stay Token.

***

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