Lifeblood Chaos: B1 Chapter 11: Challenging Objective (Patreon)

Ray considered congratulating himself. He wasn’t one to arrogantly praise himself for every victory, but he had been right about quite a few suppositions recently, and the way the new Brighthorn was charging at him confirmed yet another recent assumption.

These things were not friendly.

This Brighthorn looked exactly like the dead one from the cave. A facehugger of a head, the body that was a strange mix of a giant lizard and a wolf. Those ridges and spines along its back that were supposedly the horns definitely didn’t glow, so he couldn’t tell where exactly the name came from.

Ray quickly made sure he was wearing the Diamond-crusted Ring of Temporal Evasion. Time to test his new gear.

His new spell activated as the Brighthorn got close enough.

[Presence of the Primordial]

Brighthorn [Monster] [Tier 3]

Lupine creature revered as an infamous pet for the Sylvans. With claws that can cut through metal and a jaw capable of boring straight through flesh, they are prized for their ability to dominate a battlefield. However, great care is needed to ensure they do not turn wild. The more numerous they are, the more difficult to control.

Skills:

Rending Claws [Tier 1]: Build up power to unleash a furious strike that can penetrate defences.

Boring Bite [Tier 1]: Lunge forward to rip apart the foe’s flesh.

Pack Hunt [Tier 2]: Raise all stats by 5% for every member of the species present in the vicinity.

Wild Howl [Tier 2]: Inflict Tier 1 Intimidate to all who hear the howl and negate enemy Fear and Intimidation effects below this skill’s Tier.

An interesting list of skills. There was Wild Howl too. It had to be that screeching cry Ray had heard a little while ago. Good thing his trusty new spell had blocked it.

Despite the Brighthorn rushing at him, Ray remained still. He still hadn’t formulated a plan how exactly he was going to get the collar on the Brighthorn, or if it was even going to help in any way. First, he had to focus on subduing the creature without killing it.

The monster charged at him. Its spines had started to glow a bit, a soft white light emanating from deep within. Did these things only live up to their name when they were out for blood?

Ray forced his body to remain still. Any second now…

As soon as the onrushing Brighthorn was close enough, everything froze. The world lost its colour, everything appearing turgid and petrified. Even Ray himself couldn’t move.

The ring had activated right when the Brighthorn had been about to leap at him. If Ray decided dodging was the best option, he’d have time to do so as soon as time unfroze again. Huh. So, this was the effect of the Ring of Temporal Evasion.

But time was ticking down. Fifteen seconds. That was all Ray would get. And he had squandered a precious few already.

He had to figure out how to go about this encounter now.

The stray thought that the monster’s head was actually big enough to bite off his whole head flashed past Ray’s racing mind. He couldn’t tell if the monster actually felt itself freezing in mid-air, or if the time-slowing effect was for him only.

As the timer trickled down, he knew what he had to do. He used Primal Summons to bring up the wings of the Feathered Fiend on his back, ordering them to take him to the sky.

Time unfroze. As the Brighthorn flew at him, Primal Summons pulled up a cloud of black-red energy on his back. Wings sprouted in the next instant, throwing Ray skywards. Just in the nick of time.

The monster sailed through the spot where Ray had been a second ago, then collided with the tree behind him, stunned.

Ray grinned. It was incredible to fly, all the more so because it felt natural. Like the wings had always been a part of his being instead of a foreign appendage hastily tacked on.

All thanks to raising his Intellect to Tier 2.

He twisted his wings to turn him around so that he was facing the alien dog. Despite the naturalness of his new wings, the motion and perspective would really need some getting used to. It was somewhat reminiscent of being on a rollercoaster, though thankfully less intense.

His increased Agility was definitely helping too. Not only had he escaped the dog’s lunge—where the evasion was boosted by his Shaper Raiment—it was also allowing him to get a better handle of his fast, jerky motion. The g-forces were distracting but thankfully not debilitating.

Unfortunately, weaving around in the air wasn’t the best state to be in when trying to target one’s opponent with a ranged spell. Especially when said target was still moving.

Since the Brighthorn was of a lower Tier than the Imps he had been fighting, he didn’t want to accidentally kill it in one shot with a Shatterclaw. That spell might be too strong for this little dog.

Instead, he tried to send bolts of Chaos Chymify at the Brighthorn to subdue it. Problem was, he kept missing. The monster was too fast. Too agile

He couldn’t keep this up for long. Primal Summons would last only a minute at a time. Sure, it didn’t seem like it had a cooldown, but he didn’t want to be vulnerable in the moment he was re-activating it.

The facehugger-dog still tried to reach him, using its Rending Claws skill to ingeniously shoot itself higher than a normal leap would have taken it.

“Oh, wow.” Ray was genuinely impressed. “Who’s a smart boy?”

Thankfully, his wings took him clear of the maximum height the Brighthorn could reach.

He couldn’t get in a hit, though. Both their motion was too erratic. This was getting annoying. He had already wasted almost 50 Mana. His total was pretty high right about now, but still.

Ray had to admit it was a little fun to be using both hands to shoot at his target. When the bolt of chaotic black-red energy shooting from his right hand missed, he waved his left immediately afterwards to send another little blast flying at the monster.

Mangy mutt kept dodging. Damn that thing.

Excitement was mixing with anxiety. Primal Summons was going to end soon. It hadn’t been an issue before, when he hadn’t needed his summoned powers for long. But here…

Well, he didn’t want his face to be chewed off by that thing.

Oh, right. Ray considered smacking himself over the head. He hadn’t activated Occultic Apparition. That would be the perfect solution to his issues here.

Activating the spell made his Mana feel as though it was expanding, causing a whirl of pure black energy to swirl around the hand he had used to cast it. Presence of the Primordial guided him through the actual application process. He closed his fist and tapped it against his chest. The black energy transferred to his body and soon had him covered completely.

Primal Summons came to an end around the same time. The wings disappeared from Ray’s back, dropping him to the ground. Pretty good timing, if he was being honest.

Ray immediately began moving. Occultic Apparition’s occluding effect would work best so long as he remained mobile.

The monster dog hesitated, as though suddenly unsure of its own sight.

“Down you go,” Ray said.

The next bolt of Chaos Chymify struck the monster right on its leg. All this time, it hadn’t been dodging his attacks so much as trying to reach him. But now that he had made it pause, he could finally land a blow.

A wound bloomed, flesh twisting as bluish-black blood spurted while bones deformed. The Brighthorn yelped in pain. Then it fell over.

It was still struggling, though. Still attempting to get up and sink its lamprey-like mouth on Ray. Feisty little monster.

Ray considered for a long while. How in the world was he going to muzzle that thing? He had to get close to put on the collar, and if he did so, he was liable to get bitten or clawed.

Plus, he still had no guarantee the collar was worth it, though he wanted to believe in the solemn way Kredevel had gifted it to him.

It didn’t feel right, but Ray blasted another one of the Brighthorn’s legs with a Chaos Chymify. The monster growled. Despite yet another wound, it kept threatening him, almost daring him to get close. Ray shook his head. This thing was relentless. He supposed it wasn’t surprising, considering the description he had read thanks to Presence of the Primordial.

He tried hitting it enough to leave it too injured to resist in any way, but it was like it was high on coke or something. Didn’t matter how many bleeding, painful wounds dotted its body. So long as it drew breath, it was ready to murder Ray.

Sighing, he killed the damn Brighthorn with a couple more Chaos Chymifies.

[Enemy Defeated—Brighthorn]

Tier 3 Monster: Brighthorn [Level 2] x1

Essence: +60

Knowledge: +3

Mana Restored: +20

Essence to next level: 3,710/5,000

Knowledge to next Threshold: 33/50

[Lifeblood Crucible Activated]

Crucible Chymify has stolen the soul of a defeated Feathered Imp. Please select which Aspect of the targeted soul to retain.

Soul Aspects

·       Brighthorn horns: Summon a range of spikey protrusions on your back. [Tier 1]

·       Rending Claws: Build up power to unleash a furious strike that can penetrate defences. [Tier 1]

·       Boring Bite: Lunge forward to rip apart the foe’s flesh. [Tier 1]

·       Pack Hunt: Raise all stats by 5% for every member of the species present in the vicinity. [Tier 2]

·       Beady Eyes: Eyes that will always find a favoured food. [Tier 1]

Ray stared at the screen with growing distaste. Not only was killing the Brighthorn completely antithetical to the Objective he had been set, it also gave him an absolutely pitiful amount of Essence and Mana. Just lovely. Even its Soul Aspects weren’t anything worthwhile. Though, he had to admit, Pack Hunt at least sounded interesting as an ability.

Nevertheless, he was starting to see why Kredevel had said that this Objective was going to be difficult.

Interestingly, there was that Knowledge gain per kill. He didn’t exactly feel more knowledgeable after torturing and killing a weird alien monster-dog, but who was he to argue with numbers going up.

Ray plucked the Mana fruit from the tree that looked different from the rest of its kind around them. This tree’s trunk was more regular dark brown than the soulless black that the rest of its sinuous cousins exhibited. Although, as soon as he had taken the glowing blue orb from its branch, the tree wilted a little and turned fully black.

Ah. So Ray had not only killed a dog, he had also potentially just the murdered the only living tree in the vicinity. Great. He could now square in another block on the evil-little-fucker bingo board. Maybe he’d even get an achievement at this rate.

[Warning!]

Presence of the Primordial indicates you have been detected by Overworld Pulse [Tier 5].

Ray froze. Overworld Pulse? A Tier 5 ability? His immediate impulse was to look around and see if he could spot anyone coming in, but the name of the ability made him look down instead. Overworld… did that mean the skill’s user was underground?

And again, it was Tier 5. Whatever had used an ability at that high a Tier had to be several levels stronger than him.

Unless it possessed a similar ability to Hoard Defence, but how likely was that?

Nobody with any shred of intelligence would put all their Tier Points into a detection or identification skill without first levelling up their other abilities. Now, there was no saying how intelligent a monsters in general were. But Ray wouldn’t have been surprised if all creatures possessed a natural acumen as to how best to upgrade their loadout.

If instead the System itself created some monsters, unlikely though it seemed, it would be intelligent enough to make their “builds” balanced.

In other words, Ray would do best to get away from there before whatever was underground came above ground. As much as he would have liked to get a sense of what exactly was under the surface, he decided not to take chances just yet.

“I’ll be seeing you later,” Ray promised. “Mystery chthonic monster.”

He moved on. As he did so, tried to come up with a viable strategy of getting one of the Brighthorns to the centre of the first floor alive.

At least he now knew where he had to go, in a general sense.

During that last fight, when he had taken to the air, he had once again seen the tower within the Tower in the distance. Ray had begun to suspect that was where the Floor Lord would be. For now, it would give him a direction to head towards. Although, the fact that he had seen the tower was concerning.

Either it was closer than he thought, or it was huge. Considering the Tower of Forging was supposed to cover the entirety of Wisconsin and more, Ray suspected it was the latter.

Ray didn’t find too much of anything else that was of note. No more Brighthorns rushing him, no other monsters popping up close enough for Lifeblood Sense to detect. He did spot some in the distance. Strange deer that hopped like hares. What looked like a huge snake with a black flower bud for a head.

They were too far away, though. It almost felt boring. He counselled himself that he ought to enjoy the peace while he could, but the way this land felt was anything but relaxing.

His hunger got worse as he travelled.

Ray was trying to be a little stingy, to not waste the Mana he regenerated by eating the fruit. That dried Mana fruit in the caves hadn’t gifted him any Mana, which he had suspected was because it simply used the Mana the fruit itself stored to revitalize his physical body.

But at the same time, Ray figured he might have been topped up with Mana so the fruit couldn’t have gifted him any even if it had been capable of doing so.

So now, he was considering waiting until he had a Mana deficit just to check.

After all, if he came across more monsters, he could kill a few to regain his Mana, so long as he went about the killing with proper care.

But storing the Mana fruit for a potential emergency wasn’t going to help if he keeled over when he was famished. Hunger and thirst might distract him in a fight, which would suck. Plus, he was starting to feel a bit drowsy too.

Besides that, he had those Mana crystals to gain some Mana in case of emergencies.

So, without further ado, he swallowed down the Mana fruit. It was even more refreshing than the one he had swallowed in the caves. All his weariness, his hunger and thirst, even the need to use the bathroom, all disappeared.

At some point, Ray might need to learn how to grow these things on his own. They were incredible.

After about two more uneventful hours, Ray finally found something of note.

His first dungeon.

A wooded area stretched ahead of him, the entrance serenaded by broken pillars. There was a fallen statue too—a humanoid figure sporting the head of a bird and lying on its side.

[Presence of the Primordial—Dungeon]

Everair Traversal Park III [Tier 3]

To promote fast travel through the bounds of the empire, the Everair established various reservations that shortened vast distances with the clever application of Mana engineering. This Traversal Park incorporates an arboreal garden, now ruined and overgrown and infested with pests. Reach the end to clear the dungeon.

Hmm. Ray’s new spell was the one providing him information about the dungeon instead of a System notification. Did Presence of the Primordial override any potential notification, or were there none to begin with?

What did that mean for anyone who didn’t possess a utility skill or spell like his?

That wasn’t important in the end. Ray wasn’t sure he wanted to enter and clear a Tier 3 dungeon. That interaction with the Brighthorn had proven that his high Tier tutorial might have left him a tad over-levelled for the average offerings on the First Floor of the Tower of Forging. A Tier 3 dungeon couldn’t provide him with much Essence.

But in the end, he had an Objective to complete. Ray might as well get it done.

Plus, he was intrigued by the description. A dungeon that shorted distances? Would he cover ten miles just by walking one mile? If so, that would be wild.

Ray went in.

The arboreal descriptor was accurate. The whole place did remind him of natural parks, like Lake Park on the shore of Lake Michigan back home. A combination or urbanism and natural offerings.

Except, everything was overgrown and ruined. The flagstones were cracked. The strangely tall benches were broken. Columns and pillars had fallen over the paths.

The trees weren’t helping. These were different from the ones bearing Mana fruit. Grey, their barks looking dried and flaky, their trunks and branches twisting around each other to form a contorted barrier that blocked off Ray from seeing much, and occasionally barricaded his path forward too.

Disrepair. That was the main impression Ray got. A state of fallen ruin.

He slashed through another thorny thicket with a Shatterclaw. “Where’s a basic fireball spell when you need one?” he muttered.

It wasn’t ideal he was using Mana without regaining it, but hey, there were the Mana crystals. Ray could panic when he ran out of them.

He paused. For the first time since entering, Lifeblood Sense detected a blob of life somewhere in the distance. Presence of the Primordial acted on its own to reveal what lay a little ahead of him.

[Presence of the Primordial]

Raptor [Monster] [Tier 2]

Dinosaurian monster that often acts in packs. They are fast and vicious, and despite not being capable of flight, their build allows them to jump and manoeuvre easily in the air. The researchers of the Everair, intrigued by their evolutionary traits, experimented with reversing the temporal progression of their race. One such product is the Raptor.

Skills:

Rending Claws [Tier 1]: Build up power to unleash a furious strike that can penetrate defences.

Pack Hunt [Tier 2]: Raise all stats by 5% for every member of the species present in the vicinity.

Aerial Adaptability [Tier 1]: Gain great manoeuverability when in the air. At Tier 1, this skill allows the wielder to change momentum while in air.

Interesting. The monster had some of the same skills as the Brighthorn. They couldn’t be related, since so far, nothing had suggested the Sylvans like Kredevel were related to this long-gone Everair race in any way. Unless they were descendants, or offshoots, or something like that.

Maybe the System just termed similar abilities possessed by completely different beings the same thing.

Ray cleared another thorny barrier of old wood before coming to a stop. There were the monsters.

As soon as he had crushed the wood aside with a Shatterclaw, half a dozen hisses slithered over to him. Ray wasn’t at all surprised to see small chicken-sized monsters littering the area. A dusting of dirty white feathers, snouts that looked more like beaks with serrated teeth, they had the whole Jurassic Park package.

The strangest thing, though, was that some of them were already dead.

Ray couldn’t wonder about it for long as the monsters attacked.

There wasn’t a ton of danger. The monsters were fast, and they were indeed agile in the air, but Ray simply flew straight up with his Soaring Wings.

It turned out that these little creatures were weak enough that even Chaos Chymify was enough to kill them with one shot. Wild. The level difference between him and the creatures here had to be huge.

Which was proven true when Ray finished summarily ending them all.

[Enemy Defeated—Brighthorn]

Tier 2 Monster: Raptor [Level 2] x4

Tier 2 Monster: Raptor [Level 1] x2

Essence: +200

Knowledge: +18

Mana Restored: +100

Essence to next level: 3,910/5,000

[Reputation Threshold Crossed]

For reaching the 50-point threshold, your Knowledge has raised your Intellect by 10.

Knowledge to next Threshold: 51/100

There was another notice for Lifeblood Crucible activation, but Ray dismissed it. There was nothing these Raptors had that could be better than the Soul Aspects he already possessed.

More interestingly, he had crossed another Reputation threshold. A quick peek at his status confirmed that the original 5-point boost to his Intellect had been replaced with 10. Excellent.

That was when he heard it. A scream. A very human scream. More people. People who were in trouble.

Despite his wariness, Ray rushed in.