Lifeblood Chaos: B1 Chapter 34: Flying Eyeball (Patreon)

Ray ended up telling Gritty about both the nearest Sylvans’ location and the fact that they were working together with the Wild Tides now. He had ended up asking Kredevel about the former, though he didn’t inform the Sylvan that his compatriots might end up getting a visit from a slightly crazed barbarian of a punk girl.

“Thanks for not telling him anything,” Gritty said. “I want to it to be a surprise.”

“You talk like you’re throwing an out-of-nowhere birthday party.”

She laughed. “Maybe I’ll make a cake in the end. Who knows.”

Ray really didn’t want to know how she’d accomplish that. “Why are you so hell bent on killing the Sylvans?”

“Why aren’t you?”

“Because I have better things to do and I don’t want to go around randomly murdering people?”

Gritty sighed. “You won’t get it.”

“What?”

“I’m saying you won’t understand.”

“Well, if you don’t explain, I won’t yeah.”

She looked away for a moment. Ray waited there, letting her come to her decision. Finally, she turned around again.

“You know, in my old life, I always thought I got dealt a bad hand,” Gritty said. “My life was shit from the beginning. I had no hopes, no dreams, nothing to look forward to. No real job, no actual education, nothing. Every day that passed by, I did the barest minimum to survive however I could and then did nothing else.”

“How does that relate to… all this?”

“I’m getting to that.” She grinned, but there was no humour in her expression. “You won’t believe the things I had to do to survive. As my life went on, you know what I started to feel? You know what I began to think?”

It was starting to come together slowly. Ray was beginning to understand where she was truly coming from. “Rage,” he said quietly.

“Exactly!” Gritty wasn’t quiet at all. “Huh, maybe you might actually understand. You see, I was starting to get blinded by rage. I was starting to lash out at anything and everything. It wasn’t great. But then, lo and behold. We’re all here. In this weird Tower where you actually have to kill things.”

“So now, you’ve transferred all that rage onto a new target in the Tower.”

She nodded, her spiky hair trembling lightly like porcupine quills. “The Sylvans have ever so kindly volunteered. Who am I to reject their generous offer to lay down and die as gruesomely as possible?”

Ray took a deep breath. He did understand Gritty. Maybe not truly empathetically, because he was pretty sure her life had been vastly different from his. But it wasn’t beyond his ability to comprehend.

The System knows me. That’s what it had said to her. That’s what it had essentially said to Ray too.

A life of pain and sadness. A life that had led to nothing but a burning hatred that had to be directed somewhere.

“What no therapy does to a person,” Ray muttered.

Gritty punched him lightly in the shoulder. “Good luck finding a therapist here.”

They departed the Base afterwards. Though, before doing so, Ray was polite enough to meet Maya face-to-face to inform her of where he’d be going. And also to tell her what he had learned from Kredevel about the Sylvans potentially working together with the Wild Tides.

“You remember the warning about the defectors?” Ray asked. There was no one around in this part of the keep, but he still kept his voice down.

“I do,” May said. “Tyler won’t stop reminding me.”

“Well, things just got a little more sinister, didn’t it?”

“Bad news for us…”

It was. If they had multiple enemies to fight against, the Faction would have a much harder time surviving.

Maya wished him luck with the dungeon and promised she’d keep in touch.

Armed with a bunch of Mana crystals, Ray flew in the direction Maya had pointed him. The Base Node now offered a rudimentary map within its interface—a reward for having completed some of the Faction Objectives. Combined with the information from Kredevel, Ray was able to identify the direction he ought to be travelling.

He didn’t waste time surveying things. Ray was eager to get more Essence. Eager to level up. Eager to get to a point where he could evolve his class and get more True Mana naturally.

For now, he had switched up the Diamond-crusted Ring of Temporal Evasion with the Silver True Mana Bracelet. He felt slightly more vulnerable without the ring, but it didn’t matter. He was moving pretty fast.

Plus, the ring just had a once-per-day use. He’d put it on when needed, probably in the dungeon.

Speaking of which, Ray soon found himself in the required area. Sector 33 was in a short mountain range. He had travelled—well, flown, since he didn’t have a shortage of Mana crystals—for about an hour and a half and reached a vastly different environment.

Where it had been plains and rolling hills before, now he was facing a series of mountains, jagged teeth reaching for the sky. The air was sharper and colder here. Ray couldn’t fly straight to the peak. They were too high. His ability to elevate himself straight up was limited. Nevertheless, he got the sense that the range stretched all the way to the bounds of the Tower.

“Now, where is it…” Ray muttered.

Kredevel had said the dungeon was between the mountains, in a pass or something of the sort. It was a more natural dungeon, compared to the ones he had faced so far. Although, the Everair were still integrated with it.

Ray climbed the slopes, his ascent aided by his wings. Despite climbing pretty high, he never crossed into the clouds. They were still far above him. Murky and hazy and beyond his reach.

Eventually, Ray found a pass. A pass with bones.

Very human bones.

Well, if that wasn’t a clear indication he was heading the right way, he didn’t know what was. He noted that there had been people here at some point. Was there a tutorial zone somewhere in this mountain range? Was anybody still alive?

It seemed too cold. Too inhospitable. Ray couldn’t see any Duskshell digging through these hard mountain rocks and letting its trees and Mana fruits sprout.

Of course, some hardy survivors could have killed the monstrous wildlife and eaten that to live. Who knew. Maybe Ray would find out.

The dungeon appeared in the form of a stele.

Or at least, there were words written on the stele. Ray couldn’t decipher them. The System didn’t helpfully translate them either. But considering the skeletons nearby, he figured he was in the right place.

Presence of the Primordial confirmed it.

[Presence of the Primordial—Dungeon]

Windbane Breeding Grounds [Tier 7]

The aerial might of the Everair wasn’t simply their own ability to enjoy flight via various means. They sought to imbue other creatures with the capability of taking to the skies as well. One of their greatest achievements was the rise of the Windbanes. Though, some said the achievement went out of hand before long…

Well, wasn’t that an ominous description?

Still, Ray grinned. A Tier 7 dungeon. Just what he needed. This was exciting.

The dungeon stretched out along the pass. Ray wasn’t certain what his objectives were, but there was definitely a clear path to follow, at least.

Curious though he was about what exactly he had to accomplish in the dungeon, what he was actually interested materialized before long. The Windbanes came in, their hungry screeches preceding their actual presence.

[Presence of the Primordial]

Windbane [Monster] [Tier 4] [Level 15]

Draconic creatures that prefer living in high altitudes. However, the scarcity of food at such altitudes often forces them to raid more low-lying lands. They are known to carry their prey, dead or alive, back to their nests before feasting.

Skills:

Roiling Screech [Tier 2]: Compress air into a screech that pierces all defences at or below this skill’s Tier to inflict mental damage.

Gust [Tier 3]: Send out a small windstorm that debilitates foes and enhances your movement speed. At Tier 3, speed is enhanced by 15% and windstorm lasts 1 minute and 30 seconds.

Guttural Spark [Tier 4]: Swallow Flight Mana to emit a concentrated blast of air that can blow away all defences below this skill’s Tier.

Float [Tier 1]: Achieve flight with a single leap and remain airborne so long as your wings are stretched.

Flighted Scales [Tier 2]: Imbue your scales with Flight Mana to, enhancing evasion greatly. At Tier 2, this skill grants a 6% boost to movement speed whenever attacked.

Ray frowned at the creature nearing him once his notification faded. Was that a giant bat? No, that looked more like a wyvern. The tail and head were too long and reptilian, silvery-yellow scales covering it instead of fur like a bat’s.

It was big, though. Easily the size of a microbus. Definitely large enough to carry off people, which would explain the skeletons Ray had seen everywhere.

Interesting that it had access to the Flight Mana that Kredevel had mentioned. How wasn’t exactly an answer Ray was going to get here, most likely.

“Are you friendly, you little dragon?” Ray asked.

The monster screeched at him in response

“Well, that answers that. Not that I was to be friendly, mind you.”

The Windbane sped up as it got close. Ray wondered if the monster could sense his strength. This one didn’t have any identify-type abilities like the Duskshell had Overworld Pulse, so maybe not.

Ray pulled his arm back, then chucked out a Chaos Chymify at the Windbane. It dodged pretty easily. Flighted Scales was going to be a bit of a pain to deal with.

The monster didn’t use any of its range abilities at first. No Gust to unbalance Ray, no Guttural Spark to attack him from a distance. Instead, it charged straight at him, diving down to gore him with its claws. They were definitely big enough to kill him with one blow.

It came from far enough back that Ray had ample time to dodge. He dived away and rolled back upright as quick as he could as the monster crunched down with a violent crash.

The Windbane twisted with a wild shriek, but Ray was already attacking. Time to take full advantage of the monster’s recovery window. He slashed his arm, activating Shatterclaw at the same time and pushing in extra Mana using his Mana Infuser ring to take it to Tier 5.

A dozen slashes of black-red energy conjoined together as they struck the Windbane. The monster roared as it was flung back by the sheer force behind Shatterclaw.

Ray’s spell had destroyed its left wing and left pustulating wounds across its chest. Dark blood splattered the area, the pool growing as the monster began retreating. Severely wounded though it was, the neck was glowing, and Ray instinctively knew he was about to face a Guttural Spark.

Not on his watch.

Ray’s arm pulled back and thrust forward in a practiced motion. A fast motion. Just as the Windbane opened its jaw to spout its attack, a spiralling bolt of Chaos Chymify struck right in the face. Right inside its open mouth.

Its teeth grew out of control, its tongue started suffocating it, and blood vessels had burst right out of its eyes to wiggle like worms alive. Ray was almost tempted to gag.

The monster still wasn’t dead. Its screech came out gurgled and broken, somewhat, but it was still struggling up. Still willing to fight, despite its state. Ray hammered in another Shatterclaw, a regular one this time, to put it to rest.

[Enemy Defeated—Windbane]

Tier 5 Monster: Windbane [Level 15] x1

Essence: +750

Knowledge: +3

Mana Restored: +150

Essence to Level 14: 1,300/8,100

Knowledge to next Threshold: 116/150

[Lifeblood Crucible Activated]

Chaos Chymify has stolen the soul of a defeated Windbane. Please select which Aspect of the targeted soul to retain.

Soul Aspects

·       Roiling Screech [Tier 2]: Compress air into a screech that pierces all defences at or below this skill’s Tier to inflict mental damage.

·       Gust [Tier 3]: Send out a small windstorm that debilitates foes and enhances your movement speed. At Tier 3, speed is enhanced by 15% and windstorm lasts 1 minute and 30 seconds.

·       Scaled Wings [Tier 5]: Large, reptilian wings that enhance flight at higher altitudes

·       Windbane Maw [Tier 4]: Head of a Windbane that can spew pure Mana in a concentrated blast

·       Scouring Eye [Tier 4]: Slit-pupiled eye that can locate objects at great distances

·       Float Sac [Tier 4]: Inflatable organ that draws in air while breathing to expand and improve aerial buoyancy.

Oh huh. So he had options for replacing the Mana Accumulation Sprout he had taken from the Duskshell. Wasting an entire Crucible slot just so he could have a surefire supply of food didn’t appeal to him. No, much better to get something he could use in battle.

But which option ought he to go with? The skills weren’t appealing. Plus, he was looking for a combination that would make Lifeblood Construct viable. Useful.

He froze.

A sudden thought occurred, a memory returning. There had been one of his Reputation Points that awarded him extra stats so long as he was part of some kind of group. Which one was it? Cooperative? Could he perhaps create his group using Lifeblood Construct.

Ray grinned. This could be an amazing way to bypass the restriction.

In other words, he needed a combination of Soul Aspects that would best resemble another member of any group he wanted to form. Some sort of complete living being.

Too bad the Soul Aspect choices didn’t have a “brain” option, but maybe that wasn’t necessary. Ray’s own mind had to suffice.

For now, he already had wings. The next best option would be to get those eyes. He accepted the Scouring Eyes option, replacing the Mana Accumulation Sprout with it. Next, he used Lifeblood Construct, picking Soaring Wings and his new Scouring Eyes to call forth.

Ray blinked as a whirl of black-red energy bubbled to life around him. Soon, it began to gain a more defined shape.

The shape of a floating eyeball with small wings attached to either side.

At the same time, something strange happened with his vision. He couldn’t even decide how he felt about it, much less deciding how best to describe the weirdness.

It was as though his vision was widening. Like his eyes were adopting fish-eye lenses instead of the regular convex ones, just without the strange fun-house mirror distortions that often accompanied fish-eye lenses.

In other words, Ray’s field of view was widening.

The only problem was that the extra portion was dark. Like he was blind for the new third of vision he had just acquired.

Wait, hold on. Ray focused on the new eyeball materializing before him.

A little wild to believe that this was his creation. The eyeball was covered with scaly skin at the back, closed now with eyelids of the same kind. Feathered wings of the kind he got on his back but resized so that they would fit better emerged from the top left and right corners of the eyeball.

“Hello,” Ray said.

The eyeball blinked open.

That was when Ray could see more. The third bit that had been dark so far was now finally allowing in the light of the world. And—and holy crap, it was so different. Not surprising, considering he was seeing through the eyes of a completely different kind of species.

Plus, there was the fact that his third eye was looking at a view completely different from his other two eyes. In fact, it was staring at him. The focus was incredible too. Ray could pick out every individual strand on his face, could see every pore on his skin.

It was so disorienting having two separate visions with two completely different views.

How could he possess sight through a third eyeball like that? If he summoned more, could he raise it even wider?

Ray tried to do so, but it didn’t work.

Oh, alright. Now he remembered. It had to be crossing the Intellect Tier. Tier 2 Intellect allowed him to process 50% more stimuli, which had so far helped him control his wings a lot more naturally than what should have been possible. Now, it appeared it affected how many eyes he could use too. Interesting.

Another monstrous screech alerted him that this was far from the time. Ray focused on his new, floating eye to will it away.

He saw potential for it, definitely, but an active battle was not the time to explore that potential. It was too disorienting at the moment. He would need some time to acclimatize to it. Some time to get used to the sensation of having an extra, independent eye, despite already possessing a good degree of naturalness thanks to his Intellect Tier benefit.

[Presence of the Primordial—Dungeon Obstacle]

Mountain Barrage

A mountain is a precarious place, especially for one on foot. Beware the treacherous land and the devastating crush and crumble. Survive by reaching the tunnel safeguarded against the calamities thrown down by the mountain.

Barrage? Presence of the Primordial indicated there were more of the monsters closing in on his location, but nothing else. Well, there was that warning about the Dungeon Obstacle. But besides that, what else was he supposed to have encountered?

The Windbanes’ arrival took away any further considerations for the moment. They flew in on stormy wings. More than one this time. Ray counted at least three monsters rushing in.

He was prepared. With a quick focus, he called on Soaring Wings with Primal Summons to take to the air.

Ray stared challengingly at the approaching monsters. “Two can play the flying game.”

If the monsters were surprised at a human rising into the air, they didn’t show it. Their screeching continued, as did their zipping fast motion straight at him.

Like the first one, the monster tried to gore him with their claws and teeth. It was easy to dodge with his wings. The difference was that they swooped past too quickly for him to retaliate. Hitting them was going to be a lot harder while he was airborne.

Ray was formulating a way to do so, regardless of the difficulty, when the monsters stopped coming at him. They fell back, floating in the air at a distance.

“What’s wrong?” he said. “Too scared?”

The air shifted, and he realized he might have been closer to the truth than he had realized. A sudden pressure thrummed through the area. Ray looked up to see the clouds shifting. From its depths emerged a Windbane.

A Windbane the size of an airplane.