Chapter 64: Pros And Cons (Patreon)

For the second time within the space of a few days, Zed found himself seated in the dirt with his back against a tree. He was covered in blood, most of which was not his.

Zed came awake with a gasp. He woke like the shocked and drew all the air he could into his lungs. It scraped his throat going in like a drink of a thousand crushed gravels and he coughed it back up in blood and spittle.

Consciousness returned to Zed slowly. He stared at the rising morning veiled in the darkness of darkened skies and falling rain. The heavy sound of pitter patter was familiar, like an enemy taken to bed on a drunk night. He listened to it as the rain continued to fall over everything, veiling the world in its most trepid cold.

Zed leaned his head back against the tree and found it wasn’t tall enough. It brought his attention to the fact that he wasn’t seated against a tree but the stump of one; what was left of the tree.

A heavy weight pressed down on his legs, and while he still wasn’t ready to move from where he was, Zed looked down at his legs and found they had an occupant. There was a massive torso lying horizontally across them. It was a mess of stone grey and mossy green. It carried the weight of a boulder. He could tell it was a torso because it bore arms. But it was missing a head, decapitated in a ragged stump at the neck. It was also missing its lower body.

Zed wondered at that as he placed a tired hand on it.

· Would you like to use [Conqueror’s touch] on [Nature’s golem]?

“I sought, I found, I conquered.”

The chant slipped from Zed’s lips. The words came out fatigued and reluctant, tired. It was reminiscent of a starved man begging for water.

The body burst into a smoke of colors and Zed’s body breathed it in as some of it streamed into him. He watched the rest of it dissipate. From the distance, he watched smoke of the same colors converge on him. He guessed wherever the creature’s lower body and head had been, they had suffered the same fate. It was good to know that distance wasn’t a diminishing factor.

· You have gained +194 Exp.

Zed stared at the notification with a detached level of disinterest. It was a nice figure, vast and bountiful in his experience. It was the highest he had ever gotten, but his mind hinted at more notifications before it. Notifications he was yet to see.

His legs free, Zed pulled himself to his feet, supported by the broken tree and frowned at a terrible ache in his head. He couldn’t remember much of what had happened to him. Like his memories before waking up in the colorful woods, his immediate memory was patchy at best. He could catch lumps and spots of it, all of them violent. One of them had him smacking his lips and tasting his mouth in confusion.

“Did I really bite a monster?” he wondered, skeptical. “Doesn’t make a lick of sense if you ask me.”

Yet he could still feel the odd sense of having used his mouth for more than just words. He licked his teeth, probing around with his tongue as he tasted blood in his mouth. It didn’t come with any of the metallic tang blood usually carried. It was bitter and putrid. He spat it out. His spittle was stained in red and he stared at what may or may not have been a piece of skin.

“Yea,” he said, shaking his head. “We’re just going to pretend we didn’t see that. I already have a headache brewing, no need to add a craving for monster flesh to the list.”

He remembered when his notifications had once offered him something similar as a reward. He wondered if perhaps the notification had a preference in the food department.

“How about we find out what happened before we go wondering about my favorite meal in life’s menu,” he told himself as he rested against the shattered tree stomp, rain drizzling down on him.

He could vaguely remember the rumbling of thunder and the illumination of lightning and was glad to find that while the rain had continued, the noise and flashes had not. He had a brewing headache that would have just loved to be buttressed by such levels of noise.

Pushing the thought to the side, he looked around him. He frowned at the sight. There were fallen trees, scattered haphazardly around him. There was a crater half his height in depth and at least thrice his height in radius. Zed wondered at that and the only answer he got was pain and a terrible ache in his chest.

He moved his attention to the only thing of consequence, the monster corpses that riddled the area around him. They laid strewn and butchered all over the place. Some had literal holes in their bodies and burn marks so bad the affected parts of their skin looked more melted than burnt.

“There’s no way Oliver’s going to believe me when I tell him I killed a bunch of monsters,” he muttered, a soft smile on his lips, despite his inability to remember exactly how he had done it.

“Oh,” he said in surprise, staring up at another corpse. “And how exactly did you get up there?”

The body of a wolf-like creature hung from the branches of one of the few trees still standing. Small rivulets of blood were still dripping from its mouth. A better attention showed it had broken its jaw somewhere in whatever had transpired. Most of it was covered in severe burn marks. Whether Zed was responsible for all of it or something else had been was anyone’s guess.

“If anyone asks,” Zed told it. “Just tell them I did that. Best we all get our story straight while we’re here.”

The ache in his head flared and Zed pressed a hand to the side of his skull, groaning from the pain.

“What in the hell really happened?” he frowned.

With no answer from the chaos of corpses around him, Zed went to his next best source of informational gossip: his notifications.

They were a lot and he scrolled through them until he found something he recognized. He started there.

· Trait [Mana blessed] is in effect.

· Supplementing [Mana core] with [Blood mana].

· Rerouting [Blood mana] to [Mana core].

· Replenishing [Mana core].

“Blood mana,” he mused, remembering how he had felt when it happened. “I remember that one. Wasn’t so bad considering it sounds like dark magic from all those fantasy books. The bad guys usually get drunk on it. Considering how much invigorating it felt, I really can’t blame them.”

· You have cast basic rune [Force].

· You have cast basic rune [Fire].

· You have dual cast successfully.

· You have cast sigil [Link].

· You have cast sigil [Link] on rune [Force] and [Fire].

· Sigil [Link] has applied effect [Combine] on [Force] and [Fire].

· You have cast compound rune [Fire Force].

· [Fire Force] has applied effect [Fire flood].

Zed read through the notification with a frown.

“I don’t remember doing any of these,” he said. “And since when have I been casting compound runes?”

He’d seen Festus cast compound runes every once in a while as the old man had grinned and smiled over one rune or the other. There were mostly scowls as he often experimented with new runes and failed woefully. But while Zed had seen a few linking sigils, he’d never cast one before. Casting one and being unable to remember doing it was troubling, to say the least.

“Should I be worried?”

With no definite answer in sight, he continued onward.

· Excess [Blood mana] detected.

· [Blood mana] has applied effect [Bloodied].

· [Bloodied] has inflicted [Blood madness].

· You are afflicted with multiple instances of [Blood madness].

· You are [Blood maddened].

· Trait [Mana blessed] is in effect.

· [Blood madness] is now [Blood rage].

· [Blood maddened] is now [Enraged].

· You are [Enraged].

Zed tasted his mouth again. The bitterness was far from gone. He spat to the side, purposely refusing to look at the result as the dying rain beat it into the dirt. His mouth was growing dry now and he could feel the onset of cottonmouth.

“I take it that explains the bodies,” he muttered, then looked up at the wolf in the trees. “You, too. Unless you guys can somehow fly, then I’m more terrified of you. I don’t think flying wolves are anything someone would want to see.”

He thought about the size of the wolf and his mind wandered momentarily. It was massive and ridable. With wings capable of flight, it would be a vicious Pegasus capable of being flown into battle as its rider cast spellforms after spellforms at trembling enemies. It would strike fear in its enemies.

“Scratch that,” Zed said. “Grow wings and be tamable then get back to me on the whole flying wolf idea. I’m sure I’ve got something in mind.”

· You have cast compound rune [Fire force].

· [Fire force] has applied effect [Fire flood] on multiple targets.

· Effect [Fire flood] has inflicted [Burn] on [Willow wolf], [Nature’s golem], [Sedentary blob], [Denizen viper], [Frothing mongoose], [Willow wolf], [Flaming rhino], [Willow wolf], [Willow wolf], and [Dark blob].

· [Nature’s golem] fire resistance is too high.

· [Burn] does not take effect.

· [Willow wolf] resistance to fire is too low. [Willow wolf] possesses high susceptibility to fire.

· [Burn] stacks.

· [Willow wolf] x4 has been afflicted with multiple instances of [Burn].

· [Burn] is now [Scorch].

· [Willow wolf] x4 has been afflicted with [Scorch].

Zed winced at the notification. He panned his gaze past the notification to find three more wolves with corpses in similar states. They were not on trees but they had suffered similar fates, some worse.

“I guess, there’s that.”

· You have cast basic rune [Force].

· Basic rune [Force] has applied effect [Knockback] on [Nature’s golem].

· You have been dealt a fatal blow by [Denizen viper].

· Attribute [Regenerate] is active.

· You do not take critical damage.

· You are [Enraged].

· [Enraged] has applied status effect [Pain tolerance].

· [Denizen viper] has inflicted [venom] on you.

· [Venom] has applied effect [Iron stone].

· You have been afflicted with [Iron stone].

· [Iron stone] takes effect.

· [Iron stone] has inflicted [Slow], [Pain], and [Edge of stone].

· You have been poisoned.

· [Enraged] has applied status effect [Pain tolerance].

· [Pain] does not take effect.

“That’s a lot of pain tolerance if you ask me,” Zed muttered, a bit worried. “And quite a lot of notifications, too.”

He’d felt the effects of [Iron stone] before and it had sufficed to put him at a disadvantage once upon a time. He knew how much pain came from it. To have enough pain tolerance for it not to take effect was like overdosing on pain killers.

“I wonder if it’s morphine or Vicodin,” he mused, then frowned at his own words. “That was stupid. Those are man-made. It’s most likely endorphins. That must be quite the dose. Can one person pump out enough endorphins for that?”

· [Willow wolf] has used [Wind blast].

· [Wind blast] has applied effect [Stab]

· You have been afflicted with [Stab].

· You have been dealt a fatal blow.

· Attribute [Regenerate] is in effect.

· You do not take critical damage.

“It’s like reading the report on a tank test,” Zed muttered. “I see amazing marketing options for a tank, but worries for a person.”

He moved to raise his shirt and found he wasn’t wearing any. He wondered why. His mind took him to the memory of an explosion and dead blobs.

“Oh.”

Curious, he looked down at his pants and found only tatters left. Still, there was enough left to cover his groin.

“It’s like the hulk,” he muttered. “I lose everything but keep just enough to save me from indecent exposure. Blood and gore and a lot of death. But what do you know? No genitalia exposure. It’s like a rated R comic book without the dick pics. Personally, I think it’s just poor writing. Not enough commitment to reality.”

Knowing he could go on for as long as he was alive, Zed nipped his complaint in the bud and went back to his notifications.

· You have defeated [Willow wolf].

· You have gained +72 Exp.

· You have defeated [Willow wolf].

· You have gained +61 Exp.

· You have defeated [Willow wolf].

· You have gained +70 Exp.

· You have defeated [Willow wolf].

· You have gained +79 Exp.

“I get that they aren’t the same in power,” Zed mused, studying the gains. “But the gaps in gains are a bit spaced. I wonder if their categories were all different.”

· You have defeated [Denizen viper]

· You have gained +52 Exp.

· You have defeated [Dark blob].

· You have gained +68 Exp.

· You have defeated [Sedentary blob].

· You have gained +60 Exp.

· You have defeated [Frothing mongoose].

· You have gained +32 Exp.

“Alright, that’s just unfair,” Zed snapped. “I know it did pretty much nothing the entire fight, but thirty-two’s kinda just spitting in my face. Its mates are all over fifty.”

Zed frowned at the notification, knowing his complaint would change nothing and moved on.

· You have defeated [Fire rhino].

· You have gained +81 Exp.

“That’s better.”

· You have defeated [Nature’s golem].

· You have gained +99 Exp.

· Exp to category 2: 2500(532)/2500.

· You have a pending evolution.

Zed’s smile was wider that any he’d carried before. The nature’s golem deserved a high rating, and a high rating it had gotten.

“I complain about the mongoose, but not the golem,” he thought out loud. “I wonder what that says about me. I’m sure it’s nothing, but still, I wonder.”

Quest: [Against all Odds]

The woods are a treacherous place for the weak. Animals and monsters alike lurk its confines seeking prey as well as enemies. And now a mage has joined in the struggle, disrupting the hierarchy. This is not a fight for supremacy.

· Hidden objective discovered: Create [Safe zone] 0/1.

· Hidden objective complete: Create [Safe zone] 1/1.

· You have gained additional rewards.

· Hidden objective discovered: Defeat [Mana beast] 0/10.

· Hidden objective compete: Defeat [Mana beast] 12/10.

· You have gained additional rewards.

· Objective complete: Survive Beta rank beasts.

· Reward: [Safe zone].

· Bonus objective: Don’t die.

· Bonus objective complete: Don’t die.

· Hidden object reward: You have gained skill [Bloodlust (Aura)].

· Hidden objective reward: You have gained skill [Bloodwrath (Mana, blood)].

· You have 1 pending quest objective.

Zed stared at the hidden objective rewards. Both of them sounded deadly. He was more than curious to know what they did. He knew [Bloodwrath] and was surprised to find he’d developed one of The Berserker’s abilities. Still, he was curious as to what exactly both skills did. The thought had barely crossed his mind when more notifications came up.

Skill [Bloodlust (Aura)].

In every world, predators exist, and every predator needs a prey. You have discovered the beauty of weaponized aura and stand at its threshold. You will become the envy of your peers.

· Effect: The full weight of your aura strikes fear in the hearts of lesser men.

· Effect: [Slow]; all enemies susceptible to this effect experience a reduction to their speed in all aspects. This effect does not disregard rank disparity.

· Effect: [Fear]: all enemies susceptible to this effect lose their will to fight. This effect does not disregard rank disparity.

“So people are going to be terrified of me,” Zed said. “I guess that can be useful in a fight. Not bad.”

Skill: [Bloodwrath (Mana, blood)].

You have felt the addictive power of Blood mana. You have felt its pull and allowed yourself to be consumed by it. Trait [Mana blessed] has protected you from the full effect of [Blood madness] and you have learnt what it means to be mad but in control. Absorb an acceptable amount of mana and burn it for fuel to increase combat capability and reduce cognitive functions.

· Effect: You can now burn [Blood mana] to supplement [Mana core].

· Effect: Immunity to [Blood madness].

· Effect: An overdose of [Blood mana] will enforce status effect [Enraged].

· Effect: Activation of [Mana core] will involuntarily absorb [Blood mana] in physical contact. [Blood mana] required to next [Bloodwrath] activation: 0000/1200.

· Effect: [Enraged]:

You are driven into a state of Frenzy. You will experience increased Aptitudes and will continue to fight until there are no more enemies left or you run out of mana. After all, we kill our enemies so we don’t kill our friends.

· Effects:

o +8 to all Aptitudes.

o Vastly increased pain tolerance.

o Inability to gain Aptitude increase from achievements made when [Enraged].

o Inability to cast spellforms and runes outside skills.

o -2 Wil for every instance of [Enraged].

o Effect of [Conqueror’s touch] on defeated enemies is halved, chances of effect of [Mana blessed] is halved. [Exp] gained is halved.

“Pros and cons,” Zed sighed. “I don’t know which one is more terrifying, knowing I won’t have any friends after this or losing the Wil I already don’t have or losing out on so much Exp. On the plus side there’s the aptitude boost, but on the minus there’s the—wait, what exactly do they mean by ‘to next activation’? Don’t I get a say in its activation?”

A new notification popped up as if in answer.

· [Bloodwrath (Mana, blood, passive)].

“Alright, that’s just terrifying.”

Zed sighed. The rain had since gone from a drizzle to nonexistence and the morning light had already pierced the sky. He wondered how long he’d been fighting.

“If it activates when I absorb too much blood mana,” Zed mused, “then all I have to do is stay away from blood.”

He looked at the corpses around him and the pools of blood.

“Shouldn’t be too hard. It’s not like I fight like a bloody madman.”

Zed walked up to one of the corpses. Its neck was broken so that its head hung limp at an odd angle.

“Well,” he said, bending to touch it. “In the aftermath of all the bad, we still can’t say no to the good.”

· Would you like to use [Conqueror’s touch] on [Frothing mongoose]?

“Yes, please.”