by Aleron Kong
As great as all of that was, it was nothing compared to the notification that awaited him next. As Richter read it, he couldn’t help but fist pump twice, “Yeah!” At the same time, many miles away, a book flashed with grey light inside of the chaos lord’s Bag of Holding.
Congratulations, Chaos Lord! You previously purchased knowledge from the Sea of Chaos that you were not qualified to access.
You now meet the qualifications:
Strength 15: Achieved
Mace Wielding skill level 10, Initiate Rank: Achieved
Do you wish to absorb the Novice rank knowledge of the Expertise Book: Granite Breaker? Yes or No?
So excited that he stopped walking, Richter mentally reached to click “Yes.” He was only a split second from finishing the action before an errant thought stopped him cold. His excitement had nearly killed him.
It had never occurred to him that he would be able to access the expertise book remotely. He didn’t know if it was because it was soul bonded to him in some way, or because he had bought it from the Sea of Chaos, or just because he’d leafed through the book and unconsciously retained the knowledge. Whatever the reason, this was an amazing opportunity. One that could greatly increase his chances of surviving.
That was because an expertise book was potentially far more valuable than a skill book. Advancing a skill would give you bonuses to a specific action. Mace Wielding, for instance, increased his damage using clubs. It also gave the possibility of ignoring a portion of an enemy’s armor. That was great and all, but it only mattered if you actually managed to hit your opponent.
Just because your skill level increased didn’t actually mean that you knew what you were doing. An easy example would be a super-muscular guy getting into a fight. He could probably hit harder than a smaller guy, but that didn’t mean he actually knew how to box.
An expertise book, on the other hand, actually gave you the knowledge of how to perform a certain action. It bypassed the ten thousand hours that were usually needed to become good at something and just poured it all into your mind. The split-second calculations, foot positioning, even the breathing that a true mace fighter would employ in a battle, all of that would become like second nature to Richter. His attack power with clubs and maces would skyrocket.
The problem was, gaining knowledge didn’t always happen in an instant. When he had used the Unconventional Materials skill book, his mind had been hijacked. For hours, his body had been comatose. He’d been stuck in one place, reliving the memories of an orc master tinker. That entire time, he’d stood stock still while his friends and Companions had protected him. They’d had to kill over a dozen monsters, any one of which might have eaten him alive.
That had only been a skill book. Who knew what would happen if he absorbed the knowledge of an expertise book? What would happen to him while he was defenseless in this dark tunnel? What if he was stuck in a fugue for hours or even days? Even if he wasn’t attacked, what would happen to his debuffs then? They might literally kill him.
Richter stared at the notification window, regret replacing his earlier excitement, and chose “No” on the prompt. It just wasn’t worth the risk.
You have decided not to learn the novice rank knowledge of the Expertise Book: Granite Breaker at this time. This knowledge will remain available to you unless the book is destroyed prior to use.
He heaved a small sigh of relief. He’d been afraid that choosing “no” would mean the end of his chances. Now if he found a safe place to hole up, he could access the information later. Looking at the featureless grey rock all around him, he dual cast Find Water again, but to no avail. After refreshing Dark Vision, he continued his journey into the darkness and examined the last of the prompts that had come when he changed his tier.
The first was a final note about his bloodline. He’d wondered about how quickly he could replenish any points he used. The window explained how it worked.
Your Bloodline will replenish itself at a rate dependent on your Constitution. Every 10 points of Constitution will replenish your Bloodline Pool by one point each hour.
Richter blew out a slow breath. His bloodline definitely had power and potential, but he would have to be judicious in how he used it. Once it was exhausted, he’d have to wait nearly half a day for it to completely refill. Thankfully his Constitution was high, further bolstered by his Mark of Blood and Chaos, so he’d replenish 7.4 Blood Points/hour.
The next prompt was about his new aura. He’d never known that he even had an aura before. Hisako had strongly suspected he was somehow triggering events. Even Randolphus had hinted that too many things seemed to happen around Richter, but neither had mentioned an actual aura. Maybe because such things were rare, or at least they used to be.
Every chaos seed could have the same aura. They could all be manipulating the lives of everyone around them without even knowing it. The chaos lord shook his head. If every chaos seed really did have the Chaotic Gradient, then thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of people snatched from Earth were essentially the equivalent of a biblical plague, literally spreading chaos everywhere they went. The magnitude of it all came crashing down upon him. The devastation to people’s lives must be incalculable.
Your Chaotic Gradient aura has increased in rank from the Greater to Grand. Your aura transcends time. Your existence ripples through the past and future, changing the fates of all.
Richter had barely absorbed the information before his vision blacked out. Seeing as how he had Darkvision activated, he was confused for a half second. The spell duration couldn’t have already run out, could it? Then the pain came. Searing, bubbling, agonizing pain. It was the exact feeling a person would have if a slime had detached from the roof of the tunnel and landed on their face.
As the slime’s acid began to slough off his eyebrows and skin, he was struck with an inane thought. Dissolving flesh sounded like rice krispies in milk. It was just an errant neuronal connection from a panicked brain, but it played on a loop. The slime was pushing its pudding-thick body into his eyes, nose, ears and mouth. Dread bordering on hysteria seized him in response to the sudden attack and mind-numbing pain. Most men would have fallen backwards and succumbed, the fight over before it began.
That was not going to be his fate. Months of battle had changed Richter. Despite the feeling of acid eating his face, he resisted the urge to scream. That saved his life. If the ooze had managed to get down his throat in that first second, his life would have ended. That was the slime’s preferred method to kill. It would slide its malleable body through any convenient orifice, and then dissolve its victims from the inside out. The best part was that if another predator came to eat the body, the slime would get a second meal with little effort. As the new monster ate, the slime would wait for the right moment, surge down this new throat like jelly, and begin its feast anew.
Not opening his mouth only gained Richter a second, maybe two, before it forced its way past his clenched jaw. In that crucial time though, he used his bloodline for the first time. It was almost instinctual. He had to make the conscious choice, but then it felt almost like something that had been ingrained in him since birth. His new tier was saving his life. Richter found a strange power inside himself and spammed it with every point he had in his bloodline. A cold feeling grew in his veins. Not the cold of winter or ice, but a life-sucking numbness, almost as if he was already in the grave.
Richter couldn’t see it, but all his major blood vessels were glowing purple-black. They traced under his dark skin, making him look like a fell creature. Then, less than a moment after he’d thought it, his skin grew harder than stone. Even his eyes could have deflected a blade strike with no issue.
With his body strengthened to this extent, he should have died. It should not have been possible for him to move, for his heart to beat, for his nerves to conduct information in flashes of electricity and bursts of chemicals. By his understanding of the human body, this being harder than stone was incompatible
with human life. It defied everything that he’d learned before coming to The Land. The power of his bloodline went beyond biology.
In a second, his defense soared by seventy-two points, stronger than any armor in the Mist Village. Richter probably hadn’t needed to use the full power of his bloodline. Half as much would have let him resist the slime’s acid, something in his mind was screaming. As soon as his skin hardened, the pain had started to abate. That didn’t stop the message that was on repeat in his head, ‘It’s eating me. It’s eating me. It’s eating me!’
A prompt appeared in his vision even as he raised his hand to his head.
You have used the Harden power of your bloodline. Defense +72 for 60, 59, 58, …
The prompt was absorbed and processed by Richter’s hindbrain, barely registering. What he was focused on was one of the few items he had left. A little ring that was one of his most versatile and well-used items. With his lips and eyes still screwed shut, he lifted it to his head and released the spell from his Ring of Spell Holding.
Waves of violent sonic energy released a bare inch from his own head. In any other circumstances, this would have been as deadly as smashing a hammer into his temple. The invisible rings of sonic force would rupture his eardrums, vibrate his retinas until they detached, and scramble the fluid in his ears until he couldn’t stand straight. Now, the gritty and viscous body of the slime protected him from the worst of his own attack, and his bloodline defense negated the rest. He was truly as hard as stone now. The magic of Death filled him.
The monster was not so lucky. Sonic energy vibrated every molecule of the creature’s body. The colloidal beast had no mouth to scream, but agony spread through its being in response to the point-blank attack. With his other hand, Richter sank his fingers into the slime’s body and began to peel it off his face like playdoh off a newspaper. His pain ratcheted back up. Even though his defense was up in the stratosphere now, the acidic properties of the slime coupled with its firm grip made him feel like he was pulling his own face off.
The monster was also still fighting. Despite the pain it was in, the predator was no stranger to life-and-death battles. It did not want to let go, and a podocyte lashed fire across the chaos lord’s face as it tried to hold on. Richter wished his bloodline could have deadened his pain receptors when it increased his defense, but he wasn’t that lucky. He didn’t stop pulling. He kept his spell ring trained on the slime, continuing the spell, and after a few seconds it finally lost enough control that he was able to wrench it free.
Richter threw his attacker into the wall of the tunnel. His mouth popped open and he gasped for air like a fish out of water. The chaos lord’s high stats would let him hold his breath for several minutes if need be, but that didn’t matter if he barely had any air to begin with. The slime’s attack had been so fast that he’d been caught during an exhale. While he sucked in the sweet, sweet air, he didn’t forget about his enemy. The battles he’d survived had trained him to compartmentalize and stay focused. His eyes remained glued on the slime despite the pain he was in. He couldn’t afford to lose sight of it and be ambushed again.
Despite his efforts, Richter failed. As soon as the slime landed, it disappeared from his sight. It hadn’t turned invisible, it just moved so fast he lost sight of it. A moment later, the worst happened. His Darkvision spell elapsed. His sight turned black in an instant. Primal terror gripped him. He scrambled backwards while he cast Simple Light, trying to keep space between himself and his unknown enemy. He fumbled the spell three times thanks to his hacking breaths and Exhausted debuff, but finally managed it.
In the corner of his vision, the counter for his increased defense counted down.
51, 50, 49…
Ten of sixty seconds already gone. If he had had the time, he would have cursed his panic. The bloodline had saved his life, but he probably hadn’t needed to use all his points at once. Time was something he didn’t have. His spell completed and a ball of white light floated from his hand to hover over his head. Looking about frantically, he finally caught sight of his nemesis.
It looked like a grey-black oil slick sliding along the stone. With one hand out to ward it off and other pressed against his skinned face, he tracked it with his eyes. It shifted this way and that, never staying still for more than a second, and covering a yard each time it moved. Then it started to move much faster. The faint light of his spell was barely enough to see it. Between its color and lightning speed, it almost vanished into the gloom each time it moved.
Richter’s breath came fast and short while he kept his eyes glued to the monster. It slid up the side of the wall and began surging toward Richter again. It clung to the tunnel surface as easily as a spider; it moved creepily fast and eerily silently. It was clear that the blob planned to drop on him from above. The chaos lord kept stumbling backwards the whole time. His fingers wove into a dual cast incantation, Weak Flame. At the same time, he used Analyze on the beachball-sized monster.
Name: Nesting Stone Slime
Disposition: Hungry
Level: 37
Tier: 1
Nesting Stone Slimes are among the smallest examples of ooze-type monsters. However, any who underestimate these voracious monsters are fools. These creatures not only have the physical resistance ubiquitous to their kind, but the Earth magic that permeates their bodies gives them strong defense. Their stone nature also allows them to have a high Concealment when lying against rock.
STATS
Health: 1,288/1472
Mana: 138/138
Stamina: 614/636
ATTRIBUTES
Strength: 31
Agility: 45
Dexterity: 37
Constitution: 147
Endurance: 63
Intelligence: 13
Wisdom: 15
Charisma: 8
Luck: 17
SPECIAL ABILITY
Harden – Can force all of the stone particulates in its body to the surface, greatly increasing its defense for a short time
Nest – Can go into a state of near-hibernation, remaining perfectly motionless and even suppressing its life force to avoid detection
The information washed over Richter in an instant, filling him with knowledge of the stone slime. At the same time, he finished his incantation. A red glow surrounded both hands… and nothing else happened.
Spell casting failed!
Dammit! He hadn’t failed a casting since he’d begun slinging spells! Now he’d miscast several times in a row. Fuck these debuffs! It was true that dual casting a spell greatly increased the chances it would miscast, but Weak Flame was only a level one spell, for god’s sake! Richter didn’t have any more time to complain because the slime threw itself at him again.
He dove to the side, narrowly dodging the monster. It simply struck the ground where he had been standing and shot at him again without pause. It was almost like it ignored the laws of momentum as it reached parts of itself toward him. The creature moved at the speed of a sprinter and could change direction at the drop of a dime. It propelled itself into the air in a leap toward Richter’s face. The chaos seed had started another casting, one-handed this time. He had to abandon the spell when the slime forced him to dive aside again.
The fight was moving fast and he had split seconds to make his decisions and process information. The nesting stone slime was strong, but Richter was far from weak. His Weak Flame had been interrupted, but his frustration didn’t slow him down. After reading the analysis of the monster, he realized that fire probably wasn’t the best option anyway and made a quick decision to change tactics.
This time, Richter finished his incantation while the slime sailed through the air at him. When it was only three feet from his face, he opened his mouth, and once again, invisible rings of sound flew toward the monster. Every strength could be a weakness. For a creature with a high rock content in its body, sonic attacks were kryptonite. The spell had already worked once, so he had no reason to think it wouldn�
��t work again.
As the Earth magic hit it, the slime started freaking out. Its body lost some cohesion and it shot podocyte tendrils in every direction. Its momentum still carried it forward, but it fell next to Richter, instead of on top of him. Richter kept his mouth turned toward it, even as the spillover sound made his already tender eardrums throb. The slime retreated immediately away from the anathema attack, and moved beyond the twenty-foot range of Weak Sonic Wail.
It needn’t have bothered. The spell had only a three-second duration, and had a one-minute cooldown. If it had just stayed in place and weathered the attack, there would have been nothing Richter could have done to block it. He wasn’t complaining though, and he wasn’t going to waste the opportunity. As soon as the sonic attack ended, he began a defensive casting. It took two seconds. The slime could have stopped it by attacking, but whatever intelligence it had made it hesitate for a full second after the sound attack ended. By the time it was once again surging toward Richter, he’d completed his next spell.
Just in time, a soap bubble of green Earth magic sprang into being around him. The colorful light hurt his Darkvision-enhanced eyes, so Richter dismissed the Dark magic. As soon as he’d done that, a solid thud echoed in the tunnel. The slime had landed on the outside of his protective shield. It sent protrusions of itself over the surface of the sphere, but there were no breaks it could fit through. Richter heaved a sigh of relief, then immediately winced in pain.
The stone slime had taken off more than twenty of his health in the first moment of battle. As he peeled it off afterwards, he’d lost another fifteen. Richter was happy he couldn’t see his own face. Blood was flowing down his chest. He was sure his face was a ruined, bloody mess. Exhaling a heavy sigh, he prepared to cast Weak Slow Heal on himself. His Dehydration debuff kept his health from restoring, but the spell should at least fix the tissue damage he’d suffered. As long as the Earth shield held, he should have plenty of ti-
