Azaria 2 - 8

Good Morning everyone!

Chapter 8: New Ability!

Lance

The world returned to me and I jumped to my feet before I even considered where I was. I slipped on the step leading down, and rolled down the stairs several times before I managed to catch myself. I took a deep breath before I leaned back. After a quick visual inspection, I was glad that nothing had changed physically.

I waved my hand and brought out my status. Down at the bottom of my abilities was the new ability. Harvest Energy. If it was similar to my Harvest skill than I might have an all new path to getting stronger. Of course, my luck was horrible so it might be useless.

“Nothing to do but test it,” I grumbled before standing up and continuing to the next floor. I still had to get the item for Luna. With no idea how long I had been down here, they might declare me missing at the gate soon and let the next party come in. I had no desire to meet another party down here with my appearance. I was a hundred percent sure they would attempt to kill me.

Coming to the next floor, I found another forest. Each floor so far had just been a denser version of the environment but that was usually the case. Azaria was the strange one for making completely different themed floors. Even though I had only gotten to the second floor once so far.

Looking around, I spotted a prey-mantis that was a little bigger than the floor before this. It spotted me in at the same instant and started charging toward me. I did my usual and used Harvest to check for its various points, but this time I also used Harvest Energy. I sighed when nothing happened. Looks like it might require something else.

Bigger was about the only thing different from the prey-mantis on the upper floor. I was able to dispatch it much easier than the boss. Once it dropped to the ground dead, I used the new ability again and spotted a faint glow coming from its chest. Not sure what else to do, I shoved my fist through its armor and found an orb that was roughly the size of my palm. I tore it free and was soon looking at a green glass marble.

“To eat or not to eat?” I mumbled when nothing happened after I held in my hand. Unlike Harvest, it looked like the part wasn’t absorbed even if I held it away from me. I leaned back and opened my mouth before dropping the marble down my throat. I felt it make its way down before much like a vitamin chewable, it dissolved.

I checked myself and my status, but nothing changed. I started to wonder if it was a dud when a heat flashed through me. I felt like I could run a marathon and then some. I made a fist and punched the tree next to me managing to blast a good-sized hole through it. A few more well-placed blows, and the sound of a tree falling echoed through the floor.

The energy lasted for close to two minutes before I returned to normal, steam escaping from my nose and mouth. I went to take a step and found that I felt like I was about to collapse while I craved another energy pearl. I dug my claws into my palms to resist it. The sensation passed quickly, but it was a fatal drawback in the middle of a fight. I would need to take the withdraw into account if I planned on using the ability in the future.

With a rough understanding of my new ability, I made my way through the fourth floor with the aid of Luna’s map. I killed everything I came up against, but there was nothing new on this floor and while the monsters were stronger from the pervious floor, I didn’t want to over absorb them and transform even more. I did build up a nice stockpile of energy pearls of various colors.

“The boss should be around here,” I said tapping my cleaver on my shoulder as I looked around. Blood, most of it old but a few patches only aged a few hours, decorated a cave. This boss was a centipede. It was fairly powerful according to Luna and was a sort of prelude to the monsters on the next floor.

I sensed something just before the ground started to shake and jumped clear as the thirty-foot-long monster burst from the ground. More legs than I cared to count moved as it crawled up the wall then the ceiling and turned to face me. It looked exactly like an oversized centipede only its talons and pincers looked like they could cut through metal with ease. A few extra eyes also graced its head almost giving it a spider look if you ignored everything after the head.

“Some one needs to call an exterminator. Oh wait, she’s right here.”

I flexed my claws and extended my sickles. I also hardened my body while I focused on the monster. This would be a challenge to see how much I’d grown lately. If I was all levels and no experience than I would eventually be useless if my abilities outgrew me. I couldn’t let that happen until I showed this city that it couldn’t step on me anymore.

The boss hissed at me before it lunged. The cave shook with how much force it used to spring at me. I did the same but aimed for the wall to rebound and jump on the back of the boss. I brought my cleaver down but it bounced off the hard plates as I had feared it would. The centipede curled and nearly tried to grind me against the ceiling. I dropped from its back and twisted in mid-air using my sickles to slice through several legs.

“No so armored there, are ya?” I taunted as I rolled up from my fall.

The centipede hissed before a jet of green fluid flew at me. I wasn’t stupid enough to try and take that and leapt to the side. A good-sized hole soon melted through the wall and floor where I had been standing. I grinned and pulled in a deep breath before I unleashed my fire breath. The flames filled the cave and the boss screamed as it backed away.

Again, I sensed more than heard or saw it, as the boss’s tail whipped through the flames faster than I could react and sent me flying down the cave passage. I sat up with my ears ringing, but fine for the most part. My armoring skills were doing their part.

The almost nostalgic red started to tint my vision. It had been a while since I had felt the malice rising inside me during a fight. That’s how I knew this was a real fight with something that could potentially kill me. I refocused and picked myself up as the flames died down. I might have burned a few legs, but the main body might as well be unharmed.

I pulled a green energy pearl out and downed it. Heat flashed through me much quicker this time. I kicked off using flurry and flashed right into the boss’s face. I used all my new force and buried my arm into an eye. I sank all the way down to my shoulder, but the brain must have been further back as I failed to do more than piss it off.

The boss thrashed around before it managed to send me flying. I twisted in mid-air and kicked off the ceiling. My arm was smoking from the blood on it which gave me an idea. I had to hurry as both the red around my vision was growing and I knew I had only a few more seconds before the pearl wore off.

I concentrated and combined my Toxic Breath from the frogs, Poison Breath from the goblins, and Acid from the prey-mantis’s above into a single globe of death that I soaked the head of the boss in. The scream this time was much more deafening. The thrashing also grew to another level as it threatened to bring the cave down around it.

Gripping my arm, I leapt back hoping that was enough to kill the monster. I had taken a good distance when the pearl wore off. Dropping to my knees, I slammed my head against the ground as the withdraw hit even harder than last time. It took everything I had in me to stop from using another pearl.

Beathing heavily, the desire passed. I looked up after noticing it was strangely quiet. The boss’s corpse sat, with its legs twitching. Standing up slowly, I used harvest and grinned at all the colors I saw. I did shudder when I consider how it might affect my body, but at this point, I was starting not to care.

A few minutes later and I had all the parts safely tucked away in my storage. I was even stoked as I found another soul gem. It was the first one since the goblin dungeon. It also made me certain that it had something to do with the boss monsters. I was about to head down to the next floor when I heard a cough from behind me.

“Excuse me, dear adventurer?”

I spun around and held my cleaver at the ready. “Who’s there?!”

“You can’t see me, but I am the dungeon host.”

I lowered my cleaver slightly. When I had interacted with Azaria, I had been the one to start it. This was new. “What do you want?” I asked cautiously.

“Well. This is a bit awkward. Could you initiate?”

“Initiate?” I asked confused then remembered what I did with Azaria. “I would like to trade with the host.”

A naked woman with large horns on her crown appeared a few feet from me. It looked like she had done her best to make herself appealing to look at. I couldn’t say I mind, I might be a woman but I’d much rather be with another woman than a man. Just thinking about how Kyle had treated people turned me off from their gender. Not that women couldn’t be just as cruel. Which reminded me that I needed to look into how he found out about me. Just another thing to add to the damn list.

“Sorry. It is just easier to talk when the other person can see me.”

“No, I agree. Now then. What did you want from me?”

“The little stone that you took from the boss. I would like it back. Preferably all the gems, but at least the boss’s.”

I pulled out the energy pearls and the soul stone from the boss. “Why?” I didn’t mind trading them back, but I wanted to know what these meant to her. Information was key after all.

She gave me a look over before she shrugged not even bothering to try and hide whatever it was apparently. “They are the souls of the monsters. Those,” she pointed at the energy pearls, “are only a part of their soul and I can recover them with enough Aether, but that,” this time she pointed at the soul stone, “is the complete soul of the boss. If you take it, I will completely lose the boss.”

“I’m guess it takes a good amount of Aether to create such a monster,” I ventured, and she nodded.

“I could make up an excuse, but given that you are a diver, I’m sure you’ll piss off other dungeons in the future.”

“Probably. Alright. I’ll give it back, but I would like the flute on the sixth floor.”

“That? Really?” she asked surprised.

“Yeah. That is my goal. Why?” I asked then frowned as I narrowed my eyes. “Is it defective?”

“No. It is a good item, but I don’t see it being much use to someone of your skill. It is all about enchanting and controlling.”

“Figures,” I mumbled given how Luna was going about this. I took a deep breath. Either way, my job was to get the item. “That’s fine.”

“I noticed that you absorbed parts of the creatures during your dive. Would you like some materials to even the trade?”

“You’re very honest.”

“I might live off the death of humans, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be civilized.”

“Fair enough, and sure. I’ll take you up on that.” I handed her all but a blue energy pearl and the soul stone. A pile of monster parts started appearing in front of me along with the flute. I shoved it all into my storage but kept the flute out and tucked that into my armor. I’d rather Luna not know about my storage since I could see myself becoming a gofer.

“Thank you. I feared that I would have to replace him,” the host said rubbing the soul stone to her cheek.

“I guess even a monster like that has someone that loved him,” I said not sure how I should feel given that I was the one that just killed it.

“Of course. The only solace I have is that he comes back after every death. Otherwise, I’m not sure I could be quite so nice to humans.”

“That is fair. Alright. I guess I’ll skip the fifth and sixth floor and head back to the surface,” I said moving onto the teleport matrix at the end of the floor.

“Tell Sixty-four that I said hi.”

I narrowed my eyes, but I was already being teleported. Appearing in the old subway tunnel, I spotted Luna leaning against the wall playing with pebbles. Glancing back at the dungeon, it looked like the dungeons were able to communicate after all. I might be the only person that knew such a thing. I shook my head at the thought, given how Anna Highlock acted, they knew much more than they were letting on with the public.

“Lance! You’re back. I was getting worried.”

“Yeah. I got tired, so I took a nap,” I retorted handing over the flute.

“Thank you! I won’t forget this.”

“Best that you don’t, and don’t try to use that thing on me. You won’t like what happens,” I warned letting all my monster attributes flow through my eyes. The scare must have worked as she gulped and took a step back.

“We’re friends. I would never do that.” I nodded and we made our way out of the dungeon after she handed me a hoodie to wear.

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