Time Since Reckless Self-Endangerment: 2 Days 17 Hours

Goal: Kill 'Baby Boots'

Nic lit the Mourner’s Lantern with a wisp of aura. Instantly, threads of grey smoke drifted from the corpses of the Experiments and began to fill the glass with a foggy light. The inner Essence counter leapt up to 252.

By his count he’d killed eight Experiments and the Jailer. That meant the lantern took a little more than 25 Essence from each enemy struck down, although he suspected the Jailer gave far more than the lesser creatures.

His hands were actually shaking as he set the lantern down. The blood oozing from his wound was slowly sealing over into a scab, but he wasn’t ready to move yet - much less fight.

“Cultivation map.”

Essence 4,403 / 5,000

+ 12.37 per Minute

(2.062 Base)

500% Local Modifier

+ Devoured an F-Class enemy (200%)

+ Consumed a G-Class treasure (100%)

+ Rested in toxic environment (100%)

Cultivation Base (Unranked)

V Physical Strength (Locked)

III Mental Acuity (316/4,000)*

Spiritual Clarity (8/500)*

Regeneration (460/10,000)

The words sprung into his mind, and as he focused on each options, different nodes in his body began to resonate. It was as simple as pouring Essence into the molds that the System provided.

But today, his Essence didn’t want to cooperate. It felt like his body was full of ice-water rather than the usual fiery heat. Each time he tried to force it to move, the feeling was like dragging shards of jagged glass through his veins.

Gritting his teeth, Nic pushed forward.

Poison Mist Shard (F)

Creates and controls poisonous mist from Aura. Excellent attacking Shard, capable of piercing many defenses and inflicting ongoing damage.

I Increase Toxicity (5,761/6,000)

Add Aura Efficiency (0/5,000)

Poison Devouring (0/10,000)

Mist Armor (0/50,000)

Secondary Slot (0/50,000)

He only needed to pour a few points into Poison Mist’s Base Enhancement to leap up another rank. The feeling was usually ecstatic - like his whole body was resonating to a single powerful chord - but today the joy was muted. He could barely hear the sound as his body slowly took in the Essence and reinforced the technique within.

Opening his mouth, he spat a ball of poisonous fumes into his palm. It was sickly black rather than the usual dull grey. It churned about in his grip, and his fingers crushed it into nothing.

He had just under 4,000 Essence remaining. This time, he channeled it towards Poison Devouring.

This whole situation was making his body ache with anxiety and dull panic. Every second he forced himself to sit here was another second the poison was eating away at his cultivation base.

Another second Sofia was growing in his skull like a crystal tumor.

He was starting to get brief flashes of her thoughts. They whispered into his head like a second voice, muddying his own thoughts. It was no wonder the Experiments went mad. Nobody could think in two directions at once.

But…

If he got through this…

If Poison Devouring did what he thought…

If he could absorb the centipede’s venom into his own Poison Mist, Nic would be able to restrict enemy cultivator’s aura. It wouldn’t just be a step forward but a massive leap in power. Many of the creatures he’d fought so far were Aberrations who could punch above their supposed Class, leaping up ranks to fight F-Classes.

The centipede’s venom alone had qualified it.

Nic wanted that power for himself.

Standing up, Nic groaned. The intensity of the fight had left him shaken and the poison in his system was slowing his healing significantly. He popped another Spirit Purifying Pill into his mouth, counting the remaining. Fourteen.

Who knows how long that would last.

“Ah, ready to set out? I can’t wait for you to see the results of my research. I know this-” The ghost of Lavhin waved a hand towards the blood-soaked cages. “All looks a little grim, maybe. But when you see what we were ultimately able to do, you’ll agree it was all worth while.”

“Lavhin?” Nic said, his voice dangerously low.

“Yes?”

“Shut. Up.”

---

The way into the grand hall between the two wings was sealed by the System. Glowing circles of runes floated in front of the door. As soon as Nic touched the barrier, it rippled like water and a voice filled his mind.

Room Challenge:

Reach the Stairs, Avoiding the Jaws of Blind Mograithe

Reward - Upper Floor Access, Silver Fortune

First Clear Reward - Book of the Eight-Eyed Mantle

Nic pushed forward and the barrier let him slide through. It felt like walking through a thin wall of water. He shoved the doors open with an ancient creak and peered through into the room beyond-

It was a library and a labyrinth. Bookshelf after bookshelf connected into twisting walls that formed a tight maze, filled with the lights of lanterns and the smell of dust. Countless hand-sized spiders scuttled along the tops of the shelves. Old hunched creatures in heavy robes with hoods patrolled the corridors, holding golden bells in their withered hands.

Then Nic looked up and saw Blind Mograithe.

It was an enormous desert spider perched on the ceiling above, big enough to swallow Nic in a single bite. All of its eyes were red, gouged-out wounds. Shaggy rust-brown fur covered its body and poisonous drool dripped from its jaws.

Nic shivered. Right.

The goal was not to wake the spider.

Nic crept into the maze as the first patrolling bell-keeper swept past. He knew the trick to the maze was to keep moving along the left-hand path, steadily progressing down every available road.

He also knew ‘slow and steady’ was a good recipe for being caught out by the patrols.

Instead he followed the skinny creature as it lurched through the halls. It’s patrol was a circle, meaning it would never dead-end. He just had to follow closer to the stairs at the end then switch into the path of the next bell-keeper.

And it almost worked.

Until something went crunch underfoot.

Nic looked down in horror to see the splattered goo of a dead spider between his webbed toes. As he did, a high-pitched whining cry went up. Jerking his head to the source of the sound, Nic saw another spider staring in horror and beginning to wail.

His tongue shot out and snatched it off the top of the bookshelf and into his mouth. Crunching furiously, Nic snatched another up off the lower shelves.

It was too late.

All around him, the little spiders were beginning to cry-

And above, the huge, dark body of Blind Mograithe began to move, awakening from its slumber.

Nic’s head snapped up. The bell-keeper was turning too, drawn by the sound. He saw its face for the first time under the hood.

It was human, but a parasitic spider had latched on. Eight legs punctured into the sides of the skull and a pair of poison mandibles dripped between the eyes. It raised its bell, mouth opening wordlessly.

Nic shot forward. He just managed to touch the bell in the instant before it rang, gumming it up with adhesive auras so the clapper couldn’t strike against the sides. His punching dagger shot into the bell-keeper’s throat, killing the host as the spider began to squirm free of its skull.

He stomped down viciously. Behind him, the crying spiders wailed for their mother.

A shadow descended. An enormous leg covered in bristling hairs set down on a nearby bookshelf. Then another. And another.

Step by step, Mograithe was covering the library in her shadow. Steam erupted where the poison fell from her mandibles onto precious books. Nic felt a surge of panic go up his spine as he hastily crammed three spore-lob canisters into the blob of adhesive aura that held the bell stuck tight to a bookshelf.

And then he began to run.

He vaulted down the next corridor, running his hand along the left side. As he turned he fell dead into the path of another spider-keeper. It stared in wordless surprise and lifted its bell.

Nic flung a throwing axe into the monster’s face. As the corpse toppled over, the bell struck the floor.

Mograithe roared began to turn, a huge hairy leg stomping down into Nic’s path.

With a grimace, Nic released the adhesive aura holding up the bell he’d left stuck to the walls behind him. It dropped alongside the spore-lobs he’d loaded the makeshift trap with, and another bell rung out in a distant corridor.

The shadow passed over Nic as Mograithe was drawn towards the second sound.

Mograithe descended down, searching, trying to find the source of the disturbance. Nic reached out to the detonator runes and made the spore-lobs burst. Toxic golden powders covered its face and ruined eyes and began to burn as the giant spider screamed in anger.

As the beast reeled, Nic kicked off the side of the bookshelves and leapt up atop them. Screw this spider-filled maze and screw you, System. He thought. Rushing along the top of the labyrinth he ran straight for the stairs.

And into a hidden thread of sticky, iron-strong spiderweb. It clotheslined the breath from his body as his leg snagged against it and he went toppling over, crashing against the bookshelves as he hung-upside down.

Internally, fighting to keep the words from escaping his lips, Nic cursed.

Mograithe was coming. He could feel its strength through the web, beginning to lurch towards him. Ready to kill the annoying little pest who’d gotten to clever and ended up caught in its web.

Yep. That’s me. Too clever by half.

“I’m sorry Nicolas. I should have advised you- I should be-” Inside his head, Sofia was panicking. He could feel her emotions bleeding into his mind now, and the raw, pure fear was overwhelming.

“It’s alright.” He whispered. He drew the Sandrider Blade from his back. “It’s all- It’s gonna be alright.”

And he bit back a scream as he cut through his own leg and dropped from the web, leaving the limb behind.

By the time Mograithe had arrived, Nic was already crawling up the stairs. Blood soaked from his missing limb in a trail as he desperately shoved a fistful of Spirit Purifying Pills into his mouth and tried to force his cultivation base to move; his healing had slowed drastically as all the energy in his body went cold and unresponsive.

At the head of the stairs was another System barrier.

As Nic pushed through and collapsed onto the floor beyond, two spheres of light broke free of the turning System-runes. One was a silver capsule similar to the ones that had appeared when the boar and the ascended sand-devil had been slain.

The other was a bright, shining jade color.