Dante’s Immortality – Chapter 87

Dante’s eyes slowly opened. A feeling of clarity and grogginess simultaneously overwhelmed him.

He looked around, he was inside his tent, on his bed. Shade was to his side, her tail wrapped around him protectively.

Dante looked down, the blood was gone. Thankfully.

His mind retraced the events that took place prior to him passing out. Surprisingly, everything quickly came to him. He vaguely wondered where Victoria was.

Outside of the tent, he could hear voices. No, not voices, conversations. They came through clearly, he could pick a voice and easily hear what they were saying. Many of them were talking about Warlord Karabell’s forces, apparently the fighting had started. Many of the conversations were talking about the elite groups that he had sent out, apparently there were three of them. Those that mentioned them said they were unstoppable.

He must have been out longer than he had thought if the fighting had already started. Likely a day or two at the very least.

Despite being energized, filled with an unbridled energy that seemed to course through him, every part of his body seemed sore and stiff. He didn’t bother moving, he just lay back into the bed.

All of these contradictory feelings were overwhelming, but his newfound clarity seemed to overshadow everything.

Victoria walked in to his tent only a few minutes later, she looked tired. When she saw that he was conscious, she let out a long breath, as though relieved.

“What happened?” His voice was rugged and harsh from the lack of use.

Victoria stepped closer, causing Shade to start hissing at her in warning. “You bled for two days. It was… a lot of blood. Too much. After it covered your body, it hardened until it reached a point that it couldn’t be broken. It cracked two weeks after that, and that was a week ago.” Something seemed to fluctuate in the space around Victoria, spreading out towards Shade and wrapping around her. As soon as it touched the fox, the fox stopped hissing.

That meant that he had been unconscious for almost a month, far longer than he had thought. “What did you do to Shade?”

Victoria’s eyebrows knitted. “What do you mean?”

He started to move his arm, he was so sore. Hopefully from the lack of movement and not because of another reason. “You did something to make her stop hissing. I saw it.”

She seemed completely surprised, and something fluctuated in the air around her as though she was testing him.

“That, you did that.” His eyes were narrowing, remembering how docile Shade was before he bonded with her. “Is that the reason she likes you more than me?”

Victoria averted her gaze as though she had been caught doing something wrong. “This is certainly surprising. I was expecting the worst, but it seems that you weren’t crippled at the very least.”

Dante stared at her, lacking comprehension. “What?”

Victoria pointed to his right hand, it was covered by the blanket that was spread over his body and he quickly yanked it away, ignoring the extreme soreness.

It was gone. The Goddess’ symbol was gone. His classifications gone with it. Even his monster crystals were gone.

His hand was shaking in impotent rage. The stupid glove was nothing but a burden, offering him nothing but pain. And now, instead of doing something useful, this happened. Where the Goddess’ symbol was, the coiled dragon eating its tail was wrapped around his wrist. It was black, like a tattoo, and on his hand every symbol he had collected on the glove was similarly engraved. “Where is the glove?” He had never had such a desire to destroy something.

“Gone. It disappeared when the hardened blood around you cracked away. I wouldn’t worry too much though. You sensed my loose mana, which usually isn’t possible until at least one of your Classifications specializes five times.”

Dante slumped back into his bed. Victoria was going to drive him insane. “What are you even talking about?”

He didn’t mean it as an actual question, but Victoria decided to answer anyways. “Every time you specialize a Classification to a new level, your overall perception will increase. It’s not apparent at earlier specializations, but later it makes a massive difference. It makes things that have to do with mana and world essence easier to learn, and increases your senses to them. Of course, it’s only based on your highest specialized Classification, having more than one Classification won’t benefit someone when it comes to overall perception.”

Dante glared at Victoria. “You’re teaching me now?”

Without waiting for her reply, Dante gathered world essence into his wrist, trying open his Status. Waiting for the worst.

His Status appeared before him, thankfully, but what surprised him was the color of it. It was a deep red, the same color of the symbols that were on his glove. The same color of his eyes.

World Essence waiting to be assigned: 39,231

Blood Immortal (50)

Chronomancer lvl 11/20 (0/11,000 world essence)

Blademancer lvl 18/20 (0/18,000 world essence)

Blade Dancer lvl 11/20 (0/11,000 world essence)

Revenant lvl 11/20 (0/11,000 world essence)

Dante froze. A new Classification, Blood Immortal. A name couldn’t get much more ominous than that. And Instead of a level, it just had the number 50 next to it. Which coincidentally aligned with the number of Classifications he had acquired on his glove thus far.

The glove might have actually been worth it. That was an insane thought.

Unfortunately, the Classification brought too many implications with it.

The first implication was obvious. It was a variant Classification, what that would mean for him, he wasn’t really sure. The second was also obvious. Something like this wouldn’t be given for free. Whoever had given him the glove would come to collect, eventually.

Annoyingly, he had 39,000 world essence. After his last battle, he had just under 17,000. He had been using all of his world essence from the caravans and the skirmishes to level up his Blademancer Classification. He had made the choice after some consideration. The Classification gave him a boost in Wisdom, Intelligence, and Dexterity – all of which helped him in a fight. The real reason was Manipulate Blade though. The skill had become one of his main offensive strengths, and the extra range from leveling it was a huge benefit. And all of those things didn’t account for what kind of upgrade the skill might get should he specialize the Classification.

That wasn’t the problem though. There was no way he had just ‘acquired’ 30,000 world essence, and looking at his wrist, he had a terrible premonition.

Dante opened up the Monster Crystal tab in his Classification.

Skill Infused: None

Passive Skill Infused: None

Passive Skill Infused: None

Attribute Crystal Infused: None

Attribute Crystal Infused: None

They were gone. That was likely where the world essence came from. He couldn’t tell for sure because his Status only showed recent world essence gains for the previous twenty-four hours though.

That was almost overwhelmingly depressing. His Oppressive Will skill was decent, but not a huge loss. After all, Victoria had said it was common. The huge loss was his monster crystal that gave him 7 Wisdom.

Dante switched to his skills tab, checking to see if there was a skill from Blood Immortal. Olivia had told him that people with variant Classifications couldn’t choose the skills they got. Unsurprisingly, there was a new skill, and it was at the top of the list.

Blood Essence Absorption: Consume the strength of your enemies to embark on the path of Immortality.

That was… extremely vague.

Dante looked up from his Status and saw that Victoria’s full attention was focused on the bright red color of his world essence. He definitely couldn’t tell her about his new Classification given the fact that she had been so careful previously.

He decided to drop any pretenses of ignorance though. “How many Classifications do people have in the inner regions?” Five Classifications should provide him with an absolute advantage, even if one didn’t seem to do anything yet.

“It depends. Two can be considered the absolute minimum for most people, unless someone of common origins manages to dilute their bloodline, but that is rare. As far as ruling powers, three is also not hard to maintain so long as they are somewhat selective with who they marry. Even commoners can maintain it as long as they don’t deviate too drastically. A close combat fighter marrying someone with magic Classifications, for example, would run the risk of lowering the number of Classifications their child would receive. Four is incomparably difficult to achieve, and one of those Classifications almost always would be noncombat. There are groups of people who dedicate their entire lives to studying bloodlines for compatibility, they are often hired when someone is looking for a bride, groom, or concubine. There can be almost no variety in those Classifications though.” Victoria glanced up slightly, as though looking at his hair. “There might be exceptions to that rule though.”

Dante examined a strand of his hair, silver. Not surprising, he hadn’t been able to reapply his hair and eye dye in over a month. It didn’t really matter, Victoria likely already knew about his strange appearance, he had never hidden it in the noble territory.

It also seemed like having five Classifications wasn’t an absolute advantage. Still, it was an advantage nonetheless. “Do any of those people with four Classifications ever get a variant Classification?”

“Unless they are lucky, no. All of the replicable variant Classifications have disastrous repercussions, you should already be familiar with Melisandre’s.” Victoria paused, as if unsure if she should continue. “There are exceptions. But I wouldn’t worry too much about that.”

He had finally gotten Victoria to talk about the inner regions, but it seemed like she was still holding back. “Did Warlord Vidal already pay us for the caravans?”

Victoria nodded, seemingly pleased to change subject. “He has the essence crystals now, but I never collected them.”

There was some good news at least, he still didn’t know what to make of everything else that happened though. “Could you please collect them for me?”

Victoria gave another quick nod and stepped out of the tent. He was now alone, which was ideal.

He began by re-dying his eyes and hair. Something that now gave him a sense of security. He would need to find a way to acquire more of the alchemic dye, as he was beginning to run out.

Dante stared at his hand, and the new tattoo like symbols on it. He used his new skill, Blood Essence Absorption. All of those tattoo-like symbols immediately began to glow bright red, the same color that his world essence now took. Other than that, nothing happened.

It didn’t use any mana though. So there was that.

He had a feeling that the skill did exactly what the glove did, and had no real application in combat. He still needed to find a test subject though. There were always possibilities.

On a whim, he sent mana out of his body and began forming it into a shield. Same red color, but the mana was far easier to manipulate. Well, not easier, it was the same as before. It just seemed like his sensitivity to the mana had drastically increased.

Dante began to spread mana though his mind and body, using it to sense his condition. He certainly didn’t seem immortal. Everything was the same, and he had a hunch that if his heart stopped beating, he would still die. It was not something he would be testing though.

One strange thing he did notice, was that all of his scars were gone. It was like he had been remade, there wasn’t a single blemish on his body. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that, each of those were hard earned, and felt like a part of him.

In his hand, he created a small dagger. He used it to make a small cut on his arm. Definitely not immortal, it pierced his skin easily enough when he put enough pressure on it. The cut also didn’t heal immediately, or at all.

That did give him an idea though. He swapped hands, placing the dagger in his left hand, then began to cut his right hand. Like when the glove was on his hand, the hand seemed to be impervious to the damage.

Dante grit his teeth, brought the dagger up, then slammed it into his hand point first. Nothing, it bounced off. His hand felt the force as they rebounded off each other, but there was no pain, no penetration.

He repeated the process, this time Cursing his dagger with his skill before he did so. Still nothing.

It seemed like at least one part of him was ‘immortal’.

He wasn’t done testing it though. He had an overwhelming desire to find his limits. He regripped the dagger and began feeding in world essence. The process was surprisingly smooth, and the red glow that covered the blade was almost menacing in comparison to the azure blue glow from regular world essence.

He looked between the dagger and his hand. This could hurt, but there wouldn’t be any lasting damage with his regenerative passive. Holding his breath, Dante brought the dagger down.

The two slammed off each other, but nothing happened. That was useful.

At that moment Victoria walked back into the tent. The two of them froze. Victoria, with two bags in her hands, and him, with a world essence filled dagger held over his hand as though he was trying to stab himself.

Victoria looked between him and the dagger as she cleared her throat. “I know you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed, but I don’t think that chopping it off is the answer to your problems.”

Dante let out a sigh as he cut off the world essence. Of course she would walk in at that moment. “I was just testing something, are these all of the essence crystals?”

Victoria shook her head. “There are two more bags, but I didn’t want to let anyone see you yet, so I brought them myself.”

Dante pulled the blanket off of himself and stood up, ignoring his stiff muscles. Sitting in a bed for a month probably wasn’t good for them.

He began to crush the crystals, barely finishing the first two bags by the time Victoria brought over two more. Then, he did the same with those. That done, Dante threw himself back onto the bed. He didn’t want to even think about how painful the first level of the spectral attunement would be when he was so stiff.

He opened his Status.

World Essence waiting to be assigned: 118,731

Blood Immortal (50)

Chronomancer lvl 11/20 (0/11,000 world essence)

Blademancer lvl 18/20 (0/18,000 world essence)

Blade Dancer lvl 11/20 (0/11,000 world essence)

Revenant lvl 11/20 (0/11,000 world essence)

Recent world essence gain:

79,500 World Essence from: Essence Crystal x 452

He was somewhat surprised that the warlord had given him the exact amount. He would have thought that it would be one or two higher or lower at the very least.

Without even a second thought, Dante leveled Blademancer to the maximum level of 20.

Blademancer has reached level 20

Attributes have been added:

+2 Intelligence

+2 Wisdom

+2 Dexterity

Skill description for Manipulate Blade has been updated

From prior experience, he knew that the skill’s update was just a 5 foot increase in the range, nothing too major.

World Essence waiting to be assigned: 81,731

Blood Immortal (50)

Chronomancer lvl 11/20 (0/11,000 world essence)

Blademancer lvl 20/20 (0/100,000 world essence)

Blade Dancer lvl 11/20 (0/11,000 world essence)

Revenant lvl 11/20 (0/11,000 world essence)

He debated whether or not he should just go for the stat gains that leveling other Classifications would provide, but decided against it in favor of specializing Blademancer. He still didn’t know what kind of upgrade Manipulate Blade might get.

He opened his Attribute tab.

Name: Dante

HP: 220/220

Mana: 360/360 (+4.6/sec)

Blood Essence: 0/50

Strength: 21

Constitution: 22

Dexterity: 43 (+6.45)

Agility: 21 (+3.15)

Intelligence: 36

Wisdom: 46

Charisma: 18

Dante looked at his attributes and didn’t even bother being surprised any more. Blood essence, of course, why not. 0/50, meaning that he had discovered the use of his new skill. Unfortunately, there was no indication that the blood essence would do anything once he got it.

Other than that new addition, he was pleased to see how much his Intelligence, Wisdom, and Dexterity were coming along.

The only thing that was slightly disappointing was his Strength, Constitution, and Agility. They were definitely falling behind, but should shape up once he began leveling his other Classifications.

And of course, his grandest achievement was Charisma. A whopping 18. It had jumped astronomically somehow, as it was only 13 when he had left Melisandre. No longer was he socially retarded. Probably.

Satisfied, Dante closed out his Status. He stood, then stretched out his stiff back. He hadn’t gotten a chance to try out that cook he had spent so much effort to obtain. Yet. That was about to change.

“Where are you going?”

Dante was just about to step out of his tent when he heard Victoria’s voice. He looked back to see her lounging on a chair, likely one that she had brought over during the time he was unconscious. “I’m hungry.”

“You’re going to go out like that.” Victoria pointed at him and spoke as though she was stating the obvious.

Dante’s head tilted slightly in confusion. “I already reapplied my dye.”

One of Victoria’s eyebrows rose, as though she found what he said to be amusing. “Fine, do as you like. I would suggest you check your reflection first though.”

He wasn’t sure what Victoria was going on about, but created a flat weapon that was large enough to use as a mirror. He looked at it, froze, then saw the horrified expression staring back at him.

Dante looked at Victoria, the mortification still on his face. “Please tell me you can fix this.”

Victoria’s lips curled, now even more amused. “I think you look rather good.”

His eyes narrowed into a glare. She was clearly toying with him. “That’s the problem.” He looked back into the mirror. What were once slightly handsome features, something that wouldn’t have drawn attention, had become otherworldly. Every line and contour of his face had been sharpened, and he could swear that some of the proportions had been changed. Even his nose was different.

He began poking his face, making sure it was real and not some sick joke that Victoria had played on him. It was no wonder his Charisma had shot up 5 points. If he stepped outside, every eye would be immediately drawn to him. He would totally stand out.

Who in their right mind would want something like that?

The glove was evil. That was increasingly apparent. Pure, unadulterated, evil.

Victoria spoke, breaking him out of his murderous thoughts. “I really don’t have a solution to your problem. There might be some relic or artifact that can help, but there isn’t much we can do if you want to look like your previous self. I’m sure we could… tone it down a bit though.”