Chapter 26: The Dangers of Cultivation

“So, you’re saying that this other Warlock and their Dementher came to the prison to break out Orion?” Fallon shook her head in disbelief as she poured a vial of anti-poison over the gash Mammon had left on her right arm.

Item—Ether Antidote Potion. Grade (C). Quality (Greater) An Antidote that counteracts the effects of Ether Poison up to 8% potency. It will also make the user resistant to all Ether poison up to 8% potency for 8 minutes. Note: Antidotes can stack with Mana and Health Potions without inflicting [Ether Fatigue]. However, consuming multiple Antidotes will inflict [Ether Fatigue] upon the user.

“There’s no need for that,” Asmodeus commented as he circled the Warlock. “Had you been inflicted by Mammon’s poison, that antidote would be useless.” The Dementher’s abyssal black eyes searched the tall waving silver grass around them that sparkled despite the lack of light inside the empty lair of the Dungeon Boss, Steel Fang Wolf Patriarch, Razor.

Fallon winced as the antidote mixed with the blood and torn tissue of her injury. “Effective or not, I’d rather not take any chances.”

“How unlike you.”

The Warlock shot her familiar a look as she hopped onto a boulder, then opened her bag again to dig out an Ether Health Potion. “Damn. I need to resupply,” Fallon muttered as she eyed the two remaining bottles. “Anyway, how do you know the Warlock was there to rescue Orion?”

“Because when I delivered your message to the Warden, I followed the Ghost Sniper to ensure she used that information to help the blind Lightning Mage.” Asmodeus stretched his body out like a cat as he gazed about the empty dungeon with hungry eyes.

“You followed the Warden!?” Fallon sputtered around the vial held between her teeth. “What if she—”

“I was careful to mask my presence,” the Dementher interrupted with a note of irritation. “Fortunately, it’s just as well I did. The Warden went to Nolan Grantham’s Manor, and a short while later, I sensed that a Warlock had Gated into the Grantham estate with his Dementher.”

Fallon twisted the vial top free and then spat it into the grass. “And you think that was the same Warlock that attacked the prison today?”

“It’s not exactly a common Class in Orinthian,” Asmodeus retorted sarcastically before he added with an almost petulant whine, “I’m hungry, Warlock.”

Fallon let out a soft laugh before she tipped the contents of the Ether Health Potion down her throat.

Ether Mana Potion has restored 1,219 Health.

“Alright,” The Warlock muttered as she tossed the empty vial into the tall dungeon grass. “I’m pretty sure there are still a few spider legs left in my bag.”

It was rather hard to miss the glowing arachnid limbs with their prickly blue hairs. Fallon happily dumped the five spider legs she found crammed inside the bag onto the smothered grass before her familiar. The pile of legs quickly disappeared as Asmodeus crunched his way through them.

Fallon watched his serpent’s tail twitched suspiciously amongst the silver grass and smothered a laugh. ‘He really does enjoy those spider legs…. Yuck.’

The Warlock checked her arm, satisfied to see the wound already closed over with new pink skin. She used a bottle of anti-blood cleaner from her bag to wash down her arm and then the ripped jacket sleeve. ‘I’ll have to mend that later. No sense in wasting what limited funds I have on a new set.’

“So, what now?” Fallon asked as she pulled the Dire Wolf Leather Jacket back on.

“We leave Highguard,” Asmodeus replied nonchalantly before finishing off the scraps of exoskeleton.

“Leave Highguard?”

“Yes, now that another Warlock has become aware of our existence, they’re bound to return and cause trouble.” Asmodeus paused as he wiped his snout against his left front leg, which had definitely put on some extra muscles since the Dementher’s fight on the Garrison Prison roof. “They will likely try to hunt you down and kill you, Warlock.”

Fallon blinked, caught off guard by the certainty in her familiar’s tone. “Why?”

“Dementher’s are territorial. And a Warlock of that rank can form pacts with more than one Dementher. I killed one of his. He may come after us to take me as a replacement.”

“Oh, great. Thanks for that.”

“If I hadn’t killed Mammon, he would have eaten you, Warlock.”

“Fair point,” Fallon muttered, though she suspected that wasn’t the only reason Asmodeus had killed the other Dementher.

“In any case, the Warlock has more than one reason to come after you. It’s not unheard of for Dementher’s to betray their Master’s should they come across a more powerful Warlock.”

“A more powerful Warlock?” Fallon scoffed as she pointed a finger towards her chest. “Me?”

“I wouldn’t have chosen you if you didn’t have potential,” Asmodeus replied with an unflinching look that made Fallon avert her gaze first.

“So then, Dementhers can do that? Jump around from one Warlock to another?” Fallon asked as she returned to searching her bag for food.

“Only if they eat the Warlock they’re currently contracted to.”

Fallon raised her eyebrows and exhaled slowly as she pulled out a bit of wrapped nut bread that, like the spider legs, had remained fresh while inside the Dementher’s space. “Is—breaking a contract—that simple?”

“Depends on the contract used,” Asmodeus replied with an almost human shrug of his shoulder. The Dementher watched as the Warlock bit into the tough flatbread and looked away with disinterest and disgust. “If the contract is balanced, the Dementher and Warlock form a partnership as you and I have where neither of us can control the other against their will.

“However, most contracts are temporary and limited to a mere ten years of the Warlock’s life span. Even then, the price for our services is often too steep for most Warlocks.”

Fallon nodded. “I can see why a ten-year contract where you get eaten at the end would be—unappealing to most.”

“That said, the Ether Power required to form a permanent bond that would last until death is beyond the capabilities of any human Warlock.”

Fallon frowned as she chewed her food. “But ours is—permanent.”

“Because I chose you,” Asmodeus replied with an odd note of satisfaction. “That is why our contract is permanently etched into our Gullveig and Nucleus. It is unbreakable as long as we are both living.”

A strange silence followed that filled the empty dungeon as Fallon’s teeth crunched down on the dry bread in her mouth thoughtfully. “But—you still get to eat me before I die?”

“There’s no getting around that Warlock,” Asmodeus replied with a wolf-like grin. “It’s just our nature.”

Fallon swallowed the dry, tasteless food and quickly changed the subject. “If a Dementher doesn’t choose the Warlock, then how does a contract usually work?”

“Usually, the Dementher controls the Warlock in order to get what they want. In Mammon’s case—he likely wanted food to grow stronger.”

“Food being—humans?”

“Their Nucleus,” Asmodeus corrected. “A well-cultivated Nucleus is highly nutritious for a growing Dementher. Although in Mammon’s case, he’s not that picky.”

“Ah,” Fallon glanced at the stub of nut bread, suddenly losing her appetite. “And what if the Dementher doesn’t want to serve the Warlock who summoned them?”

Asmodeus’s smile quickly faded as he gazed off into the tall grass. “A truly powerful Warlock might be able to sacrifice enough Ether Power to entrap an unwilling Dementher, but the wretched fool would not be expected to live for very long.”

Fallon raised both eyebrows as she leaned forward, elbows pressed against her knees, intrigued. “Why? And how would they do it?”

“Because most Dementher consider such forced enslavement unpardonable.” Asmodeus sighed as he laid down on the ground facing her and crossed his front legs. “That said, this method was created and used by a Dementher to help their Warlock Master entrap and skin another Dementher. That skin was then used to create the first Grimoire of Binding. After the ritual is complete, the Dementher whose flesh was vandalized becomes effectively enslaved to the Warlock until their Grimoire is destroyed.”

Fallon lowered her half-eaten food and stared at Asmodeus’s soft crimson fur. “That’s—awful. But—aren’t Dementhers immensely powerful? Why would any of them allow that to happen?”

Asmodeus tilted his head. “Do you remember when you first summoned me?”

Fallon’s brows furrowed as she looked at the nut bread in her hand. “Not really.”

Asmodeus snorted. “Well, surely you remember how much smaller I was in the beginning.”

“I remember you were easier to feed,” Fallon retorted before taking another bite.

“I was ‘freshly hatched,’ as we Dementher would say. At that stage, we are vulnerable to other Dementher and their Warlock’s.”

Fallon coughed, choked, and smacked her chest. “Wait—so you’re saying—these Warlocks skin baby Dementhers to control them?”

“Not always,” her familiar replied with a glimmer of annoyance at the term ‘baby.’ “As I mentioned earlier, the first time a Dementher was enslaved, another Dementher helped subdue them.”

“So Dementhers will even enslave each other?” Fallon shook her head and tossed away the remanents of her food. “Your not that different from humans after all.”

“Dementhers are infinitely worse,” Asmodeus growled. “Remember that. Anyway, the physical pain is nothing compared to the humiliation of being forced to serve our food. Most of us would prefer death, but the Grimoire prevents that as well.”

“It stops you from dying?” Fallon shook her head. “I wasn’t even sure a Dementher could die until today.”

“Mammon is not dead in the sense that you’re referring to,” Asmodeus corrected with a shake of his head. “He has merely returned to the Ancienter without any of his powers. He has become an ‘egg’ waiting to be hatched if you will.” A malicious smile spread across the Dementher’s canine teeth. “It will take Mammon at least six of your human years to recover enough strength to be summoned by a Warlock. But since I ate his gullveig—Mammon’s bond to that other Warlock is completely destroyed. He will have to work extra hard to break through the Ancienter again.”

‘As long as he doesn’t come back holding a grudge against me.’ Fallon shivered at the thought of Naomi’s death. Still, she wouldn’t deny that it was rather comforting to know that she would not have to worry about encountering that man-eating Dementher again anytime soon. “What’s a gullveig?”

Asmodeus watched Fallon pull a canteen from her backpack and drink before answering. “A gullveig gives a Dementher their physical form. It allows us to return from the ancienter and enables us to evolve and grow stronger—much like your Nucleus.”

Fallon opened her mouth to ask why a Dementher’s Nucleus looked like some crawling, grotesque insect-like creature but lost her train of thought when a red spark appeared in front of her eyes and a familiar D-grade Monster Core dropped into her lap.

Item—Monster Core. Grade (D). Quality (Lesser) A monster core which can be harvested from a Dungeon Boss or Rare Monster. Note: Item can be consumed to receive additional experience through Cultivation, required Skill [Ether Refinement]; or Alchemy, required Crafting Skill [Core Refinement.]

“You should cultivate before we head anywhere,” Asmodeus announced in his usual bossy tone. “The outside world has become a great deal more dangerous. You need to become stronger.”

Fallon nodded and offered a rueful grin. “It’s a shame this dungeon boss is still on its reset timer.”

“Don’t get cocky just because you stole the last hit on a Minor C-ranked Boss.”

The Warlock snickered. “I never said I would kill the boss.”

Asmodeus rolled his eyes. “Oh, so you expect me to share my kills with you?”

“Why not, you eat my spider legs.”

“To replenish the Ether Mana you drain from me.”

Fallon sighed and dropped the subject as she rolled the D-grade Monster Core between her palms and activated [Infernal Gaze]. Using the core’s reflective surface, the Warlock checked her status.

Fallon Gaumond. Nucleus (Ingenium). Class (Warlock). Rank (D). Level (26) Warlock Fallon. Health: 2,709/2,709. Mana: 1,083/1,083. Experience till next level: 5,191/125,375. Status Effects: [Familiar Link] and [Infernal Gaze].

‘Well, this core should be enough to get me to the next level at least.’

In order to cultivate a D-grade Monster Core without the use of an alchemist, the skill [Ether Refinement] had to be acquired.

Cultivation Skill—Ether Refinement Allows a cultivator to extract ether energy from a Monster Core and transfer it as experience to their Nucleus. Cultivation requires a set amount of Health and Mana resources per Monster Core rank. Once this Cultivation Skill is activated, it cannot be canceled until the Monster Core has been depleted.

The process of obtaining this skill involved a great deal of patience in learning to cultivate and manipulate Ether energy. Most Nucleus Classes were able to pick up this skill relatively easily after repeated use of [Ether Attunement], a similar skill that allowed one to restore their Health and Mana pool as long as they were near a source of Ether power such as a dungeon.

Despite how easy the skill was to acquire, most Nucleus Classes were unable to use this ability until they were nearly C-rank. This delay was due to the crucial requirements necessary to cultivate a Monster Core.

‘Cultivating this D-grade Monster Core requires a total of 15,000 Ether resources. But at level 26, I have just under 4,000 combined between my Health and Mana pool.’

Because [Ether Refinement] only allowed a cultivator to use the resources stored inside their body, most cultivators waited until they had the minimum required amount. Another commonly used trick was cultivating when they could guarantee a level up before their Ether resources were entirely depleted.

Death was inevitable if a cultivator ran out of health and mana while [Ether Refinement] was active. The nature of the Monster Core itself would not allow the cultivator to stop midway. Many had tried, but before the connection could be broken, the Monster Core would drain the cultivators of their Ether resources in an attempt to revive itself.

As Asmodeus would say, ‘The instinct to survive is strong even in the most unintelligent of creatures.’

Potions could be used as an additional source of Ether but had their obvious limitations thanks to the penalties of [Ether Fatigue]. Healing was preferred but gaining access to a Mender wasn’t an option for most cultivators. This was why an Alchemist’s crafting skill [Core Refinement] was the most preferred method to consuming a Monster Core’s Ether energy. However, the cost to purchase those experience potions was somewhat criminal, and the efficiency of each potion also varied based on the skill of the Alchemist who made it.

‘Anyway, thanks to [Familiar Link], I can safely bypass the resource restrictions and mitigate the most serious risks to my life.’

Fallon scooted closer to her familiar so that Asmodeus could rest his head on her knee. The Dementher was still brimming with energy from consuming Mammon’s gullveig. Fallon suspected that this was part of why her familiar was pushing her to cultivate now while his own ether resources were overflowing. ‘Still, we usually only cultivate after Asmodeus has had a large snack. I’m not sure those spider legs will be enough.’

“Will you be alright for this?” Fallon murmured worriedly as the Dementher tucked his front legs under his chest and sighed against her hip.

“I have plenty of ether energy, and we can hunt down some proper food later after you level up,” Asmodeus responded grumpily. “Just remember to keep the absorption at a steady pace. If you shoot below 30% too fast, my mana transfer won’t be able to keep up, and there’s no point in wasting your health pool while we’re sitting inside a dungeon.”

“Right,” Fallon murmured with a glance around the spacious cave. ‘Still, a boss lair is the safest place inside a Dungeon between resets.’ “I’ll be careful,” she promised with an affectionate scratch behind Asmodeus’s ears.

The memory of the Dementher’s true form, which Fallon had seen twice now, flickered behind her eyes as the Warlock withdrew her hand and focused on the Monster Core she held. ‘Here’s to reaching level 27.’

According to Asmodeus and Corbin, every cultivator envisioned something while in deep meditation. The cavern walls and field of silver grass fell quickly away as Fallon connected the tendrils of ether power locked inside the Monster Core to her Nucleus. An endless sky of stars appeared in the darkness around her that glowed with every color of the rainbow. It was a familiar sight, one the Warlock had seen often in her dreams. It filled Fallon with a sense of comfort as she focused on drawing the granular orbs of experience into her Nucleus, a process that felt a bit like pulling sand along a sticky strand of spider’s web.

All too soon, the Warlock’s Mana pool flashed red at 323/1,083, and [Familiar Link] kicked in. A steady flow of Dementher energy filled up Fallon’s Mana pool while her experience bar continued to tick up steadily.

Experience till next level: 12,791/125,375.

For a moment, the distracting image of the E-ranked Fire Mage flinging away Asmodeus’s Dementher Viper pulled Fallon’s focus from the Monster Core. The Warlock quickly pushed the memory away, focusing instead on her Nucleus as it consumed the incoming experience greedily.

Her Mana pool flashed below 30% another six times as flickering stars filled the silence of the cavern, disturbed only by Asmodeus’s breathing that tickled against Fallon’s arm. The weight of the Dementher’s head upon her knee kept the Warlock anchored as the burning glow of her Nucleus steadily outshined the stars around her.

Experience till next level: 65,991/125,375.

After [Familiar Link] kicked in for its 10th round, another image forced its way through Fallon’s wavering concentration. The scent of blood, urine, and vomit almost made the Warlock gag as the ghostly form of Asher Grantham’s face came into view. Despite the visible abuse and torture the Praefectius had suffered, Asher still offered Fallon a kind smile after the Paragon pushed the young Warlock from her chair, impatient for her verdict.

“It’s alright, girl,” the Praefectus wheezed. Blood dripped down over his swollen left eye onto the suppression collar he wore. Asher’s right eye blinked unsteadily as if the world were already moving out of focus. “Just speak honestly. None of this is your fault.”

“Focus, Warlock,” Asmodeus murmured gently as his nose brushed against her arm. “Stay in the present.” The Dementher’s Ether poured into Fallon’s Nucleus as her own Mana pool dipped below 200. “Slow and steady. You’re already halfway there.”

Experience till next level: 88,791/125,375.

Fallon drew in a slow, deep breath and exhaled as the golden orbs of experience continued to glide along the ether strands like dew pulled down a spider’s web. Sweat rolled down her neck, back, and chest as her Mana pool dropped and refilled again and again. The closer her experience bar came to maxing out, the more Fallon felt as if she had consumed a banquet of exquisite food.

Experience till next level: 119,191/125,375.

Her mana dipped below 300 again and again. The Dementher’s ether magic refilled her at a steady rate until finally, Fallon’s Nucleus burst and blossomed. What had once started as a dull gray orb at E-rank had changed into a white, diamond-shaped Nucleus at D-Rank that grew steadily in size with each level gained.

Congratulations! Warlock Fallon has reached level 27!

“Well done,” Asmodeus said sleepily as his head shifted against her knee. “Let’s finish this up safely and then figure where to hunt for some real food.”

Fallon nodded, feeling very refreshed and energetic, which made maintaining the steady flow of experience through the ether strands challenging as her slightly larger Nucleus felt suddenly hollow and hungry once more. When the last grains of ether energy left the Monster Core, it crumbled like dry clumps of sand between Fallon’s fingers. The Warlock let out a tired sigh as she opened her eyes and pulled the mirror from her bag to check her progress.

Fallon Gaumond. Nucleus (Ingenium). Class (Warlock). Rank (D). Level (27) Warlock Fallon. Health: 2,980/2,980. Mana: 1,192/1,192. Experience till next level: 29,816/136,400. Status Effects: [Familiar Link] and [Infernal Gaze].

“Alright,” Asmodeus announced as he rose to his feet and stretched with a yawn. “Now I’m starving. Let's get hunting.”