Chapter 27: A Powerful Duo

I gave Henry a long stare—thinking about what to do, finally coming to a decision. “Fine,” I said, “I’ll help you kill some mobs—but once the kraken spawns—we run away. Kritikikuku is mine. To be honest, my trust is already thin with other players—so I won’t be your pawn. Are you close to leveling?”

Henry waved his hands in front of him, “No no, it’s okay. I am close to leveling—almost level 16. Because of this mishap, I won’t interfere in you conquering the floor! I’m only like 12,000 experience points away from leveling. I really did forget! This is my first time using a curse on another player—the system only telling me about it when I first became a Cursemaster.”

He seemed genuine, but that didn’t really matter to me now. I had Henry leave the pool zone alongside me, before returning to it. I decided to try an ability I had been putting off—{Frenzy}. I activated {Frenzy}, my body suddenly heating up—my health dropping quickly to 150, yet it started regenerating back up. Then, a system notification popped up for me.

[System Notice: By using {Frenzy} while possessing {Heart and Soul of a Troll}, {Assimilation} has created the new ability {Adrenaline}. {Frenzy} has been deleted.]

{Adrenaline} - An active ability. Your health continuously drains, losing 1% of your max HP every second, increasing attack damage, attack speed, resisting most status conditions, and reducing cooldowns by 50%. Cost: 20 MP.

{Frenzy} was still active, but I decided to cut it off—using {Adrenaline} instead. The skin of my body started glowing a faint red—blood and heat rushing through my body. This would have been nice to have with {Shrouded Blink}, but at least it will help with {Sudden Slumber}. I approached the pool—Henry chilling behind me.

A Shadow Eel popped up from the depths of the pool—hardly noticeable due to the crashing waterfall. I let the Shadow Eel make its way toward me, using ‘Ashen Gladius’ to intercept its pursuit. Though it hadn’t been aiming for me for some reason—instead flying towards Henry. I sliced through it, however—definitely noticing the high increase of damage—both buffs, the curse and {Adrenaline}, stacking together.

[Shadow Eel, Lv27, takes 6344 damage.]

[System Notice: Player Henry gains 3900 EXP.]

“Two,” I told him. “You just need a few more, then I want this curse off.”

Henry nodded over and over, “Yep yep, no problem Zeryn! Your strength must be super high—and what class are you? I have so many—”

“Don’t worry about those things—just let me do what I do, then we can figure out the rest.” I cut Henry off—the man talked a lot. I didn’t really want to explain that I received an ability which practically boosted my attributes by 45 levels, health by 10 levels, and mana by 20 levels. I kept the chit-chat short, repeating the process of killing three more mobs—effectively power-leveling him. It was a strange concept—the use of buffing someone and getting all the credit themselves.

“Alright alright! Level 16. What to do now?" Henry seemed excited.

"Let's remove the curse." I didn't want the curse any longer. What I did want was the kraken to spawn. I had a feeling that the warden needed to perish so that I could move on—and I wanted to conquer the floor, too. Henry walked over to me and removed {Curse of the Defiant Berserker}. I felt a weight off my heart as it was removed, then I walked towards the floor’s starting point in effort to refresh the pool zone.

“So, those stairs?” Henry asked me.

“I don’t know about the stairs—listen. Kraken first, stairs second. I’m sure we can figure something out afterward, alright?” I had to focus on my priorities. I went back to the zone with the crashing waterfall—the water flowing into the endless pool. I still wasn’t sure where we were at, but water came from the tops of the chasm cliffs. While the other side of the chasm was slowly filling—this side’s water just seemed sucked up by the pool. It created the illusion that this side wasn’t filling up as well, but it definitely was.

I approached the pool. Henry decided to watch from the sidelines—his spells were actually pretty ineffective against the mobs which carried high magic resistance, such as Kritikikuku and the Tidal Shark.

I maintained {Adrenaline}, ready for whatever came from the pool. The closer I looked, the more I could tell that something was coming. It was hard to see due to the crashing of the water, but I just had some sense—something was different. Dodge.

A blast of water shot out from the pool, spraying through where I had been at. It chipped part of the ground there, and I was forced to reposition. I was ready for whatever had come—expecting a new opponent.

Suddenly, a tentacle came flying out from the pool—following after the blast of water. I didn't get the same sensation from it as the blast, but I still decided to dodge. Then, I noticed something that was actually holding onto the tentacle and it came landing onto the ground. In its webbed hand was another pulse of water ready to be blasted out. The blast of water was fired out forcefully, flying past me and headed in Henry's direction. I looked back when another tentacle came rushing towards me.

It hit me, activating {Shrouded Shadow}, so I took the time to reposition. I heard a noise behind me as well as the crashing of water—and hooves landing on the ground.

"Tch," I heard a sound as the blast of water that went behind me crashed into Henry's body, not having the time to dodge. Another tentacle came from me as I caught a glimpse of the other beast that landed a second ago.

[Chasm Sea Horse, Kaiser, Warden of Abupho, Lv32]

I used my 'Ashen Gladius' to cut into Kritikikuku's tentacle as it likewise crashed into me. Another blast of water also came from where the tentacle had, yet I was able to dodge it through the activated {Shrouded Shadow}.

[Chasm Kraken, Kritikikuku, Warden of Abupho, Lv34 takes 3172 damage.]

[Chasm Sea Horse, Kaiser, Warden of Abupho, Lv32 takes 362 damage.]

[Chasm Sea Horse, Kaiser, Warden of Abupho, Lv32 takes 362 damage.]

[Chasm Sea Horse, Kaiser, Warden of Abupho, Lv32 has been inflicted by Curse of the Feeble Underdog.]

Huh? I wasn't sure how the second warden took damage, but the curse instantly gave it away. I cautiously took a look—and it was surely surprising. Henry had climbed on the back of the Chasm Sea Horse, holding on backward as he stabbed into its large fish-like tail with a crooked dagger.

The beast threw him off its back and Henry was cursing, "You fucking floor! Making me use {Full Curse} twice! Fucking fu——."

This side of him was new, but I had to be more concerned with the enemies than him. But then he started yelling at me, "Watch out for that shitty water blast—it's some silencing-type ability!"

Good to know. I appeared further away from the fight, trying to take it in. There was the Chasm Kraken, Kritikikuku, and the Chasm Sea Horse—which wasn’t really a seahorse at all—Kaiser. The two were both wardens of ‘Abupho’.

Henry looked a little insane—a darkish aura enveloping him as black marks had grown along his body. His robe was very tattered, such that it shouldn’t even be worn—perhaps he didn’t have the time to remove it after being blasted. I don’t even know how he survived it, though he did mention using ‘{Full Curse}’.

I moved back towards the fight as I was still in the shadows. A tentacle came flying at Henry while he was already engrossed with the Chasm Sea Horse. I quickly grabbed a ‘Hellfire Flask’, one of my three remaining, and tossed it towards the pool.

[Chasm Kraken, Kritikikuku, Warden of Abupho, Lv34 takes 1 damage.]

Kaiser wasn’t near enough to the blast, but it still changed directions, preparing a blast of water at me. I at least got the temporary aggro of him, though the kraken didn’t seem to care. The blast of water finally was coming at me—and my brain was running extremely quickly with {Battle Prowess}. It’s been unfortunate I haven’t gained more attributes from it, but I guess my enemies have been deemed too weak—or my attributes much too high for my level.

I planned to use {Shrouded Shadow} to get closer to Kaiser, but I was once again met with that feeling I originally felt—like I wouldn’t be able to use {Shrouded Shadow} to blink the attack. I didn’t think my Willpower was high enough to resist the attack too well, either. I was forced to dodge again, unknown to me what became of Henry.

My hands grazed the ground as I was mid-dodge, the water rushing past me. I took off in a sprint towards Kaiser—the tentacles of Kritikikuku too difficult to catch unless they came for me. Kaiser formed a weapon made of water as I neared, meeting my ‘Ashen Gladius’ with it. To my surprise, it was stable—my blade unable to cut through the water. I was forced off of the standstill and Kaiser reared up, water filling its mouth. I didn’t have time to dodge.

It shot the water at me and I could only hope for a miracle. I had that same feeling from before—{Shrouded Shadow} wouldn’t work here—and I was right. I could only think I would need a miracle to happen—and I thought I saw a golden hue for a second.

[You took 184 damage from Chasm Sea Horse, Kaiser, Warden of Abupho, Lv32. Current health: 113/300]

[System Notice: You were silenced by Chasm Sea Horse, Kaiser, Warden of Abupho, Lv32.]

[System Notice: {Adrenaline} resisted silence. Silence duration decreased to five seconds.]

The damage was low—but I hadn’t been affected by Luck. Was this boss just… extremely weak? No—that wasn’t the case. I noticed through the dark scales of the beast, marks of darkness were on it. My mind processed it then—the {Curse of the Feeble Underdog} must have kicked its damage to the dirt.

{Heart and Soul of a Troll} was failing to work as I repositioned after the shot of water. My health continued dropping as {Adrenaline} was still active, but my abilities were temporarily cut off. Five seconds, about 15 health points. I had to delay for my ability to begin healing back up the damage from the blast and {Adrenaline}.

“Fucking—shoot it you idiot! No—fucking—MR!” I heard the yelling of Henry come through as I was focused. What is MR? Why is he calling me an idiot? It was like he was trying to distract me, but I decided to switch to ‘Vanquisher’, loading a mana bolt and firing it at the Chasm Sea Horse. The bolt flew on, and a thought hit my head, ah. MR—magic resistance? I watched the bolt fly towards it, hoping to see the high damage.

And then I saw it.

A tentacle came slapping down on my bolt mid-air, crushing it into nothingness. Kritikikuku protected Kaiser from a certainly high damage attack. These Wardens of Abupho were definitely a difficult duo to handle. I could only be happy that the kraken still took damage.

[Chasm Kraken, Kritikikuku, Warden of Abupho, Lv34 takes 168 damage.]

Dirt poor damage.