∼ Day 80 ∼

‹ Xavier Tal'chor ›

[LVL: 50 - Great Orc "Dramien" has been slain!]

[You have been rewarded with 212008 points of EXP]

[Congratulation! You've reached levels 11-12]

[You've been rewarded with 2 skill points for reaching levels 11-12]

[You've consumed the blood of an LVL: 50 - Great Orc]

[35622 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

I was annoyed that his corpse wasn't worth much EXP due to his power coming not from his physique and blood, but core. However, at least the system gave EXP based on things like contribution and how hard it was for me to kill him.

"Sigh... that really wasn't worth those meager levels..." I said to myself, regretful that I had to waste such a potentially powerful puppet.

But, true to my word, I would bring his head to the beastkin.

As I began walking, I suddenly fell to my knees.

"Bleurgh!" Throwing up a heap of some vicious dark substance, I rolled to the side and collapsed on the ground.

Staring up into the canopy above with the twin suns' rays caressing my face, I groaned.

"Goddammit... those flames really fucking hurt..." I muttered, as although I had looked and acted fine just before on the outside, I was anything but ok.

-Status!-

Status

Information Attributes

Traits, Titles, and Skills -Name- "Xavier Tal'chor" STR 29 ⇒ 30 Skills 25 -Race- Strigoi (Blood Fiend) VIT 126 ⇒ 130 Traits 9 -Sex- Male AGI 96 ⇒ 97 Titles 4 -Rank- D DEX 34 ⇒ 35 Skill Points 0 ⇒ 2 -Level- 12/50 INT 34 ⇒ 35 Resistances

Health 358/1112 CHR 35 Physical Resistance 25 ⇒ 26 Stamina 85/316 WILL 53 Magical Resistance 26 ⇒ 28 Mana 162/332 MAG 105 ⇒ 108 Mental Resistance 32

That mage had been a lot more troublesome than I initially thought. Even though I had the advantage of being the one to ambush, coupled with the fact that he was already severely drained of mana from whatever it was he was doing to that flower, I still ended up very hurt.

With Lesser Eldritch Vitality, Blood-Born, and Mana Mending, I could continuously restore my flesh that was burnt off, however, I learned that magic had an additional effect when used offensively.

Unlike most other physical attacks, magical ones left residual mana to any wound they touch. Like a festering disease that hindered any healing process, making it just that much harder to heal.

And with this mage being so highly adept in his craft, he was seemingly able to cause his flames to have an even more pronounced effect in that regard.

Actually, the same thing happened to him when I pierced his shoulder, although my method had been slightly different. My claws weren't just physical weapons, but weapons that I've actually rune-carved glyphs into; hence why the mage had suddenly been flayed with six spell formations of Rend from directly inside his own body.

When penetrated, the blades would leave a marked spell formation of Rend that could be activated by me at any time. But consequently, the magic markings placed into his body stopped him from being able to heal himself, or at least affect anyway.

The only way I had to purge the residual magic was to simply flood the wound with my own mana, however, this process was easier said than done. It required a great deal of concentration and focus to make sure I didn't accidentally harm myself with my own magic or make the festering worse.

Sitting up, I began slowly ridding my body from any of the mage's mana. It took me about twenty to thirty minutes before my body was fine again, rapidly healing as usual.

But with the ridding, I was even more drained of mana and stamina now, my healing skills and the process of purifying my body just having taken it all.

Donning a new shirt, I got to my feet and stretched.

"Gah-" I groaned, acclimating my body to practically just having grown a whole new layer of skin and more. Honestly, if not for my insane pain tolerance, that method of attack I used to finish off the mage where I took his flames head-on would've made me blackout right then and there.

Pulling up the other part of my pending notifications from the fight, I scanned over it.

[Skill - Blood, Shadow Magic has reached level 11]

[Skill - Lesser Ambrosial Senses has reached LVL: 10 and can now be advanced!]

[Skill - Onyx Body has reached level 5]

[Skill - Obscurement has reached LVL: 10 and can now be advanced!]

[Skill - Greater Paralyze has reached level 6]

[Skill - Infusing Slash has reached level 8]

[Skill - Spell Formation has reached level 10]

[Skill - Blood-Born has reached level 6]

[Skill - Lesser Eldritch Vitality has reached level 6]

"Finally..." I muttered, happy to see not one, but two skills that could be advanced instead of just halting at the threshold. But before I began any serious thinking of choosing the best skill advancement for both skills, I needed a clear mind and to return to my tribe before anything else.

With that, I walked over to the mage's decapitated head, I promptly put it into my [Ring of Holding] together with all the other miscellaneous items and corpses I have in there.

And no, I haven't begun gathering corpses for a collection - you sicko.

Well... uh.... it kinda does seem that way... huh...

Anyways, the beast corpses in my ring are for emergency use whenever I need a blood puppet on the go. Since I don't always have access to a large amount of blood to construct them, I've had to resort to carrying around large amounts of blood by slaying beasts and putting them in my ring.

It's wasn't pretty, nor was it glamorous, but it worked.

Scanning the surroundings, I took in a deep breath of air.

"It's about time I get back..." I mused to myself.

But before I began making my way back, I turned to the beautiful flower that had been the cause of no small amount of curiosity from my side.

Ever since I saw the mage so fervently feed his mana into it, I couldn't help but wonder what it was.

"Maybe it's a natural treasure like my [Crimson Core]?" I wondered.

Approaching it to get a better look, my eyes suddenly widened with horror. I barely had approached within a dozen meters of it, about the same distance from where the mage had been sitting when the flower started glowing with such an intensity that it almost blinded me.

However, that was the least of what made me so shocked. Like with other magical entities, I was very sensitive to the ambient mana of my surroundings and generally other sources of magic. So as the flower flared, the flaming mana within it roiled with such an intensity that it even made the mage's mana seem like a candle in front of a bonfire.

Barely having time before my instincts took complete control over my body, I used Blink and flashed away from the sudden nova of fire that expanded in every direction, scorching the air and searing the earth.

[You have taken 62 damage]

Being thrown into the water surrounding the island as I felt the heat briefly licking my torso, I watched in horror from underneath the surface of the lake as the whole sky above was consumed by flames. It was so powerful and blistering that it even made the water boil within the blink of an eye.

Being in boiling hot water wasn't anything harmful to my supernaturally resilient body, but seeing that the flower's flames were this strong terrified me.

Luckily, the flames died down quickly and I returned to the surface of the water, keeping myself afloat as I gazed around at the surrounding.

Surprisingly enough, the greenery of the forest wasn't harmed too much by the flower's sudden outburst since it was far away on the island in a large lake, so only a few trees caught fire. Though, I wasn't worried about a forest fire seeing as this jungle was practically a rain forest.

But other than that, even the island seemed unharmed; almost as if it was used to the flaming energies of the flower. It was very possible that this island had become like it was because it was regularly baptized in the flower's flames or mana.

The flower's mana had returned to normal and it looked as if nothing had even happened. I began finally having some inkling as to what the fire mage was doing, but was still unsure and had no intentions of finding out more currently.

So not wanting to get anywhere close to that island again, I swam to the other bank.

"I'm seriously getting sick of fire..." I couldn't help but mutter, rather exasperated.

Getting up from the water, I looked down at my ruined clothes.

Well, maybe not ruined 'clothes' but rather just - ruined shirt...

"Ah... you've gotta be kidding me..." I murmured incredulously. "Is this some kind of sign?"

Although my pants had very few burn marks, my shirt was practically gone, mere tatters soaked with water and clinging to my skin.

"Am I no longer allowed to wear shirts?" I asked out loud, almost expecting someone to actually answer me.

But there I stood, drenched, topless, and wholly pissed off, waiting for an answer. But none came... obviously.

I shook my head in exasperation. At this point, I didn't even bother to put on another shirt and simply began my march back to the outskirts of the jungle.

"Xavier Tal'chor, The Cursed to Be Ever Shirtless..." I muttered self-deprecatingly.

***

Arriving at the edge of the ruined greenskin settlement, I was about to unfold my presence to call for Ursa the beastkin, however, the sudden large shadow that enveloped me from behind halted me in my tracks.

"Gah!" I blurted out as I spun on my heels. "You've seriously gotta stop doing that."

Standing there, more than a head taller than me, was the muscular Amazonian beauty, Ursa. She had once again appeared directly behind me without even me noticing, causing chills to run down my spine.

"You've returned empty-handed - I told you were too weak." She said simply, no mocking in her voice, but just as if she was merely stating a fact.

Ignoring the comment, I allowed a shit-eating grin to suffused my face and extended my hand outwards, palm facing down.

Ursa was initially confused by this gesture, but her eyes widened as the very next second the head of the great orc mage appeared, grasped in my hand by his long black hair.

"As I promised before, I'm a man of my word."

***

Cruising through the sky, I marveled at the beauty of the basin's landscape below. By now, I had already regenerated some mana, so conjuring my shadow wings weren't a problem.

It had gone rather well with Ursa, and it seemed that she would also keep her end of the bargain. However, I still honestly wasn't sure what to do about the odd beastkin. She was obviously an extremely powerful individual, and I definitely wouldn't mind becoming friends or allies with her, but her background was still clouded in mystery.

She was honest to a fault, but she also seemed like she had been here for a long time, completely abandoned and alone.

It wasn't the time to be pondering about those things though, so ridding my thoughts of the odd woman, for now, I made my way down to the mountain pass where my tribe had made temporary camp.

But I had barely dissipated my wings before Mia came storming over to me with a hint of menace in her eyes.

"Ah, sorry for the wait, I was.... caught up with a minor problem - haha..." I tried to laugh it off, worried that I was in trouble for making them wait this long. "But no worries, it's all fine now."

"Oh really now?" She said, admonishment clear in her eyes. "You were caught up with a 'minor problem'?"

"Uhhh - I-I..." I stuttered, not sure what to say, fearing my woman's wrath as I had an inkling of what she was mad about.

After having scouted the ruined greenskin settlement and met Ursa, I used my connection with Mia to inform her to stay put and not to worry. Although I couldn't yet speak words through the bond yet, I could convey intent and emotion.

But now with the infuriated small figure of Mia tapping her foot impatiently directly in front of me, I was a bit at a loss for words.

"Without even coming back here, you go headfirst into danger - you stupid Master!"

"Ah - how did you know?" I asked with hands raised placatingly, a bit surprised as I clearly had committed that fact that the fight against the fire mage had been closer than anticipated.

Looking at me like I was an idiot, she pointed out in the distance.

"We could see your fight from here." She said, incredulity in her eyes.

With the slow turning of my head to look behind myself, I first now notice the burnt tops of some of the massive trees's canopies. And remembering how flashy the fight I had just had was, I winced.

"Oh..."