Chapter 27, Killing something

The sun is high in the sky and I don’t feel like sitting around doing nothing until the show tomorrow. I need to kill something to hopefully lessen my tension with the bloodlust and adrenaline. I don’t want to fight in the valley where I’ve been this whole time though, that sounds so boring. I guess that only leaves one real option.

I look down upon the forest of fungi as I reach an overhang on the southern side of my mountain. I really shouldn’t be getting myself into this but I need to distract myself with something or Ari will get me to give in with her pleading and the erotic mental imagery she sends my way.

“Better get your head on straight. You’ll need that concentration for what’s to come.”

Not waiting for her to respond I leap off the edge, landing on a boulder before starting my mad dash downwards. I do various spins and flips and of course the vault over boulders with the hands to backflip trick on my way down and I’m happy to note that Ari’s slowly cooling down as we’re nearing our target.

As I cross the fungi forestline I feel it. The curse that flows through the rain is in the ambient mana here and I track it to its sources. The purple crystals being hauled from the depths. They’ve been sloppily dug down into the ground with a distance to each other of about 10 meters and are radiating the curse constantly. What is this stuff?

[Crystalized Fungi Curse]

Well that wasn’t fucking helpful. I try kicking one of them and it feels like kicking a rock. No surprise there but it provides a fair amount of information. That’s to say information on how very fucked this region is. There must be thousands upon thousands of these crystals already hauled out from the ravine and they haven’t slowed down their excavation of them.

Ding! Resistance [Curse Magic Resistance] has increased from [27] to [28].

“How are we doing, Ari? Is the curse worse here than the rain?”

“No it isn’t but it’s also constant and from all directions. No avoiding it. I have no idea how the adventurer expedition is planning on getting through this but my guess is Julie doing the same to all of them that I’m doing to us. Restoring or regenerating the damage.”

“Can we suppress it then?”

“Yes. It could probably get a lot worse than this before we’d have to run for it but let’s hope it doesn’t.”

I continue forward into the forest and even if the transformed terrain is disagreeable it’s quite magical all the same. White mushrooms of different kinds with purple splotches here and there cover the ground like trees of a forest. They go from heights of 3 meters all the way up to what must be close to 50 meters.

The ground is littered with purple glowing crystals and the color seems to be seeping into the earth itself, discoloring it with a purple tint. Instead of normal green grass, super thin, decimeter high mushrooms have begun sprouting in patches, growing at a visible rate outwards to cover the ground being turned purple by the curse.

Further in between the fungi trees I see how the ground is absolutely covered by these mushrooms acting like grass and only a few thin, disappearing tracks remain. The tiny funga seem to cannibalize the trampled ones, getting the energy to quickly regrow new and whole specimens in their place. This will make tracking anything in here impossible after a short time has passed.

There are also a few other smaller variations of more purple fungi growing here and there next to the enormous mushrooms but I just mentally classify it all as environment and let it be. No need to study it all if it isn’t running straight at me.

Ding! Resistance [Curse Magic Resistance] has increased from [28] to [29].

“Please turn notifications off for now, Ari. I don’t need anything distracting me.”

Ari does as I ask and I start waltzing into the parasite infestation. There’s no need for stealth since I know this place is swarming with them and they’re close enough to be heard. By counting the stabbing sounds of their limbs piercing the ground on the other side of this huge mushroom I can tell there are at least 5 of them this close to the edge of their territory.

I run around the mushroom and come upon my expected targets. I launch myself into them, carving two in half with my daggers as I pass by. Barely touching down before launching the other way back, carving two more in half before calmly approaching the last one which lets out a gurgling screech, calling reinforcements. I jump a few meters before kicking its skull into coarse gravel with a well placed steel-toed axe kick, barely even scratching its annoying cap.

I finish the other four parasites with a few more good kicks before continuing inwards. It seems that whatever is controlling them has taken a personal interest in stopping me moving further ahead. Instead of the 10 or 20 I’m expecting to come from the screech alone, a veritable horde of close to 100 parasites push themselves between the mushrooms to get at me.

Lowering myself into my stance and spinning my daggers a few times in anticipation I grin, the slaughter is starting. Sprinting towards the horde I manifest 10 missiles simultaneously and fire them into it before I arrive half a second later. The detonations go off just as I’ve sliced through my first and begun kicking in the skull of my second parasite, getting well into their midst.

Purple, and white gore rains from the sky behind me from detonations and lacerations alike and I continue straight towards their center. I spin around cutting their bodies open and limbs off before kicking in their skulls. A few of their sharp limbs graze me and the air is thick with their acidic spore clouds but it’s not enough to put me down.

After crushing my 8th skull I try using a skull as a springboard instead of just destroying it. I put enough force into my legs to crack the skull open and spray the mycelia in a trail behind me but it works wonders in order to reach the next one.

Doing a bit of aerial acrobatics to manage the sharp turns mid air I flip and twist while kicking off the skulls of parasite after parasite without touching the ground. It works splendidly for a while but the hive must have realized that they won’t kill me like this. The surprisingly effective solution of all hunkering down to not present the same target puts a stop to my carnage.

It was fun while it lasted and I got at least 30 of them this way. I’ll need to try this with other monsters that don’t adapt as quickly.

I land and continue the battle on foot using my daggers and sporadically manifesting missiles to get a quick kill by surprise. They seem to get a little better at dodging towards the end but it doesn’t take long for me to finish them all while taking next to no damage myself. I’ve killed so many of these that they’ll need to adapt far more before they become a real threat.

Cracking the last skull with a pierce and violent twist of my dagger I continue running deeper into the infestation. Ari tells me that the curse is getting slightly stronger the further in we’re heading but that it’s still fine. I take her word for it as the next horde of parasites comes my way. This one must be closer to 300 in number.

Blasting apart a skull with a missile while simultaneously kicking apart another, dodging a piercing limb, a slashing limb and avoiding hitting the parasites on their caps is not easy. This is horde number 6 but calling it the same as the previous ones feels wrong. This is more like an avalanche, having been continuous for the last half hour without ever letting up.

I dodge another slash from the fungi horrors' long limbs as I backpedal and cut apart the nearest monsters. Kicking them asunder like a whirlwind of limbs or slicing them apart cleanly and leaving them far behind before they even collapse. It is now half an hour since I began my noble effort of leaving this place.

I realized when the last horde never stopped coming that I might be fighting a losing battle. An enemy with seemingly endless numbers that adapt and learn as a collective to find my weakness and end me? Yeah, no thanks. I liked them better in groups of a few thousand and not whatever this is.

The sun is now setting over the unseen horizon and the sky darkening. I turn up my eye glow to the max to give myself time to adjust to the constant brightness. It actually makes things easier to see rather than when fighting with daylight as there’s no shadows in my line of vision to obscure the limb coming for my throat. Or the limb going for my stomach. Or the one already in my leg. Wait, when did that get there?

A hard jank from the horror sends me flying 30 meters into the air, trailing celestial blood and getting even further away from any possible exit. I land on the slick purple cap of a mushroom 20 meters high and 200 meters away from my starting position before skipping like a flat stone on water to another one at a height of 15 meters. I luckily manage to get my bearings before my third embarrassingly good imitation of human stone skipping.

Sinking my reversed daggers into the slick cap of the mushroom standing at 8 meters in height I slow down enough to drop and bounce on another mushroom only a few meters further away. It at least breaks my fall and gives me half a second to reorient myself before a new limb comes for my face. I must have flown and skipped like what, 350 meters away? And there’s still no end in sight of this horde.

I cut the limb going for my face off and yank at it to send myself at its skull, cracking it with my feet as I take off between the parasites. They quickly duck down and I have to stop or risk getting skewered on all the limbs pointing my way. This collective mind shit is seriously starting to give me the creeps.

Having no other choice than continuing on foot, using the mushrooms to travel is probably my most dangerous idea thus far, I slice them apart while avoiding the ever closing distance of misses to my vitals. I don’t know for how long I can continue this but it sure as hell isn’t long.

Has it been an hour? Or maybe two? I honestly can’t tell since I don’t have time to check the position of the moon through the tiny holes visible through the mushroom caps above me. I’m trying to get the upper hand again after having been thrown for a third time by one of the horrors. There seems to be a lot more of them around me as of now.

I crack a limb with my left foot as I use it for support to jump into a spinning backflip, slicing and kicking out at every limb reaching for me and managing to crack a few skulls while I’m at it. I would have been amazed at my incredible displays of aerial acrobatics and killing techniques if I had the concentration and brain power to focus on anything other than dodging the next blow, making the next slash or cracking the next skull.

Ari's voice intrudes like a passing breeze into my battle trance and it’s not enough to break me from my concentration. Apparently the capacitor is now completely empty and I’m losing mana quickly from the ever accumulating small injuries and cuts. What does she want me to do then? I don’t even know the direction out of here any longer.

A spike of pain taking me by surprise from a direction I calculated to not possess any immediate threat is the nail in the coffin sealing off my path of retreat. I can vaguely tell by the slightly darker purple sheen to the bladed limb that it’s a horror again. I don’t manage any other coherent thought before it tosses me in a wide arc.

I fly what must be 40 meters into the air and 300 meters horizontally before approaching a sight even my tired mind knows is bad news. I can see the stars and moon again. That shouldn’t be possible unless I’ve been thrown out of their territory, unlikely, or thrown further in which is very likely. I don’t really want to find out if my guess is correct and I rotate in mid air trying to get a grip on a purple cap passing by a meter below.

Sinking my daggers into the cap to break my speed I carve through it before continuing, speed lessened but not stopped, and bouncing on another cap which I desperately try to dig both feet and daggers into. It’s as I feared and my velocity is too high. I carve deep furrows into the mushroom cap with heels and daggers before crashing straight through the next one’s 0.5 meters thick stem. It’s almost enough to stop me.

Almost.

I scramble in the air with real horror across my features as the ground disappears beneath me and the purple flecked void opens its embrace. It calls out to me, requesting me to join it and gravity signs my agreement without my consent as I fall straight down the massive ravine.

My mind is racing, time seemingly slowing down as I fall towards the ravine's bottom with the wall speeding past me a few meters out of reach. Huge mushrooms sprout from the wall at different places but none directly beneath me. I’ll have to either reach the wall and jam my daggers into it, hoping they won’t break, to slow my descent or make my way about 15 meters to my left to land on a large squiggly purple cap that looks strong enough to carry a house.

The biggest problem is how to do it and the problem after that is how to survive the fall. Hitting the cap means dropping from a height of approximately 100 meters. I don’t know how that will feel but probably not great. Sinking my daggers into rock at this velocity will crack them. I’m sure of it as I stupidly forgot to make them stronger with my newly gained power. I’m so fucking stupid.

They had already chipped at the edges from cutting thousands of limbs and my mana had drained to slowly restore them. Now I can’t risk the mana expenditure of dispersing and manifesting stronger ones. I’ll need it to regenerate from the fall and the dagger trick might still fail or I might fuck it up.

All of this flashes through my mind in a second, still locked in the same hyper focus from before even if no longer for the purpose of dodging an attack from a monster. This is also a time sensitive danger and I have to come up with a solution or I’ll die for sure.

My blood boils at the challenge, at the sheer gall the world has to use its forces to try and end me instead of using its pawns as usual. Fuck you world, you won’t get me like this. Choke on my defiance!

Blasting on mana sense at full strength concentrated just around my body I guide my focus to look for what I need. It has to be here somewhere and I just haven’t looked closely enough before now. With death's scythe closing on my neck I let my instincts take over and I grab at the thing I need. Something I’ve always relied on but never really touched before. It’s invisible and intangible without anything to latch onto and my mind bridges that gap.

My mind reaches out a proverbial hand of greeting to this lonely and ephemeral power and it hesitantly greets me in return but I’m saddened to realize that this power can never be my friend. I’m currently pressed for time and I show no remorse in my next action as it’s a consequence of the world's taunt.

The horror this power must be feeling, struggling in my grip as I forcefully change it at a fundamental level, greedily making it mine to wield, is not something I will think about. I’ll only concentrate on the result. Yes, the result is all that matters and now is the time for action. I’m glad it worked, the threat of death sure is a good motivator to push your limits. How did I do it though?

As I smash into the mushroom cap I’d been aiming for everything goes completely black for a split second before pain like I’ve only felt once before assaults me. The pain only lasts for a slightly longer split second but it’s still enough to awaken memories of that time on the monolith I thought I had forgotten.

My normal senses aren’t working but my still active mana sense tells me why. The fall was a lot softer than solid stone and my figure made a Zelaria sized 2 meter deep hole into the mushroom cap but even that wasn’t enough to disperse all my momentum.

My internals are now externals and I can see bones sticking out in places they shouldn’t and my spine seems to have snapped at 5 different places. Even at the neck it seems like since my head isn’t connected to the rest and still bouncing slightly from the fall.

“Zel. Sorry for that unpleasant spike of sensations. I’ve removed our pain for now but I think it’s best that we disperse everything except our head and manifest everything from the beginning.”

I’m disoriented but shift my shaky focus towards Ari, idly commenting in answer.

“Why? Can’t we use [External Modules] to just put everything back in place?”

Ari halts at that and even I’m amazed at my own ingenuity in this situation.

“Don’t know. Let’s try it.”

It actually works since it’s no longer connected to our core and we work together to swiftly put all the mana structures back into place and connect everything together again. We know this body well enough to be able to do this and we seamlessly replace the arcane material missing from the reassembled sections.

After our body is fixed Ari pulls our head and neck together with our manipulation, resealing the gaping throat and regenerating the torn flesh. After that is done Ari does a complete check on everything as she regenerates the last crack in our skull and she only has to make a few small corrections, saving us a lot of mana.

I stand up with my body that was just a mound of flesh and broken bone a minute ago and stretch, feeling the slight tingles that mean Ari’s calibrating our senses. I give it a few seconds before I take stock of our surroundings, realizing that I can’t see shit from the bottom of the hole made by our impact and repeating the action after having jumped out of it.

There’s no parasites, amalgams or horrors coming at me from anywhere but I can hear them moving far beneath me. It must still be a few hundred meters to the bottom from my position and the hive mind might have assumed me dead when it saw me fall down. It would have been correct in assuming such had I not pulled through at the last second. I had saved us, right?

Not wanting to be seen here I jump back down into my hole in the large mushroom cap and just breathe for a little while, forcing my mind to stop racing and my focus drift off.

It’s a few minutes before I even realize that Ari is trying to talk to me. I’d completely shut down for a short period as the fact of my survival had sunk in, that I’d lived through that whole ordeal and come out relatively intact. My mind registering temporary safety just cut everything out to restart.

“ZEL?! WHAT’S WRONG?! ANSWER ME, PLEASE ZEL!”

I wince as I rouse from unconsciousness with a panicked voice practically screaming straight in my ear.

“Calm down, darling.”

“ZE-... ZEL!!!”

“Love, calm down. My mind just shut down for a little bit there.”

Ari starts crying tears of happiness, relief and worry. I can barely make out her jumbled thoughts as they reach me.

“Come on, slow down darling. I can’t understand you.”

Speaking to her in a soothing tone seems to work as she slowly calms down and I continue reassuring her that I’m alright.

“Oh, Zel. I thought something happened to you. Something really bad that I couldn’t regenerate.”

She lets out a big sniff before continuing.

“You were there one moment and then you weren’t. I thought you’d died or something but I couldn’t figure out what happened or even how it could’ve happened. It was terrifying.”

Me mentally disconnecting from everything to take a step back and just exist, not thinking for a while, must have had a more noticeable effect than merely being spaced out.

“Ari. I understand and I’m sorry I couldn’t respond. When I realized that the immediate threat of death after what must have been hours upon hours had ended my mind sort of shut down. The relief of being able to unfocus my overburdened mind and take a brief reprieve overrode any will of my own.

"I’m so sorry, darling. You probably deal with more than this all the time but your mind isn’t as flimsy as mine. Or I hope so at least. Do you need a break?”

“I understand, Zel. Your focus was commendable and you saved our lives more times than I can count out there tonight. I think I understand though and no I don’t personally need a break. I can go on for a few days like this at least.”

I give her a kiss before asking again.

“You sure you don’t want a break? You can relax your mind as I stand guard over us. Nothing will happen to you, I swear.”

Ari gives a slightly tired chuckle before kissing me back.

“No. I’m fine for now. We can take a few minutes to collect ourselves before deciding on our next course of action.”

I sit down and lean against the slightly springy white wall. I wonder how thick this cap is. It would be alarming if there’s only another 0.5 meters of mushroom beneath and holding me up from falling once again.

Falling…

I did something to make us go left midair before landing, what did I really do?

My mind is still overworked and the recent events come back to me at a snail's pace. The limb piercing me, getting thrown and almost managing to stop in time, the fall and finally the desperate, quite mad action that saved my life at the last second.

I sort of remember what I did but not how I did it. A jumble of seemingly out of context bits and pieces make themselves known as I dig deeper.

Look where there is nothing and find everything th-

-bridge the gap I need a hand to shake with-

It might have been a friend but the world doesn’t want me as-

-making my own friend seems like the obvious choice. There mu-

-quite helpful and I can tell they want to meet me again next time.

It oddly makes sense to me but I can’t really tell how it all fits together. It’s like deciphering the ramblings of a lunatic you've known for a long time. It doesn’t really matter now as I managed to save us but it would have been nice knowing how I did it. Maybe Ari remembers?

“Do you remember how I did whatever that was?”

“I’m afraid not. I was focused on coming up with a solution of my own and struggling.”

“A mystery to solve another time then.”

“Viewing our notifications might help.”

“True. Let’s bring it up.”

Ding! You have slain [Fungus Parasite - 60]. Less experience awarded.

Ding! You have slain [Fungus Amalgam - 104]. Less experience awarded.

Ding! You have slain [Fungus Horror - 202]. More experience awarded.

…

Ding! You have slain [Fungus Horror - 215]. More experience awarded.

Ding! [Mana Machine v. 2.3] has leveled from [142] to [177]. +[350 AP].

Ding! [Mana Machine v 2.3] has new skills [2] available.

Ding! General skill [Identify] has leveled from [39] to [40].

Ding! General skill [Aerial Acrobatics] has leveled from [15] to [47].

Ding! General skill [Running] has leveled from [77] to [84].

Ding! General skill [Sprinting] has leveled from [82] to [90].

Ding! General skill [Jumping] has leveled from [96] to [118].

Ding! General skill [Dodging] has leveled from [115] to [197].

Ding! General skill [Small Blades] has leveled from [123] to [155].

Ding! General skill [Dual Wielding] has leveled from [134] to [178].

Ding! General skill [Unarmed] has leveled from [69] to [93].

Ding! General skill [Arcane Spatial Ring] has leveled from [83] to [84].

Ding! Skill [Mana Sense] has leveled from [274] to [305].

Ding! Skill [Passive Power] has leveled from [408] to [451].

Ding! Skill [Arcane Manipulation] has leveled from [453] to [492].

Ding! Skill [Capacitor] has leveled from [259] to [274].

Ding! Skill [External Modules] has leveled from [58] to [146].

Ding! Resistance [Curse Magic Resistance] has increased from [29] to [68].

Ding! You have learned the general skill [Basic Arcane Telekinesis].

[Basic Arcane Telekinesis]

Coming into contact with kinetic mana and then twisting it into something unnatural by tapping into your arcane affinity you have learned how to access the simplest form of telekinesis, pure telekinetic force. Cost calculated by [(0.5 * Mass * (Velocity * Velocity)) / Skill Level] mana per second.

Ding! General skill [Basic Arcane Telekinesis] has leveled from [1] to [12].

“First of all. What am I looking at?”

“Our notifications, Zel.”

“Yes, but is it really?”

“Are you still feeling tired? Go rest a while longer and I’ll watch over you.”

I send an eyeroll followed by a hug Ari’s way.

“How long did we fight? It felt like hours at least.”

“Look up.”

I look up as Ari suggests and I can just see the sky lightening ever so slowly while the stars shy away. Dawn is making its appearance.

“That long? No wonder I crashed.”

“Are you sure you’re alright though?”

“Yes, darling. Just tired is all. But these notifications… 350 Attribute Points, 3 new class skills, incredible skill growth and a completely new general skill. Just wow.”

“This [Basic Arcane Telekinesis] general skill is strange. It makes little sense to me. Was it what saved us?”

“Yup. This is the skill born from hyper focused desperation and insanity. It fits with what I can remember happening even if it doesn’t completely explain how it happened.”

“That’s quite confusing but I’m not sure I want to delve deeper into whatever you did. It sounds like you touched upon something we’ve never heard of before. Better not explore where that came from until we’re fine with going insane for real.”

“Hm. I guess that’s true. It seems fairly straight forward though. It lets me convert arcane mana into telekinetic force somehow. I might even be able to convert momentum back into mana… No this is not something I should be delving into now. You’re right. I could spend forever thinking about this.”

We spend some more time just processing everything and silently going over all the notifications. There’s a lot to unpack there and it seems like it was approximately 16 hours well spent doing nothing other than spreading absolute carnage at constant threat of death. Difficult achievements and near death experiences always come with the greatest rewards and these notifications prove it in my opinion.

“I say we wait here for when Howard and the rest of the expedition starts their rampage. It should act as a distraction if nothing else as long as they make it far enough. What do you think, Zel?”

Drawn out from my own musing I blink my eyes before responding. I had completely forgotten that the adventurer expedition would be heading my way any hour now.

“Yeah, sure. That sounds good. We can rest here for as long as we’re not spotted until midday. If we notice anything going on that might work as a distraction we’ll leave at that time. If the expedition fails we’ll have to come up with another escape plan.”

“Yup. Should I put all our points into [Wisdom] as we’d planned before?”

I think about it for a while but it must be our best course of action for now. Our mana capacity is steadily growing and our regeneration needs to be able to keep up.

“Yes. Please do and bring the attribute window up.”

Ding! Attribute [Wisdom] has been increased from [320] to [670].

Attribute Points: [0]

Strength: [110] -50%

Constitution: [110] -50%

Vitality: [110] -50%

Agility: [110] -50%

Dexterity: [110] -50%

Intelligence: [163] +300%

Wisdom: [670] +295%

Mana: [6520/6520]

Capacitor: [9703/17864]

Mana regen: [2646] / Minute

Doubling my regeneration feels amazing and I can tell the difference it will make even if I’m currently not engaged in battle. This will allow for so much more without having to tap into my reserves. I could probably have lasted a lot longer had my mind been up to it with this regeneration when fighting earlier tonight.

Realizing I’m completely nude once again I start manifesting everything back on as I style my hair. The sheaths I manifest are still plain and I’ll have to work on them at a later date. I’m definitely procrastinating. The daggers on the other hand get their deserved upgrade as I spend 5000 mana in total to manifest them both, twice as durable and sharp as before.

Having more [Wisdom] is the absolute best.