Chapter 49, Dead or alive

Zelaria

“Alright, as much as I’m enjoying the view-

I look pointedly at Howard’s cock.

“-I want to know what you’re doing here.”

“What do you mean?”

Julie sounds confused by my question.

“Can’t you see how absolutely fucked this kingdom is? Or do you know something I don’t? The fungus infestation must have a radius of over hundred kilometers by this point and it seems unreasonable that this is the only direction it’s spreading in.”

Julie and Howard look at each other as they dress, clearly conflicted.

“We know.”

Howard’s answer is simple but leaves me drawing a blank. He knows? Alright… Anything else he wants to add to that statement? Apparently not but Julie continues in his stead at a look from me.

“We’ll continue fighting the invasion until the kingdom falls or we succeed, there’s nothing else we can do really. I suppose you're in our boat now though. Didn’t Charles leave you in our care?”

An evil glint appears in her eyes and I gulp before identifying her.

[Light Mage - Level ???]

Shit. She’s probably not much lower leveled than Howard and he told me he was over level 500. I can feel her identifying me in return, eyebrows raising increadiously.

“Level 298?! How??”

That get’s Howard’s attention and he also identifies me while stuffing his cock into his pants. I reciprocate as his eyebrows also shoot to the ceiling.

[Warrior - Level ???]

“You’ve gotten your second class already, Zelaria? That sure was fast. What’s [Arcane Telekineticist] anyway? I’ve never heard of it. Sounds as strange as your first class.”

I scoff at him as Julie continues staring at me in disbelief.

“As if I’m going to divulge my class secrets when you haven’t mentioned yours. How come I can’t see any hints of your other class though? Or do you guys have three classes now?”

“No. The third class slot is still locked. I have no idea when someone gets their third class to be honest. My highest leveled class, the one you’re seeing is actually my second class, [Fists of Navalin]. My first one being [Bombarding Barrier]. You get the ability to see two classes when [Identify] reaches level 100.”

He continues before I can stop him.

“[Fists of Navalin] is a class that gives me immense strength when hitting things with armored or unarmoured fists. Several of the skills are geared towards increasing my strength and the range of my punches. The perks are mainly geared towards strength, constitution and agility.”

I give him a flat stare and he smiles at me. Only because he’s not shy about sharing his class details I now have to share some of mine. What a pain.

“Fine.”

I pout, kicking the grass agitatedly before spilling the beans by doing a demonstration.

“It’s basically this.”

I grab one of the wine carafes and a glass from a table with telekinesis, yanking them towards me without spilling a drop. Both of them stare wide eyed as the glass seemingly fills itself before I move it towards my lips and throw it back, never using my hands.

“Not a bad wine.”

I say appreciatively, floating the carafe and glass back to the table.

“How?!”

Julie practically shrieks, her eyes flicking between me and the wine settling itself softly on the table.

“That’s something you’ll have to figure out on your own. Howard might think he outsmarted me but he only gets a sneak peek for his cheek.”

I wink at him before turning serious again.

“So now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, how are you even fighting the invasion? The battlelines are too wide, there’s surely nothing any of us can do to stop it.”

“No not really-

He sighs and continues.

“-But we have to try and the best way to do real damage is killing the invaders themselves, leaving the parasites for the gold ranked adventurers and the army.”

The invaders themselves… I remember seeing the large humanoids from far above, their alien appearance still giving me the heebie-jeebies just by thinking of them.

“You’ve fought them then?”

Julie twirls in her white cloth robe, enchantments and runes flickering all over the cloth as she dons a silver tiara and armband inlaid with white gems, a white wand in one hand with another gem at its tip. Satisfied with her dress she turns to me and answers.

“We have. They’re strong, Zelaria. I have no idea how you knew about them beforehand but they’re nothing like the parasites. These are thinking beings, sapient. They have classes and I haven’t seen one below level 400. Didn’t you say you saw one close to level 600, Howard?”

Howard flexes his black and red gauntlet, his helmet still not summoned but everything else already donned. He looks straight at me before turning to Julie and nodding.

“Yes. It was level 596 and I barely managed to hurt it. These aren’t like normal monsters and whatever force they’re sending at us has some of the best classes I’ve faced off against.”

I start manifesting my own ring blade as Howard continues talking but I stop myself from summoning my daggers. I’ll need to use my [Telekinetic Blade] skill to level it up and it’s practically daggers anyway. Do I really need the daggers physically present? I’ll have to deliberate more on that later.

“Most of them use skills based on curses but there are outliers relying on more physical attacks or a combination of both. The one nearing level 600 had a funky looking hammer made of some unknown material that managed to deliver curses into me with every hit I took. Another one I fought could raise cursed barriers, the curse retaliating everytime I came into contact with it... What’s that behind your back?”

“Yeah, I’d been wondering the same.”

Julie adds.

“It’s my weapon. You’ll probably see it in action later. Is there anything else I should be aware of?”

Howard ponders but Julie is the one to speak up first.

“They’ve somehow cracked the rhodolite peaks apart, using the crystal to somehow enhance their [Crystalized Fungi Curse] like an amplifier. I don’t know how it works but I can feel through my light based skills that those crystals coupled with rhodolite are the reason it’s spreading this fast. The normal [Crystalized Fungi Curse] crystals have a very potent energy but don’t emit it fast enough to be any immediate danger.”

“So we’re also looking to destroy the mushrooms housing these crystals then?”

“We’ve tried that a few times but they’re the ones guarded especially heavily. They keep moving the rhodolite further out as their infestation spreads, reusing the crystal while barely losing any of it. They might be able to keep this up forever for all I know.”

Well, shit. Am I the only one thinking we’re underplaying the threat level of this invasion? This kingdom will fall, I have no doubt but how about the neighboring kingdoms? The territories past those? How far will it spread before anything puts a stop to it and who even could?

“We have no business being here, Zel. It might be a good spot to level but it’s going to be insanely dangerous.”

“You’re right about that, Ari. I say we stay with Howard and Julie for a bit and see how they’re faring against the threats, maybe getting in on some of the action ourselves before leaving.”

As I step out through the tent I nearly walk straight into Helmer. He’d seemingly been standing outside contemplating going in or something. What’s that about?

“Oh! Zelaria, was it? Are those two… done?”

“Um. Yes?”

I look back and a second later Julie steps through, Howard just behind her and she looks Helmer up and down as he flushes slightly. Is he here for Julie?

“Helmer.”

Julie says curtly, Helmer taking the greeting like a physical blow before getting a hold of himself and coughing.

“Julie, Howard. Good that you’re done. We’ll be moving the camp in two hours but I take it you’re going back into the fray?”

“That’s right.”

“Good, good. Well, good luck!”

And he scampers off.

I look at Julie, eyebrow raised and she shrugs.

“Let’s get moving.”

Following Howard’s lead we both jog after him, Julie in front of me as I make up the rear. Isn’t this reminiscent of times long passed? We get a lot of attention as we run through the camp, at least Julie and Howard do. Adventurers and soldiers both cheer as they pass, emboldened by seeing the heroes of the kingdom in their midst.

“How foolhardy to think they’ll make any difference in the end.”

“Don’t be so pessimistic, Zel. Even though you’re probably correct.”

I snort.

It takes no more than a few minutes of running before we exit the camp, Julie and Howard increasing their tempo steadily and obviously gauging how well I keep up. Feeling like showing off a little I enhance myself to the limit before kicking off, tearing the earth into a shallow hole where I’d stood a moment before. I speed past both of them, laughing at their expressions as I spur them on.

“Come on! This can’t be your limit, can it?”

It wasn’t.

I’m soon left in the dust as they both speed past me, Julie smirking and looking all too satisfied as I fall behind. Damnit, how much do ones attributes increase when reaching the third class evolution? It has to be a huge gap if even Julie, a pure mage as far as I can tell, is able to outrun me.

We pass by several of the carriages of cheering adventurers on our way and only need about a minute before coming upon the first battles, the gold-ranked adventurers fighting desperately against the [Fungus Parasites] of varying levels. I can’t even imagine how difficult they must be for those at the same level now that they’ve had so much time to adapt to a large variety of enemies.

Julie unleashes some sort of white beam of radiance from her wand at a few of them as we pass, incinerating them as if quashed from existence. When did she have offensive spells like that? I suppose it makes sense though. She can’t have been fighting the undead invasion for all this time without any offensive spells.

Howard doesn’t go out of his way to help the adventurers around us but does punch a few parasites getting in our way, obliterating them into gory sprays with seemingly no effort at all. I’d probably need to use 2000 points of mana to get the same effect using [Telekinetic Force Manipulation]. He made it look effortless.

“Don’t want to be on the receiving end of Howard’s pounding, now do we?”

“I’m not sure, Ari. What pounding are you referring to?”

She swats at me in annoyance and I laugh as I send my now fully manifested ring blade zooming past in zigzagging motions, carving up all the parasites in my reach. What did she expect when saying that? Denial?

“Alright. We’re here. You’ll probably want to keep close, Zelaria. I’ll be able to guide us to the closest source of rhodolite as sensing the curses they radiate is simple. Neither Howard nor I will be able to offer you much protection though as we’ll both probably be occupied with fighting for our lives.”

Howard leans against one of the mushrooms as it grows at visible speed, the sound of his armor against the fungi making a funny, rubbery squeaking. He punches a parasite as Julie finishes her talk, looking for her to point the direction no doubt.

Julie closes her eyes briefly and my sensors pick up on a ripple of white light going through everything while still being invisible in the air. She immediately opens her eyes afterwards and points towards the north.

“That way. And I almost forgot. Howard, invite her to the party, would you?”

Ding! You have been invited to join a party. Accept? [Yes / No]

It had been a while since I last saw this prompt. A very long time in fact. Mentally checking it I sense the connection between the notification and my two companions, deciding to accept.

Ding! You have joined a party. Experience penalty increased due to level differences.

Great... I’d forgotten about that. They’re so much higher level than me that I won’t be getting much experience at all. It’s better than nothing I suppose. Everything I kill entirely on my own will still be my own experience but the smallest of contributions made to theirs, even those made unintentionally, will give me a chance at getting some of the experience from their kills. One needs to have a party able to take down enemies several times their level for the shared experience to be worth it in my opinion.

The upside with using a party is the mental link between members that gives vague information on everyone's current state and location as long as the distance isn’t too great. A good thing in this place as we’ll surely be separated several times by the swarms of monsters inside.

“Zelaria… Why do you feel close to death?”

I blink stupidly, coming out from my notifications as I look up and meet Julie’s gaze. Howard is also staring at me in confusion.

“Shit! Zel, they must be feeling our lack of anima. We’re practically dead according to basic conventions and the vague information they’re getting probably tells them as much, even if they don’t get to see our actual numbers.”

“Fuck. You’re probably right, Ari. What should I say…?”

“Zelaria? What’s going on?”

Julie steps closer to me, focusing intently on my body as I feel several of her skills wash over me. Her confusion turns into a frown, clearly noticing that somethings up. I have to say something…

“It’s an [Arcane Mage] thing. No need to worry. I take it that I practically feel dead to you through the party link? I’d completely forgotten about that. I should have warned you.”

Julie continues to frown.

“It seems a little more extensive than a mere affinity thing to me. Your body doesn't feel right somehow. It feels like you’re in need of an insane amount of restoration while looking completely fine. I’ve never encountered anything like it before. What’s really going on, Zelaria?”

Howard is also frowning now, apparently taking Julie’s words as irrefutable truth.

“Look! There’s a reason why it’s like this but I don’t have time nor the will to explain it all to you. Let’s just get to killing some mushrooms. ‘Kay?”

“It’s not really our business. Let’s just focus on the fight, Julie.”

Howard steps between us and I breathe out in relief. Julie’s still looking at me both with curiosity and suspicion but decides to drop it for now.

“Thanks, Howard.”

I whisper to him as I literally have to jump up to his ear to not be overheard by Julie. He smiles down at me as I land but I can’t help but notice that there’s the same suspicion hidden deep in his dull, gray eyes.

As we move through the forest of funga we meet an ever increasing amount of parasites and amalgams, no horrors though. Howard is taking the lead, sometimes hitting a parasite when they stand in a cluster and obliterating all of them. He doesn’t even bother to block the parasites throwing themselves at him as they instantly die or cripple themselves when their long insectoid limbs hit him.

Julie’s blasting the amalgams with beams of light, burning through them and toppling mushrooms growing all around us. There’s not really any use in stealth though, the parasites acting as both surveillance, workforce and cannon fodder. When some of the parasites decide to go for Julie instead of Howard they slowly disintegrate as they pass the barrier she keeps up around herself, purifying everything in a 10 meter radius around her.

I myself let my ring blade move through the swaths of monsters before fixing it behind my back, using [Telekinetic Blade] instead. This is an excellent place to level the skill. Having one blade manifested costs more than double my mana regeneration at its lowest strength, too much to keep up indefinitely. It’s enough to tear the slug-like bodies apart though and I dash between them, the blade of telekinetic force slicing cleanly through their soft flesh. It’s not enough to kill them though and I have to stomp, kick or punch the skulls to finish them off, sometimes being a little fancy and using some of my celestial flames.

Using [Telekinetic Blade] on my other hand as well I feel my [Dual Wielding] general skill activate, the skill complementing [Small Blades]. I dash between the mushrooms, slicing with both blades before killing them as I watch Julie and Howard’s fighting styles. They move a lot less than I do but still kill more of them, the difference in levels showing itself clearly.

“How are we doing with the curse, Ari? Under control?”

“Yes. It’s definitely increasing in strength fast but not a problem as of yet.”

We’d gotten quite the increase in [Curse Magic Resistance] during our dungeon delve and it’s really useful now.

Julie

How is she doing that? I can only make out a faint distortion when her strange hollow circle moves on its own, cutting down parasites and amalgams without issue. Wait, she stopped using it? What is she going to do now?

She cut one with her right hand?? There it is, another distortion from the tips of her fingers. This is much easier to study… but what the fuck is it? I can’t see what she’s doing with [Mana Sight], only that she’s feeding power into her hand. And her body…

What’s wrong with her body? I can’t stop thinking about it, the party link constantly reminding me that something isn’t right. She’s definitely hiding something. Can it be that she lied to Howard about her encounters in the dungeon? Did she really die after all? No, that makes no sense, her being here and all that.

I purify another group of fungi with [Purification Beam], shaking my head in confusion. I can’t focus on her now as we’re nearing one of the rhodolite fragments, I can feel it.

Zelaria

I duck beneath the shimmering blade of cursed energy, the curved meter long edge just barely missing. I jump backwards, trying to get some distance between myself and the ambusher. Howard is tangling with two invaders on his own and Julie’s blasting one with flickering white beams, disintegrating whole sections of her target’s bulk. Checking my mana I notice that I’ve burned through half of my reserves already to keep two instances of [Telekinetic Blade] active for this long and I regretfully cancel both of them.

The monsters ambushing us are the real invaders, the same ones I’d seen on the bottom of the ravine. The one in front of me is a two meter tall humanoid, thick limbs rippling with curse energy beneath the springy, white muscles. The head is crowned with a wide purple mushroom cap, what has to be organic artifacts hanging from mycelia all around it, glimmering with purplish power. Behind the hanging clumps of fleshy artifacts is the face, completely white except for two glowing, purplish eyes without iris or pupil. The mouth and nose are no more than holes that contract and expand seemingly at random.

It’s holding a curved blade of cursed energy with both hands, lowering itself into a crouch to no doubt reengage with a fierce lunge. I prepare my ring blade as I identify my opponent.

[Pholvoith’s Tearslash Cursewielder (Warrior) - Level 355]

I barely see it move before it’s in front of me, blade posed to cleave me in half. I desperately try moving with the slash as I pull my hand back for a punch, simultaneously using 4000 mana of telekinetic force to try stopping the blade, only slowing it down a little. It’s enough to get me the time needed to throw a punch.

I push 4000 mana into amplifying the punch’s impact against its side, trying to force it into the fungus-man but barely getting deeper than 5 centimeters before the resistance becomes too great. It's enough to push it a few meters away, its right side looking a bit mushy, dripping white goop but seeming shallow all the same. I send my ring blade at it and it blocks the blade effortlessly with its giant curse blade.

Disassembling the careening ring blade into the eight blade sections I force them down at the invader again, this time seemingly taking it by surprise as it only manages to dodge out from four and block three, one getting through and slicing deep into its back. It makes a low, guttural sound. Possibly a sound of pain as its eyes go wide and the mouth expands and contracts with the vibrations of its noise.

Before I’m even able to remove the blade section from its back or manipulate the rebuffed blade sections to strike again it slashes its curved sword at me diagonally upwards. I blink in confusion for a split second as there’s 5 meters distance between us, too far to hit me. The blade seems to tear with the slash while continuously rebuilding itself, making a horrible high pitched screech as the separated curse energy flies straight at me in a vibrant, purple crescent. So that’s what it referred to with ‘Tearslash’? Not slashing my tears?

I drop beneath the crescent of curse-mana as I finally am able to remove the blade section from its back, my other sections coming in for another attack. It deftly blocks and dodges all of them though before sending another tearing crescent my way, making me dodge to the side. We keep trading blows like that, me trying to get it with my superior number of blades as it tries to cut me from a distance while blocking me from hurting it. It’s annoyingly good with the blade in its hands and thwarts all my attempts at getting to it.

I’m grinning widely though, feeling the thrill of finally having something sapient to test my might against, something that’s no doubt as strong or stronger than me. Almost all my focus is on my opponent but I still manage to make out Howard finishing his two opponents by punching both to death, making it look easy. Julie takes a little longer to whittle her opponent down, the fungus she’s battling able to conjure purplish barriers to stop her ‘disintegration beams’ or whatever they’re called. She still downs it not long after Howard though.

“Want help, Zelaria?”

“No thanks!”

I shout back at Howard as I barely dodge another cursed crescent, one of my blade sections finally scoring a nasty gash in the fungi-man’s thigh.

It’s not really like he has time to help me anyway as three more fungus-men suddenly drop from a 7 meter high mushroom, surrounding him. Two others also start attacking Julie, having come from behind a cluster of mushrooms. They have a hard time getting to her though as they start disintegrating in white light the further they move towards her.

My heart speeds up as I also get some more attention, a new enemy creeping up from behind as I continue fighting off the attacks from the Tearslash fungus. It’s much smaller than the others and has sharp looking fingers, purplish curses dancing between them like a fluid.

I feel the pain before noticing its hand reaching through my gut, the curses leaking from it and dripping down the front of my stomach. Its hand went straight through my reinforced ribcage without issue. I immediately use [Kinetic Lock] and [Point Compression] on it. This one is too dangerous to leave alive a second longer. My mana plummets as I feel it straining to remove its arm from my gut before the crushing force of [Point Compression] crushes its skull.

The mushroom cap on its head tears itself off trying to bend down towards the head, its eyes no more than holes where purplish goop and tendrils of mycelia clump itself together into a ball. Large parts of its face tear off as they delve into the nose holes and mouth, utterly destroying the face and killing the thing.

Ding! You have slain [Rogue - Level ??]. Bonus experience awarded.

Canceling the [Kinetic Lock] I crouch low as I forcefully pull the corpse out of me, Ari immediately getting to resealing our wound. I continue dodging the more frenzied attacks from the now slightly injured fungus-man 8 meters away. It manages to nick me in the shoulder, drawing a deep gash, and in my shin, cleaving down to the bone. It’s only then I notice that Ari’s not even managed to close the stomach wound yet, celestial blood leaking down my front.

“These curses prevent me from properly regenerating us, Zel.”

“What about tearing the flesh out and regenerating it from scratch?”

“Sure. We’d lose most of our midsection, shoulder and thigh though as the curses spread fast and wide before stopping.”

Well that’s not good. I can’t lose that much flesh in the middle of a battle and my mana is dropping extremely fast as it is.

Mana: [12,650 / 12,650]

Capacitor: [9,022 / 59,445]

Mana regen: [6014] / Minute

I have to finish this fight fast. Drawing it out any longer will only increase the risk of another one joining up against me or me getting hit enough times to become completely crippled by curses. I continue dodging the energy crescents as I try slicing it with my own blade sections, putting my whole focus into it as I wait for the cooldown to finish. When it does I immediately use [Kinetic Lock] on my enemy, sending all my blade sections towards its neck.

It slows down for half a second, my blades closing in on it from all directions as it strains to move away, breaking the skill. I feel the strain on my reserves from the brief restraint I put on it but can’t help but smile as its neck goes flying, cut from eight directions as the blade sections slam together. There’s no notification though and I rush towards the monster, stomping on its skull, finally finishing it off.

Ding! You have slain [Pholvoith’s Tearslash Cursewielder (Warrior) - Level 355]. Experience withheld until class has been evolved.

I almost collapse in relief but a mental nudge from Ari has me looking at Julie as she disintegrates the remaining fungus, giving me an idea. I send my blade at its back, scoring a cut but not killing it as I move towards it. It turns my way and gets blasted yet again by Julie, this time being utterly annihilated.

Ding! Your party has slain [Curse Mage - Level ??]. Experience withheld until class has been evolved.

Howard has also finished his opponents and is absently killing parasites rushing at us, throwing body parts from the invaders hard enough to be used as projectiles. I continue moving towards Julie though, sighing in relief as her field of light magic washes over me when I’m close enough, the curses on my wounds being removed by the purifying light and allows Ari to swiftly regenerate everything.

“How are you healing? I’m not doing anything to restore you?”

Julie’s question also grabs Howard’s attention, even though he doesn’t stop killing the parasites. I join him in his efforts, my blade sections zooming around the mushrooms and splattering the brains of every slug-like thing dragging itself towards us.

“I can restore myself. I just needed help from your light magic or whatever to remove the curses. They prevented me from regenerating in battle.”

She frowns.

“What’s with your blood though? It’s golden and seems to shimmer.”

“Are we seriously going to discuss my anatomy now??”

I’m exasperated. I can understand their curiosity and possible suspicions but I have no reason to tell them anything, especially not now. I forestall any more questions by asking my own.

“Do you normally get ambushed like this? They seemed very aggressive and we haven’t even reached their rhodolite amplifiers.”

Julie and Howard share a look before she answers.

“No. There’s usually only parasites this far out-

She blasts one with a beam of light magic.

“-and this is the first time they’ve come at us in those numbers. There’s usually only five of them in a group. This was what? Ten?”

“Should we inform someone? Or do we press on? I need some time to regenerate my mana before I can continue.”

I keep killing the parasites even when talking about needing more mana, slowing down my regeneration but still being able to refill my [Capacitor] slowly. Julie considers my question though and doesn’t seem to think much of my contradictory words and actions.

“I think we should continue. If we notice more changes we might need to inform someone but a single ambush like this isn’t enough to go on. We have no idea what might have changed. What would we even say? What would you expect in response?”

All valid questions. I don’t know why but changes like this just have me unsettled.