Chapter 25 – Strange Occurrences

AN: Fragment Realm ranking system

[Fragment Realm]

Elite at lv.30, Transient – lv.75 and God – lv.120

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brigitte Roark Suzano had left her casket, as she had probed it with mana; she discovered a unique property solely belonging to it. As she entered the casket, her body would go enter a stagnant state; meanwhile the casket would convert the mana into a form of energy that would be absorbed by her body, reinforcing her vitality and empowering her abilities.

“You are going you see that boy?” Ersysea Starmight voice resounded mentally. The ego of the scythe had scanned her memories, even her brief interaction with Lucifer, and had full heartedly accepted their relationship.

“Yes” However, as soon as she uttered that, the Dragon`s lords once again materialized into the throne, their faces strewn with panic, Andromeda, the dryad held his arm, which was cut in a few places, black blood was spread across his coat in patches.

“Brigitte, we have an emergency!” he bellowed

“Explain” Brigitte expression was perked up

“The beasts of the realm have gone on a rampage, something is corrupting them and spatial tears have appeared in the realm”

Brigitte at the mentioning of corrupted beasts and spatial tears had instantly expanded her spiritual sense, encapsulating half of the realm, she then noticed the tears appearing in space, a black kind of ooze was leaking out of them. As she watched it get in contact with one of the beasts, it spasmed, before it eyes turned pitch black and a layer of bubbling ooze covered its body.

“What is going on!” she muttered, it has to know that, the heavenly realm has the most stable structure, so spatial tears are completely unlikely, but now the impossible was happening before her eyes.

“First, obliterate the corrupted beasts and I will mend the spatial tears” she ordered, before appearing before a tear, sending out her mana, she tried stabilizing the tear, while pouring dark essence into it, as space manipulation was a sub category of it. The tear rapidly started shrinking before it vanished. In the meantime, the Dragon Lords were destroying the corrupted beasts, but they gave quite the trouble, as soon as they died they exploded, outwards spraying ooze. The bubbling ooze had a corrosive effect as it ate through even essence enhanced armor. So that was quite the pain, but the Dragon Lords accomplished their given task.

Brigitte approached one tear after another, closing them. The last one shrank before vanishing from existence, appearing into the throne along with the Dragon Lords, the discussed the strange event.

“Brigitte, What was that ooze?” Ferisi, the griffin spoke

“Andromeda, get a sample of the ooze and thoroughly examine it”

“Yes, Brigitte” and then he vanished, “Ferisi inform me of any other spatial tears” Brigitte muttered

All the Dragon Lords returned back to their haven, seating upon her throne Ersysea Starmight spoke “I think you better postpone you meeting with the boy”

“I guess so” Brigitte responded, however, her expression was heavy, she seriously wanted to see Lucifer again and her heart ached, but she had her own responsibilities.

Lucifer glanced at his dorm ceiling, thinking back to his conversation with the dean. He had accepted the apprenticeship for the lone reason, to get access to the restricted library within the institute.

“Knowledge is power” he whispered

An hour from now, all the recruits would have to gather in front of the institute and Silia had not yet arrived. He from the beginning had noticed that she had come from quite a profound background, her noble mannerism were exposed minutely when she engaged in meals. However, they couldn`t escape Lucifer's keen senses.

His preparation all set, he exited his room heading to the front of the institute. As he viewed the green lawn, several stones were set in a circular manner, forming a kind of an enlarged engraving. After a while, recruits started rushing out from the institute, gathering at a spot. Their curious gazes landing upon the engraving.

Silia arrived a few minutes later, appearing through the crowd. She stood beside him, eagerly waiting for the start of the event. After all the recruits were gathered, a carriage appeared from the forest, halting in front of the crowd. Stepping from it, a boy seeming 18 years of age steeped down. His eyes were slits, as Lucifer gazes landed upon him his blood started pulsating. The boys’ overly cold gaze scanned the recruits, stopping momentarily upon Silia then continuing onwards.

He had pride engraved in his bones, as it was clearly demonstrated in his demeanor. The dean appearing by his side acted very courteously, introducing him to the crowd.

“This is Miz`az Fiel Dre`gin, grandson of the Dragon lord, a heavenly realm being. All were amazed beside Lucifer and Silia at his background.

Miz`az expression turned haughty as his lineage was revealed, looking at the recruits as if they should kneel in his presence. He stood separate from the crowd, as Lucifer scanned around he caught sight of Sithylis, a part of his face was completely skinned, making him look unsightly.

As Sithylis caught sight of Lucifer looking at him he instantly averted his gaze.

“Avaritia, you will see soon!” he cursed under his breath, the suffering he had endured had forever scarred him, until he had Lucifer's blood on his hand, he would never have a peaceful day.

“Everyone ready” the dean’s voice echoed, the stones glowed in varied colors, the engraving grew brighter and brighter, until the circle became completely transparent, as they looked at it, they could see a forest and a large cave entrance. With caution Miz`az stepped through it.

The recruits then followed his lead and Lucifer and the dean were the last ones to enter.

In the forest, roars of beast could be heard, though the dare didn`t get close to the cave entrance, cautious of the danger within.

“If you want form a group” the dean said

In unison, all the Elite rankers huddled up together, the transient`s also did the same, Though Miz`az, Silia, Lucifer and Sithylis stood separate. Miliene and her siblings had the smallest group, the Elite and Transient rankers entered first confidently because they were in large number, following them Lucifer and the others went in. A staircase lead downwards, torches glowing with a white flame illuminated their settings. The heard a rumbling behind them from the entrance, it had closed leaving a flat wall, preventing their escape until the given time limit.

They continued forward, entering a large cavity, which had many caves within, they know had to choose their paths. A fleeting dart shot out of a cave, piercing into the front most recruits’ chest. Fresh blood leaked out of his pores, forming a puddle underneath his feet and then he collapsed in it.

Everyone had become very cautious, unsheathing their weapons, they moved into a defensive state, some reinforcing their bodies with essence, others forming armor out of attribute essence. Lucifer unsheathed his dagger, his gaze fixing up a tiny shit object with the darkness of a cave. Without warning, a rain of darts showered upon the recruits, piercing some, many dispersed running into any cave that they could find shelter in. Bodies of recruits crumbled to the ground, enlarging the pools of fresh blood.

He watched Silia, Miz`az, Milene and Sithylis dart into different caves, he too entered. Previously gaining night vision, he could see clearly within the dark. However, not a sound could be heard I the cave, even his own footsteps went deaf. He felt something running at him from the behind.

Turning to look at his assailant, he caught sight of the lizard man, its long tongue hung from its mouth and it eyeballs rapidly moving.

Its tail shot towards Lucifer's stomach, meaning to temporarily disable him, as the lizard man prepared a dart. However, he didn`t give it any time to prepare stabbing the dagger into the tail, he watched the frigid essence pass into its blood stream, and then it froze, not moving at all.

With a punch, the frozen lizard man shattered, dropping an orb onto the floor. Retrieving the earth essence core into his rucksack, he headed deeper. Reaching yet another stairway which lead him further bellow, now screams of recruits poisoned reached him, explosions within caves resounded frequently.

Heading underground, he met another set of cave, this time they were orderly arranged in a horizontal way. Selecting one randomly, he entered. He found black bubbling ooze covering the cave floor, it hung from the walls; it writhed as if it was alive. Walking through the goo like substance, he reached upon a Lizard man who was at a standstill. Its skin was concealed under the ooze and looking at its eyes, he noticed they were black.

It snarled, walking forward slowly, and then it speed exploded, Lucifer back flipped, propelling himself backwards, to create a distance. Thrusting his dagger, he watched as it clashed against its skin unable to pierce through. Retreating back, he changed his tactic, he used gravity to limit the Lizard man`s movement, however, once again its speed exploded, it appeared before Lucifer, driving its claw at his lungs.

As Lucifer raised his palm to block, its claw created a hole through it, penetrating into his lungs, seizing a part of the lung, it backed again. Hyper regeneration and metasis instantly activated repairing the injury in seconds, the abilities had advanced. The lizard man bones creaked, as Lucifer looked at it, he noticed it bones were ruptured all over, its figure grotesque.

“Damn it, this body is not good enough” it hissed

The ooze falling off exposed the mangled corpse of the lizard, which was long dead. He retrieved its core but found it to be empty, as if it was sucked dry.

“Someone was controlling the lizard man, but from where?” he thought

“And what did it want?”

He continued forward, encountering, yet again, ooze covered lizard man.

Before Lucifer had underestimated his opponent, this time prepared, he widened his gravity radius, increasing it up to 1000x times, excluding himself. The lizard man smashed to the ground under the pressure unable to get up, reaching the lizard man in an instant, he stabbed his dagger accompanied with 1000x the gravity attached to it. It tore through the metallic ooze layer like paper penetrating into the lizard man brain.

The ooze exploded off, corrosive fluids burned Lucifer's skin, not caring for his injuries, prodding his hand into the lizard man’s chest cavity and harvested the heart, engorging in it. His vitality was fueled and his body slowly strengthened, he collected the core which was now, not empty.

“What the Fuck is this Ooze lizard!”

“Help…me…….Anyone

“Don`t leave me behind………please”

Panic strewn voices reached him through the walls, then screams and everything went quiet.

He only needed one core to pass, so he quickly absorbed the retrieved core, increasing his level to 78, moving into the caves, he only relied on his physical skills and the gravity method to attack the corrupted lizard man. After retrieving their cores he immediately absorbed them. However, to reach God rank one had to reach Lv.120, after using 10 cores his level halted at 86 and cores no more had any effect. 23 more days were left before the end of the deadline, he could no more hear the recruit`s voices the dungeon had become quiet, many of them were killed.

He pressed further below, the Monsters of the dungeon were far stronger than they had to be, and he guessed it was because of the mysterious goo which covered more of the cave walls, and was present in larger quantities as he progressed deeper into the dungeon.

His physical strength could contend with God ranked individual, if he used his essence abilities, he could easily devastate them. However, he resisted the use of mana in the cave for the simple purpose of honing his body and mind.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:perche:

AN: I hope you enjoy the story, i get my inspiration from IET`s coiling dragon and other novels, so i try to mix some stuff from here and there.

REN i am so sad, Y U NO release chapter today *Sniff*