Chapter 18: A New Slew

Kresley woke before Waynev had come back and was very thankful for her new clothes after subtly asking what happened.

They had decided to move back to the corridor between passages where it was relatively safe.

Waynev and Shadow speculated it was something like natural selection in a dungeon.

Anything that had come into the hallways had sooner or later been killed, due to the daily checkups for monster congestion and scouting for new passages.

So, therefore, as time passed, fewer and fewer monsters tried to explore the new passages.

After eating and talking about the Cyan forest, they decided to stay the rest of the night rather than take the gruelling trip back up the stairs.

In the capital of Sowrnhelm apparently, they had a lift that was in continuous motion, carved through the dungeon through years of effort… and apparently a lot of explosives.

Waynev asked, of course, why wasn't it done here, the Dwarves Pill explained were very tight about their secrets and Dockern would easily be able to build their own… If they had anywhere near as much sulphur or explosive powder the dwarves had.

This led into a history lesson about previous conflicts between the nations and also why their explosive powder was so valuable; it was essentially a deterrent to fight the 'persistent buggers' because of the risks involved.

“Similarities between our world and this one, war never changes, hmm?” Waynev agreed to Shadow’s musings.

Fighting a kingdom that could blow up half your capital because mages couldn't sense the elusive powder was reason enough to most the citizens, though that was probably because the people who could survive were in the minority.

Finding himself too tired to continue lecturing, Pill said a brief goodnight before collapsing.

Which was followed by the rest of the group, but not before Waynev noticed Kresley and Vaud both muttering while holding a necklace with an elf and a dwarf respectively.

“We kept seeing churches and priests and yet Vein is the only god we’ve met, or have seen.” Waynev was tired however and learning about other gods wasn’t something she was curious about, at least not while her eyes had weights on them.

“Fine. Another thing to look into, if we remember.” Shadow whispered, staring at the small pendant despite the change in perspective as Waynev laid down.

“I’m really missing detective shows right about now.” Waynev whispered to Shadow, staring at the cracked ceiling, not wanting to sleep but knowing her body was begging for it.

Unlike earth however she couldn’t just stare into her laptop screen, or phone screen for hours while lying in her PJs under the covers, waiting for sleep to come forcefully out of need rather than want.

After saying her goodnights to Kresley and Vaud, Waynev was still skeptical of sleeping in the open but after Shadow told her she could sense anything that would come, she followed her groups escape into softer planes.

Well, one of them followed the party’s escape.

The other…

“Time to explore.” Giggling at Waynev’s desperate need to sleep Shadow quickly got to work.

Putting Waynev’s pack in her sleeping roll Shadow nimbly and decisively navigated around the mesh of bodies and into the passages.

After sneaking for a few more seconds Shadow began jogging and finally sprinting away, they were in the E division of floor 23 Shadow jogged past the sign and began the descent.

All roads lead to Rome, but if she didn’t know where she wanted to go where would she end up?

Dashing and pushing herself off corners and walls Shadow felt like a child at a park or in an office, navigating the tight hallways and dank tunnels while staying away from any red outlines.

The smile returned to Shadow as she reached another crossroads, choosing randomly, finding her way back wouldn’t be difficult.

Ignoring the holes in the walls or occasional light within some of the hallways a scream stopped her in her tracks.

Turning she listened closely next to a patched up part of the dungeon wall, however unlike the other regenerating walls this was done with wood and steel.

People.

Another scream rang out, this time with more clarity.

“-elp!”

“Ah.” Shadow recognised the voice as female, was her situation her own fault or maliciously done by others?

“-o one will even hear. I blocked *** entrance off, scream ** your heart's content. They help with ********* them.”

Missing the last word Shadow could hear only crying on the other side.

As her feet began carrying her away the emotion came back, guilt.

Guilt of leav-

“No.” Shadow stopped the feeling.

“I’m not falling for this again.” She snapped herself out of it before turning down the tunnel.

But as she was about to leave the division on the 27th floor she hear a meek cry “**n’t want ** ** sacrif**ed! *ust ki** me!”

“Sacrificed, for what?” Despite the grimace half plaguing her face Shadow found herself jogging back to the gap and holding onto one of the boards.

Listening she could only hear muffled cries, it seems her tormentor ran out of patience.

Shadow looked closely at the boards nail from the inside.

“He should’ve boarded it up from the outside, or asked someone else to. Otherwise…” She pulled herself up to the whole and started pushing outward on the boards, feeling them slowly being pulled out of the walls.

Working her way from the bottom to the top she slowly pushed each board off the wall, it seemed the dungeon didn’t like foreign objects crammed into it's walls.

As Shadow loosened the last board, she silently picked them up and dumped them outside the tunnel then began moving in.

Thankfully a torch wasn’t needed with Shadow, the numerous insects and small creatures lit up the passages and now the cavern within.

Close to the ground Shadow stuck to the edges and peeked through two walls before finding a light in a large room with a large black cracked slab in the middle.

Decorating the surroundings were runes painted in red and shimmering slightly with power.

Closing her eyes she could feel mana being brought and contained within the room despite the lack of a door or the room being wide open.

On the slab she could see a young woman strapped to it, with white cloth barely adjourning her body.

Her skin was olive and sheen with sweat and the occasional bruise but other than the obvious no other damage was seen.

Peering at the corner a chubby feathered figure was pulling out the feathers on his right arm.

Shadow focused on him, she felt his presence and could feel something else.

Calling to her she reached within and pulled.

‘Dammit. If I knew my skin had to touch the sacrifice’s blood…’ He thought bitterly, patches of his own blood leaked with each feather, giving a warm sensation to his feathered tips.

“Really is a blood sacrifice… and he isn’t prepared. Yet.” Shadow summarised the situation easily, already beginning to sneak towards the table.

Unfortunately for Shadow the young woman with dark black hair hadn’t noticed her approach, it would make freeing her harder, crouch across the uneven rocky floor Waynev reached the slab just as she turned to her.

Eyes widening and blinking she frantically looked over at Shadow in the corner of her eye, her cries softened as she saw Shadow bringing her index finger to her red lips.

“Shame I can’t talk to her telepathically.”

Shadow idly mused as she snuck to the top of the bindings.

Cloth.

The bound woman went still, noticing the stranger would soon be her rescuer.

“She must be at the [Contracted] rank, at least.” Shadow was fully immersed in undoing the complicated binds before she heard a pained squawk.

Quickly looking up the obese bird had three bloodied feathers in his right hand, his left was gradient in red skips of blood among grey skin.

“Fuck it. That’s enough for no-” Throwing the feathers behind him he turned with a dark look aimed at the muffled sacrifice.

Only for it to change to bewilderment as he noticed Shadow freeze at the top bindings.

“Only one knot was left…” Shadow tapped the young woman’s arm slowly pulling it to the knot while still staring at the bird.

“What the hell are you doing to my sacrifice?”

“And who are you.” He stood to his full height, threatening perhaps to those who hadn’t already seen his stats.

??? Status:

Agility: 4.91

Strength: 4.82

Vitality: 4.77

Wisdom: 2.91

Mana: (Locked)

He was almost at the [Hollowed] rank.

Almost.

Gripping Waynev’s bone knuckle which rarely left her hand she jumped over the slab.

Like a projectile she sailed towards her target with inhuman aim aiming to tackle him to the ground, he suddenly jumped.

His wings helping the endeavour he swung to the other side of the room, grabbing the sacrificial knife thrown in the corner.

As Shadow smashed into the makeshift table. “Crap.”

Giving up on trying to catch him Shadow quickly picked herself up ignoring the bloodied feathers sticking to her as she ran towards the struggling sacrifice.

Heaving steps towards the sacrifice, the abomination of ruffled feathers and meaty talons nearly put the hostage in hysterics, Shadow made it to the bottom of the slab as he made it to the top.

His knife came down on top of her ches-

Punching the blade away Shadow did three consecutive blows the last hitting him square in where the jugular should be.

The second was a gut punch, pushing his head forward to take him off balance and prepare him for her finisher.

As he collapsed gripping his throat Shadow nimbly jumped over the sacrifice who had finally freed herself from the binding holding her arms.

Grabbing the knife Shadow quickly stabbed three quick devastating wounds into the dying bird.

But as he died the runes surrounding Shadow and the sacrifice began glowing brightly.

The room began shuddering as if in pain, throwing Shadow to the floor along with the hostage who had just finished unbinding her legs.

Grabbing the young woman Shadow protectively held her as the room shook and the bird corpse was slowly being morphed with red sparks.

The room shook wildly and rocks fell from the ceiling around the two.

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you. What’s your name-” Shadow was interrupted as a blast of blood was pushed out of the corpse.

“I-Iris I was kid-” Another blast but this time it was an implosion, turning to the corpse Shadow’s eyes widened.

The things was transforming grotesquely, as the bird’s head became black, his chest sunk inwards as did his arms shrink in size as with his talons.

Slowly the shaking abated, as Shadow looked up she saw a tiny, red blooded-

Imp.

Which was lying on its back.

The runes on the walls disappeared with one last push, as they did the imp breathed its first breath.

Letting go of the fear frozen woman Shadow didn’t wait for it to get familiar with its surroundings.

This time instead of lunging at the creature she went for a low kick, picking up the small imp and smashing him into the desks as it flew over however Shadow just barely dodged it's barrage of flames.

Landing on the desk it scrawled but as Shadow turned she was distracted by a scream, looking back she saw some of the flames hat hit Iris.

Quickly running to her she pat down the flame, turning around and expecting the imp to attack her she was prepared to jump to the side.

But no attack came, the imp disappeared.

Peering around the now darkened room, Waynev quickly turned on her telepathic sight.

Red outlines of bugs and critters which would normally surround them were nowhere in sight.

Shadow was well and truly blind, and the imp was nowhere to be seen.

Turning back to Iris she consoled the young woman.

“It’s alright, it’s gone no-”

Footsteps ran behind her, “-the hel-” unable to turn in time Shadow could only look in surprise as the imp dived at her from above, the dagger acting as an arrowhead.

Directly into her throa-

“Elerose!” Lightning shook and electrocuted the imp before the dagger sliced the side of Iris’ arm.

Shadow was blinded as she heard Iris groan in pain.

“You were [Hollowed]?” Shadow asked incredulously, keeping her eyes closed as she focused on the woman in front of her.

She hadn’t bothered to check her stats but looking back it was an obvious oversight.

Grabbing the cloth restraints Shadow skillfully patched up Iris’ left arm.

Fortunately she could see her outline… was the reason she couldn’t see the imp because it wasn’t alive?

“How did you end up getting kidnapped by a [Contracted]?”

Long story short, they were an adventuring pair with the birdfolk being the party leader, he was a warlock who had recently found a blood sample of an ancient demon, by performing the ritual you could summon one of it's brethren.

With its rank and race being dependent on the sacrifice.

Thankfully he was only in the [Contracted] tier, otherwise…

“Good luck on the way back.” Shadow said her goodbyes to the fleeting back, Iris wasn’t in the state of mind to talk to or even for company, not that Shadow had time or a body for either.

When Shadow made it back to camp she found no one had been disturbed, their sleeping faces still showing signs of fatigue, and she suspected so was hers.

Walking up to her bedroll she tried to slow go under the covers, but the second her head hit the pillo-

Vwip

The air screeched like thin plastic being cut as her blade barely missed the attacker.

The hunter evaded Waynev’s attacks and despite their difference in ranks Waynev was keeping up excellently, was it because she had the element of surprise or was it because of the hunter’s hesitance?

The familiar blade was in hand, found placed next to her pack mysteriously.

Along with a trail of blood.

Her group was gone, their belongings were left and as she quickly followed the trail the blood had thinned but not before she found the sight.

The bodies.

Headless, all of them except for one.

Kresley’s inanimate eyes were staring at her as she snuck into the bloodied room, unfamiliar runes glowed black with intensity, rather than emitting light they took it, hid it and effectively killed it.

Just like the sight in front of her.

Waynev was confused, why?

Her eyes threatened to scream their watery agony but she was overwhelmed by another emotion.

Her teeth grit as she blade was overturned from chopping to stabbing, from gutting to killing, her stance was ready.

Approaching the hunter her face was hidden under the familiar cloak, her vision was shaded red and her limbs were shaking but that wouldn’t stop her.

Racing forward lunged at the woman animatedly sawwing, she was only able to turn her head before the blade entered the hunters back.

Screams came but they weren’t enough, Waynev was shoved back, her strength shouldn’t have surprised her but as she came into contact with the wall she was winded.

Falling down to the ground she looked up to see the hunter grabbing her shoulder, the bodies were out of sight but not out of mind as Waynev pushed off the ground spitting blood that was threatening to fill her mouth.

Her steps were fast but the hunters were faster she evaded her strikes but as they came faster and stronger Waynev began losing track of what was happening around her, her only sight was the hunter.

The killer.

Her slices came faster than ever.

Her lack of skill made up with a ferocity only matched by her last successful attempt at revenge.

Finally her strikes were coming through as the blood touched her skin the hunters cloak was beginning to fail her, rather than protect it was constricting her.

Waynev’s emotions grew maniacal at the sight, passionate at the thrill of killing, of taking again.

Brown hair.

Waynev’s slices became fiercer at the sight.

White skin.

Failing to see the discrepancy she continued the cries sounding more pitiful and more unlike the strong woman that fought off the Ghoulbound.

Falling to the ground Waynev changed her grip and went for the neck, pulling back she cleaved clean through-

Only to see the hunter wasn’t who she had killed, staring at her with large eyes and her expression locked forever in a scream was-

Her.

It was Elise.

“Wha-”

"..-ev"

At Shadow's voice she woke almost in a scream but the dream was gone, what just happened?

"Waynev-" Shadow's voice alleviated her from the persuasive sleeping roll and was it a dream or a nightmare?

Her body was shaking before she calmed, she couldn’t remember what happened so what did it matter?

Smelling salt and feeling heat in the air Waynev turned-

What looked like a fight camp had invaded the cave that now doubled as a makeshift sauna.

In front of Waynev, Vaud and Pill were both facing each other with their eyes closed, behind the two of them was a fog similar to the one that she experienced at the inn, back when she was combining the embers.

The two sides, identical in colour, had a mirage of orange between the two and yet she could tell from the shimmering in the air each side was holding back it's mana from infusing from their neighbours. It was mixing, twisting and from the strained looks on Pill and Vaud's faces it was taxing them significantly.

Waynev was about to stand before she looked down at herself, she was covered in blood.

“What the…” As Waynev looked further down she realised her period had come a day early.

Quickly shimmying to her bag she retrieved the bandages she bought in case the blood moon came early.

Wiping herself she was happy to find her sleeping bag was unaffected except for a slight red stain, unknowingly to Waynev Shadow went through a rollercoaster of emotions.

Mentally facepalming herself forgetting the obvious state Waynev was in after freeing a slave from being sacrificed she was happy about one thing.

Well two things actually.

First, that she had saved someone from literally getting their soul devoured by a demon.

Second, that the feathers that had covered Waynev in blood had fallen off during their fight.

As Waynev finished cleaning up she was about to open her mouth at the display.

Before Shadow stopped her.

"Don't. I've been watching for a while since you've slumbered." Shadow seemed proud of herself; her tone was accentuating the emotions Waynev was sensing from her.

"Thinking. Watching. Discovering. Wayne, there are different ways to advance that we can do-No, use now." About to continue she stopped, Waynev noticed the disturbance in the for- area.

"Oh, hi, Waynev." A mousy looking figure tucked away a vial into her bag, then walked over to Wayne.

"Hey, Kres." Watching Kresley sit down and begin perspiring as well suddenly made her feel like she was missing something.

Something big.

About to ask Waynev was bluntly shot down.

"Don't. Throughout the last week of rumours and small-talk, finally, I've found the most common ways to increase our rank, and therefore our stats-" Shadow's voice made thankfulness natural.

"-at least to [Hollowed]. We need to finish transcribing the book to paper, but for now, I'll tell you the three ways I've heard and noticed people advancing." Waynev felt something changed in her but couldn't tell what.

Then suddenly a hologram, similar to the one Vein showed her appeared in front of her.

"What the fuck."

"My skill telepathy, along with my… paired ability allows me to show you a uh-hologram like Vein's, but the information is what I've pieced together," Shadow explained, the hologram in front of her reminiscent of the stat scree-

"Oh, I also need to check my sta-"

"After you read this. I'm not rewriting it." Shadow didn't let Waynev escape the wall of text; only the educated were free after all.

Ways to Rank Up (Increase Stats!)

Through Advancement Techniques && Meditation. (Nature & Demon blood was discussed but mainly through rumours) Through Potions, Tonics, Elixirs. (Maybe food with high mana content as well.) Through Rare Artifacts that help gather affinity type.

(Research Duel-Affinity in the future)

Reading through the hologram, she briefly glanced to her teammates, who were still meditating and asked about the elephant in the room.

"Thanks for gathering this information-" she glanced through the notes and little guesswork, how Shadow had managed to gather this despite not having a body she had no idea.

"-so…" Wiggling her head while peering through the chart.

"Which one ranks us up the fastest?" She felt her cheeks alight slightly at the question.

"The fastest." Shadow's voice deadlined.

Silence reigned her mind with only the heavy breathing of her teammates in the background.

"Technically," Shadow interrupted the calming atmosphere with a technical tone.

"Rare artifacts would be fastest since it would literally suck in the affinity type from natural mana in the air but then again-" Shadow went on a massive tangent about different affinities not working at the same pace as others and so on until.

"-otions, tonics and elixirs. Elixirs, the lifeblood, the key, perhaps it's our destiny? They're the next fastest after rare artifacts and technically doable but…" The but stuck out.

Waynev was about to laugh at the joke but stopped realising Shadow's influence on what she found funny affecting her. Again.

Having an identity crisis at school with a literal voice in your head didn't help. Neither did the voice in her head when it kept making jokes at her expense about her loss of identity.

Those weren't fun times.

"-o formulae. Basically, we don't have the recipe or the secret sauce pff, that lets us even create the overpowered elixirs… though it seems weird how people aren't actively seeking elixirs, apparently the nobles-" Another tangent, most of it Waynev ignored, something about nobles not buying elixirs and even avoiding them for some reason.

Finally, however, she got to the last-first point. Why was she going backwards again?

"Well… meditation works, but it's slow and gradual. If we were going to pursue it, which we can because the book outlined a method, we would need to do it in a zone filled with violet 'ambient mana' or cy-" Shadow stopped.

A small silence extended between the two.

"Oh." Her expression hiding excitement, eagerness and a hint of humour.

She glanced at her gear, gathered together neatly next to her bedroll.

She noticed a small bowl of food next to it, now cold.

"Oh."

…

After she finished her cold meal, a testament to Kresley's cooking she finally saw Vaud and Pill finish their meditation.

As they were wiping their scales from the sheen their efforts made Waynev stopped staring and snapped to work.

“How do you guys meditate like that… and can it be done alone?” Waynev asked sipping on her waterskin.

“Your first question, we do it because we’re unranked. If we were [Forlorn], maybe even [Hollowed] we’d push the mana from our bodies outward, instead we use the ambient mana though it's just waves.” Pill remarked calmly, his usual mocking veneer replaced with a vibrant one.

“Seeing him like this is creepy…” Shadow whispered Waynev’s exact thoughts, why did he act like an ass during the night but during the day was almost a gentleman?

“-o. You need two affinities to make any progress, else you're pushing against nothing but the air.” Jumping back to the conversation, Waynev missed the first part of Vaud’s explanation but she got the drift of it.

“Practice makes perfect, shame we can only practice alone.”

“Huh, thats a shame.” Waynev looked away, her lips turning upwards at the double meaning.

As the two cooled down, Waynev asked them for paper as she claimed was going to do some reading and walked back to the cavern.

Apparently, the monsters in the area wouldn't respawn if the mana in the air was used by a party, which gave any adventuring group another reason to meditate and raise their stats.

Talking of stats, she hadn't checked them for what felt like forever.

Current Status:

Agility: 4.8 → 4.99

Strength: 4.70 → 4.99

Vitality: 4.62 → 4.99

Wisdom: 2.80 → 2.99

Mana: (Locked)

Her's had increased nearly to the threshold, to break past into [Hollowed] Rank 1 her strength, agility and dexterity needed to exceed 5 and her wisdom had to be at least over 3.

She had enough.

Reading and walking would be hard for an average person but technically… Waynev was 4.99 times better than an average person in everything but wisdom.

But that was normal it wasn't because she was stupid. Right?

Shadow laughed at the question but wouldn't respond, who else could she ask? Maybe she should make up an imaginary friend in her head to ignore her other imaginary friend and make her jealous.

… or maybe she should focus on scribing and walking.

"Finally you finished." Waynev and Shadow stopped and read through the two pages that were freshly printed, due to the method used to make the text visible Waynev couldn't use both sides of the paper, but it was a small loss for what would be beyond rare to find.

If what Shadow had told her was to be trusted.

Which it was, then there was no reason to doubt her Shadow.

"And… it only details hal-" Shadow's disappointment halted when she realised-

"OH. The beginning!" Alleviated at the revelation, Waynev brought out the other pieces of paper ignoring the world around her.

So what if she was nearing the bon-blue zone. Her candle lamp, gifted to her by Kresley, was enough to light the pages and tavern around her.

The paper assembled Shadow began pouring at the notes, telling Waynev to look halfway through one document then halfway through another. Her peripheral vision and eyeballs felt well-used already.

The candlelight was illuminating only the bare essentials her eyes had to do the rest, focusing and filling in the gaps.

"...That… Should be i-Oh hold on… Yeah no, far-right document-" Eyes dancing along the organised pages Shadow finally gave her the mental thumbs up.

"Finally you finished." Waynev stopped glaring a hole through her masterwork and began pulling the documents back as Shadow stopped talking, she was focusing tensely.

But on what?

Suddenly stopping being so absorbed in the work in front of her Waynev peered around the dark tavern's around her.

Was there something here?

Her ears pulsed, eyes daring the dark, baring their centre to try and incite its mysteries but nothing showed up, without the party here only her thoughts could interrupt the dead-silent atmosphere.

Which was unnerving. Complete silence, but for how long? Was this normal? Or was the silence enforc-

"There." With a flash of blue, the light in front Waynev nearly blinded her.

A zone filled with droning of Violet croning.

Desolate of creatures yet filled with features,

describing and bribing the body must reach.

Avoid dying through anything but complying.

Speak and seek.

"That’s the poem. Some words Rhyme others don't. I'm unsure whether it's by error or purpose." Shadow's words rang true but even so there was still a problem.

"What the hell does it mean?" Waynev didn't even try to decipher the text. Even it's origins was a mystery. The first word part of every third word because Violet was the third affinity and then sorting them in alph-

Yeah no. Waynev was going to leave that work to Shadow as long as humanly possible.

"It means to find a zone filled with the Violet affinity, nothing else must be alive near when you meditate. Then you must search yourself from within for the Violet spark, where before it was the torch that guided the way now you must be the torch to light the flame. Also, don't die and say… something?" Her instructions were crystal-clear.

Up until the end, it was evident to Waynev that even Shadow didn't fully understand the text she had deciphered.

Pulling herself into the zone, she immediately felt a lot more anxious and greed-

"Like before-" A voice whispered, and her body felt lighter as her pupils changed colour from brown to yellow and she was still in control.

"Man, it's a good thing you found out how to use that ability… right when we were about to faint." Waynev's tone started light then she subtly put in a suspicion that was plaguing her.

Did Shadow know how to do that before the fight? She had guided her through magic and claimed she knew nothing. Did she lie to her?

"It was a coincidence. A spark of action sparked by desperation. Do you doubt me?" Shadow's voice didn't sound sad or disappointed.

Instead, it sounded slightly monotone, calm.

As if she knew this question was going to co-

"No, no, you're right. Sorry for doubting you." Doubts free of mind, why would Shadow lie to Waynev, she was rational, and there was nothing to gain.

Except…

'Herself' Shadow's voice didn't reach Waynev's ears as they made their way to the centre of the cavern.