《The Crystal Ring.》Chapter 10: So this is how it ends?
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The jungle vibrates every time the large monster moves. Standing 14 feet tall when on its feet the monster appears to prefer standing hunched over like a gorilla. Realizing the imminent danger he was in Eric attempts to appraise the monster to at least get a name.
Appraisal Successful: Minor information gained!
Elite Corrupt Golem of Death (Level 10)
Your appraisal skill is too low to know the monsters Health, and Mana levels.
"Shit I am only wait what level am I now? Fuck I should have checked all of my notifications. Well not like I really got a chance to, but if I hadn't been so indecisive about an obvious bonus I might know my level right now, but I know for sure I cannot defeat that thing alone, at least not fairly I have to figure out a way to destroy him. I need to find a weakness."
The hulking Corrupt Golem chose this moment to learn how to run, and began to charge at him alot faster than before causing Eric to gulp so hard he thought he might have sprained something in his throat. Lifting a massive arm the gargantuan beast swings the tree sideways in an attempt to bat Eric away like a softball. Ducking he feels the wind rush passed the back of his head as he flirted with death face down in the dirt. Scrambling forward he manages to get between the beasts legs, rolling over on to his back, and almost as if on reflex he begins to channel fire mana through his system. The beast became confused for a second as it lost sight of Eric. It's tentacle like tongue once again creeps forth from its mouth in slow motion as it begins to probe the air.
'Holy hell that golem is almost like a snake, it looks like its tasting the air to find me. That is both super cool, and mildy disturbing, but it's good to know this thing can't see like a normal creature. If it could I wouldn't have had this long to charge my mana up.' "It's now or never I guess!' The immense pressure of the mana began to surge from his core down through his arms like a raging river forming a fireball the size of a basketball in the palm of his hand as his mana began to deplete steadily. 200 mana for the charge, and release of the fireball, but it was worth it to see the fire drill forward like a comet bent on probing the non existent arsehole of the creature standing above him. All of this took place in a 10 second period as the creatures tongue finally notices him, but it is too late as the miniature sun collides with the beasts gooey undercarriage illiciting a haggard screech from the infernal blob.
The beast's knees began to quiver from the unexpected proctology appointment it had unknowingly made earlier that day. Eric didn't even have time to bask in his brilliant idea as the monster began to buckle at the knees he scurried to freedom behind the newly injured monster. The smile on his face quickly vanished when he appraised the monster to see that it only lost a sliver of health. The tension once again became palpable in the air as if Eric could taste the sense of dread that now crept up his spine attempting to suffocate him. The golem seemed to recover from its stupor was it slowly stands back up it's health slowly regenerating it turns around to face him its feral grin now frowning. It made it's way towards him slower this time wary of the tiny man who could shoot fire up its ass.
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"I need to figure out a smarter way to fight this thing, my fire did some damage, but I think that was more shock value than anything. I either need more people to help me fight, or I need to do a metric shit ton of damage to this goopy beast of a golem."
Scanning his surroundings quickly searching for a place to hide to look into his alchemy class, he hoped that maybe just maybe there would be something useful hiding in there to help him in his current predicament. He quickly found a big rock to hide behind near the far edge of the lake. Click his tongue in dissent to how he now found himself he had no choice but to run for the rocky outcropping. His hands light up as he activates his hands of volcanic fury willing them to be hotter as the beast begins to trot in his direction. Take a calm pose as if he was a martial artist he prepares himself for what he plans to do. As the golems trot becomes a steady running gate he decides it's time to bring his plan into action as he let's out a viscious war cry running headlong into danger.
"REEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
A calmness spreads through him as he runs to meet the beast, and even though his heart is beating at heart attack levels he feels no fear as his nerves begin to grow accustomed to this new, and harsh world. The distance between them vanishing quickly Eric spares a glance at his hands to see them burning with a white hot fury, this brings a wild grin to his face as he assures himself there is no way this could go wrong. 20 meters became 10, and soon they were withing 5 meters of each other Eric aims his fury at the monsters left leg. Right before his body meets the golems inky black leg head on he twirls around the side of it's leg swiping his hand across it's surface like a bird skimming the surface of a lake as it flys.
A nasty smell of rot, and decay fills the air as the corrupted flesh burns from the molten caress of Eric's molten touch. A large brown wound begins to ooze a vile neon green puss as the golem is temporarily crippled from the damage down to it's leg. Had this beast been made from flesh, and bone it's knee cap, and the flesh around it would have been liquidfied. Not stopping from his attack he runs full force to the rock he'd deemed his planning rock. Jumping over a five foot rock he places his left hand palm down to help vault himself to the otherside of the boulder. Landing he tucks and rolls into a kneeing position his breath heavy from exertion he pants out the command for his Alchemy recipe tab.
"Al..Alchemical Recipes."
Three boxes pop into existence before him, though this causes him some confusion as Perks, Skill Tree, and Recipes are floating in front of him. He decides to worry about it later mentally clicking on the recipe tab in hopes for something useful. Scanning quickly through the short list he sees recipes for Health potions, Mana Potions, the Draft of Dionysus which was basically a cure, and regen potion. The bottom of the list however contained a drop down menu with 2 class based recipes.
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Elemental Grenade Death's Bane
Both of his new recipes intrigued him greatly mentally clicking on Elemental Grenade he skims through some of the information.
Elemental Grenade
An Alchemist's greatest weapons are the seemingly safe vials kept at his side. Unbeknownst to his enemies they are their worst nightmare in sheeps clothing. Made by Over charging a Mana Potion, while Manipulating the mana to form the element you desire. The user only has 10 seconds after the flask leaves their grip before it explodes
Damage: 25 Exploding damage with a constant debuff of 2.5 Dmg per second for 30 seconds.
Mana cost: Based on amount of mana used to pressurize the desired element. Baseline cost: 45 mana per second. Higher quality potions increase the cost of mana, but also the damage output.
He drools longingly over this recipe for a little while, before moving on to the ominously named "Death's Bane."
Death's Bane
A lost recipe of the god's gifted to a long dead race to help fight the corruption of demonic energy that tried to overflow the planet. Though this recipe has been lost for centuries it is relatively simple to make.
Ingredients required:
Bloodwoad Root: 4
Grapes of Clear mind: 10
Some of the makers blood.
Fire mana is used to super heat Mana water, and the other ingredients to a boil in a very short amount of time. After words the potion must be blessed by the users patron deity.
"How the hell am I supposed to get a potion blessed by a deity, when I have no Idea how to get into contact with them?"
He can hear that the golem has started to roam around its immediate area in search of it's prey. Eric determined to not be on the dinner menu prepares the necessary ingredients to make some Elemental fire grenades, and all the ingredients for the Death's Bane potion minus the divine blessing it required. Quickly he assembles 5 fire bombs overcharging them slightly in hopes of doing more damage, and not destabilizing them. Placing the grenades in his inventory prevented them from exploding as he moved on to the last potion hoping to succeed where he expected to fail. The ever present dragging noise made by the tree club grew closer alongside the soggy wet thwaps of the golems feet on the ground.
"C'mon c'mon c'mon I have to make this potion if I have any hope at all of killing this walking tar pit of death. Ok theres the roots, now I need the grapes....shit I only have 9 on me I hope if I overcharge the mana it will compensate for my lack of supplies I couldn't exactly go to the store for magical grapes." Stress, and sarcasm manage to layer his voice in equal measures.
The only thing left was the blessing, and he was unsure about how to go about calling up a goddess.
"Man if only I had access to the Deity version of the yellow pages, suck it up Eric you need to stop making lame ass jokes, and try to do something before you suffocate in decaying animal remains, or I get smashed by a mobile tree that only wants to shake my hand, and skull." He sighs in contempt deciding to just wing it.
"Merelia I'm not sure if you can here me, I don't consider myself a religious man by any means, but you helped me alot, so I guess I'm praying for your help to bless this potion or I will die."
Crossing his fingers he starts to lose hope, but then a soft whisper dances softly through his ears like a gentle breeze.
"go get em! I bless thy heart, and soul young Master of the Lost Arcana!"
The potion in his hands glowed softly for a second before an iridescent mixture swirled in the bottle before him. Gold, silver, and purple seemed to swirl in perfect harmony without combining into a single colored liquid. A new sense of hope fills him standing up he is suddenly flung forward as the rock he was hiding behind collapses under the weight of a tree club obliterating his hiding space.
Landing face first Eric slides before the inertia flipped him onto his back his ankle getting crushed by a large chunk of rock from his recently destroyed safe haven. A damage notification barely makes itself noticeable through the searing pain of his broken ankle.
-150 damage
Crippled status now in effect.
Bleeding status obtained.
Until fixed you will lose 10 Health per second for 30 minutes.
His vision blurs as tears fill his eyes he begin to expect, and fear his own death, in his eyes it was now imminent.
"FUCK THAT! I REFUSE TO JUST LAY HERE, AND DIE! IF I'M GOING DOWN YOU'RE UGLY ASS IS GOING WITH ME!" He screams at the top of his lungs emptying his grenade stock into his arms.
Taking aim at the golem was hard as the beast had begun to rearrange it's body structure slimming its leg bulk down, and increasing his arm mass to deal more damage. This unfortunately gave the added bonus of making it faster. Smiling no longer surprised by the chaos of this new world he accepts his death with a cool reserved aura of courage. The golem drops it's club using its arms to propel the beast's legs into Erics already damaged body flinging him into the pink waters of the lake. Slowly sinking down into the lakes depths a loud explosion followed by a nasty muffled squeal as the elemental grenades went off.
'So this is how I die huh, drowning in a pink lake on an alien planet, broken bones in my leg, and ribs make it impossible to swim.' A concussion starts to take him into unconsiousness, the last thing he hears is a large splash as something jumped into the lake with him.
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