Chapter 011

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‘ ‘ for thoughts.

“ “ for speech.

Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF.

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WARNING: This chapter depicts explicit scenes of an adult nature (18+). Read at your own discretion, you have been warned.

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Jack stealthy went down the sloping path and reached an almost circular passageway almost 10 meters in diameter. Rather than an excavated coal mine, it looked as if a gigantic earthworm had burrowed its way through. A few meters away, the passageway opened into a large cavern. Along the edges of the cavern, there were numerous cages. Each cage had people chained to the bars. There were around a dozen cages and each cage had around 5 people in it.

There were around twenty goblins in total. Most of the goblins were grouped around small fires. They were roasting and eating some kind of lizards and rodents. A few goblins were patrolling the cages, growling at their occupants occasionally. The prisoners of the cage were young humans, and they looked as if they had lost all hope. The cavern reeked of their piss and shit.

‘The fires should be unsafe for a coal mine. So this dungeon probably isn’t. Looks like the chief never expected me to survive. Oh I will have words with him, when I am out of this shit.’ Jack thought angrily as he analyzed how to take them down. There was a single wooden door at the far end, and the layout of the cavern was such that it was impossible to stealthily kill all of them, or even sneak through. The goblins or the prisoners were bound to notice him as he lacked any form of invisibility.

‘Looks like I will have to go all out eventually. I should thin them out a bit. Some of those lone goblins look vulnerable to sneak attacks, if the prisoners don’t out me.’ Jack thought as he sneaked towards the nearest lone goblin, who was aiming his piss at a nearby cage. Jack used the same tactics he had used to dispose of the sentries, but he had to be a lot more careful as he couldn’t lure them away and had to wait for a perfect opportunity to strike.

Fortunately, the cavern had huge pillars of earth, around a meter thick, and quite a few crates and barrels strewed about. Jack approached the pissing goblin and slashed his throat. Fortunately, the prisoner being tormented didn’t make too much of a noise seeing his tormentor die. Jack motioned the young man to silence and continued with his grisly work.

Many of the prisoners had noticed jack, but had the sense to not alert the goblins to the stalker amidst them. As Jack disposed his fifth goblin in the cavern, one of the goblins around the fire noticed him and raised an alarm. The remaining goblins heeded their colleague and armed themselves. They yelled a short war cry and swarmed Jack.

‘Shit Shit Shit. Fifteen of these ugly fuckers I have to kill off quickly.’ Jack thought as he stashed his dagger in his boots and fired off a couple of void bolts rapidly. Each void bolt hit a goblin reducing its HP by a fifth. Jack fired a few force bolts to trip the lead goblins and quickly climbed the nearest cage. Fortunately there were no ranged attackers among the goblins.

Jack then ran on the cage tops firing soul strikes rapidly with both hands. He didn’t bother to aim, willing the soul strikes to home in on the weakest goblin. Whenever a goblin tried to climb up the cage he was on, Jack stomped on them with his force blasts, causing them to fall on their comrades. The goblins started to climb the surrounding cages, and Jack fired a few force bolts at them.

Jack kept at his hit and run tactics and managed to kill four of these ugly creatures using his soul strikes. Jack was in danger of getting overwhelmed and he decided to take a gamble. He took a running leap form the cage-top and activated force blasts with his legs and managed to sail over the goblins. His landing was far from smooth and caused him to lose around a tenth of his HP.

‘I am lucky these ugly brutes are so stupid… otherwise this would have been suicide with my current skills.’ Jack thought as he fired soul strikes form each of his hands alternately. He managed to finish off another couple of weakened goblins before he ran away from the approaching mob. He then used a force blast augmented jump to grab the top of the nearest cage. Franticly climbing up, jack resumed firing soul strikes at the goblins.

Jack’s PP, despite its prodigious regen, had dropped by almost 25%. Fortunately, there were nine of the initial twenty goblins left. Jack alternated between soul strikes, force bolts and force blast augmented jumps and climbs to finish the goblins and evade them. He was getting better at jumping using force blasts and had managed to lose only 5% of his HP each jump. Occasionally a goblin managed to land a clean hit on Jack, causing him to lose almost 10% of his HP.

With half of his HP and 60% of his PP remaining, Jack managed to finish off another four goblins, leaving five of them. As Jack was getting surrounded by goblins, he used his force blasts to jump straight upwards, out of the reach of the goblins. He then quickly grabbed a bunch of 10 darts from his inventory, over imbibed them with force and hurled them downwards.

His imbibed darts burst into shrapnel and distracted the goblins, while jack was falling back. Jack arched his back, and used force blasts from all of his hands and feet, to soften the fall considerably. Jack then quickly, removed his dagger from his boots, used force blade and stabbed the nearest goblin ‘s heart, while simultaneously firing off a soul strike with his left hand.

Jack then did a leg sweep, knocking three of the goblins off balance, but receiving a clean hit from the other, leaving Jack with barely a third of his HP. Jack lunged at the standing goblin, slashing its throat and firing a void bolt to finish it. One of the goblins was regaining its balance and standing up, when Jack stomped on him and activated void blasts with his feet before decapitating it with a force blade stab to its neck.

The two other goblins had recovered and were about to attack Jack, when he rolled sideways to evade it and stored his dagger back in his boot. Jack then fired void bolts constantly at one of them, killing it in a few seconds. Jack picked up a nearby club and threw it at the last remaining goblin. While the goblin was busy dodging it, Jack fired void bolts at it, finally killing all of them. With barely a third of his HP and half of his PP remaining, Jack assessed the prisoners who were both delighted and disgusted at the carnage he had invited on their captors.

“I will free you all soon, but I must kill all of these assholes before I do so. Can anyone tell me what to expect deeper?” Jack said as he glared at them. One of them, a man in his late 20s with brown hair and tanned skin, replied:

“You are the first traveler to survive the goblins. Deeper in, there are about a dozen of very powerful bandits lead by some kind of vile magician. The magician probably has the master key to our cages.” Jack wasn’t surprised at this revelation, as he expected something like it. He asked the man:

“What do you mean first traveler to survive? And what are those bandits and the magician doing now?” The man had a look of deep regret, shame and anger in his eyes when he replied:

“I will tell you whatever I know later traveler, you must hurry. The bandits are currently drunk and took the women among us to satiate their perversions. You must not lose this opportunity and quickly finish them while you have the chance. Go quickly traveler, you are our only salvation.”

After hearing this piece of information, Jack gulped a few health potions to recover his health. He then equipped the clothes given by Madam Curie and stashed a few swords, axes and clubs in his inventory. Jack then stealthily went through the door at the far end of the cavern. Through the door, Jack saw a long passageway, a smaller version of the one he arrived at the cave in, leading to a circular stone room with another door. On the sides, there were half a dozen passageways splitting from the main path. Jack crouched, equipped his dagger, activated force blade and followed the nearest split.

The split led to an alcove of some sort. There was a tough looked man snoring on a floor mat. On the far edge of the alcove, he saw a couple of bruised chained naked girls. They had dead eyes with no hope and their spirit looked broken. The barely noticed him, but Jack motioned them to keep silent nonetheless. Jack then quietly assassinated the sleeping bandit with force blade, and using his force glove enhanced hands to stifle tis screams. Jack told them:

“I will be here to free you shortly. But I have to deal with the rest first. Stay quiet.” The girls barely acknowledged him. Jack sighed and moved on to the next alcove. He saw another bandit, rutting a forlorn looking girl. The girl had her back towards her aggressor, facing the wall, and was chained to a nearby pole. The man abusing her had a dagger at her throat.

“I only get one of you whores for today.” The man slurred. And he pressed the flat of his blade against the girl’s throat. “Moan you bitch! Or I will be fucking your dead asshole instead!” The man shouted. The girl moaned in a dead pan voice and the man hastened his hips. Jack waited for the telltale groan of the man as he thrust his hips into her. The oppressor visibly relaxed, and Jack took this opportunity to quickly slash his throat with his while muffling his cries. Jack then took the dropped dagger and addressed the enslaved woman:

“You wish to live? Good. I will free you shortly. Just stay silent.” Jack then went towards the next alcove. He witnessed various scenes of depravity as he dispatched the rest of them. He also stored the weapons he noticed in his inventory. He had a zweihander, a long sword, a war hammer, a battle axe and a morning star along with the dagger from the bandits. They seemed like good quality stuff.

Jack had regained all his PP while assassinating the bandits. With full HP, PP, around 20 darts, some weapons and a few health potions, Jack deemed himself ready and entered the stone structure to confront the unknown spellcaster.

Jack entered and saw a circular chamber with a robed staff wielding man in the center. He looked an unhealthy pale with grey hair. Around him, there were 5 huge crystals. With his spirit senses Jack saw each of the crystals filled with an odd pulsating energy. The crystals were at the edges of a pentagram etched into the floor. The etched pentagram was filled with what looked like blood infused with mana. There were various unknown runes etched along the pentagram and the crystal. The blood circulated along the channels and collected in the center near the robed man’s feet. Noticing Jack, the robed man said:

“Ah so you were the one who was killing off my errand boys? It’s a pity I am busy, or I would have disposed of you myself.” Jack noticed that the crystals with energy were getting slightly dimemr as more and more of it flowed to the blood pool near the man’s feet. Jack said:

“I see. You are using the energy of the victim’s soul to power some sort of arcane ritual? The blood seems to assist you in channeling it.” The robed man looked surprised, but gave out a short chuckle saying:

“Not blind to the arcane, I see. You must be capable if you managed to reach here, however you look too weak to beat me. However, you can interfere with this process. How about you wait for me to complete it? Then I will teach you forbidden arcane secrets?” Jack looked at the man hopefully, and enquired:

“Hmm you do look strong. And you are absorbing a lot of energy. But what exactly are you doing? I should have an idea what I expect to learn, no?” The man smiled and said:

“Pragmatic I see. Very well, I am conducting a ritual so that death doesn’t force my soul to leave this plane of existence.” Jack absorbed this bit of information ‘So this guy is preparing to turn into some sort of undead?’

Jack replied by shooting a couple of quick void bolts at the man. The man lost around 5% of his HP and looked irritated. He said:

“That was rude! I may not be able to cast the most powerful spells now, but with if you are only capable of this much, I should be able to beat you.” The unknown spellcaster waved his left arm in a complicated series of gestures and started muttering something. His staff glowed and n orb of fire was forming on it.

‘Oh shit. Looks like a standard fireball. He looks pretty strong, and I should avoid getting hit.’ Jack thought as he fired a force bolt to disrupt the unknown spellcaster. The spellcaster didn’t even flinch, completed the spell and launched it towards Jack.

Jack barely dodged it in time, having expected the force bolt to disrupt the spell caster. The fireball singed his left arm barely, but Jack still lost 5% of his HP. ‘Shit. He seems to have high concentration and Intelligence. 5% of HP for a glancing blow? I won’t be able to take two of those fireballs head on, and I can’t interrupt him with my shitty spells.’ Jack thought as he fired a couple of soul strikes while being constantly on the move.

A purplish shield materialized around the spellcaster. The soul strikes collided with the shield and shimmered briefly before both dissapeared. ‘Fuck me. He is prepared for my spells now. I can only damage him with spells when he finishes casting one.’ Jack groaned mentally as he launched a force imbibed dart. The darts penetrated his translucent purple shield but did only 1% damage.

‘That dart barely hurt him! And I only have 19 left. Guess I have to kite this asshole now’ Jack thought as the spellcaster started casting another fireball. This time Jack abstained from attacking and readied to dodge. Jack focused his spirit senses. He noticed that the shimmering field of mana around the spellcaster was down for a moment. As if on cue Jack rolled sideways, successfully dodging the fast fireball completely.

‘So I just have to time my attacks and dodges right.’ Jack thought as he flicked another force imbibed dart at the spellcaster. Jack also noticed that the crystals were getting slightly dimmer as the battle progress. He concluded that he didn’t have long before the spellcaster could go all out.

Jack then took every opportunity to fire void bolts or soul strike while the spellcaster’s mana shield was down to attack with void bolts or soul strikes. He threw force imbibed darts, whenever the mana shield was up. With his focus on the offensive, jack couldn’t completely evade the incoming fireballs. Whenever Jack’s HP fell below three forth, he relented on his offensive to gulp a health potion. In this way, Jack had exhausted all his darts, most of his health potions and almost two third of his PP, managing to reduce the spellcaster’s HP to a third.

Jack noticed that the crystals had almost lost their glow by now. ‘It is time to get up close and personal now. I will fuck him up before he can cast more powerful spells’ Jack thought as he equipped the morning star in his right hand, activated mana fists in his left hand and rushed at the spellcaster.

The spellcaster looked a bit taken aback at this. He had assumed Jack to be a mage of some kind and unable of melee combat. He looked taken aback at the sight of Jack rushing in with his morning star. The spellcaster quickly began to chant a spell. Before he could complete it, Jack smashed his jaw with the morning star. The spellcaster lost around 5% of his HP, disrupting his spellcasting and stunning him.

Jack took this opportunity to equip the war axe and took a two handed aiming for his neck. The spellcaster managed to recover in time and block Jack’s axe-strike with his staff. Jack swung his axe downwards towards his left arm using force blasts to accelerate his swing and managed to embed his axe in the spellcaster’s shoulder. The spellcaster screamed in pain as he lost another 5% of HP, leaving him with barely a quarter of his HP.

Jack quickly retrieved his morning star and smashed one of his knees. The spellcaster groaned in pain again, and leaned heavily on his staff for support, while he began another chant. Jack interrupted him by smashing his ribs. The spellcaster was knocked down with the impact. Jack followed it with another smash at the spellcaster’s uninjured knee leabing him with 10% of HP. Jack noticed that his PP was dangerously low, so stalling for time Jack taunted the spellcsater:

“Looks like a couple of more swings and you will be dead. Any last words?” The spellcaster chuckled, coughing up blood.

“I have finished the ritual, traveler. I was just stalling for time. Destroy this body if you must, but I promise you that after I return as a lich, I will haunt you for eternity and kill you repeatedly till you lose all your power.” Jack frowned at this.

He glanced around and noticed that all the crystals and the blood was devoid of mana. The to-be lich seemed serious. Each death would cause him to lose a level and be locked out form the game for 24 hours in RL. Jack was only able to gain the upper hand in this confrontation because the spellcaster was focusing on completing his ritual.

‘If only there was a way to stop him from reanimating as a lich’ Jack thought. Suddenly, he smiled. Jack had an idea, but it was risky and there were no guarantees on its success. Jack stored the morning star and battle axe in his inventory.

“What are we? We are like eggs! The body is just a shell, for the yolk that is our soul! I have cracked your shell. Now it is time to devour your yolk.” Jack said as he equipped a dagger. He used the hilt of the dagger to break the spellcaster’s teeth one by, until he had barely 2% of HP left. ‘I don’t want this asshole to mutter incantations while I test out my theory’ Jack thought as he used a set of beginner clothes to tightly bind the spellcaster’s limbs and gagged him.

Jack took a deep breath, closed his eyes and placed his hands on the spellcaster’s heart. He attuned his prana to soul affinity, and invaded the spellcaster’s pulsating mana center near his heart. He faced quite a bit of resistance as Jack forcibly flooded the almost dead spellcaster’s body with his soul attuned prana.

Jack then imagined absorbing all the energy and consciousness he could feel. He recalled the feeling he had first devoured the lich spirit. He began feeling a surge of energy entering him, but his consciousness was also assailed relentlessly by the spellcaster.

Jack used all his willpower and imagined ripping the foreign presence in his mind to shreds. He simultaneously directed all the energy he felt to his abdomen. Soon Jack felt the excruciating and exhilarating feeling he had felt while devouring the lich spirit, but a lot more intense. It felt as if all the nerves on his body were on fire, while simultaneously experiencing the most intense orgasm of his life.

After what felt like eternity in an instant, Jack was finished and he opened his eyes. He felt incredibly alive and noticed that the spellcaster’s body was reduced to a lifeless husk. Jack searched his corpse and looted his clothes, a few accessories and his staff. Jack then relaxed and reviewed his notifications.

Killing the goblins, the rapist bandits and the spellcaster had leveled him up ten times! Jack had gained quite a few stats and raised many of his skills. He had gained a few new skills, namely Dagger Mastery, Assassinate, Mana Blade, Opportunistic Striker and Devour Soul. Jack had lost the Opportunistic Brawler trait as he had gained Dagger mastery.

Due to gaining the subskill Devour Soul, the Spirit Eater skill had jumped up a tier to Intermediate! He had acquired a new elemental affinity for Fire and had gained a boost to his mental stats from devouring the spellcaster’s spirit. ‘Looks like this spellcaster was a lot weaker than that lich spirit I first ate. I had a lot more difficulty as this idiot was resisting, but gained only around 10 stat points in each mental attribute.’ Jack thought as he summoned information for the skills he had gained.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Dagger MasteryBeginner412.38%

You have learnt the Art of fighting with daggers and knives. Increases the damage inflicted, the speed of attacks and gives bonus damage to critical hits.

Current level effects:

+18% Damage

+16% Attack Speed

+19% Critical Damage

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:AssassinateBeginner502.86%Subskill of Dagger Mastery

You have learned the art of silently dispatching opponents, before they are aware of your presence. This skill does greatly improved damage when used on unaware humanoids.

Costs 50 PP per use and can only be used on unaware humanoids.

Current level effects:

+350% Damage

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Mana BladeBeginner352.36%Subskill of Mana Control

You have learned to coat bladed weapons with your mana, increasing its damage. Different elements have different spell effects. Depending on the level of your mana control, you can use this skill on larger blades. Currently, you can use the following elements:

Force: Does not reduce weapon durability.

Soul: Causes the target to panic on a critical hit, depending on the target's Willpower.

Void: 5% of the damage done reduces the target's mana.

Fire: Does Burning DoT on a critical hit, depending on the target's Vitality.

Reduces your Max PP by 100 for each weapon.

Costs 4PP/s to maintain for each weapon.

PP Costs may increase depending on the size of the bladed weapon.

Current level effects:

+104.5% of your Magic Attack is added to your Weapon attack.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Opportunistic StrikerTrait------Subskill of Survival

You know the value a decisive first strike can have in a conflict. If your first strike in a combat encounter is a critical hit, you do double damage with it.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Devour SoulBeginner100.00%Subskill of Spirit Eater

Due to your enigmatic wisdom, you have realized that bodies are just an elaborate shell for the soul. You can attempt to devour the soul of a single humanoid target in critical condition. This replenishes your HP, PP, satiety, thirst and Spirit Energy. The amount replenished depends on skilllevel, willpower and the power of the targeted humanoid.

Current level effects:

This skill can only be used once every 12 hours.

‘A combination of Mana Blade, Dagger mastery, Assassinate and Opportunistic Striker sure is powerful! I managed to one shot those lv60 bandits due to this awesome synergy. I probably can’t beat someone with a class specialized for assassinating from stealth, but with mana blade and opportunistic striker, I can sure come close!’ Jack thought happily.

He also wondered why Devour Soul could be used once every 12 hours, while Eternal Rest could only be used once a day initially. ‘That’s probably because Spirit Eater is Intermediate tier now. Meh, might as well check info on Eternal Rest’ Jack speculated as he bought up the skill info window.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Eternal RestBeginner100.00%Subskill of Spirit Eater

You can grant oblivion to undead entities, both corporeal and incorporeal, replenishing you satiety, thirst, HP, PP and Spirit Energy. The amount replenished depends on your skilllevel, willpower and the power of the undead targeted.

Current level effects:

This skill can only be used once every 12 hours.

Jack then summoned his status and reviewed it. He decided to invest his free stat points mainly into Intelligence, Vitality and Willpower, with a bit of Strength and Agility.

STATUS WINDOWNameJackClassBhikkuRaceHumanGenderMaleLevel43 (41.26%)Fame / Infamy20 / 0TitlePackrat, Vermin ExterminatorCONDITIONHP5248/5248HP/s6.1402/sPP6675/6675PP/s53.5509/sSpirit Energy31/110SE/s- 0.9% current SE/sSatiety / Thirst86% / 86%Weight Limit56.5/200Active EffectsControlled Breathing (Intermediate lv2)BASIC STATSStrength100Vitality175Dexterity90Agility100Intelligence230 + 10Willpower175Free Stat Points0SPECIAL STATSLuck10Endurance80Sustenance70Balance70Flexibility65Concentration130Wisdom125Indomitable Spirit35Elemental AffinityPhysical19%Soul21%Void12%Fire6%Elemental ResistancePhysical3%Soul4%Void2%Fire1 + 5%Ice0 + 5%

(A/N: Intelligence 230+10 means that the +10 is the result of equips and buffs. Skills and titles which grant a passive to stats (example: the Survival subskills), are included before the +)

SKILL LISTAmbidexterity (Trait)Enigmatic Wisdom (Trait)Spirit Senses (Trait)Dagger Mastery (Beginner Lv 4: 12.38%)

Assassinate (Beginner Lv 5: 02.86%)

Mana Control (Beginner Lv 4: 43.21%)

Imbibe Projectile (Beginner Lv 8: 58.46%)

Mana Blade (Beginner Lv 3: 52.26%)

Mana Identification (Beginner Lv 5: 12.13%)

Mana Repair (Beginner Lv 4: 61.26%)

Meditation (Intermediate Lv 6: 03.13%)

Meditative Stasis (Trait)

Controlled Breathing (Intermediate Lv 2: 51.43%)

Spirit Eater (Intermediate Lv 1: 00.00%)

Devour Soul (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)

Eternal Rest (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)

Survival (Beginner Lv 5: 83.92%)

Opportunistic Striker (Trait)

Danger Sense (Beginner Lv4:23.53%)

Survival Cooking (Beginner Lv 5: 13.15%)

Survival Stealth (Beginner Lv 5: 18.13%)

Thrown Weapon Mastery (Intermediate Lv 2: 71.18%)

Improvised Missile (Trait)

Axe Throwing (Beginner lv 5: 87.34%)

Boomerang Throwing (Beginner Lv 9: 12.25%)

Chakram Throwing (Beginner Lv 6: 67.34%)

Dart Throwing (Intermediate Lv 2: 19.87%)

Javelin Throwing (Intermediate lv1: 29.54%)

Knife Throwing (Intermediate Lv 1: 27.78%)

Unarmed Mastery (Intermediate Lv 3: 17.02%)

Mana Fists (Beginner Lv 9: 12.23%)

Mana Gloves (Beginner Lv 5: 26.81%)

Spiral Mana Bolt (Beginner Lv4: 31.76%)Soul Strike (Beginner Lv5: 62.34%)

After Jack finished investing his stat points and reviewing all his skills, he received an alarm which signified it was time for Lunch in RL. ‘I have to deal with these victims and that asshole Chief Walnoth. Meh, I will skip lunch today and tie up loose ends here.’ Jack thought as he went to loot rest of the dungeon and free the unfortunate victims.

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