READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 31 - The First Night
Aki pushed herself from me when Caei told her she wanted to take care of my wounds since “I looked to be on death’s door”, which wasn’t that far off. I was honestly surprised my body was still holding together.
My girlfriend looked at me up and down and gasped:
‘Lilyth… Your eyes and hair…’
‘What about them?’
Caeileera started to rummage for something in her satchel, so I quickly checked the time to distract myself from the thoughts of me possibly being some sort of a horribly mutated monstrosity now.
Current Time: 21:26 CET (21:46 local)
I was out for almost two hours…
Caei took out a small mirror. I looked into it and saw that my face was positively haggard looking and… well… there were small lightning bolts occasionally flashing in my eyes and some of my hair turned cloud white. All of it had this cloud-like quality to it now, but nothing to the extent Nyx had. Yet.
As Caei was using her healing spells on me, I gave them a brief recap of my misadventures since they saw me fall.
‘Ah…’ she muttered under her breath. ‘This explains what happened to you…’
After she was done and I was almost fully healed - she ran out of mana, and while she still had two mana potions she’d rather save them for now on a just-in-case basis, with my permission Caei helped me disrobe and examined the rest of my body for changes.
Aki decided to make herself scarce then, apparently she wasn’t comfortable with Caeileera seeing me naked. I understood her perfectly. Like, I wasn't terribly happy about the process either, but it would be good to know if my toes or spine turned to cloud. And hey, I did ask her first, but she only got red and refused.
‘Unless some of your internal structure got changed, I don’t think anything else was affected,’ Caei rendered her final judgement. ‘Still, check your notifications and stat screen for anything surprising. Might be something there.’
The following attributes have progressed:
Strength: +8% (66% total progress to level 12)
Dexterity: +14% (20% total progress to level 15)
Agility: +9% (15% total progress to level 12)
Endurance: +149% (238% total progress to level 11)
Your Endurance Attribute has increased to level 11 (69% total progress to level 12)
Your total health has increased
Your total stamina has increased
Vitality: +351% (410% total progress to level 12)
Your Vitality Attribute has increased to level 13 (27% total progress to level 14)
Your total health has increased
Your total stamina has increased
Intelligence: +15% (72% total progress to level 17)
Cunning: +6% (26% total progress to level 9)
Willpower: +12% (12% total progress to level 16)
Resilience: +12% (17% total progress to level 8)
Charisma: +3% (3% total progress to level 7)
The following skills have progressed:
Data Analysis: +3% (3% total progress to level 31)
Bastard Sword - Two-handed: +8% (14% total progress to level 7)
Air Arcana: +435% (438% total progress to level 2)
Your Air Arcana skill has increased to level 3 (34% total progress to level 4)
Climbing: +15% (77% total progress to level 2)
Insight: +30% (45% total progress to level 18)
The following spells have progressed:
Gust of Wind: +241% (387% total progress to level 2)
Your Gust of Wind spell has increased to level 3 (21% total progress to level 4)
Fist of Wind: +150% (150% total progress to level 2)
Your Fist of Wind spell has increased to level 2 (25% total progress to level 3)
New Trait Acquired: Elemental Infusion - Air - Current Level 2/10
The following traits have progressed:
Predator’s Instinct: +???%
Trait: Elemental Infusion - Air
Type: Magical - Elemental
Level: 2/10
Effects:
Faster progression of Air Arcana-related spells, traits and abilities
Much slower progression of Earth Arcana-related spells, traits and abilities
Slower progression of all other elemental Arcana-related spells, traits and abilities
Physical Signs of Elemental Contamination have become more prominent and take longer to revert
Moderate chance of failure of all Earth Arcana-related spells and abilities (can be mitigated by a high level of proficiency in that spell or ability)
Description: Your desperate use of Air Arcana past the physical capabilities and having the Air Goddess inside of you (and not in the fun way) have permanently altered your body. You have become elementally infused with Air energy.
Notice: This trait progresses each time you reach level 3 or 4 of Elemental Contamination. The progression of this trait cannot be reversed.
Damn. That’s harsh. It still… beats being dead.
I figured that I might as well take a quick peek at my character sheet while at it.
Basic Details
Name
Lilyth
Race
Tenebral Slimeling
Gender
Transwoman
Age
33
Level
5 (1266/3000 exp)
Class
Shadow Paladin
Rank
Novice
Perk Points
0
Attributes
Physical
Progress
Mental
Progress
Strength
11
66%
Intelligence
16
72%
Dexterity
14
20%
Wisdom
12
0%
Agility
11
15%
Willpower
15
12%
Endurance
11
69%
Cunning
8
26%
Vitality
13
27%
Resilience
7
17%
Perception
11
0%
Faith
3
0%
Appearance
12
0%
Charisma
6
3%
Skills
Lore - General
Name
Rank
Level
Progress
Insight
Novice
17
45%
Lore - Humanities
Name
Rank
Level
Progress
Linguistics
Journeyslime
40
10%
Earth Literature
Apprentice
25
0%
Earth History
Novice
10
0%
Lore - Sciences
Name
Rank
Level
Progress
Data Analysis
Apprentice
30
3%
Mathematics
Novice
10
0%
Computing
Novice
15
0%
Survival - General
Name
Rank
Level
Progress
First Aid
Novice
2
0%
Sense of Direction
Novice
10
8%
Stealth
Novice
4
8%
Climbing
Novice
1
77%
Martial - Swords
Name
Rank
Level
Progress
Bastard Sword - Two-handed
Novice
6
14%
Crafting - Cooking
Name
Rank
Level
Progress
General
Novice
2
0%
Crafting - Magical
Name
Rank
Level
Progress
Arcane Writing
Novice
1
50%
Arcana
Name
Rank
Level
Progress
Earth
Novice
2
28%
Air
Novice
3
34
Water
Novice
0
5%
Umbral
Novice
1
0%
Spells
Name
Arcana
Rank
Level
Progress
Rock Spikes
Earth
Novice
3
44%
Gust of Wind
Air
Novice
3
21%
Fist of Wind
Air
Novice
2
25%
Flickering Lights
Umbral
Novice
1
0%
Quench Torch
Umbral
Novice
1
0%
Traits
Name
Level
Progress
Neurodivergence
N/A
N/A
The Queen's Raivarian
N/A
N/A
Entomophobia
08/10
Special
Hidden Predator
N/A
N/A
Predator's Instinct
???
???
Elemental Infusion - Air
2/10
Special
Abilities
Name
Rank
Level
Progress
The Swiftness of the Wind
Novice
1
0%
I sent both the trait description and the status to Caeileera. She reviewed them with a slight frown.
‘We don’t have to deal a lot with Elemental Contamination in the Pale Badlands. In your case, I would recommend avoiding using more Air Arcana until you shed the status. Though I recognize that waiting for a few weeks may not be an option.’
‘Yeah. As you saw, I am cut off from Earth Arcana for the next two weeks at least, and my Umbral spells are all stealth-related.’
‘I could try teaching you Blood Lance if you’d like. Learning a spell from scratch in a few hours may be possible. Though I’m not sure how viable that would be on the move.’
A thought struck me then.
‘Honestly, I think we’ve gone far enough for a day. I think we’re all running on fumes at this point. I’ve had the worst Wednesday ever, Aki had spent the past few days in less-than-gentle goblin captivity, and you abandoned your previous life and cast your fate into the hands of complete strangers.’
‘What’s Wensdei?’
‘What we call the third day of the week.’
‘Ah. Let’s see what the pip… Aki has to say on the subject. But first dress. I don’t want her head to burst into flames from seeing you naked.’
Ultimately, we all agreed to stop for the night. While it would give Laachersain more time to prepare for us, the point was likely moot anyway since none of us had any idea how long it would take us to get back into the dungeon, assuming a direct route even existed. So it would be best to do it on a fresher head. We had no idea where we should stop though, other than “not at the creepy-ass graveyard”.
Caei thought the higher levels of the pillar should be safe enough, but water was a problem. We just had my Neverending Canteen between the three of us, and it just wouldn’t be sufficient. So I suggested going back into the ravine due to the stream that was there. The only issue was the rock-and-gravel slide. Climbing it could be an issue.
‘Will it be a waste for you to drink a mana potion?’ I asked Caei
‘What do you mean?’ she asked, her left eyebrow raised.
‘Would you be at full mana anyway in the morning?’
‘No. It would take me at least a full day, maybe more to fully regain it, mana potion or not.’
‘Then can I ask you to fly us on the disk over there?’
Caei nodded.
‘Sure.’
Once we were set up I gave Caei my notebook and pencil and she walked me through the process of drawing the Blood Lance rune and how to cast it. I would need a lot of practice, but it would give me something to do on my watch. We didn’t especially think there was any “local” danger to worry out down there and Laachersain and his minions likely didn’t even know this place existed, there was the question of Varyag and “otherworldly fuckery” as I put it. So we agreed for each of us to take a three-hour watch at night. I insisted for the middle one to be mine, given how I did have some chance to sleep and that way both Caei and Aki would get a full six hours of uninterrupted sleep. It took me some arguing, but they eventually agreed. Caeileera would take the firlayatch, while Aki the third one.
To my pleasant surprise, Aki told me you could set an alarm on the interface, so even if one of us passed out, the other could wake up at the allotted time anyway.
I really need to go through the utilities menu at some point.
I was worried I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep, but after making a makeshift pillow from one of my hoodies and giving the other and the greatcoat for one of the girls to use, I lied down and the next thing I knew was Caei waking me up for my watch. I felt something warm next to me and saw that Aki chose to sleep nuzzled against me, eschewing the coat. I smiled seeing that.
I don’t blame her for needing some measure of comfort at night. I would too given the circumstances.
It felt bad having to leave her, but what could you do?
I thanked Caeileera and got up from the floor. She grabbed my hoodie pillow and the coat and laid down a bit further from Aki.
At least one of us has some sense.
It took me two hours of the three my watch was supposed to learn the Blood Lance spell. It wasn’t that difficult, but it drained me completely of whatever mana I had managed to regain in the meantime.
New Skill Acquired: Sanguine Arcana - Current Level: 1 (3% total progress to level 2)
New Spell Acquired: Blood Lance
Type: Sanguine - Attack
Level: 1 (0% progress to level 2)
Description: Creates a large spike of pressurised blood within the caster's hand that lasts for 5 seconds before dissipating
Casting Time: 3 seconds
Luckily “dissipating” didn’t mean “you get sprayed with blood” in this case. It just vanished into a cloud of, presumably, red smoke.
With nothing else left to do, my thoughts eventually began to spiral. I saw the memories of the first goblin I killed, his pleading eyes as I ripped the sword out of his neck. The horrors of the Abattoir. The alien version of me that took over during the fight against the Goblin chief. The lower Sanguine. Löwe.
Why did it have to be me?
Was it some kind of punishment?
‘I just want to go home…’ I whimpered.
The reality of me being stuck here never hit me so hard as during that lonely dark hour. Until now, I have been running in survival mode. But now… no. I had to occupy myself with something. Anything. I tried to draw something, but my thoughts just kept coming back to the horrors of the day, so I just packed the notebook back with a sigh of resignation. I looked at Aki. She looked so peaceful. Was she built of sterner stuff than I was, or was she just too tired to have dreams?
Mercifully, the end of my watch came. I would have let Aki sleep since I was starting to doubt I would be getting any more sleep, anyway, but she did have an alarm set so she woke up with a start. I walked up to her, gave her a peck on the cheek and lay down.
It took me some tossing and turning but I did finally regain enough peace of mind to fall asleep. This time, the gods did not spare me, however, and my dreams were filled with images of horrible monsters chasing me down the corridors of the Tower of Trials. And as I run occasionally I would see the goblin and his pleading eyes.