Divine Apostasy Book 7 - Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Ruwen felt the temperature difference first. His map showed a temperature of one hundred and four degrees, while the desert area they’d just left hovered around ninety degrees. The map had also filled with the yellow dots of resources. The humidity struck him next, making the air sticky and uncomfortable.

“What took so long?” Sift asked.

Ruwen scanned the dense trees around them and the pools of stagnant water visible between them. He focused on Sift. “Pop quiz.”

Sift winced. “Oof, I’m glad I missed that. I already hate this trial.”

Ruwen frowned. All the moisture probably meant a lot of bugs. “Have you seen any centipedes?”

“You really need to let that go,” Sift said. “It was like two years ago.”

Memories of Ruwen’s first trip to the Black Pyramid surfaced, and the terrible fear and anxiety he’d carried. He had grown up preparing for the easy life of a Mage, and the sudden exposure to creatures trying to kill him, coupled with having no skills to protect himself, had traumatized him. He would never forget those early days. Especially the centipedes.

“They were like twelve feet tall,” Ruwen said and shuddered.

Sift shook his head. “You are such a baby.”

Ruwen leaned close to Sift. “I’m serious. If there are centipedes here, I’m going airborne.”

“Won’t help if they can fly.”

Ruwen leaned back, horrified. “Some can fly?”

“Oh yeah. They fly in swarms and cover your body, looking for any hole they can find to burrow into your body.”

“Uru have mercy, you’re lying.”

Sift looked up. “I’ll keep an eye out for you.”

Ruwen couldn’t tell if Sift was serious or poking fun of him.

The Addas stepped through the portal stone followed by the Founders. Sift and Ruwen quickly moved toward the other Adepts, who had grouped together in the nearest dry patch. As Ruwen moved he studied the ground, looking for what bugs this terrible place held, but only snails covered the ground. A lot of snails.

“Welcome to the third trial,” Mist said. “This will be your last group challenge.”

Thorn continued. “We will move to the safety of the fort which will act as your home base for the duration of this trial.”

“Do not underestimate the swamp,” Dusk said. “It holds many dangers, even for the most powerful among you.”

Ruwen had just battled a god and lived, and he dismissed Dusk’s warning. But as they walked in single file toward the fort, a couple of facts made him reassess. Lalquinrial hadn’t wanted to kill Ruwen. Only subdue and extract Ruwen’s secrets. Had the god wished to destroy Ruwen, he could have.

The other item that differed from the battle in the Infernal Realm was Ruwen couldn’t use his Spirit. His scorched Core, pathways, and Meridians made using Spirit impossible. It meant he lost access to all the spells and abilities from the other Classes he’d discovered, along with most of the powers from the Architect Role.

Ruwen always had the Gravity Shell around himself to protect against a deity obliterating him with a simple gravity attack. To make sure the shell provided no advantage to him, he’d created the weakest one possible, and it only consumed point one Mana per second.

Blapy had told Ruwen he would eventually recover, but only if he didn’t injure himself further. It meant the only spells and abilities he had access to were the ones he’d chosen from the Fighter and Worker trees. He had sixty-one spell points and thirty-six ability points, and he needed to assign them to bolster his current Mana and Energy spell choices. Maybe he’d do that tonight, assuming he had access to any high-level Class books in his memory.

That made Ruwen think of Rami, and he wondered if the bookwyrm had gotten mixed up in whatever trouble Hamma and Lylan had found. For years Rami, and more lately, Overlord, had provided constant companionship, and he really missed them.

Ruwen still felt a little adrift from his conversation with the Founders about balance, and it reinforced a depression he’d carried with him since the Smear and landing in the Third Secret. The damage to his Spiritual network and losing the related capabilities followed him like a dark cloud.

Ruwen had kept himself busy, in part to distract himself, but now, as he carefully followed Sift through the low hanging leaves, rotting wood, and moss, he forced himself to face the cause of his unhappiness.

The Inventory figure in the bottom right of his vision dared him to open it and see the damage to his Spiritual body in raw numbers.

Instead, Ruwen opened the notification that had appeared during his talk with the Founders.

Shing!

You have learned a new skill!

Skill: Coiled Drake Gaze

Level: 1

Effect: Immunity to all Drake Gazes

Effect: 10% chance per second of eye contact to mesmerize target.

The new skill Ruwen had learned to counteract Thorn’s hypnotizing stare had an interesting name. He had never heard of a coiled drake and wondered what type of creature had developed such an ability. Once again, he missed Rami, along with her near instant ability to provide answers to all his questions.

From the skill’s description, Ruwen guessed Thorn had learned this from one of these drakes, and that more than one type of drake had this ability. He would need to practice this so he could increase the chance per second of success.

Through the trees, Ruwen glimpsed a wall made of twenty-foot tall logs. This must be the Fortress, which meant he only had a minute to get the next part over with.

Reluctantly, Ruwen touched the Inventory icon on the bottom right of his vision. When the human cutout appeared listing all the gear he wore, he pushed the edge, turning it around and revealing the Spirit details of his body.

Twelve circles representing his Meridians covered the cutout, their spacing uneven. The twelve Meridians had turned red, a sobering difference from the last time he’d viewed them. A list ran along the side of the cutout, and it confirmed what Ruwen already knew. All twelve Meridians and their associated body locations had reached a Fortification level of Peak Diamond. The progress to the next level, which required a transition from Gem to Divine, sat at ninety-nine-point-nine-nine percent.

Ruwen’s next transition would take him from Gem-Diamond to Divine-Angel. But before that could occur, he needed to fix all the Spiritual damage, because more than just his Meridians had turned the angry red color.

Below the cutout sat a diagram of the Divine Circle. The twelve circles spaced evenly around the circle each represented a Meridian. All of them read zero percent, the result of emptying all his essence so he could survive the Smear and escape Lalquinrial’s prison.

In the middle of the diagram rested a red sphere that represented his Core. More angry red lines led from the sphere to each red Meridian and back again. Those were the pathways that he used to purify raw Spirit into each type of essence, and because he had all twelve connections, it made him an Axiom.

As the group of Adepts approached the wooden fortress, Ruwen noticed long deep gashes in the tree trunks making up the walls. It seemed the Founders had not exaggerated the dangers here.

Quickly refocusing on the display, Ruwen used a mental finger to touch the sphere representing his Core, which revealed a few more details.

Scarring: 11%

Inflammation: 98%

Capacity: 9%

Core Velocity (Max): 704 of 12,000

The values explained why using Spirit crippled Ruwen with pain. While using the Smear to escape the Infernal Realm had saved his life, here sat the proof of the damage it had caused. He touched a few of the pathways and Meridians and found similar values.

Not having access to Spirit based magic would severely limit Ruwen’s effectiveness, and he needed to find a way to speed his Spiritual healing. He made a mental note to speak with Fractal about solutions for this when he talked to the Dungeon about his other plans.

With a depressed sigh, Ruwen closed the display and studied his surroundings. The fortress had walls two hundred feet long and sat in the middle of an island of dryness. Whoever lived here kept the foliage from growing on the island, ensuring the views from the walls remained clear and denying any cover for attackers.

The only creatures Ruwen sensed nearby were the ever-present snails. Just like at the portal stone, you couldn’t move ten feet without seeing one. Their sizes varied from tiny to thumb sized, and their shell colors ranged from shades of yellow to a greenish brown that reminded him of the stagnant water around them.

Everyone funneled through a small gate, and Ruwen studied the surroundings. Four large buildings, one parallel to each wall, formed a square. The walls didn’t have ramparts, which meant they constructed them as a barrier, not to defend against an army or other type of organized foe.

The Adepts grouped into Rungs and Ruwen and Sift stood behind the fourth as rain began to fall. The Addas stepped to the front of the group and Ruwen realized the Founders had disappeared. In fact, he had been so distracted, they might not have even left the portal area.

Padda pointed to the various buildings. “Sleeping quarters, dining hall, bathing and laundry, and meditation and training.”

“Good luck,” Madda said.

The Addas turned and strode toward the meditation and training building, and in seconds, had disappeared.

The Adepts turned and looked at each other, and then after a few seconds, at Ruwen and Sift.

Sift leaned toward Ruwen and whispered. “I sure hope you have a plan.”