Chapter 274 - Solo Delving Part 6

Eric couldn’t help but smile with fierce delight as he gazed around his glorious kill sight, savoring his growing sense of mastery over his environment, even one as foul and awful as this one. Just as importantly, he was making the absolute best of it that he could, having locked in two more skills and only getting nearly killed once when doing so.

Twice, if he counted his familiar, giving her furry head an affectionate pat, grateful they had both pulled through. Again.

“Well, it looks like Lighnting Bolt and Blood Lightning are two separate spells, chief! You can continue to rank up Lightning Bolt and who knows what Adept Level will grant you?”

Eric sighed. “Sadly, I lost out on a 50% damage boost. But you know what? Considering that I now finally know the Sanguis rune, the essence of the crimson art Morlekai first introduced me to, it was more than worth it. I’ll have to share that secret with him and Grim both. Alice too. Who knows? Maybe it will help them blossom in all sorts of interesting ways.”

His familiar nodded in complete agreement. Not surprising, he supposed. She was his familiar, after all. “You should rank up Blood Lightning to Journeyman as fast as you can. Who knows if we can chain something truly badass… or just evolve this spell into something incredible. And the 2 point stat bonus advancing your spell earned us is pretty sweet too. but Your Soul Reserves are already 90% depleted with all we’ve done today, even with the Soul Point cost reduced to just 1.5 per casting now.”

Eric winced. “Yeah. That’s a problem.”

His bunny snorted. “Damn right it is. And we both know how this place likes to ambush and swarm. I think it’s about that time. Don’t you?”

Eric laughed aloud. “I do indeed. Let’s go complete that quest!”

“Damn right I do. Now hurry up! Let’s get back to our sweet little bio enhanced canyon and the sweet, sweet gaming system waiting for us inside before this place throws more shit our way. If we’re really lucky we’ll hit that canyon entrance now protected and concealed with our necro-plug without any more headaches.”

Eric flashed a tired smile and nodded, and they did just that.

To say that the youths he had befriended, the guardians of their colony ship and most especially Ingrid were grateful would be an understatement. The heartfelt speeches, declarations of gratitude, even achieving honorary crew-member status were the sweetest balms upon his weary soul when he surrendered the dragon core. All the more so since Eric could truly feel just how much his surrendered prize meant to all of them. Hundreds of lives, feeling nothing but gratitude towards his own.

Eric was beyond dazed by the warmth he felt as the entire ship cheered, hooted, and celebrated for what was the most glorious celebration Eric had experienced since the Tokyo Towers disaster, the entire vessel alive with brilliant lights and dancing colonists, the bridge now vibrating with the thrum of exotic music Eric felt shivering through his soul.

He was filled with a heady joy so intense it left him speechless as nearly 300 colonists, including the now fully recovered children who didn’t mind the mental stimulation a bit, utterly overwhelmed his mind. Leaving him in a cloud of euphoria so glorious he felt lost in dream and wonder as a strikingly beautiful Ingrid wrapped him up in her passionate embrace, golden lips locked to his own as he savored bliss of the most primal sort, never having felt such pleasure as when he felt his very soul begin to slip free of his body.

“Eric, we have to go!”

Eric frowned at the sudden sharp pain in his cerebellum, as his soul danced and spun with the ship’s euphoria, never wanting to surrender, never wanting to leave, finally finding a place and a people that truly adored him.

Adored him so intently that their minds were now crushing his own.

“Eric, you’re not made for this! Get up and get dressed, goofball! We. Have. To. Go!”

Eric jolted awake with a groan, frowning down in confusion at the blood coming out of his nose, feeling warm trickles slipping from his ears and tears streaming down his cheeks as well.

He hissed, euphoria turning to alarm when he saw they were all tears of blood.

And Ingrid, entwined in his arms, his lover who had been gazing at him with such sweet languorous rapture, was the farthest from being a horrific monster needing a beheading.

He could taste her sudden spike of anxiety, her alarm on his behalf as blood started leaking from his every orifice, Ingrid's copper-gold eyes now brimming with terrified tears.

Blue tears.

Because she wasn’t really human at all.

And her beautiful mind, along with the minds of all her fellows, was crushing his own.

“Eric! Your bleeding!”

Eric forced a dizzy grin. “I have to go.”

“You do,” she said with a hurried nod, tossing on a shirt and tight-fitting slacks before clasping his hand, her eyes widening for only a second when Eric instantly summoned his soul-linked padded undergarments before stumbling down the still brilliantly lit corridor, the euphoria of the crowd turning to alarm and concern when they saw Eric’s state and sensed Ingrid’s fear.

And that, of course, was when the gravity spell wore off, dusk finally caressing this strange world, the last traces of euphoria turning to panicked screams and a child’s far off cries as everyone save Eric stumbled and fell. And he could sense so sharply the cries of agony as several Professional Colonists broke bones with their sudden fall, the actual Classers the only ones to escape without any bruise at all. Yet even so, even with Ingrid possessing physical stats at a glorious set of 50, and how well she had put those stats to indescribable use just an hour ago… even she was feeling a weight that left her as awkward and uncertain as any half-drunk mortal having to step so carefully that they didn’t take a fall.

“Wait,” Eric managed to whisper.

“But Eric, you’re bleeding! I read Malin’s stories while you were gone. I know what happens to your people if you’re denied Summer’s Court for too long!”

Eric flashed a bitter smile. “First of all, I’m not that much of a faerie. Second of all, I’m the Winter Queen’s son so… wrong court.”

Words that caused more than a few people to gaze his way in surprise, Ingrid’s eyes widening with outright awe. “You’re the prince of the Winter Court?”

Eric winced. “Shit, that didn’t really help my case, did it?”

She solemnly shook her head, before flashing a hopeful smile. “But if the Winter Queen’s incredibly handsome son would like to rescue this poor ship of wayward travelers...”

But Eric had already closed his eyes, doing his best to block out the alarm and tension of an entire ship’s worth of talented prodigies as he slowly said the words that needed saying for the sake of so many fragile lives.

Including his own.

“Debilito. Gravitas. Plures. Dies!”

Eric fell to his knees as Mana and Qi both crashed a good thousand points as he stabilized the gravity of the massive colony ship once more, anxiety and terror replaced by shouts of relief and jubilation.

An outcry of gratitude that left Eric stunned, and Ingrid’s gentle sympathetic smile made it clear she understood his plight perfectly. “You’re like a baby, but with no mother or mother’s milk to shield your newly blossoming psyche,” she whispered as the pair of them made their way to the bulkhead, Eric taking exhausted breaths with every step, collapsing twice as the world began spinning madly about.

“What the fuck? Ingrid, what’s happening to me?”

She flashed a sad smile, gently kissing his cheek before exchanging nods with a sentinel on duty… Hans, who gave Eric a nod so filled with gratitude, bemusement, and concern, it was like Eric could read his mind.

“Your mind was dead. Now it’s starting to waken. But you’re still so fragile, my faerie prince. Far too fragile for a colony ship filled with our former world’s strongest minds. Now hold on to me, We’re leaving. There, the portal irised shut. You should be feeling better in a bit. I hope.”

Eric found himself sitting beside a beautiful girl whose skin hardly glowed at all under the lush jungle foliage, for all that her eyes and hair still sparkled with a subtle metallic sheen. And her hand, when she squeezed his own, was as human as human could be.

Eric swallowed the lump in his throat, blinking back a hot tear as he glared into the lush foliage surrounding the clearing by the ship, not a single aggressive predator in sight.

“And they won’t be a problem for us ever again, my beautiful prince.”

Eric turned to lock gazes with Ingrid. “Why is that?” he said, when her soft lips caressed his own.

Before the air rang with a hot thrum that sent Eric’s bones shaking as a Shadow Raptor that had popped out of nowhere was instantly incinerated by a magnificent blast of ebony light.

“Because our blasters are back on line.”

Eric chuckled. “Now that’s fucking convenient.”

“Isn’t it?”

Eric swallowed. “I’m going to have to go back to… well, my realm, to rest up for a bit. I still feel like shit, to be honest. But then I’ll come back and do whatever it takes to recover that gravity generator. So you and your fellow colonists will be safe and can enjoy long, healthy lives.”

Eric ached to see Ingrid’s blue tears streaking down gold-tinted cheeks as she clasped his hand and rubbed it against her cheek. “I’m so sorry I hurt you, Eric.”

Eric shook his head. “No, you didn’t! You were wonderful! It’s just that, you and 300 or so other people… yeah. That’s a bit much for my fragile little brain to take.”

Ingrid’s heartfelt smile eased the pain Unified Restoration hadn’t quite healed as he gave her a careful squeeze, kissed her brow, and waved farewell as he descended the ramp, already knowing that, as things stood, he dare not enter the ship a third time.

“You will return to us, won’t you, Eric?” Ingrid anxiously bit her lip. “Our lives are still sort of, well, in your hands.”

Eric winked. “You’re damn right I will! Then you can reward me personally… outside the ship.”

Her throaty chuckle sent delightful shivers down his spine. “You have yourself a deal, hero.”

Eric gazed at her for long moments before turning around and racing back to the portal, his mind a whirl of emotions, confusion, and desperate longing.

“Eric?”

Eric sighed, patting his rabbit. “Hey Bunbun.”

“Are you going to be okay?”

Eric shrugged. “I got a headache that won’t stop throbbing, and I’ve never felt so exhausted in all my life. So let’s just get back to the surface in one piece.”

His rabbit gave his ear an affectionate pat. “You got it, boss. My ears are ready to blast. Just get us to that gate!”

Eric grit his teeth and glared past his dizziness and pain, fully expecting trouble to come when his Interface made it clear he was now at a -3 to all skill checks.

Yet much to their relief, they managed to leave without any further stealth attacks or dive bombings. Perhaps because they had already done their utmost to depopulate this place of both Utahraptors and Pterodactyls, and Eric wasn’t going to lose any sleep over it. In fact, he was determined to savor the best sleep of his life as he burst through the gate with a relieved sigh, breathing deep lungfuls of sweet spring air while gazing for long moments at the starry night sky.

If nothing else, stars flashing all the colors of the rainbow with an aurora borealis painting the heavens was one change he would never get tired of, quickly sinking into an exhausted daze upon his instantly resummoned bed, not even bothering with his Interface and the absolute slew of Administrator & Faction Head e-mails he knew was waiting for him.

Sensing how weary he truly was after nearly getting his brain fried rescuing a ship full of telepaths and embracing wild fantasies with a girl it pained him to think was no more real than a dream, he refused to be caught exhausted and off-guard by what he just knew would be a slew of spite-filled messages. No doubt he would find that half of them were overlaid with curses of compulsion or writs of obeisance, if he was actually stupid enough to bother sifting through them in his current state.

Nope, he’d forgo even opening his Interface, and see about making a genuine mental-flushing SPAM box as soon as he was back in his dungeon, where it seemed Dominion Interface messaging was effectively ‘off-line,’ or back in Blue Territory, where Anti-Lawfare Mandates trumped even the most venomous administrator’s malice.

Right now, the only message he’d respond to was his own body’s need for rest, his brain’s desperate need for recovery and growth along unexpected channels after he had shot up to Level 49 in a Master Class at what he guessed was an absolutely absurd rate. And really, where better to rest his head than under a beautiful, starry night sky, surrounded and protected by nearly 17,000 of his bestest friends in the whole wide world? Now including hundreds of saber-tooth hunting cats and a glorious collection of 50-foot long upright-walking alligators. Fanboys could have their T-Rex’s all day long. He, for one, loved his Spinosauruses.

Eric cracked a yawn, hands absently petting his familiar’s soft, silky fur. “Hey Bunbun, keep an eye out? I know I’ll probably be sleeping like the dead, but if you sense any Mana surge that makes it seem like our dungeon is about to reset, wake me the fuck up. I don’t care if it’s just fifteen minutes from now. Because there’s no way we’re letting that fucker reset without getting Ingrid and everyone else out if I possibly can, and maybe seeing if they can be anything more than echoes of souls from who knows what tragedy trapped in an endlessly repeating dream.”

He flashed a cheeky smile. “Besides. I still want that 100% clear.”

Bunbun saluted with a single highly dexterous ear. “You got it, chief. Now get some rest. You look plumb tuckered.”

Eric chuckled, for just a second seeing the wan, pretty face to go with the husky voice of a streamer whose videos he had watched more than once, a lifetime ago.

“Night, Lilly. And your skelly mage build sucked for V-16 maps, by the way.”

“You take that back, you fucking noob!” she snapped, before her eyes softened, seeing that her master was already fast asleep.

“Stupid noob,” she said with a sigh. “My builds were ‘leet. And I saw your killboard rankings. Not to put too fine a point on it, but you were kinda crap, Eric Silver.”

She nuzzled his cheek with her nose, curling up against him. “Not too bad a necro in real life, though. And you’re a fuck ton more badass than your sister trying to play Amazonian princess on MovieFlix. Even if she is kinda cute. And if I ever had a poster of you and Elonia hanging in my room, I swear you’ll never know.”

The bunny who had once been a streamer before the world went to hell spent long moments happily curled up next to the man who had literally brought her lost soul back from a darkness she shuddered even thinking about, happy enough to wake up in the shape of her favorite animal, and absolutely loving being able to zap baddies with a badass spell. Even if she did find herself missing her mother and brothers terribly, it was easy enough to close her eyes and commune with the thousands of revenants docilely standing sentinel to see what they saw, hear what they heard.

The perfect distraction for bitter memories that had no place in this exciting new world where she got to spend all day on the shoulder of the boy she had crushed on long before he was anything but a cute boy in the tabloids.

Even if he never could PvP worth a damn.

Still, it was nice finding that as his familiar, and how wild a twist was that? Her master had green-lighted her playing with all his toys. Or at least… he hadn’t said she couldn’t, and he doubted he’d mind that much when she had a pair of his spinos doing the tango as well as two massive 50-foot long dino lizards that looked like some kid had glued a T-Rex and an alligator and given it back-fins possibly could. She frowned thoughtfully down at her partner in crime, but the poor boy was out so cold he didn’t even respond to the thrumming vibrations of 20 ton giants cavorting in front of the crackling portal.

Bunbun sighed and released her control, the pair of sentinels immediately loping off to resume their patrols while she entertained herself flickering her awareness from one classical era pikeman to another, or sarissophoroi as her master called them, quietly impressed by how well they hid in the grass, crouched down in absolute stillness, senses nearly as acute as their master’s. Just one more perk of Master Tier class bullshit, as far ass Lilly was concerned, though she did love taking in the whole world in what felt like stereoscopic awesomeness.

She savored it all. The chirp of more innocent birds in the handful of trees her master had left upright, the rustle of endless grasslands in the evening breeze. The miraculous visions of the starry night sky, complete with a magnificent nebulai of crimson, violet, and gold… and stars shimmering all the colors of the rainbow. A perfect serene vision she sensed her no longer totally mortal mind could stare at through 16,000 eyes and be utterly captivated by until the end of time.

Or until her ears reflexively twitched at the guttural laughter and cut off whispers of a pack of high level Classers that had just entered their territory. Classers that definitely deserved a closer look, Lilly decided.

Especially since almost every one of them was carrying what appeared to be high powered sniper rifles, or blasters from a Nova Wars movie.

The tiny rabbit gently nuzzled her master, silent commands assuring the sarissophoroi would keep Eric safe as Lilly claimed a few mascots that could of course could dart through the grasslands every bit as fast as she could… just in case.

Chapter 275 - Bounty Hunters