Chapter 273 - Solo Delving Part 5 - New Goal: 100% Orange Tier Clear!

Draconic loot boon or no, Eric knew he would never again judge any adventurer who hung up his sword sheath to take on a craftsman or merchant’s trade. Because there was nothing he would rather do more at that moment than gaze up at the beautiful twinkling heavens and smile, able to enjoy a warm spring night laden with the delightful scents of blossoming flowers and all of nature’s bounty as laughter and music echoed from the taverns nearby, before heading home and spending time with the people he loved and just savoring the sweet joy of being alive.

He could only wonder just how many Classers promised themselves they’d never dare hellish delves again, no matter how much a tiny part of their soul would always crave adventure.

“But that’s a fantasy if there ever was one,” Eric said to himself with a chuckle, dazed thoughts turning lucid with a sharp clarity beyond anything he had experienced before, level boosted Vitality assuring an extra kick to his Unified Restoration as his Interface blared with fresh messages and notes of multiple skill ups.

He quickly crushed his momentary flight of wistful melancholy, filled once more with the fierce joy of rising ascendant past all his foes, glorying in his ever-growing strength, and absolutely determined to leave this orange tier delve full of horrors that had forced him to face his fears like never before as its master. He absolutely refused to flee like a frightened mouse.

Besides, he had a ship full of trapped settlers to save.

“How you feeling, Bunbun? Epic Tier kill, right there. And now I have Rank 5 with all Flails! Fucking rush, or what!?”

His familiar gazed at him for long painful moments. “You’re an absolute madman, you know that?”

Eric gazed at the soul of a girl who had somehow become his familiar. He shrugged and winked. “You know what? Yeah. If the shoe fits...” He gazed down at his bare left foot, patches of blackened flesh filling with fresh new skin as he stared. He then smirked at his familiar. “I’ll take it.”

His bunny collapsed in tittering laughter. “My favorite kind of gamer! Oh, if only we could have live-streamed that shit! We killed a dragon! Ha! We actually took that fucker out! We absolutely rock!”

“Damn right we do! And it turns out that Crimson Orb is actually worth it,” he said with a fierce smile as he drained the tiniest bit of his flood of potency to restore his obliterated soul-linked lizard-hide boot while the air hummed with death once once more.

“Of course it is! You have me!”

Eric smirked. “I do. I’m also only paying half the Soul Points I otherwise would pay to use not just Bloodfire, but Piercing Strike with my spears as well. That means both weapon feats and Qi attacks I’m stupid enough to tie my essence to will only drain me at half the rate they would have before.”

Bunbun nodded her head in approval. “Absolute lifesaver. See how smart you were, investing in your favorite bunny?”

Eric grinned at that, scratching his purring rabbit’s ears. “I didn’t think rabbits purred.”

“Fuck off and give me more skritches, you absolute madman. Then let’s see about getting back to our wonderful little futuristic home away from home and see if Ingrid wants to give her champion another reward for bringing back an an actual dragon core to power up their ship for who knows how many Exile’s Path leagues!”

Eric chuckled. “Not a bad idea, even though we all know what you’re after.”

“What can I say? Even in this alternate reality no more real than a dream, Necro-Witch is still Queen of the V-16 Maps.”

Eric frowned. “No. There is no way I’m believing my bunny familiar hit V-16 maps on an alien computer in just in the time it took...”

“For you to rock a cute little golden skinned Psi-girl’s world? I saw her characters, by the way. Total trash builds. You two were made for each other!”

Eric rolled his eyes. “Ha ha. Now what’s say we complete this quest and take out those annoying dino-raptors? And hey, how about we clear out this whole fucking delve! Because we will not cower! We will not run in fear! We will become this place’s masters and when we finally leave we won’t be scampering like chickenshit cowards but champions of this whole damned realm!”

Bunbun gazed at Eric for long moments, an almost human look of awe coming to her furry features. “100% Clear. Orange Tier. And if we can lock in that colony ship with it’s sweet, sweet gaming console… YES! LET’S DO IT! Forzar! Fucking Forzar!” Bun bun howled happily as the sulfuric air lit up with the eldritch flashes of lightning slamming into the one Utahraptor who managed to slip past the hell vines, glaring with inhuman hate at the intruders who dared intrude upon their domain.

Before it’s head exploded a second later as Eric demonstrated the power of one of the oldest hunting tools known to man… in the hands of someone with stats once the province of legends and myth.

Eric flashed a fierce smile as the other raptors hissed in alarm, glaring at him from the other side of his hell vines.

Hell vines he deliberately dispelled, one at a time, as the air cracked with the boom of cannon balls unleashed at speeds that actually exceeded the velocities of solid shot fired from 24-pounder cannons.

“Excellent news, Bunbun!” Eric happily cried out as 6 raptors became 2 before charging him in fierce, bloodthirsty unison.

“What’s that, fearless leader? Forzar!”

“My soul-linked cannon ammo also enjoys 1G gravity. So no fucking skewed shots for me!”

Eric laughed as he weaved and darted around furious sharp snapping maws with an ease and mastery that would have been utterly beyond him just a few days ago as beak and talon met mithril in glorious showers of crimson as confused blinking heads tumbled through the air in showers of ruby red drops before Eric claimed the corpses of all his kills and howled with the fresh surge of ecstasy flooding through his soul.

Not a level, not quite, but damned close as his skills continued to evolve. He then switched mithril blade for wands of ice and fire, knowing what the next stage of his own personal evolution had to be.

Bunbun gazed at him curiously, as Eric took a deep breath of the fume-laden air. “God, I fucking love this hell-pit!”

“I’m noting the pulling out of wands...”

Eric smirked. “Damn right. Because this sweet ice wand served as the key to learning the rune for Freezing, but I didn’t claim the wands spell as my own. Now’s the perfect time for that! And as much as I love my hell vines, why the fuck wouldn’t I claim a stream of plasma I can infuse with Spiritual Energy and maybe a dash of essence as well? Spells I could cast in the blink of an eye?”

Bunbun glared up at the brooding cloudy sky. “Talk about fucking perfect timing.”

Eric matched his familiar’s gaze, eye widening with what he now refused to call fear as the handful of Pterodactyls that he thought had learned their lesson the last time they had struck became an entire swarm… as if the dungeon itself had heard Eric’s challenge, and was determined to make the upstart pay.

Eric chuckled coldly. “And it would be perfect training for my Psionic Rupture spell. But since my minimal Psion Pool is empty… time to train up all my other spells with potency pools that are a hell of a lot fatter.”

“Hell Vines!” Eric roared, enduring the potency drain as he summoned six massive tree-like clusters of whipping vines covered in fiery bitter sharp thorns which served both to block both sides of the thirty foot wide strip of stone between lava and plateau, and as cover against the pterodactyles now doing all they could to maneuver into perfect position to ambush him with beak and talons that his Unified Perception had just pinged several specimens as having actual vorpal qualities. Which meant they were capable of magically cutting through almost anything.

Because of course they did!

And he’d be a fool to underestimate any of those birds, despite a lucky punch the other day, and their desire to torment instead of outright slaughter his familiar.

So he didn’t. He was quite happy to frustrate them by keeping himself and his bunny under the cover of a massive hell vine bush he took partial control of, just enough to force fiery limbs apart to give all sorts of gifts to increasingly frustrated proto-birds eager to rend the flesh from his bones.

“Ignis Pilum! Ignis Pilum!” Eric roared, glaring at the rapidly maneuvering pterodactyl that seemed to shrug off Eric’s fire blast hitting center mass. That is, until he got smart and targeted first one wing than another, lips curling in a fierce grin when the shrieking pterodactyl dropped out of the sky far faster and harder than any bird would have on earth, anti-gravity magic ruptured along with its wings, flooding Eric’s soul with potency as the proto-bird’s remains splashed across the ground.

Eric took deep, steadying breaths, focusing not on the fierce hot surge of combat and the sweet surge of victory but the subtle nuance of magic’s ebb and flow.

The way his wand so smoothly combined the flow of the syllables for Fire, Single Target, and immediate release. For all that single target was a stream of plasma that could sear through several foes, or miss altogether… its inner meaning still registered with him as one downed 40th level bird became two, then three, Eric’s wands skill went up a level, and he finally chose a perk. Or, perhaps, the perk chose him.

Elemental Wands is now Rank 11! You have chosen the Perk: Insightful caster! You have an increased ability to understand the flow of magic through your wands and find adapting them to your own spell use, and further enhancing those spells to be almost second nature!

Eric flashed a fierce smile when it suddenly all clicked as he sighted a fourth hot-eyed raptor among the absolute scores preparing for a massive areal dive bomb, and unleashed yet another stream of white-hot plasma.

Only this time, he did it without the use of his wand at all.

“Ignis Pilum!”

Congratulations! You have successfully learned the Runic Fire Bolt Spell!

Fire Bolt is now Rank 1!

You have dodged out of the way of areal ambush!

Hell Vines has embraced latticework configuration!

Pterodactyles are attempting to slice through Hell Vines.

“Ignis Pilum!” Eric roared, chilled despite his growing exultation to see the sheer malevolence in the eyes of what was now a massive murder of proto-birds, all using their flashing talons to tear through the vines despite the causalities they took by thanks to vine, Bunbun’s constant stream of lightning bolts, and Eric’s own still humble fire bolt spell, for all that he felt its potency slowly blossom with each casting, dozens of hours of insights and mastery crystallizing with each fallen bird collapsing at his feet.

You have successfully struck and crippled 7 Pterodactyls!

Hell Vines and Familiar have killed an additional 15 Pterodactyls!

Fire Bolt is now Rank 5!

Your opponents have successfully broken through!

“Mollet roboro herbam unus dies!” Eric cried out, just barely having enough time to chant the runes that together summoned forth the reinforced shield he visualized so intently in his mind, a chant he’d absolutely love to make into a fast-cast spell one day without spending 20 seconds in its casting as he desperately weaved and ducked under talons glowing a silver-white hue from what were otherwise rather frail assailants, though the way the vindictive creatures cleaved through the very trunk of the hell vine he was sheltering under made it clear he’d be a fool to underestimate these creatures any more than he already had.

You have successfully countered Cleaving Blow with Runic Shield! 10 Mana drained countering Vorpal Slice!

“Fulmen!” Eric roared, immediately switching tactics, going for a spell twice as pricey as the fire blast and what he had to admit was a hell of a lot more deadly as Silver-White lightning tore through multiple Pterodactyls even more effectively than it had the considerably more massive Utahraptors.

“Fulmen!” He managed to scream out twice more before his arm was ripped completely open by a single slicing blow that actually managed to score.

A wild-eyed Eric wrenched his arm back in panic, alarmed to feel a cut that had sunk to the very bone.

And as for his brilliant shining mithril?

Utterly intact and whole.

He hissed and lurched back as the largest of the Pterodactyls with silvery stripes that the others were lacking cawed its challenge before darting out impossibly fast with beak and talon once more, and it was all Eric could do to lurch back and parry in time as his shield exploded in his hand after parrying what his screaming Interface warned had been a Heart Shot Perk and he suspected that the only reason why he was alive was because of the massive blast of lightning that had just struck the startled bird in the chest.

“Forzare, motherfucker!” Bunbun screamed as multiple bolts of lightning erupted from her ears, Eric quick to double down on that approach, now jutting out his uninjured left hand and pouring every fiber of his being into boosting his Lightning Bolt just as much as he could.

“Fulmen!”

Before immediately ducking and running through the ruined remains of his sliced apart hell vine with dozens of birds taking immediate flight before him… then springing under the welcoming vines of another, because fuck if he hadn’t finally gotten ahead of the game by summoning six at once, deciding that his massive mana and Qi pools were damn useful for surviving long protracted battles as he bit his lip and blinked back hot stinging tears, glaring at his savaged arm for long moments as it slowly stitched itself together.

Blood Mastery trumps ‘Cursed to Bleed!’ You have successfully staunched blood loss!

Your wounds are now regenerating!

Blood Mastery is now Rank 28!

Unified Restoration is now Rank 6!

Lightning Bolt Spell is now Rank 10! Congratulations! You have achieved Journeyman Tier in a custom made spell! You enjoy a permanent bonus of +1 to Mana Pool and Qi! How do you wish to Evolve your spell?

Option 1. Elementalist’s Grace: Increasing Mastery results in sublime efficiency! It now only costs you half the normal Mana and Qi to manipulate the flow of magic that comes to your beck and call near effortlessly! (This is in addition to steadily increasing efficiency with increasing ranks of skill. Truly you are well on your way to becoming a magus able to cast his favored spells effortlessly!)

Option 2. Elementalist’s Might: Increasing Mastery results in absolute power! Your greater understanding of the inner-workings of this spell allows you to unleash devastating Lightning Bolts that hit for 150% of the magnitude and area of a lesser mages castings! (This is multiplicative with standard increases to power with increasing ranks of skill! Truly, you are a mage to be feared!)

Option 3. Spell Evolution.

Eric hissed with pain even as he flashed a fierce smile at the message. Because truly, both options sounded pretty damn sweet. And since his Qi pool would require meditation or rest to recoup at a much slower rate than his mana, there was a lot to be said for efficient casting. Of course, there was even more to be said for absolutely devastating alpha strikes with 50% more juice and area than ever before.

But still… if Tiering up his spells was a back door to learning fresh spells that his sister had warned him would otherwise take him months, perhaps years to learn, since the scholarly learning of arcana was in absolutely no way his strength… this might prove to be just the backdoor he needed to unlocking more than just his present pair of truly powerful spells.

Maybe.

But still, all he had to do was look through the wavering branches at the absolute flood of Pterodactyl’s still hungry for his blood… his Interface’s conspicuous lack of a final ding making it clear he still hadn’t finished off the one Boss Tier Pterodactyl who’s vorpal talons FUCKING IGNORED HIS MITHRIL! Even if his shield chant had actually saved his life, he knew he needed power above all else. And to not power up his spells as much as he possibly could, to go for generalization when specialization would save his ass…

He gave an angry shake of his head. “No. I have to do this. I have the fucking power. What I lack is knowledge. OR knowing what the hell I’m doing, or more than a tiny handful of runes and only two decent fast cast powerhouse spells. What I need is more. So much more.” With those words said, he made his choice.

“Uh, better get ready, chief! Those fuckers are cutting through the Hell Vines again, and you’re totally zoning out and not boosting its protectiveness!”

But Eric was lost for countless seconds as his mind flashed with revelations shaking him to his foundation, seeing ways to evolve his spell as formerly alien concepts suddenly became so clear, like a dreamer on the cusp of revelation before losing the magnificent train of thought entirely. Concepts that would grace him with multiple chained lightning bolts, brilliant flash grenade equivalents, and if he followed one particular esoteric path through several more spell evolutions... an actual honest-to-goodness lightning storm.

Yet one spell evolution possibility called out to him like no other.

So in tune with his abilities and proclivities.

Who he was.

What he was.

Promising the answer to questions that had plagued him since first he walked his crimson path.

Finally allowing him to define the very essence of one of his greatest gift.

A gift he had incredible affinity for, but no essence tied to it at all.

“Sanguis!” Eric roared, shivering with the most profound of revelations as he finally understood that most esoteric of all gifts, that which had saved his life more than any other. The key to binding, mastering, and slaughtering so many of his foes.

And how his gifts and soul sung when he kissed the air with the word he would savor above all others. Before chaining it into a spell worthy of the massive proto-bird that had just shredded his blood vines to kindling, glaring at Eric with malice that became surprise as it twisted its beak to gaze at the massive hole now spurting from its chest.

“Sanguis Fulmen Pures Hodie!” Eric roared as crimson lightning tore through the air.

“Blood Lightning!”

The massive Pterodactyle shrieked its defiance as it lashed out with deadly vorpal beak, its target not Eric, this time, but the familiar shrieking the very words Eric had uttered. A variant it seemed his Bunbun could actually cast.

But not before howling as vicious pterodactyl claws tore open her abdomen.

A heartbeat before the creatures skull exploded in a shower of crimson retribution.

Congratulations! You have successfully created a new spell using Lightning and Blood Mastery as your foundation!

You have created the spell: Blood Lightning!

Blood Lightning has natural dispelling & abjuring properties! Contest of Wills allows Blood Lightning to Pierce even Soul Wards!

Skill Synergism Detected! Blood Mastery allows for healing properties to manifest! You now absorb a percentage of the damage you do with this spell!

This spell costs 30 Mana & Spiritual Energy and 6 Soul Points to cast!

Class Synergism Detected! Crimson Orb cuts Soul Point cost in half!

“Bunbun!” Eric cried out, gazing down on horror at his glazed-eyed bunny… gazing up at him so pitiably he thought his heart would break as she panted desperately, gazing down at her own perforated entrails.

“Lilly!”

“Sanguis Fulmen!” His bunny screamed. Red lightning flashing through the air, a hissing Eric spinning around to catch sight of two proto-birds exploding just before they could pounce.

Eric blinked and hissed. “Shit.”

“Keep your head in the game, you big goof!” his familiar hissed, before sighing with relief when her organs slurped back inside where they belonged, her wound healing withing seconds, as if they had never been.

Eric blinked. “What?”

His bunny snorted, patting the definitely diminished Crimson Orb. “I’m your familiar, remember? Elevated exclusive revenant badass bitch?” She snorted. “Besides healing from my kills… our kills… I can also use this sweet, sweet lighting variant. Though not the Spiritual Energy bit, but the blood and mana bit? Yeah. Even if it does hit your yummy orb just a bit harder,” she said, gazing at the orb in apology. “And I did sort of um… use a bit of it the four times I almost died down here.”

Eric winced. “Yeah, sorry about that. And you know my orb is your orb.”

“Damn right it is,” his bunny snorted, before hopping back on his shoulder. “And I do believe we have some fresh friends that look downright hopping mad!”

Eric laughed at that as a fresh swarm of Pterodactyls made their presence known. Before chanting out the words to a fresh warded shield, before painting the skies with lightning and fire.

Lightning Bolt is now Level 12!

Blood Lightning is now Level 5!

Fire Bolt is now Level 8!

You have successfully slain 42 Pterodactyls of an average level of: 40!

You have successfully slain Level 70 Alpha Pterodactyl!

Primal Adventurer is now Level 49!

Chapter 274 - Solo Delving Part 6