[Corruption Wielder] Chapter 69: Nice

Progress towards [Eternal Throne]: [1/1000].

You have defeated [Fan Yang].

You have won your first duel.

Fortunately, the arena didn’t immediately force him out, giving Will the time to loot the body.

Using Destructive Synthesis on the limiter item had been too easy. He took Yang’s, clipping it around himself and hoping he wouldn’t have to break it again.

Not having Skybreaker would be a loss, but that one had actually been threatening—and besides, it was a strength-based item.

The Traitor refuses to select you. No sigil was obtained.

“That’s kind of rude,” Will said. “You know the guy you glued yourself to was like, a total simp, right? I remember him from earlier. He was literally throwing himself down for his buddy Lu Jie.”

No response, as expected, but he was sure that wherever the Traitor was, it was listening to him.

Warforged Armor Set has been added to your inventory.

At least he got a full set of silver-rank armor. It wasn’t a growth item, unfortunately, but it didn’t require attunement and would be a pretty solid gift for one of Will’s friends. The individual pieces were relatively unimpressive, offering some basic shielding, but the set bonus resulted in a massive increase in the Power attribute. Will was tempted by that, so much so that he actually weighed the costs of using it against having access to Escape Artist.

His movement speed buff was just too important, though. It was a large part of how he’d been able to toy with Fan Yang. He just inventoried the armor instead.

200 silver credits, 6969 bronze credits, and 13294 credits have been added to your inventory.

“Heh. Nice.” 

It seemed Will was not the only one with the mind of an immature teen. 

“Though in my defense,” he said, glancing down at the dead body at his feet, “I’m still in my early twenties. How are you pushing forty with that sense of humor? Actually, eh. Can’t really fault you for that. I can fault you for the whole threatening to murder everyone I care about part, though.”

Just as Will had suspected, the system didn’t punish him at all for killing Yang. They had all been granted limiters, but there was nothing in the rules set for the challenge that had prevented them from simply removing them.

Despite the fact that the system was ostensibly compensating for the abnormalities caused through the corruption cultists, the early onset of the trail itself, and whatever else was happening back down on Earth, the ones running this tournament still wanted blood.

Except for the Traitor, apparently, who had gone entirely quiet.

“I guess traitor and coward go hand in hand,” Will said. “It’s a shame. Y’know, I used to know this guy who went by the tag ’traitor.’ Reliable guy. Communicative. The exact opposite of you, really.”

At length, Will decided he’d had enough of shit-talking the god. The system hadn’t teleported him away yet, so he assumed that it was just going to wait until the next round started.

He fished around in his inventory, finding… nothing he actually wanted.

“Damn it. I’m going to have to start carrying a mattress around.”

Instead, he sat down cross-legged and meditated until he drifted off.

#

“Clarke is an old acquaintance,” the Hunger said without preamble. The god was much more casual now, like he was meeting with Will for coffee.

“Wow, torturing the shit out of me did wonders for your countenance. Also, Clarke? The god named the Traitor is named Clarke? Poor guy. I guess he can blame his mom, at least.”

“In a world where you can annihilate the very fabric of reality with a snap of your fingers, names are one of the most mutable,” the Hunger said. “Clarke was his chosen name, though the epithet of Traitor, he earned himself.”

“Okay, I retract the poor guy part. Of all the names, Clarke. Wow.”

“I will relay that along,” said the god who’d wanted Will dead just days prior. “I like him. He is fantastic at pool.”

“Stop ruining this image I have of all of you as incompetent but extraordinarily powerful and unknowable beings. Do you at least, like, use planets as the cue balls?”

“Only during the tournaments. When the Traitor comes over, we use a table meant for mortals.”

“Oh, lovely. You have solar system size pool games, but also you play on a regular table. I’m going to have that image stuck in my head now.”

“Being in the presence of the table would obliterate you on a molecular level.”

“Okay, that’s a bit better. Well, it’s nice chatting with you, though it’s really, really weird that you’re suddenly playing nice.”

“You excelled in the tournament,” the Hunger pointed out. “Are excelling, I suppose. My position is secured. That is one thing. Giving a black eye to those I despise? Forcing them to undergo the same trial of patience I did? Using your soul as a punching bag? All that is priceless.”

“You are a shockingly petty god, but I guess I appreciate it. Can we get to the torture now?”

“By all means.”

#

Caiyeri didn’t even bother to read the name of the human she was up against. He was a nobody, which was somewhat surprising when they were this far into the tournament.

“I’d commend you for making it this far at Silver 0 with just monster cores,” she said as the walls began to rise around them. “That does end here, you understand?”

Though the elf did not recognize the human, he apparently knew who she was.

“You’re that elf,” he said.

“No shit,” Caiyeri replied. “There are quite a few of us.”

“The one with that sigil.” The human’s voice was obviously frightened.

“The Elven Mother’s?” Caiyeri cocked her head questioningly.

“Yeah, that one!”

Her inspection of the man revealed two things. First: his aura control was mediocre at best. Second: his specialty was in afflictions. His primary attributes were Curse, Poison, and Time, which made him a Chronopoisoner.

All of the templates with access to the Elven Mother’s sigil had the Mother’s Grace sigil skill, which was the perfect counter to an affliction abuser—well, unless said abuser’s name was William Li-Brown and could cheat hard enough to win.

All of this added up to one conclusion: if Caiyeri had the sigil, this would be the easiest fight of her life.

But she didn’t. This man looked like he’d seen a ghost, though, which meant…

“Mother’s grace,” Caiyeri muttered. “The fucking templates.”

His sigil must have shown him a scene of Caiyeri Zero, once known as Caiyeri Chanceheart.

Well, if he was under the impression that his afflictions wouldn’t hurt her, she was okay with that.

Louder, she said, “Then you know what I can do.”

“Y-yeah! Don’t kill me, please!”

[Samuel Tran] has forfeited.

You have won your first duel.

The walls descended.

Caiyeri stared at the empty arena, not a single drop of blood shed. Her face twisted into a complex expression.

“Well,” she said, alone and riding off of the grace of an elf who wanted to kill her. “That was easy.”

#

Your opponent is: [Wilhelm Zero].

“Loser versus loser,” Hua said. “This is going to go well.”

The other person with her wasn’t much of a talker. An elf of some kind, apparently. Low gold rank, which was a big problem, but his class was a very brutish offensive one, which she paired favorably into.

She activated her Star Cloak sigil skill immediately, making her immune to passive perception as well as eliminating all the sound she made.

This was going to be an uphill battle, she knew. Even though it didn’t seem like Wilhelm had any sort of skill that could detect her, his durability would just be greater than hers.

As it turned out, however, his lack of perception skills went beyond just an inability to find her while she was actively focused on using the skill. He couldn’t find her at all, which culminated in her quite literally plucking several of his gold-rank daggers from right under his nose.

Hua guessed that this elf usually worked in a group, probably with a spotter of some kind.

The daggers were quite nice, though. They were simple, uncommon items, but they were enchanted with armor-piercing and wound-worsening effects.

[La’hulu] of the [Order of the Striker] finds your thievery amusing. You have been gifted 100 silver credits.

Bit by bit, she made progress against the gold-rank elf, tapping into the best magical skill she’d gotten. Choosing Currency as her Soul element had been an unconventional choice, to say the least, but as a basic Warrior, it hadn’t bothered her too much.

With the sponsors, this skill had proven to be worth its weight in gold.

Skill: [Count Your Blessings]

- Spell (augmentation)

- Cost: varies.

- Cooldown: none.

Silver

Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy power.

By expending credits or essence of a certain attribute, you can temporarily increase your levels in any attribute. This skill increases effect with each rank.

[Sponsored Spells] (silver) - You can increase the power put into any skill with credits.

She dumped the hundred silver credits she’d just received into her Power stat, then added the gains from the last few donations she’d received.

[Shaak’thor] of the [Order of the Striker] calls for blood. You have been gifted 250 silver credits.

“If you insist,” she muttered.

Their sponsor was comprised of dozens if not hundreds of high-rank Users, all of whom could donate to her while she fought. To them, silver credits flowed like water.

To Hua, they could be lifesaving. With the credits streaming in, she was able to temporarily raise her Speed, Soul, and Power attributes to gold, breaking through the rank difference.

Slowly, she whittled her enemy down, and though he struck out at her when he felt her stabbing into him, she was too quick.

Eventually, she felt something different about a stab—her mana didn’t flow into it as cleanly as it should have.

The gold-rank elf fell unconscious, bleeding from a thousand different cuts.

You have won your duel.

As he fell, the walls descended—and then the walls cracked, a twisting spiral of spatial magic smashing through the magically constructed arena.

Gold-rank auras coursed through the gap.

WARNING: Corruption has been detected in this region. You are about to be teleported to a safe zone.

The last thing she saw was an obsidian-black man stepping in after them, an oversized scythe in his hand.

#

“Christ, mate, you put up a good fight,” Haoyu said, offering a hand. “Hit me up if you ever need a job, yeah?”

The Canadian silver-rank sigil-holder he’d just knocked out of the competition sighed deeply, accepting the help. “Don’t think you’ll need it, but sure.”

WARNING: Corruption has been detected in this region. You are about to be teleported to a safe zone.

“What the—“

They were both gone before Haoyu could even see what had gone wrong.

#

Caiyeri spent an awfully long time standing alone. She sent out a couple of system messages, but there was no response.

Other than from the abyss elves, of course, who politely suggested that she prostrate herself and present her head for immediate removal. She declined, equally as politely.

Caiyeri: With all due respect, which is none, I would suggest you find the nearest shard of corruption and introduce it to your brain. Maybe then you would be a little more reasonable.

She’d followed their order, once, but she’d slowly grown disillusioned with high command over the years. The death of her entire outpost followed by no support from the Abyss itself, requiring a human to save her instead? That would have been enough to alienate her on her own, but then they’d commanded her to kill that human, then tried to kill her when she hadn’t.

Caiyeri: Alternatively, you could just kill yourself and save us both the time.

For some reason, they didn’t seem to want to respond to that.

#

Will was abruptly jerked out of his definitely-not-just-torture training session by a system notification.

Or, to be exact, a notification in the style of the Executor Token he still possessed.

CERTAINTY THROUGH DEATH.

ORDER THROUGH CHAOS.

PEACE THROUGH DREAD.

ELIMINATE. ERADICATE. EXECUTE.

Current targets: [Corruption Cultist] x??

Reward: 1 Awakening Shard of the Beyond per target executed.

He frowned. Ayla had emphasized the importance of gaining a connection to the Beyond, but the system was offering him more. Would there be more skills that related to that place? Using the arcane, eldritch power locked away within that magical frozen plane?

Will wasn’t going to find out if he didn’t follow through with this.

Earlier, he’d been thinking about what kind of person he’d be to kill a thousand other sapients. Now, though he didn’t have a perfect answer, he knew that his knee-jerk reaction of “a monster” was wrong.

Sometimes, killing was the only solution.

Will: Nynn. Something tells me you’re busy.’

Nynn: Your hunch would be correct.

Will: How do I join you?

Nynn: If you cannot find your own path, that is proof that you will be incapable of being no more than an obstacle.

Will: Jeez, edgelord much? I guess your title is literally Dread Executor, so I should have seen that coming.

Nynn: Not anymore. Stop bothering me.

The chat window closed, and Will expanded his perception.

“We’re going to get a bit funky, Sen,” he muttered. The familiar’s eyes moved through the walls of the arena, expanding outwards. “Get me eyes on this.”

Unsurprisingly, the arenas were not held in suspended animation. There was an interconnected network of them, each with force magic protecting the domes. They were planted on an otherwise empty asteroid high, high above the Earth, deep in space.

Will let the hunger phantasm expand outwards, slithering through the infinitesimal cracks between mana particles. On the outside, the phantasm coalesced into a small set of daggers, giving Will the chance to use Weapons Free.

You are in a protected area. You may not use teleportation skills to leave the arena.

“Is that so?” Will asked. “You know I’m trying to help, right?”

Obviously, the inanimate system didn’t respond to him, so he walked on over to the wall, placed both hands on it, and activated Decaying Touch.

Skill: [Decaying Touch]

- Spell (affliction).

- Cost: high mana.

- Cooldown: none.

Silver.

Deals necrotic damage. Inflict one level of silver-rank [Corruption] on a creature or item you touch. This skill cannot stack afflictions.

Notably, Decaying Touch could affect items, and though this was a structure, Will’s definition of “item” was broad enough that corruption spread from his fingertips to the side of the dome, distorting its protections and damaging the system-laid building blocks there.

Within minutes, enough of it was broken that when Will tried again, he was easily able to teleport out.

He used Chaos Transfer on the damaged arena, transferring the silver-rank corruption to his slayer sword. No point in wasting a good affliction, after all, and he didn’t want to be disqualified for this.

Equilibrium Mantle kept him capable of breathing and walking in the low-pressure, zero-oxygen environment. He air-dashed forward with Wind Walker despite a total lack of wind. In the low gravity outside the controlled system environment, it took him much farther than he expected.

There were a lot more of the bubble-like domes than he’d expected, but despite their number, it was easy to find the ones the corruption cultists had attacked.

Chaos magic tainted the area, artificially induced corruption polluting over a dozen different domes. Will had no idea what they hoped to accomplish, but he moved forward nonetheless, intent on ambushing one. Nynn was already in their midst, but his scythe seemed to be more restricted than it had been last time. He was effective, but not as horribly above gold-rank as he’d seemed earlier.

Will was half the planet away from them, although the asteroid that made up their current “planet,” so to speak, was small enough that he could sprint across it in half an hour without even using his skills. He lined up a path towards the cultists.

Just as he was about to surge forth with all the power he could spare, a spatial tear opened behind him. Will didn’t turn, instead using Sen’s eyes to watch as a gold-rank User came out from within, enough equipment adorning his body to make even Lu Jie’s clan jealous.

The aura was not of Will’s planet, but this was a human. A human with a weapon raised, though the ambush stopped when Will materialized his hunger phantasm without attacking. Whoever it was, he recognized that Will could perceive him and stood back warily, aura feeling his out.

This aura… it was way more refined than any of the Users on Earth had managed. It even rivaled Caiyeri’s in terms of raw control.

“Who the hell are you?” Will asked, bringing more of Sen’s eyes back. The aura’s control was so tight that he couldn’t even properly perceive the man’s class through the obfuscation.

“Corruption wielder William Li-Brown,” the stranger said, projecting his voice with raw mana and making himself heard despite the lack of air. “My name is Nathan. Put down your weapons and prepare for capture. You have twenty seconds to comply. Dead or alive, you’re coming with me.”

Will turned and squinted. This man was clearly not from Earth, and yet… “Hold on. Is that from fucking RoboCop?”

__

Author's note: nice.