[System Decay] Chapter 41: Kill-Gotten Gains

The unreal space of the Hunger’s domain was growing uncomfortably familiar. The crushing dread that had assailed Will’s mind the first time he’d been here had faded more and more upon each successive visit until now.

“I assume you have some idea of what’s going on outside,” Will said, “so I’m going to make this simple. Hopefully you have enough room in that tiny little brain of yours to make sense of this.”

That garnered an angry growl that had reality cracking like glass around him, but this was not a real space. The only harm that could come to hear was inside his mind.

“You either don’t know about my skills or aren’t worried about them,” Will surmised. “Or maybe you’re trying to keep me from realizing what they can do. You hear about a little skill I have called Destructive Synthesis?”

The god laughed, the sound tinged with no small amount of pure, bitter spite in it. “My sigil is an ascendant rank item. Trying to absorb it would flood your body with so much mana that you would ignite from the inside out.”

“Ascendant rank,” Will mused. “If I remember right, the final three ranks in the last tier are Emperor, Ascendant, and Transcendent. You’re not at the highest level if the items you craft aren’t there.”

There was no response to that but pain. It was laughable, really. Childish.

This time, though, he wasn’t just going to sit there and take it. Will’s attribute growth had largely stagnated, and even though he’d gotten a boost to most of them after killing the water prayer, he realized what the defining difference was.

He wasn’t training the attributes. If he wanted to level up, he needed to put his heart, mind, and soul into it.

This tested the last of the three. The Hunger’s presence overwhelmed Will’s on an incomprehensible scale, as far above him as humans were from single-celled organisms. Will tried to put up defenses, using the same type of technique he used to suppress his aura, but he may as well have been trying to assemble a sandcastle that could withstand a tsunami using only a spoon.

His soul was laid bare, hurting more than he had thought possible. Putting up the defenses had only opened him up to a harder fall.

Think, Will tried to tell himself, though somewhere between his dream-neurons firing and the thought making it to the part of his brain that made decisions, it turned into an incoherent scream.

Instinct guided him instead. If he couldn’t wall up against a being this powerful, he could let himself be caught in its flow and lessen the damage done to him.

He surrendered himself to it, sending his soul flowing in the same direction as the Hunger’s unstoppable current instead of against it.

The parable of the oak and the willow.

The thought that crossed his mind hadn’t been in his voice. Despite the soul-crushing pain, the feminine voice jarred him into something resembling coherent though—then, suddenly and completely, the pain ceased.

“You dare interfere, Sadareth?” the Hunger howled.

“Look at you go,” Will muttered. “Like a kid throwing a tantrum.”

There was no more trace of the voice that had spoken to him. Will would’ve assumed it was an innate defense mechanism, but the Hunger reacting to it solidified it as real.

That wasn’t his concern right now. The other being wasn’t actively trying to convert him.

“As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted,” Will said, his voice laced with genuine anger now, “You’ve already lost.”

“You cannot win,” the Hunger said, failing to conceal the anger in its unstoppable aura. It felt like a punch to the face, just hearing the words.

But Will had a haymaker of his own. “If you can see my skills, you can see my quests. There’s a sigil at the center of the dungeon I’m in right now.”

The god, ascendant-rank though he might be, could not or would not control its emotions here. Will wondered how a literal god could be this sloppy at aura control, but maybe the fact that he was at its mercy here was exactly why. To the god, Will appeared to be nothing more than an insect.

Will, however, could sense the nervous spike in the domain.

Emboldened by this, he continued, “I’ve had some time to talk about sigils with the other people who are a bit more experienced than me.”

“The elves?” the Hunger said, disbelieving. “They’re practically children. Do you think metal-tiers can even begin to fathom what goes into—“

“No,” Will said. “I gathered that. I also gathered experiences, though. You don’t have to be a sovereign-tier User to understand the basics of what’s happening to you.

“Thalia Brooksoul. Nymlera Brooksoul. Rowan Zero. All three of those are known sigil-holders.” Will silently thanked Caiyeri and Azure for being willing to fill in the gaps in his knowledge as they’d been running. “You know what they all have in common?”

“Do enlighten me,” the god said, radiating a flawless air of pure confidence. He’d started taking this seriously, it seemed, because for a moment, Will was genuinely convinced that the Hunger had nothing to worry about.

It was already too late, though. That initial spike of fear had been real, and Will knew weakness when he saw it. “They’re not fucking thralls. The Elven Mother has sigil-holders across every race, and they operate under their own volition. That got me thinking, you know. Why would you want so bad for me to work as your slave while other gods don’t have that? Well, the obvious answer is ego, but I don’t think that’s all of it.”

To Will’s surprise, he was not immediately tortured after that. He could sense the integrity of the place destabilizing, which he assumed was the reason why. He was going to wake up soon.

“You need me,” he said, grinning viciously. “The Trial of the Champion is coming soon, and oh boy am I surprised at how much divine influence is there. Need an entry in that, do we?”

From the silence, Will knew he’d hit pay dirt.

“I hold the power here,” Will hissed. “There’s another sigil here. I will find it, I will take it, and I will bury yours so deep in the goddamn ground that even if someone finds it, it’ll be far too late to be of use to you.

“Or you could cooperate. It’s up to you.”

As Will was forced once more to adopt the mindset of becoming a leaf on the wind, a speck of sand in the sea, he found it easy to push through the pain.

The god knew it was going to lose.

#

[Soul] advanced to Bronze 8!

[Resistance] advanced to Bronze 3!

“Christ,” Will said, blinking awake.

Or, at least, he tried to say that. Apparently, Equilibrium Mantle wasn’t so kind as to allow him to speak, though at least he didn’t inhale water.

Will: That sucked.

Caiyeri: The sigil again?

Will: The sigil again. Looks like we’re working towards a solution, though.

That the solution involved getting the next sigil was something he was going to keep quiet for the time being. Will trusted Caiyeri because they’d fought together, but not enough to tell her that he intended on getting the sigil. Splitting loot from a monster was one thing. A sigil? That was a few orders of magnitude more important.

And more importantly, he didn’t trust Azure at all. When they’d spoken about the reward for the quest, that man’s eyes had told Will everything he needed to know. Trust was a valuable commodity, one he intended to give only to those who earned it.

The three of them had neatly sidestepped the question of what they were going to do if they did find the sigil. Problems that presented themselves with more immediacy took priority.

To everyone’s surprise, the water prayer’s last laugh hadn’t only affected Will’s makeshift party. Azure had grown increasingly agitated as a contingent of the special forces group that he and Caiyeri had once been a part of closed in on them, but the torrent had washed them away, forcing them far back into the cave.

The water, as far as anyone could tell, was still rising. Whatever limitless plane of water the prayer had accessed with its skill, it was not stopping even long after the twisted creature was dead.

Loaded down with clopthes, armor, and weapons, none of their three floated in the mana-infused liquid. Instead, they experienced a microcosm of what Will thought the moon might be like, each step taking them higher and farther than it should have but their movements slowed by the resistance of water. Wind Walker and Escape Artist still functioned as necessary, and Caiyeri’s Corrupted Speed, granted by her armor set, gave her the boost she needed to keep up.

Will: Where to next?

Caiyeri: Good question. We’re not trained for the water. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much water in one place.

Will: Seriously? You’ve never been to an ocean.

Caiyeri: As it turns out, being created and raised for a specific, experimental purpose doesn’t tend to give you broad life experiences.

Will: Wow. Okay.

Azure: I am more trained for this, but a water prayer’s water doesn’t act the same way you would expect it to. For the time being, I recommend we find a safe zone. Our power is drained, and though we may have advanced, none of us can handle another fight above our rank.

Will: There are safe zones within the dungeons?

Azure: Of a sort. They will be less protective, but they should weather the effects of the elements better.

#

“This part of the dungeon is filling up fast,” Lily said. “How are you planning on handling this, Andrew?”

The creature in there had given her a name at some point, but she’d forgotten it. It didn’t seem to mind being called “Andrew” that much, so she kept using what stuck in her mind.

“Amphibian,” it replied simply. “I can breathe.”

“Oh, neat!” Lily giggled. “Me too!”

The water was up to their necks in this part of the dungeon. It looked like the lower levels of the  dungeon had fully flooded.

Hunter was a very versatile class, and one of her skills—affixed to her Resistance, which was bound with the Adapt element—allowed her to see in the dark, breathe underwater, and suntan in the snow, among other things.

Once again, the density of the mana in the water was messing up her ability to track her prey, but it was too late for the group she’d targeted already.

As it turned out, even if the trail was largely gone, if the target was close enough, she could find them.

#

Lya and Wilhelm Two had been separated from the rest of the group upon entry into the dungeon, and it had only gotten worse when the freshly-cleared solo boss room they’d found had rapidly started to flood.

Both of them had enough water breathing potions to last them over a week, but water was not their element. Lya was a Bladesinger, Wilhelm an Assassin, and both of them found their movements and attack speed deeply impeded by the water.

Using the system chat, they determined that the best plan of action was to retreat, withdraw to a drier area, and possibly abandon the dungeon altogether until they could return to the group.

What they didn’t see coming were the human and life elf construct, both of them hiding high above Lya and Wilhelm’s head.

By shedding most of their equipment, Lily and Andrew were light enough to propel themselves to the ceiling, and though the abyss elves were trained to check their surroundings, it never occurred to them that while underwater, it was very possible for enemies to be standing upside down on the ceiling.

A muffled scream was all the warning Lya got. She swivelled her head over to see her assassin companion assassinated, his body limply floating through the water in death. A halo of murky blood surrounded his neck, where Lily swam.

Lily had been a swimmer back before the fall. That came in handy now as she dolphined forward, slicing through the water far faster than Lya could retreat.

Panic surging through her body, Lya used her signature Bladesong skill, increasing her reflexes and speed. She deflected the shockingly fast blow from Lily, but the bronze ranker almost made it through Lya’s defenses.

Lily wasn’t slowed by the water in the same way that Lya was, so the latter made it her goal to retreat as quickly as possible. Once they got onto fairer ground, she would have the advantage.

Lya didn’t sense the silver-rank life elf construct until it was too late. A fleshy spike sliced through her chest, grown from Andrew’s arm, and her vision darkened.

A terrible pain ripped through her, followed by visions of another life. A human life.

Then, somehow, she was not dead. Yet she was not alive, not anymore.

The last conscious thought Lya had was, the life elf took me alive.

After that, she could think no more.

#

The safe zone Azure had found for them, as promised, had some of the functionality of a typical one. Its number one feature was that it was dry, enchantments on the door to it keeping the flood from entering it somehow. Inside, there were places to eat and sleep, alongside a system store that sold nothing more than the basics. Will stocked up on bronze-rank potions, using his kill-gotten gains to purchase a bunch.

He also got a change of clothes. The ones he had on were sopping wet, provided no magical benefit, and clashed with each other stylistically.

The new T-shirt and jeans he got weren’t much better in that last respect, though.

“I can’t believe the system decided to give a dungeon a logo and made it Comic Sans,” Will complained, holding it at arm’s length. “Why do we even have dungeon merch?”

“What does your new skill do?” Caiyeri asked, completely ignoring him.

She and Azure also changed their wardrobes, inventorying the armor on themselves before also inventorying all of their clothes and bringing out another set that they’d evidently already had.

“Is stripping nude in front of your party an elf thing?” Will asked uncertainly, trying not to let his eyes wander to either of them. He failed, but at least he tried.

“Clones aren’t supposed to be real people,” Caiyeri said off-handedly, popping on a new set of underwear followed by a loose tunic and pants. “Our relationship with our bodies is neutral at best.”

“Oh, so it’s a creepy clone elf thing. Much better.” For his part, Will at least brought out a towel to change his underclothes. He sighed in relief as he got dry clothes again. “Thank god. Wet socks should be banned by the Geneva Convention.”

“Geneva?” Azure asked.

“Don’t you have war crimes where you are?”

“We’ve had this conversation before,” Caiyeri said, rolling her eyes. “No. None that matter to us, at least. I asked you a question. Respond.”

“I’ll respond when I get an answer,” Will said. He’d been so busy keeping an eye out around them and killing off the fish-monsters that propagated through the water that he hadn’t fully examined his new skill yet.

Skill: [Favored Element]

- Ritual (resistance).

- Cost: moderate mana.

- Casting Time: 10 minutes.

- Cooldown: 1 day.

Bronze.

A skill most typically found in those who seek to exterminate elementals. You are in the hallowed company of bounty hunters and insane, off-the-chain racists. Congratulations.

Allows you to pick one favored element and one hostile element. Until this ritual is no longer on cooldown, you gain extreme resistance to attacks using your favored element if they are of your rank or lower. If this resistance completely nullifies the damage you would have taken, you are instead healed proportionally to the power of the attack.

You take increased damage from the hostile element, but if an attack is made upon you using that element, your next attack against that enemy will be greatly increased in power.

Just like the other skills, the element bound to the attribute seemed to have a major effect on the direction it took. This was a prayer of sorts, if you could call a ritual prayer, and though it seemed just alright on a cursory glance, Will’s mind was already churning with all sorts of ways to abuse it.

“It’s a ritual,” he said. “It’ll help me take less damage.”

When it became clear that he wouldn’t say more, Caiyeri huffed, crossing her arms. “And?”

“You two haven’t been the most forthcoming with me,” Will countered. “Trust is a two-way street.”

“Fair point,” Caiyeri said, dropping the topic with surprising ease. “Well, while we’re here and recovering our mana, want to train?”

“By ‘train,’ do you mean ‘beat the shit out of me’ again?” Will asked.

“No. Maybe.” Caiyeri paused. “Yes, but not just that. Your aura control is very good for someone who had exactly one day of training, but it’s still amateurish. You need to learn how to meditate.”

“Meditating,” Will said flatly. “Like yoga meditating.”

“I don’t know what yoga is, so I’m going to assume that was an insult,” Caiyeri said. “Your race will learn the ways in time, but you lack a foundation. Meditation is key. Insight is key. Visualization is key.”

“Real bold talk from someone two levels higher than me,” Will said. “Given how many years of a head start, again?”

“Two levels higher than you and yet indisputably the better fighter. You yourself have taken on those higher rank than you off the virtue of your skills, but with the right technique, you can do so without even using a drop of mana.”

Caiyeri closed her eyes, and her aura, which Will had passively been sensing, pulsed out, brushing against his soul in an achingly familiar way. The Hunger had done the same thing, though on a much grander scale.

“Okay, you have my attention,” Will said. “Now you have my interest.”

Caiyeri frowned. “Usually, people react more intensely to that. Soul crushing is a uniquely painful experience.”

“I’m not usual people,” Will said.

Caiyeri rolled her eyes again. “Whatever you want to believe, Will. Now are you going to sit down and learn or not?”

Will checked the entrance, where a slight disturbance of the soil and a drawn rune told him that Azure had set a trap for anyone entering. They would be safe for the time being. There was time to train.

“Yes,” he said gravely, sitting down cross-legged. “Teach me the ways of the Jedi, oh great Master.”

Caiyeri made a face. “Can we go back to the arrogance? This is worse.”

“Much worse,” Azure agreed.

“Hey!”

#

The Elven Mother could not stop laughing.

“This is not funny, Sadareth!” the Hunger shouted. The force of his voice was enough to punch a crater into the surface of the moon they sat together on.

With a long-suffering sigh, the Mother put the moon back together, reassembling the house with it. “If it were I in your position, Kadael, you would agree that it is at least a bit funny. Ascendant-rank you outmaneuvered by a bronze. A corrupted bronze, at that. Ironic, in some ways.”

“Easy for you to say,”  the Hunger said. “You’ve long since established your champions. I only had one, and he died.”

“You will not like hearing this,” the Mother said carefully, “but you may have to consider allowing him to w—“

Kadael’s scream of rage actually split the moon apart this time. Sadareth wished that the sigh was more effective, because she had a few decades of pent-up exasperation she dearly wanted to get out.

“You are a child yet,” she said. “Even if I am considered a novice in the eyes of the gods, I have been here for quite some time. Enough to know that sometimes, we must accept a defeat now to ensure a victory later.”

“A defeat against my own champion would make me a laughingstock.”

“Kadael…” Sadareth’s voice was gentle, soothing in a way that no mortal could possibly manage. “We already are.”

The Hunger’s shoulders slumped—another childish remnant of the mortal he’d once been. “At least give me the chance to win him over. There are still weeks until the tournament. If your followers can prevent him from getting the second sigil…”

“I will do what I can,” the Mother promised. “But they may find that this human is tougher to crack than they expect.”

#

Will sneezed.

“Focus,” Caiyeri urged.

“Right, sorry,” he said. “Just one moment.”

He opened up his chat window, thankful that he was still within range of Lev’s party.

Will: Is someone talking about me? I just sneezed real bad.

Allie: Weeb.

Lev: Fucking weeb.

Will: That’s not even an anime-only thing! I swear it’s a superstition in the West, too. Besides, Japan is as boned as we are. There’s no country I can even be a weeb for!

Trevor: Weeb.

Will: I hate you all.