Path of the Slayer B1 C8: Bonds and Choices

“That was insane. Why did I do that?” I found a place inside one of the towering structures to get out of the acid drizzle.

With the autosaw and my surprisingly intact adventurer pack in front of me, I took a seat on some rubble to relax a little and contemplate some things.

“Why did I throw myself off a giant tower? Like a cannon? Straight down?” I asked.

I had always been a daring man. From the orphanage to the adventurer guild, every step I took forward was a dare against the world that wanted to crush me.

I finally had power now. I could do the things I’d read about, studied, and dreamed of. I could do the things that Rank 2 silver adventurers and above would brag about.

I was excited to exploit my newfound power, and I was pretty sure it was me driving myself to do these crazy stunts. Hellion might play a part, but not majorly.

Ever since I had gained access to my Path and my Path Energy, the cursed autosaw was on his best behavior. Hellion couldn’t influence me too much without my notice.

A heavy deluge of acid rain fell from the red and orange skies. Ground-crawling clouds of noxious fumes rolled by.

Hellish creatures stalked about in the distance, making themselves known with a cry of challenge. And the soft rumbles of an immense fight rolled through a desolated urban land filled with wrecked metal carriages and ruined structures from an alien civilization that liked to build things that scraped at the infernal skies.

I waited on the ground floor of one of those ruined structures to clear my mind and calm down. I kept track of my Path Energy to see if it could recover on its own without me having to chase around and kill things.

It remained at 81%. I had a hunch that Path Energy wouldn’t budge unless I fulfilled certain requirements. I knew Rankers would use meditation to recover Aether.

Could the same work on Path Energy?

Or was my only option to keep absorbing Vitality through Hellion and clearing significant encounters?

There was a lot I didn’t know.

All of my heavy injuries from before were gone, leaving nothing but light scars and some soreness. My recovery was blazing fast.

I concentrated on the buzzing and energetic power crackling inside of me.

It moved urgently with my blood. It added an extra perk to every heartbeat. When I wanted to concentrate more, my mind sharpened, costing me a fraction of a percent of energy. When I wanted to warm up, I was flush with some extra heat over my flesh. When I wanted to cool down, I became cooler.

My Path Energy dropped from 81% to 80%.

I remained cool, as if it was winter.

Incredible.

There were so many little benefits.

Path Energy was nearly limitless.

The only boundaries were my specific Path, I imagined.

Path of the Slayer.

I wanted to understand more about what it could fully do. Was I the only one? Could there be more? How would this play out when I return to the empire?

What would happen when I face the Fallen Slayer?

The Fallen Slayer.

That creature remained a constant itch in the back of my mind. I was losing time. Yet, I remained in my seat and kept calm.

As much as I enjoyed all of this power I’d wanted for years, I also didn’t want to squander it all by dying dumbly.

“I lost too much Path Energy too fast in that last encounter,” I said. “That’s what’s bothering me. I don’t know how to use these new powers efficiently.”

Relentless Surge.

Tyrannosaurus Roar.

They were powerful.

But extremely costly. They were both Level 31 powers, which might be the reason they cost me so much. I was far from reaching that Level.

In fact, I’d noticed Tyrannosaurus Roar cost more than Relentless Surge, which made sense. The roar was Rare while the surge was Uncommon.

Even Multi-Striker Potency had a cost. Thankfully, using the Great Skill cost far lower than using Path Magic.

I checked my Path Energy reserves again.

Still at 80%.

It wouldn’t recover on its own.

Another distant rumble resounded from far away.

I let out a long breath. “After I finish the Fallen Slayer, I’m going to focus on testing this stuff.”

I pulled up the notifications waiting for me.

[Congrats! You’ve bonded with the Hellion Autosaw: Rank 2 (Rare)!]

[Would you like to make the Hellion Autosaw into a Bonded Treasure? This will change the Realm Treasure into a more fitting piece of magic gear you can dismiss and summon.]

“System, I need more information than that,” Arden said. “How do these bonds work? How is that possible when it has a Rank and I have Levels? And it’s Rare, so that makes it even more powerful. Yet you say we’ve bonded already. Does this have an effect on me in return?”

Would it cost him more Path Energy?

I waited for answers.

The System said nothing more.

The offer remained in my notifications.

Glancing down at the autosaw, I wondered if the trials I’d faced before and after becoming a Pathwalker led to the bond.

It was another thing I’d never heard of as an adventurer.

Was I willing to take another risk despite how energy hungry these powers could be? And was I willing to sacrifice an opportunity to study the treasure as it was now before it became forever changed?

The Fallen Slayer was waiting, unless I wanted that opportunity to slip past me.

I’ll keep going.

My entire existence, especially my Path Energy, vibrated. My Path became more set, more fixed in my mind, filling me with determination.

I reached over and grabbed the autosaw by the top handle. I connected it to the coupler attached to my arm and looked away.

“Whatever decision you make, my liege, I shall follow you to the end,” Hellion said.

“Fine then.” I looked up. “System, make Hellion into a Bonded Treasure.”

[Commencing Bonded Treasure Sequence. Commencing. Commencing….]

The world slowed down. Acid droplets became long streaks painting across the air. The noxious gas clouds froze into solid yellow shapes. A distant ghoul froze mid-shamble.

Nothing moved, and the same happened to me, except for the arm connected to Hellion. Something beyond my power, far, far above me, made my arm lift while wrapping golden streams of light around the treasure.

The golden streams covered Hellion, the coupler, and stopped at my elbow. I felt no pain. No discomfort. Instead, all I felt was wonder and excitement.

[Bonded Treasure Sequence complete!]

[Congrats! You’ve acquired a Bonded Treasure: Hellion Half-Ripper!]

[Hellion Half Ripper: Level 11 (Exquisite): You see, the wonderful thing about artificing is that the function of a magical device doesn’t necessarily have to match how it looks. Your new half arm, by all intents and purposes, wants to shred and slaughter and drain Vitality just like the previous autosaw, but better. You just have to channel that through the hand or through another medium it’s holding. Bonus points if it’s another edgy-as-hell weapon that might be slightly cursed!]

Time resumed around me, and I was gifted with a new half arm that matched my size and girth. It was gunmetal gray with dark red streaks along the seams. The fingers ended with edges like the teeth from the prior autosaw.

There was even a small pull handle in the middle near a miniature vent where I assumed the waste product would fume out.

With a thought, I did what the System said was possible with a Bonded Treasure – I dismissed it.

The Hellion Half Ripper disappeared with no light or sound, leaving the nub barren. After I got over the shock, I willed for it to return. The half ripper came back after a five-second wait, fading in from nowhere until it was fully corporeal.

“Level 11?” I mumbled. “Is that the equivalent of a Rank 2, or at the bottom of Rank 2?”

So I wasn’t that far away after all.

Better yet, the half ripper was now Exquisite, which was a mind blowing development. How was I getting these Exquisite stuff so fast?

“Nobody can take this away from me, can they?” I asked.

They could try, but I would probably slaughter them or go down in the slaughter.

Shaking my head, I studied every seam and groove on my new hand. “I won’t be returning the original half arm I took from the guild, I suppose.”

The change from Realm Treasure to Bonded Treasure took the modified coupler as an unmentioned sacrifice. That was a little annoying, if not sneaky, of the System, but the result was hard to deny.

Putting aside future troubles, I felt for the cursed spirit in the half ripper and … there it was. That hadn’t gone away. But it was quieter than before.

Maybe the new Hellion needed time to readjust to the changes.

I chuckled darkly. “Look at me, waiting on my cursed item to recover from being bonded to me. I really am living it up.”

I glanced out at the acid rain outside.

Yup, living it up.

Moving on, I checked the other big gains.

[Congrats! You’ve acquired a Great Skill: Punching Bag Expertise!]

[Punching Bag Expertise: Level 11 (Uncommon): You really know how to roll with the punches, huh? Or maybe not roll, but absorb. Well, whenever you take a heavy hit, this will give your toughness and recovery a boost.]

That … was both awesome and worrying.

How heavy did the hits have to be? Enough to throw me off my feet?

Wouldn’t that cost 5% of my Path Energy on top of whatever I would lose from taking a heavy hit?

Still, it was another tool to have among the others I was collecting rapidly. Now onto the next feature from the System.

[Congrats! Path of the Slayer leveled up! 3 to 6!]

[You’ve reached a Level Milestone! Please look into your Path Magic section.]

I did as I was told, pulling up the specific section. I saw I had One Unselected (Choose Here) at the end of my Path Magic list and dove right in.

To my surprise and relief, the old options were back, along with three more new options.

[Hunter’s Mark: Level 11 (Uncommon): In this business, someone wants someone else dead. Choose your target and mark them with a touch, making their position and vulnerabilities clear in your mind’s eye. The mark will last until they flee far enough away or defeat you.]

[Bullish Knock Up: Level 31 (Uncommon): What’s the point of being strong and magical if you can’t juggle your foes? Charge Path Energy into your next strike and launch an enemy high, making them more vulnerable to follow-up attacks from below or in the air. You might have to defy physics a little.]

[Stampeding Run: Level 31 (Uncommon): They really shouldn’t get in your way, but if they do, run forward while juiced up with Path Energy. You’ll move faster and harder in a straight line, resisting crowd control effects and smashing down or aside most obstacles.]

[Giant Slam: Level 31 (Uncommon): Walk silently and carry a big stick … or channel your Path Energy into a weapon and strike downward. Upon impact, release a devastating shockwave that can demolish what’s under you and knock down who is near you.]

[Crashing Parry: Level 31 (Uncommon): A big tough guy like you wouldn’t really know much about sophisticated swordsmanship. And that remains mostly true, but who cares! With this power, deliver a parry that would either send your foe’s weapon crashing, or your entire foe themselves.]

[Apex Fervor: Level 11 (Uncommon): You’ve drawn blood? Good! Don’t let them get away or outmaneuver you. With this power, boost your agility and striking speed until the prey is dead. However, you have to stay focused on one at a time.]

[Death Flurry: Level 31 (Uncommon): Stand your ground and be a deliverer of death, increasing your strength and dexterity as you strike and strike and strike with a constant fervor. It doesn’t end until you stop or there’s no more death to meter out.]

I let out a sigh.

The choices weren’t easier this time around. All of them were Uncommon, but not all of them were of the same Level.

Two were Level 11 while the rest were Level 31. At this point, I knew it was expensive to use Level 31 anything.

Still, I had to admit that the Level 31 powers had their appeal.

Bullish Knock-Up would’ve worked well on the Rank 2 demon, suspending it for easier strikes, if I had the Path Energy for it. Stampeding Run wouldn’t be a bad choice. Giant Slam seemed like a stronger choice among the older three.

Then there were the new Crashing Parry and Death Flurry, the former annoying me somewhat because I did know how to parry. I could parry decently well. The latter seemed like a meat-grinder move, which I was very familiar with already.

I wasn’t in the mood to pick up another expensive choice right now, however.

That left me with Hunter’s Mark and Apex Fervor.

After studying them both as calmly as I could, I realized one of them might be stronger for me than the other. The more I thought about it, the more I knew which was the right choice.

A new element revealed itself before I could finalize my choice. 

[The Portal Boss has been defeated.]

[The Fallen Slayer is the Portal Boss now. All Portals in and out have been closed.]

[Realm Quest Updated: Slay the Fallen Slayer Boss, be rewarded, and open Portal access.]

“Well, at least I don’t have to be in a rush anymore,” I said.

Ten minutes later, while taking more time to weigh the pros and cons of my next Path Magic choice, I heard rumbling and crashing that drew closer. The ground shook more violently under me.

Something big and heavy and fast was rushing in my direction, and it knew exactly where I was.