Chapter 305 - Bubbling Up

Nate approached the bubbling lake of blood at the heart of the forest.

Kiri hooted as Nate felt her sense the size of the creature that had decided to make the lake its home. Wulfgar beside her swallowed, knowing what was coming.

“Are you sure I need to do it alone?” asked the old warrior.

The look of worry on his face was clear.

“You can manage it,” reassured Nate.

Kiri snorted in response.

“If it was our master he’d have stripped you of all your weapons and told you to climb into that lake and rip it apart with your nails while dodging his own attacks to keep you on your toes!”

Nate tried not to laugh at Kiri’s rendition of Ankh’s training methods, though in retrospect, she wasn’t really lying. The ancient dragon probably would have done something like that.

“You’ll be fine you big baby!” added Frick. “If you don’t get in there, I will!”

Wulfgar hefted his axe and growled, “Call me a baby again.”

“You’re bald and wrinkly, just like a meatbag baby!” yelled Frick only to get punted by Kiri into a nearby tree.

“Stop distracting him. Get to it Wulfgar. We’ve got places to be and artifacts to collect. I don’t want to be waiting here for half a day and give princess I want a Nate doll time to catch up,” said Kiri before muttering to herself. “Though if Nate’s right that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Nate let the comment slide, because Kiri wasn’t wrong. His hypothesis that Perenthia was using the normal exchange of soul energy with the Spirit Realm to track and predict them wasn’t by any means proven. In fact, it was worse than that. Even if he was right, and the new Soul Change Barrier runes carved into their own souls were enough to keep them from being found directly, there was nothing stopping Perenthia from tracking them indirectly. 

The Soul Change Barrier runes he had crafted and imbued with layers of Intent allowed each of them, Frick included, to alter the soul energy that went to the Spirit Realm. Currently Nate had his set to scrub everything, but in the future if he was forced into conflict with the pink-haired menace, he had the option of turning the info into chaotic information or even feeding it intentionally incorrect information. 

But, even with that being the case, Perenthia could still track them by reading the soul energies from anyone they encountered. It was far from perfect, but Nate was confident it would work.

Wulfgar marched away from them, his feet leaving ripples on the pool of blood as he made for the middle of the lake.

“Whatever beast is in there, it feels weird. Strong soul,” commented Kiri next to him as she sat down on the grass to watch.

“It’s half-spirit I think,” commented Nate.

The gigantic insect that somewhat resembled a mosquito if a mosquito was the size of a double-decker bus chose that moment to surface from the pond. Sliding through the viscous blood, the liquid seemed to cling to its eight-legged form like armour as its four bulbous eyes took in the interloper.

Nate’s senses continued to roam over the armour, but just like the canopy of the trees above them, they couldn’t pass through the blood. Each time he pushed too hard, something within reached out to try and enter him through his senses. Nate kept prodding it intentionally, as each time the existence reached out he got a little closer to sensing the Concepts involved. 

“Blood, Possession and Soul,” he muttered and got a small amount of Divine Energy for his troubles. “Pretty sure it’s got a Blood Spirit inside of it.”

Nate shot a glance at Frick, “Spirit’s don’t cross over often, I thought.”

“They don’t,” agreed the blue goblin. “Stronger ones are more willing to do so though, especially if they sense something they want. We’re weaker on this side as we usually have to leave a part of ourselves behind as our anchor within the Spirit Realm. Unless we anchor ourselves to something else.”

Nate smirked at Frick as Wulfgar was kicked across the pond, skipping like a thrown rock.

“You mean like how you shifted your anchor into your body?” Nate muttered.

The change was the reason that Frick could now potentially die. The little blue goblin no longer had a part of himself in the Spirit Realm. If he died here for real, he wouldn’t just spend some time recovering. Though, according to the little lunatic it was worth it for the experience of being alive and the thrill of nearly dying. Nate simply thought the little hedonist enjoyed indulging in the pleasures of the flesh and was crazy enough to risk death to do it.

“So, what?” asked Kiri. “The Blood Spirit has anchored itself in the beast?”

“And is possessing it,” added Nate.

“Gross.”

Wulfgars screams washed over them as the Bloodborne Executioner ran from multiple stabs of the needle-like nose of the Possessed giant mosquito-spider.

“Should we help him?” asked Nate.

Kiri shook her head, “He needs to catch up and this is a good start. Now, let’s talk about the elf and the Challenge of Balance.”

Nate sighed, “Challenge of Balance first. How did you do?”

“Three-hundred-and-ninety-eight points, minus the twenty for cost of entry. No extra rewards. You?”

“Five-hundred-and-sixty-seven, minus the twenty like you said. New record. And I got two rewards, though not for the Challenge itself. No rewards for that but given the points I am not complaining.”

Nate produced the two rewards he had received and activated Conceptual Sight.

Peak-Divine Artifact - Golden Feather of a Shining Sun Roc.
Peak-Divine Artifact - Calcified Heart of a Stygian Devourer.

“Creation and Destruction?” asked Kiri.

Nate simply nodded for confirmation, tucking them back into his Regalia and sealing it. He’d normally have kept them in his spatial zone but until he converted his spatial Skills to a Divine Vessel ability he wasn’t confident in keeping out anyone truly gifted with the Space Concept. And he was a prime target for robbery for any enterprising Lesser Divines on the planet they found themselves on. So for now he’d kept his two prized artifacts locked behind a Divine Sigil.

“I’m bleeding off the excess Divine Energy already and adding it to myself. Speaking of, how long do you think Wulfgar is going to be?” asked Nate.

Kiri watched the Bloodborne Executioner hack through one of the beasts eight legs only to be forced away by a cutting spray of blood that split the lake in half.

“Another hour I reckon. They’re both kinda durable.”

Kiri’s words proved true as some of the lake was absorbed to rebuild the beast’s missing leg.

Nate nodded. “Watch my back?”

Kiri agreed and Nate used Runic Reality to start carving runes into their surroundings, enhancing the sense of Blood in the air while using Barriers and Concealment to try and keep anyone from noticing what he was doing at a distance. The final piece was a layer of shadow around himself. Then he settled in to invest some of his Divine Energy into improving his Divine Vessel.

An hour passed, then a second, and a third, before Nate finally let the shadows fall away to see how much of an improvement he’d made. The results were every bit as much as he had expected, as for the first time since leaving the Wild Realm and Ankh’aris’s side, Nate was using Destruction and Creation Divine Energy directly to improve his Divine Vessel.

Divine Vessel (+38% All Stats) (Permanent, Divine) (Progress: 1.9%) (Form: Creation/Space/Destruction)

Class Core Divine Energy - 47/160 | Divine Vessel Divine Energy - 32/190

Sands of Erosion (Temporary, Divine, Remaining Time: 266 Days)

Nate smiled and looked around to find a tired, but pristine, looking Wulfgar nearby.

“So you succeeded,” commented Nate.

“Aye lad, I did. And here’s my prize!”

Wulfgar held out a blob of blood in both hands. The membrane looked thin enough to puncture but it seemed like no matter what Wulfgar did, it held firm. Nate didn’t need his advanced senses at this range to feel the Divine Energy pulsing off of the artifact.

“Peak-Grade. But… it’s not going to be enough on its own,” replied Nate.

Wulfgar nodded. “Didn’t think it would be. Even at the Peak there is a lot of variation based on what you’ve told me. This one is on the lower end and since I might need even more than the pair of you… probably going to need a few just like this to even make the attempt. If I hadn’t seen the two of you fight I’d call it a waste. I could eat this thing right now and gain a handful of levels or improve my Skills. Nine hells, I might even be able to get within punching distance of Greater Divine. But then I think about what you two did to that Greater Divine and I know I’d just be a pale shadow of what I could be if I was a little more patient. Bloody hells though lad, I want to eat it. It’s gnawing at me.”

“That would be the Concept of Hunger within it. It’s not purely Blood. Keep that in mind when you eventually do consume it.”

Wulfgar nodded and they were up. Within minutes, after Nate had wiped away his runes with a casual use of Runic Reality, and they were on the Solaris once more flying through the skies.

With Frick at the helm Nate moved to join Kiri and Wulfgar below deck. Two of the Sigils Nate had picked up while on Serpent’s Wing were Cushion and Cloud. He hadn’t wasted them and the main room which functioned as a meeting area was decorated with pillows made of all sorts of weird and wonderful materials from wood to leaves to metal that Nate had sculpted into chairs and then made them as soft as sitting on a cloud.

They gathered around the table, Kiri immediately putting her black-scaled boots on the table.

“Alright,” began Nate. “We need to figure out the plan going forward. Things have changed a little with the two System Challenges.”

“I’ll say,” grunted Wulfgar, throwing his arms up when Kiri side-eyed him. “What? They have. I was expecting us to do what you said, lass. Support Nate and make sure he grabs first place.”

Nate appreciated that the old warrior didn’t voice the ‘why’ they wanted first place so badly. It was likely The System would scrub that from any feeds it sent back to the populace of Serpent’s Wing, but likely wasn’t certainly and Nate didn’t need the headache of Worldhammer trying to interfere somehow.

“Well, we’ve been doing that!” continued Wulfgar. “But the team Challenge has thrown us a juicy bone. I’m not delusional. I probably can’t hold a candle to any of these so-called Seeds, but I can probably give their dogs a fair go in a fight, and I am sitting in third. Third, lass. That’s painted a target on us. Our boy is so far out in front that if he slowed down to half-speed he’d still probably leave the lot of them in the dust. Which means, these Seeds are going to be coming after us. Because the only way for them to get ahead now is by putting our boy, Nate, in the dirt.”

“You’re not telling me anything I don’t know,” replied Kiri calmly. “But, what way are you leaning? Really, we’ve got three options as I see it. Option one, we keep pushing. Hard. For that we need to find out the location of more System Challenges, which means finding the Starbreaking Guild markets again to buy information. We can sneak in, but that doesn’t mean they won’t sell us out the moment we’re gone. We’re asking for fights if we do that, which you both know I am all for.

“Option two, we lay low for a while. We use the Divine Seeking artifact that Nate created and roam around hidden behind layers of illusion and whatever else Nate can cook up while hunting down every Divine artifact we can find. Has the benefit of building our power up but it’ll mean less points for you and me, Wulfy, as everything goes to Nate. We’d lose our second and third place over time and from what I gathered, the System rewards are nothing to sneeze at.

“Finally, third option, we go on the offensive. We start hunting the teams on the Leaderboard and take them out before they can take us out. It’s risky and probably won’t last for long since they’ll figure it out after the first two vanish is my bet.”

Kiri finished in a rush then glanced at Nate questioningly.

Nate smiled back at his sister, “My vote… is all three. We get the information from the Starbreaking Guild, then set up an ambush for anyone that comes after us, and help ourselves to everything they’ve already collected. We get the resources needed to advance ourselves, while denying it to them, and with more System Challenges we can keep at least Kiri ahead of the rest of the pack. Based on the points you got from the Challenge of Balance I don’t know if I can promise you the same Wulfgar.”

“That’s fine, lad,” replied the old warrior. “You’re giving me the opportunity. On me to seize it ain’t it? You two have shown time and again your worth. I’ll do my part and ask for no more than that.”

Nate nodded and with their agreement they broke up. Kiri headed for her bedroom on the Solaris. Nate suspected she was about to advance her own Divine Vessel just like he had. Wulfgar headed top-side, likely to keep Frick company, but he paused at the door, glancing back.

“When we fought the elf and her silent blademasters, I couldn’t help but notice funny things happening. I didn’t get the chance to ask before because we were running and then we were searching and then I was fighting that bloody giant insect. What was going on?”

“You mean why did she target us?” asked Nate.

“No, lad. I heard your talk with her. She’s crazier than three Gokats in a woolen sack and probably twice as deadly. What was going on with the… weird things. I would be swinging my axe one way and then suddenly it was another. Or I would start dodging left then realise I needed to dodge right. I’ve never felt like that in battle before.”

Nate could hear the fear in Wulfgar’s voice, and for a moment, he wondered if this was how people felt when they fought him. Was this how the Demon Lord had felt when Nate’s wounds had vanished as though they’d never happened? Or how Severen back on Galle felt when Nate had simply erased him. Confusion and fear? He didn’t know, but he felt that perhaps one day, he should ask.

“She can manipulate probabilities. Does that mean anything to you?” asked Nate curiously.

“Like rolling some dice?” asked Wulfgar, still halfway out the door, strung between escaping and a desire to understand so that he could put his fears to rest.

“Like rolling some dice and telling them to show whatever it is you want them to.”

“So, that’s why she said you’re alike then,” Wulfgar commented with a final nod and a small smile. “Well lad, out of the two of you, let me just say I like you a whole lot more than I like her.”

Nate just smiled in response, letting Wulfgar go. Instead, Nate continued his own introspection as he went to work on the Solaris. The ship needed some upgrades if they were to completely evade detection and an ambush from the skies sounded like a great way to start a battle.