The Affinity Collector 2 -- Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Jeremy finally had to use his Abilities against the [Burning Goblins] in the next route, which were 4-foot-tall humanoid-looking monsters with reddish-colored thick skin and burning, rusty metal swords that looked like they could actually hurt him if they managed to make contact.  Fortunately, they were fairly slow even though they were Level 5, so it was easy enough for him to stay out of their reach as he primarily used the Abilities he had that weren’t yet at reserved Level 10.  Vine Whips snaked around the spindly legs of the [Goblins] and tripped them up, causing them to fall on their faces, and a use of Shadow Strike on his staff slammed into them once they were incapacitated, killing them in a couple of good hits, if not with one-hit kills.  Obtaining Tier 2 in Shadow Strike, which was one of the first Abilities he’d had permanently applied, allowed him to add a little more Mana to the Ability, which seemed to increase the damage the shadowy extension of his staff did, significantly increasing its potency. 

After the first few he killed requiring more than a single strike, as cutting through the tough skin of the [Goblins] was a messy affair with the blade-like edge of Shadow Strike, he realized that if he altered the Ability to be more of a blunt weapon like a large hammer, he could crush the monsters’ heads rather than try to cut them apart.  Therefore, he changed up his intent when activating Shadow Strike, forming a ridiculous-looking, oversized hammer head on the end of his staff…

…but it worked exactly as he hoped.  He had to use more Mana to keep it intact, as the impact with the [Goblins] threatened to destabilize the shadows used in the Ability, but it was only a matter of an extra 2 Mana to keep it working properly.  Soon enough, he was smashing heads like he was prop comic smashing watermelons on a stage somewhere, and none of the single [Burning Goblins] even got close to him. 

It was only when they started coming in 2s or 3s that he had to start using Leafy Barrier to block the additional attackers, literally pushing them back as his intent had the large leaf slamming into them.  It didn’t do much damage, but it sent them tumbling and out of range for a short time, allowing him to finish off the others. 

Unfortunately, toward the end of the route, the [Burning Goblins] started to come in groups of 4 or 5, making his previous tactics a bit harder to maintain.  The burning swords of the monsters not only cut into his leafy barrier, but they also lit it on fire, which consumed it quite quickly.  He could cancel it and activate the Ability again, but that cost more Mana, so he searched for another solution.

He originally tried combining the effect from Shroud of Darkness or Shadow Strike to the Leafy Barrier, making it stronger and adding some durability, but the same thing he noticed when {Dark} Abilities interacted with {Plant} Abilities interacted with each other occurred, where the plant would become corrupted with a type of rot, making it somewhat more fragile.  He’d been able to make something work with Shadow Strike and his Vine Whip when he used it against the [Fire Slimes], but even then, he still saw the corrupted rot.

After defeating another group of 5 [Goblins] and seeing that he still had quite a few more groups to get through in order to get to the Rift Core, he debated just falling back on Bend Light and Energy Boost to create lasers, which he was fairly certain would work well enough against the monsters without too much trouble.  However, he didn’t want to have to rely on the attack every time he ran into a problem, otherwise he might end up in a situation where it wouldn’t be quite as effective and wouldn’t have any other options.  Therefore, he took the time to move off to the side and sat down, thinking about the problem from another perspective.

Whatever the magical component in his {Dark} Abilities was, it had a negative effect on plant life.  His hypothesis was that it was likely due to plants needing light to thrive, and by taking that away, he would essentially cripple the cellular structure of the plants from the inside.  He quickly experimented with Leafy Barrier and combined it – through Equilibrium – with Bend Light and Shroud of Darkness, hoping to strengthen the leaf while eliminating the corrupting issue, but just like his experiment with Vine Whip, the effects were lessened, but all it did was slow the leaf’s deterioration. 

What if it’s not actually the lack of light that is making plants deteriorate in the presence of {Dark} energy?  If it was, then I would think that Equilibrium would eliminate those issues, especially if that is my intent when activating the multi-Affinity Ability.  If that’s the case, then what if it is a quality of the {Dark} energy itself that is corrupting the plants?

As he recalled all of the times he’s seen his {Dark} energy corrupting vegetation, both in his own experiments and when he was in the Instructor Assessment Rift, he could practically see the energy wreaking havoc on the cells of the plants as they withered away and died – essentially the opposite of what light would do.  However, with that explanation somewhat in question, Jeremy began to consider if the energy itself was like some sort of corrupting toxin that was simply lethal to plant life.

Closing his eyes as he thought about some of the things he’d learned on Earth, he knew that there were a multitude of plants that actively helped to clean toxins from the environment.  Certain palms, snake plants, and ivies were commonly used to clean airborne toxins such as benzene, formaldehyde, and carbon monoxide, for instance.  Cattails, duckweed, and water mint were amazingly good at removing nitrates, heavy metals, and even harmful bacteria from water, and Sunflowers were sometimes used to remove small amounts of radioactive contaminants from soil.  Not only did these plants on Earth act as filters for different toxins, but some of them actually thrived on these contaminants, using them to grow faster and healthier than they would otherwise.

What if I use that same principle here?

In practice, he’d manipulated the size and shape of the leaf that was formed when he activated Leafy Barrier in order to find its limits, but he hadn’t actually changed the leaf into something other than the generically large leaf that appeared.  He wasn’t sure if he actually could change it, but all of his efforts with his other Affinities told him that there was probably a good chance that he could.

Therefore, with intense focus, he slowly activated Leafy Barrier while he pictured changing the very nature of the leaf, imposing his desire for it to absorb the harmful nature of {Dark} energy.  There was immediately some pushback from the Ability and a significant strain on his mind, and – at least at first – nothing appeared.  It took another 30 seconds of adding more and more details of what he remembered learning on Earth about the cells inside plants, how they actually absorbed different nutrients, and how they reacted to different types of stimuli before something finally happened. 

Like a bursting bubble, the strain on his mind disappeared and a new-looking leaf appeared floating in front of him.  The new leaf was shaped like an oblong oval, with it being 2 feet wide and 4 feet long, and it was a much darker green than he was used to seeing from the Ability.  That wasn’t the strangest part of the leaf, however, as that honor belonged to the black veins that ran through the entirety of the leaf, like someone had traced them with a black permanent marker.   

Ability {Plant}: Leafy Barrier has increased to Tier 6!

Tier increase reserved…

Ability {Plant}: Leafy Barrier has increased to Tier 7!

Tier increase reserved…

Affinity {Plant} Strength has increased to Weak 5!

{Plant} Strength increase reser—

Nexus Rift detected!  Absorbing Rift energy for necessary changes!

{Plant} Strength increase applied!

………

Affinity {Plant} Strength has increased to Minor 1!

{Plant} Strength increase reser—

Nexus Rift detected!  Absorbing Rift energy for necessary changes!

{Plant} Strength increase applied!

The increase in his Ability wasn’t quite a surprise, given that he’d just fundamentally changed the nature of the leaf, but 2 Tier increases certainly was!  What was also somewhat expected was the increases to his {Plant} Affinity Strength as he was doing something new with it, but to have it shoot all the way up to Minor 1 from Weak 4 was a massive increase.  He could feel the changes affect him, though as he was used to the sudden increase in Affinity Strengths by that point, he was more than capable of working through the temporary pain and maintaining his control of his Leafy Barrier Ability.

When all of the changes subsided, Jeremy looked at the leaf floating in front of him before he decided to see if it actually worked the way he intended.  As he layered Shroud of Darkness over it, he could immediately see that the leaf was unaffected – but it also started sucking up the darkness from his other Ability at an incredible rate until it all disappeared, causing the Shroud Ability to fail.

Well, that’s not quite what I wanted.

Another attempt did exactly the same thing, so he canceled his Leafy Barrier and rethought his process.  I think that, because they’re currently separate, one of them is going to overpower the other; it used to be my {Dark} energy destroying the leaf, but now it’s just the opposite.  I need them to work together….

With only a second of hesitation, he began activating both Leafy Barrier with his previous intent in place as well as Shroud of Darkness, focusing on the darkness infusing the leaf itself instead of staying separate from it.  There was another round of mental strain, but eventually he broke through whatever obstacle that was preventing it from working as the same leaf from before popped into existence, but this time it seemed to exude a darkness that wafted off it like a mist or a thin smoke.

Ability {Plant}: Leafy Barrier has increased to Tier 8!

Tier increase reserved…

New Ability Unlocked!

{Plant/Dark}: Nightshade Tier 1!

Attainment earned and held in reserve!

Affinity {Plant} Strength has increased to Minor 2!

{Plant} Strength increase reser—

Nexus Rift detected!  Absorbing Rift energy for necessary changes!

{Plant} Strength increase applied!

Affinity {Plant} Strength has increased to Minor 3!

{Plant} Strength increase reser—

Nexus Rift detected!  Absorbing Rift energy for necessary changes!

{Plant} Strength increase applied!

Affinity {Dark} Strength has increased to Moderate 4!

{Dark} Strength increase reser—

Nexus Rift detected!  Absorbing Rift energy for necessary changes!

{Dark} Strength increase applied!

Yes!  I did it!

At least he thought he had.  As he looked over the notifications, he saw yet another increase to Leafy Barrier, bringing it to a reserved Tier 8, and both his {Plant} and {Dark} Affinities increased in Strength.  But what made him the most excited was the new multi-Affinity Ability he unlocked, which was called Nightshade.  When he concentrated on the new Ability, he got the impression that it was very similar to Equilbrium, where the two Affinities would work with, instead of against, each other.  He realized that he could use this Ability on his Vine Whip, as well as Leafy Barrier, making the vines he used weapons in and of themselves, as he could finally add Shadow Strike without the vine falling apart within seconds from the corrupting rot.

Jeremy smiled as he got to his feet, cracking his neck dramatically as he moved toward the next group of [Burning Goblins].  As the 5 monsters charged at him, he activated Vine Whip and Shadow Strike together, and his smile widened as he saw the final 3 feet of the whip containing what looked like a sharp, black blade made of shadows, while the rest of the dark-green vine had veins of black infusing it down its entire length.  He snapped the enhanced Vine Whip toward the neck of the closest [Goblin], simply hoping to wrap it around and cut into its throat, but apparently the now-bladed whip didn’t bend all that well with the Shadow Strike edge on its tip.  As a result, the vine whipped out at incredible speed, acting almost like an extra long sword as it cut entirely through the neck of the monster, lopping its head off in a spray of blood that fountained upward even as the rest of the body collapsed.

He was so shocked that he barely reacted in time to defend against the other [Goblins] that attacked him, but he managed to activate his new Leafy Barrier with Shroud of Darkness enhancing it; he instinctively slammed it into a pair of the monsters and was again shocked at the crunch of bones upon impact, sending them flying end-over-end.  He jumped backwards to avoid the last 2 [Goblins], pulling the newly created Vine Whip back with him; a snap of his wrist sent it toward one of the monsters, which was a little lower than he intended, but the shadow blade on the end cut through both of its knees, sending it tumbling forward and landing on its own sword.

The final unharmed [Goblin] managed to close the distance while he was distracted and swung its burning sword at him, but he quickly brought his Leafy Barrier back to him, imposing it in between him and the strike.  Instead of it being cut through, which was would’ve happened with the normal Leafy Barrier, his Nightshade-enhanced leaf was strong enough that the sword actually bounced off, rebounding so hard that the [Goblin] nearly dropped it.  The flames on the blade did manage to catch on his leaf, unfortunately, though he could immediately see that they weren’t spreading nearly as fast, as if the darkness infusing it was slowing down its progress significantly.

Dropping his Vine Whip, he double-handed his staff and – with an application of Shadow Strike – smashed his weapon into the recovering [Goblin’s] head, doing enough impact damage to snap its neck.  Once it was down, he quickly finished it off, followed by the rest of the group, the temporary survivors of which were struggling to even move after the damage they’d already taken.

Well, I guess that could be counted as a success.

The Mana expense to activate and maintain all of those Abilities did add up, unfortunately, consuming about 20 Mana all told, but with his Regen (Mana) alone allowing him to fully refill his Mana within about 30 minutes, it really wasn’t that bad.  He was used to using quite a bit of Mana to fuel his laser, after all, and it was worth it to explore different attack options.

That, and it was beneficial toward his development, as he managed to increase the reserve Tier of 2 more Abilities.   

Ability {Plant}: Vine Whip has increased to Tier 6!

Tier increase reserved…

Ability {Dark}: Shadow Strike has increased to Tier 8!

Tier increase reserved…

More than worth it.

The rest of the fight through the [Burning Goblin] route was fairly easy, as he used his combination of his Nightshade-enhanced Vine Whip and Leafy Barrier a few times, but then he switched to his laser to make sure it was still working.

Spoiler alert – it did.  He was easily able to punch through the heads of the charging [Goblins], especially with the fact that both Bend Light and Energy Boost were Tier 2, meaning that he could pump more Mana into each Ability to make the laser beam even stronger than before.  It wasn’t yet on par with the laser cannon that he’d made in the Ebon Citadel, but it was still a nice step up.

The Level 7 [Burning Goblin – Rift Overseer] was barely a challenge, as it was by itself and he ended up using his new Nightshade-enhanced Abilities to slice it apart within seconds with Vine Whip from a distance.  When he dispersed the energy from the Rift Core, he was pleasantly surprised to see that the NEPs he received had jumped a little from the [Sprite] pathway; instead of 200 NEPs like he expected, it had risen to 250.  He kept going with his plan to increase all of his frequently used Abilities up to at least Tier 2 before he did anything else.

Nexus energy dispersing. 

Time remaining until this Rift Route is fully functional: 119 minutes, 59 seconds

Ability {Light}: Light Orb has been permanently increased to Tier 2!

Ability {Dark}: Shroud of Darkness has been permanently increased to Tier 2!

Ability {Plant}: Vine Whip has been permanently increased to Tier 2!

Ability {Plant}: Leafy Barrier has been permanently increased to Tier 2!

Ability {Multi}: Equilibrium has been permanently increased to Tier 2!

With how much time he’d spent in the second and third routes, he estimated that the first [Fire Slime] pathway had likely repopulated by that point, so he cautiously left the [Goblins] behind and made his way back to slaughter some more helpless red blobs.

Time to disperse more Rift Core energy!