The horned skink was swift as a breeze. Fire arrows and wind blades rained down the blackened gorge and its rugged walls, following after the agile demon, yet the rawboned lizard evaded them all, skipping from one wall to the other, taking full advantage of its slim, angular form.
Surprisingly, the elite demon was not much larger than I was, as most suncursed monsters I had encountered only seed to grow in weight and bulk the stronger they beca. Probably why this lizard had proven to be a tough anomaly to kill. So far, the only damage it had taken was from the two aura strikes on its long tail when it attempted to dash at .
But alas, it had been utterly depressing once the horned skink decided to flee. It was rare for my Aether roots to strain against a single elite demon, but this thing—this cursed thing—made almost a hundred of my spells obsolete.
Well, I had hunted two other elite demons before this, but that had been followed by almost an hour of walking—enough ti for my channels and Aether roots to return to full capacity.
Unable to restrain myself, I finally wove half my threads into a positive charge of lightning and struck before the weave even ca to fruition. A clap of white lightning flashed forward, catching it head-on despite all its attempts to slip past.
Instantly, the slippery bastard fell off the wall, a shrill cry emanating from its mouth. It was far from dying, however. The shock wore off in a matter of monts. The demon jumped to its feet and dashed off with its tail between its legs.
I had hardly any ti to reverse the weave to form a second positive charge, let alone compile the other half of my threads. With Haste, I chased after it, which proved to be unnecessary. As soon as a substantial force of lightning manifested, it jumped from my grasp to strike the fleeing lizard.
The pitiful cry arose as its form crashed down, squirming in foetal unrest. Hovering above it, I poured all the essence I could pull into the weave as a white flash of lightning cascaded down upon the immobilised beast, charring its flesh beyond recognition.
"That's quite enough, lad," Father said, his palm patting my shoulder. "It's dead."
My threads froze and untangled as the leftover charge still descended upon the dead beast.
[Way of Lightning I (100/100) is complete.]
[ 2 Arcane. Unable to improve Arcane as it stands on a threshold.]
I released the breath I had been holding, withdrawing the essence threads into the famished primal seed.
"Agility variants are tough," Father said.
I could not agree more.
"After your initial failure," Mum said, a handkerchief pressed to her nose, "I believed you'd have to let it off." She eyed the singed lizard. "Your lighting shaping is not battleready."
That was to be expected, though I believed the only way to raise lightning mastery quickly was through battle. I had not utilised lightning at all when I was with others, fearing an Ares spell might strike them. Now, with only my parents accompanying , I had no such fear.
There were more living things on the second layer. We had barely scratched the peripheral areas, and yet there were already so many nests of monsters. I alone had detected the presence of over a dozen elite demons. Unfortunately, it was damnably hard to find one without its flock of minions.
My essence reservoir was far deeper than my rank suggested, yet even so, it was not ample enough for to dispatch over a thousand lesser minions to have a go at an elite demon. My parents were unlikely to work as a deterrent between the lesser and elite demons for to have a one-on-one battle, as that would be spoon-feeding . They had gone to great lengths to keep company here—to teach how it was done, not make it convenient.
Collecting the demon core, I gazed at the paths ahead. There were countless winding paths in the middle layer of the chasm, each opening filled with murky darkness the two light constructs failed to illuminate beyond a few tres.
Since I would not be getting an answer from them, I crept into an opening without much thought. The depths were damp and colder, filled with stale air and looming darkness. The rotting stench was not a new addition, albeit it had beco more common.
"It's even creepier here," I said, feeling the coldness prickle my skin.
"Only creepy?" Mum asked. "You feel nothing else?"
I shot her a quizzical look, wondering what else was noteworthy. Faltering in my step, I mulled over everything I had noticed since entering the middle layer.
"Well," I opened my lips, "the darkness, it seems to be more… condensed?"
The two light constructs could easily illuminate over twenty tres around us. Now, the distance seed to be decreasing the longer we spent down here. It was like a dark veil of mist, eating away every speck of light.
"What else?" she asked.
A frown creased my brow. It did not irritate that she did not give the answer that was painstakingly obvious to her. She wanted to figure it out on my own. It was one of her little tests, to see how far I had co. Over the years, I had co to relish tests like these, mostly because I had grown good at finding the truth within. It left a sense of satisfaction and fulfilnt once I unravelled it on my own. Though on so rare occasions, the tests were so damnably irritating and boring—like the sand-picking exercise—that they produced the opposite outco.
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I gazed at my surroundings, opening fractal sight. To my surprise, even my gift seed to struggle to penetrate the dark mist.
Hmm. What if the darkness isn't really darkness itself? I considered.
"It isn't the darkness, is it?" I said absent-mindedly, concentrating on the misty shroud obscuring my sight. "Its so kind of black mist… that…" My gaze darted to Mum. "It's not just eating light."
A strum of inspiration gripped as my pupils contracted. To test my theory, a few of my essence threads sprang up to weave into a simple fireball. I scrutinised it, observed it again and again, applying various amounts of essence, as sothing beca horrifyingly evident.
The black mist was not only eating light. "It is also eating my essence."
"Now you know why the chasms are so perilous," Mum said, approval lacing her tone. "And it doesn't just eat your essence. It can suppress any of your abilities if you spend too much ti in the depths."
"The effect isn't as lethal to aura," Father added. "Not at this layer, at least."
"Does it affect your essence, too?" I asked him. Considering his gift of Nullification—which rendered all essence skills and spells useless—I wondered if it had a similar interaction with the black mist.
"Not as much," Father confird. "Here, I can utilise my abilities to the fullest, but if we were to go deeper…" He shook his head. "It would suppress and devour my essence from within. Even with Nullification, I have no confidence in reaching its depths and coming back unscathed."
What could have occurred for such a phenonon to form here, and to have lasted for millennia?
As we trudged through the rugged surface, Mum and I discussed what could be the cause. The most believable theory involved midnight essence. After all, its main function was to devour other essence—though the black mist did not rely devour; it mutated.
"Is it possible that there may be—"
I could not finish my phrase when a tremor ran through the earth beneath my feet. An earthquake?
"Ashlyn!" Father's voice cut through the upheaval as Mum imdiately clutched my arm, pulling upward into the air.
The next instant, sothing massive burst through the surface, opening its looming maw at us.
It was colossal.
With a maw large enough to gobble a cart whole, its body was serpentine—worm-like, with a rigid, stony hide akin to a stonegorger. Despite rising several tres through the earth, its tail-end remained buried.
A greater stonegorger worm?
Mum had applied layers of wards to protect us, but the stone worm's maw still lood close, displaying multiple rows of jagged teeth as large as spearheads.
Father darted towards it, leaving a trail of galewind. His blade, painted in fiery light, plunged two tres beneath its jagged maw. The stonegorger tumbled backwards, a deep cut opening where the flaming blade struck.
It twisted and jerked to strike Father, who glided beneath its lunge, the relic in his hand extending over two tres as rays of blinding sunlight struck its tough exterior. Father swung once, twice, thrice—splintering shards of stone—until the demon recognised we were not easy prey.
A shrill cry rang from the worm's twisted maw, so high-pitched and disconcerting that [Somnus' Reverie] awoke within my primal seed, obstructing the psionic waves.
The stonegorger jerked its head and plunged into the high sidewall, then gorged through rigid stone like crisp breadcrumbs before fleeing.
I watched as the worm, easily over forty tres long, plunged deeper into the chasms. A greater stonegorger of that size carried enough material to equip an entire regint of legionaries.
Unfortunately, Father did not seem keen on hunting it down, and I understood why. At a rank equalling Fabled, the stonegorger would be a formidable opponent to fell, especially considering how cowardly they were. Once they deed a al too troubleso, they would leave in search of easier prey. They did not differentiate between demon or human. Anything in their path was to be devoured.
Decidedly, anything not too troubleso.
Father sheathed Ouroboros. "Looks like it is prudent not go deeper," he said as Mum lowered back to the ground.
I quickly sprang forward to collect the few shards Father had cut from the monster. At the greater stage, even its exterior materials were comparable to the richest ores mined from the chasm. I could extract at least ten kilograms of prestigious-class material after purification—nearly twice what I had gained from the stonegorger ape we hunted.
"I believe this is enough of a learning experience for the day," Mother finally called once I finished looting.
And with that, the day's expedition ca to an end.
Well, not completely. I still had to navigate my way back. It was one of the things Rift Walkers and monster hunters had to learn.
Since we were several kilotres beneath the surface of the Earth, one might assu flying straight up would suffice. Unfortunately, the winding paths did not only lead upwards.
Choosing the wrong one ant several minutes of detour, even with levitation boots at full capacity. A few more wrong turns, and I would be pumping essence into the boots continuously.
There were markings etched along the paths by seasoned chasm delvers. I must have missed so of them earlier, given the speed at which I had been flying.
"Impatience is your only weakness, Pumpkin," Mum had said many tis—and it had beco painfully obvious. Not that it helped much.
After about half an hour of navigating the twisted passages, I suddenly faltered as [Vigil of Protection] awakened, surrounding .
[Way of Toxin Resistance I (1/100) is now available.]
Panic gnawed at my heart—then passed. I realised there was no imdiate threat to my life. I could sll toxin in the air, but it was too weak, or too dispersed, to be truly harmful with my protection active. Nonetheless, I stopped breathing and channelled my essence, purifying whatever trace I might have inhaled within the essence seed.
I turned to my parents. "The black mist," I asked, "it wouldn't happen to be poisonous, would it?"
Mum shook her head.
I spread my Influence while remaining within the relic's protection and quickly discerned the direction the toxin originated from. The question was whether to turn back or investigate.
It did not resemble the poisonous plus of a basilisk or other serpentine creatures. Those were far more potent and far less widespread. That ant it was sothing simpler.
Applying my arcane acuity, I flew towards it. Harmful or not, I did not breathe in, yet I could still imagine the pungent tang of rotten fish at the back of my nose.
A thicker purplish haze lood ahead, and it beca vehently obvious what the source was.
Multiple lesser demons lay half-dead on the ground as I shot past them, finally coming upon the corpse flower. It stood several tres tall, with six purplish-red petals and dark, crisp undersides, wafting a rotting stench that made seal my nostrils in disgust.
"Well," Mum interjected, sounding almost revolted, "you know how to kill a Demon Lily, correct?"
I nodded.
The flower was already dying, though it would have taken weeks. I hastened the process, driving a lance of fire into the poisonous forest fiend and smouldering its petals into nothing.
Mum stopped before I reduced it entirely to ash. Her essence threads dispersed the poisonous air and stench, uprooting what remained of the demon lily. From the remains, she collected a gourd-shaped root.
She glared at it as though it were her mortal enemy, sighed, and tossed it to . "Should be of so help to raise your Toxin Resistance."
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