Chapter 27: Sacrifice (4)
Azeth had but two tasks: protecting Nightstone and then dragging the Undead Shaman to the first floor.
The shaman tried to escape Azeth’s grasp. It attempted to hide within the vast forest.
Azeth couldn’t sense the shaman’s presence easily within this confined fourth floor, but he could sniff out the lingering scent. The shaman seed to be heading in a particular direction.
He instantly leapt forward, carrying Nightstone with him.
Nightstone felt a gush of wind blow against her face, and her eyes shut tightly. Before she knew it, she was on the second floor.
"Senior, please return to the first floor. I need to take care of the shaman." Azeth gave a small but reassuring smile.
She nodded and marched towards the small hole that would lead her to the first floor.
Azeth stood there until she had left the second floor, then turned around. He jumped and returned to the fourth floor.
On his way down from the ceiling, he grabbed hold of a branch. For a fleeting second, he was hanging. Then he pulled himself up and stood on the branch of a tall and sturdy tree.
He scanned in all directions. Left, then right. When he turned behind, he finally found it.
Smoke was rising from a particular place, almost as if sothing were on fire.
Azeth could tell that if he went toward the smoke, he would find the shaman.
He leapt from the tree to the ground and started running at full pace.
The ground was uneven and mushy, but he did not care. His breath remained absolutely steady.
Within a few minutes, he was already at the source of the smoke.
His arrival was accompanied by rows of screams louder than thunder itself.
"Wha..."
Azeth was awestruck by the scene before him. He could not even blink.
There were several clay pots scattered left and right, all hanging above blue flas. The smoke that he had noticed was from the fire below, but the majority of it was from the pot within.
There seed to be so sort of food being cooked, except the stench was horrendous.
Azeth almost flinched. It was not just the sll that surprised him, but the noise coming from the pots.
It took him less than a second to understand what was happening.
A ritual.
In the world of Eldrich, rituals were not uncommon.
There were several cultists who would gladly give up their lives for the sake of gaining immortality or power. There were other things they desired too, but those were few.
In this world, once soone reached a particular threshold and maxed out their levels, they could evolve.
But evolving was not easy.
They had to perform a certain set of rituals.
The rituals varied from person to person and from being to being. It could range from a simple yawn five tis a minute to the massacre of an entire village.
Such was one of the conditions for the Grave Shaman.
Unlike other monsters who hunted, ate, lived, and gained experience through many other trivial tasks, a Grave Shaman that was already dead could only perform rituals to level up.
Evolutions demanded worse sacrifices.
Azeth could tell that the shaman was trying to grow stronger. He probably had nurous sacrifices ready.
"Waaaaaaaaaaa!!! Lord Tyoroth!!! Protect eee!!!!"
"rcy. Please... rcy..."
"Please kill ..."
Several screams overlapped, blending into one another.
Azeth instinctively leapt forward and kicked the pots aside.
They fell and cracked open. The boiling hot liquid oozed out, and so did the victims.
Azeth rely stared at the sight.
He thought these beings looked strange.
They lacked anything sturdy on their surface and had no scales. They had a pair of hands and legs like himself, but they looked rather odd.
"They are humans," Pebbles muttered from the first floor, and Azeth heard him.
"Humans..."
They seed interesting to him.
Their flesh was dissolving, yet they were still alive. So were crawling, while one had managed to stand on his feet.
Muscles and tendons were visible, and one of them had almost turned into a skeleton.
"They’re hideous," Azeth comnted.
Pebbles did not respond. He knew how humans were. He wanted Azeth to discover that for himself. Though now was not the ti.
Azeth turned to his right as he felt a small tremor. The humans fell, and those who were already on the ground stopped moving.
The dead ones, however, began to move.
They stood up slowly. With their arms hanging down, they stared at Azeth.
He did not notice them. He was busy looking at the piles of monsters rushing from the right.
Over a hundred skeletons stord through the woods straight toward him.
Azeth’s eyes opened wide, especially since these skeletons seed extrely fast and strong. They trampled rocks, shattering them completely. In addition, they tore through trees as if they were nothing.
Well, Azeth was one of those creatures who had been born strong.
He had seen Pebbles and had considered him a god.
So in dire need, he did just one thing.
"O lord who oversees the darkness, please bless with strength."
"O lord who rules over the endless abyss, please give courage."
"O lord who is the absolute ruler, look over as I purge these beings back into darkness."
And then he used it.
Dragon’s Breath.
...
Pebbles had already converted the first floor of the dungeon into a gar setup.
The flat elevated rock he used to sit on had now beco a makeshift chair, and the system screen acted as the monitor.
Moreover, he was eating so insects as popcorn.
From a third person perspective, he was watching over Azeth. When Azeth finally prayed, for the very first ti, Pebbles felt a slight tingle.
Ding!
[Your avatar, Azeth, has prayed to you.]
[You have gained 5 Karma Points.]
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