Chapter XXXIII: The Slums (4)

A.N: I am implementing a new loot system using a d100 die to prevent memory bloating.

New Loot Table:

75 ~ 79 ----> Weapon Memory

80 ~ 84 ----> Armor Memory

85 ~ 89 ----> Tool Memory

90 ~ 94 ----> Garment (cloaks, boots, gloves, scarves, etc.) Memory

95 ~ 99 ----> Charm Memory

100 ----> Echo

I hope this proves to be a good replacement.

Now, onto the day's program.

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Clink! Clink! Clink!

The multitude of soul shards strewn all around the ground hit each other as William and his opponent circled around each other - studying one another. His grip over Frostmourne tightened causing it to glow slightly brighter in anticipation. The teenager eyed the eerie red glow that formed his oppenent's eyes inside the darkness of their helmet. Then, his focus shifted to the ominous looking black spear they were holding in conjunction with a similarly colored round shield.

The darkness shifted around him as he moved, the ever present glow of the Teardrop Talisman protecting him from its corrupting influence. Also, if not for the [Light] spell he had, he would have been at a great disadvantage in this environment. Particularly, with the nightmare creature he was facing currently.

The dark soldier's spear twitched and William already moved to the side to dodge the incredibly fast thrust. His organic hand left the handle of his weapon and was wreathed in cackling green energy but he had to quickly backstep from the swinging spearhead aimed at his side. The energy in his hand reached a critical point and he aimed his open palm at his opponent.

[Doom Bolt]

A lance of green-black energy shot out from his hand and struck the nightmare creature on it's shoulder. It didn't damage it as much as he hoped, due to it being a Dormant-ranked spell, but the force of the impact was enough to make the dark armored soldier stumble backwards for a few steps.

Taking advantage of the opening in the nightmare creature's defense, William gathered strength in his legs and charged forward with Frostmourne steady in his hands.

The dark soldier didn't take long to get back his bearings and brought up his shield in an attempt to block the attack. Unfortunately for him, it was all but a ruse.

"Smash!" William yelled seemingly into empty air. Not a second later, a resounding boom echoed as a muscular figure impacted onto the dark soldier causing it to be squashed down under its hefty weight. Wasting no time, William took a step forward and with a quick slash separated the soldier's head from its body.

William watched the nightmare creature dissolve into dark mist and leave behind three glowing soul shards as the voice of the spell sang in his ear:

[You have slain an Awakened Demon, Darkspawn Soldier] (D100 = 22)

[Your soul grows stronger]

The white-haired teenager observed as the black mist flew into the air towards the same direction as always: the Palace. Then, he shifted his focus to the mass of muscles standing obediently before him with the soul-less look all echoes had in their eyes. Afterall, they were but pale imitations of the original nightmare creatures.

"Great work bud, go back and take a rest," William said while slapping its side. The echo tilted its goat-like head in confusion before being dismissed it in a shower of sparks that briefly lit the ever-present darkness.

After that, the young man started collecting the day's spoils - or was it night? - in his trusty Scout's Sack while also looking at the runes of the echo he had received recently.

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Echo Name: Warped Juggernaut

Echo Rank: Awakened

Echo Class: Monster

Echo Attributes: [Brute], [Unarmored Defense], [Darkvision], [Simple-Minded]

[Brute]

Attribute Description: The Warped Juggernauts possesses formidable strength exceeding its rank.

[Unarmored Defense]

Attribute Description: The Warped Juggernaut's muscles act as a considerably robust armor.

[Darkvision]

Attribute Description: Throughout the countless millenia of living in darkness, the Warped Juggernaut has evolved to be able to see through it.

[Simple-Minded]

Attribute Description: The Warped Juggernaut's metal capacity is vastly limited making it incapable of understanding commands consisting of more than one word. 

Echo Description: The original Warped Juggernauts were once the various thugs and hooligans that came under the False Shepherd's cult after the kingdom's soldiers began disrupting their business. Now, they are lobotomized war machines following their master's commands.

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He was fairly surprised when he got the echo during one of his hunts, it allowed him a glimpse into the true nature of the nightmare creatures he is facing. No wonder he could easily control these awakened monsters even when his magic is at most at dormant rank! Siege monsters that are dull as boulders and could hit like one too.

Also, he got the name of the ringleader behind the mess in the slums: the False Shepherd. A chill ran through his spine remembering the birthing ritual he had the displeasure to witness.

Shaking off those thoughts, William's thoughts turned to the other echo he got not so long after the Warped Juggernaut.

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Echo Name: Warped Caprigor

Echo Rank: Dormant

Echo Class: Demon

Echo Attributes: [Nimble], [Darkvision], [Zealous]

[Nimble]

Attribute Description: The Warped Caprigor can easily climb onto surfaces with incredibly steep slopes.

[Darkvision]

Attribute Description: Throughout the countless millenia of living in darkness, the Warped Caprigor has evolved to be able to see through it.

[Zealous]

Attribute Description: The Warped Caprigor obeys any commands given by its master to an extreme degree.

Echo Description: The original Warped Caprigors were once the lower class citizens of the Kingdom of Leonia who were corrupted by the False Shepherd after the kingdom entered an indefinite lockdown after a catastrophic event.

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He finally got a name to put upon this cursed place: Leonia. From the description provided, the most probable reason for the False Shepherd's rise in power is this mysterious 'indefinite lockdown' that happened. Just what kind of event can cause a kingdom as big as this enter such a state? Is it related to why darkness and corruption seem to consist of the very air of this place?

The questions increasing with each new piece of information he find, it felt like receiving a jigsaw puzzle with no border pieces and no reference image to go upon.

With a sigh, William picked up the last soul shard and added it to the rest in the bag. Then, after taking a cautious look around, he tightened his [Thief's Worn Cloak] around his shoulders and with a powerful leap landed onto the roof of one of the houses of the slums.

Running from house to house with practiced ease - partly thanks to it being his main method of transportation and partly thanks to his [Adaptive] attribute - it didn't take long before he reached infront of a familiar building.

Entering it, he came upon the untouched old wooden dining table with the two adult seats and the child seat. Ignoring it, he moved until he reached the doors of the house's basement. Opening the now fortified wooden door, bluish light washed over him from the various blue-flame torched he had stolen and added to his improvised base of operations.

It was no LED light but it did its job of giving some much needed light, as little as it was, into his daily life. At first he believed that he would adapt to the darkness in one way or another thanks to his attribute; however, that didn't happen. Maybe it was impossible biologically for him to acquire darkvision or maybe he simply didn't spend enough time in the darkness - afterall, it did take the nightmare creatures several millenia for it to happen.

Descending into the room while closing the door behind him, he first emptied his Scout's Sack into a wooden trunk of considerable size that he had found and placed next to the entrance.

The tens of soul shards of various sizes clinked as they landed on top of other soul shards that had already filled three fourths of the trunk.

'I'm going to need more storage space,' he noted before going towards the only piece of furniture in the room, a modestly-sized bed that he had procused from the house upstairs. He had stopped sleeping a while ago since he didn't actually require it thanks to his unique physiology, but it still felt good to rest on a semi-comfortable bed after a long day outside.

In addition to sleep, he didn't feel the need for hunger, thirst, or even excretion either which he didn't know whether to look at it as a good or bad sign - not that he could afford such luxuries in this dead place. He could eat and drink if food and water were present but his body didn't require it any longer to function. Moreover, he hardly believed the air in this place was compatible for human life for that matter.

Lying on the bed with his right folded under his head, he raised his prosthetic hand and gazed at it while lost in thought. Adapting to consciously moving his prosthetic via his mind had been a challenge initially but it quickly became easier after a few short battles - most likely his [Adaptive] attribute at work.

The only problem he found was that his prosthetic didn't appear to be 'Magically Conductive', or so he coined the term, making him only able to cast his spells via his right hand. It was not a major problem but rather just a minor inconvenience which he learned to live with.

He lowered his bony prosthetic with a sigh before summoning up his Spell Status symbols. Immediately, shimmering symbols came into existence infront of him:

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Name: William

True Name: Malevolent Star

Rank: Sleeper

Class: Dormant

Soul cores: [1/7]

Soul Fragment: [875/1000]

[Frostmourne Description: The fabled, nigh unbreakable mourneblade, Frostmourne, has chosen you as its new master and is the new conduit of your immortality. However, its powers have faded due to its long slumber. Yet, even in its weakened state, Frostmourne will not sit to be wielded by a weak-willed coward. Strive to stand at the top lest your soul be consumed as many previous unworthy masters.]

Memory Name: Frostmourne

Memory Rank: ?

Memory Tier: I [575/1000]

Memory Type: Weapon

Memory Enchantments: [Soul Rune]

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(I just shortened it to the important bits since otherwise is just word padding.)

He didn't know for how long he was stuck here till now since there was no way for him to measure time. Spell, even his circadian rhythm is wholly useless due to it continuously being dark here. Also, his unique physiology didn't help matters for him. He didn't like it; not one bit. William didn't know how time flowed here but if it flowed at the same rate as the outside world then, then he at most had two years before Nephis does her suicidal charge against the Crimson Spire.

'Can I make it out of here in two years,' he asked himself. William was in no way an idiot. If his knowledge of Shadow Slave was anything to go by, then this place was a citadel of some sort; this meant two things: One,there was some sort of gateway out of this place - or at least he hoped so. Two, there was a big boss monster he had to deal with to reach the gateway; and if his luck was anything to go by, then there was at least a Fallen nightmare creature waiting for him.

His situation was well and truly fucked. However, if there was any silver lining about the situation, it was that he was ever so close from advancing into a Monster.

The cursed ritual he witnessed affected him more than he liked to admit. It made him realize that he couldn't hope to survive with only the strength of a Dormant Beast. Obviously, he couldn't advance in rank but he could advance his class. He only hoped that his class advancement will give him the edge he needed to survive with his memories and sense of self intact.

Thus, he had spent almost all of his time since the ritual hunting down groups of nightmare creatures in the outer section of the slums.

{112 Warped Caprigors slain (Dormant Demon)}

{Received Weapon x9, Armor x4, Tool x2, Garment x5, Charm x5, Echo x1}

(Loot Roll Log)

{40 Warped Juggernauts slain (Awakened Monster)}

{Received Weapon x1, Armor x1, Tool x3, Charm x1, Echo x1}

(Loot Roll Log)

His progress was good initially with him , but then, he noticed that the groups became more scarce and the ones that patrolled around had their numbers reinforced with thrice the number of Warped Juggernauts.

It seemed like the False Shepherd caught on that something was dwindling down the number of his forces. As a result, William had to search for new hunting ground until the heat cooled down in the outer section.

 The only available option to him was the middle zone since nobody would question if nightmare creatures disappeared in the no man's land. Yet, there was only one problem with that place; it was where the teleporting nightmare creature prowled as far as he knew.

Thus, William had to exercise considerable caution so as not to attract its attention. Thankfully, one of the new memories he received - the [Thief's Worn Cloak] - had the enchantments [Muffled Steps] and [Quick footed] which helped him immensely in his stealth endeavors.

He stalked the nightmare creatures from the rooftops to get a general idea of their routes, natures, and abilities. This provided him with an important piece of information. There was a reason why the Darkspawn Soldiers always walked in formation.

In a battle between a big group of goat-kin nightmare creatures containing six Warped Juggernauts and a group of merely four Darkspawn Soldiers, he discovered that the Darkspawn Soldier's defensive and offensive capabilities were much stronger when they were in formation being able to face the horde with unbelievable ease. However, when one of them got separated from the formation, the separated soldier would lose its previous buff and was easily overwhelmed the the goat-kin's numerical superiority. Moreover, having lost a member from the formation, the other Darkspawn Soldiers' buff seemed to lose its potency.

Due to that, William came up with a hypothesis, which he proved to be correct when he was able to draw a group of Darkspawn soldiers away from their normal patrol route towards considerably sized group of goatish nightmare creatures. He hid himself far away so that they won't catch a whiff of his scent and observed the bloody battle.

The Darkspawn put up a formidable fight and they succeeded in eradicating the other group but their numbers had dwindled until only one remained which was quickly consumed by Frostmourne.

The youth frowned as he remembered the rank of the Darkspawn Soldier.

[Awakened Demon]

It was no wonder they could shred the other tribe of nightmare creatures even when severely outnumbered. However, this brought a chilling question to his mind.

'How many of Darkspawn Soldiers were present at the inner section of the slums? Also, what nightmare creature was commanding them? A devil? A tyrant?'

A shiver involuntarily rose up his spine with the mere thought of facing a devil or a tyrant in battle. It was one thing hunting down beasts and monsters or luring the occasional demon into a trap. Fighting a devil/tyrant was another matter entirely; not only did they have various strange abilities that could spell disaster for him, but also devils are known to be as intelligent as human being if not more so.

"What did I do to deserve this?" he muttered heavily under his breath.