Ch 27 - Road's end

After retrieving the monster cores from the dead wyverns and Soren butchering them for materials Klein switched to sit in the front with Vulk, the Serenity members all sat in the middle talking over what had happened the past days.

Sly and Skill explained to Soren and Silv about the history of this world and the prime names they should know about with Klein jumping in from time to time to correct or add to the explanation.

"That explains a couple things" Silv spoke as he cleaned his rifle "The churches people are at Kaledd waiting for you three, they already took away two others right after Lilliana made her entrance." His expression stone cold, more so because of the reptilian features. No lips, brow, nose or ears along with the scales for skin made it impossible to show any emotion.

"They are?...Things might become complicated if we are seen together, we'll say our goodbyes at the mountain then. You'll have to walk from there adventurers." Klein explained.

"Fine with us, Silv you said it was bad at Kaledd. How bad?" Kyle asked as he messed with his attribute points, spending 10 in INT, 5 in STR and 5 in WIS.

Silv and Soren looked at each other before turning back, it was Soren who answered "Barely anybody leaves town, everyone just stands around moping. Like they all gave up, worse of all are the ones lured in by the churches" He sighed.

Frowning Kyle picked up on Soren's annoyance "What do you mean?".

"They're playing the blame game, they are being riled up against the old heroes and the royal family" Silv answered.

"Venomous spiders…" Kess whispered but loud enough for them to hear, glancing back Kyle noticed her hand clenched into a fist.

"Having the people and us adventurers on their side would definitely give them the upper hand, removing the need for a civil war" Sly reasoned as he wore a cold smile.

"What are you thinking?" Kyle asked noticing his plotting expression.

Shrugging as he chuckled Sly shook his head "Oh its nothing" he dismissed.

Leaving Sly to his plotting Kyle opened his skill book and read through his newest gains.

[Ooze] ((EXP 41%) Level 2 – Tier 2): Ooze out slime through your skin that can be controlled by your will and mana

Activation Cost: 0.03 mana per millilitre

Upkeep Cost: (2 mana per 0.5 Litres) per second

General Effects: [Condensed Slime]; The ability to condense any type of slime into a solid, the only limit to the condensation is your mana pool. Condensed slime can be uncondensed without mana cost.

Slime type: (Ice) variation of (Frost)

(Ice) Effects:

[Packed Ice]; Condense rapidly through more slime generation

[Fracturing]; Rapidly condense, fracture and explode

(Frost effect): Causes attacks to cast [Frostbite] debuff

[Frostbite]: 0.5% of targets cHP per 2 seconds for 10 seconds (Stacks up to 1 times)

Slime type: (Monstrous) variation of (Demonic)

(Monstrous) Effects:

[Demonic Shell]; The slime forms a hardened shell similar to demonic monstrosities

[Demon's blades]; The slime forms sharp claw like appendages similar to demonic monstrosities

(Demonic effect): Causes all aura effects in contact with [Ooze(Demonic)] to apply [Aura Poisoning] on contact with said aura.

[Aura Poisoning]: Effects of afflicted target's aura abilities decreased by 5%

[Slime Pistol] ((EXP 0%) Level 1 – Tier 1): Summon a pistol entirely made of slime

Activation Cost: 40 mana

Usage cost: 5 mana

Reload time: 0.4 seconds

Ammunition sub-skills:

[Demonic Rounds]: Fire an armored shell that pierces through defenses

Usage cost: 8 mana

Reload time: 0.9 seconds

[Slime Cannon] ((EXP 67%) Level 3 – Tier 1): Summon a monstrous cannon entirely made of slime

Activation Cost: 290 mana

Usage cost: 20 mana

Reload time: 3.3 seconds

Ammunition sub-skills:

[Demonic Rounds]: Fire an armored shell that pierces through defenses

Usage cost: 30 mana

Reload time: 5.6 seconds

"Yo Kyll by the way, what's up with your class?" Soren broke his concentration.

"What part, the gue, the unique bullshit or the no weapon crap?" Kyle responded with a laugh.

"Damn you serious? No weapon?" Silv joined in.

Kyle raised his arm in front of himself "Slime Pistol" the skill appeared first growing out of his wrist then into a full barrel in mere moments "I need to make my own weapons out of the 'materials' I have at my disposal" he explained.

Having gained both their interest Soren leaned in "What you got so far?".

Thinking it over Kyle listed them "Ice that causes frostbite, condensed Ice that explodes, Demonic slime that can grow tough scales and claws/fangs that also poisons aura and this new effect that allows me to harden any type of slime." And summoned the different slimes and their effects that could be shown as he did.

"How do you gain them?" Soren asked surprised by the short list.

"Level a skill called [Ooze] or do this" Kyle replied as he opened his inventory and took out a wyvern monster core "Now this, is the real disgusting part" he held the earth brown crystal sphere in his hand slightly smaller than his fist.

Glancing back with interest Klein watched "What are you-" as Kyle grew monster like fangs and chomped the core down whole, everyone stared in astonishment as he swallowed.

"Hm, tastes like…baked potato" Kyle mused as a couple notifications presented themselves.

Through the skill [Devour] you have gained the passive skill [Draconic Perception]

Through the skill [Devour] the skill [Ooze] has gained the type [Draconic]

Through the skill [Devour] you have gained the passive skill [Monster Core(Wyvern)]

Glancing around at the others he smirked "It's a skill called [Devour], it lets me gain skills, skill upgrades and buffs by consuming monster parts, plants and other materials. The monster core seems to be the best part to consume, although not all monsters seem to have one." He explained remember the snake they butchered in the forest.

"What did you get for that?" Soren asked "Not that I want to do that myself…" he quickly added.

Kyle opened his skill book and read the new additions to them.

[Draconic Perception]((EXP 0%) Level 1 – Tier 1): Your senses are touched by the chaotic ways of dragons, the closer a movement takes place to you the faster your reaction time to it.

AGI + 5

DEX + 5

INT + 5

{Active} (Sub-effect): Magnify your senses, whether it being sight, smell, sound or touch.

[Ooze] ((EXP 41%) Level 2 – Tier 2): Ooze out slime through your skin that can be controlled by your will and mana

Activation Cost: 0.03 mana per millilitre

Upkeep Cost: (2 mana per 0.5 Litres) per second

Slime type: (Draconic)

(Draconic) Effects:

(Draconic Effect); The chaotic make of this elemental slime allows it to merge with other types, enhancing and perhaps changing the very make of said slime. The downside is that this slime cannot be upgraded through attributes, only through merging.

He summoned the earthly brown slime after reading the skill, thinking it over he decided to mess with it later. He didn't want another occurrence where he was made useless due to mana exhaustion.

[Monster Core] (Set skill stats): A monster slime's core successfully merged with your biology, your body now has an actual organ to aid in mana regeneration and mana storage.

(Slime):

Maximum mana + 10%

Mana regeneration + 200%

(Wyvern):

Maximum mana + 5%

INT + 5%

"So you got an active inside a passive too?" Soren asked in surprise "My [Rage Initiative] a passive that boosts my damage depending on the damage I take has an active inside it called a sub-effect too, I got it from leveling the skill to mid-tier 1. It's an aura that increases my damage by a smaller percentage depending on the damage my allies take." He explained while reading off of his skill book.

"You sure you don't want the other core?" Kyle suddenly asked him "You two did kill it, a wyvern core might be too much for me. Hell I don't even know where to start with this" he admitted while taking out the second core.

"Nah we're fine" Silv stated as he raised his arms up and leaned away "You haven't seen the things that cores do when unstable, I have…it's not pretty"

Kyle shrugged "Your loss, I'll mess with it later though" he put the core back into his inventory "Yo Sly shouldn't we report back to Birse?".

Sly who had been quiet through this whole conversation glanced up from the VCD "I've been trying to but I think this damn thing is broken" he explained while holding the device up.

"You're kidding right?" Kyle exclaimed anxiously "We can't lose contact with the others, here let me check mine" he pulled out his own VCD and focused on contacting Birse.

Sighing with relief Kyle turned the device to where both him and Soren to his left were visible "Mine works. Yo Birse we got them."

Birse appeared to be inside a dimly lit room as flashes of red and blue light occasionally filled it "You at Kaledd already? How fast is that thing?" He asked while staring through the device.

"We were waiting for you all on your side of the mountains, decided to grind a bit while we waited since we cannot die and all that." Soren explained.

Silv leaned in from the front where him and Skill where using the front seats' backs to sit on "You guys going through an exorcism or something in there? The hell is that lightshow?"

"Oh that?" Birse smirked as he turned the device around, putting into view Death and a couple mages putting together what seemed to be a magic circle on raised part of the ground. Cornelius stood by them directing the others as he read from a sheet of paper, runes and descriptions in another language written on it. "Something Death and the mage guilds came up with, I didn't get the details but in short they are connecting this thing to Sly's VCD."

Death and the other mages held strange crystal shards in hand like pens and used them to write on the stone, the crystals were blue on one side and red on the other. Any time they began writing a flash of light would fill the room, the light's color depending on the side used.

"So that's why Sly's device isn't working" Kyle guessed "Get Death on call, I'd like to know what they're up to"

"Uhh sure" Birse responded as he walked over to Death who was crouching down by the raised ground, getting a closer look made Kyle realize it was separate from the floor. "Yo Death they met up with Soren and Silv, Kyll's asking for you".

Death glanced up and nodded as he raised the goggles form his face "Wussup bro" he asked after taking the VCD in hand.

"What you up to there? Are those runes?" Kyle's curiosity couldn't be held back, neither was the others' as everyone including Kess leaned in to see.

"Well after watching that Lucifer guy appear and disappear then seeing it being done again by Draxxer I thought to myself, 'If they can do it why can't we? Hell why can't everyone?'. So I spoke with two of the mage guild masters and they brought in Cornelius for his mastery of runes, we're working on a device that may change everything!" Death spat out the words so fast Kyle barely understood him.

Kyle chuckled at his enthusiasm "Okay slow down there, what does it do? Why is effecting Sly's VCD?"

"Right, right" Death turned the VCD to overlook the ring of stone "In short? It's a portal".

Hearing this Klein almost leaped back, pushing through Silv and Skill he glimpsed into the device "A portal? Are you sure?!"

"Yeah using Cornelius's knowledge of runes which he learned by studying the respawn points and some other artifacts, apparently being the written language of the Gods. The VCD's have runes etched on the inside, a certain string of runes is the ID number for each one. We're basically making something to boost that connection to allow more than sound and sight through, once we are done with this all we need is to jumpstart the portal." Death explained, this time more slowly.

"How will you jumpstart it?" Sly asked while handing his VCD to Skill before leaning away from him, Skill glanced at him in confusion before shrugging and dumping it inside his inventory.

"Unless our boy Lucifer is feeling helpful, we were going to get in contact with you all to ask his men about contacting him." Death explained with a hopeful tone.

Klein shook his head "As much as I want to beg him to help you with this invention, I'm afraid the commander has his hands full scanning every single adventurer for surprises."

"That might not be a problem actually" Kyle stated "It's how I escaped Lucifer's realm, I think I can jump start it."

"So what you just make the portal appear where ever we take the VCD?" Karnage asked as she leaned in from between Kyle and Soren.

"Unfortunately not" Death admitted with a sigh "The VCD will be destroyed once the portal starts to open, the force will be too strong and you'll have to step away quickly or be sucked in. Also the portal won't be movable but permanent."

"I don't feel like helping anymore" Kyle added with a frown.

"You'll be fine damn worrywart, the portal shouldn't open instantly. You'll revive if anything happens anyway!" laughing awkwardly Death tried to dismiss his worries.

"I will find you and I will destroy you, dying hurts" Kyle spoke sarcastically.

"No shit" Soren joked.

"Sir, we have arrived." Vulk announced from the front.

Everyone turned to look forward, the mountains closer than ever. Squinting Kyle stared as the mountains neared closer, a single opening in the trees between them and the mountains caught his attention. A large wall of metal closed off an area by the foot of the nearest mountain, no towers, archer holes or gates visible just a plain metal wall.

"What is that?" Reyna asked in curiosity.

"That is the outer outpost, Dwarven made and defended." Silv replied "Wait till you see the city".

"Kaledd?" Kyle asked while still staring at the wall as it grew closer.

"Nah man that's just a town, I'm talking real full sized Dwarven city inside the mountains! The Fae live there too along with the Dwarves." Silv explained.

Kess stood up "The city of New Ruk, a combined city of Dwarves and Fae. I shall announce our arrival" she stated before disappearing into black smoke.

"Our first city" Karnage mused.

Sly glanced at Soren "Yeah, anything we should know Soren?"

"Not really, don't stare too long? They don't like being stared at" Soren added with a shrug.

"I second that" Silv states while rubbing his left shoulder.

Vulk stopped the steamicle a couple meters from the wall "This is where we leave you adventurers".

Klein glanced back "We will leave for Eslet, we have a long report to make" he said while saluting at them.

Sly nodded "Thanks for the ride, we'll be headed for Kaledd immediately. Shouldn't be long before we come by Eslet as well".

Everyone got off the vehicle and stared back at the way they came "We need to get one of these" Skill added as he gazed at the steamicle.

"One day we might" Kyle said chuckling, turning around he found himself gazing up the wall. Two storeys of dark grey metal, one single piece of metal with no indentions or signs of windows or doors as if it was hammered all together.

"So…How do we get in?"