Archie exited out of Nature’s Meditation
It had taken around three hours to fully regrow his left arm and purge the Undeath-Attuned mana that had been eating away at his vital energy.
There was a stark contrast between what he would have normally done and what he had done just three hours ago. If he had simply lopped off his arm under normal circumstances, it would have fully regrown in about an hour at most. However, because the Undeath-Attuned mana had been directly injected into him, it lingered long after its removal, eating away at the essence of his vital energy.
It was why most living beings felt very adverse to being around the undead.
Archie wasn’t one hundred percent sure exactly why this happened but he had an assumption that it was probably a property of Undeath-Attuned mana to linger even if its source was cut off. It would be something that he would have to ask about, Cryic would know best considering how vampires are undead themselves.
Looking at his fallen left arm—or what remained of it—the sight only reaffirmed his decision to hack it off.
It was nothing but ash, which, due to the rocking of the ship, had spread across the cargo floor.
His bloodline really helped him out; it had kept his will strong and steeled his mind; pushing him to do what was needed to survive. Even now, from how long he spent focusing on pushing back against the undeath-attuned mana and controlling his vital energy to regrow his arm, he should be completely spent regardless of whether he was in Nature’s Meditation
Archie closed his eyes, embracing the warmth that constantly encompassed his body. He always felt it around him, but…filtered it out, not unlike people with glasses and how they filter out their frames.
It was only now that he understood how his bloodline constantly supported him, and he wasn’t referring to just when he was fighting. This helped him steel his resolve during his panic attack on his second day in the Solo Tutorial, even when he meditated with Forgesmith’s Flame,
After a few minutes of clearing his mind and embracing the warmth around him, Archie opened his eyes and got up from where he sat. Mentally refreshed and headache gone, he was now ready to tackle the rest of this dungeon.
Now with a clear head, Archie re-equipped his armor and went over his notifications.
*[Human Bonekiin Lv 81] has been slain – XP has been given. 1053 Tutorial Points given*
***
*[Human Bonekiin Lv 81] has been slain – XP has been given. 1053 Tutorial Points given*
*[Elf Bonekiin Lv 82] has been slain – XP has been given. 1066 Tutorial Points given****
*[Elf Bonekiin Lv 82] has been slain – XP has been given. 1066 Tutorial Points given**[Dwarf Bonekiins Lv 80] has been slain – XP has been given. 1040 Tutorial Points given*
***
*[Dwarf Bonekiins Lv 80] has been slain – XP has been given. 1040 Tutorial Points given**[Osteophage Wight Lv 84] has been slain – XP has been given. 1092 Tutorial Points given.
***
*[Osteophage Wight Lv 86] has been slain – XP has been given. 1118 Tutorial Points given.
*Your Class has reached Lv 69 – Points allocated, +4 Free Points*
*Your Race has reached Lv 70 – Points allocated, +3 Free Points*
Skill Upgrade: [Thornscourge Expansion (Rare → Epic)]
Thornscourge Expansion (Epic):You are able to conjure transparent vines across your body, and when channeling mana into said vines, translucent thorns will emerge atop them. You are able to manipulate and rapidly extend the vines you have already conjured with a burst of nature mana. When striking a foe with Thornscourge Expansion active, bonus physical damage is dealt with every strike. When elemental mana is channeled through the vines, they gain bonus elemental effects. The damage of the thorns is proportional to the amount of mana imbued in them and the current elemental effects.
Archie thought as he dismissed his notifications. Sending a pulse of Material Insight
Archie stored the six human bonekiin, five dwarf bonekiin, three elf bonekiin, and two wight cores in his spatial storage.
Something else he picked up during his core grab was some type of medieval key that was attached to one of the wights he had killed prior. Identifying it revealed nothing, adding yet another thing onto his search list.
The key wouldn’t be able to open the captain’s cabin door as it was locked behind some sort of socket mechanism and not a door lock.
After a couple of minutes of searching, Archie found something. Kicking aside pieces of tattered clothing and bones, he uncovered a concealed grate—with a padlock attached to it.
Inserting the medieval key into the lock pad and twisting, Archie heard a click and watched as the lock pad and key vanished instantaneously. Archie blinked as the key and lock pad he was just holding vanished into thin air.
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Brushing off his confusion and filing it away as system shenanigans, Archie pushed aside the grate and gave a quick glance into the floor below and winced backwards.
The floor below was covered in decayed and rotted corpses. The stench was so pungent, Archie was honestly taken aback by how he was just smelling it now. But considering how the padlock and key disappeared once they were used, then it was probably blocked by some sort of system barrier.
Pushing his mask atop his head, Archie pinched his nose and scrunched up his face before taking another look at the floor below.
Not seeing anything move around, Archie grabbed a handful of bone shards and scattered them across the floor below and waited to see any movement. After not seeing anything react to the noise, Archie jumped down.
As he landed, his vision turned dark. Archie tensed for a moment, concerned that he fell into some sort of trap, but after a few seconds passed and nothing happened he eased up.
Archie tried to look around but was unable to see properly, even with his 295 Perception. Activating Forgesmith’s Flame
As Archie took his first steps, he ignored the squelching sounds under his boots and focused on pushing aside broken wooden furniture and boxes. During his search, he found many broken framed photographs that seemed to be enchanted. The enchantments showed people moving around in the photo and talking to each other, reminding him of certain book series.
The photos contained various people wearing what looked to be some sort of Military Navy garbs, not unlike the ones the bonekiins and wights wore. In each of the photos there were the same four races: human, elf, dwarf, and some type of humanoid creature.
Archie pondered while brushing off the broken glass of the moving photograph.
Flipping the photograph, Archie saw an image of a heart and something written on both sides of the heart. Even though he had no idea what the words meant, he knew what it represented.
Shaking his head, Archie placed the photograph back from where he grabbed it and continued his search, ignoring the ever-growing list of questions he had about this dungeon.
Lifting up a crate, Archie found something that looked very out of place: a giant brilliant-cut pink diamond. ," he smiled as he tried to Identify the diamond but was yet again met with nothing. That told him that it was something important.
Picking up the deceptively light diamond, Archie made his way onto the main deck.
Oliver lifted a vial halfway filled with a bubbling purple liquid and stared at it with intense focus. Snapping his fingers, one of his test subjects standing guard behind him stepped forward, twitching with every step as his face contorted.
Barely giving a glance to the thrall beside him, Oliver flexed his mana onto his surroundings causing a heavy pressure to descend on the thrall’s shoulders and bring him to his knees.
A disgusted frown marred Oliver’s scaled face as he looked at the thrall with contempt. , Oliver scoffed as he pried open the thrall’s mouth with a bit of telekinetic manipulation, uncaring as he dislocated the thrall’s jaw and ripped its flesh slightly.
Pouring the vial's contents into the mouth of the thrall, Oliver forced its mouth shut and created a translucent barrier of mana around himself and his alchemical set behind him.
The thrall’s twitching suddenly stopped; he looked around in confusion as his eyes cleared up. Getting off his knees, he kept clenching his hands and looked at them with wonder. Opening his mouth, he tried to speak, but instead of hearing his voice, a deep groan came out.
Worry came over the thrall as he looked at the now setting sun with confusion. He had no recollection of what was happening prior. The only thing he remembered was getting out of his tent one day and going on a hunt into the jungle.
He had found a couple of boars that were close to his level and…darkness. He didn’t remember anything after that…
The thrall held his head in between his palms as he started to shake in fear. Looking to his side he saw it…some sort of lizard creature, standing upright like a human…staring at him with…disgust?
Staggering towards Oliver, the thrall moved only three feet forwards before he was met with some sort of wall. Confused, he touched the air in front of him and was met with resistance,
Oliver looked at the thrall with ever growing disgust as it bumbled its way towards him and pressed its disgusting hands atop his mana barrier. He looked on as it started to bang its hands on the barrier, its eyes becoming crazed.
The thrall kept banging on the barrier and groaning, trying to get some sort of reaction from the man. He kept putting more strength into his fists as he tried to break the thing blocking him.
Fear filled the thrall’s mind as he believed himself to be going insane. He felt trapped and needed to get out. He flooded his body with strength as he wildly started to bang on the barrier, trying to break through.
He ignored the red splotches splattering onto the barrier, his eyes wild and crazed as he kept them locked on the lizard creature before him.
Suddenly, a wave of dizziness hit him causing him to topple forward, slamming his face into the barrier once again. Desperately, he tried to bend and grab his knees to steady himself but found nothing to hold onto. He collapsed to the ground, slamming face first into the dirt.
Confused and delirious, the thrall spat out the dirt that had filled his mouth and looked at his arm in bewilderment. It was gone.
Glancing up, he saw blood splatters and chunks of flesh stuck to the invisible barrier in front of him.
Pain erupted from his arms as he realized what happened. The thrall screamed in pain and thrashed around.
Oliver, annoyed by its sharp cries and thrashing, waved away the barrier and stepped towards the thrall looking down on it with contempt. The thrall kept wailing and thrashing on the ground unaware of the barrier’s disappearance.
Suddenly two thin arcs of dark mana appeared and cut horizontally through the thrall’s neck and vertically through its body.
Silence now filled the air, as the thrall’s cries of pain were silenced.
Its unfocused right eye released a final tear as it stared at the now disappeared sun.
Oliver scowled as he spat at the dead thrall and turned back to his alchemical table, ignoring a notification that popped, informing him of more Tutorial Points. As if he didn’t have enough already.
Oliver continued to mix alchemical reagents into his cauldron, unaware of a man watching him from twenty kilometers away, hidden within a tree branch.
James gripped his Cragforge Steel Compound Bow, struggling to not release an arrow into Oliver’s head. He didn’t know if Oliver had more barriers around him, or if they were strong enough to withstand his arrows. He couldn’t risk it.
Exhaling deeply, James activated Shadow ShroudArchie was right, we need to kill him asap, before he gets stronger.
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