THIRTY-NINE: REBORN
Cassius Null
Legionarius Immortalis
Level 12
Strength: 25
Dexterity: 11
Endurance: 29
Perception: 10
Intelligence: 8
Mana: 18
Skills:
Thrust
Reinforce
March
Hunter’s Sight
Regenerate
Unyielding Spirit
EMPTY
EMPTY
Cassius looked over the increase to his blessings and felt slightly let down. The days of hard training had been worth only four points in strength, three in dexterity, six in endurance, and three in mana. His three spare points had been placed across intelligence and perception to help bolster the two lagging categories, but Cassius could feel the frown on his face as he stepped back.
“Why so sour?” Valeria said with a hearty chuckle, the smile on her own face hadn’t left since she’d touched the stone.
“I did not grow as much as I had thought I would. Only sixteen points across all my categories,” Cassius said. Silence greeted his announcement as both of the women stared at him with hard eyes.
“What?” Cassius asked.
“I only gained ten,” Valeria said, shaking her head in annoyance while Vira snorted, not bothering to say how much she had gained, but she still voiced her opinion.
“Sixteen points is worth two second tier levels. Over five levels of tier one growth.” Cassius heard her and felt a pang of guilt at his disappointment in his growth but when looking at it that way, he couldn’t argue with her. He hadn’t had to kill anything to earn those points. Simply sweat and effort.
“Now I feel like a braggart,” Cassius muttered while Valeria choked another laugh as she shook her head.
“Armor’s tighter,” Vira complained, changing the subject with the grace of a drunkard. Cassius’ armor had its own problems after the week of hard training. He would have laughed anyone out of a room if they said a week could make a noticeable change, but the mana rich food had allowed him to grow across the shoulders, chest, and thighs at an appreciable rate. The overlapping bands of his armor were easy enough to move, but his growth had been such that he’d lost the overlapping protective properties of them.
“We will all be needing a fitting,” Cassius said as he checked to make sure both swords were strapped to his waist. Vira had ensured that he trained with both hands with the blades, but he was far away from being skilled with his off-hand.
His spear was nothing more than the superbia banner now and his shield was splinters spread across the dungeon. He’d entered the dungeon fully armed and equipped and left now with only a portion of the gear but of such higher quality he couldn’t truly express the words to quantify it. Zhang Wei’s gladius was a work of blue-steel, inscribed with dungeon script along the blade, while the dungeon forged bastard sword was simply magical.
“Cassius, grab the bowl. Valeria, you lead us free of the dungeon,” Vira ordered as she drew her own blade, squeezing tight around the dungeon heart. Cassius followed her orders, picking up the iron pot with one arm, shuffling it awkwardly to his hip as he placed his hand upon the crystal of the dungeon heart. Vira and Valeria were right behind him and once all three of their hands were upon the stone it resonated with intent.
Cassius agreed with the question that wasn’t asked and the world inverted and snapped upon itself, vertigo hammering into him as he was returned back to the world. [Hunter’s Sight] kept the world a soft shade of gray as Cassius fought his rebellious stomach as he staggered forward away from the arch.
“The gods are cruel,” Valeria cursed as she marshalled herself and stood in front of them, dungeon sword held on the rim of her hastily repaired shield.
“There is nothing here but us,” Cassius said through gritted teeth as he fought off the nausea before rising.
“Good, I need to vomit,” Valeria said, turning to the side of the room and proceeding to let her stomach rise up.
“Gods that smells vile,” Vira said as she swallowed hard, free hand blindly waving about herself. Cassius grabbed her free hand with his own and steadied the noblewoman as she took a few deep breaths.
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“We will move quickly. Just as we planned, now hurry,” Vira said after she composed herself.
Valeria rose up, wiping at the back of her mouth as she hefted shield and sword up. Cassius let go of Vira’s hand which quickly latched to his shoulder. Straining with his load, Cassius grabbed Valeria’s shoulder and pushed the woman gently, guiding her through the dark of the cavern.
“The door is in front of you,” Cassius warned as they reached the end of the hall.
“I can smell the air. It is cool, but not as cold as it was,” Valeria said. Her foot quested in front of her until she found the block they’d left so long ago and wedged her foot in the door. Cracks of gray-dawn light slipped through as she started to open the door.
The last week of training had been pleasant in the struggle of the body, his will turning inward to master himself. It had been better for his mind, a week of only internal struggle after the chaos of the last week's trials. There had been nothing trying to eat, disembowel, sacrifice, or drown him. It had been pleasant to decompress in the dungeon cave, but there had been a lack of edge that he’d grown accustomed to.
It was that edge, when life danced on the precipice of skill and steel, that Cassius found himself quietly hoping to experience again. When the world slowed and blood flowed, that was where his heart harkened for. In the softly illuminated treasure room he’d been forced to acknowledge that part of him loved this.
His heart began to beat faster as excitement gave his hands the slightest tremble as Valeria shoved the door open and stepped outside onto the side of the hill. Across from them were more hill-like cairns, the grass on them frozen stiff even as the sun was starting its ascent and bringing its life giving warmth. Cassius blinked as he stared at the empty grounds.
“Nothing to be seen,” he reported as all three of them came out of the dungeon entrance and looked around themselves.
“To the top of the hill. Cassius, break the pot when we reach the top. I want that barrel of water,” Vira said, which earned nods from all of them. Valeria took the lead again, moving swiftly up the hill as the sun continued to rise, frozen grass melting to turn the side of the hill slick.
“The forest is hot, the hills are cold, and there are monsters in the water. A most excellent vacation spot,” Vira said, mostly to herself. It drew a quiet snort from Valeria, but Cassius was too focused on their surroundings to let himself be drawn into their quiet banter as they reached the top of the hill.
The remnants of the cohort camp were just as they had left them, nothing out of place aside from the figure sitting patiently in the middle of the camp. Cassius felt his jaw fall as the figure rose up, the sun behind his back, as it turned to look at them.
Diaphanous robes turned transparent, outlining a figure carved from marble, perfection in its every limb. Its beauty was strange and otherworldly, something that no mortal could possess, each line of its face perfect. Unbound black hair fell in an onyx wave down its back while eyes the color of sea-foam stared at them dispassionately.
“Hello there, little ones,” the voice was melodic, haunting in its sincerity and filled with forlorn sorrow.
“What in the name of the cursed gods is that,” Valeria asked, her voice husky as her legs trembled. The creature laughed and Cassius felt his heart clench in empathetic pain as it slowly walked toward them, giving Cassius a better view of what it was.
Similar to a man, but refined beyond what any mortal should be able to look like. Nose, mouth, chin, clean-shaven cheeks, its skin was the color of untouched snow, its lips berry red. It was beautiful and terrible all at the same time.
“Worry not, for you have brought to me something most precious. My own possession,” the creature said. As it walked a staff appeared in its hand, made of glass and topped with a stone the size of a fist of the darkest obsidian. Its depths swirled and threatened to pull Cassius into them as the creature walked closer to them.
“H…halt,” Vira coughed out, her voice thick and soft. It was that which sent Cassius to activate [Unyielding Spirit]. The clarity of mind snapped into focus and he saw the creature as it was.
No graceful being of light and power, inhuman in its beauty. What stood bared before the tandem skills of [Hunter’s Sight] and [Unyielding Spirit] was decrepit, broken, cadaverous. Cheeks sunken inward, lips thin and brittle, chunks of black hair having fallen free to reveal a scalp irritated and covered in weeping sores. Its eyes were dark pits with a burning star inside of them, radiating power as it slowly walked toward them, not for grace but its weakened state.
It was a creature succumbed to hunger, wrathful in its rage but pathetic in its weakness as it slowly moved closer to them like a catastrophe made flesh. Cassius dropped the iron pot to the ground in a clang of noise and the creature’s burning eyes followed it with primal hunger.
Dungeon forged steel came free with a whisper as Cassius met its eyes. Their gaze connected and Cassius could feel the weight of it, the age and desperation blasted across his mind. The two women screamed and collapsed like puppets with their strings cut as Cassius’ own skills trembled. The mana burn began to accumulate, draining his reserves rapidly as the creature hobbled faster toward them.
“Do not!” It rasped, all of its former glory dissolved like salt in water as it lifted its staff, light drawing deep into the obsidian head.
“Fear not, death shall grace us all one day,” Cassius said, his voice flat as he stared at the abomination as it came toward him. Tribune Zhang Wei’s tortured eyes came back to him, a soldier trapped undying for years. All of his brothers and sisters of the primo legio who had fallen to this creature’s twisted ways, trapped in torment as it fed upon them.
“[Thrust] and [Reinforce] filled his blade, sapping his mana to nothing as the blade shot downward into the empty pit of the pot, striking the bottom with a resounding clang that echoed across the hilltop. A moment later the sound of glass breaking heralded a haunting scream as spectral figures came flying free of the pot.
Legionnaires in old armor came in formation behind Zhang Wei who saluted crisply as they faded away. Members of the summoner’s race, dark skinned with orange cat slit eyes as they prowled forth, heads swinging back and forth before they dissolved. Others came, several similar to the creature who stalked across the hilltop, others he couldn’t recognize. Hundreds of them slowly dissolved and flashed apart as their spirits finally found their rest.
“FOOL!” the creature screamed, wrath filled tones as its staff rose into the air. Cassius looked up, exhaustion carving deep pits through his body as his skills shuddered and fell away. He thought that increasing his mana would have been smarter than those other categories, it would have allowed him to fight against this thing a moment longer.
Power built along the staff as the black stone glowed with sickly intensity. Wisps of anima slowly drifted back toward the creature, called by the staff. There was no distinct shapes, just the last tattered remnants of spirit. Still, the creature pulled them into its staff as light began to pulse in it.
“Pathetic humans, bumbling forth in the dark. When I return to my workshops I shall place your soul in a dung cleaner and you shall scurry for millenia working only to clean the shit of my city!”
Cassius had used up his pithy comments already and all he could do was force his dungeon blade up into a guard position as he staggered in front of Valeria. Whatever the creature was building toward, he had no strength to battle it, but he refused to die on his knees in front of this monstrosity.
