Before I tried to open the small metal gate ringing the Church of Bhomet, I froze, staring at a large patch of dried blood before my feet. The blood of the weak. My blood. "This is where I almost died. Where I gave up again." For reasons known only deep within me, the sight of the blood pool caused a suffocating wave of anger and shame to rise. It was like a mark upon the very world, proclaiming that Grubbitish Reinbach is weak. Not just in body but in mind. The scene of my motionless body being gnawed on flashed through my mind, making me grind my teeth, while a burning sensation covered my eyes.
Not wanting to look at the dried blood pool any longer, I lifted my head, eyes blurry, and gazed into the overcast sky. The oppressive atmosphere of the dark city appeared to become even heavier in that moment. My flagging courage felt truly not up to the task as I turned my sights to the looming church before me. 'What am I even doing here?' 'Why didn't I stay safely in the safe zone? Was it really necessary for me to take on this challenge? Do I even have the strength to complete it? Am I just lying to myself?' Asking myself these questions repeatedly, without any comforting answer found, the weight bearing down on me felt as if I was going to be crushed without something to prop me up.
At the moment, before my entire will crumbled beneath my own failed hubris, my back that had gotten used to the caress of the cold air felt warmth. The warmth hit my back but felt as if it spread through my entire body. Turning around, I witnessed a sight I had seen many a time, but at this point in time and in this alien world, it hit me stronger than it ever had before. Rising over the distant land and partially blocked by the high walls of the City of Undead, the sun slowly rose. As if facing their greatest enemy, the shadows filling the streets retreated, and for a time, nothing but the warmth of the sun filled the silent streets. It felt like a charge of electricity had shot me in the flagging spirit.
My pale face basked in the warmth as I narrowed my stinging eyes. For several minutes, arms akimbo, I just enjoyed the sun's healing rays as it rose higher into the sky. I knew it had only been a little over a day since I had seen the sun, and I was being overly dramatic. Acting like a prisoner who hadn't seen the sun for twenty years. However, to my trampled psyche, the warmth and celestial beauty of watching the rising sun filled my empty container. Taking both hands, I slapped my own cheeks gently twice as I rallied myself, "Come on, Grubbs. You got this. Just imagine the possibilities I could bring if I were successful. Maybe I could bring back some magical potion that could heal Henny or even learn a healing spell that could fix everything. If I could get strong enough, maybe I could even find Dad. Who says he's actually dead? There were no bodies? Yes, yes. I can do this. I must do this."
Feeling as if there was a literal sun now burning inside my chest, I turned around and with the rising sun at my back I stepped right onto the dried blood and swung open the iron gate. I reached the church's tall double doors, taking the small steps two at a time, and focused on the building while placing my hand on the hard grey stone it was made of before I made any further moves. After only a second, a prompt rang out in my mind.
[Building meets criteria for System built Base]
Status: Occupied 1/1
This was the function given to me by the system upon accepting the base-building pathway mission. I had previously tried it out on a couple of the houses earlier while I made my way to the Ghoul mansion. Even though it didn't tell me what type of beings occupied the buildings I scanned, the fact that it told me how many was a great advantage to know of ahead of time. If it wasn't for the swarm of Murdercrows trying to peck me to death, I wouldn't have blindly run into the ghoul feast and been so unprepared. Much like I was doing now, I sighed with relief to find that at least it looked like the initial information provided my Gabriel was right. Inside the church was only one person or thing.
Leaning over the stone railing next to the doors, I did my best to look through the obscured stained windows. Pushing my face almost flat gave me a somewhat better view, but the majority of the inside appeared murky. What did stand out, however, was the garishly dark red carpet with gold trims running up the middle of the building. Looking fairly intact. On either side were rows of pews in various states of disrepair, with even some of them being smashed up into several large wood chips. The carpet led directly to a raised stage, which held an empty stone table made of dark marble. Behind which sat several high-back stone chairs made of similar material but draped with half-rotten fabrics of indistinguishable colors.
The red carpet wasn't the only thing that stood out, however, as, doing my best to focus, I could see that the carpet originally ran all the way up the couple of steps to the stage, but now it ended abruptly before the steps. Instead, a circle of blood-red paint, looking fresh and viscous, covered the floor. 'Shit, Gabriel was right. The guy's obviously gone mad. He started redecorating with blood.' Trying my best to scan the area, I was disappointed to find I couldn't see the supposed mad moon elf. I at least knew that there was a high possibility he was the being inside, and if I was careful, I might be able to get the drop on him.
'Gabriel said that the moon elf is far stronger than me and also has a special hidden talent. I've got to be careful. My best chance is to get the drop on him and end him as quickly as possible. Hopefully, I've caught the bastard napping. Gabriel will be pleased with me once he returns. I hope his alright.' Thinking about the benevolent and friendly Mr. Gabriel at that moment made an involuntary smile cross my face, as my forehead also creased in worry for the older man. I was truly lucky to have met someone so helpful and selfless in this horrible city. And the fact that neither of us was originally from this world made me feel an even closer kinship to the scarred old man.
Removing my squished face from the stained glass window, I approached the front doors and, as quietly as I could, I eased the metal ring of one of the doors. With a rusty, elongated squeak, the thick wooden door swung towards me. In the silent city, any noise seemed to magnify a hundredfold, so I tensed my shoulders for a moment before slipping through the slight opening as quickly as possible. With a knife in hand, I crouched down low after entering and swung my head around rapidly, trying my best to see everything at once.
However, even though the sun had risen outside and the night's darkness was slowly receding, deep shadows still covered the church's interior. Straining my ears, I tried my best to listen for any signs of movement, but after several seconds of hearing nothing but a soft sloshing noise that sounded like water moving inside a bathtub, I heard nothing else. Deciding that staying crouched, partially hidden by the remaining intact pews, was the best position for now, I made my way down the red carpet. The thick rug helped to lessen the noise of my barely intact shoes on the hard stone floor.
Keeping my head on a swivel, I inched my way further into the church. Past the pews on either side of me were several ceiling-high statues of various knights, in similar but different armour. Each was wielding an enormous sword with its tip pointed down. They appeared to be sculpted from the same dark stone that made the table at the end of the church. Each time I passed one, I paused in my steps and made sure there was no one hidden behind the statues or in the shadows before moving on. The whole process, with my excessive cautiousness involved, took close to fifteen minutes, with a burning in my thighs from staying crouched for so long to show for it. I arrived at the edge of the painted red circle. Even though I was doing my best to make no noise, I couldn't stop the involuntary intake of breath at seeing what I originally thought was just a red painted circle.
Instead of a painted circle of blood red, what I found right before the steps to the raised dais and flanked on either side by two doors, was an actual pool of blood. Someone had carved a perfectly spherical hole in the thick stone floor and, to my rising horror and disgust, filled it with blood. Without knowing how deep the actual pool was, the sheer size of the pool of slowly revolving blood caused my entire being to be filled with dread. Just the sheer number of dead bodies required to fill the pool was a terrifying thing to imagine. The salty iron tang permeated the air, making me almost gag in response. It was absolutely overwhelming. The sight of the floor of bodies inside the ghoul mansion was already an unbearable horror that I had been repressing since witnessing it; now I had to add the pool of dark red rotating blood to the bag of nightmares that were bound to plague me in the coming days.
Due to the surprise discovery and my own untrained awareness, I didn't notice that someone had snuck up behind me until a roar filled with fury rang out, causing me to turn around in a panic. "I knew the sight of your activated blood pool would overwhelm you. Stupid beast! You'll never get the chance to use it in this life, now die in my purifying flames, you bastard! Consecrated Ground!"
A tall, pale man, covered in thick claw-like wounds, with broken and torn light grey armour, stood only a few feet behind me. He was kneeling on the ground, with one hand lying flat on the stone that was glowing in a hazy white, while the other muscular arm was pointing at me. His face was almost as horrendous-looking as Gabriel's, except this man's wounds were far fresher. One of his eyes had a jagged cut through it, revealing a festering eyeball, while the other was wide open and bloodshot.
His remaining eye, however, was a beautiful silver that looked to me as if it sparkled in the sun leaking through the large windows on either side of the church hall. Besides the gruesome wounds, the man's face was a stereotypical elf, with high cheekbones, pointed ears and long silvery, yellow hair.
The man was truly a beautiful person in every way you looked at him. Unfortunately, the twisted, blood-covered face filled with unimaginable pain and fury ruined it. There was an almost visible pressure coming off the man that caused my entire body to lock up with fear. Under the man's murderous gaze, I felt utterly without strength, like a mouse about to be caught by a diving eagle. I could only watch as the man completed whatever spell or ability he was activating. The soft glow from his hands spread outwards into a complex circle, filled with mystical-looking symbols and shapes that expanded in a heartbeat, taking up half the church, including myself.
Right below my feet were several intersecting lines that glowed brighter every second, almost blinding me when I tried to look at them. However, even though my heart was racing and I was already believing that I was moments away from being burned to smithereens or something of that nature, nothing happened. Instead, the opposite happened; my whole body felt as light as a feather, and the aches and bruises that still pained me from earlier were swept away. At that moment, I felt better than I ever had in my life, even better than when I awoke after the life transition. The fatigue in my body and mind that had built up over the last two days had also disappeared. It was utterly baffling. 'Is this an attack or a buff? What the hell is wrong with this guy?'
My pondering was cut off, however, as the sound of the man's armored footsteps running towards me caught all my attention. Within a second the man was before me, and with his one good eye, that for some reason was crying tears of blood, he roared into my face, "With life as energy, I extend my limit! Take this spawn of darkness! Hallowed Palm!" The elf's hand burst into white flames that, although blinding and dangerous looking, didn't actually give off any heat before he slammed his palm onto my chest.
Seeing the palm covered in flames speeding towards my chest, I reacted instinctively and far faster than I ever had before. With the knife still gripped in my right hand, I plunged it as hard as I could into the elf's chest. Aiming directly for the man's heart area, which coincidentally was exactly where a large chunk of armour was missing from, revealing the man's pale pectoral muscles. As we exchanged surprised looks, my knife plunged through the man's skin and went up to the hilt. The man's palm, though moving towards me, only tapped my sternum gently and paused. 'Is this guy all bark and no bite? Why cry out those dramatic names if they do nothing?'
We both stared into each other's eyes for a second. With wide-open, bleeding eyes, the man looked utterly baffled, mumbling, "Who in the abyss are you?" The elf was the first to move. He took a couple of stumbling steps backwards, the flames from his hand dying out while the large hole my knife had opened in his chest gushed sparkly blood like an open faucet. The man's legs gave out under him as he crashed onto his ass, still within the glowing white patterned area. Not at any point did the man's one eye leave my face. I myself was frozen in shock as well, just staring back. Although the guy had called out a series of dramatic names and actions, ultimately besides a slight bruise on my chest that was already healing the man did absolutely no damage to me.
Instead, he was the one left sitting on the ground, his pale face becoming even paler as blood continued to pour from his body. I wasn't sure if I should run over to the man to quickly issue the final blow, so the elf wouldn't suddenly issue some crazy reversal and smite me. However, just looking at the elf, I was almost a hundred percent sure he was only a few seconds from death and didn't require any further attacks from me. "Well, that was anticlimactic. All that pepping myself up for nothing." I couldn't help commenting, although an easy fight was ultimately the best fight, the situation still left me feeling dissatisfied for some reason I just couldn't quite put my finger on in that moment.
My words echoing in the high ceiling church appeared to wake the elf from his frozen, shocked state, and with blood now leaking out of his mouth, he said between a fit of coughing, "You're... You're not him. You have no necrotic energy... my attacks were useless... How... why... but your smell... and dress... it's the sam..." Before the man could finish whatever he was trying to say, he coughed up an almost massive amount of blood and with resignation and a great unwillingness in his remaining eye he slumped backwards. His now vacant silver eyes stared at the ceiling above, and the rise and fall of his chest halted.
The man's words were utterly confusing. After pondering for a moment and not being able to figure out the underlying meaning, I just chopped it up to the famous eleven arrogance. Especially with his last words mentioning my smell and clothes. With a heavy frown, I said, "It's not polite to comment on someone's smell. It's not even that bad." Raising my left arm, I turned my head and took a small sniff. The smell almost made me pass out. With the strong iron smell coming from the pool of blood behind me being almost not up to par. Quickly lowering my arm, I looked at the elf's corpse and, with cheeks slightly heated, I whispered, "Sorry about that."
A notification itch that had arrived the moment the elf slumped to the ground along with a couple others became more prominent in that moment and after sweeping the area and seeing nothing else, besides the blinding patterns still glowing on the church floor, I summoned my notifications.
[You have received Buff +2 Strength and +2 Endurance from Consecrated Ground. While standing on Consecrated Ground all necrotic or curse-powered damage will be halved.]
[You have been inflicted with Hallowed Palm – No damage received due to absence of Necrotic energy]
[You have slain – Tyarantor Silversong Teir 2 Level 13 – 4300 x Experience points awarded]
Although the description of the Consecrated Ground buff cleared up some of my doubts, it still didn't explain why the moon elf had used it on me. However, I swept aside all other thoughts when I saw the amount of experience points I gained. My mouth opened so wide that one could probably fit a fist in it if they wanted to. A visible wave of energy, shimmering like a heat wave, rose from the elf's slumped body and streamed towards me. The wave entered through my stomach facing no resistance, and within moments I felt a heat surge through my entire body. Surprisingly, it was not an uncomfortable heat. Memories of the awful boiling heat felt during my life transition caused a shiver to run down my spine. Instead, it was almost too comfortable, making my entire body tremble while a feeling of ecstasy rolled throughout me. It was as if even my cells were singing and dancing with joy after absorbing this energy, which I guessed was the physical representation of experience points.
With just this sight alone, I felt as if the clouds of mystery obscuring the world of the system parted slightly. Letting me glimpse into its hidden depths. Pulling up my profile screen, I was ecstatic to see my level.
Name:
Grubbitish Reinbach
Level:
9
Experience to Next Level:
20/1000
Race:
Human
Life Tier:
1
Class:
None
Profession:
Leatherworker – LVL 1
Health:
145/145
Stamina:
150/150
Mana:
125/125
Armor Value:
30/30
I had remarkably gone up by eight levels and, reading another notification; I was ecstatic to see I had eight attribute points that I could add to anyone of my attributes due to the level ups. The warm, full feeling of the energy circling through all parts of my body was still there and had not dissipated at all. This gave me the idea that maybe it was like non-allocated energy that was just waiting for me to assign it somewhere, like via the attribute points. Before I enhanced any of my attributes though, I first looked over at the slumped corpse of the moon elf and thought about the spells the man had tried to use.
Although both turned out utterly pointless against me, they both appeared to be fantastic skills when used against necrotic beings. 'Considering my base is going to be inside this city of death, which is filled with beings covered in necrosy, both skills would be absolute game changers for me. Especially Consecrated Ground.' With that thought and what must have been a greedy, almost hunger-filled grin, I approached the corpse of the elf. Reaching into the open air, and accessing my inventory space, I summoned a treasure I had been holding since surviving being hanged.
Even though the object was only the size of a pack of cards, much like when I placed it inside the storage space, pulling it out was like pulling my hand out of a pit of mud. My hand withdrew painfully slowly. While waiting, I looked around at the still glowing ground and mused, "I wonder how long the consecrated ground lasts for?" After another couple of seconds, my hand was finally free, revealing a sparkling card. Staring at the object intently, a grin that almost split my face appeared when I re-read its description.
[Random Talent Card – Unique – No Req.]
Uses: 1/1
System note: A talent card can be used by any entity with a free Talent space to absorb one of the talents of a personally slain enemy.
Standing over the moon elf's corpse, I held the sparkling blank card and, with intent, I tried to activate it. To my disappointment, nothing happened after several seconds. With worry starting to creep onto my brow, I crouched down and this time I placed the card on the stomach of the moon elf with my palm over the top of it and tried again. This time it appeared to work as a prompt flickered in my vision.
[Would you like to activate Random Talent Card on slain enemy Tyarantor Silversong?]
Mentally thinking yes, my hand that was upon the card suddenly felt as if it was glued to the moon elf's stomach and had turned into some kind of vacuum cleaner. A dragging force erupting out of it and encompassing the entirety of the elf's being. Before I could freak out at the weird sight, a series of words or maybe titles sprang up in my vision. With the familiar Consecrated Ground and Hallowed Palm appearing for a moment before others took over. I saw a wide variety of what must have been the man's skills and talents. Some I had no clue about and others were painfully obvious, like Advanced Sword Proficiency or Beginner Unarmed Proficiency.
The names started slow, before speeding up, flashing in front of my vision at an increased speed until they became a blur before finally landing on a name that caused me to stick out my bottom lip and mutter into the empty church, "What the hell's Limit Break?"