A rat, oblivious to the arrow shot at it met its end with a cry before it was bathed in a sea of flames. Lyssara's eyes glowed obsidian as she tried to form her summon of the rat.
*Whoosh*
Unsteady at first but after a few seconds, she managed to keep the little beast constant. It's hollow white eyes unmoving from the path ahead.
[{Summons can be used for multiple purposes such as assault, stealth and retrieval}]
[{You can increase the amount of summons of the flame with the increase of the Vampiric Mark skill}]
'That's interesting. To think that the two would be linked in such a manner.' Her gaze shifting to the path ahead littered with beasts she wished to test out with her newly summoned rat.
[{Player: Lyssara}]
[{Level:1}]
[{Innate skill: Black flame- A flame that burns through eternity with no pause, reminiscent of the abyss once before}]
[{Weapons: Estoc}]
[{Active Skills: Echo Step}]
[{Passive Skills: Predator's Calm}]
[{Utility Skill: Vampiric Mark}]
[{Charm: The Abyss's reminiscent}]
[{Artifact: None}]
[{Favor: Personally favored by the Creators of the world}]
[{Black Shards: 6,000}]
The new message made her freeze as she wondered what it meant.
[{Favor in the game functions as luck. It affects your item drop chance, your encounters not just in the game but in the real world as well and item rarities in the shop.}]
[{However due to the presence of an unranked artifact, items dropped won't surpass the epic rarity}]
Her face soured seeing this however she let out a short sigh. 'With a game breaking item like this, it's only fair that they would do something like this.' Before she waved the flux of notifications away, her mind clicked recalling something.
"Where's my Coagulated Shard?!" Skimming through her inventory, other than her estoc and mask, it was completely empty.
[{Any items or progress made in the previous run has been deemed null due to external use of artifacts}]
The notification an insult to her efforts. "All of that and for what?!" Letting her figure slump back to the wall and cover her face, she knew that the game would be punishing but to this extent was too much for her to expect. "Well let's hope that the difficulty hasn't shot up drastically."
She muttered as she kept on walking down the halls and not long, she had her first encounter with a bat. This time there was no notification giving her an in-depth information about the beast but with it's looks, it wasn't hard for her to know that it wouldn't pose a problem for her.
*Whoosh*
As she had expected, the bat went for a dive, a move she countered with the rat.
*Boom*
The cave was lit ablaze, black fire scorching the sides of the wall before she could see again. Both her rat and the bat were no more, the scene before her a small crack of the floor. 'I didn't think that it would be that powerful.' She exclaimed still recovering from the blast.
'With this, I'm sure to make quick work of the other elites!' A faint smirk crept up her lips as she treaded on.
...
It wasn't long before she faced the second elite of the floor, this time the Brood mother Matriarch. With a groan, the doors opened and walking in, she cursed looking at the fighting venue. Unlike a regular cave, this time her space of traversal was a narrow path, each side showing what seemed to be bottomless chasms.
However by now she had managed to cull other beasts to function as her pawns in the fight. With three bats and seven rats, she was sure that this time wouldn't as difficult as before.
*Whoosh*
All the lights in the cave were instantly snuffed out and much to her surprise, her fiery summons withered away in the darkness. 'I guess that they weren't as strong enough in the face of an elite.' She sighed bringing out her tuck which gave a faint glow in the darkness, not the one that illuminated in the darkness but the one that seemed to devour light.
*Shriek*
The shriek familiar to her and with her now improved vision thanks to her flames, she didn't have a hard time to know where the source was. 'Why is she making a move now?!' Leaping into the air, she narrowly dodged an attack from the Brood mother Matriarch however she wasn't as fortunate with one of her lesser minions.
*BAM*
Blocking with her tuck, her figure was sent flying through the cave crashing to a wall.
*Whoosh*
Relentless with her attack, the Brood mother came charging at her which was too much given that it was the first few minutes of the fight. 'What is up with the beast?!' She cursed as she landed back on the narrow path. 'It's as if it recalls me.' She couldn't help but wonder seeing how aggressive the beast was.
Her gaze however shifted to the lesser minions, aware that it would be problematic to face the Brood mother with two other beasts pinning her down.
[{Echo Step}]
*Whoosh*
Rather than crashing into one of the lesser minions, she was forced to clash with the Brood mother once more forcing her to instinctively block sending her flying once more. Before she could regain her bearings, a lesser bat took the initiative baring its fangs to bite her.
Forced to block once more, the other minion took the opening and bit her leg. Its fangs sinking deep into her flesh.
"Arghhh!" She grunted ready to unleash hell on the beast however it backed away before she could finish her arc with the estoc.
[{Due to the mask, the blood loss vampirism debuff has been neutralized}]
[{Your health is 10 out of 20}]
She let out a sigh of relief however her space to breathe didn't last long as the Brood mother hurled itself at her, it's obsidian eyes gleaming in the darkness enough to make her skin crawl. There was a sense of madness behind the beast's glint that made her wary.
'If this keeps on going then I'll eventually die here!' Her eyes looking for anything to work in her before it clicked in her mind.
[{Echo Step}]
Her frame instantly covering space heading towards one of the minions and as expected the mother barely hesitated, shielding its offspring. However beneath the mask, a grin of satisfaction could be seen on Lyssara's face as she tilted her body aiming her tuck at the Brood mother.
Before her blade could touch its flesh, a swarm of bats emerged from the shadows separating the two. 'Got you!' She mused inwardly as with a slash sent a wave of fire lighting the cave killing some of the bats in the swarm.
[{Limit of ten reached}]
The system notified her to which didn't hesitate as she sent five of the bats to one of the minions and three to the Brood mother. The two that remained, she shot them to the ceiling where stalactites dangled on the verge of collapse.
*Boom*
The cave usually drowning in darkness was illuminated showing Lyssara's falling figure onto the path, one of the minions taken aback with the falling rocks and the other trying to dodge the swarm shot at it.
*Thud*
One of her rocks was able to hit the farther minion pinning its wing to the ground, as for the mother, it was hurled back by the explosion and the closer minion bathed in flames before once more the cave was sent back to it's dark abyss.
[{Echo Step}]
With a swing of her estoc, she brought the life of the one on the ground to an end, the one now falling scorched in flames with a swing of her blade sending a slash of fire piercing through its wings causing it to crash to the chasm below. With one move she had managed to dispose of the minions and now she was left with the Brood mother.
*Shriek*
Enraged with the death of it's children, she Brood mother let out a blood curling scream that thanks to the mask barely had an effect on Lyssara as she leapt into the air to clash with the beast. With determination shining in her crimson eyes, her body was coated in flames, a skill she hadn't mastered yet which managed to make the Brood mother falter and with the opening cause a devastating blow to the beast.
*Slash*
With one of it's wings sliced and blood spilling, the Broodmother's let out a final shriek as it was swallowed by the abyss. 'That was far more difficult than I had anticipated.' She mused aware that without her Infernal Reclamation skill, the outcome of the fight would have been completely different.
She glanced at the never ending pit to her side as a glint of curiosity echoed in her mind.
'The Abyss's Reminiscent?' The thought of Jarren being as powerful as her if not less was something she refused to believe and yet the title was hers. Making her way to the exit, a notification flashed congratulating her off her victory.
[{Congratulations on properly defeating the Brood mother}]
[{Your Infernal Reclamation skill limit has increased from ten to fifteen}]
Rather than take in the improvement, her gaze drifted to a shop at the corner of her eye. "Back are we?" The vendor mused as soon as he saw her. "You remember me?" She posed with a look of surprise beneath her mask.
"How could I ever forget my first customer? But that girl certainly is struggling." His words making Lyssara's mind think of Seryn. "You can see her?" Her question went unanswered. "You have a very intriguing mask with you however your use of it is rather laughable. I could help you refine it for a small fee."
Lyssara hesitated as she looked at the shrouded man behind his counter. "What's the cost?" The man didn't bother with an immediate answer, his hands shuffling together as if he had sighted something valuable. "It's quite cheap, just about... ninety percent of your current health, I'll throw in a legendary items for it as well."
The sound of a legendary item made her heart pause however his words with a closer inspection made her brows furrow. "...What kind of legendary item will you give me?" With her current curse, she hated that purchase would be her means of acquiring legendary items.
"I would sell it to you for about... fifty million black shards but I could lower it to ten thousand shards." Lyssara's eyes narrowed, something about the man made her raise her guard with such a price. "Why do you think that I would trust you with an offer like that?"
From her perspective, she would be getting a huge help with the refinement of her mask and a free legendary item at the cost of ninety percent of her health. Of course it sounded a lot however the difference of price from fifty million to ten thousand forced her to raise her guard.
"We both know that this is a game, I wasn't always some backwater vendor but a horror far greater than the one Jarren killed to make that mask and that blade. You could say that I have qualms with him, so is it a deal?" The man gestured his hand forward, gloved as a low chuckle escaped his lips.
"You do know that he could be listening on this conversation?" The vendor remained unfazed. "He's not as omnipotent as he may claim to be, even he too has limits and with the remaining power that I have left, I've managed to make a safe space eluding his gaze." Still Lyssara wasn't as willing to make the trade. Time ticked, she didn't bother with her hand.
The vendor let out a disappointed sigh. "It looks like I'll have to convince you with time but for now, you can have this as a gift from clearing those rats." An item registered in her inventory.
[{Emberveil Sigil I - Epic}]
[{A ring that generates a veil of invisible heat in a three meter radius, felt by foes. Can be merged with utility skills.}]
The rarity and the quest failed to align however she knew that it was means of gesture from the proclaimed horror. "Thank you."She stated faintly, still unable to believe what she had been given.