Once the Matriarch had been slain, it did not take long for Eden to finish off the rest of the colony. He looked at his reward from the system, but the Poisoner's Robes were just like those in the game, the only difference being that they were Rare rarity, but they still only increased poison damage from spells, which Eden had none, and offered some bonus on Intelligence and Wisdom.
If he did not have any equipment, Eden would have worn them, despite the ugly design, but he could not wear the robes and the Umbra Aegis, and between the Rare Robes that offered 0 defence and the Super Rare armor with a Defence of 120, the choice was easily made.
But Eden had not come down there for these robes. He had come down there for the shining, dark amethyst lodged in a web.
Taking it, Eden took out the Necromancy of Thay, and instantly, he felt a resonance between the two artefacts, as if they sung to one another. Moving the Amethyst to the cover, he felt it being drawn like metal to a magnet, and letting go of it, the Amethyst inserted itself into the gap.
The book started emitting purple hues visible to the naked eye, and Eden felt it attempt to get him to read it. His Talent resisted them, but Eden still felt a strong compulsion to open it right away.
However, he did not. Instead, he placed it in his Inventory, and left for the cave.
The party had set camp there, and had moved some of the explosive barrels they had found by the two entrances.
But the party was not alone as there was one more person in the cave. Well, two counting Withers, who had somehow appeared again.
A rather beautiful Tiefling bard dressed in leather armor. She had light purple skin, soft orange eyes with black sclera, and dark pink hair. She had a lute on her back, and she walked up to Eden nervously as he walked into the cave.
Eden was not surprised to see her, as his Harpies had warned him of her presence the moment they spotted her, but he still felt like sighing as he saw her. Still, that would be rude, so Eden showed no emotion as she arrived before him, and greeted, "Hi! It is an honor to meet the Omen of Death!"
Surprised, Eden asked, "You know about me?"
The Tiefling, Alfira, smiled, nodding like it was obvious, "Of course, I am a bard! I have to know of legends such as yourself!"
Eden hummed softly, and said, "I see. So, any reason why you are here?"
Alfira gulped, and her hands became turned sweaty as she held them together in her back, "I have heard of what you were doing, fighting for all of our sake, and I couldn't just stand there, waiting to be saved. So I came to join you!"
Crossing his arms, Eden asked, "Did you not see the Gnolls at the entrance of the cave? They are some of the least dangerous monsters we will face. Do you truly think you could survive a trip with us?"
"I-I can learn!"
Eden shook his head and looked to the rest of the party, "It would be suicide. What value would there be to throwing your life away for a bunch of strangers?"
She looked down, mouthing a weak, "Oh," obviously disappointed.
"If you do want to make yourself useful, you could help your fellow Tieflings reach Baldur's Gate. I can assure you the goblins will be far from the only danger they will encounter."
Alfira nervously held her hands together, in front of her body this time, nodding begrudgingly, "I understand."
She hesitated for a moment, before asking, "Could I perhaps stay with you while you rest here? To learn more about you? So that I could sing songs of our heroes!"
Astarion scoffed at the mention of heroes, but Eden shrugged, replying, "If you wish."
While the girl walked back next to Sylfine's bed, the two whispering to each other, Eden took out several of the scrolls they had gotten over their adventures. They ranged from cantrips to 2nd Level spells, and Eden started from his way down.
Cantrips were the equivalent of 1st Circle Spells that had not been mastered, 1st Level were mastered 1st Circle, and 2nd Level were 2nd Circle Spells, so none of them took too much time for Eden. Even when he was Tier 0, creating and mastering such spells only took hours. Now, with scrolls giving clear instructions, it was only a matter of minutes.
But just as Eden got started, Astarion came up to him. Looking up, Eden said, "Yes?"
"You left with that chest. Not curious to see what's in there?"
"Oh, right."
Being reminded of it, Eden took the iron-wrought chest from his Inventory, and pushed it to Astarion, saying, "If you see an iron flask in there, don't open it, or you will probably die."
Astarion only grinned, "Trying to spoil the fun for me?"
Rolling his eyes, Eden decided to let the rogue do as he wished as he started studying the scrolls. It only took him a couple of hours to learn and master all of them. They mostly had the same effects as their game counter-part, and although Eden mostly learned them to know more about magic, they could have their uses.
The full list of the spells Eden had learned and mastered was as follow: Magic Weapon, Mage Armor, Mirror Image, Blind, Detect Thoughts, Feather Fall, Blur, Melf's Acid Arrow, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Chill Touch, Ray of Sickness, Web and Firebolt.
Of the lot, Feather Fall was the most interest by far as it negated fall damage by drastically slowing down his falling speed. Magic Weapon was interesting if used on others, as all it did was turn a weapon magical for a duration, which Eden's Cursed Energy already did.
Chill Touch was also interesting, as it stopped a creature from healing for a time, although Eden was pretty sure that as with all debuffs, it could be resisted.
Once he was done with his low level spells, Eden felt tempted to study the Necromancy of Thay, but he once again stopped himself, taking out the True Sight scroll instead.
It would be easier to learn it with Gale's help, but the mage, along with everyone else, was resting, so Eden figured he might as well start by himself.
But as he dove into the complex scroll, he suddenly received an unexpected notification.
[Wisdom Check…]
[Wisdom Check overruled by 'Soul Overlord'!]
Eden looked up in alarm. His Harpies had not warned him of anyone approaching the cave. But he did not see any intruders. Instead, he saw Sylfine rising, a crazed, bloodthirsty look on her face. She was looking at the still-resting Alfira with malice.
Frowning, Eden coated his eyes with Cursed Energy, and saw wisps of blood red energy ooze out of her.
As she approached Alfira, the veins in her hands pulsated as her fingers elongated her ever so slightly, and her nails grew into sharp claws.
Reinforcing his body, Eden leapt from the spot, placing the scroll back in his Inventory as he rushed at Sylfine. As she swung her hand at Alfira, Eden reached her and kicked her in the midsection, sending her flying into the back wall of the cave.
The impact woke everybody, including Alfira, as they had been lightly sleeping in the first place. Sylfine did not look very hurt by his strike as she snarled, frothing a little at the mouth as she threw herself at Eden, treating both of hers hands as sharp weapons.
Seeing the rest of the party get their weapons, Eden stopped them while dodging her fast attacks, "Wait!"
Sylfine's attacks were much faster and stronger than usual, but there was no technique behind it. All she aimed to do was rip his guts out, making it easy to dodge her attacks. In between two attacks, Eden looked at her status.
[Name: Sylfine]
[Title: Bhaalspawn, Monk]
[Talent: ?]
[HP: 280/280]
[MP: 140/140]
[Strength: 14]
[Agility: 33]
[Physique: 28]
[Intelligence: 14]
[Wisdom: 25]
She had evolved to Tier I, and so had the rest of the party.
Dodging yet another swipe from her claws, Eden decided to go on the offensive as he slammed an empowered fist into her liver. The sharp pain not only paralyzed her, but it seemed to finally wake her up as she fell to the ground, groaning in pain as her hands returned to normal.
"Why would you ruin such a beautiful kill! Curse you! Curse you!"
The voice did not come from Sylfine, or anyone else in the party. Instead, a small imp had appeared beside them. He was oddly dressed like a butler, with a little hat and a burgundy suit.
[Name: Sceleritas Fel]
[Title: Butler of Bhaal]
[Talent: ?]
[HP: 280/280]
[MP: 140/140]
[Strength: 20]
[Agility: 29]
[Physique: 29]
[Intelligence: 32]
[Wisdom: 25]
The Talent was surprising, and the stats quite high. Currently, he was throwing a tantrum, as if Eden had ruined the most beautiful work of art.
Eden looked to the side, and noticed that Withers was still there, simply watching passively. Looking back at the butler, Eden said, "I don't appreciate your tempering with our friend."
Sceleritas immediately exclaimed, "Tempering? Tempering! What do you know, meat bag! All I did was awaken her accursed blood! Who are you to hold back the daughter of Bhaal!"
The revelation shocked everyone, as they all knew was this meant. Even Lae'zel, as a Githyanki who lived in the Astral Sea, had heard about the Bhaalspawn and what they did. Sylfine looked shocked most of all.
Feeling annoyed, not only by the sudden revelation, but also about what he knew he would have to do, Eden held back the urge to use Dismantle as he sneered, "You think Bhaal scares me? He is not even a real god, nothing but a quasi-deity. If he does not want me to kill him, he better stay hidden in his hole."
At the same time, he activated his Omen of Death aura, thoroughly shocking the imp with his blasphemous words. The imp chocked on his words, a thousand and one insults passing by his mind as he finally screeched, "How dare you speak of His most brutal Majesty! It would only take him a thought to extinguish you!"
His jaw clenching, Eden asked, "Is that so?"
Then, he slapped his hands together, signing a Binding Vow by himself. Suddenly, the undead Ergon, who had been watching passively, fell to the ground like a puppet that had lost its strings.
Approaching the imp, step by step, Eden's Cursed Energy revolved powerfully inside him as he asked, "You have his blessing, don't you? Some form of immortality?"
Sceleritas was not intimidated in the least, standing proudly as he acquiesced, "His most horrifying eminence blessed me with the pleasure of experiencing a thousand deaths. A power beyond mortals like you."
"We shall see that."
Sceleritas did not move a centimeter as Eden lightly brushed his finger on his throat, activating his Cleave and easily separating the imp's head from its shoulders. Even in death, Sceleritas Fell had this sick smile to him.
Usually, his spirit would be turned into an Evil Spirit. This time, however, his whole soul was brought out of its body. Sceleritas' soul was deformed, and a shining red orb of energy was pulsating strongly in the middle of it. It tried to claim the soul, but the soul did not listen to its commands, floating over to Eden instead, attaching itself to his body.
At last, the orb of red energy tried to escape from Sceleritas' soul, but it found itself trapped just the same.
There was a moment of utter silence, before the cave started shaking. It took everyone a moment to realize that it was not really the cave shaking, but space itself instead as Sceleritas' corpse started rising from the cave's ground.
His head magically reattached itself to its body as the corpse twisted itself straight, the imp's eyes turning into two red orbs as the imp thunder in a gravelly voice opposite his usual squeaky one, "You dare usurp my power!"
Eden looked at the avatar of a god expressionlessly, feeling far more bothered by what he had just sacrificed than the embodiment of death staring down at him as he fired a Dismantle at the corpse.
The imp, or rather Bhaal, who was possessing the corpse, roared in anger as it dodged the invisible attack, and commanded haughtily with a voice that shook reality, "Kill!"
[Wisdom Check…]
[Wisdom Check overruled by 'Soul Overlord'!]
[Intelligence Check…]
[Intelligence Check overruled by 'Soul Overlord'!]
[Physique Check…]
[Physique Check overruled by 'Soul Overlord'!]
[Agility Check…]
[Agility Check overruled by 'Soul Overlord'!]
[Strength Check…]
[Strength Check overruled by 'Soul Overlord'!]
Eden felt a powerful force press down on him, attempting to simply erase him from existence, to kill him on a fundamental level, but Eden's soul simply refused the command.
Despite his current anger and frustration, Eden felt a small grin grace his lips as he leapt at Bhaal's avatar, and slapped his hand against the corpse, his Cleave activated with a Maximum Output superior than any before as his enemy was split in half.
Sceleritas' body could only accept so much power from the Lord of Murder, resulting in its current weakness. Bhaal attempted to escape from his mortal coil, but found himself unable to return to his main body as this portion of his soul attached itself to Eden's body.