Ranni's head patters against the stone floor
Now I'm the only person in the known universe who can forcibly perceive other people's statuses.
A bit cliché, but I'm a function over form pragmatic. Screw the optics.
My mood sours only a tad when I check my status and realize that Ranni only gave me two Shards. Spiteful bitch.
I step back as the oak tree begins to wither. Now, without Ranni, it has no power to draw from. The leaves disintegrate. The branches shrivel. The trunk turns a dull gray.
A few pebbles fall from the ceiling. Then a few rocks. Then heaps.
I break into a preemptive, feeble run. More of a hurried limp. I'm far too injured, and despite my constant pushing, eventually I will die.
With time to spare, I make it to the unperturbed staircase before the room fully caves in.
I have won. And above all, without a trace.
***
Bastard has no issues topside. He stands and stares, as usual.
The two of us camp for the night. Despite my new powerup, if anything, I'm weaker than I entered.
Mostly because of the severity of my injuries. If healthy, an E-Rank Corrupted would pose little threat to me.
The healing will take a bit. I'll have to get some medical services at the Interrealm Hub; I don't even think I can afford that right now.
Mainly, I rest to recoup my Essence.
Essence is my lifeblood. If I don't have Essence, then I cannot use my Imprints and therefore am more or less dead in the water.
You can't cheat Essence either. There isn't a magical potion that gives you more. Barring some outliers, Essence can only be regained through rest.
So I sleep, and pray that nothing kills me. Bastard will surely wake me up if anything goes wrong. Hopefully.
…
In the morning, my Essence has filled up to the maximum of 320. And I am thankfully not killed in my sleep.
The rest of the day is spent going exactly the way I came.
Now completing my self-assigned mission, I spend most of my time thinking about new ways to progress while broodingly staring at vast empty plains.
Staying out here in the wilds would be too risky. Plus, I would have to not only find C-Rank or higher Corrupted, but I would have to kill them and pray I get a Shard. C-Rank Corrupted are rare finds and almost always require a party of three or more to take down. Not in the cards for me right now.
Getting a Manual to improve my swordsmanship and take the load off of my Imprints is vital.
Everything I could ever want is in the Landeskog Vault underneath their skyscraper in Columbia.
Trying to infiltrate that and steal everything inside would be a death sentence for me right now. I'll have to bide my time; an opportunity will eventually reveal itself.
Ultimately, my biggest and most pressing issue is still the same: money.
I need Gold for a doctor, a Skill Shaman, a very expensive arm replacement, Artifacts, Manuals, and also just basic living necessities like food and clothes. How am I supposed to attend noble functions without proper attire?
Leara Mateiko, my best piggy bank, is likely busy trying to find the Crystalized Essence Pool. My other piggy bank, the Cabal, has cut me off for the month; I believe they'd be more willing to give me money after a good showing at the Dim Entrance Exam.
My immediate plan is to sell the two Shards I have stored. It'll net me a few hundred thousand Gold—not enough to solve all my issues, but more than enough to get me by till the Exam, which is all I need anyway.
It just doesn't feel right being complacent. I need something to do for the two weeks.
Collecting Imprints is a priority, and likely what I'll be working on. With God's Eye taken from Ranni, scouting out good ones will be a piece of cake.
Killing nobles sounds like a damn good job—but very difficult for many reasons. For one, the Cabal won't like me taking hits on nobles while pretending to be one.
Problems for the future.
In the present, another E-Rank Sky Scavenger has come to fuck with me. It's the vulture.
I stand on the back of the wagon at the ready. Once you fight one of these hellish creatures, you've kinda seen it all.
It uses the exact same initiating attack: the upward talon slash.
With my improved Agility, dodging it isn't even noteworthy. I outclass this freak easily.
When it comes to peck, I flood Essence into the Empower Imprint.
A primitive smack using the flat of my Shiv is all it takes.
POOF.
The Sky Scavenger disintegrates. No cut, no stab, nothing. Just a smack.
I am a glass cannon.
Empower is Darrow's original Imprint. Essentially, it increases my transfer of energy proportional to the Essence used.
Using half of my Essence as an overkill test allowed for the transfer of energy from a blunt but strong attack to be so great that the vulture simply broke—albeit as a bird, its defense is relatively poor.
Alternatively, I can use Empower to improve my footspeed, using Essence to increase the energy in the transfer between my lower body and the ground. There are more efficient movement options out in the world that I'd rather have, but this still works.
It even works somewhat inversely, on the defense. For example, I could push Essence into channels around my abdomen to stop a blow, basically turning my body into an unmovable wall. Though I'll rarely use it due to sheer difficulty and extremely high Essence cost.
With the combination of Empower and Tremors, anything I touch with a sword will die. Ensuring that I'm able to actually touch things with a sword will be a high priority when obtaining new items of power.
Next up on the list: the Dim's Entrance Exam.