Chapter 16 - Floor 2 Rewards, Crushing Floor 3
Floor 2: Goblin Infested Plains
Threat Level: H - H+
To advance to the next floor, defeat a tribe and use their totem in the Chieftains Hut to advance to the next floor.
Standing there, while the surge subsides from the Dark, I collect myself. Looking down at the totems laying on the ground in a pile I raise a palm over them. 'From what I was taught it's intent based for use.' pushing my intent to use them to advance to the next floor. The totems burst apart in a stream of golden energy, merging into a singular point above where they once were, for a moment there was just a single concentrated mote of light, then a woosh of pressure hits me as it explodes outwards, my ears pop at the sudden change of pressure.
When the light dies down I stand before a dark void, a massive lottery wheel is rotating before me. 'Some people get slots, some get the wheel, wonder how it chooses?' the wheel begins to spin faster and faster, I see names for things marked on the wheel in infinitesimally small lettering, a seeming infinite number of rewards. The clickity clack of the wheel increases as it spins faster and faster until it all turns to a single rainbow esque blur.
!Wheel of Rewards!
Due to getting 4 totems on Floor 2 of the Alabaster Tower along with a large number of beings killed. You have been given a spin of the Wheel.
Rarity bonus increase on Reward.
Congratulations and Enjoy Your Reward!
Please say [Stop], when you wish to start stopping the Wheel!
"Here's to a lucky spin! STOP!" the Wheel starts to slow, fanfare music playing in the background amping the suspense, I stand there alittle flabbergasted at the blatant display of hype for the wheel. Slower and Slower, I read a few of the lines. Things such as +5 Bonus Stat Points Per Level(Retroactive), Legendary Weapon, Rock, [Fire Breath], Philosophers Stone, Cultivation Manual of 10,000 Lives, Baby Mimic, Lightsaber. The list goes on and on, spinning forever. Slowly it came to a stop, a single strip where the pointer landed on enlarges itself so I can read it easily.
???????
B
o
o
k
o
f
T.
E.
a book comes into existence floating in place of where the massive reward wheel was a moment ago. 'That can not be good, never heard of it and it's in the glaring red of an error as usual.. couldn't just give me a normal reward.' The book shakes and floats over to me, the embossed front of the leatherbound book reads [Book of T.E.] Author: #$&@(*)%#. Now that is disconcerting, moving a hand over to the book, I reach to flip it open, but before my hand hovers over it it snaps open and closed latching onto my hand, a sharp pain emanating through my hand like liquid flames, it spreads through my body, the book dissolves into my hand. The pain knocks me back, vision flickering.
--- Unknown ----
"Body weary, mind to follow, so long has these cycles gone on." Sitting at a desk, my body, mouth moving of its own accord. A book lays open before me, red writing scratched into it from a shard of crystalized red power radiating in my hand. The writing is archaic, windswept, scrolling across its pages, flowing word to word. My body fiddles with the shard for a few moments. "So long has the cycles gone on, the fights, the wars, what We have done. What are We doing anymore. A tired sigh escapes my host, I am but a passenger watching all this occur. The figure I am within leans forward, and begins to scratch words onto the final page of the book. "To the one who inherits this Legacy, I am sorry. You shall #(*@$!, and not be @$(!)*%, the chains that bound us are loosening once more."
The cabin around us shakes, the night sky visible through a window as my host looks up and through it sees the night turned to day in a brilliant flash of orange, white and blue, shades of purple curl around my hosts hands.
We are not in the cabin, the old body is gone replaced by a middle aged man, there is a battlefield surrounding us it is but scorched earth, nothing alive for miles, save a man infront of us. "Where did we go wrong?" my host asks. The man infront of us says not a word as he waves a hand, heat washing over us, then to darkness.
I once again stand before a crowd of people, "WE HAVE SUFFERED LONG ENOUGH! WHAT WE HAVE STRIVED FOR IS HERE! OUR WORK IS DONE!" my host shouts out the crowd growing as more show up, a roar of agreement from the crowd washes over us. "Why must you attempt this again and again?" A man stands in the sky above the crowd. The man waves a hand yet again, but this time a wave of purple clashes against the heat, that attempts to spread through us. "Hmm" the being frowns at us, his body ever shifting sometimes human sometimes not but you know he is frowning at you. "Once more then." The being waves a hand and the wave of heat comes back drowning out the screams and terror. "How many more cycles.." the words barely above a whisper come from my mouth.
--- Void Room ---
I stand back in the dark room where I received the book from the wheel. "What in the hell.. who-.." the void around me shatters as I stand there with a greeting of text notifications from entering Floor 3 among other things.
Floor 3: Goblin Castle
Threat Level: H - G+
To advance to the next floor, defeat the king of goblins in this castle.
Skill Gained: [Book Of T.E.]
A skill created by #$&@(*)%# to chronicle the #REDACTED#. In hopes of &*@#_! !@_$ %#!%_#*&@*(!@$*_!@ $(!@*$!) #@()!)^^$!@_(!@$#! (!@)
#INSUFFICIENT ACCESS#
'Doesn't even give me anything of use but more cryptic info.. that body from the beginningm that cabin I've seen before, two lives I don't recall. Sealed probably but seem to contain the reasons I am being called now. That feeling of helplessness against that being who destroyed us definitely was not worth it. Should have left that book floating there and continued to the next floor.' my thoughts wander to the person who I was hosted in, that purple energy was familiar, it looks highly similar to the energy the War Leader had before. Same with that man from the throne room in my dream before the gift he offered. 'Hmmm, If i have insufficient access, that means grow until I do or brute force it. For now though, with all this crap happening one after another, I need to vent, the amount of stupid things occurring and being put on my plate.. First a call, now this.'
Clenching my fists and slowly releasing my anger at my lack of control with a breath, '[Emotional Control] isn't doing a damn thing to stop mine. too many issues..' "Bah!" the Dark surges from below my feet, I am in the outer courtyard of the castle near the main entrance to the Castle. A variety of goblins both old and new are patrolling the walls Warriors, Archers, Skirmishers, Ambushers, Shieldbearers, Mages. 'Those Ogres and traitors really did a qualitative change to the Dark, from the feel of its presence to the radius, everything has had a massive boost. this is very good but something feels- whatever.. something always is feeling off lately.' Everywhere in the castle along the floor is a thin film of darkness and shadows, causing panic throughout the castle some goblins looking down at it some poking with swords or other objects some trying to climb and get away from it, panicking goblin mages going to report to the Goblin King. Some specific looking goblin mages start dissecting the darkness and shadows with rough manipulations of energy, not even grasping anything from it, due to the amount of energy flowing through it and being under my domain.
"No reason to end it quickly, slaughter, vent, release this ridiculous feeling hopefully." walking forward to the main gate. The goblins on the walls start to notice my approach, a horn sounds as, spears, fireballs, ice shard, arrows, start flying in my direction, leaving the incoming projectiles to the Dark giving over a portion of control for it automate my defense. The shadows surge up from the ground onto my arms as goblins start rushing out of the front gate to meet me head on. A savage grin ~rattle~ falls into place on my face as the shadows form clawed appendages on my arms. 'Brutality. Is NEEDED!' the muscles in my legs tense launching me forward my eyes narrowing on the goblin party that came out to meet me. A clawed appendage impales a goblin skirmisher through its face as dark shadows move around me devouring a fireball, and arrow aimed at my face and neck. Spears and the like raining down on me, the goblins having little care for their own. Moving from goblin to goblin I leave a bloody trail of dead or dying goblins. Twisting away from another goblin I swipe across its throat as it nears leaving it to drop to the floor to bleed to death, while spinning with the swipe and kicking out with a leg that has been encased in shadow much like my arms, creating a taloned foot. With the sound of shrieking metal, the main gate slams down shut. I push myself off the last goblin after caving in a section of its armored chest, I stand before the closed main gate. My breathing coming in huffs, anger tingeing the edges of my vision with red.
Slowly I look up at the goblins on the walls, the amount of projectiles has come to a stop. They are staring down at me, a Goblin with a pennant on its helmet looks over the edge at me, "DIE MONSTER!" a large cauldron tips off the edge of the walls above the gate, steam and heat radiating off of it. With a shove from the goblins I stare at as it falls towards me the other goblins begin to throw more projectiles from the walls down to follow after it to bombard me to death. Tilting my head ~Rat-..tle~ "FUN!" I launch an arm at the incoming cauldron the size of two men.
The shadows wrapping my arm in a clawed appearance launch up grabbing ahold of the cauldron midair, yanking me off my feet easily as I sail up and over the cauldron above the Castle walls. The goblins start shrieking at me, throwing and shooting their projectiles up instead I land on the Goblin Commander the goblin that had a pennant on its helmet. My foot crunching down on its form as I land. With a wave of my arms to my sides a wave of darkness floods in both directions away from me, devouring goblins with little effort, those who were out of range of the wave that I made stare in terror. I push myself standing, 'Nice..' Jumping off the gate once more into the castle courtyard I use the shadows and darkness to pulse around my body keeping me from breaking my legs or body on impact from jumping off the walls that are over 20 ft. Landing with a pulse of a shadows to offset my thump, I launch myself forward embracing the Dark fully. The shadows slowly moving across the rest of my body as I really let go. ~RAATTTLE~ A massive group of 15 goblins stands in the inner courtyard of the castle, all running in my direction, flames, ice, spears, arrows, swords, all of them coming in my direction, I glide through a swing from a goblin on my left shredding it with a backhand as the shadows on my arm morph to a scaled spikes of darkness. Flowing past the dropping corpse, I land a fist into the chestplate of another. They start to pile in quickly into the courtyard slowly the numbers start to increase past 30. Hits to my body, are being absorbed by the Dark, deflected, or straight countered point to point. The darkness wrapping weapons and projectiles in shadow tendrils pulling them into the abyssal black.'Stronger! STRONGER! MORE!!' "DEVOUR!" a hoarse shout rips from my lungs as darkness explodes from me suffusing the entire courtyard.
A moment passes, and the darkness recedes into the ground the courtyard is empty. Silence ensues, for a single moment before trumpeting sounds out from the massive doors across from the main gate as they open to what should be the throne room for the Castle. I stagger forward, my breath coming in heavy. My body starts to feel hot, as I walk further, when We reach inside the throne room, We stand before a line of six Goblin Royal Guards. Tilting my head 'I? We? What..' A massive fat goblin sits upon the throne behind the royal guards. A mage looking goblin standing next to it. "You Savage Creature!" the fat goblin bellows, as its jowls wobble. Spittle flying, "YOU DARE TO INTRUDE! GUARDS KILL IT!" the mage beside the king shrieks. The guards rush toward me on the mages orders, brandishing Sword and Shield. My mind however was disregarding everything, I step forward, my breathing heavier than before, I rush forward my hands moving in two arcs as two condensed blades of darkness launch from them slamming into the shields of the guards. Knocking three off their feet, landing on their backs, the other three stand there ground. Getting close to one that stand tall when hit by the dark blade, I reach forward my clawed appendages destroying what was left of the damaged shield, slamming into the goblins armored chest. A spear rushes through were my head was before I jerked it back, a green glow submerges my vision as every goblin guard glows for a moment, staring back at the goblin mage, who is apparently a buffer I rear back my fist one more time stabbing my clawed hand into the cracks created from my earlier hit, my claws sink in destroying the goblins chest. The darkness around me pulses as a sword slams into my arm that is planted in the previous goblin. Another goblin taking the opportunity to try to de-arm me literally, its sword pulls back sparking as if it is scraping metal. A wave of my left arm sends dark bullets into the bodies and shields of the three guards that have recovered from my first move and were attempting to surround me. Knocking them off their feet again their shields finally destroyed, seconds pass as each move flows into another the rattling sound is slowly dying off. My body flowing between the shadows, I grin as my concentration of the throne room peaks, all the shadows and darkness cover all the walls. 'This growth... power.' "SACRIFICE!" Spears lance from the walls floor and ceiling spearing the guards through the gaps in their armor, the mage has a shadowy figure behind it nodding at me, as it plunges a dark shortsword through the goblin mages chest. The King is gone from its throne attempting crawl away only for the dark spears to lance through its body from all over ending the goblin kings pitiful resistance. Everything in the throne room gets pulled into the Dark. The shadows covering me sloshes off like rain and the walls and ceiling slowly pool on the floor around me, pulling itself into my shadow. The shadow is pitch black by the time it all is gone.. it writhes for a moment, pulses then cracks becoming normal once more. The tension, the anger, the need to vent all leaving my body exhausted the form of the shadowy being was different. 'What in the hell was that... rage-' a sudden rush of experience slams into my soul, my body, my mind a pressure descends around me.
Castle Mayhem Combat Log
Castle Decimated
Dark Devoured:
Level Variation: 9 - 15
71 Varying Forms of Goblins.
Warriors, Archers, Skirmishers, Ambushers, Shieldbearers, Mages, Royal Guards, Royal Mage Advisor, Goblin King.
Experience earned: 5,882
Tower Coins: 526
[NETWORK]
[THRESHOLD ACHIEVED]
[LEVEL 1 Granted]
[Ancient Steps of the Dark] has revealed its true essence [Dark Connection].
The sudden influx leaves me reeling, I stagger as my mind tries to get my body under control. 'Damage, no.. strain?.. what is..' taking a deep breath as my hands are on my knees, "in... out.." 'I've heard of the leveling experience hitting everyone different but what in the hell. I finally get enough breath that I stand straight, as a breeze passes over me. The castle around me is in runs from the amount of force that left my body. An evolution of sorts for a skill. 'Threshold? usually those involve level thresholds to race.. ugh more questions..' doubling over I breath in and out. Turning my head I see a group of Climber's standing there gawking at me.
A blond man stands there at the front of a group of four. "What in the hell was that?!"