ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 73: Stage Four (2)

Chapter 73

Stage Four (2)

Friday

Judging by the size of the Death Lizard and the fact that its eggs appeared to be near to hatching, Alexa figured the lizard was likely used as a means to encourage people to work faster through the given scenario. This thought was further confirmed by the hidden quest she received.

Quest Activated: Death Lizard Nest: You have identified a mother Death Lizard protecting her nest that appears to be hatching soon. Warn the inhabitants of the nearby village of the impending danger.

There was also something about the way this quest felt, compared to the somewhat forced quest of the two opposing armies marching from two different cardinal directions towards the remote village of Apocalypsis.

While Alexa was new to the whole Trials of Ascension, she did feel that the quest related to dealing with the Death Lizards felt more real than the quest about the two invading forces.

Alexa did a quick mental recap of where she was and what her priorities should be, while she was here on this fourth stage of her Trials of Ascension. She had been given the immediate task to protect the village of Apocalypsis, who had a hundred villagers. Alexa figured this  was likely meant as a diversion from the original purpose for this stage. While she hadn’t been able to tell for certain what the original task was, she could tell that someone had manipulated the original purpose for this and all levels of the Trials of Ascension. So while she had villagers to save, she realized that protecting them from two invading armies was likely not the original intended purpose for this dungeon.

Looking at the scope of the invading forces, Alexa realized that the invasion taking six hours was likely a distraction from the real purpose of the dungeon. While she was by no means a dungeon expert, as there were people who spent their whole lives delving into the intricacies and mysteries of dungeons, she did feel that she was relatively well versed in dungeons. 

While dungeons did try to make it so you stayed in longer, there were generally limitations to what they would do. So long as you were not in a safe area, the dungeon generally wanted you to complete the stage as quickly as possible. She had her theories about why this was, but most of them boiled down to the ambient energy collection arrays being stronger in break rooms, than they were in the dungeon proper. Thus, spending more time in the actual dungeon was considered to be worse for the dungeon than resting in the break rooms. Also, there was the whole thing of while you were out in the dungeon, the dungeon would need to spend energy to generate items and monsters for you to interact with. Meaning, that the dungeon was likely spending as much energy as it was receiving from you in these parts.

That was why Alexa felt that while protecting the Villagers was a part of the original layer, it was only an afterthought of what would happen if the dungeon delver took too long to clear the layer.

She also figured that in a little over six hours the first of these monsters would begin to hatch, which would likely set about a chain of events that would destroy the small village of Apocalypsis. While Alexa could quickly verify this whole proposed chain of events by running to the village, letting someone know what she found, then running back, likely to retrieve the glowing blue quest piece at the center of the next. Alexa had a different idea.

Rather than dealing with two opposing armies, then giant lizards. She decided to take care of the monsters that were in her immediate vicinity first, then go towards the village. At the very least she figured it would help save time before either army arrived.

She had six hours to prepare, and while that might not seem like a lot to most people, to her that was quite a lot of time, especially considering the number of schools of magic she had available to her.

Even looking at the monster from here, Alexa could see, or maybe feel would be a better term, the pain points of the giant monster. A monster that easily stood thirty feet tall, if not more when hit stretched out its long neck.

Extremely Large Level 65 Death Lizard: Status: Enraged. Weaknesses: Life (Major), Nature (Minor).

The minute the monster stuck its head up, Alexa struck.

Arcane Spore Burst.

This time rather than just mix Arcane energy into her Wind blades, she added an extra step. She used both Life and Nature magic to add spores to the mix, spores that would grow and fester in a wound. This of course was her attempt at creating Mucormycosis, while she had no clear understanding of what the black mold was supposed to look like. She had an idea of what it did, that with her Life and Nature schools of magic let her create a perfect disease that would feed on any open wounds created.

Piff.

The blades cut into the thick scaly hide of the monster and seemed to do nothing. At least the monster didn’t seem to react at first. There was a lull from the monster as it seemed to stop all movements, if only for a second as it looked at the parts of its body where the ten modified wind blades landed. Then the monster reacted.

AARRHAAHHHAGHAHHHA!

The monster screamed and stomped its massive feat around as thick burning pains shot through its body. The monster was old, so old that it managed to kill off any would be attackers. Now only the scavengers dared go near her lair. This was why she paid little heed to the scuttling about of Alexa. While Alexa had been close enough to douse with her poison spray, she wanted the food to be available for her children to hunt down on their own. These scavengers were going to be the rite of passage for her children. She would let her newly hatched children out upon the world, so that they might fest on all the lesser creatures of the world. This was their right as Death Lizards, creatures whose very existence could necrotize the flesh of the living with their venomous bite.

This was why the giant monster had let the foolish prey scamper about the outskirts of their nest. What it hadn’t expected, what even caught Alexa off guard was the fact that her Dragon’s Bane and Dragon Slayer titles were partially in effect against the great beast.

The minute Alexa had her target firmly planted in her mind, she felt a glowing warmth from her chest as she felt her spell form grow and get compacted dozens of times over, until finally it was released with deadly precision strikes. She expected the thick layers of skin to protect the great beast from her strikes, which it did, though not as much as Alexa had expected.

She had expected at most lacerations that would be deep enough for her modified spores to take root. Instead the wind blades coated by life magic infused spores managed to tear through the defense of the massive creature easily. Of course, easily was a relative term, especially when applying the term to monsters of this size. For while the blades had gone multiple feet deep into the thick protective outer layer of skin the monster possessed, the creature was still far from being wounded.

If anything, the monster seemed to be more enraged than anything as it stomped about wildly trying to keep the burning sensation from spreading throughout its massive body.

Wham, rumble, bam!

While the monster was stomping about, causing the very earth to tremble beneath her feet, Alexa herself never missed a beat as she darted forward at an angle to circle around the massive monster. Her idea was that while the monster was distracted she would circle around the massive crater the monster had dug for its nest and sneak up on the creature.

Of course, the monster was at least partially aware of the scavenger that was scampering about its nest.

Stop, turn, crunch.

There was a sickening crunchy sound that came from the nest. There was a slight pause as the giant lumbering beast peered down at its massive feet, only to realize that one of its paws was now covered in a thick gooey slime. Slime that covered a hatched child who took one breath, only to realize that shell particles and talons were impaling the beast, making it so the creature could not breath.

At that moment, a motherly instinct took over, as the giant lizard hissed its anger, spitting a glob of what appeared to be black tar at Alexa. Scampering to change her angle and speed, Alexa pivoted not wanting to get anywhere near the gob of acid.

Splash!

A thick black tar like substance erupted right in front of the quickly backpedaling Alexa.

Swish.

A wave of burning black tar crashed over Alexa like a wave sending tremors of pain throughout her body.

Rolling out of the way, Alexa felt the burning sensation slowly giving way, as dirt and grass began to get soaked up into the burning liquid.

Now on the ground, Alexa dared not scream out in pain, as she knew that would only draw the massive beast’s attention. Instead she continued to roll, letting the soothing grass beneath her body mix with the black tar that splashed up on her knees and feet.

Healing.

Once she was far enough away, she began healing her wounded legs. The tops of her shoes were burnt off, along with the front of her pants from the knees down. There were a few splash marks up higher that also burnt away patches of cloth and skin, but otherwise she was okay.

“Gah.” Alexa let out a low breath of pain, as she felt the black tar burning away at her skin. In that moment, she knew that this would be a painful battle that she needed to focus everything she had on.

Quest Conditions Updated: Death Lizard Nest: You have successfully destroyed the first of four Death Lizard eggs. Destroy the remaining eggs to save the village of Apocalypsis. Eggs remaining: 3 of 4.

At that, Alexa felt slightly better about what had happened. She had gotten careless, or at least gotten too close to an unknown enemy without first gauging its combat capabilities, which in her mind was being careless. She knew she was a solo delver, and should have expected some type of long range attack. While that was why she had originally circled around the beast, she now realized that such a state still wouldn’t assure victory. For this, Alexa decided to work smarter not harder. She was mentally preparing for what she would do once she finished healing herself when a system message filled her mind.

You have contracted Necrosis. Unless healing treatments are applied, you will slowly wither and die.

Hidden Quest Found: Roots of Death Magic: Azrael, the dark lord of Death has recognized your plight and now offers you a way out. In exchange for your Current Rank, and all Future Titles he offers you the ability to learn the magical school of Death Magic. Do you accept? Yes,or No?

Seeing the message, Alexa felt revulsion build up in her stomach just from reading the sleazy message. At this moment she realized that up until this point she had a giant smile plastered on her face. Even when staring at the exploding ball of death magic before her, she had a giant smile plastered on her face. This was fun, she was living, truly living, and now that things finally became real some sleezy sales person decided to sell her a terrible deal for the chance at possibly healing herself.  The answer came to her as quickly as it was obvious, “NO!”

Alexa spoke, making sure to put emphasis into the word, once again her mind went to the language of the Precursors when answering. Even though the quest had clearly been in English, she still felt that emphasizing the rejection in the language of the Precursors felt more appropriate.

At her note of defiance, she felt the black tar squirm on her body, as if the magic was alive. As if the magic somehow took offense to the sleight of being rejected by her.

The Death Lizard too reacted, whether it was in response to her emphatic yell of denial, or just zeroing in on her location, the beast fired.

Alexa got up slightly and then began rolling down the slight slope of the hill.

Splash.

Once again the giant blob of death magic landed, exploding outward in a burst of power around her.

Sizzle.

Once again, Alexa felt burning in her legs and more of the black tar substance grabbed hold of her and began burning into her sink.

Fortunately, her Regeneration started kicking in immediately as she was still using everything in her power to keep her Healing magic alive and pumping throughout her body.

Of course, she was clearly outmatched in terms of power levels. Whether this was the actual power level of a level 65 monster, or if this monster’s abilities were artificially inflated by the dungeon to pose a challenge were unknown to her at this time. All she knew was that she was losing. In a straight up battle of Wills, against the monster, she was losing.

You have contracted Advanced Necrosis. Unless healing treatments are applied, you will quickly wither and die.

Hidden Quest Found: Roots of Death Magic: Azrael, the benevolent dark lord of Death has recognized your plight and now offers you a way out. In exchange for your Current Rank, and all Current and Future Titles he offers you the ability to learn the magical school of Death Magic. Do you accept? Yes, or No?

Seeing the message, Alexa let out a sneer. The pain was intense, even now she could feel the magic slowly eating away at her body. Regardless of how much energy she had, she was losing.

Think.

There had to be a way out of this. Something she was missing. Even now, she could see the pool of magic glowing a bright red color over her. If she could get this poisonous liquid to stop for a moment, she was certain she could heal herself, but that wouldn’t happen. If she refused again, the monster would clearly spit out another burst of this poison. Then the being would once again offer a way out. She knew she could die in these, that it was common for dungeons to kill off overzealous adventurers. If her plight ended here, she would have no one else to blame but herself. She would go down as a textbook case of what happens when someone believes in themselves too much. Worse, she knew they wouldn’t be wrong. Many people had likely been waiting for just such a moment. But she refused to go down, thinking of everything she had at her disposal, she decided to try anything. Magic wouldn’t work, as she was currently fully engaging her entire focus on Healing herself. Her Psychic power of Magic Disruption wasn’t working, as she was clearly being devoured by magic, despite supposedly having a defense.

She refused to believe that the dungeon would set up a test like this, just so she could sell her soul for Death Magic, one of the magics that would get her labelled as a Necromancer. That is effectively what this was, selling her soul. She would sell off her Rank and Titles, things that could only be applied to her soul, in order to live.

No, there was something, there had to be.

Then she remembered on thing. It was a long shot, a desperate gamble at this point, but it was at least worth a try. Focusing her mind, she willed the three dimensional construct into being. Then with one powerful voice she yelled her second Precursor word for the day, “Hope!”

Ding.

A crisp ringing sound resounded and echoed over the hills.

Crackle.

The burning black liquid that had encased her legs a moment ago was now gone, and replaced by a dried out cocoon like structure. Instantly, she felt relief flood her body, as her Regeneration and Healing magic began to finally work and take root within her body.

“Ahh!” Alexa let out a sigh of relief, as she began to rise to her feet.

Her legs were wobbly, as muscles and tendons were still being stitched back together. But she was able to stand.

She felt slightly light headed, but still managed to turn her attention towards the glowing message before her.

“No.” She said defiantly, dismissing the hidden quest prompt.

Then with wobbly legs she began walking to the edge of the lip of the crater. As she crested the hill, she saw the creature was already in pain, even hearing the echo of her word caused the creature’s eyes to burst open, and fluids to pour from its ear. Realizing that was the reason the creature didn’t react to her approach, Alexa nodded to herself. Then focusing on the creature, she summoned forth a swell of energy and once again formed the power word, before releasing it at the creature. “Hope.”

The wave of energy surged forward, striking at the monster that glowed with a malevolent aura. The minute the wave of golden energy struck the beast, the monster burst as black sludge erupted from its body.

Exhausted, Alexa collapsed to the ground panting.

Casting the power word two times in a row took out a lot of energy. Idly she wondered if the two quests were supposed to be sequential or not? It had only been luck that she got the power word for Hope, on the previous stage. But that is exactly what she needed on this stage to finish this hidden quest.

Quest Completed: Death Lizard Nest: You have successfully destroyed the corrupted Death Lizard that threatened the citizens of Apocalypsis.

Optional Quest Condition: What to do with the Death Lizard eggs? You need to destroy the remaining Death Lizard eggs to save the village of Apocalypsis. Eggs remaining: 3 of 4.

Looking at the quest, Alexa looked down at the eggs that now glowed a faint green color. Seeing them, she wondered if this was some form of test. Something to see how she would react when given the order to go out and kill blindly.

Moving forward, she splashed her way through the thick puddle of goo that was the remains of the death lizard. Her shoes and lower part of her pants had long since been burned away. But that was okay, her feet were strong enough to easily withstand walking about barefoot. The only reason Alexa chose not to, was due to the social norms associated with wearing clothes and in particular shoes.

Splash, splash.

Alexa made her way to the green eggs and decided to try to heal any damage that the eggs might have suffered from the battle. As far as she could tell, the eggs were free of any lingering corruption that might have come from the mother Dragon.

Healing.

Within minutes, the three remaining eggs began to glow and pulse with light. Then slowly the first egg hatched, followed quickly be the second, and the third.

When they emerged, Alexa saw the three life forms for what they truly were.

Large Level 25 Unattributed Lizard: Status: Hungry.

Seeing their state as Unattributed Alexa chose not to do anything with the lizards. Focusing on her last quest, what to do with the lizard eggs? She mentally cancelled out the quest, informing the system that she would not be doing anything with it.

Realizing that one task was complete, Alexa turned her attention back to the two invading armies. With one crisis averted, she still had to deal with the next major problem. Namely how to save the villagers from the two clashing armies.

However before she could get too far in her own thoughts on what to do next, she was greeted by yet another system message.

Hidden Stage Condition Met: Protector of Life: You have fought against the corruption of Death Magic and preserved life where possible. Reward: Title: Protection of Life (1).

Title: Protection of Life (1): + 5% Resistance to Death Magic, + 5% Resistance to Necromancy Magic.

With that, a glowing portal appeared before her, letting her know the stage was complete. Blinking, she looked out to see that the two advancing armies were paused. A bird that had been flying overhead hung in perfect stillness as the entire dungeon had been paused.

At this point she took a quick glance at her watch to see that only thirty-two minutes had passed since she first entered this dungeon. As the time read just past three AM.

Looking around, Alexa looked for the glowing blue bundle of items, only to see that they had apparently been trampled on during her battle with the great beast. Shaking her head at the loss, she realized she needed to do better in the future.

Sighing to herself  that she had completed the true purpose for this level and was now being forced to leave, she resigned herself to her fate.

Stepping up to the portal she said a word that was all too common for her, “stay.”

This time she would see what would happen if she could save all four eggs. Also, she wondered what the glowing blue object was. She also had a quest to do, one that offered an ever increasing title that she felt would be very beneficial for her in the future. She had a lot to do, and knew she could get it done before classes started at eight, especially if she pushed herself.