Chapter 62
Chapter 62
Ah. So that’s what it was. Riven had read about creatures like this in fantasy novels, though he’d never thought them to be real up until now. He supposed it shouldn’t surprise him though, considering what he’d been through over the last little while.
Wait, why didn’t his identification give any more than a name? Wasn’t it supposed to come with levels, or at least question marks afterwards? It didn’t give him any indication of power level at all.
Was this what the system notification upon leaving the dungeon had meant concerning identification going back to ‘normal’?
He motioned for the others to come in closer and planted his staff into the ground while pretending not to have noticed the creature at all - whispering to his demons to keep quiet and remain non-confrontational. This was a perfect opportunity to experiment.
He grinned as Athela and Azmoth came up behind him and gripped his weapon more firmly. “Let’s see what this bad boy can do, yeah?”
Channeling into the staff felt like slowly pouring a pitcher of water into an immense vacuum in space. The staff sucked up the given mana like it had been starved for millenia, and black lightning began to crackle down its surface as the simmering black wood palpably begging him for more.
So he gave it more. The item description said it would passively charge this item over time, but he didn’t have time to wait if he wanted to field-test this little experiment. He continued to actively charge the staff with his own mana over the next couple seconds while warily keeping a peripheral watch on the warg, just as eager as the staff to see what exactly his new weapon could do. It even began to give him a migraine by the end of his distribution.
But that migraine still wasn’t enough to slow his reflexes down as the incoming warg made its move. The large beast sprang into motion, silently rushing them from behind with muscles rippling along its back and limbs. No doubt it though itself the apex predator of this part of the mountain, but it was sorely mistaken.
Riven simultaneously turned his heel, pushing past Athela and raising his new staff directly at the sprinting warg. Black sparks of lightning rippled across the polished wood as the item began to activate, and with a thought the power erupted out of the tip of the weapon.A torrent of magic roared into life, sending a chaotic beam of pitch-black electricity as thick as his thigh out to crush the incoming enemy. Ripping the warg apart as the animal let out an abrupt screech that cut off just as quickly as it’d come, the magic bloomed and exploded through the large beast to discharge into the trees beyond.
*CRASH*
The blast had left scorched earth in its wake, a long jagged line carved into the ground with ripples of power still sparking along the dirt as an aftereffect. Trees in the background had caught fire under the rain of the storm clouds, and pieces of the animal’s body had been violently flung in various directions.
[You have killed 1 enemy. Your battle has ended. You have acquired 48 Elysium coins. You have gained XP.]
Meanwhile, Riven gawked.
“What the hell was that?!” Athela exclaimed as she got up from the floor with an open mouth. “And what did you just kill!? Was that a wolf!? How did you see it and I couldn’t!? This is bullshit! Give me your vampiric powers to you dirty, good for nothing peasant!”
“Do not speak to master that way! QUIET SPIDER WOMAN!” Azmoth aggressively smacked the demoness along the backside of her head and sent her faceplanting into the wet ground with an *UMPH*, then he chuckled as she glared back up at him from where she lay covered in mud.
Riven eyed the downed woman with a raised eyebrow. “Azmoth, smack her like that every time she smacktalks me from now on. Anyways, that was my staff’s inherent ability: Black Lightning. Really a kicker, right? And that creature was a warg.”
She raised her own muddy eyebrow at the scattered remnants of the monster. “Oh. Didn’t think those were real, but I guess I’m not surprised.”
“How did you not know Wargs were real?! Aren’t you supposed to be the knowledge guru of our group!?”
Athela threw up her hands defensively between wiping the mud off of her athletic, feminine body that shimmered black in the dim light of the midday storm. “I could only study so much before coming out of the nether realms! Sheesh! This is my first time out and about you know!”
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Riven noticed the long cooldown insignia concerning his staff’s black lightning ability in the top-right corner of his vision after casting. He’d noticed them before with other abilities, but this one was going down much more slowly than any of the others. He didn’t know the exact time as it was represented by a circle slowly starting to disappear in a clockwise fashion, but if he had to guess just by staring at it over the past 10 seconds: it was likely a couple of minutes before he could use it again. Nothing to complain about though if he got to use a mana-free high-impact spell like that, as long as he let the staff charge it up on its own.
He was also slightly surprised it’d created a cooldown in the first attempt at using the staff’s inherent spell, because most of his other spells often completely overlooked their cooldowns unless he got unlucky. Cooldowns didn’t always activate, and according to the magical theory texts he’d read in Chalgathi’s trials it was usually random as to when cooldowns would activate. More accurately, it just involved a lot of different factors, but because he had such high affinities for the magics he used - he experienced a lot less cooldown periods than other casters usually would.
With great power comes great cooldown times.
“Well let’s try to get some sleep, we have some exploring to do in the morning and that teleportation out of the dungeon really has me feeling queasy..”
Unfortunately Riven wouldn’t get much sleep that night, and neither would Athela or Azmoth. The new vampiric changes to his body were still causing slight physical adjustments here or there, with a random snap of tendon or crunch of bone that would elicit a scream from the exhausted man. His previously hazel eyes would revert back to their original form for just a movement before appearing bright red again, his fangs would sprout out and then retract rapidly and then settle back down again. His senses would fade in and out, and it made him feel absolutely nauseous. Originally they’d been absolutely exhausted and decided on picking up the trail for Riven’s sister and his friend Jose the next morning, but instead Athela found herself comforting Riven as best she could while Azmoth patrolled the surrounding areas to relieve his boredom.
***
Beautiful orange, red and yellow hues scattered across the horizon that, in terms of beauty, dwarfed anything any painting could truly capture. The storm was gone, replaced with scattered tufts of clouds that reflected the brilliant colors from the sunrise.
Riven stood on the hill after having practiced his newest acquired spell: Riftwalk many times over. Riftwalk was definitely an interesting ability, where he could cut open a linear black rift in space by thought alone, get sucked through it, and literally vanish from one location to the next at any point within about 20 or 25 yards at the expenditure of mana with a silent black rift opening up at the point of exit too. Even more interesting was that his demons could go through the rift too, though maintaining it for more than a couple seconds was very mana-heavy - and if he tried to extend the normal range of the ability it was still doable but was even more costly. Currently he was able to max out the distance at a little over 100 yards, but mana cost climbed exponentially as he improved the range and the maximum range drained his entire mana pool to travel across. The skill would certainly be a useful boon to have, considering he was currently going for a highly mobile-mage type build.
Intentionally defying his new body’s discomfort, he stood looking outwards towards the oncoming sunlight. He could feel himself weakening as he looked directly at it, and in some ways that made him very sad. He’d spent his entire life cooped up inside while living in Dallas, kept away from the outdoors all those years like so many people in the newer generations did - only to arrive in a refreshed world of magic with an aversion to being outside in the life-giving light of the sun.
He couldn’t complain too much though. Without his newfound power he would be long dead… and although it was a bit uncomfortable watching the sun rise - it was bearable. Definitely worth it to bask in the beauty of the morning, in his opinion, even as his stamina and mana very slowly ticked down to weaken him. At the very least he was getting an idea for how long it’d take to reach a point that was painful, and from what he could tell - he guessed he’d be able to withstand direct sunlight touching his skin for about an hour before serious repercussions set in.
He also learned through trial and error that pulling down his hood, putting his hands inside sleeves or pockets, and covering his skin from direct rays of sunlight meant that the debuff would stop accumulating.
He needed to get some gloves, and maybe even some sunglasses.
Maybe sunscreen would work?
Nah, it couldn't be that easy. And even if it was, where would he get some?
He thought about it some more. It was also rather interesting that utilizing Riftwalk did give him some relief from the sun’s rays. It didn’t necessarily replenish any stamina or mana that the sun had drained away, but it kind of reset the wear on his mind.
Athela was still asleep, as was Azmoth, but he could hear their heartbeats from here if he focused hard enough. The dull thuds echoed in his ears until he somehow was able to transition that focus elsewhere through nothing but his own willpower. His new vampiric perception even enabled him to sift through the sounds of the surrounding forest, and he could make out the locations of small chipmunks from further into the treelines in front of him - versus the owl fast asleep in its nest behind him. Most of these creatures he could only sense in terms of their actual heartbeats though, and he wasn’t able to tell exactly what they were until he made visual confirmation. Still, he was able to generally tell how big they were based on their heartbeats - so that was something he could probably utilize in the future.
Songbirds of the early morning chirped in the treetops, a frog off to his left ribbited, and wind rustled the surrounding foliage with a chill breeze.
Turning his gaze to the south, he gave himself a break from the debuff and kept his hood up - immediately beginning to feel better as he turned away from the sun. It was as if a pressure had been lifted off his shoulders and a fog had been cleared from his mind. He continued pondering his current situation as his sunlight debuff slowly fizzled away while keeping his skin hidden from the light underneath his cloak, but over time he was beginning to grow restless. He’d been thinking about it all night, and the anxiety was getting to him.
He needed blood.