Cyril Sarnath
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Chapter 167
🕑 Added 2023-05-12 15:08:34 +0000 UTCNow, that I decresed the frequency of posts to 1 per week, I am thinking about changing tiers to one tier offering all the chapter for £3 and one for anywho wish to support me extra, let's say £5-10. What do you think?
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The Level 4 ascender stopped shivering then his eye snapped open. Keynes kept his spiritual aura at ready in case the man tried something. Kora stood behind Keynes as prepared as him. But in the end, there was no need for drastic action. The man froze like a deer in the headlight.
“Who—where am I?” He asked, his voice was weak, his spiritual aura nonexistent.
“Safe,” Kora replied.
“We found you in the forest. Unconscious,” Keynes added, omitting the fact that the man had been half-dead and half-overtaken by the dominion’s debuff.
He blinked several times before getting another word out of his mouth.
“I remember…some stuff,” he whispered. “My team and I were investigating the incredible fauna and flora of this forest. But we felt that pressing need to keep going. I…” He fell silent for a couple of seconds then slowly picked up his voice again. “At some point, I noticed they were no longer with me. I tried to look for them but the voice in my head was very persistent.”He looked at them with a hopeful look in his eye. “Did you—did you find them?”
Neither Keynes nor Kora had to reply. The man was no fool. He knew the truth.
“I failed them,” he said, his voice full of shame.
There was not much they could do aside from brewing a Level 1 calming tea. It would have very limited effect on a Level 4 ascender but that was all they carried, or more specifically, Kora carried with her.
“My name’s Maurice,” the ascender said ten minutes later. “I’d like to apologise for my behaviour.”
“No need to apologise for something like that. We’re in a hostile territory, mistakes happen,” Kora assured him.
Once Maurice fully collected his thoughts, he told them his story. He was a biologist with a Talent made animals trust him. After the first outbreak, he was hired by one of the large corporations that sought to make “easy” money from taming rift monsters. Maurice and several others were then levelled up to Level 3 but the company went bankrupt because of the war between the Old Blood and the World Government. He carried the research on his own with a small assembly of enthusiasts and biologists.
Maurice’s goal didn’t change even though his Talent seemed to have no effect on rift monsters. He believed that a minor upgrade at Level 5 would solve the issue. It was a fair assumption with a high chance of happening. He joined a team of adventurers who hunted monsters in the southern part of North America. Maurice managed to level up but then the adventuring team decided to leave for Australia - the holy grail of every adventurer.
It forced him to seek to return to his group and together find another way to Level 5.
When the fourth outbreak hit, Maurice and his team were on the eastern coast. They were fortunate that no Level 4 rift was nearby. Once the word of the dominion spread throughout the Web, they rushed inside lured by the promise of new discoveries. And they were not disappointed as the dominion spawned an untold number of new species.
These were details Keynes had, of course, missed on his way through the jungle. His attention was mostly focused on the patches of plants and their outstanding properties. Small animals were of use to him. Maurice had a different opinion. The non-monster creatures that arrived with the dominion looked and behaved superficially only on the surface. In reality, there was deeper meaning but Maurice failed to decode it before the treacherous debuff took control.
Keynes and Kora were curious how a bunch of scientists had “survived” inside a dominion in the first place. Only Maurice was Level 4, the rest ranged from Level 1 to 3 and they weren’t exactly fighters.
“Level 1 and most Level 2 monsters weren’t an issue for me or Jack. He was Level 3. And soon items and skill shards started from the monsters empowering us to a point where even Erika and Fitzgerald—they were Level 1—could fight monsters on their own.”
All Maurice’s items were lost as he’d given them to the weaker members of the group. He still had two spells he’d absorbed earlier; [Piercing Lance] and [Camouflage].
After Maurice finished his story, Keynes and Kora told a few bits about themselves, skipping most of course. In Maurice’s eyes, they were a pair of adventurers seeking glory at the centre of the dominion. Later, Maurice needed a moment to grieve while Keynes and Kora needed to discuss their next move.
“This debuff sounds very ominous,” she said. “He doesn’t remember the moment his mind was overtaken or even the fact that his team had vanished.”
“I agree,” Keynes said.
“And we aren’t even close to the centre.”
I vote we turn back, Alice said in Keynes’s head.
It’s not up to vote, Keynes told her. So, don’t get ideas.
I do not get ideas! Alice protested. I just wish to be helpful.
If you do then find a way to deal with the debuff.
Alice huffed like a child and vanished.
“But what about Lem Solaris?” She wanted them to reach the centre, though she didn’t ask them to defeat the sub-boss which was worrisome as it potentially indicated that the sub-boss was out of their reach.
“She also warned us to dive into danger. For all we know it may be a test.”
“A test? Like to see what we’ll do?”
Kora nodded but Keynes didn’t think that was the case. Lem Solaris didn’t seem like someone who was interested in their well-being. She was here to train them not to cuddle.
Eventually, they decided to go forward although with greater care than before. Having Alice on alert was giving them an edge. She would warn Keynes ahead of danger. For now, they had to wait for Pucci to arrive and take Maurice away. He couldn’t leave the man alone. In the safe zones, the effect of the debuff was minimal but once he stepped out he would be at risk again.
Pucci and his team arrived a few hours later, intact. Keynes and Kora shared a surprised look but once Pucci got within the range of their auras, things made a little more sense. What Keynes missed even with his extraordinary memory was that Pucci was now Level 6 but his ageing process was barely reversed. Pucci’s aura aside from exorbitant excitement had traces of serious frustration.
It still didn’t explain how his staff got here unaffected. None of them was past Level 3. At this distance from the centre, their minds should be under control of the debuffs. Was there an element of time involved? Can it be that the longer we stay even in relative safety, we grow more susceptible to the debuff? If that was the case it could change Keynes’s and Kora’s plans in a radical way. They weren’t keen on travelling to the centre without proper preparation. They needed to figure this out before their next move.
“Aren’t you all affected by the dominion’s debuff?”Keynes meant Pucci’s staff.
Pucci shrugged as if the debuff wasn’t a big deal. It was one of Pucci’s researchers who answered.
“We have developed an elixir that strengthens the Will attribute without increasing it.”
“How’s that possible?”
At that Pucci turned to them, clearly impatient.
“You can blabber later on. Now, where is the subject?”
Keynes noticed Kora’s frown and felt it in her aura. She didn’t like Pucci’s tone. Pucci wasn’t the most social person although Keynes didn’t mind the other man’s behaviour. Keynes gently shook his head and so Kora didn’t make an issue out of it.
“He’s lost his entire team. He’s grieving right now.”
“What? He’s conscious? I asked you to not move him…”
Even with two Levels of advantage, Pucci would have never been able to threaten Keynes if they’d , for some reason, become enemies and so Keynes comfortably engaged in a staring contest.
“Bah,” Pucci muttered. “I will wait.”
Kora took the opportunity and asked Pucci’s staff for more information about the elixirs. If they were going to push for the centre, any help would be welcomed. They revealed that the elixir didn’t increase Will but instead enhanced its effectiveness, getting rid of the issues with attribute imbalance. The elixir department researched it extensively and found that elixirs had a small margin of safety when it came to imbalance but prolonged or frequent use of attribute-altering elixirs would lead to serious side effects. Fortunately, they swapped some ingredients and methods and discovered the current version of attribute-affecting elixirs.
The tone of the researchers suggested that it had been no big deal but the truth was in their auras and they were proud and ecstatic.
They shared several elixirs with Keynes and Kora. They were all Level 1 as Level 2 ones were currently in the development phase. Prodded, the researchers explained that even with the same ingredients and methods everything had to be adjusted between Levels. They didn’t understand the underlying mechanism of why this was happening.
Around that time Maurice returned to the camp. His aura calmed but he was surprised to find Pucci and his researchers waiting for him. Once the introduction was out of the way, Pucci buried Maurice under an avalanche of items but to Keynes’s surprise, Maurice didn’t seem taken aback. Quite the opposite; both men and Pucci’s researchers dived into the topic of fauna and flora, seemingly forgetting about Keynes and Kora.
As the group left the boundaries of the safe zone, Kora joined Keynes. They watched them go.
“It’s all prepared. We can move anytime,” she said, once again dressed in combat attire. The set provided extra 5 points to all attributes. It wasn’t enough to mess up with her precision.
“Let’s do th—”
MASTER, DANGER! Alice screamed in Keynes’s mind. His voice cut off but he was confused by what she meant. He still stood inside the safe zone. They weren’t in danger… Then he saw them.
“Keynes, what—?”
“We have company.” He pointed at Pucci’s group then rushed forward. There were several figures, all wearing clothes that tried to deceive his eyes but his Perception attribute was too high for that. Still, it was disconcerting that Level less and he wouldn’t have seen them.
Pucci and Maurice reacted, having the highest stats from the group. But the rest was not so fortunate. The attackers used thin blades and spells Keynes didn’t recognise. The moment Keynes crossed the invisible boundary of the safe zone, one of the attackers sharply turned toward him.
The Pure Body buff blocked inspection.
The Pury Body buff blocked [Nightmare]
“That’s him,” the same attacker said.
Keynes saw what was coming but knew he wouldn’t be fast enough to save the researchers. The attackers were at least Level 5 rift essence ascenders. They moved with refinement and grace. A blade took Maurice’s head and hands as he tried to block the attack with naked arms; the researcher didn’t understand proper combat. Enraged, Keynes let his spiritual aura explode outwardly, hitting everything and everything. Two attackers dropped unconscious but the one who had spoken earlier withstood his aura. The rest started retreating away with Pucci in tow.
“Go after them,” Keynes told Kora. She blurred past him after Pucci.
“If she gets close, they’re ordered to kill him,” the lone attacker said. His face was hidden. It felt like the encounter with White Mask assassin again but this one didn’t wear the iconic mask.
“They won’t see her coming,” Keynes replied, preparing the sequence of skills to attack the man.
“Oh, they will.”With that, the man vanished.
Watch out! Alice screamed as a thin knife whizzed past Keynes’s neck. Only an instinctual reaction saved his life.
He has [Blink], master. This is bad.
Keynes flared his aura at full strength but the attacker simply [Blink]ed away from the source.
“See you around, Kid.” The attacker turned his back on Keynes. “Today we aren’t here for you.”
Another blade appeared in his hand. Instantly, Keynes felt dread radiating from the item. But the man didn’t attack him again. Instead, he stabbed the two unconscious attackers in their necks. Two swift rapid moves, then he vanished, most likely [Blink]ing away somewhere else. The two stabbed bodies started to dissolve immediately.
Master, I cannot sense Kora or Pucci anymore!
What? Go after them!
He shook off the stupor, giving little thought to the dead, there was nothing he could do about them, and rushed in the same direction Kora had gone.
