Seras Streams
patreon
Chapter 65 – Attack of the slime
🕑 Added 2024-10-29 13:55:13 +0000 UTCJace touched down and released the Ghostlight Grapnel as Priam clambered off him. “Wow, this place is old,” Priam said aloud as he spun around. “The structure remains perfectly intact despite falling over.” He began walking towards a gap in the ‘wall’ – really the next floor…up or down, Jace wasn’t sure.
Jace’s vision turned purple to acclimate with his dark vision, and he could make out the structure in more detail. It was made of some type of stacked stones, but weird patterns were almost engraved into it. It’s like the building was made from a jigsaw puzzle of stone blocks. Maybe that’s why it held together so well. There was an absolute mess of furniture long gone rotten and decayed. “Wait,” he stated as he dropped the Dark Matter Cloak, “We should get Skills online.”
“Oh, right.” Priam shut his eyes for a moment before the crackling, honeycomb-like barrier flicked into place around both of them.
Dark Matter Blade (Rank 5) [Rending], Dark Matter Shield (Rank 3). Jace’s sword flared with power as the purple barrier pulsed around him. “Right, let me lead. We don’t know what’s down here.” Jace walked forward through the ‘wall’ and into the next chamber. His feet stepped down on something that went crack, and looking down he saw old glass under his feet. “Huh. There’s a lot of it,” he said.
Priam was right behind him, “It’s an alchemist workshop of some type.”
“Alche-what-now?”
“Place to make potions and the like,” Ollie whispered.
Jace kept walking forward, feeling the glass cracking and crunching under him. His movement became more strained, and looking down he felt a sense of panic. Some ooze-like substance was trying to cover his feet; but was just coated the barrier around his feet. “Ollie? What is it?”
Ollie’s voice went into a panicked tone, “Crap! Quick! Slice it!”
Jace didn’t hesitate and carved away at the weird goop with his sword. It shrieked and fell away – sloughing off the section of its form affecting by [Rending]. “What is it?!” Jace shouted.
Priam frowned, “A slime. Some type of slime. A hungry one.”
Jace felt calm wash over him, “Oh. So it’s a purely magic creature?”
“…No,” Priam replied as he took several steps back towards the way they came in. “It’s not. It’s some type of mutated alchemical creation. These things are bastards to kill – basically invincible because they can split and reform.”
Jace backed up as the sloughed-off section that was covered in crimson nebula faded away to nothingness. It can’t get rid of the [Rending] bleed, so it just cut off that bit of it until it expired. I just have to hit it enough. Jace walked forward, feeling his confidence slowly rising, as he took hacking strikes at the ankle-height blob. Each slash did little damage, but inflicted the bleed effect, and the slime shrieked before shedding that small portion of its body.
“Back up!” Priam shouted as he grabbed Jace’s backpack and used it to yank him back. Where Jace had been standing, an enormous black slime fell from the ceiling. It was easily the size of a small truck and would have completely engulfed him. “If it touches you, its acid will melt you alive!”
Jace felt his heart beating rapidly. If that thing had fallen on me, I don’t think the barrier would’ve held up. “Thanks,” he muttered as the slime pulled its body into a larger blob. “Incoming!” he shouted as he shoved Priam back and jumped to the side by instinct.
The blob surged forward and would’ve slammed into the place he was standing. Priam recovered from the sudden shove quickly and raised his tome, “Priest’s Smite (Rank 1) [Marking]!” The streak of yellow-gold light struck the creature from above, and it quivered from the slight impact. “Crap. Ok, let’s try lightning!” he repeated the Skill, and it seemed to have no effect. “Jace?!”
Jace got alongside the creature and sliced into it several times. Not only did the crimson and purple start to spread, but there was a jolt of yellow-gold, divine light, followed by the crackling yellow lightning as he detonated the two marks.
It lashed out at him, and he used his clawed feet to keep affixed to the slight curve of the wall as he got out of reach. Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1). Detonate. There was a dull shockwave as he felt gravity’s influence removed, and the blob seemed to struggle to get any purchase. Kicking off the wall, Jace sailed over the monstrosity, slashing down at it.
A pseudopod shot up and grabbed him around the midsection. The barrier took the blow, but Jace could see the honeycomb structure slowly being eaten away. Fine, let’s try this! Dark Matter Dart (Rank 1) [Exploding]. He willed it to go a few feet in front of him, into the center mass of the creature. It drilled forward easily enough and then exploded.
But the shockwave simply caused ripples through the creature’s body. He could see the golden barrier crack even further. “Ideas?” he shouted.
Ollie was panicked, his voice leaving no doubt as to his fear of the situation. “Grapnel yourself away!”
Jace aimed his arm towards Priam, latched it to the floor, and yanked himself out of the slime-creature’s grasp. He ended up flying into Priam from the momentum, and the two were carried back a few feet before Jace got his sword planted and ground to a stop. Priam tumbled a few feet and deftly popped up on his feet.
The grapnel launch happened to get them into the first chamber they had entered, and the slime creature began to squeeze forward. Nothing we have can hurt it. My only shot is… Jace grimaced and glanced back at Priam, who had a look of sheer fear on his face. Fuck. “If I fall, promise me you get to Tier 10 and bring Chroma back.”
“What?” Priam and Ollie asked at the same time.
Jace turned back to the front, “Dark Energy Beam (Rank 12).” He whispered the phrase as he pointed the Starstorm Sword forward. The cascading beam of grey-white light surged forward in an enormous line, carving a hole right through the creature as the molecules were pushed apart and the creature’s mass was effectively disintegrated. As it was trying to force its bulk through the door, the blast got all of the creature.
Jace collapsed to the ground and felt extremely tired. “Is…is it…”
“It’s down!” Priam shouted, but the voice faded into the distance.
>>>---<<<
Priam knelt next to Jace, “Come on! Wake up!”
He’s passed out. It would seem that the Skill he used was quite energy intensive.
Priam looked up at the doorway and – thankfully – saw no trace of the slime creature. “Mind dusting the thing?”
Bloopa floated over to where the creature was and there was a flash of blue-white starlight. A bunch was sucked up into Bloopa’s crystalline shapes.
<<<<<>>>>>
[Stardust Acquired: 1000]
<<<<<>>>>>
“Put aside 500 for Jace,” Priam instructed.
Will do. I would advise waiting for him to wake up before continuing to explore.
“What level is he?”
50.
I’m only 40. I need to be as close to 50 as possible. He went to Jace’s bag and rummaged to find the dungeon core. “How much is in this thing?” Priam asked as he hefted the watermelon-sized object.
63.
“And how many does the next highest group have?”
Calculating…No more than 15.
“So, I could lick off…I’m at how much now?”
1,850 Stardust. You are 8,150 Stardust from achieving level 50.
“That’s 19 dungeon cores. Meaning that this thing will still be at 44. Way ahead of the next closest.”
Correct.
He looked at Jace, “I should wait for him to wake up though. He acquired most of these.” He felt a bit of guilt despite not doing anything bad yet. “It feels…wrong to take his hard work.”
You are both Signers for the same faction. It would be wise to use the resource, since you get more out of it. Consider it a way to ensure that you stay as powerful as possible to keep up with him.
“I guess…I mean, it’s not like he gets much Stardust from these things. Only 75? Those prosthetics really screwed up his soul energy.”
To be fair, he is a far more capable combatant than you.
“True.” Priam set the dungeon core down next to Jace and dug inside his pack to find the tent. Setting it up was a pain in the butt, but eventually he got it set up. Rolling Jace in was another story entirely, and he spent a good fifteen minutes just trying to get the heavy bastard into the shelter to take advantage of the (Restful) Augmentation. Crawling inside after the Dark Matter Aspirant, he sealed up the tent and looked at the dull, silver dungeon core. No more than an hour
>>>---<<<
Jace yawned as he woke. What was I do- he shot up, looking around for any sign of danger.
Instead of danger, he saw Priam jump slightly, “You startled me!”
“Sorry,” Jace mumbled as he took in the surroundings. “You got the tent out?”
“You used a beam thingy and it took out the slime but knocked you out.”
There was a pop as Ollie re-manifested. “Thanks for keeping me updated, Bloopa.”
The Wayfinder move and shifted shapes, but Priam spoke as the two Wayfinders communicated silently. “I wanted to know if you’d be okay if I…ate a few more of the dungeon cores. You know, get the Stardust so I can match your level.”
Jace looked up to Ollie as he yawned once more and scratched his head, “How far ahead are we of everyone else?”
Ollie crossed his arms and floated in little circles, “Well, we have 63 dungeon cores. The next closest that has recently interacted with The Cosmic System was at 18. We could afford to lose some and still solidly win this Dungeon Run. There are only 58 remaining, and the chances of a single group getting enough to surpass our amount is very, very low.”
“How much did you need?” Jace asked.
“19,” Priam replied as he held the – to Jace – golden colored sphere.
“I don’t see a problem with it. But make sure you get some offensive Skills.” Jace reached into his pack and pulled out some rations and his canteen while Priam licked the sphere, counting aloud each time. And with each lick, the orb grew slightly smaller.
“And that’s 19. 8,550 Stardust. Puts me at 10,400 total. I can do a few more licks if you want me to have enough banked to hit Tier 3 when we go fight Double-A.”
Jace nodded, “Go for it.”
“One,” lick. “Two,” lick. “Three,” lick. “Okay, 11,750.”
He handed the dungeon core back to Jace, and he put it back into the his (Heavy) venture pack. 42 dungeon cores. Should still really overshadow the competition. And having him a higher Class level is going to be vital to surviving.
Priam looked at Bloopa and there was a stream of light-blue Stardust that surged from the Wayfinder into the bunny-boy. Ollie flew over in front of Jace and pulled up a screen showing the changes that the Priest was receiving from his level up.
<<<<<>>>>>
Name: Priam Westerfold (Aspirant, Tier 2)
Power [Class Level]: Pulsar [Priest 50]
Skills: Skill Name (Rank) [Evolutions]: Pulsar Ward (Rank 20) [Multi-Target], Pulsar Physic (Rank 10) [Contingent], Priest's Benediction (Rank 13) [Enduring], Priest's Smite (Rank 9) [Marking]
Stardust: 1,750
Equipment: (Light) Archpriest Vestments, (Conservation) Priest tome, (Insightful) Dad's Hat, (Light) Venture Pack, enhanced canteen, survival meals (x12)
Boons: Common (Information), Rare (Equipment Augmentation), Epic (Information)
<<<<<>>>>>
Priest’s Benediction (Rank 13) – Increases the target's physical, sensory, and cognitive traits by an obscene amount.
Priest’s Smite (Rank 2) - As Rank 1, but increases damage inflicted.
Priest’s Smite (Rank 3) - As Rank 2, but there are two strikes upon the same target.
Priest’s Smite (Rank 4) - As Rank 3, but increases damage inflicted.
Priest’s Smite (Rank 5) - As Rank 4, but there are three strikes upon the same target.
Priest’s Smite (Rank 6) - As Rank 5, but increases damage inflicted.
Priest’s Smite (Rank 7) - As Rank 6, but there are four strikes upon the same target.
Priest’s Smite (Rank 8) - As Rank 7, but increases damage inflicted.
Priest’s Smite (Rank 9) - As Rank 8, but there are five strikes upon the same target.
Priest’s Smite (Rank 10) - As Rank 9, but increases damage inflicted.
<<<<<>>>>>
Priam’s eyes flickered for a moment and pulsed in time with Bloopa before he looked at Jace with a giddy expression, “I’ve maxed out Priest’s Benediction now. Let’s just use that on myself…” he shut his eyes and to Jace’s surprise, the bunny-boy got much bulkier, his skin got…fluffier, for lack of a better term, and when he opened his eyes there was a glint to them. “Oh, wow. This sensory upgrade is amazing! I can hear your heartbeat from here.”
Jace cracked a smile, “Better hearing than I have,” he replied through mouthfuls of the delicious peach-flavored slurry.
Priam tugged on his floppy ears, “These help, I’m sure.” He clapped his hands and stood up, “I can’t go any higher in Pulsar Physic or Priest’s Benediction, but the Priest’s Smite and my Pulsar Ward have unlimited Ranks I can dump into them.”
“Lucky,” Jace replied as he finished off his meal and chased it down with some water. “The only endlessly Ranking up Skill I have is that Dark Energy Beam that knocked me out.”
Priam frowned, “That’s a good trump card to play, though.”
“I need a way to reduce the cost,” Jace replied as he stood up and cracked his neck. “Okay. Let’s pack up the tent and keep exploring. We have to find that other half of Double-A’s soul-thingy.”
