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*Chapter 58 - Rewards
🕑 Added 2021-08-21 00:04:26 +0000 UTCChapter 64 - Rewards
“RIVIA!!! FUCK!!!” Trey’s voice cracked and he streamlined right for the queen. Had that seriously just happened? No… he must be imagining things. Rivia… was dead? “FUCKKK!!!”
A pit began to form in his stomach, and he only sprinted ahead harder – red light streaming out across his face as his eyes lit up with chaos mana. No… there must be a way to fix this. There must be a way-
The spider’s acid spray caught him next, and he was barely able to shadowstep out of the way. It still clipped his shin though, and the acid quickly ate away at his flesh to take it down to the bone. However, he positioned himself perfectly for another attack. He activated his sword’s Obliterate ability, hypercharging the strike, and spun to launch the weapon right into the unaware creature’s backside.
“Your hidden attack was a critical strike, +199% damage.”
The resulting explosion was devastating. Half of the abdomen tore completely off, vaulting internal organs into the air and sending the remnants of the creature’s intact body blasting off the top off the pyramid.
It remained airborne, almost as if it was slow motion, while Trey watched it fall. He let out a roar of the banshee – stopping everything within earshot of casting any more spells. It would stop his minions from casting as well, but this was it – the final blow – and he didn’t need that fucking spider teleporting anywhere before the home run swing was completed.
Arching his back, with Talsh’Noc’Un out behind him, he flung the sword forward in an arc. The enormous blade went spinning, and like a wrecking ball – tore into the spider queen’s head.
Brains exploded as the sword hit true. What was left of the gigantic spider’s body reflexively spasmed while it tumbled through the air, hitting the ground far below them with a sickening splat as Trey’s greatsword came around like a boomerang to land hilt-first in Trey’s outstretched right hand. The creature’s remnants continued to twitch as yellow blood pooled around the body as a pool of glistening yellow goo, and it remained that way for the next ten seconds until it eventually came to a rest in death. Without any head, abdomen, and missing pieces of or even entire legs, the giant monster looked like it’d taken the beating of a lifetime.
CONGRATULATIONS
CONGRATULATIONS
CONGRATULATIONS
BOSS FIGHT HAS BEEN ENDED. LIVARIA, QUEEN OF THE WEB RUNNERS, HAS BEEN DEFEATED AS A BOSS RATED ENEMY RELATIVE TO YOUR PARTY’S SKILL LEVEL. YOU ARE GRANTED A UNIQUE HEROIC TRAIT FOR KILLING YOUR ENEMY AND SURVIVING THIS ENCOUNTER.
Unique Heroic Trait acquired: Livaria, Queen of the Web Runners’ Bane. Unlocks knowledge of hidden language: ‘Arachnid.’ Unlocks a new physically-altering evolutionary skill tree: ‘Arachnid.’
Physically altering evolutionary skill tree ‘Aspect of the Devil’ already in effect. Please note that the physically altering ‘Arachnid’ evolutionary skill tree may not be applied until participant’s body adjusts to mesh with both of these evolutionary trees. If these evolutionary trees are not compatible, participant may choose which one to keep and which one to discard. Estimated wait time for Arachnid evolutionary tree availability: 5 months from now.
CONGRATULATIONS
CONGRATULATIONS
CONGRATULATIONS
You have successfully won this tournament. As the sole remaining member of your team, you are able to acquire the prizes that would have been available to the other 4 party members of your group. This means you now are able to claim 5 available prizes, each of them being unique to you, from the list provided. Please choose carefully, as once the selections have been made – there are no changes. Once the selections have been obtained, you will shortly thereafter be teleported back to your original location, prior to the abduction and initiation of the tournament. Power ratings have been disabled until release of the system-wide patch. Thank you for participating in this trial run!
Trey’s eyes glazed over and he completely ignored the flashing screen in his HUD, not even bothering to look over the prize list before he minimized it and sullenly wandered over to where Rivia’s corpse was. He passed by Napoleon, who sat wide-eyed and sorrow-filled… and he wanted to say something. He wanted to scream at the imp and tell him how stupid he’d been. He wanted to tell Napoleon that this was his fault. But… Trey’s orders had been clear. If Napoleon had thought Trey sincerely needed the help, the imp as supposed to come and help.
So in the end, this was really Trey’s fault.
Trey grimaced and continued walking on by, ignored the stare from Atharost or the blonde Earthborn woman not far off who clutched to her staff with wide-eyed amazement.
Then, Trey finally stopped next to the remains of his culn priestess.
He sat there, speechless, with a mixture of emotions colliding with one another. He felt… sadness, regret, and above all – irrational anger. The feeling he had right now was akin to that of being a little kid at a birthday party, where he’d just gotten a really cool toy that’d been ruined by one of his friends. Or, perhaps a better description would be ‘longing.’ He and Rivia hadn’t really gotten along, but she’d been an incredibly useful tool… she’d also been very fun to sleep with, and…
Fuck. Who was he kidding. He actually was going to miss her.
The lump in his throat was growing. He’d never admit it to anyone else, but he’d just started liking Rivia. They’d finally started getting along… and here she was – reduced to a soggy mush of flesh after the acid had chewed through her body like a dog would chew away at a fresh steak.
God damn it.
God… damn it.
“I… I can bring her back.”
Trey’s eyes lit up, and he whirled at the words to see the Earthborn priestess staring down at the fallen demoness with a wary expression. The woman was rather young, a little hefty, blonde, and wore clothes indicating her station.
“… Repeat that for me one more time?” Trey asked, crossing his arms with raised eyebrows.
The woman cleared her throat, and nodded in acknowledgement. “Uhm… I can bring her back to life. I learned a resurrection miracle not very long ago… and I’ve only done it once before, but I think it should work without a problem.”
“You have a resurrection miracle?” Trey repeated – deadpan.
She nodded.
“What’s the cooldown?”
She furrowed her brow. “Resurrections usually are anywhere from a couple days to a couple weeks for cooldown, mine is only four days. Why?”
Trey stared, as did his two remaining minions that came up to stand behind him on either side. This meant that he couldn’t get Brody back, but if she was telling the truth… at least he could get Rivia. “And… what would you want in return? I assume you’re not going to do it for free.”
The woman planted her gnarled wooden staff next to Rivia’s remains with a sad smile. “You’ve never been to one of these events, have you?”
Trey’s expression immediately soured. “Events? The system message said this was the first-ever trial run for tournaments between Earthborn.”
The blonde woman sighed, and ruffled her hair a bit with her free hand before exhaling slowly. She was still shaking from the fight slightly, but she tightened her grip on the staff she held and straightened her posture to maintain her composure. “First tournament trial, yes. But first All Spirit event? No. This is my third. Us beta-testers that have been around long enough know full well what it’s liked to be whisked away like this. The other two were ‘instances,’ events where we had to work together to win… and we weren’t fighting one another for the top place At least, not because of incentives in the game’s rules. Each of those other two events had an item at the end that they could select as a prize… and I’m willing to bet that you have it as an option too. Go ahead and check, tell me if your options for prizes after winning display anything with the name of ‘All Spirit Homeward Scroll.’ I’ll wait.”
Trey raised an eyebrow, shifted back two steps and cautiously did just that. He opened up the minimized screen in his HUD, and scrolled over the options he could select for his 5 potential prizes. The list was as follows:
=================================
Tournament prize options, custom made to be unique to you (Please select 5):
- A small herd of 12 potential Hellsteed familiars, unbound and packaged in soulstones
- Grimoire of the Dark Hand
- Unique thrall evolution stone: Nightmare Hound
- Unique thrall evolution stone: Hellish Brawg
- Unique thrall evolution stone: Voidling Broodmother
- Unique thrall evolution stone: Sacrificial Lamb
- All Spirit Homeward scroll
All items selected will have their entire status pages revealed to you immediately upon acquisition.
=================================
There, at the bottom of the list of 7 options, was the Homeward Scroll. Just as this priestess had claimed. His eyes shot back up to give her a cold stare. “You’re right. What exactly does it do?”
A look of extreme relief washed over her. She’d been holding her breath, and the grip on her gnarled staff loosened up with a wide smile. “They can send others that aren’t a part of your group… home. I knew it’d be there! I just knew it…”
Her features fell as she caught the expression he was giving her. “Are… you not interested in the trade? Surely… you wouldn’t leave me here. I know the prizes for these events can be grand… but…”
Her words trailed off as extreme worry set in.
Trey quickly calmed her nerves though, and placed a hand on her shoulder with a small smile. “Honey, if you bring Rivia back to life – you’ve more than earned that Homeward Scroll. In fact…”
Trey selected the homeward scroll as his first of five options – and in a flash of light, he was holding a rolled up, tanned, musty-looking document. He unfurled it, looking the strange symbols it held.
All Spirit Homeward Scroll
Item Tier: (10) Epic
Bonuses: None
Requirements: None
Durability: 7/7
Special: One time use, teleport back to the place you came from prior to this event.
Trey glanced back up and slowly waved the scroll back and forth in front of the priestess. “I’ve already selected it to show you how serious I am. It’s useless to me, I’m going back either way. That minion you can bring back? She’s worth a lot more to me than these items are. Hurry it up and show me you can, and you get the scroll first thing.”
A brilliant smile lit up the woman’s features, and she nodded with relieved shudders. “Alright, it’s a deal! My name is Brenda by the way. What’s yours?”
Trey snorted, obviously a little bit annoyed – but that was more that he was anxious to have Rivia back. He calmed his nerves though, realizing how lucky he was to have this girl here. “My name is Trey. Please, I want to see that you can do it. Bring Rivia back.”
Brenda caught the undertone in his words and again nodded. Promptly, she took out a couple purple seeds from a pocket on the inside of her robes. Sprinkling them onto Rivia’s remains, she knelt… and began to pray.
And pray
And pray some more.
Five minutes later and the woman was still praying, with Trey becoming ever-more anxious.
“Do you really think she’s doing anything?” Atharost asked hesitantly, not sure what to make of it.
Napoleon shushed the ifrit with an angry hiss, quickly turning back to the Earthborn woman as she worked. “Quiet quiet, Rivia come back.”
Trey could only hope Napoleon was right, and his anxiety was at an all-time high. However, that didn’t last much longer when a brilliant blue light radiated out from the seeds seconds later – and in a literal explosion of power, Rivia’s remains transformed back into the culn woman she’d been minutes before.
Her body had been completely rebuilt, but it looked exactly the same as it had been before she’d been dissolved with spider acid. She stood completely naked, her athletic long legs coming up into feminine hips and breasts before reaching a nearly perfect face that expressed… confusion.
“What… did I die?” Rivia asked, a little taken aback as her hands clutched at her face. She stood there, staring at them for a time, before she began to whimper and started to cry.
Trey snapped out of his dumbstruck state and immediately walked over to where she stood, quickly ordering Napoleon to go gather up some new clothes from the bodies laying about the pyramid. “You’re going to be alright Rivia… just calm down…”
Trey’d never been good at consoling people, but he did his best as she continued to stream tears and bury her face in his chest. He let out a long, relieved sigh, and caught sight of the other woman expectantly holding out her hand.
“Ahem.” Brenda motioned with the tips of her fingers for Trey to hand the scroll over. “I think I’m due my reward now.”
Trey nodded in recognition of her act, and without a second thought he gave the woman his scroll. Greedily she clawed it out of his hands, unfurling it and groaning with a happy smile.
“Well, it’s been a pleasure, but I really must go now. Goodbye!” Brenda gave them a final wave, and in a puff of smoke – she’d disappeared entirely.
***
It’d taken Rivia another hour to calm down after being killed. Well, calm down was one way of putting it – more like, she’d accepted what had happened and had undergone a panic attack. That panic attack had turned into a long-time comfort session, which had then turned into Rivia feeling emotional in other ways.
Long story short, Rivia and Trey took it to the next level and had copious amounts of loud, lustful sex atop the pyramid in the middle of a field of corpses.
Atharost and Napoleon just waited for them to get done nearby, until Rivia finally finished her third orgasm - clawing lines into Trey’s chest while riding him a couple yards off. She stopped grinding, clenched up, and began catch her breath. Finally opening her eyes, she gave him a look he couldn’t really place.
They held eye contact a long time afterwards, until she finally looked away.
“… That was… uhm… never mind.” Rivia didn’t finish the sentence, but took a deep inhale – planted a very awkward kiss on Trey’s cheek – and got off to don her new set of rag-tag clothes. Some of them had obvious blood stains, and they didn’t really match or fit very well, but the cloth tunic and pants were better than nothing.
Trey watched, a little light headed, as the amazingly beautiful young woman went over to change. In particular, he loved the way her hips swayed as she walked. He sat up, wiped himself off, and finally turned his attention back to the screen indicating available prizes with a satisfied chuckle.
=================================
Tournament prize options, custom made to be unique to you (Please select 4):
- A small herd of 12 potential Hellsteed familiars, unbound and packaged in soulstones
- Grimoire of the Dark Hand
- Unique thrall evolution stone: Nightmare Hound
- Unique thrall evolution stone: Hellish Brawg
- Unique thrall evolution stone: Voidling Broodmother
- Unique thrall evolution stone: Sacrificial Lamb
All items selected will have their entire status pages revealed to you immediately upon acquisition.
=================================
Trey’s brow furrowed in thought and confusion. Now that he finally had time to look these over, he could fully admit to himself that he had no idea what many of these things were. Or – more realistically – what ANY of these things were.
He had a good idea of what a hellsteed was, or what a grimoire was, but he wasn’t 100% sure on the hellsteeds and the grimoire could hold any amount of knowledge – be it good amounts or otherwise. The thrall evolution stones? He didn’t even have a single thrall yet. If he remembered correctly, thralls were ‘enslaved’ class minions, or the minions that you could create by enslaving the souls of mortal races such as humans or elves.
So… it appeared these evolution stones could evolve his thralls if he got any?
That’d be cool.
But again, he didn’t have any thralls yet… so that put a real damper on their potential use. Meanwhile, familiars were similar to minions but slightly different. From talks with other people in the Lawless Lands, he’d learned that familiars were bonded servants – but they were NOT slaves. They were more like… partners. You could ask a familiar to do something, but you couldn’t COMMAND a familiar to do something. They couldn’t be killed permanently unless their masters died, instead – if they were killed, they’d respawn with a loss of level to both themselves AND the master that controlled them.
Beyond that, he really didn’t know the details.
Regardless, because of his inability to use the thrall evolution stones – the choice became an easy one.
He selected the 12 Heelsteed familiars, the grimoire, and two thrall evolution stones: the ‘Voidling Broodmother,’ and the ‘Sacrificial lamb.’ He didn’t know what either one of those was, but he was sure he’d eventually find out. Immediately after selecting his options, a countdown screen appeared starting at 500 seconds – stating at which time he’d be teleported back to Brae’s ship, and time would again resume a normal playout instead of the x10 speed he was currently experiencing.
Then 12 tiny black marbles dropped into his lap, along with two glowing red-brown gemstones each the size of his fist, and then – finally – an old brown book with a black handprint etched into the cover.
Soulstone - Hellsteed
Item Tier: (10) Epic
Bonuses: None
Requirements: None
Durability: 50/50
Special: Currently holds captive a Hellsteed. Hellsteeds have the ‘Familiar’ trait, allowing them to become bonded familiars. However, to bond with a hellsteed you must have a minimum combat level of 62. Hellsteeds are also more likely to bond to those who have the Dark attribute.
Grimoire of the Dark Hand
Item Tier: (8) Very Rare
Bonuses: None
Requirements: None
Durability: 35/38
Special: Holds the knowledge of how to acquire the Dark attribute
Unique thrall evolution stone: Voidling Broodmother (Currently Immature)
Item Tier: (16) Titan
Bonuses: None
Requirements: 100 soul sacrifices to this stone, the blood of a venerated ancient, and a female thrall
Durability: 128/128
Special: This evolution stone is currently in the immature phase. Over time, the stone will eventually mature – at which point you will be able to use it. This stone creates a unique-class demon out of a thrall.
Unique thrall evolution stone: Sacrificial Lamb (Currently Immature)
Item Tier: (14) Artifact
Bonuses: None
Requirements: The sacrifice of a newborn lamb, and any thrall
Durability: 96/96
Special: This evolution stone is currently in the immature phase. Over time, the stone will eventually mature – at which point you will be able to use it. This stone creates a unique-class demon out of a thrall.
Holy fucking hell! Trey’s eyes shot wide open as he finished reading the text. “Wwwwooooowwwwww…..”
He’d be able to learn and teach others on how to acquire the Dark attribute now? Holy shit! That would give his team mates such an edge, because right now none of his friends back in the Lawless Lands had a magical attribute. Then there were the two evolution stones that were ranked at the absurd tiers of (14) Artifact, and (16) Titan. He’d never seen anything ranked that high aside from Talsh’Noc’Un! Those evolutions must be ABSURDLY good to get a rating that high!
He also had a hefty twelve hellsteeds that could potentially become familiars… though it was a little bit of a letdown that they’d have to be a minimum level of 62 to use it. None of them were that high yet, so those would have to wait for now. He also didn’t know what a ‘venerated ancient’ was, when referenced by the Titan-tier soulstone called ‘Voidling Broodmother,’ so that was a little vexing.
Regardless, he’d come out of this ‘tournament’ making an absolute killing. Storing the hellsteed soulstones, the grimoire, and the two thrall evolution stones in his shadowform – he tried to cheer up. It’d been a really rough day, a rough night, and a brief flashback of Brody entered his thoughts.
That poor kid…
“You alright?” Rivia asked as she sat down beside him with her arms folded over her knees.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll be fine…” Trey huffed and waved his other two minions over as well. Eventually they made it over with only a couple dozen seconds to spare. “Alright guys… I need you all to do me a favor.”
His three minions looked his way expectantly, curious as to what he was on about.
“Yes?” Atharost asked when Trey didn’t continue. Instead, Trey’d been staring into the stone ground while lost in thought.
“Oh, sorry, just lost myself for a bit.” Trey gave a weak smile, and leaned back on his hands. “When we get back… Don’t say a word about any of this to Ashe. Or to anyone. This is all our own little secret.”
Atharost raised an eyebrow and he folded his arms. “Why would that be the case?”
Trey frowned and gave the ifrit a look. “How do you think the others would handle it if they knew they could be whisked off to nowhere at a moment’s notice to battle for their lives? How do you think Izumi in particular would react to that?”
Rivia laughed at the thought. “Not well.”
“Exactly.” Trey’s frowned deepened. “Don’t get me wrong… I’ll tell them eventually, but they’ve already been really high strung. Just… lay off it for a bit. I promise you that I’ll let them know in time.”
There was a long pause, and his minions all nodded their understanding. Trey was about to say something else, when the timer hit zero.
He immediately found himself back on Brae’s ship, in the same bunk that he’d fallen asleep in not long ago. He looked around, making eye contact with each of his demons before settling his sights on Ashe.
She was still asleep, and given that many of the sailors were too… he assumed that they’d never even been missed in the first place.
Blinking a couple times and letting out a long, deep sigh, Trey shook his head at the absolute absurdity of all this. But how cool would it be when his friends hit level 62, and he was able to reward them with their own potential familiar?
Exhausted and not giving it another thought, Trey rolled over and let his thoughts wander throughout the rest of the night – until finally, everything went black.
