Chapter 27: Canyon of Volcanoes

[Day 18]

Black chains started to wrap around my heart. They never squeezed but it looked like they could at any moment of time. As the black chains finished wrapping around my heart, a black mist slowly coated my insides. The black mist became so thick that I couldn't see my heart anymore.

"AHHHH!" I scream quickly sitting up.

A cold sweat ran down my cheek while my breathing pattern was heavy. I sporadically looked around to see if anything was there but all I saw was the darkness of night. Kumo was in a deep sleep right next to me which slightly calmed me down.

"What was that?"

『Status』

[Name: Arpious]

[Race: Dark Siren]

[Status: None]

[Servants: 3]

[Subordinates: 6]

[Level: 9/50]

[HP: 100/100 MP: 80/80 SP: 30/30]

[Strength: 15]

[Defense: 10]

[Magic: 25]

[Speed: 15]

[Luck: 1]

[Charisma: 10]

[Skills: [******] [Thunderbolt (2/3)] [Boost (2/5)] [Scratch (3/10)] [Mind Magic] [Shadow Magic (2/10)] [Berserk] [Swipe (2/10)] [Posion Immunity] [Poison Secretion (4/5)] [Disease Immunity] [Virus] [Commanders Presence] [Army Control] [Fire Control] [Forbidden Magic: Medusa] [Fire Resistance (3/5)] [Lightning Resistance] [Water Control] [Flying Sense] [Enhanced Senses] [Enhanced Regeneration] [Horse Beetles Extreme Senses] [Liquid Fire Secretion]

[Body Modification: [Fangs] [Cursed Eyes] [Aquatic Lungs] [Metal Bones] [Mark of a Berserker]

[Mastered Weapons: [Scythe (Partial)]

[Titles: [Blessed by ********* Spirit of *************] [Savage Assassin] [Heartless]

...

Could it be [Mark of a Berserker]? That's the only thing I got recently that seemed to have a negative effect. I thought it only took away 10 from my max HP or could that have been the process that took away part of my max HP? Shall I just inspect it?

[Mark of a Berserker]

[This is the mark of somebody who has gone berserk. Chains have wrapped around your heart which might activate something dangerous the next time you go berserk. The eerie aura that comes from the chains takes away part of your max HP in exchange for power.]

I see... so it was the mark. I don't really want to find out what happens when I use Berserk again.

As my breathing had slowly calmed down I look towards the night sky. It was a nostalgic sense from the fact I and Kumo are next to each other and the night sky is filled with countless stars. Losing myself in the stunning sight I couldn't help but fall deeply in love with the night sky.

[Gained the following title]

[Blessed by a Star]

[Gained the following skill]

[Domain of the Night]

[You are not strong enough to wield gained skill]

[Gained skill will be locked until power requirement is met]

Woah... that's a lot of things that happened. Why did a star bless me? What's so special about me that they blessed me? Also, I got a new skill but I can't use it, maybe I need a certain evolution, or another title, or maybe be blessed by another star?

"... uh, I'm just going to go back to sleep..."

...

Damn, I fell asleep last night but it was for like 2 hours. The sun is just rising and Kumo isn't even awake yet.

As I got up I felt refreshed even though I barely got any sleep last night due to me waking up and then trying to go back to sleep with tons of questions. I picked up my rock scythe right next to me and started to swing it around.

"Why do I have partial and not full mastery...?" I muttered to myself.

I never had a breakthrough in my skill with the scythe besides the time I got my partial mastery. Swinging my scythe while trying to think what I can do to get scythe mastery I woke up Kumo from the sound of my scythe swinging so fast.

"Good morning Arpious," Kumo said while rubbing her eyes.

"Ah... Hehe, I'm not really used to being called Arpious," I said with a weary smile.

"Well you should get used to it," Kumo said with a teasing smile.

"Hehe... yeah," I said feeling the corner of my lip twitch.

I reached my hand out for Kumo's hand which she took immediately so I pulled her up. We discussed what we wanted to do today and that obviously was... CANYON OF VOLCANOES!

...

"UGGGHHHH... Even though we're not getting burnt it's still freaking hot," I say whilst sweating profusely.

Kumo only gives me a nod, it seems she's much more vulnerable to the heat that I am even though her resistance is higher.

We are currently walking through the entrance of the Canyon of Volcanoes. It didn't take us long until we felt the heat crank up a notch and we were inside the actual canyon. Volcanoes littered the inside of the canyon not just on the ground but some are clinging to the walls as well. A river of lava had formed at the very bottom of the canyon which was the accumulation of all the volcanoes combined.

As we continued to walk along the edge I felt something behind us. I quickly turned around readying my scythe to see a rock-like turtle come out of the lava river.

[Magma Tortoise]

[This tortoise has lived under lava for most of its life and only comes up when its body temperature rises too much. This happens rarely since it is immune to all fire and lava attacks.]

After reading the explanation I started to inspect the turtle farther. The air had constant steam because of the temperature which slightly hindered my eyesight.

The tortoise was as tall as me, with a body made out of hardened grey rocks. Its head was similar to a snapping turtle due to its huge beak. It looked like the tortoise had veins all over its body, but instead of blood flowing through them, it was filled with magma.

I told Kumo to let me try first since it seemed like she would be pretty useless against it. I dashed forward instantly activating [Boost]. I prepared my scythe above my head before swinging it down onto the tortoise. The tip of the scythe bounced off its head unaffecting it in any way. The collision sent vibrations throughout my body tweaking me for a second. The tortoise had noticed this and spit magma at me which I just barely dodged. I tried to control the magma with [Fire Control] but nothing had happened which was within expectations.

It's probably a variant of earth or maybe its own separate element. Anyway, I need to figure out a way to kill this thing... oh maybe this will work...

As I charge towards the tortoise it turns its head to spit magma at me but I quickly jump into the air. I was now directly above it, upside down, and my eyes were cold as I tried to concentrate as much as possible.

[Poison Secretion]

I directed the poison to the tips of my finger while making a finger gun. As I landed on the other side of the tortoise I aimed my finger at it and shot the poison, starting to corrode the shell of the turtle.

AOOOUUUU

The turtle groaned in pain but I didn't stop there. I gathered poison in the center of my hand and waved it at the turtle. The poison slowly formed into a blade hitting the tortoise's neck making it groan in pain once again. It tried to shoot magma at Kumo as its last-ditch effort but she swiftly dodged by just taking a step back.

[800 XP gained]

[Poison Secretion has leveled up]

[Poison Secretion evolved into Acid Secretion]

"That was much easier than I thought it would be,"

"Yeah, even I could kill this thing in one hit since I have the evolved version of [Poison Secretion]," Kumo said pounding her chest with her fist.

"Well my [Poison Secretion] has just evolved so I think I could do it as well... not to rain on your parade," I said.

Kumo just looked down with a darkened face.

"I'll let you kill the next one so, please don't be sad,"

"Ok," she said as her face brightened up a bit.

We continued our journey through the canyon and ran into more new species. I obviously let Kumo handle them since it seemed she wanted to try fighting against them.

[Magma Hawks]

[This hawk has lived next to extreme heat for most of its life. If the hawk leaves a certain temperature its body could cool down eventually leading to death.]

These weren't that hard to handle since they had a basic attack pattern. Once they lock onto you they swoop towards you with their talons extended. All you had to do was step to the side and use [Shadow Magic]. I would assume their speed is not much lower than mine.

[Magmaling]

[A monster formed when a dense mana source is nearby and part of it flows into lava. As the mana condenses into the lava, it slowly gains sentience turning into a magmaling. Their intelligence is that of a goblin. ]

This was much harder to fight but once we got the hang of it, the rest was easy peasy. The magmaling had cracks in its body which seemed to have magma flowing through them. [Acid Secretion] didn't work on the rocky part of its body so we had to use these gaps and let the acid seep into its body. We tied it down with [Shadow Magic] and just let the acid do its thing. Before the magmaling died it convulsed a bit before cooling down almost instantly, crumbling into stone.

[3800 XP gained]

[You leveled up (x2)]

[Servant Kumo gained 5600 XP]

[Servant Kumo leveled up (x4)]

"Phew if this is what the canyon of volcanoes only had to offer then we can just power level here," Kumo said with a huge grin.

As she finished her naive sentence I felt bloodlust surrounding us and a voice echoed throughout the canyon.

"WHO GAVE YOU PERMISSION TO ENTER OUR TERRITORY!"