Chapter 59: King

Chapter 59: King

“Thanks, Gus,” Rain said, slipping the Tel into the pouch he’d borrowed from Jamus. Up to 16.

“You’re a freak, you know that?”

Rain grinned. “Pleasure doing business with you.” The room was comfortably warm, the heater plates glowing merrily on the wall. A few people were starting to trickle in from outside now, taking advantage of the warmth. Third bell had just struck, which Rain translated to 3PM. Hours were mercifully the same length on this Earth as they were on his own. Weeks were eight days instead of seven, though. That was weird. It didn’t matter that much in the end, however. Adventurers didn’t really get weekends.

Right, time to deal with this slime. Still no sign of Val. I’ll see if someone else around here is willing to come with me. I know just who to ask.

Rain walked off in the direction of the training room. He’d seen the scarred man, Jaks, in there earlier when he’d gone in to charge the heater plate. He’d been whaling on one of the training dummies with a pair of crude-looking axes. If he was just training today, he might be up for joining in on a quick quest.Plus, I want to figure out if he really has a monolithic class like I do. I don’t think I need anyone to come with me, but I do want to meet some more people at the guild.

Rain paused as he approached the training room. His nose twitched as he breathed in. Is that...blood? He looked into the room. Jaks was lying on the floor in a crimson puddle, his body covered by lacerations. The cuts were evenly spaced as if they’d been inflicted by some methodical torturer.

“Shit!” Rain swore. I need to get help.

“Quiet,” came a voice from the puddle of blood. “I’m fine. I swear, if another one of you fucks goes to get that asshole Wallace, I’ll lose it.”

Rain stared at Jaks as he lifted his head to look at him. “Uhh....”

“What are you fuckin staring at?”

“I’m staring at you,” Rain said. “What happened?”

“Fuck off,” Jaks said, lying back in his puddle of blood. “I’m out of mana, and I don’t have the patience for this shit.”

“Um, you sure you’re okay? I could give you some mana if you want.”

“I ain’t paying.”

“I wasn’t asking you to. Hang on.” Rain quickly whitelisted the man and sent some mana over to him with Essence Well. Jaks’ eyes widened as the skill took effect. Rain kept it going as Jaks sat up, watching him.

After a little while, the bloody man raised his hand. “Gah, stop!”

Rain stopped. “Too much?”

“Yeah. Fucking mages and their fucking bottomless mana pools.”

All of a sudden, a strange feeling came over Rain. Huh. What’s that? It feels like...a warmth. The sun on the grass. I know what this is. He’s using Summer!

Rain pulled open his status to check. Yup. There it is. A 100% boost to health regeneration. He must not be able to maintain it. The cost would only be 10 mana an hour, but if he’s just got base regen... It must have taken him years to get it to rank 10. I wonder how long he’s been an adventurer?

Rain was still watching Jaks curiously. The cuts were starting to scab over before his eyes. Jaks got to his feet and ran his bloody hands over his bald head. “Thanks. Now, stop fucking staring.”

Rain glanced away. Well, that settles it. He’s definitely a Vivificant. Also, he’s insane and an asshole. He must have done that to himself for some kind of training. That’s...hardcore. I mean, it makes sense that you’d need to get hurt to train health regen skills, but damn. Does he even feel pain?

Rain looked back at the man. He’d collected his axes and was surveying one of the dummies. He was still a bloody mess. Rain stopped himself from using Purify. The man might need the blood for something. There was a blood magic tree, after all. The skills in tiers 0 and 1 were more about controlling your own blood to boost your body in various ways. He hadn’t seen anything to control blood once it had left the body, but there could be something in the higher tiers that he hadn’t unlocked yet. He’d dismissed the tree because all of the skills had costs listed in hp instead of mp. For a Vivificant, however, it would make a lot of sense.

Do I really want to go off alone with someone like this? Might as well ask... Maybe he was just grumpy because he was low on mana. Here goes.

“Hey, you’re Jaks, right? I’m Rain.”

“Fuck off.”

Okay then. The grumpiness wasn’t because he was mana starved. “I’ve got a quest that I wanted to do, and I was wondering if—”

“Did I fucking stutter?” said Jaks, glaring at him.

“Wow, okay, sorry. I’ll leave you alone.” So much for that plan. Dude’s got issues. I guess I’m on my own unless I want to go try the tavern. I think I’ll go do that.

Unfortunately, nobody in the tavern was willing to join him on the quest once he’d explained what it entailed. His guess about the quality of the reward was spot on. Whoever posted this quest would have been waiting a long time if I hadn’t come along. Val would have only taken it because he thought it might have been a blue. Where is Val, anyway? Ah, screw it. I can deal with an overgrown slime on my own. It’s not like they’re fast or anything. What’s the worst that could happen?

Rain set off from the guild, waving to Gus as he left. The portly man waved back. He’d started being much friendlier to Rain after he’d finished with the heater plates, though whether that was from gratitude or something else, Rain wasn’t sure. My mana regeneration really is kinda stupid. I might want to keep a lid on it if I don’t want a bunch of attention. He switched the IFF settings on Winter as he left the guild, shutting it down for everyone but him and his allies. As innocuous as the skill was, he intended on complying fully with Halgrave’s policy on magic use when he was out and about in the city.

It was snowing pretty heavily, and Rain was keenly aware of his lack of a cloak as he hurried along. Hopefully it would be warmer underground. Despite the weather, there were a lot of people on the streets. The city was packed. From the conversations he’d overheard earlier, it had something to do with the war between the Empire and the DKE. People were coming in from the towns and villages closer to the DKE border, not wanting to get caught up in the conflict. I need to find a damn map. I don’t even know how far that is from here.

The slime landed near the torch with the sound of a billion blown noses. Rain finally got a good look at it. It was the same shade of greenish-brown as the other sewer slimes, but much, much larger. It was easily the size of a house. The light of the torch glinted off of a tiny metal crown perched atop its body. Rain’s interface showed him the slime’s name, level, and health, the last appearing as a red bar.

Level 7 Mucus King? Really? Who names these things? And why does it have a crown?

The slime gathered itself up, then started pulsating angrily. It didn’t seem to want to come any closer, staying at the edge of the Immolation aura. Rain had a choice. He could either extend the aura and risk collateral damage or move out into the chamber. Fuck me, I’m going in. 18 meters is bad enough. I can’t risk extending it any further. I don’t want to send fire shooting out of all the storm drains in the city. He gritted his teeth. Here I go.

He started walking toward the Mucus King, his footsteps loud on the rapidly drying stone floor. The slime squelched its way backward but quickly ran out of room. Rain’s aura covered the entire chamber, filling it with the foul odor of cooking sewage. He gagged as he breathed in the putrid steam that was starting to rise from the floor but didn’t drop the aura.

The slime quivered in outrage as it reached the wall, the tiny crown wobbling atop its gelatinous mass. Rain watched the slime’s health bar carefully. It’s starting to drop, but it’s getting pretty hot in here. Should I switch to Refrigerate? No, I don’t want to put out the torch. Plus, those slimes in the forest were flammable. I wonder if this one—oh. There it goes.

The Mucus King burst into flame, its surface lighting up all at once and throwing off clouds of putrid, greenish smoke as the greasy flames spread. Rain’s eyes widened as the flaming ball of snot launched itself at him, flying through the air with terrifying speed. He threw himself to the side, desperately trying to get out from under the disgusting fireball. The slime landed with a horrible splatter that sent flaming droplets of filth flying in all directions. Rain felt a few of the blobs splatter on the back of his armor as he ran. Oh fuck! Should have switched to Refrigerate after all!

He glanced over his shoulder. The flaming slime was right behind him, squelching along the floor as it chased him around the chamber. Shit. I think I can outrun it for a while, but its health bar isn’t dropping any faster, despite being on fire. How much health does this fucking thing have?

Rain glanced at his mana bar. He’d been holding Immolate for at least a minute now. His mana was down by about a fifth, but the slime had lost less health than that. Bullshit that’s a normal amount of health for a level 7 monster. It must have damage reduction or something. Let’s see how you like 50% power!

Immolate (10/10)

66-76 heat (fcs) damage per second to entities and environment

Sufficient damage causes ignition

Range: 18 meters

Cost: 25 mp/s

The display hovering to his right updated as Rain kept running. His armor was glowing with a reddish light as the heat rolled off him, the mana interacting with the metal. He coughed as the smoke filling the room grew thicker, the air growing heavy and unbearably hot. His lungs were burning as he dove for the tunnel, having made a full circuit of the room. He dropped Immolate as he reached it, switching to Purify to clear the air. He kept running as the slime slammed itself into the mouth of the tunnel, squeezing itself in after him.

Rain glanced back at it. Its health was down to about half now, and it was still on fire. The putrid smoke fought with the light of Purify as the slime oozed down the tunnel toward him. Rain glanced at his own mana. It was also at about half. The increased damage of the skill had clearly been more effective in overcoming the slime’s defense. He checked his own health. It was down a few points, confirmed by the fact his lungs were burning and his armor felt like an oven wrapped around him.

Okay, fuck this. Switching to Refrigerate. Let’s see how you deal with cold. 100% power!

Refrigerate (10/10)

132-151 cold (fcs) damage per second to entities and environment

Sufficient damage causes slow

Range: 18 meters

Cost: 50 mp/s

The floating skill card switched immediately to Refrigerate, the system automatically responding to Rain’s desire. The whitish light of Purify was blasted away by the sudden wave of cold. His armor shone with a furious blue light as he slowed to a stop, daring the slime to get closer. The flames guttered and died as the temperature in the hallway plummeted. The greasy smoke froze and started falling to the ground like snow. Ice crystallized across the surface of the slime as it ground to a halt, stuck in the tunnel. He watched its health drop rapidly, keeping an eye on his own mana. The slime’s health was falling faster. Got you.

The slime died, frozen solid. The system announced its death with the familiar chime of a kill notification. Rain collapsed to his knees in relief. He only had a few hundred mana left and he was starting to lose feeling in his extremities. The cold in the tunnel was bitter, far, far worse than the coldest winter. He quickly used the last of his mana on Immolate, bringing the temperature in the tunnel back up to bearable, if arctic, levels.

What the fuck was that? No way that thing was only level 7. Something is seriously wrong here. The Kin weren’t nearly that tough, and they were the same damn level. Holy shitballs it’s cold!

Rain was shivering violently as he drew himself up to sit against the wall of the tunnel. He glanced at his health. He’d lost some more, bringing him down to about 190 remaining. His skin and lungs felt raw, burned first by the heat and steam, then by the acrid smoke, and lastly by the bitter cold. Damn it. I didn’t need to push it that hard. If I’d taken my time, I wouldn’t have hurt myself so much. I could have retreated to regenerate instead of trying to do it all at once. There’s no way it could regenerate health faster than I can regenerate mana.

Cold as he was, he activated Winter with Aura Focus. He needed mana and he needed it now. The feeling of the chill deepened, but he knew it was just in his head. He canceled the skill after a few seconds, using Immolate to further warm the air. He repeated this a few times until the temperature in the tunnel was bearable and the slimesicle next to him was starting to melt. The smell was atrocious, but he didn’t even care anymore. After breathing the horrible smoke, this was practically pleasant.

I need some better resistances if I’m going to do something like this again. The armor does jack shit against the blowback. It’s not mana, it’s just the temperature of the air. That tears it. I’m taking the darkness aura next. Too much dark never hurt anyone. Fuck, my lungs.

Rain coughed, then clamped his teeth together. He focused on his breathing, trying to keep it calm and steady, using Purify periodically to clear the air as the slime melted. He felt better after a while; his lungs were inflamed, but no longer screaming at him. The remains of the frozen Mucus King eventually succumbed to Purify, leaving behind 6 Tel, the crown, and a shiny greenish gem that Rain assumed was some type of Cryst. The crown brightened Rain’s spirits considerably. It was very heavy and looked like it was made of gold. Unfortunately, it wasn’t any bigger than a normal human-sized crown, despite the fact that the Mucus King had been the size of a house.

His excitement was dampened considerably when he used Detection to search for gold. The crown only gave off a faint reading. It was far from pure. Further checking revealed that it had a much stronger response for Lead. Damn it, it’s only plated, not solid. Still, it’s probably worth something. I’ll see if Tallheart can separate it out. A golden strength ring would be wonderful.

Rain painfully got to his feet and sighed. Crap. I have to walk back now, don’t I? Before he left, he checked the room that the slime had been living in for further treasures. It was filled with sludge, but not much else. He cleared it all away with Purify, figuring that the room served some purpose. Leaving the other passages blocked was probably a bad idea. Even if there was no water flowing into the chamber now, that didn't mean it was always like that.

He trudged down the tunnel to retrieve his pack, tucking the crown inside. He replaced the torch on the wall from where he had stolen it. It had somehow managed to stay lit through all of the excitement. Whatever magic kept the evertorches burning, it seemed to be pretty reliable.

The walk back was excruciating. His muscles were badly strained by all the running that he’d been doing. By the time he made it out of the sewer, it was dark and the snow was still falling heavily. Rain’s skin felt raw within his armor as he trudged through the city, heading for the gate. Eventually, he stopped and dug his blanket out from his pack, wrapping it around himself as a makeshift cloak. People were still out and about, despite the storm. He felt them staring at him as he walked, but he didn’t care.

As hurt as he was, he knew he could make it to Tallheart’s clearing without putting himself in any serious danger. He wanted Ameliah to heal him, not that asshole at the guild. It was the principle of the thing. Charging for healing wasn’t right, even if he could now afford it. He continually cursed himself for being stubborn as he trudged along, but he refused to give in. I’m level 18, damn it. How the fuck did that go so wrong? Level 7 my ass.