章節 9: Curse Energy
A campfire burned in the darkness, illuminating a small cave filled with large black boulders. There were two tunnels departing from the cave, one on the north side and one on the east side.
Panting sound could be heard echoing around, coming from under a large black furry pelt that was placed next to the fire.
A white bat-like creature with a long tail sat a few meters from the pelt, next to two large bags. Its crimson eyes looked lazily around, slapping with its tail a hairy black bundle placed next to the bags. Under its front paws, there was a small rat-like brownish beast with three white eyes and a long white snout.
Suddenly, a high pitch female moan tore through the air and a few breaths after a thin figure emerged from under the heavy black pelt. The youth scratched his head, and then started putting on a set of simple black robes and two dark colored hide sandals.
He moved next to the fire and sat down, signaling with his right hand towards the white beast. The beast growled in response and then grabbed with its mouth the small critter, suppressing with its superior force any tentative of an escape of the latter. After doing so the bat started to throttle towards the young man.
"You lazy fuck, that's all you found?" a half smile appeared on Sif's mouth while he examined the pray brought him by Luna.
"Jesus, this shit is disgusting… I don't even know what the fuck is thing… a hybrid between a Long Snout Mole and a Three-Eyed Borrow Rat?" He truly had no idea of what the thing he was looking at was.
Actually, it wasn't that strange to meet hybrid creatures and new mutations while traveling across the whole Coast of Republics. Adept Summoners, and even the Initiates coming from richer backgrounds, would always have auxiliary systems able to scan and determine the bloodline of a beast.
Naturally, Sif had no way to obtain such a device at the moment. He didn't even have a Menagerie where to store his only familiar. The only place where he could get his hands on those things were the various Level Forts of the Ashen Grotto.
Thankfully, he had found several maps on the baggage left behind by the departed Tong. He had now two complete maps of the first two levels of the Grotto and a map of the Calperra Region of the Third Level.
This, combined with the information that he already had on the Grotto coming from what he learned in his previous life, gave him a good overall view about the place.
The Ashen Grotto, was a deep mining complex with seven known levels located on the extreme eastern border of the Harmony Faction's Territory.
The first three levels were opened to the general public but the fourth and fifth levels were accessible only by established powers from the Harmony Faction. As for the sixth and seventh level, only the Yellow Monk, leader of the Harmony Faction and uncontested most powerful individual in the entire Coast, could access them. Not because he forbid others to do so, simply because it was too dangerous for other people.
The only thing that was mined in the Grotto was the so-called Vitality or Life Ash and its superior forms: coal, stone and crystals. This strange black material filled the entire Grotto and was incredibly precious for both Fighters - that used it directly in cultivation - and Summoners - that fed it to their familiars - . Deeper one went in the cave, the stronger the Ash and its other version became.
Every level of the Grotto had different Forts that controlled large areas around them. Some of them had also elevators that helped people moving to higher or deeper levels for a fee. The forts also controlled a large enslaved criminal population, especially those in the First and Second Level and forced them to mine the ash in exchange of cutting down their time to serve.
If he was able to get to a Fort, obtaining a Menagerie in exchange of the Bloodshed Cub he still had wouldn't be that difficult. It wouldn't be something extremely top-notch, but it would definitely be better than average and putting his hands on an auxiliary system capable of determining bloodlines wouldn't be that hard.
Sighing in anticipation, Sif touched the head of the creature held down by Luna. A dark wave of energy passed from his hands inside the body of the little beast.
Curse Energy, a very peculiar type of energy. It was one of the two affinities that he had, the other one being Earth. Contrary to Earth, which was one of the most diffused affinities that one could have, Curse was incredibly rare.
Not many people were proficient in this type of power. Moreover, it was almost impossible to find it directly in nature. It wasn't something that one could simply absorb from the surroundings like the most common elements.
Curse Energy needed to be cultivated, or better: fed. More it fed, stronger it became. Stronger it became, more it needed to feed. A never-ending cycle of destruction that made it a lot difficult for people to control it.
A couple of breaths after that Sif sent the black the wave of black energy inside the creature, the little animal started to shiver uncontrollably. Black veins started to emerge all over the body of the beast and it tried to escape from under Luna's body and failed. A few moments later it completely stopped struggling and dropped dead.
Sif tapped again on the head of the dead corpse, and the flow of dark energy moved back inside his body.
He could feel that it had become stronger. It didn't gain much strength, but it was still better than nothing. Sif concentrated on his dantian and penetrated inside the small lucent sphere inside his belly, sensing the large space inside his energy container.
The center was still occupied by a blue form of soul energy. That was his soul. There was also an immense rune with the image of a white bat at his core, that alone was occupying one-fifth of the whole dantian.
The majority of the rest of the space was filled with a calm green sea, the Earth Energy that the youth cultivated with his Earth Perseverance method, but there was a small corner where a solid mass of black energy stood alone.
That was the Curse energy that he had cultivated in the last two weeks, slowly feeding it preys that Luna captured alive. "A couple of more preys and then I can use it to bind Luna to the third stage…"
A smile appeared on the youth's mouth. Although it was a bit stressful, he was making rapid advancements.
He took out a map from one of the bags, and studied it for a couple of minutes. In a couple of days, he would finally be arriving at the nearest Fort, Iron Gates. There he could get his hands on a Menagerie and also some other material that he needed. Then he would go back and try to obtain some other bronze ranked beast before leaving this Ashen Grotto.
His gaze moved to the large Bloodshed Bat pelt next to the bonfire, under which Blue was sleeping. In the beginning, he thought of getting rid of her and continue his journey alone, but then she told him something very interesting about herself. She was from a small branch of the Yun House of Fallen Torch City.
"Darkwing…"
The greatest summoner that ever lived, Darkwing, was also the head of the Yun clan. In less than thirty years the man would take in three new disciples, gifting each one of a powerful Darkwing beast, a signature creature that he personally bread.
"Disciple of Darkwing himself… I guess that this is a good objective for now…"
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票