Chương 16: Bloodsucker Has Requested To Attune With You

Ch. 16: Bloodsucker Has Requested To Attune With You And then true power gurgled in my belly, traveled up my throat and erupted from my mouth. The flame enveloped the beast. The cavern warmed and the shadows the flame had cast showed the tendrils of the star nose mole monster wriggling before receding away. I watched the remainder of my mana bar trickle to nothing, finally quelling my fire. The dungeon core glowed no more under the char of its skin. It sat there like a hill of ash.

I could not even make out the pink nose that made up its tendrils.

Since the white nova had not taken me back to Venice Boulevard… I had time to raid this place for all it was worth. I darted toward the dead ogre, having checked the goblins for weapons already. They had nothing more than common swords and spears. No, it was the big dude that had the magic weapons. I saw Lee's axe, bent on the ground. I searched for Wesley's weapon, but the Ogre did not have it. Lee must have taken it. Good for her, I guess. I didn't know how long the mole had before dying.

I kicked the ogre's body in frustration. But when I did, I noticed his fist still balled up. There was a little point sticking out of it. A metal point, like that of a knife. Why didn't she take this too? I placed my own hands within the crevice of his and pulled it open. It would not budge. Was it rigor mortis? Either way, this was something my strength could solve. I pried harder. As I did, blood spurted from the hand. I turned down again. I could see clearer why there was such a struggle before.

There were veins attached to his hand coming from the knife he held. Blood was draining from the ogre's body and feeding the dagger. Its eye wide open.

"Oh my god," I said, "A magic weapon. A creepy, ugly, magic weapon but I'm finally not borrowing one all the time!" I grabbed the dagger and pulled. I could hear the popping of the veins as the roots the knife had placed in the body unplugged. I turned on my Inspect tab. The Bloodsucker Blade Converts blood into either strength or mana Warning: Weapon displays signs of sentience Would you like to attune? Y/N"A big ol' 'Y' please." I said. A kind of searing flash bound me and the weapon together.

It sent a pulse into me and I back into it. Suddenly, text popped up on my screen. Feed me and I shall feed you. Would you like me to restore your mana or your strength? Strength would be interesting. Lord knows I could use more of it. But for whatever reason I was able to transfer a lot of Spiros' strength to my own body. The thing my body wasn't used to yet was the mana. That being said, I would likely gain more mana as I leveled up.

And even though my strength was a lot of a human, Spiros was a magic casting god. Could this be solving an early problem, but be hindering me later?

"Can I change it at a later time?" No.

"Okay, bad attitude but fine. I choose mana." Excellent choice.

"Really? What would you have said if I said 'strength?'" I would have said, 'Excellent choice.'

"Okay, it's still mana then- ouch!" I felt a sting on my skin and I dropped the dagger, "Little bitch pricked me." I sucked my thumb and dropped to get it. The rockwall in front of me crumbled.

"What the hell?" I glanced up and saw the tendrils from the mole monster. They had reached for me but when I bent over they collided with the wall instead. I turned to see the source. The body was still charred, but I saw the tendrils popping up from the back. It had turned itself around to protect its nose from the fire. The tendrils recoiled from the wall and snatched me by the arm as they did. I reached out to grab the knife but the tendrils grabbed all my appendages and lifted me away.

The tendrils rammed me into the wall ahead of me, and whipped me onto the ground. Then four of them held my legs and arms and the rest just pummeled into me. They were beating me like a snare drum. One of the tendrils just dedicated itself to slapping me in the face over and over again. It dragged me back toward the beast, and pulled my hand free, grabbing the knife as I did so. I stabbed into the tendril, and blood dripped into the clay red blade. Good. Good. Feed me.

Blood filled the miniature vial at the end of the knife. The knife eye's lids opened further and a kind of energy surge entered my body. I looked up at the corner of my screen and saw the bar go from empty to 5%. That would be enough. I cast Cloudform and clenched my fists, causing clouds to sprout from my arm and legs. This pushed the tendrils out and gave me space to slip free. Then I cast Firebreath again, dousing the wicked arms in fire. Ten of them shriveled away.

I closed my mouth early, saving 1% of my mana until I could regain more. I was free, I stared at the mountain of black char that was once the mole's body. The beast might have been able to protect its tendrils, but its figure was wispy and damaged. Which meant that the shortest way to the core's heart was through the body. The remaining tendrils dashed toward me but I was too quick. I dodged, charged, and stuck my knife out, raking the tendril's long tube as I ran toward the body.

My mana came back up to 5% then 10%. I made it to the body and slashed at the black, hacking through its lower intestine, to its torso. Through its guts where the glowing heart was present. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"Firebreath." I blasted the heart with fire until my mana was finished, and the white plume of the dungeon closing carried me back to Los Angeles. I was on the pavement. I pulled myself up and scanned the area around me. An ambulance had parked and was resuscitating Riley. Jan had had her leg healed, likely by Kayla. That left Hugh, Lee, and Kayla all staring at me, gobsmacked.

"W-what happened?" Kayla asked. I looked around, "What do you mean what happened? I beat the core."

"With respect," said Hugh, adjusting his glasses, "That's impossible. Respectfully, you're just an NPC. Respectfully." I pointed to the mouth of the busstop. The teeth had closed. It was still receding into the long retired advert of Jared from Subway.

"So, respectfully, Hugh, you don't know what the fuck you're talking about."

"That's… impossible," said Jan.

"Thanks Jan. glad to see you're feeling better."

"I… How?" Kayla stammered.

"Uhh," I thought about ripping my way through its ashen body, "I let it eat me. Yeah, I managed to make myself small when it dropped me into its teeth, then I tore a hole out of the esophagus and made my way to the heart. I pierced it and the rest is history." There was confusion, but there was also a lot of tension. Defeating a core meant money. For an NPC, it was capped at 2k for an Alpha core. But champions got paid their rate.

Which was set by the union based on how many raids they'd done and how many cores they'd slayed previous. There was often a divvy of the money, but even still money made people stupid.

"I think…" Hugh said, "That it can't be discounted that, Kayla, you and I did a fair bit of damage to this creature before he finished him off."

"You have to be fucking kidding me," I said, "No, you don't do that. You know what happens if a Champ's name is on there. My pot goes way down."

"I'm just saying," He said it all weasly, like he was only being fair by pushing his blatant agenda, "Kayla and I had done our part, her as the leader and me as the Bravo champ. It's not a lie to say that we might have gotten that core to the point where you could have easily slain it.

"You didn't even get close to the body!" I said, raising my voice. I got off the ground and approached Hugh, balling my fist. Kayla stepped in between me and him and placed her hand on my chest.

"No need for all that," Kayla said, "I was there. Hugh, you know you and I did very little. The monster had us in a deadlock for a while. I'm glad that Drake was able to use his ingenuity to solve the problem."

"You… You believe me?" I asked. Kayla nodded, "Yes. I believe you." I couldn't believe it. I looked at Lee for her to match my excitement, but she didn't quite return it. I tried to finish my sentence but Kayla interrupted.

"Which means when I write the raid report… I'll place your name as the sole killer for the core."

"Which means the pot goes to me!!!" Hugh sighed.

"You should be more proud," Kayla said, "you're one of the few NPCs who de-oh!" I leapt toward her and hugged her, picking her up and laughing.

"2 thousand big ones, baby! Plus my full rate! Thank you, Kayla!"

"You've earned it," She said, laughing, "But put me down."

"Yeah, no problem." Kayla brushed her athleisure wear, "Hey, Hugh invited us out to drinks. Do you want to come?"

"Oh my gosh. The champs never invite me to drinks!" And then I looked at Hugh, and from the look on his face I realized he was definitely just asking Kayla and she interpreted this as a group hang. As much as I would have loved to be the third wheel in his attempt at a date, I had business to attend to.

"Ahh," I said, "Thanks. I'd love to but I have dogs to feed. Speaking of…" I pulled her away from the group. Hugh and Jan went to go check in on Riley and Lee hung out at an awkward distance from Kayla and I.

"Right." She said, "My apartment only allows small dogs."

"They're smallish german shepherds. Uhh, small… smaller than really really big german shepherds at least."

"Sorry."

"That's alright. I appreciate it. Let's you and I have drinks though, yeah? When there's less of a crowd." Her body perked up but her look was inscrutable.

"As friends?"

"It's a start." I delivered the line with a smirk.

"I thought you were with Penelope?" My smirk faded, "Pardon?"

"Are you and her not a thing?"

"Uhhh, you know Nelo?"

"Yeah, we're all part of this all ladies' champion group chat. See?" She showed me her phone. The title of the groupchat was 'The Champons.'

"Cute, right? She mentions you. Says you two… you know, hang out."

"I mean," I did big air quotes, "We hang out. I don't know about 'hanging out.'""So you two are just friends? Nothing more?" Was that accurate?

"Nnnnnno. Yes. No. Yes… No… Yes?"

"Right." Kayla said, Why don't you get that answer first before we talk about drinks. I'll see you."

"Aight," I said and before she turned I said, "Hey. In your little fan club about me, she mention I was good?'

"Don't be gross," She told me not to be gross but she had a smile as she turned away and joined Hugh and Jan with Riley. I turned to Lee and said smugly, "yeah, she said I was good." She looked at me strangely, and I asked, "You going to drinks? Sounds like fun."

"Uh.. Maybe. Hey, can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure." I said, "What's up?" She looked back at the crew before leaning in.

"It's about the ogre captain?"

"Geez. Big guy. Huge. Glad you got out of that. Seriously, I was worried for you." I started glancing around. She followed me to the intersection where I pressed the pedestrian call button.

"That's the thing. I… I didn't? He just kind of dropped dead." Oh, yeah. This part. The part where I feigned surprise.

"Wow." I said.

"I figured you killed him or something. I saw that he was dead. But… damn. So what happened?"

"This was in his brain, Drake." She took out a bloodied ogre's toothpick she'd stashed in her vest pocket."

"No way," My eyes widened.

"Lee. What the heck? What do you think happened?"

"I was hoping you had some insight."

"Hmmm. Lee, I dropped that thing. Lost it instantly. Sorry, I have absolutely no clue. Glad you found it though. Means I don't owe you a magic weapon." She stared at me, probably with more questions than she had before. But then the walk symbol came on and I said, "I have to go. I'll give you a call. Check in on you. You're probably pretty rattled." Lee wanted to say something else but eventually just let out a breath and said, "Yeah. Yeah, I'll see ya."

I got in my shitty car and drove back to my sister's apartment. Someone was parked in my spot so I parked on the street. I waved at Ms. Wong, my sister's elderly neighbor. I checked my system first. Congrats! Bonus points for slaying your first dungeon core! You're now level 10! 10 Points available Then, I took out my phone to check some messages and I went to my instagram. OhKaygrrrl has requested to follow you I stopped in my tracks.

I accepted and followed her back and had a smile on my face as I turned the corner. But then I saw that my apartment lights were on. I knew it wasn't my sister. Mr. Jonson? Finally packing my stuff? No. He would have left a warning. Spiros… couldn't reach the lights if he tried. I took my new knife out. Through the gaps in the curtains I saw a figure lurking through the living room. My hand hovered over the door knob, I took a deep breath and opened the door.

I rolled in and stuck my knife out, pointing it around until my eyes finally locked on the intruder. I dropped my knife and said with an exasperated voice.

"Nelo!?"