Chương 266: Chapter 255

"Urrrghhg…" he groaned as he tried to ignore Lucky, licking his face with enthusiasm. His entire body felt like a wrung-out rag. Still, he used his hands, then Lucky, and finally his legs to maneuver himself into a sitting position.

Tiredly resting against a giant piece of debris – based on the feel he suspected it was once part of the walls lining the corridor – he feebly cast a Clean spell which managed to get most of the caked-on grime, blood (both his and the cultists') and dust off him and allowed him to survey the scene while he waited for his mana to regenerate. It was absolute devastation. His battle with the ritually created monstrosity destroyed a lot; the healers' final sacrifice simply vaporized a huge circular area.

Even from his sitting position, he could see the mirror finish of the small crater left behind, the explosion conveying the burning fury of the sun, fueled by the willing sacrifice of Asa and seven of her helpers.

'The question is, how did this affect the greater ritual?' he mused as he spent some time just regenerating as he ran his fingers through Lucky's fur. Other caravans went in other directions, and most rituals would require sacrifices to happen at the same general time. Yet, he couldn't feel anything. The ceiling wasn't caving in on him, and the ground wasn't shaking because of the vibration created by the purported explosion.

He was distracted from his thoughts by Lucky freezing in place, sniffing the air for a few seconds, then running away, happily barking. Before he could even muster the strength to stand up, his adorable familiar was back, tail wagging proudly and holding something in his mouth. Expectantly holding out his hand, Lucky deposited his find and let out a proud bark.

He automatically reached out with his free hand and patted the wolf on the head while his eyes were on the item – covered in wolf slobber – in his other hand. Quickly cleaning the gunk off the item, he examined it.

"Good boy!" It was a circular yellow crystal, warm to the touch, with the symbol of a water droplet in the middle, surrounded by seven triangles pointing away from the center equidistant from each other. A screen popped up a second later. [Proof of Sacrifice: A crystallized proof of sacrifice, belief, and hope fueled by the souls and lives of those who sacrificed themselves. Can be used in certain rituals.] Sam smiled sadly and put it away.

"Well, Asa, it seems you will see your grandchildren even if not how you expected…" Shaking himself, he did a quick self-examination. His equipment was in pretty good condition, thanks to Lucky's transformation, but Moonlight had seen better days.

'Well, old friend… it seems time for an upgrade…' he thought as he eyed the few chips and hairline cracks that appeared on the blade. It was a great blade, but it wasn't designed for such a high amount of magical channeling. His Mana Scales were practically empty thanks to the explosion and his mana was almost empty, even though his mana regeneration was working with full force. Quickly checking his status screen, he saw the reason for it.

[Blood Weakness: (Debuff) Being in the presence of potent blood magic and resisting it has sapped your strength. Decreases Health and Mana Regeneration.] [Exhaustion: (Debuff) Due to an intense battle, you are tired. Decreases Stamina and Health Regeneration.] [Mana Sickness: (Debuff) You expended a truly great amount of mana in a really short time. This has weakened your core temporarily. Decreases Mana Regeneration.] Not the best thing to read, but the fourth thing he found under his name managed to get a small smile on his face. [Sun's warmth: (Buff) You have witnessed the ultimate sacrifice. You aided this with all your being, expecting nothing. You are temporarily immune to cold weather. You temporarily know the location of the sun in relation to yourself.]'Well, she was a crafty one…' he chuckled to himself before going for his inventory. He had stockpiled some insane things just for situations like this.

If a normal player could see him now as he began to take out expensive item after expensive item from his inventory… A potion made by a high-ranked NPC alchemist to cure the exhaustion condition. Only available if you had a noble contact and had a ludicrous amount of money to pay for it. Sam made sure that all the core team had at least one of these with them.

Then he took a small blue ball carved from a sapphire, its surface an intricate picture of runes while the inside illuminated his surroundings with a blue light. One of the rarest drops from a fracture in a neighboring country. It cured Mana Sickness for a day, in exchange it would return twice as strong. He crushed it without a hint of remorse and watched as the magical dust seeped into his body and the debuff vanished from his status bar.

Then came a potion bottle filled with a blinding white substance that was more cloudy than liquid. Without hesitation, he uncorked the bottle and drank the whole thing. Concentrated purifying energy. Sold by the temples for those who are truly pious (that is paid enough money into the right hands) to the high-ranking priest. Sadly, even with the almost infinite money that Sam had, it took time and effort to create it.

Currently, only NPCs could do it, but later in the game, it would become the go-to method to cleanse unwanted effects. Well, for those who could afford it… Now that his most pressing problems had vanished – at least temporarily – he began chugging health and mana potions until everything was filled up. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Looking at the empty bottles, he couldn't help but chuckle.

"Man, I wonder what people would think if they knew how much money I spent here…" Doing some quick math, he shook his head. There was enough money in his body to bankrupt a small company… In the end, he just shrugged.

"Day is not over yet, and I have a deadline…" Next to the Mana Sickness grayed-out icon was a small countdown that was already moving, despite his inaction. Looking around a final time, he made sure he didn't miss anything and he called out to Lucky.

"Lucky, we need to get to the surface fast!" His loyal companion just let out a bark and was instantly facing the direction they came from, his body enlarging enough for Sam to sit on it. A few seconds later, they were rushing toward the surface while the last embers of the fight vanished behind them and the encroaching darkness slowly but surely consumed every last crumb of evidence that anything happened there. Shadows happily flickered for every drop of blood or mote of mana clinging to surfaces.

As he and Lucky ran through the devastated corridor – the explosion ruining much more than he expected – he also opened his quest menu. [Congratulations! You partially completed the Third Task of the quest 'Friendlessly into the depths!'] [The supplies may have not reached their intended target, but you still didn't die.] ['Friendlessly into the Depths!' has failed!] [New quest acquired!] [Longing for the sun!] [You have been ambushed and only survived due to the timely sacrifice of your companions. You won't be as lucky a second time. Return to the surface and figure out what is going on.] [Reward: Clarity] [Penalty:???] Sam nodded at that, not expecting much, and then focused on helping Lucky go as fast as possible. He arrived back at the location where not long ago he barely listened to some half-hearted speech. However, the great gates protecting the upper levels of this abyssal labyrinth weren't in the same state as they left them.

Instead of imposing greatness, they were strewn everywhere in pieces while smoke and even fouler things filled the air, while cloying blood magic filled the ether. Scowling, he hopped off Lucky and commanded him to transform. He had a time limit, so there was no need to grandstand and show off. From now on, he would be the poster picture of pure efficiency. Using wind mana to avoid touching whatever was in the air, he slowly crept to the edge of the gates and glanced around the corner.

It was absolute devastation, with a giant pool of blood in the middle, happily and eagerly bubbling as several rivers of blood were flowing towards each blown-apart gate except for the one he was coming from. Near the pool of blood stood several figures, slightly obscured by the smoke but Sam could see them sitting around idly on crates or leaning against some of the bigger debris as they chatted. Sharpening his ears he started listening in.

"…what the hell is taking that long?"

"For the twentieth time. I have no idea. GrindHog should have returned by now…"

"Do you think he died?"

"Died? To what? A few scared old biddies?"

"Well… they had an unaccounted player with them," added a third one.

"Please, that fop was bragging about his cleaning spells. What could he have done?"

"Maybe cleaning magic is the archenemy of blood magic?" There was a beat of silence before laughter filled the disgusting air.

"Hahahaha, that was hilarious…"

"I'm so stealing that for my social!" As the people began to chat about social media and other miscellaneous things, Sam cracked his neck and nodded to himself.

'Separate sacrifice locations, then use the blood rivers to act as a fuse… Smart, but easily sabotaged.' With a small sigh, he jumped forward and began casting like crazy. There were no words, no jokes, nothing. One second, the destroyed cavern was only filled with idle chatting, then only screams. Wind Spears pierced several bodies, Shadow Mirage clones skewered several others, while he sent countless clean mana-filled Wind Blades at the blood rivers, cutting them away from the main pool.

Twenty seconds later, he was alone in the hall with only the still bubbling pool of blood. Then a small, bloody cough caught his attention. Snapping his head toward it, he spotted one of the blood cultists coughing harshly as something flaked to dust on their bodies. Their eyes were glued to Sam, looking mighty surprised.

"Wh-what th-e fuck a-re y---" he coughed as he tried to stand up, but Sam simply sent a ball of compressed wind to kill him. As the body vanished behind him, he turned toward the pool. There was no convenient sun priest to sacrifice themselves to destroy this one. He held out a hand, created a ball of pure clean mana, and sent it toward the pool. It impacted almost silently and managed to erase a small part of it.

Doing the math in his head, he was disappointed to realize that it would take longer to clean it up than he had. Then he contemplated just leaving when he remembered a line he had recently read. Taking the precious item out of his inventory, he weighed it a little, turning it over in his hand.

"…fueled by the souls and lives…" he read out loud the description.

"How about we add to it a little more…" In any other situation, he would be decried as a heretic or the archenemy, but he suspected (and hoped) that the sun priests would understand his decision. Temporarily pocketing the artefact, he began walking around the pool and started carving runes from a ritual that he had recorded in his Grimoire. It was a simple siphoning ritual used for all sorts of purposes. Here and now, it would be used to dismantle the blood pool, ready to blow up a city.

As soon as one rune was carved, he used his meager water control, took a little part of the blood, and made sure to fill up the carved lines of the ritual. Then, as he finished, he turned around and began walking in the opposite direction, carving the runes for a purifying ritual aiming to remove the taint and only leave behind the life and sacrifice aspect. These were filled with his own mana, infused with cleaning energy.

Finally, he took out the artifact left behind by Asa and her followers, placed it in a small circle, took a small step back, and began channeling with a wicked grin. The runes lit up one by one and soon the blood collected into the pool began to rise in the air as if siphoned up by something. It was fascinating to watch as it reached a certain, almost arbitrary point in the air and the red blood slowly changed into a pure white liquid, shedding pure black flakes.

Then that liquid slowly twisted itself into a thin stream of energy that was sucked up by the artifact that was emitting a jolly warmth. Despite the size of the pool, it only took seven minutes for Sam to transform the entire thing only leaving behind a small pile of black flakes. The artifact on the ground however changed. The previous crystalline appearance had transformed. Instead of its previous yellowish color, it now sported all the colors of dawn.

From purple to pink, to orange and red, all of them were present on the artifact as it shined with the light of the emerging sun, casting warmth all around it. As Sam grasped it a new notification appeared in front of him. [Symbol of Sacrifice: A crystallized symbol of sacrifice, belief, and hope fueled by the souls and lives of those who sacrificed themselves. Can only be used by those who worship the sun. Grants the Sun's Mantle to those who are near it.] [Sun's Mantle: You have embraced the sun. You are immune to fire and heat. Increased Health Regeneration. Increased damage against the unclean and tainted.] Laughing, Sam made sure to clean up the evidence of his action, then he was once again off toward the surface. He had a hunch that if he and the sun priests put their heads together, then this little baby he had created would solve a lot of issues.

'If I can reach them…' he mused as he clung to Lucky's sinfully soft fur.

'And they are alive, of course…'