Chương 68: Laika's Shittiest Heroine

Alexandra read the last three lines again. Then a third time. You are suffering from the Malediction of infinite hunger. Augustus accepts your offering and blesses you with the Blood of the Verdant Lord. Drain Life: Make a deal with Augustus, Demon of Blood (1/1). Her stomach growled. Long. Insistent. She licked her lips. She looked at the empty flask lying on the floor beside her, picked it up, and brought it to her eyes. The acidic taste was still coating her throat. Fucking alchemist.

Where the hell did he get something like that? There was no doubt in her mind that the potion was responsible for the malediction. She had no idea what a malediction was, but it was obviously nothing good. A malediction sounded like a curse, but worse. So she wagered it was the level above sicknesses. She grimaced as her stomach reminded her of what it did. She'd have to ask Sera when she got the chance. For now, she understood that it made her hungry.

Since it allowed her to digest the bloodline energy, it probably did more than that. This isn't going to help with the allegations. Her appearance was already an issue, though it wasn't as big a problem as she initially feared. Now with a bloodline… She sat in the dirt of the greenhouse with vomit drying on her chin and looked at the empty patch where the Yshant had been. The formation lines were cold. Cael was dead. The hunger hit again. Sharper.

"I need to eat something." She needed to stand up. She needed to find the others. She was aware of both of these facts but remained sitting. She flipped the pages of her journal to the back, and found what she was looking for. Blood of the Verdant Lord - Platinum Bloodline Iron: Photosynthesis - The sun feeds you. Bronze: Locked. Silver: Locked. Gold: Locked. Platinum: Locked. Blood of the Verdant Lord. She looked at the empty patch of dirt where the Yshant had stood. She'd killed it.

Destroyed it completely, not with her own powers, and through a process she didn't truly understand. But the result was the same. Photosynthesis - The sun feeds you. She almost laughed. White hairs, missing finger, an eye permanently closed until she found a cure, a fucking malediction, and now this. It hadn't even been three weeks… Her stomach clenched. The hunger again. She'd have to get to the surface before she could test it. It'd be great if it could help with the hunger.

She turned the pages again to read the descriptions of her new skills. Drain Life - 1: Drain the lifeforce of your target, replenishing your own. Lifeforce drained cannot exceed the maximum capacity for your rank. Each level increases the amount of lifeforce drained. Each level improves conversion effectiveness. Alexandra had to read it again to remember what it did. She'd written off the skill, thinking the price too high, but it turned out she'd been completely off the mark.

The skill quest didn't require her to trade her soul for Drain Life like she'd assumed. Not sure this is much better… She didn't know the state of the city above. But the Yshant had to have killed a lot of people to rank up. She bit her lip. I should go help the others. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Or not. In her current state, she'd be more hindrance than help. She could barely stand, and that was without mentioning the hunger.

Each gurgle was painful. Her eyes went down the page to see her final skill. This came as a surprise, but Giant Slayer had been directly added to her status without having to complete a skill quest. Then again, the event quest had been much harder than any daily she'd completed so far. She wasn't going to complain. Giant Slayer - 1: This skill allows you to partially ignore rank suppression. Each level increases the effect. Rank suppression. The reason her skills were less effective against higher ranked opponents.

It wasn't absolute, nor was it insurmountable. But if she'd unlocked this skill earlier, maybe she could have landed a Dark Bolt on the Yshant while it was still Gold. Maybe she could have saved Esmera. She tried standing up. Her legs were shaking. She walked to her sickle. Picked it up. Strapped it to her belt. Once more, her eyes were drawn to what was left of Cael. She hadn't known him. Which was better than when she killed John. She sighed. Had she really killed Cael?

Or was it more accurate to say he killed himself? The difference mattered very little. He was dead. But even as she kept telling herself that he deserved it, she didn't feel better. Another burst of pain shot through her stomach. So hungry. Would Sera come to her help if she collapsed? The Keeper didn't move to save the city. But she'd come for her. Right? She wasn't sure about going with her. It was a risk. Did she really have a choice? Did she ever have a choice?

Since the day she came to this world, she'd been pushed by her quests further than she could have imagined. She did things she regretted. She crossed lines she couldn't walk back. Did she really have to fear the shadow of her old friends like Bamir had claimed? So tired. The dimmed formation lines were still there, painting the ground. She needed food. So she walked. Step by step, each threatening to see her fall over. More than food, she needed to help the others.

She'd come here to save Louis, not to let him die in battle. They'd already lost Luce. She barely knew her, but it still hurt. She wasn't letting Marick, Dustin, Dena, and Edran follow. Another step. She nearly lost her balance. Continued. She couldn't save Lanterne. She couldn't save Esmera. But maybe she could still save her companions. What a shitty heroine I make. She never wanted that role. Then again, it seemed nobody really expected her to live up to it. Not even herself.

It sucked, but what else could she have done? She'd already gone above and beyond. Yet the corruption had come from the very holy orders that were supposed to combat it. Wasn't she the last person to blame? She'd done nothing wrong. She reached the stairs. They were high. Impossibly high. She climbed the first step, used her arms and the stone walls to pull herself up.

"Come on." She gritted her teeth and moved to the second step. The ceiling shook. She slipped and fell on her butt. The impact jarred through her spine. She stayed on the ground and breathed. The ceiling shook again. Dust fell in a thin curtain across the stairs. Louis. She wasn't ready to see another friend die. She was alone in this world, and maybe she was latching on to the first person she could, but who else could she trust?

Sera was nice enough, but she worked for Raymond, and her guildmate's true intentions were left unsaid. Lara was dead. Therion was dead. Bamir was dead. Everyone was dead, trying to kill her, or at best trying to use her. Maret had done it with his damned potion. Perhaps Louis was doing the same, trying to latch on to her divine class to further his revenge. But did it matter? She hoped he wasn't like the others. She really did. But in the end she was the one benefiting the most.

Something scraped out of her, half pain, half laugh, and gripped the edge of the step and pulled herself upright. Her arms were shaking worse than her legs now. She really needed to eat. First step. Second step. The ceiling shook again. She made it to the eighth step before her legs gave out. She stayed on her hands and knees for a moment, looking at the stone in front of her face, though she could barely see it through the darkness. Fine. She crawled. Her sickle scraped against each step as she went.

She stopped thinking about Louis, stopped thinking about anything except the next handhold, the next pull. Her arms were past shaking and into something steadier and worse. The hunger had settled into parts of her body she didn't know her stomach reached. Twelve steps. Fifteen. The light changed above her before she reached the top. Outside light, which made her think the ceiling was gone. She pushed herself through the opening and onto her back, breathing. The sky was back to normal.

She noticed that before anything else. It was blue, sunny, quiet. Only, it smelled like ash and dust. She turned her head. The estate was rubble. The walls had collapsed, the roof caved in on itself. She could see the staircase she'd just crawled up from where she was lying, exposed now, open to the sky. Beyond it, Esmera. She didn't sit up. She wasn't sure she could. So she looked at it from the ground, which she wouldn't have been able to if the estate's walls were still standing.

The street nearest to her was in ruins. But the next block wasn't. Then the one after that was intact. Intact, but empty. No people. No animals. Only the sound of the waves hitting the harbor. She lay there and looked at it and the sun fed her. It was almost nothing, but it was steady. She breathed. She summoned her journal. Opened it. Esmera's Wardens: End Merinus' grip on Esmera (1/1) -> New skill: Curse Unraveling. They'd done it.

At least Louis had, if it was indeed Adventuring Party transferring the reward to her. Were the others fine? She wanted to check on them, but couldn't move. She didn't need to read her new skill's description to know what it did. The information was already in her mind. It was a framework. A tool. It would help her, but not now. For now, she closed her eyes.