NOVEL NEXT Chapter 388: Two down one more to go
Damon looked up at the jagged ore, his crimson eyes reflecting the glitter of the black diamond-like shards. "Perfect." He started climbing the hill to mine the ore. He only barely took a couple of steps when the ground trembled beneath his boots.
The Abyss never gave anything for free.
From between the shards of Abyssal Steel, black ichor bubbled upward and began to harden, coalescing into hulking forms. Their bodies were latticed with the very ore he coveted, each step ringing like hammer on anvil.
Abyssal Ore Golems. Three of them. The weakest one was level 120, and the strongest one was level 180. These numbers did not really matter because the real strength of the golems was a lot more than what their levels indicated.
Their bodies were nearly impervious, their frames soaking in magic and dulling blades as though every strike were nothing more than a child's tantrum. Worse, Damon knew from memory that these things could regenerate. Shatter one, and unless the Abyssal Steel core at its chest was destroyed in a single, clean blow, it would pull itself back together.
"Figures," Damon muttered, tightening the straps on the egg at his chest. The pulsing shell radiated faint heat, almost as if it were hungry again, reacting to the energy spilling off the golems. "Looks like you're going to have your fill today too."
Damon summoned his shadow and then conjured several venous black blood spears. "I wonder if I can take off your regeneration." He sent the spears flying at the golems, which did not bother dodging his little attack.
The spears slammed into the nearest golem, black ichor spraying as the blood-forged projectiles precisely punched through the gaps in its ore plating. The wound gaped wide, ichor hissing as his venom clawed at it.
But then the Abyssal Steel around the wound pulsed once, and the ichor knitted back into place, the ore shifting like living armor to seal the breach. The golem let out a grinding roar, its eyes flaring with abyssal light.
But Damon could see that the patch-up was nowhere near perfect. With just one attack, he had already created a weak point in the abyssal ore golems, which were supposed to be a huge pain in the ass when mining ores. He grinned and prepared for a second attack.
"Let's see how long you can keep patching yourselves up." Damon's grin widened, fangs glinting as he gathered more blood energy. This time, instead of hurling the spears, he shaped them into writhing tendrils that dug straight into the cracked plating of the nearest golem.
The golem bellowed, swinging its massive ore-encrusted fist downward, but Damon blinked just out of reach, reappearing on its shoulder. His tendrils held fast, burrowing deeper into the exposed gap like leeches.
Black ichor boiled as his Bloodline Extraction flared to life.
[Ding! You are siphoning Abyssal Essence.]
[Ding! Abyssal Resilience +1]
[Ding! Strength +2]
The golem spasmed, its chest core flickering as if its heartbeat stuttered. Damon's eyes gleamed with victory. "Got you."
But the other two didn't stand idle. They moved with surprising speed, jagged arms swinging in unison to crush him between them.
Damon twisted away, but one strike clipped his shoulder, sending a shock of pain through his body and forcing him to roll across the hill's jagged slope. He quickly got back up and prepared for round 2.
The fight was a long, dragged-out dog fight with Damon taking one hit for every five hits he gave out. Eventually, his venom won over their durability, and the golems finally began to falter. The ichor inside them bubbled violently, unable to keep pace with the damage.
Their Abyssal Steel plating, once flawless, now sagged with jagged cracks spiderwebbing across their frames. The first golem collapsed to its knees, roaring with a sound like grinding mountains before Damon drove a blood-forged lance into its chest.
The core shattered. Abyssal Steel shards rained down the slope in glittering streams of black crystal.
[Ding! You have extracted +1 Magic Resistance]
[Ding! You have extracted the skill Harden]
[Ding! You have slain Abyssal Ore Golem.]
[Ding! You have obtained Abyssal Steel Ore (Refined) x2.]
[Ding! You have extracted Abyssal Golem Core Fragment.]
Every single one of these drops was valuable, and Damon quickly pocketed them. The egg strapped to his chest pulsed violently, drinking in the essence that bled out of the broken corpse.
The second golem lunged before he could savor the victory, its ore-crusted arm swinging with the weight of a siege engine. Damon caught the edge of the blow with his blood tendrils, deflecting enough to slip inside its guard. He unleashed [Blood Lance], [Fire Burst], and [Shadow Dagger] in a brutal chain.
The ichor shrieked as the attacks combined, burning, corroding, and swallowing chunks of the creature until its chest core was left exposed.
One brutal thrust ended it.
The final golem was the strongest, its Abyssal Steel plating glowing faintly as if the ore itself was more resilient. Damon grinned savagely. "So you're the stubborn one."
The fight dragged on, every blow shaking the plaza, black ichor flooding down the slope. But Damon was patient. Every exchange spread his venom deeper. Every extraction chipped away at its resilience.
Finally, with a roar, the last golem staggered and toppled, its core sputtering weakly. Damon crushed it in his hand, shards cutting into his palm as ichor gushed over him.
[Ding! Abyssal Affinity +1.]
[Ding! You have slain Abyssal Ore Golem.]
[Ding! You have obtained Abyssal Steel Ore (Refined) x3.]
[Ding! Egg progress toward hatching: +2%.]
Damon straightened slowly, his cloak shredded, his chest rising and falling with exertion. Around him, the plaza glittered with Abyssal Steel fragments, black diamonds scattered like spoils of war.
His crimson eyes narrowed with satisfaction. "Two targets down."
He collected every single ore shard and every single ore fragment from the place, not missing even the smallest piece. Only after double-checking a couple of times, Damon dissolved into the shadows and disappeared from the spot. Two down and one more to go!
***
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