The New Bond

“There is so much to be said about the topic of animation cores that it can't be all covered In this book. A golem, construct, elemental, and even a wide range of monsters can be considered in the range of this type of core. Taking inanimate material and giving it a spark of life is a tricky process, but once mastered, it can create armies loyal to one person. This is how some kings ruled for a long time. Nowadays, there are mages that specialize in the destruction of these cores and are widely used in exploring old ruins of the past.” - Theory of Cores, page 222.

Aster

The first black shock attack, for lack of a better word, must have had some kind of cooldown or charged up because the next attack wasn't instant. It took about six seconds for the black beam to spear out again, and by that time, I was behind the cover of a mother building. The cackling laugh of the witch sounded on the other side.

I had A few ideas on what to do, but first, I needed to see how effective my arrows were. Charging a Frost Arrow, I listened for a second, judging where the witch was, and turned the corner of the building, raising my bow and letting the notched arrow loose.

My aim wasn't bad, the arrow striking the upper right shoulder of the witch, and it embedded itself in the skin. The issue came a moment later as the frost spread an inch before it retreated, and the arrow was forced out of the skin and dropped to the ground. Moving backward, I took a few steps back as a black lance of energy destroyed the corner of the building I'd used as cover.

It wasn't a surprise that my attack lacked any real power. The skill itself wasn't one that was meant to hit that hard. Instead, it was meant to drain stamina and pack a bigger punch than a regular arrow. I wasn't going to approach the witch head-on or in any sort of fistfight, so the problem left me with two different solutions. I could try to use a rune-etched arrow and hope that it gave enough of a punch to give me an opening for a weak point like an eye. That choice was what I'd done on the last boss. The issue here was I didn't think it'd work. My second option was to get a new skill, one that could pack enough of a hit to do damage to something a grade higher than me.

As another lance of black electricity shot past the buildings and tore a hole into the ground, leaving only a black smoke trail, I decided it was enough to get me to make my choice, and I spoke softly. “I need a skill that can hurt the witch.” The reason I was talking aloud was The Progenitor system. After having a bit of time to think about it, it wasn't hard to connect a few dots, and testing while collecting the cores had shown I'd been on the right track. It didn't seem to have a mental response and required asking aloud or another screen of the system to be open to have any effect. After speaking the words, I watched as the purple screen appeared in my vision and scanned it.

[Progenitor system recommendation: Frost Shard Imbuement. Cost: 23 SP]

“What does the skill do?” I asked as I moved to the next building, gaining a bit of distance from the witch. Another screen apeared and I scared it.

[Frost Shard Imbuement - Imbue this skill onto any physical object, and when reaching a high enough speed, the object will gain a crystallized shard coating made of Frost Affinity mana that has high piercing potential.]

It sounded good, but that was a lot of skill points the system was asking for. I got two points per level in each class, so essentially, it was asking for six levels in each class, almost a fourth of the levels I'd get in grade two. Still, this time around, I mentally accepted the skill and watched as another window appeared.

[Progenitor System: Confirm skill choice Frost Shard Imbuement for 23 SP.]

[Yes/No]

I agreed again and paused, waiting for something to happen. Glancing at my screen, I saw that the skill had been added and the points removed, but the skill was grayed out. What did that mean? In apparent response to my thought, the skill lit up, and it felt like a hammer was taken to my chest. A rough burning sensation filled a part of my body I had a hard time pinpointing the location of. The feeling of a cool burning and almost scraping feeling in my chest had me bent over and nearly dropping my bow as I took in a breath before forcing myself to take a few steps forward and lean against the wall. No one had told me that picking skills would hurt.

Gasping for air, I felt the effect dimming and straightened up as it faded to a dull ache. Grabbing an arrow, I let the singing in my hands stop as my heartbeat steadied out. Behind me, the wall of another building exploded, and I wondered if the witch could pinpoint where I was or if I was just going crazy. Either way, it was time I tried to put her down.

Wondering for a moment how the skill would work and if it would be like Frost Arrow, I notched the arrow on my bow and activated the skill, focusing on the arrow. The draw on my mana was much larger than I was expecting. Over the course of a few seconds, nearly a hundred mana had disappeared. Checking my mana, I felt my nose wrinkle. Even if I wasn't already low on mana, I'd hesitate to use this much on a single shot. Still, I'd need to see what damage it did first before I made a decision. I waited until the next blast of black Light destroyed the building to my right before I peeked out into the village center.

The witch was in the same spot, hovering above where The red rune circle had been, and seemed content to destroy everything around her while laughing. I watched her head turn to face me as soon I peaked round and felt unnerved at the bloated eye stare. I didn't waste any more time and took aim and let the arrow loose. I paused for a second, watching the arrow even as she moved Her head to point at me. For the first moment of the flight, the arrow looked normal, just like any of my arrows, but about halfway through the flight, a blue glow appeared around the tip of the arrow and then over the rest before covering it all.

The glow grew darker, almost purple, as it neared the witch and started to grow in size until it grew solid, and the arrow under the glow disappeared. It was only a few feet away when the tip of the purple shard started to glow a light blue on the tip and started to spread down. The arrow impacted the witch just under her left in the side of the chest and sounded like cracking ice. The purple coating dug into the robe, ripping it open and then sinking and tearing into whatever was under it. As the crystallized effects of the arrow dimmed, the damage became apparent.

A hole bigger than my fist dripped a black ichor that fizzled on the ground, no remains of the arrow left to be seen. I blinked at the damage, surprised at the gaping hole. Then I moved to duck back around the corner as the witch let out a delayed screech of pain. This time, the witch seemed serious or had used another, more powerful skill. A much thicker black beam tore past the building and then moved towards me, disintegrating the wall in a line and cutting the house in half. I was quick to drop to the ground, laying flat, but wasn't fast enough to avoid the beem altogether. The edge of the back line clipped my left thigh. The leather didn't even hold an instant under the attack and a wave of heat that felt cold for a moment before it turned hot. That feeling turned into blinding pain as the sizzling of my flesh melting caught up with me. It was unlike any pain I'd felt before, and my vision blurred as above me, the beam stopped and disappeared. I looked at the inch-deep, half-foot-wide circle of missing flesh and felt bile rise in my throat as I clutched my bow. Trying not to make a noise, I sat up partly while taking another arrow out of the loop. As far as injuries went, it didn't hurt as bad as breaking a bone, even if it was probably worse. That was perhaps because of the adrenaline.

Looking down, I stared at the runes etched into the arrowhead. Would the new skill work? Probably, as long as I didn't focus on putting mana into the runes. Not bothering to find another arrow, I started to infuse the mana into the arrow as I leaned upward and got to my knees, favoring my right side, getting ready to shoot another arrow. The cracking of wood was the only warning that the building I'd been behind was about to give out and collapse. Considering that it was still standing with a line cutting the building mostly in half, I was impressed.

Getting to my feet was an effort as my leg buckled, but standing on one leg wasn't an issue. With over three hundred points in strength, I might have been able to stand on even a few toes; still, balancing was awkward. The motion caused an uncomfortable pounding in my ears that drowned out most of any other noise as I found my feet with the help of my tail to balance me out. I looked at the witch still leaking the black ichor and raised my bow, aimed, and then let the arrow loose. This time, I didn't watch the witch and left mana infused into Stalker’s Movement, then awkwardly kicked off the ground towards the next building. Careful Step, as useful as I found the skill, couldn't stop a leg from collapsing under its own weight, so I found myself sliding against the ground as I tried to land. Groaning, I heard the house behind me collapse at the same time as the witch let out another loud scream. Pushing up, I pulled another arrow out of a loop and checked my mana. I grimaced two more shots with Frost Shard at max. Would it be enough to put down a grade three? As I infused the arrow with the mana and skill, I wondered what I'd do if the witch didn't die. What could I do? No mana meant no movement skills or attack skills. There were skills that ran off of only stamina, but I didn't know any. Would getting a skill like that be possible from the Progenitor System?

The burning sensation in my leg was growing worse as I could feel blood leaking down the leg, but propping myself up against the wood gave me the leverage to lean around the corner and aim my bow to take a shot.

I was met with an unexpected sight: the witch was collapsed on the ground, unmoving. It was so unexpected that I glanced at my last few system messages before shooting but didn't see a kill notification. Furrowing my brows, I let the arrow loose, leaned around the corner, and waited. After a moment of thought, I sent a prayer to any gods who might care. I, probably because I'd grown up with Kulni, didn't see much of a reason to rely upon godly intervention, especially when most things could be done by oneself, but it couldn't hurt to send a prayer.

[You have killed a Dungeon Boss - Witch Of Salem - Level 109]

I felt a laugh bubble up out of my lips. “This makes no sense.” I groaned as I slid down the wall.

The fight hadn't been long at all, not even ten minutes if my guess was right, and it would have been easy if I had started with getting my new skill before the fight and knew what was going on. A grade three, only a few levels into grade three but one all the same, killed with four arrows by me. I wasn't going to pretend that all grade threes would be like this, but the witch and I were offensive, and I'd nearly hit an entire grade up. That had to account for something.

The notification of a level-up was next, but I ignored it and the next set of messages while I inspected my leg and wished I'd taken my pack with me. Now, I'd have to get all the way there to get something to stop the bleeding. Even as I grimaced from the pain that was becoming more noticeable every second, I couldn't help the slightly crazed chuckle that came out of my lips.

Salem

The core watched as his boss was defeated with only three real attacks. They had technically been mostly physical attacks, the mana that surrounded the arrow acting more as a coating to break through armor and all but ignored the defensive runes that were made into the witch's robe. That wasn't mentioning the rune circle that pushed away people who tried to get close. The boss was meant to stay in place as one person distracted her, and the others attacked from behind, wearing it down until the rune circles failed and they could get in close to kill the witch. It wasn't a hard boss and relied on the party being low on resources and having built up multiple curse marks. If someone had been cursed at the start of the fight, the course would be consumed to summon a small pack of Salem beasts that the party would have to fight at the same time. In the end, his clever design of the second floor didn't seem to matter. The girl had killed the boss in minutes.

Salem found himself speechless as he watched The boss's body discovered into ash. The girl hadn't noticed yet that the circle had changed into the teleportation circle that could bring her out of the dungeon, but Salem suspected she'd stick in the dungeon for a while, something he wouldn't complain about. As it stood, Salem would be able to begin his dungeon's advancement into a grade three, a long overdue advancement, and with it, he'd also alter the first floor and mix in some grey steel that would hopefully attract people in a steady stream when it was discovered. Salem found himself in a good mood even after the solo clear of his dungeon. If it were possible, he would have added some reward to give the girl, but it wasn't, not without wasting some of the mana that he needed.

Turning his attention to the dungeon feed, he focused on ending the mana he was feeding it to project what was going on to the other dungeons in the realm. They paused at the notification at the top of the screen. Patches and updates the system made that concerned them were posted for any core to go over. The newest one was a day old, and he'd missed it because he'd been distracted with the girl. Reading the first few lines, all thoughts of advancing the dungeon left his mind.

[System Integration Update 1.0]

[New temporary dungeon feature added for all cores: Realm Travel Stasis]

[Mass system alterations are expected as the sub-realm is relinked with the system. Cores are recommended to be in a stasis state when realm Integration begins.]

Salem paused in reading. The oldest dungeon cores that had been created here at the beginning of the realm had spread the knowledge that this was going to happen at some point, but he'd never really expected to see an update from the system warn them about it. What did it all mean for the cores? As he continued to read, he found himself growing more interested and nervous. Changed was coming whether Salem wanted it or not.