Weapons of Mass Destruction

I hope that the imps I killed weren't the serpent's pets.

The monster slithers through the tunnels that are now wider, proceeding to gobble up a few detected imps.

Never mind.

My [Perception] is now terribly limited, and I send smaller and smaller pulses of mana, hoping that the serpent won't be able to detect me. It's as if I've swapped from using a flashlight to using a smartwatch display to light a massive room. But I don't despair; my senses sharpen, and I make threads of mana even smaller and thinner.

[Perception - lvl 13 > Perception - lvl 14]

Slowly, I control the mana inside my body, slowing its flow and the amount I'm generating. Carefully, in a similar way to how I did when I killed Emeric.

Breathe in slowly.

Breathe out.

Carefully. Gently.

I barely sense movement in my surroundings and this time I hear a massive body moving in the darkness around me. I feel a presence within arm's reach, and I feel the pressure it makes as its body slithers next to me.

More. Hide it more. Control it more.

[Mana Manipulation - lvl 23 > Mana Manipulation - lvl 24]

The movement stops, and for a long moment, I just stand there, ready to fire up the entirety of my mana if I get attacked.

But nothing happens, and slowly the body next to me starts moving again.

At some point, parts of its body hit me, and I stagger and almost fall, with my nerves on edge and ready to fight. But the monster doesn't notice, and it slowly disappears deep into the tunnels.

And I slowly follow it.

A few hours pass, and I continue to slowly walk behind the monster. My [Perception] improves more and more, yet without any level up as I continue to feel through it how the massive serpent deals with other monsters in the tunnels. I'm still hiding my mana, getting even better at it.

The serpent is savage; it's fast and doesn't hold back at all. Every attack feels as if it's using the full power of its body and mana, and it easily tanks every counter-attack.

Currently, I have no idea what the monster is called or how high its level is as I still can't see because there is no light, but from watching it and sensing its mana, I guess it's a question mark.

Yet, I still track it while hiding my mana and limiting my [Perception]. Everything else doesn't matter. Right now, I need to find its weaknesses, to learn its patterns and how it reacts to this or that attack.

And then, when I think I am ready, I will hunt it.

Slowly, I start collecting mana inside my body, in my mouth, on my tongue. The same way I did with Emeric. A small bead of mana forms right over my tongue, and I continue to feed it mana, making it denser and denser without increasing its size. One part of my [Focus] isolates it from the rest of my body, making sure there is an area around the bead that won't let any mana signature pass. The second part of [Focus] continues to feed it more and more mana, making it denser.

Meanwhile, I'm sticking close behind the monster, trying to speed up. Even though I'm dumping a ton of mana into the bead, there's still a lot left. Some of it's being sucked up by a construct and sent back into me. But it can't hide it all. Soon, some is going to leak out, and that's when the monster's gonna sniff me out.

Carefully, I speed up, moving closer and closer to the serpent and preparing to attack, preparing for the fight that might follow. My heart is beating wildly and calming feeling of mana moving through my body washes over me.

It´s time.

Out of nowhere, I feel a sharp mana and turn towards it at the same time the serpent does, and fire flares up in the surroundings.

[Ironscale Serpent - lvl ?]

And

[Scorching Imp - lvl ?]

I see scales on the serpent's head melt, and then a figure much smaller than the serpent lands on its head and fire flares up around its body. With a terrible hiss and while thrashing around, the serpent flails, hitting me as well, and I roll on the ground, getting back on my feet as quickly as possible.

When I stand up, the serpent is already dead, falling to the ground while a small creature still holds onto its head.

Something like a laugh echoes through the surroundings, and the flames slowly die, and the tunnels slowly return to darkness.

Before the light disappears, I see small yellow eyes looking straight at me.

[Focus] and [Perception] activate with full power. Then I open my mouth and the bead I kept making starts to orbit around me. I immediately boost it with [Mana Surge].

On top of my body strengthening by construct, I boost it with mana and dash to the side, dodging the first attack.

Somewhere behind me, flames flare up again, and the monster screeches, unhappy that it missed me, my detection better than that of the serpent.

The mana orb starts spinning faster and faster, and I [Focus], but now that I can't see, the skill doesn't drain the colors from the world, instead my hearing becomes sharper, and it's easier to calculate where the monster is coming from.

I dodge again, and this time I absorb some kinetic energy from the attack and shoot it back at the monster.

The mana bead spinning around me becomes as big as my fist, and I make it rotate and spin. My head starts hurting, and I feel mana flowing inside my body without any control now that I can't take care of it with [Focus] as I'm still slightly affected by the poison.

Flames start to flare up around the monster's body, making it easier to locate, but quickly I start feeling the heat.

[Disruption] flares up, and I use [Mana Surge] to boost it, trying to cancel the monster's skill. It doesn't help much, so I just dash backward, putting more distance between me and the monster.

Finally, I stop using other skills and focus on the orb spinning around me at a dizzying speed. I add [Oscillation] on the threads the orb is made of, and unable to hold it anymore, I sling it at the monster.

The orb hurtles through the air, its surface buzzing with vibrating mana. It's so fast, it's almost impossible to track. In a split second, it reaches the monster, which instinctively forms a fiery armor around its body. Even at my distance, I can feel the intense heat.

The monster evades, but not fully. As the orb, slightly diminished by the heat, reaches it, it performs an unexpected maneuver. Instead of simply striking, it unfurls in a surprising display of [Oscillation]. Sharp tendrils of mana, vibrating intensely, span out from it, forming a deadly pattern, as wide as I am tall.

In a heartbeat, too brief to fully comprehend, the oscillating tendrils slice through the imp. The creature is rendered into a gruesome assortment of body parts, an outcry of mana echoing through the space.

Just as abruptly, the tendrils of mana dissipate, the oscillating energy vanishing. All that remains are small particles of light, twinkling blue in the aftermath.

[You have defeated the Scorching Imp - 79 ]

[Lvl 49 > Lvl 50]

[Mana Manipulation - lvl 24 > Mana Manipulation - lvl 25]

[Oscillation - lvl 12 > Oscillation - lvl 14]

[Armament - lvl 14 > Armament - lvl 16]

Congratulations! You have successfully completed a side quest. You have acquired a trait-strengthening token.

With a loud sigh, I step back and lean against the side of the tunnel.

Where the hell did this little fucker come from?

My heartbeat slowly slows down as I calm bit by bit, only now realizing how close I was to death. While on guard, I invest my stat points and then start to think.

Should I strengthen my trait? What will happen if I strengthen Mana Circuit now when I am missing part of it? What will happen after I get my arm back, and the strengthened circuit doesn't apply to it? What will happen if I get my arm and it doesn’t have a circuit at all?

Okay, let's wait a bit with using it. There is also an option to use it for another trait that I might get, and that might be even better than the current one. As the system said, I can have three of them.

I wait a bit longer, but there are no signs of Ruby or her master. I guess she is not done with me yet.

But hey, at least I now have a snake to eat. Should be better than imp.

More time passes. A few more days in the darkness of the tunnels. Each day seems longer than the one before, and the tunnels somehow feel even darker and more confined.

[Lvl 50 > Lvl 53]

[Perception - lvl 14 > Perception - lvl 15]

[Armament - lvl 16 > Armament - lvl 19]

[Oscillation - lvl 14 > Oscillation - lvl 15]

A few more imps died in my hands, some even higher leveled than the one that killed the serpent. It took what feels like a few days, but it's hard to guess.

I can use the countdown to forced return to measure the time? I call bullshit; there's no way I am here that short. It feels much longer!

Currently, my [Armament] is stuck at level 19, probably another bottleneck, but not as massive as from level 9 to 10. Some other skills leveled up as well as I continued to try to use them only and as much as possible, making me a step closer to acquiring a new passive skill.

Damn, I really hope for something super nice. Taking a step to continue to walk through the tunnels, I feel the well-known mana behind me and stop, quickly closing my eyes as the light blinds me for a second.

I recognize Ruby's mana, and there is a small crystal floating near her, letting out a soft, yellowish light.

“Well, you still look like shit,” her voice is soft, and I can hear a hint of a smile in it, not laughing at me, just teasing me a bit. At this point, it seems like she uses the same greeting every time she meets me.

Mana flares up from her body, and both of us are moved somewhere else, a place I quickly recognize as the place where Ruby's master sent me. She is sitting in a chair nearby, her carefully controlled mana signature barely letting out some presence.

There is something in the atmosphere that stops me from saying anything.

“Are you and the others really drifters?” she asks.