RM CH2: Infector, Blood Chi, and Enchanting.

A threat raced through the heavens at such a speed that a nudge could mean their world and plan’s destruction. Countless hands across the cosmos had nudged, sped up, and slowed down due to countless treaties dating back thousands of years. Some known friends suddenly tipped the scales, directing a single rock from an unknown world on the path for the Rasputin Territory between Weston and Easton. She watched the percentages tick up slowly until Apollo declared it and went to sleep.

Rasputin was a troublesome land between Easton and Weston.

That land, which had barely survived an exchange of blows between the pantheons of Weston and Easton, hadn’t come out of the fight unscathed. Energies lingered in such concentrated amounts that no mortal army could easily invade the region to confront the creature. With the great Aurora Mountain range shielding the North, it was a coin flip if the creator set its sights on Easton or Weston.

The Treaties between the two countries, only centuries old, prevented the two nation-states from simply sending forces. Fears of upsetting the gods that destroyed the land had stopped even the mad and desperate from venturing to such a place. It was the perfect ground for a seed of evil to sprout.

So, the hand of a goddess touched the scales, altering the past to which no other gods paid attention. A name appeared on a deed, and a formerly noble family was more than happy to get rid of the useless land. In the great game of gods a wild card had become entitled to a new birthright and paranoia. With such a small use of her divine power, the goddess was more than able to counter the move of her brother.

Everyone thought she had a plan she weaved a web of intrigue through her mortal followers. She preferred to make it inevitable that the mortals fulfilled her agendas when given the opportunity and preparation. The goddess preferred to expose mortals to a weakened version of the future threat so they could learn how to fight it.

…

Drunk out of my gourd in the late hours of the night, I started reading articles and conspiracy theories about the local dungeons. Before I knew it, a pattern formed, and I started listening to videos with testaments from survivors. I felt shaken enough to creak open my wallet and take out my enchanting equipment. When I entered information into my AI and found a pattern, I sent it to my parents, the dungeon manager, and anyone with the power to shut this down. I bought equipment and gave up on breakfast to enchant. I sent Mai on as I rushed to prepare the last-minute equipment. Some of my messages to the others went through, and they sent me back memes about conspiracy theories.

Blood chi what I figured the liquid gold flowing into my spiritual powerplant flowed faster as I worked. Something was happening, and it wasn’t like raising my stage.

Brigadier, chainmail, and heavy plate were the recipe to live in a rank 1 dungeon. Everyone knew it because rank 1 mobs were normally as strong as baseline humans. Normally, that would be the way to go. When Melony and Mai joined me, they were surprised I was wearing a lightly armored environmental suit. I calmly handed them their own while trying to get over my own hangover.

“Why would we need one of those in a horde mode?” Melony asked.

Mai was already naked, showing off her red behind while pulling on the suit. She had seen as many dungeon dives as I had and heard my parents talk about work during dinner. Rank 1 horde modes were changing around our territory. My AI slipped in the missing information and built a pattern. Some would call it a guess, but I felt lucky. We weren’t dealing with a normal horde mode.

Melony sighed and started stripping her plate while using shadow hands to take the plate off. It was a skill I should add to my bloodstone after I gained enough enchantment experience to add a second skill. I would call it the imaginatively named shadow stone.

I wrote a quick note for what promised to be an interesting project.

“This horde might be different than the usual. I sent an email to the others to swap to environmental suits for this one, but” I was interrupted.

“They called you a noob and ignored you because everyone knows layered armor is the best in horde mode in rank 1 dungeons,” Melony said.

I tossed Mai a Shark Jaws III, tri barrel full auto shotgun with 30,000 round expanded drum thanks to special enchanting. The weapon was illegal in many Weston territories, and the drum was done by my own shotty enchantment. I stared down at my metal etching and tried to look away. The black coat of paint over the etching after its activation should disguise the crime. We were lucky that 10 gauge shells were selling for 1000 shell crates for 10W. Filling each drum only set me back 300W each, and I filled 20. 6000W would hopefully keep us going. I covered the barrel with etchings to mitigate overheating and magic lubrication to keep the shells from jamming. We each had a Weston Eagle IV with .700 Nitro ammunition for big game. They were popular among families, introducing their children to firearms by big game hunting. Rank 1 Elephants were hardly a threat thanks to the ammunition.

Mai appraised the weapon before tossing the strap over her shoulder.

“We’re going to be laughed at for this,” Melony said as she fastened an Eagle to her hip. “Small caliber weapons are hardly effective in rank 2 dungeons. All of this gear will be worthless by the time we hit a rank 2 dungeon.” Melony said.

I checked the rebreather and the Observe skill enchanted lenses built into my mask. The enchantments to refresh air were difficult to cut around the lenses without damaging the structural integrity. Square grids forming circles still worked best, much to my annoyance. 50,000W went to a new book on enchanting personal equipment only to find out I was fluent in the terms and applied the skills quickly. Despite my hatred of enchanting, I was starting to get good at it and it broke my heart.

The blood chi continued pumping through my meridians, and I had no idea what was going on. I wasn’t getting stronger. What was going on?

“I think we’re going to want high fire rate, stopping power, and distance,” I said.

“Ok, if this dungeon is so dangerous, why are we here,” Mai asked.

She was a rank 2 vampire why was she here? I shook my head and let it go. Her business wasn’t mine.

“Wait, how much of your winnings did you spend, and why am I just hearing about this now?” Mai asked.

“Just under 100,000W. Don’t worry about it. That was found Westons anyway.” I said.

“I thought you could put some back for buying me,” Mai said.

“Well, we can always sell the equipment of our dead allies. They won’t need it if Atom’s right. Some people have some shiny war gear made by rank 2 smiths and enchanters.” Melony said.

“So, we are accepting that most of the group won’t survive. What if the algorithm is wrong?”

Mom sent me a message. “Atom, don’t go into that dungeon and come home this instant. How dare you fake your ID to enter a dungeon? When you get home, we are going to have a long talk about respecting the law.”

Dad also sent me a message. “Good thinking about swapping gear. Kill them dead, son. Probably don’t tell your mother she will blow a gasket. Remember, there is no shame in retreating to a better position survival is what’s important.”

I read both messages aloud. “Maybe we should leave if they think this dungeon may be the next one to go infector,” Mai said.

“Our chances are good don’t worry about them. We have the most important thing going for us.” I said.

“Friendship,” Melony said.

“The will to fight,” Mai said.

“Both good answers. But the answer is Westons.” I said and snapped open a case, revealing a massive 3-barrel rotator cannon that fired 20mm rounds.

It had some enchantments, but I went all out on the ammunition. Industrial 3d printers could churn out rounds of ammunition from primitive musket balls to borderline illegal nuclear explosive rounds that could even make rank 4 entities flinch in pain. If one hit my mother, she might slightly wince before annihilating the one who shot her.

Melony got the Raptor Rotator canon since she was rank 2 and could probably watch the bullets fly from the barrel and count them as they passed by. Attributes between rank 1 and 2 were extreme, and they only grew more extreme as rank increased. A rank 5 could annihilate a million rank 4, but a rank 4 would only be able to beat 10,000 rank 3s. That’s if everyone was naked with no weapons.

I was in a camp where the right equipment and skills could allow someone to jump ranks. Where class specialization ended, equipment and skills continued.

Mai took some chalk and started drawing a skull on my mask and Melony quickly grabbed another piece and drew a heart and arteries along my armor. I wasn’t surprised by her accuracy.

“So you don’t believe that munitions are entirely useless after rank 4,” Melony said.

“Don’t get me started on that debate,” I said.

Mai thumped my mask. “Stop moving,” She drew around my lenses, filling in the space.

“I see you have a warehouse bag of holding. Do you expect this dungeon to drop that much loot?” Melony asked.

“Those with a battle class will quickly max them out,” I said.

Mai released me, and Melony finished with my arteries. I looked like a possessed armor. I grinned even if they couldn’t see it through the armor. Melony jumped on the bed, and the environmental suit hugged her curves beautifully. She turned her head, showing off her rebreather. It was obviously from a military supply website and probably 40,000W by itself. My built-in goggles zoomed for me, showing off painted-over enchantments. While I couldn’t make them out, I could guess what they did by their placing. Only slight scratches remained, but manufacturers didn’t deviate, and it didn’t look like a custom job. She could run through Rasputin and be fine.

Mai and I had to work on my budget. Both of our suits hit us for about 10,000, so they didn’t have the enchantments for radiation protection. Mana could still flow into the suits Chi included and there was nothing we could do about it.

That was fine. The infectors were fungal spores, blood toxins, and parasites. I looked through the reports one more time to be sure. There were no mental infectors or information curses. We weren’t equipped for those scenarios, and they were historically rare. The last one was ages ago.

A chime sounded, telling everyone it was time to head into the dungeon.

My group email had been a failure because of the number of people wearing heavy plate mail. Silver, red, and gold plate mail was the norm as we lined up into our assigned squads. A rank 2 observer took the lead, and we quickly formed our group with two men in chainmail joining us.

I hadn’t splurged on our spot, so none of the people in full plate joined our team slot. Melony took the lead with her rotator canon like this was a picnic.

“Are you the guys who sent the email? We’re poor, too, but you shouldn’t try to scare people because you’re insecure. That fight against Charles was pretty great, though. Blood mages are pretty rare. Where did all that blood come from.” One of the dead men walking said.

“It smelled synthetic. Not the good stuff.”  Melony said.

“I don’t think Charles’ lungs cared for it.” The other one said.

I didn’t have a good opinion on either of their chances for survival. They walked with such confidence and surety that I was wrong that I almost questioned it myself. Both moved in, ringing chainmail belted poorly and too loose on their bodies. Ahead of us were 30 great columned stone entrances to the dungeon. We were all going to the same dungeon, but we would appear in different places on the first floor. Team 1 would establish a base camp if possible, while Team 2, with their 2nd rank, would gather the teams and schedule the away and home teams.

If everything went to plan, we would have an easy time plate or not against the rank 1 monsters in this dungeon. It was a rank 1 dungeon, so no mobs inside would be above rank 1. Even the peak of rank 1, no matter the size, would have limited attributes.

My warning fell on deaf ears with the sound of ringing chainmail and people with their helmets off. Even mages totting staves wore chainmail, at least. Plate, despite what some people claim, wasn’t that heavy. At most, a set of plates might weigh 50 lbs or less if enchanted. The plate was spread out across the body, so it didn’t feel heavy.

…

Inside the dungeon, my goggles read a high level of humidity and caught the movement of small, soundless purple insects. We were in a swamp with tall cypris trees dotting the landscape. Long strings of purple swamp moss covered the trees pointing north. The bugs were probably the lowest rung on the local food chain. Melony turned from side to side, sweeping her rotator canon for a few minutes before shouldering it and drawing her Eagle. The crisp sound of metal sliding out of leather sent a shiver down my spine. Melony looked like she belonged on the cover of the next Fear Sisters album.

My head shook at missed opportunities. If I used Melony to advertise and kept the ads with the same aesthetic as a Fear Sisters cover, I could practically name my price.

A hard slap from Mai knocked me out of my musings. “Look alive, this place isn’t safe,” Mai said.

“She’s right. You can’t look at my butt the entire time we’re in here. The other monsters will get jealous.” Melony said.

I closed my eyes and then aimed my gun to the side. “If you’re friendly, name yourself,” I said.

“It's me, Max. We met last night, sort of.”

Hands went up, and Max, the guy who made a pass at Mai, showed his face. He wore a leather hood with a net over his face without exposing a bit of skin. I gave him props if whatever infectious agent wasn’t spores.

“I’m scouting for my team and thought I would give you a heads-up.” Max looked uncomfortable. “Our gate out of here vanished, and Charles, our rank 2, ordered me to tell other teams. We don’t have a way out, so everyone should get to camp immediately. We still plan on hunting mobs but we may need to kill the floor boss to leave. Do you know the mortality rates for these dungeons?” Max asked.

I could have walked away. The people I warned could have walked away. After taking precautions this was a calculated risk.

My mind stalled.

A purple insect flew close to my lenses, and my auto scope kicked into micro levels. The insect was a collection of tiny worms wrapped together to look like a fly. It didn’t have wings.

“Less than 1% with a rank 2, but we have 3 counting the rank 2 in charge and Melony. We should have the best possible chance to succeed.” I said.

“This is an infector dungeon,” Melony said.

“That’s why we’re in the gear,” Mai said.

“We have the gear to mitigate a very real risk,” I said.

Max spat on the ground. “I read your report it was funny. But we need our morale in here. So, why are you still going on about that?”

I stared at the worms fly or rather float straight at Max before flying up and releasing a single, almost microscopic worm. I reached out and caught it in my gloved hand.

I ignored the ranger. Max was a lost cause already. “Melony, do you have a microscope function in your helmet,” I asked.

She turned her red lenses onto my hand, and I saw the tiniest flare-up of mana through her enchantments. The worm in my hand twisted and trembled under our gaze. Eggs fell out of its body filled with many tiny worm eggs. My goggles zoomed in on a massive fly covered in tiny worms wiggling under its skin.

I zoomed out as a massive toad rose from the water and snatched it from the air. The toad sunk back beneath the brackish water surrounding us.

What little lifeblood I could collect ripped away from the tiny worm in my hand. Only its dry desiccated remains continued to move.

More of the golden stuff in my meridians moved like blood pumping instead of the sluggish movements of before.

“The moss,” I said and zoomed in to discover the worms were infesting the bald cypris surrounding us. I zoomed further to see people in chainmail misdirected. There were certain mainstays in dungeons. Moss could be relied on to point north in dungeons following the most common scenario. We are taught to rely on the direction of moss in PVE scenarios, which is the only scenario this rank 1 dungeon should have.   

“Like lambs to the slaughter, but you knew that’s why you warned everyone,” Melony said.

“If everyone wore environmental gear, this scenario wouldn’t be difficult,” I said.

Mai patted my shoulder. “You did your best.”

I heard a loud slap and turned to see our teammate in chainmail clutching at his neck. A ghoulish thought came to mind. This was like a zombie movie. Once infected, there was no going back. Without medical care, the parasites would do something to them. Maybe I was wrong, and they would only cause them pain, and this wasn’t a takeover scenario.

This dungeon could have the strategy of causing debilitating debuffs through parasitic infection and using another monster to finish us off.

That wasn’t what I read in the other reports but every dungeon was different. My auto-tracking came alive and pointed me to the East, where the frog swam further out. Small parasites were growing out of its skin, poking out before withdrawing.

“Atom, close your eyes,” Mai said.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Stop this isn’t right.” Max said.

Mai unstrapped her club and raised it over her shoulder. She turned and swung her club at incredible speeds. I heard a sickening crunch as a body folded and crashed into a tree. The cypris shifted as long purple worms with bark-like exteriors broke off into hundreds of thousands of worms.

“You killed Eric, you monster.”

Melony delivered a bone-shattering kick as I remembered Max. The ranger ran silently away in a straight line. I raised my Eagle and fired. A loud boom echoed through the forest. Max gripped his chest and I fired twice more. Casings fell as I raised my hand.

“Will you be ok? Some of the eggs are microscopic.” Melony said.

Her concern would be warranted if I was a normal blood mage. Pathogens, viruses, and even parasites had been among my worries when I created my skill. I found a workaround with pressure. Blood pressure allows me to condense the blood until it resembles the ocean’s depths. Then there was the matter of my Dantian and spiritual organ and the spiritual connection between blood and souls.

Well, it was highly unlikely that anything would get through.

I turned back to Max only to see the body was gone. Curses ripped through my mouth as I searched for him.

…

“Why should we not strike down this stain on our honor?” A white-bearded man asked.

A sweating mortal stank up his celestial palace and scuffed the scripture-covered jade tiles on the floor for a presentation. If the mortal didn’t have a familiar jawline the cultivator would have vaporized him on the spot, ash stains to the underworld. He swept a hand through his immaculate beard and scoffed at the demon sect leaders’ latest attempt to have their sects reclassified. The forever damned in the eyes of heaven, Westons had done a taboo.

Ministers of laws, from the lowliest mortals to flying core realm adepts, worked tirelessly and tracked dust into his office. His incredible eyes could see tiny particles of shoes wear away from the constant movement and left carelessly on his floor. Grand Enforcer Li refused to wield the Dao of Terminus every time particles of dust emerged. The Jade emperor had decreed that no demonic cultivator sect may live under the light of Tai Yang Gong. So those who sucked the souls from babies, dabbled in rampant body theft, mass possession, and grans sacrifices, to name a few practices of demonic sects, could not stand under the sun, or they would burn.

After countless years of being declared a demonic sect, the Blood Owl Sect has asked for an appeal. The entire foundation of their so-called reawakening was a machine built by Weston degenerates so they could fuck vampires. He couldn’t believe those monogamous cucks wanted to stick their dick in stiff jumping corpse demons. The thought alone stunted his yang energy enough to disappoint his wives.

They would have to go to great trouble to reawaken his desires after this meeting. Perhaps he would watch them poop again. Before, it had shocked him from the appearance of the Frost Deer Sect and their use of cloning to feed their appetite for human flesh. Cloning innocuous cuts of meat with no harm to mortals or other cultivators had swayed him. The current appeal appeared to move in the same direction. These cultivators could be considered cannibals like the Frost Deer Sect, only they chose to use sacred blood alone.

If not for Tai Yang Gong and the Jade Emperor’s decree, there would have been no impetus for the demonic sects to change at all. Then, with the invention of new technology, more demonic sects step back in the light, becoming virtuous and denying the coalition of demonic sect members.

He sipped from a welcome cup of Blue Dragon Root tea. He enjoyed the electrical flavors of a thunderstorm when a shadow appeared before him. The minister of spies to the Easton Court had dared to put on a show in front of him.

“It is a thousand years too early for you to pull one over on your grandfather,” Li said.

Crackling bolts of the pure destructive energy of Terminus spread across his palace, slaying mortals whose only crime was making a mess. Their families would be compensated, but this loss of face could not stand. Justice could not be made a fool of by the spies.

“I bring news, Lord Enforcer.” The power of a Limit Severing Cultivator raged through the building, slaying core realm adepts in the air from his presence alone. Relics from long-dead eras of the Easton Empire shattered one after the other. His willpower flexed, and the lives of the slain cultivators were returned to them. “I wouldn’t deliver this news if it didn’t pertain to this meeting.”

“My friend in Weston was right; suitcases of spirit stones speak louder than words.” The Sect Elder of the Blood Owl sect shattered into sand and vanished.

“Speak then.”

The black-cloaked figure appeared nervous after he had caused so much destruction.

“My Lord, there is a Weston child less than two decades old who cultivates blood.”

“He will die when he reaches the age of 16 like the others,” Li said.

The old man remembered a favored child centuries ago. “Granpa, look, I cultivated,” Yi knew all about the restraints between systems. Two dragons could not thrive in one body. If they did not explode then they wasted away.

“Normally, that would be the case, but we believe he has found a workaround and, in doing so, has opened us to a workaround as well. To the Westons, he appears like an ordinary boy a year away from unlocking their system. Still, he has somehow gotten rid of his system but maintains skills.” The spy said.

Yi felt every bit of his 3,713 years at that moment. Countless internal wars over resources have occurred only because Easton and Weston had incompatible systems. Attribute Fruit would not increase cultivation, and qi-condensing pills wouldn’t improve a mage’s attributes. Some resources were exempt, but they weren’t worth going to war over.

Bridging the systems changes that. Unlike the Northern realms of chaos, where monsters so powerful even Li wouldn’t dare challenge them, roam, Weston had fewer 5th and 6th rank fighters than them. Even the few 7th-rank monsters they possessed wouldn’t turn the tide of battle. 4 rank 7s could be worked around easily.

That brought him to the crux of the situation and why the spymaster had this brought to his attention first. A blood synthesizer could potentially bring numerous rank 4s into play in only a few years. Add skills to the equation and their forces would overwhelm Weston before they could rally their vaunted monster tamers.

Yi could take this opportunity and snatch advancement into the Deva realm. He remembered his children who died because they had incompatible systems. He remembered how pure Easton children made fun of them, including their own brothers and sisters from other wives. Gwen’s red hair, green eyes, and unflappable willpower in the face of adversity had stolen his heart. Even his first wife loved her, and together, they improved relations with Weston to the point they could exchange technology like the organ cloning machine 20 short years ago and today, the blood synthesizer. Gwen loved her country until it killed their daughter, their fourth son, and their first granddaughter.

He signed the bill to bring the Blood Owl sect out of the shadows and into the light.

…

I stared at the hunks of black crystal that dropped from killing whole swathes of the worms. The more of them I killed, the more blood added to my ruby. After practicing with that blood to exclusively pull the life out of monsters drop of gold blood flowed through my meridians, and it was starting to get easier to yank the life out of monsters.

“Thank Zeus for environmental suits self-cleaning,” I said.

I tossed the enchantment stones into my back holding with a pool net. “You thought this would be useless.” I accused.

Mai looked up from staring at a group of spiders. Worms ripped out of the corpse, quickly forming a new spider after enough hatched from within. Once they were gathered, their bodies changed until they resembled the original creature perfectly.

“There has to be something that eats the worms,” Mai said.

“Yeah, me,” I said and waved my hand. The worms shriveled into raisins as the blood was drawn from them.

A colony emerged from the bog nearby, and I raised my hand. The worms shriveled when they came within 5 yards of me my current maximum range. On the bright side, I wasn’t getting hungry; the blood in my ruby was condensing, becoming more gold than red, and when I turned on some blood-pumping music, I cultivated. I was learning that cultivation wasn’t all about attributes. For this dungeon, I worked on range and numbers.

Melony returned with the rotator canon slung over her shoulder. “We have bad news and worst news. Which one do you want first.”

“Worst news that will make the bad news sound a little better,” I said.

“That completely ruined the dynamic and impact of what I was going to say. You’re a twat.” Melony said.

“Are you just figuring that out? He also knows all about monster taboos and does them anyway. Watch out, or he might try to give you a neck massage.” Mai said.

“We were 8,” I said.

Melony chuckled before sighing. “I needed that.” She clapped her hands. “Worst news, the worms are gathering to create an organ using Charles and a vampire named Markus as the nucleus. Bad news, I found the boss.” Melony said.

“Vampires and werewolves can heal,” Mai said.

I nodded my head slowly and Mai missed what I was implying. “Werewolves and vampires can heal, so by keeping them intact, the worms can feed on them and replicate indefinitely so long as they feed the two of them,” Mai said.

My slow clap wasn’t lost on her. “You’re a twat.” Mai said.

“Now that we have established that we need to destroy them quickly, or whatever they turn into will become too powerful for us to handle.” 

A cypris tree burned into worms, and I raised my hand and watched the numbers rise even as they drained away. The blood restored me as the worms tried their best to get to me. My mind struggled to hit as many as possible, so I pictured a world like this. My family turned into worms, my friends turned into worms, and everyone I have ever known or loved turned into worms. I hated every one of the little bastards, and that I came in here knowing there was a good chance I could use them.

I practically sent the team to the slaughter. There were a million things I could have said to stop this but couldn’t in my addled state.

My target numbers jumped. I thrust my hand out as far as it could go and the worms were dried to death. I had sloppy control, slow reaction times, and terrible imagination but ripping the life out of these worms was so easy an idiot like me could do it.

I was so excited about entering a dungeon I forgot what dungeons were. The one who killed nearly 300 people was me. I partied with them before we came here. My word should have been law as the grandson of a senator my words should have had more weight. In our republic, nobles no longer held the power they once did, and a senator wasn’t even a petty noble. We weren’t Eastonites with their sects and clans.

I didn’t believe that this dungeon would absolutely become an infector. Still, the chances were there, and my mother warned me away. Dad thought it would be a ball, but that was him.

My range slightly increased as I used my self-loathing to further cultivate my power. I felt another yard stretch out around me where I could feel the blood in everything. The ruby was nearly to the point it needed to be changed.

Gold nearly filled every inch of the ruby, and it was almost time to condense it. I could feel my necklace warm under my environmental suit. There was a powerful need.

The worms in our area finally gave up on overtaking us, and we found some dry land. Mai took some branches in hand and quickly started a fire. Smoke rose, and heat soon radiated around our campfire as Melony and Mai fed it quickly.

I took out the black crystals and fell into another of the enchantments too useful to be ignored subcategories. Warding was the bane of my existence. Warding was calculus, engineering, and enchanting rolled into one.

Enchanting was the least scientific form of science ever invented. It put repeatable, predictable laws into magic and expected everyone to follow them. Only the inventor was drunk, and his contemporaries must have smoked methamphetamines. None of the enchanting rules made sense because it was all confirmation bias and only worked because it was agreed that it worked. Laws only mattered in magic if enough generations of practitioners believed in them. Many so-called dark lords had it written in their manifesto that they would destroy the current system of enchantment and replace it with science and logic.

The so-called heroes were gullible fools led by the nose of the master enchanter cabal that secretly runes the world. Nothing else could explain why enchanting still exists in its current form.

I wrapped 9 gems in worms to help the magic recognize the monsters I wanted to remain outside. I picked up a flaming torch from the fire because it would be important. Aphrodite needed a burnt offering to get this party started. With blood, I created a pentagram on the ground and gathered many of the worms, then sacrificed them there. Why we needed a symbol of the Southern Ishtar and Marduk for this I didn’t know. Really, more gods could only be better, right?

Personally I think someone was drunk and saw a picture of Ishtar and thought she was Aphrodite or as the Southern Weston’s called her Venus.

I burned the gathered worms and watched them die.

“Hey Mai, it looks like fire is also a natural predator of the worms,” I said.

“Twat,” Mai said.

Blue runes appeared in the air, forming protections against the worms themselves. Flaming worms rose out of the ground suddenly under the sway of the wards.

“That isn’t like any ward I’ve ever heard of,” Melony said.

“Oh, you know, enchanting,” I said.

“I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I’m a bit of a dabbler in the craft,” Melony said.

Melony opened her bag and showed off her certificate as an enchanter. I gave her the most uninterested tone I could manage. “Really, that’s so interesting.”

“What’s wrong? You’re the first enchanter,” I sucked on my teeth. “Ok, seriously, what’s your damage.”

“He hates enchantment in all its forms and believes it should be destroyed and replaced with a better system,” Mai said.

“You’re a radical liberal, I should have known you are under 20,” Melony said.

Of course, it was politics that would destroy our party morale, not the flesh-eating and replicating worms.  

“Enough!” My raised voice leveled out. “Tell me what you know and be useful, or forever hold your peace,” I said.

Melony gawked at the floating black gems as burnt ash piled up in a circle around us. “You used a ritual with your ward. Why. The experts have said that kind of power source is crude and untrustworthy.” Melony said.

“What experts? I only heard that from the B&E podcast and their self-sponsored book Warding Camelot. If podcasters are your source then I question your credentials. What kind of portfolio do you have? Where have you warded, or what have you enchanted in the past?” I asked.

We were interrupted by a woman running up to the wards and screaming the moment her foot crossed them. My eyes widened as pieces of her flaked off as she reached out for one of the gems. A small barrier appeared around the gem blocking her process as she raised a mace and swung it. Her swing curved pulled by the magnetic field activated around the gem.

I watched flesh peel away from her skull as more of her body crossed, and the worm part of her broke down. One eye burned in her socket while the other fell out after the worms acting as her optic nerves burned. Ligaments failed, and she crashed to her knees as the worms in her body burned out, leaving only the little flesh that remained.

Slowly, I raised my Eagle and fired, putting the girl out of her misery.

“We can’t trust this place for anything more than a camp,” Mai said.

I nodded and took out my tablet, multiple stands, and two rare copies of warding books given to me by my favorite uncle. “Are those first addition Edwards? Melony asked.

“You really are an enchantment fangirl,” I said.

“What are you making?” Melony asked.

She pulled a parasol out of her bag as the sun started peaking through the trees as it set.

“We need stronger wards that can deal with the worms and other wildlife. Mai was right. The worms must have a predator here, or we have stumbled into the alpha test of a new monster.” I said.

“This is insane.” I nodded in agreement. Entering a dungeon alpha test was unprecedented. “I meant the army of worm zombies charging toward us,” Melony said.

I looked up, and sure enough, the plate mail-wearing bodies of our fellows were charging our position tirelessly. I put my books up and reclaimed my gem before wiping the enchantments from them.

“How did you do that?” Melony asked.

It was beyond annoying that she was more interested in simple tricks of the trade than the army of worm zombies.

Mai pulled a string of grenades from her pack and pulled all the pins before spinning and throwing them into the charging horde. The worm zombies ran past the grenades, and they exploded 4 seconds after only hitting a few of them. Mai’s shoulders sagged, and she raised her shotgun.

I pointed my Eagle and fired off a few shots, hitting the charging enemies in the chest with little damage. “This is worrying,” I said.

“Keep firing. They might not drop, but it will slow them down.” Mai said.

I turned to see Melony already running. “Wait, we don’t have anywhere to fall back to,” I yelled through my coms.

…

I think I knew what my blood Chi was doing. Running made me better at running. Overheating in the suit helped me resist heat better, and sprinting helped increase my speed. Fuel was the lock and key to cultivation, and in this place, I had all the fuel I needed. Blood was life, according to a few of the more famous vampires, and cultivation made it true. Mana or Chi my body took something from the refined blood in my mystical organ that totally wasn’t in my naval and used it.

Tired and trudging along knee-deep in brackish water with things swimming up to my legs, I felt the golden liquid flow through my meridians. I knew nothing about cultivation besides their rank equivalents. How was I supposed to know that training would increase my strength? Becoming superhuman wasn’t a pipe dream. It was effort, time, and energy. This place had all the blood I could ever want. Fast-recovering creatures like a vampire and werewolves were being used to produce more worms.

We reached an island in the middle of the swamp where a large black crocodile raised its head. Melony raised her weapon and pulled the trigger. First, I heard the rotator spin and then massive rounds fired.

It was a beautiful sight. Holes opened in the monster before my eyes, and no worms fell out. There was something here that kept the crocodile from getting infected. There was no purple moss to be seen or purple algae in the water. Something else pressed against my leg, and I saw a 50lb catfish rub up against my foot. The monster was nearly big enough to ride, and it swam up to a worm I missed and sucked it down.

Silver scales flashed, and we made our way out of the water. Mai, Melony, and I collapsed on the ground next to the crocodile corpse. I sucked in breath after breath, but the rebreather could barely keep up. I had barely 3 hours before I needed to open my suit, exposing myself to whatever was in this dungeon.

I closed my eyes and opened them again. More of what I assumed was Chi flowed through me as I felt my determination rise. The worms would not corrupt me, and no monster would take me down. We came here armed and ready to kill everything in our path. Even if my whole group died, leaving only the three of us, so what. Mom would expect me to survive because she would.

Enchantment was the key, clearly by the amount of enchantment materials that dropped. I stacked 20 enchantment skill shards atop each other before fitting them into my bag. Blood Refinement hadn’t’ dropped, and it was still the first day. Barely 12 hours had passed. We needed to build a base of operations before we started fulfilling missions.

I needed blood refinement and the mana in the dungeon would make it easy to adjust my skill enchantment.

Combining the words skill and enchantment felt so dirty to me. Enchanting had always been a means to an end, so I had to become good at it. The human body can only handle so many skills, and I had the talent to work with skill creation and optimization.

I should be swimming in Westons and protected behind the strongest tamers and their teams the government could provide. That could have been my life. My grandfather would have considered it a feather in our family’s hat. I’m sure he would love to brag to his high roller buddies about his grandson, the skill smith.

That would have been better than watching some poor woman’s face melt off because more than half of it had been replaced with mimic worms.

I didn’t think they had an official designation.

My attention turned to Melony, the shapely vampire who looked good even wearing an environmental suit. Come to think of it, Mai looked good in hers, too. I looked so generic it really wasn’t fair.

“I didn’t say it before, but thanks for the heads up,” Melony said.

“How did you know?” Mai asked.

“I didn’t, not really,” I said.

“So, we could have looked like complete idiots if you were wrong,” Melony said.

“A good thing I was right then, right. I would hate to look bad, and 297 people live instead.” I said.

“What now? Are you going to feel bad that no one took your warnings seriously and closed the dungeon?” Mai asked.

“Sooner or later, the boss monster will come after us, and not even wards will stop it,” Melony said.

“I find your lack of faith disturbing,”  I said.

I pulled out stack after stack of gems. We had killed quite a few of the worms, and some dropped gems, bottles of worm repellent, antidotes, and skill shards. The sheer amount of loot was mind-boggling. If not for the dead members of our group, this would have been a dream come true. Unfortunately, we were about to step out of here to some brutal after-action reports. The fact I lied about my age to enter with a fake ID would go on my record. My mother would insist it remained despite my family’s influence to teach me a lesson in humility.

 That was something I would have to deal with. I sucked in a breath and let it out. Before, I assumed cultivators used spirit arts to specialize their attributes, but that may not be the whole truth. Training anything seemed to cause my meridians to circulate my Chi in order to better myself. While I hadn’t hit anything that could be considered a milestone, the feeling was clear. Despite being in the 6th stage of Chi condensing realm, my Agility felt like it went from 4 to 5 from running away. A 25% increase was very noticeable.

“If the boss needs to wind up to throw a punch, I would rather kill it before it makes a move,” I said.

“So, what, you want to whack it with a club when it goes to throw a punch?” Mai asked. 

“Something like that. I need Blood Refinement, a skill that should belong to a cultivator.” I said.

“It's for increasing the bloodline purity of a monster,” Melony said.

“You would know,” Mai said.

“Hey, I was born this way. I’m a Nightroad. Don’t lump me in with the Bathory or Tepes lines and their constant purity tests. What kind of blood purity is triple S plus anyway.” Melony said.

“That’s the Tepes blood purity Jean D Ark has. Rose Santana had a little Bathory and darker skin before she went through several blood refinement treatments. Apparently, the skill takes a lot of both blood and mana to use and can’t be used on oneself.” I said.

“You are such a Fear Sisters nerd,” Melony said.

“Whatever, Enchantment nerd,” I said.

I clapped my hands and slapped Melony and Mai on their butts. “Well, it’s time to break the dungeon and go even further beyond,” I said.

“What is he talking about?” Melony asked.

“He’s excited, so it probably has something to do with skills,” Mai said.

“By Dionysus, I think he sounded happy,” Melony said.

I rolled my eyes, knowing they couldn’t see me.

Wards didn’t last forever, but they would do for what I wanted. We were only going to be here for seven days at most. That meant I had that long to try something crazy. Wards liked to float the excess of their effects skyward so they didn’t bother the surroundings. I was going to do something a little unorthodox and wave that effect forward like a spear. I counted out 9 baker’s dozens of black gems, 50 Radiant Sapphires, and 9 Blood Rubies. We were getting a stupid amount of loot from the dungeon. It was entirely unbalanced. I was certain we wouldn’t have this kind of opportunity ever again, and I couldn’t let it pass me by.

Luck and good fortune were merely preparation plus opportunity, and I was entirely prepared for what I wanted to do. The dungeon happily threw more gems in my hands, knowing we would never be brave enough to refill our suits’ oxygen supplies without some serious protection.

The skill shards dropped were Enchantment, Warding, Anti-Parasite, and Ward Net Control. I merged the skills while drinking mana down and combined the skills into something moderately useful for enchanting. My meridians were processing Chi, and it became easier to fuse the skills as I tried to make the process last.

I kept seeing multiple answers to the problem I already knew how to solve. Only while cycling Chi I could see so many more possibilities. It was like my mind was part quantum computer, and I could process multiple potential fusions and even supplement parts from what I remembered. Chi was one Hades of a drug.

Through the boring act of enchantment, I attached the fused enchantment skill to a black gem, turning it into a tool of unspeakable evil. I cackled as the darkest weapon to ever exist fell into my hands from a naïve dungeon. It thought we were trapped in here under its power how foolish. I was forced to learn the darkest of arts in order to truly wield the holy art of skill craft.

I made 12 more because the dungeon was generous with its drops. Then, with the final gem, I created a black link to my Dantian and added a simple control and bond skill merged to link it to other gems. Using my big brain, I added 2 step password protection and encrypted my designs to be a dick to the dungeon. With the bare bones minimum of what I needed to be finished, it was time to get to the real work as I copied and linked my ruby with 9 others using strings I learned how to form from the system itself. These tenuous connections of mana had most of their delicate machinery removed, turning them into railways for blood chi.

“You haven’t moved from staring at those gems in 2 hours. We’re about to run out of air.” Melony said.

“He’s enchanting, and by the way his shoulders are moving, he’s almost done. I’m guessing he’s doing something completely game-breaking.”

“Did he absorb dungeon skills? Isn’t that dangerous for a human?” Melony asked.

“Is that concern I hear?” Mai asked.

“Look, I don’t want to be turned into a farm for those worms. Why aren’t you worried?” Melony asked.

“Atom hasn’t given up. No, he’s cackling like a priest of Ares before a battle. From where I am standing, the dungeon tried to balance the floor by handing nukes to a war priest. Drops can’t be taken back and the dungeon has already been too greedy today. 297 meals in a rank 1 dungeon doesn’t happen. It will be lucky if it isn’t censured to the highest level.” Mai said.

“Divine intervention has prevented that on multiple occasions,” I said.

“Oh, you’re back. Did you finish whatever you were doing?” Mai asked.

 “Hey Mai, do you think I can sell enough loot from here to buy you from Dad?” I asked.

I flipped on the ward all around us. Stones dried into worm husks as the gems floated and rotated, shifting into their positions before the ward shifted and began rotating. The Radiant Sapphires glowed brilliantly as they absorbed enough mana to power the grand ward. I cringed at the name but let it slide. For the second time since learning the craft and getting a certificate in the field, enchantment and its many subsidiary branches have been permanently useful. Black gems glowed, and the blade of my battle ward extended out a mile. 

The red gems glowed brighter and brighter as blood chi trickled into my gem before flowing into me refined twice.

My vision swam as I went from seeing the cypris trees in the distance to seeing the worms wiggling and linked together, mimicking the trees. No technology was needed. I saw further because more Chi hit my meridians and cycled. The flow was small, but that was ok. I was happy to let my gem absorb the refined blood chi and condense it further.

“What’s going on?” Melony asked.

“I’m killing every worm on the floor.” I pulled off my helmet and let fresh air enter my lungs. Purple mist shot out of the water and hit my redundancy barriers. To do what I loved, I had to get good at a subject I hated, and I might as well be an Olympian on this floor. There was a reason why dungeons didn’t over-specialize in a single monster. “That,” I said pointing at the cloud of parasite carriers keeping the worms in a form that my initial wards didn’t recognize. “Is why enchantment alone was never going to get us through this floor,” I said.

…

 The goddess didn’t know what to think when a mortal saw the threat and put on an environmental suit to face it. After reviewing her follower database, she saw her blessings upon him and knew his heart. Atom was an addict through and through. His addiction wasn’t drugs or women. No, he loved to find strategies and tactics to completely shatter the balance of power, and it was both frustrating and admirable.

Inoculation didn’t cover what was happening when Atom assaulted the dungeon’s first floor. What should have been a slog to teach a new generation of survivors a lesson was a feeding ground for their very own cultivator. She watched as the team of three fearlessly gathered the drops as the wards spun using an ingenious use for the planetary adjustment formulas and power excess. A blade of blood absorption and pest disintegration swept through the floor a mile long and an acre wide. All the while, Atom grew fat in resources as he took the dungeon for everything it was worth, showing why even the plans of gods could be overturned by short-sighted, blundering mortals.

She thoroughly enjoyed the show of him turning a tragedy into a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. All Atom really needed from here was training and knowledge to rise from rank 1 to rank 3 within a week. It was promising to be the biggest upset in the history of Echidna and she couldn’t wait to see what he would do when the enemy landed. The goddess had already conspired with her brother to push him into the land of Rasputin to make war on the coming enemy. While it wouldn’t be as simple as the threat presented, she had faith in the cunning, tactics, and balls of Atom Walker.

…

Melony stared at the vampire Shad Tepes still wearing the remnants of a black leather duster covered in the medals won in a long-lost war. A gas mask was still attached to his face. Still, he had forgone greater protection, relying only on his vampiric physiology to defeat the parasites. Shad wasn’t completely replaced like the humans, and lesser monsters only used as a hive to rapidly multiply.

The worms had been cleansed, and her prey’s vampiric nature allowed his body to recover at an accelerated rate. Rumors had it that so long as a Tepes had bone marrow, they could continuously replace spent lifeforce. She could smell the worms after four days of careful practice and knew for certain he had none inside of him.

She felt the wing sweep over them as the great ward created by a self-hating prodigy overtook the parasites. Such a powerful threat overtaken by ingenuity.  

Melony removed her helmet and put on the monstrous face of a predator. Shad’s bleary eyes opened wide in surprise before she bit his neck and savagely drained him. Her feeding hadn’t ended at the last drop. She drew her knife and began the process of ripping out his bones to drink his marrow. As Atom would say, it would be so metal.

As she finished her grizzly work a skill fell among the dissolving remains of the vampire. Blood Frenzy was hers, finally she had a skill that could take her to the next rank. All she had to do was level it.

…

Perhaps I had overdone it. I stood on a bloody iron platform surrounded by endless waterfalls of blood. A great red light like that of a dying star shone down on me, revealing the carvings of an Easton Dragon and the bearded face of Zues at war. Thunderbolts raged against dragons as the two warred in a series of images. Images moved before my eyes taking me into flashes of scenes out of time when gods and monsters battled in the sky for supremacy.

“You don’t do things by halves, or maybe you do.” I turned to see a man with my face only altered. His eyes were solid orbs of blood, my hard-earned tan had paled completely, and he wore his hair down to his shoulders. In his smile I saw rows of fangs more like a shark than any human. “It’s like looking into a mirror, right?”

I sighed and unbuttoned the topmost buttons of my dress shirt. Why did my subconscious dress me in the most uncomfortable clothes imaginable?

“What are you?” I asked.

“I’m you, or maybe I’m who you want,” I raised the Eagle and fired. A bullet hole the size of my thumb appeared over his left eye before quickly filling in. “to be.” The entity smiled. “You are going to be fun. I can already tell.” The entity said.

I turned my attention to the battle raging in the iron arena. The god and dragon weren’t making friends. They fought each other tooth and nail.

As a skill crafter, I knew that even when something sounded simple, and information was freely given, nothing was ever simple.

“I know you enchanters are all about the detail. So what do you see when you look at me?”

Was this an attempt to get under my skin or an entity playing itself off as something else?

The entity flashed across the platform and punched me in the face. All higher thoughts left me as I raised my Eagle and fired. Holes exploded along his body, but he only grinned.

“Is that your best?” A kick to my side blanked out my mind and tossed me across the arena. I landed hard on the iron floor, banging my head and losing more concentration. “Like looking in a mirror, I’m your reflection. Do you like what you see?”

I scrambled to my feet. My head throbbed, and suddenly I couldn’t think. All I could do was stare at the creature with all the hate I could muster.

“I am no enchanter,” I said.

Something happened when I felt angry. Blood spilled out from the waterfalls onto the iron platform.

The creature laughed and pointed at me. “You owe all your progress to enchanting. You beat a dungeon floor with enchanting skill. And you are in this situation unprepared because you're so good at enchanting.”

“I see you’re jealous because you’re trash at it. Don’t worry, you are good at hitting things.” I said.

“You’ll find hitting things here is all that matters.” The entity grinned. “Do you regret their deaths, the ones that paved the way for you?” The creature said.

“I stared down and saw piles of worm corpses and looked up at the grinning creature.”

I rubbed my sore face.

“Reflection indeed, my inner demon is a dumbass.” I stepped over the worms, and the demon flinched. “Do you see any human bodies here or bones? What’s next? Are you going to call me out on every blood cell, too?” I said.

My inner demon looked around and looked confused. “Where are the people weighing on your conscious? Even if you didn’t care, their karma should weigh you down. I wouldn’t be here if there wasn’t enough blood chi to plant me. Wait a second.” The demon pointed at me. “You aren’t a piece of shit who sacrifices people to further their power.”

It wasn’t just the pointing it was the fact the demon looked so surprised by it that concerned me. How did inner demons form in the first place?

“This does change things. We demons are normally punishments by the heavens but you actually found a way to cultivate blood chi morally. Still, you will not ascend further without accepting enchantment as a necessary tool for success.” The demon said.

“I will wash your mouth out with blood for such language,” I said.

“Listen, there have to be obstacles for your ascension, even if it’s a minor thing like accepting that enchanting is valuable too. Don’t let your pride rule you. It's an anchor that will bring you closer to me. You need to accept that skill craft isn’t the only useful talent you have.

“I need to accept the unbalanced, easily manipulated, and backward system of enchantment. Do you hear yourself?” I said.

“Hey, listen, I’m trying to use kid gloves here. You need to see reality for what it is and face facts. Lying to yourself,” I interrupted the demon.

“You know nothing of my struggles and the long nights reading ritual sacrifices involving stuffing parts of monsters into a horse’s,” I coughed. “You know nothing of the horrors of enchantment. The art needs reformation magitech will not reach its full potential until the art is fixed.”

“Listen, Atom, that would require genocide. There are many enchanters stuck in their ways from the dawn of the skill itself. Some of them are pieces of crap but a lot of them help society broken system or not.” The demon said.

“What are you, my conscience?” I asked.

“I’m your inner demon, the very seed of evil that has taken root within you. The only way to ascend is to best me either with a morale argument or physical force. Trust me when I say you aren’t winning through force. I am as strong as you, but I know how to fight. The heavens gifted me with the knowledge of cultivator combat.” The inner demon threw a few rapid punches and kicks to prove his point. I am equal to your cultivation and empowered further by your sins; currently, I am empowered greatest by your sin of pride.” The demon said.

“Pride isn’t a sin. It’s the greatest virtue someone can have.” I said.

“Wow, you defeated me completely with your facts and logic.” I rolled my eyes. “What is can’t be changed by an argument. This isn’t a court of law. I’m well aware of where my power is drawn.” I nodded my head.

The demon smiled, perhaps unaware of the details he shared. He seemed to enjoy bragging about himself. Blood rose to my hand forming three balls and rotating around each other. The demon stared, completely shocked by what I was doing.

He lunged forward and punched out with perfect form with near-instant movements. I used the blood to slow his strike, grabbed his wrist, and tossed him in a shoulder throw. He fell on the ground, shocked as I moved in with a falling elbow to his chest. A blow to my face knocked me off course as he stood up in front of me. I lunged in close, grabbing him under the arms and unleashing a backward throw.

“These moves are trash, Weston nonsense you learned when you were a child watching monster fights.” The demon said.

“We are equal in strength, from what I can tell. Pride isn’t a sin; shame is, and I feel no shame. Not even in enchantment because it facilitates my skill crafting.” I said.

“Wait, this isn’t right. I can’t connect to the heavens. This is divine interference.”

Blood chi flowed as golden particles surrounded me.

The demon unleashed a one-inch punch to the chest and stared at his hand like it betrayed him. “Did you think you had an overwhelming advantage over me?” I said.

I kept my hands up to guard my face and slowly laid into him. Shooting someone already dead was easier than beating up a demon with my face. I stayed to the basics of boxing and punched when his guard slipped. Easton martial arts given by the heavens were less effective when there was hardly any power to feed them. As it turned out, despite his words, sins were relative.

“You hate your family they betrayed you.”  I paused, and the demon hit me hard in the face. My vision swam, and I blacked out as I stumbled backward. Another punch, this time a chop for my throat, came for me, and I caught his wrist before yanking him close for a headbutt. His blood spilled, and I absorbed it, feeling cultivation base change. This wasn’t a rank-up. I was far from being ready, but I knew when the time came, I wouldn’t have any trouble. The demon fell to his knees and stared up at me. “For now, you are without sin, but time and life taints everyone. We will meet again on your next rank and it won’t be so easy then.” The demon boasted before fading away.