For three days, Seth had slain every convoy that had returned to the city. This was his most successful ambush yet: three Dark Elementals and an Undead Giant, all slain before the end of Dusk Scythes' duration. Nevertheless, he was baffled each time a new group arrived. He'd assumed word of the city's fall would have spread among the creatures and the convoys would stop coming. Their persistence suggested many outposts lay deeper in the cave than Seth had thought.
Ahead, the remaining Undead Giant growled, a spittle flying from between the twin tusks that jutted up from its lower jaw. Seth held his ground, playing the waiting game as he cast Intermediate Identify.
The beast's lack of intelligence was a gift; every second it hesitated was a second shaved off the cooldown of Seth's new spell. He could easily kill it without the weapon, but there was no reason not to use Dusk Scythes if his current target allowed him.
Overwhelming the creature with Night Veil and shattering its skull with Phantom Punch would be far less exciting.
The Undead Giant began to circle, its heavy footfalls echoing on the cave's floor while it moved from one side to another, as if searching for an escape route. Seth mirrored its movements to cut off any retreat.
These fights had been a welcome distraction and some excellent training while waiting for Colossus to grow his new shell and Nightmare to fully absorb the black Seed. Both of them would soon be done, but time had a way of stretching when Seth was idle.
Finally, the Undead Giant growled and charged.
Teal aether flared around its massive body almost simultaneously. A grim smile touched Seth's lips, and he channeled aether into Huntbound Rush, boosting his Agility. Just as the creature's charging spell was about to connect, he used Shadow Step to vanish and reappear to the side. The giant hit nothing but empty air. An instant later, the aether enveloping the creature detonated and blasted shards of stone and clouds of dust into the air. Seth immediately dashed back in.
With a grunt, the Undead Giant swiped at him with the short claws tipping its fingers. Unfazed, Seth ducked beneath the clumsy attack and drove his fist into the creature's massive abdomen. The giant doubled over, clearly surprised by the force of the blow, but lashed out again. Already in motion, Seth wove around the wild slashes and hammered its side with a relentless barrage of punches. The Undead creature bellowed in frustration, though this time a black, noxious cloud surged from its maw, forcing Seth to leap back.
He had previously fought through a similar cloud with his Protecting Belt's barrier—it'd be too easy to use that strategy right now, though. In less than a minute, Dusk Scythes would be off cooldown. He just needed to buy a bit of time.
Fueling Huntbound Rush with a steady trickle of aether, he began a deadly dance and used his superior Agility to stay just outside the giant's reach. He ducked under hopeless swipes and sidestepped clumsy kicks, letting the beast exhaust itself.
Then, the time had come. A grin spread across his face.
Dark blades of condensed shadow surged from his gauntlets, extending a foot and a half past his knuckles. The very air around the weapons seemed to warp and shimmer, distorted by the raw power they radiated. The next instant, the Undead Giant's last remains of confidence wavered, its jaw slackening in what seemed like a look of pure dread.
Seth charged. The giant slashed at his face, but he dodged the attack with ease and countered, slicing the creature's abdomen. Green blood had barely begun to spray out when he lunged again and carved a bloody 'X' across the beast's abdomen with both blades. The giant roared in agony and tried to turn to run away, yet Seth gave it no chance. He pounced, plunging his shadow weapons into the creature's upper back.
The Undead Giant's legs buckled and it collapsed to its knees, green ichor pouring from its mouth. With a final, brutal motion, Seth yanked his blades free, crossed his arms, and slashed through the creature's neck—the attack severed the Undead Giant's head in a single, clean cut.
With a grunt, Seth shoved the large corpse aside and used his Dusk Scythes to open its chest and expose the beaststone within. Racing against the clock, he dashed toward the second Undead Giant and did the same before the shadowy weapon could begin to dissipate. Once the blades vanished, he knelt to pluck the beaststones from the giants' ruined chests, then picked up the three left by the Dark Elementals.
Even with the bonus attributes from Link and a dozen Ranks on his opponents, the fight had felt almost effortless. This was the overwhelming power of a Double-Tiered Epic+ spell: the kind only the wealthiest nobles could bestow upon their heirs.
Glancing down, he quickly checked his attributes.
Nope, he thought with a sigh. Still not a single attribute.
Ever since hitting five hundred total attributes yesterday, he hadn't been able to gain another point. Ranks ending in zero were harder to break through—like Rank 30, which had taken him three weeks to exit—yet Seth had assumed he'd be fine and still climb. After all, he'd slain at least twenty beasts in the past twenty-four hours, most of them higher Rank than him.
Maybe that's because I killed them too quickly, he mused. I need a real challenge. Something risky.
Seth began heading back toward the half-collapsed hut in the distance. It had been nearly two weeks since he, Nightmare, and Colossus had stepped into the Cave of Elements, and the leap in terms of strength for all three of them had been tremendous. It gave Seth confidence for the coming war, yet thinking about it still made him grimace.
He stood to gain nothing from the conflict. And killing for the benefit of Kastal's greedy king was certainly going to leave a bad taste in Seth's mouth.
Just as he approached the stairs of the ruined building, a sudden surge of aether rushed into his Well. He pushed his senses inward, feeling the energy streaming through Link—it was coming straight from Nightmare. The aether was cold and dark, swirling with a power far greater than anything he'd felt from their bond over the past three days.
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Did he finally finish the absorption? Seth wondered before focusing on the sensation.
The Darkness aether whirled within Seth's own Well, settling into the same spot in the pool of energy it had begun to occupy over the past few days. Yet this time felt different; the frigid energy didn't just flow through him, it sank deeper, threading into his very being. Seth thought back to his Aether Affinity class with Professor Storm. She had claimed his 'Null' affinity simply meant he had none. But if that were true, wouldn't the word have disappeared from his list of affinity by now?
No, it meant something else.
His body and Well were accepting the Darkness affinity and absorbing it to make it his own. Just as Seth tried to formulate a theory to explain the phenomenon, the surge of aether stopped.
Through Link, he then felt Nightmare's consciousness stir. 'Did you sleep well?'
'Like a pup,' the direwolf answered before emerging a dozen seconds later from the half-destroyed hut.
He looked and felt different. His fur was a deeper, almost abyssal black, absorbing every bit of light around him, and his crimson eyes had darkened too. Power and bloodlust radiated from him in fierce and commanding waves.
Knowing his partner would be impatient, Seth smiled and cast Intermediate Identify.
What struck Seth first was the direwolf's Potential—which had somehow climbed from Silver to Silver+, a designation he'd never seen before—then the bonus attributes next to Nightmare's Arcane Power.
'Can others see that too?' Nightmare asked.
'I have no idea,' Seth answered. '
Seth frowned as he looked once again at the direwolf's Arcane Power; something was off. The bonus was higher than it should have been.
Without wasting a second, Seth focused on the three dots above Arcane Power.
The Seed was only supposed to grant an 8 to 12% bonus, yet Nightmare was getting 15%—and it was the same for his bonus to Darkness-Affinity spells, which was 20% instead of 15%.
'That's because I'm better than a puny human,' Nightmare said mentally, smug, reading Seth's thoughts. 'Those numbers aren't for a superior beast like me.'
Seth rolled his eyes. 'Or maybe it's just a general estimate and not an exact value?'
'Who knows?' the direwolf replied, his pride palpable through their bond.
Seth then checked his own attributes and attunements.
He focused on Nightmare's name.
He was receiving a quarter of Nightmare's bonus, which wasn't anything massive. It was still significant, however, considering both the direwolf and Colossus could eventually hold two Iron Seeds each. Those four together would add up to a bonus one for free.
Seth rubbed his cheek. Well, unless those question marks are taking up one of my, umm… Seed beds? Or slots?
But like so many other things, he wouldn't get an answer anytime soon—at least not until he could speak openly to someone about Link.
'Small Bite is in his teardrop?' Nightmare's voice cut through Seth's thoughts. 'Bring him out. I want him to see how I look.'
"He can't come out yet," Seth replied. "We fought the leader right after you started absorbing the Seed. He was badly injured and has been recovering in his domain since."
'You fought that thing without me? You should have warned me! I would have helped.'
"I didn't know if interrupting the absorption of the Seed would have side effects," Seth explained. "Besides, we still won. It was a great fight." He paused, and a faint smirk appeared on his lips. "And I got a nice spell out of it."
Seth channeled aether into Dusk Scythes' grooves, bringing the twin blades of shadow forth along his arms. With a fast swing of his left arm, he carved a deep gouge into the cave floor, the rock parting like paper beneath the strike.
'Those are great,' Nightmare said, a rare note of approval in his thoughts. 'I like them.'
A few months ago, Seth might have been surprised by the lack of jealousy from the direwolf, but not anymore. Since Colossus had hatched, the direwolf seemed focused on the strength of their pack instead of just his own. He was still unbearably proud, but that pride now extended to all of them.
As if on cue, Seth felt Colossus wake up within the teardrop necklace. 'Nightmare? Are you done?' the young scorpion said through Link.
'Yes, I'm back,' Nightmare replied.
Colossus immediately moved out of his pocket-realm and materialized in front of Seth with a loud thud. The next instant, the scorpion scuttled toward the direwolf, circling and clicking his pincers. 'You look great! Stronger! And more… black!'
Instead of smiling at the odd remark, Seth found his jaw hanging slack as he stared at the scorpion. His shell, once looking like rough, quartz-veined stones, now resembled an unbreakable fa?ade of rock encrusted with ores. Faint yellow undertones shimmered across its surface, darkening into a burnished gold. And it was more than the color change; the carapace radiated an aetheric aura so dense it felt suffocating. It made Seth feel like a miner staring at a mountain he knew his pickaxe couldn't even scratch.
A smile spread on his face. You have pushed your limit again.
Nightmare was just as stunned. Through Link, Seth felt the direwolf's surprise—he wasn't even sure that even Shadow Bite could pierce that shell. Wasting no time, Seth cast Intermediate Identify.
Seth's gaze shot to the bottom and top of the list, where two new spells had appeared. He already knew the scorpion had learned the charging one during their fight, but the other was a surprise. A gigantic one.
Gold. And Legendary.
Seth focused on their description right away.
How can a spell grant bonus attributes? Seth wondered, his mind reeling. There's mountain in the name… Is that bonus because of the Essence in his teardrop?
The scorpion was once again rewriting the rules of everything Seth knew. Just as Colossus had changed his Revelation during his breakthrough to the Iron Tier to forge a new spell, the destruction of his shell by the Dark Elemental Assassin had become an opportunity. He hadn't just rebuilt the damn thing; he had crafted a Legendary spell.
'Colossus, use Desert Aegis,' Seth said.
The scorpion tilted his head, a flicker of confusion passing through his expression, but then complied. As brown aether surged and expanded into a protective layer covering all three of them, Seth focused on it intently.
The barrier was stronger than it had been during their fight with the Dark Elemental Executioner, but it wasn't powerful enough to be receiving the boost from the new spell.
"Spells that provide a bonus according to his Toughness don't stack with the shell's new attributes," Seth realized, talking aloud. "Makes sense considering it also doesn't affect his Rank."
Still, he couldn't complain. The new spell had turned Colossus into a walking fortress. If the scorpion continued to gain Ranks over their next two weeks in the cave, he would be unstoppable during the upcoming war.
'Nah.' Nightmare's voice cut through Seth's thoughts. 'We can make him even more powerful.'
'What do you mean?' Seth asked.
'I mean, we gotta find one for him too,' the direwolf answered, his determination palpable through their bond. 'A Seed.'
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