The Ebon Bde had spent weeks expl its system and p the broken images of people and pces it did not recall. It had even given a great deal of thought to its current predit, but it still had no pn for what to do in this moment.
But no pn would not suffiow that it was embedded in a corpse, the clock was tig, aually, the fabulous stockpile of energy wealth that it had built up would slowly dissipate, hour by hour, and it had no abilities that might stop that.
Perhaps if I increase my ste even more, an ability to reduce those losses might appear, it sidered before deg against it. Additional ste capacity was the ohing it didn’t need in this moment. Not unless it wao e the dragon’s soul, but it seemed best to hold on to that for now.
In battle, the bde was incredibly decisive, but in this moment, it froze, deliberating endlessly. It wasn’t until it saw the message it had been dreading that it finally made the decision.
-1 Life Force
As soon as the bde saw that it was heming out once more, it finally decided. Its best ce was not to pick at random and hope that something miraculous showed up. It was to pick from the best choices that it had.
So, the Ebon Bde selected Aura of Hunger a a chill pass through it as a quarter of its stored energy fred away, bringing it from 999/1000 to 749/1000. In its pce, it had expected to see Aura of Hunger 2, but instead, there were four new options.
Aura of Hunger:
Breadth 1 -> 2 - 250 Life Energy - Affect up to five people instead of three.Reabsp; 1 -> 2 - 200 Life Energy - Reach up to fiftee away instead of ten.Speed 1 -> 2 - 500 Life Energy - Drain a target over half a minute instead of a mirength 1 -> 2 - 300 Life Energy - Increase Aura of Hunger’s Drain from 10% of your Siphon to 20%.
That ged things siderably, and for a moment, the bde was once again puzzled with what to do. It was right at the edge of the dragon’s ir and only about twelve feet from the entrance. So, increasing its reach would theoretically allow it tet birds that sometimes flew by.
As if they would linger for a mi chastised itself.
Sging energy from any source that was avaible was certainly the best pn, but right now, there were nets to work toward. However, in the end, it decided to take both Speed 2 and Reach 2 just in case the opportunity preseself.
Aura of Hunger:
Breadth 1 -> 2 - 250 Life Energy - Affect up to five people instead of three.Reabsp; 2 -> 3 - 400 Life Energy - Reach up to seventee away instead of fifteen.Speed 2 -> 3 - 1000 Life Energy - Drain a target over twenty seds instead of half a mirength 1 -> 2 - 300 Life Energy - Increase Aura of Hunger’s Drain from 10% of your Siphon to 20%.
That brought the bde all the way down to 49, which wasn’t enough to do anything. It was barely enough to stay awake and scious for two or three days. That wasn’t something that it was looking forward to, but more and more, it found itself dreading the idea of going back to sleep.
Ever si had tried to repair its soul, and it had glimpsed that it had once been far more powerful than this, it had started to view such a fate as a sort of death. It knew on some level that staying asleep for too long would start to undo all the progress that it had made, and it wahat least of all.
The Ebon Bde did not think that was likely to happen after a day or a week of slumber, of course, but if it stayed here, embedded iting corpse of a dragon for years, then who knew what would happen. It might wake up a sed time with no memory of even simple cepts of who it was all ain.
As it sidered that, it remembered the description that the shepherd boy had given to his friends about the temple where the bde had been imprisohe room had been sealed with iron bars he’d been forced to slip between.
At the time, it had thought that those bars were there to keep people from stealing it, but now that it had this new power, it realized that robably the radius of whatever its power had been at its height, and those who had locked it away from the world wao make sure that it could not so much as get a siaste of life forbsp;
It had sughtered dozens of beastmen, a handful of humans, and a dragon. It would not give up that energy lightly. If only I’d been able to harvest souls from the beginning, it sighed, watg its Life Force tick down to forty-eight. I would have so much reserve power to fall ba then!
For the wo days, nothing else happened. It searched and schemed, but nothing it could do would stop the clock. It sted through two more sus, but somewhere before the third sus reserves fell to zero, and it psed into unsciousness.
It didn’t approach that moment with fear. Instead, it was worry and that it had allowed itself to get itself in this situation. It dreamed more about the fe and an unfamiliar man screaming. It also dreamed on fire and dead dragons at the feet of its wielder. Those at least were triumphant, and it was during one of those moments that it stirred slowly to life once more.
+1 Life Force
It had hoped that when it awoke, it would find humans in the cave, looting the pce. Instead, it found only a pair of ravens peg at the exposed eye of the dragon. It devoured both of those ihan five minutes but obtained only a paltry amount of life force from them.
+2 Life Force
You have cimed 1 raven soul. It has been devoured for 2 Life Force.
+1 Life Force
You have cimed 1 raven soul. It has been devoured for 2 Life Forbsp;
It was surprised more that it had instinctually reached out for the living eve slumbered than that carrion birds had finally found the giant carcass to feast upon. It only further reinforced its belief that the bars were put in that temple for keeping people out, not for keeping it in.
When it was all said and do was alone again, but only for the eight or ten hours. That gave it time to watch the thuing outside and pte its situation, but the bde fell right back to sleep swiftly after that, and the darkness of the cave was repced swiftly with the darkness of unsciousness.
That cycle of predators and sgers tinued several times. Each time, it was a differe, that it siphoned from. There were more ravens, a dor, a mountain lion, and more than a few mid other rodents.
You have cimed 1 mountain lion soul. It has been devoured for 6 Life Forbsp;
Each of them was enough to wake it up, but even the mountain lion barely kept it awake for a day. It hat each of the creatures tasted a little different, but that was the only made in the experience. For a time, the bde worried that it might exist there in limbo forever. Then, the goblins came.
They were the first creatures in a long time that the bde actively tried not to kill. That would have been terproductive. If it killed the first oo creep into the cave that night, it would not be back with more of its friends.
It drank ten Life Force from that first scout while the goblin devoured the corpses of birds and rats. For more than an hour, it poked around the corpse of the dragon, and twice, it seemed like it had seen the bde’s handle, but it did not reach for it. Instead, it tried and failed to get past the scale of the dragon to feast on its flesh before settling for the remains of the mountain lion.
Then, after it failed to find or steal the on for its own, the bde allowed the thing to flee with great difficulty. It did so with the uain promise that it would be back. It shouldn’t have doubted it, not when there were a thousand pounds of rotti lying there for the taking.
That was a greater treasure to the goblins than any amount of gold on scales. That m, it fell asleep in ay cave as the sole goblin that was its lifelio the world fled, and that night when the faint currents of Life Force stirred it to life again, it woke to a cave crawling with the pests.
Evehough, the bde did not kill any of them, at least nht away. Instead, it rotated through all the creatures, siphoning a little life at a time. This arently not enough to make them flee, but it did make them surly and proo fighting each other. The Ebon Bde didn’t care about any of that, though. It just watched them feast, even as it feasted o the rate of ten to fifteen life for hour so as not to e the renewable resourbsp;
The goblins were brutal, using stoipped spears and broken short swords that were half rusted to pry up and then rip out the dragon scales. Ohat was aplished, and they’d ripped a few of them free to reach the gia’s fnks and soft underbelly, the ehing became a bloodbath.
Then, the goblins were doing more thaing. They were doing more than even g themselves. They were bathing in blood and practically mining the meat in an effort to get at the still-warm ans deep in its core.
It would have been vile if the bde cared about such things. It didn’t, though. Instead, it simply took advantage of how distracted they were, siphoning away enough Life force from each of the dozen members of the troop until they started to show signs of fatigue. That was when it left them aloo recover.
That earhe Ebon Bde just over a hundred Life Force. It thought about spending that immediately to increase its reserves, but it decided to wait and see if they came back a sed day.
If I am left here alone, I will o save this power, it seled itself. 134 life force wasly a lot, but it was nearly two weeks of sciousness. Still, if they return, then I start to really build something.
That they would return was truthfully never in doubt. It was just the bde’s sense of worry and isotion. If there was still food to be eaten, then there would still be goblins ing to eat it. This time, there were even more of them. Nearly two dozen arrived to rip apart the spoiled flesh of the dragon’s corpse.
Still, despite all the progress they made in that regard, not one of them found the bde and tried to pull it free. It was maddening. The Eboried to will them to do exactly that, but it had no ability to unicate at all to someone who wasn’t toug it. For days and weeks, the fact that it had been embedded deep uhe scales he dragon’s wings had been an advantage, but now, with those leathery wings draped across the faintly glowing ruby in its pommel, it was a terrible location.
If only one of these pitiful creatures would draw me, It fumed as it watched them feast. I would sughter the rest and thehe survivor t me down the mountains and find a proper host.
Although that didn’t happen, night by night, it feasted. By the third day, the goblins were no longer leaving. They were simply retreating to the rear of the cave to sleep away the day before they tiheir endless, bloody feast. It was a messy, monstrous thing, and when the bde approached a thousand Life Force, it finally spent 250 on Increase Reserves 6.
That brought its total reserves up to 2000, and made the ruby in its hilt grow slightly even as its facets became sharper. The new upgrade let it store more than ever, but even that did not unloy iing new powers the way it had hopped, f it to wait ever longer as it drank from its growing herd of goblins like they were no more than a herd of cattle.
