Path of the Slayer: A LitRPG Adventure Action Fantasy, page 24
I made a compromise that I didn’t think I would. Even though I knew I had to use everything that was available to me to survive, this one thing felt wrong.
“Thank you for sacrificing your Vitality to me,” I said to the demon, as I raked my half ripper claws down its muscular arm. “I need to keep my Path Energy up in case the gold adventurers arrive in the next minute.”
The demon nodded dumbly while holding firm and offering its arm to me. I kept Hellion inactive, reducing the amount of pain I could bring to one of my helpers.
Other than that, I didn’t hold back much. I tore into the demon’s arm and spilled its dark blood in thick rivulets.
A red glow emitted from around the blood and my half ripper claws. Hellion drained Vitality out of the Rank 2 demon and turned it into Path Energy for me.
I made sure to stop when it only had a little left so it could rest and recover like the others, though that meant I was out of some of my helpers for however long it took them to heal.
While that was happening, I turned my focus to my Path Magnetism and another would-be javelin that was getting reheated in the slot furnace.
My control was improving, especially when I realized that Path Magnetism responded better when I concentrated on how it worked along with my Path of the Slayer. All the elemental powers mentioned their uses depended on my Path.
As the Slayer, doing anything that dealt with killing should make my Path Magnetism more agreeable.
Obviously, it still took time to manipulate magnetism, since the humming element was new to me, and I’d never manipulated magic before. But the constant pressure and the need to optimize every second produced the conditions where I could train up on Path Magnetism, bettering my understanding while aligning it with the meaning of my Path, discovering the nuances of both.
I also benefited from Gear Modder Speed persistently, even when using Path Magnetism to control parts of my reforging process. That made it possible to use magnetism for simple tasks such as maneuvering materials in and out of the forge or dunking them into the quench tank while I remained in the stations with the anvil or the grinder.
The only sticky point was how I had to stop reforging to enchant each of the cursed items to make them deadlier. That was where Hellion came into play when I wasn’t ripping up demon arms and draining their Vitality for Path Energy.
If that wasn’t a lot already, I inserted target practice every fifteen minutes in between sets of heating, reforging, enchanting, and shipping.
A new demon appeared, offering their arm for me to rake and absorb Vitality while I motioned my left hand to guide spare javelins that weren’t up to my standards out of a rack in the corner.
It looked like a rough version of telekinesis when I yanked the javelins in my direction and halted them in the air.
In truth, I was constantly pulling and pushing to keep them from falling to the ground. By anchoring my Path Magnetism on my left hand, I could swing the javelins around by moving my arm in the direction I wanted to point toward.
The calculations needed to keep the ‘faux-telekinesis’ going would’ve fried my non-ranker brain. Path Energy kept my current brain going just fast enough to keep track of so many things around me.
The imps had set up dummies they’d found from various structures that had seemed like indoor marketplaces before falling to ruins. They’d placed the dummies outside or behind the broken windows of the building facing my workshop.
I kept draining Vitality out of the demon with my right while taking aim and shooting cursed javelins with my left.
My aim wasn’t great. But when the javelins hit, they hit with a deadliness that would make a Rank 3 adventurer nervous.
The Mole Lord certainly hadn’t liked it.
Though these cursed javelins went without being enhanced by Hellion’s autosaw energy, which was okay. In the grand scheme of things, the cursed javelins weren’t needed for Quality. I needed them for their quantity while having decent enough deadliness.
Out of fifteen javelins lined up in a magnetized bundle I struck eight dummies. That was slightly above 50% hit rate when using Path Magnetism to shoot at distant targets.
That didn’t seem satisfactory for what was to come, but the key part was my efficiency. I was having an easier time using Path Magnetism without losing Path Energy too quickly. It was like relearning Path Energy efficiency again, but this time with elemental magic instead of physical combat.
Good to know.
By the fourth hour, I was replacing the oil canister for the cursed furnace when an idea struck that I should’ve prepared far earlier.
“Crap, crap, crap!” I hissed.
I stopped all crafting production. All my remaining javelins and stakes went with the ghouls and demons that weren’t sleeping after feeding me their Vitality.
Before I jumped onto my idea, I teleported to a building outside of the structure that held the Empire’s Portal. The streets were covered in sharp-edged flowers and bushes and the metal support beams that I’d turned into large stakes shoved halfway into the ground.
Each stake emitted cursed energy, the hellish runes pulsating along their surfaces. More stakes covered the walls surrounding the lower floors of nearby buildings, creating a dangerous and hard-to-maneuver field for multiple blocks in all directions.
Satisfied, I went and teleported to every station where javelins waited where I wanted them.
It was still surprising at how great the creatures of my Realm were at following directions even though they couldn’t talk and they weren’t very smart. But when it came to following my whims, they were nearly flawless.
Once I was satisfied by the javelin placement, I went underground to work on the newest idea I had.
The old tankers and their oozing fuel waited for me. From my storage ring, I dropped a bunch of canisters and started filling them up with the flammable substance.
Then I pulled out an artificer stylus that I brought with me from my old realm. I used that to inscribe runes instead of using a claw from Hellion.
I couldn’t risk these things being cursed. That came with the sacrifice of power, but I made up for it by pushing my enchanting limits. I applied a more complex series of runes on each canister.
If it wasn’t for Gear Modder Speed, I wouldn’t have gotten two dozen done by the time I felt a shift in my Realm and heard a clear ringing chime. I knew exactly which Portal was used, and how many entered.
It was the three-hour mark before the Portal closed.
My would-be killers had arrived.
***
Hours before returning to the Hell Realm, Lady Seraphina Frostmere told herself she would be prepared for the whirlwind reaction of the guild once she reported what happened. The only thing she hesitated on was retelling the last words she’d traded with the ‘rogue nomad,’ which was now his calling.
There was something about the revelation from the rogue nomad that made her uneasy and deathly curious. She hadn’t thought critically of it before because she was weighing the survival of her colleagues and her own emotions.
But the way the rogue nomad said ‘The Arden you know is gone’ bothered her deeply.
He hadn’t spoken until that point when they were alone, with everybody else evacuated. Was that meant for her ears only? Why?
Seraphina couldn’t bring herself to keep that hidden.
She’d told her superiors everything, which mainly involved the receptionist manager and the guild secretary. The guild leader was away on personal business.
There was a gold adventurer inside of the briefing room with them even though that wasn’t exactly per protocol. But who was going to deny the son of the city mayor from hearing about a Portal adventure gone wrong.
“Not only do we have a rogue nomad keeping an entire Realm to himself, a stable one at that, but he’s taken away one of our adventurers and beat down so many others,” said Lord Elric Auraguard, a Rank 3 on the verge of reaching Rank 4. “It is terrible that you suffered what you did, Lady Seraphina. Let this son of our proud city bring justice to you and all the adventurers who’ve suffered because of that rogue nomad.”
His fierce blue eyes turned toward Seraphina with a glint of interest that she’d ignored for years. Technically, he was slightly above her own station, but he wasn’t the first choice Seraphina’s mother preferred her to marry.
Still, the tall, muscular, and golden-haired son of the Steel Blitz City Mayor wouldn’t be a bad pick if Seraphina was actually looking. She’d rebuffed Elric’s advances alongside other adventurers with noble lineages for years.
Now that it was believed Arden was fully out of the picture, Seraphina sensed they would redouble their efforts to go after her.
Unless, of course, Arden was still alive.
‘The Arden you know is gone.’
What had the rogue nomad meant when he said that?
The conversation took a turn that brought Seraphina back out of her thoughts. The guild secretary and receptionist manager conceded to Lord Elric’s wishes. For some reason, Seraphina’s nerves only grew taut, forcing her to speak up.
“Isn’t it overkill to send the golden killers?” Seraphina asked.
Elric flashed her a smile that would’ve made many others swoon. His words remained as smooth as he looked, despite the hint of an edge to them. “Who better to send than the best of our guild? This rogue nomad assaulted you, assaulted your party, and harmed harmless Rank 1s.”
Seraphina wanted to disagree about the Rank 1s being entirely defenseless. They’d combined their attacks well enough to distract the rogue nomad until the rogue nomad knocked them out.
He went out of his way to take us all down nonlethally.
“Maybe we should attempt to negotiate for his capture? Surely he would understand his predicament once he knows the golden killers are after him?” Seraphina argued.
Lord Elric took a moment to think about it while the guild secretary and receptionist manager remained silent. It was obvious that Elric’s weight in the guild was considerable, and that wasn’t strictly because of politics.
Lord Elric and his party truly were the best of the guild, to where they were well known across multiple cities. Whenever there was a quest for a powerful creature from another Realm to die, either the guild leader went or the golden killers.
“We will give this rogue nomad a chance,” Elric said. “After that, I will personally bring his head here for you and the others to see. It wouldn’t be right to let a nomad do as they please when all of us good imperials are following the word of our God Emperor, hm?”
“So be it,” said the receptionist manager.
“So be it,” said the guild secretary.
“So be it,” Seraphina said, although the words tasted less stellar out of her mouth this time. Why was that?
Seraphina looked around to see if anyone felt the same, but they operated as normal. The receptionist manager and guild secretary conducted the proper paperwork while Elric waited on his full party to gather.
Seraphina allowed herself some time to rest in one of the guild’s spare rooms. She showered, ate, and then found Elric at the armory as his party geared up with Rare Rank 3 equipment.
“I’m coming along,” Seraphina said.
“You and four other parties of silver adventurers. You’ll wait outside of the Portal with these Vitality Signal Crystals.”
The ruby red and sharply cut crystals were simple crafts set within a metallic frame, with runes inscribed on the sides. Vitality Signal Crystals came as pairs, able to track each other across different Realms as long as there was an active Portal connecting them.
One crystal would track the Vitality of the wearer while the other would give a signal if the Vitality dropped close to zero or zeroed out completely. That might mean the wearer was either dead or in grave enough danger that all of their Vitality was gone.
Seraphina nodded once. She was glad that Elric was taking this seriously. But she wanted to push for more. “Let me join your party. We’re all Rank 3s. And I have more powers than most Rank 3s.”
She had seven overall: Vitality, Aether, Suppression, Rime Dash, Rime Slash, Chilling Field, and Winter’s Rebuke.
Each member of the golden killers had six overall. But what they lacked in her numbers, they made up for in years of experience. Still, Seraphina felt she would make for a decent force-multiplier.
Elric shook his head. “My party has a way of doing things that’s special to the four of us. Even with your talent and power, adding you can be more of a detriment than an aid.” Before she could argue, he added another point. “If something happens to us, then you’ll know through the signal crystal. You can decide what to do from there.”
Privileged or not, he was being reasonable and showing his experience. Still, Seraphina felt nervous.
Elric flashed another one of his golden smiles. “Trust me. The God Emperor will see us through. You did good fighting off that fiend. But now that the golden killers are after him, the imperial law will prevail.”
Seraphina left it alone for now.
She geared up along with other silver adventurers, all of them Rank 2 except for her. If she’d been in the guild longer, she would’ve been a gold adventurer as well.
Maybe she would’ve gotten there faster if she played into guild politics and actually accepted more passes in her direction.
Or if Arden revealed his true talent.
Seraphina found herself more distracted than usual as she marched in her full armored kit with her long sword sheathed at her side. She and sixteen other silver adventurers followed the golden killers out of the guild to the sewer facility and down into the depths below the city.
Her personal party wasn’t coming along – they still needed to rest after the beating they’d taken went beyond their Vitality. Sometimes a potion couldn’t fix everything, especially if their morale was wounded. And to be honest, Seraphina would be alright without them.
“I can’t believe the golden killers are taking us along,” said one of the silver adventurer men behind her.
“They’re not really taking us into the Realm. We’re just gonna wait outside as backup,” said a silver young woman.
“Honestly, this is all for show. Once the golden killers are sent, whoever they’re going after is dead,” said one of the younger silver men.
“It ain’t surprising that it’s another nomad up to no good. Hells, it’s kinda ironic that our own crippled nomad got done in by one of his own kind,” said a different silver man.
Seraphina nearly stumbled when a sudden thought came to mind. The right hand of the rogue nomad. Was that hand a piece of armor or was it something that was attached to him?
And the way he’d fought her! Even with a greatsword and a larger body, the motion and intent had been familiar to her. She knew that style of fighting.
No, it couldn’t be!
Elric was already done with his rousing speech. His party mates were ready to go into the Portal with him, each of them packed light, since this quest needed to be handled quickly.
They’d brought runic sensors that gave them an estimate of how long the Portal would last – three hours. They would need to evacuate once they only had half an hour left.
With how fast Rank 3s could move, especially the golden killers who had higher Vitality than normal, Seraphina could see this quest ending in an hour or less.
“Please try to negotiate,” Seraphina reminded Elric and the others.
“Of course, my dear. We aren’t savages.” Elric smiled once again. “And after we’re done here, maybe we can finally have a personal talk about your transition from silver to gold.”
Elric went into the Portal. Behind him, Taver, Lara, and Sylas followed. One human, one dwarf, one half-giant, and one elf – all the perfect examples of true imperials among the original races of their world.
“Isn’t that sweet?” commented a female silver. “The cripple gets out of the way, and a prince comes in to save the day. If only I was a beautiful, noble lady.”
Seraphina used her targeted Suppression to shut down the pissy Rank 2 woman for some time. Nobody said another word after that.
Then right when Seraphina felt the urge to enter the Portal just to see what was happening on the other side, one of the Vitality Signal Crystals let out a disturbing shriek.
The magic device went from ruby red to dark red, near black.
23. I Expected Better
I teleported into an adjacent room close to the wreckage area that held the imperial Portal. From here, I wouldn’t know what they were doing or who they were.
I didn’t want to spy on them directly and risked them seeing me in return through the viewing window. I had no idea if it was two-way or not, and I’d forgotten to test that with one of my monster helpers.
Outside, a cloud broke, raining rainbow-colored oil.
It wasn’t highly flammable, strangely, but it could still burn once convinced to do so.
I avoided the rainbow oil dripping through the holes above. My every step remained quiet and measured as I listened for activity on the other side.
I heard nothing.
Stilling my movements, I waited.
A minute passed.
Two minutes.
Five minutes.
Finally, they spoke first.
“We know you’re there, rogue nomad,” said a voice that sent my heart rate skyward.
The son of the city mayor. The golden hero of Steel Blitz City. One of the most accomplished golden adventurers of the current era.
Elric Auraguard was here just for me, and if he was here, then the rest of the golden killers were here as well.
Crap.
This was both the worst and greatest thing to happen. The golden killers didn’t lose. I might as well consider myself dead unless proven otherwise.
That meant I could go all out, giving me some measure of freedom without having to feel guilty.
I spoke aloud, with Path Energy masking my voice. “Leave now. This is your final warning.”
“Give yourself over. This is your final warning,” Elric replied, sounding amused.
