Chapter 20: Ten Days

The Demonized Rats didn’t stand a chance.

Leon crossed the dry riverbed in a blur of motion, his staff sweeping low as the first bolt of poison-laced Arcane Surge tore through two of them before they had even finished turning to face him. The remaining four scattered in different directions, shrieking as panic overtook whatever instincts had driven them together.

But panic wasn’t the same as escape.

Ding!

[You have killed "Demonized Rat (Level 4)" and gained 22 experience points.]

Ding!

[You have killed "Demonized Rat (Level 4)" and gained 22 experience points.]

Leon didn’t slow down. A third rat suddenly lunged for his ankle, but he caught the movement half a second before it happened. Some instinctive part of his mind had already predicted the angle of the attack from nothing more than the way the creature shifted its weight.

He twisted his body aside and drove the butt of his staff straight through the rat’s skull before it even had a chance to land.

Ding!

[You have killed "Demonized Rat (Level 4)" and gained 22 experience points.]

The final three broke and ran, their claws scraping desperately against the cracked earth as they scattered across the riverbed. Leon didn’t bother chasing them. He simply raised his staff, calmly tracking their movements, and fired three more bolts in rapid succession.

Each one found its mark.

His MP bar barely dipped despite the amount of spellwork he had unleashed in the last thirty seconds. Eternal Mana was already proving to be just as absurdly useful as he had expected.

Ding!

[You have killed "Demonized Rat (Level 4)" and gained 22 experience points.]

Ding!

[You have killed "Demonized Rat (Level 4)" and gained 22 experience points.]

Ding!

[You have killed "Demonized Rat (Level 4)" and gained 22 experience points.]

Six kills.

Six notifications.

Then came a seventh.

Ding!

[Lucky Fate has activated!]

[Rare Drop Probability significantly increased.]

[Demonized Rats have dropped: 40 Eternal Coins, 3 Decayed Rat Fangs, 1 Minor Vitality Essence.]

Leon crouched down and collected the drops one by one, inspecting the unfamiliar Minor Vitality Essence for a moment before storing it away. The amount of loot wasn’t particularly impressive compared to what he had obtained from the Stone Golem, but he wasn’t expecting Level 4 monsters to shower him with treasures.

Then another notification quietly appeared before him.

It was the one that had gradually become the real reward of every battle.

[Talent Devourer: Residual Talent Energy Detected: "Rot Bite"]

[Fragments Available: 6]

Leon accepted them without hesitation.

[Fuse 10 Fragments to acquire New Talent: Rot Bite.]

[Or fuse Fragments into an existing Talent or Skill to grant it a Decaying Effect.]

Six fragments of "Rot Bite" weren’t enough to form the talent itself, but Leon didn’t consider that a problem. If he couldn’t create a new talent with them, he could always put the fragments to use elsewhere.

His gaze shifted to Arcane Surge.

The skill already carried a poison effect, allowing its attacks to inflict lingering damage after impact. Adding the residual properties of Rot Bite could potentially give it another layer of damage, turning each bolt into something far more troublesome for his enemies.

It was worth testing.

Leon selected Arcane Surge and fused all six fragments directly into the skill.

Ding!

[6 Fragments of "Rot Bite" have been fused into Skill: Arcane Surge.]

[Arcane Surge has gained: Decaying Effect.]

[Skill Updated: Arcane Surge (Envenomed, Decomposing) — Grade: Silver]

[Description: A concentrated burst of mana that now carries a lingering decaying effect upon impact, inflicting stacking decay damage over time in addition to its base effect.]

Leon stared at the updated description for several seconds.

Poison and decay.

One weakened the target from within, while the other steadily broke down what remained.

He couldn’t help but smile.

Arcane Surge had just become considerably more unpleasant to fight against.

That had been day one, more or less. What followed blurred together into something closer to a single, continuous stretch of motion.

By the second day, Leon had moved further south, drawn by a low, marshy stretch of ground that Garrick had once mentioned in passing, complaining about a shipment he’d lost there years earlier to something with too many legs.

The ground here was softer underfoot, thick with reeds and stagnant pools that reflected the overcast sky in flat, silver sheets, and the air carried a faint mineral tang that Leon associated, correctly as it turned out, with iron. What he found instead was a nest of Iron-Quill Boarlings, squat, armored creatures with quills sharp enough to punch through leather at range.

[Monster Detected: Iron-Quill Boarling (x9)]

[Level: 6]

The first volley of quills caught him across the shoulder before he adjusted, the sting sharper than he expected, and Leon filed the pain away with something close to satisfaction. Pain, these days, was information as much as it was discomfort.

Ding!

[Absolute Adaptation has activated!]

[Your resistance to piercing damage from ranged projectiles has increased.]

By the fourth boarling, the quills that had drawn blood on the first were barely scratching his coat.

He cleared the nest with Arcane Surge and the Bloodfang Edge working in tandem, poison spreading through anything the blade touched, mana bolts finishing off whatever tried to flee. Nine kills, individually unremarkable, and then the collective reward once the last one dropped.

Ding!

[Lucky Fate has activated!]

[Rare Drop Probability significantly increased.]

[Iron-Quill Boarlings have dropped: 2100 Eternal Coins, 1 Boarling Hide (Uncommon).]

Then,

Ding!

[Talent Devourer: Residual Talent Energy Detected: "Quillcore Projectile"]

[Fragments Available: 9]

Leon accepted them without hesitation.

Nine fragments.

His eyes lingered on the options that appeared beneath the notification.

[Fuse 7 Fragments to acquire New Talent: Quillcore Projectile.]

[Or fuse Fragments into an existing Talent or Skill to grant it a Projectile Effect.]

Leon didn’t need long to consider his choice.

Seven fragments would be enough to form a completely new talent, and the remaining two could be put to use elsewhere. His gaze settled on Life Mend.

The Role Talent was powerful, but its biggest limitation was still the requirement for direct contact. That wasn’t a problem when healing himself or an ally standing beside him, but in the middle of a chaotic battle, getting close enough to touch an injured player could easily become a liability.

If he could turn Life Mend into a projectile, however, that limitation would disappear.

Leon selected the first option.

Ding!

[7 Fragments of "Quillcore Projectile" have been fused.]

[New Talent Acquired: Quillcore Projectile — Grade: D]

[Description: Allows the user to condense and launch specialized projectiles formed from their own energy. Projectile characteristics depend upon the user’s abilities and the effects infused into them.]

A new talent.

Leon gave the notification a brief glance before turning his attention to the remaining two fragments.

They weren’t enough to form another talent, so he selected Life Mend.

Ding!

[2 Fragments of "Quillcore Projectile" have been fused into Role Talent: Life Mend.]

[Life Mend has gained: Projectile Effect.]

[Description Updated: Life Mend can now be projected toward distant targets, allowing the user to restore the vitality of another individual without requiring direct contact.]

Leon smiled faintly.

That solved one of the biggest weaknesses of his healing ability.

He could now heal from a distance.

The exact range and effectiveness remained to be tested, but even having the option fundamentally changed how he could use Life Mend in combat.

With that taken care of, Leon continued his hunt.

By the third day, the marsh gave way to denser forest, and the forest gave way to something worse.

[Monster Detected: Venomous Thornback Serpent (x2)]

[Level: 7]

The irony wasn’t lost on him. He’d spent the last two days building a growing collection of poison talents, and here he was, facing off against a pair of serpents whose entire kit revolved around the exact same concept. The first bite caught him across the forearm before he could pull away, and Leon felt the familiar burn spread through his veins, sharper and more concentrated than the Fang Wolves’ howl had ever managed.

Ding!

[Poison inflicted: -8 HP per second.]

He didn’t panic. He’d been here before, and by the time the second serpent lunged, the burning in his veins had already dulled by half.

Ding!

[Absolute Adaptation has activated!]

[Your resistance to venom-based poison effects has increased significantly, building upon prior exposure.]

He killed both serpents within the next several exchanges, the Bloodfang Edge finding gaps between their scales that Origin Eyes highlighted for him the moment he engaged, faint golden lines threading across their bodies wherever the armor ran thinnest.

Talent Devourer pulled two fragments of "Venomous Bite" from the corpses. He fused them both directly into Poison Howl without a second thought, watching the notification confirm that.

Ding!

[2 Fragments of "Venomous Bite" fused into Talent: Poison Howl.]

[Description Updated: The poison effect now applies faster and lingers longer, with increased base potency.]