Path of Dragons-Chapter 63Book 8: : Horrors Aplenty

After catching his breath and taking a few minutes to rest, he marshalled his willpower and forced himself down the vine-strewn path. Immediately, the tendrils of flesh went wild as they tried to kill him. Fortunately, while the Verdant Fang might have been a bit awkward to use as a normal weapon, it was perfect for slicing through errant vegetation.

So he went, steadily reaping the vines that stood in his way until, after another mile or so, he finally reached another intersection. Blessedly, it was free of creeping vines, so he took that as an opportunity to get a little more rest. He ate and drank, noting that his supply of grove fruits had begun to dwindle, then lay down to get as much sleep as he could manage.

Once again, sleep came in fitful spurts. Even if his mind wasn’t going wild, his experiences only a few days before kept him from truly committing to sleep. Back then, he’d dozed off only to awaken with a millipede trying to crawl into his ear. Thankfully, the pinch of its mandibles was enough to wake him up.

Even now, he shuddered at what might have been. The idea of having his brains eaten by a crawling bug was enough to keep sleep at bay.

But he still needed rest. No matter how high his Constitution was, his recent exertion coupled with the stress of the situation meant that he was exhausted. And because he hadn’t really slept in weeks – except in short bursts – he never had the chance to fully recover.

Slowly but surely, he was being worn down.

His healing spells helped. So did his high attributes. But he hadn’t graduated to a level that would allow him to completely forego rest. Perhaps he never would.

In any case, Elijah stayed in place for most of the next day, using the blessed peace to recuperate as much as possible. He didn’t sleep much, but he did rest. And he ate enough that by the time he decided to continue on, he felt much better about his prospects. Before he got going, though, he did take a look at his status:

Name

Elijah Hart

Level

164

Archetype

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Druid

Class

Primal Lord

Specialization

Connection

Alignment

Empire of Scale (Dragon)

Strength

592 (409)

Dexterity

594 (395)

Constitution

574 (418)

Ethera

469 (394)

Regeneration

543 (423)

Attunement

Nature

Cultivation Stage: Expert

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Body

Core

Mind

Soul

Bronze

Drakyn

Jade

Student

He’d gained an incredible four levels since entering the Abyssal Glassworks. It would have been surprising if he discounted just how many monsters he’d killed. The number wasn’t on par with the carnage he’d authored outside of Vey’thaal, but the quality of his opponents definitely made up for it. The huge glass serpent alone had been responsible for almost a level’s worth of progression, and he’d killed hundreds – if not thousands – of weaker creatures since then.

If he managed to make it out alive – and he had to believe he could do just that – he stood to set himself even further apart from the rest of humanity. Already, he was one of the highest level people on the planet. And he refused to believe that anyone else could match his current rate of progression.

No – he was getting further and further ahead.

The system rewarded risk, and he couldn’t envision anyone else risking more than him. The fact that he hadn’t done so intentionally was irrelevant. He was stuck, and the only way out was through. With that in mind, he pushed ahead, traversing the vine-strewn Veinroot Hollow with the same stoic determination he’d employed throughout his time in the Primal Realm.

He sank deep within himself, inoculating his mind from the horrors he experienced. He went through the motions mechanically as day after day was filled with more and more malformed and macabre monstrosities. If it wasn’t the flesh spiders, it was creeping and crawling creatures that should not have existed. None of them were natural, and in fact, they felt even more offensive than typical monsters.

Elijah didn’t understand what he felt, but he refused to dwell on what that meant. Instead, he forged ahead. He killed when necessary – which was often – but he also avoided fights on those rare occasions when discretion was possible.

Days passed along the same pattern. At times he managed to sleep for a couple of hours, but those instances were rare. And at some point, he ran out of grove fruits. That was when he started eating the monsters.

And to his inevitable disgust, he didn’t hate the taste, which reminded him of pork.

Or maybe chicken.

Regardless, he had no choice. It was either that or starve, and Elijah’s drive to survive was far too strong to simply surrender to starvation – and death – just because he wasn’t enamored with the cuisine on offer.

But at least he could cook it.

Eating it raw wasn’t such a problem in his bestial forms, but there was something about feasting on the raw meat of such mutated monsters that turned his stomach. So, he looked upon the ability to roast it over a small fire of burning flesh vines as something of a silver lining.

And he was well aware of what it said about the state of his life that he would regard being able to cook his monster meat as a ray of hope.

In a lot of ways, it reminded him of his time in his first tower. Back then, he’d been woefully overmatched, too. But somehow, he’d made it work. He endeavored to follow that same pattern in this Primal Realm.

Eventually, after spending far too long just wandering through the ravines, Elijah noticed a pattern. He could feel it in the vines – a subtle flow of ethera and vitality – that he decided to follow. After all, he didn’t feel like he was getting anywhere any other way, and all his other attempts to discern a pattern to the maze-like system of ravines had been fruitless.

As he followed the trail of ethereal breadcrumbs, Elijah felt the pulses grow stronger and stronger, which distracted him from his surroundings.

That was a mistake, as it happened.

If he’d been paying attention, he would have noticed the ethereal signature of the rock sitting against the wall. However, in his distracted state, he was practically on top of it when he realized that it was different.

His realization wasn’t quick enough, and before he could react, the thing unfolded into a horrifying monster with a gaping maw filled with razor sharp teeth. It chomped down on his arm, nearly severing the limb in a single bite. It would have been successful if Elijah didn’t immediately embrace the Verdant Fang’s Dragon’s Echo trait, then cast Nature’s Bloom. Two instances of the first spell hit at the same time, mending his rent flesh as quickly as it was shredded by the monster’s sharp teeth.

Panicking, Elijah then embraced Blessing of the Grove. Even as the sunflower manifested, a green shield enveloped him. It wasn’t strong, but for the next thirty seconds, it would continue to refresh. That gave a cast of Wild Resurgence a chance to mend the damage. More importantly, he used his other hand to aim an overhand hack with the scythe-like Verdant fang. The blade sunk deep into the monster’s rock-like carapace, rending the flesh beneath and squirting blue blood high into the air.

He used Storm’s Fury.

The creature seized, its muscles contracting out of control. That allowed Elijah enough room to yank his arm free. Doing so took quite a lot of his flesh with it – in places, down to the bone – but as he stumbled backward, the worst of those injuries mended.

And that gave Elijah the room he needed to transform into the Shape of Thorn. The second the metamorphosis completed, he threw himself at the monster, wrapping his vines around the thing and using his claws to rip it to shreds. He didn’t bother with any abilities. Like most ambush predators, it lacked true durability, so Elijah had no issues tearing it apart.

Unfortunately, what it lacked in durability, it made up for in an ability to regenerate, so even after the thing was disabled, Elijah was forced to spend almost an hour finishing it off.

Only when it had been reduced to a pile of bloody flesh did Elijah feel the surge of experience that marked it as having been slain. When his safety was assured, he let himself resume his human form, then re-cast his spells. As he recovered, he forced himself to acknowledge just how close he’d come to dying.

He was exhausted. Focusing was more than difficult. And yet, he couldn’t afford to let himself succumb to that. He needed to be at the top of his game, or he was never going to survive the ordeal.

With that in mind, he settled down to complete his recovery and prepare himself to meet any additional challenges the Veinroot Hollow could throw his way.