The Curator
patreon
Chapter 18: (The Attack Part 3)
🕑 Added 2024-10-10 16:01:37 +0000 UTC
Chapter 18: (The Attack Part 3)
Thalion knew that in this new reality, gods existed after all, he was enduring all this chaos with the goal of becoming one someday. But how did that vampire get an item from a literal god, and with an ancient rarity no less? Just how was that possible?
He stored the vampire's body and the Bud in his spatial inventory, but he had more pressing matters to deal with. First, he pulled out all the orc corpses and began Devourer's Feast. It took some time to consume all the orcs, but the payoff was substantial.
You have gained 36 Strength
You have reached Level 23
He saved the last vampire corpse after visiting the system shop. If that vampire had more surprises in his body, Thalion didn’t want to push his luck. Maybe he could also buy some information about vampires and their gods, which might shed some light on this situation.
Thalion ignored all the notifications about the orcs he had killed. It seemed that even if he only assisted in a kill, he still received a notification, though it likely resulted in less experience gained. The progress he made that night was remarkable; in his human form, he reached level 24, bringing him close to the crucial level 25. shadowstalker reached level 23, and glowhorn was at level 21. He wondered if he could evolve just one form or if he needed to evolve them all simultaneously.
He allocated his points, focusing on vitality in his human and glowhorn forms and investing more in strength as shadowstalker. After devouring the orcs, he was fully healed, though his leg still ached where the thorn had struck him.
With that, he made his way back to the camp in his human form. As he approached, he saw a group of over 20 survivors surrounded by Thorwald and his followers. The ground was littered with more human corpses than when he had left. Thalion spotted Kai and Kael trying to hold off the attackers while protecting the low-level survivors and crafters behind them. Sylas was also alive, but he didn’t look good. Blood was streaming down the right side of his face as he struggled to hit the approaching heavy warriors with spells, which were being fully blocked by a shield skill.
It seemed Thorwald and his group had the same plan as the orcs: kill as many survivors as possible to maximize their profit from the system's store. Thorwald’s group mainly consisted of heavy warriors, but they also had a few mages, one or two archers, some light and medium warriors, and one healer.
As the circle of survivors grew smaller, Thorwald spoke with a malicious grin on his face: "You’ve lost. Kill Kael, and I’ll allow you to serve me."
"Like all the other low-level people you slaughtered? You even killed the children," Kael answered, disdain clear in his voice.
Thalion had made his way to the wall, where an archer and a mage from Thorwald’s group were positioned. He downed a mana potion, then hurled three fireballs, one large one for the archer and mage, one for Thorwald, and another for Thorwald just to drive the point home.
Since they probably thought he’d been killed by the two vampires, his appearance was quite the surprise. The archer and mage were sent flying off the wall; the mage landed badly, breaking both his feet and crying out in pain. Thorwald was lucky. Thalion didn’t want to hit any of his allies if Thorwald dodged, so he aimed a bit lower. The result was the big brute being flung to the side, with the second fireball missing entirely.
"You!" Thorwald screamed in anger. "Why aren’t you dead? No matter, I’ll personally end your life."
Kael and Kai were quick to seize the opportunity, using the distraction to their advantage and attacking the closest warriors. Unfortunately, Thorwald, though having traveled quite the distance, remained frustratingly out of reach. Sylas and the nearby mage also sprang into action, putting pressure on the heavy warriors.
Thalion responded to Thorwald with a mocking tone, "I’m so sorry for the interruption. Please accept this precious gift as my apology." With that, he began hurling fireballs at the furious Thorwald, who blocked them with his shield. However, the explosions were strong enough to make him slide a meter to the side.
Thalion watched as Thorwald looked around, then did something unexpected. The man shouted, "Retreat!"
With that, Thorwald and his goons began a slow retreat into the jungle, shields raised to block any incoming attacks. Of course, Thorwald kept screaming the whole time, shouting things like, "You’ll never be safe," and "I’ll come for you, you’re all nothing," and so on. Thorwald certainly had creativity in that department, Thalion mused.
He jumped down and gave the survivors his last potion. He didn’t need it at the moment, but they looked almost dead. Most of the fighters were lying on the ground, completely spent.
"Thank god you didn’t take any longer," Kael huffed, fully exhausted. "What happened? They said vampires killed you—I should have known better."
"On another topic, do you need the orc corpses?" Thalion asked, completely innocent.
"No?" Kael responded, still lying on the ground with Sophia helping him recover.
"Great," and with that, Thalion was off collecting all the orc corpses he could find.
After Thalion gathered all the orc corpses, the fighters had also recovered.
"We need to rebuild. They will come back, the orcs and Thorwald," Kael muttered. "I don’t want to bring it up, but he’s got more warriors now, and after killing so many of ours, they’ve probably got way more credits too. And they’re not spending it on building structures or keeping the weak ones safe. If it comes to a fight, it doesn’t look good."
"What else should we do?" Kael muttered. "Give up everything?"
"Well, you’re not giving up much," Thalion said. "What I suggest is to travel. It might be safer to move out in the next few days, maybe create another outpost somewhere else."
"Anyway, you should start moving by early morning at the latest. I wouldn’t be surprised if Thorwald comes after you the moment he gets his upgrades from the system store," he added.
"Right, that sounds like something that bastard would do," Kael answered, deep in thought. "Why do you speak like you’re leaving us?"
"I’m close to level 25 and will probably advance to stage three soon," he said. "By any chance, do you know where the birds or Lumina Mantas live?"
"Not directly, but I saw blue birds with four wings always flying west after catching prey, so maybe you’ll find them in that direction," Kael answered, puzzled. "When we were hunting for the last level, we killed a glowhorn. Killing that beast should give you enough experience to level up."
"Ah, I kind of like those creatures," Thalion replied. "I’d feel bad hunting them," he said, trying to come up with an excuse.
"Okay, that’s weird," Kael retorted. "Who’s doing the first shift?" he addressed the rest of the group. "I really need some rest."
After that, the group began discussing what to do in the coming days, except Thalion, who sat off to the side checking his status screen. He had a new skill. He didn’t notice it before, but back then, he had been in a rush, so he read it now.
Morphic Adaptation (Rare):
This skill allows the shapeshifter to permanently transfer specific physical traits from one form to another, creating a lasting hybrid form. For instance, the shapeshifter can take the wings of a sky razor Hawk and graft them onto a Panther, granting the panther the ability to fly. In this process, the original creature, like the sky razor Hawk, permanently loses the transferred trait. This irreversible transfer allows the shapeshifter to craft unique, powerful forms tailored to their needs.
This skill looked powerful, though he had no use for it at the moment. When he found a promising beast, he would acquire its form, splice the attributes he liked most, then discard the form entirely. Also, he had no idea what to do. Adding wings to shadowstalker didn’t sound like a good idea. It's better to keep the bird form for flying, if he would get one at all.
Well, hopefully, he would find a use for this skill soon. Another thing he hadn’t noticed was his credit score, which had shot up to 21,080 credits. The vampires had probably contributed the most, but holy shit, this was massive. Before the fight, he hadn’t even surpassed 5,000 credits, mostly because eating berries didn’t reward any. He wondered what cool stuff he could buy with so many credits.
Thalion took the first night shift, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the system shop.
