Chapter 20 – Paths of Corruption

  They were back in the community room once again. It had become the official meeting and eating area. Zephyr paced around excitedly meeting the new Familiars while waiting for everyone to get settled in for what she had to say. Jack and Elaine were busy cooking what remained of their quickly dwindling supply of food. They would need to go out hunting soon enough.

  “You know,” Jack said preparing some of the mushrooms. “I still haven’t gained a single level in cooking since I got this class. Is there something I’m doing wrong?”

  “Well,” Elaine said over the cooking pot. “You get experience from the completion of a craft or in this case, meal. You only been helping to prepare the food so far.”

  “Guess that makes sense,” Jack said. “Wait, if you knew that why haven’t you said anything before? Have you been hogging all the experience.”

  Elaine looked away sheepishly.

  “I don’t believe it!” Jack said shocked. “You have.”

  “We really don’t need two cooks for this many people, and I am almost level ten in my cooking profession,” Elaine explained. “We get new abilities or things to help us in our profession every five levels. I promise, I’ll switch over to working on my Alchemy once I hit that level and you can take over cooking for a time then.”

  “Fine,” Jack said. “It’s not that I mind. I even understand. I was more shocked you felt you needed to keep it secret.”

  “Not so much as secret as wasn’t sure how to bring it up,” Elaine said. “People can get rather possessive about their experience and classes. Especially when there isn’t a lot of it going around. I wasn’t kidding about not really needing two cooks for this many people. I helped keep the entire Wenduags’ camp fed by myself.”

  “I get it,” Jack said. “We’ll just have to figure something out for the future.”

  “Hey Jack,” Zephyr came floating over excitedly. “I saw…”

  “Ya two finished cooking yet?” Savgar yelled from across the room interrupting Zephyr.

  “We’re almost done,” Elaine said. “Zephyr can start explaining what she found if it helps.”

  “I don’t care about that,” Savgar said. “Haven’t eaten in a day.”

  “I left rations,” Elaine yelled back.

  Savgar only grumbled at that.

  “Go ahead and start,” Daniel told Zephyr, bringing Zephyr’s attention back to the task on hand. “What did you find when you went scouting outside?”

  “Okay! So, I flew around for a bit, just a little bit, and then I found a rock, all by its lonesome, such a sad thing, so I went down to see if it was okay and guess what, it wasn’t a rock at all, it only looked like one, it was actually a pebble…”

  Victor groaned. “Skip to the part where you when to the Wenduags’ camp.”

  “You can’t just skip to the middle of a story,” Zephyr complained. “You have to start at the beginning. Everyone knows this.”

  “It took you hours last time to get to that point,” Victor said. Elaine and Jack were now passing out food while everyone listened intently to Zephyr. “And you are already making the story longer than last time.”

  “I’m working on my storytelling!”

  “Perhaps given the situation,” Daniel said. “We can start in the middle for now and then you can tell me the full story after.”

  “You promise?” Zephyr asked.

  “I promise,” Daniel agreed.

  “Fine,” Zephyr said, taking a breath before beginning again. “If I told this story correctly, then you’d know that I didn’t find any trace of Clayton or the Wenduags in the jungle. I wanted to know what they were up to, so I went to see them in their camp. Oh yeah, the camp has had some serious renovations since we were last there. It looks completely different now, but I think that was due to all the spiders. There are a lot of them still there. Anyways, I made myself invisible and started exploring the camp, but I still couldn’t find Clayton. So, I went up to the area I remembered he and some of his elites liked to spend their time, and that was where I found him working on some kind of ritual.”

  “A ritual?” Daniel asked. “Can you describe it?”

  Zephyr shook her head. “He was using a dagger and lots of blood, but the diagram was too small and the Wenduag was in the way for me to see it properly.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “You forgot the part about the person he was tattooing it on,” Victor said.

  “I haven’t forgotten,” Zephyr said. “I was getting to it.”

  Daniel was stroking his chin as he thought.

  “What does it mean?” Jack asked. “That sounds ominous.”

  “I’ve never heard of a ritual like that,” Daniel said. “There shouldn’t be any possibility of Clayton knowing and being able to perform a complicated, obscure ritual like that even if he does have a Daemon whispering him secrets.”

  “What this about a Daemon?” Jasper asked perking up.

  “It’s hard to explain right now,” Jack said to Jasper before turning back to Daniel. “So how could he have learned something like that?”

  “I might have an answer to that,” Sylvian said. “I spoke with… the moderator of the Trial and learned a few things. Clayton was here but when he finished the Trial he had the moderator send him somewhere in the city. Afterwards, he was able to teleport back to the Trial and left through the entrance. The moderator couldn’t tell me more, but I had it send me to the same place after I finished the Trial.”

  “I’m fairly certain the place I was sent to was deep in the city, far from everything,” Sylvian said pulling out several books from her Storage as she spoke. “I couldn’t figure out the exact location. It might not even be accessible without teleporting. But I did find a strange area. It looked like jail cells but too small to fit people. Each of the cells were gated but open, and the only thing remaining within were blank tomes like these. I only took a few for reference, but no two were alike.”

  She handed the books around. Daniel picked up one to examine as the others were passed around the group to look at. The books appeared ancient and leather bound with a depiction of something Jack didn’t even want to understand on the cover. None of the books had any writing on or in it.

  “I think we can safely assume that Clayton accomplished his mission,” Daniel said putting the book down.

  “You know what these are?” Zajowle asked.

  “No, but with everything we been told already,” Daniel said. “He wouldn’t have left the city unless he got what he came for.”

  “So, another Blood Mage walks the land,” Savgar grunted. “Well, we were already going to kill him. This just gives us more of a reason to.”

  “That can’t be possible,” Ciao interjected. “That path was locked long ago, along with several others.”

  Everyone went silent at the cat’s comment. “What do you mean locked,” Jack eventually asked when he realized Ciao wasn’t going to explain further.

  “There was a time when a lot of paths were created that proved to be very dangerous,” Jasper answered instead. “Not just in the first realm but all the others as well. Divine Beings and powerful creatures of Corruption, known as Daemons, fought in a near endless war in the Immortal realms. The Divine Beings had the System though and with it they were quickly starting to overwhelm the Deamons. That was when the Daemons found a foothold, a way to get the System to work for them too.”

  “Paths of corruption,” Daniel muttered. “The Daemons created them then? Is that how they came into being?’

  Jasper shook his head. “According to all known recorded histories of such time. The paths were created the same way all paths are. People trying to find some new power to make their own. But those paths lead to places that shouldn’t have been walked, and the Daemons were quick to take advantage. The Divine Beings believe that the System was only for them and were caught unaware as the Daemons quickly grew in power under the System guidance. Through it they found more paths and started regaining power, enough to push the Divine Beings back.”

  “Yes, yes,” Ciao said. “We all heard the stories. It is irrelevant. What is important is that those paths of corruption were locked away long ago.”

  “How long ago?” Jack asked. “Was it around the time that the Akashic Order was active?

  Ciao looked up at Jack pondering. “I’ve heard that it was done by a secret group of powerful people. The Akashic Order would certainly fit that description, but it has only been a few millennia since they been locked away. No one has heard of the Akashic Order being active at that time.”

  “If what you are saying is true though,” Elaine said. “Then it is entirely possible that they were locked away here.”

  “It would explain why a Daemon would be pushing for Clayton to find the city,” Daniel muttered. “The effort would be entirely worth it if that was the case.”

  “All that means is that Clayton is a Blood Mage now,” Teresa said. “But what does that mean for us?”

  “I’m not sure,” Daniel said. “He can’t have made it very far in his path, so he might not have the more dangerous abilities yet, but there are stories about Blood Mages controlling entire armies of people.”

  “The long-forgotten city of blood,” Jasper nodded. “Sangwen.”

  “Another of the lost cities,” Ciao said. “But one that no one wants to find.”

  “All I am hearing is that we shouldn’t wait,” Savgar nodded. “We have the opportunity now to stop him before he gets to that level. Just like with the goblins. We put a stop to them before they were able to establish their town and King. We just need to do that again, but before Clayton can get a handle on his class.”

  “It’s not that simple,” Sylvian said. “Clayton already has an army of beasts right now.”

  “And he’s smart,” Victor said. “I don’t think he will let his guard down.”

  “Who was Clayton performing the ritual on?” Elaine asked.

  “I didn’t get a good look at him,” Zephyr said. “The Wenduags were holding him down as Clayton worked and I was only there for a few moments before Clayton noticed me. His eyes did that flashy thing that Jack’s does sometimes. Then I had to fly. Wenduags are fast.”

  “We at least know three things,” Zajowle said. “First, Clayton’s army of beasts also now extends to spiders. Second, he somehow unlocked the Blood Mage class. If nothing else the ritual should be enough to prove that. You even mentioned that it shouldn’t be possible for Clayton to know of such a thing. Which means something must have taught him. If not the Daemon, then it could have been what he gained from the new class. And third, he has captured more people.”

  “Where would he have found them though,” Teresa asked.

  “You know,” Jack said. “For a place known for being incredibly dangerous that few ever return from. There are a lot of people that keep appearing here.”

  “That reminds me,” Zephyr said. “I found another human wandering the jungle.”

  “Another human?” Jack repeated. All the humans perked up at that.

  “Not that big of a surprise,” Savgar said. “You humans are always appearing in places you shouldn’t.”

  “It was right after I managed to get away from the Wenduags,” Zephyr said. “He said he knew you and that his name was Bryant.”