When I opened my eyes, the world felt... Light? It's like there's a white filter draped over my eyes. I imagine that if I ever see heaven, then this would be the kind of vibe it has. In this case, it came from the giant laser my trap shot at the fallen Warped.
"Holy shit..." I let out a gasp when I saw the state of the giant deer, a giant cavity of molten earth sits where the deer's head used to be. The pool of bubbling lava was at least a quarter of the deer's size. I don't know how deep it is but I'm guessing it's at least 8 feet.
At least.
Yeah... I definitely put too much power into this thing didn't I? How many monster cores would I have saved if I wasn't being over the top when making the trap? And was it worth the risk? Nah, definitely not.
Now that I think about it, killing a Warped while still being level 20 is a pretty big deal isn't it?
There's gotta be something waiting for me in my system if that's the case, I opened it and sure enough, I got a new sub class, and one with perks that will make even the strongest people weep in jealousy at that.
*Corrupted Giant Slayer
+10 Physical
+10 Magic
+5 Resistance
+Damage against stronger enemies
+Damage against bigger enemies
+Damage against higher leveled enemies
+Damage against Warped
+Damage against Aberrants
+Resistance to Corrupted Attacks
+Resistance to Magical Corruption
25 stats, several perks, all of them are beneficial and specifically tailored to fighting enemies who are stronger than me, what's not to love? Everything about this damn thing is great!
And then there's the 15 levels that I got from killing the Warped, I'm pretty sure that the bonus stats that I got from my new sub class got calculated for this as well so I lose nothing.
Name: Rontress Owelline.
Level: 35
Stats:
MAGIC: 655
PHYS: 293
DEX: 331
RES: 293
My current stats are more than enough to put me in the C rank within the adventurer's guild, actually, if I'm reading this right then I should be halfway to B rank already. Combine that with my passives and perks then I'm more than capable of fighting B rank adventurers.
And that's in a head on fight, I can fight dirty and use my traps if the need arises.
Not that I'll be able to do that, I'm close to death— I start coughing, blood spills, I silently praise my body for its great timing. — and it won't be long before I become an aberrant. I'll start to lose my mind and... Wait.
Wait.
The reason why the original Rontress killed Flotol wasn't because of the Humus dungeon was it? She became an aberrant somehow and when she did, she attacked her village!
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The answer to the question I have been asking all my life finally dawns on me and somehow, I'm half a step towards my grave already. Shit! Shit!
I grit my teeth and start running away from the magically charged area, screw giving up! I need to fix this before I actually become a monster and head to Flotol, funny how I became a monster faster than in canon.
Well, they do say that "one often meets their fate" in the road they wished to avoid it. Maybe I should have taken that kind of advice to heart? Firelight Chronicles has never really been about prophecies though, that's why this type of thing never crossed my mind until now.
With my stats, I'll be strong enough to wipe out Ghorise and since Ifira isn't here, there's no one who will be able to stop me.
Other than myself that is, but how do I fix this?
My main class can't realistically solve this right?
No, it can! It definitely can!
Blueprints take over my thoughts as I run back to my home, traps for corruption can be difficult to build and they're not a 100% perfect solution but they can help me, even if their effectiveness is temporary I don't really mind, I just need to give myself time to figure things out.
The door to my igloo opens and I grab a whole lot of wood. First off, I want to make a magic circle that will drain some of the magic invading my body, then once I stabilize I can start working on a contraption that will suck out the remaining corruption.
After that, miniature traps that constantly trap the magic entering my body and prevent build up will act as a bandaid that will keep me from becoming a full aberrant.
As for how I will permanently solve this? I did just kill a Warped, its diabolical core should remain intact for a good few months and no sane monster would want to eat it because they instinctively know it will kill them if they do.
First: I'll stabilize myself, second, I'll take the diabolical core, and third, I'll turn myself into an Inhuman, I don't really have a choice in what type I'll become so I don't care if I turn out to be an Elf, a Beastkin, or hell, a Dwarf would work just as well, the only thing that matters to me is my body getting reworked.
Once that happens, I'll lose the corruption entirely, I might even become more resistant to it depending on what I become.
But again, if the closest and easiest materials for me to obtain just so happens to turn me into a Dwarf then who cares? The corruption just needs to go away.
Small blocks of wood with single letter runes written on them got placed on the snow, their patterns eventually spelling out the word "purification" at the center, similar words are on the edges of the magic circle as well.
I start drawing the circuitry on the snow, connecting the runes and completing the magic circle. Last but not least, I grab one of the remaining monster cores I have and place it at the center of the circle.
My legs encircle the core as I sit above the circle cross-legged, a slow chant comes out of my mouth, the care I put into making sure I didn't mess this up made my words precise and well spoken. An accent I didn't know I had revealed itself as well, a side effect of one of my sub classes, no doubt.
The magic circle activates and I feel the corruption taking root in my body get flushed out and the smell of rotting wood enters my nose. I'll need to move to another igloo soon.
Only a small portion of the corruption got taken away and yet I feel relieved from it, I didn't really need to know this to realize that what I'm going through is terminal.
After the ritual, I looked down at my hand, the tentacles have shortened and the coloration of my skin lost its darker shades, some of the mutations have disappeared as well, a good few have shrunk down.
With that, I grabbed the remaining materials inside my igloo— I also bagged anything I didn't need so that when I was done I could just go ahead and leave. — and brought them outside to make a trap for the corruption.
Using the bones, meat, and fat of monsters, I created a "battery" that will hold the magical energy inside of me. I wrapped it around wood enchanted with runes that prevent magical leakage and assuming that the battery becomes full, use the magical energy it contains to burn itself to ashes.
As much as I love mimics, I don't want to deal with one right now.
Building the trap in full took hours, I did more purification rituals/miniature corruption traps while I worked and by the end, had around 7 of them surrounding the contraption.
All the used magic circles are already affecting their surroundings, plants that shouldn't be able to grow during winter or had features that normal members of their species don't have begun to sprout on top of or around the ritual sites.
Constantly using them will definitely mess up the rain forest's ecosystem, the contraption I just built will keep both myself and this forest safe.
The finished trap looked like a single pole tent, only that it's made of wood.
A hole in the front serves as the entrance and walking in, you'd see a magic circle on the ground and glowing runes on the walls, 6 monster cores powered the magic circle. I didn't want to make it less efficient so the placement of the runes came from my trap this time.
None of it made sense to me but it didn't have to, they just needed to work.
I found my place in the center of the magic circle, I took a deep breath and as my mind stilled, started to chant.
