Quill let out a pained groan as he watched the most recent cursed sin he killed slowly turn to dust “That could have gone a lot better” he grumbled, thankful that he only had one more of those fuckers left to go.
“You’re telling me, you let your guard down again. Got complacent. Just because you are now at an even higher level and those last two went by without issue doesn't mean you should just relax and let your guard down. Especially when you were using even fewer bombs than you had previously.”
She was right of course. He had noticed he was starting to run out of bombs by the time he killed the fourth cursed sin and so he split what he had left in half in order to kill the final two which was an even smaller amount. It still did a decent amount of damage, But it hadn't fully crippled the damn creature like the previous attempts did. He was going to have to keep that in mind when he tried to kill the final curse sin.
“By the way. you got a system notification.”
“Yeah I know, I'll check that in a sec, it's probably just telling me I leveled up again.” He had gained an additional 4 more levels putting him at level 33. “Surprise attack!”, “Dodge” and “survival instincts” had also leveled up once as well. He was kind of hoping his pseudo energy manifestation would level up also but sadly it hadn't yet. But the previous level up and extra stats did make the pile driver easier to manifest.
They continue to watch the fifth cursed sin slowly turning to dust which had become a small ritual for them at this point. For Quill it was just a chance for him to breathe, for her it was romantic. It made him question what her idea of romance was but he didn't care that much.
“Well that's just rude. you don't need to play hard to get, I know you love me.”
He was about to respond when a loud roar reverberated through the entire Grand Station.
Quill shot to his feet looking around frantically as he tried to guess the source of that roar. “What the hell?? What is going on??”
“You should really check that system notification.” She responded, slightly amused and he quickly did.
You have leveled up to lvl 34
Quest updated!
Kill the cursed beings infesting the tunnels!
Update-The final cursed sin is no longer in a passive state and now knows exactly where any individual or individuals who have killed its Brethren are at all times. And they are hungry
Quill stared at the prompt for a couple of seconds as his brain took time to comprehend what he was reading. “ What the actual hell?!?!?”
“ I know right?? You only got a single level out of that. Maybe this system is a cheapskate”
“Are you just trying to be difficult??” he yelled as he bounded up the stairs of the platform where he had been resting and ran towards the hall only to quickly screech to a stop as a giant, bony, red hand gripped the wall, it's claws digging into the stone as the front of the red cursed sin was dragged into view.
Its mouth was snapping and grinding its molars as if trying to devour the air itself with saliva dripping onto the floor with audible hisses and spits of its acid. More hands started to show gripping the walls as it pulled its bulbous body forward, slowly turning towards Quill as it audibly snarled.
Perhaps it was the fear aura or perhaps it was simply because it was no longer in a passive state. Either way Quill was officially terrified now while he stood momentarily paralyzed in fear as the monster now began dragging itself towards him.
“Not trying to be difficult. I just look forward to seeing how you'll get out of this one. Have full confidence in you!”
Her words snapped him out of his monetary paralysis. “Damn it!!” he screamed as he quickly pivoted and jumped down the stairs back to the platform as the cursed sin behind him let out a shrieking Roar. He had hoped to make it to the hidden tunnels. Both the trap door and a lot of the hidden tunnels were too small for the cursed sins bloated body to fit its body into. Sadly the route to the trap door in the grand station was blocked and now his hope was to run down the Metro tunnels to get to a different station in order to find its trap door.
“I don't think hiding will do much good if it knows where you will be at all times. You won't be able to make use of your surprise attack skill so you might as well try and fight the thing head on.” she spoke in a lackadaisical tone that was certainly not fitting for the situation.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
He didn’t really want to respond to her as what she said made sense. Perhaps it was just the shock or maybe the fear aura, whatever the case was he just wanted to get a little bit of distance from the monster so he could mentally rally. Or at the very least come up with a plan of how to deal with this sudden turn of events.
He quickly pulled out a health, stamina and mana potion. Chugged those down as quickly as possible. He then made sure to distribute his stat points on his level up as he continued to run down the metro tunnel so he could put as much space between him and the cursed sin as possible.
He was thankful his enhanced eyes had adjusted to the darkness of the metro tunnels by now and while it wasn’t perfect, he could still navigate with relative ease. At least he wasn’t tripping over the tracks themselves as he ran.
After several turns along the train track he came upon one of the smaller stations. His enhanced hearing could faintly pick up scrapes and shuffling deep within the tunnel but it was a fair distance away at this point. He had been almost capable of out-running the monster when he was a low level so it made sense that he could easily outrun the thing now. This was good, it meant he had plenty of time to find the secret tunnel entrance in this station and hide before it could properly catch up to him.
“And you didn't even have to manifest a skateboard either. though I do have to wonder.” her voice took on a quizzical tone. “ If the cursed sin who's no longer passive can't get to you, what do you think you will do next? It's not like there's anything else in this dungeon that it could eat. Oh wait! silly me, I totally forgot about all those poor innocent rat kin families that are just chilling and completely defenseless. Unaware of the situation that is happening.”
Quill instantly froze upon hearing her words, having not even gotten the chance to run up the stairs of the platform as she continued “I mean I couldn't care less what happens to them. but I would imagine all of those bodies would be enough to level up the cursed sin at least a few times. I wonder if it would be able to rank up? You thought trying to kill that thing now would be difficult? Imagine what it'll be like when it does level or even rank up.”
“I get it, I get it!” He quickly pivoted around trying to figure out how he was going to fight this thing without the element of surprise on his hands while frantically going through his storage ring as well to figure out what he could use aside from bombs.
He felt like trying to fight in the Metro tunnels themselves wouldn't work as it lowered his ability to maneuver around the cursed sin. So instead he decided to make his stand here. He hopped back down onto the train tracks and took a deep breath as he stared into the dark tunnel. His enhanced eyes not picking up anything but his hearing could as the sound of scraping and shuffling came ever so closer.
Slowly but surely, one of its giant red hands came into view as it gripped the floor, then a second, and a third, a fourth, a fifth, more and more hands came into few gripping the ceiling walls and floor and slowly pulled the cursed sins body into view. It was moving slow, methodical, likely not in a rush anymore since it knew Quill was before it. The whole scene was terrifying if he was being honest and he didn't even think that was because of the monster's passive fear effect.
Its giant mouth opened and with a gurgled speech that caused saliva to spit everywhere it spoke in the most unpleasant of voices. “Foodss! Why? Why have you killed my brethren? Why have you refused their gift? How have you refused their gift???”
“Holy shit it talks!”
“Holy shit it talks!”
They both ended up speaking at the same time, likely equally surprised that the ugly creature was capable of speech.
“Yesss” the cursed sin spat more saliva as it spoke “ I ssspeak. The system awoke me from my passive state that it imposed on me!” there was a mix of reverence and spite with each word that it spoke. “ Now answer me food. answer my questions!”
“And if I answer your questions, will you choose to spare me?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
“Yesss!” Its answer surprised him. “Answer my questions, and I shall give you the gift of being consumed. There is no greater honor one could possess than to feed me.”
“And the system calls you insane.”
“Yeah I have to agree with her. That doesn't sound like mercy or being spared. Guess I'll just have to die with you never knowing the truth.” he spoke in jest but the cursed sin seemed to take him seriously as it let out a gurgled snarl.
“You are wrong food! I will know! My origin demandsss all potential threats be assessed. If you will not tell me willingly then I sssshall take the information from you.” It then reached for him with one of its bony hands in a manner that came off as if it was expecting Quill to just stand there and let it grab him.
So Quill let the hand get close before quickly manifesting his pizza cutter and chopped the whole thing off at the wrist. Making sure to leap back several paces expecting for there to be a follow-up attack though none came as the monster's hand felt the ground with an audible thud.
The cursed sin brought its severed arm back but there was no howl of pain. The monster actually seemed way too collected given how the others tended to react when Quill hurt them.
Instead it reached with a different hand to grab the severed one and threw it into its mouth before biting down with an audible crunch. Both she and him watched in disgust as the worm ate its own hand.
After an audible gulp from the cursed sin, it then brought its severed hand into focus as if to show Quill. He then slowly watched the flesh from the stump begin to bubble and grow quickly regenerating into a new hand.
“ Ssssee food? the others you killed were still in a forcible passive state they only knew to eat. They could not think like I can. They could not use their abilities. Do you understand now that you hold no chance and sssuccess?”
Quill stared at the creature who seemed all too content to wait for his answer. Its arms seemingly slithering around in the open space like eager snakes, the claws occasionally scratching through the concrete leaving marks.
“Alright,” Quill finally spoke “I have been beating “no chance” odds since I got here. What’s one more for the road huh?”
“Atta boy! Kill this disgusting flesh mound and piss on its corpse!”
“Food sssshould know itssss place!!” And with that the cursed sin lurched forward with its mouth wide open as it’s hand swarmed towards his location.
