563 Blood Paradise
In a dark place, there existed a brilliant glitter accompanied by a magical whirring.
“Hahaha!!” A jovial laugh resounded intermittently amongst this whirring. Following each bout of laughter was a soft tremor that reverberated through the dark cavernous room.
Red rain sprinkled down on the laughing creature after the brilliant glitter turned into dazzling sparks enveloping the whole scene.
“This is it! This is what I wanted!” Their exorbitant emotion caused them to shake softly. They could hardly keep bound their emotions!
At first, they found their situation to be extraordinarily odd but after coming to terms with it… wasn’t their situation just… fine? While the shape they would take was never explicitly stipulated in the contract the outcome wasn’t… too disgusting?
Well, that would imply it was disgusting all the same but… still… Hadn’t they already thrown out their pride?
Thus, Marcus who had long ago abandoned that name came to realize they were in paradise. A paradise where the sea was made of blood and the ground of flesh but a paradise nonetheless.
For flesh and blood turned out to be the ultimate combination between life and death.
“I’ve been such a fool” What Marcus sought was with him all along, he had being a being of flesh and blood after all. The whole matter of attaining longevity now even seemed rather inane.
Technically, he was still a being of flesh and blood. But one key difference between his current and previous state was the newfound power the dungeon had gifted Marcus.
“The power of creation” This was the power he now commanded.
The whirring sound stopped and the fleshy cave where Marcus took shape calmed down. Finally, the glow of the bloody red mana also dimmed and total peace was achieved for a moment.
Only a moment.
Besides the mountain of flesh that was Marcus, the bloody ground began to move and contort and out of it came out a humanoid fleshy figure.
It had hollow sockets devoid of eyes that oozed out bright red blood and limbs with uneven proportions alienating it from any known creature. Marcus observed this creature with delight.
His first creation.
Marcus Epoch was giddy.
It had been a very long time since Marcus was revived and mastering this new power was what he poured all of his time into. Thanks to his status as a sage, he was surprisingly quick to adapt.
“Hmm…” But Marcus was still not entirely satisfied either. The creature he had just created was more akin to a zombie that lived only to fulfill his commands. While that was fine and dandy, this was not at all different from necromancy now, was it?
Clearly, Marcus had yet to properly make use of the life aspects of the blood magic.
Marcus’ thoughts were then interrupted as he sensed a disturbance. Per the bindings of the contract that had granted him his eternal life, he was to prevent any intruders from trespassing.
Emphasis on any.
The Bloodhaven was a hostile land that did not know friend from foe, human or not, no one was allowed to step foot into the fleshy landscape or their whereabouts would immediately be known.
In the past, the land would not be able to properly act upon this knowledge, but now, thanks to Marcus… The Bloodhaven was truly alive.
***
A minute or two earlier, In the surface, far off from the core of Marcus’ experiments, Ed and the elves were looking down a precipice. As they looked down, a foul stench managed to make it past their masks and into their nostrils.
“This is definitely the Bloodhaven” Sudryal commented grimly.
The other elves who had never come to the place did not need to be told this however, they knew it almost instinctively.
Ed who also did not need to hear this as he was already assessing the land, and he meant it literally.
[Mound of Flesh]
[ A normal mound of flesh and blood ]
[Mound of Flesh (Undead)]
[ An abnormal mound of flesh and blood brought to life by abundant mana ]
[Sniper Tissue (Undead)] ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
[ An elastic undead capable accurately launching projectiles ]
[Skeleton Vile (Undead)]
[ A skeletal beast whose bones have been covered in vile ]
The assessment skill delivered back to him a slew of information that caused Ed’s expression to darken.
‘Why is almost everything an undead?’ When Ed first read of mound of flesh he didn’t think much of it but after reading it twice he had to pay extra close attention. As it turned out, some mounds of flesh were undead and others were not.
Similarly, anything made of flesh that looked even a bit odd was likely to be an undead. The sniper tissue for example looked like elastic nerves that protruded from the ground. The skeleton vile on the other hand had the shape of a quadruped but its skeleton had cysts of green vile which looked nauseating and toxic.
These creatures were just what Ed could see from the vantage point they stood at. One could only speculate what kind of fiendish creatures they’d find deeper into the place.
More importantly…
“Step back everyone!” Ed shouted to the elves who did not hesitate for even a second.
A red beam zoomed past Ed and the elves who quickly took a step away from the precipice. This red beam had been a powerful jet of red blood and Ed was able to quickly find the source. At the bottom of the precipice, there existed a crater-like mound of flesh.
[Flesh Cannon (Undead)]
[ A mostly stationary undead capable of shooting highly poisonous jets of red blood ]
‘Highly poisonous?’ Ed was quickly alarmed.
“Did anyone get any blood on their body?!” Ed asked without missing a beat. The elves were all frightened by Ed’s worry but all shook their head without much delay.
“Good” Ed said in relief. If some blood landed on them and any of the elves accidentally had it enter their body death did not seem unlikely. Of course, Ed’s only basis for this conjecture was the assessment’s statement of highly poisonous but if the system couldn’t be trusted then what could?
On that note, Ed now had to consider how he could proceed based on the information from the assessments.
“Sudryal, do you recognize what just happened?” He decided to probe at Sudryal before proceeding as he grew a suspicion.
“Well… I think that was a stream of blood…” Sudryal said with uncertainty. Ed rolled his eyes, that wasn’t what he wanted to get as a response.
“I’m sorry, let me ask something else, why were we attacked immediately? How were things when you came here?” Ed suspected that the entire place was poisonous and or infectious so trekking the land seemed impossible.
That said, the elves had done it before and given that Ed was now a lot less confident he could only begin to wonder what the elves of the past had under their sleeves.
“There… There weren’t this many enemies before. It might be because of the stopped expeditions. The monsters have also stopped wandering the surface so they might be bunched up due to that” Sudryal responded while trying to recall every detail.
Ed nodded believing this information to be accurate but there was still one thing he couldn’t quite understand.
“How did you guys get down?” The monsters were supposedly capable of climbing up with enough determination but did the elves also take this route?
Sudryal made a helpless expression.
“I might have mentioned it before, it was from tunnels remember? But I heard they were destroyed after they were overrun by monsters” Sudryal said with a hint of lament.
“Where are those tunnels?” Ed continued to ask.
Sudryal was now truly helpless.
“I don’t know, the sands shift and the precipice crumbles changing the edge, its impossible to know for sure” The elderly elf said much to Ed’s dismay.
“In that case, we can only climb down” Ed said before channeling the power of the earth. Very quickly the sand began to move and make way for the ground beneath it to rise to the surface before it parted open to form slowly into stairs.
After not even a minute of the earth changing and adjusting Ed’s earthen mana ran into the blood and flesh and were devoured by its attributes.
The stairwell that Ed was forming could not possibly continue deeper so Ed gave in and made an exit door. This all happened while the elves stood behind him observing Ed’s magic at work.
“Amazing” The earthen mages that were at the scene took note of Ed’s achievement. To command the earth from long distance and without personally seeing the fruits of your labor was quite difficult!
As earthen elves, they themselves were hardly able to keep track of Ed’s doing.
“How can a necromancer control earthen mana better than me…” One said with a bit of remorse. How could they be so useless?!
With the stairs fully formed, a new tunnel directly into the blood haven now existed and the group could finally sink their feet into the fleshy ground of legends.
‘We can now proceed but…’ If Sudryal’s words were true, the number of monsters they were going to encounter was larger than normal. Could they properly deal with this threat?