Chapter 384: Abyssal Spawn
"These are not really that easy to deal with." Meira bit her lips as she had to repeatedly assault the same single abyssal spawn multiple times to finally get rid of it. Every time her flame struck, the abyssal spawn shuddered, pieces of it melting away, only to reform moments later with a hiss that sent a chill down her spine.
Her brow dripped with sweat, her crimson flames flaring hotter and hotter as she forced herself to keep blasting the same target until it finally bit the dust. Thankfully, at least the experience points were plenty.
And she was not the only one finding everything difficult to handle. Sylvara, Kate, and Phoenix were also struggling to put their targets down. Ghost and Mark had it easier than they did, but Mark had to use his abilities without holding back, and Ghost had to finally reveal himself to everyone, unable to silently finish his target like his usual style.
On the other side, Kaelthorn and Erin were running amok on the battlefield. Kaelthorn’s eyes glinted with a mad frenzy, and his blade slashed down the abyssal spawn as if they had an unholy vendetta against him.
Each swing of his weapon carved through black ichor, the air ringing with the wet crunch of cleaved bodies. He looked less like a swordsman and more like a beast loosed from its cage. It was clear that he was desperate to prove himself.
Erin simply transformed to her original self, her beastial figure possessing overwhelming physical strength more than enough to handle these mindless spawn. "My lord, this place is making me stronger." She hissed with bloodlust in her eyes.
"Dude, where did you find this one? She is low-key very scary, but I am into it." Ghost messaged him.
"You have no idea how scary she is." Damon laughed and continued culling down the first wave. Their numbers were simply ridiculous, and everyone finally understood what Damon meant when he said that their strength was in numbers.
The only plus point was that they were amazing experience points bags. Everyone was leveling up faster than they ever had before. By the time the first wave finally broke, the ground was slick with black ichor.
Everyone panted, battered and bruised, yet their levels surged higher than they’d ever dreamed possible in such a short span.
"Let’s take a quick break." Damon absent-mindedly mumbled as his gaze fell on the black liquid splashed everywhere. He could sense a dark, bleak, murky energy dwelling within it. Something he had not sensed before. Then, suddenly, a thought struck him. Could he maybe extract this as well?
The abyssal sludge or ichor could also be considered as a type of lifeblood to these creatures from the abyss. So it wouldn’t be all that shocking for him to be able to absorb it and use it.
Damon crouched low, his crimson eyes gleaming as he dipped two fingers into the ichor. The substance clung to his skin unnaturally, thick and tar-like, almost alive. His lips curved into a sharp grin. "Lifeblood is lifeblood. Let’s see if you’re mine to take."
Just like how he usually sensed blood essence or poison essence and siphoned it into his body, he intuitively tried to siphon this one as well.
The ichor resisted at first, writhing violently, lashing against his will as if it carried the grudges of the countless lives devoured within it. For a moment, Damon thought it might tear his veins apart, but then the resistance broke.
[Ding!]
[You have absorbed Abyssal Residuum. Temporary debuff: Abyssal Corrosion – Your health regeneration is halved for 10 minutes.]
[New trait unlocked: Abyssal Infusion (Unstable) – You may now channel abyssal ichor into your skills for enhanced damage. Prolonged use will erode sanity.]
Damon’s crimson eyes flickered with faint streaks of darkness as the ichor sank into him. A wave of power swept through his core. His blood felt heavier, hungrier, as though it wanted to spill from his veins and writhe like the tendrils outside. He clenched his fists, steadying his breath. "Interesting."
The new stuff gave him both buffs and debuffs but he had a feeling that this was just the beginning. He continued absorbing whatever he could from the surroundings.
Barely, a couple of minutes had passed by when a new wave of abyssal spawn started pouring out a fissure on the ground.
The ground shook as dozens, then hundreds, spilled from the cracks in the streets of Lotera, their bodies flowing like black rivers of tar given form. The air thickened, pressing down on the group with suffocating malice.
"Time to get back to work." Damon grinned. He once again conjured a fire lance and started killing the monsters left and right, paving a path of black ichor but this time before he completely finished off a monster, he tried absorbing its essence first.
Almost instantly, the notification he was looking for arrived. He had actually managed to trigger Bloodline extraction even for these abyssal spawn!
[Ding! You have extracted the ability Abyssal Resilience]
Abyssal Resilience (Passive, D-Rank): An ability possessed by the creatures of abyss. It increases the resistance to the corrosive Abyssal ichor from the eternal Abyssal lake.
Damon’s crimson eyes gleamed as the notification flickered before him. "So it works..."
He read the skill description a couple of times. While at first glance it simply gave him resistance to the abyssal ichor, the skill actually gave him the knowledge of something he never knew before. What the hell was an Abyssal Lake? Did all the creatures of the Abyss originate from here?
More importantly, if he increased this resistance, would the debuff disappear? Knowing his adaptive body, Damon had an inkling that he was onto something.
Without hesitation, he struck down another and absorbed its essence as well. This time he merely received a +1 intelligence. It was fine. He had loads and loads of these monsters to mooch off.
These abyssal spawn weren’t just mindless experience points fodder to him any longer, they were also treasure chests of some sort of twisted power and he was about to get a shit load of them.