Vex continues passed me, still scanning the horizon for any structures. I take a step to follow behind him, but a searing pain rips through my left arm for a split-second. Instantly, the pain vanishes, as though it wasn't real. I look at my left arm, noticing several more thorns have appeared. The black tattoo seemingly pulses, as though connected to my heart. Each beat causes it to pulse louder and louder, then, silence.
The tattoo returns to being only decorative, causing me to feel a strange sense of relief. No concern or confusion runs through my mind, only happiness that the feeling had subsided. I raise my head and see Vex staring at me, his right hand on his sword and standing ready.
"Had me worried, you suddenly started staring at your tattoos and mumbling to yourself. I'm assuming you're okay now?"
I nod, raising an eyebrow at the sight of him holding his weapon. Vex lets go of his sword's handle and drops his arm, clearly at ease. I notice Warren and Kain both had their hands near their weapons as well.
I scoff and quickly walk towards Vex.
"As if I'd attack any of you."
I grumble, bumping into Vex's shoulder while walking passed him. He sighs and follows behind me while we continue through the strange snow. After a few minutes of walking, the snow on the ground turns into sand. I don't care, still moving forward just as easy as I was before.
While walking, I notice something explode outwards a pretty good way infront of us. A massive tail raises up and two huge claws seemingly extend through the kicked up sand. A massive scorpion walks through the sand, clearly staring at us. I smile, hoping to level up again, and dash forward.
I quickly get within range to see its level, name, and full size. Its tail comes about fifty feet from the ground, but its main body is only about ten feet tall.
I sigh and stop running.
"That wouldn't give me any experience at all."
I hold out my hand.
"[Telekinesis 2], [Hellfire 10]."
The scorpion floats off the ground and black flames punch a hole through its hard carapace, instantly melting all of the flesh beneath it. I drop it and look around. I notice several other stingers jutting from the sand about a hundred feet to my right. I dash towards them, watching them explode upwards.
Five scorpions all emerge from the sand, all the same size as the previous one.
I sigh deeply, clenching my fist in anger.
"Come on! Where's the big one!? [Teleport 2]!"
I appear over the Level 211 scorpion and use Flurry: X42. Its body explodes from the impact, and I proceed to use the same strategy on all of the scorpions. Two take wild swings at me with their stingers, but I grab them by the tips and rip the stingers off. After killing all five, a notice appears.
[Skill Evolved!]
[Flurry X42 > Flurry X84]
I laugh slightly and look at my fists.
"So the more I use the skill, the better it gets. Makes sense."
I feel the ground rumble heavily and a massive stinger raises out of the ground. It towers about seventy feet over me and slams down towards me. Feeling confident in my own ability, I jump towards the stinger, slightly dodging it and grabbing it.
With one swift motion, I rip it off and jam the stinger downward towards the sand. It hits something solid under the sand and bounces away. A massive scorpion rises up and its eyes look up to me.
I sigh, saddened by the fact I won't receive any experience from this either.
"[Teleport 1]."
I appear on the scorpions eyes.
"Flurry: X84."
I slam my fists against its head and eyes over and over, completely crushing in its chitin and killing it. I stand up straight and look around, noticing Vex and everyone staring off into the distance passed me.
I quickly look around the dead scorpion and see something flickering in the distance, seemingly phasing in and out of existence. It stretches all the way into the cloud and has several massive pillars around it.
"Is that it, The Nexxus?"
I mumble to myself, quickly jumping off the scorpions body and walking towards the massive structure. Vex and everyone else runs up behind me, then passed me. Vex looks back to me.
"That has to be it!"
He shouts, I quickly start running in response to his words. He stops and looks around.
"This should be close enough."
Vex mumbles, quickly pulling us all together. The familiar blackness wraps around us and instantly unveils to reveal we're infront of a massive structure. Pillars standing several miles tall stretch forward from the entrance and line a concrete path.
I notice tents all around the entrance, and assume they are from the Vathric officials who found this place. We approach two massive doors that lead into building, but the ground shakes violently before we reach it. We see the sand to our left and right part, miles of structure appearing and raising high above the ground.
I smile in amazement, quickly pushing the gargantuan metal doors open. We all walk in and marvel at the sight. Thousands of bookshelves lining the walls, and thousands of floors stretching ever upward. We look left and right, noticing a massive corridor in both directions. Uncountable floors stretching ever upward and outward. Vex laughs slightly.
"This-This, This is incredible."
Vex slowly walks forward, up to a seemingly out of place device. He touches it curiously, and six small pillars emerge from the floor. Five are in a line, but one is closer to us.
We all walk over, clearly all equally confused. The pedestal closest to us has a piece of paper on top of it.
"Knowledge Comes At A Price."
We all stare at the ominous words and look to each other.