Chereads / The Strait Of Cosmos / Chapter 36 - The Withering Flower

Chapter 36 - The Withering Flower

"Never integrate a book into my head again, unless I ask you of course." Demanded Imogen as she looked further down into the dust covered crypt.

*𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭: Your feedback has been taken into consideration, please wait on hold until death

"Never mind, it seems as though you're full of good humor today." Sighed Imogen while walking further into the sepulchre. "Why is this place called a sepulchure when there's multiple corpses in it, that's not what a sepulchre is; someone needs to work on their naming sense." Criticized Imogen as she picked up her pace to a light jog.

"You know what, why am I even trying to win when I'm just going to lose anyways; sometimes I don't think." Phonated Imogen while coming to a stop. "Actually never mind, I should keep going anyways; perhaps there'll be a participation award." Joked Imogen as she watched a curious skull float up to her.

The skull wasted no time, it fired a blue laser from out of its mouth and emitted a high pitched shriek that awoke more floating skulls.

"What the hell, since when do fricken skulls shoot lasers; I thought this was supposed to be the easy path!" Cried Imogen while frantically dodging blue beams of fire coming from skulls as black as ebony.

In a moment of respite, Imogen drew her halberd; of which was somehow still in its sheath and splintered one of the skulls with a powerful blow.

"I would say that their not so scary after all, but after today; I've taken the hint." Muttered Imogen as she crushed two more skulls with but one swing.

It seems the sepulchre did not like her transgressions, because four headless skeletons arose from their homes of cold and cracked stone as soon as the third skull perished.

"Well at least these ones don't fire... never mind." Corrected Imogen while ducking under a laser so strong that it sounded like a massive tsunami crashing into shore.

"That old man deserves greater punishment than I can inflict, he's a lying old coot." Snarled Imogen as her left middle finger got blown off by a laser. "Darn you, you burnt off my favorite finger; just becauses it can grow back doesn't mean it's okay to blow it off!" Raged Imogen while cutting in half a skeleton from the neck down.

*𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: You can't grow back appendages anymore; or heal very well; hence why you still have a scar on your side

"You just made that up now!" Objected Imogen as she hacked another skeleton to pieces "Go to hell system and rot there for eternity, you don't deserve existence!" Fumed Imogen while crushing a floating skull with her bare hands.

*𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦'𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞: Is that this my problem, because last time I checked... it wasn't

"You snarky, worthless edition to existence; I hope you spend every last moment of your meritless life in torment and agony!" Inveighed Imogen as she pounded one of the last two skeletons into a wall until it was nothing more than shards of bone.

*𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲: You've got some anger issues, I thought you were the person who was supposed to piss people off; now do you see how it feels

"No, I don't; so keep your text out of my face." Growled Imogen while grabbing a skull and slamming it into the friged stone below.

Now there is but two enemies remaining on the cold dead rock that supports this sepulchre, the rest lay in dust; forever at rest once again. But just as Imogen was enveloped with the feeling of confidence, the two small problems combined into one big one; literally and absorbed the bones of their fallen comrades to better boost their strength.

"That's not fair, I wish I could use bones to become a seven foot giant; I'm so screwed." Mumbled Imogen as she leaped out of the way of a giant bone blade made out of black and white bones alike.

The giant skeleton spared her no quarter, it immediately slashed at Imogen before she could even recover.

"Posture Of The Unrelenting Inanition, activate!?" Yelled Imogen not remembering if she had done it right or not while mimicking the stance itself.

Surely enough, Imogen had somehow managed to block the attack; but at a cost. Her halberd shattered, it just couldn't take the stress of a weapon two tiers ahead of it and gave in. Imogen was then blasted into a wall from the shear force of the sword, jarring her still healing insides and causing her internal bleeding.

"Well, it was a good run; at least better than my last life..." Affirmed Imogen as she slowly slumped down the wall. "I never thought that I'd get killed by a fat skeleton, but I guess I never thought I get killed by a god either." Laughed Imogen while watching the giant skeleton raise its blade knowing victory was inevitable.

*𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭: In any other case I would just let you die, but I don't want to die too; so I'm going to... help you. The reason your system rewards on the last mission I gave you were so bad was because I told you how to make yourself a reward, so absorb that withering flower in your pocket; save its life and yours

"What?" "I don't get what you mean, but I'll try anyways; I want to live too after all." Coughed Imogen as she reached her hand into her pocket and acted upon the weird feeling she had when touching the flower.

All life slowly ebbed out of the flower as the opposite happened to Imogen, Imogen was then filled with a new found vigor as her missing finger grew back and her wounds healed; but it was over in a second for the flower turned to dust almost immediately.

*𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞: Your class has been drastically altered by an extremely rare Satry's Flower, Your new class is - Guardian Dryad - The Last Watcher Of The Hearts

"Is that fricking skeleton mocking me, so that's why it hasn't killed me yet; I was wondering about that." Surmised Imogen while completely ignoring what she had just read. "I'll bash your face in you giant son of whore, don't worry; it'll be painful even for you!" Snapped Imogen as she slid under the skeleton's legs and jumped up onto its back.

"With her hands lifted, Imogen brought her fists down with the rage of a hundred wars onto the skull of the skeleton, each strike brought it's own interpretation of the anger she felt; but the skull didn't even dent in slightly. This angered the skeleton, so it reached back and grapped Imogen; slamming her into the hard stone wall several feet deep.

"At that very moment, Imogen suddenly remembered her frail mortality, she felt every stone shard that entered her back with excruciating pain; each one jagged and curved. The giant skeleton didn't bother with mocking this time and ran right through the stone wall to violently throw Imogen back into the main room, this was no time for hesitation.

The skeleton was gleaming with bloodlust as it ran towards Imogen, when it reached her, it finally jumped up into the cold Stygian darkness with its skull grazing the ceiling; the blade promising a swift end to all who near it. But when the skeleton landed down, rending the rocky floor in two; Imogen was no where to be found.

The skeleton looked around curiously for its lost prey, for the thrill of the one sided beating had entranced it. When guard of the skeleton had been finally let down, Imogen masterful jumped in front of; it boiling with hate and tore off its head. In fury, the skeleton started swinging its blade around rampantly; the blade craving to meet the theif that stole its holder's head.

Imogen desperately ran behind the skeleton and used the skull as a weapon to smash through it's back, the bones groaned uncomfortably; with one actually snapping in two. But the skeleton didn't take kindly to this and slammed the pommel of it's sword through Imogen's ribcage.

With haste, Imogen tore herself off the pointed pommel and bashed the skeleton's shoulder in, nearly knocking off the whole arm. But the skeleton beat her to it and ripped off its own arm to wield the sword in its left hand, it brought its sword down so fast that Imogen almost didn't even realize what had happened; but she barely managed to dive out of the way.

"Without a clue about what she should do next, Imogen slid under the skeleton and knocked its entire knee with the skull. The skeleton immediately fell over, but before it could hit the ground it used its sword to prop itself up; but its action was in vain as Imogen knocked out its other knee.

To make sure that victory was guaranteed, Imogen bashed in the skeleton's other shoulder until its limbless torso crashed into the ruined stone floor.

"Hah, I actually did bash his face in after all." Grinned Imogen while looking at the dented in skeleton skull with glee. "Well it's time to finish this guy now; I wouldn't want to miss out on so many experience points, now would I." Cackled Imogen as she pummeled the torso until it was unrecognizable.

*𝐘𝐨𝐮'𝐯𝐞 𝐊𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝: 5 Sepulchre Stalkers, 3 Sepulchure Sanctioners and a Sepulchre Skeleton Sadist - You've leveled up x4

"Ugh, my chest hurts like hell; bring up my status please.

Name: Imogen

Title: 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐝

Race: Tick - Adult

Age: 2

Gender: Female

Bloodline: Fragmented False Tick

Level: 15

Class: 𝐆𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐃𝐫𝐲𝐚𝐝

Blood: 63/430

Hp: 2/70

Mp: 4/40.5

Str: 22 ---> 29

Vit: 4.4 ---> 7

Def: 37.5 ---> 43

Int: 16 ---> 27

Agt: 18 ---> 22

Quests: 0

Skills: Racial skill - Life Steal, 𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚 𝐓𝐨 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐕𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬, Weak Pierce 3.0, 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 70/30 Luck, Negligeble Illusion Resistance, 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐛 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞, Fast Eyes, 𝐕𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐖𝐫𝐚𝐩, Fragmented Language Comprehension 3.0, 𝐕𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐭, Verbal Communication, Basic Halberd Mastery 2.0, False Form and 𝐐𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥

𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞: I've fixed your intelligence to mana ratio because you did such a good job, previously I was just going to wait until you said something about it. And even though this is not a quest, pick up that sword and I'll give you a reward; just be quick about it

"Okay, I'll do that I guess?" Complied Imogen while shuffling over and picking up the skeleton's sword.

*𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬: The Suffering Blade Of Melted Bones

"Great!" "This halberd is definitely appreciated, but how did you change it instantly?" Inquired Imogen as she passed out from blood loss.