The sound of water trickling over rocks, and the soft ebb and flow that pulled on his leg slowly woke him from his stupor. Having fallen through the cavern as it collapsed into an underground waterway He had apparently washed up somewhere and was still underground.
Sitting up he touched his head, wincing in pain. "I must've hit my head" he said outloud, the sound echoing throughout the cavern.
"What told you that you useless human?" A voice sarcastically asked. Strangely enough he heard no echo.
Where did that come from? He thought looking around.
A slight discomfort stemming from his hands started, and as he looked down a soft purple light filtered throughout the cave, as a purple smokey figure appeared in front of him, shaped like a skull, with two large horns. Ezekiel panicked, scurrying backwards he soon hit the wall of the cave.
"What are you?" He asked realizing he had to way to escape.
I was the artifact you took from the dungeon you baffoon. I'm the spirit that was sealed away within the gloves. Such a naive human you are, to touch an Artifact. You shouldve known by now by how much cursed energy is in the dungeon that the artifact would have something to do with their formation.
Ezekiel looked at his hands, the purple gauntlets had somehow gotten onto his hands, "i suppose i should ask your name, since you seem to have bonded to me somehow."
"My name is Lilith, and if you couldn't tell from the dungeon my powers revolve around shadow and darkness." lilith sighed, walking around as her smokey figure. "We must find a way out of here, youve only got 1 day left before you must consume cursed energy. Most of my mana was used reviving you after the collapse."
Ezekiel having been exploring the menu to his system looked at the Skills tab. Curse Eater and basic regenration seemed to be the only two skills he had, but there was a multitude of others, all aligned in the shape of a tree. "I suppose i have to start with the few basic skills and i unlock others?" He said looking at the shadow figure.
"Yes, but if you were listening we have to get out of here and absorb curse energy as soon as we can, or else well both cease to exist."
"Yes i heard you," Ezekiel said stretching out, "beleive it or not but ive been in these tunnells before. This is the underground river Mircalla, named after the woman who discovered it. Luckily enough were not too far from the nearest exit. He said as he started jogging to the exit.
"Activate Animal Senses"
…
…
…Error, 'lack of sufficient mana detected'
"Ah hell, ezekiel said as he pressed on harder
…A few hours later
Ezekiel emerged from the top of the stair case, the bright light from the sun filtering through the trees up above, he looks down hill at the long sprawling beach. "Shouldn"t be too hard to find a monster here he said running into the woods. Soonafter he finds the paws of a large wolf. Tracking it down he pulled out his bow. Looking at his remaining mana, he smiled,
"wind attribute added"
Releasing the arrow, there were streaks of wind rotating off of the arrow slicing through leaves and scaring the trees as it passed. The supersonic arrow pierced straight through the wolves head.
"Critical hit successful"
He walked up to the wolf and cast Curse Eater. A purple light shone from his hand as he stood over the wolf, watching it the wolf slowly dissolved and was absorted into his glove. Looking back at the system window he saw his mana had filled.
"Amazing," he said as he watched the particals of the wolf enter the glove. "What else can you do, Lilith?" He asked as he took the few pieces the system had left. I might as wel sell these he said.
System open
Cycling through he pulled his skills up. Lets see here. The next few skills seem to be locked he said examining the screen before him, seem to be unlocked through experience.
This is correct lilith said, watching his process. As you work your way through the tree however, you may only unlock new skills through absorbing cursed energy and using it to those skills. Right now we have 50 cursed enervy and the first branch of skills cost 500 each to unlock. To get to the next branch however, we much absorb another Artefacts, or you must allow me to absorb its cursed energy if you find a weapon artifact you would like to use."
I see, so itd be best to continue killing monsters for now and absorb cursed energy from any artifacts I can. I assume Artifacts are worth more curse energy then Monsters?
"That is correct." lilith says, however we should focus on resting. Your body may have replenished Mana, but your physical stamina is still low." She commented
"Ill return to the black market tavern and see what i can do then. He stated as he walked towards town. Using the back door he said
"A Dragons favorite snack is a Flamewood"
A few seconds passed before his friends jason's voice sounded, "You idiot thats the password from last month. Get in here"
Entering Ezekiel scratched the back of his head, "Sorry, I was on a dungeon raid. I guess more time passed than i thought."
"That would explain the way you look," he said looking at Ezekiels torn and tattered clothes. "Would that have anything to do with the 100 Crowns on your head?"
Ezekiel smiled sheepishly, you see i touched the dungeon artifact and it turned into to be a symbiosis type, now they are attached to me."
"Wel at any rate get in here Jason said, flitpping ezekiels's hood over his head. Lets get you a room and a way to get out of here"