The Lord Rabbit was deeply unhappy as of late. While the possible candidate had entered a slightly quieter period in their journey, that wasn't what bothered the ancient high ranker.
His direct descendant, Asergia, had forsaken the deal made with the candidate for nothing but petty revenge. So what if the child took the time of his half-sister or his opportunities? Asergia had stalled while most of his other half-siblings had continued the slow march of their progress.
The environment of Nightshade's surface wasn't conducive to high-rankers, even those who thought themselves highly ranked, who hadn't even breached the third mortal—those like Asergia.
The surface's poor mana and utter lack of monsters made it a poor training ground for most who took residence. Even the lich had needed to build his tower on one of the three wellsprings to keep himself upright. Just because the number of emerald-rank lifeforms who remained mostly above could be counted on one paw didn't make Asergia powerful.
To make an enemy of a possible candidate was a far greater sin to the Lord Rabbit than any of his previous actions. Even if the child hadn't realized that they were now implicitly enemies after the shattering of their pact, that didn't change the facts.
He'd have to remind the emerald-haired idiot that even within Nightshade itself, he was not untouchable.
Azotreh finally got what Atu promised eight days after she promised it. They had practically been impatient since the word go, but waited for her to deliver the item.
Atu walked into the room holding a glass vial with a rainbow fluid inside. The potion was constantly shifting in hue, even when looked at from the same angle for an extended period. However, it was predominantly the cerulean blue of mana.
She handed it to Azotreh while explaining, "This is likely the most common kind of potion behind those for the six resources. The one I brewed for you is closely aligned with the concepts of mana and color. Those concepts, sometimes substituting one of the other six resources instead of mana, are by far the most common concepts used.
They apply most broadly to most lifeforms. You'll have an opportunity to add additional concepts at each grand threshold. But you won't reach that point anywhere in the near future.
Some people call it a kind of cheat, and it can be harmful to high rankers, but you'll be leaving the tin rank sometime in the next five-ish months, so you should be fine."
With those words, she handed over the potion. Azotreh held it tightly before drinking the potion. A warm sensation slowly spread down their throat before beginning to spread throughout their body. The sensation concentrated between their eyebrows and right over their heart before the energy rapidly began to heat up.
It quickly became uncomfortable, and Azotreh was trembling a bit as their hands turned into fists. Their tail thrashed very slightly.
As Atu watched, suddenly that same serene stillness fell over Azotreh and their aura. Their eyes became glassy for a moment before returning to normal.
[You have consumed Krelli's Nucleic Brew - Mana/Color]
[You have gained Potion Resistance (0.01%)]
[You have gained Krelli's Nucleic Brew Resistance (Mana, Color) (0.05%)]
[Your Bodily Purity poten has been reduced by- ERR: CS66314]
[Due to the rapid and sudden interference of [UNNAMED], the impurities caused by Krelli's Nucleic Brew (Mana, Color) have been reduced to 1/5 of their original quantity]
[You have learned a new technique: Residue Cleansing - Devouring]
[The names of ingredients to Krelli's Nucleic Brew (Mana, Color) have been added to your Records of Existence. Watch the creation of Krelli's Nucleic Brew (Mana, Color) to learn its complete recipe]
[Technique: Mana Manipulation - Altered Motion has broken through to Crimson (0011)]
[A Technique Nucleus has been condensed for Technique: Mana Manipulation - Altered Motion. Further progression speed in this technique has been slightly enhanced. +10 Concentration to Mana, Mana Regeneration]
Atu couldn't sense the sudden change in Azotreh as they gained far more than was common from the potion. Of course, they weren't sure why they didn't get Potion Resistance from that higher-ranked potion they drank while Fuzem was melting them, but that wasn't on their mind right now. Instead, it was the sudden gain of another technique and an unnamed lifeform interfering to lower the 'impurities.'
They leaned into Atu as they breathed heavily. Even with the strange cold consciousness sitting within the prime avatar at the time, it was definitely not a pleasant experience. The searing heat wasn't enough for them to truly feel pain, more of a general discomfort. But it definitely was not pleasant.
They knew they'd have to go through it again, but it was probably worth it. They'd experienced worse, and judging from the small things Atu had mentioned of her own early growth here in Nightshade, they'd be worse again.
A contingent of priests in formerly glorious white robes was trekking through the mud. Each wore the same symbol on their chest, that of an eye outlined in pure white.
They were only one of the many groups sent into Nightshade to recapture the experiments and possibly find a way to keep the barrier open long enough for the real work to begin. If they could get a diamond-ranker in to fight the lich, they could expand the territory closer to the daemonic threat.
But there was one other reason the contingents were sent in. To find the third labyrinth. Historical texts from the second age stated there were seven such structures. One was built to each of an ancient group of blasphemers against the true god's radiance.
They could assume with great certainty that there was one on each of the charted continents and none in the farlands. Even so, that still only accounted for five total. One taken by the rifts, which they could never reach. But the others? If there were six out there, and four continents they could reach, they had to find the missing pair.
They had a hint to one of them existing in the oceans of the north. Old records show there was a continent there at the time, though the presence of the things in the deep sea have not helped prove that idea.
But the records also indicate the presence of the seventh labyrinth in an area on the western edge of the central continent. There was little beyond that, but after Mudwood turned out to be a bust, they turned their eyes on Nightshade.
The Nightshade region was much larger than the Mudwood region, and truly wasn't just one area of the world, but four. The forest, the marsh, the desert, and the tundra. Many also considered the shores their own region, but they were too small for the priests to care.
Suddenly, Genlo, the dedicated mage of their team, screamed. He started firing beams of clear water into the muddy ground, looking for something.
After that failed and he screamed again, he started to throw raw orange energy into the marsh. Small energy blasts detonated across the local area of the marsh, revealing glistening green scales for a mere moment before they were submerged once more in muck.
The other priests began to use divine power to attack what seemed to be a massive serpent in the water. Only the healer rushed over to Genlo and began to cast Purify Poison.
Glimmering orange sigils filled the air as the spellcaster raised the spell's tier to six to ensure he purged the toxin. But before the spell could finish its cast, the healer felt something latch onto his leg. Plitar, the healer in question, also screamed as something began to dig into his leg.
The spell failed, and the orange divine energy suddenly caused a severe backlash to the man, black blood slowly leaking from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Before he could begin to cast healing magic on himself, a form too blurry to properly make out, yet buzzing with insectoid fury, pierced a long pair of front legs through the healer and pulled out a shimmering blue core before flying away.
They all watched in horror as Plitar was suddenly reduced to normal-rank and swiftly died of his injuries.
Before they could even get another thought in, Lthre, their designated wall, was flipped through the air by an enormous crocodile. The priest's leg was ripped straight from its socket as the croc rolled in the water, and his body was sent flying, trailing blood.
The four remaining members of the contingent watched the crocodile move towards the struggling body of Lthre before wrapping its jaws around his body and crushing it with a sickening crunch.
It didn't take long for the poison to overwhelm Genlo after that, leaving him a corpse in the mud. The others would rather take the corpses to have their souls properly purified by their home nation, but couldn't afford it as they fled for their lives. Every human life saved is another that can fight.
But they barely made it another dozen feet before they heard the trampling of hooves through the murk. Turning left, they found a herd of wild hogs charging straight for them. The strategist commanded the brawler to release waves of divine sword light and the jack to do something.
Not that they could do much, as the potions thrown by the jack were simply ignored by the beasts, and the sword light was blocked by repeated blue shields being conjured before the herd.
The purity priests were trampled to death, without knowing how close they'd come to their target.
Her Lady of the Acidic Depths was rather happy with the results her call to defense had caused in the beasts of the Nightshade Swamp. Krelli had sent many of her moderately powerful offspring to the surface to wipe out anything that didn't hold a Nightshade Glyph and approached the labyrinth.
The lich had made his anger clear, and she shared much of it. While she hadn't known the Lady of the Eight Arms, that labyrinth was likely the greatest treasure in the entire Nightshade Region, even surpassing the barrier and its effects on the inhabitants of Nightshade.
Lord Bloodskull, Master of Ten Thousand Kin, had also begun a full war path through Nightshade against the invaders. While humans characterized the green orcs as an inherently war-bound species, that wasn't entirely true. Though no orc would ever turn down joining the one who named himself Bloodskull in a warpath.
The snowman didn't have much to do with the invasion, considering none of the humans had managed to make it to even the eternal rain, let alone the endless winter. The Lord Rabbit also didn't have much going on, since the rabbit-kin had only encountered Azotreh and no true humans yet.
The lich had even decided to possibly go back to the negotiating table. If the humans called for the barrier to be reopened, he wouldn't turn them down. It was better to give the denizens of Nightshade the free EXP anyway.
Nicholas was still sitting in the body of the orc within the dungeon, using his free time to chip away at the rock wall.
That was until something new happened to alter the cycle of digging and meditation that he'd been on for a whole week.
[You have obtained a new node through unconventional methods! +100 DX]
[You have unlocked a new perk!]
[You have consumed a new source of RM. +1 RM]
A new node? How did they get that?
Nicholas pulled up the list of nodes they had available. Nightshade Grass, Unate, Blue Slime, and Nightshade Gneiss?
Nicholas wanted to know what that was, and why they'd gotten it, and suddenly felt something respond to his intentions.
[Nightshade Gneiss - Common Stone, Normal-Rank, Material]
[Gneiss that has undergone extensive time within the Nightshade Forest and has taken on some of the properties of the region. Nightshade gneiss boasts a higher resistance to acidic substances and an alignment to the concepts of poison, shadow, twilight, and ward.]
[Obtainment: Nightshade Gneiss became an available node due to the insertion of 10kg of the material into the dungeon nexus for analysis and consumption]
All that, and they didn't get any RM for the new node? Ten kilograms of material was a lot. Or maybe it wasn't? He didn't know enough about gneiss and didn't have a scale to weigh it with.
Even so, was 22 pounds of slime material not enough to gain a single unit of BM? It felt like a ripoff.
Even so, seeing the new perk, he knew there was a new one to pick up next time they could for the sake of dungeon expansion.
[Avatar Digging - Avatars channel the raw power of the dungeon nexus to cut through a solid material using only the power of the dungeon itself. This effect can only be used to create designated rooms or tunnels connecting designated rooms.]