Savage webs, p.18
Savage Webs, page 18
part #2 of Apocalypse Cultivation Series
“Shit.”
Chapter 26
Alright, Plan A and Plan B are a bust. Time for Plan C.
Conophta’s heavy footsteps echoed on the marble floor, returning from wherever he’d gone to. Jake’s original plan had been to escape his restraints, hide by the entry to the hallway the minotaur had gone down, and ambush him with everything he had left.
Jake tested his restraints in a way he hadn’t before, trying to test his range of motion. Hmmm, not great, but not too bad either. A new plan, plan D, was starting to form in Jake’s mind. Plan C had actually been less of a plan than an idea. Plan D incorporated plan C but probably offered much higher odds of survival.
Of course, plan C and plan D were only possible because Jake had spent ten years as a shadow ghoul. He’d had plenty of time to grow fully accustomed to his new body.
Finally, Conophta returned. He was carrying a huge, heavy-looking sword with a square end. It was a giant minotaur-sized executioner blade.
When the minotaur came to a solemn halt, Jake jerked his thumb up at the restraint on his mouth. He’d been wise enough not to try taking it off himself. Conophta seemed to understand what Jake was trying to say. “If I take the muzzle off, do you promise to speak respectfully?”
With an effort of will, Jake avoided rolling his eyes and merely gave a curt nod.
The restraint over Jake’s mouth detached and slithered back into the floor. As it did, Jake briefly wondered how they worked. He’d been transported a long distance from the portal to this place. Both the mage and cultivator parts of his mind considered the restraints, eventually deciding it was likely that the physical chains, cables, and other enchanted parts had been left near the portal, connected to the minotaur’s lair by magic. Once back here, they’d just reattached themselves.
Jake hadn’t known that restraints like these existed, although he probably should have after experiencing the suppression in the Web Burrows. Maybe this knowledge would prove useful in the future if he didn’t have his head cut off in the next few minutes.
With his mouth free, Jake said, “Since I’m going to die anyway, do you mind satisfying some of my curiosity about this world and your very large, very impressive home?”
A little flattery rarely hurt, and it seemed to have hit the mark with Conophta. The big minotaur swelled with pride. “Thank you. I have spent two hundred years as your kind measure them on this place, configuring it for my needs, making it secure. The world we are on helps with that.
“You see, the very nature of this world is illusion. Unless one has been attuned with the planet the way only one of my kind can be, or they are almost as powerful as a god, they will become hopelessly lost and, with time, be driven mad. They would eventually destroy themselves. So even though my power level is lacking on the universal scale, I am safe here. And of course, after slaying you, my power level will rise.”
Jake really wanted to point out that “slaying” him right now would be more like a slaughter, but he kept his mouth shut. Maybe he could get some information he could use. “Well, if I’m going to die, at least it will have some sort of effect. You said you will grow more powerful. How?”
The minotaur looked at him like he was stupid. “By using the Eternal Struggle Reward System, of course. You are a champion. Don’t you have access to it as well?”
“Yes.” Jake drew out the word.
“Well, then you should know that killing an enemy champion brings points. In my case, I will be rewarded extra points by gods that hate you. The gods very rarely can reward points directly outside the system, but I know Ahriman will be glad to do so if you are killed.”
Jake frowned. “But you said you will grow more powerful.”
It was the minotaur’s turn to look confused again. “Why would I get a new sword? I can query the system for an elixir to directly increase my strength or magic power. With the number of points I’ll get from your death, I will very easily be able to get an extremely high quality reward.”
“Oh,” said Jake. Since he was a monster cultivator, it had changed how he viewed the world. It never even occurred to him that other champions could just get stronger using the Eternal Struggle Reward System, but it made sense. Maybe Jake could use it that way too, like try to get a rare, powerful monster core. But that might also be a waste of the system’s benefits for him specifically. Like, what if they could be obtained without too much fuss in the Murim world?
If only he hadn’t been stuck in the damn Web Burrows for a decade! There was so much he felt behind on!
He reminded himself that none of this mattered if he died in Conophta’s living room.
Jake hung his head. “I have a request.”
Conophta said, “I’m listening.”
“There is something—I must confess something.”
“Yes?”
“It is my darkest secret, something that would shake the very heavens if the wrong people knew it.”
The minotaur’s curiosity had begun to peek through the stoic front he was showing. “It is my duty to hear what you must tell me.”
Jake shook his head. “No, you must swear to secrecy. What I know will shake the very foundations of my world if it were well known. The gods themselves would pay dearly to know this secret.”
“You may tell me.”
“I cannot bear to say it loudly. If I must say it, I must whisper. Even that will be one of the most difficult things I have ever done.”
The giant minotaur leaned his huge sword against the wall and bent lower. “Speak.”
Jake shook his head again. “I can’t bear it–”
Conophta got lower. “It is my duty to listen.”
Jake was mostly restrained, wounded, had no access to his power, on an unfamiliar, unnavigable world, and was almost completely unarmed other than his claws and teeth, which the minotaur was too big to really fear. Even the eye that Jake had scratched before during their fight on earth had healed.. Conophta had no reason to be wary of him at all, at least not in his current state.
So when Jake summoned his sword, Blooming Honor, Destruction Flower of the Eternal Nightmare, into his hand as he swung it up to his enemy’s shoulder, as if to hold it to tell a dark secret, all he had to do was follow through. Even without his muscle amplification or using any of his techniques, Jake was still a monster. And Bloom was a very special sword.
The blade easily cut Conophta’s throat. He looked down in disbelief and Jake used that momentary shock to stab the blade into the other champion’s side. The razor-sharp, divine-enchanted blade easily pierced the unprepared, vulnerable minotaur’s side.
Then Jake got the best stumbling head start he could before phasing. The restraints might have blocked his unnatural abilities, but he was a shadow ghoul, a monster. Phasing was natural for him. What’s more, after being a ghoul for so long, he knew exactly how to exclude specific things touching him from the phase. As a result, he actually disconnected himself from all of the restraints even before phasing.
He went toward the room where his enemy had just come from, down a long hallway. Jake phased back into reality some distance away in the huge house. He heard violent noises coming from the direction he’d just fled from.
Even a mortally wounded Conophta was dangerous as hell. The minotaur could have probably killed Jake with one bare hand the way he’d been tied up before. But now Jake was free.
He was standing in a room lined on all sides with massive swords. It was obviously an armory of sorts. They were all unfamiliar and untested to Jake, not to mention too large to use effectively.
He’d left Bloom in his enemy’s side, so he pulled his wooden sword out of his unblocked inventory. Then he cautiously moved down the long hallway toward his wounded foe.
Conophta was struggling on the floor as huge gouts of blood poured from his neck. He kept trying to remove the sword in his side, but whenever his hand touched Bloom’s hilt, it would immediately burn and he’d gargle-scream. The pain must have been excruciating whenever touching it, because it was very obvious that the minotaur was not a delicate flower.
Even now, stricken as badly as he had been, with a soul-shattering weapon in his side and his throat open, the dark champion was still struggling. Jake could actually feel his vitality returning a bit. This tough bastard is going to fully recover if just left alone! Jake thought with shock.
He was floored. What the hell does it take to kill this guy!?
Part of him, no, most of him was unhappy that he still needed to finish the job. Conophta had been one of the least unpleasant enemies he’d ever had, despite the whole “trying to kill him multiple times and talking about Jake’s death like a corporate stepping stone” thing. And Jake had blatantly tricked him.
The fact that he’d been ambushed and dragged into the minotaur’s dungeon-like home did mitigate some of his guilt.
Jake decided not to take any chances. He had automatically hid his presence after phasing away, and he maintained that now. He kept expecting Conophta to suddenly attack him, to maybe even destroy the house out of spite. But apparently, he’d been focusing everything he had on staying alive. When Jake came up behind the gigantic, kneeling figure, ready to strike, Conophta didn’t even act like he knew Jake was there. Maybe he didn’t.
But now that he was dying on the floor and very obviously aware that Jake had escaped his restraints, it changed things. Jake had been about to strike, but he stayed his hand. What if that was what the huge champion was waiting for? If he couldn’t sense where Jake was, the best time to retaliate would be when Jake was striking him.
In fact, now that Jake’s mind was going this direction, he briefly used his mage senses, then Veil Piercing Phoenix Eyes. Sure enough, there was a layer of energy, a barrier concentrated on the back of Conophta’s head and neck, and trailing down his back. The way he was kneeling on the floor was intentional. He was providing a tempting target and had protected himself. The crafty sonofabitch really was waiting for Jake to attack him before acting.
Jake was full of admiration, respect, and frustration. He knew from experience how tough the minotaur was. Now he wondered how much of Conophta’s apparent desperation was even real. Definitely part of it, but he might be hamming it up too.
He thought it through, but ultimately, he didn’t have a choice. If he didn’t kill Conophta, Jake would be in a horrible predicament. The only way he had to survive this situation was to take the opportunity that he’d created and finish the job. Jake set his jaw. He was going to do exactly what the minotaur expected him to do, but he was going to put everything he had left into it.
The tricky part was hiding his energy until the moment he was going to strike. He was actually lucky that Conophta was making a show of being as vulnerable as possible. If he’d just looked behind him, he probably could have spotted Jake. Even though Jake was sticking to the shadows, he was bone tired and definitely not at his best.
With that cheery thought, Jake slowly, stealthily revolved his cultivation base, trying to turn a hum into a whisper. Then, using all of his faculties, bending every fiber of his willpower to the task, he swung his wooden sword and infused the blade with Lunar Dao Polishing simultaneously with Phoenix Piercing Talon.
He gritted his teeth when the backlash began to hit even before the strike landed. The moment seemed to stretch into eternity, but Jake endured. Dimly, he thought about Four Winds of Heaven Spirit Purification. Jake was able to handle agony and discordant energies much better now. If he’d still been human, mixing these volatile energies probably would have already killed him.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the blade touched Conophta’s barrier on his neck, shattering it. The big minotaur tried to surge upwards, no doubt realizing what was happening at the last moment, but it was already too late. There was a huge flash of light before the backlash completely overwhelmed Jake’s body and spirit. As he fell, he tried to stop himself but only ended up driving the point of his damaged wooden sword into the floor.
The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was Conophta’s head roll halfway to the fireplace.
Chapter 27
When Jake woke up, his first thought was how happy he was that he was still alive. His second thought was that maybe it’d be better if he were dead. Everything hurt, both his arms and shoulders were badly burned, and he was completely out of energy.
What was worse, the backlash from using Phoenix Piercing Talon had poisoned his energy. He had no outward pressure, so the caustic energy had begun invading his dantian, burning him from within.
Jake was absolutely going to die unless he could figure out a way around it. What he really needed was more energy. He briefly thought about his stash of monster cores back in the Web Burrows. Be nice to have those right about now, he thought. Fucking up his cultivation and his monster evolutions was still a lot better than dying. Again.
He might have a few cores kicking around his storage ring—he thought he did—but it wouldn’t be enough. It would require a lot of energy to push the poisonous energy out of his system.
His head felt like it weighed a million pounds. Jake barely moved his neck enough to see the fireplace and briefly thought about using some of the fire to try purifying himself, but that was wishful thinking. Fighting fire with fire, literally, was possible, but Jake had no idea if the fire was even supernatural, much less how to control it.
However, turning his head brought Conophta’s body into view and he noticed something that gave him hope. The dead champion really had been a monster. A large, deep pink monster core had generated and lay on the floor nearby.
Jake wondered if he’d create a monster core when he died. He didn’t like thinking about it, so he decided to focus on survival instead. He could follow Conophta’s example, not giving up until the bitter end.
He crawled over to the monster core and barely managed to extend a hand far enough to grab it. It felt like it was going to burn his hand with its energy, it was so intense.
Now he was lying in Conophta’s blood on the floor, so Jake flopped over into an awkward roll to get away. His path of travel took him past the restraints on the floor and he thanked his stars again that they hadn’t reactivated when he’d returned to the room.
When he was in the middle of the room, past the wooden sword driven into the floor, Jake managed to get on his back, both hands on his chest around the monster core.
Here goes nothing, he thought. The core was way too big to swallow, but that was not a problem anymore. With an effort of will, he dispersed the outer shell of the monster core and inhaled the energy into his body.
Red lights exploded behind his eyes and his meridians boiled. Jake gritted his teeth and hardened his resolve, riding the agony, buffeted by energy that burned, healed, and changed. The experience felt much like Jake imagined drinking lava would feel if the lava was half supernatural power and had a mind of its own.
It felt like he was trying to hang on to a bucking rhino with a coke and speed habit. He was being hit harder, much harder than the first time he’d ever assimilated a monster core as a zombie.
Jake bent his will to cultivating forward, but there was way too much energy to handle if he only channeled it that way. He had to begin cultivating the energy deeper too. Improving his ability to handle and move energy would normally be a no-brainer, but this was untested, volatile energy, taken directly from another champion, one sworn to an evil god.
It was like trying to swim laps in a pool full of barbed wire. And if he got snagged or slowed too much, he’d be pulled under.
His new mantra came to mind and he repeated it over and over.
I am Jake. The mountain is strong, and the mountain is me. I am strong. No matter my form, I am who I am, and who I will be. There is no greater truth than that with I carry within, and bring to the world. Energy lasts forever. The energy I cultivate will carry my will.
His flesh had already knit back together, his body restored, but Jake’s soul and spirit were in danger, like a glass shelf with far too much weight sitting on it.
He had to release some pressure, and the only way to do that was let some of the energy flow into his “upward” cultivation. Jake wasn’t sure how it was going to affect his future monster evolutions, but he didn’t have a choice.
The energy wanted to explode outward, upward, but Jake really didn’t want to turn into a cow, now or ever. He kept tight control of the river of power, only allowing a trickle upward as he madly, wildly cycled his cultivation base and added more and more energy to his dantian as quickly as he dared.
He wasn’t sure how long this process lasted, not at first, but when the energy transfer finally slowed, then halted, and Jake collapsed on to his side, his internal clock told him that weeks had passed. Several, actually.
Now there was a tree growing in the center of the room, a large one too. Jake wasn’t sure what he was seeing at first until he noticed the pommel sticking out of the trunk.
The wooden sword had somehow sprouted and turned into a tree. What’s more, it had some roots above the marble floor, a few leading to a tangled area where the dead minotaur had been. The body was gone. There weren’t even any blood stains on the floor.
Roots led to where the chains and restraints had been, and now it looked like they’d begun integrating into the wood itself, like they were being absorbed.
If Jake hadn’t been so emotionally and spiritually exhausted, he would have been creeped out.
Instead, he checked his body, his meridians, his dantian for damage. He was fit as a fiddle. And now he was at Gold 10, the peak of Body Refinement. There had been so much energy in the monster core, he’d barely survived. In any case, he wouldn’t have if he hadn’t had other directions to channel the energy into.
He would have exploded. Of course, that was if other cultivators could process monster cores in the first place, which they couldn’t. Maybe a sacred beast or a demon beast might have been able to do what Jake had just done at his level, but probably not.
