Unranked ascension a lit.., p.20
Unranked Ascension: A LitRPG Adventure, page 20
Lucius scrambled to dodge the creature’s attack, flailing his arms and legs in every direction in a frantic attempt to find something—anything—to grab onto. By sheer dumb luck, his left foot caught on a branch as he soared upward, abruptly halting his momentum with a jolt. His eyes watered from the sudden stop, and a grimace twisted his face as Maryanne instinctively yanked on his hair, trying to keep herself from flying out of the bag.
Lucius held Matriarch’s Fury out in front of him, bracing for the creature to redirect its assault toward his new position—but it didn’t. The massive centipede barreled through the air, its pincers snapping shut with a deafening crack that sent a shockwave rippling outward, hurling debris in every direction. Lucius narrowed his eyes as he watched the beast mindlessly strike the spot he would have occupied if he hadn’t been able to halt his movement.
It can’t see! It’s been using some other method to track us!
The strange scene before him sent a flurry of realizations racing through Lucius’ mind. Maybe the creature didn’t possess an ability that interfered with Sense Danger. The talent may well have been working perfectly, stopping its warnings whenever he paused to search for the creature because standing still had thwarted the danger!
The creature crashed through the canopy, angrily thrashing its head back and forth as if it had captured its prey while it tumbled to the ground. The tension disappeared from Lucius’ shoulders as he observed the centipede’s behavior.
Oh... It’s an idiot.
Hanging from a thick tree limb with one hand, he turned look back at Maryanne, holding one finger up over his mouth. Maryanne quickly nodded her head and pressed her lips together firmly. The two of them watched from the tree as the centipede hit the ground, soon realizing that it had failed to capture its prey as it began circling the area. Every few meters, it stopped and pressed its long, hairy antennae to the ground. The hair follicles were most likely sensitive to vibrations, and that was how the creature located its prey from underground.
Lucius pulled a rusty wrench out of his storage ring, reaching back and hurling the item high across the forest canopy, using his telekinesis to add a little extra momentum after it had left his hand. The item flew with tremendous force, crashing back down into the tree line with a loud series of thumps at least a quarter of a mile away. He watched as the creature’s body stiffened the moment the item hit the ground before it dashed through the forest toward the noise, kicking up dirt and bulldozing trees in the process.
The two humans dangled from the tree, remaining as quiet as possible, for over an hour. For the first twenty minutes or so, they could still hear the loud shattering of tree limbs and see the canopy shaking as the creature moved off in the distance. But soon it traveled far enough that they could no longer see the signs of its presence, and for the last half hour, the world around them was undisturbed. The sound of chirping birds and the scurrying of small animals slowly returned to the area.
“I think we’re safe…” Lucius said the words quietly, his subconscious still not quite trusting that the nightmarish centipede wouldn’t reappear at the slightest noise to eat him up. He paused for a moment after he spoke, listening carefully to the ambiance around him. With a deep exhale, he descended from the tree. When he reached the bottom and both feet were firmly placed on the ground, he couldn’t help but rub his aching arms. The lengthy hang had been difficult, even for someone so strong; it was like holding a very light weight in your outstretched hand—simple at first but increasingly painful as time passed.
Through effort, you have gained +1 to the Stamina attribute.
Well... That’s one way to do it.
Lucius smirked as he saw that he had achieved his goal of increasing his Stamina, just in a rather unexpected way.
“Let’s get out of this forest and back to the path, then we can take a break,” Lucius suggested.
The two of them continued speaking in hushed tones, even though the creature was likely too far away to hear. Lucius scanned the ruined forest to regain his bearings, then stepped toward the road. But as his foot landed, his eyes flew open and his head snapped downward. The expected resistance of solid ground never came—like stepping onto what you thought was the floor, only to find one more stair.
His grip on Matriarch’s Fury tightened as the earth gave way beneath him. He pitched forward, arms reaching out in a desperate attempt to catch hold of something—anything—but there was nothing. A wide circle of ground was collapsing with him.
“Ahh!” Maryanne’s scream echoed off the dark soil and rock filling their field of vision, as the sky rapidly fled, turning into a smaller and smaller circle of light above them.
Chapter 44
Mythification
The fall lasted only a few seconds, but in freefall, that was more than enough to cover a deadly distance. Lucius and the girl plunged nearly forty meters before the narrow tunnel gave way to a vast underground cavern. There was almost no light this deep beneath the surface—only a single patch of sunlight filtering down from far above. That faint circle of light grew rapidly in his vision as the ground rushed up to meet him. He braced himself for impact.
There’s a proper way to fall—a technique practiced by airborne rangers during parachute landings to minimize injury. Lucius didn’t know it by name, but his instincts carried him through an amateurish version of the technique. The key was to absorb the force gradually, letting it travel through your body rather than resisting it.
THUD.
He struck the ground feet first, but didn’t stiffen or throw out his hands to break the fall. Instead, he allowed himself to collapse forward to avoid crushing Maryanne, rolling with the momentum and spreading the impact across his body as he crumpled to the ground. Still, it was painful.
He tried to moan but there was no sound. The air was knocked out of his chest as he hit the ground, but even as he tasted the blood filling his mouth and his vision turned into flashes of dizzy motion, all he was thinking about was Maryanne. He felt the child’s body slam hard against his back when he hit the floor, and now she wasn’t making any noise. Lucius spat the blood out of his mouth as he pushed himself off the ground. His entire body felt like it was on fire, but thankfully it was still responding to his commands. While holding the sides of his forehead in his hands, trying to stabilize his vision enough to see straight, he casually added two of his free attribute points into Vitality to blunt the pain. It worked a little, and feeling returned to his limbs as warmth spread through his body. However, he would need to add more than two points to stop the pain entirely, and he couldn’t afford to do that in a dangerous situation. The whole reason he had been saving them up was to avoid using them while out on his own when passing out could lead to a quick demise.
He scrambled to tear the backpack from his shoulders, dropping it onto the ground and hastily pulling Maryanne free. Gently, he laid her in the small circle of light to check on her. Blood trickled from the girl’s nose and one of her ears, but her breathing was steady. Lucius murmured a silent prayer that she had only been knocked unconscious before snapping his head up to scan their surroundings.
But there wasn’t much to see. Beyond the thin pool of light, a wall of absolute darkness pressed in from every side. Worse still, his Sense Danger screamed a warning—the centipede was drawing closer.
Lucius clenched his teeth. The bastard had put on a perfect act, feigning stupidity just long enough to lure him into a trap.
“Damn it!”
Lucius punched the ground with enough force to crack the washbowl-sized rock that took the blow, breaking the skin over his knuckles in the process. By now, he could hear the faraway echoes of skittering feet as the creature raced along the underground tunnels toward them. Lucius squinted hard in an unsuccessful attempt to see through the darkness around him as he felt around clumsily on the floor for the sword. The force of the fall had thrown it from his hand.
“Father, I can help you. Step away from the light.”
Lucius looked down at the ring on his hand as he heard Whisper’s voice, remembering the bat’s promise to show him how to use its power. The centipede was quickly approaching, so there was no time to refuse. He stood up from the ground and stepped forward, moving away from the lonely circle of sunlight into the darkness.
“Okay, now what?”
Lucius saw two narrow orbs of purple light glowing in the air in front of him. Whisper had emerged from the storage ring, and a magical glow was being emitted from his eyes, growing brighter by the moment.
“The process is called Mythification. My power is a product of the combined subconscious soul of humanity. I am just the focal point. I will pass that focal point to you by merging my body with yours. You must speak my name aloud, with the intention to undergo this process in your mind.”
Lucius’ eyes continued to widen as he listened to Whisper’s explanation.
“Really? Merge bodies? That is not what I had in mind, Whisper!”
The floating orbs of purple light shifted slightly as Whisper tilted his head.
“I am already part of you. We are two pieces of one body; this process simply recombines it. I don’t understand why you hesitate.”
Sense Danger interrupted the conversation, reminding Lucius that he was running out of time. The young man held one hand against his brow for a moment before turning his head back toward Maryanne. Her body was lying inside the circle of light as her tiny chest slowly rose and fell with each breath. His fists couldn’t help but clench as he thought about how unfair the world had been to the child. Now, she would certainly die if he turned Whisper down. Maybe he could escape on his own or even defeat the centipede, but there was no way he could do that while protecting Maryanne. Not in the darkness of the cave, without his vision, on the creature’s home turf. His indecision fell away as he continued to look at her.
“Whisper!” he called out the name as the mythical creature had instructed.
The bat’s lips peeled back in a savage grin, exposing rows of needle-like teeth. In the next instant, its body unraveled into a writhing tide of shadows that surged toward Lucius with terrifying speed. He stiffened instinctively as the silky darkness slithered up his legs, sliding beneath his clothing like a living thing.
The shadows were cool against his skin, but there was a strength in them—a tight, unrelenting grip that wrapped around his body before sinking deep into his flesh.
Lucius staggered, gasping as a violent transformation rippled through him. Power flooded his senses, raw and overwhelming. Most striking of all was the sudden awareness—a new, alien sense awakening within him. He could feel the shadows now, every strand, every flicker, as if they were extensions of his own body. It was similar to the telekinesis granted by his ring, but compared to this, the ring’s power felt pale and fragile—a candle next to a roaring fire.
Lucius watched in alarm as his fingers stretched, the nails thickening and darkening until they became razor-sharp claws. An unsettling pressure built in his jaw as his teeth shifted, growing longer and sharper, forcing him to part his lips slightly to avoid tearing into his own flesh.
The shadows slipped away from his face, revealing his transformed eyes—both irises now a deep, unnatural purple. The once-black cave exploded into blinding brightness, and the small circle of light where Maryanne rested now burned like a miniature sun, searing his vision. With a grunt, Lucius shielded his eyes with one hand, turning away from the painful glare.
When he cast his newly sharpened vision back into the cavern, the world around him sprang into vivid detail. He stood in a vast, rocky chamber, its high ceiling crowded with jagged stalactites, and a honeycomb of tunnels branching out in every direction. Lucius’ perception had evolved into something razor-sharp, allowing him to pinpoint the exact tunnel from which the skittering echoes of the approaching creature were racing toward him.
“How do you feel, Father?”
“I feel strong. Where are you? How can you speak without a body?”
“I am here, with you. I never used my body to speak in the first place, so why should losing it stop me? Look at this, I can even still help you command the shadows!”
As Whisper spoke, a clump of shadows rose up from the ground and took on the form of its body, waving at Lucius before melting back into the solid rock.
“I see. We should take the fight to the creature. If we wait here for it, we’ll be exposing Maryanne to the danger. Let’s go.”
Lucius stepped toward the tunnels, but what should have been a simple step forward turned into a great leap. He landed on the ground with his arms and legs sticking out awkwardly in a clumsy attempt to steady himself.
“Shit,” he muttered.
Chapter 45
The Clash
As Lucius stepped forward awkwardly, he caught sight of his missing sword—its blade jutting from a pile of stones along the path ahead. He reached out with his newly clawed hand, and the moment his fingers extended toward it, the sword vanished from the rocks and materialized in his grasp.
Moving forward, he quickly adjusted to the strange changes in his body. In fact, he adapted with a speed that felt unnatural, leading him to suspect that his Intelligence and Creativity had also been enhanced by the mythification.
Lucius broke into a sprint, racing to meet his foe head-on, and with a thought, summoned his attribute panel to better understand his transformed condition.
Status
Level 21
Strength: 29
Vitality: 13
Dexterity: 35
Intelligence: 10
Creativity: 11
Luck: 6
Stamina: 21
Magic Power: 20
Magic Resist: 10
Free Attributes: 14
A smile spread across his face, exposing his sharpened fangs as he used his boosted intelligence to hastily calculate the extent of the changes.
“Looks like it’s +5 to everything except Magic Power, which got a massive +20, and Vitality, which stayed the same,” Lucius concluded.
It made sense that Vitality would not change from the mythification. Just as Whisper had explained, the two shared a constant connection in that aspect, and Lucius’ Vitality would increase as Whisper grew stronger. Basically, the boost to his health was always active.
Next, Lucius glanced at his list of talents, hoping the system would explain exactly what he was capable of now. Below the list of his usual talents, there was an additional line that read mythification, but the description box contained only a row of question marks.
“That’s not helpful…” he muttered.
He attempted to scratch his chin as he stared at the list, but when he saw the sharp blades at the ends of his fingers moving toward his face, he decided against it.
“Pay attention, Father! The creature approaches!”
Lucius tightened his grip around Matriarch’s Fury as he stared down the long tunnel. About twenty meters ahead, the path twisted sharply to the right—and from around the bend, a pair of massive pincers slid into view as the centipede finally emerged. The creature’s oversized body filled nearly the entire tunnel, and Lucius wondered if it was even capable of turning around in such tight quarters.
He decided to put that question to the test, hoping to draw the monster farther away from Maryanne. Dirt scattered underfoot as he poured strength into each stride, feeling the air tear past him like he was leaning out of a speeding car window.
Lucius couldn’t help but notice how calm he felt, even as he sprinted straight toward the deadly centipede. Somewhere along the way, during the endless string of emergencies his life had become, he had made peace with the fact that battle and death were now part of his reality. But that acceptance didn’t erase the natural terror of fighting to the death against creatures from another dimension.
Yet now, that fear was simply... gone. An eerie calm blanketed his mind—no doubt another effect of the transformation.
This wasn’t the time to reflect, though. Shaking his head slightly, without ever taking his eyes off the enemy ahead, Lucius shoved all unnecessary thoughts aside. This was no time for hesitation. This was a moment to wager everything—his life, and Maryanne’s—on a single desperate battle.
The creature was clearly aware of his approach. It clacked its mandibles together furiously and surged forward the moment Lucius broke into a charge. Lowering its head, it spread its pincers wide, ready to tear him apart.
But just as Lucius was about to enter the deadly gap between its jagged jaws, he pushed off the ground with all his strength, vanishing from the path in a sudden burst of speed as he launched himself into the air. Even with his enhanced reflexes, he was almost too slow—he had to yank his knees tight to his chest to avoid losing his legs as the centipede’s pincers snapped shut beneath him with a thunderous crack that shook the tunnel.
The creature reacted far faster than it had in the forest, instantly tracking Lucius’ movements with a sharpness it had lacked before. It arched its thick neck backward, snapping at him before he could slip beyond its reach—but a shadow shaped like a small bat darted into its face, startling it just long enough for Lucius to evade.
Reaching the ceiling of the tunnel, Lucius kicked off with explosive force, launching himself toward the centipede’s exposed back. Matriarch’s Fury was leveled before him like a lance, the weapon gleaming with lethal intent.
As he collided with the moving wall of black armor that was the creature’s back, he drove the spearpoint into it with all his strength. A sharp crack split the air, like a nail gun firing into solid steel, as the enchanted weapon and the monster’s defenses clashed, two brutal forces struggling for dominance.
Lucius thought the blade might fail him at first, but a red radiance spread from the blade to the surface of the carapace upon impact, weakening the armor just enough to allow the weapon to sink into the monster’s flesh.
SCREEE!
A shrill, offensive screech tore from the centipede as the blade pierced its armor. The sound was deafening, but Lucius hardly noticed—he was too focused on the rush of warmth flooding into his body through Matriarch’s Fury.
