Trapped On A Death World - Chapter 15

In the green light of the Elder Spawn, I saw my shadow. Great horns curled across the shadows head. My hands were long and tipped with small claws. Each arm was shaped more like a tree trunk than a human arm. Small spikes jutted from my elbows. Flickering back and forth was a tail armored and pointed. It was prehensile, my shadow moved its tail back and forth with ease. Grasped in my shadows hand was a twitching squid creature. My shadow opened its mouth and began biting chunks out of the screeching creature.

Ping!

Level Up x 5

Jacob lvl8 Black Sol Imp

+150 HP and AP

+15 to all stats

HP 825

AP 2388

I snatched a squirming worm from one of the wolven I’d killed. It struggled and screeched in my hand. I sniffed it and the aroma was delightful. The first bite came with the crunch of a backbone. Blood dripped down my chin while I consumed the treat. My body seemed more than prepared to deal with the creatures.

No matter how much I ate, I was never full. Even this worm smelled delectable to me. I’d been so hungry without realizing it. Was that why I lost?

I patted my gut and felt good. Better than good I felt alive. Eating my foe gave me more xp than killing them. That was something I hadn’t calculated before. I knew that blood gave me some xp but apparently the bodies of my enemies were filled with it. I’d only had a few liters, some prime cuts, or cooked strips. Eating the whole body was much more satisfying.

I plucked a tusk from one of the corpses and used it to pick my teeth. After wiping some gore from my chest, I felt the heavy bone that protected my organs. It was segmented ribs from what I could feel. They reminded me of riveted or scaled armor. Unfortunately, after checking my armpits and around my neck, I found some holes in the defense. With enough punching power my chest could be pierced. That didn’t mean that my neck and arteries weren’t open weaknesses. I could die like any living thing. My chest was just better protected than most. Riveted ribs who knew. That wasn’t in my traits.

The best part of all of this was the timing. It was noon. I positioned myself and felt something link up to my systems. It was like a doorway to knowledge. What would a red/black/white spell even look like? Would it be something as amazing as Dol’s rank up spell?

Ping!

Tier 1 Spell Acquired

Pragma Summoning Summon beings of the pragma alignment.

Cost: 1000AP

Well I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. I channeled half of my reserves into the spell. “Pragma Summoning,” I cast the spell and felt something tear open.

Out from the rift stepped out a black scaled demon with large horns, a thick gray beard covered in soot, and a smithing hammer. He turned back to the swirling portal before it winked out. The demon turned back to me and grunted.

“I am the demon smith Dellman Sparta but most call me Del for short. By the giant green tentacle and all the undead I’m guessing you were hoping for a warrior.” The old demon tugged at his beard before looking back at the towering tentacle.

I sighed and yanked an arm off one of the bodies still twitching. “Do you want anything?” I offered. The demon shook his head and looked around.

He picked up a still sparking leg of an old robot and inspected it. “You have plenty of good steel here. The conditions aren’t ideal but I’m proficient in making weapons under limiting conditions. It’s a bit colder than I’m used to.” Del said.

“Does the spell summon help that I need rather than what I want?” I asked.

The demon stroked his beard. “There is more to it than that. Have you tried contacting spell support? This is Planet Green so we’re 6th from the star. Who taught you magic?” Del asked.

“My friend Gwen, she’s a mindflayer.” I said.

“Is she the one who summoned an Elder Spawn?” He asked in a gruff voice

I tossed the half-eaten arm on the ground. “She thought the town’s walls could contain it. They did until I opened the doors.”

He pulled out a smoke and lit it. “Well that’s interesting. I’ll help you out. Don’t expect me to do any fighting that’s not what I signed up for. I’m a smith, I like taking my craft into new and interesting directions. I’ll find a place to set up my forge. Here take this.”

Del threw me a black gem the size of a fist and before tossing a scroll on the ground. He quickly unfurled it revealing tons of weapons. Each was blacker than night and covered in runes. I skipped over the swords, spears, and a random golf club.

“Only one is free. These are from the bargain wrack. I used a few shards of brimstone from my homeland to give them some oomph. When you kill something with one, that Black Apple in your hand will fill up. Hold it up and tell me how many blood spirits are inside it.” Del said.

I held up the Black Apple and sensed none. “Zero,” I said.

“Good, I didn’t want to give you the one that still had some. That’s the deal. You kill, I collect, and you get weapons.” Dell said.

“Are blood spirits, souls?” I asked.

The demon laughed and slapped his knee. “No, lad they aren’t. Think of them like ghosts spawned from violent creatures. You’re probably full of them.” The demon said with a laugh.

I picked up a mace. That was just what I wanted something heavy. When next if fought a blessed one, I’d crush its shield and pulverize its body.

“An interesting choice. Not many go for the mace. Most prefer the sword.” Del said.

“I need a better bow, tons of arrows, and a big stupidly heavy sword.” I said.

He stared at me with a measure of confusion. “I understand the bow and the arrows. Yours is looking shabby. I’m sure you did the best you could in this place. That wasn’t good enough. Why the sword?” Del asked.

I squeezed the mace. It was heavy and probably powerful. I needed a crowd clearing weapon. Black static along with a powerful blade could clear mobs. That’s what I needed instead of a mace. While I was here talking to this demon, the Elder Spawn was hard at work.

“Fine but drop the bow. I’m going to build you a repeater crossbow. Just collect a ton of blood spirits for me and build some strength. I’ll make you the stupidly heavy sword of your dreams. You know you’re going to need a lot of muscle to wield it. Much more than you have now. You should work on that.” Dell said.

“Noted, I’m going to go kill now. How many should I gather?” The demon stroked his beard.

“10k for the crossbow and 100k for the sword. Each upgrade to the sword will cost at least another 100k to a million.” I blinked at the demon. This was worse than DLC.

“I thought you were going to give me a finished product.” I said.

Dell chuckled and tapped the mace. Suddenly, my systems were updated by the weapon’s upgrade menu. It seemed I could increase the mace’s damage by feeding it blood spirits.

He turned to the giant pile of scrap. “This will take all day. I’m going to summon some of my apprentices to help out. Don’t worry about a thing the forge will be up and running in no time.” Dale said.

I couldn’t help but feel I’d been taken advantage of. The Pragma spell seemed to summon pragmatic demons instead of summons pragmatic to my situation. Still the mace felt good in my hand.

A few of the upgrades required wrath shards. To max out the mace, I needed 250,000 Blood sprits and 5 wrath shards.

I flew down into a crowd of zombies with my mace. A single blow caved in the chest of two before they started swarming me. One wasn’t a threat, five wasn’t a threat, but a hundred could hold me down.

After I landed, I killed ten before I took off again. Just as I’d left their reach something shot through the air and hit my back. Volleys of darts shot out and smashed into my back. I flapped my wings and tried to get higher. Why hadn’t I thought about this? They were learning, they had always been learning. Now they could use gobling weapons.

I picked out the trajectory of the darts and fired my own arrows. This changed how I needed to go about this. Every assault needed to target the long-ranged fighters first. just when I thought I’d gotten out of range I heard something. It was the flapping of sliver wings.

Zombie Steel Eagle Fusion lvl35

Talons with the same silver spurs as the owl stabbed onto my shoulder before I turned my mace upon it. From the Eagle’s back, the torso of a golbing zombie emerged and it fired darts. One missed my eye by millimeters and bounced off my nose. My mace smashed against the side of the bird’s leg. The bones snapped and the talon released me. I dropped just missing a peck from its massive beak. The Eagle tucked its wings and dove after me.