Trope World - Volume 1 Chapter 40 1 Down 4 To Go

Couldn’t or shouldn’t, either way the wasp Matriarch needed to die. This was simple, as a human I knew how to deal with pests. We were busily making our way down the chasm leading to the underhive. An area of the nest filled with what could be called the wasp sect. Below the upper hive was the true power of the nest.

“You should know. Wasps aren’t the only monsters in the dark. The nest connects with many tunnels.” Max said. I rolled my eyes then froze; something was off about her voice. The tone had changed. I continued to climb down at a speedy pace. The others were in the foundation level, they could fly. I had to settle for climbing. There was no time for my breakthrough.

“How long before we reach your sister?” I asked. She hovered above me as if thinking. She might have been thought he l.u.s.t in her insect eyes were telling.

“Don’t worry, we’re getting closer.” At the back of my mind, I assumed this was a trap. More wasps past us by, so I decided to start setting up my own play. I altered their instincts with domination. They had no eyes and no window to connect my thoughts with theirs. It was tricky but I wasn’t trying to dominate them completely. I was dampening their instincts.

The more I worked with random wasps, the faster I became. Soon, sight or no sight a glance was enough to dive in and dampen the wasp’s instincts. The effects weren’t apparent for now, it was something that would build. Eventually, we hit the end of the hole and we landed on a massive structure. Beneath the tunnels was kilometers of paper hives standing like skyscr.a.p.ers. Teams of worker wasps worked constantly. They tore apart roots from far off trees and made a concrete like pulp from the wood. That paper like pulp made up the concrete like structure of the hives.

This was a larger situation than I’d thought. A sense of impending danger filled my senses as the will of a powerful entity swept through my veil. I leapt away as Max’s tail stinger grazed my neck. My armor turned the point, but it was a close call. I looked around to see my squad covered by multiple wasps. Sirius and Farron were quickly stripped of their armor. These wasps were like Max tall and standing upright. I pulled my veil from everyone and covered myself with it.

Then I pulled my sword. The presence tried to flatten me with its will, but it was far away. I wasn’t as weak as I’d been when I first laid eyes on the angel. I coughed up a mouthful of blood and my head felt like it would explode.

“Max, was everything a lie?” I asked.

“You are too trusting; I can’t blame you.” The presence was starting to seal my cultivation base. I could feel a 10% drop already. Getting back up to the surface wasn’t an option. Atomic blast took a too much time to get off. I leapt off the side of the hive and pulled my bow free. As I fell, I unleased eruption arrow after eruption arrow.

Arrows like shooting stars shot through the next creating sonic booms and exploding through the paper nests. Dragon fire exploded like a volcano blowing its top. Where the arrows landed became a sea of flames. The entire underhive shook and dark qi rose up agitated to the extreme. All it took was a lapse in concentration and my veil of nothingness hid me.

Nobody lv50

Nobody lv75

Nobody lv100; +10,000DEX

It wasn’t stopping, I was falling inside of nothingness. Soon, I would cease to exist and become one with infinite dark. I felt my body slowly corrode away and my senses were leaving the world. No force of will pulled me back together. There wasn’t enough left of me for that. Then, I hit the ground from a 100-story fall.

Pain exploded through my body and I came to my senses. I pulled my body back together and woke up from my dream of nothing.

Everything was on fire and thousands of humanoid wasps covered the sky debunking a lot of what Max said. She liked to talk but not about anything true. All the wasps had dark qi. There wasn’t a single wasp with anything but dark qi down here. I couldn’t sense any grey qi. I was uncertain if it existed. The humanoid form might be a natural evolution.

Here on the bottom the corpses of uncountable beings littered the unused streets. There weren’t any underworld flies down here only fly maggots. Wasps eat flies.

There were things I had to do now. I had to save my squad. I really wasn’t certain if anything Max said was true. Why use my veil to eat one of her kind? I didn’t know.

Pain wracked my body and I fell over. My body began to feast on the dark qi as my limbs twisted and popped. I’d gotten used to the incremental changed my body went through. This was sudden! I opened my mouth and bellowed in pain. I tried to stop myself, but my jaw locked up.

I screamed and watched the fires go out. Wasps with water magics worked tirelessly to put the fires out. One by one the fires went out and the oppressive darkness won out. I laid there in on the bottom of the underhive silently bellowing in pain.

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Nobody lv750, +75,000DEX

Demons were certainly frightening being. Then again, a demon underworld wasp of darkness was specialized for the dark. It made some sense. It might have been years since I lost consciousness and absorbed darkness until my skill leveled out.

My body looked more like a withered corpse than a human body. My cultivation base was still at the peak of the condensation realm. All my excess spirit energy was gone. I was running at around 50% strength, I needed food rich in qi to recover. I moved about the hive city an invisible wisp of a human. I passed by a mirror and got a good look at myself.

I yelled and drew my sword at my own face. I’d thought myself a demon. My face was sunken into my bones and my skin looked like grew latex. I needed food before I went on any rescue missions. I stepped to one of the hives and leapt up. My foot found the mouth of an entrance and I kicked driving myself upward.

When my feet touched the side of one of the hives instead of the mouth of an entrance, I thought I would fall. Instead gravity shifted. It was like gravity moved when I needed it. Was this what being at the foundation stage was like? A smile graced my withered lips. This was just an extension of the Dao of Nobody. My darkness had its own gravitational force now. I continued to use the black moon breathing technique. It was the key to taking in the dark qi. Without it, it would have taken much longer to level up nobody.

It made me think about Moon Demon the founder of the moon sects. Did he battle against the underworld dragon to gain dark qi? I shook my head and focused on the path ahead.

The only way out was to fly or jump. I didn’t know where they took my squad members, I did have a guess. Leaving them wasn’t an option. I will never abandon my people. Pain lanced through my skull and I fell to my knees. Echoing voices called out to me.

“Usurper, we remember.” I narrowed my eyes and stood back up.

Dream lv50; +250INT/PER

There comes a time in everyone’s life when its time to say f.u.c.k it. That was this time. I normally held back several my skills. I had tons of skills and they were difficult to keep up with even with a system. It was often better to handle a situation with the skills that would be most effective. That and I had a feeling that some of my skills could fuse together given time. That’s what I was about to attempt.

Active point, focus, insight, analyze, and detect

Five skill fusion

New skill created

Dao Skill Discovered: Thousand Eyes and One lv1; Passive, active MP Cost 1b; +500INT/PER

Skills lost Point, Focus, Insight, Analyze, and Detect

-2150Perception

-1050Intelligence

In a single move my whole world shook. Everything grew darker and my perception was cut in half. This was how it had to be. To gain something, something must be lost. I felt something itch in the center of my forehead. I rubbed at a vertical eyelid. It felt weird then the eye opened. The room that was once dark became clear. I could see everything. My third eye could zoom in on objects and the humanoid wasps at the end of the hall. I could see behind me and I could open another eye above me on the ceiling. Then I closed all three eyes and looked from the ceiling’s perspective. I was in third person. It was more like a video game than ever.

I could make my dried-up cultivator avatar run forward, back, jump, and draw his weapon. It was fun. For the low price of 1b mana I could place an eye at a location and leave it there. Everything around the eye was in my view. It was the equivalent of a hidden camera thanks to my nobody skill.

Thousand eyes and one lv2; +1000INT/PER

I had an idea. I traveled through the hive like a ghost placing my own hidden camera’s everywhere. After a few uses, I found my limit was 10

Thousand eyes and one lv3; +1500INT/PER

Another massive boost wracked my body in pain. It wasn’t like my dexterity; it still gave me migraines. My squad mates were probably dead by now.

I used domination to send a message the wasps. One by one, I watched them move to the central chamber in the hive. This is where the reining queen usually resided. She and her pretorians were absent. Once the wasps were gathered, I rushed them and stabbed one through the abdomen and activated Rapture.

A halo appeared around me covering the area and my veil of nothingness vanished. I felt the attention of the Matriarch on me, but it was too late. Blinding white light flashed and every wasp in the queen’s chamber exploded as holy energy ripped them apart. I didn’t know how many I killed in a single move it could have been five hundred to ten thousand. There were a lot of them. But I tried to cover myself in my shroud of nothingness, but the jig was up. I could feel the qi of core stage wasps growing closer.

Rapture lv25; +2,500WIS

They were powerful each in the early to mid-core level. One had BP of 1t. I didn’t have time to flinch before a thunderous roar shattered my eardrums. Lightning yellow in color struck my barrier and for a moment it held. In less time than it takes to blink my barrier crumbled and lightning ripped through my body and cutting holes through my chest. They clearly weren’t here to play. 10t BP worth of lightning damage swept through smashing into my hastily made barrier of nothingness.

My barrier shattered and my cultivation base teetered on the edge of collapse. I wasn’t strong enough to deal with them. I needed more power. Rapture hadn’t been a good plan of attack after all. My mind shifted to a mountainous view. Snowcapped peaks stretched on beyond the planet’s atmosphere and through space. Billions of these mountains played out through my mind. In moments an ageless power filled my body. I felt as if a million bolts of lightning couldn’t contend with my body. As if I were one of those mountains top an endless peak.

Thousand eyes and one lv5; + 2,500INT/PER

Endless Peak lv20 + 2000CON

Power Skill discovered: Lightning Break lv100; passive +1000CON/END

Skill discovered: Sound Resistance lv100; passive +100CON/END

I had no health pool left to speak of. By body felt blackened and burnt. The nest collapsed and I fell with it. I felt like some angel trying to challenge god’s will only to be struck down. When I hit the ground, my shroud hid my existence once more and my Health began to recover. The wasp pretorians began to sift through the ruble. One managed to free me and even looked directly at me. She couldn’t tell that I was anything unusual. To her I was as important as an ugly chair found in the ruble.

The Matriarch’s qi swept over the area. She looked directly at me and didn’t notice a thing. I was just another drop of black ink on a black canvas. I needed food. If I looked like the undead before now I looked like a true skeleton.