[1.44] Frostbite (Part 1)
[Achievement unlocked: Scourge-Cleanser - Rank 2]
[Congratulations, you have now killed ten Malignants, the arbitrary number I picked so that you could prove that you had a properly functioning body. Now you can be trusted with this. Go and hunt these scourges to the ends of all worlds! Next Reward: 50 Malignants defeated]
[Passive Skill: Malignant Tracker Lv.1 unlocked. An upgraded version of Malignant Sense. Allows you to locate and track Malignants based on the criteria you set. Potency and accuracy of Tracking scales with Skill Level and Lucidity. Growth Scales with Lucidity. Skill cannot be Attuned]
[Lucidity increased]
Oh wow, it would seem that the Demon Growth System had gotten used to her patterns and adapted as such. It went ahead and read out the Achievement and Skill details without her having to activate Scrying Eye and look from there. And great, now that she had the Skill, she wouldn’t need the Rune. It made sense now why most Summoners assumed that Demons had it from the start, if it was given so early on in their careers. Almost begged the question of why the inferior Malignant Sense existed or how it was even obtained.
The DGS had also paused for a moment, allowing Angelica time to reflect on what she’d just received before moving on to the next.
[Achievement unlocked: Poison Hands]
[Everything you touch dies! Okay, not really, but it could. You’ve started down the path of slow, deceitful death. Some call it cowardly, others call it tactical. I say whatever gets the job done. So take this boon of poison to further your pestilent ways.]
[Toxic Lv.4]
[Malice significantly increased]
[Pestilence Attunement massively increased]
[Pestilence Attunement has increased from Touched to Embraced]
Well damn, three level ups in one go. Gelic had a feeling that Traits likely levelled slower than Skills, feeling rarer and more lucrative, but that was currently not proving to be the case. Once the handouts ran dry, however, she still speculated that would be how things went, so it would probably be some time before she saw another Toxic level.
Now that business had been taken care of, the Imp wandered out of the dome. And strangely, all she found was a peaceful playground. The fierce battlefield had ceased to exist. Besides the bolts laying around which should disintegrate soon, and the sporadically scuffed sections of ground from where Rastille’s hammer had hit it, there was no evidence that they’d been there at all. The schoolyard felt eerily serene, like it was a place that her presence was disturbing, somewhere she shouldn’t be. Though a lot of that could be lingering feelings from her memories. It always felt weird being at a school during the off hours.
Angelica should go join the rest of her party. Malignant Sense was already telling her the direction they were located, off toward the trees, but she wanted to test out her new skill, so she turned on the upgraded version, since thankfully it could actually be toggled. It gave her a clearer count, showing that there were still about a dozen that the Summoners were engaged with.
But her senses now also told her there was an odd one out, one that the others had either missed or ignored while they pursued those trying to escape destruction. Her eyes wandered over to the nearby jungle gym. They found nothing at first, so she enabled her second vision, and got her answer. But it was also at that moment that the sole remaining Malignant in the area chose to make its presence known, likely due to the deaths of its kin. What shimmered to life in the middle of the metal cage was another rocky egg, but a much bigger, angrier one.
[Malignant Lv.23 | Health: 100%]
Holy frits! Angelica struggled to keep her balance as the whole ground shook. Apparently the part of the monster she saw was only the tip. It emerged from the ground, its stoney skin expanding, ripping straight through the jungle gym, shredding the metal to shrapnel as it burst out of its self-imposed cage.
“Hey, hey, hey, Rastille. Got another one, and it’s a lot tougher than the others!”
“Understood,” was all the response she got, giving no indication that her concern was actually eliciting a proper reaction.
“Okay… guess It’s up to me, but what do I do?!” In the face of a mighty foe, the little puffball panicked for a moment. Then she realized there was no need for that. No point changing things up if the past thing worked. Variety was for suckers who liked adding extra stress for no reason.
With hands out flat in front of her, ready to imbue some Toxic, Gelic rushed at the Malignant. “Wah!” Only for her to be thrown backward the moment she got close. Unlike the baby ones she’d faced, this big momma rock had a bunch of deep cracks running throughout its body. One segment of shell had suddenly jutted out at the Demon, launching her with a good smack, like swatting away a fly.
Fortunately, the hit had hurt far less than it should have, only doing a measly 2% of Angelica’s Health as damage. That must have counted as a wallop for that resistance to trigger, but did it also count as an unarmed strike to activate Punching Bag? Since the DGS must have been monitoring her status and running calculations about how much damage she should be taking with her Traits and Skills, surely it would know. So she pushed back her usual anxiousness about being too bothersome and just flat out asked the voice in her head.
[Figure it out yourself]
That poignant response was about what she expected. Obviously, it must know the answer, but it just wasn’t going to flat out tell her. Might be for the best, maybe not for her, but for Demon society in general. If their magical system gave them all the information they asked for, they’d never learn to think for themselves, making a mindless army of hellspawn. Hmm, but that sounds like the kind of thing a ruler of Hell would want. Her mind couldn’t help but wander for a moment and ponder, only for the distraction to quickly wane as the Malignant made the ground shake again, as if it was annoyed at being ignored.
“Alright, alright, I’m coming.” What exactly was she going to do, though? Surely the same action would end up with the repeated result, and Angelica wasn’t feeling the itch to dive into insanity. Hmm, maybe I can do something with those cracks. They looked sort of fleshy and stabbable, but there was still the issue of getting close. Maybe a nice Airstrike would do the trick.
Gelic found out the answer a second later, after she jumped above the Malignant and stabbed her dagger deep down into the topmost crack of the stone shell. Well, by deep, it was barely a few inches, all the way up to the hilt of the dagger at least. But in the grand scheme, she’d hardly pricked the thing. She had to guess it felt something akin to a bug bite, annoying, but not life ruining, and its Health didn’t drop a single percentage.
To top off to her frustration, a reaction was still elicited. The monster did wince from the pest’s prick, making it tense around the area, causing the hard exterior to clamp down on her weapon, smashing it to bits with one flex. Thank Vissiem she hadn’t tried sticking her hand in the thing. And just when she had the bright idea to activate Toxic Imbuement through her feet, those same feet went flying upward. The plate she’d been standing on activated like a spring trap, flinging her skyward.
[Malignant Lv.23 | Health: 100% | Poisoned: Toxic - 4 Stacks]
Ahaha! Angelica laughed to herself as Flutter delicately placed her back on the ground. Before getting absolutely chucked, she’d managed to use the skill for two seconds.
[Health: 96% | Poisoned: Toxic - 3 Stacks]
[Health: 93% | Poisoned: Toxic - 2 Stacks]
[Health: 91% | Poisoned: Toxic - 1 Stack]
[Malignant Lv.23 | Health: 90%]
Damn, it shook off Toxic really fast.
[Malignant Lv.23 | Health: 91%]
[Malignant Lv.23 | Health: 92%]
And it has some kind of Health regeneration?! That’s not fair! Her poison outpaced the regeneration thanks to the new Toxic boost, but only when it stayed applied, so she’d have to keep adding it, ideally in as many Stacks as possible in one go. One glance at her MP worried her, but by quick math, as long as she could keep the Stacks maxed, she should have just enough to kill it before its regen kicked in. Actually touching it was a problem, though.
“Wah!” The Imp wailed again, blasted away once more. She’d tried another Airstrike, but this time she didn’t even manage to touch it. The Malignant blasted its springy shell toward her once more, and this time, the air force generated from the movement was enough to blast her away. So she tried from the ground again, running up, trying to touch it, using an Order in an attempt to get her body to dodge the stoney walls as they jutted her way.
Even that wasn’t enough, and she kept getting tossed back a good distance. Fortunately, thanks to her own special traits, the damage she was taking was offset by her own recuperation, not even needing to rely on poisoned food. It had quickly devolved into a war of attrition, which probably only lasted a few solid minutes in actuality.
[Wallop Resistance Lv.2]
[Vigor increased]
[Suffering Attunement increased]
“Why do you keep trying to hug it?” Angelica turned to find her master looking puzzled by the situation.
“Uhh, trying to poison it,” she explained. “I unlocked Toxic Imbuement, which I think is the best way to kill these rock things, but it dissipates the poison quickly and then heals back the damage, so I need to keep touching it.”
“Ah, an imbuement Skill.” Rastille looked genuinely pleased. “A good investment, but you’re using it wrong. Yes, you can directly send the energy into a target, but that’s just a steep drain on mana. You’re supposed to imbue weapons or other items. Inanimate objects hold imbuements better, though it tends to depend on the material. Point is, use the weapon as a catalyst for the Skill, so you’re not constantly draining your power. Like this.”
The burly man held up his sledgehammer, and the metal head suddenly swirled with a purple taint. Strange, she always depicted Toxic as green in her mind, but purple could generally be associated with poison as well. Rastille rushed forward at the Malignant, only to have to jump back right before his swing connected to dodge. Unlike the punching bag puffball, that walloping would actually do a good bit of damage to him.
Instead of trying it again, he hoisted his hammer back and then hurled it forward. The tool arced through the air and slammed the rock egg with a thud before it limped to the ground. Watching the creature’s Health, it did dip. She couldn’t see how many Stacks had been inflicted, since it would seem only those who inflicted Statuses were able to behold them. Just by the math, though, he’d inflicted the base two Stacks, which subsequently were cleansed and missing Health restored.
“Well, it’s not optimal, but you get the idea,” her master suggested. It really wasn’t ideal, since now he’d lost his weapon. No way he could run up and get it back without getting smacked. So instead, he picked up some stones, imbued them with poison, and began pelting the thing. Since each only landed one hit, it didn’t seem much better than just touching it like he’d warned against.
Though then he actually managed to land one on top of the thing, where it stayed for a few seconds before slowly sliding off. By the huge jump in damage the beasty took, it would appear that the man managed to inflict the full ten Stack cap. Impressive! That would get it down to half Health in just a few seconds. If they could land another one of those shortly after, they could kill it!
But the odds of two tosses like that in quick succession were unlikely, at least with one person, so she needed to figure out a way to contribute. Gelic quickly glanced around. With her weak Might, she wouldn’t be able to hurl rocks like the well-built man could. Even if she turned into a clone of the man, she’d only get his stature and not his strength or dexterity. His form’s added mobility could help, but she’d still prefer something more reliable. Gelic needed something with a lot of reach, that she could prod and poison the Malignant with while staying out of range of its shell.
Time to test that theory then! Angelica hoisted her hand to the sky and activated Frost Touch. Which, uhh, didn’t really do much. All she was accomplishing was slightly chilling the air around her, creating a bit of mist from her palm. It was like she was trying to lower the temperature of the outdoors with a small air conditioner, for all the good that would do. This was just a waste of her MP instead of electricity. Focus, focus.
It was suddenly very hard to focus. Apparently, the Malignant wasn’t a big fan of losing half its health. It began what she could only call a tantrum. Every piece of its shell began to pump and stretch away from its body in rapid succession, desperately trying to ward off attacks from any and all angles, completely quaking the ground around it and pumping torrents of air in all directions.
“Damn, I’ll call Sperado and get his Ghoul to take care of this thing,” Rastille declared. “It’ll be messy, but we’ll deal with the aftermath when it’s done.”
“Well hang on a second!” Gelic protested. “I’m not done with my ideas yet. Give me a few minutes at least, sheesh!” While the idea of sitting back and letting someone else take care of this nightmare was certainly appealing, Angelica could be a bit stubborn at times. She’d started this, conceived of a potential solution, so she wanted to see it through, or at least try until it was proven impossible.
Plus, the damned Malignant had already destroyed the jungle gym. A battle between it and the Ghoul could wreck the whole place. And her mother had worked hard—so she assumed—to raise the money for this equipment on her daughter’s behalf, so she didn’t want to see any more of it ruined.