Kaelthorn collapsed to his knees, breathing heavily as the haze of rot finally stopped gnawing at his bones. "Th-thank you, my Lord. Forgive my incompetence. I didn’t think..." He coughed violently. "Didn’t think it’d be this bad."
Damon nodded."It’s worse for most. Don’t worry." He stretched his fingers, watching faint threads of corrupted mana drift toward him... and dissolve like mist on contact. His blood, his magic, no, his very presence, was purifying the air around him.
His Blood Archives were quickly expanding with the sheer amount of corruption and toxins in the air. He looked around, gaze falling on the cursed terrain. The place hadn’t changed a bit. "This land is sick. The creatures here are twisted, but there is a special secret hidden here."
"My Lord?" Kaelthorn tried his best to focus on Damon’s words and compose himself back to a respectful form, but it was proving to be impossible. The weight of the corruption was simply crushing him down.
Leaving him behind, Damon dashed forward. Not wanting to fail so soon, Kaelthorn gritted his teeth and forced himself upright. Every breath was pain. Every step felt like he was dragging chains made of curses and poisons. But he followed.
Up ahead, Damon ca to a stop at the edge of a sunken ravine, if it could even be called that. It looked like the earth had been chewed out by so massive, forgotten predator. The bottom writhed with blackened roots, twitching vines, and nurous bones of beasts.
Damon gazed down into the pit and smiled. "It’s still here."
Kaelthorn stumbled to his side, trembling, his eyes barely holding focus. "What... is it?"
"An amazing treasure chest, of course." Damon grinned.
Kaelthorn staggered to the edge, peering down with a mix of horror and awe. "Treasure...?" he echoed, voice hoarse.
Damon directly jumped down to the bottom of the ravine, landing with a quiet thud amidst the bones and twitching roots. A thick, toxic stench of rot and decay assaulted him, only to be sucked in by him.
[Ding! You have gained 1 Poison Resistance]
[Ding! You have acquired 1 new type of poison]
[Ding! You have made small progress in the second cycle of the Nine Million Poison Body Refining Technique]
[Ding! You have gained 1 Poison Affinity]
[Ding! You have acquired 1 new type of poison]
[Ding! You have made small progress in the second cycle of the Nine Million Poison Body Refining Technique]
...
...
...
One more round of notifications popped in front of Damon, making him grin from ear to ear. He ca here for the treasure chest, and now he was getting so unexpected bonus gifts.
Damon crouched low, brushing away bone fragnts and gri with his hand until the gaudy, eye-catching, flashy, super-on-the-nose treasure chest was completely revealed.
Damon quickly opened it, and imdiately a blinding light spilled out of it.
Gold coins! A mountain of gold coins!
[Ding! You have gained 5000 gold coins.]
"Sweet!" Damon did not linger. He dusted his hands, and imdiately a pair of blood wings appeared on his back. He then flew out of the ravine, landing back near Kaelthorn. "All done. Let’s go to the next location."
Kaelthorn blinked up at him in disbelief. "There is a next location?"
Damon nodded with a big shit eating grin that split his face. "This entire place is full of treasure chests like this!" And he knew every single damned location!
Damon spun in place, dramatically pointing down the corrupted trail. "This place is a cesspit of death, curses, disease, and poison... but it’s also an S-tier loot-fest if you know where to look."
Kaelthorn muttered a few prayers to gods he didn’t even believe in anymore. He tried to stand but slumped against a gnarled black root instead. "My Lord. Please continue without . I don’t want to hold you back."
Mmhm. Damon nodded. "It’s fine. Just do your best. I didn’t expect you to do well in the first place. I just wanted to see if you would co. And you did." He gave the vampire another smile and dashed towards another location. There were a lot of treasure chests to be claid, and not enough ti.
Damon was like a kid doing an easter hunt as he spent the next hour hopping through the death-infested landscape with infectious glee.
If the abyssal plague lands had a mood, it would have been confused. The corrupted terrain twisted and pulsed underfoot, malevolent spirits stirred in the shadows, and grotesque plaguebeasts hissed from the distance, but Damon?
Damon was whistling. It looked as if he was taking a walk in the park.
Each cursed zone he visited felt like it should’ve been a dungeon on its own. Poisonous fogs that lted skin. Undead trees that scread. Pools of sludge that burped out malford homunculi. None of it fazed him. All the abominations were swiftly put down.
The monsters were around level 150, and this area should have technically been above his current level, posing a trendous difficulty. At least without a proper antidote potion, he shouldn’t have been able to do anything.
But Damon’s body was more than capable of handling it, and he was culling down everything that blocked his path with casual ease. The plus point of the monsters here was poison and corruption, and when that did not work, the fights beca no-brainers.
In fact, half the ti he was muttering to himself about which chest was trapped, which one spawned illusions, and which one rewarded him with "sothing extra" if he managed to clear all the monsters around the chest.
And kill he did. Cheerfully. Blood magic danced in the air, warding off corruption while feeding on it at the sa ti. Every treasure chest popped open with a satisfying click, followed by a chi and a fresh round of loot notifications.
[Ding! You have gained 7,000 gold coins.]
[Ding! You have acquired ’Vileblood Serpent Ring’ (Epic).]
Naturally, he also absorbed the corrupted blood of the monsters, which gave him even more boosts.
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