Thalion was at a point where he honestly had enough of trees. Always those damned, towering giants. Why not an underground tunnel network? Or sothing different for once? Yes, these massive hundred-ter high trees were fascinating in their own way, but they also ant he had to stay on guard every single mont. The number of beasts roaming these lands was absurdly high.
Good thing the runes on his cloak and mask worked flawlessly. Most of the creatures simply moved past without noticing him, as long as they didn’t co too close. After pushing through the jungle for over an hour, Thalion finally decided to sit down on one of the wide tree branches and read the scroll he carried. It wasn’t completely without danger, but his title hadn’t triggered any alarms, so it should be fine.
On the way he had spotted four separate parties rushing through the jungle in search of treasure. None of them were strong enough to give him a proper fight, so he ignored them. There was no real advantage in killing such people, though he had no doubt his kill count would rise high before this was over. So far he hadn’t spotted a single treasure on his path, which must have been frustrating for those who had paid such a steep price in lifespan to enter.
What struck him most was how close everyone seed to be to each other. The fact that he had already seen so many parties was ridiculous. He wondered how many had already died and how many would survive this trial. One third surviving might already be too generous. There wasn’t even a set number of survivors this ti, unlike in the tutorial.
Thalion tried to trick the system by checking the placent of the very last participant on the leaderboard. The number read: 2,700,041. He didn’t know the exact starting count, but he’d heard it had been around three million. Since this trial wasn’t exactly normal, he could be wrong. Nonetheless, over two hundred thousand dead already was a staggering number.
He watched his own placent fluctuate, essentially sharing the bottom with several thousand others who hadn’t picked up a single item. He chuckled to himself, imagining so elf ordered to track him down having to scroll endlessly through the list just to find his na. That would be hilarious.
Thalion wondered if Kael had also joined this event. The answer was probably yes. He must have found the chosen of his patron, and together they’d almost certainly have entered. These so-called “sugar daddies” were incredibly annoying in Thalion’s opinion. Nothing about it was fair. Did it really need to be this unbalanced? To him, the system encouraged backstabbing and the rise of gang leaders. Anyone skilled at commanding a party, at forcing others to do their bidding, had a massive edge here. Well and then there were the gods...
On the positive side, there weren’t many who seed to follow the sa path as Thalion. At least they wouldn’t be hunting the very top of the leaderboard. Speaking of the top—what a ss. Pure chaos, shifting constantly. Maybe so of the chosen were hiding their true worth, letting their followers carry a portion of their treasures so they wouldn’t be targeted? On the other hand, that risked losing points if one of them died. In truth, it was safest to hoard wealth on the strongest person.
At this stage, the rankings changed every second. It would take days before a stable pecking order ford. In the anti, Thalion would prepare. He had no idea how long this event would last. Weeks? Months?
When he finally opened the scroll to study it, the distant sounds of tal scraping tal, war cries, and the clash of battle echoed through the forest. The Sanguis Impera whispered incessantly in his mind that blood was nearby, even going so far as to shape a vine that pointed directly toward the source.
Thalion ignored it. He tried to focus the Sanguis Impera inward, telling it now was the ti to work on blood and skills. It probably didn’t understand the “skills” part, but when he emphasized blood, the plant’s attention obediently turned inward again.
Before long, Thalion was utterly absorbed in the scroll. The distant shouts faded from his awareness. Part of it was because the scroll was simply too fascinating and part because he was almost tailor-made for ritual spells. Connection was the key.
For instance, there were sacrificial rituals that could boost one’s power. If he mastered them, he could sacrifice blood-slaves to empower himself or fuel a single devastating spell. The advantages of using blood were endless. It was insane.
Elated, he flipped through the scroll to gain an overview. It contained nearly everything, from the construction of circles that amplified power, to the creation of complex ritual spells, even how to cast them across vast distances. Such a circle would also be invaluable if he ventured out with the Crimson Eidolon. His body could remain seated within a ritual that amplified him further.
Thalion’s goal was clear. He would learn everything this scroll had to offer over the coming days, then focus on mastering his movent skills for the battles ahead.
He would also need to do a good amount of testing with the Crimson Eidolon. What interested Thalion most at first was how to summon those blood spikes that appeared out of thin air—either a few ters above a victim’s head or below their feet—before rushing down or up to impale them. The skill was called Rain of Rupture.
Sadly, it wasn’t a simple skill to buy. It had to be learned, much like blood control. It sounded quite difficult, since the blood acted as the focal point, which basically ant your awareness had to be close enough. If Thalion understood it correctly, this skill ignored the normal rules of space, allowing him to conjure his blood hundreds of ters away with almost the sa minimal loss of power as summoning it right before him.
That sounded high-tier in Thalion’s opinion, but maybe true high-tier skills contained far more than that.
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While searching the scroll for more details on Rain of Rupture, he stumbled upon another very interesting ability. Blood Echo. This skill required sacrificing so of his blood, which in turn allowed him to replay a short mory tied to a specific place. The detailed workings seed extrely complicated, but the potential value was imnse. With such a skill, gathering information could beco far easier.
Still, that one would have to wait until after the spikes. And the spikes would co after he mastered the basics. For that, he first needed to fix his soul and improve his blood control. Thalion should have expected this from the start, but one could always hope for shortcuts.
At least he had a clear path now: healing his soul, mastering blood control, and then aiming for those powerful ritual skills. Unlike movent abilities, ritual spells demanded precise control—an exactness Thalion currently lacked, but one he swore he would soon attain.
With that thought, he turned his senses inward, focusing on nding his soul and performing blood purification at the sa ti.
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