Seeds of Discordia

Liam stared at her for a moment before realizing what she had meant. She was talking about how he had utilized Force Gravity Push. He gave her a smile and was about to say something, but stopped as he saw one of the long whip like antennas swiftly crack in their direction. Liam took a step forward and pushed Blair to the side while stepping in the opposite direction right before it crashed down upon them.

The ground they were once stepping on sunk in a couple of inches from the force used from the antenna, destroying the concrete road. Liam and Blair focused their attention on the beast and attacked as it tried to right itself up.

The antenna flung backwards over the creature’s head and went to strike again. Lightning started to crackle and spark up and down it as it added an extra spice to its attack, but as it flung forward Liam swung his scythe and angled it perfectly as it sliced the base right off, killing the momentum it had and making it go limp. The lightning it once conducted was siphoned into the buds resting on the top of the scythe. A familiar notification suddenly appeared before Liam’s eyes.

 

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“Solar Flare is fully charged. Would you like to activate Solar Flash? Yes No?”

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Liam mentally clicked No, making the notification only minimize for now. As he did this, he felt a power attack coming from behind him. This feeling was different than when his Danger Sense warned him only because the attack wasn’t aimed for him. Liam instantly crouched down in time as a smooth sharp Battle Axe swung horizontally. The sharp blade dug right across a small section of the Zombified Longhorn Static Whip Beetle’s side as it finally landed on its feet.

Liam rolled out of the way as he watched Blair wind up her weapon in angle that brought it right behind her before heading up and then down in a vertical line while taking a step forward. the blade of the weapon dug a quarter of the way through the neck. Blood shot out from the open wound pooling underneath the main body.

The massive creature staggered from the attack for a brief moment before turning its body to face Blair. The chunk of the neck making the head flap back and forth. Liam made a disgusted look as he heard the wet slopping noise.

Blair jumped back while dodging the other antenna that was still attached. Liam took this as an opportunity to position himself right in front of the creature, bringing its enormous black eyes on him. He pointed the tip of his scythe with the glowing buds ready to release the pent up power still coursing inside them.

“Close your eyes!” Liam shouted as he brought the notification back up and mentally accepted it. As soon as he did, he swiftly closed his eyes. He felt the light lick his skin as flashes could faintly be seen through his eyelids. A couple of seconds later, Liam opened his eyes to see Blair in the air swinging her weapon through the rest of the creature’s neck, finally chopping it off.

She flapped her wings to bring her up in the air and back to land next to Liam who stood out of the range of the bloody water show that sprayed out. He looked at her and gave her a nod. She returned it as she opened her mouth to say something.

However, she was cut off as Cindy yelled out, “Look out!”

Liam and Blair got a good look at the monsters incoming, they readied themselves, but waited to attack. Two seconds later, Artem rushed right through the monsters in front of them with his shield out in front, swinging his mace at any his shield didn’t strike. Roman was hot on his heels, striking at a few monsters with his fists. Lightning crackled a few seconds later after striking a couple of the monsters. After making sure Artem and Roman had everything under control on their part, Liam and Blair focused on the monsters closer to Cindy, Abby, and Farry.

Liam had never fought the flying red bald looking imps creatures before. Even though they had turned into Undead thanks to the Toxos that had infected them he didn’t know how strong they really were. He did, however, get a good glimpse as to what dungeon they came from. The Red Dungeon. This was because one tried chanting a fire spell but failed at the end as Liam cut through the neck, not only stopping it from chanting in whatever language it could speak, but also ending its life.

That one was the easier of the few that were around him. The rest decided they didn’t want to stay so close to the ground and flapped as hard as they could to get some distance. Liam didn’t let them get far as they became easy targets for his throwing daggers. He aimed for the wings, either tearing through the webbings or getting lucky by slicing through the base where the wings connected to their backs.

After they fell to the ground he switched to his favorite daggers and killed they off one by one. A few wolves decided they wanted to try and stop him, but he easily moved his body out of the way to dodge the undead beasts. He managed to get in some damage as they lunged past him, but it wasn’t enough to kill them in a single shot.

He felt good moving like he wanted to once again. Being able to move with the speed, agility, and reflexes he truly had instead of the lowered stats he was suffering from felt right. However, he felt a bit disappointed that his first big battle was against creatures with bodies that were falling apart. The deterioration the Toxo’s venom had caused made the creatures slower and weaker. It was almost like cutting through paper with some of these creatures.

The only one that didn’t feel that way was the Zombified Longhorn Static Beetle. While it too was zombified by the Toxos, the creature’s body was a lot sturdier than how the others were. It made him think about the other monsters they’ve come across so far. Everything had been on the verge of breaking down or close enough. If there were other monsters similar to the Longhorn Static Beetle, especially those from the stronger dungeons then maybe there was going to be some issues. He’d have to figure out what to do when he came across that.

After the last monster dropped, Liam turned to look at Abby, Cindy, and Farry. The three were in shock after witnessing the four taking out the monsters. Their shocked expressions slowly turned to look at Liam. He recognized the emotions that started to mix in with the shock as their expressions changed and they looked away from him.

Cindy was the one who turned back to apologize to him, but was stopped as Liam stated, “Whatever you think you need to say, save it for later.”

This took Cindy aback as the other two snapped their eyes on him. Artem, Blair, and Roman stared at them with curiosity as they waited for more.

Liam didn’t give anyone a chance to say anything as he continued, “You need to get them to the Adventurer’s Association. They are taking anyone who can’t fight in. However, I don’t know the capacity of the building so space might run out if you don’t get there in time.”

“Bu…,” Cindy tried again.

“Brodie is giving people orders so see him when you get there,” Liam interjected again as he turned away. He knew they had mixed emotions about him being there, but he also knew this wasn’t the time to talk about it. He wanted them to be safe. The longer they were out here the more they were exposed to danger.

Cindy gripped her weapon in her hand as she looked down at the ground. Taking a few seconds to sort out her thoughts she finally said in a determined voice, “Fine. But after all of this, we need to talk. We need to…”

“That’s fine by me,” Liam said. He then added as he gave her a slight smile, “I still have a bag to return to you anyways.”

Cindy’s mixed emotions eased as she heard what he said and the smile he gave her. She gave him a nod before turning around and helping Farry to his feet. She then lead both of her family members down the road in the direction of the Adventurer’s Association.

Liam watched as they made their way. He wanted to make sure no monsters suddenly appeared out of nowhere and attacked them. The tension he didn’t realize he had relaxed as they disappeared. He felt good to know they were safe.

His mood was good, but then changed into one of puzzlement and confusion as Roman suddenly stated, “I don’t know why, but I feel like this is something I should tell Avery.”

Artem and Blair suddenly stopped moving bodies to a pile as they and Liam looked at him with confused expressions.

“What do you mean by that?” Liam asked, totally confused.

“I don’t know,” Roman said with a straight face. “I don’t know why I even said it. It…it’s just a feeling.”

Liam’s confused face turned into an incredulous one as he was even more confused. “I feel like you’re just saying things out of left field just to say them.”

“I don’t know what that means, but…,” Roman started to say until they heard wet squelching sounds.

Everyone turned to see small parts of the bodies start to tear apart as small grotesque looking spider creatures start to pour out of them.

“Shit!” Blair swore as she jumped back.

“Roman!” Liam shouted.

“Fuck! On it!” Roman yelled back as he channeled mana while chanting, “Oh Fire, powerful and beautiful. Spark and ignite the devastating power you hold within. Course and engulf all that dare to stand in your way. Wave of Ignition!”

A wave of fire shot out from Roman’s hands as he threw them forward. The wave of fire washed over the bodies and the creatures that were swarming out right in front of him. He then did something Liam didn’t know was possible. He moved one hand away from the other and had two waves of fire shooting out in a cone trajectory at two other groups of spiders.

Liam was impressed with Roman’s progress with his Wave of Ignition spell. He had gone a long way from when he and Avery had used it against the Askith Pharaoh Mummy Lord. Back then they could only do it with one hand and the resources needed to keep it going were taxing. They were probably still taxing, but with his current level he probably didn’t feel it as bad as he did before.

As impressive as this way, a different scene was playing off to the side were Artem was at. This one, Liam knew probably wouldn’t change for some time. The big Half-Orc was yelling out different swear words in a pace he didn’t know he could go as he slammed his mace down both fast and hard, squishing any Toxo creature making their way towards him. He looked like a pro whack a mole player trying to get the most tickets at a game arcade with the speed he was swing his mace and stomping his feet.

Liam helped Artem out where he could using his Light and Burn spell, but compared to Roman’s Fire magic, he was just buying time for the Kitsune to make his way over. In between the brief cooldown Liam used Gravitational Force Increase and Gravity well with Blair to stop the escaped Toxo creatures that tried to get away.

Thanks to that they were able to clean up the bodies and burn all the Toxo spiders they had seen. The smell of burnt bodies didn’t help as it spread out, but they were able to hold back the bile that wanted to escape.

Liam passed Roman a Minor Mana Potion to help regain the lost Mana he used on his Wave of Ignition. Roman greedily swallowed it down and then complained afterwards while fighting back against the taste, “What the hell man? Where’s the good flavor?”

“I ran out of those ingredients,” Liam stated. “I had to make an abundant of these not too long ago.”

“Why not use another flavor then?” Roman questioned.

Liam sneered as he thought about the things he found out during his Crafting showcase. The things that Weasel-folk had accused him of that he had no clue about remained fresh in his mind. “Let’s just say I found out about some stupid ass shit while I was here.”

Liam’s three companions looked at each other before looking back at him. They could see he was annoyed, irritated, mad or maybe all of the above about something. Instead of asking him what had happened they decided to do what they had done before, wait for him to tell them.

“Let’s talk about that later,” Liam started back up. “Let’s move on to the next street. The Crafter’s Association building is close by. We should probably see if there are any people over the…”

Several loud explosions echoed in the air. Liam turned towards the direction he heard them come from. Several different colors lit up down the road at different times bringing with them more explosive sounds.

“Shit,” Liam swore as he started running down the street. Artem, Blair, and Roman following behind.

As Liam reached the turn where the sounds and lights were flashing from, he came to a stop. The scene before him reminded him of old zombie apocalypse movies except, the weapons and equipment the people wore didn’t match the movies.

Blair and Roman caught up to him and stopped as well, surprised and kind of awestruck at what they saw. Artem finally caught up, his breathing a bit heavy from all the running he had been doing. His Stamina Bar, lower than the others, almost reached zero. After taking in a few gulps of air he stood up straight and looked down the road to see a massive building with rock and earth made fortifications along the front with melee attackers right in front of the sturdy rock made walls that reached stomach height to some who stood behind them shooting out spells or arrows.

Standing on top of the building were more magic casters and archers shooting down flying creatures as others threw vials of Alchemical make at random ground beasts that ran towards the people in front of the building. There were others on the ground doing the same, but at creatures the melee fighters weren’t fighting.

Flashes of purplish yellow, fiery red, icy blue, and other elemental colors exploded here and there. Liam recognized them to be Chemicalized Creations, but when they exploded, instead of widening out at a ten foot radius these were more single based targeted creations. Liam was both impressed and mentally kicking himself for not using his own.

As he watched them he recognized a few people that were throwing the Alchemical items. Using colorful swear words and some Liam believed to be this planet’s version of swear words, was Milly. She was leading the people on the roof. Standing on the ground near the entrance of the building was Lyca and Elatrix. Elatrix was running in and out of the building bringing more boxes of what Liam believed were Chemicalized Creations while Lyca both barked out orders, giving the people that were all around a morale boost, and throwing some of the deadly Alchemy items out.

He even threw what Liam believed to be the H.O.T. Pots he was interested in learning to make. He believed those vials were them because as they crashed around the feet of the fighters, a light green mist engulfed the ones Lyca aimed for. Relief was written on their faces as their wounds closed up.

“It looks like they have things handled here,” Liam muttered with a slight stutter.

“Why haven’t you used any of those exploding alchemy items?” Roman suddenly asked. “Haven’t you learn how to make them yet?”

Feeling slightly embarrassed, Liam responded, “I thought I wasn’t allowed to since there was a ban on making them here on the island.”

Blair and Roman raised a brow as they looked at him.

“A ban? When monsters are literally swarming the island?” Roman questioned.

“Shut up,” Liam responded not looking at him. Instead he started making his way over to Lyca.

People noticed them rushing over and called out, “Friendlies incoming!”

Lyca and Elatrix turned to see who they were talking about and were shocked to see a Kitsune Fox-folk, a Dragon-kin, and an Orc. They were even more surprised to see Liam running with them.

Before making his way towards the newcomers, Lyca yelled out, “Keep the pressure on them. Make sure not a single monster makes it in the building or down the road!”

“Aye!” a loud roar of confirmation replied.

“Liam!” Lyca shouted as he approached the group. With a half joking half serious tone he asked, “Have you come to join the festivities?”

“I would ask where my invitation was, but I’ve been having the time of my life elsewhere this whole time.”

Lyca gave him a slight chuckle. “I’m glad to see you’re still alive. Quite the interesting party you have going on here.”

Liam hiked a thumb at Artem, Blair, and Roman and responded, “Half of the team I did the Tutorial Area with.”

This announcement made Lyca pause for a moment as his eyes widened slightly. “You don’t say?” He got a better look at the three and gave a nod of approval. His face then turned into a serious one as he asked, “Do you have any idea what’s going on?”

Liam nodded and informed the man everything that had happened so far this night. Lyca’s face paled a bit as he heard the type of creatures they were really going up against. He waited till the end before saying, “That explains what those nasty spider creatures were and where they came from. Shit. I need to make sure no one has been bitten by any of them.”

Liam watched as the man put a hand out and the other on his ear. He then heard the man start to say something. Liam was about to respond to what he was saying, but then realized he wasn’t talking to him. That was when Liam remembered something Cindy had told him. He was using one of the functions the Perception of the Control Tower had at a higher level.

Liam turned to the others who looked confused at what was going on. Liam gave them a smile and explained, “Apparently, the Perception of the Control Tower has a function that allows you to talk to others who are spread out.”

The three companions’ eyes widened as they realized how good that function was. They never knew how handy the ability would be as it reached higher levels, but after hearing about that they were reconsidering about getting it.

“Mercer is going to love that function when he gets it to that level,” Blair suddenly stated.

Liam looked at her with a slightly confused expression as he said, “Mercer has Perception of the Control Tower too?”

Blair nodded. “Yeah. He said that after seeing you use it and looking into it some he figures he should get it too. However, I don’t think he read anything about that kind of a feature.”

Before Liam could say anything else, Lyca stated, “Thank you for telling me all of that. That explains why waves of monsters from the dungeons that shouldn’t have a break are coming out of the Dungeon Tower.”

“So these guys are coming from there?” Liam asked.

Lyca nodded. “This road is one of three that leads to the Tower. That’s why we’re getting waves upon waves of these guys. I am glad some of the higher leveled adventurers were around here when they started coming straight for the Association. They started with the weaker monsters from the dungeons on the first floor, but now monsters from the second have joined in. It’ll be a matter of time before the third and fourth start showing up.”

“I don’t know how strong those monsters are, but I can guess it’s not good right?” Liam asked.

Lyca nodded. “Your guess is correct. However, all of this can be stopped if we can find the location of the Black Dungeon you mentioned. If someone can kill the boss monster from that dungeon then all the monsters that are coming out from each dungeon should stop breaking out. Since we know the Toxo’s are involved it explains why we’re seeing monster from other dungeons.”

“What do you mean?” Liam asked.

“It’s not concrete proof,” Lyca started to explain. “But, there is a theory that if Toxos invade a dungeon and infect the monsters inside then the King or Queen can create a way for those monsters to break free from that dungeon even if the dungeon is regularly conquered. However, no one is dumb enough to test the theory out…at least not that I know of.”

Liam thought about the plan Lucy had vaguely mentioned in his inn room. When she mentioned they were supposed to speed it up this must had been what she meant. However, he didn’t know exactly how she was able to do it. that part was still a mystery.

“So you’re saying if someone kills the King or Queen Toxo then all of this will stop?” Liam questioned as he started thinking.

“Yes, but we still need to figure out where the dungeon is located,” Lyca stated. He looked at Liam and noticed the look on the man’s face. He then cautiously asked, “You know where it’s at…don’t you?”

Liam shook his head. “I have an idea of where it’s at, but if these monsters are coming out from that area then it’ll be hard to get in.”

“Hard to get in?” Lyca questioned as he gave Liam a puzzled look. “It’ll be hard to fight them at your level. You’re talking like you’re planning to head there and take care of things yourself.”

Liam looked at the man with a straight face. “Someone has to.”

“No,” Lyca frowned. “No, you’re not going. I can have one of the…”

“If you send any of the fighting power you have here then it could weaken your defenses when the stronger monsters start coming out,” Liam argued. “I won’t have you do that.”

“I can’t send low leveled adventurers to a Black Toxo Dungeon. We don’t know how powerful the dungeon is nor how powerful the monsters within are,” Lyca snarled. “I won’t send you to your death.”

“You’re not,” Liam said.

Lyca relaxed for a moment before Liam added, “Because I am going there on my own accord.”

“God damn it Liam,” Lyca stated with some frustration.

“It’s no use trying to talk him out of it,” Roman suddenly interjected. “Besides, he won’t be going alone. We’ll be there with him.”

“That’s not the point…,” Lyca started back up, but stopped as Blair added, “I don’t know how strong these Toxos are since all I’ve been fighting are their weakened and small forms, but so far they haven’t been an issue.”

Lyca looked like he was going to argue some more but again stopped as Blair added, “Since coming to this world outside of the Tutorial Area, I have come to find out that Black Dungeons are rare. I don’t know how many people here have gone into one, but I highly doubt there are that many. We have some experience fighting against creatures of similar style. A Pharaoh Mummy Lord and Lich are just examples of what we have fought against in a single Black Dungeon. Now I know they are not a Toxo, but fighting against waves of Undead creatures with deadly afflictions sounds like a similar match up to what we have come across.”

“Did you say a Pharoah Mummy Lord and a Lich?” Lyca questioned as he stared at her. “In a Tutorial Dungeon?”

Blair nodded. “Tell me. Do you believe anyone else here has similar experiences?”

Lyca thought about it. After letting out a heavy sigh he replied, “No I don’t think so.” A new thought came to mind as he tried one more time. “But what about a Healer? You said you fought against a Pharoah Mummy Lord. I assume you experienced their Rot Magic. If that’s the case then you need someone who can…”

“I’ve got that covered,” Artem interjected.

Lyca turned to look at the Half-Orc. “What do you mean?”

“I am a Healer,” Artem stated. “If the affliction they inflict is weak then I can take care of it and if its stronger then I have my Zodiac ability that will wipe it clean no issues.”

Lyca’s jaw dropped at Artem’s proclamation. So far he was hearing some absurd things. However, the one that really made him think he was losing his mind was an Orc telling him he was a Healer with a Healing Zodiac ability. He stared the tall man right in the eyes and saw he wasn’t joking. Realizing he was losing his argument he finally said, “Can you at least run away if the boss monster is too much? Running back and bringing information on what is in there can be beneficial as much as going in there and taking care of the monster.”

Liam nodded. “We can do that.”

Lyca sighed again. “Somehow I feel like you’re just saying that just so I will stop trying to stop you.”

Liam did not deny nor confirm that. Instead he just stared at the man.

“At least let me give you guys some stuff before you rush out to your possible deaths,” Lyca stated as he turned around and started yelling at Elatrix.

As the man made his way to the woman, Blair whispered to Liam, “Did you earn some sort of reputation or something? This is the second time we’ve come across people who not only know you, but also seem like something happened and they are trying to repay you in a way.”

Liam frowned as he listened to her. Keeping a stern straight face he replied, “There is too much to explain. After all of this is done I’ll tell you all about it.”