System Change

The Caustic Whale of Pestilence released roar after roar as Derek continued to whale on it. Strike after strike from Harbinger soon had its lungs and, what could only be described as air sacs, flayed open and bleeding at least from what Derek could tell with the extremely small amount of light offered to him by the dark glow of the veils created from Void Creation.

Plus, it was easy to see that its lungs were filling up with more fluid over time. Fluid that Derek could only assume was from the bleeding he had caused. Still, there was no way to know what kind of actual damage he was doing to the whale’s health overall. With its size, the damage caused by him may have only been a drop in the bucket.

Who knows what kind of health pool such a large creature has? Even his long cuts of ten feet or more would only amount to a small scrape based on its size. This is where death by a thousand cuts starts to make sense, Derek thought as he kept swinging away.

The whale, to its effort, was constantly trying to remove Derek from its insides, but he wouldn’t let it. Its cooldown for the toxic wind attack seemed to be a little over a minute, and Derek was ready for it every time the whale used it-and the whale used it as often as possible.

But the whale wasn’t the only one who used their skills when they came off cooldown. Every time Sweeping Slash or Multi-Strike was ready, he used them. He also mixed in Void Lightning and Chain Lightning as well, with the thought that he might as well use everything he could.

A couple times, after the whale used its toxic wind, the veil surrounding his glaive and legs broke, and Harbinger lost a bit of durability while Derek tried to keep himself from being blasted back outside. He would then have to use Void Creation again once the whale was finished with its attack.

Through everything, his Cure Toxin and Rejuvenation were making vast strides. Cure Toxin, in the few hours he’d been inside the whale, had already leveled from level 4 to level 9, and Rejuvenation had even gained two levels, making it to level 16. Chain Lightning even hit level 14, but overall, the skill was pretty much useless based on how the whale reacted.

So, in short, the whale may have actually been a great sparring partner for his skills if he wasn’t on a time crunch. Then again, Derek still wasn’t entirely sure how he was going to land a killing blow on such a beast, so it was entirely possible that he was going to end up with even higher skill levels. He didn’t know if the fight would end up taking a few more hours, or even days.

They had been well ahead of the time allotted for them to complete the dungeon, then there was the third trial incident and the wasted fourth trial effort. One of the reasons Derek wanted to do this trial was because he had faith in his skills to complete it quickly. Now, he was sure that Lyra would have been best suited for the trial.

The wyvern would have been able to come in and break the whale’s mind in seconds. But because of the type of trial it was, he wasn’t actually sure that the wyvern would have been able to enter the trial with Avery. If she couldn’t, then Avery would have had a very hard time. And with the way the trial blocked escape scrolls, the chance that Lyra wouldn’t have been allowed in was not on the small side.

So, Derek continued to assault the whale’s lungs for at least three more hours. The amount of viscous liquid in the lungs had to be trying for the whale. In fact, the lungs were getting so full that, if something didn’t change for it soon, Derek believed that the whale could possibly end up drowning in its own blood.

Even with it working to empty its lungs with its skills, it couldn’t keep up with the damage Derek was unleashing. If only I could see a health bar, Derek lamented as he jabbed Harbinger into the sponge-like flesh and sliced.

Finally, after his next attack, something finally did change. Derek felt the gravity underneath him lessen, and he was thrown against the side of the wall. His first thought was that the whale had used another breath-based skill like the one before, but then he realized that wasn’t it. It didn’t take him long to realize what was happening.

The whale was in a free fall. No, it was rushing down to the ocean. For the first time, the aquatic creature was about to hit the water. Derek did his best to brace as the free fall came to a sudden stop. He needn’t have worried, as he was thrown into the ceiling of the lung, which did absolutely no damage. The composition of the lungs made it for one of the safest rides he’d ever been on.

However, what he did have to worry about was the massive amount of toxic water that was just rushing into the lungs with him. Is the thing crazy? Pulling water into its lungs, it’s going to drown. But it didn’t stop. Derek took a deep breath in before he was submerged in the toxic liquid.

Fuck! How long can I hold my breath with my stats? He wondered. It was something he never really tested, something he never needed to test, and something he never wanted to test. But now, he needed to know. Can I even die from suffocating or drowning with my new body? If nothing else, then this whale’s last-ditch effort was extremely inconvenient for him.

He had multiple ways out, from his Void Storage to his Time Prison. But stopping his onslaught for even a minute would allow the creature to regenerate an unknown amount of health, and he didn’t want that.

He even thought about trying out his Void Travel skill and seeing what kind of damage it would do if he used it while inside the whale, but the fact that his void skills like Void Steps didn’t work inside the whale made him toss the idea for now. It was a skill for traveling, after all. If it ended up not working, it would just be time that he allowed the whale to heal.

Being submerged in water, his thrusts and slices weren’t as sharp as before, as the liquid made his movement sluggish. On top of that, the veil around his legs and Harbinger shattered once again, and with his full body immersed in the toxic substance, it was draining his resources even faster.

With a quick glance at Harbinger’s status, he saw that the glaive’s durability had fallen below half. Shit! he cursed inwardly. What now? I don’t have the time or materials to repair Harbinger while in here! But with that thought, something clicked for Derek.

With a quick glance, he went over Harbinger’s Material Drain ability once again. Nowhere in that description does it say that the material can’t be part of or connected to a living entity. Whelp! Here goes nothing! Derek thrust his glaive as deep as he could into the whale’s lungs, then, with a thought, activated Material Drain and waited.

The same deep purple glow of the sphere that he was ever so familiar with began to form around the blade of the glaive. Soon, the sphere started to grow. First to five feet, then ten. Finally, it stopped growing. Derek checked the status of the glaive once again. Only ten points recovered? Derek frowned at first, then his face broke into a smile.

He pushed forward. Just as he hoped, the void sphere on the end of Harbinger moved with him, and dug into the whale’s flesh, leaving behind a ten-foot diameter tunnel formed from it in the process. So, Derek went wild. With Harbinger acting like a drill, he began to systematically destroy the lungs.

It wasn’t long before he found the thickness of the lungs. It was just over fifteen feet. So, Derek erased as much as he could. Because that’s what it felt like he was doing, erasing.

Not long after he started using Harbinger’s ability to punch holes in the whale’s lung, he felt a somewhat similar sensation as before. Except, this time, he didn’t feel like he was weightless; he felt pressure. The whale had changed plans once again. This time, it was rushing up at a breakneck speed.

Soon, the water inside the whale flooded back through its nasal passage as it was spewed out. In a rush, the water also carried Derek with it. He stabbed forward, but with Material Drain activated, Harbinger wasn’t able to bite in to slow his ascent. So, while dragging a ten-foot-wide void sphere with him, Derek destroyed what he could of the whale’s nasal passage as he was pushed up and spouted out of the whale’s blowhole.

“Damn it!” Derek shouted as he found himself in the air with Void Step above the whale. It took a moment for his eyes to get used to the daylight after being in pitch black darkness for hours.

He looked down from his perch to see the enormous whale beneath him still spouting out liquid. But soon, the liquid being spouted out changed from the dark murky color of the toxic ocean to a deep red, almost black liquid. It was blood. And based on the amount that just kept pouring out of the creature, Derek had dealt massive damage to it.

With a shrug, Derek used Active Void Shift and made his way closer to the back of the giant mammal. Once he was close enough, he canceled Void Steps and landed on its back. Then he ran toward its blowhole to try to get a good look. He was prepared to jump back in.

But before he made it to the blowhole, he came up short. Stopping to stare inside the blowhole, he saw something he hadn’t expected. First, from what light made it inside, he saw the wound he made with Material Drain as he was being carried up the whale’s nasal passage before being spouted out.

Compared to the entire whale, it wasn’t big, but the odd thing was that it didn’t seem to be regenerating. He thought back to how fast the opening wound he had inflicted on the beast had begun repairing itself. This was nothing like that. There was no sign of healing at all. Maybe its body is focusing on healing the vital areas first? That would make sense.

But with the amount of blood that was being pumped out with every breath the whale tried to take, he wasn’t so sure of that. Finally, he looked at Void’s Harbinger. It was back to its normal appearance, as he had canceled Material Drain the second he was out. Did the ability stall the healing? Is it because of the void?

Wait a second, he thought. If it only takes materials to repair the weapon, that means I should be able to find something with a high vitality, like one of the wyverns, and I could continuously allow the beast to regenerate itself before using that same spot to continue my repairs. What if… Derek stared wide-eyed at Void’s Harbinger. If what he was thinking wasn’t wrong, then he had no doubt in his mind why Void’s Harbinger was considered a legendary weapon.

If whatever material from a living creature can’t be regenerated, or is extremely slow to regenerate… he thought as he shook his head in awe. But that makes sense. The system wouldn’t allow such an exploit, even if it had to make such a powerful skill to get rid of it. That’s why it’s a legendary ability.

With the new information about his glaive, Derek smiled widely and checked its durability. 1326, he thought. I have just under two hundred durability left to use Material Drain to finish this thing off. Though, by the looks of it, it may just bleed out soon. With a kick, Derek jumped up and headed back to where his initial strike had been.

There’s no way I was that far off from the brain. Using Harbinger like a drill, he stabbed it into the whale and activated Material Drain. Then, he pushed… not down, though, no; he pushed it along the whale’s hide. He was perfectly in the center of it, so he used Harbinger like a vegetable peeler, going back and forth in a wide area, trying to unearth the brain.

It didn’t matter how long it took him. The whale didn’t seem like it was up for fighting anymore. No more toxic spouts came from the blowhole. In fact, it was doing its best just to stay afloat.

With only a small amount of durability left, Derek found the brain. When he did, he nearly facepalmed. I’m so fucking stupid, he chided himself. His first attack could have been perfect… if he would have been on the other side of the blowhole. Though it did seem to be deeper than he thought it would have been.

With a click of his tongue, Derek, completely covered in the ick and goo from the bleeding whale, channeled the void into Harbinger. Opting for quality, by the time he was finished, the energy blade was as visible as the glaive’s own blade. Then, with all his might, he swung down with Sweeping Slash and Multi-Strike.

The energy arc from Sweeping Slash hit the whale where the brain was just visible and continued on to split it in half. Oh… I guess that was overkill. With one last groan of pain, the Caustic Whale of Pestilence whined and plummeted toward the sea. Derek jumped into the air and watched as it fell.

Just as it hit the water, Derek received a notification, but didn’t view it. He knew it was dead, and he knew the trial was over. But he couldn’t help but think of what a shame it was that one of their party had died while facing such a beast.

With the proper equipment or element, the whale wouldn’t have been all too difficult to deal with. Unfortunately, Asana just wasn’t a good counter to the creature. Derek shook his head and made his way back to the little island, which, surprisingly, hadn’t been destroyed.

When he landed, he looked at the trial orb that had reappeared. He sighed. They were halfway through with the dungeon, and they had lost two people… two elites. After what he’d seen from the two trials he’d been inside, he knew one thing… Edgar needed to do away with the democracy and take full charge of the dungeon. If he didn’t, there was no telling how many more casualties they would have before it was all over.

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