BXBX NOVEL Chapter 152 - The Horror Within
"Quite the grand entrance as always"
Jumping off, YuJu leisurely walked to meet the one spearheading this small army, splitting off from the smoke as he did
\'Time to try a new trick I\'ve thought up\'
His smoke like self, which was nothing more than aura, was visible to the enemy while he himself stood next to it, invisible to the eyes
"Well hello"
He greeted the leading horseman who greeted back with a saber throw puncturing a hole through the smoke
YuJu\'s double looked down at the empty hole in its body before he laughed as it sewed itself back up
"You\'ll have to put more energy into it if you really want to harm me"
The eyes of the person glowed under his one horned helmet, making a grabbing motion with his hand which produced a swishing sound as the glowing blade flew back into his hand, creating a bigger hole in the smoke on its way back
This time the double didn\'t even flinch, merely looked at the leader without eyes
"A lot more energy than that"
The leader was silent for a few minutes, thinking what to do with this seemingly intangible creature, his follower interrupted his thoughts however as it pointed behind YuJu\'s back
Taking a look he found dead bodies filling a town\'s clearing, some dismembered and some killed with one swift cut, their wounds mostly being vitals indicated how easy of a fight the enemy had
Looking back at the creature his eyes glowed with blame
"Come now, don\'t look at me as if I sinned, weren\'t you coming here to kill them and make them into your troops"
"That\'s precisely why you killing them is a waste"
He turned his horse to the side, ready to leave
"Worry not, they are fresh kills, their souls linger still"
The horned helmet tilted toward him, then toward the bodies before a whisper spread through the land, sounding much like a beckoning from the depths of one\'s soul
Yaaaaaa Uuu Huu!
Screams, groans, and breaths sounded as the corpses rose from their supposed eternal slumber, picking themselves off the ground, their skin quickly breaking apart as black miasma replaced it making them look like they\'ve spent a few years in the grave
"Not bad, I\'ll give you a solid eight on your commune skills, I am not here for the freaky show however"
The leader turned to this shadow thing, wondering what did bring him here
"I came to sell you information"
"Not buying"
"It\'s about making your very own guild"
He remained silent, hinting YuJu to go on
"Humans, along with some sentient races like dwarfs and elves, are capable of founding guilds with some minor conditions"
He stopped to see if the man would ask anything only to be stared at by the undead army silently, all waiting for what these so called conditions were
"There are three conditions, you need a hundred members with their secondary class unlocked, a conquered land under your rule, and someone with an authoritative Title to be the guild leader"
The leader put a hand under his chin, looking back at the many making up his ranks before turning back to YuJu\'s double
"Must they be human, well, living ones"
"Usually, yours might be an exception since they aren\'t raised undead minions but have their very own individuality"
It brought discomfort to the leader that this thing knew of his skills making him unable to enjoy the free useful information
"Well, whether they fill the ranks up or you bring humans to make the numbers is up to you, land should be easy and I doubt not the lack of Titles you have, so I\'ll be off on my way, the payment to be collected another day"
"Never said I\'ll pay"
Suk!
He didn\'t hear the woosh of the blade nor saw its trail, only the sound of his follower\'s skull cracking in half along the loss of connection between them alarmed him of the quick demise that came to it
"You\'ll pay, like it or not" and poof went the smoke, dispersing into the surroundings as if it never was there
"...What an annoying person"
The leader commented with dislike, these types of people who did whatever they wanted and ran away were most bothersome
"One more thing, I wouldn\'t suggest taking up residence here, remember the giant rock at the start of the invasion? Yah it\'s sleeping down under this land"
That annoying voice rang through the place like a ghost\'s wailing, coming from everywhere yet nowhere making the army of the undead feel chills run down their spine, the one\'s who still had one at least
.....
"That worked pretty well"
The trick was super useful, now he could further separate his persona from his Hortus self, who would suspect him to have some shadow manipulation skills along space and blood control, that would be one too many skills for a single person
"Hopefully it wasn\'t anyone from Hortus that locked onto my energy back when I revealed it to the tree"
If they did then it would spell trouble for humanity as a whole, they would become a bargaining chip that the Genus Insania would threaten him with when things start getting heated between them and Aminta\'s faction
"I already have a few plans in mind of they do discover that I would indeed stand up for the human race, that\'s too much trouble though, the best option is them not involving my race"
Best case scenarios were rare so he didn\'t hold high hopes, all this trouble was worth it however, the fruits from the tree already proved to be of tremendous use before he\'d even put them to what he had in mind
"Who knew it was the catalyst for Iānus\'s unheard of class"
Pulling up his improved servant\'s status and skills he smiled once more at how unique it turned out to be
_________________________________
Name: Iānus
Race: Vamperic Root Spirit
Gender: N/A
Level: 46
Class: Mimic
STR: 9
AG: 9
VIT: 73
INT: 110
INS: 0.1
AP: 6
Titles: FirstBorn: The first of its kind
Gained +10% to all attributes
-Forest Spirit: All stats +15% within Nature biome
Special Status: Contracted Master: Yuju
_________________________________
_________________________________
BloodBestiary: Assimiliat the Bloodlines of any blood essence absorbed into the Blood Code
Undivided: All fruits you bear remain part of yourself
Fruit Of Many Forms: Your fruit can gain its own shape, race, and powers depending on the Blood Code imprinted upon it
Versatile Vibrancy: Siphon various types of energy enabling their use according to one\'s understanding
Living Land: When mimicking objects the surroundings become part of your being
Flashing Life: Mimicking living entities that had their blood absorbed or energy siphoned can give insight into their memories
_________________________________
Nasty, that\'s the first thing that comes to his mind when he thinks about mimics, this however was beyond a Mimic
"Undivided should be the skill it acquired from the flesh fruits I gave it, combined with BloodBestiary the two opened this classpath, and a scary class this is"
What was scary about a living sentient plant? It\'s massive vitality, there were also some flora that uprooted themselves and began roaming the land, this cut most of their vitality down but removed the disadvantage of immobility
Now what if you gave a rooted plant the ability to spawn walking little terrors? Well....you\'d be creating every living beings nightmare
And this creation was his own, grown from an unimportant bloodroot into something even Hortus would find to be quite the threat
One could only imagine where its evolutions and class could take it...
His footsteps suddenly came to a halt, eyes wide open, a trace of realization flashing within
"These.... aren\'t my feelings are they"
He stood there frozen, unbelieving of the sudden doubts flooding his mind
\'No, it couldn\'t be within me? My presence shouldn\'t be noticeable, camouflaging energy has always been in a passive state\'
The more he murmured the more he felt estranged with some of his thoughts, doing and plotting was his style, not imaging a flawless fantasy built on nothing but a single source of power
A grip overtook his heart as boiling anger welled within, how could something force him to lose control over his own thoughts? It was unacceptable!
\'Calm down, do not give into these thoughts, they aren\'t yours, figure what trait it is first\'
He spoke to himself, trying to realize what direction these random thoughts and feelings were pushing him toward
\'Is it Wrath? No, I\'ve only felt anger now, and it was due to the notion of being controlled which means it\'s Pride? Or it could be Greed, it doesn\'t like to be owned either\'
He thought more to what his actions implied over the past few weeks, there wasn\'t any noticeable spike in emotions however, only bits of joy here and there
\'No, I\'m sure one of the sins is residing within me, though I\'m unsure how\'
He\'d met them once before, no one else could affect his mind in such a fluid way other than those things, but they latched onto someone who\'s powerful, excessive in desire, and very noticeable as well, especially Pride and Greed, they needed a vessel who carried themselves with a noble gait or had possessive obsessions
\'....Could it have found me through Mia?\'
That was his first thought, and honestly it made sense, she wasn\'t capable of hiding from them and was a vampire, which race could compete with the vampire\'s arrogance?
\'I do recall feeling much too uncaring the day I arrived, perhaps it took root with me that day\'
This was a disaster, one that came out of nowhere, if he was the vessel of one of the sins then humanity would edge toward extinction the day they awakened
\'I can\'t let this be, I have to find someone more powerful, some more prideful than I am\'
He settled his bet on it being Pride, it would be his temporary guess
His mind quickly went through humanities powerful and prominent figures, there must be someone who fits the bill among them
\'Can\'t have the nine nightmares become vessels, it would only make things worst, there are a few others who are currently more powerful but...they are arrogant, not proud\'
There was a fine line between those two, one that he knew all too well
\'True pride is a manifestation of confidence, strength, not baseless ideologies, who prides himself in his strength and doesn\'t back away from challenges....\'
One did come to mind, it made YuJu scour but there was no helping it, if Pride would choose anyone to leave this body of his for then it would be that guy
\'It\'s decided then, I just have to find him now
He finally started moving once again, long and determined were his strides, one way or another the sin would be out of his body whether it liked it or not