Tales of the Endless Empire

Chapter 355: Not Another Forest, Ratgul

Thalion was at a point where he honestly had enough of trees. Always those damned, towering giants. Why not an underground tunnel network? Or something different for once? Yes, these massive hundred-meter high trees were fascinating in their own way, but they also meant he had to stay on guard every single moment. 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 come 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 seemed 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 time, unlike in the tutorial.

Thalion tried to trick the system by checking the placement 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 placement fluctuate, essentially sharing the bottom with several thousand others who hadn’t picked up a single item. He chuckled to himself, imagining some elf ordered to track him down having to scroll endlessly through the list just to find his name. 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 seemed to follow the same path as Thalion. At least they wouldn’t be hunting the very top of the leaderboard. Speaking of the top—what a mess. Pure chaos, shifting constantly. Maybe some 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 formed. In the meantime, 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 metal scraping metal, 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 time 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 movement 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 meters 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 meant 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 meters away with almost the same 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 some of his blood, which in turn allowed him to replay a short memory tied to a specific place. The detailed workings seemed extremely complicated, but the potential value was immense. With such a skill, gathering information could become far easier.

Still, that one would have to wait until after the spikes. And the spikes would come 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 movement 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 mending his soul and performing blood purification at the same time.

<---

“Interesting idea, to always let three to five groups spawn close to each other,” Lyrian remarked as the three overseers watched the opening of the first system event.

“Yes, you thin the herd a little at the start,” Ratgul said proudly, chest puffed out. “But have you noticed that no one has spawned near any important treasures?”

“No, I haven’t. But now that you’ve said it—wait. Is there even good loot?” Lyrian asked, looking confused. A treasure hunt without powerful items sounded stupid, and it wouldn’t reflect the high entry cost.

“Exactly! But that only applies to this stage. You see, this system event has very long days and nights. When the darkness falls, the stage begins to deteriorate. Only a few safe spots will remain.” Ratgul announced it loudly, hoping to pique the interest of R-87, who had not shown nearly enough appreciation for his genius in Ratgul’s opinion.

“I don’t get it. So it’s basically a slaughter trial without real treasures? That doesn’t make much sense.” Lyrian sounded annoyed. To him, this trial wasn’t particularly special.

“No, no, no. You’ve got it wrong. At the beginning there are many safe areas, but with each night there will be fewer. And every time the land will be destroyed, a new one will spawn around the survivors. A new environment, with new treasures. The longer someone manages to endure, the greater the rewards—since many will die each night. This trial combines the relentless search for treasure by day with brutal survival by night.” Ratgul explained with immense pride, convinced of his brilliance.

“Oh, that’s a great idea. I especially like the survival part,” Lyrian admitted, being a great fan of forcing trial-takers to flee from overwhelming threats.

“Yes, exactly! What do you think, R-87? Isn’t it a great design?” Ratgul asked the stone elemental, still waiting for the compliment he felt he deserved.

“It is definitely better than your last one, where you had only a single big treasure that handed victory to whoever stumbled across it first. On top of that, the one who found it simply hid for the rest of your event, winning by sheer luck,” R-87 said flatly. The elemental was highly competitive and never gave away free praise.

“But you are admiring my work, aren’t you? After all, the system must admire it too. Why else would it set the price for my event three times higher than yours?” Ratgul pressed insistently.

“Y-yes, it’s okay. There are just not many quests or trials inside your system event in my opinion,” R-87 said, pointing at the first stage displayed before them.

“Oh, but there will be. You also can’t simply stumble across treasures in the higher stages. There will always be risk, or a guardian. Every additional stage will add another way to gain points for the leaderboard too. What do you say now?” Ratgul replied with a wide smile.

“Depends. How many stages do you have, and do they even look different from each other? I fear that if the new stages are just more forests, things will get boring quite fast,” R-87 countered, not giving up so easily. Normally, his system events had the highest entry cost, and the fact that Ratgul was now showing off in this new era was something R-87 did not like at all.

“Oh, don’t you worry. I have a bunch of detailed stages, every single one completely unique,” Ratgul explained while squinting at the elemental, whose calm, unchanging face carved in stone never betrayed a false emotion.

“So, you probably just chose different kinds of trees, right? That still makes it a jungle,” R-87 guessed, hoping to have found a weak point in the other god’s logic.

“No, I haven’t. There might be some jungles, but they are not the main attraction. Sometimes you just need to add a jungle or two to make things feel more alive,” Ratgul defended himself against that heinous accusation.

“Aha. So what is it that makes your event so special? Because until now I frankly don’t understand why the entrance price was set so high. Yes, there are safe zones that teleport you to the next stage. So what? That’s all basic stuff and nothing new,” R-87 said.

Ratgul finally had enough of that insolent piece of floating rock, which couldn’t even admit that his system event was superior.

“There are many things that make my system event the best, but I can’t tell you right now!” Ratgul shouted at the elemental.

“Aha, there we have it. There is nothing special. Otherwise, you would have shoved that information before my eyes long ago so I couldn’t miss it,” R-87 retorted, daring even to form a wide smile across his stone face.

“No. There are plenty of secrets. And you aren’t telling us anything about your system event either. You’ll see soon enough why mine was rated so high—because I’ve woven some very interesting new quests and secrets into the system event,” Ratgul replied, his expression curling into a predatory smile.