Chapter 9: Rite Circle
1378 Words
*BOOM!
They stepped forward from the shadows and his Boss fired another shot of Exceed Charge. Unfortunately, this gargantuan version of the golems was only fazed and no visible damage was inflicted.
“s**t!” His Boss cursed. He really hates developments like this.
Unlike his rookie counterpart that’s just starting in his cultivation path, the original body of his Boss is a vessel of an immense accumulation of Mana. However, the near entirety of this lode is intended to maintain and contain something that is entrusted within his Soul Realm. Hence, when he undertook the deal during his induction into the Wanderers, he created the Reviver which enables him to borrow the strength of other creatures while utilizing the least amount of his personal Mana by doing so. Still, he does some extra effort to further conserve his Mana like giving a limit to his capsule usage.
This gargantuan version of the ruin’s security golems is equivalent to a Master-tier cultivator, which means more capsules to consume. Something his Boss is unwilling to pay now given that after venturing the ruins, it turned to not be one of the places they are looking for and what they might gain is still something uncertain.
They have priors of fruitless ventures in an amount that is beyond the tolerable.
Cases like this, they always weigh which option is more cost efficient and in this specific one, it is Magnum taking over the fight.
Earlier, given the circumstance, he can’t. However now, as they stood before the final chamber, the one this golem is guarding, the surrounding had improved exponentially both in size and strength. Designed obviously so that this golem can move freely and in comparison, its size is twice larger than his.
“It’s okay, I can take it from here,” he declared and jumped off his head, morphing back to his original size.
*RAWWR!!!
He roared and landed by his hind legs before leaping again to throw a punch directly onto the golem’s face.
*BOOM!
The power behind his punch created a deafening sonic boom, sending the golem tumbling to the ground.
The golem shattered to pieces upon impact but with a brief glow of the arrays on its body parts, it immediately reconstructed itself and back to its feet. It then activated the other effects engraved in those arrays as it rushes to ram him. Its speed had doubled and its durability and attack power might have doubled as well.
‘Dragon Force!’ Fortunately, he can also do the same.
*BOOM!
His body glowing with a golden hue, he clashed the golem again with a direct punch to the face, and with twice the impact, it had shattered the golem into plentier and smaller pieces than before.
The golem rose again and their clash was repeated, then again and again, with him always emerging victorious.
It had attempted several tricks from its deadly neurotoxin to attacking him while in its shattered mode. All deemed ineffective. However, maintaining the Dragon Force to rival it in the physical bout is rapidly depleting his Mana. At this point, he will need a little assistance from the Boss.
*Bang!
Heaven’s Mercy. A once a week combination which allows the Boss to replenish anyone’s Mana except his own.
Compared to the ten capsules option, him plus this is truly more cost efficient.
With a massive pool of Mana, the golem’s ability to reconstruct is formidable but with this repeated exertions and destructions it suffered, that Mana is at the verge of running out and it’ll be their win once it does. Half an hour later, he shattered the golem once again but this time, it didn’t rise.
*Swish!
The Boss then opened a capsule to absorb the golem’s essence and disappointingly clicked his tongue when it was just another Venom Silver.
*WAAAAAA!!!
The final chamber is a small garden room. It is full of common plants but they are all turned black, not dying but just turned like that, and as soon as they stepped in, plethora of noises immediately poured out towards them, turning the mystery of this place’s origin into a no-brainer.
“It stinks of death here.”
It belonged to a Necromancer, a Sorcerer practicing the art of death. That would also explain the golden pieces of relics.
When he was still a whelp, the Boss had once read him a story mentioning the ancient Necromancers and their likings of turning Blancos, a now extinct specie of giant golden turtles, into their fortresses s***h mount.
They are also looking for a giant turtle, that’s why they followed the relic here but as he already mentioned, it turns out to be a bust. It’s not their turtle.
Back to his small size and onto the Boss’ head, they approached the butternut tree and stopped in front a large white stone settled underneath it. It is etched with complicated patterns and upon touching it, he and the Boss received a jolt of its Mana, allowing them to identify it.
It’s the core of a Rite Circle.
The Boss groaned, “Oh come on, this?”
There are countless of methods to choose from when passing legacies and inheritances and among the complex and borderline to bothersome types are the Rite Circles, a process where while within the perimeter of the Rite Circle, the one on the receiving end must either fulfil the condition or offer a tribute set in the circle to receive whatever it is keeping.
Rarely, they are simple and straightforward but most of the time, they are complicated and gnarly, and the latter is pretty much a certain from a hand-me-down of a Necromancer.
“What’s the condition?” Magnum asked as his Boss continues to probe the core.
“Dying.” In fuller details, the legacy was not just from an ordinary Necromancer but from the more hardcore Lich and to receive it, the successor needs to die and become an undead.
“Hey, lucky us then,” he cheerfully said in response to that. “You can do it without actually dying.”
“And I’m not thrilled with the repercussion,” he argued.
“Oh come on, it’s just two weeks,” he reasoned. “I mean think about it, Liches can recover memories from the dead. If we have that, it’ll help us a lot. What’s two weeks stuck in that form compared to that?”
There was a brief pause before he let out a long sigh. “Yeah, that makes perfect sense.” He then removed his armour and hand all of his stuffs to him, including the Reviver and the capsules. “Wait outside the circle.”
Magnum complied. Returning to his original size yet again, he moved and waited outside the circle with all their belongings as his Boss completes the ritual.
Without hesitation, his left arm stabbed into his heart and upon the end of his life, flames emerged from his body, setting him ablaze until he’s reduced to a pile of ashes. Then, confirming his death, dark and thick miasmas were expelled by the white rock. However, when it attempted to absorb into his Boss’ remains and revive him as an undead as the legacy intend, *Swoosh!!* the Reviver howled and the miasmas were stuck mid-air. They were then twisted, morphed, and concentrated until two dark blue and two black capsules were formed.
At the same time, while the capsules were being formed, his Boss’ ashes were caught up in flames again and like the miasmas, the flames had also twisted, morphed, and concentrate until a humanoid silhouette was formed.
Simultaneously, the flaming silhouette became flesh and the four capsules were completed. His Boss had returned from the dead and he caught the floating capsules upon the complete reconstruction of his body. Unfortunately, his appearance now is that of a five year old but on the other hand, there is light now in his eyes.
- Writer
