Disclaimer: Blood, sex and violence, separately and concurrently, intended only for mature audiences.
AN: This chapter got a little more emo than I had originally planned.
Chapter 2 Learning the price
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"We meet again, you really need to take better care of yourself." Nil said lounging upon a large bed, practically naked, dressed only in form fitting underwear, the colour a pale baby blue, which contradicted with how manly the rest of him looked.
"Why am I dying this time?" I asked, familiar with this routine after so many near death experiences.
"DBG as you call it. You're killing your companions too, so I've taken you both out of the world for a little time out, everything has a price and the price of an upgraded blood golem is extreme stress on the body, you should be more careful playing with things you don't truly understand."
"Fuck!"
"Indeed. I'll hold onto DBG for a little bit, he'll help organise all the new sacrifices, which should give you enough time to sort yourself out." Nil said, standing up and in a moment he was pressed up against me, his forehead pressed against mine. "Next time, use this, to speak with me, I don't want to be constantly saving you from yourself, it's time to grow up."
A surge of information flowed through on how I could use sacrifices as a way to speak to Nil, the better the sacrifice/s the longer I could talk with him. This way I wouldn't be limited to having conversations with him while teetering on the brink of death.
"Thank you. Are they still alive?"
"Yes, if barely, your `brothers' are also on the brink of death, even though they were just the appetisers; your new demon pal was the main meal, he's going to be sore in the morning." Nil laughed and disappeared.
The next moment I was on a balcony overlooking a giant city filled with people of all sorts and sizes, though I was so high up, they were mere moving dots.
I was dressed in a formless black robe, in the same style as Nil's, who had at some point appeared next to me. "Where is this?"
"My divine realm, within the necropolis, those who haven't been claimed by the other gods end up here or in the hells, depending..."
I looked over the city and felt compelled to ask "Why are you helping me so much?"
"You're an interesting fellow, unlike my other devotees, you're so alive and yet so empty inside, your frantic search for meaning and novelty, amuses me so. You're so reckless and yet so calculating, you kill with ease while also expanding your little family despite my warnings. It's a fun show."
I gritted my teeth while stifling the urge to sigh or scream and let out a heavy breath, reminding myself that I shouldn't aggravate my patron god even if he wasn't exactly my ideal choice of patron deity. Then again I couldn't complain, he had helped me repeatedly, even if it was for selfish absurd reasons.
"Thanks, I guess."
"While I'd like to have you stay and play, there's a war coming and I have things to do." Nil said with a sad smile before everything disappeared.
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I woke up gasping, on the verge of death again.
I felt empty, DBG would be gone for some unknown period of time and Lidan is sprawled out naked next to me, with bloody holes all over his body, which slowly close up as I look at him. I placed my hand against his chest to check for a heart beat and he's still alive but his heart beat is slow and sluggish.
As for Alpha and Beta, they are pale and ashen without any visible injuries on them. I nudged them into semi consciousness, grabbing my discarded spatial bag with a [Mage Hand] and poured stamina and health potions down both their throats.
They don't really wake up completely, groggy and out of it but their colour improves to a healthier shade and the danger has passed for the moment for them. I eased myself off the bed and swig down the remaining bottles myself as I looked at my formerly vibrant bedroom companions, sprawled out unconscious, bloodless, drained and defeated by my selfish desire for power and pleasure.
I had taken far too much from them while asleep. Even though Nil hadn't explained exactly what had happened, I could guess based on the available evidence. While I had been asleep, DBG continued trying to grow stronger without any supervision or control, using up all my blood and energy. In response my body did what it always did when damaged, sought out sources of power to drain energy from, which considering the location, ended up being my brothers and lovers, whose defenses were down and had no power to resist. Then DBG wanted more, blood and power, and I continued draining, until things spiralled out of control and they and I were near the breaking point. Thankfully Nil stepped in and shut down DBG, which stopped me from accidentally killing them all before dying from the backlash.
I really needed to be more careful in the future, by Nil's tone, this could be the last time he helped me survive my mistakes. I needed to be smarter, to gain control over myself, I keep trying but it's much harder to do that it sounds. My desires have names and bodies and I'm so weak to temptation.
The only one that looked healthy and happy in the room was Bugger who was sound asleep and a foot bigger than he was the last time I paid attention to him. I guess DBG had siphoned some of Lidan's blood and life force into growing Bugger faster. At least someone benefited from the mess, that's something I suppose.
After frantically checking on and helping out my brothers, I had time to reflect on my own situation.
I felt awful, emotionally and physically, I had endangered the lives of all my lovers by not thinking things through. While asleep mental and physical defenses were the lowest and because of DBG's actions, I'd have to sleep alone until I sorted out DBG and my own powers, I couldn't even trust myself any more. My body felt absurdly heavy, it was like my early years all over again, where I constantly felt tired and like there was a mountain on my back, making every task a nightmare to complete.
I laid out on the floor, outside Lidan's room, wanting to be further away from the evidence of my mistakes. That and I wanted to make certain that I was far away enough to make use of [Energy Vortex] (combination [Meditation] and [Energy Drain]) to recover my vitality faster.
I closed my eyes and pulled on the mana of the nearby space to restore myself. A sudden surge of energy made me turn off [Energy Vortex] and I opened my eyes to discover a guard looking at me with confusion and curiosity. I maybe should have put clothes on before leaving Lidan's room but I was distracted by guilt and necessity, with neither the time or concern for clothing.
I got to my feet abruptly and I walked into Lidan's room, under the watchful gaze of the guard who continued on with his patrol without another word, maybe he had heard about me already, or maybe he just didn't think a naked guy would pose much trouble to a big scary demon like Lidan or maybe he didn't care enough to ask. Regardless of his reasons, I looked at my naked companions and sighed and went to the bathroom to be alone with my thoughts.
The time spent using [Energy Vortex] helped to relieve the physical strain on my body, regenerating lost blood and damaged organs but I still felt terrible. I sat in the tub, the coldness of the porcelain on my bare bottom helped settle my fluctuating emotional state somewhat. It was something safe to occupy my attention for a moment.
I played around with the water and fire runes, the water runes absorbed magic power, producing water, while the fire runes generated warmth. The warm water reminded me of happier and simpler times and I looked at my unattended erection with mixed feelings. I had enjoyed a lot of wild and mindless fun in many a warm and wet place, most of it getting my insides pounded by various guys.
I ignored my erection and focused on my problems, I didn't want a repeat of this situation, so I'd have to figure out a way of becoming stronger or mastering my instinctual use of [Energy drain] when injured. I closed my eyes and reviewed my catalogue of books in my memory, trying to find a way to deal with the side effects of DBG.
I didn't know how long Nil would keep him and I was torn as to how I felt without it. DBG had been a powerful weapon but it had become an unwieldy double edged sword that could damage me and my allies more than my enemies, it was dangerous and so was I. I had to find a way to fix the problem otherwise I'd be alone forever.
Time went by slowly as I thought through my options and waited for my emotions and hormones to settle down. I had a couple of ideas as to things that could help but they'd be costly, if I was at Nilbog, I'd have no chance, but within the capitol it could probably be done for a price.
Several hours later, they woke up, though they weren't nearly as energetic as they were last night when they took turns pounding my ass and mouth. The good times never last long enough. Every time I find some happiness, Felix, Badrick, Alpha and Bravo, something comes along to throw everything into chaos. Maybe that's my fate, to be eternally searching for something that will provide true and permanent satisfaction. Maybe I'm lonely or depressed. I don't even know any more.
Too much thinking is bad, it's making me morose. High intelligence does not lead to happiness, it does help you remember all the good times, even if that's often bittersweet, since the good times never seem to last long enough. That and high intelligence allows you to hold multiple thoughts at rampant speed, though that can be troublesome too. So easily distracted.
Alpha and Beta were quiet, having already been updated as to what had happened via [Soul Resonance], Lidan I was unsure about his reaction.
"Fuck, you boys really wore me out last night, I'm going to sleep in, you should get cleaned up and I'll fuck you some more later."
The mood was somewhat sombre, as Beta lead the way to a nearby bedroom that had been assigned to us. Beta had been paying more attention to Lidan's previous instructions and directions. I had been far too busy daydreaming about his ass and cock and body to remember where I was supposed to have been sleeping the previous night.
We took turns getting cleaned up, having a quick wash, none of us were particularly in the mood to mess about this morning, so it was quite orderly unlike most mornings where it took a few rounds of fucking around for us to get dressed and moving. This time we were dressed in record time and left our room and went to find a place to eat, a helpful guard directed us to one of the feasting halls. I think it was a different guard from the previous night but the helmets with narrow eye slits and full body armor makes it hard to distinguish one guard from another. That and the guard from last night had never spoken a word to me, so I couldn't use the voice to identify differences or similarities to something I'd never heard.
The `normal' eating room, was a smaller less imposing place than the previous night's banquet, the food was laid out buffet style and servants and various guards and lesser nobles selected their food, placed it on a plate and left after eating their fill.
After a large breakfast of eggs and a large loaf of bread, we returned to our own bedroom. Alpha and Beta were quick to get undressed and back into bed, they were still worn out from the `draining' but that didn't stop naked and naughty sleepy snuggles. Beta snoozed in Alpha's arms, as for me I returned to the tub to soak and unwind, being alone felt safer than endangering anyone else with my unstable nature.
Some time later I heard Lidan's voice. "Hey you guys forgot something in my room."
I used [Astral Projection] to see what he was referring to, without having to get up out of the warm water.
"Shit. SORRY!" I yelled out as I saw Lidan throw a horny and much larger Bugger at Alpha and Beta.
I can't believe I forgot Bugger, he was sleeping so quietly that I must have overlooked his existence. Still not used to him being around, I'm a bad father/pet owner. I got out of the bath tub and used fire magic to dry off quickly as I walked over.
"Little shit tried to fuck me while I was sleeping." Lidan complained, dressed only in a loin cloth, which still made him the most dressed person in the room.
"I'll teach him his place." Alpha said, pinning a five feet tall Bugger beneath him and shoving his half hard cock up his ass, Bugger squealed and flailed about but his resistance was meaningless, in fact it only made things worse. Alpha was much more `excited' by Bugger's resistance than he had been during his lazy fucking of Beta, resistance brings out the more aggressive tendencies of wolf and demon. He transformed into beast mode, tearing into Bugger whose squeals and moans echo throughout the room.
Beta just sleepily mutters "Fuck him" from time to time to incite Alpha's aggression, while idly slapping Alpha's furry butt.
A little later both Bugger and Alpha were soft and relaxed, Alpha having broken Bugger and relieved both their horniness in the process. Alpha lay on top of a docile and drained Bugger, holding him tightly, asserting his dominance with a firm grasp around Bugger's middle.
I had watched the entire show with utter indifference. Perhaps I had gotten used to insanity, or maybe I couldn't find it in me to care any more about anything.
"Anyway, today's an easy day, I'm supposed to show you around the city, get you familiar with the place, then tomorrow I'm supposed to take you to the dungeon and test you and see how powerful you are. See if you're a good fit for the Irregulars." Lidan explained as if he hadn't watched a bloody rough fucking moments earlier. Perhaps I spent too much time with strange people for my own good.
"I need to find some more books to read." I said, barely listening to Lidan, preoccupied with my own problems
"There's the royal library, that should have anything you might need."
"That should work." I looked down at my own stiff cock, guess I wasn't as unaffected as I thought from watching Alpha fuck Bugger stupid. "I guess I should get dressed then."
"Might be an idea." Lidan said with a smirk, eyeing me up openly, maybe he wasn't mad about being made into a blood buffet. Maybe. I didn't have enough bravery to ask.
I looked at my brothers and Bugger, all of whom seemed spent, for one reason or another. The room reeked of blood, sex and sweat.
I grabbed a basic outfit from my spatial bag and got dressed, while Lidan watched me openly without any apparent shame or concern. Lidan seemed fine, despite the rough start this morning, though he was moving slower than he had yesterday.
We left to the library, which charged a gold coin for entry, which I paid wordlessly to the guard. The royal library was filled with all sorts of priceless written documents, including books with gilt covers and vellum pages, ancient scrolls made of beast hide and inked with blood, along with all sorts of strange looking grimoires and more modern books of varying heft.
I walked between the high bookshelves, grabbing books at random, checking their titles and skimming through their contents in search of what I wanted. Lidan trailed a few steps behind me, looking noticeably bored and disinterested. The royal library had quite a few scholars reading and writing at various tables scattered throughout the room. All of them looked wealthy, wearing expensive jewellery, robes and using specialised equipment to take notes.
The most immediately useful of the books that I read through was a bestiary, that provided a lot of information about various monster races and magical animals and the dungeon guide. The dungeon guide provided details on the types of monsters within the capitol's dungeon and the ideal methods to kill and harvest them.
The capitol's dungeon started off with basic weak slimes on the first floor and ended up with an ancient dragon on the deepest floor. It also had it's own time scale that doubled every five floors, until it reached a million times that of normal. There were very few accounts of the deepest floors, hunting dragons is dangerous even for the Dragon Slayers and the details were scarce.
Not that I had any confidence in defeating a dragon any time soon, what was of particular interest to me was floor 31 – 40 where the Trolls lived, their bodies and blood, could provide me with what I needed to survive DBG's presence. If I could increase my regeneration closer to that of trolls, my blood loss would be more manageable and I'd become much stronger physically and blood magic would be easier.
After a few hours it was past noon and Lidan was hungry and demanded that I take a break and actually see the city and stop being so boring. The exact wording was a little too colorful to repeat in polite company but that was the general gist of his complaint.
He took me out of the inner castle and into the city proper. I took a moment to grasp his arm to steady myself and used [Astral Projection] to send my thoughts and soul flying upwards to scout the place from above.
I had a quick look around, memorising the layout of the many walls and buildings for future reference. There were three buildings of interest to me within the city. The first was the Mage tower, which towered over the rest of the city at forty stories tall, that housed and instructed the most powerful mages in the kingdom. The second building of note was the castle, which had it's own barbaric beauty, with it's many turrets and battlements in the centre of the city, which sprawled over a significant portion of the central district and had multiple layers, separating people by various status. The third building of note was the arena, a large bowl shaped structure that housed various gladiators and where various martial disagreements and competitions were hosted.
The sky itself was busy, with the presence of griffons and pegasi, who flew above the city, along with their riders, most of them headed to either the castle or the Mage Tower, nobles and Mages by the looks of them. While I was very thorough in examining the city, I only spent a short moment outside my body, perhaps as long ten seconds before returning my mind and soul to my body.
"You right there?" Lidan asked with mild concern, my hand still on his arm, grip firm.
I let go reluctantly, Lidan had such impressive musculature, if things weren't so complicated, it'd be fun to create a sculpture of him to add to my collection later. Sadly, too many things to do. "I'm fine, I was just having a look around the place with some mind magic."
"Careful doing that, you might gain the attention of some of the pricks in the Mage tower. That would be tiresome."
"I'll be careful." I said contritely.
Lidan smiled back at me, before he said "Let's eat" and walked off.
I followed behind him, admiring him still as he walked unhindered through the crowds of people. People stared at us, though mostly at him, he drew the eye as he towered over most people and his red skin and scant clothing made him stand out. The looks on those above the age of forty were scornful while the younger people had complicated gazes, some were visibly impressed by his power and body, while others disdained his racial heritage, with many in between.
I was mostly overlooked in comparison, though I did attract some interest from the crowd, though mostly out of my obvious association with Lidan than anything else. I didn't put it to mind, the opinion of strangers didn't interest me much at the moment.
We visited a local food stall and grabbed some meat skewers to fill our bellies, I was famished, despite the large breakfast I ate in the morning, so I bought quite a few of them to eat while we walked.
Next up we visited a high end shop that stocked all sorts of good stuff. There were racks of weapons and armor, Dragon slaying swords, dragon scale armor, Ogre infused war hammers which I looked through. Under each item was a short handwritten note detailing their use and provenance. There were shelves filled with all sorts of alchemical potions and ingredients, from basic stamina potions to potions of full restoration, with ingredients ranging from goblin ears to phoenix hearts.
None of the notes listed the cost of anything, which was worrying to put it mildly. I looked through the weapons, not out of interest for the weapons themselves, since I rarely used the weapons I already had and more for the sake of potential inspiration for enhancing weapons later.
I did spot something that interested me however and that could prove very useful in solving my DBG problem. An ampule of hydra blood, a monster of infamy and a dungeon monster that serves as the boss of floor 70 of the city's dungeon, at least according to the book I read.
When I asked the merchant at the counter for the price, he told me with a smug smile and I winced at the price and handed over the entirety of the fortune earned from running Nilbog.
Most of the money I had gained had been from the three nobles to whom I leased 3 sectors of land, one to build a sea port, one to make a logging town outside town and another to build a village in between Essex and Nilbog. The three nobles had failed to conquer Nilbog but I had redirected their ambition into building up smaller territories within my little duchy. The minor noble who was the first to fail, became a member of the council and managed the finances of the army's logistic department.
City building is an endless pit of spending and most of the money went back into growing the city and dealing with the infrastructural needs of the place. I hate being the Lord, despite the somewhat useful title perks, which was why I had no problems giving up Nilbog if it would keep my out of the King's way.
I swigged down the ampule of blood, much to the visible horror of the shopkeeper and the amusement of Lidan beside me. I absorbed the essence of the hydra, acquiring a weaker version of the Hydra's innate trait, [Renewal] instead of [Regrowth].
[Renewal] allowed for mana to be used to directly substitute for any lost fluids, flesh or bone, to a limited degree.
If I had gained the Hydra's full gift [Regrowth] I could have regrown a body part and gained an extra instead. For instance if someone cut off one of my arms, I could grow two more. Having four arms would be quite useful for the many experiments I undertake but humans aren't typically suited for such things, so it's probably for the best, not to get too ambitious with body sculpting.
[Regrowth] would make physical training a lot more impressive too, though [Renewal] would be useful too, if in a less dramatic matter.
Seeing the shopkeeper eye's bug out watching me swill a fortune's worth of hydra's blood helped to pick up my mood a little more.
Typically an alchemist would collect hydra's blood, dilute it and create a potion of full restoration for rich clients, as full restoration not only restored health but could regrow lost body parts and reinvigorate the person as well. Exceedingly popular for those of a certain age and income.
I've never mixed one of those before myself but I've read about the process. Not something I could afford to try, since Hydras are incredibly dangerous monsters, capable of regrowing lost body parts and when they lose a head, they grow two more. At a certain point in a battle, if not handled well, they can evolve via a grisly and bloody process into chaos hydras, where they are exponentially more dangerous.
They require a small army to harvest them, without making the situation far worse. They usually live in large swamps where they can loiter in peace.
I returned to the Royal Library to continue my research.
Lidan grew tired of babysitting me as I read through books and said "I'm going to catch up on some lost sleep, you can come find me later if you get lonely, otherwise I'll see you in the morning for the dungeon trial. It'll just be the two of us in the dungeon, so make the necessary precautions."
"I'll see you later then." I said, giving him an ambiguous answer as I was uncertain when DBG would return and the overall situation, so I waved him off and returned to my reading feeling lighter, as I no longer had to feel guilty about not entertaining him or about the previous night, every time I looked at him hovering around me.
Lidan left with a spring in his step and I tried not to take it personally, that he was happy to get away from me. It was weird to think that tomorrow he'd be an examiner, judging me for everything I did while in `danger'. Tomorrow is bound to get interesting and quite likely quite bloody.
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Author's Note: This chapter is kind of a prelude to a more extensive dungeon exploration, kind of skimped on the details of other dungeons, as kobolds bore me and pit falls and arrow traps make me snore.
Um anyway. Next Chapter: Testing – Lidan rates Lucius on his abilities as an alchemist and a combatant in preparation for the Irregulars. Lucius learns about his limitations and does his best to learn how to overcome them, things get very bloody.
P.S Toss a coin to your witcher ... (donate to nifty to continue epic tales of horniness)