Chapter 17: [17] : The Ashen Bog, Aura of Cleansing

The walk to the Ashen Bog took three miserable hours. The rocky terrain of the Ashlands slowly gave way to a disgusting sunken valley.

Declan stood at the edge of the ridge and looked down.

The Ashen Bog looked exactly like the name suggested. It was a massive sprawling wetland filled with dead blackened trees. The ground wasn’t dirt or water. It was thick bubbling gray mud that looked like wet cement.

The worst part was the air.

A thick blanket of neon green fog hung over the entire swamp. It was a toxic miasma.

Even from up on the ridge, the smell was atrocious. It smelled like rotten eggs and battery acid.

[Zone Information]

↳ Entered Area: The Ashen Bog

↳ Warning: Level 10 to 15 Boss Zone

[Environmental Hazards]

↳ Toxic Miasma: HP drains by 10 per second. Stamina regeneration halted.

↳ Deep Mud: Movement speed reduced by 80%.

Kendra immediately started coughing. She covered her mouth with her sleeve and her eyes watered.

"I can’t breathe," she gasped. "My health is already dropping."

Sloane looked at her own interface in a panic.

"My healing skills cost mana. If I have to spam heals just to keep us alive from the air, I’ll be out of mana in five minutes. We literally can’t walk in there."

"Relax," Declan said. He didn’t look worried at all.

He opened his inventory and pulled out the item Sloane had bought for him on the Global Auction House. It was a small and cheap-looking piece of yellow paper with some red runic symbols scribbled on it.

[Item Stats]

↳ Name: Purification Talisman

↳ Tier: Scavenged

↳ Effect: Clears Level 1 toxins from the air in a one-meter radius for 10 minutes.

It was absolute trash. Any normal player walking into the Ashen Bog with this would die in exactly eleven minutes.

"System," Declan said in his mind. "Enhance the Purification Talisman. Twenty times. Do it all at once."

He had over four thousand Origin Points. Spending two hundred points to upgrade a basic utility item was pocket change to him now.

The system reacted instantly.

A blinding pillar of white light shot out from Declan’s hand. The system chimes sounded like a machine gun going off in his head.

[System Enhancement Initiated]

↳ Talisman +1... +5...

↳ Notice: Maximum safety threshold reached. Item shatter imminent.

↳ Talent: Boundless Enhancement activated. Cap removed.

↳ Talisman +6... +10...

↳ Triggering Conceptual Mutation...

The yellow paper changed. It turned into a solid and smooth piece of white jade. The red scribbles vanished and were replaced by elegant glowing silver engravings.

↳ Talisman +15... +20...

↳ Triggering Conceptual Mutation...

The white light suddenly pulsed outward and turned into a soft calming silver glow. The light washed over Declan, Sloane, and Kendra.

The coughing stopped instantly.

Sloane took a deep breath. She blinked in shock. "What the heck. The air smells like peppermint."

Declan looked at the new stats floating above the jade stone in his hand.

[Item Information]

↳ Name: Talisman of Absolute Purity +20

↳ Tier: Scavenged (Double Mutated)

[Item Traits]

↳ Trait 1: Everlasting Ward. The item no longer has a duration limit. It is permanently active while in inventory.

↳ Trait 2: Aura of Cleansing.

↳ Functionality: Creates a permanent 10-meter radius around the user. Inside this radius, all toxic, magical, or conceptual environmental hazards are completely nullified. Furthermore, gravity and terrain friction are normalized to standard flat ground. The user and allies within the radius ignore all terrain debuffs.

"Beautiful," Declan said. He tossed the jade stone into his inventory.

A faint and almost invisible silver dome expanded outward from his body. It created a perfect ten-meter bubble around them. Where the silver dome touched the neon green miasma, the toxic gas simply hissed and vanished.

"We’re good," Declan announced. He stepped off the ridge and walked straight down into the bubbling gray mud.

His +10 Spiked Striders hit the mud. But instead of sinking in up to his knees, his boots rested firmly on the surface.

The Aura of Cleansing completely normalized the terrain physics. To Declan, walking on the deep swamp mud felt exactly like walking on a paved sidewalk.

"Come on," Declan called back to the girls. "Keep up. Stay inside the bubble."

Sloane and Kendra exchanged a look of pure disbelief. They hurried down the ridge and stepped into the silver radius. Kendra tapped her foot on the mud. It was solid under her boots.

"You completely broke the zone mechanics," Sloane muttered as she shook her head. "The developers are going to ban your account."

"Let them try," Declan laughed.

They walked deeper into the Ashen Bog. The silver bubble pushed the green fog away effortlessly. Inside the dome, the air was cool and fresh. Outside the dome, it was a literal nightmare.

After about twenty minutes of walking, they started seeing other players.

It was a pathetic sight. A group of four players wearing heavy Forged-tier armor were crawling through the mud about fifty feet away. They were completely covered in the gray sludge.

They were coughing violently and spitting up blood as the toxic miasma melted their lungs.

"Help," one of the crawling players croaked. He reached a muddy hand toward Declan’s silver bubble. "Please. Need potions."

Declan didn’t even turn his head. He just kept walking at a brisk and comfortable pace.

"Should we help them?" Kendra asked softly. She looked back at the dying players.

"No," Declan said flatly. "They don’t have anything I want. And they made the choice to walk into a Level 15 hazard zone without proper gear. Stupidity gets you deleted here."

Sloane shuddered but didn’t argue. She knew Declan was right. If they stepped outside the bubble to help, they would start taking the damage too.

Some situations change a person’s character, especially when it’s about surviving.

They passed dozens of dead bodies. The mud was littered with dissolving avatars and dropped junk gear.

Most players hadn’t even made it a mile into the swamp before the constant HP drain killed them. The movement speed debuff meant they couldn’t run away once they realized their mistake.

"It’s a slaughterhouse," Sloane observed as she stepped over a floating iron helmet. "Nobody is going to reach the boss at this rate."

"Big guilds will," Declan said. He kept his eyes locked on the horizon. "A guild with a lot of money can buy enough high-level potions to power through the damage. Or they have high-level mages casting area-of-effect wind spells to push the fog back. They will be there."

Sure enough, the deeper they went, the louder the sounds of combat became.

They started hearing the heavy thud of explosions and the sharp crackle of magic. The fog up ahead was flashing with bright red and blue lights.

Declan stopped walking. He held up a hand. The silver bubble stopped with him.

Through the thick green miasma just outside their safe zone, they could see the faint outline of a massive ruined stone temple sinking into the mud.

"We found the spawn point," Declan said.

He narrowed his eyes. The area around the temple wasn’t empty.

There were hundreds of players standing in tight organized formations. They had set up large magical wards that pushed the green fog back to create a massive artificial safe zone.

"Look at the banners," Kendra whispered. She pointed at the massive black and gold flags planted in the mud.

"Sovereign Syndicate," Sloane read the text on the flags. She groaned loudly.

"Declan, that is the biggest pay-to-win guild on the server. They have thousands of members. They buy all the best gear with real-world money on the black market."

"I don’t care about their bank accounts," Declan said as he stared at the massive crowd. "I care about the boss."

He cracked his knuckles. It was time to crash a party.