Chapter 7: [7] : A Pragmatic Alliance, The Blood Burst

The silence around the campfire was thick enough to cut with a knife.

Declan casually tossed the wooden stick into the magical orange flames. He had just finished the last bite of the burnt rat meat. It tasted like old boots, but the dull yellow stamina bar at the top of his vision finally ticked back to full green. His health was sitting comfortably at 100 out of 100.

He wiped a smear of mud and hound blood off his chin with the back of his sleeve. He looked across the fire.

Sloane and Kendra were still staring at him.

Kendra’s knuckles were totally white from gripping her wooden bow so hard. Sloane looked like she was trying to solve a math problem that didn’t have an answer.

"You guys are going to catch flies if you keep your mouths open like that," Declan said.

Sloane blinked and finally snapped her jaw shut. "How did you do that?" she asked. Her voice was barely a whisper. "Those were Level 4 monsters. Five of them. They should have ripped you apart in three seconds."

"I have a good gaming chair," Declan replied with a completely straight face. It was an old meme from a lifetime ago, back before the megacorps took his life and threw him in a cell. He didn’t feel like explaining his SSS Talent to them.

Kendra frowned. "What does that even mean? We are in a death game!"

"Look, the how doesn’t matter," Declan said.

He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. The dark leather of his +10 Predator’s Coat creaked slightly. "What matters is that I am very good at killing things. But this place is huge. The fog is thick. I don’t know the map, and my base agility is basically zero right now. I need eyes."

Sloane crossed her arms over her white medic tunic. "Eyes. You mean you want scouts."

"Exactly," Declan nodded. "I need people to find the monsters. You two look pretty weak."

"Hey!" Kendra protested, her face turning red.

"Don’t take it personally. Everyone is weak right now." Declan continued smoothly. "You have a bow, which means you have decent eyesight and range. Sloane has healing magic. That’s a good utility combo. Here is my deal. We form a party. Strictly business."

Sloane narrowed her eyes. "What kind of business?"

"You two scout ahead," Declan explained.

"You find the monster camps, the bosses, the high yield spawn points. You pull the aggro and bring them to me. I kill them."

Kendra looked at the pile of dissolving blue pixels where the hounds used to be. "You want us to act as bait?"

"I prefer the term tactical lures." Declan said. "In exchange, you don’t die. You get a share of the base experience points just for being in the party. Any normal loot that drops like armor, weapons, or junk, we split evenly. You guys can sell it or wear it. I don’t care."

Sloane tilted her head. "That sounds too generous. What’s the catch? Guys who dress like you always have a catch."

"The catch is the Origin Points." Declan said, his tone turning dead serious. "Every single Origin Point that drops from the kills belongs to me. You don’t touch them. You don’t ask for them. I get all of them. Deal?"

Sloane looked at Kendra. Kendra looked back at Sloane.

Origin Points were the main currency of the Grid. They were used to buy basic supplies or upgrade gear. Giving them all up meant they would be broke. But getting a free ride with a guy who could one shot a pack of armored wolves? That meant they would actually survive the night!

"If we say no?" Kendra asked nervously.

Declan pointed his thumb over his shoulder into the pitch black woods. "Then you sit by this fire until it burns out, and the next pack of hounds eats you for breakfast. Your choice."

Sloane let out a heavy sigh and ran a hand through her messy brown hair. "Fine. It’s a deal. You kill the ugly stuff, we get the scraps, you take the points. Better than dying in a mud puddle."

"Smart choice," Declan smiled. "Now, give me a minute. I need to do some crafting."

Declan ignored their confused looks and opened his system interface. He pulled up his inventory and checked his resources. He had 25 points from the boar, spent 10 to upgrade his coat, and looted 15 from killing Garret. That gave him 30 points before the hound fight. The five Level 4 hounds dropped 10 points each.

[Origin Points: 80]

He smiled. He had plenty of fuel for his talent. He pulled the rusty, mutated meat cleaver out of his inventory. It materialized in his hand with a heavy thud. The blade was still a jagged crimson color, and it literally pulsed with a faint, dark red light.

Kendra took a step back when she saw the weapon. "That thing looks cursed," she muttered.

"It’s just misunderstood," Declan said. He mentally selected the cleaver and pulled up the enhancement menu. Pushing it to +10 gave him the Hemorrhage trait, which drained 50 HP a second. It was broken. But why stop there? He had the points.

"System," Declan commanded in his mind.

"Enhance the Chipped Cleaver ten times." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

The system prompts immediately flooded his vision in rapid succession. A blinding white light swallowed the cleaver in his hand.

[Ding! Chipped Cleaver +11.]

[Ding! Chipped Cleaver +12.]

[Ding! Chipped Cleaver +13.]

[Ding! Chipped Cleaver +14.]

[Ding! Chipped Cleaver +15.]

The light grew brighter. The system threw up another bright red warning box, just like before.

[Notice: Item has exceeded maximum safety thresholds. Structural collapse imminent.]

Declan completely ignored it! His SSS Rank talent, Boundless Enhancement, kicked in instantly. The red warning box shattered into tiny digital pieces.

[Talent: Boundless Enhancement activated. Cap removed.]

[Ding! Chipped Cleaver +16.]

[Ding! Chipped Cleaver +17.]

[Ding! Chipped Cleaver +18.]

[Ding! Chipped Cleaver +19.]

Declan felt the handle of the weapon changing in his grip. It was no longer just polished wood. The wood was twisting, turning into a dark, bone like material that molded perfectly to the shape of his fingers.

The blade itself was growing longer and wider.

[Ding! Chipped Cleaver has reached +20.]

[Triggering Conceptual Mutation...]

A shockwave of dark, bloody red light pulsed out from the weapon. It blew the rain away from Declan in a perfect circle. Sloane and Kendra covered their faces as the sudden gust of wind hit them.

When the light faded, Declan looked at his weapon. It didn’t even look like a cleaver anymore. It looked like a brutal, serrated machete forged in hell. The metal was pitch black, but the jagged edge glowed with a liquid, moving crimson energy. It looked wet.

The new stat screen popped up.

[Name: Carnage Cleaver +20]

↳ Tier: Scavenged Double Mutated

↳ Damage: 45 to 60

↳ Trait 1: Hemorrhage. 100 percent chance to cause uncontrollable bleeding. Drains 50 HP per second for 10 seconds.

↳ Trait 2 Unlocked: Blood Burst. Any active bleed stacks applied by this weapon can be manually detonated by the user snapping their fingers. Detonation instantly consumes the remaining bleed duration, dealing the total remaining damage instantly as internal AoE damage.

Declan read the text. He read it a second time. A massive grin spread across his face.

If he hit a monster, they bled for 10 seconds, taking 50 damage a second. That was 500 damage over time.

With Blood Burst, if he hit a monster and instantly snapped his fingers, the system would immediately apply all 500 damage at once. From the inside.

"This game is so stupid," Declan laughed out loud. "I love it."

"What did you just do?" Sloane asked. She was staring at the new weapon. "That sword just changed shape. How did you do that without an anvil or a blacksmith NPC?"

"Trade secret," Declan said. He rested the flat of the heavy blade against his shoulder. "Are you two ready to work? I want to test this thing out."

Kendra grabbed her bow and swallowed hard. "Where are we going?"

"Deeper into the zone." Declan pointed into the dark fog. "Find me a target. Something big."

After a while, The trio left the warmth of the campfire. The rain immediately soaked Sloane and Kendra, but Declan was perfectly dry under his mutated coat. The water just slid right off the black fabric.

They walked for about ten minutes through the twisting, dead trees. The mud squelched under their boots. Kendra was walking a few yards ahead, her eyes scanning the darkness.

Suddenly, she held up a fist. It was a basic military signal to stop. Declan and Sloane froze.

Kendra slowly pointed to a large, rocky clearing up ahead. "There," she whispered. "By the rocks."

Declan squinted through the fog. A massive, bloated creature was digging through a pile of garbage. It looked like a cross between a toad and a bear. It had thick, warty skin and massive claws.

[Toxic Mire Bear]

↳ Level: 5

↳ HP: 600 / 600

"Level 5," Sloane whispered, her voice shaking. "Declan, that thing is a mini boss. We shouldn’t mess with it. It probably has poison attacks."

"Perfect," Declan said. "Unfortunate for it."

He stepped out from behind the trees. He didn’t bother using his Shadow Meld invisibility. He just walked right out into the open.

The Mire Bear heard his footsteps. It turned around, dropping a half eaten deer carcass from its mouth. It let out a roar that shook the puddles on the ground. Green toxic drool dripped from its jaws.

"Hey ugly," Declan called out.

The bear charged. It was surprisingly fast for its size. The ground trembled under its heavy footfalls.

Declan stood completely still. He held the Carnage Cleaver down by his side. The bear raised a massive, clawed paw to crush him into the dirt.

Right as the paw came down, Declan sidestepped. The bear’s claws dug into the mud right next to his boots. Declan brought the cleaver up in a fast, upward slash.

Schwing!

The crimson blade sliced cleanly across the bear’s thick forearm. It was a shallow cut, just like the ones he gave the hounds.

[Trait Activated: Hemorrhage]

Dark blood sprayed out of the bear’s arm.

The creature roared in pain and pulled its arm back. Its health bar started to drop rapidly. 50 HP down. Then another 50.

But Declan didn’t wait for it to bleed out. He took three steps backward, putting distance between himself and the angry monster.

He raised his left hand in the air.

He snapped his fingers.

SNAP.

The sound echoed sharply in the quiet forest.

Instantly, the system calculated the remaining bleed damage. 400 damage left on the timer.

The Blood Burst trait activated.

The Mire Bear froze. Its eyes bulged out of its head. The creature let out a choked, gurgling sound.

BOOM!

The bear violently exploded from the inside out! A massive shockwave of dark blood and shredded meat blasted outward in a ten foot radius. Chunks of warty flesh rained down on the mud.

The monster’s upper half was completely gone, vaporized by the internal pressure. The lower half of the body simply collapsed into the dirt.

[Toxic Mire Bear Level 5 Killed!]

[Experience Points Gained: 500]

[Level Up!]

[You are now Level 5.]

Declan stood calmly just outside the blast zone. Not a single drop of blood landed on his coat.

He turned his head to look at his new scouts.

Sloane had fallen on her butt in the mud.

Kendra dropped her bow again. They were both staring at the smoking crater where the bear used to be.

Declan smiled. "So. Who wants to find the next one?"