VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 109: The Second Step

With one final breath out, which sparkled in the air as if her lungs were filled with glitter, Belladonna had finally completed reforming her source with purer mana.

That was her path. Not to have multiple wells to take from, but to have a singular well of purer and purer fuel, all of which would constantly feed into her body and increase her abilities.

As if to announce its presence in her body the source pulsed and flooded her system with its new fuel. Her muscles bulged underneath her skin and her heart raced for a moment as she was filled with a strange sense of ecstasy.

To make room for the new fuel source, the old had to be purged. She had removed the impurities from her source, but there still remained some in her body.

The old mana was forced to the surface of her skin by the pulse of the new, until pure white smoke started to pour from her skin. Steam curled from her like pungent sweat before it dispersed into the air, re-joining the ambient mana of the world.

Opening her eyes, Belladonna blinked softly a few times. The kaleidoscope of colours had returned, just like the last time. However this time she had more control over it. The rune she had previously used had disappeared when she died in the Trail of the Gatekeeper.

Yet she did not worry, as that had always been a crutch in the first place.

Instead Belladonna focused, controlling the natural mana flow in her eyes and simply turned it down, like turning down the volume on a speaker. It truly was as simple as that, at least it was now that she had experience.

Previously it still would have been like turning down a dial, but it was more akin to searching through hundreds of dials while you are wearing wireless headphones blasting music into your ears. An impossible task made worse by the painful distraction.

When she slowly got to her feet, placing a hand on the tree behind her for support, Belladonna stumbled slightly as the wood cracked beneath her grip. As if the change in her grip strength wasn’t evidence enough of her change, Belladonna summoned her status screen and briefly looked over it.

------------------------------------

[Status: Healthy

Name: Belladonna Walachia

Race: Fell-spawn (Sanguine Maiden)

Class: Glyphborne Level 27

Innate Talent: Polaris

Constitution: Source Devouring

Attributes:-

Strength(STR): 140 (+40)

Agility(AGI): 120

Vitality(VIT): 130 (+30)

Perception(PER): 30

Resistance(RES): 30

Esoterica(EST): 65

Attribute Points: 0

Skills:-

Adept Butchery, Mana Sense, Basic Mana Manipulation, Infusion, Shadow Veil, Blood Frenzy (Partial Transformation), Beguiling Eyes]

------------------------------------

Much to her excitement, all of her stats had increased. Even her dump stats of Perception and Resistance had naturally increased as they were dragged along like the introvert at a party. Not wanting to be there, yet still being forced to participate nonetheless.

Her leg whipped into the air as she performed a practiced kick, before she quickly shifted into a punch and then another kick, and even more from there as she performed a series of different moves, from simple Kata’s to the flips and tricks she had always wanted to do, as Belladonna got used to her new increased strength and agility.

Once she was fully satisfied, and left behind a few half destroyed trees that would only further spur the rumours of a strange roaming world boss, Belladonna finally continued on her way towards the ruined village.

***

She could smell Baruk village before she could see it. It was the stench of rot, both of flesh and wood, that filled the air. Not even the smell of long dried blood staining everywhere she looked could make this village even approach appealing to Belladonna’s nose - which had unfortunately been made better with her recent Perception increase. The border of the village was previously set by a defensive wall, but said wall had been completely destroyed.

Holes had been smashed through the wall from the outside, shards of broken wood still scattered across the ground painted the image of the carnage that had led to the fall of this town. Finding such small remnants of wood scattered on the ground was easy, for even the vegetation refused to grow here.

The grass that still lingered was utterly withered and grey, as if the life had been drained out of it in a single second, leaving just the ashen remnants that crumbled underneath her boot with every step.

However for what was supposed to be a ghost town, it was more popular than one would expect and yet it still lived up to be entirely true to that name.

Corpses, the one responsible for the putrid and rotten stench, stumbled back and forth within the bounds of the village. Their milky white eyes staring blankly at the world before them, their mouths slack jawed as they simply existed in endless hunger.

Constantly roaming back and forth with the need to feed, but no intelligence to go and find it. The few that were satiating their hunger did so on the few animals, or unfortunate adventurers, who were unlucky enough to stumble across their path.

When these creatures did feed, they did so with fervour and savagery, tearing the meat apart with their bear hands and ripping into it with blackened, rotten teeth. Belladonna could even see one of these undead with it’s stomach sliced open, so that every mouthful of meat that it gobbled down simply slid down its gullet and then tumbled out of the wound.

All for the undead to simply pick it up again and stuff it down its gullet once more in an endless cycle.

Alongside these undead drifted spirits. Their forms pure white, looking as if they were literally made out of smoke and illusions, as the edges of their form curled off into the same white smoke that had poured off of Belladonna.

These phantoms did not wander, they did not feast. They simply floated in place, staring at the ground in misery with faces twisted to show their last moments of torturous pain. Forever.