Bloodlines Online

As soon as Ezekiel spawned into the dungeon he knew that he was in more danger than before.

The air hurt to breathe as he began to take poison damage just from the sheer potency of the toxins in the air.

To start his dungeon crawl off he chose to begin absorbing the ambient poison mana around him to increase his poison affinity.

From his previous runs in the normal mode he had managed to achieve fourty-seven percent affinity and he still had no resistance to the damage but he would use this more dangerous version of the dungeon to improve himself.

His ability to absorb the mana in his surroundings was growing more refined as he practiced and developed his own core as well as his affinities but this action carried risks.

At any time he could be attacked by something hiding withing the ambient mana.

As he absorbed more and more of the poisonous mana that surrounded him he saw his affinity rise by a single point, miniscule but still a massive improvement over his previous efforts.

Soon he began to notice the slight hints of mana approaching him as some creature stalked his unmoving form.

From the way it moved he assumed the creature to be an insect... or something with more than four legs at least.

Something that skittered.

As the creature got within range of his Ojos de Dios skill he got a much more clear view of the mana surrounding the beast, because he could see the way the mana shrouded the creature he knew it was some sort of spider.

’Oh now that’s a very useful feature... so it’s a spider that could probably be compared to a predatory cat in size? I feel bad for any arachnophobes that enter this dungeon.’

When the creature got closer he simply sent a wave of frenzy shards at it to kill the beast.

Since he did not take the forest into account with his actions he inevitably caused another forest fire with those black flames.

’... Eh I’ll let it rage on and see if I need to be more careful next time.’

As he returned to absorbing the ambient mana he noticed that he had finally achieved a single point of poison resistance.

”YES! FINALLY!”

It was only the Novice rank but having one point is better than nothing when it means he can start to properly train the skill.

Gaining the skill and an affinity takes significantly more effort than raising their ranks he had learned.

If anything it almost felt like the amount of effort it took to gain the skill or affinity was as much as trying to raise it past the first rank.

’This dungeon will be extremely popular for people who want to train their poison resistance... I should stream it.’

With this he opened the live function and began his third stream within BLO.

As usual he kept the chat off so he couldn’t get distracted by it but he quickly flew towards the tree tops to find those flying creatures he always slaughtered.

As the forest burned around him he allowed his own armor made from shadowfire to manifest over his body while he waited for the swarms.

When he saw them the first thing he did was launch a number of his frenzied void bombs to create areas of denial for the swarm, this would either force them to move aside to a new route for attack or they would begin to take damage by flying through.

Clearly these creatures were just as stupid as the normal version of the dungeon because they charged through like a bird trying to cross a window.

They slashed through the fire and the shards of mana contained within the clouds began to affect their bodies while they flew for him.

When he saw them approaching despite the damage he prepared to create a defensive cloud of the mana while he launched another volley of his bombs.

Each explosion sent creatures falling to the ground with tattered wings or in multiple pieces entirely.

The creatures still gave the lowest amount of experience the dungeon could provide but the minimum level being six hundred already helped because of the one-hundred and fifty percent bonus provided by the hard mode buff.

He noticed that he was getting a steady stream of experience now as the fore raged through the forest and clearly began to kill some of the sleeping beasts within.

’If this dungeon weren’t so packed with trees and shrubs I don’t think it would have been possible to farm like this, actually with how humid it is I bet even normal fire spells can’t cause this much damage.’

Since he was practically passive in his farming he just searched for more flying creatures to kill and mana to absorb.

He found a dense area of poison mana but before he could land to absorb it he was suddenly struck by something that injured his wings through their barriers.

”What?!”

A large beast like a panther had managed to leap out of a tree and had it’s fangs digging into his armor to try and break it.

The claws were digging in as well while it attempted to gore him like the ambush predator it was.

Ezekiel cast his Frenzied Void Wing spell to create an extra area of damage on the creature as well as trying to jostle it off by flying erratically but it wasn’t long before it was able to bite through the armor and he knew that.

Reparing the damage cost mana and fueling his spells constantly cost mana so his reserves would take a large hit from this fight alone.

His void mana regeneration was also struggling to keep up since he wasn’t able to fully utilize the skill yet.

Eventually Ezekiel had a reckless idea and just allowed himself to fall to the ground back first.

’My armor may not hold but if it means breaking your back too? I’ll take it!’

They crashed through the tree tops with the loud snapping of branches overwhelming the sound of the fire in the distance.

The creature roared with pain and anger against his armor while it finally bit through the shell and deep into his shoulder.

”Agh! Damn you!”

He pulled his wings in and dismissed his armor spell to just rely on his barriers that he coated his wings in when they finally crashed into the ground.

The beast let out a strangled howl of pain as it hit the ground first and he felt himself slam into the beast before rolling across the ground with his wings covering his body.

He heard a loud snap as he felt a blinding pain, when he managed to look around he saw that his wing had broken.

The limb hung limply after snapping like a twig but the pain was passing as he used his life affinity to repair it.

Looking for the beast he saw it dragging itself away while it’s own regeneration has activated, in front of his eyes he saw the creature’s bones moving back in place while he had to sit there with the regeneration only helping the swelling.

’Well that’s bullshit...’

While the beast was distracted he tried to launch a frenzy wing volley but it was so difficult to focus on the spell through his pain.

He finally just launched a basic spear of shadowfire with his wand pointed out at the beast while he tried to stand back up.

Each motion was a massive effort on his aching body but he forced himself to move and try to kill this predator before it’s healing factor brought it back to fighting order.

The beast tried to swipe at him but it’s leg swung limply which caused it to snarl with pain, he began to pour his mana into the dagger-like wand and when he felt it was sufficient he stabbed it right into the throat of the creature.

As the beast died he tried to move back to the previous area but he saw that in it’s final moments the beast had gotten a lucky claw off which slashed his leg.

It was not enough to be life threatening but with the adrenaline wearing off he realized that his tendon was severed and he couldn’t move his foot.

After seeing how thoroughly he had been crippled Ezekiel just sighed and lay down to let the poison damage kill him.

’Might as well get something out of this reset, if I can’t keep farming then I want to get some of my affinity and resistance up.’

He returned to absorbing mana and allowing himself to slowly die to the poison, each passing moment was like breathing through a smog cloud but he powered through until he saw the serpent.

A large cobra hooded thing with fangs as long as his arm had begun slithering down from the tree above him.

”Oh come on!”

~~~~~~~~~~

You have died.

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Check out my latest auxiliary chapter if you’d like to join the discord for this story, I hope to create a community where people will discuss and ass questions that I can be properly motivated by again.

I am so thankful for the support I have received for this novel and I want to find ways to force myself back into the mood to write even when I’m exhausted.