Chapter 164

Chapter 162 – The Third Rune – 3

One side of the wall crumbled, and from within, monsters tumbled out. They were all mobs you would typically see in the early areas. It felt as though they were urging me to openly test the runes’ performance.

Unless you have Rune Release Magic, by the time you arrive here, your rune slots are usually filled, making it difficult to test anything even if you wanted to.

I changed the properties of the Wingless Nightmare. The blade began to emit a blue light. Since dark magic is quite regular as magic, it naturally received the property amplification effect of the Wingless Nightmare.

I gripped my weapon in my right hand again. And with a slight bend of my left hand’s fingers, I prepared to use the dark magic I just learned from Nix.

As I concentrated my mind, I felt the unique sensation of mana pouring out, along with the sensation of my health depleting. It was similar to when I used the Blood-Stained Sword’s special ability.

As the hierarchy of dark magic increases, the health cost also increases, meaning, with a measly stat of 1, my pathetic health could easily drop me to a near-death state from just one spell.

But now, health costs are the least of my concerns. I got the Bloodsucking Impulse Rune.

Once I completed my preparation, black flames, the same color as Nix’s eyes, began to swirl in my left palm. It was a peculiar flame that seemed to absorb light rather than emit it.

“Hehe, you’re doing great.”

Nix, seeing this version of me, chuckled nervously.

I let Nix’s words slide as I brought my left hand up just above the cross-guard of my sword. Then, I thrust upward as if pulling the sword from its sheath.

Fwoosh! The flames blossomed in my hand and transferred to the Wingless Nightmare. As the black flames flickered, a mirage was created. The view beyond it distorted the monsters’ appearance.

This is it, one of the final builds for melee characters under the Darkest Light Mod – the ‘Burning Black Flame’ enchant.

I gripped the flickering black flames of the Wingless Nightmare with both hands. Maybe because it was magic I cast, the flames weren’t hot at all.

The monsters lumbered towards me. They looked rough on the outside, but in accordance with the Rune Dungeon’s position, they were reinforced. I’d probably need to land 2-3 basic hits to take one down.

I approached the nearest monster. It let out a strange yowl and charged at me.

—THWACK!

A crisp sound rang out as the creature’s right arm, which swung at me, flew back. There was no time for it to recover from the stun. I swung my sword.

The Wingless Nightmare skimmed horizontally across the monster’s chest, and where the blade passed, black flames ignited, burning flesh and rotting its insides.

Following up, my blade traced a trajectory from the lower left to the upper right, slicing through its head. Its leg buckled heavily.

“Just as I thought.”

As the monster staggered and was about to fall backward, a bright red dot appeared in the center of its chest. I couldn’t tell why, but it resembled a UI from the game. It was probably a dot visible only to me.

I instinctively grasped the monster’s head, stabbing the Wingless Nightmare deep into its throat just before the red dot vanished.

Immediately, I felt the recovery sensation similar to drinking a health recovery potion when my health is low. The Bloodsucking Impulse Rune had activated properly.

I yanked the sword from its throat and discarded the corpse carelessly. Before long, the monster’s body was enveloped in the black flames and turned to ash.

“Wow….”

From behind, Nix clapped and marveled. I felt a sudden urge to be bashful and considered telling her to stop, but I let it be, as she seemed like she’d sulk otherwise.

I charged at the next monster. I deflected its swung hand, just like before, and swiftly swung my sword, landing two basic hits.

Again, I saw a bright red dot in the center of its body. Grabbing its head with one hand, I stabbed the sword into its neck, feeling like I was drinking another health potion.

I retracted the Wingless Nightmare and searched for my next target. Among the monsters that popped out, there was surely one that attacks from a distance.

“Ah, there it is.”

I spotted a monster loading a bow not far away and prepared to cast yet another dark magic.

Just for practice, this was the first dark magic Nix had taught me.

Once I wrapped up my preparation in my mind, my left hand became abruptly heavy, as if a weight was added, before lightening again shortly after. I stretched my left hand out before me.

—Swoosh!

The arrow transformed into a handful of something black the moment it touched my left hand. The black substance was immediately sucked into my hand. Confirming that the absorption was complete, I pulled my left arm back and bent my elbow.

It was a success.

Without the Bloodsucking Impulse Rune, using the Burning Black Flame and this magic would’ve drained my health completely the moment I cast it, landing me dead. But now, I was perfectly fine.

“Hmm, can’t the delay be reduced?”

I glanced down at my left hand.

Though I had practiced this magic for three whole days, it seemed impossible to reduce this spell’s startup and recovery time. I wondered if I could interrupt the motion midway, but that didn’t work out either.

“Wow…!”

From behind came an even more enthusiastic round of applause. I buried the embarrassing feelings deep down and held it in.

After killing two more mobs to restore my health, I ignored the rest and slipped out. Nix was looking at me with eyes shining more than usual.

“The rest is up to you, Nix.”

“Hehe, okay.”

Nix, without hesitation, conjured a large black fireball on her palm and swiftly tossed it at the remaining mobs. The black fireball struck directly above the remaining monsters’ heads.

The mobs hit dead center by the black flames evaporated without a trace.

“Good job.”

I ruffled Nix’s hair. Nix beamed with a smile, and I returned a satisfied grin. The performance test of the Bloodsucking Impulse was over.

The ‘Bloodsucking Impulse’ rune, true to its name, allows you to recover health upon defeating enemies.

The runes indicate a red dot above the enemy when you deplete their health. After the dot appears, attacking that enemy executes a finishing move and restores the player’s health.

There are dozens of types of finishing moves. Each type of mob has a dedicated finishing move, making the number significantly large.

Even for bosses, aside from those made as palette swaps, each has a unique finishing move assigned. This was also one of the elements that encouraged repeat playthroughs.

“But it wasn’t too useful.”

From the explanation, it seems essential, but the usage rate of Bloodsucking Impulse in real combat was abysmally low. It was used only during casual play by hardcore players with nothing better to do.

That’s because the recovery amount is fixed at just 50 regardless of the enemy taken down.

Even with a health stat of 30, you’d exceed 1500 HP, so what good is recovering a measly 50 HP? Especially with knights, famously beginner-friendly with low past profiles, a health stat of 30 is genuinely easy to achieve.

“But that’s not the case now.”

With a past profile of health stat 1, the starting health of the Forsaken is only 100.

However, because of this, I was a character who could make the best use of the HP 50 recovery from Bloodsucking Impulse. No matter how much health I lost, just killing two of them would restore me to full health.

This ‘Bloodsucking Impulse’ rune, combined with the Burning Black Flame enchant, constituted the ultimate build for melee characters in Darkest Light Mod. A combination that balances stability and damage.

By the way, it’s a build entirely possible in vanilla as well.

There’s no reason to play a tightrope act with a health stat of 1 when it could be better to invest more stats to withstand a few hits.

In Darkest Light, regardless of how much you increase your health stat, you usually die in one hit, so there was no need to create such a peculiar build.

“Now I just need one more rune.”

If I obtain just one more rune, I can eliminate the mana cost when using dark magic, creating endless power.

Once that happens, I won’t need any potions at all in mob battles. Why would I when recovery potions are littered around?

It’ll be impossible in boss battles where I can’t recover health by defeating enemies, but in that case, I could just use solar eclipses or other elemental enchants!

“Heheh…”

I paused my thoughts at the sound of a strange laugh. Looking down, I found Nix, who was gradually melting away, as I absentmindedly continued to pet her head, considering the future.

I pulled my hand away from her head. Nix, just shy of slumping into a puddle, finally regained her composure.

“A-amazing! Really, truly amazing!”

As soon as Nix regained her wits, her eyes sparkled mischievously as she showered me with compliments. Her impressive chest swayed wildly.

“What’s amazing?”

“That magic! The one you just used. How do you do it so well? Hehe. The magic I created, I can’t use properly. I tried, but I got absolutely pummeled and had to give up.”

“Oh, you mean ‘Ash to Ash’?”

“Yes. Hehe.”

Nix was referring to the magic named ‘Ash to Ash.’ This was the spell I used to absorb the arrow.

It absorbs any projectile without questioning its type and amplifies the next dark magic’s power by up to 50%, in proportion to the damage of the absorbed projectile.

Enchant-type magic like Burning Black Flame also increases the damage given to weapons, and if a truly powerful attack spell is used, it’s common for the damage’s digit place to change with just a single amplification.

Since it absorbs projectiles automatically and amplifies the power upon returning, it’s no wonder it’s called a cheat spell.

Provided you can use it properly, that is.

“I’ve lost track of how many hours I’ve invested just practicing this.”

This spell is really a nightmare when it comes to timing.

The startup delay is painfully long, and the recovery delay is agonizing too. There’s no super armor or invincible state granted during that time, and you have a very brief window to absorb projectiles.

After someone analyzed the data, it turns out the projectile absorption lasts just 0.35 seconds. Meaning, I must come into contact with the projectile within that 0.35 seconds.

At least the hitbox is relatively large, but it’s not wide front and back; it’s wider sideways, so even being slightly off in timing could lead to many “Why didn’t that work?” moments.

Plus, during that time, it only works forward, so I can’t block projectiles coming from the side or back. There are reasons why something doesn’t get used properly.

“Well, if I adjust, there’s no more absurd technique.”

Of course, I was an exception. Some hardcore players can time their absorbs even while goofing off, using the spell as their baseline technique. I was one of those hardcore players.

While the startup and recovery annoy me a little, I’ve memorized what kind of attack to trigger at what moment, so there’s no reason not to utilize it.

Since my health consumption can now be replenished with runes.

“It’s easy! Just practice!”

“Even if I practice, I can’t do it. Hehehe…”

Nix wiggled her fingers in front of her chest.

It wasn’t an incorrect statement. She just needed to practice a bit more. After dying countless times practicing in the game, reaching this level took me dozens of hours, so here, it could take more like ten years.

“So, we just need to return to the city, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right. I’ll set the teleport coordinates to the Rune Dungeon for now, but I’m sorry, this time you’ll need to wait here alone. I’ll be back quickly with the others.”

“Hehe, that’s fine. Take your time coming back. I’m used to waiting alone.”

Having already memorized the coordinates since I’d been here before, before I could get out a map, the black magic circle enveloped both me and Nix. With the familiar feeling of floating, my feet lifted off the ground.

‘Nothing will happen, right?’

Having been here for just a few hours, there’s no way something would break out in such a short time.