Technomancer: Birth of a Goddess

Chapter 69 – The Curse of Hunger

Emily kicks away from the shore, swimming through the glittering blue water and watching with begrudging wonder as the fog just below swirls around her, reaching out of the water in creeping tendrils as she disturbs the surface. She swims out to roughly the centre of the lake, casting infra-sight and checking below for enemies.

She treads water for a few seconds, glancing around for a hint of warm colour under the water but finding nothing.

Here goes.

Taking a deep breath, she releases infra-sight and plunges down, descending below the thin layer of fog and entering the darkness below. She casts light as she swims, creating a white orb that pushes back against the darkness surrounding her, but struggles to have much effect, even with the extra mana Emily pours into the spell. After a few seconds, she gives up and accepts only having a few metres of visibility.

She descends lower and lower, and the temperature of the water drops from refreshing to bone-chilling as she nears the bottom. She pauses as the lakebed comes into view, decorated by dull white bones.

I think I found Rocco’s teammates.

She swims down to the bones, inspecting the mismatched limbs scattered about. She tries to move on, but out of the corner of her eye, she spots a flicker of movement, so she pauses and looks around. Seeing nothing, she quickly casts infra-sight again, checking for a warm-blooded enemy but finding nothing.

Weird, I definitely saw something move.

She turns to leave, but once again sees motion out of the corner of her eye. This time, she’s certain one of the skeletons was moving.

They are dead. Right?

She goes back to inspect a few bones. But, even with a full magical scan, she doesn’t find anything. She feels pressure build in her chest from the lack of breath, so she shakes the distraction away and turns to continue.

Moving on, she follows a natural depression towards the lowest point of the lake. On the way, she finds a few human skulls resting on the bed, staring up at the world above that they’ll never see again. Darkness fills their eye sockets unnaturally and, even when Emily aims her light in, the darkness clings, as if fused to the bones.

The further she follows the lakebed down, the more the water around her, within her small haven of light, shifts from dark blue to a faint red. And the further she descends, the more certain she is that the skulls are watching her. The mounting pressure in her chest builds, so Emily makes a split-second decision after spotting motion at the edge of her vision again.

I can’t go further. I need to surface.

She turns upwards, making a break for the surface. As she rises through the dark water, the chill seeping through to her bones slowly fades and, when she surfaces, gasping for breath, the chill has all but vanished.

“That water’s deep. Maybe I should take a break and try again tomorrow,” she mutters before freezing, breaking her rhythm and almost sinking under the water again.

Why did I give up so quickly? And why am I suddenly happy to hang around in this cave? I’m following the same path as Oscar.

The thought worries Emily, bringing a scowl to her face as she gazes down into the depths below.

I should definitely be able to hold my breath for longer. And why did I keep seeing motion? I need to commit to going further and ignore all distractions.

“Hey, Emily. You okay?” Dante shouts at her from the shore.

“Yeah, just catching my breath!” she yells back, keeping her eyes on the water as she steels her resolve.

She reaches under the water, taking The Clock out of its pouch and holding it firmly in her hand. Taking a deep breath and calming her heart, she gives The Clock one last squeeze for reassurance before diving back down into the water.

She slowly kicks down through the darkness, descending into the unsettling unknown below. Once again, as she approaches the bottom of the lake, she starts seeing flickers of motion at the edge of her vision. Ignoring them, she ploughs onwards, reaching the point where the water shifts to red.

The pressure in her chest starts growing again, as if she needs to breath, but she recognises it as false and pushes through. Soon, she reaches the deepest point in the lake and sees a small, head-sized pitch-black hole surrounded by thick, swirling red.

How ominous.

She approaches the hole, attempting, unsuccessfully, to shine light into it.

Damn. I can’t see in, but I can feel it alright. It’s powerful. That’s got to be the source of the curse. All these bones and blood just scream cursed.

She hovers over the hole for a few seconds, the pressure in her chest hurting, and a small voice in the back of her mind screaming for her to turn back.

Ah, what the hell. If I lose my arm I can just reset.

She shoves her arm into the hole, reaching down until her shoulder presses against the lakebed, but she still doesn’t find an end to it. She grasps around in the dark, searching for any signs of the curse’s source. Then just as she’s about to listen to the voice and pull out, something presses into her palm. A frigid chill bites her hand, and a system notification appears in her vision.

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Mental attack spell detected!

Resisting…

Mental attack successfully resisted!

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Thought so. It counts as a mental attack. No wonder I wasn’t affected as much as the others.

She tightens her grip on The Clock, just in case the attack gets worse, and pulls her arm out of the hole. She gets an odd feeling of weakness as she pulls it out, as if the unknown object is sapping her strength.

Freeing it from the oppressive darkness, she opens her hand and gazes at her find. It’s a large, two-inch-long jagged white tooth with tiny black and red channels of cracks running its length. The tooth seems to ooze malevolent intent, sending Emily’s instincts into overdrive and emitting a chill so cold she starts to shiver.

The bloody water around her seems drawn towards the fang, slowly changing the centre point of its swirling motion to her palm. The voice in the back of her mind starts telling her to let go and leave, but she ignores it. She shuts her hand tight and, with no reason left to stay, swims for the surface, leaving behind the bloody water that tries to follow.

After breaking the surface and gasping in fresh air, Emily treads water in place and raises the tooth out of the water to get a better look. The moment she opens her hand again, the shadows on the ceiling seem to stretch towards her, trying to reclaim the strange object. With a frown, she calls out to the system in her mind, pulling up an information window.

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[Mensacus]

[Rank:] D

[Stats:] -4 int

[Description:] A shard of the abyss given form, imbued with the curse of hunger.

[Effect:] Converts death into corrupted mana that drives nearby organisms to the depths of hunger.

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Jackpot! It really was the source of the curse. I’m taking this for myself! They don’t know anything about it. If I hide it, they’ll never know.

She stares at the system window with a satisfied grin that slowly fades into a slight scowl.

Hmm, minus intelligence. No wonder holding it makes me feel weaker. How am I supposed to sneak it out of here if it makes it harder to fight. I guess I can probably make do with weaker spells. As long as we don’t run into another third circle beast, I’ll be fine. The main problem will be the mental influence. It’s starting to annoy me, and they’ll struggle to function if it follows us.

She reaches up with her other hand, rubbing her head as the small voice in the back of her mind still screams for her to release the Mensacus.

I need some way of sealing this if I’m gonna take it back. There’s some black iron in our spatial storages which may help if leaking corrupted mana is the issue, but I need to get it there unnoticed.

She clasps the Mensacus between both hands and forms a bubble of mana around it. The chill reduces slightly, and Emily feels the draining feeling of weakness reduce but not disappear. The voice gets a bit quieter, so she glances at her attributes to check.

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[Attributes:] Strength 12 (13), Dexterity 34 (35), Agility 26 (27), Vitality 13 (16), Intelligence 60 (58)

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The reduced values as a result of her damaged gear makes her frown, but the reduction in intelligence is promising.

Good, it’s half the expected reduction. Hopefully the others won’t feel it now.

She shrinks the bubble of mana as small as possible, moving the Mensacus to one hand and swimming back towards her groupmates. Emily arrives at the shore and pulls herself onto dry land again as Ivor questions her.

“Did you find anything?”

“Yeah. There was a strange skull at the bottom of the lake leaking black mana. I destroyed it, so hopefully that will stop the groglers,” Emily lies.

“Well done,” Ivor signs as Oscar walks up behind him.

“We’ve finished gathering everything valuable on this side, so we’re going to move on,” he announces. “I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not set up camp next to the mad writing on the wall.”

Emily raises a brow at his discomfort.

“Fair point. What’s the plan from now on by the way?” she probes.

“I swear you’ve asked me this already,” he responds with a smirk. “We’re going to set up camp here for the night and head back tomorrow.”

“Good. I can’t believe you wanted to stay here for a week.”

“What do you mean? I never said that. Why would I want to stay here for a week,” Oscar says confusedly, glancing at the bodies surrounding the lake. “This place gives me the creeps.”

Huh. He doesn’t seem to remember what he said under the curse’s influence.

Oscar turns and moves away, directing members of the group to head around the lake to continue their harvest while Emily puts her shoes and robes back on, drying herself with a quick cast of cleanse. She uses one core to maintain the mana barrier around the Mensacus the whole time, slowly draining her mana.

She joins the rest of the group, helping them gather resources while kicking every grogler corpse into the lake to erase the gruesome display. As she places crystals into the storage bags, she takes out and pockets a claw of black iron.

Eventually, the light fades from the cavern and they set up the sound barrier and their sleeping bags, settling down for the night. Emily sits alone in the dark using earthen detection to monitor the breathing of her groupmates. It’s an hour before the last of them fall asleep.

Finally.

She stands up, walking away from the barrier and sitting down thirty metres away from the group, just to be safe. She places the Mensacus down next to her. The moment her hand leaves the mana bubble, it bursts, releasing the fang’s malevolent aura into the cavern. However, at the same time, she feels her strength return to normal, her mana flowing smoothly and unhindered.

Interesting.

She tests lowering her hand back down towards the cursed tooth, finding her intelligence reducing whenever she gets within a few inches of it.

The debuff applies while I’m close to it, not just when I’m touching it.

Noting the oddity, she takes out the black iron. Casting burning hands, she heats the four inch long claw in her palms and starts moulding it into shape, flattening it. She dismisses the spell and picks up the Mensacus, places it in the centre of the flat plate, and recasts burning hands. Gently, she presses the metal closed around the tooth, melting it together and sealing the cursed object away.

The moment the last gap is closed, the chill from the Mensacus reduces to a bearable irritant. The voice in her head vanishes, freeing her from the worst of the burden on her mind.

With a glance at her attributes, Emily notes the partial success.

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[Attributes:] Strength 12 (16), Dexterity 34 (35), Agility 26 (28), Vitality 13 (16), Intelligence 60 (59)

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It’s not perfect, but it should hold until I get back and research proper seals.

She happily drops the partially-sealed cursed tooth into a pouch on her belt and returns to her watch. Time slips by, and soon Ivor relieves Emily of her duty, so she collapses on top of a sleeping bag to rest.

As she lies still, about to enter meditation, a question creeps into her mind.

Where did the Mensacus come from?

Her eyes snap open, and she turns her head towards the lake, sitting beyond her vision in the surrounding darkness.

Where did that hole lead?

She opens her system notifications again, reading over the cursed tooth’s description.

A shard of the abyss given form. The abyss?

She looks back further through her notifications, at the quest she received upon arrival at The Crystal Waters.

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[The Abyss: Everything Flows To]

[Rank:] D

[Description:] You’ve reached the magical underbelly of The Glade, The Crystal Waters. Now discover where The Waters end.

Requirements:

-Find the destination of The Crystal Waters' flow (Not Complete)

Rewards:

-Skill: Flow (passive)

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Does that mean that hole leads where I need to go? It’s too small for me to swim through. I’ll have to try running deeper into the tunnels alone tomorrow. But if I can’t reach it now, I know the Mensacus is related to it somehow, so, maybe if I study it, I’ll get some ideas about what this Abyss is in advance.

Emily shuts her eyes and relaxes, growing excited for the return to Chroni, and falling into steady meditation.