Chương 364: Chapter 350

The blade of his dagger shone with silver-black light as the void mana suffused it, yet Sam could feel it still drawing more mana from him, collecting it beyond the physical plane. The small ruby set in the pommel had turned black, its surface no longer reflecting light but swallowing it, an unfathomable darkness that reminded him of the space around the Void Tower. That was when he remembered that it was a ritual weapon, one meant to gather and direct power rather than simply cut.

And he had just used it to disrupt a blood ritual. The realization came quickly, but not quickly enough to matter. The dagger sank into the trunk with a wet, wet sound. Ignoring the way the surface twisted under the blade, nothing like wood and far too alive for comfort, he wrenched it deeper and twisted hard, making sure to end whatever passed for life within it. Mana surged in response, filling the basement in a dense, shifting current that pressed against his skin.

It swirled around him and the ruined space, drawn inevitably toward the dagger in his hand, which now acted as a focal point for everything gathering there. He watched as void mana seeped into the trunk, the reddish-brown surface darkening as black spread across it in uneven veins, consuming it like mold spreading in fast-forward. The change was rapid and thorough, the structure of the plant seeming to fail all at once as the color drained away and its form withered.

Within seconds, the entire trunk shriveled and collapsed inward with a brittle crack, breaking apart into fine dust that spilled across the broken floor. The transformation did not stop there, racing along the vines growing from it as if carried by an unseen current, turning them black in turn before they disintegrated and vanished upward through the ceiling. It did not take much imagination to understand what was happening beyond his sight.

The rest of the growth would be collapsing in the same way, and with it the oppressive presence of blood magic that had weighed on the entire neighborhood. As the last of the physical matter settled into a loose pile of dust, Sam felt the mana shift again. The chaotic movement stilled, then reversed, the lingering blood magic gathering inward as if drawn into a drain, forming a single, dense point where the trunk had once stood before flowing toward the ritual dagger in his hand.

His body locked in place, not by his own will, but as if the system itself had decided he should witness the result. Sam could only watch as the mana streamed in long, fluid ribbons into the pommel. The black ruby changed as it absorbed the influx, losing any sense of solidity and becoming something closer to an absence than an object. It retained its rough shape, but its edges blurred and wavered, and looking into it felt like staring into a depth that had no end.

The sensation brought back the memory of the Void Tower, of the endless abyss that surrounded it, vast and indifferent. As more mana poured into the transformed gem, the heavy, clinging presence of blood magic in the air faded, replaced by the quiet, unsettling awareness of just how much power was being compressed into something so small. Life energy was truly powerful. Only when the flow finally slowed and stopped did control return to him.

Sam drew in a deep breath without realizing he had been holding it, tension draining from his body as a large notification screen appeared in front of him. [Congratulations on accidentally creating a ritual!] [Your Ritual Dagger has absorbed all the accumulated mana!] [Ritual Dagger has transformed into Hollow Dagger!] [Hollow Dagger: A dagger used to complete a ritual. It has absorbed an unreal amount of mana, becoming a hole in the world itself. Wielding it may be dangerous.] Sam stared at the weapon in his hand as flakes of rust loosened and fell away from the jagged blade, revealing a smooth, obsidian-colored metal beneath that seemed to drink in the dim light of the basement. After a moment, he carefully stored it in his inventory, choosing not to dwell on what it implied. The silence that followed felt different from before, no longer oppressive but hollow, as if something vast had been removed.

He stood there for a few seconds, letting everything settle in his mind before glancing around the half-destroyed basement and shaking his head.

"Nobody is going to believe me…" Sam climbed the steps at a steady pace, letting the tension from the fight slowly drain from his body as his chat messages continued to fill with updates about the situation outside. Apparently, the demonic grass had already been handled by Dan and his team, leaving the area around Deepanchor stripped bare – more desert than a grassy plain. Tim and the people he had rallied were still dealing with scattered pockets of resistance, but even those fights were winding down.

The city remained under emergency conditions, yet the worst of it seemed to be over. Guards were gathering, trying to restore peace, while the players from the guild roamed the streets putting down whoever decided to act out. Reaching the top of the stairs, Sam moved carefully across the uneven ground. The floor was riddled with holes where the vines had been moments ago, and the building around him creaked and groaned as it adjusted to the sudden loss of support.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Without the unnatural reinforcement of blood magic, the structure felt fragile, as if it could give way at any moment. Not wanting to test how much time the building had left, he made his way out quickly and stepped into the open air. For the first time in what felt like hours, he saw the sky unobstructed. He pulled off his mask and goggles, letting the cool air hit his face.

Traces of dark red cloud still lingered in the distance, but the wind coming in from the ocean was steadily pushing them away, carrying with it the clean, familiar scent of salt. Letting out a slow breath, he turned toward the harbor. Even from where he stood, the massive carcasses of the fallen krakens were visible, looming shapes against the broken skyline. By the time he arrived a few minutes later, the urgency had fully faded, leaving only a heavy, quiet devastation behind.

Now that he was no longer rushing from one crisis to the next, he could take in the state of the city. Buildings stood half-ruined, missing chunks of their structure or webbed with deep cracks that promised collapse if stressed further. The streets were buried under debris, some of it blasted apart, some dragged inland by the enormous waves the sea monsters had brought with them.

Seaweed clung to broken rafters, dead fish lay scattered and beginning to rot, and here and there, he spotted hardier sea creatures stranded far from the water. Some had already begun to move, awkwardly crawling or dragging themselves back toward the ocean, driven by instinct. One sight in particular made him pause. An octopus-like creature clung to the back of a determined turtle with a scar cutting across one eye, the pair inching forward together with surprising coordination.

It was strange enough that Sam simply watched for a moment before stepping in to clear a few larger pieces of debris from their path. Once the way was open, he gave them a small nod of respect and continued on. The octopus raised a limb in what looked very much like a salute as they resumed their slow journey.

"What a weird game…" he muttered under his breath as he finally reached the harbor proper. Surprisingly, no one stopped him or called out to him along the way, leaving him alone with his thoughts. He found a relatively stable spot among the wreckage, overlooking the remains of the two massive krakens. Smaller creatures already beginning to gather around them, picking at the colossal bodies without hesitation. He sat there for a while, letting himself decompress.

Even with his strength, the constant movement, the pressure, and the need to react without pause had taken their toll. The exhaustion sat deeper than simple fatigue, and he knew he would sleep heavily once he logged out. When he finally felt ready, he pulled up his notifications and began sorting through them. The first entries were straightforward: the quest to defend the city, followed by the objective to defeat the krakens, and then the task of identifying and dealing with the source of the red cloud.

All of them were marked as complete, the experience rewards stacking onto what he had already gained. The next section detailed the ritual he had unintentionally created. From what he could gather, the Blood Army players had set up a long-term ritual designed to siphon life force and feed it into a seed they had discovered. That seed had then used the accumulated energy to grow and spread the blood magic miasma throughout the area.

To reinforce the process, they had added a runic circle that suppressed and redirected mana, binding it directly to the plant's growth. When Sam destroyed the circle, all of that stored energy had been released at once, with nowhere to go. And by using the ritual dagger at that exact moment, he had provided it with a new focus, effectively completing a different ritual without intending to. Which left him with a new problem. What to do with the dagger.

Even the memory of holding it made him uneasy, as if the weapon might pull him inside it if he let his guard down. He had a few ideas, but before he could vocalize any of them, he had to do some research. Setting that aside for the moment, he shifted his attention to the rest of the notifications, focusing on the more immediate rewards. [You have leveled up!] [You are now Level 163!] [Gained 6 unassigned attribute points!] [Thanks to your bombastic approach to problem-solving, you gained +3 END!] He considered the allocation briefly before committing all of the points to Endurance, pushing himself closer to the 100-point threshold. The rest of his attributes felt balanced enough for now. Then came the skill updates. [Perfect Mana Core is now Level 70!] [Mana Scales is now Level 223!] [Mana Weaving is now Level 95!] [Void Manipulation is now Level 99!] [Void Affinity is now Level 99!] [Void Soul is now Level 84!] [Obliteration is now Level 20!] [Master Runecarver is now Level 45!] [Art of Etheral Body is now Level 27!] [Physical and Magical resistance is now Level 77!] [Corruption Resistance is now Level 92!] [Blood Magic Immunity is now Level 33!] [Disease Immunity is now Level 92!] [Poison Resistance is now Level 19!] Satisfied, Sam took a few moments to adjust his mental outline for his build, then closed the window with a small nod. He looked up just in time to see Katie and Isabella making their way toward him, leaning on each other but smiling despite their condition.

Behind them, David followed at a slower pace, his heavy armor still stained with grime and dried blood.

"Boss! Boss!" Katie shouted, waving her free arm with far more energy than someone in her condition should have had. Sam raised a hand in return, a smile already forming. It was good to see them in one piece. They closed the distance quickly, and the moment Katie was within reach, she punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow!"

"That's what you get for kill stealing," she declared without hesitation.

"Katie…" Isabella said softly, her tone carrying both warning and resignation. Katie turned toward her, already gearing up again.

"What? We could've totally won! I was this close to finishing it." She held up her fingers, barely a gap between them, to demonstrate her point. Isabella just sighed, while David shook his head, both of them letting her rant as she went on about the injustice of being 'saved' at the last second. After a while, her voice was the only one left, echoing slightly across the ruined harbor.

She eventually noticed the silence, glancing around at the three of them sitting or standing nearby, all watching her with varying degrees of amusement. She huffed and crossed her arms.

"Anyway… Boss, what are we going to do about this?" she asked, gesturing broadly at the destruction surrounding them. Sam let his gaze pass over each of them before settling on Katie. He held her eyes for a moment, then raised an eyebrow.

"What do you think?" Katie froze, then gasped in realization, her hands flying up to cover her mouth.

"Really?" Sam gave a small nod. That was all the confirmation she needed. She immediately broke into an excited squeal, bouncing in place and spinning once as if she had just been handed the best idea in the world. David watched her for a second before looking back at Sam.

"For those of us who don't speak chaos goblin, care to translate?" he asked dryly. Sam pushed himself to his feet, brushing dust from his clothes as he turned his gaze toward the distant horizon.

"As the saying goes," he said calmly, "an eye for an eye…" He paused briefly, the faintest hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"…and a city for a city."