One With The Abyss

After I finished the 21st floor I took the time to play around with my new shapeshifting capabilities.

I found myself shifting completely, shifting partially, combining my shifts, even fusing multiple together; but I soon pushed that to the limit, finding no more ideas flowing into my head. So, I chose to descend again.

"This place is freaky." Abby moaned as we made our way down.

"Don't be such a downer. You're ruining the experience." I have been in a constant state of happiness recently. Everything was coming up Tia.

"But this dungeon is weird!" She responded, "Everything about it is weird! Even now the time is being stretched!"

"And that's a good thing." I remembered, the more time I have to gain power, the easier my revenge and other plots would be to accomplish.

She kept quiet after that.

The next floors were similar to the 21st: I entered; I got locked in; I killed the boss; I escaped. It became quite easy, the biggest challenge was adapting to the newest monster.

I enjoyed the 22nd floor and found the ability I got from both the monsters and boss enjoyably useful.

The 22nd floor was full of spider monsters, it was essentially a dark cave full of spiders that attacked using traps and ambushes. Due to the unreasonable darkness of the halls I reached the 4th level of [Soul Sense]. From the basic enemies I acquired: [Thread Generation (0/5)]

A mostly useless talent that did little more than allow me to create spider silk, I could control all of its properties, but the talent did not allow for manipulation of the created thread. I found some joy in just pointing my finger at an enemy and covering it in sticky thread, but this was a waste of energy.

However, the boss - an Arachne - granted me a skill that mitigated that weakness: [Thread Manipulation (0/5)].

The skill allowed the user to easily set up traps that could kill or incapacitate anyone who fell into them; the Arachne primarily used this by rigging her threads to produce an effect, making the fight one that prioritised evasion. However, by combining the 2 something much greater came of it.

Despite the 2 talents seeming to fit with the other so perfectly, these monsters only had 1 each. The smaller spiders could produce thread endlessly, so long as they had the mana to do so, but they could not exert such fine control over it. On the other hand, the boss was able to freely control her thread, but was ultimately limited by her physical stamina when creating it. So, when the 2 talents came together something of great power was produced.

[Thread Dominion (0/9)]

[Able to produce and manipulate powerful threads. Their properties can be changed to become sharper, thinner, stickier etc]

This talent did not go unused as the very next floor I used it to cut my enemies to pieces; and the ability to shapeshift into a spider was also useful. I did not make use of their actual limbs, but instead the hooks that grew along them, using them to freely climb any surface.

This was the favourite ability I had gained from the proceeding floors, simply because I thought it was cool. In later floors I baited my less intelligent enemies into attacking and watched as they ran straight into wiring so thin it was invisible and so sharp it could cut cleanly through steel. By the 24th floor it was already at level 5 as I continued to push the boundaries of what it was capable of.

The 23rd floor was less interesting than 22, but still worth taking on I suppose.

On 23 I faced hundreds of giant ants. Cutting through their shells was difficult, but possible. As a result I gained a series of not very useful talents: [Worker's Mindset], [Soldier's Mindset] and [Scout's Mindset]. These talents just made it easier for me to act within a role, specifically the one it mentioned; when I fused the 3 I received [Malleable Role (0/3)] which I then fused with [Stealth], pushing it up to 4/6. In a round about way it improved my stealth by increasing my espionage abilities. 

The final boss was just about what I had expected, an ant queen. It was big, and that was it; it had nothing else going for it.

It fought by pumping out warriors, I killed those and with nothing left to defend it the ant was quickly killed. It was a shame really, I thought it would put up a better fight considering that the Soldier Ants were quite strong, at the very least I gained another form with a powerful carapace. The queen ant gave me the [Queen's Authority] talent.

Sounds good, but it wasn't. This being because the talent only worked over beings I created myself, but who knows, I may get a similar, but better, version of the skill to fuse it with; I did manage to integrate a completely unused talent ([Charismatic Leader]) but it did nothing to change the ability. So, I descended further onto the 24th floor.

The 24th and 25th floor was a cake walk.

24 held only beast-type monsters which improved my physical abilities; 25 on the other hand was a more magic oriented floor, giving me more mage talents to fuse with my power. If there was one highlight it was that I did gain the ability to use dark and light magic thanks to the boss.

It had the talent [Dual Mage: Light/Dark], which I then fused with my own mage talent to create:

[Elementalist (5/6)] (A/N: I know it is different than what I called it before, but I think this sounds better)

[Allows the user to freely generate and manipulate all elements]

I could now use light and dark based abilities, quickly trying to find a way to push them to their limits.

26 was a very useful floor as it held an enemy I had been searching for, for a long time:

[Troll]

[Warrior of the mountains, great beast. Beware not the strong, but the obstinate]

They were large, easily 3 metres tall with dark black skin, like coal, and large, sharp, yellow teeth. They looked to be quite fat and their defences were clearly their strong point as their skin was as hard as stone; though beyond that they didn't seem to have any natural weaponry. 

Killing them was quite easy, in that all I had to do was dodge around their clubs, the issue was actually damaging them. I often found myself not using enough and they simply shook it off; or I used too much and killed them instantly.

The other factor was the reason I desired them so much: Their regeneration.

Like trolls from most fantasy, these ones had formidable regeneration abilities that I so desperately wanted. And soon my wish came to be:

[Superior Regeneration (0/5)]

[Regenerate from all injury and harm. Relies on personal stamina to maintain]

"This is annoying..." I sighed, seeing my ability at 0. I knew how this would level and I didn't really want to go through that, especially when I found that especially bad wounds still leave scars when they regenerate, not to mention that my arm still refused to regenerate - Abby said I would need a stronger regeneration for that.

"Well, there is another way, but I'm not sure you're ready." Abby hinted at something, I wasn't about to let that go.

"What the hell do you mean?" I pressed.

"Why are you becoming so accusatory!?" She was upset at my tone, but I didn't care.

"You keep hiding things from me." I sigh, "Just like the importance of shapeshifting and its ability to fuse talents. I could've used that information earlier and improved massively."

"It would be bad for your growth if I just told you everything straight away!" She argued, in my opinion it was just bad writing, clearly whoever was coming up with this stuff just didn't plan anything out; they were winging it, definitely.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Abby question. Damn. I forgot she could read my mind, despite it being such a pivotal part of her 'character' and her role as a guide for me.

"I'm just going to ignore you." Abby gave up trying to understand what I was talking... thinking about, "Do you want to learn the technique or not?"

"Of course I do." My mood improved as I cut through a troll that had charged at me, deciding that now I had the talent it was enough to just kill them.

"Ok. You just need to evolve your greatest ability: One with the Abyss." Abby said, like it was an easy thing; it wasn't.

"And how the hell am I supposed to do that?" I cut down another troll that had responded to the death throes of the last one.

"Push it beyond its limits." Again she gave too little information, "Right now you're just copying the power, the ability, nothing else. What you need to copy is the experience within the talent."

She gave a short explanation of what a talent actually was. A talent was like a bowl, it gave the means to hold something, but is ultimately only part of something greater. Experience was the contents that filled the bowl; without a bowl to hold it, you cannot properly grasp it, giving birth to skill. However, when the bowl and contents are brought together, their true usefulness are displayed.

My goal then was to copy not just the container, but the contents it held as well. And these trolls were the perfect targets for that, considering how much I wanted a regeneration talent.

My first attempt was a failure, I just felt that tiny boost as my container was once again acquired. From there I snapped the monster's neck and waited for more to approach.

By the 5oth failure, the trolls were too scared to approach, though I doubt any sane being would attack someone sitting upon a pile of 50 of your brethren.

So, I did what anyone in my position would do, I ran and changed my shape. 

The trolls began attacking me again until I failed 73 more times and they no longer dared come closer.

Even though Abby kept saying this place was no dungeon it sure as shit acted like one; monsters spawned endlessly for me to kill. This in itself was useful as it provided me my needed practice material and food, though they tasted horrible.

This continued for days as I piled up troll after troll in order to evolve my talent. Getting levels with the talent would save me a lot of time so it was a bit of a priority. Just from the amount I had killed I had already taken the talent to the next level, without even learning the new aspect.

However, on the 4th day of trying I felt something a little different. A flash of light ran through my mind, I suppose it was meant to be painful, but I don't think I can feel pain after what I went through.

"Progress!" I cheered, causing the trolls to back off slightly. Seeing a little, shapeshifting human cheering as it snaps one of your brother's necks, all while covered in the blood of your species, was apparently enough to make them feel fear. Wimps really.

My next kill didn't create that feeling again, but it appeared 10 later, then 8 after that. It was becoming more frequent and each time I tried to grapple with that feeling. Understand what it was and try to replicate it. Soon, that 'pain' became the normal response to my ability; and I kept on pushing it.

This was what I was looking for and I was sure of it. As the pain became normal, I felt the light it created become a bit clearer, like the glare had reduced slightly. I could see something, a life lived and challengers killed. Wound's suffered and children were born. 

"MEMORIES!" I yelled out, that was what she meant. Abby wanted me to see their memories and now with [Abyssal Soul] I felt as though I could properly store them without my personality being eroded away, this was probably what Abby meant by ‘not ready’. But, as my body and soul were refined so were my mind and brain; I simply compartmentalised the memories in a part of my brain that wouldn't directly affect me.

Then after 2 whole weeks of hunting trolls I did it. My talent jumped in level, it went from the middle of 1 to the top of 2 in one go. This wasn't everything but I felt my soul shake in anticipation, it would soon grant me what I desire!

So, I continued, improving and improving until the wall finally came crashing down.

Like I had been punching at my prison cell every day for years and it now came crumbling down to offer me my freedom.

[Error: *&%&($^%^&%^]

[Error: Error not understood]

[No method of fixing]

[Attempting Complete Purge]

"That doesn't sound good..." I mutter as a painful burning errupts within me, not a real one but metaphysical. It hurt, but soul pain was worse; though even this was pretty bad as it seemed the system had a connection to the soul in some way. But still, complete restructuring of the soul would always be more painful. (A/N: Just going to say it now but literally nothing is more painful than soul pain)

[Error: Interference detected]

[Attempting to Purge Interference]

[Attempt Failed]

[Foreign Entity Detected. Deploying anti-virus measures]

[Anti-virus measures failed. Resorting to backup counter£^*^&^%$£$%^%*&^(*&

Then everything went silent and the pain stopped, I killed another troll as it felt brave enough to challenge me.

All of a sudden the system flared back up, but now it was different. The screen was completely black with red writing, I was liking this; even more so as I read the messages it provided.

[Welcome to the Abyssal System]

[For your abyssal pleasure, we prepare for and solve any abyssal quandries]

[Talent: <One With The Abyss (0/0)> has undergone evolution]

[You have acquired talent: <Abyss>]

It had no skill levels, it was simple. I could feel the power it held and opened the description of the skill:

[Abyss]

[You are the Abyss. All time, space and matter converge upon you. Existence begins and ends within your being. Open the gates and all will be within your grasp]

[Creation (1/1)]

[Formless (0/1)]

[Weightless (0/1)]

[Timeless (0/1)]

[Dominion (0/1)]

[Void (0/1)]

[Eternal (0/1)]

"This is cool as shit." I laugh, an evil glint in my eye as I rush over to the nearest troll. As his talent is copied I see its entire life flash by my eyes, yet not even the tinies fraction of a second has passed, "That'll take some time to get used to..."

I almost throw up as I snap the monster's neck, only to be delighted in the sight of my [Superior Regeneration] talent sitting nicely at level 5.

"Time to finish this up then" I say heading toward where I knew the boss room was, a great evil smile plastered across my face.

I did find that to complete the absorption it did take much longer, but the results were definitely worth the effort; now I didn't have to work all that hard to increase my level. It was easy street for me from now on. The only problem now would be the unique talents my synthesis produced, though hopefully I could just use their base components to do that, hopefully.

There was one thing I found within the minds of the trolls I killed as I made my way towards the boss: The Great Calamity.

In this troll tribe's culture, there was a myth of a powerful being who would pile the corpses of trolls high then laugh at their decaying forms. It ate fear and consumed endlessly in order to satiate its never ending thirst for blood.

"They're talking about me aren't they?" Thinking clearly it was definitely about me.

"Probably, dungeon monsters spawn endlessly, but you don't kill all of them." Abby explained, "The ones who get away likely tell the newly spawned trolls about you, and since a dungeon can spawn ten generations in a day, you seem to have become a myth to their tribe. Like a bedtime story to scare their children or something."

"That's killer." I say as I walk into the boss room.

I could immediately detect its fear and launched off towards it.

The fight was easy, the moment I blasted toward it the troll wet itself and put up a horrible defence. So, I held it down, copied its talent, and killed it.

The easiest boss fight in the entire dungeon really.

"If only I could create a myth about myself on every floor." I laugh as I put the treasure in my bag and leave the floor. Adding the boss's [Earth Manipulation] talent into my magic skills. I felt myself come that much closer to sand magic, realising the proper process for how to do it; then I left for the safe zone.

Cleaned myself up and descended further. Still with only 1 arm, despite my healing abilities.

After 26, 27 and 28 were slightly underwhelming. Just more skeletons and then a bird type monster. 

The undead gave me weapon talents, which definitely went into [Soul Weapon] and perhaps thanks to their already high level or just because it was almost ready; I felt the talent shake, preparing to let loose. It was like a child seeking gratification so I fed it endlessly on that floor.

Unfortunately, the boss, a Skeleton General, lacked a weapon talent as it fought by commanding hordes of skeleton fighters. Despite this being a feast for [Soul Weapon] I became annoyed when the general not only didn't give a weapon talent, but it also didn't give a necromancy talent. Instead I got:

[Legion Commander (5/5)]

[Gain insight into commanding an army. Inspire loyalty and bravery in your subordinates]

Useful, but I had no subordinates. Unless you counted Abby, but she was more of an annoying roommate.

"Shut it." She retorted, I just decided to put it into [Queen's Authority], thankfully it became  [Royal Authority (5/5)] and removed the restriction of only enforcing its ability on my own children. Instead the loyalty was not so enforced, I also had to earn it in the first place.

After that irritating floor, was another: 28.

All of the monsters were either large birds or small birds. The large ones scooped you up and dropped you, or just tried to use their claws to rip me to pieces. The small ones pelted me with magic. It was annoying.

Though it was nice to have bird wings instead of bat wings. I felt kind of like an angel; even if they were brown.

The talents I got were either speed boosts that went to [Abyssal Soul] or [Aerial Adaptation] that improved my ability to fly in the air; this went to [Shapeshifting].

The next floor was incredibly exciting for me.

I entered the floor, the exit locking behind me. I was all alone in a desolate desert, with only a single structure in the distance: A pyramid. The floor looked entirely egypt themed and I wondered what kind of monsters I would face. 

They were all undead, but not the ones you would expect. They were old zombies wearing the attire one would expect from a slave. It seemed the owner of this tomb really did bury their slaves with them; occasionally I would face a monster called a Jackal, seemingly in reference to Anubis, they were difficult to manage but eventually I killed them.

These were the main enemies I faced in the tomb floor, gaining me some useful talents. The zombies gave [Flesh Eater], which allowed me to regenerate damage by eating flesh, this went to [Superior Regeneration], but even then my arm wouldn't regenerate even though I had seen the zombies do the exact same thing on each other when I cut them; like something was stopping it.

The talent from the jackals was [Soul Sight], explaining how they so easily tracked me, which I used to push my [Soul Sense] to its max level.

However, these monsters and their talent was not what I cared about in this dungeon. What made this floor fun was 2 things, or 3 depending on how you looked at it.

1. The treasure.

The entire pyramid was filled to the brim with gold. Gold coins, gold jewellery, gold sarcophagus', hell even golden weapons. I was swimming in gold thanks to this dungeon, it was extraordinary. 

2. The boss.

The boss was completely out of the ordinary, in that it was 2. There were 2 monsters I had to fight:

[Anubis General, Sister Shani]

[Great Guard of the sleeping Pharaoh. Master of the blade and eternally bound to her sister, Nephilia]

[Anubis General, Sister Nephilia]

[Great Guard of the sleeping Pharaoh. Master of the wire and eternally bound to her sister, Shani]

The 2 were a sight for sore eyes. 2 beautiful women wearing the clothing of a dancer that hardly covered anything. Their most private parts were covered but only by a small, thin fabric that went down the front and back; thankfully their front was much less exposed as it was held firmly in place.

On their heads I could see one was black haired while the other was blonde; despite both wearing masks. Mask that depicted a black jackal, Anubis. In their hands were their weapons of choice: 2 Scimitars for Shani and a large curved scythe on a long piece of string for Nephilia.

The fight started with Shani running towards me first, no boss had ever initiated combat before so this was new. It was only made worse by how powerful Shani was.

Her blows were incredibly difficult to block or parry and she was agile, living up to her appearance as a dancer. Then as I got close Nephilia would swoop in to save her; when an opportunity opened itself for me to attack, a large scythe would swing by my face, almost cutting off my head.

When I tried to attack Shani, Nephilia would take advantage of my lowered awareness. When I tried to close the distance and attack Nephilia, Shani would attempt to strike me on my back. Cutting Nephilia's wire didn't work as she masterfully controlled it in order to simply ensnare my weapon, namely my hand. 

I was pulled forward and almost cut apart after trying that. 

This was an incredibly difficult fight; but so much fun. The talents were especially fun as well:

[Blade Mastery (6/6)] (Shani)

[Grants mastery over your blade, you may soon be unparralled]

[Weapon Manipulation (6/6)] (Nephilia)

[Manipulate your weapon to fight how you desire it to]

Even after I got these talents it was a difficult fight as I soon learnt the pair were undead. If I failed to kill one at least 5 minutes after I had killed another; the first would rise again, fully healed. Resulting in me killing them at least 8 times each

I think I fought for 7 hours before I managed to defeat them. It was a gruelling task but I loved every second of it. I had come to love fighting, and this was my best fight yet.

As a reward I was given both of their weapons as drop items and in the chest was a mask. I decided not to check any of them and threw them in my bag as I was extremely tired.

I made it to the safe room and collapsed to the floor, a bright smile on my face.

"Oh..." I muttered, sleepily, "I forgot to fuse their talents."

Before I drifted off I fused [Blade Mastery] and [Weapon Manipulation] into [Soul Weapon] and then my head hit the floor.

But just as I began losing consciousness, I felt a tug.

Something in my soul was pushing, changing.

[Soul Weapon] was awakening!