Legends of Orlea

Chapter 14

Eco-Location. The ability to locate yourself and see by hearing the waves of sound in the air bounce off an obstacle or object. Zirem had never known he'd have to use that. The dragon had blinded him, but would he really be blind when he woke up in real life? If he even woke up? Maybe it was all a sham, and the supposedly "dead people" would wake up after their HP dropped to 0.

But that was unlikely. Very much so. Why would Domingo Gargano lie? He wouldn't gain anything from that, and plus, as he'd said, the log-out button was gone! Zirem had checked, and it was true, so he believed Domingo's words. 

He said a word. Nothing special, just "yes". He heard something, and determined that the distance between him and the left wall was 80 meters. He walked left, taking steps that should be around one meter. However, the wall was 103 meters from where he'd stood. He was close, but he couldn't fight yet. Not at all.

-----------------------6 months later--------------------- 

The current frontier was floor 94. Zirem could only access floor 76 and lower. Cursing the dragon that was the boss of floor 47 for the millionth time, he blasted a sound wave to his surroundings, continually launching them. To his enemy, it would seem like a deafening sound would go through its ears, and it might get distracted.

Since he'd gone blind, Zirem had used Eco-Location so much it was over 1200. His other stats were all in the 700s, some in the 800s. He'd gotten new swords, Ashrune, Blade of Lost Voices, and Dawnbreaker, Ravager of the Banished. A new branch of dual-wielding had appeared in his skill menu; Illusion Wielding. 

Somehow, this skill was unique; only one or two people still alive could use it. Either he was extremely lucky or he was always meant to get this skill. It was a devastating skill tree, and he'd received two new skills from it over time. Of course, he'd also unlocked three other normal dual-wielding skills, but he only used one, Seismic Cyclone, which required him to spin so fast he looked like a tornado. A sharp one, at that.

The two new Illusion Wielding skills were amazing; Gaia's Final Fang, which gave the user the ability to make as many swords as desired appear in front of the enemy, and giving the user the ability to instantly teleport the swords in his hand to any one of the illusions, making it real, and then control the movement of the now real sword. Then, an image of two giant eyes surrounded by darkness would appear, making the victim believe they were standing on nothing.

The second one, Soul-shifting Calamity, was a combination of rapid strikes and creation of illusion, which resulted in an almost cruelly powerful  skill. Zirem would be able to seemingly manipulate anything with his mind, all the while striking at opponent without the latter noticing it. Another particular aspect was that he could see, momentarily, the fears and desires of the enemies trapped in the illusion. He could, in one go, read someone's mind, strike them without them noticing, and make them think anything was happening. Of course, the stats required for each were over 750 points of stamina, 800 of speed and 800 of strength, both mental and physical.

There were also downsides to these skills, such as his inability to move for a few milliseconds after using each one, and also the loss of HP. Of course, that wasn't drastic, and Zirem had over 20 000 of it, so he didn't really care about the HP loss. The real problem was dealing the the paralysis. A monster could recover and attack him, or there could be another one that was attacking him; the skills were only usable on a single target.

Zirem sent a sound wave to detect his position. In front of him was a gray, stone tower, and behind him was a forest of green trees that were coniferous. He opened the giant double doors and ran inside the dungeon, turning left at the first intersection.

He reached the boss room a few minutes later, but had to fight a mini-boss. It was very weak to him, since he'd already reached the point that the frontier fighters had, and maybe even passed some, in terms of stats. He'd done some major grinding once he'd gotten used to Eco-Location.