Rise of the Devourer

Book 2: Chapter 34 — Scattered

Noah managed to escape the giant murder croc fairly quickly, though that did not help his situation whatsoever. Noah walked around the forest, his senses telling him he was far from alone in the dense foliage. Though nothing else seemed too keen to try to make him into a meal. Pulling out his Astral script, Noah saw a dot on the map showing Aurelia on a different end of the island. He regretted not having added Snow and Erwest to his Party, but then it also meant they would’ve been able to see his Paths, and he did not feel like the risk would’ve been worth it.

Wondering if they had all been scattered or if only he had been separated, Noah made his way around the forest till he once again stood on a coarse stony shore, with green waters lapping at its sides. Noah took in the scene, watching the purple sky stretch out endlessly until it met the green sea in the distance, like a scene out of a painting.

Stepping closer to the water, Noah tried to see how far he could see. Even with his enhanced vision, Noah could not see the end of the ocean as it stretched on. Having some idea about how much mana it took to sustain a Dimensional Pocket he wondered just why a place like this would exist, and have so much of it be taken up by a sea.

Water lapped at his skin, a burning sensation grabbing Noah’s attention. He bent down, touching the water between his fingers and watched as it lightly stung his skin, letting out smoke. “Acid?” Noah muttered out loud to himself.

Feeling his ability tell him the water was fine to take on, Noah stepped further into the water. After glancing around, he quickly stored all his clothes in his Dimension Pocket before jumping into the ocean as he began to swim. A strange sizzling sensation covered him all around, and he saw any little bits of grime he may have had on his skin sizzling away. Though there was barely any, after he’d gone through Devin’s cleansing spell.

You’ve gained [Acid Resistance].

[Acid Resistance (Basic) - level 1]

For unknown reasons, you saw a sea of acid and decided it was a good idea to go swim in it. Now you find yourself capable of resisting the acidic effects on your body.

Noah grinned to himself, watching the notification flash as he rose to the surface, taking a deep breath. He looked at the island a little distance away, bouncing up and down to the waves of the ocean.

“I guess there’s no harm in going for a little swim huh? We could probably circle around the island to see what else is out there too,” Noah said.

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Tony gave a shiver of excitement, curious about the acid, and Noah laughed, before he dipped back down under the currents, letting the acid act as a nice bath as he swam through its currents.

***

Lying on the beach, Noah looked at his newest Skill with a smile on his face. One of the projections was fighting a dog like monster on the beach, while another grilled one of the fish Noah had caught while swimming.

[Acid Resistance (Intermediate) - level 12]

You have drunk the water of an acid see, swam in it. The insanity of the act aside, your body has become immune to all low grade acids, and your blood can turn acidic should you want it to.

Pulling himself back up, Noah put on some pants, not enjoying the sensation of rocks on his groin. No matter how high his constitution, or how much his body had been modified, certain sensations still felt unpleasant no matter what.

As the Astral projection landed the striking blow on the dog, before harvesting its corpse for credits, Noah walked over to sit on the shell of a tree with the other projection, taking one of the skewered fishes.

“I’m guessing no signs of the others?” Noah asked the projection between mouthfuls.

“Nope, nothing. Just us and these monsters,” the projection replied, spinning a stick over the flames as he cooked another fish, before taking a bite. Noah wasn’t sure if eating did anything for the projections, given that they were made of mana, but he didn’t object. It felt wrong to deny a man of food he has cooked himself.

The last projection came back as well, taking a seat as he grabbed the last fish and began to tear through it, likely spent from the battle with the demon dogs.

“So, what’s the plan now?” Noah asked.

“You do know how silly it is to talk to ourselves like this right?” The projection said, looking back up at him.

“It does help me think though, talking to somebody, even if it’s just myself. And hey, I do surprise myself sometimes!” Noah replied.

“I say we should head straight through the forest to the castle, fighting whatever comes. It’s good experience anyway. I think we can hit level 100 in a week if we try,” the projection that killed the dog replied, picking his teeth with one of the fish bones before he threw it in his mouth and chewed on it with a crunch.

Noah had been realising more and more that his projections were not quite his clones, but more alternate versions of himself. Aurelia’s warning came to mind, but he moved on from it. Right now didn’t seem like it was the time to become concerned over something like that.

“I don’t dislike that. But I think we shouldn’t just charge ahead, the plan was to use Snow’s abilities to avoid anything we can’t fight. We could split up, spread out and try to cover as much ground as we can,” the projection cooking the fish said, glancing at Noah for his opinion.

Noah hummed in thought, thinking over it. “See, the problem with splitting up is that our mana pool is only a third of what I would normally have. So if any of us, but especially I find something I can’t kill… do you guys live after I die?” Noah said.

The projections looked at each other before glancing at him.

“Nevermind, I never said that,” Noah said, realising what that may imply. He didn’t want to find out.

One of the projections turned his hands to a claw in a threatening manner, as if he was going to pounce on Noah, and Tony flew out and buzzed around his face.

“Ouch, stop it Tony, I was messing around!”

“Tony, it’s fine, come back,” Noah said, as the little bat came back. Noah felt an intense anger at the projection from the little creature. Apparently the idea of Noah dying was really displeasing to the little Abyssal symbiote.

Noah gave Tony a scratch, as he returned back inside him. A moment later, an idea came to him.

"Hey Tony, when we fought Bun Bun you split up, can you talk to your other parts even at a distance?" Noah asked.

Tony shivered, sending the thoughts to him. Apparently the symbiote could telepathically communicate with any piece of itself.

"What's he going to do?" One of the projections asked.

"What if each of you keep Tony with you? And I can mark you with my Dimensional Pocket, so if anything happens, all of us can summon the other two and combine if need be."

The other two projection's eyes widened before they looked at each other in surprise.

"Well, what do you know."

"I do surprise myself sometimes."

Noah chuckled, before asking Tony. The symbiote seemed a little hesitant, but did not disobey. The little eyeball split into three, forming three smaller eyeball bats, with each part going to one of the Noah's.

Noah used his ability on the other two projections, as they used their abilities on each other, linking their teleportations together. Noah checked his ability to see if he may be missing anything.

[Dimensional Storage (Legendary, Intermediate) - level 18]

The astral energies reside in your soul, forming a pocket dimension that you have access to. Allows you to store things inside your own dimensional storage and merge other dimensional storages into your own to permanently increase their size. You can anchor three items to summon into your dimensional storage regardless of distance.

There was nothing here that he thought could interfere with his ability working. "I think this should work, but let's test this just in case," Noah said.

Together, the three of them stood up, heading in separate directions as Blink took them away. After sufficiently far enough, Noah glanced at Tony.

The Abyssal Symbiote shivered, sending a pulse out to his clones. A moment later he felt the ability activate as he was pulled across the Astral realms, appearing next to one of his projections.

"Confirmed, it does work," One of the Noah’s said, grinning.

Noah nodded. "Alright, then let's head out boys. We need to find our team, and kill some monsters on the way."

"First one to the castle wins!" One of Noah said, blinking away.

Noah smiled, before bursting into a dash of his own. No way was he going to lose to his own projection.